(Picture thanks to EmBreon!)
With an agitated hiss, the ekans evolution lunged at me open-mouthed and struck my leg with a bite attack. “AHH!” I yelped alarmingly. My head flung around to meet the distracted poison type’s colourless eyes. They held just about no emotion; all of it had probably been driven from them at a young age or shortly after being caught and tamed by the sinister Team Rocket organisation. However, since I had mine burning alive inside me, I could react. “Gahh! Get off!” I yelled in her near invisible ears, preparing a weak, quick and hot flamethrower.
Stinging the arbok’s face, a screech issued my release. I shook off, licking my leg. Since the arbok’s fangs, which only jutted from the front of her mouth, missed my leg, no blood had been drawn. It pleased me to see the arbok fleeing, but it saddened me also to see a great pokémon like that slither away in fright, only to come across another form of prey and attempt to attack it. However, it was definitely the wrong sort of ‘prey’ to be picking on.
With an icy cold breeze I could feel from where I was standing, a familiar form vomited out what looked to be an ice beam. Shards of sharp ice engulfed with frozen water were shooting from a blue canine pokémon’s form, smashing into the cobra pokémon’s sleek body. The poison type came across like a machine: a soulless robot following orders to attack innocent creatures and continue moving on to different pokémon in order to satisfy its master, probably only to then be rewarded with another tiring battle and maybe scraps afterward—if it was one of the lucky ones.
‘Holy miltank...’ My thought came to be loud and clear as I relaxed my tensed muscles and unblinkingly kept my big black eyes steady on the poor slave only a few metres before me.
‘Probably all of Team Rocket’s pokémon are treated like this...’ It was almost bewildering to visualise a scenario so punishingly terrible. ‘No love, no treats...maybe the occasional member would treat their pokémon with love, though. The young, inexperienced ones who have yet to learn how to...abandon their feelings for their precious companions...’ I, for one, could never have imagined my trainer treating me as I imagined these poor souls were being treated. My master was kind, caring; she was lovely to communicate – as best we could – with and be around. It wasn’t until now when I realised what else could be happening in this world. Surely, worse things than this would be happening to unsuspecting po—
“Having trouble keeping up?” a mocking voice taunted, biting me into the present. “Hmph, well, I wouldn’t expect you to be up to my standards.”
I focused my vision on a now-clear view of a glaceon. Her smug smirk showed just how condescending she was and meant to be towards me. I blinked several times, gathering what she had said, before coming up with a reply. “Get away from me,” I spat, returning her look but without the self-satisfying smile. Mine was mere scorn.
“Suit yourself,” she answered poshly, flicking her long, dangling blue locks. “You clearly think you can handle Team Rocket on your own.”
“I’ve gotten this far!” I snapped back, my ears flat against my head while baring my teeth threateningly. “You did
nothing to help these pokémon! What did I do?
Just look around, *****. Maybe using your eyes instead o’ that dirty mouth o’ yours would be a nice change!” And with that, I flung my fluffy tail in the air, showing my (not pretty) rear to her face. I heard her scoff with disgust—presumably at my language, correctness and my, uh...heinie.
I blew through my nose, frustrated, but glad to have redeemed myself even slightly. But before I could get far, a rather flickering Azure materialised right in front of my nose. Shrieking after having not expected it, I almost tripped over my tail and fell onto my backside. “Wh-what the?!” As an echoing voice found its way to my ears, I couldn’t help but to stare around with confused expressions.
“Nobody—
nobody insults me!” she roared hostilely. With the anger building up around me, I felt almost uneasy! Azure had gone crazy, had she not?!
My theory was proven as the pissed off glaceon sent flurries of pointed yellow stars from her mouth. Eight separate bunches were dealt in my direction, and I was doomed not to know which group were the legit, real ones that would injure me. I closed my eyes, not having time to react, and the attacks first went through me, but it was clear that one bunch did strike, making me cringe for the time I was being hit.
‘I’ve got to eliminate these fake copies! She can’t renew her other copies once she’s drawn them back, so even one at a time would suffice for the time being!’ With confidence for my throat, I provoked my fire-storing sacs to expel another attack. So, drawing more power from my trusty body, I snapped my mouth open, a golden orb of a newborn flamethrower growing behind the visibility of my tongue. Then with the anger I felt for the attacking pokémon, I unleashed my fire on the Azure in front of me, the two next to it and the next two who were to my right. They all disintegrated the instant they were licked by the flames—just like a normal ice type should have when hit by a fire attack.
The remaining three simultaneously lunged at me, and I had to admit that I didn’t know which one to dodge. Their tails were shining with a blue light as they bounded towards me with...smiles? The Azures had smiles on their faces. Not friendly smiles, though. They were greasy smiles of superiority and an assumption that they would win. It made me want to spit. However, focusing back on the attack, I noticed the apparent flow of water sloshing within the blue glow and the bubbles rolling off and becoming airborne. The figures closed in on me, and I suddenly wished I knew double team! But then it struck me: speed.
In the last possible heartbeat, I bolted away and into a white, brown and green pokémon with another quick attack. I was glad to have avoided an aqua tail, but slamming straight into another ice type’s back and tumbling over with him wasn’t the plan I had in mind.
The pokémon I knew was on Team Rocket’s side turned to me quickly once we stood up, but I was ready. A flamethrower blazed in his face, knocking him out instantly due to the type advantage. I looked at his motionless body without pity, but thinking myself lucky to have attacked a pokémon not on my side. His almost branch-like arms – most of them being white – were deep green and pointed with four fingers. He didn’t appear to have a mouth or nose, but the two eyes resting just below a white three-pointed head feature upon his head were large enough to recognise. Since his body was reasonably egg-shaped, there was no way I would have expected him to be a speedy runner. And, undoubtedly, he wasn’t.
Disregarding what I had just done and remembering about the fight I was in, I realised something. I shouldn’t be battling with a supposed ally. Azure the glaceon was ‘apparently’ on my side, and we were required to work together as a team. But instead we were wasting time and energy in a pointless fight to prove who was better. And anyway—what exactly was there to prove? It was clear that I was better, stronger and more decent-natured, but I guess she just couldn’t admit to it.
‘Reminds me of me...stubborn...’ I thought to myself, nearly unaware of the ice building up before being blasted my way.
‘Also reminds me of Izante...’ And it was only then when I snapped myself out of it. “...IZANTE! She’ll be out of her cage by now!” And with a surprisingly fast jolt of energy to help me avoid Azure’s attack, I sped past the fainted snover, over a few other pokémon that I, for fun, sprayed fire onto as I passed, and closed my eyes as I turned to my nose. ‘Help me!’ My ears perked up and I positioned myself to be completely still.
Pokémon of all sorts, shapes, sizes and ages were fighting; they battled it out as I relied on my senses to search for me. One after the other, pokémon of both the cages and of Team Rocket were being hauled over the side of the ship, thrown onto the floor or outnumbered in unfair groups. Sometimes it was for the better, of course, because it forced the Team Rocket pokémon into changing alliances and murdering their bosses. However, other times it was to taunt not so strong pokémon of the crates, and snicker at them before torturing them and disposing of their bodies over the edge—else making a snack of them once they were defenceless. However, the carnivores were not only on Team Rocket’s side, and occasionally I would see one tearing up a Team Rocket rattata or spearow. Personally I felt it was the wrong time and place to be doing such a thing, but on the contrary, they would not have eaten in a collection of days.
‘Dusty! Izante!’ I repeated, the recurring thought flashing in my head. I took off once more, not knowing where I was going, and kept my eyes peeled this time in case I happened to spot her.
‘You twit! Why didn’t you think of this earlier?!’
“D-DUSTY!” a voice yelped, literally making me jump to the left with surprise. Instantly making my erected and I aimed for the ground. Once I landed, I anxiously darted my eyes from pokémon to pokémon until they set themselves onto a surrounded-by-pokémon...pokémon! I recognised him, though...those bushes on his back and those stumpy legs...
I flinched as a something heavy stepped on top of my paw, dirtying it all the more, and I flicked my head to its direction. In front of me was a round, mostly green-coloured pokémon with two bushes on its back. I could see three large legs rounded off with thick paws from this angle, but there were obviously four. I ascended to his face, noting that half his head was cut off by the large yellow armour he carried on his back. His mouth was hooked, and his cheeks came to points and were yellow, matching the bottom jaw. As fancy and nature-loving as he was, he had no excuse for standing on my now-thumping toes!
“That’s right!” I barked—I’d have clicked my fingers like the humans do if I had them. Doing it with toes seemed ridiculous and un-pokémon-like.
“Dusty, help!” he called to me again, and that’s when I realised that the green and yellow pokémon was in a damsel-in-distress situation...although he was a dude-in-distress. I kept my eyes in his direction, seeing the stuck pokémon encircled with two arbok, a hitmonchan, a meowth, two golbat and a gligar. It was hard to tell what they looked like properly in the dark, but once they all turned around, I managed a better squiz at them. The hitmonchan was mostly a bleached brown with high, pad-like shoulders. It had a red glove as each hand, and a faded purple grey dress-like body frilled at the bottom and marked in the middle with a black belt. I chuckled mockingly, remembering how Master used to wear ‘dresses’ similar to that. I had never seen a male with one on.
The golbat was much like a zubat—blue and with a giant mouth which took up most of its body’s space. It had small, triangle ears on its head and wide-spanning wings which were purple on the inside skin. Its two thin legs which ended in funny looking worm-like feet dangled from the body, and the small, angry eyes held no colour.
The gligar was hooked to the floor, the blue flaps that sat between two scary looking lavender pincers folded nearly. Two ears erected from the flying and ground type’s head, which were thin and almost like straight horns. What was most intimidating about the pokémon was the circular orb with a single point between his legs of a similar build. The pokémon’s teeth were bared as he crept closer to the grotle, and a horizontally large tongue hovered out as if hesitating to protrude entirely.
The hitmonchan, golbat and meowth approached me while the others closed in on my associate, and I was left to make a decision. I pondered what to do for mere seconds before fixing my mind on a single, set-in-concrete situation.
‘...Izante’s going to have to wait, Dust.’
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That felt long. You guys? x3
~Xanthe.
EDIT: LOL, 2009th post!