Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
Alchemist: "Not that there's anything wrong with that..."
Project Gamer: Anime Adjacent
- Thread starter Mister Ficser
- Start date
Anime Adjacent: PokeMon 11
Erika, the Gym Leader of the Celadon City Gym, a place in which PokeMon trainers learned to value the strength of Grass Types, slowly leaned forward and...
Snored.
The kimono-clad woman caught herself before she could tilt over and shook herself, forcing her eyes open.
They were nearing the end of the traditional League season which meant the number of challengers for her Rainbow Badge were tapering off. As the representative of Celadon City, she was still obligated to remain publicly available until the Indigo League Challenge had concluded. Several more weeks.
Erika yawned, demurely covering her mouth with one long sleeve.
Several more weeks and then she could declare her Gym Challenge to be by appointment, freeing up her schedule immensely until the start of the next years League Challenge.
"Erika?" One of her Gym Trainers called gently, waking the dozing woman. "We've got a phone call. It's, uh, Sabrina."
"What?" Erika asked, standing up and stifling another yawn. "Sabrina? She never calls me."
Or anybody.
"Well, it's a woman who says her name is Sabrina." Erika's trainer, a young beauty with luscious blond locks named Bridget told her. "It might be best to take this call in your office?"
"Is something wrong?" Erika asked, following behind her trainer through the greenhouse that was used as the battleground of her Gym challenges.
"Well, I'm pretty sure she's drunk." Erika stopped in place, shocked at the blunt admission from Bridget. "And she's sounding pretty crazy. Crazier than normal."
"...I see." Erika really didn't. Regardless, she hurried past Bridget and into her office. Picking up the handset, she brought it to her ear-
"Took you long enough." The cold, dour voice on the other end was demanding. Definitely Sabrina.
"Sabrina!" Erika adopted a measure of cheer. It was only polite, after all. "It's such a rare delight to hear from you! Are you well?"
"Yes, yes. I'm fine. You're fine. The gym is doing fine and your Weepinbell is about to evolve- I called you for something important, Erika." Sabrina's voice had a hard edge to it. "Don't sigh, you know I hate small talk."
Erika choked back said sigh, hiccuping into the receiver. Sabrina's abuse of divination was but one of several reasons why the cold woman was so difficult to speak with.
And why the poor dear was chronically single.
"I can hear you mocking me, Erika." Sabrina spoke again, cutting the Grass leader off before she could speak.
"Good. It saves me the time of having to actually say it out loud, crone." Erika very fondly remembered five minutes ago. When she wasn't having to deal with a neurotic psychic. "What did you call me for?"
"I've been augmenting my capabilities for the last few days. Dealing with an... Unexpected situation. A Fetch I'd accidentally made. It did not appreciate being revealed. Or cleansed with fire." Erika had no idea what a Fetch even was. She'd never heard of a PokeMon that had such a name. "You should be hosting a challenger soon. Some... Thing. I don't know what it is. The future fractures around it. Be on your guard. You must defeat it."
"I see..." Erika did not, in fact, see. "By 'augmenting' do you by chance mean 'drinking copious amounts of alcohol'?"
It wasn't a subtle thing. Sabrina was harsh and cold like a midwinter storm, biting and chilly.
That was normal.
The woman offering some measure of concern? Masking it behind her typical vitriol and abuse? That was almost unheard of!
"You know how Psyduck's psychic power grows with its headache?" Erika nodded, quite sure that Sabrina would be aware of it. "A hangover is an amazing power amplifier."
"Why-" Erika started to ask but was interrupted by a click and then beeping.
Sabrina had hung up on her!
"Rude..." Erika sighed and placed the handset back on its cradle. That had been... Whatever the opposite of enlightening would be.
Mystifying. That had been mystifying.
Still, at least the insanely powerful lunatic had told her something useful. She'd be entertaining a challenger soon!
Erika left her office and returned to her greenhouse. Her flowers were blooming, the birds were singing-
*Squawk!*
One fewer bird was singing as her Weepinbell enjoyed a fresh meal.
Erika looked around at the greenery and had to suppress another yawn. She was up in the early mornings and always felt tired in the afternoons. Honestly, a good battle right now would be just the thing she needed to wake back up!
Her eyes were about to drift shut again when she saw someone poking their nose into her little garden.
Eugh, no. Worse than that. Someone had brought a Houndour into her garden!
She'd posted a bounty with the Rangers to have the pack on Route Seven broken up so people would stop bringing wild PokeMon into her Gym and thinking they'd have an easy battle due to a type advantage!
"Hello?" The boy with that dreadful PokeMon called into her greenhouse. He seemed rather plain, really, though his eyes did look somewhat unique. "Are you Erika?"
"I am." Erika suppressed a sigh and stood up from her seat. Again. "Welcome to the Celadon City Gym. I am the leader, Erika. The Nature Loving Princess. Who do I have the honor of challenging today?"
"Alec Mist." And he had such a bland name. "I don't suppose you run any one-badge challenges? Sirius and I haven't been training long and we're a bit mixed up, so I know the-"
"We do not, I apologize." Erika didn't bother suppressing her sigh this time around. She could at least appreciate that he'd been up-front with his inexperience. "The Gym Circuit is designed to be followed in a specific route for a reason, to ensure that a trainer has acquired the necessary skills to earn each badge, showing prowess and excellence across a variety of fields which are critical in both raising and training your partners."
Erika looked down on the Houndour. She'd gotten very used to having them Growl at her when she educated their trainers on the reality of their situation.
This one, though, simply sat next to his trainer. Happily panting as though he were actually tame.
"I see..." The boy nodded to her and then leaned down, stroking the head of the vicious little Fire beast. "Thank you for your time. Hopefully I'll be back around soon."
The boy turned around and started to walk out the door, his Houndour at his side. "Come on, Sirius. Let's get lunch figured out and then I need to find a way to make some money. Should I set up a stall for repairs or raid the Rocket base...?"
Erika watched him walk away, talking with his Houndour as though the simple brute truly understood him. She settled herself back down and was almost ready to nod back off when what he'd said properly settled itself in her mind.
"Wait!" She cried, snapping to full wakefulness. "What Rocket Base?!"
Snored.
The kimono-clad woman caught herself before she could tilt over and shook herself, forcing her eyes open.
They were nearing the end of the traditional League season which meant the number of challengers for her Rainbow Badge were tapering off. As the representative of Celadon City, she was still obligated to remain publicly available until the Indigo League Challenge had concluded. Several more weeks.
Erika yawned, demurely covering her mouth with one long sleeve.
Several more weeks and then she could declare her Gym Challenge to be by appointment, freeing up her schedule immensely until the start of the next years League Challenge.
"Erika?" One of her Gym Trainers called gently, waking the dozing woman. "We've got a phone call. It's, uh, Sabrina."
"What?" Erika asked, standing up and stifling another yawn. "Sabrina? She never calls me."
Or anybody.
"Well, it's a woman who says her name is Sabrina." Erika's trainer, a young beauty with luscious blond locks named Bridget told her. "It might be best to take this call in your office?"
"Is something wrong?" Erika asked, following behind her trainer through the greenhouse that was used as the battleground of her Gym challenges.
"Well, I'm pretty sure she's drunk." Erika stopped in place, shocked at the blunt admission from Bridget. "And she's sounding pretty crazy. Crazier than normal."
"...I see." Erika really didn't. Regardless, she hurried past Bridget and into her office. Picking up the handset, she brought it to her ear-
"Took you long enough." The cold, dour voice on the other end was demanding. Definitely Sabrina.
"Sabrina!" Erika adopted a measure of cheer. It was only polite, after all. "It's such a rare delight to hear from you! Are you well?"
"Yes, yes. I'm fine. You're fine. The gym is doing fine and your Weepinbell is about to evolve- I called you for something important, Erika." Sabrina's voice had a hard edge to it. "Don't sigh, you know I hate small talk."
Erika choked back said sigh, hiccuping into the receiver. Sabrina's abuse of divination was but one of several reasons why the cold woman was so difficult to speak with.
And why the poor dear was chronically single.
"I can hear you mocking me, Erika." Sabrina spoke again, cutting the Grass leader off before she could speak.
"Good. It saves me the time of having to actually say it out loud, crone." Erika very fondly remembered five minutes ago. When she wasn't having to deal with a neurotic psychic. "What did you call me for?"
"I've been augmenting my capabilities for the last few days. Dealing with an... Unexpected situation. A Fetch I'd accidentally made. It did not appreciate being revealed. Or cleansed with fire." Erika had no idea what a Fetch even was. She'd never heard of a PokeMon that had such a name. "You should be hosting a challenger soon. Some... Thing. I don't know what it is. The future fractures around it. Be on your guard. You must defeat it."
"I see..." Erika did not, in fact, see. "By 'augmenting' do you by chance mean 'drinking copious amounts of alcohol'?"
It wasn't a subtle thing. Sabrina was harsh and cold like a midwinter storm, biting and chilly.
That was normal.
The woman offering some measure of concern? Masking it behind her typical vitriol and abuse? That was almost unheard of!
"You know how Psyduck's psychic power grows with its headache?" Erika nodded, quite sure that Sabrina would be aware of it. "A hangover is an amazing power amplifier."
"Why-" Erika started to ask but was interrupted by a click and then beeping.
Sabrina had hung up on her!
"Rude..." Erika sighed and placed the handset back on its cradle. That had been... Whatever the opposite of enlightening would be.
Mystifying. That had been mystifying.
Still, at least the insanely powerful lunatic had told her something useful. She'd be entertaining a challenger soon!
Erika left her office and returned to her greenhouse. Her flowers were blooming, the birds were singing-
*Squawk!*
One fewer bird was singing as her Weepinbell enjoyed a fresh meal.
Erika looked around at the greenery and had to suppress another yawn. She was up in the early mornings and always felt tired in the afternoons. Honestly, a good battle right now would be just the thing she needed to wake back up!
Her eyes were about to drift shut again when she saw someone poking their nose into her little garden.
Eugh, no. Worse than that. Someone had brought a Houndour into her garden!
She'd posted a bounty with the Rangers to have the pack on Route Seven broken up so people would stop bringing wild PokeMon into her Gym and thinking they'd have an easy battle due to a type advantage!
"Hello?" The boy with that dreadful PokeMon called into her greenhouse. He seemed rather plain, really, though his eyes did look somewhat unique. "Are you Erika?"
"I am." Erika suppressed a sigh and stood up from her seat. Again. "Welcome to the Celadon City Gym. I am the leader, Erika. The Nature Loving Princess. Who do I have the honor of challenging today?"
"Alec Mist." And he had such a bland name. "I don't suppose you run any one-badge challenges? Sirius and I haven't been training long and we're a bit mixed up, so I know the-"
"We do not, I apologize." Erika didn't bother suppressing her sigh this time around. She could at least appreciate that he'd been up-front with his inexperience. "The Gym Circuit is designed to be followed in a specific route for a reason, to ensure that a trainer has acquired the necessary skills to earn each badge, showing prowess and excellence across a variety of fields which are critical in both raising and training your partners."
Erika looked down on the Houndour. She'd gotten very used to having them Growl at her when she educated their trainers on the reality of their situation.
This one, though, simply sat next to his trainer. Happily panting as though he were actually tame.
"I see..." The boy nodded to her and then leaned down, stroking the head of the vicious little Fire beast. "Thank you for your time. Hopefully I'll be back around soon."
The boy turned around and started to walk out the door, his Houndour at his side. "Come on, Sirius. Let's get lunch figured out and then I need to find a way to make some money. Should I set up a stall for repairs or raid the Rocket base...?"
Erika watched him walk away, talking with his Houndour as though the simple brute truly understood him. She settled herself back down and was almost ready to nod back off when what he'd said properly settled itself in her mind.
"Wait!" She cried, snapping to full wakefulness. "What Rocket Base?!"
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Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
Erika used "ignore critical message!" It was super-effective!
- Location
- Here
I mean honestly it could depend heavily on how team rocket is behaving in this world.
Sometimes they're cute lovable awkward people who show up as comic relief... Other times they straight up sliced the tails off slowpokes and sell them to the people to eat. Or plan to blow up Islands, or who knows what.
They do seem to have unreasonably large amounts of money though. Customized hot air balloons, giant robot versions of Pokemon...
- Location
- United States
Sabrina used Critical Message!
Erika was immune!
- Location
- Mt. Holly, North Carolina
The "joke" team is actually an elite unit, thanks to winding up poking several gods at different points. The Rocket grunts though are either in debt, couldn't get a normal job, or actually act as local message distribution points for region wide issues like one of the local gods going for a walkabout through a few towns. There's a reason they are tolerated when some grunt starts selling slowpoke tails.
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
But are they immune to Toad?
- Location
- Oz
Considering what theyve gone through over the years, no, but they'll shrug it off within a day.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Slowpoke tails also just regrow apparently, the problem was they were being unethical jerks about it instead of what ever legal ethical way there might be to harvest Slowpoke tails.
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- Location
- Alabama
I mean jessie and james managed to make enough payments to pay off their tab hella quick with a successful small business. It might be less about tons of money but availability of superior pokepower making material cheaper and connections.
- Location
- Puurs
I always thought that was James paying for those things and not Team Rocket itself.
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
James is obviously gay, so he wouldn't have any interest in Jessie anyway.
A Fetch is some kind of doppelganger right? Does that mean Sabrina burned the doll of herself and it fought back somehow?
first for those that are not aware of what a "fetch" is :Fetch (folklore) - Wikipedia
in a world with Fairy as a energy type i would think that a Fetch is a pretty serious thing...
in a world with Fairy as a energy type i would think that a Fetch is a pretty serious thing...
yup...in myth Fetch's are Fae creations that poses abilities beyond normal humans...so i imagine it was not an easy battle by any means.
Anime Adjacent: PokeMon 12
Operative Butch grunted as he moved a crate in the warehouse hidden in the depths of Celadon City.
"This sucks!" Cassidy whined, the blond rocket on the other side of the crate struggling to hold up her half of the load. "I want to get out there! I want to do something important!"
"Well-" Butch grunted as they slowly worked their way down a set of stairs.
The elevator needed special keys to operate. Special keys they weren't trusted with as basic grunts.
"-then we gotta get the scut work outta the way!" Which really didn't bother Butch all that much. Work was work and he was more than happy to take what he could get.
Being a washed up trainer from a nameless town not too far from Vermilion City, his options and resources had basically been non-existent. Once upon a time, he and his trusted Primeape had made it to the Indigo Plateua.
Only to be knocked out in the first round. An unnamed speedbump for another challenger who got knocked out in their second round.
An unimportant trainer losing to someone else who'd barely had an advantage. Their psychic Kadabra winning because of Primeape's native weakness to its mental attacks rather than any real difference in skill or training.
No money, no opportunities, the only real thing of note had been the Rocket Boss himself consoling Butch after his loss and offering him something. Offering him a chance. Offering him a purpose.
Offering him a place in Team Rocket.
Unfortunately, that place was Grunt. Butch spent most of his time listening to old farts speak and being forced to do remedial tests in the Rocket Academy to cover the stuff he would've learned in school if he hadn't gone on a journey.
The classes had ranged anywhere from knowing how to trick the average rube (Anyone can lie. Not just anyone can be believed. People are much more willing to follow an example which is why Rocket Teams operate in pairs. One to direct, one to support. One to make an offer, one to be the first to 'accept' the offer.) to other stuff, like knowing how to read bank statements. Butch had never known how many little things were hidden on the standardized papers that got sent out to everyone every month.
Taxes. The Rocket Academy taught everyone how to do their taxes. Apparently an order from the Boss himself- The Leader didn't care if his Rockets stole money and PokeMon, that was fine. They could not, however, mess up their paperwork.
The Leader didn't fear the PokeMon League. No, he feared something far worse.
The Auditors.
"Hey, fellas!" Someone called from nearby, down the hallway Butch and Cassidy were walking down with the crate full of PokeMon feed.
Butch looked up, sweaty and out of breath, to see another Rocket Grunt standing in a doorway. The boy had short, red hair and a Houndour that had blue fur.
Butch had never seen a Houndour with blue fur before.
"I want to go get something from the storage room but I got turned around. Could you tell me where it is?" The kid, probably pulled right off his first journey, was pulling at the hem of his Rocket jacket.
"Yeah." Cassidy grunted as she leaned down, forcing Butch to do the same as they put the crate of feed down on the ground. "It's on the first floor- This is the third- so go upstairs two floors. Then take a left 'till you get to the big meeting room, then a right and it's the little room on the left at the end of the hall."
"Fantastic!" The redhead said, his green eyes glinting oddly. "Thank you so much! I hope you have a great day!"
And then the fresh-faced Grunt ran off past them, his shiny Houndour bounding after him.
"...That was nice." Cassidy admitted, sitting down on the crate they were supposed to be moving. "Most of the newbies aren't so polite."
"...That is nice." Butch agreed after a moment before leaning against the wall. The PokeMon could wait five minutes to eat, it wouldn't hurt anybody. "Usually you're a lot meaner."
"It wasn't too long ago I was the one asking for directions." Cassidy defended herself, waving in the direction the boy had gone. "The Admin I asked thought it would be funny to give me bad intel. The Boss called the both of us into his office at the end of the day, had his Persian there waiting. He just had a talk to us about 'Things that are acceptable for us to do to others... And things which are acceptable for us to do to each other. We are a Team and I expect you both to remember that.' which, I mean, that's why I'm here but... It really stuck with me, y'know?"
"...Yeah." Butch shuddered, just imagining himself in Cassidy's shoes. "The Boss is pretty scary like that."
"Scary?" Cassidy asked, her legs kicking back and forth leisurely. "Butch, that was the hottest thing I'd even seen."
-----
Alec quietly hummed to himself as he sat on a picnic table in the public space next to the PokeMon Center. A little banner overhead, propped up by two poles, said 'Twenty Minute Repairs - 1000 Poké. No PokéMon, vehicles cost extra'.
Around him was a fairly significant number of people. Many of them were trainers, quite a few were customers.
"Excuse me?" A voice belonging to a young boy interrupted Alec's work on a handheld cassette player. "Does your sign mean you don't accept work from PokéMon?"
"Oh, no, that's not it." Alec tapped the side of the cassette player with his screwdriver and cast Repair. "It means that I don't work -on- PokéMon. If you need medical assistance, you need to go see Nurse Joy. If a PokéMon comes here and asks me to fix something, and has the money, I have no problems helping out."
"Ohh, okay." The kid, a really young one Alec noticed once he finally looked up, nodded to himself seriously. "Can you fix my Machop's camera? He got really excited at the Gym in Saffron last week and he crushed it."
"Absolutely can- Cameron!" Alchemist called out, checking the name connected to the item he'd been working on. "Your walkman is fixed!"
A hefty, bald man wearing a leather jacket lumbered up to the table and took the cassette player with surprising gentleness. He popped the device open and put in a cassette, then hooked in a pair of large headphones. Pressing play, the biker smiled broadly before walking away.
"Let me just get your information, write down what you brought me and I'll add it to the queue of things I'm working on." Alec reached over and accepted the crushed remains from the boy.
"Okay, umm... My name is Corey and... I have the money. Do I need to pay you now or when you're done?" The kid just looked so nervous, Alec almost felt bad for how much he was charging.
Almost.
"Right now, Corey. I've had a few people try to hand me trash instead of just throwing something away and they didn't come back for it, so I have to have payments up front." Which also left Alec as the proud owner of an ancient C.D. player and a handheld television that had questionable reception and only played in black and white.
"Okay." The kid scrounged around in his pockets for a moment before coming up with ten 100 Poké coins. "This is enough, right?"
"It is." Alec told the boy as Zeph darted out of his sleeve to collect the coins in her mouth. "I'll have your Machop's camera fixed in about fifteen or twenty minutes. You can go to the PokéMon center for a bit if you like? I'll still be here when you're done."
Alec watched the boy walk off briefly before he turned his head back down to his hands and got back to work. He had a list of things that needed fixed, mostly camping gear, that he needed to get through. He could accomplish it all over the course of about five minutes but that would expose things a little too obviously.
Pretending that it actually took him some time, he could pass his skills off as a knack or a gift.
It also got around some of the jerks that would complain about the price because 'If it only took you a minute to fix it, why am I paying you so much money?!'
He liked those people. He liked handing them back their junk and their money.
Alec was in the middle of working on a device he couldn't even name when a new shadow darkened his table. Looking up, he was met with a demure little woman wearing a green kimono with a red skirt and a floral-printed sash.
Considering how much those impaired someone's ability to walk, Alec was honestly wondering how long it took her to reach him.
"Hello, Erika. Did you need something fixed?" Another thing Alec liked about doing this sort of work was how little focus it really took from him. It was great for multitasking.
"...I thought you would be performing some foolish assault on Team Rocket." The woman admitted quietly, a very obvious look around herself to see who was listening.
Zeph poked her head up from Alec's collar, bright yellow eyes locked on to the Nature Loving Princess.
"I have no badges and two PokéMon that I've only just started training." Alec admitted to her, a subtle golden glow covering the machine and fixing the internals he hadn't been able to make much sense of.
It was kind of like a blender, then it used a pump to force the pureed mash through a tube and into a sort of cooking chamber with a small heating element that would bake the contents into a block shape.
The wiring, the lubricant, the motor and the torque it would need to force on to such small parts- Alec had seen a PokéBlock device in the games and those were a lot bigger than this little hunk of junk. Even returned to brand-new condition, the parts were all undersized and overstressed for what it would be doing!
"There's no way I'm going to have them fight through wave after wave of Rattata, Weezing and Ekans." Alec continued to explain, eyes and hands focused on his tasks. "They could probably handle the Zubat, though."
"That's- That's good!" The woman choked out, sounding incredibly stressed. "I'd thought- I was thinking- Where, uh, where is this Rocket Base that you were talking about?"
"In the game corner." He told her, setting aside the soon-to-be-broken blender and grabbing a handful of bent tent poles. "If you look behind the poster in the back, there's a secret switch that reveals a hidden entrance to their warehouses downstairs."
Which was not as impressive as he'd been hoping. Computers, early laptops, lots of food and something like three dozen PokéMon trapped in cages. Well, they had been trapped in cages.
They were probably going to figure out sometime soon that the locks were missing.
The real treasure, not just the good treasures that were scattered about like a few chunks of gold or the health supplements, had been the stacks of C.D. cases they'd left in the warehouse for PokéMon moves like Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Iron Tail, Shadow Ball, Double Team, Psychic, Dragon Rage, Substitute and Hyper Beam. Maybe about three dozen of each.
Alec wished he knew how to use those. The cages of Eevee he'd unlocked would have been infinitely more hilarious if he could've taught those PokéMon how to use Shadow Ball before his duplicate had moved on to wholesale theft.
"What?" Erika asked, absolutely gobsmacked. "But- what- Why are they using the Game Corner? Why haven't you told the police?!"
"Money laundering." Alec explained very simply. "Turning dirty money into something clean for the more legal efforts they perform? It's old hat."
Alec set aside the straightened tent poles and grabbed Corey's Camera.
"As for why I didn't go to the police?" Alec asked her as an explosion happened across the city, at the Game Corner in question. "Do you really think the Rockets could dig out a multi-level compound without the officials knowing about it?"
As Erika turned around and lifted the skirt of her kimono to start running in the direction that smoke was filling the air from, Alec just tapped the empty PokéBall on his belt.
He was going to have to pick up Sirius from the Demi-Plane before they moved on. There wasn't a route to the west but the wilderness between Celadon and Viridian didn't look too bad. Just a mountain or two in the way.
Alec just hoped Sirius was done feeling blue by the time he got to the dog. It really wasn't his color.
Edit: Small mistake - The Blizzard TM did not come from the game corner and has been removed.
"This sucks!" Cassidy whined, the blond rocket on the other side of the crate struggling to hold up her half of the load. "I want to get out there! I want to do something important!"
"Well-" Butch grunted as they slowly worked their way down a set of stairs.
The elevator needed special keys to operate. Special keys they weren't trusted with as basic grunts.
"-then we gotta get the scut work outta the way!" Which really didn't bother Butch all that much. Work was work and he was more than happy to take what he could get.
Being a washed up trainer from a nameless town not too far from Vermilion City, his options and resources had basically been non-existent. Once upon a time, he and his trusted Primeape had made it to the Indigo Plateua.
Only to be knocked out in the first round. An unnamed speedbump for another challenger who got knocked out in their second round.
An unimportant trainer losing to someone else who'd barely had an advantage. Their psychic Kadabra winning because of Primeape's native weakness to its mental attacks rather than any real difference in skill or training.
No money, no opportunities, the only real thing of note had been the Rocket Boss himself consoling Butch after his loss and offering him something. Offering him a chance. Offering him a purpose.
Offering him a place in Team Rocket.
Unfortunately, that place was Grunt. Butch spent most of his time listening to old farts speak and being forced to do remedial tests in the Rocket Academy to cover the stuff he would've learned in school if he hadn't gone on a journey.
The classes had ranged anywhere from knowing how to trick the average rube (Anyone can lie. Not just anyone can be believed. People are much more willing to follow an example which is why Rocket Teams operate in pairs. One to direct, one to support. One to make an offer, one to be the first to 'accept' the offer.) to other stuff, like knowing how to read bank statements. Butch had never known how many little things were hidden on the standardized papers that got sent out to everyone every month.
Taxes. The Rocket Academy taught everyone how to do their taxes. Apparently an order from the Boss himself- The Leader didn't care if his Rockets stole money and PokeMon, that was fine. They could not, however, mess up their paperwork.
The Leader didn't fear the PokeMon League. No, he feared something far worse.
The Auditors.
"Hey, fellas!" Someone called from nearby, down the hallway Butch and Cassidy were walking down with the crate full of PokeMon feed.
Butch looked up, sweaty and out of breath, to see another Rocket Grunt standing in a doorway. The boy had short, red hair and a Houndour that had blue fur.
Butch had never seen a Houndour with blue fur before.
"I want to go get something from the storage room but I got turned around. Could you tell me where it is?" The kid, probably pulled right off his first journey, was pulling at the hem of his Rocket jacket.
"Yeah." Cassidy grunted as she leaned down, forcing Butch to do the same as they put the crate of feed down on the ground. "It's on the first floor- This is the third- so go upstairs two floors. Then take a left 'till you get to the big meeting room, then a right and it's the little room on the left at the end of the hall."
"Fantastic!" The redhead said, his green eyes glinting oddly. "Thank you so much! I hope you have a great day!"
And then the fresh-faced Grunt ran off past them, his shiny Houndour bounding after him.
"...That was nice." Cassidy admitted, sitting down on the crate they were supposed to be moving. "Most of the newbies aren't so polite."
"...That is nice." Butch agreed after a moment before leaning against the wall. The PokeMon could wait five minutes to eat, it wouldn't hurt anybody. "Usually you're a lot meaner."
"It wasn't too long ago I was the one asking for directions." Cassidy defended herself, waving in the direction the boy had gone. "The Admin I asked thought it would be funny to give me bad intel. The Boss called the both of us into his office at the end of the day, had his Persian there waiting. He just had a talk to us about 'Things that are acceptable for us to do to others... And things which are acceptable for us to do to each other. We are a Team and I expect you both to remember that.' which, I mean, that's why I'm here but... It really stuck with me, y'know?"
"...Yeah." Butch shuddered, just imagining himself in Cassidy's shoes. "The Boss is pretty scary like that."
"Scary?" Cassidy asked, her legs kicking back and forth leisurely. "Butch, that was the hottest thing I'd even seen."
-----
Alec quietly hummed to himself as he sat on a picnic table in the public space next to the PokeMon Center. A little banner overhead, propped up by two poles, said 'Twenty Minute Repairs - 1000 Poké. No PokéMon, vehicles cost extra'.
Around him was a fairly significant number of people. Many of them were trainers, quite a few were customers.
"Excuse me?" A voice belonging to a young boy interrupted Alec's work on a handheld cassette player. "Does your sign mean you don't accept work from PokéMon?"
"Oh, no, that's not it." Alec tapped the side of the cassette player with his screwdriver and cast Repair. "It means that I don't work -on- PokéMon. If you need medical assistance, you need to go see Nurse Joy. If a PokéMon comes here and asks me to fix something, and has the money, I have no problems helping out."
"Ohh, okay." The kid, a really young one Alec noticed once he finally looked up, nodded to himself seriously. "Can you fix my Machop's camera? He got really excited at the Gym in Saffron last week and he crushed it."
"Absolutely can- Cameron!" Alchemist called out, checking the name connected to the item he'd been working on. "Your walkman is fixed!"
A hefty, bald man wearing a leather jacket lumbered up to the table and took the cassette player with surprising gentleness. He popped the device open and put in a cassette, then hooked in a pair of large headphones. Pressing play, the biker smiled broadly before walking away.
"Let me just get your information, write down what you brought me and I'll add it to the queue of things I'm working on." Alec reached over and accepted the crushed remains from the boy.
"Okay, umm... My name is Corey and... I have the money. Do I need to pay you now or when you're done?" The kid just looked so nervous, Alec almost felt bad for how much he was charging.
Almost.
"Right now, Corey. I've had a few people try to hand me trash instead of just throwing something away and they didn't come back for it, so I have to have payments up front." Which also left Alec as the proud owner of an ancient C.D. player and a handheld television that had questionable reception and only played in black and white.
"Okay." The kid scrounged around in his pockets for a moment before coming up with ten 100 Poké coins. "This is enough, right?"
"It is." Alec told the boy as Zeph darted out of his sleeve to collect the coins in her mouth. "I'll have your Machop's camera fixed in about fifteen or twenty minutes. You can go to the PokéMon center for a bit if you like? I'll still be here when you're done."
Alec watched the boy walk off briefly before he turned his head back down to his hands and got back to work. He had a list of things that needed fixed, mostly camping gear, that he needed to get through. He could accomplish it all over the course of about five minutes but that would expose things a little too obviously.
Pretending that it actually took him some time, he could pass his skills off as a knack or a gift.
It also got around some of the jerks that would complain about the price because 'If it only took you a minute to fix it, why am I paying you so much money?!'
He liked those people. He liked handing them back their junk and their money.
Alec was in the middle of working on a device he couldn't even name when a new shadow darkened his table. Looking up, he was met with a demure little woman wearing a green kimono with a red skirt and a floral-printed sash.
Considering how much those impaired someone's ability to walk, Alec was honestly wondering how long it took her to reach him.
"Hello, Erika. Did you need something fixed?" Another thing Alec liked about doing this sort of work was how little focus it really took from him. It was great for multitasking.
"...I thought you would be performing some foolish assault on Team Rocket." The woman admitted quietly, a very obvious look around herself to see who was listening.
Zeph poked her head up from Alec's collar, bright yellow eyes locked on to the Nature Loving Princess.
"I have no badges and two PokéMon that I've only just started training." Alec admitted to her, a subtle golden glow covering the machine and fixing the internals he hadn't been able to make much sense of.
It was kind of like a blender, then it used a pump to force the pureed mash through a tube and into a sort of cooking chamber with a small heating element that would bake the contents into a block shape.
The wiring, the lubricant, the motor and the torque it would need to force on to such small parts- Alec had seen a PokéBlock device in the games and those were a lot bigger than this little hunk of junk. Even returned to brand-new condition, the parts were all undersized and overstressed for what it would be doing!
"There's no way I'm going to have them fight through wave after wave of Rattata, Weezing and Ekans." Alec continued to explain, eyes and hands focused on his tasks. "They could probably handle the Zubat, though."
"That's- That's good!" The woman choked out, sounding incredibly stressed. "I'd thought- I was thinking- Where, uh, where is this Rocket Base that you were talking about?"
"In the game corner." He told her, setting aside the soon-to-be-broken blender and grabbing a handful of bent tent poles. "If you look behind the poster in the back, there's a secret switch that reveals a hidden entrance to their warehouses downstairs."
Which was not as impressive as he'd been hoping. Computers, early laptops, lots of food and something like three dozen PokéMon trapped in cages. Well, they had been trapped in cages.
They were probably going to figure out sometime soon that the locks were missing.
The real treasure, not just the good treasures that were scattered about like a few chunks of gold or the health supplements, had been the stacks of C.D. cases they'd left in the warehouse for PokéMon moves like Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Iron Tail, Shadow Ball, Double Team, Psychic, Dragon Rage, Substitute and Hyper Beam. Maybe about three dozen of each.
Alec wished he knew how to use those. The cages of Eevee he'd unlocked would have been infinitely more hilarious if he could've taught those PokéMon how to use Shadow Ball before his duplicate had moved on to wholesale theft.
"What?" Erika asked, absolutely gobsmacked. "But- what- Why are they using the Game Corner? Why haven't you told the police?!"
"Money laundering." Alec explained very simply. "Turning dirty money into something clean for the more legal efforts they perform? It's old hat."
Alec set aside the straightened tent poles and grabbed Corey's Camera.
"As for why I didn't go to the police?" Alec asked her as an explosion happened across the city, at the Game Corner in question. "Do you really think the Rockets could dig out a multi-level compound without the officials knowing about it?"
As Erika turned around and lifted the skirt of her kimono to start running in the direction that smoke was filling the air from, Alec just tapped the empty PokéBall on his belt.
He was going to have to pick up Sirius from the Demi-Plane before they moved on. There wasn't a route to the west but the wilderness between Celadon and Viridian didn't look too bad. Just a mountain or two in the way.
Alec just hoped Sirius was done feeling blue by the time he got to the dog. It really wasn't his color.
Edit: Small mistake - The Blizzard TM did not come from the game corner and has been removed.
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Wait, did he somehow become shiny? Or he got a new dye? Has Alchemist gotten a budding Houndoor fashionista?
Alec has used disguise magic to great effect in the past.
Or, before he'd picked up the spells for it, plain old dye and contacts.
In the main story, it's how he prepared for his raid on Shinra Tower in the world of FF7. Combining disguises with Bilocation (Single clone, can't exist in a different plane from the caster, awareness and health are tied together), he kept the security forces distracted while at the same time scoping out the facility.
Now, when Giovanni is grilling his grunts and reviewing footage, he'll be focusing on the details he's been given. A redhead with green eyes and a shiny Houndour.
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
He learned Prestidigitation. Of course he's going to change his coat color! Being the same color all your life is boring!
He's an artiste! It's his blue period!
- Location
- US
Erika should really be careful what she wishes for.
Doesn't Gary Oak have red hair and green eyes?
And now I want Gary Oak to catch a shiny Houndour so Team Rocket (or at least Butch & Cassidy) swears a vendetta against the arrogant trainer.
Example:
Gary Oak: "I'm so awesome, I caught a rare shiny Houndour."
[later]
Cassidy: "No one messes with Team Rocket and gets away with it!"
Butch: (emotional)
"I was nice ONCE and you betrayed my kindness."Cassidy: "How dare you break Butch's heart! That's my job*!"
Gary Oak:
???P.S.
*Addams Family reference: "Don't torture yourself, Gomez. That's my job."
- Location
- Here
I once blue myself. It was a shockingly colorful event!
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA