Post by WARendfeld on Oct 10, 2012 13:32:10 GMT -6
Rockets Away
Nestled in the easternmost portion of the Johto region, isolated thanks to mountainous terrain and its island location, was the Johto Safari Zone. The few trainers willing to brave the terrain to visit found themselves with the chance to catch a number of Pokémon unseen in Johto or Kanto, populations carefully monitored by the local warden and his assistants.
“You can’t do this!”
“SHADDUP!”
The warden, however, found himself cursing the Safari Zone’s isolation as he was punched hard in the face by a grunt from Team Rocket, a second one standing by and watching with a pleased smirk. He collapsed to the ground, wishing that he had something as useful as a handgun at the ready, before he was kicked in the back by the grunt that had struck him earlier.
“Of course we can do this.” The smirking grunt laughed as his partner picked the warden up by his neck and held him against the wall. “We’re Team Rocket. In case you hadn’t heard, we own Kanto, we own Johto, and someday, we’re gonna own the world. But we need us some Pokémon to do it, and common little things, like Geodude and Zubat? They just ain’t gonna cut it.”
“So here we are, gettin’ us some fancy new Pokémon.” The more physical of the two grunts sneered as he pushed the warden against the wall. “So you let us in, hmm?”
The warden’s eyes were fixed on the smirking grunt, the thought of surrender extremely tempting to him. But could they do anything worse to him? “Find it yourselves.”
The smirking grunt shrugged. “Okay.” A tilt of his head, and the warden was tossed aside. “We’ll do just that.”
-
“Wait, so you’ve really been to Orre?” Jake looked at Alex with shock as he questioned her further, “Why go there? I mean, they don’t have any real Gyms and the whole place is a dust bowl.”
“It’s a long and complicated story. I didn’t go there for battle experience or anything like that. Stuff had happened to me, and I just wanted to get away from Hoenn and the normal course for a while. Going there helped me sort things out, and it also reminded me of a few things.”
“Like how you should remember to pack sunscreen if you end up in a region that’s mostly desert?”
“Among other things. Still, it’s not a bad place. If you ever want a cheap place to visit for Pokémon training, Orre’s the place to go. Plus the west coast is gorgeous.” A chime sounded from the main desk, and the two rose from their chairs and approached. “Still, if you go, make sure you’ve got a ride. No routes means you’ve got a lot of territory to cover.”
“So how’d you do it?”
A smile. “It’s how I met my boyfriend.” They reached the desk as Nurse Joy emerged with their Pokémon, and Alex retrieved Nadyra’s Poké Ball. “Thank you Nurse Joy.”
“It’s no trouble. I’m just surprised that you weren’t on your way to the Safari Zone already.”
Alex looked at the Nurse with surprise. “There were work crews blocking the way. Something about checking the bridges and doing maintenance.”
Joy looked at her with confusion. “If they were going to be doing maintenance about the bridges, I’d have been the first one informed.” She moved over to her telephone and picked up the receiver. “I’ll check with the JDT just to be sure.”
As Joy made her phone call, Jake clicked his Feraligatr’s Poké Ball back onto his belt. “So what do you think happened? This some sort of nefarious plot?”
Alex shook her head. “Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence, at least not without checking further. Odds are better that some secretary or bureaucrat simply neglected to let anyone in town know about the bridge work.”
Joy put down the phone and reported, “The JDT doesn’t have any scheduled maintenance work going on in the immediate area.”
Alex nodded and decided, “Now I think we’re dealing with a nefarious plot.” She turned to the nurse and asked, “You wouldn’t happen to have some alternative means for reaching the Safari Zone, would you?”
“We have a teleport pad for emergencies.”
“That should do it.” Alex stepped behind the counter and, before the nurse could protest, countered, “We don’t have a lot of time here, and by the time Officer Jenny can get mobilized, whatever’s going on will probably be done and over with. If nothing else, someone going there now can figure out what’s going on.”
Joy looked far from happy with Alex’s argument, but relented. “Alright, I’ll show you where the pad is.”
“You mean you’ll show us where it is.” Jake joined Alex behind the counter and grinned. “One trainer’s good, but two’s better, right?”
Alex grinned right back. “One would hope.”
-
“Just think, Brawn, we’ve got the whole place to ourselves. No one standing in our way, and our pick of all the fancy Pokémon you can’t find anywhere else in Johto or Kanto. Gibles and Bagons and Beldums and Giovanni knows what else.” The smirking grunt turned to his partner, the keys to the Safari Zone’s gate twirling idly around one finger. “Ready to get started?”
“All set, Vaughn.” Brawn chuckled, looking forward to the easy pickings that were soon to be upon them. “The bosses are gonna love us for this.”
The two stepped out of the main offices for the Safari Zone and entered the facility itself, leaving the battered body of the warden behind. As they went on their way, they failed to notice the subtle zap of a teleport, a door opening and Alex peering out. She opened the door the rest of the way and motioned for Jake to follow as she moved to the warden, kneeling down beside him and looking over his injuries. She gently cradled his head in her arms, relieved that he was still breathing despite his beating. “Hey, you still with us?”
The warden groaned, trying his best to keep conscious. “Team…Rocket…thugs…”
“Easy there sir, you’ll be okay.” Alex looked up to Jake and asked, “Got a phone?”
“I’ve got a PokéGear.” The boy produced the instrument and asked, “We’re calling in the cops?”
“And the paramedics.” As Jake called back to the Pokémon Center, Alex helped the warden into a sitting position against a wall and took quick note of his injuries. He was bruised and bloodied, but as far as she could tell, his life wasn’t threatened. “I’ll feel better when you get to a doctor, but you should be fine for now.”
“The Pokémon…they’re…”
“Sir, please, relax. We’ll handle them, I promise.” Alex got back to her feet and waited as Jake finished his call. Once she had his attention, she noted, “Okay, we’ve got to be smart about this.”
“What’s there to be smart about? It’s Team Rocket; give me ten seconds, and I’ll send ‘em blasting off.” Jake charged out, Alex quickly following with a less than impressed expression on her face, and quickly located the two Rockets. “Hey jerks! Stop right there!”
The Rocket duo turned, Vaughn still smirking as he looked upon the pair. “Well, how’d you two get here?” He turned to his partner and noted, “Brawn, how do you feel about roughing up this pair of twerps?”
“Sounds like fun, Vaughn.” An eager grin on his face, Brawn noted, “I’m really lookin’ forward to roughin’ up the twerpette, if you get my meanin’.”
“I wouldn’t bother. There’s no way a woman could be that tall and have a figure like that.”
Jake looked at the pair with shock before turning to Alex and asking, “Are they saying what I think they’re saying?”
“That I’m a guy in drag? Yeah. That’s actually a new one for me. Very insulting, but still new.” She turned her attention back to the two Rockets and threatened, “Try to find out for yourselves and you’ll start singing soprano.”
Vaughn whistled in mock appreciation as he readied a Poké Ball. “I guess we’ve got ourselves a battle. Come on, Brawn, let’s take these twerps down a peg.”
“With pleasure! Take ‘em, Rhydon!”
“Go, Arbok!”
Alex grimaced, less than pleased about having to settle this the hard way, but opted to comply. “If that’s the way we’re playing this, fine! Grospoliner, assume blade form!”
“Let’s go, Sunflora!”
Beside Grospoliner appeared the familiar form of a gangly, almost cartoonish sunflower with a smiling face. While showing little reaction to the Metang, the two Rockets looked less than impressed with the Sun Pokémon beside it. “Hey Vaughn, let’s leave the pretty little flower for last, huh?”
“Agreed. Arbok, Dig!”
“Rhydon, Drill Run!”
“Sunflora, Sunny Day!”
“Grospoliner, Psychic against Arbok!”
As Sunflora spread her leafy limbs wide and called out for the skies to brighten, Grospoliner began his attack, psionic energies bombarding the large cobra and knocking him about before he dug underground. By the narrowest of margins, however, the Metang avoided being hit by the charging Rhydon, his drill-like horn spinning wildly.
As the skies overhead brightened, the two Rockets looked slightly less confident in their chances, though no more worried than before, as Brawn called, “Another Drill Run, Rhydon!”
“Grospoliner, Agility!”
“Sunflora, Solar Beam against Rhydon!”
With surprising speed, Sunflora gathered sunlight and fired off her attack, bombarding Rhydon as he began his charge towards her partner and sending him flying backwards and discouraging him from attacking. As the Metang weaved out of the way of the Arbok’s attack, Alex reasoned, “Chlorophyll?”
“Yeah. Beats Solar Power by a mile.”
His earlier confidence having faded, Brawn found himself growling. “Rhydon, forget the…!”
“Brawn, please. We have this.” Vaughn retained his confidence, a smirk still firm on his face. “Arbok, Sludge Bomb against Sunflora!”
Brawn cooled down and grinned, then turned his attention back to the battle. “Rhydon, another Drill Run!”
“Grospoliner, Bullet Punch against Arbok!”
“Another Solar Beam, Sunflora!”
Grospoliner’s attack came first, finally taking Arbok out of the fight as Sunflora did the same with Rhydon, finishing the battle.
What little calm he had dissolved as Brawn growled, he and his partner swiftly recalling their Pokémon. “You little twerp! You’re gonna regret…!”
“Brawn, please.” Still smirking, Vaughn turned to the trainers and noted, “An impressive showing, but I’m afraid it’s all for naught. After all, we’re Team Rocket.” The backpacks the two wore burst off to reveal jetpacks and the two shot out into the sky just as Officer Jenny and assorted other cops arrived on scene. “Until next time, adieu!”
Alex watched them go and, despite her desire to use stronger language, opted to limit herself to something more G-rated. “Smug jerks.” How things would turn out next time would be extremely different.
Nestled in the easternmost portion of the Johto region, isolated thanks to mountainous terrain and its island location, was the Johto Safari Zone. The few trainers willing to brave the terrain to visit found themselves with the chance to catch a number of Pokémon unseen in Johto or Kanto, populations carefully monitored by the local warden and his assistants.
“You can’t do this!”
“SHADDUP!”
The warden, however, found himself cursing the Safari Zone’s isolation as he was punched hard in the face by a grunt from Team Rocket, a second one standing by and watching with a pleased smirk. He collapsed to the ground, wishing that he had something as useful as a handgun at the ready, before he was kicked in the back by the grunt that had struck him earlier.
“Of course we can do this.” The smirking grunt laughed as his partner picked the warden up by his neck and held him against the wall. “We’re Team Rocket. In case you hadn’t heard, we own Kanto, we own Johto, and someday, we’re gonna own the world. But we need us some Pokémon to do it, and common little things, like Geodude and Zubat? They just ain’t gonna cut it.”
“So here we are, gettin’ us some fancy new Pokémon.” The more physical of the two grunts sneered as he pushed the warden against the wall. “So you let us in, hmm?”
The warden’s eyes were fixed on the smirking grunt, the thought of surrender extremely tempting to him. But could they do anything worse to him? “Find it yourselves.”
The smirking grunt shrugged. “Okay.” A tilt of his head, and the warden was tossed aside. “We’ll do just that.”
-
“Wait, so you’ve really been to Orre?” Jake looked at Alex with shock as he questioned her further, “Why go there? I mean, they don’t have any real Gyms and the whole place is a dust bowl.”
“It’s a long and complicated story. I didn’t go there for battle experience or anything like that. Stuff had happened to me, and I just wanted to get away from Hoenn and the normal course for a while. Going there helped me sort things out, and it also reminded me of a few things.”
“Like how you should remember to pack sunscreen if you end up in a region that’s mostly desert?”
“Among other things. Still, it’s not a bad place. If you ever want a cheap place to visit for Pokémon training, Orre’s the place to go. Plus the west coast is gorgeous.” A chime sounded from the main desk, and the two rose from their chairs and approached. “Still, if you go, make sure you’ve got a ride. No routes means you’ve got a lot of territory to cover.”
“So how’d you do it?”
A smile. “It’s how I met my boyfriend.” They reached the desk as Nurse Joy emerged with their Pokémon, and Alex retrieved Nadyra’s Poké Ball. “Thank you Nurse Joy.”
“It’s no trouble. I’m just surprised that you weren’t on your way to the Safari Zone already.”
Alex looked at the Nurse with surprise. “There were work crews blocking the way. Something about checking the bridges and doing maintenance.”
Joy looked at her with confusion. “If they were going to be doing maintenance about the bridges, I’d have been the first one informed.” She moved over to her telephone and picked up the receiver. “I’ll check with the JDT just to be sure.”
As Joy made her phone call, Jake clicked his Feraligatr’s Poké Ball back onto his belt. “So what do you think happened? This some sort of nefarious plot?”
Alex shook her head. “Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence, at least not without checking further. Odds are better that some secretary or bureaucrat simply neglected to let anyone in town know about the bridge work.”
Joy put down the phone and reported, “The JDT doesn’t have any scheduled maintenance work going on in the immediate area.”
Alex nodded and decided, “Now I think we’re dealing with a nefarious plot.” She turned to the nurse and asked, “You wouldn’t happen to have some alternative means for reaching the Safari Zone, would you?”
“We have a teleport pad for emergencies.”
“That should do it.” Alex stepped behind the counter and, before the nurse could protest, countered, “We don’t have a lot of time here, and by the time Officer Jenny can get mobilized, whatever’s going on will probably be done and over with. If nothing else, someone going there now can figure out what’s going on.”
Joy looked far from happy with Alex’s argument, but relented. “Alright, I’ll show you where the pad is.”
“You mean you’ll show us where it is.” Jake joined Alex behind the counter and grinned. “One trainer’s good, but two’s better, right?”
Alex grinned right back. “One would hope.”
-
“Just think, Brawn, we’ve got the whole place to ourselves. No one standing in our way, and our pick of all the fancy Pokémon you can’t find anywhere else in Johto or Kanto. Gibles and Bagons and Beldums and Giovanni knows what else.” The smirking grunt turned to his partner, the keys to the Safari Zone’s gate twirling idly around one finger. “Ready to get started?”
“All set, Vaughn.” Brawn chuckled, looking forward to the easy pickings that were soon to be upon them. “The bosses are gonna love us for this.”
The two stepped out of the main offices for the Safari Zone and entered the facility itself, leaving the battered body of the warden behind. As they went on their way, they failed to notice the subtle zap of a teleport, a door opening and Alex peering out. She opened the door the rest of the way and motioned for Jake to follow as she moved to the warden, kneeling down beside him and looking over his injuries. She gently cradled his head in her arms, relieved that he was still breathing despite his beating. “Hey, you still with us?”
The warden groaned, trying his best to keep conscious. “Team…Rocket…thugs…”
“Easy there sir, you’ll be okay.” Alex looked up to Jake and asked, “Got a phone?”
“I’ve got a PokéGear.” The boy produced the instrument and asked, “We’re calling in the cops?”
“And the paramedics.” As Jake called back to the Pokémon Center, Alex helped the warden into a sitting position against a wall and took quick note of his injuries. He was bruised and bloodied, but as far as she could tell, his life wasn’t threatened. “I’ll feel better when you get to a doctor, but you should be fine for now.”
“The Pokémon…they’re…”
“Sir, please, relax. We’ll handle them, I promise.” Alex got back to her feet and waited as Jake finished his call. Once she had his attention, she noted, “Okay, we’ve got to be smart about this.”
“What’s there to be smart about? It’s Team Rocket; give me ten seconds, and I’ll send ‘em blasting off.” Jake charged out, Alex quickly following with a less than impressed expression on her face, and quickly located the two Rockets. “Hey jerks! Stop right there!”
The Rocket duo turned, Vaughn still smirking as he looked upon the pair. “Well, how’d you two get here?” He turned to his partner and noted, “Brawn, how do you feel about roughing up this pair of twerps?”
“Sounds like fun, Vaughn.” An eager grin on his face, Brawn noted, “I’m really lookin’ forward to roughin’ up the twerpette, if you get my meanin’.”
“I wouldn’t bother. There’s no way a woman could be that tall and have a figure like that.”
Jake looked at the pair with shock before turning to Alex and asking, “Are they saying what I think they’re saying?”
“That I’m a guy in drag? Yeah. That’s actually a new one for me. Very insulting, but still new.” She turned her attention back to the two Rockets and threatened, “Try to find out for yourselves and you’ll start singing soprano.”
Vaughn whistled in mock appreciation as he readied a Poké Ball. “I guess we’ve got ourselves a battle. Come on, Brawn, let’s take these twerps down a peg.”
“With pleasure! Take ‘em, Rhydon!”
“Go, Arbok!”
Alex grimaced, less than pleased about having to settle this the hard way, but opted to comply. “If that’s the way we’re playing this, fine! Grospoliner, assume blade form!”
“Let’s go, Sunflora!”
Beside Grospoliner appeared the familiar form of a gangly, almost cartoonish sunflower with a smiling face. While showing little reaction to the Metang, the two Rockets looked less than impressed with the Sun Pokémon beside it. “Hey Vaughn, let’s leave the pretty little flower for last, huh?”
“Agreed. Arbok, Dig!”
“Rhydon, Drill Run!”
“Sunflora, Sunny Day!”
“Grospoliner, Psychic against Arbok!”
As Sunflora spread her leafy limbs wide and called out for the skies to brighten, Grospoliner began his attack, psionic energies bombarding the large cobra and knocking him about before he dug underground. By the narrowest of margins, however, the Metang avoided being hit by the charging Rhydon, his drill-like horn spinning wildly.
As the skies overhead brightened, the two Rockets looked slightly less confident in their chances, though no more worried than before, as Brawn called, “Another Drill Run, Rhydon!”
“Grospoliner, Agility!”
“Sunflora, Solar Beam against Rhydon!”
With surprising speed, Sunflora gathered sunlight and fired off her attack, bombarding Rhydon as he began his charge towards her partner and sending him flying backwards and discouraging him from attacking. As the Metang weaved out of the way of the Arbok’s attack, Alex reasoned, “Chlorophyll?”
“Yeah. Beats Solar Power by a mile.”
His earlier confidence having faded, Brawn found himself growling. “Rhydon, forget the…!”
“Brawn, please. We have this.” Vaughn retained his confidence, a smirk still firm on his face. “Arbok, Sludge Bomb against Sunflora!”
Brawn cooled down and grinned, then turned his attention back to the battle. “Rhydon, another Drill Run!”
“Grospoliner, Bullet Punch against Arbok!”
“Another Solar Beam, Sunflora!”
Grospoliner’s attack came first, finally taking Arbok out of the fight as Sunflora did the same with Rhydon, finishing the battle.
What little calm he had dissolved as Brawn growled, he and his partner swiftly recalling their Pokémon. “You little twerp! You’re gonna regret…!”
“Brawn, please.” Still smirking, Vaughn turned to the trainers and noted, “An impressive showing, but I’m afraid it’s all for naught. After all, we’re Team Rocket.” The backpacks the two wore burst off to reveal jetpacks and the two shot out into the sky just as Officer Jenny and assorted other cops arrived on scene. “Until next time, adieu!”
Alex watched them go and, despite her desire to use stronger language, opted to limit herself to something more G-rated. “Smug jerks.” How things would turn out next time would be extremely different.