Pokemon: Next Generation

Chapter 6: HQ

Chapter 6: HQ 

"What the heck?" I said quietly. "Why bother make a building invisible if you just need an office?" 

We didn't move far away from the door, but saw a couple of cubicles with the norm- chairs, computers, dry erase board with complicated equations on them... yeah, normal. 

"They must sell Pidgey clocks or something," I said lightly. 

"Why would you say that?" Anthony asked. 

"They're obviously coo-coo." 

Anthony groaned at my cheesiness while Daniel held out his hand for a high five. "Nice one!" 

"You two have no real sense of humor, do you?" Amanda asked tiredly. 

Before I could reply, Anthony called for us. 

"Look." Anthony pointed to a mural on the wall. In the center was a giant black "R" outline in black. Two huge yellow eyes were painted on either side of it. The slanted, sinister look made me think that they belonged to some sort of feline Pokemon. 

"Creepy," Daniel commented, sounding extremely casual considering our situation. "I think I'm going to check out the break room or something. Maybe there's food lying around-" 

"Daniel, we're in a Team Rocket headquarters and you're thinking about food?" Anthony raised an eyebrow. 

"Well, snooping around IS hard to do on an empty stomach." 

"We just ate an hour ago," Amanda reminded him. 

"I'm kidding! Arceus, give me a break." Daniel rolled his eyes. 

"So, when are we supposed to head downstairs for the big revealing?" A masculine voice echoed from down the hall. 

We all froze, then dived into the nearest cubicle. I sought refuge under the desk while Daniel attempted to squeeze himself next to me through the small hole for people's feet. I glared at him while he frowned as if to say "As if I want my face right against your disapproving scowl." He adjusted so his mouth was super close to my neck and I tried to ignore his warm breath. For some reason I found myself holding onto the table leg as if it'd prevent me from getting caught. 

"I don't know," a different guy said, sounding very close to us. "I think midnight? They're not testing it till tomorrow as far as I know." 

"That's not what I heard, Carter. They don't want to attract attention from the cities since we're sucking their power without them knowing, so if they do it at night when no one's really using electricity it's not such a big deal. Less chance of blowing their power that way and drawing suspicion," the first man said. 

"They don't tell us anything. We might as well head downstairs now." Carter sighed. It seemed like they'd stopped moving right outside the cubicle. I looked at the others- Anthony was squished in between two filing cabinets and Amanda was behind a large potted plant. Thankfully we were all pretty well hidden. That is, if someone did a super-fast sweep of the room while squinting or had horrible near sightedness. If not, we were probably doomed. 

"I guess I'll bring down my camera to take pictures. Will there be a party afterward to celebrate, Jason? Remember that one time we stole all that booze from the pub in Olivine and went back to HQ with those girls?" I heard Carter's feet move towards us and into the cubicle. His shadow lingered under the desk. 

I grabbed Daniel's hand and squeezed to stop myself from screaming. He looked at me, surprised. Or at least that's what it felt like he tried to do since his face was still right against my neck. I heard Daniel sniff. My hair must have tickled his nose.