Chapter 12: The Incarnation of Thunder

I felt movement. My eyes snapped open suddenly, blinking in the darkness of the grunt quarters. The tiniest sound of something vibrating caught my ear. Somewhere in the back of my mind, beyond the cloud of sleep, I realized that it was important. But… why?

Wait. It was my communicator. That was definitely important. My hands fumbled around, trying to find where I'd stashed it, before brushing against the device hiding under my pillow. I cupped my fingers over the screen so it wouldn't light up the room as I checked it.

I'd gotten a text from Liam. And from the looks of it, he'd sent the message to everyone on the Rebellion: "Just got to the mission spot. Check the coordinates on this message. I already told Stalker it's on now."

My breath froze in my chest. The mission was on. Right now? What time was it? 3 in the morning. No wonder there was a faint voice in the back of my head saying I shouldn't be awake.

The room, though still dark, had a faint glow about it. I turned to glance around and saw a couple of other rebels checking their communicators. Suddenly, another message appeared—one sent by Sasha to all of the Cerulean rebels that were still here: "We need to leave one at a time to avoid suspicion, so text the group when you're leaving, and then again when you make it outside. I'll go first."

Minutes crept by in the darkness. Every so often my ears caught the faint sounds of someone removing their covers and tiptoeing across the room. Then a small wave of light from them opening the door out into the hallway. I hardly dared to breathe. Part of me still expected a Rocket to barge in all of a sudden and demand to know why we were awake.

But nothing happened. Three rebels had left the room so far. Sooner or later, I'd have to join them. And then, if we made it out of the base, we'd have to make it to the mission location. And then, once we were there, we'd still have to be on guard to not get spotted. This was all way too much to handle at 3am. Yeah… the fact that it was 3am was the problem. I could've handled it at any other time.

Somehow, I still didn't believe that. But I'd been able to keep my nerves on the S.S. Anne, and I'd been alone then, not surrounded by allies. Then again… I hadn't been alone, had I? I'd had Chibi with me. Up until the point when he—no. I didn't need to think about what had happened to him. Not now.

This wasn't helping. No more thinking, just doing. I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and then texted the group that I'd be going next.

I slid myself out of bed as carefully as I could, taking care not to wake any of the grunts in the room that weren't rebels. I grabbed my Rocket uniform and quickly got dressed in the locker room before slipping out into the hallway.

It was late enough that almost no one else was awake. I could hear the faintest sounds of a few Pokémon training in the battlefield, and some voices coming from the mess hall, but that was about it. Perfect, now I just needed to make it to the elevator without anyone seeing me, and—

The moment the thought entered my head, a Rocket stepped out from one of the side rooms and strode down the hallway in my direction. Almost every muscle in my body froze, save for my legs, which were on autopilot. What was the best way to not look suspicious? Should I walk like I had somewhere important to be? Try to keep it casual? I was just getting up for a midnight snack. No, that wasn't it, the mess hall was in the opposite direction. Think! There had to be some reason I was out of bed. Anything? I was almost about to pass him with the most clueless and guilty face in existence.

But the Rocket walked right past me, his eyes glued to his tablet, not even giving a side glance in my direction. I blinked. That was it? He didn't even care?

Then again… did any random Rocket going about their business have any reason to suspect anything of another random Rocket? I guess if I'd run into Karen or something, that would've been bad. But what were the odds of her being up this late?

I shook my head slightly. I was being stupid. As far as everyone was concerned, I was a Rocket. I had every reason to be here, and I was just going for a late-night walk to get some fresh air. That was it.

I swiped my ID to use the elevator back to the main floor, then cautiously stepped out into the lobby. It was dark and deserted… good. While there was nothing wrong with a handful of grunts leaving the base one after the other at this hour, it was still impossible to shake the fear that if too many of us were seen too close together, it'd raise some red flags.

The front entrance was locked for the night, so I slipped out the members-only side exit, emerging from the Rocket HQ into an empty city alleyway. Streetlights and the occasional car headlights illuminated the darkness. The sidewalks were nearly empty, with the closest person being two city blocks away.

I was outside the base. I leaned against the building and let out the breath I'd been holding. The warm summer night's air swept over me, and I couldn't help closing my eyes and inhaling deeply. I could actually feel the tension leaving my body from being outside and away from the constant need to be on guard.

Still, much as I wanted to, I couldn't relax just yet. We had a mission.

I joined the Group 1 rebels in the park across the street, and within fifteen minutes, the rest of the Cerulean rebels had all gathered outside, glancing around nervously and waiting for Sasha's Kadabra to return (it had gone with the Group 5 rebels to memorize the mission location before coming back to get the rest of us.) Luckily, we didn't have to wait long until the golden humanoid appeared before us in a flash of shimmering light, twirling a spoon between its claws.

My turn came up sooner than I would have liked. There was no going back now. My heart pounded in my chest as I stepped forward to teleport with the psychic-type. Just like last time, my surroundings dissolved into light and all of my senses disconnected before everything suddenly snapped back into focus.

I now stood in a densely forested area. Darkness hung over the surrounding—there wasn't even any moonlight. In fact, the only light at all was the glow cast by what looked like spotlights off in the distance, beyond the trees. The rest of the Rebellion was scattered in that direction; Liam waved the newcomers over.

"Okay, so here's the deal," one of the Viridian rebels said as soon as we had all gathered around. "They've got a strike team out there hunting it down right now, herding it to this location so they can nail it with all their Pokémon at once."

I took my first look at the Rockets' setup. Twelve flatbed trucks sat in a wide circle around a clearing not far from us. Each of them carried a large piece of machinery in the back, which opened at the top to reveal a tall, black antenna surrounded by thick, silver coils. The coils gave off a low hum. I shivered; just looking at them struck me with an uneasy feeling.

"That's the new tech they're gonna use to trap it," Liam said. "I heard someone call it the Thunder Field."

Which meant that our mission would almost definitely involve sabotaging it. The only question was… how hard would that be?

"Also… we were wrong about the target. It's Raikou."

Raikou? A guardian of Johto, just like Entei. Sure, Alec had said that it sometimes roamed Kanto as well, but why were the Kanto Rockets going after the Johto beasts? Wouldn't it be better to leave that to the Johto force?

All around the clearing, officers and executives worked to finish setting up equipment. In the end, one Rocket each was left to man the Thunder Field components on each truck. That was a problem. How would we get over there without being seen?

Rudy wandered over to stand at my side, his eyes wide. "Holy crap, this is intense. We're actually going to see a Legendary, right here." His voice was shaking—with enthusiasm or fear, I couldn't quite tell. Probably both.

"Try not to get too excited. We've got to keep it from getting the crap kicked out of it, after all," Darren said simply.

"Not if Raikou kicks the crap out of the Rockets," Rudy countered. I couldn't really argue with that, although I highly doubted it. Not after what I'd seen happen to Entei.

"Alright, we don't have much time left, time to get a plan together," Sasha announced, grabbing everyone's attention.

"Is Stalker going to be here?" a small voice asked. It had come from one of the youngest kids on the Rebellion. The question caught me off guard. It honestly hadn't occurred to me to wonder whether or not he'd be helping us, but now it seemed like a completely obvious question.

"He's not coming," Ray said flatly. If he was frustrated or content with that fact, I couldn't tell. "It's way riskier for him to get caught than any of us."

I raised an eyebrow. It… really didn't seem right to put it like that. I mean, I guess in a way it was true—if Stalker was discovered, the Rebellion was over, while if one of us was spotted, the rest of the team would still go on. But… seriously? Our goal was to make sure that none of us got caught.

But no one said anything. Zoe patted a few of the younger rebels on the shoulder reassuringly, while Liam just glared at Ray, his usual optimism gone.

Mai groaned. "Come on, everyone. What do you think you've been training for? We can do this without Stalker."

"What she means to say," Sasha cut in through gritted teeth, "is that there's a lot of us, and they're not expecting any sabotage, so we've got the upper hand for now."

I glanced around at the rebels. It was pretty obvious which ones, like me, hadn't actually considered if Stalker would be here or not. Everyone else's faces were streaked with fear and disappointment.

"I… guess if we're making plans now, it's a safe bet we'll need to destroy the Thunder Field?" I asked, hoping to move things along.

Sasha nodded. "We'll have to sneak over and knock out the technician manning each truck without being seen, so sleep moves are probably best. Which groups have at least one Pokémon with a sleep move?"

I raised my hand, along with several others. After all, Darren's Ivysaur had Sleep Powder.

Sasha counted out nine groups from the rebels who had raised their hands. "Alright, you guys will take one truck per group. Sabotage as much as you can without calling attention to yourselves. As for everyone else…" She paused, looking uncertain.

"Someone's gotta make sure Raikou doesn't get caught by the time you guys get the Thunder Field down… right?" a Viridian rebel offered.

"How are you gonna do that?" another asked, tilting her head.

"Well, it's gonna be chaos with that many Rockets all fighting Raikou at once, right? I hardly think they'll notice if a few extra Pokémon slip into the lineup."

Ray looked skeptical. "The fight's gonna be brutal. Your Pokémon would have to stay out of Raikou's way, and also not get spotted helping it." I shivered. That sounded way more intimidating than just knocking out a single Rocket.

"My Pokémon all know Dig," the same rebel replied proudly. "And I think a few 'accidental misses' aren't exactly gonna be obvious in that kind of melee."

"You're in charge of that squad then. Make sure no one does anything stupid or obvious—I can't be everywhere," Ray ordered.

"Target is nearing our location. Pokémon out now!" an executive called out.

I tensed up instantly. Everyone on the Rebellion froze. This was it—the battle was starting. Every Rocket in the crowd on the opposite side of the clearing threw out two or three Pokéballs, releasing a massive lineup of enemy Pokémon. At least thirty or forty of them now stood in a widespread crowd off to one side of the area within the Thunder Field. And these were combat unit Rockets—they almost definitely had more Pokémon in reserve that were being saved for later in the battle.

A distant rumble of thunder echoed throughout the air. Gusts of wind howled over the forest, and between the rustling treetops, I could just barely make out the violently churning cloud cover rolling toward us. So it was true, then… what they said about Raikou being able to generate thunderstorms.

Sudden flashes of light, each one brighter than the last, caught my eye, dragging my attention to the opposite end of the clearing.

It was here.

A massive beast shot through the trees in a burst of lightning, skidding to a stop in the middle of the clearing and throwing a glare back at its pursuers. Its gigantic, muscular frame tensed up beneath a thick coat of golden, black-striped fur. A jagged, lightning bolt tail twitched anxiously. The beast swiveled around, taking in the details of the surrounding trap, and then I got my first good look at its face, from pointed black ears to steely blue whiskers to the nightmarishly long saber teeth. Piercing reddish eyes fixed on the Rockets' Pokémon lineup, and the electric-type let out a deafening roar, echoing like the crashing of thunder and gripping every inch of my body. The sound faded, but my arms and legs wouldn't stop shaking.

This was the Legendary Beast of Thunder.

The Rockets stood frozen on the spot. There was no way they could go through with this. Not now that they'd seen its terrifying presence firsthand. No way.

"Trappers at the ready!"

Several Pokémon within the lineup—most of them ghosts—started glowing with an eerie red aura before fixing Raikou with a piercing stare, causing the same red aura to form around the Legendary's body. It was trapped now—that aura would prevent it from straying too far from the source.

I clenched my fists. They were seriously still going to try it?

Raikou didn't try to run. It clearly understood what had just taken place, and shook its head ever so slightly. For the longest time it just stood there, staring down the Rockets' Pokémon, daring them to make a move. Finally, the tiger opened its mouth and spoke, its words a low, reverberating growl, "*The humans are the ones responsible for this. Stand down, and you will be spared.*"

Some of the Rockets' Pokémon shifted uncomfortably, but none moved from where they were standing. The front of the lineup took a fighting stance, the traces of fear in their eyes overshadowed by determination.

Raikou stared, its expression impossible to make out. It gave a slow, solemn nod.

"*Then I shall not hold back.*"

Sparks leaped off the violet, cloudlike mane on the tiger's back, giving way to a flood of lightning shooting every direction and covering an area half the size of the clearing. But just seconds later, the electricity was wrenched towards the trucks encircling the clearing, absorbed into the coils of the Thunder Field. Raikou's eyes widened with shock before narrowing again. It snarled and crouched low, gathering more electricity around itself, this time firing it in a single thunderbolt, striking the heart of the machine. Jagged strings of lightning leaped off the impact point, but within seconds, the attack was completely absorbed just like the first one.

Raikou bared its teeth, frustration crossing its features for just a second. It then turned back toward its opponents and let loose another blood-curdling roar before lunging. A golden blur shot forward almost too fast to see, colliding with the Rockets' lineup and knocking down the first Pokémon it met with its oversized claws. The target, an Ursaring, lashed out at the tiger with a glowing fist, but couldn't land a hit before seven-inch fangs tore open its neck. The bear's eyes widened with shock as blood gushed from the wound, soaking the ground before it collapsed in a heap. Muzzle splattered with crimson, Raikou pulled back from its target right before a horde of five or six enemy Pokémon all leaped onto it at once. The beast fell to the ground, snarling viciously and flailing its claws at anything coming too close. A handful of enemy Pokémon recoiled backwards, clutching wicked gashes to the side or face, but sheer numbers won out, and the tiger was overrun.

I couldn't look away. It was impossible not to stare at the spectacle unfolding before us. My eyes hurt from being open so long. Every inch of my body had gone numb. But I was still staring stupidly at the carnage, unable to think. What was I supposed to be doing? How could we possibly do anything to affect the outcome of a battle like this?

"Come on. They're all focused on the battle, time to move," Ray said bluntly.

I blinked, feeling like I'd been jerked from a stupor. Groups of rebels were breaking off from the main gathering and bolting towards the trucks. With their black uniforms and the cover from the trees, they were almost invisible.

Rudy shook my arm to grab my attention. I jerked suddenly, spinning around to face him.

"We gotta go," he said urgently.

"You can panic later," Darren added.

I took a few deep breaths to steady myself before nodding. No time to panic. We had to do this. The three of us crept towards one of the trucks that hadn't yet been targeted by one of the other rebel groups. A single Rocket stood on the truck bed alongside the control panel for the Thunder Field. He faced away from us, watching the battle.

The chaos and commotion of the fight was easily loud enough to mask the sound of a Pokéball being opened. Ivysaur materialized in front of Darren, who motioned to the rest of us to step back. At his command, the grass-type crawled forward until he was right alongside the wheels of the truck before unleashing a cloud of sparkling blue powder from the flower bud on his back. The Rocket jerked slightly upon inhaling the powder. For a few brief seconds he glanced around as though trying to figure out where it had come from before slumping to the ground, out cold.

The problem was that now the entire truck was surrounded by sleep powder, and we couldn't risk breathing it in ourselves. Except… wait, I'd fought enough powder users to have an easy fix for that. I whipped out a Pokéball and released Swift.

"We need a Gust to clear out the Sleep Powder over there," I said. The Pidgeotto nodded wordlessly before taking flight and flapping his wings rapidly to produce a swirling vortex of wind around the truck. With the violent sounds of the ongoing battle and the rumble of the overhead storm, you could barely hear anything. That was at least one thing we had in our favor.

Once the last trace of powder had been swept away, I walked over and pulled myself up onto the back of the flatbed truck, now face to face with the massive, boxy machine at the foot of the lightning rod. Every hair on my body stood on end—the prickly feeling of the static charge around the machine was impossible to ignore.

"Alright. Sabotage. Sounds fun, where do we start?" Darren asked once he had climbed up.

Good question. I glanced around the glowing control panel on the front of the mechanism, which was covered in way too many dials and switches. Somehow I didn't imagine pressing all of them at random would be the best course of action. But on the far back, near the grate that kept the antenna out of reach, I spotted a very large, important-looking switch. If any of these was gonna be an off switch, it was that one. I grabbed it with both hands and pulled hard. It swung heavily towards me and clicked into place.

I leaped back from the machine, staring up at the lightning rod. Seconds passed, but… nothing appeared to have happened. Lights still glowed on the console, and the machine continued to hum.

"Of course. I don't know why I expected it to be that easy," I grumbled.

"Good try though," Darren said. I couldn't tell if his tone was mocking or sincere, and honestly didn't care at the moment.

Rudy stepped in front of me. "Alright, my turn! Water fries electronics, right?" he said, releasing Wartortle. "Water Gun, all over the controls!"

The turtle nodded and spat out a powerful stream of water all over the console with a violent splash. The spray of water filled the air as Wartortle kept up the blast, although after several seconds he tilted his head, looking a bit perplexed. He glanced back at Rudy uncertainly before stopping the attack. Water dripped down the front of the machine harmlessly; the lights continued to glow.

"What, nothing? That's stupid!" Rudy stomped a foot against the truck bed. "Let's just set it on fire, no way it'll survive that."

"I think the Rockets might notice something if we set it on fire," Darren replied. "Which is cool if that's what you're going for, but probably not?"

Rudy folded his arms and didn't say anything more.

A horrifying snarl snapped my attention back to the battle. Raikou had just broken free from the horde of enemy Pokémon and sprinted away from them as fast as its legs could carry. But it barely managed to clear thirty yards before crashing to a halt, its entire body gripped by the red aura of Mean Look. Raikou glared back at the Pokémon already charging at it before rushing in and locking its jaws around the gaseous body of a Haunter, fangs cloaked in dark energy. The ghost immediately cried out and went limp, but just as it was recalled, three more Pokémon leaped onto the tiger, pinning it down.

Raikou shook off its attackers and sprang back, crouching defensively and putting up a shimmering wall of light around its body. A Rhydon pulled back a glowing arm, slamming it into the electric-type. A resounding thud echoed from the barrier diffusing the force of the attack, and the tiger didn't waste a second. It rushed forward and tore into the armored beast's vulnerable underbelly, giant claws shredding through flesh and splattering blood onto its face until it was wrenched off by the rock-type's teammate.

It hit me with a sickening realization. Raikou had no spread attacks other than its lightning. Without that, it was reduced to attacking things one-on-one, with a flurry of claws and fangs and even a distorted light attack I couldn't identify. There was no way for it to take out all the Pokémon trapping it at once.

Then again… it wasn't like the Rockets weren't suffering either. Any Pokémon unfortunate enough to take even a single blow from Raikou was instantly knocked out. Some of them could still be recalled. Others couldn't.

The chaos of the battlefield was working against them another way. The huge melee made it difficult for those on the outside to land a blow without hitting one of their teammates… but I could have sworn the ghost-types trapping Raikou were pelted by stray moves slightly more often. And by now the ground underneath them was littered with holes from Pokémon using Dig—it was hard to see, but when I fixed my eyes on one hole in particular, I caught sight of a paw swinging in Raikou's general direction, but missing and tripping one of the Rockets' Pokémon instead.

So a few of the rebels had managed to infiltrate the lineup. Maybe this wasn't a lost cause.

"This is crazy, we should be doing something," Rudy muttered through gritted teeth.

"Well yeah… but what?" I asked. But then I saw Darren fumbling with a panel on the console. He pulled it free, revealing a tangled web of wires in the heart of the machine. I almost felt like kicking myself. Of course we needed to get at its insides. How stupid could we be?

Darren grabbed a Pokéball off his belt to release his Sandshrew. The yellow-scaled Pokémon drew back its clawed forepaws and slashed repeatedly at the wires inside the machine, sending sparks flying everywhere. I leaped back to avoid a sudden wave of them, then glanced back at the machine excitedly. Several lights on the console suddenly went dead, and my heart skipped a beat. But then… the lightning rod continued to give off the same low, electric hum. The same static charge filled the air. Nothing had changed.

"Huh. I thought that'd work," Darren said, frowning.

The brief glimmer of hope sputtered and died. What were we doing? We couldn't even figure out how to sabotage one machine. Were the other groups doing better than us? I glanced back in the direction of the forest and could just barely make out dark shapes moving from the trucks back to the meeting spot. Great, the others were regrouping. That could only mean they'd succeeded… or that they'd failed just like we had.

"I'm thinking we probably should've come up with ideas before splitting up," Darren said flatly.

I clenched my fists. He was right; we really hadn't thought this through at all. I'd just figured we'd come up with something once we got here. But… wait. If any of the others had figured out how to take these things down, then they could let the rest of us know how to do it, right? It was worth a shot, at least.

"Come on, let's regroup with the others," I said, gesturing in that direction. "Maybe some of them figured out a way to take these things out."

Rudy gaped at me. "Seriously?"

"Well it's better than just standing here doing nothing!" I shot back.

He didn't have a retort for that. He just folded his arms and muttered, "Ugh, fine."

The three of us recalled our Pokémon. My legs were on autopilot as we jumped down from the truck and made our way back to the rest of the group. By now most of the rebels had returned, save for the ones still helping out in the battle.

"Any luck?" Sasha asked everyone.

"No good, we threw everything we could think of at it, but it's still going," one of the rebels replied. "We were kind of afraid to go too far and get captured or something." Several other groups muttered similar excuses. I didn't want to say anything. I kind of just felt like melting into the ground.

"Anyone?" Mai demanded, looking more anxious than frustrated.

One mission group raised their hands. "All the lights went dead on ours and it stopped making any noise," one of them said. "I think we broke it?"

"Same here," a second added. Behind them a third group of rebels raised their hands.

"That makes… what, three of 'em dead?" I asked. Three out of twelve. Would that be enough? How could we tell?

"Also, I've been thinking about something… even if the Thunder Field does go down, how do we let Raikou know?" Liam asked.

I blinked. That honestly had never occurred to me at all. No one else had an answer either. And all the while, the battle continued to rage on. The Rockets' lineup was noticeably smaller now, but with fewer Pokémon to get in each other's way, they were getting bolder. The rebel Pokémon amongst the lineup had no choice but to hang back now—there were nowhere near enough fighters for their sabotage to go unnoticed.

Chunks of rock tore themselves up from the ground, burying Raikou in avalanche of boulders. Muffled snarls resounded from underneath the rock slide just before the ground erupted with a burst of energy almost like magma. The electric-type struggled to pull itself free of the heap only to be struck by a blast of flames.

And then a Pokéball hurtled through the air toward the battlefield. Raikou's eyes widened with shock right before it lunged out of the way, letting the ball fly past where it had stood not a moment earlier. The Legendary circled around the opposing Pokémon lineup as quickly as it could, putting as much distance as possible between itself and the Rockets. But its movements were slowing, its muscles quivering, pelt soaked red with blood in between scattered patches of blackened fur. More Pokéballs flew through the air.

I felt my insides vanish. The Pokéballs were purple. I'd only ever heard of one purple-colored Pokéball. The Master Ball. The Saffron rebels were right—Team Rocket had Master Balls.

None of this was supposed to happen. This wasn't like last time, with me standing alone, watching Entei get mobbed and being powerless to stop it. There were thirty-six of us here. We'd been training for weeks. And yet we still couldn't stop them?

"Why don't we just blow up the antennas?" Reed asked.

I almost snorted. After all this time, somehow the concept of "don't get spotted" still hadn't sunk into everyone.

Mai facepalmed. "Are we trying to advertise ourselves to the Rockets now?"

With a shrug, Reed replied. "Not if they don't see us do it. And that way Raikou will know it can go free."

Sasha opened her mouth to protest, but then froze, like she couldn't believe she was actually considering it.

I blinked. Wait… the whole problem with an explosion was that it would instantly give us away and we'd have Rockets on our tail. But if we could somehow destroy one from a distance and never be seen doing it, they'd have no idea it was an inside job. Plus, it'd mean that by the time they figured out what had happened, we'd all be long gone.

Realization dawned on Ray's face. "That's… actually not a terrible idea," he said slowly. "How do we pull it off?"

"Launch all of our attacks at it at once?" Kris asked.

"Hyper Beam!" Rudy called out excitedly.

Mai rolled her eyes and turned to her teammate. "Got anything, Sasha?"

"So I'm the plan one now?" she replied, raising an eyebrow. "I never volunteered to be."

"You're good at it," Mai said bluntly.

Sasha laughed. "A compliment? From you? I'll take it." She then paused, furrowing her brow in deep thought. "Does… does anyone have a Pokémon with Self-Destruct?"

A huge grin spread across Reed's face. "I've got Voltorb!"

"I have a Geodude," another rebel added.

"I actually caught a Pineco the day before we left for the base," a third said. "I haven't trained it much, but I can ask if it knows Self-Destruct?"

"But how do we recall our Pokémon after the explosion without being seen?"

Everyone paused. That was a tough one. While the rest of us could easily stay out of view, it wasn't like we could just leave the Pokémon behind. But there had to be some way to recall them quickly without becoming a massive target.

"I'll do it," Ray said all of a sudden. "I can fly down, recall them all in midair, then fly away. The rest of you can all hide and they won't ever have to know there was a group here."

Sasha raised an eyebrow. "How will you escape?"

"My Fearow is fast."

"Uh uh, no, that's stupid. You're taking Kadabra whether you like it or not," she said, thrusting the Pokéball into his hands.

Ray blinked at it a few times, but then shrugged and pocketed it without complaint. Throughout the crowd, five rebels had released their Pokémon and were explaining the situation before recalling them and handing the Pokéballs to Ray.

And with that, the rest was up to him. Ray pulled his hat so low over his face that he was unrecognizable before sprinting forward to the closest truck and releasing his Heracross and Reed's Voltorb. While Heracross dragged away the body of the unconscious Rocket at each truck, Ray planted the Self-Destructing Pokémon at the five lightning rods farthest from the main grouping of Rockets. When he was done, he recalled his bug-type and released his Fearow. The shaggy bird stood nearly as tall as he did, outstretching a pair of long, narrow wings as he climbed onto its back. It almost didn't look like the Pokémon would be big enough to carry him, but with a few powerful wingbeats, the two of them were airborne.

Silence fell over everyone. Even the sounds of the raging battle in the background barely seemed to exist anymore. All eyes focused on the Pokémon on the trucks, which would have been barely noticeable from here if we didn't already know where to look. Any second now…

Ray swung his arm into the air, and the reaction was immediate. Five explosions, one after the other, engulfed the Thunder Field machinery in a bright flash of yellow energy as a loud crunch and the squealing of metal filled the air. Waves of sparks shot out of the devices, and—holy crap one of them was actually tipping over! The lightning rod swayed side to side, metal groaning before finally giving way and swinging down towards the battle. It struck the ground with a heavy thud, sending half the Rockets' Pokémon leaping into the air with shock.

I'd say that definitely got Raikou's attention. It also got the Rockets' attention. A loud string of curses rang out from the opposite side of the clearing as the Rockets immediately scattered, trying to find the source of the destruction.

And then Ray's Fearow shot downward in a crazy dive, pulling up at the last second to soar just inches above the ground. In an impossibly fast motion, he whipped out one Pokéball after another, recalling the fainted Pokémon at each truck while still flying. I couldn't help staring—even though he'd planned to do that all along, it was another thing seeing it in motion.

Fearow pulled up from the ground just in time to shoot over the Rockets' heads, and Ray threw in a dramatic wave for good measure before the two of them flew off. The reaction was immediate. At least a dozen flying-type Pokémon appeared in a flash of white light, pausing just long enough to let their trainers mount before taking off in hot pursuit.

But the Rockets wouldn't catch him. Ray was speeding away in the opposite direction of our main group. Now all he had to do was land and use Sasha's Kadabra to teleport a safe distance away. And such a massive distraction would definitely give the rebels in the Rockets' lineup the chance they needed to recall their Pokémon and quietly disappear into the forest. So as far as the Rockets knew, they were thwarted by a single rebel acting alone, and not the combined efforts of all of us. They had no reason to suspect it was really their new recruits.

We had actually done it. It didn't seem possible, but it had just happened right in front of me.

All the nonflying Pokémon had stayed behind to contain Raikou, but the beast was now staring at the smoking remains of half the Thunder Field, eyes widening. It turned back to face its enemies, and I could have sworn I saw its face break into a manic grin right before a huge wave of electricity flowed out from every inch of its body. The remaining lightning rods managed to draw some of it, but there was just far too much for the few of them to handle. I screwed my eyes shut to block out the blindingly bright flash, but I wasn't ready for the chilling screams of the Rockets and their Pokémon filling the air.

Raikou had every right in the world to do that. And we'd given it the ability to. So why did I want so badly for it to stop?

Seconds passed. Hesitantly, I cracked an eyelid open. Only a few electric or ground-type Pokémon remained standing in the clearing. The rest lay scattered across the ground—unconscious or worse, I couldn't tell. All I knew was that my entire body was shivering. This was what it meant to challenge a Legendary.

The Legendary Beast of Thunder surveyed the scene with cold eyes and a face like stone. It then let out a deafening roar at the remaining Rockets and their Pokémon before bolting away from them in a golden blur too fast to see. It took several seconds for my brain to register that 'away from the Rockets' in this case meant 'in the direction we were hiding.' My stomach tied itself into a knot. Raikou was escaping this way.

We were all hidden amongst the trees. There was no reason for it to notice us. No reason for it to consider us enemies. Please, don't notice us.

And then Raikou slowed to a stop the instant it neared the area where we were hiding.

Time slowed to a crawl. I couldn't move. I hardly dared to breathe. It was right there. Standing not even five yards away from me, blood still dripping from its defeated face. I was frozen on the spot, staring at the fantastic beast for what felt like an eternity. It knew we were here. It knew we were here.

Finally, it spoke. "So. It seems the interlopers have arrived."

And in the blink of an eye, Raikou disappeared, rushing off to the west in a flash of lightning, echoes of thunder trailing behind it.