Red the Conqueror 20

"And now you understand why we only allow those with my badge to fly on the backs of Pokémon," the gym leader of Celadon explained, as Red came back down, touching down a little wobbily.

For once, his rather unimpressive height came in handy, as he was just about short enough that he could comfortably ride on the back of the smaller of the twin dragons that the duo of travelers had captured not too long ago, the red Latias.

"I'm still surprised that the Grass Gym Leader is the one who runs the flight school," Blue commented, as she put one hand on her hip and the other on top of her own ride's head, patting Latios gently before she stepped off of the dragon's back. Unlike Red, she had actually taken the flight very well.

Erika giggled. "Well it's not so surprising, you know," she spoke, bringing two fingers to her mouth before whistling loud and hard. Not moments later, a quadruped with a set of big leaves on its back appeared from not too far away, soaring over the skyline of Celadon before coming to a stop landing with a heavy thud on the sand of the landing spot, within the widest line but a fair distance away from the center where the gym leader and the two trainers were chatting. "Honestly if I could find my copy of the Fly HM we could've finished this in a single afternoon but, alas..."

"What's that Pokémon?" Blue asked, tilting her head and looking at the powerful looking strange pokémon. "It was flying but it's a plant, is it a grass type?"

"It's a Tropius, his name is Tropicana, I got him from an exchange with a friend from Hoenn," Erika explained, as the big flying grass type approached. It had a set of berries dangling from its head, and it looked like it should by no means be able to fly with those leafy wings, but such were the powers of Pokémon. "So I got my flying license and my teaching license thanks to him."

"Oh, I see!" Blue said, nodding.

Red, now recovered, looked firmly at the Tropius, pointed at it, and then at her.

"Oh no no, Tropicana doesn't battle," Erika said, shaking her head. "He's a gentle sort!" she said, giving a thumbs up. "Even if I had him with me when we battled he would have made no difference."

Red frowned for a moment but, shaking his head, let it go.

The flight school just to the north west of Celadon was quite a walk away from the city, but it afforded them a bit of privacy, and more importantly, it provided a space far away from prying eyes so they could talk, converse and share information... They learned Erika brought them there for an important talk that couldn't be overheard by the wrong ear.

Of course actually teaching them to fly came first, but after that...

"You guys are kind of an exceptionally lucky find I admit," she said, bringing her hands together and hiding them under her sleeves.

Red adjusted his cap and crossed his arms, he wasn't caught by surprise at all by the sudden change in mood and it showed. Blue was a bit more taken aback, looking at Red first but then turning to Erika, brow furrowing. "What are you talking about? Am I missing something? You guys seem like you're on the same wavelength but I'm a little lost here."

"I guess I wasn't as sneaky as I thought I was," the gym leader laughed. "Well, I suppose you got suspicious that I was so eager and forward," she hummed. "Anyway, I'll be open and honest, you guys seem trustworthy," she spoke with a bright smile. "I've got a bit of a problem in my City, and normally, I would have backup from the league to deal with it... but I'm pretty certain that if I try to bring in reinforcements, something really terrible will happen."

"What kind of problem?" Blue asked.

Red reached into his pocket, pulled a coin and threw it into the air, before catching it, showing it to Erika and raising an eyebrow. The coin was one he had obtained in Celadon, and wasn't common currency, instead, it was a gold coin emblazoned with a Persian's face.

"Oh! That's a coin from the Persian's Meow, isn't it?" Blue asked. "When did you get that? You didn't go to the casino without me did you?"

Red shook his head, gesturing towards the ground and making a motion as if to grab something, the suggestion clear. Then he put the coin on his thumb and flicked it at Erika, who caught it herself and looked at it.

"Yeah... this is it exactly," the Gym Leader said, rubbing her thumb on the coin, then raising it behind herself, only for her Tropius to approach its head to it, open its mouth and let out a small glob of purple goo that hit the coin. Erika let it go, and the entire coin just melted into purple slag that rapidly cooled into a toxic looking mass.

"Waaait, isn't gold supposed to be completely resistant to Pokémon poison?" Blue asked. "How'd that coin melt?"

"Because it's fake, it's Pyrite, something called Fool's Gold... And my city is plagued with those," she muttered. "Fake coins, an entire operation running under my own nose," she said, her face twisting a little. "You two are strong trainers and trustworthy, I don't know how far up this goes, but I do know where it's based off of," she said, clenching the fist that had been holding the coin until moments ago.

"If it's their coins, wouldn't it be obvious the Persian's Meow is involved?" Blue asked.

Red shook his head, bringing his hands together and then opening them up as if he was holding an expanding balloon, then drawing an R with his finger and moving his hands and fingers like roots were spreading, curling the tips of his fingers.

"I think I got that," Erika said. "Team Rocket is behind this, indeed... and they've got their hooks everywhere," she said, "In this case, the distributors are the Persian's Meow, the Kalosian Palace and the Big Bucks Johtonite," she explained. "However, in my investigation, I've come to the conclusion that the casinos, themselves, are run as clean operations, and the problem is actually with the coin producer they all have in common... The Cohete Company is the common link and, I believe, the source of the fake coins."

"Oh! And if you go directly at the source..."

"Cut the Ekans' head off," Erika said, a smile on her face. "But," she said, "I can't exactly move freely. There's people observing my movements at all times, and if I went around acting willy-nilly, I would be found out immediately, by the time I got to the bottom of this matter, all evidence would've been wiped out, and I would have nothing."

"So..."

Blue looked at Red, who gave her a nod.

"You want us to get involved with this?" Blue asked. "I'm, uhm, not sure how bright that is," she admitted. "To tell you the truth I don't really have a clean sheet myself."

"We've ALL done things we aren't proud of," Erika said. "We all were starting out on our journey and while I'm not proud of it, I won't judge you for not wanting to starve," she said. "We can't all be lucky."

"I... guess?" Blue asked.

Red raised an eyebrow and brought his arms, most specifically his wrists, together, turning them up like someone would have to when getting cuffed.

"Regarding that - I can temporarily deputize you and afford you part of my authority and responsibility. In effect, you would be acting in my name as Gym Leader," she explained, "and thus you would be acting in the name of the League."

"You can just do that? Like that?" Blue asked, a little shocked.

"I'm a gym leader in good standing, both of you are adults, and you have proven yourselves not just with my badge but with the approval of multiple Gym Leaders. Normally I would talk to Surge and Sabrina for support, or the Indigo Plateau, but everyone's having trouble with the Rockets right now. Technically you'll also be considered trainers at my Gym through the duration of your time as deputies, but don't sweat that," she said, giving a thumbs up.

"Right," Blue said. "Well, I- I'm kind of interested. This'll help if I ever get in trouble for my, uhm, past, right?"

"Definitely. The League looks favorably upon trainers who've turned a new leaf," explained Erika. "Oh, that's a pun! I'll have to remember that one later."

Blue looked at the partner who she'd just been flying with, patting Latios' head. "What do you guys think? Should we?" she asked, turning to the red dragon as well.

Red closed his eyes, Latias looked at him as if to wait for his decision.

The blue dragon turned to its own trainer, as well.

Red pulled a ball from his waist and looked at it. She knew which one that was, it was definitely his first partner. The corner of Red's lip lifted, nodding to himself and stepping up towards Erika and his face blossoming into a full confident smirk as he made it clear that he was fully, 100% into it.

Blue sighed. "Fine, I'm not fully convinced that this is a good idea, but I'm not about to let you go into this alone... let's do this," she said, reaching for her own first partner's pokeball as if to remind herself that they were ready, her fingers going along her belt to her second pokémon as well.

"Alright... that's great, amazing even," Erika said, smiling, "but we need to move quickly. I'm going to describe the plan, and we're starting this very night."

"That- that is very quick," Blue admitted.

Red nodded.

"It has to be. There's no time to waste, every moment we waste is another moment that these people are damaging my city, and more importantly, the harder it gets to track the fake coins they keep pumping into Celadon's veins," she said. "Like a Toxic infection, we have to clean it as quickly as possible," she said. "There's a gambling house called the Game Corner," she explained, raising a finger, "I'm almost positive that there's a secret tunnel that connects the Game Corner to the facilities of Cohete," she explained. "I want you guys to sneak into their facilities through there and head directly towards the bottom, taking out as many Rockets as you can on your way there."

"This seems like a very... straightforward plan?" Blue asked. "How's this work exactly?"

"I'll have law enforcement officers do a roundup from the top, I just want to make sure the leadership can't escape once we begin, that's why you're gonna go directly for them. I'll leave the exact method up to you two," Erika explained, "the only thing I want you two to be sure of is that you don't let anyone important escape, we don't know if they have any sort of escape measures."

"And you're just sending us in to deal with that many Rockets?" Blue asked.

Red patted the pokeballs on his belt.

"I get that they're not particularly good trainers, the grunts especially, but that's still a lot of people, probably," Blue said, "ugh, fine, I already said yes I guess," she said, shaking her head. "Sure wish Elesa was here, she could probably help."

"Make any preparations you need to make, and make sure to go into the Game Corner and look for the entrance there," Erika said. "I'll begin the operation on the top side at nine PM, by then I really need you guys to at least have made good headway so that this doesn't go the way of the Fossil."

Red and Blue looked at each other. "We'll just make sure we're up to date on our backpacks and start at six," she explained. "Hopefully we'll be done by the time you guys go in."

Red hit his fist on his palm as if to emphasize how combat ready he was.

"Sorry to have to involve you guys into this when you just got to Celadon, I don't exactly like it either," she said, "but if this goes well, I'll show you guys the true extent of Celadon's hospitality," she said with a wink.

"Alright, now Red's super motivated," Blue joked, looking at her partner, who was very fired up indeed.

The duo looked at each other, nodded, and then turned to Erika. "I'll be trusting you guys with the rest... let's do one more round of flying practice, and when you're done, we'll split up, just so there's nothing suspicious about meeting you guys here..."

And not long after Erika would continue teaching how to fly, in prepartion for what was to come... perhaps the most dangerous thing the two trainers had tried yet.

But hey... being a trainer is all about facing challenges, no matter how scary or difficult, and what was taking on a criminal enterprise, if not one more challenge?