Written by Destros505
Chapter 4: Enter team rocket!
Narrator: On their way to Pewter City, a wild and unseen storm has forced out heroes to take shelter in Viridian City's Pokémon center; However it seems the rain will be the least of their troubles.
This was one part of their journey Jack hadn't signed up for.
The rain continued to fall in fast and heavy sheets obscuring the Viridian streets that lay beyond protective glass in an ever shifting haze. Despite this Jack was the only member of the trio that seemed remotely annoyed by its presence - Ben, who was sat at the opposite end of the booth, seemed content with playing around with his pokédex (every now and then noting that he'd encountered a certain number of Caterpie or that he'd recorded at least 12 dex entries already with a sense of immense pride)
Sophie on the other hand was less animate, she had positioned herself next to ben with her booted feet resting atop the table and her hat pulled downward over her eyes. It was clear she was fast asleep.
"Are you sure we can't make it to the forest Ben? at least then we'd be covering a little ground." Jack sighed, diverting his gaze from the window to his friend.
Ben looked up from his pokédex with raised eyebrows. "If you want to freeze to death Jackie boy be my guest… as for me i'll be staying put where it's warm and dry."
"But Pewter City is just through those woods, we could be there by this time tomorrow if we set off now!"
"I doubt i'll ever be able to understand your irrational thinking when there's a battle on the line." Ben said shaking his head slightly. "I'd say that goes for the both of you." He continued, inclining his head sideways.
"And i doubt i'll ever understand why you're not the same." Jack snapped back.
"Get some rest Jack, seems to me like you need it." Ben responded with surprising calmness before turning back to playing about with the dials and switches on his dex.
Jack, sensing the conversation was over, reluctantly followed Ben's advice. Sprawling out across his side of the booth, masking his face from the light with his own hat and gradually easing his way into slumber.
:***:
"The boss told us to hold our post there's no way in hell i'm lettin' you go anywhere… hey you hearin' me rookie? I'm talking to you!"
"I hear you, I hear you quit yappin' away already! Honestly it's not like the kids gonna casually break out, defeat both of us at once and leave is it?"
"Quiet rookie or the kid'll be the least of your worries."
Jack pulled his jacket upwards over his ears with an inaudible grunt of annoyance, attempting to roll over but finding his body to be strangely unresponsive. Gradually the boy's eyes flickered open and it was at that moment he realised something was very wrong.
First of all he was upside down, his legs still resting comfortably upon the plush red padding of the booth whilst the rest of him remained at an awkward angle on the apparently less comfortable stone floor. Secondly the lights were out, standard protocol maybe for a pokécenter after hours but even so things seemed a little off. Lastly came the most alarming fact: Ben was gone.
Shallow breathing behind him signified that Sophie too had been stashed away beneath the table however she it seemed had miraculously managed to stay unconscious.
"Soph…. Soph…. Sophie!" Jack hissed, trying to keep as quiet as possible to avoid alerting the unknown party.
"Five more minutes." Sophie groaned noisily. "I was having a real good dream."
"Lower your voice will ya!" Jack shot at her. "We've got a bit of a situation here!"
"A situation?" She pondered with slightly more clarity in her tone. "What kind of situa- Hey what gives? did i fall off my seat or something? I bet you shoved me down here didn't you? real mature Jack."
"Will you shut up for a minute and listen." Jack snarled as he wriggled his way into a prone position. "Ben's missing, either he went to the bathroom and got lost along the way or theres something more sinister at play here and he's now been held captive… either way we should get out from under this table and take a look."
"Oh and try not to make a sound, we've got company." He hastily added.
Cautiously the pair shuffled out from beneath the counter. As Jack had suspected they were not alone, by the receptionist's desk set into the wall at the opposite end of the room stood a pair of flat capped goons dressed almost entirely in black save for the large red R emblazoned across their respective chests.
"Team rocket." Sophie confirmed as the two trainers crawled across the polished floor and ducked into cover.
"Looks like it." Jack said with perplexity. "I thought they'd disbanded years ago after he took them down."
"Apparently not." Sophie replied passively. "So first of all what are they doing here, and most importantly what are we gonna do about it."
"I'm not sure about the first part but i do know i'm not gonna stand by and let them carry out whatever they're planning." Jack said with determination. "You ready to fight?"
Sophie nodded gravely whilst readying her pokéball. "On your mark."
"Charmander let's go!"
"Squirtle stand by for battle!"
The two trainers launched their pokéballs toward the unsuspecting grunts, leaping from cover with fierce looks that clashed with the recoils of the parallel pair.
"Pokémon trainers? Where the hell did they come from? I told you to do a sweep rookie!" The larger of the two grunts (a rather brutish woman with a stern and unforgiving face that didn't complement her shock of bright pink hair in the slightest) barked.
"I did i swear! But that's not as immediate as the two Pokémon primed to kick our asses now is it?" The smaller 'rookie' grunt - a boy no older than Jack or Sophie with subtle physical tone and striking black eyes and a mop of ashen hair - retorted, plunging his hand into his pocket and withdrawing his own pokéball. "Eevee come on out!"
"An Eevee?" The larger grunt scoffed. "Hardly a team rocket calibre Pokémon… Let me show you how it's done… Ekans you too! come and join the fun!"
Both Pokémon materialised before their trainers, one resembling a purple serpent whilst the other was significantly less malicious in appearance but regardless took up a four footed stance with a clear fire in its eyes.
Jack dipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out his pokédex; however before he had had the chance to level it with the two unfamiliar Pokémon the smaller grunt had already issued his first command.
"Eevee get in there and use swift attack."
"What do you think you're doing rookie? I'm in charge here!" The large grunt barked, only to be ignored by her accomplice who was already commanding his Eevee to dodge an oncoming water gun.
"Charmander back Squirtle up with scratch!" Jack joined in.
Charmander rushed forward, leaping rather ungracefully over the torrent of water gushing from Squirtle's mouth and striking downwards toward Eevee with elongated claws.
"Ekans, use wrap! Stop that Charmander." Cried the large grunt.
Ekans shot forward in a flash of purple, coiling around the orange lizard in an instant and halting its attack.
"Eevee use sand attack on charmander go!" The other grunt commanded.
Eevee narrowly avoided Squirtle's continued water gun with an elegant bound, landing in front of the entwined pair of Pokémon before kicking a blinding cloud into Charmander's face blinding it temporarily.
"Charmander no!" Jack yelled as his partner began to stumble around drunkenly, pawing at its sand filled eyes.
"Squirtle, looks like its on you for a while." Sophie said with confidence. "Jack, focus on getting Charmander cleaned up we've got this, Squirtle use tackle full power!"
"Ekans use wrap again!"
"Eevee meet it head on with a tackle."
The three Pokémon closed in on each other with remarkable pace as Jack turned on his heel and sprinted toward his incapacitated Charmander. The clash was brief with all three Pokémon colliding in a mess of intermingled cries, in the end Squirtle and Eevee both skidded backwards with strained looks whilst Ekans dropped lifelessly to the earth between them unconscious having taken the full force of the collision.
"Ekans no… i thought you a stronger Pokémon, return." The larger grunt said with disgust. "Come on rookie we're out of here."
"No." Replied her accomplice. "I won't back down now not when me and Eevee have battled so hard."
"Whatever kid i'm gone."
And in an instant she had disappeared through the doorway behind and out of sight.
"I know he's team rocket but i can't help but admire his spirit." Said Jack returning to Sophie's side.
Sophie nodded affirmatively before surprisingly withdrawing Squirtle to its Pokéball.
"What? You're seriously giving up Soph?" Jack exclaimed, clearly taken aback.
"Yeah what gives?" The grunt called out from across the room.
"Whats your name?" Sophie asked to the confusion of the two boys.
"What's it to you?" The grunt snapped.
"Just tell us your name." Jack shot back, trusting that there was some method to his friend's madness.
"Fine." The grunt sighed. "It's Nathan… Nathan Slider."
"Alright Nathan Slider i'm Sophie Redburn and this is Jack Robin and you're going to tell us two things… who else is here and where you've taken our friend." Sophie said firmly.
"And if i don't cooperate?" Slider asked.
"Then we defeat you like we defeated your friend, after that the police can deal with you." Sophie shot back, all niceness draining rapidly from her tone.
"Alright alright you win, we came in a group of three alongside some team rocket higher-up who put us on guard duty whilst he carried out our task… as for your friend he's locked in one of the med bays along with the nurse, i'll show you the way come on." Slider said beckoning them forward.
Jack and Sophie shared a cautious look.
"How do we know we can trust you not to double cross us?" Jack asked
"You don't." Slider said bluntly. "But right now you'll need all the help you can get if your planning to stop the boss' plan and save your friend in the process."
"Hold on what plan?" Sophie shot at the boy.
"You'll see." Slider assured her, and with that he turned and vanished beyond the doorway with Jack and Sophie at his heels.
:***:
By the time the trio had made it to the chamber in which Ben was supposedly trapped, it was clear something was very wrong. The walls shook violently as if struck by a small earthquake, the air rang with a continual metallic hum and Jack Robin had just about come to the end of his patience.
"I knew we couldn't trust him Soph, he's keeping us busy whilst his team rocket buddies make a quick getaway." Jack snarled, looking at Slider - who was busying himself with the electronic lock on the med bay door - with disgust.
"Listen hotshot feel free to go after them, get yourself killed for all i care… but give me a little bit of peace and quiet and i might be able to get this door open faster." Slider teased, evidently bemused by Jack's desperate temper.
Jack started forward only to be caught by Sophie who, sensing the upcoming conflict, flung herself between the two boys.
"Enough! both of you!" She ordered as both fell silent with startled looks. "Clearly we're running out of time here and since you two all of a sudden can't seem to get along I've come up with a compromise." She continued before pausing briefly.
"Nathan, since you're the only one capable of getting this door open you'll stay here with me… Jack you and Charmander are in better fighting shape then Squirtle and I so you should go on ahead, try and stop the rest of team rocket from getting away."
"Works for me." Slider grunted, turning back to his work.
"Me too." Jack echoed.
With that the latter turned on his heel and sprinted down the length of the corridor, taking care from that point to carefully navigate the interior of the pokécenter in order to quickly pinpoint the source of the disturbance - later succeeding as he burst through a final set of double doors into a large open courtyard used for Pokémon battles.
There, hovering several feet above the surface of the field of hard-packed dirt, was the centre of the earthshaking chorus - a great chassis spun from great rods of durable metal and fixed securely to a pair of rapidly rotating blades; however it wasn't the majesty of the vehicle that caught Jack's attention.
Several feet below the helicopter stood a pair of figures, masked by the darkness of the evening but still unmistakably team rocket, each busying themselves with great bulging sacks which they miraculously managed to haul onto the chopper.
"Hey!" Jack yelled in desperation, straining his voice over the continuous and deafening shudder of rotor blades.
No response.
"Damn it." Jack cursed. "Looks like I'll have to get their attention through force."
"Charmander, ready yourself for battle." He commanded, hoping the noise would mask his words.
"Char!" Charmander cried, landing before him and sending a short burst of flame from its mouth.
"Alright Charmander buddy use ember straight forward!" Jack called out.
Hastily obeying its trainer's command, Charmander shot a volley of compact fireballs at the unsuspecting team rocket operatives. The barrage of fire collided, at once the group were illuminated by eerie orange light emanating from the grunt with the pink hair Jack had encountered earlier who had been unfortunately closest to the flames and now ran comically in circles, cursing furiously.
At this her accomplice, a slender and rather wiry man dressed in formal clothing crested with the red team rocket insignia, dropped the sack he had been painfully clutching to his chest with a sigh of intermingled relief and annoyance.
"You Pokémon trainers are persistent pests aren't you?" He smiled, the dying light of Charmander's ember dancing across his gaunt visage.
"We try our best." Jack responded cooly. "Especially for the likes of you… so take my advice and hand over those Pokémon."
The man let out a hissing laugh, clearly bemused by Jack's attempt at heroism. "You really expect me to make things so easy for you? I'm afraid as an admin of team rocket you won't find me as easy a pushover as my colleagues here."
"Doesn't matter, you're going to lose anyway just like they did." Jack replied, nodding at his Charmander who returned a look of determination.
"As you wish." the admin sighed as he drew a darker yellow striped pokéball than the traditional red topped version.
"Rhydon stand by for battle."
Rhydon, a pokémon rhino like in appearance and made seemingly entirely of solid stone, dropped with an earth-shattering thud followed by an even more menacing battle cry as it levelled its gaze at Charmander.
"Charmander quick catch it off guard with ember." Jack ordered
Charmander (who had been temporarily paralysed with fear at the sight if such a mammoth opponent) steeled itself before puffing out its chest and firing a volley of blazing fire at Rhydon.
"Follow it Charmander, use scratch!"
The fire collided with its intended target with little effect, the flames barely marking the surface of Rhydon's thick armour before simmering out into nothingness, despite this however Charmander had now begun its advance - readying its glowing claws as it shot toward its opponent.
"Swat it away." The admin said unenthusiastically, as if the while ordeal to him was nothing but a tiresome drag.
Rhydon whipped its body round with surprising speed for a Pokémon its size, effortlessly sweeping Charmander off the ground and sending it crashing back towards its trainer before it could land its attack.
For Jack, time seemed to move seemingly in slow motion. Charmander smashed into his stomach sending a jolt of pain throughout his body as he too was propelled through the air before landing in a sprawling mess against the unforgiving metal barrier encompassing the battlefield.
Fighting the urge to succumb to unconsciousness, Jack gradually raised his arm and returned his fallen Pokémon to its pokéball and - with the little energy he was able to muster - levelled his gaze with the triumphant admin, uttering a single word.
"Why?"
Once again the admin let out a harsh cackle.
"The betterment of mankind of course! Isn't that always the ultimate goal? As for how… well I suppose you'll find out soon enough." He taunted, returning Rhydon to its pokéball and stepping up into the doorway of the still primed helicopter. "For now though, i bid you farewell!"
With that he disappeared within leaving Jack alone, clinging desperately to each conscious moment as he watched the vehicle rise into the air… becoming gradually smaller and smaller until it was a mere speck on the canvas of a vast dawning sky.
:***:
"Rise and shine Jackie boy."
Jack slowly opened his eyes, blinking against the harshness of a particularly bright morning. How long had he been out? How many hours had passed since he had failed to stop team rocket and their plans? Surely not long, the sun had barely risen above the horizon and the final notes of the dawn chorus still hung lightly on the air.
At least Ben was safe and - judging by the look on his face - relatively healthy. In actual fact, the boy standing over Jack now showed little to no signs of having been captured and imprisoned for the better part of a whole night.
"Cmon mate on your feet." He said looking bemused as he regarded Jack thoughtfully. "You look terrible." He added jokingly. "As will we both if we don't get out asses out front… Sophie is worried sick of course and then there's the police asking questions."
Reluctantly Jack agreed as the two trudged back through the pokécenter in silence, exiting soon after to be received by several police cars, officer jenny and in an unexpected flash of blurred burgundy, a crushing hug from Sophie.
"Woah easy there Soph." Jack wheezed.
"Don't you EVER scare me like that again." She snarled back, burying her head further into his chest before abruptly and rather awkwardly pulling away.
"Copy that?" Jack laughed, giving his friend a reassuring smile. "Now do i need to sign anything… Ben mentioned something about statements?"
"I'll sort that out, like either of you would volunteer to do paperwork anyway." Sophie grinned. "Plus." She began. "I think our friend wants a word with you."
She gestured behind her with Jack carefully following the line of her finger until… Nathan Slider! There a short distance away, stooped shiftily in the shade of the decorative hedges lining the exterior of the center, was the team rocket grunt who had aided them the previous night.
"Heard you did a real good job stopping the boss." Slider smirked as Jack approached.
"Yeah yeah." Jack sighed. "I'd save it if i were you, you'll need your voice for talking to the authorities."
"I suppose you're right." Slider replied with a distant smile. "Can't say i blame you either… for losing… those team rocket admins they're no joke especially for rookies like us."
"Was that niceness?" Jack said, slightly raising his eyebrows as he did.
"I wouldn't get too used to it, after all i am a criminal." Slider said glumly. "A criminal who is almost definitely going to prison."
"Maybe." Jack responded vaguely, clearly deep in thought. "But what if you weren't a criminal."
"Oh yeah? Are you a time traveller as well as a pokémon trainer?" Slider questioned sarcastically.
"No but i do have an idea." Jack confided. "You clearly aren't team rocket material, but from what i've seen you're a half decent trainer… so how about this, i let you go and in return you use that prowess of yours to challenge gyms?"
"You're not serious are you?" Slider said with a perplexed chuckle.
"Deadly." Jack confirmed. "Now do we have a deal Slider?"
"Deal." Replied Slider, drawing himself up to his full height and offering Jack a hand. "And please… you can call me Nathan."
"Alright Nathan." Jack said clasping his hand in return. "You're free to go, and until we meet again!"
"Until we meet again!"
With that the boy vanished, slipping off under the cover of the gathering crowd desperate to see the source of all the commotion the night had caused.
"I take it that went well?" Sophie said knowingly as Jack returned wearing a slight grin on his face.
"Very, we came to an agreement and i let him go."
"YOU DID WHAT?" Ben cried in outrage. "May i remind you he not only works for team rocket but he also captured me and the proceeded to lock me in a room as some sort of hostage?"
"He also saved your skin." Jack shot back. "Besides he's a good kid and definitely not the kind of talent that should be wasting away behind bars."
"Honestly i'd have thought you of all -." He began before a kick to the shin delivered by Sophie seemed to compose him somewhat. "Whatever you say Jack lets just hit the road i don't want to stay here any longer than i have to."
"Alright then." Jack breathed with relief as the trio pushed their way through the mass of onlookers and back onto the open road.
"Pewter City here we come!"
End of Chapter 4
Hey there!
Not much to cover this time really other than apologising yet again for the wait; however chapter 5 is already complete and should be uploaded within the next few days to rest assured you wont be waiting much longer for that.
Also quickly i should mention that Nathan Slider will appear more frequently as a main rival to Jack from now on and will feature quite heavily in some of the early team rocket arcs.
Other than that i don't think there is much else to add so as usual feel free to leave a review to tell me and my co-writer your thoughts on this chapter or the story so far in general and follow the story so you don't miss any future updates.
Until next time.
Destros
