"…And then I used bite on him like my trainer commanded, starting on his shoulders. That is a good way to weaken the other pokemon while making it hurt when they move."

The trio of smaller rattata oohed and squeaked with excitement while Ratterick retold his battle story to them, one of the rodents being lighter in colouration with shorter whiskers. That one was receiving the most attention from the suddenly confident pokemon, something that the remaining pair failed to notice.

Weave snorted to herself with her arms crossed over her chest as she let her mind drift away from the retelling. The 'outside' yard of the Team Rocket base wasn't truly outside but instead a massive rectangular building with a glass roof high up above. Sure the trees, bushes, grass, ponds, miniature river, and the sheer amount of space helped create a semi-illusion of freedom, but it didn't compare to the true outdoors and the feeling of brisk mountain air in one's head feathers. On that point she had to admit that at least the humans had even bothered to build an area with some flowing water and vegetation on the grounds of the HQ, although if they wanted green and water then why did they build their base into a barren rocky canyon in the first place?

'Humans are weird,' the silent observation was a common one for her. Still, she couldn't help but appreciate how the strange creatures seemed to have climbed their way to the upper levels of the food chain despite their lack of claws, their relatively frail bodies, and of course the questionable taste in den locations. 'Speaking of weird…'

Weave yawned and looked over to make sure that the Red One was still in the same spot by himself, the human sitting on a lone bench under an oran berry tree. The large male, both in terms of height and width, had a book open that he was reading from intently while he munched on some sort of food item.

Weave personally wasn't a fan of books, they were pretty useless except for the occasional pretty pictures of course, and she certainly wasn't a fan of the Red One either. Although he was more like the Pink One now, leaving her to wonder what final colour the beast would turn out to be. Well, whatever it was, as long as he stayed away from her then he could end up coloured like a rainbow for all she cared.

Thankfully Ratterick hadn't found out about the incident when she'd first seen the brute as Weave sure that he'd never let her live it down. Being a common rattata didn't afford him much chance to get one over on her often, one of the perks of being an evolved 'mon amongst a sea of weaker first stagers. Of course, due to the way their two humans seemed to pair up often in and out of work, that meant that she was stuck with a rattata for a partner in battle. Oh well.

'Least I get to see Max often,' she figured with a nod and smile to herself. Something about the human's blonde hair and wide prey-like eyes drew her to him, the nervous youth almost cute in a vulnerable way. Fun to tease and fluster too, Weave could see why her own master liked to hang around him so often. She hadn't picked up on anything that indicated they were mates or similar, thankfully. Crushing on a human was considered unusual enough in the pokecommunity, not that Weave really cared about the opinion of 'mons outside her line, but competing with her own master over the blonde would probably get messy really quick.

Humans lacked claws and armoured hides, yes, but Weave had witnessed her master win enough actual fights with larger humans that she suspected that Viv could at least throw a powerful Megapunch.

Kicking a stray pebble with one of her three-clawed feet, she watched it land a bit further off into the same sort of soft dirt that she was standing on. With a sigh of boredom Weave looked around to see if anything interesting had shown up in the yard. Nothing stood out, just the same scattered groups of rattata running through the grass and zubats hanging in the trees. One or two ekans and a koffing were out, and a lone female raticate was practicing her bites on a tree under the command of a male human shouting orders with a whip in his hand. The masters of the other 'mons were standing around or sitting in small groups, the black uniformed humans all talking to one another, and Weave spotted the two she was familiar with conversing with an unknown trio.

All in all it was disappointing, as she'd either already beaten all of the 'mons present or they lacked the guts to face her even in a spar. There was only so many times you could easily beat down a low level zubat or rattata without it getting repetitive.

"Then he managed to bite me back and tear off a part of my ear, see?"

Weave returned her attention to her battle partner, Ratterick sitting on his haunches and pointing a small claw at his ear. A faint line crossed it almost in the middle, the battle mark probably going to disappear in a day or two. The resulting gasps from the enraptured audience caused her to roll her eyes, Weave tempted to let them know that she routinely kicked Ratterick's ratty behind and caused equal amounts of damage. It was barely stifled when she saw that Ratterick was once again giving the female rattata the best view of the ear, the rodent wide-mouthed at the tiny scar.

Ratterick was far from the most wanted partner in a battle and practically useless against most threats they faced like growlithe and assorted trainer 'mons, sure, but he was still her battle partner. You don't try and block your teammates from getting a little action, it went against the pokecode.

"The final tackle brought an end to the fight, the other rattata beaten and broken." Small cheers answered Ratterick's announcement, his chest puffing out at the praise. "It's important to note however that my opponent was willing to try and continue to fight, despite his wounds. He was brave, but unfortunately for him he was not as skilled as I."

"Jeez," Weave's mutter was under her breath and she was standing a decent length away so as to not disturb the low-level mouse 'mons, but still Ratterick's ear twitched. He didn't seem to show that he had heard however, the proud rattata finishing his story with a grasp of language (and irritating need to show it off) that riveled even 'mon who had been trained for a decade.

"His temporary master knew that he had been outmatched by my own, and that I was the superior rattata of the two." A small nod of respect from Ratterick. "Despite his own visible anger at his loss and the length of foul words that flowed from his mouth, he commanded my opponent to stand down as to avoid further injury." The three rattata listening had wide eyes, one of the males even sniffing with a tear in his eye. "I remember the words the large human spoke to my foe well: 'My rattata, stand down, stand down I say! Can you not see that we have been vanquished, and your life fluid flows freely upon this battleground? There is honour in admitting defeat to a worthy foe in battle fairly fought, but none to be had if you are struck down without reason!'."

That was certainly different to how Weave's own master had retold the events to her, Ratterick forgetting to add in at least ten 'fucks' and a few 'shits' for good measure. She smiled when thinking about the rude human words though, silently mouthing them to herself and taking delight in how they seemed to have some power behind them despite their simplicity. Ratterick and her both previously knew what 'shit' referred to, not that her partner would ever lower himself to say it, but agreement had been reached that the meaning of 'fuck' still evaded them.

"And with that," Ratterick said after clearing his throat for emphasis. "They yielded, and I won the battle!"

His audience all squeaked and clapped with delight, Ratterick giving them all a bow with a foreleg over his chest.

"Wow, you strong!"

"I wanna be like you too!"

"Can you train me, strong rattata?"

It was then that Weave finally decided that he'd had enough fun for the day, pokecode be damned. She stalked over to stand beside the four rodents, dwarfing them all with her height and causing them to jump when they noticed that she had moved closer. Save for Ratterick who just shot her an unamused look, although he too still paid attention when she clacked her claws together.

"Ratterick the Second then saved all of the lady 'mons and rode off into the sunset on the back of a ponyta, the tale of his battle so awesome that even human females went into heat when they heard of it, and he was forever known as 'Ratterick the Defeater of the Low-Level Rattata Runt Forced to Fight for the Stupidest Master in the World'."

Weave continued to clack her claws together, and Ratterick sighed when the three smaller pokemon shared some nervous glances before bolting off towards the largest rat pack far away from them.

"Thank you, Weave. As helpful as ever."

"No problem, Ratterick." Weave smirked, ceasing her mocking claps. "No big loss for you anyway; she's already mating with the one on the left, and a few of the others around here too. Her master either has her on those special pills humans make so you don't get preggers, or she works part time as a breeder for the Team. You deserve better than a 'mon that easy." He tilted his head at her in confusion, Weave tapping her nose. "I can smell her on them, or the other way round I suppose."

Another long and weary sigh from the unlucky rattata.

"Disgusting, thank you again for the specifics." He looked back at her grin with his own frown. "The part about the human females was entirely unneeded however, I don't even wish to think about them that way." A raise of the eye. "Unlike you, I'm only interested in other pokemon and am not a disturbed humanphile, it's unnatural."

The attempt at a dig was brushed off with a toothy laugh. "Oh calm down, it was just that word you use, hyper… hypobowl…"

"Hyperbole," Ratterick provided, unable to help himself.

"That's the one. Hyperherb-and-me."

The deepest of sighs, the sound of complete defeat.

"Why me?" He asked to no-one in particular.

Weave snickered into a claw. "Your master is a cutie, as innocent as a baby vulpix. Vulnerable like one, too."

"Delightful." A moment passed, and then his grimace turned into a smile with a quiet 'ah!'. He turned away from her, Weave noticing that he was facing the Pink One off to the side. "I've just had an idea to solve my little problem. I'm going to go over and see what the new human is doing."

She had to struggle to keep her jaw from dropping at the smug rattata's announcement.

"No way," she doubted out loud, looking at the Pink One still reading his book and eating. "Not the Pink One, he's a freak!"

It was admittedly hard to figure out a lot of things about humans, even for a fairly intelligent and social pokemon like Weave. Despite hanging around them while they did their funny human things since she was a small sneasel taken from her pack, she still wasn't fully confident in her grasp of how they worked human-to-human. Pink One was even more alien compared to normal humans, and one thing she noticed was just how most of the other humans seemed to avoid him unless needed.

Apart from her and Ratterick's masters of course, Weave guessing that it had something to do with them being present when the important human pack leader had brought Pink out from who knows where. You don't disobey the pack leader unless you think you could take them and the human pack leader was scary in his own way, even without his monster of a persian and whatever other powerful 'mons he had hidden away.

"Well, perhaps he is a 'freak'," conceded Ratterick with a thoughtful nod. "I have noticed that he's about as popular with other humans as you are with other pokemon, yes."

That one ruffled her feathers. "Hey, that's not true. I have fff… fffr… fri-ends." Even the word was difficult to say, leaving a bad taste in her mouth. Ratterick fixed her with a solid, unblinking stare from over his shoulder. He only broke it a few seconds later when she huffed and crossed her arms. "I'm a strong pokemon, I don't need friends."

"If you say so, Weave." He returned his attention to the Pink One, curled tail flicking. "He's strange, sure, but you weren't there for that battle. Despite my admitted hyperbole at times, I do mean it when I say that he genuinely seemed to care for the wellbeing of my opponent. Abrasive in speech and maybe even rough in mannerisms, certainly, but despite not being a true master of that rattata he still hated seeing him hurt." A little cream paw touched his chest. "And I may be biased, but a human that can care about an unfamiliar and weaker rattata can't be that bad."

Another small smile followed the speech, Ratterick starting to move towards the seated human with a spring in his step.

"More importantly however, I know that you won't follow me. Because, my dear Weave, he scares you."

Weave's claws flexed while the smug purple rodent bounced off to his new human friend, her brain wracking itself for a reply.

"Nah uh," was all she could manage at first. "I'm not scared, he just smells wrong!"

"Yes he does!" Ratterick called back over his shoulder but not slowing in step. "A price I'm willing to pay!"

A snort, Weave turning around so she didn't have to watch her partner bask in his small victory. Instead she looked around the large nature area, dismissing all of the weak and scared 'mon that occupied it once again.

"Stuff it," she muttered to herself with a frown, eyeing up and starting to walk towards the group of humans that included her master as well as Max. "At least humans seem to like me, pokemon can rot for all I care. Humans give me more ear scratches than they give Ratterick anyway."