30
I watch her close the journal with a startled look. "God, you got stabbed?"
"Yeah." I say. "And I'm totally fine now… it's weird." I look at Serena with soft eyes. "But I was worried about you. I just finished that, and you want to read it?"
"Well, you think Team Rocket wants news of this getting out? They'll just take it like everything else we had…" She says, certain of herself.
"I would have thought they would ALREADY have taken this. You must be in your serious mood, confiscate cannot be in your normal vocab."
She laughs, and we both grow quiet. I sigh and look around the place we are in. We are in a small jail cell, but the floors still look like every other place in the building, with metal bars acting as our door that look completely out of place. They look rusted, old and borderline breakable, but I had already tried hitting them and not even a scratch of metal came off. The hall outside is lined with cells like these, and from what I can see, they seem to be almost two feet think walls of pavement between the cells. There is no one else in any of the cells.
"Augh… what time is it?"
"It's been about 3 hours since I walked out of our room and got captured, I have no idea when you got captured, but it can't have been long after me…"
I sigh, when I see two rocket guards come in, escorting Steven. They open the cell across from us and throw him in. He's still in his rocket outfit, but there are holes worn through his clothes, and he's bruised and bleeding from several places. He hardly looks conscious.
"Who's that?" Asks Serena. "Did they just finish beating him?…"
"He's the X-elite four leader of Hoenn. He went undercover into Team Rocket and now they found him out…"
We sigh in unison and wait for several more minutes. Just sitting and looking around. My eyes dart all over the cell, tying to look for faulty cracks in the cement, or maybe something in the joints that hold the iron bars together. I dare not try and make myself angry for fear that I may tear myself up so much that I die, especially when I can't get hospital attention. But after what Serena says is about 15 minutes (I asking her about every-single one), two people come in from down the hall, the door slamming shut. I get to my feet and Serena just lies back against the wall, falling in and out of sleep.
In seconds, Dark appears in front of our door, with Rachamim following him. He has a kind of assault rifle with him, and a smirk that I can't help but hate. He also is wearing normal street clothes, which I find akward. Dark is wearing his robe again, and some casual dark jeans. Giving me an evil grin he says, "Hey little bro."
"Stop fucking calling me your brother." I spit on the ground at his foot, and it moves out of the way so fast that I didn't even see it. "Why am I not dead?"
"Dad wants to see you, pretty simple…" He rubs his chin in thought. "But first, Rachamim wants to say something." He steps back, and Rachamim approaches the bars. I, feeling pissed off at the moment, jump at him, and reach for his throat through the bars. He lifts up the gun incredibly fast and shoots my left arm, one bullet hitting it and the rest hitting the wall, harmlessly behind us. I yelp and grab my hand, blood leaking out of the wound from the bullet. Serena covers her ears at the sound of the shots, and when she looks up and see a gun, she screams.
"I hate those… THINGS! One killed my mother! Get that away from me!" She yells, angrily but in pain as well.
"You never told me a gun killed your mom Serena…" I say, almost forgetting the piece of metal that was lodged in my arm.
"Some things are just better left unsaid Raizu…" She's huddled up in the fetal position, her hands over her ears.
"Shut up!" Says Rachamim. "It's time we finished this." He reaches into his pocket and reaches for something, pulling out keys. He uses them to open up the door, and Dark Ambition walks inside to pick up my journal.
"GET AWAY FROM THAT!" I scream, jumping at him. Rachamim shoots off a few more rounds, and I stop moving at him.
"Why do you care?" Says Dark.
"Is your name really Ken?" I ask curtly.
"Sure." He answers, casually. He picks it up, and the two of them retreat out of the cell, locking it again. "Okay Rachamim, be a good kid and shoot up that Serena for me okay? She's useless to us now." He starts walking away.
"Stop calling me kid!" Says Rachamim as Dark leaves, then he looks at us. He holds his rifle up and looks down the sights at Serena. I get in his way. "You won't hurt her."
"I will if I want to." He responds. Before either of us do anything, something weird starts up. Singing. At first I'm not sure who is doing it, but then I spin around and see Serena's mouth moving, and she's standing, but supporting herself against the wall like she's hurt. The voice coming from her. It fills up the whole room, a beautiful sound I had never heard from her before. The song is one I am not familiar with either…
Feeling so helpless
Lost in the loneliness
I can 'naught but protest
To these horrible things I see.
Knowing all is useless
Only seeing hopelessness
But we can end this test
We can and must make it and see.
I see you there with your glare
Giving it to all you think you control
To make us miserable and make us hate our lives
When all we really hate is you
You and your darkness
You and your tyranny
That we no longer can endure
She walks over to me and faints, and I catch her. Rachamim laughs. "My that was awfully random. Okay, time to kill you." He brings up the rifle again.
"Please, Rachamim… don't shoot us. I trusted you, you told us you hated Team Rocket."
"I lied. I can get power, and people like me here. I'm doing something to help someone."
"Who could you possibly helping?!" I yell.
"Get huffy and this hand will slip and you both die. And myself."
"Get over it! You are not a power-hungry arrogant fool!"
"YOU ARE SO STUPID! You thought you could take on a whole organization with your little sword, winged-eevee bitch and that friend named Draxik who ran away off on you." He spits at me and pulls the trigger. I cringe and hug Serena tightly against me, she still being unconscious, waiting for the metal to go through both of us, when I realized in several seconds, that there was no sound, or stinging pain. I look up and hear the clicking of the empty hitting an empty barrel.
"Oh yes, of course I'd forget to switch magazines after using this in the practice hall." He ejects the magazine currently loaded in the gun and gets out another one, this one with red tape on it. He puts it in, then proceeds to pull the trigger one last time.
I hear the shots ring out, the sound nearly deafening and it lasts for several seconds again, the ringing only getting louder as he fires. But I realize that after several seconds I should be dead. I look up at him and see the bright bursts from the bullets going off, but no bullets flying.
Blanks.
Rachamim stops and falls over laughing, pounding the ground with his fists. "Wow, you bought it. Oh my god, ahahahaha!"
I but Serena on the ground and rip off a part of my shirtsleeve, to wrap it around my bullet wound. It is bleeding worse now since I hadn't even put any pressure, and my arm aches. "Haha, funny. You still shot me."
"Had to convince Darkles. Now come on, and bring Serena with you. We're getting Veera and Tempest and getting out of here." He explains.
"Who?" I ask, curious.
"It's a long story…"
--
We walk into the room - with me carrying Serena - where the experiment takes place, and I see Veera asleep. With a Jolteon lying next to her, licking her cheek. I get angry instantly, and rush forward to kick him off her. He sees me coming and gets up, readying himself to launch an attack, but Rachamim stops me by kicking me in the nads before I realize he was in front of me. I kinda stop instantly, and just fall over, grabbing at my crotch.
"You bastard! Oh…" I say, moaning in pain, and feeling the nauseous feeling after getting kicked there, come up.
"Who's this sonuvabitch?" Says the Jolteon out loud. I figure I hear him because of my abilities.
"He's Veera's trainer!" Answers Rachamim as I realize I'm not alone in hearing him. "Also, you are one to talk, Tempest."
"Oh, I see what you did there. Anyway, hi you."
I look at him wide-eyed, getting up slowly. "You… can talk?" I say, still feigning my ability to understand pokémon, and still amazed that Rachamim could understand him.
"Yeah… the drugs here aren't just to get us hot you know. They do other things… like give some of us the ability to talk to humans. I like it." He looks me over. "You are Veera's trainer, eh? Not much too look at."
"So, eh, Rachamim… what's the story here?"
"As Tempest says it, Veera entered heat just as he was about to leave after… well, NOT raping Veera because she told him to shove off, and then they had sex and are mates now."
"Veera… entered heat at 10?"
"Eh, she's actually 12 according to our records, but yeah, that's pretty early, and lucky."
I sigh and smile at Veera. You are quite lucky. You saved my life and almost lost yours, and now you found a mate. "He seems… okay."
"Right. Can you get us out of here? I want to shoot that sonuvabitch that started this program. With lightning of course…" He arches his eyebrows to seem intimidating.
"Oh yes, your ability to control sound is very frightening." I say, mockingly.
"Don't apply science to me. I'm a yellow, spiky-haired dog who can control electricity. Bitch."
"Talking about yourself again?" Chimes in Rachamim.
"Shut up. Hey, Veera?" Says Tempest, using a paw to pat Veera's face softly and wake her up. "Raizu is here. I think we should go. Or something."
She slowly opens her eyes, blinking a few times then looking up at me. "Raizu!?" She gets to her feet instantly and jumps at me. I quickly put Serena down and fall over as Veera collides into me. I hug her and she licks my face. "Oh, I missed you so much."
"Yeah, I missed you too."
"Oh, you can understand me?" She asks, curious.
"Erm…" I say, looking to the ground and tapping my toes on the ground.
"You can understand pokémon?!" Asks Rachamim, stunned.
I lift Veera off me and then see Serena standing there as well. "You never told me THAT."
"Uh…" I say, not sure what to say.
"This could have solved a lot of problems."
"I know- what?"
We all look to the door of the room, the room identical to where we had found Alexis, and see Dark Ambition. With Draxik behind him, still I his black training kimono he normally wears everywhere.
"If we knew you had that ability, we could have used you in so many ways." Says Dark. "Okay Draxik, do your thing."
"As you wish." He says, quietly and obediently. He unsheathes his sword.
"Wait, are you going to attack me!?" I say. "I don't need more people trying to kill me, I have enough as it is."
"Being funny won't save you Raizu." He says bluntly.
"Why… you said… you killed him, and that you were going off to think. What have you done?!"
Dark bursts out laughing. "Family feuds are great aren't they? When you left, I subdued Draxik and made him swear a… special oath. He had to lie for me, and come work for me. He's done some evil things lately, killing a few measly pokémon who can't even fight back and defied Team Rocket, and we both went out and did something else you'll probably not like much."
"What!?" I yell, getting angry.
"You better not try going home to Pallet again Raizu, because your house is just a smoldering crater in the ground. We destroyed your home, with our mother in it!"
I go wide-eyed. I feel my heart skip beats, and tears start to roll down my face for a second time. "Mom…"
"Oh, the last word. How touching." Dark points at me and Draxik charges at me with his sword out to cut me down.