Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 57: Seven Wonders.
It was only about an hour before the sun would go down, and Koga's group was still sneaking around, trying to listen in on conversations of Team Rocket members in order to find a clue about Giovanni's whereabouts.
Blue peeked outside the shadowed alleyway they were hiding in, and to her surprise, the Team Rocket members, she was listening on, stopped talking and were staring right at her.
"Gotcha." said one of them.
"Above!" Koga, who was standing right behind the girl, sensed incoming danger and looked towards the roofs.
A Group of Magnemite flew towards while spreading electricity between each other in order to create a barrier that would allow them to envelop the trainers. Seeing that, Brock sent out his Geodude.
"Blue!" he shouted.
The girl understood that he wanted her to help him by using Grimm, her Graveler, and so she summoned it. Being ground type Pokemon, Geodude and Graveler were easily able to break the opponent's formation just by throwing themselves at them.
Blue noticed that the other Gym leaders also joined the battle, Erika with Tangela and Koga with Arbok. While she and Brock were busy dealing with the attack from above, several Team Rocket members appeared on either side of the alley, effectively trapping them inside. She couldn't tell exactly how many of them there were but it looked like more and more were arriving. She wondered about escaping by going towards the roofs but a couple seconds of her being distracted was enough for the Magnemite to return to their formation. Even beyond that, she could see a group of Golbats and Zubats waiting for their turn.
"They must have noticed what we've been doing this entire day." Brock pointed out.
"But how? We were so careful…" Erika wondered.
"Thanks for tipping us off…!" one of the grunts said loud enough for the entire group to hear.
Blue and the Leaders were caught off guard and didn't immediately comprehend what he was saying.
"...Koga." the man finished.
Blue was frozen in place but Brock and Erika immediately turned towards the third Gym leader, as if they were expecting him to stab them in the back.
"He's fooling You!" Koga shouted loud enough for their ears to hurt.
As if to prove that what he was saying was true, a Koffing belonging to one of the Team Rocket members, flew past Arbok and into Koga, knocking him against the wall.
"Vine Whip!" Erika was quick to react.
Her Pokemon took hold of Koffing and sent it back towards where it came from, making it hit another of its kind.
"Sorry!" said Brock "This is just happening too fast!"
"This is only the beginning." stated Blue "Look how many there are. If we just stay here, they can keep sending their Pokemon at us in order to tire us out. We have to break out."
"You're right!" Brock agreed.
As a group of Koffings flew into the alleyway, he threw a pokeball in their direction. Once Onix appeared in the alleyway, it was barely able to fit, but half of its body was outside. Its trainer didn't want it to fight but rather to create a path that would allow him and the rest to escape.
"Squash them if you have to!"
Hearing that was enough for most of the Team Rocket members to start running away from the entrance to the alleway. On the other hand, the ones on the opposite end realized that the trainers were about to leave by running on Onix's back and tried to quickly follow them. Blue looked at them and waited for a while as they were pouring into the alleway, bumping against each other.
"Not too smart, are ya?"
She sent out her Ponyta which released a Fire Spin in their direction. The first couple of criminals stopped in their tracks when they saw that but the ones behind them didn't realize what was happening, so a bunch of them started falling down. Ponyta's attack didn't actually touch them and didn't do anything to the brick-built walls of the surrounding buildings, but there was a lot of trash lying around that quickly caught fire, creating a barrier between Blue's group and the enemies.
The girl jumped onto Ponyta's back and rode atop Onix. The rock snake lifted its head once it saw Koga and the others leave the alley, not realizing that Blue was still there. Ponyta nimbly jumped up and bounced off Onix's forehead. As it flew a couple meters above the street, it garnered the attention of all the enemies below. The other trainers weren't about to waste that chance. Tangela, Geodude and Arbok started knocking out Team Rocket members. Grimm followed suit, thinking that it was probably what Blue wanted it to do.
"Don't hold back! Attack them with all you've got!" Koga ordered the other leaders, and threw three pokeballs.
Two of them contained Golbat and Weezing but the third one was a Pokemon Blue never saw during her training. It looked like a pink walnut with four, short, red arms and fought in a similar style to Tori and Grimm.
Brock and Erika followed suit. The former summoned Kabutops and brown tree-like Pokemon, and the latter Vileplume, Gloom and Victreebel.
Ponyta kicked some heads while trying to land, knocking out a couple of the criminals. Seeing that their plan didn't work out, a few Team Rocket members started thinking about retreating. When one of them tried to do so, they realized that the roles got reversed and that they were the ones being trapped. Their path got blocked by Sabrina and Alakazam on one side of the street and Surge with his Magneton on the other.
"So… How's it gonna be? You guys give up peacefully or do you want things to get ugly?" Surge asked the Team Rocket members.
"We're not scared of you!" yelled the same person who tried to trick the group into thinking that Koga betrayed them.
"How about that guy?" Surge said while pointing up.
It was at this moment that they noticed a shadow hanging over them and looked towards the sky to find its source. Zapdos noticed the Gym leader's gesture and knew what he wanted it to do. The bird flew above the crowd and used Charge to gather power for its attack. Realizing what was about to happen, Brock ordered Onix to protect him, and Erika while Geodude and his other Pokemon protected the girl's team. Blue used Ponyta to jump over some Rocket grunts. Koga and his Pokemon were also able to swiftly move outside the circle of enemies that was created around them.
"Thundeeer!" Surge yelled, mostly for dramatic effect since Zapdos was going to use that move anyway.
Seeing how the legendary Pokemon looked at them, some of the Team Rocket members tried to disperse. While some stood their ground defiantly, a lot of them were also frozen in fear. Surge had given the Pokemon precise pointers about how it should act. Up until that point, it never used its full power while attacking the enemies, since the Gym leader didn't want to deal with the problems that would come from killing someone, after everything was over, even if that someone was a criminal. That's why Zapdos knew to wait until there was a big enough gap between the villains. That way it could unleash the strongest attack they've ever seen without actually hitting anyone. The ones close to the striking point would still feel some pain, but the idea was mostly to scare them.
First came the shrieking sound of Zapdos' voice, then the blinding brilliance of its powerful attack. The attack hit the road with such power that the force of the impact created a gust of wind that threw the closest people backwards. It broke through the asphalt and reached the pipes below the street, causing sewer water to shoot up like a geyser at the same moment that the thunderous roar created by the attack reached the ears of everyone besides who knew to plug his ears beforehand. After it was over, Zapdos looked towards the trainer commanding it, waiting to see if he wanted it to do an encore, but the man gave it a sign to stay put.
The man who tried to defy Surge was lying on the ground, holding his head, scared that the ringing in his ears would never stop. The ex-soldier walked up to him and took hold of his black shirt to lift him up, so that they could be at the same eye level.
"The next one won't miss, you asshole!" he yelled loud enough for the other person to understand even with their hearing impaired.
He threw the criminal to the ground, barely missing the hole in the street. He was a little bothered by the stench of the sewer but reminding himself of the unpleasant smells he experienced back in the war, he was able to mostly ignore it. He needed to do that in order to speak to the entire crowd, after his previous words turned their attention away from Zapdos and towards him.
"This has been a long day and I've had enough of going easy on all of you! That's why I'm being super generous and giving you four options! Option number one; you leave Team Rocket, leave Kanto, just stay out of the public eye and hope to never meet me or any of the other leaders ever again. Option number two; you go turn yourself in. Give your pokeballs to the police so they can heal your poor Pokemon and get inside a cell. I don't care if it's as crowded as rush hour train. Option number three, my preferred one; you help us by getting other Team Rocket scum to give up and then turn yourself in."
He started walking towards the other Gym leaders and Blue who gathered in one place while listening to his speech. As he went past several Team Rocket members, one of them, lying on the ground, tugged on his pant leg in order to ask him a question.
"W-what's the fourth option?" they stuttered.
"What was that?!"
"What… What's the fourth o-option?"
"Oh! I didn't think this needed mentioning. The fourth option is that the big, powerful bird up in the sky kills all you motherf #$%&s!"
After walking up to the leaders, he turned towards Sabrina.
"How was it?"
"Pretty well." she said.
Blue noticed that the woman was looking towards the sky. She followed the path of her eyes and noticed that she wasn't looking at Zapdos but at a news helicopter which apparently was filming the entire situation.
"What's going on?" Brock asked after also taking note of the helicopter.
"After I met up with Sabrina, she came up with the idea to televise our little show of power…" Surge started talking.
He got interrupted by the noise coming from the Team Rocket members. Some of them started taking off their tops and hats and throwing them on the ground while others cried while still on the ground. Some even took out their phones in order to check the location of the nearest prison or police station.
"Basically, we've decided to ask the mayor for another favor." Sabrina explained "This is being shown on every tv station, every outdoor screen, on the internet. Seeing such a quick and decisive victory will bolster the hopes of the people hiding in their homes and also serve to show any Team Rocket members who see it what will happen if they don't give up."
"A clever tactic indeed." Koga praised them.
Suddenly, he noticed the rumbling of his phone. It was a call from Lance.
"I like that stunt you guys pulled!" he said, his voice full of joy "I think they managed to air it in all of Kanto. There aren't as many of those Team Rocket guys in other cities so me and the rest have been faring okay but this will definitely help. I feel like I'll be done over here in an hour or two so I will try to fly over there if you still need help by then. But I have to say it feels like we've already won!"
Koga ended the call while a vein popped up on his forehead.
"Is he trying to jinx us?" Erika asked, shaking her head.
"We may be able to reduce the number of enemies by a lot but that won't matter if we don't get Giovanni." stated Brock.
"We haven't been able to contact Misty for some time." added Erika.
"I guess this is the point where we should mention two things." Surge was so overtaken by the adrenaline that his stunt gave him that his thoughts got a little jumbled "Firstly, we have phones for each of you. I got them from Green. They'll allow us to stay in contact with him and Red…"
Blue felt as if a jolt of electricity ran up her body when she heard those words, but she did her best not to show how excited she was.
"Secondly…" Surge continued "...Mewtwo has escaped and is heading here."
"He-here?" Brock stuttered.
"To Saffron." Surge clarified.
"I know what you meant! Why?! Isn't that exactly what we were supposed to prevent from happening?!"
"Finding Giovanni and beating him shouldn't be hard but from what I was told, if this Pokemon reaches him then it will fall under his control…" said Koga "...and it's supposedly stronger than any of the legendary birds."
The entire group stood in silence for some time, pondering what their next course of action should be.
"I'll stay here and try to question this group about Giovanni's whereabouts." decided Koga "Surge should keep repeating the stunt he pulled on any other group he finds. The rest of you should stay together, that way it'll be easier for Sabrina to teleport you guys wherever necessary. Now that we have those phones and are all connected, things should go much smoother. We have the three musketeers…"
He stopped to glance towards Blue.
"...and the seven wonders."
The group tried to stay positive but it was hard to do so when hearing his last words. Besides Misty, there was another of the seven leaders that they weren't able to contact for some time. Even though he had an ace up his sleeve, they were worried that he could have been taken out of commission before being able to use it, which would explain why he hasn't tried to contact Koga.
. . .
Red and his Charizard landed on a rooftop where Green was already waiting for them. They already met up once since their parting of ways. At that time Red received one of the stolen phones and the two of them set a time limit of 3 hours during which they would try to question Team Rocket members about Giovanni's whereabouts while also looking out for any of their friends or civilians who needed help like in the case of Otari.
"Did you learn anything?" Red asked after thanking Charizard for flying him there.
"Nothing about Giovanni's whereabouts. But a couple minutes ago I saw something going on that way. Turns out that it was our backup." he responded, nodding towards a screen on a nearby building which showed Blue and the Gym leaders splitting.
"How about that building?" Green asked.
"I tried observing the entrance for a while but I can't just sit in one place like that for too long. There's a chance that Giovanni went inside while I was busy somewhere else. If we go through the broken window on the highest floor, we may have to face Peter." Red explained.
"You said that he wasn't acting any differently than usual when you met him. The same applies to every Team Rocket member we've encountered. Either Giovanni kept the truth to himself or he's stupid."
"Or it's a trap."
"How would you go about getting in there?"
Red raised an eyebrow, not expecting the other boy to let him lead the way on this one.
"I would just go there. Maybe, like fly in through one of the floors in the middle. You?"
"I would sneak in from the back and… There's a compromise here somewhere."
"Like maybe…"
"We walk in." they said these last words in unison.
. . .
There were only a handful of times during which Blaine saw Giovanni using his Pokemon in the past. After seeing how Giovanni's Rhydon defeated Arcanine, and how Magmar and Rapidash were struggling against Rhyhorn and Nidoking, he came to realize that he never actually saw Giovanni seriously giving his all in a Pokemon battle.
Each of the Kanto Gym leaders had something they specialized in which made it hard to determine which of them was the best trainer. Blaine's field of expertise was calculating the capabilities of Pokemon, Koga's was the ability to adapt, Surge's was attacking power, Sabrina's was sticking to one thing and mastering it, and so on. It seemed as if Giovanni was able to do all of those things. Where each leader lacked because of focusing on one thing, he was able to make up for those flaws through his wide range of skills. It's as if he was waiting for years to find a proper opponent and Blaine knew that he couldn't give that to him. He still had the ace up his sleeve but he didn't want to risk using it. His eyes darted around the room.
"You're looking for it?" Giovanni asked him.
He was apparently so confident that he didn't even feel the need to further command his Pokemon.
"So you realized." Blaine commented.
The thing he wanted to find was the control device. During their battle, Giovanni let him know that Mewtwo was already heading in their direction. Blaine didn't want to allow the boss to control it but he was equally scared of the Pokemon running free. If it was coming there because it was angry at Giovanni then Blaine wanted to find the device and use it to calm the Pokemon down.
"You won't find it."
Was that a confirmation that the device wasn't there? It wasn't clear how much time was left before Mewtwo's arrival but if the device was somewhere else then that would mean that Blaine could go all out, defeat Giovanni and then start searching for it in other parts of the building or the Team Rocket base.
"Good." he said.
He returned his tired Pokemon back to their pokeballs and reached for the last ball on his belt. Although it was impossible, he could have sworn that it felt warmer to the touch than the other ones.
"You may want to summon the rest of your team so this goes faster." the scientist advised while throwing his lab coat away since he suspected it would get too for him to handle wearing it.
He made sure not to toss the pokeball too high, because even with the high ceiling, the room would probably feel kind of cramped to his Pokemon. What appeared from inside was a ball of fire that did a couple spins in air before unveiling what was hidden inside. Moltres kept its eyes closed as it gently descended towards the floor, landing amongst what remained of the broken table. It moved its head around a bit as if it was stretching, before opening its eyes. It stared down Giovanni and his Pokemon one by one.
"It seems that I should have started taking interest in your actions a little earlier." Giovnanni commented, seemingly unbothered by the arrival of the legendary Pokemon.
His Pokemon were waiting for him to give them some sign since even they felt that this opponent was somehow different than the previous ones. All he did was give them quick looks before flicking his fingers towards Moltres. They understood it as a call to action. Knowing that they were allowed to go wild, the three of them started advancing in such a way as to attack from different directions.
"Sunny Day!"
Moltres avoided the first attack by flying above Rhydon. It put its wings together and released a miniature sun that lit up the room and momentarily blinded everyone besides Blaine who was wearing his trademark sunglasses.
"Heat Wave!"
Moltres positioned itself in such a way that it could attack all enemies at the same time. One flap of its wings was enough to create a strong gust of hot air that threw the other Pokemon back while damaging them at the same time. Rhydon and Rhyhorn got pushed towards Giovanni but Nidoking was too close to the walls and the wind made it crash into one of the windows. It managed to grab onto the frame and prevent itself from falling out of the building but it was still in a vulnerable position which didn't go unnoticed by Blaine.
"Solar Beam!"
Thanks to the fake sun shining down from above, Moltres was able to instantaneously gather the energy necessary to execute the attack. It opened its beak and a bright yellow stream of energy started pouring out of it, rushing towards Nidoking.
"Iron Defense!"
Seeing as it was the only one of Giovanni's Pokemon that knew the move, Rhydon understood that its trainer wanted it to protect Nidoking by standing in the way of Solar Beam. It held out its hands towards the energy flying at it, hoping to diminish the force a little before taking a hit to the stomach.
"Rock Blast!" Giovanni ordered Rhyhorn, hoping that its attack would be able to reach Moltres while the bird was still busy with releasing the energy from its beak.
The legendary Pokemon noticed what was happening before Blaine even had a chance to warn it. It flapped its wings to fly backwards while trying to stop the Solar Beam. It leaned back, causing the last bit of energy to hit the ceiling. As bits of rubble fell down, the bird flew away even further. The rocks created by Rhyhorn collided with the ones falling from above which neutralized them.
Giovanni didn't want to give the opponent a chance to go back on the offensive.
"Thunderbolt!" he ordered Rhydon before turning to Rhyhorn "Get closer to it with Drill Run! Prepare the usual just in case!"
Moltres nimbly avoided the attack and focused its eyes on the spinning Rhyhorn which destroyed what was left of the table on its way to the legendary Pokemon. Both of those attacks were meant as a distraction to allow Nidoking to climb back inside since Giovanni would have problems recalling it with all the destroyed furniture standing in his way.
"Nidoking has the best chance to tip the scales, as long as its able to get closer." the man thought while watching as Moltres made loops around Rhyhorn, easily dodging its assault "I wonder if they're close enough for it to work…"
"Rhydon, Stone Edge! Rhyhorn, Rock Blast!"
As Moltres started moving around to avoid the pieces of rocks coming from various directions, Giovanni gave a command to Nidoking "Use Megahorn on Blaine!"
Seeing as Moltres was occupied with the other opponents, and Blaine being left without Pokemon of his own, the scientist had to try to avoid the attack by himself, which wouldn't be easy with the pain from the wound on his back occupying a big portion of his attention.
"I have to hope that Moltres will be able to handle things on its own!" he thought as he realized how quickly Nidoking crossed the distance.
Trying to back away, he tripped on the carpet. While falling down, he felt a gust of hot air and looking up he saw that Moltres came to his rescue and blocked Nidoking's glowing horn. Only after seeing the two Pokemon come in contact did he realize what Giovanni was planning.
"Get away! They're trying to poison you!"
Although it didn't look like Nidoking's Poison Point ability activated, Giovanni was prepared for such an eventuality.
"Poison Jab!"
Worried about leaving Blaine alone with Nidoking, Moltres spent too long thinking what to do and as it tried to fly away, Rhydon managed to graze it with the tip of its claw. The bird managed to get away but it was still fairly close since it stopped to check if this attack did what the enemy intended it to do. The effect was a little delayed, probably because of the small dosage, but the fire type Pokemon shivered a little as it felt the poison take effect.
Angered at being tricked, Moltres fired a quick Solar Beam at Rhydon, sending it towards Rhyhorn which caused both Pokemon to crash into a cabinet standing near the room's entrance. Its next move was to use Heat Wave to get Nidoking away from Blaine.
"Sludge Bomb!"
Although Nidoking managed to launch a preemptive attack, the ball of poison it created got flung back along with it once Moltres flapped its wings. With all the foes in a state of disarray, Moltres tried to concentrate its anger in order to try and eliminate them one by one. Its body became surrounded by blue and white energy before it launched itself towards Nidoking. The poison type Pokemon tried to counter by impaling the opponent on Megahorn but Moltres proved too strong. Nidoking got dragged across the room until both of them flew into a wall. Before the cloud of dust created by this could settle, Moltres appeared from inside and turned its attention towards the other two Pokemon who managed to get up and were raring to continue the fight.
Meanwhile, the wall that Nidoking was rammed into had a big hole that vaguely resembled the Pokemon in its shape, with Nidoking itself lying unconscious on the other side, although the room it was in was something else than the corridor where the guards and Resse were waiting for the results of the battle, although Giovanni didn't have the time to worry about that. Seeing what the legendary Pokemon was capable of was enough to make sure that he'd concentrate on the members of his team still in the fight.
. . .
Since Red and Green wanted to avoid interacting with Team Rocket members spread around the city as much as possible, using Charizard to fly there was not an option, and so it took them a while to reach their destination. There wasn't anyone keeping watch outside but it was hard to see through the tinted glass used in the windows and the doors, so they made sure to look as casually as possible when walking inside to not arouse suspicion if someone was waiting for them inside. As soon as they walked inside, they were greeted with a familiar face. The chair behind the reception desk was empty but sitting on the desk itself was Archer. He lifted his head which before was propped up by his left arm, but before he could react further in any way, everyone's attention was drawn to the sound of Alex's voice coming from another part of the lobby.
"Red! Just who I wanted to see."
The Admin was sitting on one of about a dozen couches, surrounded by some underlings playing card games or just chatting amongst themselves. He clearly was mid-sip when they walked in since the box of juice in his hand was fairly close to his face. It didn't look like he planned to approach them so they had to come to him instead. When the two of them allowed Archer to leave their field of vision, the blue-haired man kept drilling holes in their backs with his eyes. He glanced nervously at Alex but when he saw that the other man wasn't paying him any attention, he decided to see how things would play out.
"Hey. What's up?" Red asked the Admin once they reached the couch he was lounging on.
A couple people looked at them before returning to whatever they were doing.
"Let's go upstairs. I want to talk." he said before standing up.
He drank the rest of his juice before throwing it from a distance at a nearby bin, missing it completely.
"Just the two of us." he clarified by patting Red's shoulder.
The boy followed him without a word through a corridor leading towards a set of stairs while Green kept looking at them as they were leaving, thinking what his next step should be. When he turned his head a little his eyes met with Archer's who slowly turned away right after as if he was trying to play it off as him not staring at Green. The trainer couldn't help but feel uneasy about the atmosphere inside the lobby.
"The toilet?" he asked the nearby people.
"That way. Like the 4th or 5th door." one of them answered.
They pointed towards the same corridor that Red and Alex disappeared in. The two of them were already out of sight when he followed in their steps.
I'm never gonna stop posting this fanfic. It's been half a year since the last chapter and a bunch of stuff happened in the meantime which prevent me from being able to write. My PC died on me but I got it repaired but then some of the files needed for me to write this fanfic got corrupted. I had a backup but it was from like 2-3 years ago and having everything organized to the point where I could write the next chapter was just very tedious and I had other things occupying my mind so I kept putting it off.
There's not much to be said about the chapter itself. It was fairly obvious that Blaine captured Moltres. I tried focusing on showing off how powerful the legendary birds are first with Zapdos making a bunch of people give up and then with Moltres' 1 vs 3. Team Rocket isn't doing so good but all the major members are still in play so anything can still happen.
Next chapter: A prophecy comes true.
Red. Team: Eevee, Charizard, Raichu, Gyarados, Vileplume, Nidorino.
At hand but not officially his: Scyther.
With Koga(?): Pidgeot.
Badges: 4
Green. Team: Jynx, Wigglytuff, ?, ?, ?, ?.
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.
Blaine. Team: Magmar, Arcanine, Rapidash, Moltres.
