In this chapter, our heroes are going to dress as Team Shadow Grunts!
They could try dressing as admins...but that's less likely to work. There are two males and two females that serve as executives in the organization though, much like our heroes.
Oh, and Sarah is going to fight Jerry. I hope you enjoy the comedy.
Chapter 36: Dressing As The Enemy
As our heroes headed to Goldenrod City, they noticed Sarah.
"Am I going to have to fight her again?" asked Jake. It seemed like they had fought each other many times. To be fair, that did give his Pokemon a lot of experience.
However, upon closer inspection, she was no longer dressed in her Team Shadow uniform. She also seemed upset about something.
instead, she was wearing a green baseball cap and was dressed in a green shirt. Her shorts were blue, however.
Was...she not part of Team Shadow anymore?
They decided to ask her.
"Are you no longer part of Team Shadow?" asked Jake.
Although, perhaps it was possible that she was going undercover. Officer Jenny would be looking for somebody who was wearing the Team Shadow uniform. By but dressing up as somebody else, Officer Jenny wouldn't see her coming.
Now that Jake thought of it, that was the strategy that Morgiana had used, before she decided that she no longer had to worry about the men or women (mostly women) of law enforcement.
But Sarah ultimately debunked that theory.
"Morgiana threw me out." answered Sarah.
"Why?" asked Chris. She seemed loyal to her cause...though she had a much better set of morals than her boss did.
"She was angry about what I did to the machine...even though her number two pointed out that there was a number of flaws with the plan even without me getting involved." noted the Team Shadow Grunt.
"Sorry to hear that. But maybe you can go on a more righteous path now." suggested Lucy. That was what she would do.
"That's actually my idea." noted the girl.
"Alright then!" exclaimed Ned.
Wanting to stop Morgiana as soon as possible, the four of them entered the tower.
Presumably, she was at the top somewhere. Perhaps she felt that she was at the top of the world. By that logic, she would be somewhere close to the roof.
Unfortunately for our heroes, they didn't get far until they ran into a Team Shadow Grunt. He was standing right in front of the staircase to the second floor.
Strangely enough, he didn't seem interested in fighting them.
"No way you're getting through! Unless of course, you're Team Shadow Grunts like myself..." noted the Grunt.
"We're going to need a disguise..." noted Jake.
Suddenly, Lucy remembered something.
Didn't Sarah use to be a Team Shadow Grunt?
Maybe she could help them.
They decided to talk to her.
"You need something? I'm busy." answered Sarah.
"I thought you were fired." answered Ned.
"I was...but I'm trying to save the world...or the country, anyway." explained the girl.
"Do you know a way we can dress ourselves like Team Shadow?" asked Jake.
"You want a disguise? Well, there's this guy who sells Team Shadow uniforms...he made too many for the organization by accident, so he decided to sell some spares." explained Sarah.
"Thanks! We appreciate it!" exclaimed Jake.
Now that Sarah thought of it, perhaps she was lucky that the five of them were on the same side from now on.
She doubted that she could take on the four Team Shadow Executives by herself...though she already had an idea as to how to stop their scheme.
"What's this? Do you have an appointment with Morgiana?" asked the Team Shadow Grunt.
"Um, sure." nodded Ned.
"Alright then, you can go up ahead." answered the Grunt.
But at that very moment, Jerry ruined everything.
It seemed that he had decided to enter the Goldenrod Radio Tower himself.
Perhaps he wished to enter the lottery.
But unfortunately, the lottery was not open, on account of the invasion. If only the Radio Tower staff had won the lottery themselves.
"Hey, losers! Why are you dressed as Team Shadow? You're not siding with them, are you? Because nobody controls my Pokemon except me!" exclaimed Jerry.
"What!?" bellowed the Team Shadow Grunt, staring at the four people who thought were Team Shadow Grunts.
Now that he thought of it, they seemed to be a bit young to be Team Shadow Grunts.
Although, hadn't there been a young girl who was part of the group?
Chris clenched her fist at Jerry. To be honest, she had a feeling something like this would happen.
Of course he of all people would ruin everything.
"You just blew our cover!"
"I'll see you later." said Jerry.
Meanwhile, Sarah and her Murkrow stopped for a moment to catch their breath.
So far, their plan seemed to be working out...though the same couldn't be said for her four friends.
Suddenly, Murkrow noticed something shiny.
"So...pretty..." remarked Murkrow.
"Huh?" asked Sarah.
It was a shiny key.
Unfortunately, not even she could help her race's instincts to snatch things sometimes. She was kind of like Clefairy...but while they were both intelligent Pokemon, only Murkrow had mastered the art of human speech.
Murkrow grabbed onto it.
Nearby, Clefairy felt a sense of deja vu. She also recalled her Pokemon Trainer being wary of teaching her the move Covet.
Shortly afterwards, Violet noticed.
"Hey!" exclaimed Violet.
Sarah and Murkrow decided to make a break for it.
"Darn it! I knew that I shouldn't have left that out in the open!" shouted Violet. Although to be fair, none of the police officers outside seemed willing to enter the building.
"Why do you keep dressing as a man?" asked the Team Shadow Grunt.
The black belt who had stood guard earlier wondered why they had chosen a woman to dress up as the Director as well.
Violet sighed.
"Don't judge me! Just get that key!" exclaimed Violet.
The Team Shadow Grunts nodded.
"There you are! Where are you running off too?" asked Sarah.
"Well, it would be nice if I could find a nest to put it in somewhere..." noted Murkrow.
The outside of Goldenrod City wasn't lacking in trees, now that she thought of it.
Suddenly, Sarah noticed that the key read "Team Shadow Secret Hideout".
Perhaps it was lucky that they managed to pilfer it.
There seemed to be some Team Shadow Grunts heading towards the underground area of Goldenrod City.
Perhaps that was where the door that key belonged to was.
Sure enough, she found a locked door.
Sarah unlocked it, and found herself in some sort of passageway.
She wondered where it led.
It seemed dark and ominous. At least her Murkrow seemed to feel at home. Perhaps it was good that she brought a Pokemon that had night vision.
But shortly after Sarah entered, she found herself facing Jerry.
It seemed that he had followed her.
Seemed he was itching for another Pokemon battle.
"Hey Sarah, behind ya!" exclaimed Jerry.
Sarah turned around.
She wasn't happy to see him.
"Who is this?" asked Murkrow.
"It's Jerry, the most obnoxious Pokemon trainer in history." said the young girl.
Just by looking at him, Murkrow could tell that he was someone who didn't treat Pokemon too well.
"Jerry! There's no time!" exclaimed Sarah. It was only a matter of time before the Team Shadow Grunts discovered her presence.
"Are you scared?" asked Jerry.
"Technically no, but..." answered the former Team Shadow Grunt.
"Then let's fight!" shouted the boy.
Sarah sighed.
To be honest, she wasn't sure if she could reason with him.
But...maybe she could take him on. Her bond with her Pokemon was closer, for one.
Back at the tower, the Team Shadow Grunt was angered by their deception.
"I'm going to beat up your Pokemon for that!" exclaimed the Team Shadow Grunt. Nobody impersonated Team Shadow and got away with it.
He sent out a Parasect.
But Chris had her Charizard breathe fire on him.
Parasect fainted immediately.
The Team Shadow Grunt groaned. Having a Pokemon that had a quadruple weakness could be a real pain. He'd like to see someone send out a Gyarados against a Pikachu and watch the look on their faces as the small mouse Pokemon fries the enormous fish Pokemon with electricity.
"I have to warn the others!" exclaimed the grunt.
"You think we can take them all?" asked Ned.
"Well, that one went down pretty easy." answered Chris.
But two more approached them, followed by a scientist.
"What is with criminal organizations and mad scientists?" inquired Ned.
His dad was a scientist, but he was totally sane.
In fact, so were Professor Oak and Professor Elm.
The scientist sent out a Voltorb.
"Voltorb!" exclaimed the electric Pokemon.
The Voltorb prepared to Self-Destruct.
Luckily, Lucy's Clefairy moved away in the nick of time.
"Clefairy!" exclaimed Lucy's Clefairy. That would have really hurt.
Perhaps ghost Pokemon were lucky. They didn't have to worry about explosions. They did have to worry about wind though.
On that subject, one Koffing attempted to explode in front of Ned's Misdreavus.
But nothing happened.
"Koffing..." said the Team Shadow Koffing. Perhaps he didn't think things through. Though to be fair, he didn't know techniques that were super effective against ghost types.
Misdreavus flipped herself happily.
"You again? I should have known you would show up to try to stop us." noted Larry.
He admired their persistence, though to be honest, he thought their efforts were futile at this point of time.
For a moment, our heroes wondered if they should all take him on.
However, it then occurred to them that perhaps Larry wasn't there strictly to fight them. Perhaps he was...stalling them.
They knew that while they were fighting, Morgiana was preparing to broadcast her brainwashing signal.
Maybe one of them should stay behind to face the Team Shadow executive.
They had beaten him once already, so perhaps they could him beat again.
Although...it was likely that he had trained his Pokemon since then.
Still, having one person face him one-on-one would be their best option. There were four executives and four of them.
Besides, they had trained their Pokemon as well.
"Any volunteers to fight him?" asked Jake.
"I'll do it." said Ned.
"Careful. Wouldn't want anything to happen to you." answered Chris.
Ned nodded.
"You think you can take me on? I'm going to show your Pokemon a world of hurt!" exclaimed Larry.
"I hope not." answered the boy.
"Why are you fighting, anyway? Don't you know that Morgiana's about to take all your Pokemon? If I were you I would give up on being a Pokemon Trainer." said the executive.
"But I just got the seventh badge..." said Ned.
"Well, you sure as heck aren't getting the eighth! You can consider the Pokemon League cancelled!" remarked Larry.
Ned sighed.
"I sure hope not..." answered the boy.
"If you think you can take me on, be my guest!" exclaimed the executive.
Ned shrugged and pulled out a Pokeball.
This might be his last battle, so hopefully he would win.
Meanwhile...
For his first Pokemon, Jerry sent out Dodrio.
"Dodrio!" exclaimed Jerry's Dodrio.
To be honest, the trio were hoping Jerry would leave him in their PC instead of bringing them for this fight.
Jerry had a habit of sending them into fights where they would faint. Last time they had fought against a Golem and lost badly. Why didn't he use Slowbro? Jerry wouldn't even need to worry about Slowbro's unsurprisingly slow speed considering that Golems were no Rapidashes themselves.
To be honest, Sarah wasn't surprised that Jerry had gone first.
He seemed eager to win against her this time.
But going first had its drawbacks.
She decided to send out Sudowoodo in retaliation.
Jerry laughed.
"You're sending out a grass Pokemon against my flying type? Hahahahahahaha!" laughed Jerry.
"Um, about that..." answered Sarah.
Jerry continued laughing.
Sarah had Sudowoodo use Rock Slide on Dodrio.
Jerry suddenly stopped laughing.
Dodrio fainted instantly.
To be honest, that wasn't a new experience to him.
Although to be fair, Jerry didn't know he was up against a rock type this time.
"That was a rock type? You've got to be kidding me..." said the obnoxious Pokemon trainer.
Jerry withdrew his fainted Dodrio.
He sent out Slowbro.
For once, Slowbro was happy that he was up against a Pokemon he had a type advantage against.
"Should I send out a Pokemon with a type advantage or try using a water type of my own?" asked Sarah.
"Well, you do have almost the same Pokemon as he does." noted Murkrow.
"Did that Murkrow just talk? I've got to be hearing things..." remarked Jerry.
Now that Sarah thought of it, Murkrow was right.
Sarah sent out Slowking.
"Why is the Shellder on top of his head?" asked Jerry. He was under the impression that the Shellder would be on his tail.
"Well, I noticed that a Shellder was biting into his tail, so I tried to make him let go...and this happened." explained Sarah.
Now that Slowbro thought about it, Jerry didn't seem to care whenever a fish Pokemon bit him.
After hearing that, he decided that instead of listening to his Pokemon trainer, he would go to sleep instead.
Slowking was confused...but at least it seemed that he was the victor.
Jerry clenched his fist.
"Oh c'mon!" exclaimed Jerry.
This time, Jerry sent out Ditto.
"Ditto!" exclaimed Ditto.
Ditto shapeshifted into Slowking.
"Ha! My Ditto just shapeshifted into a totally better version of your Slowking!" exclaimed Jerry.
"You're having your Ditto shapeshift into a Slowking?" asked Sarah.
"Of course I am! Duh!" exclaimed the selfish Pokemon trainer.
"Well, there's something you should know." answered the pink-haired girl.
"Yeah?" asked Jerry.
"Slowkings are sleepy Pokemon..." said Sarah.
"What?!" shouted the boy.
Sarah withdrew Slowking and sent out Oddish.
Oddish then used Sleep Powder.
Ditto fell asleep.
Oddish then used Giga Drain.
Unfortunately, the shapeshifting Pokemon had no way of defending itself while it was sleeping.
Ditto fainted.
Jerry clenched his fist and withdrew his fainted Pokemon.
"Alright! I'm going to pulverize your Pokemon with my Rhyhorn!" exclaimed the boy. He had caught it at the Safari Zone.
Jerry sent out Rhyhorn.
Rhyhorn charged towards Oddish.
If Sarah had been using Slugma, she would be in a bad situation.
But she was using Oddish.
"That Pokemon has a quadruple weakness to grass types." pointed out the girl.
Rhyhorn wondered what Jerry was thinking. Then again, he could act impulsive too. Sometimes he just felt the urge to charge.
Oddish used Giga Drain on Rhyhorn and he fainted instantly a few feet away from her.
"No more games! I'm sending out Feraligatr!" exclaimed Jerry.
Jerry sent out Feraligatr.
"Totodile!" exclaimed Sarah's Totodile. Look how big he was! Was he going to be that big when he grew up?
It seemed that Jerry had given him Rare Candies so he would evolve quickly...because his personality hadn't changed. He seemed as mean as ever.
"You still have a type disadvantage." said Sarah.
"Oh yeah? Well, my Pokemon is fully evolved! And your Pokemon hasn't even evolved once!" pointed out Jerry.
On cue, Oddish suddenly began to evolve.
"You sure tempted fate..." remarked Murkrow.
Oddish became a Gloom.
Gloom was happy at the occurrence.
Though at the same time, she also felt kind of sleepy.
And she was also drooling.
"I'll still beat you!" exclaimed Jerry.
Jerry instructed Feraligatr to use Ice Punch.
However, Gloom was too short for that to be effective.
"You know, I think Jerry is stinkier than a Gloom's aroma." noted Murkrow.
Sarah nodded.
"I heard that!" exclaimed Jerry.
Gloom hit Feraligatr with Giga Drain.
"Fine then! Time to use the technique I taught my Pokemon!" shouted the boy.
He had Feraligatr use Return.
But for some strange reason, this didn't do much.
"Why isn't this working?" asked Jerry.
"I have no idea..." answered Murkrow.
Jerry's Feraligatr was under the impression that Jerry would teach his Pokemon Frustration.
Gloom hit Feraligatr with Poison Powder.
Feraligatr began to feel weak.
He attempted to punch Gloom again...
...but he collapsed before he could reach her.
"Oh c'mon!" exclaimed Jerry.
Jerry left the scene.
"Are you all alright?" asked Sarah.
Her Pokemon nodded.
"Good, because Team Shadow Grunts are going to be here any minute..." noted the girl.
Curious, Murkrow decided to lay on Sarah's egg.
She figured she might as well since she was a bird.
But at that very moment, Togepi woke up from her nap.
She screeched.
"Whoops! I thought you were an egg!" exclaimed Murkrow.
"Maybe I should stop wearing this eggshell." said Togepi to Murkrow. Maybe it would help people get the right impression of her.
Then again, she enjoyed the eggshell's warmth.
Maybe when she evolved, perhaps?
Given how happy she was with her trainer, it seemed to be only a matter of time.
Maybe Sarah should try teaching her Return.
"It's nice having other Pokemon to talk to..." noted Murkrow.
"I like talking to Totodile!" exclaimed Togepi.
"Hi, how are you? How are you doing? I'm doing fine! How are you?" asked Totodile.
"He seems to talk a lot." remarked the crow Pokemon.
"Well, I'm mostly a listener." said the baby Pokemon.
"Well, baby Pokemon don't talk much." noted Murkrow.
Togepi nodded.
Sarah explored the underground lair, knowing that Team Shadow Grunts could approach her at any given moment.
Were they keeping something hidden down there?
She got the feeling that they were.
Jerry's proving himself to be nothing but a handicap to our heroes, is he? No worries, he'll be gone soon. Then our heroes can focus on fighting Morgiana and putting an end to Team Shadow once and for all.
I figured it would be funny if he made a bunch of mistakes in this fight. Sending Dodrio against a Sudowoodo was an easy mistake for him to make though.
Since Murkrow can talk I figured I would have her talk to other Pokemon. That way giving them a personality is easier. Of course, I think I already gave Lucy's Clefairy a distinguished personality. She might be able to talk but you can tell she's a smart Pokemon, right?