Chương 132: Reunions and Introductions

"Here you go Ace." Joy said as she brought me a berry smoothie.

"Thank you Joy." I said with sincerity, before returning my attention to the numerous papers before me.

Currently we were right outside the Vermillion city limits, tucked away where it would be difficult to spot even the Pokemon Center that we had set up, where I was going over the numerous documents Janine sent me via Golbat. And by what was on these, it wasn't good.

While on the outside Vermillion city seemed idealic due to it's coastal location, successful businesses thanks to the shipping industry, and the presence of a Gym Leader, Surge, it was anything but when you looked deeper.

First of all, there was absolutely no presence of the Officer Jenny's in Vermillion at all, instead the peace was kept by a personal peacekeeping squad that mayor Trovitopolis hired. And if there was one thing I learned from future dystopian movies, anyone calling themselves 'peacekeepers' were NOT the good guys.

Secondly was the complete lack of criminal activity in Vermillion, while every other city and town was constantly reporting Team Rocket activity, on top of the standard criminals. To some, this would make it seem like Surge and the peacekeepers were better at protecting the people from criminals and such, but I was pretty sure this was just Surge keeping them all on a tight leash to make himself look good.

And then there were the details Janine sent me about Surge's operations themselves.

According to her intel, whenever he wasn't at the Gym or making public appearances, Surge was busy running Team Rocket's operations from one of the large warehouses that dotted Vermillion's coastlines. Except, inside it wasn't just an import and export operation, but an entire underground market complete with illegal deathmatches, auctions, buying and selling of pokemon, pokemon products, drugs, sex, and even other 'merchandise'.

I'm no hero.

I don't have a bleeding heart for every single misdeed, injustice or victim that there is in the world. But even I have my limits.

Seeing what Surge was up to while under the authority and protection of the League twisted my stomach, and filled me with a righteous fury like nothing I'd felt before.

It was here and now that I made my decision, by the time the sun came up tomorrow morning, Surge would most likely be dead.

There was no redeeming the things he was not only overseeing, but actively participating in as I went over the details Janine sent me, complete with photos she had managed to take from inside the marketplace itself.

Of course I made copies of every single thing she'd sent me, and forwarded them all to Lance directly, who gave me his personal number while we were in Lavender. He probably decided that with all the Legendaries I was in contact with, it would be better if we could reach each other immediately if needed.

I continued pouring over the plans while the girls tried to keep themselves occupied as well around me, all of us waiting for two specific things.

Firstly the five of us were NOT going down down to the city just yet. Even if Sabrina wasn't against us and actively giving them info about me, that didn't change that the girls and I were fairly well known by this point. That, plus how much damage I had inflicted onto Team Rocket by now, would mean there would be targets on our backs the moment we entered Vermillion.

So we were hanging back while waiting on our backup, which was Wendy, Kate, the area Rangers led by Barlow, and our reinforcements from the League.

The three guys however, Ash, Gary and Tracey, had all gone down to Vermillion themselves to run some errands and such. I tried telling Ash it wouldn't be a good idea for him to go, as we were completely identical except for our eyes, but he insisted.

I continued studying the maps and intel Janine had sent me until I noticed several auras approaching us, which were all auras I recognized.

*Ding!*

"Ace?"

I looked up right as the doors to the Pokemon Center opened to allow a group that were all dressed in the Ranger uniforms in.

"Hello Wendy, Kate, Luana." I said, greeting the three beautiful females Rangers, one of which I only met briefly on Squirtle Island, before looking to the two guys inquisitively.

"Barlow..."

"Crawford..."

The two of them introduced themselves with a twitch of their brows, probably because I had forgotten their names while remembering Luana's.

Luana was a beautiful young woman, a year or two older than myself and Kate at the most, with short-cut black hair. Crawford was perhaps a few years older than us, with thick and bushy brown hair styled into an afro. Barlow however was perhaps the oldest out of all of us gathered, with arms and legs thick with muscle, and a splash of maroon on the top of his head for hair with a matching mustache.

"Of course! Nice to see you two again." I said, shaking both of their offered hands.

"And you too Ranger." Barlow replied, taking my hand with his massive sausage-like fingers with a deathgrip. A deathgrip I readily returned with a smirk.

"Decent grip there." Barlow said while returning my smirk back at me, with me apparently passing his little test.

"If only he knew things that hand has done." Lucario commented wryly with an amused tone, shocking the three Rangers that had yet to hear him speak. And while his implied meaning seemed dirty, I'm pretty sure he was referring to when I punched Zapdos in the face.

After the introductions the Rangers explained to me what they had observed since arriving in Vermillion. Naturally, the peacekeepers had been very anxious about the large group of Rangers when they first arrived, but Wendy explained it as them checking ahead for the arrival of the SS. Anne.

Shortly after their arrival Gary also returned without Ash or Tracey, but with another group of people that I hadn't expected to run into here.

"Hey Ace! It's been a while!" Brock, Gym Leader of Pewter city, said as I exited the Pokemon Center to greet them.

"Indeed. We may have talked on the phone, but it is much better to get to speak in person." Professor Oak stated from beside Brock.

"Ace!" Daisy exclaimed happily as she flew into my arms.

"Daisy! It's good to see you too." I said as I happily embraced her.

I then noticed Gary standing beside professor Oak and Brock, staring at Daisy and I incredulously from our affectionate reunion. I then smirked at him, and said, "If you want Gary, you can call me Aniki as well."

"Fuck that!" Gary snarled, storming off into the Pokemon Center angrily.

I chuckled slightly at Gary's expense, before turning my attention to the people who I did NOT recognize amongst their group.

First was the couple standing beside professor Oak, one a middle-aged looking man with streaks of silver in his brown hair, and the other a beautiful mature woman with dark pink hair that was tied into a braid. Beside them was a boy, maybe a little bit younger than me, that had feminine features with tanned skin and dark hair with a couple red highlights.

All three of them appeared anxious for whatever reason, with their auras showing they were borderline desperate. There was nothing in them that showed me I needed to worry though, so I turned my attention to the other newcomer.

She had pale skin and was dressed in a purple top that left her belly exposed, matching gloves that almost went to her elbows, and black pants that were held up by a gold belt. Her black hair was long, going clear down to her impressive looking ass, with a couple strands framing her face that had red streaks going down them.

What caught my attention the most though, was that she and Brock were holding each other's hand with their fingers interlocked, and I could see how their auras were being drawn toward one another. That, coupled with Brock's grin, which was a strange cross between shit-eating and goofy, was clear indicator that the two were an item.

"It's nice to see you all again, but who are they?" I asked, pointing to the group of newcomers. None of them had anything in their auras to show they would be a threat, but it was still annoying that they had been brought here before I could evaluate them.

"This is professor Cerise, his wife Talia, and their young assistant, Goh." Professor Oak said as he pointed each one of them out.

"And THIS is my GIRLFRIEND, Lucy!" Brock declared dramatically, posing so that he gesturing to her.

In response to the overly dramatic gesture, Lucy just covered her mouth and giggle elegantly.

"You can call me Lucy. I am a member of the Battle Frontier." She said while extending her hand to me.

"Ace Ketchum." I said to return her greeting while shaking her offered hand.

With all the introductions over with, I turned to professor Cerise and asked, "So what's got all of you looking so down?"

Their expressions and auras turned even gloomier than before, if that were even possible, as professor Cerise held out a photo and said, "My daughter, Chloe. She accompanied Goh into the sewers last night to investigate the stories of a monster dwelling within them. But they got separated after being attacked by a swarm of Grimer, and we haven't been able to find her."

My expression darkened as I heard the story, and saw the picture. Chloe was a beautiful girl, there was no doubt about that. But what worried me was that this wasn't the first time I'd seen her.

Before I could say anything I noticed another set of auras coming towards us, that of Ash and Tracey, along with two others that I recognized.

"Master please!"

"Stop pretending you don't know us!"

"But I DON'T know you!"

Soon Ash and Tracey appeared through the thicket, accompanied by two martial artists that were following them.

"Aniki! These guys won't leave us alone!" Ash declared irritably, drawing the two's attention to myself.

""Eh?!""

In a comical sequence, the two martial artists looked at me, then to Ash, then back to me, then back to Ash, before finally settling on me.

""MASTER!?!""

"I don't think so. I mean, IF I did have disciples, they would AT LEAST be able to tell the difference between myself and my baby brother." I said irritably while crossing my arms.

""PLEASE FORGIVE US!""

Immediately the duo prostrated before me as they begged for forgiveness, which I outwardly pondered as if I were debating not giving it to them. In actuality, I was examining them to see how far their training had progressed since we'd parted in Cerulean.

Surprisingly, they did look quite a bit stronger than they did last time. If we weren't so pressed for time I would test them and their pokmeon to see how far they had come. But that would have to wait until later.

"Help us with our current mission, and I'll consider forgiving you." I told them while turning to head back into the Pokemon Center.

""YES!!!""

I shook my head wryly at how energetic the two of them were, while professor Oak quickly approached my side.

"Disciples?"

"I'll explain later..." I told him in a tired voice.

With all of us entering the Pokemon Center, we quickly went around for introductions so everyone knew who everyone was, I wasn't the only one surprised that Brock had a girlfriend, before we gathered around the table with all of the intel I had.

"Where did you get all of this?" Barlow asked in awe.

"I have a source." I answered bluntly, not intending to say another word about that subject.

"Most of you know why we're here, and for those of you who don't we intend to take down a major branch of Team Rocket. Tonight."

"""!!!"""

Bruce, Jackie, professor Cerise, Talia and Goh all looked at me in shock, while all the others appeared resolute.

"This branch deals mostly with the import and export of pokemon from Team Rocket, sending Kanto and Johto pokemon to their branches in other regions, and sending pokemon from other regions here. However, my source has sent me intel that shows their operation is far larger than that."

I pointed at the different photos that had been sent to me and said,

"Not only are they moving pokemon for Team Rocket's larger operations, but they also deal in illegal death matches between pokemon, pokemon eggs, smuggled pokemon, drugs, sex, and even human trafficking. The man in charge, who they all refer to as the 'Big Man', to hide his identity, is one of their upper executives. Supposedly he has a collection of girls that he keeps for himself, but when he gets tired of them they get shipped out with the rest of their 'products."

As I said that I pointed out one specific photo of the group of Rockets, escorting a young woman, with hair identical in color and style as Talia's.

"Chloe!?!" Professor Cerise exclaimed when he saw his daughter.

"I got this update just this morning, and according to my intel one of the entrances to their base is in the sewers. If she got lost down there, then that's probably where they picked her up. Whether they intend to sell her or keep her though, she'll probably be safe until tonight since the Big Man needs to keep up his day job. That should give us plenty of time to prepare."

"And you swear it? You swear that our daughter will be fine?!" Professor Cerise demanded.

"..."

For a moment I said nothing, debating on how to answer.

I already said, I'm no hero.

I have fought for the right reasons, but I don't think I have ever fought directly to save someone.

"Professor Cerise..." I said, looking the man, as well as his wife, directly in the eyes.

"I will do whatever it takes to save your daughter."

""...""

Neither man nor wife said anything to my declaration, only staring at me as if trying to study if I was lying or not.

"Save her, and we will be forever in your debt!" Professor Cerise declared.

"Then let's get started."

With that said, I began walking them through all of the intel we had, including all of the ways in and out of the warehouse that Janine had discovered, as well as my plan to capture as many of those involved with this operation as possible.

***

Chloe Cerise was in hell.

That was the only way she could describe her current situation after the night she'd had.

First, she had been forced to follow her childhood friend(and secret crush) Goh into the city sewers, as he had wanted to investigate the monster that was supposedly living within. But then the two of them had become separated when they were attacked by a horde of Grimer, which then led to her getting lost within the twisting tunnels.

She wandered for what felt like hours through the cold, dark, damp, and slimy tunnels of the sewers, before her luck took ANOTHER turn for the worse. When she finally found some people, they turned out to be members of Team Rocket.

Chloe was swiftly captured and taken to their base, which apparently no one living in Vermillion knew about.

At first she thought she would be thrown into a cell, to be ransomed or fed to their pokemon. Boy was she wrong.

Instead, she'd been taken to a tile room that only had a drain and a hose within, and ordered to strip by the spectating men. Of course, Chloe tried to refuse. But all that had earned her was a backhand across the cheek.

It hadn't caused her any actual harm, or even left more than a slight red mark. But it had done its job and scared her into submitting, lest she face more severe punishment.

First to go was her dress, which was now covered in slime and gunk from exploring the sewers. Unfortunately for Chloe, she wasn't even wearing a bra underneath it.

Though not the largest, Chloe had nice enough breasts that she was immediately assaulted by a series of whoops and whistles, followed by cat-calls and cries of encouragement from her wretched gallery.

Once her dress was pooled around her feet, the only things left on Chloe's body were her shoes, socks, and panties. Of course she removed the former first. Leaving her barefoot on the cold tile. But that apparently wasn't enough as the Rocket who was giving her orders raised his hand threateningly, and her panties quickly joined her dress around her bare feet.

Once she was completely naked, Chloe was forced to undergo an unnecessary search to make sure there was nothing suspicious on her body, like a wire or a tracker.

This required her to show all of her most embarrassing parts to the group of men, though thankfully none of them dared try to take advantage of her.

Though he didn't know why, chloe was unable to think about it as they then proceeded to spray her with the hose, which only had freezing cold water.

Again, she was forced to display all of her embarrassing bits for them to spray in order to 'clean' her. Which she actually needed after spending the night in the sewer.

Afterwards she was given a paper-thin white robe to wear, which didn't even cover her butt, and marched to a new location within their hideout.

The entire time she was being marched though the halls. Chloe was assaulted by the lecherous looks and comments she was receiving in passing. Some of them even boldly smacked her butt, earning themselves a mild scolding, but otherwise receiving no punishment. Eventually they FINALLY made it to their destination.

This time it was a cell like she expected earlier. And it WAS a cell, complete with concrete walls, periodic barred windows, and a fortified door.

The interior however had an actual bed and a couple other pieces of furniture, and some actual blankets for her to use. That didn't change the fact that it was a cell though, as the many bars reiterated, along with the fact that the toilet sitting there in the open, and even several cameras to capture every single angle in the room. She would have absolutely no privacy.

This was where Chloe was now, several hours later as she curled on one of the chairs, and prayed that someone would save her. Her father, Goh, ANYONE.

Chloe lost track of time as she sat there, since she didn't have a clock to go by. But she suspected that hours must have gone by until her cell door opened once again, and another Rocket entered with a rack of clothing.

"Make yourself presentable." He barked at her with authority. And while Chloe wanted to ask why, or what was happening, she held her tongue when she noticed his Raticate glare at her menacingly.

"U-um, by presentable-"

"Hair. Makeup. Clothes." The Rocket listed off irritably, as if Chloe were too stupid to understand.

"O-ok..." She replied anxiously, making her way to the table with a mirror on it that was obviously for makeup.

"You only have ten minutes to get ready. Don't waste my time." The Rocket declared as she looked upon the different accessories and types of makeup.

Chloe quickly applied a little bit of makeup to make herself 'presentable', before tying her dark pink hair into a braid that matched her mother's.

"Now clothes. Hurry up." The Rocket said impatiently, before grabbing a certain outfit, and tossing it onto the chair she had just been sitting.

He then wheeled the rack out of the cell and down the hall, where Chloe was pretty sure she heard another cell door open. Was she not the only woman here?

"!!!"

Catching herself letting her mind wander, Chloe hurriedly picked up the chosen outfit to see what it was, before her face scrunched up.

"These are...clothes?"

"GET READY NEW GIRL!"

A shout interrupted her disbelief, and Chloe had no choice but to put on the 'clothes', or face another punishment.

Within minutes she stepped out of her cell when the door was opened again, fidgeting due to the fact that literally NOTHING was covered by her 'clothes'.

She was wearing what looked like it was SUPPOSED to be a schoolgirl outfit, with stockings that went up past her knees, a skirt, and a blouse to cover her top. Except the skirt was no longer than three inches, leaving her entire butt exposed, to say nothing of the front, and her top didn't even come down far enough to cover her nipples.

A quick glance up and down the hall showed Chloe numerous girls, all good looking, dressed similarly to herself. They weren't schoolgirls, but every single one was dressed erotically with some, or all, of the most important parts of their bodies exposed.

"March." The Rocket in charge commanded, and as one, all of the girls marched down the hall with Chloe trying to keep up.

Soon they were led to a door, which was opened to admit them into what appeared to be a VIP lounge where a single man was waiting for them. And Chloe gasped when she saw him.

He was a hulking man, thick with muscle and a rough looking exterior. He had a perpetual sneer on his face, and his blonde hair was spiked up messily.

He was wearing green cargo pants with a matching jacket, which was opened to leave his chest exposed. And while this jacket was the same as the one he usually wore during the day in nearly every way, there was one striking difference emblazoned on the right side. A large, red R.

"Chloe Cerise. It is my absolute pleasure to see you here tonight." Lieutenant Surge drawled while leering at her near-naked body.