I'm going to try to focus on one story at a time to get them done faster instead of jumping around. This one has its plot line written down (and its more fun for me to write) so I'm going ahead with getting this one written first ahaha! Also, I wanted to end this chapter sooner and leave it on a cliffhanger, but it was too short for my to be satisfied with, so I went along with the next chapter's content.

Enjoy!

The Blatant Disregard of a Pokemon Trainer v2

Mother a contest Champion. Father a famous photographer. What will she do to get away from all the criticizing and all the scepticism? Join the rebellion! Become a Pokémon trainer.

Everyone calls me a danger magnet—but it's not my fault. I try to stay out of trouble all the time, and yet it still manages to find and catch me. It doesn't help that my sister is somehow related to the Rocket mayhem that's been whirling around, nor does it help that my closest friend started to act suspicious. With ties made, others broken, and old scars struck, who am I anymore?

009. The plan that wasn't a plan at all.

The people from the ship weren't really happy with my decision to fly aboard (they have obviously seen me arrive) and demanded, since I didn't really have the money, that I work for them in order to pay off my trip. I complied, because this way I got to stay on the ship plus get to have a room and be fed and all of those perks that come with long ship rides. Apparently this wasn't the first time someone had tried to fly on the boat too. Some kid with a Flygon apparently really loved trying to stow away on these type of travel ships, the same way (but more sneakily) than I had.

So while I was on a mission to find Tyson, I had two nights to wait before I actually did anything. This trip was about three days long and my schedule didn't really give me many breaks. When I arrived in the kitchen to dishes duty, I found a surprisingly familiar face waiting for me there.

"You're... Roy, right?" I asked as a blinked about a million times in his direction. What in the world kind of coincidence is this? Was I dreaming? Did I get hit over the head and hallucinating somehow? Was I fed really bad shroomish?

The red headed cute boy in front of me broke into a smile. "You remembered me, Maia!"

I paused. "I never told you my name."

"You were on the news?" He tilted his head like it was the most obvious thing.

I inwardly cursed the news channel. Who knew people actually watched that? "What are you doing here?"

"I snuck in like you did. But earlier!" He laughed.

I put two and two together. "You're the Flygon trainer they told me about?"

He puffed up proudly with his hands on his hips and everything. "The one and only!"

"HEY!" A deep voice growled and a door slammed open. It came from the chef on the other side of the room. "I'm not paying your guys to dawdle around and waste time! Get to washing the dishes!"

"Yessir!" We squeaked in sync. Roy quickly called dibs on drying so I was stuck with washing. We spent hours on constant plates and bowls and cutlery and china. I swear my fingers were getting wrinkly through the thick gloves I was forced to wear for the job. Finally, we were done for the day. When I checked the time, it was around 8 at night. It had gotten late and fast. Now that I had free time though, I needed to hurry and find Tyson before it was bedtime and no one was allowed to outside of their rooms!

"What's your rush?" Roy asked when I flew out of the kitchen.

"I have to find someone!" I threw over my shoulder, barely pausing.

He cried after me. "But I wanted to hang out!" He cried after me.

"We already did!" because I was working with him the whole time. It counted in the category of "hanging out". I made my way around the ship, trying every big room, living room, decks—everything! I even went into the rooms (or knocked and tried to with the ones with closed doors) but I had nothing. There were no signs of Tyson, nor the two men dressed in black that were in front of him when I saw him enter. Even the people on the ship had no idea who I was talking about. Something odd about this situation. Were they hiding? But where? And why?

"I saw the kid." Roy told me when I gave up for the day and made my way back to my cabin. He was waiting at my door, leaning beside it with his Absol as his feet. Spyk, who I had also called out to enjoy the rest of the night, jumped from my shoulder to the ground to greet the fellow pokémon. Roy, instead of his usual smile though, had a grim look in his eyes.

"Where is he?" I crossed my arms over my chest and lowered my voice so that we wouldn't be overheard. This was serious business so of course I had to be serious too. "Is he still on the ship?"

Roy nodded and pushed off the wall. He was also whispering like me. "He's indeed here but I advise you don't go near him."

"I have to find him." I refused. "That's why I came on this ship in the first place."

He shook his head and sighed. "You won't be happy."

"I have waves of unhappy people already on my back." My parents, my sister, Kanto, digletts, caves, the media, etc. And now even Ivey is added onto that list. "Just tell me."

He looked me straight in the eye, gauging my reaction. This action only made me think of the first time I met him and we held each other's stare. It was odd how my body was telling me to blush but my mind was scolding it to behave. This was too serious for childish emotions.

"Invite me into your room." He tipped his head towards the door.

I furrowed my eyebrows. "What? Just tell me where they are. It doesn't take that long."

He pursed his lips. "Just do it."

I groaned and huffed and even gave a whine (trying to get him to change his mind) but he didn't budge so I went over and opened the door for him. He entered first and went straight for the bed. He dropped a bag I didn't realize he was holding onto it. I quickly closed the door behind me.

"What's with that bag?" I hissed. He had better be thinking of moving in here with me. There was only one bed in here and there was no way in The Distortion Realm that I was sharing it with him.

He ignored me and unzipped it. He pulled out random items like potions and repels until he pulled out a decent sized box. It was the size of an HM case with the height of about 6 of them. He opened it and held out a small pin to me.

I stared at it blankly.

He sighed and grabbed onto the collar of my shirt.

I screamed and swatted him away, nearly landing a punch to his good looking face. Spyk jumped up to my shoulder defensively, sparks flying off of him. He fluffed up and tried to look threatening.

"Calm down!" He growled and held his hands up. His eyes flickered from me to Spyk then back to me. He turned the pin over in his fingers. "I'm just putting this on you. It's a tracker."

I blinked then squinted at it suspiciously. "A tracker."

He reached for me this time, making sure I wouldn't overreact again and Spyk wouldn't barbecue him, and when we made no aggressive signs, he tried again at my collar. He slipped the little pin through the material, secured it, and then let it rest over my shirt. It was a tiny pokéball icon so it easily camouflaged with anyone's outfit. It wasn't suspicious at all to find this type of pin on a trainer.

He walked back to his fancy box. "The kid's working for Team Rocket." He pulled out a pin for himself but instead of attaching it to himself, he just shoved it in his pocket. Aw man, why could I have done that instead of having it in my shirt?

"Weren't they disbanded around twenty years ago?" I sure hoped Ivey's information about them was correct.

He shook his head. "Nope. And I'm here to put a stop to them." He slapped on a pair of cool looking goggles over his head then turned to me. "So are you going to help me?"

I wasn't focused on his question. "I still have your baseball cap if you—"

He waved away my sentence like it was unimportant. "Will you?"

"If it means getting Tyson out of there," and for the sake of Ivey, "then I'll do it."

He smirked with that stupid attractive face. My heart skipped a bit.

"Good." He quickly shoved everything back in his bag, not caring how they were organized (typical), and zipped it up. "Let's get started."

It took some time to get my head wrapped around it. Roy, who looked maybe a few years older than I was, was trying to take down Team Rocket. Sure, he had big hopes, but that wasn't exactly realistic. What could one ten year old and one a little bit older than ten years old do to a giant organization? We had no chance! But he promised me we would free Tyson, so I had to believe in him and his plan. We just had to go in, grab him, and get out. He told me they were hiding below deck, with the crates and shipments. They were apparently hiding some of their own shipments of stolen goods in there too. Roy wanted to arrest them. I just wanted Ivey's pokémon back. I had a really bad feeling about this.

His Absol stalked in front of us, pausing every few seconds. Roy had explained that it used its protruding horn to sense wind and movement, and even major disasters. It had saved his life many times. Hopefully, it would work for us this time as well.

We tracked down the stairs. Absol's fur stood on edge. Roy readied his hand on his belt in case he needed another Pokémon's aid. I did the same, and had Spyk stand at the ready on my extended arm. He would have better reach and jumping height this way. We readied ourselves at each side of the door. He pressed his ear to it.

"I hear something. It sounds like there's only one person in there. Odd." He furrowed his brow. "Either there's a mistake in my calculations or everyone's standing still."

"That one's more likely." I whispered back. I signalled at the door with my head. "Are we going in anyway?"

"Worth the risk." He said before he backed up. With a strong breath, he steadied himself and then charged at the door to unleash a strong kick. The door, which I thought would have been sturdy, gave way with a swing. "Go go go!" Roy ushered me in first. I ran forward, Spyk ready on my arm. I zigzagged through crates, finding myself lucky enough to have no run into anyone by now. Actually. No. It was really odd. That door slam would have alerted them and they would have come running and screaming.

Something felt really really wrong.

I saw Absol ahead and flanked its side. We moved steadily ahead. There was a turn further ahead in the ship so this could be where the Absol felt a wave of eminent danger. I heard the door slam behind us before I took the corner. I whirled around and spotted Roy locking the door with a good swing of the spinning wheel. I had no idea what he was doing now. Did he want to lock in the Rockets?

"Well well well." A definitely female voice cackled. I turned back to my front and spotted a woman standing there, further down, dressed in black from head to toe. This must be one of the grunts! She turned to me, slowly and dramatically. You'd have thought she had practiced it in a mirror—it was that good. "You're little miss natural disaster." She frowned upon setting her sights on me. "Because of you, our plans were ruined. It's only fair that we demand a little payback."

I had no idea what she was talking about. I had never even seen or met Team Rocket until now. She must've mistaken me for someone else. My eyes flickered around. Absol had backed up to join Roy, who I could hear coming up to help me. There was no other grunt around. Did I miss someone? Maybe she wasn't talking to me but someone else?

"You still haven't realized?" She clicked her tongue at me in disappointment. Roy had the perfect timing to round the corner. However, instead of stopping near me and getting ready to fight like I thought he would, he kept moving. It was like slow motion, seeing him join the enemy side. So I had been duped. And so easily too.

"Ah, there, now you got it." She took a step towards me, but Spyk tossed a lightning bolt towards her that made her retrace her steps. She scowled. "Roy. Take care of it."

The boy nodded and shared a glance with his dark pokémon. In a second that seemed to go way too fast, Spyk was flung off my arm by a precisely aimed dark pulse. It burnt my arm, but only enough to make it sting. Spyk hit the wall and slid down on a large crate. He was knocked out for sure.

"Spyk!" I cried, too afraid to move towards him. I was afraid that if I did anything, they would attack me next. I was too scared to even recall him to his pokéball. "What do you want?"

"It's not about what I want." As she spoke, it suddenly clicked in my mind that she was the girl that was looking for Roy when I had first met him in the woods. He had been hiding from her for some reason back then. Maybe he was forced to work in Team Rocket? Maybe that's why he was so excited to see me? Maybe he wanted to be freed! "It's about what my boss wants." I wanted to say something, but my mind just wasn't working. I was scared and I couldn't think. I couldn't move. I could barely even breathe. I was too taken off guard. I was mentally racking my brain to figure out what to do. Anything! "And now," she snapped her fingers and Roy took out the small pin that I saw him slip in his pocket, "goodnight." He pressed onto the little thing. The tip of it flashed red and suddenly there was a sharp pain of a stab close to my collarbone.

I hissed at the sudden sharp pain and yanked off the closest thing, which was the tracker pin he had placed on me. I watched it land and stop moving. That's when I noticed the second hidden needle inside. It was now protruded out because it had stabbed me on demand. Something dripped from its pointed tip.

The world went numb and my feet lost all feeling. The world spun. By the sudden new angle I was positioned, I had fallen on the ground, but yet I hadn't felt it. Everything blurred. Sounds were fuzzy. My eyelids were heavy. I couldn't focus on anything but the sudden strong desire to sleep. Nightmares overcame me.

When I woke up again, everything was quiet and I felt like I was going to throw up. Wait forget that. I snapped up, found a bucket in the damp cold corner and expelled all of my stomach's content. From what I saw, it wasn't much, but it made me feel a little bit better. I wiped my mouth and, when I did, realized that I my clothes stolen. Well, most of it. I was still in my Tshirt and shorts, but I had nothing else. My hoodie was gone, my bag was gone, and my pokémon were gone. This couldn't get worse.

Oh wait, yeah, it can, because I'm in a prison cell.

There wasn't even a bench for me to sit on. Just the cold floor. I pushed my bucket of puke (seeing as that was the only bucking in here, I think that was supposed to be my peeing bucket) back into its starting corner. I slowly got up, made sure I was steady, and then stretch my limbs. I shook myself a bit too, and all of my limbs still seemed to be intact. The only issue was that my neck was sore and I had a headache coming on. Otherwise, nothing seemed out of place.

I walked over to the bars that had the lock. It was a classic key-needing one and, if I glanced down the hall of cells, there was a table with all the keys in one ring. This felt like such a cliché situation.

"You're recovering better than I expected." Some voice startled me from behind. I turned and spotted a figure on the other side of the bars to my left, in the neighboring cell. He stepped closer and the light shone on his face. He had dirty blond hair pulled back into a ponytail and striking gray eyes that seemed more mature than his physical form would tell. He looked like a classic sports teenager, fit to some extent (but not enough to say that he's a bodybuilder or something), but his air was more mature and sophisticated. He seemed like one of those classic, mysterious adventurous that would help you out in RPGs when you're stuck.

"Thank you, I think." I answered his statement. "Where am I?"

"Team Rocket treatment facility."

"Treatment facility?"

He eyes flickered to the hall, looking, seeking. "Yeah. They've been running tests."

"Tests?" I squeaked.

"Yeah, and recently, there are less and less survivors to them."

Oh lord. I felt my skin lose heat and shiver wrack my body. He said I was recovering. I can't be? "I've been tested on?"

He watched me with hawk eyes. They went over my body, observing, searching. Finally, he said, "check your scalp."

And I did in confusion, slowly but surely. I started from one side to the other. Everything seemed okay, but then I reached the very back, where there was oddly sensitive skin and a long rupture of the skin.

He understood the face I've pulled. "They're doing some sort of research about the human mind."

"Am I doing to die?" I asked in a whisper. Fright had taken over and I was shaking all over. I felt so unlike myself that it was as if I had no idea who I was anymore. I had no more confidence to pull from my core. "Did they do something to me? Did they poison me? Did they mutate me?"

All of a sudden, his hand flashed from his side and onto my collar. With a yank, he pulled me so that my body was forced to the bars. He stood hovering above me, glaring eyes down to my very soul.

"Listen here, you little unappreciative little asshole." He hissed lowly. My jaw dropped. Me? He was mad at me? "Just be lucky you're alive. You're only the second person to survive their brutish experiments. So pull yourself together or this will all be for naught." He let go.

I collapsed to the ground. "You're the first to survive?"

He looked away. "I'm just a mere prisoner."

Tyson's voice echoed in my mind. "I-I was following my brother …"

"Then... you're his big brother?" I was still scared. But my memories of the past were giving my comfort. The stranger glanced at me. I repeated in a stronger voice. "You're Tyson's brother!"

A sharp bang on the cell's bars. He was even angrier. "How do you know him?" He hissed lowly. His fingers wrapped around the bars, holding on for comfort. His voice was shaking. "How... please..."

I stood back up. I could feel my core strengthen. I was returning. I was becoming myself again. I was growing less afraid. That's right. Remember your mission. Remember your purpose. "The reason I'm here in the first place is because of him."

His eyes widened in surprise. He shut them with a taught jaw.

"Yeah. He's working with them." His knuckles turned white. "I was captured trying to save him."

He pushed back from the bars and cloaked himself in shadows again.

I peered in. "Tyson's big brother?"

"Don't ever say his name again!" A sharp yell came from him.

I backed up. Crap. I had pushed him too far. Now I wasn't going to get anything out of him anymore. I may have lost my only friend in this odd prison. And I was going to need all of the help I could get if we were the only ones here. But how? How could we even get out of here? The bars were small and only fit an arm through, let alone would it let my body squeeze through. I needed to play smart. I could use the bathroom excuse with the guards, but they're probably expecting it, which was why they placed the bucket there. Plus, there doesn't seem to be anyone else around. They're just letting us down here with nothing to supervise us.

Ah! I got it! I could pretend to be dead! That way, when they finally do appear to check up on us, they'll have to carry away my body from the cell! Yes. Smart Maia. That'll work.

I lay down, turned my back to Tyson's brother (just because he's ignoring me so I shall do the same) and tried to mimic the pose I had when I first arrived to the best of my ability. After what felt like hours (but I had no idea since I no longer had my phone) my stomach growled and I couldn't keep up the charade. I rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling. There weren't even dots for me to count.

"Do they at least feed us down here?" I asked loud enough that I was sure my neighbour heard me.

"When they remember we're alive, maybe." He answered and I could hear the scowl in his voice.

"What do we do until then?" I glanced over to him. He was still in the shadows. He didn't say anything but I imagined him shrugging. He was just that type of guy, I guess. "Talk?"

"Ew."

I snorted. "Nevermind."

There was a pregnant pause. I glanced at him again. He was sitting near the bars, back against the wall and an arm over his knee. He looked so grim and sad. His thoughts were brooding outside of his mind and into the air. I could almost taste it.

"Tyson is my younger brother." He breathed. He was controlling his emotions. He just needed to vent and talk and be listened to. "I hated him. He was always in the way. Mom always loved him more. It wasn't fair. He never got in trouble or did chores. They blamed everything on me and made me do all of his work. They forced me to do things for him. I always wished he would disappear." He paused and took a deep breath. He dropped his head into his knees. I stayed where I was. There was nothing I could do to comfort him. "I just want to go back. I miss him. I miss home. I wish I had never yelled at him." He groaned. "He would have never run away."

I waited to make sure he was done. After a good pause and his head still not lifting from his sad disposition, I finally spoke. "He was looking for you, you know." He didn't move. I turned so that my face was pointed at the ceiling. This guy was odd. But he might've been here for such a long while that it twisted him around inside. It can't be good. "He kept telling us how he wanted to find you."

"...us?" His voice sounded closed off, like he didn't want to believe it.

"Me and my friend." I answered and closed my eyes. Images of Ivey flashed in my mind. Especially the one of the last time I saw her. She was staring at me on the ship. Me, who had betrayed her. "I stowed away on a ship because I saw Tyson enter it. I left her behind."

"Do you regret it?"

"I don't know. I try not to think about it." Knowing that I had caused Ivey to lose her pokémon because I wasn't paying enough attention, and then ditching her in Vermillion for her to fend for herself, my gut was squirming uncomfortably. I shoved the thoughts away. They were too difficult to bear, even worse than the idea of me causing that Diglett Cave cave-in. I was pretty sure it was that water pokémon's fault. But with all of that blame put on me, I can't help but believe it. I needed to talk to Andrew guy and figure out why or what he saved us from in that cave.

Wait a second.

That girl grunt that hung out with Roy had said something about me and natural disasters and wanting payback about it. Was this it? Had that water trainer guy caved-in the Diglett Cave so that he could stop Team Rocket? And I was just a scapegoat?

"Why's Team Rocket in Kanto, though?" I asked myself afterwards, making that my conclusion to my thoughts. I sat up and scooted my butt closer over to my neighbour. "Please tell me you know something about the Rockets!"

"We're in a prison-like cell room." He gave me a look. "No one's even around. Of course I know nothing."

I cursed. Of course. They could be doing the classic thing: catch legendary pokémon and rule the world. But they've already tried that before and failed. I had to think bigger. What does Kanto have that the other regions don't? There was another long pause as I contemplated ideas. What would Team Rocket want with the Diglett's cave? Travel around? Find something? Unbury a secret? It was probably travel, which meant they may have business in Vermillion City or further. Lt. Surge have had been known to have been a part of the Team Rocket business at one point, manipulating the ships to transfer cargo of kidnapped pokémon, but now he was good. Unless they conned him again for his services. I had no idea. My brain was starting to hurt even more than before so I had to stop.

The sound of a door echoed and footsteps slowly made its way towards us. I considered laying back down to pretend to play dead, like I had tried before, but I only had time to scoot away from the bars before the grunt reached us from the other side.

"Oh. The boss won't be excited to hear this." He said when he laid eyes on me. A wicked grin landed on his face. It looked gross. He dropped the plate he holding next to the bars of Tyson's big brother. I assumed that had been his from the start. That meant that they had expected me to die from whatever. Assholes.

The grunt unlocked the door. I scooted back. Oh good Arceus they were bringing me back out there for another round of torture. My mind may not know what's going on but my body certain remember and was giving me a million fight or flight responses. My neighbour shuffled away from the bars and back into the darkness. From what I could tell, he was headed for the food he had (kind of) been served.

"Now now," Grunt tried to sound calming but he only sounded more like a sleaze ball, "just come with me and it'll be over quick." I tried to get further back but my back hit the hall. Oh no no no.

He reached out a hand to grab me. I slapped them away. He kicked me in the stomach. I doubled over in pain, clutching and retching. My empty stomach clearly couldn't handle pain.

"Listen here now," there was a hand on my head and a pull of my hair. The locks at the back of head yanked at the sensitive laceration. I howled in pain tried to move my head back with it, but he only pulled it further. "It's bad enough that we have to keep that little twerp alive." I squinted at him through eyes blurring with painful tears. He was reaching behind himself. "In fact, I don't see the point of you being here." He had a knife. Oh no oh no oh no. I was dead. I was going to die. He was going to kill me.

"W-why... not?" I could barely ask with my head angled so far back.

"Because," I felt the blade at my neck. This was it. Just a bit more pressure and a swing and I was gone from the world. "We need to keep this operation from failing!" That was the climax. Time for the fall of this story where I lay in bloody mess and the grunt laughs himself into insanity.

With a start, suddenly my hair was let go and he falls to the ground. I readjust myself with a deep relieved breath and look up. Tyson's older brother was standing there, the plate that had held his food broken in half in his hands. He had managed to get out of his cell and save my life, it seemed. But how? How come now when he couldn't have done this before? I looked for clues. There was a twisted metal fork on the ground, which was how I'm guessing he tried to pick or loosen the lock on his door.

"You gave me hope that we can be freed." He dropped the plate and went over to the grunt. After a quick search of his pockets, he found some keys and key cards. He kept the cards and then passed me the keys. "Let's get out of here before I change my mind and he wakes up." I nodded furiously. It was either possibly get freed or possibly died. I grabbed his outstretched hand and he pulled me up. The pokéball was definitely half full now.