"Really?" Cindy rolled her eyes as she held the tent flap open for the rest of the gym brats.
They were inside one of the infirmary tents at the center of camp, a dim structure filled with medical equipment and beds. Since the Saffron hospitals and pokémon centers had opened up the League had been moving its wounded personnel from the camp to facilities in the city or being shipped out on the airships to other nearby cities. With all that going on it was no surprise that only one of the four beds was occupied... though it was only supposed to have one occupant, not two.
"Sorry," a blushing male nurse said, jumping off the bed like it was on fire. Kayden, the bed's designated occupant, sighed as the nurse rushed out of the tent. The blushing man didn't meet the eyes of any of the gym brats, and tugged the collar of his uniform up over some marks on his neck as he exited.
"You are supposed to be resting!" Cindy said hands on her hips and glaring.
"I was resting!" Kayden protested, laying back in his bed. "Make-outs are very restful!"
"Oh, Mew," Amanda rolled her eyes. "I'm just glad I didn't contact you telepathically."
"Heh," Visquez huffed. "At least one of us is having fun. I haven't been able to get some R&R since this whole thing started."
"Your idea of R&R is lifting weights to loud music," Misty said, rolling her eyes too. "You probably could have found some headphones and a tent if you were that desperate."
"I don't think you can throw shade on my idea of a good time," Visquez smirked, "Miss, 'I relax by swimming one hundred laps'."
"It's a full body workout at least," Misty shot back. "And I can train with my pokémon at the same time."
"Training kind of defeats the purpose of rest and relaxation," Brock sighed. "I hate to say it, but Kayden actually is coming closest to grasping the point of R&R."
"Thanks," Kayden said, adjusting his pillow behind his head.
"How much longer are they keeping you here?" Cindy asked, looking around the tent.
"Not too much longer," Kayden replied. "The skin grafts took, but they want to make sure they didn't miss any infections."
"Any chance they can fix that noggin of yours while they're at it?" Misty asked, ruffling his hair with her knuckles.
"Hey!" Kayden pushed her hands away.
"It's not his 'noggin' that needs examining," Amanda said, giving Visquez a sidelong look. "He wasn't the idiot who recklessly attacked a group of psychic trainers and pokémon, was he?"
"So, I lost my temper," Visquez huffed, crossing her arms. "Sue me."
"I just might sue you for emotional damages," Brock said. "You took several years of my life off with that stunt."
"Huh," Visquez smirked. "Well, from what I heard, that kid you've been watching over did worse that night. Going to sue him as well?"
"Oh, that's a thought," Misty growled, clenching her fists. "We should take that fool to the cleaners."
"Don't be too hard on him," Cindy said. "After all, he did free Sabrina."
"He could have freed her without getting hurt," Brock's eyebrows were drawn into a glare. "If he had just waited a minute."
"That- what was his name," Visquez closed one eye as she tried to recall, "-that Aaron is a trainer after my own heart. I should meet him one of these days!"
"No," Misty shook her head. "That's perfectly alright. You don't need to make our lives any more difficult."
"I don't know how he manages to get in so much trouble," Brock clutched at his forehead. "He must be cursed. I'm going to need to have a mystic look at him."
"While the collection of events you have described is statistically unlikely," Amanda said, "it is not outside of the realm of possibility for them to have happened naturally, especially given how the activities of Team Rocket seem to be growing more and more frequent this year."
"I hope that this was the last of their 'activities' then," Cindy said, pulling up a chair to sit by Kayden's bed.
"I don't know what they were expecting to achieve by doing this," Visquez said, shaking her head. "They looted Silph, yeah, sure, but they couldn't hold the city. They were never going to be able to. Why'd they even try?"
"That's above my paygrade," Brock said with a sigh.
"Like you're getting paid," Misty smiled and rolled her eyes.
"Actually," Brock said, coughing into his fist, "Flint decided to keep me on payroll. That's how I got roped into command."
"Are you kidding me!" Misty groaned. "You're getting paid to put up with this and I'm just doing it for free. What sins did I commit in a past life to deserve this?"
"No, you've earned this karma for all those times you've dunked us whenever there's been a pool at a gym conference," Amanda corrected.
"Not my fault that none of you know how to really swim," Misty grumbled, crossing her arms.
"What do you bet that this gets thrown in our faces at the big summit in two years?" Kayden asked. "All the other Allied Regions are already looking to take shots at us after the merger with Johto. Now there will be all sorts of snide remarks about security and how we let a city get taken over by terrorists."
"Again, not my problem," Brock said. "I dealt with this mess the best I could. It's someone else's burden now."
Night came hazily; the sun had already been hidden behind a thin blanket of clouds before it began to set.
Karen leaned against a flagpole, a cigarette sticking out of the corner of her mouth with a thin trail of smoke rising into the dark sky above. She was looking out over the camp, then suddenly she shot up straight and whirled around.
"Are you always this sloppy after a fight?" A voice came out of the darkness and a man in a red and black uniform, complete with cape, stepped into the light.
"When you'd get here?" Karen asked.
"Not too long ago," the man answered.
"Better time than I thought you'd make," Karen said. "And I didn't catch a sonic boom."
"It's more efficient for Dragonite to stick to subsonic speeds," the man said. "And you didn't answer my question."
"I like to relax after a fight, so sue me," Karen shrugged. "Lance, are you going to be a pain in my ass about it after you're my boss?"
"Most likely," Lance said, coming to a stop next to her.
"Any way I could convince you to lighten up?"
"No."
"Oh, I'm really missing my old Champion now…."
"I could say some uncomplimentary things about how she ran the Johto Elite Four if she let you slack off after a fight," Lance said plainly, crossing his arms. "But I met her, so I know you're talking out your ass."
"You've got to hand it to me, it's a neat trick," Karen said, taking another drag on her cigarette. "Since you're here, I'm assuming that the treaty's done?"
"It just needs to be ratified by both assemblies," Lance answered and then sighed. "I should have never agreed to their security precautions."
"After losing eighty percent of their Elite force the legislators are a tad paranoid," Karen told him, letting out a puff of smoke. "And after everything that's happened here, they might start pushing to declare a state of emergency."
"There was no evidence to suggest Team Rocket was behind what happened to your old Elite organization," Lance's gaze was severe.
"And I'm betting that you didn't have any warning that Team Rocket was about to take over Saffron City either."
"No, but we knew they were up to something," Lance said. "Our analysts thought it was going to involve the upcoming summit."
"Lot of good those eggheads were," Karen snorted.
"They didn't know about Team Rocket's psytech inventions," Lance said. "As soon as the ink on the treaty dries they'll be tapping Will to look into that tech."
"Any official word from Hoenn or Sinnoh?"
"Not beyond the usual diplomatic niceties."
"And unofficially?"
"Unofficially all their gyms and police departments have worked themselves into a frenzy looking for any evidence of Team Rocket," Lance said, a grim smile on his face. "That should freeze Team Rocket's foreign assets for the immediate future."
"Ha!" Karen grinned.
"What's more, I've heard on the grapevine that they've driven some of their local criminal organizations and cults underground," Lance continued. "If I had any hope left, I might think that we're moving towards a period of peace."
"Huh, what's hope?"
"Exactly," Lance smiled briefly and then his face was drawn into a glare. "Team Rocket's not only active, but has just completed the largest pokémon abduction operation in modern times." His fists clenched. "Right now, they're probably torturing those pokémon to make them obedient so that they have a pool of cannon fodder for future operations. Hundreds, if not thousands, of pokémon have been taken from their families, just to suffer, to be reduced to expendable weapons!"
"We got in as soon as we could," Karen said with a shrug.
"It wasn't soon enough," Lance growled. "It was never going to be soon enough, unless you got in before they took the first pokémon."
"According to the reports I've seen, we managed to stop them when they were halfway through," Karen said. "We saved half the pokémon in the city."
"We failed half the pokémon in the city," Lance spat. "And the gym was pillaged. Almost every gym pokémon was kidnapped and now Team Rocket not only has a group of our pokémon to torture, but they still have a strong psychic power source!"
"So, what are you going to do about it?" Karen asked.
"I'm going to continue hunting Team Rocket to the ends of the earth," Lance said, raising a clenched fist. "Until every last one of them is either behind bars or dead."
"You can't think of anything else to try, can you?" Karen said, smirking.
"If they're going to continue to come out into the open like this, then I don't need to change my approach," Lance said. "I just need to swat them down quicker."
Karen looked over at the skyline of downtown Saffron.
"Not really the environment to have some Hyper-Beam spewing dragonites go on a rampage," Karen commented, before taking another drag on her cigarette.
"If you think that brute force is the only approach I can take, then you'll be in for a surprise," Lance told her. "And the First Egg help you if you decide to challenge Bruno holding that assumption."
"He's got type advantage anyway," Karen shrugged.
"We can both be subtle when we need to," Lance said. "And we can recognize the subtleness of others."
"Ah," Karen said, crouching down to put out her cigarette. "I was wondering if you realized it."
"We've had the suspicion for some time now," Lance said. "But the way Team Rocket was able to slip past the defenses of Saffron left no doubt in our minds. There's a traitor in the League. Someone high in the ranks."
"Someone who would have access to your itinerary," Karen said, standing back up and then she smirked. "But not to mine, not yet anyway."
"There's still time before the treaty is signed," Lance said. "You can move free of any prying eyes until then."
"They won't be caught unprepared a second time," Karen told him.
"I know," Lance nodded. "But neither will we."
The pokémon center was bare and bustling. Wiring was exposed, lights were missing fixtures, and most of the furniture in the place had been ransacked. Construction crews had removed damaged sections of the building and were running to and fro with the replacements. The sounds of hammering, sawing, drilling, and yelling filled the air.
Misty grimaced as yet another machop carrying beams ran past. She was sitting in front of a newly installed videophone, on a folding chair instead of the usual booth seat or office chair that pokémon centers provided.
The video phones were one of the first things that had been replaced when the League and the city of Saffron turned their attention to the pokémon center. Too many trainers relied on pokémon centers for communications to leave it unaddressed. Of course, when the phones had been installed everyone had clamored for a slot. The line to reserve a video phone ended up being several days long and Misty's turn had just finally come.
"I should just be glad they didn't try and pull strings or something," she muttered, digging out the attached headphones that almost nobody ever used. She plugged in the number, waited for the call to be accepted, and then the screen lit up with the faces of all her sisters.
"Misty!" They cried out in unison.
"It's so good to see you!" Daisy chirped.
"What were they thinking?" Lily growled. "Drafting you like that!"
"What did they have you do?" Violet asked.
"Well, uh…" Misty licked her lips and then grimaced. "Well, I'm sure you heard about how they forced Brock to be in charge, right?"
"Oh, like, yeah, Mai said that Erika said that Aya said that all the commanders were squabbling so they forced Brock to be their boss," Daisy said.
"Poor Brock," Violet sighed.
"Well, there were a few more gym brats in the camp," Misty went on, preemptively wincing.
"Yeah and?" Lily asked, a glare starting to form on her face.
"Brocksortamadeavanguardsquadandhadmejoin," Misty said, closing her eyes.
"What?" Lily asked, her face drawn into a full glare.
"I heard something about a vanguard squad," Daisy said, her expression resembling Lily's. "Did Brock put you on the front lines?"
"He kept me with him," Misty hedged.
"And he was on the front lines, wasn't he?" Violet asked, looking sad.
"Along with Kayden, Cindy, Amanda, and Visquez," Misty added.
"Amanda from Cinnabar or Amanda from Saffron?" Daisy asked.
"That irresponsible meathead," Lily seethed. "He should have known better than to-"
"What?" This time Misty was the one glaring. "Trust me? I did a lot of good on the squad. We all did! We managed to keep Team Rocket from attacking the regulars and irregulars, ya know all those trainers who had been drafted and didn't know how to fight in an army? We gym brats knew how to work together and we were strong enough to stop Team Rocket from getting their act together!"
"You're fourteen!" Lily shouted back. "And you're only a senior gym trainer, not a-"
"Like, shut up, Lily!" Daisy snapped.
"Wait, senior gym trainer?" Misty perked up. "I could have sworn that I was a regular gym trainer when I left on my journey…"
"It's nothing," Daisy said, waving the subject away. "What's important is that-"
"I mean, if I'm a senior gym trainer on paper-"
"What's important is that Brock put you in harm's way," Daisy continued, talking over Misty.
"He put her in the most dangerous situation that she could have been in!" Lily growled.
"He wanted her with him," Violet said. "So he could do his best to keep her safe and so he knew that someone would watch his back."
"Yeah, but, still…" Daisy said.
"He shouldn't have been on the front lines either!" Lily protested. "He didn't have any of the Pewter gym's pokémon! He had that onix and that geodude and nothing else!"
"He caught a zubat and he's also got a vulpix, though she didn't fight," Misty told them.
"So, just the geodude and onix then," Lily said.
"They were enough!" Misty said. "Team Rocket couldn't stop us until they sent Sabrina after us-"
"They what!" her sisters exclaimed in unison.
Misty gave them a quick explanation of all that had happened in Saffron. When she was finished her sisters were pale in the face. Daisy's jaw was hanging, Violet had a hand over her mouth and her eyes were wet, and Lily was shaking, her hands clenched into fists.
"How… how did they get in?" Daisy asked when Misty was finished. "I know the gym was down, but how did they invade the city so fast after they took over Sabrina?"
"They had troops waiting, duh," Lily said, rolling her eyes, though the effect was marred by her pale face and shaking fists.
"But where?" Daisy asked. "Where were they hiding that many trainers? Why didn't the police or League squads notice them? Like, one unlucky officer stumbling over a group of Rockets would have blown the whole thing wide open."
"Well… actually, yeah," Lily said, her brows furrowing and shaking stopping. "That would've ruined their day…"
"I've heard that they tried to escape through tunnels," Misty shrugged. "I guess those tunnels are probably how they got in"
"They would've been caught by the underground sensors," Violet said, shaking her head.
"Unless, they knew the specs of the sensors that Saffron used…." Daisy said, trailing off.
"But how would they know that?" Misty asked.
"They must've got their hands on that information at some point," Lily shrugged. "Leaks happen."
"Mhmmm…." Daisy hummed.
"Maybe you should change up the underground security in Cerulean," Misty suggested. "That way Team Rocket won't know what we've got down there."
"We'll think about it," Daisy said absently.
"Maybe you could get Giovanni to help," Misty went on.
Daisy's expression flickered then, her face falling before being replaced by forced calmness.
"We don't need to bother him," Daisy said. "Like, he'll have enough to do with Viridian City. I can't imagine he'll have time to help us for a while."
"But-" Misty began and then her pokégear began to buzz. She slipped it out of her pocket and glanced at the alarm. "Crap, I've got to go. Hug the seels for me, while you?"
"Sure thing!" Violet said, waving cheerily at her.
"Thanks!" Misty said and then hung up.
AN: I'd like to thank Amationary for beta reading.
Little bit of stuff left to clean up from the previous arc. I've got the next arc outlined, but rebuilding the buffer will take a while. Still not going back to weekly releases for a while. The next chapter will be released on the 29th of September.
Rewatched an episode of the first season for research and review purposes and for some reason this one reminded me of the emotions I used to get when watching the opening, all that sense of mystery, the joy of exploring, and that general feeling of being on a journey. And then those feelings were washed away by a wave of current jealousy at the idea of a world where a common job is travelling through nature to interact with fantastic beasts and there are accommodations and medical care available for free in deep forests...
Anyway, we're moving into the last arc of Symbiotic. With any luck (and if I remember to look both ways when crossing the street to avoid meeting truck-kun /s) I should be able to finish this story and move on to the sequels.
I'll see you again on the 29th.
Don't forget to review! Concrit is welcome!