So yeah, I am in love with Chou's hair xDD Her name's said like "Shoe," not "cho" xD it's french for cabbage (also a term of endearment kinda xD)'Cause like... yeah, vegetables.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Lolz xD
So yeah, I am in love with Chou's hair xDD Her name's said like "Shoe," not "cho" xD it's french for cabbage (also a term of endearment kinda xD)'Cause like... yeah, vegetables.
Molly and Li 7
Spamitty-spam-spam
“M...12....” The researcher’s eyes fluttered open as she charged, heavy, thundering steps shaking the ground beneath her
. Li pushed himself to his feet as he let out a sharp, frantic breath and threw himself ungracefully to crouch beside the helpless redhead’s trembling form, instinctively placing himself between Molly and the potential rampage. “Mary...?” he whispered, gingerly easing her into his arms “come on. I’m gonna get you outta here, alright? Everythin’s gonna be fine.. ”
He could call back Dolly or Ajax– either the Onix or the Machoke could potentially stop the angry mother pokemon, but the sudden gesture of drawing the pokeball, not to mention threatening an attack by calling them at all, could make her charge. Mary’s Doduo was out already, but he’d observed its attacks on the Arbok, and they’d been unrefined, and instinctual. It was a combination of companion, vehicle or perhaps a test subject, but it had never been trained to fight. Besides all of this, any kind of battle between the humongous pokemon in this small space could be disastrous. Mary could inadvertently be hurt or worse, not to mention the van full of joeys. The best he could hope for would be to slowly pick her up, get her onto the doduo’s back, and run like hell to the nearest help before–
With a high pitched shriek, Ed scrambled to his feet.
The furious Kangaskhan charged.
She blasted forward with a bloodcurdling growl towards the humans, giving Liam time to do nothing but grit his teeth, squeeze his eyes shut and shield the injured redhead as best he could and await the crushing impact that.... never happened.
Hesitantly, the blackbelt squeezed an eye open, and repressed another squeak at the solid wall of powerfully muscled, dusty pokemon blocking his field of vision almost entirely. M-12 was stamping and pawing anxiously at the ground before him, snorting and grunting and eyeing him warily, but she’d paused. “T-that’s a good girl...” Li stammered, his voice failing him, but he cleared his throat and continued, focusing not on the words, but on the tone. If he spoke calmly and gently, maybe she’d relax? He took a breath and tried again, one hand extended carefully, palm outward in what he hoped would be interpreted as a nonthreatening gesture. “E-easy...” the kangaskhan sniffed, jutting it’s head brusquely much too close for his liking, studying the woman in his arms struggling to breathe. “Oh...It’s Miss Cedar you’re interested in, hun? She’s your friend, remember? She tried to help your babies, and... and now she’s in a mighty bad state.” Somehow, she seemed to understand. Perhaps she’d been conscious enough to interpret her baby’s squeals, and could see well enough the state her observer was in. M12 snorted, and nudged at the woman, who now seemed to be going rigid in his arms, letting out a distressed grunt when the girl failed to respond.
“M...12....” The researcher’s eyes fluttered open as she charged, heavy, thundering steps shaking the ground beneath her
. Li pushed himself to his feet as he let out a sharp, frantic breath and threw himself ungracefully to crouch beside the helpless redhead’s trembling form, instinctively placing himself between Molly and the potential rampage. “Mary...?” he whispered, gingerly easing her into his arms “come on. I’m gonna get you outta here, alright? Everythin’s gonna be fine.. ”
He could call back Dolly or Ajax– either the Onix or the Machoke could potentially stop the angry mother pokemon, but the sudden gesture of drawing the pokeball, not to mention threatening an attack by calling them at all, could make her charge. Mary’s Doduo was out already, but he’d observed its attacks on the Arbok, and they’d been unrefined, and instinctual. It was a combination of companion, vehicle or perhaps a test subject, but it had never been trained to fight. Besides all of this, any kind of battle between the humongous pokemon in this small space could be disastrous. Mary could inadvertently be hurt or worse, not to mention the van full of joeys. The best he could hope for would be to slowly pick her up, get her onto the doduo’s back, and run like hell to the nearest help before–
With a high pitched shriek, Ed scrambled to his feet.
The furious Kangaskhan charged.
She blasted forward with a bloodcurdling growl towards the humans, giving Liam time to do nothing but grit his teeth, squeeze his eyes shut and shield the injured redhead as best he could and await the crushing impact that.... never happened.
Hesitantly, the blackbelt squeezed an eye open, and repressed another squeak at the solid wall of powerfully muscled, dusty pokemon blocking his field of vision almost entirely. M-12 was stamping and pawing anxiously at the ground before him, snorting and grunting and eyeing him warily, but she’d paused. “T-that’s a good girl...” Li stammered, his voice failing him, but he cleared his throat and continued, focusing not on the words, but on the tone. If he spoke calmly and gently, maybe she’d relax? He took a breath and tried again, one hand extended carefully, palm outward in what he hoped would be interpreted as a nonthreatening gesture. “E-easy...” the kangaskhan sniffed, jutting it’s head brusquely much too close for his liking, studying the woman in his arms struggling to breathe. “Oh...It’s Miss Cedar you’re interested in, hun? She’s your friend, remember? She tried to help your babies, and... and now she’s in a mighty bad state.” Somehow, she seemed to understand. Perhaps she’d been conscious enough to interpret her baby’s squeals, and could see well enough the state her observer was in. M12 snorted, and nudged at the woman, who now seemed to be going rigid in his arms, letting out a distressed grunt when the girl failed to respond.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Molly and Li, part 6
Theoretically, if Arbok venom was a neurotoxin, it would cause paralysis, right? I figure it'd be more hemotoxic, but Arbok's a cobra sorta, so I went with the Neurotoxin xD;
“Hun?” The male glanced dimly over his shoulder, blinking in surprise and rushing to the van at the sight of the purple mass writhing on the ground. “Hah! What’ve we got here? Good boy, Arbok!” the Rocket operative sneered at the sight of the entangled interloper being crushed in the snake’s grip.
Molly struggled to breathe against the pokemon’s crushing grasp, breath coming in short, panicked gasps as the Arbok wound itself tighter in response. “You never give Arbok enough credit,” Ed chastised in the other’s direction. “Alright, so he can’t put anything to sleep, but you tell him to guard the van, he sure guards the van.”
Kelly pushed herself languidly to her feet with a heavy sigh, picking her way through the long grass towards a stirring Kangaskhan Molly recognized instantly as M-12. “Last one, then we get out of here,” she called back, lifting the baby from the pouch with an enraged shriek as it fell with a thump to the ground.
“N-no!” Molly squealed, leaving her mouth as a kind of choking whimper. The arbok flared it’s hood and hissed at her.
“Ugh, damnit Ed, these little things weigh a ton. What are you standing around for? Give me a hand.”
M-12 groaned in her sleep at the sound of it’s baby’s distressed cries, and though the two Team Rocket members flinched, and cowered for a moment, she did not wake and they resumed the dragging distance to the van.
“What do we do about the nerd?” The man asked between panted breaths, glancing in her direction as a sickly cracking sound accompanied the Arbok’s constrictions.
“Get rid of her,” the woman suggested with a shrug as they dumped the mewling baby into the trunk. “‘S your Arbok. You do it.”
“Fine, fine,” he sighed, and wearily gave the order. Struggling against the crushing coils and her cracked rib, Molly tried to squirm her way free, but the Arbok hissed, reared it’s head, and struck, burying long, curved fangs into the flesh of her shoulder.
***
It was with a spring in his step that Liam made his way towards the check in kiosk, humming contentedly under his breath as he clutched the package of prefect pink poffins securely in his arms.
“E-excuse me...?” Liam called as he pushed open the cabin door, and made his way into the office only to be glared at immediately by a much older man behind the front desk.
“Park’s closed, son,” he intoned almost- no, very– menacingly, hand trailing to what Li realized with a squeak appeared to be a firearm. “Go home.”
“Easy,” Li muttered, backing away against the wall. “I don’t mean any trouble, honest. I just wanna deliver this to Miss Cedar. Well... her Doduo, at least.” The man eyed him warily, but said nothing, and so Liam crept forward, and set the poffins down on the desk, sliding them timidly towards the Warden.
“You a.... friend of hers, kid?”
Liam nodded emphatically. “You could say that sir.”
“Cedar’s not here right now.”
“What?”
The warden, eyes still narrowed, scratched at the back of his grey haired head, with a shrug of his shoulders. “Left this morning, never came back. There are always lab-types here, they’re a funny bunch. She probably just found some parasects to stare at, I don’t know.”
Li furrowed his brow, and nodded, slowly backing away from the armed warden, who’d thrown open the box of poffins and was prodding at them suspiciously. “T-thank you, sir.”
The cold night’s air was a shock after being inside the heated cabin, and he shivered despite himself. What if Miss Cedar was out cleaning up his mess at the campsite? He thought he’d done well enough tidying, but she had certainly seemed preoccupied with the park’s well being... He gazed guiltily at the expanse of sleeping grassland, and made a face. The grimace, however, turned into stunned silence as something began to move in the distance, a growing ball of something whizzing towards him and against his better judgement, the trainer ran to meet it.
As he’d hoped, it was indeed the redhead’s Doduo sprinting towards him, but as he drew nearer, Li could see that something was very wrong. It’s feathers were fluffed in distress, and he was alone, screeching to a stereo-honking halt before the vaguely familiar human face. “Woah, woah, easy, big fella... Where’s Mary?” The pokemon screeched emphatically at him from both long throats, nipping and insistently at his clothing with both beaks. Liam’s stomach churned uneasily. “Something’s wrong, ain’t it?” The doduo crouched, and nipped at his feet until the man got the hint, and clambered hesitantly onto his back, grasping desperately at the thick brown plumage as it took off at top speed, leaping and flapping to glide short distances rather than fly. Li was a bit too big for the bird, but it’s powerful legs carried them swiftly none the less as he held on for dear life.
Something like a strangled scream met his ears, and he risked opening his eyes only as the Doduo began to grind to halt, bursting through a path of trees and shrubs. Li clattered to the ground, rolling a few paces after an ungraceful fall that knocked the wind from his lungs and left him coughing and gasping for breath. The doduo shrieked, and cleared him in one powerful jump, lashing out at something with it’s taloned feet and beaks.
“Miss Cedar!” The man pushed himself to his feet, and took in the scene before him in a terrible instant. The doduo had successfully pried off or distracted the Arbok that had been ensnaring Mary, but the patch of blood seeping through her lab coat warned him that she was not out of danger yet. “Miss Cedar,” He repeated breathlessly as he knelt beside her trembling form, eyeing her injured shoulder anxiously. “Don’t move!” he stammered when she attempted to sit up. “At least, I don’t think you should....” He narrowed his eyes at the poachers, drawing the appropriate pokeballs from his belt, and letting them fly. With hastily barked orders and their own intuition, the onix curled itself protectively around the van while the machoke set to hurling rocks at the venonat.
“L...Liam? Is that you?” She squinted at him, trying to force the swimming patch of blurred colours before her eyes into some recognizable form.
“Yes!” he said, with less than absolute certainty. “I’m going to get you help, Miss Cedar, don’t you worry...”
“The kangaskhan...”
She could make out the motion as he nodded emphatically. “What do I need to do to help you, miss?”
“Arbok venom is a neurotoxin...” she mumbled, head lolling to the side, leaving Li confounded. He wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but it didn’t sound good and he would be sure to tell the hospital once he got her there. She continued to murmur under her breath, and he caught something that sounded like his name and worry, but her speech was growing clumsy, and he had no intention of running away. “You’re not going to get away with this,” he snarled at the other two humans, who exchanged a glance and laughed.
“Yeah,” the woman said, “like we’ve never heard that one before.” She snickered as the Doduo was sent scuttling away from the hissing snake frantically; however, the machoke quickly stepped in, grappling with and effectively pinning the wriggling serpent. The onix filled in for it’s preoccupied teammate, a flick of it’s massive tail knocking the moth from the air. Both pokemon retreated hastily to the safety of their pokeballs, leaving both criminals wide eyed and uneasy.
“As for you two...” Liam pushed himself to his feet, and turned his body sideways in a well practiced motion. “I’ve never been the type of coward who’d sick him pokemon on a human who can’t fight back,” he grit his teeth, and swung his body into a solid fighting stance, meeting Ed’s eyes unwaveringly. “So I’m just gonna have to deal with you myself. Leave now.”
“H-he...He’s kidding, right?” Ed set to chuckling nervously, glancing back at his partner, and then without warning, he was blinking at the starry sky overhead, the wind knocked forcefully from his lungs as he hit the ground. “Oww...” he groaned, thrashing against the solid hold pinning him to the ground, before sighing and planting his face in the dirt in defeat. “Kelly, do something!” came the muffled cry.
“Uh....” The tiny woman grit her teeth, and ran at Liam, lashing out at his face with the heel of her shoe, which he caught easily in a large, strong hand. Kelly hopped backwards pulling her foot from the boot, and growling at him. “Just get out of our way, dunderhead! Those Kangaskhan are ours, we stole them fair and square.” She teetered uneasily on the one remaining heel, and ripped that boot off to match, hurling it at the blackbelt’s head.
Li ducked the incoming footwear, rolling away from the pinned poacher, and the makeshift projectile whizzed over his head, striking a Kangaskhan squarely between the eyes. Dead silence fell immediately as all eyes turned slowly, and horror stricken, towards the pokemon, who stirred. A roar shook the clearing, as the angry pokemon’s eyes flew open in earnest.
“Hun?” The male glanced dimly over his shoulder, blinking in surprise and rushing to the van at the sight of the purple mass writhing on the ground. “Hah! What’ve we got here? Good boy, Arbok!” the Rocket operative sneered at the sight of the entangled interloper being crushed in the snake’s grip.
Molly struggled to breathe against the pokemon’s crushing grasp, breath coming in short, panicked gasps as the Arbok wound itself tighter in response. “You never give Arbok enough credit,” Ed chastised in the other’s direction. “Alright, so he can’t put anything to sleep, but you tell him to guard the van, he sure guards the van.”
Kelly pushed herself languidly to her feet with a heavy sigh, picking her way through the long grass towards a stirring Kangaskhan Molly recognized instantly as M-12. “Last one, then we get out of here,” she called back, lifting the baby from the pouch with an enraged shriek as it fell with a thump to the ground.
“N-no!” Molly squealed, leaving her mouth as a kind of choking whimper. The arbok flared it’s hood and hissed at her.
“Ugh, damnit Ed, these little things weigh a ton. What are you standing around for? Give me a hand.”
M-12 groaned in her sleep at the sound of it’s baby’s distressed cries, and though the two Team Rocket members flinched, and cowered for a moment, she did not wake and they resumed the dragging distance to the van.
“What do we do about the nerd?” The man asked between panted breaths, glancing in her direction as a sickly cracking sound accompanied the Arbok’s constrictions.
“Get rid of her,” the woman suggested with a shrug as they dumped the mewling baby into the trunk. “‘S your Arbok. You do it.”
“Fine, fine,” he sighed, and wearily gave the order. Struggling against the crushing coils and her cracked rib, Molly tried to squirm her way free, but the Arbok hissed, reared it’s head, and struck, burying long, curved fangs into the flesh of her shoulder.
***
It was with a spring in his step that Liam made his way towards the check in kiosk, humming contentedly under his breath as he clutched the package of prefect pink poffins securely in his arms.
“E-excuse me...?” Liam called as he pushed open the cabin door, and made his way into the office only to be glared at immediately by a much older man behind the front desk.
“Park’s closed, son,” he intoned almost- no, very– menacingly, hand trailing to what Li realized with a squeak appeared to be a firearm. “Go home.”
“Easy,” Li muttered, backing away against the wall. “I don’t mean any trouble, honest. I just wanna deliver this to Miss Cedar. Well... her Doduo, at least.” The man eyed him warily, but said nothing, and so Liam crept forward, and set the poffins down on the desk, sliding them timidly towards the Warden.
“You a.... friend of hers, kid?”
Liam nodded emphatically. “You could say that sir.”
“Cedar’s not here right now.”
“What?”
The warden, eyes still narrowed, scratched at the back of his grey haired head, with a shrug of his shoulders. “Left this morning, never came back. There are always lab-types here, they’re a funny bunch. She probably just found some parasects to stare at, I don’t know.”
Li furrowed his brow, and nodded, slowly backing away from the armed warden, who’d thrown open the box of poffins and was prodding at them suspiciously. “T-thank you, sir.”
The cold night’s air was a shock after being inside the heated cabin, and he shivered despite himself. What if Miss Cedar was out cleaning up his mess at the campsite? He thought he’d done well enough tidying, but she had certainly seemed preoccupied with the park’s well being... He gazed guiltily at the expanse of sleeping grassland, and made a face. The grimace, however, turned into stunned silence as something began to move in the distance, a growing ball of something whizzing towards him and against his better judgement, the trainer ran to meet it.
As he’d hoped, it was indeed the redhead’s Doduo sprinting towards him, but as he drew nearer, Li could see that something was very wrong. It’s feathers were fluffed in distress, and he was alone, screeching to a stereo-honking halt before the vaguely familiar human face. “Woah, woah, easy, big fella... Where’s Mary?” The pokemon screeched emphatically at him from both long throats, nipping and insistently at his clothing with both beaks. Liam’s stomach churned uneasily. “Something’s wrong, ain’t it?” The doduo crouched, and nipped at his feet until the man got the hint, and clambered hesitantly onto his back, grasping desperately at the thick brown plumage as it took off at top speed, leaping and flapping to glide short distances rather than fly. Li was a bit too big for the bird, but it’s powerful legs carried them swiftly none the less as he held on for dear life.
Something like a strangled scream met his ears, and he risked opening his eyes only as the Doduo began to grind to halt, bursting through a path of trees and shrubs. Li clattered to the ground, rolling a few paces after an ungraceful fall that knocked the wind from his lungs and left him coughing and gasping for breath. The doduo shrieked, and cleared him in one powerful jump, lashing out at something with it’s taloned feet and beaks.
“Miss Cedar!” The man pushed himself to his feet, and took in the scene before him in a terrible instant. The doduo had successfully pried off or distracted the Arbok that had been ensnaring Mary, but the patch of blood seeping through her lab coat warned him that she was not out of danger yet. “Miss Cedar,” He repeated breathlessly as he knelt beside her trembling form, eyeing her injured shoulder anxiously. “Don’t move!” he stammered when she attempted to sit up. “At least, I don’t think you should....” He narrowed his eyes at the poachers, drawing the appropriate pokeballs from his belt, and letting them fly. With hastily barked orders and their own intuition, the onix curled itself protectively around the van while the machoke set to hurling rocks at the venonat.
“L...Liam? Is that you?” She squinted at him, trying to force the swimming patch of blurred colours before her eyes into some recognizable form.
“Yes!” he said, with less than absolute certainty. “I’m going to get you help, Miss Cedar, don’t you worry...”
“The kangaskhan...”
She could make out the motion as he nodded emphatically. “What do I need to do to help you, miss?”
“Arbok venom is a neurotoxin...” she mumbled, head lolling to the side, leaving Li confounded. He wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but it didn’t sound good and he would be sure to tell the hospital once he got her there. She continued to murmur under her breath, and he caught something that sounded like his name and worry, but her speech was growing clumsy, and he had no intention of running away. “You’re not going to get away with this,” he snarled at the other two humans, who exchanged a glance and laughed.
“Yeah,” the woman said, “like we’ve never heard that one before.” She snickered as the Doduo was sent scuttling away from the hissing snake frantically; however, the machoke quickly stepped in, grappling with and effectively pinning the wriggling serpent. The onix filled in for it’s preoccupied teammate, a flick of it’s massive tail knocking the moth from the air. Both pokemon retreated hastily to the safety of their pokeballs, leaving both criminals wide eyed and uneasy.
“As for you two...” Liam pushed himself to his feet, and turned his body sideways in a well practiced motion. “I’ve never been the type of coward who’d sick him pokemon on a human who can’t fight back,” he grit his teeth, and swung his body into a solid fighting stance, meeting Ed’s eyes unwaveringly. “So I’m just gonna have to deal with you myself. Leave now.”
“H-he...He’s kidding, right?” Ed set to chuckling nervously, glancing back at his partner, and then without warning, he was blinking at the starry sky overhead, the wind knocked forcefully from his lungs as he hit the ground. “Oww...” he groaned, thrashing against the solid hold pinning him to the ground, before sighing and planting his face in the dirt in defeat. “Kelly, do something!” came the muffled cry.
“Uh....” The tiny woman grit her teeth, and ran at Liam, lashing out at his face with the heel of her shoe, which he caught easily in a large, strong hand. Kelly hopped backwards pulling her foot from the boot, and growling at him. “Just get out of our way, dunderhead! Those Kangaskhan are ours, we stole them fair and square.” She teetered uneasily on the one remaining heel, and ripped that boot off to match, hurling it at the blackbelt’s head.
Li ducked the incoming footwear, rolling away from the pinned poacher, and the makeshift projectile whizzed over his head, striking a Kangaskhan squarely between the eyes. Dead silence fell immediately as all eyes turned slowly, and horror stricken, towards the pokemon, who stirred. A roar shook the clearing, as the angry pokemon’s eyes flew open in earnest.
I drew a Li, and a Leik XD
Liam, (he looks way to young in the second one xD; just a doodle to test his shirt~)
and Leik xD Tom's significant other/happy-go-lucky destroyer of worlds.
I try really, really hard to make them look different xD;
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Molly and Li 5
She broke off, skipping ahead a few steps increasing her pace and proceeding in silence towards the Fuchsia city limits. Li would smile, and open his mouth to speak, but always thought better of it until the chainlink fence at the very edge of the park came into view.
“It sure is great to see you, ma’am,” he offered in a low voice that barely carried across the length of chilled air between them. “I mean, a fella gets awful lonely wand’rin’ around all by him self, and–” he buried his face in his large, battered hands, and shook his head frantically at the sight of her expression. “That... that didn’t come out right. I didn’t mean anythin’ less than proper, miss Cedar, honest. It’s mighty nice to have somebody to talk to, and it’s awful kind of you to show me the way out of there. I’m gonna make it up to you, promise–”
“Look, don’t worry about it. It’s no trouble, really. I had to head back anyway, and I’m staying just over there.” She gestured to a light in the distance, mounted on the porch of the run-down building attached to the check-in kiosk where visitors had to register. “There,” she said, as they came to a stop beside the entrance to the park, chilled fingers tangling into the chainlink fence as she pointed out a particular building in the city sprawling out before them. “That’s the most affordable hotel I can think of. Lots of passing trainers stay there, you should definitely be able to find a place for the night. Pokemon center’s right over there.” She pushed herself away from the fence started abruptly for the check in station, though, something compelled her to walk far more slowly than usual– the cold, or exhaustion from a day of crouching and walking, she couldn’t be sure– and strolled lazily back towards her room, with the occasional, inexplicable glance over her shoulder. She paused, and half-turned.
Liam hadn’t moved, and stood, rooted to the spot before the park exit, shuffling his weight anxiously from one bare foot to the other. “I...uh...” he began, with the faltering grin she was beginning to grow very familiar with. “Thanks, Miss Cedar!” he called, before taking a false start towards the city, and halted, blinking at her.
She resisted the smile threatening to spread across her face and forced herself to start off again at a quicker pace. “No problem.”
She sighed, shaking her head as she trudged up the gently sloping hill towards the cabin, clutching her lab coat tightly closed around her, the air still and silent save the far off groan of bellowing Tauros; however, just as she neared the circle of light the cabin’s lamps threw over the grass, another sound caught her ears. It was an out of place, mechanical sound, and, she realized, with a raised red eyebrow, that it was most reminiscent of a slamming car door, somewhere in the distance.
Molly furrowed her brows, and drew the single pokeball from her belt. “Come on,” she said, a well practiced hop planting her solidly on the Doduo’s back. “Let’s check it out.”
***
Fuchsia city was, thankfully, smaller than Vermilion had been, and the ex...well, hiatus-ed black belt felt more at ease, oblivious to the odd looks he received as he passed people in the street, dusty, barefoot, and shivering as he made his way towards the hotel.
He dragged his feet, lingering as the building approached. It was late, and the few stars bright enough to overpower the city lights were shining overhead, but he had no desire to sleep. The air was icy, biting and nipping at his damp, exposed skin, but he had no desire to be indoors, and so he took unnecessary turns, and veered off towards shop windows and vendor’s carts as he dallied, accidentally-on-purpose prolonging the short journey to the hotel.
His thoughts trailed back to the park, and he found himself smiling wistfully at the thought of the previous hour’s events, though something about the encounter did not quite sit right with the young man, something in his chest constricting uneasily. He had ruined her research, he concluded with a heavy sigh, as guilt constricted his stomach. He didn’t know anything about Kangaskhan, or studies in general, and couldn’t dream of ever helping her reestablish her proximity to the herd. It felt wrong, though, leaving things the way they were, and he shook his head as he turned trinkets from booths lining the streets over in his hand, in search of anything the wronged scientist might like. It was stupid– he didn’t know the first thing about the young woman, let alone her tastes, and so he broke off the search with a groan and a grimace.
No, that wasn’t entirely true. Something akin to hope flickered inside his chest as a sign across the street caught his eye, and a smile split his face as he skipped towards the sign, emblazoned with large garish letters advertising the newly opened building behind. He did know something about her, and his heart leapt as he pushed the still-open poffin house’s door open, and stepped inside. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.
In a moment, he found himself dumping a handful of pecha berries into a pot of batter, stirring haphazardly. He wasn’t sure if Doduo liked sweets, but these were the nicest of the berries rattling around in the outside pocket of his duffel bag.
***
The breeze carried over a scent all too familiar to the Celadon-raised girl, and she recognized the acrid, organic smell of biological sedative dispersed in the air as Doduo pattered to a halt at the edge of the tree line, all too close to a all too familiar clearing.
The sound had indeed been the slamming of a vehicle– a dark van–door, and the offending machinery was parked in the middle of the flat expanse of land, amidst the hulking, dark shapes she knew would easily tear it to shreds under normal circumstances. A venonat hovered over the clearing, and while a common sight in the Safari zone, this one was both far from it’s normal habitat and hovering unnaturally in one place, above the sedated Kangaskhan. Molly crouched low in the underbrush, gasping when she caught sight of two shapes, moving between the pokemon and van, dragging something behind them. Her heart caught in her throat as she caught a glimpse of the cargo: slumbering joey-kangaskhan.
“Poachers,” Molly hissed under her breath, turning her attention to the doduo hiding beside her. “Go back and get the warden,” she instructed, frowning as the birds honked in protest. “You run faster than I can.”
One of the uniformed poachers leapt to her feet and spun on her heel at the rustling, but sighed, and returned to her seat atop a rock set into the grassland. “Nevermind. ‘S just a Doduo. False alarm, Ed, carry on.” Her male counterpart groaned as he lifted the baby from it’s mothers pouch. “Lift with your legs, come on.”
“You know, Kelly,” the gaunt blond man grunted, “These things are really, really heavy. If you could... you know... maybe actually help me out, here?”
The petite woman frowned, crossing her arms across her chest and sniffing indignantly. “Oh come on. I’m supervising.” He glared and opened his mouth to protest, but his short haired partner shushed him with a wag of a condescending finger. “It’s my venonat. I supply the sleepy, you handle the heavy lifting. You’ve got to do your share too.”
Ed rolled his eyes, but said nothing as he dragged what she recognized as M-13 towards the van’s gaping trunk. Molly bit her lip, tracing the tree-line as it curved along the clearing. There was no sight of a ranger anywhere in the distance, and though she continued to watch anxiously, it became very clear that Doduo would take a while to return. Slowly, carefully, holding her breath for fear of drawing their attention, the researcher crept closer, on her hands and knees.
They’d begun to bicker between themselves, and the shrill complaints grew clearer as she drew closer, and closer to the van. The driver’s side door was wide open and facing her across several open metes of grass, and she moved as quietly as she could, in silence towards the keys hanging in the ignition.
It was just as her fingers closed around the dangling bits of metal that she heard the hissing, and a bolt of purple coiled in the backseat launched itself towards her.
“It sure is great to see you, ma’am,” he offered in a low voice that barely carried across the length of chilled air between them. “I mean, a fella gets awful lonely wand’rin’ around all by him self, and–” he buried his face in his large, battered hands, and shook his head frantically at the sight of her expression. “That... that didn’t come out right. I didn’t mean anythin’ less than proper, miss Cedar, honest. It’s mighty nice to have somebody to talk to, and it’s awful kind of you to show me the way out of there. I’m gonna make it up to you, promise–”
“Look, don’t worry about it. It’s no trouble, really. I had to head back anyway, and I’m staying just over there.” She gestured to a light in the distance, mounted on the porch of the run-down building attached to the check-in kiosk where visitors had to register. “There,” she said, as they came to a stop beside the entrance to the park, chilled fingers tangling into the chainlink fence as she pointed out a particular building in the city sprawling out before them. “That’s the most affordable hotel I can think of. Lots of passing trainers stay there, you should definitely be able to find a place for the night. Pokemon center’s right over there.” She pushed herself away from the fence started abruptly for the check in station, though, something compelled her to walk far more slowly than usual– the cold, or exhaustion from a day of crouching and walking, she couldn’t be sure– and strolled lazily back towards her room, with the occasional, inexplicable glance over her shoulder. She paused, and half-turned.
Liam hadn’t moved, and stood, rooted to the spot before the park exit, shuffling his weight anxiously from one bare foot to the other. “I...uh...” he began, with the faltering grin she was beginning to grow very familiar with. “Thanks, Miss Cedar!” he called, before taking a false start towards the city, and halted, blinking at her.
She resisted the smile threatening to spread across her face and forced herself to start off again at a quicker pace. “No problem.”
She sighed, shaking her head as she trudged up the gently sloping hill towards the cabin, clutching her lab coat tightly closed around her, the air still and silent save the far off groan of bellowing Tauros; however, just as she neared the circle of light the cabin’s lamps threw over the grass, another sound caught her ears. It was an out of place, mechanical sound, and, she realized, with a raised red eyebrow, that it was most reminiscent of a slamming car door, somewhere in the distance.
Molly furrowed her brows, and drew the single pokeball from her belt. “Come on,” she said, a well practiced hop planting her solidly on the Doduo’s back. “Let’s check it out.”
***
Fuchsia city was, thankfully, smaller than Vermilion had been, and the ex...well, hiatus-ed black belt felt more at ease, oblivious to the odd looks he received as he passed people in the street, dusty, barefoot, and shivering as he made his way towards the hotel.
He dragged his feet, lingering as the building approached. It was late, and the few stars bright enough to overpower the city lights were shining overhead, but he had no desire to sleep. The air was icy, biting and nipping at his damp, exposed skin, but he had no desire to be indoors, and so he took unnecessary turns, and veered off towards shop windows and vendor’s carts as he dallied, accidentally-on-purpose prolonging the short journey to the hotel.
His thoughts trailed back to the park, and he found himself smiling wistfully at the thought of the previous hour’s events, though something about the encounter did not quite sit right with the young man, something in his chest constricting uneasily. He had ruined her research, he concluded with a heavy sigh, as guilt constricted his stomach. He didn’t know anything about Kangaskhan, or studies in general, and couldn’t dream of ever helping her reestablish her proximity to the herd. It felt wrong, though, leaving things the way they were, and he shook his head as he turned trinkets from booths lining the streets over in his hand, in search of anything the wronged scientist might like. It was stupid– he didn’t know the first thing about the young woman, let alone her tastes, and so he broke off the search with a groan and a grimace.
No, that wasn’t entirely true. Something akin to hope flickered inside his chest as a sign across the street caught his eye, and a smile split his face as he skipped towards the sign, emblazoned with large garish letters advertising the newly opened building behind. He did know something about her, and his heart leapt as he pushed the still-open poffin house’s door open, and stepped inside. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.
In a moment, he found himself dumping a handful of pecha berries into a pot of batter, stirring haphazardly. He wasn’t sure if Doduo liked sweets, but these were the nicest of the berries rattling around in the outside pocket of his duffel bag.
***
The breeze carried over a scent all too familiar to the Celadon-raised girl, and she recognized the acrid, organic smell of biological sedative dispersed in the air as Doduo pattered to a halt at the edge of the tree line, all too close to a all too familiar clearing.
The sound had indeed been the slamming of a vehicle– a dark van–door, and the offending machinery was parked in the middle of the flat expanse of land, amidst the hulking, dark shapes she knew would easily tear it to shreds under normal circumstances. A venonat hovered over the clearing, and while a common sight in the Safari zone, this one was both far from it’s normal habitat and hovering unnaturally in one place, above the sedated Kangaskhan. Molly crouched low in the underbrush, gasping when she caught sight of two shapes, moving between the pokemon and van, dragging something behind them. Her heart caught in her throat as she caught a glimpse of the cargo: slumbering joey-kangaskhan.
“Poachers,” Molly hissed under her breath, turning her attention to the doduo hiding beside her. “Go back and get the warden,” she instructed, frowning as the birds honked in protest. “You run faster than I can.”
One of the uniformed poachers leapt to her feet and spun on her heel at the rustling, but sighed, and returned to her seat atop a rock set into the grassland. “Nevermind. ‘S just a Doduo. False alarm, Ed, carry on.” Her male counterpart groaned as he lifted the baby from it’s mothers pouch. “Lift with your legs, come on.”
“You know, Kelly,” the gaunt blond man grunted, “These things are really, really heavy. If you could... you know... maybe actually help me out, here?”
The petite woman frowned, crossing her arms across her chest and sniffing indignantly. “Oh come on. I’m supervising.” He glared and opened his mouth to protest, but his short haired partner shushed him with a wag of a condescending finger. “It’s my venonat. I supply the sleepy, you handle the heavy lifting. You’ve got to do your share too.”
Ed rolled his eyes, but said nothing as he dragged what she recognized as M-13 towards the van’s gaping trunk. Molly bit her lip, tracing the tree-line as it curved along the clearing. There was no sight of a ranger anywhere in the distance, and though she continued to watch anxiously, it became very clear that Doduo would take a while to return. Slowly, carefully, holding her breath for fear of drawing their attention, the researcher crept closer, on her hands and knees.
They’d begun to bicker between themselves, and the shrill complaints grew clearer as she drew closer, and closer to the van. The driver’s side door was wide open and facing her across several open metes of grass, and she moved as quietly as she could, in silence towards the keys hanging in the ignition.
It was just as her fingers closed around the dangling bits of metal that she heard the hissing, and a bolt of purple coiled in the backseat launched itself towards her.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Molly and Li 4
Little bit more~
Long pale fingers wound into copper hair, as the researcher adjusted one of her pigtails, chewing on her lip anxiously. “I’ve...never actually met Professor Oak...” She’d only made things worse, and undid the unevenly tied shock of red hair, and combed through it quickly with chilled fingers, elastic clenched between her teeth. “I mean, he lectured at Celadon University all the time, but...”
She sighed, pulling her hair back into a pigtail. Without the sun, the air had a distinct chill, and Molly could feel it biting at her nose and fingers. She drew them securely inside the sleeves of her lab coat, glancing, with a pang of concern, at the bare, scratched feet poking out from beneath the dusty hem of his white uniform pants. She sighed, pulling her arms tighter around herself to fight off the cold, the exhaled breath a visible puff of air that dissipated into the night sky. “Why did you leave Cianwood?”
“I dunno,” he shrugged, teeth chattering audibly, though he did nothing to warm his bare arms or feet. “just couldn’t take it anymore, you know? Trainin’ at the gym, you take on all sorts, from all over, who wanna face the leader. An’ I get to thinkin’ ‘bout where they’ve been and what they’ve seen... there’s a great big world out there, and I’ve never been off the island.” He scratched at the back of his head, wet hair drying into unruly raven spikes. “So, I decided to take a little break, and do a bit of explorin’. Besides...” The knuckles of the large hand he brought unconsciously to the coarse stainless steel chain around his neck were bruised and scarred. “I wanted to go back to Vermillion after training a bit, to take on Lieutenant Surge– or d’you think they’d just let me talk to the fella? Probably, right? I just want a word...” He toyed mindlessly with the thing, and it fell from the collar of his shirt with the dim clatter of metal on metal. It was a set of dog tags, far too old to be his own. He stuffed them hastily back into the safety of his shirt, hands shaking in the wintry air, but she’d been able to catch a glimpse of the name worn into the metal: Daniel Cole. Her curiosity was stirred, tugging intently at her lips, but she thought better of it, and said nothing. “But research– you must go all over, Miss Cedar. Sound’s lovely.”
“Not really,” she confessed, ducking her head. “I grew up in Celadon city. I’ve been between there and Vermillion, and went to Pallet town once. That’s about it. I didn’t even have to leave Celadon for that field research– Grimer everywhere.”
Long pale fingers wound into copper hair, as the researcher adjusted one of her pigtails, chewing on her lip anxiously. “I’ve...never actually met Professor Oak...” She’d only made things worse, and undid the unevenly tied shock of red hair, and combed through it quickly with chilled fingers, elastic clenched between her teeth. “I mean, he lectured at Celadon University all the time, but...”
She sighed, pulling her hair back into a pigtail. Without the sun, the air had a distinct chill, and Molly could feel it biting at her nose and fingers. She drew them securely inside the sleeves of her lab coat, glancing, with a pang of concern, at the bare, scratched feet poking out from beneath the dusty hem of his white uniform pants. She sighed, pulling her arms tighter around herself to fight off the cold, the exhaled breath a visible puff of air that dissipated into the night sky. “Why did you leave Cianwood?”
“I dunno,” he shrugged, teeth chattering audibly, though he did nothing to warm his bare arms or feet. “just couldn’t take it anymore, you know? Trainin’ at the gym, you take on all sorts, from all over, who wanna face the leader. An’ I get to thinkin’ ‘bout where they’ve been and what they’ve seen... there’s a great big world out there, and I’ve never been off the island.” He scratched at the back of his head, wet hair drying into unruly raven spikes. “So, I decided to take a little break, and do a bit of explorin’. Besides...” The knuckles of the large hand he brought unconsciously to the coarse stainless steel chain around his neck were bruised and scarred. “I wanted to go back to Vermillion after training a bit, to take on Lieutenant Surge– or d’you think they’d just let me talk to the fella? Probably, right? I just want a word...” He toyed mindlessly with the thing, and it fell from the collar of his shirt with the dim clatter of metal on metal. It was a set of dog tags, far too old to be his own. He stuffed them hastily back into the safety of his shirt, hands shaking in the wintry air, but she’d been able to catch a glimpse of the name worn into the metal: Daniel Cole. Her curiosity was stirred, tugging intently at her lips, but she thought better of it, and said nothing. “But research– you must go all over, Miss Cedar. Sound’s lovely.”
“Not really,” she confessed, ducking her head. “I grew up in Celadon city. I’ve been between there and Vermillion, and went to Pallet town once. That’s about it. I didn’t even have to leave Celadon for that field research– Grimer everywhere.”
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