Title: The Pikachu Project
If you're thinking of sicking your lawyers on me, look at chapter one for a disclaimer.
Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, it really does make my day. Now, let's have a small recap so far, shall we? Dr. Craig, the Team Rocket scientist in charge of creating genetically engineered Pokemon, has just recently been given the duty to deliver Pikachu to Delia's house, but has also been put on probation for his lack of knowledge about Pikachu.
Ooh, let's see what happens next! And please review when finished! ...I've noticed that this fic has had over two hundred hits, but only has around 20 reviews so far. But, hey, that's still good! Thanks everyone!
The Pikachu Project
By: Tear22
Chapter Three: A Delivery To Hell
"Do have any idea what time it is?" Eric asked Dr. Craig, who had previously entered the Team Rocket cafeteria to eat breakfast. "Weren't you supposed to meet the Boss at nine?" he said, taking a seat next to his fellow agent, whose expression had gone from calm to that of complete terror.
"I…what?" Dr. Craig asked, a piece of his jellied toast slipping out of his gaping mouth.
"Be there at nine," Eric responded with a tone of exasperation, "I'm supposed to be there at 10:00 to help you deliver the Pikachu as well with some other Team Rocket Grunts," he finished, tapping the glass face of his watch impatiently.
"What… What time is it now?" he asked, slipping Pikachu a bit of bacon through the cage bars, who immediately ripped the greasy meat from Dr. Craig's hand and nibbled his hand affectionately.
Eric leaned forward slightly and cupped his gloved hands to Dr. Craig's ear and whispered in a barely audible voice, "It's 9:40."
"It's what!" Dr. Craig shrieked, standing up so abruptly that he caused his chair to fall backwards, landing on the cold tile with a loud clang. "I was supposed to be there forty minutes ago!"
"Exactly," Eric said, a sly smile spreading across his pale lips, "And if my resources serve me right, you're already on probation, aren't you?"
"Dang it!" Dr. Craig yelled, pulling at several strands of his straight, charcoal black hair, "I can't believe this!"
"I'd get going if I were you," Eric said, starting to mindlessly twirl the straw that was in Dr. Craig's half drunken cup of orange juice. "…Nice slippers," he added and smirked, lightly prodding the other agent's shoe with his own, "Sir."
Dr. Craig had gone to the cafeteria with the impression that he would be able to eat, go to his room and change his clothes, and go to meet the Boss at nine. Since he had miscalculated the time, he was now running down the corridor toward the loading and docking lot, his bedroom slippers squeaking against the tiled floor impatiently and his gray undershirt clinging to his now sweaty body.
He reached the door and wrapped his slim fingers around the polished handle and wrenched the door open, slamming it, and left the other people in the corridor with a mildly alarmed expression on their faces.
"I'm here sir!" he bellowed, his voice carrying throughout the entire lot. He realized, however, that the only other occupants in the lot were two field agents who looked up at him as they were loading a truck; several large bags of bombs slung over their bruised shoulders.
"What are ya doin' here, Will?" the agent named Nathan asked, continuing to lower his bag into the back of the pickup truck and with a casual flick of his hand scooted his Umbreon to the side in the back of the truck. It gave an impatient flick of its frayed gold and black tail and proceeded to give up its sleeping spot, instead moving to a far corner of the truck, with its sharp teeth lovingly dug into the side of its chew toy.
"I'm here to deliver the Pikachu to the fiancée's place," he said, panting slightly as he looked around warily for any sign of the Boss in the large lot.
"Can't he just handle that himself?" Nathan's partner, Sue, sighed, leaning over the siding of the truck to stroke the tattered fur of their Umbreon, whose ears perked at the slight touch.
"Apparently not," Dr. Craig said, looking down at Pikachu, whose attempts to escape its cage had decreased slightly in the last few days.
It now sat on the cold metal of the floor in its small cage, its tail swishing back and forth rhythmically. It looked nearly hypnotized, the only other sign of movement than its tail were its charcoal black eyes, which darted at the noise of the several garage-like doors as they were heavily lifted, revealing teams of worn looking field agents, dragging their torn balloons into the lot with difficulty in order to be repaired.
"Well, he's not here," Sue said bitterly, attempting to playfully jerk the chew toy from Umbreon's mouth. "He never showed up for work this morning."
"Really?" Dr Craig said, as a wave of relief washed over him. "I thought he just lived here or something."
"He generally does. But he's been goin' to spend the weekend with that woman of his fer the past few weeks," Nathan said, giving a swift kick with the heel of his boot at the ground as he brushed several strands of light blond hair out of his blue eyes. "I think she used to be a member of the team, right?" he asked offhandedly, looking to his partner, who shrugged in response.
"It's a rumor," she commented, sweeping her brown hair into a short ponytail. "None of the Boss' secretaries seem to have access to any sort of information about her in our files."
"Well, in any case," Nathan said, whose words slurred together somewhat due to his slight southern accent, "he's gonna want that thing," he finished, gesturing a bloodstained hand toward Pikachu.
"I suppose so," Dr. Craig said, quickly posing a leg in Pikachu's line of vision in order to attempt to calm the Pokemon that had suddenly let of a very small spark off static electricity in having felt insulted by having been called a "thing."
"That Pikachu looks kinda… weird," Sue said, raising her eyebrows as she snatched back her hand to examine the freshly received bite marks, blood now steadily flowing down the side of her wrist. "Bad Umbreon," she said, directing a stern look toward the Pokemon.
"If that Pikachu is so important I wonder why he didn't just have Miyamoto deliver it fer him. I mean, he's been seein' that Delia fer quite a while now," Nathan said, taking Sue's hand in his own and brushing his thumb up against it, trying to wipe away the blood.
"It's because he didn't want her paid any," Sue said matter-of-factly, whose face had turned a slight shade of scarlet at having her hand in her partner's. "Poor dear. Best agent we had and she was always terribly underpaid. I think we got hold of her daughter though, Jessie, and she'll probably prove herself to be useful. Madame Boss sent her to Pokemon Tech while she was still in power."
"Yeah, she probably will be useful," Dr. Craig mused, who turned around to face the doorway he had entered some twenty minutes ago to find it filled with three Rocket Grunts and Eric, who looked somewhat baffled in the crowd of much taller agents. Dr. Craig recognized them to be Brian, Joseph, and Carla.
"I heard the Boss didn't come in this morning," Eric said, who once again gave off a faint smell of burnt flesh, but it was less potent since he had changed into civilian clothes under the Boss' order, as well had the Grunts. "He'll probably want us to deliver the Pikachu anyway."
"Even with him there?" Joseph piped up.
"Yes," Eric said, checking his watch again. "The Boss said yesterday that we're to just simply leave the Pokemon in the bushes by her mailbox. And we're to do it as quickly as possible, obviously."
"What on earth is he thinking with that plan? I suppose that just once again proves that loves makes you stupid," Sue remarked, unaware of the spy camera located on the wall that spun and focused in on her as she said this.
"Y'all better get goin' then," Nathan said, gesturing to another nearby parked pickup truck as Sue gave him a stern look, "it's a bit of a drive, not to mention it's rainin' pretty hard."
"Get out the map again," Dr. Craig ordered Eric, who had spent the last twenty minutes trying to roll up his sleeves to a satisfying length since the sweater he was now wearing was at least three sizes too large for him.
"Hold on," he said, giving one final tug on the hem of his blue sleeve. He reached into the small compartment located on the dashboard, pulled out a tattered map, and spread it out on his jeans, the small force of the action producing an even larger hole in his pants.
"Stupid thing," he muttered, gripping the tear that now ran the length of his knee. "Well," he continued, pointing to a place on the map, "We're really not that far now. Just be sure to make a left on Rail Street," he said, tracing a line on the map with his slightly long fingernail, which mistakenly cut a line down the path, "and don't forget to head straight off of the next route," Eric finished, now attempting to roll up the ends of his pants that swung slightly to the swerving of the car.
The majority of the car trip was spent in a dull silence. Dr. Craig would let out a small grunt of displeasure as the windshield wipers would give out, producing a squeaking sound when they forced themselves to push up against the glass of the car as the increasingly heavy rain caused him to swerve off the road slightly at repeated intervals.
"Will you watch where you're going!" one of the Grunts in the backseat yelled, holding onto the back of Eric's chair when they nearly hit a street sign.
"You try driving in this weather!" Dr. Craig retorted as he jerked the steering wheel in the opposite direction and everyone in the car swerved toward the side.
"Hey, watch out!" Eric yelled, pointing ahead of him as the windshield wiper gave off another piercing screech.
A pack of wild Stantler had bounded across the dirt road, one of them making a complete stop as several other Stantlers continued across the path. It jerked its head as slaps of mud caused by the other Pokemon's charcoal black hooves hurled into its tan face, positioning its large antlers at a dangerous angle.
"Stop the car, dang it!" Brian yelled, the cigarette placed precariously in his mouth falling to the seat of the car.
Dr. Craig slammed on the break, the bedroom slipper positioned haphazardly on his foot only allowing half of the force he had intended. The Stantler, now nearly six feet away from the slowing truck, cocked its head to face the car's headlights, lightly sweeping its hooves on the muddy ground.
The sharp tip of one of the Pokemon's antlers dangerously prodded the glass of the windshield as the car stopped completely, each of the car's occupants sinking back into the nook of their seat.
"Curse my bad luck!" Dr. Craig sighed, throwing nearly his entire body weight onto the steering wheel as he halfheartedly slammed his fists onto it.
"Get out of here!" Joseph yelled, stepping out of the car onto the dirt path and pointing towards the small forest the other Pokemon had previously entered. "Go on, get!"
The Pokemon obeyed, and, tossing its antlers back in a swift motion, retreated into the small woods, its hooves clapping lazily behind it.
"Stupid thing," Joseph sighed angrily, halfway stepping back in through the door when he placed the tip of his boot on the foot of the car and snaked his middle toward the back of the truck. "Oh no."
"What?" Dr. Craig asked, his tone of voice becoming somewhat high-pitched as he forced himself out of the car as well. "What's wrong?"
"Bloody hell," Joseph whispered, his gruff voice barely audible over the pouring rain. "Take a look."
Dr. Craig turned to stare in the back of the truck, finding it severely damaged. The side railing was now an ash color and several of the bars from Pikachu's cage were scattered among the floor of the back, blowing in different directions as the wind picked up and died. Everyone had gotten out of the car at this point, each looking as if they had just fallen incredibly ill.
"I don't believe this," Dr. Craig shrieked, his glasses repositioning themselves at a lopsided angle along his crooked nose as the pouring rain caused his matted black hair to stick to the thin sides of his face. "Pikachu's escaped!"
"I'm… I'm going to die," Eric said weakly, somehow summoning enough energy to pull the turtleneck collar of his sweater over his nose and obscuring most of his eyes from vision.
"This is all your fault!" Dr. Craig yelled, pointing his finger accusingly at one of the Grunts as a cage bar flew from the back of the truck and nearly pegged him in the leg.
"Hey," he said, raising his palms in defense as the slim cigarette in his mouth slipped to the corner of his lips. "All I was told to do was to tie the dang thing down," he said, exhaling a large puff of smoke that almost immediately disappeared due to the heavy rain.
Eric had now slumped over to the siding of the pickup truck. His back was rising and falling in ragged breathes and he had buried his face in his arms, attempting to cover his face further by pulling up at the collar of his sweater. "We're all going to be killed," he whispered, desperately trying to muffle his sobs with the ends of his sleeves.
"It'll… it'll be alright," Carla whispered, walking over to Eric and ruffling what was still visible of his light blond hair as gently and motherly as she possible could.
"You must be kidding," Dr. Craig said, his voice now becoming somewhat hysterical as he stared off in the direction the Stantler had previously entered. He heard a faint rustling in the bushes and jumped, nearly knocking his glasses off his face.
"Pikachu…?" he whispered, taking a step toward the bushes, his slipper making him slid on the wet path slightly.
What emerged from the shrubbery was unfortunately and most certainly not a Pokemon. It was a boy, no more than the age of five, who tugged at the end of his shirt when it caught against several thorns, slightly tearing the picture of a Caterpie plastered on his clothing.
"Stupid things," he said, pressing his tan thumb at the location where the thorns had scraped his body, a small amount of blood now trickling down past his stomach.
"Kid! Hey kid!" Dr. Craig shouted to the boy that was some ten feet away as he cupped his mud-covered hands to his mouth so he could be heard over the pouring rain. "Have you seen a Pikachu around here!"
The boy didn't speak, but instead merely shook his head as several strands of his black hair slid down through the corners of his red and white Pokemon League hat. He loosened his grip around his bug catching net and turned to leave, pulling the rim of his cap down over his black eyes.
"Well he was a lot of help," Dr. Craig sighed, pressing his back firmly against the door of the car, attempting to tone out the sounds of Eric's weak sobs. "That kid was a twerp."
So, the rest of the day was spent searching for the Pokemon in the surrounding forest, only twice coming close to anything that resembled a Pikachu.
"Hey, I think I see it," Brian had called out to the others while forging a small path as he swiped away at several barbed branches that cut into the material of his gloves.
What they found, however, was a Bellsprout, which looked up at them with its beady black eyes and nearly swayed its emerald leaves in time to Dr. Craig's scream of exasperation, and then took off, its yellow head bobbing to the side as it disappeared in several tall patches of dieing grass.
"This is hopeless," Dr. Craig sighed, tilting his head upward to face the darkening sky and allowing several large droplets of rain to stain his glasses, "We're never going to find it."
The group returned later that night indeed with nothing. All except Dr. Craig, who had retreated to his office upon their arrival, were sitting in one of the lounge rooms, each decorated with stained bandages on their hands and face. Eric had endured the worst, having had nearly been attacked by a swarm of Beedrill, and suffered a long gash along the side of his arm due to one of the Pokemon's pointed needles grazing his skin.
"This really sucks," Eric sighed, curling his knees to his chest on the couch he laid on, continually wrapping the white clothe around his arm.
"I'm getting out while I can," Brian mused, lightly placing his bloodstained hand on the windowpane that was suffering repeated blows from the pouring rain. "To stay here would be like writing your own obituary."
"You must be crazy," Carla said, carelessly licking the bit of blood dripping from her palm, the warm liquid leaving a bitter tasted in her mouth. "The Boss would find you and have you killed."
"So you're just going to wait around and be killed earlier?" he asked astonishingly, raising his dark brown eyebrows in question.
"It isn't even our fault," Joseph said, who had previously placed his head in between his knees as if fighting off motion sickness. "I say it's that scientist's responsibility."
"But you did tie it down, didn't you?" Carla asked skeptically, lightly tapping the wine glass placed in her hand with the tip of her black fingernail, taking another sip in order to calm her nerves.
"Yes," Brian spat, slightly pounding his fist on to the window. "Dr. Craig said he had received enough thundershocks for a lifetime so that I should tie it down in the back instead of risking having it in the front with us. He was too lazy himself to try and help me, of course," he finished, lightly scraping his nail against the glass as lighting flashed in front of the building.
"I think he's just really stressed right now," Eric said as he finished messily tying the bandage on his arm, surprising even himself in having spoken in the other man's defense.
"Well," Brian said, fiercely digging his hands into his pockets, "that jerk better prepare for trouble."
Okay, how did everyone like it? Was that painfully obvious? Or did you not see that coming?
And what's going to happen to Dr. Craig? What about Pikachu? And what's the deal with Brian?
...Why am I asking you all these questions?
So, I hope you're enjoying this! Please review too! Come on, it isn't that hard! Anyway, much love to you all, and tell me what you think so far.
Till Next Time,
Tear22