Shift : Rescue

As I was closing in on the location where the truck was last seen, I began to notice a slight inconsistency with what I've experienced these past few days.

Team Rocket had shown up multiple times in the anime, meaning they should've shown up quite a few times on our Journey to and from Santalune City.

However, that didn't happen.

It could be that things in the anime were exaggerated slightly due to it being a Kid's show, but so far, most things have been consistent.

I wasn't sure if I was overthinking things, but I had a nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right.

As I was lost in thought, I sped past a person on a motorcycle with a passenger carriage next to it, almost crashing into them in the process.

Hearing the tires screeching to a halt, I looked over my shoulder to see if the rider and passenger were okay.

However, whom I saw was someone I hadn't expected.

"Kai? Where are you running off to at such a high speed?" Meyer shouted as he hopped off his bike and jogged over to me. Blaziken was the 'person' in the passenger cart, and it had hopped off and joined us at Meyer's side.

"Haaaa… Hi, Meyer. It's rather ironic, to be completely honest. You were so afraid to have Clemont and Bonnie involved with me because they might get caught up in something dangerous in my life. But in the end, it was Ash's enemies who'd get to my friends and them," I sighed while shaking my head.

"What?! Explain!" Meyer said, his expression becoming solemn.

"You see, there's this organisation called Team Rocket; they're a group that has set their mission to be world domination. Thus, they send out operatives to steal rare and strong Pokémon to create a formidable army. There has been a specific group of these operatives that have been targeting Ash and Pikachu for the better part of the last four years. In fact, they were responsible for the recent Garchomp incident." I explained.

"So? What do they have to do with why you're running around?! Where are Clemont and Bonnie?!"

"Well, I'm fulfilling my promise to you. Even though Team Rocket isn't my enemy, I promised to protect your kids. So, seeing how they kidnapped Professor Sycamore while grabbing my friends along the way, I was heading over there to save them."

"They were kidnapped?!?" Meyer said, positively fuming.

"Mm, those idiots drove a truck straight into the Professor's Lab, rounded up the Professor and my friends, and drove off. I've tracked the truck's last known location to the abandoned warehouse district just up ahead."

"I'm coming with you." Meyer declared.

"Sure, it'd be nice to have some backup. Usually, the operatives that I believe are responsible for this wouldn't pose much of a threat, but I've got this nagging feeling that there is something more afoot."

With a nod, Meyer ran back to his bike and opened a compartment before reaching in and pulling out his vigilante outfit.

I was about to speak out about wasting time, but he was already dressed before I could get a word out. I was honestly super impressed with how quickly he could get into that thing.

Meyer got on his bike with Blaziken, copped a U-Turn and sped off.

With a chuckle, I sped off with Luca and Luci in tow, reaching Meyer's side and maintaining my speed to match his.

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When we were about 200 metres away from the truck's location, I signalled Meyer to pull over.

"The truck's last seen position is just up ahead. So we should send Luca, Luci, and Blaziken to scout ahead."

I then reached into my bag, pulling out a little container.

"Here, these are miniature cameras. Place one on Blaziken's chest. While they scout, we'll be able to see what they see through this."

Suddenly, three holographic images appeared on my forearm. It displayed the feed from the three cameras I'd placed on the three Pokémon.

"Okay, but are you sure we need to be this cautious?" Meyer asked.

"Well… It's just a hunch I've got. If it turns out I'm wrong, no harm, no foul. But if I'm right, wouldn't it be better for Clemont and Bonnie?"

"Mm… but-," He started, but I cut him off, saying,

"You're worried, and I get that. But let's not lose our heads just yet. We were trained for things like this, Meyer."

Seeing him nod in response, I looked at the three Pokémon.

"Begin the operation. Remember to stay hidden and out of sight. Do not alert the enemy. Do not engage unless absolutely necessary."

"Caaar~" Luca and Luci nodded.

Blaziken just huffed before taking off into a sprint.

After they disappeared, I flashed Meyer a wry smile.

"I guess he doesn't like me too much…."

"Yeah, well… I do still have slight phantom pains from you literally punching a hole through my gut, and I'm sure he is still pissed about being bested by your Lucarios'."

"Haaa… sorry." Deciding to just focus on the mission, I turned my attention to the displays that showed us what our scouts saw.

"So, I was right…." I muttered, seeing a lot more activity than I expected.

"How many operatives are there usually?" Meyer asked with a frown.

What was displayed to us were roughly 30 to 40 operatives, each with their own Pokémon. Many were even armed with automatic firearms, guarding the premises. This was way out of my expectations….

"Two humans, a talking Meowth, a Wobbuffet, and most likely an Inkay."

"Well… there's a lot more than that now… Are you sure these aren't your enemies?" He asked, narrowing his eyes at me.

"Positive. Look at their uniform—the black clothes, with the red R on their shirts. Those are all Team Rocket operatives. From what I remember, white clothes were what mid-level grunts wore, which the operatives I'm familiar with wore. So these guys should be a level below them. I think, after the Garchomp incident, they'd called for backup. This is the first time I've seen them do so, as the ones I'm familiar with are pretty far down in the hierarchy, as they hadn't succeeded in any of their endeavours to capture Pikachu; they shouldn't have the clearance to move this many operatives."

"What do you think their objective is then? What could be so important that some low-level grunts could pull this kind of support?" Meyer asked, sounding disgruntled.

"It's gotta be Sycamore. Ash and the rest were just caught up in it, a secondary goal, if you will. Their main target was Sycamore and his research on Mega-Evolution. That should be enough to make even the Leader of Team Rocket grant his support."

"I see… So, how do we do this?" Meyer asked.

Staying silent for a while, I thought about different scenarios and what would be the most effective way to solve this problem.

After a while, I nodded and turned to Meyer, saying,

"Okay, here's the plan…."

…

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"Man, this sucks!" A Team Rocket Grunt shouted out while kicking a rusty bolt on the ground.

"Quit your complaining. We have orders from the Boss to listen to Jessie and James' orders." Another grunt replied, sounding annoyed.

"Yeah, I get that! But why are we stuck babysitting some kids?!"

"Just shut up, will you?! I can't hear myself think with all your yapping!"

These two Grunts, each holding an automatic rifle, were standing over a group of tied up individuals.

These individuals were Ash, Bonnie, Clemont, and Serena. They were sitting there, looking quite frightened.

For Ash, this was the first time he was dealing with other members of Team Rocket. These guys seemed a lot more dangerous, so he wasn't sure what to do. He tried to put on a brave front, but deep down, he was terrified. Pikachu and the rest of his Pokémon were taken from him; the same happened to Bonnie, Clemont, and Serena.

Bonnie had tears in her eyes and was shaking slightly. She was definitely the most scared out of them all.

Despite having his arms tied, Clemont snuggled close to Bonnie in an effort to calm her down. He had a firm look on his face, much like Ash, but was just as scared.

Serena had her eyes closed. She seemed to be mumbling something, but it was too soft to hear.

"C-Clemont, I'm… I'm scared." Bonnie whimpered.

"Shh, shh, it's okay, Bonnie. Everything is going to be okay."

He tried to comfort his sister; however, he was suddenly interrupted.

"Hahaha! Did you hear what he said? 'Everything is going to be okay'! Hahaha, he has no idea how screwed they are." Grunt 1 said mockingly.

"Heh, I agree with you there. Stupid kids, there's no way you're getting out of here." Grunt 2 replied.

Grunt 1 then turned to look at Ash, seeing him glaring.

"Oh? What's with that 'scary' look, brat? Do you think you're tough?"

"Give me back my Pikachu. Give us back our Pokémon! You're not going to get away with this!" Ash shouted in defiance!

"Shut up!" Grunt 1 shouted, kicking Ash in the gut.

"Oufff", Ash involuntarily whimpered as the impact was pretty bad.

As Ash collapsed, Grunt 1 stepped on his head and pushed him down.

"Ash!" Bonnie, Clemont, and Serena cried out.

"Not so tough now, are you brat!"

"Stop it! Please!" Bonnie cried out.

"We've given you what you want! Stop this!" Clemont cried out.

However, Grunt 1 just laughed as he lifted his foot and began to stomp down on Ash's head repeatedly.

"Hahaha! Where's that defiance of yours?! C'mon! Where?!?"

"No!!! Stop!" Serena cried out!

Grunt 2 approached Serena, looking at her with lascivious eyes.

"Pipe down, cutie. Unless, of course, you wanna have some fun!" He said with a disgusting grin on his face.

Grunt 1 was about to stomp on Ash once more; however, his movements suddenly stalled. His eyes were wide open, seemingly in shock.

Grunt 2 looked over in confusion, asking,

"Oi, what's gotten into you?"

However, no reply came. Then, suddenly, Grunt 1's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he collapsed backwards.

"Wha-" Grunt 2 tried to exclaim, but similar to Grunt 1, his eyes rolled back too, causing him to collapse forward with a thud.

With a gust of air, a Pokémon appeared just above the unconscious bodies of the two grunts.

Looking up with shocked eyes, Bonnie, Clemont, and Serena stared at the Pokémon.

"A Greninja?" Clemont muttered.

"Huh? Isn't that Ryu? One of Kai's Pokémon?" Bonnie asked.

"You're right! It's Ryu." Serena exclaimed.

Ryu nodded its head towards them. It destroyed the little cubes that formed the restraints around my friends, releasing them and helping them stand.

Serena, Bonnie, and Clemont then rushed over to Ash.

"Ash! Are you okay?" Serena called out as she helped Ash sit up.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Just a bit dizzy." Ash replied with a pained smile. He had a bit of blood dripping down the side of his face.

"Greninja~" Ryu called out, getting my friend's attention.

He walked over, picked Ash up, and put him over his shoulder.

"D-Do we follow you?" Bonnie asked.

Seeing Ryu nod, Ash suddenly tried to struggle out of Ryu's grip, saying,

"Wait! We have to get Pikachu and the rest!"

Suddenly, a loud explosion rocked the entire building. It sounded like it came from the front entrance. This caused alarmed shouts to ring out, multitudes of footsteps rushing in the opposite direction from where they were.

Ryu shook his head in response to Ash's cry, strengthening his grip on him and started running with Serena, Clemont, and Bonnie, following after.

"No! We can't leave!" Ash continued to struggle.

Getting tired of this, Ryu suddenly struck the side of Ash's neck, causing Ash to pass out, much like the Team Rocket grunts before.

"W-was that really necessary…?" Clemont asked.

Ryu just ignored the question and kept running. He only had one goal to achieve: getting these four out.

Reaching a rather large but well-hidden gap in the warehouse wall, Ryu gestured for the others to slip through.

They nodded their heads and proceeded through to the outside.

With Serena exiting last, Ryu followed soon after. He pointed towards the tree line roughly 30 metres away before running in that direction. The others followed, occasionally looking back to the large smoke plume rising from the other side of the building before finally reaching a safe spot.

Placing Ash down gently, Ryu took up guard.

After a moment or two of silence, Clemont finally asked,

"W-what do we do now?"

"I… I'm not sure. Should we figure out a way to get our Pokémon back?" Bonnie said.

However, Serena shook her head, saying,

"If Ryu is here, that means Kai is somewhere around here. He must have a plan. If we've been brought here and Ryu is just standing guard, that must mean that Kai wants us out of harm's way."

"But… shouldn't we help him?" Bonnie asked.

"I-," Serena was going to answer, but she was cut off by another loud explosion on the other side of the warehouse, followed by multitudes of gunshots and Pokémon Moves being fired.

"What was that?!" Clemont cried out.

"The next stage of Kai's plan," Serena replied.

She was about to say more, but a soft voice entered her mind, saying,

"Sleep, Serena. Sleep."

Recognising the voice as Aurora's, she was going to reply, but her eyes became heavy as she, along with Clemont and Bonnie, slumped to the floor, fast asleep.

…

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