Chapter 4: Ace from the Past
I couldn't do anything but stare at the raging battle, all hope dying rapidly. Really the only advantage we had was our defensive position, hidden from view with the Rockets out in the open. That was the only thing stopping them from crushing Spencer's team and then killing the rest of us effortlessly.
The battlefield was a raging inferno. A shimmering Light Screen shielded our side from the worst of it, but the heat was still overwhelming. Even from where I stood, sweat dripped down my face constantly. Electabuzz was doing its best to paralyze the enemy, but it constantly had to retreat behind the rocks to avoid the blazing flames. Mightyena's soot-gray fur was charred black; its moves were sluggish, limbs shaking with burns. Arcanine darted around too fast to see, soaking up as many fire attacks as it could, but taking plenty of other hits in the process, and the firedog was already looking worn. Dewgong kept the fires at bay with constant bursts of water fired into the air and crashing down on the opposition. That was probably the only keeping the enemy Rapidash from getting close enough to attack us.
The executive watched the battle with an almost detached look. Of course she didn't have to focus. She knew she was going to win.
A small bit of movement near my feet caught my eye, and I looked down to see the experimental Pikachu twitching slightly. I had almost forgotten that I brought him with us—now I wasn't quite sure if it had been a good idea or not. He pulled his limbs underneath his body and attempted to raise himself from the ground, but couldn't stop trembling with exhaustion.
"You… you probably should save your strength," I said hesitantly.
Pikachu jerked his head toward me, looking disoriented. Like he instinctively wanted to lash out, but couldn't figure out how or why. After a few seconds, the experiment turned sharply toward the battlefield. Strings of electricity coursed through his feathers, slowly intensifying until, without warning, the hybrid collapsed face-down, muttering incoherently to himself.
I slowly let out a breath, a bit relieved. It was weird—I didn't want to risk Pikachu snapping and attacking one of us, but at the same time… I couldn't shake the feeling that he was our best chance at getting out of here.
At some point Rudy had let out Squirtle and was now fervently relaying instructions. The water-type nodded warily and took a few careful, timid steps out from behind cover. Then, upon seeing that he hadn't become an immediate target, he inhaled deeply and spat a lopsided ring of water across the battlefield. The attack splashed into the executive's Rapidash, who shook it off, looking more annoyed than hurt.
Rudy folded his arms. "Huh, that kinda sucked. Try it again—Water Pulse!"
Of course—he'd been teaching his Squirtle all kinds of moves while we were on the plane. I immediately reached into my pocket and grabbed the Fire Blast TM that Rudy had given me, running a finger over the glossy case that enclosed the red disc inside. Any little bit could help turn the tide of the battle in our favor… I had to use it.
"Firestorm, can I ask you something?"
The Charmander turned from where he'd been watching the battle with rapt attention. I held out the TM, pausing to find the right words.
"It's a Technical Machine," I explained. "Spencer's Pokémon can't handle this alone—if we're gonna get out of this, we need to help too."
(We? What could I do to help? Nothing, that was just it. I wasn't even his trainer.)
I forced the thought from my head and went on, "This thing will teach you how to use one of the strongest fire attacks there is. Would you be willing to learn it to help us fight them?"
Firestorm nodded almost immediately. Did he realize what he was agreeing to? How dangerous it was? (But what choice did we have, really?)
Swift watched with curious interest as I held the disc a few inches above Firestorm's forehead, flipped a small switch on its side to unlock it, and pressed the largest button. The disc glowed for a few seconds and began spinning—giving off some sort of wave, from what little I knew about TMs. Firestorm froze, looking like he'd been seized by some invisible force. Different parts of his body began to glow faintly. After nearly a minute, the disc slowed, and I pulled it away.
"How do you feel?" I asked, stepping back a bit so he could get into position.
The Charmander didn't move. He still looked a bit dazed, like he was stuck in a trance that he couldn't pull himself out of.
"…Firestorm?" I asked slowly, a bit puzzled. I'd never actually seen a Pokémon's reaction to a TM, so I had no idea if this was normal. I took one hesitant step towards him.
And then his gaze sharpened instantly. Shimmering waves of heat began to leak from the Charmander's mouth, like he couldn't hold it back. That was the only warning before his mouth snapped open and a column of flames poured out, sending his small figure reeling backwards from the force. So much fire that it almost looked ridiculous coming from him.
"Good, good!" I called out, shielding my face from the heat. "Now aim it at the Rockets' Pokémon!"
Firestorm furrowed his brow, looking a bit strained. With effort, he tilted his head downward, but that just caused the flame to spiral out of control, splitting into five branches that twisted wildly in different directions. The lizard's eyes went wide, and he tried to force his mouth shut, but the flames kept pouring out relentlessly. My face fell with dread. This wasn't supposed to happen.
"Did you teach the Charmander Fire Blast?!" Spencer exclaimed, running over to me.
"Err, yeah?" I replied, a sinking feeling growing inside me.
He clapped a hand to his forehead. "Aw crap, I should've warned you—pretty much everyone tries it at some point. Arcanine, block the flames!"
The firedog let out a bark and leaped right into the center of the blast, cutting off the torrent of flames and preventing it from streaming all over the place. Its fur glowed red with heat, but otherwise the Arcanine was unaffected. The whole attack probably only lasted a few seconds but it felt like ages. Finally, the stream of fire began to wane. Firestorm sank to the ground, coughing and sputtering, brightly glowing flares still dripping from his tiny fangs.
"Using a TM just gives a Pokémon the ability to do the move. They're not suddenly gonna be an expert at it without any practice. That goes double for the uber ones that're hard to control," Spencer explained while directing his Pokémon back into battle position.
I felt like shrinking into a corner somewhere. What had seemed like the only way I could help had backfired completely. I glanced down at the TM case, now noticing the label along the bottom corner that read "Rating: 120 (Highly Advanced)."
"I… I'm sorry—I didn't know…" I mumbled.
"It's okay," he cut in, trying to sound optimistic. "Arcanine blocked it from hitting the rest of my team. We're still behind, but I'm not counting us out just—"
A sudden blinding flash forced us to shield our eyes. Squinting through my fingers, I barely managed to make out a raging ball of red energy right before it plowed into the unsuspecting form of Spencer's Arcanine. Brilliant orange shock waves radiated out from the impact, digging deep into the firedog's body. With a garbled cry, Arcanine's powerful frame collapsed like a ragdoll.
"I… what? W-what the heck was that?" I stammered.
Spencer was frozen, unable to process what had just happened as he numbly reached for a Pokéball to recall his fallen Pokémon. Now visible in the middle of the battlefield was a stout crimson fox, panting hard as steam leaked from its body. Was… was it the one who had just done that?
"No. No, no, no, whyyy? That's not fair, I didn't even see that she had a Flareon out," Spencer said, his words strained. He pulled out his Pokédex and pointed it at the fire-type, smacking his forehead upon reading something. "Superpower. Really? It used Superpower? Can I just forfeit now or get a handicap or something?"
No one said anything. With Arcanine down, the executive's Pokémon were now free to throw as much fire around as they wanted. Not even Dewgong's water could a dent in it now—the ice seal cried out in pain, constantly bombarded with flames.
"I'm… I'm out of ideas," Spencer said. "Any time you two want to reveal that you've secretly been ace trainers all along, I'd love to hear it."
I looked miserably down at Firestorm. The fire lizard was still panting badly with embers dripping from his mouth. Swift sat next to him with feathers fluffed out, probably trying to comfort him.
"I don't know what to do." Just saying it made my blood run cold.
"Stop talking like that, you guys—we can't lose!" Rudy cried, but even his voice was starting to break. Squirtle was panting hard, tired out from attempting Water Pulse so many times.
We all stared at each other hopelessly as the flames raged on in the background. What else could we do? Already my brain was trying to grasp at ways that we could convince the executive to let us go, all of them equally stupid. There had to be some way out of this. There just had to.
And then without warning, a high-pitched screech tore the air. I glanced upward right as a piercing neon beam shot down from the sky, aimed straight at the Rockets' Pokémon. It struck them with a blinding flash of light, sending shock waves running through the earth.
"H-hyper Beam?" I stammered, my knees shaking from the beam's not-so-distant impact. I turned my gaze skyward, where I could barely make out something approaching us with terrifying speed. Leathery wings; long, spaded tail—it was an Aerodactyl. And as it neared, I could see that it had a rider.
"Hey, Jade!" the rider yelled.
I jolted in surprise. They weren't clearly visible yet, but I could never, ever forget that voice.
"It can't be…" I muttered.
When the winged Pokémon got within view, I could finally make out a petite teenaged girl riding on its back—fair-skinned with a bright, confident face and short, black hair blowing in the wind.
It really was her.
"No way… Ajia?!" I yelled.
Ajia was here. How? Why? It didn't make any sense. But I had no doubt that the approaching trainer was my old friend, even though I hadn't seen her in so long. The only thing I could do was raise a hand and wave, still in shock. Grinning slightly, Ajia waved back from atop the pterosaur.
"Who invited you here?!" Tyson shouted.
"Shut up, I'm the one handling this," the Rocket executive said, looking rather intrigued by the new arrival.
Raichu fired a bolt of lightning into the air, but Aerodactyl easily dodged it, swooping down to land behind the rocky ledge that we'd been using as cover. After unclipping herself from the Pokémon's flight harness, she slid down from its back, now standing next to me at about shoulder height.
"What's wrong, Jade? I thought you'd be happier to see me," she said, laughing and elbowing me lightly in the ribs.
That broke me out of my trance. Still, I felt more than a little overwhelmed as I struggled to find my words. "You… how—how are you here? I haven't seen you in… over a year, at least. Not since you left to train in Johto."
"I wanted to visit Viridian sooner, but I got caught up with things. And from the looks of it, so did you…" Her voice trailed off as she looked over the bizarre setting, from the mangled jet plane to the crowd of jeeps, the executive still glowering at us, and the hybrid Pikachu lying a few feet from me. The look she gave me next made me suddenly aware of the fact that I was still covered in soot. "…How did you even get involved in this mess?" she asked, rubbing the back of her head.
I put a hand to my forehead. "I don't even know anymore."
"Hi, guys. I love reunions, and the best way to bond at a reunion is to beat the crap out of the people that want to kill us with awesome top-class Pokémon that you totally have, am-I-right?" Spencer cut in rapidly with an overly hopeful look on his face.
"That's why I'm here," she said simply, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, I've got this." Spencer looked ready to collapse from relief.
Ajia turned sharply to face the battlefield with an expression that had shifted into intense focus. Spencer had just recalled his battered Dewgong into its ball, which left only Electabuzz and Typhlosion remaining in the fight—the former still desperately holding the opponents back with lightning, and the latter avoiding blows by popping in and out of the ground and striking unexpectedly. The bottom of the hill was scarred from the Hyper Beam, but none of the Rocket's Pokémon had fallen.
"She probably had Raichu put up a Light Screen at the last second—at least, I wouldn't expect anything less from her," Ajia muttered to herself. Her hands moved animatedly as she took stock of the Rocket's lineup before coming to a decision. "Raichu has to go down first—Pichu, you're up!"
She swung her bag down from her shoulder, and a small, pale-yellow mouse leaped out, instantly dashing into the fray. The very same Pichu she left Viridian with on that day nearly four years ago.
"She still hasn't evolved?" I asked, watching the nimble mouse skillfully ducking under her opponents and zapping them with small jolts of electricity.
"She didn't want to," Ajia replied with a shrug. "We've focused all our training on getting around it." She was already opening two more Pokéballs and giving out rapid-fire orders to her Pokémon.
An Espeon gave a flick of its forked tail before dashing into the fray. An Umbreon followed not far behind, squirting out a noxious liquid from its pores and hitting the Arcanine right on target. The dark fox didn't even try to dodge the overwhelming flames that followed, but it didn't even try to. It just stood its ground against the inferno, wincing slightly but looking like it could endure them all day. Overhead, Aerodactyl was tilting and rolling through the air, forcing the Raichu to waste all its energy just trying to land a hit, all while sending blades of air flying from its wingtips, keeping the Rapidash from breaking through the lineup.
Ajia nodded to herself. "Alright, this shouldn't be tooooo bad," she said. "Not the worst situation in the world. And they were already weakened a bit before I got here, so I should be able to come out on top."
I stared at her, chills running down my spine. Everything that she'd said was starting to come together. "Ajia, you've… have you fought Rockets before?"
The question made her pause, but then she nodded. And from the sound of things, she'd had much worse fights than this. Just what had she been doing since I lost contact with her?
My attention snapped back to the fight as Pichu darted past the executive's Flareon, easily dodging the fire fox's attempt to bite with fangs like hot iron. Raichu kept trying to charge up one of its huge lightning bolts but couldn't keep its concentration with Pichu firing energy stars into its face. Meanwhile, any of the opposing Pokémon trying to land a hit found themselves held in place by a psychic aura from Espeon. And in the moment it took them to shake off the telekinesis, they'd be easy targets for Aerodactyl, whose tongue was hanging out as it looped through the air, almost lazily enjoying its role.
I couldn't help staring in awe. Even though Ajia hadn't given any commands more complex than just move names, her team seemed to already know what kind of strategy she wanted them to use. Like she'd already spent time training them for this sort of melee. By now, half of the Rocket's Pokémon were covered in a toxic film, gradually dulling their movements the longer they had to struggle against Ajia's disruptive tactics. Sure, the opponents had ridiculously strong attacks, but it didn't matter if they couldn't pull any of them off.
A pitiful cry drew my attention to the executive's Arcanine. It had just collapsed, finally succumbing to poison and exhaustion. Seconds later, a red beam drew it back into its Pokéball.
"All right! One down!" Rudy exclaimed.
I had to admit, it was a huge relief. Finally, a real sign that it was possible for us to win this.
Ajia grinned to herself before pressing the attack. Aerodactyl finally got an opening to soar low over the battlefield, striking the earth and sending a Rock Slide cascading down the hill. Raichu tried to send more bolts toward the rock-type, but Umbreon kept hounding it up close, unfazed by the lightning. Espeon had leaped onto Rapidash's back, pelting the horse with psychic blasts no matter how hard it tried to buck the fox off. Ajia was winning. We were going to make it out of here.
And then a vicious howl echoed through the air, making Ajia's team all flinch. Wait, but that sounded like…? I edged over to get a better view of the Rockets and stared in disbelief. The executive's Arcanine was back in the fight, barking out Flamethrowers and looking completely refreshed.
Ajia slapped her forehead. "Of course they have a portable healer. They would have one of those, the cheats." Her brow furrowed, and for the first time since she'd arrived, Ajia looked slightly worried. I glanced back at the Rockets and finally spotted it—a sleek, capsule-like device almost like a rounded briefcase, held by one the grunts in the closest jeep.
"Could… could we try to destroy the healer?" I asked tentatively.
Ajia shook her head. "Those are combat jeeps—they'll have shields. We need a way to retreat. Aerodactyl should be able to fly with two riders, at least." She motioned to get Spencer's attention. "Er, sorry, I don't know your name."
"Spencer Dailey, at your service," he replied with a mock bow.
"Right—do you have any flying Pokémon big enough to carry anyone?"
Spencer's face fell immediately. "I, er—well, I did. Pidgeot got hurt bad at the start of the battle."
Ajia clicked her tongue. "How bad? I've got a revive for emergencies."
Spencer winced. "It was pretty bad. He'd need some serious healing just to carry me, let alone—" He paused, looking ready to smack himself. It took me a few seconds, but then then it hit me. We were idiots—there had been a massive box of healing supplies in the plane. If we'd only thought to grab some of them.
Ajia raised an eyebrow at the expressions of horror suddenly crossing our faces. "Let me guess—things just got worse? Really guys, this is enough surprises for one day."
"It's not that," I said, putting a hand over my face. "We left behind a huge crate of potions and such in the plane. If we had thought to bring them with us, we could have done the same thing the Rockets are doing now." Or better yet, we could have figured out a way to escape.
Ajia nodded, her expression tough to make out. She observed the plane's wreck and I could practically see the gears turning in her head. "So, we just need to figure out a way onto the plane. It'd be too difficult for us to make it over there while they've got any Pokémon out."
"And guns. Guns are pretty bad too," Spencer piped up.
"Don't worry, I've got a plan for that," Ajia said with a wink. "But as for the Pokémon, since they'll just get healed anytime we take one out…" Her eyes lit up, and she tapped a fist to her palm. "We just have to take them all out at the same time. Then we can storm the plane while they're being healed and get out of here, no problem."
Her enthusiasm was rubbing off—I couldn't help feeling a jolt of excitement, though it immediately gave way to doubt. "We have to knock them all out at once? How the heck are we supposed to do that?"
"Pii pika'chu pikaa."
The sudden voice in Pokéspeech caught me off guard, and I whirled around to see the experimental Pikachu finally pulling himself to his feet. He swayed a bit unsteadily, but kept his sharp gaze fixed on us.
"…What?" It took me several seconds to piece together that he wanted to help. "How are you supposed to—you're out of power, what could you possibly do?"
I hadn't meant to say it so bluntly. The hybrid's tail twitched angrily, and I flinched. But then, to my surprise, he called out to Pichu.
Pichu glanced back at her trainer in confusion in between ducking and weaving around opponents. Ajia looked just as puzzled for a few seconds, but also curious. So she gave Pichu the go-ahead, and Pichu rushed over to us.
Then Pikachu explained something at length to the both of them. He spoke too quickly for me to make out what he was saying, though Ajia seemed to have no trouble with it. Every so often I caught a few words like 'power' or 'knock out' or 'lightning rod.'
Throughout all of this, Ajia kept half of her focus on the battle, still giving commands to the rest of her team. Pichu was staring at Pikachu, looking half-impressed, and half like she thought he was insane. She glanced up at her trainer incredulously.
"Sounds weird, but he'd know his power better than we do," Ajia said, still facing the battle. "I say we go for it."
Pichu nodded and turned to Pikachu, who held a paw against the electric pouch on her cheek and closed his eyes in concentration. Strings of lightning began surging across his arm, flowing into him from the smaller mouse. He recoiled in pain, but kept his paw firmly in place. His breathing grew labored and his limbs trembled. Sparks leapt from his fur erratically. And yet he gave no sign that he wanted to stop.
"What exactly is going on here?" I asked, feeling horribly lost.
Ajia tilted her head, looking confused. "Didn't you hear what he—ohhh, right, I forgot you had trouble with Pokéspeech."
"Er, well… I'm a lot better than I used to be," I mumbled, feeling my cheeks go red. "Maybe not fluent, but…"
Ajia nodded, obviously realizing I didn't want to talk about it. "Well, Pichu is channeling her power supply into him. He said he could absorb it, but from the way he described his ability, it's… strange." She trailed off, looking both intrigued and puzzled. At least I wasn't the only one confused.
It took a few minutes for Pichu to drain her remaining power supply into Pikachu, and she had to pause several times. When it was finally done, Pichu slumped to the ground, exhausted. Pikachu slowly rose to his feet, fur standing on end and eyes filled with a renewed vigor. Still, something about his plan didn't make any sense.
"I don't get it," I said to him. "I understand that your power is—I don't know—more intense from being part Zapdos and all, but if she's just giving her power to you… what can you do with it that she can't?"
He paused heavily. And then, for the first time that I'd seen, he managed to wrench his face into something other than pain or rage: an ironic smile. "*Most Pokémon can't drain their whole power supply into one move. It's not natural. Their bodies can't handle it. But me? I have a hard time not doing that.*"
Ajia kneeled down and scooped up the small, sad form of her drained Pichu, gently placing the mouse in her bag. Then she turned to the rest of us and asked, "Is everyone ready?"
Pikachu was the first one to nod, saying, "*Raichu is the only problem. He'll be able to deflect some of my lightning.*"
Ajia nodded. "Alright, so we pretty much have to ditch strategy and take out that Raichu however possible. Sounds fun. Got any sure-shot moves?"
It took Spencer a second to realize that she had addressed that last bit to him. "Oh? Oh, yeah! Typhlosion, Electabuzz—use Swift!" he yelled, pointing straight at Raichu.
"Umbreon, Faint Attack! Espeon, Swift! Aerodactyl, Aerial Ace!" Ajia ordered.
Raichu recoiled in surprise and tried to make a break for it, but was there was no dodging the ridiculous barrage of attacks aimed at him. Energy discs, blades of wind, bursts of shadow—Raichu cried out in pain as he was smacked between one attack after another. The Rocket executive shot a murderous glare at us, but she had no choice but to recall him.
"Alright, it's now or never!" Ajia exclaimed motioning for her Pokémon to return to her side.
Typhlosion ducked underground again, and Electabuzz stumbled back to where we stood, bruised, burned, and exhausted. Rudy recalled Squirtle, which made me realize that I'd need to do the same for Swift and Firestorm. I flashed an apologetic look to the Charmander as I held out his Pokéball, but he didn't protest, so I recalled him.
Only the experiment remained standing between us and the Rocket's Pokémon. We didn't have much time before Raichu would be fully healed again. Had to make it count.
"*This ends now,*" Pikachu said. A flash of hate flickered in his eyes.
He raced down the hill into the fray, an explosion of sparks leaping off his body. It wouldn't have even been right to describe the ensuing lightning as bolts; more like a flood of electricity pouring from every inch of his body with no way to hold it back. The Rocket's Pokémon countered with a rush of fire, but they were no match. The wave of lightning broke through the flames like they were nothing, completely enveloping the enemy lineup. One by one, all of the Rocket's Pokémon collapsed to the ground.
But there was no stopping the flood of lightning. I wasn't sure Pikachu could have controlled it even if he'd wanted to. Huge bolts shot from his body at random, most of them flying into the air, others hurtling toward the Rockets. They didn't even get a chance to run—all of them standing outside the jeeps collapsed instantly. I couldn't help wincing—it was strange to see our attackers suddenly rendered so… helpless.
And then, just as suddenly as it began, the flood of lightning abruptly ended, giving way to erratic bursts of sparks right before Pikachu collapsed. The whole thing couldn't have lasted more than thirty seconds, but it had felt like ages. I couldn't help tensing up—time to move.
"That's our cue!" Ajia called out. Her team immediately huddled around her in a defensive formation.
Spencer motioned to Typhlosion, who spewed a thick cloud of smoke down the hill, completely surrounding the Rockets. Then he gave Electabuzz an apologetic look and said, "Just a little more, buddy, we're almost free." The electric-type grunted with fatigue, but joined Ajia's defensive lineup.
Next, Ajia turned to me and Rudy and said, "You two hop on Aerodactyl, the rest of us will follow on foot." We didn't need telling twice—both of us jumped up and got positioned on the winged reptile's back, tightly gripping the straps on its harness.
"Everyone ready? Let's move out!"
Aerodactyl vaulted into the air, and I clutched the straps for dear life as my stomach suddenly flipped upside down. Oh man, was I not ready for my first flight to be on something this fast. For the first few seconds I screwed my eyes shut, refusing to look down. But then… I had to know if Ajia and Spencer were alright on the ground. So I opened my eyes just a crack, and barely caught a glimpse of two figures sprinting down the hill as quickly as possible, surrounded on all sides by Pokémon. It was hard to see them clearly through the smoke, but the Rockets must have noticed them—my heart stopped as gunfire broke out.
But Ajia's plan worked—most of the shots completely missed. One or two bullets pinged uselessly off of Protect shields. I let out the breath I'd been holding, then immediately held it again as Aerodactyl tucked its wings and swooped forward and shot straight through the hole in the back of the jet. Then it flared its wings to kill our momentum, and I nearly toppled right over its head before we all came to a stop in the middle of the cargo bay.
My limbs shook as I slid down from the reptile's back. Rudy looked a bit nauseous and muttered, "That would have been so cool if we weren't running for our lives."
Not far behind us, Ajia and Spencer leaped through the hole almost weightlessly, glowing with the aura of Espeon's telekinesis. Ajia paused just long enough to recall the psychic-type before racing forward to meet us, holding the experimental Pikachu under one arm.
"I grabbed him from the battlefield," she said, thrusting the spiky furball into my arms.
I blinked confusedly, taking several seconds to process what had just happened. My brain attempted to form the words, "He's not mine," but Ajia cut me off by asking Spencer where the healing supplies were.
"O-oh, right, they were near the front of the plane last I saw them," he replied.
Ajia nodded, and the two of them dashed off through the maze of boxes and crates. I stood there with Rudy, unable to do anything but wait, now uncomfortably aware of the clock ticking down until the Rockets' Pokémon would be healed.
"Found them!" Ajia exclaimed, and the two soon reappeared, carrying the box.
Spencer released his Pidgeot, and they immediately began spraying the massive bird with nearly every medicine they could get their hands on. Slowly, the blackened skin and feathers began to heal. Once most of the visible damage was gone, Spencer pressed a small yellow crystal against the bird's head, and it finally snapped awake.
"Hey bud, feeling better?" Spencer asked as Pidgeot stumbled to its feet—still a bit dazed and weak, but clearly in much better shape than before.
"Alright! Time to get out of here and never get captured by Rockets again! Sound good? I thought so, now get over here Rudy!" Spencer called out.
Not wasting any time, Rudy sprinted over and jumped on behind Spencer while Ajia ran over to me and the two of us mounted her Aerodactyl. Both Pokémon outstretched their wings, and I barely had a few seconds to brace myself before we took off. Aerodactyl shot forward, straight through the opening at the back of the jet, nearly throwing me off with its speed. I clenched my teeth and struggled to keep my grip on the harness straps, all while holding the Pikachu tucked under my arm.
Suddenly, Aerodactyl swerved to the left to avoid a streak of lightning that tore past us, rending the air with an earsplitting crack. I barely caught a glimpse of the Raichu sparking wildly beneath us, apparently fully healed. So they'd managed to heal it in time. But then the sickening realization hit me—Pidgeot hadn't been fast enough to avoid the mouse's Thunder last time.
I threw a glance over my shoulder to see Spencer and Rudy trailing behind us. Time slowed, and my insides froze as the Raichu prepared for another attack. They weren't going to make it.
And then without warning, Pidgeot accelerated out of nowhere, speeding forward to catch up with us and narrowly avoiding the lightning bolt that was aimed straight at them.
"Ha! I knew it'd be good to give you a dose of that X Speed in there!" Spencer exclaimed wildly, patting his bird's neck.
I couldn't even see the Rockets anymore, that's how fast we were speeding away from them. My eyes were wide and my breathing shallow and I could hardly believe what had just happened, but none of that mattered because we'd made it.