"So, you're not getting any new creatures?"
Nope.
"And you're not going to follow the group any farther?"
Only filler towns are in their wake.
"Then, where are we going?"
Back to Celadon City.
Phillip was currently traveling on a very large bridge to return to mainland Kanto away from Fuchsia City. Normally, one would travel the sea using whatever Water-Type Pokémon they had on them to get to Cinnabar Island, but this was a special case for Phillip.
While in Fuchsia City, Phillip had heard news that Team Rocket had managed to capture a corporation known as Silph Co. found in Saffron City. So, Phillip had set out to handle the criminal team by going through routes 18, 17, and 16 to return to Celadon City, and then get the blocked gate found on Route 7 to get back into Saffron City.
The bridge mandated the use of bikes to travel along, so Phillip bought a blue bike with black pedals, grips, and seating back in Fuchsia City. He thanked Black for the economic-breaking superpower he had bestowed upon him.
However, getting through the bridge had its own problems, with Trainers and Pokémon appearing now and then. The trainers were nothing, using mostly Poison and Fighting types. One used two Voltorbs, but not much of a challenge. No Pokémon were anything Phillip needed, so he moved on quickly.
Once on Route 16, he was, again, assaulted by Biker Trainers and their plethora of Fight and Poison types. After beating what appeared to be the boss of the group, Phillip moved through the checkpoint building on bike and got off once back outside. Now off the bridge side of Route 16, he found himself immediately blocked off from Celadon thanks to a Snowlax blocking off the road.
"You know, last time I found one of you, I let it off without too much hassle," Phillip said, before walking up to it and putting his hands under the large Pokémon, "but right now, I have no time so..." With a huff, Phillip lifted the Snorlax and then threw it into the nearby woods, causing several trees to fall, but still not wake Snorlax.
Dusting off his hands, Phillip continued down his path, stopping only once when he spotted a small shrub that blocked off another part of the route before deciding to come back to it another time.
Now in Celadon, Phillip then realized that, once one wasn't getting lost every single time, the world was a lot smaller in comparison.
'It's surprising how quickly things become when you know where things are,' Phillip thought as he managed to cross town towards Route 7 with the sun still high in the sky.
With Route 7 being too small to be eventful, Phillip walked into the gateway connecting Route 7 with Saffron City. A guard tried to prevent him from getting through, but Phillip gave him a canister of water when he complained about being thirsty, which the guard then gave him access to the city.
With the fog gone, Saffron City was far easier to navigate. Phillip immediately headed towards the center of the town, where an extremely large skyscraper loomed. Once at the entrance, he headed inside.
Noticing there was a lack of anything on the base floor, Phillip hightailed it the stairs and walked up to the second floor.
Upon entering the second floor, Phillip took noticed that there was an odd tile near the end of the hall. He decided to avoid them for now and ran through the place to fight off Team Rocket.
There were two grunts on this floor. The first had three Zubats, one Golbat, and one Raticate. Pikachu handled this one with several rounds of Thunderbolt. The second had a Cubone and a Zubat. Blastoise handled this one.
Upon meeting seeing the first scientist, Phillip decided to be nice.
"Hey! I'm here to get you out," Phillip said, loud enough to be heard, but soft enough to not draw attention.
The scientist greeted him with a maniacal smile and said, "Leave? Why would I leave? I'm happy to serve Team Rocket!"
Phillip gave the scientist a deadpan stare before summoning Charizard to attack. From that point on, he was far more cautious in his approach, and with good reason.
The next scientist was also on Team Rocket's side, but used more Electric-type Pokémon, like Magnemite, Voltorb, and Magneton. Charizard burned them all to ash.
With two doors closed tight behind metal gates, Phillip went back to the staircase hall and stepped onto the tile. He was then teleported to an unknown floor.
The first thing he did was find one of the nearby potted plants and empty the contents of his stomach.
'God, teleporting isn't nearly as pleasant as I hoped,'
"You think the items you used during your first world would prepare you for this," Gabriel spoke within Phillip's throbbing head.
'I don't remember any teleporting Shen Gong Wu.'
"Hey, you!"
Phillip groaned as he got up to battle the incoming Rocket grunt.
The fight had the Team Rocket grunt brought out a Raticate, a Koffing, a Golbat, and a large, purple snake with a design on its hood, just below its head, that looked eerily like a face, called Arbok. It was quick with Blastoise.
Going through the floor, which he found to be the Eighth while coming across the staircase, Phillip fought another grunt and scientist but had one place on the floor blocked off with a gate. Following back to the second floor from the first teleporter, Phillip swallowed to prevent himself from throwing up again and headed to the other teleporter he saw.
It sent him back to the same floor, so he went to the third one on this floor. All it did was cross the metal gate that was nearby, which was occupied by one other person, who believed the corporation was doomed. With nothing else to do on the floor, Phillip moved to the elevator to go to the third floor.
From that point on, Phillip had been bouncing around from floor to floor, beating Team Rocket Grunts and scientists and getting lost with every portal. He jumped at least nine times back to the ninth floor, unironically, and stumbled into locked-off portions only to have to retreat the way he came. The only upsides to all these jumps were that he slowly became more resistant to the motion sickness teleporting caused, and he managed to find a place to rest and heal when he needed.
Finally, he found a way forward when he managed to jump to the fifth floor and, after beating the closest grunt, walked down a hall behind the largest room. It was here that he found the key card to open all the gates, and that's what he did.
Phillip opened every gate he could on every floor. Once that was said and done, he used the remaining teleporting pads to get to the walled-off area on the 11th floor.
One teleport pad on the third floor had the answer, leading him to a small room that was hidden away from the rest of the floor. Phillip guessed that it was the 7th.
However, as he rounded the corner, Phillip saw a face he wasn't interested in seeing for a long while.
"What kept you?" Gary asked, wearing an insufferable smirk.
Phillip groaned as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Gary, don't you have somewhere else to be? Like, say, rubbing one of those false badges of yours in Ash's face or something?"
"What, and miss a battle with you?" Gary asked as he slammed his fist into his palm. "I knew Team Rocket would cause you to turn up, and I want a rematch."
Phillip sighed, relenting to his fate. "Fine. Let's get this over with."
Gary threw out a Pidgeot and Phillip tossed out Pikachu.
The battle was simple. While Pikachu did have to use Quick Attack as a means to dodge Pidgeot's attacks, one well-placed Thunderbolt rendered the bird unconscious. Gary followed with Exeggcute, with Phillip swapped out for his own Pidgeot. Pidgeot quickly beat Exeggcute but did take small damage from a Confusion attack. Gary's Growlithe was also beaten swiftly by Phillip's Pidgeot.
However, once Gary's Alakazam hit the field, it was a slightly harder battle.
The Alakazam utilized its mind and Psybeam attack to predict Phillip's attack patterns fast, heavily damaging Pidgeot. Phillip switched out to Blastoise to tank as much damage while dishing back just as much with Bite. However, any damage the Alakazam took, it would heal back with Recovery and Reflect made the once frail Psychic-type harder than needed.
However, with Blastoise's defenses, Phillip scored the victory once Reflect's runtime ended, allowing one final blow to the land and take out the nuisance once and for all.
Finally, Gary's own Blastoise entered the field as Phillip swapped out for Charizard.
Blastoise launched a Water Gun immediately, which was countered quickly by Charizard Flamethrower. As steam built up from the impact, Charizard rushed forward to land a standing Wing Attack on Blastoise, before following up with a Slash to the reeling Pokémon.
Once Blastoise regained footing, Gary ordered it to use a Rapid Spin, which it did by retreating into its shell and launching itself towards Charizard while spinning. The hit landed, but Charizard grabbed onto the shell, stopping it. Then, Charizard slammed the shell into the floor before knocking it back with a whip of its tail.
The Blastoise poked its limbs back from the shell, no worse for wear from the two attacks, and stopped itself from skidding into its trainer.
Phillip, knowing Charizard's fragility, pushed to end the fight now.
"Charizard, use Dragon Rage."
Charizard spat out a purple flame that quickly crossed the small room to hit Blastoise full on. Blastoise held on but didn't notice in time as Charizard closed the gap quickly once the flames dissipated. From there, Charizard landed a rising Slash attack, another standing Wing Attack, and a final, critical Slash all to Blastoise's head, falling the bulky Pokémon.
Gary packed up his Pokémon. "Well, I'm moving on ahead."
"Good," Phillip replied. "Be sure to let the door hit you on your way out."
"Now that's rude," Gary said, once again wearing that smirk. "Next time you see me, I'll be the Pokémon League Champion. So, it would good of you to practice etiquette towards me."
"Bite me."
And with that, Gary left.
However, Phillip wasn't done with the room just yet.
"Excuse me, sir?"
Phillip noticed a scientist that was on one side of the room, who had managed to avoid the onslaught of rouge elements that was seen on the burnt and torn bookcases that were on the floor. Phillip immediately got ready to battle.
"Oh, no no no no no! I'm not of Team Rocket."
Phillip lowered his stance but kept his hand at his belt to be sure.
"And, judging from your reaction, you're not one of them either."
Phillip nodded, causing the scientist to bow.
"Thank you for rescuing us!"
Phillip jumped slightly at the reaction, before replying, "It's nothing. Don't worry about it."
The scientist rose back. "Such deeds should not go unrewarded. Here," the scientist pulled a Pokéball off his belt, "take this Pokémon with you."
Phillip took it from him, looking at the ball before Phillip turned his sight back to the scientist. "You had this, but didn't fight back?"
"The Pokémon isn't really strong," the scientist explained, "but it is extremely rare and could be useful your journey."
Phillip sighed, before saying "Okay, what is it?"
"It's a Lapras. It's a very intelligent Pokémon," the scientist said. "We kept it in our lab, but it will be much better off with you. You'll be a good trainer for Lapras, if that battle was any indication. It's also a great swimmer."
Phillip hummed at the information, before putting the Lapras onto his belt before heading back to the teleporter he used. He was hoping to get some rest on floor nine before progressing.
Now rested (he, himself, enjoyed a quick nap while his Pokémon got treatment from a nearby female employee), Phillip returned to the little room from before and used the last teleporter to get to the other side of the 11th floor. Bashing the last of the grunts, Phillip opened the last metal gate to see a young woman, an elderly man that was presumably the President of Silph Co., and...
"Giovanni, such an unpleasant sight to behold." Phillip sneered at the man.
"Ah," the boss of Team Rocket said, turning his gaze to Phillip, "Phillip. We meet again! The President and I were discussing a vital business proposition." The man stretched his body as he stood from his seat. "However, with you here, I believe it is time to wrap this up."
Giovanni walked towards Phillip, who immediately went for his Pokémon.
"Ah ah ah," Giovanni said, stopping just a few feet shy from where Phillip was, wagging his finger condescendingly, "no fights today." With Phillip guarded lowered enough, Giovanni continued to walk towards him before grabbing Phillip's wrist and forced a purple Pokéball into his hand.
Dropping Phillip's wrist to place a hand on his soldier, Giovanni leaned in to whisper in Phillip's ear.
"Find me on my battlefield, and I will rend this item back from your defeated form."
The lights stuttered off. Phillip reached out to grab Giovanni, but the man was no longer by him. His only answers laid in the hands of the President of Silph, who he turned to.
"Young lad, thank you for saving Silph."
"It's fine," Phillip said. "What did Team Rocket want of you?"
"Ah yes," The President lamented, before gesturing to the Pokéball in Phillip's hand. "They were interested in that."
Phillip studied the ball, now seeing two pinkish circles on either side and an M stamped on the front of the upper side.
"The Master Ball, made to capture any Pokémon, with a complete success rate," the President said. "To think he would give it up upon your arrival. You must have spooked him in the past."
"Maybe," Phillip muttered, staring down at the ball.
The President cleared his throat, bringing Phillip's attention towards him. "As payment for saving us, I'll allow you to keep our prototype Master Ball. However, do be discreet when using it, okay?"
Phillip nodded, shook hands with the President, and walked out of the room to return to the base floor.
Once out of the great building, Phillip pulled the newly acquired addition to his team.
"You're going to need some training, but we'll do that on route to Cinnabar."
"Anything else you need to do?" Gabriel asked from the depth of Phillip's subconscious
'Not really,' Phillip thought before looking up at the sky, noticing the dark sky above. 'Might need to find a place to sleep.' He then wandered the streets in search of a place to stay the night.
Constructive Criticism is greatly appreciated.
Thank you for reading this story.
Have a merry Christmas and happy holidays!
