Sorry about the delay, I'm on vacation in Tokyo this week! I'm posting two chapters, they were originally part of longer chapters but I ended up having to split them in half because it flowed better. As a result, they took a little longer to massage out. Enjoy!


Chapter 28

A few minutes into our flight, Cassidy's cellphone rang.

"Who's callin'?" Butch asked nervously.

She pulled it out and looked at the screen.

"It's the Boss," she whispered, "he's gonna absolutely—"

"Lemme talk to 'im, then," Butch growled, trying to grab the phone from her.

She swatted him away, saying, "If he wanted to talk to you, he would have called your phone! I'll be able to break it to him better than you could, anyway."

At this remark, Butch relented. Cassidy then cleared her throat, smiled, and picked up the phone.

"Hello, Boss!" she said in her sweet phone voice, "We were just about to—"

I couldn't hear anything Giovanni was saying to her, but I could see her smile gradually fade as each second passed.

"Well, there have been some hiccups. Unfortunately, Mewtwo was not there when we arrived—"

The "What?!" was very audible from where I was sitting, and Cassidy flinched so hard that she almost dropped her phone.

"Yes, sir—"

Muffled angry noises. Each time Cassidy would open her mouth to address them, there were more.

"But . . . yes, but there is good news!" she interrupted finally, "Butch was at least able to capture the Pokémon Trainer that was protecting him."

There was a moment of silence, then Cassidy's eyes widened.

"Yes . . . yes, sir, I should have—"

Cassidy fell silent again, and a few moments later she took the phone off her face. Then she started searching her bag for something.

"What'd he say?" Butch asked eagerly.

"He was pretty pissed that we captured a child," she grumbled, shooting him a look.

"D'you reckon we just drop 'er off here, then?" he chuckled, looking down.

Cassidy was not amused.

"His orders were to treat her with care," she sighed regretfully, "But as a precaution . . ."

She found a handkerchief and started to move toward me, "I'm sure he wouldn't object to her being blindfolded. We don't want her seeing how we get into the hideout, do we?"

"No," I begged, shrinking away from her, "I can't even see outside from here—"

"Shut up," she snapped, "or I'll gag you as well."

When we finally touched down, I was actually more grateful than scared; anything was better than listening to Cassidy and Butch bicker for one second longer.

I heard the cabin door slide open.

"Let's go."

The short heels of Cassidy's boots clicked as she dropped onto a metal floor.

"You're not gonna make me carry 'er, are you?" Butch complained.

"Well how else are we going to take her down there?"

"I don't wanna—"

"What, is she too heavy for you?" Cassidy asked condescendingly, "She's practically the size of your bicep!"

"Argh, fine, if it'll shut you up," Butch muttered.

I froze when I heard him start toward me

"One kick from you," he said, putting one arm under my legs and another behind my back, "and I'll have Sneasle drag you instead, got it?"

Having no desire to feel Sneasle's claws on my scalp again, I nodded stiffly and cooperated; the strong smell of cigarette smoke and mint gum made me tense up even more. I gasped when I felt him hop out of the chopper with me and started walking. We got into what sounded like an elevator and began descending.

Nobody said a word on the way down. As much as I wanted my blindfold off, I really did not want to have to look at Butch for however long I was going to be stuck in this position.

The elevator doors opened, and we stepped out and walked for about a minute before I could hear voices up ahead. They got louder until I sensed that we had entered some kind of atrium where the walls were further apart.

"Who's that?"

"Why's Butch carrying a kid?"

"Hey, did you two finally get hitched or something?" someone else joked.

"Is the Boss in?" I heard Cassidy ask tensely.

"Not yet," a man answered, "I don't think he'll be back for at least another hour. Who's this with you?"

"Not important. What room can we keep her in until he arrives?"

"Um . . . you can try the storage room near his office? Room S103?"

Storage room?!

Cassidy turned and started walking, Butch followed her at a quick pace.

"Why're you going so—"

"I've got better things to do than babysitting two children," she snapped before he finished his sentence.

"What the hell's your problem today?!" Butch exclaimed, "Losing Mewtwo wasn't my fault, you were the one who tipped her off with that phone call!"

"It wasn't supposed to 'tip her off', it was to confirm that he was still there! I never gave us away."

I tried to tune them out, but it was nearly impossible. Eventually Butch stopped walking, and I heard the sound of a code being pressed followed by a door slid open.

"In you go," I heard Butch say before he placed me onto the floor.

"Can you at least—"

Without waiting for me to finish my sentence, Butch input the code again and the door slid shut

I sat there in silence for a moment before I used my feet and another solid object nearby to push myself up against the wall by the door. I felt my body finally begin to relax, and it was then that I began to cry.

A few minutes later, a light flicked on.

I gasped and stiffened again.

"H . . . Hello?" I sniffed.

There was no response

"Who's—"

Without warning, my blindfold appeared to have vanished. I stopped crying in surprise and looked around the dimly lit room; I really was in a storage closet. There was a mix of supplies, from Pokéballs to shirts to cleaning materials. But nothing that I could see would help me escape.

It was then that I heard feet coming down the hallway.

I was still confused when the door opened again, and a boy that looked to be a few years older than myself entered. He looked tall since I was on the floor and his uniform was almost too short for him, but his face was young; I guessed that he was at most two years older than myself.

He walked toward me and commanded, "Get up and follow me."

"I . . . can't—"

When he saw that my hands and feet were tied together, his hand flew to his belt and flipped a sharp, silver blade out of the knife's hilt. My first instinct was to get away, but that wasn't possible.

"Stop moving for a sec, will ya?"

He practically held me down to cut the rope binding me, after which he hauled me to my feet and the turned back toward the door. Before he could start walking, I ran full speed past him and out into the hallway. I stopped and blinked, surprised that I'd gotten away.

But after he jumped on me and pinned me to the wall I was facing, I knew escape was not an option at this time.

"Hey, don't try that again!" he threatened.

I didn't answer him. He pulled me away from the wall and kept a firm grip on my arm, forcing me to walk next to him. I was led through a bunch of hallways, looking around as I tried to memorize where certain rooms were; we passed a lab, a nap room, and a bathroom.

You've gotten out of a hideout before, you can do it again, I tried to reassure myself.

After turning a corner, the kid knocked on the biggest door I've seen there. I looked at the label on the door, the name that was engraved read:

Giovanni

Team Rocket Chairman

I suddenly felt nauseous, and my legs buckled slightly; what was going to happen once I entered this room? The kid roughly pulled me up once more and pressed a card to a scanner next to the door. A deep, familiar voice sounded through a speaker above the scanner:

"Come in."

There was a loud buzzing as the door opened, and I was pulled inside.

It was a spacious office; there was a broad, flat screen TV at one end of the room, a couch at another end, a huge desk near the back wall with a tiny chair in front of it, and a gigantic chair behind the desk where Giovanni sat. He was stroking a rather large Persian, who glared in my direction and growled quietly. Giovanni followed her gaze, and his dark eyes widened in mild surprise when he saw me.

"You again?"