The doors opened on the seventeenth floor, and like Gary and Ash, Raichu went first to make sure the coast was clear. Once it was, she followed Raichu out and they began scouting the nearby labs.
"They're all empty, and everything's off," she observed. "Something's not right. They know we're here."
"Rai raichu rai chu rai chu raichu rai," Raichu suggested.
"I doubt it," Misty disagreed. "Even if they heard us downstairs, there's no way they could evacuate the entire floor this quickly. There isn't even any real equipment here. Nothing that looks terribly important to researching pokéballs, anyway. This feels like a trap."
"Rai –"
"Misty, come in. It's Gary."
Misty gestured at Raichu to keep an eye out, then tapped her earpiece.
"Gary, this feels wrong. This whole floor is empty."
"So's this floor," he sighed. "Ash, can you hear us?"
"Ash?"
No answer.
"Ash, if you're fooling around up there, quit it. We need you to report."
No answer.
"I don't like this, Gary," Misty frowned. "We're going down there to check it out."
"I'll meet you there. Take the stairs."
"Misty, out," she said, then tapped her earpiece again to cease transmissions. "C'mon, Raichu, something's wrong with Ash. We have to hurry!"
The two of them bolted for the staircase and rushed down them, taking the three flights of stairs two at a time, and almost running into Gary at the bottom.
"Umbreon, charge out there and use Confuse Ray!"
Umbreon nodded, then bashed through the stairwell door and used Confuse Ray on everything in sight. Gary followed shortly after, then Misty and Raichu.
"Looks like Ash won a battle," Gary noted. "Unconscious grunt over here."
"Rai rai!"
Misty rounded the corner of the hallway Raichu had run down, which led out of the foyer, and saw an unconscious Victreebel slumped against a wall.
"Never had a chance against Ash," she muttered under her breath as she edged past it, flattening herself against the wall next to a corner, listening for any activity. Hearing none, she poked her head out to have a look and was almost impaled by several extremely sharp pins.
"Stay back!" she yelled to Gary. "Pin Missile!"
"Definitely a trap, then," Gary grumbled.
"Raichu, Thunder Wave!"
Raichu's cheeks began sparking as she dove out from cover, zapping broadly at anything that moved. Misty, Gary, and Umbreon ran out after her, and immediately saw two Beedrills, two Machamps, two Raticates, and three Rocket grunts. Raichu's Thunder Wave had knocked down a Machamp and a Raticate, but they weren't completely defeated just yet.
"Umbreon, Psychic! Go for the Machamps!"
"Raichu, Thunder!"
Raichu went for the Beedrills, taking one out immediately and knocking the other down temporarily, but it soon buzzed back into the air, readying itself for more orders. Umbreon's Psychic was powerful – far more powerful than the Rockets were anticipating, considering it was coming from a Dark-type Pokémon – and it completely flattened the outclassed Machamps, but only temporarily.
"Hold it, Umbreon!"
"Raticates, Hyper Fang!"
"Beedrill, Pin Missile!"
"Raichu, quick! Agility!"
Raichu quickly began darting around the room, only barely escaping the first Raticate that charged at her, but the second Raticate got her. Umbreon was also struggling, and had to break off the Psychic attack in order to focus on the incoming Pin Missile.
"Chu!" Raichu cried out in pain as the Raticate's fangs dug deep, drawing blood.
"No! Raichu!" Misty cried out in disbelief, charging straight out into the battle to save her little friend. She dove at the Raticate, dislodging it, but not without the sunken fangs doing even more damage in the process. Raichu convulsed for a few seconds, screaming in agony, before calming down slightly.
"Machamps, deal with that brat Elite Four girl."
Misty grabbed Raichu, scooping her up in her arms, and was painfully swatted into a wall several feet away. She crashed through it, managing to protect Raichu, but getting hurt herself in the process.
"Misty!" Gary shouted desperately, then turned his attention to what he could reasonably do to help. "Umbreon, Dark Pulse! Blast everything with all you've got!"
Umbreon took a deep breath, then let out an astonishing amount of power, knocking everything down in its path. To his utter disbelief, all the Rockets' Pokémon got back to their feet – albeit slowly. Even the Beedrill Raichu had taken out of commission was now stirring, and Umbreon was completely spent.
"These Pokémon...they're crazy," he thought out loud, then rushed over to Misty and heaved her out of the wall, only to be grabbed by a Machamp a moment later.
"No!" Misty squealed as she lifted Raichu out of the way of the other Machamp's arms, cradling her as best as she could, until the four powerful arms wrapped her up completely, and she was forced to drop Raichu to the ground.
"Chu…" Raichu cried weakly as she hit the floor.
"Well, well," said one of the Rocket grunts with a grin. "It seems the Elite Four are far from unbeatable after all."
"Your Pokémon are so far from normal, there's no way any trainer could beat them!" Gary retorted in fury. "Look what they've done! You've turned them into absolute savages!"
"And where in the bad guy handbook does it say we have to fight fair?" the grunt mocked him. "We're Team Rocket. We do what's necessary. And right now, it's necessary to abduct you, along with your idiot friend Ketchum."
"We're not going anywhere!" Gary roared. "And we'll make you pay for what you've done here!"
"And just how do you plan on doing that?" one of the other grunts laughed. "We've turned your Umbreon into a glorified doorstop, and as for that pathetic little Raichu…"
Misty had been completely overcome with worry for Raichu, never taking her eyes off her furry orange friend, but upon hearing the Rocket grunt mocking her, her eyes widened with rage, and her breathing became heavy as her chest heaved in fury.
"I'm going to kill you," she told them, her voice low and soft. "I'm going to kill you all."
"Chuuuu…" Raichu sobbed, desperately clinging to her life. Misty immediately changed her demeanour back to being drenched in sadness and concern.
"Just hold on, sweetheart. I promise I'm gonna get you out of here. You're gonna be fine, okay? Hey! Listen to me, Raichu! You're gonna be just fine. Just please, hang in there! Don't go to sleep, baby. Whatever you do, don't go to sleep!"
"Rai…"
Raichu began to stir, then rolled onto her back and looked up at the ceiling. Her cheeks began to spark, and she closed her little eyes with effort as she powered up an attack.
"No, please don't do that, Raichu!" Misty pleaded, tears pouring down her face. "You don't have the energy for that! Please, STOP!"
"CHUUUUUUU!"
Misty screamed as Raichu blasted the entire room with electricity, shocking everyone present, including Gary, Umbreon and Misty. All three of the grunts went down, convulsing with paralysis. The two Machamps dropped Gary and Misty, who immediately began to shake off the effects of Raichu's powerful Thunder attack, having only taken part of the damage. The two Machamps had taken the full force, and were worse off for it, but were still far from down and out. The other Pokémon began to stir as well, slowly but strongly getting to their feet again too.
"We have to go, Misty," Gary told her firmly.
"Gary…"
"MISTY!" he shouted, grabbing her by the shoulders and shaking her. She looked into his eyes, shocked and visibly unable to properly react to anything. "Misty, we have to go. Now."
She nodded her understanding, then carefully scooped up Raichu, who was still breathing, but unconscious. Suddenly they heard a loud thump, and felt the whole building shake.
"What the hell was that?" Gary asked to nobody in particular.
They heard another thump, then a crack, and then another thump, before an entire wall was smashed in. The debris scattered around them, and the sudden burst of light temporarily blinded them. As their eyes adjusted, they tried to see what had done the damage.
"Over here, guys! Quickly!" came a familiar voice. All Gary and Misty could see was several of the Pallet Pidgeots hovering outside the newly formed hole.
"Misty, let's go," Gary said as he grabbed her shoulder, practically dragging her along with him.
"What about Ash?" she asked.
"If we stay, we die," he said firmly, with cold honesty. "We have to go. We need to regroup, and we need to get Raichu to safety. We can find Ash later. The grunts said he was abducted, not killed."
"We can't leave without him!" Misty yelled back at him.
"We can't save Ash if we're DEAD!" he screamed back at her. "Now let's go!"
They ran over to the hole in the wall, stopping in their tracks when they remembered they were sixteen storeys high.
"You have to jump!" Brock shouted to them, riding aboard a Pidgeot.
"You first, Misty. Go!"
Misty carefully jumped aboard a Pidgeot, being extremely careful to avoid shaking or dropping Raichu. Gary followed a moment later, hopping aboard a third Pidgeot.
"Fast as you can, Pidgeot!" Brock commanded. "Back to Pallet Town!"
Misty and Gary held on as the Pallet Pidgeots set on course, speeding away at a ridiculous rate of knots. Misty suddenly began shouting.
"Take us down!" she screamed. "Take us down right now!"
"Misty, we can't stop! We need to get out of here!" Brock countered.
"Aim for the edge of town, set us down in the first clearing you see," Gary told him, noticing what was wrong.
"But Gary, we'll be –"
"Just do it, Brock!"
"Okay, okay, I'm doing it."
The Pidgeots increased speed, then banked hard when they noticed a small clearing, and set down as quickly as they could. Misty immediately leapt off, setting Raichu down on the ground gingerly, sobbing loudly and uncontrollably.
"Come on, R-Raichu...p-please...please!"
She pressed carefully but forcefully on Raichu's chest several times, then breathed into her little mouth, repeating it a dozen times as tears streamed down her face.
"Oh man, Misty, I had no idea –" Brock started.
"HELP ME!" she screamed at him.
Brock darted over to them and took over the resuscitation, desperately trying to restart Raichu's heart. But after several minutes, he gave up.
"What are you DOING?!" Misty roared, grabbing him by the neck and shoving him back down towards Raichu with impossible strength. "KEEP GOING!"
"Misty, I'm sorry!" he shouted back at her.
Gary grabbed her by the shoulders and spun her around.
"Misty, stop it," he said firmly. "She's gone."
Misty's eyes glowed with rage, and she hit Gary with an open palm to the face, sending him barrelling over.
"MISTY!" Brock yelled. "I'm sorry, Raichu's wounds are fatal. She's lost too much blood. There's nothing we can do now. I'm so sorry. I'm so, so, sorry."
Misty's rage quickly became uncontrollable sorrow, her eyes instantly filling with more tears, and she fell to her knees screaming. She scooped Raichu up and held her to her chest, the sound of her wailing filling the air for miles around. Brock knelt down next to her and held her tightly as grief completely subdued Misty once again.
Gary fell to the ground, unable to process what had just happened. Tears welled in his eyes as he stared blankly at his friends, and he let them run down his face, wishing there was something – anything – he could do. The Pidgeot cooed mournfully behind him, singing a song of sorrow as Misty cried and cried, and Gary would have given anything in that moment just to be able to sing along with them.