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 Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 9:44 pm
At the explanation of this "training procedure" Lance just stared blankly at Shawn, although his eyelids did droop a little. "I currently do not possess any Pokemon," he stated blandly. All of Lance's Pokemon had been confiscated as soon as he'd gotten there, and he hadn't seen them since. Naturally they wouldn't let an enemy of Team Rocket hold onto his most powerful assets while in their custody, unless used for something.
When asked if he understood the procedure, Lance stood there for a minute, making it unclear if he actually did. However, he did eventually nod, and simply stood there as if waiting for something to happen.
"Hey! What's the hold up?! Get back to work, and you too if you're so intent on helping the guy out." This coming from the first grunt from earlier as he stepped closer to Shawn and Lance. "And I can hear ya, you know. Just what the heck are you talking to him about?"
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Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 10:07 pm
"Oh. Er, that's okay, then. It'll probably make this more fair," the pokephobe told the blank-faced man. He had anticipated as much, but this just confirmed his suspicions and made it easier to know what to expect. And a lot easier for me. The less pokemon around, the better. Come to think of it, he hadn't counted on the other grunts' possible pokemon, but if they were taken by surprise quickly enough, they hopefully wouldn't have time to know what hit them, let alone to send out their pokemon and call attacks.
 Huh...? What was he waiting for? Shawn wondered, his paranoia getting the better of him. Nevermind, calm down. Deep breaths. He nodded eventually. Still, why would he need time to process something like that...? No, no, stay focused!
Yikes, the other guard grunts were already breathing down their necks. It was now or never. "Gladly," Shawn muttered in response to the first grunt as he pressed the button on Lindsay's ball, causing it to expand. "I need you, girl. We're in trouble. Come on out!" he whispered, tossing the ball at the guards.
While he had been aware all along that the other grunts may or may not have heard the snippets of conversation between him and Lance, his confidence in the plan remained unshaken as the grunt continued. After all, just because they had been heard didn't mean they had been understood. If they had, why would the grunt have bothered asking what they were talking about?
"Lindsay, Pin Missle! Then Quick Attack. Hit 'em hard and fast, with everything you've got!" he ordered his Jolteon, who was out and ready, her fur bristling with an eagerness to fulfill Shawn's wishes. He had never been so fervent or direct in any request he had given her before. She sensed the importance and the urgency of the situation and let her raw, uncontrolled power coarse through her body. "Jol! Jolteon!" she cried, hastening to obey. She would make her trainer proud. In this moment when he finally needed her to unleash her full potential, this chance to let him know how useful she could be, she would not let him down.
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Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 10:18 pm
The guard blinked as a pokeball was thrown and a Jolteon was let out. "What the?! You traitor!" he shouted, just before he was hit with several sharp little needles. "AGH! I should've known!"
This naturally got the attention of the two other guards and they quickly ran to assist their comrade, who had now fallen to the floor in pain from the Pin Missle attack. One of them was then knocked off his feet by the quick attack, however he too managed to throw a pokeball. "Go Zubat! Supersonic!" A little blue bat then emerged and emitted a confusing and loud shriek that even caused Lance to twitch in pain. However, he continued to just stand there.
The third, and largest of the trio, then made a rush for Shawn. "You'll pay for this!" he shouted as he made to barrel past Lance to get at the kid. However, he was stopped dead in his tracks as Lance's fist suddenly shot out and caught him in the jaw with a sickening crack. The man completely straight faced and staring blankly as he did it. The grunt then crumpled to the ground, completely knocked out.
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Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2011 10:49 pm
Shawn winced. "I'm not a traitor! This is part of your training! You'll thank me later!" He insisted, though internally he was torn between apologizing and telling the guards they deserved it. For now, though, it was best to stick to the plan and let everything play out. Please don't let me be thrown out of Team Rocket. No, wait...they won't throw me out, they'll just kill me. Great. Even better. This is wonderful.
As adrenaline began to rush through his veins, the thoughts in Shawn's mind became a whirling blur too quick to comprehend and he left it to his body to act as it saw fit. Damn! Pokemon! At least it wasn't a ghost, he supposed, and it was something familiar to him from the Kanto and Johto regions. Ooh, ouch. Supersonic. The kid rushed to cover his ears, but to little avail. Just as he'd always suspected, humans were not meant to withstand pokemon attacks.
Something was wrong. Lance was not moving. Crap! I knew I should have paid more attention to his hesitations...was it the Supersonic? Did that screw with the device? They were dead - no, Shawn was dead if he was going to be left to fend for himself with only Lindsay to aid him. As it was, the Jolteon had taken a direct hit from the bat pokemon and was Quick Attack-ing into the table that Lance had only recently up-righted, hurting herself more than anything else. Shawn's hopes were fading fast. How had he ever managed to come up with such a stupid plan in the first place? How had he had the audacity, the arrogance to think for a second that it had a chance of working?
Oh, hell. There was his death, charging toward him at full speed - interestingly enough on two legs in human form. Shawn had always imagined his death would be by pokemon, similar to his mother's, but this was just all too ironic. He shut his eyes tight and tensed, holding up his arms to brace himself for the impact. Only, it never hit.
s**t, s**t, s**t...I'm dead, aren't I? the terrified child thought silently. No, he could still hear the sounds of the struggle in the background. But then, what...? Summoning the courage to slowly open his eyes, he blinked at the limp, burly body on the floor. By the looks of his jaw and the sickening crack Shawn remembered hearing, it seemed plausible that Lance had knocked out the man in one punch."...Thanks," Shawn told Lance, awestruck. I...I just got saved by the Pokemon League Champion, he thought, still in shock. Even though he's supposed to be brain-dead. Damn...I guess he wasn't the Champion for nothing. It was reassuring to know Lance's skill didn't rely solely on his talent with dragon pokemon, but his personal power as well.
Lindsay was shaking off the confusion as her trainer, likewise, was coming to his senses. One down, two to go. Though the man who had been hit with the Pin Missle attack seemed to have been temporarily hindered, Shawn had a feeling he wasn't going to stay down from just that. Wishing that Lindsay had known a few less aggressive attacks such as Thunder Wave, the kid regretfully ordered her to ThunderShock the grunt. "But don't kill him," he begged her, before darting at the guard with the Zubat.
"Jolteooooon!"
If Lindsay was going to fight and put all her effort and being into her attacks, then he would too. What kind of trainer would he be if he didn't fight along side her? Though, he thought with a smile, most true trainers probably would have never taken that phrase as literally as he was now. Jumping onto the man who had been knocked to the floor by the prior Quick Attack, Shawn dug his heels into the grunt's sides and attempted to smother him with his coat. If he could keep him from breathing just long enough to knock him out, then he wouldn't need to use any further force. His Zubat would hopefully cease its attack with its trainer fainted. That was only the ideal situation, of course. Shawn hated using pokemon powers against human beings, particularly defenseless ones.
"Go, go!" he called to Lance. "We meet outside, remember? Find the nearest exit and wait there!" Oh, how he prayed another higher-up didn't find Lance there before Shawn did.
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 6:34 am
"Aaagh!" Shouted a grunt as he was electrocuted by the Jolteon, and left on the ground writhing in pain. His Zubat hovering over him with a large sweatdrop on the side of his tiny head. However, the little Pokemon did try to fight back with a Leech Life. Without his trainer giving commands, he wasn't really sure what to do.
The Pin Missiled grunt was now getting back to his feet. "Arg, you little punk. Just wait till I get through with you! I should have known you were going to pull something like this!" With that, he reached for a pokeball and tossed it. "Go Koffing!" And a purple ball releasing noxious gases was released. "Smog!" The poison type now belching a cloud of dark smoke at Shawn's Jolteon.
Ordered to go, Lance turned to look at Shawn for a moment, but followed the instruction. With that he started to walk towards the door, but not without his ankle getting grabbed by the grunt that had fallen from the thundershock. "W-wait... I'm not gonna let you escape!" Pausing to look down at the grunt, he lifted his foot and then kicked the man in the face, knocking him back and finally causing him to pass out. With that, Lance continued on his way at a leisurely pace, eventually exiting the room and heading down the hall.
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 8:30 am
Lindsay snarled viciously at the little Zubat. DARE you!> Though her powerful emotions could, at times, be a detriment to the Jolteon in how they clouded her judgement, they also served to fuel her raw-powered attacks in times of need. Now, more than ever, seemed one of those times. Shawn had seemed worried about her causing excessive harm to the human, but he hadn't said anything about the Zubat. Lindsay aimed and fired off a Thunder at the sightless poison and flying type, perhaps using a tad more force than was necessary in her resolve to bring it down.
Meanwhile, Shawn was having a hard time of his own. You should have known? the kid thought with bitter humor at one of the grunt's exclamations. That would have been something, because I sure as hell didn't know I was going to pull something like this... Darrow looked up in alarm as Lance paused and then once again halted by a stubborn guard, but his worries were quelled soon after. He grinned absently at the dragon champion's kick before turning back to his final opponent.
A Koffing. Luckily, this was another pokemon he knew from his reigon, and even better, from its habitat. They were both urban-dwellers, after all, and Koffing was just one of the many poison and ghost types Shawn was familiar with seeing on the streets and in back allies. He knew enough to put his T-shirt over his mouth and avoid inhaling as best he could.
The Smog attack was directed at his Jolteon, however. He glanced worriedly at Lindsay who was just recovering from her Thunder attack. She didn't see the discharge of noxious, filthy gasses from the Koffing until it was too late. Spreading out her stance, she managed to keep from being knocked off balance as she took damage, but coughed violently at the fumes. Poisoned. Ugh.
"Lindsay! No!" Shawn found himself crying out, astonished at his own concern for his pocket monster. Was this what it felt like to have affection for such dangerous creatures? How could he not feel indebted to her when she was fighting tooth and nail just for him? Forgetting about his own well-being, the young grunt rushed to his pokemon's side and scooped her up in his arms.
"Jol! Jolteon, Jolt!" she protested, squirming in his grasp and eager to fight some more. She could take on that overgrown ball of - "No, stay still. We're pulling out. That's enough," he told her, glancing over his shoulder at the remaining guard. "You've done great. Relax." Despite the sparks still radiating from the passionate electric type, Shawn ignored a static shock as he kissed her head. Lindsay immediately ceased her struggling and returned to her pokeball, leaving Shawn free to run with empty arms and only himself for his legs to carry. The instant before she was returned, however, any other pokemon might have been able to identify that the redness enveloping the Jolteon's body could be attributed to something other than the red flash of light from her ball.
Running was Shawn's favorite pastime, and it was all that was required of him now. Anyone could see from the look of his worn-down sneakers that prior to getting Lindsay, it had been one of his main methods of survival. Though the final grunt remained conscious, Shawn refused to waste any more time or risk the safety of his one and only pokemon. His nagging paranoia warned him that he would probably regret it later, but he wasn't in the mood to heed its advice. He had Lance and Lindsay to think about.
If the grunt continued to come after them, he would attack, but he assumed the man would instead seek the aid of a higher-up, which would buy them more time. It would also land them in a lot more trouble with a lot more explaining to do if they were caught. They had to make use of what time they had. Whipping his head left and right, Shawn finally noticed a back door with a glaring red sign above it and pushed his way through. "Lance?" he whispered hoarsely, breathing hard. "Lance, are you here?"
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 6:46 pm
As Shawn scrambled out of the room, the last grunt got to his feet and checked on his fallen comrades. They were still alive, just happened to be knocked out, that was good. However, the next thing he did was pull out his Rocketdex and used the com system to alert his immediate superior.
"I need some help down here! Lance is trying to escape and we've got two men down! One of our own is helping him!"
When Shawn went through the exit door, he would see a red haired man standing there only a couple feet in front of him with his back turned. "Yes," Lance said flatly in response to the question. He'd gone to the exit and waited just as Shawn had told him to.
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 8:20 pm
Cursing vivdly as he closed the door behind him, Shawn ignored a strange sense of déjà vu. He stared at Lance's back a moment, did a double-take at the closed door behind him, and then ran up to the red-head.
What now? he thought desperately. Think, Shawn, think... He could tell Lance to try to get as far away from the base as possible, maybe toward civilization, but he wasn't sure where that was and ordering Lance to do that might have meant sending him into certain death. They were in the middle of the desert, after all. On top of that, the kid didn't know if the tech division had a way of tracking the location of the device that was in Lance's head. He had only thought up to here.
"Damn it," he hissed, kicking at the dirt ground. "Damn it, damn it, damn it!" The teen grabbed Lance's arm. "Lance, you gotta help me, man. Something; anything. You're in there. I know you are, because you wouldn't have made that mess if you weren't fighting back. Come on." The pitch of his voice increased as the panicked young man ran his hands through his spiky black hair, every so often glancing back at the door.
"You don't want to stay a slave in your own body forever, do you? I've done the best I can, but I need your help now. I'm just a kid - a stupid kid who's afraid of pokemon." He paused in his desperate ranting. The garage. Maybe they could get to the garage.
"Lance. Get to the garage and don't let anyone stop you. We have to get to the nearest town or city - that should be Camphoreon, right?" he asked, though mostly asking himself. Keys, did they have keys? "Do you know how to drive?"
If memory served right, there was a place they could get some keys in the garage. Shawn had just never bothered finding out much about them before because, well, he couldn't drive. Their best bet, he figured, was for them to enter the garage from the outside of the base and use a vehicle to get to the nearest town.
It would be a lot easier to travel from there on foot and hopefully make them harder to track down. Not that Shawn planned to escape with Lance. If all went well, he could...somehow make it back to base and try to cover for Lance as best he could. Make up stories or something. Yeah. Don't think too far ahead, he told himself. You'll lose your nerve. Just think about now. Garage. Car. Out.
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 8:45 pm
Unfortunately for them, the exit they had just passed through was actually a fire exit, which now had sounded an alarm. On top of the security alert that had now been issued.
Lance didn't even know where the garage was. He was a prisoner in the base, and didn't exactly have free roam of the place. Thus, he hardly knew where anything was. Only his holding cell and the labs, pretty much. The red head was forced into a run as Shawn pulled him along, and simply blinked once at the kid's pleas. Even if he was in his right mind, it was debatable if he'd be of much help since he was without his Pokemon.
"I am able to drive," he stated tonelessly, his mind drawing blanks on Shawn's requests for help. "Pokemon. Need Pokemon," he then managed to get out.
The building was large, and it took a few minutes for them to make it to the garage doors on foot. However, the doors were closed and the outside motion senors that would normally open them, were unresponsive.
"Stop right there!" A voice roared from an unseen loudspeaker, one that many would recognize as the voice of Executive Agent Seth. The man prided himself in the building's security and had already initiated a lock down. There was no way they'd get in or away if he had anything to say about it.
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2011 11:28 pm
"@$%#!!!" The teen uttered a serious of the worst profanities he could think of as he recognized the sound of the fire alarm. Just what they needed. Think positive. Maybe people will think there's a fire and it'll cause a distraction. Yeah, sure. Anything to keep away the thoughts of imminent demise. ...I'MDEADI'MDEADI'MDEAD!...
To the best of his abilities - his desperate memories and his limited vision in the dark of night with red, flashing lights from the building - Shawn tugged Lance toward what he hoped were the garages. "Thank Arceus," he muttered as he heard Lance's reply. But then there was something else.
"Pokemon? What pokemon?" He hadn't mentioned anything about pokemon. Was that the actual Lance talking? If it was, then of course the Dragon Champion wouldn't want to leave his precious monsters behind. No trainer would, let alone him. They didn't have time, though! "We can't, Lance. I'm sorry, but not now. We'll come back for them. I'll come back for them. Right now we've got to get you as far away from here as possible."
It was also likely that Lance wanted his pokemon for reasons apart from sentimentality. Maybe he wanted them for protection and security. Still, Shawn was determined to think they could do this without pokemon. Lindsay had helped, but if they had to wait for their pokemon to fight things out with those hot on their trail, it would only delay them further. Besides, Shawn didn't have the first clue where Lance's pokemon were.
"CRAP!" Shawn exhaled all of his remaining breath in one word by the time they reached the garage. Trapped. Maybe they did need pokemon after all. What were the chances one of Lance's could barrel through the garage doors? Not that that seemed an option about now. The voice from the unseen loudspeaker made the kid freeze in his tracks, his hair standing on end.
He thought he'd heard that voice before, but it had never been personally directed at him. Even now, he could at least delude himself into thinking Seth was just speaking to the general vicinity, because if he imagined the executive directly encountering him, Shawn thought he would have a heart attack. "Whaddo we do, whaddo we do...?!" He tugged at his spiked hair in anguish.
There was still hope. There had to be. They weren't caught yet.
"Lance...hide." He told the man beside him. "If they catch me, then maybe I can cause a distraction from inside and open the garage..." Just hearing himself talk, Shawn knew they had no chance. He couldn't just give in, though. He wasn't about to let it all go to waste. If he was going to die, he wanted it to be for something. He turned to Lance and gave him his pokeball. "Just...stay out of sight and don't let them find you. For as long as you can."
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 3:33 pm
Lance blinked once as a pokeball was shoved at him, but took it nonetheless. The order to hide caused him to look around at their surroundings. There... wasn't really many places to hide. They were in the middle of a desert you know.
Taking the pokeball, Lance started walking across the sand until he found the first opportune hiding place. Behind a rock.
Seth was watching the entire thing and snorted in disgust. Did that kid really think this was going to work? He was clearly an idiot and didn't know what he was doing. What had possessed him to do this without so much as a plan? Oh well it didn't matter.
In a few short moments the garage doors finally did open, but several grunts came running out and towards Shawn. The group led by a single agent with long blonde hair. "Seize him!" Nikki shouted, pointing directly at Shawn while also pausing to look around. She didn't exactly have the benefit of cameras like Seth did, but his voice did come over her Rocket Dex. "Behind the rock."
Nikki blinked incredulously at this as she looked towards the nearest rock. "Seriously?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 3:54 pm
The teenager's head drooped. Poor Lance. If only he'd had someone more experienced and less reckless who planned ahead who could help him escape. Someone who was a little less paranoid, wasn't a pokephobe, and maybe a tad smarter than Shawn. Then again, a smarter Rocket probably wouldn't have even considered helping Lance escape in the first place, seeing as it meant certain death to do so.
He couldn't help smiling bitterly at the rock Lance had chosen to hide behind. Sorry, Mr. League Champion. Game's over. We lost. The kid stayed put when the grunts came toward him, though his face burned with shame. It was his fault Dragon Master Lance was in such an undignified situation - both figuratively and literally. He figured he deserved whatever fate had in store for him. At least he was pretty sure Lance wouldn't be harmed as he was the Rocket's valuable asset and just acting on orders.
"Sorry," he whispered under his breath. "I'm really sorry..."
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 4:18 pm
The grunts quickly surrounded Shawn, who didn't seem to be putting up a fight, and grabbed him. The kid was quickly restrained and led back towards the base where certain punishment would be awaiting him.
Nikki meanwhile, walked over to Lance and frowned down at the dragon master that was just sitting there. This was almost too easy. "Get up and follow me," she told him, and the red head obeyed, following the girl back into the base like the mindless puppet he was. Although she hadn't noticed that he'd stuck a pokeball into his pocket.
Once she caught up with the group, she gave Shawn a once over. "I remember you. The idiot that's afraid of Pokemon. Heh. I knew you were worthless the first time I laid eyes on you."
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 4:50 pm
Though remaining docile wasn't usually characteristic of Shawn, his training had taught him to accept when he was beat. Anything he did against them now would only worsen his punishment; not to mention lessen his chances that they would believe he was still loyal to Team Rocket. He remembered this woman now - the blonde one. He watched as she ordered Lance to follow her and sighed as the man did so without question. Whatever they'd done to him to make him their slave, they'd done it well.
Once the agent had caught up with them, he met her gaze directly, frightened but determined not to let it show. He was about to open his mouth to reply, but he promptly shut it again and looked away. She was right. All he was good for was scrubbing floors and cleaning windows. Maybe if he hadn't been so afraid of pokemon in the first place, they would have gotten farther than this. As it was, though, all he could respond with was silence.
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