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 Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 4:31 pm
“Ahh!” Choppi fell on her butt as she pulled her hand to her chest almost like an instinct to protect. “Ow...” She squeaked…biting her lip tightly through the pain. Poison, she never got used to it, even when she was taking an allergy test and she knew they were going to try it on her skin.
Choppi’s eyes welled up with tears then, as the realization set in. Yes, it had been her right hand…her drawing hand that got bitten, and that hand meant everything to her as a watcher. But she was even more saddened that Zyk took it the wrong way. Blinking her eyes clear she stood up using her good hand to support her. Choppi wanted him to know that she meant no harm, and she wanted to be friends. Holding up a hand for Zinnia to just hold on a moment, she took a deep breath.
Reaching up, she held out her slightly purple hand to the zubat. If he wanted to land on it from his frenzied flying, that was fine, but she needed to let him know...that she was not afraid, or a threat. “Zyk…it’s okay.” She uttered calm and understanding words, and she’d really been trying to make herself seem as little of a threat as possible. Would it work? Her heart beat fast.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 4:39 pm
Zyk slowed his crazed flight, though he still was squeaking audibly. He "saw" Choppi's hand and heard her voice and suddenly felt quite guilty. That trainer hadn't done anything to hurt Zinnia... Slowly and carefully, Zyk landed on Choppi's outstretched hand. His ears were lowered in shame and he sniffed the hand until he located the wound. He delicately licked the puncture marks before facing Choppi, his ears still turned down. "Zu..." he chirped softly, as if he were apologizing.
Zinnia stood stock-still and watched, barely breathing. This was an entirely new thing... Zyk had bitten plenty of Rockets and shown nothing but contempt. But now he was asking for forgiveness and was showing genuine regret. Choppi must be more than she seems, Zinnia thought in wonder. It would take a lot to make Zyk admit that he was wrong.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 5:13 pm
Choppi smiled contently as she lowered her throbbing hand down in front of her to spy the perched zubat there. Her face was softened and even her eyes seemed to be smiling the watcher was so content. This was so amazing. Zyk was so light it was almost as if he wasn’t there. “It’s okay…you’re just a handsome little guy…” Choppi’s voice whispered in a soothing manner.
Reaching up with her other hand, she patted him on the head with a soothing stroke. He was just a little guy, who really loved his trainer, and she didn’t blame him. She gave in another gentle pat. Wanting to enjoy the moment further, she was unable. A shock of pain rocketed through her hand and her whole arm jerked.
Inhaling sharply through her teeth, she gripped her injured hand at the wrist. Ah right, the poison. Looking to Zyk who had been forced back into flight, she looked to Zinnia then.
“W-would you mind?” She held out her hand weakly. “I don’t want to h-have my hand permanently injured…” Zubats had powerful poison injectors. She wouldn’t forget. Sometimes this is how you learned.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 5:36 pm
Zinnia extended her hand and relieved Choppi of the gray zubat. Zinnia watched with some concern. Had the Antidote not been enough? "I... We're both very sorry," Zinnia said quietly. "We hope that you're not mad..."
Zyk was impulsively preening the fur that Choppi had touched when she petted him. He had allowed her to touch him, though he hadn't enjoyed it much. He wouldn't bite Choppi again, but he didn't like being fondled by anyone except for Zinnia.
"Will you be okay?" Zin asked worriedly.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 5:47 pm
Choppi nodded then, and looked to her damaged apendage. "It's better...thankyou." Another smile. "It's working now. I always react strangely to different toxins in my skin and the air. That's the first time I used an antidote on myself." Patting the hand with the other, she flexed her fingers. Another jolt of pain, and the purple color receeded. "Guess it just took a bit." Looking up, her blue pigtails bounced.
"Sorry." She chuckled sheepishly, looking to the zubat. "Guess I still overstepped my bounds." Holding out her hand, she passed another treat to Zinnia. "If he wants to try again later you know. No pressure." She gave him a small little 'V' sign as she winked. "No hard feelings?"
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 5:54 pm
Zinnia took the treat and looked at her zubat. She was sure that the treat wasn't the problem... She unwrapped it and held it out for Zyk.
Zyk leaned forward and sniffed the treat again. He carefully took the treat out of Zinnia's fingers and chewed it up. He swallowed and shuffled his wings. ".... Zu!" Zyk leaned forward again and started licking Zinnia's fingers, looking for the flavor.
Zinnia giggled at the licks; they tickled! "No hard feelings," she said happily.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:07 pm
Choppi giggled happily, as she flopped onto the grass then. Stretching out into the tall grass, Choppi looked up at the pair and smiled. “You guys really are a cute pair.” She winked at them as a laugh escaped her lips. From this angle Zinnia looked so big, like she could do anything. Including…step on her…
Shaking her head, she banished the silly little thought, and patted the ground next to her, signaling the girl to join her. Long blue hair was running through the tall green foliage as she looked up to the sky.
There was so much to ask this girl, and she just needed to find the right way to start.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:14 pm
Zinnia readily flopped on the grass next to Choppi. Zyk sat on her shoulder that was further away from Choppi and appeared to be getting ready to take a nap. Zinnia glanced at Choppi from the corner of her eyes. This person was so different... Zinnia wanted to ask her many things, but she didn't know how to phrase the ideas into questions. Instead, she decided to tell about herself.
"You asked earlier why I was here," she said, trying to sound important and off-hand. "Well, I'm here on very important Rocket business. My job is to catch as many pokemon as I can. But... I won't do it. It goes against my policy!" Zinnia's cheeks burned reddish, but she tried to hide her embarrassment. She had tried to sound impressive, but in the end she saw herself as silly. Who in the world besides her would refuse to catch pokemon by force?
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:34 pm
"Good policy." Choppi stated, still staring up at the sky, almost in a trance. She could fully concentrate on words spoken to her when she was like this. In her happy place. (She would have been rather sad had she noticed that Zyk was trying to stay away from her! XD)
"I do much the same." Pokemon shouldn't be caught if the trapper couldn't live with taking them away from their natural habitat. Pokemon like Zyk, Hannah, and Cassie, were perfectly fine to be out of the wild and with their trainers. It was because their trainers loved them and kept them as friends and battle parners. "Trapping pokemon for the sake of trapping them...is cruel."
Turning her head, she stared at the girl, her azure bangs flopping into her face. "So, what will you do when you return without pokemon?" She was being serious. Choppi knew of this ruthless pokemon tracker/trapper, and he was something nasty. So, naturally she assumed the higher ranks would be similar in their attitudes. "Will you be in trouble?"
She was genuinely worried now for the girl. This could spell trouble.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:42 pm
Zinnia listened intently to Choppi, her facial color returning to normal. Choppi was... like her? She wasn't the only one that was different from the other Rockets' opinions? The idea elated her; she couldn't help but smile. Choppi's next question brought her back down to earth, however.
"Nah..." she said in disappointment. "They'll just assume that I couldn't even beat a caterpie... No matter what I do, I'm never good enough... Even when I do something really hard, they just say that I'm a disgrace to the entire team... But that's a rather gloomy way of looking at it, isn't it?" Zinnia laughed uncertainly. "I think it's better that way, that they don't expect much of me. It gives me more freedom, I suppose..."
Zinnia absently plucked a blade of grass. She then pulled out another and held the two up, comparing them. One was longer than the other, so she ripped it shorter. But then the other one was too long, so she tore that too. In the end, the two blades of grass were much too small to be of any significance, and they still were of uneven sizes. "I'm never good enough," she said, more to herself than to Choppi.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 6:56 pm
Choppi watched the two pieces of grass tore down, reading more into it than it probably meant, and just found the girl fascinating. Then those words that Zinnia spoke reached her ears, and that made the watchers stomach churn. So young and still such a weight was on her shoulders. She could help with that. “Maybe I could return as you and pretend I caught Hannah and Cassie in the wild. Imagine their faces.” Another laugh. Chatting out loud her thoughts were interesting from time to time.
Chuckling, she lazily reached over and snatched the hat clean off Zinnia’s head. It had a large ‘R’ in red imprinted on it. Looking it over, she observed the manner it which it was made. “Nice threads.” It really was high quality, and that surprised her. Perhaps Team Rocket had a lot of lackeys, but they were united in at least their clothing.
Slapping the cap on her own head, she looked at Zinnia. “Well, how do I look Zin?” She smiled happily as she took the poke balls from her hair to make the hat fit nicer, but in the process just made the comparison between the pair even less of an expanse.
It only seemed like she was taking a side trip with their conversation, but it was truly related to a point she wanted to make.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 7:02 pm
Zinnia laughed, and felt a huge burden come off her shoulders as she did so. "You look a lot like me," she said, smiling. "You could probably pass off as me, as long as no one looked too close... But I don't know what they would do with your pokemon..." Zinnia's smile faded. "They tried to take Zyk away from me, you know," she said in a toneless voice. "They said that I was too young and unqualified to have a pokemon, even though we made our promises..." Zinnia trailed off, staring ahead into space.
Zyk awoke from his drowsing, sensing that Zinnia was unhappy. He nibbled her ear affectionately. He had been asleep and hadn't heard what was wrong, but at least he could comfort her.
Zinnia suddenly seemed to snap back to her usual self. "But I shouldn't be revealing those secrets to you!" She grabbed her hat back and rammed it onto her head. "They're top secret, so don't tell anyone."
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 7:15 pm
“Seems to me you’re not worth much to them, and neither is Zyk.” The awful truth, but the watcher had to say it. It sounded foul passing her lips, and she licked them afterwards almost trying to get the taste of evil people’s words out of her mouth. Propping herself up on her good arm, she watched the girl from her lounging spot on the grass. “But, how much you both are worth to each other, that’s all that really matters.”
Choppi had simulated herself as an older version of Zinnia with those few moments of that hat being worn. It was a message to the girl that she could be what she wanted, and she was worth whatever she really was. Not what others told her she was. Before the girl knew it, she would be her age…but Choppi also knew, she would be whatever she wanted. Even if she was still a Rocket.
“I won’t tell anyone.” She laid back down. “I have nobody to tell.” With a flick of her wrist, the pokeball in her hand rushed into the air and split open. From the dark insides a red light lit up and formed into a small pokemon’s body. Shaking off the laser light, Hannah gave a good stretch before she relaxed a bit. Smiling, she twirled her bonemerang like a baton and gave a cheery “Cue!”
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 7:22 pm
Zinnia stared at Choppi. She had suspected that she didn't have much value at Team Rocket and had always thought it privately, but to hear it said out loud... It was like a punch to the stomach. She was comforted slightly at Choppi's next comment, but she still felt disquieted.
When the cubone appeared, she lunged at the chance to change the subject. "It's that cubone! ... Hannah, right?" Zinnia said, trying to remember from their past two battles. "You're really strong, you beat us on the first time around."
Zyk bared his tiny fangs at Hannah as a warning to stay away. He didn't really like the cubone, though he supposed that they wouldn't have to fight here.
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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 8:50 pm
"Hannah's the first pokemon that decided to stick with me after I moved from the Kanto region." Choppi smiled happily, pulling herself up to sit crossed legged on the ground, letting the previous conversation get whisked away for now. Hannah smiled up at the Rocket girl and gave her a ‘V’ sign with her little claws as well. “Hannah and I have a strong bond, so we fight well together.” She nodded up at Zinnia, pigtails flopping on her shoulders.
“It’s the same with you and Zyk. I’ve seen a lot of Pokemon pairs and I have to just say…you’re perfect for each other.” Choppi’s words were simple, but sincere. She was proud of the girl to have fought to keep her zubat friend from the ranks of team rocket. Who knows what they could become, if they worked together.
“We don’t always win, but our teamwork is what’s important.” Choppi smiled and gave a wink to the little cubone, who’s tail wriggled in return. “Knowing that if the other is down and out the other will take care…really helps.” She was silent for a few moments, letting her words linger in the open air between them.
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