As Valorie stopped to listen to the tiny footsteps she got the impression of them being above her. Was there a second floor to this place? Suddenly the steps stopped and Valorie was left in eerie silence, stiffly waiting to see what would happen next. All of a sudden a voice called out to her.
"...Hey!" it said. It was a familiar voice, and yet who could be trying to get her attention? She looked up in the direction she heard the voice coming from only to see a pair of odd, inhuman eyes peering back at her from behind the grate of a ventilation shaft.
It was Kiyoko!
The oddly colored zorua peered down at Valorie idly. How had he gotten up there--More importantly, /why/ was he up there? Valorie opened her mouth to speak, but the small pokemon interrupted her quite fervently. "Be careful..! There are R men here..!" the child-like pokemon attempted to warn Valorie. The teen had to pause for a moment. R men? Those were like... those Rocket folk right? What did she care about them again? They were like, a gang, right? Why were they here?
Crack. Crack. Crack...
The sound of solid heels smacking against equally solid floor came to Valorie's ears and she turned her head as they quickly grew louder. Already she could tell it was close. Kiyoko had already ducked back out of sight. She could hear him scurrying further down the ventilation shaft. Silently cursing her luck she stood absolutely still, waiting to see if something would surprise her--It absolutely did.
A familiar boy emerged from a hallway with a knowing smirk on his face. Oh... Oh right. That was why she cared about Team Rocket. It was the same boy that had attacked her with a swampert in the middle of the school--The same boy who had wanted Kiyoko before. Valorie narrowed her eyes at him and promptly adopted a haughty expression consisting of crossed arms and a hostile glare. The boy merely laughed at the girl in her pajamas attempting to intimidate him and stopped several meters away. The two stared eachother down for a long moment, Valorie's hostile glare meeting his entirely cocky, knowing smirk.
All of a sudden something clicked in Valorie's head. He must know she was without her pokemon. Why else would he show such flagrant disregard for a potential fight? This place... He had something to do with this place. This place must have something to do with Team Rocket! Team Rocket must have something to do with her being here!
"...Why'd you bring me here?" Valorie demanded, still hostile towards the boy who had attempted to steal Kiyoko from her.
"Here I thought you were content to enjoy the view!" the male retorted in an entirely egotistical manner. Valorie was torn between finding the comment embarrassing or obnoxious. W-Who was he to imply she was admiring him?? He needed to earn that smug grin on his face before he got any respect from /her/!
"Do you really need to ask, though? You were doing so well figuring things out on your own..." he lamented in a sarcastic tone, only earning Valorie's continued stare as she tried to stare the larger, older boy down. After a moment he relented. "...When we battled yesterday, I was surprised some skirt like you could even hold her own." he began to explain, eliciting a somewhat bashful taint on Valorie's otherwise hostile expression. "Your pokemon were strong enough--So I decided I decided to take you for myself!" he finished with a shrug, ever so casual in demeanor. Any hint of embarrassment Valorie held vanished to be replaced by barely contained rage. Her brain rapidly searched for a response. Something, anything! She wouldn't stand for this!
"Why don't you tell me where my Pokemon are so I can show you who owns who..?!" she spat out, venom on her tone. One did not simply claim Valorie as theirs. She was already spoken for, as far as she was concerned!
The boy merely scoffed at this, as if finding the notion absurd. "I could... but it was your pokemon we needed. Taking you was merely a choice on /my/ part." he remarked, sick grin remaining on his face. Valorie felt rage start to mix with fear as she realized this boy might actually attempt to take advantage of her lack of pokemon. She fell silent as she struggled to think of a way out of this situation. She needed her pokemon. That's right... she'd beat him up and show him who was boss!
The boy watched Valorie's intent stare for a moment longer before shrugging half-heartedly and producing a pokeball. "If you say so...~" he remarks. The ball opened and the shape of a twelve foot tall monster formed in front of Valorie, glaring at her almost expectantly with a look that suggested it was ready for combat.
It was Valorie's on dragonite. Valorie stood in confusion, meeting Dragonite's eyes in a searching manner. Why... why was the humongous pokemon looking at her like that? As she took in the look being given to her her blood began to feel as if it were made of solid ice. There was no love for her in the eyes piercing her.
"...T-That's my Pokemon..." she mumbled, her voice slipping with very audible fear as the large dragon towered over her, seemingly waiting for a command. Valorie's body language dropped in defeat as the big picture started to become clear to her.
The rocket spy merely allowed his grin to intensify at the raw fear he saw passing over the smaller female's face. "...Not anymore!" he replied simply. Valorie looked as if she might cry! The thought seemed to amuse him in a sick sort of way and he gestured to several more pokeballs, each held betwixt one of his fingers. "Little did I realize how much of a catch you actually were! At first, I thought you might've given it your all back there... but /this/! This has to be the biggest catch of my career!" he snapped, eager to rub it in. Valorie simply stood there, speechless. How could this happen? How could he turn her own pokemon against her like this? How could Dragonite look at her like she was some stranger, nevermind an enemy? Tears welled up in her eyes as the lack of control over the situation entirely overwhelmed her senses.
The rocket spy seemed to deliberate for a moment, shifting positions and glancing over his shoulder in thought. "Now... I could 'own' you too, /or/ I could feed you to this big girl right here." he offered, patting Valorie's Dragonite idly. The behemoth pokemon seemed to relax slightly at his touch, not entirely aware of what was going on.
Valorie grimaced. She was clearly being threatened with a terrible fate, but the threat flew way over her head in favor of despair and rage. She proceeded to seethe out an obscenity at the rocket spy, an unladylike word her mother would've scolded her quite harshly for using in most other circumstances. Her tone stammered out of control and her hands balled into fists defiantly. She frankly had no concept of reason or rationality in her current state. She had no idea what she expected to be able to do without pokemon, but she was darn ready to do it! Perhaps she'd knock that smug monster over there out and cure Dragonite with... um... her fists?
The rocket spy was unamused this time however, and quickly directed Dragonite to her former trainer. "Wrong answer..." he uttered coldly, not even bothering to strategize. Without hesitation Dragonite lunched out and rudely snatched Valorie off the ground. Once caring arms now threatened to crush the poor girl's body at any moment and Valorie screamed out loud, her cries choking to a halt as pressure on her chest made it nearly impossible to breath at all. The large dragon pokemon sniffed her in a somewhat hesitant way, not too keen on the idea of actually eating her. If Valorie hadn't been preoccupied with trying desperately to get air into her lungs she probably would've found this odd, as it was /her/ training that made Dragonite so tame. Couldn't they have mind controlled Dragonite into being ruthless too..?
As she began to feel very light-headed and her ability to concentrate started to take a dive for the worst it all felt as if the end was near. "What, have you reconsidered..?" the rocket spy asked in response to Valorie's scream. Yet, she no longer had the breath to answer him. This wasn't fair..! Nothing about this was fair!
Abruptly the sound of light metal crashing to the ground was heard, followed by a thick black streak that crashed into the arm holding Valorie, hitting hard and leaving an immediately visible large bruise where it hit. Dragonite clutched her arm in pain and emitted a loud groan, about as surprised as anyone else that this had actually happened. Her shock caused her to loosen her grip on the unfortunate trainer she had been crushing, and none other than Kiyoko landed nearby--He was surrounded by several of mirror images of himself.
Kiyoko... Kiyoko, what was he doing? This was a hopeless battle! Kiyoko needed to run, and now! If he was lucky he could escape! The small fox-like pokemon seemed to spark with a blue energy, his body language suggesting he was totally ready to duke it out with the gigantic dragon.
"You leave her alone..!" the childlike voice commanded. Dragonite's eyes narrowed with an emotion vaguely resembling betrayal.
A moment of tension passed before the rocket spy snapped a finger and made a gesture towards Dragonite, who promptly set Valorie down, the poor girl curling into a semi fetal position. At least now she could hopefully recover. ...And then the rocket spy dropped all pretense of compromise and called out harshly. "Dragonite, Superpower! Capture that zorua!"
Dragonite reacted quickly, her body glowing with an intense blue aura as she proceeded to reach down and literally jam her arms into the floor, ripping the floor apart and literally chucking it at Kiyoko. The small pokemon was startled and yelped as it barely managed to dodge the huge projectile as it obliterated several of the shadow clones he had entered with. Kiyoko leapt up onto and then off the ripped up floor and launched himself at Dragonite a second time, this time slamming straight into her belly. The strike seemed to hit very hard, and Dragonite slumped over. A low groan escaped her throat and for a moment it actually seemed as if she might faint then and there. Where had Kiyoko learned to /fight/..? It was a foul play attack. Each and every attack felt as if Dragonite had punched herself personally--And those were punches that could shatter any known substance. Despite this, Dragonite got back up and kept going. The only thing that exceeded her power was her durability.
Kiyoko however was running out of luck. Most of his shadow clones had been unable to dodge the superpower attack, and the rocket spy followed up by combo'ing with extremespeed. Dragonite abruptly seemed to shift into high gear, lunging forward and striking each and every one of the 'Kiyoko's' present, sending the real one soaring across the room where he immediately found himself struggling to stay conscious. He managed to pull himself together however, barely, and immediately reconsidered his options. He could stay and fight, but he somehow didn't think this was a battle he could win even with all the training he'd been doing to impress Valorie. It tore him apart to flee, but... maybe he could find help! He just had to escape first. The small pokemon abruptly burst down the hall, bobbing and weaving where possible to deter pursuers.
"Get him!" the rocket spy commanded angrily. Dragonite moved forward again, this time leaving the battlefield to pursue Kiyoko. She quickly accelerated to a full on chase, crashing into walls and damaging the base around her as she struggled to maneuver in the admittedly rather large building. One could hear the loud crashing and the blasts of ice beams being fired off as she attempted to cut Kiyoko off repeatedly. After an intense rush, Kiyoko finally managed to reach an air vent at a reasonable height to jump into, breaking his way in and scrambling down it as fast as he could, only for the entrance to be frozen shut a moment later by a frustrated dragon. Having lost her charge, Dragonite reluctantly began a much slower return to her new trainer.
...Meanwhile, the rocket spy hovered over the fallen Valorie, whom still hadn't recovered from her near death experience. After a long moment he reached down, scooping up the small girl into his arms and ignoring her pitiful resistance as he proceeded to carry her back to her 'room'. "...We'll see how you feel after a good night's sleep..." the spy remarked knowingly, some sort of plan on the edge of his tongue.
