From: Roberto Perez-Vila <RobfromVoid@prodigy.net> Subject: [PW!] Recruiting Rockets (Attn: Bandraptor & Yosh) Date: Saturday, October 30, 1999 7:24 PM Yosh wrote: > Minax rolled her eyes. "Close enough," she muttered as she gently puts > Omelette > back in her sack, and standing up. "We should go find that little girl > now, > before she leaves the city. Chances are, she'll be trying for a badge." > > With that said, she strode off towards the exit of the undercover > secret Team > Rocket center, leaving Oz, and the three Pokemon to hurry after her. > > "I think I detest that woman." Howard said loathingly. Minax walks at a faster pace than usual, weaving through the crowd. The moment Oz leaves the secret Rocket Center dressed like Misty, many Misty fans in the city crowd him, asking for autographs. One young boy around Oz's own age even kisses him the cheek. Oz gets so annoyed that he uses Misty's paper fan and swift-kick-to-the-face tactics to bat the fans away while staying in character, then continues chasing after Minax with his Pokemon at his side. Howard waddles after Oz, practicing his lines, "Ahem. Psy. Psy... Psy. This script is trash. What's my motivation?" Minax approaches the bushes next to the Celadon City Gym, and a sleazy old man is hiding there with binoculars in his hands. The binoculars are pointed to the window of the girl's locker room. Minax taps him on the shoulder, "Excuse me, Mr. Tom, go find your own hiding place. This one has just been taken." "I was here first!" The old man whispers, turning towards Minax. When he sees the red-haired giantess polishing her skinning knife, the old man politely bows, says, "It's all yours, miss!" and blasts off at what seems like the speed of light! Minax raises an eyebrow, wondering how such an old man could go so fast. She sheathes her knife, and peeks through the bushes, to see what's going on. The little girl known as Nori is no where to be seen. Minax sighs, "Just by looking at that little girl's eyes, I can tell that she has Rocket potential. The hopelessness, the despair, the loneliness, the fire of hatred towards society. Or maybe that last one was just the flames from the burning Poke-Ball reflecting off her eyes?" Howard the Psyduck waddles up to Minax, "Burning Pokeball? Is that going to be in my performance? I certainly hope that you have the pyrotechnics degree to create that particular special effect. I may be a Water Pokemon, but I still loathe heat almost as much as this role I've been type-cast into!" "It's not a special effect, bird brain. Where's Mozty?" Minax smirks at the combination of the names Misty and Oz. "She is batting her fans off with a stick..." Howard turns his head to see if Oz is coming, "...literally." Oz shows up behind the bushes with his eyes closed, still swinging a giant stick, shouting to the kids who were attacking him with love on his way to the Celadon Gym, "I'll teach you not to grope me there, you ecchi little brats! How dare you grab my...?" Oz opens his eyes, notices Minax's glare, hides the stick behind his yellow shirt, and sweatdrops. "Are you ready?" Minax glances back and forth from Oz to the Celadon Gym entrance. "Hold on a minute." Oz fixes his red hair so that he has his ponytail coming out of one side, he adjusts his small yellow shirt, straightens out his fake bosoms, reattaches one red suspender that a kid had tried to snatch as a Misty souvenir, hikes up his blue short shorts, and ties the shoelaces on one of his red high-top sneakers. Once he's cleaned himself up, Oz salutes Minax and says, "Ready! At least as ready as I'm going to get..." Minax rubs her hands together while smiling sinisterly, "Excellent work. You're ready for Halloween this year." "Are you daft, woman? Today *is* Halloween." Howard declares, wondering how Minax and 'Misty' could forget. Minax grabs Howard by his necktie, and pulls his beak up to her face, "Don't you *dare* call me daft, since I've been meaning to eat some Psyduck a l'orange, and you seem awfully tasty. I don't carry a calendar around, and I couldn't care less whether today was Halloween or the end of the world. I live each day one at a time. It's worked for me so far." Howard tries to breathe, but finds it difficult to do with Minax choking him with his own tie, "Oh... kay... Let... go..." "That's another thing, dumbduck. Take this stupid neck tie off! Misty's Psyduck never wore a neck tie!" Minax whips out her skinning knife to cut Howard's tie off, slicing dangerously close to the Psyduck's neck. Howard falls to the floor. Howard looks down at his bare neck and covers it with his hands, "I feel naked." Bandraptor wrote: > Nori patted the Bulbasaur's head. When she had first met > Fushigidane, all > those months ago, she had damned its previous owner for abandoning it. > Now, she > was doing the exact same thing. This saddened her, but she rationalized > her > actions, telling herself that she'd never been a good trainer for > Fushigidane, > in the first place. Nori gave her Pokémon one last look, and continued > out the > door. > "Good bye, Fushigidane." "What was that noise?" Minax's ears hear Nori's voice the moment the little girl opens the Gym door. Minax grabs Oz by his red suspenders and shoves him through the bushes, saying, "Do this correctly, and you'll have passed the disguise portion of the two-part test to join Team Rocket. Mess up, and you'll find out why we're called Team *Rocket.*" Oz thinks about this for a moment, quite sure that the second part is a threat, but unsure of *why* it is. He sighs, "I don't think I wanna know..." Oz walks towards the Celadon City Gym as lady-like as possible, in order to convince Nori that he is the real Misty. "Wait a minute. Misty is a tom boy. She'd walk like a guy." Oz then over-exaggerates his stride to make it seem more masculine. "Wait, that's *too* guy-y." Oz finally decides to walk like he usually does. Though Nori's mind is on Fushigidane, she doesn't miss Misty, who is walking awkwardly right towards her. Nori had just finished talking with Gym Leader Erika, and now she's running into another Gym Leader... or so she thinks. Oz jumps into the action immediately, doing his best Misty impersonation ever, inspired by Minax's vague threat, "Hi there, little girl! Come walk with me, I've got something to talk to you about!" Nori shrugs and nods, figuring that since Misty is a Gym Leader, what she has to say must be important. She follows Oz away from the glass walls of the Celadon Gym, until she reaches the bushes where Minax, Howard, and Oz's Sandshrew and Meowth are hiding. They are all silent, mainly because Minax has threatened to kill them all if they ruin the recruiting process, and Nori doesn't notice them since she's paying attention to Oz, whom she believes is actually Misty. Oz tries to find the right words to say. He has to convince Nori that he's joined Team Rocket... no, that *Misty* has joined Team Rocket. After this simple task, he'd be on his way to joining Team Rocket and finding out where the rest of his Pokemon, including Jeff's Charmy, are being kept. Oz stutters, "Well... little girl... what's your... name?" While Oz tries to convince Nori that Misty's joined Team Rocket, Minax shakes Kitty-chan with one hand, and small white hairs fall into her other hand. She applies these on her face. She then hides her red hair under a long white wig, puts a pillow under her shirt, and dons a heavy brown trench coat to hide her feminine figure. Nori had seen Minax at the Poke-Ball, but he hadn't seen the particular generic old criminal that Minax is disguising herself as to attack Nori. Meanwhile, Oz is still talking to Nori while pretending he's Misty, "See, Nori, I've joined Team Rocket! It's really great, and I think that you should give consideration to being part of our one big happy family! You'll get protection from other nasty gangs out there, and mean people..." Oz looks towards the bushes, wondering when Minax is going to spring out. He's running out of ideas for what to say, "...big mean people... who do... bad... and nasty things... Much worse than Team Rocket! Rockets are friendly... and... they're... people persons... and it's a good... thing... to be..." Nori has her arms crossed, wondering why Misty joined Team Rocket and why she is trying to get *her* to join. Just then, an angry 'old man' wearing a trench coat and holding a silver pistol leaps out of the bushes, pointing the empty gun at Nori. The 'old man' speaks in a very deep voice, "Alright, you little bitch, give me your money or your life! I don't believe in stealin' stupid little pets like those idiot Rockets, I want cash! So cough it up, pip-squeak!" "How dare you insult Team Rocket?!" Oz shouts at the top of his lungs, getting into a defensive stance with his hands on his hips, much like Misty, "Team Rocket protects other Rockets. If you want the girl, you'll have to go through me!" The 'old man' swings his pistol at Oz, "Is that so? I'll just shoot any little pet you throw at me!" "Oh yeah?!" Oz points his finger at the 'old man', "Staryu, I choose..." Noticing his cue, and hoping that Minax isn't going to actually shoot him, Howard jumps out from behind Misty, making noises as if he has been released from a Pokeball. Oz shouts out like Misty, "I don't want *you* - Psy-DUCK!" "Psy? Psy-yie-yie?" Howard asks, grabbing the sides of his head in pathetic mock pain. "Psssyyyy..." Oz tries to figure out how the battle will ensue. He remembers that Minax said something about Howard using fake psychic attacks, but he doesn't remember exactly what a Psyduck's potential attacks are. He'll have to improvise. Nori looks at the 'old man', 'Misty', and 'Psyduck'. She is confused as to what is going on, but decides to go along for the ride... -Minax