Chapitre 42: I...AM...
The mission squad moved along the river as they made their way towards the Team Rocket base.
None of them had their pokemons out as they might catch the attention of the nearest pokemon, who were very territorial, hence creating a stir.
It took them an hour to reach their destination, and by the time they were there, the sun was rising from the horizon, dispersing its rays over the forest.
"Why are we doing this during the day?" someone questioned.
"We were supposed to do this tonight, but all the pokemons would be moved out today; hence we need to get them out as fast as we can," Derek replied in a helpless voice.
Everyone nodded at his words.
"We are here," the group stopped at his command while he pointed at the cave, which was right under a steep mountain.
"That is the first entrance," he once again opened the hologram before pointing at the respective entrance to the cave, "Group 2 will be entering through this."
Alan and Misty nodded their heads before they prepared themselves to sneak in. Misty called one of her pokemons out, and it was none other than Starmie, which was evolved from a Staryu.
[Starmie
Type: Water/Psychic
Level: 18
Potential: Light Blue
Stage: Intermediate Stage (Low)]
Alan looked at the evolved pokemon with interest as it was a strong water type with a secondary Psychic-type. Every pokemon with Psychic-type, even secondary, was very valued among trainers.
"It has grown stronger," commented Alan, genuinely praising Misty and her Starmie.
"We worked hard in the past week," she replied with a proud face.
"Are you not bringing out any pokemon?" asked Stain when he saw Alan was about to enter the cave without one.
"No, they are still resting," he replied in a neutral tone, "I will call them when it is necessary," he waved his hands, and two swords appeared in them, "till then, I will use these."
He sheathed the swords on his back before making his way towards the entrance.
"You! Where are you going? They will find out about us if you enter so directly," said Stain and even Derek, who was usually calm, frowned.
Alan ignored them all before he was standing right beside the cave entrance.
"They already know we are here, so might as well go in with a bang!" replied Alan while he pointed at his right.
A dozen Team Rocket grunts were running towards them, and Derek showed a surprised expression.
"How did they know we are here?"
'Because no one is as stupid as you,' thought Alan while shaking his head.
Along the way, he had noticed many hidden traps, and while he tried to point them out as 'unusual' things, they were scoffed off by Stain while Derek stayed silent, making his stand clear.
"This!"
Derek lost some of his cool, seeing the plan go down the drain, but he soon calmed himself down.
"We follow the original plan; it is just not a sneak attack anymore," he said before he and other groups made their way towards their respective entrances and spots.
Misty walked towards Alan with a grave look, "was it those traps?"
She recalled the 'unusual' things Alan had pointed out during their travel towards the underground base, which the rest of them ignored. While she tried to support him, Derek was the final decision-maker.
"In the generation where we are overly dependent on technology, we look over the simplest of things. Team Rocket just made use of that to lay down traps."
Alan looked at the grunts who were almost upon them and were taking out their pokeballs.
"Open the door; I will take care of those guys."
"How?" asked Misty since she could not think of a way so soon.
"Didn't I say we will enter with a bang?"
Misty finally understood what he meant and called out another pokemon. With a bright flash of Pokeball, a massive sea serpent appeared in the forest, and all the grunts stopped in their tracks at its arrival.
"Gyara, use Hyp..."
"Don't waste your energy; use physical attacks and save the heavy hitters for later," advised Alan before he charged towards the stunned grunts.
Misty followed his advice and asked Gyarados to use physical attacks to take down the entrance.
"Use Tackle and Iron Tail."
Gyarados followed its trainer's command and rampaged at the cave entrance.
On the other hand, Alan had already made his way towards the grunts. He closed his eyes before holding the swords hanging on his back and swinging them towards the grunts.
They snapped out of their daze and tried to block him, but Alan was too fast for them. His swords went through their bodies, bisecting their limbs one after another.
It was not even a fight but one-sided slaughter.
Misty, who looked at Alan cutting down humans, could not help but puke at that sight. She had killed pokemons but never had she seen or dared to cut a human as Alan did.
Alan walked back towards Misty with a neutral face as if he had done nothing new.
"D-did y-you just..."
"Do you think pokemons are less than humans? Do you think your Gyarados is less of a 'being' than other humans?" asked Alan as he passed by the stunned Misty while shaking his head, "pokemon, humans. Who is more 'valuable' than the other? If your Gyarados or Starmie are actual 'beings,' then how many of such 'beings' have you killed so far? At least I left them alive; it depends on their luck if they live or not."
He was not a fan of explaining 'life lessons' to other people. He had his morals, true they might be different from other people, but he lived with his morals, not caring what others said. Humans were no better than Pokémon, and he had learnt that lesson a long time ago.
Still, since he thought of Misty as a friend, albeit not too close, he decided to help her get over the fact that humans were not above pokemons, especially when pokemons were the reason humans were there in the first place.
Alan had only killed a human once before this, but he sure had no issues with doing it again if need be. To him, Eve and Shin were just as much of a 'being' as Alex and Ellie were. If he could kill other pokemon so casually, then why not humans?
'Is it only me who had this thinking? Is it wrong or right?' he asked himself, but he did not question his choice and his decisions.
Was what he did wrong? Or was it right? Only time would tell, and he would make sure he was always in right since the strong always had the final say.
'This world is straightforward: The stronger you are, the wiser you get since everything you say would be considered true by the weak.'
"Keep your trainer safe," said Alan to Starmie in case Misty did not wake up from her dazed state before he walked towards the entrance that the Gyarados destroyed.
"Thanks for the hard work," Alan petted the Gyarados without any fear before he asked it to do the same, "watch over Misty."
He walked right into the cave entrance with his swords in his hand, following the map given by The Kanto League, making his way towards the storage room.
He heard a series of footsteps behind him, but he did not turn around as he knew who it was.
"That was quick."
"I am a Williams; you need more than that to shake me up for good."
"Will you be okay?"
"I might end up doing it myself if anybody dares hurt Gyara and Starmie."
She had already recalled the Gyarados back while the Starmie was following right behind her.
Alan said nothing and walked towards the destination at a hurried pace. They came across many grunts, but they both took care of them quickly. Unlike Alan, Misty was not killing anyone who aimed his sword for the neck.
"Why is the security here so tight?" asked Misty as she could not help but wonder about it.
Alan, too had noticed how the number of grunts was more than they were told about and not only that, the amount was frighteningly large. As if they were protecting something important, these grunts were actively looking for the intruders, trying to take them out.
"There is more to this base than just stolen pokemon," concluded Alan as he defeated another grunt and checked its body for something useful, but no luck there.
"Let's keep moving."
The duo kept walking deeper into the Team Rocket base, and after long fights with never-ending grunts and their pokemon, they finally reached the storage area they were looking for.
"How are we going to open it?" asked Misty since the storage room was locked.
Alan said nothing and pointed at the Pokeball on her waist, "an Iron Tail will do the job."
Misty rolled her eyes and called out Gyarados, who looked around, dissatisfaction apparent on its face due to the congested space within the underground base.
[Gyarados
Type: Water/Flying
Level: 27
Potential: Light Violet
Stage: Intermediate Stage (Peak)]
"Gyara, use Iron Tail to destroy that door once again, then you can go back to the Pokeball."
*ROAR*
The giant sea serpent gave a loud dissatisfied roar before its tail shone in silver light. It smashed the tail right into the door, breaking it in just one attack.
*Bang*
The door was blasted open, and Misty immediately recalled her pokemon back to the Pokeball.
The duo walked into the storage room, and what came before their eyes was not something they could have expected.
Was it a large number of stolen pokemon in their pokeballs? Yes.
But there was something else too.
Children. Children aged 6 to 8 years were tied together in a corner. From a rough estimate, there were at least a hundred of them in the room, thrown like 'things' into a corner.
"God Dammit!" Alan cursed at the top of his lungs when he understood what was happening. The extensive security was not just for the stolen pokemon but these children too.
Team Rocket was not only taking part in stealing Pokemon but also in Human Trafficking.
"I-is this why there were so many vehicles prepared?" asked Misty; her voice was breaking from shock and anger, or maybe both?
"They could have transported pokeballs the same way we are going to, Pokemon Transport Machines, but they need to move humans physically. These scums have not only tortured poor pokemon but children as well, and who knows how many more are suffering right now."
For some unknown reason, Alan started feeling intense anger when he thought about the bigger picture. There were only a few hundred pokemon and a hundred children in this storage room, then what about other storage rooms? Or what about other Team Rocket bases they knew nothing about?
He was no hero who would go out of his way to help others but he too had a bottomline. This was far too much for him to just ignore and walk away. Sure he could not do anything about it yet, but he would do as much as he can.
Looking at the little children hurled up in a corner, he could not help but remember his own little sister, Elizabeth. What if one day she went on a journey and faced a similar fate?
These children might not be trainers yet but he could make a rough guess as to why they were here.
As the anger inside him grew stronger, he suddenly felt an unknown energy wrap around him, as if giving him a hug to calm him down.
[Don't overthink, take of things as they come and help these pokemon and children first] said Eve from inside the pokeball as she sensed the changes in Alan's emotions.
She saw everything from inside the pokeball and it would be a lie to say that she was not angry herself. She could feel Shin have the same reaction as Alan.
Alan calmed himself down after Eve's reminder and immediately got to work.
"I will set up the Transport Machine, use Starmie's Psychic powers to transport all the pokeballs. I will go get the kids," Alan gave an order and without even waiting for Misty to say anything, he made his way towards the kids.
The little ones saw someone dressed in black walk towards them and they immediately burst into tears. Alan's face softened as he saw the trauma these kids had gone through so far. Just a presence of an adult was enough to scare them into tears.
Alan gave them his most softest and friendliest he could, while he made his way over to them. The kids started forcing themselves into one corner, scared by the approaching Alan.
"I was sent here to save you guys," said Alan when he saw the reaction of the kids. He stopped in his tracks and sat down on the ground, "I will take you back to your homes. Can I come close? I need to take off those chains to take you away from the bad guys."
The kids stopped crying when they heard Alan and many looked at him with teary eyes.
'These Team Rocket fucker, I will make sure you regret this.'
When he saw the kids no longer crying he stood up once again and walked towards them. Though they did not cry, the kids still looked scared.
"W-who are you, Mister?" asked a cute little girl with pony tails.
Alan paused in his steps as he did not know what to say, the other kids were looking at him, waiting for an answer. He had to gain their trust with his next words so he could easily take them out of his place.
Thinking of many possible answers, he took a deep breath before he looked at the kids with a serious face.
Was it because he looked scary like that? The kids flinched at it.
Alan closed his eyes before he decided to do it since it seemed like a good way to gain their trust.
"I..."
He raised his right hand into the air.
"...AM..."
And placed his left hand on the waist.
Misty looked towards Alan, confused at what he was doing before she realized what it was.
"...SUPERRRRR..."
She immediately started recording with a playful smile.
"...CHAMPION!!"
He said out loud, the famous line and pose from a kids superhero show. It would be a lie to say he was not embarrassed but it is what it is.
As if they realized the 'secret identity' of there superhero who always stayed behind a mask, the kids immediately started cheering.
"SuperChampion is here to save us."
"Please take me to my Mommy, Waaah."
"I want to go home."
"Beat the bad guys SuperChampion."
Alan looked at the excited kids with an embarrassing smile.
'I need extra compensation for this.'
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
Alan_demonic
Alan_demonic Hope you enjoy the chapter!
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone