The lab was a nice place, not too big, but quite modern. Silver couldn't believe that tonight he would be doing what he never thought he could do in a million years. He asked himself again why he was a member of Team Rocket. If he did this, he would also quit. Right away.
The hairs on the back of his neck rose. He had the funny feeling he was being watched. But, after considering the matter, why wouldn't he be? This town was so small everybody probably knew each other by name, and he was a complete stranger, so of course, somebody was probably watching him with curiosity.
Eventually he pulled together the courage to check. Somebody was watching him. A girl, maybe a couple of years younger than him, was looking around the back of a house. She had dark brown hair that was shoulder length and deep red eyes, just like his. He felt his stomach perform several backflips, and didn't want to feel this way about someone he had only just seen, but he couldn't help it.
Noticing all this in half a second, he yelped in surprise, "What are you staring at?" She disappeared immediately, and he nearly slapped himself in the face. What he had meant to be a greeting had changed into different words on the route from his brain to his mouth, and now she had gone. But then, being nice wasn't him. He dreaded to think what his father would say if he knew he had developed a crush on a girl in under a second.
But he wanted to see her again. So he watched her in secret for a while, as she played with a Houndour. The Houndour he knew, owned by members of Team Rocket, were savage things, always being kept in their Poké balls and were very hard to control. But this one was playful, friendly and a little protective.
"Lyra!" Somebody called out and she looked around. Now he knew her name. The person who called out her name was a boy maybe his age. She jumped to her feet, ran over and hugged him.
Silver didn't remember much more of that day. He had stopped watching the girl and walked away from the town, debating whether or not to complete his father's command and steal one of the Pokémon. If he did, the rest of the command was to give it to his father. He decided that was a bit selfish, after all, his father had never let him have his own Pokémon. He'd always had to borrow some if he needed one. The Zubat he had in his hand now wasn't really his either… but what the hell. He would keep it, and serve his father right.
As for the Pokémon he was about to steal… yes, he would steal it, but for himself. He knew that was selfish too, but he couldn't help it. He wanted a Pokémon that was his, and the starter Pokémon technically didn't belong to anybody. So when the night came, he ran to the Pokémon lab and cautiously tried the door.
It was locked. Of course it was. What was the point of trying a door that would obviously be locked? Not even a stupid person would leave the door of a very important place unlocked overnight, because thieves like he was about to become could steal anything of worth. Hopefully one Pokémon wouldn't be noticed too quickly if it went missing.
He worked a pin round the lock and after several aggravating minutes he unlocked the door and pushed it open noiselessly. The lab was spotless; computers lying at separate desks with neat piles of papers next to them… Silver flashed his torch around restlessly, quickly searching for what he was looking for.
A machine at the back of the lab contained three shining Poké balls. Silver tried to reach his hand to get them, but his fingers hit an invisible wall, and he made a noise in aggravation. They had encased the Poké balls in glass, very clean glass where his fingerprints showed up as clearly as a Staraptor would on snow. He scrubbed them away with the sleeve of his shirt angrily.
He scrambled through his bag to try and find some gloves. He found some and pushed open the glass, noting that this machine wasn't locked, to his luck. There was no time to choose what would be the strongest Pokémon; he reached in and grabbed one at random, then put another (empty) Poké ball in its place. He then slid the glass shut again, making sure no marks were left on it.
He ran out of the lab and shut the door carefully, then locked it again. It didn't look like anyone had broken in and wouldn't until someone discovered that the Poké ball he had put there was empty, which hopefully wouldn't be for a few days.
He inspected the Poké ball he had stolen, then punched himself in the forehead. It wasn't as ordinary Poké ball, it had a serial number on it just as if they were making sure they wouldn't be tricked. His Poké ball would stick out like a sore thumb, but there was no going back now, so he ran out of the sleepy town.
He hated himself. Why did he have to do such a wrong thing as that and steal a Pokémon for no reason but his own desperate want for a Pokémon to call his own? He could have caught one all by himself, but instead he had to steal one. Why? What had come out of this, anyway?
Scanning his Poké ball, he found out he had grabbed the water-type, Totodile. Better than the Chikorita for any bet, but he wished he had managed to grab the Cyndaquil. A fire-type Pokémon would suit him much better, he thought, as he ran out of the town.