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Kirby paused at the door and looked in at the rows of cages. It was almost too loud to hear anything other than the screams and roars of the Pokemon, and many of the cages rocked or vibrated as the Pokemon within fought hard to escape. The poor things... and there were more on the way? Kirby's green eyes flicked briefly onto Mr. Merrimack, and he then proceeded into the room. He wandered up and down the aisles. The Pokemon were not only angry, but seemed to be in pain. An Electrode--somehow they kept it from not exploding! A violet Scizor who looked ready to hack apart the first thing to step in range. A Midday Form Lycanroc who was howling over and over again as if it were on fire. A Fletchling who, despite its tiny size, was one of the ones rocking its cage by flying into the bars over and over again. It had bloodied itself, but it would not stop. A Glameow who hissed and yowled and pawed the air. Kirby's heart broke anew with every Pokemon he laid eyes on. Then he came across a Stoutland who was just laying there whimpering, relatively lethargic compared to the other Pokemon. It was probable that it had exhausted itself trying to escape. Kirby lingered at this one, trying to see if it had wounded itself.








Ken also balked at the door upon hearing the squeals of agony and snarls of rage coming from within the hold. Could they really hope to control these things?! But when Kirby entered, he came in behind him. He did not want to get second choice, so he went down a different aisle from where Kirby went and moved as quickly as he could so that he could see all the Pokemon before Kirby could. There was Dreadnought's offer that they could wait until even more Shadow Pokemon arrived, but Ken wanted one now! He had some vengeance to go take! He passed by a Thwackey, a Shedinja, a Clauncher. Too wimpy. Though they attacked their cages or the air or even themselves sometimes, they failed to even frighten Ken, so how could they frighten an enemy? A Luvdisc--they had to be kidding with this! How would even a Shadow Luvdisc be at all formidable? Although it looked kind of cool with that jagged line down its side. A Pawniard... now that was more like it. A Centiskorch, which Ken did find frightening and so he walked by it quickly. He passed by some others, staying far back from the cages, not missing how the Pokemon would attack the bars as he neared and glare at him like he was their worst enemy. He gulped and kept going.

Then he spotted one that set his eyes to widening and his heart to racing, but this time out of excitement rather than fear. He made a beeline for that cage. It was one of the larger cages, and behind the bars was an Ursaluna! He had heard of this Pokemon before but had never seen one in real life! This was the best possible Pokemon that could be offered to him! And unlike that weak, wimpy Teddiursa he had before, this Pokemon was huge and powerful! It was absolutely everything he could have wanted. "This one!" he said right away. The Ursaluna was turning in circles in its cage, jerking this way and that, thrashing wildly with its claws. Its roar shook the air.

Ken was further pleased to hear Dreadnought state that the Ursaluna was the strongest out of this lot. Maybe that should not have been surprising, though, given that most of the rest were smaller and weaker Pokemon. "Of course it's the best!" Ken's eager little grin faltered into a look of subdued annoyance when Dreadnought roughed up his hair and almost knocked his Alice band off. He did not appreciate the man touching him, but he wasn't about to say that out loud to Dreadnought, so he would just have to tolerate it. He took off the band so that he could quickly run his fingers through his hair to set it right again before replacing the band. Then he looked eager once more as Dreadnought began to open the cage to get at Ursaluna.

Only... the cage was now wide open and there was nothing but air between Ursaluna and the soft, squishy things outside. Ursaluna snorted and swiped at the door to make it open faster. It roared and lunged out, tackling the target that was directly in front of it, which was the smaller and younger and more tender one.
Everything had happened so fast for Ken, so fast that he didn't even register what Dreadnought said about a Pokeball. The man had begun to open the cage, and suddenly the Ursaluna charged out and tackled Ken. He must have hit the ground pretty hard, but he didn't feel it in light of everything else that was happening. A large paw pressed against his chest, the claws digging into his skin. Then Ursaluna bit into his right arm and began to thrash him around. "Ahhhhhh!" he cried out in pain and fear. Everything was moving in so many nonsensical directions, and the pain was nearly stunning, but he kicked and flailed and tried desperately to get away. His efforts did absolutely nothing against a six-hundred pound Shadow Pokemon. His Alice band had been knocked completely off now.







As Kirby had paused to regard the Stoutland, Mr. Merrimack had come over to inform him that it was a dud, and that making it into a Shadow Pokemon had robbed it of its fight rather than increase it. Kirby didn't know that could happen. He stayed by Stoutland's cage and continued to watch it. What would become of it? Maybe... would they let Kirby take it? He had an idea.

But he thought no more of that when the sound of a crash and a thud immediately stole his attention, and he snapped his head over to see that an Ursaluna had gotten out of its cage and was mauling Ken. Kirby took a few hurried steps closer to come to his rescue, but then stopped. What was he to do? Toa was out of commission for the moment, and he was definitely not sending Tack or Nessa out against this thing! He looked pleadingly at Mr. Merrimack, who was the only one here who would be able to stop this attack.

Ken was suddenly released from Ursaluna's grasp as the Pokemon was rammed away by Death Sentence and defeated as if it had merely been a newly hatched Teddiursa. Maybe Ken could appreciate that level of power later; for the moment, the Dreadnought's words only echoed hollowly in his head as he laid there recovering from the attack and wondering how badly hurt he was. He realized that he was hyperventilating, so he forced in a few deep breaths and sat up to assess himself. What he wanted most of all right now was to run and hide somewhere until he felt better, but he refused to look pathetic in front of other members of Team Rocket. His arm was bleeding where he'd been bitten, and there were some bloody marks under his shirt where Ursaluna's claws had gotten him, but it did not look like he was in a life threatening situation. Or so he hoped. You hurt bad? he heard the Dreadnought ask, and Ken was sure the question was only to mock him. "No. I'm fine." He got shakily back to his feet. What he actually thought was that he needed to tend to these wounds before they got infected, but he would keep that to himself and figure it out later for the aforementioned reason that he did not want to look weak right now. He had already embarrassed himself by getting attacked like that. He then stooped to pick up his Alice band from where it had fallen on the floor. He shook out his hair and put the band back on, turning his back to the others and pretending to be completing this task with a nonchalant air; in reality he was trying to hide how upset and pouty he must have looked right now.







Kirby, on the other hand, was trying to conceal his anger. Mr. Merrimack's smirk said it all: He was enjoying antagonizing this kid. Kirby suspected that this 'accident' was anything but accidental. And Death Sentence had taken out Ursaluna in one hit--Mr. Merrimack had a bad attitude and a terrifying amount of power. Kirby felt his resolve strengthen, and he remembered why he was still here. He couldn't run and let this continue. He had to remain close so that he could try to do something. Not now, but someday. Kirby turned away from the two and looked at Stoutland again. The Big-Hearted Pokemon continued to lay in one place, looking distressed. It might actually die if left here any longer like this. "I'll take this one," Kirby said. "I know what you said, but I see potential in it; I think it just needs some good, hard training to bring that out. I like a challenge, and want to see if I can make it better," he said, trying to sound indifferent.

Kirby was relieved that his reason had worked. Or maybe nobody really cared that much if he wanted to choose a weak Shadow Pokemon; the others would all be distributed to other Team Rocket members anyway so it didn't really matter, and there were many more to come. Kirby felt sick to remember that, so he tried not to think about it for now. Maybe there was nothing he could do for this Stoutland, but he had to try. It was simply one out of many, many Shadow Pokemon who were suffering, but if he could save just one, then that would be worthwhile to him. He took the Pokeball and then stood back as the cage was unlocked. He was not about to get mauled, too. But Stoutland made no move to charge the cage; it just stared blankly at the door as if not comprehending that it was now open. Kirby returned the Stoutland to the Pokeball. He nodded to Mr. Merrimack. "I'll do nothing short of my best," he promised, although mostly to himself because Mr. Merrimack was already walking away. Kirby followed. He had not been dismissed, after all, and the sick bay was exactly where he wanted to go anyway in order to get Toa healed. And maybe get the Stoutland looked at in case it just had some illness or injury that hadn't been caught yet. "Where do all these come from, anyway? Stolen from trainers?" he asked, again trying to sound like it was of passing interest and he couldn't care less about the answer. Truthfully, he was afraid of the answer.







Ken was glad to have a few moments to regain his composure while the Dreadnought went to go get Kirby his chosen Pokemon. He wiped his face on the sleeve of his uninjured arm and hoped he didn't look like he was about to cry or anything. Stupid weak emotions always trying to betray him. What had happened with Ursaluna was scary, but he told himself that it attacked him because it sensed his inner strength and considered him worthy. And as long as he made sure an enemy was standing in front of it instead of himself being the closest target, then no problem! It was too soon before he heard Dreadnought's voice addressing him. He tensed up, but as he turned to look out of the corner of his eye at the huge man he saw that he was only handing him the Pokeball. Ken eagerly accepted it. "Thank you..." he managed to mutter. Then the Dreadnought commanded him to go to the sick bay. Ken felt greatly relieved by that. Now he could get treated without it being because he was too wimpy and weak to deal with it. He couldn't disobey an order, after all. His spirits lifted although he was still a little sullen. "If you insist," he said, trying to sound like he was indifferent about going to the sick bay. He would follow the Dreadnought there, keeping his head down all the time until he was sure the fear of what had just happened was all gone. As it was, his legs felt shaky because of coming down from that adrenaline rush.

Kirby was skeptical that some of these had been wild, given how fully evolved they were, but then again there were a lot of Team Rocket members out there specifically looking for the biggest, strongest, most evolved Pokemon they could find. This was a small mercy, that most of these had been wild because a Trainer's bond protected tamed Pokemon. It was still sad to take them from their friends and family in the wild, but the thought of having a Trainer's Pokemon stolen and converted like this was even more heart-breaking to Kirby because he couldn't help but imagine how he'd feel if that happened to his own Pokemon. "I see. Well then, it's time to go out and add a few more," he said, again trying to sound like the thought of capturing and converting Pokemon was as emotionally rousing as a trip to the store.







Ken made a frightened squeak noise. "No, not at all!" he said quickly, not daring to imagine what some of those useful ways to grant a death wish might be. He didn't even want to think about it. He continued to keep his head down as he followed the Dreadnought to the sick bay.