Dillon’s father adjusted his wide-brimmed hat and deliberately approached the Team Rocket encampment, with the early morning sun casting his long shadow across their sleepy tents. The shadow fell across a Rocket grunt trying to reignite a fire pit, and the grunt looked up with a start and a squint.

No guard posted. Sloppy.

“H-hey! There’s a guy! Here!” The grunt leaped to his feet as eight more grunts started scrambling out of their tents in various stages of sleep and undress.

Pathetic.

“Who are you,” one of the grunts demanded. He tried to sound gruff authoritative, but it was difficult while shivering in an undershirt.

“Do you know who we are,” asked another grunt as he motioned to the others to start spreading out.

Dillon’s father had halted his approach a few feet away from the circle of tents, and he kept his gaze as neutral as he could. “I know who you are. Big red R on your tent, on your coat, probably even your underwear there. Dead giveaway.”

Nine to one. One or two Pokémon strong enough to carry all the tents and gear. Probably at least one Zubat each.

“Pretty bold of you to walk up alone like that if you know who we are,” smirked the grunt. His hand rested on one of two Pokeballs at his belt. “If you’re looking for trouble, we’ll give you double what you can handle. If not, there’s no reason to act like a stranger. My name’s Hayes. What’s yours?”

“Jesse Mitchell,” replied Dillon’s father. His hands were carefully open and away from the Pokeballs at his belt. “I’m not here for trouble. I’m here to suggest you find another campsite.”

Hayes chuckled in disbelief, and the other grunts echoed an assorted chuckling and chattering.

“Not many wild Pokémon here for you to abuse,” Jesse continued as if in thought. “No big city close by for you to steal from. Nothing of any note around here. ‘Cept that we’re right next to the Route between Pallet Town and Viridian City. The whole region knows that Pokémon League Kanto has a bunch of young trainers passing by here in the next few days.” He watched their faces harden. “That’s what I thought. Find another campsite. Far. From. Here.”

Go ahead. Make my day.

Hayes released his Nidorino onto the ground next to him. Around him the other Rockets released from their Pokeballs an assortment of Zubats, Rattatas, a Raticate, a Linoon, and a Rhyhorn.

Poison type. Poison/Flying types. Normal type. Rock/Ground type. Easy.

“I’ll tell you what,” Hayes said tensely. “You’re scouting the path for the League, yeah? Here’s the deal: send out just one Pokémon and we’ll only rough you up a little. Tell your bosses you ran into a wild Beedrill nest.” He ducked his head into Jesse’s shadow to get his eyes out of the sun. “If that’s not agreeable enough to you, it’s still nine against one, and we can do a lot worse.”

Nidorino crouched, anticipating a command to attack.

Zubat alternate sense: echolocation. Raticate alternate sense: whiskers. Nidorino alternate sense: hearing. Linoone: blind as the kids. Rhyhorn: no sense at all.

Jesse’s face didn’t budge. His shadow grinned.

Hayes yelped in surprise as the Ghost-type Gengar tore itself from Jesse’s shadow, caught Nidorino in the side of the face with a Shadow Claw, and dove into Hayes’ own shadow. As the Rockets started yelling orders to their Pokemon, Jesse shifted his attention to the Zubats. Gengar flitted from shadow to shadow, humans and Pokémon alike, dropping a Zubat with each appearance. Chaos reigned.

Rhyhorn and Raticate charged at Jesse, the Rhyhorn trampling a Ratatta in the process. Jesse didn’t let them get close. He discharged from its Pokeball an Alakazam. Two powerful Psybeam attacks from the Psychic-type Pokemon dropped the charging Pokemon in quick succession. Jesse swiftly ducked behind the fainted Rhyhorn and pointed a finger to the sky. Alakazam nodded knowingly. It teleported into the air, assessed the situation, and fired another Psybeam into the Linoone. Alakazam then teleported back to the ground before it could finish falling and followed up on the remaining Rattata with a wide reaching Psychic.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Gengar had run out of Zubat to knock out and began stealing Pokeballs off of the Rockets belts. Hayes slapped helplessly at the ghostly form before it disappeared into his shadow again.

Jesse peeked around the Rhyhorn and decided the battle had gone comfortably in his favor. He called over to Alakazam, “Restrain them with the tents!”

The Pokémon obliged. Psychic energy engulfed the cloth structures and the grunts were soon awash in dewy fabric.

Jesse grunted to his feet and emerged from behind his cover. The fight had gone out of the Rockets in a way that only a cool morning breeze, wet underclothes, the wrong side of a heavy tent, and total discombobulation could provide.

Alakazam held the tents in place until it sensed Jesse relax, then immediately switched to scanning their surroundings. Gengar casually tossed a stolen Pokeball from claw to claw and grinned wolfishly at the Rockets.

“Sure enough, nine against one,” Jesse mused, and Alakazam’s scan lingered briefly into the sunlight at a thick bush. “Here’s the deal. Sun’s over that way.” He pointed. “You, can all go that way.” He pointed again. “If sundown comes, and your shadows aren’t pointing back this way again, I’m going to drop you all in front of the Viridian City Gym.” Jesse’s voice was heavily bitter. “Everyone knows how he likes to make an example of Team Rocket.”

Hayes shivered. “Could you at least let us finish getting dressed?”

“No.” Jesse thrust his hands into his coat pockets.

“Well that’s not fair…”

“GO!” Jesse suddenly bellowed, and Gengar pulled a comically monstrous face to drive the point home. Team Rocket scrambled again out of their tents, and in their underwear began to flee in the desired direction. Jesse watched them, his brow still furrowed.

Should be a day or two before they can report to anyone. We’ll be long gone if we keep moving.

“Hey dad! That was awesome!”

Jesse sighed and turned towards the bush.

Should have waited another few minutes before leaving concealment, much less yelling.

Dillon Mitchell exploded from the bush with a huge smile on his face. A long branch that he had brushed aside snapped back and into Owen Devinoux, who blocked it like an attack. He also let the branch snap back, but Sam Connr simply waited for the branch and then half-heartedly jogged to keep up.

“Boys, I told you…” Jesse began, but Dillon kept gushing. “That was so controlled! And so fast! Did you guys train for this exact scenario? Why didn’t you just use a big attack like Surf?”

Owen glared after the Rockets and clenched his fist. “We could have asked them about Brian.”

Dillon lit up even further. “Yeah! Hey dad, could we follow them back to their hideout?”

“No!” Jesse had to make himself heard. “No, we cannot follow them to their hideout, or ask them about Brian, Owen. First, they are all too young to know anything about Brian. Second, big area attacks might have stirred a wild Pokemon and flushed you out of hiding, and I told you to hide until I called for you. Third, yes we trained for horde battles, and you will too…”

“Will what?” Sam asked as he joined the conversation.

“Train for horde battles,” Dillon informed him cheerfully.”

Sam glanced aside at Jesse. “You know we don’t have any Ghost types, right?”

“Yes, but I will teach you the principles…”

“And how to fight ourselves, right? You promised!” Owen questioned, turning his head towards Sam.

“I’m not fighting anyone.” Sam crossed his arms.

“No you seriously need to learn,” Dillon chirped. “Otherwise you’ll just lose to anyone who does this.”

Sam glanced over at him. “Does what?”

On cue, Owen tackled him.

“Boys!” Jesse shouted.

“Yeah dad?” Dillon deadpanned innocently.

“There will be time for training later! Pick yourselves up and go collect your bags. We’re going to go past the city and into Viridian Forest. Plan on spending the night and training there in the morning. We’ll go over our training expectations then.” Jesse turned back to the Team Rocket Pokémon who had been abandoned. “In the meantime I’m going to get these into some empty Pokeballs. We’ll see if we can get them to a rehabilitation center.”

“I thought we weren’t going to the city.”

Jesse faced his son. “We aren’t. I’m going to make a stop. You can all enjoy the morning sun while you wait.

Owen’s hand went to a Pokeball on his belt. “All of us?”

Jesse hesitated, and glanced again towards where the Rockets had run off. “No. Keep your aces hidden. The less any of them could know about us the better, and your aces will need the element of surprise until you’re advanced enough as a trainer to effectively command them. Squirtle is okay.”

Sam eyed his companions. “What if you don’t have, say, an ace? What even is an ace?”

Dillon clapped him on the back cheerfully. “Then don’t worry about it, Sam! Here, you can hold Pikachu.” With that he released Pikachu into Sam’s chest.

Owen laughed and Jesse sighed. He ordered Gengar to keep an eye on things, finished gathering Team Rocket’s Pokémon, and then teleported away with Alakazam.

Dillon noticed that Sam was holding Pikachu tightly. “Hey Owen, go grab our bags. Dad said to.” Owen obediently returned to the bush.

Sam was staring at the R logo printed on the tents. Dillon knew what he was thinking. He rubbed the side of his neck where a deep scar lurked behind his shirt collar. “That went a lot better than last time, huh?”

“Yeah,” Sam replied quietly. “This time I didn’t lose my camera.” He glanced at Dillon. “I’m still not sure you didn’t lose your head.”

“Me either,” Dillon shrugged. He gently rubbed Pikachu’s rosy cheek. “Yeah, it’s been a few years since you guys have seen each other hasn’t it buddy? Are you ready to start training so we can fight those guys ourselves sometime?”

Pikachu buzzed in approval.

Dillon looked at Sam with all seriousness. “Come on. Let’s watch the morning sun instead of that stupid R.”

They walked away to find a better view.

“You know,” Sam said thoughtfully, “it’s too bad we won’t be able to take any pictures, since you got my camera broken.”

“Oh, how was that my fault?”

“It was your idea to go into the forest!”

“I didn’t know Team Rocket was in there!”

“I mourned that camera!”