As the first shafts of morning light snaked their way between the tightly interlocked leaves of Pyra Forest, Caley slowly opened his eyes and blinked warily. Something seemed a little odd about his current situation. He recalled settling down in his nice, warm sleeping bag for the night under a protective clump of foliage with Kota curled next to him. Only the warmth he was previously enjoying had vanished, only to be replaced with the damp discomfort of the forest's moist grassy carpet. Sitting up, Caley's mouth dropped open as he took in the sight of Kota chasing after the trainer's sleeping bag, which was now running about the forest clearing.
"Maybe that modified Togetic's attack had more of an effect on me than I thought..." Caley murmured, rubbing his face. At this point, Kota finally caught up with the sleeping bag and grasped hold of the tip, yanking it upward to reveal a medium-sized, shiny cat-like creature with a whiskered face and long yellow-tipped antenna hiding underneath.
"Is that a pokémon?" Caley blinked, subconsciously reaching for the Urudex which he had left beside his satchel. But the article had vanished. Leaping to his feet, the trainer uttered a cry of alarm as he noticed the Urudex lying by the metallic creature's feet.
"My glasses!"
The creature looked down in surprise, having not realised it had dropped the Urudex it had taken in the first place. Tossing the sleeping bag aside, Kota dived for the article only to be intercepted by the creature which playfully shoved the Psybab aside, snatched the Urudex up with its tail and skittered into a tree, giggling.
"Why does everyone think it fun to nick my stuff around here?" Caley snapped, somewhat exasperated. "Is having my belongings left alone too much to ask for?"
Kota muttered at the unexpected change of direction and levitated behind his target, ready for ambush. This time the body slam made contact, with both the attacker and the attackee yelping in alarm as the latter received the brunt of a forceful shove from the branch and the former was enveloped in a shower of sparks. Caley's Urudex clattered to the forest floor, where the trainer quickly snatched the item up and put it on before glancing at the feline shape struggling in the bushes nearby.
Tisker, the screen read, before the display was overcome with static.
Kota teleported into the grass as a thunderbolt was released from Tisker across the forest floor and into a tree, leaving a deep brown hole. Before Caley could register what was wrong with his pokedex, the pokémon had turned on him also, unleashing another blast of electricity which seared the sleeping bag the young man had rescued cleanly in half.
With its attention diverted toward the trainer, Tisker was not prepared for another assault from his companion. Kota barrelled into the electric feline once again, resulting in a rather loud clang. Caley knew it was time to act, lest Kota fall victim to the electric backlash he was receiving from attacking the Tisker directly. As the creature struggled to lever itself from the floor, the trainer took one of the empty Pokéballs that Professor Amber had given him and threw it with pinpoint precision. It made contact, but instead of causing Tisker to disappear in the burst of red light that followed, the opened spherical object simply fell to the grass, completely empty.
Caley stood
there for a moment, overcome with confusion. He'd been expecting the pokémon to
at least enter the Pokéball he threw, even if it wasn't intending to stay in
there. Nevertheless, Tisker had stopped firing electricity and was now sitting
in an oddly obedient manner, staring between the trees behind Caley. While it
did
so,
a figure stepped out of the shadows - it seemed they had been watching the entire
time.
“That was impressive, bringing Li to her knees like that,”
“Huh?" Caley stood up, looking noticeably annoyed. "This is your pokémon?"
"Pretty much," came the reply. The young figure didn't seem all that concerned about Caley's rising frustration.
"So you were responsible for what's happened to me this morning!” Caley snapped. "Haven't you even bothered to teach that Tisker some manners?"
"Manners don't mean anything when potential opponents need testing," the boy remarked, brushing back a lock of his spiky yellowish hair while Li approached and rubbed up against his legs. "And you passed. Seems you've got what it takes to go up against me."
"And who are you?" Caley inquired, folding his arms. He could see why Li didn't have any manners - it would prove hard to learn etiquette from a trainer that had none.
“I am Dai, the Pyra City Gym leader," came the reply. "And I challenge you to a one on one pokémon match.”
"If you are the Pyra City Gym leader..." Caley began doubtfully. "Shouldn't you be inside your gym waiting for trainers to come challenge you?"
“Psy ba ba!”
"Well, yeah... but... y'see I..." he stammered, perspiration beginning to form upon his brow. Caley continued to stand there with a rather unconvinced expression upon his face. Needless to say, after his previous lopsided challenge his trust had become more than a little dented. Dai began to whimper at the unwavering scepticism.
"I am a Pyra City Gym leader! I am!" he yelled, his previously cool visage rapidly deteriorating. "Why doesn't anyone get it? I'm never gonna prove myself to Finlay at this rate!"
“Huh?” Caley blinked and glanced down at Dai who was desperately trying not to
let his feelings show. It wasn’t working.
“My brother...he doesn’t believe me at all," the boy sniffed. “I try my best to show him I'm ready to take on the responsibility alone as gym leader, but he just doesn't believe me.” Dai glanced up at Caley, a hopeful expression in his eyes. "See if you battled me, and then told Finlay how cool an opponent I was, then he'd let me be gym leader by myself!"
Caley said nothing. He could see by Dai's somewhat irrational logic and his overreactions as to why his brother wouldn't consider him gym leader material just yet. Being a skilled battler wasn't the only aspect to leadership, but he felt it was best left to Finlay to explain such things. One, because Dai would be more likely to listen to his brother than some stranger, and two, because he didn't fancy another reprisal of Dai's emotional outbursts.
“I'd be happy to battle you and all," he said. "But at the moment I've got some really important business to attend to - I need to find the hospital.”
Dai
pouted, but tried his best to look unfazed.
“Ok,
I guess," he sighed.
"Well, in that case I’ll show you the way. I need to take Li to the Pokémon
Centre near there either way - your Psybab sure put up a fight!”
As
Caley, Dai and Kota left the leafy depths of Pyra Forest and wandered into
the light, bustling cleanliness of the city, Caley felt his muscles tense. This
was the first time he had entered somewhere so vast and urban and that in itself
was nerve-wracking enough. But there was something else too - an air of cautiousness and anticipation
that hung over the
people going about their business. The atmosphere was so unsettling, Caley
decided to return
Kota to his
Pokéball just to make sure he didn't lose him. Dai pulled on his arm.
"Hurry up!" he exclaimed "I need to heal Li! I can't take her back to the lab looking like a mess!"
"Lab?" Caley responded, before he caught sight of the somewhat guilty expression upon the young boy's face. "Wait a minute...Li isn't your pokémon, is she?"
"Kinda?" Dai grinned sheepishly, putting his arms behind his back. Caley raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. "Okay, so she's more dad's than mine...but he always said she was the family pet!"
"Unusual pet..." Caley murmured, scratching his chin. "Then again, I guess you'd expect something out of the ordinary for the son of a scientist. What kind of things does your dad do in that lab anyway?"
"Research into what Pyra is famous for, naturally!" Dai began to beam - it was obvious he was very proud of his father's work. "Energy, and how best to generate it. See, there's lots of different kinds of energy in the world, and lots of different ways to get them. But not all ways are good, and not all energy is useful. It's the job of my dad and the other science guys at the lab to discover what's of benefit, and keep secret what's dangerous."
"Dangerous energy?" the trainer struggled to get his head around this. "I'm guessing you're not talking about things like lasers here."
"Nuh uh," Dai shook his head. "There are far worse things than those. I've heard that stored somewhere in that lab is information on types of energy that are able to alter living matter."
"Like mutation?" Caley's eyes widened, as his shorter companion nodded slowly. "No wonder that lab is a prime target for thieves."
"Not just any old thieves," Dai shuddered. "These guys know what they're looking for, and they know how to get it, too. Just last month, a full access security card was nabbed from someone who works with my dad. My brother has been spending his time helping to guard the lab to make sure nothing really important gets out. He told me to stay home... probably thinks I'm too inexperienced to be of any help."
He looked like he was about to sulk again, but instead gathered his thoughts and composed himself once more.
"If only we had an idea of who that Brody guy was working for, then we might be able to pinpoint their whereabouts."
"Did you ever think it could have been Team Rocket all this time?" Caley mentioned in lowered tones. "Y'know, hiding behind the identity of a common thief?"
"Pff" Dai sniggered in amusement.
"Team Rocket? That
disorganised load of layabouts couldn't steal a shell off a Slobro's ba-"
There came an angry cough from behind. Caley and Dai looked round to see a female figure, dressed in a blue shirt and bootleg trousers while pushing a trolley bearing a cumbersome rectangular machine.
"Out looking for a fight again, are we, Dai?" she raised an eyebrow. Caley turned to Dai for some sort of explanation.
"Do you know her?" he asked.
"That's Nina, the Targology Lab's medical assistant," Dai told Caley, a little woozily. "I like what you've done with your hair." He pointed at the lock of magenta that dangled beside Nina's left ear. The young woman looked up in temporary shock before hurriedly tucking the hair away.
"Flattery will get you nowhere," she brushed off the comment. "Especially not with your dad when he finds out what you did to Tisker."
"Wha?" Dai spluttered, snapping out of his trance. "How did you know about that?"
"News travels, kid," Nina commented in somewhat sarcastic tones. "I'd been following you since back at Weavile Street."
At this point, Dai began to look deeply panicked. Caley bit his lip out of partial embarrassment as the young boy fell to his knees on the pavement and clasped the leg of Nina's trousers.
"Please don't tell dad!" he wailed. "He'll kill me if he knew I'd got so much as a scratch on Li! I mean, Li's a one of a kind model and-"
"Ssh," Nina bent down and coyly pressed a finger against Dai's lips, causing him to blush deeply and fall silent. "I'll go one better. See this machine here?"
"Uh huh," Dai nodded furiously. How could he not? It was the size of an office photocopier.
"It's a PPH, Portable Pokémon Healer to you and me," the woman continued. "I can fix up your Tisker good as new and your old dad will be none the wiser. Now how's that sound?"
"Brilliant!" Dai almost squealed, holding out the Ultra Ball containing the aforementioned pokémon. "Do it, do it!"
Caley looked thoughtful as Dai eagerly placed Li's Pokéball into the entry tray. Kota could use patching up too after his previous match with the metallic cat-type pokémon.
"Could you heal my Psybab too, while you're at it?" he asked politely. Nina pulled a face like Caley had just asked him to stick her head in the machine at the same time. Upon sight of the trainer's puzzled expression, she quickly swapped her distaste for a calmer, more composed look.
"I'm afraid you'll have to take that to the Pokémon Center, sweetie," she smiled in a rather sickly way. "This machine only works on steel or electric types."
At this point, the Healer device emitted a 'ping'. Reaching into the
machine, Nina fished out the Ultra Ball before handing it back to Dai.
"That was some odd woman," Caley blinked, while Dai gazed into the distance with dreamy eyes, clutching Li's Pokéball to his chest like it had been suddenly plated in gold.
"Odd or not, she's so very kind to me," he grinned.
***~~***~~***~~***~~***
Scuttling into a nearby darkened alleyway, Nina laughed deviously to herself before removing the disguise she had been wearing. Once the red wig, the makeup, the blue shirt and the trousers had been removed, there stood a woman with lengthy magenta hair, dressed in a black outfit with a bright red R on the front, rubbing her white gloved hands in self-satisfaction.
"Yep. Jessie, you still got it," she smirked, casting a glance at the machine on the trolley next to her. Grasping hold of the handle protruding from the device, Jessie pulled out the tray to reveal a familiar looking Ultra Ball which she held up to the light with a wide smile. "The old switcheroo, fools them every time."
She paused, as if half-expecting some words of praise and encouragement to appear from somewhere, but there were none. Jessie lowered her arm, a somewhat deflated expression on her face.
"Who am I kidding?" she sighed. "I haven't got it at all. Not while I haven't got them with me."
Suddenly, a sharp bleep was heard from somewhere upon Jessie's belt. She pulled out a PokeGear, one that appeared to have been specially designed for Team Rocket dealings, and pressed the button to connect the caller.
"Where have you got to now, Jessie?" came the snappy voice
at the other end, coupled with some strangled complaints.
"I'll have you know I picked up quite a rarity, Cassidie," Jessie snorted. "Snagged this Tisker from the younger brother of the Pyra City Gym Leader. What a dimwit, carrying around a business-engineered mecha pokémon like it was some Zigzagoon or something."
"See? What did I tell you?" Cassidy groaned. "You're living on the Planet Dope - the Boss doesn't care for insignificant things like that any more. How do you think that's going to help with Project Rebirth?"
"Actually, I was hoping it would help me get away from you and Croagunk butt," Jessie muttered under her breath.
"Oh don't you worry," the voice
responded darkly. "As soon as this is all
over, I'm heading straight back to the Boss to get him to return things to how
they were before."
From inside Pyra's Targology Laboratory, Butch rolled his eyes as Cassidy
switched off her communicator and grumbled loudly. Sure, Jessie had been a thorn in their side ever
since Giovanni had assigned her as part of their team, but it seemed better to
him to make use of the situation they'd been handed instead of brooding over it
the whole time. At this point, Cassidy decided to take out her
frustrations upon the group of prisoners currently huddled upon the tiled floor, bound together with rope
and being watched vividly by a towering, grey-green spiny beast.
"Now.."
she began icily.
"I'll never talk!" the middle-aged man sitting nearest the front of the group exclaimed.
"You might not," Cassidy shrugged, her eyes scanning the captives for a moment. "But your associates may well have second thoughts." She beckoned Noxitar. "Bring me the timid-looking one there, and make it quick!"
The other scientists and the two teenage figures uttered a unified gasp of horror as the menacing rock-skinned Pokémon reached forward with one clawed hand and plucked the requested figure from the back of the group. He was undoubtedly the tallest member of the laboratory workers, but none the braver for his size, having broken down into terrified gibbering as soon as he had been taken into Noxitar's grasp.
"Cut the pathetic act and spill the info, "Cassidy snarled dangerously. "I'm not afraid to break a few bones to get what I want."
"It's down the hall, down the haaaaall!" the man wailed. "F-fifth door on the left, avoid the p-processing room, just under the gr-grate near the storage vault!"
Cassidy nodded to Noxitar who roughly threw the scientist back amongst his accomplices where he lay there shaking.
"I'm s-so sorry, Mr. Thomas, sir" he whimpered, while those around him exchanged disapproving glances. But the man who had spoken up so boldly before, did not join them.
"It's alright, Reece. I'm sure we'd have all done what you did if put in such a position."
"You won't get away with this!" Nina exclaimed, leaning forward. "The WaveOne is protected by a reinforced, security code-protected container! You'll never get in without a-"
"Full access security card?" Cassidy waved the aforementioned item in the faces of her audience. "Weren't expecting that one, were ya?" She handed the card to Butch, who looked expectant. "Well? What are you waiting for? Go unwire that generator!"
"What are you going to do with it?" one of the other scientists asked worriedly.
"That's for our boss to know, and you to find out," Cassidy smirked, swivelling the heel of her boot on the tiles so its resulting screeching sound caused the captives to cringe.
"The hard way."
***~~***~~***~~***~~***
Human medical treatment centres were naturally harder to find than their Pokémon counterparts, and Pyra City's hospital was no exception. After a good half hour of searching, Caley finally approached the front double doors of an unexpectedly small building tucked away amongst the more everyday shops along the main street. Dai tagged along behind, mostly out of curiosity - he'd never visited a human hospital before, at least not since he'd come out of one, but he'd been far too young to have remembered such an occurrence.
"Kooky place," were his first words as the two boys stepped into the building. At first glance it looked rather like a Pokémon Centre in structure, with its cleanly-polished floor and almost uniform decoration and furniture arrangement. But as Caley and Dai wandered down the corridor to the reception area, they noticed something that made this human hospital far different from a Pokémon one. An innate lack of life.
Though this was to be expected, for the most part. Thanks to the endurance and immune system-enhancing properties of Pokerol, a substance obtained only by consuming Pokémon meat products, most people didn't need medical treatment all that often, if at all. Caley nodded in response to Dai's comment - he had to admit that the lack of people did make the atmosphere decidedly creepy. Even the reception desk was devoid of any secretary, though considering there was a high ridge around it that shielded prying eyes from important documents said secretary may access, it was somewhat hard to tell.
As the trainer leaned forward across the desk's ridge in one swift movement, his nose ended up burying itself into a shock of messy brown hair. It appeared the man it belonged to had been taking a nap upon the desk itself until this moment - Caley reeled back in alarm as this figure flung himself upright, the top of his head colliding with the trainer's chin in the process.
"Sheesh, kid," the man muttered in a disgruntled fashion. "Talk about an unorthodox wake-up call..." He then realised Caley was wincing and rubbing at his face as a result of the previous impact. It was like showing an Combee hive to a hungry Teddiursa - the figure's eyes widened dramatically before he thrust his hands forward and grasped both sides of Caley's head. "An emergency, at last!"
"Who are you?" Caley blurted in muffled tones from amongst the grip. The man let go and rapidly put a finger to his lips in response.
"Try not to move your jaw too much for the moment, son," he said in the most reassuring manner possible, trying to suppress the obvious yet odd hint of excitement to his voice. "We need to keep it in place so it can be set properly."
"But my jaw is fine!" Caley protested, opening and closing his mouth just to prove his point. "Just a little sore from where you whacked it, is all. Is there a doctor here that I can talk to?"
"I am the doctor!" came the offended response, before the figure hurriedly calmed himself down. Such an invigorated attitude was hardly becoming of a man in the medical profession. "Dr. Raki Proctor, to be precise. What is the nature of your emergency? Broken leg? Pierced lung? Excruciating intestinal problems?"
"Uh, not quite," Caley blinked, feeling somewhat put off by the level of enthusiasm over such disgusting ailments while Dai descended into immature snickering over the lattermost of them. "I was exposed to a large amount of energy yesterday and though some people at Trancia Port saved me from the worst of it, they felt I'd better come here to make sure no harm was done."
"Oh. I see," the doctor looked noticeably disappointed upon hearing this. "And I guess this place was your last resort, with the Energy Lab on high security alert and all. I guess I could see what I can do." He slumped off towards the doors leading to the examination room. "Pity you weren't an emergency..."
"I'm sorry?" Caley pulled a face as he followed Raki through the doors. "I don't quite get how that makes a difference."
"To my treatment record, it makes a lot of difference," Raki sighed, motioning for the trainer to sit on the examination platform. "See, you might look at me and think 'Now there's a professional'. Sure, I got my doctorate, but only by the skin of my teeth. One slip up, and the medical society was straight back on my case. If I can't show them how competent I am, I'm going to get struck off the register pretty quick."
At this point the man paused before reaching up to pull down a pen-like object on an adjustable arm which was installed beside the examination platform. Noting the unsettled expression upon Caley's face, Raki reassured him, "It's okay, this won't hurt. The Aura Scanner is simply going to read your internal energy levels and check to see what's what."
"Pity we can't help you out there," Dai chipped in as a thin blue line was passed up and down Caley's body. "But I'm sure not intending to start hurting people just so you can get recognized as a good (if somewhat nutty) doctor."
"Hey that's okay, kid," Raki smiled faintly. "It's not something that can be helped."
The machine bleeped, calling attention to the readings and various graphs it was now scrolling onto its screen. Raki flicked through them momentarily, before raising an eyebrow.
"Just where did you receive this energy from, exactly?" he inquired in ponderous tones.
"A Pokémon," Caley replied, deliberately skipping around the subject of just exactly what kind of Pokémon it was. "It got a bit...uh...rowdy and I was forced to defend my own Pokémon from it."
"That's real selfless of you, sonny," Raki smiled again, more genuinely this time, despite keeping his eyes fixed on the monitor. "Ghost type attack, was it?"
"I...I think so," the trainer shuffled uncomfortably with thoughts of the unknown. He just wished the doctor would hurry up and get to the point of all these questions. Raki glanced up to see Caley's face and began to chuckle.
"Don't look so worried," he said. "I was simply surprised at your aura level average being slightly higher than most people's I've seen. Anyway, whoever fixed you up did a good job. I can only see traces of the ghost type energy in your aura channels, and those will dissipate in time. You're alright, kid. Good thing, too. We may have the diagnostic equipment, but there isn't much around here to treat aura contamination."
"So there is more than you in here then?" Dai asked, while Caley visibly deflated in his personal relief.
"There's a couple of others," Raki nodded. "They treasure their jobs very greatly - there's not much demand for workers in the human health sector, as you can imagine."
"Yeah, but that's a good thing, right?" Caley spoke up. "I mean, what with people not being sick or hurt bad enough to have to make an emergency visit..."
"I suppose," Raki currently wore an expression which conveyed his torn state between concern for humanity and concern for his position of employment. "But I sure don't want to go back to studying boring old fossils like my kid brother."
***~~***~~***~~***~~***
"That guy must really love what he does," Dai remarked, shortly after leaving the hospital. "It's a pity we can't help him out in some way."
"I guess that's something you have to come to expect in a job like that," Caley agreed. "The uncertainty of it all."
"Speaking of uncertainty, did you pick up what I heard the doctor say?" Dai pointed out. "About your aura levels being higher than normal? Higher aura is what gives Pokémon their 'edge', y'know."
"He said 'slightly higher', Dai," Caley reminded his companion. "I can't see how that'll make a difference to anything." The trainer found he was saying this more to convince himself than Dai - the more imaginative part of Caley's mind had already started to race down the path of possibilities. Maybe his heightened aura was the reason Kota reacted so oddly toward him the day before.
Caley's train of thought was rapidly halted as his eyes suddenly took upon the new, far larger building before him. This one bore a roof covered in solar panels and stood majestically above most of the others - surrounded by a large expanse of grassland dotted with small pylon-like structures.
"Well here we are," Dai announced, strolling up the path toward the main doors with Caley in excited pursuit. "Pyra Gym and Energy Lab."
The trainer wasted no time in pressing the bell beside the door but, even after a few minutes of waiting, there was no reply. Caley turned to Dai with a puzzled expression.
"Hey I did say Finlay was busy guarding the lab for dad," Dai shrugged. "So I doubt he'll have time to battle you for a badge right now. But even that won't change his mind about allowing me to take on gym challengers. It's not fair...he doesn't believe my battle skills are as good as his!"
"Finlay's just worried about you getting hurt, that's all," Caley explained. "Older siblings tend to get overprotective from time to time. It's just their way of showing that they care. I should know, I have a younger sister myself."
"Really?" Dai brightened somewhat at hearing this. "Does she have any Pokémon?"
"Not yet," Caley smiled, reaching up and pressing the bell beside the Pyra Gym doors. "But Ashley is very good at caring for my parents' Pokémon, and she's often told me just how much she'd like a Slowpoke."
"A Slowpoke?" Dai pulled a face. "But that Pokemon's kinda...goofy."
"Ah, but you should never judge the potential of a Pokémon by their looks," Caley winked. "Just like people."
"Fine, I get your point," Dai couldn't help but smirk.
"Let's go check round the lab entrance - everyone's probably still in there."
***~~***~~***~~***~~***
The sound of the gym's doorbell had alerted Cassidy's attention and she had promptly left the scene to investigate. With her out of earshot and only Noxitar's steely glare to worry about, the captive scientists began to mutter unsteadily among themselves. Nina cast Finlay a desperately hopeful glance - the young man appeared to have been in deep thought for some time.
"So Fin'," she began slowly and in lowered tones, so Noxitar wouldn't hear. "Got any ideas as to how we're gonna...you know..."
Finlay glanced up at this point. There was a mischievous twinkle in his green eyes.
"That headband of yours," he commented cryptically. "It was a present from Dean, our cybernetics specialist, wasn't it?"
"Yeah..." Nina raised an eyebrow." I swear that guy has a crush on me or somethi- ohhhhh..." It was at this point, she caught on to the implications of Finlay's seemingly random statement. Grinning, Nina glanced up at her forehead. "C'mon out, Dynamo."
The other scientists and Noxitar flinched in surprise as the top of Nina's head appeared to erupt in a blast of white light. From the bauble set in the teenage girl's headband, a floating red creature with two spiky blue 'fins' protruding from either side of its body emerged.
"Is that the same Rotom you got out of our systems the other day?" Reece blinked.
"One and the same," Nina wiggled her eyebrows before glaring purposefully at Noxitar who was now advancing upon the tiny creature. "Now, you know what to do, Dynamo...
Confuse Ray!"
***~~***~~***~~***~~***
"Well well..." Cassidy smirked to herself as she looked down at the two younger figures that were frozen helplessly before her. "What have we here?"
Caley and Dai had no sooner stepped through the laboratory doors than the Team Rocket Elite operative had set upon them with her Pokemon's psychic abilities. They could still see it now, an Espeon-type creature with a Y-shaped tail and mottled skin that wrinkled up in disturbing folds around its ankles and the base of its neck. Dai would have gulped if he had been able to, but the mutated Espeon's telekinesis had frozen every bone and muscle in his body, leaving him unable to do nothing but stare wildly as Cassidy's violet eyes bore into his own frightened gaze.
"Judging by your attire, you must be related to the other kid I've got tied up in the back with his science friends," she remarked. "How quaint. Let's have a little family reunion, shall we?" The woman motioned to her Pokémon. "Bring them this way, Persep."
Upon this order, two boys felt themselves turned slowly around by forces unseen and moved backwards, further down the corridor. Caley felt his mind beginning to flood with questions - the sight of another Team Rocket member so soon after his horrific encounter with the first only served to pull a whole ball of anxiousness into the pit of his stomach. Where were Team Rocket acquiring these familiar yet undeniably deadly Pokémon from? And more worryingly, how could Dai and himself possibly escape the unforgiving psychic grasp of the one belonging to this particular agent?
A loud crash resounded from deeper in the laboratory, causing Cassidy to break into a run with Persep and its captives close behind. Upon reaching the lobby where Finlay and the others were being kept captive, the elite's jaw dropped open as she caught sight of Noxitar swatting angrily at the tiny red and blue form of the Rotom which was trying to avoid being hit.
"What is that Pokémon doing loose?" Cassidy screeched, like Noxitar would be able to answer her. "I specifically ordered that Jessie take all the Pokéballs from those science dweebs and that Gym Leader before we began work! Honestly, I can't trust that girl with anything."
"Who said this one was in a Pokéball?" Nina piped up smartly, noting Finlay's infuriated expression upon seeing his brother captured. "Dynamo! Change of target!"
Persep uttered a gutteral cry of alarm as the globulous creature flew straight at it, discharging the electrical energy within its body in one massive burst. Cassidy staggered back as she ended up receiving part of the blow, while her Pokémon shook its head, struggling to keep a mental focus on its charges-in-stasis. The attempt partly failed - Dai felt himself hit the floor, having been freed from the telekinetic hold.
"I'm coming, Finlay!" he yelled, dashing full pelt across the room, Pokéball in hand. With Dynamo having caused Persep and Cassidy momentary disorientation with continued bursts of dark energy, it seemed there was little to stop Dai from rescuing his brother, father, Nina and the other scientists. His chance to prove himself had finally come.
Or so he thought. Every captive member cried out, their faces turning deathly pale as Noxitar's huge armour-plated fist thrust itself into the side of Dai's diminutive body with a sickening crunch, throwing the stricken boy into one of the large computer terminals that was placed around the edges of the room. It was like being caught in a nightmare - Caley could do nothing but watch in horror as these events unfolded before him, trapped amongst a flickering blue glow without any way of breaking free.
The Pokéball in Dai's hand rolled across the floor, unopened. Noxitar approached it, raising its foot in a move to crush the metallic object in one heavy step. But instead of carrying out this motive, the creature paused, its brow deeply furrowed as if contemplating something. At last it decided to step back, leaving the Pokéball untouched. Instead, Noxitar turned its steely glower toward the troublesome Rotom, releasing a fearsome roar and in the process, a plume of flame at the small red target. Dynamo vanished with a cry of alarm, knowing with both the mutant Pokemon's attentions fixed upon it, it was terribly outmatched.
"Finally!" Cassidy snapped, as Butch staggered through the side doors with a cumbersome piece of machinery upon a wheeled platform. "Took you long enough to detach that thing."
"Sheesh, Cass," Butch muttered with noticeable exhaustion. "It's not like unclipping a Poketch from yer wrist, y'know. These generators need care otherwise it throws their timing right out-"
"I don't need an essay on it," Cassidy responded rudely, "Just get the machine into the truck so we can hightail it out of here! We've made our presence more felt than I would have liked."
"I'll get right on it," Butch nodded, in a tone that was hard to tell whether he was being agreeable or sarcastic. "Maybe if I'm quick enough, we'll get away before Jessie comes back." The duo shared a momentary chuckle between themselves before striding off down the corridor with Persep and Noxitar accompanying them. A few minutes later, Caley landed flat on his back. He felt like he had been run into by the Goldenrod Magnet Train, not by what his body had just experienced, but by what his eyes had witnessed. Staggering to his feet, the trainer made his way as fast as his wobbly legs could carry him to Dai's side, where he carefully turned the boy over to check whether he was still breathing. Thankfully this was the case, though the trickle of blood from Dai's mouth was a definite indication that something was badly wrong.
"Hey you, young man!" Professor Thomas called worriedly, lost as to a better way to catch Caley's attention. "Please, release the Pokémon inside that ball on the ground so it can set us free!"
Caley quickly obliged, snatching the spherical object from the tiles and pushing the release button on its case. From the white light an orange, spiny Pokémon emerged, the expression upon its face reflecting the extreme anguish of Dai's own father. Without need for further instruction, the rodent-like creature leapt forward, sweeping its lengthy claws across the ropes binding Professor Thomas, Finlay, Nina and the other scientists. As they fell to the floor around them, Professor Thomas almost dived for his injured youngest son, gathering the boy up tightly in his arms.
"We must get to the hospital," he ordered sternly. "Now."
***~~***~~***~~***~~***
Upon arriving at the Pyra City Hospital, Dai was promptly rushed to the medical emergencies unit assisted by Dr. Proctor who had, upon seeing the boy's dire condition, had abandoned his seemingly heartless enthusiasm for true professional seriousness. With his brother in safe hands, Finlay was able to relax just a little, at least enough to sit down in the hospital waiting area alongside Caley while his father silently paced the hallway.
"I'm sorry you had to get dragged into all this," the gym leader sighed, fiddling with one of the points of his yellowish hair. "All you wanted was a gym badge."
"Maybe," Caley wasn't concerned about badges at this point in time. "But now I want to help."
"Thanks," Finlay offered a smile, though it wasn't that convincing. "There's not much you can really do, though. Nina's Rotom may have bought us some time if it was able to cause interference in the WaveOne generator, but if Team Rocket manage to get it back in full working order then a possibly unlimited amount of energy will be at their disposal."
"Do you have any idea where those henchmen went to?" Caley asked hurriedly.
"We'd managed to obtain information from the Guardsmen secret service of a Team Rocket Headquarters stationed some distance north of here," Finlay responded. "It's supposedly so well-hidden that none of the inhabitants in the area know a thing about it. The G-Men had also told us they had sent one of their best operatives to investigate and were awaiting feedback from him. That was some time ago, mind."
He paused, as more pressing thoughts returned.
"Man, I sure hope Dai will be okay. Though admittedly reckless, it was also real brave of him to do what he did to try and save us ..."
"Brave? Really?" a weak voice was heard from somewhere down the corridor. Finlay looked up with an overjoyed expression to see his younger brother emerging from the theatre upon a trolley bed wheeled by a shy-looking young nurse.
"Dai! You're okay!" he exclaimed happily, running toward the trolley and appearing as if he was about to give Dai a thankful hug. The gym leader withdrew upon seeing the bandages around his brother's narrow waist.
"Well, almost," Dai's grin at Finlay's compliment almost reached his ears. "The doctor said I've got a few broken ribs but its nothing a couple weeks of rest won't heal, so long as I don't move too much.
"That's going to be a challenge for you then, eh bro?" Finlay chuckled, ruffling the top of Dai's hair in a playful manner. Caley smiled warmly at the exchange, but deep within him there burned the desire to at least try and do something about this situation. Not only had the WaveOne generator been taken, but Finlay had later discovered Li had been stolen from Dai - her Pokéball swapped for a counterfeit which included nothing but a small sheet of paper displaying a taunting emoticon of some kind.
Things couldn't be simply left to chance. Finlay had mentioned of having not heard from the Guardsmen operatives in a while, and anything could have happened in that time! Maybe it was time someone anonymous went to investigate. Caley's smile resurfaced, this time with a more guileful hint - nowhere in the rulebook did it say that it couldn't be him. With a new intention set in his heart, Caley resolved at that moment he would get to the bottom of the situation and retrieve the Energy Lab's stolen goods and Pokemon. Only then, would he resume his journey.
"Well Dai," the trainer concluded. "It may not have been how you expected to, but you managed to help out Dr. Proctor after all."
Dai blinked as the implications of this statement sank in. From the reception office, Raki could be heard excitedly detailing the events of Dai's emergency medical treatments to his superiors via the hospital videophone. Finally, the boy gave way to a bout of somewhat irregular chuckling.
"Very funny, Caley," he smirked.
"Very funny."
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