When the door hissed open all that greeted him were beige walls that seemed to go on for forever. Neither left nor right gave a clear picture as to what was the correct way out of there, so going with his gut, he made a choice and went to the left.
His soft footfalls padded against the metal floor, and he kept his head on a swivel making sure to always be aware of his surroundings, he didn't want to be caught with his pants down and blindsided by an enemy from behind.
The corridor seemed to stretch on forever but eventually, he came to another crossroads, but this time there were signs on which they led to. To the right was the elevator and to the left it simply said, containment rooms.
He had no desire to know what was in those rooms so he made his way to the elevator in hopes of it being as simple as pressing a button and he would be home free. He pressed the button expecting a ding or something to alert him of the elevator's imminent arrival but nothing happened. Only when he pressed the button again, did something appear on the wall.
'BADGE REQUIRED FOR ELEVATOR'
"You gotta be fucking kidding me, of course, it won't be this easy," he muttered. He opened up the fanny pack on his waist to see if there was a key card or something he missed, but he came up empty. "Just my luck, it probably went with him down the chute…shit."
His clear path just became more cloudy, he could either go back down the tunnel he came from and head the other way, but judging by the elevator being here that would be a waste of precious time, so he turned around and headed the way he had no interest in going, maybe there was something there that could help him.
Walking back down towards where the Containment rooms were, his feet seemed to grow heavier the more he walked that way. Surely Team Rocket wouldn't be stupid enough to have a Poké jail here, right? Who is he kidding of course they are.
Steeling his resolve, he continued down the hall and to his surprise he spotted a room that would no doubt hold something he could use. In big black letters on the door, it read, 'SUPPLIES'.
He went up to the door, hoping nothing would be locked and to his shock, it opened with no resistance, something was finally going his way. As he walked in his smile grew more and more as he surveyed the contents of the room. Team Rocket uniforms hung along the wall, shirts, pants, jackets, boots, the whole outfit was here, clearly, they went through them if they needed this many spares, there had to have been at least fifty of them. He just hoped they had his size, whatever that was.
5 minutes later he found one his size, but it begged the question why did Team Rocket have such a small size available? Did they have grunted his age? That was a sobering thought. He too now donned the traditional Team Rocket garb, black uniform emblazoned with the red "R" on the front, and he thankfully found some boots his size so he wasn't going to be walking around barefoot anymore. As he went to leave the supply room, another thing caught his gaze, something he wasn't expecting to see, lining the wall were multiple devices of different colours, ranging from Black and white to the colours of the rainbow.
"How the hell do they have Pokédex's? Weren't they supposed to be rare?" a memory came to his mind, or rather from his bodies memory. The device in front of him was definitely a Pokédex of the Kanto variety. But what came with those memories was important, Pokédex's were expensive like over 100,000 Pokédollars kind of expensive, and that was just the base model, that didn't include any of the international dex information that regions collaborated on together.
So as to how they just had these on hand, begged the question of how they acquired them, most likely illegally. But this may have solved his issue of needing a key card. If they were as intuitive as the show suggested them to be, the key to using the elevator may be on them.
He picked up a black one and opened it, just as he would a smartphone and turned it on. Once it flickered to life, something strange happened, a rush of information swam into his brain, as if he was all of a sudden connected to the device, and shortly after it 'connected' to him, it began to speak.
"User Identity required…Identity acquired…New User: James Arkwright/Voss…Accepted! Welcome James, should you need anything use the help feature in the main menu. Best of luck on your journey!"
The dex's voice, which was feminine, shut off and he was left in awe of what just happened, James… that feels right? But Arkwright doesn't make any sense, he was sure his last name was much more normal and mundane than something outlandish like that. But, it also felt right in a way that this body accepted it.
Maybe this was his last name and my first name? Maybe he would never know but it was a name and he had been putting it off (he read as the author) in remembering (read: deciding) his name.
James then decided to look through the dex to see if there was anything related to a 'key' function but came up empty, so much for that, but he wasn't leaving the room empty-handed or naked either. Which was a plus in his book.
The door slid open and he checked both ways before continuing down to the containment area, pulling the brim of his hat he put on to cover his face some more, just in case there were cameras or anything.
After another two minutes of walking, he came up to another door, although this one was bigger than the ones he had seen before, easily reaching ten feet in height and probably surpassing it. That no doubt meant there were Pokémon beyond the door, and ones that were probably pissed off too, but…maybe they could be of some use.
What better way to escape than in the chaos of a prison break?
author note:
Much shorter than I initially planned this chapter to be, but I was in a bit of a rut while writing this one and just needed to get it out there and move on to the next part of the story.
So now you know his name! James Arkwright will be beginning his journey hopefully within the next few chapters, after all, he still has a ways to go and deals to make with some rather cranky and pissed-off Pokemon.
Don't forget to follow and favourite the story for updates!
Till next time!
-Daedalus1988