It was hard for me at the time. The world might seem like it's a great place to live for everyone, but it's not. My parents abandoned me on the streets because I wasn't "supposed to happen". I used to live on the street because I had nowhere else to go. As a child, I suffered a lot. I went through a lot of ordeals. I've been manipulated by a lot of people. I've done things I wasn't proud of. I've been to places I've never wanted to be. Finally, I've joined up with people I never wanted to to join.

Who are these people? They're an infamous group called Team Rocket. They participate in various crimes throughout the world, such as trafficking, corporate theft, scheming, felony, false advertising, and everything bad you can imagine. The new version of Team Rocket also works on public services superficially like insurance, medical research, and so on. They're a mafia, essentially. So, how did I, a simple little girl who was abandoned by her own parents end up in such an organization?

Well, before I begin, I guess that I should introduce myself. I have red hair and red eyes. I love Pokémon with all my heart. And I love training them. My name is Scarlet, that somewhat reflects my hair color and my eyes. I'm a 15 year old girl now, and I never had a Pokémon journey. I used to live at an alley in the outskirts of town. I needed to find a way to survive in the outskirts of town. It was pretty hard on me. Again, I was abandoned by my own parents because I was a mistake; I wasn't supposed to happen. And, to top it all off, I never had anyone to support me aside from the Pokémon themselves.

Pokémon always seem to be attracted to me. Since I could remember, I was always surrounded by Pokémon, and some of them were pretty rare. Yes they were all street Pokémon. They just came to me, and I remember that I would play with them all day and all night and look for food inside other people's trash. We would frequently beg for some money to buy food. It wasn't always successful, but we always got some money by the end of the day. I knew the Pokémon loved me, and I knew that I loved them.

As I grew older, I started to notice the icky situation I found myself in. I started to notice that I couldn't read, so I wasn't able to access many things. I was desperately searching for something; there was a hole in my heart, I just didn't know what it was, but I was missing it. I asked my friends, the Pokémon, to help me learn how to read because I thought that I was missing that during the time.

The Pokémon found me some books and I started to go through them. The books they found were old, they were probably thrown away by someone who didn't need them anymore and didn't see a resell value. The books were very thick. And most of them had to do with training Pokémon and breeding them. I knew that learning how to read from these books would be hard, but I tried anyways.

As I learned to read, I started to notice how big the world was and it wasn't just limited to the Kanto region I live in. Um, I live in Saffron city.

After year or so since I started to learn how to read and write, I started to train some of the Pokémon that were with me all times. We all wanted to be part of this whole new "training" regime. For an entire year, we all trained together. It was fun, we were never apart. The Pokémon that was most attached to me was an Eevee. He loved me so much he preferred to stay with me the entire time, while the others preferred some sort of privacy during the night or some other time.

As time passed, the other Pokémon started to leave me because they were seeing that it was hard to survive in the place we were staying. They tried to stay with me here, but they couldn't. If they did, they wouldn't survive. I wouldn't have survived either. Eventually, only me and Eevee were left. Alone.

One night, before I went to sleep. Eevee was stolen from me. It was stolen by a person wearing some black clothing. I chased the perpetrator down. For me it was easy to outrun him because I already knew the layout of the neighborhood. But I wasn't the one who beat him to Eevee. It was another person who intercepted the perpetrator knocking him out unconscious. The one who attacked the perpetrator was also wearing black clothing. Dress pants, a polo shirt, and a pair of formal shoes. He had a characteristic red R on the upper left part of his polo. His hair was black and his eyes, which were brown, looked like one of those angry people that generally doesn't have any humor to them. He gave off this strange vibe that I couldn't describe. The man gave me my Eevee back. He also gave me a card and asked me to drop by his place when I had the time. Being a street kid like me, I always had time. He also told me his name, which was Vlad. I decided to check the perpetrator, but Vlad told me to leave him alone so he could drag him to the police. From what I saw, the perpetrator had a speck of red on his shirt. It wasn't from blood, it was painted on his shirt. It was pointy as well. But I ignored those details.

I checked on my Eevee to see if it was hurt in any way. He wasn't, he was just scared out of his life. I decided then and there that I would stay with Eevee for the rest of my life. I waited until both of us calmed down from the incident, then I asked him "will you stay with me through thick and thin?". No, this isn't a marriage proposal. Eevee seemed happy and nodded his head. After bursting out a "YAY", I asked him if he wanted a nickname. He responded by nodding his head. So I decided to name him "Vee". He nodded with a happy face, which meant he was fine with it! I was so happy at the time you couldn't believe it. It was as if I got my first Pokémon to start MY Pokémon adventure.

A few days later, after Vlad saved my Vee, I wanted to thank the man in question. I couldn't thank him at the time because I was still shaking. The adrenaline level was probably high. So I took out his card and went to find him. I didn't dress up fancy or anything mainly because I couldn't. However, I felt obliged to thank Vlad. I found his address and went there with Vee.

As I arrived at his place, I passed by this really big facility. It intrigued me because there was a big red R sign on the front. It reminded me of Vlad. Vlad did have a small red R on his shirt. So I thought that he was a bit related. When I was about to reach Vlad's place, I decided to go back and check out that facility. I found some sort of leverage so I could peak inside. I found that there was several Pokémon battling arenas, and other buildings around it. The facility was also deeper than I thought. The buildings from the outside looks like they're just 7 stories high, when you look inside, they're obviously 15 to 13 stories high. Everything was surrounded by 4 huge walls. And some of the bigger buildings had red Rs on the top of the front door. Being curious like I am. I decided to go in. Vee urged me not to go. But I went in, being the hard headed girl I am.

Vee was worried. I could clearly see that. However, I just ignored that. I climbed down. It wasn't easy. I almost fell down to my death. Climbing down using the pipes and wires. Everything about it was dangerous. When I reached the floor or sub-floor people started to come in and use the battle arenas.

When I started to move around that facility, I found a lot of people wearing black uniforms. They all had a red R somewhere on their uniform. And a small amount of them had the same polo Vlad was wearing. I didn't know what was going on so I hid behind one of those buildings inside the facility. The ambient of the place was also suffocating. It was heavy. It felt evil. That's when I started to doubt Vlad and reconsidered not thanking him. As I walked around, most people were talking about their progress, theft, production, etc. Vee, next to me wasn't just scared now, he was literally pulling me trying to get me out of this place. I saw the he was definitely right. I had to get out, one way or another.

When I went back to the arenas. I figured I wouldn't be able to use the same route, as there was a higher risk of getting caught. When I started to get scared, I could faintly hear Vee saying something, it wasn't his regular voice, it felt like he was literally talking to me. He told me to follow him. He got off my shoulder and started to run. I ran right behind him. He found a small entrance to one building that was touching one of those 4 walls. It was tall enough to let me climb out of the facility. I just followed Vee wherever we went.

I heard an alarm going off as I made my up the building with Vee. The doors I was using to climb the building were locked and I couldn't go any further. I was desperate trying to find my way out. Vee was also scared and he couldn't see any openings.

We cleared our minds and hoped to find an opening. Vee found one before me and pointed it to me. It was small and tight. It was on the ceiling, and it was hard to get up there. It was the air shaft of the building. Vee went on first. But as soon as he got up there, the doors were unlocked and a swarm of people wearing black came into the place Vee and I were and took us and locked us up in a weird cell in a place that looked a lot like a dungeon.

We spent what felt like a month in that cell until someone decided to drop by. Guess who was that person?

Guessed it?

Yup. It was Vlad. The one and only.

He saw me extremely malnourished, and Vee by my side was barely making it as well. He crouched down and told me to come over.

I barely had any strength to go there. But I tried. I dragged my body all the way to the bars of the cell. I looked up to his eyes and he looked down to mines and Vee was there about to sleep, eternally. Vlad said "Do you know where you are?"

I faintly replied "No..."

He said "You are inside the second largest base of Team Rocket. I happen to be a member of Team Rocket."

I said "foooooood", I didn't ask for it, I was demanding it.

Vlad continued "I happen to be the new leader of this base. I'm pretty famous too. It's a miracle you didn't know about me."

"Foooood", I continued to beg.

"The other leader, Giovanni, and the one that subbed for him during his absence, Archer, can't or won't be part of Team Rocket anymore. And you see, I'm the third person trying to bring it back to life." He replied.

I couldn't say anything anymore. I was already exhausted. And barely breathing. I tried to say something, but the only thing that came out was air. So I just listened to him. Vee looked at me and Vlad.

"Yes, the third person. I am the one who will bring Team Rocked from the ashes and make it shine across the world. Not as a criminal organization, but as a group of friendly service providers. That is, on the surface. Underground, we'll continue carrying out our activities, as always." He took a deep breath and continued. "When I first saw you, I knew you had some sort of hidden talent. You might not be able to feel it now, but you will, eventually."

I looked into his eyes again and he smiled.

"Do you want to live?" He asked.

"Yes." I replied.

"Then why don't you join us." He suggested.

I looked to Vee. I could hear him telling me something again. He said "No". So naturally, I shook my head right and left. That was the last time I could understand Vee's thought, or feelings, or whatever it was. Vlad didn't seem so content seeing my answer. He said "What a strong soul you have that. I'll be back in 5 hours. And here's some food to regain a little bit of your strength." He told one of the members to come in with the food and he left.

Vee and I ate every last bit of food on that plate in 10 minutes. The plate was pretty big. It had a lot of food. But considering the fact that we've only been eating once a week and only drinking water from the faucet in that cell, it was a necessity.

After talking about it with Vee, We had to accept it because there was no more hope. It's either death or become one of them. Thinking about it, it was a cowardly move. But I was still pretty young at the time. 10 years old if I remember everything correctly. So, Vee and I waited for Vlad to come.

Vlad arrived, and this time he meant serious business.

I looked at him dead on the eye.

Vlad started talking again.

"This time I expect you to change your mind. I will revise my offer. Instead of JUST joining us. You'll join us, and you'll get your own place to live in, and more importantly, you'll live with me." He looked away.

I stood there quiet. Didn't say anything yet.

He continued saying "I'll teach you everything you need to know about Pokémon..."

"No" I cut him off. "I don't want you to teach me how to handle my own Pokémon."

"Very well." He said. "Then let me continue. We researched your background. Your name happens to be Scarlet. Right?" He continued.

"Yes...?" I replied astonished and confused.

"We researched your background by asking the locals about you. They always said that you were alone and only depended on Pokémon to live. What a rough life. Andthe people around you didn't seem to care." He paused for a bit.

"What, is living with Pokémon bad in your opinion?" I asked.

After each thing he said, my mind started to turn into knots. I starte to get really angry and I began to want to cry as well.

"Oh, heavens no. It's not bad, it's rather unique. Being raised by Pokémon." He said. Vlad paused for a bit. He down up and put his index finger over his mouth. "We also researched your legal records. We could only find some medical records, some legal registration, and a missing child advert. We found your parents, and i didn't seem like they missed you. We ransacked their house looking for photos of you. We found nothing related to you. Apparently, they don't miss you. I don't want to sound rough here, but, from our results." He paused for a bit and looked at me. "And... Your parents abandoned you because you're a mistake." He said with the straightest face a person can make. This was the bottom line... I snapped.

"WHY DO YOU CARE!?" I screamed.

"IT'S NOT LIKE YOU'RE ME! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT I OR VEE HAVE BEEN THROUGH!" I continued.

"Ahh. That is correct. I don't understand what you've been through. But what I'm offering is simply something to help you live a better life. I'm not going to say anything about about you, but please consider joining us."

I looked down and Vee nodded. "Alright", I said.

"I'll join" I continued.

Vlad smiled somewhat sinisterly and said "Excellent." He followed "Please follow this man to the place you'll be staying."

I didn't say anything as I was emotionally broken. And Vee jumped on my shoulders. The grunts wanted to remove him from me, but I snapped at them and told them not to touch on finger on him.

Vee and I were looking at the floor during the entire escort. We just walked down that hall in shame.

… This is how I joined Team Rocket. It was never really about me choosing to do so. I just ended up in their base somehow and then, I ended up joining them. Curiosity killed the Meowth, I guess. I guess that I was played pretty well here. But this is where everything starts.