Chapter Four
SCPDHQ



Monday night. Stormy, cloudy, and a new moon.

Jace, Scizor, Gliscor, and Ariados lay in wait in an alleyway behind a dumpster, covering his eyes with one hand so he could see better. He was watching SCPDHQ intently. The building was stood out from the other glass window-covered buildings in central Saffron due to the fact that it was built from bricks way back in the 1950s. A small flight of stairs (and a ramp for the handicapped) led to a pair of heavy wooden doors shorn of his former magnificence by harsh weather. A flickering light pole directly outside. Jace anticipated Team Rocket to strike as early as possible, if he had also anticipated the value of SOVEREIGN correctly.

As it turned out, he was correct on both counts.

Two police cars slowly and suspiciously pulled up to the headquarters at about ten o' clock. They could not keep a constant rate of speed, but would accelerate and decelerate seemingly at random. Nobody was around to see them. It was as though the police had let their guard down on the wrong night.

As the police cars spontaneously ground to stop, the downpour intensified. Jace held his cloak close to keep his gear as dry as possible. Rust was the last thing he needed to dull his equipment's capabilities. Jace stared hard at the cars through the veil of falling water. A lone truck sped by, momentarily intercepting Jace's line of sight, and the scene was thrown into a frenzy: a dozen or so Rockets had exited the police cars and sported formidably muscular Houndour and Houndoom, in addition to a cloud of Zubat and Golbat. They sprinted at the front doors and had the dogs burst through the oaken front doors with bouts of flames, quickly followed by the swarm of flitting bats.

"It's go time." Jace muttered, "Ariados, keep watch on the light pole and bind any Rocket who tries to get in. Scizor, Gliscor, you're coming with me. Move!"

The foursome rushed across the street in the cover of darkness. Ariados scuttled up the flickering light pole, extinguished it with a jet of silky string, and placed its bulk on the very top. Jace, Scizor, and Gliscor broke through the small cloud of smoke that enshrouded the burnt remains of the front doors and entered the fray.

Team Rocket had already blitzed the main lobby and taken it over. Four receptionists and six police officers were in the process of being gagged and bound against an ornate stone pillar. their Pokemon were already confiscated within their Poke Balls- it was apparent that a battle hadn't even taken place. the defenders had no time to muster their forces. Papers were spewed all throughout the large room and one Rocket was sifting through computer files behind the main desk. Jace could hear shouts and crashes from upstairs.

Jace immediately swung at the two Rockets nearest to him. Both had their backs turned and they fell easily after severe blows to the rear of their heads. The other Rockets whirled around and snickered at Jace.

"Well well well, if it isn't the little- oof!" one grunt began to taunt before Jace kicked him in the stomach. He keeled over, holding his throbbing midriff, and spat miserably.

"Houndour and Houndoom!" a second grunt hollered, wagging a menacing finger at Jace, "Sick 'em!"

"Scizor, Double Team! Gliscor, Sandstorm!" Jace shouted.

A whipping gale of sand erupted from Gliscor and sent the entire lobby in a turmoil as the wind forme a violent and wide twister. Scizor's form multiplied rapidly and surrounded the lobby with intimidating figures. Houndour and Houndoom, along with every person and Pokemon on the floor, struggled to keep their footing. Jace shielded his eyes with a pair of black, streamlined goggles that looked similar to sunglasses, but were actually a variant of Hoenn's infamous Go-Goggles. The dogs breathed Flamethrowers and Fire Blasts, but to no avail. The sand devoured the pitiful attempts at fire alive and deprived them of precious oxygen.

"Scizor and Gliscor, Hyper Beam!"

Houndour and Houndoom, both of which huddled together to help fend off the ravaging sandstorm, took the full brunt of both blasts because of their clumped position. They both immediately fainted, and when Gliscor's sandstorm died down and deposited a thick layer of sand on the neatly-swept lobby floor, Jace was already grappling with a grunt. He had rendered the other two unconsious in the confusion.

Two Houndour and one Houndoom remained to be dealt with. The three dogs rushed at Jace's prone body as the burly Rocket grunt pinned him against the wall with a rough shove. Scizor cut them off and proceeded into Iron Defense. The dogs could not skid to stop in time and rebounded off of the steely carapace. Gliscor descended from above and engulfed them in a savage Earthquake attack. He swung his tail over its head in a front flip and slammed it down on Houndoom. The shock waves pulsed through the body and into the ground throwing the two Houndour and the remaining Rocket grunt back. Scizor blasted the Houndour with a well-placed Hyper Beam and Jace broke the grunt's jaw.

With the Rocket presence eliminated on the ground floor, Jace hurried over and released the prisoners bound and gagged against the wall. "Gliscor, check on Ariados and ensure that he's still on watch duty. I don't want Rockets outflanking us." Gliscor whisked out the door and out into the night as the overjoyed prisoners were freed.

"Thank you, sir!"

"You were amazing!"

"Who are you?"

"There's more of them upstairs!"

"Hand over my Pokemon, Bill!"

"Hurry, everyone, escape out the back door and don't turn back." Jace ordered, "I'll try and hold off the Rockets and hold them off for as long as I can." Jace strained his ears toward the staircase. "It sounds like there is still stiff resistance upstairs. With luck, I'll catch them by surprise. Go!" With that, Jace and Scizor began to scale the stairs as bullets ricocheted off of the steps and the railing. They quickly backed up out of range. Team rocket commandos armed with assault rifles were manning the stairs and had orders to shoot at anyone who attempted to climb up.

Jace cursed under his breath and, noticing that the former prisoners were indeed escaping out the back door, began to reevaluate the situation when the though struck him, "Did Gliscor come back?"

An explosion struck the nearby rear wall and pushed Jace aside with its shock waves. Scizor caught him and set him back on his feet. At that moment he realized more Rockets were attempting an entrance from outside.

Jace and Scizor dashed to the lobby entryway and peered out to see Gliscor and Ariados battling four Pokemon all by their lonesome. They included a Grimer, a Golbat, a Ekans, and a Koffing. Ariados currently was tightening thick cords of webbing simultaneously around Koffing and Golbat, but they proved difficult to master due to their air superiority and maneuverability, in addition to the fact that Golbat's wings were still free from constraint. Gliscor terrorized Grimer and Ekans with daring swoops and cut into their sides with Night Slash. Meanwhile, four or five grunts alongside two commandos attacked the entryway full force.

"Iron Defense!" Jace managed to yell and he took cover behind Scizor. The rapid barrage of bullets bombarded Scizor harmlessly. Jace plucked a smoke bomb from his utility belt and lobbed it over his shoulder. It ruptured on a commando's head and filled the air with a thick gray cloud. Jace dove into the obscure mass and brought ninjitsu to bear on the Rockets within. Whipping out a long cord, Jace utilized it to trip and loop around every Rocket caught in the cloud. He drew his grapple gun, caught the once-flickering light pole with an expert shot, attached the long cord, and automatically rewound the grapple. The bound blob of Rockets were whisked high above and dangled from the light pole. Only one was the slightest bit aware of what had happened. Jace stuck the grapple gun back into its holster.

Grimer, Golbat, Ekans, and Koffing were all defeated, and the remaining three Rockets fled into the alleys in fear of Jace's prowess. "Scizor, Ariados, advance to the windowsills on the second floor and await my signal to attack. Gliscor, follow me! Move!"

Jace, Scizor, and Gliscor reentered the deserted lobby. From the sound of it, the second floor was already taken and the Rockets had moved on to the third. It also sounded like reinforcements were coming down all four elevator shafts.

Jace leaped into action and commenced placing tripwire bombs over the elevator doors. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three. His fingers flew as he primed each bomb and wired them. As he finished the last one, elevators one and two opened and activated the bombs. The subsequent explosions knocked their occupants unconscious. Jace quickly backed up as elevator three suffered a similar fate. He then finished the job by sending each elevator to B1F and slashing their cables. Each one fell with a heavy crash of steel on steel.

"Up we go, Gliscor!" Jace exclaimed enthusiastically. He hopped onto Gliscor's back as the Pokemon plunged up the shaft and blasted through the elevator doors on the second floor with a Hyper Beam. Jace dropped off his back and ferociously assailed an unfortunate Rocket close by. Many Rocket grunts populated the second floor, as well as a significantly larger group of prisoners in the corner. The floor was mainly cubicles and offices.

"Scizor and Ariados, now!"

The two Bug-type Pokemon burst through the windows with a crash and the tinkle of falling shards of glass. They overran three grunts quickly and by surprise, then turned their wrath on their Pokemon, Tangela and Aipom. Scizor beat down the Tangela with a ruthless X-Scissor while Ariados caught Aipom by the tale with Spider Web and flung her out of the smashed window into the street below.

"Gliscor, the stairwell!"

Gliscor sped toward the staircase where the two commandos guarded it. They hardly had time to see what was coming before it hit them full on in the face. the duo tumbled head over heels and landed one floor down with several broken bones. They cried out in pain as blood seeped from their wounds.

Jace tackled a grunt and sent him sprawling over a cubicle partition and smacked his head twice onto the desktop. Looking up, he saw the last grunt attempt to escape upstairs, but Gliscor snatched him and threw him to the ground. Team Rocket was in full retreat, but as long as Jace was in the building, there was no escape. The only way out was via the main lobby on the ground floor.

"Scizor, cut the prisoners loose," Jace said as he crouched beside the pinned Rocket grunt. Beads of sweat streamed down his face and his breathing quickened. "Tell what I need to know, and you'll get off easy," Jace growled.

"N-n-never!"

"All right then, if that's how you want it..."

"No no no no no! Wait! I'll talk!"

"Why are you here?" Jace spat. He wanted to gather more intelligence on the mysterious case, if possible.

"I don't know! Only Executive Zachary knows why!" the grunt replied.

"And where is Zachary, may I ask?"

"The roof! They're being extracted by helicopter! Please, don't-!"

Jace swiftly gagged the helpless grunt and rolled him aside. He shouted to the freed prisoners, "Run! Escape!" Then he turned to his Pokemon, "Follow me."