I returned Harry back on the battlefield, a little rested and ready to fight again. This has to be his battle.

"Oh, really? You again?" Giovanni said like he`s addressing Harry and not me. "I guess you have found a right trainer, little troublemaker. You could perfectly serve the goal of Team Rocket!"

Looks like Giovanni knows about all the troubles my partner here gave the hunters near Cerulean City. Maybe he actually controls everything in Team Rocket. If I manage to beat him, I will definitely find the answers to my questions.

"He will serve just to your destruction, Giovanni. Harry, start with Vine Whip!"

"Scary Face!" The boss replied to our move.

Of course, we began with our advantaging move dealing pretty good damage to this bulky Rhyhorn. And even after all this beating he still stands! And scares my Harry with his damn face… One more dark flash – and Weepinbell now shivers in fear like the Moment before him.

That`s not good. Absolutely not good – I can`t even know how much damage this Rhyhorn can handle, but I`m sure that the next his attacking move will be fatal for us.

Suddenly my attention was attracted by quiet buzzing sound from behind. The lab, of course! We could try out our new maneuver here! I remember a fitting place there.

"Harry, head to the lab and wait for my Position command!" I ordered to him and pointed at the large hole in the wall. He immediately headed there.

"You will fail in anything!" Giovanni threatened us. "Rhyhorn, finish it with Stomp!"

Finally, he follows my plan. I ran into the lab before my Harry and noticed a large device in the corner that he was heading to.

"Great, Harry. Position yourself!" I gave another command of ours and faced the Giovanni and his Rhyhorn that ran into the lab too now. Right at the second Harry appeared in the sight of spike pokemon the opponent rushed to him.

"Now, Harry… Swinging Sniper maneuver!"

This has to work now. We spent quite a lot of time on perfecting this maneuver, but didn`t have the chance to actually use it in battle. If this won`t finish this Rhyhorn then I don`t know what can. Except for the nuclear explosion.

…but something like that exactly did.

My Harry launched his vines on the beam under the ceiling and pulled himself up, but the next events went not as I expected. Rhyhorn gained too much speed and collided with the device too early, and the actual explosion of this thing got my Harry too. Both pokemon were thrown away from this place, extremely damaged and fainted. The structure began to crack too, and in a few seconds the floor above us crushed down, with all the booster panels from higher level. I barely had time to return Harry back before him being crushed by the falling pieces of building.

Damn this was too dangerous. Harry will remember this for a while.

But we managed to finish his Rhyhorn at least. He said about three pokemon, so it`s one-on-two now. And I`m not sure if Caesar can actually battle now. That means I have to battle Giovanni`s ace pokemon with just Reaper…

"Hm… You seem to like the destruction." The boss coldly noticed and returned the fainted Rhyhorn from below the rubble. "Your skills could be useful to Team Rocket…"

"Yeah, yeah, you already invited me." I remembered the Nugget Bridge. "But I`m not sure I can apply to the post of the boss to close it to hell. So shut up and bring me your final pokemon!"

"As you wish…" My statement really angered Giovanni. In rage he threw his final pokeball on the ground, and the large energy cloud formed his last pokemon.

This was Kangaskhan. Alone. Without a child everyone is so used to see her with. And she was enraged by this. I suppose he forces her to battle threatening her child. This man now fell even lower in my eyes.

And also this monstrosity was just huge. I know that all Kangaskhans are really big – over two meters height usually – but I don`t see so large pokemon too often, so this wasn`t a habitual thing to me.

"Now I see what you`re made of…" I said Giovanni trying to express as much disappointment as I can. "There`s no way back. Just the fight till the end. I`m very sorry that I have to beat you, poor creature… But you won`t stand back, will you?"

Kangaskhan understood that I addressed her. She unsurely looked back at her master, but then returned her attention back to me and roared.

"I see. Well, I warned you." I grabbed my own pokeball and threw it on ground before me. The mighty Reaper appeared on the battlefield, fully ready to take the action.

"Ha! A Beedrill… How worthless…" Giovanni commented us.

"Hey, this is an awesome pokemon. We`ll sting your ass! Reaper, let`s start with your Twineedle!"

"Fake Out, Kongu…"

I noticed how nice it was for Giovanni to give nickname to a pokemon he holds by force. And I didn`t notice that he used a new move for me. When my Reaper raised his stings to perform a powerful attack, suddenly Kongu literally disappeared before our eyes like shadow and in a second approached Reaper, smacked him and returned back. That was just extremely fast, and also disoriented my pokemon so he lost all focus he had.

I tried to take some time to understand what happened here. Reaper rose from the suffered punch and looked at me. I nodded to him, letting perform another Twineedle attack that he didn`t hesitate to do immediately.

"So pathetic…" Giovanni repeated once again. "Use Mega punch!"

His Kongu seemed to be trained pretty good, and fast too. The large pokemon approached us and hit my Reaper first throwing him back. But my Beedrill is not so easily beaten, so he quickly recovered and chased the foe back to strike with his double stings. This looked pretty strong, but again Giovanni`s pokemon show the real endurance.

I looked around quickly to find anything that we could use in battle. Bringing down another part of ceiling? No, I don`t want to hurt Kangaskhan too much. I`m not that cruel. Maybe, do something with the computers? Dangerous electricity could be dangerous to all of us. Sounds like the third basic plan… If Kongu is so fast, she can grab my Reaper and conduct the shock into him. No, I think too much. I must act!

"Reaper, use Poison Sting!" I commanded.

"Ha… I expected more from a trainer with four badges. Mega punch it!"

And this was almost a repeat of our last impact. Kongu rushed to my Reaper and was fast enough to hit first, the damage looked very strong. No wonder it is a Mega punch. In reply, our Poison Sting barely made the opponent feel it. No additional effect – almost nothing.

This is not going to end well. It definitely not! Just like back at lieutenant Surge`s gym, I was shocked by the unexpected turn of events. One more Mega Punch will definitely finish my Reaper, the opponent is faster, stronger and much hardier that us. What can we possibly do?

I began to look over all our maneuvers, reliable and not, trained and not. Something must be done to give us the opportunity! The enemy is really too strong now. If Kangaskhan was poisoned, we could just block into the defensive strategy and wait. And I do not want to use my secret weapon now. Even this is not a situation serious enough for this.

But what if we actually try to outsmart our opponent? Kangaskhan is a normal-type pokemon, if I remember. And ghost-type pokemon are completely immune to normal-type attack. If I use my Caesar here, I can get some real advantage! But I have to be ready to see some scary shit around me if he starts to play games again. Maybe this is not a very good idea after all… But if I will not be the only one to see it…

"Reaper, use Poison Sting!" I gave the order with confidence. I knew this will not work. I knew that Kongu will destroy my Beedrill with the last Mega Punch and I will have nothing to do but to use Caesar.

"Mega. Punch. Kongu!" Giovanni commanded like it was me who gave the order. Another collision… And my Reaper flies away, crushes into the wall and falls down.

Unconscious.

"Reaper…" All I could say looking at this.

There`s no way of deceiving yourself – I knew this will happen. I sacrificed my Reaper for… I don`t know what for. To make Giovanni more confident. To give him false hope… To make him more pain when he will lose.

"Caesar, let`s do this!"

I`m sure I take too much risk here, but I have no choice. This is the first real battle of my ghost pokemon, and this may be the last. Who knows – maybe after the loss and subsequent death I will turn into a ghost too?

No, go away, terrible thoughts. I must focus now. The stakes are too high now.

"And this is now interesting… A ghost-type pokemon, yes? You have visited Lavender town for a reason." Giovanni concluded. "It will die here for the second time. Kongu, use Bite!"

"Really? Caesar, use Hypnosis!"

The reaction of Kangaskhan was really fulminant. As she opened her mouth and laid her teeth on my Gastly I understood that some things never change. Caesar screeched loudly, but when he recovered after this and gave an angry red look on Kongu, the effect of Hypnosis successfully applied. The large pokemon fell asleep right on place.

"This won`t work on us. The abilities, you know!" Giovanni strangely marked. I didn`t understand him at that moment, and proceeded to the next stage.

"You seem to know the rules. You`re a trainer yourself." I addressed him. "How can you possibly have enough courage to do such horrible things?"

"This is much more complicated than you think. Team Rocket exists for a reason... Such people like you would never understand what I hope to achieve. That`s why we fight with all means!"

"No, this is why WE fight. And out means now… Curse, Caesar!"

The risk grows stronger… The Curse literally devours part of pokemon health to hurt the opponent, and when Caesar performed this spell, I literally felt his pain. After one super effective hit and this… He won`t be able to hold too long for sure.

But the dark aura appeared around Kongu and caused her to shiver from pain. This will work like poison that defeats her in the end, but… if Kangaskhan wakes up – the final attack will destroy my Caesar.

The trouble came right when you think about it. As Kongu opened her eyes and slowly stood up, angrily staring at my Caesar, I was too slowly losing hope.

"One more Bite – and this is over!" Giovanni felt the close victory. Caesar can`t survive another super effective attack – if this will succeed, it`s done.

I closed my eyes... and asked myself.

What am I fighting for? For my life? For the freedom of Kanto region? For my own safety or the Great Plan? Or just for being cool in eyes of Erika – the woman that I know just for a couple of days?

Nothing of this.

I fight because of hatred. Enraging, black, heartless hatred that I feel towards Team Rocket. Towards many things that in the end formed my life. Positive emotions help people, they say…

They lie.

Positive emotions confuse people. Confuse them in the giant ocean of lies. There`s nothing more true than the pure hatred.

Just hatred makes people actually move. I know this more than anyone on this whole damn planet. Just when I`m cornered and there`s nothing to do but to surrender and die, I begin to really act. It`s like something powerful awakens inside me, making me do things I would never do in a clean mind. Maybe because in this state my mind isn`t clean at all.

This is my personal Blaze ability.

"Caesar, hide inside me!" I spread my hands and seriously looked at my pokemon. This large spooky cloud was too confused to understand what I mean. But I think, he could actually read my mind. This pokemon doesn`t like losing. And he is ready to use any dirty trick to avoid it. Especially when the trick is so crazy no one in the world would think about forbidding it.

This cloud flew inside my body causing some sort of paralysis and… cold. Caesar was very cold. But I could still control myself, that`s a relief. Giovanni was surprised by this act, and his Kongu was just extremely shocked. I think everyone in this room was.

The large figure of Kangaskhan approached me and stood over my head. Damn this thing is huge right near me… Will she dare biting a human? She hesitated, really. I know that this is a kind pokemon that would never hurt a human that doesn`t show hostility in the first place. Especially the one who expressed his sorry before the battle. But Giovanni behind her was angrily shouting, ordering her to hit me, to bite me, to tear me apart! I could hear Erika crying in the corner, and even the grunts were holding their breaths waiting for the conclusion.

Meanwhile, the curse of Caesar was slowly hurting Kongu. The pokemon was literally crying before me. She was sorry too.

Finally she made her mind and hit me hard in stomach. I was thrown back to the wall, with the pain filling all my body. But I was standing straight.

Then she came closer and bit me even more painful than before. At least she aimed at my shoulder, not my neck or something. This was still very hurtful, very soon I felt warm blood slowly going down.

I was at my edge. Kongu was too, but I`m not sure if it is because of physical damage or mental.

"Hypnose her." I said to Caesar with clenched teeth and covered my face with both hands. Another bite came right here.

I suddenly remembered that some pokemon can learn the curious move Substitute. This move allows pokemon to sacrifice part of his own health to spawn the shaded image of pokemon doll that stands on the battlefield and takes all the damage instead of pokemon himself. Looks like I am in the role of Substitute now. I even let myself a small smile.

Caesar launched another Hypnosis attack from inside of me, and Kongu fell asleep again, almost crushing on me. The effect of Curse hit her couple of times before she woke up again. Interesting that usually the effect of Hypnosis lasts longer…

The ghost pokemon inside me was laughing… I don`t know how acceptable that was but I didn`t care. I wanted to laugh too for some reason.

And so I did. I let myself to laugh loudly from my heart. I know this looked really, really crazy from the others point of view. But at that moment I actually fell into madness. The greatest point of insanity. The ghost soul inside me was burning cold, and the blooded wounds from attacks outside felt just hot. I didn`t think about it, I just was laughing.

I stopped only when Kongu finally lost her conscious and fell on ground before me, powerless.

Looks like… I`m not sure… We won.

I finally let myself open my eyes again, and the face of Caesar appeared before me. He looked really pleased by our trick, but I did not. At least, now I regained some mind.

"We will… never do that again!" I wheezed and returned him back to pokeball and raised my eyesight to the Boss. Giovanni.

He returned poor Kongu back to his pokeball and closed his eyes.

"Ugh… So… What`s next?" I asked him.

He remained silent and just made a deep breath.

"Well… Looks like I proved to you that you`re not the strongest trainer anymore." With great effort I straightened up. My back hurts so much I barely stand but I have to withstand this! "You just disgust me, Giovanni… And now… stop this. Stop Team Rocket."

Giovanni snorted quietly in reply and opened his eyes looking at me sullenly.

"Kill him."

That was expected. This man just can`t accept his defeat.

One of grunts behind me that was guarding Erika now pointed his gun at me.

"Yeah, of course!" I shouted at him displeased. "The easy way – just shoot him! Come on, you criminal mastermind, is that all you can?"

The grunt behind me hesitated for some time. As Giovanni closed his eyes again, he lowered the gun a little.

"Team Rocket exists for a reason. Our plans exist for a reason. This is a thing you will never understand… Because I will not bother myself explaining it to you. And because you will have no chance." He gave a look to Erika behind me then. "At least, you brought us the leader Erika. Without her we can use her gym for our purposes without any problems." He switched eyesight to me again. "I could thank you for that… But I will not. Shoot them."

Here goes nothing… The moment we`ve been waiting for too long. Both guns pointed at us…

And a loud sound of shot follows it after a couple of seconds later…