Red the Conqueror 28

If one were to ask Red, he would say... well, he wouldn't say anything, because Red was Red after all, but Blue would translate his silence into something akin to the spirit of how he felt about Team Rocket.

Considering they were getting in the way of him getting a foursome with a pair of bicurious model-pretty gym leaders and his ever lovely companion Blue, most people would agree he was quite right to be ticked off at them. Though, being absolutely honest, it really wasn't much of a wonder why they were ticked off at him, considering he had basically waltzed into one of their profitable operations and wrecked it.

Unlike Blue, who had a much lower profile thanks to having worn a disguise for most of her operations in that base, Red could be tracked down fairly easily, and apparently, there were a lot of Rockets, a large strike force, that was going after the young trainer. Even after their setbacks in Celadon, it seemed like Team Rocket was hardly diminished.

That said...

"This is actually kind of fun!" Skyla said as she sat astride her Swanna, flying over the battlefield, alongside Red and Blue, on their respective Eon Dragons, fleeing from a trio of Team Rocket Admins who were chasing them on ancient revived fossil Pokémon, Aerodactyl. Somehow, the flying rock dinosaurs would manage to vomit out rocks that they fired like cannonballs at the Trainers.

Being the most experienced and skilled flier of the group, Skyla took command of the situation after the three took to the sky.

"Keep pace, your dragons are faster than my Swanna, but you guys can't take that sort of speed just yet!" she called, "follow my evasive maneuvers, and remember, bank responsibly! You don't have a harness!"

Red nodded, and Blue shivered.

The skies were much colder than ground level, and more importantly, the trio were flying very fast, the rushing wind was being blocked by the Lati twins but that wasn't comparable to proper expert flight and a flight suit.

"INCOMING!!" Blue called, as Latios fed her the feedback of his foresight with their mental connection, telling her ahead of time that an attack was coming, "left side!" as well as the trajectory that it would come from.

"Alright, follow me then!!"

Skyla's Swanna might not be as fast but it was definitely more graceful, tilting its left wing and stretching the right, allowing it to first turn to the left, raising in altitude and moving towards the left, which made both Blue and Red wonder what was going on since she would be dodging in the direction of the attack, only for both of them to immediately realize what was going on.

The dragons immediately responded to the command to follow after Swanna, and they too tilted their wings, though of course with their flight being far less limited by physics, it was significantly easier for them to follow than they expected.

Behind them, the trio of Rocket Admins on Dinosaurs commanded their Pokémon to blast rocks at them, and indeed they aimed to the left, where it initially seemed like the trio would be turning.

But of course by the time the Aerodactyls were ready to launch their rocks, Skyla had Swanna ride the air and turn its wings again, and then using the momentum built up by the initial maneuver, she dove and turned in a much tighter circle than would've been possible if they had just turned directly, followed behind, as best as they could, by the two more inexperienced fliers.

The Rocket Admins, being significantly less experienced and not as good, were flying full speed on their also very fast Pokémon, and the Aerodactyls, which were heavy to boot, couldn't execute a turn anywhere near as fast nor as tight, causing them to keep going quite far ahead even as Skyla completed the maneuver, now finding herself behind the Pokémon that had been pursuing them before, quickly joined by Red and Blue, both of whom were hugging the base of their Pokémon's necks trying not to be thrown off from the sudden and dangerous move.

"Alright, now speed up!! They can't turn like we can, we'll hit them hard from behind and take them to the ground!"

The trio sped up, although it was obvious that despite their incredible speed and maneuverability, as well as their aerodynamic bodies, the gap in flight skill was real, as Swanna managed to charge forward and reach the Rocket Trio first, allowing her just enough time to let loose one of her Pokémon, namely, her Skarmory, which attacked one of the Aerodactyls.

The next to arrive was Red on Latias, and he followed her example by releasing his Charizard, which engaged in aerial combat with the Aerodactyl. The two of them moved forward while their Pokémon were distracted, and using the power of their mounts, they followed up by attacking the rider as well - grabbing them both and holding them up as the Pokémon they called out wrestled the Aerodactyls and disrupted their flight, intending to take them down to the thick forests below.

And as for Blue... well, she was only moments behind Red, but she had a... different idea on how to take down the opponent.

Namely, she still had Nidoking and Nidoqueen's pokéballs in her possession, and, well, no time to waste. She let them both out, while commanding Latios to use his psychic power to grab the rider telekinetically, the man screaming in terror as the two massive lizard-like monsters, King and Queen, appeared on either side of his mount and without needing to be told, both Ground types grabbed onto the Aerodactyl's winds and applied their weight down into it, being infinitely too heavy for it to continue flying with them forcing it down, much more so considering they weren't letting it flap its wings either.

They dropped like the rock that Aerodactyl was and crashed into a tree, knocking it down and shattering much of it to twigs, testament to the insane durability all three pokémon possessed, none of them was actually knocked out by that impact.

Though the Aerodactyl took the brunt of the damage and it clearly had nothing to do when Nidoqueen hit it with an Ice Beam and Nidoking with a Thunderbolt, knocking it out as Blue descended with the rider, his hands tight to his sides as he was wrapped in rings of telekinetic force.

Not long after, Red's Charizard crashed another of the Aerodactyls into the ground, followed shortly by Red and Latias, then third and last, Skyla's Skarmory hit the ground like a meteor, riding on the back of the final Aerodactyl.

"You guys might've finished fast," Skyla said, as she arrived behind Red, "but Skarmory did it with style," she said, reaching to pat her metal bird friend's head. It crooned softly, and Skyla then returned it to its ball, where it could rest after a harsh fight and a dangerous maneuver.

The three Aerodactyls were out, and the only thing that was left was restraining the Rockets after their little chase had ended.

"How did you find us?" Blue asked, while tying up one of the Rockets.

"Are you kidding? You literally requested clearance, that shit's public you know!" the Rocket Admin responded, laughing. "I can't believe we're having so much trouble with kids this stupid."

"So you just knew they'd be here? That's mighty suspicious," Skyla said.

"We've got agents everywhere, kids, you've made a terrible mistake when you picked a fight with Team Rocket!!" the one female of the Rocket trio said, her voice somehow lower and more gravely than her male compatriot.

"I guess we're not going to be getting anything good from you, and you won't give up coming after us, huh?" Blue asked, frowning at them.

The final one of the Rockets laughed. "That's right, we won't stop until we've finally taken you meddling assholes down!"

They were fully tied up and brought together, their arms immobilized and tied to each other's, high enough that they couldn't reach the knots with their hands.

Red crossed his arms as he looked over the group, closed his eyes and tilted his head. He opened his eyes, nodded and gestured at his Charizard, patting the top of its head as he did.

He then pointed at the trio, and Charizard snorted out flames, nodding as it moved to stand in front of them.

"W-Wha, wait, wait wait wait, what is he doing, what are you doing!?" one of the Rockets said, panic seeping into his voice.

"Well, you guys said you were gonna chase us forever if we let you go right? Soooo," Blue said, shrugging.

"What- You can't do this!!" The female Rocket cried out. "You, you, you think you'll get away with this!?"

"Well, yeah? We're in the middle of a forest, we'll just leave three unrecognizable, roasted corpses and you'll probably be eaten by the Bug Pokémon in the area," Blue said, shrugging her shoulders.

Skyla shuddered. "You guys don't mind if I walk away, right? Sorry, the smell of burning people is... eugh..."

"What the fuck, no no no!!" the first speaker from before cried, shaking his head, shaking and trying to get away, only finding that his struggles tightened up the knots that kept the three of them bound, and with their hands and legs tied, they weren't going nowhere.

Red nodded, and then opened his hand, pointing his palm at the trio. Charizard reared its head, and began to gather flames within its jaws, Red raising his hand alongside it as if it was an executioner's axe.

"W-Wait, please don't!! We swear, we won't come after you ever again!!" the woman shrieked.

"LET US GO PLEASE!!"

Red began to bring his hand down only for it to be caught at the wrist by Skyla. "Hold on, hold up, they promised to let us leave and not chase us," she said, "and I really, really don't want the stench of burning human flesh to cling to my clothes," she said.

Blue sighed. "Alright," she said, "Red, how about we let them go just this one time?"

Huffing, Red flicked his wrist, and Charizard threw a Fire Blast high into the sky, which exploded into a spectacular conflagration, a signal flare that couldn't be missed - though of course, it was also more than hot enough to cremate human bodies in just a moment, and the Rockets could tell.

Skyla smiled, and then crouched beside the Rockets. "I really don't recommend you guys don't waste this one chance," she said, "because I won't be around to stop him from going through with it next time," she said with a wink.

After that, Charizard and the Nidos were returned to their Pokéball, and then the trio got astride their mounts once again and departed, flying into the skies smoothly, this time flying much more relaxed on their way to Vermillion along the allowed and prepared flight routes.

As they did, they chatted, though they had to raise their voices quite a bit to reach one another across the sky.

"... you guys were just bluffing about setting those guys on fire right?" Skyla asked, idly. "I assumed you were buuuut... You weren't really gonna burn them, were you Red?"

There was a moment's pause.

"Right Red won't respond I forgot about that for a moment," Skyla said, "Blue... you two were kidding right?"

There was another pause.

"Sorry I was talking to Latios in my mind, did you say something?" Blue asked.

"About the threats," Skyla said, "I, uhm, I'm legally law enforcement even if I don't have a license to enforce just yet," she spoke. "Please tell me I don't have to file a report on this."

"Oh yeah, no way," Blue said, "I just thought it'd be easier if we threatened them a little," she said, smiling at Skyla, "to be honest it was kinda nice, I think one of them wet their apnts," she said.

"Oh thank Arceus," she said, sighing in relief.

"Besides, Red would never kill a woman," Blue said, "especially not a cute one."

Red nodded, his expression could not be any more clear of a "you're damn right", as he was even proud of it.

"I never thought I'd be glad to know that someone is a pervert until today, though I guess if he weren't such a perv then we wouldn't even be going where we're going..." she said, "or, doing what we're doing," she said, her cheeks turning bright pink.

She took the lead once again.

"How about we do some maneuvers on the way?" Skyla asked. "You guys have the basics down, but I bet I can teach you some more advanced moves... Who knows, maybe with some work, you'll even be having sky battles!" she laughed. "Come on, let me show you how to do a barrel roll without falling off your mount!"

Skyla would indeed start showing off her prowess in flight, demonstrating a lot of maneuvers that there was absolutely no way either Red or Blue could imitate any time soon, but they all had fun with her very impressive display of aerial acrobatics.

Finally, she rejoined them in a slow, sedate flight.

"You guys should come see one of my stunt shows! It's a combined stuntplane and Pokémon show, it's reaaaally cool!" she said.

"If we're ever in Unova, we'll definitely drop in, we really have to go there some day," Blue said with a giggle.

"Maybe I can come pick you guys up once I can buy my own plane," she said, smiling.

They continued to chat on the way to Vermillion, until the port city came into view, and all three knew what was to come, and all three grew increasingly excited for the reunion.