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Reginald & Desdemona & Anastasia
Anastasia happily accepted the bag and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Her first mission with the team was a success! She proceeded to open the bag to take a peek, but Reginald coughed and nudged her politely. She tried to blush, unsuccessfuly because of her dark color. She dropped the bag next to her and bobbed a curtsey,
"Thank you." She said. By now, three Pokemon had approached: one Zangoose, one Wurmple and one--
"That Surskit!" Desdemona exclaimed, pointing. The surskit froze in place for a moment then skittered off in sheer embarassment and guilt. Desdemona's ruffled feathers settled and she peered at the other two possible recruits. She exchainged a sideways glance with Anastasia and shook her head.
"You don't have to be here; go." The Wurmple looked quite relieved and happily whomped off. Desdemona turned to the Zangoose and raised a hand to her chin, as if appraising him like a critic would a piece of art.
"Truthfully, I think it's too early to take on any new members. Sorry, dude." She added. The Zangoose shrugged it off, "Fahne wit' me." He smirked and lumbered off.
"Hey, Reg," Desdemona said, turning toward him, "You've been so qu-- Oh gods, what happened?" Reginald looked horrifying. He was in a cold sweat, lying on his side, eyes squeezed shut and looked as if snakes writhed beneath his vibrant and unusually purple skin.
"Oh god, we have to get you to a hospital."

Mission: Start

The team was crossing a rickety bridge, into their new lives. Well, their first mission. But metaphorically, this is the first step into themselves. First step towards learning the hardships of being a rescue team. First step towards growing up and...I am rambling.

"Why not glide across, Aku?"

"Because Jack, I can't glide for that long, and when I land, this bridge might not be able to take the weight that quick. I might break it."

Jack was a few paces behind his partner. The two were too little to hold onto the rope handles going across, they had to trust their balance. Jack's tail swished accordingly, and his eyes stayed glued on Aku, making sure she didn't fall or anything. Being wet would way her down, and her wings would be useless, and would become very vulnerable in the water. They'd easily rip or something. It didn't take long though, before her feet hit the warm grass, and she turned around to give Jack that big smile of hers. It was so big, in fact, her cheeks would push up and nearly close her eyes. It was the most adorable thing Jack had ever witnessed. Jack got across soon after,

"That wasn't too bad, was it Jack?"

"Well, we haven't really done anything yet Aku. Focus, huh?"

Aku giggled and turned on her heel, and Jack followed in step. He was pretty excited to be with Aku on his first mission. He wondered what the future held for them, if their team would be big and huge, successful, a club everyone wanted to get in. Jack didn't even care if it was just him and Aku for the rest of his days. He wasn't picky. He did want to protect her though, and more Pokemon on the team meant more protection for her. And that's what he had to think about, Aku's safety.

The Starburst Islands were like a constellation of the sea. Shimmering in the moonlight. No matter the weather, however, the seas were always in a fit of rage. Whether they were jealous of the islands, or they just did not want to reflect the beauty of the sky was a mystery. All that mattered was safely crossing the bridges connecting the islands, because falling into the water meant certain death. Beauty is oft not without danger.

Back to the mission, a Hoppip had just slammed into the back of Jack’s head. Jack turned, ready to battle, but he saw nothing.

"Sorry!"

Jack turned and watched as the Hoppip blew away, and all of a sudden felt bad he didn't grab it or something. His attention was grabbed when Aku nearly doubled over in laughter,

"What the heck are you laughing at?"

Jack crossed his arms and he looked away from Aku. He didn't have to take her shi-

"Oh, I'm sorry Jack. I didn't mean to laugh at you, but...look!"

Jack looked at Aku, and then followed her gaze. A big pack of Hoppips were being carried away by the wind. It looked kind of comical, now that he saw it, and even he gave a small chuckle. They all had their little arms flailing, trying to grab a hold of something. It was kind of pathetic, watching them all trying to hold on to branches and hitting each other and doing flips, as if an invisible tornado or hurricane was happening. Like some terrible force of nature was happening two feet to the left of Jack and Aku. Their faces were pretty priceless. Eventually it passed, and their little screams were heard no more. Jack and Aku looked at each other, and decided to go back to exploring. Or rescuing, rather. They saw no sign of dead plants, and figured they were probably just on the wrong island. They'd know it when they got to it.

There was a cool breeze, which Jack guessed was the hurricane for the little Hoppips. Jack looked up, and spots were dotted through the trees and he could make out a few stars. He was looking for the moon, but found no trace of it. He stopped moving. His head tilted. Aku noticed and turned around. She padded over to him, and looked up. There was an opening in the branches, and you could see the night sky. Except there weren't any stars...? Aku's head tilted too. Aku opened her mouth to speak when the sky started moving. Was the wind blowing the trees...? It looked like the trees were moving but the sky was in front of the trees? Both Pokemon were so confused. Was it getting bigger? Aku let out a shriek as a black Spinarak attached to her face.

She instantly lept into the air, and glided straight down, so her face slammed into the ground. Well, the Spinarak slammed into the ground. The Spinarak flailed it's arms, which meant it let go of Aku. She pushed herself back, and the wind caught in her wings and flew her back, so she looked kind of like Batman. Jack looked at Aku's face, quickly scanning for any wounds. He saw none and his attention turned, the Spinarak was scurrying right towards them.

A giant shadow was cast, and Aku and Jack went temporarily blind. Aku raised her paws to try and see them, but she could not. What was happening? Before she knew it a body slammed into her, knocking her over. She began rubbing her head, and when she sat up, her vision was back. Jack also didn't have seemed to get hit, and was charging towards the Spinirak. He raised his paws and began slapping the s**t out of the poor little Pokemon. It looked kind of comical, as Jack kind of looked like a girl doing it. Aku held back her laughter, and rose to her feet. She looked around, making sure no other Pokemon tried to sneak into the battle. She turned back to Jack, and watched as he slapped the Spinirak two more times, and then jumped back. The Spinirak was clearly upset, and it's face was a tad swollen looking. It rushed over to Jack, and began swiping it's little nubs at him. Aku's head titled, was this just going to be a b***h slap fight? While the Spinirak focused on her partner, Aku snuck around. She began rubbing her cheek pouches, making her all statically charged. Her whole body began sparking and teeming with electricity. She rubbed her paws together, and an ear twitched from all the charge. She was engulfed in the electricity now, and rushed towards the Spinarak. She tackled into it, wrapped her little arms around the bug type, and her wings covered the Spinarak's back. They fell to the ground, and all of the charge of Aku's spark attack went flashing through her enemies body. It twitched and twitched, and Aku backed up. Her and her partner stared at it until it stopped moving all together. Jack looked at his partner, quite impressed.

"Huh...that was quite the show, Aku."

She shrugged and began walking away. Jack followed closely behind, kind of worried Aku had some sort of rage all hidden up in her, and it had made her much stronger than anyone knew. He hoped to never get on her bad side. Although look-wise he had yet to find a ‘bad side’. Every angle was just as good as the last, if not better. Jack shook his head, he needed to focus on their mission. The night was relatively young, and the splashing of the waves up on the banks never seemed all too distant. The air was beginning to get a bit smelly, however, and Jack wasn’t sure if it was from the Muk, or low tide. Either way was good news. One meant they were almost where they needed to be, and the other meant crossing the bridges wouldn’t be as dangerous.

”Jack? If you had a choice…would you have still picked me as a partner?”

Aku couldn’t help but worry a bit. She certainly didn’t feel cool enough for Jack. He was so laid back and calm, even if his current moveset was literally the suck. And just made him look like a girl. She wouldn’t tell him that, in case it hurt his feelings, or reputation.

”I’d pick you a thousand times over, dear Aku.”

Aku smiled and blushed and kept her head down, not wanting Jack to see how ‘uncool’ she was being about what he had just said. He was looking at her though, and was smiling about how he had gotten her to blush. He felt pretty awesome, and his own confidence felt a bit of a boost. Weird, cause Jack’s confidence is usually pretty high anyway.

”Is there anything you’d want to change? I like our team name.”

”I like our name too. I don’t think there’s anything I’d want to change. I love our team room at the moment too, but maybe we’ll change it up a bit someday.”

Aku smiled and nodded. She was just trying to keep him talking, she wanted to be interesting. Even though she was feeling more and more lame. She looked around, up at the trees and into the bushes. Every now and then she’d spot a sleeping Pokemon, and be extra quiet just so not to wake them. Jack didn’t really seem to notice, he was too busy being calm looking. She wondered if he actually felt calm, or if he just wanted to appear that way.

The first island had been pretty small, since the path they had been following had already almost come to an end. The trees came to an abrupt stop about 3 feet back from the bridge. Waves hit the banks and splashed high into the air. Aku gave a shiver. The night air was getting cooler, and the water was most cold. Jack looked at her, worried her wings might get too wet. He wasn’t sure what to do about it, so he just kept on keeping on. He looked around, peeking around trees and bushes, not wanting to get ambushed while crossing the bridge. Aku took the lead while she had the chance, and took her first step on the new bridge. This bridge was more rickety than the last, and had a few planks missing. The remaining planks were soaked and swollen, and each one felt so soft Aku was sure one would break underneath her and she'd plummet to her death. Although the waves were pretty close to the under belly of the bridge. The middle of the bridge sagged enough so that water was almost constantly rushing over it. Aku decided she'd give gliding a try, but she wasn't given the chance. Jack gave an annoyed sigh, as a Zigzagoon zigzagged it's way to them from the other side of the bridge. Aku leapt back so she was side by side with her partner. She got into battle stance. Jack did not, he wanted the Zigzagoon to take him serious. They were just lucky it was such a small Pokemon, and not something huge and bridge breaking.

"You ready for this?"

Had the Zigzagoon run straight for them, it wouldn't have taken nearly as long as it ended up taking, with all of it's zigzagging nonsense. Jack concluded that this creature was lame, and needed to be terminated. He took a step forward, and braced himself. The Zigzagoon went for a head butt, and as soon as the Pokemon lowered his head for the attack, Jack took the moment to leap into the air, and slam his tail as hard as he could onto his attacker. The Zigzagoon cried out loud, and Aku took her chance, closed her eyes, and moved with a swiftness that no other novice could match. She engaged pursuit, and was able to land a clean hit on the Zigzagoon, who rolled away, hesitated, than got back up and opened it's mouth. Strange little missiles erupted from it, and came soaring for Aku. Jack did a bit of a spin, and felt lame for it, but mostly whacked the pins away with his tail. A few stuck, but most were deflected. Jack targeted the opponent, and bolted for him, flinging his arms forward like a bamf, as if he were throwing ninja stars. Which he pretty much was. The rays swerved and curved, but hit the enemy regardless. Jack than flipped forward, and once again slammed his tail into the Zigzagoon, except this time his tail had pins sticking out, and his attack was a bit more damaging. Although this also hurt Jack a bit. He landed besides the Zigzagoon, feet soaked in the water that was overflowing across the middle of the bridge with the new weight on it. The Zigzagoon gave a defeated growl, and laid down, finished. He was carried away by the current. Jack turned around to look for his partner, but she had already leaped and glided above him. Jack smiled as he watched her land safely across. He quickly jumped over a section of missing planks, and scurried safely across the bridge as well.

"Let me see your tail."

Jack looked at his partner strangely, than remembered there were a bunch of needles sticking out of it, and he swished his tail around, so it was in front of him but he could still face his partner. Aku started gently feeling around his tail, and slowly pulling some pins out. Some came out easy, and some had been a bit more lodged from being pushed in when Jack slammed it into the Zigzagoon.

"You're incredibly lucky to not have been poisoned, you know."

Jack scoffed and waved a paw at the notion of being poisoned so easily. He was starting to feel a bit cold from all the wet, however, and didn't quite enjoy the feeling. As his partner focused on his tail, he looked her up and down. She was dripping a bit too.

"You cold at all?"

Aku shook her head, but didn't answer outwardly, and this worried Jack a bit. She patted around his tail once more,

"Kk, I think I got them all!"

Jack swished his tail against the ground. He felt no pins or anything, and nodded,

"Thank you very much, Aku."

He ruffled up her head fur, and she gave a small blush. He looked down towards the path. It didn't seem too different than the last island, except maybe a bit darker. Yeah...the trees were thicker...the path much more narrow. At least they'd get out of the cool breeze. He began walking, and Aku kept at his side.




(last updated 10.22.11)