I do not own the Pokémon series or take any credit for whatever profits may arise from the productions under its trademark. They and the series are credited to Nintendo in full, until further notice from any future plans the company may have. Perhaps they'll appeal to the older fans who grew up with it, I have no idea. Then again, the recent remakes are a step in the right direction.

A seemingly endless array of corridors, some brighter than others with the spaced light sourcess, yet all ending in darkness in the furthest distance. For the most part, only silence and absence of activity; seemingly abandoned. In the distance, the pitter pats of footsteps becomes louder and louder. A streak of green and then blue dashes past one corner, imperceptible to a guard pointed in the opposite direction with his flashlight. The colors continue on, in search of an exit.

"They probably will find out soon enough that we're out of the cells. We'll probably have little to no chance of escape once that happens, so we need to hurry," I worded between breaths.

"How much ground have you covered already in this place?" asked Suicune, trying to get a general idea. "It feel endless…"

"I've gone about five or ten minutes, but I saw no sign of an exit," I said between breaths. "I can't believe that it's so big."

"Humans always go for big if they get the chance."

"I don't think it's an issue of size for Team Rocket, though, rather than having enough space for-"

Coming to a "T" in the path, I looked to the left path while Suicune saw the other, the result shutting me up. Two Rocket grunts stood still in front of me in shock, while one more was in the opposite path staring down at my accomplice.

"Ah, crud…" Suicune muttered under her breath. We both knew how this would go; out with the stealth, in with making a scene.

"So…" I decided to break the tension. "…any of you know where an exit is?"

One of the two facing me turned to the other.

"Go and sound the alarm! We have the two subjects on the loose!"

As soon as he took off, I knew we had only a little time to get ourselves moving, and that meant thinking fast. I would have gone after him, but I the man remaining in front of me was of greater concern.

"Which way should we go?"

Checking my way, as the two grunts slowly closed in on us, she whispered, "Your way. Make a break for it when you can."

A step closer to us, the man held his hands out menacingly. It felt like all bark and no bite coming from him, for after stepping a little ways, his advance ceased, keeping a distance between the two of us..

"I know for a fact that I'm stronger than you. There was a reason they had such thick bars for my cell. My friend can use water and ice attacks at a moment's notice, yet here you are, moving in on us with your bare hands…"

A quiver on his lips became known when I examined his reaction, assuming the same for the one behind me.

"You know you can't stop us, yet you're dragging this out quite a bit in the idea that you can. You're buying time…as they call for reinforcements."

Hearing Suicune snort, the grunt stiffened instinctively in place. This confirmed my suspicions, and as he yet pursued closing the space, as if to prove to himself that what I said wasn't true, I crouched down to the floor, resting my hands on the cool metal beneath my feet. This left the grunt perplexed, it seemed, as I stiffened and prepared for action.

"Bluff…called. Go!

Leaping at the one grunt in front of me, I was greeted by a pair of arms reaching out. I ducked under, tackling him at the legs and pulling him out from his feet. I went into a quick roll, and ending up on my own feet, heard a cumbersome thud coming from behind me. His face had collided with the ground, and he wasn't going to be getting up immediately after that. As for Suicune, she came my way seeing the open path. The remaining man followed in pursuit, and once his stepping was noticed, she turned back for a moment, firing an Ice Beam at his feet, freezing them in blocks. With his momentum misplaced and the floor sliding out from under, the grunt caught his feet on his friend lying down, and added to the pile. We were in a hurry, but it was an amusing sight nonetheless.

"Nice job," I remarked, picking up the pace to greaten the distance.

Suicune replied with a simple "Thanks," upon catching up to my speed, focusing primarily on the upcoming twists and turns. Our chasers were down, and we went on our way.

…..

All was quiet, with nobody up and out of their bunkers during the night time. Perhaps some beeps could be noticed when one placed their ears to the walls in the right spots, but if desired, all could be ignored in one's surroundings. That is, save for a room a couple stories up from the current location of the runners. This room, with light diffracting from the door's window on the ground outside, held the little liveliness on the ship at the time, if it could be referred to as such.

Several men were handling the nightly shift in the control room. Three connected boards laid out the controls for specific functions across the ship. Few buttons and switches were on the panels for simplicity, yet there were enough to make it difficult for someone new to the job. Metal walls, floor, and ceiling in there too, yet a large window stretched to the ends of the room, portraying the nightly view outside at the head of the ship; the atmosphere was filled with condensed fluid, but you could perceive the ocean below with the rare openings in the clouds. Additionally, though three stationary chairs were set for more active shifts, there was enough space after that to include a simple table and several stools, where the real activity was taking place.

One of the three was sitting with his mug of coffee in hand, barely keeping awake with the extra caffeine. The other two were playing with cards, enjoying a game of Go Fish. They were used to the nocturnal hours and were up and active for the meantime. Cards and converse went hand in hand for them to move the night along.

"You heard of the special cargo this round? I read in the admin's report that we've got a kid in one of the containment cells. Got any…Seakings?"

"Go Fish." A card was swiped to the guesser's hand. "Yeah, I heard it from the day guards when turning in for the night. I couldn't figure that out, though; are they using humans this time for the trials or something?"

"Actually, according to the report, that's not the reason. It says that the kid possessed…"powers"…"

The second man's eyes raised from his hand. "What, powers like a Pokémon or something?"

"I'm not sure, but rumor's been goin' around that he withstood an actual attack; a Fire Blast attack. He was trying to interfere with the mission in Rustboro, so one of the admins got pissed and attacked him straight on."

Hearing this abnormal explanation, the recipient's hand fell, his attention now on the topic at hand. "I'm finding this hard to wrap my head around…you're saying that we now have people capable of performing feats that Pokémon can?"

"Not sure, but if that's the case, then the tests are probably to determine possible ways of creating more like the kid. Heh, imagine if Team Rocket created an army of supernatural humans. We could finally control Kanto, Johto, or even the entire world if we got people that capable!"

"Yeah, so long as we don't have no more interference like last time. It was hard enough to pull the organization back together after those stupid kids got in. The old admins that funded Giovanni only came back once he showed his plan to capture legendaries. Without that, we would've been toast."

"No argument there. First it was creating legendaries from DNA, now it's capturing them. Well, there's always a good reason for investments."

"Agreed…"

"Once news gets to the rest that transferring Pokémon powers to human is possible, you think that they'll quit again? I feel it'll probably keep 'em on for the rest of the time that this groups up and runnin'."

"*yawn*, I tell you…that'll be…something…" a third voice muttered in and out.

The two grunts looked to the one occupied chair in front of the control board, noticing that their partner was barely holding the coffee cup any longer, almost spilling its containments onto the floor.

"Geez, man. If you need to get some shut eye, then just do it. We can't have a hazard hanging out in the control room if they're gonna press a wrong button when told to."

"Agreed. They won't hold it against you; you're getting used to the nighttime transition," the first encouraged sympathetically.

The sockets began to close on their own, regardless of the owner's determination to stay alert, so he finally gave in. "Yeah, yeah…I'll take you up…on that…" he droned off as he led himself to the door. If the teetering cup of coffee in his left hand wouldn't spill from his hardly present grip as he reached for the door with his right, then the sudden opening of it certainly would.

He was far more awake now, startled by the spontaneous intrusion of the control room, revealing yet another similar grunt in appearance to the other three, though, once the door was open, he took his time to catch what breath had been lost on his race there. Meanwhile, the recipient of the door gazed down at the mess made on his uniform, far less upset than he would have been because of the lack of energy.

"We need, *pant*, to pull the, *pant*, emergency, *pant*, now! The two special subjects, *pant*, are out of their cells and running to find an exit!" The lethargic grunt felt a chill, bringing him to full attention, as the last two nearly knocked their chairs over in disbelief.

"Are you kiddin' me? How could they have gotten out!?"

The other one, with a mind to believe stated, "Never mind that, just go, now!"

Without another word, the emergency button was hit down, igniting the red illuminations in the room, outside, and all throughout the craft. Men stirred awake from their beds, some jolting up, others groggily rising, yet all with their uniforms on and ready to roll once the announcement came through the speakers.

"Attention all personnel! Attention! We have a breakout on the aircraft! Subjects 1217 and 245 from the Classified Branches have escaped their cells and are on the loose! I repeat; Subjects 1217 and 245 have escaped and are on the loose!" The monotone, stern voice boomed throughout the halls and chambers, startling any who weren't already by the flaring sirens. The news runner, despite fatigue from his marathon to the control room, yanked the microphone from the other grunt's hand, pitching in details of his own to the chase.

"Both subjects were spotted in the East District of the craft, and are searching for an exit on the ship! All available hands report to your closest exit, conventional or emergency! This is not a drill!" he managed to get out, remembering specifics from what one of the two subjects said to him. Breath spent, he let the microphone slip out of his hand.

Once this was completed, all was quiet for a moment within the room. Following this, the miniscule sounds of stomping feet from many outside could be heard near and far as the grunts no doubt rushed to carry out their order. The four in total retracted ever so slightly, knowing their part was done for the event, yet still on edge due to the circumstances.

As silence came, save for the blazing sound that had grown forgotten in the background with the flashing red and the dulled panting of the messenger working to catch his breath, only one more line was shared between the group in the room.

"Well, we've done what we could. All we can now do…is wait…"

…..

"…okay, found one here!"

Suicune let out a sigh as she eased from hearing this, happy that we finally found a map to exact a location on the craft. I spotted it on one of the boards placed miscellaneously in the corridors, hidden behind the plethora of posters and papers ornately tacked to it. I brushed them aside to get a better view, and, finding exactly where we were located, began planning a route to the closest exit I could find.

"Well? Have you got it yet?" she inquired impatiently, yet uneasy, glancing both ways in case of more night guards.

Taking a split second post her ponder, I gave her an answer. "…okay, looks like were a little distance from any of the exits. That being said, the closest one is an emergency exit; to get there, we head east from here, take the second left…through the lab, then the cargo spot. It's at the end of the latter."

"Shouldn't we try one of the other floors?" I shook my head.

"They only have the map up for this level, which is apparently the bottom layer. It would probably be best to just head to this exit rather than take the stairs over…here…", gesturing to the corresponding symbol close to our location, "…because we don't want to find another map for that level to work with after this."

What would have been simply a confirmation on her end was disrupted once the sirens came on. The regular hall lights were consumed by flashing red, and with it came a message across the speaker above, much to our discontent.

"Attention all personnel! Attention! We have a breakout on the aircraft! Subjects 1217 and 245 from the Classified Branches have escaped their cells and are on the loose! I repeat; Subjects 1217 and 245 have escaped and are on the loose!"

I felt a pit in my stomach as our intentions were made public to everyone, and from there, I felt peril and panic take over.

"Both subjects were spotted in the East District of the Craft, and are searching for an exit on the ship! All available hands report to your closest exit, conventional or emergency! This is not a drill!"

Pulses picked up in my chest, as if seeing how many it could make before it was too late. Suicune had the same feeling, looking at me with dread.

"Oh no…no no no no no…." Her tails dropped noticeably as her breathing picked up, and in response, I tried to pull her together.

"Come one, they're still assembling to their spots, so there's still a chance! Let's hurry!"

"R-right!" she answered, regaining her wits. Turning east, recalling the directions I worked to spontaneously memorize within a moment's notice, and with my companion in pursuit of the trail I led, we continued through the corridors, now with a sense of direction, as well as a sense of time running out, as we rushed to our escaping freedom.

Well, I'm not dead, so that's something. I am having a rather hectic set of weeks ahead of me, with finishing a fitness trail, performing multiple tests over the weekend off and online, and applying to places, etc. Even so, I wanted to at the very least upload a portion of the chapter so this doesn't collect digital dust. So, understand that I am probably far busier than the average person in my place for the meantime, but I am hoping to give more effort to this story. Though the chapters aren't being planned in advance, I do know the turn I want this story to take, so know that I will eventually get it up.

In addition to that, I want to take the time to make sure it is the best quality it can be, and that the level of writing is the finest I can make it. Despite this, I know that it is twenty moons in between each update, but thank you to those who are reading, for I appreciate it much. Thanks for your time, and I will update soon. Peace out.