-Sorry this story took months to update, I had a writer's block when it came to what I was going to do. -
Chapter 2: Giovanni's plan
Professor Oak woke up in a small cell with no windows, he felt a sore spot on his neck where the ditto had hit him. He rubbed his neck, but his fingers brushed against something smooth and plastic, both of his hands quickly went to the thing touching his neck and found that it was a seamless, black, collar-like device wrapped around his neck. Oak tried to pry the collar off of his neck while at the same time, calling out for help, "Help! Where am I?! What's going on?! What is this thing around my neck?!" He shouted as he tried to get the collar off his neck, but the collar had a tight fit around Oak's neck, he could barely squeeze a part of his finger into the inside of the collar.
Oak then heard a familiar voice, "Professor Oak? Is that you?" Oak then went to the front of the cells and grabbed the bars, pushing his face as far as he could without hurting himself and said,
"Professor Elm, is that you?!" Oak looked directly ahead and saw another dimly lit cell a few feet away from him. With no light source in the cells, the only light they had was coming from ceiling lamps on the outside of the cells. Oak could barely see a slim shadowy figure sitting on the bed in the other cell and then he stood up and walked into the light and Oak saw that it was Professor Elm, also wearing a strange collar around his neck.
"Professor Oak, it's good to see that you're awake." Elm said, trying to sound happy but he was clearly nervous and just as confused as Oak was right now.
Oak was glad to see a familiar face in an such a strange place, but he needed answers and hoped that Elm would have them, "Elm, it's good to see you, but where are we and how did we get here?" He asked.
Unfortunately, Elm had an unsure look to him as he said, "I don't know. I mean, I don't where we are or who's keeping here. All I remember before waking up here, was that I having a cup of coffee while I was going over my research notes, but then I felt woozy and blacked out, then suddenly I was here. Do remember anything before this, Professor?" Oak had a serious look to him as he tried to remember what happened to him, but it he easily remembered the last few things before being knocked out.
"Well, I was going to relocate some caterpie with my assistant Tracey, but then we saw this circle lying on the ground that turned out to be a ditto, I looked back to Tracey to tell him that it was just a ditto, but then I felt a sharp pain in my neck and that's about it. I guess that ditto must have hit me now that I'm thinking about it, but that still doesn't explain why…" Oak stopped talking for a second, then his eyes widened in realization and he shouted, "Tracey! What happened to him!? He wouldn't just leave me lying on the ground, something must have happened to him!"
Oak tried to shake the bars, hoping and he could make his escape and find Tracey, but the bars just would not move. He was still trying to get out, when a door opened in the hallway between the cells, and two Team Rocket grunts entered. "Team Rocket!" Oak angrily shouted, "I should have known you were behind this! What have you done with Tracey?" Oak demanded.
One of the grunts said, "Shut up, old man. We're just guards and we're here to take you two to the labs. Now get moving." The guards then opened the cells and motioned the professors to move to the door. Elm was going to take a step forward, but then put his foot down and said.
"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what happened to Tracey." He stood his ground a was not going to move an inch and this was enough to boost Elm's courage and he did not move either.
This bold move did not last very long, as one of the guards threw a pokeball to the ground and a mean looking jolteon appeared. The guard then said, "Jolteon, use thunder bolt on the prisoners." The jolteon then sparked, before lightning bolts sprang from its body and shocked both Oak and Elm for brief moment. The professors fell to floor in pain, then the guards stood them up and pushed them towards the door. There was an elevator a few feet from the door, one of the guards used a key card to open it and they all went in.
It was a quick ride up the elevator, then the doors opened up and right in front of Oak and Elm, was a highly advanced and large science lab. There was another elevator on the other side of the lab and one more on the third wall to the right. There was also a second story that the elevators could reach, but there was no lab equipment there, instead there was only a walkway with railings stretching across the lab, most likely to keep a bird's eye view on them.
The Guards pushed the two into the lab and while Elm fumbled a bit trying to catch his balance, Oak did not stumble and walked into the lab. Elm, once he got his footing back, look around and was a little impressed by the size and tech of the lab, but he was still a little scared since he knew that Team Rocket would not capture Oak and him for just anything, so he asked, "What are you going to try and make us do?"
One of the guards said, "Keep your mouth shut, you'll find out soon enough. We just have to wait for the other prisoners to arrive."
Oak was surprised to hear that he and Elm were not the only people held captive here and he wondered if Tracey was one prisoners. "Other prisoners? Who are they?" Oak asked and as if on cue, the other elevators opened and Oak and Elm found out who the other prisoners were.
"Prof. Brich? Prof. Rowan?" Elm said in surprise, he turned to the other elevator and looked even more surprised as he said, "Professors Juniper and Sycamore too?" The other professors, walked to the center of the lab, being followed by more guards and all of them had the collars around their necks. While Birch, Juniper, and Sycamore all had worried or scared looks to them, Rowan was calm and unnerved, trying not to show fear in this hostile place.
All of them were brought to the center of the lab, then a guard pulled out a radio and said, "Alright Boss, they're all here, ready when you are, over." Then a two large doors opened up on the side of the walkway where the was no elevator, there was a bright light coming from the doorway, it was a bit blinding, but everyone could see a shadowy figure emerge from the light. The door then closed and after a taking a moment to let their eyes to readjust to the light, everyone saw Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket, standing on the edge of the walkway, with an evil grin on his face.
"Hello," said, Giovanni, "it's so nice to see that you could all make it here today." he said in a way that implied a dry sense of humor. "Now, before you start asking me why I had all of you brought here, I'm just going to tell you what I want. I want you to take the abilities that pokemon have and make it so I can give them to my henchmen." Giovanni said that without the slightest hint of sarcasm or irony.
All of the professor's eyes widened and they all looked a little dumbfounded by what he just said. Oak was the first to snap out of his bewilderment and said, "What in the world makes you think we can do that?"
Giovanni laughed before he said, "I'm glad you asked. Now, my organization is having a bit of a rough patch these days, recruitment is down and blind loyalty among the new members is fading. I need more power, I want more control and easier to manage troops. Then one day I received a message from those idiots, Jessie and James, but then I remembered how they had a talking meowth with them and that's when I had an idea to teach other pokemon to talk so I could have them replace my more… disappointing members. That idea was a total failure, no pokemon could be trained to speak properly, I even had my scientist dissect that meowth for his vocal cords and try to replicate them by cloning them into other pokemon, but the results were disasters. I must admit, that it would have been easier with Dr. Fuji's notes, but they were destroyed along with him, when Mewtwo blew up that lab all those years ago." Giovanni took a moment to collect his thoughts then continued. "I was stumped about what I should do for the next few days after I canceled that project, but then I had another idea, if I can't have an army of pokemon that take orders directly from me, then why not just give my forces those powers that pokemon take for granted."
Rowan spoke up and said, "That's insane! There is no possible way that you can teach a human how breathe fire, or how to shoot lighting out of his hands!" One of the guards was about to punch Rowan for speaking out like that, but Giovanna stopped him, saying,
"Don't hit him, I need him in the best possible health." the guard said nothing and lowered his arm as Giovanni continued to speak, "Now, Professor, it's a possibility for a human to learn those, but it's far from reality. I had my scientist take blood samples, genomes, brain cells, anything they needed to make a serum that could potentially give a human that kind of power. I decided to test out the first prototype of Hyper Beam, on Jessie and James, but their bodies couldn't handle the energy and after they died, we had to go back to the drawing board. Progress was slow, but that's when I realized my scientists were more familiar with physics and robotics rather than pokemon. So that's why I brought all of you here, you know much more about pokemon then my people and you're all scientists, to some degree, so you're going to make my new goal possible."
All of the professors were, confused by this to say the least, and most of them now thought that Giovanni was certifiably insane. Oak did not want any part of this and said, "You're down right insane, Giovanni! I'll have nothing to do with this now, let us go. And what did you do with my assistant, Tracey?!"
Birch also spoke up as well, "I'm not going to work for you either! Now where is my son?! Where is Brendan!?" he yelled, obviously enraged and worried if his son is safe or not.
Giovanni looked at all of them with daggers in his eyes, but then said in a sardonic tone, "Oh yes, that's right, most of you weren't captured alone. Well rest assured that everyone we had to capture along with you, are being held in prison cells on the other side of this facility. I'll even show you them." Giovanni then snapped his fingers and one of the guards tossed him a radio, which he then spoke into, "Security… I need camera feed of the prisoners to be broadcast to the lab's monitor." Almost instantly, a large screen appeared on the wall behind the professors, they all turned around and saw a cell block on screen. Giovanni then said, "Show me that green-shirt kid we caught with Professor Oak." The screen then flickered and there was an aerial view of Tracey sitting in his cell, he also had a black collar on him as well.
Oak saw Tracey and while he upset that he was also a prisoner here, he was relieved that he was, for the most part, safe. Then Giovanni spoke into the radio once more and said, "Activate his collar." A few seconds later, Tracey sprung up from his bed and started grabbing at his heart, then at the collar trying to pry it off, but to no avail. He then collapsed onto his hands and knees, and he crawled to the front of his cell. Tracey put his hands on the bars and although there was no audio, it was clear by the pained look on his face, that he yelled the word "help", before he collapsed completely.
Tracey was dead and Oak was completely furious, while the others were shocked by his death. Giovanni then said to the radio, "Dispose his body and take his pokemon, find suitable replacement trainers for them." He tossed the radio to the floor, then he said to the professors, "That was the effect of that collar you all have on. It contains a poison make from the most toxic pokemon in the world, and as you can see, it delivers an almost instant and painful death. And I have no problems using it on everyone we caught with you, before I use it on you, if any of you refuse to work. So, anymore nay sayers?"
- Thank you for reading this chapter. Please leave a review if you'd like. -