Karl insisted, "Let's just go home. Your grandma just wanted us to save Daisy."

The four headed off on the road to Saffron City. Psycho chased them. "Oh, yeah," remembered Karl. "I need to place you in a PokeBall. All right, then... wait, it won't work on a trainer's Pokemon."

Psycho's eyes glowed. Karl looked at the Pokedex, which translated Psycho's glowing eyes to him saying, "Becky has released me, and thus I am now a wild Pokemon. So yes, a PokeBall will now work."

"All right, then, come on in!" Karl tossed a PokeBall, which shook a few times and clicked.

---

"Hold it right there, kids!" A guard stopped the four from entering Saffron City. "I'm sorry, but Team Rocket ordered me not to admit any outsiders."

"We just needed to find a way back to Pallet Town," explained Hadley.

"Wait... Team Rocket doesn't run Saffron!" exclaimed Daisy. "They can't tell you what to do."

"Well, all right. Jump the fence. That way, they won't find out that I let you in.. I hope."

---

After difficulty climbing over the security fence, the four made it in the metropolis. Saffron City seemed strangely deserted. Strange... there didn't seem to be the average afternoon traffic or anyone. No one... except for Team Rocket Grunts. Unfriendly Team Rocket Grunts, to be exact. But no ordinary citizens. Apparently, they had hidden themselves in their houses. The grunts didn't seem to be paying them any attention... for now, anyway. Best play it safe and not bother them.

When the sun began to turn red-orange as it reached the end of the horizon, the four reached a tall skyscraper. Daisy remembered joining her grandfather in his trips to this place. Yes, this was Silph Company, the creators of many unique innovations. Professor Oak and Bill worked for this place. This was the place.

As they entered the skyscraper, they noticed that the lobby was strangely empty. Unusual, since the lobby was the place for making ideas and socializing.

Daisy began to feel a bit scared. "What if Team Rocket took over this city?"

"It seems like it," Karl realized. "The Elite Four should come and shut them down!"

"Who's that down there?" a voice called out.

Daisy then ran back out. "Let's get out of here!"

After they exit the tower, they hid at the alleyway on the side.

Karl asked, "Can you see the president?"

"No, you dummy," replied Kevin. "He's at the very top. We're at the very bottom."

"Come on, Flora and Birdo, fly up and find the president." Hadley called out the two.

Flora mounted Birdo, who soared high up the skyscraper. Flora held on tightly, afraid of heights.

After they reached the top, Flora dismounted, and Birdo rushed back down.

---

Flora searched her surroundings. Saffron was one extremely large city! Way larger than Pallet Town. Up north consisted of a mountain range. The south was the sea, with a few islands on the horizon.

Searching the skyscraper top, Flora found an air duct. Thinking it would take her into the tower, she scrabbled her body into the vent and fell down the tunnel awaiting her, finally landing onto a place she could stand on. The Bulbasaur searched the air ducts and found a vent. Cool air flowed past as she ran toward the vent. A metal grate blocked the exit, but Flora had a feeling that it wasn't nailed down. She pushed the grate, which began to loosen a bit. Flora still couldn't get through. She turned back to gain momentum, and ran very quickly into the grate, which opened widely. Flora fell onto a desk. Uh-oh, some scientists. But these, like Professor Oak, didn't seem so harmful.

"That's a Bulbasaur!"

"It got in!"

"Where did it come from?"
"Is someone trying to rescue us?"

Flora knew for sure that these were good scientists who wanted to help Pokemon.

---

After climbing the outside stairs of an apartment building next to Silph, Karl, Hadley, Kevin, and Daisy waited for Flora to drop down a vine whip or two. Two vines extended out of an open window.

Karl and Hadley toddled on the vines, not daring to look down. As they reached the window, they climbed in.

"Hey! There's a clothesline here!" Kevin found a clothesline stretched from the apartment building to Silph. He and Daisy held on to the clothesline as they moved toward Silph. Kevin looked down, and yelled in shock.

Daisy closed her eyes to avoid looking down. Finally, she reached the window and climbed in.

Kevin lost his grip and fell down. "Help!" He landed in a dumpster. "Ugh! What a smell. At least I'm alive, though. Hey, everyone! I'm all right!" He climbed out of the garbage and the dumpster.

"We'll call you through here," shouted Karl from above as he tossed a communicator at Kevin, who caught it quickly. "Now stay there, and make sure Team Rocket doesn't get to you."

"They're not so stupid to do a thing like that! I'll hide in the dumpster if they get here."

---

"That Bulbasaur's name is Flora. She's my Pokemon," explained Hadley. "Well, actually, we got her, Blowtorch, and Koopa from Team Rocket by accident."

"What's going on?" asked Karl. "Why is the city infested with Rockets, and what happened to the citizens?"

"Team Rocket's taken over the place," said one employee.

"And those three Pokemon were subject to experiments for Pokemon enhancements. They could use this to take control of all the Pokemon in the world... even those who haven't yet been discovered!" said another dramatically.

"How do you know that?" inquired Daisy. "You know, I know nothing about biology, but I do know that it isn't fair to mess with Pokemon just to win at everything."

"We know this from memos that have been leaked to us," answered an employee. "We have spies."

Karl then asked, "I thought there were TMs and energy drugs available in stores. You mean those aren't good?"

"They can only do so much, fortunately," answered Hadley. "But Team Rocket wants to make drugs that can be infinitely effective. That's the bad part."

---

Kevin sat down at the dumpster. If the Elite Four came and stomped Team Rocket, it served the criminals right for taking his dad's life. The others must have gone very far in the tower by now. A cold breeze flared through the alleyway.

Someone had begun to head near the alley he was in, and night began to fall. It wasn't a good idea to stay in there at night. He quickly hid in the dumpster and peeked up only a bit. Two grunts were visible, but they didn't seem to pay any attention for now.

"Let's go in through the back door so we can head up the stairs there," said one grunt.

A minute after the grunts were gone, Kevin climbed out of the dumpster and pulled off the sticky garbage he was covered in. "I gotta take a shower when I get home."

Kevin went to the back of Silph and entered through the back door, scaling the stairs.

---

Karl reached the highest floor. He could hear the voices of two men talking and disagreeing behind a steel security door. There was no knob on the door – instead, a card slot was in place. Karl didn't have a card key.

"No! I will not use our inventions for unjust purposes."

"Now, Silph, please be reasonable..."

"Reasonable, Mr. Stelldox? There's nothing reasonable about a criminal syndicate asking a legit corporation for machines! And you obviously mistreat your Pokemon! No, thank you!"

A colder voice then warned, "Now don't try to push it. We're dangerous and serious."

"Mandroph Darkao has been with us for a long time," said Stelldox. "And we're happy to have him."

Karl knew something was wrong. At least Silph was right to not obey Team Rocket. But it didn't seem to be working. In fear that they would emerge from the door, he ran back downstairs, hoping that no Rockets were awaiting him, and into a storage room.

---

Daisy hid behind a crate of PokeBalls. Never once before was she allowed to scope the whole skyscraper – just the lobby.

A hand grabbed her shoulder, and pulled her over. "Help!"

Karl – who was in the same room as her – called out Blowtorch.

The Charmander toddled toward the Machoke who grabbed Daisy. The Machoke dropped her, and stomped towards Blowtorch, ready to crush him...

Blowtorch, using his quick instincts, jumped out of the way, his tail torching Machoke, who winced in pain, but still lunged at the Charmander.

Machoke bashed his head in a metal crate. Slightly dazed, but still able to move, it pounced at Blowtorch and grabbed him, squeezing the lizard.

Blowtorch had begun to feel pressure surrounding his whole body, and whined in pain.

"All right, Mach, let's get that Charmander and turn these brats in!" a voice called out from outside the room.

"Not you again!" Karl and Daisy cried out in unison.

---

Hadley sat at a computer desk while waiting for Flora to return, using a computer to navigate a map of Silph. "There's a surveillance system."

Hadley looked at the multiple screens of every floor on the building. At the top floor was the president - but he had company. Team Rocket. The alarms were off, so Hadley turned it back on via a radio button.

When Flora returned, she had a key card connected to a chain around her neck. She had crawled through the whole floor to find the card on the floor.

Along with Flora was Kevin, panting in exhaustion. "I... finally found you... Team Rocket's got Karl and Daisy."

"Let's go!" The alarms were blaring and grunts ran frantically. "It worked. I did it!"

---

Karl had become face to face with the leader of Team Rocket. "We, Team Rocket, capture Pokemon from around this part of the world," said the man. "They're essential tools for keeping our enterprise moving."

"Yeah, but who are you?" Karl had always wondered who the leader of Team Rocket was.

"I am the leader, Giovanni Stelldox!" the man proudly declared. "And your Charmander is our property!"

"Blowtorch is a living being, not some lifeless tool. You're crazy."

The president agreed. "You obviously don't care about Pokemon."

"Oh, shut up, you big dummy," snapped Becky.

"Now, I'm sure we can talk this over... some other time!" Daisy then ran out of the room, evading capture.

Karl had grown scared. He was on his own with Team Rocket. There was no escape from them. He looked at the confined Blowtorch, who sadly returned the look.

"All right, your days here are over," said Darkao. "Your time's up!"

"Wait a second!" called out Kevin. "If you kill him, you'll really be caught, just like how you killed my dad!" No way was Kevin going to lose someone in his life again.

Blowtorch had built up his strength, and bent the metal bars in his cage. He was free and angry at the same time as he slashed Conner and blew fire at Sandy. If Team Rocket wanted super-powerful Pokemon from birth, then they horribly backfired!

"All right, Arbok, let's teach them a lesson." Sandy called out the purple cobra.

"Come on, Muk," Conner called out the living sludge.

Before the snake could strike the trainers, they swiftly got away to call out their forces.

Koopa and Flora were too intimidated by Arbok, and held each other in fear.

"Don't look in Arbok's eyes or marks – you'll get stunned!" Hadley shouted out to Flora, Blowtorch, and Koopa.

Koopa and Flora ran away.

Muk had enveloped Kevin's body. "Ugh! Come on! That's nasty and toxic!"

Koopa then rushed back to gain some momentum, and popped into his shell, skidding through the floor. Arbok, after shooting needles of poison at Hadley and Flora, was hit by Koopa. The cobra, in turn, rolled into Sandy, then Conner, and then into Darkao.

"Ah! It got me!" Hadley screamed as she struggled in pain.

Flora felt the needle hit her, but being a grass-poison hybrid, the pain didn't last for very long.

"Quick, Psycho, save Kevin, and stop Team Rocket."

The humanoid psychic emerged, and so did Becky's Machoke.

"Let's duel," Becky said bravely. "Physical will beat mental. You win, you keep Psycho, but if you lose, it comes back to me, and we'll torture you until you kick the bucket!"

Mach and Psycho, facing away from each other, stepped away. Psycho turned around first and fired a psychic beam at the muscle Pokemon, who dodged the beam.

Psycho warped closer to Mach, and emitted a ball of light that blinded the physical Pokemon.

"Quick, everyone, let's help Psycho!"

Blowtorch breathed a stream of fire at Mach. Koopa shot a beam of bubbles, and Flora whipped Mach. In an astounding flurry, they floored the superpower Pokemon.

"Let us handle this!" Sabrina!

The psychic gym leader had given Hadley an antidote. The girl was ready for action, but it turned out that Sabrina would be taking over. Psycho warped his allies out of the skyscraper

---

"It's a shame we didn't get to see any real action," said Kevin disappointingly.

Fuji was with them as well, much to their surprise. "But that's irrelevant. You've done your part here. And for such amazing talent, I dub you three: the Color Triad!"

Karl had become Red; Hadley had become Green, and Kevin became Blue.

"So, Red, what do we do now?" asked Kevin.

Karl then said gleefully, "Let's get home. We've got worried families!"

Daisy sighed in relief. "Finally, we're coming home."

"I think Professor Oak should give our Pokemon a DNA test," said Hadley curiously. "We should see what Team Rocket did to modify the Pokemon's genetics."