Chapter 9 Journey's start

"Ugh, what happened?"

James hadn't felt comfort like this since he left his family's manor. He seemed to be lying on a chair, but it didn't seem like any chair Team Rocket had. It was so soft it felt like he was being carried by a family of Eldegoss. However, his whole body hurt, like he had been thrown into a blender and smacked onto the sidewalk. A doctor crouched over James' head. He opened his eyes, startling the doctor, he dashed toward the corner as if he wanted to avoid James' gaze.

"Sleepin' beauty finally awoken," Meowth quipped, and he loudly sipped a cold drink in his hands.

James turned his head over and saw his left hand wrapped in ice, holding a drink similar to Meowth. He asked Meowth weakly, "What happened to my hand?"

"Oh that," Jessie replied, her hair was in a towel and her nails were being done by another Rocket grunt, "Your hand was nearly bit off by Carvine yesterday and then it got an infection. It should be fine now though, right Lucas?"

A doctor came out from the shadows and hurriedly crouched over to James. He inspected his hand and replied, "Yes ma'am."

Jessie nodded and the doctor went back into the corner. James suddenly realized that the black room he was staying in was practically empty. He painfully got up to look around the room better, "Man I didn't think that Team Rocket's healthcare would be so good."

The doctor peeped out, "Sir, Team Rocket doesn't have any healthcare."

Meowth chuckled, stirring his drink "Like most other companies in Kanto."

"Wait then are we paying for this ourselves?" James asked, he instantly woke up and started to think about how long it would take to pay Team Rocket back. He saw Jessie staring at him and asked, "What, are you not worried about this." After he said this Jessie started to laugh wildly.

"Oh, the look on your face, hilarious," Jessie said, she rolled around in her chair, laughing until she lost breath. She breathed out, "We got promoted to High Admin, so we don't have to pay."

"Like Rocket High Admin?" James asked, did he mishear Jessie. When he saw Meowth nod he was even more surprised. Had Giovanni finally noticed their dedication and given them a promotion?

Meowth snapped his fingers, and a Rocket grunt came running to refill his glass of lemonade, "Yeah but on the condition that we capture Tori."

"You mean that kid?" James asked, his face lit up with a grin, "What did I tell you Meowth? Fate destined that kid to be our new Ash Ketchum."

Meowth rolled his eyes and took another sip from his drink, "Hey Jessie where are we right now?"

"Flying over route 7," she said after looking at a screen one of the Rocket grunts gave her.

James got up from his chair quickly, too quickly. He held his injured hand and limped to the window. He saw cars travel across the long road between Connecting Cave Tunnel and Camphrier Town like a long worm.

Lucas came up behind him, surprising him and asking politely, "Sir, would you like to return to your seat."

Lucas took most of James' weight and carried him back to his chair. The doctor plopped James onto his chair and walked away, breathless. James cautiously reached for his drink, it had been so long since he got such treatment, that he was afraid to receive it.

"Alexa sure is a big spender," Hop said happily, he proudly held two tickets to Camphrier town that Alexa had sent them.

With absolutely no money in their pockets, Tori and Hop had decided to travel around Kalos to win the Kalos League and pay off Tori's debt before they could do that though they would have to beat eight gyms scattered around Kalos to even qualify for it.

Tori replied, "It would be nice to get some Pokemon before then, but I guess this saves time."

They hopped onto the train and sat down, the doors closing behind them. The train whirred loudly and shot forward, the station behind them quickly becoming indistinguishable from the rest of Santalune City.

Hop's Wooloo pressed his face against the glass, watching in awe as the train zipped through the Kalosian countryside. Tori took Hop's Rotom Phone and started to search for what sort of Pokemon he could catch on the way to Cyllage City.

"Hey Hop, do you think I should get a Mankey or a Bunnelby?" Tori asked, looking away from the Rotom Phone for the first time in an hour.

Hop plucked the phone away from Tori's hands and replied, "My brother always says to let the Pokemon find you instead of the other way around."

"Always quoting your brother," Tori muttered.

Hop pretended to not have heard it and continued, although with less confidence, "Plus your team is already really powerful."

Tori had trouble believing that, the only reason he beat Viola was because of a clever trick not the power of Helia. Helia shot up and jumped onto the chair that Tori was sitting on. She glared at Tori angrily and one of her thoughts blared into her mind, "How dare you! I was on the brink of collapse after that battle. Did that sacrifice mean nothing to you!"

Tori uncomfortably replied under Helia's hateful gaze, "Of course, I respect your hard work it's just that if it wasn't for my plan, you would've just fainted again."

"Excuse you!" Helia thought, her tail shot upward, and she started growling, "I don't see you taking hits from Pokemon like that."

"I did that to save you from Team Rocket!"

"Once, I saved you twice," Helia bragged as she snorted smoke out of her nose.

Hop suddenly cut in and asked, "Wait hold the phone, are you talking to Helia?"

Tori nodded. Hop jumped into the air and exclaimed, "Aren't you surprised, shocked, anything?"

"It's been happening for a while," Tori replied.

Hop asked, "And you didn't tell me. Does this mean you're an Aura shaper?"

"I don't think so," Tori said, "I didn't have these powers until I got shocked by Team Rocket near Santalune Gym, and typically aura shapers would know they have that sort of power pretty early in their life."

"You got shocked by Team Rocket?" Hop asked, angry that Tori had hidden so many juicy stories from him, "Why didn't you… Man, you need to start talking more about your life. What secrets are you hiding, that you robbed a bank, your dad is a terrorist, that Lily is secretly a human."

Tori chuckled at Hop's insane speculation. "No, but seriously," Hop said, "This is truly incredible, you can talk to Pokemon!"

"You know now that I think about it," Tori muttered, he thought of all the things that he could use this power for, "This is pretty cool."

Tori's mind got lost in speculation, so much so that he couldn't hear what Hop was saying. With all this power, he could communicate with every Pokemon in the world, he could help them in a way nobody else could. He absentmindedly stroked Helia, who was glad that she was finally getting some attention.

"Are you two done talking about this power," Helia shouted into Tori's mind. He held his head tightly, Helia's voice could sometimes be incredibly loud, "Because I'm not done! Tori, I've done so much for you, and you haven't given me anything in return."

"Seriously Helia," Tori responded angrily, his head throbbing violently, "Do you have to be this loud?"

"If I'm not loud you'll never hear me. I'll just be your Fennekin and not Helia."

"I've saved you from danger more times than I can count," Tori said, he looked at Hop and asked, "How many times have I saved Helia?"

Hop glanced over at the fox and saw her baring her teeth at him, "I'm not getting involved in this."

"Fine!" Tori shouted, "Helia, just remember that if it wasn't for me then you wouldn't even be here, you'd probably be on a plane to Team Rocket HQ."

Helia tried to think of an equally hurtful comment but before she could formulate one the train halted suddenly. Helia shot across the train car and hit the opposite wall; Tori rushed over to see if she was okay.

"Sorry passengers but it seems as if there is a roadblock on the track," The conductor said over the speakers of the train, "Please wait patiently as we remove it. We are sorry for the delay."

The speakers switched to static before a brash female voice shouted out, "And that roadblock is us, Team Rocket!"

"Wait is that the grunt that we faced in the Pokemon Center," Hop asked Tori. Tori nodded, wondering what they were doing here.

Tori looked out the window and saw a small airship above him, looming over the train like a mountain. A robotic arm came out from the bottom and reached into Tori's train car. The arm grabbed onto him and pulled him out the window, Tori grabbed onto the windowsill, desperately trying to pull himself back into the car. Tori's hands lost their grip. Hop dived to reach him, barely holding onto Tori's arm. Hop grunted as he tried to fight against the robotic arm, "Don't let go, Tori."

Wooloo pulled on Hop making sure he didn't fall out of the train car himself. Tori realized that only one of Hop's legs was still in the train car and he would soon be dragged up with him. Tori let go of Hop's arms and was pulled up onto the Rocket airship, screaming all the way.

Wooloo dragged Hop back into the train car. Once he was inside, Hop leaned onto the edge of the train car, sweat dripped off his forehead, and dropped onto the shiny ground. Hop picked up a broken shard of glass and looked at a very guilty Helia. He asked, "What do we do now?"

"That was surprisingly easy," Meowth said, "We didn't even need all this fancy gear," The cat threw a bunch of flamethrowers and electric-proof cages out the window of the airship.

Jessie said proudly, "This may be our easiest mission yet."

"I guess we were always just lacking in resources," James said, his arm was in a cast. It was unnecessary but Jessie insisted that Lucas put it on for him, "Do you think Tori's okay?"

"A bit wind-burnt but other than that he should be fine," Jessie replied, inspecting Tori's red skin. Tori snorted at Jessie touching him, he slowly opened his eyes.

Meowth frantically closed the lights of the room, plunging the room into darkness other than a small lamp that illuminated Tori's face, "Intimidating positions everyone!" Jessie and James rushed to hide in the darkness.

Tori tried to use his hands to cover his eyes from the bright light but found out that his hands were tied. He groaned, "Where am I?" His mind was shaking, like it was filled with thoughts that weren't his own. The light above him flickered.

James put on a deep voice that he hoped was intimidating, "We're asking the questions here, where are you?"

Meowth slapped James over the head, and whispered into his ear, "Are you a philosopher or an interrogator? Just let me ask the questions."

Meowth coughed as if nothing had happened and stepped into the light, Tori winced still remembering the scratches that Meowth gave him. "Look kid, we can do this the easy way," Meowth said, he let out his sharp claws, they shined in the light like a knife, "Or the hard way."

Tori gulped and nodded. Meowth continued, "What did you do to Giovanni?"

"Who's Giovanni?"

Meowth jumped up and edged his claws against Tori's shirt, "Don't play dumb with me kid. You have to know him, or why would Giovanni want you captured?" Jessie and James circled around Tori like angry fish.

Tori rocked his chair slightly, making Meowth lose his balance. The cat fell to the ground and groaned. Jessie quipped, "Guess the cat doesn't always land on its feet."

"It's harder than it looks," Meowth angrily replied.

James pushed Meowth out of the way and stepped into the light, he pitifully looked at Tori, he knew what it was like to be tied up to a chair and interrogated, "Kid we just want some answers, do you know Giovanni?"

"No, I don't."

"Then why is he after you?"

"How am I supposed to know? I don't even know who this Giovanni is."

Jessie cut in, "Well then can you speak to Pokemon?"

Tori nodded; he looked around to see if there was anything he could use to cut the ropes. However, he wouldn't even need to cut the rope as the shoddy tie that Team Rocket made was starting to come loose.

Jessie turned to James and asked, "Maybe Giovanni's afraid that he would control all of Team Rocket's Pokemon."

"But then why doesn't he try to capture all of the aura shapers in the world?" Meowth asked, "It doesn't make sense."

"Why are we even interrogating Tori?" Jessie asked, "If we just bring him to Giovanni then we'll be rich. Let's just keep him unconscious until we reach Kanto." Tori peered into the darkness, trying to see where the Rocket Trio were standing.

Meowth sighed, "That's probably safer," The cat picked up a giant baseball club, "Guess it's just another mystery we'll never solve."

Tori felt his hands break free of the rope around him. He swung the chair around, hitting Jessie on the head. James looked over to see what was wrong but was thrown aside by Tori running out of the room, with a chair still tied to his back. Meowth chased after him for a short while but couldn't catch up.

"Ha too slow," Tori shouted back at them, "You are never going to catch me or Helia you criminals!"

Tori ran around the airship for a while trying to find a way to safely get off but found nothing. Thankfully, he was able to get the chair off, so at least he wouldn't have to deal with that anymore.

The sounds of footsteps echo across the hallway. Tori could hear Pokemon growling from around the corner. He started to slowly back away, crouching to make as little noise as possible.

Tori bumped into something soft he turned around and saw Jessie, James, and a wall of Team Rocket grunts staring him down. Meowth stepped out of the corner holding a VHS recorder, he snickered, "Works every time."

"This is the first time you used it," James replied, he took out a few of his Pokemon and looked at Tori, "Sorry Kid, orders are orders. We have to arrest you."

A few grunts behind James cheered him on. James' Pokemon beamed, they had never been praised so much in their lives. Tori edged backward from the wall of Team Rocket eventually hitting the opposite wall. James' Pokemon all started to charge up their moves, planning to keep Tori down until he was in Giovanni's hands.

The roof of the airship collapsed; the wind howled into the airship as the air pressure around them changed wildly. Hop climbed off his feet dusting himself off, in one of his arms he held Helia and in the other, he held a very angry Wooloo. Hop dropped Wooloo onto the ground and smacked him, Wooloo surrounded himself in psychic energy and ran into the wall of the airship, breaking through it and shaking the ship with each step. Natural light flooded into the artificially illuminated hallway, Hop turned around and grinned at Tori, "How about that entrance?"

"Another twerp?" Jessie asked, "How much help do you get?"

"Well you're not the only one with allies," Meowth commanded, "Grunts get Tori and that other kid!"

Despite the angry horde of Team Rocket charging down at him, Hop stood his ground. Helia jumped out of his arms and blasted a line of fire into the ground. The flames rose and formed a wall. The members of Team Rocket backed off.

Jessie stomped the ground and let out her Yanmega, "Twerp, how could you? Yanmega use air slash to blow that fire away."

James commanded a few of the grunts to loop around the airship, Tori felt the airship shake as a large horde of grunts marched around the wall of fire.

Yanmega cut into the fire, slashing through the hot wall. Helia panted before blowing another burst of fire, trying to repair the wall they were hiding behind, but she wasn't fixing it fast enough. Helia walked backward to avoid the blades of pressurized air. Tori was surprised that she could've kept the fire up for so long. Tori could see her smirk in the back of his mind.

However, the fox couldn't keep protecting the two humans forever. Meowth dived through the crumbling wall of fire into Hop. He smashed the cat into the wall, Meowth yowled and bit Hop's hand. Tori rolled to protect Helia. Helia struggled inside Tori's grasp. She transmitted into his mind, "Let me go, I can fight for myself."

James let out his Yanmask and Inkay, "Use psychic on Tori, make sure he can't move."

Tori was lifted into the air his hands were pulled off his body and Helia dropped to the ground. The two Pokemon holding Tori down sweated as he struggled under their control. Jessie's Gourgeist constrained Hop inside its vines.

"Game over, Tori," Meowth grinned, he looked at James and said, "Man I hadn't felt so happy in so long."

Jessie sighed, "Like the good old times with Ash, too bad it's over already."

The air pressure inside the hallway dropped even lower, another hole had been blasted into the walls of the airship. Helia into Inkay with a flame charge. The squid winced and dropped Tori. Meowth shot out of the hallway and into the open air, one of Gourgeist's vines precariously held onto him and he flung around like a balloon.

"You twerp!" Jessie shouted, "Why do you have to use such underhanded tactics? Can't you just let us win?"

"You think this is underhanded," Hop grunted inside Gourgeist's vines. A red light followed with an alarm vibrating across the airship, along with a robotic voice repeating, "Engine failure."

"How did the engine break?" James asked he put his hands on his head, the meticulous plan they had crafted had crumbled in a matter of minutes.

Hop struggled for one of his Pokeballs, he clicked it and Wooloo rushed back into it. Jessie looked at him with pure hatred, "Well I still have the both of you here, and there's no way you're getting out of this airship safely."

Helia projected into Tori's mind, "On my count jump out the hole in the wall."

Tori looked at her, had she lost her mind?

"Just do it," Helia said, she surrounded herself with fire and charged toward Hop.

Jessie cried, "Gourgeist get out of the way."

Helia crashed into the vines containing Hop, she jumped out the hole in the wall and her voice shouted into Tori's head, "Jump!" Hop soon followed after her, holding onto Wooloo's Pokeball tightly.

Tori ran toward the hole and closed his eyes. He leaped through it and felt the cold rush of wind surge past him.

Jessie and James looked down and saw the two kids and Helia fall toward their certain death. James pitifully saw them fall, wishing he could help. He turned to Jessie and saw tears streaking down her face. Even Meowth was silent as they fell.

A white blob appeared on the ground, and the three seemed to have landed on it. By some miracle, the three of them were safe.

Jessie lay on the ground in relief and James jumped into the air and cheered like he did when Ash won the World Coronation Series. Meowth shouted through the wind at both of them and said, "Great they're alive, now can you save me?"

"Oh right," Jessie replied, "Gourgeist why don't you, woah." The airship shook suddenly, and Jessie and James struggled to get back on their feet. The airship descended quickly, in a course directly into a mountain. James hurriedly dragged Meowth back in.

The cat panted and said, "There's smoke coming out the back, I think the ship's going to blow."

"What do we do?" James asked.

Jessie closed her eyes and crossed her fingers, "Hope we're still useful to the plot of this story, it's all we can do."

The ship blew up, the rocket trio flew out of the hole. Before they fainted from the force, they saw a light show of reds oranges, and yellows, it was like the sunrise had come early. Meowth muttered, "Is this what blowing up looks like?" The three of them flew into the atmosphere, disappearing into just three sparks of light.

Tori grunted. He dusted off some cotton from his clothing. The Rocket airship was falling into a mountain. A large horde of rocket grunts jumped out in parachutes, and they looked like a swarm of flies running from a predator. Then the airship blew up like a fireworks show, the remains landed in the mountains near Cyllage City.

Helia grinned at Tori, he hesitantly returned it. Lily rushed over, she ran over to see whether Hop or Tori had sustained any injury. Wooloo crawled out of the giant pile of cotton he had created.

"What just happened?" Tori asked.

Hop grinned and said, "Well we needed to get up to the airship to save you, so that's when Lily used leaf storm to lift us into the air. Then we traveled across the roof of the airship to try and find you."

"Then how did you find me?"

"Helia here, she tried to find your mom through the flurry of rocket grunts," Hop said, stroking Helia's fur, her head was tilted up like she was receiving praise from Arceus herself, "When She did, she blasted a hole through the roof of the airship. Now we always wanted to break the airship to knock Team Rocket down a peg and that's why I released Wooloo into the airship, but I didn't expect there to be so many grunts inside the airship."

"So, it was Wooloo who broke the engine," Tori said, happy that his theory was correct.

Hop nodded, "I expected him to take longer but I guess he just smashed through every wall of the airship," Hop dusted off a few pieces of drywall away from Wooloo's wool.

"And that's when I improvised the fire wall thing," Helia said into Tori's head, "that was all my idea. Saving you with flame charge was also my idea."

"Then Helia did a 5000 IQ play…" Hop started.

Tori sighed, he didn't want to hear it again, "Yeah Helia just told me."

Hop nodded, "Then Helia bashed through the wall and Wooloo saved us with cotton guard."

"Dang, you guys did pull all the stops," Tori said, he turned to Helia, "Guess I owe you an apology, Helia. You have helped me a lot and I just didn't notice. So, thank you."

Helia snorted as if to say took you long enough. Hop got off the bed of cotton and said, "Well what are we waiting for? Let's get to Cyllage City!" He walked toward the woods.

"Hop you're going in the wrong direction. We should be following the train tracks to Camphrier Town!" Tori shouted at his retreating figure. Hop turned around to face the train tracks and continued walking like nothing happened. Both Tori and Helia snickered.

Meanwhile, hidden beneath the twigs and leaves of the forest, Korrina watched as Tori followed Hop toward Camphrier Town. She glanced over at her Lucario on the neighboring tree, "It's so unfair, why can Team Rocket get to be so open."

Looker's voice cut over the intercoms, "Because they don't have a reputation to uphold."

Korrina almost fell off the tree after hearing his voice, "Looker, how nice to see you. Quick question, how long have you been here."

"Since you started talking about how you had a crush on Ash"

"Okay, I get it now," Korrina interrupted, she coughed loudly, "Anyway, Looker it seems like I was correct. Tori is indeed heading to Cyllage City."

"Great, do you know why Team Rocket is after Tori as well?" Looker asked.

Korrina shrugged, "Maybe for the Colress Machine as well."

"I don't think so, Giovanni already has a Colress Machine," Looker muttered speculatively, "Unless he wants to catch Tori to eliminate a threat," His voice returned to its normal commanding nature, "It doesn't matter, all we need to know now is that you now have a competitor, Korrina."

"And it'd be worse if Giovanni gets to Tori first," Korrina continued with Looker's line of logic.

"Precisely, so now it's even more important for you to catch Tori," Looker said ominously, "Because I fear what Giovanni may do with two Colress Machines in his grasp."