For a woman who had contributed nothing to the research and later interview with Bill… the Clefairy, Karen was far too smug for her own good.
“So you’re really saying that he did this to sell the technology to other rich weirdos that want to be able to have se—”
“Yes,” Sabrina cut in tersely, not at all interested in having it spelled out.
Karen, being Karen, couldn’t leave well enough alone. “And you saw everything that he’d done and had done to—”
“Yes,” growled Sabrina. She glared across the channel at Karen, and I just knew that if this were a game, their rivalry/reputation points with each other would be plummeting.
Pretty soon, they’d be at the stage where they sent pranks or traps to each other to mess with each other’s day.
If this was a game I could almost imagine their relationship score takign a nose dive. Karen and Sabrina’s relationship has lost five hundred reputation. They are now mortal enemies.
…
If they didn’t already prank or leave traps for each other, that was.
“Karen, that’s a minor point of the report,” I said, stepping in before Sabrina decided to teleport to Karen’s office to rip her to shreds. Just to be on the safe side, I muted her.
Apparently just in time, as Karen threw her head back and while there was no sound it didn’t take a lip reader to know she was roaring with laughter.
“Beedrill in her holiday home…” hissed Sabrina, and I decided to wisely ignore that for now.
“Still it gives us an idea of their next target. The pokemon transfer system,” I announced, making sure to Tauros ahead with the meeting to make it in some way productive.
“We also have a venue to explore,” remarked Janine.
Lucy, who was still blushing furiously and refusing to look at anyone, spoke up with a squeaky voice. “What do you think will happen to Bill’s body when he is unable to perform the tasks they desired of him?”
“...” We all shared a look.
“Sounds like us and the League are on a time crunch then!” Visquez summarised.
I nodded. With the police’s involvement, there was no way the League could be kept out of the loop. Not that we wanted to do such a thing in this situation. We needed more people scouring the area for any signs of Bill’s abductors if possible.”
“A flashing light on the message board alerted me to Karen’s desire to speak.
“You done taunting Sabrina?” I asked.
Karen rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out but eventually nodded, so I unmuted her.
“I’ve pitched to Lance the idea to do a proper investigation into the Mystery Cave. He isn’t as taken with the idea due to the various studies that have occurred in the past. I think he’ll grant me the expedition, however.”
She shrugged again. “That or I just do it anyway. I’m a bit too important these days to be reprimanded and for it to stick.”
Sabrina made a small sound of disgust that thankfully didn’t carry across the call. I hummed. “We probably shouldn’t leave it too long. Did he say who you could take?”
“I straight up pointed out that me, you, Sabrina, and Erika would be best for this.”
“Oh? You recommended me?” Erika murmured, a pleased smile appearing.
“Yeah, with the rock type pokemon and the water types you’re practically the best call,” Karen replied. “You can handle the chaff while we rest up for the big fight,” Karen smirked as she said this.
I hummed. “And if we encounter Blaine?”
That had the others stiffening and eying Erika who drew herself up. “I am ready to face a fire type specialist. I assure you, I have countermeasures for such an event.”
I pursed my lips.
“Just remember that Pryce thought the same, and he ended up barely winning while also being burned severely,” Sabrina stated firmly. “We will need to account for him to attempt to target you initially.”
“I. Can. Handle. It.” stated Erika again, this time making sure to emphasise each word firmly.
Sabrina relented and bowed her head.
Visquez grumbled, while Lucy raised her fist in solidarity.
Janine frowned and looked down. “I have just received a call to take my shinobi to Cerulean… Ah, Lance is adding me and mine to scouring the hills it would seem. Visquez, would you like to join me? It seems we have our first tip on a potential site for where Blaine might be.”
That had everyone sitting up. “Really?” I murmured.
Janine nodded. “It was garbled and rushed. The caller seemed desperate which points towards it being more authentic, but there is also every risk that Blaine will use the ‘trap’ we tried to lock him in with to snare us. Lance is asking that I be extra careful.”
I hissed out a breath. Damn, I hadn’t considered that you could use it against us like that, but it would make sense to be leery of each call that came in.
For all that the payout was substantial, there was another adage that needed to be considered.
Crime paid well.
There might be every chance that people would be paid to make a fake call in. The League would have to treat each as potential truth, as I had no doubt that somewhere in the Team Rocket offshoot, there were going to be more than a few disgruntled employees looking to strike it rich.
Damn, maybe Lance’s glorious masterstroke was more of a white Donphan with it being much more unwieldy than practical.
It played well with Indigo’s population as a loud, powerful statement, however and showed that Lance wasn’t willing to sit on his hands and wait for the next attack.
“Hmph, if this keeps up for more than a few days the Trinity nations will have support here for us,” Karen grumbled. “So to avoid a political debt and looking like we need our hands held we need to wrap things up within the next few days.”
A chirp from her side of the line drew another pause as she inspected her transceiver only to grin. “I’ve got the official go-ahead. Sabrina, Brock, and Erika, you’re with me!” she crowed.
“I say we mutiny,” muttered Sabrina to me quietly and I chuckled and offered her a nod.
This turned out to be a mistake as she began muttering about how we could make it look like an accident with pokemon getting her. I gave Sabrina a pointed look and she huffed. “Alright, I won’t leave her in a cave without her pokemon this time,” she conceded.
Somehow, that felt like the best I was going to get.
________________
We organised the equipment, the team, and our pokemon rosters to maximise the potential to handle both the inhabitants of the cave along with that of a potential Blaine encounter.
What we didn’t account for was the variety of people that used the Mystery cave as a stop over point before they continued on to their dates.
More than a few lovebirds called out to us when we appeared.
“Oh my gosh! It’s Brock and Sabrina! Whoooo! We love you!” called one girl.
“Sign my detective book!” called another only for it to be impossible for—
The pen in the girl’s hand rose of it’s own accord and signed Sabrina’s name with a flourish causing more squeals of delight and other items to be held aloft.
Sabrina made a heart shape with her hands as various items gained her signature with people gushing over her. I eyed my fiancee, surprised at her actions.
It made a little more sense when Karen appeared a minute later and ignored the crowd despite a few calling out to her while the rest continued to pay more attention to Sabrina. Something Karen noticed.
Hmmm, yeah… the optics were a lot better for Sabrina right now, weren’t they?
When Erika appeared, I suddenly found myself under several judging feminine gazes. The guys tried to signal their approval, but several of them were caught in the attempt, sparking arguments and one break-up on the spot.
Ah… This was what I’d talked about with Lance, wasn’t it? When I was just with Sabrina it was fine, but when more than two girls accompanied us, rumours began to swirl.
It was only magnified with the proximity to the Cerulean Cape due to it being a prominent dating spot. One could almost say it was already on their minds.
Still, we were here for a job. I signalled the nearby Rangers that were stationed at the entrance. “Ew;re going to need to push people back in case this blows up on us. Open the access road up to the Cape if you have to but get them off the nearby beach and river.” I gave the nugget bridge a considering look before nodding. “The bridge too.”
The Rangers gave me a look only to then cast their gazes towards the bridge where a decent crowd had formed.
“... you’re joking, right?” asked one.
“I’m afraid not,” I replied with a contrite grimace.
They slumped their shoulders and started to call in support from their local Ranger base.
With that handled I turned back to the cave’s entrance and nodded to Karen as she finished off a final check over. “All good?” she asked and I replied with a firm nod as I donned a small forehead lamp that shone red.
“I’m good. Want me up front?” I asked.
“No, I was serious about having Erika handle the pokemon that came in. You take the rear as there’s more potential for Teleporters and dark pokemon, both of which you have a good handle on dealing with," she stated.
She gestured to Sabrina and then herself with a thumb. “We’ll reinforce where we need to as the centre position.”
I pursed my lips, not liking the idea of having those two together only for Sabrina to catch my eye and nod, indicating that she was fine with this arrangement.
Erika stepped forward, for once not wearing her signature kimono. Instead she had an outfit that was more safari explorer, in my mind with the khaki pants and shirt along with multiple buttons. A pokedex camera glinted out from her top pocket and her hair was tied back firmly.
“Alright, I’m ready? Everyone else sound off!” she barked.
Karen raised an eyebrow. “Ready,” she said, adopting a professional tone.
“Ready,” Sabrina offered straight after.
Erika’s eyes swivelled to me when I delayed for another check over.
None of the girls hurried me, and when I had completed my task, I nodded as I handed out radio earpieces that synced up to each other while also stopping harmful noise.
“Ooooh? Good idea,” Karen complimented as she put both in place.
Nodding, I turned my attention to Erika. “Good to go,” I offered, glad that my test of their professionalism had been passed with flying colours.
None of them had hurried me despite the seeming pressing urge.
It was a good sign that everyone was taking this seriously.
Erika released her Tangrowth, Venusaur, and Bellosom.
The last pokemon hopped up onto her shoulder and began to glow slightly as it shimmied back and forth causing a small wave of pollen that was quite pleasant to the nose.
I matched her by releasing Sanchez, Shin, and Selene as my ready pokemon while the rest were set in a controlled line along my pokebelt. With a swipe of my hands I could deploy the other seven instantly.
Karen released her Umbreon, Gengar, and Houndoom, while Sabrina chose Medicham, Alakazam, and Espeon.
All of our pokemon glowed and emitted a faint aura of strength that continued to grow for a few minutes. Karen surprised us by reaching into her pouch and handing out several boosters. “Here, take these and use them now, just in case,” she said.
I eyed the X accuracy she’d handed me.
There could only be one pokemon she meant for this to have. Nodding, I released Bertha and handed her the banned substance.
I wasn’t going to complain, not when we had every chance of stepping into a trap. If I had to blow through it with Bertha, all the better that she be as accurate as possible.
Erika and Sabrina likewise took their gift without comment, handing them off to their pokemon.
Then we strode into the cave.
At first it seemed like any other cave or tunnel system I’d been into within Indigo.
It was dark, rocky, and sounds carried further than one would like.
Unlike other caves, this one was moist with the river running through it, and it didn’t take long for us to emerge from the entry tunnel to find a large cavern that hosted a river running right through it.
Several water pokemon were visible, but despite knowing that the river fed itself into the outside river that led out to the ocean, none of the pokemon I was seeing exited the cave.
Without consciously spotting them, I could tell that several eyes were turning towards us.
I knew by the way the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
“Well that’s not a goo—” I started to say, only for a flash to announce a pokemon appearing behind me.
Selene had been ready for this however and while the Kadabra was attempting to snipe us with a Psybeam she responded with a powerful Moonblast that rocketed down the tunnel where it slammed into Kadabra.
“Bra!” it shouted in shock as it was nailed into the wall.
It fell to the ground and slumped, defeated.
Sabrina turned slightly, her eyes narrowed as she inspected the downed pokemon.
“Hmmm, heightened aggression… there is a lingering tension within its mind despite it being knocked out. It… doesn’t feel like a normal Kadabra.”
“Think that’s the nature of the place or due to being nurtured that way?” Karen asked.
Sabrina chewed her lip, ignoring her rivalry to consider the question. “It is difficult to understand precisely… this place,” Sabrina jutted her chin. “There is an underlying wrongness to it despite what seems like natural structures.”
Giving the cavern around us a proper inspection I hummed. “It’s been formed by pokemon… but it is wrong for the structure. This type of rock wouldn’t usually have pokemon linger here. Not rock-type Pokémon at least,” I muttered.
“How so?” Karen asked. “I need some context if you would.”
“The soil that went into the rock… it’s lacking nutrients. Notice how it crumbles?” Putting action to words I reached out and with my hand tore a chunk out of the wall, causing part of it to collapse in slightly.
Karen hummed, and tried to copy the action, only to not get any purchase. She exhaled slowly. “This be a rock thing I take it?”
I gave her a so-so gesture. “It’s also about knowing where to strike. If you spend enough time with Flint you’ll overhear several things that click with all the spelunking and mountain climbing I have to do around Pewter.”
Erika tapped the wall near her thoughtfully only for another flash to appear near her. This time it was a Hypno and it raised its pendulum only for Tangrowth to react violently to the sudden arrival.
A huge vine swept around and sent the psychic type flying into a nearby wall, which once again crumbled as Hypno fell to the ground.
Sabrina pursed her lips. “Could the next pokemon fight be drawn out please?”
Erika coughed. “Sorry, that might be a tough ask. My pokemon are rather worked up, and it appearing and going straight for me like that… they’re going to be protective.”
Sabrina nodded only to sigh. “Looks’ like it will be up to you Karen. Do any of your pokemon happen to know False Swipe?”
Karen nodded and a moment later, a Weavile appeared with a smirk. “Boost up bud, but make sure to play with your food, alright? We’re drawing things out.”
Weaville only grew happier at this order.
What a typical dark type.
We moved forward and with the larger cavern we were able to release a few more pokemon, but we made sure to keep it to just one more, so Weaville still had a decent chance to get out from the group and engage with any psychic type pokemon.
It barely took two minutes for another pokemon to attack us, but sadly this time it was both more common and rather odd, as a powerful screech tore through our group and caused Karen and Erika to tense up in readiness for debilitating sounds to overwhelm them only for my earlier gift to stop them from being harmed.
The same wasn’t true for our pokemon sadly as they all reacted by flinching at the wave of sound washing over them.
I swept my hand upwards, knowing what was coming from above. I pulse a wave of my aura into my pokemon to bolster them.
They shook off the pain and rose with a fury in their eyes as I snapped my hand upwards.
My pokemon followed the order, causing a barrage of rock to ascend into the air and knock the swarm of Golbat out.
We didn’t stop at one barrage however, as I knew enough about Zubat swarm tactics to know that they never came in a singular wave. Golbats weren’t the same as they were stronger, they also had higher demands on their bodies for nutrition that made them less capable of working within a swarm.
That didn’t seem to be an issue here with these Golbat.
Yet another oddity.
They came on and on and on until the task was done.
My pokemon continued to launch waves of rock into the air for the next minute before I signalled a pause.
In the ensuing silence, we waited with baited breath for any more Golbat to come winging out of the cavern’s roof.
After two minutes when nothing came forth I nodded. “Nice work team!” I complimented.
Karen snorted and shot Sabrina a look. “So, you going to tell him he should have held back?”
Sabrina turned to me and chopped the air in my direction. “Brock, hold back next time. I need to inspect the pokemon’s minds to make sure everything is fine.”
“Roger, I’ll make sure to let the next swarm through,” I replied, amused at her actions.
Sabrina smirked as she inspected the nearest cluster of Golbat. “Pokemon that are well known to not work without packs due to their increased energy needs… and yet here they are working together against us.”
“The oddities of this place keep building up,” I said. “Also I seem to recall Agatha didn’t have this issue. Did she ghost in when she came?” I asked, she pointedly hadn’t mentioned doing such in her report but with her abilities, it would make more sense for her to do so.
She’d have been far faster without getting opposed nearly as much.
That, or the local population of pokemon had grown more aggressive rather than less… which was just as worrying.
There had to be a breaking point for such a population of pokemon, and with how close to Cerulean they were…
We continued deeper into the cave system, inspecting the walls and floors while Erika took some time to look over mushrooms and other plant growth that came from the river.
“These all appear normal to me,” she remarked thoughtfully. “So it’s not something seeping from the rocks or water that is causing differences in the plants as well.”
“So the oddity remains in the pokemon,” Karen mused.
“Saur!” roared a powerful voice as a Venusaur shot out of the darkness with its leaves flickering as Leafstorm began to be unleashed.
“You’re up Karen!” I called as I pulled my pokemon back from the potentially dangerous attack.
Weaville exploded into action and got in close to the powerful Venusaur.
It slashed a few times and even got in Venusaur’s face only to click its tongue audibly.
It swiped twice with its claws only to have to back up as Venusaur attempted to dislodge it with a strong Vine Whip.
“Huh, Weaville says that’s not a Venusaur!” called Karen.
“No,” Sabrina replied, her gaze locked on the pokemon. “It’s a Ditto, but it still has memories that I’m able to search through, keep it engaged!”
“Tch!” Karen replied as she signalled her pokemon back in.
“Venusaur knows Vine Whip, Leaf Storm, Synthesis, Seed Bomb, Sleep Powder, Toxic and Solar Beam!” Erika called, realising precisely who’s pokemon had been copied in that moment.
I gave the Ditto-saur a thoughtful look over. It had a vibrancy to its body that I'd only ever seen in Erika’s pokemon. Was that something a Ditto could copy? Or was it a sign of this Ditto’s strength?
I cast my mind back to the specific pokemon that you were likely to encounter within the Mystery Cave only to curse. Damn, Ditoo were actually some of the strongest, weren’t they?
The only other pokemon that were supposed to come close were Rhydon, Raichu, and Primeape.
Thankfully, I didn’t need to count Mewtwo into this equation.
…
I really hoped I didn’t have to count Mewtwo, or some weird clone of Mewtwo, aka a Mewthree, as something I might face within the cave system.
With the knowledge of what specific moves this Ditto-saur had access to, Karen was able to control the fight from there on.
One thing that quickly stood out to me, was that for all that Erika’s Venusaur knew more than four moves, Ditto-aur only knew Vine Whip, Leafstorm, Synthesis, and Seed Bomb.
Annoyingly, more often than not, the Ditto-saur attempted to bomb not just Karen’s pokemon but us as well, causing us to to defend ourselves by sniping the attack out of the air.
Other than that, however, Karen had no issues leading her opponent around by the nose.
"Hypno", Sabrona announced. “There is a trained pack of Hypno that roam the cavern and induce preset commands into various pokemon.”
“Which means that this cave system very much is not a natural environment,” I murmured.
“I’d need to inspect more Pokémon to confirm it, but it would be the ultimate defensive measure to have such pokemon acting as gatekeepers that other people would have to slog through.”
“How do they keep the pokemon from eating each other?” I asked.
“They reduce the urge to eat other pokemon, but it isn’t eliminated entirely… they need some method to keep pokemon as strong as possible,” Sabrina murmured with a pinched expression.
“Do I want to know the specifics?” I asked.
"There are caverns that are basically flat arenas. Pokemon are compelled to enter every few days to fight. What they fight can be entirely random, but if a pokemon loses three fights in a row…. You are consumed.”
“Let the strong only inherit,” Erika murmured. “A most barbaric philosophy.”
“Ypu can knock it out now Karen,” Sabrina called.
Karen nodded, and Weaville allowed Ditto-saur a few swipes before it suddenly lashed out with an ice type move that saw the Venusaur’s body collapse in on itself.
A moment later Karen whipped an ultraball at the downed pokemon.
We all stared at her.
“What? Ditto are useful pokemon to have and I wouldn’t mind selling or keeping it myself for breeding purposes!” she argued.
Erika shifted. “It’s typically better to get a pokemon that matches it to—”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know the argument. Slight decrease in fighting ability from those born from Ditto but I’m not worried about that,” Karen replied with a flap of her hand as the ultraball wobbled a few times only to pop open before it could click shut.
"...You kidding me?” she grunted as she plucked out another pokeball to whip forward. This time it took with Karen snorting before the ball vanished in a flash of light.
“Riiiiight, that was a distraction,” I muttered. “Where should we go now?” I asked.
Sabrina pursed her lips. “We need to go deeper. That’s where the Hypno always seems to come from. We’re going to have to be careful. These Hypno… there are at least ten of them working together.”
That made me frown. “That seems like a lot of effort. Is this the sort of thing that Blaine could have set up?
He was a genius, but to have this level of control. He had to have diverted a significant portion of Team Rocket’s building and psychic capabilities for this project.
The fact alone that he could use Ditto like this… Were they expendable to him?
What could he be using so many for?
Erika led us towards a downward-sloping tunnel that caused several Onix to jump out at us, only for her and her pokemon to handle them with ease.
“Hey, hold up,” I called as a thought occurred to me.
The others turned and look at me.
“If there’s a base at the bottom of the mystery cave, then it stands to reason that there must be another way to access this base from the top, right?”
That made them pause and think.
“No way Blaine would slum it hiking down here every time he wanted to inspect his projects,” Karen muttered. “From what I heard about Blaine he always tried to be efficient.”
“There would be an elevator or some other structure… unless they could Teleport directly?”
“We’re roughly five storeys underground at the moment. It grows exponentially harder to teleport out of a cave the deeper you go. The Rangers have set limits on how deep trainers that are undergoing their Journey may go due to this.”
“So it’s unlikely that Blaine has a Teleport directly to his base, but what about doing it in stages?” I suggested, playing at the next ‘most efficient situation’.
“It would be unpleasant to experience several chained together like that…but with enough exposure to it…” Sabrina conceded.
“So we should be searching atop this cave system?” Karen suggested.
I tapped my foot on the ground. “What’s the best way of getting into Blaine’s lab? Through the front door? Or through the side door?”
Again, Karen made a face. “Shit. I’m not sure. He won’t have gone light with any defensive measures but the waves of pokemon, what else could he employ down here?”
We all considered that for a long moment only to make faces.
If an evil genius had been given an open cheque book on defending his lab, what wouldn’t he do?
“So is the front entrance going to be any better?” asked Erika.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “We need to find… another way… there must be a method that he didn’t consider,” I suggested.
“Yeah, good luck finding that. Blaine was known for his genius.”
“So we need to do something crazy,” I replied.
Karen, Erika and Sabrina stared at me. “And what do you propose?” Karen prompted.
I shut my eyes and tried to think up something. Come on brain, think!
Sadly nothing came to me. There were no simple answers out here.
I could hear a multitude of pokemon moving about now that I listened carefully and they’d be an issue we’d have to deal with. That and the underground river that…
“We should check the underground river,” I suggested, a crazy idea starting to form in my mind. “Any of you bring scuba gear?” I asked.
Karen blinked. “Into a cave exploration? Yeah of course I did!” she snarked sarcastically.
I smirked. “Good thing for you, I don’t leave home without practically all my stuff,” I replied as I led them back to the underground river.
With a nod of my head, Shin dove into the water and began to zip around.
“Now, what are the odds that Blaine will need to have tapped into the waterway? Would he have been able to defend that with more than just strong pokemon?”
It took a while but eventually he found something.
“Gotcha,” I announced with a nod. “We’ve got something.”
Erika raised a hand. “I don’t have any water type pokemon in my roster,” she admitted sheepishly.
Hmmm, that was a hurdle, I thought to myself.
Thankfully, or sadly, depending on who you ask. I did know someone who could help us out with water type pokemon.
Time to get Lola involved once more for round two of a potential showdown with Blaine.
___________________
A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support!
It also goes to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!