~Chapter 6: The Race for Raikou~

A blazing inferno surged through the air toward its target, which lunged to the side as a red blur. The source of the assault, the mighty Charizard, surged forward toward its opponent, its muscular blue wings straining with tension. Suddenly, the flaming orange dragon was knocked forward, a large glowing hawk being the cause of its blow. It lunged back towards the dusty tan bird and smacked it with its tail. Flames surged through the air. The dragon was hit!

Firestorm let out a triumphant roar of “Chaaaaar!” as the Charizard, hardly injured at all, but still burned, glided back to its trainer. Stalker grinned, his icy blue eyes having a sort of satisfaction in them. The hawk, Swift, soared down, the red plumes that adorned his head swaying in the air.

“Perfect. Sure it was two on one, and you only hit Charizard once, but hey, seeing as you’ve only been a trainer for a month and a half, that’s impressive,” Stalker congratulated. “The last two weeks have been great for the whole team.”

And what a two weeks it had been. Swift had finally evolved, Rudy’s Squirtle had evolved, Ebony had learned to breathe fire, and nearly everyone had improved incredibly under Stalker’s training. Not only had we trained in Pokémon, but also in Team Rocket. We all knew the basic setup of the team and its operations, and we were ready for our first mission.

A young, red-haired boy ran over and frantically asked Stalker if he would watch him battle with a friend. With a slight wave, Stalker left with him. I wandered through the stadium with my two Pokémon until I found Rudy pitting Ebony and Wartortle against each other in a practice battle. Ebony’s speed and agility were even more striking now, but the real improvement was in Wartortle, who had once been Rudy’s tiny Squirtle. He now stood around three feet tall and had sharp claws tipping his fingers and toes. His ears appeared to be feathered and his tail was snow white and fluffy, almost like a cloud. His confident brown eyes radiated determination.

“Hey, Rudy, ready for today?” I asked, beaming.

“You bet,” Rudy said, grinning with anticipation. Stalker had told us a week ago that today we would be put into “mission groups,” groups of three trainers that would go on missions together and look out for each other. The main reason was that today we would be informed of what our first Team Rocket mission to mess up would be.

After he had finished with the red-haired boy, Stalker pulled out his microphone for the announcement. “Alright, trainers, last week you chose whether you wanted to actively sabotage Team Rocket’s missions or infiltrate hideouts.” Rudy and I had, of course, volunteered to actively screw the Rockets’ plans. “The infiltration force will be able to spy and collect data on Team Rocket whenever they want but the active force can only go on missions when the Rockets do, and that’s in one week. Everyone on the active force can take part in making sure that the Rockets’ operation is a failure, but to do that you first have to get put on it, which is why I’ve told you a week in advance.

“You’ll all go to the base on different days to avoid suspicion. When you meet up with Team Rocket, you’ll be put under the command of an Executive, and you’ve got to do everything you can to convince them that you’re qualified for taking part in their operation. First of all, here are the mission groups,” Stalker explained.

He then proceeded to name the groups. Rudy and I had requested being paired together and I wasn’t particularly paying attention to the various names he called out until he announced, “Group four: Jade Arenesa, Darren Dranera, and Rudy Flaranel.”

“Awesome,” I said, high-fiveing Rudy. “Now we just need to find this Darren kid.”

It turned out to be easier that I had thought. Everyone was bustling around trying to find each other, so Rudy and I just walked around yelling, “Hey, who’s Darren?!” until we found him. He looked to be around Rudy’s age and was slightly shorter than him as well. His overall appearance was small and skinny, his dirty blonde hair fell to his ears, and his eyes were a light blue shade. He walked over and said, “You guys must be Jade and Rudy, huh?”

“Yeah, since were gonna be mission partners we might as well get to know each other. Me and Jade are from Viridian,” Rudy said.

“I’m from Pallet Town,” Darren stated. I was slightly lost until I remembered that Pallet was a small coastal town south of Viridian.

“Oh yeah, and these are Firestorm and Swift,” I said. Swift waved his wing as a sort of greeting while Firestorm extended a clawed hand, which Darren shook.

“My Pokémon are Ebony and Wartortle and also a Pikachu,” Rudy said, motioning to the two creatures at his heels.

“Cool Pokémon,” Darren commented. “I’ve just got an Ivysaur and that’s it, but he’s gotten pretty strong.”

“Hey,” I said, something occurring to me all of a sudden. “He never told us exactly what the Rocket’s mission was.”

I looked back at Stalker and all of the trainers, most of whom had found their mission partners. He waited a moment before speaking up. “All of you should have gotten a Rocket Communicator from me and if you don’t have it with you, then remember this number: 5103. That’s my number, so you should add it to the call number list on your communicator along with the numbers of your mission partners. The numbers are the same as your ID.”

Rudy and Darren both reached into their pockets and pulled out the small blue cell phone-like devices, pushing several buttons.

“Mine’s 5368, what’s yours?” Rudy asked.

“5349,” Darren replied, referring to his Rocket ID.

“Just a sec,” I said, fetching it from my pocket. “It’s”—I checked the profile option—“5369…yeah, that makes sense since I joined right after Rudy.”

Soon afterward, Stalker continued, “Alright, Team Rocket’s next operation doesn’t really have a set location at this point, but those participating in it are stationed at their secondary headquarters in Celadon. For a while they’ve been tracking the movements of the Legendary Pokémon, Raikou, and in any way possible you’ve got to prevent them from capturing it. Those of you with big enough Flying Pokémon can just fly there, but for the others, we’ll have to work something out involving my Pokémon,” he explained. “Everyone in groups one through five on the active force meet outside, everyone on the infiltration force stay here and wait for me.”

I was excited—there wasn’t any other word for it. Fifteen other kids pushed out of the stadium and Darren, Rudy, our Pokémon, and I followed. We emerged outside the stadium and patiently waited for Stalker to come out. I turned to the sound of Poké balls opening and saw several trainers in the crowd releasing large bird Pokémon. I turned back to the stadium and saw Stalker pulling out four Poké balls of his own and releasing his Pokémon from the spheres in a flash of light. One of them, of course, was the Charizard he always used. The large orange dragon emerged from the ball next to Stalker and flexed its wings slightly. I had never seen Stalker’s other Pokémon before, though.

His Dragonite was the second of his Pokémon that I noticed, mainly because it was taller and possibly more majestic in appearance than his Charizard. It was mainly a yellowish-orange color with wide, light yellow scales on its belly and a rounded snout. Though it looked much heavier than Charizard, its wings were smaller—spanning less than twenty feet.

Stalker’s third Pokémon was also a dragon, but it was green scaled and much different than the other two. The Verdegon was between the heights of Dragonite and Charizard, but was more muscled then the two and had external ears and cobalt spikes on its head. Strangest of all however, was that the last finger on each hand was extremely long and had thick azure skin spanned between it and the arm—like the wings of a pterodactyl.

The fourth Pokémon, and the only non-dragon was a Wallarooby, a tall kangaroo-like Pokémon with tan fur, powerful leg muscles, and a long, furry brown tail. Its most distinctive feature, however, was the large pair of feathered wings folded against its back.

“Okay, since Celadon’s halfway across Kanto I’m gonna have you guys fly on my Pokémon to get there. What you’re looking for when you get there is a big warehouse on the southern edge of the city. It should have a sign that says it’s involved with a casino called the Game Corner. The entrance is in the back corner, but make sure you’re in uniform before you go in,” Stalker explained.

Everyone immediately lined up to ride the Pokémon, and Rudy Darren and I ended up near the end. Charizard, Dragonite, and Verdegon could carry two passengers, and Wallarooby only one, so to fly all of us would only take two trips. About ten minutes after streaking off into the distance, Dragonite returned, followed five minutes after that, by the other three.

“Better get in here,” I said to Firestorm and Swift. The two Pokémon nodded as I recalled them. Rudy ended up riding alone on Wallarooby and both Darren and I were on Dragonite. I climbed up onto the dragon’s back and sat right above its wing joint. Darren climbed on behind me and we were ready.

With a running start and a few flaps of its mighty wings, Dragonite was off. It waited until we were at a decent altitude before holding its arms and legs against its body, with its wings pointed back. I gripped Dragonite’s neck, knowing that we in for some serious speed. At once the orange dragon began flapping its wings almost faster than the eye could see and we accelerated to hundreds of miles an hour. Both Darren and I leaned forward, the rush of the wind whipping at us and threatening to blow us off. It was like being strapped to the top of a jet plane.

After finally getting over the sudden zoom, I asked Dragonite, “How’re you doing?”

“*You askin’ me?*” it replied in a fairly high, yet clearly masculine voice. He turned back slightly to look at me with his large yellow eyes.

“Well…yeah,” I said rather awkwardly.

“*Eh…okay, I guess,*” he said, apparently not wanting to talk much.

“You know Pokéspeech?” Darren asked all of a sudden.

“Yeah,” I said.

“Cool, me too, I took more than just the one semester of it,” he said and I nodded to show that I had done the same.

After several minutes of flying with the constant whoosh of the air, I looked down at the ground below and saw that we were descending upon the largest city I had ever seen. Huge skyscrapers lined its downtown, buildings were everywhere, and its suburbs extended out several miles adding to the overall impression of immensity. Dragonite slowed his speed, stuck out his wings to create drag, and finally lowered us to the ground. Both Darren and I slid off of his back.

“Thanks,” I said, glancing back at the dragon. He nodded before taking to the skies once more.

Stalker’s instructions on where the headquarters were had been unneeded, for Dragonite obviously knew the right building and had dropped us off right at the warehouse. We were on the sidewalk right by it. Darren started walking toward it until I said, “Wait, what about Rudy?”

“Oh, yeah,” he said in realization. We waited for a few minutes until finally I could see a Pokémon in the distance getting bigger with every second. Wallarooby surged towards us like a bullet, and from the ground, you could really see how fast Stalker’s Pokémon were. The kangaroo-like Pokémon swung its wings forward and soared toward the ground. It landed twenty feet from us, and Rudy jumped off its back before it returned to Midnight Island.

“Hey Jade, Darren…this the place?” Rudy asked.

“Yup,” I said, motioning to the sign on the front of a large building in front of us. On the bottom of the sign, in small print, it read, “In association with the Game Corner. Storage and prize shipping facility for branches in Celadon, Kanto; Goldenrod, Johto; and Mauville, Hoenn.”

“Here’s the question of the day: how do we get in?” Rudy asked. I wasn’t really sure. There were large double doors on the front for allowing large semi trucks in, but there didn’t appear to be a regular door. Darren walked over to the left and glanced along the side of the structure.

“Here’s a door,” Darren said, pointing to an entrance near the back. We walked over and saw that it was a mechanized door with a card scanner along the right side.

“I bet that’s for our ID cards,” Rudy said, quickly pulling out his card from his pocket and swiping it along the scanner. A light flashed green and the door slid open.

We entered a brightly lit hallway with another door leading to the main part of the warehouse and what appeared to be an elevator at the end. Turns out, it was an elevator and as we neared, it opened. We walked inside and saw that where there would normally be buttons there was another card scanner. Rudy swiped his ID along it and a small gray cover flipped up to reveal a single glowing button. Rudy pushed it.

The elevator doors jerked shut and we descended underground. In just a few seconds the doors opened again and we caught our first glimpse of a Team Rocket hideout.

I’m not entirely sure what I expected but it wasn’t what I saw. In fact, at first glance, you’d probably think “office building.” Fluorescent lights lined the ceiling, seeing as we were underground, and nearly everything was drab and gray. To the side, there was a man at a central computer desk and several other Rockets were walking about, all of them in uniform.

“Crap, we forgot to change,” I said. I looked around, spotted the nearest bathrooms, and pointed them out to Rudy and Darren. Checking to make sure that no one saw us, we made our way over. Several minutes later we walked out, our previous clothes in our backpacks, and now dressed as Rockets.

“So…what do we do now?” I asked stupidly.

“Eh…I dunno, maybe we could ask that guy,” Darren said, pointing to the man at the main desk. We walked over.

“Uh…hey, yeah, we’re new here and—” Rudy started.

“Registration, first door on the left,” he said, not even bothering to look up from the book he was reading.

“Er…okay, thanks,” I said, awkwardly as we walked off. I glanced along several doors in the direction that he had pointed and found a door that said “Beginning Member Registration Office, Department head: Agent 2405.” I knocked.

“Just a sec!” a voice called out from inside. We waited for about a minute until the door opened and someone whom I was pretty sure was on The Rebellion walked out. We walked inside to see a man in his early thirties with short black hair and dressed in uniform, of course, seated at a desk with a laptop. “You new also?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Rudy said.

“I’ve had to deal with tons of new recruits today…” he muttered before asking, “can I see your ID’s?”

I dug through my wallet, retrieved my card, and handed it to him right after Rudy and Darren. The Rocket swiped all three of them, one after another, along a card scanner hooked up to his computer. “Andrew, Patrick, and Aly…all three of you joined on the eighth of December. Were you given a briefing when you joined?”

Stalker had taught us the basic workings of Team Rocket, but I said no anyway.

He rolled his eyes and said, “Nobody ever explains anything anymore…Okay, basically, Team Rocket is divided into a few main groups that determine what members do. There’s the Main Operation Division, the Technology Division, the Genetics Division, the Infiltration Division, the Office Division, and then Executives who oversee everything. Almost all beginners end up on the Main Operation Division until they’re evaluated and tested to be put on one of the others.

“Also, this is just the office floor; the main floor is downstairs where the commons, snack bar, stadium, other departments, and member rooms are. Typically, only Executives or those in the Office group get rooms, though. For the record, ever since a few months ago, new members can’t carry guns. Too many gang retards were shootin’ each other. Only members of the Combat Unit get one. And that’s pretty much all you need to know now. Do you three train Pokémon?”

“Yeah,” Rudy said.

“Okay, as beginners you’ll be put under the head of an Executive who either handles Pokémon Trainers or non-trainers. So…” he said focusing on his computer screen and clicking several times, “all three of you’ll be under an Executive named Karen. Her agent number is 3835 and she should be in the stadium. If she isn’t, you could try her office.” He grabbed a pen and quickly wrote something on a sticky note and handed it to Rudy.

“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 members, 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 battling skills. Since this says that 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 K5:2072. 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. We keep close tabs on all our members: no one’s allowed to quit, and if you try to, the consequences are more severe the higher you are in rank. 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 week 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 yesterday, I asked Karen about the Raikou mission since neither Rudy nor Darren had wanted to. She explained that it was part of Team Rocket’s Legendary Project and, after some persuasion, 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 we’ve 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. 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 meet up with the others on The Rebellion.” He nodded, and I proceeded to glance at each of the numerous Rockets. After a while I managed to find the person who had been put somewhat in charge of the active force. 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. I’ve got the Communicator numbers of all the Rebellion members, so I’ll text message one person from each mission group and have ‘em meet back there in the trees,” he replied quietly.

I nodded and walked quickly back to Rudy and Darren. “Come on, over there,” I said, motioning toward the trees.

As we separated ourselves from the other Rockets, occasionally I could see a Rocket grab their Communicator, glance around, and then slowly make their way towards us. After several minutes, we had a small crowd huddling back amongst the trees. Soon afterward, the leader of the active force walked over.

“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 hissed. “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. Stalker already knew that they had invented them, and he told me 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 that the Thunder Field’s in working order. Operation L:004 begins now!”

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 that 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 narrowed 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 glared 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 with 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 slashed wildly at its nearest attacker before jumping out of the fray and struggling to regain itself, but it 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 the tiger’s 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 long, narrow 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 limp 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.