Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 51: Breath of Fire.

Faust was facing Red and Peter in one of the domes in the underground of the Darkness Gang base.

"F #k this bullshit! I lost my arm, I lost my eye, and yet the only I took out so far was the weakest one!" he screamed inside his head "I've changed my body completely after my last loss to Red! I can't let him win again! Thankfully… these guys are fools. Red is using only one Pokemon while the other guy combined with his. It'll be much easier to keep track of them even if they try to attack from my blind…"

As he was thinking that, he blinked. It was only a fraction of a second but during that time Peter managed to disappear from his field of vision. Even though it should have been obvious where he would attack from, when Faust turned his head and swung his pincer, there was nobody there.

"Wha-?"

He started to look around. Red and Charizard haven't moved yet but Peter was still absent so the cyborg felt uneasy.

"Phantom Force."

A purple spot appeared on the floor in front of Faust and, a moment later, Peter jumped out from inside it and, using the two sets of ghostly arms that sprung from his body, as well as his own, he delivered six punches to Faust's already heavily injured face.

To reduce the force of the attack, Faust started driving backwards as fast as he could. After the big explosion before, most of the cubes were not functional anymore so there was less of a risk of running into some. The ones that dropped to the floor either got knocked away or crushed by his tracks.

"You're not getting away!" Red yelled at him and as the man turned his head he saw that the boy was quickly approaching him by riding atop his Pokemon.

"Wing Attack!"

Charizard made sure to spread its wings as it got close to Faust. One of them hit the man in the face as the lizard continued his flight. Rather than his face, the cyborg was more concerned about his neck. It felt like his head was about to be detached from his spine, and it was clear to him that another such attack would actually do it.

"Since I can't use the cubes anymore, I've lost my advantage. There's no reason to stay here." he decided and immediately started driving towards the exit.

Charizard turned around in the air, with Red having to grab onto its neck, and followed after the enemy. Peter also began his pursuit, but, with enough room to accelerate, the cyborg became faster than either of them. One attack from his pincer was enough to break the doors before they could even open.

Red realized that his Pokemon wouldn't fit so he quickly put it back in the pokeball, and allowed the momentum to carry him outside, before once again summoning Charizard.

. . .

Just like the rest of their group, Green and Archer managed to find their way to the underground part of the base but they arrived in a different elevator than the one where most of their companions were gathered around.

"Which path do you think we should take?"

"What?" Archer was still thinking about what happened above so he wasn't focused on his surroundings or what Green was saying to him.

"Are you feeling ok? I was asking which path do we take?" Green repeated, this time pointing towards the moving walkways in case Archer actually didn't notice them.

"Well… I have no idea if these are supposed to clue us in or what… I don't think it matters."

"Not anymore."

Archer felt a chill run down his spine. He looked at Green, even though he knew that the voice he just heard didn't belong to the boy. His companion was already looking around, trying to find the one who spoke to them but he couldn't see anyone.

"An invisible enemy? Even if they did experiments with Pokemon, I've never heard of any Pokemon like that." said Green.

"Me nei…" Archer stopped mid-sentence since something wrapped around his neck, squeezing so hard that he was barely able to breathe, let alone talk.

Green realized that something was wrong and immediately called on the help of his fast Pokemon, Hitmonlee. Even a blind kick from one of its stretchy legs was enough to accidentally hit whatever was holding Archer and make it release him. Green ran up to him in order to make sure that he was okay while also summoning his Vulpix.

Their opponent started laughing maniacally. It was weird that they would reveal where they were so easily, but a moment later they went a step further and became completely visible.

"You think I don't realize what you want to do? You wanted to use that Pokemon's nose in order to sniff me out. That's not fun. I was given this ability…" they said and made one of their hands disappear for a moment "...but if I use it right now it will take too long. I already got bored enough to leave my room. That other group was too big for me to try and take on them but there's only two of you so… let's play."

Archer's breathing was finally stabilized so he took a look at who they were facing. Because of how weirdly feral and screechy the voice sounded it was hard to realize that their opponent was a woman. She was naked besides a spidernet pattern that covered the sensitive areas, and her skin looked like someone threw buckets of green and pink paint at her. Her hair was dark and looked almost like Tentacool's tentacles, probably what she used to grab him. She had some weird protrusions on her wrists and a big smile of sharp teeth on her face.

"What is it? Is my sexy body too much for you to take in?" she said before once again erupting into laughter "Now that I'm not choking you, you look kinda cute. Want to take me out on a date? I'm Hyane. But if you want my phone number, you'll have to work a little for it."

"Mind Reader!" despite how angry he was before, Green was the first one to focus on advancing the battle, giving an order to Hitmonlee and then another one to Vulpix "Flamethrower!"

The woman was very fast, jumping above the fire type attack right before it reached her. She glued herself to the ceiling with one hand before deciding to use her legs to kick herself off it and try to attack Archer once again. He reached for one of his pokeballs but it turned out that he didn't have to protect himself. Hitmonlee also jumped into the air and spun around before using a heel kick to knock the opponent down onto the floor. That was only the first part of Double Kick and Hyane seemed to realize that as she used the protrusions in her hands to create a sticky net that shielded her from the follow-up. Having trapped Hitmonlee in the web, she spun him around before throwing him at a wall.

"Grab his leg!"

Vulpix listened to the command and used his mouth to get a hold of the fighting type Pokemon. It took a lot of strength but Hitmonlee helped by kicking the wall with his other leg.

"Jump!"

Archer didn't realize that these words were meant for him. As Hitmonlee continued spinning, his leg stretched out. Green managed to dodge it but the remaining humans were both struck by it and sent crashing into the elevator doors. Hyane's body was hard enough to damage them.

"It looks like we'll have to find another way up." Green commented.

Vulpix used a bit of fire to help Hitmonlee free himself from the webbing while their trainer approached the unconscious couple. He checked on Archer but it seemed like he would be fine. When he tried to do the same with the woman, her eyes suddenly opened and she bit his hand. It felt like he would lose a finger or two if he tried to get free so all he could do was to put his head down to give Hitmonlee a clear shot.

Seeing the Pokemon's foot rapidly approaching her, Hyane let go. She wanted to jump away but Green used his other hand to grab her neck. He wasn't strong enough to keep her down but it still gave Hitmonlee time. Before the attack reached her face, she used her tentacles to grab onto the leg, but Hitmonlee allowed himself to be pulled towards her so that he could kick her with his free leg. She was prepared for that and managed to deliver a slightly faster blow while also letting go of the leg, finally landing a clean hit on the fighting type Pokemon.

She immediately used webbing to pull him back towards her before he could fly away, and headbutted him. He wasn't yet defeated but Hyane noticed Vulpix running towards them so she threw Hitmonlee to the side and focused on the fox. A quick web attack glued it to the floor, making it easy to kick it with full force. The Pokemon looked at her angrily but didn't reciprocate so she took the chance to kick him two more times but she quickly noticed that something wasn't right. Its trainer wasn't doing anything to stop her. She turned around towards the elevator and saw another Vulpix. She looked back at the one trapped in her web and witnessed it turning into green dust. Once more turning back to the other one, she witnessed a Flamethrower approaching her. It was too close for her to run away and her webs wouldn't be able to stop it so her instinct was to protect herself with the tentacles.

Hyane cried out in pain but her instincts kicked in and she jumped to the side, barely dodging Hitmonlee who tried to dive kick her in the back. The fighting Pokemon tried to follow up by using his hands to prop himself up and do a sweep but he suddenly lost balance and fell on the floor. He quickly looked around and then realized that his opponent did something to him.

Vulpix was preparing another attack but Hitmonlee suddenly raised into the air and flew at its friend. Hyane wanted to laugh at them but she felt a gust of cold air and tried to avoid the source but was too slow. Green summoned his Seadra and had it use Ice Beam. The Woman was hurt but not frozen so she went on counter-attack.

"Smokescreen."

The water type Pokemon released a cloud of black smoke that enveloped the surrounding area. The woman tried to randomly shoot her web in a couple different directions but didn't manage to hit anything.

"I figured out your trick. You showed us before that you don't have to fully disappear. If you can make your hand invisible then you can do the same with your tentacle and used some of them to attack Hitmonlee. But in this smoke, even if you become fully invisible it will be possible to notice your movement." said Green.

"What about you? I can just follow your voice, you idiot!" Hyane responded before lunging towards where she thought she would find her opponent.

What she found instead was an ice pillar created by Seadra, which Green used to hide behind. The Pokemon was waiting for that and shot Bubblebeam at her from another direction. Once she was wet it was easier to freeze her.

"Ice Beam."

Hyane once again tried to block the attack with the tentacles. She protected herself but now she couldn't see anything because they got frozen in front of her face.

"Double Kick."

Hitmonlee managed to rest for a while while the others were inside the smoke and was quick to deliver the attack. His first kick was delivered to Hyane's abdomen and was strong enough to lift her off the ground, allowing him to use the other one to hit her in the chin. She fell on the floor and tried to shake off the dizziness. Noticing that she had trouble getting up, Green and Seadra left the cloud of smoke.

"This battle managed to help me cool down a little. Forgive the joke. It's a good thing that you mostly laughed like a maniac instead of saying some… provocative words. Thanks to that I don't really feel like killing you. Let's hope that this is enough to knock you out until the rest of you get defeated." Green said while looking at her from above before making room for his Pokemon.

"Let's hit her with two elements at the same time. I need to think up a name for this. Um… Flamy Ice!"

Green immediately felt bad about the name he came up with but the deed was done. Hyane managed to lift herself off the floor but at that moment she was hit with Ice Beam and Flamethrower from Seadra and Vulpix. Her mind couldn't properly take in what it was supposed to feel so she passed out more from confusion than from pain. Green carefully approached her to see if she was in fact unconscious. He turned around and took out some rope to tie her hands in such a way to also block the places where she shot webs from.

"I honestly can't tell if this will be enough to hold her if she wakes up but let's hope so." he said before going to Archer "Still knocked out, huh? I can't leave him here if there's other people like Hyane wandering around this place."

He looked at his Pokemon gathered around him. He thanked them and put them back in their balls. Even if none of them were defeated it was clear to him that it would be too much to ask Hitmonlee and Vulpix to fight anymore.

"Come, Venusaur."

The grass type Pokemon appeared from its ball and immediately noticed the passed out Archer.

"I'll try to put him on your back, so even if we get attacked, don't try to move too much or he could fall and get hurt even more. I'll try to keep an eye out and use other Pokemon or take him off your back if there's enough time. Got that?"

The Pokemon nodded and its trainer started to lift up the Team Rocket member.

. . .

In another part of the underground complex, Angie was continuing her lone battle. Kette's chains have been cut enough to where they couldn't reach her as long as she stayed near the walls. For some reason, the opponent didn't think of going after her or Sandslash and kept standing in the middle of the room deflecting attacks and occasionally randomly throwing the chains into the sandstorm. Angie had a theory that whatever experiments were performed on him, they affected his intelligence or at least the ability to think logically. But she couldn't do anything besides stalling.

She couldn't get back up to the balcony without help from her Pokemon and if they took the time to do that there was a chance that Sandstorm, which they kept reusing, would stop. She feared that if they managed to escape, Kette would go after them or even after someone else if he saw somebody outside. She wasn't even sure if was outside the dome or if it was searching for someone to help Mary.

"There is one thing we haven't tried yet but it could be dangerous. I wonder how stable this place is." she said while examining the walls.

She turned towards Sandslash who once again rammed into Kette with Rollout only to be knocked away. She quietly walked up to her Pokemon and signaled for him to wait.

"I have a plan but it's based equally on luck and precision. It may be dangerous but I don't see us beating this guy even if we tried to get Dragonair and Seaking involved. I'll get ready to make our runaway while you will bring this place down. The luck factor is if your attack will be strong enough to do it."

Sandslash put up its claws and nodded its head, trying to show that it was confident that things would work out.

Angie walked around the room so that she would be closer to the entrance. She looked up, then at Sandslash and finally at Kette. Grabbing one of her other pokeballs, she wanted to take a deep breath but the sandstorm made it hard. There was no point in contemplating it anymore.

"Sandslash, Magnitude! Dragonair, come out!"

The ground type Pokemon jumped up and its body gave out a brown glow for a while before it landed while hitting the floor with its claws. The dome started to shake. Dragonair was already out of its pokeball and felt its trainer mounting it but couldn't see what was happening.

"Up!" Angie shouted before immediately adding "Forward!"

While Dragonair blindly followed its trainer's commands, the girl reached backwards with a pokeball in order to bring Sandslash with them. The attack didn't do anything to the metal dome besides shaking it but the walls and the balcony were less sturdy and started falling onto the unsuspecting Kette. Once she and her Pokemon got outside the room, Angie quickly looked around and saw that Mary wasn't anywhere nearby.

"Stop!" Angie ordered.

Feeling that they were outside the sandstorm, Dragonair opened its eyes. The Pokemon was still confused by what was happening but once it noticed its trainer looking in the direction of the dome, it did the same thing.

"I have to wait at least… 10… 20 seconds before I start searching for Mary. I need to see if that is enough to keep him down." Angie thought, not knowing that she was being too hopeful.

"One… two… three…" she began counting the time out loud.

Once she reached seven, her eyes widened as she saw a piece of rubble fly up and hit the ceiling of the dome. After that several more pieces were thrown around, some even flying out the open door and crashing on the floor near the girl. This performance was testament not only to Kette's strength but also to his endurance and combined that was too much for her to handle, making it so that for around half a minute she couldn't do anything besides watching. Only after the noise, made by the crushed concrete, stopped, did she come back to her senses. She caught a glance of Kette's gray hand reaching towards what was left of the balcony and immediately cleared her mind and decided the best course of action.

"Dragonair, we need to get out of here and look for help!"

The Pokemon nodded and started flying. Its trainer kept looking back, watching how Kette slowly climbed the rubble and walked outside the dome.

"If that's how fast he moves then at least we don't have to worry abo…" Angie wanted to make a comment about the current situation but she had to stop because she almost bit her tongue when Dragonair suddenly turned.

The girl wasn't sure what direction they were going in but she wasn't expecting to run into an obstacle since she was convinced that there were no structures around besides the domes. She turned her around and saw a familiar face, although one that was somewhat disfigured since their last encounter. It was Faust. At first it looked like he was trying to run away from something but Angie was too confused about his appearance and couldn't properly judge what he would do so, when he spun around and tried to reach her with his pincer, all she could do was jump away. Dragonair wouldn't be able to dodge the cyborg even if its trainer gave it an order, but thankfully the opponent wasn't trying to harm it, being too focused on the girl, so the Pokemon bounced off his body and was ready to rush in and try to save its trainer. Faust literally stopped in his tracks after being struck by Dragon Tail, but once the Pokemon looked past the enemy it attacked, it saw that it wasn't fighting alone. Faust couldn't use his pincer to grab Angie since he needed it to shield itself from an attack that came from two Scythers.

"Are you alright?!" Angie heard Alex's voice and quickly scanned her surroundings to see him running towards her.

"What is going on?!" he asked once he reached her side and helped her stand up.

"I'm just as confused as you!" the girl let the emotions get the better of her and spoke much louder than she intended to.

"Out of the way!"

The two of them, as well as Faust, turned and saw Red and Charizard who managed to catch up to their target after he got stopped. The lizard was clearly preparing to shoot fire out of its mouth so the admins and the Pokemon started scrambling to get away, while suddenly the attack was interrupted before it could even begin. It turned out that Kette was much faster than Angie initially thought and as he arrived on the scene, the brute decided to punch the biggest and brightest thing he could see. Charizard got knocked back and spun around uncontrollably causing Red to lose his hold and fall onto the floor, but the boy didn't feel anything break so he immediately focused on how to deal with this unforeseen opponent.

"Have you fought him?! Does he have a weakness?!" the boy yelled towards the Team Rocket members.

"Yes! No!" Angie responded.

With the Pokemon no longer stopping him, Faust went on the offensive. He brought his pincer down like a hammer onto one of the Scythers. The Pokemon blocked the attack by crossing its blades but it couldn't hold out longer than a few seconds and got crushed, turning into purple goop. Alex put Ditto back in its ball which attracted Faust's attention towards him.

"Spin Cutter!" Red ordered as a precaution.

The real Scyther jumped towards Faust by launching itself with Vacuum Wave and spun around while using Fury Cutter, slashing the cyborg all over.

Meanwhile, Kette wanted to continue attacking Charizard. Red noticed what was left of the chains on the monster's wrists and ordered his Pokemon to aim its Flamethrower at them when the opponent brought his hands together for a downard smashing attack. The metal melted and welded the hands together while apparently causing some discomfort to him. It wasn't clear how long it would hold him so Red decided to immediately follow up with a Flame Charge. Kette used his other set of hands to grab Charizard. His hands were being burned but at least no damage was being done to his body. However he started to feel himself being lifted up and noticed that the lizard also grabbed him. Even with his other hands still tied up, he tried to hit the opponent and both of them fell towards the floor. Faust wanted to use the moment of Charizard's helplessness but Angie sent out her Sandslash who put his claws around Faust's head while Scyther followed up with a similar attack to the one it used previously.

Kette turned himself in such a way that he would fall on top of Charizard. Once he pinned him to the floor it would be easier to knock him out. Red started reaching towards the pokeball to recall his companion but he was outsped by Peter who appeared from within Kette's shadow.

"Phantom Force."

The grey-skinned man winced after being struck in his back six times. The punches were all delivered with speed and precision which were meant to damage his spine but weren't enough to do anything besides making him angrier. He ripped the metal apart and turned towards the admin who already created some distance between them. Scyther and Sandslash used a hit and run tactic to keep Faust chasing them. When they were finally in the right position, they jumped completely out of the way and the cyborg was too late to realize where they were leading him and his pincer struck Kette in the face right as he was about to reach Peter. The monster either didn't know or didn't care that they were on the same side and counterattacked by grabbing the pincer and throwing Faust. This was preferable to being punched since all the man needed to was to stick the landing.

"Fire Blast!" Angie ordered Dragonair, not wanting to waste a chance to hit their opponent, seeing as he was easier to hit when he was focused on not crashing.

Peter got distracted, enjoying watching Faust in pain, and was too late to protect himself against a swinging move from Kette's tail. He closed his eyes, prepared to feel a lot of pain. He felt himself getting thrown but besides the moment he hit the floor, he didn't actually get hurt too much. When he opened his eyes, he saw Gengar who must have left his body at the last second and took the full force of the attack. Kette wasn't stopping and a couple seconds later the ghost type Pokemon got knocked back towards where its trainer was lying. Peter returned it to its pokeball before running at Kette to get his revenge.

"There's too many of them. I need to get out of here." Faust said to himself before charging at Angie and Alex.

The Admins, as well as the nearby Pokemon, dodged him, not knowing that he went in that direction because it was where the nearest elevator was. He saw something rolling towards him and swerved to dodge, allowing himself to get his wheels caught in a vine that was stretched out on the floor. He spun around a couple times before stopping and getting a look at the newest arrival to the battlefield.

Green preemptively took Archer off of Venusaur's back before it and Jigglypuff initiated the trap.

"Is Otari somewhere around here?" he asked the admins who needed a little time to take a breath before answering him.

"He's near one of the elevators, taking care of Tarieli and Mary. Roger is also with them." Alex said while pointing out the direction.

Angie smiled, knowing that Mary was being taken care of. Green put Archer back on Venusaur and told the Pokemon to carry him to Otari before returning to help them out. Meanwhile, Jigglypuff used Rollout to keep Faust busy enough for him not to run away.

Green looked around and saw Peter, Scyther and Dragonair fighting against Kette, Sandslash running towards Faust and Red getting back on Charizard in order to attack the same target.

"What about Nets?"

His instinct told him to look at Red. Even though there was a lot of noise generated by the raging battle, the words somehow got through to his friend who looked back with an empty expression before some tears ran down his face as he motioned with his head towards Faust. Green felt a cold shiver as he realized what that gesture meant. He already experienced enough anger that day and he was feeling like this would be the thing to break him, but Red was faster than him.

Faust was busy with fending off Jigglypuff and Sandslash so he opened himself to an attack from the back. Charizard shot out Flamethrower while flying at him and followed up with a Wing Attack before digging its Metal Claws into his torso and throwing him towards the ceiling. Then it flew past him and used an even stronger Flamethrower to burn through the metal and earth separating the underground complex from the main base. It kept attacking Faust who couldn't retaliate in fear of falling down several meters or even getting stuck in molten steel dripping around them. They kept tearing through the entire base before they emerged at the top. The wind picked up when they were inside and a snowstorm was now raging on.

"What are you planning to do?!" they were so high that Faust was convinced he wouldn't survive it if he fell so the fear in his voice was very audible.

"I want to kill you… What you did to Nets… What you probably did to many others. It's unforgivable, but… Nets would probably say something like "Don't do it or you'll become just like him"..." Red said while laughing through tears "...It's that movie cliche. I have to be the bigger man, right?"

"So… You're gonna let me go? Is that it?" Faust asked before bursting into laughter.

"I don't know. "The bigger man"... If you're a cyborg… can we even count you as a man? And if I'm let out of the equation?"

"What?"

"You heard that, Charizard? He wants us to let him go."

The Pokemon nodded and released its hold on Faust. He tried to grab onto the Pokemon but it made sure to fire a Flamethrower to push him out of reach. He kept falling down, his screams soon silenced by the wind. They were high and visibility was low so even though Red kept looking down, he wouldn't be able to tell where his enemy landed or if he somehow survived. Despite that, he felt a moment of catharsis and laid back on Charizard who tried to descend while moving vaguely horizontally so that its trainer would have some time to rest and go in his head through what just happened.

. . .

Somewhere far away, in a hidden desert base, Giovanni watched the events unfolding on the screen with disbelief "Something's not right."

"You're goddamn correct that something isn't right!" shouted Darkness Gang's boss "How is it possible that three out of five of them lost to your people?! We lost Faust while all you lost was some scrawny nerd! This is infuriating!"

"That's not what I'm talking about." Giovanni explained "You said that each of your bases is rigged with explosives."

"The explosives! Yes! You're correct! I'll just detonate them and get this over with!" the man decided before hitting one of the buttons on his console with a lot of force.

Nothing happened.

"That's what I was talking about. If you wanted to use the explosives to bury everyone underground, you would have to place them in the ceiling. The same ceiling that Red and his Charizard tore through. If the explosive were still active then the fire would surely set them off."

"But… But… What? Are you telling me that someone deactivated them?! How?! And who?!"

. . .

Several minutes earlier, in the underground of the Darkness Gang headquarters, as Red and Nets walked towards the dome where they would face Faust, the bespectacled boy kept playing with the drone he used to turn off the other ones.

"We got rid of the drones but we can't be sure there are no other traps hidden in the ceiling?"

"Like what? A bomb?"

"I don't know about a bomb but… I toyed a little with this thing and I can send it up and have it spread an emp signal that will disable anything that could be there."

"Do you need a piggyback?"

"You do realize that it still would be too high, right? I'll just use my shoes."

"It's good to have you here. I would never know how to deal with something like that."

"You're just trying to cheer me up."

"No, no. I'm completely serious."

The two of them laughed a little before Nets put the drone in the ceiling and the two of them went on their way.


The next chapter is here. This arc has been mostly non-stop action. I think with how things are going, the next chapter may be the last one so hopefully I'll get it done before the end of the year and then we can start the next year with a new arc.

We have three out five Darkness Gang members defeated thanks to Red, Green and Peter. And also a nice revelation about how Nets essentially saved everyone but no one knows about it. Since a long time ago I wanted to have that final scene with Red and Faust and I was thinking of stuff like, how much struggle there will be or if I should give Charizard a Seismic Toss but I didn't think about the explosives so I needed to come up with something that would explain the situation. There was another character I was thinking about who could have done it but thematically speaking, it's better that Nets was the one to do it.

I'm sorry that the other side characters didn't get a chance to shine. Roger and Archer had their moments in previous chapters but the remaining three didn't do a lot and the group is essentially split into fighting team and unconscious team.

The chapter is named after an old JRPG. I played the third iteration on the original PlayStation but for years I couldn't remember its name. It obviously refers to all the stuff that Charizard does with its Flamethrower.

Red. Team: Eevee, Gyarados, Pidgeot, Raichu, Charizard, ?.

At hand but not officially his: Scyther.

At Team Rocket Base: ?.

Badges: 4

Green. Team: Venusaur, Jigglypuff, Nidorina, Hitmonlee, Vulpix, Seadra.

At Team Rocket Base: Jynx.

Badges: 3

Blue. Team: Weepinbell(Bell), Blastoise(Tori), Golbat(Ken), Graveler(Grimm), Ponyta(Dasher), Electabuzz(Buzz).

Badges: 3

Alex. Team: Ditto, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon.

Angie. Team: Dragonair, Sandslash, Seaking.

Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, Gengar.

Blaine. Team: Magmar, ?, ?.