Chronologically, this chapter takes place the evening of the day after chapter 27.

The Rocket grunt looked up at the luminous neon sign hanging above his head and sighed.

He fidgeted on the spot, tugging at the ill-fitting sleeve of his coat, an act of complacency fuelled by boredom. The night's watch over the exterior of the gym had barely just begun, only an hour in, and he had already completed two long laps of the perimeter.

Nothing was going on, and he hated it. He chafed at waiting around, and worried at the slackening of focus he had witnessed in himself and his fellows currently snoozing away in the gym.

He was out of uniform. Not all of them were, but in public at least they had to be. Team Rocket's hold over the regions was still meant to be covert. Under-wraps. Anyone unaware of the events of the previous week would have assumed him, with his radio, baton and his official-looking hi-visibility jacket, to be a simple security guard, hired to watch the Cerulean gym at night. Cerulean-born, his presence wouldn't attract any unusual attention.

He understood the necessity of it in the grand scheme of things, though. The mad surge of activity three days before, when Team Rocket had risen up, had petered out into a quiet strengthening of grip. The intent had never been for Giovanni to declare himself openly – they had all known that from the start.

But the grunt was also savvy enough to realise that not everything had gone exactly to plan. Every internal broadcast had been describing their success in radiant terms, yet there seemed to be a single major omission in their accounts. Nothing south of Viridian City had apparently been claimed.

Which could only mean one thing – the League still held Pallet Town. And the fact that there was any resistance left at all, after they had crushed the League in their own headquarters – and that these holdouts still seemed to be standing after a few days - worried him greatly.

He was only a grunt, a team leader, at most. Nowhere near an admin or a boss. It wasn't his job to worry about such things. But knowing that wasn't stopping him from doing so.

The three sisters they had locked up in the gym weren't the leaders – they hadn't put up anywhere near enough of a fight. The real leader – Misty – was nowhere to be found. There was a chance that she was one of the gym leaders they'd rounded up later, but the rumours suggested otherwise.

He'd met Misty once or twice around Cerulean, and his impression of her from those brief encounters had been that she was not someone to cross unprepared. Young, but strong and determined.

Could she be out there somewhere, waiting to strike back? He hoped not.

A sudden noise caught his attention, a shifting of weight in the alleyway across the street. He tensed and swung his flashlight over in the direction of the sound, the beam throwing aside the darkness. He raised a Poké ball, ready to throw it at the slightest provocation…

Nothing moved for a moment, and then a Meowth dropped down from the wall. It growled angrily at him, blinking in the light, and then carried on its way.

His shoulders drooped in relief. Maybe I need to relax… Nobody's even going to try it on tonight.

He couldn't possibly have known, of course, that Hilda, Misty and eight black-clad League operatives were carefully observing him from the opposite building. Even if they had been close to giving the game away themselves a moment before.

"Do you even know what stealth is?" Misty grumbled as the rocket grunt resumed his silent vigil at the front of the gym. "Seriously?"

"It startled me, okay?!" Hilda hissed back. "Besides, he didn't notice us."

"We got lucky he thought it was just the Meowth!"

"Why are we even being stealthy again?" the champion complained, rolling her eyes. "Why not just go all in?"

"Because, uh, a, it's safer not to, and b, I want my gym to be mostly intact at the end of this. If you and Zekrom go charging in you'll wreck the place. Not to mention wake up the whole neighbourhood."

"…I still like my plan better."

The gym leader chose not to rise to the bait. She stared down at the street, at her home in Team Rocket's hands, and felt the urge to rush inside at once, to evict them immediately. She resisted it. They had to be careful.

The retaking of the Cerulean Gym made up part of the first phase of the effort to retake Kanto and Johto from Team Rocket, alongside the Pewter Gym and the Battle Factory. They were the closest targets to Pallet Town now that the Viridian Gym had been destroyed, and according to Cynthia, who had briefed them on the plan, would act as points from which they could "muster and shuffle resources" around the rest of the region.

"Do you have any Pokémon that could incapacitate that guard? We want to get in without making a scene and attracting attention from inside." Misty could tell from Hilda's frown that she was still up for a fight with the villainous team, and worried that her enthusiasm was rubbing off on the agents around them, all of whom had quickly copied Hilda's open Poké ball carry on their side belts.

Hilda considered the options. "Galvantula might work. It can zip on over and paralyse him?"

Misty recoiled as Hilda's choice burst out onto the rooftop with them, biting her lip to prevent herself from verbalising a curse. She had gotten better at dealing with bug-types since she had first travelled with Ash… but not that much better.

"…stealthily?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

"Because it's a giant yellow bug? And it's not like we can just hope he'll think it's wild either, those Pokémon aren't found in Kanto!"

"Nah, it'll be fine. Go on, Gal!" Hilda replied, giving the order before Misty could protest further.

Galvantula clicked in assent and shot out a stream of webbing, landing the end on the building opposite. It perched itself on the strand and crept slowly across it.

The league agents watched on beside them, in awe of the famous gym leader and champion and mystified at their bickering. They were all quite green, two only just out of basic training, and had no formal field experience between them. They were there for weight of numbers, and to protect the gym from counterattack once it had been secured and Hilda had moved on to other targets.

"Is it worth pointing out that the webbing is crackling?" Misty muttered dryly as Galvantula edged closer. Closer...

And then the strand of web sagged, nearly flinging the surprised Pokémon from it. It clung on in a panic as it fell precariously close to the guard's field of vision.

"I can't watch." Hilda groaned, mortified, as gripped another of her Poké Balls tightly in case they had to spring into action to save her ailing bug-type.

Mercifully, against all odds, the guard failed to notice the struggling spider at the edge of his peripheral vision, perhaps daydreaming or simply being too tired or bored to be aware of it. It managed to recover and balance itself with another strand of web, then worked to pull itself closer and in position above the guard. It paused ominously like a wild animal hunting prey as it waited for its trainer to order it into action.

"Are you sure this'll work?"

"Positive." Hilda replied, and signalled a thumbs up for her Pokémon to move in.

Galvantula lowered itself closer to its unsuspecting victim, preparing to zap the grunt with a weak electrical current to render him unable to move…

"Uh oh."

…at least that had been the plan.

The strand now suspending Galvantula in the air failed again, snapping this time under its weight. It fell flailing out of the sky and landed on the guard it had been preparing to ambush with a crash.

The trainers on the roof winced at the sudden commotion, but were fortunate once more. There was no sign of movement from inside the gym, and the guard himself had been knocked out cold.

"…that went well?" Hilda offered weakly as she took in the sight of her confused Pokémon sitting atop their unconscious foe down in the street below.

The redhead beside her was unimpressed.

"Saved by dumb luck!" she shot back crossly.

"I know." replied the Unova champion as they used the stepladder to descend into the alley below, mentally deciding to cut down on Galvantula's calorie intake for a while. "Let's just hope it keeps going…"

There were no further guards in the entrance hall, nor the aquarium. The lack of Pokémon in the tanks concerned Misty as they crept quietly past them; she had worried that would be an easy target for the organisation of thieves.

Perhaps they had been.

Trouble found them as Hilda rounded a corner perhaps a little too casually before Misty could stop her and walked straight into the sight of another patrolling guard, who, despite his shock, still had enough of his wits about him to send out his Pokémon to combat them.

"Finally, a fight!" Hilda cheered, tossing another ball and releasing Garbodor into the fray as Galvantula squared off against the grunt's Houndoom.

"Fire Blast!" cried the reeling grunt. Houndoom obeyed, shooting a kanji-shaped star of flame at the

"Intercept it, Garb!" Hilda yelled. The poison-type obeyed, saving its friend from the blast with its own body. It emerged from the aftermath slightly singed, but otherwise no worse for wear. "Thunderbolt it, Gal!"

"Th-that's not fair!" the grunt stammered as Houndoom fell to the ground, knocked out in one volley. He recalled the stricken Pokémon then sprinted for cover, finding it in a corridor off to the side as Garbodor's efforts to pin him down bounced away.

"Damn, he got away!" Hilda hissed.

"Oh, now you've done it!" Misty screeched at the annoyed champion. The footsteps of the man running away from them faded away, replaced by hurried shouting. "We'll have to fight them all off now!"

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Hilda stuck her tongue out at Misty's pessimism. "This is our chance to deal with them all at once!"

"Looks like we don't have a choice, now…" Misty sighed, sending out Politoed, who clapped and danced around at the sight of the gym they had returned to. "Just promise not to use Zekrom."

"That's the spirit!" Hilda grinned, which the redhead took to mean tacit agreement to her terms. "All right then; Renfree and Wilkinson, you two– " she gestured to two of the agents "–cover our backs. Smith and Duncan, hold back as reserves. The rest of you join me and Misty and we'll crush them as they come!"

It was a surreal sight for Misty to see the league agents in their twenties and thirties so eagerly taking orders from the sixteen-year old Hilda, but then she supposed the position of regional champion inspired a certain amount of deference. It probably helped that she'd already learned their names and could easily tell them apart, which given their cowl-covered faces and identical uniforms was not something to take for granted.

She'd certainly been impressed by the Unovan upon first meeting her at Oak's Lab, though that had quickly lessened as she got to know the other girl.

It wasn't that she disliked Hilda, though the brunette's attitude and her inexplicable devotion to Ash were frustrating to say the least. It was just that she seemed eager to rush into the most dangerous of situations head-on, with barely the most basic of plans prepared beforehand, trusting her Pokémon – and mainly Zekrom, truth be told – to bring her victory.

True, nothing had yet gone wrong to justify her fears, not that much had happened yet in Kanto beyond the battle at the laboratory, but Hilda's recklessness concerned the redhead greatly. A legendary Pokémon like Zekrom had to see something in the champion to follow her willingly and allow itself to be caught, but… what if it was wrong?

Misty forced herself back to the present, as the agents unleashed their Pokémon – a mix of Growlithes, Furrets and a lone Gligar, while Hilda sent out Reuniclus to further bolster their defences. The hall made for a reasonably good strongpoint, with only the two approaches to worry about; one back the way they had come, and the one from which their enemies were coming anyway. Misty mulled over her own Pokémon for a moment before adding Starmie to the array bracing themselves against the sound of running feet approaching.

It never hurt to have reserves, and she couldn't make use of Gyarados here anyway. If they could get to the pool, on the other hand…

The lights flickered above them, allowing the moon to visibly shine through the great windows on one side of the hall, briefly casting them all into an eerie lunar twilight before normality was restored.

I really need to replace that bulb…

"Here they come," Hilda muttered, a grin plastered across her face as she raised her voice to the others. "Let's show Team Rocket how we deal with criminal scum like them! Safeguard Kanto!"

"Safeguard Kanto!" The agents echoed, and even Misty found herself joining in. They all shared the tension and anticipation of the upcoming fight, and the righteousness of the statement was infectious.

They were all part of something bigger, and the success of the overall mission depended on the success of every moving part. It was personal, and it was about right or wrong.

My sisters… my gym… my Pokémon… I'll protect you all! Misty thought as the corridor doors swung open and the Battle of the Cerulean Gym began.

"Pin them at the door!" Hilda cried. A storm of fire, water, electricity and poison exploded in front of them, dissuading the grunts on the other side from making their entrance. Instead, beams of red light lanced out and disgorged Pokémon into the open space that they had left as a safe distance.

Misty winced as the doors buckled under the weight of the initial assault, one almost blown off its hinges. That's going to take some effort to repair; maybe I can owe Tracey a favour…

"Targets ahead! Take them out!" the champion roared again. The Koffing and Grimer were quickly washed away or charred and recalled, the Zubats and Golbats shocked out of the sky. Only a Weezing put up much of a fight, knocking out a Growlithe before going down itself to an aerial swipe from Gligar.

The Team Rocket Pokémon had created an opening for their trainers to exploit, however. Four of them charged through the gap as the defenders caught their breath and prepared their next attacks, batons raised and heading straight for the opposing agents.

Hilda and Misty fell back as their allies drew their own batons and moved to meet them. The two's Pokémon may have been making the greatest difference in the fight overall, but they had no prepared defence against the viciousness of this form of attack.

The fighters were evenly matched in skill, experience and equipment, Kevlar stab vests and armguards blunting the force of heavy blows.

Such close range combat prevented Hilda and Misty from bringing their Pokémon's attacks to bear, however, and for a moment they were at a loss as to how they could assist. The gym leader cast her eyes round desperately before they came to rest on Starmie and Reuniclus, and suddenly she knew what they had to do.

"Starmie, use Psychic to pin one of them to the wall!"

The starfish concentrated, then glowed a subtle blue as it focused its power towards one of the grunts. He found himself raised into the air, flailing briefly, before being slammed back into a nearby wall. Hilda grunted in agreement upon seeing the effectiveness of Misty's plan, ordering Reuniclus to do the same with one of the others.

The remaining two grunts, outnumbered and tired, quickly retreated in the face of a four-on-two confrontation.

"Everybody okay?" Misty asked aloud, receiving assent from the men and women around them, and cries of agreement from the Pokémon.

"A few bruises, but we're still in the fight." One of the forward guard, her identification badge declaring her to be Agent Fallon, assured her.

Another, Agent Michaels, agreed. "It'll take more than four of these scum to finish us."

One of the Rocket grunts on the wall, his voice held shut by psychic power, could only glower at them helplessly.

"Let's push through and end this right now!" Hilda called to all of them, pointing down the inviting corridor with only a few silhouettes left to indicate the presence of the enemy.

In their assessment of the room as a defensive position they had missed a key factor, something which explained the unexpected aggressiveness of the Rocket grunts in pushing towards the league agents instead of holding their ground.

The hall was nowhere as safe as they had believed.

They had ignored the windows.

There was a tremendous crash as the charges the grunts had prepared from the outside detonated. The explosion was small, and the glass was flung mostly out of harm's way, but it gave them the shock entrance they needed.

Five grunts leapt through the opening they had created, drawing the attention of everyone in the room, and releasing their Pokémon at once to attack the defenders. The few remaining grunts beyond the door renewed their assault as well, catching the agents from the front and the side.

The surprise also disrupted Reuniclus and Starmie from their task of holding the two grunts in place, freeing them and permitting them to rejoin the fray. The two psychic Pokémon couldn't renew their grip either – they had a greater threat to worry about.

Most of the league Pokémon were overwhelmed at the start, dropping from gusts of wind, blasts of fire and waves of poison. The humans in the group quickly squared off as the league defenders recovered their nerve, agent to grunt, grunt to agent, with Hilda and Misty back-to-back in the centre of it all.

With the small fry out of the way, the Rocket Pokémon turned their attention to their stronger adversaries. Hilda and Misty's Pokémon gave it their all, but there were only five of them altogether, and Team Rocket had thrown everything at them in this attack. It was all they could to do stay in the fight themselves.

A stray Dark Pulse careened into the lights above, taking them out in a shower of sparks. The hall plunged into eerie twilight once more, further adding to the chaos as it became much harder to determine friend from foe.

The fight dragged on and slowly the league agents began to take casualties, as agents fell down from exhaustion or were clobbered by brutal strikes. The remainder quickly found themselves as a ring within a ring, with the champion and gym leader at the centre of it all.

"I'm open to suggestions if you have any." Misty grunted to the brunette beside her as they both lunged to avoid a Houndoor's Flamethrower.

"I can end this right now if you'll just let me!" Hilda waved a Poké ball frantically at her.

"No! If you use Zekrom like this you'll take us out along with Team Rocket!" Misty hissed.

"Do you have any better ideas?!" the champion retorted angrily. Misty bit back a response of her own and forced herself to think. Infighting would get them nowhere right now; they could have this conversation later.

She swept her eyes over the battle, taking it all in. And then she had the inspiration she needed.

"I'll divert a few of them away and give you room to breathe! After that, follow me in and we'll finish them off by the pool!"

She was running before anyone could stop her, before even she herself was fully aware of what she was doing. She dived through a gap in the ring of her allies and then again through the wall of enemies, sliding and skidding on the floor soaked by the water attacks of her Pokémon, and narrowly avoiding the baton of a grunt who was a little too slow to strike her.

Faced again with another three grunts blocking the door ahead, she called out to her Pokémon. "Starmie, Politoed! Give me some cover!"

They complied, knocking aside the grunts with a torrent of water and giving her the chance to sprint on through to the other side.

The three black-coated figures pursued her through the well-lit corridor, joined by two more of their fellows. They all knew Misty. They knew the threat that threat Misty – or at least her Pokémon – could present compared to the average league agent. If they could neutralise the gym leader then their chances of success would surely rise dramatically.

They couldn't see the grin she wore. Her plan was working.

She burst into the next room, another vast space that far outstripped the previous hall, and for a moment she truly felt at home as she caught wind of the familiar scent of the pool ahead.

But now was not the time for distractions. She continued running, flicking the lights on as she passed the switch and made it all the way round to stand at the opposite edge of the pool as her pursuers finally joined her.

"Team Rocket!" she cried out as they slowly approached with their batons raised, flanked by several of their Pokémon. "You've invaded my home, kidnapped my family and taken my Pokémon. Did you think I'd allow you to go unpunished?"

They continued to advance in the face of what they believed was an empty threat.

But her proclamation wasn't a threat.

It was a promise.

"You're in my gym, you play by my rules." she smiled, taking her usual place on the podium she normally used for her battles. This was a challenge like any other, except the stakes were much higher. And the odds a little more unfair.

Still closer they came. Step by step, second by second.

At last, she threw the Poké ball in her hand sky high, a sphere of white and red soaring through the air to disgorge her ace into the arena.

Gyarados burst out of the ball with a thunderous roar, diving briefly into the pool before coming up to snap at the invading Pokémon, who were taken completely off guard by its appearance and ferocity.

A mighty splash of its tail fin sent a huge wave into the five trainers, knocking them down or into the pool, gasping for breath. It breathed fire at the Zubats and Grimers, charring them into unconsciousness, then fell into an avenging rage, bashing, biting and smiting at anything in reach.

Misty stood by, watching with a small smile, as her Pokémon went to work.

No-one – especially not Team Rocket – messes with the Cerulean sisters.

Misty found Hilda outside in the courtyard, watching the far-off city lights with interest. Being in the city reminded her of home, she'd said before.

"Nicely done with the pool. Thought you weren't planning to wreck the place." The champion raised an eyebrow as Misty approached.

"They didn't give me much choice." she said, rising no further to the bait than that.

Hilda and the others had been able to use the diversion Misty had created to great effect, counter-attacking and defeating the grunts who had stayed back to fight them without any further serious injuries. They had concussions, bumps and bruises to deal with, but nothing worse than that. Fortunately. Still, the four with concussions would be out of the fight for the next day or two – she doubted they could afford such losses in all their operations.

They were due another team of agents as reinforcements, left out of the initial fight as reserves and to avoid over committing resources or giving up the element of surprise. Another team would remove the prisoners and take them to the point they had identified as the location of the captured gym leaders and frontier brains – the Battle Factory – to be held there until the end of the conflict.

Assuming that Ash, May and Cynthia had taken it successfully.

Hilda shrugged. "Whatever. I'm going to head over to the next objective now. The league agents are treating the wounded and preparing the Rockets for transport. Your sisters and the Pokémon okay?"

"Yeah, they're fine."

Daisy, Lily and Violet had been found in the gym's main office, tied-up but unharmed, if a little cranky, after their ordeal. And they had been incredibly fortunate when it had come to the gym's aquarium-inhabiting water-type Pokémon – they were quickly found in tanks on the back of flatbed trucks, ready for transport in the morning. Had we been any later…

"Still, quite a success overall."

A simple, off-hand comment from Hilda, probably made without a great deal of thought or meaning. And it struck Misty entirely the wrong way.

"Some of the agents and Pokémon were injured. I wouldn't call that a success." Misty hissed, her eyes narrowed like a snake.

Hilda took a step back in surprise, then mirrored the redhead's pose. "That was unavoidable. We all knew the risks." she replied defensively, but sounded unsure of herself.

"Was it unavoidable, though?" Misty pressed crossly, her hands on her hips. "We could have been so much more careful about every aspect of this. How we scouted the area out, how we moved in the gym. You had two near misses before we even got inside! Startling that Meowth, and Galvantula practically performing a comedy act for the guard…"

Now that struck a nerve. "You leave my Pokémon out of this."

"Fine! Let's talk about your behaviour inside the gym. You stroll through without a care for the world and walk straight into the next guard when we could've kept the element of surprise."

"…everyone makes mistakes."

"But that wasn't a mistake, was it? You were spoiling for a fight from the moment we arrived in Cerulean!"

Hilda clutched her arms to her chest tightly. "I didn't understand why you were making such a fuss. We could have gone round the outside and gone all in, minimising damage to the gym with a quick fight."

She was trembling a little, and it wasn't from the mildly average temperature.

"So you admit that you didn't care about being careful!"

Hilda turned away, but Misty still wasn't done. "You're incredibly reckless, and you put all of us at risk tonight. You may have a powerful Pokémon at your side but you can't take alone if you want to protect part of it at the same time. You need to learn to work as part of a team, not just on your own.

"I would have thought a champion would understand that."

They were stinging words, and Misty almost regretted her harshness. Almost.

Without saying anything else, Hilda unleashed Zekrom from its Poké ball and climbed atop its back, the dragon bending quietly to accommodate her as she did so, perhaps sensing its trainer's mood.

Then, without a goodbye, the two took off into the air, the tail of the Deep Black Pokémon trailing lightning-blue through the sky.

Good. Maybe she'll learn something from that. Misty thought before turning her attention back to her gym and the task she faced in getting it back together. She heard the sound of rubber on pavement as a black SUV and a black truck snaked their way into sight in the distance. Their reinforcements had arrived.

She could only hope that she hadn't put the Unova champion off the cause entirely. We need all the strength we can get to kick Team Rocket out of the region.

And there's chapter 28. Quite a narrow one in focus, but part of a bigger operation. More will become clear next time, when the fight moves to the Battle Factory and the Pewter Gym.