After a certain Furret's outburst, Lentil had been staying completely out of the way; so much so that he hadn't actually left the corner he rolled to ever since. Part of this was out of embarrassment that he'd been trying to get out of this confinement via a means that would attract more Rockets than he could handle, the other part being that he feel asleep easily and was a heavy sleeper. The little Sandshrew had been out of it for quite some time, and when he woke it was with no small amount of shock. How long had he been out? What had happened? Were they free yet? Had the lost humans been found?Lentil looked around in a panic. Okay, no, he was still in the same hallway and no one had moved him, but the other pokémon were gone. He saw the previously blocked door was open, and there seemed to be a commotion coming from beyond it. Maybe there were more Rockets in there, or pokémon of Rockets! No, no, he didn't want to go get involved in all that, he'd just stay over here where it was relatively safe and mind his own business.
...But it was lonely in here. And dark. And a little scary. Lentil sighed and ventured beyond the door and up the stair case, then down the hall where he peeked into the room where an oddly charged air was being emitted and the rest of the pokémon seemed to be.
The sight made him jump back a little. What were those exhausted Electrikes doing strapped to machines?! 'No, no, this isn't right at all!' Lentil thought, shaking his head. The other pokémon in the room, the ones who had been taken from their trainers, were already trying to save the captive electric types. That was odd; their hair seemed to be standing up, what was wrong with them? Lentil was unfamiliar with this of electricity, as he lacked hair to be puffed up and was immune to it in the first place. Mustering a little extra courage, the Sandshrew skittered quietly into the room, doing his best to stay a good distance from the agitated Electrikes. He might have been immune to electricity, but he sure wasn't immune to teeth!
The Sandshrew managed to get to one of the machines with getting bitten, which was a triumph in his book. Lentil inspected the machines casing. Such cheap metal! What, were these Rockets on a budget? Even from his low level, it only took a few careful Scratches to break into the casing, and a few more to make a hole large enough for him to crawl inside. He watched the wires inside the machine as they carried sparks and bolts of electricity from the Electrikes to... to where ever it was the electricity was being taken! Well, that place would soon have a power shortage if Lentil had anything to say about it! But he knew he had to be careful; if he was hasty it could short out the machine and cause it to explode, which would likely hurt him, the Electrikes, and the other pokémon in the room be it from electric shock or flying shrapnel.
The wires, there were so many of them! Blue ones, red ones, green ones... Lentil likened the inside of the machine to one of those movie scenes where the hero had to diffuse a mess of wires in a bomb before it exploded in order to save the love interest! But Lentil didn't have a love interest, and there was no timer any where to be seen, and it wasn't going to explode if he left it alone... but other than that it was exactly alike, he thought. The Sandshrew studied the various bundles of colorful, electrically charged cords, trying to determine which would be the most efficient to cut. It looked like some were leading out of the back of the machine, so he crawled over on his belly, having to squeeze himself through the tight fit. Hard, tough, Sandshrew hide was not conducive to compression, so Lentil was surprised he was able to make it through to where the wires disappeared through the metal. With another set of Scratches, the metal backing was peeled away, and he saw that the wires lead out of the machine and into the wall it was pressed up against it. Ah, that was it! This bundle of wires must have been what was taking the power from the Electrikes to its no doubt dubious destination! Lentil began to Scratch at the bundle; his claws were getting such a work out today! Little sparks flew and bounced off the wires as he struck them; he was careful to make sure there was nothing flammable they could fall on. He wasn't immune to fire and he knew it. It took longer than trying to break through the machine's cheap metal casing, but eventually the little Sandshrew was able to fray the wires into malfunction.
'Haha! Success!' He thought triumphantly, but soon realized he hadn't exactly stopped this machine from sapping the energy out of the captive Electrikes. 'D'oh!' Lentil slapped a clawed paw against his forehead and looked upwards in frustration... and happened to see a similar bundle of cables coming in from the front of the machine. Say... that looked like the same bundle he'd seen before that ended up connecting to the Electrikes outside! With a grin, Lentil's eyes traced the path of the wires down to where he could reach them, and quickly set about scratching his way through them, ever aware of the potential for an electrical fire from the wayward sparks. His newfound enthusiasm had him fray up the wires in record time, and Lentil could hear the whirr of the machine powering down.
Crawling out through the excess wires and then the hole he had first made in the metal, Lentil was pleased to see that the Elektrikes seemed to be perking up some, looking about in confusion, and still in a good deal of pain. Too much so to be grateful. They set their sights on the little Sandshrew and the closest of them gave a menacing growl. Lentil didn't think they had the energy to attack in full, but he didn't want to risk it and quickly slapped a nearby Safari ball with his tail in their direction, then retreated out of the room into the hallway.
Hopefully they would be more grateful, or at least calm, once they had time to heal.
POKEBALL GO!!
