Austin coughed when he landed in the Kitchen right on a sack of flour, the substance kicking into the air covering him. "Ugh, I feel sick."

Looking around Austin wanted to curse "Pikachu and Butterfree are gone."

"Shit." Austin cursed quickly pushing himself up, quickly sending Raticate out. "Team Rocket is here we got separated from the others."

Raticate gave a nod, understanding that, and got ready to defend her trainer.

After a moment's hesitation, Austin sent Squirtle out as his Blackglasses would come in handy if they ran into Petrel again.

Exiting the kitchen, Austin had to duck as a blast of fire nearly took his head off and he saw Jessie and James standing nearby. "Worked like a charm Jessie," James said sending a Magneton out while Jessie had a Magmar, making Austin cautiously back up surprised by the two new Pokemon to their ranks.

Okay, this is bad.

"Surrender twerp or be prepared for quite a beating, this has been a long time coming," Jessie warned him. "Your electric rat and annoying bug aren't here to protect you."

"You forget about my other Pokemon," Austin said his eyes flashing red with Raticate and Squirtle preparing themselves. "Bring it on."

While caught off guard by the eye flashing, Jessie and James got to commanding their Pokemon.

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Pikachu groaned and held his head before shaking it.

He can worry about the splitting headache later, right now Ash needed his help.

So he went to take off only for a familiar Pokemon to cross paths with him.

"Hey there rat," Meowth greeted with a smile as his claws came out. "Fancy seeing you here, Meowth."

Getting on all fours, Pikachu's cheeks began to spark. "Pika Pi." He warned not wanting to fool around.

Instead of looking intimidated as he did in their first meeting, Meowth just grinned before becoming a blur and Pikachu felt a blinding pain in his side as Meowth was suddenly past him, dark energy on his claws.

"How do you like my Shadow Claw?" Meowth asked Pikachu quickly shaking the pain off surprised by the sheer speed Meowth just showed. "You're not the only one who got stronger, Meowth."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

An explosion of flames erupted around the kitchen area as Squirtle fired Water Gun after Water Gun at the Magmar, using Rapid Spin whenever the Magneton got too close before Raticate shot in with a Brick Break slamming the Magneton away.

"Sonic Boom," James ordered the move hitting Raticate, slamming her into the fridge where Magmar went to take advantage of that with a Flamethrower.

Austin ordered a 'Protect' with Squirtle moving in front of Raticate before deciding to fight dirty by looking around and seeing the flour.

Sending out another Pokeball, Charmander popped out looking surprised by what was going on. "Quick use Dragon Rage on the Flour."

Blinking in confusion, Charmander quickly listened catching Jessie and James off guard as flour covered the whole kitchen from the following explosion covering them all in flour.

"Fighting dirty huh?" Jessie coughed out. "Well two can play at that game, Ekans come on out and take that lizard out."

"Kans!" Ekans roared firing a barrage of Poison Stings at the Charmander, hitting him and knocking him back before a Water Gun and Thunderbolt combo slammed into the snake but that left Squirtle and Raticate open to being hit by Magneton and Magmar knocking them back.

"Squirtle use Counter Shield to keep them at bay, Raticate Iron tail on Magmar."

' man these guys are tougher than ever.'

Charmander's eyes widened as Raticate looked pretty badly burned before wincing as poison surged through him showing that the Ekans managed to put him at a disadvantage.

Magmar smirked about to fire another Flamethrower when Austin saw a Fire Extinguisher. "Hey, Flamehead!" He shouted grabbing it and spraying the Magmar making it roar in pain.

There was no way in hell he was playing by the damn rules in this type of situation.

This wasn't a tournament-regulated battle, it was a battle of survival.

"Squirtle quick use Aura Sphere on Magneton!"

"Tle!" Squirtle roared firing the Aura Sphere right at the Magneton knocking it out as Raticate lunged, firing an Ice Beam at the Magmar whose flames were put out, knocking it out.

"Koffing use Sludge Attack!" James ordered outraged by this. "On the twerp!"

His main Pokemon shot past a surprised Squirtle and Raticate with Austin tensing, moving back only to hit the wall showing he was trapped.

Okay, he honestly didn't expect James to do this considering his Anime personality but then again he was in freaking Team Rocket so it was to be expected.

As the Koffing moved to do that, Charmander quickly jumped in the way a glare on his face not wanting anything to happen to his trainer so he opened his mouth and a Flame Burst erupted, the force of the attack sending Charmander flying back into Austin who caught him as the attack flew into the Koffing's mouth right as the sludge was about to exit, causing a huge explosion the last thing Austin saw was a blue flash of light.

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[ Seven miles from the coast of Whirl Islands.]

"What do you mean that the cruise is surrounded by I thought we had SONAR systems up and active to several kilometers in every distance?" Lance thundered into the Pokenav. "How the hell could this even happen?"

"We do not know sir." The voice over the phone answered. "The SONAR had been working with cent percent precision. It was almost like the submarines just…"

"Just what, sailor?" Lance yelled.

"Teleported." The man said, his voice weary and trembling.

"That is not possible." Lance denied the argument. "Are you seriously suggesting that some psychic just teleported a dozen submarines at exactly two hundred meter radius from the SSAnne, from a distance of at least several kilometers away, while the SS. Anne was in motion?"

Silence prevailed for a while before the answer came. "….Yes."

"Damn it. Get the protection active and functional. I'm sending support." Lance hit the button and canceled the call.

This was not supposed to happen. Ever since the cruise ship set sail, Lance and his team of Ace Trainers had maintained a constant eye on the cruise, following them from Vermillion. Ace Trainers were always there before the cruise reached a city, and stayed back after the cruise left it. Lance himself had been monitoring the entire movement with the precision of a well-trained Pidgeotto from Day One.

"Send the emergency deployment squad number 17 to the ship. We need evacuation as fast as possible." He dictated.

"Sir, the Anne has its defenses managed by sailors. With Elite Four and Steven being there, isn't it… too much overreaction for us to deploy number 17?" One of the higher administrative officers asked.

"If what I fear is correct, then even number 17 wouldn't be enough to get us out of this mess," Lance muttered, more to himself than to the officer. "Get me Steven on the phone."

"Connecting, sir."

Silence.

"Sir, Steven is on the call."

"Connect me to him," Lance ordered absently, staring at the screen in frustration, as a single BEEP followed his order, as the connection was set up. "Steven, any updates?"

"We are getting the passengers to get their stuff while the defenses are raised. The guests have already left, and now only the trainers and the cruise staff are left."

"Well, that's a good start as any," Lance muttered. "Any developments on how this was made possible?"

Steven's voice seemed to crack. "Lance, hear me out first, but we have reasons to believe that the armored pokémon is involved in the situation, and I believe it is in league with Team Rocket."

Lance felt his knuckles turn white.

"Lance?"

"…."

"Lance, do you copy?"

Lance controlled himself. "Do what you can. Reinforcements arrive in fifteen minutes."

"Got it."

"And Steven….?"

"…." Steven waited for the next part.

"Good luck."