Whenever I step outside, somebody claims to see the light.
It seems to me that all of us has lost our patience.
'Cause everyone thinks they're right, and nobody thinks that there just might
be more than one road to our final destination
Hoobastank-Same Direction
A yawn came from Sora as she was awakened by Max. The little Vulpix slowly stood up, shook off, and walked off to her food dish.
Max walked out of his tent and looked around. It was foggy out and he could hardly see. The former Team Rocket member walked across the grass, the morning dew getting his feet wet. As he walked over to the near by stream, he heard voices nearby.
"Look, there has to be rare ones around here. Boss needs us to find us," A male sounding voice said.
"Yeah, I guess your right," A female voice said, "We might as well get looking."
Max sighed as he walked back to his tents. Rockets were all over the place these days, looking for rare Pokemon. They had been stepping up their patrols and it had been hard for Max to keep up with all them.
As Max entered the red tent, he reached down and grabbed his belt. Inside was the one of the only things he kept from his past life, the Pokeball of his first Pokemon, Flare. The oddly-colored Pokemon had always been his best friend. Until Boss took him, that is. Max had never seen Boss but he was the leader of Team Rocket. He had said he was just training Flare but after Max had turned him over, he never saw the Squirtle again.
Max sat down and sighed as he dug through a nearby backpack for his beef jerky. As he was, his Vulpix walked up to him and rubbed against the 17-year old's leg.
The darkly-colored Vulpix squealed in surprise as Max picked her up. Sora quickly recovered and sat quietly on her trainer's lap as he ate his breakfast.
Max finished off the piece of dried meat and began to scratch the fox-like Pokemon while staring off blankly. He then looked down at the Vulpix and spoke, "There's a couple of Rockets across the river."
Sora looked up at Max with her emerald green eyes. The former Rocket always felt like she understood him completely, almost to the point where it seemed like she would speak to him, just through those shining green eyes. Sora has always been Max's best friend. Even when he was a Rocket, the little Vulpix followed him.
Max slowly got up, letting Sora get off of his lap before standing up fully. He quickly wiped the crumbs off his shirt. The R on the shirt that had once meant Rocket now meant another thing, Rescue. The trainer grinned as he pulled on his jacket. Rocket members used to be surprised when a man wearing a Rocket shirt walked up and attacked them, but now they seemed prepared. He had even heard some of them talking about him, the blue R'd man who would swart every attempt to take a Pokemon. He had become a myth, a being that the Rocket's feared, and this kept him going.
"Well, let's go blast off a couple Rockets," Max said as he left the tent with his Vulpix in tow. The voices were gone by now but Max knew they'd be back soon. Rockets were never smart enough to just try a differant place. The two walked down the river, listening for the voices. It was then that they heard some, but this time there were more than just two.
"Give me that Dratini!" One of the first voices shouted, the male one from the sounds of it.
"No. You stinkin' Rockets will never take my Pokemon. Dratini, use Tackle," A female voice said, but this one was differant from the other female voice. It was younger, probably fifteen.
"Good, they are still around. Let's go Sora," Max yelled as he rushed off through the fog, Sora following closely behind.
The pair followed the voices, getting louder as they went on. It sounded like the trainer wasn't doing to well by herself.
"No, Dratini!!" The younger voice pierced through the fog.
"Hah, now Stantler, use Swift," Came the female Rocket's voice.
"Yeah, you too Marill," The male Rocket commanded.
"Come on, Sora, we need to hurry," Max said as he reached down and picked up the Vulpix before running even faster.
Finally, the two found the battle. Max saw two Rocket's laughing as their Pokemon, a Stantler and a Marill, double teamed a single Dratini. The Dratini's trainer was just in front of Max, her back turned to him. She was obviously in a state of panic as her Dratini was being pummeled.
Max couldn't watch anymore, "Sora, FAINT ATTACK!!!"
The Vulpix jumped over the girl's head before dissapearing from view. The girl looked astonished as a hand reached down in front of her. She looked up and saw a boy wearing a Team Rocket member, but his R was blue instead of the normal red. She accepted Max's hand as he helped her up. She then looked at the Pokemon and saw a Vulpix fading in and out of sight, landing blow after blow on the Stantler and Marill.
"Stantler, show this party crasher what you can do. STOMP!!"
The Stantler carefully watched Sora before stomping downward. The female Vulpix slid across the ground in pain as the Marill's owner yelled, "Marill, Water Gun!"
The Pokemon shot a stream of water from it's mouth when the girl yelled, "Dratini, LIGHT SCREEN!"
The Dratini jumped in the way, pulling up a wall of light just in time. The water slammed against the shield before blasting back at the Marill and Stantler. They went flying, crashing back into their trainers.
As this happened, Max and the girl looked at each other, smiled, and yelled out their commands, "Ember!!" "Water Gun!!" The two attacks were launched, the water swirled around one of the firball's as the others trailed behind.
Just then, the Rockets realized what was happening and ran off, leaving their Pokemon behind. The combo assault hit the Pokemon, sending them after backwards after their trainers.
The girl turned to Max and smiled, "Thanks. I really needed your help."
Max grinned sheepishly, "It's not a problem."
The trainer nodded before stopping, "Oh, I just forgot. My name's Kirra."
"Mine's Max," The former Rocket said as he glanced around, "Well, I guess I'll be going now."
As the teenager turned to leave, he scooped up his Vulpix. He was almost back inside the forest when Kirra's Dratini floated in his way. Max turned around to see Kirra running after him.
"Look," She said, "My parents run a bakery in town. They'd be more than happy to give you some food if you like."
"Ya' know, that'd be really nice," Max said happily, "Lead the way."
Chapter 2