Months had passed, and seasons changed. Outside the window the wind ferried the white clouds across the blue sky, slowly moving along in the streams of air. Anne was sitting on a box, looking out the window. It was one of her few comforts these days, with the pressure from Germany and having seven other people in the house. "There still... has to be some hope for us. Right, Jericho?" Anne looked to her side, to find the space empty. ~I thought I'd let him out of his ball already...~ Having remembered Margot's suggestion, Anne kept Jericho's ball on hand at all times, usually in her school bag, inside a pocket she'd sewn for her Pokemon balls. So she took out Jericho ball, and after a moment took out the rest of her Pokemon: Calypso, Sleipnir, Moortje, Gabriel and Jasper. "Come out, everyone!"

The Pokemon came out of their balls, filling up the attic. Sleipnir raised his head to say "Pon!" ~Hey Anne! Moortje hopped onto his usual spot on Sleipnir's back, and waved. Anne smiled and waved back. ~Sleipnir's gotten used to Moortje on his back. My heart almost stopped when Sleipnir reared up to fling Moortje off and bumped into the wall, that one time. Quick thinking for me to recall him and say I'd done it. And they are "strong Pokemon who could help me in a pinch",~ Anne warmly remembered. ~Sleipnir's almost as strong as Calypso and Jericho now... and he's not so timid as he was when I first got him. And Calypso is still the prettiest,~ Anne thought, her eyes lingering on the angelic pale fur on Calypso's ears and tail. ~And still the greatest. Jasper... you drive me crazy. I couldn't keep up with you if it wasn't for Gabriel.~ Jasper was buzzing around the attic, so fast it was hard to see the cicada-like Pokemon. Its golden yellow head and beady red eyes, black abdomen and gray arms were a blur. ~In the sewers, Uncle Reuben had said Jews were dumping their Pokemon in there. And what should I happen upon but a bug Pokemon! He evolved so quickly, but then all bug Pokemon are like that.~ Anne looked to her side, where Gabriel had floated to. ~And you're just odd. I didn't even notice you were following me until I'd almost left the sewer.~ In many ways, Gabriel was a total opposite to Anne: it was quiet, reserved, thoughtful; and where Anne was full of life, Gabriel was just an empty shell. Literally, the Pokemon looked like nothing so much as the husk of a Ninjask, brown and with a gray abdomen. It had unmoving tattered looking wings, and a halo. ~And of course, there's you.~ Jericho waited looking up to Anne, and sat. ~It's hard not to be too sweet on you.~ "Miep and Bep always have a story of someone getting dragged off by the Gestapo, and sometimes I can see it happening from the window. I just wanted to-"

The door into the attic creaked open. Misses Frank stuck her head in, her eyes going wide. "Annelies Marie Frank! What on Earth do you think you're doing?" ~She's giving me a head of gray hair before my time! It's bad enough that she sneaks off to that Pokemon league... and some day I'll catch her at it.~

"I- I'm doing what anyone in my position would do..." ~I don't want to be separated from them without at least saying goodbye.~

"And that would be recalling your Pokemon to their balls." Misses Frank was trying hard to stare at Anne, but Jericho had walked over and was rubbing against her leg. "Anne..." After glaring at each other for a few tense seconds, Anne sighed angrily and recalled her Pokemon to their balls.

-Krafla, Iceland-

Ingrid had won the coin toss to decide who would be carrying the three legendary golems: Regice, Regirock, and Registeel. Jakob had the three Master Balls they had been provided with to capture the "Golem King", Regigigas. Ingrid looked towards her partner, her fine red hair escaping from the fur lined hood of her coat and whipping in the wind. Jakob looked back, and his eyes seeming to convey he too understood the gravity of the situation. They had stolen and defeated countless Pokemon together over the years, some in broad daylight but most in secret. Even so, it seemed all their years of experience might not be enough.

Jakob extended his arm and bowed, mouthing "You first." Ingrid nodded and began the climb up to Snowpoint Temple, where Regigigas slept. There were a multitude of icy spikes poking up through the snow, scattered all around the peak like a bristly coat of fur. They made the going more difficult, occupying the more level planes of the slope. It seemed as if they moved around as well.

After several hour's worth of hard climbing in the snow, Ingrid and Jakob arrived at the temple, breathless. The temple guide concealed a smile as he saw them approach. ~Foreigners. You can always tell...~ "Please, come in from the snow," He said in his best Dutch. The Team Rocket duo followed the short man through the archway into a hall with pillars lining it. "Regigigas is on the sixth floor. The floors are icy this time of year though, and there are boulders on the floor."

"Would we be allowed to worship in private?" Ingrid asked, pulling the hood of her coat back and shaking out her hair.

~Oh! You hardly find foreigners of the faith.~ "Certainly. But do be careful of the ice on the floor and stairs, I almost broke my hip when I fell the other day."

Jakob nodded, and led Ingrid off towards the stairs at the end of the hall. Ionic columns, Jakob noted. His snowshoes clicked and clacked on the polished marble, dusting it with powdery white. Along the walls, inbetween the columns he also noticed bas-relief sculptures of Regigigas, and the legendary golems which were now in their posession.

"Jakob," Ingrid had grabbed him by the shoulder.

"Oh." Jakob looked down, and saw his foot was hovering over thin air at the stairwell. "Ahem." He drew back his foot, and walked around with Ingrid to the steps. They were steep, and indeed they could see light reflecting off pacthes of ice. Coming down to the second floor, the electric lights had been replaced with torches. The columns were still present, as were the bas-relief sculptures; but both were more worn. The boulders had been arranged into borders for a path, though here and there a few had wandered off to an odd spot.

They had gotten half-way acroos the room when Ingrid slipped on the ice. "Ha! Why don't we make a game of it, and slide?" She stood and backed up a few steps, before getting a running start and sliding to the other side of the patch of ice. She looked back and smiled. Jakob stared blankly at the patch, then smirked and followed. "Just try to catch me!" She raced around the room, sliding across the ice and bracing herself against a boulder, and dashing away again. For four more levels they played their game of cat and mouse, sliding around the icy floors of the temple. Ingrid could not help but laugh, their descent to Regigigas a welcome interlude between their hard trek up and the battle ahead.

And so they came to the sixth floor, which was almost completely covered in ice. Jakob removed his pack and took out a Pokemon ball. "Growlie, I choose you!" The beam of light shot out, and left behind a canine Pokemon, with bright orange fur and black stripes. Its belly, tail and the fluff on top of its head were a creamy colored fur. And except for the two on its front legs, it had no claws.

"Have one of the Master Balls ready," Ingrid said.

Jakob sighed, and ran a hand through his platinum blond hair. "Alright." A quick search through his pack yielded one of the Master Balls, an extremely expensive and valuable type of ball that would never fail to capture a Pokemon. "Let's go." He pushed off the boulder and slid several feet, grinding to a halt on a bare spot of dried lava flow. He could see Regigigas in the middle of the room, still as a statue. ~By Thor's mighty hammer...~

The Golem King stood twelve feet high, moss growing on its feet and shoulders and back. It had the same bulky shape typical of the golems, with black stripes on its white body. It had thick yellow bands around its shoulders, and at the end of its long arms around its wrists. In the middle of its chest and upper body there was a ridge with seven dots in a tall cross-like pattern, and on either side of this ridge were six large gems; two red, two blue, and two silver. Ingrid slid over to Jakob and took a moment to admire Regigigas, then placed the three balls containing Regice, Regirock, and Registeel on the ground.

Then everything happened at once. As Ingrid called, "Regigigas, awaken!" Growlie skidded into a clump of ice spikes near the giant and yowled, and the Golem King exhaled a breath that smelled musty and ancient. It straightened up, and the ice around it began to crack. Regigigas uttered a guttural cry, and the ice near him exploded, several Pokemon standing up. They had the appearance of a shaggy white bear standing on its hind legs, but with a mole-like head that had a horn of ice. And seeing the large spikes of ice protruding from the back of their shoulders, Jakob realized that the slope outside had been covered with them. The one Growlie had run into roared, and suddenly a chilly wind blasted into the room, bringing with it a swirling haze of snow.

"Growlie, use Flamethrower and get over here!" Jakob's Growlithe let out a huge spray of fire from its mouth hitting the angered Pokemon point blank. In a leap and a skid, Growlie came back to Jakob's side. He had whipped his out Pokedex and was reading it's information on the Pokemon Growlie had attacked. ~Frozgar, the Ice Mole Pokemon. When defending its territory, it will shoot a barrage of icicles from its shoulders.~

Ingrid saw her partner frozen in place and yelled, "What are you waiting for, Jakob? The Master Ball! Go!"

Jakob snapped out of his trance and dropped the Pokedex, grabbing the Master Ball from the floor. He threw it at Regigigas, but at that moment the Frozgar Growlie had flamed curled down and unleashed a hail of icicle spears from its shoulders, knocking the Master Ball off its path and towards another Frozgar. "Growlie! Use Flame Burs-" Jakob was cut short by a sharp tremor in the ground that threw him off balance, and then the ground bucked up and tossed him away onto the ice...

-The Fuhrerbunker-

"My Fuhrer, we have received word that Jakob and Ingrid of Team Rocket have returned from Krafla." Adolf Hitler had called in over a dozen of his officers, generals and secretaries to meet and discuss tactics for the upcoming battles.

"Excellent! I think this would be an opportune moment to employ the legendary golems. Wenck, where would you deploy them?"

The general pointed to locations near Berlin on the map. "Here, here, and here. Regirock would be perfect to fortify the defenses around the Oder."

Hitler nodded, vaguely gesturing with his hand. "We must have Regigigas delivered to the Elbe river, and keep those damned Americans out of our house. He will show them true power."

General Alfred Jodl swallowed. "My Fuhrer... Ingrid and Jakob returned with severe injuries..."

General Wenck prepared himself to make the announcement. "My Fuhrer, they... failed to capture Regigigas."

The news was met with a terrifyingly prolonged silence. Trembling, Hitler's hand rose and removed his glasses. "...Wenck, stay. Everybody else who already knew of this, leave the room immediately." Nervous glances flickered around the room, and all but five left. "How could they fail? I supplied them with three, three! Master Balls and they still could not capture it?" Hitler glared at Wenck, and the other generals. "Even a damned Jewish child could have succeeded with three Master Balls!" Rising up, Hitler began to pace. "How could the two most experienced agents in the whole of Team Rocket fail so miserably, when the Temple was supposed to be vacant? Did they blindfold themselves, or perhaps they were making love, and decided to jump down the mountainside naked-"

General Weidling risked an interruption. "My Fuhrer, Ingrid reported they were attacked by a gang of wild Pokemon-"

"Bullshit! They had the three legendary golems with them, there is no way they could have been overwhelmed-"

"-and the Pokemon suddenly appeared when Regigigas awoke."

"Suddenly appeared my mustache! How the hell do you not notice a horde of wild Pokemon in the room?" Hitler threw down the pens he had been holding, scattering over the map. "Must I do this and capture Regigigas myself? The Third Reich is in the shadow of death, and without Regigigas we have nothing left! Nothing! I have been planning this and holding out for it so long, even Eva thinks that my mind is gone! What have I done to deserve this? A failure of this magnitude is unheard of! And you have the nerve to walk in here and talk of an almost blasphemous level of incompetence, as if outlining an argument for their defense?" Sitting down, Hitler continued. "Who will the Hitler Youth look up to? They'll be out on the streets at night, on their knees praying for a new hero in the light of the bombings. I refuse to believe this nonsense! It is just not possible! What will you tell me next, that this war is unwinnable for us?"

Outside in the hallway, Magda Goebbels was comforting Hannah Reitsch. "Don't worry, your husband is fine. He's just found out Ingrid and Jakob failed..."

Hitler fell silent, and his officers were sweating bullets waiting for his next words. "I suppose if you think about it, it makes sense... as the cowards run for their lives, the Master Balls miss... and then they're savaged by the invisible Pokemon..." He turned to Mengele, who was somehow in the room. "Let them recover; give them the finest treatment available. But the moment they've healed, they will be leading all of Team Rocket to Snowpoint Temple. Regigigas will be ours."