Chapter II: Through the Alleyways

He led me to a dark alley, clutching my arm most of the way, it felt hard, forced. There were a few glowing lights up above, hazy in the smog of the streets. There were others; three men standing around a dumpster, they all appeared to be the same dark figure from my perspective. He led me toward them. One of the men stood apart from the crowd.

"Hey, Rojer, whose the kid?" he yelled, looking irritated.

"Relax, relax," started Rojer, "I found this kid on the way here and I politely offered him membership, I think he can be of use to us."

"I don't care!" replied the man, looking even angrier "I don't want to get anyone too green caught up in this. He needs experience first."

Rojer edged closer to the man. "Listen, Joe," he said in a whipser, "this kid will do anything for us, I guarantee it. We wait outside and let him do all the dirty work, then he hands us the goods and we split. What d'you think?"

The man muttered something to Rojer, I couldn't hear what, but Rojer had a huge smile on his face as he turned back towards me.

"His name is Ethan," Rojer said towards the men "and we're going to need to give him a Pokemon if he's going to be of any use to us. Whose got a recent catch?"

The men were silent.

"C'mon guys," Rojer continued, "where's your heart?" he asked, laughing.

The men chuckled, then silence. Rojer pointed to the man standing furthest in the back.

"Scott!" Rojer yelled, "what's the most recent Pokemon you caught?"

Scott stepped forward, reluctantly. "I caught a Machop during our last job in Kanto."

"Let's see it!" Rojer responded.

Scott threw his PokeBall onto the ground and a small, gray creature with three brown, fin-looking things on it's head materialized. Rojer took a step closer and examined the creature, then he looked back towards me.

"Ethan, do you like this Pokemon?"

"Yeah, but if…"

"It's yours." Rojer said "Scott! Hand it over."

"But…"

"Scott, you have plenty of Pokemon of your own already, you wont miss this one at all, now do as I say and hand it over!"

Scott returned the Pokemon to it's chamber. The creature looked at me as it departed, sizing me up. Scott yelled "Catch!" as he threw the ball toward me. I caught it at first, but then it fumbled out of my fingers and fell to the floor. I picked it up. For the first time in my life I had a Pokemon. Even though I had never wanted one before, now that I had one, I had this urge inside of me to use it, to battle. I couldn't wait to start the job, I just couldn't wait.

"Do you even know what moves Machop has?" asked Joe. I didn't know, I shook my head in the negative, embarrased by the question. "It's young and weak right now, so all it can use is Leer and Low Kick, Leer will cut down the enemy's defenses, while Low Kick is a 'fighting' move that causes physical harm to the opponent." Joe turned to face the audience. "Alright, now for why we're here tonight! There's a PokeMart several streets over, all we've got to do is break in and steal two things in particular, 1.) all of the money in the store, for obvious reasons and 2.) any antidotes that you can find, Team Rocket's planning an operation in Azalea Town there are going to be lots of "bug" Pokemon there, so lots of poisonous Pokemon and we need all of the goods we can get. Team Rocket is actually planning several of these raids tonight, all over Johto, tomorrow the stolen goods will be shipped to the officers already in Azalea Town before many of our recruits are redirected there. Now,let's head over to the store, I'll report the best COA there."

"Follow me." Rojer whispered to me.

"Now, disband!" Joe yelled.

The men scattered. I followed behind Rojer as he ran to the left, further down the alleyway. I followed him through the dark corridors, across the bright steets, and back into the darkness. I knew it was wrong, but I actually enjoyed doing this. I loved running through the streets, hiding from police, and knowing that I could only the trust the man next to me, who I just met, who just threatened me, who I could hardly trust at all. I also couldn't wait to use my Pokemon, I was hoping that I would have a chance tonight, even though I didn't know what I was doing at all. We reached the PokeMart. All of the lights were out.

"Nobody's there," started Joe, "but there are lots of security cameras, even though it's a small store. Luckilly, crime's high these days and it's late at night, so most of the police are probably busy with something else already. So, here's what we're going to do. We're going to send Ethan in first…" I trembled at the first mention of my name "to break in, at this point an alarm will go off. He will then use his Machop's strength to remove the cash register and open it up. Meanwhile, the four of us will enter from the same point of entry that Ethan created and rob the rest of the store blind, be sure to look for antidotes. We will have five minutes to do this. We will regroup at the meeting spot with our goods, which will all be delivered to me. When this is done I will give you your cut and you can go. Got it?"

We all nodded. I was nervous, but I understood what I needed to do. I ran across the street, no cars, too late. I threw the PokeBall and released Machop.

"Machop, use Low Kick on the windows!" I commanded, he complied… it felt great, I actually got him to do something, it felt so empowering.

The alarm immediately started to ring and I ran toward the cash register. Machop followed, I couldn't believe it.

"Machop, can you pull this cash register out?" I asked. The creature nodded and grabbed onto the register. I was amazed watching him pull and tug on the register… it was bolted to the table! I looked up and saw the other four men grabbing everything else in the store as frantically as the could, piling all the goods into little bags. I saw Rojer stealing some Super Potions and I began to wonder. He seemed truly concerned for my safety and well-being, but he was so cruel to me earlier in the night. I hope I get paid. I had an idea. Machop had just gotten the register off of the table. "Great job, Machop!" I said, "now can you open the drawer?" He began pulling. I heard Joe yell "One minute left, everybody grab what you can and move out!" Machop finished getting the drawer open. Everyone else was gone. I pocketed most of the fifties for myself. I returned Machop to the PokeBall.

I ran out of the store, nobody was left, anywhere. I tried to remember the way back, I knew that I had to go across the road, but aside from that all the twists and turns of the alleyways were so confusing. I ran frantically, I saw something I recognized, something I didn't. I crossed the road, familiar. Chaos again. I ran and ran and ran, for what felt like hours.

"Ethan!" I heard called out.

I turned around and saw them standing in an alley I had just passed. All waiting there for me, for the money.

"Where the Hell were you?" asked Joe, "We've been waiting for half an hour."

I walked toward them and handed Joe the cash register.

"Sorry, got lost." I said.

"Well, don't do it again," replied Joe. He counted the money in the cash register. I cringed and felt the stolen money in my pockets, I stole from criminals. "Looks good." I sighed in relief. "Alright everyone I've got your cash." Joe handed all of the others checks for a certain amount of money, but when I got to him he said: "Sorry, I didn't know you were going to be here, Ethan, I'll just have to pay you from out of the register." He handed me several hundreds and I was done.

Without another word they were all gone. I walked home alone that night, just like when the night began. Except I wasn't entirely alone, I had Machop now. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with him just yet. Maybe he could help around the house, I still didn't have any desire to be a trainer yet. The stars in the sky looked clearer in this smoggy city than they ever had before.

I was so naïve then, little did I know that several miles away my fate was being discussed by the members of Team Rocket. Rojer, my friend and guardian, was having a drink with the others when I became the topic of discussion.

"So, are we ever going to see that new kid again?" asked Scott.

"No way," replied Joe, "did you see the way he handled that Machop? Totally amature! Seriously Rojer, what were you thinking when you picked him up?"

"Well, at first I was just going to rob him," started Rojer, "but then I remembered that Giovanni was looking for a few young trainers for the new 'project' he's starting and I thought the kid might work."

"Really, THAT kid?" asked Joe.

"Yeah, I see a lot of potential in him," started Rojer, "I think that if we lead him in the right direction he could win, or at least come close, but if he doesn't have the right stuff he'll fail long before he gets there. I'll push him along anyway, though, and hope for the best. If he makes it, I'll be promoted in no time."

"I don't know, do you really, seriously think he's ready to do all of THAT?" asked Joe.

"I don't really care, it's not about him… it's about ME."