Sabrina finally found the secret base that the Rockets had been using, right where the forest brushed up against the highlands around the Indigo Plateau mountains; it was in a cave with the entrance covered by a hologram to make it appear like the rest of the rocky slope of the small mountain.
Luckily, she managed to catch a glimpse of the purple-haired rocket operative passing through solid rock, otherwise she might have wasted more time searching. As it was, she was able to blaze right into the cave, telekinetically smashing and crumpling the sliding metal door that they had installed. She passed over the threshold, her feet never hitting the floor, her pokémon floating, gliding, and bounding along behind her.
It was a sleek, high tech looking installation. Polished metal walls and floors. Fluorescent lights. Multicolored directional lines on the walls. Control panels sprinkled on the hallway walls. And the purple haired man at the end of the entrance corridor.
The operative didn't even bother turning back to look at her. He slammed his fist into a button on the wall and ran around the corner before she could grab him. She after him, letting a wave of telekinetic force sweep ahead of her.
Something exploded in the hallway ahead of her, sounding like compressed thunder in the small corridor. Without needing to say anything, her gardevoir and her kadabra threw up Light Screens and Barriers. Her esperon used its power to sweep away the smoke and they continued onwards.
Sabrina could sense several guarded minds from around the corner. She couldn't read their thoughts; the human minds had unusual defenses and she, like other human telepaths, couldn't read the thoughts of pokémon like they could read human thoughts. But she could at least tell their position, which is why when a stream of stingers from a Poison Sting attack bounced off the wall and around the corner, she was able to deflect them without pause.
She rounded the corner and saw both the red-haired woman and the purple-haired man running away from her. A yamask floated behind them, pausing to launch a blast of black and red ghostly energy, a Nightshade attack. Sabrina and her pokémon teleported out of the way, back around the corner, and then the kadabra used Miracle Eye. The effect flowed through the link it shared with Sabrina and the other pokémon and then they teleported back into the hallway.
Their quarry had managed to escape further into the base, taking their pokémon with them. Another door stood in her way, an emergency bulkhead of some sort. Sabrina could hear an electric buzzing; the door must have been electrified as a security measure.
A powerful Psybeam obliterated the door and Sabrina began the chase again. More mines denoted before her as she swept ahead of her with waves of telekinetic force. Images of people and pokémon attacking greeted them around corners, mindless holograms meant to confuse attackers who couldn't read minds. Electrified doors, walls, and floors. The only thing they made Sabrina do was pick up her esperon.
Her quarry kept attacking her around corners, using a mix of poison, dark, normal, and ghost type attacks. Coins, needles, waves of dark energy, and waves of ghostly energy sought her, sometimes mixed into combination attacks. None succeeded. In turn, Sabrina sought to telekinetically grab them through the walls several times, but each time she managed to get a grip, they would have a new attack ready.
Her opponents kept running. And Sabrina kept chasing.
"Before we battle, we should formally introduce ourselves," Janine said.
They were standing in another dojo with a high ceiling and darkened rafters, one that hadn't been previously ruined by a skirmish. Aya languidly leaned against a nearby wall, observing from the sidelines. Not that there were any sidelines Ash noted, looking about. In fact, there were none of the safety precautions that Ash had seen at other gyms.
"Uh…" Ash said. "Isn't there supposed to be a barrier or something? Are we just going to fight like this?"
"What's the matter?" Janine said, grabbing a pair of pokéballs from somewhere in her uniform. "You've got four badges and according to Aya you've seen real combat before. You don't feel up to this?"
"Honestly, no," Ash replied. "Pokemon battles are too…. uh…. un- unpredictable for me to want to do this. I don't think I could stop my pokémon from doing something that might accidentally hurt someone."
"You were right, sometimes he's no fun at all," Janine said, briefly turning to Aya.
"I know," Aya rolled her eyes. "I always loved seeing trainers try and act tough when the subject is brought up. It makes their screams more entertaining."
"Screams…?" Ash rubbed the back of his head and took a step back. "Umm….."
Janine held out a remote and pressed a button. Four poles fell from the ceiling, surrounding Ash. He almost jumped out of his skin, barely managing to suppress a scream. Then the poles buzzed. A barrier, similar to the one Ash had seen in the Celadon City Gym, sprang up around the boy.
"Can't you people do anything normally!" Ash shouted, pulling at his hair. "Does everything have to be a prank?"
"I don't think he gets it, does he?" Aya said to Janine, raising an eyebrow.
"Evidently not," Janine replied and then turned to Ash. "You passed Aya's first test so you should have an inkling of why we're doing this."
"What do you mean?" Ash asked, trying to force himself to calm down.
I think it's just 'cause they're assholes, Pikachu muttered, to Ash's silent agreement.
"Think back to the first test, when Aya attempted to provoke you into a battle after she had lain down traps," Janine told him. "What was her purpose then? What was she trying to do?"
"She wanted me to attack and run into her traps," Ash replied.
"Yes and? How did her taunts affect you? What about being surprised by the traps? What would that do?" Janine continued. "Think back on all the ordeals we put you through. What's the common denominator? What's the underlying thread?"
"You kept trying to trick me," Ash grumbled, crossing his arms. "Or surprise me. Or both."
"Why?"
"Because you're evil."
"No," Janine said with a laugh. "But you aren't the first person to call us that. Come on, you're not stupid-"
I heartily disagree! Pikachu piped up.
"- you should know what we're trying to do," Janine went on. "You might have even done this yourself."
Ash sighed and thought about it for a little bit. He had a glimmer of an idea of what she might be getting at, but he didn't know how to put it into words. At least not human ones.
"If you surprise someone, they can't stop you," Ash finally said. "They're, uh, off-balance? And they don't know what to do. It makes it easier to win."
"That's half of it," Janine said. "Can you figure out the other half? What else were we trying to accomplish? What other thing were we trying to achieve?"
"You were…. you were…. you were trying to confuse me?" Ash guessed. "I think."
"Close," Aya said, nodding approvingly.
"Close enough," Janine echoed.
"That's what the weird sloping hallways were for," Ash realized. "You wanted me too busy with that to notice the traps."
"Absolutely correct," Janine said. "Now, how does that relate to this gym and our type specialty?"
"Poison-types aren't very good at fighting up front," Ash answered. "So, they have to be sneaky and use traps. If they can poison the thing they're fighting before they actually fight, then they'll win easier."
"What else?" Janine prodded.
"And if you, uh, disorient what you're fighting, then they'll find it harder to attack you," Ash went on. "Like, aahh, if you have them confused then they might not be able to even attack you?"
"Right on the money," Janine said, standing tall with one fist on her hip.
"And that's why you do all those pranks," Ash went on. "You want trainers, um, off balance before they fight you."
"Correct once more," Janine said with a grin.
"And because it's fun, don't forget that," Aya said with a smirk, still leaning against the wall.
"Of course," Ash sighed, rolling his eyes at Aya, before turning back to Janine. "But why are you telling me all this then? It's, um, helping me regain my balance I guess."
"I wasn't lying when I said that our purpose was to teach trainers how to deal with the unexpected," Aya told him, her face serious for once. "We want every trainer to learn from their experience here."
"In your case it seemed like it would be more productive to make sure you learn this before we start our battle," Janine told him. "Now, let us formally introduce ourselves. I am Janine, heir to the Gym of Fuchsia City. I will be your opponent today."
"I'm Aaron Autumns," Ash declared, standing up straight and meeting her eyes. "I'm here for a badge."
"Very well, I accept your challenge," Janine nodded. "We shall have a battle here, two pokémon versus two pokémon. Select your pokémon and tell me when you are ready to proceed."
Ash nodded and grabbed two pokéballs from his belt. "I'm ready."
Janine pressed a button on the remote and the barrier shut off. "Then release your pokémon and let us begin!"
White light blazed as they both threw forth their pokéballs and the barrier clicked back on. Janine had vanished when the light flashed, as had Aya. An ariados and a venomoth stood in the dojo, opposed by Charmander and Primeape.
Ash started to shout a command, but Janine's voice called out from the rafters. "Dark Embrace! Confusion!"
The ariados's shadow zoomed over the floor, reaching behind Charmander and then wrapping him up from behind. At the same time the venomoth glowed with a faint purple light.
"Dodge," Ash shouted, just an instant too late for Charmander, but not Primeape. The fighting type jumped straight up as waves of telekinetic force battered the floor where it had stood.
I've gotten good at dodging fast attacks, Primeape said, grabbing a rafter to hang from. Thanks to dealing with a trigger-happy yellow rodent.
Hey! Pikachu protested from Ash's shoulder.
Let me go! Charmander growled, struggling against the shadowy hold. While he was trapped, the ariados spat a strand of sticky white silk at him, wrapping the fire type further. Charmander let out a gasp of pain as silk and shadow constricted him.
"Primeape get that Ariados! And stay above the venomoth!" Ash shouted, thinking quickly. If Janine was actually in the rafters then she might not have her pokémon send any attacks that way. Of course, since she liked tricks and had agreed with him about battle safety, she was probably just throwing her voice…
Ash didn't have time to finish that train of thought. Primeape had begun swinging from rafter to rafter, speeding over the dojo and heading right for ariados. The venomoth launched another Confusion attack at it, but Primeape swung himself to the side, avoiding the waves that shook and cracked the wooden beams, caught another beam, swung himself in a loop, and then launched himself at the ariados.
"Shimmers, stop it!" Janine shouted, her voice seemingly coming from the floor. The venomoth tried to get between Primeape and the ariados, but Primeape was too fast, a brown blur that sped past Shimmers before the venomoth could act. There was the sound of flesh hitting flesh and the ariados went flying.
"Free Charmander!" Ash shouted as the ariados's flight yanked on the strand of silk linking it and Charmander, pulling the fire-type with it. Primeape stomped down on it and both Charmander and the aridos were slammed down on the floor.
"Dodge Primeape! Charmander get free! Use your tail!" Ash shouted as Janine called out at the same time.
"Constrict again Spinners! Venomoth, Aerial Ace and Poison Fang!" Janine ordered.
Charmander managed to bring his tail flame into contact with the silk and burned away the line before Spinners, the ariados, could tighten its grip again. Primeape was once again dodging Shimmers' attacks, the venomoth surrounded by streams of white light from Aerial Ace as its horn glowed bright purple from Poison Fang. Primeape ran on all fours, barely staying ahead of the poison-type as it repeatedly dived and smashed the dojo floor.
Charmander slashed through his silken bonds as Spinners got to its feet. The fire-type growled as he stared down the ariados and then he looked at his claws, still covered in globs of the sticky silk. He opened his mouth to burn them away, but Ash spoke up.
"Don't clean them! Just Ember that venomoth!" Ash shouted. "Primeape, when you get a chance, get that ariados again!"
"Shadow Dash!" Janine called, her voice sounding like it was coming from behind a nearby wall. Ash figured that this was part of her strategy to disorient him. He resolved to ignore it.
Small streams of flame flew through the air and Shimmers was forced to abandon its pursuit of Primeape and soared into the rafters. At the same time, Spinner's shadow stretched forth. Primeape sidestepped it as he dashed forward, fist raised. But, before he could land a blow, the ariados vanished in a burst of darkness. Its shadow pulsed as well and Ash saw the ariados reappear at the end of its shadow.
"Psybeam the charmander!" Janine commanded. "String Shot it too!"
"Fire Bloom the String Shot!" Ash shouted in response. "Primeape, stop the venomoth!"
Primeape leapt into the rafters as Charmander turned to face Spinners, taking a deep breath as he prepared a Fire Bloom attack. Bright orange flame met shimmering white silk and a smell like burning hair filled the dojo. Simultaneously there was a flash of purple from somewhere in the rafters and Primeape cried out in pain. Beams snapped and wood broke as a Psybeam shot down, followed by a tumbling Primeape.
"Primeape!" Ash shouted. The fighting-type let out another yelp of pain as it hit the floor.
"Psybeam again!" Janine shouted.
"Dodge!" Ash shouted. "Charmander, Ember that aridos!"
Ugh, Primeape picked himself up and let himself fall to the side. The Psybeam drilled through the floor next to him, the shockwave rippling Primeape's fur and sending out a ring of loose debris. At the same time, Spinners was belted with miniature flames from Charmanders mouth, the ariados retreating beneath the onslaught.
"Primeape, are you okay?" Ash asked. The fighting-type shook its head clear and then gave him a thumbs up.
I can keep going, Primeape told its trainer.
"Low Kick that ariados then!" Ash shouted. "Don't let it tie anyone up again!"
"Shadow Dash!" Janine's seemed to come from the floor beneath Ash's feet.
Primeape charged the ariados, but once again its shadow lashed out and it vanished in a pulse of dark energy. Primeape dashed after its new location, but it kept escaping.
"Poison Sting!" Janine ordered, voice coming from the walls again. Shimmers unleashed a hail of metallic seeming stingers from on high, forcing Primeape to quit chasing Spinners and jump back.
"Ember again! Get that venomoth" Ash shouted to Charmander. "Primeape, keep after that ariados!"
Streams of flame reached into the rafters where Shimmers was hiding, but Ash couldn't see if any found the venomoth. Spinners kept dashing about the arena, Primeape literally chasing shadows.
"Spinners, use Dark Embrace!" Janine ordered again. "Get that charmander! Shimmers, Aerial Ace and Poison Fang that primeape!"
"Charmander, Ember the venomoth" Ash ordered in response. "Primeape, keep after the ariados!"
"Skyshield, Shimmers!" Janine's ever moving voice shouted.
Wind whirled around the venomoth and Charmander's attack was sucked up and spat out by it, flame shooting out from all directions around Shimmers. Once again streaks of white surrounded it as it dove at Primeape and its horn glowed a deep purple.
"Charmander, watch the shadows! Get ready!" Ash commanded. "Primeape, get that ariados! Do your best!"
Primeape sprinted at ariados, who in turn casually vanished in another pulse of dark energy. It reappeared on the other side of the dojo… right next to Charmander.
"Scratch!" Ash shouted and Charmander reacted instantly. His claws flashed and dug into the ariados before it could react. It tried to pull back, but Charmander's claws, still covered in sticky silk from the String Shot they had cut, were stuck in.
"Primeape, now!" Ash shouted.
Before Spinners could escape, or do anything more than turn and point its horn at the fighting type, Primeape was on it. A leaping punch smashed it into the dojo floor and then a series of blows drove it in further.
"Now, Shimmers!" Janine shouted, her voice seeming to come from everywhere. "Venoshock!"
A spray of a dark purple liquid fell over Charmander and Primeape as they attacked the ariados. When the liquid hit them, Ash's pokémon cried out in pain, bits of purple energy crawling over their limbs. They fell to the dojo floor, next to the unconscious ariados.
I don't feel so good, Charmander groaned.
Makes two of us, Primeape agreed.
"Are your pokémon able to continue battling?" Janine dropped from the ceiling, landing next to Ash and stood tall with a flourish of her scarf.
Ash grimaced and looked out at his pokémon on the ground. He looked at Shimmers, the venomoth, hovering nearby, horn glowing purple again.
"I give up," Ash sighed, taking off his backpack as he spoke. "Hurry up and let me out so I can give them antidotes."
"Janine, the gym leader, is victorious," Aya said, dropping down on Ash's other side. One of the two must have pressed a button, because the forcefield vanished then. Ash hurried over to his pokémon and quickly treated them for poison.
"How'd you do it?" Ash asked after he had finished. "How'd you get Venoshock to knock them out like that? I thought they needed to be poisoned first?"
"Oh, they were poisoned," Janine told him. "Spinners snuck some needles into her String Shot in the beginning and tagged your primeape at the end."
"But they didn't look like they were poisoned!" Ash said as he recalled his pokémon.
"Ah, that's because it was a very small dose," Janine told him. "I've had some of my pokémon work on minimizing the dosage of their poison."
"But why would you-" Ash began and then slapped his forehead. "Right, so you can lure them into a trap like you did with me."
"When you battle, you should always be looking for something you've missed," Janine told him. "You need to always be prepared for a trick or a trap. Always try to spot the hidden thread in your enemy's actions. What happened in this battle is just one example of how even the smallest thing can drastically alter the course of a battle."
"I get it," Ash said, thinking back to what he had heard from his pokémon about their experiences when they were attacked while guarding Melanie. How Team Rocket's plan fell apart because they made a small miscalculation in regards to Charmander. It wasn't exactly the same, it wasn't a trick or anything on his part, but it was such a tiny thing that snowballed into their victory, into their survival.
"And there's one more lesson you need to learn," Aya said, her arms crossed. "A lesson about bait."
"Huh?" Ash tilted his head.
"Think back on everything that's happened today," Aya said. "What is the only reason that you've run into all of our traps?"
"I don't know," Ash said with a grimace and a shrug.
"Why are you here?" Janine asked.
"To get the badge," Ash said hesitantly. "Unless you're being more phili- philsof- philosophical."
"I'm not," Janine reassured him. "But," she held up the badge that looked like a heart, the Soul Badge, "this is what led you here? This is why you tracked Aya through the forest while she attacked you and this is why you came into our house even though you knew it was dangerous?"
"Oh…." Ash nodded. "The badge was bait. If it wasn't for the badge then I won't have had to put up with being thrown off a cliff, or hit with wooden ninja stars, or getting up when it's still dark out…."
"That wasn't actually part of the plan, remember?" Aya smirked at the trainer. "That was all on you."
"Right…" Ash groaned.
"And you lost the battle, because Spinners was bait," Janine said.
"What, you planned for the battle to go that way?" Ash asked, his eyes narrowing.
"Not exactly," Janine replied. "I didn't plan for Spinners to be knocked out, but I was going to eventually use her to bind your pokémon for Shimmers to finish off."
"Is this lesson about bait or about sacrifice," Ash's asked with a narrow glare.
"Both," Janine informed him. "You should always be ready to lose what you use as bait."
Ash looked over at Spinners, still unconscious on the floor. He looked back at the gym leader.
"I don't think I'll be using my pokémon as bait," he said coldly.
"Oh, you're being too serious," Janine said, waving away his concerns. "Don't worry about using them as bait for friendly battles. They usually have fun if their side wins."
It's true, Pikachu chimed in, licking one of his forelimbs clean. We do really like to win.
"Well, I won't do it for any serious fights then," Ash said, making sure not to look at Pikachu.
"That's your choice to make," Janine said, nodding. "But I should warn you that headstrong pokémon may take the choice out of your hands."
Well, if he is being too stupid…. Pikachu said.
"If I need to, I'll take the choice out of their hands first," Ash said vehemently.
"That is also for you to decide," Janine nodded again.
"But those sentiments can get in their own way," Aya chimed in. "Sometimes you've got to do whatever it takes. Fight dirty. Take risks. Make sacrifices. For some, victory washes away all sins. This lesson is also taught by Karen of the Johto Elite Four."
"Keep that in mind when you return to your journey," Janine added, walking over to Ash and taking his hand. "But, in the meantime, you've shown enough cunning and courage to be worthy of this badge." She pressed it into his hand. "Congratulations Aaron Autumns on receiving the Soul Badge."
Sabrina's battle had carried into the center of the hidden Rocket base. She had come floating through corridors, blasting through walls, smashing through floors, her pokémon accompanying her. There was a trail of devastation in her wake, torn metal and circuitry, craters in walls and floors, bent doors, and flickering, cracked, lights.
The nearer she and her quarry got to the center of the base, the more obvious it was that Team Rocket had been in the process of abandoning it. She had passed partially filled server racks, idle power generators in various states of disassembly, and partially filled crates filled with various supplies.
The sights filled Sabrina with questions (what had they been doing here, where was the rest of the base garrison or personnel, why were these operatives the only ones here), but she didn't have time to stop and wonder. The purple-haired man and the red-haired woman were too slippery for her to turn away from them.
Had she been simply trying to kill them, then she might have been done as soon as she began. Had she been trying to kill them while leaving the base mostly intact then she would have been done a little later; humans could be so fragile, something people who spent a lot of time around fighting pokémon could forget. The human body wasn't capable of withstanding even a tenth of the punishment that most pokémon were able to survive.
The Rocket operatives knew that as well. They repeatedly risked their own bodies, darting between attacks meant to destroy their pokémon, knowing that Sabrina would have to start pulling her punches, and giving their pokémon a chance to counter attack and then they'd all retreat from her, fleeing deeper into the hideout.
But now, this close to the center of their base, they were out of space to run.
"Oh dear," the man said, slowly backing into a large room. Two active generators, large bulbous metal columns, glowing and whirring stood at the sides. There was a door in the back of the room, and control panels lined the walls. "I knew this winter wasn't going to be good for me."
"Oh, ice of you to share that with me," the woman said, her eyes focused on Sabrina and her pokémon.
"Well, I didn't know I'd be facing down an enraged gym leader," the man replied. "You suppose she's mad about the chilly reception she got?"
At some hidden signal the yamask and a cacturne dropped from the ceiling and blasted at Sabrina with dark and ghostly energies. She casually tore a sheet of metal from the wall and let the attacks wash over it before hurling the sheet at the pokémon.
They dodged and Sabrina turned her attention back to the-
Her senses screamed, warning her of danger. Her pokémon threw up Light Screens and Barriers instantly and several grenades exploded against them. A hint of the-
Sabrina teleported on instinct, back into the hall as blue black fire blazed, the same sort of explosion that she had seen from the null mines in the forest. There was a flare of pain from her gardevoir over their telepathic link and Sabrina saw that one of his arms was scorched and blackened from the fire.
No time to treat it, Sabrina thought to herself as she flew back into the room. Their formation shifted so that gardevoir was in the rear. Three more pokéballs floated off her belt, white light blazing as an alakazam, a mr. mime, and a slowking joined her.
"Well, it doesn't look like she intends to let us die of cold age, now does it," the purple-haired man said as he hurled more bombs.
"Not exactly a snowing endorsement of the League, now is it?" The woman said, a high-tech looking crossbow in each hand.
A sighing seviper dropped from the ceiling, firing off a Poison Sting attack infused with dark-type energy, while the two humans attacked with their gadgets, the woman firing off strange glowing orbs that streaked at Sabrina and her team as the bombs hurled through the air to surround them.
Sabrina and her team vanished in a pop of displaced air, scattering throughout the room, attacking as soon as they reappeared. Blasts of psychic energy, waves of telekinetic force, and telepathic shrieks flew through the room. At the same time, the purple-haired man pulled out a remote and wall panels slid.
Chaos reigned. Sabrina and her team were assaulted on all sides by exotic energies, explosives, electrified arrows, the blue-black fires of the null explosives, and extending spikes. It was a cacophony of sounds, a terrible kaleidoscope of lights, a maze of danger. It was too much for one mind to handle.
But there wasn't just one mind. There were several. And they were all linked, by telepathy and by years of practice in working together. Working at the speed of thought they were able to assemble an image, a map of the room, marking where there was danger, figuring out what they could counter and what they had to avoid.
Teleporting so rapidly that they seemed to be in multiple locations at once, Sabrina and her team countered the traps. Blades were smashed flat, some bursts of energy were slapped away by waves of telekinetic force, arrows caught, and the blue-black fires avoided.
Two seconds after the man had pulled out the remote, the room was safe again for Sabrina and her team. And in that brief time, the purple-haired man and the red-haired woman had recalled their pokémon and had started to dash towards the door in back. Said door slid open and a meowth leaned out.
"If y'all don't hurry up then I'm leaving you behind!" It shouted. "We've got to blow 'dis popsicle stand now!"
Sabrina's mind reached out and latched onto the two humans-
She faltered; there was a price to be paid for what she and her team had done earlier. Her brain felt sluggish, weak, empty, hot and cold at the same time. Focus slipped away from her and she struggled to hold it.
She and her pokémon reached out again as the two humas slipped through the exit, the door sliding closed behind them; beyond that Sabrina could make out what looked like a teleportation rig, human sized.
Sabrina's pokémon grabbed the door in a telekinetic grip, metal warping and gears grinding as they brought it to a halt. Sabrina herself caught the two humans at the last moment, encasing them and their meowth in telekinetic force. All three were frozen mid-step. The gym leader took a deep breath, trying to recover from the earlier exertion before she put them to sleep, she and her pokémon entirely focused on what was in front of them-
There was a sharp pain in the back of her neck, a flare of concern and panic from her pokémon, and then everything went dark.
AN: I'd like to thank Amationary for beta reading.
A chapter full of reckless gym people having fun and a chapter of somewhat less reckless gym people having somewhat less fun.
2020 has broken many of us, many writers greater than I. It is only by good fortune that I've avoided crumbling under its weight 'till now. Still I flounder onwards. The next chapter will be released on 30th of December 2020.
Anyway, thanks for reading and don't forget to review.