Hard Enough

The discovery of the Team Rocket Academy was a big win for the League.

I hadn’t quite understood the depth of this win until Sabrina spoke up.

“The Rocket Academy is a facility that is a lynchpin in the Team Rocket organisation,” she said indicating the map with the site clearly marked out. “It is a site that allows them to train both pokemon and people to meet their needs. From this one site, much of Team Rocket’s soft and hard power is developed.”

I nodded and stepped up to inspect the map.

Lance frowned at the location and shook his head. “How have we missed this site for so long? Surely someone would have learned of it in the past?”

Sabrina shook her head. “This site holds to war standards of information security. All electronic devices will be disabled prior to any person stepping foot in the Academy, with multiple checkpoints. The building itself is hidden within a valley that obscures it. There are also multiple patrols roaming around the mountains that act as observers. With the distance of the facility, it is not going to be picked up through traditional or modern methods. It is only with our capture of Executive Petrel that we learned the location.”

Lance nodded his head. “What about how they supply the facility?”

Sabrina raised a hand and moved a marker from Cerulean north. “They take a truck north and have it ambushed outside the city once it has passed a number of checkpoints.” She then Teleported the marker a significant distance to the northwest. “They use a large team of Hypno to Teleport the truck that brings in supplies and new recruits. This makes it impossible to track without another Psychic which is closely watched for. Even the Ghost specialists that Agatha has used in the past have not been able to infiltrate.”

Agatha sniffed. “They make sure no pokemon that are previously owned are allowed into the Academy. Any flying type seen above the Academy is culled lest they are passing a message to another.”

I whistled, impressed at the security they were putting into this. “All this for a place to teach their Grunts to be evil?” I said jokingly.

No one laughed. Sabrina shook her head. “The Academy site works in many different roles for Team Rocket beyond a training facility. It works as an indoctrination facility, with Hypno being engaged during lessons to loosen their reluctance for certain morals, or not shying away from theft.”

She then gestured at the marker again and the display began to change as she telekinetically began to draw a rudimentary map. “Team Rocket also uses this as a site to hold all the pokemon they steal from trainers. It is here that pokemon are brainwashed or have their memories repressed with specialised equipment to make them follow trainers not their own. It is host to thousands of pokemon that act as a reserve for Team Rocket.”

“Thousands?” One of the G-men agents asked. “How are they keeping the site hidden? This doesn’t make sense!” He waved his hand about. “The requirements for food alone!”

I felt a memory of a talk I’d had with Oak click into place. “They’re using the electronic transfer system that is still being debated, aren’t they? All those pokemon are being dropped into the cyberspace of a server where they are held in true suspended animation.”

“Shit!” Lance swore. “They have an army of pokemon at their beck and call… Worse! If we’re not careful, a lot of pokemon will be hostages.”

“Janine and I can—” Koga began to say only for Sabrina to speak over him.

“This is not as simple as disconnecting the power, in fact, that should be avoided at all costs. We will not be able to conduct a typical raid with the destruction of power to sow confusion or disable the cameras.”

I clicked my tongue. “Urgh, maximum difficulty then?” I asked.

Sabrina nodded her head. “I will not be able to Teleport within as they also have significant Dark emitters in place… which are, again, tied to the electrical grid.”

This caused a round of murmurs to break out and Lance swept his hand out. “We will hold off on any comments until we have the entire picture. Sabrina, continue your report of the situation,” Lance said, inclining his head to her.

Sabrina, now finished drawing her rudimentary map, nodded. “At any time there are roughly one hundred Rocket trainees on site, along with at least twenty trainers.”

I heard someone muttering something about that being a better ratio of students to teachers than most schools offered, but that died off as Lance levelled a glare in their direction.

“There are also usually two Executive level Team Rocket members on staff that serve as the Principal and Vice-principal. The only reason we have as much information as we do through capturing Executive Petrel is that he once served as the vice-principal under Executive Ariana.”

“Hmmm, fortuitous,” said Lance with a pleased expression.

Koga snorted. “It is a potential trap is what it is!” He glared at everyone who had nodded along with Lance. “Team Rocket did not become the threat it is today thanks to sloppiness! We are patting ourselves on the back for their failure to steal the Masterball and the designs from Silph Co. but we must not become complacent!”

I grimaced. Koga was right, this could potentially be a trap. I glanced around. “How did the League capture Petrel?”

One of the League officials shifted. “He was at a site that we had learned about through an informant. The Silph Co. raid has caused some members of Team Rocket to reach out for amnesty. Also, it seems their training and Hypno therapy to lose their morals isn’t completely effective, as some did object to the raid on Saffron City. That is where we got the information for the raid which we acted on to capture Petrel.”

That made me relax only for Koga to grunt. “It could be a double bluff,” he said, but that seemed less likely to me.

It seemed more like Lance was striking while the iron was hot and had been able to capitalise on the moment.

Lance leaned forward. “We will need to act on this quickly. We will need to be decisive in our raid. The pokemon database and the generators that supply those structures will be vital. To cover for any potential damage to the generators, we need pokemon that can supply the electrical demands. The League has some specialised Electabuzz that can assist in this regard and will be attached to whoever is assigned to securing the servers that the pokemon are on.”

I raised a hand. “We also need to deny access to the withdrawal features of the servers. Having them stuck in there isn’t as much an issue as having them come flooding out. Even disoriented pokemon will create chaos that we can’t allow.”

Lance nodded. “Correct.” He then leaned forward. “That is why Agatha will be the first person to go in to secure the critical points. She can slip through any gaps in the dark emission. I very much doubt they have all the angles covered. Not for a site this big. If not, there will be other methdos she can use,” he said elusively.

Lance then waved a hand towards Koga. “Koga will be working to take over the access site to deny any and all Team Rocket members from withdrawing any pokemon!”

He then slashed his hand. “We will form two main groups for this raid. I shall lead one, and Brock, I want you to be the centre of the other."

I nodded, pleased that he was trusting me to hold one point.

“Lorelei will be holding down the fort here along with Gym Leader Clair. Sabrina and Bruno will be joining us to attack from the side once we have drawn enough of Team Rocket away from their base.”

Sabrina inclined her head while Bruno merely grunted.

Lance chopped his hand. “This will be decisive and swift! Capture all that we can, as we have the facilities set up to deal with them."

Koga and Agatha shared a look. “When did this occur?” Agatha asked.

“It is something that I was able to create in the last month. The League, while slow, has not been idle." Lance said. He then nodded to the side. “Lorelei has been working on creating specialised camps to hold any prisoners.”

Lorelei puffed her chest out, and I had to shoot her a look of surprise. I hadn’t heard anything about that being created, and interestingly enough, the same seemed true of Agatha and Koga.

Agatha had a sour look on her face before it morphed into one of resignation.

“I suppose I can’t be told these things with my being on the way out now, can I?” Agatha asked.

“You’ve got other duties,” Lance pointed out, only to shake his head. “If anything, it is more an oversight on my part. I have not handed out tasks in the past to my Elite Four and instead ran everything. That will change going forward, I can’t give you too many tasks but I will give you some to handle… If my guess is right, your replacement will have similar capabilities as yourself, so they will be able to fill the same roles.”

“Hmpf!” Agatha said as though the very thought of her being replaced offended her.

I suspected she was merely putting on a show, though. If what Lance had said was correct, he was paying a lot of attention to Karen, which would suit the Guardians’ objective of inserting her as another Elite Four member.

I gave the map another look, committing what we had to memory before the upcoming raid.

Agatha walked up to me only to pause. “Brock, we’re going to use this moment to—”

“Agatha!” called Lance disrupting whatever she’d been about to say to me. He waved a hand and she scowled at him.

“I am not a Growlithe young man!” she said as she wandered up to him. Lance bowed his head and said something to her before indicating Koga. The trio all walked out and I went back to looking over the map before joining the group I’d been assigned.

Hopefully, I would have some good League agents to work with.

Agent Looker checked his watch before looking at me. “Brock, it is time,” he said.

I stood and waved a hand. Looker was ostensibly in charge of the group, but I could feel a lot of eyes on me as I moved to the front. As Lance had said, he and I were to act as the ‘big threats’ of the attacking force.

Koga had already gone ahead of us. He had a list of sites that he was going to disable quietly, the chief of which would be a few dark emitters to allow Sabrina to enter. If she was able to get freedom of movement, we would have a lot more options. At least that’s what we hoped would occur. It would depend on what Koga found in their system.

I doubted things would go that smoothly.

The academy itself was a large facility, and restricting Teleport would already be challenging despite the specialist Houndour and Growlithe that we had in our teams with Mean Look.

It felt a little different to be storming a base rather than sneaking in.

Perhaps it was the difference of working with a big organisaiton versus a small unit?

I had to admit that so far I was biased towards small unit tactics, but that was only because I’d succeeded with all of them, whereas moving as a large group of people felt so slow.

I paused and glanced around for anyone wearing red shirts or uniforms that made me itch. I ended up pointing at two men. “Hey, you two, I want you behind me when we move,” I said.

They shared a look at each other as they moved over. “Uhmm? Alright?” said one of them.

“Was this because I was being too loud? Sorry, I am just so proud of my newborn! She’s adorable!” said the other.

I nodded. “Uhuh, and if you want to keep gushing over her, get your head on a swivel and start paying attention.”

That made him shut up and start looking around, suddenly much more serious.

“Huh,” said the other man. “Why’d you call me out, if you mind me asking? Is it because I’m an expert pokemon nurturer and will be vital?” he said puffing up.

“Hmmm, yeah, sure,” I said, mentally replacing ‘expert’ with ‘target’. Honestly, I’d picked two people that stood out as waving death flags before the encounter.

Looker glanced over at both men and shot me an inscrutable look.

As we moved along, I noted how the part of the valley that we were moving through was starting to become pinched. I frowned at the walls of the valley, my mind itching with how this was a perfect point for—

“Attack!” yelled a Team Rocket Grunt. I didn’t hesitate to send Bertha, Sanchez, and Shin to one side, while Titan, Knight, and Jormungandr appeared on the other side of our group.

Selene appeared next to me, with Zephyr and Don circling with a hoot. I held Gawain and Shrek in reserve just in case.

The other trainers—apart from Looker with a Weezing and an Arcanine appearing next to him—were much slower in reacting. The Rocket Grunts grinned down, and a wave of Koffings, Weezings, and Gravelers appeared.

“Crush Em!” “Blow em away!” shouted a pair of voices from different sides of the valley. I knew what they were going for, and if anyone else had been in this position, it might have been deadly.

The pokemon that surrounded us surged forward, just far enough to get their trainers out of the blast zone, and then they detonated.

Explosions rang out, and a landslide started to hurtle towards us, causing a few of the trainers with me to shout in fear.

I snorted and waved my hand. “Team, push it back!” I barked.

Bertha and Titan both stepped forward on their respective sides of the valley, and suddenly the avalanche reversed course and went uphill to rumble over the top of the Rocket Grunts.

“Argh! That’s not how physics works!” screamed one man before he was knocked over by the Rock Slide.

I just huffed. “What in Kanto were they thinking? Trying to bury a rock specialist?”

Looker chuckled at that and directed a few men to capture the partially buried pokemon and people for processing. The Rockets looked relieved that we didn’t leave them buried.

They looked less pleased as they were frisked of their pokeballs and handcuffs were put around their wrists and ankles before they were left with a group of five G-men and their pokemon.

“Hmmm, good to see Lance thought this out enough to have you with us,” Looker said from my side as we marched along.

“Hmmm, I’m not too sure of that. He will have a tougher time of it if he’s walking into the same—” A flash of light heralded a rumbling boom.

I sighed. “Those were Hyper Beams, weren’t they?” I asked rhetorically.

Looker nodded only to chop his hand forward. “We need to double time it! If Team Rocket didn’t know about us, they sure know now! Move people!”

We broke into a run at that, and soon a rumble broke out as my larger pokemon began to thunder along with us.

A small squad of Rockets met us and pokemon were thrown out only for Looker to sweep his hand and the trainers around me to release their own.

“Selene! Stay tight for our defense!" I shouted as Zephyr landed to keep a sharp eye on any threats.

A wave of pokemon charged at us, only for me to grin. “Looker! Let Bertha take them out!” I shouted. “Bertha! GO!” I shouted.

Bertha, who’d spent the whole run towards the base buffing herself up, leapt from one side of our group with her fist cocked back. Team Rocket had mere seconds to see her flying through the air, recognise the danger she posed, and scream orders before she slammed into the ground and caused an explosion of her own.

The ground in front of her was thrown into upheaval, and the pokemon that had stood were suddenly tossed and hurled about, many of them slamming into each other as much as the ground. A few others clipped low flying or hovering pokemon, causing them to join the devastation.

When the shaking stopped, a handful of pokemon remained glowering back at us, while the shaken Rocket Grunts stared back in horror.

Only a few of them had been clever enough to get their pokemon out of danger with Telekinesis, Fly, Protect, Detect, or Endure.

Where hundreds of pokemon had been storming moments ago, now perhaps thirty stood against us.

Looker was quick to capitalise on the shock Team Rocket was caught in as they stared at Bertha. “Attack!” he ordered. Growlithe, Arcanine, Machoke, Houndour, and even a Haunter surged forward to take out the remaining pokemon.

“Fall back to the base!” screamed one man, only for a man wearing a half mask to appear at his side and chop him in the throat.

“Belay that order! Fight to the last! We’re going to make them pay!” he said before tossing out a large bag of pokeballs. “Take more from the bag and get back in the fight!” he ordered.

“Vice-principal Carl!” the Grunts responded, throwing themselves at the bag and ripping out handfuls of pokeballs that they quickly released the pokemon from.

I glowered even as Bertha snorted and rose from her crouched position. The battlefield was well and truly torn up now, and I wouldn’t be able to get off another Fissure or One Hit K.O move like normal. I’d need to do this the hard way.

“Go Team! Take them out!” shouted the now named Executive/Vice-principal Carl.

He tossed out a team of pokemon to reveal three Houndoom, a Magcargo, a Piloswine, and a Muk. “Layer the field!” he shouted. His Muk exuded a noxious gas and was quickly supported by any other poison types Team Rocket had.

The gas began blowing towards us, and I knew I had to stop that straight away.

“Flying types! Blow that away! NOW!” I shouted. I then matched orders with actions, having Don and Zephyr both move forward and start flapping their wings to unleash a gale force wind that blew away the gas.

The cloud of gas served to hide the increased light coming over Team Rocket as the Sunny Day’s Carl had called for were revealed.

On our side the fire types stood tall, absorbing the empowering effects. I noted a cluster of grass types lurking, even as my pokemon stepped forward.

“Step back and let fire fight fire!” I shouted to my team, not willing to let them step into the trap that was being set up.

I could see Carl wasn’t pleased by this turn of events. I held in a smirk as Looker directed his team’s Arcanine and Houndour forward.

“Inferno!” Both sides roared.

From the maws of fire-types, a conflagration erupted.

Around me, many trainers and policemen stepped back, shocked by the sudden heat that erupted from the pokemon. I barely batted an eye.

This was nothing compared to the fires that could suddenly appear if you were facing a Moltres.

That didn’t mean I or my pokemon were idle however. They glanced in my direction as I sent out a connection to them through my aura. I wouldn’t be able to shout an order that would reach them due to their positions and the flames, but I could project an idea.

My pokemon nodded, then as one, dove into the fractured ground, vanishing from view. This left only only a handful of pokemon on either flank.

A few seconds later, the flames died away to reveal Solar Beams arcing towards where my pokemon had been. Instead of slamming into unsuspecting rock types, they instead sailed on without hitting anything or anyone.

Behind me, the man who had just had a child exhaled in relief. I suspect he’d been originally ordered to stand at one of those points.

Carl swore when he saw the moves had missed, and it took him seconds of sweeping his gaze over our battle line to not see my pokemon anywhere.

He was quick to realise what that meant. “They’re—”

That didn’t mean he was quick enough.

From beneath the feet of each Houndoom, Magcargo, Piloswine, or other powerful pokemon, one of my pokemon emerged and smashed into Team Rocket's pokemon.

Titan, Knight, Hypnotoad, Shrek, and Jormungandr erupted straight after into powerful Dark Pulses, or Darkest Lariats that further sowed chaos into our foes line.

Better yet, I knew that, thanks to their efforts, Teleport wouldn’t be an option for them. Carl snarled something, and his pokemon struggled back onto their feet.

I crossed my arms and slashed them outwards. “GO!” I bellowed, not committing to a serious fight but instead making my pokemon cause as much damage as they could.

Titan threw himself into a Giga Impact that saw him hurtling through and stomping pokemon out of his way as he cut a line straight through the battlefield.

Don, Tide, and Jormungandr unleashed their own Hyper Beams and Team Rocket was once more blown away with a sudden eruption of power that they couldn’t match.

“Advance!” Looker shouted, and more and more police pokemon leapt into the fray, knocking out Team Rocket pokemon and Grunts. Carl was forced to retreat further and further.

When a certain glint entered his gaze, I turned my head. “Selene, go,” I said casually to my Lunatone, who’d been hovering next to me.

Selene vanished in a flash of light, only to appear behind the lines of Team Rocket.

Carl whirled about in surprise at the flash behind him, only to stagger as Selene glowed and the few remaining Rocket Members that were fighting were lifted off their feet. Carl did something, and a flash of dark energy erupted from him, causing him to fall to the ground.

He fell awkwardly but didn’t seem bothered. Instead, he raised a radio to his lips.

“Take Down!” Looker bellowed, and suddenly a trio of Arcanine were sprinting at Carl.

One slid low, knocking him off his feet, while another swept past him, knocking the radio out of his hands. The last shoulder charged Carl and bore him to the ground, where it lay on him panting.

“Lock him down with Crunch!” Looker said and for a moment I was worried, but then the Arcnine merely wrapped a dark empowered set of teeth around Carl’s shoulder. They weren’t biting him, but they could.

It would also stop any further movement from the man.

Seeing this, the few remaining holdouts in the Team Rocket camp threw up their hands. “We surrender!” they shouted.

Looker cast his gaze over the battlefield. “Return your pokemon and lay them on the ground! Then lay on the ground with your hands out!”

Around the area, this instruction was repeated with police officers advancing; in one hand, a pokeball was raised while the other held handcuffs. Machoke and other pokemon moved in. I was interested to see Haunter zipping past a number of Rocket Grunts that looking around slyly.

The pokeballs they put in front of themselves were quickly revealed to be Voltorb in disguise and these Grunts received special attention from the Machoke.

“Good pokemon to have, that Haunter,” I said, nodding as it swept past a few more Team Rockets, clearing them of any traps without endangering other pokemon or Police officers.

Looker merely nodded, but the Haunter itself must have heard me as it glanced in my direction only to stiffen. I blinked and eyed it. It looked familiar.

“Wait! I recognise you!” I said, narrowing my eyes.

The Haunter started backpedaling.

“You’re Jenny’s Haunter!” I said as I remembered where I’d seen this pokemon.

I glanced around. I’d seen a lot of other Jennys standing around but I hadn’t seen Pewter’s Officer Jenny. It was probably a case of not seeing the tree due to the forest or something, but now she stood out as she stepped forward with a pleased expression.

“Reporting in!” she said, offering me a salute.

I gave her a nod. “Hey you! Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked.

She shrugged. “It’s… not so easy to approach you when you’re just casually hanging out with Lance, Agatha, Koga, Bruno, and the other bigwigs, you know?”

I tilted my head. “They’re just people, though?”

Jenny rolled her eyes. “Yeah, sure, but that’s because you’re just as crazy as them!” she said.

She gestured to herself. “If I just walked up, people would think I was brown nosing!”

I shrugged. “Eh, just tell them we’re friends.”

Jenny blinked and stared at me, having obviously not considered that herself.

She coughed and shook her head at me. “Well, maybe! But you didn’t say anything to me either!” I considered pointing out that I hadn’t picked her out, given how she’d been standing with her cousins and aunties.

I frowned and looked around as an idle thought came to me. “Yeah… I think I was a bit caught up in how many people there were.” I started counting. In our group alone, there were eleven Jennys that I could see. I looked back and noticed that my counting had not gone unseen.

Jenny gave me a dubious look. “What are you doing?”

"Nothing; I’m just realising that this is the most police I’ve seen together. I hadn’t really stopped to consider it before but with the two big groups plus those that will be helping out with processing… this is a pretty big operation, isn’t it?” I said.

“One of the biggest!” Jenny said happily.

Next to me, Looker snorted. Jenny and I glanced at him, and he smirked. “Sorry, it’s just that this is bigger than you realise.”

We both gave him expectant looks at that, but he waved a hand. “Sorry, I can’t say anything right now, but in a few hours we should be free to discuss it.”

He inclined his head toward the awaiting facility that was built into the valley wall. “For now, we need to secure the base. Officer Jenny, have Haunter scout ahead; if possible, link up with Agatha and then clear us a route to the servers and dark emitters!”

“Sir!” Jenny said, saluting. Haunter, who was still eyeing me, copied her before zipping away to complete its task.

Looker glanced around, pleased at what he was seeing, only to pause. “Where’d Vice-principal Carl go?!” he said.

I stiffened in surprise as my gaze swept around the area.

I’d thought him locked down, but it seemed that he had more tricks up his sleeve.

Around us, cuffed Rocket Grunts also perked up and looked around. A few glowered, instead of looking pleased at their Executive’s escape.

I sidled over and caught a pair of Rockets whispering to each other. “Damn it! That’s just like Carl! I bet him and Principal Sham have disguised themselves and run off like usual! This is just another day of training for them!”

I frowned. “They’re skilled at disguise?” I said.

The pair of Rocket’s twitched in fear, only to glance up, noticing how close I’d gotten. They swallowed and shared a look with each other.

“Uhm shit, what are we supposed to do now?” said one.

“I don’t know! I still haven’t completed the course on what to do when captured!” said the other.

I chuckled and knelt down. “Oh that’s easy; this is where you throw your boss under the stampeding Tauros,” I said. “Honestly, its standard practise in police actions like this. We let go of little fish like yourselves all the time for the chance to snag a big fish.”

I smiled winningly and winked. “Standard business for cases like this,” I said.

The Rocket trainees seemed to consider this before nodding. “Principal Sham and Carl are both masters of disguise. They train us in how to slip into places without raising alarms, or in some cases, get out without raising suspicion. They’re both masters, and they run drills like this and demonstrate how to get out without anyone noticing.”

“Interesting,” said a voice from behind me. I twitched and glanced behind me. I hadn’t heard Looker approach, but his gaze had turned from the pair of trainees to those around him.

He rubbed his chin for a moment before nodding to himself. “Looker?” I called, only for him to wave a hand.

“I’m fine, Brock. I’m just going to have to accept that Vice Principal Carl got the best of me with how slippery he was,” he said over his shoulder.

I sighed and stood. “Uhmmm, about that offer?” said the trainee as I began to move away.

I glanced back and nodded. “Oh right, I’ll put in a good word for you,” I said, deciding to give them something, despite how unhelpful their information had been. I got their names and had them given a spot to the side of their fellow trainees. They received a lot of glares, which had them leaning away from their companions.

I looked around and found Looker walking through the other cuffed Rockets, sharing some words with trainers and police officers that were corralling the Rockets into orderly groups that could be supervised as Officer Jenny awaited word from her Haunter.

I started looking around the valley itself. There didn’t seem to be anywhere that Carl could have gotten away from running or flight. Which left…

“Bertha, Titan, I need you to Dig and check that someone hasn’t burrowed down to escape,” I said.

Looker paused, hearing this order, and shot me a nod of appreciation.

Both pokemon threw themselves into the ground, and everyone held their breath.

A few moments later, Titan and Bertha both emerged, only to shake their heads. I clicked my tongue. “Thanks,” I said while scratching my head. How had Carl gotten past us?

“That was a good idea Gym Leader Brock. Vice Principal Carl could have escaped that way,” Looker said, walking up and checking a Rocket’s cuffs before nodding at the man overseeing the collection of pokeballs.

“Yeah, but he didn't, so we’re left scratching our heads.” I sighed and shook my head. “I just can’t see how he escaped.”

Looker chuckled, and I shot him a confused look. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, just that you’re so young. You have a good mind for this, but you have to understand. Carl hasn’t gotten away yet,” he said pointedly.

Before I could question him on this, Looker lashed out with his hand and chopped the police officer that had been collecting the downed Rocket’s pokeballs in the throat.

The man gasped in shock, making to throw out a pokeball to protect himself, only for Looker to kick the other man’s feet out from underneath him.

As he fell Looker grabbed him by the arm and twisted it so that he fell into the ground and was held with his arm held behind his back. Looker knelt on him.

People stirred in shock, and one man even pointed his pokemon toward Looker, only for a gasp to rip through everyone as the man on the ground turned his head to shoot Looker a hateful glare.

Everyone stared at Vice-Principal Carl as he glared over his shoulder at Looker.

"How?" snarled Carl. “How did you know to keep looking for me?”

Looker snorted. “Please! It was elementary to realise that if you couldn’t escape, you had to still be amongst us!”

Around me, a few policemen slapped their foreheads as they grasped the truth of what Looker was saying.

“My disguise though!? It was perfect!” said Carl.

“To some, perhaps,” Looker said, only to signal for another to move in and cuff Carl. “Keep a very close eye on him. Don’t give him a moment alone; that means even toilet breaks. Constant supervision,” he said.

A pair of Machoke lifted Carl to march him off with a pair of police officers of his own. “Wait! No! You have to tell me what was wrong with my disguise!” said Carl plaintively.

Looker laughed. “I really don’t!” he said. I chuckled at Carl’s shocked expression and then moved to join the others as Haunter returned with a Gengar.

A thumbs up from both pokemon saw Looker signalling for the next part of the academy raid to begin.

Before that, I stepped up to Looker. “Mind sating my curiosity?” I asked quietly.

Looker smirked. “You could say I’m something of a disguise artist myself, and I can recognise another working their craft,” he said, and I felt a memory stir about another Looker in the anime.

He’d been almost equal to some of Jessie and James’ disguises, hadn’t he?

Huh, I thought to myself as I watched him direct how the next phase of the raid would proceed.

He was probably understating his skills, if anything.

I released Gawain and called Shin, Hypnotoad, and Shrek to move with us as we moved into the building.