Chapter 27

"Looking mighty skilled there with those knots. Any particular reason why? I mean you even had rope on hand." Flannery asks me as I tie up the unconscious criminals. 

"Well one day I was wondering how you would look dressed in only rope, so I bought some and was learning how to use it." I fire back distractedly. It takes me a moment to realize what I had just said, as I am focusing on making sure the bindings are tight, but as I do I am sure my face could light up the room with how red I am.

I try not to acknowledge my faux pas as I glance at Flannery. I begin to giggle as I see her mouth doing an impressive impression of a Magikarp. I notice that Bea is blushing as well and not looking at us, but her ears are bright red. "I was j-"

"All you need to do is ask." Flannery squeaks out. Unfortunately for her, my ears are particularly sensitive.

"Well, that is good to know…" I smile wryly as I finish tying up the last criminal. After tying them up, I realize that we need to bring them outside somehow and I furrow my brows. "Bea, you think your pokemon would be willing to haul these guys out with us? I would rather not have to spend time waiting for them to wake up."

"I will ask them. I don't think they will have a problem though."

"Great! Now, let's see what we can do about these lights." I say as I look around to find the light sources. Now that I have a chance, I see three different flood lights, similar to those that are used during night construction in my old world. I look over the closest one and I find that it could easily be collapsed down and then moved by hand. The body of it was just big enough that we could drape two bodies over each one. "Hey, what about tying them to the lights and wheeling them out all at once?"

Bea walks over and checks out the lights with me. "It looks like the light bars fold over the top, so maybe we can use it to hold them in place? Unless you have more rope?" She asks with a small smirk. 

I give her a small giggle before answering. "Nope, fresh out of rope." My response makes her giggle as well. Over the next ten minutes, we arrange the knocked out criminals on top of the floodlights and pin them to it with the post of the light itself. I end up cutting the rope into three sections to keep them tied up, just in case. Once the last light is off and the Rockets are situated, Bea's pokemon grab the front of the light machines and we start heading out of the area. With the three pokemon in front, the rest of us follow behind the lights to keep our prisoners knocked out. Our journey returns to boredom soon enough. The racket the Rockets previously made with their wonton capturing and herding of wild pokemon is causing all the wild pokemon to run off and hide.

We see the exit out of the mountain after a few more hours of walking. Surprisingly, the Rockets didn't have to go that far in to do their dirty deeds. I'm fairly certain most trainers would have ignored the issue or they might have missed the area they were working in. From the exit, I can smell the scent of a beach and feel a gentle breeze, a welcome change from the stillness of the caves. As we step out into the open sky, we are greeted by a beautiful western style sunset, painting the sky in reds, oranges and yellows. We take a moment to enjoy the sight that we have been deprived of since we went underground. It was only a few days but it felt longer than it should have. 

We are brought back to reality by the groans of our charges. I quickly go around and make sure they are not waking up soon. Once I make sure that they are still out, I take out my phone and look up the number of the Jenny office in Cerulean City. While I am looking up the number I notice that Flannery has her phone out as well and checking on something, maybe the forums for information about Team Rocket. I look back at my phone and then call the Jenny Office.

"Thank you for calling the Cerulean City Jenny Office, how may I assist you?" Asks a calm sounding female voice.

"Hello, I am Frost Oak and I would like to report a capture of five criminals from Team Rocket. They were trapping and catching large numbers of pokemon in Mount Moon with high powered lights."

"Alright, I will send out a couple of officers. Where are you currently?"

"We just left Mount Moon, only about ten meters away from the entrance. We were able to bring the lights out of the tunnels as well, so you might want to send something to pick them up."

"I will note that down. Someone should show up in the next thirty minutes."

"All right, we will be waiting." I reply as I hang up. I look over at Bea and Flannery just to see them look at me as well. "An officer should show up in about 30 minutes."

"I see," Flannery says with a nod. "I should apologize about my reservations on attacking them. I found the posts about them in the forums. I have read how they will steal rare pokemon on trainers, attack different places that don't have anything in common, and how they catch large swaths of pokemon for no clear reason. They sound like the worst kind of people." I just wave off her apology as there was no harm done. While we wait, I decide to check the notifications that I am ignoring while we are underground. The notification is much like the check engine light in a car, you notice it but can ignore it if you want.

[Congratulations Host, you have caught a pokemon. You receive one free gacha spin.]

Congratulations Host, you have stopped a criminal activity. You receive one free gacha spin.]

I got two new spins, I guess I can use them after we reach a Pokecenter. Fifteen minutes later, we can hear the sound of a motorcycle getting closer and a couple seconds later we watch as it pulls up. On the back of the white motorcycle is a teal haired woman in a well trimmed police uniform with a skirt. Why she was wearing a skirt and riding a bike is beyond me.

"Which of you three is Frost Oak?" Asks the Jenny Clan member.

"That would be me." I answer as I step forward and offer my phone, open to my Pokedex which has my trainer information. I remember the Jennys in Viridian asking for information so I preempted the question. The Jenny gives me a smile while taking my phone.

"Thank you. I see here that you assisted the Pokemon Center in Viridian City when it was attacked. I hope this doesn't become a common thing for you." She smiles at me and gives me a knowing smile.

"I really didn't plan on any of this. For Viridian, I was waiting for morning to come and they attacked, and here, I saw a brightly lit area in the dark cave so I thought we should check it out, just to find the Rockets attacking and collecting any pokemon they could catch." I go on to explain everything that we had seen before we took out the five of them.

"While I will thank you for your assistance this time, in the future, please contact your nearest Jenny Station or Ranger Station for assistance. I will call in some assistance to bring these people in so you three are free to go."

I give her a smile and lightly bow to her in thanks. "We will do just that. For those pokeballs they were using, I would suggest you deliver one to my Grandpa, Professor Oak. It would be best to hand deliver it as I am not sure if it will transfer correctly using the transfer system."

"I will be sure to make note of that. Now run along, it will be night soon and you can just make it to Cerulean City if you leave now."

With her final words, the three of us quickly walk away, leaving the knocked out Rockets to the Jenny. After about five minutes, I make sure to release Zephyr so that she can finally stretch her wings again. No sooner do I let her out, listening to her happy trill, I hear from behind me a SPLAT, silence, and then some loud yelling. I swear I hear some chuckling coming from somewhere but I don't know where.

The sun had just finished setting by the time that we arrived at the outskirts of the city. Cerulean City is a much livelier city than Pewter was. Even though it is night time, the city's streets are full of people still milling about in the water colored neon lights. Everything about this city gives you the feel of being either in water or under water. The buildings do not have any sharp corners, and everything just flows from one building to the next. The decor on the outside of the buildings makes you think of a reef. The centerpiece of the city is the gym that looks like a giant water droplet or sea shell, depending on which way you look at it. 

The blue colored lights gives the whole place a magical feel as we walk towards one of the Pokecenters in the city. We don't try for the closest one, as that is the one that is likely to have every trainer that has passed through before us. Instead we decide on a center that is closer to the gym. Once we reach the center, we head up to the Joy at the counter and hand over our pokemon so that they can get a check up overnight. She hands us our room keys, which the three of us grab and head towards our rooms. As I am climbing the stairs, I can feel a tiredness catching up to me as I think of a shower, being clean and an actual bed.

I reach my room and find that Flannerys is right next to mine and Bea is across the hall. We wish each other a good night as we open our doors. Once my door is closed, I quickly discard my clothes, head over to the air conditioner, set it to its lowest setting of 15. It is still hotter than I want, but I quickly head to the shower and take a long cool shower. The feeling of cool liquid caressing my overly hot skin is as relaxing for me as a hot shower is for someone else. I think my next region will be Sinnoh as it is supposed to be much colder there, maybe I could actually wear cute clothes.

I step out of the shower, not minding the water getting everywhere as I grab all my dirty clothes and toss them in the wash. No sense in leaving them dirty in the bag. I head back into the room and head over to the bed while doing a nice full body stretch. For once, I decide not to meditate at night and lay down on the bed, spread eagle, just enjoying the feel of civilization again. It wasn't as bad as when I stayed a week in the forest, but something about being in a cave just doesn't scream "civilization". I close my eyes and slowly drift off to the land of imagination, hopes and dreams.