-----------------
So you think you've got friends in high places
With the power to put us on the run
Well forgive us these smiles on our faces
You'll know what power is when we are done
Son...
-- Playing With The Big Boys
The Prince of Egypt
-----------------
Part Three -- Enter Team Rocket
Laif and Mi'ko stared in disbelief as, upon the various platforms of the ship, several people, all bearing the Team Rocket logo in some way shape and or form, made their appearances. Most prominent of all were the two who leapt to immediate sight. A duet of odd preportions, these were the two known as Jesse and James. Mi'ko recognised them almost immediately from the countless times their pictures had been shown on the TV. Jesse, in her usual splendor, had her hair well hidden by a large, rather spectacular looking hat of red, a marvelous fedora, with a plume-like feather bobbing it's way from the brim. The rest of her disguise , though why she needed one Mi'ko found herself wondering, was beyond reasoning, she was so noticeable anyway with that hair, was a red tench coat that billowed about her feet, and managed to hide her usual rocket attire with a wonderful sense of mystery. She'd even dyed that amazing hair of hers from the usual magenta color to a dull brown. Her cohoert, James, with his hair dyed a darker blue (an attempt at black that failed miserably), leaned against her back, wearing a similar, less attractive hat, of brown, with a black band around the top. He wore a pair of sunglasses to hide his face. He was wearing a white shirt enblazoned with the R logo of the Rocket team, though hidden beneath a brown tweed shirt, like those seen upon mobsters in the old movies. A really gawky one, that, if anything, made the fool look more a fool. He smirked smugly as he pulled from his dark slack pockets a rose, and they began.
"Prepare for trouble!"
"Make it double!"
"To protect the world from devestation! "
"To unite all peoples within our nation ! "
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reach -"
"Are you QUITE done with that? I would LIKE to get my hands on that lapras before the storm kicks in again." The same booming voice said, as suddenly, it's owner came into view.
Captain, as he was simply known, wasn't the tallest, nor the burliest of the Rockets. And yet as he stepped into view, the two who had been spouting off immediately began to cavort about as if he were their leader. "Sorry Captain." The girl called cooingly as she dashed back. "Yeah, Captain, sorry!" said the goofy boy. He nodded to them, accepting their apologies, and then strode his way towards the end of the ship upon which the two had stood before. His face was hard-set, like stone, without an inch of hair, giving him the look of an angry young man, even though he was smiling. And the smile it'self was one of a dark, ominous maw of pearly whites, like the jaws of a shark. His eyes, equally dark, peered at them from sunken sockets of shadowy birth, their brownish black irises gleaming with an almost firey gaze. Staring at them from behind a froppy set of bangs that, like the rest of his jet-black hair, came in strings upon his face, he turns them a smile. He wore not the typical garb you'd see on a Rocket, but a dark, leather trench coat that bore, upon the back, a red letter R, which could stand for only one thing. And underneath that he wore a regular, plain shirt, of orange in hue. A sweater, really. And a pair of tight slacks, of the darkest black hue. At his side, hanging from a belt, instead of a pokeball, was a cutlass in a fine scabbard. But the blade didn't sheathed for long.
"Hand over the pokemon.." Captain said, coldly, as the blade sang it's way from it's harness. "Or we'll make tentacruel bait out of you." He sneered in their direction evilly, and smiles, motioning two other rockets toward the front of the boat. The fource of five against two easily threatened to end in a force of five against none. Still....
"You can't have our pokemon!" Laif declared angrilly, at the Rockets, already working on cutting the rope. Snap, and away, into the water, the teathering went. He pushed Mi'ko behind him. "Get back, Mi'ko, they could be dangerous." "Forget about me, Laif, Get yourself safe too!" Mi'ko snapped at him, trying to pull him aside. The Rockets, especially Captain, sneered down at the two 'runty kids' that seemed determined to be a trouble. "Jesse! James! Get your butts down there with your -rat- and take care of those kids!" Captain bellowed. The two goofy looking Rockets nodded. "I AIN'T A RAT!" A bellow, however, erupted from somewhere else on deck, before a meowth hopped his way into view. He was wearing quite the cute little sailor's outfit, as well. Perhaps it was Jesse's idea. Perhaps it was his own. The Meowth peered at the two kids, and grinned at them. "Da Captain says you better give up d'em Pokemon, an' w'ot da captain says goes!" he grinned, and splayed a set of nasty looking claws at them, while, at the same time, Jesse and James were trying to figure out-- "But Captain, how do we get DOWN there?" James whined loudly as he peered down at the lapras. "I Don't want to get my clothes wet!" Jesse sulked angrilly, about the thought of the water. "Why not Jesse, seems to me your -already- all washed up." James retorted. And of course, James' retort was answered with Jesse's hand flying for his face. Which erupted into a full blown argument between the two.
Captain rolled his eyes, and covered his face with a hand, rubbing at the bridge of his nose with one finger. The meowth, growling, and growing ever increasingly angry at the two, looked ready to explode. The rest of the Crew just stood there trying to look menacing while at the same time trying -not- to be embarressed by James and Jesse. Mi'ko, in the mean time, looked to Laif, and whispered in hisear. "Let's see if while their distracted we can surf away.." Laif nodded in agreement. The Team Rockets were, to say the least, annoying, and, if they broke up their spat soon they could be downright-- "And where do you think -you're- going?"Captain snarled down at the two brats at the same time that the meowth leps at Jesse and James' faces, and scratched them into silence -- Dangerous. Laif and Mi'ko waved to the ship and it's crew. "Well you all looked so busy, and we didn't want to bother you so, we thought we'd just be going now." Mi'ko said, bravely, as she and Laif started to pull away from the ship with the lapras's aide.
But as they were doing that, Captain was directing Jesse, James, and Meowth towards them, armed to the teeth with net-guns. "Grab them, Catch them!" Captain shouted angrilly at the three, as Jesse and James bumbled their way foreward. And even as they were rushing for the two, the storm was picking up again about them. Laif yelled, "MI'KO! HOLD ON TIGHT!" As, just as violently as before, the winds were suddenly whirling about them. The sea became rough one more, tossing and bolting into the air, swirling around them. Just as Jesse and James fired, a giant wave bigger then even the boat that towered above the lapras and it's passangers came sweeping towards all.
-----------------
"LOOK OUT!" The words rang in Mi'ko's mind seconds before the water deafened her, and she found herself choking out air, and gulping in water. She bobbed to the surface, gasping from the salt in her mouth, from the unbearable shallowness that now filled her every breath. Something floated by her.. It was the pokeball, it's chain caught on a bit of wood.. -wood-?! She found herself searching. The ship had been hit too, and was going out of control. Jesse and James had gotten hold of the Lapras, and now, with their meowth clinging to Jessie's hair with it's claws. But where was Laif? There was a terible instant when she didn't know where she was, before she spotted him, and started swimming, dropping the pokeball around her neck with care as she approached. But where was the boat? As she reached Laif, and grabbed hold of him, she could see he was unconcious... that was bad enough. But things were about to go from bad to worse. Suddenly, from nowhere the boat came crashing foreward, about to run them over. Mi'ko turned, and screamed....
She was plunged into darkness, and only the sound of silence filled her ears. She felt, oddly, calm. She opened her eyes, and though the water stung to do so, she looked about, to find Laif... and she saw him... falling so far out of reach. She dove as best she could while still under the waves, still in the crashing, frozen sea. she reached out... and grabbed a wrist. Her head swam with her as she slowly climbed surfaceward, Laif in tow. Breaking the surface, she coughed and gasped... air, sweet air... noticing a large plank of wood floating before her, in the bleary reaches of her mind, she swam Laif over, grabbing the board with on arm, and just barely hefting the heavier boy over onto it to keep him afloat. Thinking of the pokeball, she popped it open, and, with as steady a voice she could manage, called out, "Mistique, go..".. the vaporean exploded into the water in time to see her trainer's friend and savior black out.
-----------------
"You failed." The voice in her head whispered. "I know." She replied softly, though her lips did not move. The blackness was lifting. The beach was plain again. And she was nine years old once more, standing near an equally younger Laif, and a small eevee. "You had a chance, one chance, to save us." Laif said, softly, as he watched her face. "I tried." she admitted softly. "You -tried-. We're going to die." Laif said, his eyes narrowing. "Trying doesn't mean anything if you die, Mi'ko." The boy turned away, and Mi'ko frowned. "I didn't.. I just... I'm hopeless." The boy nodded.. and then said, softly, "Mi'ko you have to survive." She was stunned. "I have to....?" She said, finally, when she felt she could talk. "Survive.." The voice whispered, again, to her as her companion suddenly seemed to fade. "Laif? Laif Don't go! Don't levae me alone, Laif! LAIF!"
"Laif.." the word managed it's way out of her lips, before she coughed up a surge of water that stung her throat, that spilled to the sandy beach beneath her. Sand? A Beach? The sunlight on her face hurt as she wrenched her eyes painfully open, making her squint them, before, with strength that was waining, she pushed her aching joints to work, using them to push herself up, from laying, on the beach shore, where high tide had left her, to her hands and knees, to sitting up, rubbing at her eyes with the palms of her hands, and then with her fingertips. She was on a beach shore, she concluded, looking about her, an obviously deserted one.. So where was Fuschia? Or Cinnebar, for that matter? She didn't know. Stretching out before her, was vast, vast open sea, that shone, blue, with the setting sun, before her. the same sun that had avakened her to her current perdicament.
The sun that was now taunting her, as it sunk, beneath the waves, slowly, turning the sky pink, like the blush of a young child's cheek. Sighing, she watched this for a while, adn then realized she had better find Laif -- if he had survived -- and the vaporean. She looked around the beach... and found she wouldn't have to go far. "LAIF!" She all but shrieked, choking breifly on another stinging cough up of water, that she spilled in her lap. Scrambling to her feet after a hacking bout of air, she all but leaped upon the still form of her friend, who, to some miricle, was still breathing.. though in faint, rasping breaths, that suggested something was wrong.. the side of his head was caked in blood -- the ship barreling down on them flashed in her mind, the ship, the shriek of fright she'd given just before going under -- before she realized what had happened, that he had been hit, while she had only sunk into the writhing waves of the sea about them. Brow furrowing, eyes filled with worry, she murmured softly, "Oh Goddish, Laif.." as if begging for an answer..
"Vaporean.." The answer came from so close she jumped, looking over, to find Mystique standing, peering at the same sight, next to her. The pokemon was, as well, saddened by her master's current position in the sand. Mi'ko murmured, "oh Mysti.. I'm sorry.. " She said, softly, throwing her arms about the water canid, drawing her close, and hugging her. Perhaps that was the only comfort for both, for the longest time, as they sat, the setting sun sinking past their sight as they set.. And as the cold night winds picked up, like ice, about them, they realized the caves that they ahd each only barely noticed before, stretching out before them, was their only hope for the night. "Mysti, you gotta help me get him into the caves.." She said, as she pulled the thick off her shoulders, and set it on the ground, before standing. As the vaporean watched, she walked over, and, grunting, drug the prone boy over to the garment, laying his head down upon it.
"Gotta stop the bleeding.." Was all Mi'ko remarks, before she silently wrapped the sweater about his head, thankful that she'd thought to wear it over her regular clothing, and then, sighing, looked towards Mystique. "C'mon..We've got a long night ahead of us." "Vapor, Vapor." the pokemon replied, as Trainer-to-be grabbed, once more, of her unconcious friend, and started dragging him towards the caves, and into the shelter of their dark recesses, followed by the determined, and distressed pokemon.
So you think you've got friends in high places
With the power to put us on the run
Well forgive us these smiles on our faces
You'll know what power is when we are done
Son...
-- Playing With The Big Boys
The Prince of Egypt
-----------------
Part Three -- Enter Team Rocket
Laif and Mi'ko stared in disbelief as, upon the various platforms of the ship, several people, all bearing the Team Rocket logo in some way shape and or form, made their appearances. Most prominent of all were the two who leapt to immediate sight. A duet of odd preportions, these were the two known as Jesse and James. Mi'ko recognised them almost immediately from the countless times their pictures had been shown on the TV. Jesse, in her usual splendor, had her hair well hidden by a large, rather spectacular looking hat of red, a marvelous fedora, with a plume-like feather bobbing it's way from the brim. The rest of her disguise , though why she needed one Mi'ko found herself wondering, was beyond reasoning, she was so noticeable anyway with that hair, was a red tench coat that billowed about her feet, and managed to hide her usual rocket attire with a wonderful sense of mystery. She'd even dyed that amazing hair of hers from the usual magenta color to a dull brown. Her cohoert, James, with his hair dyed a darker blue (an attempt at black that failed miserably), leaned against her back, wearing a similar, less attractive hat, of brown, with a black band around the top. He wore a pair of sunglasses to hide his face. He was wearing a white shirt enblazoned with the R logo of the Rocket team, though hidden beneath a brown tweed shirt, like those seen upon mobsters in the old movies. A really gawky one, that, if anything, made the fool look more a fool. He smirked smugly as he pulled from his dark slack pockets a rose, and they began.
"Prepare for trouble!"
"Make it double!"
"To protect the world from devestation! "
"To unite all peoples within our nation ! "
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reach -"
"Are you QUITE done with that? I would LIKE to get my hands on that lapras before the storm kicks in again." The same booming voice said, as suddenly, it's owner came into view.
Captain, as he was simply known, wasn't the tallest, nor the burliest of the Rockets. And yet as he stepped into view, the two who had been spouting off immediately began to cavort about as if he were their leader. "Sorry Captain." The girl called cooingly as she dashed back. "Yeah, Captain, sorry!" said the goofy boy. He nodded to them, accepting their apologies, and then strode his way towards the end of the ship upon which the two had stood before. His face was hard-set, like stone, without an inch of hair, giving him the look of an angry young man, even though he was smiling. And the smile it'self was one of a dark, ominous maw of pearly whites, like the jaws of a shark. His eyes, equally dark, peered at them from sunken sockets of shadowy birth, their brownish black irises gleaming with an almost firey gaze. Staring at them from behind a froppy set of bangs that, like the rest of his jet-black hair, came in strings upon his face, he turns them a smile. He wore not the typical garb you'd see on a Rocket, but a dark, leather trench coat that bore, upon the back, a red letter R, which could stand for only one thing. And underneath that he wore a regular, plain shirt, of orange in hue. A sweater, really. And a pair of tight slacks, of the darkest black hue. At his side, hanging from a belt, instead of a pokeball, was a cutlass in a fine scabbard. But the blade didn't sheathed for long.
"Hand over the pokemon.." Captain said, coldly, as the blade sang it's way from it's harness. "Or we'll make tentacruel bait out of you." He sneered in their direction evilly, and smiles, motioning two other rockets toward the front of the boat. The fource of five against two easily threatened to end in a force of five against none. Still....
"You can't have our pokemon!" Laif declared angrilly, at the Rockets, already working on cutting the rope. Snap, and away, into the water, the teathering went. He pushed Mi'ko behind him. "Get back, Mi'ko, they could be dangerous." "Forget about me, Laif, Get yourself safe too!" Mi'ko snapped at him, trying to pull him aside. The Rockets, especially Captain, sneered down at the two 'runty kids' that seemed determined to be a trouble. "Jesse! James! Get your butts down there with your -rat- and take care of those kids!" Captain bellowed. The two goofy looking Rockets nodded. "I AIN'T A RAT!" A bellow, however, erupted from somewhere else on deck, before a meowth hopped his way into view. He was wearing quite the cute little sailor's outfit, as well. Perhaps it was Jesse's idea. Perhaps it was his own. The Meowth peered at the two kids, and grinned at them. "Da Captain says you better give up d'em Pokemon, an' w'ot da captain says goes!" he grinned, and splayed a set of nasty looking claws at them, while, at the same time, Jesse and James were trying to figure out-- "But Captain, how do we get DOWN there?" James whined loudly as he peered down at the lapras. "I Don't want to get my clothes wet!" Jesse sulked angrilly, about the thought of the water. "Why not Jesse, seems to me your -already- all washed up." James retorted. And of course, James' retort was answered with Jesse's hand flying for his face. Which erupted into a full blown argument between the two.
Captain rolled his eyes, and covered his face with a hand, rubbing at the bridge of his nose with one finger. The meowth, growling, and growing ever increasingly angry at the two, looked ready to explode. The rest of the Crew just stood there trying to look menacing while at the same time trying -not- to be embarressed by James and Jesse. Mi'ko, in the mean time, looked to Laif, and whispered in hisear. "Let's see if while their distracted we can surf away.." Laif nodded in agreement. The Team Rockets were, to say the least, annoying, and, if they broke up their spat soon they could be downright-- "And where do you think -you're- going?"Captain snarled down at the two brats at the same time that the meowth leps at Jesse and James' faces, and scratched them into silence -- Dangerous. Laif and Mi'ko waved to the ship and it's crew. "Well you all looked so busy, and we didn't want to bother you so, we thought we'd just be going now." Mi'ko said, bravely, as she and Laif started to pull away from the ship with the lapras's aide.
But as they were doing that, Captain was directing Jesse, James, and Meowth towards them, armed to the teeth with net-guns. "Grab them, Catch them!" Captain shouted angrilly at the three, as Jesse and James bumbled their way foreward. And even as they were rushing for the two, the storm was picking up again about them. Laif yelled, "MI'KO! HOLD ON TIGHT!" As, just as violently as before, the winds were suddenly whirling about them. The sea became rough one more, tossing and bolting into the air, swirling around them. Just as Jesse and James fired, a giant wave bigger then even the boat that towered above the lapras and it's passangers came sweeping towards all.
-----------------
"LOOK OUT!" The words rang in Mi'ko's mind seconds before the water deafened her, and she found herself choking out air, and gulping in water. She bobbed to the surface, gasping from the salt in her mouth, from the unbearable shallowness that now filled her every breath. Something floated by her.. It was the pokeball, it's chain caught on a bit of wood.. -wood-?! She found herself searching. The ship had been hit too, and was going out of control. Jesse and James had gotten hold of the Lapras, and now, with their meowth clinging to Jessie's hair with it's claws. But where was Laif? There was a terible instant when she didn't know where she was, before she spotted him, and started swimming, dropping the pokeball around her neck with care as she approached. But where was the boat? As she reached Laif, and grabbed hold of him, she could see he was unconcious... that was bad enough. But things were about to go from bad to worse. Suddenly, from nowhere the boat came crashing foreward, about to run them over. Mi'ko turned, and screamed....
She was plunged into darkness, and only the sound of silence filled her ears. She felt, oddly, calm. She opened her eyes, and though the water stung to do so, she looked about, to find Laif... and she saw him... falling so far out of reach. She dove as best she could while still under the waves, still in the crashing, frozen sea. she reached out... and grabbed a wrist. Her head swam with her as she slowly climbed surfaceward, Laif in tow. Breaking the surface, she coughed and gasped... air, sweet air... noticing a large plank of wood floating before her, in the bleary reaches of her mind, she swam Laif over, grabbing the board with on arm, and just barely hefting the heavier boy over onto it to keep him afloat. Thinking of the pokeball, she popped it open, and, with as steady a voice she could manage, called out, "Mistique, go..".. the vaporean exploded into the water in time to see her trainer's friend and savior black out.
-----------------
"You failed." The voice in her head whispered. "I know." She replied softly, though her lips did not move. The blackness was lifting. The beach was plain again. And she was nine years old once more, standing near an equally younger Laif, and a small eevee. "You had a chance, one chance, to save us." Laif said, softly, as he watched her face. "I tried." she admitted softly. "You -tried-. We're going to die." Laif said, his eyes narrowing. "Trying doesn't mean anything if you die, Mi'ko." The boy turned away, and Mi'ko frowned. "I didn't.. I just... I'm hopeless." The boy nodded.. and then said, softly, "Mi'ko you have to survive." She was stunned. "I have to....?" She said, finally, when she felt she could talk. "Survive.." The voice whispered, again, to her as her companion suddenly seemed to fade. "Laif? Laif Don't go! Don't levae me alone, Laif! LAIF!"
"Laif.." the word managed it's way out of her lips, before she coughed up a surge of water that stung her throat, that spilled to the sandy beach beneath her. Sand? A Beach? The sunlight on her face hurt as she wrenched her eyes painfully open, making her squint them, before, with strength that was waining, she pushed her aching joints to work, using them to push herself up, from laying, on the beach shore, where high tide had left her, to her hands and knees, to sitting up, rubbing at her eyes with the palms of her hands, and then with her fingertips. She was on a beach shore, she concluded, looking about her, an obviously deserted one.. So where was Fuschia? Or Cinnebar, for that matter? She didn't know. Stretching out before her, was vast, vast open sea, that shone, blue, with the setting sun, before her. the same sun that had avakened her to her current perdicament.
The sun that was now taunting her, as it sunk, beneath the waves, slowly, turning the sky pink, like the blush of a young child's cheek. Sighing, she watched this for a while, adn then realized she had better find Laif -- if he had survived -- and the vaporean. She looked around the beach... and found she wouldn't have to go far. "LAIF!" She all but shrieked, choking breifly on another stinging cough up of water, that she spilled in her lap. Scrambling to her feet after a hacking bout of air, she all but leaped upon the still form of her friend, who, to some miricle, was still breathing.. though in faint, rasping breaths, that suggested something was wrong.. the side of his head was caked in blood -- the ship barreling down on them flashed in her mind, the ship, the shriek of fright she'd given just before going under -- before she realized what had happened, that he had been hit, while she had only sunk into the writhing waves of the sea about them. Brow furrowing, eyes filled with worry, she murmured softly, "Oh Goddish, Laif.." as if begging for an answer..
"Vaporean.." The answer came from so close she jumped, looking over, to find Mystique standing, peering at the same sight, next to her. The pokemon was, as well, saddened by her master's current position in the sand. Mi'ko murmured, "oh Mysti.. I'm sorry.. " She said, softly, throwing her arms about the water canid, drawing her close, and hugging her. Perhaps that was the only comfort for both, for the longest time, as they sat, the setting sun sinking past their sight as they set.. And as the cold night winds picked up, like ice, about them, they realized the caves that they ahd each only barely noticed before, stretching out before them, was their only hope for the night. "Mysti, you gotta help me get him into the caves.." She said, as she pulled the thick off her shoulders, and set it on the ground, before standing. As the vaporean watched, she walked over, and, grunting, drug the prone boy over to the garment, laying his head down upon it.
"Gotta stop the bleeding.." Was all Mi'ko remarks, before she silently wrapped the sweater about his head, thankful that she'd thought to wear it over her regular clothing, and then, sighing, looked towards Mystique. "C'mon..We've got a long night ahead of us." "Vapor, Vapor." the pokemon replied, as Trainer-to-be grabbed, once more, of her unconcious friend, and started dragging him towards the caves, and into the shelter of their dark recesses, followed by the determined, and distressed pokemon.