Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon, or any other property in this work that I did not make myself.
Pokémon: Sinnoh no Isekai
Chapter Eighty-one: Mahogany Rage, part one
Lance, the champion of the Indigo League, was sitting in the lobby of the Mahogany Town gym, speaking with Pryce, the Mahogany Town gym leader. Pryce was dressed as he was in the HGSS games. The two men were discussing various security measures to be taken in Mahogany Town and in nearby areas patrolled by Magnolia Town citizenry such as Pryce himself. "We cannot focus on Mahogany Town alone, young man," Pryce said to Lance, "Those Team Scorn hoodlums may very well be interested in something located over at the Lake of Rage."
Lance nodded in agreement. "Indeed, Pryce." Lance took a pokéball out and expanded it, but simply held it there in his hand. "My red Gyarados originally came from the Lake of Rage before I caught it in the outskirts of Mahogany Town." Lance shrunk the pokéball back down and put it away. "Team Scorn might think to be getting up to find a red Gyarados of their own, probably to present to one of the higher ups in their organization in an effort to curry favor."
Pryce nodded in agreement. "True. Shiny Pokémon like your red Gyarados are incredibly rare. Many trainers want one just to have one, often without care for its actual capabilities in battle." Pryce leaned back in his seat. "...It's not uncommon for trainers to never get a shiny Pokémon, Lance. A fact that only serves to up the envy those unlucky trainers have towards those lucky few who were able to get even one-"
*THOOM*
Pryce was cut off when he and Lance felt the ground shake with the landing of two large Pokémon. They both got up and left the Mahogany Town gym, going outside to see Dawn and Kenny recall one Pokémon each, Lance and Pryce not coming out in time to see what said Pokémon were. "Dawn! Kenny!" Lance said, "You guys got here! I assume that you were both successful in earning badges from the substitute gym leader over in Olivine City?"
"Yeah," Dawn said, "And Kenny and I immediately left Olivine City the moment we both had Mineral Badges, considering how the Pro-Jasmine protesters had shown increasing levels of aggression."
"The substitute gym leader dude's girlfriend got hit in the head by a thrown projectile and had to go to the hospital for stitches!" Kenny exclaimed, "Dawn and I didn't even have any time to rest our Pokémon at the Pokémon Center after the gym battles! We needed to get outta there!"
Pryce nodded once in understanding. "Then let us continue this discussion over at the local Pokémon Center here in town, children," Pryce said, sounding like a sincerely concerned, gentle older man worried about the little ones. Following Pryce's cue, everyone took off for the Mahogany Town Pokémon Center.
Inside of the Mahogany Town Pokémon Center, Dawn and Kenny gave full details to Lance and Pryce about what had happened. "...Yes, things need to be settled down soon," Lance said, "There might very well be more incidents like what happened to that Yomi girl if this keeps up."
"And to think," Kenny said bitterly, "This never would have happened if it wasn't for Team Scorn taking Jasmine's Ampharos hostage in order to force her to cooperate with them."
Pryce wore a grim expression as he nodded in agreement. "Yes. Lance gave me the lowdown on what all's going on." Looking at Dawn and Kenny, Pryce went on, "You two are helping with fighting off those Team Scorn hoodlums, and information that was provided by Jasmine led you all here to Mahogany Town, and later to Blackthorn City."
"Pryce has agreed to assist in looking for and confronting any Team Scorn members," Lance said, "I also told him about your gym challenge tour and he agreed to face both of you, but one at a time. He would also prefer to hold off on those battles until after the Team Scorn scheme predicted to go off in the area of Mahogany Town is dealt with."
Dawn and Kenny nodded in agreement. "Fair enough," Dawn said, "Best to deal with the problem at hand before any measure of personal business is taken care of."
"I don't suppose that either of you might have any idea on what Team Scorn might be up to in the Mahogany Town area, do you?" Kenny asked Lance and Pryce.
"I have the theory," Pryce began, "That Team Scorn might be heading on over to the Lake of Rage, located on the other side of Route 43 from here."
The reborn trainers both turned to look at Pryce. "The Lake of Rage, huh?" Dawn asked.
Pryce nodded in confirmation. "It's where Lance's red Gyarados was first sighted," Pryce said to the kids while gesturing to Lance, "My theory is that Team Scorn hopes to find a red Gyarados of their own, and since Lance's red Gyarados was first sighted at the Lake of Rage, then Team Scorn thinks that's where they ought to start."
"You think they want to track down and capture a shiny Gyarados?" Dawn asked.
"Or any shiny Pokémon for that matter," Lance said, "They tend to be the hottest of products sold if found in black markets. Shiny Pokémon are incredibly rare after all."
Shrugging, Kenny replied, "I really don't understand that. I mean, I own three shiny Pokémon."
Pryce's eyes widened a bit out of surprise. "I find that hard to believe, young man."
...
A few moments later after taking time to rotate his on hand Pokémon, Kenny called out Cell, Elay, and Spider-Frog to show to Pryce. "M-My word!" Pryce exclaimed out of surprise, "You really do own three shiny Pokémon! My apologies for not believing you earlier!"
After Kenny recalled his shiny Pokémon, he went on, "So how will we handle business over at the Lake of Rage, should Team Scorn show up there?"
"Well obviously," Dawn said, "We first need to figure out as much of what their scheme is as we can before we act. It simply wouldn't do if we rushed in blindly."
Lance nodded, both in agreement and approval, of Dawn's way of thinking. "Exactly. We'll need to do stealth on this one until we learn of whatever Team Scorn's plans are. Of course, we first need to learn if Team Scorn's scheme here in the Mahogany Town area will even be occurring over at the Lake of Rage."
Pryce was about to speak up, but he stopped short when a plump nerdy preteen boy came rushing into the Pokémon Center, clearly out of breath. "Mr. Pryce!" the boy said in a nasally voice, "I just saw a few unsavory looking persons over at the Lake of Rage! They were wearing outfits of yellow and dark blue!"
Pryce turned to look to the others. "...Looks like we got our confirmation." To the boy, Pryce said, "Young man, keep away from the Lake of Rage for the time being. Lance, these two talented young trainers, and I will go deal with it." The boy nodded in obedience as Pryce led Lance and the reborn trainers out of the Mahogany Town Pokémon Center. It was clear that Team Scorn was starting to get up to whatever scheme that they had in the Mahogany Town area, and by no means were those good trainers of skill and strength going to let Team Scorn get away with their plans.
Over at the Lake of Rage, a number of Team Scorn grunts were working around under the supervision of someone who's clearly a Team Scorn officer. He wore a yellow long coat with dark blue trim and highlights, yellow pants held up with a dark blue leather belt with a belt buckle in the shape of the Team Scorn heater shield shaped symbol (dark blue with a yellow 'S'), and yellow boots with dark blue soles and laces.
He had yellow blonde hair with thin braids going down the sides of his head, one per side, and he wore a serious look on his face as he had his arms folded over his chest. "Bloody hell," the Team Scorn officer said, "Hopefully we can wrap this business up soon. The quicker we find what we were sent here to track down and grab it, the better."
A Team Scorn grunt came jogging up to the Team Scorn officer supervising the scheme at the Lake of Rage. "Yo Jack," the Team Scorn grunt said, "I have an idea that might let us complete the job here that Admin Brother gave us a lot more easily."
"Damn it, Crow," the now identified Team Scorn officer Jack swore as he turned to face the now identified Team Scorn grunt Crow, "This is an official mission, and you're my Captain's Assistant! Is it too much to ask for you to show just a little bit more decorum? At the very least, address me as Captain Jack in front of the other men!"
Shrugging, Crow replied, "I dunno, dude. I feel that it'd be stealing from someone else if I were to call you Captain Jack."
Jack scowled in annoyance. "We're members of Team Scorn, you moron. We're not supposed to have any issue with stealing from others." Sighing, Jack went on, "Well anyway, what's this idea that you supposedly have to let us more easily clear the job assigned to us by Admin Brother?"
"Track down Lance, the champion of the Indigo League," Crow began to explain, "Overwhelm him with sheer numbers, and then just take from him what we need! Sure, it won't be the one rumored to be located here at the Lake of Rage, but I'm fairly certain that Admin Brother will agree with me that it'll work just as well."
The Team Scorn Captain looked at his Captain's Assistant as if said grunt had suddenly sprouted a second head. "...You want us to try directly confronting Lance," Jack said, "Who keep in mind you yourself had said is the champion of the Indigo League, and try to take from him what would let us complete the job here that Admin Brother gave us." Jack gently face palmed. "Crow, we're better off just trying to find the one rumored to be located here at the Lake of Rage."
"Well I was only trying to help," Crow defended.
"Even if it was decided to try to take from Lance what would let us complete the job," Jack began, "We'll need enough men to overwhelm him, and even with everyone working under me, that might be too tall of an order to fill out. There's also the issue of tracking Lance down." Scoffing as he gave a shrug, Jack went on, "It's not like Lance is going to come right to us!"
...
"Everyone, keep down," Lance said as he led Dawn, Kenny, and Pryce up through Route 43, "There's a fair chance that Team Scorn might have scouts planted to warn their fellows at the Lake of Rage if anyone's coming by."
"Trust me," Pryce said as he held a hand over his back, "Keeping down is something that comes more easily with age, given your back will make you keep down."
"It might also help if we keep as quiet as we can," Dawn said, "We can still avoid being seen but still alert Team Scorn to our presence if we're too loud to-"
*SNAP*
Dawn and the guys all took pause, keeping quiet, when they heard a twig snap nearby. They all turned and saw some nearby bushes rustle. Fearing the worse, each of the trainers sneaking over to the Lake of Rage got ready to send out one Pokémon each to confront whoever was going to come out of the bushes. The bushes rustled some more, and Kenny was about to be the first to send out a Pokémon to do battle.
However, all worry fled the trainers sneaking over to the Lake of Rage and was replaced with relief when it turned out to be nothing more than a wild Sentret. "Tret?" the Sentret said in curiosity as it scampered on over to the trainers.
"Whew," Pryce said as he sighed in relief, "I was worried there for a second. It's just a wild Sentret."
"Hey, I have an idea," Kenny said, "We can use the Sentret here as a scout to let us know when we're getting close to Team Scorn."
Lance looked like he was seriously considering the idea. "...Sentret are known as the Scout Pokémon," remarked the Indigo League champion, "And we can probably pay Sentret here for its services with food and or various snack treats." Looking to the Sentret, Lance went on, "Provided that Sentret here is willing to help. Also if it is a wild Pokémon and not a trainer owned Pokémon who wandered off." Lance folded his arms over his chest. "Team Scorn members have been known to use Sentret. This could potentially be one of theirs."
Kenny decided to test the theory by taking out an individually wrapped cinnamon roll and tear off a chunk before offering said chunk to the Sentret. It sniffed at the chunk of cinnamon roll for a bit and, apparently liking the smell, took the chunk and nibbled a bit at it. Sentret upon tasting the first nibble proceeded to immediately and ravenously devour the cinnamon roll chunk, finishing it off quickly before trying to jump up at Kenny for the rest of the cinnamon roll.
Chuckling a bit in amusement, Kenny said, "If you're a wild Sentret, let me catch you and have you help us with scouting the area ahead. The rest of the cinnamon roll will come to you in-" Kenny was not able to finish talking before Sentret enthusiastically agreed to the deal. Smirking in amusement, Kenny took out a pokéball, expanded it, and threw it at Sentret, who went into the ball before it had landed on the grassy ground softly. The pokéball shook for a little bit before making a ping sound, indicating capture.
Lance smiled, partly in relief. "Well that confirms that the Sentret is, or rather was, a wild Pokémon."
Kenny nodded in agreement before scanning Sentret's pokéball with his pokédex to check it out. "It's a boy, alright," Kenny said. Looking at the pokéball that held his Sentret, Kenny said, "Imma name you Pixledip." Since the group was going to need Pixeldip to scout ahead, Kenny sent Spider-Frog back in order to keep Pixeldip in the party. With that business taken care of, Kenny called out Pixeldip to help the group. "Alright, Pixeldip," Kenny said, "Time for you to begin earning your ke-"
"Hello?" a male voice called out, making everyone take pause, aside from Pixeldip who jumped in surprise and scurried to hide behind Kenny's legs. Everyone turned to face the direction the call had come from, but they all relaxed when it turned out to have been Ideku Badorigo, the roaming trainer who Dawn and Kenny had run into a few times. Ideku was accompanied by a Meowth who was hiding behind his legs like Pixeldip was hiding behind Kenny's legs.
"Ideku!" Dawn said, "What are you doing here?"
Ideku gave Dawn and the guys a serious look. "I heard that there were Team Scorn members operating over at the Lake of Rage. I was going to sneak over and try to get a head count on how many there are before deciding if I was foolhardy enough to try to deal with all of them on my own or leave to try to find and bring back as much backup as possible."
"We were planning to do the same," Lance replied, "In fact, Kenny had literally just caught a Sentret to help with scouting out the situation not five seconds before you showed up."
Ideku leaned slightly to see the Sentret hidden behind Kenny's legs. "Well they are known as the Scout Pokémon." The Meowth came out from behind Ideku's legs, walking along on all fours, as it went up to Pixeldip to greet it. The named Sentret sensed that the Meowth meant no harm and was only aiming to offer salutations, so he calmed down and came out from his hiding spot behind his new trainer's legs.
"You have a Meowth now?" Dawn asked.
"Yeah, she hatched from an egg I got from the daycare center on Route 34," Ideku said, "A group of four Team Scorn members, including that Captain Zed jerk from the incident I heard had occured in Azalea Town, tried to accost the people working there, but I defeated all four of them and sent them on their way." Ideku walked over to pick up his Meowth and hold her. "The daycare workers," Ideku went on, "Out of gratitude for how I had driven Team Scorn away, gave me the Pokémon egg that Snobilikat here hatched from."
"Meowth," Snobilikat meowed as her trainer held her, right before she stuck a bit of her tongue out in a blep manner.
"Team Scorn tried accosting the daycare center on Route 34 again?" Lance said, "Obviously we'll need to assign more permanent security there if it's regularly harassed by Team Scorn."
As Ideku recalled Snobilikat to her pokéball, Dawn began, "Hey Ideku, since the combined five of us are all on our way to the Lake of Rage to scout out the situation over there, why don't you party up with us? Safety in numbers and all that good stuff, after all."
"Yeah, I was actually going to ask if I can join you guys," Ideku replied, "Count me in."
Lance smiled as he nodded. "Having another accomplished trainer on hand will make things a bit easier for us." Gesturing for everyone to follow him, Lance said, "Anyway, everyone keep quiet and stay down. We're still trying to sneak up to the Lake of Rage. Kenny, get your Sentret ready to scout ahead for us."
Kenny nodded in understanding before instructing Pixeldip to scout the Lake of Rage area ahead to help them learn a general idea of how many Team Scorn members were over there.
A short while later, Dawn and the guys were hidden in a wooded area along the edge of the Lake of Rage, said edge being located as close to Mahogany Town as possible. The five trainers waited in silence until Pixeldip came scampering into their hiding spot, going right for Kenny. "Can you give us an idea on how many people wearing yellow and dark blue we're dealing with here?" Kenny asked.
Pixeldip nodded in the affirmative before he bent over slightly and began quickly drawing a whole lot of tiny circles in the dirt. After drawing over twenty-five tiny cirlces and one square, Pixeldip stopped, got back up, and gestured to his drawing in the dirt by waving his arms over it. "So we've got over two dozen Team Scorn members," Pryce remarked, "And given the one square among the circles, I'm guessing there's a Team Scorn officer over there."
As Kenny tore off a chunk of cinnamon roll and gave it to Pixeldip who eagerly took it and began devouring it, Dawn said, "We still don't know what exactly Team Scorn is up to, but at the very least we got an idea of how many enemies we're dealing with here."
Kenny was about to speak up, but Lance held out a hand to gesture for everyone to remain silent. The Indigo League champion then led everyone to hide behind trees. Everyone else got an idea why when they heard two voices approach. "Hey Crow, you really ought to not try driving Captain Jack bonkers on the regular," a male voice said, "It's not good form for a Captain's Assistant like you to screw with the Captain he serves like that."
"Jack and I go back to way before we joined Team Scorn, so it's cooler than you think," a second male voice replied, right before the hiding trainers heard the sound of someone unzipped their pants or shorts. To the disgust of the hiding trainers, Dawn especially, they then heard the sounds of someone urinating. "Oh yeah," the voice identified as Crow said in a relaxed tone, sounding like he was getting comfortable, "I really needed to make it rain, if you know what I mean."
Lance slowly peeked out from behind the tree he was hiding behind, and spotted two Team Scorn grunts; both were standing with their bodies facing forward towards where Lance and the others were hiding, but the grunts had their heads turned to look at one another. Also, they stood behind a bush, so only their shoulders and above were visible, meaning that Lance thankfully wasn't able to see the one who looked like he was holding something relieving himself.
Lance slowly moved to hide behind the tree he hid behind fully again. "...There are two Team Scorn grunts ahead of us," Lance whispered to the others, "And one of them is a Captain's Assistant. If we are quick about it and are able to keep them from making too much noise, we can try taking them hostage and pressing them fo-"
Lance was cut off when Pixeldip proceeded to scamper on ahead. "Pixeldip!" Kenny harshly whispered, "Get back here!"
...
"Yeah, what you said to Captain Jack about confronting Lance to take from him what we need would save us the trouble of having to find the one rumored to be located somewhere here at the Lake of Rage," the other Team Scorn grunt said to Crow, "Although getting Lance to give it up to us would be an entirely different story."
"Don't worry," Crow said as he continued to bleed the lizard, thankfully with said action happening out of view for anyone, "We just need to bum rush Lance with superior numbers, and before you can even say-"
*SPLASH*
"SENTRET!"
Suddenly, a rather angry Sentret jumped out of the bushes that Crow was watering, and used Slash right at Crow's holy land, in a quick flurry that passed by too quickly for anyone to see anything indecent. Crow landed in a fetal position, the right side of his face and both of his shins in the dirt, his butt sticking up into the air, and his hands covering his aforementioned holy land. "That little bastard used Slash on my Johnson!" Crow cried out in pain, "It slashed my Johnson!"
The Sentret, who was partly wet, looked angrily at Crow while crying out in anger at him. The other Team Scorn grunt, although partly alarmed by the arrival of an angry Sentret, couldn't help but laugh a bit at Crow's expense. "Well you did sort of piss on it," the Team Scorn grunt said, "How else is the Sentret supposed to react other than with anger for-"
"RAICHU!"
The other Team Scorn grunt was cut off when a shiny Raichu leapt out from the bushes and rammed into him, tackling him down and keeping him pinned as Dawn and the guys came out from hiding. "Good job helping, Blitzkrieg," Ideku said to the shiny Raichu. Looking at the other Team Scorn grunt, Ideku said, "We'll need to take these two prisoner and grill them for what all they know about what Team Scorn is doing here at the Lake of Rage."
Lance looked over in the direction of the Lake of Rage when he heard shouts coming from it. "We'll have to have someone guard our captured prisoners here while the rest of us go confront the others here. Our little scuffle here has alerted the others of Team Scorn here at the Lake of Rage to the fact that we're here."
"...Yeah, Jack owes me an apology for dismissing my idea," Crow said as he groaned in pain. Barely able to look up at Lance, Crow said, "Your arrival here will let Team Scorn save time and trouble in completing the job that Admin Brother assigned to Jack, Lance."
Lance gave Crow a hard look. "...Yeah, I heard a bit of it while hiding. You all are looking for something at the Lake of Rage, but I can apparently provide an equivalent that will let you complete your job here without issue."
"You hoodlums are after Lance's red Gyarados, aren't you?" Pryce demanded.
To the surprise of the heroes, Crow said, "Actually, we aren't after any Pokémon period on this mission. We're after something that came from a Pokémon, a certain something that is supposedly hidden at the Lake of Rage according to hearsay. Although Lance's red Gyarados does happen to be involved, now that you mention it."
Looking to the guys, Dawn said, "I'll keep an eye on our prisoners here with my Pokémon. You guys can go fight off Team Scorn."
"Yes," Lance agreed, "And I want to see exactly they apparently want with me and my Gyarados." Dawn called out Chi-Chi and Dende (her and Kenny's Pokémon were finished being treated before everyone came to the Lake of Rage) and had them help her get the Team Scorn grunts over to a clearing near where she and the guys were hiding before Pixeldip unintentionally recieved a golden shower from Crow.
As for the guys, they all proceeded to rush over to the Lake of Rage to cut off the Team Scorn members who were alerted to their presence. Lance in particular wanted to know what he and his red Gyarados had to do with Team Scorn's scheme here at the Lake of Rage, and he was going to be getting some answers.
END, CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE
Author's notes;
Fun fact, I wasn't intending for the business at the Lake of Rage to be in multiple parts. But enough stuff happened to push the combat into the next chapter. Anyway, Dawn and Kenny team up with Lance and Pryce to go investigate the Team Scorn activities at the Lake of Rage, with Kenny catching a Sentret along the way. Also along the way, the heroes meet up with Ideku Badorigo, who like them wants to confront Team Scorn. Action and new info on Team Scorn will have to wait until the next chapter, so don't turn that dial.
Dawn's Pokémon: (on hand) Chi-Chi (female Infernape), Leni (female Lucario), Argent (male Arcanine; Hisuian; alpha), Vegeta (male Aipom), Dende (male Magmortar), Tsukune (Palkia)
Kenny's Pokémon: (on hand) Elay (male Sandslash; shiny), Godzilla (male Pupitar), Shallot (male Glaceon), Pixeldip (male Sentret), Cell (male Scizor; shiny), Black (Giratina)