OOC: Time to keep things moving, and to clear up the whereabouts of my other characters.
IC:
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--Outside the mysterious building at the edge of Cherrygrove City--
Phoebe's Houndoom was not as happy as her name suggested, but she eventually did find the strength and the courage to get up and walk around. She did feel a little dizzy, though, and her face was still stinging as if it was cut open. One time, to prevent herself from fainting, she stopped walking and turned her head to check out the building she was walking by. There was a sign on the side of the otherwise plain black building. Happy couldn't read, but she did recognise the familiar red R that was on the left of the sign. She growled at the sight of this, and just kept on walking.
Up ahead, Happy could finally see a bunch of buildings and such--it was Cherrygrove City! At this, she jumped with excitement and ran full-speed at the city. But she didn't make it halfway to the first building in sight before a car hit her from the side. Everything Happy saw went black, including her thoughts...
--In the forest--
Phoebe blushed with happiness--this was the first time someone other than Eve and Tiffany had tried to be friendly with her! But this past denial was probably largely composed of the fact that Phoebe was already a hybrid at the start of the mission, so most of the others were afraid of her. Yet Amanda was also a hybrid, so she had no reason to fear Phoebe. Nor did she think that Glia (Phoebe's new Caterpie) was creepy! An excellent start.
"Hello," Phoebe replied warmly to Amanda as the two hybrids shook hands. Amanda's grip was much firmer than usual, but Phoebe just saw this as a Machop trait.
"Anyways," Phoebe continued, "yes, now that I think about it, I guess Glia here really is a cutie! And to think, she'll be a Butterfree eventually... But yes... and I don't know if you met Happy yet--my Houndoom. Currently I'm a bit worried about her--she's been carried away by Casi and Bunch, from what I could tell..."
Phoebe paused a little bit to think briefly about Happy, then continued talking to Amanda.
"So are you a trainer too? ...Or did you just get bombarded with PHT and that's it? Oops... sorry if that question offended you. My two friends say I'm too curious sometimes..."
--Cherrygrove City--
After the easy battle with Team Rocket's Erureido, Eve and her Banette walked along one of the streets near the edge of the city. They were nearing a Pokemon Centre on their left. A few police cars were in the vicinity.
<"From the looks of things, there must have been either an assault or PHT attack there,"> Samara figured, sounding muffled as usual through zipped lips.
"I think they're just there to scout the area," Eve corrected. "I don't se any hybrids nor injured people or Pokemon."
<"No, but that Houndoom over there looks pretty beat up.">
Samara pointed to a Chansey, who was pushing a small bed with a Houndoom lying in it.
<"But wait a minute... That Houndoom looks kind of like...">
"Happy!" Eve finished. Then she grabbed Samara by the hand and leapt clear over the street, landing in front of the door of the Pokemon Centre, where the Chansey was about to enter.
Happy appeared to be unconscious, and there were deep scratches all over her face. Her nose was swollen as well.
"What have we here?" Nurse Joy walked up to the Houndoom and gently touched her on the face.
"Oh dear, a wild Houndoom," Joy continued. "She must have been attacked by Team Rocket or abandoned by someone."
"Umm, excuse me," Eve interrupted, "but that Houndoom's not wild. She belongs to a friend of mine. She was in a battle with Team Rocket, but I didn't see exactly what happened to her. We were..."
"Let's go over the details after we take her to the emergency room," Joy concluded.
Seconds later, Eve, Joy, Chansey, Samara, and Happy were in a small room with a bed and some medical equipment in it. Happy was lying on the bed, occasionally blinking but still unaware of her surroundings. Chansey and Eve were leaning over the edge of the bed, watching over her. Samara was standing idle in a corner, and Joy was fumbling through a drawer. Soon enough, Joy took out a wet cloth with some sort of creamy substance on it, and a brush. When she approached the bed, she started stroking Happy's body with the brush, and applying the cloth to her face. Happy whimpered but didn't show too many other signs of pain.
"So... who are you?" Joy asked Eve, while still looking at Happy.
"Oh, I'm Eve--and this is Samara." Eve gestured at the Banette standing in the corner.
"...And you're wearing a Muumaaji costume?"
"No, I'm actually a hybrid... yes, my two friends and I all got the PHT treatment."
"Oh, I see. This PHT epidemic is growing quite serious--such that once I had a nightmare in which I was a Chansey hybrid. Anyways, what were you doing when this Houndoom was injured?"
"Well, my friends and I were chasing after a couple of Rockets, and we had come up with a plan to go after them. However, Happy here was not with us--one of us couldn't catch up and had to stay behind. It was just me and Samara and my other friend. Anyways, in one stage of the plan, I was using Perish Song. I fainted pretty much immediately afterward, so I didn't see Happy at all."
<"But,"> Samara finished, <"I did. While Eve was singing, I saw Eve's friend--a Murkrow hybrid--carrying Happy towards us. Happy didn't hear the song though. But before I saw what happened to her, I fainted too.">
"So this Murkrow hybrid is Happy's trainer?" Joy asked.
"No," Eve replied, "that's Tiffany, and she has no Pokemon. Happy belongs to my other friend, Phoebe. Tell you what. The two of us currently are on a mission to purge the city of any remaining Rockets. But if we see Phoebe, we'll tell her to come here. She'll be easy to recognize--she's a Ponyta hybrid."
With that, Eve and Samara left the Pokemon Centre to continue looking for Rockets.
--In the mysterious world of red--
Tiffany saw a figure move in the black "sun" in the sky, the only non-red thing in this mysterious place. The figure looked kind of like a person, walking past her as if the black thing was a window. Curious, Tiffany flew upward to take a look.
BONK. Tiffany collided with the "sun", which felt a lot like hitting a glass window.
Well if this thing is made of glass...
Tiffany backed away from the window a bit and charged at it again. The window did not shatter, but it turned red for a brief moment after the collision. Tiffany flew backwards and tried hitting the window a third time. The same effect. But as she started to back away from the window again, she saw the figure move closer to it, until she could make out a person's face staring through it.
"What in the world do we have here?" It was a woman's voice--soft and echoing through the space. "You really want out, don't you?"
After that, the image in the window blurred, as if the image of the woman's face was jerked sharply to the side and then was in constant movement.
Moments later, Tiffany was sucked into the window. For a while she felt like she was being fired through a thin red tube, quite like a cannon. When she got to the end of this tube, everything she saw went red, and it stayed this way for quite a while. But then, the redness slowly faded until a new image came into view--an image of the real, non-red world!
Now, Tiffany was sitting in a sort of cell, and standing outside it was the same woman whose face she had seen earlier. Except now she had more than a face. She was wearing a Team Rocket uniform, and was holding a Pokeball.
No kidding... was I actually in that Pokeball?!? Tiffany realized.
"Enjoy your stay," the woman said as she walked away into the darkness.
