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The drops kept falling with a constant and seemingly infinte rythm, each drop echoed in the otherwise silent space.
Horthy began to slowly regain his consciousness inside the dark, dirty and barely iluminated room. He groaned and opened his eyes, blinking several times to try to discern where he was, but it was imposible, something on his head was preventing him from seeing anything.
The memories of what happened eventually hit him like a physical blow, and he couldn´t really be quiet or be chill about it. He started to hyperventilate and quickly lose the oxygen, then tried to move his hands and found himself unable to, he felt tight ropes tight around his extremities, securing him firmly to something solid.
He tried to free himself, shaking and struggling against the ropes with every ounce of strength he could muster. The metal chair he was tied to scraped against the floor, making a grating, earsplitting sound inside the small room as he dragged it with every jerky, desperate movement.
Growing more and more desperate, and with less air to breath as the seconds passed by, he ended up doing a series of erratic movements. He leaned too far, lost his balance, and fell backward, hitting his head hard against the cold, unforgiving floor. A wave of dizziness washed over him, threatening to pull him back into unconsciousness.
When he thought that everything was over and all hope was gone, when he felt the darkness creeping in again, a door got opened suddenly. The sudden sound made Horthy jolt in his vulnerable position in fear. "What is all of that sound? What the hell are you doing on the ground!?"
Horthy heard a frustrated sigh and several footsteps surrounding him. "W-who are you!? Where am I!?" His questions were left unanswered, lost in the oppressive silence that followed, until he was lifted roughly back to his initial position. The bag on his head was yanked away, letting him finally breathe free, the cool air a welcome relief against his sweaty face.
The amount of light pouring in from outside the door made him blink several times, his eyes struggling to adjust. After a moment, he could make out a figure standing in the doorway, silhouetted against the light. "Look, kid..." A deep, masculine voice said, belonging to the person who stood directly in front of Horthy, blocking the light that came from the door.
"I should be the one doing that question, huh. Why and how where you in the black market? You better be completly honest if you don´t want to be Arbok´s food." The figure grabs Horthy´s chin and forces him to look at his eyes. It was a mature man with a well shaved bear, and several scars on his face.
Horthy trembled but managed to speak, hoping he could be forgiven. He cleared his throath and frowned, locking in.
"I... I am Horthy and I just turned 16, a-and there are no records of my presence in the region! I am an orphan, my father died in the war and my mother abandoned me. And I heard those guys talking about a-a-a dragon scales or something in a nearby market!"
Horthy laughed nervously as he strugled to not cry under the inmense pressure of the people in the room around him. He then had a moment to look more in detail at the ones surrounding him as the man before him stared in thought at the restrained young man. They were all men in black suits with R´s on their left part of their chests.
"We found indeed that what he says is most probably true, admin." A thin man with glasses spoke to the mature man with a monotone. "There wasn´t any data with his face, and then, there are the facts that he bought a weak half blind Eevee, and had not even a phone with him. He sure used all of his money on that pokemon."
"Yes but..." The Rocket admin turned from the thin man to Horthy with suspicious gaze, and jabbed a finguer on his chest that almost throws him back and made him fall again. "How did he got those pokeballs? How did a commoner get those?"
"We have no ide-" "I work in the pokecenter!" Horthy quickly interjected, the Rocket admin raised an eyebrow and stared at Horthy with more interest, he leaned closer and looked at his eyes menacingly without blinking even once. "Tell me more kid."
"Of course sir! A-as I left the orphanage, I quickly found a job assisting Joy in the place. That is the place where I heard those trainers as I mopped the floors. I can give you information of them too!" Horthy told everything without saving anything for himself, which made sense if he wanted to survive and have at least a single little chance to leave the place.
"They were two and had black smartsuits, they were pretty haughty and looked as if they were rich trainers. They left the Pokecenter 1 hour before closing the last monday." Horthy bite his tongue trying to not lose sanity under the high pressure, his survival instict outstanding. "That is all I know, I swear!"
The man chuckled and stood up straight again, turned to the thin man and commanded serious. "Try to search for two trainers with those features." The man with glasses nodded and quickly left the room. Rocket admin turned to Horthy and hummed. "The fact that you didn´t doubt or hesitated to give us the information, and that you got yourself a job with a Joy... I could give you some value.
Turning to the other men in the room, he started giving more orders, his tone changing to one less annoyed giving Horthy the impression that he might have saved himself, but of course it wouldn´t be for free.
"You bring a Rocket device, you bring a new phone, and you bring that Eevee´s pokeball." The other men got to their tasks at hand, and the admin was left alone with Horthy in the room, a heavy silence hung heavy in the air, only filled by the constant falling of the drops on the ground.
Eventually, the man cut the silence and spoke with a neutral tone, looking down at Horthy in disdain. "How do you feel about the Pokemon League and the goverment Horthy?" At the weird, sudden question, Horthy didn´t inmediatly answer, he stared at the man in thought for a while, choosing his words correctly.
"I... I think they are trash, they don´t do anything for people like me. W-why is the question sir?" Horthy asked respectfully and looked up at the imposing man with doubt, who nodded as he heard Horthy´s answer. "You sure heard about Team Rocket, did you?"
Horthy simply nodded and stared with concern. "Good, you probably also heard bad things about us, terrible ones at that... but, all of that is propaganda kid, we have lots of rejected people like you in our lines, we... give oportunities, do you know what I mean?"
Horthy relaxed a bit more and nodded once again, he totally knew that people like him with no other choice often joined rebel or criminal groups, so he spoke in agreement. "I am well aware sir... I don´t trust the goverment, but... if I am honest, I dont really know how your group acts, I would be lying. There sure are lies from the news given by the oficial media, it would be stupid if I believed every single word of it. But, is everything really a lie? While I do think Team Rocket has lots of people like me and for a good reason... why would you hide if you were a "pure" group? I saw several things in that market, you certainly arent saints."
The man grinned and giggled as if he found something funny, he clapped his hands once and nodded. "Ahh, you are a wise one, I see..." He crossed his arms and now looked at Horthy with satisfaction. "So, we could say you are neutral about both organizations."
Horthy nodded once again, making the admin sure of what he was going to do.
He leaned close to the chair and freed Horthy from his ties, who got surprised as he got freed. 'I sure satisfied the man with my answers, but why?' He thought in deep doubt, as he stared at the man as if asking an explanation.
"I offer you, joining Team Rocket, well... not that you have many options in reality kid." He laughed and shook his head funny. In the end, he sighed and saw the other men enter the room with what he asked them to bring. "We will bring you a secured place in our internal market, not necesarily having to always go to the black market. You will be a rookie, and will be given privileges."
Horthy couldn´t help but think that it all sounded too good to be true, and he really didn´t know what pleased the man from his answers. His thoughts got cut, when the man kept talking with a confident tone. "I offer you this, because you are intelligent, you sure would like to enjoy our privileges, which ones only turn to be more as you progress, and of course that Eevee will be given back to you. So... what do you say?"
Horthy got stunned by all of this sudden information, plus, the whole situation felt completly unreal. It wasn´t many days ago that he turned 16, who knows how much time since he discovered how the black market is, and now he is being forced to join the Rockets. He saw too much already, saying no would be death penalty.
Horthy sighed deeply and looked up at the man... who was just staring with a overjoyed smile.
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It passed 2 weeks since Horthy got himself to be a Team Rocket rookie, giving his life a sudden turn of direction. He wasn´t mad or sad, but he wasn´t happy or particulary pleased either. He would have advantages that would be really useful, yes... but also he was being forced to colaborate with a dark organization. Basically, he is now a criminal.
At these thoughts, he couldnt help but groan in annoyment, the stress this has provoked, plus the constant work he had to do in the Pokecenter when he came back after half a day dissapeared, and at the same time doing his first mission...
Collecting info of all the trainers that pass daily on the Pokecenter, how many badges, what pokemon do they have and how many times did they try to beat Surge.
The thing with this mission is, having a constant record of all the trainers across the region, as it would let the organization know about the progress they have and if there are hidden gems that the organization could recruit. Other rookies across the region do the same work, but each one in different ways.
No more information was given to Horhy for now other than that of why the mission is like that. For now, he was just a rookie for two weeks, if he wanted to know more, he would have to proof himself worth. The same if he wanted to look the internal market and what it offers, even if he could see what it has... he couldn´t do nothing about it, as he is broke.
Joy almost fired him when he came back and with 3 ultra balls missing as well, and he would be homeless, but she just pardoned him because he came back with a little and malnourished Eevee.
He sighed deeply and sat on the edge of the bed, usually given to trainers and travelers, but it would have to do for now until he had the money to rent an apartment.
"I traded him by the 3 ultraballs..." Not wrong at all, but obviously not spilling the beans. "His trainer wanted to get rid of him, so I had to grab those ultra balls Joy, sorry..."
"This is a female Eevee, it´s a she..." She sighed and looked at the little and confused Eevee in her hands. "I forgive you just because you saved this little beauty..." She kissed the little Eevee and huged it, shooting daggers at him. "You still owe me the value of those ultra balls.
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That was the little conversation they had when he came back to the center, the love for her profession and pokemon made Joy forgive Horthy...
Horthy put on his socks and shoes, stand up straight and stretches, groaned lazily and made his bones crack. He walked to the desk and opened the little drawer in it, taking out a pokeball.
Without much more dilation, he aimed with the ball to the ground and touched it´s open button, and letting out his partner.
"Eevee!"