Hello guys, here's a new chapter. To give you an idea, Outpost 3C 273's design is based on Auschwitz.

Chapter twenty: Break-In

Barbed wire…evenly spread across the top of many tall colossal fences…improvised gun nests…with spotlights searching the ground for any intruders nearby…Scannerbots and Spiderbots, both patrolling dirt roads, courtyards, and compounds for their next victim.

This is a problem, without a doubt. Dr. Bartoli had seen this coming. She had anticipated my intention to rescue Km, so what was once an outpost used just for medical purposes now looked more like a military base and since everything new here was rushed to be made, as a result of being built in a few days after my breakout from the base, it's enough to cause concern. But now, there was an even bigger problem to deal with.

"Do as you say…like hell I will-" A young teenager says to me.

"I said shut up! They'll hear us!" I cover his mouth but he smacks it away in response, "Don't touch me!" He says.

"Shut up and follow me. This way…now…" I lead him, or at least try to, towards a small alleyway between two brick buildings across from the parking lot. I crouch, with some difficulty because of my injury, and then I gestured him to come, "Get over here now kid!" I whisper but much louder than before. Once he does manage to arrive he forcefully picks me up, since he's taller than me.

"You're going to pay for what you've done to us…it's time you Team Rocket grunts learn your lesson!" The young adolescent backs away from me and points his finger towards me, "Orion…ThunderShock!"

I wait for the painful surge of electricity to strike my body but it never happens. The boy blinks in confusion and then looks down to his Pikachu, "Orion…?"

It turns out that the mouse has moved to my location and now has his back turned to me, with his arms held out as if to protect me from harm, "Pika, Pi…ka!"

"Orion…what are you doing?" He says to his Pokémon, flabbergasted by what he just saw.

I narrow my eyes to the boy, "Your Pikachu has the right idea...You want to see the outside world again? Well, you're going to have to listen to me because I'm your only escort out of here."

"Orion…shock him! Why aren't you shocking him?"

"Because he knows that I'm not the biggest threat here right now…" I explain.

"Orion…" He speaks much more softly this time as he slowly walks toward his Pikachu; his voice is stuttering, "What's going on…there must be a reason why you're doing this…"

"You want to know why?" I chuckle to myself as I shamble towards him to speak to him eye to eye. I can tell he is angered by my close proximity, so with one quick draw of air into my lungs and one quick exhalation of breath into his face I say, "I saved his life. If it wasn't for me, he would probably be rotting in the dirt somewhere in this forest right now."

"Liar!" He retorts, but once he looks back at his Pikachu, who is staring at his trainer in the face with a clear expression of agreement to my cause, the teenager narrows his eyes to me. Oreo, my nickname for Orion, was nodding to confirm my statement, "Just ask your Pikachu…he was there." I say after noticing this.

The trainer shakes his head back and forth repeatedly, as if to avoid the truth, "Orion…please don't tell me that you nodded with him!?" The Pikachu looks down to the floor in shame and this only makes me grin even more.

"…Charmeleon!"

The boy's Charmeleon begins to walk towards me while Oreo hesitates to get himself into a hostile stance. Lucas, who was formerly human but is now a Pikachu, runs to stop both of them from fighting.

"Use Ember on the Grunt…and make him feel it." The boy instructs while I take out the tranquilizer gun from the back of my pants to aim it at the boy, "I wouldn't advise that kid…once you're down on the ground sleeping, you'll be carried away by some Grunt to be experimented on…by a nice young lady, who will enjoy giggling at you with every scream you make."

It's a rather tense moment for all of us. Sweat is falling from everybody's face while silence, other than the Outpost's ambiance, is dominant. Oreo's soft red cheeks are eliciting small bursts of electricity while Charmeleon's tail flame is flowing more violently than before. I simply stare into the face of the trainer, who I hate with my guts, and expect him to retaliate in response to my statement.

"Orion...step aside." Charmeleon orders me, but I instead walk back towards Cy and I once again throw my arms out to protect Cy from him, "He's telling the truth!" I retort.

"It doesn't matter, he's the enemy!" The reptilian Pokémon growls, "Orion…we've been friends for as long as I can remember, but I won't disobey Rigel...now step aside!"

Behind him, I can see Lucas running to us to try to break us apart. He shoves both of us back to prevent further hostility, "Guys, please! This is no time to fight! We're inside a Team Rocket base!"

"No thanks to the Team Rocket Grunt in front of you, kid." Charmeleon responds as he shoves Lucas away. He falls down on the ground, which is covered in mud, pretty hard which angers me, "Charmeleon! Not cool, he's my friend!"

"…and I'm not? You're betraying us for a Team Rocket grunt!"

"He came here to help somebody, not to get us into more trouble." I move towards him carefully.

"And why should you care? Why concern yourself with a Team Rocket Grunt!? He's probably using you for his own personal gain!"

After a short moment of silence, Lucas steps in again and walks slowly towards me. The Pikachu cleans mud off his face and says quietly, "Orion…is it true…did he really save your life?"

I look down at the ground; I sigh softly as I look up towards them again, "…yes…he rescued me from several Beedrills inside the forest earlier. He cured my poison… and…he's right…if he didn't save me….I would be dead."

I step closer even more as I continue my explanation, "He may be a Team Rocket member…but when he saved my life…I realized that he isn't completely without a heart. If he was really bad…he would have left me to die…but he didn't! I know he's a criminal and he's the main reason why we're all here today but…maybe he had a change of heart…he did cause chaos in the Team Rocket base and it was because of him that we're no longer in a filthy cage Lucas."

"I…I'm not sure what to say Orion." Lucas says softly, Charmeleon is also unsure how to react to my statement, but I can tell he's having a harder time accepting my explanation, "He's still a Team Rocket grunt…and you shouldn't ally yourself with one…they can't be trusted that's all I'm saying." The reptile says.

"Don't get me wrong…I wanted to get back at him…I wanted my revenge, but…that would just make me just as bad as he is…and I don't want that…I just want to go home!" I respond.

"Charmeleon...attack the Grunt!" Rigel shouts.

….

"Charmeleon!"

"I…just want to get this over with…I want to go back home and rest…" I say softly, "I haven't for two weeks and I'm homesick…I miss you guys and I think fighting with you won't make things better. Attacking him won't solve our problems either."

Ultimately, Charmeleon refuses to attack and backs away while Cy lowers his gun in response.

"Are you finished yet?" Cy asks Rigel, "Because it seems that your Pokémon completely understand the situation that we're all in but you."

"Situation!? You brought us here! You're the reason why we're in this place! This is nothing more than a trap."

"I came here to save somebody, and I had no intention to bring you here. It's your own fault that you jumped in the back of a Team Rocket Truck in the first place." Cy says, annoyed.

"I don't care! Get us out of here!" Rigel retorts.

"I can't…even if I could, because believe me…I want to get you out of my site you annoying sack of-"

"You have the truck, idiot! Why don't you just get me and my Pokémon and drop us off outside this place!?" Rigel interrupts Cy.

"First of all kid…life is not that easy. Second of all: I'm not leaving this place until I find my friend. Third of all, we luckily passed a checkpoint at a time when everybody is coming back from the city, so the inspections are less strict. All they do is check your ID, scan it and let you in. Once it gets dark, those gates close shut and we're stuck here until morning…unless of course I can get the key to open the gate." Cy explains.

"Okay…then where do we get it?" Rigel says right away, just after Cy finished his sentence.

"Keep your voice down!" Cy retorts, "It's not as easy as you think…the key may be on the other side of the outpost or it may be nearby." Cy walks back to the parking lot and reads a sign nearby afterwards.

Parking lot D

Cy then makes his way down the rest of the alleyway to inspect the possible routes which we can traverse. Then, he returns to our location and says, "We can do this quickly and quietly if you keep that yap of yours shut and listen to my instructions. Unless of course you want to lose your Pikachu to a Team Rocket grunt again…then by all means…"

I look up to Rigel and expect him to make a negative comment but he instead plucks his lips together in anger, "Go ahead…"

"Good…" The adult human kneels down to rest on the floor, "Now: first we've got to make our way to surveillance, which can be found easily since they all apparently look the same in every Team Rocket outpost. There, we can find out where exactly she is being held."

"She...are you talking about…"

"My friend: Km…the one who helped me steal your Pikachu." Cy retorts.

Rigel stares at Cy, and I can see his fists are clutched as if he was ready to attack. I tug his pants and he looks down to me: my expression is that of reassurance, but my trainer continues to have a dark expression on his face.

"Unfortunately, I don't think we can turn off the security cameras at surveillance, so they'll probably know we're here once several camera lens have focused on us."

"..." Rigel remains silent.

"They already know I'm coming for them…I just need to make sure I get to Km before they find out I'm breathing down their necks, so here's the plan: you're going to go get the gate key from the storage compound, where ever that may be at, while I rescue Km."

"No, I'm following you." Rigel simply says.

Cy rubs his temples in frustration, "You know what…you're right….just follow me and shut up." Cy stands up and murmurs quietly to himself, "You're not a very good Pokémon trainer after all."

Rigel calls back Charmeleon as I climb on him to sit on his shoulder. He looks towards me and sighs, "Orion…I really wish we didn't have to resort to this. He's the last person we should be helping."

Lucas begins to follow us from the side while Cy leads the group down the alleyway. Lucas looks up to me and says, "Orion, I sure hope you know what you're doing."

I gulp silently, "I know Cy brought us here, but we mind as well get this done…this could be our chance to rescue the Pokémon here, if there are any."

"I guess you're right…" Lucas says silently.

Once we turn left, we are greeted by another parking lot: known as E.

From here, we can see numerous fortified positions running along a dirt path, surrounded by fences, that connects to the parking lot, which leads to another cluster of buildings. Since the alleyway behind us only leads back to Parking lot D, we have to cross the fenced pathway in order to get to the other side.

"Careful." Cy says as a bright light heads towards us. Almost immediately, we all have our backs against the wall of a brick building, since grunts from inside the same building are using spotlights to patrol the parking lot itself, unaware that we are just mere inches away from them. Sweat falls from my head as I look toward Cy for a solution to this problem.

"This is going to slow us down." Cy says to himself.

"How are we going to get across without being seen? There are spotlights everywhere!"

Cy does not respond but instead examines the compound nearby, "I can get my Diglett to use dig and we can travel underground, but then someone is bound to find us. And, it's too dark for Diglett to know where to go to anyways." Soon after, he gestures Rigel to come closer to him. Because I am sitting on Rigel's shoulder, I am able to lean toward Cy to listen to him as well, "It looks like every 10 seconds or so, a spotlight passes by a small area of the fenced trail. It looks like they're patrolling the trail in a pattern."

"Okay?" Rigel responds.

"All we have to do is go through the trail and wait for each spotlight to pass by before we can continue."

"So, it's like dodging bladed pendulums? Like in a video game?"

The adult Team Rocket Grunt gives a blank stare at Rigel for a few moments, "…sure…"

The Grunt checks his leg and then faces the entrance to the fenced road, "Let's go." He begins making his way through the parking lot, and Rigel suddenly runs towards him and speaks silently, "But what about your leg?"

"Don't worry about it, just stay close…Lucas…you too." He retorts. I look down to Lucas, who is very nervous at the moment. I get his attention and gesture him to sit on Rigel's other shoulder.

"No thanks Orion, I'm…fine here…"

"You sure?" I ask.

"Yea…let's just get this over with…"

We arrive by a metal fence door. Cy quietly opens the door and allows us to enter first, he then closes it. Our first obstacle will be to pass a fenced dirt road, which stretches for fifty feet. The good news is that there seems to be no grunts or scannerbots on patrol at the moment and the near-pitch-black darkness is helping us to remain hidden. The first set of spotlights pass by the dirt road in front of us.

"Wait for it…" Cy says softly, "go." He whispers loudly as we make our way through the trail in darkness. We have about ten seconds to cross before the same lights return. Rigel is walking/running as quickly and quietly as he can but his breathing is very shallow, a result of nervousness. I hang on to his shoulder tightly as he moves. From behind us, I can see Lucas and Cy struggling to follow from behind, Cy because of his leg and Lucas because of his lack of experience running on all fours, but they are luckily able to avoid the next wave of spotlights from revealing their location.

"Stop." Cy says as Rigel, me and Lucas freeze in place. Rigel stopped just in time because one of the spotlights was just mere inches away from us; my fur rises up as a result. My trainer notices this and whispers to me, "You alright Orion?" And I slowly nod to him in response.

Once this set of spotlights pass, we continue. Cy's method goes on for a while until we reach the end of the pathway in which we find another metal fence door. Cy passes by us and opens the door, he gestures for us to go through. We see another sign, lit up by a small lamp: compound F. We surround the sign before Cy comes up to us and stands alongside us.

"Now we've got to search this area for the surveillance bu-"

Halt!

We all jump in fright. We quickly look to our right as we see a Team Rocket grunt; he is wearing a raincoat and is holding a machine gun. Cy crouches down to shoot him but he misses by a few feet. The unexpected attack causes the enemy grunt to step back in surprise but he soon aims his weapon towards us in retaliation. He begins to fire at us which causes everyone to scramble. In less than a few seconds, I quickly jump off Rigel and I release a surge of electricity towards the human, giving him no time to shoot at me. Thankfully, he becomes paralyzed and is unable to move as a result.

Soon after the brief skirmish ends, I breathe in large amounts of air as Lucas comes up to me and puts a paw on my shoulder, "That was close, good job Orion…" He pats my shoulder a few times. I turn my head around to look at the taller Pikachu and I smile at him, "Thanks Lucas."

Cy walks towards the unconscious human and takes the machine gun from his hands and then snaps his fingers in Rigel's direction.

"Help me move him over there." Cy says as he points toward a dark corner nearby. Rigel helps the Grunt to move the unconscious man to the location, albeit with some difficulty from both of them. Cy then checks the machine gun, which uses tranquilizers instead of bullets, and then hands the pistol to the teenager, "You know how to use one?" Cy asks him as he checks the magazine. The teenager is appalled by the sheer weight of the weapon, "You want me to use a gun!?"

"Yes, it's going to make our lives easier."

Silence takes over for a few seconds before Cy rolls his eyes, "It's a tranquilizer gun…okay? It won't kill anybody…unless you shoot them forty times…"

"Romm? Are you okay!?" We all hear voices nearby as Cy starts making his way opposite of the source of the noise, "This way!" He says quietly as we all follow him.

Unbeknownst to us, a small squad of grunts arrives to investigate the source of the noise. They turn on their flash lights and begin to search everywhere.

"The noise came from here."

"I don't see anybody…and Romm isn't at his post…report this to the base commander."

"Go ahead and tell him." One of them, wearing a uniform, says, "Alright." The other grunt runs away into the darkness.

After searching the area for a few minutes, one grunt manages to find something in the dark corner, "Sir! It's Romm!"

After searching compound F and failing to find the surveillance building, it was time to make our way to compound G. Just as before, Cy leads the group to a metal fence door, so we can get to the compound, and once again we cross the same obstacles. Eventually, we reach the new compound with little opposition; however, even though this area is much smaller than the last one, it is much more heavily guarded and we soon learn why.

Staying in the dark, away from nearby street lamps and patrol officers, we begin to search the first building quickly. Cy only checks the façade as reference, but unfortunately it is not what we're looking for. Yet we repeat the same process for the other buildings, while remaining hidden from scannerbots and grunts, until we come across a particularly small building, which is separated from the others. It is roughly the size of a house and it has numerous small antennas on its roof. There seems to be no sign of Team Rocket grunts anywhere yet the windows have light coming out of the building. I see Cy sneak ahead of us to inspect the building. Once he's done, he turns back towards us, "This is it…we're here. This won't take long, I'll just find out where-" He never finishes his sentence.

He points his machine gun towards us and Rigel and Lucas respond by stepping back in fear while I cross my arms toward Cy in an attempt to persuade him to calm down, "Look man…put the gun down and…" Rigel says softly; however, he raises an eyebrow when he notices that the adult wasn't looking at him at all. Once Cy fires his weapon, Rigel, me, and Lucas scramble to avoid his line of fire. After I landed on all fours, I can see that two Team Rocket grunts had been struck by the syringe instead and have lost consciousness; however, more appear from the darkness and surround us. My eyes widen as I begin to ThunderShock several Grunts attempting to shoot at us while Lucas does the same. Rigel does not use his gun and instead throws it down on the floor and takes out a Poké ball, "Charmeleon! Slash them!" Unfortunately, before he is able to throw the ball, he is struck by several needles. I was able to witness this event and I yell in horror as a result, "No! Rigel!"

Lucas, upon hearing this, stops attacking and runs toward me.

My trainer ends up looking at me in a dumbfounded face after he checks several needles on his body, "O…ri…on" He shambled towards me and then collapses just a few feet away. I run towards him, crying, as I attempt to pick up his head, "Don't fall asleep Rigel! Don't!"

Cy doesn't stop firing his gun, but merely continues. He manages to shoot several more grunts until other grunts, coming out of the darkness, restrain him and force him to drop the weapon, "Let go of me!" Cy shouts as he kicks his legs in the air as the grunts carry him away, "Let go of me now!"

I then feel the earth shake as I look up in fear because I can see numerous spiderbots in the distance as well as many grunts from where I am. Needlebots have also arrived and now have their flashlights on us.

"Help me!" I hear Lucas shout to me as he attempts to dodge syringes coming from several needlebots. He manages to destroy some with his Thundershock but more seem to come from the darkness.

"Orion…run…don't let them….catch you…" I hear Rigel whisper to me.

"Please stay awake Rigel, please!" Unfortunately, he passes out soon after I shout to him. I shake him several times but it's pointless. I look up to find Lucas on the floor, unconscious as well. I was too late to save Lucas, Rigel, and Cy…I've failed again…just like I've failed two weeks ago.

"Hold your fire immediately!" I suddenly hear in the distance. The grunts, needlebots and spiderbots remain idle. I can hear footsteps on the concrete leading to the surveillance building. Coming out of the darkness is a human male: the man known as Anthony Preston. He walks towards Rigel and I and then veers down at me. His expression is dark, but for the first time since I've seen him, at the base a few days ago, he smiles at me softly. He snaps his fingers "Bring me Cy's weapon." A grunt goes to pick up the machine gun from the ground and then he hands it to the man.

"Thank you." He checks the magazine and then cocks the weapon after inserting it again. He stares at me for several seconds; the only noise I can hear is the wind passing by until he says, "Very impressive. Dr. Bartoli will be pleased to know that the both of you have survived. In the meantime, you have my gratitude."

Without warning, I feel pain on my left arm. I slowly look towards my arm and I remove a pointy object from my skin. I look back toward the human as my vision distorts. I begin to panic as I begin to lose consciousness, much more quickly than I did when I was in the forest near the prison, and I fall down to the floor, paralyzed. I close my eyes, unable to reopen them…and then silence follows soon after.

I am dragged down a steel corridor. I am now inside a building. I look to my left and right and all I can see are prison cells all around me. I gulp before I try to free myself from my captors but it's useless, "Don't struggle kid."

"Let go of me, assholes!" I shout.

The grunts holding me eventually stop. They search my pockets and they remove my boots to search for anything hidden inside them. They remove everything inside my pockets before they throw me into a dark room along with my boots. I hit the floor with considerable force before they close the door and lock it. Once they closed the door, I am shrouded in pitch black darkness. I cough several times before I inspect the room around me despite the fact that it's dark.

"…hello…who's there?" I hear a voice in the darkness. It's a very familiar voice…too familiar.

"Is that who I think it is?" I walk towards the source of the voice with my arms held out to find my way across the room then touch skin and that's when I know I'm next to the person, "Are you-"

"Cy..."

"...Km!"

We both hug each other in the darkness as I cry to myself.

I've found her.

I am happy to announce that 50,000 Volts has officially reached 10,000 Views! This milestone was only possible because of my commitment to this story along with the overwhelming support of many readers. I appreciate all of the support from you guys, you're all awesome! Until next time!