“Falkner,” I whispered, a flurry of emotions raging inside of me. How did he find Kimi? Better yet, how did even know who she was in relation to me- that we were friends? I was sure that he hadn’t seen me with her before. Everyday I became more and more certain that he was spying on me, and it was really starting to get dangerous. Clearly.

            “The one and only.” His voice carried through the speaker, sounding amused and pleased with himself. I gripped my Pokégear tightly with anger, nearly breaking it. Once I realized what I was doing, I quickly stopped, cursing the weak plastic case. If I broke the device, there would be no way to talk to Falkner and- and…what? Ask him to not kidnap my friends, with a pretty please and a cherry on top?

            I took a deep breath. “You said Kimi is with you. I know she’s a lure. Why? What do you want from me? You gave up on the whole ransom bullshit.”

            “The boss wants to see you. He’s pretty mad, after you escaped and stopped him from taking the Celebi. Too bad his daughter couldn’t get rid of you then and there, it would have saved us a lot of trouble tracking you down. Besides, we have other plans for you.”

            Oh, wonderful. They have plans for me. “Oh, really? What would that be? You think I’m stupid, Falkner, but I’m not. You’re trying to reel me in so you can silence me.”

            I expected him to be angry, but he just laughed. “Perhaps. So you’ll leave your little girlfriend to die? Here, why don’t you tell her that yourself?”

            There was a scuffle, and then Kimi’s enraged voice slammed into my eardrum. “Jared, I’m going to kick your ass when I get out of here! You got me kidnapped!”

            I growled angrily, but not at Kimi. Falkner laughed in the background and apparently took the Pokégear from her, because I heard her shout something at him before he spoke into the device. “If you don’t take the bait, she dies. Maybe I should add that we know exactly where Luna is, too.” His voice took on an artificially sad tone. “I don’t want anyone to get hurt, but…”

            “Oh, I’m taking the bait alright.” I seethed. “And you better be ready, because I am going to kill you!”

            I could practically see his satisfied smirk. “Check your bag. You know where we are.”

            Hitting the ‘end call’ button, I slammed the Pokégear down onto the table.

*

            In my bag, I found a Pokéball stamped with a picture of the Zephyr Badge and a note: Hurry up, Slowpoke. Even without the vague hint, I knew exactly where I’d need to go. I shuddered at the thought of Team Rocket having been close enough to leave that in my bag today. Quickly as I could, I put my team into their Pokéballs, even Gigi. The less they saw of my Pokémon, the better. I ran outside, and for once I was glad to see Reid passed out in the hallway. Whatever he did to lock himself out of his own room, I didn’t care. As long as he was safe.

            Once outside, I tossed out the Pokémon from Falkner’s Pokéball. It was his prized Pidgeot. Feeling my stomach churn, I climbed onto the bird Pokémon and squeezed my eyes shut as it immediately took off. Curse you, Falkner, I thought weakly as the Pidgeot soared high above the trees. Clearly, Falkner had trained it to bring me to him. It cleared miles in no time. As much as the ride terrified me, it was a pretty effective form of travel. Within an hour, I was landing outside of Azalea  Town- more specifically, Slowpoke Well. I checked my Pokégear. It was nearly midnight. Perfect, just like last time. See how well that worked out for me.

            I hopped off the Pidgeot, returning it quickly before it could attack me. Tucking the Pokéball in my pocket, I glanced around warily. In the shadows by the tree where Gigi had been stolen, I saw something move, and I froze. My life is déjà vu, I thought, creeping towards the tree. In the shadows, I could barely make out the shape of someone a bit shorter than me. Suddenly, the person let out a cry of frustration and began swearing vehemently. Any second now they would see me. I had to act fast.

            I ran forward and leapt at the person, tackling them to the ground. Both of us screamed as we hit the ground, and I pinned them under my weight. “What did you do with Kimi?!” I roared, raising a fist to hit the person. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, the flash of golden eyes stopped me in my tracks. “G…Gold?”

            “Jared!”

            I jumped off of him, heart still racing. “S-sorry,” I said. “I thought…uh, never mind.”

            Gold stood up shakily, brushing himself off. “It’s okay,” he said in a hoarse voice. With a jolt, I realized that he’d been crying. For a moment, he seemed confused. Then his gaze turned desperate. “Thank Arceus you’re here. Jared, please, you have to help. It- it’s Team Rocket.”

            “What did they do?” I asked, becoming increasingly worried with each passing second. “They’re on the move again, I know that. Falkner called me and- and he captured my friend, Kimi. He’s luring me here.” Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. Team Rocket was pretty keen to rid of Gold, too. I looked at him pointedly.

            Gold nodded, clenching his fists. “Those- those bastards took Seth!” He went quiet, and I wasn’t sure what to say. But I could empathize with him. He and I were more like each other than I thought.

            Suddenly, he screamed in anger and slammed his fist into the tree, making me flinch. That must’ve hurt, I thought grimly. But Gold didn’t seem to be in pain at all. In fact, he’d dented the tree. Sections of bark crumbled, falling off as he pulled his hand away. It must have been one of the skills Team Rocket engineered- being strong enough to smash a tree. Helpful for a killing machine. A second thought ran through my head. I am so glad he’s on my side.

            Gold turned back towards me, looking distressed. “Jared…please, help me get him back. Seth can’t die, not because of me. If he got hurt and it was my fault, I…I…”

            “I know what you mean.” I looked at him, how terrified he was of being responsible for his friend ending up in this position. “It’s why I left Luna.”

            He nodded numbly, slumping to the ground. “I understand why now…I always knew that we were in danger, but now that he’s actually been taken hostage by Team Rocket…”

            “We have to hurry,” I said, glancing at the Well. “Who knows what they’ll do to them. We’re walking straight into their trap, but it’s our only choice.”

            Gold looked up. “I tried to find a way in, but there’s no ladder. It’s too far of a fall to risk it. If we end up with our heads cracked open at the bottom of that hole, we won’t be able to help them.”

            I frowned as I realized that the ladder thing was kind of my fault. But if they hadn’t bothered to fix it, where Team Rocket would have gotten in? It was too small for the Pidgeot to fit through. “There must be some other way in,” I said aloud. “I’ve been here before, it’s their base. They have to have another entrance.”

            He stood up and walked over the Well, looking down it. “I know it’s their base…I mean, they pretty much told me.”

            “How so?” Maybe they’d left clues in what they told Gold. Honestly, if they wanted to lure us here, couldn’t they make it a bit easier?

            Gold glanced at me. “They…left a note in Seth’s room at the Olivine Gym, saying to go to Azalea  Town. I knew that they’d never make a base in the middle of town, they’re too smart for that.” His voice cracked. “I would know, since I spent the first three months of my life living with them.”

            “Three months?” I asked in confusion, studying the Well. Maybe it was like in old TV shows where you have to push a brick to open a secret door. When I couldn’t see anything, I stood up and sighed.

            “I’m like a year old. Accelerated childhood.”

            “You’re wise beyond your years.”

            “Tell me about it.” He laughed dryly. “I’ve seen more in my time than most people ever will. Experience isn’t always a good thing.” Gold looked at me with haunted eyes. He knew better than I did what Team Rocket was capable of. He was probably imagining far worse things they could do to Kimi and Seth than I was. Suddenly, he began blinking very fast and his eyes flickered, a lightning blue color zapping through them. He let out a strangled cry and gripped his head, squeezing his eyes shut.

            “What’s wrong?” I asked worriedly as his body spasmed. After a moment, his shoulders relaxed, and he let go of his head.

            “I was glitching.”

            “Wh-what does that mean?”

            “Nothing. Never mind.” He muttered. Gold saw the slightly panicked expression on my face and sighed. “You’ll learn soon enough.”

            “I imagine I’ll learn a lot worse than just that when we go down there,” I said, glancing at the Well.

            Gold followed my gaze. “Yeah…” he replied. Walking a few paces, I saw him studying the base of the structure. He crouched down, touching the ground. Then he stood up and motioned for me to follow. “I found the way in.”

            “How?” I jogged over to him quickly.

            He pointed at the ground near the Well. “There. You can see the outline of bricks beneath the ground.” He brushed away some dirt, revealing the same style of bricks that the Well was made of. “There must be a passageway in there. We just have to find the way in.” He began following the outline of the bricks into the forest, and I walked after him a bit hesitantly.

            After a few minutes of walking, Gold came to a stop in front of me. He bent down again, and lifted up a section of the ground. It took me a moment to realize that it was a trapdoor. “Yay, a creepy secret entrance in the middle of the woods. Nothing concerning about that.” I mumbled.

            “We don’t have much of a choice,” Gold pointed out. And with that, he swung himself down into the hole. I heard him land not far below. “It’s only a few feet!” he called up.

            I gave a resigned sigh and closed my eyes, jumping down after him. I hit the floor with a jolt and winced, hopping on one ankle. “Damn it, this thing it never going to fully heal if I keep doing crap like this,” I muttered, looking around.

            Gold was a few paces ahead of me, staring into a dark stone hallway. It was small; only about five feet across and maybe nine feet tall. The walls were arched and cold, giving the impression of a sixteenth century castle passageway. “Well, we may as well start moving,” he said, beginning to walk down the hall.

            I shook my head at the absurdity of it all and followed him. If I were a normal person, I’d be sound asleep right now, dreaming of my next gym battle. But since I’m Jared Wilson, I’m following an artificial human down a creepy passage to look for my kidnapped friends.

            It was pitch dark as we walked, the silence only broken by the sound of our own footsteps. I put one hand on the wall to feel for vibrations, becoming paranoid that the wall was going to collapse and trap us. My hand slipped as the wall disappeared beneath, and I stopped short. “Gold,” I whispered, turning towards the wall in the darkness. “There’s no wall here. I think it’s a separate hallway.”

            Gold stopped walking as well, and turned back to me. He stepped into the place where there was no wall. “It’s a staircase,” he responded, seeming relieved. “We’re on the right track. Let’s go.” He disappeared into the stairwell, and I ran after him.

            My feet thundered on the steps as we descending further into the ground. “I wonder where we’ll end up,” I commented.

            Gold laughed. “Oh, I know the answer to that one. We’ll end up in Hell.”

*

            When we came to the end of the stairs, we pushed open a door and walked straight into a room filled with lethal-looking machines and tools. Filing cabinets and computer desks crowded the space not taken up by strange looking devices. Papers were scattered around the room, some covering the desks, others littered on the floor. Gold paused, looking around. I couldn’t decipher his expression, but he seemed more tense than before. Trying to act casual, he picked up a file from one of the desks, and his golden eyes widened as he scanned the page. “It’s true,” he whispered. Then he turned to me. “Jared, we’re leaving the room. Right now.” Dropping the document, he grabbed my arm and yanked me towards the exit door.

            “Wait, why? What is it?” I asked, craning my neck to try to see the papers that had fallen to the floor.

            “Stop looking. Don’t. Just don’t. If you saw anything, forget it right now.”

            He forced me out of the room, and I glanced backwards, hesitant to move onwards. “I didn’t see anything…but what’s so important about Team Rocket’s research that you don’t want me to see it? I already know how malicious they can be.”

            “I just didn’t want you to see it- it’s, uh, more violent than usual.” Gold said quickly. Too quickly.

            I narrowed my eyes. “Whatever you say.” He was hiding something. I was sure of it.

            “Let’s keep moving.” He said after a few moments. I frowned, still suspicious, and pushed past him to be in the lead. This was a much more open hallway, modernized and fixed with electrical lights. Rooms and side halls led off from this one, and I could hear people talking in the distance. We would have to be careful not to get caught. Then again, that was the whole point of coming here, wasn’t it? I snorted and strode forward, towards the voices.

            “Jared! What are you doing?” Gold hissed, grabbing my arm again.

            “Getting myself caught,” I replied calmly.

            “Have you gone mad?” he asked in exasperation.

            “They’ll lead us straight to Kimi and Seth,” I pointed out, freeing myself from his grip and walking forward.

            Gold stared at me incredulously. “But what if they don’t, what then? We’ll be good as dead!”

            I frowned at him. “I’m going to take a chance. They wanted to find us, so let them. If worse comes worst, well, at least they’ll be less likely to hurt the others.” I saw the look of disbelief reflected in his face and sighed. “Look, I’m going to trust you on whatever happened back there-” I jerked my thumb towards the room we’d just left, “So I think I deserved to be trusted in return on this.”

            Gold opened his mouth to protest, then faltered. “Alright, fine. I’ll go along with this. Just try not to get us killed.”

            “No promises.” I walked towards the door the voices were coming from and peeked in, marveling at the fact that security in this place sucked. A group of people were standing around a table, discussing some sort of research. My stomach flipped when I realized that they were talking about creating new clones.

            A brown haired man was talking to his colleagues, a blonde woman and an older bald man. “Yeah…considering the last ones were such failures, Falkner better be sure about this one. It’s costing way too much money for this to end up a fluke. Giovanni puts too much trust in him. I mean, he’s what, twenty-two? How can a college aged kid understand anything about how we operate? And on that note, does he even know the basics of cloning? I can’t even begin to guess why the boss is going along with this nonsense…”

            Gold heard the conversation and drew in a deep breath. Suddenly, seeming much less hesitant than before, he burst out, “We’re over here, idiots! Do you ever even bother to pay attention to security cameras?”

            The man froze in his speech and turned around, seeing Gold and I in the doorway. “Y-you’re here!”

            “You gave a personal invitation; I accepted.” Gold pulled a note out of his pocket and crumpled it up, throwing it at them. His eyes darkened. “You’re a bunch of cowards. Too afraid to come after me yourselves? You have to resort to hurting my friends?”

            The man gulped and grabbed a phone off the wall, his hands shaking. “Hey, get grunts down here ASAP! The- the clone is here!”

            “They would know you’re here if they were a bit more vigilant,” I muttered. Gold didn’t respond.

            He walked forward, eyes glinting dangerously. “You- are- monsters. Killing Icelia and Andrew, kidnapping Seth, and- and now this with Jared!” He lunged for the brown haired man, and the blonde woman screamed, pointing an object at Gold and pressing a button on it. He immediately froze and fell to the ground, looking as if he was paralyzed. I stared wide eyed at him, seeing how rapidly the situation was going downhill.

            Now that Gold was out of commission, the three people seemed to relax slightly. The bald man even went so far as to smile and kick Gold’s head and the boy screamed at them from the floor, unable to move. “We’ve been working on control techniques for our little creations. That device sends an electrical wave through your body, and your blood properties can’t fight it back without iron flowing through. You’ll be nice and relaxed for a few minutes, kid.”

            “Stop it!” Gold shouted, enraged. “Let me go! I’ll kill you all! You’re going to pay for what you’re doing-” The bald man jammed his foot into Gold’s windpipe, effectively cutting him off.

            “Don’t talk back to your masters, little boy.” The blonde woman snapped. She glanced at me. “So you two are playing valiant knights, are you?”

            “Valiant knights are overrated. I’m playing ‘guy that’s going to kill the next person who tries to get to me through my friends.’” I snarled.

            She laughed. “How adorable. Look, boy; you’re in no position to say those kinds of things. You’re outnumbered a hundred to one.” She stepped forward. “Now why don’t you hand over that backpack and your Pokémon?”

            “You must think I’m an idi-” A cold weight pressed into my temple and I heard a clicking sound. Cautiously, I raised my eyes to look behind me. The brown haired man was holding a gun to my head.

            So I was being faced with the choice to run, die, or get my Pokémon stolen so I couldn’t escape.

            Again.

            I hate you, Falkner.