Flinky: Hello world! I'm back. Now, just a heads up, this chapter is shorter because I'm revising the first couple chapters. I like to think that my writing has become a lot better over the past seven months, and the first chapters are filled with plot holes and other things that would turn away other readers.
Red: So you're re-writing it to get more people to read this?
Flinky: Yea, pretty much. So, reviews.
Michael: Can I do this one?
Flinky: Why not.
Michael: Okay. First one from Guy with Fire. A Trump joke. Probably should have seen that one coming.
Michael: Next is Grey917. Thank you for the compliment, and it already said earlier that Mega Evolution will be included in the story.
Michael: Last one from OverlordMiles. More on Trump.
Flinky: That joke went over a lot better than I expected.
Red: You speak for all of us.
Red's Pokemon (on hand):
Ignite (Charizard)
Moves: Wing Attack, Smoke Screen, Flamethrower, Dig
Omni (Mew)
Moves: Every one except Judgement
Blacklight (Umbreon)
Moves: Shadow Ball, Bite, Psychic, Assurance
Spark (Pikachu)
Moves: Thunderbolt, Quick Attack, Nuzzle, Discharge
Storm (Pidgeotto)
Moves: Wing Attack, Gust, Quick Attack, Steel Wing
Glow (Butterfree)
Moves: Sleep Powder, Gust, Bug Buzz, Poison Powder
Saffron City. The business center of Kanto, and the largest city until Lumiose in Kalos. Also our next target. Fun.
The journey shouldn't take that long. With Michael catching Dodrio, we can ride our Pokémon to the city. For now, we're just packing up camp.
"Red!" Michael called.
I looked at him. "What's going on?"
"I finished the blueprints for the Desnagger."
"What?"
"You know, last night? I made basic blueprints of a device that stops a Pokémon from being snagged."
"Oh yea. You're really going with Desnagger?"
"Couldn't think of a better name.
"How about… Or maybe... " Damn. This is too nerdy to even find a good name for. Wait… got it.
"Maybe PASS?" I suggested.
"What does that mean?"
"Pokémon Assist in Snagging."
"That's flawed in multiple ways."
"It's better than Desnagger."
"Yea, true. I guess I'll call it PASS."
"Nice. When will it be ready?"
"I sent the prints to Bill who said it will be ready by Saturday."
"So.. three days from now?"
"Yep."
"Alright then."
We packed up and sent out the Pokémon we were riding. I also had Storm out in case we got into trouble.
"Hold on a sec," Blue said.
"What is it?" I asked, somewhat annoyed. This was a pretty awesome moment. Just add in some theme music, and this would be one of the most epic things we've done to date. And that says a lot.
"I have earpieces so we can communicate during the trip. Also, it would be better to have something to protect your-"
Michael pulled up the goggles around his neck, Leaf pulled out a pair of sunglasses from her bag, and I took out a pair of sporting glasses, tinted red of course.
"Well okay then."
Blue took out a similar pair to mine, except his was blue. Then, he handed out the earpieces. Now we were ready.
"Alright Ditto, let's transform into… Charizard."
Leaf's Ditto morphed into a near duplicate of Ignite. Michael got on Dodrio, Blue onto Fearow, and I rode on Ignite. I also had Storm out in case we got into a battle.
"Everyone ready?" I asked.
"Yep!"
"Fearow!"
"We're good!"
"Dodrio!"
"I'm ready too!"
"Ditto!"
Alright, hearing Ditto's cry from the body of a Charizard was kinda funny. Still gotta focus on the task at hand though.
"Ignite, you ready?"
"Charizard!"
"Then we're off."
Leaf, Blue and I started flying up while Michael was picking up speed on the ground. We were eventually all moving along at least 10 times as fast as if we were walking.
Of course, that sense of exhilaration gets destroyed when you see a group of people, also on Pokémon, flying in our direction.
We didn't know if they were friendly or not. I could tell that they were riding a Dragonite, Salamance, Garchomp, and Talonflame.
"Dragon Pulse!"
Not friendly. Great.
"Ignite, pull up!"
Everyone was able to avoid the attack.
"Okay, Storm, I want you to knock the people that are attacking us off their Pokémon. Can you do that?"
"Pidgeotto!"
"Good."
Storm took off while we started our dogfight.
"Ditto, Flamethrower!" Leaf yelled. A jet of streams flew toward our attackers, but they dodged.
We were getting closer to them.
"Who are you?" I yelled.
"The last person you'll ever see," replied the one riding a Garchomp. On closer inspection, I could see that she was wearing all black with a gold stream of hair behind her.
"That's what you'd like to think, huh? Ignite, Wing Attack!"
"I can't let you do that Red. Garchomp, Dragon Claw!"
Ughh, that Garchomp looks tough.
"Ignite, go up!"
I had him surge up on top of Garchomp.
"Alright Ignite. I'm trusting you on this." I jumped off aiming for Garchomp. The woman didn't realize until I was on top of her (don't misquote me on that). She tried to kick me off, and in response, I punched her. Hard. She fell down. Unfortunately, that just left me on a Garchomp who saw me severely hurt his trainer.
"Ignite, pick me up!" I yelled.
He flew by and I jumped onto him. One down, three to go.
Blue's POV
Damn, this guy will not let up. Not to mention what he's wearing. Honestly. A white suit with the buttons undone and a sailor's cap. That's just not right.
"Alright, I got an idea. Wait until they use a Dragon attack."
"That won't help you kid. Salamance, use Dragon Pulse!"
"Fearow, Mirror Move!"
Fearow was able to dodge, but Salamance wasn't. It wasn't knocked out, but it shook the guy off. One down.
"Two down, actually. Red already took one down."
"Red," I said into the earpiece. "Get your cat under control."
"Do you really want to face her wrath?" he responded. That's a fair point.
Leaf's POV
I think I've seen this guy before. He has similar hair to Blue and Michael, along with a cape. I can't put my name on him though… Lance! An Elite Four member! I can do this, Ditto is with me. He can transform into his Pokémon.
"Ditto, morph into Dragonite!"
I fell for a little bit before Ditto caught me.
"Your a smart girl. Too bad I'll have to get rid of you."
"Ditto, Dragon Claw!"
"Dragon Claw too!"
Our attacks met, and did almost equal damage.
"Okay, new idea. Ditto, use…" I hesitated. This is a risky move, especially in an aerial battle. "Outrage."
"Desperate, aren't yo-"
A Pidgeotto came up behind him and blew him off Dragonite. Guess I won't have to use Outrage after all.
"Storm, is that you?"
The Pidgeotto nodded. I'll have to thank Red later.
Michael's POV
This is not fair in any way, shape, or form. My opponent can fly, while I'm grounded. Oh well.
"Kid, you've messed with the wrong girl. Talonflame, Fire Blast!"
Damn, I don't think Dodrio can take that. Maybe I have something in my bag… a Focus Sash. It'll have to do.
I quickly tied it around one of his necks. The attack came and he was injured, but survived, barely. What moves does he know… Mirror Move, Quick Attack, Endeav-
I wasted no time. "Use Endeavor!"
The attack hit the bird, bringing it to the same health as Dodrio.
"You son of a bitch!"
"Quick Attack!" I commanded. The attack hit, knocking Talonflame out. Dodrio and I ran ahead to meet the others.
Red's POV
Well, that was exciting. We took down Elite Four members and Champions, albeit not that fairly.
We were resting up our Pokémon before taking off again. That fight took a lot out of both ourselves and our Pokémon.
"Well, is everyone ready to take Saffron?" I asked.
"I guess," Michael said. "We don't really have a plan though."
"I've actually been thinking of one," I said.
"What is it?" Blue asked.
"Instead of attacking the Team Rocket tower, we completely destroy it."
"What do you mean?" Leaf asked.
"Let's look at the problems in Saffron City. It's heavily infested by Rockets, and the population is in favor of them. Destroying the tower would be a pretty good symbol of how Team Rocket isn't perfect."
"I guess that sorta makes sense," Michael said.
"Well, let's get on it," Blue said.
It was a bit too late to overthrow a city, so we camped half a mile from the city. Nothing to do now but wait.
Giovanni's POV
"So, the kids are heading to Saffron?" Giovanni asked.
"Yes sir," replied Lance. "We attempted to take them down in a mid-air dogfight, but couldn't manage to beat them."
"So they're really that strong?"
"Yes sir."
"Hmm… Okay. Dismissed."
Lance left Giovanni's office. Once he was gone, he spoke into his microphone to his secretary.
"I want you to call Steve Silph. Have him move all production to Viridian and Indigo as soon as possible. Allow him 1 million and 15 cargo helichopters to do so."
"Yes sir."
Red's POV
Once we were packed up, it was time to enter Saffron. No doubt that Team Rocket know's we're here after our encounter yesterday. Doesn't matter that much though. This time we're taking it by almost sheer force.
"Well, let's go," I said.
We began walking toward the city. The skyscrapers were beginning to show as we crossed the final hill. The Rocket economic center, item production, second HQ. It's all here.
We simply walked in. There were no perimeter guards, making our job easier. There were two buildings larger than any others. One had the Team Rocket "R", and the other had a silver logo which read "Silph". The Saffron tower and Silph Co HQ.
"So, which one first?" Leaf asked.
"I thought we were just doing the Tower," Blue said.
"Well, maybe, but look." Leaf pointed up to the roof, where numerous helicopters were moving in and out. "They know we're coming here and that they don't want us to mess with whatever's up there. They're shipping everything out."
"Good point," I said. "Blue, have your Kadabra warp us to the top floor."
"But couldn't we just walk through?" Michael suggested. "There is an elevator."
"I don't feel like going through or figuring out warp tiles. Blue, is he ready?"
"Yep. Kadabra, teleport us to the roof of Silph Co!"
After the usual dizzying flash, we were on top of the building, with a good view of the rest of the city. There was one helicopter flying up.
"Omni, Spark, Ignite, disable as many helis as you can!" I yelled, sending out my Pokémon.
They immediately got to work. Ignite melted off the blades of the flying ones near the roof, Spark fried the circuits of the ones on the ground, and Omni did who-knows-what to the ones that were flying away. Long story short, I think Team Rocket lost 10% of their helicopter fleet.
We all looked through the items in the downed choppers. Michael found schematics for a Master Ball, but I would imagine they have multiple copies. Just in case, I stuffed it into my bag.
Once all the choppers were dealt with, we entered the building. There was a lot of boxes and scientists who don't understand that the human body should have Vitamin D. Some of them worked for Team Rocket, and the others were a part of Silph. It seemed like the majority of Silph scientists were there against their will.
"Okay, that's all the crates on this floor," I said, as Ignite burned the last document.
"Let's move down then," Leaf suggested.
On the next floor, there was an "ambush".
"Everyone! Gang up on these guys! They can't fend us all off!"
There were about ten different Magnemite, Zubat, and Voltorbs.
"Omni, Earthquake, then Surf."
It knocked everyone's Pokémon out.
We rummaged through the second floor. We were looking for a while when I noticed something.
"Hey guys, look over here!"
Everyone gathered around the crate I opened. Inside was about 15 Snag Machines.
Michael was the most shocked. "These, all together, are worth about...15,000,000"
"Damn," I said.
"Why don't we use them?" Blue suggested.
"We don't know if there's anything in it," Michael said. "My Snag Machine is custom made for me and snagging shadows. These are likely mass-produced, with a number of differences."
"Like what?" Leaf asked.
"Well, for starters, the behavior modifier. My modifier calms down Shadow Pokémon. This one likely turns them into something reminiscent of a shadow."
"I lost you at behavior," I admitted. "But I get the idea. We shouldn't really use these. Michael, would you like to do the honors?"
"Of course. Espeon, destroy these things!"
I had to keep my hand on Blacklight's Pokéball to stop him from coming out.
The devices were destroyed. We were about to move on to the next floor when I heard someone say "Help…"
It came from a larger box. I opened it, and found a scientist with his arms and legs tied up. I helped him out.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"Yea…" He said, stretching his arms. "Team Rocket put me in there a day ago. I don't know what they planned on doing with me, but I was stuck there. When I heard the yells outside, I figured someone against Team Rocket was here."
"Okay…" I said. This is a new level for Team Rocket. Locking someone in a crate. It would make sense if he was taken to jail, or even killed, but put in a box and forgotten?
"What did you do?" I asked.
"I hacked into the Rocket secure servers, where the Admins trade files…"
Michael was probably in paradise, but for me, I didn't understand a word.
"So, I found out about their new Master Snagging-"
"Hold on," I said. "What's that?"
"It's basically when they use Master Balls with Snag Machines. It guarantees that Team Rocket owns the Pokémon they use it on."
"Yea, like in Fuschia," Blue said.
"I take it you met someone who employed Master Snagging there?"
"Yep," Michael said.
"Okay. Anyways, when I saw what the Rocket Snag Machines do to a Pokémon, I took action. I began work on one that stole from Rockets and freed them from whatever emotional blocks they put on."
"What?" Blue asked.
"Let me explain," said Michael. "You know how I was talking about the behavior modifier earlier? Well, this guy made it so that the Pokémon no longer associates pain with whatever Team Rocket did to make them obedient. Basically, it frees them. For example, let's say Team Rocket punished them if they disobeyed. This stops them from acting under that fear."
"Exactly. So, I used this on Lorelei, an Elite Four member. It worked, but they saw me on video."
"What did you steal from her?" I asked.
"A Lapras," he responded. "She's still in her Pokéball with me. I hid it when they tied me up."
"Huh… So, just wondering, you know who we are, right?" I asked.
"Of course. Poké Underground. The most controversial group to this date. That says a lot, seeing as how Team Plasma is also out there."
"Okay then. Glad to see even ex-Team Rocket knows who we are."
"Well, actually, I'm ex-Silph. There was a huge rivalry here between Silph and Rocket scientists."
"Was?"
"Well, look what you've done to this place. They're not going to do work in here for a long time."
It was true. Just about everything from this floor to the roof is destroyed. I'm somewhat surprised it's standing.
"Point made. Anyways, you should probably get out of here," I suggested.
"That makes sense. However, can I ask you of something?"
"What?"
"Lapras is too strong for me to control. She's not going to be very useful with me. I want you to take her with you."
"Okay. Is she okay with that?" I asked.
"Well, let's ask her." He pulled out a Pokéball from his lab coat. "Lapras, come out!"
A large Lapras appeared in front of us.
"Lapras, I have an offer," The scientist began. "This trainer is incredibly strong, far better than me. I think you'll do a lot better with him as your trainer than me."
Lapras looked at me, then said something.
"She said to prove it," Omni translated, in her Pokéball.
"Lapras, does owning a Mew count as proof?" I asked.
She nodded. On the other side, Omni was giving me a hard time.
"I'm not your Pokémon. Remember? I'm with you to help take down Team Rocket. And you're just objectifying me?..."
"Omni, shut up and show yourself!" I called, sending her out of her ball. Lapras was shocked, while Omni was still ranting.
"Proof enough?" I asked.
Lapras nodded her head.
"Then welcome to the family," I said. "Let's see… good nickname for a Lapras… Azure maybe? Has a good ring and is your main color."
Lapras nodded.
"Okay then. I'll have to send you to the PC right now. You can meet some of my other Pokémon there in the meantime."
The scientist tossed me Lapras' Pokéball.
"Lapras, return!"
I called her back to her Pokéball.
"We're going to have a good time."
She was transported to my PC box.
"Thank you," I said.
"Take good care of her."
He proceeded to leave the building while we continued our destructive rampage.
You know, it's sentences like that that make me question if we're still the good guys. Anyways, the tower is now heavily damaged. I don't think they'll do any work in there for a couple weeks.
As we came out, we were greeted by an actual ambush. Rocket grunts, armed of course.
"Freeze!"
"How about no! Glow, Sleep Powder!"
A couple bullets were fired, but missed entirely. The grunts were promptly knocked unconscious.
I picked up one of their guns. They may have trackers on it, but they know that we're going to the tower anyways. This will also give me us small advantage.
We set off for the entire ten minute walk to the tower. This time, instead of going in, we get to blow it up!
"So, Red, how are we going to do it?" Leaf asked
"I have an idea. First, can we get a Pokémon count?"
"I have Espeon, Nuzleaf, Manectric, Arcanine, and Dodrio," Michael said.
"I have Ivysaur, Ditto, Vulpix, Dugtrio, and Umbreon," Leaf stated.
"Wartortle, Fearow, Manaphy, Growlithe, and Kadabra."
"Okay. We're going to do roles this time. Michael. I want you do deal as much damage to the building base as possible. I want it as unstable as possible. Blue. Have your Wartortle and Manaphy flood the building. Leaf, you're responsible for making sure everyone makes it out alive. I'm going to battle the executive. Any questions?"
No one said anything.
"Alright. We'll get to work next chapter. I have a feeling there's going to be one or two plot twists this time."
Flinky: Another chapter. Thanks to Grey917 for the name of Master Snagging (I really liked it). Also, sorry to cut Saffron City into two parts. With that being said, goodbye.
