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- Posts
- 19
- Years
- Elsewhere
- Seen Jul 9, 2019
The Rocket opened a drawer in his desk and went through its contents. He pulled out three small blue devices that looked like some sort of cell phones and plugged our ID cards into the bottom. After several seconds, there was a beep and he removed the cards.
"Rocket Communicators," he said, handing one to each of us along with our cards. "All members are issued one. They work a lot like cell phones except that they can only call other Communicators." I suddenly remembered that Tyson had mentioned that when he called for reinforcements on one. "Ever since a few months ago, new members can't carry guns. Too many gang retards were shootin' each other. You get one once you get to a certain position. And that's everything."
"Okay, thanks," I said as we stood and walked out the door. I glanced at the paper the Rocket had given Rudy. "So…we go down some stairs in a hallway and—oh, that's right there."
We had turned a corner and were in a short hallway that ended in a flight of stairs that descended to the main floor. Sounds of numerous conversations reached us from the below level. We stepped down the staircase and I was surprised at the incredible contrast between the two floors.
The main level was huge, for one. We were in the commons, where many of the less professional and most likely lower-ranking members gathered. It was an immense area with a high ceiling and overall loose appearance, like that of some high school hangout. Wide hallways led to the other areas, and there was a section that looked almost like the inside of a fast-food restaurant.
"Whoa, not what I was expecting, but way cool," said Rudy grinning.
"Think we should go find Karen?" I asked.
"Yeah, why not?" Rudy replied.
After looking around for a bit, we quickly found the stadium, which was right in the first hall. It looked almost identical to the one in Midnight Stadium, except that there weren't any audience seats. Several Rockets were training their Pokémon and I noticed almost right away what Stalker had said about Rockets stressing physical strength in their training.
"Hey, is anyone here an Executive named Karen?" Rudy shouted all of a sudden.
A young woman in who looked to be in her early twenties turned from her training and said, "That'd be me." She recalled her Pokémon and walked over. She was fairly tall and had long black hair and a stern expression that seemed to advertise that she was an experienced Rocket. "What do you need?" she asked.
Rudy handed her the paper the Rocket had given him and she read it quickly.
"New kids, huh?" she said. "Guess I'll be in charge of you for a while. Can I see all of your Pokémon?"
We each pulled out all of our Poké balls and released Swift, Firestorm, Ebony, Wartortle, Pikachu, and Ivysaur. I looked at Rudy's Pikachu for the first time; it was weird seeing a normal Pikachu that didn't have long spiky fur. As for Darren's Ivysaur, it was about three feet tall and looked primarily like a small bluish-green, tailless dinosaur with darker blue spots and rough scales. Halfway down its back was a bulb that had opened to reveal a large closed flower bud. Karen looked over our Pokémon for a few seconds noting certain features that indicated their strength.
"Pretty good for being new," she said. "Pokémon Training Rockets are judged mainly on their training skills. Since this says you only joined two weeks ago, right now, your ranking is near the bottom, but once you're evaluated, it'll probably rise quite a bit."
"How's the ranking work?" Darren asked.
"He didn't explain it did he? Well basically there are five levels to the ranking. You start out on level five and with a certain number, based on how many others are in that level. With each promotion, the number is lowered until you're on number one, then you'd move to the end of level four. When you get moved to level one, you're an Executive, and if you're on number one, level one, then you're a Commander, but only Johto currently has a Commander. Here, let me see one of your ID's"
Darren had his out first. He handed it to her and she inserted it into a device she pulled out of her pocket. "Your current ranking is K5:572. The K stands for Kanto Rocket. Often you'll find that your ranking is lowered seemingly for no reason, and it simply means that someone else moved in front of you. Every now and then, those who join only for the hell of it and don't do anything are fired, and if they reveal anything about us to anyone else, we hunt 'em down. Anyways, I'll evaluate you guys later today or tomorrow. For now, get used to the way things work around here."
I grinned at Rudy and Darren. So far, everything had gone perfectly. Once we were evaluated, we could begin training as Rockets. Now all that mattered was getting on the Raikou mission.
I glanced at the scenery from the back of a pickup truck, the forests slowly blending into chaparral as we continued through the wilderness. The past two days had been packed but it was all well worth it. We had been evaluated the next day and all three of us had risen in rank by over two hundred points. After a hard training session the second day, I had asked Karen about the Raikou mission since neither Rudy nor Darren had wanted to. She had explained that it was part of Team Rocket's legendary project and, after some persuasion, had agreed to let us come on it as our first mission.
I looked back at the long line of similar trucks behind us, some carrying Rockets, others, machinery. "How come there are so many of us on this mission?" I asked.
"November's Entei mission was a fiasco and we had to call for help from the Johto force, which was embarrassing enough seeing as they're stronger than us Kantoans, but on top of it all, some Johto Force kid caught Entei, which didn't make us look good in front of the boss. We've been tracking Raikou for a while now ever since it crossed over into Kanto and have set aside a spot up ahead. We're gonna lure it there and then hit it with everything we've got."
I was silent for the next few minutes, staring off at nothing and lost in my thoughts. In a way, I felt sorry for Raikou and only hoped that we'd be able to save it.
The trucks emerged into a clearing that had obviously been stripped of trees recently. Each vehicle stopped around the clearing, making a large half-circle. Rockets began climbing out the trucks, and I did the same. I walked over to where Rudy and Darren were and continued to watch the Rockets' operation in wonder.
Every other truck in the arrangement carried a large piece of silver machinery. Large panels opened on the back of each, revealing tall antennas that shot up into the air. Strings of electricity sparked and crackled from the tops before a web of lightning formed itself between all of the mechanisms.
"What's all that for?" I asked Karen, who was standing right next to us.
"Raikou'll be tougher than Entei was. It's able to create force fields with its energy, but if it tries that stunt here, it'll be sorry," she replied coolly.
I leaned over and whispered to Rudy, "I have no idea what we're gonna do about this, we need to find others on The Rebellion." He nodded, and I proceeded to glance at each of the numerous Rockets. I noticed one guy whom I had seen before on Midnight Island, but whose name I didn't know. I strolled over, trying not to attract any attention and whispered, "Do you have any plans as to how we're gonna stop 'em?"
"I've got some ideas, but I don't know which ones of us are on The Rebellion besides a few of my friends," he replied quietly. "If you can find some more of us, then slip back into the trees and I'll explain."
I sighed in my mind, knowing it would be no easy task. I was terrible with remembering people and out of the whole Rebellion, knew only Rudy, Darren, and Stalker's names. I walked quickly back to Rudy and Darren and asked, "Do you two know any others on The Rebellion?" They both shook their heads.
"Crap," I muttered before saying, "come on, at least help me recognize some of the others."
We walked around the ring of Rockets occasionally spotting some kids we had seen before and telling them to come with us. By the end, we had only found about ten people, but we walked back to the other guy anyway, making sure not to be seen by the real Rockets. When he saw us coming, he motioned to us to follow him back toward the trees.
"Alright, everyone, it definitely seems like we're gonna have a heck of a time keeping them from catching Raikou," he started.
"What I don't get is why Stalker didn't come with us!" a younger boy yelled.
"He's well known with Team Rocket, people would recognize him," a girl replied.
All at once, everyone began yelling random things involving us failing and being caught by Team Rocket until finally, an older boy standing by the one who had called us there spoke up.
"Shut up, everyone!" he yelled. "We need to be quiet." He shot a glance at the Rockets and continued. "Ryan here was put in charge, he knows what he's doing, so just listen!"
"Thanks, Aaron," Ryan said. He then addressed us, "The only chance we've got is messing up those machines. I've got some good inside info, and I know that all the Rockets are gonna be focusing on using their Pokémon to trap Raikou here. If we can just sabotage the electric force field, Raikou can escape, but we can't be seen," he explained. "Alright, let's go back."
We walked back toward the Rockets and merged into the crowd. A little over a minute later, a man shouted through a megaphone, "Get ready, trainers, at your posts, others, tranquilizers and stun rays ready, technicians, make sure the Thunder Field's in working order. Let's do this!"
I stared off into the distance and saw a small, yellow, glowing, spiky blur racing towards us. When it stopped, I saw that it was a Jolteon, one of the fastest Pokémon ever discovered. "*Look out, he's coming! The others are back behind him!*" the Jolteon yelled, its fox-like body shaking with exhaustion and its yellow fur standing on end. It turned its head and held its long, rabbit-like ears straight up, listening for something only it could hear. It then fired a burst of electricity into its legs and streaked back in a flash.
I felt a drop of icy cold water on my hand and shivered. It had been so sunny that day, I had almost forgotten it was the middle of winter. I looked up into the sky and saw a thick layer of gray storm clouds covering the sky. Right before my eyes, the clouds thickened and stretched closer to the ground, enveloping the surrounding in an eerie blanket of fog. With a sudden realization, I remembered reading that Raikou had the ability to create thunderclouds. An immense flash of light to the west caught my attention and I looked out at the horizon. Bolts of electricity flew above the trees and were surging closer to us unbelievably quickly. It was right then that the Legendary Johto Beast of Thunder broke through the trees.
A massive saber-toothed tiger seemingly flew over the ground before stopping suddenly in front of us and glaring back at its pursuers. Its gigantic, muscular frame tensed up beneath a thick coat of vibrant golden and black striped fur. It let loose a mighty roar that shook the ground, and all of the Rockets' Pokémon that had chased it here recoiled in terror. Raikou swiveled its neck and stared at the Rockets and us with flaming red-brown eyes that seemed to bore right through one's soul. Everything about its head, from its steely blue whiskers to its midnight black ears and face gave off an impression of pure power.
After a few seconds of menacing silence, it twitched its stiff, blue, lightning bolt shaped tail and lunged back the way it came, its thick white claws kicking up chunks of mud.
"Now! Don't let it escape!" the lead Rocket yelled.
Right that second, the hundreds of Rockets ran toward the opening and released all of their Pokémon in a flash that lit up the whole area. The army of Pokémon stood guarding the only escape from the trap. Raikou shot a look back at the machines and the radiant lightning web strung between them. In an instant, it fired its back legs and lunged between two of the antennas. There was a sickening crack as Raikou's body collided with the force field and fell to the ground with a thud.
It quickly regained itself and stared at the mechanism with a look of pure venom before unleashing a wave of neon yellow lightning from the curled purple mane along its back. The Thunder attack was absorbed by the force field and a wave of white energy surged though Raikou's own lightning back at it. The tiger sprung back, howling in pain and once again turned to the Rockets' Pokémon. It then uttered a low voice in Pokéspeech that was so much like a growl that I couldn't tell whether it was male or female.
"*Stand aside,*" Raikou said. "*The humans are to blame for this, but you are not the ones responsible. Do not attempt to defy me.*"
The Pokémon at the front of the blockade, a large, powerful bear Pokémon, stepped forward. The Ursaring stood onto two legs, held out its claws in an attacking position, and said, "*It may be their plan, but we are a part of Team Rocket as well and do not object to it. I for one feel as much dedication to taking you down as they do.*"
Raikou widened its eyes slightly and then said finally and menacingly, "*Then you all shall fall in pieces!*"
It streaked forward in a flash of lightning right into the heart of the defense. The Ursaring opened its mouth wide and unleashed a pulsing beam of energy right at Raikou, who lunged aside in one swift motion and bolted forward. It knocked the bear forward and sank its seven-inch-long fangs into its side. The Ursaring made one last feeble attempt to slash at Raikou, but then shuddered and lay still, blood pouring out from the wound and spilling onto the mud. Raikou lifted its head, its saber-teeth covered in crimson ooze, and stared at the rest of its opposition. The other Pokémon flinched slightly, but at the command of their trainers, rushed forward at the tiger.
All this time I had been watching such fascination that I had completely forgotten about our mission. I glanced over at the nearest truck, saw a girl on The Rebellion messing with some stuff on the machine, and walked over.
"'Bout time," she said. "I can't figure out what to do with this. There should be a control panel or something, but I can't find it."
I felt along the sides of the machine, looking for anything out of the ordinary, but couldn't find a cover, switch, or other possible way to turn it off.
"Hey, maybe it's inside the truck," I said all of a sudden.
"You're right, I didn't think of that," she said. She walked over to the front and opened the passenger side door. I looked inside and saw a small keyboard with hundreds of other buttons and switches on it. The girl looked over each of the buttons, groaned in frustration, and said, "Couldn't there just be an off switch?"
"Do you think we could just push them all randomly?" I asked.
"Nah, too risky. It could end up making things worse," she replied.
An earsplitting roar filled the air and I looked back at the battle only to gape in horror the second I did. Raikou had just attempted to protect itself from a blazing fire assault, but the antennas had absorbed its force field, and Raikou was drained of power. It jumped out of the fray and struggled to regain itself, but was exhausted. Numerous gashes and slices covered its body, and its previously yellow fur was now almost completely red from both its own and its enemies' blood. Several tranquilizer darts stuck out of its skin all over its body and it sank to its knees slowly as the pulsing yellow stun rays from the two trucks on the end completely immobilized it.
I saw a flash of light from the corner of my eye and turned to see Ryan, who had just released his Fearow. The immense bird of prey stood nearly as tall as he did with shaggy brown feathers, a long, pointed beak, and a crown of red horns atop its head. He turned to us and said, "I'm sick of this. If we're ever gonna keep them from capturing any Legendaries, it's gonna be by opposing them outright." He mounted the bird, and it took flight, spreading its immense wings to soar low above us, the wind ruffling both its feathers and Ryan's thick brown hair.
"Wait! If the Rockets see you, then you'll never be able to pose as one of them again!" the girl yelled to him.
"What, you don't think I already thought of that?" he said, pulling a black ski mask out of his pocket and slipping it over his head.
I stepped forward and away from the truck and stared upward to see Ryan and Fearow flying high above the antenna in the vehicle to the right of us. Fearow began gathering energy from within itself in the form of a huge glowing orb in its beak. Finally, drained of energy due to using such a powerful attack, it fired the energy as a beam down towards the machine.
It struck the mechanism, igniting the fuel and exploding the entire pickup truck on contact, creating a massive fireball that consumed the antenna and heated up the air tremendously. I shielded my eyes from the bright light and when I looked again, the two antennas on the side were sparking uselessly, unable to channel their electricity over the gap. Flaming debris littered the ground around a huge hole within the Thunder Field.
I turned quickly to see what was happening in the battle and saw Raikou still barely struggling to fend off its attackers. It turned toward the Rockets and I could have sworn I saw unmistakable terror in its face. Several of the Rockets hurled oddly colored Poké balls at it, but with one final burst of electricity, it drained its last ounce of electricity into blasting away the purple spheres.
"Raikou!" Ryan yelled, pointing down at the opening in the electrical web.
Raikou paused and leaned forward, concentrating hard. At once, it fired a burst of energy into its legs, breaking free of the stun rays with an Extremespeed technique. Although it wasn't nearly as fast as it would have been normally, it was able to clear the range of the stun rays and limped toward the opening.
And then, with a sickening realization, I noticed that I was standing in the gap. It was a very large passage, but rather than simply go around, Raikou came to a halt just ten feet from me. I didn't dare make any move toward or away from it; rather, I just stood, transfixed with fear and fascination. Finally, in a low, clear, masculine voice, Raikou uttered, "Stand aside."
English. He had spoken regular, normal, not-Pokéspeech, English. I was so surprised that it took me several seconds to obey. I backed slowly towards the truck where the other girl was standing, her eyes fixed on Raikou. He nodded slowly to me, drops of blood trickling off his defeated face, before rushing off to the west, back towards Johto from whence he came.
End Chapter 6
Well, there ya go, please point out any errors or comments!
NOTE: Thus far, Team Rocket (the whole team in itself as well as the individual supporting characters) may seem a bit flat, but don't worry, it gets way better later. My biggest pet peeve is the teams being portrayed as "RAR! EVIL!!!!!!!"
~Chibi~
"Rocket Communicators," he said, handing one to each of us along with our cards. "All members are issued one. They work a lot like cell phones except that they can only call other Communicators." I suddenly remembered that Tyson had mentioned that when he called for reinforcements on one. "Ever since a few months ago, new members can't carry guns. Too many gang retards were shootin' each other. You get one once you get to a certain position. And that's everything."
"Okay, thanks," I said as we stood and walked out the door. I glanced at the paper the Rocket had given Rudy. "So…we go down some stairs in a hallway and—oh, that's right there."
We had turned a corner and were in a short hallway that ended in a flight of stairs that descended to the main floor. Sounds of numerous conversations reached us from the below level. We stepped down the staircase and I was surprised at the incredible contrast between the two floors.
The main level was huge, for one. We were in the commons, where many of the less professional and most likely lower-ranking members gathered. It was an immense area with a high ceiling and overall loose appearance, like that of some high school hangout. Wide hallways led to the other areas, and there was a section that looked almost like the inside of a fast-food restaurant.
"Whoa, not what I was expecting, but way cool," said Rudy grinning.
"Think we should go find Karen?" I asked.
"Yeah, why not?" Rudy replied.
After looking around for a bit, we quickly found the stadium, which was right in the first hall. It looked almost identical to the one in Midnight Stadium, except that there weren't any audience seats. Several Rockets were training their Pokémon and I noticed almost right away what Stalker had said about Rockets stressing physical strength in their training.
"Hey, is anyone here an Executive named Karen?" Rudy shouted all of a sudden.
A young woman in who looked to be in her early twenties turned from her training and said, "That'd be me." She recalled her Pokémon and walked over. She was fairly tall and had long black hair and a stern expression that seemed to advertise that she was an experienced Rocket. "What do you need?" she asked.
Rudy handed her the paper the Rocket had given him and she read it quickly.
"New kids, huh?" she said. "Guess I'll be in charge of you for a while. Can I see all of your Pokémon?"
We each pulled out all of our Poké balls and released Swift, Firestorm, Ebony, Wartortle, Pikachu, and Ivysaur. I looked at Rudy's Pikachu for the first time; it was weird seeing a normal Pikachu that didn't have long spiky fur. As for Darren's Ivysaur, it was about three feet tall and looked primarily like a small bluish-green, tailless dinosaur with darker blue spots and rough scales. Halfway down its back was a bulb that had opened to reveal a large closed flower bud. Karen looked over our Pokémon for a few seconds noting certain features that indicated their strength.
"Pretty good for being new," she said. "Pokémon Training Rockets are judged mainly on their training skills. Since this says you only joined two weeks ago, right now, your ranking is near the bottom, but once you're evaluated, it'll probably rise quite a bit."
"How's the ranking work?" Darren asked.
"He didn't explain it did he? Well basically there are five levels to the ranking. You start out on level five and with a certain number, based on how many others are in that level. With each promotion, the number is lowered until you're on number one, then you'd move to the end of level four. When you get moved to level one, you're an Executive, and if you're on number one, level one, then you're a Commander, but only Johto currently has a Commander. Here, let me see one of your ID's"
Darren had his out first. He handed it to her and she inserted it into a device she pulled out of her pocket. "Your current ranking is K5:572. The K stands for Kanto Rocket. Often you'll find that your ranking is lowered seemingly for no reason, and it simply means that someone else moved in front of you. Every now and then, those who join only for the hell of it and don't do anything are fired, and if they reveal anything about us to anyone else, we hunt 'em down. Anyways, I'll evaluate you guys later today or tomorrow. For now, get used to the way things work around here."
I grinned at Rudy and Darren. So far, everything had gone perfectly. Once we were evaluated, we could begin training as Rockets. Now all that mattered was getting on the Raikou mission.
I glanced at the scenery from the back of a pickup truck, the forests slowly blending into chaparral as we continued through the wilderness. The past two days had been packed but it was all well worth it. We had been evaluated the next day and all three of us had risen in rank by over two hundred points. After a hard training session the second day, I had asked Karen about the Raikou mission since neither Rudy nor Darren had wanted to. She had explained that it was part of Team Rocket's legendary project and, after some persuasion, had agreed to let us come on it as our first mission.
I looked back at the long line of similar trucks behind us, some carrying Rockets, others, machinery. "How come there are so many of us on this mission?" I asked.
"November's Entei mission was a fiasco and we had to call for help from the Johto force, which was embarrassing enough seeing as they're stronger than us Kantoans, but on top of it all, some Johto Force kid caught Entei, which didn't make us look good in front of the boss. We've been tracking Raikou for a while now ever since it crossed over into Kanto and have set aside a spot up ahead. We're gonna lure it there and then hit it with everything we've got."
I was silent for the next few minutes, staring off at nothing and lost in my thoughts. In a way, I felt sorry for Raikou and only hoped that we'd be able to save it.
The trucks emerged into a clearing that had obviously been stripped of trees recently. Each vehicle stopped around the clearing, making a large half-circle. Rockets began climbing out the trucks, and I did the same. I walked over to where Rudy and Darren were and continued to watch the Rockets' operation in wonder.
Every other truck in the arrangement carried a large piece of silver machinery. Large panels opened on the back of each, revealing tall antennas that shot up into the air. Strings of electricity sparked and crackled from the tops before a web of lightning formed itself between all of the mechanisms.
"What's all that for?" I asked Karen, who was standing right next to us.
"Raikou'll be tougher than Entei was. It's able to create force fields with its energy, but if it tries that stunt here, it'll be sorry," she replied coolly.
I leaned over and whispered to Rudy, "I have no idea what we're gonna do about this, we need to find others on The Rebellion." He nodded, and I proceeded to glance at each of the numerous Rockets. I noticed one guy whom I had seen before on Midnight Island, but whose name I didn't know. I strolled over, trying not to attract any attention and whispered, "Do you have any plans as to how we're gonna stop 'em?"
"I've got some ideas, but I don't know which ones of us are on The Rebellion besides a few of my friends," he replied quietly. "If you can find some more of us, then slip back into the trees and I'll explain."
I sighed in my mind, knowing it would be no easy task. I was terrible with remembering people and out of the whole Rebellion, knew only Rudy, Darren, and Stalker's names. I walked quickly back to Rudy and Darren and asked, "Do you two know any others on The Rebellion?" They both shook their heads.
"Crap," I muttered before saying, "come on, at least help me recognize some of the others."
We walked around the ring of Rockets occasionally spotting some kids we had seen before and telling them to come with us. By the end, we had only found about ten people, but we walked back to the other guy anyway, making sure not to be seen by the real Rockets. When he saw us coming, he motioned to us to follow him back toward the trees.
"Alright, everyone, it definitely seems like we're gonna have a heck of a time keeping them from catching Raikou," he started.
"What I don't get is why Stalker didn't come with us!" a younger boy yelled.
"He's well known with Team Rocket, people would recognize him," a girl replied.
All at once, everyone began yelling random things involving us failing and being caught by Team Rocket until finally, an older boy standing by the one who had called us there spoke up.
"Shut up, everyone!" he yelled. "We need to be quiet." He shot a glance at the Rockets and continued. "Ryan here was put in charge, he knows what he's doing, so just listen!"
"Thanks, Aaron," Ryan said. He then addressed us, "The only chance we've got is messing up those machines. I've got some good inside info, and I know that all the Rockets are gonna be focusing on using their Pokémon to trap Raikou here. If we can just sabotage the electric force field, Raikou can escape, but we can't be seen," he explained. "Alright, let's go back."
We walked back toward the Rockets and merged into the crowd. A little over a minute later, a man shouted through a megaphone, "Get ready, trainers, at your posts, others, tranquilizers and stun rays ready, technicians, make sure the Thunder Field's in working order. Let's do this!"
I stared off into the distance and saw a small, yellow, glowing, spiky blur racing towards us. When it stopped, I saw that it was a Jolteon, one of the fastest Pokémon ever discovered. "*Look out, he's coming! The others are back behind him!*" the Jolteon yelled, its fox-like body shaking with exhaustion and its yellow fur standing on end. It turned its head and held its long, rabbit-like ears straight up, listening for something only it could hear. It then fired a burst of electricity into its legs and streaked back in a flash.
I felt a drop of icy cold water on my hand and shivered. It had been so sunny that day, I had almost forgotten it was the middle of winter. I looked up into the sky and saw a thick layer of gray storm clouds covering the sky. Right before my eyes, the clouds thickened and stretched closer to the ground, enveloping the surrounding in an eerie blanket of fog. With a sudden realization, I remembered reading that Raikou had the ability to create thunderclouds. An immense flash of light to the west caught my attention and I looked out at the horizon. Bolts of electricity flew above the trees and were surging closer to us unbelievably quickly. It was right then that the Legendary Johto Beast of Thunder broke through the trees.
A massive saber-toothed tiger seemingly flew over the ground before stopping suddenly in front of us and glaring back at its pursuers. Its gigantic, muscular frame tensed up beneath a thick coat of vibrant golden and black striped fur. It let loose a mighty roar that shook the ground, and all of the Rockets' Pokémon that had chased it here recoiled in terror. Raikou swiveled its neck and stared at the Rockets and us with flaming red-brown eyes that seemed to bore right through one's soul. Everything about its head, from its steely blue whiskers to its midnight black ears and face gave off an impression of pure power.
After a few seconds of menacing silence, it twitched its stiff, blue, lightning bolt shaped tail and lunged back the way it came, its thick white claws kicking up chunks of mud.
"Now! Don't let it escape!" the lead Rocket yelled.
Right that second, the hundreds of Rockets ran toward the opening and released all of their Pokémon in a flash that lit up the whole area. The army of Pokémon stood guarding the only escape from the trap. Raikou shot a look back at the machines and the radiant lightning web strung between them. In an instant, it fired its back legs and lunged between two of the antennas. There was a sickening crack as Raikou's body collided with the force field and fell to the ground with a thud.
It quickly regained itself and stared at the mechanism with a look of pure venom before unleashing a wave of neon yellow lightning from the curled purple mane along its back. The Thunder attack was absorbed by the force field and a wave of white energy surged though Raikou's own lightning back at it. The tiger sprung back, howling in pain and once again turned to the Rockets' Pokémon. It then uttered a low voice in Pokéspeech that was so much like a growl that I couldn't tell whether it was male or female.
"*Stand aside,*" Raikou said. "*The humans are to blame for this, but you are not the ones responsible. Do not attempt to defy me.*"
The Pokémon at the front of the blockade, a large, powerful bear Pokémon, stepped forward. The Ursaring stood onto two legs, held out its claws in an attacking position, and said, "*It may be their plan, but we are a part of Team Rocket as well and do not object to it. I for one feel as much dedication to taking you down as they do.*"
Raikou widened its eyes slightly and then said finally and menacingly, "*Then you all shall fall in pieces!*"
It streaked forward in a flash of lightning right into the heart of the defense. The Ursaring opened its mouth wide and unleashed a pulsing beam of energy right at Raikou, who lunged aside in one swift motion and bolted forward. It knocked the bear forward and sank its seven-inch-long fangs into its side. The Ursaring made one last feeble attempt to slash at Raikou, but then shuddered and lay still, blood pouring out from the wound and spilling onto the mud. Raikou lifted its head, its saber-teeth covered in crimson ooze, and stared at the rest of its opposition. The other Pokémon flinched slightly, but at the command of their trainers, rushed forward at the tiger.
All this time I had been watching such fascination that I had completely forgotten about our mission. I glanced over at the nearest truck, saw a girl on The Rebellion messing with some stuff on the machine, and walked over.
"'Bout time," she said. "I can't figure out what to do with this. There should be a control panel or something, but I can't find it."
I felt along the sides of the machine, looking for anything out of the ordinary, but couldn't find a cover, switch, or other possible way to turn it off.
"Hey, maybe it's inside the truck," I said all of a sudden.
"You're right, I didn't think of that," she said. She walked over to the front and opened the passenger side door. I looked inside and saw a small keyboard with hundreds of other buttons and switches on it. The girl looked over each of the buttons, groaned in frustration, and said, "Couldn't there just be an off switch?"
"Do you think we could just push them all randomly?" I asked.
"Nah, too risky. It could end up making things worse," she replied.
An earsplitting roar filled the air and I looked back at the battle only to gape in horror the second I did. Raikou had just attempted to protect itself from a blazing fire assault, but the antennas had absorbed its force field, and Raikou was drained of power. It jumped out of the fray and struggled to regain itself, but was exhausted. Numerous gashes and slices covered its body, and its previously yellow fur was now almost completely red from both its own and its enemies' blood. Several tranquilizer darts stuck out of its skin all over its body and it sank to its knees slowly as the pulsing yellow stun rays from the two trucks on the end completely immobilized it.
I saw a flash of light from the corner of my eye and turned to see Ryan, who had just released his Fearow. The immense bird of prey stood nearly as tall as he did with shaggy brown feathers, a long, pointed beak, and a crown of red horns atop its head. He turned to us and said, "I'm sick of this. If we're ever gonna keep them from capturing any Legendaries, it's gonna be by opposing them outright." He mounted the bird, and it took flight, spreading its immense wings to soar low above us, the wind ruffling both its feathers and Ryan's thick brown hair.
"Wait! If the Rockets see you, then you'll never be able to pose as one of them again!" the girl yelled to him.
"What, you don't think I already thought of that?" he said, pulling a black ski mask out of his pocket and slipping it over his head.
I stepped forward and away from the truck and stared upward to see Ryan and Fearow flying high above the antenna in the vehicle to the right of us. Fearow began gathering energy from within itself in the form of a huge glowing orb in its beak. Finally, drained of energy due to using such a powerful attack, it fired the energy as a beam down towards the machine.
It struck the mechanism, igniting the fuel and exploding the entire pickup truck on contact, creating a massive fireball that consumed the antenna and heated up the air tremendously. I shielded my eyes from the bright light and when I looked again, the two antennas on the side were sparking uselessly, unable to channel their electricity over the gap. Flaming debris littered the ground around a huge hole within the Thunder Field.
I turned quickly to see what was happening in the battle and saw Raikou still barely struggling to fend off its attackers. It turned toward the Rockets and I could have sworn I saw unmistakable terror in its face. Several of the Rockets hurled oddly colored Poké balls at it, but with one final burst of electricity, it drained its last ounce of electricity into blasting away the purple spheres.
"Raikou!" Ryan yelled, pointing down at the opening in the electrical web.
Raikou paused and leaned forward, concentrating hard. At once, it fired a burst of energy into its legs, breaking free of the stun rays with an Extremespeed technique. Although it wasn't nearly as fast as it would have been normally, it was able to clear the range of the stun rays and limped toward the opening.
And then, with a sickening realization, I noticed that I was standing in the gap. It was a very large passage, but rather than simply go around, Raikou came to a halt just ten feet from me. I didn't dare make any move toward or away from it; rather, I just stood, transfixed with fear and fascination. Finally, in a low, clear, masculine voice, Raikou uttered, "Stand aside."
English. He had spoken regular, normal, not-Pokéspeech, English. I was so surprised that it took me several seconds to obey. I backed slowly towards the truck where the other girl was standing, her eyes fixed on Raikou. He nodded slowly to me, drops of blood trickling off his defeated face, before rushing off to the west, back towards Johto from whence he came.
End Chapter 6
Well, there ya go, please point out any errors or comments!
NOTE: Thus far, Team Rocket (the whole team in itself as well as the individual supporting characters) may seem a bit flat, but don't worry, it gets way better later. My biggest pet peeve is the teams being portrayed as "RAR! EVIL!!!!!!!"
~Chibi~
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