Chapter 2
A cold draft blew against Aspen as she slyly moved through the Olivine harbour. Her thin clothes didn't offer much protection against the sea breeze, the tiny hairs on her arms lifted as she rubbed her palms together to generate heat. The brisk, salty air filled her lungs as she plotted her route to Star Academy.
The academy being located in Olivine was not exactly a true statement; it was actually located on the outskirts of the city, nestled perfectly between route 39 and Olivine City. It was just far away enough from the everyday hustle and bustle to avoid unwanted eyes peering into its business.
Aspen grew annoyed with herself as she snuck over a wall and into the academy property. She knew she had lost a lot of time and was probably last.
The property the academy was situated in was massive and fit the profile of a private institution. There were three dormitory buildings on north, east and west ends of the property and a large; two storey building that looked like the main school located in the centre.
Aspen slinked into the school and made her way to the gymnasium following arrows that had been laid out for her. When she got to the gymnasium she saw that everyone else was already there and that there were three new faces amongst them. There were two guys and one girl.
The young woman had lightly tanned skin and long, jet black hair that was curly, but not in a frizzy way. The new girl gave Aspen a once over with her ice blue eyes before ignoring her. She had freckles across her nose and was a bit shorter than average which seemed to show off that she was quite curvy. She wore dark blue skinny jeans, a black tee shirt with an almost unnoticeable dark gray crack design, and lime green converses. She held a green hooded sweatshirt in her hands. Her name was Cassandra Dawn from Celadon City.
The second was a rather pale young man. He had dirty blonde hair that was untidy and messed up; his brown eyes were constantly darting around the room scanning the others. He wore dark blue sweatpants, brown sneakers, a brown T-shirt with a Tan boonie hat. His name was Giles Flynn from Vermilion city.
The third had long silver hair that curled at the ends. His hair was combed in such a way that a portion fell and covered his left eye. He kept his head down not bothering to look at anyone. He wore a grey T-Shirt with the logo of a rock band with black jeans and black combat boots. His name was Chase Graceland and as far as anyone knew he was from Sinnoh.
"You actually showed up, I thought you had given up." Hershel snickered.
"I made it, I had trouble getting here but I made it." Aspen glared.
"You sure took your time getting here; the three who left the day after us beat you here." Alex added.
"Enough of this, you'll have enough time to roast each other later." Domino announced entering the gymnasium.
"You finally make your appearance; we've been waiting for over an hour." Michel spoke up.
"And you'd wait another hour without complaining if I ordered it." Domino retorted.
"So why did you gather us all here?" Mystery asked.
"It wasn't just to welcome little old me?" Aspen smirked.
"I gather you all here to simply explain how things would be working from now on." Domino revealed.
"This is a training facility; we're going to be training. I don't think that needs much explaining." Rick said.
"There's more to the training than we know isn't there?" Cassandra insinuated.
"Whatever training you have in mind will not be a challenge for me." Comet declared.
"I'm going to explain this once so pay attention. While you're here at Star Academy you will be divided into three groups." Domino stated.
"Groups as in teams? I don't need any of these guys dragging me down." Hershel grunted.
"I think I get it, Team Rocket has had some famous teams in the past." Giles noted.
"Truth be told, I was actually hoping for something like this." Starky revealed.
"Team Moltres will be Michel, Comet and Cassandra. Team Articuno will be Starky, Alex, Chase and Aspen. Team Zapdos will be Rick, Hershel, Giles and Mystery." Domino declared before turning to leave.
"I can't be the only one noticing that we're a man down." Cassandra brought up.
"Play with the cards you're dealt instead of whining about them, a friend told me that once." Domino responded. "What you do for the rest of the day is up to you but be prepared because tomorrow will be your first big assignment."
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The dormitory building on the east side of the property had an ancient drawing of Articuno carved on the doors. Starky, Alex, Chase and Aspen all entered the dorm and found themselves underwhelmed by how ordinary it was.
"Team Rocket is supposed to be the richest criminal organisation in the world. I was expecting more." Alex scoffed.
"It actually makes perfect sense, these dorms seem to be modelled after military barracks, most likely to reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. Esprit de corps refers to the morale of a group, in case you didn't know." Aspen shot back.
"Just because you know some big words doesn't make you better than me." Alex retorted.
"No, my natural superiority makes me better." Aspen grinned.
"Okay, okay, let's calm down for a minute here." Starky said getting in between trying to diffuse things.
"Don't but in." Alex sneered.
"We're supposed to be on the same team, as much as you guys might not like it. We might have to rely on each other's strengths to make it through this thing." Starky spoke.
"Relying on each other's strength? There might be a serious flaw to that plan." Aspen glanced at Chase.
"That's right, I haven't heard you speak nor have I seen any glimpse of your Pokémon. Not even a pokeball." Alex stared.
"That's because I don't have any Pokémon." Chase confessed.
"Let's not gang up on Chase." Starky said. "Wait, what? You don't have any Pokémon at all?" Starky blurted out stunned.
"What are you doing here?" Alex questioned.
"There's no way Team Rocket would recruit you if you didn't have Pokémon." Aspen raised an eyebrow.
"I was recruited because of my affiliations." Chase admitted.
"So this is nepotism." Alex nodded.
"I'm impressed you know such a big word." Aspen laughed.
"Who exactly is your affiliation that Team Rocket recruited you to this program?" Starky questioned ignoring the tension between the other two.
"I don't want to go into details but I was very close to the criminal known as Zero." Chase explained.
"So that's it." Aspen said as she grabbed her bag.
"Where do you think you're going?" Alex asked.
"I'm going to the girl's rooms. Don't even think about following me." Aspen retorted.
"I think you owe us an explanation." Chase spoke up.
"I don't owe you guys anything." Aspen scoffed.
"You owe us an explanation as to why you were last. You called Chase weak but he made it here before you." Starky added.
"I ran into some complications." Aspen said not revealing anything.
"Those complications better not end up affecting the rest of us." Alex stated. "We can't have Articuno failing because of you."
"If anything, you guys should be worrying about whether you can keep up with me or not. That's all." Aspen declared before storming off.
"Should we go after her, what do we do?" Chase asked.
Starky and Alex both realized what would happen in that instant. Chase had effectively ruled himself out of a leadership role by asking to take direction. Whether it was on purpose or by accident, Starky and Alex both didn't know. They both debated the different options to the question in their minds trying to figure out which answer would put them in pole position to take charge.
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"So this is the Moltres dorm…" Comet commented unimpressed as he entered the dorm to the west.
"It's chilly here." Cassandra said putting on her hooded sweatshirt, leaving the zipper open.
"This place, it's adequate at best." Michel cursed.
"Time to make myself at home." Comet said as he began taking off his shirt.
"What the hell are you doing?" Cassandra shouted putting distance between herself and him.
"I'm just getting comfortable." Comet winked.
"Don't wink at me!" Cassandra scoffed.
"That's strange, it usually works on women." Comet thought out loud. "Must be because you're only sixteen."
"Domino warned you about the whole shirt thing, a guy walking around without a shirt wouldn't be considered covert." Michel reminded.
"You're right. I guess I'll keep my shirt on for now." Comet relented.
"You better." Cassandra said.
"We're behind the eight ball right of the get go." Michel spoke up saying what was on everybody's mind.
"That is a trivial matter; I can make up for that one man disadvantage." Comet boasted.
"I don't know you and on the off chance you are actually that good enough there's no way we can make up this handicap." Cassandra sighed.
"You're awfully negative Cassandra. All we have to do is define a single goal and go ahead full steam towards it." Michel smirked.
"Since we're all going to be on the same thing, you can call me Cassie." Cassandra responded.
"I agree with Michel, if we are going to do something about our situation then we should have a clear plan." Comet nodded.
"I'm going to let you guys in on something, I'm a born leader. If you follow me then we'll have nothing to worry about." Cassandra bragged.
"Oh, that's cute but if anyone should be a leader it's me." Michel sneered.
"I'm the only one of us who is truly qualified to lead Team Moltres." Comet declared striking a good guy thumbs up pose.
"It appears that we have a three way standoff here. I'm caught between a pretty-boy and a very pretty girl." Michel shrugged his shoulders.
"Thank you but flattery will not get me to back down." Cassandra replied.
"It was worth a shot." Michel smiled.
"You two should just back down and allow me to take charge; you can easily ride my coat tails." Comet laughed.
"I guess this is what they call a Mexican standoff." Cassandra said.
"Technically in a Mexican standoff the first to shoot is the loser and the second is the winner." Michel corrected.
"How do you know that doesn't apply to this situation?" Comet questioned.
"You could be misleading us so you can be the second to shoot." Cassandra accused.
"I'm impressed you figured that out." Michel admitted.
"It really is true, we can't trust anyone here." Cassandra cursed.
"We're all here to join a criminal organisation; it should be obvious that we can't trust anyone." Comet commented.
"It doesn't look like we're going to get anywhere." Michel sighed.
"You're right; we can stand here and argue for hours." Cassandra agreed.
"So it's decided, we'll get settled in now." Comet spoke.
The three nodded and walked off to their rooms.
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The quartet assigned to Zapdos made their way towards their north dorm. As they grew closer, each of them began picking up pace trying to be the first to reach the door. As they got closer to the door all four of them reached out for the door handle and ended up getting in each other's way.
"This is ridiculous." Mystery spoke.
"If you think that, then you wouldn't mind me entering first." Hershel responded.
"I would mind that." Rick interrupted.
"It's not like the first person to enter the dorm would have any special advantage over the others." Giles laughed off.
"If that's the case then why do you still have your hands on the door handle?" Mystery pointed out.
"You called this ridiculous and you're still holding the handle." Rick scoffed.
"I'm not going to budge on this matter; you are better off giving up." Hershel warned.
"I'm used to being too close like this." Giles smirked referring to the fact they were all crammed together reaching for the door handle.
"Even though you all could use some deodorant, a simply bad smell won't be enough to force me away." Mystery mocked.
"You think making us feel self conscious will get you anywhere, you're wrong. I mean look at Hershel, he wears that absurd top hat." Rick sneered.
"You are beneath my contempt you lazy …" Hershel held himself back.
"We're supposed to be on the same team here, we can't afford to start hating each just yet." Giles warned.
"I'm sorry Giles, you seem to have the correct idea about things but I don't work well with others, especially people who insult my top hat." Hershel explained.
"He doesn't seem to have the right idea, it is the right idea. We have no idea what's going on with the other teams, they may be taking to this idea of being teamed up better than we are." Mystery spoke up.
"Articuno is our only threat right now, even as a dysfunctional unit we'd still be able to use our man advantage to beat Moltres." Rick theorised.
"I propose for the sake of future team harmony we all release the handle at the same time, back away and talk things out in a calm manner." Giles suggested.
"I'll count down from three and then we'll release." Hershel nodded.
"No way, I don't trust you. I'll count down." Mystery refused.
"It was my idea, I'll count down." Giles exclaimed.
"We should all count down at the same time." Rick said.
"3…2…1!"
Nobody released their grip on the door handle.
"I knew it, none of you planned on letting go." Mystery scoffed.
"You're still holding on too." Giles shot.
"So that was your plan, get us to let go by pretending to want to promote team harmony." Hershel gained some respect for Giles.
"It would seem that this is going to turn into one of those contests where you hold onto something for a long time to win a prize." Rick chuckled.
"The only difference is there is no prize here." Mystery sniggered.
"We could be here for hours, I hope you are prepared." Hershel declared.
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Domino walked around the Star Academy property taking in the sights and surveying the land. As she walked her phone began to ring. She pulled the device out of her pocket and when she saw the name Giovanni on the caller ID she immediately answered it.
"Good day sir." Domino gulped answering the call.
"I take it you're at your precious Star Academy." Giovanni responded.
"Yes sir, I've finished dividing the first class into their different teams." Domino replied.
"According to my latest report you only have eleven recruits." Giovanni said.
"Yes sir, that's because we've abandoned the policy of accepting anyone one and have begun actively seeking out recruits." Domino explained.
"This training program you've constructed. It's unrealistic and impossible. I don't think all of them will make it through." Giovanni responded.
"This program is a variant of the same program I went through under Madame Boss. Of a class of thirty, I was the only one to pass. Half failed and the others didn't make it." Domino revealed.
"Ah, my mother's training program. You and Miyamoto were the only ones to have passed that program before I stopped it. You went behind my back and reinstated that training under the guise of Star Academy." Giovanni scowled.
"My apologises boss but it had to be done. We've been lacking agents who personified the ideals Team Rocket was founded on. We require agents whose skills are fearsome enough to defeat enemies without actually engaging them. We require more agents like Miyamoto and myself." Domino pled her case.
"I'll allow you to continue but remember this; I've sunk enough money into Star Academy to buy a small island. You better come through on this; I don't care if there are any causalities along the way. I want agents who rival yourself and Miyamoto." Giovanni ordered ending the call.
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Another chapter of Young Rockets, I plan to post one chapter every weekend.
Now that the recruits have been forced into teams, things will start getting interesting.
As always, thank you for reading and please leave a review to let me know how I'm doing.
There is still room for more recruits so send through an OC if you want to join in.