Wattson used his authority as a Gym Leader and one of the primary investors of Mauville to cut the power around where TV Mauville was located within the central mall. The civilians had already been evacuated, and several trainers of the appropriate strength were recruited to assist the Gym Trainers in maintaining a perimeter around it. Some of the trainers had a Dark, Ghost, or Psychic Type Pokemon, but none had been trained to protect someone’s mind, and wouldn’t be able to help with the infiltration. The Dark Types specifically wouldn’t be able to assist because they lacked the discipline to maintain a serious mood for the entire duration of the operation. It was difficult to get Dark Types to stay focused and helpful for a long period of time.

Honestly, seeing that just made Thomas even more impressive in my mind.

Ninetales and I were sneaking through a maintenance tunnel that led to a janitorial entrance within TV Mauville. Some Gym Trainers had sent out Rotoms that were able to scout to find out what was in TV Mauville’s section of the mall. Unfortunately, Team Magma had expected that and most electronics had already been removed to prevent any ambushes. They were only able to provide a small amount of information from a distance.

From what was discovered about Team Magma’s setup, the hostages were being kept within the main set of their news channel without their Pokéballs. The Pokéballs had been taken and moved to be in a pile in a separate conference room, where several of the grunts stood guard. Team Magma had three trainers with Psychic Types keeping tabs on people around them, so Gym Trainers weren’t able to get close without alerting Team Magma and risking the hostages.

I had to knock out the Psychics then free the hostages, if possible, to have any chance of success.

Banette was in my shadow and knew about what was going on. Wattson had to use his authority as a Gym Leader to command it to assist. It was hesitant to go against its orders to solely protect me, but a careful argument stating that its help would keep me safe convinced it. For this plan in general, as long as it stayed within a shadow, Psychics wouldn’t be able to detect it. I could only afford to have a single Pokémon out without raising alarms, since Team Magma had several individual Pokémon patrolling so one extra wouldn’t stand out.

To prevent their Psychic Types from detecting anything else, my Pokémon’s Pokéballs were sitting inside a lead-lined attached bag to my belt. Also within it was a TV remote from the Mauville Gym’s break room with a Rotom hiding inside. It could only leave the bag for a few moments before being detected, but it could be used in case of an emergency and would be helpful to lead the hostages away due to its familiarity with the city.

As I moved through the tunnel, I wasn’t using the flashlight given to me in Meteor Falls to not draw suspicion. I relied on Ninetales’s low light vision to lead me through the dim area.

Getting through the maintenance tunnel was the first step of the plan. According to the information provided by the Rotom scouts, one of the three Psychic Type trainers was positioned near the entrance to the maintenance tunnels. I needed to approach them without raising alarms, knock them out, then disguise myself with their uniform so I could take out the other Psychic Type trainers as well.

I had been hesitant since knocking them out might have alerted the other Psychics, but from what we knew, Team Magma only had weaker Psychic Types like Grumpig and Chimecho that wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between an unconscious and conscious person. As long as I, or more importantly Banette, didn’t kill them, no one would realize they had disappeared.

As I moved closer to the door, I peeked around the dusty corner of the tunnel intersection and immediately jumped back to not reveal myself. When the Rotoms first scouted, the door was still blocked off. Now, however, it seemed that they had broken it down and had set up a guard staring out into the tunnel. There was no trainer, luckily, but it didn’t mean the presence of a Mightyena was any less threatening.

I patted Ninetales on the head and whispered into her ear.

“It’s your turn, girl.”

Ninetales didn’t make any noises to react, but poked her head around the corner to look Mightyena in the eyes. It did notice her, but Confuse Ray took effect fast enough that it didn’t bark to alert the others.

This was my strategy to stay safe. Ninetales could layer illusions with Confuse Ray to make the enemy Pokémon and their trainers think we were just normal members of Team Magma. I didn’t have a uniform yet so it would be risky if it wore off, but for now it was good enough to pass by.

Ninetales and I entered the short corridor in front of the Mightyena and strode as confidently as we could manage. The dog was confused so we just had to pretend we were supposed to be there for it to not question us. There was a nerve-wracking moment when the Mightyena briefly turned its head to sniff us as we passed, but it turned back to the maintenance tunnel to continue standing guard without realizing anything was amiss.

I patted Ninetales on the head once again, and stepped into the first hallway of TV Mauville.

The first goal was to locate the Psychic Types. We knew the first one was near the entrance we had just passed through, but it was possible that they had moved. The door that connected to the maintenance tunnels was at the end of a hallway lined with doors to makeup rooms reserved for the cast and guests of the show. The hallway within TV Mauville was thankfully empty, but it would be dangerous once I got close since the Psychic would be able to detect my presence.

My shadow slid out from underneath me and into the darkness, appearing as a slightly darker splotch in the already darkened hallway. Ninetales was uncomfortable with the sight, considering that Banette had taken extra care to not reveal itself to my team before, but she didn’t do anything that might have revealed our position. The Ghost Type in the shadow zipped under the gaps of several doors until it stopped at one and returned to me. That was the sign the Psychic was in that room.

Ninetales stood outside the door and her eyes glowed blue. It was dangerous for me to open it myself, and would make too much noise if we broke it down, so she would use her weak telekinesis from her practice with Extrasensory to be the one to open it up. I grabbed the baton I took from the Team Magma member in Meteor Falls, and prepared myself for a potential fight. We would only have a chance at victory if we surprised them, so we would have to be fast.

At my order, Ninetales turned the handle then threw the door open and we rushed in. She was immediately grabbed by a tall, humanoid figure that pressed a green blade on its elbow to her throat, and seeing that, I paused my rush towards the trainer in the room.

I was thankful that Banette paused as well after sensing my hesitation, because I recognized the trainer in front of me.

“Alex?” a familiar voice said.

I glanced at the Gallade holding its arm-sword to Ninetales’s throat, and looked past it to see a familiar, green-haired trainer and a knocked out Team Magma member with an unconscious Grumpig next to them. Wally’s eyes were wide, and his Gallade quickly recognized me and dropped Ninetales to the floor. She was upset she had been attacked, but was used to making up after battles and started wagging her tails in excitement for the reunion with friends.

It took me much longer than Ninetales to recover from the unexpected encounter, and could barely choke out a response.

“Wally,” I said, struggling to regain my posture, “Why are you here? I saw you as a hostage!”

He smiled a bit, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

“When they burst in, I hid Gallade’s Pokéball in my mouth since they were only searching our clothes. I wiggled around and annoyed them until they ripped off the gag and sent out Gallade. He was able to knock the trainers and their Pokémon out, and since I was the only one to have a team member with me, I went out to find where the other Pokéballs were kept.”

“But the hostages, if they find out someone’s missing then-”

“They’re okay,” Wally said, interrupting me. “Some of the calmer TV Mauville employees undressed the guards and posed as them. The guards are knocked out and tied up with the other people staying behind.”

I finally recovered enough to think straight, and focused on my mission once more.

“Alright, was there a Psychic Type with the guards?”

Wally paused to think about it then nodded.

“Yes, there was a Medicham that Gallade knocked out. Why, is that important?” he asked.

I glanced at the Grumpig briefly before responding.

“It’s extremely important. If you’ve knocked out two of their Psychics, there’s only one left. If we can knock the last Psychic out, we can get the hostages out through the maintenance tunnels and have Wattson and his Gym Trainers come in to capture Courtney. The issue is, the last Psychic is with the hostage’s Pokéballs in the conference room. It’s the most heavily guarded place they’ve taken over.”

Wally just looked more determined than ever when I said that.

“Then what are we waiting for? We have to go get them!”

I put my hand on his shoulder as he tried to run past with Gallade. He was extremely motivated to help the others, which while nice to see when compared to how meek he used to be, wasn’t something that we could do without a plan if we wanted to stay safe.

“Wally, stop. We need to make sure we have the appropriate knowledge to reduce the risk of harm coming to us or the hostages. If you fail, they’ll know where you came from, and what do you think they’d do to everyone relying on you?”

Wally’s face went pale and I continued.

“Your Gallade is a Fighting Type, and if they have a Psychic Type he’s especially vulnerable to their attacks. He might be able to hide you with his own Psychic powers to let you sneak up on an individual, but in a room with that many people in it, our best course of action is to surprise them, and Ninetales and I are already prepared for that.”

Wally looked up at me curiously while I stared down at the unconscious Team Magma grunt.

Man, am I really going to have to put on someone else’s dirty clothes?

I walked down the inner hallways of TV Mauville, dressed as a Team Magma member and pretending to lead a fake-tied up Wally towards the conference room. Gallade had been returned to his Pokéball and my Pokémon were still in the lead bag. Ninetales walked with me to assist in our deception, using Confuse Ray on anyone who became suspicious of my unfamiliar face. Gallade’s Pokéball was clipped to my belt, pretending to be Ninetales’s Pokéball, so he could be sent out at a moment’s notice.

Gallade couldn’t completely block out another Psychic’s influence since he hadn’t specifically trained for that. However, he could at least dampen how much could be detected, and was currently spoofing himself as a weaker Fighting Type Pokémon just in case the last Psychic Type detected him. Before, Gallade was able to hide Wally and himself since it was only the two of them, but right now Gallade wouldn’t be able to hide the entire group.

A few Team Magma grunts neared as I walked down the hallway, but their eyes glazed over thanks to Ninetales and they didn’t blink an eye at me as I led Wally forward. I inwardly thanked all the practice we had done getting Ninetales’s Confuse Ray into such a solid state. I never expected to need to use it like this.

The conference room was near the main set for the news channel, and I was only able to find my way thanks to the map Wattson showed me prior to entering the area. The doors weren’t guarded but I knew that inside was a Chimecho that could detect anyone that tried to enter. Following the plan I made with Wally, I opened it up without delay, not willing to wait outside and draw suspicion to myself.

I pushed Wally into the room and held back an apology as he stumbled forward. He turned around and glared at me, and even though I knew it was just an act, I still wasn’t comfortable about how hard I had to treat him.

The room was set up like a classic meeting room at an office: one long table and a projector facing a wall. Inside of the room were five Team Magma grunts. Two of them were brooding in the corner like some kind of edgy Dungeons and Dragons character, while another two were quietly talking to each other, sitting at the end of a table covered with Pokéballs. At the other end of the table, standing around and looking bored, was another grunt, but with a Chimecho floating at his side.

The Chimecho grunt was wearing an outfit that was different from the other ones. Instead of the classic flat uniform, the chest was open a bit and revealed a thick red jacket underneath. I held back a curse under my breath, knowing what that difference in uniform meant.

This guy wasn’t a normal grunt. Courtney had made him an admin.

“Huh? Why’d you bring a kid here?” the admin asked. He looked at Ninetales suspiciously, since she was an unusual Pokémon for a criminal to have, but didn’t immediately attack thanks to my uniform disguise. We already decided not to use Confuse Ray here to not alert the Chimecho.

I grunted and tried to speak in the best thug voice I could manage.

“Show ‘em.”

I untied Wally’s hands then unhooked the bag on my belt and thrust it into his grasp. He wobbled for a moment since I practically hit him with it, but stumbled towards the admin as I pushed him to keep up the act.

The Team Magma admin looked on in amusement at my treatment of Wally, and Wally walked over like we planned. He held out the bag for the admin to look into, and the admin leaned down to peer in.

That’s when the Rotom hidden inside the remote shot out towards his face.

The Team Magma admin lurched back, trying to dodge, but Rotom was too fast for the human to avoid its attack. Unfortunately, the Chimecho turned out to be rather well trained and caught Rotom with the move Psychic before it could deal too much damage. Wally, taking the initiative while the pair was distracted and the other four grunts were stunned from surprise, reached in and pulled out my Pokéballs to release my team. On my end, I sent out Gallade to assist. Ninetales had already launched an Ice Beam at one of the side grunts.

I closed and locked the door behind us as combat began.

Ninetales didn’t create a hailstorm like she was used to since that would hurt us as well within such a small room. Instead, the Ice Beam froze one of the brooding grunt's feet against the ground. My team appeared in the open spaces in the room and attacked.

Azumarill shot forward with Aqua Jet to grab and pick up one of the conversing grunts by the throat, then punched the other one to knock them back. Mawile chased after that one to make sure he wouldn’t get up. Florges stood back to heal with Wish, and finally, Swablu channeled his inner angry bird and launched himself at the only other uninvolved grunt in the room.

My Pokémon attacked to knock them out, but three of the grunts were able to send out their Pokémon. The only grunt in the room that was currently helpless was the one scared out of his wits in Azumarill’s grasp, and he was right to feel that way.

Wally started to command Gallade to take on the admin’s Chimecho as my Pokémon focused on the grunts. We decided to have Gallade take out Chimecho, since his physical Fighting Type attacks would be able to do it far quicker than Ninetales’s special Ice Type moves.

The Pokémon the grunts sent out were a collection of Mightyena and Golbat, and they didn’t follow the classic rules of only using one Pokémon in battle. The room was packed with Pokémon, so it was a struggle to take even a step forward. Unfortunately for them, even though most of my Pokémon were specialized in range, they had hours and hours of experience of sparring with Azumarill, which the grunts’ Pokémon sorely lacked.

The Mightyena snapped forward with Bites and Crunches, while the Golbat swooped down for Wing Attacks and Poison Fangs. My Pokémon knew to avoid the Golbat since their Poison Type moves were the largest threat in the room. Ninetales ducked, Swablu flew around, and Azumarill just smacked a Golbat out of the air with her tail. Mawile stood on top of the grunt she chased after, disappointed that he had already been knocked out, but still managing to hold a Golbat in her mouth with Vice Grip. Florges floated over next to me to protect me from stray attacks.

None of the grunts’ Pokémon were using ranged moves since they hadn’t been trained enough to use them accurately in close quarters. My Pokémon were Pokémon from a team that had earned five badges, and that showed in their success. My Pokémon’s attacks were too strong for the “cannon fodder” Pokémon to resist, and the grunts’ Pokémon were quickly knocked out.

Ninetales froze the helpless grunts to the floor and walls, not concerned about damaging them with frostbite because one, they were violent criminals, and two, Aspear berries cured frostbite, even in its most advanced states.

I looked to the center of the room where Wally was keeping the admin’s Chimecho occupied with Gallade. It was putting up a decent fight, which was surprising since it was up in melee. Gallade was grabbing it and hitting it with its sword-arms while Chimecho was focusing on retaliating with a constant stream of Psychic.

The admin hadn’t had time to send out any more Pokémon, especially since there wasn't the space to send any out. The number of grunts in this room actually worked against him and prevented him from using his much stronger team. He looked around to see his supporting grunts were now unconscious and restrained, so he grabbed a ball at his belt and held it up. I noticed that he now had a nasty Lichtenberg scar across his face after his encounter with Rotom.

“You think you’re so clever, ambushing us like this? Well, you aren’t getting out of here alive, or my name isn't- urfgh”

He slumped to the ground as Mawile easily knocked him out with a careful application of Sucker Punch. Mawile looked around, proud she was able to actually help. I wasn’t worried about the admin sustaining a serious injury, since the medical technology of this world was so incredible.

I looked over to Wally, and saw that Gallade had finally managed to knock out Chimecho. Wally and I didn’t need to say anything as I grabbed the lead-lined sack as well as a spare that was provided to me and started to fill up the bags with the stolen Pokéballs. We returned the criminal’s unconscious team members and took their Pokéballs as well, just to make sure they couldn’t be used against us later.

Once all the Pokéballs were collected, I gathered my Pokémon around the door as Wally clipped his re-obtained Pokéballs to his belt.

“Alright, that was noisy so they’re aware of us now,” I said. “However, we have Pokémon to bring to the hostages, to help them escape, so now we just have to get them out of here.”

Wally and all of the Pokémon within the room made noises of acknowledgement, and I went to the door to prepare to throw it open. Gallade walked up to carefully move me aside, and I let him, realizing it was probably for the best for a Pokémon to lead instead of a fragile human.

Gallade threw open the door and burst out, getting clipped by a few stray Sludge attacks from a barrage of moves thrown at him. He managed to stay up and Florges immediately used Aromatherapy to cure him of poison. I was grateful he went first, because I would not have survived that assault.

Gallade’s arms glowed blue with Psychic energy and he rushed forward to start clearing the way for us with his Psycho Cut move.

He tore into the numerous Koffing, Gulpin, and Golbat Team Magma had sent out, and threw their unconscious bodies at the nearby Team Magma members to make room for us to leave. We turned to the left and ran toward the main set where the hostages were waiting as a large number of criminal trainers chased after us.

Our Pokemon fired attacks at the criminals to slow them down, and a few of them were left behind. However, there were still a decent number of them behind us when we entered the set and slammed the door closed. Gallade positioned himself to hold it closed with a combination of strength and Psychic energy as it was battered by attacks trying to break it open. Ninetales assisted him with her own weak telekinesis.

Now in the room where the hostages were pretending to still be captured, Wally and I threw the bags of stolen Pokéballs down.

“A large number of Pokémon outside, need help from anyone who can provide it. For the rest of you, we’re getting out of here,” I announced.

The hostages scrambled forward to reclaim their Pokémon, and some of them released their team members. None of them were as strong as Wally’s or my Pokémon, but they would be more than enough to help.

I pulled out my Pokégear to make a call while everyone collected their Pokéballs.

“Alex! Status update!” Wattson called out as soon as he picked up.

“We’ve re-obtained all of the hostages’ Pokémon and are in the process of returning them. Team Magma is outside the room, but we’re going to fight back and try to escape. No sign of Courtney.”

“I see. We’re moving in.”

I hung up the call and pocketed my device once more.

I gave the crowd directions to the maintenance tunnels, and took out the remote once more to let Rotom help direct them. It had returned to the device when Gallade started to fight Chimecho since it wasn’t a strong fighter without an appliance to possess.

Florges floated next to Ninetales and the two of them positioned themselves behind Gallade to start channeling their strongest move: Moonblast. Ninetales was still in the process of learning it from Florges, so hers wasn’t combat ready, but it was still strong enough to blast back whatever was on the other side of the door after it was fully charged up.

We waited a few seconds for the moves to be ready and Gallade threw open the door. Two brilliant pink balls of energy shot out, causing a series of pained screams from the Pokémon on the other side. Swablu followed it up with Dragon Breath, and a few of the ex-hostages ordered their Pokémon to unleash attacks of their own. The sudden retaliation fainted most of the assaulting grunts’ Pokémon, and after Azumarill, Mawile, and a few other melee fighters rushed out to take out the rest of them, the way was now cleared. Everyone began to funnel out of the room and towards the maintenance tunnel.

In our dash to reach the hostages, we had taken out a good number of grunts, and even more of them were knocked unconscious when we moved to escape. When we ran, I saw that the number of grunts that were outside was nowhere near the number we expected. I wondered why there were so few, but then I heard the sound of a familiar blast of electricity.

Seems like Wattson and his Gym Trainers moved in faster than I expected.

Wally and I led the group around the hallways and into the section dedicated to makeup rooms. I had Swablu specifically take the lead since his small form and ability to fly meant he could easily direct everyone where to go. He was exceptionally calm and his actions almost reminded me of a tour guide’s, and that demeanor actually helped calm some of the people down. I saw the same Mightyena from before standing alert, growling at us as we approached, but Azumarill pushed through the crowd of people with Aqua Jet and threw the Mightyena into one of the side rooms using Superpower. It immediately fainted.

We stayed in the back to make sure everyone left safely, counting the number of escapees as they left. I was worried when I had only counted thirty-six, thinking we missed one, but then remembered that Wally had been included in the number Courtney gave in the video, which meant all the hostages had been accounted for. As the last person made their way through the door to the maintenance tunnels, I heard an emotionless voice from behind us and immediately froze in fear.

“...You are unanticipated ...I had not foreseen ...this development.”

Courtney, former Team Magma admin and now leader of whatever remained of it, grabbed a Pokéball from her hip and held it up.

“Deleting...”

Wally, brave Wally, yelled to send his Gallade forward as Courtney sent out a Weezing. I held back a sigh of relief that she wasn’t using her Camerupt yet, but still panicked since this was Courtney and she was strong enough to fight off a member of the Elite Four.

“Psycho Cut! Take it out!” Wally yelled, assuming the Weezing was weak enough to faint that easily.

In response, I told my Pokémon to support Gallade in his battle. As everyone else took up a battle stance, Florges stayed back. She went ahead and released and maintained an Aromatherapy to prevent the poison condition, since she wasn’t able to heal now that Gallade was fighting. Wish could heal someone other than her, but only if her target stayed still long enough for her to direct the slow-moving healing star into their body.

I backed up to get away from the Weezing as the battle began. Gallade jumped forward to use Psycho Cut, but the Weezing’s high physical defense meant that it dealt little damage even though it was a super effective move. In fact, the difference in strength was so great it hardly looked like the Weezing was damaged at all. The Poison Type sent out a thick translucent gas with Clear Smog, and Gallade immediately started coughing. Ninetales retaliated with an Ice Beam and froze a small portion of Weezing’s body.

Mawile sat next to Florges to protect her since she knew no ranged moves, and Azumarill sat back near Wally and I, hoping for an opening in this narrow hallway to actually fight. Mawile used Iron Defense just in case, infusing her body with Steel Type energy to increase her physical defense. I saw the small chunk of ice on Weezing start to melt, and panicked when I realized what it was doing. I grabbed Wally and pushed him down to the floor as a blistering Heat Wave shot through the hallway.

Ninetales and Mawile both took it the worst, the Fire Type damage super effective against them. The difference in level between the Weezing and our Pokémon was so great that Ninetales almost fainted after that single attack, and Mawile did faint. I returned Mawile to her Heavy Ball before she could get even more injured.

Azumarill took over for Mawile to defend Florges. She was still a bit upset that she couldn’t get in close due to Gallade’s positioning and how narrow the hallway was, but she understood the danger of this situation enough to not complain.

Weezing noticed the change in guard next to Florges and followed up its Heat Wave with a Sludge aimed towards her in an attempt to knock the healer out. Azumarill saw the attack coming and jumped in front of the poison to not let Florges be hurt.

Florges screamed as Azumarill took the super effective Poison Type move, and the Water Type was immediately knocked out. Unlike Ninetales and Florges, Azumarill didn’t have a high special defense to stay conscious through the hit. Florges flew over to Azumarill’s position on the ground and started to pray for Wish to heal her from the damage.

Now that our defense against the poison condition was distracted, Weezing spat out globs of thick tar out of its mouth that stuck to our Pokémon. Gallade and Ninetales were affected by the Toxic, and Ninetales quickly fainted from the initial damage, too low on health to stay up. I returned her to her Pokéball before the poison could get worse.

As I reclipped the Premier Ball to my belt, I realized that I hadn’t seen one of my team members. As if on cue, Swablu appeared from who-knows-where and dove at Courtney. Clearly not expecting it, she stumbled as the bird impacted her and the Weezing turned around, enraged.

Fearing for my Pokémon, I took out his Love Ball to try to return him before he could be subjected to a devastating attack, but I was too slow. Just before he was sucked up, Weezing spat out one large sphere of gunk that exploded on impact against his feathers and he was knocked out from the single use of Sludge Bomb. He disappeared in a red flash before his condition could get worse, but the power difference between him and Weezing was too much and he would need medical attention as soon as possible.

Courtney spoke up at this point.

“...unanticipated. ...You are lasting longer than I thought. Weezing, finish-”

Her words were interrupted by a blinding flash of Thunder that immediately knocked out the Weezing. Considering only Florges and Gallade were still conscious, and Azumarill was only half awake from the Sludge, the sudden knock-out happened at the perfect time.

Courtney had been slowly approaching us in the hallway, but that opened her up to an attack from behind. Standing behind her, right at the entrance to this hallway and still faintly glowing in rainbow light, was Wattson and his old, scarred Manectric. However, this time the blue dog looked different. Instead of a blue body and a pointed yellow mane on its head, its mane had extended to cover its entire body, and was now shaped like a lightning bolt. The area around it crackled with visible electricity from its presence alone, and Courtney took a step back.

With the villain and her Pokémon distracted, Gallade finally collapsed, the badly poisoned condition from Toxic and the damage it sustained from previous attacks was too much. Florges finished healing Azumarill with Wish, and the Water Type was now struggling but able to stand up. Florges followed up with an Aromatherapy to heal both Gallade and Azumarill, who were suffering from poison.

“Stand down, Courtney,'' Wattson stated. "We have you surrounded, and your forces have been captured. Your plan has failed. You have nowhere to run."

Courtney recalled Weezing and reached behind her to pull out Camerupt’s Pokéball. As she did so, she spoke back to Wattson.

“I will not give up on Leader Maxie’s dreams. ...I have put too much hope into his plans to lose it now.”

Wattson's lips pressed into a thin line.

“Maxie, you say? He’s a changed man, dedicated to helping humanity develop in other ways than a misguided attempt to increase the landmass. He wouldn’t approve of how you’ve been acting.”

Courtney stayed silent and Wattson continued to speak.

“I’ve talked to Maxie recently, you know. All of the Gym Leaders have. He requested our presence and sincerely apologized. While we could not let him free due to the magnitude of his crimes, he has been willingly cooperating with us to improve the safety of this region. He’s a genius, and I understand why you idolize him. Courtney, stand down. We can provide you the same deal we gave Maxie. No one else has to get hurt.”

There was a moment of tense silence as Courtney processed what Wattson said. I couldn’t see Courtney’s face since she wasn’t looking at me, but I did see that Wattson started to frown.

“...ahahaha.”

What? She’s laughing?

“...ahaha ...ha ha ...ahahahaha ...Ahahahahaha!”

Wattson stood there impassively, readying himself for what was to come, while his Mega Pokémon just focused on Courtney even more.

“I see now! You broke him! Leader Maxie... you broke him! Of course, what should I expect from the Pokémon League who holds back human advancement! Ahahahahaha!”

She tossed her Pokéball forward and sent out her Camerupt.

“Ahahahahaha... I see what I must do. I’ll show him. ...Leader Maxie. You’ll see us succeed and remember who you are. I’ll fix everything.”

Camerupt stomped its feet and churned the ground of the hallway in a wave towards Mega Manectric with Bulldoze, but the Electric Type jumped up and off the walls with parkour-like movement to dodge. Wattson opened his mouth to order his Pokémon to attack, but he was interrupted by a fist to the side of his head.

A Team Magma admin carried through his sudden surprise attack to knock out the Gym Leader. He turned to face Courtney, who was still laughing, and I saw he was the same one as before with the lightning-inflicted scar on his face.

“We have to go! We broke down a wall outside but everywhere else is surrounded! There’s no time to lose!”

Since Wattson was now unconscious, Mega Manectric no longer had the stabilizing force from Wattson’s Key Stone to allow it to stay in control of its Mega Form. Its eyes turned red and the air filled with high pitched whining. It glanced towards Wally and I, then back to where Wattson was laying on the ground, then held still, clearly not wanting to give in to the overwhelming power and hurt the people around it. Courtney ran past it without any issue as her Ground Type Camerupt absorbed the lightning that Manectric shot out in a desperate attempt to take out Courtney before it lost control.

Courtney stepped over the unconscious Wattson, but stopped before she could leave the hallway. She turned around to face us, and I noticed that she had tears streaming down her face.

“...wait. They broke Leader Maxie. ...I will break them.”

Wally and I backed up away from her. Mega Manectric tried to unleash another attack at her from its stationary position, but once again her Ground Type Camerupt used its immunity to Electric Types to defend her. Courtney reached into her pocket to grab something, but paused in shock.

She looked me straight in the eyes.

“Ah,” she said.

Courtney didn’t do anything else but instead turned to run away with the scarred admin. Mega Manectric’s electricity continued to build up, and I returned my Pokémon to begin to run away. Wally returned his Gallade as well and followed me into the maintenance tunnels behind us.

However, we had waited too long to escape. Manectric could no longer hold back its destabilizing power. There was a howl behind us, the sound of breaking glass, and then a blinding flash.

I immediately fell unconscious.