Everything happened so fast I could not react to this. I was very close to death so many times I don`t even see my life flying past my eyes. And I am always ready to meet it.
But now Moment decided to disobey me and save his master instead of Leaf. Soon he descended to the grounded with confused me and screeched loudly. I finally shook my head to realize what just happened and lowered my eyesight to the ground… where I expected to see Leaf`s body.
Instead of it someone suddenly jumped on me from the right and hugged tightly.
"Ven!" Leaf shouted loudly in my ear.
I gently escaped her grip and shockingly looked at her.
"How?" was my only question.
"Bill caught me with his gravity thingy!" she gladly explained.
I looked up at the large device glowing and understood that.
"No need to thank a hero…" Bill sarcastically said with a pleased smile.
"Fine, I won`t," I looked around. The bad feeling returned back and multiplied.
I looked up at the roof to see that bastard again. He pointed at us and shouted loudly:
"Take them!"
We`ve got into an ambush. The roofs of nearby buildings were quickly occupied by Team Rocket grunts and their pokemon. Mostly – Zubats and Golbats that can attack us from that height.
"Bill, into the car. Leaf, up. Now!" I commanded to my companions and jumped on the roof.
All bandits pointed at us and commanded their pokemon to attack at once. We jumped into the Blood Devil and accelerated from this place.
"Moment, Reaper – follow us and attack when I command!" I began to give orders and pointed on corner of car roof, "Rimma, stand there and shoot everyone that comes close with Water gun! Leaf, your Dude will assist my guys, return the rest!"
The girl didn`t ask questions and nodded her pokemon to do what I say. She returned her rest pokemon while I return mine. Now we have to act quickly.
"Let`s see how far is Surge now…" I quietly said and took out my rocket launcher and shot a green-colored missile. I tried to aim into the dark cloud of Golbats flying at us but they easily dodged it and attacked us no matter what.
"Now! Moment, Wing Attack! Reaper, Poison sting!" I attacked them in return.
Leaf`s Rimma already began shooting enemies with Water gun, but now her Dude joined the party.
"Dude, assist with Wing Attack!"
And the battle on the move has begun. This is going to be fun and dangerous…
The first round destroyed two Golbats and a Zubat. They fell on ground fainted and soon disappeared from our sight. Their masters were left behind long ago but the rest of flock continues to execute the order.
Rimma still could not finish the small Zubat she was trying to get. With the help of my Reaper another foe finally fell down too.
The car suddenly accelerated and we had to hold on to the laser device to keep balance. Falling down from the roof twice in ten minutes is not my plan.
"We`re close!" Bill shouted to us.
"I see. Let`s take care of them fa…" suddenly some small Zubat bastard bit me in my hand, "get off me, creep!" I tried to take him off but the grip was very strong. And painful. But I was more angered than hurt and so punched this small toothy creature. He flew away and soon disappeared from my sight.
After that I caught a judging look from Leaf on me.
"What? He bit me. I could bit him too, you know."
She didn`t reply and returned back to the battle. Our pokemon were fighting the enemy fiercely but it was too many of them.
"Maybe this guy may help you…" I released Magikarp on the roof too.
One small Zubat was approaching us – a perfect candidate for target practice.
"Magikarp, Tackle him!" I gave the command.
The fish pokemon hopped on place a couple of times and then quickly rushed to his opponent and fiercely tackled that Zubat. Opponent withstood that hit but it threw him on ground pretty badly, and that was the critical for poor little bat pokemon. That was not good for my Magikarp either as he can`t fly back to our car now.
"Good, now return," I beamed him back into the pokeball while in the air. That looked cool but I will not do this again.
And yet the enemies don`t want to give up. We need to be more cunning.
"Hey, Bill, this thing of yours can push objects, right?" I asked the inventor.
"Well… yeah. Push, pull and fix on place…"
"Great. Do you have the controls right there?" I began to inspect the small panel on the device before me.
"The switch from the left opens the console!" he shortly replied and focused on evading the Rattatas that suddenly appeared on the road to attack us too.
"Let`s make a firework…" I smiled and opened the console. It was pretty easy to operate the gravity laser – just a joystick and three buttons. I pressed the 'Fix' button and grabbed the joystick.
The beam turned on and cut through the cloud of bat pokemon. A couple of them didn`t make it out and were caught by the laser.
"What are you…" Leaf wanted to ask but she understood it soon by herself, "No!"
"Yes!" I moved the joystick to the right turning the gun too. Laser began to move collecting all pokemon inside it who were not fast enough to fly away. Those who were already trapped began to move with the laser, "team, help me catching them all!"
Reaper and Moment understood me and began to attack. Not just attack – to throw opponents into my laser to fix them in it. Dude joined us and with my help of operating we grabbed all the enemies.
"And now… Boom!"
The switch of mode to 'Push' made the whole cloud of trapped pokemon to move away from us until I maxed the power of laser and just exploded it in the air. The bat pokemon were just sent flying everywhere just like a real firework. This should not actually hurt them too much but they are no fighters anymore.
"They are gone!" I informed Bill and turned off the cannon, "What`s the status?"
"We are here."
The car delivered us right to the entrance to office building. To my surprise the entrance was no more guarded by Team Rocket bandits… Those two were lying there unconscious with three psychics standing near them. We are late…
"Where is Sabrina?" I addressed the trainers.
"She is inside, with Koga. They went through the backdoor," the man replied.
"Urgh… Keep the position. Other leaders must be there soon. Tell Surge to do what he has to."
"Um… Okay…" the man confusedly replied. Looks like he had no idea whether he has to listen to me or not.
"We do not have time for backdoor. Bill, shoot it to the ground!"
"The main entrance?" he doubted, "Are you sure?"
"Yes. Do this. I have to be faster."
He closed his eyes and took the small panel from near seat to take control over the gravity device. Cannon slowly moved to target the door and then…
BAM!
The whole wall was literally torn out and pressed inside the building. I hope there was no secretary behind that…
"Great. You guys may have some rest," I returned Reaper and Moment back to their pokeballs, "Leaf, follow me."
She returned her Dude and Rimma back too and ran after me inside the building.
We got into the large hall room. In the center of room two fountains were placed, now inactive. On the left I noticed some chairs for waiting and the receptionist desk in the corner. Our broken wall barely missed that place. On the right side I noticed some more places for waiting – now with tables. And the further wall was decorated with a nice elevator and a ladder.
"Where do we need to go?" Leaf asked me.
"There," I quickly replied and ran towards the ladder, "quickly, girl!"
"But there is an elevator!" Girl informed me.
"Who the hell uses an elevator in times like this? Do you want them to throw it down with you inside?" I stopped and then returned back to her and grabbed her shoulders, "they may be guarding every level now. We will be smarter – we use their teleportation net. Bill gave me the map!"
She stared at me with eyes full of determination. I think she was ready to move on.
"Let`s do this!"
"Glad to hear it," I positively nodded and took her hand.
The second hand I used to take greatball and release Loser outside.
"You will be our bodyguard for now, Loser," I instructed him, "hide in our shadow and be ready to strike on my signal."
The creepy ghost pokemon smiled even wider than usual and dissolved in my shadow. I immediately felt the slight cold but this is needed. Leaf began to shiver a bit and looked at me. She knew the source of cold too – I did not have to tell her.
Leaf also released her Volt the Jolteon to accompany us. Now Rockets will see that we are armed. But they don`t know how much we are armed.
We got to the second floor and quickly hid behind the doors as two Team Rocket grunts passed nearby.
"What`s the plan?" Leaf whispered when bandits walked away.
"Well… We are very short on time and gym leaders are coming here. Sabrina and Koga are already on their way to Giovanni, we have to get him first. I tried to slow them down but it was not enough…"
"Wait! Why did you do that?" the girl interrupted me.
"Because I`m sure that Sabrina will just explode Giovanni`s brain when gets him. And I NEED that brain! He knows something I need. So…"
I carefully looked through the door to make sure no one is coming here right now and then took the map.
"…they may expect us to appear from the ladder, from the elevator… But we use their teleports! Look, the only teleport to the top floor is from the meeting room on the seventh floor…" I pointed at the exact spot on Bill`s map, "and the teleport leading to this room is in the… bookkeeping department, on floor 3."
"And what is this?" Leaf pointed at the small drawn lock sign near our chosen point.
"Let`s see…" I looked on the other side of map and found Bill`s note about it. "It`s a high-security door. We will need the keycard with highest access level to open it."
"Can`t we just blast it with our pokemon?" the girl proposed.
"Leave open encounters to gym leaders. We need to move carefully past them all. So… no attention to us, okay?"
"Isn`t this a bit too late? We blasted the entrance door," she quietly argued with me.
"And right now they are searching the first floor before heading right there. Let`s check… This one. The fifth floor. Offices. We definitely will find the key there."
"And the information about their work here!" Leaf`s voice sounded more interested this time. She is getting used to my lifestyle.
"Exactly."
"Then let`s go already. I think I hear steps behind us."
I looked back and noticed two shadows on the wall approaching us. Leaf was right.
I returned my eyesight back to my companion and nodded. She nodded in reply and we hurried upstairs to the fifth floor.
The next floors had their lights off. Of course, no one works at this time but Team Rocket is always on guard. The black side of science always progresses in the night, so maybe the higher levels will have the answers for us.
But I have to leave that for later. We reached the fifth floor which is completely black too. Using a flashlight looks too risky, also I don`t have it. But using Victreebel with Flash is much better and riskier too. I still won`t do it.
"I can`t see anything!" Leaf whispered carefully.
"But I can. Darkness is my specialty, follow my steps. Soon your eyes will get used to it," I said her and squatted to move forward. Leaf and her Volt ducked too and followed me. Jolteon could see a bit better than Leaf so she grabbed his spiky back and used him as a leader.
Right near the entrance on this floor I noticed the flashing panel on floor. It was the only source of light there, so I checked the map and guessed this is the teleportation pad. But this one will lead to the restroom on floor seven. The floor is correct, but this is not what we need right now. So we turned around and headed into the other direction walking along the wall.
Soon the corridor became wider and we have found another teleport. This one has to lead to the hall on floor three. Well, we can use this pad later to cut the way.
But suddenly I heard some voices reaching us from nearby. The corridor from the left of us was lightened and there definitely was someone. I`m glad I didn`t called to Harry`s Flash.
I made a warning sign to Leaf and approached the corner. Over that I saw two Team Rocket grunts, a man in lab coat and a strange guy in colorful suit. I think I saw someone like him in Koga`s gym… But this one had Kadabra and on his side. I saw other psychic trainers have this pokemon, and Sabrina too.
Grunts had their pokemon released also: Hypno and Arbok and there was also Magnemite hovering near the scientist. I bet this guy has a keycard we need.
But there also was someone behind them – someone they were surrounding. I couldn`t see him from this distance but approaching is too dangerous.
But hey, I have a binocular!
I took it and focused on the figure behind these bastards. All of them were laughing over their victim, even the scientist. Looks like Team Rocket managed to take some of Silph Co. workers on their side. That is absolutely not cool.
Damn… I finally realized who was sitting on the floor behind them. It was Sabrina! They defeated her all at once. I have no idea what are they going to do now – kill her, imprison her, rape her… We need to stop them. But also... where`s master Koga?
Just after that thought the small bomb fell between the bandits and exploded in huge smoke cloud. The loud swearing reached my ears as someone was capturing the Rocket grunts.
"Let`s go," I said to Leaf and ran out of our hiding spot, "Loser, Shadow Punch on Kadabra!"
"Volt, Thunder shock on !" Leaf gave her command to attack the other pokemon.
The smoke quickly dissolved revealing the mysterious attacker to be master Koga himself. His Muk fell down heavily from the ventilation right on the left grunt. Someone`s gonna need a LOT of shower later…
To this moment my Loser reached the foe pokemon and struck Kadabra powerfully with Shadow Punch. The super effective hit threw the psi pokemon on the wall. Meanwhile Volt struck the funny-looking with ThunderShock and hurt him badly. Our opponents ran from the smoke cloud and tried to counterattack us.
One Team rocket grunt was caught by Muk and other one was already taken down by Koga. Their pokemon tried to act independently and rushed to the sludge pokemon. Strange-looking man retreated back and gave the command to attack us too while scientist joined him with his Magnemite.
It`s five-on-three now, but I`m sure we can handle this.
"Leaf, focus on that Kadabra! Loser, Shadow punch him too!"
"Volt, Quick attack on Kadabra!" Leaf listened to me and attacked together.
Her lightning pokemon was actually as fast as lightning, quickly tackling the enemy into the wall before my Gengar finished the psi pokemon with a nice punch. Such combo was very effective and painful for Kadabra.
It was the first pokemon to go with four more remaining. Koga`s Muk shot something poisonous and disgusting into but it was not enough to finish that clown-like pokemon. In return, the barrier pokemon exploded Muk with a super effective Confusion. Arbok and Hypno attacked him at once – they are focused their moves too on Muk. Maybe Arbok`s poison attacks were not very effective on him, but psychic attacks from Hypno had a real effect.
Very soon Magnemite joined the battle and launched a strong electric charge into poor Muk. He can`t last for much longer.
"Leaf, switch to Hypno! I`ll deal with Mime!" I commanded and looked at the barrier pokemon threatening Muk. "Hypnosis!"
"Volt, use Thundershock on Hypno!"
" , use Encore!" suddenly the opposing psychic gave his command pointing at my Gengar. We tried to put the pokemon to sleep but it failed for some reason. Hypnosis does not always work. But after that casted his own damn spell on us which… didn`t show any effect at all.
Meanwhile Leaf was successfully shocking Hypno with her Volt. That was powerful but still not enough. The hypnosis pokemon managed to recover after that and deal the final strike to Muk turning the sludge pokemon… into a deformed pool of sludge. The Rocket grunt he had been keeping managed to crawl from under the poison pokemon heavily breathing.
"Kill them!" he wheezed loudly. His Arbok looked straight at me and hissed threateningly.
Damn these guys… I hate both Ekans and Arbok now… And I knew what`s going to happen.
"Don`t touch that creep! He`s mine!"
Arbok screeched at me flapping his colorful hood and quickly rushed to me. I raised my fist and prepared to attack too. I am ready to face him even though he is even bigger higher than me. On the left from me Loser fought , and on the left Volt tried to finish off Hypno. Somewhere near master Koga was switching his pokemon to defeat the remaining Magneton and here was me – waiting for a perfect time to attack. I know that I`m finished if Arbok is faster – the tight grip like is unescapable.
But I used the same tactic I taught Dumpling someday. I hit the opponent even before him getting in my range and so my fist got right on the head of deadly Arbok. The cobra pokemon fell on the floor, slightly confused by my actions and I didn`t wait for him to recover – I hit again. And again. And again…
"Ven, stop!" Leaf suddenly pulled my hand away from the unconscious body of cobra pokemon.
I took some time to regain my breath. Everyone was looking at me with real shock on their faces like I did something wrong.
"What? Beating a pokemon by yourself is not so goodly as you thought?" I asked them saucily.
"Not. At. All." Master Koga strictly said and approached the scientist guy to knock him out too. Now it is just that strange guy left…
I rushed to Sabrina to help her get up but she ignored me and did this by herself. A small bag was lying there in the corner – leader took it and put on before paying attention to that man in colorful suit. He looked really scared before her.
"Why?" Sabrina wheezed brutally, "Why, Dalton?"
"Who is this man?" I asked her pointing at the man before us.
"What do you mean – who is this man?" She angrily addressed me, "The traitor you told us!"
Her statement shocked me a bit because I actually invented the idea of traitor just to slow them down, to make some chaos in their army and – as a result – make them find Giovanni after me. So, the traitor appeared to be real – this juggler Dalton from Sabrina`s own gym. How curious…
"Tell her," I said him, "tell her everything."
"I don`t need him to talk…" Sabrina said and stretched her arm to the traitor`s head.
Her eyes suddenly began to glow purple and strange aura appeared around her whole body. This aura quickly covered Dalton too and he began to scream. I don`t know what Sabrina was doing to him but this looked… scary.
"Stop this!" I shouted at her, "his screams will attract more grunts!"
But she didn`t listen to me. She was trying to break traitor`s mind, to infiltrate his thoughts… The battle between psychics is something beyond my understanding.
And suddenly she furiously looked at Leaf. The girl stared at her seriously, and soon Sabrina`s aura dissolved. She lowered her eyesight down and released the man. He fell on the floor unconscious. I think I even noticed some smoke coming from his head. But he still breathes.
"Not a word," Sabrina said me severely.
"Pizza!" I replied optimistically.
She stared at me in silence. She didn`t even try to inspect my mind – nothing. But she waited for me to start talking.
"You came there, in the end," master Koga returned his Weezing back and approached us, "Sabrina thought you ran away to save your ass."
"Really?" I looked at the woman, "well, congratulations, milady, you were right. But not completely," I returned my eyesight back to Koga to explain, "I ran away to start the attack before you."
"What for?" Sabrina shortly asked, "what game are you playing?"
"Leaf Green! But talking serious I have much more things to do in your Saffron City. My investigation led me there."
Sabrina knew a bit about my investigation. She didn`t ask too much and I`m not that intrusive to tell her anyway. But I don`t think she took that seriously.
"Don`t stand in my way," she replied and headed to the ladder, "Giovanni is mine!"
Master Koga followed her but stopped before me for a second.
"So, now you`re getting along?" I asked him playfully.
"Nope. She still hates me and I still hate her. But it`s more challenging to work with such a companion. Learning her weaknesses, yeah?" he honestly replied and laughed a bit.
"Yeah…" I gave a quick look to Leaf behind me, "take care of her. And… don`t hurry to Giovanni, okay? Give this woman some time to look at the sights."
After my words Koga`s face changed to serious, but after a quick thought he smiled.
"I see. Acknowledged." and he quickly ran after Sabrina to the next floor.
I sighed loudly and began to loot the fainted scientist.
"You… looked too surprised when learnt about the traitor," Leaf carefully said me, "did you actually know about him?"
"Nope. I lied. But in the end, I appeared to tell the truth," I answered and retrieved the small red keycard from the enemy in lab coat, "got it!"
I stood up and prepared to leave this place but suddenly noticed how Leaf is staring at the scientist.
"What`s wrong?" I asked her with care.
"I can`t believe some people in Silph Co. actually work for Team Rocket…" she sadly replied.
"Well, that was expected, to tell the truth. I would be more surprised otherwise…" I honestly said her, "Team Rocket has real power over this region. Giovanni managed to capture Kanto without Kanto actually realizing it. The consequences of your damn Leading Pact!"
Leaf lowered her eyesight down to think. And to think she needed.
"Let`s go," the girl stood with determination. I like this feeling when you make someone come to senses.
I just nodded in reply and we quickly headed back to the teleport we saw on our way. This thing must move us to the third floor immediately. I stopped before it thinking is it wise to use it right now.
"Are you scared?" Leaf asked me jokingly.
"Of a teleport? No." I replied and made a step forward on the panel. The bright light surrounded me but when it quickly disappeared – I was on another spot. Looks like these teleports are not that crazy like Bill`s ones.
I stepped away from the teleport to free some space for Leaf. But she didn`t hurry to come to me. This began to look suspicious when a minute passed after my teleportation and she didn`t appear. Full of determination to check her, I made a step back on the teleport panel but immediately bright light moved Leaf before me and we collided. She fell back on the teleport and… was teleported back.
After some seconds of rubbing her head, Leaf saw another flash before her and a silhouette of man smiling and giving her a hand. She just shook her head and took it.
"You seem to enjoy this too much," I helped her to get up and faced to the teleportation panel. This time we stepped together and appeared on the third floor without accidents. Yet.
Before the door to the main hall I crouched and listened to the surroundings. The third floor sounded clear and empty – the lights there were turned off too. I hope we can find the next teleport quickly and unnoticed.
We moved along the corridor to the fork, right near the elevator. Perfect.
"According to the map our goal door must be somewhere on the right…" I whispered to my companion while looking at Bill`s paper.
"The bookkeeping department, that`s it!" Leaf have found the nameplate on door.
"Great. Now we are proceeding to the next phase of my plan," I swiped the card to unlock the door, grinned and turned to Leaf, "let`s take the elevator now."
"Why? We have the door opened," the girl confusedly asked.
"They think so. And they will take that bite…" I gently pushed Leaf in the direction of elevator. "let`s go."
"Oh, I see…" she let me lead her to the elevator, "that was a distraction, yeah? You opened the door just to raise the alarm and tell them you`re going through the teleport network, yeah? Wait…"
Leaf shockingly interrupted herself when I let her inside the elevator, closed the door before me to divide us and blocked it from opening.
"What the hell?" she angrily shouted.
"I`m grateful for everything you did… but this is my battle," I honestly replied and stepped away from the elevator, "go down, the gym leaders must have already got the first floor under their control…"
"No, you can`t do this!" she cried out loud, "you can`t go there alone!"
"I have to. I will finish with Giovanni and with Team Rocket once and for all. And… I don`t want you to see what I`m going to do with him…"
I turned around and headed back to the bookkeeping department.
"I hate you, Ven!" the girl behind me shouted.
I stopped for some moments to tell her my last words.
"If I die… then I`m not destined to survive. Tell Misty I`m sorry."
Some more time Leaf tried to unlock the doors of elevator but it was useless. Soon she finally accepted this and pushed the button down. She didn`t know what would await for her up there.
But I knew. While I was walking through the bookkeeping department with a newly-acquired flashlight in searches for the next teleport I noticed a couple of interesting papers on the table. I wonder if they can tell me what they are doing here…
I grabbed it and moved forward while reading at the same time. This small paper appeared to be quite interesting…
Looks like the most of company`s funds were allocated to a special department – Pokeball department. I guess this is where they try to develop new pokeball types. But why would they need that? Unlikely this is what Giovanni terrorizes them for… But there is no more information about it. I know that a whole LOT of money were spent for this… Much more than the company`s income for the last month.
This means Silph Co. is in a huge debt for their development… Or they have the money not stated in balance sheet.
Team Rocket finances their project – whatever it is!
Now this makes sense… Rockets rob people, steal pokemon and do much other stuff for making money… And spending them there!
This must be some Giovanni`s huge plan… Team Rocket is actually the tool for getting money for him! This still doesn`t explain the laboratory in Celadon hideout… What so important could be in development to make him create a whole criminal organization?
Today I`m going to find out.
I angrily threw away the paper and headed into the next room where the gentle light of teleportation pad gave me even more confidence.
And when I stepped into it I was moved to a new room. Well, this actually looked like a meeting room. The large screen on the wall, the even larger table near me… I must be on the right way.
"Well, finally! I`m tired of waiting for you!"
No… This voice… I haven`t heard it for a while and somehow I could be glad to hear it… But not there. It can`t be there.
In a shock I slowly turned back. There was a man in the head chair of meeting table. Team Rocket uniform, impudent face… A man I would NEVER expect to be here.
Douchebag.