Pokémon: Master of the Rain Team

Second day back in the Orange Archipelago. Clear.

Spinarak woke Reiji up.

Golbat was restless too. Its ultrasound had probably picked up something moving deeper in the cave.

”Spi.” Spinarak raised a foreleg and pointed toward the dark tunnel ahead. Reiji could already see a faint flicker of light in the distance.

Inside a cave this dark, light usually meant humans.

Reiji got up at once, turned on his flashlight, lowered it to its dimmest setting, picked up the food wrappers on the ground, and left with Spinarak and Pelipper.

Not long after he moved, footsteps sounded behind him, followed by barking.

The pursuers had found the spot where he had rested.

”Hou! Hou!” Houndoom lowered its head and sniffed. Reiji had spent the whole night there, so the scent was strong.

”We found it. He slept here last night.” The leader of the four crouched down and touched the ground. There was still warmth left. ”He hasn’t been gone long.”

He stood and gave the order.

”After him. Don’t let him get away. I contacted HQ. The order has changed. We’re not capturing him anymore. We kill him on sight and recover what the boss wants.”

The four of them followed Houndoom through the cave, tracking Reiji by scent. When they reached a fork, they found one of the tunnels filled with smoke, along with a sharp chili smell that stung the nose.

Reiji had bought those smoke bombs on Kinnow Island and never used them. He still had a few left. When he went through his things last night, he figured they might come in handy.

Turns out, he was right.

Against Pokémon that tracked by smell, chili smoke was perfect. At the very least, it could throw Houndoom off.

But Reiji had underestimated the team chasing him. Team Rocket had sent them to kill him, so of course they had prepared for things like this. All four pulled out gas masks and put them on. Filtering out chili smoke was easy.

The leader also fitted Houndoom with a filter. Their Golbat had already checked the smoke and found no moving target inside, so the four carefully entered.

Standing in the smoke, the leader saw the fork and led Houndoom past each tunnel, letting it smell all three. Houndoom soon found the one carrying Reiji’s scent.

It ran back into the smoke to alert the others, and the chase continued.

Reiji had been hiding in that tunnel, waiting to ambush the first person who came through. He wanted to take one of them out before the fight even started. But the pursuers were too careful. After confirming which tunnel he had taken, they did not rush in.

That left him no choice but to keep running.

This was not the time to fight. If his Pokémon got tied down, escaping by himself would mean nothing. He was not going to abandon them and run.

Better to keep everyone moving.

Still, he could not make things too easy for the people behind him. At the next fork, he sent out Kingler.

”Kingler, Rock Tomb. Block every tunnel.”

”King!” Kingler and Reiji retreated into the passage first. Then Kingler slammed its huge claw into the ground.

The cave shook violently. Rocks broke loose and crashed down around the fork, burying every passage. Reiji and Kingler had to retreat again to avoid the collapse.

The four pursuers arrived just in time to be forced back by falling rubble.

When the collapse finally stopped, Reiji was already gone.

One of the four released Graveler and had it dig through from underground. After they reached the fork, Houndoom came out again to pick up the trail.

Reiji kept collapsing sections of the cave while Golbat searched for an exit. He could not afford to run in circles forever. The most important thing now was finding out where he was, so he could look for help.

If he did not even know his location, then he was only wasting time. Sooner or later, the pursuers would corner him.

The shaking inside the mountain soon drew the attention of the island’s wild Pokémon, especially the two dominant groups living near the area.

One was the Pidgeot flock that lived near the mountain peak.

The other was the Rhydon herd by the lake, which often dug stones out of the caves to eat.

”Pidgeooo!” The Pidgeot leader landed in a tree beside the Rhydon leader and asked what its herd was doing. If they kept digging like this, the Pidgeot flock’s nesting area would shrink.

”Rhy.” The Rhydon leader shook its head. Its Rhyhorn had not caused these tremors. It also told Pidgeot that some of the Rhyhorn had smelled humans.

Humans?

Pidgeot narrowed its sharp eyes. The mention of humans made it think of the one who had left half a year ago, the one who had taken the Rhydon leader’s child with him.

Where was that human now?

Was the young Rhyhorn safe?

”Pidge.” The Pidgeot leader rubbed affectionately against the Pidgeotto beside it. If it had not refused, this child would have gone with that human too.

Thud, thud, thud.

While Pidgeot was still nuzzling its child, a messy rush of footsteps came from the cave. The Rhyhorn that had gone inside to check the situation were running out, every one of them fleeing as if something terrifying was behind them.

Once the Rhyhorn cleared the cave, Pidgeot spotted a human through the dust. Its eyes flashed, and it was ready to swoop down and grab him.

Then it saw the human release Pokémon and attack the mountain itself.

Pidgeot stopped.

It would watch for now.

Why was that human attacking the stone mountain?

Inside the cave, the four Team Rocket pursuers were close to losing their patience. Reiji’s collapses had left them covered in dirt, crawling through holes and rubble, and they still had not caught him. They wanted to tear him apart.

If Reiji had not been the Indigo Plateau champion, and if the two quasi–Elite Four tier Trainers had not set their sights on his Pokémon, they would never have taken this job.

Even so, they noticed the airflow in the tunnels improving. At this rate, they would reach the outside soon. After several cave-ins, the mountain had become unstable enough that they could feel it shaking under their feet.

The chase had turned into a race for survival.

If they got buried in this mountain, even surviving would cost them dearly.

That was exactly what Reiji wanted. He ran for the exit as fast as he could, still having Kingler trigger cave-ins behind him. As the tunnel opened up ahead, he caused an even larger collapse.

The moment he reached the outside, he released Accelgor, Scyther, and Rhydon along with Kingler.

”All of you, full power. Bring the mountain down and bury them!”

He only wanted to buy time so he could escape on Pelipper. Hoping the cave-in would kill the pursuers was unrealistic.

If they were ordinary people, maybe. But these four had Pokémon. They could dig out a safe space before the cave-in hit, then tunnel their way out afterward.

What Reiji needed was the delay.

The bare stone mountain began to sway. Reiji grabbed Scyther’s legs and had it carry him away.

Accelgor moved fast enough to leave afterimages. The moment the mountain started coming down, it threw away the fruit it had been holding and vanished from the danger zone.

Kingler and Rhydon were slower, but both could dig. Rhydon turned into a drill and burrowed underground, with Kingler following right behind it.

Rumble, rumble.

Once they were several dozen meters away, the mountain finally gave way. Dust shot into the sky, swallowing the four Team Rocket pursuers under the collapse.

Reiji dropped onto the grass, breathing hard. He raised an arm against the dust, but he did not dare waste time. He was about to recall his Pokémon and flee on Pelipper when a huge shadow fell over him.

He looked down at the dark shape covering the ground and swallowed.

Anything big enough to cast a shadow like that had to be huge.

He looked up and saw an enormous Pidgeot glide over him, wings spread wide.

”Pidge! Pidgeot!” The Pidgeot leader cried from the sky, releasing the presence of a ruler. Scyther, Accelgor, Kingler, Rhydon, and the others immediately tensed and closed ranks around Reiji.

Then heavy footsteps shook the ground.

The sound pulled Reiji’s attention back to the dust. He could not see what was inside yet, only a large shape moving closer.

The thudding grew louder.

When the shape finally came through the haze, Reiji saw the outline of a horn on its head.

He knew that shape better than anyone.

Rhydon.

The same species as Hanhan.

”Rhy!” The Rhydon’s roar blew the dust away in an instant, clearing the grass around them.

Reiji looked around and realized he had been surrounded. Rhydon and Rhyhorn were everywhere, each one giving off a stronger aura than the last. The Elite Four tier pressure was so intense that his Pokémon stiffened. There was not just one Elite Four tier Rhydon here.

There were at least three.

Above them, the circling Pidgeot radiated the same level of dominance.

Where exactly had he landed?

Why were there so many Elite Four tier Pokémon here?

”Rhy?” Hanhan stared at the roaring Rhydon, eyes going wide.

Why is Dad here?

”Rhy? You brat?” The Rhydon leader recognized it right away. His child had evolved, but that voice and that dumb look were impossible to forget.

”Peli? This place feels familiar.” Pelipper tilted its head and thought for a moment before finally remembering where they were.

”Scy? You know them?” Scyther asked. Hanhan and Pelipper were acting strange. Did they know these powerful Pokémon?

”Peli. You joined later, so you wouldn’t know. This is where Poliwhirl and I came from. It’s also where we first met Reiji,” Pelipper explained.

”Rhy, rhy, rhy! It really is you, brat!” The Rhydon leader stepped forward in excitement.

That instantly made Scyther and Accelgor tense, both ready to move. Then they saw the Rhydon slap Hanhan on the shoulder.

”Rhy. Dad.” Hanhan was just as surprised. It had never expected to meet its father here.

Had they really come back?

”Pidge! My big nephew!” The Pidgeot leader landed as well. It had just been thinking about that human and the Rhydon leader’s child, and now the child had returned.

”Rhy.” Hanhan raised a hand to greet Pidgeot, then had no choice but to stand there while its father inspected it from head to toe. The Rhydon leader poked here, checked there, and finally thumped it in the chest.

”Rhy. You’ve grown up, brat. You’re even stronger than me now.”

”Rhy…” Hanhan scratched its head in embarrassment. Being fussed over by its father in front of this many Pokémon made it want to dig a hole and disappear.

”Pelipper, what are they saying?” Reiji asked once he saw there was no fight. Hanhan was being inspected like a child, and curiosity got the better of him.

”Peli, peli.” Pelipper opened its beak, then remembered Reiji could not understand. It looked at the footprints on the ground instead, flew to a Rhyhorn footprint and pointed, then flew to a Rhydon footprint and pointed again. Finally, it pointed at Hanhan and the Rhydon leader.

”Rhyhorn? Rhydon? Footprints?” Reiji watched Pelipper act out the relationship.

If Hanhan and this Rhydon were connected, then this place had to be—

”Wait. Is this Fairchild Island? Pidgeot, Rhydon…”

Reiji turned toward Pidgeot, and the Pidgeotto beside it suddenly brightened and flew toward him.

He stretched out his arm. Pidgeotto landed on it and rubbed against his cheek.

That confirmed it.

This was the Pidgey he had saved back then.

Who would have thought? He had crossed the Orange Archipelago and ended up right back on Fairchild Island.

And if this was Fairchild Island, then the pursuers behind him…

Right.

The pursuers.

Reiji snapped back to the real problem. Getting rid of them mattered more than anything else.

”Rhydon, have your herd help us deal with the people chasing us.”

Then he looked up at the Pidgeot leader, swallowed, and took out Flying-type Pokéblocks.

”Pidgeot leader, we’re being hunted. Please help us deal with them. I’ll pay you with these.”

”Pidge!” Pidgeotto smelled the Pokéblocks and cried out in excitement. It immediately ate the one Reiji offered, not shy at all.

”Pidge.” The Pidgeot leader saw its child happily eating, then looked toward the Rhydon leader.

Even if Reiji had not asked, they would have dealt with the humans who invaded the island.

If the humans had not hunted any of their companions, they would usually drive them away at most. But Reiji was covered in dust, clearly worn down by the chase, and he was asking for help.

This time, they would not let the intruders leave.

”Rhy.” The Rhydon leader had just reunited with its son. Hearing that the other humans were pursuers who had come to take its son away made steam shoot from its nostrils.

It roared in fury.

”Rhy!”

”Rhy! Rhy!”

The entire Rhydon herd roared with it.

They soon felt tremors underground. The grass suddenly broke open, and several battered figures climbed out of the earth.

The Rhydon herd immediately surrounded the four.

”Pidge!” The Pidgeot leader cried from above, and dozens of Pidgeot circled over the four Team Rocket members, cutting off any chance of escaping through the air.

Seeing the Pidgeot flock and Rhydon herd move in like that, Reiji quietly led his Pokémon outside the ring and let out a long breath.

With allies this reliable, he no longer had to fear those four pursuers. Elite Four tier Pokémon against quasi–Elite Four tier Trainers was not a fair fight. He only needed to hold the rear and make sure the four did not escape.

Back then, the Pokémon hunters had only gotten away because they attacked first, Pidgeot had been desperate to save its child, and the Pidgeot leader had been suffering from several status conditions at once.

After half a year of recovery, the Pidgeot flock was back in shape. Add the Rhydon herd on top, and dealing with these four would be easy.

At least Tai was not among them.

He had known the target was Reiji, so he had not joined the chase. He did not have a Flying-type Pokémon anyway. Even if he had wanted to follow, he could not.

Still, Reiji was grateful for the warning.

If Team Rocket had struck first on the plane, he might not have noticed the trap until it was already around him.

By then, it would have been too late.

And if the plane had gone down, Team Rocket would have blamed everything on him.

At that point, even jumping into the Yellow River would not have washed him clean.

[End of chapter]

[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]

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