Gotta Catch That One

Chapter 52: The Battle of Lumiose City Part 7

It felt pretty weird for Bonnie as she ran with Gary towards where they had seen Giovanni. From what Ash had told her, he was an old rival that had decided to go the route of being a Pokemon researcher like his grandfather, Professor Oak. Obviously his change in goals hadn't taken away from his battling skills, because his Blastoise was ploughing through Team Rocket pretty easily.

"We're going to need to be really careful." Gary told Bonnie. "Giovanni is extremely strong. He managed to control Mewtwo at one point. I'm guessing his Pokemon can do some serious damage."

"What's our plan, then?" Bonnie asked.

Gary shrugged. "Hopefully we get him while he's distracted by trying to get control of that Sundial."

As they made their way towards the city, it was hard to not get distracted by the mess of the battlefield. At this point it was actually kind of hard to see what was going on with Zygarde, Mewtwo and Ash, because of the dust and smoke all around. Bonnie was able to see, however, that Squishy didn't seem to be anywhere in sight, which obviously made her worried.

Then, of course, as they made their way through, they were stopped by a trio of Team Rocket members. These three being the most familiar of them all. Jessie, James and Meowth. It was strange, but James seemed to have a relieved expression on his face. Bonnie wondered what kind of bad stuff that could be a signal for. They had their Gourgeist, Wobbuffet and Inkay in front of them.

"You guys...wow you haven't given up after all this time?" Gary asked. "I guess I should give you some credit for never giving up."

It looked like a vein was going to pop out of Jessie's head at those words. "I hate it when the old twerps show up." She screeched. "They always change the routine."

"How is all this routine?" Bonnie asked.

"Shut up mini twerpette!" Jessie yelled. "Gourgeist, dark pulse!"

"Blastoise, hydro cannon!" Gary countered.

Gourgeist quickly moved forward and shot the purple and black energy in Blastoise's direction. Meanwhile, the turtle-like Pokemon lowered his body and carefully aimed the barrels on his shoulders. As the dark pulse got closer, he fired and water exploded out and easily overpowered the dark pulse. It forced the attack back and slammed into Gourgeist, knocking the pumpkin-ghost Pokemon back, where it landed hard on the ground in front of Jessie.

"Bulba-bulbasaur!" Bulbasaur shouted as he shot out his vines and wrapped them around Inkay. He raised it into the air and then held it in place. Squirtle was quick to answer his friend's call. He fired off a quick water gun that drenched the little psychic-squid Pokemon. Bulbsaur let go and Inkay began to drop to the ground. However, just before it landed, it got one more hit. Primeape went rushing forward and slammed his fist into it hard, knocking it into Gourgeist who was about to get up.

"You guys are as weak as ever." Bonnie giggled.

"Why couldn't the boss just give us the Team Rocket Pokemon again?" Jessie muttered. "They completely overpowered that twerpette."

"Hm?" Bonnie looked at James in confusion. The blue-haired Team Rocket members was just blankly staring off at the other battles, apparently uninterested in the current one he was involved in.

"James smarten up!" Jessie yelled. "You've never had a hard time fighting the twerps before. At least not like this."

"I...well...this is different." James said quietly.

Bonnie exchanged a confused glance with Gary. What was this all about? She looked at the Team Rocket trio, completely dumbfounded. It seemed like James was...regretful? Gary wasn't going to waste his time wondering, though. "Blastoise, hydro cannon!"