Chapter 75: Evil Team Rocket Is Chasing Me!!
The entire Celadon underground base had come alive.
Rocket grunts swept through every corridor, checking every room, every storage space, every shadow. Someone had gotten in. That was about as unwelcome a development as it got.
The St. Anne incident hadn't even finished blowing over. If this base got reported to the Kanto League — and the League sent someone —
A woman in a white Rocket uniform stalked down the corridor, red hair and an expression to match. Ariana. One of Team Rocket's Four Generals.
"Status report."
She had her communicator out, and she looked like a volcano deciding whether today was the day.
The Celadon base was her operation. Mammon had barely arrived for a few days of downtime when this happened — on the very first day.
She was aware, very clearly, that with Giovanni's public severance from Mammon, the next Boss would almost certainly be Mammon himself. And Mammon had come back from Alola with two new senior executives — both younger than her, both alarmingly strong.
Ariana didn't feel insecure about her position, exactly. But she also wasn't going to make mistakes in front of him.
And yet here they were.
"Apologies, Lady Ariana. No target found yet."
"Then check the ventilation shafts. Do I have to think of everything?"
The subordinate on the other end of the communicator audibly flinched.
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Useless. Move. That rat needs to be found before Lord Mammon gets back."
Then — a sound from the ceiling directly above her.
Ariana looked up.
The slow, cold smile that spread across her face was not a pleasant thing to witness.
Found you.
"Breaking into someone else's home and crawling around the walls. Absolutely no manners."
She released a Poké Ball. An Arbok uncoiled into existence, tongue testing the air.
"Arbok — go."
Arbok launched upward and punched straight through the ventilation panel.
CRASH.
A girl in a black skirt dropped neatly from the ceiling, landed in a fighting stance, and immediately assessed the situation.
"Wow, someone's wound tight. That time of the month, ma'am?"
The girl's face was fairly ordinary, but her voice was clear and bright — the kind that stuck in your memory. She was smiling like this was all perfectly fine.
"Watch your mouth, you little brat." Ariana's expression went darker. This child just called her ma'am?
She was twenty-six and a half. Twenty-six and a half.
"Eek, scary eyes~ Looks like she wants to eat me. The mood swings really do get worse with age, huh."
The girl said she was scared while grinning without a trace of fear, clearly not thinking about Ariana at all.
"Heh heh heh…" The laugh that came out of Ariana sounded like it had been scraped from somewhere deep and unpleasant.
"Once I catch you, I'll make sure you're very well taken care of, little girl."
The massive purple cobra coiled at her feet, cold eyes fixed on the intruder.
"Thanks so much for the offer, but I've actually got places to be."
The girl turned and ran without a second thought. Fighting Ariana here would be genuinely stupid. Priority was getting out of the base and passing the information along — there was a major Rocket base operating right under Celadon City, and people needed to know.
Also, she'd successfully pulled Ariana away, which meant the other one might have a better shot at the exit. They'd split up in the vents — hadn't exchanged a word, just happened to meet — so there was nothing to do but hope.
Good luck, whoever you are.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the base.
A fine yellow powder drifted through the air near Exit C. The two Rocket grunts standing guard and their Raticate gradually went from alert, to relaxed, to very much not standing anymore.
Thud.
"Perfect. Nice and smooth." A masked figure in black stepped out from around the corner, exhaling with quiet relief. A Vileplume stood at their feet.
The figure stepped carefully over the unconscious grunts, climbed the stairs, and emerged into daylight.
"That was way too close. A base that size, right here in the middle of the city—"
In the alley, the figure pulled off the face covering, revealing a pale, composed face underneath. This was Erika — the Celadon City Gym Leader.
"I need to report this to the League immediately."
The base had been a dead zone for phone signals — signal jammers, clearly. But up here the bars were back. She had her phone out before she'd taken three steps.
If she could get the League to send someone in force, that base could be—
Erika stopped mid-step.
A faint blue light wrapped around her entire body.
She tried to move. Nothing. Her legs wouldn't respond. Her arms wouldn't lift. She was suspended in place like a figure someone had forgotten to animate, her phone still in her hand.
Psychic. Control-type.
"Honestly. Almost let you slip away, little mouse."
The voice came from behind her — easy, unhurried, with just enough of an edge to make her stomach drop.
Erika went cold. Sweat prickled instantly across the back of her neck.
No.
Beside her, Vileplume spun immediately, green light building along its body — and then a second surge of psychic force locked it in place too, lifting both Pokémon and Trainer off the ground together. No resistance was possible.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Footsteps approaching.
"Looks like a girl. Nice figure too, from what I can see." The voice had a particular lazy quality to it that Erika did not like at all. "Mewtwo — turn her around so I can get a proper look."
Erika's expression went through several rapid changes.
This person is—
She had read enough novels. Watched enough anime. She knew exactly what happened when a girl got caught by the villain. The whole sequence played out in her head in about half a second—
Her legs felt briefly unreliable.
Please, absolutely not—
In a different alley across the city, the girl in the black skirt was still running.
Ariana was still right behind her. Ariana was, it turned out, very committed to this.
"Lady, please—" the girl called back, not breaking stride—"there's no future for us! You have to let this go!"
Ariana's expression did not improve.
And then the girl spotted something.
"Hey! You there! Trainer!" She waved at a figure ahead without slowing down. "Please help me — evil Team Rocket is chasing me!!"
The boy she'd called out to turned around slowly.
Red eyes. Quiet. A cap pulled low.
Team Rocket?
He said nothing. He put one hand on the brim of his cap.
Then he reached for a Poké Ball.
"One after another." Ariana stopped, her eyes cold as she assessed the boy and the girl. "Children with no idea what they've walked into."
She couldn't even lift her hand anymore? Some random passerby thought he could get in her way?
"Boy. Hand over the girl behind you."
The red-eyed boy: "…"
Still nothing. He just clicked open the Poké Ball.
A Charizard materialized in front of him.
"Oh, really."
Ariana laughed in pure disbelief. The absolute nerve of kids these days.
Not an ounce of self-preservation instinct among them.
☆☆☆
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