Infiltrating Rocket's Hideout

Your heart is racing as you head down the stairs in the back of the Celadon Game Corner. Yuruki leads the way, Daisy, Jack, John, and yourself follow her into the depths. Roger and Humphrey stayed on the game floor up above. They were quick to volunteer for lookout duty, but you don’t blame them, you’re scared to enter Team Rocket’s hideout as well. But you couldn’t let Yuruki and Daisy go in alone.

You were all dressed in black, it seemed like the logical choice basing all your heist knowledge on films. However, the hideout was well lit and the white walls made you stick out. Your group slinks through the hallways, keeping an eye out for any Team Rocket members.

“It’s quiet,” Jack points out.

“Maybe they’re watching over the Tournament?” John offers.

Yuruki laughs, “Wouldn’t that make this boring?”

“I’ll take boring. Where should we start looking?” Daisy asks.

You look around a corner, still no Rockets, “Maybe a computer of any kind?”

The group goes from room to room, looking for anything that could help your mission. The rooms were full of crates, but no signs of people or computers. After searching another crate filled room, you’re about to reenter the hallways. When Yuruki pushes everyone back, she turns pushing a finger to her lips, quieting the group. A couple footsteps can be heard outside the door.

The door slowly starts to open up, everyone backs into the corners. Hiding from whoever is walking into the room. You scream as the floor slides out from under you, the room spins around you. You feel as if you might throw up, as everything shifts around you. It’s a miracle you’re still standing, when everything stops around you. “John? Yuruki? Jack? Daisy?” you whisper not wanting to alert anybody nearby.

Your head is still spinning as you look around. The crates are nowhere to be seen. “Amber!” you hear Daisy’s voice call out. The telltale sounds of a pokemon battle ringing out from the same direction.

Shit, you screamed when… when whatever happened happened. You were hiding, now the party is in danger. “Daisy!” you call back. You take a step towards her voice, when everything shifts again. The room spinning around you once again. Daisy’s own yells fill the room, did this happen to her too.

You drop to your knees when you stop again. Your breakfast makes its way to the floor. You look around to see arrows marking the floor, the ground beneath you is textured, making it stand out against the slick floor surrounding you.

Daisy is standing, just barely. “What is this?” you call out.

“I don’t know,” Daisy sounds shaky. She starts to walk towards you.

“STOP!” you shout. Daisy’s foot stops, hovering above one of the arrows on the ground. “I think the floor is bobby trapped, it happened to me again before you came through.”

Another yelp comes through, followed by John’s form coming spinning into the room. He looks like a figure skater, spinning as he slides across the floor. He shifts and turns snaking his way through the room. He stops slamming into Daisy, she stumbles and starts spinning herself. You brace yourself for Daisy to come your way, but she stops elsewhere. The three of you are now scattered around the arrow room.

“Jack and Yuruki are fighting off Team Rocket behind us,” John says, holding his head. “What is going on here?”

You feel your phone vibrate. “A bunch of men in black are heading your way.” Roger sent in the group chat. A siren blares, and a few red lights flash around the room.

“I think we’ve been caught,” you tell them. You stand up trying not to slip in your mess.

Daisy speaks up, “We can’t just stand around. There’s got to be a way out of this.”

“I’m going to follow Daisy’s path,” John says stepping the way Daisy stumbled. Daisy braces herself for John’s spinning body to arrive. After a short spin across the floor, John and Daisy share their own textured square.

The sounds of battling continue, Yuruki’s voice bounces off the walls as she commands her team. You look over the arrows on the floor, they blend in getting lost in the crisscrossing pattern of the floor. You release Tingle, giving him the order to web the floor. Thinking that maybe the extra traction will help, but the web is flung away as it hits the arrows.

“Amber, look there,” Daisy calls out. She’s sitting on John’s shoulders, a bird’s eye view of the maze of arrows. “Do you think you can jump across to those arrows,” she points. “Not the first set but the ones after?”

The arrows to your right point one way, back into the room. But the ones just past are pointed in the other direction. “I think so,” you try to convince yourself that you can make the several feet jump. You back up, careful not to step in breakfast. With a short running start you leap, your foot meets its mark. The room spins again, you pirouette on the one foot as you involuntarily follow the maze of spinning tiles.

You’re through. “Okay, that one,” Daisy guides John behind you. The pair spin across the floor. You look around, when you see it. A computer on a nearby table.

This might be the only chance to find what you all came here for. You quickly start messing around with the mouse and keyboard. Where do you even start? It’s not like just trying to find someone on Chatoter.

You see the email on the taskbar. Maybe the contact list there? You open it up, [email protected] is signed in. “Thank you Ben,” you mumble, trying to navigate the system. You search through his contacts, but Ashley is the only one to pop up when you type Ketchum. “Damn it.”

You click on Ashley’s name. A new page opening. Her picture and info is pulled up. Nothing about her family, nothing about Tom Ketchum. It lists her rank as “Admin,” you’re not quite sure what that means, but it definitely sounds important. You manage to find a link that opens to a hierarchy of Team Rocket. At the top is simply “The Boss,” how mysterious. Do the Rockets not even know who they are working for?

Under the Boss, you see a familiar name. “Admiral Black Jack.” He’s an Admiral? You knew he was in charge but according to this he’s near the top. That makes his interest in you all the more worrisome.

You’re about to open his page, when Daisy yells, “AMBER, WATCH OUT!” You turn to see a ball of fire hurtling towards you. You dive out of the way, the computer going up in flames. A grunt stands next to his Arcanine.

You reach for your team, Wartortle’s ball in your hand. When the elevator behind you dings, opening up to reveal 2 more grunts. “RUN! WE’LL BE FINE!” John shouts. You act, scrambling towards the stairs in the corner. A flamethrower hits the wall next to you as you make your way down the stairs. Further into the depths of the Team Rocket Hideout.