This isn't a review based story by any means, but I still like constructive criticism. I'm writing this to get my writing style seen and I want to know what complete strangers think of it. Tell me what you think. I know what I think, but that doesn't really help me with anything.
The Rave...
I couldn't go anywhere for the next week. My parents had been pretty mad that I got home so late, but I didn't mind the punishment too much. I kept thinking that I'd run into a Team Rocket enforcer any time I went out. They had to know that someone had infiltrated their base. Connor had broken the door…. I couldn't imagine that the gang wouldn't be one the lookout for the intruders.
Even Loki seemed to have been affected by what happened. He didn't leave my room for any reason except for his outdoor business since we'd gotten home two days ago. I think he hid under my bed while I was at school and as soon as I got back, he glued himself to me.
I didn't leave my room much either. Since I was still a bit freaked out over what happened, I didn't want to take the chance of my parents noticing me acting weird. The last thing I wanted was for them to find out I went into the Underground, let alone was inside Team Rocket's base.
Connor suggested that we keep quiet about what happened. His reasoning was that since the police hadn't believed a Team Rocket member, the chance that they would believe three sixteen-year-olds was non-existant. I actually agreed with him on this, and we both had to convice Sara that telling anyone would be a bad idea.
I had to be honest, though. My real reasoning on silence was that I was afraid of Team Rocket hearing about three kids talking about their fantastic shifting process and then take the steps to have us silenced completely. Either way, I figured that no one would be hearing about this any time soon.
It was three days after the Team Rocket incident that Connor decided it would be a great idea to throw pebbles at my window at three in the morning. Well, there wasn't any way for me to actually tell it was him when he first started, so he scared the crap out of me at first. Loki shot up like a bullet and began to growl at the window. I had to get him quiet before he woke anyone up.
Once I opened my window and discovered him, I wanted to throw something back at Connor. Of course, he didn't seemed fazed at all by my irritation and began whisper shouting at me.
"Put your shoes on and grab a flashlight," he demanded.
"What?" I was completely at a loss here, "Why?"
"I want to get some evidence on that crap that Team Rocket is doing."
"I thought we weren't going to go to anyone about that!" I exclaimed in disbelief. It was his idea….
"So I'm a bleeding heart, what does it matter? Do you really want them to keep doing that to people?"
On one hand, I really didn't care what they were doing. Reynolds had been a Rocket, didn't he get what he deserved? However, there was a small twinge of empathy that I felt towards him. He did try to get out after all. We weren't cops, though, and I don't even have pokémon that could battle and there was the small problem of us being a two-man infiltrator team against an entire gang…..
"What can we do, Connor?"
He held up a digital camera, "All we have to do is get a reason for the cops and they'll do the rest."
"Where are the other two? Why me?" I groaned.
He shrugged, "You are the only one that didn't turn me down flat out, so do you want to come or not?"
I could honestly say that I did not want to go. However, if I didn't, chances are that Connor would just go by himself. He was certainly dressed like he was planning on doing so with or without me.
"Give me a minute," I sighed and shut the window.
Quickly, I dressed in something similar to what Connor was wearing. A black shirt, dark jacket and some dark blue pants since I despise, and therefore don't own, black. I also decided to add a hat to my ensemble considering that my auburn hair might attract attention. Once I finished dressing, I carefully began to sneak out.
My parents' room is right next to the staircase and, because said staircase creaks, this may be difficult. I remembered overhearing my brother mentioning to one of his friends how he sneaks out, but I can't remember for the life of me which stairs he skips over.
Just as I was about to give up and wing it, Rob himself came up behind me. He tapped me on the shoulder and I had to clap my hands over my mouth to keep from crying out. Rob sniggered at the sight and I glared at him.
"So," he asked, looking me up and down, "are we going to a rave or something?"
No, I'll be infiltrating a near legendary crime organization's base to help my idiot friend get some pics of their science fair.
I couldn't say that, though. My brother may avoid me like I have the plague, but he wouldn't let his little sister get into something like this. At least, I think he wouldn't.
"I guess," I said instead.
"Cool, by the way," he said as he passed me to go to whatever party he himself was sneaking off to, "it's the fourth and seventh step that creaks."
He then proceeded to melt into the shadows like a freaking haunter, leaving me to wonder if my brother had really just helped me sneak out. Then, I remembered that James Bond was outside so I shrugged my confusion off and made my way out.
Connor was waiting for me on the sidewalk and he shot me a glare as I approached him. I only shrugged at him. Hey, he was the one jolting me out of sleep at three a.m. The way I see it, I'm the one that should be irritated. Which I am; irritated I mean.
Anyway, Connor led us towards the Underground. I decided to leave Loki, seeing as not only is he not in his right mind at the moment, but he's also prone to becoming excessively annoying in times of peril. Not that I've had many times of peril…. Yes, I left him at home and we made it to the southern entrance in no time. The only problem we had was dodging a couple of cops doing their rounds.
My watch said we arrived at the Rocket base at four in the morning. The door looked exactly like we had left it. Which freaked me out, by the way. The entrance to their freaking hideout could not have been neglected to the point that the Rockets have failed to notice a broken lock.
"I don't know if this is such a good idea, Connor. I mean, I know it's a bad idea. In fact, I've known this was a bad idea since you got me out of bed," I rambled, "They have to know that we broke in. They didn't even fix the lock. Doesn't that seem like a bad sign?" I finished.
Connor only watched me rant until I ran out of breath to continue. Once I did, he turned away from me.
"You can go then, I'm not going to force you into this or anything," he finally told me. He refused to look at me.
The thing about Connor is that he isn't actually trying to guilt me into anything. Yeah, he wants me to go with him; I think he's even scared to go by himself. However, as I've learned to see through his bravado, I've learned that my friend isn't the type to force anyone into anything. Sara and I were the ones that were angry with Andrew for ditching us. Connor just treated him like the whole thing didn't happen.
I bit my lip. This was actually infuriating when I thought about it. He wasn't guilting me into anything, yet I felt guilty for wanting to go to bed and pretending this night never happened. I couldn't leave him here to do this by himself. I knew he would go with or without me, so that only left one option and I didn't like it at all.
"Fine, I'm coming," I told him quietly.
His only response was to push the door open.
We did the same routine as last time. Hide behind boxes; wait for any Rockets—there weren't any—to leave and sneak into the sterile hallway.
"Don't you think it's weird that there isn't anyone here?" I asked quietly, "You'd think they'd have night guys or something."
"Maybe they don't," was all I got.
Connor led us to the very room we had witnessed that shift. I don't know why he led us to the same one because there were probably others, but I didn't want to question him this time. For now, I was content to follow his insane plan so that we could leave as soon as possible.
He got a picture of everything in the room. The cages, the pokémon, the lab equipment and he made sure to capture any Rocket logos he could with the aforementioned items. I was only the cheerleader in this mission, so I kept back and let him do what he needed.
It felt like we had been there for an eternity. Connor took pictures of everything in every imaginable combination, and I began to get increasingly nervous. I felt like we were going to be caught at any moment. The longer we spent here, the more chance…. It felt exactly like last time. Well, not exactly. It almost felt worse, not that I knew what could happen to us.
"Are you done yet?" I snapped at him.
Of course he didn't respond, he probably thought that I was beginning to get too twitchy. Connor just seemed so relaxed, like he knew that there was no way we could get caught.
I soon learned that it was all a front. The moment we heard voices, he spun around frantically towards the door and had gone as white as a sheet. I had to admit that I wasn't much better as I scrambled to hide under a cloth covered lab table.
There was no way for me to check if Connor had managed to find a place to hide because the voices decided to enter the same room we were in.
"Tell me why we have to search the base again?" a high, male voice asked his partner.
The other Rocket grunted, "We were told to. Is there really any better reason?"
"Humph, don't you think we have the right to know why we're here at four-thirty in the morning?" the first complained.
"No, we aren't paid to know things. Maybe one day when we've moved up, but who's gonna explain anything to a couple of grunts? Just stop your whining and search the room," his companion ordered.
The first man grumbled under his breath as they began to look about the room. I could honestly say that as this moment, I have never been more terrified in my entire life. There was no way the pair wouldn't find me; I had chosen the most obvious hiding place in the history of concealment.
It isn't fair, I didn't want to go, and this wasn't my idea. Why was I in this situation? Why didn't I just tell Connor no? I could have. I should have, but I couldn't leave him. This was his entire genius plan, and now I had to take the fall with him.
A large, meaty hand shot into my hiding place and clamped onto my arm with the force of a constricting arbok. I didn't even have the chance to scream before I found myself face-to-face with a hideous, muscular man. He was grinning at me like a gengar.
"Come here, Wilson. This runt's the reason you've lost your beauty sleep," he said triumphantly.
He shook me roughly and hauled me over to a stocky, and a tad less ugly, man.
This man, who I assume was the one complaining, looked at me gleefully.
"I think there's a promotion in for us. I can't believe you tried to break into Team Rocket's hideout," he directed toward me.
Fear raced through me and I desperately wished that I could just will it away. I wanted to be strong, defiant. I wanted to tell this idiot that I hadn't tried to break in. I had broken in, or rather Connor did, but I wasn't about to blow his hiding place here too. Most of all, however, I wanted to tear away from these piloswine and run all the way home.
What I wanted didn't matter at this point, though. I wasn't strong enough to get away and I wasn't daring enough to taunt my captors. Instead, I whimpered and only made token squirms against the man holding me. The only good thing that I could think of about this situation was that my appearance had distracted these guys from searching the room any further.
The men were both leering at me, but it was the smaller one that finally spoke after they had stopped laughing at me.
"Well, it looks like we get to take you in for a check-up. The doc's gonna be thrilled to see ya," he informed me.
They then proceeded to drag me out of the room with the smaller, whiny man leading his companion and myself down the hallway to another one of the rooms. Apparently, I had been right in assuming that many of these rooms had the same purpose. This room was almost exactly the same as the one we had left. The only difference was that this room didn't have nearly as many Pokémon as the other one.
I never caught a glimpse of the woman when I had last been here, but when this "Doc" person turned toward me, I immediately knew that they were the same person.
The doctor was a very imposing woman. She was tall, had raven black hair, and her striking blue eyes were filled with cruel amusement. She didn't seem angry that I was here. In fact, she actually seemed happy.
"Hello, we knew you'd visit us again," she said in a warm voice. However, her eyes had a predatory gleam in them that belied her tone.
"Wait, there were intruders here before?" the larger man asked from behind me.
The doctor's eyes snapped from me and settled onto my captors. It was almost mesmerizing to witness how quickly her facial expression changed. The cruel amusement she held for me immediately changed to a hard, cold glare.
"Did you find any others with her?" she snapped.
"Oh, ah, no," the whiner said quickly.
"Well, we didn't exactly finish sweeping the room we found this one in," the man holding me shook me roughly for emphasis.
If possible, the woman's gaze hardened even more.
"What?" she questioned quietly.
The smaller man stepped in front of me and his dumb partner.
"We thought that it would be best to bring you the girl immediately, Miss," he said even faster than before.
The doctor stared at him for several long moments. The whiner began to squirm uncomfortably under her piercing glare.
"Well?" she snapped angrily, "Go look! Sweep the base again! This girl did not break that lock by herself, find her companions," she ordered the man in front of her.
"Y-yes, ma'am! Sorry," he stuttered and almost ran out of the room.
"You!" she snapped at my captor, "Go outside and wait by the door."
He released me and, without addressing the doctor, did as she ordered. He didn't rush out like his friend, though. Apparently, he wasn't bright enough to be afraid of this woman and the way he slowly shuffled out of the room only strengthened my opinion.
She continued to glare for a few moments after the door shut, as if the man outside could still feel the searing cold of her stare. It was almost like I had snapped my fingers under her nose from the way the doctor snapped out of her anger. She turned to me and smiled in her false, warm way.
"Now it's just us girls."
There was a pause, like she wanted me to contribute to our wonderful conversation but I was caught in fear and defiance at the same time. I didn't want to give her the pleasure, yet I was also too scared to even make a sound anyway.
"Now then, you must know that Team Rocket cannot tolerate this intrusion. It is important for us to maintain our very private business dealings," she sounded like she was scolding me for breaking curfew or something.
I still didn't say anything.
"You understand that we cannot risk you speaking about what you saw here, do you not? Perhaps the authorities will think you to be some hoodlum, but if our clients hear of you talking about Team Rocket, they will become very paranoid and terminate our contracts. We can't have that," she said softly.
I had a terrible feeling that I knew what was about to happen. There's no way for me to say if it was fear or bravery that spurred me into action, but I made a break for it anyway. The woman made no move to stop me, but I guess she really didn't have to.
Almost as soon as I had swung open the door, the ugly, lumbering man was there to grab me. He may not be the brightest guy, but he sure reacted fast. I was then dragged back inside, and the man stayed in the room.
"So, you know what's going coming to you, yes?" she wasn't angry that I tried to escape, not in the slightest. She seemed excited instead.
I kept up the silent treatment, but she didn't seem to mind.
"Well, get her strapped to the table, then," she directed sharply.
I had no trouble finding the effort to struggle this time. However, I may as well have been not moving seeing as the man merely threw me over his back and carried me over like I was a sack of potatoes. He was able to get me strapped onto the table with ease and even laughed at me as I tried to break out of them.
"Outside," the doctor directed behind him.
The man almost looked like he was pouting as he turned away from me and left the room. The doctor them proceeded to ignore me completely as she prepared to destroy my life. I'm ashamed to admit that I was crying instead of couragously staying silent or yelling at her defiantly 'til the end.
I couldn't believe that this was happening to me. I should be asleep right now, not here. I wanted to go back in time and keep from opening my window. What does it matter to me what Team Rocket was doing? It hadn't been affecting me or Connor, so why had we come back? I don't even know what to think about him, I was caught between feeling relieved that he might have a chance to get away and angry that he'd gotten me in this mess.
She returned with the ugly, yellow liquid, but instead of immediately jabbing me with a needle and pumping that crap into me, she put the flask into some port and stepped up to a computer.
"I'd tell you not to worry, but I'm afraid that this will be painful," she informed me as she typed away.
There was no way for me to get out of this and I knew it. I'd stopped struggling and, though I couldn't stop crying, I kept silent.
The doctor stopped typing suddenly and I looked at her to see that she was pursing her lips.
"Hmm, looks like we have no requests today. Ah well, we'll just see what you're compatible with," she said thoughtfully.
The good doctor then walked out of my line of vision, however she returned only seconds later. I felt a sharp pain in the crook of my elbow then felt a gentle pinching sensation.
"You remember Reynolds's experience, yes? We weren't very happy with him. Of course, we aren't too happy with you and your little friends either, but you are far easier to deal with... Just a bit of blood so I can analyze it," she chatted.
She didn't take much before she removed the needle. My small test tube was put into another port and she returned to typing.
I'd stopped thinking by this point. There wasn't much of a use for it right now.
"How curious!" she exclaimed suddenly, "There is only one match with your DNA, dear. Mmm, Reynolds would have known more about this, but I can hardly ask him, now can I? she chuckled.
More typing followed and I began to hate that sound. Why couldn't this have gone faster? It was almost like she was torturing me further with all the waiting.
This time, the needle was put in the top of my wrist. The sensation of my blood being taken had been horrible, but this felt worse. It wasn't painful, but just the thought of this woman pumping some yellow crap inside me, that I desperately didn't want, was terrible. It was thick and gross and I wanted to throw up.
She patted my head, "You're handling this much better than that idiot," she praised.
I didn't hear anything else she said as my body erupted in agony. It felt like my skin was being ripped open, my bones breaking and moving and my muscles realigning themselves. I don't know if I was screaming, but there was a large chance that I was. The only thing I could hear was a strange roaring in my ears. I couldn't see, feel or smell anything either. Not that it mattered anyway because I soon stopped thinking too.