Vulpix
July 8, 798 UNE Afternoon
Adumbrated Thunder
She started sniffing the leaves of a bush as soon as they reached the forest trees right off the bay. A faint odor of other Pokémon lingered there, maybe a day or two old. Vulpix moved to a tree and sniffed, smelling urine all over the bark. It was even older smelling. She looked back to see Master Alex still marching in the sand behind.
"My you sure are anxious to go on an adventure Vulpix." Alex said. He took a look behind and Vulpix did the same. Dark clouds were gathering far on the horizon. Her acute hearing allowed her to pick up on faint thunder long after a flicker from the clouds. "I guess the outer rain bans of Anita are nearly here."
"I think so too." Said Vulpix in her own little cries Master Alex would not be able to understand.
Alex continued on with Vulpix running ahead and sniffing anything that looked out of the ordinary from her past experiences or that looked suspicious. She felt an incredible urge to protect Master Alex as most other Pokémon under the command of a trainer would want to do. Vulpix sniffed some odd mushrooms then sniffed along a path. She could smell a similar scent across the ground as if one of those mushrooms had grown paws and padded itself away with the tracks still fresh. Following the scent, she moved further and further away from Alex.
"Do not wonder away too far Vulpix." Master Alex said. She could sense a bit of nervousness in his voice, probably from the conversation he and her former master had had about the evil Pokémon that hunted humans and their Pokémon in the woods. But Vulpix was not too worried. She felt confident that she could take on any single Pokémon that got in their way and the scents did not reveal mass movements of Pokémon together.
Suddenly Vulpix heard some rustling of brush up ahead and she darted off to investigate. "Wait! Vulpix! Come back!" Master Alex hollered and started to run after her. Vulpix just had to see what it was in case there was any danger. The area where she heard the noise was empty but the musty scent was strong of a Pokémon. She looked closely and saw a dark brown hair or two along with a very light tan long hair.
"Master Alex!" She barked. "There was a Pokémon just here!"
Alex finally caught up, wheezing a little. "Is something wrong Vulpix? Did you hear something?" He looked around, half frantically.
"Don't worry Master Alex! I can protect you from anything!" She was hopping up and down on her four legs.
Alex looked her in the eyes and said, "You sure seem wound up over something. Settle down." He raised his hand to his chin and rubbed it a little. "If something happens and you find yourself alone without me around, I hope you make the best judgment on what to do. Just do not try to focus on looking around for me but rather fight back or run. I may be your trainer but I would rather not have to be in full command over you when I may not know better or you do not need my authority."
Vulpix bobbled her head. "Ok Master Alex, whatever you tell me, I'll do. I was not Maple's Pokémon for nothing!" She turned away and started sniffing for the scent again and followed it but to no avail in finding anything.
A quiet two hours passed without much incident, just more scents and sunny weather but that was quickly deteriorating as the storm clouds passed over darkening the skies like an eclipse. "We are almost there Vulpix." Said Alex, reading over his waterproof map. It is not terribly far from the beach and according to Professor Maple it should be out of the storm surge zone, even for a category three storm with a small circulation."
Vulpix was not sure what was meant by "storm surge" or "category three" so she just assumed they were something bad. Not dwelling about it, she carried on, picking up on the scent of something sweet. She tracked the scent to a bush full of berries. They were small round berries with two tiny green leaves sticking out of the top where they attached to the bush limb. The top half of the berry was a light reddish orange and the lower was a pale yellow.
She plucked one with her jaws and chomped it letting the wonderful taste filler her mouth. After a few chews she swallowed, wanting more. Master Alex caught up and examined the bush, concluding, "I think this is a Leppa berry bush." He tried one but did not seem to be totally satisfied like Vulpix. "Not my favorite. I am more partial to Pecha berries but that is fine.
"Well, I like them so you can't spoil my snack!" Exclaimed Vulpix, beginning to gnaw on another berry.
"You seem to like them, soooo…" He searched through his backpack and pulled out a containment ball, activated it and in a flash of light appeared a bag of various pouches. "…we could use this berry bag to store some. We could snack on some later in the cave." He picked a little more than a dozen and deposited them into a single pouch. Master Alex then stood up and looked around then pointed to another bush in the distance and said, "What luck, a Pecha berry bush!" He scrambled his items up and made his way over to the bush.
Vulpix trotted ahead and plucked one. Her eyes started to water. She could not believe how sweet it was. "This is wonderful!" She thought, racing for another one.
"I see you like those too." Alex grinned and began foraging some. "You seem to like them even more then the Leppa berries, just as I thought you would."
Something rustled in the distance. Vulpix looked quickly to see a long furry pale tan creature with large brown stripes. She growled and dart off after it. The creature fled away, faster than Vulpix could move.
"Vulpix!" Master Alex yelled. "Come back! You do not know what is out there!" He stayed put, not wanting to leave his stuff behind.
She lost track of her target, giving up the chase and not wanting to run too much further away from her Master. "I will get you eventually whoever you are!" She barked and made her way back to Alex. She could smell the scent, identical to the scent she smelled earlier with the long fur hairs.
"Vulpix." Said Master Alex in a cross tone. "You need to stop running off like that." He looked around. "I just, do not want to be by myself here in these woods. They are giving me a bad vibe."
She nodded. As she did, she started to feel raindrops making their way through the forest canopy. Vulpix groaned, not terribly fond of being wet for the fire elemental creature she was.
"Oh what is wrong with you? It is just a little rain." Alex said, finishing repacking his things and began moving forward towards the cave. Vulpix tried shaking herself off but to no avail with the additional falling rain.
A half hour passed before Vulpix heard more rustling, louder then what the rain was making on the bushes. She growled, trying to make as many body gestures as she could to earn permission to go after the sound.
"I heard it too Vulpix." Alex started to go into a jog. "Let us go see what that was. Does not sound like anything large moving around."
Vulpix could hear something coming closer and stopped, holding her ground, growling. Master Alex stopped right behind her looking around carefully. There was another loud rustle and out bolted something small and brown towards the two. It was a quadruped just a bit smaller then Vulpix with a slightly smaller proportioned head. Long ears extended from its head and had a light tan mane around its neck to contrast with its brown body and complimented its light tan fox tail tip.
"No way!" Alex shouted. "An Eevee! A young one at that. Ok Vulpix, let us take it down and maybe recruit it!" The memory flashed though Vulpix's mind of humans "catching" Pokémon with those ball things.
Master Alex did not have time to give a command before the Eevee was upon Vulpix. She heeded Alex's command to act out of her own will when he did not have time to issue his order. The Eevee went into a tackle and Vulpix swung her body around and collided her tails at Eevee knocking it away and into the ground.
"Alright Vulpix! Now hit it with Ember attack."
She summoned a flurry of small flames to her mouth and released them at point black range on Eevee. It cried out as its fur was singed and made a run for it.
"Now, Quick Attack!" Said Alex pointing enthusiastically at their target.
Vulpix took off with incredible speed, catching up quickly and ramming the little fox in the side tumbling it to the ground. She could tell this little one was inexperienced and did not really know how to properly defend itself.
Running to catch up, Alex hollered, "Hit it again with Ember attack!" Vulpix did so, baptizing the small creature in flames. It tried to run away again, its fur smoking and collapsed a few feet away from Vulpix.
"Alright! Let us see if this works." Master Alex reached for a Pokéball attached to his specialized trainer's belt. "If how I studied this correctly, tossing an empty Pokéball at it registers its genetic information when it comes in contact with a Pokémon without the data signature in its body, making its possession to that ball and in the end, mine. It then gives it the impression of my invitation to become my comrade or something like that. Not sure how that all works."
He passionately hurled the ball at Eevee. Before ball came in contact with it, something shot through the air and knocked the Pokéball away, causing it to land aimlessly in a bush.
"Huh?" Alex wondered. Vulpix detected more creatures out in the woods up ahead, maybe in the tree tops. She moved past the sizzling Eevee closer to a tree, growling. "Vulpix, do you think something else is here?"
The sound of a laughing man and women came from the treetops. Followed by the woman saying, "Prepare for trouble!"
Then the man's voice sounded. "Make it double!"
"Wha?!" Alex shouted. "Who is there?"
The woman's voice came again. "To protect the world from devastation!" Vulpix could tell they were coming closer.
"To unite all people within our nation!" Came the man's voice.
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!" The woman's voice said followed by a quick laugh.
"To extend our reach to the stars above!" The man's tone seemed proud and exaggeratedly passionate.
Suddenly, a woman descended from a tree about two dozen feet away, laughing, putting her hand on the hip of her white mini-skirt. She wore thigh high purple boots with small heels. Her top was a white belly shirt that had an upside down V cut revealing a tight black belly shirt underneath. The V cut was in such a way to divide the two legs of a large red "R". Her shirt covered her upper arms and then was covered up by long purple gloves. She had a very distinctive red hairstyle that would have gone down to her knees had her hair not been so heavily altered into a bit of a curl becoming more distinct near the tip. Her face was pleasantly clear and white with two teal ball earrings dangling from her ears and lucid blue eyes. "Jessie!" She exclaimed.
Then a man off to the right jumped down, his shoulder long bluish purple hair bellowing in the wind, seemingly untouched by the falling rain and assumed a mirror pose to presumably Jessie. He had a more tan skin complexion but like the woman, he possessed an unblemished face. He wore a long sleeved shirt that barely went over his stomach with a black shirt tucked into his white pants held up by a dark brown belt. Purple boots were on his feet covering the bottoms of his pants and also had nearly elbow length gloves doing the same over his shirt. Alex could not help but notice an icy blue rose in one of his hands. "James." He said proudly.
"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!" Said Jessie, pointing off in a random upward direction.
"Surrender now or prepare to fight!" James said, pointing his hand with the rose directly at Master Alex.
A third, tiny figure descended from the tree in between the other two. It was a short cream hair colored feline Pokémon that stood upright, topped by its large head. It had two large eyes and a gold shiny coin on its forehead. Two thick whiskers stood straight up near its eye and two more extended from each cheek. Two short black ears stood upright on its head. It possessed a long tail that had a terra cotta colored tail tip ending in a tight curl with the ends of it paws the same color. "Meowth! That's right!"
Vulpix felt like she had a big question mark floating above her head, not completely sure about what their words meant. "Who the heck are you?" Demanded Alex. "And surrender or fight? I do not even know who you are!"
James jumped over to Jessie and hugged her. "Isn't it great? Like good old times. Old motto. Old uniforms and old schemes."
Jessie shooed James away, pointed at Master Alex and said, "Today we start anew. No more chasing that blasted Pikachu and twerp. Our new academy training gave us the skills and power we need to succeed in our first mission."
"Why do you keep pointing at me?" Alex said angrily. "What mission? What training? With who? This Team Rocket I have never heard of?"
"Now that's a shame." Said the talking Meowth. "This boy does not even know who the mighty Team Rocket is."
"Technically Meowth…" Started James, again in his proud tone, "…no one knows of the new Team Rocket. The new powerful Team Rocket. The unstoppable Team Rocket. The invincible Team Rocket." This James person showed great passion and devotion to his words. Vulpix wanted to laugh at how weird he was if only she could. She looked back at Alex who was scratching his head with confusion.
"Well, let's tell this new twerp what our mission is." Laughed Jessie, her sound eclipsed as a roar of thunder came from lightning.
"Team Rocket's going to move in and sack that colony of yours and take the people captive." Said James, trying to sound ruthless but failing fast. "It's remained a threat to our operations long enough."
"What?!" Yelled Alex, his words swallowed up by more thunder. "What did we ever do to you? I am sure my friends there have never heard of you!"
"Perhaps, but that is too risky." Said Meowth. "Team Rocket's goal of world domination must not be hindered." He turned to Jessie. "Just think guys! All the wealth and Pokémon of the world just waiting to be plucked for our taking!"
"Ah, what a dream and it is truly within our grasp." Said Jessie, raising her hands to the side of her face as if she was lying on a pillow while standing up.
"You are all crazy!" Bellowed Alex, still displaying difficulty accepting their words. "World domination? Do you know how many trainers are out there to battle and stop you?"
"Oh we know alright." There seemed to be a gleam in James eyes as he said that. "You'll see soon enough after we have taken you captive." He reached for one of three Pokéballs on his belt. Jessie did the same, picking from her three attached to the back of her mini-skirt.
Vulpix noticed the Eevee had escaped during the ruckus. "Well, if it is a battle you want, then I accept your challenge to fight, right Vulpix?" Rallied Master Alex. She spat a small fireball out of her mouth, creating a sizzling sound in the rain, which was trickling off to a sprinkle.
"Alright, let's get started." Said Jessie with a bit of song to her words as she flung her Pokéball out in front of her. It released a flash of light that took the form of a great snake. Two massive red fangs, nearly a foot long each extended from its upper mouth. It had a yellow jaw to compliment its dark purple scales that made up most of its color scheme. A yellow hexagon pattern with a black circle outline in the middle appeared on its forehead and the pattern appeared repeatedly down its spine to its long, narrow, triangular sword tipped tail with a red boarder on one of the sharp ends. It had a yellow pattern surrounding the area between the blood red eyes and the hexagon pattern. Taking up the rest of the nose and below the eyes was a light purple coloring and once the purple went beyond the eye, pattern narrowed down to a triangular point. A nonsymmetrical, light purple line zigzagged approximately one and a half feet down its belly and three little stump pairs lined its belly, acting sort of like stubby legs on standing furniture. "Seviper! Your first mission out of the academy!"
James tossed his Pokéball in the same fashion, resulting in the same effects only his Pokémon took the form of a quadruped about the same size as Vulpix. It had an overall orange short fur coat. On the top of its canine head was a clump of very light tan, long fur that stood up a little. Its muzzle and neck were of the same color fur and the chest and belly too only with long flurry hair. It had a U shaped black marking midway on each leg with jagged edges and of course four toes with extended white claws. A repeating pattern of five consecutive U markings followed, three on its back and the remaining two on each of its hind legs. Finally a mildly long, ultra fluffy light tan tail grew from its rump. "Groooooowrith!" It howled.
"Ok Growlithe, let's be sure to get this right on our first mission together." Said James dramatically tossing his rose aside.
"So which one of you do I get to fight first?" Said Master Alex with much anticipation. Vulpix tried to ready herself as much as she could for her first battle, wondering which one would be her opponent. Inside, she was hoping for Growlithe as Seviper looked rather dangerous with its fangs and sword tail.
"Sevayerith." Spat Seviper, eager for battle also.
"Ha!" Jessie exclaimed. "We're both going to fight you at once, just as Team Rocket always has."
"What?!" Said a shocked Alex. "That is not a fair battle!"
"If you'd knew us, then you'd know that Team Rocket doesn't fight fair." Said James, giggling.
Vulpix looked back at Master Alex, seeing much frustration on his face, then returned it to Seviper particularly.
"Let's begin Seviper!" Shouted Jessie, her words slightly lost in more thunder. "Night Slash attack!"
Seviper's blade tail turned pitch black with what looked to be a black powder fluttering down from it. It slithered forward at amazing speed towards Vulpix.
"Quick, Ember attack on Seviper Vulpix!" Master Alex commanded. She did so, sending a cluster of embers up her throat and blowing them out in a stream towards Seviper.
"Growlithe, Take Down!" Shouted James with Growlithe taking off in a full charge for Vulpix.
Seviper cringed as it was hit by fire, waving its tail around in a failed attempt to stop the bombardment. "Don't let those puny flames get to you Seviper!" Shouted Jessie.
"Now, Quick Attack on Growlithe. Try to hit it from the side!" Ordered Master Alex. Vulpix disrupted the flow of embers and faced the oncoming Growlithe, muscles tightened and ready to spring. When it was nearly upon her, she made a hasty jump to the right as Growlithe began its tackle then just as quickly, head butted it from the side. Growlithe tumbled a few times as Seviper closed in an unleashed a slash whipping its tail over its head at Vulpix. She managed to jump back in time. Some of the black dust was starting to get into her eyes, dimming her sight a little. Out of order she launched another volley of Embers at Seviper, turning the black powder into a dazzling display of harmless light. Growlithe gathered itself together and tackled Vulpix in the rear bringing her right into the ground.
"Seviper! Switch to Poison Tail attack!" Commanded Jessie.
Vulpix found Growlithe on top clawing at her. She managed to get her hind legs under its lower abdomen and kicked it off to the side. A quick roll to the side allowed her to miss Seviper drilling its bright purple glowing tail into the ground where she just was. Seviper raised its tail again and began a series of slashes at Vulpix.
"See if you can hit it with Will'o'wisp!" Suggested Alex. Vulpix could recognize uncertainty in his voice as that was a bit of an advanced attack. Still dodging Seviper's slashes, she called forth in her mind how to do the attack and miraculously, her mind told her body what to do. Fire raced up her throat, considerably more intense than ever before. She quickly grounded herself as Seviper prepared another swing and released a furiously burning purple flame. It collided with Seviper's neck, prompting a hissing scream to escape its mouth followed by a flailing over the soggy ground.
"Overheat attack Growlithe!" Pointed James. The canine amassed a spewing mass of fire and embers from its mouth and expelled it in the general direction of Vulpix. The flames came in like a tidal wave and stormed Vulpix's body. She dropped herself to the ground, closed her eyes and covered he nose with her paws, trying to ride out the blaze till the misty rain put it out. She faintly heard the order for another Take Down attack to ensue.
Vulpix took courage in the flames and ran straight ahead into Growlithe. A surprised Growlithe found Vulpix's head striking its chest and the two tumbled to the ground. Vulpix quickly rose but in a swish, Seviper's tail blade sliced into her side streaming blood into the grass. The pain was catastrophic from the sting venom. She tried to rise again, but the venom was taking too quick of an effect and she stayed grounded, panting.
"That Vulpix is finished." Said Meowth. "You've lost kid."
"Vulpix no!" Shouted a horrified Alex.
"Yay! Our first victory!" Cried Jessie. "Our luck has truly changed for the better."
Vulpix could only see ahead out into the forest with none of her attackers or Master Alex in sight. She could feel herself fading away to unconsciousness. Then a peculiar sensation crept across her body. She could feel her hair starting to stand on end. Then she heard Alex yell, "Oh no! Vulpix!" He ran to her and picked her up in his arms, holding her to his chest tightly. A flash of light consumed everything Vulpix could see and a deafening boom bellowed through the area as she faded from consciousness.
