Pokemon Regression

Chapter 23: Rocket Captive

I tugged at the ropes tied around my torso in annoyance. I understood that as challengers who may already have claimed a badge the Rocket Grunts were wary of us, but I still thought they'd fastened the ropes a bit too tight for children.

To my side, Chee sat with her head hanging in total silence-Well she was always practically silent, but she wasn't trying to communicate anything non-verbally. She had stopped shaking, but now she just sat completely still. I was pretty sure she was still breathing, but nothing beyond that.

It had been at least a few hours since we'd been apprehended by the purple-haired man who seemingly ran the operation here. I wasn't sure exactly how long it had been, since the room had stayed completely illuminated for the entire time we'd been here. Whether it was day or night outside was impossible to say for sure, I could only judge by my internal clock.

The cave walls echoed every sound made from inside the large hollow, and I felt like I could hear bits of every conversation happening across the entire cavern. The clicks and snaps of pickaxes digging into rock had largely faded, and the mining team stopped to take their lunch break.

Nearby, a handful of the grunts were sitting in a circle, chewing on hard sticks of meat jerky. "Damnit. Tastes like eating mud." One of them grumbled aloud, messing with his curly black hair. The man was large and stocky, the sort of person you wouldn't want to bet against in an arm wrestling competition. By my estimates he would be in his early thirties. 

"Shut up." A younger girl with brown hair snapped. "If Petrel hears you saying that, we'll all get in trouble. Just put up with it." From her voice and face, the girl appeared to be around her mid-twenties, but her tone was more like that of an petulant teenager. 

Despite that, it seemed that she outranked the man, as he grumbled and leaned backwards. "Yeah yeah... Don't wanna get you in trouble Shasta. I just wanna eat something other than jerky. How long have we even been down here?"

"3 Days." The third member of their circle finally spoke up, a teenage boy with bleached blonde hair. His eyes were cold and lifeless, and he didn't look up from the ground as he took another bite from the jerky bunched up in his hand. In his other hand he held a book which he slowly thumbed through. Unlike the other two who were sitting on the ground, he was just crouching with his knees folded.

"I could've sworn we'd been down here for a week at least." The man mumbled. "Why'd the chef have to go and hurt himself anyway?"

Suddenly I noticed an opening, and I cleared my throat as I prepared to perform. I couldn't behave how I normally did, the more they underestimated me the more likely it was that I'd be able to achieve my goal. 

"Um... Excuse me sir..." I called out with just a hint of falsetto. "Would you like me to cook something for you?"

The three grunts locked their eyes on me and I twitched in surprise, but I didn't allow myself to fold. The older man spoke first. "You think you're some kinda chef kid? We're grown men-"

The woman coughed. 

"-And women- here. Kiddy food ain't gonna cut it." The man amended his statement as he finished. 

"I know how to make a pretty tasty potato soup...?" I offered hesitantly. "Although people sometimes tell me I put in too much pepper..."

"We don't have any potatoes kid." The man sighed with resignation. "We only packed this jerky. That's half our problem."

"I have potatoes in my bag." I answered immediately. "Along with spices and other cooking supplies." I gestured with my head to the bag that had been stored under guard near the fossil sorting station. "If you bring me my stuff, I can cook the soup!"