Chapter 3: Jack in da Box

Story by Lowrisk on SoFurry

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#7 of Blood, Sweat, and Poke'mon

I know, I know, it is LONG, but I kept thinking that I was cutting it too early, Oh well, next part should be up soon.

Also, please don't hate me, Gyik is maybe about two years old, poke'mon maturing a lot earlier than humans, yet living a bit longer or shorter depending on the species, so he is maybe ten yrs old in maturity at the moment.


Opening Theme: Divided States of POP(Played to the beat of DJ Earworms, United States of Pop 2007)

Performed by: Mim(Prof.; Eminem, Gym Class Heroes, Justin Timberlake, Yung Joc, Souja Boyz, Shop Boyz), Zack_(Trainer; Akon, Snoop Dogg, Mims, T-Pain,Shop Boyz_), Jack(Trainer; Daughtry, Plain White T's, The Fray, Shop Boyz), Ludwig(Prof.; Ludacris, Maroon 5, Jay-Z, Patrick Stump, Shop Boyz), Zorua(Solstice; Avril Lavigne, Fergie, Keri Hilson), Suicune_(Isis; Carrie Underwood, Rihanna, Nelly Furtado),_ Mew_(Felis; BeyoncA, Gwen Stefani_).

Uhuh Uhuh

Yeah

BSP

Good concept gone rad

Take Me

I'm fighting on

Laughin'

ba ba da da

This is how I plot

This is how I plot

This is how

This is how

This is how I plot,

This is how I plot

This is how I plot

This is how

This is how

This is how I plot

I hugged a pirate

atleast I did it on the spot

I hugged a german guy

and did it quite a lot

I hugged my instructor

and she was really mean

I hugged charmeleon

my life was almost naught

Fight somebody

-T A- Don't wanna talk about it

-M E- I c-can't talk about it

Fight with my umbrella

-Eon Eon eh eh eh-

With a left, with a left

I still can't talk about it

We need to fight like

-T A M E-

But how?

We fought, fought

Now I have something to prove

fighting more, fighting mo-o-ore

Poke' Girl

There's no shame

When I look to you

When your cheeks turn dark pink

I'm Z-Quille, don't you see

Heart strings you tug me feel

goo-ey

I love you much, power of three

My heart beats when you lookin at me

Loosing my grip

My calm has just slipped

Hope I hit my head and forget

I do mean that

Ohhhh, t-try and let me beeeee

We need to fight like

Ohhhh, t-try and let me beeeee

Ohhhh, t-try and let me beeeee

We need to fight like

Ohhhh, t-try and let me beeeee

Please just let me beeeee

With a left, this is how I plot

Oohyeehoo

C-can't talk about it, hey Mim

give it to me

but how, the plot

Uuuuuh

Everyone, we'll do it better

Why can't I stop my stutter

Jack, we don't knoooow

Everyone, we'll do it better

I c-can't stop my stutter

Jack, try it sloooow

We need to fight like

-T A M E-

But how?

The plot, plot

Now I have something to prove

fight some more, fight some mo-o-ore

We need to fight like

Ohh ohh

I c-can't talk about it

I still cant talk about it

Fight needs an umbreon

-Eon Eon eh eh eh-

With a left, with a left

I so m-mad about this

We need to fight like

-T A M E-

Come now

Last shot, shot

Now I have something to prove

fight some more, fight some mo-o-ore

Catch'em all

Eth-i-cal

Practically ethical

Fight'em like a trainer

Catch'em like a trainer

-tame tame tame-

Woohoo

I can take you just the way I am

Yeehoo

Hug it out

No, lets fight right now Mimmy

Woohoo

Fight'em like a trainer

Catch'em like a trainer

-tame tame tame-

I love you just the way you are

Plot that, to win some more

Beat that, and catch one more

Plot that

Tell Mim how to do all that,

His brain's like an empty sack

We need to fight like

Plot that, to win some more

Plot that

We gonna fight right

Woohoo

Oohooh

Yeehoo

Hey hey, Mul Mul,

You don't have a girlfriend

Don't fret, don't fret

I know where you can find one,

Hey hey, Bar-rog,

I will be your girlfriend

Are you sobeeer?

Hey hey, Mul Mul,

Soon your going to love me

Don't fret, don't fret

It's my little secret,

Hey hey, Bar-rog,

I know I'll be your girlfriend

Are you sobeeer?

I hugged a plush toy

It ripped and made me cry

Kecleon hugged me

Then just fell asleep

Shuppet hugged me

Warm chills ran up my spine

Zorua hugged me

My nose bleed cut me off

Fight somebody

-T A M E-

Not gonna talk ab-b-AAH

Last shot, shot

What have I left to prove I'm

Out the door, out the do-o-or

We'll try to write right

Can't even talk about,

What's the point to try it

Fight with an umbreon

-Eon Eon eh eh eh-

Nothing's left, nothing's left

W-w-won't talk about it

Just stay calm like

-T A M E-

Not now,

Feels hot, hot

What have I left to prove I'm

Out the door, out the do-o-or

This is how I plot

This is how I plot

This is how

Last shot, shot

I hugged

This is how I plot

This is how I plot

This is how

Feels hot, hot

T

A

M

E

/Orlando, FL_Highway, Mim's Hummer_August/Saturday/8:02am_Cool, Sunny

Jack/

I was grateful that we had a ride, but it had been extremely uncomfortable with this guy's 'grabby' nature, though, he seems to be truly ignorant of it.

We were in Mim's Hummer as he drove, It was huge, with brown leather interior, a dash screen with a rear and side camera, flood-light controls, and some other luxury functions that made no sense to me, being from the forest and all.

I sat in the passenger seat with Ren, my umbreon, on my lap, and his three poke'mon playing in the back seat.

"How long til we arrive Pooki?" Mim asked his poke'dex, that was now wirelessly plugged into the dash.

"It should be approximately twelve minutes until we arrive, Mim." She said, as an image of a blue mew popped up on the dash.

"Hey, I thought you were going to call me Barrog?" He replied in a pout as he crossed his arms-

"OH SHIT!" We all scream, except Mim who was arguing with his poke'dex about what to be called, leaving me to grab the wheal, and the poke'mon to hopefully not have concussions from flying around the car.

I tried steering as best as I could, but it was a loosing battle as I had never drove anything more complicated than a bike.

"M-m-m-MIM," I tried pleading, but to nervous to utter a complete sentence, "Th-th-th-the w-wheal!"

"You said, 'I will call you that over my dead body', and last I checked, you don't have a pulse!" Mim fumed at the poke'dex, his hands flailing and hitting me in the head, causing Ren to growl and latch on to his sleeve.

"Well by your logic, I have no body to call you that name over!" His poke'dex shouted while I kept trying to regain whatever control, if any, I had on the steering column.

*Pweeooh!*

We all stopped moving, even Mim's lead foot, as we looked outside of the rear view window to see a State Trooper patrol car tailing us with its sirens blaring.

Mim regained control of the wheel and parked to the side as soon as he could, but as luck would have it, a grocery truck came speeding by, with the rear of it popping open and revealing boxes of poke'balls, weird.

The patrol car seemed to think it more subtle to go after the truck and left us alone as it began its high speed chase.

We all looked to each other in silence, and remained that way for a few minutes before we all began laughing out loud, except for Mim whom was making the gesture, but made not noise, I was going to press on the matter, but then again, I didn't want him to question me when my 'sentences' are not always... Legible.

We continued moving on the highway toward the city.

~o~

/Orlando, FL_City Square_8:21am

Ren/Umbreon/

We had finally made it out of that death trap of a free ride, and I was still upset with the lab coated trainer for hitting Jack, even though he told me it was fine.

Looking around, I noticed all of the tall and reflective buildings that reached towards the sky in various shapes and heights. We were now walking along one of the side walks, Mim and his three poke'mon chatting about what they should have for brunch, and my trainer, though silent, listening in on the the conversation in deep though, until he bumped into a rather small child who wore a sun hat on her long and brown-haired head, she also wore a one piece dress covered in floral print with sandals on her feat, and was carrying a pichu in her arms, as they both fell on their rears.

The young girl got up looked at us with her blue eyes and apologized, "I am soo sorry, I was in a rush, and I sometimes don't pay attention to were I am heading, please forgive me, bye!"

'What a rude child,' I thought as she skipped away cheerfully, my all too kind trainer just letting her go as Mim helped him up.

After we shrugged off the incident, minus Mim's rant about unsupervised children wondering the city, then made our way to a restaurant that my trainer's poke'dex, Lassy, suggested , which seemed to be one of those classic themed restaurants, the sign above was one of those holograph ones that would change depending on the theme of the week, and was currently named, 'Train or Wait or Both!', and even though I have been to the city far more than Jack, the theme was a bit lost on me as most of the waiters seemed to be made up of random trainers using their poke'mon partners to perform attacks while serving their costumers their meals.

We walked in and were greeted awkwardly by a male trainer at the counter before taking a few minutes to see what tables were free, having seated us twice before realizing the tables were already taken by those who had got up to use the rest room, causing me to want to question if these waiters were actually 'waiters' and not trying an elaborate robbery, though, I would find out soon enough that that particular idea would be the better option.

After being seated in a 'truly' unoccupied table, we had our seats, it was circular and rather large since we 'all' were going to eat, allowing Jack to release the rest of our partners.

Once the light died down we had three extra poke'mon surrounding the table, "M-Mim," Jack started, "These are m-my p-poke'mon partners, Gary," He motioned his hand toward the skarmory that had been looking at his surroundings, "Felis," He motioned with his other hand over to the mew, as she was currently floating upside down with a groggy demeanor, "A-and Trinity," He finished, pointing a thumb at the meinshao as she leaned on his side a bit defensively.

"Wow, nice to meet you all!" Mim said as he introduced himself and his partners to the rest of us, just in time for the waiter to arrive with a menu, "Hmm, these waiters sure know how ta make 'us' wait." He continued, purposely avoiding the glare that the 'waitress', that seemed to be about 15 or so, and her chimecho, that was holding silverware in it's tassel.

"I'll have you know that I don't even want this stupid job, I got robbed and needed to pay these people back!" She fumed, as she then asked for our 'stupid' orders, not shifting from her angry scowl, then leaving after we had all ordered, which took a little while as it seemed Mim's zorua and shuppet kept asking what each thing on the menu meant, everyone settling on burgers as Mim said that that's all they can afford at the time.

~o~

After a few minutes, we had all received our meals. I had a mixed berry salad with grilled vyann berry, while Jack had a mushroom and black olive pizza, and everyone else on our team had decided on eating the house special, being three 4 foot long, 1 foot wide burritos. Mim's team all received identical burgers, with a bottle of ketchup that the shuppet seemed to be entranced by, yet fighting whatever urge she had about it.

We talked for awhile, eating our respective meals, Mim complaining about possible spit in his food, and from what us poke'mon could smell, the 'meat' in his burger was just dropped on the floor a bit, and possibly stepped on, but that shouldn't stop him from eating it.

We had finished eating, not counting the burrito trio that seemed to be holding their aching stomachs, as our trainers had got the check, by the same angry trainer and her chimecho, now holding a scanner instead of silverware, she scanned Mim's poke'dex, heard a pleasant sounding ping as her trainer's expression turned even more sour, and grunted and spoke through clenched teeth, "Fine, I guess you paid, please, feel free to come again, or 'die' trying... Hopefully the latter," Mim just belched, causing the chimecho to catch her trainers fist using the rest of her tassel.

She then tried scanning Jack's poke'dex, but as she did, a sudden 'buzzer' noise made Jack jump, and the trainer/waitress smirk quite maliciously.

"Welcome to the club!" Was all she said as she told Jack to follow her to the back, when he asked why, all she did was snort in amusement and reply, "Let's just say you may be taking my job."

"(That isn't possible, we had recently just won a poke'mon battle and we had been saving up since forever, we 'can't' be out of credit!)" I growled, ready to tear the bitch apart, unfortunately, Jack seemed to have sensed it and told us all to wait here with Mim until he got back, before we could argue further, Jack pulled out a repel, and sprayed the foul smelling liquid at us, before tossing it to Mim and walking away, following that stupid-

'Arg! That smell!' Was all I could think of as he walked into a back room, and out of site.

Jack/

I had been in a poke'mon battle against my will on the train, thought I would be stranded, got a ride from a crazy glomper, nearly crashed and got arrested with same crazy glomper, bumped into a little girl, met a crazy waitress, and now this, 'today really hasn't been my day' I thought, being led into a small office in the back of the restaurant.

When we entered, I noticed the office to be a small, mostly manila, office, and a short, thin, and pale women in her late twenties with jet black hair and dark green eyes to match, in a business women's skirt uniform, sitting in a desk covered completely in paperwork and 'unpaid' checks, with the only thing being of any organization being the two pens in her coat pocket and the name sign that read, 'Agatha Pein'. She looked up immediately and sighed.

"Let me guess, his credit bounced?" She asked in a near cold and irritated tone, but the waitress I was with ignored it and nodded her head.

"Fine, I guess you are free to go-"

"Yes, later Miss. Pein, and goodbye sucka!" The waitress interrupted as she threw off the apron at me as she and her chimecho embraced in a hug and dashed for the door, but were halted when the business women sent out a cacturne to block the door.

The trainer was about to order an attack out of instinct before she was interrupted by the business women this time, "After you sign these release forms."

The trainer turned red in embarrassment, and went back to the desk, grabbing the paperwork that the women had held up for her, then sat down and hurriedly signed were she needed to, leaving the lady, whom I guess would be Agatha Pein, to recall her partner, and give her attention to me.

She motioned for me to sit, which I did, as we introduced ourselves and got to the matter at hand, however, I was taken aback by the words that came out of her mouth next.

"Let me guess, you were knocked down by a child just before coming into my establishment and now you hard earned cred is currently unaccounted for?"

I was stunned, "H-h-h-h-how d-d-did you kn-know?" I asked, baffled at her near psychic telling of my previous few minutes, but confused as to why she would bring it up.

She slightly scowled and stood up from her desk, pacing, as she began going over her week, "The first time it happened I thought the customer was trying to make an excuse to not pay and got arrested kicking his ass," I was glad it wasn't me, but I hoped the guy was alright I thought as she continued, "but after the fifth time, I began to understand that these trainers weren't lying, even though I thought it suspicious,"

She looked down at her desk at the pile of unpaid checks and upcoming bill payments, "and as you may not know, I am not to popular with the guys downtown due to my, *cough!* assertiveness," 'Or anger issues and assault charges,' I thought once more, pondering her story.

"I still need to run a business, so I had been forced to temporarily layoff my waiting staff and use the free muscle from trainers who can't pay their tab, and due to surplus of your kind, I am even loosing business because of the horrible service," We both glanced over to the trainer as she froze for a moment, but continued, "So, when I gain a new dead-beat, I let the old one go," She sat back down and pulled out a small stack of document from under the mess of papers, "so that is where you come in," She stated, already seeing where this was heading, I gave into this already lost fight.

"And one more thing, I noticed you came in with a trainer who paid, pass him this message when you go out to start your shift." She finished, handing me a small envelope with the words, 'To: Mim, From: PoP', addressed on it.

'That is nice, but how did Mim's dad know he would be here... How did my new boss know he was here?' I thought, nodding my head in agreement as I began writing my information on the standardized documents.

The trainer left in a hurry once she was done, and after leaving the door I could sort of make out the voices of my partners and the girl before they were drowned out, by me noticing Miss. Pein staring at my eye-patch, and the background noise as I knew that my team would attempt to get some answers out of the trainer before she left, but I was hoping that the info given wouldn't make them do anything crazy.

~o~

Mim/

We were all waiting patiently... Well I was anyway, since all of our poke'mon jumped the trainer, his in order to learn of what happened, and mine just wanted to join in.

After she let them know that she was let go and replaced by him, I had to spray the Repel while standing in the small hallway that led to the room Jack went in as it seemed that the smell was making some of the poke'mon sick and loose their lunch, and inadvertently causing their trainers to do the same.

As I hid the Repel in my bag, the door behind me open, revealing the apron clad pirate, Jack.

I barely did more than notice him before being run-over by his team of worried 'meany heads,' while they embraced him with signs of affection and apologies for ordering over budget, to which he tried to settle them down.

I was helped up by my teammates as Jack finished calming his poke'mon and walked towards me handing me the letter, "What's this for?" I asked, and replied, "This isn't a love letter about your feelings for me, is it!?" I choked out, hoping this moment wasn't going to be like an odd sitcom.

"(The hell it is!)" His team replied, not that I understood, though, I could sense their anger.

"N-n-no," Jack managed to sputter with a red face, "M-M-Miss. Pein, the owner of this p-p-place, asked m-me to hand it to y-y-you!"

He finished, facing away, "Oh," I exclaimed as I looked at the letter and who it was from, "I guess your right, it's from the organization that I am under now."

"(What is it about?)" My shuppet asked with a raised brow in curiosity, and apparently my poke'dex felt she needed to answer for me, "It saids that there have been recent thefts in the area, via a new hacking device." We all looked at the holo screen that popped up on my bracelet.

Pooki continued, "This device seems to have targeted only unsuspecting trainers and that the possible thieves have been suspected to be children, based on eye witness testimony," Everyone went wide eyed, except for me, as they seemed to realize something I missed, "and that we are to 'look into this matter' and bring the accused to a Misses Agetha Pein as she has requested our assistance is now our, being us Mim, client."

I knew I should have called her on her lack of calling me Barrog, not that the name itself is important to me, it was the principle of the thing, but I let it slide as everyone was looking to me for an answer to an unasked question, but before I could make any attempt at a reply, the door to the rear office open a crack and a booming voice of a 'lady' shook the restaurant saying, "GET TO WORK RIVERWAY, YOU'RE ON THE CLOCK!"

We all jumped at that as Jack recalled everyone but mew and umbreon, "I g-guess I-i'll see you l-later." Was all my poor friend said before he was ordered by, what I would assume to be, the lead waiter to clear some tables of vomit.

"I wont let you go down with the ship cap'n!" I shouted and ran out the door.

~o~

/Orlando, FL_City Square_9:48am

Zorua/ Solstice/

We made our way to the corner where we saw the girl from before, Mim's plan being to bait her with. his. body.

I shook my head from those thoughts as I tried to avoid the thoughts of what happened on the train, I kept trying to focus on the plan, if I didn't do my part, Mim may loose the credit to feed us, and he may let me go- 'NO, I won't think like that!'

We set off to our positions, me turning into a drifloon and taking a fearows eye view, now don't get me wrong, I hate ballons, not balloon-like ghost-types. Shuppet had took to her position tailing him in the shadows like a pro, and kecleon had to get a free ride, as he sat on Mim's shoulders, remaining cloaked, lucky bastard.

Mim pretended to be looking at a map, when from within an upcoming ally way, the girl from before appeared, but this time, with a few other children, from my view I couldn't hear them, but I could tell they were speaking together as they seemed to get into position, and off she ran.

She was just about to 'accidentally' bump into Mim when a shadow lifted from the side walk and tripped the girl, causing her to land on her pichu.

"I am so sorry Pilopilo, are you okay?" She asked, just when Mim tackled the girl and the pichu, more like crushed, 'he is like twice her height and weight... I guess nothing brings people closer together than body disposal and a dark secret.' I mused as the kids from before, six in total, and four poke'mon appeared.

They all surrounded Mim as he got up from the, 'hopefully' only unconscious, girl and pichu.

The conscious group consisted of five girls, one boy, all holding make-shift weapons of pipes and planks, two minun, one being green and yellow, a white golbat with red wings, and a tailless skitty, all in all, a pretty weak and hap-hazard team of misfits.

"Don't you dare touch her," The skitty, female by the voice, yelled in English, causing all of the kids and poke'mon to charge at Mim, some with their eyes closed.

We had no idea what we should do, we accounted for restraining, at most, three kids, now we had a small gang of them and poke'mon, so we waited to see if Mim had any back-up plan, and as our current luck would have it, he improvised.

Mim just tossed the Repel bottle from his bag and told me to shoot a shadow ball at it, then instructed shuppet to use ominous wind on it, though I think he remembered it being week in the sunlight, as the attack was pretty much a gust of dark wind, blowing the repel toward the group, causing the small group of poke'mon to stop a few feat away and try to swat the smell away.

The human children kept charging however and got close enough for Mim to... Pick one up and toss it at another, knocking them out, he then told kecleon to use thief, as he retrieved a pipe from one of the now unarmed kids, and knocked two of them out with two quick gut hits to their stomachs. The remaining two girls turned around and ran for it, dropping their weapons in panic, Mim looked up at me and nodded, indicating to use the first plan, and he ordered shuppet to knock out the remaining poke'thieves and tie them up along with the children, then he ran off in the direction the final two left in.

I transformed into a pidove and dive bombed on one of the kids, then I pull up and transformed at the last second into a cottonee and tackled her into a wall, effectively knocking her unconscious, and transforming back into a drifloon to whisk her back to the others, knowing that Mim and kecleon must have already gotten the other escapee by now.

~o~

We all stood in front of the young group of tied up poke'mon and humans, panting and dressed in little detective costumes after Mim's interrogation... musical.

They all had mixed reactions, some silent and angry, some crying, and few actually giggling from the performance though were quickly went silent as well after some glares from their quiet comrades, and knowing our Mim, awkward moments like this wouldn't stop him from attempting another show, so kecleon decided to step in.

"(Look, I have been in your shoes, I have been down the same road you all are in, and in doing so, lost someone I loved...)" He spoke slowly so that Mim could translate the speech to the humans and, oddly enough, the poke'mon that didn't speak Ulimi.

/Flashback_Start

Kecleon/Gyik/

/Mantine, FL_Mantine Boating Docks_Five months ago, April/Wendsday/1:23am_Cool, Clear

I had been fighting alone on these docks most of my life, I was born with no memory of my parents, and had to fight for survival daily, as the only scraps of food came from the dock workers dropping some or from the trash cans near the edge of some buildings, and my competition came in the form of groups of wingull and pelipper, or the group of canine poke'mon led by a large Mightyena male named Hatchet, that had taken quite an eerie 'liking' to me, and they seemed to think they were the only poke'mon allowed in this area.

As I was thinking about where my next meal would come from, my thoughts dominated by hunger and weakness, I had used whatever energy I had left yesterday running away from a group of wingull and pelipper for a half eaten and rotten muffin, and then I had to fight Hatchet and his pack, as I made my escaped and hid under an abandoned, upturned wheel barrel, crying myself to sleep once again, then waking only a few minutes ago, and even though I know going out at night is dangerous in these parts, I had no choice as I needed food to have energy for the day ahead.

While searching in my cloaked form, I saw a trash can filled with damaged and rotting berries, which to me, was a treasure from Heaven, I made my way slowly to it, my need for them drowning out my senses and making me run towards the pile of life saving fruit, hearing a quick whistle before- *Thwack!*

~o~

My disorientation lasted only a few minutes, I finally noticing that I was bound by my arms and legs, with my arms tied in front of me and around a dock post with my legs spread and tied to bar that kept them spread, and the bar tied down through some holes in the board walk that 'we' were currently on.

When I turned my head, I could only make out a few shapes of my captors, which was enough to know who the voice that spoke next was... Hatchet.

"(You know, I have been veeery kind in letting you walk around my turf with very little to no 'payment', and insults in return.)" He said hungrily in an slightly deep, yet feminine sounding voice, smacking his chops as I heard the Mightyena finish, and heard very few chuckles, and even fewer whimpers, from the other canine poke'mon, making me grow far more anxious than I needed to be.

"(However, I am a fair guy, and I think I have waited long enough for any positive outcome of your being here.)" He mentioned, moving to my left side so that I can look him in the eye, an spoke the next few words in an unsettling tone that made me start to tear up, "(You may have heard the rumors on the docks that I have a thing for *grunt!* bipedal poke'mon...)" He licked my face once before moving to my rear.

"(And luckily for you.)" He said as I felt a warm and wet slickness run slowly along my tail-hole, causing an unpleasant shiver to run through my body, and cry, letting the tears run down my face, and sniffling while choking back sobs, knowing all too well what would be coming next, I had heard the rumors, and he has made passes at me before, but I never would have guessed that those threats would turn out be promises. The warm slickness was replaced by a light prod as he mounted me.

"(They're true.)" Were his last words before biting my neck and pushing deep into me, and forcing me to scream out in pain, as he quickly picked up the pace, showing no mercy on my now bleeding neck and virgin rear.

I had done something I have only done once in my life, that I had done only once before, but never again due to them falling on deaf ears, I cried for help. My cries for mercy went unheeded as he continued to plow into me for a few minutes, though they felt like hours, the pain still there, but not as great as before, I had tried my call for help once more, this time seeming to cause Hatchet to bite down harder on my neck and thrust even deeper into my bowels, causing me to scream somehow louder than before, I was near passing out when he finally, came, inside me.

He turned around, and pulled, checking to make sure I was knotted, before letting himself release his load, I was shamed and hurt, even angry at myself for being so weak and stupid, I was about to pass out when a shadow appeared above us, I was too much in shock to pay attention to what everyone was shouting, and then I felt Hatchet, and a bit of my backside, freeze solid in ice, as the dock began to shake with battle, and then, collapsed.

I was cut loose by an unseen force before falling in the water below, but my recent ordeal, and the now frozen mightyena, left me too weak to fight against the waves and the current of sea as we began to sink below the surface.

Being under the water was almost peaceful, but inside I was panicking, just too weak, once again, to do anything about it. As the mightyena and I began our aquatic descent, I began to loose consciousness, I thought about why I would be brought into this world just to die, like this, and my vision, finally, blackening as lost consciousness, the last thing I saw was my blood mixing with the water and the silhouette of a cloud growing closer before, it all went black.

~o~

/???

It was dark, everywhere I looked was just too dark, I tried to move my body but couldn't even feel it, 'Was this the afterlife?' I thought for answers to my location.

"Hmmm hmm hmmm, hmm hm hmmm~!"

A soft and beautiful soprano voice had broken the dead silence and began echoing off in every direction of this dark void.

'Where was that singing coming from,' I asked, though the words only echoed in my head, I tried to look around, but to no avail as the wonderful humming seemed to collect into one spot behind me as it came closer, and closer, and the closer it came, the more I began to feel more of my body, down to the every last sore spot that had began reminding me of the previous nights events, though vary hazy.

I tried to struggle, attempting to run away from this darkness, but was held down by another, almost alien sensation, as it felt like being wrapped in the softest material that I had ever had on my body, it seemed to comfort me, and make me sad at the same time, I felt as if I was able to open my eyes, my first, and final, words in this dark place.

"(Mamma?)"

~o~

/Mantine, FL_???_Still Five months ago, April/???day/?:??am_Warm, Sunny and Clear

I opened my eyes and squinted from the intense sunlight I was never used to, being that I spent my time usually looking to the ground for scraps and hiding in dark places. I attempted to rub my eyes but still seemed to be held down by the same embrace I felt just before waking, along with the same beautiful song, and though I was tempted to let my eyes close again and enjoy the moment, the pain in my stomach reminded that 'life is rough'.

I looked at my surroundings with my eyes, seeing that I was on a commercial rooftop and in a... 'nest' of some sort, I also noticed the fluffy white cloud that seemed to be wrapped around me, causing broken thoughts and emotions to race through my head about yesterdays events and to 'how' I survived it, knowing that I shouldn't have, but not remembering what I shouldn't have survived.

I began shaking around, trying to desperately get free, and when I attempted to tell my 'new' captor to let me go, but when I opened my mouth I could only make raspy sounds, gaining a response as the song stopped and was replaced by the most, and first, soothing voice I have ever heard, "You are safe here little one," I looked up to where the voice came from as she looked down at me, "I am Fara, an altaria," She let go of her embrace on me, causing me to shoot forward and turn around defensively, ready to attack, though knowing I would probably die if she decided to take me seriously, she sighed and shook her head, "I know you may be weak, but I do not hunt down defenseless poke'mon for personal gain."

She sat up revealing a variety of ten young poke'mon, a togepi with a crack on going down its shell, two swablu, one green with white wings and the other one average colored, an igglypuff, a shaymin, two sewaddle with rotting brown leaves and one missing an eye, and three hoppip, one looking a bit pale and sickly all sleeping in a huddle beneath her, but waking as she moved a few steps away to a bag and pulled out some berries with her beak, giving one to each of the poke'mon, two to the sick little hoppip.

I was confused as to why she would care about anyone but herself, they are just more mouths to feed, and she looked strong enough to take on some tough poke'mon, but what I really wanted to know was how I got away, and why I was here in the middle of a rooftop.

As if sensing my frustration, she seemed to answer, putting three berries on her cloud like left wing and walked closer to me, "I used to be in the same position as these little ones, cast away before even being given a chance," She looked away from me, stopping right next to my right, and then turning around and holding out the berries for me to grab, "Before I was shown mercy, and given a new lease on life."

I eyed the berries carefully, not wanting a repeat of last night, then grabbing them all and stuffing them in my mouth, "I can see you are very wary of easy meals, and after the state I found you in last night, I wouldn't blame you..." She said, drifting off on the last part as she made her way back to the small poke'mon, all staring at me like I was going to eat them, "Sorry, they mean no offense, but they are not used to new face, as they, like you, have been through a lot." She sat down next to them as they all jumped on her, vanishing in her fluff, and hopping to the edge.

If she chose to, she could leave me here with no way of getting down if she wanted, but she turned around and asked me, "Do you want to come to work with me?" Not sure what she meant by 'work', only hearing the dock workers mention it once in a while, but nevertheless, I had to follow her if I was to find out what happened on the docks last night, the memories being hazy as I tried to remember the full event, but only remembering random images and sensations of pain, fear, and...

loneliness.

All thoughts were pushed out of my mind as I was grabbed from my shoulders and flew over the edge of the building, revealing that we were on what had to be the second tallest building in this place, the first being the tower of in the distance, with all the other building being significantly smaller as they were far below us.

My heart raced in fear and astonishment when the wind rushed past my face, "Sorry, you were taking too long to answer," the crazy altaria stated while we flew in a descending ark toward a large dome-like building that looked like a concrete ball with different colors of paint and windows, with people and poke'mon walking in and out, "and Its ok, I wont drop you, I have never dropped a single being in my life... OK, maybe once or twice, but that was when I was still learning to fly with my new changes after evolving!"

That statement brought no comfort as she began getting closer to the dome structure, that had a sign in human that said, 'Mantine Mall' though I couldn't understand it. As we got to the dome, she flew straight down, then straight, through some self-opening door, and after a few more seconds we stopped a few feet in front of a dark colored human, maybe in his late-teens early twenties, dressed in worn-out clothes, with dreads and piercing hazel-colored eyes, worn-out tennis shoes, and a guitar that seemed to be in better shape than he.

When we landed, all of the previous baby poke'mon from before jumped out of altaria's fluff and began greeting the dirty man with hugs and 'hellos' while altaria and I stood back, "This is Rodger, he and I have been playing music together here ever since he saved me when I was just a little swablu, and I also learned to speak from him."

I looked at him questioningly, then at her, "I know it seems weird, but I never learned how to 'speak' our native tongue, only to understand it." She mentioned, dumbstruck, I mean, I have never heard of a poke'mon that wasn't able to speak Ulimi, even I learned how, but its not like I have traveled very much or met very many poke'mon to find out how often that happened.

She filled me in on what this place was, a 'mall' by the sounds of it, being a place where human and poke'mon sold their wares and in our case, performed. By then, the human named Rodger had walked up to us carrying the young poke'mon in his arms, I had no idea that their were even humans that had no home, let alone little to no food at times.

"You seem to keep growing dat nest of yours, ey Fara?" He asked, causing the altaria to blush a little, 'did she, like the human?' I thought as she replied, "You know me, I may be unable to have children, but it doesn't mean that I can't take care of those without parents, though, this one," She nodded toward me, "has yet to make a decision, and lost his voice after-" She moved closer to the human and whispered something in his ear that made him scowl and spit at the floor, much to the disgust of some passers by, as she moved her head back and continued, "So I am gonna look after him until he decides on his own."

Rodger grunted in agreement at that and placed the young poke'mon back on altaria, though not disappearing like they did before, the he walked back to his guitar, and put the attached strap over his shoulder as Altaria hoped next to him and stood forward. The human began strumming a few notes as altaria began to sing in human lyrics, just a beautifully as she hummed, I was too entranced to notice the crowd of people gather around me, as I now sat on the ground, staring at the two make the most wonderful sound in the world.

After few more minutes, they had both stopped and were met with applause, as they did, the two healthy looking hoppip jumped out holding a large soup can labeled, 'Can we haz Credies?', with backward e's and question mark written in crayon and taped over it, and the can had CredCard sticking out, scanner side forward, as people cooed at their cuteness and started sliding their similar devices, some of different colors, against the theirs, as continuous beeps and clicks signaled digital transfers of some sort.

I found myself clapping as well, as the crow departed, I stopped and ran towards the to musicians, jumping up and down, and changing into fun and bright colors to show my adoration to their gift, though, the display seemed to have coaxed the younger ones to leave their cotton-colored hideout, and jump around me to 'try' to do the same.

"I take it ya liked our song, guy?" The human chuckled, as I nodded, "Well, if ya haven't figured, dis is how Fara and I survive in dis place, we perform music shows a few times a day for these people and poke'mon, and in return, and if dey liked it, dey scan their CreditCards to ours and we den have some credit to buy some of da things we need." He said as he looked up and motioned with his head to the stores that lined the walls behind him, with multiple levels, "It may not be da prince's life, but we make do, and look out for each otha." He stated, as they made it back to their positions and began a new song.

~o~

/7:51pm_Warm, Early Twilight

After we spent most of the day inside the mall, we went to a few places called 'stores' and we went 'shopping', the first thing bought were a few items named Potions, one of which was sprayed on the sickly hoppip, but only seemed to give him some color back as he still seemed to feel unwell. The rest of the credit went to berries and canned food, then we made our way to back to the entrance of the 'mall', altaria told me to hop on her back, though I was a bit cautious at first, I was assured by the other poke'mon that it was fine, so I did, and she took off then swooped back down to pick up Rodger, who was holding the bags, as she flew us out of the exit and towards the horizon, away from the nest and the mall, to where the sun was meeting the land.

The site was so very pretty as the sun was setting at the ends of the earth, creating nice looking hues and shapes off of the clouds in the sky, causing me to try and duplicate it, and causing the younger ones to giggle at my failed efforts.

"We thought you would like that," our altaria'n ride spoke up as she looked back at us, "We often go to the beach after a long day of work, eat, then head back to our 'homes'!" She finished, talking over the wind, saying the last word with a bit of uncertainty.

We flew in silence for a while after that, just enjoying the ride, some of the children falling asleep, as I looked on ahead, until I saw the ocean, and I couldn't help but feel that the closer we got to the ocean, the more anxious and scared I got.

When we got to the beach, altaria placed Rodger down first before landing next to him, and letting all of us off as well, me being the last one to get off, as being near the ocean had started to make me very nervous and made my head hurt. Rodger took notice as a look of concern came over his face, "Hmm, I can undastand yo feelin's about what happened, so if ya wanna leave, we can all go." He said, placing a hand on my head while he smiled, I flinched at the foreign contact at first, but kind of pushed my head into it, enjoy a non-hostile touch for once, and feeling very grateful that they would even consider what I would want to do, even though we just met, and the only ones I could probably take in a fight would be the young poke'mon in our group, 'their' group, I have to remember that I am still a stranger in this pack. So I shook my head no.

"OK, we'll stay," He said, sounding unconvinced, "but da moment ya don't feel like staying, just let us know." He said, as he took a can opener out of his pocket and some cans of food, and made his way to the water, rinsing the items off.

altaria looked at me, and placed my head near her chest, before cooing, "Just ask if you need anything," she said, as she walked towards the direction of Rodger as he had some how gathered some wood and was using a lighter to start a fire.

I was about to just sit down and wait for them to finish, until I heard a squeaky little girl's voice speak behind me, "(You look sad mister, are you okie?)" I turned around to the group of young poke'mon, as the igglypuff had just finished speaking to me, "Yeah mister 'klackleein'," both sewaddle added in unison, as they choked out my name, "Are ya hurt or sumtin?" They asked, all awaiting my answer, I tried to speak, but the words still wouldn't come out, "(Mamma told us that you can't talk yet, is that why your sad?)" The shaymin interject as she, came up to my side, though thinking about it, I couldn't quite pinpoint my sadness, I knew that every time I would glance at the water I would feel like I got kicked in my stomach, and the pain in my head would shoot back, and my answer may have took too long as they pulled to give me a group hug, as the green and white swablu jumped on my head and said, "It's okay, you have us now!"

Tears began to well in my eyes as I tried to return their hugs as best I could.

"Are you all okay?" We all turned around to see Rodger and altaria by the fire with some open cans over the now crackling fire and some berries on a nearby palm leaf, wiping my eyes as the sick hoppip replied on our behalf, "(We're fine mom, big bwuther was just a little sad!)" My face turned red as they all pulled me toward the now laughing duo while we sat down and had each been given a varying bowl, me being given the final, and cleanest looking bowl, before Rodger spoke up seeing my gaping expression, "We decided dat just in case ya choose ta stay, you should have something of your own." He smiled, as I looked at the bowl, ''my' bowl, my 'first' bow- 'anything,' I thought, wondering why even though they had almost nothing, they seemed to offer me everything, as I put my face in 'my' bowl and let the tears fall at full force, feeling that similar cloud like embrace, as I felt the added pressure of little paws and a pair of long arm embrace me this time as I removed the bowl to witness a full group hug... My group hug.

The embrace lasted for a few minutes before they let go and started serving the food, which consisted of vyann stew and berries, the first meal that I have had outside of trash cans or scraps, and it tasted wonderful, and it was filling. When we all finished our meals, the kids went to sleep in altaria's fluff, while she and Rodger sat close by, leaning on each other, as she hummed the beautiful tune from earlier on the roof, holding my bowl my now cleaned bowl on my head, looking at the two, smiling, and thinking if it was really okay to stay with these two, as I walked next to altaria, and leaned on her left, as I began to drift to sleep, my heavy eyelids closing shut, but as I did, I remembered the fact that I stayed with her this long, was to find out what happened last night, she knew, and I needed to know what she knew, my eyes snapped open, and I looked towards the large body of water as an uneasiness washed over me.

~o~

/9:00pm_Night

I got up from my spot, after I waited for altaria fall asleep, Rodger having left an two hours ago to 'claim a spot' before he had to sleep outside from under the bridge, I lightly tapped altaria to see if she was awake, but she only twitched in response, I started walking towards the water when I heard a familiar voice stop me in my tracks, "Where are you going big bwudder?" I turned my head slightly so my right eye could turn and see the green and white swablu that I failed to notice woke up, "Are you weaving ush?" She asked rather loudly, looking like she was about to cry.

Shaking my head no as fast as I can, she jumped up on my head and chirped, making me press my finger to her beak as she jumped down and saw me make a 'shh' motion by pressing the same finger to my lips, she cocked her head to the side and voiced a low, 'oh', as she giggled and said that she'd be quiet, as long as she could see what I was doing, and when I tried shaking my head no, the little twerp puffed up with a deep breath like she was about to scream, but stopped when I dropped to my knees in a pleading motion and motion with my arm for her to follow, but at a distance by placing a hand in the air when she tried to jump on my head, and her getting the idea, 'Smart little twerp,' I thought as we made our way to the oceans edge.

When we reached it, my anxiety was at an all time high, with near whispers in my ear as my head started pounding, the pain was enough to make me drop to my knees and grab my head, as swablu said somthing, but the whispers in my head and the piercing pain disabling me from making any sense of it, hearing a loud jet-ski pass by before being pulled into the water by a wave, memories jolting back to me like lighting through a copper rod.

I remembered being tied down and helpless, screaming for help, the gang of canine firing elemental attacks in the air as an ice beam was being shot right back from out of the sky at the mighyena's gang, one bolt of it hitting him, he was just finished-

"(AAAAGH!)" I screamed, struggling to stay afloat, my body in full panic mode as I began to sink below the surface, my brain replaying those events at the dock over and over in my head like the horror shows that I would watch through the windows of the dock worker's resting rooms, as I screamed under the waves, memory flashes of my blood rising to the surface, as I was soon reminded of how I was rescued the first time in the of a reenactment via altaria breaking through the waters surface, her cloud never loosing it puffy shape, and bee-lined it towards me, grabbing me with her talons an turning with a 180 degree spin, and swimming us back to the surface, then soaring to the shore as fast as she could, placing me down on the soft sand, while I coughed up about a gallon of water, and passed out once more.