The Rocket Raid

Erika and I raced across the Celadon Shopping Plaza, pushing our way through the panicked crowds. A voice on the loud speaker urged people to remain calm and remain indoors, but it felt like they were doing anything but remaining calm. There was no further explanation given for the alarm blazing around us, but Erika and I knew it had to be related to Team Rocket. We burst out of the shopping center into the midday sun.
The streets were just as chaotic. People were dashing every which way, ducking into buildings and out of sight. Team Rocket members had their Pokémon out in the streets and were attempting to herd civilians to some nefarious end, but we couldn’t stop to help everyone or we would never make it to Blue’s assault in time. There was no sign of local authorities. Erika and I rushed down the busy streets towards her gym, but about halfway there we ran into her gym trainers and the other trainers who were waiting with them. Blue was nowhere to be seen.
“Right now, Rocket controls the streets,” Erika spoke loudly to the group. “I want my gym trainers to make a sweep of the city. Knock out their Pokémon and subdue any Rocket members you can until police arrive. I don’t think they will move against Team Rocket until they absolutely have to, which is what we’re going to make sure of today.” The trainers from her gym nodded and began to organize into teams to sweep through the city streets. “The rest of you, come with me!” Erika ordered. She abruptly turned and began running east. The rest of us followed on her heels.
Erika led our group toward the Celadon Game Corner as frightened citizens did everything in their power to run away from it. As we turned the corner on to the street where the Game Corner was located, I spotted Blue. In front of him was a massive Charizard pinning two Rocket grunts to the ground, with menacing flames spouting in bursts from its mouth in their general direction.
“Just in time,” he said as Erika ran up to him.
“You started without us!” she managed to gasp while trying to catch her breath after our brisk run across town.
Blue chuckled. “An opportunity presented itself.” He motioned to the two pinned grunts. “I didn’t count on the Game Corner tripping an alarm, though. They must think I’m here to rob them. Whatever. At least it will summon the police whenever they feel like helping out.”
“So what’s the plan?” I asked. Blue glanced at me as if he had never seen me before.
“These goons told me how to get inside their headquarters. There are four underground floors with a lift going directly to a secret lab as well as their boss’s office. I want you three to come with me.” He motioned to me, Erika and another female trainer I’d never noticed before. “We will split up, subdue any threats, and find that lift key. Each one of us will take a floor on our own and secure it. Everyone else stay out here with these two clowns.” He motioned at his captives. “Stop any Rocket members who try to escape the building. Protect the citizens of the city at all cost, even if it means letting some Rocket go. Make sure innocent people aren’t hurt or harassed by our Pokémon or Team Rocket. When the police do arrive, cooperate but also try and stall them from interfering inside until we return. We don’t know who we can trust, or who is on Rocket’s payroll. I don’t want any Rocket goons slipping out of this snare.”
Blue withdrew his Charizard and entered the Game Corner. The two goons that were released from Charizard's grasp made an attempt to flee, but they were quickly surrounded by the other trainers and their Pokémon. The two young ladies Blue had instructed followed him inside, and I took up the rear guard. Inside we found more people in full panic mode, but Blue barked at them that we weren’t here to harm or rob them and marched to the back of the game hall. Everyone in the Game Corner looked as scared as I felt inside. I glanced around at them nervously, clutching a Poké Ball tightly in my hand. Blue tore a poster down from the back wall revealing a switch. He flipped it and a door slid open revealing a set of stairs that went down into the basement of the Game Corner. I shook my head in disbelief. I couldn’t believe I was part of this. My heart was racing as I followed Blue down those stairs into a gangster hideout.
“Fox, you take this floor. Erika, you’re in charge of the next one. Green, you’ll take the third floor down and I’ll take the final floor. If you find a key to the lift, come find me and we’ll take down the boss together,” Blue said as we reached the first landing. I took a deep breath and nodded to him. He and the girl named Green continued on down the stairs to the next floor. Erika lingered a moment and placed her fingers gently on my hand that was clutching a Poké Ball like my life depended on it. Her reassurance allowed me to relax a little. She gave me a quick nod and a smile and then disappeared down the darkness below.

I cautiously stepped out of the stairwell and into a small hallway. The lights flickered dimly, but I could make out a Rocket member standing in an open doorway to my left. He spotted me almost immediately, but I assume he didn’t quite know what to make of a 17-year old kid stepping into his headquarters.
“Are you lost, kid? You can’t be here!” he shouted at me. “Go back upstairs to the Game Corner.” I responded by tossing out Royal’s Poké Ball and watching the Rocket grunt’s expression change from irritation to panic as Royal let out a mighty roar. He nearly took up the entire hallway. The grunt rushed into the hallway and nervously tossed out a Drowzee. I knew full well what a threat a well trained Drowzee could be, but if I had learned anything about Team Rocket in my time in Kanto, it was that most of their Pokémon weren’t properly trained. Royal chomped down hard on the Drowzee knocking it out in a single bite.
“Surrender,” I pleaded. The grunt responded by tossing out a Machop who was swiftly defeated by Royal. “You won’t win. We have this place surrounded,” I said confidently. Royal edged forward backing the grunt up into the room he had been guarding. I peeked inside and saw what appeared to be a small lounge with another door leading out the back. The grunt ran to the door, but it appeared to be locked. If he had the key, he didn’t use it. With Royal watching the door, he was trapped unless someone unlocked that door from the other side.
“Hey! What’s going on?” came a shout from the other end of the hall. A Rocket grunt rushed out of the other room into the hallway and stopped short when he saw me and my enormous Gyrados clogging up the end of the hallway. “Wait. I know you. I remember you from Mount Moon.” His words struck me like lightning, because I recognized him, too. He was the trainer of the Dread Rocket Raticate that put Nibbles out of commission. Prior to this realization I had felt sick with anxiety, but now I was swelling with rage and excitement.

“Watch the door,” I instructed Royal. “We’ll take care of this.” In a flash of light, Rascal Jr. was at my side and ready to get our revenge. The Team Rocket grunt I’d faced off against at Mount Moon tossed out what I dubbed the Dread Rocket Raticate. I knelt down to be closer to Rascal Jr. “I know you never knew Nibbles, but we’re doing this for him. We have to prove just how far we’ve come.” Rascal Jr. squeaked his acknowledgment and rushed forward.
Rascal was faster and stronger. At every turn, he outmatched his opponent. He got in a quick tail whip to disorient the
Dread Rocket Raticate, then would dart in for a quick attack, dashing back out to avoid a hyper bite. I smiled smugly. Although I had defeated this Rocket grunt at Mount Moon it had come at a great cost. Seeing how far I’d come since then, with my own well-trained Raticate, filled me with a surge of pride in myself as a trainer and in my team. Rascal Jr. ended this contest with a hyper bite of his own that soundly defeated the Dread Rocket Raticate without even taking a single scratch.
The Rocket grunt shook his head and joined his friend behind Royal in the locked lounge. I quickly surveyed the rest of the floor and found it empty. I had done my part. This floor was secure and as a bonus I got to rematch an earlier nemesis of mine. It felt good. Royal and I sat in the locked lounge awaiting Blue’s return.

The door at the back of the lounge unlocked with a loud click. The two Rocket grunts jumped to their feet as if they were about to be rescued. Royal edged closer to me from behind, but it was Blue who walked through the door. Behind him I could see the lift and I knew Blue had come up from the bottom floors after finding the lift key.
“We’re done here,” Blue announced. “I see you have this floor under control. Green and Erika are bringing up the others and we’ll hand them over to the authorities. You wouldn’t believe what I saw down there,” Blue said motioning behind him. “They were running some kind of experiments on Pokémon. Really twisted stuff. The police are going to have a field day. Still, I think we were a bit too late. Their boss wasn’t here and a lot of the experiments look like they were moved to another site.”
“Wow,” I managed to say. “Still. We did it. We took down their headquarters. They’ll have a hard time recovering form this.” Blue nodded in agreement and together with the grunts we made our way back out of the headquarters.
Emerging in the late afternoon sun, we were greeted by the flashing lights of the police. Many of them looked cross, others flustered, but they were arresting the right people at least. Members of Team Rocket were lined up in handcuffs and being escorted to police cars and vans. The young trainers who had been assembled to take down Team Rocket were all giving detailed statements to the police. Though they might have charged the four of us who actually went inside with trespassing, whatever crimes we may have committed were dismissed in favor of prosecuting Team Rocket. Inside they found stolen equipment, stolen Pokémon and the unethical experiments Blue had mentioned to me.
We were detained by the police long into the night to make sure they had all our statements accurately recorded, then they let us go. Blue and I were the last to be released. Erika and her gym leaders had been among the first due to her social standing in the community. As we left the police station, Blue stopped me and shook my hand.
“I want you to have this,” he said handing me a strange headset with his other hand. “I may have picked this up from some of the stolen lab equipment inside.”
“You stole evidence?” I asked. “What is it?”
Blue laughed. “Yeah, but we’ll give it back to its rightful owners eventually, right? You’re going to need this for your research in Lavender Town. It’s a Silph Scope - made by the Silph Company. You won’t get far in the Pokémon Tower without it. Trust me. I had a bad experience in there before bumping into you outside.”
“Thanks, Blue,” I said earnestly. He shrugged and walked off. He looked as exhausted as I felt as he disappeared into the dark city streets. This was by far the craziest day I’d spent in Kanto and I’m still honored to be part of the team that took down Team Rocket.

Current Team:
Attacks in Blue are recently learned.


Bill's Storage: Kiwi (Pidgeotto) & Vesper (Zubat)

Old Man Daycare: Charlie (Pidgey)

Quiet Gardens of Celadon

After leaving behind the sleepy little hamlet of  Lavender Town, Celadon City is quite the overwhelming spectacle. While Saffron City may have the tallest buildings in the land, Celadon is known throughout Kanto as a center of commerce. It boasts the largest population in Kanto, making it the most bustling city you’ll find. The streets are packed with people coming and going about their daily lives. Aside from a world-renown shopping center, the city also boasts all forms of entertainment. Neon signs lit up the evening sky broadcasting all forms of attractions in Celadon City.  As tempting as it was to check out some of the local nightlife, I was here on a mission.
My first morning in Celadon found me standing face to face with the Celadon City Gym. I had read in a brochure that only local females were allowed to join the gym as members which  made it a bit intimidating for shy male trainers like myself. I took a deep breath and walked inside. It was humid and balmy, as it was partially a greenhouse. There were plants everywhere making it difficult to see much of anything. Blue had told me this should be my first stop in Celadon and to wait for further instructions. As I pushed my way through the dense plants, I stumbled into other trainers. I startled them as much as they startled me!
I decided that since I was here waiting for Blue, I’d challenge the gym. So I battled my way through the vines and grasses; I battled my way through the strikingly beautiful trainers that Gym Leader Erika had assembled at her gym to test challengers. As expected, Celadon’s specialty was Grass-type Pokémon and most of the Grass-types in Kanto are also Poison-types which made them particularly susceptible to Dustin’s psychic assaults, but I was saving Dustin for the finale. I didn't want to show my hand too quickly. It was Shakespear who helped clear the way through the gym trainers to face the leader. Shakespear pecked his way through the crowd of Oddish, Bellsprout and the occasional Ivysaur.
“Blue sent you, did he not?”  Erika asked me when I found her lounging in the shade under a tree. I nodded and she smiled softly. “I can see why. I train with these girls every morning and your Spearow put all that training to shame.” She sat up and wrapped her arms around her knees. She was dressed in a beautiful, ornate kimono. She looked a bit like a samurai princess. “Are you ready to face Team Rocket, I wonder.”
She stood up and brushed the grass and dirt off her clearly expensive attire. She smiled her lazy smile at me again before throwing a Pokéball in my direction, unleashing a Victreebel. I didn’t open with Shakespear this time. Instead, Dustin took the field and Erika looked surprised and also satisfied. Dustin tore through the Victreebell with a psychic confusion attack. Erika tossed out a Tangela, which were a rather rare species of Grass-type Pokémon. It was a pure Grass-type and wouldn’t be  utterly defeated by a psychic assault, but Dustin was well versed in the Fox-school of Pokémon battling. He hypnotized Tangela and lulled it to sleep, then began to rejuvenate himself with Dream Eater. He faced off against Erika’s final Pokémon, a Vileplume, at full strength and won a decisive victory.
“I am impressed,” she said as she stepped forward with her hand extended. In it was the Rainbow Badge her gym bestowed on worthy challengers. As I took it from her, our hands touched and I thought perhaps lingered a moment. Her skin was so soft. She blushed a little when I looked at her. “Would you take a moment to accompany me to the shopping plaza?” she asked. “We have some time before other things require our attention.”
“I … uh … yes?” I was a bit flustered. Was she asking me out? “I have some things I need to pick up at the store, too,” I finally managed to stammer and she laughed very softly. It was true I’d had a close call with Royal on the way over from Lavender as I scrambled to dig my last poison antidote out of my bag. I needed to resupply and reorganize before something terrible happened due to my absent-mindedness.
“Let me speak to the trainers here for a moment and I will meet you outside,” she said with a smile. “We are waiting for a few more to show up, as well.” I nodded and made my way back out of the steamy gym. As I stepped out into the cool spring air, I wondered if it was the greenhouse or the girl's hint of flirtation that had gotten me so hot and uncomfortable. Had Erika asked me on a date? It was distracting to say the least at a time when I should have been focused on what we were about to be up against. Perhaps it was just the kind of pleasant distraction I needed, though.

The Celadon Shopping Plaza was extraordinary. A shopping mall built six stories tall and specializing in all things Pokémon related. There were other shops and restaurants, of course, but it was truly a trainer’s paradise. As I followed Erika through the crowds of busy shoppers, my eyes drawn equally to every flashing sign as they were to every brief smile on Erika’s face. I restocked all the items I needed to keep my Pokémon healthy. She helped me find everything I needed at the the right shops for the right prices, smiling shyly and giving a few brief laughs here and there. She also took me to an old man selling rare stones, explaining one in particular would allow Arnold to evolve into a more powerful form if I so chose. It was something to consider and I was grateful for her expertise on both shopping and Grass-type Pokémon!
As we made our way from shop to shop, I noticed people were giving us a bit of a wide berth. All around us was an ocean of people, but for some reason Erika seemed to remain the eye of the storm. As if on cue, the calm was broken by a young interloper who came crashing out of the crowd and into our small private bubble.
“Who the hell are you and why are you so familiar with Gym Leader Erika?” he demanded. His outburst turned more than a few heads in the crowd, but people continued about their own business. This guy was younger than me, younger than Erika, but he stood his ground firmly.
“My name is Fox,” I stammered.
“Don’t pay him any attention, Fox. He’s just jealous.”
“Damn straight, I’m jealous!” the boy shouted. A few more heads turned, but when they saw Erika was involved they kept walking. “You don’t just get to walk side-by-side with the Princess of Celadon City.”
Erika blushed deeply, her porcelain skin turning bright red. “Don’t call me that!” she snapped. She grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me forward. He nearly jumped out of the way to avoid her crashing into him. The crowd parted around us as she rushed us forward. It was so strange to observe. She was actually being treated like some kind of royalty, now that the kid mentioned it.
We finally stopped at a quiet spot in a less busy area of the plaza. Erika sat down beside a fountain in the shade of a nearby indoor tree planted by the fountain. “I’m sorry about that,” she offered. “Every time I go out something like this happens, so I mostly stay at the gym, surrounded by my girl friends who aren’t so damn aggravating.”
“What was that all about?” I asked cautiously. I stood near her nervously for a moment before deciding I was being an idiot. Then I sat down next to her, but not too close.
“My father is … perhaps was … the most wealthy man in Kanto. He helped build this place,” she said making a sweeping gesture to the grand shopping plaza. “He’s pretty  much the reason Celadon City is such a booming success. So that dumb kid wasn’t wrong when he called me the Princess of Celadon, but I just hate that title.” Her rather soft-spoken demeanor had all but evaporated now that we were fairly isolated and alone.
“Honestly I think Team Rocket runs things, now. Daddy won’t admit it. He’s very proud and stubborn. Still, I think Rocket has all but publicly taken over this town. They operate out of the most successful casino parlor and arcade, and up until recently they’ve been mostly hiding in the shadows. Something changed, though. No one knows what, but now Team Rocket is not just a shady organization operating discreetly behind the scenes. They are committing real crimes right out in the open - like at Mount Moon, Cerulean City and whatever’s going on in Saffron City. It’s as if they feel invulnerable. The police have done almost nothing in the last few months and that’s why we need to stop them. Apparently, no one else will.”
“I didn’t know things had gotten so bad,” I offered.
“It’s understandable. You aren’t from Kanto, but Kanto needs you. We all need you. We need all the help we can get to flush these criminals out of our streets before things get any worse.”
After a moment’s hesitation, I put my hand on hers. She was depending on me and suddenly that felt vastly more important than Professor Oak's research, my dreams of running a sanctuary, or some League challenge. “I’ll do everything I can to help,” I said it with confidence. On the inside I was terrified, but I tried not to let it show. I was terrified of facing Team Rocket. I was terrified of sitting next to a girl as pretty and apparently powerful as Erika. I tried to channel my inner Blue and his tremendous amount of self-confidence and hoped it was working.
Erika looked up at me and smiled a genuine, beautiful smile. I felt true calm and confidence sweep over me briefly. Then bells began ringing and sirens began blaring both inside and outside the plaza. Erika’s smile vanished in a heartbeat and was replaced with stoic determination.
“Let’s go,” she said. “It’s time.”

Current Team:
Attacks in Blue are recently learned.



Bill's Storage: Kiwi (Pidgeotto) & Vesper (Zubat)

Old Man Daycare: Charlie (Pidgey)