The three quietly descended down the metal stairs into a dark and narrow hallway. A motion sensor caught them and fluorescent lights lit up one by one to illuminate the steel corridor. They cautiously walked forward; Mikayla replaced the white sash on her sundress with her Pokémon belt and all three of them removed their faulty eyewear. They stalked through the corridor looking for alternate entrances to other areas where the stone might be hidden. They eventually found a large metal sliding door with an illuminated keypad beside it. It was a code activated door; they looked at each other nervously. Erin and Blue began contemplating possible codes; they agreed to try 1-9-9-5, the year Team Rocket was formed. Before Erin could walk forward to enter the code, Mikayla was standing in front of the keypad. She raised her right leg and swung it down hard on the keypad, effectively kicking it off the wall, it landed on ground with a shatter and the door shakily opened. Erin and Blue stood there in shock, same with Mikayla.
"Even I'M surprised that worked." Mikayla laughed out loud.
They continued into an identical steel hallway that entered a large metal sitting room. Before they knew it, they were surrounded by a brigade of identical looking Team Rocket grunts. Erin released her Charizard, Mikayla released her Feraligatr, and Blue released a Scizor. They made quick work of the barrage of Zubats, Koffings, and Rattatas, the ONLY Pokémon Team Rocket grunts ever seemed to have. As the grunts retreated, Erin, Mikayla and Blue approached the nearby elevator. They entered and looked at the buttons, which one would they press? They settled on "Cargo Hold", it was the lowest floor in the building. And with a name like that, it just made sense. As the elevator descended, they stood in silence, mentally preparing for what was ahead of them. The elevator arrived at their floor with a ding and they all held their breath as the door slid open. A lone crate was at the end of the hallway, a purple glow slipped through the cracks in the crate.
"The Master Stone!" they all yelled as they ran toward it.
They were interrupted by a familiar sound, an elderly lady sweetly clearing her throat. They turned to see the same sweet, old lady they met in the casino.
"Excuse me!" she began, "But I think I've gotten myself lost, I was looking for a washroom and I ended up down here, silly me." She laughed.
Mikayla rushed over to assist the lady, Erin grew suspicious. The lady smiled deviously and ripped off her silver wing to reveal short purple hair. The imposter grabbed Mikayla's wrist, twisted it behind her back and sent her to the ground with a loud thud. The male imposter pressed his foot into Mikayla's back and laughed manically.
"Mikayla!" Blue yelled and attempted to rush over.
"Sludge." The imposter said simply, with a demonic smile.
A Weezing appeared from around the corner and shot a purple sludge bomb out of its mouth, knocking Blue backward. The man still continued to laugh manically.
"I am Petrel!" he yelled. "I am Team Rocket's MASTER of disguise, did you really think you could fool ME with those cheap outfits and sappy, overdone backstories?" he continued to boastfully laugh.
Mikayla wore a look of both shock and disgust. She looked up at the psycho, who was still standing on her.
"YOU were that old lady?" she said breathlessly. "That is just wrong."
"It sure fooled you idiots, and led you right to your doom!" he laughed some more as his two other Pokémon revealed themselves, a Raticate and another Zubat.
"Meganium, use Razor Leaf!" Erin yelled as she released her Pokémon.
"Golduck, Hydro Pump!" Blue released his Pokémon as well.
Mikayla attempted to wriggle to reach her Pokémon, but Petrel dug his foot deeper into Mikayla's back causing her to cry out in pain. While Blue's Golduck took care of Petrel's Zubat, he charged toward Petrel and tackled him to the ground, once he had pinned him down; Blue threw a couple punches to Petrel's smug face. Mikayla stumbled to her feet and released her Arcanine.
"Fire Blast!" she yelled and pointed to the Weezing.
Arcanine shot out an extreme beam of fire toward the Pokémon, damaging it severely. It floated to the ground. Petrel managed to kick Blue off of him. Suddenly, a familiar orange beam pierced the roof of the room. Ariana descended in on her stolen Aerodactyl. Petrel jumped on the Pokémon with her.
"Weezing, Self-Destruct." He laughed heartily one last time before ascending to the main floor to escape. "It's sad you won't make it to the sunny shores! It would've been a galactic, good time!"
The three gasped and returned their Pokémon; they hid behind a large steel girder in a huddle, protecting one another. Weezing grew redder and redder until it finally exploded, knocking over several steel girders, causing the roof to cave in. Erin and Blue quickly released their Charizard and Pidgeot and mounted their Pokémon. Mikayla ran and scooped The Master Stone's crate in her arms and jumped onto Erin's Charizard.
They left the building the same way Petrel and Ariana did, dodging falling debris and narrowly escaping their deaths. Upon landing in the nearby forest, they fell off their Pokémon and lay on the ground, panting, their hearts were pounding from almost dying. Mikayla sat up, The Master Stone in hand, she smiled wide. Everyone smiled and laughed and yelled, they were all so happy. The stone was now in safe hands!
"We did it!" Mikayla yelled.
"I can't believe Team Rocket was dumb enough to leave this!" Erin laughed.
Their rejoicing stopped, they looked at each other nervously. Even Team Rocket wasn't THAT stupid. Mikayla hastily pried open the crate. All hope left her eyes as she watched a small Duskull leave the crate; it was what was emitting the purple light. All that was left in the crate was the blinking tracking device with a note attached to it. It read "Haha!", and was stamped with the Team Rocket logo. Mikayla threw the crate and buried her face in her hands, tears streamed through her fingers. Erin stood there with a blank face, still in shock, her hands shook. Blue kicked the ground violently, cursing loudly. They had failed, and now no one knew where the stone was, or who had it. The world was pretty much over. Erin stood up as her PokeGear began to ring. Koga's hopeful face entered the screen.
"I saw the stone move! Does that mean you have it?" he smiled wide.
Tears began to well in Erin's eyes as she held up the tracking device with the note attached. Koga lost all expression in his face, he looked solemnly toward Erin.
"I see." He said blankly. "Well I guess it's best that you three return to the Oak Lab, and we can deal with this." He sounded devastated, the screen went black.
Erin angrily wiped away her tears, she wasn't going to cry. Blue had found his way to Mikayla, he held her while she sobbed into his shoulder. The three of them walked to the Celadon Pokémon Centre and changed back into their regular clothes. They sat in silence at a table in the Pokémon Centre lobby.
"I guess it's back to life in New Bark after this." Erin finally said "For the time being." She sighed.
That's right, with the stone in the hands of evil there was no telling of the devastation that was about to strike the world.
"I have to go back to my parents in Azalea Town, it's not like there's a home for me in Sunyshore anymore." Mikayla also sighed.
Blue slammed his fist on the table and looked up.
"Sunyshore! Sunny shores…what did Petrel say last when he left?" hope trickled its way into his eyes.
"It's sad you won't make it to the sunny shores…" Erin began slowly.
"It would've been a galactic, good time." Mikayla finished, her tone elevated at the end.
"Even for Petrel, that's an odd thing to say!" Blue looked at the two girls hopefully.
"Yeah, you're right!" Erin exclaimed. "But what does it mean?"
"Galactic good time?" Blue pondered. "There's some sort of significance with the word 'galactic'." His forehead wrinkled with thought.
"TEAM Galactic!" Mikayla chimed in "They're basically the Team Rocket of Sinnoh, hell bent on manipulating the legendaries of Sinnoh!"
"Maybe they're working together?" Blue pondered.
"If that's the case, they must be in Sunyshore! 'Sunny shores'? Can it get more obvious!" Erin laughed.
"But why would Petrel give us such a huge hint?" Mikayla looked very confused.
"I think he was hoping that we'd die in that explosion" Blue said darkly.
"We have to call Koga and tell him this!" Erin said excitedly, she got up and made the call on the other side of the room for some reason.
"So we should probably head to Vermillion and catch the next boat to Sunyshore!" Blue smiled.
Mikayla looked very uneasy and nervous.
"What's wrong?" he asked concernedly.
"It's just, well, I have an ex in Sunyshore. Things didn't work out." She gestured to the gash on her cheek.
"Did he give you that?" shock and anger entered Blue's eyes.
"No, he didn't give it to me physically!" she assured. "It just happened because of something he did." Blue seemed a little more at ease. "I fell through the ice of Lake Acuity when I ran away after I caught him cheating on me." She looked away from Blue; this was really embarrassing for her to say.
Blue reached over and grabbed her hand on the table, he looked at her with sympathetic eyes.
"Well, Sunyshore is a big city, we probably won't see the jerk." He smiled sweetly.
"Well he IS the gym leader." Mikayla said uneasily.
"Volkner did this to you?" the shock and hate found its way back into his blue eyes.
Mikayla nodded slowly.
"Well if I see him, I'll be sure to give him a few choice words." Blue assured her. "Because I—" he let go of Mikayla's hand. "Well because you're my friend." He face grew red as Mikayla smiled at him.
"Thanks Blue." she said quietly and sweetly.
Erin returned to the table.
"It's all set, Koga is ecstatic! We leave tomorrow for Sunyshore!" Erin beamed. "Oh Mikayla, Sunyshore, will you be alright?" she looked concerned.
She never did ask what happened between her and Volkner. But now, in front of Blue, it didn't seem like the appropriate time. Mikayla stood up hastily.
"Of course I'll be alright! We have to get the stone back!" she enthusiastically shot her fist into the air.
Erin and Blue laughed at their free spirited friend.
They turned and left the Pokémon Centre, they hoped it wasn't too late.