Chapter Two

Seven woke up stiff and tired the next morning. The smells of crushed berries and meat juices drifted from the other cells. One researcher walked towards her cell with a covered tray, peered inside, and turned around. Her stomach rumbled angrily as the food sped away from her, but Seven stayed in the corner.

Ghetsis came into the lab shortly after she woke. For hours, the ringing of his cane on the floor filled the room. Each tap made her flinch. However, he didn't approach her cell until every muscle in her body, from her stomach to her legs, her arms and her jaw, plagued her with cramps. He loomed over her, a black shadow that cast its own darkness. Seven's eyes widened when she saw the pills in her hands.

The Sage sealed them in a spherical metal capsule and tossed it through the barrier. A metal water bottle followed it through. "Now that you know how to fool those sensors," he said, "I can no longer let you keep your powers. Take the pills, and I will give you some painkillers later."

Seven hesitated and looked up at Ghetsis. His monocle adjusted its lens, focused on her face. Its glowing red gaze held her own until she looked away.

With a shudder, she cracked the sphere open and dumped the contents in her mouth. She washed it down with all the water in the canteen, sloshing much of it onto the fur on her muzzle. The pills stuck in her throat until she forced them down.

"Good," Ghetsis said. "I will postpone your tests until the pain has worn off."

Seven meekly nodded. As Ghetsis turned away, the headache started. It was just stress at that point, Seven knew, but taking slow, deep breaths and remembering the vast, blue expanse outside her prison did nothing to dull the pain.

An hour later, the pill started its work. She felt the warm, black pool at the back of her mind slip away, emptying as though someone pulled the stopper out from under it. She held onto it as long as she could, watched it trickle from her grasp like quicksilver. Each drop that left her was a nail driven in between her eyeballs. Her fur drank up her tears. Flashes of color exploded in her head, and each spark was a crown of nettles shoved over her head.

When the painkillers came, Seven shoved them into her mouth and took long, shuddering swallows of water. She gasped for air and coughed when water went into her lungs. Gradually, the pain ebbed away, but she was left with an emptiness, a void as cold as a grave, lurking in the back of her head. Dregs of power, like a tiny pool circling a bath drain, offered sweet relief, but Seven knew that exhausting that tiny supply would leave her with debilitating seizures.

A bed was brought into her room, not the memory-foam from her room, but an old, musty spring mattress. The springs dug into her back as she lay on it. Too exhausted to roll in vain attempt for a more comfortable position, Seven's eyes drifted shut, and she wandered in dreamless, aching half-sleep.

A half-perceived sound made her eyes snap open. It was like a clap of thunder, powerful, but distant. Silence fell over the other Pokémon in the room, and even Subject Three ceased its grunts and roars. The researchers, noticing the sudden hush, looked warily at one another as they calibrated their instruments and prepared doses of medicine.

Another bang echoed through the building, this one close enough for the humans to hear. The screeching of metal and a whiff of acrid chemical accompanied it. All at once, chaos broke loose. Sirens wailed overhead. The lights overhead went out. In their place, flashing red alarms cut through the darkness. The locks on the doors slammed shut. Pokémon screamed and roared in their cages. Researchers scrambled in all directions, some seeking cover beneath tables, others scrambling for an emergency hatch near the center of the lab. From a station overhead, three guards thundered down a flight of stairs, bearing bulletproof vests and assault rifles. They took positions behind counters and tables, aiming their rifles at the door far to the right of Seven's cell.

Then, with a thunderous boom, the door burst into the room, bouncing past Seven's cell and skidding to a stop beyond her view. A thick cloud of black smog rolled into the room, engulfing all the light outside and making everyone cough violently. She heard body after body collapse. She held her breath as the smog approached her cell, but the gaseous compounds crackled against the cell walls, bouncing off of the charged air.

A gust blew all the smog out the vents, revealing a room littered with asphyxiated corpses. One guard had the quick thinking to hold his breath. Feeling the wind blow the smoke away, he raised a pistol and fired three shots before a flurry of bullets turned his head into a pulpy ruin, spraying blood all over the ceiling and floor. He tumbled to his right and back, spilling his brains onto the floor, and dropped his gun. It slid towards Seven's cell, passing through the barrier with a shower of sparks and stopping at her feet. She quickly grabbed it, fumbling a bit with the levers and buttons on the gun. A red switch flipped out, and a clip ejected from the handle. Seven shoved it back in place and hid the gun in her hair. She crouched behind the bed as footsteps echoed through the room.

"Sir, there's a hatch over here!"

"Crack it open and throw a few grenades down there. Kill them all. Then get to that server room the client mentioned and toast it all."

Wailing metal, followed by a thunderous boom, made Seven's fur stand on end. A few more gunshots punctured the cacophony of Pokémon cries.

After a moment, someone shouted, "Where the fuck is Number Seven?" She shivered and bundled herself together.

"I – I don't know, sir! The cell's empty!"

"Then open the door and find it! She has to be in there somewhere."

"Remember what the dossier said, sir. It's probably making itself invisible. If we're not careful, it could slip right past us."

Wild, maniacal laughter echoed through the room, followed by a gunshot. "That's what we brought these cans for, isn't it?" the first voice asked, rattling something metal so violently it mimicked the sound of a machine gun. Now open that door, get spraying, and find it!"

"Yes sir!"

A high-pitched fwoosh announced the activation of a pokeball. Then, a faint, tingling sound reached Seven's ears, followed by lots of harsh pssh pssh as men emptied spray cans into the seventh cell.

"Nothing, sir! No sign of anything in the cell!"

"What do you mean there's nothing there! Spray every inch of this place and find it!" Then a radio clicked, and the angry voice said, "Spray down all the exits, and make sure nothing gets past you. Seven's missing. Let it escape, and I'll tell Giovanni that it's because of you bumbling idiots."

Giovanni. The name sounded familiar, but specific information eluded her. As she thought through her clouded mind, the voice said, "Crack the cells open and take everything. And for fuck's sake, don't stop spraying!"

Footsteps clomped over to the even cells, and another cell was cracked open. A snarl was cut short by the fwoop of a dart gun. Then a rustling sound, punctuated by lots of spraying, suggested that Subject Six was thrown in a sack.

As they moved on to Four, Seven pondered her options. Exposing herself seemed like a completely stupid idea, as did pretending to be another subject. She wondered how long she could keep up her invisibility with her diminished supply of power and realized it didn't matter. With those spray cans, she had nowhere to hide. That left looking human. Although she saw and heard what had happened to everyone else, she asked herself if she'd rather be dead or subject to any number of unknown experiments, and made her choice. Digging for the dregs of power, she imagined a masculine human face, with a clean-shaven chin, plain brown eyes, and long ruffled brown hair. Calling her power felt akin to swimming through honey, sweet but arduous. Struggling through the faint numbing sensation, she projected a simple lab coat and pants around herself, and completed the image with the black leather shoes worn by the dead security guard. Then she waited.

Seven wondered how she should act. Blubbering idiot, silently weeping victim, shell-shocked and numb, these all seemed perfect personas for the situation, but she felt none of the terror required to play those parts. Instead, she took a deep breath, stood, faced the door, raised her hands over her head, and waited. Two more cells were cracked open before someone walked in front of hers. As the uniformed man did a double-take, Seven saw a giant red R stamped onto his black uniform and cap. Again, she felt the detail nagging at her, but she brushed the intuition aside.

The grunt pointed his pistol at her and shouted "We got a live one!"

"Then fix that!" a voice ordered back. "No witnesses!"

As the grunt cocked the gun, she deepened her voice to a soft, masculine tenor and asked, "Need help finding Subject Seven?"

The grunt flinched and lowered the gun. "Hey boss! He says he can help us find Seven!"

Another man walked over. His uniform was solid white, except for gold embroidery on the sleeves and the red R on his chest. He had extremely short blonde hair, a haggard goatee, beady blue eyes, and a long, thin white scar that stretched from his left ear, through his lips, to the center of his chin. The Admin cracked his knuckles as he examined Seven.

"Clever son of a bitch. So, you know where Subject Seven is?"

"I don't. But I can probably figure it out."

He snorted. "Probably. He's full of it. Just kill him."

"What's the harm in having me help? It's not like I can escape anyways." She lowered her hands a touch and coughed as her chest tightened up. "Just promise me you'll let me live. I'll help you, and I won't tell a soul what happened here."

The Admin stroked his goatee and said, "Why not. Dekkard, spring him loose and search him."

A magneton floated in front of the door and sent sparks into the wall. With the crackling sound of fried electronics, the barrier vanished, and the grunt stepped forward. Seven took a deep breath and struggled to keep the illusion together as the grunt padded down false, empty pockets.

"Nothing on him sir." Then he searched the desk and laptop. "Doesn't look like he called for help either."

"The cops show up early, and you're a dead man," the admin warned Seven. "Now get looking. Dekkard, keep a gun on him at all times. Shoot him if he tries anything."

"Yes sir." Dekkard stepped behind her and prodded her back with the gun, just missing her own weapon by an inch. "Get moving."

Seven looked around as she walked and quickly realized that a shootout wouldn't be an option. Aside from ten grunts, all armed, there were also four mightyena, two raticate, and a crobat patrolling the room, searching for her. Most of the cells were already emptied, and carts heaped with brown cloth sacks waited by the main door. The exits were sprayed down with a sticky yellow substance, as were the inside of every cell and large patches of surfaces surrounding every ventilation duct and hiding spot. Her own cell had been thoroughly coated halfway up the walls. Patches of the floor were tramped down with multiple sets of footprints.

"Try the ceilings," she told them. "It could be hiding up there."

Dekkard whistled another grunt over and pointed at the ceiling. She took a comically huge spray can, shook it in both hands, and squirted it at the ceiling, filling the air with a fine yellow mist. Once the ceiling was coated and the dust fell, Seven stepped inside, sticking to the tramped-down trail. She meandered through the room, pretending to check each nook and cranny, before approaching the shower. The steps ended just out of her reach of the plastic lining. She eased her way onto the sticky, rubbery substance and felt it squish into her toes. Then she examined the shower for a minute before slowly peeling back the liner.

"Well, here's your problem," she said. Two grunts tramped inside and examined the hole she found.

"Sir! The lab rat found a hole!"

"What!" the Admin roared. He ran into the cell and shoved the grunts and Seven aside. Then he pinned Seven against the wall by her throat and pointed his pistol at the side of her head.

"You have five seconds to tell me where that thing goes," he growled.

Seven felt her head going faint, either from the pill's side effects or the pressure on her neck. "Let me see and I'll tell you," Seven whispered through his grasp. "I didn't get a good look in."

The pressure lifted, and she was shoved towards the hole. She resisted the urge to catch herself on the shower, potentially leaving an obvious handprint, and instead tumbled into the hole. Once inside, she hastily crawled forward, out of sight of the hole, and thought through her options. She could try losing them through the maze of electrical cables and make a dash for the exit, shooting anyone at the front, or she could stay their hostage and probably end up dead. She started crawling forward, but then she remembered the light at the front entrance and crawled back to the cell.

"It's an electrical shaft," she said. "There's a few maintenance hatches scattered through the building. The closest one is a few hallways back, by the front entrance."

"You're lucky you decided not to run," the Admin replied, tossing a pokeball in his hand. "I was this close to having my Weezing smoke you out."

Her head spun as she clambered out of the hole. She pinned her back against the rugged concrete edge and hoisted her feet onto the floor, then she pushed up and stumbled forward a few paces before catching herself on a trodden piece of floor. Two guns swiveled towards her as she got up.

"As much as I hate to say it, odds are it's gone already," she said.

The Admin swore violently and raised his gun. "That makes you a dead man."

Panic and nausea both struck her as she stared down the barrel of the pistol, making her say the first words that came to mind. "I'll join!" she shouted as she ducked. "Just don't kill me!"

A shot rang through the air, and Seven fell backwards, covering her ears and expecting blood to start pooling on the floor. When she realized she didn't feel any pain, she looked back. The gun, smoke trailing from the end, was pointed slightly to the left.

"We had a deal, and you failed to hold your end of the bargain," he growled. Then he put the pistol away. "If we weren't so short on men, I'd kill you and be done with it, but Giovanni might find use for you. Besides, we already got Ghetsis, so it's not a complete waste. Get up, and follow Dekkard."

Packs of Machoke and Hariyama pushed the carts through the door. One held the bloody, mangled body of Ghetsis. His lab coat had a dozen crimson holes, and his monocle was missing. The grunts followed after and passed the carts, guns raised, checking each corner with a mirror before sending the convoy forward. The Admin and Seven trailed behind.

"Are you taking them out the front door?" she asked.

"Yeah. Why you ask?"

"There's a security measure that stops all subjects from leaving. If you don't disable it, you may end up killing them."

The admin smiled, forcing his scar open slightly. "Good thing I kept you alive then. What is it?"

"Some sort of light right above the main exit. It glows blue."

The Admin nodded and spoke into his radio. From further down the hallway came a muffled crash of glass. When they arrived at the front lobby, she first saw a gaping hole in the ceiling, where the light once was. Then she saw the receptionist, slumped over the front counter with a bullet wound through his head. His magazine was drenched with blood.

As the carts passed through the door, the admin chuckled. "Problem solved. Now get moving."

Seven tensed up as she passed under the hole. Bits of dust trickled down, coating her shoulders in white powder. She shook it off, and looked up at the sky. It looked just as brilliant as yesterday, clear of clouds and heart-achingly blue. Then she looked eastward, over the building, and saw the sun rising over the flat metal roof. She squinted and rubbed at her aching eyes, blinking tears out of them before anyone saw.

Ten boxy green vans with a logo for an electric company were parked next to the entrance. The carts were loaded in the backs of eight of them and fastened in place. Seven was guided by gunpoint to another. The back was dark and cramped, full of seats arranged around the walls. She sat down in one nearest the light coming in through the front window and buckled herself in. The admin took a seat across from her, and a grunt trained a gun on her as he sat to her left.

"So, newbie," the Admin said, "What's your name?"

Before she could stop herself, she started saying Seven, but changed it last-second to "Steven."

"Steven. Last name?"

Her mind raced, and she said the first word she could think of. "Sun."

"Steven Sun. Welcome to Team Rocket." He took his pistol out and popped the clip out, counting the bullets before sliding it back in place and pointing it at her. "The day you stop being a member is the day you die. Remember that."


Changelog

5/13/2018 - added in Ghetsis stuff, and tweaked the grammar a bit.