"The warp panel is in the Bike Shop, according to Mew."
"Good," Denise sighed, pushing her hair back from her face as they trudged down the empty streets, him, her, Henry, and Theo in his PokeBall, which Denise reclaimed. Henry recommended that they travel at night to avoid any crowds and ensure that if any Team Rocket members attempted to follow or confront them, they would be obvious. As such, it was dark as they moved towards the Bike Shop, which was locked and bolted very well.
"Allow me," Aries said when Denise attempted to use a monkey wrench to smash the doorknob. "Although I am curious where you got that from."
"I found it," she said, tossing it aside. Henry gasped and calmly walked away to wallow in pain in the grass; apparently, it landed on his foot. Aries focused on the lock's innards and shifted them as if inserting a key. The lock clicked and the door swung open. "That was actually pretty cool," Denise commented. "I didn't know you could do that."
He can't, Mew interrupted before Aries could speak. Denise and Henry burst out laughing while Aries turned away.
"What's the situation inside?" Aries asked Mew, looking at the rows of hanging Bicycles. Mew reverted to its original form and hovered behind the counter.
There are no visible defenses; that must mean that Team Rocket is guarding the other end of the warp panel, it said. The cash register uses a passcode to unlock that door— it pointed out a backroom with a mechanical lock with its tail, —which has to contain the warp panel, as the other one only has bike parts and tools.
"Have you found the passcode then?" He joined it behind the counter. Mew shook its head. Aries sighed, then Denise pushed him away to look at the register's buttons. "Denise?"
Her hand hovered above it for a moment, uncertain, then she entered a six-digit passcode. The door's lock clicked and it opened a crack. Aries looked at her, eyebrows raised. "How did you know?"
"I only put 1-2-3-4-5-6," she said, blinking. He exhaled in understanding.
'Team Rocket must be full of geniuses,' Henry commented sardonically.
"I doubt that they would make it this easy by accident," Aries said. "If it truly is this easy, then what Mew said is right and we will be facing the members on the other side."
"We're ready for them!" Denise high-fived Henry. "Right?"
"Perhaps not that ready, but we are as well." Aries glanced at Mew, who nodded. The four of them approached the door and pulled it open; inside were a few extra Bikes and cardboard boxes lining the walls.
"Where's the warp pad?" Denise asked. Just then, Mew groaned, clenching its head.
"Mew, are you alright?" Aries asked worriedly.
The warp field's energy is affecting me, it said, shaking its head. Don't you three feel it as well?
"Now that you mention it, my skin feels tingly," Denise said, rubbing her arms.
'I'm getting a headache,' Henry complained. 'Don't you have one too?'
"Now that you mention it… Although, I thought it arose from Denise's presence."
"Shut up!" she snapped. Aries chuckled, but his mind was working; if Henry had a headache instead of just some vague sense of the warp field, then he sensed more of the energy than a non-psychic or non-Psychic-type should've. Perhaps he did have some Psychic-type abilities. He ceased his laughter when he noticed Mew still reeling.
Mew, you're being affected more than you let on, he said. Mew shook him off.
I'm fine; let's just find the warp panel.
They searched around, moving boxes and bikes but finding nothing other than the occasional Spinarak, which put Denise on edge. Aries couldn't look into her mind to see but it seemed that she was scared of arachnids; he wanted to laugh, but then again she would break his neck for that, and he was quite fond of living. "We found nothing," she said, kicking a bike onto its side.
"Lu," Henry sighed.
"Maybe this was just some wild goose chase set up by Silver? That bastard's real cunning; he might've just done it to set us off."
"Then this was for naught," Aries sighed. Appearing highly frustrated, Denise chucked Theo's PokeBall at the wall. It ricocheted off of the concrete and hit Mew in the forehead instead, causing it to fall into a heap of discarded bike repair tools. Denise gasped.
"Oh my Arceus—Mew I'm really sorry!"
Mew appeared to have momentarily lost consciousness. "Why would you do that?" he whined to Denise.
"Why do you sound like a six-year-old?" she countered, taking up the PokeBall. There was a crackling sound, then the red beam shot out of the center and ricocheted around the room, giving each of them painful bruises on their forehead identical to Mew's before Theo finally slammed bodily into the far wall, loosing the knickknack shelf above him.
'I didn't know a PokeBall could do that,' Henry said.
"I didn't know that light could cause bruises," Aries muttered petulantly. A small glass vase on top of the shelf wiggled before toppling, except it didn't fall; instead, it hung at a precarious forty-five degree angle. The wall clicked and then a small square part of it no more than twenty-four inches around opened up at the bottom, revealing a green pad inside of the niche.
"People still do that crap?" Denise wondered, pointing at the vase.
"Just thank Arceus that they do," Aries replied, grasping Theo's clawed hand. "And I thank you as well, dear Theophilus, for without you this all would have borne no fruit."
I did what again? he asked, dazed. Aries laughed.
"Well?" Denise said. Aries looked back at her.
"Well what?"
"Well let's do it to it. Come on, Henry." She picked Mew up carefully with both hands and crouched down, crawling into the small space. The warp pad emitted a strong green light that enveloped her; she looked surprised, then the light completely consumed her, and when it was gone so was she.
'Denise,' Henry said worriedly, quickly following her and leaving just Aries and Theo. Aries pushed Theophilus forward; luckily, he was still too out of it to protest, but the both of them made for a very tight fight in the small space. Aries got a mouthful of Theo's fur as he tried to squeeze in beside him, and Theo's claws were shoved into a very sensitive area.
The green light surrounded them, intensifying his headache until he felt physically sick. He had the terrible feeling of being shoved through a too-small pipe and felt his bones shift and grind against in each other in response. There was another bottoming-out feeling like he was on a rollercoaster that suddenly dropped, and then it all disappeared as they landed bodily in a very dark and very cold room.
"Denise? Henry? Mew? Theo?" he spoke aloud, hearing his voice echo. His mind was still highly disoriented but he had the vague sense that the room was empty. He grasped Theo's arms, pulling him up. "Theo, can you please give some light?"
Theo's eyelids flickered, then he opened his eyes. Being a Dark-type, they worked almost like flashlights, illuminating a small space around them with a bluish hue. Ugh… Where are we?
"I'm going to assume that this is somewhere within Team Rocket's base."
Where's the loud annoying one and the quiet one? he asked, snorting.
"That's what I'm trying to find out." Theo looked around, illuminating a dirty linoleum floor and boxes full of old and broken machine parts. There was a door on the other side of the room, which Theo immediately pounced on. "Wait! We don't know what's outside."
Well I'm not going to stay inside! He pushed the door open and disappeared down the corridor; Aries followed him and found a hallway full of warp panels. It seemed that Denise, Henry, and Theo took one, but it was hard to tell which of the seven that they used; perhaps they even used different ones. His mind reeled from all of the possibilities; he heard that Team Rocket's HQ was labyrinthine, but that was just ridiculous!
Suddenly, the panel to his immediate left lit up. He barely had time to move before someone materialized on it. It was a Rocket Grunt angrily speaking on his Xtransceiver. Luckily, his attention was drawn away from Aries, so he took the opportunity to use the fifth panel to escape. Landing on his feet this time, he realized that he was in some sort of storage room lit by flickering fluorescent lights. Metal shelves filled with PokeBalls lined the walls, bringing back the memory of Team Rocket's infamous PokeBall theft. The thought of all of those Trainers with missing partners made him sick—well, not as sick as the warp panel, but still.
It was really stupid now that he thought about it. He had spent so many years training with Mew, and yet he was still as defenseless as ever without Denise or Pokémon to back him up. "Damn it," he swore, kicking a shelf in anger. First of all, he knew that it was wrong to be angry considering he was supposed to be learning to detach himself from his emotions, but he really couldn't be bothered with that—that is, until the shelf's leg cracked and the entire thing came crashing down, spilling PokeBalls everywhere. To make matters worse, most of then landed on the button, causing the mass release of over thirty Pokémon in the small room. The noise level instantly rose, and conversely the level of space instantly dropped as Aries was crammed into a corner by an Aggron, Tyranitar, and Aerodactyl. He tried to force them away telekinetically but the recoil of attempting to push such heavy Pokémon left his skeletal system achy.
"What's going on in there?" someone outside shouted. He heard the door open, then the Pokémon rushed out in a flurry, squawking and screaming and making a general ruckus. When he was finally out of the fray, he noticed the Grunt was lying on the floor covered in footprints. He wasn't sure if the guy was alive, and really, he didn't care; he just needed to find Denise and the others and get out of there. He started to rush away, headed down the long hallway, but something stopped him. He didn't think Arceus was there—or at least not fully formed—but sort of divine power made him stop instead of running down to the fork in the hallway, which was smart of him as a Pokémon came flying at the spot where he would have been, claws flailing.
"Weavile," the Weavile hissed, turning to him in disappointment and anger. His Trainer followed, a dapper young man in an expensive black suit and with combed red hair that spiked at the bottom. When he turned enough for Aries to see his face, he frowned, then laughed.
"Oh, Arceus!" he chuckled. "I thought I was seeing things, but it really is you… Where's Mew, huh? Oh, wait, I know; she was with that mouthy brat and her Lucario when they tried to take over HQ or whatever. Well, they're dealt with, so that just leaves you, huh, Aristotle?"
Aries didn't respond; he couldn't, not with his train of thought running on broken tracks. Silver. Arceus, it was Silver. He found that he was not any less terrified of him than he was as a small child, and for good reason too: he was stronger, Aries could sense it, and coupled with his original strength, he had to be a complete monster. "Silver," he finally whispered, feeling his blood run cold.
"Oh, you can speak after all?" he smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. Aside from the improved fashion sense, he hadn't changed much, perhaps by about three inches, but since Aries was always a short person it didn't make a difference. His Weavile grinned madly at Aries.
'I missed you,' he cackled, opening and closing his claws.
"Well?" Silver asked expectantly. Aries blinked, taken aback.
"Well…what?"
"Well, have I spared you for naught, or have you actually gotten stronger within these last eleven years?"
"I…I don't know; you tell me."
"I'd be glad to find out," he said, causing Aries' stomach to bottom out from fear. "Although not today; Weavile is the only one I have."
"What are you doing with all of those Pokémon, Silver?" he demanded, regaining his wits. Silver wagged his index finger reproachfully.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, little Aristotle; don't meddle in others' business." He tucked a loose lock of hair behind his ear, frowning. There was something different about him; he didn't seem quite as laidback as eleven years ago, as if there was something else on his mind. Aries wanted to peek—tried to, in fact—but Silver's mind was a Dark-type's stronghold. He focused on Silver's body; perhaps he could redo his show of telekinesis. He sure was more advanced with it; it was possible, but still, something held him back. Suddenly Silver's eyes widened, then he grinned. "You look like you're going to throw up. Are you… Are you scared, Aristotle?"
He wanted to protest, but frankly he did feel like he was going to throw up, and his legs were shaking, and he was dizzy enough that he was starting to see double. It was worse than when he was a kid, because now, Silver was the real deal, Team Rocket Boss Giovanni's son, and Aries was still Aristotle, that stupid kid that couldn't do anything to fight him back. "You're not getting away this time, Silver," he said, trying to be brave.
"Yeah?" he chuckled. "How do you propose you're going to stop me?"
Aries' eyes widened, not from the realization but from the sudden burst of emotions from down the hall. He couldn't react; Weavile couldn't react; nobody could react when Denise suddenly tackled Silver from behind, getting him in a half nelson while Henry incapacitated his Weavile with a well-positioned Brick Break. "Find Mew! She's at the warp panel!" Denise said to him. He stared, his brain still trying to process it all. "Aries, you hear me don't you? Go!"
"A…Alright." He regretfully ran down the hall, sending his mind out to find Mew's. He found several Grunts' scattered brains trying to contain all of the Pokémon he accidently released, along with a handful that had been attacked or rendered unconscious by Denise, Henry, or Theophilus, before he finally found Mew down the hall. It was in a room with four warp panels each on the left and right walls, whizzing in circles nervously. "Mew!"
Aries! It tackled his abdomen, stubby arms grasping his shirt. He hugged it back, feeling tears well in the corners of his eyes. It detached from him after a moment and hovered next to one of the panels. This one, this one! it said.
"No! We have to wait for Denise and—" Something large rammed into his back, sending him flying forward until he skidded on the ground and crashed into the wall. Disoriented, it took him a few moments to place the Arbok before him, followed by his Trainer.
"Would you look at this?" Team Rocket Executive Ariana mused, twirling a lock of long red hair on her finger. Her platinum-colored heels clicked out a staccato beat against the linoleum as she moved forward, her Arbok hissing warningly at Aries. "The intruders are right here—and one of them is Mew! Gio—I mean, Silver will be very pleased to see you," she said to Mew.
You're not taking me to Silver, Mew said, clenching its little fists. Ariana narrowed her eyes.
"Arbok, Bite."
Her Arbok leapt at Mew with speed worthy of praise; Mew grabbed him psychically and twisted him into a tight knot, throwing him back at Ariana. She gasped in surprise as she was tackled by her own Pokémon, then doubly in surprise when Henry came running in, walking all over her face.
Where is Denise? Mew asked worriedly.
'She's looking for Theophilus, Arceus knows why,' he muttered. 'The PokeBall will work within a certain range; she's trying to get within a certain distance of him so she can return him. In the meantime—oh! Aries, are you alright?'
"'ve been better," he muttered, sitting up with his back against the wall. "It's amazing… I haven't been this sore outside of psychic training in a long time. It's very nostalgic, really."
'Um…really, are you alright?' Henry asked again, somewhat worried for his mental state.
"Yes, yes, fine." he grunted, getting to his feet. Something was broken; he just wasn't too sure what, although the disturbing feeling of blood saturating his shirt was a hint. Thankfully, his cloak hit it from peripheral view.
"I hope you all didn't forget about me," Ariana said from the doorway, getting to her feet. Her Arbok got out of his knot too. "Arbok, use Sludge Bomb!" He hacked up a ball of purple slime and spat it at Mew; Henry intercepted, grabbing it before crushing it between his paws. He smirked as he crashed his fists together.
'I've been waiting for a good fight since that Gym battle.'
Aries, go find Denise and bring her here, Mew ordered. I'll help Henry.
Aries nodded and started searching mentally. The place was still highly hectic; he wasn't sure he could find her mind among hundreds of others'. Then Aries found Denise's "voice" saying the one word he never thought she would.
Help.
All of the blood drained from his face as he tried to push through her mental defenses to see what was going on. She was in a room with Theo, who was unconscious and bleeding, and some sort of indistinguishable Pokémon. He could only make out the strange sounds it made, like it had no idea how to use its mouth. He gasped when, so deep in Denise's mind, he felt the sting of a lash on his arm. Then her scream filled his mind; he clapped his hands on his ears and dropped into a crouch, jumping out of her mind and back into his own. He heard Mew gasp as it looked into his thoughts, but he didn't give it a moment as he ran past Ariana and into the hall, down to the warp panel he saw Denise take.
The teleportation left him disoriented for a moment, and when he regained his wits he saw he was in a room with three more panels. He took the one to the far left and ended up in a room full of computer cubicles and small Eevee and the evolutions of the Eevee. Most looked at him and deemed him innocuous before continuing to wreck the room, burning the computers and freezing the desks so on and so on. He passed through them to the other warp panel easily.
When he landed, the first thing he noticed was the energy moving in the room—or lack of thereof, actually. Living things always emitted energy, so his first assumption was that the room was empty—until he saw Denise. She was on the floor next to Theophilus; neither was moving. His first impulse was to check on them—that is, until he saw what put them in that condition.
*OUY ERA THE EON NKNWO SA ITTSRALOE* Deoxys said. It was Deoxys; it had to be. Nothing else on Earth could feel so inhuman and terrifying—well, except maybe Mewtwo. Aries stepped back, swallowing. Its speech was peculiar; it didn't speak verbally or mentally, and yet he understood every word as if they were engraved on his brain. It shifted its body towards him, lifeless eyes raking over him. *OYU REA ETH ENO EYTH TNWA-* it continued thoughtfully.
Aries tried to dig into Deoxys' mind but the end result was a debilitating migraine. He rubbed his temples while trying to figure it out the old-fashioned way. "What do you want?" he asked slowly. Deoxys cocked its head one way then the other and was silent long enough for Aries to assume it didn't speak English.
*I-WANT-OUT* it finally said, stilling. Aries watched as it seemed to melt down, its body slowly changing. Two of its tentacles disappeared and its body changed from mainly orange to mainly grey; in a second it was behind Aries, even though there was at least thirty feet between them, and within another second it was gone via the warp panel. Stunned, he checked on Denise.
"Denise?" he whispered, placing his hands on both sides of her head and pressing his forehead to hers; the direct contact with the focal point of her body allowed him deeper into her subconscious than he could do with his admittedly-poor psychic abilities. He couldn't feel her heart beating, which terrified him; he closed his eyes and focused on it, using his telekinesis to make it beat. He almost used CPR, but he had a feeling she wouldn't like that very much. At first, nothing happened, then he started gasping for breath herself, thank Arceus. She looked around before her eyes focused on Aries', which was when she surprisingly turned a deep shade of red, pushing him onto his behind with her hands.
"Never do that again," she mumbled, sitting up and pushing her hair from her face.
"Save your life?" he asked tiredly, relief still strong in his veins. She made a displeased noise; Aries noticed she was still red. "Don't tell me that you like me, Denise."
"I don't," she snapped, turning to Theophilus. "Just don't get so in my face again; it makes me uncomfortable." Lucky for her, Aries didn't have the mental strength to see if she was lying. Theo was quickly roused, although he wasn't particularly coherent.
"Zoro—" What came out of his mouth next was not proper for any sort of ears. Aries shook his head when he was done.
"We have to go, Denise." He took Theo's PokeBall from her pocket and returned him; he then grabbed Denise's hand and led her to the warp panel, which sent them back to the computer room. Thankfully, Deoxys wasn't there, but there were several Grunts working to capture the Eevee.
"There they are! The intruders!" a female Grunt called, pointing them out. Several Pikachu, Vulpix, Parasect, and Omastar turned on them; Aries threw up Protect just as several attacks went flying at them. He pushed Denise forward and gestured for Theo to help; he groaned but created his own Protect barrier as well. With two of them, they protected themselves against the numerous Pokémon and headed for the other warp panel. Right before they stepped on it, someone else materialized.
"You," Silver hissed at Denise, arms crossed over his chest. Even without his Pokémon he was still bigger than her and much more intimidating.
"You," she repeated just as disdainfully, and then she did the one thing that made him love her forever: she moved back and gave Silver a good, quick, hard kick in his tiny unborn Silvers. As strong as he was, Silver crumpled to his knees almost immediately, clutching his jewels for dear life. He tried to say something to her but it sounded too squeaky to decipher. "Let's go!" she said to Aries, who was still shell-shocked.
Arceusdamn, you're one manly woman, Theo said, crowding onto the warp panel with the both of them. I may be a little scared of you now.
"Good," Denise said before the warp panel activated. Aries had a different feeling than before; something was off.
"You guys—"
Something struck him hard in the side of his skull, causing him to stumble just as the warp commenced. A Grunt stood off to the side appearing triumphant; Aries watched the metal hard drive that he threw ricochet off of the ground and skid across the tiled ground. He lost his balance, tipping out of the square of green light; Denise grabbed him by his cloak, pulling him back in just as they went through the loop. Aside from the pain of warping, a terrifying numbness filled his body as they landed in a rectangular room full of crates. It wasn't the same one from before; the warp panels must have switched or something. "Oh my Arceus," he gasped, feeling the numbness turn into a severe burning pain. He lost his balance and hit the ground.
Human? Theo said, and he even sounded a little worried. I mean…what was your name again?
"Damn it, Aristotle," Denise swore, looking through the door. He tried to look too but somehow he couldn't roll over to see. "Johto. We're in Johto," she muttered, both amazed and displeased. "Theophilus, can you lift him?"
Theo grunted as he lifted Aries onto his back, which was when he became aware of how wet the left part of his cloak and shirt had become. Denise looked back at him, which was when he noticed tears in the corners of her eyes. "Damn, that's a lot of blood," she muttered, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "Look, I know I wasn't all that nice to you, but…but you're my friend, so don't die, please? Come on, Theophilus!" She disappeared through the door and Theo rushed to follow with Aries' weight.
"What are you…" Aries mumbled, deeply confused. "I can't feel my hand…my left…my left hand, why can't I feel it, Denise…?"
