Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or associated characters, only characters of my own invention.

Chapter 7 – Oxidated Metal

The creature wobbled unsteadily on its legs, taking its first tentative attempts at walking, pushed forwards by its instincts of survival. Jet was no more than four hours old, and yet already he yearned to explore his surroundings, and to learn more about the world in which he found himself. His quadrapedal body was covered in mostly white fur, with a black scythe curling from the right side of his head. His face was also black, with another black patch of fur in the form of an oval on his forehead, and his tail was the same color, also bearing somewhat of a resemblance to a scythe.

Jet lifted his left paw off the ground, but as he was quickly discovering, doing this altered his whole balance, and suddenly the little Absol found his body tipping over. Desperately he tried to put it back down, but his legs splayed uncontrollably and he found his body sinking towards the ground as his legs slid further and further apart. Frantically Jet fought to regain his balance, somehow managing to bring his front legs back together. Walking was so difficult, so how did those other larger creatures make it look so easy?

Taking a momentary break from learning to walk, Jet gazed around at his world. Grey surrounded him, but scattered amongst this monotonous background were splashes of color, some moving objects and some appearing stationary, although Jet hadn't yet worked out that they were in fact the same thing. Looking straight ahead he saw a big group of these moving objects, and his already well developed curiosity drew him forwards.

Applying all his concentration to the task at hand, Jet slowly began to walk towards the shapes, moving one step at a time. Each step forwards took what seemed like a lifetime and the distance seemed as far as the Earth is from the Moon. The effort of walking was great and halfway across Jet's legs collapsed under him and he slumped to the ground. Determined to reach his destination, Jet continued to crawl, dragging his body along the ground.

Finally after what seemed like half of his short life, Jet made it to the group, and dragged himself bravely up next to another Pokémon several times his size, curiosity getting the better of his intimidation. Inside the small circle of Pokémon was another creature the same size as Jet, and with almost identical features. The only noticeable different between them, one that neither of the two were yet aware of was that the Pokemon in the centre was a shade of copper as opposed to black.

Wanting some attention for himself, Jet crawled forwards, but one of the bigger shapes suddenly pushed him mercilessly backwards. Jet rolled backwards and slumped to the ground, whimpering and dragging his paws over his nose. Exhausted from the exertion of dragging his small body Jet lay still, recovering his energy and feeling rather sorry for himself after being pushed away for no reason.

Another Pokémon crawled up to Jet and nudged him with its nose. Jet rolled over and blinked in blank surprise. The Pokémon he was looking at was both smaller than him and variant in color, with large ears, a cat like face and strange tail with a reed like appearance. The Pokémon tilted its head sideways at Jet, as if wondering what he was, and then pawed clumsily at his face. Jet rolled back to his feet and pawed back at the other Pokémon and they began to play instinctively, Jet quickly forgetting about his earlier experience.

Over the next few days, Jet learnt quickly. After continuously practicing, Jet soon became able to walk almost without thinking, and was constantly exploring his environment, which, although it seemed to consist of nothing more than a large rectangle, delivered endless fascinating possibilities to Jet. He was accompanied by his little pink friend, and together they bumped into every inch of surrounding wall, finally coming to the conclusion that it was the extent of their world, although Jet had noticed that every time he approached a particular corner one of the adult Pokémon would herd him back towards the middle of the room. He also noticed some of the adults seemed to appear and disappear from that corner, but he wasn't sure how that was possible. Jet guessed that there was some sort of trick to disappearing through the door, but he hadn't figured it out just yet.

Jet was just starting to get comfortable in his world, when on his fourth day of existence it was interrupted by the appearance of something much larger than the adults, and which even they seemed to be slightly cautious of, and certainly very respectful around. Jet heard the term "humans" passed around between the adults when the two creatures arrived, and when one of them spoke, the adults rushed around, shoving all the babies into lines. Jet growled as one of the adults shoved him away from his pink friend and into a separate group with other Pokémon the same shape as him. Immediately Jet growled again as he saw the copper colored baby facing him. He had quickly grown to hate this creature for the attention that it stole from him; the adults would always let it eat first and punish anything that got in the way, which most often happened to be Jet. It was already obvious that he was by far the bravest and most daring of all the babies.

While the adults stood back and watched, the "humans" examined all of the babies, starting with the group of pink colored Pokémon, one of which was Jet's friend, and which he had come to know of as Skitty. Next they moved on to a group of black Pokémon called Poochyena, whose fur was messy and stuck out in places, as opposed to Jet's sleek coat. The third group of Pokémon were green and blue, with strangely elongated heads and known as Electrike. Finally, the two humans moved on to Jet's group.

'Absol, this is what Dominic really wanted...' said one of them, Jet only registering the "Absol" that he had come to know as his species.

'Omgosh, is that a shiny one?' said the second human, and Jet watched on slightly jealously as the copper colored Absol was plucked from the ground and examined carefully. He didn't know what these humans were looking for or what they wanted, but Jet hated the other Absol for getting the attention all the same, and growled to express this, prompting the other human to reach down and examine him too. Jet growled almost continuously in annoyance as the human then proceeded to turn him upside down, run some sort of tape over different angles of his body, hang him from a metal instrument and then stick something long and thin into his body, prompting him to yelp in pain and try to bite the human with his quickly developing teeth. The human was too quick for him however, and Jet earned a sharp smack to the head and was sent tumbling back to the rest of the group, all of which were then subjected to the same procedure, though with noticeable less aggression than Jet after seeing him get smacked.

Having finished with all of the Absol, the humans left through that mysterious corner, which seemed almost to open for them. With the humans gone, the adults relaxed and the little groups of Pokémon dispersed across the room. Jet, who hadn't forgotten being chosen second, followed after the copper colored Absol. After glancing around to check that none of the adults were watching, as what he was about to do was sure to earn him a smack, Jet pounced on the other Absol, dragging it to the ground and sinking his teeth into his shoulder with as much force as he could. The copper Absol yelped in pain and started struggling, but Jet clung on desperately, tasting for the first time a strange metallic substance in his mouth.

The adults had however heard the yelping, and they rushed quickly over to the pair of struggling Pokémon, wrenching Jet from the other Absol and sending him crashing to the ground as they yelled things that Jet didn't understand at him. One of the adult Absol seemed particularly angry, following after Jet and beating him several more times across the head with her paw as he tried to retreat. Eventually it seemed to feel that he had been punished sufficiently, and backed off, leaving Jet to curl up battered and bruised in a distant corner of the room, whimpering to himself. His friend the Skitty came over to lick his face timidly, seeming equally as confused as Jet as to why he had been punished so brutally.

After several minutes another Absol, which Jet vaguely identified as his mother came over, and she spoke words to him, not in an angry voice but a soothing and peaceful tone. Jet failed to understand almost everything that she said, but one word stuck in his consciousness, and he knew somehow that it was the name of the copper colored Absol. Rust. The hate Jet felt towards this other Absol was slowly building, and the beating he had just received had done plenty to help it grow. It seemed like Rust was going to get special treatment with everything, and Jet decided that he would have to fight hard to make its life as difficult as possible, whatever the consequences.

Author Note: Another delayed chapter... Dx Writing hasn't really been flowing, so I've been going on a paragraph a night sort of basis, which doesn't exactly make for quick updates. Hopefully the next one will be a little more speedy. :x