Pokémon: Midnight Blue

Raichu

It was too easy storming past the grunts, but as we got closer to the core of the base, we were caught by surprise.

"Giga Drain," a voice commanded from the darkness. A Golbat swooped down and drained all the energy out of Graveler. Graveler was officially useless to us. Robin reached for his blood-red vest, but I waved him off.

"You and Kylie go on ahead," I said to him, "I got this."

Robin nodded at me and motioned for Kylie to follow him. They ran off and I turned my gaze to the Golbat that attacked us.

"Trying to be the tough guy, huh?" the grunt appeared from the shadows, "Won't do you any good, kid. No one likes a hero."

I ignored his remark and pulled out a Pokéball. I released Pikachu, and I noticed something strange. There was an eminence in the air. It seemed almost like something was radiating into the environment. Pikachu noticed it too, but it did not seem bothered.

"Pikachu," I growled arrogantly, "Thundershock."

Pikachu released a powerful shock from its cheeks, and I realized the Pikachu was shuddering as it attacked. Soon, a gleaming light surrounded Pikachu, and it grew. As the light faded, my Pikachu was revealed to have been replaced by a stronger Raichu. The Thundershock turned into an even stronger Thunderbolt attack. The damage was more than the Golbat could handle, and it fell out before long.

The grunt seemed extremely upset at his loss and ran off to get help. Normally, I would have taken more time to admire my newly-evolved Pokémon, but I had more important things to turn my attention to. I ran off, following the trail that I had seen Robin and Kylie run. I turned an aisle, and then I realized that I had no idea where to go next. Thankfully, Robin's silhouette popped out of one of the hallways and his voice trailed down to my ears.

"Hey, Brian!" he yelled out to me, "Come over here! You have got to check this out!"

I asked no questions and instantly ran down the hall and turned at the opening where Robin had appeared. I stopped in my tracks as I saw what Robin and Kylie were staring at. Before us were piles and piles of evolution stones. Leaf Stones, Fire Stones, Thunder Stones, and Water Stones were all lined up and sorted in different stacks. At the bottom of the Thunder Stone pile I noticed a small clutter of crumbled yellow shards. Now I knew how Pikachu had evolved.

"Unbelieveable," I whispered in awe, "What are they doing with these?"

"They're artificially re-creating the radiation they let off and mass-producing them to sell to the Celadon Department Store," Kylie deduced, "Since they're so rare, they can be sold at a high price."

"How are they getting the resources to re-create the radiation?"

"I heard stories while I was in Vermilion," Robin recalled, "In the depths of the ocean there are four stones, one of each type, that don't break after they're used. You can use them as much as you want. Maybe Team Rocket got ahold of them."

"And they're extracting the energy of the stones to make thousands of each to sell for a profit," I inferred.

Suddenly, we heard a soft, slow clapping and a course, sinister voice following, "Well done, children. It seems there is hope for the intellect of the upcoming generations. But sometimes, even the smartest of people cannot survive long enough to share their intellect."