It was tight, but it was a good fit.
Blue liked it well enough. The sleeves ended just above her wrists, the hem in the middle of her thighs, the collar resting right up against her throat. A red letter R was plastered on the torso of the black uniform. Heather-colored gloves and boots completed the look, along with a newsboy hat she was forced into putting on. At least she was allowed to keep her hair down, another reason she was particularly special for, as all the other female Team Rocket agents she had seen had shorter hair, or plastered up into their hat.
It was all fine until she started moving. Blue felt sticky. Everything moved with her; nothing was loose even by a smidge. She'd have to get used to it, though.
The first thing she tried to do was go up to Silver's room. She didn't even make it to the elevator before being dragged down the hall, pushed into a small room, and out the back door of the room into a cargo hold. Then she was left to her own devices, wandering down the landing to be on the floor of the large area. Blue tugged at the fingers on her gloves, wondering what to do.
Someone poked her from behind in the shoulder blades, and she turned sharply, surprised to see Silver standing in front of her. Whatever amusing look he'd worn before completely disappeared once she faced him, wiped for a mix of awe and astonishment.
"Wow", he breathed. Blue stepped back a bit, feeling stunned, and he snapped out of it.
"Th-This is for you." A pokeball landed in her hands. "It was in a drawer with your name on it. I'm supposed to give it to you."
She looked down at it, wondering what was inside, when Silver suddenly gave her another quick glance and turned to leave. Blue looked up so fast she dropped the pokeball, grabbing the edge of his shirt instead. "Silver . ."
" . . Yeah?"
"Thanks."
Both their words were soft, quiet, distant-sounding. He still hadn't turned to her, but gave her a quick nod. She released him just in time for him to dart forward, blinking out of her sight within moments.
Blue bent over and snatched up the pokeball, choosing to put it on her head. Its small size and her curved hat would prevent it from rolling around, being uncomfortable.
Then a thought came to mind. What drawer? The one in the place she was before, the one with no light?
Was this intended for her in the beginning?
Now she was curious, but she wasn't a fool. She'd wait, find a moment alone, then see what lurked inside.
A noise then caught her attention. People were moving towards the center of the room.
It was time to go.
••••
It was haunting to see her.
Not just in the uniform, but really up-close like that. When her skin had energy again, her hair not limp but full of life. She was stunning, and she knew he knew it. Why else would she have flinched back?
Silver walked at an incredibly slow pace once he knew he was out of her range of sight. He just needed to think. But think about what, exactly? He decided it was a lot of things.
••••
There were two bad possibilities with this outfit.
One was that it'd be sweltering outside. Black wasn't exactly the perfect color to wear in that situation. It didn't help that her shirt had long sleeves.
The other was rain. The color didn't particularly matter in that one, but it wasn't much fabric, very thin, and the skirt wasn't a pleasure either.
She was in the second situation.
It wasn't even just a sprinkle, no, a full-on storm. Blue would honestly prefer the snow.
Her and the sixteen other Rocket members that had come were in the outskirts of a place called Pallet. It didn't sound familiar to her at all. She hadn't really gotten that much of a look of the place, but what she did see she dropped in moments. There had to be only two or three houses from what she could tell. No way was she from there.
But she also wasn't going to make a run for it. The storm had calmed considerably by the time they all got on the water, but it was still pouring and -much to her annoyance, everyone had a jacket but her- she wasn't going to risk leaving and getting sick because of the cold.
Lightning flashes in the distance, making Blue bring her head it. It didn't frighten her, just made her wonder. Natural or pokemon-made? Any way, it was beautiful, clear and powerful and bright in the midst of the rain.
She had been left alone pretty much, not really caring. Nearly everyone was on the opposite end of the boat, looking overboard for the gorebyss that were supposedly around here. Blue didn't think so, considering they were supposed to be from another region, but apparently water pokemon were special, all over the place. Also, she'd been told a cargo ship carrying pokemon from gorebyss' primary region had lost a few pokemon. A gorebyss had been one of them.
She could still hear mutters. Ones of masked children and their special treatment, of a girl with long, brown hair who ran away a lot, one who had met the boss' son, and, most recently, had gotten her own pokemon. She knew their feelings, their jealously, their timidness. They were tired of her but they were tiring themselves out by being afraid of what would happen if someone picked on her. She guessed they weren't good things. So she was fine with being left alone.
Shouting came from the other end, and Blue carefully stood, waiting a moment before making her way over. There were two big clumps. One at the edge of the boat, turning a knob, and another leaning over the side, looking to see what the other group was pulling up.
She could see the beginnings of a net, water heavily dripping from the openings. It had to be pretty high up already, considering she was behind all the taller, older Rockets. Sure enough, she was right. One of them at the front turned back and searched the boat with wild eyes before landing on me.
"There you are. Get over here. We're ready."
Blue wasn't exactly sure what she was here for, but she was apparently about to find out.
••••
Should he have been concerned?
Where exactly did she go?
Silver didn't have much time to worry. he had walked past his father's office, the door being opened. He heard his name in the air once, and backtracked, looking into the room. Giovanni sat behind his desk, writing something, and spoke without looking up, seeming to sense his presence. "Come here. I have somewhere for you to be."
"Y-You do?"
••••
It was magnificent, glorious, stupefying.
And she was standing right in front of it.
Blue only got a moment to bask, however, as the one that had called to her spoke yet again, the same gruff voice.
"Which one is the scale we need."
It was more of an issued command than a question, but she understood. It wasn't that hard to spot if you knew what to look for. Near the back, under a small cluster of smaller, overlapping scales, slightly a different shade of color.
She pointed to it and waited a few moments in silence while the ones behind her brooded in silence. Finally, one of them spoke up, but not out loud, choosing instead to briskly walk up to the one who was ordering her and say something to him quietly enough for Blue to not be able to hear over the rain.
It was at that moment she remembered who he was. Proton, one of the four Rocket executives. He made a hand gesture to the people at the crank and one ran over. He spoke to the Rocket silently and let them go back to the group. Noise started up soon after.
Blue looked back over to see a huge crane being lowered towards Gorebyss. All the water had now been drained out of the net, and she could already see signs of visible uncomfortableness from the pokemon.
Another giant flash of lightning caught her eye, drawing her away from the event before her. When she turned back, she saw the crane was in more of a claw-like structure, two sides hooked around the deepseascale. Gorebyss began struggling.
Proton snapped his head over to the crank group. "Hurry it up", he screeched above the rain, making Blue flinch back.
A sound turned her back towards the pokemon, just in time to see the scale being ripped off.
The blood. Everywhere. Hanging off the scale, from the open wound caused by the force of taking the scale off. Some managed to get on her face, a tiny splatter on her cheek. Everyone surged forward, all wanting to catch a glimpse at the evolutionary item. Blue was in the middle of them, being pushed around like the boat was on these choppy waves. The rain still came down, hiding her gasp at what she had witnessed, her big, round eyes, her unstable legs.
Her mind was a jumble of wild thoughts. Her head lightheaded. Rough adrenaline somehow surging through her, just making her feel worse.
There seemed to be an argument but she didn't catch it. All she saw was the net being released from the bar it hung from, the gorebyss still inside. Another argument and Proton's voice cut through her thick thoughts for a moment.
"It's none or our business whether or not it dies. We came for the deepseascale and we got it. That gorebyss is no longer in our interest anymore. Now come on, we're leaving."
The boat started moving back to shore and Blue fell to her knees, no longer able to stand.
••••
He would never forget that look.
Her hair was drenched. All of her was. But her hair took the worst of it.
She walked so stoically, lips slightly tight, yet her eyes were wide.
There was dried blood on her cheek.
She didn't seem to notice me, to notice anyone. Blue took the stairs, letting others crowd into the elevator, and that was the last Silver saw of her on that day.
She had looked absolutely petrified, and there he had stood, doing nothing.
