Red the Conqueror 22

Remarkably, the Rocket Hideout was well organized and surprisingly easy to follow. Unfortunately, that meant that it was designed by someone who was actually intelligent and as such, it actually had quite a bit of redundancy and backup tunnels and passages built into it. Checking everything to make sure nothing was missed while Red ran interference would take some time, and she could only hope Red would hold out while she went about her duties.

It was also very very boring. There just weren't that many individuals at the hideout that hadn't already gone down into the Game Corner entrance to try to slow down Red's advance and even defeat him, and what was there wasn't exactly challenge.

A group of helpless administrative personnel that didn't even have Pokémon on them?

Blue could easily corral them and leave them locked up in their own laboratory, after all, Sauria was capable of throwing them around with the same ease Blue could manipulate a rag doll.

"You there! Grunt! Come here, there's an intruder and-"

As she approached the scientists on the fifth floor of the base she threw her pokéball to the ground, and the dude balked when he noticed that what came out wasn't one of the easily caught and conveniently easily trained Rattatas, Koffings, Ekans that were staples of Team Rocket grunts, who were too weak as trainers to handle anything more complicated for the most part.

Sauria came out of her ball and her vines were already out and swinging, threateningly, leaving gouges, dents and scratches on the polished white steel walls of the hallways around them, the underground bunker around them feeling the power of a well trained pokémon and showing the scientists just how deep the shit they were in was.

There was a reason why people tended to stick far away from the tall grass whenever possible, after all, and not all Pokémon were cute, cuddly and nice.

"Alright, keys, keycards, IDs, whatever you've got that can unlock a door in this place, hand it over," she said, gesturing at them.

"What's the meaning of this!? We'll have your job for this, you moron!" one of the scientist, a man with long black hair and thick glasses that reflected the light so intensely they looked to be straight up white for a second spoke, pulling his glasses off and wiping them with a damp cloth, "do you not understand-"

Sauria's vines wrapped threateningly around the man's midsection and lifted him in the air.

"All of you are expendable," she said, anything that can be extorted out of you, anything that can identify you, anything that can get this organization in trouble, hand it over now, I'm not asking," she said, stomping her foot.

"What the, you're just a lowly grunt," the same guy spoke.

Another scientist, more meek, pulled his lanyard over his bowl cut and passed her his ID badge and the keys to the lab. Another, who had been frozen stiff, pulled a card from his pocket and his own hanging lanyard ,and one by one, they passed their IDs, their key cards and their physical keys for not just the lab but the lockers inside it.

Blue was actually floored. She was winging it so far, but it seemed to be working.

"Alright, I'm gonna lock you guys in then," she muttered, "Sauria, throw that guy in there," she said, gesturing at the nearby lab, "wait for the all clear before making any noise!" she commanded.

"Uhm, miss Grunt, are you really a Grunt?" asked one of the scientists, a woman with a very strong jawline.

Raising an eyebrow, Blue adjusted her hat and gestured at the lab. "Go in or you'll be thrown in," she said, gesturing to Sauria again, "go on, give her an excuse."

Sauria waved her whips threateningly in the air, and let out a gurgling growl that promised pain to the scientists should they fail to comply.

So they did comply, and walked single file into the laboratory room, a large one that could contain the half dozen scientists she had found, which only had one way in and out. She didn't know what kind of lab it was, only that it had big huge machinery all seemingly built around a raised platform, and which seemed to have a bunch of computers all neatly laid out in a semi circle with their screens towards the door.

"Clean up and prepare everything you can for transfer to another location," she said, "and when you're done hide just in case," she added.

Smirking as she locked them in and sealed the door, she moved on. They'd eventually learn they'd been duped, but until then, Blue would bask in the satisfaction of a job well done.

That said, more alarms were sounding off, and more personnel was being called. She had to hurry. Reinforcements were apparently called from outside. Eventually, though, she mapped out the emergency exits and where they lead, and more importantly, with help from Sauria she managed to block them off, at least such that the Rockets would need to bring much stronger pokémon than their usual fare to remove the chunks of debris and machinery she had left blocking their emergency exits.

Why, exactly, the Rockets had seemingly random old school computers strewn all over the place was beyond her, but apparently they liked the decorative old school tech look.

She also realized that evacuation orders started being sent out. The Law Enforcement was moving, after all, and more importantly, Red had proven to be an unstoppable threat to the Rockets that were being defeated left and right... luckily, this only happened after Blue had blocked all the exits she had found running around the facility.

As if to make matters even better, she would soon reunite with Red, who had now invaded the facility, and was slowly making his way through the floors. She hadn't had much need for fighting, but even so, he returned her Pokémon to her, and together they began to sweep the floors not just for exits, but for stray rockets as well.

When they met, the duo looked at each other, and Red silently passed Blue her Pokéballs. No need for a proper trade there, no authorities to see what they were doing, and their Pokémon didn't need to have the Pokéball owner updated for them to obey either of them, they knew and understood what the two were all about.

Blue, however, didn't keep the serene image of seriousness and hugged Red. "I'm glad to see you're safe, they seemed to be sending some really tough guys," she spoke.

Red raised a hand up to his face, fingers spread, palm parallel to the ground, and then he rotated it left and right a couple of times.

"Oh. Uh, how would they compare to me?" she asked. "Just out of curiosity!" she added.

Raising an eyebrow, Red looked her up and down.

"Not like that you irredeemable horndog!" she chuckled.

Shaking his head, Red made a cross gesture with his hands.

"Alright, it makes me feel a lot better at least," she admitted, "anyway, let's get a move on," she said. "Lead the way, Red!"

Red and Blue, with their Charmeleon and Ivysaur at the lead, cut a path through the Rockets' main base and wrecked everything on their way to the bottom floor. There was no more need for subtlety, Red had cut off the entrance, and Blue had cut off the exits, now all that remained was to push all the way through to whoever was in command of the Celadon operation.

Despite everything, it was a remarkably quick trip. Blue knew the facility pretty well by now, she was already good with directions and on top of that she'd been carefully keeping track of everything. She also pointed out the scientist idiots she had trapped earlier, as well as telling Red about some of the caches of supplies. Coincidentally, one of them had a good number of potions and full heals, and they both agreed, nobody would terribly mind if they helped themselves to a handful of gifts from Team Rocket's coffers.

Especially not Erika.

As they walked out of the supply cache room that they had just raided, they were immediately beset by a bunch of Team Rocket grunts.

"Hey you, that's the intruder, get him!"

Oh, right, Blue was still wearing her Team Rocket disguise.

"How baout no?" she responded.

"She's a turncoat, police, whatever!!"

They sent out some Rattatas and Koffings, and an adventurous man even sent out an Ekans. Needless to say, it didn't go superbly well for the grunts, but it was mightily amusing for the two trainers who swept through them with ease. First, they sent out their starters to battle.

And they kept doing that even as more reinforcements came, and others that they had already beat went for healing supplies only to come back for another beating, not realizing they were constantly making Red and Blue's pokémon stronger as the duo used Team Rocket's own healing supplies to keep on top.

Soon enough, and after pushing through the bravest, boldest and strongest that the grunts had to offer, Red and Blue found themselves at the very depths of the base. At the deepest spot, they found the opposite of a penthouse suite, a bottom floor office.

A hallway lead from the elevator all the way around an extremely large office, and the walls of it were reinforced. Two heavy, double doors blocked the way forward, and Red and Blue looked at each other.

"This is it, their boss and probably the strongest person here's behind this door," Blue said. "Should we wait for Erika?" she asked. "I mean this is probably gonna be legit dangerous."

Red hummed, then shook his head. They had kept their trump cards behind for this very moment, letting their starters and the Nidotwins handle all the matters so far.

"I guess... if we can't handle this, it might be good to at least get a handle of this person's strength," Blue mused, "and besides," she said, raising her arm and patting her bicep with a smile, "we've handled everyone here easily!"

Indeed.

Red gestured at her to open the door, which she did by moving to the keypad that was beside the heavy double doors and flashing one of the many keycards she had taken, then another, and finally a third, before the doors chimed.

A harsh voice sounded then.

"Enough. Come on in."

The doors hissed and then slid apart, revealing that the inside wasn't quite an office, but rather, it was an office that doubled as a pokémon arena, the lines painted onto the ground, which was a combination of soil and the natural bedrock. Most likely the soil had been brought from further up. The far wall had a large desk, with only a single computer screen set up on top of it and ready to go.

Well, that, and a man sitting behind the desk, on a large office chair with a plush backrest that looked incredibly comfortable.

He had a tight frown on his face, and hsi fingers were intertwined in front of it, he looked mighty upset already, and he didn't seem to be getting any less upset.

"Children," he muttered, "dozens of men and women, failed to stop two children!" he roared, slamming his fist on the table. "Well then, I will deal with this matter myself, and when I'm done, I'll make sure that pathetic wench never gets a big idea ever again in her worthless life!" he said, getting up, causing his chair to roll away violently.

He was wearing a black suit with a pink R emblazoned on the left breast, and his suit was tailored to him well enough that he could raise his leg and then kick the desk away, causing it to slide out of his way. He stuck his hands in his pockets and hunched his back slightly, a cruel smirk forming on his face. "You'll find me a far less disappointing challenge than the grunts you stomped on the way here."

He stood then, at one end of the arena, while Red and Blue stood at the other.

The two trainers look at each other, and regarded each other with a nod.

"I'll take you on at once!" called the evil man with the short cropped hair, pulling a pair of Pokéballs from one of his suit jacket's pockets. He threw one forward, and out popped a dark blue upright lizard-shark hybrid, the powerful ground/dragon type Garchomp, and then he threw the other, from which the mighty Rhyperior, evolution of Rhydon, popped out, already aiming its hand holes at the duo of trainers that had come to challenge its master. "I am the leader of Team Rocket, and I challenge you!"

There was only one proper course of action to follow here. As strong as they were, neither the Nidotwins nor the starters could handle what was about to happen.

"Go, Latios!" Blue cried, as she sent the blue dragon off.

Red hummed and threw his own ball forward, releasing his own half of the twin psychic dragons.

"Go on then, Children, show me your worth!"

"Just so you know," Blue said, smirking and sparing a glance at Red, "he really, really hates being made fun of for his height."

There was a moment's pause, as the man seemed to be considering.

"That... is not how I meant it to come off. I mean you're not even that short, what are you, a meter and a half? That's normal for a teenager," the leader of Team Rocket said.

Red hung his head, then.

"Maybe you should try growing a beard? No, trying too hard to look like an adult will actually make you look more childish- wait, what am I doing!?" the leader of Team Rocket caught himself getting distracted. "Nice try, but distracting me won't work!" he called, "my pokémon are expertly trained, and even without my commands, they will fight you to their full capacity!"

"We'll see about that," Blue said, "I'm Blue, of Viridian city, and this is Red, from Pallet Town," she called, "and we'll show you we've got what it takes!!"

Red nodded, then he glared at the mafioso, pointing a finger at him, eyes narrowed with fury.

"Fine then! Let it come!" the leader of Team Rocket called. "Also, kid, consider shoes with heels and small platforms, even a few centimeters will work wonders," he added as an afterthought.

Red sent him a thumbs up, and moments later, battle was joined, as the two Eon dragons engaged the powerful ground types.