In this chapter, Sarah is going to find a most unusual Pokemon. Remember Meowth from Team Rocket? Well, this Pokemon may remind you of him. Their personalities aren't the same, however.

Oh, you're probably wondering how Chris's fight with Violet will turn out. It's another battle between good vs. evil.

Anyways, I think it's time to put an end to Team Shadow's plans once again, wouldn't you say?

Chapter 32: Murkrowing About

Realizing that Horace wasn't in his office, Sarah decided to look elsewhere.

She discovered there was an electronic door nearby.

Perhaps Horace was on the other side? She seemed to recall that room being where they had built the evolution signal machine.

It seemed that there was a voice-activated lock.

"Totodile!" shouted Sarah's Totodile.

"Voice denied. You're not even human." said an electronic voice.

"Sorry, but I don't think that's going to work." noted Sarah.

Totodile dropped his head.

Togepi wondered what the passcode was. Not that it would matter considering that it only worked if a Team Shadow Executive said it.

Perhaps there was something in Horace's office that would help them get inside. Normally she wouldn't enter his office without his permission...but this was an emergency.

She decided to head there.

For her first Pokemon, Violet sent out Raticate.

"Raticate!" shouted the rat Pokemon, snapping her teeth.

Chris thought about what Pokemon she should send.

She chose Gengar. There was no way normal-type attacks could harm him...unlike a normal Pokemon got the idea of using Foresight on him.

Raticate charged towards Gengar.

However, Gengar blended into the shadows.

She looked around, wondering where her opponent was.

Suddenly, Gengar reappeared and scared Raticate.

"Raticate!" exclaimed the normal Pokemon.

Gengar then hit Raticate with Dark Pulse while she was still in a state of shock.

Raticate recoiled.

However, the rodent Pokemon had a way to counter Gengar.

"Use Crunch!" instructed Violet.

Raticate nodded and bit into Gengar.

"Gengar!" shouted the ghost Pokemon. Though Raticate was a normal type, it could also use dark type attacks...which didn't exactly work in his favor.

However, he retaliated by using Mean Look.

Raticate gasped in astonishment.

Seizing her opportunity, Chris had Gengar use Dark Pulse.

Raticate was sent flying.

However, she got back up.

Gengar attempted to sneak up on Raticate again, but Raticate remembered that her sense of smell could allow her to detect him.

This allowed her to bite into him again.

Gengar gasped.

However, he hit Raticate with Dark Pulse in retaliation.

Raticate had fainted. She had bitten off more than she could chew, it seemed.

Gengar smiled triumphantly.

Frustrated, Violet withdrew her fainted Raticate and sent out Muk.

"Muk!" shouted the sludge Pokemon.

"This looks like the Grimer that Jake uses..." noted Chris.

"Yeah, but it's a lot bigger." remarked Ned.

Muk fired a Mud Bomb at Gengar.

"Gengar!" shouted the ghost Pokemon as he was pelted with the mud.

Muk happened to be fond of mud. Of course, Muk's name sounded similar to mud.

Gengar attempted to hit Muk with Shadow Ball, but he dodged the attack by using Minimize.

He hit Gengar with another Mud Bomb.

Gengar was starting to feel tired.

However, he hit Muk with Dark Pulse.

This disoriented Muk.

"Muk..." murmured the sludge Pokemon.

However, he was able to recover from the attack.

He then hit Gengar with yet another Mud Bomb.

"Gengar!" shouted the host Pokemon as he was struck by the muddy explosive.

Some of it got on Ned's shirt.

"Aw, man!" shouted Ned.

This was too much for the ghost Pokemon and he fainted. One could say that he had given up the ghost.

"Gengar..." murmured the poison Pokemon. That Muk was one mess that he could not mop up.

"Ha!" exclaimed Violet.

Chris sighed and sent out Snorlax.

She knew that for some strange reason, Snorlax never seemed to get poisoned.

Perhaps he would be a good choice to fight Muk because of that.

"Snorlax!" shouted the gluttonous Pokemon.

Snorlax used Earthquake.

"Muk!" shouted the poison Pokemon.

Unfortunately, he had fallen victim to a type disadvantage.

Muk hurled Sludge at Snorlax, but it didn't seem to bother him.

Snorlax used Body Slam and scored a critical hit.

This was enough to win the duel.

Muk fainted.

"Don't tell me you lost against the world's fattest Pokemon..." noted Violet.

"Muk..." murmured the toxic Pokemon. In his defense, Snorlax had a ton of pounds on him. It seemed that the only time that Snorlax wasn't eating was when he was sleeping.

"Great job mopping the floor with Muk." said Chris. Already, the battlefield was starting to smell better.

Snorlax gave the thumbs up.

"This isn't over!" exclaimed Violet.

For her last Pokemon, Violet sent out Ditto.

It was her strongest Pokemon and she was very proud of it.

"Ditto!" exclaimed the shapeshifting Pokemon.

"She has a Ditto? To be honest, that doesn't really surprise me." noted Ned. Based on what he knew about her, Violet's talent was disguising herself.

"Snorlax, surely you can handle this living yogurt, am I right?" asked Chris. She wouldn't be surprised if Snorlax had yogurt before.

Snorlax nodded. Yogurt sounded delicious.

However, things were not that simple.

Ditto decided to shapeshift into its opponent.

"Ditto!" shouted the transforming Pokemon.

Ditto were similar to Eevee in that their genetic makeup were unstable. However, whereas Eevee were stuck with whatever evolution they wanted, Ditto could transform into whatever Pokemon they pleased.

Ditto shapeshifted into Snorlax.

Chris's Snorlax body slammed into his doppleganger.

Unfortunately, Ditto managed to gain the upper hand. It used Brick Break on Snorlax.

Snorlax was knocked backward.

He used Ice Punch, but it bounced off his opponent's gut.

In retaliation, the Snorlax doppleganger used Belly Drum.

"That's not good." thought Chris. Ditto's attack power just went through the roof.

It had halved its own HP, of course, but could Snorlax defend himself?

Unfortunately, he could not. The Snorlax doppelganger followed with Double-Edge.

Chris's Snorlax fainted.

"Snorlax..." murmured the sleepy Pokemon. He never managed that he would beat himself up one day, but it had happened.

Chris wondered what she should do next.

Now that Ditto had shapeshifted into Snorlax, it was going to be a powerful opponent. However, she knew that every Pokemon had a weakness regardless of how strong it was. Even legendary Pokemon had weaknesses...though they were still harder to take down than regular Pokemon.

The only question was what Snorlax's weakness was.

However, she then remembered something.

Weren't Snorlax sleepy Pokemon? The first time that she had met Snorlax, he was taking a snooze. It had been inconvenient for many Pokemon trainers...but thankfully there was a way to awaken them.

Knowing Snorlax, he was most likely dreaming about food at the time.

All of a sudden, she had a pretty good idea what Pokemon to choose.

"Jigglypuff, I choose you!" shouted Chris, tossing Jigglypuff's Pokeball.

"Jigglypuff!" shouted the balloon Pokemon.

"What's she going to do? Sing a song for me?" taunted Violet.

"Actually, yes." answered Chris.

Jigglypuff pulled out her microphone.

She sang and Dittolax fell asleep.

"What? No!" shouted the Team Shadow Executive.

"Snor..." murmured the shapeshifted Pokemon.

Now that Ditto was asleep, it was a sitting Psyduck.

Chris had every intention of taking advantage of that.

Jigglypuff then used Hyper Voice while Ditto was still sleeping.

It was a critical hit.

Snorlax woke up, but was feeling worn out after that attack.

"Snorlax?" asked the transformed Pokemon. It wondered what had happened while it was sleeping.

Something told it it had been attacked. Its eardrums were hurting.

It attempted to body slam Jigglypuff, but she moved out of the way.

She then began to hit it in the face.

"Jiggly! Jiggly! Jiggly!" bellowed Jigglypuff.

Eventually, she hit it hard enough to knock it out.

Ditto shapeshifted back into its normal form, eyes swirling. Unfortunately, it no longer had the strength to transform.

Although to be fair, it felt kind of uncomfortable gaining so many pounds.

Violet groaned while she recalled Ditto. Before she had a good laugh at Larry losing to a bunch of children. Now she understood why he had lost.

Jigglypuff was a bit unhappy that she didn't get the chance to draw on Ditto's face, but at least she had won.

Violet realized that perhaps it was up to Horace now. Surely he could handle the intruders, right? If he couldn't, nobody could.

"It looks like you managed to best me. But guess what? Only Team Shadow executives can enter the room with the signal transmitter. We built a voice-activated lock to make sure intruders couldn't get in. I'd like to see you to try to shut down the machine." noted Violet.

Violet decided to take her leave.

"Aw, man!" exclaimed Ned. Now how they were going to stop Team Shadow?

Chris sighed. For the time being, there was no way that they could turn off the machine. It seemed that Team Shadow had anticipated somebody trying to turn it off.

Perhaps if they defeated Horace, they would be able to persuade him to unlock the door.

However, they still didn't know where he was.

"Well, the big cheese isn't here. I guess we need to look elsewhere." noted Chris.

Where was he?

Ned wondered where he was.

Theoretically he would have been notified that the base was being invaded.

Meanwhile...

"You want a raise? Well, I suppose you have been working hard. Why not?" answered Horace.

"You mean it?" asked one of the Team Shadow Grunts.

"However, you should come back to the base. I have a feeling our hideout might have been compromised." stated the man.

The Team Shadow Grunts shrugged.

They accompanied their leader back to the base.

Elsewhere, Sarah entered Horace's office.

Curiously enough, Violet, Chris, and Ned were gone. Perhaps they had already finished their Pokemon battle.

Sarah's Totodile noted that the poster in the room looked rather...tasty.

He decided to nibble on it.

However, his Pokemon trainer did not approve of that.

"Hey! That's not for you to chew on!" exclaimed Sarah.

"Totodile?" asked Sarah's Totodile.

Sarah pulled Totodile away, but in the process, the poster came off the wall.

However, Sarah noticed something strange.

"Is that a lever?" asked Sarah.

She decided to pull on it.

Suddenly, the portrait of a Houndoom moved upwards, revealing a secret room.

"Togepi?" asked Sarah's Togepi curiously. This was very interesting.

Sarah wondered why there was a secret room in his office.

Perhaps Horace happened to be there?

She decided to investigate.

Compared to Horace's office, this room was decorated with red paint and was more brightly lit. However, there was a desk in this room as well.

There were also flowers on the desk.

Nearby was a bird cage containing a Murkrow.

There was also a doll of an Igglybuff. Sarah recognized it as the preevolved form of Jigglypuff, which was Chris's starter Pokemon.

"What's going on here? Does our boss have a feminine side he's not discussing?" asked Sarah. He didn't exactly LOOK feminine.

Speaking of which, she wasn't any closer to finding him.

"If only there was a way to get into that room with the giant machine..." noted the Team Shadow Grunt.

"I think I can help you with that." said a voice.

"Huh? Who said that?" asked Sarah.

"Totodile?" inquired Sarah's Totodile.

To her knowledge, there wasn't anyone else in the room. The voice sounded feminine.

"Over here!" shouted the Murkrow in the cage.

Sarah looked at the Murkrow with a perplexed look on her face.

"Did that...Murkrow just talk?" asked Sarah.

"Totodile?" inquired Sarah's Totodile. Now that he thought of it, there didn't seem to be anyone else in the room other than them.

"Surprised?" inquired the Murkrow.

"Not too surprised. I have met a talking Pokemon once before." noted the Team Shadow Grunt. He was working with a criminal organization...but it wasn't one that she was familiar with. Hadn't Team Rocket been disbanded a while ago?

"You have? Interesting..." noted the crow Pokemon, putting her right wing underneath her beak. Just how many talking Pokemon were there in the world? She hadn't gotten the chance to see the world so she didn't have a way of knowing.

"You said you could help us?" asked Sarah.

"Yes. I overheard one of the executives say it once. The password is Johto Is Mine." noted the black bird.

"I see..." nodded Sarah. "But I thought only executives could open it." said Sarah.

"Not a problem." answered the Murkrow.

Sarah picked up the key on the desk and unlocked the bird cage.

Murkrow stretched out her wings. It felt good to be out of there.

She said Johto Is Mine, but in Horace's voice.

"Wow! That's impressive! Can you do my voice?" asked Sarah.

"Doing voices is my talent." answered Murkrow in Sarah's voice.

"Togepi!" shouted Sarah's Togepi. That was pretty impressive.

Sarah scanned Murkrow with her Pokedex.

"Murkrow, the Darkness Pokemon! Many people believe that if you see one at night, you're bound to suffer misfortune!" exclaimed Sarah's Pokedex.

"It's a good thing it's daytime then." noted Sarah.

After exiting the office, they went back to where the machine was.

Sarah approached the electronic door.

"Johto Is Mine." said the talking Murkrow.

"Voice accepted." spoke the electronic voice from earlier.

The door opened.

Lucy and Jake noticed Sarah entering the room.

"Is that a talking Murkrow?" asked Lucy.

Jake shrugged. He wondered where Sarah had managed to find it.

Just in case she got into a fight, she sent out her Gyarados. It seemed like the perfect Pokemon to keep her employer safe.

Sarah noticed the machine that was producing the electronic signal.

Voltorb came out of its Pokeball. It had noticed the large amounts of electricity emanating from the machine, and decided to soak it up.

However, it then noticed an Electrode nearby.

Voltorb was happy. It had discovered a Pokemon that liked to explode as much it did.

It went up to the Electrode who was currently sleeping.

Voltorb went up to the Electrode and exploded.

This woke up the Electrode.

Smiling at Voltorb, it decided to explode as well.

However, this severed the cable linking it to the machine.

The explosion woke up another Electrode nearby.

It too decided to explode.

This set a chain reaction...until the radio transmitter shut down.

"Voltorb?" inquired the electric Pokemon. Earlier it had heard a strange sound but not anymore.

"Oh no! Now how are we going to power the machine?" asked Sarah.

Togepi wasn't sure. Was there a Mareep farm nearby? There was a Miltank farm close to Ecruteak City so it wouldn't be too unlikely.

"To be honest, that signal was giving me a headache..." noted Murkrow. She could hear it all the way from the other side of the hideout.

At that very moment, Sarah's Gyarados noticed the machine.

She realized that it was the exact same machine that had forced her to evolve.

The water Pokemon decided that it should be destroyed. Pokemon should be able to evolve when they were ready, not because somebody else wanted to sell their evolved forms for cash.

She launched a Flamethrower attack at it.

Searing hot flames came out of her mouth.

The machine suddenly exploded.

Sarah's jaw dropped in shock.

What had happened?

Gyarados smirked in satisfaction.

Now things would go back to normal at the Lake of Rage.

Unfortunately for Team Shadow, there was no way that they could repair the machine. And considering how expensive it was to build the machine the first time, they probably didn't have enough money to build another one, even with the profits they made off the Gyarados.

Their days of forcing Pokemon to evolve was over.

"What was that noise?" asked Jake.

"That was one big boom..." noted Lucy.

Clefairy nodded in agreement.

Lance wasn't quite sure what had happened, but it looked like his work there was done.

"What is going on here?" asked Horace.

He had heard the explosion.

The man discovered that the machine producing the evolution signal had been destroyed.

He turned to Jake and Lucy.

"Did you do this?" asked Horace.

"Wasn't me...we just wanted to turn it off." answered Jake.

Sarah rubbed her hand behind her head.

At that very moment, Lance showed up.

The two Shadow Grunts that accompanied Horace gasped in surprise.

The Pokemon Champion...was here?

They were in a big load of trouble.

"The leader of Team Shadow in the flesh..." murmured Lance. It looked as if he had the opportunity that he had been waiting for.

Perhaps if they took him down, Team Shadow would be finished once and for all.

Jake decided to support him.

"Taking me on two to one? I figured you were more honorable than that..." stated Horace.

"You...actually have a good point. You there. Why don't you reinforce your leader?" asked the champion.

"Who? Me?" asked Sarah.

"Yes." nodded Horace.

He had to admit, Sarah must have had pretty strong Pokemon if she blew up the machine by accident.

Strangely enough, he didn't seem mad about it.

Shrugging, she decided to enter the fray.

It looked as if she had the honor of fighting alongside her master.

Perhaps she was the luckiest out of all the Team Shadow Grunts.

She got ready to fight Jake while Lance fought against Horace.

Yes, this Murkrow was inspired by the Murkrow that says "Hail Giovanni" in Pokemon Gold and Silver. However, this Murkrow ISN'T going to be a one-shot character. That's right, you'll be hearing more from her.

And no, the signal-producing machine wasn't actually blown up in the games. I just decided to go for a more creative touch. Funny how Sarah has been responsible for thwarting Team Shadow's plans in BOTH Azalea and Mahogany, huh?

In the next chapter, we're going to learn something shocking. Though I HAVE given away hints towards it. I didn't want it to come out of nowhere.

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