Pink Puffball of Doom
By the time I had reached the breakfast table I had run out of tears, now I was just angry. I hated being pushed around, hated being forced to follow pointless rules for pointless reasons. I didn't even feel like eating my large smiling of eggs and bacon – I decided to shift the bacon into a frown to represent my mood – and eating was one of the few things I enjoyed.
"I take it you aren't having a happy birthday?"
I hadn't been expecting a voice, I had been so deep into my thoughts that the disruption caused me to recoil with a squeak. 'Way to play it cool, girl.' I mentally berated myself and turned to shoot a glare at the Chef's assistant.
"You didn't even eat you're happy face!" He cried in mock horror.
I turned away from him and slumped forwards, pushing my untouched breakfast away. "Sorry Matt, I wasn't feeling hungry this morning."
Matt was one of my few allies, an eighteen year old from Sinnoh. I liked talking to him; he was always pleasant and always had an interesting tale to tell. Stories of fierce Pokemon battles, comical situations with his Pokémon and even a few stories he heard from his parents. It got to the stage that, whenever I was bored, I would visit him down in the kitchen and ask for a story. His adventures always enthralled me (even if they were filled with exaggerations), and more often than I'd admit I would imagine myself on an adventure with him and his friends.
Occasionally when he was on a break he would take me out to the garden and release a couple of his old team members. I loved his Stantler, Mary, the large 4-legged brown beast would always wander about, curious about everything and stare at people with its adorable onyx eyes. Matt taught me how to properly feed and approach her and on my tenth birthday, a year into his employment, he let me ride her around the grounds.
Matt also slipped me a couple of his old Pokemon encyclopedias and survival guides (they were Sinnoh editions however, so their practical uses in Hoenn were limited). Because of my sheltered life I practically dove straight into them, absorbing the details of all the wonderful creatures it had to offer.
"Oh." He deflated slightly sensing my miserable aura. "Your mother giving you a hard time again?"
I let out a long exaggerated sigh, which he took as a yes.
"She's got a something wrong in the head that lady." Matt tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I think I know how I'm going to cheer you up."
"Are you going to break me out of this shit hole?" I groaned shooting him a 'please! I'm begging you!' glance.
"I'm pretty sure that's illegal, somehow." He chuckled, giving me a comforting pat on the back. "Yo momma would probably find a legal way to string me up if I did."
He glanced about suspiciously before leaning in close with a whisper. "Remember when you asked me to catch you a Pokémon?"
I felt my heart rate accelerate madly. "You caught me a Pokémon?" I shot him the brightest smile my face could make.
He shook his head. "Nope."
I deflated immediately. "Thought so."
"I'm going to help you catch one!" He smiled again, fixing his chef hat as he stood up straight. "You know those Skitty that keep raiding the bins?"
How could I forget? My mother went hysterical when she saw a large group of trash covered Skitty shrieking loudly as the servants chased them around the estate. The security guards joined in and released their Machamps, but the large grey humanoids could not keep up with the slippery pests, their bulky bodies for once proving to be a hindrance. I remember sitting up on my balcony relishing in the carnage the small pink felines reaped.
"A Skitty?" I liked the idea, but there was another problem. "Alright, but what would my mother think?"
Matt thought it over for a minute. "You could keep it as a pet? As long as you keep it under control I'm sure your mother, even with her less than rational mind, will agree."
"And you'll help me train it right!" I grabbed one of his arms to shoot I'm a pleading look (yeah I'm disgusted with myself too), there was no way he could resist my large cute eyes that would make even a Growlithe puppy look like the rotten fish in yesterday's garbage in comparison.
It didn't take him long to buckle and we silently made our way to where our trash was piled up at the back of the estate. Several of the other servants (the ones that were aware that we shared a common enemy) agreed to cover for us. Matt and myself hid ourselves (rather badly) inside a conviently close bush, my lovely dress getting covered in twigs - oh how mother will despair – and waited for our prey to take the bait.
And waited.
And waited.
And roughly two hours before my dinner date, we found ourselves a Skitty.
The scrawny pink and cream feline was covered in patches of dirt and slipped into the estate through a gap in the fence - I was amazed that it was able to squeeze through such a small space – hunger seemed to be over powering its survival instincts and it carelessly took the bait, throwing itself at last night's leftover fish with glee. Matt silently led me towards the gap in the fence blocking the Skitty's escape.
Matt wordlessly drew a Pokeball from his belt and prepared to throw it.
The Skitty stopped eating and its ears perked up, it slowly turned its head to face us, staring at us with its lidded eyes as if we were the gates of hell. Its wirery black tail that had a thick pink patch of fur shot up straight into the air and its four small legs spread out faster than I could blink.
Matt muttered a curse.
The Skitty shrieked in terror and bounded inside the kitchen – we had foolishly left the door open – and heard the head chef scream. It was at that moment I realised that we were in serious trouble.
The chase was on.
We shot inside the building, slipping past the terrified chef and into the main hallway. Matt released Mary (and despite the situation I could help but marvel at the brown beast), the Stantler's horns shone bright purple – Matt told me it was a move called 'Psychic'- and the shrieking Skitty was dragged from under a nearby sofa, its body glowing the same eerie purple as Mary's horns, as it was dragged it raked its tiny claws along the sofa, tearing it, in its desperate bid to break the telepathic hold.
The Skitty floated over to us, flailing all the way until it dangled directly in front of us, hissing violently at us, its capturers.
Matt whistled in awe. "That little critter has balls." He handed me a Pokeball, I assumed it was empty one, and glanced at him curiously.
He returned my glance with a sigh. "You're supposed to throw it at the little bugger."
The Skitty was dangling a couple of feet away from me, so it wasn't hard to nail the screaming creature between the eyes. I couldn't help but wince as the Skitty was enveloped by a red light and sucked into the small spherical capsule.
It landed on the ground with a hollow 'thud' and rocked about slightly a couple of times before falling still.
I stared at it for a few moments, expecting the screaming pink puffball of doom to burst out of it the moment I got too close and tear my face off. I gave Matt another glance; he was clearly growing irritated by my lack of experience and simply jerked his finger towards the Pokeball, which I assume meant 'pick it up'.
I warily approached the stationary sphere (and by warily I mean sliding towards it very slowly on the marble floor) and once I was close enough, I tapped it slightly with my big toe. I can honestly say I thought it shook in response, so I dove to the ground in the opposite direction covering my face.
Matt groaned and calmly strode up to the ball and sending me an irritated glare, picked it up.
"I swear I saw it move! It was going to scratch my face off!" I defended my actions... reasonably.
"It moved because you tapped it." He replied dryly. "I thought you wanted a Pokémon." He waved the Pokeball in front of my prone figure. "Come get it already and stop being ridiculous."
"That isn't a Pokémon, it's a pink puffball of doom." I deadpanned and quickly snatched the Pokeball from his grasp and eyed it warily one more.
"Look, all Pokemon are like that to start with, take Mary for example." He gestured to curious looking Stantler, which had taken a strange interest in the chandelier that hung overhead. "When I first met her, she tried to gore me with her antlers."
I couldn't believe my ears, the cute, docile Mary had tried to impale Matt on its antlers, and it had to be a lie. "But she's so…"
"Calm? Friendly?" Matt smirked. "She used to be quite violent and gave me quite a bit of trouble back in the day." He gave her a fond pat on the back of the head –which she ignored in favour of staring at the chandelier.
"So you think my puffball of doom will become docile?" I felt hope rising in my chest.
"Sure why not?" He shrugged. "Anyways…" He reached forwards and pulled a small twig from my hair. "You should get ready for dinner, and I have a date with my girlfriend!" He snapped around heading back towards the kitchen and sent a casual wave over his shoulder. "Happy birthday by the way!"
I really liked that guy.
