Been quite awhile, huh? Since my focus is on original fiction now, that doesn't help :P. However, I will finish what I've started, eventually, including this one. Drabble's a little short this time, since it's more of a setup one. Enjoy!

Poke-ball 13: Intoxication

Red had to be honest: he hadn't expected Volkner to turn him down. The others hadn't been hard to convince. It made him a little angry.

But only a little angry. Aside from Volkner's stark refusal, everything was falling into place so easily. Already others were going out of their way to join his cause. Like Blaine, who arrived riding a freaking Moltres. He was allies with the phoenix Pokemon, and many other wild Pokemon across Kanto. Back in the day, he was Team Rocket's master of befriending untamed beasts. Judging by his style of arrival, he still held that crown. That alone had made Red's week, and that had been a particularly bad week. The League had shipped him everywhere, spouting phony speeches about how everything was fine. They weren't even his words, but scripts he was forced to memorize on long train rides. Still, words had never been his strong suit, and it gave him ideas for monologues to aid his true cause.

Red lounged in a tree in the Celadon Gym, bearing a look of sinister contentment as he watched some Team Rocket grunts watering the plants. It was such a hilarious sight, especially their disgruntled expressions and mutters. Such low-level members probably didn't know that Erika was once part of Team Rocket as well. Her perfumes sold at high prices for a reason. Especially when those bottles harbored concoctions far more potent than just aromas. How ironic that, aside from Giovanni, sweet sleepy Erika was the Gym Leader who stayed most embroiled in the underworld after the war. Then again, maybe not: something had to fuel Celadon's perpetual growth. She was such a hometown girl.

It was all so intoxicating. The power of his gathering forces, the knowledge that more and more people wanted to change Kanto with him, the spicy-sweet scent that permeated the the flowery Gym and curled up in his lungs. It was so enthralling that he didn't even notice Blue walking through the main door.

IIIIII

So now Red and Blue are about to have a few...words about what's going on :P