We were escorted into the large office. Not much there differed from the rest of this base – just the big table and a sofa, but some other details actually show the real purpose of this place.
The left wall was completely covered by large board and endless writings. Looks like a plan of some sort… Too bad I can`t see what exactly is written here, it`s so many and so finely.
On the right I noticed a universal shelf and a map of Kanto and Johto regions together. Some places are marked with pins of different colors. Celadon City was pinned with green, of course.
But the main attraction is the man sitting on a sofa in the middle of all this. A middle-aged person, in black strict business suit, small "R" sign on his clothes. For some reason I knew this is the boss himself – something really bossy was in his appearance. Grim sight, contemptuous smile, surplus of self-confidence.
He had a glass of something like vine in one hand and the tablet in another. Our sudden appearance made him slowly turn his head in our direction and pay some attention.
"So…" His rough voice sounded like echo in my ears. THAT`s how a real criminal must sound like! "You`re Vengeance."
The grunt that was leading me here pushed me forward and I nearly fell, but I didn`t. I stood straight, looked back at Erika and our pokemon, and then returned my eyesight to the Boss.
"And you`re… Giovanni… Well, I won`t lie… I`m not enjoying the acquaintance now. But… you can change it." I kept my tone straight, calm and determined. I don`t want them to think I`m scared of them. It was me who came to them, in the end.
Looks like I managed to really attract his attention. He put away glass and tablet and moved closer to the table, connecting his hands and inviting me to take place too with his eyes. I was waiting for the moment when after all these chases I can sit and have some rest.
"I wonder… How much courage do you have to meddle with us?" Giovanni said to me. I felt some threatening tone in his voice.
"Enough to meddle with you." I tried to reply with the same tone. "Actually, it was you who began the first."
He snorted and smiled a bit. I don`t like this guy already.
"You killed three of our men. You destroyed our recruitment scheme in Cerulean City. You uncovered the base of our pokemon suppliers. You crushed our storage point in Celadon Gym. And you nearly wrecked our last and the most valuable delivery…" He sounded pretty cold now. I knew what have to follow after this dialogue, and already invented the three basic plans. Too bad the only way out is back through the guards on every level. Okay, now I need to buy me some time. And do what I, damn it, came here to do!
"And you took my car. Your damn squad 2B. I don`t care much about what they managed to do there, but they all terribly failed. Not all of them are dead, by the way. At least one was alive when I saw him last time. All I want now is my car. Back. In one piece!"
"What?" Erika surprisingly shouted.
"You… dare offer… ME… a deal?" Giovanni quietly and mistrustfully asked.
"Deal? No, no-no-no." I was really hurt by this statement of his. "After the first encounter with you, guys, I have seen so many awful things of your doing… You steal pokemon from people. You steal pokemon from the wilds. I know that you kill people. I guess you can easily kill pokemon too, if needed to. I saw the Lavender town garage."
Giovanni`s face slowly changed to the highest measure of severity.
"I saw too many stuff. So I just… know how disgusting you people are. No, this is not a deal. This is an ultimatum. Give me my car back. Stop terrorizing people of Kanto. And return all wild pokemon that you captured into those… trap balls!" I gave a quick look to Erika behind me. She… didn`t look to be too confident in my success, so she just looked down hopelessly. "Yeah, and express regret before this woman. Because of you I had to blow up the half of her gym." I nodded in Erika`s direction.
I hope, this sounded boldly enough. Giovanni listened to me and then silently stood up from his sofa and slowly headed to the shelf on the right. Some seconds passed after the silence was broken, but not by him.
"Is this all just to get me? All this performance?" Erika began to tantrum a little. "Then you will achieve nothing, bastards!"
"Please, woman, be quiet for a bit, will you?" I whispered to her loudly.
The grunt that was holding her began to get nervous. I have to admit, they were patiently tolerating this my impudence.
"You`re a pokemon trainer, they say." Giovanni suddenly changed the topic. "You have collected four badges. Is that right?"
"Awesome, I managed to attract your attention." I smiled pleased. "All that work was done just to beat your ass. I can beat that guy, and that guy, and anyone in your damn Team Rocket!"
"He`s mad!" One of grunts said behind my back, the second got speechless. What`s so strange in this, really?
Giovanni closed his eyes and smiled cunningly. He`s up to no good, I`m sure of it. The boss opened some box on his shelf and took… a pokeball from it.
"But can you beat me?" He questioned me with determination and squeezed the capsule in his hand.
"What? You`re… a trainer too?" This was really unexpected turn of events for me.
"The strongest of all you`ve met." Giovanni grabbed two more pokeballs and hid them in his suit while returning back to the sofa. "And I wish to see your power in battle."
"What, right here?" I noticed how calmly he stands now, not going to move anywhere. He really wants to challenge me right in his office.
"Right here. I will use three pokemon. You may bring as many as you dare… And the losing outcome of battle will be your doom."
I didn`t even doubt that he will take our heads as the prize. I just wonder whether he will take them anyway despite the result. So I loudly sighed and stood from the chair.
"Don`t waste words for nothing. You know my demand already. Let`s get going. Dumpling, to me! Let`s show him our power!" I called for my partner, and he gladly ran to me, ready to finally kick some ass. We walked away from the table and faced the Boss.
Giovanni seemed pleased by our determination, and even laughed.
"Power… Yes, I really wish to see it. You managed to get here. Us Team Rocket use pokemon as important tools in our great job and for keeping our criminal enterprise going while you pathetic trainers are busy with different nonsense like bonds and everything… Let`s see whose point is right."
Wow. Such loud words for a criminal leader. Would they scare me? I don`t even know. I finally realized that I came to the point of culmination – I began my way as a trainer just for this – beating Team Rocket. All this training was done exactly for this. Am I ready? I train pokemon for two weeks nearly! Maybe, a bit longer. Of course, I am not ready. But the events put me before Giovanni himself right here and right now, and I don`t have a damn choice. It`s whether I lose and die… or win and possibly die anyway. At least, I will try.
"I already know the answer. Bring it on!" I called out to him and streak a pose. Dumpling tried to repeat it, but it was horrible to see.
"Ha. For your insolence, you will feel a world of pain!" Giovanni threw the pokeball on table between us, and the energy flowed from it, forming… an Onix. This one was some smaller than Brock`s was, but he still barely fit in this room and crushed on table, breaking it in pieces.
"Okay, Dumpling, we`ve been through this. Let`s begin with Metal Claw!"
"Onix, Rage!" Giovanni commanded.
I made a couple of careful steps back and looked back at Erika. Grunts are still keeping her hostage, but they are interested in our battle too. I think, it`s rarely someone dares to challenge their leader to battle. Maybe we can catch a moment of distraction at our use. But I didn`t like that one of them is still keeping his gun near Erika`s head.
"Hey, you! Take at least the gun away from her! One loud sound from us – one wrong move from you – and your friend is showered with blood!" I shouted to him. He looked at the gun and then at his friend standing on the other side from Erika. Woman definitely didn`t like all this too, neither did the other grunt, so he shook his head to the first one and my request was done.
"Thanks… idiot." I had to return my attention back to the battle. As I can see, my partner has already reached the foe and gave him some good metallic swipes in the face. This was definitely a super-effective hit, but we already know that Onixes are pretty well defended from physical attacks. This one definitely got this like it was nothing. And after our attack it was his turn to strike – he opened his mouth open, shivered, glowed in some slightly red color and hit my Dumpling with his head. Charmeleon was thrown back, but quickly regained balance and stood on legs. Seems like this move isn`t as strong as expected.
Okay now, the first exchange was made, what now? Should we try our beautiful maneuver that destroyed Brock? Or something else? Yeah, I would like to dominate on this field. I wish to show this bastard his place.
"Dumpling, let`s repeat our 'Brocking' maneuver!" Charmeleon immediately reacted to that. We tried to train this maneuver in the forest before, and my partner liked it very much. More than that – he can now do this without my additional commands.
"Rock Throw, Onix!" Giovanni imperturbably gave the order.
This is not what I actually expected, interfering with the algorithm.
"Cancel, cancel, Dumpling, cancel! Matrix mode, quickly!" The sudden change of plans made me even panic a little. My partner was disoriented for a bit too, but quickly faced the opponent and prepared for his attack. Opposing Onix opened his mouth, and small dust, sand and rocks from his body formed a large boulder that he threw at us. I don`t think he actually aimed at my pokemon, because the blast wave from the stone crushing into the floor reached me too, and shook me strong enough. I managed to keep on standing, but the picture on the wall behind me fell down. What a pity. And I find this quite strange to destroy his own office.
"Okay, Dumpling, let`s try the Iron Rogue maneuver!" I decided to change the tactics. Giovanni just snorted in reply.
"Rock Throw, once more!" He sounded so cold at this moment. This man is very confident in his victory. And still behaves too strangely.
Dumpling began with filling the room with dark thick smoke. The silhouettes of battlers hid under this veil, and so did Giovanni. I even thought that I gave him an advantage, but what advantage can he get this way?
But maybe he can… This time his Rock Throw was much more dangerous to me than to Dumpling. I noticed a flying boulder just at the distance of couple of meters from me, and fortunately managed to avoid it. Judging by the dent it has left in the wall, it would be a very painful thing to catch with my body.
I returned attention back to battlefield without new commands - Dumpling knew what he must do now. Through the smoke veil I saw the slight silver flash of his Metal Claw following with a nice sound of smashing. Another super effective hit from us! Too bad it`s still not enough.
But now I began to worry if the smokescreen will protect my Dumpling from the next attack of Onix. The veil began slowly to dissolve, and I can see Giovanni`s burning eyes again. He`s going to fight until the very end.
"Dumpling, let`s give him another one Metal Claw!" I realized that using this move some times in a row will be not very good for my partner, but I think we can make a break after this move.
"Bind him, Onix!" Giovanni gave the command too.
Binding? I know what you`re up to, Giovanni. We can handle it.
This time we could focus on hitting our opponent more, and Dumpling landed another super effective hit on Onix. In return, the rock snake pokemon stroke us with his tail to bind. Too bad this worked, and Dumpling was immobilized by this, feeling some pain from the squeeze. But I knew what will be Giovanni`s next move.
"Rock Throw!"
Exactly it. Firstly, immobilizing our agile Charmeleon and then finish him with one super effective hit. This won`t work on us, bastard!
"Dumpling, hide inside his tail!" I confidently commanded.
We tricked our opponent as he tried to shoot the boulder at Dumpling, but with my partner ducking his head into the tail binding him, the impact hit the tail itself. For Onix it wasn`t too painful, but still…
"Throw him away, Onix. And finish him with another Rock Throw!" Giovanni looked calm, but I felt so much frustration in his voice. He expected this battle to end quickly for us. It will not be.
But then I imagined Dumpling being thrown by Onix, and then crushed by the boulder right in the midair. He won`t be able to dodge it or do something. Looks like we have to use our claws again.
"Crush that boulder with your Metal Claw, Dumpling!" I commanded to him as Onix was already swinging his tail to make a throw and charging the boulder in his mouth.
This was too quickly – firstly, Dumpling was sent into the flight, and then followed by large stone approaching very quickly. Charmeleon managed to successfully crack it in half, avoid the collision and land on the solid floor. But the remains of boulder continued moving and crushed into the ceiling with large power. This is a thing I couldn`t predict – this power was enough to destroy the ceiling and bring it down on us.
"Away!" I just shouted to Dumpling, but it wasn`t enough. Ceiling fell on him, immobilizing once again. This time he suffered too much and was very close to the edge.
"Finish him, Onix. Rock Throw!" Giovanni said in cold blood.
"Smokescreen!"
But we could do nothing. Dumpling was too hurt to do something in return, and even the blaze didn`t help us. It wouldn`t help us anyway. The boulder covered him and sent into the fainting.
I silently returned him back to pokeball and raised my eyesight on Giovanni.
"You`re madman!" I shouted at him. "Just for the victory that actually gives you NOTHING you are ready to bring down the whole building?"
"For victory I`m ready for anything!" He replied. His overconfident mug looked so… disgusting in some form. But what could I do? Sometimes I think the same way. "Anyway, we don`t need this place anymore. This hideout was so easily compromised, and the last party of materials was sent to our main base."
"Materials?" I even asked again to make sure I heard right. "The pokemon you kidnapped from the nature, you stole from people – are the material for you?"
"All pokemon exist to serve Team Rocket`s purposes! Yours can too. Bring it on, you pest!"
I don`t know what he means by that, but I was really, really angered by HOW he said that.
"Harry, come on out!" I was sure that bringing a grass-type pokemon to the battlefield will change many. But Giovanni seemed to be suspiciously… pleased by this.
"Yes… Like this one especially. Onix, use Rage again!"
"Okay, Harry, you know what`s best. Vine Whip him!" We proceeded straight to the attack. Too bad I didn`t count the fact that my not-so-agile Weepinbell comparing to Onix is too small to have advantage, and the opponent managed to use his Rage attack once again before getting a nice slap in the face with vines. This time his red glow was much brighter, and I guess the attack was stronger too. But our attack was also too effective as Onix loudly roared in pain and retreated back, raising his head up and breaking even more of ceiling with his horn.
"Rage again, Onix!" Giovanni sounded like he was actually enraged and not Onix.
Looks like now I understand a bit more of how this move works. This was definitely stronger than earlier for some reason. And we have to do something about the pieces of ceiling remaining up above us… We have to do something in our favor.
"Bring down the ceiling with Vine Whip!" I commanded to Harry.
Enraged Onix struck us again with his strange attack, even stronger than before. But our action was much more effective as the remains of ceiling were hit with our Vine Whip and fell down on Onix, maybe not bringing him down but hitting his head pretty good.
"Finish him, Vine Whip!" I was enraged myself. I felt the heat coming, and wished for blood. Well, whatever fills that Onix`s rock body. But only in a reasonable limits!
I think Harry felt the same. He perfectly knew who our opponent is – the Team Rocket itself. The head of the beast. The source of all his problems. The one who terrorized his flock and actually threatened their life. If Weepinbells could learn Rage, this would be it.
So he put all his strength into this single hit, cracking the pieces of ceiling and head of Onix and leaving a long red mark on his face. With the last loud roar Onix finally fainted.
Giovanni returned him back to pokeball without a word like he didn`t care. My Harry prepared for another attack, but suddenly he performed her immediately by spitting acid right into Giovanni himself. The boss made a step to the right, and raised his grim eyesight at me again.
"Keep your damn pet in place! You don`t want to anger me even more."
Partly I felt that Harry was overdoing too much by attacking the trainer. But another part of me willed to let him just dissolve this bastard into the goo. Except for the fact that I still need Giovanni to get the information from him.
Maybe I should actually grab him with vines and interrogate like the hunters earlier? I think that guys with guns near Erika won`t like it. So the fair battle continues.
And it continues with Giovanni`s next pokemon – the spiky four-legged rock monster. Great, that means our Vine Whip will be good here again. But Harry have already suffered some good damage, and that is not good.
"Rhyhorn, use Fury Attack!" Giovanni commanded to his pokemon. I think now I learned this name.
"Harry, Vine Whip him!" We counterattacked.
This heavy beast slowly ran towards my Harry, so we easily managed to land some successful hits. The effect was still the same – he felt extreme pain form this, but this was definitely not enough to finish him off.
But when Rhyhorn reached us, he began to attack Harry furiously with his horn. Despite the attack didn`t look to be too strong, our opponent launched this repeatedly and made Harry retreat. I saw that my pokemon is in bad shape now, and decided to switch.
"Okay, Harry, you should have some rest for now. Moment will avenge you!"
Harry gave me angry look before being beamed back into his pokeball. The substitution called Moment was pretty glad to battle again. But I could still hear… fatigue in his voice? He should be fully ready for this because now I count on his speed and maneuverability.
"Rhyhorn, use Stomp!" Giovanni began the next round.
"Moment, use Spiral Wing maneuver!" Was my answer to this.
I hope this works. We trained this maneuver not very much.
And Moment began to accelerate at high speed on the spiral trajectory. This is a cool skill he invented even before our encounter, and this worked perfectly here. When the opposing Rhyhorn was rushing towards us with his destructive foot in front, ready to knock my Moment down, Golbat carefully dodged that and even sliced the foe`s back with his wing. I guess that Rhyhorn is rock-type, that`s why it didn`t hurt him too much, but this changed his direction right into the wall near the entrance. Right near Erika and two grunts. Those three were knocked away from the collision place, while Rhyhorn heavily got out of the destroyed wall and brought down even more of it.
At least, now we have the access to corridor. In this battle we destroyed nearly half of the floor, but Giovanni didn't` seem to care.
"Stomp this creature, Rhyhorn!" He shouted.
"Into the corridor, Moment!" I commanded to my pokemon. "Let`s do this in style!"
I ran into the corridor deeper in the base and back to the elevator. Moment followed me and stopped near the wall that I pointed at. Giovanni ran there too and observed the situation while his Rhyhorn was already rushing to my Moment.
"Matrix mode, Moment!" I made a step back from my pokemon. Just a couple of seconds later Golbat flew away from this point and Rhyhorn crushed into the other wall revealing the new way to the laboratory. My calculations were correct!
"That`s how you play dirty! Scary face, Rhyhorn!" The boss cunningly commanded.
"Now it`s our turn, Moment. Bite him!"
The action turned vice versa now. My Golbat tried to bite the opponent with mighty fangs of his, and he did, although the damage to this hard-skinned Rhyhorn wasn`t too much. What a hardy pokemon! But when it was his turn to act, Rhyhorn growled quietly and angrily looked at my Moment causing slight dark flash that scared my pokemon away. He hastily flew up to the ceiling, but now he was shivering from the fear, and so his flight was slower. I saw the effect of Scary Face move earlier, but still can`t understand how the heck it works.
But this is not the reason to stop. My Moment is the fastest Golbat I`ve ever seen, and this definitely won`t slow us down. We`ll destroy this place!
"Moment, let`s repeat our previous trick…" I mysteriously told my Golbat and pointed at the wall on the right of me. He sadly looked at me and headed to it. What`s happening to him? I think I have to talk to the Pokemon Center nurse about it. If we both survive this night.
"Great, now we can use Scary Face again!" Giovanni commanded with pleasure.
Damn it, he messed with my plan again! If this thing will have effect again… How much can it affect my Moment`s speed?
Looks like it can affect, and it can affect very much. The next move of Giovanni was using Stomp again, and my frightened Moment couldn`t dodge it despite my command. This sent him into the opposite wall, crushing into it and sending into the black out.
"How pathetic…" Giovanni arrogantly laughed at us. "You`re standing against the most powerful pokemon trainer. Surrender or face the consequences!"
I had to return my poor Moment back to his pokeball and make a sigh. Something`s not quite right with him now, something that bothers our battle.
But now we can`t solve such problems. Now we face a threat we have never faced before. The battle that our lives depend on.
"Hah… You know what?" I replied to him while grabbing my other pokeball. Scratched pokeball. "I would tell you the same thing, Giovanni. The dance continues!"