Indie Team Rocket Grunt Singleship M!A: None. "They said all teenagers scare the living shit outta me. They could care less, as long as someone'll bleed."
Ethan had to pause on the route he had decided to take a walk on, because he could have sworn he just heard something rustling in the bushes. Perhaps today might have not been a good day to take a walk without a pokemon by his side. However, that didnāt mean he was without pokemon; he had a three on his person.
Though, it also did not mean he wasnāt a little scared too. After all, what if there were more rocket members still lingering around after his friend took them down. It was also probably a little stupid of him to part his lips just enough to call out, āWhoās there?ā too.
Issac hadnāt really been heading anywhere in particular, to be honest. It wasnāt exactly a day off for him, but he so rarely got assigned to anything important or worthwhile, so it wasnāt often he was missed whenever he decided to stray from base and cause some mischief. He didnāt actually have friends he could bother himself with wanting to hang out with, after all, and staying cooped up in his room all day did have a tendency to get boring after a while unless he was busying himself with one of the gaming consoles he had spent more cash than strictly necessary on- and when he did decide to play video games, he couldnāt quite get himself to stop, which was a whole different can of worms completely.
The sound of a voice that was most certainly not his own did manage to catch the Gruntās attention, however, and he raised his head slightly to glance in the direction it was coming from. The guy wasnāt actually facing him and, deciding to embrace his more dramatic side, he casually strolled out from the bushes to stand behind him, hands on his hips in a manner that totally wasnāt cocky.
Proton snagged someone else to run a look-up on this grunt. He himself needed to grab some work to do; frankly, he couldnāt afford to get behind on account of assaulting another dumbass grunt, even if it might not take that long. He didnāt think too hard about it; just grabbed his laptop and figured heād figure out exactly what to spend his time on when he got back.
He didnāt raise his head when Proton re-entered the room, suddenly finding something very fascinating about the ground beneath his feet. Oh, hey, was that a stain? What a fascinating stain. Certainly more fascinating than the man who was probably going to break off his arms and smack him around with them, or something else equally as violent and painful. Upon allowing his eyes to adjust a bit more to his surroundings, however, Issac came to the realization that the stain he was looking at was probably blood, and instead decided to turn his gaze elsewhere. Meanwhile, a small part of him screamed out at the apparent unfairness of his current situation- he hadnāt meant to say any of that, after all. It was just that he couldnāt control what was coming out of his mouth. And he couldnāt tell anyone the truth about it no matter how hard he tried, because he was apparently incapable of speaking in anything but lies and neutral statements.
Oh, who the hell was he kidding? He was an asshole; he probably deserved this. Even if he somehow managed to tell Proton he was being forced to lie, he presumably wouldnāt even care. The joys of being a Grunt.
He frowned in response to the Executive reading out his name, half expecting him to make some sort of comment about his surname. The Joy family were damn recognizable, after all, and he certainly had the hair and eyes to look the part. The only reason why he had managed to hide the fact that he had their blood running through his veins in Rocket was due to the fact that pink hair was apparently fairly common- just his luck. Though he had on several occasions considered investing in some contacts to hide his eyes. He just didnāt have the money to afford such frivolous things to hide a trait that was relatively minor and, on itās own, not exceptionally incriminating. Thankfully, Proton didnāt decide to say anything, and his gaze flickered up briefly in response to the statements that followed. He made a vague āhmmāing noise under his breath, not wanting to answer with words out of fear that he would say something to worsen his situation.
He did manage to get Issacās attention again relatively quickly once he brought out the Pokeballs, however, the Gruntās eyes widening slightly in response. When the Golbat appeared with a screech, he had to bite his tongue to avoid letting out a gasp, pain shooting through his head like a bomb had just gone off next to him. Automatically his mouth went dry and his hands began to tremble, though he tried his best not to cover his ears, primarily because the last thing he wanted was for the Executive to figure out exactly what loud noises did to him.
His resolve didnāt last for very long, however; the sound of metal scraping caused him to clamp his hands over the sides of his head, and the second screech made him let out a low whine under his breath. His eyes, which he had squeezed shut on instinct, opened briefly to see a very familiar attack headed to his face- Confuse Ray. Huh. He had commanded Squeaks to use it a thousand times, but he wasnāt very familiar with itās effects firsthand. Certainly he had never expected it to feel like vertigo times a hundred, and Issac was almost completely unaware of backing- or, to be more precise, stumbling in a relatively ungraceful manner- into the wall behind him, and slowly sliding to the ground. Not moving was probably his best bet, and he curled up into the tightest ball he possibly could, refusing to remove his hands from where they were practically glued with fear.
His mind was racing, it didnāt take a psychic to see he realized just how much trouble he was in. For some reason she was enjoying his struggle immensely. Ever since her emotions returned she had behaved but this was a unique situation. Here was this man thinking he was the predator when in reality he became the prey.
The psychic placed a hand on her hip, āDoes my status as a gym leader affect your āsurvey,ā she began, amusement evident in her voice. āor is it because I am whoever you think I am?ā Sabrina was sure by now he knew but why make things easy for him.
"N... No, it... Doesn't." Issac began, fumbling over his words. He glanced again at Chewy, as though silently pleading for the Rattata to come to his aid. The Normal type, in response, decided to instead sink slowly down to the ground, clearly aware that he was out of his league. "It's just, um... Interesting to note, you know? Uh, I guess... Asking you the question about Pokemon was pretty stupid, now that I think about it." He took a step back, awkwardly trying his best to distance himself from the Gym Leader. He doubted making a run for it would work out in his favor; she could always probably... Psychic him back or something. Psychic types were weird. Psychic people were arguably even worse.
"So sorry for wasting your time and all, Ma'am. I didn't... Mean to do that..." No, he actually meant to steal her wallet and make a clean getaway, but clearly that wasn't going to end up happening. What had he ever done to deserve this? Besides all of the terrible things he had done in the past, anyways.
Genius was not a word one would have ever used to describe Chewy. He was surprisingly friendly, especially for a Pokemon owned by a Rocket Grunt, and would do just about anything for food, but intelligence had never been his strong point. And, for the most part, the Normal type was completely okay with that. He didn't need to know everything; he just needed someone to point him in the right direction and reward him with snacks when he did good, a role that was filled by Issac.
But it was still pretty unfortunate that he apparently didn't know the difference between Pikachu and Rattata.
<<That's weird! That's really, really weird!>> He paused, long enough to wiggle his own tail. <<I've never seen a yellow Rattata before! I've never ever seen another Rattata with a tail like that before, either!>>
Ā Ā Ā It was a joke alright, something that forced even the most serious of men to snicker in response. Somehow, the sound was void of any humor though, which made for an unpleasant sight.
Ā Ā Ā "Why must you wait to be given something to do? Why not try proving yourself worthy for once in your life. Do something for the organization thatāll sweep us off our feet, something spontaneous, but nothing like the events at Slowpoke Well,ā He said the last part between his teeth as if the memory alone still ground his nerves to dust.
Ā Ā Ā "Have you any idea how tedious it becomes having to hold your hand through everything?" He sneered, still within close range of the other Rocket, the entirety of the Executiveās presence a bit overbearing.
"Um." Proving himself worthy? The only thing Issac had ever proven himself worthy of was probably a smack in the face. He didn't actually tell the Executive that, however, because he wasn't completely sure whether Archer would proceed to do so or not. "I can steal wallets?" It came out as more of a question than a statement; Issac was a firm believer of power in numbers, because on his own, petty theft was about the most he was capable of.
"I... Cleaned the... Floors." Exactly once in the past week or so, and that was only after being ordered to by a superior. It was then that the Grunt thought it was probably a better idea to simply shut his mouth in the hopes that it would help him refrain from saying anything else potentially stupid.
"I can... I can imagine it'd get pretty frustrating 'n stuff eventually, yeah..." His voice got steadily quieter as he spoke, eventually fading into a barely-intelligible mumble.
"Heh. Whaddya wanna know? I'm a rebel." No, actually, no he wasn't. He was about as far from being a rebel as one could possibly be. "I do what I want."
Flannery smiled, taking the Cubone and holding it like an infant. She had experience with ground types, at least duel types! She smiled, running her finger over his stomach in an attempt to tickle him.
"Hello Calcium! Youāre such a cutie!" She looked up at the man. "Iāve never seen one up close before! I live in Hoenn so Cubone is really rare!" She adjusted her arms and held out her hand. "My name is Flannery by the way! Flannery Moore! Its nice to meet you!"
Calcium tried his very hardest to remain completely still and impassive at first, but it didn't take very long for the Ground type to start squirming around from the tickling. As tough as the spoiled little Pokemon tried to act at times, he was still very much a baby, and it showed.
"Yeah, that's kinda like what Poochyena are like where I come from." It was only through growing up in a Pokemon Center that Issac had first heard about the foreign Dark types. "I'm Issac. Issac... Camden." Better to go by his first and middle names than his first and last; everyone knew about the Joy family, and he really didn't want to explain why he wasn't running around with bandages and Chansey. "Nice to meet you, too- thanks for the food."
He wasnāt sure if it was a nice idea, but his figure didnāt seem to promise any
good; maybe it was because he was wearing a black suit, which reminded
Pikachu of chaos ā all bad things, in short ā but his friendly natureĀ
reassured him to approach closer and to sit at a good distance between him
and the man, but close enough to be seen. He didnāt know why he was
showing himself to a stranger; he only hoped that he would stop by andĀ
give him some berries or apples to eat.
All of his Pokemon seemed to have a purpose, in their own unique way; they were all essential pieces to a puzzle revolving around Issac, each individual one different from the next. Mister Squeaks the Zubat had been at the Grunt's side prior to his Team Rocket days, and could usually be seen clinging to his shirt in one spot or another, while Calcium was, at times, treated more like an adopted child than a Pokemon. Chewy, on the other hand, made himself distinct in that while he hadn't known Issac the longest, nor was he conventionally adorable like the Cubone, he was useful in his own ways. Namely as a form of getting income.
Which was why Izzy was seemingly so preoccupied with counting all of the stolen bills from that day's excursion. He hadn't noticed the little Electric type, as caught up in his avarice as he was, but Chewy was overly curious and energetic by default, and as a result, the little Rattata noticed the unfamiliar Pokemon almost immediately.Ā
<<Woah, woah, woah, howdy there, stranger! You look like a nomel-colored me, what happened to your tail?!>>
She smirked, maybe this is what it meant to ātoy with your food.ā There wasnāt a single ounce of fear in the psychicās mind. Even if he brought back up, Sabrina could handle much. With a telepathic command an Alakazam was released from its pokeball. It took in its surroundings, noting the man and pokemon and taking in Sabrinaās thoughts. Sensing no alarm or immediate order he relaxed into a comfortable pose. āThis one. It has won many victories for my gym.ā Her smirk turned into a chilling smile.
He didn't even see her reach for a Pokeball- did she reach for a Pokeball- the Alakazam just appeared out of seemingly nowhere, and Issac became increasingly aware of how terrible of an idea it was to try to rob this particular woman. Little kids with Pidgeys and Sentret he could handle with relative ease, but the Grunt was a mediocre battler at best- and definitely not one that could take on a fully evolved Psychic supercomputer of a Pokemon. He had owned his Zubat for years and he still hadn't been able to get Squeaks to evolve!
"G-gym? As in, you're a Gym Leader?" His I just fucked up senses were tingling. "I, uh...Ā Oh. I think I know who you are now. Ha. Haha... Ha." There was nothing even remotely funny about this.
The Poochyena starts wagging and squirming in her trainers arms to lick the strangers hand. He was nice! She liked nice people! She was even tempted to naw on his fingertips, but that might get her yelled at.
Flannery giggled at excited puppy, watching her try to reach the stranger.
"How about this? You can carry her to the diner if can carry the little cutie at your feet!" It was so small and adorable!
He raised an eyebrow in response to the suggestion, taking a quick glance at his Cubone as if to silently ask Calcium whether he approved of the idea or not. The Ground type's only answer was to roll his eyes, which Issac assumed wasn't a direct refusal, and he immediately scooped up the squirming Pokemon into his arms.
"His name is Calcium. He's... He's not as angry as he looks. I got him as an egg; didn't know what was inside at first, just that my coworker didn't want him." A pause, followed by an awkward smile during which he offered the Cubone to her. "He'll settle down pretty quick if you hold him long enough."
Pathetic, he must be a foreigner. No one was dumb enough to attempt to rob her. The trinkle of his surprise confirmed this. She watched him struggle to state a reason. Company of surveys? What did he think, that this was Unova? If the woman hadn't been so preoccupied she could've spared the trainer. She sighed, "What's this survey about?" If she was going to hear him might as amuse herself.
He grinned, the expression borderline painful. He probably should have predicted her to question him, and prepared a response in advance as a result, but Issac was floundering. He hadn't expected to get caught, and there was something about the woman that was vaguely familiar- like he had seen her before, but couldn't quite place where. Regardless, an alarm in the back of his mind was blaring, a tiny voice screaming for him to get the hell out of dodge before things ended badly for him. Unfortunately, he couldn't.
"It's, um. It's about..." A quick glance in his Rattata's direction. "P-pokemon! It's about Pokemon. Your... Favorite. Yeah."