Tinted With Evil

Chapter 6: Rival Rockets

A/N: Ok, after this I should be back on a weekly update basis. The trip home took a lot out of me, but now that I've gotten in a writing groove, there shouldn't be any problem. Last I left off, Tint had just "won" himself his first badge, defeating Brock in a relatively easy battle. Now, he sets his eyes on Cerulean City and his second gym battle.

(-)

Barely had Tint taken five steps out of Pewter City before he found himself face to face with a shadowy figure wearing a black cape. "Are you Tint?" The man asked, his voice deep and foreboding. The man towered over Tint, who was no slouch in the height department himself, but this man was a giant.

"What's it to you who I am?" Tint challenged, his hands inching up towards the Pokeballs hooked to the straps of the backpack he was carrying.

The man chuckled slightly, amused by the brash nature of the youngster. "I take that as a yes. The boss demands a progress report."

Tint proudly thumbed in the direction of the Pokeball pair, "These and that," Tint reached to a side pouch on his pack and flipped open a pouch. Resting inside was the Boulder Badge that he had recently won.

But, the tall guy didn't seem very impressed. "The boss won't be happy with that report. Two Pokemon and a single badge is child's play, especially considering how many badges that gym leader has handed out recently. It's like candy on Halloween to him. Go acquire some Pokemon and send the Boss a few. Try to send him a rare one too. Then, you can pass."

"And how do I send Pokemon to the Boss?" Tint asked, honestly perplexed by the entire notion.

"There's a box in your PC labeled box thirteen. We hacked in and added it for you. Send your deliveries there and they'll disappear right into the bosses lap."

"Good to know…" Tint thought to himself. He nodded curtly towards the tall gentleman and walked back towards Pewter City. This shouldn't be too hard.

Tint headed back towards Viridian Forest, thinking that a few bug Pokemon would be a cinch to capture in a short period of time. Sure enough, within a minute of entering the forest, a tiny little Weedle slithered by. Immediately, Tint had beset Silence on the unsuspecting creature and faster than you could blink an eye, Tint had capture the Weedle.

After pocketing the ball, Tint proceeded to walk deeper into the forest, this time with Silence treading peacefully beside him. It didn't take much longer for another tiny bug, this one a Caterpie to appear. Same routine followed and Tint had two gifts for the Boss.

Locating the third Pokemon seemed to take nearly forever compared to the first two. A good half hour passed before Tint heard the rustle of the leaves overhead. This time, knowing that Silence was unable to reach whatever foe resided in the tree above them, Tint blindly threw the Pokeball into the green blanket. There was a surprised cry from whatever Pokemon was up there and then the familiar sound of the Pokeball snapping shut followed.

A problem had arisen. Although the Pokemon had been caught, the Pokeball had failed to fall out of the branches. Tint jumped up, trying to swat the branches, but they were far out of reach even for him. He could see the red and white ball nestled among the branches, caught between a cluster of oddly angled twigs.

Tint looked around, trying to think of a solution to his problem. He could easily throw stuff up at the ball, but that risked losing a second item up there. The forest floor was devoid of anything heavy enough to knock the ball ajar with. There was one possible solution remaining. Tint would have to climb the tree and retrieve the Pokeball himself.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, most of them ending in painful falls; Tint was nearly ready to give up. "One more go." He told himself. This time, Tint scampered up the tree, managing to grasp hold of the lowest branch just before he slipped and fell again. "Ha!" He proudly smiled, but the look soon vanished. He had been trying to climb the wrong tree this entire time.

Tint was about to release his grip when he heard voices approaching. Deciding that it would be best to remain hidden, Tint swung himself up into a seated position on the branch. "How could that twerp have managed to defeat us, Team Rocket, again?" Tint looked down to see the red haired woman that he had fallen for back at the Viridian City Pokemon Center. She was a member of Team Rocket too? Perfect! She wore a white skirt, long black gloves that ran up past her elbows and a small white shirt that split into two sections halfway down. The red R emblazoned across the chest. Unfortunately for Tint, she also wore a black top underneath of her shirt, but the long black boots made up for that. He nearly fell out of the tree ogling the girl below, trying to figure out if she actually was wearing something below the white shirt.

Beside her walked the purple haired guy and a Meowth, all three of them with heads held low as they exited the forest. They wouldn't see Tint or his irretrievable Pokeball. Alas, the trio came to a stop directly beneath where the Pokeball hung. "Curses…" Tint muttered, wishing for the trio to keep moving even though he was enjoying his view of the red head…

"And by using a Caterpie no less…" The guy sighed miserably.

"We're pathetic…" Meowth added, sighing alongside his companion.

An evil idea had formed inside of Tint's mind. Why not play a trick on these fools? It would improve his standing with the boss as well as ruin the reputation of these three. Maybe if everything worked out perfectly, Tint could speak up on behalf of the red head and get her added to his team… Only two days on the job and he had already fallen beyond the reach of the escape rope that would lead him back to the side of good. Now, he could add a case of lecherousness to the evidence of the prosecutors of heaven.

Tint reached down into his pocket, trying to figure out which of the two balls there was the Caterpie. It seemed as if these three had bad experiences with the tiny caterpillars, so why not reacquaint them with those memories. Tint released the Caterpie, which appeared on the path directly the trio. Sure enough, the Caterpie issued a frightened squeal, alerting Team Rocket to its presence. And just as unsurprisingly, Team Rocket squealed back, "Ah! It's haunting us!" The girl screamed as the trio vanished off along the path.

Tint couldn't help but to issue a hearty laugh at the expense of the fellow members of Team Rocket, recalling the Caterpie as he did so. Once his laughter subsided, Tint squirreled his way out across the limbs, inching slowly closer to the stranded Pokeball. He almost had it, being able to feel the ball's cool metal exterior with his fingertips. Just one more lunge and he would jostle it free.

"Koffing, use Smoke Screen!" The order caught Tint by surprise. The purple gas filled Pokemon zipped beneath him, blasting dark clouds of gas into the treetops. Tint suddenly lost his grip on the branch supporting him and felt himself falling towards the ground. In a last ditch effort to save himself from the fall, he reached upwards. The only thing that his hand grabbed hold of was the Pokeball.

"Ekans, Poison Sting, now!" It was the girl ordering this attack, her voice coming from somewhere outside of the gas cloud. Tint quickly dropped to his stomach and just in time too. Something cut through the air just inches above his head. Now he had the two Pokemon on one side of him and the trainers and Meowth on the other side, all five of them not hindered by the gas. He needed to act fast or else he would be in for a very painful fate once the foggy gas cleared.

Tint quickly removed the Pokeball containing Silence and released his trusty sidekick nearby. Luckily, the members of Team Rocket who had him surrounded were busy reciting some ridiculous motto and were creating enough noise to muffle out the noise the Pokeball made. "Ok, listen closely buddy." Tint whispered to Silence, who distastefully sniffed the air around them. The cloud was clearing slightly.

"Jessie…" Tint quickly whispered his plan to Silence.

"James…" Silence nodded in understanding, vanishing into the nearby bushes lining the trail.

"Team Rocket blasting off at the speed of light!" The girl shouted out proudly. How sorry Tint felt for having to do this to her, but it needed to be done to impress the Boss. At least he had learned her name… Now he could request the transfer by name. "Quit thinking about that!" He told himself, trying to focus instead on the clearing smog.

"Surrender now or prepare to fight, fight, fight…" There. He could make out the outline of the two humans. Jessie stood to Tint's right, her long bright red hair now visible through the fog.
"Meowth! That's right!" Tint raised himself to one knee, still staying just barely hidden in the clouds. He could see out, but they couldn't see in. Tint quickly reached into his bag, grabbing hold of the black Team Rocket sweater that Butch and Cassidy had given him back in Viridian City.

Tint poked his head out of the sweated just as the last wisps of smog cleared. He looked up, directly into the eyes of Jessie. "Remember me?" He asked, a hint of a lecherous smile at the corners of his lips.

"No, I don't. Ekans…" Jessie trailed off, holding up her hand signaling for the snake to ignore her order. She must remember him, or else she would have attack. "Wait… I do know you! You're that punk that stole our Pokeballs in Viridian City!" Both of her partners looked at her in surprise. Surely, neither of them would remember him, but he and Jessie had shared that momentary gaze back then.

"That was him?" James was skeptical. Neither of them could see the R on Tint's chest, given his posture. Boy, what a shock this was going to be to them.

"Now!" Tint whispered. Behind him, both Ekans and Koffing fell to the ground, peacefully resting after being blasted by hypnosis from the Exeggcute that was hiding behind Tint's body. A stunned look was on Team Rocket's faces, wondering what had happened to their Pokemon. If they had looked behind them, they would have seen Silence waiting patiently for Tint's next signal.

Tint calmly recalled Exeggcute as he rose up to his feet. Sure enough, they saw the red R. "He's one of us!" Meowth gawked.

"Yes, I am, but that won't stop me from robbing from you guys." Tint nodded curtly to James as he walked forward. Silence had saw the sign and was now barreling forward towards Meowth. Tint stopped just a few steps away from the trio, taking a side step to avoid Silence talking Meowth through the dirt for a few dozen feet. "I'm sure that we will meet again, my dear Jessie." Tint chivalrously took hold of Jessie's gloved hand and gently placed a kiss on her wrist. The next thing that she knew, Tint and Silence had bolted off, with Meowth held above Silence's head like a trophy, in the direction of Pewter City

James' jaw had hit the ground in disbelief. "Jessie aren't we going to chase after them?" James demanded, but the words hadn't made it through to Jessie. She was in her own little dream world, romanticizing about the daring Team Rocket youth that had just swept her off her feat and robbed her blind while he was at it.

Now long afterwards, Tint watched as the last of the four Pokeballs vanished into the computer terminal. He politely thanked the nurse on duty before exiting the Pokemon Center. He then proceeded to head in the direction of Mt. Moon. Sure enough, the freakishly tall guy intercepted him. "That was fast. Did you send the Boss any Pokemon?" Tint held up four fingers on his right hand, causing the guy to whistle. "That was fast. Any rare ones?"

"Yeah, I caught one that talked."

"Really?" The guy raised a skeptical eyebrow as Tint started walking down the path towards his next destination. "The only one that talks is the Meowth that belongs to Jessie and James… You didn't, did you?" Tint could only smile widely as he cast a final look over his shoulder, "Damn straight I did."

(-)

A/N: I'll make this one quick. Another update by the end of next weekend.