The next day, Echidna continued to walk around Saffron. Nothing really happened the night before and also nothing much happened this morning. She just walked to the nearest dinner, a very run-down place, and bought some breakfest with the money the Vanderlas gave her. Luckily, there had been no problems with in the city. Echidna was always careful that her long, grey skirt, covered the markings on her legs. She wasn't worried about the markings under her lip, since she had covered them with make-up that blended with her skin.
Echinda was just walking in a back alley, thinking about where she might go next, when she heard a small cry. The Pokema turned and saw as a Togepi step out from a corner and fell to the ground. There were many bruises on its small body along with a cut or two. Echidna quickly went over to the Togepi and knelt down beside it. Gently, she picked the very small body up to take a closer look at the wounds. They weren't too bad, but it was quite a number for the Spikey-Ball Pokemon.
Suddenly she heard a dark chuckling and looked up to see two dirty but very burly men standing before her. "See? What did I tell ya?" One man, who had shocking short red hair, said, "The ladies always fall for things like that."
"Yeah, tell me about it," the other man said, who had long black hair, "women are so stupid when it come to 'cute' things being hurt. Stealing that Togepi was one of the best ideas we ever had."
Echidna slowly got up and stared right at the men. She placed her back on the ground and the Togepi on top of it. The woman looked back at the men and got into a fighting pose, causing both of them to laugh.
"Oh! Isn't this just grand! The girl actually thinks she has a chance against up!" The red head said with a sneer. "Come on girly, you maybe tall for a woman, but you're still pretty much skin and bones. Look, we just want that nice golden choker necklace. You hand that over, and we'll leave you alone. How does that sound?"
Echidna just narrowed her eyes and bent her knees a little bit, reading for any conflict. This caused the black haired man to laugh as he said, "This girl got some spunk! I like it. It'll make taking that little necklace away from her that much fun."
With that, the one with the black hair lunged at Echidna, but right at that moment Echidna undid the button on the skirt and threw it off. At the same moment, she changed her legs into her Arbok tail and slammed it into the man, knocking him over. While the black haired man laid stunned, his red haired friend looked on in shock and Echidna used this time to slam her tail into him, slamming him into a wall.
The Arbok Pokema used her tail to stand as high as she could and glared down at the men as they recovered. She also changed her canines into her fangs and let some venom drip down them as she hissed at the men. As they recovered, the red hair and black haired got up as quickly as they could and ran away.
"I thought you said all of those damn +Pokemas were in Laverder town!" The black haired man shouted.
"That's what I heard man! Don't get mad at me!" The red head said.
More words were said, which lead to shouting, but they were too far away by this time. Echidna tilted her head at what the men said as she retracted her fangs and changed her tail into legs once more. So there were a whole bunch of +Pokemas in Lavender Town? That wasn't really too far from here. Why were there a bunch of +Pokemas massing there? She didn't know why...but it was as good a lead as any. If there were a whle bunch of +Pokemas there, then maybe she could ask around.
Echidna placed her skirt back on and looked at the Togepi as it slowly woke up on her bag. It opened its small, black eyes and stared up at Echidna. The Arbok Pokema gently lifted the small creature out and opened her bag to pull out some bread. She held it out to the Togepi who, after a slight hesitation, took the bread and ate it greatfully. Echidna thought it would be good to keep the little Pokemon around. Alice would just love to have this Togepi as a pet. That is...if the Vanderlas allowed it.
Still, Echidna would take care of it for now. So, after slugging her bag over her shoulder, she headed in the direction of Lavender town. It shouldn't take too long, especially if she went into the forest and traveled using her tail. Of course, she hoped that she would get there before all the +Pokemas left. After all, she never heard of free +Pokemas staying in one place for long.
