Chapter 5

Kanto Safari Zone

27 Ananeosis, 20 Zenoheld / March 28, 20—

"Whaddya want this time, Team Rocket?" Kaiser yelled at the machine. "Y'all must not be very smart; don't y'all remember that I done told the parents never ta leave that egg unguarded?"

The visor serving as the robot's "eyes" retracted, revealing the blond-haired female and the aquamarine-haired male from the previous day.

"Well, thanks to our Suck-of-a-Punishment Mark III, that egg's still as good as ours," Aquamarine said. "This bad boy has enough capacity to suck up both Dragonite, their egg, and half that lake all together!"

"What are you doing here?" Volt asked. "I thought Kaiser turned you in to the authorities!"

"You two should have been more thorough," the blonde said. "We weren't the only ones in the Safari Zone yesterday, remember?"

"So yer goons done busted ya out, huh?" Kaiser said.

"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!" said Aquamarine.

"I see that you've still got that musclehead with you, Kaiser," the blonde added. "Good, since our objective is not just that Dratini egg, but that robot that you had with you yesterday. Now where are you hiding it?"

"Like I'd tell you even if I knew!" Kaiser retorted.

"Now leave, or else prepare for trouble!" Volt added.

"'Prepare for trouble?' That's rich! You have no idea who you're talking to, do you?" Cass said. She then intoned, as if reading a poem: "'Prepare for trouble' is my line!"

"'And make it double': that line's mine," Aquamarine replied, picking up on the cue.

"To infect the world with devastation!"

"To blight all peoples in every nation!"

"To denounce the goodness of truth and love!"

"To extend our wrath to the stars above!"

Volt took advantage of the distraction and entered the code to activate Boriates' Custom Battle Ability.

"Cassidy!" said the blonde.

"And Butch, of course!" said Aquamarine.

"We're Team Rocket, circling the Earth all day and night!"

"Surrender to us now, or you'll surely lose the fight!"

"Raticate!" A giant rodent with huge front teeth appeared out of nowhere to stand between the two humans. It disappeared a second later as a mass of red plasma. Volt guessed that it was returning to one of those red-and-white balls he saw the previous day.

"So, I finally learn your names: Cassidy and Butch," said Volt.

"THE NAME'S BU—wait a second; you got it right!" said Butch.

"Of course," said Volt. "How can I mess up a one-syllable name?"

"You have no idea," Butch deadpanned. "'Batch,' 'Biff,' 'Botch,' you name it, they've said it. I'm surprised that no one's yet to call me 'Bi—'"

"Butch!" Cassidy interrupted. "This is no time to complain. We've got a job to do!"

"Not so fast!" said Volt. "I may not have a rousing motto, but allow me to introduce myself. I am the Greatest Lumina Battler, the Light Demon, Volt Luster! And this," he said, pulling Boriates' marble from his cape, "is what's going to stop you from going any farther."

"What's that?" said Butch. "A marble? Hey, look, Cass, the guy's planning to trip up a mecha … with a marble!" The pair began to laugh.

Ignoring the duo's laughter, Volt threw the marble to the ground, yelling "Bakugan, Brawl!"

"Huh?" Butch said as the pair stopped laughing.

"Bakugan, Stand!" Volt commanded once the marble stopped rolling. The marble popped open.

"Rise, Haos Boriates!"

As the tiny marble transformed into Boriates, the Rocket mecha backed up to accommodate the marble's massively increasing size.

"Now who's laughing?" said Volt. "Say hello to my giant friend, Haos Boriates!"

"Now, Bolt, buddy—" Butch said in an ingratiating tone of voice.

"The name's 'Volt,'" Volt interrupted.

"Sorry: 'Volt.' I want to believe that you can be a reasonable man. Let's talk this out like civilized people, yes?"

"I'm listening," said Volt.

Cassidy answered, "We of Team Rocket fancy ourselves … connoisseurs of advanced technology."

Butch continued, "A robot as unique as Boraïates—"

"It's 'Boriates,'" Volt interrupted.

"Thanks—" Butch shrugged apologetically "—would be quite the asset to Team Rocket."

"Perhaps you really don't know who we are," said Cassidy. "You see, Team Rocket's mission is to create a better world—"

"Yeah, right! And I'm the Queen of Cameran!" Kaiser interrupted.

"—and we collect rare and valuable Pokémon 'cause they have the power to make that a reality." Cassidy continued, ignoring the interruption. "However, if we had a robot like yours on our side, it'd make using Pokémon seem almost redundant!

"Just imagine it. An army of Boriates, doing the will of Team Rocket. And if you hand him over, you might even become a high-ranking member of our organization."

"Not interested," Volt replied.

"What do you mean, 'not interested?'" Butch asked. "Don't you know what we're offering you?"

"You're trying to get me on your side because you know that you can't beat Boriates," said Volt. "But I'm not interested in your little gang—"

"'Little gang'?!" Butch raved. "Team Rocket happens to be a very powerful organization, with agents all over the country. You'd do well not to underestimate us!"

"Oh, I'm sorry," Volt mock-apologized. "I'm not interested in your … organization … and its pathetic attempts at world domination."

Especially since this world will be rubble before long if King Zenoheld gets his way, Volt added internally.

"So here's my position," Volt said, "Leave now, or be blown sky high!"

"Oh yeah?" replied Butch. "Let's see what that robot of yours can actually do! Battle mode, online!"

At the touch of a button, the Rocket mecha's visor retracted into place. Its two arms then retracted into its body, to re-emerge a second later with a mirrored shield on the left hand and a double-headed axe on the right.

"Well, can't say I didn't warn them," Volt said with a shrug. "Ability, activate: Prometheus Cannon!"

Two gun barrels extended from a box on Boriates' left forearm. With a loud boom, two yellow lasers issued from the Prometheus Cannon, heading straight towards Rocket mecha.

"Mirror Shield!" Butch commanded. The machine raised its left arm and brought up the shield to block the incoming lasers. The lasers' impact forced the Suck-of-a-Punishment Mark III back a few yards, but the Mirror Shield still reflected them back at Boriates.

Once it hit Boriates, the reflected Prometheus Cannon shot sent the Bakugan hurtling backwards. A sickening crunch could be heard seconds after the hit. When the dust settled, Boriates was on the ground, with pieces of wood poking out from under it.

"Hey! Get yer robot offa the fence!" Kaiser exclaimed indignantly. "If'n y'all wanna have yer giant-robot battle, take it someplace else!"

Good thing that it was only the fence! If it was the house … Volt thought.

While Boriates was getting up, it picked Volt up and placed him on its shoulder. Boriates then stood, facing the hole that the collision created.

"Ability, activate: Gun Durance!"

A gun barrel emerged from Boriates' back and shot a laser towards the Rocket mecha. Cassidy and Butch occupants, not expecting an attack to come from the robot's back, were unable to respond before the shot connected and knocked the mecha down.

"Now that they're occupied," said Volt, "let's move, Boriates!"

Watching Boriates retreat into the Safari Zone, Cassidy said, "After them!"

After putting some distance between them and the Safari Zone fence, and dodging missiles being shot at it by the Rocket mecha all the while, Boriates suddenly did an about-face.

"Ability, activate: Firebolt Axe!" said Volt.

A cylinder popped out from a box on Boriates' right forearm. The cylinder then attached to the outside of the box. A spike jutted out from each end of the cylinder. From the sides of the cylinder, two wings extended, from which plates of gold-plated metal extended to form a double-bladed axe. The entire mechanism took less than a second.

Boriates raised its arm to swing the axe down onto the rapidly-approaching Team Rocket mecha. However, the mecha stopped short just in time for the axe to land only inches from its position. The mecha's right arm, which had the rocket launcher, retracted and came back with the axe it had before.

"Nice try, Bolt," said Butch. "Now have a taste of our axe!"

The mecha swung its right arm at Boriates' elbow. However, the axe failed to penetrate, causing the mecha to stagger at the impact.

"What kind of metal is this thing made of?" said Cassidy.

"Sorry, but I never found out either!" Volt taunted. Putting another card into his Gauntlet, he commanded, "Ability, activate: Element Glow!"

Before Team Rocket's eyes, Boriates collected energy towards a single point on its chest. Boriates then launched the beam of energy towards the mecha, which had no time to raise its Mirror Shield.

With a loud bang, the mecha exploded in a cloud of smoke. As the smoke cleared, Cassidy and Butch could be seen flying away, jetpacks on their backs.

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" the duo said as they sped off.

A few minutes afterwards, Kaiser arrived at the battle site and saw Boriates standing over the wreckage of the Suck-of-a-Punishment Mark III.

"So, ya managed to chase them Team Rocket varmints off again. Good work, there, son." Glancing at the Firebolt Axe, Kaiser said, "Arceus, is that a mighty fine axe!" Kaiser then pointed a pistol at Volt. "Good thing for ya, too, 'cause my fence ain't gonna fix itself!"

"What?!" exclaimed Volt.

"Well, Team Rocket done flew away, and it was actually your robot that done crushed it, so I reckon it's only fair for you ta fix it," Kaiser replied. As if to press his point, Kaiser cocked the hammer. "Right?"

Volt grinned nervously. "Uh … sure."

"OK, then! So get ta workin'; we're wastin' daylight here!"

In the skies over the Safari Zone, Cassidy and Butch were flying off to the west. Cassidy held a black box tightly in her arms.

"Good thing that you ejected the box when you did, eh, Cass?" said Butch. "This footage should get us off for not having caught that Dratini egg, and still have us in the Boss's good graces!"

"Too true," replied Cassidy. "I feel like this footage will mark the start of a new mission for Team Rocket. Mark my words, Volt Luster: you haven't seen the last of us!"

Cackling, the duo continued their flight to headquarters.

A/N: The Suck-of-a-Punishment is an actual Team Rocket mecha, used by Jessie and James in the episode The Right Place and the Right Mime (episode 133 of the Advanced Generation series; episode 407 overall). It got upgraded to the Poke-Vac 5000 in the next episode, hence my reference to this iteration of the mecha as "Mark III."

In case the misspelling "Boraïates" threw you off, Butch mispronounced Boriates' name as "Bore-EYE-uh-tees."

Cameran is an actual place in the Pokémon universe: it's the castle in Lucario and the Mystery of Mew.