Chapter 7

Burned

ATTN!: This is officially the last day for the poll. If you haven't voted yet, do so before tomorrow morning. It's really close, but there's still the chance your vote could change the outcome.

He was just making his usual rounds. It was any normal day. Nothing had ever happened. Nothing would ever happen.

The door slid open. He saw it without taking a single step in. One cage's door swung open. He dashed over and read the label across the cage. The Shaiya's cage. Only there was no Shaiya inside.

"Cage break! The Shaiya is gone!"

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"What have you found?"

"There are no logs showing he accessed the mainframe within the past week, sir."

"None?" That was unusual. "Don't computers access the mainframe every day?"

"Yes, sir. It's for security updates."

Roth smiled to himself. The fool had been overzealous with his care. He had accidentally destroyed everything and not just the incriminating evidence. Of course, there wasn't anything to actually say Braun had ordered the files destroyed, but Roth wasn't an idiot.

The intercom beeped. "Security breach. Specimen Alpha-1 is code Black. Security breach."

Roth spun to the speaker, which replayed the message again. He quickly looked to his assistant. "Get every security team on alert! All Recon teams aboveground! She can't have gotten far!"

"Yes, sir!" He jumped up and ran through the door.

Roth looked back at the computer. First the blood sample files mysteriously vanished and then their all-important subject somehow escapes. This was no coincidence.

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Sam pushed the metal grate aside and pulled herself up. By now, the smell almost brought her stomach up. Wherever they were, there was trash or feces nearby.

She moved out of the ladder hatch and sat down on cold, moist stone. It looked like a sewer. That would explain the smell. There were a few lights on the walls, but they were only bright enough to light a few feet in either direction, so most of the tunnel was dark.

Luca came up a moment later. He looked around. "Well that explains the smell." He pushed himself up and slid into a sitting position next to Sam. The climb had left all of them worn out.

"Thank you for saving me, Luca."

He looked over at her. She wore a gentle smile on her face. His hand came up and rubbed her knee. "I'm sure you would have done the same for me."

The moment took her by surprise. Her savior had the softest hands.

But then her mind caught up with her. What was she doing? She pushed herself up, letting his hand just fall from her leg. "We should get going. They'll probably be coming after us." She turned to look down the tunnel away from him.

He looked up at her. Somehow, he had gone too far. But why wouldn't she accept him?

Wasser finally climbed through the hole. His hands had formed a fresh layer of blood. He instantly fell down next to the water and rinsed his hands through.

"You really should do something about those," Luca said.

Sam stepped over to him. "Here. Let me." She pulled his hands up from the water and held them gently in her own hands. Wasser watched as her hands began to glow a gentle green. His hands slowly began to grow a layer of the skin. The blood vanished back into his veins. The dull pain slowly faded until it vanished.

After only a few seconds, the glow faded. Wasser raised his hand up to the light. It was completely healed. There wasn't even a scar. It was as if his hands had never been shredded. "How did you do that?"

A throb spread through her skull. Sam took a step back and put a hand to her forehead. "I don't know. I just… did it."

"Sam, you said you couldn't change into other Pokemon, right?"

She nodded. "What does that have to do with this?"

Luca stepped forward and took her hands. "Maybe this is what you can do instead. You can heal people."

"You think?"

"Hey, I know this water." They both turned. Wasser was kneeling over the small river of sewage. "This is Southern Lake water."

"How do you know that?"

"I lived at the Southern Lake. I'd recognize its water anywhere." He sniffed the air and started off at a light jog down the tunnel. "This way."

Sam and Luca followed a moment later.

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Braun stepped through the door to Roth's main lab. He stopped just inside. "You called for me, sir?"

Roth looked up from a computer. Aside from him, the lab was empty. Braun guessed they were all out looking for the Shaiya. And that meant they hadn't found her. That meant by now, about an hour since they watched her begin, she would be well away and out of their grasp. But he forced his face to remain straight.

"Thank you for coming, Braun." He typed a few more keys into the computer before standing. "I assume you heard that Alpha-1, the Shaiya, managed to escape from her cage earlier." He began to pace around Braun.

"I heard it."

"Well she didn't escape. She was released. Someone had gone in there and unlocked the cage. They probably also told her exactly when to go so they would slip between the guard changes."

"Do you want me to find who did this, sir?" Braun wished he hadn't asked it the moment it left his lips. He could just see a flash pass through Roth's eye. "Don't be so eager to hide your cover," he reminded himself. It's always better to let your enemy provide you with cover than make your own. "Play it cool."

"No, I don't need you to find him."

"He knows." He tried to keep his face straight, but he knew he let a tiny hint of alarm pass through his features. Roth would surely see it.

"Around the same time," Roth continued, "the files regarding her blood samples vanished, with no trace of who could have erased them."

Braun simply waited. He didn't want to dig himself a bigger hole, just in case there was a way out.

Roth stepped up behind him and leaned in close. "It cannot merely be a coincidence that this happens hours after you are denied your promotion."

Right then, Braun knew he was in trouble. He kept his face and shoulders straight.

He resumed walking, back to his computer. "I don't have any proof saying it was you, but luckily I don't really need any. I know it was you." He pressed another button, this one on some device he couldn't see. "You are officially removed from this organization."

The door behind him slid open. Two guards stepped forward, pistols held steady.

"I don't want to see you anywhere near this city again."

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Braun dropped the last ammo clip into the box. His entire locker was clean. His personal items, mostly just clothing, were in a duffle bag. The rest, his Recon and Hunter gear, were in boxes to be put back in storage. The two guards had watched him during the entire process.

He was about to close the locker door when Phil stepped through the door. The assistant was holding a small case in his hand.

Braun knew even before he placed it on the bench and opened it. It was a standard tracking implant. Any Rocket member that was burned would have one placed under the skin. If they came anywhere within range of the scanner, the base would know.

He never thought he would be getting one.

Phil took Braun's arm and rubbed a section with iodine. "Forgive me, sir. I really don't want to be doing this."

"For the last time, will you stop calling me 'sir'?"

"Yes, sir." He took the rather large needle and pushed it under the skin. As he withdrew it, a small bump was left in Braun's arm. "Where will you go from here?"

Braun picked up his bag and pulled it over his shoulder. "I think I'll head south. Maybe do some fishing in one of the lakes."

Phil simply nodded. Then he held out a hand. "It was a pleasure working for you."

Braun let himself smile and take the hand. "Thank you."

The guards escorted him through the elevator ride to the rear door, where they left Braun in the alleyway. He simply walked through the alley to the main street. It was just approaching sunrise, and he quickly blended with the morning crowds.

When he was finally a safe distance, he reached into his sleeve for the piece of paper. Phil had slipped it up when putting in the tracker. Braun had felt it, but had hidden his surprise. The paper had only a code: "18.7500 +D"

He slipped the paper away and smiled again. "You sly son of a bitch."

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A bright light finally appeared at the end of the tunnel. The sight gave them renewed strength and they went from a gentle walk back to a steady jog. They finally reached the end of the tunnel around an hour since they first crawled out of the ladder manhole.

As they got close, Wasser began to call, "Aley!" Luca guessed it was his mate or someone close to him.

His voice fell silent when they finally stepped into the light.

"Oh my god!"