There really isn't much to say about this Episode. It was a real bugger to write because of how the events in it worked, it took several attempts to get it reading right.
Episode Eighty-One: Complications
"You cannot leave me like this!" Scarlet yelled as she struggled in the muddy water.
"Watch me," I replied coldly. I had no intention of helping her, even if she was one of my species.
"Then you go down with me," came the dark comment as the splashing stopped.
I slowly turned round, Scarlet had managed to heave herself up the muddy crater slopes and was back on concrete. Her tail flame was out, but she had only been down there for around ten seconds so her fire breath would still work.
"Eat dragonbreath, jerk!" She yelled, exaling. Nothing happened.
I stood there, motionless for several seconds before speaking, "well?"
"Why isn't it working?" Scarlet yelled, "You should have been turned to dust by now."
"I can answer that," Alpha called as he walked up to me.
"I had Porygon do some research on the Charmander family after our last encounter and we turned up a few nice little chunks of info. You may be aware that Charmanders lose their fire breath after around a minute of their flame going out," Alpha explained, I nodded and he continued, "but the blue fire that Scarlet used is not normal. It is super heated plasma, hence the paralisis when it hit your arm. Only healthy Charmanders can use this, after a lot of training. And when the tail flame goes out, that power goes with it."
I laughed, Scarlet was screwed now. Alpha's explaination had lasted a minute. No fire breath, no reigniting tail. No tail flame, no Dragonbreath. The Rocket members seemed to realise this and withdrew their Pokémon, turning to flee. None of us moved to stop them and they dashed around the corner, vanishing into the distance.
"We better head back to the Pokémon Center," Scout said as he hopped over, "we're in no condition to continue."
"I'd agree with that," Cubone said as he approached, he had managed to hold of that snake Pokémon the entire time and only suffered small scratches, "I'm tired. Team Omega should be arriving there soon anyway."
"Team Omega?" I asked.
"The second unit of ours. Porygon and Hitmonchan are in that one, but Porygon had to go get some data and whatnot from the Police in the area so Hitmonchan worked with Bulbasaur instead," Alpha explained.
"Sounds like you are very short on numbers," Scout said, stretching his wings.
There was the sounds of screams coming from the corner that the Team Rocket members had fled around and we all shot towards the noise, to see what was happening. I almost fainted at the sight.
One of the Humans was laying on the floor, sheltering a bloody noise while the other was facing their attacker. The Seviper had been summoned again, it didn't look that injured either, and hissed at the lone Pokémon that stood in their way.
"Come on then, ugly," Squirtle called at the Seviper, not flinching when it glared at him. He was caked in dust but looked otherwise unharmed.
"Get out of my way, turtle," the Seviper hissed.
"But that's no fun. Besides, why should I allow you to escape the scene of a crime?"
The Seviper dashed fowards, mouth agape and teeth bared. But Squirtle was quicker and withdrew into his shell, leaving the Seviper's fangs nothing to pierce. Cubone made to throw his bone club but Scout threw out his wing and halted him.
"Let Squirtle handle this," he said, watching the unfolding battle through brown eyes.
A blast of water fired out of a hole in the shell and propelled it forwards, strait into the Seviper's skull. Squirtle bounced off and skidded along the ground for a little before coming back into the open.
"I can keep this up all day," he laughed as the Seviper shook its head to try and clear it.
"Oh crap," Alpha said as he watched, I looked at him quizzically and noticed that he wasn't watching the battle. I traced his gaze and saw that he was looking at one of the Rocket members, who had taken some sort of black piping out of his pocket.
"What the hell is that?" I asked, noticing the strange alien shape.
"A tranquilizer gun. A very nasty Human weapon," Alpha said as the Rocket slowly moved the hand that carried the black object towards Squirtle, "he's going to shoot Squirtle."
Scout lowered his wing and looked at Cubone before saying, "hit that dishonourable bastard. Make sure it hurts."
"My pleasure," Cubone said, pulling back his arm and throwing that club will all his might.
The Human had moved his hands so that he was holding the black weapon in both palms, pointing one end at Squirtle who was still dodging the Seviper's attacks and didn't realise the danger. The Human was smiling, untill Cubone's attack knocked the gun strait out of the Rocket's hands.
"Obviously, they need to be taught how to play," Cubone said as he caught his club and pulled his arm back again.
"You've had your go," Alpha said, "Flame, if they make a move for that gun then feel free to give them a fireball or two."
"Righto," we both nodded, I was getting the hang of the 'work in a team' thing.
I watched Squirtle's fight while keeping a carefull eye on the Humans, if they so much as twitched then I focused on them untill I was sure that they were no threat.
"Come on, make a move. I wanna see you burn," I muttered.
Squirtle lept over the Seviper's tail blade as it was swung at him, landing on the fleshy part and launching a full powered jet of water at its head. The force caused the Seviper's head to fly back and connect with a wall, effectively knocking it unconsious.
The Rocket returned his Pokémon and started running, with the other following behind. Cubone threw his club again but the Humans served out of its path, dashing past Squirtle and towards freedom.
Untill another Human stepped into the middle of the road in front of them. A Human with bright yellow spiked hair. The Gym Leader. The first Rocket tried to knock him out of the way and got a fist to the face for his trouble. The second ran past and vanished around the corner, while the Gym Leader took out some rope and bound the unconsious Rocket's hands together.
Raichu stepped out from behind him and headed up the road, while we met in the middle with Squirtle.
"Looks like you got involved in one hell of a scrap," the rodent Pokémon said, looking us all over.
"You could say that," Squirtle said, between deep breaths. He was knackered, as was the rest of us.
"How did you survive the Dragonbreath?" Alpha asked him.
"I pulled back into my shell at the last second, and was launched through a window. I managed to find the way out just as those Rockets turned the corner and the rest is history," Squirtle explained.
Alpha suddenly swore, making us all turn to him with equally puzzled expressions.
"The one that got away, that was the one who owned the Charmander," he said, looking worried.
"So she got away, big deal," Squirtle chuckled, "we beat her once, we'll do it again."
"But, before that," Cubone piped up, "we better head back to the Pokémon Center and get ourselves patched up."
"Uh, about that," Raichu said, looking a little scared, "Team Rocket managed to capture it. We got most of the occupants out."
I looked at Raichu, feeling slightly worried now myself, "what do you mean most of the occupants?"
"Three people got trapped inside when the Rockets invaded, one Human and two Pokémon."
"Oh no. Moron, Blacky and Scyther!"
"'Fraid so. That's why we came looking for you," Raichu explained, "Team Rocket have barracaded all the windows and the door is being guarded by several of them, all with powerfull Pokémon. Any attempt to break in would be suicide."
Me and Squirtle looked at each other before nodding simultaneously and turning away. As we walked off, the others caught up.
"Where are you going?" Cubone asked.
"We're not just going to leave them to die in there," Squirtle said, "we'll find a way to get them out, even if we can't use the front door."
"Those bastards will wish they had never been born after I get hold of them," I added with a grim smile.