Chapter 2 : Attempted Reeducation
What was it like joining Team Rocket? Rough, let's leave it at that. They whip you into shape fast. People were separated and trained for different objectives. Of course there was no argument that I would be working to steal Pokemon for the organization. I had no clue what the other objectives were, and at that point I didn't care.
That man who inducted me into Team Rocket became my mentor and I learned that his name was Amos. Hilariously enough that's a type of rocket missile and I asked him if joined Team Rocket because of his name. He just gave me a dirty look and told me to get back to training.
I had to endure battle training every day with him, then we worked on tactics, ways to use my Pokemon in missions, and what to do if you get caught (usually it was just beat up the person who discovered you with your Pokemon and beat it.). I was starting to wonder why I had agreed to join this organization. I hadn't done anything remotely close to stealing a single Pokemon and I was just getting training in things I already knew, albeit it was good for my new Growlithe who seriously needed to get some fighting in. The darn thing was restless!
It was when I had managed to beat Amos's Cloyster with a well planned attack and dodge strategy with Growlithe that he decided I was ready for a mission. Well good, it was about time!
We were in Vermillion city, home to the Pokemon Fan Club. "These freaks pamper and prune their Pokemon all day. They treat them like show 'mons is what they do. They aren't allowed to break a nail or have a hair out of place, so much as fight." Amos explained as we approached the Fan Club building. Amos broke inside easily and managed to find a register with all of the members' names and addresses. I was surprised, I had never managed to break into more than one home per night, and Amos expected us to break into at least thirty. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do it.
"Amos. What if the Pokemon like being primped and preened? How do we know? We haven't seen them interact with their owners. And it can't be that all of these Pokemon don't like being treated like this." I pointed out. I would feel guilty if I stole some person's Pokemon when the two were truly happy together. It was a rare sight, but it did exist.
"No Pokemon should like being treated like this." Amos muttered as he ripped the list in half and handed me one of the torn pieces. "You'll be taking care of these. Don't screw up, because I won't help you out if you do."
"I wouldn't need your help if I did. Which I wouldn't." I insisted. I grabbed the list from him and stared at the first address. It wasn't too far from here. In fact, it was only a few houses down. I quickly set to work.
Getting into the house was easy. Some dolt had left a window open so I quickly snuck in. The Pokemon I was supposed to be looking for in here was a Charmander. Trying to use my general knowledge, I quickly deduced that a Charmander is usually a Pokemon known for fighting. They may have been mild mannered, but usually, they were battlers. That isn't to say that there weren't the rare few that disliked fights, but it was easy to assume that this one probably loved them as much as the average Charmander. Besides, Vermillion was right next to the ocean. The humid air is horrible for Charmander who prefer warm, dry places.
I quickly found a Pokeball sitting on a cushion on a table. I picked it up and stared at the translucent red top of the Pokeball. Inside the Charmander was sleeping peacefully. I quickly stowed the Pokeball on my belt where I kept Sandshrew and Growlithe's Pokeballs.
I noted how strange it was for a pet Pokemon to be kept in a Pokeball. But the way it was sitting on a fancy cushion on a table, I quickly assumed the Pokemon was on display. Ugh, the way people treated their Pokemon sometimes.
I quickly made it out of the house and made my way through the list, using my powers of deduction to decide whether taking a Pokemon was a good idea or not. I took the Clefairy that was clearly anxiously scratching at windows in an attempt to escape, despite the fact that Clefairy were usually mild mannered. I left the Vulpix that was curled up with its owner, clearly very happy with it. Once I had visited the last house on the list I waited out in the town square, wondering when Amos would arrive.
I counted how many Pokemon I had managed to steal while I was waiting. I had nine, the Charmander and Clefairy, a Mankey, a Meowth, a Machop, a Krabby, an Oddish, a Lickitung, and a Horsea. My list had had seventeen homes, and most of the other Pokemon seemed content with their owners and I didn't have the heart to take them. Hopefully Amos wouldn't be too angry with me, otherwise I'd have early morning battle training which he deemed the suitable for any and all misdemeanors.
When the other Team Rocket member came I noted how his arms were loaded with Pokeballs. He had clearly taken every Pokemon that was on his list, unlike me. Had he been too lazy to evaluate, or had he simply not cared?
"Hey, where are all the Pokemon you got?" he demanded. I showed him the nine Pokeballs and he blinked at me. "That's all?" he grabbed my list out of my hands and demanded, "Some kid had a Vulpix! And another had a Cubone! And a Slowpoke! Do you know how much those things tails are worth?"
"I thought we weren't in this for the money?" I demanded as I grabbed my list from him and tore it to shreds. "I wasn't going to steal away happy Pokemon."
"Kid, you need to learn that a Pokemon might think it's happy, but it'll discover that it will be ten times happier if it's training and becoming stronger. Or if it's being used for our benefit."
"No, that just sounds like something that'll make you happier." I commented as I gathered up the Pokemon I had stolen.
Amos turned away from me and noticed the sun slowly beginning to rise in the distance. "Shoot, we don't have time to discuss this now. Hurry up, we're heading back to base."
I clipped my Pokeballs back onto my belt and followed after him, heading through the north gate to Saffron, where my training base was hidden. We quickly made our way to the base, not bothering to talk so we wouldn't be noticed. A pair running around in Team Rocket uniforms weren't very inconspicuous.
Fortunately we managed to make it without being seen and Amos quickly took my Pokeballs before I could protest. He stared at each Pokemon in turn before jotting down something about them. He only acknowledged me when he muttered, "You took an Oddish, but not a Cubone?" he shook his head as he moved on to write a bit more before packing the Pokeballs into boxes with the note on top, handing it to another Team Rocket member to deal with.
"The Oddish was trying to get bows out from its leaves while the Cubone was sitting protectively over its owner, clearly caring for her." I explained. I stared defiantly at him and he just glared back down at me. He didn't say anything, clearly too exasperated with me to think of the right words to lecture me. I took advantage of the fact and continued my rant. "You suckered me into coming to this place, lying to me about what you really do here. You're just so selfish that you wanted a little girl to help you with the grunt work so you could get some more cash stealing away Pokemon and making them miserable!"
I received a smack to the face and blinked at Amos, not understanding what had just happened. I simply gave him an angry gaze, demanding an explanation.
"You do as I tell you next time. If you want to stay in Team Rocket, then you need to earn your place here."
"What if I don't? You conned me into coming to this place. All I've gotten out of it is a bed, which I wasn't really asking for before." I felt my upper lip pull back into a snarl as I voiced my feelings.
"Well, you're stuck here now. Besides, you'll miss that bed once it's gone." I stared at the ground angrily knowing that he was right about at least one of those. I was stuck here. The bed being gone, not so much. They weren't very comfortable in the first place. I suppose that Amos took my silence as defiance because he added with a sharp bark, "So, next time I tell you to steal a Pokemon, you do it."
"Even if that makes them unhappy?" I asked weakly, nearly ready to give up and just admit he was right, if only to end this conversation. I felt so exhausted all of a sudden.
"Pokemon aren't the most important thing in the world, kid. No one thinks they are. Why do you think you had to resort to sneaking around and stealing to make them happy? Because no one else cares about them." I blinked hard as I thought about what Amos was saying.
What if he was right? What if the rest of the world wasn't blind as I chose to believe? What if they simply didn't care? What if it didn't matter to them that their Pokemon was happy, as long as they had the Pokemon they wanted? Was that why no one would listen to me when I was excommunicated from my village? Not because they couldn't see the sense in what I was saying, but because it didn't matter to them?
Then didn't that make all people selfish? So what if some trainers actually managed to get Pokemon that behaved the way they wanted. It was all chance. A boy may have gotten a strong Pokemon he wanted for battling resulting in both of them being happy. But what if that boy had caught another that was happy to just settle on his shoulder and watch? He would force it to fight, rather than care for it. So maybe he didn't deserve that battling Pokemon he had in the first place.
Amos clearly saw that I was letting the thoughts bubble around in my mind and gave me that crooked smile of his. "Good. Now go to your quarters and get some sleep. You've got five o'clock battle training tonight. You come late and it's four o'clock in the morning the next day. Got it?" I simply nodded as I heard his boots squeak against the linoleum, alerting me that he was leaving. I had no words left and could only watch his boots walk away. I had a lot of thinking to do that night.
I entered the trainee quarters and sighed, unsure of what to believe. These other trainees in the beds set near mine obviously were part of Team Rocket for their own reasons. Were any of them here for similar reasons as me? Did anyone here believe they were rescuing Pokemon, or had they bought into the Team Rocket motto of stealing, exploiting and using Pokemon for Team Rocket's great name? Sure, maybe the Pokemon I stole were being sold or used for the simple sake of earning Team Rocket money, but it was better than their previous lives wasn't it? Either the Pokemon were sold to new trainers, or they were being trained by other members of Team Rocket. That wasn't such a horrible fate, compared to being tortured by owners who claimed to understand them, was it? Better to be hurt by people intent on hurting you, rather than people who claimed to care about you, right?
I released my Sandslash and Growlithe from their Pokeballs and stared at them, wondering if they were still happy with me, if they still accepted me as their loving master who understood them.
"Is everything I'm doing wrong? Am I wrong?" I asked them. They blinked at each other before staring back at me. Had they even understood the question?
I got my answer when Sandslash curled up in my lap and Growlithe leapt on to my head and licked at my forehead. I beamed at the two of them and lay down in my bed. Perhaps what I was doing wasn't right in anyone else's eyes. But to my two Pokemon, to my closest friends who had stuck by my side through everything, all that I did was just right.
I fell asleep curled up with the two of them, all three of us smiling in our sleep.
