Disclaimer: You gotta be kidding. Anybody who doesn't know by now that I don't own pokémon must be sooooo thick.

Author's Note: Hey there! Just thought I'd say that I think anybody under, like, 6 years old should stop reading unless they're with an adult ^_^. This chapter gets a bit too intense for really young people, and it might give them nightmares if they have a good imagination. Also, it's been quite a few years since I wrote those earlier chapters (I don't update that often, as some people have realised ^_^;;) so if you could please ignore the notes I've written at the beginning of those ones, that'll be juuuuust fine. ^___^

The next morning I was having a talk with Sunkern, seeing as we hadn’t really met before. I hadn’t thought of nicknaming it yet, I just checked some pokédex data while it had a big breakfast. I found some of its attacks – sunny day, synthesis, giga drain and sludge bomb, but I was really shocked once I pressed the ‘level’ button.

‘Hey Gary,’ I called as he walked in. ‘Guess what level my Sunkern is.’

His face screwed up in thought. ‘Erm… 29?’

‘Nope,’ I said boastfully, showing him my pokédex screen. ’46!’

‘Awww, you gotta be kidding!’

Meowth walked in, having finished breakfast. ‘Hey, we’d better get going if we’re gonna get to that tournament.’

We packed up our stuff and headed for the stadium.

* * *

‘Wow, there’s a lot of people here.’

‘Yeah. Must be a pretty big event.’

We made our way to the sign-up booths, where Gary gave his name, hometown, and any pokémon he’d be using. Then I surprised them by giving out my details too.

‘You’re really gonna enter?’ asked Gary.

‘Yup. Sunkern’s really strong, I think we can pull off a few wins.’

‘But you haven’t even had 1 battle with it!’

‘That’s true, but out of my options (which seem to be either enter or don’t enter) I’d rather take my chances in the stadium.’

We crammed into a locker room filled with trainers and their grass pokémon. There was a TV in there so we could watch the matches while we waited for our turn. After a while Gary’s name was called and he headed out to the stadium.

‘Good luck!’ I called.

‘Ha, I don’t need luck!’ he cried, while running with his Exeggutor to the battlefield. While he was gone I could have sworn that I saw Ash out battling. After giving Sunkern a quick pep talk, I was called out to the arena for the first match.

Sunkern bounced into place while my opponent called out his pokémon. A Bellossom. Bellossoms just seem to tick me off. That battle didn’t last long – I managed to hit it with a few sludge bombs. The next few battles were relatively easy too, but I had to keep healing by using giga drain or synthesis. I found using sludge bomb particularly effective against my opponents: Exeggcute, Tangela, Bayleef etc. After these four wins I was up against a Skiploom.

‘Use sludge bomb, Sunkern!’

‘Dodge it Skippy!’

‘Puup puuuuuup!’ said the Skiploom, and jumped out of harms way. It hung in the air while the bomb splatted on the ground.

‘Skippy, use tackle!’ It rushed forward and knocked Sunkern over, much more forcefully than I would have expected for a pokémon of that weight.

‘Try giga drain!’ I said, but the Skiploom double teamed, making it impossible for Sunkern to get a lock on. I happened to look up into the stands while I thought, and saw Meowth sitting by himself in the crowd. I looked back, and Skiploom had released a poisonpowder cloud. I asked Sunkern to use synthesis, but it was poisoned and couldn’t concentrate.

‘Now use a mega drain attack!’ Sunkern’s health was sapped away, and it fainted from poisoning. The referee held up a flag.

‘Sunkern is unable to battle! The match goes to Ephram and Skiploom!’

I recalled Sunkern to its ultra ball and looked up. I found the spot where Meowth was sitting before, but now there was an empty place. Meowth had gone.

I ran back to the locker room, where the other trainers who had already lost were taking their things. I found Gary amongst them.

‘Hey, how’d you do?’ he asked. ‘I was doing quite well, all the grass types I fought were poison types too, so Exeggutor made short work of them, being psychic and all…’

‘Gary, I…’

‘Then we were up against a Nuzleaf, that’s what stopped us…’

‘A Nuz-what?’

‘Nuzleaf. It’s a grass/dark type, Exeggutor didn’t stand a chance. Quite cool though, I wouldn’t mind having one myself…’

‘Gary, I don’t have time for this! Meowth’s gone missing!’

‘…Oh.’

‘Come on!’ I dragged him outside and stared wildly around. I had no idea what I was looking for, but I hoped I’d find it soon. Then I found it: a grey truck on the horizon going very, very fast, with a big red R painted on the side. You’d think they’d be a little more inconspicuous. I pointed it out to Gary before it disappeared, and before I knew it he was riding away on Arcanine. I ran alongside, but it was way too fast and I fell behind.

‘Grab on!’ shouted Gary, reaching out. Arcanine slowed down, I grabbed his hand and Gary pulled me up behind him. I wasn’t sure exactly what to hold on to, having never ridden a pokémon before, but it was easy to stay balanced.

We sped away after the truck, and we were able to catch up to it as it had to follow the road around curves and bends. We closed in on it, still travelling at a rather terrifying speed.

‘Jump, Arcanine!’ ordered Gary, and his giant dog leapt gracefully over the truck to land in front of it. The vehicle swerved and ground to a halt, and two figures stepped out of it.

‘Well, well… it seemed we underestimated you,’ said one. A woman, with yellow hair in pigtails. The other was a man with short green hair.

‘Huh…’ I looked at them in confusion. ‘You aren’t the Rockets who attacked us before.’

‘Jessie and James were so incompetent before, the Boss decided to give us the case as well. Butch and I are a lot better at our job than those dithering idiots. And I must say, retrieving your blabbermouth friend was so easy, I can’t see how they keep on messing up.’

Now the man spoke. ‘It was nice to chat, but Cassidy and I have to be on our way. And if you’re not going to move…’ he took out a pokéball, ‘then I’ll just have to make you!’

The scratchy-voiced man through the ball at us, it opened in mid-air and produced a Raticate.

‘Raticate!’ ‘Fight!’ said the Raticate. ‘Fight to kill! Fight to kill!’

I gasped. I’d never heard a pokémon say things like that before. The blonde woman brought out a Houndour.

Gary tossed out a pokéball. ‘What are you waiting for?’ he asked me. ‘Pick somebody!’

Still stunned, I chucked a random pokéball, and Marina came out. I told her to use water gun, and she drenched the Houndour. It didn’t seem to care.

The woman chuckled. ‘Houndour, use bite attack.’

The Houndour ran up and bit Marina on the neck. She cried out in pain.

Houndour let go. ‘Does it hurt? It hurts doesn’t it! I knew it!’ it grunted while licking its lips. ‘It hurts! PAIN!’

The pokémon Gary had released was a Fearow. He called for a drill peck attack, and it flew towards the Raticate, but at the last second it swerved and hit the truck. Its beak worked like a drill and made a large hole in the side, which Fearow flew into and came out a few seconds later, carrying Meowth by the ropes he was tied by.

‘Give that back!’ said the Raticate. ‘I’m not done fighting!’ While Meowth was set down on our side Raticate and Houndour unleashed a flurry of attacks on Marina. She squealed, unable to fight back, and looked at me pleadingly. The two pokémon stopped for a moment.

‘Pain! Hurt! Pain! Hurt make pain!’ said Houndour.

‘Fight! Fight and kill!’ said Raticate. ‘Kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill kill …’

‘STOP IT!!!’ I yelled. Unable to take anymore I fell to my knees with my hands over my ears. I closed my eyes, and tried to block out the record skipping inside my head, repeating the Raticate’s words: ‘Kill kill kill kill kill…’

A bright light alerted me back to the real world. I opened my eyes to find Meowth standing before the two mentally odd pokémon. He was glowing again. His face contorted in concentration as a beautiful, holy resonance appeared and fired itself at the opposing pokémon. There was an explosion.

Once the smoke had cleared from the attack I saw that Team Rocket, the truck and the pokémon had been swept away from the sheer force of the blast. Meowth was sitting on the battleground, looking thoroughly worn out. I ran over. He was holding his head in his paws and sniffling.

‘Meowth?’ I asked quietly. ‘What….why were they like that…?’ I picked him up and held him on my lap, he was obviously too weak to stand.

‘That’s what happens to ‘em…’ he said softly, trying to fight back tears. He buried his face in his hands and collapsed. ‘That’s what they do to ‘em…’

So, after Meowth’s second hidden power attack, we went to the pokémon centre back in town. I had to carry Meowth all the way, and I gave him and Marina to Nurse Joy for the night. I called Professor Oak and sent Sunkern to him before we went to bed, but I couldn’t sleep.

‘So,’ said Gary, sitting on his bed, ‘what happened back there?’

‘Just be glad that you couldn’t hear it,’ I replied bitterly.

‘Why?’

I sighed. ‘Team Rocket did something to those pokémon. It was like they were… broken. It’s not their fault…’

I trailed off. After a while I spoke again.

‘I hate Team Rocket.’

‘I know,’ said Gary, ‘but try to get some sleep.’

* * *

The next morning Nurse Joy woke me up early by coming into our room.

‘Is there a Miss Holly Evergreen here?’

‘Yeah,’ I said sleepily, raising my hand. ‘That’s me.’

‘There’s a call for you at the front desk.’

‘Oh. Thanks Nurse Joy.’

I went down into the lobby where a videophone was waiting. Professor Oak was on the screen.

‘Hey Professor. What’s up?’

He seemed rather busy, searching through a pile of junk. ‘Oh, where is that blasted… I don’t know, I… how did this…’

‘Professor Oak, what’s wrong? Calm down.’

He looked very flustered, and stopped rattling things around. ‘I’m not sure how to say this… er, we had a break-in last night…’

‘What??!’

‘I don’t know how they got past the security…’

At that moment Gary came in. ‘What’s going on?’ he yawned.

‘Your Grandpa’s lab was broken into last night.’

‘Huh?!? Gramps, is this true? What’d they take?’

‘I’m afraid they took some pokémon… your pokémon,’ he said to me. ‘Look, this is the surveillance tape.’ What had been caught on camera was shown on the screen, very blurred and dark and crackling. Two figures went to a shelf, picked up the pokéballs on it and left. ‘They left this,’ he said ‘It’s a note. I’ll assume it’s for you.’ He held it up, a small piece of paper with "GIVE IT BACK" written in large, scratchy letters.

I couldn’t believe it. They took my pokémon. The Pineco and Heracross that I caught in Ilex Forest, the Hitmontop I traded Geodude for, the Sandshrew from Union Cave, and Static, the Mareep who evolved after helping me win against Bugsy. They were gone. And, I realised with a cold chill, so was Sunkern. I sent it there just last night. It was hard to get my brain to register what had happened, it was being very slow on the uptake. Slowly I realised what they were doing, trying to force me to give them Meowth. I jolted up and ran to the front desk.

‘Nurse Joy, where’s Meowth? Is he okay? Is he still here?’

‘Don’t worry, both the pokémon you gave me are doing just fine. They should be ready now, I’ll get them for you.’

I went back to the phone, where Gary was talking to his grandfather. The Professor told me he was sorry and hung up. I was still dazed through this, even when the Nurse returned and handed me back my 2 pokémon. I went back to our room to get ready to leave.

A while later, when my brain had returned from total-shutdown-land, we were ready to get on the road again. Gary had been a bit in the dark through the whole thing, but I think he understood that nobody felt like talking about it. I was a bit shaken and feeling extremely overprotective of the pokémon I had left, and I think Meowth was feeling a bit guilty. Needless to say, our small group was pretty quiet, until I voiced a question.

‘Er, Meowth?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Are…um, are my pokémon gonna end up like those Team Rocket pokémon?’

Meowth sighed. ‘Maybe not. From what I can remember, all pokémon that get stolen are either given to the Boss, used by the grunts, or sold. They’ll probably get sold to some kind, gullible trainers. The ones used in Team Rocket have to be… well, we called it "broken". The broken pokémon were only meant to fight. That’s all they thought about. You don’t wanna know how they broke them. Like brainwashing, only involving a lot more pointy objects.’

‘They didn’t break you.’

‘Apparently it involves a lot of memory loss, so I woulda forgotten how to talk. That’s the only reason I was useful.’

There was a short silence.

‘Is that why you left?’ I hazarded the question.

‘Maybe,’ he sounded genuinely unsure.

‘Do you really hate Jessie and James?’

‘…No. They were my only friends. Sometimes I was the only one who saw something wrong with cheating, and I got hit with a frying pan a lot… but we were friends. We all got stuck in a team together because we were unbroken pokémon. They got their pokémon as gifts, and they wouldn’t let them get broken, so they were stashed in the same group as me. See, a lot of new members got given a broken pokémon, but they caught their own, just like real trainers.’

I nodded and kept walking. I never thought before about the horrible things they might do to a pokémon. Meowth had impressed me; he was a lot braver that I had understood, knowing far more than he was letting on about what happened behind Team Rocket. I looked at him questioningly, because even though when we talked he seemed like a person, I had to force myself to remember that he was still a pokémon. I think even he forgot that sometimes. Well, maybe a pokémon, but a person at heart. A pokémon who must know terrible things that had happened to his own race, so much that a human could never understand. I had an awful feeling this was just the tip of the iceberg, but I tried to push those thought out of my mind, and tried to be thankful that I was still here with a Cyndaquil, a Lapras, a Trapinch, an Onix, and a Meowth who knew how to talk.

Thanks a lot for reading! Review with suggestions/comments/questions, or anything else I forgot to mention.