Happy weekend! We went from dreary, 50s weather to 80s and 90s and dry. It's been very hot for May, especially up here. This is a short chapter, mainly because it is for the purposes of transitioning the story. I know that I'll try to make the next one much longer than this.

I actually finished this on Thursday afternoon, but haven't posted it until Friday night. In keeping with a recommendation I received from Insomniac98338, I will be posting these every four days from here on out, regardless of my writing speed. An exception, of course, being if I am too slow in writing to get a chapter out in time. And, for all of my transition chapters, this is not the shortest one I have written, so I hope you enjoy and review. Remember, the goal is 100!

Answer: I am 16, soon to be 17. Soon, it'll only be four years until I can purchase alcohol! Not that I really want to do that.

Question: What is your favorite Pokémon out of all of them? Any generation.

LUCAS'S POV

Weird.

In spite of the Insomnia blessing, we had still been able to pass out as a result of the flower. At least it did confirm one thing I had suspected, which was that the flower did have some powers. Why else would I have felt that inexplicable tether towards it?

The next thing I knew after passing out was that my head hurt more than it ever had in my life. Like, it wasn't flu level. It was meningitis level, it was that bad. I was sprawled on the ground, clutching the Vivid Violet flower in my claw. After I opened my eyes, I was able to see more of my surroundings, and the bright color made things five times worse.

I was still in the middle of the grove of spruce trees. Around me, Kieran, Malcolm, Michelle, and Samuel were also coming to, rubbing their heads in what was no doubt pain.

"Worst...hangover...ever" Kieran groaned, trying to stand up. This was a bad idea, as he soon ended up falling back down on his rump. At this, Malcolm couldn't suppress a giggle, even though his head had to be killing him as well.

"No kidding" Michelle said. "Of course, I've never been one to drink, so I wouldn't really know that, but whatever".

I sat down, crossing my legs like a monk, trying to regain my bearings. The sun had moved up to the point where it was nearing midday. For the most part, my head felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to it, and the sun felt like it was beating into my skull. This, despite the fact that it couldn't have been more than sixty degrees out.

"Did you hear that?" Samuel asked, sounding worried.

The rest of us shook our aching heads. Lucario had extremely good senses of sound, so it wasn't that big of a surprise that Samuel was the only one who could hear something.

And then, I saw it. I saw that there was a rustle in the spruce needles, something that might be coming towards us.

"There is...malevolence in those trees" the Lucario said. "We're going to have to be careful. Let's get out of here while we still have the chance!"

That was one thing I couldn't argue with. I didn't particularly want to stay here if there was someone potentially dangerous about to enter. And yet, I didn't feel particularly capable of movement, either. I was in too much pain to even think about running for the hills, quite literally.

I stood up and almost immediately felt dizzy. I put my hand to my head, but that only increased the headache. I had to keep on going, running. However, I found myself twirling, almost like a ballerina, as I tried to get away from the entrance to the grove.

"Team Rocket!" Malcolm cried.

"That's right!" said a cocky female voice.

From out of the trees came a young woman with long, pink hair, and a young man with slightly shorter, electric indigo hair. Both of them had smirks on their faces, as well as two Pokeballs, ready to capture someone.

In spite of my attempts at bravado, it wasn't easy to be brave. Team Rocket was a name that struck fear into the hearts of Pokemon and their owners. Their goal was to capture as many rare Pokemon as possible, in order to conduct research on them, and occasionally torture and/or kill them. You didn't want to get caught by Team Rocket, that was for sure.

Jessie, the pink-haired young woman, said, "Ooh! Is this the boy who turned into a Zoroark? Foolish to be in such a public place!"

Samuel stood tall, swaying slightly. "If I were you, I wouldn't enter the grove. If you do, you'll be sleeping the sleep of the fairies within seconds. The Bellossom aren't going to be happy!"

A few hundred feet away, there was a circle of Bellossoms, dancing like native Hawaiians at a luau. They seemed to be singing "Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper, trying to put those near them to sleep.

James, the man, laughed. "Do you really think we'd be so stupid as to enter without the Insomnia blessing? We're going to be fine. You're the stupid ones. Surrender the boy or prepare to die".

Such a cliche statement did have an effect on me. For whatever reason, I got a feeling that the boy wasn't Kieran or Malcolm.

"Which boy?" Michelle asked, trying to sound confident, despite the fear that was no doubt radiating from her into Samuel in waves. She stood her ground, managing to stay firmly planted on her feet, not moving in the least.

"Lucas London" James said. "The one who turned into a Zoroark!"

"There must be a scientific explanation for it!" Jessie yelled. "Imagine the implications for research. We're going to be rich and famous!"

I dug my nails and ground my teeth, still stuck on the ground, although my headache was starting to abate. "Honestly, fucking criminal organizations aren't going to get recognized by the government as heroes any time soon. You might as well just give up".

Jessie cackled. "Do you really think so, London? Are you so deluded to even entertain the thought that we would just stop pursuing our number one goal? Noooo, we're going to get this done!"

James held out his Pokeball. "Meowth, exit!"

Meowth exited the Pokeball, looking around. Then, he stuck out his arm towards us. "You guys are going down!"

Kieran snorted. "Not on my watch. Guys, run! I'll hold them off! I've got nothing to lose, anyway".

"What do you mean, nothing to lose?" Michelle yelled. "If you get killed, you lose the rest of your life, just the same as the rest of us!"

I didn't know what Kieran meant either, but now wasn't the time to ask. Our number one goal was to get away from Team Rocket. After that, we didn't know what.

At a certain point, I just snapped. I leapt to my feet, not able to continue staying there any longer. There was no reason not to fight back. At least, that was what I thought at the time. Looking back on it, however, I could not have made a worse move, because I was right next to their Pokeballs. I had to tread carefully.

"Lucas! Are you an idiot?" Michelle shrieked.

Maybe I was, but I was a strong idiot. I climbed onto Jessie and began tackling her to the ground, slapping her across the face.

"Why are you hitting a woman?" the young woman scolded me.

I hit her again before saying, "You barely qualify for that description! It's only because you aren't male that you are female!"

"Enough insolence!" James said, grabbing the other Pokeball from Jessie's hand, the one that had not held Meowth. "I will capture you, Lucas London!"

"Remember...the tranquilizer…" Jessie said, sounding like she was choking. I let my grip loosen slightly, but I made sure to run my claws across her arm, trying to cause as much pain as possible without doing too much permanent damage. If I just killed her, I would be no better than her. My late mother, as much as I didn't agree with everything she had done, had at least taught me that much.

Suddenly, I felt a jab in my right arm. It hurt pretty badly, worse than a normal injection. I saw that it was a bigger needle than the type you usually see at a doctor's office, but this was far different.

My vision immediately started darkening as soon as the blue liquid had entered my arm. I had finally thought that I'd be heading into the grove without passing out...but evidently not.

"Lucas!" I heard Michelle yell, and she started running over to me.

The last thing I felt, before passing out for the fourth time in as many days, was her throwing herself over me, and I knew that I would be at the mercy of Team Rocket, a group that would no doubt use and abuse me for their own ends.

(Insert a horizontal line here)

SAMUEL'S POV

Everything seemed to happen so fast. It wasn't enough that we had gotten into the grove safely, found the flower, and then all mysteriously passed out. And woken up with headaches rivalling an extreme hangover.

Then, Team Rocket had to come, and all of this happened. There was a brief battle, but it didn't last long enough for us to escape. And Lucas was jabbed with the tranquilizer drug.

Michelle ran over to her fallen brother, but none of the rest of us were so brave. I personally was sure that Jessie and James would have brought more than one syringe with them, so that they could knock all of us out and cart us to their base, wherever that was.

"Lucas?" Michelle was asking her brother.

It didn't really matter what she said, though. Lucas London was clearly not going to wake up anytime soon. They seemed to be about to take him away, as evidenced by the way James grabbed the front of his muzzle.

"We're going to the base" James grunted. "Man, this guy is heavy. Is that fur made of steel?"

"I'm pretty sure it isn't" Meowth said, grabbing his tail. "Come on, guys. Let's haul ass out of here!"

Before Malcolm or Kieran could do anything to try and stop them (which would more than likely result in their own capture), the two males of Team Rocket were beginning to haul Lucas out of the grove. I knew immediately that no one in the village would try to stop them. Everyone was far too afraid of Team Rocket to do that.

I felt heartsick whenever I thought of what the Greenlakes would think, seeing Lucas carried away by a trio as cruel as Jessie, James, and Meowth. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. Well, maybe I would, but that depends on the situation.

Right now, our worst enemies were Team Rocket. Them, I wouldn't mind getting a taste of their own medicine.

As soon as we were confident that the Team Rocket trio were out of earshot, we started heading out of the grove. Even though we now had the blessing of Insomnia, we didn't want to stay there for a minute longer than we needed to. Particularly considering the Bellossoms hadn't even lifted any of their fingers in order to help; they'd simply let us deal with the villainous team on our own.

"Let's go back to the Greenlake house" Kieran said. "They have Internet access, and we can figure out where the base is of the nearest branch of Team Rocket. That's probably where Lucas is being held".

"Who put you in charge?" Michelle asked. "I mean, you killed my mother. I would say that this is reason not to trust you".

"You need me right now" the young man said. "Later, I'll tell you guys what's going on with me, and why I say I have nothing to lose. Now, though, we need to get moving. There's nothing that will help us about dilly-dallying. Lucas's life could be at stake".

I knew that he was right. Still, it kind of stung to be reminded of our absolute dependence on the man we had considered, only recently, to be our worst enemy. Excuse me, but that is not something that is easy for me to let go.

We headed back into the village, but Team Rocket seemed to be moving, quite literally, like rockets. We didn't see hide or hair of them the entire way back to the Greenlake household.

"Man, my parents are going to be pissed" Malcolm said, sounding childish as always. "Really, wait till they see that we weren't able to defend Lucas. I'm going to get grounded for the rest of my life".

"No, you're not" I told the Zorua. "They're not going to ground you for something like this. It's going to be fine. We'll just have to rescue Lucas, and everything is going to be all right".

What I didn't mention was that we had no idea where Lucas was being taken, other than having an inkling that it might be Team Rocket's nearest base. Other than that, there was little reason for optimism.

We finally arrived back at the house, and Malcolm rang the doorbell. We had to wait for a few seconds until Carla arrived at the door. When she did, she looked shocked.

"What happened?" she asked. "I didn't expect you guys to be back here until you were done with your quest!"

"You see", Kieran said, "something happened".

"What might that be?" Carla asked us.

"Did you see Team Rocket in the street just a few minutes ago? Because they were carrying Lucas out of here. They managed to capture him, and the flower". I was only now realizing that they did indeed have the flower as well, but I knew it was true all the same. There was no way that they would have left without something Lucas had been clutching as he lost consciousness.

"That's bad news" the female Zoroark said. "But I'll let you guys in, anyway. Sounds like you will need to do some research, figure out where Team Rocket's base is".

I could tell just how shocked Carla looked as she got ready to go out and get food for lunch. She also looked livid, however, that we had let that happen to Lucas. I wished that we could have pointed out that it wasn't our fault, but that might not have done anything. All we could do was try to rectify the situation now, get on the computer and start looking.

(Insert a horizontal line here)

LUCAS'S POV

Pain...that was all I registered at first. And, really, it was no surprise. I'd just passed out for the fourth time in as many days, and this had been as a result of a tranquilizer. It was no wonder that my head would be killing me.

I tried to open my eyes. No dice. They felt like red-hot pokers were being used to hold them shut. I knew that this wasn't normal; something had to be going on.

And then I remembered. I had been kidnapped by Team Rocket, and was probably going to be used for some sort of evil purpose. None of the possibilities were good; all I knew was that I was up a creek without a paddle, for sure.

Finally, I managed to see. I was shackled to the wall, with both hand and leg irons. The irons were connected to a bar that went from the bed to an adjoining bathroom. The bar also went, in the other direction, to the door.

Which was mighty convenient.

I tried to move towards the door. I was able to get off the bed, barely able to walk due to the pain in my skull, moving my chains along the wall. Once again, I tried to act just like this was a ropes course at summer camp. It was that simple. Just at summer camp.

Yeah, keep acting like that, Lucas. Doesn't change the fact that the door's locked.

Indeed, it was. As much as I tugged on it, using all of my limited physical strength, it didn't budge. I was trapped in here.

I surveyed my surroundings once more. Aside from the bed, the bathroom, and the door, as well as the chains and bar, there was nothing else of note in the room. There was no window, so I had no idea where I was or for how long I had been out. All I could hear was what sounded like ocean waves lapping against a rocky shore.

Indeed, the room was so dark that I could have been underwater. The only thing to illuminate it was a dirty light on the ceiling. I had no way of turning it off, which was a shame, because all I wanted to do at the moment was sleep; I was in that much pain.

There was the sound of a lock clicking, and then the door opened. I craned my neck in order to see who it was, which only served to exacerbate my headache.

A young man, not James, was standing in front of me. Probably in his late twenties, he wore a black shirt with a red letter R on it, the symbol of Team Rocket. He also held a gun, although he wasn't pointing it at me. I had no doubt that he was more than willing to use it if I stepped out of line.

"Good evening, Lucas London" he sneered. I had already decided that I didn't like him, but this made me really not like him.

"I think you might be asking why you are here" the young man said. "Would you like to know that?"

"Yes" I croaked. I couldn't muster the strength to insert some choice words, because that would just take too much energy.

I had a good feeling as to why I was here; I was just waiting for this man to confirm it.

"Okay, Lucas. You are here because you transformed into a Zoroark. When we don't have a scientific explanation for something, we're not okay with just rolling with it, we want to learn more. As a result, you are going to be put through some experiments tomorrow".

My heart froze up. I had had a feeling that this would be coming, but I wasn't expecting it to be at the hands of Team Rocket. As far as I knew, Team Rocket didn't have the necklace, so they wouldn't find the answers they were looking for. They would keep on using and abusing me until I was just a husk of what Lucas Leonard London had once been. Until I was dead.

The thought was sickening in more ways than one. On one hand, I didn't want to die at the ripe old age of seventeen. On the other hand, Team Rocket's seeming indifference to suffering that they were the ones to cause was absolutely nauseating.

"Fuck you guys" I said, weakly.

The man only laughed. "Trust me, you'll be regretting that statement soon enough. Right now, you can just sit here until morning, when you'll be subjected to a few tests. We're going to make sure that you are healthy enough to undergo these experiments".

I nodded, which was a mistake. "Can I have some Tylenol or something? My head is killing me".

The Team Rocket operative laughed once again. "It doesn't work that way, Lucas London. You'll just have to endure it. Now, I think I will be going".

The man left, walking out the door, and shut it behind him. Once again, I was alone.

And I had been so stupid! Because, if I had only managed to keep myself from charging at Jessie and James, I would not have gotten injected with the tranquilizer, would not have been kidnapped, and most certainly would not have been in the situation that I was in now.

All I could hope for was that my friends were going to find out where I was. Which was a long shot because I didn't even know where I was, so why would my friends be able to figure it out?

No, that thought was far too optimistic. I was probably just going to die in this room, and it was going to be as simple as that. I wouldn't be buried near my mother, I would be buried somewhere in this building. That thought was not a pleasant one.

Right now, however, my head was pounding far too much to think straight. I stood back up, my head spinning with pain. It was weird, feeling lightheaded, while at the same time your head felt like it was weighing down the rest of your body.

I managed to collapse into the bed, which didn't have any blankets. Despite this, I didn't need one in order to fall asleep.

MICHELLE'S POV

We had sat down at the Greenlakes' computer, working on it for an hour, trying to research where Lucas was likely to be. It wasn't as hard as you might think, believe it or not. The reason for this is because we had a good idea to look for him at wherever the nearby Team Rocket base was.

As soon as we had figured that out, we had notified Carla and Jason that we'd be heading to a small town called Rocket, Maine. It was located on the Knox County coast, rough terrain to try to sail around. What a fitting place to have headquarters for Team Rocket!

Kieran called a Crobat, which still seemed to be very loyal to him for some reason. I wasn't sure exactly why all of the Poison types liked him so much, but it could have been because of his personality. Certainly a lot of people would have considered his personality poisonous; that wasn't too outlandish of a description of Kieran Mortimer. Still, however, I didn't know, and I didn't want to jump to conclusions.

We touched down outside the Rocket Pokemon Center. Pokemon Centers are basically crosses between hostels and hospitals, where injured Pokemon can recover, and their trainers can stay and order food. For the most part, they are located near cities and small towns, but there are some in the middle of nowhere.

"Shall we get ready to just storm in and expect to find Lucas?" I asked. "It's not like Team Rocket isn't going to have any defenses on their main base in Maine".

"I'll fix that problem" said a voice from the door.