This was much more unexpected that I could think… She appeared literally out of nowhere and disappeared into the darkness. Damn, this woman still scares me sometimes… The remembrance of my debt to her scares me much more.
There`s something suspicious going on. Leaf and Jane both appear at the perfect moment, do something strangely nice and then disappear. Can these two be somehow… connected? Damn this doesn`t look good if they actually can.
"Are you going or not?" Erika`s voice disturbed my thoughts. There`s no time for thinking now, now we finally have to act!
"Yes, give me a second…" I looked into the bag and just then noticed something under all pokeballs, on the very bottom. It was my clothes! Jane… took it from my room in Pokemon Center?
"Where did you get that?" Erika questioned me about the bag. "You hid it in the alley nearby, right?"
"Erm… No, I just ran to PokeCenter and grabbed it…" I replied without turning to her. I took my greatcoat and looked over it to make sure everything`s okay.
Then I raised my eyesight on Erika. Maybe all these scratches on her dress reveal nice places on the body and look pretty nice overall, but a pretty woman in tatters will attract too much attention. Especially if everyone knows her as the gym leader. Where the heck did she manage to tear her dress that much? She just crawled through the bushed with me, ran across the street and jumped on her Vileplume from buildings… Well, maybe, somewhere she did…
"Are you sure you don`t want to go visit your gym?" I unsurely asked her while packing the greatcoat back in the bag.
"What`s wrong this time?" Erika seriously looked at me.
"Well…" I looked over her from top to bottom. "If you`re going into the casino in a dress like THIS… They may consider you a stripper. An amateur one."
She had to pay attention now to herself. A piece of cloth was falling down her shoulder, and she tore it away completely in anger and raised her eyesight on me.
"Hey-hey, don`t look at me! The fate itself tells you to leave me alone on this dark path…" I stepped back and tried to convince her once more.
Suddenly the sound of engine reaches us from behind. I cautiously turned around and noticed the blue car approaching us. I stood before Erika covering her with my body and waited. The car stopped and two people appeared from it – some guy and… Bridget.
"There he is!" The girl pointed at me with very, very angry look. Her companion headed to me, stretching his muscles.
"Oh, great. Perfect timing, guys." I realized that such jest means nothing good, so I didn`t waste time and punched him first. The guy was caught by surprise and retreated back, holding his bleeding nose.
"Stop this, both of you!" Erika shouted behind me and run forward.
"Leader Erika?" Bridget was surprised by the sudden appearance of her mentor that she seemed not to notice before.
"We have things to do here… and you, Bridget, is very convenient to be here. Do you have a dress with you?"
"Erm… No…" The girl confusedly replied.
"I`m sorry, Bridget…" Erika deeply sighed. "But then I need the dress that you ARE wearing now."
And with this statement all three of us were extremely shocked.
"What the hell?" The Bridget`s guy mumbled displeased.
"Bridget, please. This is very important." Erika approached her student and looked in her eyes. I have no idea what`s going on here, but the girl soon looked down and replied:
"Okay…"
They just nodded to each other and returned into the car. For a couple of minutes me and the guy were silently looking at the vehicle, really shocked and speechless.
"Listen, man…" I quietly said to him. "You have no idea about the shit happening here. Very serious shit. You should take your car back and move as far as you can, understand?"
"You`re alive just thanks to Erika. I respect her. So shut up and don`t make me madder." He replied irritably.
And I said nothing more. I didn`t need to.
A little bit later the sounds in the car quieted, and girls left it. Erika was now wearing Bridget`s short jeans skirt and top, while Bridget switched to the fancy dress of her mentor. It seemed to be too big for her, but her clothes fit Erika just fine.
"Let`s go, Bridget." The guy headed to his car, while Bridget awkwardly turned around and headed to her car. When she saw the dents on her vehicle, I could hear some dirty swearing addressed, I guess, to me.
Erika approached me and gave me another serious look.
"Now we can go too."
"No, we can`t…" I replied to her and put the bag on ground. My suit is in pretty bad shape too, and also suits suck.
"You`re not going to…" Erika surprisingly started, but I interrupted her by tearing my shirt and throwing it away.
"Yes, I am."
I switched back to my nice and comfortable shirt, jeans and greatcoat in a minute. Erika was turned away when I finished. But I didn`t care.
"You have the last chance of leaving, Erika. Use it." I reminded her again.
"Great, you will not talk about this anymore." She turned away from me and headed to the casino. I sighed loudly and grabbed her shoulder.
"You have no idea what to do now, haven`t you?" This time I was serious to her. We`re going to infiltrate the base of a damn criminal organization. We HAVE to be serious here. Erika stopped and shook her head.
"Do you have a plan?" She asked me curiously.
"Of course, I have a plan! Three plans simultaneously at least! But the plan where you follow me and ruin my other plans looks… less nice to me."
She knew I`m not fond of her in this operation. This a thing that I always better do alone. I think I`m not going to kill anyone tonight… But I definitely know that we can find some things you can never unsee. And I don`t want to break her psychic too.
But Erika is very serious about following me. She is a strong-willed woman and – what`s important – rules a gym. I still don`t know what pokemon she has now other than her Vileplume, but this could definitely be useful when the time comes. But I still doubt that.
I closed my eyes and imagined the plan number 3. Every detail, every action, every possible counteraction. I couldn`t think better of it, and I have no more time for that. We are here to finally act!
"Okay. Listen to me, Erika, if you want to live until dawn. Listen to everything I say and do exactly as I say." Judging by her face, she didn`t like this a lot but still nodded in agreement. "If you`re caught… There is a chance that I will leave you. Seriously. I came here to save pokemon, not you. If this will be too risky – it`s not my fault. When I do what I need and get what I want – I`ll be running the hell out of there. Understand?"
"I can take care of myself, thanks." Erika pulled down her shirt that began slowly raising up. Seems like the size doesn`t match perfectly. "Will you tell me the plan?"
"Nope. You sleep better when know less… This will change nothing, so let`s improvise." I gently tapped her shoulder and headed to the main entrance of this wretched Game Corner.
"Hey, wait a second! Tell me at least something!" She ran after me.
"When we are inside." I quietly answered and continued to move. Erika didn`t say anything and just took my hand. We passed near the cracks on ground that Erika`s Vileplume left not so far ago, and climbed upstairs.
We entered the Game Corner, once again. The large hall filled with slots, tables for various games of chance and other methods of sucking the money from people. But this wasn`t the thing that interested me – it was the side corridor guarded by two suspicious people. I noticed two pokeballs on the belts of each one, and their faces looked... really bandit-like. During the first visit I paid attention to this place – and a couple of times I saw other suspicious people coming into that corridor. This defines the direction we have to move.
"Okay, what now?" Erika whispered to me. I raised my head and continued to move forward. After some steps we walked far enough from the Persian statue and stopped.
"You see those two?" I pointed at the guards. "They look pretty suspicious to me. We have to distract them and take away from the corridor."
"And how do we do that?"
"Leave this to me. Take a walk around and observe the cameras in the corners." I pointed at one of the cameras staring at the slot machine near us. "Meanwhile I will… play some slots, you don`t mind?"
"What for?"
"You`ll see. Now go and don`t attract any attention." I pushed her away from me and approached one of the slots. This one looked pretty old comparing to the others. But it was too far from the guards.
"Nah, this won`t do…" I said loudly to the machine.
Erika was walking around the hall, searching for the cameras. Actually, her quest was much harder than mine – as a gym leader, she is quite famous person in this city. A couple of people actually noticed her presence here. Again.
I approached another slot machine, observed it from different angles and visually measured the distance to the guards.
"This is unlucky one…" I said loudly with histrionic disappointment. One of guards looked at me. Great, I got their attention for now.
My companion almost made a circle around the hall and looked very satisfied with her part of the job. As for me, I found one of the slots very close to our targeted corridor. This will do.
"Yeaah! I feel great luck in this one!" I shouted happily and overconfidently, adding some drunken state into the tone. Both security guards looked at me this time, giving me some disgusting looks.
I noticed Erika slowly coming to me and threw the first coin into the slots. One arm pull… And it`s a fail.
"Damn those Marowak balls!" I loudly swore. "I`ll get `ya, stinky box!" And another coin went inside the machine.
"What are you doing?" Erika silently shouted at me. "You`re attracting attention!"
"Rrright, baby! Wanna pull?" I shouted at her with my extremely drunk voice. Playing drunk is my favorite role.
"No! Why would we…"
I interrupter her by grabbing a hand and pulling the lever with it. The pictures moved on, constantly changing and…
"Psyduck`s shiiit!" I lightly hit the machine. "Come on, start giving me money. You steel-ass!"
Erika made a step away from me and quickly looked around worried.
"Shhh! Where are they?" I whispered to Erika normally.
Some seconds have actually passed until she understood that I`m just actor playing, and I do this pretty well. Then she looked around once again.
"I`ve found just four of them: they watch over the entrance, the exchange counter, that statue and our corridor."
"Corridor? Not good…" I looked up at the ceiling. The plan is going to be very risky. "Okay, that`s how we do it. I distract the security and accidentally break the camera in the process. Then you head into the corridor and try to find the place for an ambush. Mark it somehow for me, and then I will lead both of them to you and your Vileplume with Sleep powder, get it?"
"That`s… That`s a good plan. I`m in." Erika grinned and made a step back.
"Of course, you`re in." I replied sarcastically. "Otherwise you would not have been there. Give me some more time to recoup. Walk somewhere near, you will know when to act."
"Right." She nodded and walked away. I returned back to the slots machine and spent the next few minutes losing to this one-armed bandit and loudly swearing. I just need to continue losing and in no case I shouldn`t win. I caught myself on a thought that winning means losing now… And confused myself, swearing even more. The securities began to look disturbed by my behavior, but didn`t act yet.
But now the time has come.
"Ahhh, craap!" I shouted loudly over the whole hall. "That was my last one, you piece`a`shit!" Raising my hand high I punched the slot machine so strongly that my hand just went through the screen. The performance has begun.
"What are you doing?" The first security guard shouted to me while both of them began heading into my direction.
I kicked the machine to free my hand and looked at the people around. Now their attention is directed on me, not Erika.
"It`s all because of you, lucky bastards!" I broke the machine lever and threw it accurately into the camera. Erika noticed that and slowly headed to the corridor that was free of guardians now.
"You`ll have to pay for this, drunk idiot!" The second guardian addressed me.
"I pay no shit! I have nothing left, morons…" Retreated a bit back, kicking the machine once more to overturn the slot machine and block guards` way to me.
"That`s it!" The guard shouted irritated and took out his shocker gun. We should be careful with this thing here.
I easily dodged the first shot and jumped back. They crossed the lying slot machine and ran to me. Of course, there was no sense in just standing on place, so I ran away from them. Now I need to keep the chase for some time until Erika is ready. This reminded of our recent operation with Misty in the woods of Route 5. This one is going to be much more fun. I wonder if I will have the chance to burn this building down too.
But enough of this. I already start to tire and those guys do not.
"Oh, a toilet!" I turned right into the target corridor and ran along it, the securities followed me inside. I began to worry a bit because I didn`t notice any signs from Erika. Of course, there is a chance that she has already been caught, but I do not see any signs of a fight too, not even blood. This would definitely be here.
"Sleep powder!" Suddenly the savior voice sounded from the side, and Erika`s flower pokemon sprayed my chasers with good amount of white powder, making them fall asleep right on the move. Rockets fell on the floor and swiped it with their noses. NOW the blood has appeared, just a bit.
"Okay, this will do too." I complimented Erika and kicked the guard to make sure he`s sleeping nicely. "Let`s take their pokeballs and put these guys somewhere… Oh, a toilet!" This time it actually was the toilet, and we pulled two bodies right into it. There`s no time for binding them or something like that, so we just leave them be here, on one toilet and in darkness.
"I`ll take them for now…" Erika hid two guards` pokeballs in her pocket.
"Fair enough." I did the same with two pokeballs I took from the other security guard and looked at Erika once again. Actually, she really began to prove her usefulness but I`m not going to tell her this.
"So, what`s next?" She asked me with determination.
"Let`s see what we can find here. Maybe their commanders sit somewhere on the top floors or… down floors." I suspiciously looked around and noticed another corridor that I didn`t observe yet. "Follow me."
Erika sighed, returned her Vileplume back to his ultraball and followed me to that corridor. Very soon I heard the voice over the corner and stood near the wall, raising my fist up and commanding Erika to stop. Someone was in the next room, so we have to be careful.
I carefully looked over the corner and saw a guy in Team Rocket`s uniform. The room he was in interested me too – for some reason it`s walls were covered with different ads, pictures and posters. And this guy was looking at one of them.
"I think, this one…" He said, raised the poster up and revealed small slot in the wall with button inside it.
A secret switch. How interesting…
This made the wall from the right of that guy slowly move and reveal the way downstairs. They DO have a secret hideout in this casino after all.
"What are we gonna do?" Erika silently whispered.
I had three thoughts at that moment. He will definitely close the doors behind him, and opening it again may become too obvious for those who are inside. The chance of sneaking behind him before closing is too low. And I have a strong gym leader with me now!
"We`re going to rock and roll!" I loudly shouted and jumped after the corner, rushing to Team Rocket grunt.
"What the…" He just exclaimed as I kicked him in stomach and threw back. I think Erika was going to say the same, but she just stood near me, ready for anything.
Team Rocket grunt straightened after the hit and grinned.
"Intruders are not welcome here!" He shouted and threw two pokeballs on the ground, releasing the energetic two pokemon outside – Zubat and large hairy evolved form of Rattata – it`s called Raticate, if I`m correct.
A battle isn`t actually a thing I would like to do now. This will delay us and, maybe, give time for reinforcements to come. But it`s my fault I didn`t smash him down.
"This won`t take too long." I grabbed my first pokeball and gave a cunning look to Erika. She nodded and grabbed her own ultraball, and together we released Moment and Vileplume to battle. These two were quite surprised to see each other again, battling on the same side, but then switched their looks to the opponents.
The opponent was caught by surprise as two strong trainers challenged him at once. He realizes that his chances for victory are slim, especially against the gym leader herself. But this didn`t made him flee in fear.
"I will take you down! Raticate, Hyper fang on Vileplume, Zubat – Astonish on Golbat!"
"Just great." I said with visible disappointment. "Erika, be the first."
"As you say… Vileplume, use Acid on Raticate!"
"We`ll focus too. Moment, Wing Attack on Raticate!"
And the battle began. My Golbat was the fastest to launch an attack – and he hit Raticate with his wings pretty badly, throwing the enemy away. But Raticate wasn`t finished yet – and with his own speed he jumped on Vileplume and crunched his leaf with large shiny fang. I have to say, Erika`s pokemon felt very bad after this as the damage pretty big. At this moment opposing Zubat launched his Astonish attack, startling my Moment. And just then Erika`s heavy and slow Vileplume finished charging his bulb to spit an acid ball into Raticate. Poor pokemon was thrown away again, but still is able to fight.
"Raticate, Quick attack on Vileplume, Zubat, Bite him too!"
"Help Vileplume, Moment. Use Astonish on Raticate!" I commanded to my Golbat.
"Why are you… Ah, never mind. Giga Drain!"
Her comment made me doubt for some reason. And after some seconds I understood why but just partly. Moment rushed to Raticate to perform his favorite move and he actually screeched right on him… But Raticate just continued running to Vileplume like it was nothing. He crunched Vileplume again leaving large bad bite mark on head. And right after that opposing Zubat joined the party, biting Vileplume too. The flower pokemon retreated a bit back, walking with a limp from pain, and then suddenly began to shine with bright green light. A beam of strange energy appeared between him and Raticate, and it looked like Vileplume was… sucking the life out of the opponent. Raticate howled horribly and fainted, while the energy absorbed from him healed some wounds on Vileplume`s body.
"Don`t make stupid things again, Ven!" Erika accusingly shouted to me. "Vileplume, use Acid!"
I think I made a mistake using Astonish against Raticate. But why is that so? I have no time for thinking now.
"Moment, Wing attack!" I ordered with determination, and my Golbat gladly headed to the enemy.
Whatever move the opponent wanted to use, it was useless. Two our pokemon just destroyed that poor Zubat, leaving Team Rocket grunt alone again.
"Okay… What are we going to do with him?" Erika asked me malevolently.
"We need him silent. We don`t want him to spoil our plans. How about… cutting off his tongue? And legs?" I made an evil grin before the grunt.
"Oh, shut up! My Vileplume will just put him to sleep, and we`ll throw him into the toilet to the others." Woman spoiled my fun. But the look on grunt`s face changed drastically in a mere second.
"Okay, okay, fine. Do your thing, boring woman…"
I left dealing with bandit to her while I examine the poster with a secret switch. This looks actually very smart – hiding it in a room full of different other posters and papers. And no one will definitely ever try to look under them… In a guarded area.
"Do you think they have spotted us?" I asked the gym leader and pointed at the camera above us.
"I don`t think I care anymore…" She replied while pulling the sleeping body of bandit away. "Maybe some gentleman will help me?"
"Oh, come on, you`re a big girl! I believe you can handle this yourself." She just gave me another devouring look I couldn`t resist. "All right, I`ll help you."
We hid the grunt in the same room as previous ones, took away his pokeballs despite pokemon in them were already unconscious, and returned back to the ladder. The way down… Into the darkness.
Maybe they actually didn`t know about us yet, otherwise they would swarm this place with other grunts. Or, maybe, they await us down there.
"Erm… Ladies first?" I awkwardly invited Erika to go down the ladder.
"Phht!" She replied and went down. I followed her into this strange basement that very quickly changed into some… bunker.
This whole place was covered in metal. Lots of different wires sticking out of the walls, neon light bulbs… This doesn`t look like the lair of mafia gang, but something much more serious.
And soon a door stopped us from proceeding deeper into the hideout. The digital lock made me doubt in my previous theories even more.
"We need a keycard to open it." Erika concluded after examining the lock and turned back to me. "I think we have to return back and take one of those guys."
Loud rumble of secret door closing behind startled a bit. The thought that came right after that startled much more.
"How the heck do we get out now?" Woman exclaimed. And the question was very actual right now as there were no handle or opening mechanism from this side. "We are trapped!"
"I don`t think so…" I said quietly while looking for one special bag in my greatcoat. I took out the couple of blooded ID cards of Team Rocket members I used to know a bit.
"Where did you get those from?" Erika questioned in fright.
"You better not know…" I replied and looked at the two of them. I knew they would be useful someday, but also very dangerous. "Although, you know what? Maybe, they will notify Team Rocket about immediately after I use them…"
"Why is that?"
"One of them… belongs to a guy that is dead for a week." I raised the ID card of Mark Steam before Erika`s eyes so she could clearly see the spots of blood on it. "And the other one… belongs to a guy that maybe is already here." The second one, with large writing 'Josh Barkster' was a bit cleaner, but definitely not better than the previous one.
I put two cards on my hands and gave them to Erika.
"Which one you choose?"
She had to think. And she did think. But I knew the result long before.
"Well, let`s go with this one." She pointed at the card of Josh.
"Okay, Erika… Grab my hand… And say… goodbye, life!" I said while putting the card into the slot…