I don't make a habit of sneaking around, but I've played more than my fair share of those incredibly annoying stealth missions in video games, the ones where you have to restart whenever you get caught. So, I know to keep my head down, stay behind cover until I'm sure the coast is clear, and avoid making loud noises that might draw attention. Unfortunately, that makes me the sneakiest of our group, especially considering our three temporary partners are… less than silent, as we carefully make our way through the halls of the poacher's airship.
"Sneakily."
"Quietly."
"Meowthfully."
"Wobbuffet!"
We all turn around and glare at Wobbuffet, who cringes and says its name once more, in a softer voice this time.
"You guys remember that the plan was to avoid making noise, right?" I ask, to which Jessie sighs, pulling out Wobbuffet's Pokéball, to return her loudmouth Pokémon.
"I've given up a long time ago trying to make Wobbuffet do what I say," she grumbles.
"Maybe if you weren't such a terrible trainer, then he'd listen to you!" Meowth taunts his partner.
"And maybe if he wasn't totally useless in battle, I'd put in more effort into actually training him!" Jessie retorts back.
"Now Jessie, that's not completely fair," James says back, rubbing his chin and looking thoughtful. "Wobbuffet's Counter attack has proven quite useful to us. Why, our Robo-Mecha Wobbuffet Mark One had Pikachu on the run!"
"I suppose that was one of our better ideas," Jessie concedes, crossing her arms. "It only failed because-" She clams up, refusing to say more.
I don't remember this episode, so now I want to know. "Why'd it fail?"
"Because someone didn't buy a long enough extension cord," Meowth answers, pointing at Jessie, who refuses to take the blame.
"I ordered the longest one they had! Super-size extension cords aren't made very long. Besides, I seem to remember you two stopping pedaling to take a nap right when we were about to win!"
"Well, maybe if you had the decency to take over and offer us a break instead of bossing us around the whole time, maybe we wouldn't have gotten tired so quickly!" James comes to Meowth's defense.
As ridiculous as that story sounds, I can somehow believe it.
"Let's keep moving," I order, trying to sound in charge. "We have a time limit here." We continue, turning a corner after we determine no one's waiting for us.
Ursula can't resist asking me a question. "Tell me, how does it feel to have more acumen for criminal activity than actual criminals?"
"I just have many talents, I guess," I reply coolly, ignoring the fact that I certainly wanted at some point to play the role of a villain in the Pokémon games. Anyhow, having more skills than Team Rocket, the worst criminals in history, is anything to write home about. Have these three ever managed to actually steal anything, let alone a Pokémon?
"Not that we aren't doing well, not having been caught yet, but are you planning to search every room in this airship for the Pokémon? That sounds like it'll take a long time." Lucas questions me.
"Of course not. I'm looking for a control room. Once we get access to this airship, we should be able to pull up a blueprint or a map that would hopefully tell us where the Pokémon are being held." I nudge his shoulder. "You'll be the key to that."
Lucas still looks confused. "How, exactly?"
I give him a pointed stare. "You have a Pokémon perfectly suited for hacking into a mainframe. Porygon? It can infiltrate this ship's computer system, and then we'll have someone on the inside."
"Oh right," Lucas says sheepishly. "You do have a mind for this sort of stuff."
"It is a bit concerning that you have so much in common with people like them," Ursula adds, gesturing back to Team Rocket. I have to swallow my reply, because I kinda did get smashed by Ash and Pikachu, like Team Rocket always does. They seem to be in their own world, reminiscing about more of their supposed adventures.
"Jessie, whatever happened to that Porygon you got from that crazy scientist guy?" James asks his partner.
"How am I supposed to know? You're more absentminded and irresponsible than I am. If anyone's to blame for losing Porygon, it's you two."
"We's blaming you because you're the one who forgot she had a Pokémon, and then didn't realize you traded it away! You've lost more Pokémon than me and James combined!"
"I'll be losing one more if you don't shut your Meowth!" Jessie threatens.
"Aha!" James exclaims. "So you do admit it!"
"Fine. Maybe Porygon got destroyed by that antivirus that attacked us while we were inside the internet. Which makes it Porygon's fault, not ours."
I swear, each of their stories is more ludicrous than the last. A Porygon took them inside the internet somehow? And they were attacked by an antivirus program whilst they were there? I'm so busy trying to wrap my brain around that tale that I don't notice that Team Rocket has stopped talking for once while we've been in this airship. I turn around to see Jessie and James staring through a door window. Meowth is trying to scramble up the door to get a peek of his own.
"What's in there? The Pokémon? The control room?" I ask urgently.
"Oh, something that glitters," Jessie replies dreamily, without looking.
""It makes us winners!" James agrees, swiping his keycard through the lock.
They shove the door open, practically drooling. "We've found our dinner!" Meowth announces. Team Rocket bolts inside, apparently forgetting that we're on a stealth mission. I look at Ursula and Lucas and we all run after them.
How Team Rocket is already stuffing their faces, I don't know. They've discovered the break room, and the fridge inside is wide open, with each Rocket having taken something out to chow down on, with absolutely no regard for table manners. Meowth is greedily stuffing two pieces of pizza into his mouth at a time, James is slurping up a massive bowl of spaghetti box so that sauce is flying everywhere, and Jessie is washing down every donut from her full box with a giant gulp of milk. Even Wobbuffet has managed to find food, holding a footlong sandwich in each hand and taking alternating bites.
We watch them devour the food in awe, until all of Team Rocket sits back and sighs happily.
"Ahhhh! Dat really hit the spot."
"Warm tummies equal happy hearts!"
"Which means, seconds will make us feel even better! Who wants some!" Jessie asks, and Meowth, James and Wobbuffet all raise their hands and eagerly agree with her. But before we can come up with a way to separate Team Rocket from the fridge, and get their focus back on the mission, someone walks in, rubbing their eyes as if they had just been fast asleep.
"Jeez, who's making all this noise? I thought we had a sign that said to be quiet in the break room, because people like to take naps in here!" The poacher blinks several times, realizing that he's not addressing his coworkers, and rather a bunch of intruders. We all stare at each other in silence, before I find my voice.
"Get him!"
The poacher runs back into the room from where he came, which does have several folded up cots, lending credence to the theory that he was peacefully taking a nap in here. Regardless, it's a dead end, and everyone minus Ursula piles on top of him. Each of us sits on one of his limbs so he can't get up.
"Thanks to you, we weren't able to truly enjoy our meal!" Jessie complains, wiping her milk mustache and beard off with an arm before she reapplies her lipstick.
"So if you know what's good for you, you'll start to squeal," James continues. He lifts his weight up, and then drops it back onto the man's arm, causing the poacher to shout in pain.
"If you cooperate, we might even cut you a deal! Unless you want your mug to be even uglier than it is now!" Meowth threatens, extending his claws and putting them right next to the poacher's face. The man's eyes bug out, but he manages to hold his nerve for the moment.
"I'll- I'll never betray Hunter J! She's twenty times scarier than you lot are!" Meowth pricks the man's forehead with one of his claws, letting one drop of blood slide down his face. Ursula leans down to speak in the man's ear.
"If I were you, I would be more concerned about the present than the future." Meowth lets one of his claws rest dangerously next to the poacher's eyeball, and he finally breaks.
"Alright, I'll tell you! Please, spare me!"
"Hmph! What despicable cretins, these poachers. For being so comfortable and willing to use violence, it does not take much effort to reveal them as the pathetic, sniveling wretches they are. You should be honored, Luna, for I shall lend my assistance in defeating these goons."
"Thanks?" Was she planning to spend this whole time watching us fight them? I turn my attention back to the poacher. "Anyways, tell us where the control room is, where you do all the monitoring and controlling from. I know that a big airship like this has to have one."
Our prisoner licks his lips. "From here, go down the hallway, to the right, go all the way down that hallway, take a left, and then it's the first door on your left."
"Are you lying?" Meowth flexes his claws, and the man looks like he's ready to piss his pants, or burst into tears.
"Yes! Yes I swear to you those directions will get you to the control room! Don't mess up my face!"
What a loser. Jessie smashes his walkie-talkie under her boot, and Meowth slashes the poacher's key card into shreds. James, Lucas and I tie him to the cot he was sleeping in, tape over his mouth, and shove the poacher into one of the closets, although we left the door cracked open enough to where he wouldn't die of oxygen deprivation. Once I convince Team Rocket that we need to get going, we depart the break room, their arms filled with as much food as they can carry.
I repeat the poachers's directions in my head, until we finally make it to the room. I ask Lucas to look through the window to see inside.
"Well? Does it look like the control room, or do we need to go back and squeeze that poacher until he actually gives us the truth?"
"It's the control room," he assures me. "There's people inside though. Two people in labcoats, and two more poachers. Even if we sneak in, or lure one to the door to take out one, the others will raise the alarm."
I glare at Team Rocket, who look more concerned with the food that they have pilfered than the fact that we need to get these Pokémon out of the airship before we are discovered. "Will you put that stuff down!" I snap at them. "There will be plenty of time to eat when we are looking for the captured Pokémon. What do you three usually do in a situation like this, when you need to surprise someone?"
They reluctantly put down their next meal to explain their master strategy. "Well," Meowth begins. "Our usual plan is laying down a smoke cover, either with a smoke bomb or one of our Pokémon, to confuse whoevers inside. We can do that with Jessie's Seviper's Haze!"
I seem to remember that plan not always going well for Team Rocket, since smoke can be easily blown away. Plus, I watched Jessie start choking on her own Pokémon's smoke when she used it in her contest appeal in Floaroma Town. "Ok, but how are we supposed to see in there? Or breathe, for that matter?"
"Well, I put in our usual order for gas masks, flashbangs, smoke bombs and the rest, but the boss hasn't replied to us yet," James tells me.
"Clearly, it's because we are way more talented than the average Rocket, and we will succeed on our own merit. Unlike Cassidy!" Jessie clenches her first, clearly upset about something.
I'm pretty sure that Giovanni is tired of these three draining his wallet for supplies without anything to show for it. At least there was one useful thing hidden in there that we can use.
"We have half of a flashbang," I think aloud. My Spewpa knows Flash, and-"
"My Masquerain does as well," Ursula cuts in.
"Nice. That should be enough to blind them. As for the bang…" I can't believe Team Rocket's eating habits are going to be our salvation, in the absence of a move like Screech or Metal Sound. They've grabbed a bunch of pots and pans filled with food, and I start emptying some, throwing the half-finished meals all into other pots.
"Hey!" Jessie complains. "Get your own food!"
"I'm not eating it, you dolts," I snap back. I shove a pot or pan with a metal cooking instrument into everyone's hands, including Meowth's. "As soon as the Flash attack goes off and they get blinded, we'll charge in there and make a ton of noise. We should be able to subdue them in all the confusion. We go on three."
"One." James holds his stolen keycard in position.
"Two." I pull out Spewpa's Pokéball and tell him the instructions, while Ursula does the same to her Pokémon. We both get ready to throw them inside.
"Three!" James swipes the card down, and as soon as the door slides open, we throw the Pokéballs like the stun grenade we're substituting for inside the control room and duck behind the walls. After we hear a few confused murmurs, a massive flash of light illuminates the whole room. We charge in, making a massive racket with our pots and pans as soon as we hear disoriented shouting from inside.
It was kind of naive of me to think that they would go down on their knees and beg for mercy easily. These are poachers, after all. The man I'm confronted with is clearly hearing and seeing stars. He still tries to throw a few slow punches, and it's all too easy to bash the fellow's head with the pan I'm holding. He struggles to get up, and one more solid blow puts him down. I can see a lump growing, but he'll be alright. Being a poacher, he probably doesn't have much brain power in the first place. Looking around, Team Rocket has managed to take out a scientist and the other poacher, while Lucas is staring at the other scientist, groaning and crawling on the floor. Eventually, his expression hardens, and Lucas knocks the guy out.
"If he's working with these poachers, then he's a bad guy," Lucas mutters, though it appears he's talking to himself in an effort to justify his actions.
I do my best to distract him. "Good job, everyone. Get Porygon in the computer system, Lucas, and then help me and Spewpa tie up these four." I see out of the corner of my eye Team Rocket going back for their food and sigh. "Why don't you guys stuff your faces in there?" I point out a room connected to this one, to which Team Rocket grin.
"Will do!" Jessie says, as the three of them gather their stolen grub and slam the door behind them.
"Porygon is inside the system, and asking what to look for. A map, right?" Lucas calls out to me.
"That's fine, but if it could actually locate where they are keeping the Pokémon, that would be even better. Just be sure to stress to Porygon that it can't get caught."
"Got it." Lucas relays the instructions to Porygon, and then comes over to help me hold up the unconscious men for Spewpa to tie up with String Shot before I recall him for the time being. James still has the tape with him, but these guys should be out until Team Rocket is done feasting, since they eat like they've never seen food in their lives. We line them up like sardines against the wall, and I look sideways at Lucas, who appears deep in thought.
"Are you feeling alright?" I ask, to which he jerks in surprise as if I wasn't standing right next to him.
"I'm fine," Lucas tells me, which I don't believe for one second. "I don't feel sick at all."
"Not your health," Ursula clarifies impatiently. "Your mentality! Your head is so far in the clouds that it must be affecting your ability to think. Tell us what is occupying your mind and then maybe we can assist you."
He blinks in surprise, and agrees to spill his thoughts. "Maybe it will help to get this off my chest. This whole situation is messed up, after all, but what I'm thinking most about is the Pokémon. Not the ones that have been captured," he adds, as I open my mouth to assure my friend that we're going to save them. "The ones that the poachers are using."
Lucas gestures to the four that we knocked unconscious. "The poachers we've overheard so far don't have any respect for Pokémon, as far as I can tell. It bothers me that they can get Pokémon to fight on their behalf. Pokémon aren't mindless drones; so how do these poachers control them?"
You know, that's been bothering me as well. I'd like to think that my Pokémon follow me because I'm worth following, and because we have a strong bond. But the truth remains that every bad guy in the world, from the lowest of grunts to this Hunter J lady, uses Pokémon to facilitate their misdeeds. Why is that? "Maybe the Pokémon have their own reasons. You said it yourself; Pokémon aren't mindless. They might respect the poachers' strength, or be inclined to aggression, or even have a cruel streak in them," I respond.
"Or, perhaps these Pokémon were owned before these people became poachers, and have followed them into the profession," Ursula throws out her own hypothesis.
Lucas shakes his head. "That makes me feel even worse. In theory, if I were to someday become a poacher, then all my Pokémon would follow me and commit horrible acts whenever I commanded?"
"Listen. People have Pokémon for a multitude of reasons. They work together, they live together, they battle together, they perform together. On the other hand, we might have to accept that there are people in the world who use Pokémon to do bad things."
He still doesn't look satisfied, but a notification from Porygon means that we have to save that conversation for another day. The blueprint of the airship doesn't give us any useful details, but I have another idea. "Do they have any security cameras in here, Porygon? Can you pull up those feeds?"
Porygon ends up showing four different feeds, one of the cockpit, where most of the poachers seem to be, one of an empty area, and two feeds where there are two poachers standing guard of a door.
"We can avoid the cockpit, obviously, since we can see there are no Pokémon there," Lucas says, staring at the feeds himself. "The only way to check all of these locations is by splitting up. If you count Meowth, we could all split into groups of two…"
I'd rather have all six of our eyes on Team Rocket. The only way they possibly defeat us, and take the Pokémon for themselves, is if they were to find them first. Splitting up also decreases our battling power significantly, on the chance we are forced to fight a poacher or two.
"We should get their opinion before we make a decision," I decide, and I walk over to the door to knock, because they should be done, considering how fast they eat. I hear voices coming from inside as soon as I put my hand on the handle. Instead of opening it, I stick my ear on it instead, listening through the door to eavesdrop on their conversation.
"Hahahahaha! This is one of our best plans ever!" James is saying. "Not only do we get to deprive those dastardly dunces of their dinner, we can put into place our plans of modernizing the market with fossil Pokémon!"
"This is so much better than that time we stole the fossil restoration machine right under those Oreburgh scientists' noses! The fossils are already revived and ready for shipping!" Jessie agrees in delight.
Team Rocket stole the fossil restoration machine? The one that's almost the size of a small house? I think it's more likely they stole one of the miniature replicas in the gift shop instead, and that's why they couldn't revive anything.
"I can just imagine how happy da boss will be when we send all these Pokémon to him. I'm sure he'll reward us handsomely!" Meowth predicts.
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
"Do you really think so?"
"Of course! Imagine the boss," Meowth starts fantasizing, "waking up for another fabulous day, leading Team Rocket to unending victories. His brawny, brainy, and beautiful body steps into the shower first thing in the morning, but when he goes to look in the mirror to fix himself up, it's all fogged up with steam!"
Thank you, Meowth, for putting this image of a tower-clad Giovanni in my head. "But then, Shieldon will be right there, with its gleaming, polished face, so the boss can make himself look suave and spiffy," Meowth continues. I figure this is the end of his dream, but the talking Pokémon isn't done. "It's important to get three square meals a day, too. The best form of breakfast is fresh fruit from the boss's garden. But what if it's too high?"
"With a trusty Cranidos by his side, slamming its noggin into the tree to make sure that fruit falls right into the boss's hand, he'll never have to worry about having a great start to the day again! As he's eating that sweet, juicy fruit, the boss'll say…"
Meowth deepens his voice to imitate Giovanni. "That amazing Meowth and his friends have made my life so much easier, that I need to come up with something amazing to express my gratitude!" His voice returns to normal. "You know what happens then?"
"We get a raise and a promotion and a condo by the ocean! Yayyyy!"
I back away from the door slowly, and desperately try to contain my laughter by holding one hand over my face. I'm on the verge of tears before I finally manage to contain myself with a few deep breaths.
"What is so funny?"
I wave off Ursula's question and gesture to Lucas, pointing at the walkie-talkie with one hand while I put my other hand to my ear like a phone. He passes it to me, and I talk into it. "Can you three come out?" I ask, impressing myself with how calm I sound. "We've been able to hack into the cameras of the ship, and we want your opinion."
Team Rocket comes out looking motivated and in high spirits, after daydreaming about how they were going to be rewarded. Jessie pounds a fist into her other hand. "What's the plan to pummel these poachers into paste?"
"We figure that the Pokémon are being held in one of these locations, since they're the ones with the cameras. Right now we're deciding if and how we should split up."
"Cameras?" Jessie asks, her face perking up. She immediately starts to fluff her hair and pulls out her mirror to check her face. "They have cameras here?"
James sighs. "Not movie cameras, you twit! Those are security cameras! Don't flash the peace sign to them, please!"
"Hold up," Meowth orders, pointing at the two bottom screens. Can you zoom in on those two?"
Porygon does so, and Meowth gives us a feline grin. "Hah! Those are for the same door in different directions, look!" He points it out and just as Meowth says, it appears the door is in a corner, and the cameras are pointing down separate hallways.
"That must be the location," James says. "You wouldn't have four poachers standing guard and two security cameras if there wasn't anything to protect, after all."
"Porygon, can you pinpoint that on a map?" The digital Pokémon takes some time, but soon enough it's able to confirm the location as the lower-level holding bay, as well as drawing a line between this control room and the holding bay for the shortest route. I mumble the directions under my breath repeatedly until I can repeat them from memory. Lucas taps me on the shoulder.
"We still have the guards and the cameras to deal with," he points out.
"I ain't goin out as bait again, either, so you better come up with something else."
Meowth tries his best to look intimidating while saying that, but he relaxes as soon as I point out the flaws by repeating the previous plan. "It wouldn't work anyways, considering we need something for all four of them at the same time. I think that rules out the flashbang strategy as well." As much as we've been trying to avoid confrontation as much as necessary, I don't see how we are going to get inside the holding bay without a fight.
"Can Porygon go from one computer to another? Like, if you were able to turn on your laptop, could he escape to yours?"
"As long as I'm connected to the internet, then yes. I have a portable hotspot that I received so I can work in the field to connect my laptop to as well. Porygon can even go back and forth, and transmit information between two familiar systems." I swear, the more I hear about this Pokémon, the more awesome it gets. This whole plan would have been a failure without Porygon.
"Porygon will stay inside the airship's computer system," I decide. "It can interfere with the security cameras, and then rejoin us once we're inside the holding bay. As for the poachers, we'll have to battle to engage them while the cameras feeds are blocked. "
"I can't coordinate with Porygon and battle at the same time," Lucas says, brow furrowed. "They'll notice a secondary internet being active as soon as I activate my hotspot too. Plus, we can't expect them to think it's just a connection issue forever."
Well, well, well. Someone is starting to think more like me! I'm so proud. "We'll make sure we beat them quickly. Just make sure that your hotspot doesn't have your name on it, and we're fine." Lucas's eyes widen, and he hastily starts to open up his bag, pulling out both his laptop and his hotspot device to change the name of his internet. "As for the battle, Team Rocket will take two, and Ursula will battle the other two."
"Me?" Ursula points to herself in surprise. "I am to be your tag battle partner?"
"You said you wanted to lend your assistance, right?" Her face sours slightly as she recalls her words. "Well, I need your help for this battle."
----------------------------------------
"You three remember the plan?"
"Jeez, twoirp, you done said it fifteen times already! Of course we know the plan!" Meowth yowls to me back through the walkie-talkie, causing me to hold it away from my ear for a second.
It was not fifteen times. I'm just trying to make sure it gets through their thick skulls. I think I'm excused for not having the highest opinion of Team Rocket's overall intelligence. "We're going dark then." I give the nod to Lucas, and he relays the command to Porygon. Once he gives me the all clear, that the camera feeds are being interfered with, I talk into the walkie-talkie once more.
"We're going in now. Please don't recite your motto, because we need to do this quickly." I ignore their grumbling, and hesitate a second. "Good luck."
"Plans?" Ursula asks me, as soon as I hand Lucas the walkie-talkie, and right as we turn the corner to confront the poachers. Both their eyes widen, and the poacher on the left grabs her walkie-talkie to speak into it.
"Glaceon, Water Pulse wave at these two!" I shout, throwing out my Pokéball. She doesn't blink at their being no Pokémon opponents to battle, and fires a Water Pulse that explodes on the floor in front of the two. The female poacher barely has time to say a couple words before she and her partner are soaked, and she throws the walkie-talkie on the ground in frustration as soon as she realizes that it has just been rendered useless.
"All out attack it is," Ursula mutters, as the poacher glares at me hatefully.
"You'll regret that!" she promises. "Any evolution of Eevee will sell for a fortune! Go, Scyther!"
Her partner sends out a Golbat, while Ursula summons Gible with a flourish. She really needs another Pokémon, because right now her only two battlers lose to Flying-types. The other poacher, who is male, leers at our Pokémon with dollar signs in his eyes.
"Heh! A rare Dragon-type as well! We love it when people come to donate their Pokémon!"
"As if!" I scoff. "We're not letting you get any Pokémon. Not ours, and definitely not those in that room behind you!"
"Big talk! Let's see if you can back it up! Scyther, use Silver Wind!" the lady poacher orders.
"Golbat, use Swift!" her partner calls. Golbat shoots a barrage of golden, star-shaped projectiles, while Scyther rapidly beats its wings to generate its Silver Wind.
"Use Dragon Rage!" Ursula counters.
I have Glaceon use Icy Wind, and the four attacks explode in a burst of energy between us. I take the time while the smoke clears to elaborate more to Ursula what I need from her. "Glaceon can take these two out with a super-effective attack. Especially since they can't dodge very well in this hallway, even if they have wings. We're going to go on the offensive, so I'm relying on you to cover our backs."
"I can do that," Ursula replies slowly, which is good, because our opponents are on the attack.
"Scyther, Night Slash!
"Golbat, use Poison Fang!" The enemy Pokémon scream towards us, Golbat dripping poison from its vampiric mouth, while Scyther lunges forwards with its blade arms glowing black.
I have to make the call of which attack I want to stop, since Gible can only realistically counter one. After all my bad experiences with status conditions, I naturally gravitate towards stopping the move that might inflict one.
"Glaceon, Ice Shard on Golbat!" The near instant attack forces Golbat to pull up hastily, canceling its attack in favor of barely avoiding the flurry of ice crystals. Of course, that leaves Glaceon open for Scyther to swing its arm at her like a meat cleaver. Thankfully, my partner is coming through.
"Gible, use Crunch to block!" The landshark dragon blocks Scyther's attack with its mouth, using his enormous jaw strength to lock down the Bug-type. Scyther struggles to dislodge Gible, to no avail.
"Hit it with Flash Frost! Go for the head, ok!" I shout, trying to take advantage of the situation. There's enough of a height difference between the two Pokémon that we won't risk accidentally hitting our extremely weak to ice teammate. Gible lets go as Scyther stumbles backwards into the wall from the force of the blow. The best course of action would be to regroup, and try another strategy. Not that this poacher understands that.
"They're making fools of you! X-Scissor!" its trainer calls. Scyther huffs in frustration, though I'm not sure if it's about the poor way it is being commanded, or because it dislikes us. Regardless, it crosses its arms, so the blades face us. It charges forward as its weapons glow blue.
"Icy Wind!" Glaceon stops trying to hit Golbat with Ice Shard and instead turns her attention to the advancing Bug-type. It is slammed into the wall again, this time by a blast of polar wind, and Gible puts it down for good with a powerful Slash attack.
"Tch! Worthless Pokémon," the lady poacher spits venomously as she recalls her defeated Pokémon.
"We've still got this," her partner assures her. "Golbat, Supersonic!"
I'm already reaching in my pocket as Golbat creates a bunch of soundwaves. In this confined space, they start to bounce off the walls in every direction, and it's even making my brain fuzzy. I pinch myself to help me concentrate, and grab what I was looking for. It's fortunate that I've been keeping these on hand for Bellossom's Petal Dance training. I need to throw this Persim Berry at Glaceon so she doesn't take out Gible by accident.
The poacher has other plans. "Now use Screech!" The bat Pokémon's horrid shrieking is like torture to my ears. I wince through the pain as Gible and Glaceon charge into each other in their confusion, and both of them recoil in pain, Gible doing so while leaving his mouth wide open. It's such a massive target that I can hardly miss. I chuck the Persim Berry straight into his maw, and he swallows instinctively. It takes a couple of seconds, but eventually Gible's expression clears, and he looks around, seeing us all struggling, covering our ears in desperation. Gible quickly deduces the source of the problem, and blasts it with a Dragon Rage.
I hear yelling behind me as the poacher shouts in surprise. "Hey! We need some heeeeelp!" I turn to see Meowth sprinting towards us.
"What do you want? We're in the middle of a battle!" I furiously whisper to the talking Pokémon.
"Jessie and James are in the process of getting their butts kicked! So unless you want this master plan of yours to fail epically, you need to come to our assistance." Meowth says back, crossing his arms.
Team Rocket is something else. Ursula gives me a quick nod, when I glance at her, so I flip the door-opening keycard to her.
"Gible and I will finish this cretin shortly," she guarantees. "We will restrain them and meet you on the inside of the holding bay."
I take off running in the other direction after her confident words. "Come on, Glaceon! There's one more battle over here!" I look down at Meowth as we do so. "How badly is it going?"
"Well," he starts. "All of our Pokémon have been hurt so far. We took the walkie-talkie's foirst thing with Carnivine's Vine Whip like you said, but he kinda got knocked out in the process. Jessie had to recall Dustox too. So it's up to Seviper and Cacnea, and with those two clowns commanding them, I know they're going to lose."
Meowth feels the same way as I do about his comrades, funnily enough. "I'm noticing that you don't seem to have any injuries from battling."
"Don't make me laugh, twoirp! Meowth doesn't battle anymore unless I have a great reason too. 'Sides, I haven't learned a new move in ages. The old Fury Swipes attack only gets you so far, you know."
Glaceon asks him a question, that Meowth looks extremely offended by.
"I'll have you know that I've traded everything a Pokémon can do for what a human can. I don't think I can go back even if I wanted to. I tried to learn Night Slash once, but when you hang around yahoos like the ones I do, learning is hard."
Sure, he walks and talks and acts like a human, but Meowth is still a Pokémon. He should be able to fight. If he's out of practice though, that's one less variable I need to account for when the inevitable double-cross occurs. Wobbuffet I know better to attack directly, and I assume James doesn't let Mime Jr battle. Once Seviper, Cacnea, and Dustox have fainted, we should be in the clear.
James and Cacnea are facing off against a Shiftry, perhaps the one from earlier, while Jessie and Seviper are opposite a Magcargo. I have the attacks to defeat them both. Once Team Rocket softens them up before losing, that is.
"Aren't you goin' ta step in?" Meowth asks me. Glaceon repeats the question from my other side.
"It's rude to takeover like that," I deflect, ignoring their incredulous looks. "Anyways, Jessie seems like the type to get angry at someone stealing away her chance for victory." Meowth's silence tells me my assumption about his fiery partner is an accurate one.
Plus, I get to observe Team Rocket battle firsthand. How do they manage to lose every battle? Right away, I can see some flaws in their style.
"Seviper, Poison Tail attack!" Jessie has all the confidence and poise that a coordinator should have. Her Pokémon lashes out with its purple glowing tail.
"Use Harden!" Magcargo stiffens like a board, and it doesn't even flinch when the Poison Tail lands.
"Use Bite!" she yells. This time, Seviper surges forward with its mouth wide open.
"Ancient Power!" It gets a mouthful of Magcargo's attack though, and Seviper is knocked back.
"Come on!" Jessie stomps her foot angrily. "Use wrap!" I cluck my tongue at her mistake. Bad idea, trying to wrap a Pokémon that's made out of lava. Sure enough, the poacher laughs and has his Magcargo use Harden again. It isn't long until Seviper ends its Wrap attack, unable to stand the heat. If Jessie was any madder, steam would start rising from her head.
Jessie's issue is, when things are going well, she does fine. As soon as things start to go wrong, she loses her composure and starts attacking without any plan. Her attacks are ineffective, but had she looked at this battle without her red lens of rage, she might have noticed Magcargo moving even more sluggishly than usual. It's very likely that it's been poisoned by Seviper's Poison Tail. She doesn't have to press the issue, because Magcargo will get weakened enough to knock out pretty soon. She and James could have tag-teamed Shiftry in the meantime.
Speaking of which, I turn my attention to the other battle. Shiftry launches a Leaf Tornado that Cacnea blocks with a last minute Sandstorm command from its trainer. James goes for an attack, though it's not a good one.
"Cacnea! Bullet Seed!" Cacnea spits out a barrage of seeds at Shiftry, though the opposing Grass-type barely feels the attack.
"What moves does Cacnea know, Meowth?"
He starts counting them off on his fingers. "Let's see. There's Sandstorm, Growth, Leech Seed, Bullet Seed, Pin Missile, Needle Arm, and Dark Pulse."
One of those attacks is insanely strong against Shiftry. So why hasn't he used it? "I wonder why he hasn't used Needle Arm yet. It's Cacnea's powerful, signature attack, after all," I say aloud, making sure James can hear.
He takes the bad advice, even against his better judgment. "Cacnea, Needle Arm!" The cactus Pokémon's arm starts glowing, and it starts swinging it in a circle, running towards Shiftry on its stubby legs.
"Counter with Strength!" In contrast , Shiftry's whole body glows white. And it charges headlong into the attack. It looks even for a couple of seconds, but Cacnea's eventually thrown back.
"Why'd you go for Needle Arm?" I ask him. James turns around briefly to reply.
"You told me to!" he accuses.
James has to turn his attention back to the battle because another Leaf Tornado is coming Cacnea's way. That doesn't stop me from criticizing him, though. "I'm not going to tell you the attack to use here, since I can tell you already know it. Have some confidence in your own skills and go for it!"
He still appears conflicted, but finally James makes a decision as Leaf Tornado spirals towards his Pokémon. "Pin Missile!" he shouts.
Cacnea levels its arms forward, and its needles start glowing. Pin Missile rips through the Leaf Tornado to connect for a massive super-effective hit on Shiftry.
I can't help but say it. "I told you so."
"What if Shiftry knows Hurricane? That would stop Pin Missile in its tracks. Or worse, what if it knows a Psychic-type move, and it took over our attack and sent it back at Cacnea?" he replies without turning around.
I'd bet a thousand dollars that if Shiftry knew Hurricane, it would have gone for it by now. James has a wealth of knowledge about Pokémon that should make him a decent battler. Unfortunately, he has no confidence in himself, which leads him to underestimate his own Pokémon, and overestimate the opponent.
Supposedly, if you were to combine the two, you should get the best of both; Jessie's confidence and James's knowledge. Somehow, it ended up being the worst instead. Whenever Jessie gets mad, James follows her lead.
My internal analysis of Team Rocket is interrupted by my leg being bumped into. I look down at the culprit. "What's up, Glaceon?"
She asks me something, and Meowth answers before I do. "Hey! We ain't that bad, ya know."
"Oh, are you wondering why we're working with the bad guys? It's a bit complicated…" Her face tells me that she wants an explanation.
"It's like Meowth said, these three aren't that bad in the grand scheme of the world. I know they seem like Team Galactic, but they aren't nearly the same. There's an old saying: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Right now, the most important thing is defeating those people over there. They're poachers, and what they are doing is definitely evil."
"Who's Team Galactic?" Meowth pipes up.
"Oh, just some weirdos in spacesuits trying to take over the world." I mutter back, giving him the very abridged version.
"Team Rocket doesn't stand for any knock off wannabes! The Sinnoh region is our domain!"
Way to not help my case, Meowth. Glaceon looks like she has several more questions, but before she can ask, a crash indicates Seviper's defeat. Cacnea isn't far behind, as James goes for Dark Pulse against a Jump Kick from Shiftry, instead of Pin Missile.
I pull out Charmeleon's Pokéball, seeing as that's our cue. "Glaceon, Water Pulse on Magcargo! Charmeleon, Flame Burst on Shiftry!"
The two enemy Pokémon barely have time to react as two new challengers approach, and they're both slammed unconscious by the super-effective attacks. Charmeleon blinks in surprise at the easy victory, then whirls around annoyance.
I shrug. "It was weakened beforehand. Anyways, we got places to be! Glaceon, use Water Pulse and Icy Wind to freeze these guys' feet so they can't move."
The two poachers were trying to slink away, and flinch upon my words. Despite any misgivings she may be having, Glaceon obeys me unfailingly. I get why this has been weighing so heavily on Lucas's mind. I'm hiding the true nature of Team Rocket from her and Glaceon still follows my every command. That kind of loyalty is a huge responsibility.
I shake my head slightly to clear it, and throw out another Pokéball. I could summon Bellossom so the whole gang's here, but something tells me it's better that Team Rocket doesn't know how many Pokémon I have. "Okay Spewpa, String Shot!" Jessie and Janes tape these bozos' mouths shut, after they are wrapped up and when we move on to the other side, where I left Ursula, we find out she had an identical idea to mine. All of the poachers having been dealt with, and are out of view of the cameras, James opens the holding bay door with his keycard as we finally find what we've been looking for.
Cage after cage of trapped Pokémon. Ursula's head pops out from behind one. "It's about time you decided to make an appearance! We have work to do. These poachers have been busy."
She gestures to all the cages, occupied with the Pokémon we had seen whilst we were here, and even some Pokémon common to Sinnoh caught in the trap. I see two Gligar, a Machop, a Ponyta, and three Bronzor in one cage, though I guess Bronzor does count as an ancient Pokémon, in the same vein as Baltoy and Golett. There's another one of water dwelling fossils from the saltwater lake, though it seems Hunter J is more successful poaching on land.
We have to get them all out of here. Lucas looks around grimly. "Some of these Pokémon are in bad shape, Luna. They aren't even able to move on their own power."
I sling my backpack from my shoulder to the ground and start rifling through it, pulling our berries and potions, everything I have except one Super Potion that I'll save for an emergency. "Heal them then. We aren't leaving a single one behind."
"Well said," Lucas agrees, copying my actions.
Team Rocket is looking around speculatively like they're in an art gallery. Meowth specifically is staring at something intensely. "You three can work on picking the locks on these cages," I say pointedly, though Meowth ignores me. He points at the object of his interest.
"Who's that!
Ursula's Alolan Meowth, hard at work picking locks, turns to look at his Kantonian counterpart at Meowth's words. They two felines walk until they're face to face, and take each other in. I watch in horrified fascination.
"You hoird me! Where's a freak Meowth like you come from, anyway!"
"Excuse you!" Ursula says, affronted, though her Pokémon is more than happy to insult the other Meowth.
"Meowth, Meowth, Meow, Meowth!"
"You're sayin' all da Meowths in Alola look like you, and that makes me the freak Meowth? In your dreams! I ain't even hoird of Alola before!"
"Actually, all the Meowth in Alola are Dark-types. So it makes sense that they'd look different," James informs his partner.
"A Dark-type, huh? I guess dat would explain it."
"Meow, Meowth, Meowth."
"You sayin' your better than me because your a Dark-type and I'm not? I'll have you know I'm just as good as you. I coulda learned Night Slash, but I didn't even need it!"
What a little liar. One for his Night Slash fib, and two because he seems ready to fight right about now. Time to step in.
"Ok, now that you've been introduced, you should make nice, because we need to get to work here." I give Ursula a pleading look that says please help me out here!
"She is correct. We do not pick fights with our allies, Meowth, no matter how irritating they may be." She glares at Meowth and Lucas as she says this.
Ursula's Meowth huffs, sticking out a paw reluctantly, though Team Rocket's doesn't take it. "You's tryin' to pull a fast one one me, aren't cha? I can respect that. Maybe you and I aren't so different after all."
Of course the common ground they find is on how devious they both are. With the catfight crisis averted, I move in to start spraying these Pokémon down with potions, though the cage of Archen instantly move to the other side I approach.
I curse myself for my stupidity. Most of these Pokémon have probably never seen a human, and their first impression of them was not a good one. "Glaceon, Spewpa, Charmeleon, can you explain to them what we're trying to do?"
It takes some coaxing, but my Pokémon finally convince a couple of Archen to come forward. They wince as I point the potion at them and begin to spray.
Their expressions turn surprised and the joyous as the Archen realize that I'm not holding an ancient Kalosian torture device, and in treating their injuries instead. They squawk to the other caged Pokémon, and it's like the floodgates have been opened.
"Make sure you tell them that the most injured need to be healed first," I instruct my Pokémon. "Everyone needs to be able to at least walk by themselves, and we have a limited supply."
From there, we work as quickly as we can. Every once in a while, I hear Jessie ask James about a Pokémon, to which he pulls out what looks like Pokémon cards to answer her questions. I have to trade supplies with Lucas a couple of times, like when I pass him Pecha berries to heal Pokémon that've been poisoned by Drapion, and he gives me some Rawst Berries to help burns from Salamence's Fire-type attacks. Ursula profusely congratulates her Meowth every time he picks a lock, and gives some begrudging praise every time Team Rocket's Meowth does.
The Pokémon understand that we can't treat every single scrape or bruise they have, but I still wish I could. I know this stuff doesn't heal now, but surely caffeine and sugar will give them an energy boost regardless. As I start to pull out all the sodas and lemonades that I've bought from the vending machine from my bag, I become acutely aware of someone hovering over my shoulder.
"Can I help you?"
James points to one of the bottles of soda. "Were you planning to throw that away?"
"What, this?" I lift up the bottle in question. "Yeah, why?"
I nearly drop it as he shouts suddenly. "Don't! That bottlecap is a limited edition!"
"Really? It's just a red crown-" I see James puffing up to lecture me on my ignorance, and I think better of arguing such a stupid point. "You can have it then. Take them all, actually."
He takes the soda bottle and removes the bottle cap slowly, holding it with sparkles in his eyes. "You can have this," James says to a Golett standing next to him. The Pokémon takes the drink with wide eyes, and after taking a sip, chugs the whole thing in one go.
It's going a bit too well. Which is why I'm not completely surprised when I hear the intercom turn on, and one of the poachers starts speaking from the cockpit.
"Attention, airship crew! We believe that there are intruders currently onboard our airship! Search every inch of it until you find them! Once you do, your orders are to destroy the intruders on sight!"
Lucas turns to me, concern all over his face. "What should we do? They'll find us eventually."
"Disable the door," I decide. "I don't want any poachers getting in here."
"But how will we be able to leave?" Ursula asks with a hint of nervousness.
"Don't worry your pretty little head," Meowth tells her. "We can still open it from the inside. Besides, Team Rocket's escaped from this place, and way more secure places before! We've got a foolproof plan for getting out of here, even while dis ting is in da air!"
Foolproof being the operative word, because Team Rocket are definitely some fools. In any case, his words are enough for me. I assume that Mime Jr knows Teleport, and while it may take a few trips, it would be able to take everyone inside here to freedom. I open the door and instruct Charmeleon to melt the plastic keyholder into mush. I turn to everyone once he's done so. "Let's pick up the pace. We might be two thirds done by now, but they know we're here."
Fifteen minutes later, we've only got a couple of cages left to unlock, and a dozen or so Pokémon to patch up when the intercom turns on again.
"The intruders are in the holding bay! We are activating emergency lockdown procedures! Everyone get to a safe area, the airship will be taking off soon!"
Damn it! We were so close, too! "I guess we're gonna have to use your plan of escape then," I say to Team Rocket. "What exactly is it?"
"All we have to do is crash land dis ting, and we'll be good to go!"
Jessie and James grin and nod at Meowth's words, but the rest of us whirl our heads to the talking Pokémon, hoping that he was joking. Meowth gives no indication that it was a joke, and continues to fiddle with the lock on the cage he's working on.
This is what I get for relying on Team Rocket for the escape plan. At this rate, I'll be lucky to get sent blasting off!