Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 53: Overdue Oratorio Overture.

As spring arrived and the devices meant to free and control Mewtwo were close to being complete, it became rare for Team Rocket members to go on missions so most of them were growing restless, trying to find something to do in the meantime. One of the ways to spend that time was training, which was exactly what Red and Green were busying themselves with when Otari found them, wanting to deliver a message from Blaine.

"Drill Run!" Red ordered his Nidorino.

The Pokemon started running forward while its horn began to spin, finally putting its whole body into motion as Nidorino started jumping into and out of the floor as easily as a fish would move in water. This was meant to confuse the opponent about the angle of the attack but Green was prepared to counter such a tactic.

"Surround yourself with Blizzard." he gave a command.

Jynx summoned a snowstorm that hit Nidorino once it got too close and left the Poison type Pokemon open to another attack.

"Ice Punch!"

Jynx's freezing fist struck the opponent square in the jaw and knocked it back into the Blizzard where it was buffeted around by the winds before being thrown outside. The Ice type Pokemon was ready to follow the foe but its trainer whistled at it, causing it to stop and look at him.

"Enough?" Green asked while looking at Red.

"Yeah. Good fight." the other boy answered before walking up to his Pokemon.

"Good going out there. Sorry I didn't come up with some better strategy." he congratulated Nidorino before returning it to its ball.

Green also put Jynx back in a pokeball and walked over to his opponent.

"You should have known that something like that wouldn't work on us. We're beyond playing around. Regular trainers may be confused when they have to guess the direction the attack will come from but for us it's more about the reaction time. We can stop an attack from any direction so at that point it comes down to speed and so it's better to go in a straight line rather than try to trick us."

"That's only the case if you know what moves your opponent has at their disposal. Your Jynx didn't use Blizzard the last time I've fought against it. If I knew about it, it would be easy to assume that you would use it as a defensive move."

"I've been trying out different things. How about you? Are you satisfied with Nidorino's current moveset?"

"I was thinking about a Dragon type move but I guess it can't learn any…"

Green scratched his head while thinking.

"Then what about evolving it? You still have the other Moon Stone after giving one to me? If you're not going to use it then I could use it on…"

"No, no. I'm going to evolve it but I still want to train a little more. What about you?"

"What about me? My Pokemon can only evolve with items. Isn't it the same with you? That Eevee's been with you for so long but you still haven't decided to evolve it into anything?"

"I already have a Fire, Water and Electric Pokemon so there's really no point. Besides, look at how adorable it is…" Red said while pointing towards a bench near the entrance to the room.

Eevee was put there to observe the battle but it has since fallen asleep. As the boys looked at the Pokemon, they noticed Otari who was waiting there, trying to catch his breath.

"Hey, man. Are you alright? It looks as if you ran a mile." Red said while going over to the bench.

He searched around his backpack in order to find a bottle of water which he then handed to Otari.

The plump boy took a couple sips after his breathing calmed down.

"I come bearing news."

"Let's hear it then." Green said after approaching the two of them.

Otari looked a little nervous.

"I've checked this place several times. No hidden cameras or anything like that." Green explained "Unless you're worried about me?"

"I'm sorry. It's just… I wonder how he would react if he was still here. Would he be happy seeing as he was part of that project or disappointed knowing what that meant for the world…"

"It's finished?!" Red and Green asked simultaneously.

Otari nodded.

"Which part?" Green inquired further.

"As far as the other scientists are aware, there is a way of breaking the barrier but they won't report it to the higher-ups because they think the device which will control M2 isn't completely finished."

"But… But it is finished. That's what you're trying to say." Red realized the truth.

"Blaine can stall them for no more than a week until they start suspecting some foul play. The boss will know the truth soon."

"Tell Blaine to inform him right away." Red decided.

"Are you insane?!" Otari raised his voice but the other two immediately shushed him.

"Are you insane?" he repeated in a quieter voice.

"Giovanni already suspects too much. If he's as clever as I think he is, even you coming here might have been a mistake."

"You think someone is spying on me?"

"We can't rule that out." stated Green "You learned the truth about us recently but we've shared our room for so long that someone could have started suspecting you much earlier."

"Ironically, I'm the one Giovanni isn't worried about…" Red sighed.

"Because he thinks he figured you out from the beginning?" Otari asked.

"Well, that and… Have… Have none of you realized yet?"

"What? You're being weird."

"I mean… I tried to hide it but I thought it would be obvious… Well, no worries. I have Pidgeot with me so I'll deal with informing the others."

"Wait, wait. Slow down." Green grabbed his friend's hand "Now even I'm getting confused."

"Alright. Don't write it down but make sure to remember…" Red turned to Otari "Tell Blaine to inform Giovanni but make it so he doesn't do that right after talking with you so that you don't look suspicious. He needs to wait some time and then act like he made the breakthrough and, after some additional time, present it to others, run some tests and then do it. Make everything look clean."

"Got it."

"He can't contact Giovanni until around… 3pm. I have to be outside the base at that time so Giovanni doesn't think of the possibility of me being informed about this before him."

"How are you going to leav…"

"I've got a date."

Green and Otari looked like they were ready to shower him with questions so he raised his hand to stop them.

"Focus. While I'm on the date, I'm going to go to the toilet or something like that and send my Pidgeot to Koga with a message explaining to get ready."

"Why Koga?" Green wondered.

"Giovanni must know about my connections to Brock, Misty, Surge and Erika so the other choices are Koga and Sabrina. I don't know anything about Sabrina but Koga refused to join Team Rocket in the past so he's my best bet. I'll let him know to inform the others and we'll see if we'll be able to get their backup. Blaine wasn't able to safely contact them so this is all we can do. Do you understand?"

Otari swallowed some saliva before nodding. Soon after that, he left the training room.

The two boys left inside, stood in silence for about twenty seconds before Green grabbed Red and started shaking him furiously.

"A date?! Are you serious?! It took me some time to realize who you meant but… Is this part of your plan or are you an actual couple?"

"It's… slow. Her connection to Giovanni and loyalty to Team Rocket are kind of a hurdle. We haven't done anything like… kissing…"

Green let go of his friend when he saw his face turning to the color of his name.

"So you actually lo… You have some feelings for her."

"Yes. I'm still not sure how this will work out when we ruin h… when we ruin Giovanni's plans, but I will figure something out."

"Are you sure you're not letting your feelings get in the…"

"Not just her. Peter and Alex. Everybody else too. They're not like Darkness Gang. They might have to go to jail when everything is over but I don't think they're bad people."

"At least…"

"At least…?"

Green couldn't come up with good words until he had time to think about what he just learned.

"At least take a shower before you meet her! You stink!"

. . .

Red arrived near one of the exits of Team Rocket's base. He took Green's advice and cleaned himself up. After feeding his Pokemon, he had Eevee help him in choosing appropriate clothes for the date and, soon after, was ready to leave.

"It's just some light denim pants and a shirt… But why do the sleeves have to be rolled up?" he wondered as he was trying to adjust their length and not finding a good one.

"It just works." he heard a female voice.

Tarieli was sitting next to the exit, wearing casual clothes, and holding a book.

"Does it?"

"Men don't have to put in too much effort. If your face is decent then this look will be enough. Can't really do much more without getting into specific fetishes."

"Did you read about this in your book?"

"Ha ha. Very funny. Are you ready to go?"

Red looked around before stating "You're not Angie."

"Nothing escapes you. I was asked by her to bring you to the restaurant."

"Oh. That's nice of her."

"What?"

"It's just, when you go on a date with someone you either pick them up or meet at the place you're going to. I can't pick her up in a car but meeting her in front of the restaurant… She'll be looking at her watch and wondering if she arrived too early and I'll come running and apologize for being late…"

"I see you have this all thought out."

"Angie is putting effort in by doing things this way and by asking you for help. I should do as much as I can to meet her expectations."

"It's a shame you couldn't have met as regular people…" Tarieli said quietly.

Red didn't hear her so he just gave her a look that showed that he was expecting her to repeat what she said but the girl didn't want to ruin the mood so she hid the book in her bag and started pushing him towards the elevator.

"Let us go! Your girlfriend awaits!"

. . .

Around half an hour after Red and Tarieli left the base, Otari was passing by the main laboratory. He wanted to know if Blaine followed the instructions he passed onto him, but since he himself wasn't a part of the lab staff it could arouse some suspicion. He understood that Red would go ahead with his part of the plan whether Blaine would be able to do what he was supposed to or not, but he couldn't rest until he knew that at least part of their plan worked out. Suddenly, the doors to the laboratory opened which startled him. Instinctively, he hid behind a corner and observed as a bunch of scientists were leaving the room one after the other.

"I mean… It was obvious that he would be the one to discover the solution…" he heard one of them.

"I guess you wanted to take the credit?" another one asked.

"No. But I'm sure given enough time I could have come up with reversing the polarity of the…"

A lot of them were chatting amongst themselves as they walked in the direction of the cafeteria. It was hard to make out what each of them was talking about, especially since Otari didn't understand their technobabble.

"I can't get any closer. I better get out of here before anyone sees me and realizes how suspicious I look." he thought.

As he went in the opposite direction from everyone else, he thought that the scientists leaving the lab could be a sign of them wanting to celebrate Blaine's announcement but he knew he had to wait for another day to hear if everything worked out.

. . .

Red and Tarieli reached the spot where they were supposed to meet with Angie, a small park in the classier part of the city. The Admin was already there, sitting on a bench. After Red's confession a couple months earlier, she decided to let her hair grow out a little and was now wearing it in a ponytail. The reason she was keeping it short was so that it wouldn't get in the way during the missions and since those became uncommon, she allowed herself to ease up a little. She was wearing black pants, silver sneakers, a light jacket and a white shirt with drawings of cherries that formed a heart. The final piece of this ensemble was a pair of round, slightly tinted, glasses.

"Wow." Red uttered as he noticed her from a distance.

"I helped her a little in choosing what to wear but no need to thank me." said Tarieli "Now go over there and make sure to come up with something better than "wow"."

"You're not coming with me?"

"Whose date is it? Mine or yours? I'll leave you two lovebirds alone. Just… don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"I don't know you nearly well enough to understand what that's supposed to mean."

When one girl left him, Red proceeded to approach the other one.

"Hi. I hope you didn't have to wait too long."

Angie quickly eyed him up. It was their first date so she was very much anticipating to see if she wasn't too underdressed compared to what Red would wear, but once she saw him she couldn't be sure if that was the case.

"Is that how it feels? When you love someone, they look good no matter what they wear?" she thought "At least, it's definitely better than the Team Rocket outfit. We could adjust that to be more stylish for the next missions. None of us Admins wear regular outfits but…"

"Took your breath away?" Red spoke to her and the girl noticed that he squatted to get in her line of vision since she looked down.

"Wha-? No. I mean… I got lost in my thoughts. I'm sorry." she explained.

"Don't worry." he responded and stood up while grabbing her hand "Shall we go?"

. . .

A couple hours later, in Fuchsia City, Koga was overlooking his students as they trained with their Pokemon. People were throwing shurikens at targets while the Pokemon tried to knock the weapons down from a distance. The leader was sipping tea and pretending not to give too much attention, but each time one of the people managed to succeed, a slight smile would appear on his face so he would quickly hide it by taking a sip of his tea. He had a servant sitting next to him, ready to refill the leader's drink. They were about to do just that when they noticed that Koga turned his gaze away from the students and towards the sky. He let go of the cup and swiftly stood up while reaching for a pokeball to send out his Golbat. The Pokemon didn't need an order since it noticed right away that it was supposed to stop something that was quickly approaching them through air. It swung its wings one after the other in order to perform two Air Slashes but its target was able to dodge both of the attacks by performing a U-Turn and an Aerial Ace. Once it passed Golbat, the poison type felt like it needed to do something else since the opponent was clearly targeting its trainer.

It was about to release Heat Wave when its trainer yelled "Stop!"

His voice attracted the attention of both the Pokemon and the students who, up till that moment, were too focused on their training to realize what was happening near them. Koga gave the order to Golbat since he realized that the visitor from the sky didn't mean to attack, when he saw that it was a Pidgeot with a message attached to its leg. The bird landed in front of him but cautiously kept its gaze on Globat who also kept observing it.

"May I?" Koga asked while pointing at the package containing the message.

The bird nodded and lifted its leg up. The leader untied the package and emptied it. Koga thought that Pidgeot must have come from a far off place if the message needed to be inside a package instead of the piece of paper just being tied to the leg by itself. The fact that the bird was out of breath, supported that theory.

"I'll have to wash my hands before eating anything in case this is coated with something poisonous." he stated, leaving his servant a little worried.

He unraveled the piece of paper and started reading its contents, his face showing more and more concern with each line he read. He put the paper in a pocket and returned Golbat to its pokeball.

"Find my daughter and her friend and tell them to meet me in the communications center as soon as possible." he said to the servant who quickly abandoned the idea of picking up the dropped cup and immediately left in a hurry.

Koga was about to leave towards the meeting spot but he noticed that his students were staring at him with confused faces.

"Those of you with strength left can help in the search. The rest needs to rest. There's a chance you will have to put your training to test very soon."

He left them with that cryptic message and started moving towards the pagoda. One of the students looked at the leader and then glanced at Pidgeot still standing nearby.

"Want some water?" they asked.

The bird nodded.

. . .

As Red and Angie were returning to the Team Rocket base, Red peeked inside after an elevator took them underground. There definitely were people who suspected his relationship with the Admin but he still wanted to avoid troubling her and so he was checking if the coast was clear. They needed to cross only around 20 meters before they would be able to split up in a spot where multiple corridors led in different directions.

"It looks like the coast is clear." he said to Angie, but still moved slowly as he exited the elevator.

After a couple seconds he felt a shiver run down his spine. He was being observed. He turned around and saw that Alex was standing next to the elevator in such a way that it was impossible to spot him from inside.

"Just for the record, I think that this whole secret lovers thing you two have going on is pretty cute but unfortunately I don't have the time to tease you about it. And neither have you. Get in your Rocket gear and gather at the main assembly hall." he said before leaving them.

Angie walked out from the elevator and looked at Red with a confused expression.

"There wasn't anything planned for today. If there was, I wouldn't risk missing it by going on a date…" she said before realizing that Red may take her words the wrong way "Sorry. I didn't mean to make it sound like Team Rocket is more important to me than you."

"No. If Alex came here personally then this must be something actually important. Let's get dressed and go there quickly."

Red started walking away but as he did, he stopped and looked back at Angie before shaking his head and leaving in a hurry. She noticed that his face was flushed.

"Oh no. He may actually be angry at me. I'll have to talk to him after this meeting is over." the girl thought as she also started walking towards her room.

. . .

When Red arrived at the main assembly hall, he saw some other people who were also running late but Angie wasn't among them. He wanted to wait for her to arrive before going inside so that she wouldn't be worried about being the last person to go inside but he realized that she probably got there before him since she was very efficient whenever it came to Team Rocket business. He went inside and saw that the room was filled almost to the brim. This gathering had more people than he ever saw at the cafeteria, even some he felt like he was seeing for the first time. Thanks to the way the room was built, with leveled seating and balconies, he could take a look at almost any single person and so he saw Green and Otari close to the stage on the other side of the room, and other members of the raid party in various places. Alex was making his way towards the stage where Blaine and Peter were already waiting to begin whatever was meant to happen there. Surprisingly, Angie didn't get there before him. Only after he glanced around the entire crowd, did he notice her coming inside. He waited for her to catch her breath.

"Are you alright?"

She looked around to see if anyone wasn't listening in before answering "I needed to get rid of the makeup before coming here."

"You were wearing makeup? But you still look as beautiful as ever without it." the boy said.

When he saw that Angie began to blush, he quickly realized that he instinctively placed his hand on her chin to take a closer look, and so he let go before someone would notice.

"Uhh…" he got flustered "...I think you're supposed to join the others on stage."

"I… I'll do that."

When all of the Admins finally were on the stage, Blaine touched a communication device in his ear before he started talking to the crowd "If I could have your attention, please?"

His voice rang out from speakers placed around the room and the people quickly quieted down.

"Today is a crucial day for Team Rocket, probably the most important one to this day besides the one during which the organization was started. The reason for that are the two announcements we have for you. Although I'm somewhat involved with what you're about to hear, I think it would be better if you hear both announcements from the one who started it all. Give a warm welcome to the leader of Team Rocket, Giovanni."

It turned out that the wall behind Blaine was a giant screen that lit up as Giovanni's face appeared on it. At first, he seemed as cold and composed as ever but he didn't start speaking and was just scanning the room with his eyes. Most people would assume that he did because he was proud of creating this big organization and wanted to take the sight in, but the truth was completely different. Red noticed that Giovanni's eyes stopped for a second while looking in the boy's direction and a slight smile appeared on his face.

"The first announcement I have for you is that thanks to Dr Humane and his team we finally have a way to control M2. I know that some may still have doubts since only a handful of you saw this Pokemon in person, but I assure you that we wouldn't be striving to gain control over it if it didn't possess the potential to allow us to take over Kanto, and maybe even the world."

He paused, and glanced down at the Admins and Blaine before looking back at the crowd.

"The next announcement is connected to the first one. We're gonna do it. We're going to combine Team Rocket's forces with M2's power and take over the Kanto region. Our main goal is Saffron City but separate Team Rocket divisions will also strike at Vermilion, Cerulean, Celadon and a couple other locations. The way we're going to take over each city will be relayed to those of you responsible for controlling parts of our forces. A team of advisors and I have been working on these plans and revising them while awaiting the day it would be possible. And that day is…"

Giovanni paused dramatically and once again looked in Red's direction. The boy was now sure that the boss was staring him down and so he tried his best to keep his mouth from forming a grin.

Giovanni finished by saying "...tomorrow!"

. . .

"Tomorrow?!" Brock shouted while grabbing his computer monitor.

"Would you please quiet down?" Koga asked him.

The two of them weren't the only ones taking part in this conversation. Koga was accompanied by his daughter Janine and his student, Blue. The remaining leaders, besides Giovanni and Blaine, were also connected to them through a shared video chat. Out of the Elite Four, only Agatha was missing since she didn't seem to understand how to connect to this chat, although Lorelei promised to explain everything to her through a phone call.

"I don't know if this is speaking out of line or not but…" Blue raised her voice, although she hesitated a little, being in the presence of all these trainers, many of whom she hadn't met before "...this is definitely Red's handwriting."

She held up the piece of paper that Pidgeot delivered to Koga, so that everyone could see it.

"It's not that we don't trust you to recognize his penmanship…" said Lance "...but the fact that he would send this message only a day before is really suspicious. We could have someone analyze this message and compare it to something Red wrote before to check if he wasn't forced to write this to lure us into a trap."

"What kind of trap are you even talking about?" Erika asked in an annoyed tone.

"Watch it." Lorelei stared her down.

"Or what? Just because you're the Elite Four, doesn't mean that you're in charge. The only reason I'm not part of your group is that I haven't tried to join. I'm sure if we went toe to toe, I could take over your spot."

"Hey, Erika. Calm down." Brock insisted.

"Let her. This is beginning to get interesting." Bruno spoke up.

"We're going to wait for them to finish arguing?" Misty asked .

"This is why I would prefer to just meet in person. I could whip all of them into shape."

Koga took a deep breath before bringing the mic he was using really close to his face.

"Shut uuuuup!"

Everyone else was so startled that they immediately went quiet.

"If this is a trap then we can get out of it. We're the finest Kanto has to offer, or supposed to be at least. But if this message is real then if we don't do anything, tomorrow Kanto will belong to Team Rocket. It should be easier to stop them before they gain control instead of trying to wrest the freedom from them."

Lance adjusted himself in his seat.

"Does it say anything else?"

"I don't know how he determined this but according to Red; Misty should stay in Cerulean and try to stop Team Rocket from getting M2 while the remaining Gym leaders should gather in Saffron under the command of Surge. It doesn't say anything about Elite Four but since other cities are possible targets then we could try to have one of you placed in each of them."

"Can we even get everyone in place on time?" Brock wondered.

"I'll handle that." Sabrina, who until that point remained quiet, spoke in a soft voice "My Kadbra and Alakazam can teleport over greater distances than regular ones since I put a lot of effort into training that skill."

"What for?" Lorelei wondered.

"To save on plane tickets." Sabrina responded bluntly, leaving the others a little bewildered.

"I'm still not sure about leaving Misty to look after M2." Lance tried to make his words sound non-confrontational since he didn't want another argument to break out, but it looked like he worried needlessly.

"I've done a fine job so far. Besides, I have a special weapon that could give even you a run for your money." the girl responded proudly.

"Yeah. I wouldn't try her." Surge backed up Misty.

"Alright then. I should be able to get to Vermilion without Sabrina's help so I will be in charge of protecting that city, but I will call you to let you know where to pick up Agatha." Lance said before leaving the video call.

"We're sending you our locations." Lorelei said before also disappearing.

One by one, everyone left. Koga was the last one to do so. He stood up and walked away from the computer while Blue and Janine observed him, trying to imagine what he could be thinking.

"What are we going to do once we're in Saffron?" the kunoichi asked.

"You're not coming." Koga responded without even looking at her.

"You can't leave me out of this! I finished my training long ago yet every time something comes up, you act like I'm not ready!"

"You can show me that you are ready by staying here. If this Mewtwo is as strong as everyone makes it out to be, there's a chance that I will not survive if I have to fight it. If I don't come back, you will need to step up and succeed me as the head of our clan."

Janine wanted to think that Koga said that just to protect her from the danger of the battle but she remembered that Team Rocket could attack Fuchsia and so she realized that Koga was speaking the truth.

"What about Blue?" Janine asked.

Before Koga had a chance to utter any words, the other girl said "If you try to use your authority as my master to stop me from going, I'll give up on being your student."

"I wasn't planning on doing that. You're not a kunoichi like Janine but when it comes to Pokemon battles, I think you're strong enough that if I fought you me at my 100%, I couldn't be sure of who would emerge victorious. Since it'll be just 5 leaders against however many Team Rocket members, your help will be invaluable."

"Oh. I was ready to argue." Blue felt relieved.

The three of them went to prepare themselves before Sabrina's arrival.

. . .

In Team Rocket's headquarters, Red was finishing packing things up. He believed that he wouldn't visit this place anymore after that day and so he used a storage pad to take with him everything he needed like pokeballs, water bowls for his Pokemon, the photos of him and his friends. He cleaned Nets' part of the rooms soon after the other boy's death and so he decided to leave it as is. Eevee was standing next to him as Red was closing the door, and didn't seem to understand why his trainer had a saddened expression on his face. Other people packed a lot less for their trip to Saffron so he was one of the last to arrive near the elevators. They led them to an underground landing pad where they boarded several helicopters which soon took off towards their destination. Green and Otari were on the same helicopter as him and the former couldn't keep his curiosity hidden much longer.

"You had that conversation with Giovanni when we first joined Team Rocket. Did he really reveal everything to you back then?" he whispered, even though they sat away from others.

"He didn't tell me anything about this plan. Just… some other stuff that gave me some clues. He's confident that he can't lose after coming so far and I had lessons in overconfidence in the past."

"He didn't suspect you?"

"He's not stupid. He knew that I would try to get the leaders to help. It's just that attacking right away, even before getting Cross under his control, is a thing only a maniac would do. I don't think he's crazy. Not as crazy as me at least. I didn't need to know when the attack would happen. If he said that it would take place a week or a month from now, all I could do then was to hope that the leaders would wait for it that long. I was the one who took a gamble, not him."

"And it paid off."

"We'll see. There's just one thing I'm worried about…"

Red stopped himself so Green took a while to think what his friend could mean.

"Wait. You think that since he saw through you, that he…"

"Let's just hope that he underestimated Blaine as well."

. . .

The Celadon City headquarters was almost completely empty so Blaine was free to walk wherever he wanted without anyone bothering him. He couldn't go to Saffron together with the main forces and Giovanni didn't request him to come alone so the scientist suspected that something was going to happen before he would be able to leave for Saffron on his own. He purposefully took corridors where he shouldn't run into anyone and yet he still could hear a pair of footsteps from someone who was trying to sneakily follow him. He hid behind a corner and made some noise so that his stalker wouldn't realize that he stopped.

"Did he really send only one person to take care of me?" he asked once they ran into him.

The person following him turned out to be a purple-haired man in a reddish and black suit. His eyes were obscured by a mask but it was clear that they turned towards Blaine as soon as he went past the scientist. The man jumped back and reached towards his belt, picking three pokeballs and holding them between his fingers.

"It's not the quantity of people that matters but rather the quantity of Pokemon…" he said in an audibly excited voice.

"I'm not unprepared myself." Blaine stated while pushing his lab coat away to reveal the pokeballs attached to his belt.

"This could be fun. Unfortunately, the boss holds you in high regard and all I needed to do was draw your attention."

Blaine realized what these words meant a little too late. Someone or something attacked him by slashing diagonally across his back. His lab coat offered little protection and he was in so much pain that he couldn't even send out a Pokemon before falling onto the ground.

"Couldn't you do it in a cleaner way?" the masked man asked.

"I needed to be quick about it." a female voice responded but the only thing Blaine could see from the floor was pale skin and yellow heels.

"Then you carry him. I don't want to get blood on my favorite suit."

"Can't your Pokemon do it?" the woman asked.

"Huh. I don't like it when you have a good idea. Hm? He's still conscious, I think."

The other person didn't respond and instead delivered a kick to Blaine's face which was enough to make everything fade to black.


These chapters take so long to write that I often forget details about about what I wrote at the beginning. I wrote around 45% during May, another 45% during June and then the last 10% in July. If I could bring myself to write an entire chapter in like a month, that would be neat.

The most important part is that we're starting the Saffron Siege Arc. Red made a risky decision which worked out well for him but it's still essentially the main characters and 5 Gym leaders against a big part of Team Rocket. The Elite Four, Janine and Misty will be busy protecting other places and Blaine wasn't even able to leave the headquarters before getting taken out. I tried to emphasize it over several chapters tha Blaine suspected that Giovanni started to distrust him after he questioned him in, I think around chapter 40. It's like that thing about keeping enemies closer than friends. Similarly, Green never knows too much about what Red knows or what he's planning and that may yet turn out badly for both of them.

Sabrina got a small introduction. She doesn't talk a lot but she gets things done. I thought about each of the Gym Leaders being the strongest in some sense of the word and Sabrina is like the opposite of Koga in that regard. Koga is all about adaptability while Sabrina has a good grasp of what she's capable of and sticks to that so she can improve her strong sides and be the best in those fields.

We also got two new characters introduced at the end. Their names are never stated but I think the descriptions should be enough to guess who they are. It's one of the parts where I got some inspiration from the manga.

Will Giovanni be able to use Mewtwo to take over Kanto or will our heroes be able to stop him? Find out in the next chapters of Saffron Siege Arc.

Red. Team: Eevee, Charizard, Raichu, Gyarados, Vileplume, Nidorino.

At hand but not officially his: Scyther.

With Koga(?): Pidgeot.

Badges: 4

Green. Team: Jynx, ?, ?, ?, ?, ?.

At Team Rocket Base: ?.

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.