“Why hello again, Blanche and beauty who’s name I do not know. How are you doing?”

Let’s start off with some nice banter. Get the conversation going, you know?

“YOU!”

“You know, I really can’t tell if you’re a guy or a girl.”

“Go, Vaporeon!”

“Go, Wartortle!”

What the shit?! I have to fight both of these people already?!What happened to the witty banter? I don’t have anything to combat them effectively and Darryl already has a disadvantage! I need to wear them down! Good thing I have some poison Pokémon. Let’s paralyze the two people first.

“Gastly, Lick!”

Then start working on poisoning their Pokémon.

“Koffing, Toxic! Ekans, Poison Sting!”

Of course Toxic will work, it literally poisons the target. But Poison Sting might not activate, or proc in game language, so I guess I should send more. Oh wait, it’s bad to treat Pokémon as a game. Or rather, it’s not nice or looked kindly upon.

The two humans continue to thrash around, trying shoo Gastly away, but to no avail. Eventually they succumb to paralysis, making it difficult for their Pokémon to do anything truly surprising without commands. That reminds me! Thankfully, when I looked back at Raticate and Golbat, they are doing okay. Darryl said he was about 45% complete, and we only needed about five more minutes.

Wait a minute…Candela wasn’t the Branch Head of Team Valor, so why should Blanche? Where is the Branch Head?

BOOM!

What the Duckling?! A Blastoise?! How are we to deal with this?!

“How much longer?!”

“Just another three minutes!”

“Alright, EVERYONE GROUP UP!”

All my Pokémon stand surrounding me and Darryl as his Pokémon also join in.

“READY!”

I can hear the whispers of the Mystic grunts while Blanche and the Wartortle girl are helped up by another old dude. Why are the Branch Heads at Valor and Mystic so old? Anyways, they look a little distressed.

“AIM!”

“Shit!”

Haha, some are already running. My Pokémon and even Darryl’s begin readying their strongest moves as I start to stall long enough for Darryl to finish.

I look long and hard at the Branch Head and his Blastoise as I start to bait him.

“FIIII”

“WAIT! Hold on!”

I lower my hands and calm (not really) my Pokémon down. Darry catches the drift and does the same thing. He’s so smart. Makes me wish he was a Team Rocket member. Seeing that we are a little calm, the old man tries to reason with me.

“What do you want?”

“Stuff.”

“Uh…Look, we already have a ton of people and we will have this place surrounded.”

“Then we’ll just blast ourselves out of here. I have some more tricks up my sleeve.”

Yeah, the armory had these robot capsules. They were gigantic robots that all had different purposes, but were ultimately scrapped because whoever used them always returned them exploded or fried. Not in good condition, anyway. There were still some left, though. But I didn’t grab any, not that they should know that. Although I still have my gun.

Keep them guessing.

“Why are you doing this?!”

“Well, Wartortle woman. We wish we were able to tell you. Hehehe, so many ‘W’s…”

Oh, her face looks so upset. I didn’t mean to hurt you like that. Aaaagh, making a woman cry is a terrible thing indeed!

“But I can say we thank you for your cooperation.”

Show them a flashy smile! Thank goodness I’m still wearing my face mask, otherwise…wait…

“Do you know who I am?”

“You’re the one with the six Pokémon and defeated Bernard of Team Valor, right?”

“Nope, I am a simple thief.”

“…”

Am I really that easy to spot?! What the Muk?! Anyways, Darryl is almost done…aaaaand there.

“Well, should we leave them a present?”

“Not yet, we don’t know where the others are.”

“Ahh, good point. We can make the building explode after we make sure ALL the others are out of here.”

Let’s make these guys think it was a massive operation. Wouldn’t it be funny when they realize they were only defeated by four people?

Nodding, Darryl pocketed the stolen data as I destroyed all the nearby terminals. All the way. I could see the three remaining people crying or holding back their tears. I only hate making Wartortle woman cry…and maybe Blanche, if I knew their gender. But the old dude is just holding back, causing his hands to bleed and veins to pop on his head.

He looks kind of gross. But for some reason, I feel a sort of blanket of good feeling surround me. I don’t know what it is, but the three began to shake and I could smell the unique smell of…excrement.

Oops. I made them empty their bowels. I don’t know what it was, but it had to do with that feeling. It felt really good, too. I wouldn’t mind being surrounded by it all the time even if it meant people wouldn’t look me in the eyes again. Why would I care about them? Aren’t we put on this planet for ourselves?

I make sure they won’t follow us and run after Darryl. I wasn’t paying attention at first, but after some more of that strange cawing, I realized this was the hall I heard the sound from before. What was down here? It didn’t take long for us to run past a room labeled

‘Stone Evolution’

I could hear the flapping of wings and stopped. Then I heard the cawing sound even louder than before. It was definitely in this room! Wasn’t it Esther’s job to free the Pokémon? Why was this one here instead of in the kennels?

I try to open the door, but it’s locked. I try to kick the door, but it’s too sturdy. Fuck it, just shoot the damn thing.

POW!

The door lock is destroyed and I can hear screams coming different directions. One was Darryl yelling for me to hurry up.

I rush into the room and instantly get bombarded by an abnormal oppressive feeling. But it’s warm, similar to the feeling I just felt in the previous room! I look around, my actions visibly affected by this weird force, and notice a cube shape covered by a blanket. Must be a cage.

I walk over slowly, because of the tyrannical energy, and pull the blanket off. It was indeed a cage, for inside was a Murkrow! But it was strange. It wasn’t shiny, but there was a strange tablet along with a stone next to the cage on the counter. I grab the tablet, stone, and the cage.

I get the cage open only after shooting the lock off again and release the Murkrow. I know well enough not to risk my life for the sake of capturing a Pokémon here so I won't slow myself down with the cage. I run on ahead to where we were supposed to meet up, with all my Pokémon, including the Murkrow, in tow. I hear a charging sound and out of nowhere, Spearow hits me to the ground and out of the way.

I look up to see a wall of blue. It must have been Blastoise’s Hydropump. I wait for the water to die down, but notice a small shape down the hall. I quickly run towards it to check, but it was Spearow. I didn’t even spend time with it like Golbat. I wasn’t filled with regret, nor was I filled with guilt or sadness, no, this is anger. I can hear the Murkrow cawing and cawing, its remorseful cries echoing in my ears as that warm feeling consumes me. My vision grows dark as I see my Pokémon running far away with Raticate carrying Spearow.

My last thought? It's time to fuck shit up.