Story Notes:
Disclaimer: Nintendo owns Pokémon, not I. The original characters (names, personalities, etc.) and plot are my property. I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.Expect ratings and categories to change as chapters are added to the story. Current selections reflect the most restrictive ones that published chapters will fit into.This is my first story and a work in progress. Serious comments will be taken seriously and the story updated as needed.If you would like to help by being an editor/proofreading the chapters before they are posted, get in contact with me via email or msn. Before posting a chapter I try to get readers and other writers to give me a bit of feedback on each chapter.
Chapter 2 - "#136"
"Ugh... Where am I? Is Dig alright? Why iseverything pitch black? Did I die?" Joey's cramped world suddenly began to spin as it was flooded withlight. He blinked as his eyes adjusted. "It'sso cold here." Joey looked around at the circular room that contained him:White tiled floor and walls, with various counters holding rows of computermonitors and racks of test tubes filled with clear liquid and flasks of dullgreen liquid. Two exits led away from the room, one to Joey's right and oneacross the room from Joey. Cages lined the walls where tables and walkways leftvacant space, including the one that Joey found himself in. Computers hummedquietly as team rocket scientists worked. One was staring at him, ultra ball inhand, which he proceeded to pocket. "Geeze, it's hideous! Get theboss," spoke the scientist in front of him as he backed away.
"Get this, it's one-three-six!" "One-three-six?"There was a fluster as each of the scientists turned and looked at Joey or thecomputer terminal at which another scientist was sitting. Joey pushed himselfup against the back of his cage under the sudden barrage of looks. "Why are those numbers familiar?"
"One-three-six? But I thought all of the first generation died,"another scientist commented, "That's what defined the first generation."
"No that's true only for the first 135 tests. Here's his file: He was partof the first generation of genetically enhanced prototypes, built for testingthe genetic process rather than actually combining useful traits. Male offspringof a male charizard and female kangaskhan, but modified to take traits fromboth parents; probably the only male Pokémon that resembles a kangaskhan in anyway. 'Phenotype depicts a male kangaskhan with a charizard's wings, thoughshows signs of fire resistance and a lack of weakness to water. Genotype seemsto be a random mix of the parents' genotype.' He was the first one thatsurvived long enough to hatch, which marked the end of generation one. This wasabout 4 years ago. He was marked for destruction, but by the fact that he'sstill here my guess is that the person responsible-"
"Was weak." The group of scientists turned and looked at the southdoor, where Giovanni stood forcefully. "As weak as the pokémon he was toldto get rid of." "Hey! I'm no mewtwo,but I can fend for myself." Joey eyed Giovanni, angered by his words butstill cautious. Giovanni eyed back with scorn and contempt. "He needs tobe broken." Giovanni turned and left, leaving the computers as the onlyaudible thing for a few minutes. Joey began to test the bars, which whileloose, still held quite strongly. One of the scientists walked up behind him inresponse to the racket, muttering to himself, "Stupid pokémon..."
"Whatthe...?" Joey felt a small, sharp pain penetrate his back hide as blacknessenveloped his vision once again...
"Listen, and then look. Listen, and thenlook." Joey had learned many things from the diglett, though at the time hethought many to be the mumblings of a grandparent-like being, one that wasunaware that times had changed and the information was irrelevant. Somehow,Joey found himself wishing he had pulled less of the I-know-it-all teenagermotif and simply listened. The hum of the computers had disappeared to bereplaced by breathing, and the occasional chirp of a bird could be heard in thedistance. He could feel a light breeze filtering through his fur, indicatingthat he was likely outdoors. He felt a kick to his side that knocked the windout of him as a deep voice commanded him to move. "Don't keep me waiting,you bastard of a pokémon. Get up."
Joey opened his eyes as he pushed himself into a standing position andattempted to catch his breath, finding himself in an outdoor arena withGiovanni standing in front of him, an alakazam at Giovanni's left and a persianto his right. To his own left Joey noticed a bound pikachu, still breathing butdefinitely worse for wear. Even the bright yellow fur failed to hide thelayered bruises beneath.
"Show me a comet punch on that pikachu, one-three-six. If you don't want to be called weakso badly, show me that you aren't." Joey looked over at the pikachu, who was silent but gazed back with a pair of pleading eyes. "I can't do that; I couldn't do that if my life depended upon it, whichit very well might." He turned and stared defiantly back at Giovanni."No."
"Very well then, stupid pokémon. Nobody refuses me," he laughed as henodded to alakazam. "Now, Comet Punch!" Joey's mind began to tingleand his body suddenly felt compelled to move, to attack. His fists disobeyedhis mind as he mouthed apologies to the pikachu. The pikachu had curled up, andflinched as Joey's fists pounded the mouse into the hard dirt. Hit 5 times.
"I'm so sorry..." Joey nuzzled the limp pikachu gently as tears beganto flow and he realized what he had done. 7ft, 130lbs. versus 1ft, 13lbs aren'tvery good odds. Giovanni kicked the corpse to the side.
"I trust I won't need to test out any of your other moves," Giovannithreatened, to which Joey could only hang his head and comply. Joey sighed asGiovanni instructed him to move towards the rear entrance of what seemed to be theViridian City Gym on the outside. As he entered, he was greeted by a flight ofstairs descending down a level, below the gym floor. He slowly proceeded downafter Giovanni and before the alakazam, with the Persian taking up the rear. Hewaited silently as Giovanni unlocked and opened the door, stepped inside andlooked at what was before him.
All around him pokémon rushed from one job to the next, their claws clinkingsoftly on the tile floor as they hurried to make their work area presentableshould Giovanni decide to stay among the grunts long enough to inspect themclosely. Unmarked or cryptically marked boxes and cages gave quite theappearance to this "underground" operation. More than a couplepokémon stole a glance or two at Joey as he entered, the entire room beingcurious, but most afraid of the Boss's wrath if caught off-task."Sabrina!" Giovanni called as an espeon appeared from behind a box,walking up to him quickly but managing to maintain an illusion of grace as shedid so.
"Yes, Boss?" Her soft voice rang out, pleasant on the ears.
"One-three-six is ready for work," he informed her. She looked atJoey and failed at her attempt to mask her grimace and look of nausea."Perhaps you can find a use for this failure."
"Yes, Boss," Sabrina replied with a curt nod. With this, Giovanniturned and left, his alakazam drone following behind him. His persian hungaround - she was the Boss's pet, a position coveted by Sabrina, and she did nothave any plans on letting her forget that she was the one in it. "Buzzoff, Trixie," Sabrina said as she attempted to return to work and find aplace for Joey.
"Why? I'm bored of sitting in Boss's lap all day," she taunted. "I want to see the mutant."With this she turned her gaze towards Joey, who began to back up until hiswings were sandwiched between him and a nearby column of boxes. Trixie took astep closer despite her dislike of him, careful to stay out of range of Joeybut taking much pleasure in the discomfort she was inflicting upon him as shestared him down. "I don't know how you do it, Sabrina," she said inmock praise, "I couldn't stand to work with furry freaks all day." She smiled smugly at Joey as sheemphasized what she thought of him.
"Leave him be. He has work to do," Sabrina interrupted, trying todistract Trixie and get her to leave.
"Why? Don't want me picking on your new boyfriend? The only work he'd begood for is in your room, slut," Trixie said as she turned to faceSabrina, who was fuming. "But you're probably into that sort of kinkystu- MEOWCH!" Trixie squealed as she suddenly realized her tail was onfire; Joey had discovered his ember ability only a few weeks back, and whilenot at all powerful, it proved useful on rare occasion. Trixie cradled hertail, the tip singed and red where exposed. She turned and glared at him, hissing"You'll get it!" as she fled up and out of the room, back to theBoss. She was well aware that she was not liked by the grunts and would be onthe losing side if a fight broke out in there.
"Um...thanks," Sabrina spoke quietly, significantly more receptive toJoey because he saved her from a long-winded monologue involving her supposedparentage. Trixie knew that Sabrina would be severely punished if she triedanything like what Joey pulled because she as overseer was responsible forknowing the rules, which Trixie took advantage of often, but didn't count onJoey making a bold move in the situation. Several exhausted Pokémon watched on,wondering what would happen next and how best to avoid the pokémon experiment.
"Ithink," she paused, trying to figure out what to have him do, "that Ijust need you to grab those boxes off of the top of the stacks in the cornerand set them on that trolley over there. We haven't had anyone tall enough toreach them around lately. Find me afterwards and I'll show you to yourquarters. Oh, and if anyone asks, I punished you severely for attacking theBoss's pet." Sabrina disappeared between columns of boxes as quickly asshe had appeared.
Joey worked his way uneasily though the box-maze to the corner he had beenassigned, the others clearing out of his way quite readily and returning totheir previous hustle and bustle. He reached up and removed the top box fromthe stack, struggling a bit to set it down gently as it seemed to be filledwith water or some other liquid that shifted randomly as it was transported. Headjusted his grip on the box before lifting it again and carrying it over tothe trolley, which he set it upon. A look of shock contorted his face as thebox whimpered. He sighed, knowing there was little he could do from his currentposition and simply set about getting the rest of the boxes to the trolley.Unsurprising to Joey, they seemed to shift balance awkwardly as well.
Joey looked about for Sabrina after placing the last box on the trolley, spyingher across the room conversing with what he presumed to be a friend orcolleague of hers. Not near bold enough to garner her attention from across theroom, he began to make his way over to where she was standing. As he steppedup, the ekans talking with Sabrina took one look at Joey, excused himself fromthe conversation, and left, leaving Sabrina to turn and face Joey."Yes?" she asked coldly.
"I...I'm done with what you asked." Joey responded meekly, surprisedat the sudden distance he found between them compared to earlier. "Well there go my hopes for gaining a decentfoothold in this place."
"Oh, right. Sorry; Blackscale's message had me confused for a bit. Followme, Joey." Sabrina began a brisk stroll down a hall labeled A6.
Joey rushed to catch up, tagging along behind. "How-"
"Did I know your name? Telepathy. You should learn to shield your mindtoo, it's like a book right now," Sabrina cut him off, not even turningaround to respond. She quite enjoyed her gift. "We just left the shippingroom on floor B1; if you get lost just ask around until you get back tothere." She took a right at the intersection they both came upon into alarge room filled with row after row of what were little more than cells."Now, violence isn't tolerated in here between workers," she spoke asher claws clacked on the beige keys of a computer while she looked up which washis, "and it looks like you're in C-Block, number 15."
Joey looked at the rows, suddenly realizing that they each had a large letterpainted haphazardly on to the side, and each "room" had a smallnumber above it. The term room is used lightly, seeing as the rooms only had 3 walls,like cages without a door on the front, and ranged in size, presumably eachonly large enough for its occupant to fit inside. It was quite obvious thatTeam Rocket did not employ any snorlaxes or any other large creatures, at leaston this floor. Joey felt a yank on his paw as Sabrina pulled on it with herprehensile tail, snapping him back to reality as she took him to his cell.
It was dingy and old and well used, scratch marks lining the walls from top tobottom including the ceiling. The paint had long ago been chipped off, and theblue plastic showed, upon which a yellowed pillow and a brown blanket satunscrupulously folded in the left corner, causing Joey to grimace slightly."Sorry, it was the best I could find," Sabrina noticed.
"When is dinner?" asked Joey, his stomach punctuating his sentencewith a muffled rumble.
"In about an hour," she enlightened him. "Everyone else will befiling in pretty soon. Showers and restrooms are over there," her tailflicked in the direction of a doorway, "and you'll want to go get cleanedup before the line forms." Sabrina left the way she came in, presumably toend the shift for the rest of the workers. "Idon't know how long I'm going to be here. I should probably work to fit in andget ahead where I can." Joey headed to the showers.
Joey stepped out of the shower and shook off, trying to get as much of thewater out of his fur before simply air-drying. "Argh..." While good for carrying most things, Joey hatedhis pouch when it came to water - it collected water like a bucket and forcedhim to walk awkwardly until he could find a way to empty it. However unlike theoutdoors, the controlled environment of the underground compound providedlittle chance for him to do so. "Ofall the traits to inherit from my mother, why do I need the pouch?"Joey thought to himself regarding his heritage. "I'm not even female!" He proceeded to force as much ofthe water out as he could get and hoped no one noticed. The showers had beenfilling up as others returned to the living quarters, and while most simplyignored him and gave him plenty of space, some eyed him fearfully which madethis quite a task.
He did his best and proceeded to return to his room-cell, climbing inside thecramped plastic box and shifting around, trying to get comfortable. A bellclanged loudly off-key from one wall, rousing Joey from his position to find itssource. Beneath the wall-mounted bell was a serving line, where severalMiltanks were filling bowls with what he presumed to be a dinner slop. A linehad already formed of hungry pokémon, to which Joey added himself as theytrudged along. As he neared, stacks of bowls were upside down to this left; hepicked one up, waited to have it filled, and then padded back to his box.
He wound up eating on the floor just outside, as his cell was much too small toeat in without getting any food on his fur. The slop was just that - it lookedlike a sloppy-joe minus the bread, but tasted much worse. He could feel grit inthe over-salted concoction, which made him want to puke as he struggled to downthe contents of his bowl, finally succeeding to by constantly reminding himselfthat it was this or nothing.
Joey sat for several minutes with his empty bowl, his tongue running along theinside of his mouth and trying to flush the taste out while he wondered what todo with his bowl. His eyes scanned over the area, discovering that as pokémonfinished, they would take their bowl back over to the serving line and place itupside down in a stack that was much too similar in his opinion to the stacksfrom which he got the bowl from in the first place. He stood and filed over tofollow suit.
After returning once again to his cell, he attempted to curl up. Half-way inhis quest to find a suitable position, the lights flicked off and cast hisworld into the darkness with a click audible throughout the room as theautomatic relays opened at the instruction of the clocks to which they wereslaves. He gave his eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness, but it wascomplete and they never did. It was an awkward feeling to be blind; not justtemporarily blinded by a bright light or my closing one's eyes, but to beunable to see anything and unable to do anything about it.
He fumbled around in his cell for the foul-smelling pillow and rank blanket,using the pillow to rest his head against, but pushing the blanket away. Hisfur kept him more than plenty warm in the un-air-conditioned sleeping quarters,and while the blanket might be good for padding, its smell was simplyrepulsive. Joey closed his eyes and tried to relax and let sleep take him as hereflected upon the events of the day. Well, what he considered the day - he hadno way to tell time underground.
He knew that he woke up mid-afternoon outside with Giovanni and assumed that itwas likely nighttime now, though when,he didn't know. He had been captured in the afternoon, but didn't know if whenhe woke up with the scientists was the next day or that evening, though he hada good feeling that his second encounter with Giovanni had been a day later.Captive for 2 or three 3 days total? He couldn't tell.
Joey's gut became queasy as his mind passed over the memories of Giovanni andthe poor pikachu earlier that day. "Ididn't even know his or her name... That feeling was horrible when the alakazamtook over. First the tingly feeling in my mind and then it was like my body hada mind of its own and I was just so helpless to save the pikachu," hewallowed. He felt a tingling sensation at the back of his head-- no, his mind.He could still feel the scratchy pillow against his head, but just inside itfelt like pins and needles as when a leg or arm "goes to sleep."Fearing that the alakazam was taking over his mind again, he was about to gocrazy in a wild effort to find some way of fighting back when the tinglingstopped, replaced by a simple feeling of coldness, like an ice cube had beeninserted into his brain. "Whatthe..."Chapter End Notes:I'm looking for people to help edit, proofread, and critique my stories before they are posted. If you'd be interested, please contact me via email. I know there is a complete lack of sex so far, but there should be some in a few chapters
"Get this, it's one-three-six!" "One-three-six?"There was a fluster as each of the scientists turned and looked at Joey or thecomputer terminal at which another scientist was sitting. Joey pushed himselfup against the back of his cage under the sudden barrage of looks. "Why are those numbers familiar?"
"One-three-six? But I thought all of the first generation died,"another scientist commented, "That's what defined the first generation."
"No that's true only for the first 135 tests. Here's his file: He was partof the first generation of genetically enhanced prototypes, built for testingthe genetic process rather than actually combining useful traits. Male offspringof a male charizard and female kangaskhan, but modified to take traits fromboth parents; probably the only male Pokémon that resembles a kangaskhan in anyway. 'Phenotype depicts a male kangaskhan with a charizard's wings, thoughshows signs of fire resistance and a lack of weakness to water. Genotype seemsto be a random mix of the parents' genotype.' He was the first one thatsurvived long enough to hatch, which marked the end of generation one. This wasabout 4 years ago. He was marked for destruction, but by the fact that he'sstill here my guess is that the person responsible-"
"Was weak." The group of scientists turned and looked at the southdoor, where Giovanni stood forcefully. "As weak as the pokémon he was toldto get rid of." "Hey! I'm no mewtwo,but I can fend for myself." Joey eyed Giovanni, angered by his words butstill cautious. Giovanni eyed back with scorn and contempt. "He needs tobe broken." Giovanni turned and left, leaving the computers as the onlyaudible thing for a few minutes. Joey began to test the bars, which whileloose, still held quite strongly. One of the scientists walked up behind him inresponse to the racket, muttering to himself, "Stupid pokémon..."
"Whatthe...?" Joey felt a small, sharp pain penetrate his back hide as blacknessenveloped his vision once again...
"Listen, and then look. Listen, and thenlook." Joey had learned many things from the diglett, though at the time hethought many to be the mumblings of a grandparent-like being, one that wasunaware that times had changed and the information was irrelevant. Somehow,Joey found himself wishing he had pulled less of the I-know-it-all teenagermotif and simply listened. The hum of the computers had disappeared to bereplaced by breathing, and the occasional chirp of a bird could be heard in thedistance. He could feel a light breeze filtering through his fur, indicatingthat he was likely outdoors. He felt a kick to his side that knocked the windout of him as a deep voice commanded him to move. "Don't keep me waiting,you bastard of a pokémon. Get up."
Joey opened his eyes as he pushed himself into a standing position andattempted to catch his breath, finding himself in an outdoor arena withGiovanni standing in front of him, an alakazam at Giovanni's left and a persianto his right. To his own left Joey noticed a bound pikachu, still breathing butdefinitely worse for wear. Even the bright yellow fur failed to hide thelayered bruises beneath.
"Show me a comet punch on that pikachu, one-three-six. If you don't want to be called weakso badly, show me that you aren't." Joey looked over at the pikachu, who was silent but gazed back with a pair of pleading eyes. "I can't do that; I couldn't do that if my life depended upon it, whichit very well might." He turned and stared defiantly back at Giovanni."No."
"Very well then, stupid pokémon. Nobody refuses me," he laughed as henodded to alakazam. "Now, Comet Punch!" Joey's mind began to tingleand his body suddenly felt compelled to move, to attack. His fists disobeyedhis mind as he mouthed apologies to the pikachu. The pikachu had curled up, andflinched as Joey's fists pounded the mouse into the hard dirt. Hit 5 times.
"I'm so sorry..." Joey nuzzled the limp pikachu gently as tears beganto flow and he realized what he had done. 7ft, 130lbs. versus 1ft, 13lbs aren'tvery good odds. Giovanni kicked the corpse to the side.
"I trust I won't need to test out any of your other moves," Giovannithreatened, to which Joey could only hang his head and comply. Joey sighed asGiovanni instructed him to move towards the rear entrance of what seemed to be theViridian City Gym on the outside. As he entered, he was greeted by a flight ofstairs descending down a level, below the gym floor. He slowly proceeded downafter Giovanni and before the alakazam, with the Persian taking up the rear. Hewaited silently as Giovanni unlocked and opened the door, stepped inside andlooked at what was before him.
All around him pokémon rushed from one job to the next, their claws clinkingsoftly on the tile floor as they hurried to make their work area presentableshould Giovanni decide to stay among the grunts long enough to inspect themclosely. Unmarked or cryptically marked boxes and cages gave quite theappearance to this "underground" operation. More than a couplepokémon stole a glance or two at Joey as he entered, the entire room beingcurious, but most afraid of the Boss's wrath if caught off-task."Sabrina!" Giovanni called as an espeon appeared from behind a box,walking up to him quickly but managing to maintain an illusion of grace as shedid so.
"Yes, Boss?" Her soft voice rang out, pleasant on the ears.
"One-three-six is ready for work," he informed her. She looked atJoey and failed at her attempt to mask her grimace and look of nausea."Perhaps you can find a use for this failure."
"Yes, Boss," Sabrina replied with a curt nod. With this, Giovanniturned and left, his alakazam drone following behind him. His persian hungaround - she was the Boss's pet, a position coveted by Sabrina, and she did nothave any plans on letting her forget that she was the one in it. "Buzzoff, Trixie," Sabrina said as she attempted to return to work and find aplace for Joey.
"Why? I'm bored of sitting in Boss's lap all day," she taunted. "I want to see the mutant."With this she turned her gaze towards Joey, who began to back up until hiswings were sandwiched between him and a nearby column of boxes. Trixie took astep closer despite her dislike of him, careful to stay out of range of Joeybut taking much pleasure in the discomfort she was inflicting upon him as shestared him down. "I don't know how you do it, Sabrina," she said inmock praise, "I couldn't stand to work with furry freaks all day." She smiled smugly at Joey as sheemphasized what she thought of him.
"Leave him be. He has work to do," Sabrina interrupted, trying todistract Trixie and get her to leave.
"Why? Don't want me picking on your new boyfriend? The only work he'd begood for is in your room, slut," Trixie said as she turned to faceSabrina, who was fuming. "But you're probably into that sort of kinkystu- MEOWCH!" Trixie squealed as she suddenly realized her tail was onfire; Joey had discovered his ember ability only a few weeks back, and whilenot at all powerful, it proved useful on rare occasion. Trixie cradled hertail, the tip singed and red where exposed. She turned and glared at him, hissing"You'll get it!" as she fled up and out of the room, back to theBoss. She was well aware that she was not liked by the grunts and would be onthe losing side if a fight broke out in there.
"Um...thanks," Sabrina spoke quietly, significantly more receptive toJoey because he saved her from a long-winded monologue involving her supposedparentage. Trixie knew that Sabrina would be severely punished if she triedanything like what Joey pulled because she as overseer was responsible forknowing the rules, which Trixie took advantage of often, but didn't count onJoey making a bold move in the situation. Several exhausted Pokémon watched on,wondering what would happen next and how best to avoid the pokémon experiment.
"Ithink," she paused, trying to figure out what to have him do, "that Ijust need you to grab those boxes off of the top of the stacks in the cornerand set them on that trolley over there. We haven't had anyone tall enough toreach them around lately. Find me afterwards and I'll show you to yourquarters. Oh, and if anyone asks, I punished you severely for attacking theBoss's pet." Sabrina disappeared between columns of boxes as quickly asshe had appeared.
Joey worked his way uneasily though the box-maze to the corner he had beenassigned, the others clearing out of his way quite readily and returning totheir previous hustle and bustle. He reached up and removed the top box fromthe stack, struggling a bit to set it down gently as it seemed to be filledwith water or some other liquid that shifted randomly as it was transported. Headjusted his grip on the box before lifting it again and carrying it over tothe trolley, which he set it upon. A look of shock contorted his face as thebox whimpered. He sighed, knowing there was little he could do from his currentposition and simply set about getting the rest of the boxes to the trolley.Unsurprising to Joey, they seemed to shift balance awkwardly as well.
Joey looked about for Sabrina after placing the last box on the trolley, spyingher across the room conversing with what he presumed to be a friend orcolleague of hers. Not near bold enough to garner her attention from across theroom, he began to make his way over to where she was standing. As he steppedup, the ekans talking with Sabrina took one look at Joey, excused himself fromthe conversation, and left, leaving Sabrina to turn and face Joey."Yes?" she asked coldly.
"I...I'm done with what you asked." Joey responded meekly, surprisedat the sudden distance he found between them compared to earlier. "Well there go my hopes for gaining a decentfoothold in this place."
"Oh, right. Sorry; Blackscale's message had me confused for a bit. Followme, Joey." Sabrina began a brisk stroll down a hall labeled A6.
Joey rushed to catch up, tagging along behind. "How-"
"Did I know your name? Telepathy. You should learn to shield your mindtoo, it's like a book right now," Sabrina cut him off, not even turningaround to respond. She quite enjoyed her gift. "We just left the shippingroom on floor B1; if you get lost just ask around until you get back tothere." She took a right at the intersection they both came upon into alarge room filled with row after row of what were little more than cells."Now, violence isn't tolerated in here between workers," she spoke asher claws clacked on the beige keys of a computer while she looked up which washis, "and it looks like you're in C-Block, number 15."
Joey looked at the rows, suddenly realizing that they each had a large letterpainted haphazardly on to the side, and each "room" had a smallnumber above it. The term room is used lightly, seeing as the rooms only had 3 walls,like cages without a door on the front, and ranged in size, presumably eachonly large enough for its occupant to fit inside. It was quite obvious thatTeam Rocket did not employ any snorlaxes or any other large creatures, at leaston this floor. Joey felt a yank on his paw as Sabrina pulled on it with herprehensile tail, snapping him back to reality as she took him to his cell.
It was dingy and old and well used, scratch marks lining the walls from top tobottom including the ceiling. The paint had long ago been chipped off, and theblue plastic showed, upon which a yellowed pillow and a brown blanket satunscrupulously folded in the left corner, causing Joey to grimace slightly."Sorry, it was the best I could find," Sabrina noticed.
"When is dinner?" asked Joey, his stomach punctuating his sentencewith a muffled rumble.
"In about an hour," she enlightened him. "Everyone else will befiling in pretty soon. Showers and restrooms are over there," her tailflicked in the direction of a doorway, "and you'll want to go get cleanedup before the line forms." Sabrina left the way she came in, presumably toend the shift for the rest of the workers. "Idon't know how long I'm going to be here. I should probably work to fit in andget ahead where I can." Joey headed to the showers.
Joey stepped out of the shower and shook off, trying to get as much of thewater out of his fur before simply air-drying. "Argh..." While good for carrying most things, Joey hatedhis pouch when it came to water - it collected water like a bucket and forcedhim to walk awkwardly until he could find a way to empty it. However unlike theoutdoors, the controlled environment of the underground compound providedlittle chance for him to do so. "Ofall the traits to inherit from my mother, why do I need the pouch?"Joey thought to himself regarding his heritage. "I'm not even female!" He proceeded to force as much ofthe water out as he could get and hoped no one noticed. The showers had beenfilling up as others returned to the living quarters, and while most simplyignored him and gave him plenty of space, some eyed him fearfully which madethis quite a task.
He did his best and proceeded to return to his room-cell, climbing inside thecramped plastic box and shifting around, trying to get comfortable. A bellclanged loudly off-key from one wall, rousing Joey from his position to find itssource. Beneath the wall-mounted bell was a serving line, where severalMiltanks were filling bowls with what he presumed to be a dinner slop. A linehad already formed of hungry pokémon, to which Joey added himself as theytrudged along. As he neared, stacks of bowls were upside down to this left; hepicked one up, waited to have it filled, and then padded back to his box.
He wound up eating on the floor just outside, as his cell was much too small toeat in without getting any food on his fur. The slop was just that - it lookedlike a sloppy-joe minus the bread, but tasted much worse. He could feel grit inthe over-salted concoction, which made him want to puke as he struggled to downthe contents of his bowl, finally succeeding to by constantly reminding himselfthat it was this or nothing.
Joey sat for several minutes with his empty bowl, his tongue running along theinside of his mouth and trying to flush the taste out while he wondered what todo with his bowl. His eyes scanned over the area, discovering that as pokémonfinished, they would take their bowl back over to the serving line and place itupside down in a stack that was much too similar in his opinion to the stacksfrom which he got the bowl from in the first place. He stood and filed over tofollow suit.
After returning once again to his cell, he attempted to curl up. Half-way inhis quest to find a suitable position, the lights flicked off and cast hisworld into the darkness with a click audible throughout the room as theautomatic relays opened at the instruction of the clocks to which they wereslaves. He gave his eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness, but it wascomplete and they never did. It was an awkward feeling to be blind; not justtemporarily blinded by a bright light or my closing one's eyes, but to beunable to see anything and unable to do anything about it.
He fumbled around in his cell for the foul-smelling pillow and rank blanket,using the pillow to rest his head against, but pushing the blanket away. Hisfur kept him more than plenty warm in the un-air-conditioned sleeping quarters,and while the blanket might be good for padding, its smell was simplyrepulsive. Joey closed his eyes and tried to relax and let sleep take him as hereflected upon the events of the day. Well, what he considered the day - he hadno way to tell time underground.
He knew that he woke up mid-afternoon outside with Giovanni and assumed that itwas likely nighttime now, though when,he didn't know. He had been captured in the afternoon, but didn't know if whenhe woke up with the scientists was the next day or that evening, though he hada good feeling that his second encounter with Giovanni had been a day later.Captive for 2 or three 3 days total? He couldn't tell.
Joey's gut became queasy as his mind passed over the memories of Giovanni andthe poor pikachu earlier that day. "Ididn't even know his or her name... That feeling was horrible when the alakazamtook over. First the tingly feeling in my mind and then it was like my body hada mind of its own and I was just so helpless to save the pikachu," hewallowed. He felt a tingling sensation at the back of his head-- no, his mind.He could still feel the scratchy pillow against his head, but just inside itfelt like pins and needles as when a leg or arm "goes to sleep."Fearing that the alakazam was taking over his mind again, he was about to gocrazy in a wild effort to find some way of fighting back when the tinglingstopped, replaced by a simple feeling of coldness, like an ice cube had beeninserted into his brain. "Whatthe..."Chapter End Notes:I'm looking for people to help edit, proofread, and critique my stories before they are posted. If you'd be interested, please contact me via email. I know there is a complete lack of sex so far, but there should be some in a few chapters