Trial Rules

Trial island 2:

"Did everyone arrive or are there any batches missing?" asked a frail-looking Team rocket Captain.

"Captain Carr, all batches have been delivered and we can start the trials, kids that we're brought will wake up in an hour or so," said a grunt.

"That's good, this year we can't do any shady things like the previous year trials and inform everyone of that. There are some rule changes and I will announce when everyone gathers around in an hour. If we do this right and find a great talent among this year's batch, I can get promoted to an elite rank yihahahaha.....," Carr laughs aloud like a maniac.

"Yes Captain, I will inform this to all the Trial assessors," after saying that, grunt runs off to deliver the information.

There was no one left in the darkroom and Carr sits in his custom made captain's chair. He is in his late forties and can be considered a veteran in Team Rocket. He has short almond hair with wisps of white around them, he has been waiting for an opportunity to get into the ranks of the elite for a decade now. Three years back, two of his Pokemon broke into the elite rank, so his boss Archer permitted him to replace an elite rank member if he successfully overseers this year trials. He doesn't want any anomalies that can eliminate his chances. He has to become an elite before he turns fifty next year.

Team Rocket has internal ranks for their members starting from low-level suppliers. Suppliers have only one job, they do all the miscellaneous tasks like cleaning, cooking, maintaining the records of supplies, etc.

Then comes grunts, those who join team rocket through recruitment start at this rank. Their job is to take orders from higher-ups and execute it without questioning. They are the cannon fodder of Team rocket. If they have any talents in battling, they will be promoted to Agents. Everyone who passed the trials start from this rank, the only difference is that grunts cannot become elites but trial takers can.

Agents take orders from their respective Captains and Captains take directions from Elites. If there is an empty place to occupy among executives then there will be a competition among Elite members to fill in. Aside from these, there is a separate rank called Spies, they only take orders from Giovanni and are undercover in League or other organisations.

There are five executives and each need to be at least an elite four lever trainer which is having at least a King class Pokemon. There are some unwritten rules in Team Rocket, no one can become an elite member or executive if they cross fifty. So Carr is very anxious and is desperate to perform well in these trials. If he finds any worthy candidate then he can also recruit him to his side as a Captain.

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50 minute later:

There were water smashing sounds all around,

"What the hell!!!!!! who the fuck is that disturbing my sleep. How dare they pour water on me," I said. I was woken up from my sweet slumber. I looked around and saw many kids with me in the same state. I could see different expressions all around, some were angry, some were confused and some even panicking.

I am usually pretty calm and the only exception is when someone forcibly wakes me up, but this was not the time to get angry as I realized that I was not in the orphanage.

There were around 200 kids around me or maybe more, but all of them were around the same as me. So, I concluded that I was abducted the last night and I am somewhere on an unknown island. When I was trying to analyse the situation, I heard a voice near me,

"Hey Jay, do you know where we are?" asked a short slim guy with a big nose and weird orange coloured hair.

I looked at him and did not know who he was, "I am sorry, who are you? Do we know each other?"

"Hey man, I am Gregory. We are from the same orphanage, how can you not know me," Gregory asked with a stunning look.

I was very anti-social in the orphanage and did not bother to talk to anyone as I knew I would leave the orphanage for my journey. Now that I look closely, I think I saw him frequently in the orphanage,

"Ah ok, my bad. I was just confused by the situation and blurted that out. Of course, I know you and as for your question...." before I gave a reply to him, there was a loud noise, probably a mic?

"Everyone I want your attention here, I am Captain Carr from Team Rocket. If I hear any noise before I finish my words, I am gonna kill you kids and feed them to the wild pokemon in the forest behind you. So I want pin drop silence. Do you understand?"

Everyone stopped talking after that, not because they were afraid of him but because they could see a huge Arbok beside the captain. It was eyeing everyone as if all of them were its food. The aura it emanates was enough for us to shut our mouths, we couldn't utter a word. Seeing that every one of us were silent, he continued,

"You guys are all Orphans and some of you related to Team Rocket members by blood. The league has left you underfed for twelve years now and when you leave the orphanage, you will just be food for pokemon outside as you have no jobs. Even when you guys want a job, no one will give a fuck about your pitiful lives. So, we Team Rocket give you an opportunity, opportunity to live a luxurious life, we will give you resources that help in the growth of your pokemon and see that no one is underfed. In return, all you have to do is help Team Rocket fight against the league who abandoned you."

He paused for a second and raised his voice by giving it a minor modulation to sound more inspirational,

"League never gave you a chance to prove yourselves and they undermine your pride telling you are worse than commoners. Nobels have become cancer to this world and we Team Rocket will overthrow them. All you need to do to be part of this Noble cause is to pass the island trials. Team Rocket gives you a chance to show your talents, join our ranks to fight the league," Captain Carr gasped for breath after that rambling.

Do you even call that a brainwashing speech?? Who would even fall for that, it's so lame. But the problem was, I noticed everyone looking at Captain Carr with newfound vitality. Are you kidding me? You guys fell for that? I mean, are 12-year-olds that easy to deceive? Maybe, because of my mental age, I assume that everyone around me will have the same mindset. I sometimes forget that twelve-year-olds are still kids. I stare back at the so-called Captain Carr for him to continue,

Captain Carr can see the uplifted mood among the Kids, he was very proud of his speech. He started talking again after taking a deep breath,

"Island trials are very risky and some of you may die but people who pass them will be part of our talent nurturing batch, high risks, high returns. Whoever is scared to live in the forest filled with beginner level pokemon for seven days can form a group on the right side, we will train you to become suppliers. If you fail even that then you can say goodbye to your lousy lives."

After hearing about living in the forest filled with pokemon, a good bunch of the kids were very scared and ran to the right side forming a group. There were around 40 people in that group, that leaves nearly 160 people for the trials. I was confident about my chances so there was nothing to fear.

Captain Carr sent the forty people inside the base behind him, after that he started to talk again

"Good, now the rest of you listen to the rules I say, I won't repeat them so keep that in mind. Before you go into the forest behind you, we will feed you with a delicious meal as a parting gift. I am sure this will be the last meal for most of you. The rules are simple, we will hand over five pokeballs to each of you and you need to survive in the forest for a week. You can use the pokeballs to catch your starters, those who survive can keep the pokemon you caught. If you have the ability, you can steal the pokemon among yourselves, there are no rules inside the forest. You have to feed yourselves and also feed your pokemon, no one will provide you with supplies. No person should carry more than two pokemon, so choose wisely."

He gave us some time to swallow the information, I realised that Team Rocket is brutal. Carr slyly gave a hint of stealing pokemon, this will lead to even killings among us. Once you kill a person then there is no going back, you can never be the innocent self you were before today. Humans greed is like a big hole which has no end, not to say we are dealing with kids. Captain Carr waited till everyone nod and started talking again,

" Let me tell you kids, this island is very special. There are only right such islands in the whole of Kanto, all belong to the Boss. This is once in life kind of opportunity as you can find almost every regions pokemon. If you are lucky you can even find a Blue potential Pokemon. These eight islands are maintained for trial takers every year, not even the core members are allowed to catch pokemon here. So cherish this opportunity and try to catch two high potential pokemon that can become your backbone for the future."

He gave a pause for a breath and then started talking again,

"This island is as big as a minor city, so it is divided into eight zones. Each zone has the particular regions pokemon, although most of you are orphans who have no clue about other region pokemon, there are a few of you who would know them. It doesn't matter anyway as you will be picking lots and go to the area which was allotted to you. You can sometimes find other region pokemon which travelled away from their allotted region so don't worry about it much. Now come and pick your lots."

After Carr finished his speech, he waited for the grunts to maintain the order while we started picking the lots. Everyone stood in line after the grunts came along and beat people who did not follow the order.

'Gregory The orphan' stood ahead of me, he looked very excited and was assuming this scenario as some friendly picnic. Little does he know that this will be a blood bath, unlike others I assume Gregory has a decent character as I never remember seeing him bully others. As I was daydreaming, Gregory went ahead and picked his number. He got the number three and I assume its Hoenn region, I moved forward and picked a folded paper, It said...

-------x Chapter End x-------

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