"I knew somehow that this wasn't a normal blackout," Akuma said with a glare at the criminals.
"Oh no," the second one said in alarm. "It's the Hunter! Get in the truck, we need to get out of here!"
"Never heard of him," the first said. "And we were told to put down any witnesses that interfered."
"We can't win against the Hunter though. We need to take what we've got and get back to the rendezvous."
"You take the truck then. I'll follow you on foot after I've removed him."
The second Rocket dropped the Growlithe he was carrying, got in the truck, and drove it out and away from the building.
"Too slow," Akuma mocked having already thrown his pokéball out the opening. Charizard emerged and before it had fully appeared, Akuma ordered it to catch the truck. Charizard flew after the speeding vehicle leaving the three behind in the half emptied room.
"So you're skilled enough to handle a Charizard? I can give you credit for that, but I doubt you have anything more powerful," the Rocket said as he opened a blue colored pokéball of his own and a green and yellow frog appeared.
"I do hope you have something better than that or I won't have any fun," Akuma taunted in a menacing voice. He snapped his wrist forward and the other pokéball he'd hidden behind his back went flying. It opened to release a 5 foot tall green colored Pokémon with wings and huge blades for arms before his opponent. Outside the room Chad cringed at the sight of the beast. "Scyther, power blade and confusion," Akuma commanded. The huge bug Pokémon stood up straight and spun slowly, then picked up the pace and created a gust of wind in the room. Two seconds passed before it stopped without momentum and split itself into multiple copies that took up half of its side of the room; a double team maneuver. Chad didn't understand why Akuma had given such commands that were not actual Pokémon attacks save for confusion, but this one didn't look like it could learn psychic attacks and didn't appear to be using any as well.
"Politoed, hit them all with hypnosis," Akuma's opponent said to the frog. Politoed spread its arms and released a hypnotic psychic wave at the Scyther copies.
"Hasty execution," Akuma snapped. Scyther copies bounced to different spots in the room then closed the distance to its opponent and cut horizontally inward with both arm blades. Politoed dropped to the ground before its hypnosis attack could begin to take effect.
Politoed retreated into its pokéball and now the attacker countered with a brown humanoid Pokémon with legs looking like springs and claws on its feet. Its only facial feature was two almond shaped eyes. "Hitmonlee, identify that Scyther with your foresight."
The fighting Pokémon's eyes glowed as it swept the room looking over each Scyther carefully until it identified the real one. Immediately the clones vanished. On command it then followed up with kicks that stretched across the room to strike at Scyther from afar.
"Speed it up," Akuma instructed. Scyther became a blur as it dodged the fast moving kicks while Akuma looked on. Before too long he again said, "High low; split the difference and hack." Now Scyther double teamed again with one copy. One flew above Hitmonlee's kicks while the other crouched down low and used its wings to dart toward Hitmonlee with outstretched blades. Hitmonlee was confused at first, then brought its leg down to the lower Scyther and struck home with a low kick. The upper copy vanished while the real Scyther fell face first toward the floor. "Dance, foot, and slice!" Akuma snapped. Scyther drove one blade into the ground blindly, used it as an anchor while the rest of its body continued toward Hitmonlee with the remaining momentum, planted a foot down when it reached the end of its blade length, found a secure footing, then spun with the momentum, and brought its other arm up in a slicing arc to cut Hitmonlee from top to bottom. Hitmonlee lost its ground and recoiled from the severe hit. Before Hitmonlee could regain its balance Scyther struck again by bringing its other blade up and smacking it with the flat side. Like Politoed, Hitmonlee dropped to the ground unconscious.
The Rocket recalled Hitmonlee and kept his arm extended after it had disappeared into the pokéball. "You're… strong…"
"Comes with experience. Surrender now."
"Not yet, I still have one more chance to win," the Rocket said with a twitching grin. As he pulled out another pokéball Akuma recalled Scyther. "Why are you pulling him back?" the Rocket yelled.
"No sense carrying on after a kick from Hitmonlee. Scyther made a blind strike when it was dizzy. It didn't hit at full power. There was a lot less damage than there could have been."
That was weak? Chad thought in shock.
"I'll even give you better planning by making the first move this time," Akuma said as he unhooked the pokéball he had loaned to Chad before arriving at Saffron. Chad watched closely to see what kind of Pokémon he'd held in hand a few hours ago. Akuma threw the ball and Infernape appeared in the middle of the room. Chad stared at the Hoenn Pokémon in wonder until Akuma called back to him. "Chad, start getting the injured Pokémon out of the room. We'll cover you."
"Got it!" Chad called with extra enthusiasm at the mention of his name.
Akuma turned back to the Rocket. "Your move."
The Rocket grinned broadly. "I've never seen that one before, but it's obviously a fire type and I know how to fight those." The pokéball was thrown, and the opponent was revealed to be a red octopus with a suction mouth and large eyes. "This win is mine," the man gloated. "No one's ever beaten my Octillery!"
Infernape and Akuma stared at the water Pokémon for a moment then looked at each other. Akuma shrugged and told Infernape, "Whatever you feel like doing I guess." Infernape turned back toward the octopus and started hopping left and right with its arms raised in a fighting pose. Now it was the other's turn to look confused.
"What… is that monkey doing?" the man asked incredulously.
"I'm letting him battle on his own," Akuma replied. "I'm letting him decide how to fight this battle since I don't need to give commands."
"Octillery has never been defeated!" the Rocket yelled back.
"Then you must have never had it battle. Go on without me, I don't care. Let me carry that Tentacool, Chad."
The Rocket and his Octillery were both fuming. "Octillery, fire an octazooka attack at that monkey!" he yelled in anger. Octillery latched its suctioned tentacles to the floor and fired an inky glob at Infernape from its mouth. Infernape cartwheeled in the air to the right and landed closer to the two before resuming its dance. More attacks followed in the form of multiple beams. Octillery used a psybeam, bubblebeam, ice beam (one of these nearly hitting Chad and a Pikachu), and even a flamethrower was used. But after each strike Infernape stepped aside and closer to his opponent until he was a few feet away, then lunged and began striking repeatedly with arms, feet, and even tail until Octillery became dazed and collapsed. Akuma came back in as Chad carried the last Pokémon out and called Infernape back into its pokéball.
"Well now that that's taken care of, drop your pokéballs and surrender," he told the Rocket member.
The man flinched at the sight of his fallen Pokémon, then called it back as well and after returning it to its spot on his belt, dropped it to the ground. Akuma looked at the belt to make sure six pokéballs were attached, and then approached the Rocket to apprehend him. But when he grabbed the other man's arm, he was hit in the face with an uppercut. Akuma fell back a pace and glared at the other man wondering what he was doing. He couldn't escape, Akuma had six healthy Pokémon, and the other had dropped all six of his to the ground.
"I'm still not beaten," he said through a laugh. "I have a trump card." He reached into his pocket and pulled out another pokéball with a red color on both halves.
"A seventh pokéball is it?" Akuma asked with a cold stare. "How did you get access to that?"
"I am a member of Team Rocket. We don't play by the rules!"
"I am not convinced. You'd better tell me the real reason why you're carrying another. I'm not that easily fooled."
"If anyone knows anything when they see a seventh pokéball they know that it is dangerous. Certain people know exactly what it means when they see a seventh though, and you obviously don't."
"Then how about we make things interesting?" Akuma replied coolly as he pulled off a pokéball from his straps.
"What do you mean?"
Akuma pulled a cord on his vest and the straps crossing his chest dropped to the ground leaving him with just the one in his hand. The Rocket grinned broadly when he counted six Pokémon… until Akuma pulled out a blood red pokéball from inside his vest pocket. The sight of it drained the color out of the Rocket's face. "You're a confident one, so you're easy pickings. Now you know that I know that Pokémon is the strongest one you have. Since it's so tough I'll make you a deal: beat my sixth Pokémon and you go free. I beat you, and you come with me."
"That won't happen…. This Pokémon's power is unmatch-."
"So are mine in case you haven't been paying attention. Now release it and see how long you'll last."
Outside the center there was a loud crash and dust flew in through the hole in the wall. Akuma looked out and saw the silhouette of Charizard as it reentered the building and looked down on the criminal with an ugly glare. With nowhere to retreat the Team Rocket member assumed his fighting stance.
Akuma looked back at the doorway to see Chad had been joined by Kurishimi. "Go out through the hole in the wall and get those Pokémon out of the truck with Charizard," he told them. "I'll need all the room I can get."
Kurishimi and Chad ran out the hole with Charizard beside them, leaving Akuma to face down the seventh Pokémon on his own.
Charizard flew ahead of the trainers to the truck and ripped off the driver's side door, then reached in and pulled out the now unconscious Rocket member that had been driving the truck. When Chad and Kurishimi caught up they stared as Charizard pulled him out and dumped him on the ground like a bag of garbage, but didn't waste time saying anything. Chad helped Pokémon get out of the back of the truck while Charizard escorted those who could walk to the front doors of the Pokémon Center. When they arrived at the doors the power was still out, so Charizard simply punched through the glass doors and continued bringing Pokémon inside. Kurishimi checked on Pokémon that were unable to move individually and used super potions on each of them, drawing a large amount of the spray bottles from the bag she'd gotten at the store a few hours ago. When the Pokémon were unloaded Chad helped them to the front doors and Charizard did the same when it returned.
As the number of wounded Pokémon in the truck dwindled, the three could hear sounds of battle from within the room they had left Akuma in. There were screams and roars that could only come from the sounds of dangerous Pokémon. They couldn't see anything unfortunately since the attacks kept enough dust and air moving to block the darkened room in addition to the sun having nearly disappeared from the horizon leaving only a pink and orange glow painted across the clouds. In the end there was one Raichu left, the evolved form of Pikachu, that was in too bad a condition to move without the nurse's aid. Kurishimi had Charizard go get her while she took care of Raichu and Chad kept his eyes on the hole in the wall where a battle raged inside.
Eventually Kurishimi looked up from Raichu as well. After a minute she commented, "I don't think I remember Akuma being in a battle this long before…"
Chad looked at her then back. "So he's in a tough battle?"
"It seems that way. This is a first for him. I've never seen this happen before; pun on the lack of visibility aside."
"Glad I'm not in there after all."
"Me too; it sounds like one of the two is getting weaker now."
"Do you know which Pokémon he's using from the sounds?"
"One roar sounds familiar, but I can't place it. I don't know if it belongs to Akuma or the Rocket unfortunately."
One roar continued to quiet down and occur less frequently until multiple impacts could be heard. Then a charge followed by an impact sounded and a huge figure was thrown out of the building. Before Chad and Kurishimi could identify it, a beam fired from the building's interior and completely enveloped it so nothing could be seen. Fortunately the smoke cleared from the blast, but they were too focused on the Pokémon that had been blasted to notice that the building interior was visible now.
When it landed they saw it was a huge lizard monster with a rock body colored green and over six feet tall. It had a blue diamond on its belly and black holes in certain places over its body. Kurishimi quickly pulled out her pokédex to learn more. It was named Tyranitar and was one of the most powerful non-legendary Pokémon known. It had a unique type combination of rock and dark. They were very rare in the wild, and could change underground fault lines with their earthquake attack.
Kurishimi hadn't seen Akuma with this Pokémon before, so she assumed it was the Rocket's Pokémon. When she looked up toward the building again she confirmed it upon sight of Akuma jumping to the ground beside his Pokémon that had downed the monster.
Akuma's Pokémon was best described as a four-legged tank. Its body was coated in shining blue metal and stood at just over 5 feet high. On its face was a silver colored 'X' that had two sharp red eyes on either side. Its legs were slightly higher than the main body which sat lower in between all fours giving it the appearance of a four legged mechanical spider. Kurishimi had seen it before and knew it was quite possibly his most dangerous Pokémon he'd ever had since it evolved, but had only seen it used once just after evolution. Her pokédex had not recognized it, but Akuma had told her that it was called Metagross.
Tyranitar started to get up slowly and Akuma ordered Metagross forward again. As Metagross closed the distance Akuma ordered 'another meteor mash strike'. One of Metagross' front legs shone and the Pokémon floated up into the air before driving its claws into the center of Tyranitar's chest. The three spikes on Metagross' foot drove in deeper as Tyranitar flailed on the ground until Metagross finally let up. Tyranitar collapsed in a heap and didn't move in the slightest.
"Is it dead?" Chad asked after a momentary silence.
"I think it's knocked out cold. Doesn't seem conscious in the least," Kurishimi observed. "Whatever the case, I think Akuma won."
"No kidding. I'll pass fighting him anytime soon."
Akuma walked up to his Pokémon and pounded his knuckles softly on the metal casing a couple times which produced a low rumbling grunt from the behemoth before returning Metagross to its pokéball. Then he knelt down and examined Tyranitar. He said something to himself then went back inside the Pokémon center. After two minutes he came back out with Tyranitar's pokéball in hand along with his pokéballs strapped across his chest once more and returned it. He stuffed the pokéball in one of his pockets then called Charizard over. Charizard flapped its wings to airlift itself beside Akuma so Akuma could speak with it. They spoke for a moment before Charizard grabbed up the driver and went inside the Pokémon center with Akuma just behind him.
"Does Akuma understand Pokémon speech?" Chad asked.
"I'm not sure. I think he understands some of it to a point, but it could just be guesswork for all I know."
"I've so gotta learn how he does that," Chad said mostly to himself.
"Let's go see what's up," Kurishimi said.
They went inside the building again and found the Rocket unconscious beside the truck driver who was in the same condition. Akuma was checking the first one's ID number and other things he'd apparently found inside his uniform. Charizard was nowhere to be seen; presumably inside its pokéball again Kurishimi guessed.
"What are you doing?" Kurishimi asked him.
"He had a seventh Pokémon," Akuma replied without turning around. "I want to know why and where he got it from."
"Wouldn't it have been a recent catch that wasn't deposited into the system? The Pokémon I caught yesterday didn't get automatically transferred."
Akuma turned to look back at her with an expression like he was talking to a clueless child. "Do you think that a Pokémon like Tyranitar could possibly be found in this area? It's a third stage evolution Pokémon capable of changing the surrounding terrain with its earthquake attacks. All things considered, I highly doubt that it was a recent capture." He turned back to continue what he was doing.
"Okay, you've got a point. What if he didn't capture that one then but a different Pokémon?"
"I already checked that out. He has no Pokémon from this area so that's impossible. Either that Pokémon was swiped from the Pokémon center's pokéball holding area or it was stolen before they got here. Since you were at the pokéball storage when they were in here it didn't come from there. He also knew what Pokémon was inside before he sent it out and knew its power level enough to think he could win."
"What's the big deal about him having a seventh Pokémon anyway?"
"Know anyone else who has a seventh Pokémon?"
"I know one at least."
Akuma turned to look at Kurishimi again, but she just looked back with a knowing expression until she saw the light in his head turn on. "Oh, right."
"What's the big deal about it?"
"Not now Akashi. I'll tell you some other time maybe."
"Bet you won't."
"Bet you're right."
"Meanwhile our young hero decides he's hungry and leaves his two companions to their intelligent conversation to go find some dinner," Chad said as he walked out of the room. Akuma and Kurishimi stopped talking long enough to watch him go.
After he disappeared Akuma said, "Well he didn't get that from his father."
"What do you mea- Hey!" Kurishimi yelled and slapped the back of Akuma's head. "We're done with that now!"
"And here I thought you were enjoying it," Akuma said as he stood up after gathering the Rocket's things. "Call the police if you haven't already."
"The nurse has already called them," Kurishimi told him. "They should be here in a few minutes."
"Good work," Akuma nodded. "I'm going to leave for a while. I assume you can take care of things, Akashi?"
"I would hope so, but where are you going? The police will want to question you."
"The Rockets had to be meeting someone somewhere with their delivery. I'm going to sweep the neighborhood and see if I can find anything. If we wait then we may lose them. I assume you can take care of things and Chad can deliver his side of the story when his mouth isn't filled with food. I'll see you later tonight or tomorrow depending on when I get back." Akuma jumped out the hole and released Charizard again. As he mounted he remembered something else and turned Charizard back around to face Kurishimi. "Also I have something else to talk to you about concerning Chad's training. Ask him about it and I'll give you more details later on if you need them." Akuma tapped Charizard's side and the dragon took off upwards.
"I am never going to understand that guy," Kurishimi said to herself after he'd left.