CHAPTER 2 Rude Awakenings
--
A slither of light somehow found its way to reach my eyes. They opened slowly and blearily everything came into focus as my sight adjusted and pupils dilated to the change in light. I felt my body sprawled out on the hard floor I was lying on. Slowly, I began to sit myself up but an immense pain in the back of my head forced me back down.
Previous memories flooded back to me. Sitting alone, Misty screaming, and being knocked unconscious. Panic overwhelmed me and my adrenaline forced me to ignore the pain and sit up. I looked over to see Brock stirring beside me. Half of my chest filled with relief but the other half was still filled with dread. I looked, holding my breath to catch a glimpse of Misty, praying that nothing had happened to her. My search ceased along with my nervousness when an angry voice filled the air.
"Where the hell are we?!"
I let out a grateful sigh as I turned to see my favorite redhead approaching me, fuming as usual. "I have absolutely no clue," I sighed, nervousness creeping up on me once again. I began to feel scared; here we were kidnapped in some unknown place with no defense mechanisms, being rendered totally helpless.
"What was the last thing you guys remember?" Brock questioned groggily, standing up to join us.
"I don't know, someone just crept up behind me and knocked me out," Misty answered.
"Me too," I told him.
Brock sighed, running a hand through his hair. "That makes three of us." We sighed in defeat, terror invading all of us now.
"I don't understand," I muttered. "Who did this? Why would somebody kidnap us, what could they possibly want?"
"It's quite simple, kid..." We immediately whirled around at the sound of another voice. About four people stood there, all dressed in black jumpsuits with the letter 'R' imprinted on them. "...we want you."
"Team Rocket?" I heard Brock question under his breath. I looked around and two of the faces became familiar of ones we had run across one time or another.
"Ash look..." Misty whispered to me. I did as she said and my eyes widened as I recognized the people. "It's Cassidy and Butch." Cassidy overheard her and smiled sinisterly.
"Glad to see you haven't forgotten us," she sneered.
"We're not exactly people you can afford to forget," Butch added in his raspy voice in a somewhat threatening tone. I felt Misty grab a hold of my arm and move slightly behind me.
"What do you want from us?" I sternly asked again, trying to hide the tremor in my voice. As scared as I was I knew I had to put on a brave front, as the natural leader of the group, Misty was shaking behind me in fear and Brock didn't seem any better.
"Well, well, well..." A booming voice interrupted me suddenly. I looked up to see a figure approaching the rest of us from the shadows. As his face came into view I could have sworn I had seen him somewhere before. He had black hair like mine and his red jacket was a sharp contrast to it. I could not put my finger on it but somehow I felt as if I had known this man my entire life. "It's nice to finally properly meet your acquaintance... Ashton."
I flinched slightly at the mention of my full name. How could he have known it? But then again it could have just been an assumption. I cleared my throat. "How do you know my name?"
He laughed and I felt myself quiver within. He walked over to me so we were only inches apart. I looked up to meet his eyes and it was as if they an almost demonic glare coming from the. "My boy, I know things about you that you don't even know about yourself."
My breath got caught in my throat as he chuckled once more. I was not liking the sound of this and it was beginning to sound worse and worse by the minute. My brain was telling me that he was just trying to mess with my head and confuse me, but I felt somewhere deep in my heart that I had some sort of connection to the man... and not in a good way.
His eyes moved from me and he darted them to beside me. "Now, what do we have here?" he questioned. I turned to see that he was speaking to Misty who, although I knew was trembling with fear, kept her stern gaze with him somewhat angrily.
He sighed in what sounded to be sarcastic sympathy before looking her up and down. "What a pretty little thing you are... it is a shame that you're stuck in here." He ran a lone finger down her cheek and towards her neck; she angrily slapped his hand away as he started moving it lower. A sultry expression came to his face as he leaned over and whispered in her ear lowly but the words were still heard by me. "I'll be getting myself a piece of you later."
A surge of anger suddenly awakened in me. He had no right to speak to her in such a degrading way like she was inanimate or a possession. I felt Misty's quaking form press into to me more and I moved in front of her protectively.
"Leave us alone," I told him icily, trying my hardest to sound firm but he just laughed in mockery.
"I don't think so," he replied. "Jessie! James! Will you morons get out here?" he called across the room behind me.
I slowly turned behind me at the mention of the familiar names and sure enough there were Jessie and James standing behind us. I couldn't help the feeling of betrayal taking me over. We had known them for years and up until about two months ago, we did not go a week without seeing them at least once. We had not had any recent encounters with them recently and that was somewhat strange. I did feel I had some sort of bond with them and should be grateful for all the times they had helped us. Some sort of weird friendship existed between us and I did not believe that they actually could have turned their backs so much so quickly. I shot them a look of disbelief silently and I was surprised to see them both cast their heads downward in what looked like guilt.
"Get rid of them," the man uttered coolly.
Before I could react I saw Jessie approach me from behind and clamp a rag over my mouth. The scent of it immediately jogged my senses and I felt myself losing consciousness once again as the poisoned substance was inhaled. However, I still heard Jessie's distinct words whispered into my ear; "I'm sorry, twerp."
I peered over to see what was happening to Misty and Brock but before I could get a glimpse of them my vision was compromised as an induced sleep came over me once more.
--
"Hey, hey, come on, man, wake up."
I groggily opened my eyes at the sound of Brock's barley audible whispers beside me. My vision blurrily came into view once more and I turned to face him. It was then I realized that we were both tied to chairs without hands behind our backs. "Oh, shit," I muttered, once seeing the atmosphere I was in.
"You okay?" he asked me. I felt a warm sticky substance drip down my face and I came to the conclusion that there was a large, bleeding gash on my forehead.
"Ow," I winced. "I'm fine, what about you?"
"I'm..." he abruptly stopped talking at the sound of two other voices nearby. We both remained silent, straining to listen.
"Are you sure about this, Jess?"
"We can't do this to the twerps, not after everything we've been through with them."
"But the boss..."
"He doesn't have to know. I can't live with myself knowing that we were the cause of their deaths. The boss has gone too far this time and it's up to us to stop him."
"I hope you're right..."
"I know I'm right... and I know that you know that I'm right too."
Brock and I immediately knew who was speaking. "Jessie? James?" I whispered, struggling to turn my head but found myself unable to do the ropes restraining me.
"Shh, don't talk," Jessie immediately hushed me. I didn't say anything and I soon felt a pair of hands undoing the ropes that bound me to the chair. Brock and I both stood as we were free and turned to face them.
"All right what the hell is going on?" Brock asked them suddenly, breaking the silence.
"Okay, cliff-notes version..." James started. He opened his mouth to speak again but Jessie abruptly cut him off.
"Our leader wants you guys dead," she stated bluntly.
"Why?" Brock inquired.
"He's sees you as a threat he's been planning to off you guys for years."
"Woah, he wants to 'off us'? As in kill us?" I asked, my shock overtaking my fear.
"Yeah, and he's not fighting with any Pokemon. He's using real weapons now, you don't have a chance," James continued to explain.
"Okay, so what are you just trying to rub this in our faces before you send us to our deaths?" Brock queried bitterly.
"No, we're trying to save you," Jessie told him.
"What?"
"Look, I know we've put you three through a lot of shit over the years with your Pokemon but we're not murderers, and we can't let him go through with this."
"How do we know you're telling the truth? You've been after us for so long, why suddenly help us out now?"
"Because we know that this is wrong!" Jessie exclaimed, becoming exasperated.
"Really? Now, there's a shocker. And all those times you've tried to steal our Pokemon and destroyed countless numbers of buildings and hurt innocent people, were right?"
The words of Jessie and Brock's heated argument suddenly became unimportant to me. My eyes removed themselves from them and darted around the room searching every corner. My breath got caught in my throat as an epiphany hit me.
"Brock," I said quietly, tugging his sleeve. My words went unnoticed by him for he was too busy arguing with Jessie.
"Just because we've known you for years doesn't mean we're going to trust you now!" he sneered at her.
"Brock," I said again.
"Fine, don't ask for my help and you and Ash can stay here and die," Jessie retorted to him.
"Brock!" I raised my voice and finally got his attention. He turned to me.
"Ash, what is it?"
"Misty's not here." He looked around the room quickly for any signs of her before the same realization dawned on him.
"Shit," I heard James mutter under his breath. Brock and I both averted our attention to him.
"What?" I inquired slowly, dread filling my voice.
"There's no time to explain, just follow us and be quiet," Jessie informed quickly as her and James began to walk off into the direction of a dark corridor.
"No, explain," I demanded firmly, grabbing Jessie's arm. She sighed and turned to me. I couldn't just go off following them. I had to know what they knew. I had to know if Misty was okay.
"I don't know what happened all I know is that we have to find her before there is anymore damage done to her that probably has already been."
I gulped. "D-damage?" I stammered. My heart nearly skipped a beat at her words and the most horrid thoughts of Misty lying helpless somewhere in this unknown headquarters ran through my mind.
James sighed. "We hope not, but as Jessie said we don't know what has happened for her but he need to find her quick."
"So, we're going to need you to trust and listen to us..." Jessie firmly explained. ... if you want to see your friend again."
Brock and I nodded in agreement, not completely convinced, but still understanding at the moment in fear of Misty's safety. The two Rockets lead us down the dark corridor, and I held a silent prayer in the back of my head the entire time.
--
A/N: Yes, I know not very original, overdone plot. but I don't care ;) I am not good with coming up with completely original ideas and I am trying my hardest to make this my own. Most Team Rocket capture stories are usually focused in on the action and drama but I am using all of that as some what of a side plot to Ash's inner turmoil. Ash's emotions are the main story and in my opinion I think approaching all of this in his eyes is maybe a somewhat different approach from what I have read in the past. You probably can guess about Giovanni already and I know that has been done as well. However, I am going to try my hardest to get in depth with Ash and his feelings through every experience he encounters along with the action. I have read stories with similar ideas and mostly, I have read ones in the usual 3rd person POV mainly focusing on the action. That is not what I am trying to do here. So, please do not write me off for being unoriginal because as the story goes on I will try my hardest to let my own style of writing gain its own originality through the fic. Okay, that's enough of my little speech, R+R please =)
--
A slither of light somehow found its way to reach my eyes. They opened slowly and blearily everything came into focus as my sight adjusted and pupils dilated to the change in light. I felt my body sprawled out on the hard floor I was lying on. Slowly, I began to sit myself up but an immense pain in the back of my head forced me back down.
Previous memories flooded back to me. Sitting alone, Misty screaming, and being knocked unconscious. Panic overwhelmed me and my adrenaline forced me to ignore the pain and sit up. I looked over to see Brock stirring beside me. Half of my chest filled with relief but the other half was still filled with dread. I looked, holding my breath to catch a glimpse of Misty, praying that nothing had happened to her. My search ceased along with my nervousness when an angry voice filled the air.
"Where the hell are we?!"
I let out a grateful sigh as I turned to see my favorite redhead approaching me, fuming as usual. "I have absolutely no clue," I sighed, nervousness creeping up on me once again. I began to feel scared; here we were kidnapped in some unknown place with no defense mechanisms, being rendered totally helpless.
"What was the last thing you guys remember?" Brock questioned groggily, standing up to join us.
"I don't know, someone just crept up behind me and knocked me out," Misty answered.
"Me too," I told him.
Brock sighed, running a hand through his hair. "That makes three of us." We sighed in defeat, terror invading all of us now.
"I don't understand," I muttered. "Who did this? Why would somebody kidnap us, what could they possibly want?"
"It's quite simple, kid..." We immediately whirled around at the sound of another voice. About four people stood there, all dressed in black jumpsuits with the letter 'R' imprinted on them. "...we want you."
"Team Rocket?" I heard Brock question under his breath. I looked around and two of the faces became familiar of ones we had run across one time or another.
"Ash look..." Misty whispered to me. I did as she said and my eyes widened as I recognized the people. "It's Cassidy and Butch." Cassidy overheard her and smiled sinisterly.
"Glad to see you haven't forgotten us," she sneered.
"We're not exactly people you can afford to forget," Butch added in his raspy voice in a somewhat threatening tone. I felt Misty grab a hold of my arm and move slightly behind me.
"What do you want from us?" I sternly asked again, trying to hide the tremor in my voice. As scared as I was I knew I had to put on a brave front, as the natural leader of the group, Misty was shaking behind me in fear and Brock didn't seem any better.
"Well, well, well..." A booming voice interrupted me suddenly. I looked up to see a figure approaching the rest of us from the shadows. As his face came into view I could have sworn I had seen him somewhere before. He had black hair like mine and his red jacket was a sharp contrast to it. I could not put my finger on it but somehow I felt as if I had known this man my entire life. "It's nice to finally properly meet your acquaintance... Ashton."
I flinched slightly at the mention of my full name. How could he have known it? But then again it could have just been an assumption. I cleared my throat. "How do you know my name?"
He laughed and I felt myself quiver within. He walked over to me so we were only inches apart. I looked up to meet his eyes and it was as if they an almost demonic glare coming from the. "My boy, I know things about you that you don't even know about yourself."
My breath got caught in my throat as he chuckled once more. I was not liking the sound of this and it was beginning to sound worse and worse by the minute. My brain was telling me that he was just trying to mess with my head and confuse me, but I felt somewhere deep in my heart that I had some sort of connection to the man... and not in a good way.
His eyes moved from me and he darted them to beside me. "Now, what do we have here?" he questioned. I turned to see that he was speaking to Misty who, although I knew was trembling with fear, kept her stern gaze with him somewhat angrily.
He sighed in what sounded to be sarcastic sympathy before looking her up and down. "What a pretty little thing you are... it is a shame that you're stuck in here." He ran a lone finger down her cheek and towards her neck; she angrily slapped his hand away as he started moving it lower. A sultry expression came to his face as he leaned over and whispered in her ear lowly but the words were still heard by me. "I'll be getting myself a piece of you later."
A surge of anger suddenly awakened in me. He had no right to speak to her in such a degrading way like she was inanimate or a possession. I felt Misty's quaking form press into to me more and I moved in front of her protectively.
"Leave us alone," I told him icily, trying my hardest to sound firm but he just laughed in mockery.
"I don't think so," he replied. "Jessie! James! Will you morons get out here?" he called across the room behind me.
I slowly turned behind me at the mention of the familiar names and sure enough there were Jessie and James standing behind us. I couldn't help the feeling of betrayal taking me over. We had known them for years and up until about two months ago, we did not go a week without seeing them at least once. We had not had any recent encounters with them recently and that was somewhat strange. I did feel I had some sort of bond with them and should be grateful for all the times they had helped us. Some sort of weird friendship existed between us and I did not believe that they actually could have turned their backs so much so quickly. I shot them a look of disbelief silently and I was surprised to see them both cast their heads downward in what looked like guilt.
"Get rid of them," the man uttered coolly.
Before I could react I saw Jessie approach me from behind and clamp a rag over my mouth. The scent of it immediately jogged my senses and I felt myself losing consciousness once again as the poisoned substance was inhaled. However, I still heard Jessie's distinct words whispered into my ear; "I'm sorry, twerp."
I peered over to see what was happening to Misty and Brock but before I could get a glimpse of them my vision was compromised as an induced sleep came over me once more.
--
"Hey, hey, come on, man, wake up."
I groggily opened my eyes at the sound of Brock's barley audible whispers beside me. My vision blurrily came into view once more and I turned to face him. It was then I realized that we were both tied to chairs without hands behind our backs. "Oh, shit," I muttered, once seeing the atmosphere I was in.
"You okay?" he asked me. I felt a warm sticky substance drip down my face and I came to the conclusion that there was a large, bleeding gash on my forehead.
"Ow," I winced. "I'm fine, what about you?"
"I'm..." he abruptly stopped talking at the sound of two other voices nearby. We both remained silent, straining to listen.
"Are you sure about this, Jess?"
"We can't do this to the twerps, not after everything we've been through with them."
"But the boss..."
"He doesn't have to know. I can't live with myself knowing that we were the cause of their deaths. The boss has gone too far this time and it's up to us to stop him."
"I hope you're right..."
"I know I'm right... and I know that you know that I'm right too."
Brock and I immediately knew who was speaking. "Jessie? James?" I whispered, struggling to turn my head but found myself unable to do the ropes restraining me.
"Shh, don't talk," Jessie immediately hushed me. I didn't say anything and I soon felt a pair of hands undoing the ropes that bound me to the chair. Brock and I both stood as we were free and turned to face them.
"All right what the hell is going on?" Brock asked them suddenly, breaking the silence.
"Okay, cliff-notes version..." James started. He opened his mouth to speak again but Jessie abruptly cut him off.
"Our leader wants you guys dead," she stated bluntly.
"Why?" Brock inquired.
"He's sees you as a threat he's been planning to off you guys for years."
"Woah, he wants to 'off us'? As in kill us?" I asked, my shock overtaking my fear.
"Yeah, and he's not fighting with any Pokemon. He's using real weapons now, you don't have a chance," James continued to explain.
"Okay, so what are you just trying to rub this in our faces before you send us to our deaths?" Brock queried bitterly.
"No, we're trying to save you," Jessie told him.
"What?"
"Look, I know we've put you three through a lot of shit over the years with your Pokemon but we're not murderers, and we can't let him go through with this."
"How do we know you're telling the truth? You've been after us for so long, why suddenly help us out now?"
"Because we know that this is wrong!" Jessie exclaimed, becoming exasperated.
"Really? Now, there's a shocker. And all those times you've tried to steal our Pokemon and destroyed countless numbers of buildings and hurt innocent people, were right?"
The words of Jessie and Brock's heated argument suddenly became unimportant to me. My eyes removed themselves from them and darted around the room searching every corner. My breath got caught in my throat as an epiphany hit me.
"Brock," I said quietly, tugging his sleeve. My words went unnoticed by him for he was too busy arguing with Jessie.
"Just because we've known you for years doesn't mean we're going to trust you now!" he sneered at her.
"Brock," I said again.
"Fine, don't ask for my help and you and Ash can stay here and die," Jessie retorted to him.
"Brock!" I raised my voice and finally got his attention. He turned to me.
"Ash, what is it?"
"Misty's not here." He looked around the room quickly for any signs of her before the same realization dawned on him.
"Shit," I heard James mutter under his breath. Brock and I both averted our attention to him.
"What?" I inquired slowly, dread filling my voice.
"There's no time to explain, just follow us and be quiet," Jessie informed quickly as her and James began to walk off into the direction of a dark corridor.
"No, explain," I demanded firmly, grabbing Jessie's arm. She sighed and turned to me. I couldn't just go off following them. I had to know what they knew. I had to know if Misty was okay.
"I don't know what happened all I know is that we have to find her before there is anymore damage done to her that probably has already been."
I gulped. "D-damage?" I stammered. My heart nearly skipped a beat at her words and the most horrid thoughts of Misty lying helpless somewhere in this unknown headquarters ran through my mind.
James sighed. "We hope not, but as Jessie said we don't know what has happened for her but he need to find her quick."
"So, we're going to need you to trust and listen to us..." Jessie firmly explained. ... if you want to see your friend again."
Brock and I nodded in agreement, not completely convinced, but still understanding at the moment in fear of Misty's safety. The two Rockets lead us down the dark corridor, and I held a silent prayer in the back of my head the entire time.
--
A/N: Yes, I know not very original, overdone plot. but I don't care ;) I am not good with coming up with completely original ideas and I am trying my hardest to make this my own. Most Team Rocket capture stories are usually focused in on the action and drama but I am using all of that as some what of a side plot to Ash's inner turmoil. Ash's emotions are the main story and in my opinion I think approaching all of this in his eyes is maybe a somewhat different approach from what I have read in the past. You probably can guess about Giovanni already and I know that has been done as well. However, I am going to try my hardest to get in depth with Ash and his feelings through every experience he encounters along with the action. I have read stories with similar ideas and mostly, I have read ones in the usual 3rd person POV mainly focusing on the action. That is not what I am trying to do here. So, please do not write me off for being unoriginal because as the story goes on I will try my hardest to let my own style of writing gain its own originality through the fic. Okay, that's enough of my little speech, R+R please =)
