Five casualties on their side. Pikachu bit her lip as she stifled the cold thought that said: five isn't too bad. Five was five too many—the Pidgey she had seen earlier didn't make it, and neither did a Raticate, a Butterfree, a Tangela, a Ditto. The reports coming in from the cities around Kanto painted a grimmer picture, with more losses. Her paw shook as she held one of the walkie-talkies, Charizard on the other end. "They knew our communications were down." They knew Meowth was gone.

"How many did you lose?"

"Five."

There was a break in the sound, then Charizard answered, "Maybe they'll come back as Ghastly."

"Charizard!"

"Hey, hey, it's how I deal." A crackle. "Really. I don't know what else to do."

Pikachu pushed her anger down, feeling it pool at the pit of her stomach. "Listen. I want you and all the other teams to come back. But we're surrounded."

"So we'll just get shot down, Pikachu. Great idea. Good job."

"Find a psychic-type who knows teleport. Or if not that, somebody who knows lightscreen who can make you look invisible."

"Like Abra grow on trees…"

"Are you really better off where you are?"

Charizard took his time responding to that. "We'll get on it."

"Good. I'll send the message out to the other teams…anybody who's still out there…"

The walkie-talkie with "Saffron" written on masking tape around the side—James's handwriting, it looked like—went silent. Pikachu picked up the one labeled "Celadon."

Hours passed. She had reached someone from all the teams except the smallest one in Viridian City. All she heard there was status. She feared, no, she knew it was a lost cause, considering Viridian was Giovanni's city. She had stopped keeping track of the casualties; it was too much. They wouldn't be gone if it wasn't for her.

"Pikachu."

It was Ash. "I know what you're thinking. It's not your fault. You should go to bed. You haven't stopped since after the battle, and you need to rest."

"Technically, it is—"

"No. If it weren't for you, a lot more would've become infinity energy."

"That doesn't take away—"

"No, but you didn't force them to fight. They knew what they were doing." His hand petted her head. "Really, you should go to bed."

She still didn't completely agree with Ash, but sleep pulled her down. "Okay. Fine. I'll go rest." She slinked away to one of the quieter spots in the cave and leaned back against a rock. Just as her eyes closed, the ground shook.

"Psyduck, confuse them again! Again!" Pikachu could hear the worry in Misty's voice.

Unsteady, Pikachu spotted a Rocket executive near the entrance and shocked him. "How close are they?"

The hum of a hyper beam answered her. It hit the ceiling, edging Crobat's current position. Pikachu sent a thunderbolt that followed the path of light back to its origin. Several boulders tumbled down, obscuring the attackers in dust. The fur on the back of her neck bristled; something—someone—gigantic was behind her.

"Guess what! Abra do grow on trees." It was Charizard. "And we got a Kadabra, and this Alakazam too! Sabrina's Alakazam! A real boss, that one."

Pikachu was not sure if she had actually fallen asleep despite herself, and that Charizard's out-of-thin-air appearance, with Wartortle standing behind him, was all part of an exhaustion-driven dream.

Charizard continued, "I don't like teleporting, though, even though Wartortle thinks it's cool. I just, it just makes me feel gross, you know, and it's been a while, huh, good to catch up—"

"Charizard. Stop talking. We're under attack. Go set them on fire, or something."

"Done and done." Charizard flapped his wings, and the giant lizard hurled a fire blast towards the cave's entrance.

Pikachu focused on his tail's flame growing smaller.

Wartortle spoke. "Togekiss and Corsola and everybody from Celadon are coming back—they're flying with a lightscreen. They should be here in a day or two." He gestured towards the Alakazam, who was gripping his spoons with an intense look of concentration. "The other members of our team are with the Abra and Kadabra."

"Thanks for keeping track of them."

"It's what I do." Wartortle secured his sunglasses. "Ah, I should put out any 'friendly fire,' since, you know, Charizard can go overboard."

"Hmm." Pikachu's focus had wandered into the dust from the battle. She squinted, but she could not make out anything except for Wartortle's shell disappearing into it all. It was too risky to send out another thunderbolt attack. As she stepped closer, she heard Jessie and James arguing from somewhere in that chaotic cloud.

"James! This is our weapons cache?" Jessie asked. "This? This is it? What was Brock thinking?"

"Let's just make the best of it."

"What could we even use this thing as, a cannon?"

"None of this is canon, Jessie."

Pikachu slipped into the fold, and finally saw the front line. Jessie and James were wielding a strange-looking device with a nozzle and a fuel tank attached haphazardly. Whenever one line of Jennies fell, another took their place, and their formation seemed to go on forever. The soldiers were firing their weapons without aim, creating a storm of bullets that occasionally hit their own. Charizard was setting a tank on fire, and Wartortle was dousing a Ghastly, whose purple cloud had caught on fire, with water. Misty and Brock were pointing and yelling to Psyduck and Wobbuffet. Venusaur and Steelix worked on tipping over another tank and swatting back Rocket executives. Each Ditto had transformed into the Pokemon closest to them, making Pikachu question if her vision had gone double for a brief moment. Then she found Ash—Ash was scooping up injured Pokemon and running them back further into the cave. So, this was how they would lose. Pikachu pulled her energy into charging a thunder attack—if she was going to go out, she was going to go out with a bang. As she focused on her breath, a piece of cold metal, a spoon, tapped her on the head.

"I am ready to help now." The Alakazam that had teleported Charizard and Wartortle stared into her eyes.

"Okay? Thank you?" Pikachu tensed at the interruption and his disconcerting stare; she would have to start generating the charge all over again. A few more moments, and she released her channeled electricity, focusing on the position of the center tank. The thunder attack never hit its target. She opened her eyes. The tanks, the Jennies, the soldiers, the Team Rocket members—all gone. Yes, Pikachu thought to herself, this had to be a dream. She must have fallen asleep. Or maybe she was dead.

Ash, out of breath, jogged towards Pikachu and Alakazam. "Um. Where did they go?"

"Mount Moon."

"What?" Pikachu blinked, and her jaw dropped.

"I teleported them."

"Without you touching them? That's…that's beautiful, Alakazam." Ash grinned. "Thank you. Do you see Psyduck and Wobbuffet over there? I want you to meet them. Can you teach them to do that?"

"It will be challenging…"

"Just try your best. I'll help. And if you see anyone with bad intentions coming our way, just keep sending them to Mount Moon."

"I will. Of course. You need my help."

"We sure do!" Ash laughed, wiping tears from his eyes. "Oh, I can't believe this. Sabrina's Alakazam. Wow. Thank you."

Pikachu, still gaping, scratched the back of her head. "T-Thank you," she stammered. Dragging her feet, she retreated further into the cave and collapsed against a comfortable-looking rock.

When her eyes closed, the image that came forward was not of Charizard popping into existence, lines of Jennies falling and rising, or a celebrity Alakazam brandishing his spoons. What she saw was Meowth.

/

Gary wasn't in his cubicle when Giovanni's personal assistant came around. The assistant found what he was looking for easily enough—the metal briefcase containing one Pokeball. He swung the briefcase off of the desk and considered leaving a note for the research assistant, but decided against it. Gary was smart; he'd figure it out.

The assistant carried this briefcase down to the Infinity Energy module, tucked away in room E36 of the science wing. Professor Oak waited for him. "You're sure you can't get any information out of him? At all?"

"Giovanni said it's not worth the wait." Oak wiped his brow. "I agree...we need every Pokemon we can get right now, if we don't want to go completely dark. And I knew this one, too. I avoid using ones I knew."

"Hmm." The assistant yawned and rolled back on his heels.

Professor Oak gripped the Pokeball in one hand, and entered a code into the machine. A robotic arm extended, clasped the Pokeball, and withdrew. Professor Oak entered another code, a longer one. The machine started whining, and the Pokeball appeared to shimmer from the high-speed vibrations.

Usually Meowth didn't feel anything when inside a Pokeball. But for a second, he was aware of a bright heat that faded like static.

AN: Thank you all for reading this far! I really appreciate all of you, and I love it when you leave reviews. :) I'm going to be taking a hiatus on The Power that's Inside until December-I'm working on a different project for NaNoWriMo. Because I am a cheesy person with a cheesy taste in music, I made a playlist on Spotify for this story if you'd like to search for it. It's called TPTI and it's by user aloejazz. I hope you enjoy it! Please stay tuned for updates...there's still a lot of story left!