From: Roberto Perez-Vila <RobfromVoid@prodigy.net> Subject: [PW!] The Tale of a Rouge Date: Monday, July 26, 1999 1:25 AM Minax waits outside Lavender Town. She waits for a Pokemon trainer to pass by. She waits for any Pokemon trainer at all. It's been a while since she's sent a Pokemon to Team Rocket Headquarters, since she decided to keep the Arbok she stole from her last victim. "I must test out that Arbok's abilities someday..." Minax voices her thought out loud. "Who's there?" An all too paranoid individual asks, pointing a small dagger towards every direction. The young man is probably sixteen or seventeen. Strangely enough, he wears a black cape that matches his black clothes and black hair. The only thing about him that isn't dark is his skin and his curious green eyes, "I heard a noise! Reveal thyself!" Minax walks up behind the young man and smiles, "Played Dungeons and Dragons a little too much, have you?" "Gasp!" The teenager says outloud, twirling to meet eyes with Minax, the red-haired woman who is just a little taller than he is, "In this wondrous twilight, as the sun meets the horizon, I discover a beautiful maiden! Mine name is Flint." "A little long for a haiku, don't you think so?" Minax asks, already visually examining him for Pokeballs. She decides to play along with his little game, "Alas, thou hast no balls." "But I doth, madame!" The dark-haired child bows, reaching into his pants, "Shall I showeth them to thee?" Minax narrows one eye at the strange young man, "Thou dost mean *Poke*balls, right?" "Is there anything else?" Flint laughs at the playful banter, withdrawing a pink and white Pokeball, "'Tis a custom made ball, 'tis. Art thou challenging me to a duel, madame? I'm afraid I must decline. I doth not battle ladies." "Battle this, Shakespeare!" Minax pulls the second Pokeball off of her belt and throws it at the boy, intending to hit him in the forehead. Instead, it whizzes past his head and lands on the ground. The boy wipes his forehead in relief, "'Tis good that thou didst miss!" "Did I, flit?" Minax sniffs her cruel laugh, pointing one finger at the huge purple Arbok looming over the young man. The creature hisses out, "Chaaaaar bokku!" and snaps forward to bite off the human's head! Without turning his head, Flint leaps out of danger's way and throws his pink and white Pokeball at Minax's Arbok! After a flash of red light, a Lickitung stands in front of the Arbok, with her tongue hanging out. "Tung! Tung!" Minax looks at her Arbok, "Hmmm... Knowing how much of an annoyance Spikes was, he probably never let his Arbok forget how to Wrap just to piss people off. Arbok, use Wrap!" The Arbok narrows his eyes towards Minax, slithers over towards her, and tries to bite *her* head off! Minax leaps out of the way, landing next to Flint. "Damn!" "Thou canst not control thy Pokemon?" Flint asks the rhetorical question, then looks at his Lickitung, "Mab, Slameth into thy fiend!" Mab the Lickitung runs at full speed towards Minax's Arbok, careful not to trip over her tongue, and Slams her whole body onto him! The Arbok doesn't look very pleased about this. He Glares at Mab! "What art thou doing?!" Flint asks outloud, giggling, before realizing that Minax is searching through his pockets, "What art thou looking for, maiden? I canst give thee whatever thou needeth!" He turns his attention to the match, "Mab, Stomp!" The female Lickitung raises her foot and Stomps it onto Arbok's tail. The giant snake Screeches out in pain! Minax pulls her hands out of Flint's clothing, sighing because Mab is his only Pokemon. Thus, she is the one that has to be stolen. "Didn't you say you don't fight ladies? Call off your Lickitung!" "I am protecting thee from the vile snake that doth want to attack thee!" Flint says, as heroically as possible, and looks at his Lickitung again, "Mab, Wrap thy tongue around thy foe!" "I don't need protection." Minax pulls her silver pistol out and prepares to point it at her disobedient Arbok, only to find that Mab the Lickitung has made him faint. She still has her long tongue Wrapped around his limp body. "I guess this won't be necessary." Minax hides her pistol before Flint can see it, and recalls her fainted Arbok into his Pokeball. Flint grabs his pink and white Pokeball off the ground and recalls Mab the Lickitung. "I have saved thee! Art thou going to reward me with thine lips, maiden? Perhaps something more, if thou dost catch my drift?" "Figures. Another perv." Minax slaps Flint across the face so hard that he drops Mab's Pokeball. She reaches for it and runs away. Once at a safe distance, she shakes her head, "That could've gone better. Where was all my suavity? My finesse? That which makes people cower and fear me?" She looks at the pink Pokeball in her hand, "The end justifies the means." She pulls out her Communicator and presses some buttons, ready to send Mab to Team Rocket Headquarters. That's when it hits her. Flint's fist... on the back of her head. Fortunately for Minax, Flint isn't a very strong guy. She turns around slowly, her eye twitching, "May I... help you?" "Ya whore, yous stole my Pokeball, and now yous gonna pay!" Flint, revealing his real accent, pulls out his dagger. Minax looks pensive in the face of danger, "I think I'll fight fair for once." She reaches for the long skinning knife hanging on her belt. She pulls it out and compares it to Flint's small dagger, "Looks like mine's longer." She smiles at him and slashes his right across his face, making an open gash on his forehead. Flint reels in pain, drops his dagger, and falls to the floor, weeping, "I just wanneda be liked! Wanneda be unique! Wanneda live out my dream!" He shakes his head and sweeps with his leg to knock Minax to the floor with him! He grabs Mab's Pokeball, stands up, and runs away towards Lavender Town, "I'ma gonna tell tha cops, y'hear?" It only takes a few seconds for Minax to get up off the ground. She re-sheathes her long skinning knife, puts away her Communicator, and stares at Flint as he runs eastward. She thinks about following him. Catching up with him would be easy, since she's used to running. "It just hasn't been my day. I'll accept that and move on." Minax dusts herself off and walks away, back towards Saffron City, to find a good hiding place to sleep that night. -Minax