Suddenly the tunnel becomes bright, an electric lantern was turned on, throwing away the darkness.

Some men are shouting, " The tunnel ahead is blocked, but we've entered the worst-case scenario, get the lights on, we need to throw everything we have at it"

Rocket Grunts begin releasing all their pokemon, and besides the three fainted zubats, there are now two zubats two rattatas, two ekans, and two spinaraks.

A young grunt glares at Jared, " Thought you said the Vaporeon wasn't there!?" The rest of the grunts turn to Jared with hostile looks, but Thomas interjects, " Now is not the time, form up and complete the mission, we have them cornered. Jared, get your weedle out, - " The weedle doesn't underst-"-

"I don't care!" Jared hesitates while holding weedle's pokeball, but Thomas insisted...

Weedle appears in the brightened tunnel looking confused, "Er, weedle, we got a situation here, think you can help?" Weedle just looks at Jared uncomprehendingly, so Jared shakes his head.

The pokemon begin forming up at the command of the grunts and agent Thomas. The pokemon began talking in their language, and soon the weedle understood what was going on, but didn't seem interested in joining in.

When the weedle doesn't form up with the rest, Thomas growls, "What are you doing grunt? are you disobeying orders?"

"No, I tried to tell you, the Weedle doesn't understand english!"

Gesturing to his Zubat, Thomas gets him to speak to the weedle, but the zubat shakes its head and tries to convey the weedles noncompliance.

Thomas growls, "Forget it, it can guard the rear for all I care!"

With the pokemon and grunts in formation, Thomas's voice echos down the tunnel, "Vaporeon, there's no escape, just give up, we don't want you dead, we will release you and your trainer after a ransom~"

Hearing nothing, the men and their pokemon cautiously approach, making sure not to leave any gaps in their formation.

The lights eventually illuminate a vaporeon standing atop a half shattered boulder, with his trainer tucked behind, it squints its eyes, and gives a low growl at the bright light.

Gesturing around himself, Thomas spoke, "Look around Vaporeon, your trainer is hurt, and you are heavily outnumbered, why not just surrender? We will ransom you and Akoni off, and then we will go our separate ways. We aren't here to kill unless you force our hand!"

In response, Vaporeon hops off the rock and lies down submissively.

This prompts Thomas to let out a relieved breath, "Good, you've made a wise decision-" Pointing at an unconscious Akoni, he commands a grunt and his ekans, "Go secure Akoni... we'll block their escape."

The group was twenty-five meters away, so the chosen man took his flashlight and cautiously approached with his ekans leading from the front.

Thomas whispered to Jared during this time, "Get your Gastly to hold Akoni hostage, just incase the vaporeon makes a move."

Hearing Jareds voice, Gastly appears reluctantly, "I was weakening the catfish, why did you call me back?"

Jared then informs him of the plan, and after understanding it, the ball of gas disappears with a smirk.

A short time later the ekans was now a few feet from Akoni, and was close to capturing him.

Suddenly the vaporeon moved, and before anyone could blink, Vaporeon completely crushed the ekans head with his powerful jaws, then using it's front paw as leverage, he ripped the whole head off, The ekans was unconscious from the bite, but without it's head, it can only die. Its body still flopped about like a salted squid as the nerves in its snake body continued to fire, but it was hopeless.

Then, the vaporeon pounced on the grunt. Holding him down, Vaporeon gestured that he would rip his throat out if they don't back off, by snapping his bloodied teeth a few times near the man's neck.

The captured man's eyes go wide with fear, and his pants soon became wet from his own urine.

With full volume, Thomas shouts, "HOSTAGES WON'T WORK ON US, LAST CHANCE VAPOREON, GIVE UP OR WE WILL SHOW NO MERCY!"

In response, Vaporeon rips the throat out of the whimpering grunt, and blood pours like a fountain. The grunt gurgles a scream, but all that comes out is his life-sustaining fluid.

Knowing his trainer was finished, the zubat under his command flew off sadly. The zubat was unwilling to stay and be forced to serve under another.

With that action done, and with lightning-fast speed, Vaporeon charges!

The men have little time to react, and can only brace themselves for a bitter struggle with this powerful pokemon, but suddenly the Vaporeon stops in its tracks and looks back!

Akoni had finally awoken from the hypnosis and was panicking, "VAPOREON HELP!" Gastly had Akoni's throat in his fangs and curled his eyes gloatingly,

In the pokemon language, Gastly speaks, "Go ahead and kill them, but I'll have Akonis life in exchange~"

With a frustrated growl, the unwilling vaporeon lies down and doesn't take any further action.

The pokemon and their trainers watch the Vaporeon warily, they had been tricked before, and two lives had been lost already.

The sole surviving ekans takes over Gastlys job and holds Akoni in a wrap. As an extra measure, the ekans also kept his fangs against Akonis neck. However, the ekans left one of Akoni's hand's free, and this was to allow Akoni to return his Vaporeon to his pokeball.

Normal pokeballs do not need this, but great balls require a thumbprint to activate, and only Akonis thumbprint would do.

After the vaporeon was returned, Thomas placed the great ball into a small square metal case. The case had just enough room for a single pokeball, and after it was locked he tucked the key into his chest pocket. The fainted paras were returned to their balls as well, but they weren't locked away, only carried.

Sitting down, a fearful Akoni asks, "I-I d-did what you w-wanted, b-but, w-why are you d-doing this? W-here is Annie?"

Akoni gets no reply, while Thomas makes a call using his phone.

From down the tunnel, James can be seen wearing a gas mask. He was carrying a small girl with long blond hair under one arm while walking towards the group.

Meanwhile, his koffing had begun to pull in the toxic gas it had once released, and soon the air was cleared of poison and smoke.

After being frisked a few times, Akoni was released from the ekans embrace and was free to move. Without a pokeball he was no longer a threat, and running away would be impossible.

Rubbing his bleeding head, Akoni looks up to find his unconscious girlfriend being carried over, so he shouts, "ANNIE, ARE YOU OKAY?"

One of the grunts snaps, and kicks him in the stomach, knocking the air from his lungs, "Shut up brat, your vaporeon caused us a lot of shit, Greg's dead because of you!"

Thomas chides him with warning, "Easy there, if you damage the merchandise his parents might not want him back."

"R-right, I just lost my temper."

James Looks over the groaning Akoni, when his eyes land on Greg's corpse.

Clicking his tongue, James whispers, "I'm so sorry Greg, I'll make sure your little sister is taken care of." Bending over he carefully collects Greg's things. Nobody else had moved to claim them.

At the orders of agent Thomas, the men dimmed the lights and returned some of their pokemon to their pokeballs.

However, they left the zubats and rattatas out. The zubats have echolocation so darkness is not an issue, and the rattatas have excellent low light vision. The extra bit of stealth gained from having fewer pokemon out would not make up for the loss in security, but there was no sense in keeping pokemon that would only trip them up in the dark and cause chaos if an issue cropped up.

The men were getting themselves ready to leave, so, Jared excused himself for a moment, and then made his way over to where he had released the weedle.

The weedle had not moved from his spot, and when Jared's flashlight flashed over him, the weedle reared up and hissed, "It's me weedle..."

Fishing out weedles pokeball, Jared attempts to return the weedle, but a string shot catches his hand, and another his legs, which knocks him over.

Suddenly the weedle rushes him and holds his stinger to Jared's neck.

With wide eyes, Jared panics, "Wait, wait, what are you doing!"

In reply, the Weedle hisses, then looks about the tunnel, as if he were trying to find something unseen.

From thin air, the Gastly materializes with glowing eyes just above the two, then addresses the weedle in the pokemon language, "What's the meaning of this worm?"

"I made deal, we go outside, you break ball, free me, and let go. Now, you break ball and bring me forest or I kill!"

Jared interjects, "Gastly what's he saying?"

"Isn't it obvious by now stupid human? He wants his promised freedom or he's going to kill you."