Bad Masters

Chapter 5

Wes's fingers rubbed the metal of the pokeball. It was soaking. Suddenly the ball felt very slippery, and he clenched tighter. A belated moment of consideration. A premature decision. He wondered about the words he had just blurted out. He had just challenged a pokemon trainer to a battle. Without a licence… A very punishable crime.

Not daring to look Bruiser in the eye Wes awaited his reply. He didn't know why he had just gone and challenged him. Perhaps… he was afraid. He thought… 'coward'… and winced at his own disgust. Pondering just a few seconds forced him to guess he was using Eve as a shield. All Wes wanted to do was escape the situation. Now he felt deep down in a hole, just a whole load of pain to fill it.

"Heh." Bruiser husked. Wes looked up at him sharply. "You wanna fight me…" He rolled up his shirt sleeves.

Wes dropped the pokeball by his feet. It bounced a musical 'plonk' before rolling on the tarmac, settling at a stop. Then it burst open, sending Wes about three feet back out of surprise. He looked up at Bruiser cautiously, eyes widened.

"I meant… a pokemon battle." Wes said bluntly.

Eve, just hatched from the ball, scratching her ear with her hind paw, stopped suddenly and looked up at Wes curiously. Her head turned, ruffling her thick mane. Maybe she hadn't heard right. Wes didn't know if she understood human speak, but only had to assume. She knew what Wes meant the moment he looked down at her, the panic in his glazed eyes said it all.

"Sweeee….?" Eve's long ears hung back behind her head. She hunched, looking round at everybody else. Bruiser especially, who stared back at her, grinning. He was so big. She could almost feel the shadow he cast down on her. And the smell was like bad onions and stale smoke. She didn't want to go near him… ever again. Being his previous pokemon, Eve knew what he was like.

"So we make a deal, eh?" Bruiser grunted. Wes didn't want to hear it. He'd had enough of deals. Deals were what had gotten him into the situation he was in. That and bad decision-making. But he had no choice. He would be told. "I win? I get that eevee." He sneered down at Eve. "But if that eevee wins… you get both pokemon."

"I don't trust you." Wes warned. "Lets just get this fight over with. If Eve wins just let us go."

Bruiser jutted his jaw hesitantly, but shrugged it off. There was no reason to be afraid of a little mutt like that eevee. Wes twitched when he realised Bruiser was about to give his command.

"Pikachu, go get 'im." He pointed towards Eve, hunched oblivious to the pikachu's actions.

"Bichizzo!" The rodent chirped sharply, scampering towards Eve who turned round and bolted away.

Both Eve's and Pikachu's ears were flat on their backs. Wes ran up towards them, worried they would run out of sight. But there was no need. Pikachu leapt at Eve and gave her a thorough kick in her mid-back, causing her to roll over, stopping on her belly. She looked at the pikachu, crackling as it hissed at her, raising its tail and ears as if she were about to attack again.

"A pikachu that knows Fake-Out?" Zack mumbled to himself, stunned.

"Eve!" Wes cried, voice heightened in pitch. "Eve, do something" His voice wobbled.

Eve watched hopelessly as the pikachu honed in for a quick attack, ramming its electrically charged body against hers, causing her to tumble over yet again. Laying on the ground, she watched as Bruiser laughed insanely, his mouth gaping and his stubbled double chin wobbling something nasty.

"Chizzo!" Pikachu taunted, flapping her ears up and down. It was unnaturally pumped up, like it had been drugged.

Eve rose to her feet, her limbs tingly, shaking from the shock of Pikachu's static. Her back leg involuntarily gave way causing her to flop to the ground again. Wes watched as Eve fell victim to a thundershock. Her body went rigid as the electricity tore through every muscle in her body. It wasn't burning, but like a severely bad case of pins and needles all over. And she couldn't move an inch.

Pikachu let go, letting Eve drop to the ground in a puddle of her own urine. She lay still. Her little beady eyes showed some white in the corner as, exhausted, she could only stare. Her sides rose up and down erratically. She shook violently, giving in to her paralysis. She couldn't feel any part of her body as she was unaware of the constant twitching. If only she could cause herself to faint…

"Eeeeve!" Wes screamed. "Eve!" He felt his knees weaken. They hurt. His mouth began to taste funny, as he could feel the sickness rise in is stomach.

"Chizzz….." Pikachu hissed, charging up its power. It began to glow, as everyone around felt the pull of its energy. White streaks zipped into its body as it became more and more electrically charged. Its cheeks bulged. It looked as if it could explode. Eve was laying next to it, being weakened as the energy was literally sucked out of her.

Wes watched on. This next thundershock had the potential to kill Eve; tear her up by the sheer energy. No, Wes couldn't imagine it. This was the first soul he had ever felt the need to protect… like she was his child. She was still a baby as she was, or at least not fully grown. She was his, and she was a child. His child…

"You can't…" Wes mumbled, shaking.

"Huh?" Bruiser grunted, trying to hear beyond the crackling of electricity.

"You can't kill her!" Wes growled, still motionless.

Bruiser grinned, surprised at Wes's guts to at least speak up. But if he half expected Bruiser to quit over a droplet of emotion, he'd be disappointed. "Fucking pussy, Give in?" Wes knew Bruiser meant he wanted him to hand over Eve.

"Bichizzz…" Pikachu cried, ready to release its energy. Eve looked on, not knowing where her trainer was. She felt saddened. She needed him.

A shadow obscured her vision. A tall shadow, that of a human's. But she was tired. She lay her little head down on her paws, hoping the onslaught of pain had ended. Even if she ended up with Bruiser again, she could rest up a little.

But that smell… it wasn't like Bruiser. She could smell… chewing gum? Also present was a slight musky heat of exhaustion… but this man wasn't Bruiser. She looked up to see who it was standing in front of her. He was standing with his back to her as if he was shielding her. Trying to gather energy to stand up, she realised what her new master was doing, a and didn't like it.

"Stop!" Wes cried as he startled the pikachu. A single spark leapt from surprised cheeks and dispersed.

The pikachu growled, furious. The static in its fur snapped as it stood on end from the sheer anger. It's incisors shone, slightly transparent from their size, and Wes knew it wasn't happy. The pikachu's bulging cheeks crackled as they turned yellow, preparing to thundershock. Eve screeched. Her tiny voice ripped through Wes. It was painful, but a new feeling had came over him.

"Eve…" He choked.

Wide-eyed Eve squealed, feeling Wes's pain as a single string of electricity burst its way into his body. His entire body tensed as it couldn't handle the thundershock, twitching, smouldering, before slamming hard on the concrete. Right in front of Eve. He blinked… maybe… or at least Eve hoped she saw that essential sign of life.

"K'Chizzz…" The pikachu sighed, satisfied.

Pikachu was happy. Eve watched as the pikachu grinned at her cruelly. Then she looked at her fallen master. After the smoke had stopped slipping from him, his twitching became discrete. Eve trotted worriedly up to Wes and put her paws on him, trying to alert his attention.

"You fucking bastard…" Richard growled, still bleeding. "You killed him…"

"Sweee!" Eve raised her ears, looking directly at Richard. Could what he said… be true? No… Wes would survive a thundershock. Anyone would…

Except for a… A human…

"Shit, there's something wrong with that pikachu…" Zack, standing even further away, mumbled to himself.

Eve looked at Wes, who showed no response to her feeble attempts to revive him. But all she could do was shake him, hoping perhaps he would awaken, like from a sleep. Then… the pikachu worn out, they could run away. They would live together, pokemon and master, and everything would be fine.

But Wes didn't respond in any way. Wes's burdens were now all on her, that pikachu knowing it was responsible and smiling. That pikachu that bullied her as a pup, stole her toys she had scrounged, taken her food, beat her, made Bruiser disrespect her…

And destroyed her chance of a new master. A kinder master who loved her, fed her and bathed her. Her life looked as if it would turn up for her. Then that little yellow rat came along again and destroyed the best thing to date that had come her way.

No more.

A burning sensation built its way up within Eve. Something painful at first, which subsided as her rage took over. She felt as if she were on fire, as if she could actually see the flames hugging her body. But that wasn't important. Her rage wasn't important. It was how she was going to use it. She felt focused, ready for battle. She'd never felt this way before, but the heat in her limber body was going to be needed against her worst enemy.

Bruiser looked on in horror as the eevee… no… that was no eevee. No eevee could send his pikachu fleeing for its life, nor could it use those attacks.

Eve opened her tiny mouth, tilting her head back to gather as much energy as possible before releasing her attack. Pikachu didn't know what to expect. It was just afraid. Feeling a burning, like ashes on its back, it sped off as the embers burned into its skin. It was literally gone in seconds, in the distance, as Bruiser wasn't far behind, trying to catch up with his prized pikachu.

"Wes…" Eve looked as the black man lifted Wes's head up. Dazed, Wes looked about himself, trying to suss out what had just happened. Richard…? Obviously gone. No sign of him. And Bruiser? Wes felt a slight floating feeling in his head as he tried to sit up properly. He was only forced to lay back down as a little wet tongue playfully attacked his face.

"Heh, hey Eve."

"Wes." Zack towered over them as Wes tried to conceal his laughter. "Hear that?"

Wes listened as Eve, now cooled off and back to normal, trotted about on the tarmac quite the thing. She smiled, waving her long ears side-to-side as she danced her pretty victory dance. A slight whirring sound could be heard, but Eve was too happy to care.

"Cops." Wes mumbled.

"C'mon, kid. Follow me." Zack ran into the stairway of an apartment block. Wes looked around before following him, carrying Eve in his arms.

"Wes!" Zack called as he continued up the stairs. Wes followed, feeling Eve struggle a little. She whimpered, anxious.

They tip-toed along the landing before stopping, hearing the slamming of car doors outside. They were both silent. Eve even tried to keep quiet, her wet nose making a slight wheezing sound as she tried to keep her breaths to a minimum.

"Listen, kid…" Zack whispered, deep breathed, "…You're in trouble. We're all in trouble." Zack watched as Wes nodded quickly. "And that pokemon you have… is very valuable. It's worth a shit-load, you got me? That's no ordinary eevee." Wes nodded again and listened closely to Zack. "It became a flareon for a short time. Something with abilities like that… you need to protect."

Zack turned to face Wes closely, "If you offer her abilities to us when we need it we can protect her." Wes frowned at Zack's words "You keep her, okay? But in joining us we'll protect you both."

There was a moment of complete silence. Wes looked down at Eve who was silent, panting a little. He looked back up with that sad look on his face, realising he had no choice. "You're from Team Rocket, aren't you?"

Zack backed up a little, knowing if Wes knew too soon…

"It's okay." He hugged Eve. "If it keeps her safe… I'll join you."