The Year of Rocket's Revenge
Session: April, Part 4 (04.18.06/08.07.08)
Brock was sitting on a rock in front of the Pewter Gym, sulking.
Why, you ask?
"Why are you ignoring me? When do I get back in this story?"
Then, with his shoulder slouched, he slowly wandered off.
Friday, April 19th, Blackthorn City Southern Limits
The following morning, Jessie, James, and Persian were standing at the city border, each of them carrying a backpack filled with supplies and what little belongings that had been given or had bought while staying in Blackthorn for the last few months. They were being sent off by several members of the Dragon Clan, all dressed in blue. But one in particular was noticeably missing from the group, and James was the first to notice.
"Hey! Where's Dragon Master Clair?"
"The mistress apologizes in advance for not seeing you off," one of them replied. "Being a gym leader comes first, and she had some challengers awaiting her this morning, so..."
"Say no more," Jessie interrupted. "You're right, being a gym leader does come first."
"Den she won't mind if we skedaddle!" chirped Persian.
"Remember, my friends... feel free to call on us if you ever need help."
"Thanks for everything!" the trio said gracefully as they bowed before the clan.
The clan members bowed in return, and then Jessie, James, and Persian turned about and started to head out of the city, down Route 45.
"Aren't they nice folk?" James asked.
"Uh huh," Jessie nodded. "They didn't have to be so gracious to rotten scoundrels like us, and yet, they welcomed us with open arms!"
"Makes me wunda why we used ta pick on people like dat."
As the three former Team Rocket members rounded the corner and disappeared from the sights of the Dragon Clan, they didn't know that two current Rockets were waiting for them to walk right into their trap.
"That's right... just a little bit closer..."
They watched as the trio trotted right into the 'target zone.' At that point, the duo began their attack... with Domino throwing one of her trademark black tulips to the ground in front of them.
"What's that?" James asked.
"It looks like a tulip," replied Jessie. "A black tulip."
"Ha ha ha ha ha!" came a laugh from a nearby barren tree. "You must've been some great ex-Rockets for someone of my stature to come and have to exterminate you."
"Ex... exterminate?!" the trio said with fright.
"You see, I'm a member of Team Rocket's Special Forces. I am one of the organization's most elite agents. We're only called upon to tackle the most dangerous assignments. Consider yourselves lucky... for to have to have been put on an extermination assignment, you guys must be the best."
"We are the best!" James exclaimed.
"Isn't that reason enough for you to give up on exterminating us?" screamed Jessie.
"You know what you got into when you became members of Team Rocket. Isn't that right... Jessie and James?"
Jessie and James gasped in shock, while Persian was a bit agitated.
"What about me? I'm not chopped liver, you know!"
"You're just a Pokémon! You're nothing more than a tool of destruction!"
"Persian is NOT a tool!" Jessie shouted.
"That's right! He's an equal member of our terrifying trio!" added James.
"Very well then. We were going to spare the Persian so he could get reassigned to another team. But I guess you all want to go down together..."
"Will you stop talking already!" exclaimed Mark, who appeared a few feet behind Jessie and James. "That's not what we're here for!"
"Hey!" Domino exclaimed. "I haven't finished my introduction yet!"
"You're taking too long! How long does it take to tell them your name's Domino?"
"Thanks, you just ruined the whole bit for me! And it's Team Rocket tradition, I'll have you know!"
Mark tossed out a Pokéball, and out of it came his Absol.
"Sol!" Absol growled.
"Besides, we're assassins. If they know who's going to kill them, it makes it harder for us to do our job! Absol, use Razor Wind!"
Absol fired a sharp edge of wind at Jessie and James, but they were ready to respond as they pulled out Pokéballs of their own.
"Go..." they both yelled. "Dratini!"
Out of each of the Pokéballs came a Dratini, ready to fight.
"This is so exciting!" squealed Jessie. "I'm finally able to use a Dratini of my own!"
"Now," James commanded, "use Twister as a counter!"
James' Dratini used Twister, and indeed, it countered the Razor Wind from Absol. Jessie then sent her Dratini into the fray.
"Okay, Dratini, use Wrap!"
Jessie's Dratini slithered over and surrounded Absol. She then wrapped her body around the Pokémon, temporarily immobilizing him.
"Absol, use Bite!"
Absol bit into Dratini, forcing the dragon Pokémon to release her grip.
"Now, Quick Attack!"
Absol quickly slammed into Jessie's Dratini, sending it flying back into James' Dratini. Both hit the ground, taking heavy damage.
"Oh no, our Dratini!" James yelled.
"I guess we didn't give them enough training yet!" Jessie declared.
Domino reminded them all that she was still there by throwing another black tulip - this one right in front of the two Dratini. And this one happened to spark dark electricity, powerful enough to paralyze the two dragon PokИmon.
"Is that all it took?" Domino wondered as she jumped down from the tree. "Pathetic."
Jessie, James, and Persian were now surrounded, with Domino in front of them and Mark and Absol behind them.
"You know, I usually don't soil my hands with exterminating people. But I can make an exception for some lowlifes like you three. How you ever got this supposed reputation of yours is beyond me!"
"Oh yeah?" Jessie shot back at her. "Well, that's not all we have!"
Jessie and James threw out all their other Pokéballs. Arbok, Weezing, Lickitung, and Victreebel emerged to protect their masters. Even Persian unsheathed his claws, prepared to defend all of them to the bitter end.
"That's it?" Mark wondered out loud. "Man, this is going to be a piece of cake."
"This isn't even worth my time," Domino declared, rolling her eyes. "You can handle it. I really don't care."
"You mean you don't want to be head of Team Rocket in the Johto region?"
"Like I said, I don't care. Good luck running this dump! Johto hasn't really been worth my time."
Domino turned and started to walk away, but then out of nowhere, a massive Hyper Beam blasted the ground near her. A huge cloud of dust kicked up, and a few pieces of the mountains surrounding the path could be heard breaking loose and falling to the ground. Mark turned about and searched for the source of the attack.
He saw it... flying in the air above.
It was a Dragonite. A Dragonite that had a man in blue garb riding on his back. But he wasn't alone, as three more Dragonite appeared with riders on their backs. And on the ground, four more trainers in blue, each sporting a Dragonair.
"Wow, they really did come to help us!" James exclaimed.
"Wait... did you call for them, James?" Jessie wondered.
"No. I thought you did!"
Two of the Dragonite landed on the ground, between Jessie and James and their Pokémon, and Mark and his Absol. The other two continued to fly overhead, while the four trainers with Dragonair held their position.
"We'll handle this hooligan!" the guy on the lead Dragonite said. "Go! Make a break for it!"
Jessie and James nodded without hesitation, and then recalled all of their Pokémon, including their weakened Dratini. They bolted into the dust cloud and ran through to the other side, unimpeded, and towards the trail leading down the mountain. But Domino emerged seconds later, having survived the explosion yet covered with dust and a bruise or two.
"Figures there was more to this," Domino said aloud. "They've got hired help, and powerful help at that! Too bad they didn't leave any to watch their backs."
Domino pulled out three more black tulips. But these had red stems on them, signifying that these would be lethal to whoever was struck by them.
"Farewell. You won't be missed."
She reared back, preparing to throw them with all of her might. Then, without warning, she was swept off her feet by a massive wind. A wind courtesy of yet another Dragonite and his large wings.
And riding on this one's back was Clair, the Blackthorn City gym leader.
"You'll have to get through me before even thinking about them!" she told her.
Domino hopped back up on her feet, growling as she whipped out another red-stemmed black tulip.
"I'm sure the boss won't mind if there's an extra extermination."
"Watch your mouth! I'm a gym leader, and a member of the Pokémon League!"
Domino smirked. "Then he really won't mind. Taking out a gym leader? That's exactly how I wanted to spend my day."
Domino charged for Clair's Dragonite, and the humongous Pokémon followed suit. It was a battle for the ages, and neither was going to back down.
And all the while, Jessie, James, and Persian were once again escaping to safety.
Monday, April 22nd, Pokémon Trainers' Association Headquarters
AJ Kamensky was sitting inside the office of Patti Masters, who was in charge of all of the junior agents at the PTA.
"No offense, but are you sure I need a partner?" AJ asked.
"No matter how strong you and your Pokémon might be," Patti said to him, "an agent always needs someone to watch his back. You never know what can happen out there in the field."
"Fine. But I don't want no rookie!"
"Wouldn't dream of it. In fact, your partner has plenty of field experience. You might actually know him."
As if on cue, the door into the office slowly swung open. And in stepped... Arius McFly.
"Hey, I guess we're partners now, huh?"
Pokémon League Headquarters, Indigo Plateau
Cassie was holding up an empty picture frame in one hand and a photo of Arius in the other as she sat behind her desk in her office. She then tossed both in the trash can and turned her attention to more important matters.
She was busy trying to rearrange her schedule for the next few weeks, as a couple of appearances she had planned were canceled and a couple of others had popped up that she really wanted to go to. But as she went through her inbox and her automatic computer scheduler, she came across two messages that were marked as read, but also had a 'flag' marker next to them to signify their importance.
The first one had 'Werner Geissler' listed as the subject. She clicked on it and opened the message. There was a fairly large attachment pinned to it, with the e-mail itself stating:
'Here's the information you requested, C. From B.'
She opened the attachment and quickly scanned the 72-page document. Having read it before, she was only looking for a few key parts. Once she was satisfied, she closed the attachment and the message and went to open the second one. This one had as a subject 'Request for Authorization.'
Upon opening it, the message read:
'In order to complete admission into the Saffron City Medical Center, authorization is needed from the admittee's sponsor. Please have the attached form filled out completely and send it and all the appropriate documentation to the address listed.
We once again thank you for choosing Saffron Med, the number one hospital in the Kanto region.'
Meanwhile, Lt. Surge was in Professor Geissler's office, having a lively debate about Cassie and her role in their continued research.
"I just don't think we can trust the girl anymore!" Surge shouted. "She has refused to cooperate ever since the accident with that Tech doll!"
"I still believe Cassie can be very useful to us," countered Geissler. "After all, despite the Pewter City incident, Brock Slate has openly welcomed himself into our research plan. And she can still help us locate Marco Pereira, Misty Waterflower, and Ash Ketchum."
"You say can as if she will!"
"She just needs to be convinced that the experiment was an unexpected accident. One that the entire team is truly sorry transpired."
"Fine, but you deal with her. I'm tired of dealing with people that don't yield results..."
With that, Surge walked out of the office, slamming the door behind him.
"No need to worry, Lieutenant," the professor said with a smirk. "You won't have to deal with her much longer."
Thursday, April 25th, Team Rocket HQ Johto Region, Goldenrod City
Giovanni had just entered the base, which was smaller than the main branch outside of Viridian City, and found Domino, Marco, and all of the Johto base's personnel waiting for him, anxious to hear who will be the new leader.
"After reading the evaluations of your fellow Team Rocket members and carefully going over the reports of activity in the two months you two have been here, I've finally reached my decision."
Domino and Mark waited with baited breath. One of them was about to become the leader of an entire region's forces.
"I have decided... that neither of you will be the new leader of Team Rocket."
Lots of mumbling could be heard by the underlings as Domino's mouth was hanging wide open in shock. Mark, on the other hand, was outraged.
"After all that? Then why did you have me waste the last two months of my life?"
Mark stepped forward as if he was going to hurt Giovanni. Noticing this, Domino threw a black tulip into his path, causing him to stop and think twice about what he was about to do.
"How... HOW DARE YOU!"
"What? You're not angry that we've spent two months in this wasteland with nothing to show for it?"
Mark said that, unaware some of the underlings had heard him and were not pleased.
"Nobody cares what YOU think! Whatever the boss orders us to do, we're supposed to follow those orders to the letter!"
"But I could've been out there, doing other things! Things that would help Team Rocket achieve its goal of world domination!"
"Which is precisely the reason why I didn't give either of you the job," Giovanni sternly told them.
"What?"
"The two months the both of you spent out have made me realize how valuable your services are. So much so that having either of you pinned down in a position such as this would prove detrimental to all of our causes!"
"Does that mean what I think that means?" Domino wondered.
"Yes. Effective immediately, both of you are reassigned to the Special Forces division."
"Wait a minute!" Mark objected. "I've never been part of the Special Forces!"
"It means you are now, dummy!" Domino exclaimed.
"I have for each of you a special assignment that requires urgent attention."
Two black-suited Rocket grunts stepped forward, each handing over a sealed manila envelope.
"Both of you are to depart immediately. These missions must be dealt with before our grand scheme is to commence!"
Domino gasped with anticipation. "You mean..."
"Yes. Very soon, we will achieve world domination! Team Rocket will rule the world!"
With that announcement, everyone in the room cheered, sensing that all of their hard work would finally pay off.
"Then it all depends on us," Domino noted, before standing up at attention and saluting Giovanni. "I'm off then!"
Domino bolted out of the room. Mark got a hint and followed her out, off to complete his newest assignment, apparently satisfied with the reasoning Giovanni gave.
Monday, April 29th, Mt. Pyre
The people of the village inside the mountain were throwing a festive feast for two very special teenagers getting ready to leave after spending quite a time living there. There was plenty of lively music, cultural dancing, and huge feast to partake.
Most of which Ash Ketchum took advantage of.
"Wow!" Ash exclaimed between mouthfuls of food. "I want more!"
Misty sweatdropped. "I guess stuffing your face is going to keep being a tradition for you, huh?"
"Please, Lady Vaporeon the Second," pleaded Silvia as she presented another plate full of food. "Eat to your heart's content!"
"My heart's content enough already, but thanks anyway."
Suddenly, everything got quiet as everyone's attention turned towards the old sage's house, where he was about to address the crowd with Hoenn Champion Wallace by his side.
"With their training complete, it is now time to congratulate Sir Pikachu the First and Lady Vaporeon the Second! Now they go forth, back to the outside world, where they will be able to resume their normal lives while simultaneously spreading the good news of their succession."
The crowd cheered as the sage stepped aside to allow Wallace to speak.
"My fellow Pyrinians, it is with great pleasure that we honor Sir Pikachu the First and Lady Vaporeon the Second for their very outstanding achievements! Tonight, we celebrate the completion of their initiation! They have become the newest members of the Pokémon League's Young Masters Crew! They will now serve as ambassadors of the Pokémon League, to young trainers everywhere, to find up and coming youngsters..."
Ash leaned over and whispered in Misty's ear. "Why is Wallace telling a lie? Everyone here knows what we've been doing!"
"Yeah," Misty whispered back, "but since there are a few League officials here that aren't in on the whole 'Celebi-rus' deal, so we have to make sure they don't go and accidentally incite a panic."
"...and so, let's bring them up to award them their official badges! Sir Pikachu the First and Lady Vaporeon the Second!"
Ash and Misty got up and went to the stage to receive their badges from the old sage. They then got handshakes from him and Wallace, as well as the other League officials there.
"Now that all of that business is done with," the old sage said to the people, "LET'S PARTY!"
With that the festivities resumed, and everyone got back to having a good time. All except for Ash and Misty, who were hustled off to a private area by Wallace to have one last chat.
"I just want to wish you guys off," Wallace said them.
"But we're not leaving until tomorrow," Ash responded.
"You two aren't. But I am."
"But why?" Misty asked.
"Tracking down Marco won't be easy. For all we know, he might not still be alive. But it's important that if he still is, that I find him and convince him to undergo the training."
Wallace reached into his pocket and pulled out photos of Brock and Giselle and handed them to Ash. He and Misty looked at them, noticing both were taken very recently.
"You two will have the job of finding Brock and Giselle."
"I guess we're getting Brock first, since we know where he is," Misty said aloud.
Misty looked at Ash, as if waiting for him to agree. But he seemed to be eying Giselle's portrait very painstakingly.
"Is it just me... or has Giselle gotten hot?"
Misty replied... by bashing Ash on the head with her fist.
"Of course," Ash quickly covered, "You're even hotter than she is! In fact, you're SMOKIN'!"
"That's better."
"If I were the two of you..." Wallace said to them, "I would try and find Giselle first."
"Huh?" Misty said, now a little outraged that the Pokémon Master was focusing attention on her as well. "Why should we help that stuck-up bitch first?"
"Because that stuck-up bitch is in a lot of danger!"
"Danger?" Ash asked. "From what?"
"I don't know. Call it a gut feeling. Remember, I haven't been in the outside world since a few days before we brought you here. But just to be safe, I've had a trusted League official keeping tabs on them. They report to me once a month. But she hasn't given me a report on Giselle since last month!"
"You don't think..." Misty thought out loud.
"...that Team Rocket may have gotten a hold of her?" finished Ash.
"If they have, she may be in as precarious a position as Marco is. You have to make it a priority to find Giselle first!"
"Fine," Misty agreed. "But I'm not expecting her to be happy to see me."
"And convincing her will be even harder. I doubt she'd believe what we've been through."
"Do what you've got to do. In the meantime, I must flee. Good luck to the both of you."
And with that, Wallace ran off, disappearing towards the cavern exit heading down the mountain.
The next morning, Ash, Misty, and Pikachu left Mt. Pyre and headed northeast, riding aboard Charizard as they flew towards Lilycove City.
"It's a shame neither of them could come along with us," Misty said aloud.
"Yeah," replied Ash. "Sure would've been nice to have them by our side, especially given everything that's happened."
"You know how much chaos that would cause? It would be better if she waited before showing her face in public again."
"Pika," Pikachu nodded in agreement.
An hour and a half later, they landed in Lilycove. But the large metropolis was anything but quiet, as Ash and Misty saw plenty of police officers running here and there, and citizens and tourists with their eyes glued to the nearest TV they could find.
"What's going on?" Misty asked aloud as she hopped of Charizard, followed by Pikachu.
"I guess we'd better find out," Ash replied as he jumped off and then pulled out Charizard's Pokéball. "Charizard, return!"
"Groaaaarrrr!" he roared as he willingly was sucked in.
Ash pocketed the Pokéball, then ran after Misty and Pikachu, who had bolted for the nearest television.
"Hey, Mist, wait up!"
Ash finally caught up to his girlfriend as she gasped at what was unfolding on the TV screen. Pikachu leaped up onto Ash's head to get a better view, and he and Ash both elicited similar reactions when they saw the headlines.
"Repeating our top story," stated the news anchor, "no less than eight major cities were shaken out of their slumbers early this morning by a massive Team Rocket attack unlike any we have seen before. From Viridian and Celadon in the Kanto region to Blackthorn and Goldenrod in Johto, the evil organization is causing widespread destruction all over."
The station feed then changed to a small sampling of amateur film from some of the attacked cities, as Rocket agents were seen breaking windows, invading buildings, and ordering their Pokémon to attack innocent people and Pokémon fleeing for their lives.
"No one knows what provoked this attacked, but their strength and numbers have led many to suggest that such a grand-scale massacre was months in the making. The Pokémon League announced they are trying to send help, but with it all so widespread, one wonders if their forces are large enough to stop a Team Rocket of this magnitude."
Ash started to growl angrily, and so did Pikachu. Misty noticed, and although she shared the same sentiment, she was also concerned of everything that was transpiring.
"How could they? This is beyond anything I ever imagined Team Rocket being capable of!"
"We... WE HAVE TO STOP THEM!" Ash yelled.
With that, Ash called Charizard back out of his Pokéball. He and Pikachu climbed aboard, already knowing where they were going to go.
"Damn it, Ash, can we at least plan what we're going to do first?" Misty exclaimed as she ran over and got on, not wanting to be left behind.
"We'll have plenty of time on the way there," he shouted back. "Let's go, Charizard!"
"GRRRRRROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!"
Charizard took off like a rocket, departing Lilycove City and heading off according to Ash's direction.
"Misty, quick! What's the closest Kanto city from here?"
Misty whipped out her Pokédex and used the 'Map' function to try and dig up an answer.
"It's Viridian City. But that'll take half a day to..."
Ash suddenly had a revelation, as he remembered from the news report that Viridian was one of the attacked cities.
And that Pallet Town wasn't that far away.
"Pallet Town! My parents!"
Misty gasped. "You don't think..."
Ash focused and barked some new orders to Charizard.
"We're heading home to Pallet, Charizard! On the double!"
Seeing the fire in Ash's eyes and the urgency in his voice, Charizard adjusted his direction and picked up speed, flapping his wings as fast as he could muster.
"GRRRRRROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!"
"PIKA PIKAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
End Session: April
Storyline to be continued in Session: May!
Author's Notes for 'Session: April':
So now the pieces start falling into place, as Team Rocket begins their grand scheme at long last...
As aforementioned somewhere back, here we finally get into details of "Love Affair in Pallet Town," which if some of the older fans remember, was going to be a gigantic movie-length side story that took place between Seasons 1 and 2 of the "Adventures Series." It, of course, focuses on Giselle spending that time in Pallet, wanting to make Misty jealous by teasingly flirting with Ash... and then ending up actually falling in love with him! Honestly, sometimes I wish I could've gone back to the past and actually written that 'feature.' Would've help make Giselle falling for Ash a little more realistic, given she had had very little interaction with him before this.
Then, as you all know, Season 2 came along, and Giselle reunited with Joe for the first time since he left Tech, and... her passion for him reignited. Boy, did she get herself into a pickle on that one! It's too bad they ended up breaking up in the end. They were a cute couple, I admit, but for some reason it just didn't feel right to have them be more than just friends.
That being said, I also regret the way they broke up, between Giselle thinking, but not knowing for sure, that she had the then-unnamed Celebi-rus Syndrome, and Joe thinking it was distracting her from helping him get into the Pokémon League. Could've found a better reason, but... meh...
Truth be told, I wanted to make the Cassie-Giselle fight longer than it was, but given how long that particular chapter was, I had to improvise and only make it long enough to get the point across. Hopefully the fights to come will make up for it.
Another aforementioned point... the Gary story in Chapter 3 was 100 filler. I wanted to get in Gary, Stephanie, and Amber in one more time prior to all of the serious stuff coming in, and so this chapter was born. That's also how May and Max came to play pivotal parts in this episode, which if you're counting time, takes place a little over a year before the start of Hoenn in the anime dub. Originally, the two siblings were going to make a brief cameo in the Junior Master Tournament arc (see 'Session: September'), but if I remember right, that got scratched it. I still wanted them to appear somewhere, so that got in here as a means to fulfill that obligation.
Which means, naturally, May and Max won't be appearing again.
Okay, let me correct myself. 95 filler. Stephanie 'capturing' a Gastly did indeed happen, and that event will factor in her future.
Anyone a little surprised Clair helped Jessie, James, and Persian so willingly despite her comments back in 'Session: January'? You'll get an answer to that soon, I promise.
You'll also get an answer to why Arius went back to the Pokémon Trainers' Association soon. Of course, if you've been following the story like you should be, you probably would've realized such a turn was inevitable.
I'm surprised no one has caught the snafu regarding Misty yet. I won't identify it yet, but I do plan to resolve that 'mistake' next session.
And I think that's all I have to explain. The real meat of the story is here in the final fourth of the series, which begins now.
'Session: May' Trailer:
Team Rocket has established a new world order, and despite the best efforts of both the Pokémon League and the Pokémon Trainers' Association, it doesn't seem that they can be stopped. Only a small group of talented teenagers may have what it takes, but the trouble is finding them first! But one small event may keep Ash Ketchum from assembling that team. Team Rocket trying to level his hometown and erase him from memory.
When 'Session: May' arrives, it's time for young Ash to grow up...
