Jimmy sucks.

5

I found myself in a cozy foyer of a front office decorated and toned to feel homelike. The guy at the dark wood desk had a friendly smile framed by deep dimples.

His first words were to exclaim at my coloring. He even leaned over to look down at me, mossy eyes bright.

"You think you can reproduce it?" came another voice, an older voice.

I whipped around, but instead of finding dirt-colored Jimmy, I saw a middle-aged man in a suit who oozed sophistry. In his hand he held a poke'ball which I somehow knew, without knowing how, was mine.

I looked from him, to my ball, then around the foyer frantically. No Jimmy.

"What the hell, kid!" I yelled.

Both the older man and the dimple-guy cringed at my high "NINE-TAILS!"

"Forgive me, this is the first time she's been awake when I've let her out," said the older man, brow crumpled in apology. "I just got her in a trade last night from a young trainer who wasn't able to get her to obey."

"Like hell I obeyed!" I yelped. "I gagged over a Mudkip for that squirt, and this is how he thanks me? Trading me while I'm ASLEEP?"

The dimple guy cringed back over the counter at my continuing barks, while my supposedly new trainer frowned so deep it could have cut his jaw in two. It definitely lent him an air of intimidation.

"Uh, maybe you should keep her with you for a while longer, to let her get accustomed to you, you know?" said the counter guy. At least his face looked friendly, unlike the angry scowl being aimed at me. Even though my knee-jerk reaction was to scowl back and try to urge up that fire-feeling from my gut to bite him with, my gut remained cold and I felt my tails curl in around my back legs.

Maybe this is what makes poke'mon obey, I thought with alarm as my tails tucked in even further and I felt the elbows of my front legs weaken.

"No need," he said, looking back up. "I have no need for pets, and eventually I intend to sell her to someone who does. They can give her the bonding she needs. Until then," he tossed the poke'ball up, his face smoothing back over to business. "Can you reproduce her color or not?"

"Um, that's a tricky one," the young man leaned up and over the counter again, this time flashing me a sight of dusty bronze buckles on his overall straps. "It's most likely extremely recessive, and I'm not sure where I can find another recessive Ninetales color, though I won't know until I breed her with some black-coated poke'mon, Houndoom and Mightyena and the like."

I stiffened, every part of me turning to ice.

No…no…nononononono.

But before I could hear another word, I heard a tap, another flash, and I was once more inside the poke'ball.

Terror prickled through my blood like ice and fire, percolating extra heavy in my gut until it pushed up and dribbled between my lips once more in liquid-like blue fire. Of course didn't come out until after I didn't want it to. It plopped to the white-chrome, bowl-like floor with a hiss, then vanished.

A high pitched-screaming started up in my mind, drowning out my thoughts.

"Collin?" His name came out in a rasp, dried by the dripping fire. "Collin? Collin?"

My throat tightened and my eyes burned, but no tears came out. Instead, a plaintive whine started up in my breast, all too canine even to my ears.

I didn't care that I was three years older. I didn't care that he was scrawny and zitty and obviously mom's favorite. The screaming in my head started wailing his name, calling back all the nights he had crept into my room to play games with me when I couldn't sleep, or when he would get creative and make a buttload of technicolored scrambled eggs, or when he had stood between dad and me the last time the man had been in our house, defending me, crying for me.

I was still calling for him when the poke'ball insides fell away and I once more found my black paws in dirt. Even though I was outside, I didn't want to look up. I could already smell the familiar scent of Mightyena along with hotpot of many other living scents. The fur along my neck prickled in warning. It suddenly felt hard to breathe.

The canine whining crawled up to my throat, picking up in pitch till it was almost a scream

"Shh shh, it's okay girl. It's okay."

I felt a gloved hand between my ears. Without thinking, I snapped my teeth at it.

The mossy-eyed, dimple guy had pulled his hand back in time from where he crouched in front of me, his round face all softness. Not a speck of ill meaning could have sharpened it. The floppy, messy brown hair beneath his blue cap didn't help.

"Sorry, sorry, no touch. Got it. I'm not going to hurt you, kay?" His smile was gentle, but held none of the warmth or sweetness of Collin's. "You poor thing. Freshly caught just to be traded to someone who doesn't care. I can't imagine what you're going through."

I blinked hard, a bit of my whine choking out. Was he talking to me like he knew I understood? No. Though, I guess, some poke'mon did understand people. I mean, they had to in order to follow commands, right?

For a few minutes, he just sat there, holding my poke'ball in one hand and making soft, hushing noises. Eventually, since all I could see around me were bushes, grass, and the backside of a blue cottage, I allowed myself a deep breath.

Trees clapped in the breeze, hushing in time with him.

"There we go," he said. "Everything's going to be just fine now. I promise. I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to. Is it okay if I touch you?"

I just looked at him. He must have taken that as a yes, for he slowly reached out and put his hand between my ears. This time, the glove was gone, and I could feel the warmth of his soft fingers through my fur.

"That a girl. Good girl. Good girl."

I closed my eyes and wondered if I could pretend. Pretend this warmth was Collin's fingers and not some stranger who intended to breed me like an animal—like a poke'mon. Though he had said he wouldn't make me do anything I didn't want to…and he almost smelled of gentleness, like favorite pillows and plaid quilts.

I breathed in deep and realized that was the scent of gentleness.

My stomach growled. Loudly. Only then did I realize my hunger. It had been days since I had last eaten, but I hadn't been able to feel it until this first moment of safety. The poke'ball, with its alien walls, couldn't have done the same.

"I heard that," his fingers swept down to scratch beneath my chin, which…oh…oh that felt nice. I missed whatever he said next, but then the fingers were gone and he was heading back into the blue cottage, leaving me among the brush, grass, and well-trimmed trees.

I stared after the door for a bit, unable to hold back a whine, and reluctantly turned to face my new circumstances.

The yard, if it could still qualify as such, was ginormous. 'Pasture' would probably be the more correct term, though it was sectioned off by high, metal and wood fences. Where I stood was a small padlock of sorts hedged in by bushes. Gates lead from the padlock to each of the areas. Two areas shared a large pond in the middle. The ones to my left and right had the most extreme differences. To my right was an area made of rock, dirt, and only a scattering of grass. I could see a glowing slug of magma oozing along a rock over there, along with what looked to be a Ponyta (I had been a little girl once upon a time, of course I knew what a Ponyta was). On the left could only be described as a dense mass of plants, consisting of flowers and trees and bushes that put the few trees in the middle two sections, and by far the largest, to shame. The middle two consisted of mostly field.

I was just picking out the kinds of poke'mon in the middle fields (I spotted a Mightyena almost instantly and felt my fur stand on end), when I heard the door open behind me and turned around to see the young man's soft smile.

"Kay, last few times I had Vulpix they seemed to like this stuff most." He set down a squarish bowl before me, filled with…nugget-sized kibble. "Give it a try."

Inwardly, I wilted, dreams of fried chicken and apple slices with peanut butter flying away. I wanted to turn my nose at it, make him go back until he brought out something that at least looked appetizing. But, being so hungry it was making me nauseous, and knowing my lack of human speak would just make it a bigger headache than it was worth, I leaned down and cautiously slipped one into my mouth.

Instantly a taste of dried jerky mixed with something like cranberry bled across my tongue. While not tasty, it wasn't disgusting. So, grimacing, I chewed and swallowed. When it didn't come back up, I leaned down and took another.

"Not so great?" I felt his fingers in my bangs again, this time slowly combing out tangles and a dead leaf. "Well, thanks for not being a picky eater. Such a well behaved little miss. We'll find you something you love in time. Good food goes a long way."

He left me to eat while he tended to the other poke'mon. I turned to eat on the other side of my bowl so I could watch. Small grass and what could have been fairy-type poke'mon flutterd out to greet him from the plant-packed area. A few floated with mushrooms on their heads and I watched with interest as they fluttered down to his shoulders and rode along with him until he vanished into a mass of roses, which twittered in response. But no, not roses, Roselia, all as large as his boot with red and blue roses for hands and thorny smiles.

By the time he returned, I had finished the kibble (along with a bit of me that felt I had just eaten away a part of my humanity). He congratulated me with another pet and then patted his thigh.

"Come on, girl. Let's see if we can't find you some friends."

I sighed and got up. My heavy tails trailed after me in the dirt, which made him frown, but he said nothing.

He led me to the left side of the pastures. Pichirisu and Pikachu poked up from the grass to watch, chittering to each other in gossipy "pi pi's!" to which I flattened my ears against. Most of it just translated to "black black!" and "smell weird!" Nothing flattering. An Altaria, little more than a long blue neck nuzzled into a mass of clouds, snoozed on the fence between a pair of Swablu and a Swellow, the last being the only one awake, probably on watch for weird humans turned poke'mon like me.

Several other poke'mon looked up from where they napped, grazed, or played in the grass and roots of trees to watch us walk by. For some reason, this made him chuckle.

"Wow, look at how quickly you got their attention. Probably because you're so pretty."

I ducked my head down, my ears going back so far it made the top of my head hurt. I highly doubted it was because of my looks.

He stopped a few yards from the pond's waters.

"Chevy!" he put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. "Oy! Chevy!"

To my chagrin, the Mightyena who I'd purposely been avoiding the gaze of trotted over. The musk that I had decided meant male wafted over with him, making me want to bury my nose in the dirt. I felt my tails curl around and between my legs, skirting me in fur. My knees felt weak.

When Sir Dimple looked back to me, his smile fell away to a small 'o' of concern.

"There's no need to be afraid, girl. Chevy's my partner. He helps me out with the other poke'mon and protects everyone. He can smell wild poke'mon from a mile away, isn't that right, boy?"

Chevy's tongue lolled out in happiness as the young man scratched his fingers past his ears and around his ruff, which, now that he was close enough, I noticed was a lot more tame and well groomed than the creeper Mightyena I had met in the forest. His amber eyes were bright with intelligence as well, and his muzzle had nothing but soft fuzz. As Chevy turned his attention to me, he tucked his head down, carefully hiding even so much of a hint of fang.

"He's right," he said in a low ruff. "I'm not gonna hurt you, so get your tails out from underneath. Arceus, your filthy. What happened to you?"

I did my best to force my tails straight, though my ears would only go up so much.

"I, um…"

"Chevy," the young man crouched down to the Mightyena's level. "She was traded right after she was caught, so she's pretty confused, and her trainer said some heartless stuff when he dropped her off. He just wanted some pups off her." At the canine's narrowing eyes the kid nodded. "Yeah, he said that right in front of her. He probably doesn't know Ninetales can understand human language right off the bat. So I need you to help her out."

Chevy huffed in affirmation.

"That a boy. Keep on eye on her while I tend to everyone else, will you?"

With that, I found the only person I felt comfortable with since this whole nightmare began walking away and being left alone with a stinky Mightyena.

A set of yellow and black ears popped up from some grass not so far away.

"Pi pi pi chu," they whispered, too low for me to make out the words.

Sighing, I laid down, resting my head on my forelegs and sweeping my tails over myself for a blanket, more tired than I should be.

"Carlos ain't gonna make you do anything you don't want to." Chevy came round and laid down beside me, thankfully keeping a few feet between us. "Stupid humans. Probably wouldn't have cared whether you understood them or not."

I said nothing. What was breeder fodder to say to their inmate? Or was he my caretaker?

"Hey," the black muzzle ducked in, sniffing. "You gonna be okay? Scared?"

"Pi pi pi ruuuu." A pair of blue triangles had joined the Pikachu ears.

Chevy turned with a low bark. The electric rodents scrambled.

He turned back to me. "Don't worry about the others. They're just curious. They've never seen anyone like you before, and you smell…unique."

"No, say what you really mean. I smell foul."

"No, not at all. I can't quite put a name on it. Obviously, you have the usual fire smell, but also…I don't know. When I find the word for it, I'll let you know. Either or, it's interesting, and it isn't like we have television like humans to watch out here."

I happened to look up as he said that to find that many of the eyes which had been watching me walk in had already gone back to whatever they had been doing.

A lillypad rose from the pond, revealing a pair of curious, toady eyes.

"Your trainer give you a name?" he asked.

I hesitated only a bit before saying, "Mayleen."

"Huh…Not what I expected. I was thinking something that had to do with your coloring. But you've probably heard enough about that." He sniffed at me. "You want any help getting clean?"

"What, you going to lick me?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him cock his head to the side in confusion. "Um, what else would I do?"

"Then no."

"Okay, you're a no touch type. I got that."

I sighed and closed my eyes. "Sorry, I'm just..." I was being a jerk, that's what. Chevy wasn't the asswipe I'd met in the forest, I had to get over that now. "I'm sorry. Thank you for being so nice. I'm just…"

"It's all right." And just like his trainer, Chevy touched the tuff of bangs between my ears in a comforting, soft nuzzle. Though his nose was damp and nothing like fingers, it was warm, and held the same touch.

Slowly, I relaxed. And if I'd been human, I might have shed a few tears too.