With the entire lower level erupting into chaos, there was no need for stealth anymore. This was the kind of action the Gym Leader loved. If only he were in better shape to take advantage of it. His wounds were nothing Pokémon healing and short-term therapy couldn't take care of, but any more fire could leave him in serious trouble.

"I don't think I can," Josh huffed, his injuries oozing red as he fought to retain meaningful consciousness. He hurled his Zeraora's Poké Ball into the fray, the thundercat wreaking havoc with his PLASMA FISTS. Those caught underpaw dropped their weapons not only from the force behind the paw itself, but from the shocking current that ran through them.

Such a threat had to be answered immediately, many of the Rockets in the main lab room turning the weapons toward Raikiri. Holding the triggers down, the noise their weapons' discharges made sounded like the loudest drum machine any of them had ever heard. In his waning moments of consciousness, the Gym Leader hurled his TERA ORB toward Raikiri, making the already amped-up Pokémon even more so. He detonated an ELECTRO BALL near the largest remaining force of Rockets, the explosion turning them into haphazardly-fired human missiles.

"I know you... want to... save them..." Josh gasped, "but we... have to..." Before he could finish his sentence, his consciousness expired, Raikiri taking matters into his own hands. Heaving the sleeping, exhausted trainer onto his back, the Zeraora barreled through the lab's corridors as quickly as he could, Fire Eyes withdrawn into her Poké Ball by virtue of how distant she was from her trainer.

If Andrea wanted to save the Pokémon, too, she would have only NIKOLA SAMSA to help...

nikola doesn't move, still trying to process what's happening. by the time they do, the woman holding them hostage has been shocked, hard. she drops the knife in her hand and writhes on the ground, crying out in pain as the electricity courses through her body and then leaves it. nikola sits up, and flammula materializes from the shadows once more, looking relieved.

"josh? where's josh?" they look around, having lost their focus with everything else going on.

meanwhile, the scientist on the floor regains enough of herself to spit out, "they're over there!" with enough venom in her voice to paralyze. she gestures weakly, shaking hard, to one of the unopened doors. then she collapses once more, holding herself and rocking on the ground.

well, there's only one thing left to do. nikola turns and heads for the door indicated, with flammula trailing after them. it takes a rollout from the typhlosion to bust the door down, and inside the dark room they find... what remains of the pokemon being experimented on. they're trapped in dirty cages, huddled together, terrified of what's coming. nikola fiddles with a lock, but it needs a combination of some sort and they don't have time. so, instead, they release their serperior.

the grass type uses leaf blade to make quick work of the bars of the cage. inside, the pokemon who are well enough to move scamper out immediately. two electrike stay behind, guarding a pikachu that's far too weak to move, hackles raised at the two trainers. "it's okay," nikola says as soothingly as they can manage. "we're not like them--"

their voice trails off, conviction fading. why do they feel like that's a lie?

[ Josh Devlin Andrea Vaneau ]

The situation grew ever more dire as weapon fire blazed throughout the lower level. Bullet Seeds, Magnet Bombs, and even explosive spheres of Rock Wrecker detonated around the three as Raikiri desperately bolted for the stairs. Josh would have trusted in Andrea's and Nikola's capabilities to get them so far into such a dangerous mission. Raikiri understood that by virtue of being so close to his trainer, and put his trust in them that they would escape with their lives first - even if it meant having to abandon some of the Pokémon that were trapped within the laboratory against their will.

Ultimately, the Zeraora and Gym Leader would escape the base, leaving a trail of blood behind them: a mixture of their own and Rocket blood. Whether the Pokémon could be saved or not, extraneous from their mission, would be entirely up to Andrea Vaneau and NIKOLA SAMSA .

Aroused from his nap with a weak jolt of electricity, Josh's blurred vision would alowly regain its focus, the two and the jailbroken double agent near Mew Mauville's Mobius Ring race course for electric and steel Pokémon. He prayed to the Great One, Ho-oh, that the two would return alive and well. With the mission accomplished, having a witness to Rocket's heinous, secret acts would surely be a serious blow to the future of their illicit experiments.