The silent breeze flows through the battlefield as the 2 opposing pokemon stare down at each other. Marowak steadily grips his flaming club while Nidoqueen huffs out her breath, ready to strike at the command of her trainer. Each second passes by, but it feels like a minute for me as the pressure slowly looms over my back.
Finally, Giovanni makes his first move, commanding Nidoqueen to attack."Nidoqueen! Use Rock slide!" Nidoqueen starts by summoning multiple rocks out of thin air, before shooting them toward Marowak.
"Marowak! Use your Bone Club to deflect it!" Hearing my commands, Marowak uses both of his hand and start spinning the flaming club, acting as a shield that blocks the attack. "Now retaliate with that move you use on Dugtrio!"
Making a swinging motion, Marowak's bone club glows in purple as a transparent bone appears right in front of Nidoqueen. Unfortunately, Niduqeen sees the attack coming and dodges it before the attack could strike. "Damn it. So close." I mutter.
"Again! Use Rock Slide!" Following the given order, Nidoqueen begins summoning multiple rocks once again and shoots them toward Marowak.
"Don't bother deflecting! Evade and try to get close!" Sprinting toward Nidoqueen, Marowak slides and rolls in order to evade the incoming Rock Slide, closing in the distance between him and Nidoqueen. Little did he know, Marowak has just fallen right into Giovanni's trap.
"Now's your chance! Use Superpower!" After Giovanni yells out, Nidoqueen heats up as the red steams can be seen escaping from her body. Energy slowly builds up, causing the nearby pebbles around her to rise upward.
"Shit! Get out of there, Marowak!" But instead of listening to my order, Marowak chooses to keep going forward. "Marowak! What are you doing?!" Marowak doesn't respond and continues sprinting toward Nidoqueen. As soon as he gets close enough to the poison pokemon, Nidoqueen unleashes her Superpower onto Marowak, hitting the bone pokemon straight on. But the result of her attack is not what she expected.
"Nido?!" Marowak is completely unscathed, making Nidoqueen widen her eyes before getting hit by his Bone Club at the side of her cheeks. "Nido-!" Nidoqueen yelps in surprise before getting launched, making her fall back against the floor. "...queen..."
"What?! That's impossible!" Giovanni exclaims in surprise. "Marowak shouldn't be able to resist Nidoqueen's Superpower!" He then glances at his Nidoqueen, and back onto the Marowak. "...Unless."
"Marowak! You're a ghost type!" As if the puzzle pieces coming together in my head, I tell the skull pokemon of my finding. "That's why you continue rushing forward without stopping. But I guess you already knew that didn't you?!"
"Marowak!" Hanging the burning bone over his shoulder, Marowak huffs his chest proudly as Nidoqueen is slowly getting up.
"Nido..." Nidoqueen is not pleased about this. She looks very annoyed at the now dual ghost/fire type pokemon. Marowak then taunts Nidoqueen to come and get him, but unlike Rhydon, Nidoqueen has a calm temper. She does not fall for a cheap trick that easily. "Queen!" Stomping her foot onto the ground, Nidoqueen gets onto her battle position as Marowak does the same thing.
"As much as I would like to continue this battle, I have better things to do." Snapping his finger, Giovanni grabs Nidoqueen attention. "Let us end this battle with our final attack! Nidoqueen! Use Horn Drill!"
"This is it, Marowak! The Final Showdown! Use Bone Club!" I yell out my order.
With the clear intention to win, Marowak sprints toward Nidoqueen as the spinning horn slowly gets bigger and bigger. Eventually, both pokemon clash against each other. Marowak's bone club pushed against Nidoqueen's drilling horn, making a scraping sound of digging concrete.
"Pushes onward, Marowak!"
"Don't let it up, Nidoqueen!"
"MAROWAK/NIDOQUEEN!"
But then the unexpected happens.
*CRACK*
Both Nidoqueen's horn and Marowak's bone club snapped in half.
"Maro... wak?" Marokwak stares at the half unlit bone in his hand while Nidoqueen also looks at the fallen piece of her horn that's on the ground. "Nido... queen?"
"...oh no." That's not good.
"What... just happen?" Proton asks his fellow executives, hoping to get the answer out of them. "Can someone please explain what's going on?!"
"Don't look at me! I'm as clueless as you are!" Petrel shakes his head. "What about you Archer? Got any clue?"
"...This wasn't supposed to happen," Archer mumbles something under his breath. "They shouldn't be getting a tie. It isn't a part of the plan!" His calm demeanor is slowly breaking away.
"Cool your temper, Archer. Not all that have lost." Ariana reassures him. She then turns her attention toward the 2 men standing on the battlefield, "All they need is a little push." Before walking toward one of them. "Giovanni my dear."
"Ariana?" Giovanni turns to look at his woman. "What are you-"
*BANG*
The moment that I hear that sound, my eyes go wide as I see Giovanni's body fall onto the ground. "WHAT THE FUCK?! ARIANA, WHAT DID YOU DO!?" I shout in shock, demanding an answer from her.
"I did what needed to be done, Gade. I protect the future of Team Rocket." Ariana coldly responds.
"PROTECT?! HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT WHEN YOU JUST KILL THE LEADER RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!?" I get even more enraged.
"You don't get it, do you? It is not him that's going to be the future. It is you." Ariana said before pocketing her gun away.
"...What?" I'm the future? What is she talking about?
"Remember when we told you about how the boss has his eyes on you?" Ariana crosses her arm. "That's because he planned to have you lead Team Rocket when he retires."
"Me? Leading Team Rocket? But why?!" This doesn't make any sense!
"Something to do with how you remind him of his old self." Ariana turns back and walks toward her fellow executives, "Don't be sad, Gade. You've done your part." Before ordering Petrel about something, "But now your usefulness has run out." Petrel then takes out his Weezing and orders it to use Explosion, causing the tunnel to slowly collapse. "Goodbye, Gade. May we never meet in the afterlife." Afterward, the executives Teleport away, leaving me alone in shock with Giovanni and my pokemon.
"So... this is how I die." Finally realizing the severity of the situation that I'm in, I sit down next to Giovanni's dead body, accepting my fate. "...is it really worth it?" Asking no one in particular, I close my eyes as the darkness starts to surround me.
Out of a sudden, I heard a familiar voice shouting my name, gaining my attention as I open my eyes to see 2 recognizable individuals rushing toward me. "Jim? Blue? What are you 2 doing here?"
"What else but getting you out of here you moron!" Jim shouts at me. "Come on! Let's go!"
Taking out his Alakazam, Jim grabs my hand and he orders his pokemon to Teleport the 3 of us away from the collapsing, leaving the body of Giovanni behind to get buried under all these rubbles of Cerulean. It will be the last time that I will ever see his face.
Once I am greeted by the sunlight on the surface, I immediately use my arm to cover my eyes. "Geez, how long have I been in there?"
"3 hours. Approximately." Blue answers my question as he takes out a bottle of water and hands it to me. "Here. You must be thirsty."
"Thanks." Taking the drink from his hand, I quickly gulped the content down my throat. "Ah! Refreshing..."
"Feeling better?" Jim asks me, trying to make sure that I'm ok.
Unfortunately, I am not ok. "...No, not really. Right now, I'm not even sure what to feel."
"What do you mean?" Blue asks, "Well- besides the whole... dead body next to you." Still not aware of the whole situation.
*Sigh* "Long story short, Ariana killed Giovanni and took over Team Rocket." I gaze up into the sky. "Then Petrel blew up the cave, leaving me to die in there."
"Wow... that's insane." Jim stares at me in shock. "At least you get out of there alive."
"...It was supposed to be me," I mumble something under my breath.
"What?" Jim has a confused look on his face.
"I was supposed to lead Team Rocket once Giovanni retires." I begin explaining. "Heard it from Ariana after she shot Giovanni."
"Wh-" Both Jim and Blue are speechless, unsure of what to say next. "H- How can you know that she is telling the truth." Eventually, Jim decides to speak up.
"I can confirm that what he said is indeed the truth." Out of nowhere, a mysterious figure approaches the 3 of us. Recognizing the voice, I turn to look at the familiar face and turquoise hair. "Hello, Gade. I see that you manage to come out alive."
Instantly, I get up and point my gun at him. "Here to finish me off, Proton?" I scowl at him, not letting my barrel leave his sight.
"Calm down, I'm not here to hurt you." Proton raises both of his hands up in defense. "See? Completely armless."
"Get to the point, Proton," I demand.
"Alright. Ariana is Zubatshit crazy. So I go AWOL on her." Proton states it out loud.
"...Maybe slow down for a bit." I reluctantly lower my gun.
"Alright, this is going to take a while. So you might wanna sit down" Proton gestures for us to take a seat as he lays his butt on the floor. "Now, where do I start."
"So let me get this straight, Ariana is planning to take over Johto?!" I ask Proton for confirmation.
"Not just Johto, she plans to take over the world." Proton states with a serious expression. "And after that, who knows."
"Shit. It's a good thing that we managed to capture Mewtwo before they could." Blue quietly comments.
"That won't change anything. Team Rocket can just create another bio-weapon if they want to." Proton tells Blue, before directing his attention at me. "Gade, I need your help to stop her."
"Me? Why are you asking me?! Don't you think the Indigo League is a better option?"
"Unfortunately, no." Proton shakes his head in disappointment. "If words reach their ears, they're not going to destroy Team Rocket. Instead, they will just seize up and take over of the whole organization."
"So the only option left is to destroy Team Rocket without getting caught." Jim comes to a conclusion. "This is starting to get out of hand."
"Precisely." Proton nods. "That's why I need your help to stop Ariana, Gade."
After gathering my thought for a while, I respond to Proton, "I don't know, Prot. Wouldn't that make a traitor?"
"No, Gade. Ariana is the one who betrayed Team Rocket. She is the traitor, not us." Proton refutes my claim. "Besides, I'm loyal only to Giovanni. And Giovanni believes that you are the next leader of Team Rocket. So now, I am loyal to you." Afterward, he gets up and offers me a hand. "Also, you are my best friend."
"Wait what?" Come again?
"You. Are my best friend." Proton repeats himself.
"Um, could you please say that again? I didn't quite catch it the first time." I pretend to fall on deaf ears.
"Now you're just doing this on purpose." Proton looks at me annoyingly
"Alright alright. Fine." I take his hand, "I'm in." before pulling myself up to his eyes level. "Gather your men. We're leaving Kanto."
"But where can we go, Gade? It's not like we can just move to Johto." Jim inquires.
I smirk at Jim, before asking him a question. "Have you ever heard of the Sevii Island?"
END OF KANTO QUEST.