PokeVenture Round 1: The Heist

"..."

"..."

"AIP-"

A scientist on the first floor of Team Rocket's Celadon headquarters paused to look at the vertical ventilation shaft. He could have sworn he heard something light bang against it for a moment, and possibly something light skidding as well.

"Hmm?"

"..."

"..."

When no further noise came, he shrugged and went back to skimming the classifieds of an outdated newspaper. "Man I need a raise," he murmured to himself before yawning. "Or at least a better computer." He paused to take a sip from a nearby mug. "…Or at the very least decent coffee."

"Yeeeeeeah this isn't working at all."

An unkept Aipom was the cause of the noise, clinging onto the sides of the shaft's interior to avoid falling another story. The tattered yellow ribbon around her tail shook from all the tension in her muscles. Sweat dripped from her fur and down the shaft. She imagined the sound of it splattering on the first floor.

Xin was officially in trouble.

-----------------------

She grinned.

If Xin hadn't traveled alone, whoever accompanied her would have easily been able to tell when she was planning to a heist. She always grinned. Granted, Xin grinned through life in general, and not just because she was an Aipom, but not like this. The corners of her mouth would come so high and stretch so wide that it clearly took years of smile-training and her species general tendencies to come close. Her teeth would clench together more tightly and her eyes would sparkle in a deceivingly cute way.

And then the ridges of her eyes pointed inward with a mischievous look, and suddenly it was a heap of trouble packed into a tiny purple monkey.

This time, her target of choice was a bunch of humans she spotted through the window of a rather ridiculous building, covered in lights. For some reason, they all were pulling levers on glittery (ugly) machines that made a ridiculous amount of noise but otherwise didn't seem that interesting. A far more important similarity to Xin was that many of them were eating mediocre lunches, be them cheap bento or sandwiches with too much mayonnaise.. The quality wasn't what mattered, but rather the quantity. How many could she swipe and how many humans could she annoy before making a break for the exit?

Xin dropped from the windowsill she had been dangling off and looked around carefully, showing one of her rare occasions of patience.

"Tree.... rock.... bush... another tree..."

A large tree.

A tree next to the building, with the grate for a ventilation shaft right next to a high branch.

"Bingo!"


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But what kind of dumb building just had one vertical shaft run through it?! And wasn't this building supposed to be only a floor anyway?!

Xin might have made a mental note to look before jumping head first into a shaft next time if she wasn't so invested in just trying to keep from falling anymore. She's tried drawling down slowly, but normal for her species, only one of her "hands" had a strong grip.

She'd have to wait where she was.

Yep, just wait there, knock on the wall a little, and beg the humans to help her when they noticed she was here.

"..."

Or, she could keep dropping down in small increments until she reached the shaft on the next floor (she'd missed the game room and first floor shaft already) continuing the mission while risking a broken tail if not worse.

Press on and risk injury it was. She was not going to give a visual sob story (or possibly a laugh) to anybody, especially somebody she was trying to steal from. She continued to decent, muttering unpleasant words to herself as she went.

-----------------

"Stop!"

"Hey!"

"Give that back!"

"That Aipom has my lunch!"

For all the arguing humans did with one another, they sure knew how to react to her in a similar way; they always yelled and ran after her like she had stolen their very essence out from under their feet. Whatever. It was just some fruit, or a basket, or a lunch box. They had plenty.

Then again, it wouldn't have been as fun without this part! Their angry faces were hilarious when she could catch a glimpse of them. When they were speedy and she couldn't look back, she would imagine their expression, which was sometimes funnier than actually knowing if they had a really weird face to begin with.

And then she would make it into the trees that enveloped Celadon City, and she would have to keep running but it was already over, because this was her domain, and apparently food wasn't worth getting lost in the forest to a wimpy human. Even the most stubborn of them gave up quickly outside if the city.


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She skidded down slowly, losing grip with her stubby hands a few times. The last time she slipped, she started spinning and tumbling down the shaft, and she'd have missed the second floor door if she hadn't grabbed it without thinking to stop her decent. This time, her ribbon, and the rest of her, were shaking with terror.

It took her one more moment to nervously work her body back up to the shaft door's level entirely. She looked and listened out the grating, and after a few seconds without any footsteps or shadows, she pushed herself out of the shaft with her tail. Once again, she had neglected to look down, and followed the shaft door in an unpleasant drop to the ground from close to the ceiling. The door landed with a loud clang and Xin landed on top of it head first.

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow-"

Woosh!

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The leaves of the tree turned bright red in fall, and the tips gold, as if it knew there had to be some contrast because it already had brilliant red bark. When winter came, those leaves would be gone, but the branches were curved inward, so it felt warm and protecting even without a coat of foliage until spring came, when it would be covered by dew glistened blossoms for a few short weeks.

That was the tree; her tree. Xin's favorite tree was the only one she needed. It didn't matter where she entered the woods or where she left; she always knew the way back there. Like she was created to live in that tree.

It had been another day of mischief, and she galloped towards her home with that day's reward; an apple from some trainer near a building with one of their imprisonment capsules for a logo and a sign reading "POKE." She flipped and hurled herself up into a flat branch where she sat leisurely and ate the apple without a care in the world. Her arms rested behind her head and she ate with her tail. Xin remembered the look on the kid's face and almost chocked as she burst into laughter again.

Even his Pokemon couldn't catch her, and she had the pleasure of somebody running after her who could understand bragging about her amazing speed. Although the Polywhirl's yelling had eventually gotten annoying and she used Swift and Agility to shake it off. At that point, the Polywhirl was probably glad she understood him from the insults he threw out. They only made her laugh more as she vanished from his line of sight.

"Ha, maybe I'll have to go back to that 'Poke' for breakfast tomorrow!" She decided between bites. "That was a really fun one! Woohoo!"

"Here, eat up." Finishing the apple, Xin tossed the core to the ground next to her beloved home. Compost.

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Xin was suddenly moving atop the grating like it was a sled, sideways, and rather quickly across the second floor. Confused, she looked down just in time to see her accidental makeshift sled cross over a green arrow on the floor pointing forward. A burst of speed came soon after and it was too much; the door flipped and tumbled, throwing Xin off and to the ground.

She landed on another green arrow, this one pointing right.

Xin whipped to the right and crashed into the wall, dizzy and confused as could be, muttering something incomprehensible about grilled ventilation shafts on black outfit bread with a side of tall trees. With too much mayonnaise. It took her almost a half minute to regain sanity.

First, she checked her tail ribbon with all three of her hands, carefully turning it over and making sure it hadn't come loose. Even when she confirmed it seemed tight, she tightened it herself, then continued on to make sure none of her limbs were broken and she was free of bruises. All clear. She sighed, relieved, before getting a better look at her surroundings.

But the green arrows where everywhere, pointing every which way in a tangle, like a maze but at high speed and pain if you didn't know what you were doing.

And she certainly didn't know what she was doing.

"What... what kind of place is this?!"

Xin was officially in big trouble.