Porygon Beta was first to go. It floated to the center of the glass tube, and all the trainers turned towards it as an electric cackling sound started up. Suddenly, a bolt of blue lighting from the digitizer's ceiling hit the Porygon's feet, then moved up to the tip of the head. During its movement, it appeared that the parts the lighting passed were being torn to shreds, reduced to light blue triangles that would fade and flicker out.

        As soon as Beta was gone, a similar lightning bolt hit Brock and gave him the same treatment. His shout of startlement as he was digitized did nothing to ease the others' fears, and while Ash and Pikachu didn't have time to react before they too were struck by the digitizing bolts, Misty screamed and sidestepped the bolt intended for her.

        Misty had seen transporter effects on TV before, but nothing like this. She'd been expecting something more like what that sci-fi show from the sixties had, with a person turning into a silhouette of blue-tinted television static before fading out. But this effect, a lightning bolt shredding people into energy triangles... it looked more like a death ray! Frightened out of her wits, Misty charged at the glass door only to discover the hard way that it was too thick to break so easily. As she hit the glass, the recoil sent her to the floor, where she was an easy target for the blue lightning bolt on its second try. 

        She looked terrified at the bolt when it hit her waist, but the feeling turned out to not be as painful as it looked. She expected it to feel something like being thrown in an electric meat grinder, but instead she experienced only a mild tingle as the bolt moved over her body, up to the head and down to the feet. Even though her waist disappeared before her head or feet, she never lost feeling in the feet- it was more like she was simply moving through a mild energy barrier. As soon as the bolt passed her eyes, everything but the feet became visible again right away, and the feet followed shortly after as well. Everything around her, though, was gone, replaced by blackness broken only by the occasional glowing blue ring. There was also the sound of a far-off screaming, that seemed to be fading as if the source was falling. Misty's own screams joined the freefall of her friends, though, as soon as her body was completely in this new realm and gravity, or something similar to it, set in.

        The 'fall' through the data transfer cable from Sinclare's lab to the Pokémon Center computer was quick, but the speed at which the blue rings passed by showed that it was only because the long drop was accelerated by high gravity. Thankfully, though, the air, or whatever it was in this realm that the trainers were breathing, was moving along with them at the same pace, so they didn't have the danger of too much wind resistance. Eventually they passed through the last ring, this time a silvery one that was much thicker than the others, and that appeared to be metallic rather than energy-based. Upon passing through this last ring, the trainers found themselves disoriented even more as gravity suddenly made a ninety degree turn in another direction, but also lessened its intensity.

        All three trainers and the Pikachu had only one thing on their minds- the question of whether they'd be in a perpetual freefall like this forever, or if they'd eventually hit something. In the end, it was the latter that occurred, but thankfully on a much softer surface than originally intended. Despite being soft, it gave off a strange tingly sensation, similar to the static cling from a television screen. They all winced in reflex on hitting this surface, but after a moment to regain as much of their bearings as they could, they opened their eyes to discover that whatever they'd landed on, it was pink, and looked a lot harder than it felt.

        "Ugh... wh-what did we hit?" Misty asked, too busy trying to get over a mild case of motion sickness to really bother to look.

        Ash, on the other hand, had something else on his mind and didn't really care about what they'd hit. "Ulp... if I go down in history, it'll be as the first person to throw up in a computer..." he moaned.

        "PORY!?!?"

        The sound of the Porygon, now coming louder and at a slightly deeper pitch, brought all eyes upon what appeared to be a gigantic Porygon head, half turned towards them and with one eye looking at them in surprise. Apparently Beta had enlarged himself to the size of a large Snorlax in order to break their fall, but the prospect of having someone throw up on his back might have been giving him second thoughts on whether that was a good idea.

        Misty grinned sheepishly and chuckled nervously. "He doesn't really mean it, Beta..."

        ***~~***~~***~~***~~***

        Cyberspace was a strange place indeed. A micro-universe shaped by the actions of computer programs and the people who use them. The very concept of such a thing would be beyond any professional computer programmer's wildest dreams... and beyond what many of them would ever believe.

        Normally, despite its resemblance to a high-tech city, Cyberspace was totally devoid of life. Only Pokémon had ever been here before, and they'd always been in their Pokéballs at the time. But on this day, there were inhabitants, albeit only a few. And among three of the inhabitants, one could appreciate the mystery that such a strange existence provided for people to ponder over.

        Unfortunately, he didn't have much opportunity to hear himself think about it with his partners arguing, and decided to file that thought next to how a Hummingin's manner of flying defied the laws of physics without using Psychic-type abilities.

        "What!? Meowth, it was YOUR job to get an extra-large bag for those Pokéballs!"

        "Whaddya mean it was my job? I told'ja before I ain't got pockets for carrying bags, and besides which, youse two are da ones carryin da phasepacks!"

        James looked at the two, a red-haired woman his own age named Jessie, and a talking, walking cat Pokémon with a gold coin on his forehead, Meowth. Presently Jessie was in a fit of frustration, and taking it out on Meowth at the moment, while James stood their pondering the situation and twiddling the strand of hair dangling over his eyes.

        Of the three, the two humans were each clad in white uniforms with black boots, and black gloves. James' uniform covered his entire body save for his head, with fairly standard work boots and work gloves, while Jessie's less practical version of it swapped the trousers for a short skirt, lengthened the boots to reach up to the thigh, cropped the jacket and black undershirt to expose the stomach, and lengthened the gloves to fall only a few inches from the shoulder. Both jackets bore a crimson R across the chest, revealing the pair's identity as agents of the criminal organization known as Team Rocket. Not far from the Rockets, sitting on the same 'highway' line in the middle of this mass of bizarre computer data streams, was an ever-growing pile of Pokéballs sitting behind the psuedo-physical manifestation of halt commands, which surprisingly bore a strong resemblance to the sort of sign police place in the road during a roadblock. And unfortunately for the Rockets, the pile of Pokéballs was getting much, much too large to carry.

        "Then you should have gotten some bags out before we came in here! If my phasepack was working you'd have a face full of mallet, cat!"

        "Hey! If it wasn't for me we'd be stuck in here! Rememba who it was dat said ta keep all our Pokéballs in pockets instead of phasepacks, just in case?" the cat growled back.

        The phasepacks were a signature device that, presently at least, were exclusively used by Team Rocket. These devices, issued to Rockets whose rank was Intermediate (James' and Jessie's white-uniformed, black-gloved rank) or higher, could store large amounts of small, inanimate objects inside a pocket of the same micro-universe that Jessie and James were currently in. Apparently, though, having a Cyberspace pocket within a Cyberspace pocket didn't work too well, and any efforts at getting anything out of the pack had proven futile. The object being retrieved would start to come out... but the air around it as it materialized would distort the light passing through it, making it like a crystalline bubble that would slowly grow a bit, and almost shrink back down while pushing the phasepack's items back into the Cyberspace pockets they were already in, and once that was done the 'bubble' would simply fade out.

        James frowned. "Meowth is right, Jessie. If that Porygon's Pokéball were impossible to get to, we'd couldn't get back home..." Then he smiled. "But look on the bright side- we can still take as many as we can shove in our pockets! All we have to do is shrink them to standby mode."

        Meowth piped up, cheerful at the suggestion. "Exactly, Jimmy! So maybe we can't take da whole pile, but we'll still get lots of Pokémon! An we can steal dat digimawhatzit's blueprint on da way out! Da boss'll be so impressed wit what we stole dat he'll have anudda digi-thingy built and den we can get an even bigga haul second time around!"

        "Now there's an idea!" Jessie's mood suddenly shifted into a hopeful one at the thought. "Then he won't mind us not getting that Pikachu for him!" And then, without warning, she then started singing in a silly tune, "With this great feat, we'll be elites, that no one else can beat!"

        James joined in. "A bonus pay, we'll earn today, and shout hip, hip, hoo-ray!"

        Meowth raised an eyebrow at their silly rhyming. "An I tink dat dis furry cat has had enough of dat!" He then blinked, realizing what he'd just said. "ACK! Now ya got me doin it!"

        Jessie laughed. "Come on Meowth, it's about time we enjoy our work! This is the perfect heist, coming to a place where nothing and no one can stop us!"

        James chipped in. "After all, we're the ones who chase the twerps! What are the odds of the reverse happening?"

        Jessie winced, and her mood changed sharply for the worse. "James, don't say things like that! Every time you do we end up finding out!"
 

        "But Jessie, think about it! We're in a computer! Even if someone did notice us, there's no way the twerps would understand their technobabble!" James began looking around at the splendor of Cyberspace. "We're in here, he's out there! He's probably already heading to another town alrea... huh?"

        The other two turned to see what got James' attention. In the distance was a figure they knew well- the shape was identical to the Porygon they'd used to set up the halt commands. And upon it were three shapes that were hard to make out at this distance but bore very familiar colors- a bluish form topped with a spot of black and red, a tannish form with a spot of blue in the middle and orange on top, and a green-and-brown form with dark brown on top. There was also an especially familiar spot of yellow as well.

        "Agh! It's the twerps!" the trio shouted in unison. Jessie glared at James for a moment before reaching up and whacking him on the back of the head with one hand. "You just HAD to open your mouth, didn't you!?"

        "Oww!!" James clutched the sides of his head. "How was I supposed to know?"

        "Dat don't matta now!" Meowth shouted. "Dey're comin' dis way!"

        Dat don't matta now! Dey're comin' dis way!

        "Wha? You hear that?" Misty asked. The voice had been distant and faint enough that it was hard to tell if it had been real or just imagined, and it was hard to tell where it came from in Cyberspace's weird acoustics, but it certainly sounded like Meowth.

        Brock nodded from the back position on Beta's back. "Definitely Meowth. Ash, you see anyone ahead?"

        "I don't see anything but weird colored lines! Lines, lines, lines!" Ash groaned from the front. "This is getting dull..."

        "Pika pi!" Pikachu shouted, jumping from Ash's shoulder to the top or Porygon's head, and pointing one paw forward, a bit to the left, and downward. The other trainers followed the pointing and saw, sitting on one of the lines, a distant blurred mass of red and white specks. And not far from that, two white blurs, one topped with a blue spot and the other topped with a red one.

        "Team Rocket!" they shouted in unison.

        "Beta, let's go get 'em!" Ash shouted. The Porygon obediently sped up, aiming itself at the trio of Rocket agents. The three trainers plus Pikachu held on tight, and in spite of their mount's angular surface, they managed not to fall off as Beta made turned up the speed to the level of a charging Rapidash.

        But as Beta neared the target, and the Rocket trio became visible, so too did a bright flash as their Pokémon were released. As it neared the road the Rockets were on, Beta found itself blinded by Weezing's Smog attack, and veered drastically to the left after receiving a face full of Arbok's Poison Sting. The trainers screamed as the Porygon made a crash landing, sending its riders rolling several feet down the digital road.

        "Great going Ash, charge blindly into the line of fire!" Misty yelled before trying to get back up. Ash opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off by a familiar set of laughs.

        "Looks like the roles are reversed! Usually we're the ones shot out of the air!" James commented with a grin.

        "Maybe we should give THEM the balloon and get an anti-aircraft tank instead!" Jessie added on.

        Meowth frowned at them. "Not with da ME-head balloon, you ain't! Let's jus' add dere Pokémon to da haul so dey can't get in our way anymore."

        "But of course!" James finished up. "We're not letting this opportunity pass us by!"

        Ash glared at them, at first angered at their intentions to yet again try to catch Pikachu. Fortunately, though, it was Brock who beat him to speaking. "There's no time for that! If we don't all get out of this computer, we're all going to be in a lot of trouble!"

        "Trouble?" Jessie raised en eyebrow.

        "Yes! There's no telling how long we've got, but we have to get out of here!"

        Jessie laughed out loud. "That's the oldest one in the book twerp! You can make excuses, but be prepared for trouble!"

        "You're just mad we hit first, so make it double!" James piped in.

        The trainers frowned momentarily. They knew that it was futile to even think about preventing the Rockets from doing their motto. But hey, at least it left an open opportunity for them to all get back on their feet.

        As usual, the composition of their movements when reciting the motto differed, but still followed the same basic formula. For the first two lines, the pair stood back to back, heads turned slightly towards their opponents. From the view of the trainers, Jessie was on the left, and James was on the right.

        "To protect the world from devastation!"

        "To unite all peoples within our nation!"

        For each of the next two lines, the speaker moved a step away from the partner and stood with feet spread apart. Each brought an arm across the chest in a salute style, Jessie bringing up her right arm and James his left.

        "To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

        "To extend our reach to the stars above!"

        "Jessie!" brought her feet together, then brought both arms across each other over her face, then suddenly pulled them downwards and to the sides, leaving her knuckles facing away from her and her palms to the ground. 

        "James!" mirrored the first two parts of the motion, then pulled back with a sudden jerk to bring his elbows to his sides, with arms bent forwards and his fists in an upward-curled position.

        The two resumed their back-to-back position, this time each raising one arm to point at the trainers, index finger pointed and thumb sticking up in the 'gun' position.

        "Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"

        "Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"

        "Meowth! Dat's right!" the cat Pokémon finished up, jumping up from behind them to land perfectly on the human Rockets' outstretched arms. And as was so often the case, the conclusion of the motto was once more the cue for the real fight to begin. The Rockets wasted no time breaking formation and issuing orders to their Pokémon.

        "Weezing! Smog attack!"

        The double-headed floating Pokémon obeyed, shooting thick streams of black smoke at the targets and engulfing them in it. The trainers soon found their vision blocked by a thick black half-darkness, and their nostrils filled with one of the most mind-numbing smells one could expect to smell in a lifetime. It was like a public restroom that had not been scrubbed in fifteen years, that had been visited by many smokers in that time and thus reeked of nicotine, and on top of that had not had any of its toilets flushed in over a week.

        Naturally, this sent the trainers into a coughing and hacking fit that effectively prevented them from trying to do what common sense would otherwise have them do, which would have been to release some more Pokémon to enter the fight.

        "Perfect!" Jessie yelled. *Now, Arbok, go in there and take the Pokéballs off their belts!"

        "Chaaarbokk!" the snake cried out in affirmation. It coiled up and made a leap forward, aiming at Ash's waist to tear his belt off with its mouth.

        It never got there, though. Before it had even entered the cloud of Weezing's smog, a blue and pink blur filled Arbok's vision and before it could react, the snake slammed nose-first into the side of the still-large Porygon Beta. The snake immediately lost consciousness and fell to the ground as if it had slammed into a brick wall.

        "W-wha!?" Jessie stuttered. "Hey! Didn't anyone teach you to watch where you're going?" She recalled Arbok into its Pokéball. "James, do something!"

        "Right!" James nodded. "Weezing! Cover that thing in Sludge!"

        "Wheeze!" the Pokémon let out in affirmation, before spewing forth a jet of toxic, sticky goo. The sludge was aimed perfectly, although it could be argued that it didn't need to be for such a large target as the giant Porygon. Just as the sludge was about to hit, though, the Porygon flashed white for a split second.

        When the glow died down, the polygonal duck had turned purple and numerous crater-like protrusions were now extended from its surface. The basic shape was still that of a Porygon, but the skin had become an imitation of Weezing's! The Sludge attack hit home all the same, but the Porygon's skin merely absorbed the sticky substance.

        "Poriii!" the Pokémon shouted in triumph, and moved away from the Rockets a bit before activating what appeared to be a Smog attack in reverse- rather than expelling the smelly gas, the Porygon was sucking in the gasses that Wheezing had expelled earlier. Once the smoke surrounding Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu was gone, Beta turned back towards the Rockets, whose expressions had changed from anger to amazement. The had never guessed that a Porygon possessed an ability like that- the ability to change its physical properties to match those of an opponent. An ability like that would make it resistant to the very things its opponents were best at dishing out, making it a formidable foe...

        ... and naturally, how could they be angry to learn of such a power, when it meant learning that they had it at their command as well?

        "Ack... ugh... Pikachu, give 'em a thunderbolt!" Ash choked out as soon as he had enough fresh air to speak again. But the only response he got was the sound of more coughing from his short yellow companion. Ash looked down to see that unlike the humans present, Pikachu's coughing fit had not subsided in the least. "W-what's the matter? Pikachu?" Ash rushed over and knelt down beside the yellow mouse.

        Misty looked over and realized what must be the problem. "It's Pikachu's sore throat from before! The Smog attack made it worse!"

        "WHA?!" Ash looked at her wide-eyed. "That's right! I forgot all about it! Pikachu can't fight them in this condition..."

        Brock smiled. "He may not need to. With Arbok out cold, all they've got left is Wheezing and Meowth!"

        Ash blinked. Brock was right- between his remaining five Pokémon, plus Misty and Brock's Pokémon, and also Porygon Beta, Team Rocket was greatly overpowered.

        But Jessie's sudden laughter caught them off guard. "ALL we've got, twerp?" She reached behind her and unclipped something from her skirt. "We've got a new partner these days..." Bringing her hand back out from behind her, she revealed another Pokéball. "Meet OUR Porygon! Go, Alpha!"

        Jessie threw the Pokéball into the air, releasing the first Porygon created into the air.

        "Alpha! Let's see how you fare in a Pokémon battle!" Jessie shouted. She'd have to be careful in how she phrased her commands, she remembered: Meowth had explained how Alpha could recognize others' species but not tell individuals apart by sight, and she had to maintain the illusion that she was Professor Sinclare. Stating words Sinclare wouldn't use, like 'twerp', would give her away. "Beta will spar with you! Give it all you got!"

        "Porriiii!" Alpha cried out, not thinking to question the order at all. Beta looked surprised at his 'brother's' eagerness, but only for a moment. Beta knew Alpha well- the elder Porygon was like any nonliving computer program, more emphasis on performing a given task than on any amount of thought. And like any other non-living program in proper working order, user commands were law to Alpha, and nothing Beta could say would persuade him otherwise.

        Alpha shot forwards like a bullet, just as Beta expected. The younger of the Porygon brothers simply dodged, spinning around and beginning to glow again. When the glow faded, the Wheezing texture had disappeared, and Beta's beak had become long and slim. Where it previously ended in a squarish 7-sided polygon, it now ended in a dangerously sharp point. And while it was less noticeable, the rest of Beta's shape had shifted ever-so-slightly, into a longer and slimmer position, better for moving at high speeds.

        In this slightly faster 'sword-duck' form, Beta made a charge of his own, faster than Alpha's. Alpha spun around, and seeing the sharp pointy beak now headed for him, quickly did a much more drastic form of shape-shifting. His shift was into a polygonal but still somewhat rounded imitation of of a warrior's shield, colored in the Porygon pink and blue and decorated with a pair of pentagon-shaped eyes on the front. Alpha's shield form turned slightly on impact, but the rounded shape withstood the impact, leaving Beta simply zooming past after being deflected.

        Ash, Misty, Brock, Pikachu, Jessie, James, and Meowth stared in amazement as the two Porygons duked it out, taking on various strange weapon forms to attack each other. Beta taking an axe form to counter the shield, Alpha denting the axe blade with a hammer form, Beta tossing the hammer form away with the form of a trident, and so on. It was a strange display of simplistic 3D models of assorted ancient weaponry, yet the sparks that were flying from it were very much real.

        "Awesome..." Ash said quietly to himself...

        "DON'T JUST STAND THERE!!"

        Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu all leapt up in startlement as a voice suddenly popped up behind them. Whirling around, they half-expected to see Professor Sinclare's floating holo-head again.

        They were close, but not quite correct- instead, there was a screen similar to a television screen, but flat instead of boxy- like the screen on a laptop computer. How it was floating wasn't immediately obvious, but that didn't take long to figure out- the screen's surface and edges had the same unnatural smoothness and cleanliness found on the Porygon's body and the digital 'highway' the group was standing on. This was a computer program, not a real physical device. The displayed image, on the other hand, was of something very real indeed- the real Professor Sinclare in his laboratory, looking mildly annoyed and a bit nervous.

        "Get the barriers out of the way! The sooner we get rid of the barrier, the less likely the Pokémon Center will fix this mess THEIR way!"

        The trainers gulped. The Vaccine program- they didn't want anyone installing that while they were still in Cyberspace!

        "Hurry up and get to it!"

        The trainers nodded hurriedly, and ran towards the barriers that represented the halt commands. Ash started pulling on the right side of one, and Brock and Misty pushing on the left.

        "Agh! This things heavier than it looks..." Ash muttered. Nevertheless, the barrier did move. It took about ten seconds for them to move it out of the way, but once they had, the Pokéballs behind it started moving. At first it was just a slight rattle, but Misty and Brock noticed and got out of the way in time to avoid being hit once one of the Pokéballs shot out of the pile.

        Meanwhile, Team Rocket continued watching the battle in amazement, unaware of their adversaries' actions at the moment. There was no way they were turning their eyes from this event, not when it currently looked like their Porygon was the one winning.

        "Wow... look at 'em go!" Meowth spoke. "Now dat's quite a show!"

        "Yeah..." James smiled. "Even better than the Pokémon League Regionals... ow!" he suddenly yelped as a hard impact whacked the right side of the back of his head. Whirling around at his red-headed companion, James' face suddenly turned to annoyance. "What was that for?"

        Jessie blinked, and looked at him like he'd just sprouted plastic Houndoom horns. "What are you babbling about?"

        "What am I babbling about? You hit me, Jess!"

        Jessie frowned. "What? You're imagining things, James..."

        "No way! My imagination's not strong enough to leave a lump on my head... yaaagh!" He jumped in surprise, bringing his right leg up and grabbing the lower half of it with both hands. After the initial sharpness of the pain died down, he let his leg back down to the ground, and glared angrily at the feline member of the team. "Meowth! Not you too!"

        "Wha?" Meowth blinked, looking up at the blue-haired human. "Youse sure you're okay, Jimmy?"

        "Of course I'm not okay! I'm ticked at being kicked... oof!"

        This time the impact to hit James was right to the stomach, and this time Jessie and Meowth could see the red-white sphere responsible. The Pokéball bounced off, away from James' stomach, before moving to the side and zooming off into the distance like a bullet.

        James grunted as he stumbled out of the way of any further Pokéballs, and his companions quickly stepped over to help him stay balanced. Once James' equilibrium was back to normal, though, all three looked over to where the offending spheres were coming from, and a look of horror spread on their faces.

        "Ack! Da twoips are lettin our haul get away!"

        More and more Pokéballs started flying through the gap, faster and faster. It began to look as if they were being fired out of the gap with a machine gun- almost a solid stream of Pokéballs. As they got faster a faint white energy trail could be seen behind each one, a residue of the program that kept them shut as they flew to their destination. Fortunately for Ash and company, this stream of energy trails formed a wall of fire between them and Team Rocket- it seemed that any attempts the Rockets made to cross would result in a painful pummelling.

***~~***~~***~~***~~***

        Back in the real world, the Pokémon Center had been rendered off limits to anyone who wasn't there to see to a medical emergency for his Pokémon. They couldn't afford to get MORE Pokémon trapped in Cyberspace, after all.

         With that out of the way, things began to calm down. A technician was called in to straighten out the problem, and Nurse Joy could do little to help aside from speaking with her relative from League Central on the phone at the front desk, while waiting for something to happen. It was only a few minutes after when the Joy at Central noticed some whirring noises finally cranking up at the Pokéball Teleporter behind her.

        "Hm?" She looked behind her. "Well, that was quick!"

        "What? The Pokémon transfers are moving through the system again already?" Nurse Joy said in surprise after hearing on the vid-phone.

        The identical-looking nurse on the other end nodded. "Yeah. But it's at a slower than normal pace. And there's a nasty backlog waiting to be received. But still, they are coming along now."

        Joy smiled. "Well that's certainly an improvement!" She turned and looked to the direction of the teleporter room. "Fantastic work! That sure was quick!"

        "Huh?" came the voice from the room. In a second the computer tech looked out. "But I haven't done anything yet. The Vaccine is still installing to the hard drive, it'll be another ten minutes before it's ready to put to work!"

        Joy blinked. "What? That's odd... .. ." she turned back to the phone. "He says he hasn't finished putting the program in yet, so he hasn't done a thing for the problem yet!"

        The Joy at League Central blinked. "That's strange... it would explain why things still aren't completely normal though. Better let him finish installing that Vaccine, then. It certainly can't hurt!"

        "Yeah." Joy smiled. "I'll give Professor Sinclare a call and tell him the news! At last, all our problems are almost solved... .. ."

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