Out of Orbit
Fiona Fargazer and Starscout-Lost
NOTE: This story is in connection with the other four stories about Team Rocket. As usually there is AU-ness involved in this case Team Galaxy's members are placed after they are shown in the show, but then I have not seen much of the Sinnoh stuff in the show. I don't like it much after Hoenn to be honest, but the information on Team Galaxy is based more off the game, but still loosely.
Prologue:
-Seven Years Ago
Dust of several years puffed into the air like a swarm of startled insects as the rusty door creaked forward into the room. For the first time in ages the boot of a team member stepped into the stillness, but this boot did not belong to the same uniform that matched the grimy, embossed insignia which hung above the old desk across from the door. It belonged to the team known as Galaxy, which anytime before the end of Old Team Rocket would not have dared to cross paths with the likes of Giovanni's men, but now like vultures this smaller and assumed inferior team flew in to see what was left of the carrion.
Leading this small company of about twelve grunts of matching hair, contact lenses and clothing was the boot of Jupiter, a high ranking commander, and she stepped boldly if not a bit smugly into the layer of matted dust. Her entrance was damaged a little when she had to pause to cough some dust away.
Stepping further into the room, she allowed the grunts to follow after her. One held open the door for the others until all were assembled.
"It was abandoned before the fall of the great and mighty Giovanni's criminal empire," said Jupiter, crossing her arms with a mocking grin as she stared at the old logo, an outward sign of what had happened to that miserable team. The once proud red "R" had been covered in dust and cobwebs and its color had chipped and faded into a sad pinkish maroon. "They closed many facilities in the Johto Region hoping to reopen them when things as wars with the Northern Region and mind-warping their own agents in Orre like pokémon had been completed."
"Will there be anything left, commander?" asked the usual simple-headed, Galactic Grunt.
The commander threw her head toward the one who had spoken.
"That's what we're here to find out, stupid," said Jupiter with a contradicting smile. "We're to scout out this base and have it completely sorted through and catalogued by the time High Commander Akagi arrives." She glanced up at a cobweb rather close to her face. "Not to mention cleaned up and respectable, so he doesn't have to deal with this mess like we do." Then she returned to her company. "Is that all clear?"
"Hai!" exclaimed the grunts.
"Nobu!" Jupiter then said.
"Hai, Commander Jupiter," said one grunt stepping forward. He was the only grunt that stood out from the others, for aside from looking a little older than most, his competence (which was better than most) earned him the privilege of cutting his hair the way he pleased. In this case it was a close buzz, though it did have to be the same futuristic greenish blue as all the others.
"You take half the group down that way," Jupiter said pointing. "I'll take the others down to the right here."
"Wakarimashita!" said Nobu with a robotic salute; then turning, he motioned for six to follow him to the left, leaving Jupiter with six more at her own command which she promptly led away as well.
The way she had sent Nobu proved darker and filthier than hers, not that Nobu would complain of course, but he knew that their lady commander had no love of filth. Although most would not have guessed it of her, she was almost a tad obsessive compulsive about it back at Home Base. She believed in the phrase "cleanliness next to godliness", and it was Commander Jupiter not Commander Akagi that made sure everything was clean and orderly at the base when she was not doing what she loved best, being out in the field. She took this whole old Team Rocket base situation pretty well considering, but the chance to take over anything from Team Rocket, even an old abandoned site as this, would be far worth it for the team.
Expansion was the craving of Team Galaxy. Akagi had not been in the least bit idle to snag territory while the getting was good. They had in the past few years snagged most of the territory in Johto already, and the Orange Islands would soon be completely under Galaxy jurisdiction. Team Rocket, though still proud and wiser than most teams, now had been reduced in size and greatly crippled. It would not be long before Galaxy would move in on Kanto itself if their growing power prevailed.
But even now, some feared that going to this base would not be wise. Abandoned though it happened to be, it lay dangerously close to the borders of the Kanto Region. If they happened to be sited by any of those ninja neo-Rocketers, their expansion could come to a quick end. Who knew what they were capable of; they could assassinate the whole team as far as Galaxy knew.
As Nobu's mind trailed along these lines and he looked around for anything that may contain plans or secrets of any kind that could be updated by the scavenging party, he was suddenly interrupted by a gasp from behind him.
"What? Did you see a spider?" joked a grunt.
Nobu turned around as the one who had gasped, Yoshi, answered, "No! I just thought I saw something move up there."
Above them an unsteady balcony ran along above the dark corridor they traveled on now. Tinted skylight windows held piles of natural debris in the form of sticks, leaves, and dirt and possibly pokémon nests. The grunt could have seen a shadow from anything through that.
Unconcerned, Nobu returned ahead of him and said, "Keep moving. There're a few rooms up here. We'll split up and have a look."
So, on they went with no more disturbances for the time being. Empty cages, old, dusty computers that no longer worked when plugged in, and cabinets made up most of what could be found. Nobu had the grunts check the cabinet files, but it seemed most revolved around the status of pokémon and staff that inhabited this place at the time of its use. No plans or gadgetry of any kind could be found that would be of use to the present.
"I don't like this place," he heard one female grunt, Ren, mutter. "It gives me the creeps."
"It's like you can almost feel the Team Rocket ghosts spying on us," agreed another grunt with a wary sigh. He had been the one who had seen the shadow earlier.
"Oh, don't be such babies," retorted a third. "There's nothing to be afraid of!"
"He's right," said Nobu. "We're to be future minded in Team Galaxy. There will be no room for old-fashioned, superstitious nonsense."
"But—" squeaked Ren.
Nobu turned and silenced her with a stern look.
"Besides," added another. "No Team Rocket agent died here, did they?"
"That's beside the point," Nobu said with a shrug. "Come on. There's nothing in this wing. We should return to the lobby and see how well Jupiter and her group did."
"Hai, Nobu-san," agreed the others.
#
"I think I found out what they were doing here, and it isn't much," said Jupiter. "It revolved a lot around the fabled red gyarados, but since it has long since been captured by the Elite Four master Wataru, I don't see how anything they had going here will help us now, except the location of the base itself."
"Hai, Commander Jupiter," said Nobu with a mild yet quite polite nod. "Do you think we should continue on with picking the place up again, then?"
"Yes, I do," retorted Jupiter. "The quicker the better."
#
"Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning," grumbled a grunt, Ryota. "What do we look like janitors?"
"Shh!" hissed a companion, Kenichi. "Stop your wining. You want Commander Jupiter on our heads?"
"We're grunts. What do you expect?" agreed Ren.
Yoshi stared in silence around him, still feeling strongly that someone or something watched them from the gloom as they scrubbed with their sponges and flopped their mops out of buckets. Further on another pair of grunts examined books that had fallen before their bookshelf, and even the ones that still remained in their spots had to be examined for either keeps or to be tossed out. The echoes of their mutters as they read their titles and segments of texts sounded like the phantom whispers of something gone awry in themselves, and Yoshi could not help but shudder.
"Okay!" exclaimed Kenichi suddenly, looking up from his work. "What do you guys think? Time for a new room."
"Probably," muttered Ren.
"I'll just be glad when we leave," said Yoshi. "Or at least get all the electricity working properly again."
Even Kenichi had to agree with that.
Picking up all the cleaning materials and loading them onto their cart, they made their way to their new destination. A powerful lantern lit the way for them as the plunged into an especially dark and gloomy chamber.
"Miyako said things have gone missing on her when she puts them into crates," said Kenichi. "Whole crates have gone missing actually."
"Well, she's not the brightest thing in the world anyway," scoffed Ryota with a laugh.
"No, but — oh, come on!" exclaimed Yoshi irritated.
"Nani?" asked Ren looked up ahead.
"The cart's not going to fit through here," moaned Yoshi.
Ryota shrugged with a sheepish grin. "Don't suppose we could get away with saying we couldn't get in to clean this room later?"
"I wouldn't try it," said Kenichi with a sage cock of his head.
"Come on," said Ren. "Let's just get it over with."
Yoshi nodded readily.
"You go first," said Kenichi.
Yoshi gulped. "Why can't Ryota, he's the one who's not scared."
"I'm not scared," scoffed Ryota, "And neither are you. Stop being a baby. You're an embarrassment to the team."
"An embarrassment to the team!" snapped Yoshi.
"Yeah," agreed Ren.
The other three pushed Yoshi ahead.
"Face your fears and be a man!" exclaimed Ren.
Yoshi let out a pout, but no longer protested as he led the way toward the black doorway. The others grabbed the cleaning things as he held up the lantern. At least he had control over the light. He plunged forward, but had hardly gone two paces when his scuffing boot snagged something.
He gulped, but that was about all he managed before losing his balance. He stumbled to the floor and lost his grip on the lantern. It fell shattering as it collided with the ground. The others soon followed suit, tripping one after another over Yoshi's back. The lantern blinked and then went out leaving the fallen four to complete darkness.
"Idiot!" cried Kenichi.
"Get your foot out of my face, Yoshi!" snapped Ren.
"Hey that's my foot!" growled Ryota. "Give it back!"
"Ita! Watch it!" croaked Yoshi from underneath the pile.
"I can't see a thing!" "Move over!" "No you move over!" "Shut up!" "No, you shut up!" "Maybe if I just—" "You shut up too!" "What the matter with you!" "Ug!" "Get that out of my nose!" "What?" "Oh! This is stupid!"
Then suddenly Kenichi hissed from the chaos, "Sh! Listen!"
Everyone froze right as they were in their human knot, but they all heard it. Something scuffled from within the blackness. Something alive lay beyond this door, or maybe not alive anymore … for only Ryota did not believe in ghosts out of this little group.
"What is it?" whispered Ren.
The sound seemed to draw closer and closer until: "Get outa my way!" "No, you!" "Iya!" "Freak!" "Let's get out of here!" "I'm trying to!" "Ack!" "It really is haunted!" Somehow the grunts managed to break free, and though they crashed again into the cart, this time they sprang up fast after that and ran back to the room they had come from.
NOTE: "Pluto" is the Japanese name of "Charon" (don't know why they had to change it) "Akagi" is the Japanese name of "Sirus" and Phaeton is loosely based off one of the comic book series' characters whose name escapes me right now.
JAPANESE PHRASES:
Hai: yes
Wakarimashita: understood, I understand
Nani: What
Ita: ouch