Chapter 23; archnemesis
Sonic was running as fast as he could followed by raichu as they approached the entrance of the tunnels leading to the underground of Saffron city. His mind was barely able to keep up with the fast pace the events were unfolding at. Just that morning he had beat the 5th gym and now he was about to take on team rocket again.
"It won't be like last time" he thought in determination.
Reaching the entrance to the tunnels he walked down the stairs and started running down the dimly lit corridor. After a while he saw figure on the crossroad the tunnels created.
"Mike!" he said as he arrived.
"About time. Things are bad. Team rocket has people everywhere on the streets. They barred the entrances to the city. Police won't be able to enter".
"Shit. What do we do?"
"We take the fight to them. The grunts that are roaming the city cannot abandon their posts. Whatever they aim to do at silph co they need time. Which means that we will only have to deal however many there are in there. It still won't be easy. But together we will crash them!" Mike said clenching his fist smiling.
"Ok but how do we enter the city?" Sonic asked him.
"Through here" Mike said as he pointed at a door on the wall.
"The section of the tunnel that leads into Saffron? You said it came down after an earthquake".
"I did. I never said we can't cross it".
"But…"
"No time. You'll see. Follow me" Mike said as they approached the door. Opening it they saw fallen rubble everywhere. Mike took out a pokeball and sent out a dugtrio.
"Woah a dugtrio cool" Sonic commented.
"Just wait till you see this. Dugtrio. Dig".
Dugtrio began digging through the rubble slowly but steadily clearing a path.
"This is risky" Sonic said "the whole tunnel can collapse on top of us".
"Then let's hurry" Mike said following dugtrio.
Sonic hesitated for a moment but crouched and entered the small opening. Fear of the tunnel collapsing and turning him into a mush of organs and blood crept on him but braved through it until they made it to a set of stairs beyond the rubble.
"Let's go. These lead right outside silph co" Mike said running up the stairs 3 at a time.
Sonic followed as quickly as he could trying not to cough again as he had raced from Fuchsia to Celadon and then here in the span of 2 hours. After about 5 floors worth of stairs they got to ground level and stopped to catch their breath. Mike slowly opened the door and peeked outside. No one was around. Just as he had suspected they were all guarding the perimeter.
"Noone around" he said sending out Jolteon who immediately cuddled with raichu before getting back to Mike ready to charge.
"On 3 we run to the side door of the building. We get in through the staff door and to the main lobby. We lock both that door and the front door just in case the grunts outside abandon their posts to stop us. Then we storm the building. Floor by floor if we have to" Mike said. Sonic nodded.
"1,2,3!"
The two friends darted to the side door of the silph co building. Mike revealed a key card that he had stolen from a duo of rocket grunts earlier. Giving Sonic one as well to open all locked doors, they entered the building. Slamming the door shut he turned to the electrical controls.
"Jolteon, thunderbolt!"
Jolteon discharged its electricity frying the controls. Mike tested the card again. Smiling he found the door unable to open. Going to the door leading to the main lobby they saw one grunt standing guard at the lobby desk.
"Ok. We rush him and lock the front door through the main console. Ready?"
"Now!" Sonic screamed as they opened the door.
Catching the grunt off guard, Mike tackled him to the ground knocking him out with one punch revealing to Sonic he was wearing rings under his gloves as an extra weapon for the raid. Smiling Sonic took over the controls and after a bit of searching found the controls for the door. Raichu afterwards slammed the computer with iron tail locking the front doors.
"Let's go!" Mike said as they took the stairs.
Reaching the first floor they stopped.
"Wait" Sonic said "we have to clear one floor each to double our search speed. We need to clear the floors, free pokemon and employees and get to the top to stop Giovanni".
"Split up? It's suicide".
"Maybe. But we have no time".
Damnit ok. Take this too then" he said handing Sonic a walkie talkie "we find any captured pokemon we call each other to our location".
"Yeah" Sonic agreed knowing full well the reason.
"See you soon!" Mike said as he went to the upper floor while Sonic started racing through the corridor.
Doors opened and a total of 7 rocket grunts emerged together.
"Intruder!" they all yelled at the same time sending out several weak first form pokemon with the exception of a sandslash. Sonic sent out his Blastoise.
"Ice beam!"
Blastoise unleashed its move freezing a lot of the opposing pokemon and 2 grunts but the rest attacked.
"Rapid spin!"
Blastoise deflected the attacks but Sonic knew if they got close they would be dead meat.
"There is a move it could use. But it doesn't know it" Sonic thought "unless it knows and just waits for me to order the attack?" he considered for a moment. The move surf should be something all water pokemon could use by simply being water types. They had never tried that but Sonic knew they had no other choice.
"Blastoise" he said without thinking "surf!"
And blastoise as if by instinct unleashed water from its water cannons, riding it and washing over all of their opponents in one swift strike. Sonic was left in shock that it had actually worked but started unlocking door and freeing the captured employees. He told them to go to the lobby and wait for the police there but not to try and escape as they had locked the building to prevent the grunts outside from intervening. Before all of them left Sonic grabbed on them by the sleeve.
"Why did team rocket take over the building?"
"I don't know. I think some experiment. Please let me go down".
Sonic let him go and kept unlocking doors until there was no one left on the floor. Racing to the next floor despite the crowd that escaping to the main lobby, he managed to rendezvous with Mike.
"Any luck?"
"No nothing" Mike answered "just captured employees".
"Damnit. Ok next floors then".
Getting to the 4th floor they came across a total of 10 grunts this time.
"Together" Sonic said sending out Blastoise and raichu while Mike sent out lapras and jolteon.
The grunts attacked but Sonic used blastoise's protect to shield them from the attack and then unleashing the new surf move. Raichu and jolteon used quick attack together knocking out one pokemon each while lapras used blizzard to freeze the remaining opponents.
"I'll take this floor. Go to the next one!" Mike said as he dashed towards the first door. Sonic wasted no time as well and ran up the stairs.
Getting to the 5th floor he encountered more grunts most of them using poison types. Sending out Alakazam the combination of psychic used on most of their opponents and raichu quickly getting rid of the rest allowed them to start unlocking doors. In one of them they encountered a grim sight; tons of captured pokemon. Alakazam floated in and started looking through the cage bars while Sonic took out his walkie talkie.
"Mike I've found trapped pokemon. They must have moved them here. This is bigger than I thought. Come quick" he said as walked in and started unlocking the cages.
The sound of his Alakazam humming loudly reached his ears. Turning the corner he saw Alakazam grabbing the bars of a cage and another Alakazam grabbing his Alakazam's hands from inside. Tears could be seen streaming down their faces.
"No way" Sonic whispered "we found her".
Rushing to the cage, the female Alakazam cowered back in fear before Sonic's Alakazam communicated with it explaining that Sonic was not their enemy. Sonic opened the cage as the 2 Alakazams embraced at long last. Raichu teared up at the sight and Sonic felt joy at the reunion. At that moment he heard a yell from the other side of the room. Rushing through the cages while unlocking more of them, he saw Mike hugging a beedrill.
"Mike!" Sonic said realization "is that your partner?!"
"Yes" Mike said with tears in his eyes "I found him at last".
"Alakazam!" Sonic called it from the other side.
Alakazam and its mother came floating.
"Your mother hasn't been trained so she must know teleport. Ask her to use it to take all of the pokemon here out of the city. Get them out then come back".
Alakazam hummed in a worried way.
"Don't worry I'll be fine. Mike we have to keep going".
Mike hesitated not wanting to leave his partner behind again. However he knew they couldn't stop now.
As they moved to exit the room Alakazam and its mother floated towards the lower floors.
"Alakazam! Teleport the employees out too!" Sonic called out to it.
At that moment grunts came running from above. Mike dealt with them easily using his lapras to beat them. Sonic however realized that in case some grunts hid from them earlier they would ambush and recapture the pokemon and the employees "Pinsir go with them. Protect them until they can escape" he said sending it out. Pinsir looked at Alakazam and nodded rushing to the lower levels to help the other pokemon and humans escape.
Alakazam nodded but hesitated to leave Sonic behind.
"Don't worry we got this" Sonic said smiling but as he turned to keep going up the stairs his smile disappeared.
"Please let us got this" he thought.
As they got to the next 2 floors more grunts blocked their way. Sonic took the 8th floor as Mike took the 7th. While Sonic started fighting through the grunts an electric attack came out of nowhere and zapped him sending him crashing to the wall. In shocking pain he looked up to see and electrode owned by a silph employee ready to attack him again.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Sonic yelled in anger.
"Stopping you! I support team rocket more than silph co!" the employee said as electrode unleashed another thunderbolt. Sonic dived and sent out Nidoking which showered the employee and the electrode in sludge bombs knocking them out. After freeing the rest of the employees and battling through the traitors as well as the rest of the grunts he found a lab with many broken pokeballs inside. Furthermore the pokeballs were weirdly shaped in purple and pinkish color. Sonic knowing this had something to do with team rocket's plans, sent out blastoise to cover the exit with raichu while he accessed a computer and started browsing through the files. Most were reports on the experiments made at silph co for team rocket. However Sonic also spotted a file named project two. Having a weird feeling, he opened it. It contained 3 voice recordings. He played the first.
"Project two is proceeding better than I could have ever expected".
Sonic felt the blood in his body go to his head from the anger. That was Giovanni's voice.
"Dr Fuji's job hasn't gone to waste. Old man disappeared with his research. But it was futile. The subject was successfully created and survived the process. It is stronger than the prototype dr Fuji destroyed. No. It's stronger than any other pokemon in the world. Stronger than we could have ever expected. But it's beyond our control. Experimental armor to control it has shown relative success but leaves too many factors unaccounted for. We need to find a new method" the recording ended. Sonic fuming and determined Giovanni's plan would fail played the 2nd recording.
"Giovanni, master ball research log. It is proceeding slower than I expected. Prototypes are unable to release the captured pokemon. Furthermore the captured test subjects showed symptoms of depression and rapid decay over time. Decay was slow at first but then accelerated. We cannot take a chance with project two. The master ball needs to be perfected. And I will not hesitate even if I have to sacrifice the entire stock of our captured pokemon to perfect it" the menacing voice of Giovanni said. Sonic was now beyond mad. Knowing he couldn't let this chance slip by he called Tails.
"Sonic?" Tails said when he heard the commotion behind Sonic. At the very moment he answered the call, a team of grunts tried to ambush Sonic only to be swiftly disposed of by raichu and blastoise "what is going on?"
"No time to explain. Listen I need you to anonymously send the voice recordings I will send you as well as some exposing data I found inside silph co about team rocket to anyone person or media that can spread then throughout Kanto as soon as possible" he said as he logged on to his account on a social media page and started attaching the files to send to Tails.
"Sonic what have you done?! You're raiding another base?!"
"No. Team rocket attacked Saffron city. The place is a warzone. I need you to expose them so that they go in hiding after this".
"Didn't you learn anything from the first time?" Tails asked him frantically as he received the files.
"I did. Mike is here with me. Don't worry about us. Just do what I asked. I will send the last recording in a moment. Talk soon" Sonic said hanging up. Everything was already sent. Contracts between team rocket and silph co, experiment files everything he could find. Only one recording from the project two file remained. Sonic played it.
"That kid defeated me!" Giovanni's angered voice echoed throughout the room. Sonic was caught by surprise despite his anger.
"I lost. I the great Giovanni LOST!" pause "but all is well now. The prototype is almost ready. The master ball is ready. Once I get it I will finally subdue project two and use it to take what is rightfully mine. And the first to fall will be the kid who insulted me like this. My beloved Persian fell to him. I will show him a world of pain for real next time. I will end him!" The recording ended. Sonic felt chill running down his spine. Whatever Giovanni had created he was planning to use the master ball to catch it.
"We can't let that happen" he said calling Tails again.
"Tails listen. I will leave my media page open on the computer here. I need you to send a virus through it to delete everything in here. Team rocket created a pokeball powerful enough to catch any pokemon. We need to destroy all data on it. I will kick team rocket out with Mike then secure the prototype to keep it from them. Did all the data reach you?"
"Yes. Saved already on a backup file. Sending a virus though will probably harm silph co's other data too".
"I know but there is no other choice here do it!"
Tails hesitated but said a quick yes and hang up. Sonic at that moment realized his walkie talkie was buzzing for a while. Opening it he heard Mike's frantic voice.
"Sonic! Where are you?! Ariana is here! I need backup! 9th floor quick!"
"Oh no!" Sonic thought in horror as he had taken too long to save and destroy the data. Racing towards the upper floor he found to his relief that Mike had already beaten Arianna though his gengar had taken heavy damage.
"Where were you?!" Mike asked in anger.
"Destroying team rocket for good. I found data about them I had to expose with the help of a friend. He will make sure to destroy the data here with a virus".
"…ok. Let's go. Next floor is the last one".
Sonic's eyes widened knowing what this meant but nodded in determination.
"Let's end this once and for all".
Racing to the upper floor they found only 2 grunts guarding the entrance to the CEO's office. They however sent out a Weezing and a sandslash.
"Final forms huh? Must be higher ups. Whatever" Sonic said sending out his shiny nidoking which quickly disposed of its opponents with an earthquake and a sludge bomb. Mike looked at it in pleasant surprise.
"I see my moon stone was used well".
"Sure was" Sonic responded as they approached the door. Sonic took a deep breath and kicked the door open.
The 2 people in the room turned to them. The captured CEO held at his desk and the man himself Giovanni. Locking eyes with Sonic he took a murderous expression.
"You" he said slowly but menacingly "you ruined my base in Celadon and now dare get in my way again?!"
"It's over Giovanni. Your plan is ruined" Sonic said confidently "I have already sent copies of the data out to the public. And ruined the rest with a virus. Whatever you were intending to use the master ball for you can forget it!"
Giovanni's mouth hang open for a moment but he quickly regained his composure. Quickly knocking out the CEO and grabbing a briefcase, he took out what Sonic identified as an ultra ball.
"You interfered with my plans for the last time! This time I won't just show you a world of pain! I will seal you in it permanently!"
"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Mike said taking out one of his pokeballs too.
"Stay out of this boy" Giovanni threatened him "unless you want your fate to be the same as his!"
"You won't win Giovanni!" Sonic warned him "we're two and you're alone!"
"Ha! Strength is more than just numbers hedgehog!" he said sending out a Nidoqueen.
"Go dugtrio!" Mike said sending it out.
"Go Nidoking!" Sonic followed suit as nidoking sparkled.
"Ah yes I remember that one. A pokemon worthy of my team once I'm done with the both of you!"
"Earthquake!" Sonic ordered nidoking.
"Sonic no!" Mike said as dugtrio was damaged as well nidoqueen "earthquake hits us too!"
"What?!" Sonic said not knowing that.
"What fools" Giovanni said "Nidoqueen! Sludge bomb!"
Nidoqueen unleashed its attack focusing on nidoking. Nidoking despite being very resistant to the move took heavy damage.
"Nidoking leer!"
Nidoking used its move lowering nidoqueen's defense allowing dugtrio that had secretly used dig to damage it greatly. Nidoqueen however sprang back up immediately.
"Shadow ball!"
Nidoqueen fired the shadow ball at dugtrio which didn't have time to dodge or act. It fainted immediately to Mike's shock as he recalled it quickly sending out gengar which was still weak from his battle with Ariana.
"Nidoking now!" Sonic said realizing their chance as gengar had levitate "use earthquake!"
"Nidoqueen use mud slap!"
Nidoking's damage as well as gengar who joined in with shadow punch knocked nidoqueen out. Mud slap also made contact with nidoking lowering its accuracy.
"So you beat one pokemon! Go Nidoking!"
Giovanni's nidoking appeared and roared. Sonic's Nidoking also roared as the two variants, normal and shiny, of the same species faced down each other.
"Horn attack!" Giovanni ordered as Nidoking dashed with unimagined speed at Sonic's nidoking. It slammed hard as Sonic's nidoking was sent flying, the attack even breaking through protect as Sonic's nidoking tried to use it. Nidoking dropped to the ground knocked out as Sonic recalled it fear creeping up on him.
"So weak" Giovanni mocked him.
"Gengar use psychic!" Mike ordered it unexpectedly.
Gengar used psychic damaging nidoking greatly landing a critical hit too. Normal nidoking toppled as well. Giovanni looked at Mike in anger.
"You dare?!" he said recalling it "you do want to share the hedgehog's fate! Go Persian!"
Persian emerged. Raichu growled in anger as the two pokemon locked eyes.
"Later Persian. Your time with that abomination of an electric type will come! Use bite on gengar!"
Persian moved with such speed Gengar was unable to react. Its combined damage from the battle with Ariana's team as well as the bite from Persian caused it to go down. Persian growled in pride as it stood by its trainer.
"Stay down kid! My opponent is the hedgehog!"
"Why you!" Sonic said in anger. He was about to order raichu to pounce but remembered their previous encounter and refrained.
"Go blastoise!"
Blastoise emerged.
"Go lapras!"
Giovanni looked at the two water types and smiled. His two opponents had made a huge mistake.
"Sending out bulky water types to fight my Persian? Be my guests! Persian slash that blastoise.
Persian pounced at Blastoise intending to slash its other cheek as well. Blastoise stood its ground and tanked the attack holding Persian down.
"Mike now!"
"Lapras use blizzard!"
Lapras unleashed its power on Persian that was unable to dodge. Blastoise took a small amount of damage but managed to stand strong as Persian fainted infuriating Giovanni. However he smiled, knowing he had the two of them exactly where he wanted them.
"Good good. But you are so naïve. Now its over! Go rhyhorn!"
Rhyhorn emerged.
"Rhyhorn?" Mike said in a smiling confusion "you use something 4 times weak to both us and think you have us beat?"
"Why would he keep this for last?" Sonic wondered "Blastoise surf!"
"Lapras water pulse!"
Rhyhorn to their surprise dodged with incredible ease.
"Thunderbolt!" Giovanni ordered.
"Protect!" Sonic said on instinct.
Blastoise shielded itself from thunderbolt. Lapras on the other hand was struck head on, fainting instantly.
"What?!" Mike said in shock "how?! Lapras has strong defenses!"
"AHAHAHAHA!" Giovanni started laughing "I saved my 2 strongest pokemon for last! And you morons never even saw it coming!"
"Damnit" Sonic thought in a silent anger with a hint of fear "how could I forget rhyhorn and rhydon?! They are incredibly strong".
"Hehehe. I will admit though that you both have skill and spirit. I'll give you one chance. Join team rocket. Or suffer".
Those words brought Sonic back to reality.
"Join you?! Never!"
"You said it Sonic. It's not over yet! Go jolteon!"
"An electric type against a ground type? What an idiot" Giovanni laughed "but if that's all you had left I will make it quick! Rhyhorn horn attack!"
Rhyhorn charged at Jolteon with its horn.
"Blastoise block it!"
Blastoise blocked the attack but it still damaged it greatly.
"Now Mike!"
"Jolteon double kick!"
Jolteon jumped on top of Blastoise and kicked rhyhorn twice. Rhyhorn took damage and tried to escape.
"Surf!" Sonic gave the command.
Blastoise used its move. However while still holding onto it, rhyhorn unleashed thunderbolt again taking blastoise down with it. Sonic gasped in shock. As Giovanni recalled rhyhorn he sent out rhydon.
"And then there were 2 electric types. It's over".
"Not yet!" Mike said radiating defiance "Jolteon double kick!"
Jolteon attempted to kick rhydon.
"Mega punch!"
Rhydon moved faster sending Jolteon flying to the wall.
"Raichu it's now or never! Iron tail!"
Raichu charged at rhydon, tail glowing. Rhydon caught the tail with its bare hand taking slight damage to Sonic's shock.
"Mega punch!"
Bringing raichu in front of its fist, Rhydon used its move with devastating effects. Raichu crashed through the wall but came back in still standing.
"Interesting" Giovanni said.
At that moment a team of rocket grunts came through the door.
"Sir. Everything ok?"
Giovanni wasn't expecting their arrival as it meant that the police would soon be upon them since they abandoned their posts but decided grunts were dime a dozen so he would benefit from them.
"Seize those insolent fools!"
Sonic found himself charged at by the grunts as Mike started fighting them off, the rings under his gloves being an extra help. As Sonic tried to fight them off he turned to raichu.
"Don't worry about me!" he yelled as he pushed back one of the grunts and punched another one "beat rhydon! Brick break and iron tail in quick succession!"
Raichu obeyed and lunged rhydon with brick break first. Rhydon blocked the attack and tried to mega punch raichu again but the latter using its momentum used iron tail, pushing rhydon back. Giovanni found himself worrying when Jolteon also joined the fight.
"Seize the pokemon too!"
The grunts charged at raichu attempting to pin it down. Raichu started thunder punching them while jolteon used all of its moves to defend itself. It was however pinned down after a couple of moments.
"You coward!" Sonic screamed while dodging a punch from another grunt "fight us yourself!"
"Keep talking hedgehog. It won't save you!"
At that moment Sonic was caught off guard by a grunt who had managed to sneak behind during the chaos. Pushing him down, him and his colleague got on top of Sonic and grabbed his right hand rotating it backwards to lock him down. Mike saw it and attempted to rush to help his friend but had started to get tired. A moment later he was also subdued.
"You damn coward!" Sonic yelled as he tried to break free.
Raichu who was trying to block rhydon's mega punch and its newly revealed rock slide move was momentarily distracted seeing its trainer pinned down. That moment was all rhydon needed. Shoving jolteon aside and hitting with rock slide causing it to topple it mega punched raichu before it could react. Raichu crashed into the wall in pain as Sonic saw it occur.
"NO!" he screamed as a grunt grabbed his head and forced him to look at Giovanni.
"Now you will pay for my defeat at your hands last time! Say goodbye to your partner! Rhydon! Horn drill!"
Rhydon's horn started rotating until it looked like a drill. Sonic witnessed as it took a stance ready to pounce at raichu.
"NO! NO! NO! NO!" he screamed in horror as he started fighting even harder to break free. The grunts however pushed him back down and added pressure to his hand. Sonic felt a crack inside his hand and tears left his eyes. Not so much from the pain in his hand. Raichu looked at him weakly, tears in its eyes as well.
"It can't end like this!" Sonic thought as he tried to break free only to be pushed down again.
Rhydon charged.
Sonic closed his eyes.
The sound of electricity discharging was heard. And in the next moment the horn drill driving itself through flesh echoed in the room.
"NOOOOOOOOOO!" a scream followed.
But it wasn't Sonic's.
Sonic opened his eyes and immediately regretted it.
Rhydon was standing 2 steps way from raichu standing upright. Sonic and raichu both witnessed the grim view in fright. On Rhydon's horn laid the penetrated body of Jolteon, blood streaming down rhydon's horn and body!
"NO!" Sonic whispered. This couldn't be happening.
Jolteon looked at Mike faintly, crying out in pain. Giovanni was fuming with anger. That Jolteon had annoyed him for the last time.
"Rhydon! Get that thing off your horn and finish the job!"
That thing. That thing. The phrase echoed in Sonic's mind loudly. He felt his ears buzzing, his mind clouding in rage and at the same time clearing.
As rhydon waved its head throwing Jolteon aside, it crashed in front of the captured Mike. Raichu growled in anger.
"Rai!" it growled getting back up.
"Rhydon! Finish it now!" Giovanni ordered.
Horn drill was once again initiated. Rhydon charged at raichu. Raichu making a perfect 360 turn slammed rhydon's head with iron tail causing it to change its trajectory and crash on the wall instead.
"What?!" Giovanni said in shock.
Sonic felt a surge of power similar to that raichu had just displayed run through his body. Clenching his fist he started fighting back against the grunts holding him down.
"Hold him you idiot!"
"I can't!" the 2nd one said in fear.
Giovanni looked at Sonic and raichu waving his head between the two in shock and a hint of fear.
"Rhydon no more games! Finish the job now!"
Rhydon got up and tried to punch raichu who countered with brick break. The two attacks collided as both pokemon tried to overpower the other none giving in an inch.
"How is this possible?!" Giovanni said in horror.
"That's it raichu! Show him your power! Together we cannot lose!" Sonic said as he was about to break free.
Raichu growled a threatening "rai" and then all of a sudden was engulfed in a huge bolt of lightning. To everyone's shock so was Sonic. The lightning crackled for a couple of moments and when it stopped both were standing. Giovanni now had to resort to drastic measures.
"Rhydon! Kill the hedgehog! Horn drill!"
Rhydon lunged at Sonic who dodged remembering his training from dodging attacks for the safari zone experience. The grunts holding Mike immediately let him go and charged at Sonic, who despite the pain in his hand, dodged their attacks and delivered a strong punch to both grunts' jaws at the same time. Bone cracking sound filled the room as Sonic turned back to Giovanni who stepped back in terror.
"Rhydon kill him now!"
"Raichu thunder punch!"
Giovanni thought he heard wrong until he remembered Ariana's report from the warehouse. A Pikachu that could strike ground types with electric attacks.
Before he could give any command to rhydon, raichu charged its punch and delivered it to rhydon, unleashing more lightning throughout its entire body like a moment ago. Sonic's body was also engulfed in lightning. Raichu completed its attack and sent rhydon to the wall. The wall almost cracked sending rhydon down to the street below but managed to withstand the force. Rhydon tried to get back up but in the end fainted.
"How can this happen?!" Giovanni said in shock before being tackled to the ground by Sonic dropping the briefcase. Trying to reach for it, he found his hand being grabbed by Sonic and snapped. Bone cracking sound echoed in the room as Giovanni screamed in pain. Turning his eyes back to Sonic he saw a demonic face distorted by rage staring him down.
"You monster!" Sonic screamed punching him hard.
"You're an animal you hear me?!" Sonic screamed again as he punched him again.
Giovanni couldn't believe the situation he was finding himself in. Him the greatest trainer, pinned down by a kid, arm broken, unable to resist. All of his pokemon fainted. It was a nightmare.
"You're a fucking disease!" Sonic screamed slamming his fists down on Giovanni's face breaking his nose.
"I'll fucking kill you!"
The wall next to them exploded. The force of the impact as well as the debris sent Sonic to the wall. Raichu who had gathering its strength again its defeat of rhydon rushed to his side. Sonic with blurry vision saw as Giovanni recalled rhydon and attempted to pick up the briefcase.
"Quick attack!" Sonic ordered raichu.
Raichu tackled the briefcase sending it plummeting to the ground below.
"NOO!" Giovanni screamed in despair as the briefcase crashed on the ground below.
Outside the building a helicopter had appeared. A woman whom Sonic identified as Giovanni's secretary was inside visible from the open side door.
"Come quick sir" she shouted.
Giovanni took one last look at Sonic who tried to get back up to stop him. Dashing to the opening on the wall, he jumped into the helicopter. Sonic got to the opening as he saw the helicopter fly away while anger, despair and regret at not being able to stop him from escaping engulfed his mind.
"No. Come back" he whispered as he saw the helicopter fly away.
Inside the helicopter Giovanni was receiving the best care he could get from his grunts at the moment.
"Matori" he said groaning in pain "how much did we lose from this operation?"
"All the data on the master ball were corrupted sir. Even worse, data of the experiments were leaked to the public. Everyone knows about us now".
"Damnit" he said looking at the helicopter wall at the direction of the silph co building. At the direction of Sonic.
"That hedgehog took everything from me".
"Sir what do we do now?"
"Take us back to the main hideout. Prepare project two for assault".
"Sir the armor can only give you limited control of it".
"Didn't you hear me?!" Giovanni lashed out "I said prepare project two! I want it ready as soon as possible!"
Matori nodded despite flinching from her usually calm boss' demeanor. Giovanni turned back to looking at the ground fuming in rage.
"When project two is ready, I will finally take what is mine. But first I will end this hedgehog once and for all" he thought.
Sonic in the meantime had dropped to his knees.
"How did I let them escape? How?!" he yelled in anger.
Turning his eyes he saw a heartbreaking scene. Mike in front of his dying Jolteon. Raichu rushed to its side. Jolteon looked at its fellow electric type with a faint smile.
"No, no. Jolty please. You can't die" Mike said crying.
Raichu tried to share its electricity with Jolteon but it was no use. Jolteon let out a few more cried of its name some directed at raichu and some at Mike. After managing to touch Mike's hand with its paw, its head gently touched the ground and Jolteon moved no more.
"No" Mike whispered as he stuffed his face on Jolteon's side "no, no, no,no,no" he cried silently as his body shook from the crying.
Sonic felt time had stopped. It couldn't be happening. How did things turn out this way? They were doing so well. And it all went south too fast to comprehend.
Hearing sirens he looked back down and saw the police finally arriving. He knew that will all the blood across the room they would have a major problem.
"Mike we have to get out of here" he said.
Mike however wasn't responding. He was too overwhelmed to listen to anything.
Sonic was about to walk up to him and tell him they had to go when 2 Alakazams teleported in front of him, surprising him and snapping Mike out of his mourning state.
"Alakazam" Sonic said in surprise then urgency "get us out of here now!"
The Alakazams started using teleport, mostly the mother with the son using its own power to enhance her. Hearing footsteps from the corridon Sonic expected them to burst through the door and see them but instead were teleported before that could happen. Finding themselves in the woods west of Saffron city, Sonic looked around and saw the captured pokemon from the main silph co building along with his pinsir who was looking after them. Realizing they were safe he allowed himself to collapse. Lying on the ground he looked at the sky in despair as Mike kept mourning Jolteon.
How did this happen?" he wondered once again as he allowed the myriad of emotions he was suppressing until they escaped finally overwhelm him and let his tears stream down his cheeks.
A small part of him wanted to think what would happen now with team rocket. Sonic suppressed the feeling. There was no future. There was no past. There was only now. There was only the pain of loss.
"We won. But at what cost?"