The cake is a lie in:


#73: Team Rocket vs Portal

Upon discovering the location where their allies were being held, Team Rocket and Cave Johnson find themselves in a giant dome-shaped room deep underground. Standing at its center was the leader of Team Galactic, Cyrus, and a giant AI machine-like construct. Seated and tied to their chairs behind them were Serena, Brock and Paul.

"Aha! We finally found you, Cyrus! Hand over our friends or else!" Alolan Meowth proclaims.

Cyrus turns and gives a condescending grin to the trio "Or else what?" he says.


Cassidy: Prepare for trouble...

Butch: ...and make it double!

Both: Here's our mission, so you better listen!

Cassidy: To infect the world with devastation!

Butch: To blight all people in every nation!

Cassidy: To denounce the goodness of truth and love!

Butch: To extend our wrath to the stars above!

Cassidy: Cassidy!

Butch: And Butch, of course!

Cassidy: We're Team Rocket, circling Earth all day and night.

Butch: Surrender to us now or you will surely lose the fight!


The giant machine-like construct that hung suspended from the room, turns itself to the trio and speaks in a disembodied robotic voice.

"Your motto is stupid and your words are meaningless in the grand scale of things," it responds.

"What in the world is that?!" Butch proclaims, pointing at the thing that spoke to them.

"My name is GlaDOS, and I have aligned myself with Team Galactic due to our shared interest in the science of 'portals'," GlaDOS responds.

"That's right! And with our combined resources, we will help Gloria and the other rival teams dominate the world, and then the universe. And there is nothing you can do to stop us!" Cyrus responds with conviction in his voice.

"Butch, Cassidy, Meowth! These two aren't to be taken lightly, be careful!" Brock shouts from his seat.

The Team Rocket trio prepare their Pokeballs for battle, while Cave Johnson readies his Portal Gun for the upcoming conflict.

"Your feeble efforts to save your friends will fail. I must admit, your efforts to make it this far into this story without giving up is admirable, but I am afraid your luck is about to run out," GlaDOS says to them.

Without warning, a trap door opens beneath our heroes, plunging them into a square concrete room below.

"Let's see you try to get out of this," GlaDOS says to them.

"Nothing to it!" Cave Johnson responds, pointing the Portal Gun to the roof of the dome above them and firing a shot at it, then firing a second at the walls next to them. As the four enter through the second portal, they emerge from the first, causing Butch, Cassidy, and Cave to fall from the roof and back onto the dome's main floor with a loud thud. Alolan Meowth, however, catches hold onto GlaDOS before hitting the ground, now hanging onto the neck of the giant machine.

"What are you doing. Get off me, or else I will fire a heat-guided rocket at destroy you," GlaDOS threatens him.

"Cave, you figure out how to get Meowth down from that…'thing', while we go rescue the others," Cassidy tells him, as she and Butch unleash their Pokeballs to summon Houndour and Mightyena to assist them.

In response, Cyrus takes out his own Pokeball and summons Dialga to impede their progress.

As the Pokemon battle between good and evil commenced in the background, Cave Johnson had to figure out a way to rescue Meowth before GlaDOS executes an attack to obliterate him.

"A heat guided rocket…I got it!" Cave says, getting a brilliant idea. "Hey, cat! Use your powers and inflict something hot onto GlaDOS!" he instructs Alolan Meowth.

"Something hot? My pleasure!" Alolan Meowth responds, using his 'Fury Swipe' attack repeatedly strike GlaDOS's metal frame, creating sparks and causing it to generate an excess of topical heat.

"You have asked for it. Goodbye for now," GlaDOS responds, firing a rocket from its body that aimed for Alolan Meowth directly.

"Jump out of the way, now!" Cave Johnson instructs.

Alolan Meowth does just that, and leaps off GlaDOS at the last moment, causing the heat-seeking rocket to instead aim for the heat-induced area of the construct caused by his Fury Swipes...

KABLAM!

The rocket makes impact on GlaDOS, causing massive damage to it, ultimately shutting it offline temporarily.

Alolan Meowth lands on his feet and thanks Cave for the perfectly executed plan.

Meanwhile, Butch and Cassidy had defeated Cyrus (offscreen of course), and manages to rescue Brock, Paul and Serena from their binds.

Cyrus, not willing to give up, pulls out a device and presses a button…

BOOOM!

…causing a chain of explosions to detonate around the base.

"You all aren't leaving here alive. That Portal Gun will be mine, and we will be victorious in stopping you for good," Cyrus shouts to them in desperation as the whole place starts to shake and crumble apart. A piece of he roof was the first to give-out, revealing a potential exit above them.

"Oh crap, he's going to cause the whole place to collapse on us!" Butch yells in response.

"How do we get out of this alive?" Cassidy adds, not knowing how to escape from this dire situation.

Cave Johnson, without a word, points his Portal Gun to the ground in front of the heroes and fires a portal onto it, then fires a second portal onto an angled surface high on the dome's upper walls.

"Jump into this portal, it will send you all flying out the other end and straight through that opening in the ceiling. You all will be safe from the collapse from this base," Cave instructs them.

"But what about you? Aren't you coming with us?" Alolan Meowth asks.

"Nah, I'm going to stay here and ensure this Cyrus weirdo and GlaDOS don't get a chance to pursue you further. Besides, I learned of someone else deep below this complex that needs saving, and 'she' needs this Portal Gun more than I do. Now go, and good luck saving the world!" Cave tells them.

Without another word, all of the allies nod and jump into the portal one-by-one, which, through the power of science, sent them hurling out of the other end and straight through the open roof like Cave said it would.

Just mere seconds later, the entire Team Galactic base fully collapses in a massive heap of rubble.


A bit later, all of our allies stood a few yards from the disaster site as the sun began to rise.

"Do you think he's still alive?" Butch asks, worried about their old friend who stayed back and allowed them to escape.

"Probably. He was a strange guy, but he had his heart in the right place, even for us 'criminals'," Cassidy responds.

Serena runs up the Team Rocket trio and gives them all a big hug. "Thank you so much for coming to our rescue! That Cyrus creep and GlaDOS were planning on some really shady stuff," she says to them with much relief.

"Yeah, what we learned from them before your arrival isn't good at all," Brock adds.

"What isn't good?" Alolan Meowth asks.

Paul steps forward and crosses his arms. "Apparently Ash, Pikachu, Red, and Mewtwo are being held by both Team Aqua and Team Plasma. They aim to liberate Pokemon from their owners and then drown the world to make a new paradise for Gloria," he explains.

"What?! We need to go rescue them immediately!" Butch proclaims.

"Where are they located?" Cassidy asks.

"We don't know, they hinted at a place that's very hard to reach in the middle of nowhere," Brock responds.

"Then it might be somewhere out in the ocean. Come on, let's catch a ride to the docks, we are going to rent a boat and go search for the others," Butch responds.

"Right!" everyone proclaims in unison.


A rather good end to this recent situation, but how long will this last? Please review and stay tuned to the next chapter to find out what happens next!