Looking over her head, the Serperior asked her son, "And what have you been up to today?"

The Snivy looked back at the Serperior and quickly said, "Nothing, mother." Saying that, he picked up his fork and continued eating his food.

Not ready to give up, the Serperior asked again, "What did you do this time?"

"I swear, I didn't do anything! At least, not today." The Snivy looked uninterested in this conversation, as he had it with his mother quite a bit of times already. He observed his mom swallow her food whole without the use of a knife or fork; two items that Snivy himself was very accustomed to using. When Snivy evolves into a Servine, the Servine's arms actually grow a little shorter, but when the Servine evolves into a Serperior, the Pokemon then loses its legs entirely, and its arms grow even shorter. Being forced to adapt to new circumstances definitely wasn't this particular Snivy's strong point, and everybody who knows him knows that as well.

Thinking this speech over while fondling with his food, the Snivy looked rather focused on getting back to his room, an elegant, but simple room made out of leaves, with enough expert craftsmanship to allow a window in the structure without causing the roof to simply fall down. The Snivy would usually spend his free time in there, reading up on news then writing angry letters to the news editors that were so rather well-written, they just had to appear on everywhere. But the newspaper itself, of course. Despite his overwhelming intellect, he does have his flaw: thinking that he is better than everybody else. This often leads to insulting other Pokemon, which then leads to trouble. And a lot of it. This is why his mom tried to give him counseling, but one day after a counseling session, the counselor simply took the money and cried away from the house.

"It's quite a shame you don't have any friends, Vinny," the Serperior said to her son.

Tap.

The Servine sitting to her right chuckled to herself and said, "Are you gonna take that, brother?"

Vinny responded, "Well, I would, but I since both of you know where I live-"

"Because we live in the same house," the Serperior interrupted.

"-Since both of you know where I live, I can't exactly get away with pissing you two off."

The Servine said, "You piss me off all the time."

"Exactly," Vinny said, smug look and all.

Tap.

The Servine, picking something up on her ears, asked her family, "Hey, is anybody else hearing a tapping noise?"

CRASH

A rock flew out of the window and knocked over Vinny's soup bowl, which he really didn't feel like eating today anyways. The Serperior and Servine rushed over to the window, while Vinny got off his chair and headed for the exit to this house. The Serperior expected that the culprit was another one of Vinny's verbal punching bags, but what she saw outside was a friendly looking Mudkip and a visibly distressed Eevee.

The Mudkip said, "Hello there Mrs. Vinny's Mom! Is Vinny home today?"

Vinny's mom tilted her head, then put it back up. She cleared her throat and said, "No, I am afraid Vinny is not inside the house right now." Not wanting to risk more property damage, she needed to make sure the hooligans remained outside searching for Vinny.

The Servine said to her mom, "Hey, about that part where Vinny had no friends."

"One of them had to be a normal type."

The Eevee recomposed herself and said to Mudkip, "What are you doing? You want to upset his parents, who already hates the outside world?"

"Oh, and what would you suggest we do, Miss Eevee?"

"We, oh I don't know-"

"lol Audino."

The Eevee half-closed her eyes in annoyance and continued on. "Ahem. We could have used the front door? Knocked on it a little?"

The Mudkip slammed its face on the ground. He gazed back up at the clear blue skies above him then said to the Eevee, "Oh. I guess you're right about that. Well, Vinny's not here anyways, so..."

The two looked down then walked around the house to the opposite side. Walking past the front door, the Eevee said, "Damn. I thought he never got outside because living in a house made out of grass and leaves is supposed to give you plenty of fresh air, right?"

Vinny said, "What's this about me not going outside ever?" The two were startled and looked back at Vinny, arms crossed with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Smugleaf? I thought you were gone." the Mudkip said.

Vinny's left eye twitched a bit at the mention of his nickname, then he held out his palm and corrected the Mudkip. He said, "No no no no no. My mom said that I wasn't INSIDE the house, which would be technically correct. I left before she said it, so yeah."

The Eevee asked him, "Do you do that a lot? Go away before your mom says anything about your state? Wait a second, if you mean what you say, you weren't even in the house to hear what she said!"

Vinny answered, "To be honest, it usually doesn't happen because usually its angry news reporters and people that I recall insulting that visit my house, not random friends. When THAT happens, my mom wants to pretend I don't even exist, and I eventually got the memo and hid in a bush somewhere after being berated by angry Magnemites once."

The Mudkip asked him, "You don't make very many friends, do you?"

Vinny scoffed at this question. He answered, "What use would I have for friends that slow me down? Most Pokemon around my age are dimwitted or too weak for my taste."

Again, the Mudkip inquired, "What does that mean about us?"

Crossing his arms and smirking, he said, "You could be of some use to me. But tell me, why are you two here? I didn't invite you over for tea and games."

The Eevee said, "Well, I was thinking about your idea yesterday."

Vinny raised his eyebrow at this. He asked, "What idea?"

"About forming a justice team," she continued.

It took Vinny a few seconds to process this information. He quickly covered his mouth with his hands and laughed out loud. After a few seconds, he asked the Eevee, "And you're serious about this?"

She nodded. She said, "We just need a cool team name. That is, if you're in, of course."

Vinny looked at the Mudkip and addressed him, "I'll assume that you're in this too, Miss Undine?"

Undine spoke back angrily, "That's SIR Undine to you, Grasshole! And yes, I do think that this is a pretty neat idea."

Vinny said, "I'll call you whatever I want to call you if you keep calling me Smugleaf. And expect the terms to get more verbal if you call me something like 'Grasshole'".

Turning back to the Eevee, he said, "You are aware that my idea was a joke, right?"

She beamed and said, "Well, sometimes a good joke can give a good idea to the right mind!"

Noticing how serious she was about this, Vinny gave in and said, "Alright, fine. I'll join your 'justice team'. But if this doesn't work out, which I'm sure it won't, I have all rights to say, 'I told you so!' So about that name."

The Eevee said jokingly, "How about team Eon?"

Undine turned to her and said, "Oh, naming the team after yourself, huh?"

She replied, "Better than your name. Team Water, bah!"

Vinny raised his eyebrow at the whole Team Water thing. He said, "Team Water? Not only is that unoriginal, but you're also the only water Pokemon in this entire kingdom."

"Oh really?" Undine defended. "I'd like to see what kind of team name you've got!"

Vinny shrugged. He said, "+1. Or Swagger. I don't know. All the names that are currently coming to mind sound rather... cliche and done already."

Eon asked, "Oh, and what would those names be?"

"Rocket, Magma, Aqua, Plasma. Heck, even Galactica sounds like it was used already."

Undine said, "Galactica huh. You know, that actually sounds pretty cool."

Vinny responded, "That's the problem. If it sounds cool, it's most likely used by some other rescue or exploration team somewhere in the world."

Eon frowned. "But we aren't forming a rescue team or an exploration team."

Vinny said, "Well, it IS a justice team. By the name alone, it sounds like we go around and apprehend criminal scum, but that's something an exploration team already does."

Undine slumped down on the ground. He said, "Damn. If a justice team isn't gonna work, then what will?"

Eon said with a frown, "I think the real problem here is getting started. Anybody can go and form a rescue or exploration team with ease because you get free supplies, but where are we going to get those supplies if we aren't forming one of those?" Eon slumped down and joined Undine in looking depressed. "Man, I didn't really think this through."

A plan formulated within Vinny's head. He snapped his fingers when he finished thinking about it. He told his two friends, "We could always steal the equipment!"

Undine looked up and said, "Steal?"

Vinny corrected himself by saying, "I mean borrow."

Eon said, "You can't be serious."

He retorted with a smirk, "Oh, but I am. Meet me at the plaza at 2300 hours."

Eon stared into those red eyes and barely whispered, "He's being serious." Speaking louder, she asked, "I thought you were joking about you wanting to make a justice team with us."

Vinny, with a smug look on his face, said, "Am I really taken sarcastically everytime I speak? Ha. Anything sounds better than being kept in this house. Funner even. Justice team Preservers, away."

Eon said, "Preservers huh. You know, that sounds pretty good."

Undine said, "That actually does sound pretty good. Too good. How do you know that it's not some overused thing that every other Pokemon team uses?"

Vinny answered, "Well, in my opinion, it sounds cool, but not too cool that it comes up as a team suggestion first. Sure, there may be a few teams out there that already use that name, but at least it won't be as overused as something like 'Team Pokemon'".

Undine groaned. "Arceus forbid something like 'Team Pokemon' being our name."

Eon said, "Well, I guess we should be going now. I've got things to do." Chuckling a bit, she asked, "When we get our stuff, what are we going to do afterwards?"

Vinny shrugged. He said, "Well, we could go out. Have a few adventures here and there. Save a little boy from getting stuck in the well."

Undine asked, "How is that different from an exploration team?"

Vinny smiled the smuggest smile anybody has ever seen him put on his face and said calmly, "It isn't. Now off you go, you two. We've got a test coming up for us tomorrow."

The two nodded. Eon said ,"Right," then started to run off towards her home. Soon after, Undine did the same.

Looking at his two friends go, Vinny said to himself, "Sorry for lying to you mom. Looks like I am up to something today."

Vinny sat down on a bench in the plaza at about 10 before 11 P.M. Trying to wake himself up after a long nap and a quick shop to the window repairman, he looked around trying to find either Eon or Undine. Eon showed up first with what appeared to be a lock picking kit. She jumped up on the bench and rested her head using her forearms as a pillow, then yawned. Looking at the bag on the ground, Vinny asked her what that was for.

"It's a kit for getting doors open," she replied.

"But you can't use it," Vinny declared matter-of-factly.

Eon lifted her head and yawned. She looked and Vinny with half-closed eyes and smiled. She swayed her head back and forth and said, "But you can. Half the kingdom knows how many times you've sneaked out of your room in the middle of the night."

"Oh really, how many?"

"467."

Vinny opened his eyes all the way. He said to himself, "Really? That little?"

The two sat on the bench and waited for about 10 minutes. Growing impatient and almost falling asleep on Eon, Vinny asked her where Undine was.

Eon said, "Oh, don't be so harsh on him. It's not like he has as good nightvision as us anyways."

Vinny said, "But the lamp posts."

Eon sat up. "I guess you're right about that."

After another minute, Eon spotted a silhouette under the light of a lamp. She extended her paw towards it and said, "vinny, look!" Vinny got into a battle stance. After realizing that its head had an abnormally large limb protruding out of it and that it was a quadruped, he relaxed a little.

Vinny scolded Undine. "What took you so long to get here? I was waiting a whole 20 minutes or so."

"But 20 minutes isn't that long of a wait..." Undine defended. "Sorry I'm late, it's just that I have a bit of trouble seeing in the dark, and using scent to go around this place doesn't exactly work due to how quickly polluted air turns fresh because of all the trees!" Noticing how closely Vinny and Eon were sitting close to each other, he asked, "Did you two do anything while I was away."

Vinny getting the memo smirked and said, "Yeah. We were waiting on this cold night on this rather comfortable bench just for you to show up," as Eon answered, "Not really, why do you ask?"

"Er... okay." Turning to Vinny, Undine asked, "So what's up? Why are we here this late at night."

Vinny stretched and got off the bench. He pointed towards a stone building that looks very Romanesque. He said, "That's the rescue team headquarters. We're gonna break in there, get some stuff, and head back out."

Undine looked at the building. He said, "But why do we have to go through all this hassle to make a team? Can't we just form an exploration team, get our free stuff, then change our team description?"

Vinny held his palm out, then wagged his finger. "No, that's too easy. We've got to do things the illogical way. That way, we can make a name for ourselves. Oh, and reader, it's also so I have a logical reason get out of this place for a long time, ugh."

Eon quirked up. "What was that about a reader?"

Vinny smiled and shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, nothing. No need to worry yourself over silly little details, dear. Deer. That is what one of your evolutions is, right?"

Undine spoke up. "Isn't it a bit ironic for a justice team to be stealing?"

"Not in the name of justice," Vinny said. "Come on, we've got stuff to do."

They walked towards the building. Climbing a few steps, they reached the door. Vinny tried to open it, but to no avail. "Damn," he said. "It's locked. Eon, where's the lock picking kit?"

"It's here," she replied. She grabbed the handle in her mouth and handed it to Vinny. She asked, "Are we really going to go in the front door? What if this place is alarmed?"

Vinny smirked. Not taking his eyes off the door, he responded with, "Expect the unexpected. If the sentries are busy doing that, they'll be too busy to expect the expected! And so what if it's alarmed? I've been in this building before. The rescue team kit is inside a glass box in the first room after this door. We can simply break it then run away like madmen." Vinny broke a lockpick and swore silently.

Eon looked nervous. "And what if we get caught? We didn't exactly pack disguises with us."

"In the off-chance that we do get caught-" Vinny replied. Hearing a click come from the other side of the door, he smiled and continued, "-we run from this place. Or get thrown in jail. I know many ways to get out of those places."

Undine said, "Why am I not surprised."

Vinny opened the door slowly. He peeked in when he found that it wasn't alarmed and looked around for guards. In the dim light, he saw two in the first room: one Sableye and a Grovyle sleeping on the floor- probably taking shifts. He needed a way to get the Sableye out of the way so the plan would come off without a hitch.

He left the door open slightly, then tiptoed along the perimeter of the building searching for a decently sized rock. He found one, then came back to the door. Looking in, he saw the Sableye sit down on the wall across from the door. Vinny knocked on the still open door using the rock loud enough for the Sableye to hear it, but not so loud as to wake the Grovyle. A thought came through Vinny's head. What if the Sableye would wake the Grovyle up? Then that won't work as planned.

Getting the Sableye's attention, Vinny turned back towards his two friends. He whispered, "Alright, on me." He raised the arm with the rock on it and observed the Sableye moving towards the door without waking the Grovyle up. When he got close enough, Vinny quickly opened the door and threw the rock straight at the Sableye's face, leaving him no time to react at all. He fell on the floor and Vinny commanded, "Alright, let's move the body somewhere."

Eon and Undine were staring at the body with shocked expressions on their faces. Undine began to protest, but Eon asked one word: "Where?"

Leaving the body in the middle of the street, the three snuck their way in, looking for the rescue team kit. Vinny sent Eon to keep watch over the Grovyle while he and Undine searched for it. Vinny hissed under his breath, "Come on, it's gotta be around here somewhere!"

A few seconds later, Undine motioned Vinny to come over. Undine said, "It's here! It's inside a glass case, and I don't exactly want to break it."

Vinny put his fist under his chin and thought. He said, "You know, now that I think about it, I don't think cutting a hole in the glass case wouldn't be exactly inconspicuous. We should find the storage room for these things. Come on you two."

Hearing that last sentence, the Grovyle woke up. "Wha-" he said groggily. Eon tackled him, then dumped his body next to the unconscious Sableye then went with Vinny to search for the kits.

"Hey Vinny?" she asked.

Vinny said, "Yeah?"

She continued with her question, "Couldn't we just ask for a rescue team kit? It's far less risky, and besides, they give them out for free anyways."

Vinny silently groaned. "Look, like I said before," he replied, "that would be too easy. We need to do things, the harder-ish... way, I guess."

Undine groaned out loud. He said, "And what are we supposed to do? Stumble across the storage room in this huge building?" He stepped over the reception desk and rammed straight into a door.

Vinny looked at the sign above the door and smirked. "1)," he pointed out, "this building is not that big. 2) yes. Just look at the sign above you."

He pointed his finger at the sign and Undine squinted and read out loud, "Rescue team starter kit storage room."

Eon commented, "Well that was easy."

Vinny picked the lock then opened the door. Inside he saw a bunch of Magnemites working and putting metallic objects into boxes. A Magnezone came up to them and asked, "BZZT. WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE HERE?"

Vinny said formally, "Hello, Mr. Magnezone. We are here to check up on the quality of your rescue team kits. My two assistants, Mudkip and Eevee, are here to assist me."

The Magnezone replied with, "ANALYZING FOR TRUTHFULNESS." Sensing nothing wrong, he sent them on their way.

Eon said, "Wow Vinny, that was a pretty good lie. How did you learn to lie like that?"

Vinny winked at her. "Practice makes perfect," he said.

Undine asked, "So we just take one and leave?"

Vinny simply replied, "Yeah." Searching around, he finally took one and headed back to the exit. He addressed the Magnezone, then said, "Sir, we will be taking this specimen and examining its contents. If we do not come back tomorrow, continue doing whatever it is that you Pokemon do."

The Magnezone said, "ALRIGHT THEN. GOOD BYE."

Walking out of the building, Eon commented, "Well that was easy." After saying that, however, she froze in her tracks.

Vinny asked her, "What's up?" then turned around and noticed two rather angry Pokemon looking straight at him.

The Grovyle asked, "What's that you've got there, Prince Snivy?"

Vinny looked at the the kit and noticed that the words 'RESCUE TEAM STARTER KIT' was literally plastered all over the box. Undine put his arm in front of Vinny and said to him, "Leave this to me."

He looked at the two guards and said with a calm face, "Gentlemen, we are just out here on an errand from the kingdom. We were sent to retrieve a rescue team toy collection for Princess Servine, you see."

The Sableye asked, "And why should we believe you and let you go? Half the kingdom knows what Prince Snivy's nightly schedule is."

Eon gave Vinny a glare.

Undine answered, "Because I heard you like water types. Water is what nourishes plants, after all. And I'll have you know, I am a Mudkip, which is a water type, might I add."

Despite no logical reason behind that, the Sableye just said, "Oh... Okay... Then. I guess I'll... let you go? Because I like you. Come on Grovyle, let's let them go despite them clearly looking like thieves. Minor thieves at that."

The Grovyle scratched his head and said, "Oh, sure thing. I mean, they do look like awfully guilty candidates for knocking us out though."

"That's the problem. I don't know why I want to let them- Hey where did they go?"

Vinny looked back at the two guards and said to Undine, "Dang, you're as good at manipulating people as I am."

Undine said, "Well, I'm mainly good at manipulating people positively. You're good at pissing people off, Smugleaf."

Vinny facepalmed. Through his hand, he said, "Don't call me Smugleaf. After all, your real name IS named after a girl."

Eon stood between the two Pokemon and said in an effort to change the subject, "Well, that plan went off better than expected."

Vinny said, "Yeah. I'm actually surprised it went that well."

Vinny stopped when he noticed a poster in the middle of the alley. It said, "WANTED," and showed a picture of him, Eon, and Undine in the rescue team kit storage room. He looked at the end of the alley and noticed a Smeargle walk away with two figures that looked like they contained authority.

Vinny looked at the poster for a moment longer and said, "I knew word got around fast here, but I didn't know it was THIS fast."

Eon said, "Well then, it looks like we're wanted criminals now. I think we should leave."

Undine and Vinny agreed. Vinny said, "Yeah, leaving sounds like a good idea right about now."

Undine shouted out, "JUSTICE TEAM, PRESERVERS, AWAY!"

Pulling the poster off the wall, the three started running. Vinny stopped in his tracks though, and Eon asked him, "What's wrong, Vinny?"

Vinny replied, "Wait. I need to get my stuff. Before we leave, I think you two should do the same."

Eon's ears lifted. She said, "Oh yeah! I almost forgot! I do have some stuff that I never leave. Thanks for reminding me." She looked behind her, then sighed. "It's a shame too. If it wasn't for the trash I got everyday, I would have said this was a nice city."

Undine asked, "Well where will we meet up?"

Vinny came up with a plan. "We'll meet up at the old farm near the mountains. I'm pretty sure the farmer won't mind." The other two nodded then went off in separate directions. Vinny looked at the kit in his hands then towards his house- the castle.