Legendary Power

As Akio drift off to sleep, a familiar snake pokemon slithered over to him. IT stuck its tongue out a few times before slithering past Akio, dropping off all of his pokeballs next to him.

The next morning, Akio stirred lightly as his eyes opened. He looked around to see where he was, realizing he was in the Fuchsia City Gym. he looked around to see that he had bandages on his chest and that his Pokeballs were on the ground near him. He picked them up in confusion as he wondered what was going on. "Did that girl take me here?" he said aloud. "Either way, I should check with Sierra soon."

As Akio woke up, a small sort of puff ball appeared in front of him. It was purple with a white O and X mark on its body as it was spewing out smoke. "Koffing!" it said as it circled him playfully.

Akio laughed lightly as he went to his Pokeballs, sending out all of his Pokemon. He hugged the Koffing lightly and said, "Hey, guys. This Koffing wants to play, and I knew you didn't see me last night so I wanted you all to come out too." All the Pokemon cheered in delight that their trainer was safe and that they could all play together.

"Wait...WAIT...DONT SELF DESTRUCT AGAIN!" Meladii's voice could be heard as well as a following BOOM, the room nearby exploded with dust as she ran out, coughing. "Oh....Weezing, I said I was sorry for not being here yseterday!" Meanwhile, Koffing just circled around Akio's pokemon, playfully shoving them around as a tease.

Akio blinked as he heard a loud boom sound. He started to run to it without thinking. As he did, Light and Tails were both on top of Koffing, riding it as Specter seemed to be racing with it. Spearhead and Aqua went with Akio to see the origin of the blast.

A voice could be heard from Zerio's communicator that morning. "Zeiro, this is Aki. Where are you right now? There's a task I need completed."

As Akio ran in, he was smacked in the face by a rather large Koffing of some sort....only this one had two heasd. On top of it was Meladii, sighing heavily. "Weezing, I said I'll play later! I'm still really tired!"

Koffing smirked as Tails and Light was on top of it. IT stop chasing Specter and instead started to rotate on tis own, seeing just how dizzy they'll get before they fall off.

Zeiro groaned, pulling the sheets over his head. Damn...itw asn't a nightmare. HE put his hand on the communicator, replying with a groaggy voice. "Pokemon Center...need sleep..."

Akio was hit in the face, falling backwards as Spearhead and Aqua were on the ready for battle when they saw the girl. Akio moved the large Koffing and said, "Woah, wait a minute guys. I owe her a lot right now, so no fighting. Believe it or not, she actually pretty good at heart." He then looked over to where Meladii was with a light smile and said, "After all, you were the one who helped me out of that Safari Zone, right?"

"Well I need you to wake up!" Aki all but yelled before she regained her composure. She cleared her throat once and said, "A powerful Pokemon escaped from our possession. I need you to intercept it as it reaches the town. I'd do it myself, but I can't actually battle this particular Pokemon on my own. All you need do is keep it in one place long enough for the Rocket members in the Game Corner to do the rest."

Meladii saw Akio awake and she blushed at his comment before turning her head away. "I-I don't know what you're talking about! Just get out of my Gy-err home!"

Zeiro all but fell off the bed at Aki's sudden shout, immediately waking him up with a yawn. "Specifics...otherwise, i'm going back to sleep." he groaned as he looked around. Most of his pokemon were asleep, minus EEvee that was parctically thrown off the bed. Ivysaur was the ony pokemon sleeping away from him, and Zeiro could understand why. HE didn't like the idea of being a Rocket lapdog, but it was for the sake of his pokemon at the moment.

Akio blinked and said, "Hey, what's with the sudden attitude. Well, anyway, I wanted to thank you for the help anyway. I hope that we can be friends someday... and you really shouldn't be with Rocket members either. They're bad news." With that said, he turned from the door. "C'mon guys. We need to find Sierra."

"The Pokemon is named Moltres," Aki said through the Communicator. "I think that's enough for you as far as details goes. Its a Legendary Bird Pokemon that is essential to our final goal. As it is a fire bird, its obvious why I can't do anything, but you should be able to hold it back, if only by your ability to calm Pokemon."

"Hmph!" Meladii refused to look at him with a pout. Soon, she caved as she turned and saw him leave. "Hey! Where are you going? You're not going to leave me here all alone, are you?"

A growl emitted from his throat as Zeiro got up. "Fine..." he hissed, hating the fact he's a part of Team Rocket now even more. With that, he shut the communicator off and gahterhed his things before returning all the pokemon to their pokeballs and headed out of hte Pokemon Center.

Akio stopped right in his tracks, closing his eyes with a sigh before he turned and said, "I don't have to, but I at least have to go check on my friend at the Pokemon Center. Wanna go with me?"

Outside, the sky began to grow dark as the shadow of a large bird was in the air, flapping its mighty wings as it seemed to be going north.

Meladii paused, blinking before pouting and turning away. "Suit yourself! Don't blame me if anything happens to you A-After all, I'm still Team Rocket!"

Zeiro looked up, seeing a bird pass by overhead. "Pigeotto! Follow it!" He shouted, releasing his own flying pokemon as he started to chase both of them.

Akio smiled lightly and said, "I'll come back some time soon, okay? Light, Specter and Tails love playing here, so I know they'd wanna come back, and I wouldn't mind seeing you in a situation where your not told to attack me." With a small, playful laugh, he started to walk away.

The bird looked down, seeing Zeiro and from there began to flap its wings and speed up its flight. He glared back, not wanting to trust the human a single bit as it only wanted freedom.

"Fine! Goa head! Leave!" Meladii whined as she floated off on he Weezing.

Zeiro grunted as he saw the pokemon picking up speed. HE didn't want to have this pokemon captured, but he needed to find a way to break his ties with Team Rocket...

"Moltres! Please! You have to help my pokemon at least!" He shouted. "Please, can you just burn the collar off of Pigeotto?!"

Akio went to the door, calling his Pokemon to his side. They all seemed unwilling to leave, but Akio made sure to tell them they'd be back as soon as they could. They eventually agreed and went into their Pokeballs. From there, it was a short distance to the Pokemon Center. He had only hoped Sierra wasn't worried for him at all.

Moltres stopped as he stopped to look at Zeiro. It turned and gave a loud call as its flames moved outward from its body and began to spin around Zeiro and his Pokemon, a Fire Spin attack.

Siera looked up from the front of the pokemon center, grinning as she ran up to Akio. "There you are! I was worried for a second something might have happened to you. Are you ok, Akio?"

"ARgh!" Zeiro took a step back as the fire engulfed him. Due to the heat rising up in the air, Pigeotto lost its balance and hit the ground. "W-Wait, Moltres! Would you really abandon these pokemon?!" He didn't want to play this card, but he was genuinly worried that this could be his only chance to free these pokemon. "Please, I beg you! Just release my pokemon from these collars! I don't care if you burn me into a crisp, just save them!"

Akio laughed lightly as he saw Sierra and heard that she was worried after all. He nodded and said, "Its a long story, but I'm alright. More importantly, my Pokemon are here with me, so let's go back to Celadon so I can get my pack. The sooner we get there, the sooner, I can come back here, right?"

Upon further inspection, the collars were beginning to smoke and overheat from the very flames that caused Pidgeotto to lose balance. Just like that, Pidgeotto's collar broke from its neck. Moltres looked down at the boy as if to tell him to release his other Pokemon so that it may do the same for them.

"Awww...do we really have to go all the way bck therE?" Siera whined, crossing her arms. "It'll take at least a day or two! Can't you just have someone send it to you?"

Zeiro's eyes widen before he turned to the bird pokemon. After his state of confusion, he quickly released the rest of his pokemon. Sure enough, none of them were quite fond of the fire and backed away th their trainer. He could see the collars smoking up and breaking, giving him relief. "There goes that..." He turns to Moltres and waves. "Thank you! I promise I'll repay you someday! Hurry and get out of here!"

"I don't really have anyone that can..." Akio said, looking down for a moment. "If Saffron wasn't blocked off, then I could ask Brooke to do it and then I could return Timmy... Maybe if we could make the trip faster... Is there a faster route to Celadon?"

"Too late," a familiar female voice said as a large net appeared above Moltres, bringing it down. Aki rushed to the area, tossing another collar at the bird Pokemon. It clamped on with a snap. "You really are a stupid boy. The reason Moltres escaped was because its flames overheated the Obedience Collar. Knowing that, do you really think I'd have you subdue this Pokemon without me around to be sure you didn't try something? You bought time for me to finish the Heat Proof version, so now Moltres is all ours thanks to you!"

"I could fly...but Scyther can't cary both of us. I've also heard rumors I can't flo over Saffron City." Siera sighed. "There's teh Cycle Road, but we need a bike....the only bike shop I know is in Cerulean."

Zeiro turns to Aki, glaring at her as he spead his arms out. "You're not taking him! I won't let you even if it kills me, Aki!" he roared as his pokemon got into a fighting position. Eevee and Nidoran went over to the net and started to gnaw on it in a small attempt to break the net.

Ivysaur was displeased. Very displeased. "Saur!" it cried as it charged at Aki, sending multiple leaves at her while Pigeotto flew up in the air and dived down at the woman.

"If we need a bike, then maybe..." Akio said as he was thinking. He turned back to the Fuchsia Gym as he thought. "Maybe I can ask a friend for a favor. She might have a bike!" He started to run back to the Gym, calling Sierra to follow him.

"I really don't need to fight you myself anymore..." Aki said with a grin as she held up a remote control. She pressed the button and Moltres started to cry out in pain. It lifted its head and opened its mouth, letting out a stream of flames down at all the Pokemon and at Zeiro at the same time. A Flamethrower attack. "Now that I have a collar that Moltres can't overheat, it will do whatever I want. My powerful servant. And the best part is that he's one of three, and Team Rocket happens to already have the set."

"H-Hey! Wait up!" Siera said as she ran after Akio. "What, are you friends with the gym leader?"

"No!" Zeiro and his pokemon barely had any warning as they narrowly dodged the flamethrower...all except Ivysaur who was intent on attacking Aki.The attack hit dead on, sending the grass pokemon at Aki's feet in a deadly state. "Ivysaur!" As if on que, Pigeotto quickly sped towards Moltres, forgetting its act of kindness with anger for its fallen friend.

Akio shook his head and said, "No, someone like her wouldn't be a Gym Leader. Probably the daughter of one though." When he arrived he knocked on the door once before coming in. "Hello! I'm back! I wanted to ask if I could barrow something. Is that okay?"

Aki knelt down and picked up the Ivysaur. She grinned and said, "That's about enough... In a state like this, your Pokemon is in desperate need of a Center. If you want it to get there you'll back off and tell all of your Pokemon to get away from the bird."

"What do you want?" Meladii said as she was still on top of her Weezing. a bunch of Koffing was circling her, then went over ot Akio and pushed him around playfully. "I'm busy! Go away, you jerk!"

Zeiro clenched his fists. HE was so close...and yet it was still futile. Ivysaur needed to get to a pokemon center, now. "G-Grrr.....Return!" He said, returning Pigeotto into its pokeball before its attack could hit. Eevee and Nidoran backed away, hiding behind their trainer's legs as Zeiro glared AT aki. "Give me back IVysaur...now."

What both trainers didn't seem to see was that little drops of light were gathering inside Ivysaur's bud.