Chapter 18: A New Lesson: Part 4

Wow… I actually won my first war. Huh. Neat.

I see my yellow team members crowd me; I constantly feel the patting and hugs from their warm bodies. The congratulations was all I needed to know that I made the right choice to join. If our games were going to be like this for now on I'm gonna be beaming.

Team Mystic and Team Valor took their loss well… I think. It was hard to see through all that yellow. I see the eyepatch kid nodding his head in amusement and whispering to Horror Glass who playful elbowed his robotic arm into his side. Swirl is clapping with pride while Poseidon was following her example, but conflicted.

The only one who was not joining the fun was the charmeleon, still clutching his crotch in pain. I could see his beady eyes from here, irises aflame alight. He marched to a Horror Glass. I could hear what he was saying.

"That was a foul!"

"What?" Glass said.

"That guy hit my balls, the rules said we can't allow this kind of harm in play. He should be disqualified."

"Pfft! Come on man, you practically jumped on him. He was dodging it all." Displeased with the metapod's answer, the leader of Team Valor spoke to several referees. Based on his deepening scowl and twitching claws I could guess it wasn't going his way. He instead kept looking at me with that same look.

Geeze I really struck a nerve this time. Do I have a talent for that? Or maybe it was a skill in the making-

Da-Ding-Dong. Attention students! Attention students! Recess is now over. Report back to class, thank you!

A chorus of 'Aw's' and 'Dangs' went around. Eyepatch snapped his fingers. "Come on, guys! We had a good time! We'll get to see who'll be the better victor next time. Now let's throw the stuff back and camp before anyone notices we're late." There were no objections, everyone was just about mobilizing. I see Swirl wave, and soon she and her brother disappear over the hill. Then I see Abby and Toby approach.

"That. Was. Amazing man!" Cried Toby as he wrung an arm over my shoulder. "Did you see when you hit that guy's balls! That was hilarious. Ah, if only I had a camera!"

"Try not to say that into 'firebreath's' face." Abby commented. "That's pretty cool, Cal. For a newbie you're not so bad yourself."

I shrugged the best I could, I can feel my cheeks blushing. "Well, I did say I was good on my feet."

"I say!" I feel Horror Glass give me a playful slap on the back. "I wished you told me that little quirk of yours sooner. Thanks to you, the other teams will be treating us more seriously from now on! Are you light on your feet, soldier?"

I cocked my head to the side. "Uh… well I do like to get the heart pumping a lot so… yeah."

"Great!" Our leader says. "In that case, I think I'll divert some of our specialized members towards you. With their help, I think they might help you utilize those legs of yours even better. You still need to work on your eye-to-hand coordination but I think we can fix that no problem flat."

I smiled, sir. "Thanks, Glass. That really means a lot."

"That's King Glass to you sir." He held a finger high into the air then smirked. "Now, good subjects. Let's dump this stuff at base and run like hell. I'm too young for detention!"

Abby rolled her eyes. "Detention is not that bad-"

"And it's being run by Miss Vigor."

Toby and Abby expressed shock, and like the wind they flew nearly right over the top. Glass chuckled at me. "Hahaha. No but seriously I would get to school as fast as you can. You really don't want to get on her bad side."

Another reason to tow the line. I'm so glad I'm not in Leafy's nonexistent shoes right now.

This is it, I finished my last class for the day. Physical exercise. Can't believe I still have enough energy in me after recess. I suppose that energy bar had a hand at it… ah whatever, I feel satisfied. That's all that matters. I would tell Rose how awesome I was at being a knight, but I didn't know if she would report this or not. She was always a worry wort even back then.

Eh, still awesome though.

I waved my classmates goodbye then took a beeline to the bathroom. I forgot to pee and I felt like my bladder was on its way to burst. If I stain my pants I would never hear the end of it from Rose, or arecus-forbid, Poseidon.

No worry, though. I ended it as soon as it began. After I finished up at the urinal I went to the sink to wash my hands. Before I had the chance to apply some soap, I heard a growl. "Oh… it's you again."

No… Oh no. I look in the mirror. That charmeleon guy from Team Valor emerged from one of the stalls. His class must have ended early. I quickly wrapped up my hand-washing and moved to grab a towel. Even though the game has ended, I don't think the war has ended just yet. He took my spot washing his claws with more friction than necessary.

"Um… funny seeing you here Mr..." I started off with a complement but I didn't know how to respond. "I… how are you feeling? I've been the told the details and it was-"

"Name's Rocket. And it still hurts, no thanks to you." With another growl, he stopped the faucet and grabbed a paper towel. "I should also not thank you for making that little victory lap. I've been hearing sounds of laughter and jokes going around."

"Really? Well that sounds pretty nice-"

"-At my expense." He tossed his towel on the floor and began to move towards me. Before I had the chance to run he had me cornered. I gulped. "You were planning that, were you? Making that move so late in the game. Are you trying to take me down, little man?"

Meeting my first bully on the first day? God, why did this have to happen! I just wanted to play a game! Screw it, maybe I can convince him to back off. "Hey man, back off."

My pupils shrink as soon as I say it. Crap! I didn't mean it like that. It just came out of my mouth-

His growl threatened to tear his face apart while his tail flame got brighter. "Back off! After the stunt you pulled and the fact you cheated you think you had the right to mouth me?! You little runt."

"I didn't cheat! The referee-"

"The referee's an ass! He only let you win because they had a problem with me. He saw an opportunity and they used it. You should have been disqualified." Rocket pressed a claw against the tiles on the wall, patiently but firmly tapping the tips of his claws against it. "It looks like I have another problem to deal with, thanks a lot jackass. I can't believe someone like you managed to get that far. Humans are so fragile, it's a wonder why they allow you in at all. But that's besides the point."

"Look, my friend is waiting in the car-"

"You friend can wait." He brought his face closer; I can smell smoke. "I guess you can't help yourself. With us at the top, we've been practically coddling you like babies. Just because you haven't been given spankings you think you can own the place! I don't know how the world can put up with this crap. But hey, I can forgive and forget. All I want is one thing, and it's not your lunch money."

The sounds died up but the vibrations refused to humble. I was supposed to be a knight, the type of guy that would face the challenge head on and don't let the sticks and arrows get to them. It was imaginary yes, but it still rang true to my heart. I was supposed to be a knight. But when I actually came against the heat, but I couldn't do anything but sweat. This dragon, polarizing enemy of the knight is making me crumble at the seams. At one roar, I wonder if I'll get roasted to death.

I was tempted to say whatever just this guy to get off my back. But he said those words.

"I want you to apologize to me for cheating, then march straight to your peapod of a leader to strip that win for you. Oh, are you feeling hot under the collar? I don't care how you deal with it but this will get to your head one way or another!" Are we clear, monkey?

Monkey. I heard that term once before from the protesters once at White Fang. I remember it clearly: Farey pulled me away from the gate and brushed off any attempts of questioning her about that word. I asked Lily and she said it was a… slur. A word they love to use to demean us.

It's 'Monkeys' because of our similarities to them. Not monkey-like pokemon, but ordinary monkeys. It's symbolic: we're cute and cuddly on the outside but deep down we are lean mean animals. Or at least that's what they think.

Because of that misuse of the word, the meaning of it became so corrupted so fast that the TV broadcasters and the media stopped using it. Monkeys are now referred to as Simkeys. I don't know how they came up with that idea.

But that doesn't matter, what matters is that he used it. I for one are not normally affected by name calling but he showed what he really thought of me. His attitude during the game and the fact that very few humans were on his team should've warned me. He doesn't want the fact, he wants the humiliation.

Rocket smiles, thinking he has won. He wants an apology? Sure thing buddy, coming right up!

I narrowed my eyes. "Alright, I'm sorry you're a complete jerkass."

His eyelids opened wide, I swore I could see the veins building around the whites of his eyes. He was breathing heavily now, attempting to close his snout and waved the smoke away so it didn't activate the smoke alarm. "I think you misspoke, brat."

"Naw, I was speaking clearly. You want my apology? Well that's all you're gonna get. You think I'm gonna shake your hands after trying to force my hand and being racist and crap! Well forget it buddy!" I growled, then poked a finger into his chest. "If I'm a monkey, you're a pathetic wall lizard!" I'm pretty sure that's not a slur so I'm using it. I walked to the exit. "Goodbye! Thanks for nothing!"

Great, now that little scuffle is over with, I need to leave. Rose should be at the parking lot right about now. I can't wait to go home and relax-

The bathroom door slammed shut, and a familiar reddish-orange paw turned the knob to lock the door. Rocket was staring me with bloody murder in his eyes. "Oh now ya did it! Thanks for nothing? Then allow me to show you my gratitude."

The charmeleon wrapped his paw around my throat and pinned me against a wall. The claw squeezed tighter and tighter and I found myself at odds to breathe. I did my best to pull him off of me, but that only made him squeeze tighter so I let go. Rocket snarled.

"A wall lizard?! Say that again and this lizard will bite your tongue out!"

"B-But you can't-t!" I strained, my eyes were getting puffy. "That's… this is assault! You… C-Can't-"

"Ha! You think the guilds are gonna bust my ass? So trusting of authority… isn't that how you got in this position in the first place? Your species hasn't learned a damn thing since then."

He took me off the wall and pressed my face on the floor with him on top of me. "Newsflash buddy! A lot of people around here are not fans of your kind. Sure they might smile and wave nice but don't get fooled. They hate you."

"What?!" I exclaimed. "No… I… there are some groups but-"

"Those groups are not as small as you think. They happen to be the loudest." I couldn't tell if he was chuckling or growling again. But he was certainly taking his time. "A lot of people keep their mouths shut so they don't fall short in the social game! They would join the ManKeepers if they had the chance!"

ManKeepers. I heard of them I think. Lily mentioned it once during the 'Monkey' talk. Said they were among the first anti-human groups to be sprung up after the war. They were the founders of these protests and other groups adopted their methods as a result.

These anti-pokemon groups, it always varies. Some try to paint themselves as the 'voice of reason' and try to explain why it's bad to let humans off the leash saying 'we're not civilized yet.' Others are disjointed and seem to be there for heckling or just want to stir up trouble. But the ManKeepers were unique, they did protest a lot but their way of handling things revolved around getting their people elected to positions of power or getting awfully friendly to certain politicians.

I tried to search these things on the internet once, but White Fang had a parental block for us, and that was the topic mainly censored. I supposed they wanted to keep us innocent. I don't know what happened with that group but I heard they weren't as active anymore. So why the hell is this guy acting like they're the next biggest thing?!

Rocket smile was making me sick. "So you do know who they are. Wonderful, this will make things that much easier." He leaned in my ear. "Your name is Cal, right? Well listen here, Caaaaal. Right now the human lovers are the majority. They have the power. But that can't last forever, soon enough your kind will something incredible stupid or enough of us will spread the word to where you have the short end of the stick."

"End of the stick?!"

"In other words, you'll completely be at our control. You're too much trouble to be left roaming around, and more than enough people know that already. I won't explain more than that, I don't want to ruin the surprise. Go on the internet, buddy! I'm sure you can figure it out! But back to what I was saying… GIVE ME MY DAMN APOLOGY! NOW!

"Okay! Okay!" I screamed. "I'm sorry for what happened at the game! I didn't mean hurt your nuts, I swear it!"

"Lies!" He said. "I saw you smiling. You were planning on it weren't you?"

"No! I swear I… ugh, listen. I'll leave the knights! I'll just tell Glass to take me off the team!" Screw it, I feel like this guy would actually hurt me. I don't know if I'll actually quit but I had to appease this guy somehow.

"Great! This is even better. I can't wait to see the look on… actually, you know what… I want to stay." He relaxed his stance and pulled me up to where we met eye to eye.

I was hesitant to respond. "...What? You said-"

"Changed my mind." Rocket said. "I think I have a lot more use with you in yellow. From this point forward, you and I are going to be very close when it comes to these… knightly games. You hear? I'll tell you the details later, but as far as you are concerned… I'm your boss. And you are my servant, my little pawn. You get it."

I stayed silent, but began squeezing again, so I gave in. "Yes, Yes! I got it, Rocket!"

"Yes, I got it, Mr. Rocket sir!" He replied. "Say it."

I resigned and let out all the air I held in my lungs once. "Yes, I got it, Mr. Rocket sir."

"Good, that's really good. And one more thing." He pressed his head against his. All I saw was his pupils. "If you think you can just run off and spout what happened here, just remember this.. I know where you live, Strongridge Estates. You're living with a lucario, a female one right?"

My blood ran cold, then boiling hot. I was not going to hear him talk about Rose from his rotten mouth! I reached to strike him but he caught it with ease. "So Cal the human has some fight with him after all. It'd be amusing if it wasn't so pathetic."

He threw me to the ground and placed a foot on my chest, immobilizing me. A held the hand that I tried to strike him with and observed it. "Now I'm going to say this once, so listen well. I have friends in high and low places, and they'll cover for me if you try anything to screw me over. I can easily turn this around to where you are the one at fault. And yes, I do know where you live. So think wisely next time you try to go toe to toe with a pokemon, else this will happen to you."

Rocket brought his free claw to his snout and blew a steaming hot breath of fire on it. Then he place a single claw on the back on my wrist, when it made contact-

"Ow! Ow! Oh arecus stop please! Arceus god it hurts! Ow!"

It hurt like hell, the claw had a lot of heat on it. He let go after he saw the tears on my face, but he waved his finger in front of my face. Is this a game to him?! Arceus, it still hurts.

"You see that? Even the weakest pokemon would brush that off. We have superpowers and you don't! Remember that next time you try to pull this crap another pokemon." He let go and unlocked the door. "See you later, Cal. Don't make me come find you next time."

He exited the restroom and left me to tremble on the floor. I grabbed my backpack, a wet stain covered a large portion of the bottom. It must have come into contact with a leaking toilet. I got up and scrambled to the door, cheeks still wet. I looked at my hand, the skin was burnt completely but it was bright red and still hurting.

I entered the hallway and hid my hand in my pocket. As I walked the tiles a single thought rings through my mind: Was leaving White Fang the right thing to do?

I don't know

Vulp was seated in the parking lot, sipping on a bottle of iced coffee. Personally, he was more of a tea drinker than anything else. But due to the duties of his job he had to find better solutions. Out of all the inventions he had come across, this was the most useful to him.

But then there was the nice SUV he is driving now. Pokemon these days were too interested in flash expensive sports cars or extremely rare vintage ones. He never really got the point of all that, a car's a car. All that matters is the merits of what it can do. And there's the phone, another invention that changed society for the second time. He really loved the convenience-

*RING* *RING*

-if it didn't keep calling him at inopportune times. He groaned and pressed the call button. "Nightstalker here, what's the update?"

"###"

"We got only three?" Vulp didn't bother to hide his disappointment. "I thought we were gonna get seven this time, Psychovision! What gives?"

"###"

"Really? Damn… well then just use that wiping trick I taught you. What's the issue?

"###"

"Then just do it one at a time. If you're not strong enough to do multiple targets then I'll train you some more." Vulp can hear the school bell ring. He opened the glove compartment to pull out the binoculars. "Look, Psycho if there's anything else you need to get Light Driver to handle it. I have an important assignment right now. Okay? Okay. Okay make sure you don't leave a mess when you're done."

Vulp ended the call and looked through the eyepieces. He scanned the crowd for his person of interest. "Where are you… where are you… come on… there we go."

He spotted his target. A boy with a large wet patch on his backpack. He believed his name was if he had heard correctly, he never was one for remembering names. Nothing seemed odd until he noticed that the target kept eyeing a specific pokemon in the crowd, a charmeleon. Calvin shuddered and tried to look away, doing his best to hang his head low.

"Mmm. That's something alright? Maybe I'll have Light Driver look into it." He wished he could go straight to the charmeleon to find out, but there were rules that had to be followed-

The phone rang again, this time he knew who was on the other side. "Yes, Nightstalker here. Big Sam, you there?"

"###"

"Yeah I can see him now. There's no indication that he's in danger but he certainly didn't look happy a minute ago." He saw Calvin being helped into the car by his guardian, a lucario. "Still, Light Driver is right where we need him. If any trouble springs up in this area he can put an end to it."

"###!"

"No! No. They are not aware of him at the moment. I made sure of that." He sighed sadly as Calvin's car drove out of view. "I told you the importance of why I did that right? We couldn't take the risk."

"###"

"Look, I know you're tired and so am I. I want this war to end as much as you do. But we got to play our cards right, Big Sam. You can't afford many mistakes. Trust me, when this is all over, you'll get to see him again soldier. I promise you that."

"###"

"No problem, anytime man. I'll meet you at headquarters soon. I still have some errands to run. I'll be there as fast as I can." Vulp turned off the phone and adjusted the rearview mirror. The bittersweet image of a zoroark greeted him back, he started the car and was going to drive away when he forgot something.

"Might as well get it out of the way now."

He reached into his bag and put on the explorer's badge.

This chapter would have been released earlier if it weren't for the fact college sprung on me and I had to catch up. But now I'm at the point of where I can confidently multitask. I hoped you enjoy this chapter, Till next time.