The Year of Rocket's Revenge
Session: July Once Again, Part 3 (07.04.06/07.11.10)


Thursday, July 10th, Route 10

It was early in the morning, and the sun had just become visible from the entrance into the man-made cavern that had been dug into the mountain. Just a few feet inside, Ash, Misty, Pikachu, and Tomiko stood silently, waiting for someone to arrive. Tomiko had a pair of binoculars in hand, and every few minutes she wandered out of the cave to check the surrounding skies.

"What's taking them so long?" Misty thought out loud. "They're risking somebody seeing them if they don't hurry!"

"They'll be here," Ash reassured her. "Stop worrying!"

Tomiko walked outside to search the sky once again. This time, though, she spotted what she was looking for.

"It's a Charizard! That's gotta be them, right?"

Ash and Misty ran outside and looked up in the same direction Tomiko was peering at in her binoculars. They saw the Charizard as well, and the fire-type had two familiar male faces and a Pikachu riding on his back.

"Hey!" one of them yelled, waving his right arm around.

"Chu!" shouted his Pikachu.

"It's Richie and Chuchino!" exclaimed Misty.

Ash was glad to see Richie's smiling face, but he also was happy when he saw Gary right behind Richie as well.

"Ha ha! Alright, Gary!"

Gary cracked a smile as he waved back at his childhood friend and rival.


"Time for a good, long rest, Zippo!"

Richie recalled his Charizard to his Pokéball, then turned to greet the others. Pikachu and Chuchino were already getting reacquainted, as they shook each other's tails.

"Long time no see, Ash and Misty!"

"The same to you," Misty greeted back.

"Couldn't save the world without me, huh?" Gary asked Ash, with a smug look on his face.

"There's no else I'd rather have fighting with me," Ash smiled.


The gang later arrived inside the cavern, with Ash and Misty explaining everything to Gary and Richie that they needed to know to get up to speed.

"We're back!" Tomiko announced.

Tomiko ran towards Brock, Erika, Maria, Angela, and Wallace, who were undergoing final preparations for the big battle.

"Looks like the cavalry's here," Brock said as he pointed towards the arriving group.

"Good," Wallace said. "I assume you've told them what they need to know."

"Yep," Ash replied. "They're all set."

"I only have one question," Gary questioned. "When do we get to get back at Team Rocket for all they've done?"

"If everything goes according to plan," answered Wallace, "we all set off for our targets tonight. Which of you is Richie?"

"That would be me, sir," Richie said, raising his hand.

"You're with me, young man. We'll be leading the force that will be heading to Saffron City."

"What about me?" Gary asked.

"I hope you don't mind," prefaced Erika. "We paired you up with someone that should complement you. Ah... here she comes now!"

Gary turned, and nearly lost it when he saw that the girl coming his way... was Cassie, who froze in place herself when she noticed that Gary was here.

"Cassie!"

"Gary!"

"I have to work with HER?"

"Wait a minute... I have to work with HIM?"

"It's completely out of the question!" they both exclaimed.

"Whose idea was it to have those two paired together?" Misty asked Ash.

"I don't know," replied Ash, "but I do know they don't like each other. At all."

"Fine," Gary relented. "I'll agree to work with Cassie, only because our hatred for each other is inconsequential compared to the task that lies ahead!"

"You've got guts speaking the truth," Cassie stated, "but when you're right, you're right. The rivalry can wait."

"That's great to hear," Erika sighed with relief. "You two will be leading the force that will be attempting to take down Team Rocket Headquarters!"

"That just leaves the three of us to lead the group taking on Giovanni at the Indigo Plateau," remarked Ash. "Unless..."

Ash looked over at Brock.

"Did you manage to get in touch with them?"

"No. My contact has been trying to reach them, but so far she's had no luck."

"I don't blame them for not wanting to be found," Misty stated. "They've been on the run ever since that day..."

"We're just going to have to move on without them," declared Ash. "We can't afford to wait any longer. Team Rocket is intensifying their search for us, and what little stability the region still has is falling apart by the hour."

"I agree," nodded Wallace. "So we move on as planned... Operation: Take Back Kanto begins tonight at sunset!"

"Actually..."

Everyone turned their attention to Cassie, who had a concern that needed to be addressed.

"Based on when what time we're initiating the attack, and the fact that we're not 100 percent sure on the exact location of Team Rocket's Headquarters, I propose that the Viridian City group leave as soon as possible. If our plan is to work, we have to guarantee that all three attacks go off at the same time so that none of the other factions have time to warn the others."

"She does make a good point," sided Angela.

"Hold up!" Gary objected. "Doesn't anyone remember six months ago, when it was rumored that the Pokémon Trainers' Association attacked Team Rocket Headquarters? Supposedly, it was unofficial retaliation for Team Rocket being responsible for the Celadon City attacks. You'd figure someone who used to be part of the PTA would have heard of that!"

"I was a member of the PTA before," defended Cassie, "but I had quit months before that incident. What makes you think I have knowledge about any of the exact details of that attack?"

"You didn't have to be there! You still have contacts within the PTA, right? Surely one of them told you!"

"None of my current contacts are a part of or ever have been a part of the PTA! So there's no way I could get access to that information!"

"Enough!" Wallace interrupted. "Both of you make clearly valid points. But I believe that, just to err on the side of caution, I must side with the Junior Master's view."

"See?"

"Whatever," Gary said as he rolled his eyes.

"The Viridian City troop will leave ASAP," decided Wallace. "The other two groups will depart as originally scheduled. Erika, I need you help speed up the preparation process."

"Right," Erika nodded, before turning to Maria. "Maria..."

"I'll get right on it!"


Within the hour, a group of 16 trainers were gathered just inside the cave entrance. They were pairing up as an assortment of Fearow, Pidgeot, and Noctowl were called out to carry the trainers to Viridian City.

But the crown jewel of the group was definitely Cassie's Skarmory, which Gary was amazed at as he circled the steel bird.

"Skarmory is amazing!" Gary gasped in disbelief.

"Jealous much?" Cassie smirked.

"You think just because you have a cool Pokémon that you could make me, Gary Oak, jealous? Ha, I say!"

"Then I guess you want to walk to Viridian, huh?"

Gary grumbled under his breath.

"That's what I thought."

Skarmory knelt down so that Cassie could get onto his back. Once she was comfortably on, she extended a hand out to Gary to pull him up.

"Remember," Wallace told them as the rest of the trainers climbed aboard their birds, "you must stay away from urban areas at all costs! You're flying in daylight, and our plan is ruined if you're stopped by Team Rocket somewhere along the way!"

"You can count on us!" Gary shouted.

The two were now comfortably on Skarmory's back. The steel bird rose back to his feet. Cassie grabbed onto Skarmory's neck to keep from falling off from the quick ascent, while Gary had no choice but to grab on... to Cassie's waist.

"Watch it!" warned Cassie, blushing. "Don't you have a girlfriend?"

"We're not a couple!" Gary shot back. "And why are you blushing? Don't you have a boyfriend?"

"We broke up! Look, can we just go already?"

"You're the one driving, Cass!"

"Don't you start with me!"

With that, Cassie signaled for Skarmory to take off. The bird ran out of the tunnel, wings a-flapping as he got up to his speed. Once he was ready, Skarmory pushed off of the ground and soared into the air. The rest of the bird Pokémon in their group followed suit, as they all began their journey to Viridian City.

As they reached cruising altitude and started moving horizontal, they passed by a hot air balloon, colored with rainbow-arrayed vertical stripes. No one noticed anyone in it as they went by, but it wasn't until they had lost sight of it that someone did rise up after hiding in the basket.

It was a young man in a black Team Rocket uniform. And he had a walkie talkie in hand.

"This is Eye in the Sky to the 9er. You won't believe what I just saw..."


After several hours of travel, the group finally touched down just north of Viridian City, along Route 2. Once making sure that everyone had arrived safely, the trainers quickly went to work setting up a campsite and preparing to cook dinner.

"After we eat," Gary said aloud, "we'd better start searching for Team Rocket's Headquarters. By my best estimate, we have about 16 hours to find this place..."

Gary turned around, as he thought he was talking to Cassie. But she was gone.

"Where did she go? Some leader she is, abandoning her team at a time like this!"

He then looked down at the ground and saw footprints in the dirt.

"She wouldn't be that stupid!" Gary exclaimed as he realized which she direction Cassie had headed off in.


A little further down the path, Cassie, in a full-blown sprint, was indeed running towards Viridian City.

"It's not that I don't trust you, Gary," Cassie thought to herself, "but there's someone else I want in on this mission..."


Two days ago...

Cassie had just walked out of the cave so she could get a signal for the Poké-com feature on her Pokédex. As soon as she did, she noticed that there was a message waiting for her.

She was surprised when she learned that it was from Arius.

"I thought I had blocked his number."

She was about to press the delete button when she stopped. She began to wonder why Arius would now, for the first time since they broke up, suddenly call her out of the blue.

She decided to play the message.

"Hey, Cassie! Look, I hope you get this message, but I wouldn't be calling you if I knew I could do this without you. The PTA is starting to fall apart. There's a growing group of people within the organization that want to rejoin Team Rocket. It's turmoil here! Things are starting to get out of hand. I have a bad feeling that both sides might do whatever it takes to win..."


Cassie continued to replay the message in her head as she drew closer to Viridian City.

"I know you're not a part of the organization anymore," Arius' voice continued, "but there's more at stake here than the PTA's future. If the PTA merges back with Team Rocket, there's no chance the League will ever return! You've gotta help me keep that from happening!"

Cassie pulled off to the side of the road and darted into the bushes. She popped back out a minute later, wearing a disguise that consisted of an orange sundress, wooden sandals, a straw hat, and sunglasses. She then continued her trek to the Viridian border.

"I know I renounced the PTA," she said to herself, "but if it's to preserve any chance we have of stopping Team Rocket, I have to get involved again."

Once the sign that signified the city border, Cassie slowed to a casual walk. She began to look around as the trees parted to give way to paved streets and one-story houses, and was relieved to see no one around.

"No Team Rocket agents. No one recognizing me and trying to turn me in. So far, so good."

Cassie walked towards downtown, and ultimately in the direction of the Pokémon Center.

"I just hope this doesn't take long. The others are surely leaving Lavender Town right now..."


Route 10

Sure enough, a large amount of flying Pokémon could be seen taking off from atop the tallest rooftops of Lavender Town just as the sun had disappeared behind the mountains. In minutes, the rebellion force was almost completely in the air.

The lone exceptions were the leaders of the two troops. Brock, along with Duplica, were waiting to go on Ash's Pidgeot, Richie and Chuchino were already aboard Zippo, and Misty and Pikachu had just climbed onto the back of Ash's Charizard.

They were all waiting on Ash, who was receiving final instructions from Wallace, and well-wishes from Erika.

"Remember," Wallace said to Ash, "we must all strike in unison at exactly eleven o' clock tomorrow!"

"Right," Ash nodded. "Eleven o'clock."

"This might be our only chance. If we fail... Team Rocket will have no one left to stand in their way."

"I'll pray for all of you to succeed!" Erika told them all.

"We promise not to let you down," Ash declared, speaking for everyone.

Ash then joined Misty and Pikachu on his Charizard, while Wallace got onto the back of Zippo. Once settled, the two Charizard, as well as Ash's Pidgeot, took off. They waved goodbye to each other as they parted, Richie and Wallace following their group in a southwesterly pattern, while Ash and company headed due west after their team of trainers.

Back down on the ground, Erika watched as the heroes began to disappear from sight. Little did she know, that on a bluff about a quarter of a mile away, she was being watched herself. By two people, each using a pair of hi-tech binoculars.

One of them was the grunt that was riding around in the hot air balloon earlier. The other?

Domino.

"Good work," Domino said as she lowered her binoculars. "I'll make sure you'll handsomely rewarded for this!"

"Anything for Team Rocket!" the grunt exclaimed. "So, what's the plan?"

"I'm going to do what our so-called prodigy failed to do six months ago... kill the Celadon City gym leader!"

"Great! And I'll come along to help!"

The grunt started packing up the surveillance gear, preparing to move out with Domino. The top agent, though, had other ideas, as she had other ideas, pulling a tulip out and blowing on it, sending its pollen floating towards the grunt.

Seconds later, the grunt felt himself getting drowsy, and he slowly fell to the ground, quickly out like a light.

"Sorry, rookie... but the Black Tulip works alone!"

Domino then smirked as she proceeded to head down the overlook and towards the cave below.


In Viridian City, the sun was still visible in the sky, but street lights were already on downtown. The streets were mostly deserted save for a few brave souls willing to wander to the local eateries. Team Rocket flags and banners were seen hanging on or near virtually every building in the area, but the actual presence of Team Rocket agents was almost non-existent.

The few that were visible at all were inside restaurants and bars, partaking in a late dinner or having a drink to relax. Noting this, Cassie walked by, as casually as possible to avoid her presence drawing attention.

"For a city whose gym leader is the head of Team Rocket," Cassie observed, "security around here is fairly lax."

Seconds later, the Pokémon Center came into view. But as it did, she instantly spotted two Team Rocket operatives standing by the front door. She moved to hide behind a lamp post, peeking around it to see what she was up against.

"Two at the door..."

Cassie then peered passed them and through the glass sliding doors, where from her location she spotted two more Team Rocket members standing by the front desk.

"And two more inside. That makes four. I could probably take them, with a little luck..."

She lifted up the right side of her dress to show she was wearing a pair of shorts underneath. She reached into her pocket and pulled out two of her Pokéballs, then let her dress fall naturally back into place.

"But there's likely more than that."

She glanced down at her left hand, where she was wearing a wristwatch. The clock on it read 20:13.

"Arius sure picked a swell place to hold a secret meeting," she remarked sarcastically.

She quickly looked around to see if she could spot her ex-boyfriend, or anyone that might look like him, coming her way. She then turned her attention back to the front door, and waited.


Erika walked into the cabin where Giselle's comatose body continued to rest. As expected, she found Maria in the bedroom, in the midst of administering another dose of aromatherapy. She was in the process of fanning a mix of specially-mixed potpourri towards Giselle's nose.

"Any luck?" Erika asked.

"No. It seemed to be working the past few days, as some of her brain functions attempted to restore themselves. But nothing at all today."

"Hmmm... we might have to modify the make-up. If we can figure out what triggered the brain activity, we can try to increase the amount of that substance in the mixture."

Maria walked over and handed Erika her fan.

"I'll go out and rustle up some herbs from the garden."

Maria then left the cabin, leaving Erika to watch over Giselle.

"I know you're in there," Erika said aloud. "You have to want this too!"


It took several minutes for Maria to get to the garden and begin her search.

"Okay, so..." she thought to herself, "what were the primary herbs in this potpourri again?"

She wandered through the garden, hoping the ingredients would come to her in her mind. But she stopped when she clearly recognized a flower in the garden that not only wasn't in the potpourri, but she knew had never been planted there by herself or Erika in the first place.

"A... a black tulip?"

She knelt down to pick it out of the garden, but she was stopped when she felt a long, thorny stem being held up against her throat.

"People in hiding should really invest in at least some type of security system..."

Domino was squatting behind Maria, holding up a seven-foot black tulip as if it were a staff against the latter's throat.

"The thorns in this have a toxin in them that can kill a human in just mere minutes," Domino told Maria, "so if you so much as make a sound..."

Maria lowered her hands to her side.

"Good girl."


Cassie continued to wait for Arius to show up, as she had now moved to a nearby bench to get off of her feet.

"The longer I sit here," Cassie thought, "the more I risk being discovered. Arius better show up soon, or else..."

Seconds later, someone did find her, as Cassie felt her straw hat being removed from the back of her head. She turned around to see who had caught her... and was a little surprised to see Gary standing there, now with the hat on his head.

"Looking like a country gal in the city?" Gary smirked. "You don't stick out at all!"

"Gimme that!" Cassie snapped as she snatched her hat back. "You're gonna blow my cover!"

"What cover? You're sitting out here in the open! The only thing that's missing is a sign pointing at you, saying that you're Cassie Banks, the Pokémon Junior Master!"

"Why'd you follow me here anyway?"

"Because you're not sticking to the plan! Why are you risking yourself coming to the city anyway?"

"That's none of your business!"

"As co-leader, I'm making it my business!"

Gary and Cassie continued to yell each other, their voices getting loud enough to attract the attention of the guards at the Pok mon Center's front door.

"Can't a girl meet up with an old friend before she goes off risking her life to save the world?" Cassie yelled as she took of her sunglasses to show the rage in her eyes.

"You're risking everyone's lives right now just to see an old fling?"

"HE'S NOT A FLING, HE'S MY EX!"

Gary blinked. "Wait... you're here to see Arius?"

"Hold it right there!"

The two of them turned to see there were four Team Rocket agents standing before them.

"The Junior Master and the grandson of the great Professor Oak," one of the grunts said with a smile. "We're all sure to get rewarded for bringing you two in."

"Options?"

"Run."

"Sandals."

"You suck."

"Hey!"

One of the grunts drew a pistol from its holster and pointed it at the two teenagers.

"Not another word!" he exclaimed. "We have orders to bring the girl in, dead or alive. We don't care which."


"Maria! Maria?"

Erika had came out of the cabin after a few minutes to see what was taking Maria so long. She proceeded towards the garden, but could already see from where she was that Maria was nowhere in sight.

"Something's not right..."

Her senses started to tingle, and just in time. She stopped in her tracks quick enough to see a tulip hit the dirt a mere two feet in front of her. It had been aimed to hit her in the leg, but the thrower had apparently missed.

"Darn... I must be out of practice!"

Erika turned to her right and saw a young woman standing atop the tool shed on the eastern end of the garden.

"Team Rocket!"

The woman jumped up in the air and did a double front flip before landing safely on the ground on her own two feet.

"That was just a warm-up. Consider yourself lucky... because I never miss twice!"


"Slowly put your Pokédex and your Pokéballs on the ground!" ordered the first grunt. "You first, girl!"

"Shoot!" Cassie cursed under her breath. "I only have four on me! When they realize that, they'll instantly suspect something's up!"

Nearby, her Espeon was lying flat on the ground, underneath a bush about 450 feet to Cassie's right. Meanwhile, looking on from a second floor window of an abandoned office building a quarter of a mile to her left, her Kadabra stood ready with a spoon in hand.

Normally, they would've attacked by now to protect their master, but Cassie was holding them both back using her psychic powers.

"I don't have a choice," Cassie thought to herself, "I'm going to have to force my hand. But... it's going to take a miracle to get through this one alive."

Suddenly, an explosion was heard, causing a minor earthquake in the city. The ground shook hard enough to make small trees and street lamps start swaying, while allowing everyone to feel it underneath them.

"What the..." the lead grunt shouted.

"It's coming from the north!" exclaimed another.

Everyone turned north, where they saw a giant ball of fire and smoke rise above the trees and into the sky.

"That had better not have been the campsite!" Gary remarked.

"It's not," Cassie sensed. "That was the sound of a building exploding."

"But from where?"

Cassie knew the answer.

"The Pokémon Trainers' Association Headquarters."

To be continued in Part 4!