Chapter 6: A Rocket's life is never fun
A man and a woman stands by the door of their house. The woman is sobbing quietly into the man's arm. A broken vase lie on the floor. An overturned dinner table right beside. A few window frames lay scattered within the house. A boy at the height of adulthood facing the couple. The breeze of the cool night air.
The scene changes. Distorted voices in the background.
"You ungrateful punk! I clothed you! Fed you! Your mother and I slaved away our lives for you and this is how you repay us!?"
"Don't go! There's no need for this! William stop him!"
"Let him be Martha! This failure wants a shot at success, I say let him and when he fails-"
"No College degree! No Diploma, you think being a trainer will put bread on the table!?"
"Are you mad! He's your son!"
"Don't go!"
"Failure!"
"Useless! Good for nothing lazy son!"
The shrill scream of a woman.
Hector bolts right up. Shit, he thought the nightmares had gone away. Seems he was wrong. The first thing he notices was that Haru straddling him with a crazed expression, the lights were switched on he could hear plainly the alarms going off. Everyone else in his bunk seems to have gotten up and left, leaving just the two of them.
"Haru! What the fuck are you doing!"
His comrade simply tosses him his uniform and beret. His movements are panicky, so unlike him. 'What's gotten into him?'
"Get dressed dammit, they're here!" He half barks, half squeaks.
Hector goes into overdrive and dons the Rocket BDU at lightning speed. "Whose here?" For a moment he wondered if Team Rocket sent some VIPs but it wouldn't explain why it needed to be at 2 in the goddamn morning.
A tremor rocks the facility, and the two hold on to the bed stand for support. "What the fuck was that!" demands the newbie grunt. His comrade simply wipes a sweat off his brow and swings the door wide open.
"They're here, hurry up motherfucker we gotta go!"
"Who?"
"It's a goddamn raid! We got Magma intruders loose in the facility, everyone's gone off to repel them. Alec sent me to get you!"
A fresh wave of chills seared into Hector's spine. "Oh, fuck me!" finally understanding the dire situation, Hector grabs his Pokeballs and heads out with Haru.
Those hippie groups? Here? But how!? As they made their way to God knows where, Haru breaks the sitrep to the still disoriented grunt
"Here's the sitch, we got Magma mooks loose in the base."
'No shit, Sherlock,'
"They used tunnelling vehicles to break in and wasted the guards on duty before someone managed to get the alarm off. A wing's completely trashed, its Magma zone now. B wing's under tight quarantine now. Med deck's full of wounded. We're headed to C, fight's real fucking thick and I nearly lost my Raticate in there. They pack seriously vicious Pokémon. Command's throwing everything we've got to hold that wing cos that's where we store the spare Pokémon."
"They're after the armoury," Hector frowns at this grim revelation as he jogs behind his partner in crime.
"You could say that,"
They run past a corridor filled with several Rattatas and the occasional Koffing strewn all over, luckily no sign of their respective trainers lying around. "Holy shit," mumbles Hector.
"Cmon!" Haru urges and they continue on. Judging by the laboured breathing of these Pokémon, they seem to be unconscious. Be that as it may, these Pokémon held little to no importance in the grand schemes of Team Rocket, they were expendable just like the trainers who wielded them.
This solemn realization made Hector inwardly cringe.
They passed another corridor, this time filled with wounded Rocket grunts. Their Pokémon milled about, concerned about the well-being of their trainers. A pity their human masters saw them little more than tools despite such loyalty and care being exhibited.
They continue on and Hector could hear the sound of battle going off. Men barking orders, Pokémon and human alike emitting screams of anger and frustration.
They rounded a corner just shy of C wing and was immediately cornered by 2 Magma grunts. Hector got a good look at his opponents. One was female, the other was male both in their early twenties. They were dressed in muddy red fatigues, no surprise there.
The male wore a red hoodie with two horns sprouting out. A pair of long cargo pants and completed the getup with trekking boots while the female traded cargo pants for a mini skirt.
'Damn clowns,' thinks Hector as he eyes their getup.
The Magma grunt unclips a Pokeball "I got the tall one," Haru "Delia, take the other," That would be me.
Delia nods, 'Well bitch seems determined,' Hector gave his opponent a smirk and this further aggravated her judging from her face turning a few shades red.
"Let's bloody go!" snarls Haru as he sends his first Pokemon out, a Raticate. "I'm gonna crush that rat of yours!" threatens the male magma grunt. A flash of light and out steps the most ferocious Pokemon Hector had ever seen. Standing on all fours, this Pokemon was probably native to Hoenn. Its eyes glistened with a primal fury yet exhibiting a spark of intelligence. Its fur was a beautiful synchrony of black and white.
"Mightyena, heel." The Pokemon, Mightyena does so.
Hector sends out his Pokemon. Out tumbles Haunter who fills atmosphere with crazed laughter. Delia, the female Magma grunt tosses her Pokemon out, this one seemed less menacing. It stood on all fours as well though it sported a hump with hole in it, not to mention that stupid blank look on its face made it seem like a goddamn joke.
The clash began almost immediately, Raticate scampers forward with a shrill hiss towards Mightyena who in turn charges forward with a silent growl. Both Pokemon tumbled together in senseless melee, an amalgamation of snapping, clawing, biting, and lots of growling and hissing.
'This is bullshit, who the hell starts things off with a smoke screen?'
"Haunter, shadow punch. Teach that goofy looking fuck a blanket of smoke's not gonna protect it!" His Pokemon cackles as he obeys and sends a clawed fist through an ethereal portal.
"Numel! Don't let him get you!"
'Don't let him get you? Yeah? How's that gonna work? You think that dumb thing can even comprehend such complex orders?" Hector taunts.
"Shut up! Numel's a fighter, he won't go down easy!"
A loud THUMP sounded followed by a long and heart wrenching moan. The smoke clears and Delia's Numel lay on the ground moaning in pain. Haunter bursts into a loud cackle at the sight.
"Numel!" The female grunt looks horrified and returns the injured Pokemon back to its Pokeball. She stammers about not having any more Pokemon. Hector smirks and decides to gang up on the other Magma grunt.
"You lost again!" roared the male grunt, causing his partner to flinch. "S-sorry.."
"Looks like I'll have to do everything myself!" It's now 2 on 1.
Battling Mightyena was no easy feat despite having it outnumbered. Hector learnt it the hard way that Dark types such as Mightyena do not suffer from Ghost-type attacks. A shadow ball would harmlessly explode against the dark-type, shadow punches go right through and licking it only seemed to piss the Pokemon off.
"Had enough attacking? I can do this all day!" Grins the Magma member. Hector decides to try some strategy instead of bulldozing through every problem head on.
Haunter's confuse ray attack opens up a much needed chink against Mightyena. With the darkness type Pokemon in a state where it could not even so much as differentiate between its ass from a hot rock, Raticate scampers forward and sinks its fangs into the enemy's neck. The rat would have crushed Mightyena's windpipe had the Magma grunt not recalled his Pokemon in the nick of time.
"Ah shit, our position's compromised! Call it in!" The male grunt turns tail and begin running followed by the female grunt frantically yelling into her com piece.
Hector eyes Haru wearily, "Do we pursue?"
"Nah, let's just link up with Alec and the rest of 1-5."
They entered C Wing. It was hell. Men and women were duking it out in massive Pokémon battles, both sides taking cover behind concrete pillars and trading elemental attacks at one another. Bodies of dead Pokémon littered the hallway. Grunts from both sides called out orders and in some cases, cries for help.
"What the hell!?" gapes Hector at the scene of madness before him.
"It was bad when I was here, shit it's gotten worse.." Gulps Haru. Hector spots Alec at the far end of the mega room barking orders to a group of Rocket grunts huddled over as scores of ember and other elemental attacks flew over their heads.
Alec upon seeing the two newcomers frantically waves them over. As they came running, Alec hollers a command and the few Koffing and Grimers within the compound began hurling thick sludges into the enemy Pokemon's ranks.
Covering fire, textbook procedure.
"Glad you could join us, sleeping beauty!" Hector simply scratches the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Ready for a fight, Alec." His overseer nods before giving them the latest update. They are to ditch the base and return to Kanto. Giovanni has apparently swallowed his pride and recent events has forced him to recall the Rocket expedition out of Hoenn.
"We're running away? Dafuq?" Rusco, covered in blood and bandages hisses in discontent. Alec sighs at this.
"We ain't running. Situation's in Kanto has changed and the big boss needs every swinging dick in on this new project of his. Our orders are to deny Magma from getting those Pokemon in storage. We're to destroy this entire wing."
The battle was long and brutal. This was the first time Hector saw a Pokemon die up close. Previously as a trainer he was always taught to maim and not kill the offending Pokemon, even against the feral ones in the wild.
This was different. Enemy trainers were open targets too though Hector avoided attacking them, focusing on their Pokemon instead.
His Haunter was having a field day, teleporting within the enemy's ranks and putting them to a temporary sleep and reappearing by his side before Team Magma grunts could retaliate, however, with a high concentration of darkness types the Magma grunts fielded, his Pokemon could do very little aside from disrupting their efforts with hypnosis and confuse ray attacks.
Without warning the wall to his right crashed. It blew right open and Magma grunts came spilling out causing him to yelp in terror. Hector out of adrenaline and fear calls for a shadow ball attack, the thick gunk of dark shadow detonated in their midst and sent the Magma grunts flying in all directions, their screams weighing heavily on Hector. Thankfully they yet breathed.
"Nice one Hect!" Mark gives the thumbs up over the chaotic scene. Alec slides over, panting. "Alright, we've got the charges set. I want you and 3 others to stay behind and cover the rest as we retreat. Planes are warming up, we're leaving Hoenn tonight!"
A charging Magma grunt lets out a war cry and attempts to jump Alec from behind, the Rocket overseer was faster and weaves aside, countering with a right hook followed by a jab and an uppercut effectively knocking his opponent out.
"Hold this position, Hector I'm counting on you!" He gets up and starts calling out to fall back. Haunter lays a claw on his master's shoulder, if he could speak it would probably be "What's the word, boss?"
"We're holding these fucking hippies back, cmon lets give it to em!"
Hector's efforts were admirable. He held off seven Magma grunts on his own despite being outnumbered. He'd love to call for help but unfortunately, the three other grunts were just as occupied as he was. Alec barges in to the fray with an Alakazam in tow and scares them off with lances of psybeam. "Still alive? Good, cmon!" He yanks the young Rocket to his feet and they broke off and ran further in to the complex, the other three unknown Rocket grunts in tow.
As the last man exits C wing, Alakazam uses his psychic powers and brought the ceiling down, cutting the Magma grunts form pursuing. "Keep going, we've cleared the whole complex, treat anyone else you meet as hostile,"
"Copy that," growls one of the grunts with them. They were suddenly ambushed by a number of Magma grunts and it devolved into brutal melee.
Alec rolls around trying to grapple with a large Magma grunt whilst Hector ducks and weaves against the lightning fast jabs from his opponent. He sends a jab, his opponent ducks and counters with a mean left hook which made Hector see stars.
Seeing as his opponent was a much skilled hand to hand combatant, Hector resorts to dirty tactics first by throwing a lazy combination of jabs and hooks before suddenly grabbing the opponent's nuts and squeezing hard.
"Get him offa meeeee aaaaaaahhhhh!" screams said Magma grunt in pain. None came to his aid; his friends too were busy. Hector slams his elbow into his opponent's gut, winding him and finishing the fucker off with a haymaker. "Pow!" whoops the newbie grunt, that is till he saw Alec slumped against the wall, a bowie knife embedded in his chest. "Oh fuck me! Alec!"
The Rocket grunts, finished with their opponents crowded around Alec's wheezing form. One of them checks the casualty. "He's got a pulse, its faint. Not good, knife's stuck in his lung."
"Jeez, Marco you a doc or somethin?" Someone else voices.
Marco, the grunt who gave Alec a once over shrugs in response. "Not really, no, I just happen to come from a long line of medical practitioners," He turns towards Hector, messy brown curls bursting from the sides of his beret.
"He needs medical treatment, asap. Since he's your overseer, you carry him."
The ride back to Kanto was a grim one. It was bumpy, morale was low and the cries of the wounded made everything harder for the broken grunts. They lost sixteen men and almost 30 Pokemon in service to Team Rocket. Their bodies forever condemned to rot in the ruins of an underground base where no one will ever find them.
Their families would not be informed, how could they? Joining Team Rocket effectively cuts you off from any ties that binds you to your family. On another note, the complex detonated instantly vaporising anything within a 200-meter radius. Magma losses puts the estimate at approximately 60 and over two times the number of service Pokemon killed. Plus the Pokemon storage was destroyed in the blast.
A pyrrhic victory for Team Rocket.
Hector was by Alec's side. He never really knew Alec on a personal level yet he cared for the man. For a man with a lot of secrecy and blood on his hands, he truly cared for the well-being of the men under his command.
The medical staff do not have the proper equipment to treat him so for the time being, they bandaged the wounded man, cleaned his wounds as best as they could and hooked him to life support.
Over the buzzing of the plane's engines, Hector faintly heard the croak of the older man's voice. "Kid,"
"Alec, you shouldn't be talking, rest up man,"
"Nah, kid. I'm done for. I can feel it in my bones," Hector shakes his head. He could feel tears welting in his eyes. Shit, for a total stranger he sure does have a way for making Hector feel all sappy.
"You're gonna be fine, quit saying that cryptic shit man, you're just delirious is all,"
"I'm gonna fucking die, I just know it. I heard the docs say the wound's too deep. M'barely….holding on. Look, if I'm done in, you got platoon 5. Y'hear me? Treat em….treat em…right," wheezes the man as he grasp's Hector's wrist in a vice grip. Hector nods and grasps the man's in show off support.
"Yeah, yeah just get well aite?" Alec shakes his head slowly. The wheezing's gotten worse, the edges of his mouth is streaming a thin line of blood.
"Don't make my mistake kid. Lost my g..guys several years ago in that damn muh..muh…mansion on Cinna…Cinnabar I..Isl…Island…. treat em…right," with an exhale, Alec, one of Team Rocket's most capable employees passes on into the darkness. Not a second too soon, the machine he was hooked onto made a loud flat line noise. Medical staff began fussing over Alec's body as they began to unhook the machinery and everything becomes a blur.
"Time of death, 3.42am." Hector heard a doctor say.
Hector could only stare into the Alec's now glassy eyes, the life in them forever gone. Hector had never cried for anyone before. He didn't so much as whimper when his grandmother died yet this man made his eyes all teared up and it made him feel like he should hug a bolster and cry his eyes out. He fought against doing just that.
A nurse came by and gently closed his eyes. She turns to Hector and shakes her head as if to give her condolences before carrying the body off with another orderly. It had started off as a wonderful day but now everything's gone to hell. Hoenn didn't seem like a good place to be in Hector's books.
"Good bye Alec," was all he could say as his eyes follow the limp form of Hector's body being carried to the back of the plane.
