The northern caves, night. The ground is shaking.
Venusaur and Mismagius ran (and floated) as fast as they could toward the northern caves. They could see Charizard's fire glowing in the distance.
But something was wrong. The ground was shaking.
Not a little shake. A BIG shake. The kind of shake where the trees wiggle and the rocks bounce and Venusaur almost fell on his face THREE times.
Venusaur"What is HAPPENING?!"
Mismagius"The ground is breaking apart! Something is tunneling underneath us!"
— CRACK! RUMBLE! CRASH! The cave entrance splits in two —
They burst through the trees and saw the caves. And it was BAD.
Genesect was flying above the caves, firing laser blasts from its cannon. BOOM! BOOM! Rocks exploded everywhere. The baby Pokémon inside were crying.
And from BELOW the caves, three brown heads popped out of the ground. Dugtrio! But this wasn't a normal Dugtrio. It had mean, angry eyes. And on the rocks near the tunnel entrance, someone had painted a big red letter R.
Team Rocket.
Dugtrio was digging tunnels UNDER the caves, making the floor collapse! Genesect attacked from above. Dugtrio destroyed from below. It was a trap!
Charizard was already fighting. He was blasting fire at Genesect, trying to keep it away from the cave entrance. But he was tired. So, SO tired. He'd been warming the caves all night, and now he had to fight too.
Charizard"Get... AWAY from them!"
His fire blast hit Genesect, but Genesect barely flinched. Its metal body just glowed red for a second, and then it fired back. Charizard dodged, but just barely.
Venusaur"CHARIZARD! We're here! We came to help!"
Charizard looked down and saw Venusaur and Mismagius. His eyes went wide. For a second, he looked like he might cry. But Charizards don't cry. They just... breathe fire a little harder.
They made a plan in ten seconds flat. Charizard took the sky — fire blasts to keep Genesect busy. Venusaur sent his vines deep into the ground, wrapping around rocks and roots, holding the cave floor together like a giant green net. And Mismagius? She turned invisible and floated into Dugtrio's tunnels.
Dugtrio saw glowing purple eyes in the darkness of its own tunnel. Then two eyes. Then TEN eyes. Mismagius made it look like an army of ghosts was coming straight at it.
Dugtrio"AHHHHH!"
Dugtrio freaked out and tunneled away SO fast it left a dust cloud shaped like itself. Genesect, seeing its partner flee, fired one last shot and rocketed into the sky, disappearing in a flash of purple light.
The caves were safe. The babies were safe. Venusaur's vines were holding everything together. Charizard landed hard, exhausted, and for the first time ever... he looked at Venusaur and said:
Charizard"...Thanks."
Venusaur's flower bloomed so hard it almost exploded.
— the dust settles and moonlight returns to the caves —
But Mismagius wasn't smiling. She floated back from the tunnels holding something she'd found deep underground. A metal badge. Shiny. Cold. With a big red R stamped on it.
Mismagius"This wasn't just a random attack. Those two were sent here. By Team Rocket. And if they sent two... they'll send more."
Charizard, Venusaur, and Mismagius looked at each other. The babies were safe tonight. But what about tomorrow night? And the night after that?
Somewhere far away, in a building with no windows, a screen flickered. A grunt in a black uniform watched Dugtrio and Genesect retreat on a radar map. He picked up a phone.
???"Send the next team. The valley has more fight than we expected."
To be continued...