The furniture made by Brock's Steelix was, well, hard as a rock. Jessie changed position, avoiding the slimy residue of the Ditto around her, and rested her chin on her hands. It was her shift to watch the news on their stolen TV. The Ditto were enthralled by the blue light and wiggled around it. Jessie had asked Meowth, who had become the de facto head of communications over the last few days, if the Ditto could take over her duty since they enjoyed the news so much. Meowth's response was shrill: "Da Ditto don't tell me anytding 'cept dat jingle from da stupid bread commercial!"

So Jessie watched the news that evening while Pikachu and the rest ran around the cave with walkie-talkies to direct Charizard, Venusaur, Wartortle and some newly recruited Pokemon in the field, who were working day and night to intercept any poaching. Her instructions for the night were clear; she was to report any significant changes in weather, issues involving public utilities, traffic jams, and crime scenes to avoid due to the presence of Jennies. When the "Breaking News" graphic flashed with a beeping tone, Jessie sat up straight.

"Tonight we have a very important announcement." The anchor swiveled her chair and looked directly into the camera. "The prime minister will be stepping down due to health concerns. He has appointed a successor, the Viridian City Gym Leader, Giovanni."

"What!" Jessie jumped up while throwing the remote at the wall. As it hit a stalagmite, a crack echoed throughout Rock Tunnel.

"We now go live to our correspondent in Viridian—"

"James! Meowth!" She ran towards the area that Brock called the "war room," and interrupted a conversation that was taking place between Ash and Misty. "Twerp! Twerpette!"

Misty, caught in the middle of a sentence, tilted her head. "…Yeah?"

"It's bad."

/

"'Health concerns'? More like a poison sting from the boss's Nidoqueen." James flicked a bottlecap into the air and caught it with the same hand.

Brock had crouched down to the TV's level, reading off the scrolling headlines from the bottom of the scene. "Severe wild Pokemon safety concerns: curfew at dusk, no Pokemon outside of their Pokeballs."

Pikachu pressed her head against the table and threw her arms up. "So Wartortle, Charizard, Venusaur, our recruited Pokemon…"

"We have to get them back." Ash looked in the direction of Rock Tunnel's entrance.

Pikachu lifted her head at the sound of Ash's voice and nodded.

Brock shushed the room. "Listen."

"—Violation of this curfew will be dealt with by force. Report any sightings of wild Pokemon, unaccompanied Pokemon, or Pokemon outside a Pokeball to your local Officer Jenny.

"Do you know what this means, though?" Misty's eyes lit up. "We've been doing a good job. This curfew wouldn't be happening if our plan to stop the poaching and kidnapping wasn't having an effect." Her expression then soured. "But this does mean our job will be much harder now."

James leaned forward. "It's not just that. If it was just that, we could handle it—we could find a way. The big problem is Giovanni."

"I've beaten him before, and I can beat him again," Ash said.

"You've battled him, but you don't know him." James cast a side-glance at Meowth.

Meowth was examining his paws, drumming them against his legs from nerves. He spoke quietly, "He's not da nicest person. His whole deal was being da boss, gettin' more power, and now he's da most powerful person in da world. So dere's nuttin stopping him. Dere's no reason for him to show any restraint anymore. If he was bad before, he's going to get much worse now."

Pikachu rubbed her temples. "We should protect ourselves first. We can't do anything if we aren't around. So we have to get—"

A fiery blast interrupted her. Charizard's roar echoed from the entrance passage: "So we're being kept in the dark now? What is going on? We go for a walk in the woods, and then—BAM—there's a SWAT team with nets and Ultra Balls." The dragon emerged, showing a few bruises.

Ash shrugged. "We just found out, Charizard."

"He's just blowing off some steam." Wartortle waddled up to Pikachu. "The recruits are returning, but staggered so they don't attract attention. Venusaur's left a trail of leaves so they don't get lost."

"What if someone else finds those leaves?"

"Psyduck and Wobbuffet at the entrance." Wartortle patted Pikachu on the shoulder. "They've gotten better at recognizing friend from foe, don't worry."

"So now what?" Venusaur let himself fall to the ground, making a thump that was felt under everyone's feet.

Pikachu clenched her eyes shut. "Just let me think…"

"We know that they get the Pokemon at night, but there's also those bins for abandoned Pokemon, and they operate during the day." Brock rubbed his chin. "We need to get someone to rescue them from the PokeCenters." Ninetales's ears flew upright in the crowd of Pokemon, and the fox wagged her tails in different directions. "Sorry, Ninetales, it should be a human. I have a feeling there's going to be a law that all Pokemon need to be in Pokeballs at all times, not just at night."

Ash slumped. "So we need to work both day and night. We should have done that to begin with, huh."

"We can still work at night. We just need a different approach." Pikachu's face brightened. "Crobat, you're pretty stealthy, right? And you can use confusion?"

"Yeah."

"And Arbok, Weezing, you're also good at hiding."

Weezing coughed out a few words. "You know it."

Pikachu stood up. "So we just have to downsize our nighttime operations. Use only the Pokemon who won't get caught." She gestured to Jessie and James. "And the humans, too."

"What's she asking us to do?" Jessie asked Meowth.

"She's sayin' dat you're on da nighttime operations since you're good at stealth." Meowth chuckled. "If only she knew!"

The mouse rolled her eyes. "They're good enough."

"But what about the rest of us?" Togekiss ruffled her feathers to make herself appear larger.

"The flying types should take a buddy, go to different cities, and establish operations there." Wartortle lightly punched Charizard in the arm. "I'm coming with you, bucko. We're going to take on Saffron."

Ash, arms crossed, slumped. "Okay, but what about the Pokemon who've already been taken? Who are already in line to go to that…machine?"

"We'll figure something out, Ash," Misty replied.

/

"Hey kid, wanna adopt a Pokemon for me?" Brock whispered from behind a bush.

A youngster-class trainer jumped. "What?! Who's there?"

"I got a favor for you. If you go into the PokeCenter and adopt as many Pokemon as you can, I'll give you this." Brock opened his vest to reveal an array of junk food.

"…Okay." The kid scratched his head. "I want everything but the potato chips."

"You got it. Thank you."

The trainer ran off towards the Lavender Town PokeCenter, turning back once to give Brock a thumbs-up.

"You are such a creep!" Misty grimaced towards Brock from another bush on the path.

"It worked."

"Yeah, if he's not going to go to a Jenny and tell her a weird man—who matches the description of Brock, a most wanted criminal—harassed him from the bushes."

"I'm good with kids!"

"Whatever you tell yourself—"

"Shh!" Brock pointed towards the town. A squadron of Jennies was approaching. Brock and Misty shrank back into the brush. Through the branches and leaves, they could see an officer stapling flyers to a nearby tree. She did an about-face and marched back to the squadron, who headed back towards Lavender Town.

"What does it say? I can't read it from here."

Brock squinted. "'Wanted.' It has pictures of Ash, Pikachu, and Meowth! There's also symbol, a green feather. The Viridian badge. I can't make out the smaller print."

Misty nodded. "Giovanni's badge." She heard footsteps and spun towards them. "The kid's back."

"Hey mister, Nurse Joy says that Earth Leader Giovanni stopped adoptions until some Pokemon thieves are caught. Can I have my snacks?" The youngster stepped back and looked up. "Also, you're on a wanted poster by the PokeCenter. Are you the thieves?" Hey eyed them suspiciously.

"Kid! Please! Don't tell anyone! We're not thieves! We're trying to help Pokemon! We want to rescue them from the real thieves." Misty rose from her hiding spot.

"There's another one of you? Hey, you're on the poster too." He scrutinized her face. "You're the Cerulean gym leader!"

"That's right, and if you help us rescue Pokemon from the adoption bin, I'll give you $20—in addition to this guy's snacks." She gestured with her thumb towards Brock.

"Isn't that stealing?"

"They're already stolen. You'd be rescuing them. Giovanni isn't going to let them be adopted. Ever." Misty crouched down to the trainer's eye level.

"Make it $40, and you have a deal."

Misty took a deep breath. "Fine, but you have to rescue as many Pokemon as you can without Nurse Joy noticing."

"You got it. You guys sure are lucky that I—"The trainer looked right, then left, and leaned forward. He then whispered, "—that I think this Earth Leader Giovanni is kinda stupid anyway." He ran back towards town.

/

Misty and Brock returned to Rock Tunnel with around fifty rescued Pokeballs. Brock bumped into a pacing Meowth, who was staring at the ground, holding one walkie-talkie to his ear and another at his side.

"—Well, put da nice human on da line, Corsola. I haven't got all day." He glared up at Brock. "I'm walkin' here!"

"Sorry, sorry." Brock backed up. "But look at these!" He brought out the Pokeballs.

"Bring 'em to Ash and Pikachu. Dey're doin' local ops here in Lavender with da Ditto." He switched walkie-talkies. "What do you mean dere's more rules for da humans in Saffron? Ugh…"

Misty gave a sheepish grin. "We'll, uh, get out of your hair. Where's Ash and Pikachu?"

Meowth cradled one walkie-talkie between his shoulder and ear, and used his paw to gesture to an alcove on the left. His eyes lingered on the Pokeballs. "Dey'll be happy to see dose."