Chapter 73: Battle In The Hideout!
Under the weather constantly alternating between storm and harsh sun because of Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre, Lugia and Deoxys carefully dropped the ships on the beach. Everyone then disembarked, generally by jumping from the ships on the back of a Pokémon. The trainers and members of Team Aqua and Magma then gathered in front of the ex-Champions, Elite 4 members, Gym Leaders, and even Maxie and Archie (the Champions, Gold and Ruby, being busy fighting Parallel Archie and Parallel Maxie back in the ocean).
All of the top of the top of the three regions were present, even Steven, ex-Champion of Hoenn. Many ex-Gym Leaders and ex-Elite 4 members could also be spotted in the crowd of trainers facing them. Like Sweetie Belle, Twilight made sure to read everything about them and felt honestly a bit overwhelmed by so many people with really powerful teams of Pokémon being gathered here, and she was wondering if, in the end, the ponies will be needed.
"We will separate into groups," Peter began. "While we determined that the Rockets have a hideout in this island, we don't know where the entrance is. So we will have to spread all over the island to search for it. However, their grunts are probably ready to ambush us, and who knows what kind of traps they have prepared."
"That's why each group will have at least an ex-Champion or an Elite 4 member at their head," Drake, an old man who was an ancient sailor and an Elite 4 member of Hoenn who was also a specialist of the Dragon-type, said. "And minimum two Gym Leaders."
Twilight thought it weird that an ancient sailor would specialise in Dragon-type and not in Water-type like expected. She supposed that she shouldn't judge someone's team on their archetype. Sailors weren't all Water specialists (but most of them were).
As the trainers formed the groups, the ponies decided to remain together and to follow Red who chose Misty as well as a Gym Leader of Johto, a girl named Whitney, to follow him.
Of course, the Gym Leaders brought their best teams, some of which could rival with an Elite 4 member.
Red then let his Pikachu out of his Poké Ball before the group of around two dozens trainers plus some members of Team Aqua and Team Magma plus the ponies took a random direction and moved out of the beach.
The island seemed to be a classic one. Beyond the beach was a dense jungle with a mountainous area at the center.
Perfect setting for ambushes and traps, and to hide an hideout.
And sure enough, after a few minutes of walk, at least three dozens Rocket grunts came out of hiding from behind trees and bushes and called out their Pokémon. The trainers remarked that most of the grunts now had at least one Master Ball.
Red's Pikachu immediately went into action doing what he did best: being a slippery little rodent. Using Quick Attack helped by a Double Team to create illusory copies to disorient the enemies, Pikachu zip-zapped around randomly, bouncing off the ground or from trees at incredible speed. Then, he charged at a huge green dinosaur-like Pokémon known as a Tyranitar and used Iron Tail on its face, the giant Pokémon falling unconscious right away before the electric mouse went to repeat his actions. In the few seconds it took for the other trainers to react and call their own Pokémon, several Pokémon from the grunts were already out, and the grunts themselves were starting to panic.
They had clearly underestimated Red.
Misty and Whitney still quickly went to deal with what Pikachu was weak to, like Ground-type Pokémon, and the remaining trainers quickly followed. Twilight herself began to fire magical beams, not at the Pokémon, but at the grunts while Rainbow Dash charged into a big bird Pokémon that looked like a fusion between a crow and a knight known as a Corviknight. Pinkie then began to divert the Pokémon by playing hide and seek behind the trees, opening them to the others.
Whitney's Miltank - a pink cow-like Pokémon - rapidly revealed to be a real beast, almost on par with Pikachu. She would use Attract on any male Pokémon so they would be too busy being infatuated by her to attack, and then, she would use the most effective move to deal heavy damage. And when needed, she used Milk Drink to heal herself. Most enemy Pokémon couldn't do anything before they were knocked out. Why wasn't she a member of the Elite 4?
Misty wasn't left out. While her team consisted only of Water-type Pokémon, most of them had various secondary types, making it a motley team that could face almost any enemy. While none of them were as scarily strong as Pikachu or Miltank, she was sweeping the enemy Pokémon like a tsunami. However, she had some difficulties because of the weather still alternating between rain and harsh sun. When it rained, Water-type moves were more effective, but when the sun was present, all Water-type moves failed.
And this happened to ALL Pokémon with Water-type moves, vice versa for Pokémon with Fire-type moves. Rain also gave Pikachu a big advantage as it allowed one of his most powerful electric attacks, Thunder, to be 100% accurate.
As for the trainers, with all of them having minimum two badges, they were better prepared and had less problems facing the grunts than back in Mt. Moon. The trainers with the weaker teams still needed to go two to one against most grunts however, so Red sent his Dragonite to support them. And at least, they all thought to bring dozens of potions and revives and even stuff against stat effects while the grunts only had a few at best.
Twilight levitated some kind of tortoise-like Pokémon which had for shell a boulder known as a Golem and threw it into a Butterfree before she flew up to avoid several projectiles of different elements sent at her. While she was flying, a grey bird known as an Unfezant tried to claw her but the alicorn easily sent it crashing into a tree before she fired a beam into the ground in the middle of a group of enemy Pokémon, making it undulate in a wide area which destabilized the Pokémon and even caused a tree to fall on one of them. But then, a Vine Whip from some Grass Pokémon she couldn't see wrapped itself around one of her legs and pulled her down to crash on the ground where more Pokémon waited for her. She quickly put a shield around herself before they could attack, and then watched as Red's Pikachu came to her rescue and knocked out all the Pokémon in just a few seconds.
To think that Sweetie Belle managed to defeat this little guy...
"Thank you, Pikachu!"
"You're welcome, Princess!" Pikachu exclaimed happily with a smile.
Twilight remarked the sudden silence around her and looked to see that they had won the battle. All the Rocket grunts and their Pokémon were now unconscious, and the trainers were now in the process of healing their teams. Applejack and Rarity were among the ones being healed, Applejack having some cuts and Rarity being drenched from head to tail (and she was very annoyed and grumpy as a result). Rainbow Dash also had a small burn that she took from an electric attack, but she waved it off as being nothing and told anyone wanting to heal her to spare their potions for Pokémon that really needed them.
But in the distance, everyone could hear battles still happening. The other groups were attacked too.
Twilight removed her shield and approached Red. "Should we go help the other groups?"
Red shook his head. "No need. I trust in the others. We must advance to search the entrance of the hideout." Then, he looked up at the sky, remarking something as the sun let place to a storm again. "Why is the weather still chaotic? Shouldn't their battle have ended by now?"
For what was probably the tenth time, Archie's Primal Kyogre fell unconscious, floating upside down in the water, and the leader of Team Aqua quickly grabbed a Max Revive and used it to restore it back to full health.
"Oh come on!" Ruby shouted. "How many Max Revives and Full Restores do you guys still have?!"
"A lot," Maxie answered with all the seriousness that he could muster as he and Archie were being utterly slaughtered by the team of Legendaries they were facing.
"Now I know what it feels like to face an adversary who spams Potions and Revives..." said a very annoyed Gold.
"I will have to say sorry to a lot of people once this is over..." Ruby said ashamedly.
"Same..."
Red's group advanced further into the jungle, not encountering any other Team Rocket grunts. However, the grunts were replaced by something worse.
Red threw a stone that ended up being zapped by some trap put into two trees that shot bolts of electricity. To put it simply, not unlike in Mauville City's Gym in Hoenn, pylons were placed to form electric barriers. But here, the pylons were hidden inside trees with small holes to let the bolts of electricity out the only indication of their presence. The trees were fake and totally non-flammable but they really looked like real trees so it was almost impossible to tell the difference, and the electric barriers themselves only activated when someone or something passed between the two pylons.
And it wasn't a small zap. Being hit by one of these bolts of electricity was like being hit by a Thunder.
And to make things worse, hidden under grass and leaves were tiles that launched in the direction indicated by the arrow anyone walking on them while also making them spin uncontrollably. Some of these tiles pointed right toward electrical barriers while others simply sent their victims to crash into trees or brambles, or even into the river when they passed beside one (Rarity happened to fall victim to that last one. If this continued, she would become aquaphobe. It hadn't helped that the water had been full of Carvanha which were piranha-like Pokémon).
Each time that they encountered an electric barrier, they destroyed it, ensuring that nobody else would end up shocked by it if the other groups passed by the same path.
And eventually, the group reached a cliff at the base of a mountain in the center of the island, with a cavern.
"Who is ready to bet that the entrance to the hideout is in there?" a trainer asked.
"Let's be careful. There could be other traps," Misty warned.
Surprisingly, the only trap encountered was another electric barrier at the entrance of the cavern. Further into it, the stone walls left place to metal ones, confirming that it was the entrance they searched.
Red immediately sent the word through his phone to the other groups.
Coincidentally, at the same time, he received words from Sabrina's group that they found another entrance, a secret one, which was an elevator hidden inside a tree.
Darn, this meant that they may have passed beside such a secret entrance without knowing. At least, this prompted the other groups to look more closely to the trees. And soon enough, they received more words of secret elevators being found. A group even found one inside a boulder.
It seemed that the hideout spanned a good part of the underground of the island.
Sabrina then sent a warning that her group encountered more Team Rocket grunts (not as many as when they were ambushed), meaning that there were certainly more of them in there.
And sure enough, as they entered a room with more of these arrow tiles forming a maze, they encountered Rocket grunts. Pikachu was able to knock out two of them before they could even call their Pokémon. The group however had to fight the remaining ones and their Pokémon, including some Ultra Beasts this time, while being careful of the arrow tiles. More than once, a Pokémon had the misfortune of stepping onto a tile in the middle of a fight and ended up launched in some direction while spinning. Even Applejack stepped on one and ended up crashing into a Lucario. Pinkie however, without surprise, turned it into a game. At least, the Rockets and their Pokémon also fell victim of these tiles, but not as often and even used them to their advantage by pushing the trainers' Pokémon onto them. A Magmortar even willingly went on one of them so it could move rapidly and spin while using Flamethrower which was very effective even if it hit some of its allies. But the trainers quickly learned and returned their strategies against them.
Once all the grunts were defeated, the group was free to advance (once they passed the maze of arrow tiles). In the maze of hallways and rooms that followed, the group encountered more grunts as well as many traps, and not just the electric barriers this time. There were turrets that sent fire and tiles that opened into trapdoors, those last ones causing many unlucky trainers to be separated from the group. Thankfully, the trapdoors only led to lower floors, nothing like pits with spikes at the bottom. Eventually, the group reached a staircase that led down, but there was also a staircase that led to an upper floor. Considering that they were in a mountain, it wasn't surprising.
The big of the hideout really was in the underground of the island. Red hadn't stopped receiving reports from the other groups telling how they found storerooms full of stuff Team Rainbow Rocket stole in their raids. Many grunts were also present down there, including none other than the Team Rocket Admins. Steven's group thus had an encounter with Executive Proton, Phoebe's group was in the middle of battling Executive Petrel, and Lt. Surge's group just managed to defeat Executive Ariana.
No trace of Archer for now however. He may be in the upper floors. Or he may not be in the hideout at all.
Red decided that they should go to the upper floors. Maybe there was something important under the pic of the mountain. Maybe whatever they had been searching in Mt. Moon and in the other places.
So they climbed the staircase to the upper floor to explore here, all the while listening to the news from the other groups. The groups encountered and fought more and more grunts, a real army. Some of them had teams so powerful that they gave even Gym Leaders problems. The Admins themselves had given troubles to Lt. Surge and Phoebe.
They found mainly storerooms full of what the Rockets stole in their raids and other objects like hundreds of potions of all kinds, and barracks for the grunts. There were also some arenas where the Rockets probably trained their teams by fighting each others, and even a couple of self-made Pokémon Centers with all the equipment to heal Pokémon. And of course, there were all the rooms that just contained traps to either slow down or hurt the trainers.
Red's group, however, seemed to have taken the right decision by taking the stairs to the upper floors. The grunts here were particularly nasty, easily the elite that Team Rainbow Rocket had to offer. Still nothing for Red's Pikachu and Dragonite, but they were making short work of most of the trainers' teams. Only the trainers who had at least seven badges as well as Misty and Whitney were able to fight them with some efficiency. A lot of healing items were used as the group climbed floor after floor.
Twilight was happy to be an alicorn, because she was sure she would have reached her limit by now if she had still been an unicorn with all the powerful magic she used to fight. The same couldn't be said for her friends however. Especially Rarity who really wasn't used to that much action. But Rainbow Dash and Applejack were starting to breathe heavily, and even Pinkie Pie was slowing down. Applejack was almost knocked out by a Crobat at one point, and Rainbow Dash had had all the pain in the world fighting a particularly powerful Garchomp.
Eventually, they reached and passed what seemed to be the quarters of the leaders as the rooms were better decorated. But the hideout didn't end here so they continued.
And then, they reached a door to a room that was open with a small group of grunts in front of it with none other than Archer among them, easily recognisable as he was wearing a white uniform in contrast of the usually black uniform and he had short blue hair. Three grunts then ran out of the room, each transporting in their arms a covered object that seemed rather flat and rectangular. The three grunts ran further down into the hallway, away from Red's group, toward another staircase.
Archer and his group, however, remained behind to face Red's group.
"Go ahead Red, we will take care of them," Misty said. "Whatever they took, they must be important and we must get them before they get away."
Red agreed and ran toward the group of Rockets. Surprisingly, Archer didn't stop him and let him pass with his Pokémon.
Fearing that Red was running into a trap, Twilight teleported behind the group of Rockets and ran after the ex-Champion, trusting her friends and the others to deal with Archer and the grunts.
They climbed the stairs.
And came out on top of the mountain, in a large flattened area from which the whole island could be seen.
The weather was still alternating between intense rain and harsh sun.
The three grunts they chased were now facing someone. The next instant, an energy appeared on them, and the three grunts disappeared in a flash with what they had, leaving behind whoever they had been facing.
The figure revealed to be a middle-aged man who was medium built. He had short, flat, dark hair and was entirely clothed in black excepted for a white undershirt. Finally, he had an insignia with the rainbow R of Team Rainbow Rocket on the heart area.
Red approached the man who simply remained where he was standing while he watched, hands behind his back, and Twilight carefully followed.
Once he was close enough, Red stopped.
"Giovanni... It has been a long time."
Giovanni gave a small smirk at Red's words. "I wish that I could say the same thing, but I personally never encountered you. But I know who you are, Red. I heard a lot about you. In this world, you defeated me when you were just a ten years old kid. I would say that it is preposterous, but it wasn't that long ago that, in a different world, a kid about the same age managed to put a wrench in my plans despite everything I made him face. Speaking of, this kid also exists in this world. Current Champion of Alola. But I'm not worrying. This time, I'm prepared." He grabbed a Poké Ball, which was actually a Master Ball, like all the others he had. "How about I show you?"
And he threw the ball, out of which came a Dugtrio, a Pokémon almost entirely buried in the earth so only its three brown heads were visible.
With a simple look, Red made Twilight understand to remain out of this before he sent Dragonite.
Dragonite being a Dragon/Flying-type, it had absolute advantage over the Dugtrio because Ground-type moves were totally ineffective against Flying-type Pokémon.
But it didn't mean that the fight was already won.
"Dugtrio! Use Stone Edge!"
Dragonite was weak to Rock-type moves...
Sharpened stones appeared around the Dugtrio and were sent toward Dragonite who quickly sidestepped and moved to dodge them, a few of them grazing its scales.
Dragonite then countered with Ice Beam which immediately knocked out the Dugtrio who was frozen solid, and Giovanni called it back into its Poké Ball.
"Not bad. You deserve your reputation. Nidoking!" He threw another Poké Ball out of which came a Nidoking. "Ice Beam!"
Dragonite barely had time to react and could just place an arm in the way of the beam, the arm ending up frozen. Dragonite countered with Ice Beam too, again, while he smashed the frozen arm on the ground to free it from the ice. The Nidoking was able to dodge the Ice Beam, but was surprised by Dragonite charging at it before using Aqua Tail (it was raining, thankfully) which hit it violently on the chest, propelling it on its back. Nidoking was still conscious and quickly attempted to get up with some difficulty, but Dragonite didn't let it and fired another Ice Beam.
Giovanni called back his now unconscious Pokémon and sent a Nidoqueen.
"Ice Beam!" he shouted.
This time, Dragonite was able to dodge the beam and fired back its own Ice Beam which the Nidoqueen dodged too. Dragonite attempted to repeat what it did earlier and charged at the Nidoqueen while preparing an Aqua Tail.
"Ice Punch on the tail!"
The Nidoqueen did as ordered and was able to stop the Aqua Tail by punching it, freezing the tail by the same occasion, only to receive in return an Ice Punch too followed by Dragonite using the currently harsh sun to send a Fire Punch. However, because of Nidoqueen's ability Poison Point, Dragonite got poisoned. Despite this, Dragonite slapped Nidoqueen with its frozen tail, breaking the ice and sending the Nidoqueen crashing on its back, out.
Next came a Rhyperior, a large bipedal rhinoceros-like Pokémon with skin made of rock with orange plates on the head, shoulders, and around the waist. The tail also ended in a small boulder.
Dragonite immediately used Aqua Tail, but Giovanni ordered the Rhyperior to use Ice Fang, making it bite the tail. It still received damage, but it was lessened, and Dragonite now had its tail stuck in the Rhyperior's mouth. Giovanni then quickly ordered it to use both Stone Edge and Ice Punch at the same time, dealing heavy damage to Dragonite who was knocked out.
So Red sent Pikachu.
Giovanni grinned, thinking that this one will be easy. "Earthquake."
But to his surprise, Pikachu dodged the Earhquake by jumping high before he fell back toward the Rhyperior and used Iron Tail on its face, knocking it out right away.
Giovanni was surprised, but he quickly came over it before he called back the Phyperior and sent his next Pokémon.
A Garchomp.
"Bulldoze!"
Garchomp stomped on the ground, but Pikachu easily jumped above the shockwave before he began to use Quick Attack to rapidly move around his adversary. Garchomp attempted to follow him with its eyes, but failed which annoyed it to the point that it attempted to hit Pikachu with Dragon Claw without even waiting Giovanni's order. It missed, of course, and Garchomp received an Iron Tail in the face for it which angered it even more.
"Continue to use Bulldoze! A shockwave should eventually get it!" Giovanni shouted.
So Garchomp began to repeatedly stomp the ground, sending shockwave after shockwave. One of them managed to hit Pikachu because the electric mouse landed right on it, but it wasn't enough to knock him out so he continued. However, instead of continuing to jump around with Quick Attack, he jumped right on Garchomp's head and repeatedly hit it with Iron Tail from here while also using Brick Break. Pikachu eventually had to jump away when Garchomp smashed its head into the ground to get him.
Garchomp then continued to use Bulldoze, but this quickly turned into a Stomping Tantrum.
But then Pikachu used Dig, avoiding the attack, and came out of the ground like a bullet, headbutting Garchomp in the stomach.
Garchomp clutched its stomach and growled at Pikachu before it fell, unconscious.
Giovanni called it back.
"For you to defeat my team with just two Pokémon... Including a Pikachu, of all things. And you didn't even have to give orders. You truly are a Master. I didn't expect less from the boy who stopped me. That was a truly intense battle. Now I really which that I encountered you in my world. I wonder why you never showed up. Maybe you were stillborn? Or maybe you died from some accident. Or maybe you simply never got interested in becoming a Pokémon trainer for some reason." The man had a wishful expression at this.
Red frowned. "You still have a sixth Pokémon."
"Eh. True." Giovanni grabbed his last Ball. "Time to pull off the kiddy gloves. Go! Mewtwo!"
Out of the Master Ball came Mewtwo.
But it looked different than the Mewtwo Red and Twilight knew.
Instead of being grey with a purple tail, it was black with a light grey, almost white tail, and the two small blunt horns were sharper and were also light grey. Also, its eyes glowed red.
Also, it had two rings with a Mega Stone.
And, grinning, Giovanni rolled up a bit his sleeves to reveal two Mega Rings, each with a Key Stone. He then crossed his arms to press the two Key Stones at once, making the two Mega Stones in Mewtwo's rings glow.
And Mewtwo transformed.
Mewtwo gained all the characteristics of its Mega-Evolved Y form like the tail coming from the back of the head, but to them were added the ones of its X form. It kept its normal tail, gained bulkier arms and legs with raised ridges, and gained large light grey growths on the shoulders. The fingers on both its hands and feet also became light grey, but remained closer to the ones it normally had than the ones it had in its Y form.
With its transformation over, it hovered above the ground, arms spread, a huge quantity of power emanating from it.
I always wondered why people assumed in Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon that Giovanni, boss of Team Rainbow Rocket, was the same that we fought in Pokémon Red/Blue/Green/FireRed/LeafGreen when it clearly isn't possible. I mean, in these games, we stop Giovanni from getting Mewtwo. And yet, this Giovanni has Mewtwo. And there's supposed to only be one Mewtwo in the world. So this Giovanni clearly comes from a world where Red wasn't there to stop him.
To help for Mewtwo's form in the end, take this image:
(but all the fingers are purple like in its Y form while retaining their shape of its normal/X form)
and color swap it with the ones of Shadow Lugia from Pokémon XD:
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You mean Vine Whip?
Plus, in Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, all of his Pokemon and those of the villainous team leaders are kept in Master Balls. That means he managed to mass-produce Master Balls, while Giovanni from the Kanto games didn't.
11091700
Oops. Corrected. Thanks.
That too. And yet, even the Wikis such as Bulbapedia makes this error. Just because at a moment, Giovanni says that fighting a kid makes him feel nostalgic somehow when he finds the idea of fighting one ridiculous.
11091700
And it's worth mentioning that the reason he didn't is because we stopped him back at SilphCo. >_>
11091707
Hey, after you finish the current adventure, think you could have Sweetie bring the heros in the alliance together so they can meet each other. (A.K.A. Red and his Pokemon, Link, Zelda, maybe Sans, Samus, Sonic and his crew, and finally Mario and his crew). What do you think?
11091796
This won't happen for some time yet. Eventually, but not yet.