Pokémon Breeder
Times were dark; I thought to myself as I stood right in front of the shady derelict building, covered in moss and vines. I knew that it would be a one way ticket once I knock on the two giant metal gates that barred the establishment, but I knew for sure, if I turn back, it will be back to filling out half-fulfilled resume forms in vain attempts to find a meagre living in mundane work.
Taking a huge gulp and hoping for best, I knocked on the door, fists clenched and eyes closed. There was no reaction for a while and I thought the establishment might be vacant but before I could turn back, echoed footsteps could be heard, followed by metal rustling from the gates.
I turned back and faced the gates; a metal slit opened from it and behind it, were goggled eyes.
"What in Arceus' name do you want, kid?" he demanded.
I was hesitant but with garnered courage, I took out my smart phone and showed him the message. The stranger paused for a while, reading the message before shutting the slit. After a few moments, the gates started to open, revealing a haggardly looking adult, clad in tattered jeans and long sleeves, covered in a vest. He wore a bandana bearing team rocket's emblem and his jaw was covered with a rugged looking bandana, together with the tinted black goggles covering his eyes.
The first thing that caught my attention was the Rocket insignia and I gasped, "You guys are team rocket!?"
"What the fuck yer talkin' bout! Move on in!" he answered, grabbing me by the shoulder and dragging me into the building.
The interior of the building was standard fare; dusty iron pipes lying around with the occasional drums and rebar and broken dusty windows on the sides of the building with faint light filtering in. But the adult approached a machine and pushed a panel on it, causing a trapdoor to open from the ground. After the trapdoor fully opened, I was beckoned by him to follow him into the trapdoor that led to a series of staircases.
Without a doubt, I followed him. The staircases were made of wood and were creaky, as if worn down by age and dust could be seen floating out of the planks as I stepped on each step. As we got deeper, Pokemon moans, in both pain and fear can be faintly heard as I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down.
Finally, we reached a large room, containing a door, that seems to be reinforced heavily with blast proof material and a crank in the middle. My companion reached his pockets for a card and slid it on a contraption beside the door. After a moment, machinery could be heard and the door opened automatically...
I gasped, almost choking myself!
There were cages constructed of some impenetrable glass material everywhere, containing live Pokémon in various states, some of them were dozed off, succumbed to heinous wounds inflicted on them and some where aggressively pounding or scraping on the walls, in vain attempts to escape.
I covered my mouth, trying to keep myself vomiting.
"Get used to it, chum! Hehe..." my companion sneered.
Recovering from the nausea and taking another good look around, the area is laden contraptions and machines of yet to be known purposes. One of them appeared to be a giant capsule, beside a mainframe computer. Rubbing away the mist on the capsule revealed it to be occupied by an unconscious Lucario, with hypodermic equipment sticking into various parts of its body.
"That's the Vita-Machine." An unfamiliar voice sounded from behind.
I turned back and a grotesquely fat man, clad in an expensive and flashy suit, guarded by the adult I was with earlier on and another muscular dark-skinned man, who is clad in leather motorcyclist's gear and had a pair of shades.
"Um..." I muttered.
"What the Vita-Machine does is that it pumps nutrients and hormones into the Pokemon's system, making them mature quickly and raises their Effort Values, so we can sell 'em quicker!" the Fat Man continued.
Before I could say anything, I was interrupted again.
"Sorry for being rude, young lady! It's time fer' introductions. That Lanky guy o'er there? He's Amos and see that big fella beside me? Meet Gran!"
I reached out my hand in attempt for a handshake but all I ever received was the cold stare behind his shades and his arms remained folded.
"Haha! Don't let tha' big guy intimidate ye. By the way, just call me Boss."
A figure then appeared from behind; it is a woman, donned in a dirty scientist's smock and had messy folds everywhere. Her hair is terribly unkempt and wore a pair of ordinary glasses.
"That's Milly, the brains round here" The Boss introduced.
I then shifted my attention to Milly, as I could not ignore the fact she is picking her nose and scratching her waist the whole time this conversation was on. "How is she a scientist if she can't even manage self hygiene?" I thought to myself.
"Ahem." Boss grunted.
I shift my eyes back to him.
"You know why you're here right?" he asked.
"Yeah." I answered. "You needed some Trainers right?"
"Hell do I need some trainers! Care to introduce yourself to us?" Boss answered.
I gulped down a little, slightly terrified by his presence. His breath reeked terribly of alcohol and he smelt like some strange cologne. Regaining my confidence, I muttered, "I'm Bernice from Lumiose city..."
"Hah! Big Good'ol Lumiose city! The city of Lights! Lemme tell ya kid, boss' from there too! Looks like both of us can be good chumps eh? Now, you say you're a trainer... Show boss your stuff..."
I reached for my Pokeballs, all four of them and tossed them on the ground.
"Greninja, Haxorus, Venusaur, Talonflame, I choose you!" I cried as they materialised from their balls.
"Impressive! Looks like you're somewhat accomplished as a trainer! Fully evolved specimens..." the Boss commented.
"Keep em now! And follow me..." he continued.
I recalled all of my Pokémon and approached him.
"Now... Lemme give you a run down on this business..."
...
It had been months since I first joined. I had known from the start this is going to be a really dirty business that I will never get out from but what choice do I have? I only had 4 badges and a half finished high-school education.
The business was simple; we do Pokémon "Breeding".
Selectively choosing the mother and father, we force them to breed genetically superior offspring and that business ain't for the faint of heart... The procedure wasn't as simple at glance; putting two Pokémon in a large chamber and waiting for the magic to happen isn't the manner of operations here but Amos and Gran will step in the cage and force cattle prods up any uncooperative Pokémon, but that's not all.
Sometimes, the Pokémon gets tired from all the humping but Boss simply doesn't let them rest or any of that time wasting shit. Instead, he'll get Milly to inject meth in them. Yes, crystal meth, the stuff that gets humans real horny and energetic. It will certainly get the Pokes will get back into fucking one another in no time or in some cases, just die of overdose.
Once the female starts laying eggs, Milly would come collect them, or sometimes, Gran would force it from the protective mother. She would then place the eggs into a strange incubator device. Usually, from what I know, to hatch a Pokémon egg, a trainer needs to show love and care for it but the machine, just screws all of that jazz.
In a matter of hours, the eggs would hatch and Milly will yank the helpless babies out of the machine and stick a needle-like equipment into it and ignoring the screams. The equipment had a screen on it, that had 6 different panels that had values ranging from zero to thirty-one.
Each Panel represented a stat of the Pokémon. What Boss wanted is Pokemon that had thirty-one on five stats or on all. Those who had inferior stats were sometimes released but most of the time, used for feed for the larger carnivorous Pokémon.
After getting the desired Pokémon, Milly would dump them in the Capsule device I saw at the first time I was here. After a few days, the Pokémon will emerge out of the capsule, fully evolved with all its effort values maxed; it is ready for sale.
My job is simple; I was the "Head of Security" in the crew. My job is to "resolve" trouble if encountered in meetings with clients. Those meetings were simple; client contact us in e-mails, ordering Pokémon and we specify place. We then meet them in place with our APC, containing a cage with said Pokémon. The trade is fairly simple most of the time; its money or sometimes, Narcotics in exchange for the Pokemon.
Should the client disagree with our terms or cause any trouble, I would step in and threaten them with my Pokémon.
I remembered once a client tried to make a run after balling the Pokémon, all I had to do was to get Haxorus to chase him down. He attempted to battle, sending out a Pidgeot, which was easily swiped away by the fierce dragon claw of Haxorus. As for the poor guy, didn't go well for him... We dragged him into a cave, tied him to a chair, beat him up for hours with pipes and wrenching and depriving him of food and water, teaching him a lesson not to fuck with the boss.
The job pays well; much higher than anything those temp agencies grant per hour, and of course, we get to drink and drug, a lot. Sometimes, we manage to make more than we usually would and Boss gets pleased about it, and hands us more drugs and booze than usual for celebration. I remembered the first time this happened and I was terrified; I swore to mom that I'll never have my hand in any of these but with heavy taunting from the entire crew, I have succumbed to peer pressure. As of today, it felt normal; sticking the cold needle up my arm and feeling good felt like it was all part of this operation. Hell, I remembered that Amos got so high one day, he tried wrestling an Ursaring.
This whole operation... I felt like I was born for it...
...
Amos is dead. I had to drag both his upper and lower body out of the breeding chamber as Gran fought off the rampaging Garchomp with a cryo-prod. A careless mistake by Amos caused the Garchomp to spur uncontrollably into a fit of rage, tearing him into half.
The glass on the chamber was stained red with Amos' viscera. That poor bastard... I thought to myself as I laid the dismembered body in a corner. However, Boss wasn't fazed by this event and instead, it seems like he has seen this happened countless of times. Rather than spending days mourning his death, Boss instead immediately went on in hiring a new replacement.
After a few days, the replacement arrived but this time with Gran escorting him in place of his deceased counterpart. The newbie was a tall, grown man dressed in a black trench coat and was remarkably handsome. I stared at him for a while but he didn't respond. I felt something amiss about him but couldn't figure... His face reminds me of something but I could not point it out. Instead, I begun welcoming him into the operation. He introduced himself as Handsome. Ever since he joined, things have been going smooth.
Suspiciously smooth.
Client meet ups did not have the usual muck ups and payment was always made perfectly on time. There were also times I noticed Handsome was getting rather close with the client.
Everything felt planned and choreographed but again, I couldn't point out exactly. Gran of course, didn't thought or noticed anything. I tried talking to Handsome about what is going on but his answers were simple and rather ignorant, going like; "Don't know", "What you mean?" or "You're acting up, little lady."
More suspiciously, he would refuse the narcs Boss would provide us, stating that he has a "Health Condition".
Something was wrong...
...
Knocking could be heard from the upper levels. One of the security monitors displayed a large force of police waiting outside the compound's gates with their Arcanines and Manetrics in aggresive poses with handguns pointing at the gates.
"Shit!" I yelled as I ran to my room, grabbing the assault rifle as the whole crew begun arming themselves. Handsome remained calm despite the panic. Gran, Face and me ran for the stairs and into the warehouse, taking cover behind objects. I had my Pokeballs ready...
Suddenly, a large explosion, blew of the gates of the compound and the officers rushed in, followed by the prominent officer Jenny leading them.
I immediately fired at them.
Gran, armed with the shotgun tried to return fire but was immediately gunned down by the heavy fire from the police officers, and then mauled by the great arcanine.
Cursing to myself, I ditched my rifle and tried to escape down the hatch but was suddenly pinned down by Handsome.
I knew it! He's Looker, the famous detective guy! How could I be so stupid all this time! I tried struggling but he pulled out a taser and jabbed me with it and I passed out...
...
"Is that all, miss?" Bernice asked
"Yes, thank you for sharing this story with us. Your story will be featured on our next episode of Poke-Criminals" the reporter replied.
"Huh, thanks... I guess..." Bernice sighed.
Before the reporter could leave, Bernice asked once again.
"So, you guys found that fat bastard and that dirty woman yet?"
The reporter turned back and sat back down. Taking out his camcorder again, he began questioning.
"I was hoping you have some information about them"
"Beats me, I can only remember being taken down by that Looker guy, only to discover an empty lab. Fat fucker must have left us to die..."
"Alright, if this is all, I will take my leave" the reporter said, leaving the cell.
Bernice noticed a letter being dropped by the reporter. Picking up, Bernice read it.
"Under the chair. Your Pokeballs are at cell block A-7"
Bernice looked under the chair she was sitting on.
A silenced handgun and a keycard is taped to it.