Mt. Moon (Part 3)

I had the Rockets in a humble, kneeling position in front of me. They were already disarmed of their Pokeballs, their belts unbuckled and on the ground out of their reach. Grimer and Ekans were also behind them, subdued and under guard by my Pokemon.

The Rockets seemed embarrassed at being defeated by a 10 year-old, but had no choice but to spill their schemes. They were part of a dozen or so Rocket crew that were deployed in Mt. Moon in search of Clefairies and Moon Stones. While carrying out this primary objective, they also did their regular dirty work of mugging, stealing, and Pokemon-napping from trainers, including Erina. In this world, Team Rocket was not the comic relief characters as manifested as Jesse and James in the animated series. They were a real criminal mafia ring, shameless and truly powerful. I was perhaps lucky I ran into these two noobs, instead of the more powerful officers in the organization.

I took my rope and tied them up, taping up their mouths as well. They muffled in protest but my Mankey slapped them on their heads and they were knocked out. I later sent the authorities to apprehend them. Erina explained that most Team Rocket Pokemon were abused and had no choice but to follow their commands of their criminal masters. I released all the Rocket Pokemon and gave them a choice.

"If you want to stay with your trainers," I said," you can go back into your Pokeballs. If you want to return to the wild, you can go."

All of them went free, never once looking back. I didn't catch them myself because I think they belonged in the wild after all this time.

I retrieved the pendant from the girl Rocket and handed it to Erina. She thanked me and teared up a bit again. Oddish was happily rubbing against her leg.

On the guy Rocket I found a small electronic device that had information on their operation.

"What do we do now?" Erina asked.

She was a year older and had known me for only a few hours, but made up her mind that I'd make better leadership decisions. I told you she's a clever girl.

"From their conversation it seems they already captured a bunch of Clefairies, and I'm gonna go after Team Rocket to see if I can free them," I said.

I said that it's probably better if people back on the main passage knew that it was Team Rocket that lurked in the shadows, and not just your regular ol' bullies. She agreed and said she'll go back to warn the others and the authorities. She could probably gather a group of adult trainers as well to come here. They had a vested interest to keep the main Mt. Moon passage safe, since their businesses depended on passerbys.

It was decided that Erina would walk back to the camp and bring reinforcements.

"Be safe!" She shouted, and ran back with her Oddish.

My rat-crew (Rattata, Nidorans, Pikachu) came running back and was showing me on the paper map where the main Team Rocket forces were, when I heard a little chirp (or whimper?) behind me. I turned to find a Clefairy there. She stood at a distance, a bit cautious, but still wanting to come closer.

"Oh it's you," I said, smiling. "I thought you'd be hiding from the bad guys."

I pointed at the hole where I'd seen the Clefairy, then pointed at the two unconscious Rockets. Clefairy seemed to follow what I was saying.

"I'm gonna go rescue your friends," I said. "Do you want to come with me?"

Clefairy smiled and came running into my arms, rubbing her face. It was kinda like being hugged by a cotton-candy memory foam. It was nice.

I strategized with my Pokemon team and headed down the path the Rockets had used.

It did not take long for me to hear the sound of drills and other heavy machinery. I turned the corner, still hidden, to see about half a dozen Rockets drilling into the side of the caves.

I'm sure that some of them had Pokemon that could pack a punch, but I wasn't going to find out. It was already one vs. many, and I needed all the tactical advantage I could get. I was going to go in and and ambush them with all of my Pokemon!

Wait. Why? I could wipe them out with just one. But first, I needed to set it up.

I got my earplugs out.

The combo was very simple. I had my Pikachu sneak to the generator they were using to power their drills. She had no trouble biting through the main power cord, and obviously was immune to the electricity from this process. The Rockets were suddenly engulfed in complete darkness and silence.

"Huh? What's going on?" one of them asked in panic.

"Relax," the leader said. "It's probably that old generator."

One by one flashlights came on and were illuminating the darkness.

"Wait, what's this?"

"It's a Pokemon!"

"It's pink!"

"Is it another Clefairy? Who let it out of the cage?"

"It's a… a Jigglypuff."

"Oh, sh-"

It was too late. I had restricted Jigglypuff from singing all this time, and she had gotten quite frustrated by this. Now, being instructed to "perform" to all the audience members, she was super excited.

"You see the letter "R" on their shirt? That stands for "Rockstar." Uh-huh, that's right, buddy, that's you!" I had told her.

They were all knocked out before they could even respond with their Pokemon.

The clean-up involved getting my stronger Pokemon to move the unconscious Rockets to one place and tying them up with a length of rope I found. I took the precaution of removing all their Pokeballs from their persons.

Once I made sure I was completely safe (and sent out the rat crew on recon), I turned to the cage with the Clefairies. Surprisingly, they weren't all asleep! They seemed to be inherently resistant to Jigglypuff's songs.

I unlocked all the cages containing the Clefairies. They were understandably wary of me and demurred to come out into the open. It was only after the Clefairy that followed me came up on my shoulders and squealed in joy of being united with her friends, that the entire group came out and started smiling and making sounds of happiness.

Not too long afterwards I began to hear the rush of footsteps from the path I had come from. Led by Erina, a dozen or so adults came with their Pokemon, ready to fight Team Rocket, only to find that they were all tied up and unconscious.

"Did… Did you do this?" a man asked, incredulous.

"Are you okay? You're not hurt?" a lady asked with concern.

"I'm okay, but we should call the police for these guys," I said.

"What about the Clefairies?" a teenager asked from behind the group, obviously more concerned about catching a Clefairy than protecting one.

I turned to look around where they were, but the wild Pokemon were no longer there. I guess they must've scattered at the sound of a larger group.

I gathered my Pokemon and my gear and explained to them that I was going to head out. I had to go to Cerulean City. One of the adults mentioned that Team Rocket must've started drilling from nearby Cerulean (which made sense), so I decided to follow the tunnel that they had conveniently drilled for me. The adults said that they would stay to guard the Rockets until the police came, and the other older kids that came with them wanted to stay just in case the Clefairies "needed help."

I was walking away from the group when I felt a tap on my shoulder.

It was Erina.

"Give me your phone," she said.

"Uh… why?" I asked, handing it over.

She punched her number in and saved it. She gave me a hug. She didn't let go for a while.

"Stay in touch," she said, before we parted.