“I found Brinny!” Kerry declared.

  “Thanks, Kerr. What would I do without you?” Nina smiled as she released her baby seal to check on him.

  “Hehe… They were with my Pokeballs. These Rocket grunts are surprisingly organized, they have all the Pokeballs they stole sorted loosely by which room the hostages are in, I think.”

  “Meaning there’s a competent mastermind behind all this then. Hard to say if that’s a good thing or not, but it figures that such an elaborate take over isn’t just due to dumb luck. Not that any of the goons we’ve taken down so far were particularly smart.” Nina sighed. “Must be quite a chore to wrangle so many idiots…”

  Whitney scoffed as she reached into the box and rummaged for her own Pokeballs. The young woman almost exclusively used Premier Balls as one would expect from a cliche like her.

  “Better a smartass than a moron.” She chimed. “Pa always said that you can’t fight stupid. They’ll drag ya down into the mud to wrestle. But the more they think, the easier they are to fool. ‘Sides, even the dumbest Rider can be carried by the fastest of Rapidash.”

  “You pa sounds very wise.” Nina mused.

  “He was, yeah… Anywhoodles, you two girlies know the plan right? Use that purdy little Espeon of yours to find the jammer and smash it while I head down to the basement — place is a maze but I’ve been here enough to know it like the back of my hand.”

  “Wait!” Kerry exclaimed. “What do we do with the rest of the Pokeballs? We can’t just leave them here. What if Team Rocket snatches them on their way out?”

  “Here, you can dump them all in here.” Nina said as she wrenched her Silph Co backpack open. While they hadn’t had the time to change, Nina and Kerry were able to swing by the dressing room and grab their bags before they left.

  “Urgh. If we go out looking like this, the media’s gonna have a field day.” Nina could see the headlines now; Poke-Idol Rocket Hunters.

  Nina did actually propose that they disguise themselves as Team Rocket earlier, like how it was in the games. But that suggestion was thrown out by a single “Ewww…” from Whitney. Though to be fair, the face of a Nurse Joy was iconic and Whitney’s was plastered all over the city. Team Rocket was dumb but not that dumb.

  “What about the Psychics then? They might be helpful.” Kerry gestured towards the stasis case containing a trio of Pokeballs — the Psychic Pokemon employed by the broadcast station that Team Rocket had somehow managed to subdue.

  Whitney shrugged. “Eh, what the heck. I’ll take one just in case. I’m a little short anyway.” According to the Gym Leader, she only carried three of her Pokemon with her on the daily; Delcatty, Clefable and Lopunny. Even moaned about the absence of her iconic Miltank. “Shove the rest in your pack. Best to rely on your Espeon instead. Ain’t no guarantee they’ll listen to ya.”

  “No, I think Kerry should take one for emergencies. Psychics are smart, they’ll recognize a Nurse Joy when they see one.”

  And with that, the party was split, with Kerry sticking close to Nina while Whitney went off on her own.

  “Is she going to be okay?”

  “Whitney’ll be fine. She’s a Gym Leader after all. Normal Type Pokemon might be underestimated a lot of the time but they’re also the most versatile.” Not to mention Arceus’s default form was Normal Type. “Her Pokemon probably have a whole arsenal of different Type moves at their disposal. Anyways, what do you think, Espy? I know it’s tough, but do you reckon you can pinpoint the highest concentration of Dark Type Energy in the building?”

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  The Espeon frowned, her beautiful feline features scrunching up tight in concentration.”

  ***

  The whole building was sealed tight — that was the conclusion that Espy came to. An unknown number of Psychic jammers were put in place to completely block out any Teleportation, in or out, perfectly overlapping to not allow even the slightest of gaps.

  Finding these jammers usually involved locating the densest concentration of Dark Type Energy. But given how evenly placed they were and the suppression that Espy had to contend with under the circumstances, they had no choice but to run around in hopes of getting lucky.

  And got lucky they did. Maybe it was because of a lack of personnel, but there was one located pretty close to where the stolen Pokeballs were stored. Albeit, in another room.

  “How is it, Espy?”

  “Es.” The Espeon shook her head.

  Nina sighed. “Figures just breaking one of them wouldn’t be enough.”

  “So what do we do now?”

  In response to Kerry’s question, Nina took out the framed floorplan that she snatched along the way.

  “This is where we’re at right now. It’s safe to assume that there should be jammers set up in every four corners of the building and on every floor.”

  “That’s a lot of ground to cover.”

  “Yeah, but we just need to create a gap.” Nina pointed at the corner they were located in. “We’re on the second floor right now and the third floor is the highest. So if we’re able to take out another jammer upstairs, the interference might be thin enough in this quadrant for a powerful Psychic to punch through.”

  “What if they have something on the roof as well?”

  Nina shook her head. “Doubt it. Otherwise they’d need to post guards up there to fend off any Flyers. But we’ll see what happens. Worst case scenario, we make our way up onto the roof.” The girl scowled. “Dammit, if only we can open some of these windows!” They were sealed tight and breaking the glass panes would probably be too conspicuous.

  Unfortunately for them, the third floor was much better guarded with an even distribution of goon patrols. So they had to be a lot more subtle with their approach, opting to sneak around with Azzy’s assistance and avoid engagement as much as possible. The third floor was also an open floor housing most of the station’s staff cubicles, so everything was pretty exposed, leaving little room for shadows to hide in.

  “Man, this feels much harder than Metal Gear. Where’s a cardboard box when you need one?” That was a joke of course. The main issue was that Dark Type Pokemon could sniff them out even through the cover of shadows, reducing the effectiveness of Azzy’s concealment. But between her and Espy, and a healthy dose of luck, they were fortunate enough to avoid detection.

  “Both Morty and Hattori said that once a Ghost Pokemon becomes powerful enough, they can hide humans deep in Limbo with no adverse effects. Something to work on with Azzy once we get out of this mess.” At the moment, the Haunter could only hold small objects within her trainer’s shade, like Pokeballs and her origami supplies.

  Then there were the 3rd floor hostages which they had to avoid, to prevent any of them giving the sneaky little girls away. Especially after a close call from a particularly panicky office lady who Azzy had to put to sleep.

  “For someone working in the entertainment industry, these people are terrible actors and seem completely oblivious towards standard tropes.” Nina sighed as she signaled for Kerry to halt.

  They finally reached the meeting room where one of the jammers was held. The problem being, all the blinds were shut and they had no way of peeking inside.

  “What do we do now?” Kerry whispered while looking around anxiously.

  The corner they were in right now was conveniently blocked by a row of cubicles. But it was only a matter of minutes before another Rocket goon passed by.

  Nina expanded Nitey’s Pokeball and gestured for Kerry to do the same. “No choice. We quickly barge in and smash the jammer on sight. Hopefully, that should be enough of an opening for the authorities to infiltrate.” And hopefully, the two of them could hold long enough for backup to arrive as well.

  “But what about the hostages?”

  “If either Morty or Sabrina gets in here then that won’t be an issue. Team Rocket’s radio signal is gonna be a worry though. But well… I’d be surprised if they haven’t discovered their missing members at this point.” But strangely, none of the Rocket members they saw showed any indication of awareness.

  “Which means, they’re either genuinely oblivious or the executives know but are intentionally keeping mum.” The latter would indicate that Team Rocket’s hold over the broadcast station was not as solid as they would like the world to believe.

  “Better to let a few hostages escape than spread their people too thin. Either that, or they’re focused on chasing after Whitney. That girl is as subtle as a… Well, as a Miltank.”

  “Regardless, we don’t have much of a choice. The patrol is about to come back around so we have to act now. Are you ready, Kerr?”

  The nurse girl gulped down her nerves and responded with a timid nod.

  Nodding back, Nina raised her hand and counted down from three. Then, swiftly pushed into the glass door with Espy in the lead. However, what she saw inside was…

  “V-Victor?! What are you doing here?”

  Hunched figure, dirt stained blue shirt, green overalls and a head of balding red hair. It was none other than Victor, the current Leader of the Viridian City Gym. And at his feet was the unconscious form of Petrel, the purple-haired Team Rocket executive that held Nina’s crew hostage earlier.

  “Haha! Ho there, fancy meeting you two lassies again.”

  I break right?