Chapter 19: The Escape in Chaos

A woman in Team Magma uniform made her way through the hallways of the base carrying a backpack. She scouted the base and soon found the place she was looking for. The barracks, a handful of Magma Grunts were inside, it would have been ideal if there were at least a few more, but hopefully that would be enough to allow the Team she was really on to win.

She got out her bag and pulled out the device within. A bomb. She smirked as she set it and placed under the pillow of a random bed. She then turned and made her way back out as a few more members can in. That was good, the more the merrier.

"Have a nice sleep!" the woman said.

They'd never wake up.

The woman made her way down the hall and reached into her pocket, pulling out a communicator.

"Archie, Shelly here," she said. "The bomb has been planted and should be going off any moment now."

"Good," her leaders voice said through the frequency. "Now, get the blue orb so that they can't control Groudon. I hear they have a master ball as well, get that too."

"Right," Shelly said.

She made her way along the path, as she did so, she heard the loud blast go off behind her from the barracks.

"What's going on?" a member of Team Magma nearby asked.

"It sounded like it came from the barracks!" another said.

Shelly casually approached them. They spotted her, her hood still up to cover her face.

"Come on lets go see what's-

Shelly attacked before he could finish his sentence. Within seconds the two were knocked out. Shelly continued on her way to the command center. That had to be where Maxie would keep the items. She'd go there and take them then make her escape.

…

Looker heard the explosion from somewhere in the base even in his cell.

"What was that?" one of the guards asked.

"I don't know, you two!" the leader of this party pointed to two other members. "Go find out what's going on!"

The two began to move, but before they could exit the brig, Maxie's voice spoke over the intercom.

"All members on alert! We have an explosion in the barracks! Repeat! We have an explosion in the barracks. Someone has infiltrated our base! And two of our prisoners have escaped! All members lower your hoods so the officers can see your faces! Find the prisoners and the intruder!"

"Let's go!" the leader said.

"What about the prisoners?" a member asked.

"They're locked up and their pokemon are kept on the shelf," the leader said.

And so the Magma members left. Looker gritted his teeth.

"We have to get out of here!" he said trying to kick the bars of the cell.

"Here!" Steven said reaching into his sleeve and pulling out a pick. "Good thing I came prepared!"

He picked the lock and set himself and Looker free then moved onto the others while Looker grabbed the pokeballs. Now they just had to either find Ash and May or hope those two could get off on their own during this chaos.

…

Ash led May in a random direction as they saw multiple members of Team Magma running as well. Fortunately for them, the majority of them were so focused on finding the source of the boom from earlier that they didn't look back behind them. Unfortunately, a few were coming from the passage to the other side that saw them.

"The prisoners!" one of the grunts said reaching for a pokeball.

"Pikachu Thunderbolt!" Ash ordered.

"Pika!" Pikachu said with a nod before leaping into the air. "Pi! Pikachuuuu!"

His Thunderbolt hit the grunts before they release their pokeballs and call out their pokemon. Ash and May continued forward with Pikachu and Glaceon following. The snowy Pokemon realized as they ran that this would be her first battle in her new form. She should have gained ice abilities upon evolving right? One way to find out.

They continued running, hoping by some miracle they would find Looker and the other others. But that was probably hoping for too much. Soon they came into a group of magma grunts that had stopped and pulled their hoods down to show their faces to each other. A Mightyena and a Numel were already out.

"Okay all of you I'm familiar with," a magma officer said before looking at a certain man with orange hair that looked nervous and was held in place by another two grunts. "Except you!"

Ash knew that face. "Lance!" he called.

The sound drew the attention of the magma members.

"The prisoners!" the officer said like the last one.

This was bad, they would have the chance to immobilize them quickly enough.

"Mightyena use Shadow Ball! Numel use Ember!"

The two Pokemon shot both attacks at Ash and May, a black-purple ball of light from Mightyena and a shower of fiery sparks from Numel. Pikachu and Glaceon moved without command to defend their trainers. Pikachu shot his signature thunderbolt out and Glaceon let out a cold breath that formed a small show of snow!

"Powder Snow!" Ash exclaimed as he saw this.

The Thunderbolt overpowered the Shadow Ball and went on to hit the Mighyena. The Powder Snow, though an ice attack, was strong enough to cancel out the Ember from Numel. Lance, meanwhile seized on the opportunity to shake himself free from the two grunts holding him. He then kicked one away and punched the other before drawing his own pokemball.

"Dragonite! I choose you!" he said as he threw the ball.

An orange dragonlike Pokemon appeared, causing many of the Team Magma grunts to gasp in surprise at such a rare Pokemon.

"A Dragonite!? The officer exclaimed before looking at Lance more closely. "Wait… you're…!"

"Lance of the Kanto Elite Four," he said. "Now Hyperbeam on the ground"

Dragonite let out a powerful orange beam from his mouth that hit the area around the Team Magma men, knocking them back. Lance then made his way over to Ash and May.

"Come on!" he said. "I know where the others are!"

They ran, Pikachu and Glaceon following on foot while Dragonite flew behind them. Ash somewhat wished he had Charizard right now so he and May could fly out of here once they escaped. Swellow wasn't big enough to carry either of them. But first they had to get their Pokemon back.

Lance led them through the base to a staircase going down. However, they were unaware that someone had spotted them.

…

Shelly grinned as she stood invisible thanks to the high tech belt that Aqua Team Scientists had developed for her. It rendered her completely unseeable and had been her instrument to sneak in uninterrupted. She saw that it was the brunette she'd battled before and the raven haired man that kept interfering. She followed them down, her prey completely unaware they were being stalked.

…

They made their way down to the basement of the Magma base where the storage as well as the brig was. Fortunately for them, their allies were already out. Looker had just finished getting all the pokeballs back to their owners. They were a different make from Ash and May's since they were colored blue and red like police sirens.

"Oh, you made it!" Looker said as he noticed them. "Here! Your pokeballs!"

He handed the red topped balls to Ash and May who put them in their belt or bag. They'd have to worry about sorting them out later.

"So… you guys didn't cause the explosion?" Ash asked.

"No," Steven said.

That meant that it really had to be…

May yelped as she felt someone grab her from her behind. She saw a knife blade held by a hand appear under her throat, and she shook.

"Give me the Master Ball," a familiar voice said from the person holding May.

"Shelly!" Ash exclaimed.

"That's right! Now, hand it over," the infiltrator from Team Aqua said before looking at May's left hand which held the blue orb as well. "And I'll take that too!"

She yanked the object out of May's grasp, which was considerably tight since the princess had clutched in fear.

Ash gritted his teeth. He couldn't take a chance with May's life.. and that of their child. Glaceon watched her trainer in concern. Ash sighed.

"Here," he said holding out the Master Ball still in his hand.

Shelly kept the blade close to May's throat with one hand and reached out with her other. She took the Master Ball with a smirk. She then pocketed it with the blue orb and shoved May forward. The princess was caught by Ash who held her close as she sobbed slightly. That was twice she'd gotten taken hostage by that woman.

"See you later!" Shelly said as she touched her belt and vanished somehow. They heard the sound of running footsteps go in the direction of the stairs.

"Are you okay May?" Ash asked.

She nodded, a little shaken but unharmed.

"We have to get out of here!"

As if on que, a large number of footsteps sounded from upstairs. Team Magma was coming!

"I think its time to teleport!" one of police trainers said. "Kababra, I choose you!"

A yellow goblin like pokemon with yellow and brown skin, a tail, a red star on his forehead, and long pointed ears holding a spoon appeared from the pokeball.

"Kadabra!"

Ash and Pikachu shuddered somewhat as they recalled a memory from long ago at the sight of a Kadabra. In Ash's first try for his fourth gym badge in Kanto, Pikachu had gotten hurt pretty badly against another Kadabra.

"Teleport us out of here!" the police trainer said.

The Psychic Pokemon's eyes lit up. In a flash, they were all sent away from the Magma base.

And ended up in the middle of the ocean.

"Okay that wasn't quite what I had in mind but it works I suppose," Kababra's trainer said as he recalled the psychic Pokemon.

Steven pulled out his Pokenav, thankful it was waterproof.

"We're going to need to move if we want to catch up with Team Magma and Aqua. Maybe we can intercept Shelly as she makes her way to her teams submarine! They should be near Sootopolis city now! We're only a couple miles away.

"Then we better get moving," Lance said as he climbed on Dragonite who flapped his wings and got out of the water. "Here! Some of you can ride my Gyarados!"

He released the scary dragon like Pokemon who was unusual shade of red while most Gyarados were blue. Ash immediately swam over with Pikachu while May and Glaceon hesitated at the sight of the intimidating leviathan. Noticing this, Ash looked back.

"Its okay, May. Gyarados can be a little scary but they're pretty dependable when they're on your side."

Gyarados gave a soft growl. May and Glaceon swam over. Meanwhile, the Elite Police pokemon trainers got out a water pokemon of their own. Massive Wailord that made Gyarados look small. Steven climbed on Gyarados with Ash and May who began straightening out their pokeballs, it took about ten minutes but they soon had all their right Pokemon back. Plusle, Castform, Grovyle, Swellow, and Corphish for Ash; and Torchic, Minun, and Bulbasaur for May. Counting Pikachu and Glaceon, Ash had a full set of six Pokemon while May had four, giving her room for two more. But that would have to wait, first she had to help stop Magma and Aqua.

…

Maxie gritted his teeth. The prisoners and the intruder were nowhere to be found. The cameras had picked up a few brief images of Shelly from Team Aqua as well as the teleportation.

"What do we do now, Maxie?" Tabitha asked his leader.

"We continue on with what we have," Maxie said. "We have no choice, we can't Team Aqua drown this world! Blue orb and Master Ball or not, we must go. We still know where Kyogre is, and it should be close to Groudon's refuge by the time we get there. Hopefully we can stop Archie, retrieve our orb and ball then claim victory before its too late."

It was time for them to face their ultimate enemy and decide the fate of this world once and for all.

I was kinda tempted to have Shelly keep May as a hostage, made me think of Lady Arcanine's video Open Up Your Eyes which has the same scenario with the song from My Little Pony: The Movie, which I will probably be watching in a couple weeks since I'm watching the entire series of Friendship is Magic. Speaking of which I'm doing a remake fanfiction of that as well if anyone wants to read something on those lines, and a fic for G5 also. But I figured May has probably been through enough danger with Dialga trying to kill her, we can save the kidnapping and damsel in distress stuff for later. Guess who is gonna do it? I think being held hostage twice is enough for May to consider her archenemy in this timeline.