So You Want to Be a Team Rocket Grunt?
"There was pandemonium in Azalea Town this morning, as notorious crime syndicate Team Rocket attempted to rob a young boy of his pokemon. However, a heroic teen managed to track down the criminals, and return the pokemon back to it's trainer. Here's Todd, with the coverage on this breaking story." Said the female news news reporter. She nodded at the camera. The scene cut to a man and a boy with a bird on his shoulder, sitting together in what was presumably the boy's home.
"So kid, would you care to tell me what happened to you and your Farfetch'd?" Asked the man, a condescending tone to his voice. The boy made a face at the man.
"I'm not really a kid, I'm almost ten!" He whined. The interviewer laughed.
"Sorry about that young man, please tell us your story." He said, the tone or superiority still present in his voice. The kid made a face, but didn't object.
"Well, me and Fetcho went into the Ilex Forest to pick berries, and all of a sudden this weird guy pops out of nowhere and grabs Fetcho. I chased after him for a while, but he got away. Then a nice older kid asked if I needed help and he tracked the weird guy down and..." The boy finally stopped rambling to catch his breath.
"Go on..." The interviewer said, trying to keep the amusement out of his voice.
"And then the older kid... Um... I forgot what his name was, but he had a cool hat... Anyway, the older kid beat 'im up with these super-strong pokemon." The boy paused in his retell to catch his breath again and wave his arms, broadly and dramatically. "And then the funny looking guy yelled something about rockets and ran off. But it doesn't matter because I got my Fetcho back!"
"Are you worried that Team Rocket will steal other people's pokemon?"
"Um, was that what the weird guy was? I thought he was pretending to be a superhero or something." The kid replied, furrowing his brow.
"They're not superheroes, kid." He laughed. "Well I think that just about wraps it up. Mandy?" The reporter gave a cheesy grin at the camera, and the boy could be seen in the background mouthing the words, 'Hi, Mom!'. The scene cut back to the anchorwoman.
"Locals have informed us that the Team Rocket grunts fled towards Violet City, though the location of their headquarters has yet to be known. Any information regarding this group should be reported..."
The TV abruptly turned dark, and a girl sighed, reclining into her couch. 'What kind of world is this?' she thought, 'Criminals can get thwarted by random kids just happening to pass by. Standards for evil have really gone down the drain lately.' The girl, named Corrine, rolled her eyes at the TV. A large skarmory, nestled in the opposite end of the couch, squawked imploringly at her, tilting it's head to the side. Corrine turned to face it, shaking some of her dark brown hair out of her eyes.
"We could do better than that dumb Team Rocket, couldn't we, Isaac?" She said.
The skarmory, Isaac, squawked in agreement, yellow eyes glinting mischievously. He flapped up to the windowsill, tapping the glass meaningfully with a razor-sharp talon. Corrine raised an eyebrow at him, and chuckled.
"We can't just leave and decide to be notorious criminals, you silly bird." She laughed. Issac gave a plaintive cry, as if to demand, 'Why not?'. He hopped off the couch and to the floor to fix Corrine's green eyes with a beady stare. The skarmory was nearly as tall as she was, and made for an imposing figure when looking down at her. She slowly leaned away, absentmindedly rubbing the scars on her arm from when Isaac was first caught.
"Listen Isaac," She started, meeting his gaze. "You can't just start a criminal organization just like that." Corrine snapped her fingers for emphasis. "You need followers, or minions, or something. And all our neighbors are goody-two-shoes." She huffed. Isaac croaked in frustration and paced off to the doorway of the living room. He made a sound similar to a sigh and began preening his feathers. Each one was rock-hard and gleamed silver, save for the red ones that made up the bulk of his wings. Each of his feathers were razor sharp, and surprisingly light; they were hollow to enable flying.
Believing that was the end of that, Corrine flopped out into a more comfortable position, and closed her eyes. She heard her skarmory's talons click on the tiles in the hallway, but didn't bother looking to see what he was up to. Isaac was smart enough to stay out of trouble.
Or so she thought.
After a mere ten minutes of blissful rest Corrine was interrupted by a sharp jab to her foot. She snapped awake and cried out, bolting upright. Isaac was the source of her pain, and was busily removing her sock.
"Hey!" Corrine cried, attempting to kick at him with her foot. The pokemon threw her a smug look. "I'm up, what do you want?" She growled. Isaac said nothing, instead choosing to leave the room again. Corrine groaned, reaching a hand to her head. "I was trying to sleep." She muttered, and looked up when Isaac returned holding some sort of pamphlet in his beak. He triumphantly dropped it on her head, throwing Corrine an expectant look.
"Skar." He said, ruffling his sharp feathers happily. Corrine rolled her eyes, held the pamphlet to her face, took one look at it, and groaned.
"Are you serious?" She said, exasperatedly. Isaac slowly and calmly scratched at his head, taking care to draw attention to his claws. He was dead serious. Corrine threw the pamphlet at him, earning Corrine an indignant squawk. "I don't want to be a Team Rocket grunt."
He snatched the TV remote on the coffee table up with his beak, and the television flickered to life. It was still tuned to the news station, and Mandy the anchorwoman was energetically describing some more breaking news. Apparently, there was yet another Team Rocket crisis that was resolved none other than another random teen, this one female. "See?" Corrine groaned. "Those Team Rocket guys are losers! Anyone could stomp them flat!"
"Skar?" Isaac implored, a challenging gleam in his eyes. The meaning was clear. If you think you can do better, why not prove it?
There was a tense silence. Finally, Corrine sighed. "Just give me the pamphlet."
"Skar-ar?" The pokemon cried, either out of joy, or surprise, it was hard to tell. Issac picked up the paper from where it was thrown, and gave it to Corrine in the most dignified manner possible for him, which was to say, he dropped it on her head. He settled near the arm of the couch, peering at the pamphlet in Corrine's hands with curiosity.
"Here goes..." Corrine muttered. "'So You Want to Be a Team Rocket Grunt?'"
She grimaced. 'What have I gotten myself into?'
AN: So, my first fan fiction. Ever. I literally signed up two days ago. Tell me what you think with a review! A new, longer chapter will be up tomorrow.