The guide smiled as she waited for every student to walk out of the teleporter. Last was the teacher... good, they hadn't lost anyone. "Ahem! The tour is almost over. So far, you've seen our conference rooms, our server banks, a few of our designers in action, and of course, our Teleporters. Now, we're actually a bit early. Our next event is a speech by our President," There were groans at this, "But he follows strict schedules, and won't be here for a few minutes." There were more groans at this. "But for now, any questions?"
"If you can build a pokeball that always works, why didn't you before?"
"Well, first we had to know we could make a lot of them. Second, a pokeball does more than just catch a pokemon. It also keeps them safe, especially when they're seriously hurt. Knowing you can get your trusted partner to medical help takes priority over getting a new friend. It has to be able to both Capture and Autorecall, and the alpha-Master balls were having trouble with-"
Suddenly, the fire alarm buzzed, and a Silph Scientist came through the teleporter shouting, "We're under attack! Everyone evacuate! It's... it's Team Rocket!"
Most of the children screamed and ran to the corners of the room. In the confusion, the guide walked over to the teleporter and called out: "Don't panic, we can leave in this direction." Luckily, everyone heard her and began following her, trusting her to lead them out.
"One we get out in the open, we can take either the stairs or the elevator straight to the ground floor," the guide explained.
The party assembled at the north wall, right outside the elevator.
"Um, unfortunately, we have a problem," The guide began, "Everyone won't fit on the elevator. We'll have to split up."
"I think I can handle this part." The teacher walked into the elevator and held the Door Open button. "Okay, everyone cram in here. You have special emergency permission to push as much as you have to."
So they did. Soon every student was in the elevator except one. The remaining child looked dissapointedly at the crowd along with the scientist and the Guide.
"Hold on, I'm getting back out- ugh," The teacher began.
"There's no time!" The scientist said, "Go down now, We'll take the stairs!"
The group of three took the staircase three at a time. The building shook from an explosion someplace on a higher floor, but they all leaned against the wall to keep their balance.
"No way, at this rate Silph is finished," The guide was surprised when she realized that those words came out of her mouth.
...Fifth floor... Fourth floor-
"And just where do you think you're going?" a rough voice demanded. The three looked to the side and saw a Rocket member leaning against a wall to the south, just outside the opening between the stairwell and the main floor.
"We don't have time for you!" The scientist said loudly. Then he pressed a metal sphere into the hands of the student next to him, whispering, "Hold onto this. And... tell her I'm sorry."
"Oh, a tough guy, huh? You know how we deal with tough guys?" the Rocket replied.
"How do we settle Anything?" the scientist shot back, palming another Pokeball.
"Well, duh-!," The Rocket began.
"We battle Pokemon!" They said at the same time.
This Rocket member sent out a Ratticate, while the Silph scientist turned out to have a Magnemite.
"Run!" the tour guide hissed. despite misgivings, the child obeyed, and the two of them rushed down the next set of stairs.
"Hyper Fang!" {Chomp!} "Huh? That should have worked better!"
"It's something we just discovered. I call it: "Steel"! Now, Thundershock!"
"Oh we'll see how brave you act when we're through with you-!"
"Almost there- Agh!" The kid turned around to see a long purple snake tail wrapped around the guide's legs. The snake it belonged to looked up and hissed at him, "Arrr...."
"Not even a pokemon to defend yourself with?" the Arbok's trainer walked into view, "I wouldn't recommend going out at night." Then he looked at the kid, "Hey you! Get back here! Listen to what a grownup tells you!"
The guide broke in, "Well, this grown up is telling you to wrugh..." Arbok had begun squeezing tighter, "Rrrrun for it!"
The kid ran. Silph could take care of itself. Hopefully..
"Sorry..."
"That's as far as you go."
The kid stood in the exact center of the stairs between the second and first floor, staring at a Rocket Grunt standing at the bottom of them. Just how many guards were there?
The grunt continued, almost friendlily "By the way, thanks. If Silph wasn't preoccupied with showing you around, our takeover wouldn't have gone so smoothly."
What?
"Oh, and if you're wondering where your friends went, we've got them at the edge of town. They're safe. For now, anyway."
WHAT?
"..."
"Anyway, now you're coming with... What's with that look?"
"Get out..." the kid held out the Pokeball from earlier, "Of My Way!" And released the Pokemon inside.
The stairs creaked under the weight of the large, blue, shelled, amphibious saurian that now sat on top of them. With her fins smushed against the wall on one side and hanging past the guardrails on the other, plus the stairs digging into her underside, she couldn't have been too comfortable, but as she looked back at her new trainer, something in her eyes showed that it didn't really matter to her.
"A Lapras?!" The Rocket exclaimed in shock, "No way a school kid could get a rare one like that! Is that one of the test animals? Oh you thief..." A Sandslash appeared on the bottom steps, and the enemy trainer himself brandished a whip.
'Lets see, Lapras looks like a water type, which is good against ground types. I should be able to win this one. "Okay, Water Gun!"
"Poison sting!"
The sand mouse fired poison stingers out of it's claws, while Lapras spat out a stream of water. The two attacks rushed past each other. Sandslash seemed to come off worse, as the water knocked it over, while Lapras took the barbs without flinching. However Sandslash got up, while Lapras suddenly let out a groan of pain as the kid saw her skin starting to turn purple.
'Oh no, Poison Sting Poisons! I don't know how long Lapras can take this...' "Keep it up!"
"Sand attack!"
Sandslash shook itself, sand coming out of the chinks in it's armor, then threw some of the accumulated grit at Lapras' eyes. She blinked it away and managed to hit with another burst of water. This added another element of luck to the fight, but Sandslash was still losing.
"Okay, enough going easy on you. Slash!" The rocket ordered.
"One more time!" The kid ordered.
Sandslash charged up the stairs, intent on driving its claws across the saurian's neck. However, it was also going to be easier to hit itself at such close quarters.
Sandslash brought its claws sideways-
-Across the sea pokemon's chest.
Lapras let loose another burst of water-
-Right into Sandslash's face.
For a second, they held that position...
The Rocket member gaped in shock as his prized fighter suddenly collapsed and dissapeared in a lightshow, as his pokeball autorecalled it upon sensing a loss of conciousness.
"What the heck?!" The Rocket readied his whip and prepared to charge into battle himself, "No way I lose to a kid li- gluble!" and ran right into a water gun, being knocked over and left in a slippery puddle.
'Right, attacking a Pokemon yourself marks you as a target,' The kid remembered a safety lecture that had stuck in the mind, since it seemed weird compared to the usual pro-pokemon ones.
The kid returned Lapras to her Pokeball (hopefully that would slow down the poison), and carefully stepped down the stairs past the fallen villain, and towards the exit.
"Hey! Just who do you think you are?!" The grunt shouted upon catching his breath.
"I'm Indigo Jones! And I'll be coming back here soon!"
Indigo (Indy to his friends) sat down on a bench at the pokemon center. Saffron was in worse shape then they'd thought. Team Rocket hadn't just attacked Silph, they were patrolling the streets too. They'd managed to evade them to heal Lapras, but now what? Where should they go?
They could leave town. The roads were guarded by the police, but he doubted they would stop him. Another big city, Celadon was to the east, while the creepy graveyard town Lavender was to the west, and they were connected to each other by an underground passage, so he wouldn't have to go through Saffron again to go between them. Meanwhile, the port city Vermillion was to the south, and there was also Cerulean to the north. They also had an underground connecting them.
But did Indy really want to leave? Maybe they could try contacting the Pokemon League representatives in Saffron. Sabrina was known as one of the most powerful Gym Leaders ever. There was also the Karate King. He'd been kicked out, but he'd been considered strong before.
Then there was the local eccentric Mr. Psychic. He couldn't hurt.