Chapter 26:  Lower Evils (Part B) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

We woke up in a cell, our Pokéballs were outside on a shelf, if we could just 
get out of here, we’d be fine, but that didn’t seem possible.  
It wasn’t just Abby and I, there were a couple of men in blue suits, plus 
Juggler.  
“Who are you guys?”  
“Silph Security, but those Rockets overwhelmed us and we’ve been here for a 
while.” one of them explained.  
“How long?” I asked.  
“Weeks, they got into the computers and accessed the personal files, they sent 
messages to our homes saying that we were needed here.” explained the other.  
“That’s terrible.” said Abby quietly.  
“You say something Abby?” I asked surprised.  
“No...” she replied.  
“We have to find a way out of here.” I said firmly.  
“Do you think we haven’t tried? There’s no way out of this cell unless someone 
else unlocks it, but that’s not going to-”  
There was a clicking sound and the door opened.  
“Hey guys, need some help?”  
Standing proudly was a guy about my age with spiky black hair that sprung 
forward and hung over his face, he also had a small pony-tail at the back of 
his neck, he was wearing a red coat, blue jeans and black shoes.  
Next to him was a protective Jynx that stayed very close to him.  
“Who are you?...” I asked.  
“Take these Key Cards and free the hostages.” he said, handing me two Key 
Cards.  
“Alright, but just who are you?”  
“What was I thinking? I’m-”  
“Hey kid! What are you doing?!” yelled a Rocket Grunt.  
“Uh oh, hang tight, I’ll handle this, you just make your way to the other 
cells!” shouted the guy.  
“But-”  
“Go! Search every floor below the seventh!” shouted the red trainer firmly.  
While he used a Doduo against the Rocket’s Machop, we claimed our Pokémon and 
ran in the opposite direction.  

We soon reached a couple of staircases, one going up and the other descending 
down.  
“I think we’d better split up, Abby:  You take these guys and search floors 4 
through to 6 and I’ll keep an eye on Juggler.” I said.  
She shrugged her shoulders and casually ran down the hall with the guards.  
“You don’t have to worry about me...” said Juggler.  

“Yes I do, you might try to get away with all that stuff, well there’s more 
important things to do right now so how about lending us a hand?” I said 
firmly.  
“I guess I have no choice...” he moaned.  

We ran downstairs, beating back the grunts situated here and there, their 
Fighting-types were beaten by Juggler’s Pokémon, he wasn’t that great a trainer 
but I had instructed him a little, we managed to free all the people being held 
against their will and the Rockets were slowly clearing out, heading to the 
rooftop to make their escape.  
Surely these people couldn’t have been here since the time I was in the Safari 
Zone, perhaps they were here then, but just not resorting to these measures in 
order to control the company.  

Meanwhile ‘Red’ had reached the top floor with a fair few freed hostages.  
The door to the president’s room was open and with him was the boss of Team 
Rocket.  
Red had asked the others to wait a fair distance away and managed to sneak in 
without being noticed.  
The Boss was too busy shouting commands at the president, a short man with 
black hair, glasses and a brown suit.  
Red rolled to the side without so much noise and hid under a table with a 
computer, phone and documents, one of which was moved by the small wind but the 
guy in red managed to catch it before it could attract attention.  
“You’ll do this or else!” shouted the Boss throwing a paperweight at the desk, 
it hit the phone and the receiver fell and smacked Red on the head, he 
shuddered, but didn’t say a word.  
“I can’t make you such a thing, and even if I could, Silph Co would never build 
you a Pokéball with that kind of success rate, Pokémon should have a fighting 
chance if they don’t want to be captured.” argued the president, “I might have 
built you things in the past, but this is very different, I know now about your 
criminal ways and you want something that would give you an unfair advantage 
over Pokémon!”  
“Pokémon are here to be used by humans, and the Pokémon I want to catch has a 
fighting chance of escape, even With the success rate I’m asking for.  Now 
president, this is your last warning, understand that all your workers are 
being held hostage and there may be a few misfortunate ‘accidents’ if you do 
not give me what I want!” threatened the Boss.  
“But I can’t make you what you want, its near-impossible!” pleaded the 
president.  
“Perhaps my Persian can change your mind, Go!”  
“Reeeoowwwlll!!!” screamed the fierce cat, Red couldn’t wait any longer and his 
Bellsprout soon appeared and used Vine Whip to tie it up before he got to the 
president.  
“Uncle!” shouted Red.  
“Am I glad to see you!” replied the president.  
“What?!” shouted the Boss, “Stay out of this kid, the president and I are 
discussing important matters.”  
“I heard, and all your hostages are either free or are being freed as we 
speak!” grinned Red.  
“How did you?!” spluttered the Boss.  
“Finding the Card Keys wasn’t an easy task, but hey, I like a challenge.”  
“You haven’t heard the last of me kid, I’ll see you again...” said the Boss 
fiendishly as he left with his hurt Persian.  
“Uncle...” said Red again.  
“You saved me.” said the president, “How can I repay you?”  
“No need Unc’, let’s just get you downstairs safely, there might still be a few 
more Rockets armed with Pokémon...”  
They boarded the lift with several others and made their way down.  

Abby freed every person she found, she didn’t show it in her expressions but 
she was feeling compassionate about this task.  
“Hey little girl! Stop that!” yelled a grunt.  
“Little girl, am I?” she replied releasing her Rhyhorn on the unlucky 
Rocket...  

I reached the bottom floor with twenty or so hostages, grunts were blocking 
every door.  
“This is going to be tough...” I muttered.  
“More than you think.” said the smart looking male.  
“You’re in way over your head.” added the female.  

“We’re the head honchos, the ones in charge.”  
“Our deeds are big and our schemes are large.”  
“You can’t win, you’re soon going down.”  
“We’ll inherit the company, we’ll be wearing the crown.”  
“Jonathan.”  
“And Geneva.”  
“We’re the Executive Rockets and what we say, goes.”  
“And you’re going to face your greatest foes.”  

“Twinkill...” I said, not really caring, the motto thing was getting so old, it 
was a surprise each individual grunt didn’t have one.  
“For your Staryu, I’ll use my Pinsir, Beetle! Go!” shouted Jonathan.  
“PINSIR!!!”  

“Twinkill! Use your Swift attack!”  
“Beetle! Guillotine!”  
He charged forward and took the damage from the stars, snapping his large claws 
together, he lunged at Twinkill and struck them shut.  
Twinkill had leaped upwards in time and the Pinsir had collapsed onto the 
floor.  
“Bubblebeam!”  
The Pinsir was blasted back to Jonathan.  
“Finish it with Double Edge!”  
“Slash attack!”  
Twinkill struck the Pinsir but it brushed its sharp claws across Twinkill, 
leaving a mark, the combined force of that with the side effects of the 
Double-Edge left Twinkill weak, but the Pinsir was out of strength after that.  
“Go! Rattler!” shouted Geneva.  
“Ekkkaaannnssss!!!”  
“I don’t think I can take them all, Poison Pokémon are weak against Psychic 
ones, Juggler, do something righteous for a change and maybe I and the police 
will go easy on you.” I said firmly.  
“Yeah yeah yeah, Okay!” he mumbled.  
“Rattler! Wrap attack!”  
“Kaaannnsss!”  
“Kadabra! Use your Confusion attack!”  
“Ku-dabra!”  
The Ekans was thrown into the wall by the unseen force.  
“Bite it!” screamed Geneva.  
It struck out and bit the Kadabra hard.  
“Disable!” shouted Juggler.  
“Kan-”  
It fell back frozen totally and hard as a rock.  
“Go Vermin!” shouted Jonathan unleashing a Raticate, I’d need to use my 
experience of Raticates to win.  
They were extremely powerful, but not so tough in the special department.  
“Go Flutter!”  
He’d have to keep his distance and use his powders.  
“Vermin, use your Super Fang!”  
“Flutter! Stun Spore!”  
“Rati-Caaaaatte!!!” he shuddered, shaking all over.  
“Now use your String Shot!”  
“Freefreeee!” Flutter shouted spurting out a sticky string on the rat, it 
became stuck.  
“Now Tackle!”  
“Hyper Fang!”  
He struggled free and launched himself up, opening his mouth and raising its 
teeth.  
“Free!” shouted Flutter hardening, I was getting used to his sense of 
initiative thinking.  
The fang hit but didn’t damage.  
Flutter smiled fiendishly and finished it up with a Psybeam.  
“Rati-Caaaaattte!”  
“Get him Pearl!” shouted Geneva unleashing a Shellder.  
“Shell-Der!”  
It clamped onto Flutter and fired an Ice Beam right in his face, the close 
range was enough to weaken him.  
“Free...”  
“Return Flutter.  I choose you Inferno!”  
“Charrr!!!”  
He sat down and scratched his ear with his foot.  
“Inferno...” I moaned.  
“Shellder!” screamed Pearl firing off a Water Gun, Inferno leaped up and 
slashed the little shell.  
It had some protection, but not enough, when Inferno got angry, he made sure 
the enemy knew it.  
“Shell-Der!” screamed Pearl firing off an Ice Beam.  
It connected and grew around the lizard, but Inferno blew flames on it and it 
soon shattered.  
“Char Char Char Meleon!!!” he screamed, beating his chest.  
“Shell?”  
The little shell was blasted by flames and was glowing red, he spat out water 
to stop it, which splashed all over Inferno as well, but he struck again with a 
Slash attack and the Shellder was recalled, I returned Inferno to his ball.  

“That is it!” yelled Jonathan, “Enough of playing by the rules! Go! Smogger!”  
“Go Despair!”  
“Koffing!”  
“Gloom...”  
“Juggler, they’re both weak against Psychic!” I shouted.  
“Heh heh heh.” chuckled Juggler before releasing his Venomoth and Hypno.  
“Hypno, Hypnosis!”  
“Hypno...  Hypno...”  
“Kof... fing...”  
“Gllloom...”  
“Now Venomoth, Psybeam!”  
The beam flew past the Koffing and Gloom and they were thrown into their 
trainers.  
“They’re too strong!” squealed Geneva.  
“Get to the elevators!” shouted Jonathan.  
The executives ran towards the one on the left but a ringing sound echoed 
through and Red was in the elevator with many hostages and his Jynx.  
“The right!” yelled Geneva.  
Abby came through and her Rhyhorn was summoned.  
“The stairs! The stairs!” shouted Jonathan, Abby’s Rhyhorn charged forward but 
the executives made it through and he was too big to fit, still he was keeping 
the Rocket Grunts from escaping.  

“While they’re trying to catch the other criminals, I’ll make my escape.” 
whispered Juggler, “Thanks for teaching me how to be a champ, kid, but I’m 
still not going straight.”  

As soon as he left the Silph Co building, sirens filled the area and many 
police cars surrounded the building.  
“Stop, we know what you’re doing!” yelled Officer Jenny.  
“Oh, no, I’m not a Rocket!” replied Juggler.  
“No, but many people have reported you putting them to sleep and stealing their 
possessions!”  
“But-”  
A gold necklace dropped out of his pocket.  
“Aw nuts!”  
He summoned his Hypno but two Growlithes immediately used their Flamethrower 
attack to flame-grill it and stop it from putting anyone else to sleep.  
Jenny snapped some handcuffs on him.  
“You’re going away for a long time...”  

With most of the exits cut off, the grunts carefully decided their next move 
and came to a very intelligent decision.  
“Leggit!!!”  
They dashed out the front entrance.  
“Stop them!” I shouted.  
“No need.” said Red confidently, “I called the police while the boss of Team 
Rocket was threatening the president, I didn’t have to say a thing, he 
explained his whole plan and where we were, and the police came over soon 
after.”  
I smiled, he was similar to me, and a kind and compassionate trainer by the 
looks of it.  
The grunts were restrained by the police and a black helicopter hastily flew 
away, the executives and the Boss had escaped us this time, but we’d brought 
down a lot of their men.  

“We have to thank you somehow.” said Officer Jenny, “You put yourselves in 
great danger to subdue these criminals.”  
“No need, I do this all the time, but it was a team effort, Abby helped and so 
did-”  
I looked around for the guy but he had seemingly disappeared, perhaps I’d see 
him again someday in the Pokémon League and perhaps I’d even get his name.  

Abby and I stopped at the Pokémon Centre for a well earned rest.  
“You did good Abby.” I congratulated.  
“I did what anyone would do.” she replied simply, but hiding her face from me.  
“You’re too modest...  Oh I almost forgot, I agreed to get you to Saffron City, 
I guess tomorrow we’ll be going our separate ways and-”  
“Stop.  Perhaps I came off a little cold, if you feel that travelling together 
would be helpful for the both of us, then I’d hate to disappoint you...  Plus I 
think I could really use the company.”  
“Really?” I asked, quite surprised that she had said all that to me.  
“Well, I look forward to it.” I said kindly extending a hand.  
She was hesitant to shake back, it seemed she had been alone for quite some 
time, but she eventually returned the handshake.  

We departed for bed and tomorrow, we’d test our skills at the Saffron Gym.  

End of Chapter 26B  

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