Chapter 66: A Cool Standoff

Important characters

Jessie (Male Tentacool/Ex-Human)

Riley & Pichu (Male/Female Ranger duo)

Emperor (Male Seaking)

Aurum (Male Gyrados)

Briefly mentioned are Cyan and Roma (Female Primarina, very cool foreign lady. Female Lapras, Jessie's adopted daughter.)

"And this is Cyan, she is very pretty. Oh! And this is my daughter, Roma! I love her sooooo much!"

-"Sunflora! :D "

-"Sorry to interrupt guys, but I need to borrow Jessie for a moment."

"Hey Riley, not here for story time I take it?"

-"Haha, no, sorry. Maybe next time. Right now I need to tell you about our progress."

"Got it, business time." Jessie hops out of the park's fountain and into a bucket.

"Take me away, boys!" A pair of buff rangers (they've been working out lifting him all day) cart the small Tentacool into the nearby park office building where the rangers had set up shop.

-"So, to catch you up on everything that's been going on, while you were working out here, Emperor and Aurum were tacking the poaching side of things. They managed to find some more scattered debris leading us to a building right nearby the magnet train station. It's being used as a cover to hold onto pokemon and people the poachers are capturing."

"Remind me, why are they abducting people again?"

-"From what we can tell, they're doing it under orders from a higher up. The rank and file grunts seem to know even less than we do."

"Typical."

-"Yep, classic bad guy move keeping secrets from all but your top agents. But listen, we're ready to mount an assault on their compound. The local police currently have the place surrounded and your friends are on standby, waiting to lead the charge."

"Nice! And I assume you have all the underground exits cut off?"

*long pause*

"Y-you cut off the underground exits, right?"

-"...THIS CITY HAS UNDERGROUND EXITS?!"

"OF COURSE IT HAS UNDERGROUND EXITS! DIDN'T YOU GO TO HISTORY CLASS? TEAM ROCKET USED THE UNDERGROUND AREA BENEATH GOLDENROD AS A HIDEOUT JUST A FEW YEARS AGO!"

-"BY ARCEUS! Jessie, I need-"

"I know. Put me in the mobile tank!"

As cool as that sounds, unfortunately he means a short, reinforced glass fishbowl with wheels. It's short enough that he can stick his tentacles out to "drive" it.

"Now let's stop wasting time!" *scoot scoot*

Back at the not-so-abandoned warehouse, the battle to capture the poachers was well underway. After having been given the order over the radio to begin the push in earnest, everyone on site threw out their pokemon and engaged in an all out brawl with both sides throwing out elemental attacks! The air was live with Houndour and Growlithes' Flamethrowers, the ground beset by ice from a Jynx's Blizzard, held back only by a Donphan's Rollout breaking up the rime, and somewhere overhead Fearow clashed with Pidgeotto! Chaos erupted over the city and only those with a stake in this fight dared to step outside.

Closer to the action, Aurum charged in with Emperor on his head, eager to put those poachers in their place! A fierce Aqua tail slammed through a group of trainers, sending them sprawling over the pavement. A quick shot of Ice beam from Emperor locked them all down in their places as the pair continued battering through the enemy ranks.

-"GYAAAAA?"

-"King, Seaking. King!"

-"GYAAAAA!"

Exchanging a few words, Aurum briefly wondered about that little shiny speck speeding toward the city, only for Emperor to realize who was piloting that silly little thing. The boss was coming!

With renewed vigor, they doubled down on their assault, casting aside caution and speeding over to the base with all haste!
A fresh wave of light brought out new pokemon to replace the fallen, this time it looked like a bunch of forest pokemon, Beedrill and Gloom mostly. Their trainers called out attacks with the intent of slowing this rampaging monster, even for a few moments longer.
Poison stings shot out and Sleep powder filled the air. But Emperor was an old hand at battling and half-hearted stalling tactics would fail to hold up against his strategies. A simple Dragon rage was all it took to burn away the spores and his own ice beam sent the poisonous spines crashing to the ground to be trampled over!

Finally the two attacks blended together into a violent ray of piercing energy! Blue flame covered the wall of the compound only to freeze in place as an effigy to the disaster wrought by these two! And with no more trainers coming out through one of the main doors of the compound, the rangers were able to focus in on the one remaining entryway, tightening the noose on their quarry.

-"Sea sea sea king!" A triumphant battle call comes from the old pokemon as he nears the remaining resistance forces, a strange quiet falling over the area.

-"King?"

From behind an Icicle spear shoots out, knocking Emperor down from his perch. As the fish falls, two more attacks smash into Aurum's side, nearly knocking him off balance.

Enemies began to flood the area from a neighboring building, and then another! Suddenly, the tide of battle was turning.

-"This is a report from the front!" A radio sputtered to life. -"The enemy is using underground tunnels to attack from multiple angles! Use caution, we have yet to find their underground compound! The poacher group may be larger than anticipated! Repeat, use cau-" But the final warning came too late as the radio was smashed by a gigantic foot.

Roaring and spewing a huge Dark pulse over the battlefield, an enemy Tyranatar entered the fight!

-"GYAAAA!"

-"RAAAAR!"

The two titans sized each other up as the world around them erupted and new battles were beginning all over the city. With one final glare, the two charged!

"Damn, got here a little late. You alright, old man?"

-"Sea?" Emperor opened his eyes as Jessie splashed water over his head.

"Yeah, I'm here now. Try to rest up, alright? I'm gonna need you for the final push."

-"Sea- Seaking."

"Don't I know it, I figured the rangers already knew about the underground in this city! I mean, we had a whole lesson on it back in school! But anyway, stay hydrated okay? Things are gonna be heating up real soon."

Almost as if god himself heard that, a beam of light shot into the air, parting the clouds. A harsh sunlight fell over the city.

-"Seaaa..."

"Ah, maybe I should have kept my mouth shut."