Post by Ilargi “Bii” Benigno on Jul 15, 2024 14:21:27 GMT
3:00 AM. 1 HOUR BEFORE THE RAID.
The debriefing room was well-lit. The team for this was small, consisting of just two rangers who would go on the case, the officer who would join them to perform arrests, and ranger-officer coordinating staff member. That man was also detailing the information that led to this incident.
“Judging by the tip we got last week,” the man added, “we think this poaching ring may also be connected to the recent egg thefts. They’re getting bulk pokemon from the wild and snagging rare pokemon from town.”
“They’ve got some audacity,” the officer noted, furrowing her brow. “Don’t they know all the eggs from Alvin’s place are recorded? If someone reports one missing and something similar shows up somewhere else, there’s bound to be a paper trail.”
“Alvin doesn’t always notice everything,” the other ranger supplied. They shrugged. “Doesn’t matter, anyways. We’ve got our eyes on the group.”
Inkwell’s tail swished with excitement. Despite the early hour, she was ready. She looked around the room. The ranger’s gabite was asleep with her eyes shut and the officer’s growlithe was struggling to stay away. The early hour of the raid gave the group the element of the surprise, but it also threw off everyone’s sleep schedule. Inkwell looked at Bii. Around that time, the coordinating staff member did as well.
“Don’t forget to listen for any testimony,” the man reminded. “It’s harder for the rest of us to understand pokemon that aren’t our own, and harder to admit in court. You can use your unique status to really help put these people away for a long time.”
Bii blinked. That was right. Despite all the trouble that being a gijinka had given her all her life, this was one circumstance where it was a boon. She was weaker, slower, and less brave than the officer and ranger who would be on this mission with her, but she had one benefit they didn’t: she’d be able to understand all of the pokemon there.
“R-Right,” she agreed. “I’ll… keep an ear out.”
The officer smiled. “Don’t worry. I heard you’re still getting into the swing of things, Benigno. Our growlithe and gabite will do most of the big work. There should only be about three Rockets on the job.”
The coordinator nodded. “If there’s no further questions, then move out to the location. I expect everyone to report back here in good health at the end.”
“Rodger!” “Right!” “Y-Yes…!”
3:40 AM. ELSEWHERE, 20 MINUTES BEFORE THE RAID.
Blue paws stepped lightly. Just as the coordinator had promised, there were two humans garbed in the uniform of Team Rocket posted outside. Though, both were, understandably, dozing. One was seated on the ground, leaned against the wall of the shed. The other sat in a chair, arms crossed and head lolling to the side. Only the drowzee by the one in the chair sat awake. Mentally, Inkwell ticked it off for having the Insomnia ability. Her eyes darted around. Where was the other pokemon…?
The grolwithe beside her ever so lightly sniffled. She looked towards him, followed his gaze, and saw the zubat hanging upside down from the low eaves of the building’s jutting roof. Those were their targets. Inkwell felt glad for once that Bii was not particularly brave. This raid could get nasty fast. If the gijinka just hung back, observed, and maybe provided a berry or two to those in need, this would go smoothly. They could get a decent paycheck from their involvement.
And, frankly? Inkwell had missed doing stuff like this. She enjoyed her duties as a ranger’s pokemon thoroughly.
The luxio crept closer with feline stealth, her golden eyes focused on the zubat. Her growlithe partner, likewise, shuffled closer toward the drowzee. The faint crackling of her preparing to use Charge made one of the zubat’s ears twitch, but it was too late. In unison, both of the law-enforcing pokemon burst from cover. Inkwell kicked off the wall as she leaped, swiping one paw on the zubat to knock it out in one hit with her Spark. The Growlithe struggled. His Bite hadn’t knocked out the Drowzee!
“S***!” one of the guarding grunts awakened. “Ambush! Raid! Crap!”
3:55 AM. INSIDE THE SHED, MOMENTS BEFORE THE RAID STARTS IN FULL.
He didn’t like the houndoom the highest ranking grunt here had. It was always looking for a fight. Why should it go after him? They were allies, weren’t they? Besides, they didn’t have to do anything else for a moment. They were just waiting on someone to prepare the documents necessary to pass these pokeballs and pokemon off as legitimate. Once they got traded around enough, not even the PC systems would be able to tell where they’d come from.
Briar hissed lightly before licking his paw and grooming himself.
“Hey,” Bramble interrupted, leaping up from a darker part of the shed to join Briar on the wooden box. It was full of pokeballs. Most contained young, weak, wild pokemon, but there were a few catches in there, like himself. “You okay?”
“No,” Briar spat. “Your stupid teammate almost gave me another burn.”
The zorua sighed. “Ugh, yeah… But, hey! Once this is finished, your trainer’ll gain rank, too! Maybe we’ll get assigned on more missions together!”
The purrloin couldn’t help but smile. He liked the idea. He didn’t get along very well with the ekans his trainer already had, but he wanted to do well in Team Rocket. It was all he knew, and he doubted he’d live as easily outside as he did here. His parents’ trainers’ names held weight. His new trainer, also, wanted to do well. His life was looking up. With Bramble at his side, he’d do even better.
Still, he thought it was a little odd that a stolen pokemon would turn so happily to a life of crime. Bramble hadn’t even cried over the life he’d lost as far as Briar had seen.
The kitten nudged his head against the fox kit’s cheek. “Yeah. Hey, with your Illusion ability and my Covet, we’ll be the best thieves anyone ever saw!”
The zorua nipped playfully at his friend’s cheek, but got a swipe for his trouble. “Let’s steal a master ball! Maybe we’ll catch a really good pokemon. Or, we can steal from the Elite Four! Doesn’t that sound good?”
Before Briar could answer, the door burst open. A gabite glared around the room. The houndoom, which had previously been sleeping, jumped into action.
4:03 AM. THE RAID BEGINS!
“Two in here!” the ranger called. They stood behind their gabite. “I’ll worry about the houndoom! Looks like there’s just two unevolved pokemon otherwise…!”
Inkwell, having left the growlithe to handle the drowzee outside, followed in with Bii. The luxio’s eyes focused on the two dark types, frozen in shock at being raided.
“Scan ‘em,” Inkwell ordered.
“R-Right!” Bii held up her pokedex, ears twitching. There weren’t many voices! Were all of the other pokemon away in the illicit pokeballs? She frowned. “Level five! T-They’re both, both level five…!”
Inkwell shook her head. “I’ll take care of them and then go help with that houndoom…” She stalked closer to the duo.
The purrloin, however, held up both paws. “WAAAAIT! WE GIVE UP, WE GIVE UP!”
The zorua looked at his friend. “Huh? Seriously?”
“He was taken against his will!” the purrloin pleaded, leaning against the confused zorua. “I’ve been looking out for him!”
Inkwell narrowed her eyes.
“There, there were reports of, um, a zorua… among the eggs stolen,” Bii added, recalling the mission briefing.
For a moment, the luxio just stared the two down. Then, she huffed. “Whatever. Bii, keep an eye on ‘em.” With that, the electric type bound over. The houndoom was doing surprisingly well against the gabite and Inkwell felt she had to help fast!
There was chaos all around. The growlithe was still fighting the drowzee outside. Across the room, the two rangers’ pokemon contended with the houndoom. Bii’s brows furrowed. “Um… Are, are all of these boxes…? Pokemon that were also taken…?”
Briar twitched an ear. Then, both turned back, as if he’d heard something behind him. “I dunno. My trainer isn’t high ranking.”
Bramble nodded along. “We don’t know much.” As his purrloin friend sat and crouched, the zorua mimicked.
Bii tilted her head. Those were odd positions. But, maybe they were afraid? She was, too. “It’s okay,” she promised. This brought her back to when she first left. And, now, too, the lie she continued to live. She felt pity for the duo. Did they want to be here? Living this sort of life? “We’ll get you out of here.”
An ekans sprang from the dark, mouth open wide for a Poison Sting attack. Bii froze as it sailed over the two pokemon. They were grinning. They’d known she’d been about to be ambushed, and they just waited for it to happen…!
Her back hit the ground hard. She didn’t cry out even as she felt the ekan’s fangs sink into her shoulder and deliver its venom. Nausea rolled through her instantly. Not fatal, she reminded herself, not if it only got her once and she got help. And, with how her body was, she might metabolize it quicker than the average person. But, she couldn’t will herself to move.
“Benigno!” the other ranger cried. “Crap! Hey, Officer Doolittle, get in here! We’re getting blindsided!”
“Kinda busy!” the officer called from outside.
The mission-boss of the rockets huffed. “I was wondering when you were going to send that ekans of yours out.”
“I had to make sure they didn’t have anyone else on their side,” the other grunt explained. “Good work, you two! Perfect distraction!” He tilted his head. “Another gijinka… Wonder how the higher ranks might react if we bring this one back? We could beat the other two up and leave ‘em as a message!”
“I’m not fond of witnesses,” the mission-boss retorted.
“Bii!” Inkwell rushed over, momentarily abandoning the fight with the houndoom to just the gabite. The Luxio snarled, swiping at the ekans with a crackling Spark charged claw.
“Back off!” the ekans warned. “Or, you’ll get what she got!”
“Try it!” the luxio hissed. “You’ll regret it!”
Sure enough, the ekans lunged. Inkwell didn’t even try to dodge. She felt the venom course through her, burning hot. But, her Guts gave her strength. Switching into Facade, she pummeled the poison type. Tail raised high in anger, she glared at its unmoving form.
Then, her attention turned to Bii. The gijinka, catching Inkwell’s eye, rolled to her side.
“I’m okay… The, the houndoom…!” The quicker they finished this, the quicker they could leave. Bii found, oddly, now that she was finally facing danger… It was a little less scary than anticipated. The strange pokemon she’d fought some months ago, too, had been less scary than she anticipated.
Maybe it was because she didn’t feel so helpless now? She could fight back. Her pokemon and her allies were helping her. How strange…
Closing her eyes, Inwell nodded. “Right. I’ll help clean up.” The luxio cast a nasty glare in the traitorous duo’s direction before bounding off to join in the battle against the houndoom.
4:34 AM. IN THE SHED, IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE RAID.
They frowned, but left it be. “If you say so… You do look a little less clammy, now.” They shook their head. “I don’t quite get you gijinka, but y’all are pretty hardy.”
The officer sighed. “Sorry, guys. I tried to keep that jerk outside from using that abra, but he managed to get himself and his boss away.”
The ranger with the gabite shrugged. “Eh. Mixed success we’ll call it. Two got away, and one of our own got hurt… Buuut, look at this!” They chuckled, patting one of the many boxes around the room. “We’ll be able to return all of these pokemon to the wild! And, hopefully reunite these pokemon with their original breeders!”
Inkwell and the gabite looked down at their wards. Briar, Bramble, the unconscious zubat, and the heavily injured ekans all were gathered in a little circle. The remaining Rocket grunts sat back to bad, already handcuffed.
“You’ll pay for this!” one of them spat.
“Don’t you have bigger fish to fry?!” another snarled.
The officer narrowed her eyes. “Listen… If you’re talking about the DC s***, that’s not an excuse to let you get away with this crap. With this many wild pokemon taken, you could mess up a whole ecosystem!”
Bii stood, having finally gathered herself. “I… I…” She wanted to say that she didn’t care if Team Rocket was also being targeted by Team Diamond Crystal. But, she couldn’t gather her nerve. Instead, she clenched the front of her torn uniform and struggled to speak. “... y-you won’t… you shouldn’t hurt people…”
“People? Lady, we’ve never hurt a person who hasn’t started it with us first!” one snapped.
“Just pokemon. And, whatever you are.”
“Hey!” the officer snapped. “Whatever. The van’s nearly here. We’ll get all this transported back to headquarters. And, you two are getting booked! Everything we heard from the pokemon and from you is going on record, buddy!”
6:43 AM. BACK IN THE UNION, REPORTS BEING FILED.
Bii clenched the cushioned seat of the examination table tightly. The doctor tilted his head.
“You've already processed the venom,” he announced. “Not as well as a pokemon would have, but much faster than a human would have.” He shook his head. “We’ve still got so much to learn about gijinka and their health… Not all of them even do things the same.”
“C-Can I go…?” Bii asked weakly. She hated this. She hated this man in his crisp, clean suit and white jacket. She hated the clean, sanitized smell of the room. She hated the bright overhead lights. She hated the way he’d asked her to lay down before and that she’d done it, she’d done it just like she used to when things were different, when things felt different not so long ago…!
“Oh, yes!” The doctor scribbled down a note and handed it to her. “Take it easy for the rest of the weak, though. Lots of fresh fruits and cooked vegetables, and no smoking or alcohol. Alright?”
She hummed to acknowledge him, but scurried out.
Inkwell sprang to her paws, having been waiting just outside the little makeshift examination room by the holding cells. “Are you okay? Bii, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have left you, I—”
The deerling gijinka dropped to her knees, hugging the luxio’s neck tightly. “Thank you,” she managed. “You’re always saving me.” She petted the electric type’s back as Inkwell’s haunches fell and the two just sat on the floor together for a moment. “... Y-You’re doing what she asked.”
The luxio’s heart skipped a beat and her jaw trembled. A few tears leaked from her eyes. Bii was getting better at understanding other people, for better or for worse. She knew very well that was what the Almian pokemon wanted to hear. She wanted it from another voice, from a person who looked so much like Bii…
But, for now, she could pretend it was Ilargi praising her. She snuggled closer to the person who looked like her true trainer for a while longer before they both rose and headed away from this part of the union.
10:44 AM. WELL AFTER THE RAID.
Bramble looked across the room to Briar. The purrloin’s back was to him. The kitten stared at the wall, thoroughly defeated. Bramble couldn’t think of a way to get out of here. What was going to happen to them now? The Rocket grunts who had been arrested would undoubtedly go to court or whatever humans did. But, them…?
Bramble’s stomach clenched. What if he got split off from his friend? He’d gotten so used to his new life. The faint memories of his birth family only grieved him a little. He’d come to like being a Rocket. He’d come to like pulling off schemes with his friend. He wanted to take more delicious food, to live an easy and comfortable life with his partner-in-crime. The thought of not getting to do that pained him.
It hurt almost as bad as being ignored.
“Briar,” Bramble called out. “Briar, we’ll figure this out.”
The purrloin just hunkered in more tightly to his corner of the little holding cell. The ekans could be heard a little further away, thrashing against the thick plexiglass. The zubat was silent as well, having accepted the fate that awaited it.
The door opened. Bramble tried to look out, but it was hard at this angle. After a moment, the ranger who oversaw the pokemon here and the deerling-eared ranger from before walked along. So, too, did the luxio from before, looking just as angry as ever.
“I can’t believe you wanna try with these two already,” the ranger said. “We figured they’d need a lot more rehabilitation before we sent ‘em to the emporium.”
“Y-You saw the report,” Bii stammered. “This one… was taken. A-And, that one was looking out for him.”
Bramble looked up. She’d bought that crap? There was no way. She’d seen what they’d done, setting her up to get ambushed by that ekans. Was she stupid? Maybe the poison had ruined her mind.
The overseeing ranger sighed. “Well, yeah… You’re going to be the one to tell those two it’s their pokemon’s egg, you got it? I’m not getting involved in that mess. You’ve heard the rumors.”
Bii looked away. She felt that wasn’t necessarily her business. “Y-Yes.”
Bramble watched as Briar was returned to a pokeball. Then, he, too, was put in one.
11:01 AM. LEAVING THE UNION.
Bii looked at the two pokeballs.
Inkwell did, too, before turning her eyes to the road. “Those two are going to be trouble.”
“Y-Yes.”
“I’m not going easy on them.”
“Right…”
The luxio shook her head. “They could have gotten you killed, Bii. Why take them in? Someone else could have done it.” She huffed. “They’ll just spend the whole time scheming together! We should give them away! Or, give that one back to Raine! The other… I dunno! Someone else can take it!”
Bii looked at the back of the luxio. Her spine was bristled with anger. She was worried, obviously, that the duo would betray them again. Bii put the pokeballs in her bag before walking closer to the quivering electric type.
“... I…” She tried to gather her words. “If… someone is leaving… them, t-then I… I think maybe I should…” Her shoulders sagged. “The… golden rule?”
Inkwell’s head whipped around. “That’s different!” she hissed. “You’re different! Why you were there and why they were there…!” She couldn’t name the specifics. They were in public right now, after all.
The gijinka looked to the side. Guilt still sat within her. It didn’t matter if those two had chosen it and she had endured it. She didn’t try fighting back. Her very body had been a source of wealth and rejuvenation for those inside that organization. She had, unwilling or not, helped them keep running. She was a participant in her own ruination and that of others.
Did she have the right to be judgmental of anyone else who was leaving?
Inkwell shook her head. “Whatever. Let’s go.”
Satisfied with that, Bii followed.
END.
