Now, I'll begin my story.
It all started when I was about 3 years old (PokeYears, of course.). It was another gloomy morning in the Pokémon Center-the newer ones, not the old fashioned, friendly ones Zenotix told me about. Thinking of those, I can't help but cry a little when I think of the Pokémon centers when I lived in one. They were tall, wide, concrete buildings, not unlike most of the structures at that time. They were "super centers" as I heard some people call them, with a prison (a PokePrison, as pretty much every human at that time was some kind of criminal, so nobody really went to jail), a breeding center, and a "storage" place all in one. The prison is where "bad" Pokémon who disobeyed Team Plasma were punished. I had never been there, I couldn't tell you what it was like, but I had only known one Pokémon that was sent there come back. The Breeding Center was where they experimented with Pokémon like me. I've seen a flying Squirtle and a Chikorita that could breath fire before, all results from the Breeding Center. The Storage Center was where they keep all of their captured Pokémon, or any results from the breeding center, like me and Glaceon. I was born into that, but Glaceon was once a wild Eevee.
The Pokémon Center was a very dismal place, but I don't know what place that keeps millions of mistreated and abused Pokémon in one space wouldn't be. The storage room was chilly, like living in a giant freezer, and the Team Plasma Grunts were cruel. I will never forget the horrible smell of chemicals and stainless steel that filled the entire building.
Although Team Plasma was evil to the core, they were very organized. They split the Storage Centers into wide hallways with short ceilings, filled with crates. The crates were stacked into columns of three, and rows of I don't know how many. Apparently the hallways vary in size depending on which type of Pokémon is in it. I lived in the Eevee section, obviosly, which had about 20 rows of crates on each wall. The crates were made of wire, the floor too, which was uncomfortable to sleep on. They had provided each of us a tattered blanket, though, but the holes in it were larger than my head so they barely made a difference. I was lucky to be put in a crate near my mother, Glaceon. I loved my mother, heck, I still do. She was the most amazing Pokémon I had ever met in my long life. She was clever, so kind, and witty enough to feed herself and me. I can't say the same for my father, my mother told me he was taken back to the breeding room before I was born and died in an experiment. She said it wasn't sad, that he was a horrible creature, rude, arrogant and violent.
My cage was on the floor, with Glaceon to the right of me, Spark, a Flareon, above me who, unlike most of the Pokémon in the Center, was once owned by a trainer. Spark was ancient and very wise, but strong from her years of fighting outside the Center. To the left was a bubbly Leafeon who was very optimistic and positive, despite her state of living. She had only been in the Center a few months, she had arrived when I was just turning 3, and wasn't yet accustomed to the Pokémon Center's ways. She was also fairly lucky-with her incredibly personality and beauty, she easily fed herself and somehow managed to avoid being beaten by the Grunts. Above Leafeon was her opposite-Umbreon, a pessimist from his 30 some years in the Center. He was kind, though, and taught me almost everything I know that my mother hadn't told me about the Center. Above Glaceon was another Leafeon named Evergreen, who was a long time friend of Sparks. She also was once a trainer's Pokémon and their trainers had been good pals, and so were they. Evergreen was gentle and soft spoken, though determined, and slightly mysterious. She had an air around her that told of a past that was hacked to pieces and buried, that is scared to be known again.
Like I said, it was morning. At least, that's what we all guessed because that was when the dim florescent lights turned on and when we got fed. Being "fed" was usually bloody and dangerous for young pokemon. The back of our small crates open up for a few seconds-you don't get out in time, you don't eat-into a large, empty room, save a balcony that jutted from the wall about 200 feet above the ground. I heard that once a Xatu tried to fly up into the balcony and escape, and that when he landed on the platform a Grunt sliced his wings off with a sword, and the Xatu plummeted to the floor and crumpled on the concrete in a bloody mess. Since then, an electric barrier was put up around the balcony, but it isn't like a pokemon will try to escape after that. Anyway, all the Pokémon from that side of the wall would go in that room, the other side to another similar room. From the balcony a Grunt would throw a couple handfuls of dry food, then it' a free for all. All of us will fight our way into the center to try and get something to eat. It's probably great entertainment for the Grunts. It's not unusual for a couple Pokémon to die during this. I have long since given up eating; instead my mother brings me something to eat every evening at our second meal time.
I was too tired to fully wake up, so I listened to my mother and her friends talk with sleepy interest.
"What day is it?" Spark asked, stretching her back. I could hear her old bones popping and snapping.
"Doomsday. Or it might as well be," Umbreon replied, smacking her lips.
"No, no, I'm being serious. Is it Sunday? We might not have any visits today if it's Sunday," the Flareon persisted.
"I think it's Friday. I don't know, I stopped keeping track of the time a while ago." Evergreen said, pressing her eyes against the back bars of her cage, checking the marks she made on the wall.
I yawned and lifted up my blanket, revealing similar marks, but a lot more. "Yeah, it's Friday. Sorry, Spark." She stuck a paw between the bars of our cages and ruffled my head.
"Oh, it's alright. It's a good thing you still keep track of the date."
"Yeah, without that we'd all go insane…" Umbreon mumbled. He looked underneath him at the still asleep Leafeon. "Hey! Rise and shine!" He gently bit the end of Leafeon's ear which was sticking into Umbreon's cage. She yelped, and looking around, laughed and batted at Umbreon's nose.
"Good morning!"
I turned to Glaceon, and she smiled at me, rolling her eyes at the playfully fighting Eevees next to me. "Morning sweetie. I didn't think you were gonna wake up at all today!" I laughed.
I quickly jerked my head to the familiar sounds of the click-clacking Team Plasma boots. As the rest of the Pokémon in the hallway hear it too, the soft chatter that livened up the carcass of a room died down. the Eevees around me tensed, and I could feel the anxiety between them, the stiff silence. I learned the hard way that the Grunts don't like noise. A while ago, when I was only a year old, they walked in while I was talking to Glaceon (Pokémon learn to talk very quickly). They took me out of my cage and hit me in front of all the other Pokémon until I was bleeding heavily. I guess that was a sign to all the Pokémon to keep quiet. My mother never cried as much as she did then, though I was numb.
Anyway, the immense room was silent as the heavy metal door creaked open and two female grunts walked in, wearing their everyday uniform: a white dress/cloak with the Team Plasma logo-a black and white shield with an electric blue P over a Z, covering a gray and black armored hoodie and matching boots. Although I was half asleep, I remember what they were discussing like I can still hear them talking, with their words reverberating off the icy stone walls.
"Yeah, he said he wants an Eevee, but if we can't, than any kind of, like, Normal type. But I don't feel like looking for anything else," She said in a voice like vinegar. The other replied in an ignorant tone,
"What's an Eevee? And why does he need it anyway? It's not like he needs to impress anyone anymore…" The other one said,
"Idiot, it's the brown one with the fluffy tail. And don't ask me, I say we just throw all these stupid things in a fire and be done with it. I mean, what's the point?" They slowly walked down the hallway, everyone in anticipation at who their choice would be. Lucky for me, one of them stopped right in front of my cage. She bent down and peered in at me, while I cowered next to my blanket.
"Is this an Eevee? How about this one? Look at it…so cute." At the word "cute", she stood up and kicked my cage forcefully, sending me flying back a few inches and slamming into the metal bars. I could hear Glaceon growl. "Yeah, get that one," Vinegar smirked, "just to annoy the Glaceon. I'm almost positive that's her mother." She snickered and Glaceon tried all she could not to either snarl or cry. Being fairly young at the time, I didn't know what to expect until one of them opened my cage door and reached inside, grabbing me with cold hands, sharp manicured fingernails scraping my skin. As she lifted me out of my cage, Spark blew a small flame at the Grunt. It wasn't much, but it was enough to light her skirt on fire. She screamed and dropped me, and I fell a few feet to the floor, which was very far for a young Pokémon. The other Grunt tried to grab me, but Spark blew a flame at her, too. Both Grunts screamed, yelling curses at us, while I ran over and hastily scraped at Glaceon's cage. With a shock of inspiration, I bit the lock, tearing it from the crate. Glaceon hurled herself out of her prison and tried to open the other's cages. She successfully opened Spark's, Evergreen's, Umbreon's and Leafeon's when the Grunts started to chase us. Terrified, we looked in every direction until we found a doorway at the other end of the hall. We bolted as fast as we could without leaving another one behind. Glaceon scooped me up and threw me on her back, knowing that I wasn't as fast as the rest of them. Some of the other Eevee's yelled at us to free them too, but I think they knew it wouldn't be possible. When we got to the door, Umbreon used some dark force to turn the doorknob. As the door flew open, a loud alarm went off, blasting our eardrums.
The room we had run into was brighter than any other room we had been in, and we staggered around blindly for a while until Evergreen began to lead us in another direction. After my eyes had adjusted, I discovered the room was some kind of entrance room, with doors that branched off into other hallways. Thank goodness the room was empty that day, or we might have never made it. At the end of the room was a giant pair of steel doors guarded by two Sevipers. They were obviously taken by surprise, because it wasn't until Glaceon had frozen them solid that they began to hiss venomously. Spark burned a large hole in the middle of the two doors, and threw that hole we escaped. Unfortunately, that blast also thawed the Sevipers, and they chased after us. I watched as their toxic gas took over Spark, then Evergreen, followed by Umbreon, Leafeon, and, finally, Glaceon and I. The power of the poison was overwhelming and we collapsed on the spot. I watched as the two Grunts ran over to us, and knew this must be the end. The pain was unbearable. The only thing I could think about was that I couldn't even focus on what the outside world looked like. That last thing I remember before blacking out was a green haired man running towards us, yelling for or at something.
