It was a long and very difficult trip, mostly uphill through rocky terrain. Rapidash wasn't used to carrying two full-grown women so she needed breaks rather often. We ran out of food on Sunday, and we were in the middle of nowhere, so we had to ride the rest of the way on empty stomachs. Finally though, Wednesday morning, probably around 5:00am, we arrived at the address listed on the pamphlet. We dismounted and took the belongings we had left out of the saddlebags. Poor Rapidash was wheezing from having ridden all night long. I held out her pokeball. "Return, Rapidash. You did great; you've earned a long rest." The familiar red beam shot out from the pokeball and Rapidash disappeared.

I reattached the ball to my hip and patted it gently. When I glanced over at Jessee however, she was staring up at our destination. "This doesn't look right…" She said uncertainly. Reaching her fingers through the holes in the tall fence that surrounded the short squatty buildings in the distance. She looked up at the barbed wire lining the top of the fence. "This looks more like a prison than a scientific organization."

"Maybe its just to keep people away from their expensive instruments, or to ward off hungry feral pokemon…" I offered.

Jessee shook her head and pointed up at the rows of barbed wire. "That wire is to keep things in—not to keep anything out." Sure enough the posts suspending the sharp jagged metal strands faced inward toward the rows of drab buildings.

All of a sudden I was starting to feel a few misgivings too. "I…I don't know, Jessee. Right now this is everything we have…Do you think we should just call it all off…?"

Jessee shook her head. "We don't have any other options right now. Maybe I'm just overreacting. I'm sure there's a good explanation for everything. And if there is really something wrong with this place we'll just quit."

I nodded. "Alright Jessee. We'll give it a shot."

Suddenly there was a deafening grinding sound. Instinctively my hand flew to the pokeball on my belt, but I relaxed once I saw that it was the large rolling gate pulling open. A woman with a straight black uniform and hat was approaching us, she was accompanied by a tall stocky man with an—arguably silly looking—purple mohawk. Pikachu tensed on my shoulders but I reached up with my free hand. "It's ok, Pikachu. Relax."

"Welcome, welcome welcome! You must be our new recruits, am I right?"

"Yes, ma'am," I spoke up, before Jessee could say anything. My voice came out in a much deeper tone than I was expecting, and it startled myself a little. "I'm Jess, and she's Jessee."

"Great!" The woman chirped in a tone a little too happy—it put me off. "This is Viper. He will be training you during the duration of your stay."

"Training? Why do we need training? I thought you were looking for EXPERIENCED pokemon trainers—aren't we trained enough already?" Jessee spat. I shot her a glare willing her to shut up, but the woman didn't seem miffed at all. She only laughed.

"Oh, of course. But we sometimes might put you on some missions that require some special dexterity. This is just to make sure you have the endurance to perform them. Also some team building exercises and things of that nature." She turned to face Viper, but still addressed us. "Viper will show you to your bunks now and give you the rundown of what you can expect come morning." She walked away and we were left alone with this large and frightening looking man.

"Alright, recruits," He called in a booming voice that made Jessee, Pikachu, and me all jump. "Follow me and I'll get you started." He turned around and started walking toward the squatty buildings in the distance. Jessee and I followed at a distance behind. The grinding sounded again and made me jump. I turned to see the gate slammed shut. I had to bite my cheek a little to quell the sudden panic that welled up in me. There was no escape now. We were stuck here.

Maybe this was all a big mistake…

Pikachu had to bring me back to myself by tapping on my head, "Pika Pi!" He pointed to where Viper and Jessee were already a few yards ahead, and I had to run in order to catch up with them.