Chapter 60: C060 - Meeting Team Rocket members
For the first time ever, Pete was riding on Arcanine while running through the forest. Last day when he accompanied the adventure group, nothing happened. They found a few berries, Servine dug up yet another Leaf Stone, the three Farfetch'd beat up a bunch of Heracross. But what he feared would happen hadn't happened until just a few moments ago.
Nobody in the group could run as fast as Arcanine. So, deep in the forest, he got on her back, and they ran toward the explosion with his pokemon following behind.
They arrived to see two very haggard trainers surrounded by Koffings, Weezings, and Venomoths. Their pokemon were a Raticate, a Cacturne, two Arbok, three Houndoom, and two Mightyena. It looked like one of them also used to have a Voltorb, but the explosion seemed to have been it using Self-Destruct if Pete judged that right.
'Team Rocket! I don't get why they still wouldn't get rid of the very obvious jersey with the giant red R on it if they are on the run. But these are way too many powerful pokemon for them to be regular riff-raff. I'll need to handle this well... do I call it in and risk exposing myself and my farm to TR, or do I get rid of them? Who am I kidding... I'm not ready to take a life on purpose,' Pete thought with gritted teeth.
Pete took out his tablet now that the two TR members hadn't noticed him yet and... well, he didn't have Lance's or Clair's number or a direct line to a trustworthy police officer like... any Officer Jenny. So he did the next best thing and called Elm.
Pete filmed the two people, described the situation as best he could, and sent his current location. Elm advised him to be careful and told him he forwarded it all to Lance, who was still in the area, apparently.
As he watched the fight below, he wondered for a short moment why these pokemon were attacking the villains with everything they had until Pete looked around and found a dozen berry trees completely devoid of berries, even unripe ones. This was likely part of the wild pokemon's feeding grounds, and the Team Rocket dude and dudette were too greedy. They even damaged the trees from what Pete could see.
It was mostly the Houndooms that were dealing with the enemies with three powerful Flamethrowers, keeping them at bay. Cacturne was Ingrain'ed and kept shooting the bug move Pin Missile at the enemies while the two Arbok tried their best to spit Acid at the nimble enemies. They barely hit anything, though.
It also didn't help that both Cacturne and the Arboks were working with a huge typing disadvantage. That and the rest of the pokemon apparently didn't know any ranged attacks.
When yet another Weezing fell to the Flamethrower attack from a Houndoom, making it so roughly two-thirds of the attacking forces fainted or died, the poison pokemon of the forest left in defeat.
"Don't just lie down! We have to find shelter!" The male Team Rocket shouted toward his clearly exhausted Houndoom as it buckled down, panting. With an unsatisfied growl, it stood back up, and the pokemon and trainers began walking in his direction. But only after the Arboks, Raticate, and the Mightyenas fought over the corpses and hungrily devoured them.
"Arcanine, you get the Cacturne, don't allow it to set up by using Fire Spin, and be wary of its close ranged attacks. If it's well versed in dark moves, you better make use of your typing advantage and speed. Farfetch'd... I'd love to send you versus the Arboks, but I'm sure you'd like the 3vs3 more, so you take the Houndoom. They are exhausted, but don't be caught off guard. They'll always have enough power to give you a point-blank Ember or Fire Fang, so keep your weapons away from their maws. Nidoking, you take the two Arboks," Pete ordered quietly.
"Servine, show me your progress by taking on the Raticate and Duosion, I'd like you to hide from those two in case they would ever be able to flee prison or get the information out. I don't need a rare shiny pokemon like you on their radar. Assist with Heal Pulse when needed and use Celebi's move Future Sight whenever you see fit. Might be good training to use it away from line of sight. Miltank... as much as I don't want them to know about you too for the same reason as Duosion, I'd like for you to fight the Mightyenas. Team up with Vibrava. Try your best to not cause paralysis. Because when they overcome it, they will get much quicker thanks to their Quick Feet ability," Pete finished the strategy off and retreated. Duosion hid in the tree above him, ready to teleport him away at a moments notice.
"Hey, kid! What's with the scary lineup over there! We're not gonna hurt you. We could use some food, and then we're out of your hair. I promise," the woman shouted.
"Sadly for you, I know that you guys are Team Rocket, and I know what a cancer Team Rocket is," Pete scoffed.
"Cancer!? What do you know of our noble goal!?" The man shouted angrily.
"Is it so bad to want to replace the corrupt league?" The woman indignantly retorted.
"Oh yeah? Very noble of you to abduct children and enslave pokemon to further your goals," Pete spat back.
"We're giving those orphans purpose! Don't let the league lie to y-"
The lady's next lie was cut short by both Arboks spitting Venom Drench at Pete as they had slithered forward when nobody was paying attention.
However, that was when Duosion showed off a new psychic move she had comprehended after combining Safeguard with psychic energies: Magic Coat. The Venom Drench was reflected back and flew toward the Mightyenas instead, who had followed the Arboks as stealthily as possible.
That started off the fight as Arcanine angrily shot a Fire Spin to the Cacturne, who had already started to use Ingrain. The fight didn't last long after that when Arcanine did something Pete didn't think was possible.
She wrapped herself in fire energies for the fire move Flame Wheel, but then she charged forward with speeds that screamed 'Extreme Speed', effectively empowering the two moves by combining them. Was his Arcanine a genius after all?
The three Houndooms didn't last long, either. The Farfetch'd used fluid movements to get closer, which Pete then realised was the buff move Swords Dance, and then all three of them let lose the move Air Cutter by swinging their leeks from a distance. It caught the Houndooms offguard because they expected melee combat.
After another Swords Dance where the Houndooms failed to close the distance and three Air Cutter later, the Houndoom were lying on the ground in their own blood.
'Wait, isn't Swords Dance a buff move for attack and both Air Cutter and eventually Air Slash are special attacks? Why bother using Sword Dance then? I'll have to discuss this with the Farfetch'd later. Maybe I'm missing something... They have tails, can they learn Tail Glow, the bug move that raises special attack by two stages? Maybe that's an alternative,' Pete inwardly mused as he watched. In any case, the Farfetch'd all looked super cool doing it.
Nidoking was aided by an angry Duosion who used Future Sight twice and took out a decent chunk of the two snake pokemon's flesh with the psychic mines she had laid down. After that, Nidoking used Fire Fang on one of the Arboks, biting its head with fire type energy and followed up with the ground move Earth Power to blow up the second one.
Not only was the ground move super effective versus Arbok's poison typing, that Arbok was already exhausted and hurt by a super effective psychic move, so the snake pokemon was actually blasted apart.
With another dark type Crunch, the second Arbok died, and Nidoking was already starting to eat it to increase the potency of his own poison.
The two Team Rocket members were looking on in horror at the last two battles, but it was already a certainty that they would lose.
The two Mightyenas had barely dodged the reflected Venom Drench, but then they were hit by the Rollout of a shiny Miltank. Vibrava was already flying forward and shot one of them with Dragonbreath, doing exactly what Pete told it not to do: paralyze the Mightyena for a short moment.
When Miltank returned with Rollout and hit both of them, Vibrava's next move, Supersonic, a normal move that would confuse an enemy, did not hit either of the two enemies.
Miltank returned once more with Rollout, but this time, she only hit one of the Mightyenas. The other one got over the paralysis and Quick Feet increased its speed and apparently its evasiveness, too.
As Vibrava realised her mistake, she grew angry. Not at the enemy or Pete, of course, but at herself for using a move that has a chance to paralyze right after Pete gave her the crucial tip. Using Agility to increase her own speed, Vibrava flew over to the faster Mightyena and countered its Bite with Steel Wing, a move it comprehended after spending two weeks with Klink.
The steel type move made it so that the wings Mightyena bit down on were too hard to inflict the full damage with an increase in defense. She would rather get hit than have her mistake cause damage to her teammates. A dragon's pride was hard to shake.
After Mightyena let go, Vibrava once more flapped her wings to use Supersonic, though in much closer range and succeeded in disorienting the Mightyena. She followed it up with another Steel Wing, though this time hitting the opposing pokemon right in the head instead of lowering the damage by getting it countered.
The other Mightyena wasn't doing any better. Miltank hit it squarely with a last second agile turn during Rollout and disabled its hind leg. The cow pokemon stopped the Rollout with that hit and used two super effective fighting type Rock Smashes she had learned from Nidoking to end the fight after that.
That left only one enemy pokemon standing: Raticate who was fighting Servine. The fight was over, that much was sure, but Raticate still wouldn't give up.
At the very start of the fight, Servine countered Hyper Fang by shooting Gunk Shot in the enemy pokemon's mouth and blocked the incoming Fang with a Leaf Blade so it wouldn't take damage.
After jumping back, Servine shot Leech Seed at the Raticate, who tried to desperately spit out the poison type move and avoid getting poisoned. The move hit, and Raticate was poisoned regardless as well as seeded.
From there, Servine simply had to stall, but Raticate seemed tenacious. Pete was glad that his grass pokemon seemed to recognize the situation and use Agility to dodge or Leaf Blade to block instead of going for a wound-for-wound attack.
It slipped his mind that Raticate had the ability Guts, increasing its attack when inflicted with a status effect.
After another successful dodge, Servine hit Raticate in the back with a Vine Whip and followed it up with Wrap. Now, Raticate had to waste time trying to bite through the vines holding it in place, which it didn't accomplish before Servine ended the fight a critical hit from Leaf Blade.
"Starting a fight by trying to poison the trainer. I see now. Your organization is totally misjudged."
Pete looked at the two Team Rocket who had a resigned but hateful expression on their faces.
Chapter 61: C061 - Clair, Dragon Trainer Extraordinaire
AN: Double chapter because my vacation is almost over and I spent so much time on writing I already have all the chapters until the next weekend written instead of releasing whatever I write the same day. Hope I can keep that up once I work again on Monday. Also got around to writing three more chapters for one of my other fanfics, that was a good change of pace.
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For roughly twenty minutes, Pete and his pokemon were in a standoff with the Team Rocket members. His pokemon had them surrounded on his command and kept up their vigilance while keeping a healthy distance.
This world had explosives, but somehow, guns and rifles were pretty much nonexistent. The most intidimating thing he saw past a shortsword or knife was a stun gun, usually carried by police officers. A single-action taser that would do nothing in this situation, even if the both of them would dual-wield them against Pete and his pokemon.
With his mental command, Duosion had checked their bodies to the best of her abilities and didn't find any potential threats that remained. Like vials of poison or gas grenades. He also asked Duosion to keep the bag of the woman closed, just in case.
Pete kept his call with Elm open, who let out a big sigh of relief once he heard and saw the good news that Pete and his pokemon came out on top. He informed him that Lance opened his emergency mail and responded positively to the distress signal.
Only two of the pair's pokemon had survived the battle, and they were two of the three Houndoom. The rest was either squashed, ripped apart and eaten like the Arboks, or succumbed to the poison after losing the battle like Raticate.
When someone finally arrived, it turned out to be Clair instead of Lance, but Pete didn't mind either way. She landed together with her Dragonite and released her pokemon during touchdown.
They were a Charizard that looked much, much bigger than in the photograph, an Altaria, and an Aerodactyl that excuded a towering pressure by just hovering there, and it tickled Pete's scientific curiosity.
As a kid, he always wondered how a rock pokemon with a wingspan bigger than he was tall could weigh 'only' 60kg, which was less than his own weight. Especially with that meaty torso and tail. Was it hollow bones? Flying type energy shenanigans?
"Hey, my cute Aerodactyl, and I don't like the look on your face. State your name and business," Clair shouted as she hopped down from her Dragonite's princess carry. She was very observant to see Pete's focused look from so far away.
"My name's Pete Lang. I'm Professor Elm's assistant and the one who called this in. I found these two while they fought off some wild pokemon and then confronted them. They started the fight with an attempt on my life, so my pokemon went into the fight a little heavy-handed."
"I see. You're an egg head then. Don't get any funny ideas about my pokemon, though. My name is Clair Blackthorn, gym leader and dragon trainer extraordinaire. By your looks, I'm guessing you already knew that. Did you frisk them or anything?"
Clair was dressed in the same unflattering outfit he had seen in the article, stupid cape and all, but he bit his tongue to not say anything. Not because her pokemon were even more intimidating in reality, but because the woman was over a head taller than he was and looked just as ripped as Luna.
"Nope, I'm an assistant professor and not law enforcement. If I hadn't talked about this with my boss, I might not have recognized them either," Pete waved off in response. He didn't mention he lived closeby... well, kinda close - but only because the two Team Rocket members were still present and awake.
"Uh-huh. Assistant professor," Clair commented as she looked to all his pokemon, especially Arcanine and Nidoking.
Her eyes also paused for a second on the three Farfetch'd who stood in a perfect line with the leeks resting with the root-end on the ground and one wing behind their back in what Pete could only describe as the perfect parade rest. Sometimes, Pete really wondered who taught these birds.
Pete showed Professor Elm on his video call for a short moment to remove any doubt in Clair and then hung up on the professor with the promise to send him the conclusion at a later time.
"Okay then. Hey scum. Turn over your pockets and lady, throw your bag over there where there's no pokemon. Any funny business, and my Charizard has permission to use Flame Thrower," Clair ordered after turning to the two Team Rocket members. Her Charizard made it a show and looked at them with a terrifying sneer as he flames leaked out the sides of its mouth and its tail flame lit up with a blazing flame.
The two did as asked with reluctant expressions, though with hurried movements so as to not get roasted alive. Pete, in the meantime, retreated a little with his pokemon to the tree Duosion was hiding in. Clair followed that up with Altaria using the move Sing, putting both Team Rocket members to sleep.
Even Pete started feeling drowsy despite not being the target of the flying/dragon pokemon. What a scary move. His desire to catch a Swablu and train it to become an Altaria grew exponentially.
Clair stepped closer to the two, and unseen to Pete, her pupils turned into slits and her neck, collarbone, and bizeps gained scales in the same color as her hair. It was the real reason for her wearing a cape over her regular clothes: hiding the effects of flexing her very advanced dragon affinity.
She activated it in the hopes it would defend against any 'funny business' these two might have planned for after they were unconscious. It wouldn't be the first booby trap, and sadly, not even the last suicide bomber she would uncover in these last and upcoming weeks.
Having listened to her cousin to come fight for what was right might have been a mistake, she silently contemplated. She liked a good fight as much as every other dragon trainer, but there was too much bloodshed in these last days. And, most Team Rocket grunts were terrible pokemon trainers who cared little for the well-being of their pokemon.
It was clear that their pokemon barely left their pokeballs, fought more out of desperation and frustration than passion or fun, and most of them felt oddly detached to life. Stomping Zubats, Poochyenas, Ekans, and Rattatas with shallow movepools was not very fun.
As she turned the two sleeping villains and rummaged through their clothes, she was very relieved that she didn't find anything on them. She turned off her dragon affinity and ordered Altaria to lift up their bag and turn it over to release all its contents on the floor.
A few glass vials that thankfully didn't shatter, seven collars with a red gem on it, and a full cabinet's worth of files fell out before Clair stepped closer.
Pete was surprised by how meticulous the gym leader was and also interested in Altaria being so proficient in psychic type energy. It made sense that a powerful gym leader like her had trained her pokemon to such a degree in any case.
'Could Altaria learn any psychic moves outside Dream Eater and Rest in the games? Agility probably, right? At the very least through their 'flying' egg group as an egg move...'
"Hmm, no bombs or anything, though any vials we find are always worrying, and these darned collars are truly a disgusting invention. They shouldn't exist," Clair muttered under her breath.
"Untwist your panties, little professor. Danger is over," Clair shouted mockingly as she addressed Pete, who had retreated to a far away tree.
Pete calmly balled all his pokemon except for Aracanine, who he mounted, and Duosion, who he asked to get ready for a teleport in his mind and shouted back, "Panties? I don't want to get fashion tips from someone with those ugly boots and a wetsuit that makes your beautiful legs look short, your hips too wide, and your butt as flat as a pancake!"
The next moment, Duosion fell out of the tree and teleported the three of them back to Ilex Falls. Pete thanked his pokemon and asked Arcanine to run home while he laughed about his daring 'insult'.
Clair herself was stumped for a moment before breaking into a laugh of her own.
"Pfft, fashion tips he calls it... Didn't even know he still had a pokemon hidden away. That Vibrava was a recent evolution, I'm sure of it. And that Arcanine, it was very young as well, right Charizard?" Her Charizard nodded with a smile.
"She had so much potential, almost wasted on an egg head like him," she mumbled under her breath and regarded the battlefield with the two wimpering Houndoom, the two sleeping Team Rocket members and all the other corpses.
"Almost," she repeated with a ferocious grin and a respectful nod. "But how dare he talk about my ass and ditch before I can slap him into next week!"
Some time later on Pete's farm.
"So you met a potential future colleague of mine and insulted her outfit for no reason?" Jasmine asked with a tilted head as she lounged on Pete's patio after dinner. Sophie was reading the article Pete had brought up to explain why he went there in the first place.
"I mean, I also fought off two criminals, you know. Why are we not talking about that first?"
"You were rude..."
"She made me out to be a coward and was very confrontational. She was rude first," Pete argued with no real heat in his voice.
"That's probably just the way she talks," Jasmine retorted unsurely. She wasn't technically mad about him insulting her outfit. It was more that she didn't like that he had a deep enough opinion on her legs and butt in the first place.
"Hey, Jasmine. You're in the wrong here, and Pete was absolutely right to say something. Her outfit is not simply unflattering. Everything about it is wrong," Sophie interjected with scrunched up brows, listing in her mind everything that was wrong about Clair's outfit.
"I thought you were gonna say I was right to speak up because she was rude to me," Pete dejectedly countered.
"Hmph, no. As a guy, you technically should have never spoken up about a lady's outfit in the first place. I only praised you because she needed someone to speak up..."
"That's not very fair. Why can a guy not speak up about an ugly outfit? Most of us have eyes, you know."
"Because... you can't?"
"Ha! Come up with a real reason, and I'll hear you out," Pete concluded with a sagely nod.
Jasmine looked down at herself in contemplation. As she does most times here on Pete's farm, she wore sporty clothes. Leggings with sneakers, short shorts over them to not feel like her butt is openly showing, a croptop and a loose blouse over it.
"You'll tell me if my outfit looks bad, right?"
"Hey! As your sister and future fashion icon, you should ask me! I'm the one giving you your outfit in the mornings anyway," Sophie shouted with a pout.
"Sure, I will. The leggings and shorts look really nice on you, though. Really brings out your long, slim legs and makes your cute butt look bigger," Pete flattered earnestly, speaking over Sophie idignant shout.
Jasmine's face immediately turned red, and she ran off as fast as she could.
"Did I say something wrong?"
"Nope, it's why I make us wear this outfit. Your comment's spot on. Baby steps, brother-in-law, baby steps," Sophie reassured with a pround thumbs up. "With critical thinking like that, you're allowed to comment on my fashion in the future until I say otherwise."
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