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[b][u][center]Pokémon Polyamory

Chapter 10: Fighting Through

Sponsored by Nevid

By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b]

The darkness of the Slowpoke Well wasn’t easy to navigate, but with the few flashes of light that he saw in the distance, Jared was able to make his way along. Sure, there were times when he ended up having to stop and wait for the next flash, and there were more than a few instances where he almost tumbled into the water beside the path, but he was able to make progress.

Thankfully, most of the Rockets weren’t so focused on anyone else that might be coming into the well. They seemed to be more interested in the battles going on further in the well, watching as Kurt continued his stick-swinging rampage. For all that the Rockets could be dangerous criminals, from his prior experience, it seemed that they didn’t deal well with surprise.

Hell, Proton probably still didn’t do well with that.

[i]But that’s not going to last forever. I need to get to him, now.[/i]

Easier said than done. The flashes were sporadic, and he didn’t want to use Lurch too much to keep lighting up the bottom of the well. That was just painting a target on his back, and the last thing he needed was to get dog-piled by the various Rockets all at once. He’d already gotten the snot kicked out of him earlier, and he didn’t need to have that happen again.

“Beeeeeell…”

He looked down at his wrist. The little Bellsprout clinging to him was shaking like a leaf, and the little vine-branch that formed Lurch’s body was all but vibrating. The little guy could barely keep his head pointed forward.

“Do you want back in the ball?” he asked.

“Bell.” Lurch shook his head.

“You sure?”

“Sprout.”

“Just tap me with your head if you change your mind, okay?”

He kept his arm forward so that whatever the little guy had for blood didn’t start rushing for his head. Creeping past the rocks, he avoided the Rockets that were out cold and tried to sneak past the ones that were starting to regain consciousness.

Of course, there were some that had only hid as Kurt had run past, and those required something…extra.

“OOF!”

One Rocket went down with a grunt of pain, and Jared shook his head as he dropped the large rock that he’d picked up for the purpose. He shifted it over the Rocket’s leg, not to break it, but to at least slow the grunt down when he woke up again.

And so he went. Most of the time, he didn’t have to do anything, but there were the occasional Rockets that were troublesome. He knocked out three more before things got a little more complicated. He approached one from behind, sneaking up as he picked up the only good-sized rock in the area –

“Geo…”

Only to freeze at the low voice in his ear. He looked at the rock and saw a face looking back at him, one where the eyes were slowly opening as if from a nap.

“…Oh, come –”

The Rocket whipped around, eyes going wide. Jared looked between the criminal and the Pokémon in his arms, and reacted instantly.

“Sorry about this,” he muttered to the Rock-type, and threw him with all the force that he could muster.

“Hey, what the hell are you – agh!”

The boulder of a Pokémon slammed into the criminal trainer with a great deal of force, taking him off his feet. More to the point, the rather annoyed, likely angry Geodude immediately set to pummeling the human with its fists. Teeth flew, then blood.

The Geodude hmphed to itself as it float-rolled off of the Rocket when it was done, moving past where Jared was standing. He wisely stepped to the side, allowing the rock access to its napping spot again. A quick glance at the Rocket proved that the other guy was still alive, just beaten into unconsciousness.

[i]…Might need to get me one of those,[/i] he thought, looking back at the settling Geodude. [i]Probably not that one, though.[/i]

Shaking his head, he rounded the corner, following the water. The lights were more constant now, which could be a good thing or a bad thing. There was a hum in the air, too, something that did not bode well for him or for his Pokémon. It sounded like the drone of Zubats, and if there were that many of them using their supersonics all at once, then this was going to get problematic.

He slowed down as the light got brighter towards another corner, pausing at the edge of the rock wall. Going down to his knees, he slowly poked his head around the corner.

Kurt was surrounded by more Rockets, each of them with a Zubat out. That was the source of the humming, and each of them faced Kurt. The old man had fallen to his knees, shaking and on the verge of a seizure as they kept spamming Supersonic attacks at him. The Rockets were all wearing earplugs, too, save for one of them.

Proton.

He glared at his former colleague as the criminal executive stepped forward, arms folded behind his back, his eyes hidden by those same stupid sunglasses as before.

“Stupid old man. You thought that you could just chase us out of here?”

“Nnngh…I had a chance…”

“You won’t have for much longer. Team Rocket doesn’t take kindly to interference.”

“Heh…little…punks…”

Jared winced as he saw the tension that the old man’s body was under. He was seizing up, everything starting to cramp from the constant vibrations of the Zubat attacks. When they used that move on other Pokémon, it confused them, made their bodies work the wrong way. When it was used on people, the supersonic vibrations of the Supersonic attacks were like setting up an epilepsy attack. If you were quick, or strong enough, or healthy enough, you could deal with one Zubat doing it and not have any adverse effects. Kurt was old, though, and he was being hit on all sides, again and again and again.

They weren’t just trying to teach him a lesson. They were trying to push him over the edge to a seizure and stroke, so that he could never bother them again.

[i]Shit…[/i]

Glancing around for another Geodude, he saw none, but he did see something floating by in the water. Catching sight of a small shell, he grabbed hold of it. A quick examination told him he’d found a Shellder, and that was good enough for a distraction.

“Sorry. I’ll put you back right after.”

With a grunt, he heaved the Water-type around the corner, lobbing it right for the Rocket grunts.

It hit the one nearest to him on the back of the head. The shell was open at the time, too, which meant that it immediately started squeezing. The grunt screamed, falling to his knees and grabbing for the sides of the shell to try and pull it open.

“AGGGGH!”

One Zubat was no longer focused on doing its attack, turning around and trying to help his trainer. Trying being the operative word. It seemed that the wild Pokémon outleveled the trained one, for a change.

However, there were no more Pokémon in the water and no Geodudes nearby for more ammunition. He looked down at Lurch, and shook his head. He wasn’t going to start a battle for them if he didn’t have to, not when they were already outnumbered. Rockets didn’t play fair, even if they were still stupid.

“Back in the ball,” he muttered, pulling it out and zapping the Grass-type back inside before it could protest.

As the other Rockets worked to pull the Shellder free, he darted forward. The larger, clear space where the torture was going on was further from the waterline, but there were places for him to climb over. He found a rock face on the other side of the gap, and climbed up, keeping to a crawl as he made his way across the top.

Eventually, the Rockets pulled the Shellder off their fellow criminal, throwing it off to the side. While the injured man groaned, cupping the sides of his face, Proton gestured for the other Rockets to go back to their positions.

“Alright. I think we all know what that means,” Proton said.

“Shellders are attacking us now?” one of the Rockets asked.

“No.”

“Black attracts Pokémon?”

“What? No!”

“Oh, oh. The Supersonic attack attracts Water-types?”

“What? Well, maybe, but no!” Proton rubbed his head, groaning under his breath. “It means that Kurt here didn’t come down the well alone.”

[i]You always were smarter than the average grunt, Proton. Guess that’s why you made executive.[/i]

Still, he had a bit of an advantage. They knew that someone was around, but he doubted that Proton knew enough to look up. Nobody did, usually. He kept himself flattened out, taking in the numbers.

It wasn’t good. That one guy was probably out of the fight, or was as good as. The Shellder had managed to fuck up his jaw something fierce, and if he could give orders, Jared would be surprised. There were still five other grunts, though, and then Proton too. With a surprise attack, he might be able to take out one, maybe two before they figured out that he was up here, but then they would send the Zubats up, and he’d have other problems.

The pokéballs at his waist started shaking, and he knew that had to be the rest of the team. Croccy, Snugs, Shimmer, and even Lurch seemed to want to come back out. Whether they knew what was going on or not, he didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to be pulling them out unless it was an emergency. This was his choice to be down here, not theirs, and he didn’t want them to get hurt fighting his battles.

Crawling to the edge of the rock, he looked down on the group, trying to come up with a strategy that would get rid of the Zubats as fast as possible. If he used his team, then he might be able to take down all of them at once – his team could hit four of them, and he could grab the fifth and pull it down and out of the air. That said, it would need to be executed flawlessly, and he doubted that they were going to be able to do that.

And the Rockets might not abide by the rules that everyone else did. The whole one vs one thing was very much a legal rule for battling with Pokémon, but with the Rockets breaking all the other rules, he didn’t see them keeping to that one just for his sake.

On the other hand, he could go after Proton directly, but that would leave Kurt vulnerable. He didn’t like that idea, either, particularly since he hadn’t gotten what he needed out of the old man just yet.

[i]Arceus…[/i]

It wasn’t a good situation, and the longer that he put off making a decision, the more likely it was that Proton would think to eventually take his eyes off of his injured grunt and look upwards. He had to make a decision –

White light suddenly filled the immediate area, and he realized that one of his Pokémon had just leaped out of its ball. Jared flailed for it, but his fingers barely passed through the white light before it was darting down to the ground below. It formed quickly, becoming Croccy, and the Croconaw posed, ready for a fight with its mouth open and a toothy smile on its face.

[i]Shit…[/i]

The rest of his pokéballs rattled, but he didn’t react quickly enough to stop them. Three more flashes followed, and Snugs, Shimmer, and Lurch all leaped out of their balls, joining Croccy on the battlefield down there.

The Rockets were, understandably, shocked. Four Pokémon being let out at once? Hardly the sort of thing that an average trainer would do. They looked up, as if expecting Jared to poke his head out over the rocks. But if they thought he was stupid enough to show himself, they were dead wrong.

[i]Okay, new plan…[/i]

“Shimmer! Sand attack! Lurch, Flash! Snugs, Wrap! Croccy!” He looked over the edge at Proton. “Hit that smug bastard with Water Gun.”

As soon as the Pidgey’s sand attack went off and he had some cover, he rolled over the edge and hit the dirt. Croccy was already running for the bastard at the far end of the open space, and while the sand attack was providing some semblance of cover, he ran for Kurt. The old man was just getting to his feet, barely able to lean on his cane, and Jared pulled him by the arm, pushing him gently in the direction of the way out.

“Keep moving,” he whispered.

“Nnngh. I can take it…”

“No, you can’t. They almost knocked you out already. Just keep going.”

“Ugh…fine. Fine. But you make that bastard pay.”

“That’s the plan.”

Kurt hobbled forward through the sand while the Rockets kept screaming. They shouted orders at the Zubats, trying to get them to attack, to get rid of the storm. He didn’t worry about the grunts, but he did worry about –

“Zuuuuuu!”

That! He ducked at the last second, throwing himself to the ground as the sharp-fanged bat went flying over his head. Rolling to the side to avoid a second one, he managed to get to his feet just in time to see a third coming his way. He pulled back a fist –

“SPROUT!”

And then Lurch was right in front of him, leaf-arms outstretched. Two vines came out and slapped the Zubat to the side, knocking it out of the way. Jared took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

“Thank you…”

“Bell!”

As Lurch used his vines to climb up an arm, dragging himself up to Jared’s shoulder, the sand attack was already starting to fade. Shimmer shrieked from up in the air, and he knew that the Pidgey would need to rest soon. They couldn’t keep this up forever, not with their relatively low experience.

“Shimmer! Here!”

The bird flew through the sand, but so did the Zubats. Two of them followed the Pidgey to him –

“You no do the boopins!”

And suddenly, there was Snugs. The snake leaped from the ground, headbutting the two Zubats with an open mouth. He bit down on one, throwing it away, and beat the other with the end of his tail. It was a quick attack, something that had come out of nowhere, and was perfectly effective.

The rest of the sand faded, revealing the results of their surprise attack. Three of the five remaining grunts were down, and so were their Zubats. The other two were not doing well, either, rubbing their eyes and trying to get their sight back after being blinded by the sand that was flying through the air.

It was a good time to keep running, particularly since Croccy was nowhere to be seen.

“Must have chased after Proton…” He shook his head. “Alright, everyone, return.”

They refused, which didn’t surprise him. Sighing, he ran straight ahead, leaving them to follow as they would. If it was legitimately their choice to be out, then there wasn’t much that he could do to stop them. He’d just have to go along with it and hope for the best.

As he ran past the blinded Rockets, the Zubats started to move to stop him, but the sharp shriek of Shimmer was enough to dissuade them. The fact that his Ekans was right on his heels, narrowing its eyes at the bats, was enough to make them stop, too.

They kept moving, not daring to slow down as they rounded the corner and followed the tracks that Proton and Croccy had left behind. They picked up speed as they heard the sound of something angry around the corner, something roaring. Jared clenched his fist tightly as he yanked himself around a stalagmite, hopped over a Slowpoke –

“LIIIIIIIIIIIITHE!”

And just like that, he threw himself against the rock wall, yanking Lurch off his shoulder and holding him against his chest. Snugs and Shimmer pulled back, the latter taking to the air and the former throwing itself against the ground, but Lurch would have had no chance. The fire that came rushing down the tunnel scorched Jared’s shirt, almost burning it off, but it was strong and sturdy enough to hold together.

Barely.

Huffing at the heat that remained, he looked down the tunnel. Croccy was holding his own, for the most part, though the little blue crocodile was dancing around from foot to foot on the heated ground in there. The little guy growled, shaking a fist.

“Gonna get you!” Croccy called out. “You wanna hurt someone? Let’s see how you like it, huh? How about you – oh, you wanna try that again? Come on, I dare ya, I super-double dare ya!”

Not sure if his Pokémon was shouting at Proton or the – he assumed – Growlithe that the Rocket exec had sent out, Jared edged his way down the tunnel, keeping away from the super-heated rock that was in the middle of it now. Lurch shivered against his chest, obviously not happy, but trying his best to be okay.

He petted the Bellsprout’s head. It was going to be.

The next explosion from down the way was a blast of steam where a Water Gun and some sort of fire attack hit each other at the same time. It misted the air, and he groaned under his breath.

[i]Lovely. Giving him cover. Not what I wanted…[/i]

“Croccy!”

“Huh? Where are you?” his Pokémon shouted back.

“Not important. Go down and Water Gun the ceiling.”

“But –”

“Do it!”

Croccy must have, because a few seconds later, the air started to chill with how much water was coming down from above. The mist faded as it was washed back down, leaving no cover.

And no way for Proton to hide that he was about to slide through a tunnel on the side of the room. The green-haired asshole paused in the middle of climbing in the hole just as Jared walked out of his own tunnel.

“You?” Proton said, blinking. “I didn’t expect to see you again.”

“Yeah, well, feeling’s mutual.”

“You were the one that ruined this?”

Jared shrugged as Croccy hopped back to him, still bouncing from foot to foot in that endless way of not being able to hold still. “I didn’t like seeing all the crap you were causing.”

“Well, that explains who hit one of my grunts.”

“Got everyone to believe I was not on your side.”

“You always were stupid. Turning evidence against us? The whole organization wants you out of the way, now.”

“Considering what you were trying to do with Project Chimera, I should have turned that evidence a [i]lot[/i] sooner.”

Proton shook his head. No surprise to see the smug smile come back. Proton hadn’t been an executive when he’d been part of the team, when he had been part of the breeding experiments back in Kanto, but obviously the other man had gone up in the Rocket ranks since then.

“You signed a death warrant, you know that?”

“I’m sure you’d get promoted if you dealt with me, but that’s not happening.”

“I have more Pokémon on my team, I bet. You never did know how to delegate.”

“Not really, but these days, I’m not getting a choice.”

“What are you – oh. Oh, wait…heh.”

He really, really didn’t like the smile spreading across Proton’s face. It made him feel like the other man knew way, way, way too much.

He looked down at Croccy, giving him a nod, and another Water Gun fired. It hit Proton right in his smug face, knocking him over and sending him rolling backwards. Jared followed it up with a brisk walk forward, his Croconaw following him until they were standing over the asshole.

Proton coughed, spitting out water as they walked up. He shook his head, chuckling.

“You found one of our little outposts, didn’t you? Which one was getting altered, huh? Which one started it? The Croconaw?”

“…I should have known that you’d know about what’s going on,” Jared said, shaking his head. “You always were one to find where all the boltholes were, where all the dirty little secrets were being kept.”

“And you were always one to pretend that you were better than the rest of us.”

“We’re not going down that road.”

“Oh? And why not? After all, the only way that you’d know about it is if you ‘bonded’ with them…and we both know what I mean when I say that.”

Jared’s cheeks burned as he clenched his fists at his sides. Proton smirked.

“Heh…it wasn’t even the Croconaw, was it? I should have guessed. You got it when it was just a Totodile, and you [i]fucked[/i] it.”

“That’s not how it happened.”

“So self-righteous, and then you go and do it yourself. Breeder.”

“That’s not how it happened!”

“It still happened. You still – bblblblblbl!”

Croccy interrupted Proton with another Water Gun, something that Jared was immensely grateful for. He had expected a confrontation with the exec, but he hadn’t thought that it would go like this. He should have, though. Proton had always been an asshole, but he had always been an informed one, too.

As the water drained away, he grabbed the Rocket by the front of his shirt, lifting him up and slamming him into the wall. Proton groaned, his soaked hair falling over the back of his head.

“You’re going to tell me what the fuck is going on,” he muttered. “Whatever profit you’re getting from the tails, this isn’t about the Slowpokes. This is Project Chimera all over again, isn’t it?”

“Heh…heh…2.0, Jared, 2.0.”

“Where is it?”

“You think I’m just going to tell you?”

“I think that you won’t have a choice.”

“Oh, that bluster, that anger. Not even bothering to hide it anymore, huh? Do your new bosses know what you used to do for us?”

“…”

“The thief that brought all those little Pokémon to us to experiment on. The runner that took care of the empty pokéballs so that there was no evidence to trace back to us. Heh. Do you think all of them were empty?”

Jared clenched his teeth, pulling back one fist. It was a mistake.

As soon as he let go with one hand, Proton kneed him in the guts. Wheezing as the air was knocked right out of his lungs, he hit the floor with a thud. He tried to get up, but got a boot in the face for his troubles.

His Pokémon surged forward after that, but it was too late. Proton was already running, and while Croccy managed to get a final Water Gun against him and send him flying, it sent him flying down a side passage. Jared shook his head.

“R-return,” he wheezed. “Return!”

They all heeled at that, stopping where they were. He hugged his guts, slowly pulling himself upright again. They weren’t going to be able to track him down now. Proton wouldn’t have gone down the side tunnel without knowing where it led, and he knew that there was no chance in hell that they were going to catch up with him before he found his escape route. Not now.

[i]There was a reason I was avoiding getting into a fight…[/i]

After getting his ass beaten by the three grunts earlier, and then getting knocked down again, he wasn’t in very good shape. He had to lean against the cave wall as he took a deep breath, then let it out, then took another deep breath. Slowly, he managed to get his balance back, but he knew that he’d need some serious time to recover.

After all, this wasn’t a game.

Snugs coiled around one of his legs, and Croccy gently pushed the other one. Lurch still hung around his shoulders, and Shimmer came down to perch on top of his head. They all patted him, holding him.

“Wanna boop the bad away?” Snugs asked, nosing against his thigh.

“Nah…nah, I’ll be okay. Just kinda…kinda tired.”

He took a deep breath, let it out again, and he was able to stand normally. It wasn’t easy, but he could do it.

Before he could say anything else, though, Croccy paused, cocking his head to the side and looking around. The Water-type glanced at the walls, then up at the ceiling, and then back at the walls again.

“What’s the matter?” he asked.

“Feels…familiar. It’s like there’s something here. Like I’ve been here before.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know. Just…in a cave like this.”

[i][b]Under Azalea Town…[/b][/i]

Jared remembered the dream that he’d had before facing Falkner, and he remembered the Pokémon that he’d seen in the dream, how they had been trapped in an underground facility, bred and milked and held captive. Croccy had confirmed that he’d been in a place like that, and in the dream, it had said that the facility, that [i]they[/i], were underneath Azalea Town. And now that he thought about it, the route that they’d taken beneath the Slowpoke Well, and Proton’s side tunnel, definitely had the direction of heading directly under the town.

[i]…Fuck me…[/i]

He groaned as he stumbled along towards the tunnel, followed by his team. Croccy was right beside him, too.

“What’s the matter, Master?”

“Remember that dream I told you about?”

“Yeah, yeah, when you were asking me about where I went for fun.”

“Yeah, um…let’s call it that,” he muttered, dragging himself into the narrow opening. “Remember how you remembered it, but I dreamed it?”

“…Yeah?”

“Well, there was a voice in that dream. And it said, ‘Under Azalea Town.’” He shook his head. “Proton might not be escaping. He might be hiding.”

There was a large thump down the tunnel, far off in the distance. It sounded like something shifting, then landing from a height. He groaned under his breath. That sounded like a theory being confirmed.

“Come on.”

#

What they eventually found was a massive steel door that was positioned behind several huge stones, ones that would take Pokémon with massive amounts of body strength to be able to move. Even a powerful Psychic would need to be very high-level to be able to start shifting those things around.

Even if one advanced on either side of the path leading to the door, avoiding the big rocks, they would either need a Pokémon that could fight against both the current running away from the building and the whirlpools that the currents created, or something that could fly themselves and him across to the other side. Shimmer could accomplish the former, but not the latter, and he doubted that the bird could do anything on the other side once it got there.

And after all that, they would need whatever Proton had to get into the facility proper, and that would likely come with its own complications.

“…Great. Just…freaking great,” he muttered, rubbing his forehead. “A giant facility out in the middle of nowhere, just to fuck with Pokémon for their own evil ends. Yeah, that’s Team Rocket in a nutshell…”

“And how well do you know Team Rocket?”

Kurt. He turned and looked at the old man, not entirely surprised that he’d been followed. With how battered and bruised he was, he wasn’t operating at peak capacity. He sighed, shaking his head.

“Let’s just say that I got too good a look at what they were like, and they didn’t like what I told other people about them. Mind leaving it there?”

“Hey, you saved me, kicked them back in there, I’m grateful for that. The cops can do something from here.”

Considering how useless they had been everywhere else, he had his serious doubts about that, but he wasn’t going to discuss that with someone that had been helpful so far, and would likely need to be helpful again. At the very least, the police could put a security line here, and unless the facility had other ways in and out - and admittedly, they probably did - there would be no way for the Rockets to come back to the Well and start finding their way through Azalea again. They’d be pinned up here, and that was all for the better.

At least it would mean that Proton wasn’t going to be causing even more trouble in the world, or cutting off more Slowpoke tails.

“Let’s get out of here and call them,” Kurt said. “And you and me need to start talking.”

“Yeah...yeah, we do.”

“Didn’t think they’d be so stupid about this.”

“The Rockets or our superiors?”

“Both.”

They turned, and - with one slowed by age and the other by exhaustion and injury - they made their way out of the Well. It would be interesting to see how the town reacted to what they’d done, that was for sure.

[b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]

Summary: Jared follows Kurt through the Well, but conflict is inevitable. Proton and Jared have a ‘chat’.

Tags: No sex, pokemon, human, pokemon battle, action, fight, series, progression, affection, coiling, ekans, pidgey, bellsprout, croconaw,