Subject: [PW!] Cat On A Cold Brick Roof Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 04:30:10 GMT From: Mushboom <supaflypimpdaddyhomiegfunk@h0tm4il.com> Organization: Excite@Home - The Leader in Broadband http://home.com/faster Newsgroups: alt.games.nintendo.pokemon [OOC: I've decided to start my half-poke character now, thankfully my first semester of grade 11 isn't too heavy so I should be able to keep up. But I'll probably just slap down a few posts on my own to establish the character and then I can start interacting with Jason, Amber, and Vixxen... or whoever's convenient.] [PW!] Cat On A Cold Brick Roof Solo emerged from the Magnet Train Station in Goldenrod and shivered. The half-Meowth had to take the late train and it was nearly midnight, only wearing a t-shirt and jeans, Solo was pretty chilly, even though he had a full coat of fur. Rubbing his arms to generate some heat, Solo started walking down the street, looking for a hotel where he could stay the night. To his suprise, he passed only a few people as he made his way through the streets. 'I thought Goldenrod had a big night life,' Solo thought. After a few more minutes navigating the streets, Solo found a reasonably-priced hotel and went inside. He approached the front desk where an elederly man was quietly snoring in his chair. Solo cleared his throat and when the man didn't wake up, he rang the desk bell a few times. The old man woke with a sputter and fell back in his chair, hitting the ground with a thud. The half-Meowth peered over the desk to see the fuming geezer slowly getting back to his feet. "Need a hand, man?" he asked sincerely. The old man finally started to reach for Solo's hand but quickly jerked back his own, "T'aint no hand ya got there, sonny, that's a cotton-pickin' paw!" "Yeah, I guess it is," Solo answered, giving the man a wierd look, it was almost as if the man was frightened of him. "You one of them freaks, ain't ya?" the geezer uprighted himself and poked Solo in the chest a couple times. Solo cocked an eyebrow, "Pardon?" "Yessir, you look like one of dem whatcha-ma-callits," the strange old man paused, thinking hard before he sputtered back to life, "Pokeymons! But you's look like a reg'lar guy, cept for the whiskers 'n all." "Oookay," Solo shook his head, baffled by the old coot, "can I get a room here, or what?" "Nope," the man answered bluntly. "What?" said Solo, taken aback. "I said nope." "Why not?" The old man took off his glasses and narrowed his eyes at the half-Meowth, "We don't serve your kind 'round here." "My kind?" Solo snapped at the old man, "I'm just a normal guy!" "Don't be gettin sassy with me, half-breed," the old man curled his lips and pulled a shotgun from under the counter, "I says we don't serve your kind 'round here." Solo took a few steps towards the door, "Whatever, man, you're bonkers. I'll go someplace else so just put the gun away." The man took aim at Solo, "Scat." "Settle down, dude," Solo put his hands over his head, "I'll leave, just put the gun away." "Scat!," the man screamed, firing the gun and nearly knocking himself over. As a hole appeared in the wall only a few feet away from him, showering Solo with chunks of drywall, he turned and flung open the door, sprinting down the road. "And don'tcha come back, ya freak!" the man screamed after him and fired another shot into the air. Solo ran down the street full speed until he was sure the old man couldn't catch him and quickly bolted down a side alley. He jogged through the allies for a few more seconds but stopped, leaning against a wall, to catch his breath. Solo's chest heaved as he slid down the wall to sit on the ground, thinking about what had just transpired. 'What a nut,' he thought, 'what was he talking about? Half-breed?' Solo rubbed his hands together to generate some heat but then stopped and looked at his hands. What seemed like for the first time in years, Solo remembered he was part-Meowth. Staring at his hands like he'd seen him for the first time, he examined them closely. Sure, they were covered in fur and had retractable claws and had soft pads on the bottom, but that didn't make him any different from anyone else. Did it? Solo jumped as his tail twitched beneath him, he lifted himself off the ground briefly and brought his tail around. Like he had stared at his hands, he stared at his tail, stroking it slightly. That old man wasn't afraid of him, was he? Back in Cerulean no one seemed to care about his Meowth side. "Maybe it was a mistake coming to Johto, those rumours of the other half-pokes are probably just that. Rumours," he muttered to himself. He jumped again as a gruff voice interrupted the silence, "I don't know about no half-pokemon, but comin' here was a big mistake, buddy." Getting to his feet, Solo scanned the alley and his keen night vision quickly found the source of the voice. A large man in a black trench coat began walking towards him, "Wh-what do you want? Did that old guy send you?" A deep chuckle escaped the man's throat as he continued to walk towards Solo, "Old man? I don't think so, but I do think that you should put them claws away before you hurt some one." Solo looked at his hands once again and noticed that his claws were fully extended, he eyed the bulky figure and kept them out, "Who're you? What do you want?" he asked again. The man stopped about a yard away from Solo and chuckled again, "You won't need to know my name, you won't live long enough to write in your address book." The half-Meowth frowned, "What are you talking abou-" Solo couldn't finish his sentence before the large man lunged at him, something in his hand glinted in the moonlight. Solo jumped back and to the side, grabbing the man's collar as he ran by and shoving him to the ground. A large, red R adorned the back of his assailant's jacket, "A Rocket," Solo muttered with a growl. The man got up quickly and Solo could clearly see the man was wielding a 10-inch hunting knife, Solo gawked at the blade and the Rocket chuckled for the third time, "That's right, kitty cat, I want your nice fur." He lunged again but Solo, much more agile than the muscle-bound Rocket, side-stepped and placed a knee squarely into the man's stomach. The knife clattered to the ground and the man fell beside it with a groan. After kicking the knife away, Solo quickly scrambled up a fire escape and looked down briefly to see the man climbing after him. "Here kitty, kitty, kitty," called the Rocket as Solo made it to the roof and swiftly scampered behind a large smoke stack. Solo held his breath as the man called out again, "Where are you hiding, you naughty cat? Daddy wants to pet you." Sniffing the air, Solo estimated the Rocket was a about three yards away and closing. He counted the Rocket's footsteps as he got closer and when he was less than two feet away, Solo spun out from behind the smokestack and brought his foot around to connect with the man's face in a huge roundhouse. When his foot only met air, Solo stumbled and glanced around the roof with wide eyes. "Tsk, tsk, tsk," the Rocket scolded, standing up from his crouch, "bad kitty." The large Rocket lurched forward and caught Solo under the chin with a heavy uppercut. Reeling from the blow, Solo stumbled backwards and struggled to stay concious. The man swung at the half-Meowth again, this time, though his reflexes were quite a bit slower, Solo managed to dodge most of the punch as it glanced off his left shoulder. Using the man's momentum to his advantage, Solo ducked under the next swing and drove his shoulder into the Rocket's gut. Lifting himself up, Solo sent the man over his head and hard onto his back on the roof. The Rocket gasped as the air sucked out of his lungs, as the man tried to catch his breath, Solo took off, full blast, towards the edge of the roof. As he neared the ledge, the half-poke used his Meowth-like agility to launch himself over the alley onto the next roof. Landing softly on his feet, Solo re-entered his sprint and headed for the next ledge. The man shouted and cursed as Solo neared the edge of the roof, faltering his speed a bit. Jumping off a weird stride, Solo stuck out his arms desperately and snagged the opposing ledge. Barely gripping onto the roof with his claws, he struggled to climb up and over. After a few seconds, he managed to scamper up onto the roof. Solo turned to see the man had given up his chase and sighed, walking over to another smoke stack, the half-Meowth lay under it, using his backpack as a pillow. Looking at his hands for the umpteenth time, Solo noticed they were shaking. Was it the cold, or maybe he was just frightened of this city. After two terrible run-ins with locals, he was sure coming to Johto was a big mistake, it was obvious that if there were any half-pokes, they were either in jail or their skins were hanging in a Team Rocket base somewhere. Solo shuddered and curled up into a ball, he would have to sleep here tonight on the roof, tomorrow, he'd go home. Solo thought of home and remembered he hadn't released Squirt from his pokeball since he'd gotten off the train. He wasn't going to be happy so Solo figured he'd just leave him there until things got sorted out tomorrow morning. Solo sighed and listened to a far-off police siren until he finally dozed off. [OOC: There it is, not a bad job if you ask me. I'll try and have the next post up in the next couple of days.] -Mushboom