Continues directly from the end of the last chapter. And finals… yay.

And massive thanks to [USER=306600]Ziel[/USER] for helping me edit.

Taylor Hebert: Pokémon Master

- -Chapter Eleven: Introductions- -

November 15th - 2010

United States, East Coast, Brockton Bay

Fingers halting on the trackpad, I spared one last look at the frozen image of the thief before leaning over to look past the laptop screen to see who was at the door- before hastily pushing the computer to the side in order to keep it from being crushed by a flying Madison, her arms out wide as she pounced on me.

I didn't have time to get out of the away before she fell onto me. Hell, I couldn't even make an attempt at pushing her off before she was wrapping her arms around me; making me lose my breath as my ribs went from grumbling to flat-out pitching a bitch.

"Dammit, Madison get off of me!" I protested. And tried, in vain, to pry her off.

"No!" she grumbled and proceeded to hug me tighter. "You need Hugs, Hugs make people feel good so I'm giving you Hugs."

Growling, I pulled again at her arms and tried to push her off. "Madison, dammit, I'm not a Feels-Thread, let go of me!"

"No," She mumbled petulantly and I felt her hands wiggling closer together until they were intertwined.

I struggled against her hold a bit more but my heart wasn't really in it. So, instead of fighting her, I just let myself go limp and stared up at the ceiling, waiting for her to get this out of her system.

"Wow," a girls voice drawled from the doorway, "if I'd known that was how you swung maybe I should have worn one of my better outfits today."

Blinking, I looked away from the ceiling and toward my doorway to see a pretty, dark-skinned girl in faded jeans and a strapless top leaning against the grinned as she saw me looking at her. But before I could ask her who the hell she was and what was she doing in my house, Madison let out a muffled "Ah!"

Her hands unlocked and she rolled off me to fall to the floor; bouncing up not a moment later with a smile on her face as she held her hand out to present the girl.

"Taylor, I would like to introduce you to Aisha. She's the one I mentioned I was bringing over." Her smile shifted into a grin and she snickered, "You see, I have chosen the foul-mouthed little darling as my favorite person of the week."

Raising a brow I looked back to the girl- Aisha, I corrected -and watched how she was looking over my room. Looking over the shelves, desk, windows… Honestly I would have figured she were casing it but that would have been giving Madison too little credit. Add to it that she seemed tense, high strung, her arms crossed defensively over her admittedly not-so-modest chest as her foot tapped a hole through the carpet.

I sighed and pushed my analysis of the girl to the back of my mind, "And what, exactly, did she do to to make your person of the week list? Far as I remember, I've pretty much been the only non-family person on it since we met. She must have really wowed you something special."

Snickering, Madison leaned up against my desk; and picking a pencil from the cup she began to absently pick at her fingernails. "Oh nothing much, at least nothing intentional, but you know the super big travel mug she sometimes comes to school with? The one she brings when it looks like she hasn't slept?"

I nodded, recalling just the one. It was the very same mug Mom had given to Emma's mother for her birthday. Just one more way for her to try and dig the knife in.

"Yeah, well anyway, Aisha here didn't get too much sleep last night either because her big brother was porking his boss all night and-"

The girl in question let out an indignant squawk and I glanced over to see her mouth agape. "I didn't say anything like that!"

"Oh hush deary, you don't need to deny it…" Madison suddenly stopped picking her nails and tapped the eraser end of the pencil against her chin, "although, you were a bit out of so you may not remember it- but you did say it." She raised a finger and grinned, "You even said you were looking for someone to set him up-" She suddenly ducked down, evading the pen that Aisha had just thrown at her.

Grinning, Madison just winked at me before leaning back against the desk, "Well anyway, I was keeping an eye on her since she wasn't looking too well getting off the bus. Stumbling, sluggish, slumped over, moaning and generally just looking like the risen dead when she walked right into Emma. Just as she was taking a drink."

Grinning wide and barely holding back her giggles she motioned as if she were drinking something then mimed something spilling all over her front.

"Seriously Taylor, you should have seen it. Somehow the lid came off just as Aisha bumps into Emma and before she knows what's happening she's got what must have been a full twenty ounces of coffee running all down her front."

Pressing a fist to her mouth, her shoulders shook and she doubled over in fits of giggles as she tried to regain control of herself. "And- and you know the best part of it all? She was wearing some new dress, a white dress, I even think it was one of her modeling ones."

I couldn't have stopped the deep throated laugh that broke from me if I had tried; my aching ribs, however; did, leaving me coughing as I regained my breath and imagined what sort of hell Emma would soon be going through with her manager. "You're right, I did need that," I told her and turning my attention to Aisha I cleared my throat. "So out of curiosity, did she try anything? Did she push you, punch you, scream that she'll sue you or anything like that?"

Scowling, Aisha's face twisted up and she looked like she was going to spit on the floor but rolled her eyes instead. "As if I'd let her push me around, I'd have knocked her the fuck out. All I know was one second I was getting off the bus, then rich-bitch is in my face ranting about how her oh-so-precious dress cost more than I'd ever make in my life. Then started spouting off the name of some designer or some shit and I tuned her out."

My grin now probably matched Madison's. She'd been right, I had needed this. "Well that would explain it, she probably 'borrowed' it after one of her modeling shoots. She isn't supposed to take clothes home since they're usually super expensive but she did it anyway, I guess it finally came back to bite her."

"Yeah, well I hope she has to pay for it. Dumb bitch. I told her she could go fuck herself if she thought I'd be paying for the thing and it looked like she was gonna try n' start some shit. But then she saw that bubble-boobs," she jerked her chin to Madison, "had her phone on her and left... But hey, how would you know-"

Suddenly her eyes widened and she smoothly dropped to the floor to avoid a flying pencil; her hands and feet spread out to distribute her weight as she caught herself just inches from the ground.

"Hey! What was that for?!"

"I'm just an early bloomer is all."I looked away from Aisha to see that Madison had gone into full-on chipmunk mode. Her cheeks puffed out and eyes narrowed at Aisha as she lowered her arm. "I resent that name, I don't have bubble-boobs," she complained and pulled her sweatshirt up to cover her reddening cheeks. "I'm just an early bloomer is all."

Snorting, Aisha shook her head and smoothly rose to her feet. "Early bloomer my ass, you're easily bigger than my bro's trashy-ass boss and I…" She trailed off, looking past Madison before glancing back to me and pointed.

"Hold up!" She exclaimed with sudden hostility, her hand coming up to point. "What the fuck is that? You're fucking friends with that stuck-up bitch!?"

I had a good idea what she was talking about, but I leaned forward anyway to follow where her hand was pointing to look at a picture frame hanging on the wall next to the window. Despite being coated in a thin layer of dust the ten by twelve picture of Mom, Emma and Myself was clearly visible. Quite honestly, I forgot about it most days, but, despite Emma being in it I left it up. It was just too good a reminder of the better times. Simpler times.

Letting out a heavy sigh, I leaned back against my pile of pillows, "Not anymore, that was a long time ago. I don't think I need to explain that she isn't the most pleasant person to be around nowadays."

Aisha huffed, ineffectually blowing a lock of bleached white hair out of her eyes that I'd missed before tucking it back. "Well no shit, can't really see how she could have been better though. Hell, I'd ave' believed it if you told me that stuck-up bitch was born with a golden spork shoved so far up her ass she had a grill when she popped out."

Pausing at the imagery, I shuddered and shook my head to dispel it. "Honestly, and to be fair to her mother, she wasn't always like that. Up till a few years ago we were real close, almost sisters… then we weren't."

Aisha just shrugged dispassionately, "Figures, someone like her. So what'd she do, she break a nail and blame you or some shit?"

"No, nothing that petty."

"What then?" the younger girl pushed, her tone oddly aggressive. "What would some Daddy's girl like her have done that would ruin her friendship with a badass trainer like you?"

I started and sat up a bit straighter as I stared at Aisha.

"Oh yeah, I know who you are- what you can do. Probably everyone at the school does." She let out a bitter laugh, "They're also scared shitless of you. The whole user-name as a' cape-name thing is fine but it doesn't really work when people can recognise you," she nodded to Belly, "specially' when you bring in that one. So c'mon, what happened."

Groaning from her spot at my desk, she shifted and stood a little straighter. "I'm sorry Tay, I'll-"

I absently waved a dismissive hand in Madison's direction and looked at the girl she had brought along, really looked this time. Madison hadn't mentioned an age, but considering I hadn't seen Aisha in our year or above meant she had to be a freshman. Probably only thirteen or fourteen. Her eyes though, they were much older. Harder.

"It's ok Madison, I don't mind…" I locked eyes with Aisha before nodding to Belly's floating form and seeing, for the first time since I'd lain down hours earlier, the red of the former Metagross's eye staring intently back.

"Emma... Well like I said, she and I were close. Right up until she tried to steal Belly- Pausing as the speakers on my desk crackled, I looked over to Belly who just stared back.

"Because She Is A Stupid Bitch," Belly helpfully interjected, before the single, staring eye faded back to grey.

I nodded and continued, "-after… an incident, that left him as he is now." I shrugged, what was done was done, "After that, well things... well to not go into it things went downhill rather fast between us."

Nodding along, Aisha looked from me to Belly; staring blankly for a protracted period. Then she blinked once, then twice and blinked a third time before her eyes widened in surprise. She crossed her hands as if to say 'Time Out!', "Woah woah woah, hold up, that thing can talk!? I didn't know they could do that!"

"What, you've never seen Pokemon talk before?" I teased.

"... Uh, yeah, no, I haven't." She said incredulously then briefly glanced back to Belly; her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Actually, um, I've got a pokemon too. I mean, I'm not going to wake up in the middle of the night with it talking to me am I. Because I don't think I could handle that. I mean, it's like, suuuuper little." She pinched her fingers together shook her head after a second.

"Ok well not that little," she admitted, "it's more like the size of a baby kitten now. It's this furry yellow spider thing, my Big-Bro got it for me. I mean it's cool and all except that it keeps chewing up the power cords; it's probably eaten through my alarm clock cable like... three times. The thing is like- entirely duct tape at this point."

"Chewing on power cables..." I muttered to myself, an old memory of an article I'd read tickling at the back of my brain before it snapped into place… "Is it a Joltik?"

Screwing up her mouth, Aisha narrowed her eyes in thought.

"They have yellow fur, four eyes- electric blue," I added, "-and four legs with blueish tips? That sound familiar?"

Blinking in surprise Aisha just nodded.

"Well then there you go, and no, it probably not going to start talking- Belly is a bit of a special case. As for it chewing up the cables, however; I can tell you for certain that it's doing that in order to get to the electricity. They feed on it, a lot of electric pokemon do, it's part of what helps them grow. In fact, the power companies were having problems with them eating up the long distance power lines. Least until Silph or some figured out to set up 'live voltage points, I can't remember who it was but it let them and the adult Galvantula get to the electricity without having to eat through... the cable's… huh."

Snapping my fingers twice I looked to Madison as I realized an easy fix for Aisha's problem. "Madison, you think you could throw something together for it using some scrap stuff in the basement? Basically a mini live wire point or something?"

Cocking her head, she stared blankly into space before nodding smartly. "Sure. The live wire points are basically just a chain of open circuits separated from the main lines by a pair of capacitors. It shouldn't be too hard to throw something similar together with what we have lying around downstairs." She nodded to Aisha, "You'd probably want to make some sort of enclosure around it though, for all intents and purposes a little Live Wire would be just that, a live wire. If you touched it it would be like sticking a fork in the electrical socket. A shoebox or something like that would work."

"Cool," she muttered, her cheeks darkening a little as she looked between the two of us. "Uh, you two really know your shit don't you?"

Madison smiled and opened her mouth to say something but a sudden chorus of- 'My Milkshake Brings All The Boys To The Yard' -cut her off, and Aisha dug into her back pocket to pull out a cell phone. Quickly putting it to to her ear, she cringed and flinched away from it just as fast before she told whoever was on the other end to hold on.

"Um, is there somewhere I can take this?" she asked a bit awkwardly. "It's my Big Bro."

I pointed at the wall behind my desk. "Bathroom's down the hall and to the left."

Watching as she left the doorway, I listened for the bathroom's door to close, absently realizing the sound of the power tools from below was absent when I heard the muffled- thunk -of the door being closed. I turned to Madison, "So, whats the real reason you brought her over?"

Looking down, Madison was silent for a moment before reaching down and picking up the pen Aisha had thrown at her. "I've... been keeping an eye on her," she confessed. "For a while actually. She reminds me a bit of myself from… from before I moved to town."

"That was what you were like before you moved here," I drawled sarcastically. "I don't know what surgeon you went to but he did a bang-up job." It was completely inappropriate for the mood, but, if the slight smile pulling at the corners Madison's lips was any indication, it had worked. Which was what mattered.

Huffing dramatically, she set the pen aside. "Not literally. She's just... she's closed off. I've been keeping an eye on her and everytime I see her she's alone, not once have I seen her sit with anyone else since I started paying attention. I don't know what her situation is but considering she said she lives with her older brother… and I don't know, I guess I just felt for her. I want to help her out like you helped me out."

"I get it," I told her solemnly. "But there's something you need to ask yourself. Does she want it? If you push her I doubt it'll help things any. From what you're telling me she'll probably not appreciate it…" Rubbing my fingers together, I considered what little I had seen of her; her actions and reactions... "And did you notice how she was scoping out my room when she came in?"

Slowly, Madison nodded. "She's not going to steal anything or break in Taylor. I like to think I know people better, if I thought she was a thief I wouldn't have even considered bringing her over. At least not until I got to know her better."

"I know that," I assuaged. "And that's not what I was saying, because I'm fairly sure she wasn't, but I think she was looking for ways to get out if she had to. What that could mean…" Trailing off, I shrugged. There were really a good number of reasons I could think of for her to act like that, and not one of them was good; but it wasn't my place to pry, that would be Madison's job.

"Well take from it what you will. But all I'm saying is don't push her, let her go at her own pace."

Madison nodded in understanding before smiling smugly and jabbing her thumb at herself. "She won't know what hit her and she doesn't know who she's messing with if she thinks she'll shake me from her. I'll stick by her like white on rice."

"Or a leech," I added.

She just sniffed and tilted her head back to look down on me with narrowed eyes. "Well I think I prefer my version, thank you very much."

I could only shake my head when I heard the bathroom door open and Aisha returned to my doorway, her phone in hand. "Um, yeah. I kinda gotta go, my Big-Bro heard about Rich-Bitch or something and he wants me home."

Nodding, Madison pushed away from my desk and stepped up next to Aisha to throw her arm around the younger girl's shoulders. "Well we'd better get going then shouldn't we? And when you introduce me to your brother I can tell him what's up. How's that?"

Suddenly looking somewhat uncomfortable, Aisha nodded hesitantly and wiggled out from under Madison's arm before vacating the doorway.

Madison looked after her, eyes narrowed as if examining a challenging problem. Then glancing over, she shrugged exaggeratedly before following after Aisha with a jaunty, "Later."

I stared at the open doorway for a bit after I'd heard the front door shut; worrying my lip and weighing what Madison had said about what had happened that morning. Would Emma retaliate against someone she considered a nobody? That was the question, and I would have honestly said no if it were under normal circumstances. But, with Madison intervening and with how much trouble Emma was likely to be in with her agent over a dress that potentially cost thousands of dollars… That made things a bit different, and then again, she didn't necessarily have to do anything herself.

Because that was the thing. Emma, by herself, wasn't anything special. The problem laid however in the people she surrounded herself with. People like Sophia, and even her dad, who, admittedly, probably didn't know just how messed up his daughter was, to back her up. To cover for her and those that could do something…

Nodding to myself, I leveraged my Pressure-Boot clad foot off its pile of bundled-up comforter and pillows. And, getting out of bed, I limped over to my desk to grab up my Pokeball holster.

Trailing my index finger across the shrunken spheres I stopped, the tip of my finger resting on the pink and cream sphere of the Heal Ball. Shifting it aside, I stared down at a line of four, clear dots; three of which were lit red. I gently tapped the sphere twice before moving along and pulling free another of their shrunken number; a normal, if rather battered, Pokeball.

Expanding it, I pointed it toward a clear patch of carpet and squeezed; sending a beam of crimson light to my floor where it coalesced into Umbra, sitting with her legs crossed and her worn brown cloak draped around her. Slowly, she opened her eyes to expose crimson irises. Blinking against the brightness of the light coming in through my windows she rolled her neck and stood; stretching her arms above her head and rising onto the tips of her feet in one fluid motion.

Her whole body twitched, coiled muscles tightening as she reached toward the ceiling; her claws flexing in and out of there sheaths a few times as she loosened up. That done, she she lowered her arms but unconsciously touched at a patch of mangled fur along her chin. She started, her eyes going wide as she slowly traced her claws along the section of fur before touching at her the neck of her cloak, then at the top of her head pushing aside a red feather to reveal a misshapen and ragged ear.

Slumping almost imperceptibly, she tentatively ran the tip of a claw along the ragged edge before shakily running them through the row of red feathers that were the beginnings of her crest. Lowering her arm Umbra just stared vacantly forward before looking up at me, silent, her eyes inquisitive and saying more than she ever would, or rather could, be able to.

I smiled softly at her and sat on the edge of my bed so I was on a closer level to her. "Sorry for waking you up so early but I needed you to do something for me."

Looking up at me Umbra considered my request before simply nodding.

"There were two people here a bit ago, Madison and one other. I need you to go after them, to keep an eye on them and make sure they get to where they are going in case anyone tries something. Also, there are going to split up when they reach a residence. Once they do you can forget about the other girl and just focus on Madison."

Nodding sharply, Umbra raised her nose into the air; sniffing, drawing in the the scents of the room before she leaping onto my bed and sliding open my window with a long practiced ease. Sniffing again she put her onto the sill and made to step through the improvised door when she paused; turning her head slightly to look at me askance before holding out a paw.

Raising an eyebrow, she just closed her palm twice. Acquiescing, I shrunk her Pokeball back to its small form and held it out to her.

Snatching the Pokeball from my proffered hand she slipped it beneath the folds of her cloak and stepped through the window to stand on the eaves. Raising a paw against the sun she sniffed again, her head snapping toward the end of the block and she leapt from the eaves to the neighbor's roof; her tattered cloak trailing behind her and for the briefest of moments exposing bits of ragged fur.

I stared after her for a bit, really just looking out over the neighborhood before my ankle sent a jolt of pain up my leg. After that I quickly slid back into bed and settled back into my previous position; opening back up my laptop so I could finish reading the article about the break in at Silph.

+X+X+X+X+X+

It was a few hours later, almost dusk, when Umbra returned. The talk with Dad, whom had gotten home only an hour or so earlier, had been… uncomfortable, to say the least. Him wanting to restrict me 'for my own good', despite him saying otherwise only the night before. And myself, trying, and failing, to reassure him that he didn't need to worry about what I was doing; we'd both lost the argument in the end. Both of us saying things we couldn't take had gone to his office while I had thrown myself into figuring things out for the coming weeks and months, the forms I was in the process of filling out would be seeing to that.

I was just been finishing up when the window slid open behind me and Umbra hopped off the window sill to land onto my bed, feet leaving dusty prints as she then leapt over me and onto the floor.

Ignoring me, however; Umbra reached behind her back and came back a short rod gripped in her paw. Holding it out she quickly became impatient as I didn't immediately take it; instead continuing to stare at the wet patch on her cheek until she let out a frustrated rasp and I quickly grabbed it, lest she decide to jab me with it.

That done, she turned away and stalked over to my closet. Stopping only to push aside my jeans and lay down in the cleared space; pulling her cloak over herself as she settled in to rest.

Sighing, I turned my attention to the rod and turned it between my fingers as I examined it. I ran my thumb along the barbed tip, across the black plastic fletching along the rear; over the inset notch at the back of it.

No, not a rod. A bolt, a bolt from a crossbow.

I stared at the bolt for a bit, my blood rising to a simmer in my veins. But I held it back. There wasn't anything I could do, not now anyway and not in my current condition… which was precisely the problem.

I looked it over for a bit longer before pulling open my empty nightstand drawer and dropping it inside, barely managing to keep from slamming it closed. Just one more thing to deal with.

In the meantime though, I turned back to my laptop, and pulled up The Clinic's website before shifting back to the previous tab. I would finish filling out my registration forms before my session ran out, then I would see about getting back on my feet again.

Chapter Pokedex: Pokemon Featured and/or Mentioned

Sneasel: Umbra

Joltik