Oak (Pokemon SI)

by Oghenevwogaga

An SI into the world of pokemon. I wake up in the body of 15 year-old Donnel Oak, son of Legendary champion turned Pokemon professor, Samuel Oak. The next step is clear.

40. Chapter 40

Pre-chapter A/N; Since everyone is asking for one of these, here's a breakdown of the character names before we get into things

Broly - Kleavor

Quicksilver - Pidgeot (dead)

Kisame - Milotic

Igneel - Charizard

Kenpachi - Tyranitar

Ino - Gardevoir

Snorlax - Snorlax

Tsunade - Clefable

Gai - Hakomo-o

Magnezone - Magnezone

Hashirama- Trevenant

Special thanks to the folks on pa-atreon for making this possible. Now without further ado let's get into it

Ino appeared by my side in a burst of displaced air as she teleported in front of a Torkoal that had been charging straight at me. Its shell was insufficient to protect it from my pissed off psychic as she blasted it straight into the water with a hyper beam. I smiled at her as she disappeared again and took stock of the battle. We were on the beach head, after successfully disposing of all the attackers within the city itself.

Now, we were focused on dispatching the ones rushing into the city from the sea, and the volcano. It was quite fortuitous how both areas intersected on the same beach and weren't on opposite ends of the Island. That would have been a bitch and a half to defend against. The rest of the ocean beyond this beach was defended by Kisame. In the seas, she was unstoppable. Even though I'd been loathe to send her on her own, my doubts had quieted when she'd taken out two rampaging Gyrados in the blink of an eye. My team had grown so much.

Even Magnezone was chipping in and doing his best. Lightning attacks flashed out every so often, killing or knocking out any water type unlucky enough to get in their way. Since a good portion of my team was weak to water types or had no advantage, most of them were clustered around the mouth of the volcano which was admittedly the bigger threat. I watched with a proud smile as Broly and Kenpachi executed a perfect fissure tag team to eliminate a commune of Magmar that were making their way down the mountain. It was too little too late though. The true threats among them had avoided the attack and jumped straight at my pokemon with attacks charged. 'Two Magmortars' I thought with awe. I hadn't even seen one in all my time here. This wasn't the time to be appreciative though. Now was for battle. The first one punched Kenpachi in the face and its surprise when he didn't even move was enough to make me chuckle as Kenpachi grabbed the offending limb and slammed the fire type into the ground with a negligent flick before blasting it even deeper in with a shadow ball. My pseudo-legendary couldn't care less if it was a fucking Moltres or a Charmander in his face. He'd deal with them and move on. Brutal efficiency always.

Broly dodged the punch that came towards him with extreme speed and sent a stone axe straight into the fire type's skull, stunning it. A Mankey flying across my line of sight was enough to divert my attention as I traced its trajectory to Snorlax. THe massive normal type was being beset on all sides by the annoying fighting types. Even at a type disadvantage, there was little they could do to hurt him. After all, what was a rat to a bear? That analogy was apt for this, because a thousand rats could fell a bear, so I had cause to worry, right? No. There were nowhere near a thousand rats on my bear. Every Mankey that approached was dispatched with the kind of brutal efficiency my team was beginning to specialise in. Even Tsunade, delicate as she was, was using minimize to draw the attention of multiple opponents to give Gai the openings he needed to punish them.

This attack wasn't particularly dangerous. If my pokemon were to fall today, it would not be to any of these wild pokemon. Rabid as they were, they weren't much of a threat to my well trained monsters. Of course, that's when it all had to go to hell in a basket. A hyper beam shot Igneel out of the skies where he'd been harassing all the flying types and I turned to see a pair that I'd hoped never to see again. The twins from the Viridian forest.

My suspicions about the attack being organised by the Rockets seemed to hold even more weight as one of the twins took out some sort of device from her pocket, and suddenly, the wild, rabid pokemon were smoothly flowing around us. Insane. This was both good and bad news. Because, the fact that there was a device that could even slightly control them told me that there must have been a means to call off the attack with that same tech. The downside? They had technology to control wild pokemon. The league moight as well be completely under the Rockets' control at this point. No way was it going to manage to overcome constant attacks on all fronts from wild pokemon. Maybe if we could crack the tech and replicate it. But I had no idea what was happening outside this island. Blaine was nowhere to be seen, and there didn't seem to be much, if any help incoming from the outside world.

It all counted on me. And part of me liked this feeling. Something about the pressure of knowing that I had to succeed right now to save the world, made my brain clear. My reaction times sped up, as I saw the world in a new level of high definition. It felt like I was truly awakening at the moment where I needed to the most. It wasn't just me who was different though. My opponents looked more calm and measured than they had that night in the forest. They looked practically predatory. They didn't seem intent on giving me time to plan and coordinate with my team as one of the Bisharps came flying at me. It got to experience the shock of its life though, as Ino's illusion fell and it found itself face-to-face with a pissed off fire dragon instead of the squishy human it expected. Ino's teleportation, cloaking and illusions had grown with the rest of her under Alakazam's tutelage. Psychics grew most around their own kind and it was showing. Igneel moved the steel pokemon's blade past his chest by slapping it out of the way with his tail and grabbed onto the pokemon with a bear hug, trapping the tail between his body;s and his opponent's. I flinched as I felt some echoes of pain from the pokemon's bladed body digging into his scales. He took it like a champ though, and executed a move some had thought exclusive to the Typhlosion, Camerupt and Torkoal lines. He erupted in a massive blast of fire. I watched the flames splash off the green shield surrounding my psychic and I with a smile on my face. When things finally cleared up, the Bisharp was on the floor, unconscious, and in a bad state. The twins looked shocked, and I longed to take a picture of the look on their faces. Igneel was breathing heavily, but he still looked ready to continue. Eruption was another example of the partnership Oak and I had developed over the training period I spent with him. We'd worked on moves as lab partners, and even though I disliked him as a parent, I had respect for him as a scientist. He was the one to theorise how we could make the move for Igneel, after all. Who'd have thought that taking advantage of the tail flame Charizard's had as a natural outlet of the explosion would have such effects. The move worked by building up fire type energy in his body for long periods, and then releasing all that energy in a single eruption. The only downside was that the resulting explosion was much less widespread than a Typhlosion's. It compensated for that with the increased power it had at close ranges. Trapping the target with him in a bear hug was effective to say the least.

The twins finally got over their shock and sent the second Bisharp with both of their Houndooms at Igneel. He looked ready to face them all at once, but he had no need to. I clasped my hands and screamed out. "Wood Release: Nativity of a sea of trees'' Ino shook her head at my antics as a veritable forest appeared around the attacking pokemon. Vines reared out of the floor across the field and began to grow at surprising speeds. From vines, and branches, they became actual trees. I suppressed the urge to scream in joy as Hashirama finally managed to execute the move perfectly. We usually had the issue of some of the trees forming before others. Not a problem with the effectiveness of the move, but it tended to affect the sheer aesthetics of it. The move wasn't completely mastered yet since it covered a comparatively small area. Only managing to encase the attacking pokemon and Igneel. Barely enough to cover an entire field.

Understanding what Hashirama's use of the move meant, Igneel took to the skies and escaped the forest in a blur before the second part of the move completed itself. What was the difference between a grass and a poison type pokemon? A stupid question on the surface, wasn't it? I mean the differences are obvious. Poison types could create or produce some form of toxin in their bodies, right? But about Roselia and Bulbasuar? THey didn't necessarily create poisons. Instead, they used the flowers they could create to achieve a ton of different effects. It's why they qualify as poison types. But what stopped other grass types from doing this same thing. I mean, it wasn't instinctive, but there was nothing stopping them from using their own control of nature to create similar effects, after all. Types are a human classification. They don't exist in nature. Igneel's species are classified as fire/flying types but look into those red eyes and tell me he isn't a dragon. I dare you.

All this exposition was to lead on to the next part of the move. Buds grew on the trees Hashirama had just created and flowered in seconds. The pollen they created spread through the forest and I had no doubts that the pokemon within had fallen unconscious.

"Wood release; Advent of a world of flowering trees, complete" I said in my best impression of Shikamara's smug drawl. My opponents looked both shocked and infuriated. A comedic combination at the best of times.

I would have started laughing if something strange didn't happen. One of the trees in the mini-forest went down, and then another, and then another. I noted that the path of the trees falling down seemed to head straight at me. Igneel prepared for the coming pokemon, but I placed a hand on his shoulder, ignoring the heat that threatened to burn me through my thick leather gloves. "Gai's got this one. Can't let you have all the fun, can we?" I said, trying to avoid offending his pride. The truth was he still hadn't mastered eruption, and was probably more tired than he actually knew. I was proven right, when he slumped back, content to watch. Igneel would never have left an opponent to someone else when he was at full capacity. He was almost always raring to go.

My suspicions about what pokemon had managed to survive the trap were proven correct when the Bisharp came crashing out of the forest, heading straight for me. I didn't even flinch as when he was a few feet away from me, he was faced with the strongest fighting type I'd ever got to see in person. He caught hold of one of the Steel type's blades and wrenched it out of position to send several punches into the steel type's midsection. Practically ignoring the power blows, the Bisharp swiped at Gai's head before continuing with a stab when my fighter dodged the attack.

I was content to let them duke it out instead of interfering, since Gai needed to face more powerful opponents to draw out his evolution. A Kommo-o on my team would be superb. Speaking of pseudo-legendaries though, I turned to the side and saw my team's ace in combat with both of my opponents' hydreigons. He'd dived straight at them the moment they'd announced their presence by shooting Igneel out of the sky. Looking at him now, I could barely even see the echoes of the young Larvitar we'd rescued from that Aggron all those months ago. His growth was something else. One of the dark dragon's snatched at his neck with two of its heads, but Kenpachi had no trouble dodging the grasping attack and tossing the entire monster over his head after grabbing its shoulders for a second. I smiled at that. The Hydreigons weren't well-trained. At least, not when it came to fighting opponents in their strength range.

Even so, they were still going to manage to overwhelm him eventually. Unless something happened at least, and that something showed up a second later. Snorlax appeared from what looked to be thin air and grabbed two of one of the Hydreigon's heads, dragging it towards him before slamming it into the ground. A hyper beam shot out of his mouth in a blast of blue and I barely covered my eyes in time to avoid getting blinded by the dust. Snorlax was about to continue his merciless beatdown when two Mightyena started nipping at his heels. They were easy to toss aside, but were relentless in their pursuit of my normal type, desperately buying time for their pseudo-legendary teammate to overcome his daze.

Kenpachi was still having an easy time with the dark dragon left to him. Slowly whittling away at its resistance and gaining ground on it. With the battle seemingly settled, I turned to the wild pokemon situation. The Twins' device had sent most of them away from this area, but there were still a few around. It went to show that the tech wasn't quite as perfect as it seemed, but it was better than nothing at least. Now, I had to focus on getting the device from them, interrogating them and figuring out how to make it repel the wild pokemon from the city itself.

Just to clean up the rest of their pokemon and disable them. With some of the biggest threats already handled, it shouldn't take more than half an hour. Of course, that had to be the moment when it all went wrong. A veritable hurricane swept through Hashirama's forest, dispersing the pollen and scattering the trees. I traced the winds to their source and found two Noctowls flying above the twins. That was quick. Took my eyes off them for one second and they were about to turn this battle on its head. I could see the Houndooms waking up from their imposed slumber albeit with a bit of grogginess. That didn't matter though, two of the pokemon I'd thought dispatched were back in and another two had joined the ranks. Hashirama was prepared to use the move again, but I vetoed it. The Noctowls were the real threat. His orders then became to submerge and find his moment to strike. For the Houndooms, I sent the fire type at my side that was practically itching for more combat. Tired as he was, Igneel covered the space between him and his opponents in seconds, sweeping one of its feet with his tail and grabbing the other byu its neck in his claws. Beautiful. He tossed the one in his grip at his compatriot just as it was starting to get back up and they both crashed to the ground again. Their teamwork was near perfect, and they were able to separate and disentangle themselves from one another before Igneel could take advantage of their prone positions. They spread across his vision, moving in opposite directions to hem him in between them. True predators by every sense of the word. Their tactics reminded me of what a pack of wolves would do when hunting dangerous prey. These weren't wolves though. They were far more dangerous, but they'd made a key mistake.

Igneel allowed them to surround him from both sides, his back to one and facing the other with his full attention. A catastrophic choice for any singular pokemon to make when surrounded by such odds. Igneel wasn't alone though. He had support, and I'd made sure he knew it. He'd grown up with the team, and as battle hungry as he could be, he trusted his teammates above all. When I'd told him we had his back, he hadn't even hesitated to turn his back to the Houndoom behind him. That kind of trust was exceptional.

The one behind him attacked first, and true to form, Igneel didn;t even flinch. Before his adversary could make it to him, Broly stepped between them. Not allowing the fire type pokemon a second to comprehend its new situation, m y starter jumped into the air, performed a perfect twist and brought down both of his axe hands on his adversary's head. It slumped to the floor dead, and Broly was gone in the next second, dispatching wild pokemon with that same brutal efficiency. The second Houndoom had all its attention on the prone body of its comrade. Barely even paying attention to the fiery dragon in front of it. By no means a wise decision, Igneel was ticked off at not getting his opponent's full attention, and showed his displeasure the only way he knew how. Fire, and lots of it. He belched out a veritable firestorm that covered his opponent nearly instantly and set what remained of Hashirama's forest on fire. If I wasn't so sure that my ghost had gotten out of the way, I'd be a bit worried. As it stood though, I watched as the fire grew in size and heat, till I could start to feel it from as far away as I was. When Igneel finally cut off the flames, only the charred body of the Houndoom remained. I can feel your surprise. Houndoom are fire types, aren't they? Well, remember my spiel about types being human classifications? Houndoom were fire types on a technicality. They could breathe out noxious gases and ignite them. That made their fire poisonous, even to other fire types, but it conferred on them very little in the way of fire resistance in parts of their body that didn't have massive fangs. Igneel had covered it in more than enough fire to overwhelm that meagre resistance, and the result laid before me.

I turned to the twins, expecting them to be pissed off, or even the least bit irritated, but contrary to my expectations, they looked excited. Their pokemon were dying in front of them and they were excited. If I hadn't already thought the members of Team Rocket to be insane, I might have been a bit worried about their health. As it was though, I had no problems with the both of them being slightly more insane than the average rocket. The psychos from Celadon hadn't smiled while they lost pokemon, at least. I didn't allow them to distract me though, turning to the rest of the battle.

Since Igneel had finished his opponent, he was confident in interfering in another's fight. In a move I'd have never expected from a dragon, Gai led his adversary to Igneel's waiting arms and left the steel type in the care of his teammate before moving in and taking the Hydreigon of Snorlax's hands, leaving him to deal with the Mightyena that were harrying him. I sighed in relief. He slammed into the dark dragon, sweeping it off its feet and harassing it till they were quite a distance away from where Snorlax and the Mightyena were engaged. Of course Gai was willing to cede his opponent to another when he was moving for a more difficult one. No need to worry about my dragon being broken. Blaine had been clear. A dragon that didn't show the pride and aggression native to its species would never achieve final evolution. Every scientific study I'd checked since the battle agreed on that, and I wondered if that was why my fighting type was taking so long to evolve. Was he more fighter than Dragon, and if so, how did we fix this. That was a worry for another day though, as he engaged the dark dragon across from him with a barrage of fists, the dark type replied with grasping teeth, seeking to grab him between their jaws. One of the heads finally succeeded when Gai was too slow in returning his fist to his side. The crunch of the teeth against dragon scale was audible even from here. The Hydreigon used the distraction from Gai's pain to take to the skies and I resisted the urge to curse as multiple shadow balls came spewing from the dark type's mouth. Gai managed to dodge all of them, but the next set came closer to hitting home, and the set after that came closer still. I could see what was happening clear as day.

"Do it, Gai" I shouted across the field. I could have sent the message with aura, but something told me to say the words out loud. He jumped back from his previous position, beating his stomach with his fists all the while. Every time his fists made contact, the contact got progressively louder, eventually echoing around the beach, and by the time he was finished, he'd been causing shock waves with the move. I smiled at him as he swept into the air immediately after the move was done, a red aura surrounding him. He jumped straight at his adversary and was sent flying back into the ground when three shadow balls hit him centre mass. I resisted the urge to scowl as he fell. Of course he forgot to use dragon dance.

The adrenaline from the belly drum must already be getting to him. I lashed out with my aura, stilling him from attacking again and reminding him of the second part to the move. I felt the dragon's embarrassment as a blue aura joined the red that he'd been cloaked with. He stood back, allowing the move to stack upon itself until his opponent realised he wasn't going to attack again and tried to snipe at him from a distance.

He kicked off the ground with such force that sand swept into my hair and eyes. I hurriedly brushed it aside to see that he'd timed his jump so perfectly that he was able to both dodge the attack already coming, and move fast enough that there was no chance of his opponent managing to prepare another move to stop him. He came close to colliding with the dragon but missed agt the last second as it finally managed to fly out of the way. Gai didn't let that discourage him though. He landed on the ground and was back in the air in the very next second. This time, the Hydreigon could use their shadow balls, but he tanked the hit with his hardy scales and just barely missed the dark dragon with his fist. Back to the ground he went, and then back into the air. There was much that could be said for the determination of a dragon type. It was another of their key traits. Dragons strained and fought for the tough spot. Even supposedly docile or honourable dragons like the Goomy and Kommo-o lines were hardwired to compete, to fight for the top spot. It was the only way to grow as a dragon. As he kept jumping at his opponent, something special began to happen, even though neither one of us could tell, we were doing something beyond ourselves that day. We were playing with forces we didn't fully understand. Belly drum was the first to go. As he was robbed of the enhancement, I saw Gai falter for a second, wondering if he should continue or move back and re-enhance himself. The Hydreigon in the sky was breathing heavily already. It was tiring. Retreating would give it time to recover its strength.

"Keep going", I shouted, but Gai was off before the words had even left my mouth. At that moment, we thought as one. As Gai's attacks failed to connect, and he was battered by his opponent's moves, he continued to attack. Never letting up for a second. Never staying on the ground for longer than it took him to change direction and gauge the distance for his next jump. It was glorious combat in its finest form. But all combat would come to an end and it became a question of which dragon would outlast the other. The answer came quicker than I'd expected as the blue glow from dragon dance was abruptly cut off. Unlike with Belly Drum, this time, Gai dallied for more than a second, but his opponent seemed content to watch and wait, using the time to recover their own strength. He wasn't down for long though, jumping right back at his opponent, with none of the aura building up around him this time. The Hydreigon did not try to fly away, and we easily predicted the next outcome, and Gai moved his hand over his face. This time, however, I was shocked when it wasn't balls of dark that came from the Hydreigon's maws, but instead bright orange beams. Hyper beams. I had no time to warn Gai of what was coming, and the attack crashed into us. Covering our face with our hand was insufficient in blocking a move as powerful as a hyper beam. We crashed into the ground as one, and I had trouble separating between Gai and Donnell. I was both and neither at the same time, It mattered little though, all I knew was that I was tired. We were tired. Not sleepy-tired, the kind of bone-deep weariness that came with days of concentrated work. Enhancements weren't meant to be scaled or stacked the way we'd been doing. Especially not twice in the same day. I felt it then, the temptation to just call it quits. To resign ourself to unconsciousness.

No. Never. We wouldn't give up here. Fuck letting another teammate take over the battle. This was ours. This enemy would fall to our hand. I felt it then, the rage, the hatred, the pride. The refusal to just lay down and accept what would have been our fate. This couldn't be our fate. Never. We had to fight, to strive. Going willingly into the night was for pussies. Not us, never us. When the white light covered Gai and sent me from his mind, I finally gained enough distance to see exactly what was happening. Gai was evolving. The white light that covered him was practically blinding, and remained over his form for longer than with any of my other pokemon. When it all finally died down, the pokemon I found myself staring at was fundamentally different from the one I'd shared minds with just seconds earlier. Don't get me wrong, he was still Gai, but gone was the adolescent, and I found myself staring at an elder dragon.

What people in my original universe had never understood was that evolution wasn't merely levelling up or getting stronger. In most evolutions, pokemon changed fundamentally. For several species, evolution was the only way to achieve adulthood. No Charmaleon, no matter how old, would ever be considered an adult. It went against everything biology had taught me, but the pokemon world had a tendency to laugh at the rules of my old one. Years of maturity were condensed into a single moment. Evolved pokemon were the same as they'd ever been, but they were still more.

As a pokemon, Kommo-o shared a lot in common with his lesser evolutionary form, with the exception of the fact that he became just a bit more in every respect. His scaly armour covered more of his body. It was safe to say that there were more areas of his body covered than not. His body was still grey, but the red and yellow markings on some scales were more numerous and shone even brighter if that was possible. His face was much the same, but the headdress that had marked him out as special was even more ornate. Now, it looked like a crown. Oak had once theorised that Hakamo-o was possibly descended from a line of dragon kings, and I could see where he got the idea from. He looked majestic to say the least, and I was quite proud to look upon him.

When I finished my evolution, I nodded at the pokemon who was similarly examining me, and he nodded back before bending with a bow. I smiled at that. None of my pokemon had ever revolted upon evolution and I took it as a sign that I had to be doing something right. This time, I didn't bother trying to reach out to him with my aura or mind, I was content to have him take care of this. He knew his new strength better than I did, after all. Let him have this victory all to himself.

He puffed up his chest, perhaps instinctively recognising what my lack of orders meant, or interpreting something from my body language and turned to face his opponent. He shook his body, sending scales clanging against each other. I didn't shake at the loud sound. Igneel was keen to roar whenever he willed, and having a dragon roar next to my head enough times was enough for me to invest in a pair of expensive earplugs that muted out sounds above a set decibel rating. They were really advanced tech with a price tag to match, but luckily, my Silph card still worked. They were content to allow me to spend as much as I wanted.

When the dragon in front of him did not so much as flinch at his gesture of intimidation. He wasn't fazed, and punched at the air with a powerful uppercut. The shockwave from the move was enough to almost send me flying if Ino hadn't grabbed onto me with her telekinesis. The attack travelled with the wind and slammed straight into the dragon floating in the skies above us. Good ol' anime physics to the rescue, I guess. He didn't waste the opportunity with his opponent so distracted and flew into the air with an almost casual jump. He'd needed to scale multiple enhancements to use strength like that just a few minutes ago, and now it was casual. Evolution was terrifying like that. This time, he didn't miss and ensured to grab onto his opponent's wings as he slammed into it and they began to fall. Maneuvering in the air so the Hydreigon was beneath him was child's play to the fighting type, and when they landed, the dust cloud had me worried for the future of my hair. 'I have sand in places I don't even think about', I thought with a scowl, but brushed the thought aside as Gai finished off his opponent with two powerful punches. Now that that battle was over, I turned to look at the rest of the beachhead and was unsurprised to note that my team had dispatched our adversaries.

The smug smile on Ino's face and what I could discern from her memories told me she'd been the one to direct the team while I was distracted with Gai's battle. I returned her smile and took stock of everything. All the twins' pokemon were knocked out with the exception of the Noctowls, but they, along with the twins themselves, were held fast in Hashirama's vines. I smiled and approached them.

"Enjoy this, you little bastard. We'll get our revenge soon enough. We're team rocket admins, you know that right? We're valuable." One of the twins snarled at me as I got closer but I kept my smile in place, not bothering to give her words any reply. I'd have ordered Hashirama to snap their necks but Ino had warned me of the helicopter floating a distance away, filming this battle and possibly broadcasting it. It's why my team had been more lenient with her team than they usually would have been. The Poacher had taught us a lesson. The only good enemy was a dead one. I ignored the rest of their ranting and raving as I directed Ino to send out their pokeballs. I sent the team back into their pokeballs and then scanned the pokeballs with my pokedex to lock them. Another trick Oak had taught me. As a lab trainer (technically), I was authorised to make arrests and step in when there was no law enforcement. The ability to lock pokeballs came with that authority. Of course, I could only do it while I had custody of the pokeballs and the pokemon were within, and the lock could be disabled by even the lowest ranked law enforcement officer, but it was still a useful bit of power for situations like these.

"Enough of the yapping. The only words I want to hear from you are answers to my questions. How do I stop the attack?" I asked after doing my bit to make sure they were as secure as they could be.

"We have no idea what you're talking about '' The twin to the left said, and I scowled. The helicopter still hadn't left so I couldn't just order Ino to get the information from their minds, or ask Hashirama to convince them with a bit of pain. Both were, unfortunately, extremely illegal.

"I'm sure it has something to do with that device over there", I said, pointing to the device they'd tossed on the floor that had made most of the wild pokemon flee. Nothing in their expressions confirmed my guess, but I was still pretty sure. If it wasn't this, then what could it have been. I scowled for the umpteenth time today as I realised I only had one way to know for sure.

XXXXXX- THE POKEMON PROFESSOR

A Magnemite tried to approach me, but Charizard latched on to it with a fire fang that knocked it out after a few seconds. He then turned around, turning the energy from the fire fang into a bright blue flamethrower that sent the steel and electric pokemon flying towards us, reeling. Good. Dragonite was taking point, ensuring the skies remained safe, and taking out any pokemon on land who seemed to be making good progress. Nidoking was the king of the ground, though. He'd poisoned most of it with toxic spikes that ensured the only pokemon that made it close to the city over land were the ones who'd been weakened. The weakened ones that approached were easily vanquished with swipes of his tail and punches with his massive fists. He held the entire sector by himself where it took scores of gym trainers and their entire teams to do the same. The weakness that the Indigo league tolerated would one day come to bite it in the backside. One could not just hope that elite trainers would always arise to solve their problems. It was one of the problems I had with the league as it currently existed. That was a thought for later though. Now was for focusing on why I'd come here.

The wild pokemon were fascinating in their feverish intensity. They struggled and strained to enter the city. No matter how many Dragonite cut down or Charizard roasted, they still refused to relent. It was suspicious. I've seen wild pokemon. I've fought wild pokemon. Wild pokemon didn't fight like this. They fought only for survival, and for them to keep coming even after seeing hundreds of their fellows fall so easily, was unusual to say the least.

It stunk to high heaven, and if I hadn't already been sure that this was Giovanni, the Rocket admin that thought he was clever hiding in the very back between a few trees was more than enough to confirm his suspicions. Of course the idiot boy would find some way to throw the world into chaos to accomplish his selfish goals. It would have been admirable if it wasn't so pathetic. The boy thought himself a man beyond others and sought like every other idiot with a modicum of power to establish a new social order with himself at the very top. He'd failed in all his bids at becoming champion, but still thought himself beyond people like Lance and I. The arrogance.

"Please bring the boy over there to me" was all I needed to say on the matter, and Alakazam disappeared from my side, to probably appear next to the Rocket admin overseeing this mess. I looked through his eyes for a second and saw that he'd released a Hariyama and a Rhydon to protect him. This was going to be quick to say the least. And it was.

He appeared, caught in Alakazam's telekinetic grip, at my feet a few minutes later. I left Dragonite and the rest to deal with the approaching wild pokemon and turned my full attention to the man at my feet. With Alakazam hovering over him, he wasted no time in telling me all that he knew. Giovanni was good at obtaining loyalty from his subordinates but very few people could ever be loyal to the point of self-destruction. It went against human nature itself. To place another so far above oneself as to die for their secrets wasn't as easy as the media would have you believe. I had Alakazam retrieve the device and I prepared to start working on it when I received a call from Donnell. I'd been a bit worried when I didn't see any news about him before I left the lab, but with a team that was bordering on the elite level, there was very little that could pose a fatal threat to him, so I trusted him to be well. I guess I could teleport over to him and see what he made of the device. I'd enjoyed working with him for the past few months in spite of everything.

XXXXX- Donnell Oak

"A brilliant device if I've ever seen one," Oak said as he turned the machine in his hands again. I'd called him on the pokedex to see what he'd thought of the machine, and had been surprised to notice that he was fending off the attack in Vermillion. I mean I'd suspected that if this was happening here, it could be happening in some of the other cities as well, but I'd never thought Oak himself would get involved. His retirement from the league hadn't been the healthiest of splits, and he'd taken a stance of non-intervention on very nearly every subject matter relating to the league since then. I guess defending the people of Kanto was acceptable for him to do even if he had retired. That wasn't my business though, the old man was more than capable of taking care of himself and deciding what he wanted to do with his life, so I'd leave it to him.

"Can you figure it out?" I finally asked after he hummed for the seventh time in half as many minutes while fiddling with the buttons. "Radio waves, or something similar at least. That's how they control the wild pokemon. I suspect they've used poison or some sort of psychic influence to condition the pokemon to respond to these particular signals." I nodded. That wasn't anything I hadn't already suspected after a few minutes with it.

"And using it to repel the pokemon?" I asked again. That's the main reason I'd called him here after all. Figuring out the device was all well and good, but the goal wasn't knowledge of the device, but the ability to end the attack itself in seconds. "One of these doesn't have enough range to cover an entire city, so even if I changed the settings, we wouldn't be able to use it to help both cities. I guess Giovanni is too smart for that"

"Giovanni?" I echoed.

"That's a thought for later, child. Now, we focus on how to help our cities. Looking at this, I'm sure I could whip up something similar enough in the lab, but I'll need time. I propose I use these in ensuring the safety of Vermillion and you stay here to protect Cinnabar"

"And why not the other way around?" I asked in suspicion. "We're already in Cinnabar, are we not? Why not protect them with the device?"

"Cinnabar has a fifth of Vermillion's population. We'd save exponentially more lives with the device there than here. Besides, you're already committed to defending your mother's people so why not do it till the end. Once I finish my own device, this will be the first place I come to"

I agreed with his plan, albeit reluctantly. Cinnabar did have less lives to save with the device, and using it here instead of Vermillion made no sense from a utilitarian point of view. I turned my back to Oak and looked across the city. We stood on top of the highest building in the city, the only skyscraper that the tourist town could boast of. It was a godsend for directing my pokemon movements. I'd spread them through the city to route the wild pokemon causing havoc within its borders. It was all I could do to prevent them from overrunning the city. Blaine's lack of gym trainers was a hindrance in this. At least, there were small pockets of trainers all over the city helping me with this. I hadn't spoken to them yet, but I was grateful for their presence.

Strong as I was, I could not hold an entire city on my own. For now though, my attention was on Gai. Evolution had done him a load of good. He was faced with a small horde of magmars on one of the streets, and he disabled them with all the skill and brutality I'd expect from a well-trained pseudo-legendary. THe north of the city was one of the more interesting areas. We'd retreated into the city itself, and I'd had Ino recall Kisame to help in the inner defence. She'd claimed the entire north end of the city as her territory and covered it in a massive blizzard. Her unholy endurance and power were coming into play now. The weather conditions prevented any wild pokemon from getting more than a few feet into her territory. They usually met their ends just a few feet in, but that still didn't discourage them from rushing to those ends. It would have been admirable, if it wasn't so pathetic. A brown shadow flew across my vision and I followed it to see it split a tentacool in twain and continue its movement. It was Broly, I had no doubts about that. Extreme speed had done him a world of good, and now he was using the move to cover distance across the entire city, taking out any wild pokemon who strayed too far from the areas we were forming to box them in.

I ignored Igneel's roar behind me as he finished being healed and swept into the skies once more. Behind me were Tsunade, Ino and Magnezone. THe electric type was sweeping around, zapping any pokemon that got too close while Tsunade was manning what had become our own medical station. She wasn't a Chansey, but something about fairy type energy lent itself well to healing moves. She healed other pokemon faster than I'd ever seen any Chansey manage. Ino was here for mission control. At such distances, I couldn't communicate the clearest of messages with my aura, but Ino had no difficulty spreading her mind across the entire city and communicating with the entire team. 'Tell Gai to retreat to us here and move Kenpachi in to take his place' I thought at her and she sent my message across at the speed of thought. Endurance was the name of the game, so I regularly subbed out members of the team to come over here and be healed by Tsunade. Her addition to the team was just the gift that kept on giving. Her healing ability alone made her indispensable. The fact that she was the perfect type for dragonslaying was just icing on the proverbial cake. Gai landed and bowed to me before moving towards Tsunade. They exchanged words as she healed him and I watched him truly relax for the first time since his evolution. If there's anything I was thankful for, it was the relationships that had developed between my team. They were all friends, but between them,there were friendships that went even deeper. Tsunade and Gai was one such example. Broly and Kenpachi were another. They weren't one big family, more like a group of friends made up of small families but I had no reason to be dissatisfied with that. They all worked well enough together and clearly cared for one another. It was perfect.

'Kisame has spent too much time there. Tell her to kill the Blizzard and move out. Hashirama will continue area denial with "advent of flowering trees"' Ino nodded and did my will as intended. My attention was taken from the north as Igneel crashed through a building in pursuit of a particularly resilient Growlithe pack. I winced and scolded myself shortly. Yes, we were causing damage, but less than the pokemon would have if we left them to their devices, and we were also keeping the shelters safe. We were a net positive. It was harder to convince myself of that when Kisame's blizzard died down and I got a good look at the northern end of the city, or what remained of it. Luckily, the pokemon world was good at evacuations, and the city itself was empty. I turned to the most valuable part of the city and found Snorlax standing in front of a wall of other pokemon. He was the first barrier in the series of walls protecting the shelters from the wild pokemon. He was also the most effective barrier, taking out nine out of ten pokemon that swarmed towards the area, and leaving the rest to the weaker pokemon behind him and their trainers. He was being superb, and I suspected that he'd be the one I wouldn't need to sub out for a while. After all, his species had so much endurance that a Snorlax rampage wasn't just a threat for a few hours. A snorlax rampage could go on for days.

I still kept a close eye on the situation though. When he'd gotten there, he'd been attacked by a few of the trainer's pokemon out of fear, but Ino's voice in their heads was enough to calm them down. I still watched though, fear did not disappear so quickly, and one of them might be tempted to do something stupid. Oak had told me the fact that I hadn't noticed in over a year with my pokemon.

They were wild. I spent too much time out in nature, and not enough in cities. According to him, very few of my pokemon could be trusted around other humans without my controlling presence. He'd proven himself right when Igneel almost took off Gary's head when the little rascal had tried to climb his back. That had caused an awkward few days in the lab. The lab trainers had looked at me warily. After all, the bond between trainer and pokemon made it so wild pokemon meant either an unskilled trainer, or a wild one. I wasn't unskilled by any means, and no one wanted to be in the vicinity of a wild trainer.

I took the whispers and looks of wariness in stride though. I'd spent more time in the forests with my team than in any civilian population. I felt more comfortable in the wild than I did in five-star hotels. I mean, I could still control my impulses, so I wasn't a wild trainer by any means, but I was damn close.

Knowing that had me re-evaluating Oak's decision to train me in the lab for a few months. Had he seen me going wild and sought to forestall the disaster. I didn't know and for now, I couldn't care. It was time to swap out Broly with Gai. Gai wasn't as fast, but he could perform Broly's duties while my starter took a few seconds to rest. This attack seemed to have no end in sight. Oak had better hurry up with the device.

XXXXX

When Oak finally came back, the sun had gone down, and I'd been forced to use two full restores on Tsunade to keep her running and healing everyone else. I doubted that I could have lasted an hour more. I ignored his attempts at drawing me into conversation. I was a bit too tired to give a fuck about how rude I was being. It mattered not one whit to me. All I cared for was the device.

Sensing my disinterest in his tale of how he'd managed to overcome the hurdles in reverse-engineering the device, he sighed and stepped back to release the device from a capsule in his lab pocket. I didn't even bother being amazed at the spatial manipulation tech this world used so casually and focused on the device. It looked like a giant broadcasting station, complete with a host of antennas and what looked to be satellite dishes. When Oak finally switched it on, it activated with a barely audible 'whrllll'. It hummed into activity, I noticed the wild pokemon suddenly turning around, practically fleeing from the city.

"I'm sorry for taking so much time, my boy. It wasn;t enough to just replicate the signal. I had to enhance it to overpower the one coming from the wilds. After all, to maintain the attack, there has to be other devices spread across the wild spreading the signal. I also built a device to track the others. Let's get to disabling them"

I resisted the urge to tell him I was much too tired for this today, and that he should take care of it by himself. I wanted to see this through at the very least. Ino had returned the team to my side and I smiled as I spoke to them.

"We've succeeded today. Held the line. Near single-handedly defended the people of Cinnabar from their attackers. No one can doubt our strength now. Kisame, you had it on lock. Your blizzard took out a third of the attackers, and don't you think I've forgotten what you did with the water type pokemon. You're superb." She nuzzled herself against me as I complimented her and I smiled and turned to the rest of the team. Everyone was going to be getting some of this today.

"Ino, you were amazing. You took out all the attackers in the lab, retrieved everyone's balls, and coordinated most of our defence. Those are MVP feats if I've ever seen any." She was probably the only one on the team who'd understand my words with how much time she casually spent in my head. She bowed her head in thanks and I kept going.

"Hashirama. Both advent of a world of flowering trees and nativity: sea of trees on the same day? Stupefying. You pulled through and came in clutch. Thank you so much." He just grumbled a low "Trevenant" in reply, but our aura bond was clear. I knew how he felt.

"Magnezone, you're wondrous. You kept focus throughout the battle and ensured dozens of pokemon learned the errors of their ways in trying to attack me while I was under your protection. You had me thunderstruck" He warbled and went zipping around the building. I sighed fondly. Guess it was too much to expect him to remain focused for so long.

"Broly, extreme speed is your bitch. You swept everything and everyone. Like a real ninja. I saw those moves too. Bugsy's Scyther's got nothing on you. Absolutely sensational." My starter and best friend just nodded his thanks and placed a hand on my shoulder, taking care not to cleave it from my body.

"Igneel, is there anything for me to say? You were there from the beginning of the attack till the end. Unreal stamina and power. You took out a fully evolved competitive pokemon with a single move. You're awe-inspiring" A blue flamethrower went straight up in the sky at my words. I smiled fondly at my aggressive dragon.

"Snorlax, those pokemon didn't know what was coming for them. Not a single one got past you. You definitely deserve some treats for that. You were spectacular." A nod and a gesture at his stomach was all I got from my normal type. Unreal stamina or not, he was hungry. I gestured at Ino, and a snorlax cake appeared in my hands. I walked over and handed it to him and he swept me into a hug, taking care not to crush me, but still making my bones creak. Ino teleported me out the moment she felt the danger to be excessive, and he looked flustered at the mess up. I just smiled and rubbed his arm before turning to the next team member.

"Tsunade, is there any doubt that you were more important than I was today?" She preened at the complement and I continued. "We all relied on you for healing. Let's not even get into your battling. You were indispensable today." She gestured at Gai in a smug manner, and I turned to deliver his own accolades, but changed my mind and decided to leave him for last.

"Kenpachi, you were legendary. You wrestled down two pseudo-legendaries at once, swept aside nearly a hundred pokemon by yourself, and still made it through unscathed. You blew me away, buddy." His roar shook the building and I hurried to calm him with a hug. At least, there was less risk of him crushing me between his arms. We'd been having hugs like these since he was a Larvitar, after all.

"Gai, you evolved. Every bit of watching you today was breathtaking. You refused to give up, and showed that Hydreigon who's boss. You astonished us all with your performance. Incredible doesn't even begin to describe you today" He bowed low, and something told me to reciprocate, so I bowed just as deeply as he did. With everyone well thanked and recognised, time to move on to the next step.

"We're not done yet, though. We have one more task for today. I'm sorry for the stress, and if anyone would like to sit this one out, then there's no problem with that." They all looked at me like I was crazy, even Magnezone stopped his antics to stare at me. Ino slapped on my head, told me I was being silly, and said they were all coming. I smiled. I didn't deserve this team at all.

With all that over and done with, I turned to the old man and he only nodded before releasing his dragonite on the building. I returned everyone apart from Igneel and mirrored Oak's actions with his dragonite by climbing on his back. His plan was simple. He could track the Rocket's devices with his own, so he was going to fly ahead with Dragonite while I followed behind on Igneel's back. Whenever he found one, it would be up to Igneel and I to destroy it, and then join him as he searched for the next one. I doubted it was the most efficient way to get things done, but I didn't have any bad ideas so I followed him. The first thing I noted as we started the journey towards the volcano was that Oak's body had to be more powerful or durable than mine. His Dragonite set a punishing pace that Igneel could hardly match without turning me to pace on his back. How the fuck was he doing it? My question had me unconsciously reaching out with my aura to get the answer and when it came into contact with his, I reared back in shock. He didn't even turn around. I doubted he had any idea how he was doing what he was. Aura surrounded and enriched every part of his body. His body was being enhanced by his aura. Considering I tried nearly daily for months and couldn't do what he seemed capable of instinctively, I was justifiably ticked off. I'd tried and put in so much effort to achieve nothing but disappointment, and he just had it. No work, no effort, just there. Of course Oak had aura without even trying. He was Samuel Oak after all. Igneel brought me from my thoughts with a roar as Oak had come to a stop ahead of us and was pointing straight down. Igneel and I executed his unspoken orders without a second's hesitation. Good, destroying something might be just what the doctor ordered.

We dove straight at our target. The device was easy to spot as we got closer and weaved through the trees. Igneel ached to do something to the Rocket grunts sounding the alarm at our arrival, but I tempered that urge. A single fireball destroyed the machine and we were ascending again, unfazed. The rockets didn;t even get the opportunity to release their pokemon from their confines. We continued on, following Oak to the next device.

This time, I was unsurprised that the grunts were waiting for us with their pokemon ready. A wasted effort, really. I released Broly as we dove down, and he took advantage of the fall to cut down two of the Golbats on the way down. The last one of the species got the unfortunate experience of being ripped apart by an aggressive dragon.

The pokemon on the floor were taken out by my starter before we got close enough to the device for an accurate shot. This time, I allowed Broly to have the honour, and once he'd smashed it to smithereens, I returned him to his ball and we continued our journey.

"You're sure we got all of them?" I asked the professor again to confirm, and he nodded. "What next, then?" He had point on this. He was more experienced, and probably had a better idea of what we needed to be doing.

"Now that I'm sure the devices work as planned, I'll be disseminating them to the major league cities. Since you spearheaded the defence of this place, you should remain, ensure things are in order. Rest a bit and I'll see you later" I nodded at his words and turned from him.

"Yes, I can assure you that the pokemon will not be returning" I said, perhaps for the seventieth time today. Not for the first time either, I was beginning to regret my decision to speak to the civilians of Cinnabar and coax them out of the shelter.

"And these rockets are gone?" The mayor asked with a smile on his face that told me he was enjoying not being the one being questioned by the idiots. I'd come in and met the place on the verge of a riot, with a seemingly infinite number of questions being hurled the mayor's way. Once he noticed I had something to say, he'd hurriedly evacuated the stage and left me in charge of fending off this attack.

"Yes, Professor Oak has installed his own devices that should override the Rockets' and prevent anything like this from happening again." I sighed as another person asked whether I'd checked every building for wild pokemon. Normally, the police force should be taking care of this, but Officer Jenny and her staff had been some of the first casualties of the attack, attempting to stave off the wild pokemon. As a lab trainer with seven badges, in the absence of a gym leader or any official authority, I was in charge. Technically, the mayor was, but he wasn't keen on being any help. This was going to be a long day.

A/N; Finally done with exams. Happy Valentine's everyone, but as a very single pringle, I'm here writing instead of being hopelessly in love somewhere outside. Y'all should have fun. Let me live vicariously through you. Thanks for reading. I'm sure you can tell it's a bit longer than usual. We just finished Chapter 46 on the pa-atreon page. Feel free to join me there if you feel like supporting my work. Same username as up here. The link's on my profile.