EPISODE 44: A Plan with a Twist of Action and Danger!*

We drank our tea together and decided to talk about something else for the time being. That was when our attention was grabbed after seeing Saturn, a commander from Team Galactic, walking calmly in the street with Professor Charon and a few other grunts by his side. The people were staring at them with confusion, probably because of the style of their outfits. A part was gossiping about them, well, it isn't them to be blamed for Team Galactic had the guts to show their uniforms to the public, making them even more infamous.

"What are those nitwits up to this time?" Zeal wondered.

"Wanna go chase them?"

"For what?"

"Who knows, maybe we can find more details about their plan? A little eavesdropping won't hurt."

"Hmm, you know what? I kinda agree." with a snug, Zeal concurred.

We drank our drinks with haste and left the tea-shop immediately, following our fellow grunts from behind, acting like typical civilians, doing typical things in a typical city of a typical day. Little do they know, their plans are about to get recorded. We followed them for a few minutes, they were heading to a stinking alley with a hot air balloon at the very end. Whatever they did, they're finished with it and are planning to return to their headquarters.

We hid behind the trashcans, observing the conversation between the two captains.

"Is the observation complete?" Saturn queried to Charon.

"Y-yes, Master Cyrus will be glad once he receives the data of the final lake. Operation: LG is ready for commencing. Soon, all three lakes will be blown, and we will claim the Lake Guardians, as proposed by our master himself." Charon answered with confidence.

"Bombing the three lakes? Have not they done that before?" Zeal whispered to my ears.

"Yes, but maybe he's referring to a kind of a bomb, a stronger one, one that has the capacity of evaporating the water. Come on." I replied and pulled ourselves out of the shadow, revealing ourselves to the two commanders and their fellow grunts.

"Team Rocket, you rascals are everywhere!" Saturn was immediately infuriated after seeing me again.

"I know, and I'm not letting your plans succeed. Both Dialga and Palkia are ours, and there is no one who will claim it except for us, Team Rocket!"

"Then let's just see who's the stronger organization then?! Go out of your Pokeball, Toxicroak, show your wrath and finish she and her Pokemon for good!" Saturn's yell only intensified as he threw out his Toxicroak.

"Let me handle this Zeal, just stay put. Shelgon, come out for a rematch!" blocking Zeal, I sent out Shelgon for a rematch against the Pokemon who defeated her back in the ruins.

"So, you've decided to keep hold of that pathetic Shelgon. I see, I guess you haven't learned your lesson yet. I'll teach you a thing or two! Toxicroak, Brick Break let's go!"

"Shelgon, dodge with Roll-Out!"

<Shel! Shelgon!>Shelgon spun her entire body and rushed out of Toxicroak's sight before she was hit. She goes for Toxicroak with her coiled body, bulldozing her way to Toxicroak with Roll-out. At last, it was exciting to see I was able to deal damage against Saturn's Toxicroak.

"That was a stroke of luck, Toxicroak, go with Poison Jab!"

"Shelgon, the same method, Roll-out to dodge then proceed with Dragon Rage!" my confidence and self-esteem were boosted, therefore, I proceeded with another plan. This was all thanks to my battle against Lucas, now I can come up with my own techniques and strategies in Pokemon battling. Once Shelgon surpassed Toxicroak therefore, making her behind the foe, Shelgon launched the dragon rage attack, and it was efficacious.

"Why you little?! Grunts, take charge!" Saturn was triggered, he sent back Toxicroak, and now I know how people feel when I did the same to them before.

"Yes commander!" the grunts saluted and took out their paralyzing guns. They pulled the trigger without hesitation as the darts flew to our direction. One headed to Shelgon, which paralyzed her, the rest went for my abdomen, the other at Zeal's shoulder when she tried to push me away but was too late.

We all fell to the ground, electricity flowing in every direction of our skin and body. The pain was something no one could bear as I clung to our remaining energy. The cruelty of Team Galactic is high with these types of guns in their hands, well, Team Rocket is more cruel at least.

"Now, we shall take them as our prisoner!" Charon laughed, this was his perfect day for it was at this moment when he could claim vengeance over the actions I've done to him, especially when I injected him with a truth serum at the center of his abdomen.

"Yes, commander!" the grunts loudly shouted as they rushed to grab our bodies. That was when fire hit them from above. It burned their skins, as Charizard, Zeal's Charizard came to help. It at least brought a bit of smile in our faces while trying to endure this pain.

<Bwargh!>Charizard bellowed a deep growl, it was intimidating, even the ground trembled before it, I mean him. One by one, Charizard took out the darts piercing our skins, and the electricity that once flowed through us finally stopped.

"Oh, they're going to pay for this," I grumbled, switching Shelgon with Absol as I stood from the ground with Zeal. Meanwhile, Charizard walked towards the grunts, as if he was a giant all mortals fear. Because of their frightened souls, the grunts dropped their guns and rushed back to the commanders.

"Fight the Charizard or you'll be fired!" Charon instructed with a warning.

"Stunky, go!"

"Sunflora, you're turn!"

"Do what you can, Skorupi!"

Three of the grunts sent out their Pokemon, the other six were scared to attack, frozen in fear.

With one bellow of his voice, Charizard shattered their self-esteem. He then began to shoot all three Pokemon with his Flamethrower attack. All three fainted immediately, another set of grunts are to be fired later.

"You've surpassed my anger, now you'll feel it! Use Dark Pulse on Saturn!" with aggressive mode on, I did not hesitate to launch an attack to one of their commanders neither did Absol dare to disobey my attack.

"Move out!" Charon pushed Saturn to the side. Because of this move, he was hit by Absol's ripple of darkness. It made Charon feel a sensation of fatigue and difficulty in breathing. It also made him drowsy which explained what happened next. He dropped, his mind became unconscious and brittle.

"Leave now!" Saturn commanded his other grunts, jumping to the hot air balloon alongside his men.

"C-Commander, what about the professor?!" one of the grunts questioned.

"Forget him, we'll return for him soon enough." Saturn, with a brave heart, declared to the grunts Team Galactic will be abandoning Charon. It was an unusual payment for a man who saved his life.

"Oh, so you think I'm taking him as prisoner?!" I grumbled again at Saturn whose hot air balloon was flying upwards to the sky. "About this?! Absol, go, and use Shadow Claw!"

<Ab!> Absol growled and obeyed my instruction.

While doing the "thing", Saturn and his grunts closed their eyes. They couldn't watch the loss of Charon, the new recruit of Team Galactic. They left for good as their sky vehicle mingled with the clouds. Absol returned to me, she'll need another bath, the blood was still drooling off her claws.

"Great work Absol, return to your Pokeball, and have a good rest." I've heard a thing or two about their next plans, and it was time to report this to everyone else. One commander down, three more to go.

Meanwhile, the sweet talk moment began with Charizard and Zeal and I was just watching and listening in the corner.

"S-so, yeah, Charizard. I- I" Zeal was feeling uncomfortable and timid so I kicked her closer to her Pokemon until they hugged "unintentionally".

"I'm sorry for calling you a good for nothing Pokemon." Zeal stuck with the hugging as tears traveled from her eyes to Charizard's neck.

"I know you love to win; therefore, you don't believe I could do the winning for you. I beg you to trust me this time, and I'll make sure we'll win every battle. If we lose, it only shows we have things to improve, and I'll make sure we'll train every day and night, so we can grow stronger together!" such is the sweet moment between the two of them, and Charizard was merely acting like he didn't want to cuddle Zeal back. Come on Charizard! You have to try harder.

And finally, Charizard gave in and hugged Zeal back.

"Are we friends again?" they separated for a second.

<Char!> Charizard nodded. His smile was broad, the first time I saw a grumpy one smile!

"Great, thanks." Zeal went back to hugging Charizard.

"Um, I think you should hug somewhere else, the corpse's stinking." I buzzed at the moment for a little while.

"Luna's right, it's time to head back to headquarters. So, Luna? Are we going to leave-"

"I guess, doesn't look like there are any CCTVs around so, let the Pokemon International Police deal with this when the witnesses see the body later."

"Okay then." Zeal uttered. While doing so, she was petting Charizard's long neck.