Hello guys, here is the next chapter!

Chapter twenty-one: Break-out

…where…where am I?

I…rememberwe were ambushed…Rigel…Lucas…we were all surrounded by grunts…

Cy…I shouldn't have listened to him…and that man…that...scientist…looking down at me…smiling…how could I have been so naïve!? How could I have been so careless again!?

I barely open my eyes. After I do, I struggle to sit upright, mostly because of the pain but it's also because I'm disoriented: a result of being shot with the tranquilizer again. The room is shrouded in pitch-black darkness, so a sense of fear immediately replaces my anger. Because I am very weak from what had happened, I am unable to produce electricity in my cheeks to light up the area. Instead, I touch the ground nearby, so I can navigate across the room. I crawl in the darkness until, eventually, I accidentally bump into a concrete wall and I feel pain in my head develop soon after.

"Ow…"

"Who's there!?" A panicky voice says in the darkness. I immediately stand up in response, "Lucas..."

The voice immediately answers back, "Orion! Thank goodness!"

"Where are you?" I ask as I try to find him.

"I'm in the light…don't you see me?" Lucas says, confused.

"There's no light in this place…" I retort.

"Maybe then it's because…you're in a different cell. Mine has a small lamp on the ceiling that's barely giving enough light." Lucas retorts.

"Cell, no…no...no! We're in the same nightmare all over again…" I grab my ears in frustration, "You were right…I shouldn't have trusted Cy. He got us back into the same mess all over again. I'm so sorry Lucas, I should have listened to you and Charmeleon…and Rigel. I've…put all of my trust into Cy and it only led us back into the same problems we had before…please forgive me Lucas…"

"Orion, it's okay-" He is unable to finish his sentence because I suddenly hear a door open and a bright light shines toward me, blinding me temporarily. When I regain my vision, I can see two grunts standing on the other side of my cell door. Both appear to be unarmed, but I growl when they step closer to me. I try to use my ThunderShock, but I find my attempts to be futile, so I back away from my opponents in fear; I eventually have my back against the wall in response.

"The injection we gave him earlier suppressed all of his power points, but the effect won't last very long, so help me take him to cell block D quickly." One of them says as the other grabs me, and with so much force that I almost stopped breathing. Because I am weak, I am unable to fight back to save myself from this confrontation, so instead, I yell in desperation, "Lucas, help! Let go of me!" The grunt takes me out of the cell as I try to bite him but it proves useless since he's wearing some kind of armor on him.

"Orion, try using your Thundershock!" Lucas shouts to me, "I can't, they did something to me!" I yell back in response.

"Orion! Try to escape, try anything...you can't let them take you!" Lucas continues calling out to me, but his voice fades as I am taken into another area. For a split second, I am able to briefly look behind me and see a sign on a wall nearby: Cell block C. Of course, I don't know what it means, since I still have a lot to learn about the human language, but it soon becomes clear that Lucas and I were kept in that area.

Before I can think more about this, I am thrown into another cage, one that actually has light inside it. I look around wearily as the cell doors close behind me, prompting me to gulp nervously, but when I look to my right, I can see Rigel, my trainer, sitting on a rusty bed. Rigel is missing his belt full of Poké balls; the only explanation is that they confiscated it from him. He looks at me and immediately stands up and crouches down. He grabs me as I jump into his arms. I can't smile, however, because of my uncertainty of what's going to happen to all of us.

"Orion…I'm just glad I didn't lose you again…" Rigel says softly as I look up to him. He looks down to me and notices my expression, "They told me that they were going to give you back to me…but I didn't know if it was just a trick to get this terrible place off my mind."

He hugs me again and just as tightly as before, "You look terrible Orion...don't worry, I feel the same way too."

He finally releases me and decides to sit down on the floor as I do the same. Silence follows soon after before Rigel speaks again less than a minute later.

"I knew that following that Team Rocket grunt around would only bring trouble. We should have just…forced him to drive us out of here instead." Rigel takes off his hat, revealing his black hair, before adjusting it on his head again, "Maybe there's a way out…maybe…"

But before he can continue talking to me, we start to hear footsteps nearby: in what I can only assume to be the sound of high heels, what Rigel's mother calls them, striking the floor which is something I haven't heard since…

"Hello." I recognize the feminine voice right away; it is followed soon after by a bone-chilling giggle. Shivers run down my spine at this point. It's certainly the last voice I ever want to hear in this place. As I turn around, I see none other than Doctor Bartoli herself: she's carrying a clipboard, which is close to her chest. Her smile, as always, causes me to become irritated very fast as my eyes focus on her fire-red eyes. Anger inside me builds after I gasp loudly, "Bartoli!" I jump into all fours, with some pain, and growl.

"Now you're just imitating Lucas, silly." She says, "Gosh…I miss how you and Lucas growled at me during our experiments…Pikachu's sound so cute when they growl." As she says this, she gives her clipboard to the grunt next to her and then fixes her glasses as she focuses on Rigel which only makes me angrier, "But enough of my nostalgia, let's talk about your current situation young man…"

"You know who my Pikachu is?" Rigel blinks in confusion.

"Why of course I do…he's one of the shortest Pikachu's I've ever seen. Besides, I was the one who experimented on him."

The moment she says that, memories from being tortured inside the machine cause my anger to grow even more. Rigel immediately stands up and tries to attack the scientist but the grunts, now inside the cage and standing next to her, restrain him easily. I try to shock them, but of course it's useless. Bartoli looks down to me and smiles, "Don't try to use your ThunderShock on us. Save it for better things…like…using it to destroy Needlebots." She begins to search her lab coat for something, "I've always thought they were useless anyways. You and Lucas proved to me that I was right."

"And just where is Lucas right now?" Rigel asks.

"None of your concern."

"Why did Team Rocket turn him into a Pikachu?"

Dr. Bartoli stops moving for a second. Before she did, she found the item that she was looking for in her pocket. She pulls out a needle which causes me to stumble backwards in fear. I stare in horror as she brandishes the needle towards Rigel. My trainer tries to free himself even more but the grunts, being twice as big as he is, keep him in place. One of the grunts even grabs a handful of hair from his scalp to stop him from moving since his hat fell on the floor when they restrained him.

"You stay away from him!" I shout very loudly as I stand up to try and shock Bartoli again, but the same results happen every time I try: I can't seem to muster enough energy in my body.

Bartoli picks up Rigel's hat from the ground and neatly places it on the boy's head, "So I see Cy explained to you about what happened to him." Rigel gulps silently which catches Bartoli's attention, "This isn't for you silly." She says as she turns away from Rigel, he takes a deep breath afterwards.

"Ac…actually…Lucas told me himself…he wrote to me about it…" Rigel barely manages to say, relieved that he will not receive an injection. I am also relieved, but I know that Bartoli can't be trusted since the doctor is very unpredictable.

"I see; he likes to write a lot, cute little guy. In fact, our security videos contain countless hours of Lucas teaching-"

"Why did you do it?" The teen asks Bartoli.

"You're too young to understand." She crosses her arms, with the needle still in her hand.

"Too young?" Rigel almost shouts as the grunts chuckle from Bartoli's remark. I growl at them in response.

"Yes…in any case it's not your business anyways…I have no reason to tell you."

"In that case…I'm not talking to you anymore." Rigel retorts after he looks down toward the ground, so Bartoli can't see his face but she merely rolls her eyes in response.

"Unfortunately, you don't have much of a choice unless you want to stay in this cell for another day." Dr. Bartoli says coldly.

Bartoli walks closer to my trainer again until she's about several inches away. She looks down to him and frowns, "I have some questions for you to answer: why did you come here?" She demands an answer.

It seems to me that Rigel is thinking about the events that happened outside the previous night. Eventually he looks up to her and says, "That guy…with the black jacket."

"You're referring to Cy I presume?"

"Yes! He's the reason why we're here. He brought us in a truck. But…there's actually another reason why..." His voice steadily got silent. Bartoli raises an eyebrow because of this, "Why?"

She receives a large amount of spit on her face, and she closes her eyes just as this happens to her, "I'm here to make you pay for using my Pikachu as a science experiment!" Rigel shouts. When Bartoli opens her eyes again, she is enraged. I'm not sure what to think of this: either to smile or to frown even more than before because he must have meant what he said. It's probably one of the reasons why he didn't just force Cy to take us back into the truck without our help. He wants revenge, just like I wanted it in the past. Unfortunately, for the first time ever, I can see that Bartoli had an angry expression on her face and it was fierce. In fact, she gave most likely the most intense death glare that any human could ever give to anybody. Rigel's valiant act may have just cost him his freedom…and his humanity.

Dr. Bartoli wipes the saliva off her cheekbones and flicks it off her hand toward the floor, "You should be glad I'm sending you back home." Her voice gets louder as she says this. She turns toward me and I begin to back away, or at least try to, as a result, "As for you…"

Rigel shouts toward her with a tone of desperation present in his voice, "Leave him alone! This is between us!"

"You think we're going to risk getting shocked when we transfer you to a truck?" She kneels down and grabs my arm, with considerable force. I struggle to break free, but I am too weak, despite the fact that Bartoli's arms look frail in appearance.

"What have you been giving my Pikachu!?" Rigel shouts even louder, to the point that his voice cracks.

"A PP suppressant. Your Pokémon won't be able to use any moves for a considerable amount of time." I close my eyes and scream as she injects the fluid into my veins. As quickly as it happened, it was over. I fall on my back, weak from the injection. Bartoli smiles and then stands up to look at Rigel, "Where is your hometown?"

Rigel stares at me, furious at what just happened, but he nevertheless answers the doctor, "Viridian City…"

She smirks at him and leaves the cell, "Excellent, you'll be on your way very soon…I'll be back in a few minutes." The guards leave as well but patrol the outside part of the cell after they close it. Rigel quickly comes to my aid and holds me in his arms. He is on the verge of tears as I stare at him, unsure of what's going to happen next.

I am placed inside another cage: this one has more room available and it's actually much cleaner than the previous one that I was in. Even so, I try to escape but the cell doors close in front of me before I am able to act in time. My ears droop as a result.

"Oh for crying out loud! Out of all the rodents they could have locked up in here with us, it had to be a damn Pikachu! I hate them so much!" I hear a feminine voice say in the distance. My ears rise up again because of this. I look behind me to see two humans sitting on a bed: one male and the other, a female. I recognize the male right away, and I take a step back toward the door of the cell as a result.

"Cy…" I say softly, remaining in place.

The adult looks down at me and raises an eyebrow, "Lucas I presume." I nod in response.

"Lucas?" The female asks, "Shitty name for a Pokémon…it suits a Pikachu just fine." I tilt my head for a second before narrowing my eyes at her in anger.

"Yes, well…Bartoli…she…how can I say this: this Pikachu used to be a human." The boy says to her.

She blinks wearily at him as if he did something wrong, "Cy, now's not the time-"

"I mean it; if I could only show you the footage I saw back at the base, I can convince you-"

"It doesn't matter, nor do I care Ansel." She brandishes a hand toward him in an attempt to end the conversation.

Ansel? I thought to myself.

Cy sighs and shrugs, "If you say so."

"It's just a weak Pikachu…no reason to concern yourself with it."

I narrow my eyes at her and growl, but she takes notice of this and stands up from the bed right away in a hostile manner, "Hey! Stand in a corner and shut up, stupid mouse!" She says loudly.

"Do what she says, don't get her angry." Cy says to me, but the brunet talks back to him, "I'm already mad…Bartoli wants to torture me with this dumb rat…why the fuck aren't you going to a corner!? Go!" She points to a corner and yells at me, it gets to the point where I can almost feel her breath on my face. I huff loudly at her, annoyed, but I take Cy's advice, since I have been given a PP suppressant, and I sit on the opposite side of the room from them. Soon after, Cy and the girl begin talking to each other again, ignoring my presence completely in the process.

"The thing is: Bartoli wanted to give Lucas to you."

"I would have pissed him off and thrown him back at her." She says coldly.

"Interesting idea, would love to see that happen." Cy says.

Silence follows soon after, which lasts for a while, until the female suddenly bangs her fist against the bed, "Fucking cunt! We did everything for her and she stabbed us in the back…she sent a giant robot to chase after you and as for me…they kept me in a fucking cell ever since…forcing me to take some kind of useless medication. When I see that bitch again, I swear I will-"

"Bartoli…she's crazy…deranged…unpredictable…Km, don't listen to anything she has to say when she comes to question us."

Km? Oh yea that's right…he spoke about her earlier. So this is the person he came to save: this Km is a loudmouth and an overall foul person. Honestly, if I had any PP, I would have just electrocuted her right then and there.

"For days, she's questioned me for things I don't know about." Km says, shrugging in the process.

"Let me guess…she asked you about the formula?"

"Yea…and stuff like: can I breathe fire or...just crazy stuff…"

I can see the adult male look down towards the floor, "I should have came for you earlier when I was able to." He looks back up to her, "I think…she gave you the formula."

"Formula? Does this have to do with when she told us about humans being able to use Pokémon moves?" She stops when she sees him nodding in confirmation, "I don't remember her giving me the damn thing."

"They probably gave it to you when you were unconscious, after the Beedrill attack, during your surgery…"

"Well, it doesn't matter anymore…now…I want to make her pay." Km says.

Another silent moment passes by before Cy speaks again, "How's your neck now? Is it still hurting?"

She rubs her neck in response, "It stopped yesterday. They removed the tube recently."

"Thank god…you looked awful with that thing on you…" Cy says softly.

"…fucking hated it."

I see her turn towards Cy and she places her hands on his shoulders, "What about you…I need to know because you didn't tell me this yet, but…did they do anything to you?" Her voice is almost trembling, as if she's concerned for the grunt, "Because your leg looks really bad."

"They almost did, but I got out in time. But now, I got a busted leg…no thanks to Rk."

"Rk!?" She gasps in surprise, "Why would he do that!?"

"He destroyed a balcony that I was on in the forest and…oh no…"

"What!?" Km says, concerned.

"My guitar!"

"Really Cy!? Your guitar should be the last thing on your mind right now!" She retorts, almost in annoyance.

"You know how much I love that damn thing! And now it's probably broken because of the fall!" Cy grabs a hand full of hair on his head in frustration, "Rk! I swear…if I find so much as a scratch!"

"Hello love birds." I hear another feminine voice say; however, this person is outside the cell. And, it's a voice that I remember from days ago, a voice that I wish I would never get to hear again. Dr. Bartoli, the mad scientist responsible for all of my pain back at the base. Bartoli, upon seeing that Cy's clothes are filthy with mud and dirt from days of being in the forest, gasps, "My goodness Ansel…your clothes, why did you have to get yourself in this situation, you look like you haven't taken a bath in weeks."

"Spare me…Bartoli." He responds.

"I've been told that your leg has sustained injury…is this true?" She asks, but Cy does not respond this time.

Bartoli then looks toward me and tilts her head in curiosity, "Lucas? What happened? You have bandages all over your body…were you hit by a Rhyhorn?" I look away in response, "Well, don't you worry..."

I then remember when we had our last encounter with each other: I electrocuted her quite menacingly and now she mostly likely wants me dead. Her smile to me is most likely a sign of her joy, now that she can get back at me for what I've done.

The cell door opens and the doctor enters the cell with three body guards by her side, "I wish I didn't have to do this but…guards, restrain them."

Cy, Km, and I immediately stand up and try to retaliate, but the human adults' arms are placed behind their backs and rope is used to hold their wrists in place. Km resists the most, but ultimately loses the fight because of the large grunts. I, on the other hand, am grabbed by the third grunt and forcefully held in place by him. I try to release electricity from my body in an attempt to paralyze him, but I fail because of the PP suppressant's effect on my body.

"How are things going for the both of you?" Bartoli asks, without any hint of resentment for Cy despite the fact that he caused chaos back at the base.

"Oh you know…catching up on days Km and I could have spent together-" Cy says to Bartoli, with a clear indication of sarcasm in his voice.

"You didn't have to cause a ruckus to see Km again…all you had to do was to ask me personally." Bartoli responds with nearly the same amount of sarcasm, "After reading the transcript on your computer, I thought it was better to just leave the base with a bang." Cy smiles softly after saying this.

"Bartoli, you bitch!" Km shouts to the doctor, "Let us go!" Km tries to break free again but is held in place by the larger Team Rocket member.

Bartoli gestures the humans to follow her as I squirm to get free from the grunt holding me, "Maybe I will." Dr. Bartoli almost laughs after saying this but she hesitates, "Follow me."

A short time later, we are all walking down a passageway containing countless prison cells, but it's taking some time because of Cy and his leg. Furthermore, the fact that the light coming from the lamps on the ceiling is all but flickering and the fact that most cells are completely dark, we were struggling to navigate through the darkness.

After we walk down what could have easily been the longest corridor in the world, we see Bartoli turn around and say to us, "Did you know: that Outpost 3C 273 used to be a POW camp during the war?" She stands beside a light switch by a wall, "Now…instead of being used for human prisoners…" She flips the switch and every individual cell around us reveal to have Pokémon in them: many of which begin to whine in response, "…it's used for Pokémon instead." I watch and listen in horror, when I see hundreds of them crying for help, and it seems that they are all looking at me specifically. There are twice as more Pokémon here than there were at the base, so it's twice as loud…at least for me. My ears drown in noise as I cover them.

"And why should we care about this?" I barely manage to hear Cy say, "Yea, we don't need a lecture from you, Bartoli." Km adds.

The doctor/scientist hesitates to turn around again to answer both of them, but when she does she says, "Because depending on your attitude for when you speak to Anthony…this place could be your new home." Cy takes a second to digest what she had meant by what she said, but when he realized the meaning behind her words, that's when he looked up at her and yelled, "You can't do this…you can't!"

"Unfortunately for you, I no longer have any power to decide over who gets to be spared. Anthony Preston has been given absolute control over my project. So, I implore you…especially you Km…that the both of you remain silent during the entire interrogation process unless you are asked a question. And, when you are told to answer, respond without hostility."

Cy stares at the woman, flabbergasted by Bartoli's revelation, "If it's my fault for demoting you, then why are you giving us advice in the first place?" He asks and the doctor simply keeps frowning before flicking the light switch again to turn off all the cell lights, "I wasn't demoted, I succeeded in my goal to perfect the formula, but Anthony wanted to "perfect" it even more. So, I became his assistant and I now keep all my original data in storage...since I made the formula after all."

She looks away momentarily, "Besides, I think the both of you have a lot of potential for Team Rocket." She then opens a door next to the light switch and they lead us into a dark and abandoned cafeteria: countless chairs are scattered around and some tables are broken. At the center of this place are three chairs, all lit up by light as if it were a theater production. The doors behind us suddenly close shut, silencing the cries of the Pokémon on the other side which relieves the pain in my ears. With Bartoli gone from the room, the large grunts put Cy and Km on the chairs and say nothing afterward. As for me: they put me on Cy's lap, a rather uncomfortable thing to do, and left me there. We all look at our surroundings in curiosity and in fear, not knowing what was going to happen next.

A few minutes pass by and the doors open again, revealing numerous silhouettes: two tall human-shaped figures and a smaller figure holding a Pokémon in its arms. As soon as they enter the light, I cry out to them, "Orion! Rigel!" The Pikachu and the human look at me and say, "Lucas!"

The grunts place the teenager and the Pikachu next to the rogue grunts and a very intense atmosphere sets in afterwards. Rigel gives a death glare at Cy, which only causes the adult to snicker at him in response. I try to migrate to Rigel's side but a shout from a nearby guard stops me right away, "Stay where you are rat!" A grunt with a tranquilizer gun shouts. I heed her warning and I stay on Cy's lap.

Several minutes pass by but it feels like hours since we are forced to remain silent and motionless until further notice. Finally, after a few more minutes, Bartoli and another person, a man, enter the cafeteria: this middle-aged man is wearing a lab coat, the same as Bartoli and Orion and I soon recognize him. He looks over to us and simply fixes his tie after Orion narrows his eyes at the scientist, "If I could shock you right now…I would." Orion says.

"Ansel 'Cy' Jefferson." The man says which gets Cy's attention.

The man, Anthony as I remembered it thanks to his name tag, takes out several papers from a folder. He reads through several pages quickly before looking at Cy directly, "Assaulting a superior, avoiding curfew, vandalism." He continues to read through the same page before looking up at Cy again, "Destructive behavior, grand theft, and trespassing."

The scientist places the papers back into his folder and looks toward Bartoli, who is now standing beside him, "You've done many naughty things in the past few days: all of which are criminal in nature."

"What, you're suddenly deciding over who's bad and who's good in this world?" Cy retorts, "Who made you a judge?" Cy says sarcastically but the reaction from his 'Superiors' merely gets them to start a conversation with each other quietly while Km leans toward Cy and quietly says, "What are you doing?" Cy leans toward her direction in response, "Do you really think they're going to let us go-"

"Shut up, both of you! Move away from each other now!" A grunt shouts as Km quickly moves away while Cy does the same afterward, and then both grunts look at Anthony and Bartoli. Soon, the both of them stop talking to each other and they face the rogue TR members again, "Your statement is all but true; however, the fact of the matter is…your destructive behavior is just what Giovanni needs, which is why you will remain a member of Team Rocket-" Anthony explains.

"I'll pass…you had the decency to spare me earlier but not Km? My partner…my friend!?" He suddenly shouts toward the older adults, which makes all of us flinch in surprise, "You deceived us, so there's no point in staying in this filthy, lying piece of shit you call an organization." Cy was looking at Bartoli the entire time as he said his statement, as if he was blaming her for it.

Bartoli fixes her glasses in response to the young boy's outburst, "I did nothing to her. I was only informed of it."

Cy almost stands up from the chair in anger but is quickly stopped by a grunt standing behind him, "Then who gave Km the formula!? Tell me…who did it!?"

I see Anthony step in and say, "I am the one responsible for performing the procedure on her, Ansel."

Cy's hands curl into a fist, "Why…why did you do it…"

"How should I explain it to you in a sentence that you will easily understand…oh yes, perhaps like this: Because I felt like it." Anthony mocks the young adult as I can see Cy try to free himself to attack the older man, "I feel no need to limit my ambitions because Dr. Bartoli has said otherwise. The fact of the matter is: you are both still grunts and you are constrained to participate in any research that Team Rocket does. This was made clear the first day you registered to become members."

"I tried to persuade Preston to exempt both of you from being used for research, but I was informed that it was treason to do so...it was either my job or your freedom and it was an easy decision to make on my part." Cy puffs repeatedly in anger.

Soon after, several grunts enter the room with a black bag, "Sir, we found this from within one of the trucks near the entrance." Bartoli snaps her fingers and soon after the grunt brings the black bag containing Cy's guitar to her, "Thank you. You are excused." He salutes her and leaves the cafeteria right afterwards.

Cy's eyes focus on the bag, which is now in the hands of Bartoli, as sweat begins to fall from his forehead, "Open it up, I need to see it." Cy demands with anger still present in his voice. Bartoli does so, carefully, but after she does…a heap of mess falls right out of the bag in what I could only describe as the remnants of a once expensive guitar. The room falls silent with everyone staring at either the broken guitar or Cy himself. Everyone but Anthony, the other grunts, Rigel, and I are shocked by what had just happened. When I turned to see Orion's reaction, he actually felt sad for the grunt. Soon after seeing the Pikachu, I, myself, am unsure if I should feel sorry as well.

In the meantime, Cy tries to form words, but instead, he stands up to tackle Bartoli, despite the fact that his hands are tied behind his back. I fall off his lap toward the floor and I land with a thud.

"Don't shoot him!" Bartoli suddenly shouts just before one of the grunts was able to fire her tranquilizer.

When I look up, I can see that Cy is quickly restrained and kept standing as Bartoli goes to pick up the mess, "Don't you fucking touch it!" She stops going for it and turns around to face him, "Ansel, I'm sorry." A grunt suddenly picks me up and places me on a chair, "Stay here, don't move!" The grunt points to me.

"Shut the hell up! This is all your fault!" Cy shouts just as this is happening.

Km, feeling pain for Cy and hate towards Bartoli, stands up and yells, "So what happens now, assholes!?" she asks, "You've caused enough grief for us! If you're going to do something else…get it over with!" For almost a split second, I thought I had seen smoke rise from behind Km which confused me.

"I couldn't have said it more rigorously." Anthony retorts, "Bartoli…shall we?" The female scientist hesitates for a second but regains her posture soon after, "Of course." She responds.

"Now…we will be releasing the both of you from custody, but you will be placed on watch for your own safety. Many of your personal belongings will be confiscated, however, and an earlier curfew will be placed against you as a result of your actions." Doctor Bartoli says.

"Didn't you hear me!? I want nothing to do with you guys!" Cy shouts back, "Are you guys that stupid!?" Km adds to the insult, "Wash those ears, Bartoli! We quit!"

"I'm afraid…we can't let you leave this organization." Bartoli retorts.

"Well fuck you!" Cy struggles to free himself from the arms of the taller grunts as Km is restrained by another grunt, "I'm not doing shit for you!" Cy shouts even louder than before.

"Hey, don't hurt him!" Km shouts.

"We're sending the both of you back to the base for reevaluation and consoling." Anthony says while the grunt behind Km places her near Cy.

"As for you Lucas…" Bartoli leers down to me and says, "We're sending you back to the base as well, first thing in the morning." Rigel and Orion look toward me with worried expressions. The doctor turns to them and says, "And the both of you will be sent back to Viridian city right now. We'll make sure you'll never be able to find us again." Bartoli snaps her fingers again and the grunts patrolling the door leave their post to restrain Rigel, "Why are you taking Lucas back!?" Rigel asks.

"I figured that the authorities have been looking for Lucas for quite some time now and since the penalty for kidnapping is very high in this region, I've decided to find a cure for his Pikachu form."

Despite hearing this, I find the female scientist to be far too untrustworthy that I immediately, and instinctively, walk/run towards Rigel, "There's no way I'm going back!" I shout.

"I said stay put!" A Team Rocket member shouts to me.

Unfortunately, before I could make it to Rigel, I am captured by the same grunt, "Take Lucas back to his cell, right now." I start squirming my way out of this person's arms, but as always, I am restrained easily again; I hold my paw out to my friends as I near the exit, "Guys! I'm sorry!"

Rigel, after seeing me in distress, breaks free and runs toward me but he is tackled while Orion manages to jump off his trainer in time to try and save me.

"Let…go…of…me!" Cy shouts.

"Take them away." Anthony commands the grunts holding Cy and Km. Cy shows resistance and actually manages to stay put while Km is not so lucky. By the time she's near the exit, black smoke begins to appear all over her back. "Let me go now!" Km shouts, louder than everyone else. Gasps echo the cafeteria and silence follows right after, and what got everyone to get quiet, except for one of the grunts, is the fact that Km's arms are now on fire: the rope holding her has actually burned off and the grunt, who was holding her, is now holding his own hands in extreme pain and is shouting loudly as a result. Km sees her hands and yells as a result. She tries to extinguish the flames on her but it only gets the other grunts to move away, "What the hell is this!?" she says as her long sleeves are burned off, almost leaving her without any sleeves.

The guard holding me, in disbelief, drops me and I reunite with Orion.

Despite the fact that Cy is also surprised, he shakes his head afterward and then shouts, "Km! swing your arm around!" He says to her, "I'm trying to get rid-"

"Just do it!" He retorts as she does so. What ends up happening is that her flames travel toward several grunts. Some fall on their backs in fear while others jump backwards to avoid getting hit. The rest, however, are unable to avoid the flame's path and are struck by it as a result.

In response, Anthony points to Km and shouts, "Shoot her…shoot her now!"

The grunt shoots her tranquilizer but Cy, now free, pushes the grunt aside in time as the needle misses its mark: Km. The gun drops to the floor and the young adult, unable to pick it up, kicks the gun in a direction so that it will slide into the darker areas of the room, away from everybody's sight. Km quickly runs to be beside Cy and tries to untie the rope holding his wrists together carefully, which actually burns off. He rubs his wrists as he stares at Bartoli. The other female grunt, who had lost her gun, crawls away from Km in fear.

With everyone's attention now turned toward Km and Cy, Rigel begins running to us and says, "Can you guys use your electrical attacks!?" He shouts to us. I try to build a ThunderShock but it's faint and unable to cause harm to anybody for now, so I shake my head as a result.

"Let's get out of here. I need to get my belt back." Rigel says as we run to the exit; however, once we get there we are unable to open the door, "Oh come on!" Rigel says in frustration.

We look back to see Anthony press a button on the wall which causes the facility to screech in noise as red lights replace the room. As a result of the changing lights, it is now dark and Km is now lit up thanks to her arms.

"Restrain her…idiots…do it!" Anthony shouts as Bartoli reaches into her belt and takes out a Poké ball, "Km…calm yourself…you've got to calm down." She says, "Don't do this..." When the grunts behind the rogue trainers close in on them, Km impulsively creates a wall of fire to stop them from getting closer. In response, most of these grunts flee from the cafeteria through the entrance that we had entered from, which gets our attention. I tug on Rigel's pants and point towards the retreating Team Rocket members. Once he sees them, he smiles, "Let's go!" We start making our way to the opposite side of the room. Cy and Km see the same exit and Km starts making her way there while showing aggression towards the older adults, who are following them, and the remaining hostile TR members. She stops midway, however, and sees that Cy is deeply concentrated on his broken guitar, "Cy…forget about it, come on!"

Bartoli tries to get near Cy but he snaps back to reality and moves backwards slowly. Km then runs to aid Cy and then she points her hand toward Bartoli's face, "One more step Bartoli and you're going to get shot in the face! Trust me...you wouldn't want to lose your face although I would most certainly like to see that happen!" Bartoli raises her hands in the air and backs off slowly, "Lay down on the floor…face down and put your hands on your head, now!" Km commands her as she does what she says. Cy looks to Anthony and shouts, "You too Anthony! Don't play games!" The man complies.

Km grabs Cy, he puts his arm over her shoulder and both grunts reach the exit. Cy says, "Km…try and make a wall of fire again." She nods as she brandishes her hands toward us. Just as we make it to the exit, small bursts of fire leave Km's hands to create a semi-circle around the door which unfortunately blocks our exit. We stop suddenly and gasp as a result.

"I can't believe that just happened! Those jerks left without us!" Rigel shouts as we see Bartoli and Anthony stand up from the ground after hearing Rigel. I slap my head as a result as I look around for a quick way to pass the fire. I find a solution: a table…we can jump from it!

I point to the table while trying to get Rigel's attention. He finally sees what I'm pointing at and he nods, "Let's hurry!" Rigel shouts while allowing Orion to jump on his shoulder.

In just a few seconds, we reach the table, Rigel looks down to me and says, "Lucas, hurry and get on my shoulder!" He kneels down, so I can jump on his back easier. I do so, but I have a hard time hanging on. But trust me, when he jumped from the table and over the sea of fire below us, I didn't have any trouble hanging on to his shoulder afterwards.

Once we land on the other side, we leave the cafeteria and we make our way down the same prison corridor containing all the Pokémon from before, "I need to find my Poké ball belt. Once I get it...we can leave and if we see those scientists again, we're going to kick their butts!" The human says as Orion raises his arm into the air, "Yea! Now we're talking!"

Right after Rigel says this, we can see that all the cell doors have been opened and all of the Pokemon have disappeared. Rigel and the rest of us see countless wild Pokémon at the other end of the room, frantically trying to get out.

I look to Orion and he does the same, "Cy no doubt." I say.

"He's done it again." Orion replies after seeing a green light above what we assume to be the switch to open the cell doors.

"Let's go." Rigel says as we nod in agreement. I hang on to Rigel's shoulder as Orion does the same. Hopefully, things will go smoothly for us. One thing's for sure: Rigel and Orion won't show any mercy to Bartoli and Anthony.

Meanwhile, because they are unable to pass the wall of flames, Bartoli and Anthony leave the cafeteria on the opposite side of the room.

"Hopefully, the Spiderbots and the guard posts will stop them before they travel too far." Anthony says as Bartoli walks next to him down the corridor, "We can still get to them on the other side…oh no." She checks a map on an electronic device, "The Pokémon have been released."

Anthony stops walking and he shoves a finger near Bartoli's chest, "I knew they couldn't be persuaded to stay loyal and yet Giovanni allowed you to risk another disaster by giving these brats a second chance!"

"We can still get to them...Km's powers may be out of control...she can reduce the entire place to ashes if we don't stop her soon!"

Outside the building, absolute chaos is present throughout the area surrounding it. Fire is beginning to seep from the ground as several Needlebots, Spiderbots, and Team Rocket grunts begin clashing with the Pokémon who have escaped from their confinements. Gun nests begin to fire tranquilizers at the prisoners while Spiderbots jump toward their victims with the intention to stop them from escaping. The Pokémon, with a common enemy in sight, join forces to fight back against Team Rocket. As a result, the battle of Outpost 3C 273 has begun.

Hey guys! I'm back from finishing my finals, going on a tour through several states, and going to an orientation for my next university. Now that I'm back and summer is right around the corner, updates will be more generous, so expect the next chapter to be up on the website within a few days. Thanks for being awesome.

A minor note, Official Artwork for 50,000 Volts can be found here: as a book cover for the story. Or, you can always visit Deviant Art page: TheCommonCosplayer.

Take care guys.