Poochenya

He stumbled against a rock facing, but decided to stop there. His breathing was heavy; his heart was pounding. However, the adrenaline was fading fast, leaving his legs weak and his mind spinning. For the past few hours, he had been on the run from the police. But he couldn't last longer. Had he escaped them?

Dropping onto the ground, he spent a moment trying to calm down. As his body ached and his mind grasped for sleep, he tried distracting himself by reviewing his path. He had once been a noted Pokemon thief, snatching Pokeballs straight from their unsuspecting Trainer's belts. He would then hack into the Pokeball and change the Trainer ID to one of his many pseudonyms. With that done, he would then sell the Pokemon to black market dealers, who always paid him generously for his efforts. And he had been good too, able to track a Trainer to see what the most optimal target would be, gain the luckless kid's trust, then snatch the ball and be gone before he was suspected. It wouldn't be too hard to just change his identity and go back to the game.

That is, if he could figure out where he'd gone wrong. One of his fake IDs had been caught at a security checkpoint, so he slammed the guard into a post and bolted. The police were soon after him, chasing him down with bikes and fast Pokemon. When they brought out the helicopter, he had forced his mind to blank out (to fool their psychics and Psychics), then dashed for a heavily wooded area. That usually worked.

Not this time. One of the pursuing Pokemon was a Poochenya, a small rough-looking black canine that he had expected to lose easily. But the Poochenya was surprisingly persistent. It chased him through the wooded paths, keeping an even pace behind him. Any time the thief stopped, the Poochenya would soon be there, barking and baring its teeth at him. Knowing that the police trained their Pokemon to incapacitate humans if need be, the thief decided to keep running.

He spotted some carcasses and changed his path to jump over them. The hope had been that the Poochenya would be distracted with the meat. However, that did not work. As soon as he slowed, he heard the yips and barks just behind him. Then the thief tried confusing the Pokemon by changing directions rapidly, seemingly at random. The Poochenya wasn't fooled and still remained on the trail.

Finally, the thief had jumped into a large pond and swam all the way across. The water should have dispersed his scent, but he decided not to risk it. After crossing the pond, he started running as hard as he could, heading deeper into the wild forest. If he could find a Route nearby, he might be able to flag someone down and beg for assistance. He didn't like humbling himself like that, but it would certainly throw the police off his trail.

The Route did not appear, though, and now the thief was exhausted. Night had fallen and he was unable to run any longer. But it should have been enough, he told himself. He could sleep… his body desired sleep now more than his greed had ever desired money. It should have been enough.

There was a growl in the darkness. Tensing and feeling a throb of pain for it, the thief looked around. There was a mass of trees around this small rock ledge he was next to which obscured anything above him. All the bushes and wild undergrowth further hindered his view of the land around him, like the rock hid anything that was on top of the ledge. Clasping his water and sweat soaked clothes, the thief hoped that it was some wild Pokemon.

On the path that he had come from, there was a scruffy black Poochenya, its dark eyes piercing through the night's gloom. Some parts of its fur looked damp and its paws were muddy. It walked over to him with its tail held high, showing no signs of the exhaustion that still claimed the thief's body. Most telling, it wore a blue collar with a freshly dirty police tag on the front.

So it had been futile. Perhaps his weariness had affected his head, but the thief found himself smiling bitterly. "You finally caught me, huh?" the human asked. "After we run a ******* marathon through the trees, including a pond, you're still full of pep and I can hardly move. ****." He looked down and hit his fist into his leg.

The Poochenya trotted up to him, no longer growling or barking. Either it was tired or it was taunting him. Perhaps the latter, as it sat down and made an exaggerated yawn, curling its pink tongue at the tip. The thief tried to will himself into a second wind. Now that the Poochenya was off guard, he could maybe hit it in the head with a rock, then start running again. A little rough, but he didn't care. Pokemon were just a means to an end to him.

As the second wind struggled to come along, the thief began to reach out for a nearby rock. It was just small enough to fit in his hand, but rough and large enough to do some damage. However, the Poochenya noticed that. It growled and got up, taking a few steps towards the thief. It was a Dark Pokemon, so maybe it had thought of that tactic too.

Not feeling any energy coming back, the thief obediently dropped his hand to his side. Inwardly, he cursed the Poochenya's ability to sense even his plans. The canine Pokemon then pushed the rock out of his reach with its head, then made a check around him in case any other potential natural weapons were about. After pushing those out of the way, the Poochenya went back in front of the thief and sat down.

The thief tried to glare, but didn't feel angry enough to be effective. He wanted to drop down and go to sleep. Still, he struggled against it in case he got another chance to run. "What do you want?" he grumbled. "You caught up with me, so shoo. Your Trainer will take forever to get here. Scram, mutt."

Other than a twitch of the upright ears, the Poochenya didn't respond.

"I'm not going to give up," he boasted. But it was an empty one. The thief made the mistake of letting his eyes close, thinking he could be calm for a minute, then get the energy to run again. Once his vision was cut out, his mind decided to shut down as well. He was asleep in seconds.

The Poochenya watched him for a moment, then scratched its shoulder. It spun around for a bit, trampling down a flat space. Once it was suitable, it lay down to rest itself. However, the police Pokemon did not allow itself to sleep. It stayed with its head up, watching the thief in case of trouble.

Two hours later, the police officers managed to get a vehicle into the area to arrest the slumbering thief. The Poochenya wagged its tail proudly at its Trainer, who scratched it behind its ears. Once again, it had done a good job.

...

Poochenya FR/LG entry: It has a very tenacious nature. Its acute sense of smell lets it chase a chosen prey without ever losing track.