MFU Pokémon AU piece
This was written for the Crossover Challenge over on LJ; I’ve been in a bit of a nostalgic mood since the Pokémon showcase at E3 the other day, so I decided to do a Pokémon AU of MFU-basically the AU is the same as the TV show, except that all the characters are Pokémon trainers, and there are Pokémon battles instead of gunfights. THRUSH is now Team Spearow (Spearow being a little bird in the Poké-verse, and the prefix “Team” is used for all villainous groups in the ‘verse), and Napoleon and Illya’s Pokémon teams and the reasoning for them are explained here in this tumblr post that Kelsey and I mused over.
I also included my favorite innocent from the series, Janet Jerrod from “The Off Broadway Affair” - I have a reasoning behind giving her the Pokémon that I did, as well-though if you’re familiar at all with the actress’s more famous work, you can figure it out pretty quickly.
Lastly, there is a reveal of one of the new upcoming Gen VII Pokémon; so keep that in mind if you’re trying to avoid spoilers.
Cross-posted to AO3, if you prefer reading there.
Napoleon was deep in thought as he and Illya wandered the streets of Castelia City, heading for Prime Pier. Behind them, a Ninetales and a Persian followed in their footsteps. It was only an hour ago that Janet Jerrod, whom they had worked together with before, had called them at U.N.C.L.E’s Unova headquarters, claiming that there was trouble at the pier-and that someone was using the pier to smuggle Pokémon from different regions of the world. And Napoleon had his suspicions as to who was behind it.
“You think it’s Team Spearow?” Illya asked, reading his mind.
Napoleon nodded.
“Let’s face it; they’ve taken over the market when it comes to hoarding and smuggling Pokémon…” he began, but trailed off as he saw Janet waving to them from behind a pier storage locker.
Napoleon and Illya quickly followed, pausing as they reached behind the locker. Napoleon’s Ninetales and Illya’s Persian moved to greet Janet’s Flaaffy and Ponyta, as well as a third dog-like Pokémon they had never seen before. Persian murowed in confusion, looking to Ninetales, who looked just as baffled.
“That’s… new,” Napoleon said.
“He is; I’ve never seen another Pokémon like him before,” Janet said. “He says he’s a Rockruff. I found him here a few days ago-Flaaffy, Ponyta, and I were practicing for our next show; he was on top of a Silph Company crate floating out in the harbor. I couldn’t just leave him there, so I took him home-I’ve been making calls and putting out notices in all the papers to see if this little guy belongs to someone. But now I’m seeing that Silph ship docked just offshore. I… I have a feeling that they were the ones who lost him, but they aren’t going to come forward to claim him.”
“And, naturally, if they were smugglers, they couldn’t come to claim him without drawing suspicion to themselves,” Napoleon finished.
“That it is a Silph Company crate and ship is reason enough to be suspicious,” Illya said, darkly, and Persian hissed in agreement. “I rescued my Persian when she was a Meowth from one of Silph’s facilities near the orphanage where I grew up. And the Kanto branch of the company was under the thumb of Team Rocket for an embarrassingly long time. It certainly isn’t impossible for Team Spearow to have a hold on them now. It would explain why things like Rare Candy are still in circulation.”
“What are we going to do?” Janet asked.
“Get a good look at what’s going on in there, for starters,” Napoleon said, grabbing a set of binoculars and peering at the ship. “Well, I think I see some familiar faces on the deck… Hey… It’s Mother Fear!”
“What…!?” Illya asked, freezing in his tracks and absently feeling his back where the scars of his last encounter with Mother Fear still remained..
“I guess she’s with Team Spearow, too, huh?” Janet asked. “Is she just as bad as Machina?”
“Worse,” Napoleon said. “And she’s walking around with… what looks like a small Pokémon in a cage; I can’t tell what it is just yet. Oh, wait; I think it’s… Hold on; there’s another one now…” Napoleon’s shoulders went rigid. “Uh-oh.”
“What is it?” Illya asked.
“How far from this pier would you say that ship is, Illya?”
“About five hundred meters.”
“Could a Hyper Beam reach us from that distance?”
“Well, it would depend on which particular Pokémon is casting the Hyper Beam…” Illya trailed off as it sunk in as to why Napoleon must have been asking. “Napoleon, what is it!?”
“A Kangaskhan.”
“Take cover!” Illya returned, as the beam began to head for them.
The three of them, and their Pokémon, darted around the side of the large storage facility as the Hyper Beam struck the side of it.
“How did they get a Kangaskhan…!?” Illya asked, stunned.
“I don’t know, but it’s worse than what you think,” Napoleon said. “Mother Fear has got the Kangaskhan’s baby in that cage and is using her as leverage to get the mother Kangaskhan to attack us.”
“Oh, no…!” Janet whispered.
“That’s all the proof we need to show that they are smuggling Pokémon, then,” Illya said, coldly. “The fact that they cannot control the Kangaskhan without threatening the baby proves that the mother was not legally captured in the wild.”
They all flinched as another Hyper Beam struck the opposite side of the pier storage.
“The information isn’t going to do us any good unless we can get it back to Mr. Waverly,” Napoleon said. “But what I want to know is how we can leave without taking a Hyper Beam to the face now that they know we were spying on them.” He looked to Janet. “I don’t suppose you have a Pokémon that knows Teleport?”
She shook her head.
“Sorry; just Flaaffy and Ponyta-and Rockruff, I suppose, if he wants to stay--”
She was cut off as a third Hyper Beam struck the storage facility again.
“Napoleon, we shall have to confront them, or else they shall demolish the pier!” Illya exclaimed.
“I’m sorry…” Janet said. “I probably shouldn’t have said anything…!”
“No; they’d have probably sicced that Kangaskhan on the pier regardless if we were here or not. They want our attention for some reason,” Napoleon said. His eyes narrowed as he pulled a Pokéball from his shoulder holster. “So, let’s give it to them. Charizard!”
The large dragon emerged from the Pokéball with a roar.
“Illya, I’m going to fly in,” Napoleon instructed. “Cover me.”
“Da,” Illya said, pulling a Pokéball from his shoulder holster. “Raichu!”
The orange mouse appeared alongside Charizard. Napoleon and Ninetales leaped onto Charizard’s back, and the dragon took flight, deftly dodging another Hyper Beam from the Kangaskhan.
It was then that a flock of Spearow took flight from the ship, led by Mother Fear’s Fearow.
“Raichu, Thunderbolt!” Illya instructed.
“Flaaffy, help him out with Thundershock!” Janet added.
Charizard dodged the electric attacks, and Napoleon frowned as the angry birds flew past him and seemed to focus on Raichu and Flaaffy. And then the Fearow suddenly dove.
“Illya!” Janet exclaimed. “It’s not attacking the Pokémon-it’s going for you!”
Illya attempted to dive out of the way, but he wasn’t fast enough to stop Fearow from grabbing him with its talons. Raichu and Persian attempted to attack Fearow to get him to release Illya, but the giant bird shrugged them off and flew off, heading for the ship.
Janet was looking around now, heading for a small boat docked on the side of the pier, waving her Pokémon, as well as Raichu and Persian, to follow her. From the sky, Napoleon urged Charizard faster as they pursued the much faster Fearow, who was still holding Illya in his talons. The Fearow now hovered over the ship, where Mother Fear stared up at Illya, coldly. The blond tried to glare back, but the fear in his eyes betrayed him.
“Tell Mr. Solo to turn back,” she ordered Illya. “Do you hear me? You know what will happen if you don’t mind me.”
Illya defiantly stayed silent, glancing over at Napoleon, Ninetales, and Charizard, who were still heading for them. They would be getting close enough to do something, if Illya could just hold out for a few more moments…
Mother Fear scowled.
“Kangaskhan, Hyper Beam,” she ordered. “On him.”
Illya had suspected it was coming, but that still didn’t stop him from cringing. The Kangaskhan flinched, as well, not wanting to attack Illya.
“Hyper Beam!” Mother Fear ordered. She held up a small, electric prod to the cage in her other hand, which held the baby Kangaskhan. “Mind me, or else…”
With a look of deep regret, the mother Kangaskhan aimed a weak Hyper Beam at Illya.
“Stronger!” Mother Fear ordered. “I want a full-strength Hyper Beam-one that will ensure that Mr. Kuryakin can never interfere with Team Spearow again!”
The Hyper Beam forming in the Kangaskhan’s mouth grew in intensity, even as the creature began to cry in regret.
“ATTACK!” Mother Fear ordered.
The beam shot out towards Illya.
“Pidgeot!” Napoleon yelled, tossing another Pokéball.
Another large bird, larger than Fearow, materialized in front of the Fearow and took the Hyper Beam head-on.
“Pidgeot!” Illya echoed, concerned, as the bird fell to the deck of the ship.
Mother Fear scowled at Napoleon he and Charizard rammed into Fearow; Illya slipped from the bird’s grasp and would have fallen had Napoleon not seized his arm. Flinching from the added weight, Charizard sunk down to the deck of the ship, as well.
“You okay, Illya?” Napoleon asked.
“I am fine; what about Pidgeot?”
Napoleon gently tended to his bird.
“A bit beat, but nothing a few Super Potions can’t fix,” he said, recalling Pidgeot to her Pokéball.
“Again you let your concern get in the way,” Mother Fear scoffed. “Fine; have it your way. The two of you can go down in defeat together.”
“Don’t bet on it,” Napoleon said, darkly. “Charizard, Ninetales-you’re both up!”
And Illya seized two more Pokéballs from his shoulder holster.
“Venusar! Slurpuff!”
Kangaskhan and Fearow took center stage on the deck as dozens of Spearow surrounded them.
“Tovarisch, I think we need to break out our secret weapons…” Napoleon said, gently touching his pinky ring.
Illya grabbed the pendant around his neck.
“Da, I agree.”
The stone in the ring and a stone set in the pendant both began to glow-and then Charizard and Venusaur began to glow, as well, as they both underwent Mega Evolution.
Mother Fear didn’t seem too concerned; she snapped her fingers and Fearow and the reluctant Kangaskhan attacked.
“Charizard, you take Fearow-Flare Blitz! Ninetales, hold the Spearow off with Flamethrower!”
“Venusaur, Sleep Powder on Kangaskhan! Slurpuff, don’t engage the Spearow, but keep on the retreat and cover Ninetales with Fairy Wind!”
Ninetales and Slurpuff keeping the Spearow bay allowed Mega Charizard and Mega Venusaur to focus on their targets; Illya was determined not to hurt Kangaskhan, knowing that she was only battling them under duress.
As the battle raged on, both Napoleon and Illya found themselves slightly distracted as a few coins came sailing over the side of the ship, landing at their feet.
“…Pay Day?” Napoleon asked, under his breath.
Illya’s eyes widened.
“Persian…!” he whispered, recognizing her coins. “Slurpuff!” He shouted something to Slurpuff in his native tongue.
“Telling him to keep retreating?” Mother Fear scoffed, as she blew a blue flute to awaken the Kangaskhan. “A wise decision. You are outnumbered, even with your ‘Mega Evolutions.’ You can only hold out for so long.”
“Then perhaps we had best turn the tide in our favor,” Napoleon said.
“Slurpuff, now!” Illya instructed.
Slurpuff suddenly leaped out from behind Mother Fear, grabbing the cage with the baby Kangaskhan from her hands and vaulting over the side of the ship.
“NO!” Mother Fear hissed.
The adult Kangaskhan let out a roar and ran to the edge of the ship, but then froze, seeing Janet and the other Pokémon on a small boat; Janet had just opened the baby Kangaskhan’s cage and freed her, gently cradling the frightened baby.
“She is safe,” Illya said to the mother Kangaskhan. “You are free now to leave--”
The Kangaskhan turned to Mother Fear and the other grunts with a murderous expression.
“…Or you can wreak vengeance,” Illya continued, with a shrug, as she began to pummel everything in her way with Dizzy Punch. “Do you think we should interfere, Napoleon?”
“…Nah,” Napoleon said, as the grunts began to bail out over the side, their Spearows following them.
Venusaur now used Vine Whip to help Raichu, Persian, and Slurpuff from the small boat to the ship; the three of them, along with Ninetales, began to storm the interior of the ship to draw out any further grunts hiding inside. Venusaur and Charizard now reverted from their Mega forms, waiting for instructions from Illya and Napoleon.
The Kangaskhan was now nearing Mother Fear. Rather than ungainly leap over the side of the ship, Mother Fear recalled Fearow into its Pokéball, released a Jellicent, and rode on Jellicent’s back into the water, sailing away towards the open sea, while her grunts, desperate, swam back to the pier instead, where Waverly, flanked by a dozen U.N.C.L.E. agents led by April and Mark, were waiting for them.
“What about her?” Illya asked, looking out at Mother Fear as she retreated. A few of their colleagues had sent out flying and water type Pokémon to pursue her.
“As much as I want to believe that we can bring her in, I’m afraid we haven’t seen the last of her,” Napoleon sighed. “There’ll be other days, Illya.”
Ninetales and Persian now reappeared, barking and meowing to get their attention; the duo, along with Charizard and Venusaur, followed to a hold where several Pokémon were kept in cages and crates. Raichu and Slurpuff were attempting to reassure the captive Pokémon that they would soon be free.
It was several hours before the Pokémon were recovered and returned to the pier; Janet was recounting her part of the tale to Waverly and April as Napoleon and Illya arrived; Mark, along with his Gallade, were left to round up the Team Spearow grunts.
“…And so I had Flaaffy and Illya’s Raichu help me hot-wire my boyfriend’s boat-I thought the boys could use a hand,” Janet was saying.
“We did,” Napoleon assured her. “Thanks to you, we were able to eliminate the leverage that Mother Fear had over Kangaskhan.” He glanced over at the mother Kangaskhan, who was now reunited with her baby and fussing over her. “Does she belong to anyone?”
“According to these Team Spearow records you recovered, she doesn’t,” April said, as her Mawile held the logbook up. “Pretty much all of these smuggled Pokémon were illegally captured from the wild; I guess Team Spearow didn’t want to risk earning the ire of trainers by stealing their Pokémon like Team Plasma did.”
“Then we’ve got a bit of work ahead of us in returning these Pokémon to their proper natural habitats,” Waverly mused. He glanced at Janet, who was still holding Rockruff in her arms. “Unless, of course, they’d rather stay…”
Rockruff barked in the affirmative, and Janet just hugged him, grinning.
“There’s something else, Sir,” April said. “A lot of these Pokémon were taken from the Alola region. I think Team Spearow is trying to get a foothold there.”
“We don’t even have a branch set up in Alola to counter them with,” April realized.
“Then we’d best get one started-or, at the very least, an outpost,” Waverly declared. “Mr. Solo, Mr. Kuryakin; I’m assigning the two of you to investigate the happenings in Alola.”
Illya inwardly winced at the thought of spending an unspecified amount of time in a tropical region, but he knew it had to be done.
“When do we leave, Sir?” Napoleon asked.
“As soon as possible, I should think,” Mr. Waverly said. “You’ll want to go as incognito as possible, however-that means taking only one of your Pokémon with you and leaving the others here; you’ll have to use the native Pokémon to try to blend in; we’ll look after the rest of them while you’re away.”
“Understood, Sir,” Illya said. He glanced at Napoleon, who nodded; they would, of course, be taking Persian and Ninetales, the Pokémon that each agent had known the longest-since their younger years, in fact.
The fox and the cat seemed to sense this and looked at each other; Persian purred and rubbed up against Ninetales as she often did.
“I suggest you take the rest of the evening off to pack and prepare,” Waverly said. “You leave for Alola tonight-best to do so under cover of dark, after all.”
“We will, Sir,” Napoleon said.
He and Illya soon headed home with their Pokémon.
“So…” Illya sighed. “Here we go again.”
“The adventure never ends,” Napoleon mused. He looked to Illya and smiled. “Glad I can share it with you.”
“Me too, Napoleon,” Illya sighed, smiling back in spite of himself. “Me too.”
It was going to be a new challenge-but one they would face together.
I also included my favorite innocent from the series, Janet Jerrod from “The Off Broadway Affair” - I have a reasoning behind giving her the Pokémon that I did, as well-though if you’re familiar at all with the actress’s more famous work, you can figure it out pretty quickly.
Lastly, there is a reveal of one of the new upcoming Gen VII Pokémon; so keep that in mind if you’re trying to avoid spoilers.
Cross-posted to AO3, if you prefer reading there.
Napoleon was deep in thought as he and Illya wandered the streets of Castelia City, heading for Prime Pier. Behind them, a Ninetales and a Persian followed in their footsteps. It was only an hour ago that Janet Jerrod, whom they had worked together with before, had called them at U.N.C.L.E’s Unova headquarters, claiming that there was trouble at the pier-and that someone was using the pier to smuggle Pokémon from different regions of the world. And Napoleon had his suspicions as to who was behind it.
“You think it’s Team Spearow?” Illya asked, reading his mind.
Napoleon nodded.
“Let’s face it; they’ve taken over the market when it comes to hoarding and smuggling Pokémon…” he began, but trailed off as he saw Janet waving to them from behind a pier storage locker.
Napoleon and Illya quickly followed, pausing as they reached behind the locker. Napoleon’s Ninetales and Illya’s Persian moved to greet Janet’s Flaaffy and Ponyta, as well as a third dog-like Pokémon they had never seen before. Persian murowed in confusion, looking to Ninetales, who looked just as baffled.
“That’s… new,” Napoleon said.
“He is; I’ve never seen another Pokémon like him before,” Janet said. “He says he’s a Rockruff. I found him here a few days ago-Flaaffy, Ponyta, and I were practicing for our next show; he was on top of a Silph Company crate floating out in the harbor. I couldn’t just leave him there, so I took him home-I’ve been making calls and putting out notices in all the papers to see if this little guy belongs to someone. But now I’m seeing that Silph ship docked just offshore. I… I have a feeling that they were the ones who lost him, but they aren’t going to come forward to claim him.”
“And, naturally, if they were smugglers, they couldn’t come to claim him without drawing suspicion to themselves,” Napoleon finished.
“That it is a Silph Company crate and ship is reason enough to be suspicious,” Illya said, darkly, and Persian hissed in agreement. “I rescued my Persian when she was a Meowth from one of Silph’s facilities near the orphanage where I grew up. And the Kanto branch of the company was under the thumb of Team Rocket for an embarrassingly long time. It certainly isn’t impossible for Team Spearow to have a hold on them now. It would explain why things like Rare Candy are still in circulation.”
“What are we going to do?” Janet asked.
“Get a good look at what’s going on in there, for starters,” Napoleon said, grabbing a set of binoculars and peering at the ship. “Well, I think I see some familiar faces on the deck… Hey… It’s Mother Fear!”
“What…!?” Illya asked, freezing in his tracks and absently feeling his back where the scars of his last encounter with Mother Fear still remained..
“I guess she’s with Team Spearow, too, huh?” Janet asked. “Is she just as bad as Machina?”
“Worse,” Napoleon said. “And she’s walking around with… what looks like a small Pokémon in a cage; I can’t tell what it is just yet. Oh, wait; I think it’s… Hold on; there’s another one now…” Napoleon’s shoulders went rigid. “Uh-oh.”
“What is it?” Illya asked.
“How far from this pier would you say that ship is, Illya?”
“About five hundred meters.”
“Could a Hyper Beam reach us from that distance?”
“Well, it would depend on which particular Pokémon is casting the Hyper Beam…” Illya trailed off as it sunk in as to why Napoleon must have been asking. “Napoleon, what is it!?”
“A Kangaskhan.”
“Take cover!” Illya returned, as the beam began to head for them.
The three of them, and their Pokémon, darted around the side of the large storage facility as the Hyper Beam struck the side of it.
“How did they get a Kangaskhan…!?” Illya asked, stunned.
“I don’t know, but it’s worse than what you think,” Napoleon said. “Mother Fear has got the Kangaskhan’s baby in that cage and is using her as leverage to get the mother Kangaskhan to attack us.”
“Oh, no…!” Janet whispered.
“That’s all the proof we need to show that they are smuggling Pokémon, then,” Illya said, coldly. “The fact that they cannot control the Kangaskhan without threatening the baby proves that the mother was not legally captured in the wild.”
They all flinched as another Hyper Beam struck the opposite side of the pier storage.
“The information isn’t going to do us any good unless we can get it back to Mr. Waverly,” Napoleon said. “But what I want to know is how we can leave without taking a Hyper Beam to the face now that they know we were spying on them.” He looked to Janet. “I don’t suppose you have a Pokémon that knows Teleport?”
She shook her head.
“Sorry; just Flaaffy and Ponyta-and Rockruff, I suppose, if he wants to stay--”
She was cut off as a third Hyper Beam struck the storage facility again.
“Napoleon, we shall have to confront them, or else they shall demolish the pier!” Illya exclaimed.
“I’m sorry…” Janet said. “I probably shouldn’t have said anything…!”
“No; they’d have probably sicced that Kangaskhan on the pier regardless if we were here or not. They want our attention for some reason,” Napoleon said. His eyes narrowed as he pulled a Pokéball from his shoulder holster. “So, let’s give it to them. Charizard!”
The large dragon emerged from the Pokéball with a roar.
“Illya, I’m going to fly in,” Napoleon instructed. “Cover me.”
“Da,” Illya said, pulling a Pokéball from his shoulder holster. “Raichu!”
The orange mouse appeared alongside Charizard. Napoleon and Ninetales leaped onto Charizard’s back, and the dragon took flight, deftly dodging another Hyper Beam from the Kangaskhan.
It was then that a flock of Spearow took flight from the ship, led by Mother Fear’s Fearow.
“Raichu, Thunderbolt!” Illya instructed.
“Flaaffy, help him out with Thundershock!” Janet added.
Charizard dodged the electric attacks, and Napoleon frowned as the angry birds flew past him and seemed to focus on Raichu and Flaaffy. And then the Fearow suddenly dove.
“Illya!” Janet exclaimed. “It’s not attacking the Pokémon-it’s going for you!”
Illya attempted to dive out of the way, but he wasn’t fast enough to stop Fearow from grabbing him with its talons. Raichu and Persian attempted to attack Fearow to get him to release Illya, but the giant bird shrugged them off and flew off, heading for the ship.
Janet was looking around now, heading for a small boat docked on the side of the pier, waving her Pokémon, as well as Raichu and Persian, to follow her. From the sky, Napoleon urged Charizard faster as they pursued the much faster Fearow, who was still holding Illya in his talons. The Fearow now hovered over the ship, where Mother Fear stared up at Illya, coldly. The blond tried to glare back, but the fear in his eyes betrayed him.
“Tell Mr. Solo to turn back,” she ordered Illya. “Do you hear me? You know what will happen if you don’t mind me.”
Illya defiantly stayed silent, glancing over at Napoleon, Ninetales, and Charizard, who were still heading for them. They would be getting close enough to do something, if Illya could just hold out for a few more moments…
Mother Fear scowled.
“Kangaskhan, Hyper Beam,” she ordered. “On him.”
Illya had suspected it was coming, but that still didn’t stop him from cringing. The Kangaskhan flinched, as well, not wanting to attack Illya.
“Hyper Beam!” Mother Fear ordered. She held up a small, electric prod to the cage in her other hand, which held the baby Kangaskhan. “Mind me, or else…”
With a look of deep regret, the mother Kangaskhan aimed a weak Hyper Beam at Illya.
“Stronger!” Mother Fear ordered. “I want a full-strength Hyper Beam-one that will ensure that Mr. Kuryakin can never interfere with Team Spearow again!”
The Hyper Beam forming in the Kangaskhan’s mouth grew in intensity, even as the creature began to cry in regret.
“ATTACK!” Mother Fear ordered.
The beam shot out towards Illya.
“Pidgeot!” Napoleon yelled, tossing another Pokéball.
Another large bird, larger than Fearow, materialized in front of the Fearow and took the Hyper Beam head-on.
“Pidgeot!” Illya echoed, concerned, as the bird fell to the deck of the ship.
Mother Fear scowled at Napoleon he and Charizard rammed into Fearow; Illya slipped from the bird’s grasp and would have fallen had Napoleon not seized his arm. Flinching from the added weight, Charizard sunk down to the deck of the ship, as well.
“You okay, Illya?” Napoleon asked.
“I am fine; what about Pidgeot?”
Napoleon gently tended to his bird.
“A bit beat, but nothing a few Super Potions can’t fix,” he said, recalling Pidgeot to her Pokéball.
“Again you let your concern get in the way,” Mother Fear scoffed. “Fine; have it your way. The two of you can go down in defeat together.”
“Don’t bet on it,” Napoleon said, darkly. “Charizard, Ninetales-you’re both up!”
And Illya seized two more Pokéballs from his shoulder holster.
“Venusar! Slurpuff!”
Kangaskhan and Fearow took center stage on the deck as dozens of Spearow surrounded them.
“Tovarisch, I think we need to break out our secret weapons…” Napoleon said, gently touching his pinky ring.
Illya grabbed the pendant around his neck.
“Da, I agree.”
The stone in the ring and a stone set in the pendant both began to glow-and then Charizard and Venusaur began to glow, as well, as they both underwent Mega Evolution.
Mother Fear didn’t seem too concerned; she snapped her fingers and Fearow and the reluctant Kangaskhan attacked.
“Charizard, you take Fearow-Flare Blitz! Ninetales, hold the Spearow off with Flamethrower!”
“Venusaur, Sleep Powder on Kangaskhan! Slurpuff, don’t engage the Spearow, but keep on the retreat and cover Ninetales with Fairy Wind!”
Ninetales and Slurpuff keeping the Spearow bay allowed Mega Charizard and Mega Venusaur to focus on their targets; Illya was determined not to hurt Kangaskhan, knowing that she was only battling them under duress.
As the battle raged on, both Napoleon and Illya found themselves slightly distracted as a few coins came sailing over the side of the ship, landing at their feet.
“…Pay Day?” Napoleon asked, under his breath.
Illya’s eyes widened.
“Persian…!” he whispered, recognizing her coins. “Slurpuff!” He shouted something to Slurpuff in his native tongue.
“Telling him to keep retreating?” Mother Fear scoffed, as she blew a blue flute to awaken the Kangaskhan. “A wise decision. You are outnumbered, even with your ‘Mega Evolutions.’ You can only hold out for so long.”
“Then perhaps we had best turn the tide in our favor,” Napoleon said.
“Slurpuff, now!” Illya instructed.
Slurpuff suddenly leaped out from behind Mother Fear, grabbing the cage with the baby Kangaskhan from her hands and vaulting over the side of the ship.
“NO!” Mother Fear hissed.
The adult Kangaskhan let out a roar and ran to the edge of the ship, but then froze, seeing Janet and the other Pokémon on a small boat; Janet had just opened the baby Kangaskhan’s cage and freed her, gently cradling the frightened baby.
“She is safe,” Illya said to the mother Kangaskhan. “You are free now to leave--”
The Kangaskhan turned to Mother Fear and the other grunts with a murderous expression.
“…Or you can wreak vengeance,” Illya continued, with a shrug, as she began to pummel everything in her way with Dizzy Punch. “Do you think we should interfere, Napoleon?”
“…Nah,” Napoleon said, as the grunts began to bail out over the side, their Spearows following them.
Venusaur now used Vine Whip to help Raichu, Persian, and Slurpuff from the small boat to the ship; the three of them, along with Ninetales, began to storm the interior of the ship to draw out any further grunts hiding inside. Venusaur and Charizard now reverted from their Mega forms, waiting for instructions from Illya and Napoleon.
The Kangaskhan was now nearing Mother Fear. Rather than ungainly leap over the side of the ship, Mother Fear recalled Fearow into its Pokéball, released a Jellicent, and rode on Jellicent’s back into the water, sailing away towards the open sea, while her grunts, desperate, swam back to the pier instead, where Waverly, flanked by a dozen U.N.C.L.E. agents led by April and Mark, were waiting for them.
“What about her?” Illya asked, looking out at Mother Fear as she retreated. A few of their colleagues had sent out flying and water type Pokémon to pursue her.
“As much as I want to believe that we can bring her in, I’m afraid we haven’t seen the last of her,” Napoleon sighed. “There’ll be other days, Illya.”
Ninetales and Persian now reappeared, barking and meowing to get their attention; the duo, along with Charizard and Venusaur, followed to a hold where several Pokémon were kept in cages and crates. Raichu and Slurpuff were attempting to reassure the captive Pokémon that they would soon be free.
It was several hours before the Pokémon were recovered and returned to the pier; Janet was recounting her part of the tale to Waverly and April as Napoleon and Illya arrived; Mark, along with his Gallade, were left to round up the Team Spearow grunts.
“…And so I had Flaaffy and Illya’s Raichu help me hot-wire my boyfriend’s boat-I thought the boys could use a hand,” Janet was saying.
“We did,” Napoleon assured her. “Thanks to you, we were able to eliminate the leverage that Mother Fear had over Kangaskhan.” He glanced over at the mother Kangaskhan, who was now reunited with her baby and fussing over her. “Does she belong to anyone?”
“According to these Team Spearow records you recovered, she doesn’t,” April said, as her Mawile held the logbook up. “Pretty much all of these smuggled Pokémon were illegally captured from the wild; I guess Team Spearow didn’t want to risk earning the ire of trainers by stealing their Pokémon like Team Plasma did.”
“Then we’ve got a bit of work ahead of us in returning these Pokémon to their proper natural habitats,” Waverly mused. He glanced at Janet, who was still holding Rockruff in her arms. “Unless, of course, they’d rather stay…”
Rockruff barked in the affirmative, and Janet just hugged him, grinning.
“There’s something else, Sir,” April said. “A lot of these Pokémon were taken from the Alola region. I think Team Spearow is trying to get a foothold there.”
“We don’t even have a branch set up in Alola to counter them with,” April realized.
“Then we’d best get one started-or, at the very least, an outpost,” Waverly declared. “Mr. Solo, Mr. Kuryakin; I’m assigning the two of you to investigate the happenings in Alola.”
Illya inwardly winced at the thought of spending an unspecified amount of time in a tropical region, but he knew it had to be done.
“When do we leave, Sir?” Napoleon asked.
“As soon as possible, I should think,” Mr. Waverly said. “You’ll want to go as incognito as possible, however-that means taking only one of your Pokémon with you and leaving the others here; you’ll have to use the native Pokémon to try to blend in; we’ll look after the rest of them while you’re away.”
“Understood, Sir,” Illya said. He glanced at Napoleon, who nodded; they would, of course, be taking Persian and Ninetales, the Pokémon that each agent had known the longest-since their younger years, in fact.
The fox and the cat seemed to sense this and looked at each other; Persian purred and rubbed up against Ninetales as she often did.
“I suggest you take the rest of the evening off to pack and prepare,” Waverly said. “You leave for Alola tonight-best to do so under cover of dark, after all.”
“We will, Sir,” Napoleon said.
He and Illya soon headed home with their Pokémon.
“So…” Illya sighed. “Here we go again.”
“The adventure never ends,” Napoleon mused. He looked to Illya and smiled. “Glad I can share it with you.”
“Me too, Napoleon,” Illya sighed, smiling back in spite of himself. “Me too.”
It was going to be a new challenge-but one they would face together.