Chapter 28

MARRIED TO THE NOISE

I found a place to belong

So I went all in

I walked right in the mouth of it

And never looked back again

The only thing that remains

Through the loss and the pain

As for me, there was no other choice

I’m married to the noise

- Stick to Your Guns

I

An explosion of fiery orange erupted from a window halfway up the building. Glass shattered and fell past the crisscrossing design on the building's facade, raining down onto the road below. The sunset cast a crimson blood glow in the sky, and the heat of the summer day dissipated as dark clouds rolled in from the south.

"It has already started; we need to hurry," Seth shouted, dismounting from Noivern.

“There is nothing we can do about it. We had to wait for the chaos to sneak in," Emily replied, jumping off fearow beside a body that had been blown onto the road. The only distinguishing feature of the victim was the black Team Rocket attire. The story of her death was written by the glass shards embedded in their clothes and skin from the broken window five floors up.

A flash of lightning streaked across the southern sky, and the crackling of lightning mixed with another explosion above them. Noivern shielded Seth and Emily with his wings from the falling glass. Seth noticed the few remaining holes from his previous fight with Lycanroc on the S.S. Anne as the glass punctured or fell away further on to the ground shattering.

"Noivern, we are going in. I want you out here to deal with any fleeing Team Rocket members you find," Seth commanded, removing two glass shards from his wing. “Meet us South of the City after everything is done. I will yell out.” Noivern's yellow eyes locked onto his trainer with a menacing intensity. "They will pay for this, right?" Noivern nodded and swiftly took to the skies, whipping Emily and Seth's clothes with a powerful flap of his wings before they entered the main lobby of Silph Co.

The flickering ground-floor lights consistently illuminated a colossal fountain at the room's center. Two art pieces, shaped like Poké Balls with their buttons facing the ceiling, displayed the company's grandeur. They no longer sprayed water from the sculpture; instead, they hovered over several floating bodies. The lights flickered out, plunging the area into darkness, before powering back up and revealing the charred remains of two individuals, their genders indistinguishable, bobbing in the water. Just past the fountain, Erin's lifeless face and eyes appeared not to reflect the rekindled light but rather to draw everything in, consuming it.

"I'm fine, Daddy," he said.

Closer to them, a man in a scientist's white lab coat lay face down, blood streaming from his abdomen and staining the back of his coat red.

"Holy fuck. How many people did Lt. Surge send here?" Emily said, gently kicking the side of the scientist's face to get a clearer picture of his demise. She saw his mustached face was sliced in multiple spots as if something was clawing at it and she noticed a red “R” pinned to his front left pocket of his coat.

Seth didn't hear her; he couldn't tear his eyes away from Erin. His soft voice kept repeating his final words, gradually fading as Sarah behind Seth began to scream, "You couldn't save him!"

"Seth," Emily said, waving a hand in front of his face as her repeated questions remained unanswered.

"Huh?" His eyes narrowed as he returned to reality.

"I asked, how many people do you think Lt. Surge sent on this mission?"

"I don't know. But let's go, release everyone." The lights flickered out at Seth's words again, but the flash of red lit up the entire room, casting deep shadows from the sprawled furniture and desks along the walls in the massive lobby. Another explosion from overhead shook the floor lightly as the lights came back on. Everyone surrounding Seth and Emily stood ready to avenge Erin, their facial expressions devoid of doubt, only anger. Vaporeon walked into the fountain, absorbing as much water as possible. Aggron, Ceruledge, Fraxure, and Ampharos stood next to Emily as she took a step toward the staircase on the far-right side of the room. She passed by two more corpses, an Ursaring and a Torracat.

Next to Seth, Ninetales's mouth exuded blue flames as she breathed heavily, released from her loathed Pokéball. Primeape began punching the ground, faint purple energy coating his fists. Torterra, Rhydon and Metang looked around, taking in their grim surroundings.

"Torterra, I want you down here, killing any Team Rocket member who escapes. Not a single piece of these bastards will escape from this place." He nodded firmly as Seth rubbed a hand under Torterra’s mouth. A glimmer of anger towards Seth crossed Torterra’s eyes, Seth noticed, before turning his eyes back to Erin’s corpse.

"Kill anything that moves," Seth yelled out before taking the first step toward his revenge.

II

After they made their way up the dark staircase, Seth leaped over the body of another Team Rocket member and the corpse of an Electrike. Both bodies had parts of their faces eaten away, with their skulls exposed under rapidly decaying flesh. A large slash had been cut through the man's body, and the Electrike had leaves embedded in its green skin around its hind legs. The others paid little notice as they hurried up the staircase.

An eerie red glow illuminated the second floor from emergency lights overhead. Two grunts, followed by a Cubone and a Golbat, ran down a hallway to the staircase, attempting to flee, but they stopped dead in their tracks when they witnessed the purple-glowing hands of Primeape and Seth, who stepped onto the floor first.

"Move!" one of the grunts yelled out with deep fear in his eyes, even noticeable in the dark hallway's dim light. Emily and the rest of the Pokémon followed behind Seth, emerging into the main hallway that stretched to their right and an entryway to offices in front of them.

"Rage Fist," Seth commanded with an evil smirk glistening on his face. Primeape lunged forward, driving his purple-covered fist into the body of Golbat, who immediately transformed into a sphere of blood and guts, seemingly exploding upon impact and raining itself down on the floor below.

"Run!" the grunt behind Cubone uselessly yelled out, attempting to maneuver through the wall of Seth, Emily, and their Pokémon. But before he could get close, Primeape's clenched hand collided with his side, sending him flying into the sidewall twenty feet away.

"Please don't!" The final Team Rocket member screamed, crashing to the floor and bowing his head low in submission. Primeape stood over his body and drove his fist down into the back of the grunt's head. The crunch of his skull and the tile beneath him echoed through the vacant halls. Cubone cowered in fear beneath his small bone, not moving and stuck in place as Primeape towered over its small frame.

"Rage Fist," Primeape's fist went up without hesitation, up-cutting into Cubone's lower jaw. His head disappeared into a cloud of gore and his mother's skull, which it wore, splintered into three parts, impaling into the wall behind him.

"Let's keep going up," Emily said, trying to ignore the viciousness of what she had just witnessed.

A crash echoed through the halls behind the entryway at the head of the staircase. "Let's go check it out," Seth said, ignoring Emily, and Cureledge walking away from him. Grudgingly, they followed Seth through the dark hallways, with the red light illuminating numerous different Pokéballs sitting open and unfinished on various desks.

Sarah lay on one of the desks, half of her face charred, leaving only her left eye and ear intact. Her nose was all but gone, and her tongue hung out of her open mouth, detached from her missing lower jaw.

"You couldn't save him," she began to jeer at him without moving a muscle, but she stared unblinking with her one remaining eye. Erin lay on the floor, staring at him as he walked by, his radiant smile now appearing as if the joy had simply rotted away, leaving behind a ghastly, crude grin.

"Shut up, Jerry. I think I heard something," a hushed voice echoed out of a room halfway down the hallway.

"I'm trying, Connor, get the schematics," Jerry yelled back louder than his coworker.

Emily and Seth stood at the doorway to their office, with Ninetales hovering over them, emitting a blue glow from her mouth reflecting off her grey fur.

"Please help us. These kids came in and started killing all of Team Rocket. Please help us," Connor said, his white lab coat swaying back and forth as he made exaggerated hand motions during his pleading.

"Flamethrower," Seth commanded.

"What the fuck!" Emily yelled, standing in the doorway, preventing Ninetales' attack. "They are just employees! They aren't complicit in this. As far as you know they are Kantonian!"

“We are!” They both screamed.

"They are all complicit," Seth said harshly, grabbing Emily's hand and yanking her out of the room, which was soon engulfed in an ocean of blue flames and the burning screams of the employees.

However, he couldn't hear them. Erin stood pale in blue flames, “I’m fine, Daddy.”

"Seth!" Emily yelled, but he ignored her and simply walked past their Pokémon, heading toward the stairwell.

The blue flames changed into a lambent orange and red glow, casting a fiery dance across the walls, furniture, bodies, and the floor. Emily fixed her gaze on the room a bit longer before turning her head back to Seth's retreating form. His Pokémon, including Metang, Ninetales, Rhydon, and Primeape, followed him unquestioningly.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

III

The third and fourth floors were completely deserted, except for the corpses of Team Rocket grunts and their Pokémon scattered sporadically on the floor. At one point, Seth thought he heard a deep roar, and his thoughts briefly drifted to Torterra. However, his trainer's image quickly flashed back into his mind and refocused his thoughts.

The eerie darkness, continued as they ascended the floors. They stepped out of the stairwell, emerging onto the fifth floor of Silph Co. The hallway stretched both left and right before turning sharply. Ahead of them lay another vast entryway leading to a large room situated in the center of the fifth floor.

As they entered the well-lit room, a man dressed in black with spiky green hair yelled out, "Who the fuck are you?" A dozen or so Team Rocket soldiers turned to face Seth and Emily, accompanied by their two dozen Pokémon. Eyes from Espurr, Floatzel, Greninja, Crobat, Darumaka, Scizor, and more stared with a mixture of fear and hope.

"Rage Fist," Seth roared, not in response to the man. Primeape lunged forward, thrusting his glowing purple fist at the nearby Greninja, who had sought refuge behind a water substitute. As the substitute dissipated under the onslaught, Greninja took a brutal left hook to the side of his head. He crashed to the floor, struggling to regain his footing.

A Gogoat slammed into Primeape's side, forcing him to his knees. In the midst of the chaos, Seth and Emily's Pokémon were striving to enter the massive office room. Primeape retaliated with another Rage Fist, his radiant purple hand seized one of Gogoat's horns. He hoisted the struggling creature into the air, delivering three consecutive punches that crunched against the underside of Gogoat's body, causing blood to drip from its mouth.

Upon entering the room, Ninetales sprang forward, sinking her teeth into a young Team Rocket grunt who screamed in terror. Cureledge expertly evaded an attack from an oncoming Crobat, driving her flaming blade into the back of the Pokémon's head. The sword protruded from its gaping mouth before she brought it down, emptying the contents of the Crobat's body onto the tile floor below.

"Water Shuriken," yelled Greninja's trainer, causing Primeape to yelp as deep pain radiated from two spots on his back. Primeape dropped Gogoat's lifeless body, his face contorted into a mask of grotesque terror as his wide eyes locked on Greninja.

Rhydon, now able to join the fray, seized a Team Rocket member, lifting the man's screaming head and mercilessly slamming it into the ground as the body twitched violently against the unforgiving tile floor. Floatzel sprang forward with a jet of water behind him, closing the gap between him and Emily, with the intent of taking down the trainer. In response, Emily urgently shouted, "Defend!" Aggron seemingly materialized in front of her, raising his arms to block Floatzel's assault. In the blink of an eye, he gripped the top of Floatzel's jaw and its tails, ruthlessly pulling them apart, causing the creature to split unevenly in half.

Greninja responded by hurling two more Water Shurikens at Primeape as he advanced, each attack fueled by an even deeper rage. Grininja shadow grew across the ground as if it had a mind of its own. Suddenly Greninja disappeared in a shadow sneak.

“Primeape behind you!” Seth’s voice roared out.

In a lightning-fast move, Primeape swiftly caught Greninja's head, not falling for the deceptive ruse. He pressed his powerful leg into Greninja's chest, forcing it to the ground. Greninja's tongue expanded, attempting to encircle Primeape's bulky form in a desperate bid to break free. Unfazed, Primeape seized the tongue, giving it a violent yank that tore it from Greninja's body. Blood sprayed across Primeape's fur as he triumphed over his foe's futile struggle.

Meanwhile, a Team Rocket grunt cowering behind his Stoutland shouted out the command for a Fire Fang. Orange flames enveloped Stoutland's mouth and teeth as he charged forward in a blur of brown and black fur. Metang, still new to battling, instinctively tried to shield himself rather than counterattack. Stoutland's fiery fangs sank shallowly into one of Metang's limbs.

Metang's cries merged with Greninja's as Primeape raised his now darker purple fist and brought it down mercilessly, shattering Greninja's skull beneath the brute force.

Out of nowhere, Fraxure's claws raked across Stoutland's face, gouging out one eye and compelling Stoutland to release Metang.

"Fraxure," Emily bellowed amidst the chaos. "Guillotine!" Fraxure jerked his head downward, cleanly severing Stoutland's head with one of his tusks.

Complete pandemonium and chaos overtook the office room. Shouts and commands resounded, coming from Emily, Seth, and the Team Rocket members led by the green-haired commander. Primeape had just driven his fist into a Simisage when a piece of plaster came hurtling at his head. In an instant, the top of his left ear vanished upon impact the chunk had with the wall behind him.

"Fall back!" Seth ordered, as more fragments of plaster, flames, poison, electric discharges, and energy pulses flew in response to Emily and Seth's initial attack. They, along with their Pokémon, huddled near the room's periphery. Aggron and Rhydon, who had attempted to absorb the full force of the ranged attacks, found themselves targeted by a pillar of fire advancing menacingly towards them.

"Aqua Ring!" Emily cried out amidst the turmoil, bracing herself against the oncoming inferno. Water surged from the ground and formed a towering wall between her and the encroaching flames. Upon collision, the fire immediately vanished, concealed behind a curtain of steam and smoke.

"Ninetales, Flamethrower!" Seth roared.

"Ampharos, Zap Cannon!" Emily exclaimed in unison. A tiny gap appeared in the water wall, projecting blue flames and unleashing a torrent of blue electricity. The other half of the room was engulfed in chaos and destruction as a result.

The Aqua Ring descended to the floor, and the scent of burning flesh, clothing, and hair assaulted their senses like a palpable force. Seth's grin was mirrored in the flames dancing on the floor, desk, and walls. The ground beneath them trembled once more, but at this point, it was unclear whether it was the result of Lt. Surge's strike team above or Torterra's earth-shaking attacks from below.

"Come on, let's keep going," Seth declared, taking to the stairs once again before Emily could struggle to preserve whatever goodness might still be left within him.

"Seth!" She screamed louder than she'd ever thought possible. It tore through her, cutting and shredding her throat as it escaped into the chaotic fifth-floor hallway. He finally turned to her, and for the first time, Emily saw the fear etched on his face, breaking through the anger and rage.

"Don't lose yourself here," she said, gripping his hand and holding it tightly, exerting enough pressure to divert his attention from the flames and smoke billowing out of the office room they had just left.

"I can't hear them in the chaos," Seth said, breaking his gaze on her to Erin just over her shoulder.

"We have to stop Team Rocket here. I'm not disputing that," she said, gripping his chin and forcing his eyes back on her. "But there's a difference between doing it for what's right and enjoying it, Seth." She walked back with him to the stairs, clutching his arm tightly, fearing that losing her physical grip on him might cause him to lose his mental grip on reality.

IV

The footsteps echoed through the stairwell. Rhydon's and Aggron's massive strides resonated louder than the others as they followed the more agile group. A purple glow from Ceruledge and Primeape intertwined with the red emergency lights. The smell of smoke started seeping through the stairs. Undoubtedly, it was from the flames that had originated from Ninetales on either the fifth floor, the second floor, or both. Seth didn't know or care; he wasn't even concerned about his safety. A significant fire in the building would lead to more Team Rocket deaths, and that was all that mattered.

The sixth floor fell silent as the stairs leveled out, forcing them onto the floor to search for another flight leading upwards. Seth and Emily waited for Aggron and Rhydon to catch up. The smell of smoke drifted upward and started dispersing on the ceiling above them. The lights in the building went on and then quickly out again, and the red lights pierced through the layer of smoke. Another large room stretched out before them, similar to the layout one floor below. The only exception was a Team Rocket grunt and his Machoke lying dead on the floor. Their bodies were contorted as if a psychic force had snapped every bone inwards, folding them in on themselves. The effect was almost as if someone was folding laundry but had forgotten to take out the bodies first.

Emily turned, with Vaporeon and Ampharos at her heels, and approached the glass windows, looking down on Saffron City. Lights pierced the dark night, and a crowd of people stood below, gazing up at the iconic building that had always marked the city's skyline.

She saw a Tropius floating just a few dozen feet before her, its green body illuminated by a strong orange light beneath it, revealing its green and brown features. Its trainer, cloaked in black, was nearly invisible if not for the gleam of his Pokeballs at his side. And then, the gleam was gone; the trainer on Tropius had simply vanished into the darkness. Emily thought she had imagined it, but even Tropius appeared frantic, looking around as if confused. Suddenly, Noivern emerged on Tropius's back, his legs gripping its wings. Emily saw the orange light from the building she was in shine on Noivern's cyan-colored wings with black holes punctured through them. A purple pulsating energy erupted from his mouth, disintegrating Tropius, leaving behind only its wings still clutched in Noivern's feet before he dropped them and disappeared into the darkness once more.

“Emily,” Seth yelled out. “Let’s go.”

"Yeah, alright," Emily replied. She turned around and followed the hallway they were on for a moment until a small sign hanging from the ceiling read "Stairs" with an arrow pointing up. They climbed the steps and cut sharply as they ascended the second flight, reaching the seventh floor. Much like the sixth, the staircase only ascended one floor, and they emerged into a larger office space to their right, featuring a large desk covered in scattered papers and Pokéballs haphazardly strewn about.

"Seth," Emily said, her hand covering her mouth. "It's not Team Rocket." A young man, no older than eighteen, leaned against the long wooden desk. Blood dripped down his face from some hidden wound beneath his untidy long light brown hair. A necklace hung around his neck, and his khaki pants were torn in several places. Beside him, unconscious, Seth couldn't yet discern if this was fortunate or unfortunate, lay a Blastoise, its steel cannons gleaming in the red light pushed out of its massive shell.

"Hey, are you okay?" Emily asked, kneeling beside him and giving his face a slight slap in an attempt to rouse him.

"I told him to stop," the boy muttered under his ragged breath.

"Who?" Seth demanded.

"Did Lt. Surge send you here?" The boy's eyes sluggishly opened at Emily's question.

"Not me, him. He just uses him. I tried to stop him. He can't take on Giovanni on his own," the boy said, taking a deep breath in an attempt to become more awake and coherent. He placed a firm hand on his Blastoise. "I lost my grandfather. I don't want to lose him too."

"Giovanni? He is here!" Seth demanded, this time with more urgency. His mind becoming more narrow on a singular purpose.

"We'll go get him," Emily said, providing reassurance and cutting into Seth's impatient request for more information. "The building is on fire. Do you have a Pokémon who can help you get out of here?"

"Yeah," the red light from the stranger's belt and dissipated Blastoise. Another red light emerged just behind his Blastoise's Pokéball, and an Arcanine appeared.

"His Torterra is on the ground floor. I would advise you to jump out of a second-floor window," Emily explained to the kid, who was struggling to get on the back of his Pokémon.

"Thank you. Save my friend, please." Arcanine ran past them and disappeared down the staircase through an even thicker cloud of smoke.

V

They reached the eighth floor, and Seth turned his head, peering through a window to witness a purple beam colliding with a Skarmory. As the Pokémon and its trainer fell from sight, Noivern rocketed past the window, barely even a blur that Seth could make out.

For a moment, the eighth floor stood eerily still. The wall ahead of them, which ran from the window to his right and continued to the left before sharply turning down another hallway, was strewn with scattered papers.

"Seth, come on, we need to hurry," Emily urged, grabbing for his arm.

"Wait, I hear something," Seth replied to Emily without looking at her. Vaporeon was below her ankles, pushing desperately against the smoke-filled staircase.

"Seth, the fire is getting worse. If we don't want to be trapped, we have to do this now," she said, now actively pulling against him. The building shook once again. However, he ignored her request. Her voice was faint, like a distant sound that was barely, if at all, penetrating the wrath that was consuming him, along with the haunting screams of Erin and Sarah.

He took off down the hall with Ninetales and the rest of the group following. Papers were scattered about, and one that Seth saw had a schematic for a Pokéball, but it didn't look like any ball he had seen. This drawing had an "M" on the top of it with what appeared to be two protrusions that were bulging out.

Emily finally caught up to find Seth at a closed door. He kicked it hard, but it stood unmoving. "Rhydon, open this door." With a crunch of wood, Rhydon's head split through the door frame, followed by shrieks of panic from within. As Seth reached his arm through the new hole, he felt for the lock and unlocked the door, swinging it open with a creak.

"Please, we're not with them," one woman with long blond hair in a lab coat begged. Papers and Pokéball parts were scattered and littered all throughout the room.

"We just want to go home. Please!" another man yelled out from behind her.

Seth was about to command Ninetales when he was interrupted by a short, stubby, balding man with a face framed by large glasses. He stood up and began walking toward them.

"Seth?" he muttered in disbelief, as the flickering lights revealed more of his face than the dim red glow allowed.

"Glenn... I... I..." Seth began to stammer.