A Rocket's Toy
A Pokemon Fanfiction by: The Perpetual Guest
The week had already sucked from the start. I couldn't figure out why, but things just kept getting worse. It started out on Monday. Nothing too severe; Just spilling coffee on my boss, almost getting hit, and missing the bus home while it was pouring outside: And me with neither jacket nor umbrella. Of course, I walked home, ended up with a cold, and couldn't go to work again until Thursday… and didn't manage to have any time off waiting for me. So, yes, I'm certain I've got a termination of work notice in the mail for me… and a talking-to coming up from my boss...
My second job decided to bite me in the ass on Thursday, too, when I went in to perform my duties as the caretaker at one of the local Pokemon Centers. Literally... It still burns... yes, burns. I'm responsible for ensuring that Pokemon in the Center for the long run get enough food and exercise out on the track. The feeding was okay... but that Ponyta... no one told me she was temperamental... Would've helped me to know that before hand.
Anyways, now I'm on my way to search for another job, still pretty sure I've lost the one, and once the nurses hear about the incident with the Ponyta... I'm sure that won't go over well. It will, of course, be my fault, as it always is. Nyeh. I'll just have to learn to deal with the fact that I can't do more than screw up lately. But I'll worry about it later. Now, it's getting late and I need to get home quickly. The busses stopped running about an hour ago, so I have to walk again, but at least it's not raining.
I picked up a bagel and some coffee on the way home... then got splashed by a passing car that decided I looked like I needed a shower or something. So, throwing away ruined bagel and coffee, I slouched towards home. The streetlights are coming on, now, and this part of town doesn't look familiar, though I'm sure this was the way home.
"Must've taken a wrong turn back on 6th," I muttered, looking around and trying to place myself in town. 6th was three lights back, but it was the last labeled street I remembered seeing in a while. I turned on my heel to go back, shrugging and deciding that was what I would need to do. "Ah well, I'll just go back and find my way home." Gods, but it was getting late.
When you're lost in a big city: Your home town, no less, you begin to see things... hear things... notice things that would otherwise escape your attention... At night, those senses are only heightened and made stronger with apprehension and some kind of knowing. It's kind of scary, actually. It only makes you more nervous, more worrisome and confused. More wary and alert. Or maybe it just makes you more scared. It may depend on the person, I suppose.
For me, it was 'All of the above', as my hands broke into a cold sweat. I noticed several burnt out bulbs in the area, a few stores in the bottom of multi-story buildings closed off and boarded up. Perhaps condemned... but most had the telltale glint of eyes staring at me hungrily. Shinx, Poochyena, Rattata... A slim chance they might actually be humans.
Whatever they belonged to, they made me much less comfortable than I had been previously- not that that had been a very high level to begin with. It almost made me wish I had a companion Pokemon with me... Almost. I'd had foul experiences with Pokemon in the past... to be particular, my father was an amputee because of a Scyther attack, my mother had disappeared, presumed at the hands of a cult of Electabuzz... I'd lost a brother to some nasty burns from a herd of wild Rapidash and my sister had disappeared in her underwater studies. They didn't hardly even look for her, almost immediately pronouncing her drowned, without even a body or any physical evidence. I was certain it had something to do with Pokemon, though.
I guess there's a lot of risks involved in the world of Pokemon. Scratch that, I know it, now, but I can cope with it today, easily. I even have a pack of my own that travels with me. Mightyena, Arcanine, Flareon, Vulpix, Persian, Zigzagoon. Yeah, so the Persian's a little out of place, but we all get along fine. I don't want Ziggy to evolve and have yet to find another fire stone for Tails (the Zigzagoon and Vulpix respectively.)
Anyways, I walked on, not recognizing the burnt out or broken bulbs at all, but that could be because I hadn't been watching the streetlights as I'd gone. I had just figured out that I really was lost when I heard someone crying for help down the alleyway to my right. There was no light to illuminate the situation. I had no idea how badly I was about to screw myself as I crawled through the alleyway slowly, looking for some light source or some illumination of any sort. All I could hear was the crying, the almost-sobbing of some youth down the alley a little ways, not a clue otherwise to his situation, and not a single cell phone to my name.
That's right about all I remember of that night, besides a sharp, stinging pain in my shoulder and a series of gashes ripping across my right cheek before blacking out. Pretty sure at least the gashes were result of a Pokemon striking me. No human hand could make that shape of scratch... easily. When I awoke, though... Things REALLY went wrong. I thought spilling boiling-hot coffee on my boss was the worst of my problems at that point... How wrong was I?
As my vision slowly cleared, it afforded me a sight I hoped I'd never have to see: A Scyther lay on the ground in front of me, grinning horn to horn as though he'd just won the megabucks lotto or something like that. The bladed arm upon which he was not laying poked lightly at my neck, not quite drawing blood, but far from dangerous. His grin only seemed to widen as he realized I was awake and sat half-up, calling over it's shoulder with it's name to get the attention of... his trainer, I can only be led to assume. I wasn't very well-informed at the time, having forced a very sheltered, very anti-pokemon life on myself.
The light in the room was terribly dim, affording me little to see more than what was right in front of me and blatantly contrasting to whatever was behind it. It was at this point that I noticed a lack of another important apparatus: My glasses. Blind as a Zubat without them, all I caught of the Scyther now was the blurry green shape against the sharp darkness of the unlit walls behind him. Confused and curious and, of course, frightened out of my wits, I tested my arms and legs, holding my own suspicions. It didn't help that I'd lost feeling in my left arm and leg, but it didn't take long to figure out that, while my wrists were bound tightly with multiple bonds, my ankles were completely free of any such ties. Even so, I found myself feeling the effects of what could only be assumed temporary paralysis.
I tried looking around, but the combination of the poor lighting and a lack of corrective lenses made it difficult. It was at this point that I was lifted by my elbows and dropped unceremoniously in a little four-legged chair, bound wrists wrapped around the back of the chair and a rope tied around my midsection and hands to keep me there. Now, I can only help thinking something along the lines of 'I'm so glad I got my eyes fixed and the glasses are for show.' It disorients people like these. Oh, yeah. Story... back to it. Sorry.
Well, from the darkness came this huge figure. Well, huge to me. I'm pretty small to begin with, just under 4 feet and about 134 lbs or so... was at the time. Grown since then a bit. (And we gotta love platform shoes!) His black hair kind of obscured the light from entering his eyes, but I could still tell they were red by the way they glinted from what little light they DID receive. The dark red tattoo on his left cheek was quite plain, announcing the rumors and legends I'd heard of this character, an underground fighting lord who'd made himself plenty a name.
He only grinned widely as he watched me begin to shiver in terror, his Scyther returning to the scene with a similar smile. I couldn't find the strength to make the words I wanted to speak, though, so I was shit outta luck... and it didn't make me feel any better, that's for sure.