Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

First day back to the Orange Archipelago. Light rain.

Today was the day Reiji left the Indigo Plateau. A thin rain had been falling since morning, and he was not sure whether it would delay the flight.

He was not taking a normal passenger flight, though. This was a travel charter, a small plane for a tour group of forty or fifty people. Reiji had simply been added as an extra passenger.

With fewer Pokémon on him, the morning felt a lot easier. After feeding his team and eating breakfast at the Pokémon Center, he took Eevee and headed for the Indigo Plateau airport.

The travel planes left every two hours. His ticket worked on any flight with an empty seat, so he only had to wait for an opening.

His luck was decent. The eight o’clock flight was full, but the ten o’clock flight had space and was headed for Kumquat Island. If everything went smoothly, he would arrive that night.

The moment Reiji’s ticket was registered, Matori received the update. She immediately mobilized the Team Rocket members waiting at the airport and adjusted the passenger list for the ten o’clock flight.

The plane already had a small tour group of more than thirty people. That left enough room to slip in three Team Rocket ambush teams, six people in total, with each pair bringing one Pokémon. It was the same basic setup as Jessie, James, and Meowth.

On top of those six, several Team Rocket members heading to the Orange Archipelago for other missions also boarded the same flight. That brought their number on the plane to eleven.

All eleven were Advanced-tier, and three were quasi–Elite Four tier Trainers. That was more than enough to take Reiji down.

Matori had arranged triple the manpower based on Reiji’s tournament performance. If three quasi–Elite Four tier Trainers and eight Advanced-tier Trainers still could not capture him, then she would have to wonder whether these people were completely useless.

At nine-thirty, boarding began. Reiji lined up with a group of travelers, many of them with children, and got on the plane.

Team Rocket’s people waited until the last three minutes before boarding.

The moment they stepped inside, the cabin door closed. The plane was already moving toward the runway, preparing to take off.

Reiji noticed none of it.

At least, not until he saw a familiar face walking down the aisle.

Tai?

Why is he here?

Because they had been moving as a group, Tai had not had a chance to warn Reiji beforehand. Their target for this mission was the Indigo Plateau Conference champion—Reiji himself.

Still, seeing him now was not too late.

Tai looked at Reiji as he walked toward the back of the plane. Pretending something had gotten in his eye, he rubbed it once, then glanced out the window.

That was all the warning he dared give.

He passed Reiji and sat down near the rear. It was the most he could do. There were too many Team Rocket members on this plane. If his hint was too obvious, he would be killed too.

What does that mean?

Reiji knew Tai’s eye-rubbing had to be a signal. Then Tai had looked out the window.

Was he telling him to look outside?

Reiji turned toward the window and thought it through. The plane was already accelerating. A moment later, it lifted off.

Then it clicked.

Tai was supposed to be in Gringey City. Why would he be at the Indigo Plateau? He had not entered the tournament.

This plane was flying to Kumquat Island. It was not strange for Tai to go to the Orange Archipelago, but why this flight? Why come all the way here just to board it?

Reiji understood.

He understood everything.

Keeping his face calm, he quietly scanned the cabin. Several passengers had only just sat down and were still placing their luggage. They were chatting and laughing like normal travelers, men and women mixed together.

They had boarded with Tai.

Team Rocket.

No. That was not enough. He could not rule out the people who had boarded earlier. Team Rocket had been watching him the whole time. Even this ticket to the Orange Archipelago might have been arranged by them.

Add James’s warning last night, and the picture was clear.

If Team Rocket wanted to catch him on this plane, when would they move? And how?

Not everyone on board could be Team Rocket. If they wanted to capture him without hurting the other passengers, they had two options.

Hijack the plane.

Or release some kind of sleeping gas and knock everyone out, including him.

If they did not care whether the other passengers lived, things would be much easier for them.

But the plane had just taken off. Team Rocket would not act yet. If they wanted to catch him quietly, they would wait until the plane was over open sea.

Halfway there, then.

This was a direct flight. It would leave the Indigo Plateau, pass over Cinnabar Island and the Sevii Islands, then cross open water before reaching the Orange Archipelago.

So how was he supposed to escape a trap Team Rocket had built around him while he was thousands of meters in the air?

Without Tai’s warning, he would still be sitting here clueless, thinking Team Rocket would act after he reached the Orange Archipelago. He had not expected them to be crazy enough to move on a plane. If this went wrong, forty or fifty people could die in the crash.

He could not let that happen.

He would not let Team Rocket catch him either.

Team Rocket’s target was him. If he got off the plane, they should leave the other passengers alone. Once he was gone, everyone else would be safer.

Reiji worked through the situation, but still could not find a clean way out. The biggest problem was the plane itself. Thousands of meters in the air was no joke.

Fortunately, this was a small passenger plane, and it was not flying that high. Still, he had no parachute and no helmet. Jumping out was extremely dangerous, and if he damaged the plane wrong, he might drag everyone else down with him. He needed a way to leave without putting the other passengers at risk.

Forcing the plane to land was out. The pilot might be Team Rocket too, and he was not betting his life on that.

Hijacking the plane himself was even worse. If he did that, the League would put him on a wanted list. He was the Indigo Plateau champion. A champion hijacking a plane would become huge news.

He needed an enclosed space.

The cockpit, the cargo hold, or the bathroom.

Only an enclosed space would let him cut an opening without depressurizing the whole plane at once. But this was a small plane. What cargo hold? The luggage was all in the passenger cabin. Even if there was one, he could not get to it.

That left the bathroom.

Reiji stood up.

The moment he moved, he felt several passengers tense and look his way. That gave him a rough idea of where some of the Team Rocket members were sitting. He acted like nothing was wrong and walked to the bathroom.

He closed the door behind him and saw a window.

Good.

He washed his hands, checked the mirror, and left.

Even inside the bathroom, he had not relaxed. Team Rocket might have installed a camera there to watch him. He had to assume they were monitoring everything.

The window was enough. Without it, he would not be able to judge which side to cut open. If he opened the wrong side, the result would be ugly.

Next came the problem of who could break the window.

Eevee, Zapdos, and Magby were out. They were not strong enough.

He needed the window and wall broken in one clean strike, enough for him to be sucked out immediately. If there was only a small hole, the pressure change would be noticed, and he would not fit through anyway.

That left Scyther, Accelgor, and Kingler. Poliwhirl and Rhydon were injured and could not be used.

Pelipper had to come last. It would glide him back toward the Orange Archipelago and save as much energy as possible. The hardest parts would be slowing his fall and surviving the chase afterward. Scyther would handle the first part.

Reiji ran through the plan in his head again and again. Once he found no obvious gaps, he leaned back in his seat and pretended to nap. His eyes were closed, but he stayed ready to move at any second.

If Team Rocket was going to act over international waters between the Sevii Islands and the Orange Archipelago, it would probably happen near evening, based on the plane’s speed.

He sat quietly until then.

When the flight attendant offered lunch, he did not eat a bite. He noticed several passengers growing drowsy after eating their boxed meals.

So that was it.

He had thought they would use sleeping gas first. Instead, they had drugged the meals.

Pretending to sleep let him avoid the food, but breathing was not optional. They would still make their move, so he could not let his guard down.

Eventually, Eevee sniffed the air beside him and gave a quiet, uneasy cry near his ear.

The gas had started.

Reiji immediately held his breath. Carrying the sleepy Eevee, he went into the bathroom and locked the door. He recalled Eevee, then released Scyther.

”Cut through this wall.”

”Scy!” Scyther did not understand why, but it obeyed at once. It struck the bathroom window with its strongest Slash, and a rectangular section of the cabin wall was sliced open.

Wind roared into the bathroom.

Reiji grabbed Scyther’s legs and let the pressure pull them both out of the plane. He had inhaled a little gas when he spoke, and his head was starting to feel heavy.

He dug his fingernails hard into his palm. Pain snapped him awake.

Holding on to Scyther for dear life, he shouted, ”Slow down! Slow down now!”

”Scy!” Scyther had never been sucked out of a plane before and was badly disoriented, but it was still a Flying-type Pokémon. It beat its wings hard and soon regained control in the air.

”Good.” Reiji took out the Poké Ball he had prepared, released Pelipper, and climbed onto its back. Then he recalled Scyther and shouted, ”Drop lower! Get lower!”

”Peli!” Pelipper appeared and immediately felt the thin air.

After the fall, Reiji could already see the ocean. If they had been at ten thousand meters, he would have passed out by now.

He had overestimated the small plane. It had never climbed that high. He had been able to see the sea below from his window, but they were still probably three or four thousand meters up.

Good thing people in the Pokémon world were built differently. If he had fainted now, that would have been the end.

Pelipper began gliding away. Reiji had it turn left.

The plane was still flying forward. If its route had been normal, turning left would take him off the flight path while still heading toward the Orange Archipelago. That would put him closer to the western islands, around Butwal Island and Ascorbia Island. Butwal Island was Gulzar’s home. There was also a chance he would miss the islands completely and slip through the gaps between them.

That would be the worst outcome.

He could not worry about that now. The plane had probably detected the pressure leak in the bathroom, and Team Rocket would already be searching for the person who had jumped.

”Damn it. He’s there.” The pilot heard the pressure alarm and spotted Reiji falling outside the window. Then he watched him slow down, mount Pelipper, and turn away.

He immediately used the communicator to contact the Team Rocket members in the cabin.

”The target has escaped. Continue pursuit?”

”He jumped?” Tai received the same message. Wearing an air filter mask, he went to the window and saw Reiji riding Pelipper into the distance.

He had to admit, Reiji’s decision to jump from the plane had shocked him.

It was not the first time Tai had been amazed by him. The man was unbelievable. Even in a situation like this, he had found a way out. Who else would think of escaping through a bathroom window midflight?

The other Team Rocket members were cursing over the headset. From that alone, Tai understood that Reiji had broken out through the bathroom.

They could not open that bathroom now. If they did, the cabin would lose pressure, and the plane might crash.

But Team Rocket still had options.

Of the three quasi–Elite Four tier Trainers, one did not have a Flying-type Pokémon and had to stay in the cabin. The other two took two Advanced-tier Trainers with them, four people in total.

Once the plane dropped to a safer altitude, they opened the bathroom door. The pressure loss was not as severe now. The four of them quickly left the cabin, and the door was shut again right behind them.

Each of them released a Flying-type Pokémon and chased the dark speck in the distance.

With Pidgeot’s eyesight, Reiji was easy to spot. The sky over the open sea was clear, which made it perfect for a hunt.

They’re coming.

Reiji could only see black dots behind him. He could not tell how many people were chasing him, but he had already ordered Pelipper to fly with Agility.

Turning again would not help much now. The only thing to do was keep flying toward the Orange Archipelago.

At the same level, with the same speed-boosting move, Pidgeot’s base Speed was thirty-five points higher than Pelipper’s. It would catch up sooner or later.

So what now?

Find an island and set an ambush?

Or find island lights and ask for help?

Without Darkrai, an ambush was out. If Team Rocket had prepared this trap, they were not sending four easy targets after him. The pursuers were probably quasi–Elite Four tier. If one of them was Elite Four tier, there would be no point running; he would already have been caught.

Poliwhirl and the others had been badly hurt against Reggie. Now Poliwhirl and Rhydon were still injured. Forcing them into another battle would be too much.

The only Pokémon he could really use were Kingler’s group, plus Toxicroak and the others.

That left one choice.

Find lights. Find people. Get League help.

Pelipper had to hold out. They were still over open sea, and the Orange Archipelago was not close. With night falling, smaller settlements would shut their lights and go to sleep. Only a large town or city could help him.

While they flew, Reiji fed Pelipper Pokéblocks to keep its stamina up. He ate some too.

They flew from evening until around eight or nine at night before he finally saw scattered lights in the distance.

The Orange Archipelago.

Relief hit him, but only for a moment.

There were too few lights on the island below. If he landed there, he might not get help at all. Worse, Team Rocket could panic and kill everyone to silence them. He had no choice but to keep Pelipper flying.

Two more hours passed.

By ten o’clock, the lights were becoming even fewer. He still had not seen a major town. That made him wonder whether he had drifted off course, or whether his luck was terrible enough that he had flown between the islands instead of over one.

After midnight, Pelipper started to falter.

If it were just gliding, it could last longer. But the pursuers had stayed on them the whole way, so it had to keep using speed-boosted flight. If they did not land soon, Pelipper would fall from the sky.

The people chasing them should be exhausted too.

That meant they would probably pause for the night.

Reiji told Pelipper to look for an island and land.

After another hour, Pelipper finally found a fairly large island in the middle of the sea. A larger island meant more space to hide.

Reiji had it descend near the center. Under the moonlight, he saw many dark holes in the mountainside. They looked like caves dug by Rock-type Pokémon.

Once they landed, he fed Pelipper more Pokéblocks, sent Golbat ahead to scout the cave, then recalled Pelipper. Only after entering the cave did he turn on his flashlight.

Soon, he disappeared into the darkness.

”Damn it. He landed. We’re going down too.”

The four pursuers were exhausted as well. They had Pidgeot descend right after him. None of them had expected Reiji to run this hard, or for that Pelipper to have so much stamina.

Once they landed, they shone flashlights around the dark island. The beams caught a large lake in the distance, with many Grass-type Pokémon sleeping along the shore.

”Boss, do we search or rest?”

Everyone looked at the team leader. None of them wanted to search. At this hour, both they and their Pokémon were drained. It was dark, the island was unfamiliar, and the odds of finding Reiji were low.

”Obviously…” The leader looked into the darkness. ”We rest. Feed Pidgeot, then send them to higher ground. If that kid tries to run in the morning, shoot him down.”

”Yes.”

The other three relaxed as soon as they heard they could rest. They sat down on the grass and took out rations.

Inside the cave, Reiji found a dry patch of ground and sat down to eat.

Spinarak and Golbat handled the night watch.

[End of chapter]

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