Chapter 38 - Rocket Report
Joshua was doing one-armed push-ups when Butch looked in to check on what the teen was busy with.
"Is that all you've been doing this past few hours?" the ex-Rocket grunt asked, curious.
"Pretty much," Joshua grunted in reply. "It beats sitting and being bored to death." It also gave him a cover for thinking his plan over, but he wasn't about to tell Butch that.
"Oh. Uh...how many have you done?"
Joshua let out a final grunt as he pushed away from the ground and situated himself in a sitting position on the floor. "150."
Butch couldn't help but wonder if the kid needed something else to keep him busy. "Is this all you do in a day?"
"Beats being a puppet." Joshua got up from the floor. "Any reason why you're interrupting my time alone? Does Charon want me to run a couple laps again?"
Butch shook his head. "Charon doesn't want you to leave your cell at all."
"Then...why bother me?" Joshua moved over to one of the bunkbeds and started to climb into the upper bunk.
"Rumor has it something big's gonna happen."
"What sort of something?" Joshua hoisted himself up onto the bed and sat there Indian-style.
Butch glanced about quickly, peered into the hallway, then quietly stated, "Something about a rebellion."
Joshua kept a straight face, trying to be careful not to give anything away. "A rebellion? I doubt that Cyrus would let that slide."
"He's spent a lot of his time making a mess of his office. I haven't been there, but Cassidy had, she told me it looked like a Pidgeot and a Fearow had been throwing Whirlwinds at each other."
Hmmm...the nightmares must be affecting Cyrus' time awake as well as his time asleep, Joshua noted. Darkrai must be trying to break him.
"Maybe he wants his office to get a makeover," the teen suggested.
Butch shook his head. "He would have ordered us to start working on the new design. This is something borderline-crazy."
Joshua gave Butch a bored look. "And why are you telling me this?"
"Because the Pokemon are becoming antsy." Butch shifted his weight, leaning to his left as most of his weight went above his leg as he crossed his arms. "I don't know exactly what they heard, but they've all said that 'the reign is over' or something like that."
Joshua raised an eyebrow at this. "If the Pokemon sense something, then there is either a great miracle or a great disaster on the horizon." Upon seeing the look of surprise on the ex-Rocket grunt's face, the teen stated, "You remember that incident that took place in the Orange islands, right? How the Pokemon congregated as close as they could get because of the whole problem with the Bird Trio?"
Butch nodded slightly. "Yeah. Raticate was acting kinda weird when the Northern Lights showed up that far south."
"They probably know when any sort of change in nature is going to take place," Joshua explained. I wonder how they're able to tell in a place like this. Is it like my ability?
"Do you think they know what it is specifically?" Butch inquired.
"...there's a small chance, but I wouldn't count on it."
Butch nodded, then glanced at the door. "Gotta go. The new sentry's probably been waiting for the past five minutes."
Before Joshua could say anything, the ex-Rocket member slipped out of the cell. A moment later, the new "sentry" appeared, and Joshua figured out why Butch had been so quick to leave.
The new guard was a Magma grunt.
*Oh, snap* Blitzen muttered.