A black van awaited right outside the orphanage.
The orphans reluctantly entered the back of the van as the man's aura scared all of their rebellious thoughts into submission.
The back of the van was separated by a metal partition which left the orphans feeling caged.
The trip took hours as the van rode away from the outskirts of viridian city to their destination. Renji spent those hours reading the others.
They were tense and afraid, silently fidgeting on the spot as they faced the unknown. Renji needed them scared, he didn't want more competition on the island. At the same time he wanted to be seen in a good way by his orphanage peers, so that he wouldn't be completely isolated come the trials and would therefore not be crushed by the cliques that would inevitably form during the trials. Power in social dynamics meant favours, strength in number and resources.Things he would absolutely need in the near future. Useful as a tool but not enough to be a distraction for his ultimate goal: personal strength, capable of crushing everything else.
So, with a stiff smile and a uncharacteristic 'warm' tone that sounded way too forced he said: "wherever we are going, we have to stick together to survive and trust one another. Let's leave behind our previous fights and resentment. Let's all survive."
His words shook the four boys and one girl as courage flashed through them. They had survived abuse and starvation and made it to thirteen years old, where as other kids had died along the way. They were tough, they had lived a shit life without any future, as outside of the orphanage their life as bottom dwellers wouldn't have been different. Now they needed straws to grasp at, and Renji had given them just that.
The kids, now determined to survive, started to talk to each other, making plans and guesses about the unknown future, with Renji speaking short sentences of reaffirmation every now and then.
Time passed quick, and gradually the van started to slow, as deafening sounds were heard from outside of the barricaded van, the kind they had never heard before, that of planes taking off and landing.
Suddenly, as the van stopped and the lanky man exited the van, gas was injected into the back of the van through tiny openings all over the van.
The children were startled, but had no time to react as they started dropping down. Renji's expression turned serious and determined for a brief moment, before he too, dropped unconscious in the back of the van.
***
Renji woke up feeling groggy and exhausted, yet he forced his eyes to open. His eyes methodically darted around to orient himself from what he had seen inside the lanky man's memories. He looked down. Grimy concrete with dark blotches of red that would never fade scattered around. His stomach clenched at the sight— he knew what those stains were and how they came to be— yet he grit his teeth, composing himself with all his might to not attract attention to himself. He saw the other two to three hundred children either awake or still fainted on the ground inside the warehouse. He had never seen so many people together. He extended his psyche to feel someone's emotions,but a sudden avalanche of psychic frequencies crashed against his consciousness, tearing his head apart. The static incoherence of the frequencies emitted by so many consciousnesses bunched together almost crippled him. His face contorted in a grimace, he immediately reigned his psychic sense inside, his hands clawing at his head, a gurgled whimper left his mouth as he struggled to make no sound.
Those around him looked strangely at him, but soon gave him no mind as their worries occupied most of their attention. After the pain subsided, he was much more discreet in his observation, limiting himself to using his eyes, from what he could tell the situation looked similar to what he had glimpsed a year earlier.
He noted the feral aura some of the children had. He already knew, but not all children had come from 'sheltered' situations like his group. Most were street urchins that struggled to live each day through the poverty stricken kanto slums, others were part of small time gangs that had banded together to further extort the already poor. Those here were those who survived hell and were ready to kill for crumbles of bread.
Renji determined that some might have been either a couple of years older than him or just more fed, as they were a size bigger than the rest. He automatically branded them as potential threats: Those who managed to get that big even in poverty, either were crafty due to having survived long enough to grow, or were natural born predators who thrived in the lawless darker side of kanto, where the league disdained to reach as it catered only to the powerful and wealthy.
Most, instinctively recognised the danger of the situation, others might have just been scared, but almost no one moved. Those who did move around and started to cause a ruckus by picking fights or indignantly screaming about being let free, didn't yet know of the dangers that awaited, still unaware that their reality had changed dramatically the moment they had woken up. Their previous ranks in the food chain didn't matter here.
After some minutes, every kid inside the dimly neon lit warehouse was awake, and as if on cue, the faint echo of heels stepping on the ground in the adjacent corridor, gradually became louder. The crowd grew quieter, as a sliding door opened. Renji couldn't see as he stood in the back of the crowd as his small size didn't help in the slightest, but the unhurried stepping cadence of the heels colliding against the concrete felt like the one coming owned the place.
Stepping through the door, where Renji managed to see through the gaps in between people, was a tall, burly man with a purple Mohawk haircut. He had formal black clothes, a bright red R stood on the chest part of his black jacket. Two golden stripes adorned the upper edges of his jacket by the shoulder.
Behind him a dozen men in black suits followed.
If the aura of the burly man wasn't enough to quiet the atmosphere in an instant, the six ultraballs tied to his black belt should surely should have. Sometimes being a coward and recognising your superiors was a good thing. Conversely those that constantly fought through life for chances, were probably too tough for their own good as they hollered at the man, demanding an explanation.
The burly man quietly looked on, his eyes scanning everyone in sight. After seemingly making an inventory of the situation he slowly opened his mouth, his head unmoving.
"Those."
He said while pointing at the ones who were the cause of the noise.
The men behind him, smoothly grasped the pokeballs at their belts like trained soldiers executing a routine command. Some's expressions were blank, others were wearing a malicious grin. They enlarged the pokeballs by pressing the white button in the middle, and quickly threw them out, liberating the Pokémon inside.
This happened in a fraction of a second.
It was too late.
What followed was true carnage.
A dozen Pokemon swiftly attacked.
Limbs flew. Blood spilled. Bones disintegrated.
In the blink of an eye, gore was all that remained. Twenty or so kids had been rendered to pulp, only managing a brief scream before dying.
The stillness was deafening. Even Renji, who was expecting things to south, couldn't help but feel nauseous as the stench of fresh blood assaulted his senses, yet he stood still. Everybody did.
Satisfied, the burly man raised his hand, to which his subordinates readily recalled their pokemon. They formed a line behind the burly man and obediently clasped their hands behind their back, standing by.
"My name is Viper, a special elite operative of team Rocket. For the next three months I own your life."
The man, Viper continued uninterrupted, his tone commanding and condescending.
"You are now reserve Team Rocket members. Team Rocket will train you and turn you trash into something valuable. So be thankful to Team Rocket for the rest of your life and repay the debt you owe us by serving the cause."
No sooner had Viper finished speaking that tens of people wearing worn clothes and dead eyes came inside the warehouse, carrying metal slates filled with pokeballs, not giving the group of children enough time to process the shock the carnage brought them.
"Now! Go, choose your Pokémon. A bright future awaits you." He finished with a wide grin that suggested this role more than fit his taste.
The children stared with wide, unblinking eyes at the trays filled with pokeball, the words of Viper putting them in a trance.
The stillness broke, someone took the first step. Then another. Soon, a stampede formed as everyone crazily ran to the metal carts, uncaringly stepping on the puddle of gored remains their dead peers had left behind.
Renji too ran like his life depended on it.
Real pokèmon! Was the only thought occupying his mind in a loop.
Almost no one here had seen a pokoémon as they lived in the slums of kanto,and the times they did was when they nearly died, like when they angered an official league trainer or when fighting for scraps with injured wild pokemon.
A flash of light materialised before the carts, making the closest of the kids to the cart stumble back. A ferocious houndoor adorning battle scars all over its body stood its ground between the carts and the kids.
"One at a time."
Those words were enough. Lines were quickly formed by each cart.
The first kid looked through the transparent top half of the pokeball. The choices were pretty simple. Ekans, Koffing and Zubat, plus some sparse oddish and geodude here and there.
He resolutely chose ekans and stormed off to the back of the warehouse.
The others didn't care and continued carefully weighing their pick. As the second girl had finally decided which pokemon to pick, she let her hand reach towards the pokeball. Her hand grabbed the pokeball and immediately let it fall back down time as a chilling scream reverberated.
Renji turned around and saw the first boy who had picked up the pokeball, or at least what remained of him…
The ekans had shredded his torso with a bite as soon as he had released it and was now coiling around him and about to swallow the boy whole as it widened its mouth to an impossible degree.
The spectacle had left every child who saw, stunned. These wild Pokémon had almost never interacted with humans and they were hungry since they hadn't eaten since their capture days ago.
Renji saw the craziness in the children's eyes fading as reality hit them hard. He wasn't like them, he knew what he had to do and what awaited him.
Soon, it was his turn to choose. He approached the metal cart and examined the pokeballs. The carts were full, new carts had been brought in at some point. There clearly was no shortage of pokemon for everyone present, so he took his time.
He wanted a Pokémon that fit his needs. He remembered the fragments of the trials that were to come and what Pokémon the top ranking reserve members had had in the previous trials.
He wanted a pokemon that could fly and do reconnaissance as it would be vital for survival. Zubat had a clear weakness and straightforward wants, whilst koffing was just sticking time bomb and ekans too ferocious to tame, at least in the short term as it was a predator in the food chain. He also skipped oddish as its nature was too gentle and geodude due to its limited mobility.
His hand didn't linger. He decisively chose a zubat and decisively stepped aside.
He retreated and waited for the selection to finish and for new instructions to be issued.
In the meantime, he eyed the pokemon inside the pokeball.
It is in my hands now.
He was in it now, and he would climb the ranks or die trying.
Soon after everyone was done choosing. Obviously nobody freed their pokemon after having seen what had happened to the first boy. The children quietly awaited new orders from Viper. Renji admired the adaptability of his newly traumatised peers, who unlike him hadn't expected any of the madness that had transpired, to quickly insert themselves in a new system.
"Good. All of you are to head to your rooms. There, you will find all that you need, so try whatever you please and tame your Pokémon. By the end of two weeks everyone who hasn't tamed their pokemon will be demoted to menial grunts."
After saying that, Viper turned around and left. Afterwards, a swarm of menial grunts came in and distributed passkeys with a corresponding number on top to everyone.
Renji was obviously aiming way higher than to become a labourer for team rocket. The workload was so heavy that many died young, without ever managing to make it out of the imposed slavery.
Everyone gets a chance though.
Team Rocket, differed from the league that left the poor to die. He had read enough of his orphanage peers memories to know what the streets looked like before the orphanage, and what the league thought of people like them. He saw the league not leave any room for survival to the slum dwellers. Team rocket extended their hand to those who had no future, giving them food, resources and Pokémon. All it asked of recruits was to excel and repay it for the investment. By any means…
Renji followed the others. His head swirling with thoughts.
The grunts guided them to the halls where their rooms resided and then left in resigned silence for their next tasks.
Renji opened the room and looked for the bed. On it, lay a belt and a watch. The belt was for pokeballs and held a cubic space of one meter, whilst the watch served as an id within team rocket and also held points, the main currency used by team Rocket.
In the wardrobe lay three pairs of black suits, all branded with a bright red R in the middle.
He took a moment to metabolise his new identity. Then, his eyes gained their edge back.