Dr. Dillinger strained her neck to take in the majesty of the ancient magma chamber. The vast, hollow cone of it soared into dark and unknown heights. The area was large enough to contain the whole of her original lab and then some. Hell, Dillinger could easily picture a football game taking place on the floor of it, with room to spare for bleachers. The mind-boggling space was made more spectacular by the massive, glowing crystal formations that jutted from the walls and floor in thick clusters. The area was washed in shades of blue and purple, mysterious and peaceful.
But there was no time for peace. Dillinger kept herself tucked behind the taller members of Team Rocket as they stepped into the chamber. Captain Pollard had suggested she hide in a tunnel until the leaders could be subdued, but that wasn't her style, and she'd sooner die than show an ounce of cowardice in front of the captain. She'd show that cocky bastard what she was made of. But from behind other Rockets, just to be on the safe side.
After she'd taken in the grandeur of the scene, Dillinger focused on the figures standing on the opposite side of the space. Blanche, Candela, and Spark waited at the foot of the trail that climbed the walls in a rising loop. Dillinger's heart sank. Of course they'd all have to climb that narrow, nauseatingly high trail to get to the door. She reminded herself of the golden future that awaited her on the other side. Surely, that was worth a little hike.
The team leaders looked just as bedraggled as the Rockets, if not more so. Their clothes were muddied and torn, and their shoulders sagged under an invisible weight. Dillinger smirked. Despite Spark's flippant text, it looked like Professor Willow's gang had been brutalized by the mountain as well. Still, Dillinger remembered Spark's warning. She kept her head low and her attention on Candela.
Something short and yellow moved behind Candela's legs. Apparently, Dillinger wasn't the only one hiding today. Her hypno peeked from behind his protector, watching the crowd of Rockets as they approached. Almost too quickly, he found her. Dillinger nearly missed a step as his eyes locked with hers.
But the pokémon didn't notify his new comrades of Dillinger's presence. At least, not in a way she could detect. Candela maintained a fiercely resolute expression, her attention fixed on Captain Pollard as he led the march forward. Blanche stood between and slightly forward of their companions, as unreadable as ever. Spark seemed strangely relaxed and disinterested in the goings-on, preferring to inspect his gloves, as if Team Rocket's presence didn't bother him in the slightest. Dillinger nearly found it offensive.
As soon as she thought it, Spark's eyes lifted, catching hers with the same immediate focus as Hypno. Her breath caught and her adrenaline spiked for a moment. Maybe she should have listened to Pollard. What was she thinking? She was barely hidden. At best, the grunts around her were a meat shield.
But then he looked away, and Dillinger released a sigh of relief, ashamed of her brief panic. There was nothing to be afraid of. Team Rocket had the situation under control. Spark and his oblivious friends had mere hours left to live, and they didn't even know it. What a delicious moment it would be when they discovered their fate…
Captain Pollard held up his hand to signal a stop. The Rocket grunts, Dr. Dillinger included, stood back as the captain strode forward to meet Blanche. For once, his cocky grin was reassuring.
"We haven't formally met," he began, extending his hand and bowing slightly. "I'm Captain Jay Pollard. And you are Blanche, I presume?"
Blanche didn't so much as glance at Pollard's offered hand. "We don't have time for pleasantries. I have terms I wish to discuss with Dr. Dillinger."
Pollard straightened up and slid his hand casually into his pocket. "I'm afraid you'll have to make do with me, my dear."
Dillinger could have sworn she felt a rush of cold air pass through her. She clasped the lapels of her battered lab coat against the chill.
"Very well," Blanche said. They nodded toward the array of Rockets behind Pollard. "Is this all of you?"
Pollard sighed, and it was almost authentic. "We've sustained considerable casualties. We are all that remain."
Considerable casualties indeed. Of the several dozen Rockets that had entered the mountain, a sorry group of about 30 had survived. They had congregated using the beacons on their communicators, their faces gaunt and weary, many bearing bloody wounds and carrying significantly fewer pokémon than they'd started with. Pollard's communicator was dotted with the lights of beacons throughout the mountain that didn't move, and would never move again.
"You said you had terms?" Pollard prompted.
"We will lead you to the door on the condition that you surrender to a peaceful arrest once we're free," Blanche stated.
"Not going to happen," Pollard replied, picking at his nails like a bored student in class.
"Then stay here and perish," Blanche said.
"I'm not fond of that option either. Here's what I propose: you submit to us now, we all go to the door, and if I'm in a generous mood once we're out, I'll let you live," Pollard said.
"You forget we have three legendary pokémon ready to defend our lives," Blanche noted.
Pollard rubbed his chin in mock consideration. "You're bluffing, Blanche."
Blanche's impassive face twitched. "You've seen the birds for yourself and you know that they're critical to opening the door. Honestly, it will be lucky for you if we can keep them controlled."
"We've captured the birds before and we can do it again. This time, we have the advantage of already having you connected to them. You forget that there are only three of you. You and any pokémon you still have are outnumbered. Once we subdue you, controlling the birds will be as easy as, say, breaking your wrist," Pollard said. "Or, you know, something a bit more debilitating. I have dozens of creative ideas I'd love to try out."
Behind Blanche, Candela was seething. Dillinger could practically see flames in her eyes. She hoped Pollard knew what he was doing.
"But none of that matters, because you're obviously bluffing," Pollard said. "You think you have your thoughts on lockdown, Blanche, but in reality you're an open book. There's doubt written across your face. Something is going on with the legendary pokémon that you don't want us to know about. I get the feeling they won't be as big a threat as you'd have us believe."
Spark reached for a pokéball at his waist. Surely, Pollard saw that. Dillinger's hand rested on the one pokéball she had left, ready to draw at the drop of a hat.
"Like you said, no time to waste," Pollard said. "Surrender now, or prepare to fight."
"You don't want to fight us," Candela said. Or, Dillinger thought it was Candela. It was both her voice, and not her voice. Though Candela's lips formed what should have been a smile, the expression was sinister.
Spark seemed to pick up on the change as well. Suddenly, all of his attention was directed at Candela.
"It will hardly be a fight," Pollard said.
In the blink of an eye, he whipped a pokéball out of his pocket and released his victreebel. Dillinger rushed to release Jynx as well, just as Spark threw out his jigglypuff.
Pollard pointed at the three leaders. "Victreebel, Stun Sp-"
He never finished the command. The victreebel collapsed under a torrent of fire, shrieking as the blaze engulfed it. The flames licked toward Pollard, who jumped back with a face of genuine shock.
Dillinger searched for the fire pokémon that must have been deployed, but found only Candela, her arm reaching toward Pollard, the air warping around her, superheated. Dillinger's mouth hung open in disbelief as she shrank away from the group of equally astounded grunts. This couldn't be real. Was Candela so deeply bonded to Moltres that she could channel its power? The thought was both petrifying and wondrous. Maybe Dillinger had been so focused on the secrets of the ancient civilization that she'd missed the scientific potential of the leaders and their birds. Could such a bond be artificially replicated?
Another gush of flame brought Dillinger out of her fantasy. Candela's eyes burned white and pupil-less as fire poured from her palms, forcing Team Rocket back as her friends looked on in horror. Dillinger came to her senses. This was no time to daydream about new experiments. Candela was coming for her, just as Spark had warned. A wave of terror flooded Dillinger's body, turning her legs to jelly.
"Jynx!" Dillinger shouted as she retreated behind a crystal pillar. The other Rockets followed her lead, running for cover as Candela stepped forward to broaden the reach of her flames. "Use Blizzard! Quickly!"
Jynx looked at Dillinger, her eyes wide with horror and reflecting the yellow light of Candela's blaze. The insubordinate ice pokémon knew what chance she stood against a fire type, the poor, worthless thing. Dillinger was about to threaten the jynx with a fate much worse than fainting when the flames abruptly stopped.
"Give her to me," Candela demanded, her voice filling up the cavern more than it naturally should have. Her blank eyes passed over the Rockets, hunting for her prey.
"Candela, snap out of it!" Spark called. Dillinger's hypno had switched to cowering behind him instead, along with Spark's jigglypuff.
Candela ignored him. "Give me Dillinger, and your deaths will be swift."
Blanche reached for Candela's shoulder, and Dillinger flinched on their behalf. What did the fool think they were doing? Did Blanche want to burn themself? This sort of thoughtless mistake was not like the Blanche Dillinger had come to know.
Spark waved his arms frantically at them. "Blanche, no! It's not her! It's-"
But it was too late. The Valor leader whirled on Blanche, catching them in the gut with a punch that threw them at least ten feet. They hit the ground and slid another few feet, curling into a tight ball as they stopped, clutching their abdomen. Dillinger cupped her hands over her mouth to muffle her cry of surprise.
Spark sprinted toward Blanche, nearly tripping over some kind of metal contraption on his leg. Dillinger didn't doubt that Candela was powerful on her own, but no human could strike like that. Moltres was working through her, and it apparently didn't give a damn about the petty human obstacles in its way. Blanche was supposed to be the brains of the group. How had they not seen this coming? Were they that blinded by their friendship with Candela? What a pathetic waste of potential.
Several pairs of hands fell on Dillinger at once, and she was yanked from her hiding place.
"What the hell is this?! Get off me!" Dillinger shrieked as her fellow Rockets dragged her forward.
"Take her!" one of the grunts shouted to Candela as he tossed Dillinger to the ground. "Just let us go!"
Dillinger glared at the grunt. "You steaming heap of human waste, I will personally deliver your traitorous ass to Giovanni!"
"Everyone, call out your pokémon! Don't give in to Candela's demands! Human or pokémon, she's not invincible!"
For the second time in a single day, Dr. Dillinger was grateful for Captain Pollard. She scrambled to her feet as the grunts released their pokémon around her. Even a legendary pokémon could be broken. She'd done it before. The odds were still in Team Rocket's favor.
Even so, Dillinger's heart plummeted into her stomach as she turned to see Candela gliding toward her, her feet no longer touching the floor. Dillinger was completely exposed to this approaching abomination, with only a handful of battle-weary pokémon around her for protection. She let out a weak, fearful cry as Candela lifted higher, a fountain of flames spreading from behind her back like fiery wings, blindingly bright against the blue darkness of the cavern.
"Attack her! NOW!" Pollard commanded.
The chamber filled with the sound of grunts ordering their pokémon to take action. Golbats, arboks, and weezings attacked in unison, physically launching themselves at Candela or spitting poison and clouds of smog. She dodged with fluid, dancing motions, like she was only passingly aware that she was being targeted. When a fearow darted too close, she casually lifted her hand and doused the pokémon in fire, sending it careening toward the ground like a meteorite burning through the atmosphere.
Candela's fire cast flickering shadows across Captain Pollard's stern face. Dillinger couldn't take pleasure in the fear she saw in the man as he watched Team Rocket's pokémon faint, one after another, until the sorry few that remained gave up and retreated out of the chamber, preferring to face the terrible creatures in the tunnels rather than continue this fruitless battle. It was a matter of time before Candela turned her fury on the humans once more.
"Moltres!"
Candela paused and tilted her head at the sound of Spark's voice.
Behind her, positioned in front of Blanche's prone body, stood Spark. He held a pokéball aloft so Candela could see it over her shoulder.
"You've made your point, Moltres," Spark said, sweat sliding down his brow. Hypno and the jigglypuff attended to Blanche at his back, and they glanced up nervously as he spoke. "I think Team Rocket is willing to work with us now."
Dillinger held her breath. Had this been part of their plan all along?
Candela – or Moltres, or whatever the fiery figure was – smirked. "Us? There is no 'us,' human. You are all the same, and you will all suffer as I have been forced to suffer."
"Even Candela?" Spark challenged.
"I'll roast her from the inside out," she replied.
No, this couldn't have been planned. But Dillinger appreciated the distraction. She started to back away from the others, ready to race for the cover of the tunnel.
With a flick of his wrist, Spark winged the pokéball toward Candela. Dillinger expected to see something small, either the sandslash or raichu she'd see when she had confiscated Spark's pokémon on the other side of the door. To her surprise, Blanche's enormous gyarados materialized in the cavern. The pokémon landed hard on the ground, creating a shockwave that threatened to knock her off her feet.
It was the last straw for the Rocket grunts. They scattered out of the way, tumbling over each other, calling fainted pokémon back to their balls as quickly as they could manage while avoiding the undulating body of the gyarados. The gyarados's tail crashed through crystals haphazardly, spraying shattered chunks of them into the air. She bellowed, and the ground shuddered under Dillinger's feet again.
But the quaking didn't die away this time. Dillinger crouched low to the unsteady ground, desperately wracking her brain for a plan, for a way to survive what could very easily be a cave-in. Twenty feet away, she found Captain Pollard in a similar position, his perfect hair a sweaty mess. She'd have time to revel in that later, if she managed to live through this new disaster.
"Gyarados! Surf!"
Dillinger felt like her body had been rushed by electricity as Spark called the command. The gyarados reared back and aimed a powerful geyser at Candela, knocking her from the air with a sizzle of doused flames. The water rushed freely from the gyarados's gaping maw, driving Candela to the ground and flooding the area around the brawlers. Dillinger turned and sprinted away, furiously wiping a spray of mist from her glasses as she bolted for the tunnel, barely keeping her feet under her as the rocky terrain bucked and trembled.
She chanced a look over her shoulder. As the gyarados's attack ran dry, Candela hauled herself upright again, steam billowing up from her flesh, the sleeves of her jacket completely burned away. Distracted as she was, Dillinger failed to see the cluster of crystals until her foot hooked it and sent her flying. She faceplanted and the sharp pain of her broken nose rushed back to her all at once. She cried out and clutched her face. Above her pounding heartbeat and the cacophony of fleeing grunts, she heard Candela's voice.
"You really believed that would be enough to stop me? You're even stupider than Candela thinks you are."
Dillinger forced herself to sit up. More steam engulfed Candela and the area around her, leaving only a human-shaped shadow in the middle of a huge puddle of water. The gyarados was gone, but something smaller zipped through the fog. Dillinger caught a flash of orange and realized what was happening.
"Rutabaga, Discharge!"
Thunder boomed through Dillinger's chest as the steam around Candela exploded with yellow light. A bloodcurdling shriek cut the air, but was soon lost to the bass rumble of shifting stone.
Dizzy from the pain in her head, Dillinger willed herself up and took off once more, focusing all her energy on the tunnel entrance, where she might find shelter from falling rocks. Her legs throbbed from the effort, and she discovered that, quite suddenly, she was running uphill. The roof wasn't caving in…
The floor was collapsing.
As soon as the reality set in, she saw great cracks spreading on either side of her. A chorus of screams swelled and then faded as the ground gave way and swallowed the grunts behind her. The tunnel entrance was so close, so tantalizingly close! She yelped in horror as the ground sank beneath her, and she kicked off one last time.
She landed in the mouth of the tunnel, where she frantically army-crawled forward, away from the disintegrating ground. Exhausted, she clasped her hands over the back of her head, as if that could protect her, and tried to block out the dwindling screams of her comrades.
The voices stopped before the booming of tumbling rocks did. Minutes passed, and the sound lessened gradually, and then disappeared.
Dr. Dillinger, her body shaking like a leaf in a storm, lifted her head. Dust filled the tunnel as a gray cloud, and she coughed to clear her mouth of the stuff. She pulled herself up against the wall and tried to make sense of the new landscape. All she could see was darkness beyond the tunnel, punctuated by the glow of the few crystal structures that had survived the collapse. The old magma chamber had been much bigger than she could have predicted, with a false floor that must have been formed by unstable volcanic rock from the dead volcano's last eruption. Nervously, Dillinger peered over the newly-made edge.
Two eyes greeted her from the darkness, and she nearly fainted.
"Doc! Oh, Doc, am I glad to see you…"
Captain Jay Pollard was pressed against the wall just below the lip of the tunnel, belly to the stone, his feet having miraculously found purchase on a tiny crag of rock. He kept a white-knuckled grip on the wall. The darkness extended below him without end, and it made Dillinger's head spin.
"Doc, help me up!" Pollard demanded with a twitchy, terrified smile. "I tried to call out my fearow, but I can't reach the pokéball."
Dillinger eyed the pokéball on the back of his belt. If Pollard tried to reach back for it, he'd surely lose is balance. Dillinger lowered herself flush against the ground and reached her arms over the edge.
"Grab my hands," she said, making a conscious effort to control the vibration of her voice. Even now, she didn't want to appear weak in front of the captain.
Pollard reached up for her one hand at a time, his breathing quick and shallow. Dillinger locked hands with him and acted as an anchor as he pulled himself up the wall. Lucky for him, he had a lean, twiggy body. Dillinger wasn't sure she could pull up someone any heavier than him.
She reached around his shoulders as he neared the top, helping him to nearly reach the ledge, and then paused. She snaked her arm down his back and plucked the pokéball from its place.
Pollard stiffened. "Doc?"
She whispered into his ear as she slipped the pokéball containing his fearow into her pocket.
"It's Dr. Joan Dillinger, you piece of shit."
He didn't make a sound as he fell. She watched his horror-stricken eyes fade into the darkness as he plummeted, and she felt nothing. A few seconds passed, followed by a distant, wet thud.
Satisfied, Dr. Dillinger returned her attention to the vast chamber. A little ways down on the opposite wall, she could barely make out something white and spherical. An orb of ice, perhaps? Something that a person who could channel the powers of Articuno might create in an act of self-preservation? It looked big enough for at least a couple humans to fit in comfortably, and as she looked closer, appeared to be sitting on a stone shelf.
It had to be them. If anyone could survive both a drowning and an electrocution, it was Candela. Dillinger was counting on her and her friends to pull through, like the tenacious cockroaches they were. But they weren't the only ones who were built to endure.
"OK, Fearow," Dillinger said, patting the pokéball in her pocket. "Let's see if all three of our favorite research subjects survived, and then let's make them wish they hadn't."