Sabrina released her Alakazam and a Hypno to help transport us all to the site that she’d discovered. We teleported in a flash of light. When I blinked my eyes, I noticed that the sun itself had shifted in the sky. I glanced around and caught sight of a vaguely familiar landmark.

Oak beat me to the punch, merely giving his surroundings a cursory glance before humming. “We’re north of Lavender Town? An interesting location for a Team Rocket facility to be set up.”

Sabrina inclined her head. “I believe they are in fact set up in a temporary facility, as most of the base is made up of tents instead of anything more permanent.”

“You were able to get close?” I said with surprise.

Sabrina shook her head. “Not too close, the Zubat and Golbat that live in the Rock Tunnels react poorly to sudden flashes of light; if I teleported in, I would attract a swarm and potentially alert Team Rocket.”

Flannery rubbed her chin, eying Sabrina, “Huh, that was clever of you… and in a way, clever of them too. A natural defence that acts as a sentry and warning system if we come in too hot.”

Sabrina nodded. “We can walk in; however, we will just need to be careful with how we move.”

Roxanne reached into a satchel she had slung over her shoulder. “Alright! If we’re going into the tunnels, we need to set ourselves up with rope, a dark light, fresh water—”

Brawly coughed. “Like, Roxanne? We’re not going for a long expedition, we’re going in and raiding the place.”

Roxanne flushed. “I also have some repels.”

Brawly and Flannery made faces and Roxanne scoffed. “Synthetically made repels! This isn’t some cheap market made repel.”

Flannery relaxed. “Good, cause do you have any idea what they actually put in that stuff?” she said with a shudder.

Oak perked up. “In fact, I do! The natural excreme—” Flannery shot a hand over his mouth.

“And ah no thanks! I don’t need any more brain bleach for that particular subject!” She jutted her chin at Roxanne, “How potent is this stuff?”

“It’s rated as good for an hour!” she said holding up the bottle. She then sprayed it on herself. Her face twitched, and a shiver ran up her body. She gave us a sickly-looking smile. “It’s… great!” she said unconvincingly.

Brawly stepped closer and sniffed her. “Urgh! Smells like old gym socks left in a hot locker!”

Roxanne shot him a less than impressed look. Brawly raised his hands in supplication. “Alright! Alright! I’ll put it on!” he said, spraying the substance onto his arms and legs with a shudder.

“Ahem,” said a polite voice. We turned back to find Professor Oak with a pokemon floating over his shoulder. He smiled and scratched at the back of his head. “I suppose this is a bad time to mention that I can use my Chimecho to repel other pokemon?”

Roxanne blinked in surprise. Brawly barked a laugh, and Flannery, who’d just accepted the bottle of repel and been about to apply it to her own body, sighed in relief at dodging a bullet.

“Huh,” I said, impressed with the utility of such a pokemon. “That’s a neat role to have.”

“It’s rather useful in the field to be able to have pokemon either approach you or be repelled from you when you are wandering around. It doesn’t help as much in the more powerful areas, but it does decrease the odds of a bad encounter by having Chimecho release a very low cry that calms or makes other pokemon avoid us.”

Sabrina eyed the little floating wind chime pokemon. It approached her and waved its little arms. “I had not considered such a pokemon before. This is a Hoenn pokemon no?”

“Indeed!” Oak said while preening. “My good friend sent it to me! She clued me in to the use of Chimecho in such a function. Hoenn professors are rather clever like that! Being able to go into the wilds and avoid pokemon chasing them!”

“The new guy kinda gets himself into a lot of trouble exploring the wilderness, from what I hear!” said Flannery brashly as she shoved the repel into Brawly’s chest, accidentally spraying some more on him. She made a gagging noise and wiped her hand on his shirt, making him whine.

“Not cool Flans!” he said as he tugged at his shirt in annoyance.

I chuckled, and straight away I got the idea that Professor Birch wasn’t privy to this little trick. I turned back to find Chimecho playing with Sabrina, its tail wafting out to lightly brush against her nose. I raised my transceiver and took a picture before coughing.

“Right! So, we can get close to the Rocket base now, but we also need to secure any Rocket Administration that we find; they are usually the most slippery and the fastest to run.”

Sabrina bobbed her head up and down. Flannery snapped her fingers. “Don’t members of Team Rocket like to wear uniforms? Things that identify them as crooks?”

“Yes, yes they do,” I said with a grin. “So, we need to find some Team rocket uniforms—”

“Or some Team Rocket grunts?” said Brawly with a curious tone of voice.

“Yeah?” I said, glancing at him, only to turn and notice that he was eyeballing a crack in the local walls where a group of Rocket’s had just emerged.

“Ah, well, that’s perfect,” I said, pointing them out to the others.

It looked like it was time to rustle up some disguises.

“Urgh! Tell a better lie man!” said one of the Grunts.

Joe, a card-carrying member of Team Rocket —albeit, one of their grunts— scowled at his group leader. “It wasn’t a lie! I had to have a Team of Rangers, a pair of Gym Leaders, and the damned Champion take me down when I was running my sting in Mt Silver! I should be in charge of this op!”

The group leader shook his head. “Honestly, I can see why you were bumped down to Grunt status from what you’d been. You need to learn to lie better.”

Joe glared only for George, his buddy in this group, to nudge him and shake his head. Joe ignored him. “I wasn’t lying!”

The Leader shook his head. “Listen, a good story needs to have a sliver of truth. You had that with the team of Rangers, yeah? But then you got greedy, Two Gym Leaders, and a champion? What would they be doing hanging around like that? Your story makes no sense; it's no wonder an executive took one look at it and dismissed it out of hand when we sprung you out of jail!”

The man held up his hand to forestall Joe’s protests. “Don’t, just don’t. I’ve heard it all before. A good story is allowed to stretch the truth no more than… like two hundred... No! Three hundred percent embellished!” He pointed at Joe. “You say a team of Rangers? Should have stuck with two or three and left it at that. Way more believable, even if it only took one to take you down.”

Joe glared harder.

“Honestly it's unbelievable. You’re as bad as that rookie who’s always picking fights with people stronger than him. Only you tell the most stupid stories. No one’s ever going to believe you about two Gym leaders and a Champion.”

“Yeah, that’s like crazy,” said a voice from their side. The team of Rocket grunts all turned as one towards the voice. They stiffened when they found Brock, the Gym Leader of Pewter city sitting on a boulder.

Before the Rocket’s could reach for their pokeballs another voice spoke from behind them. “Indeed, two Gym leaders? It wouldn’t be believable.”

The group turned to find Sabrina, the Saffron Gym Leader hovering down to the ground.

“Think they accept future Gym Leaders?” asked another voice. The Rocket grunts whipped around to find…

Joe tilted his head. “Who are you supposed to be?”

The aqua haired teen winced. “I’m a future Gym Leader?” he said. “What? That doesn’t work for you?”

Joe sighed. “I guess you’ll do, this time I have witnesses,” he said reaching for a pokeball. With people around, he needed to at least appear to put up a fight.

“Ahem,” said a polite voice. Once more the group of Rocket Grunts turned only to blanch when they found Professor Samuel freaking Oak smiling politely at them. His smile turned slightly evil. “I’m sorry to announce… no one will ever believe you regarding this story, young man!”

Joe gaped.

He didn’t even see the judo chop that the aqua teen used to knock him out; he was still reeling from the situation he’d found himself in.

He had to be the most unlucky Rocket around!

I chuckled as Brawly dispatched the last Grunt. “Man that one guy can’t catch a break. Lance and I caught him on Mt Silver!” I said.

Flannery hummed. “Huh, now I get what he was whining about.” She shot Oak a smirk. “And damn Professor, that was cold.”

Oak chuckled. “Most people either overestimate or underestimate my legend, and therefore don’t believe in encountering me in the wilds. Or, as is growing to be more the case these days, many of the younger generations forget my role as a Champion of Indigo.”

“Hmmm a shame,” Roxanne said politely. “What are we going to do? This group was only made up of five Rocket members and there are six of us?”

Oak raised his hands. “I might hang back from infiltrating the base if it’s all the same. I am sadly a very well known figure… that and an old Team Rocket grunt might be harder to overlook.”

I nodded, agreeing with his suggestion even if I didn’t like it. “Alright there’s only two girl Rocket so who’s wearin—”

“Dibs the pants!” said Flannery as she walked up to a thinly built Team Rocket Grunt before unbuckling his belt and ripping his pants off.

Brawly raised a finger. “What were you going to do if he was going commando?”

Flannery blushed, her stolen pants held in front of her. “I… well. Whatever! He didn’t! Good luck taking your guy's clothes off! Chances are someone is going commando!”

That caused Brawly, Roxanne, and I to eyeball the rocket grunts that all had similar builds to us. Were they—

“Everyone is wearing underwear,” announced Sabrina.

I heaved a sigh of relief. Good, I hadn’t wanted to see some grunt’s junk… or wear his clothes afterwards… that… urgh, just would have been weird.

Brawly chopped his hands towards Sabrina. “You can tell if someone is wearing underwear with your psychic abilities?”

Sabrina nodded her head seriously. “I looked into the future, and the future foretold underwear on all of them.”

I wasn’t sure what to make of one of the oddest uses of Sabrina’s abilities I had ever encountered to date, so I just shrugged and stripped my Grunt before donning the Rocket uniform. "Alright, Roxanne we need some rope to tie them up.”

Roxanne perked up and gave Flannery a superior smirk. “I knew that rope was a good purchase!”

Flannery rolled her eyes. “Sure, sure, you’ve been hanging onto it for months now, and this is the first time you've gotten to use it.”

“Better to have it and not need it than—” Roxanne began to lecture, only for Flannery to wave her off.

“Yeah, yeah. Tie up these punks already.”

Soon we were all changed into our Team Rocket uniforms. I had to admit that Sabrina’s uniform suited her a little too much for my liking. Or maybe the issue was that I liked her looking like a villain a bit too much. She looked good. Or rather bad… but in such a good way.

I ended up having to drag my focus away from Sabrina’s outfit and back to the reason we were here. I tugged my Rocket cap down over my eyes a little more and adopted a villainous smirk. “Excellent, we all look suitably mookish. Time to infiltrate this Team Rocket facility!”

“Huhahaha!” said Roxanne with a deep laugh while crossing her arms. “Evil!” she said. She then coughed. "Sorry, I was just trying to get into character.”

Flannery snorted. “You’re such a dweeb!”

I chuckled at the girls banter before coughing. “Alright, time to be serious. Let’s get in there. Sabrina? Lead the way, yeah? Oak you’re on repel duty with Chimecho.” I rubbed my chin, thinking how else I could utilse him. “You alright with being on overwatch in case we need help?”

Oak shot me a thumbs up.

Sabrina took the lead, and we wandered into the dark tunnels. The others clicked on some torches, and I took a moment to remember that it would raise some eyebrows if I was walking without a torch, so I stepped closer to Sabrina to ‘use’ her torch for light.

For a few minutes, we walked through a tunnel with a number of twists and turns, only to open into an expansive cavern. I could see a few tents set up on the other side of the cavern and was surprised by the lack of light that was seeping out of the facility. They should have been bleeding light, but they were very much ‘running dark’.

“Alright,” I began to say as we closed in. “Oak will take a position of overwatch; make sure we’ve got backup in case anything goes wrong.” Like a wild Mewtwo appearing, I thought to myself.

I gestured to the rest of us in Team Rocket garb. “We’re to infiltrate and find the most highly ranked people we can… Unless you can detect something, Sabrina?”

She shook her head. “They have their dark emitters up still.”

I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. “Can we alter them to stop incoming and outgoing?”

That caused the group to shift. Oak coughed. “It is possible to calibrate the dark emitters, but these days there is a central console. You would be best to find where the highest ranked Team Rocket Member is, then get access to their computer.”

“Woooah, you like, have it all worked out, Oak man!” said Brawly.

I shot him a look. Oh, that’s right, he might not associate Professor Oak, the face of Pokemon research in the Indigo region, with the man who ended a war, and united two regions. Oak would probably have the biggest knowledge base of all of us on how to raid an enemy encampment.

I shot Oak a look but didn’t see any hardening of his expression or anything that made me think he wasn't just an affable elderly man out for a walk.

“Right,” I decided to say eventually, settling on just putting that realisation to the side for later examination. “Let’s wander in, nice and casual.”

I stood and rolled my shoulders while the others followed. Roxanne marched robotically.

Flannery rolled her eyes with a groan. “Roxy! Just loosen up a bit!” She then draped herself over Roxanne’s shoulders and whispered with her while they walked. Sabrina dropped back to be included in the girl talk.

Brawly and I shot each other looks, and I just knew his ears were twitching to hear anything spoken between them as much as mine were.

It took a moment to recall that we were… Actually, on second thought, this set up worked perfectly. We were just a group of young men and women walking along, instead of people trying and failing to act casually.

I wasn’t sure if Flannery knew what she was doing, but she relaxed Roxanne which helped. We wandered past a few Rocket members with pokemon out that were watching the various sides of the camp. They nodded at us, and a few eyed the girls, making me want to walk over and lean on them a bit, but I resisted and instead made my way further into the center of the encampment.

Without meaning to, I started to play with a pokeball. Sabrina walked back up to me and eyed the pokeball.

“You alright?”

“Yeah, I’m doing good,” I said with a wink. I eyed another cluster of rocket grunts and chewed my lip. “Just surprised that there are so many. If they all have their carry limits… then there’s going to be a lot of pokemon around here. I’ve seen twenty so far.”

“Flannery has an idea about that,” Sabrina prompted, making me hum and toss Flannery a look. She shot me a thumbs up, and I grunted and looked back ahead as we came upon a larger tent. It looked like it had a lot of foot traffic with how the ground in front of it was tramped down.

We entered to find an array of tables and chairs with some laptops and paperwork scattered about. I eyed those before flicking my eyes up to the man who commanded the central table. I almost slumped my shoulders when it only revealed a man in a lab coat.

Hmmm, a Pokemon researcher or some type of scientist. I’d known Team Rocket had members like this, but I hadn’t considered I’d bump into one here, especially not as the leader of this base. What were they researching? The closest point of interest was the Lavender Tower… or the Power Plant that was set up in the hills far to the east of Cerulean.

Huh. Why did they have the power plant so far out? Was it nuclear? I thought it ran off pokemon like Electrode? Perhaps that added an element of danger to it? Maybe Surge would know?

I made a discrete gesture for the others to fan out around the room to get close to rest of the Team Rocket members in the tent with us. Roxanne was tugged over to a pair of Grunts that perked up at their approach. Sabrina approached a woman in a lab coat, and Brawly nodded his head at two other men.

I stood in front of the ‘boss’. “Yes?” he said with a nasal tone, not looking up from his work.

“Reporting in from our—” The man held up a finger and I felt my heart hammer in my chest. Did he know I was a spy? Shit! I shouldn’t have said anything! This is most likely a small, tight-knit group.

“You’re the group that was sent over from Gamma base? No don’t say anything, its obvious with how lacking in respect you are.” The researcher straightened up and adopted a pose that he must have thought made him look suave. “I run things differently here. This is a tight ship where respect for your betters is given!”

I heard one of the men near Brawly sigh and mutter. “Shit, here he goes again.” Hmmm interesting. This man was a known authoritarian, but he didn’t truly have their respect.

I grunted. “Isat so,” I said, donning a tough guy accent while sneering in such a way that practically begged him to take umbrage.

He narrowed his eyes and stood up. He walked around the desk and poked me in the chest. “I run things around here, and if you have a problem with that I will—” I channelled some rock energy into my head and headbutted him.

He folded like a Mr Mime acting out the part of a dropped wet spaghetti. He hit the floor, and the woman next to Sabrina blinked and looked up. “Oh dear, another one of those rough Grunts,” she said with a shake of her head. “Listen you can’t go beating on Dave like that. He’s an asshole, but he does run things. What’s your name?” she said like someone that was going to write me up on report.

I snorted and released my Sudowoodo. He smiled widely as a new plan took hold in my mind.

“You don’t get it do you?” I said with my fake tough guy accent. Behind the woman, Sabrina released her Hypno without anyone being alerted.

“Get what?” said the woman. “This is highly inappropriate!”

I snorted and chopped my hand towards to people still on computers. Sudowoodo leaped across the room and chopped his arms into both of them. I let my smile turn into a smirk. “Proton wants this shut down,” I said deciding to sell the fiction this was an internal spat rather than a raid. It suited my purposes and who knows it might muddy the water for Team Rocket a bit. He was thus far the only ‘executive’ that I knew about.

Around me, people stood in surprise at he sudden violence, only for Sudowoodo to knock out another two before they could get pokeballs out.

The town men near Brawly dropped when he punched them both. He then sprinted over to the Roxanne and Flannery, who had thrown themselves at the other men.

Flannery had hers in a chokehold while Roxanne was hugging hers around the waist. It was ineffective at bring him down but he couldn’t get at his pokeballs either. He had all of a second to try and rip her off but she was like a Shellder clamping onto a Slowpoke with her grip.

“Damn it let—” was all he got to say before Brawly slammed into him.

I turned to find Sabrina pointing her Hypno to various people and making them fall asleep. The researcher who’d been reprimanding me for headbutting the boss ended up being the only person left standing after a brief scuffle that barely got louder than a few grunts and loud coughs as either Sudowoodo or Brawly knocked them out.

“Proton won’t get away with this! The big boss will hear about this through Executive Archer!”

I snorted and kept my face down. With my cap pulled low, she couldn’t see my face too well. The darkness of the cave helped with that. “Don’tcha know? He’s on the way down. Boss Proton is on the rise!” I said with a fake-sounding confidence I’d heard all too often from kids facing me with pokemon that really wouldn’t help them.

Sabrina turned the woman to face her Hypno and soon the woman was fast asleep.

Brawly clapped me on the shoulder. “Nice improv my man!”

I held up a hand. “No names from here on out. I don’t want it getting out who we really are.” I shot him a wink and eyed the tent. Chances were there might be recording equipment observing some of these people. Chances were that I wouldn’t get away with this, but it still seemed like a good idea. I had no idea if Rocket had such internal politics but with Daniel’s arrest, they might also point the finger at another criminal organisation if I played things right.

“Let’s get this place blacked out,” I ordered. I pointed to Flannery. “What did you have planned to round up the others?”

Flannery grinned and tugged off the research coats. She swept them over her and Roxanne’s shoulders. Sabrina made a gesture, and a few small cameras were torn from the walls and crushed. She then took over the main computer.

Brawly bounced up next to her. “Oh! Oh! Look into the future and find out the pas—”

Sabrina reached under the desk and drew out a sticky note with the password on it. Brawly deflated like a balloon. “Awwww,” he said morosely.

I snorted and nodded to Flannery, who readjusted her hair into a serious-looking plait before pulling out some wide-rimmed glasses. She donned them and smiled widely. “I call this my nerd disguise! I styled it after Roxy!”

Roxanne shot her friend an affronted look. Flannery ignored Roxanne as she also put the Labcoat over her Team Rocket uniform. “Right! So I did some investigating into these Rocket people, and I learned this interesting little factoid when I was talking with one of your police officers!”

I nodded, following along easily.

“So they mostly don’t keep their own pokemon on them! The Team Rocket Organisation gives them out and recalls them when they want.”

“Oh, I see,” I said as her plan registered with me. “That’s pretty bold.”

“But it’d work, no?” Flannery said with a leer.

Roxanne and Brawly looked between us. “What are you two talking about?” Roxanne said as she readjusted her hair into loops around her ears.

Sabrina spoke up from the computer she was playing with. “They’re going to call in the Rocket Grunts, ask them to hand in their pokemon and then deal with them.”

Roxanne gaped at us. “What? No! That has no chance of working.”

Sabrina and I shared a look. I made a so-so gesture. “It has a pretty good chance to work, actually.”

Roxanne gaped at us. Thankfully, she shut her mouth when we walked out and told a few Rocket members that there would be an announcement.

“Urgh, Dave wants to grandstand again?” One Rocket Grunt asked.

I nodded in commiseration. “Yeah, I pissed him off, so he’s got me running around like this.”

“Yeah, he’s not gonna settle for just that man, good luck on your job assignment for the next week chump!” he said as he marched off.

I chuckled to myself and continued to round up other Rocket members, making sure to keep my face shadowed or tucked under my cap.

I kept an ear out for any struggles or signs that things weren’t working out for us, but it seemed to be going well. Eventually, everyone was assembled in front of the main tent. Roxy and Flannery, dressed in their labcoats, stepped out and handed out two large sacks.

“We’re going to be trading out pokemon for the next raid! We need to give you all some specialty pokemon for the coming raid!”

A few grunts looked sad at this, but most handed over their pokemon without complaint. I watched them do so disdainfully. Not a hint of a bond or attachment to be seen…

One clutched onto his pokeball. “My Ekans likes to be read stories at night! Do you think you can keep doing that?” he said. A few other Rocket Grunts snickered at him, but Roxanne put a hand on his shoulder.

“We’ll make sure they are looked after,” she said comfortingly. This got a few more snorts of derision, but the Rocket Grunt looked relieved. I eyed them with interest, a single person showing compassion for his pokemon in a crowd of people? I wondered, perhaps for the first time, what their stories were, and how they ended up in cahoots with a criminal organisation.

With their pokeballs returned to them, the tent flaps opened once more, and people perked up; they were obviously expecting their leader, Dave, to be giving a speech. Instead, Hypno walked out.

At the same time, Brawly released a Hariyama in between one row of tents, while between another row, Medicham appeared. I crossed my arms and nodded. At my signal, Sudowoodo wandered forward with a leer, right as Hypno’s eyes glowed and he started to sweep his medallion in front of everyone’s eyes.

A few stumbled and fell to the ground, while others gasped and took in the trap they’d stepped into. “Oh shit! It’s a set-up!” shouted one Rocket grunt causing the still awake Rockets to stagger and reach for now absent pokeballs. One Rocket member proved to be a sneaky sort as an Abra appeared in front of him.

He grabbed it by the head. “Get me outta here!” he barked, only for Abra to twitch but not flash away.

Medicham launched itself at him and the Abra and dispatched them both.

Flannery grinned cruelly. “Everyone else! On your knees! Prostate’s orders!” she barked.

That caused a few men to gain sickly looks as I facepalmed. Roxanne walked over and whispered information into Flannery’s ear. I could tell the exact moment that Roxanne explained what Prostate meant to Flannery, as Flannery’s face turned bright red.

“I meant Proton! Not that other thing! Just! Urgh Yuck! Knock 'em out already!” she shouted at Brawly who did as asked, chuckling all the while.

When the Grunts were all squared away, I stood up. “Alright, let’s make copies of all their information, just in case, and then call in the police for a pick up of this group.”

“We’re not going to stick around?” asked Roxanne.

“Nah, this actually works out better for us; Team Rocket won’t know what to do when they get information on this raid. It sounds more like an internal raid, but there is enough to muddy the waters of what’s going on for them to double-guess themselves.”

“Won’t the first group we knocked out give the game away?”

I chuckled. “I think our friend had the right of it. No one’s ever going to believe them.”

I walked back up to Oak and read him into the situation. He laughed and agreed to go along with what I had planned. “Oh my, I think this plan would make even Koga smile!” he said with a hearty laugh.

He sat up. “Still, it’s a shame I never got the chance to show off for you all.” He winked. “Oh well, it was wonderful to see you young trainers come together like you did.”

I nodded, still curious if that was his true reason for coming here. I knew Oak was a much more complex man than he appeared, but he played up his characteristics as a helpful old man to a T. I decided to just nod in the end, and call the police.

When the flashing lights were within sight, Sabrina teleported us into an overwatch position to bear witness to the Police storming the Rocket base. They seemed rather bemused when they discovered the men and women already tied up and everything set up for them.

Roxanne fidgetted. “I still feel we should have stayed down there. What if our not being there allows some of them to escape being convicted of anything?”

Sabrina shook her head. “There is plenty of evidence regarding items, information, and stolen pokemon throughout their camp. Enough to implicate all of them. Also, Team Rocket is a recognised criminal organisation.”

Brawly nodded. “I kinda like this method. We’re like heroes from cartoons! We rush in and smash the baddies, then get out as the police do their job.” He puffed himself up. “Like, I call Hero Blue if that’s what we’re doing!”

I snorted, only for Flannery to speak up. “I’m Hero Red then!”

Brawly made a noise of protest, only for her to glare at him. She glanced at the rest of us before nodding when no one else protested. She wrapped an arm around Roxanne. “She’s Hero Pink!” This caused Roxanne to squawk in protest.

“Brock is Hero Black; I will be Hero Yellow,” Sabrina said with a firm nod.

I bit my lip and decided not to point out how childish this all was.

Oak coughed and adopted a pose. “Well, in that case, I have no choice but to be Hero Gold!”

Flannery hissed. “The hell you do, old man! You can be the butler!”

I laughed and waved Sabrina to teleport us out, and like heroes, we left the scene in a flash of light.

Later, Sabrina and I deposited the information with the Guardians to be perused for any information they could garner. I was pleasantly surprised when Agatha appeared on her screen.

“What’s this I hear of you going on a raid near my home territory, Brock?”

“You were incapacitated,” Sabrina said loyally.

I offered Agatha a shrug. “I thought I’d clean up for you while you rest. You know how it is; we young ones have to blow off steam occasionally.”

“Indeed, I caught the highlights of your match against that upstart!” she said and my face tightened into a sneer.

“A lot of information has been garnered from that match in particular,” I said, alluding to the information I’d discovered regarding Will and my theory that he’d signed on with Team Rocket. Koga and Agatha nodded.

“We saw the information you sent us. There are too many coincidences. The attack on Mt Silver was bold of Giovanni, too bold unless he was sure of himself. Having faced the pokemon in question, I now understand that he is very sure of himself.”

Koga inclined his head. “It was a good idea to obscure your identities the way you did. Many of the Rocket members are already speaking between themselves of internal politics or Team Magma due to the pokemon more commonly found in Hoenn being used to take them down. I have covered up your earlier slip-up for you, however.”

I nodded to Koga. “Thanks; I have to admit I got caught up in the whole event so fast I didn’t stop to think it entirely through.”

I worked my jaw. “I can’t throw punches at an enemy that won’t stand up and face me, so the other option is to give them shadows to waste energy on.”

Koga nodded. “This is the way of the shinobi, yes. It is a method that has worked many times. Often, people may suspect, but they will not act unless they are certain. We have the luxury of knowing who our foe is. He knows some of us as well, however. Caution is key going forward,” he said while slowly chopping his hand in my direction.

I nodded, accepting the light rebuke for what it was. “One thing that still doesn’t make too much sense to me was Oak. He came along and sure he helped but… he could have probably soloed that place on his own, right?”

Agatha snorted. “There is no probably about it. He could have had it if he desired it. He, however, likes his peace too much to move openly.”

“So why come at all? He said he wanted to see the bonds we were making, but that doesn’t seem entirely true.” I scratched at my chin.

Agatha snorted while Koga chuckled. I blinked in surprise. Sabrina ended up being the one to speak up. “Brock, remember when you mentioned Lance talking about Oak spending time with him before and after he made a play for the champion position? Oak is making sure that if you ever decide to be Champion, you will be a good Champion for Indigo.”

I blinked. “Oh,” I said eloquently. Now that she’d said it… it really stood out, didn’t it?

“Naive!” shouted Agatha. She pointed at Sabrina. “You’re just as much on his radar little girl! And for good reason! I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again! You could be more!”

Sabrina merely smiled and shook her head. “I’m happy.”

Karen retched in faux disgust. “Urgh, spare me your soap drama! What is our plan going forward?”

I rubbed my chin as Koga and Agatha talked about monitoring the situation and finding more points to apply pressure to Team Rocket. They also discussed how they might further muddy the water and get Team Rocket looking in the wrong direction.

“Will,” I said, causing the group to look at me. “He’s gotten past me but he will still need help to fight other people. Other Gym Leaders. If we can get proof of him needing assistance against Surge or Erika, then we can nail him and drag him into the light.”

“Hmmmm,” Koga said thoughtfully. “This has merit. I am not sure he will need it against Erika—” Sabrina’s eyes narrowed slightly. “—but Lieutenant Surge… He will be a much tougher fight, as he will not hold back his considerable might. We will monitor any further incidents as well. I don’t want any more Mt Silver episodes.”

Sabrina stiffened. “I will need to set up a security detail for Erika then. She has volunteered to reseed and assist with the regrowth of the forests of the Silver Ranges that were recently burned down. She is exposed more than usual due to this.”

Karen sniffed. “Will’s not going to bother tripping her up; she’s not that strong.”

“She is my friend, and she is not weak.” Sabrina glared at Karen, and Karen smirked. I sighed, Karen was going to remember this. She’d gotten a rise out of Sabrina. I didn't doubt she would want to keep jabbing that weak point for all it was worth.

The meeting ended once plans were set up for Surge and Erika to have protections placed around them, and when I logged out, I collapsed back onto my bed. Sabrina teleported into my room.

I ran a hand down her back. “Hey, wasn’t sure you wanted to stay the night,” I said. She murmured into my shoulder.

She lay next to me for the next few minutes and didn’t say anything, her fingers played across my chest. I waited, knowing she wanted to say something. “I’m sorry for leading you into that raid. I hadn’t considered how that might put you at risk. I just meant to help you feel better.”

I smiled and wrapped my arms around her. “Don’t sweat it; I adapted a plan that I don't think I would have thought up if I was given time. I think we happened on a weakness of Team Rocket’s that I plan to keep exploiting.”

She nodded. “And you? How are you feeling about your match with Will?”

I sighed. “Better,” I said, shooting her a smile. She leaned up and pecked me on the lips.

“That’s good. You’re much more handsome when you smile… although your frown is attractive as well.”

I chuckled and smiled at her. “You looked pretty good in that Rocket outfit,” I said leadingly.

She smiled a playful smile and teleported away. When she returned, she was wearing nothing but the Rocket outfit and a teasing smile. I stood and kissed her, more than happy to play this game with her.

When we were done, she lay on my chest and slumbered. I looked up at the ceiling, feeling much more relaxed and at peace. I still had to go back to work tomorrow like nothing had changed.

“Man, that’s going to be weird,” I said aloud.

I’d be right as well, except there would also be a rather nice surprise waiting for me.