Special thanks to the folks on pa-atreon for making this possible. Now without further ado let's get into it.
My choice ought to have been obvious from the beginning. The first pokemon was an obvious steel type so Igneel had that covered. The second was a dragon/dark type, so my choice was even more obvious. Tsunade. She wasn't experienced enough that I felt completely comfortable, but she would have way too many advantages for me to sideline her in this battle.
She appeared in the clearing with a confused look, and turned to me after seeing the pokemon in front of her. She'd only ever battled fellow members of the team so I couldn't fault her for her confusion in this instance. It was understandable and even expected.
"Hey, Tsunade. These guys are team rocket. We'll be battling them. Don't hold back" I added the last part as an afterthought to confirm one of the theories I had. Tsunade gained a determined look in her eyes. We'd explained Team Rocket and what they stood for to her, and she was none too pleased at the thought of them or the99ir activities.
She turned to them with clenched fists, and I relayed my strategy to Igneel. Before the women in front of me could even figure out what would be happening next, Igneel fired a small blast burn straight at the steel type. It's protect prevented the move from making direct contact but that wasn't the point. Protect was a powerful move, but it did little to protect from estoric or incidental effects. Like the heat from a fire type move.
The reason steel types were weak to fire types was because they actually werem't all steel. They had small layers of organic matter behind multiple layers of highly dense steel. The heat from fire type moves essentially cooked those layers of organic matter, and the steel trapped that heat in, making it harger for them to cool off.
With the steel type behind a protect, Igneel kept the heat dialled up to eleven to make sure it felt it. Multiple fire balls went flying at the steel ty[e at blazing fast speeds.
Tsunade wasn't idle either, and went rushing at the nightmare pokemon ahead of us. It fired multiple shadow balls, but clever uses of minimize allowed her flow around the moves with little difficulty. Her speed had grown with constant use of Igneel's old training weights.
The Hydreigon flew up to avoid a punch she'd sent at it that managed to crack the tree behind it in half. I could only smile at having my theory confirmed. Tsunade didn't enjoy causing harm. Sure, she found battling to be as fun as my other pokemon did, but she never actually put her all intpo it like Igneel was prone to. Telling her not to hold back seems to have broken whatever block prevented her from using her full power against her team mates in spars.
"Metronome" I barked out before the Hydreigon could gather itself for an attack of its own. Simple sounds came issuing from her mouth as she moved her finger around. It was said that strong enough members of the Clefable line could essentially chose what moves they ended up using with metronome. I hadn't found any truth to those rumours, but as a massive flash cannon came blasting out of her outstretched fingers, I could see where the rumours were coming from.
A protect built up and shattered around the Hydreigon in response to her move. Some bits of the move still hit the burly dragon, but it tanked it withpout problem and came rushing at her with the aura of dragon rush around it. Another minimize allowed her dodge the move with little difficulty.
The steel type had broken out of Igneel's bombardment wih a clever use of dig. Now, they were playing a game of keepaway. It was good at dodging Igneel's moves with its fearsome speed and presence, but it could barely hit at my dragon type either. Having to face off against a flying opponent with essentially unlimited firepower clearly wasn't something it had been trained for.
I turned to look at my opponents as the various battles raged on. They watched on with lazy smiles, and I wondered what could possibly be amusing them, given they were clearly losing this battle.
"Switch" Lefty shoutewd with an insane cackle, and I felt my heart run cold. Both of their pokemon carried out the order instantly. The Hydreigon gave up on trying to catch Tsunade and barrelled into Igneel with a dragon rush.
The Bisharp, for that's what it had to be, used it's sudden freedom to jump at Tsunade, with the intention of skewering her through with one of its blades. She dodged the surprise attack at Igneel and the Hydreigon slammed into the ground at extreme speeds.
Even as they landed, they were still brawling with each other. As the child of a champion level Dragonite, Igneel was intent on not being dominated by the dark dragon on top of him. They rolled across the ground in a blur of teeth and claws, with defeaning roars coming from each of them in attempts at dominating the other.
"Minimize, flamethrower" I commanded Tsunade as the Bisharp continued its chase of her. She ducked under one of its hands by reducing her size, and inhaled a short breath before firing a point-blank flamethrower into its side. The steel/dark type took the move like a pro, and attacked her with its other hand. She was still able to roll away from the move and I thanked the Cleffa line's penchant for dancing for the umpteenth time this evening.
Her dancing skill and experience allowed her to make truly impressive dodges that had even me dumbfounded. So far, she was the only pokemon on the field to not be hit by any attacks. Igneel and the Hydreigon seemed content to wrestle on the ground, but it didn't take a genius to see Igneel was losing, slowly but surely. His frame was more lithe. I'd trained him for speed and massive firepower, not physical strength, which seemed to be exactly what the burly dragon on top of him had been bred for.
A quick flex of my aura, and when the Hydreigon roared over Igneel's suddenly still form, it found its mouth filled with a ball of fire. As it went reeling to cough up the burning embers, Igneel slammed into it with a dragon rush. Unlike the Hydreigon's own rush, Igneel only succeeded in driving the dark dragon back a few steps. That gave him the distance to take to the air though.
Massive fireballs lit up the already bright clearing and probably looked like fireworks to the citizens of Pallet town a few miles away.
Tsunade sent a reflexive punch into the steel type's side after he attempted another swing at her, but that's where she messed up. It had anticipated the move, and moved its hand to grab hers before she could retreat from the attack.
"Minimize" I screamed at the top of my lungs, but it was too late. A powerful stab from one of the Bisharp's blades went right through her gut. I screamed as she did. In pain, in anger, in everything in-between. I still had no idea what happened next. I was lost in a haze as the Bisharp was sent flying though the treeline by a pissed off Hakomo-o.
I saw nothing as a Tyranitar's roar shook the very earth and an earthquake the likes of nothing ever seen before levelled the forest around us to prevent the Bisharp from hiding. I didn't hear it when all the water in the pond a few miles from us rushed into the clearing and surrounded a roaring Hydreigon with intent to drown it.
I didn't feel the hair on my skin stand on ends when a massive bolt of lightning slammed into the water surrounding the Hydreigon, shocking it to kingdom come. I sensed none of it, as I knelt in front of my bleeding pokemon. I looked at her and could see nothing but Quicksilver's cold lifeless body.
I looked at my dying fairy and felt pain beyond pain. The pain of Quicksilver, combined with the pain I felt now. It all came crashing down on me as I looked at her. With all my attention on her, I didn't sense Oak teleport into the clearing. I felt Alakazam try to detach me from her but I resisted as I would always resist. Nothing would separate me from her in this moment. This key moment. After that, I knew nothing but black.
XXXXXX- POV CHANGE- THE RESEARCHER
I had no idea why he was meeting them here. They usually retreated to his office to discuss things like this, but I suspected he was too pissed to care at the moment.
"You lost. To a boy. A child" His voice was low and his words came out clearly. That's how I knew he was truly pissed off. The twin that was always on the right blanched at his tone, but the other was too daft to understand what was coming for her.
"We didn't lose, bossman. We took out one of his pokemon and the fucker cheated. We had everything in control, but something broke the blackout field you taught Umbreon, and Oak showed up." She said in that easy-going tone of hers that did nothing to hide the depths of her insanity.
Giovanni found the twins to be useful, but I could see them for what they were. He thought he controlled them, but I knew they would never be controlled. A more insane pair of women has never been seen on the planet.
"Of course Oak showed up. You had a massive pokemon battle on the outskirts of his fucking town. I told you to kill the boy quickly if he refused the offer, not to battle him." Giovanni was taking deep breaths at this point. Possibly to avoid lashing out at the twins. He could show his anger at the rest of us, no problem, but perhaps he understood that even he wasn't completely safe from the monsters he'd created.
Humans blended with dark type energy from conception to birth. A bad idea if I'd ever heard one, but the impostor was sure it could be done, and Giovanni had forced the abominations across from him to be produced by mine own hands.
"What was his reply to the offer? Why did he refuse? Everything we have on him says he'd be extremely willing to join us, if only to assert his independence from his father." As their faces began to subtly shift, he asked the question on my mind, "You gave him the pitch I gave you, right?"
Both women looked at each other before saying "Of course we did, boss" at the exact same time. I didn't need to be a psychic to know they were lying.
Giovanni just gave them a look and I could honestly say he looked like he might soon begin pulling his hair. "Out" he said with a snarl and the twins were smart enough to take off before the boss did something drastic.
"And Mewtwo?" He asked me with a look on his face that promised nothing good if I gave a reply he didn't like. Another reason why he would never be the great leader he thought himself as. Transferring aggression does not a good leader make.
"It's all going well. I think we'll only need one or two more attempts to get the perfection we seek" I replied with a placid smile. One or two more attempts. If only I'd be here for them.
"I see. Don't fail me. You know what will happen if you do" he said while stalking from the lab. Finally. That bastard was gone. I turned to the keyboard in front of me and continued typing. This next version had so much riding on it. Perhaps even my own life. I couldn't fail. Not in this. Too much was riding on it.
XXXXXX- POV CHANGE – THE PROFESSOR
Donnell had been in a bad state when I found him in the forest. Even now, just thinking of it brought rage to my bones. To imagine team rocket would have the audacity to pull an attack like that in my very own backyard. Giovanni was truly getting too bold. I might as well give him a call and a reminder of who gave him the initial capital for this mess of his.
Even now, I felt something resembling regret when I thought of the organization. I'd been sold on it when Blaine and Giovanni first pitched it to me. Ground-breaking research on human-pokemon relations. Trying to breach the most sacred of boundaries. I thought they'd fail, but I was still interested in seeing what knowledge could be gained from those inevitable failures.
As I turned to the bed in front of me, I thought of the ofer Giovanni had come up with about sixteen years ago. Staring at my son told me it was worth it. Accepting his offer was worth it back then, but if he ever dared to touch my son again, then death would be the least of his worries. His pain would be legendary.
Thinking about it increased my anger once more. Perhaps Giovanni needed something more than a vague warning. Perhaps he needed a reminder to be sure he never pulled anything like this again. The more I thought of it, the more I couldn't find any reasons not to give a minor warning to the men I'd helped so much. If I wasn't sure they'd take me down with them, then the league would have been my next calling point, but since mutually assured destruction was he height of illogicality, I'd keep my silence for now.
'Silence, not inaction' I thought as I swept from the lab room I'd paced Donnell and his team in. My walk outside gave me nothing but time to decide a target. By the time I was at the door to the ranch, what remained of my team was assembled before me. Alakazam was frighteningly good at what he did.
"Someone has tried to take from us. To take our son" I said the last part with a snarl, and I watched them roar in anger as they felt as I did. Someone would pay for today's insult.
The entire team returned to their balls, and I grabbed on to Alakazam as we prepared to teleport towards our target. A flex of incredible psychic might had us standing on the outskirts of the Fuchsia wilderness. This was one of the larger, more important bases the organization used for their activities. It was also one of the bases Giovanni hadn't told me about. Today's warning would be two-fold.
Nidoking appeared in front of me with a flash of red light and a psychic connection formed between us the moment he did. I watched him step forward to the underground base and let out the strongest earthquake he could muster. Alakazam already had me floating above the ground before I could even say anything, and I smiled at him in pride.
The ground rumbled and tore itself apart. The rockets came swarming from the base out of fear for their lives. I stood floating in the air in front of them and it took them as a shameful amount of time to notice either me or Nidoking. When they did, I had to applaud their bravery as they sent out pokemon of their own to attempt opposing this.
Dragonite was out of his ball with a flick of my wrist, and a single draco metoer took out every zubat, or rattata or whatever inane pokemon these foold thought to oppose me with. Alakazam prevented them from registering my face in their minds just as Donnell's mysterious poacher's Alakazam had done all those months ago. It was truly a fascinating technique.
They started running for the hills, and I stayed Dragonite's hand. He was as angry as I was, but I wasn't here for senseless slaughter. I patiently waited for one of Giovanni's so-called admins to show up to challenge my presence, but none of them ever did and I could only sigh with irritation as I forced to go into their nest to fish them out.
Another flick of my wrist had Machamp out of his ball. He was the very best at fighting in confined spaces, so I walked into the underground base with my head held high and my pokemon by my side. My mercy had run dry on the surface, so every grunt we came across had their necks snapped in a savage display of psychic might. Alakazam was a truly impressive specimen.
It took a few minutes for me to come across one of the men that was dressed in black. I smiled and sent Machamp forward to deal with his resistance. His shameful excuse for a Golem died with two quick punches, and the dragon's rush from his obviously untrained Dragonair was tanked with brute force and the dragon's neck was snapped after a few more seconds.
Machamp could be truly frightening. His efficiency was something else. The admin turned to my approaching pokemon, and lifted another pokeball, but it was too late as my fighting type grabbed on to the offending limb and crushed it, before sending a fist through the boy's head. 'shameful' was all I thought after I realized the base was already done with.
I turned around and took off from the base with a calm walk.
I was unsurprised to find Giovanni on the surface with two of those admins of his by his side. "Boy, I hope you understand the warning I'm giving you here. Try to touch what's mine again, and nothing will remain of your organization."
The anger in his face was beautiful to see. Good, he felt something similar to what I did. He threw out a pokeball and sent out a pokemon I couldn't recognize. The smile on his face told me exactly all I needed to know about this particular pokemon. He felt it strong enough to match us to my team. An impertinent bastard Giovanni might be, but a fool, he was not.
If he legitimately believed he could measure up to me with this pokemon, then I'd give it the benefit of the doubt and take it as a serious threat.
A single dragon rage from Dragonite gave me even more information than Giovanni's confiudence did. It splashed against a barrier surrounding the pokemon with little effect. Normally, I'd have Dragonite take his time, tease the pokemon so I could get every scrap of information I could from it before taking it out, but today was about sending a message.
In between one second and the next, Dragonite had his tail wrapped around the obvious psychic type's neck. My Dragonite was the strongest pokemon in the world. It was foolish of Giovanni to believe some new acquisition of his could match up to the mightiest of dragons.
A flex of that tail snapped the unnamed pokemon's neck and sent it to the floor. I only smiled at Giovanni in satisfaction as I noted the anger on his face.
"Consider this the last warning I'll ever give you. I've tolerated your blight on the league because you'd never had the audacity to be truly harmful, but today you tried to take something of mine. You tried to touch my son, Giovanni. The next time you have the audacity to do so, I'll burn you and your organization to the ground. Whatever information you feel you have on me won't matter. Mutually assured destruction won't matter. Touch my son, Giovanni, and I will end you." With my warning delivered, Alakazam teleported me and the team back to the lab.
"Thank you, brothers" I said, and they all embraced me as one of them. I knew Charizard would be pissed off at not getting to participate, but as I released him into the ranch, that problem would be Dragonite's to deal with.
I walked back into the lab to wait for Donnell to wake up. After a few minutes, I felt restless so I decided to do some study. A few scanners had been set up around him, so I went to my personal lab to look at the results of the scans of him and his team.
The team was nothing surprising. He was my son, after all. They were all healthy and strong. Their muscle density was also impressive to note. Maybe in a few months, he'd even be ready to train with me for the conference. Not with Dragonite, of course, but Charizard was always in need of new sparring partners. Maybe kicking around Donnell's team for a few minutes each day would settle his mood.
I turned to his own scans and found myself dumbfounded. When he was born, I'd seen the dormant signs. His birth was deemed a failure, but now, it was active. He showed strains and signs of pokemon energy in his brain, the rest of his body wasn't far behind. Maybe this explained his relationship with his pokemon. How he could communicate with them without psychic connections.
I looked at the scans with a critical eye, ignoring the health data to focus on the information I sought. To think we had to wait sixteen years to see the fruits of this experiment. Our attempt at building the perfect pokemon trainer had been successful. If Giovanni hadn't overstepped, then maybe I'd have even shared news of our success with him.
A/N; Thanks for reading. We just finished chapter 36 on the pa-atreon page. Feel free to join me there if you feel like supporting my work. Same username as up here. The link's on my profile. How does this look to you? I tried to really dive into Oak's psychology. Enjoy it?