Dashed Expectations

"...And then you use explosion there to finish it off." Claire finished her (very long and yet helpful!) discussion at Donut. He nodded a little. She smiled wide.

"...Why are you helping me, anyway?"

"The customer is always right." She replied, her smile turning from wide to...disturbing, like some kind of caciture of a smile. Donut stepped back a little.

"R-Right...anyway! Electrode! Get to the base of the vault and use Explosion!" He commanded. KABOOM. He quickly ran it afterwards, spritzing a revive on it. "Alright, now we have to get you up towards the top..." He contemplated aloud.

A few moments later, the hilarious shenanigans of a man attempting to toss an electrode while commanding it to use explosion began.

---

"Well, we could do this logically, in that the bank is probably centralized since it would be in an easy to get spot, so we can assume t-" Eevee's "logical" rant was interrupted by Jolteon's well articulated point. "...Or we could ask for directions! Leafeon, you do it, you're the only one here with people skills."

_________________

The boy wiped several flecks of blood off his face from the still-screaming mess at the other end - but still far too friggin' close for comfort - of the bank. This woman got through recruiting. He noted. It was one of those facts that reminded him that the world was friggin' off its rocker. He dabbed at a few more drops of blood that wound up on his face. "Could you," He began, as several more drops sprayed him in the mouth. "...Right, could you maybe have the cow stop killing him? Or at least do it somewhere not as," The boy blinked a few times as one caught him in the eye. "...Okay, what the frig ever, let's see how Dopenerd is-" He turned to inspect Donut's progress, hoping that at least one part of this team was functional besides him. "..."

And he was juggling an exploding pokeball that had been brought back against the laws of nature frig knows how many times.

Yeah. Our evaluator isn't nearly prepared.

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

"What I don't get is why we came out here to begin with." Flareon crossed his arms. "I mean, so, Tiny over here heard a voice over the radio. So...what?" He shook his head. "We just decided it had to be real and hoofed it from Celadon for somebody who could, for all we know, have been prank calling us? Yeah." Snort. "That's going to really build our rep. Running around in our animal pajamas in Kanto's biggest city."

"But just think if it was telling the truth, bro!" Leafeon said back, seeming almost distressed by the notion, "If we didn't show up, goodness knows, they could blow up the whole building or something! That'd be a thousand times more awful than any demerits to our reputation. Plus, we'd be lauded as heroes! And if we are wrong, well--then we'll just have to work that much harder to earn our way up, so we can really know we earned it!" She smacked her fist down on to her hand to emphasize, getting a bit riled up at the thought.

"Hey, uh..." Jolteon interrupted, "Directions? Yeah? Li'l Brown has a point about people skills. Although I'm kind of dreading that you'll end up roping us into fetching some crazy old lady's cat out of a tree in Mt. Silver, but, eh, some risks you just gotta take." He gave a light shrug, which was kind of awkward to do while hanging over someone's shoulder.

"Er... right." Leafeon said, nodding as she rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. Turning away, she quickly ran off, waving frantically at the first person she saw, shouting "Hey! Hey! Could I speak to you for a minute? Do you know where the bank is, sir?"

"Oh god. Another one. Ever since Team Rocket, every band of silly-dressed hooligans thinks they can rampage around and succeed where they failed. And now they're teaming up with the banks! The economy's nothing but a sham! THE WORLD IS LOST!" the man frantically jumbled out, his eye twitching as he raised his fists to the heavens.

Leafeon just kind of, stood there, blankly staring. "...sssooooo..."

"That way." the man calmly said, pointing down a street, "Fifth building on the right, can't miss it."

"Thanks!" Leafeon cheerily shouted back as she ran back to the rest of the rangers, relaying the information.

"Alright, one more time...heave...!#%$" Donut proclaimed as he attempted to throw his Electrode up once more and...well...toppled right over. The Electrode slipped from his grasp, rolling to the wall.

He looked at the Electrode. The Electrode looked at him. He looked at it. It looked at him. And scrunched. And began to flash.

"gwkegjkenjGET CLEAR!" Donut shouted, quickly leaping away behind a counter (Or what was left of one, if need be)

----

Eevee soluted the citizen. "Thank you, kind citizen!" And then instantly began rushing off. "High ho Rangers, away!"

_________________

The boy calmly eyed the Electrode, ticking away and replaying the final moments of its life (or this particular life, depending on what one's semantic view of Revives were). I really have nobody to blame but myself. He slowly walked over to the opening that led into the bathrooms, and ducked behind the wall. 'Send me,' I said. 'I'm ready for management,' I said. 'You gotta let me friggin' prove myself, boss!' He brushed one lock of his hair out of his eyes. 'Rob the bank, keep it low profile.' How easy is that? Well. He sighed as he had to wipe another splatter of blood off of his cheek as the threat of an imminent explosion had not appeared to slow down Salisbury's lust for carnage. One nutjob and one nimrod later, I think I know the answer to that.

A hostage who had been taking a leak when the robbery had started attempted to get one of his captors from behind, using a plunger as a weapon. His reward was a Porygon that he was sure hadn't been there before to the face.

If they don't laugh me out of the team when I get back, I'm stuffing that Electrode down his throat. And then throwing him at that bull.

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

Flareon stared off at Eevee as he ran. "Well." He surveyed the other rangers, and the panicky looking old man. "I'm still not saying he's right, because he's not, but," He sighed. "He probably shouldn't be running off without adult supervision." Wait a minute. He re-surveyed the group. Something wasn't adding up. Speaking of supervision... "...Where did Pinky go?"

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

"Say," One man said to another. "Bob?"

"Yeah, Tim?"

They had just finished picking up groceries at the pharmacy, because, well, it was movie night, and they had drawn the short straws with their wives. The pharmacy didn't bring in the same publicity as stores that sold, among other things, tiny little magic prison balls that defied physics and spray cans full of healing, but, hey, you couldn't eat Paralyze Heal for dinner. People had tried, the results were best not spoken of in polite company.

One of the two, presumably Bob, was staring up at the roof. "Does," He licked at his lips a litle. "Does the roofing company wear pink?"

"No. That would be ridiculous, really ridiculous," Tim quickly closed and stuffed the latest issue of Tea Doilies Weekly down into the grocery bag he was holding, down beneath the leeks and Crazy Pete's Magikarp Herb Mix. "Just dumb. Why do you ask?"

"Well," Bob scratched his head. "Then what do you suppose that is?"

Da na na na na na na na na da na na na na na na na

Espeon had hit the rooftops running the moment he got the scent of danger - or, more specifically, when the old man gave out the directions, he used a psychically-aided leap to get a move on while everyone was thinking it over.

Justiiiiiiiiice~

The team leader did need to take point, after all. Although, on the subject of leadership, it looked like there was an intersection that would turn over towards where he was pretty sure the bank was, based off the old man's directions. He abruptly leaped at the nearest section of parapet and flipped off of the building, landing in the middle of it with a completely unplanned bowing motion.

There they were still standing off at the entrance. Why was nobody moving?

Espeon took a deep breath, puffed his chest out, stood up as straight as possible, and whipped a pointer finger out towards them. "Eevee Rangers!" He shouted. "Let's move out! The people of this city need us!"

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

"I had to ask." Flareon groaned.

Leafeon and Glaceon (and thus, by proxy, Jolteon) all quickly followed along behind Eevee without a word (save for maybe a cheerful "YEAH!" from Leafeon).

Meanwhile, walking down the street not far from the rangers was a totally inconspicuous-looking group, all wearing loose, black, hooded cloaks. Although calling them cloaks may be being a bit generous--they were more like sheets, really. Regardless, the one in the center, in particular, stood out, being the only to wear a white, uh... "cloak." Also whoever it was seemed to have an enormous ass--er, sorry, right, yeah, big cloaks, really inconspicuous--wait, did his butt just wag?

ERM, anyways, whoever this group was, they seemed to be walking pretty quickly, apparently having some place to be. Totally inconspicuous, though. Totally.

Vaporeon also did not reply to Espeon with any words, utlizing the power of comedic timing to achieve this. Everything seemed to be going pretty w-

Well, okay, it was going pretty well until the explosion rocked the area relatively close to the bank from the Electrode, blowing out a good chunk of the wall. The ground even shook a little. It was then that Vaporeon noticed something very important: for all this ROBBERY and BANK and stuff, this was a very...loud robbery.

The other important thing he noticed was a bunch of mysterious people in cloaks. And if Vaporeon knew anything about genres, it was that mysterious people in cloaks, especially when combined with a specially cloaked leader, were always gonna be bad news. And the explosion might have made it hard for his team to hear him right then...so he knew he had to take the initiative.

And that was why, either at or near the bank or WHENEVER, Vaporeon ran after the group of CLOAKED PEOPLE.

He couldn't hear Eevee groaning in annoyance at this.

---

"..."

Donut Steel looked over the scene. Rubble had scattered inside. People were quaking in their boots. Electrode had fainted...again. It was obvious his juggling was not up to snuff.

"Zuuuu...bat."

Not now, Zubu-wait, no, actually... That was it! Donut Steel lept into action like only a true Rocket could, sliding next to Electrode to use yet another revive. It jumped into action, glaring at Donut a little.

"Zubat, use Fly!" He swiftly commanded and...well, the Zubat proceeded to bite into Electrode and start carrying him up to the part of the vault that was required. The fact it looked like this was no strain at all was...suitably amazing, really. Donut Steel merely stood there, posing and proud. Good work, Donut. You're making Team Rocket proud!

_________________

"Woah, wait--!" Jolteon shouted, reaching out towards Vaporeon, which just lead to him comically flailing his arms as he fell headfirst to the ground off of Glaceon's shoulder. Glaceon, of course, turned to see what this was about. "Just--you keep going after the bank with the rest, Cool-Aid, I'll meet up with you later. Gotta make sure we have at least one competent person on each team, eh?" Jolteon quickly explained to Glaceon before stumbling up after Vaporeon--leading to him falling again, not being used to running with only one boot yet, but chasing after him all the same.

Glaceon nodded in acknowledgement, turning back towards the bank and crew, ready to take action. "Wait, we shouldn't split up now! Where are--" Leafeon tried to interject, before Glaceon lightly grabbed her shoulder, turning her back forward as he gave a hand motion pointing toward the bank, giving another nod. Leafeon frowned from behind her visor, crossing her arms. "I guess we should hurry, yeah, they're apparently already blowing stuff up..." she said, relenting as she followed, although not being able to help but look back over her shoulder toward those two.

"Now, hold on!" Espeon shouted. "I did not order a team split up! Hello?! Jolteon! Vaporeon!" The self-appointed leader stepped forward angrily, but didn't take more than one step - following at this point would just be letting them win. "Return at once!"

"Feh. Let 'em go." Flareon shrugged. "If they wanna go beat up some cloaked dude with a jiggling butt, who are we to stop them?"

"We- I, I mean I," Espeon spun around on one heel. It was a pretty elegant motion, and also impressive how his scarf spun gently around without nearing his face. He might not have had control over the team, but that scarf was all his. "I am the team leader! And if I do not issue the order to split up, then we do not split up! Especially when there is a crisis! Honestly!" With a loud hmph, he spun back around to where Jolteon and Vaporeon had started running.

-----------

The Silph Co. building occupied a central place in Saffron City, and the Kanto region as a whole. Not just in some vague metaphorical sense, but in a very literal one, as it was literally located at the heart of Saffron. It was sleek and modern, standing apart from the rest of the city's somewhat monotone design scheme. The four columns that stood, one on each corner stretching up towards the roof, gave it a somewhat mythic quality, contrasting a somewhat old style of construction with the more contemporary glass windows that almost seemed to actually be the main composition of the building's construction itself. It was the tallest manmade structure in Kanto, not counting the Pokemon League in Indigo Plateau.

And people were like ants. That wasn't a commentary on how they did indeed appear to be the size of ants from a sufficiently large height, but more of an indisputable fact, branded into their very souls. Nor was it meant as an insult. To call it an insulting comparison would have implied it was some form of malicious distortion intended to belittle the human condition. The truth of just how small the human condition - full of unthinking tedium and insignificance - was was not something that needed embellishment. And furthermore, in the grand scheme of life, being an ant was not necessarily inherently wrong. There were worse things in life than being an ant.

The man standing on the roof of the apartment complex across the street from Silph Co reached into the folds of the cloak that he wore, his hands finding purchase on the hilt of a sheathed weapon. It clicked against its sheath as his palm rested firmly on it. "And so the dance begins." What seemed to be a wind, for no onlooker would have been able to describe it as anything else, began to flap the back of the cloak wildly upwards and downwards and to both sides, revealing green boots and the bottom of what appeared to be a large and curved sword's sheath by the looks of it.

So yes. Among other things, you could have been an ant that was about to die.

-----------

"I mean," Espeon began, spinning back around and pointing at Flareon, "I try and I try to keep tightening us up as a team, getting us to start acting like the heroes I know we are in our hearts!" He beat his chest for emphasis. "But the moment I turn my back, everything just shatters into pieces, and it's up to me to-"

Espeon's impassioned speech was interrupted in a somewhat appropriate fashion as the entire series of windows on Silph Co.'s second floor violently erupted into showers of glass as they were all hit by something at the same time. Whatever that something was, it had to have been moving at incredible speeds, because Flareon hadn't seen anything at all before and after it happened. People standing in any proximity to the building stopped what they were doing immediately to stare in shock, although a few ran and others chose to scream. The city was alive with activity, but not the sort of activity that it ordinarily prided itself on.

"Wh-" The lavender ranger spun around once again to look at the building. "What happened? What was that?! Did anyone see what that was?"

Actually, that wasn't entirely true. There had been a trace - a very faint trace that the average person would never have noticed, but a trace - of green. A green something moving so fast, it only visibly left the slight impression that a color had been there. And man, Flareon reflected as he felt his fists tighten, did that ever excite him. He felt a slight tremor through his body. No more common thugs, no more deranged idiots waving toys around. He took a few steps forwards. No more wasting time. There was no way to be sure, but Flareon had a feeling that up there? There was a fight. A real fight. Not some pretend costume punching garbage. Before he knew it, he was walking, then sprinting past Espeon towards the building.

"No. No! Stop! Flareon! Stop right now!" Espeon began as he realized that his authority was still being completely circumvented.

"Oh, stuff it already, Pinky!" Flareon didn't even look back. "It's not like anyone listens to you anyways."

"You-" Espeon felt himself fume a little, as he huffed. But he couldn't think of anything to say, so he had to settle for trying to glare a hole through the back of his red compatriot's head until he could think rationally again.

You remember your mission?

A dark blur moved through the corridors of the Sliph Co building, ascending it floor by floor. It's speed was quick, though not like the one who had broken the windows, it was more stealthy and planned, less quick, more agile, like a ninja sweeping through unseen. It practically melted against the canvas of the building, undetected. "Affirmative." The reply seemed almost inaudible, but the confirmation on the other side meant it had to have been heard. It would arrive at it's destination soon. Then it would be as simple as get in, get out...

---

Eevee came to a halt as Flareon left the group. Right next to Espeon, actually. His sigh heaved heavily, turning to Espeon. Even through the helmet, it felt weary.

"How about we just make it an offical team split up?" Eevee suggested. "We can make sure Sliph Co's leader is okay. They're probably gunning for him or something."

---

Also Vaporeon was still following Mr. Cloak.

_________________

As the group of cloaked individuals continued on, they eventually quickly swerved into a nearby alleyway. They'd go a good ways down it, taking another turn, until they eventually came to a stop at the back end of Silph Co.

"Alright, crew, you remember the plan, right?" came the voice of the middle one, sounding to be an older man. As he awaited an answer, a gloved hand popped out from underneath his cloak, holding itself out as it awaited to be handed something.

"To pilfer anything of scientific worth, sir." one of the black-cloaked individuals answered, their own hand popping out as they handed the apparent leader of the group what appeared to be a broken drill, its internal parts being well on display. Perhaps calling it an unfinished drill would be more accurate.

"Yes, that's definitely important, but you have a far, far more pressing objective that should always take precedence over that. You remember, right?" the leader asked, seeming to fiddle with the drill for a moment under his cloak before eventually holding out his hand again.

A second one of the black-cloaked ones sighed, but chimed in nevertheless, "To make sure no one lays a finger on you, or even so much as looks at you funny, sir." With that, this second person handed the leader what appeared to be another part of the drill.

"Yes, good, good. And I do hope you plan on taking that quite literally, as I plan on having my face known for my scientific achievements, not breaking and entering, like some kind of brutish thug." the leader explained, fiddling with the next drill part under his cloak, grunting a bit as a few assorted clicks and buzzes could be heard from within, "But we're no brutish thugs, right?"

A third of the black-cloaked ones let out a heavy groan, but also still answered, speaking as if he were reading off a script, "No, of course not, this is just science of the highest caliber in the early stages. After all, why bother with building lowly parts and discovering the simple things when someone else has already done such trivial grunt work?" This one, too, reached out, handing the leader a large drill part.

"Hm, yes, indeed. Work on your delivery, though, Steve." the leader commented, taking the third drill part, struggling some as light clunks and whirring could be heard.

With a sigh, the third grunt said, "Sir, my name's not Steve, it's--"

"Sorry, I can't hear you over the power of SCIENCE!" the leader shouted in interruption, tossing the cloak off as he held the now-completed drill below him (he wanted to hold it above his head, but the size really didn't allow for that), which whirred and buzzed to life as electricity crackled all around it and up the entirety of the man's arm that the drill's hilt encased. If one could draw their eyes away from the crazy drill for a moment, one could notice the features of this man: thick, fluffy, unkempt orange hair (with a bit of grey in the center if you looked really closely), a long, white lab coat with a small red "R" engraved on the chest, and, wait, what's up with his ears, and is that a tai--

"Sir, I believe someone's followed us." one of the black-cloaked grunts said, hearing Vaporeon and Jolteon coming.

"Well, I guess someone had better do their job!" the leader said almost--no, not almost, that was entirely mockingly. Regardless, he was out of there, already drilling his way into the ground, all that would be left to be visible to any onlookers at this point would be a thin, black, wire-like object with what seemed to be a yellow lightning bolt shape on the end, although it wasn't long before even it vanished into Silph Co.'s fancy new back entrance.

"Hmm." Espeon tapped his foot for a moment, as his anger slowly subsided. "Well, much as I do not care for it, the only idea I can think of," He turned to look at Leafeon and Glaceon, "Is that we go ahead and officially split up." He paced back and forth, a finger to the chin of his helmet. "I would be willing to wager that if Silph Co. is being attacked and invaded by strange, wiggly cloaked people, there is a legitimate possibility that..." Scratch scratch. Suddenly, he recoiled and gasped! "My goodness! The president could very well be in danger!" He looked around frantically from side to side at the assembled rangers. "We need to act now! But we still need to remember the matter of the bank! I would go alone but I-" Suddenly, he looked slightly downward. His hand went automatically went to his hip, and his tongue clicked. "Eevee! What are you doing just standing around there? Where have you been?! This is a matter of grave importance, and," He grabbed Eevee by the hand, "We can't just lollygag around waiting for the forces of evil to demolish Silph Company! Let's move!"

And he was off, with tiny boy wonder in tow.

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

All things considered, the first floor of Silph Co. was being kept in perfectly presentable order in spite of the large shattering sound from the second floor, and the somewhat more disconcerting sound of some form of cries and things breaking, also from the second floor.

It was Claude's privilege to serve as the watchdog of Silph Co. company procedure, keeping everything spick and span, even in the face of what may have possibly been the beginning of complete chaos. He pushed up on his glasses. No, it was hard work, even when he was not vaguely certain that, somewhere in his mind, there was a strong possibility that everyone in Accounting was either dead, in peril of death, or in the messy awkward phase between dying and crying out on the floor as your kidneys tried to migrate over to play with the pencils that you had let fall under your desk. It was thankless work, even when all colleagues he might have had to converse with on the first floor to actually obtain thanks from had already either run screaming from the building or run screaming into the elevator. It was hard and thankless work, but someone had to do it. And who was that someone? He straightened a crease out of his pocket protector, careful not to knock the pen within off-kilter, while giving a sort of devil-may-care look outwards towards the holder for his business cards. That someone was the receptionist.

As such, he certainly did not approve when, out on the horizon, some sort of red biker-looking yahoo came sprinting towards the door of this fine establishment at speeds far faster than had been approved in company policy, not slowing down in any way to account both for his increasing proximity to the door and whether or not he was causing damage to the scattered glass from the broken second floor windows, each crunch adding up in Claude's head as part of what he imagined would be the bill that was going to be mailed to his house for costing Silph a single Pokedollar more than it could have saved just putting the broken glass back into the windowsill and putting some glue on it. He was miffed when this street thug leaped up into the air from his run. And he was outright exacerbated when this little hooligan planted his foot firmly onto the door and shattered it with his full body weight in a savage jumping kick. He hit the ground running and was speeding straight over to the elevator, with nary an "I'm sorry," or a "I tripped over a banana peel in the street and savaged your door in an attempt to save my feeble existence, please take my address down for when you mail a receipt and a court order to my home" to be heard.

Still. Receptionist training always stressed the importance of adhering to protocol. So as this red punk ran up to the elevator door and proceeded to try opening it, moving quickly to banging on it when that failed, Claude did the only thing he could do in this time of crisis. "...Appointment?"

"Huh?" The vermillion goon grunted, as he turned away from finessing the elevator's doors, which were worth far more than his entire skeletal structure combined, with his fists.

"Appointment." Claude pulled his pen out from his pocket protector, as he whipped a yellow slip up from his desk with the speed and efficiency that he had learned from years of doing this exact same thing. "You need an appointment."

"...For what?" The costumed rogue gave the door a good kick, although he was unable to stop himself from staring into Claude's eyes - or at least Claude was pretty sure he was doing that; hard to tell through that ridiculous looking biker helmet.

"For use of that elevator, sir." Claude wrote something down on the slip. "I am afraid company policy mandates that only employees or special designees may use the elevator. Special designees," He took a quick swig from his cup of coffee before placing it down. "Being, of course, people who have made an appointment."

"You..." The kicking and punching of the buttons and door slowly began to come to a halt. "Are you deaf?"

"Certainly not, sir. Hearing like a Pidgeot, sir. Could detect a fly landing on a leaf and assaulting and impregnating an innocent plant with its foul insect feces from two clicks away."

"People are screaming up there, and," The helmeted brigand began to slowly pace towards the receptionist's desk, "You're telling me that, if I want to go up there, I have to file an appointment?"

"I'm sorry, sir. The rules are the rules." Claude straightened his pocket protector as he wrote something else down on the slip.

"Well, good for you. Turns out, I'm not."

"Beg your par- ffmmmmmmmmmmf" He said as a gloved fist hit him right in mouth and caused him to flip out of his chair and bounce slightly, causing his legs to kick up against the top of the desk and thrash his paperclips and stapler out onto the reception room floor. After messily scattering anything of value that he kept out on the top of the reception desk, he then inadvertently pushed him in a new direction, as his body flailed awkwardly, in such a way that he managed to sloppily right himself like a fish by way of his kicking lower legs joining the rest of him in a dead thump on the floor. With a sort of instinctual lunge, he flopped his upper torso and face up onto the desk once more. Claude raised one hand to say something as his eyes rolled about in his skull like little googly eyes in what was vaguely the same direction as the man who had just decked him, but all he managed to utter was, "Clamato" before his body slackened and his hand dropped in a woozy fist onto the button that opened the elevator doors.

And with that, Flareon dashed into the elevator and slammed the button for 2F, his hands shaking, more from the anticipation than from having just !#%$ a man in the skull.

"Oh, yeah, sure. NOW you listen to me." Eevee complained as he was dragged into the first floor, arms crossed. "Do you just have some ability to NOT listen to people unless you're looking at them? Or is it just limited to me? Or is it some willful ignorance construed with psychic powers specifically designed to excise me from your mind's notice?"

Pause.

"...Let's just wait for the elevator. If we go up all 11 floors by stairs, we'll probably be too tired to fight anyone who might be kidnapping the president."

===

The clack of Vaporeon's boots was loud as he rounded the corner where the cloaked criminals were last seen. He was pumped. He was ready for action. What he was not ready for, he was soon to note, was, well...

"GO AWAY!" Being very suddenly kicked by a brown Vietnamese girl in a rocket outfit, staggering back from the blow, but not falling over. Hers was pretty standard, albeit with pants as he duly noted, and she seemed quite agile as well, throwing out a pokeball in midair as she landed, blonde locks flowing in the breeze. "CROC COME OUT!" She shouted as a Totodile appeared from said pokeball, snapping it's jaws. "FLAME USE!" Flame? But Totodile is a water t-

Vaporeon then very swiftly found himself being sent flying backwards from the water gun blast to his gut. Specifically, flying backwards and right into Jolteon. "EFFECTIVELY!"

_________________

"Would you stop for just a mom--" Jolteon grumbled, before getting a face full of Vaporeon. "Ow. I appreciate you finally listening, but you stopped too hard." Quickly getting back on his feet, he looked up at their assailant as he dusted himself off. "Ah, a furball fight, huh. Afraid we didn't bring any, lady, so just pretend I'm my own furball, alright?" he said, nodding. "So, hey, me? Do a Zap Attack. Yeah, great idea, me, your genius knows no bounds. Naaah, me, I'd be nothing without you." he went on, casually pointing a finger at the Totodile, making a gun with his fingers as he let out a small electric blast towards it.

Meanwhile, a bit staticy noise sounded from one of the black-cloaked grunts still in the back, the leader's voice from earlier coming through a walkie-talkie, "I'm through. Area seems clear, but send a couple down, just to be safe. Things are still good up there, right? Over."

"Hard to say, couple of guys in brightly-colored pajamas and goofy biker helmets showed up. One of them shot a bit of electricity. Over." the grunt responded, turning away from the fight.

"Shot electricity, you say?... Eh, probably just some minor discharge from a machine, or something. Whatever, doesn't sound like a big deal, just send two down, over." the leader called back.

"On it, sir, ov--"

"Oh, and Steve can stay up there. Over."

"My name's NOT--"

"Sorry, can't hear you over the sound of you NOT DOING YOUR JOB. Over."

Fuming, noticeably so even under the black cloak, "Steve" tapped on the shoulder of two of the other grunts, then pointed down the hole, the two quickly heading down. After that, "Steve" walked over towards the brewing fight, grumbling, "Well, might as well help if I'm forced to stay up here, then. Two of you, two of us, only seems fair."

"Steve, when have we ever been about fairness? Also, you left your walkie-talkie on. Over." the leader's voice came in again.

"Steve" just sighed, a click being heard under his cloak, followed shortly thereafter by a Pokeball being tossed out, releasing a Caterpie.



Left all alone with Glaceon, Leafeon kind of shifted around in place, looking around nervously. "Soooo..." she idly said, trying to break the ice. GET IT, BECAUSE HE'S GLACEON ANDshoot me now

Glaceon, in response, put a hand to his chin in thought, then looked off toward the bank for a moment, then back to Leafeon, nodding to himself after a moment. With that, he gently grabbed her shoulders, turned her around, and then crouched down, grabbing her by the legs as he lifted her over his head, making her sit on his shoulders before standing upright again.

"Oh--I--uh...thanks? But I don't..." she stuttered out, more than a bit confused and slightly uncomfortable from all this.

After a moment, Glaceon got impatient and reached up grabbing Leafeon's hands and placing them on his head, making sure she gripped on. With that, Glaceon immediately took off towards the bank with unnatural speed, Leafeon almost falling off from the suddenness of it.



"Ach, when's tha lad g'ne beh dun back theyah? I'hm ulmost dun with mah steak alreadeh." Salisbury asked aloud, to no one in particular, idly poking at the last few bites that remained with her fork.

CRASH

"N...NEVER FEwooah... NEVER FEAR, THE EEVEE RANGERS ARE... ARE HERE!" Leafeon shouted out, being more than a bit dazed from just breaking through the glass doors at a speed she really wasn't ready for.

Salisbury turned around to face this noise, silently raising an eyebrow at this. She... really wasn't sure if these people were trying to be a threat or not. Regardless, she wasn't about to take any chances, looking over to her Taurus and jerking her head towards the duo.

As the Taurus charged, though, it was promptly denied its second goring by Glaceon grabbing both of its horns, stopping it in place. He was visible struggling and slid back a bit, but he held his ground. "Woah, there, buddy, no need to get so excited!" Leafeon shouted in surprise, reaching down and lightly patting the Taurus on the head.

To this, even Glaceon had to say something, simply saying "Don't."

The elevator ride seemed to take longer than it actually did from Flareon's perspective, but when the door opened, it was somewhat obvious how little time there had been to prepare at all.

The second floor of Silph Co. was not a particularly remarkable looking floor - it had, after all, been one of the accounting sections. As such, it had a sort of quality for an office setting that one would have expected to see on some sort of awkward-yet-incredibly-popular workplace sitcom - like, The New Leave It to Bidoof. The checklist was all there, all immaculately filled out: clean white walls with an oddly restrained yet still somewhat tacky purple lining, multiple decorative plants including a palm tree plopped in front of the entryway into the office proper from where the elevator opened, a few still-lifes of natural yet generic settings mounted on the walls replete in phrases like "One does not climb the mountain without first buying Silph. Co brand mountain climbing shoes!" Everything seemed to be in order - everything, that is, except for the overpowering smell of blood and an overpoweringly thick and heavy stillness in the air.

"P-P-Please...!" A panicked voice stammered out in a mewling yell from out in the actual office space.

Flareon took slow, quiet steps out of the elevator towards the opening. He kept his breathing as low and silent as possible. If he was right, with an enemy like this, there was only going to be one shot. A fight - a real fight - was decided by the first moves, and with someone that could move fast enough to make the sort of entrance into the building that they had...surprise was going to be the only way he would get a first move.

"Please, sir, whatever you want, my money, our money, anything, just please!" Things clattered against the ground. "Please don't kill me...!"

There was a pause as the red ranger continued to creep closer to where he would be able to see what was actually going on.

"Is that everything that you are worth?"

Flareon's breath caught in his throat. The hairs pricked up at the back of his neck. He felt chills. He almost felt a breath come out louder than he wanted, but bit it back, choking only slightly on it as he continued to move forward. He was almost there.

The light peeking around the edge of the opening was flickering, and seemed somewhat off from the typical sort of fluorescent staid white that characterized this sort of setting. Now that he was this close, he could see flecks and spatters of what he was fairly certain was blood dotting the wall he was looking at.

"I-" There was a slight note of confusion in the panicked voice. "I-I-I-" There were a few stuttering breaths. "Y-Y...Yes...?" Uncertainty. "Y-Yes, it is!"

A few slow footsteps. One of them was closing on the other.

There was a wet, plunging sound, followed shortly thereafter by the noise of metal objects clattering to the ground. A gasp and a quivering, hitching inward breath came afterwards, occurring simultaneously with a brief zipping noise that trailed off into a sharp, clean whoosh. An instant of silence followed. And then the screaming started.

Flareon could have picked a better moment to peer around the corner, but the sight before him was more than a little transfixing. Amid a room filled with bodies and office furniture that had all been sliced up in varying ways, along with a fair amount of blood filling the place, a man in what appeared to be green segmented armor stood in the center, holding a formal suited man up by his shoulder with one hand and a long, curved, translucent sword in the other. The office worker's suit was dripping with blood from the gaping wound carved from his navel up to his left shoulder.

"Pathetic." It seemed like the armored man was speaking through something, even as the victim in his grasp continued to wail, his cries devolving into mindless shrieky babble. Even those sounds seemed to be quieting down, as his uncoordinated flailing and screaming was rapidly expending the air left in his lungs, even as he bled out.

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

"Good thinking, boy wonder!" Espeon slapped Eevee on the back. "While I would ordinarily chastise you about the elevator and how we can hardly afford to wait, look at our luck!" He pointed up at the light. "The second floor! Evil has no hope of stopping us on this day!" He was all smiles on the inside. All they had to do was open it, and-

"Whoa. Whoa there, whoa whoa." Claude slumped his body in an upward direction on his counter, holding a hand up in a point at the ceiling that wobbled about from left to right. "I..." Hurgh. "I need to see some clearance." His other hand flopped up onto his temple in a clumsy, grasping motion, rubbing at the already large and blue bruise that seemed to be all around his mouth. "Clamato, clamahto..." He mused to himself, before pushing at his glasses a few times. It was obvious that he was too dazed to really accurately see what was in front of him - although whatever it was, it was pink. "...Anywayssssssss..." He trailed off as one eye rolled up into his head while the other closed shut, as his finger spiralled. "You and yer..." Oooooohrgh... "...dog need to sign Form A65X to take a pet into the building because I dunno what planet yur from but it is not Bring Your Daughter to Work Week, even if you are a daughter." The man then proceeded to laugh as he wrote random circles and lines on the form.

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

"Yeah, missy, take it from the walking blue..." The boy began as he walked out from where he'd been hiding towards the two new arrivals. "...what even are you, anyways? Some kinda walking fridge? Actually, spare me, doesn't really matter. What you are is compliant hostages now, if you know what's good for you." He smirked. "We're running a sort of donation drive here and, well, the bank's been really helpful about it, give or take a little coaxing. Sure, there have been some hiccups that have cost some lives here or there, bull-related hiccups," He shot a glare quickly over in Salibury's direction, "But all in all, I'd say we've been pretty nice about this. Which is why, if you don't walk over to that corner and sit there like good kids," He pointed a hand at the two Rangers. "I think you'll be very sorry."

Eevee paused. He looked at the man. He looked at Espeon. The man. Espeon. Espeon. The man. Lavender, Receptionist. Receptionist, Lavender.

"Lets make a break for it." He whispered to Espeon, not an instant later rushing to the elevator as fast as their costume covered soles could take him.

---

Donut froze in place as the epic entrance of the two rangers. Who ARE these yahoos?, he wondered to himself, watching them intently. He couldn't help but feel like he was forgetting something important as he watched the Tauros struggle against the mighty new arrival's stopping power. Man, that was impressive, he thought. Why couldn't he learn to do that, he thought?

The fact that the thought of trying to stop Salisbury's Tauros quickly reminded him why, specifically, he didn't have a death wish.

Man, he had to be forgetting so-

The sound of cracking metal from a large, round explosion reminded him that, oh yeah, Zubat had carried Electrode up and was probably dropping him. Bits and chunks of metal flew past him as he remembered, oh yeah, he had to GET OUT OF THE WAY REALLY DAMN QUICK RUN

He, in some ways, suceeded. He managed to not get smothered by metal, at least, that was the important thing, even if his girlish shriek had been highly embarassing both to himself and to Team Rocket. But in some ways, he failed. More specifically, being pinned under his own Electrode. His arms flailing as he tried to roll it off.

"GETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFF" He shouted loudly and panickily, as if at any moment it might go off like a Pokeball-shaped bomb, despite the fact the thing was fainted. Again. Fortunately, good ol' Zubat was there to nudge the Electrod off. Ir rolled up next to Glaceon, Leafeon and the Tauros. And Donut instantly lept to his feet.

"HAHA!" He shouted, pointing at them. "Got you right where I want you! ELECTRODE, USE EXPLOSION!"

If there was a Kricketune out, it would be playing the world's smallest cricket noise as a pungent pause permiated the air. Donut blinked. Oh right, I need to revive it still...but I can't get close without risking myself...

And that is why, one moment later, Donut took out a revive and harshly threw it at the Electrode, the ball pokemon rolling a little closer to Glaceon and Leafeon. needless to say, this was not an approve way to administer Revive and failed to work.

---

The girl grinned as the attack came into fruition, quickly taking the pokeball the Croc had come out of and holding another in her free hand. "CROC DO WELL. HELE-7 GO AWAY!" She shouted out as the Totodile was returned to its Pokeball, an Electabuzz coming out right in front of the electric attack. "ELE-HIT USED!" She shouted, the Electabuzz winding up a Thunderpunch and crashing it into the electric blast, sending out sparks everywhere. She laughed quite loudly at this. "TRASHY ELF RANGER! USELESS IN FACE OF STUNT AND SKIL." She was almost doubled over now, pointing at Jolteon. "BUT YOU ARE SO WEAK. IT IS SHAME." Another pause, as if she was trying to catch herself.

...Nope, more laughing.

_________________

Huh? They were running. Claude seemed to feel like something was out of place about that. "Oh right...!" He eyed the button. He was the receptionist and there was the button. Even an idiot could have figured this out. And Claude was no idiot, no sir! He had passed college with passing whatever-letter-came-after-C's. Sure, maybe he wasn't sure why his head was rattling in his skull, and perhaps he could not explain the voice in his head that was insisting he fling himself over the counter and stop these lowly, costumed brigands, but he could definitely figure out how to press a button. The answer was that you just heaved yourself over from your slumped position, stared at the button, and then-

Espeon was noticeably disturbed as the man behind the receptionist desk slammed his entire upper body onto the weight with enough force to shake the entire thing. "I," He began, looking from side to side uncomfortably, "Have a feeling I know what happened." But there was just no way they would be able to afford potential medical bills, so he dashed over to the elevator door and tried to will it open with the power of his panicked "we need to get out of here" stare.

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

It was around this time that the elevator door loudly closed itself shut behind Flareon.

Crap! He didn't see the man move, but the red ranger immediately threw his upper body as far backwards as he was confident it could bend in reaction to an incredible surge of killing intent in the air. As it stood, he moved an instant before the green figure disappeared, only narrowly avoiding an overpowering sensation of wind rushing against his chest as something tore through the air with incredible speed and force.

A decorative plant was unceremoniously lopped in half along its exposed portion, falling over in a sad sort of slump against the corner.

Flareon kicked his legs up into the air, turning his evasive maneuver into what he hoped was something of a backwards handspring as he tried to make his backwards falling motion into a deliberate use of his hands to hurl himself as far away from where he had felt the attack come from as possible. The tearing of his costume, somewhere around the back of the knees if he had to guess by the feel of the wind, came briefly before the surge of pain that signified a glancing scratch across the backs of his legs. He was certain he saw the flicker of a humanoid shape as he landed awkwardly on all fours, wincing due to the pain of his failed attempt at dodging.

"Two dodges." The voice intoned from what almost sounded like two locations at once.

The red ranger pressed down hard on his hands to fling himself forward into the office as hard as he could manage. The movement was interrupted and changed into a flipping motion by what he was certain was a sharp kick to his thighs. It was only, Flareon assumed, thanks to pulling his legs inward the instant he felt anything touch him at all that, rather than having his feet lopped entirely off, he was instead smacked across the right side of his torso with the flat end of what was probably the swords.

No matter what the circumstances or events, Flareon was sent tumbling out of control through the room, stopped only by his descent onto a still-intact office desk that was less so after his crashing down onto it than it had been before. His body felt like a heap, but he managed to muster enough willpower to press himself upwards with his hands so that he could at least begin standing back up or, if nothing else, face this adversary up right.

"Or three." The green figure resolved itself before him as a solid image at the entryway into the hall with the elevator. "Unusual." The man absentmindedly fingered one strand of black hair away from his eyes, speaking through what Flareon would have only accurately have been able to describe as a green gas mask that was wrapped entirely around the entirety of his face up to the very bottom of his nose. He flickered out of existence, only to resolve instantaneously right in front of where the red ranger was only just now getting properly to his feet. "That should have carved you into pieces."

----------

With a resounding ding, the elevator opened.

Espeon would have loudly thanked whatever god felt like listening, but that would have been time wasted, so he instead quite literally dove into the elevator, slapping the button for the eleventh floor with his hand as he tumbled inside of it.

"Aw, the poor thing." Leafeon whined, looking down at the unconscious Electrode as she climbed down from Glaceon's shoulders (who was still holding the Taurus at bay, I might add). Kneeling down by the Electrode, she began administering the Revive that was tossed at it as she patted the top of it as she spoke, "You should treat him with more respect than that, I'm sure he's got plenty of talents besides blowing himself up, you just gotta give him a chance!"

Glaceon, meanwhile, stared down at this. If his eyes were visible, you could sure as Hell bet that you'd see them going as wide as humanly possible, and probably then some. As soon as the shock took a few seconds to subside, Glaceon turned back towards the Taurus, grunting as he put forth even more effort and stomped the ground, causing the floor beneath the Taurus to freeze over, making it lose its footing enough so that he could toss the bull Pokemon down on its side. Before it could even land on the floor, though, Glaceon kept going with the momentum of the push, spinning around as he brought his leg out, giving a hard kick to the (now-revived) Electrode, sending it flying back at Donut's head.

"Hey, that's not very nice!" Leafeon huffed, "Just because they're mean doesn't mean their Pokemon should suffer."

In response, Glaceon reached down to the kneeling Leafeon, grabbed her by both shoulders, lifting her to her feet in such a way so that she was facing Glaceon, and then simply stared at her. After a brief, awkward silence, Glaceon then slowly shook his head in disapproval.

Meanwhile, Salisbury was less than pleased with what was going on, slowly lifting her steak knife, her grip so tense that her hand visibly shook with it. Taking full advantage of the ranger duo being distracted, she threw the knife without a noise, still sitting at her table, the knife landing directly in front of the Taurus' eyes. Immediately understanding, the Taurus frantically stumbled up onto its feet, using the momentum of it almost falling back over to charge directly at the icy blue brute's back.

Fortunately for Glaceon, between the unstable nature of the charge and the heftiness of his armor, he got away with only a scratch in the metal of one of his boots. Although perhaps "got away" isn't quite the appropriate word choice, as he was now in the air, along with Leafeon, flipping over the back of the Taurus. While he was taken fully by surprise, Glaceon was not about to take this sitting down, taking full advantage of the opportunity as he grabbed onto Leafeon by her midsection, then launched her in the direction of the boy that called him a walking fridge. With a loud CRASH, Leafeon landed a few yards away from the boy, papers going everywhere from the impact.

"So, uh..." Leafeon stuttered out from a combination of nervousness and dizziness as she carefully sat up, shaking her head, "...are you even really, like... with those other two?" She was now looking over to the boy, not even so much as bothering to stand up, "I mean, I get that you're still robbing this place, which is kind of awful, and you did threaten us, but compared to those two, you don't seem nearly as..." Crazed? Deluded? Unstable? "...violent."

Meanwhile, Glaceon was now riding the Taurus, being bucked around as if her were at the rodeo. Slowly, though, it was starting to slow down, starting to be visibly chilled from a hand Glaceon had on its side. For the time being, though, it was still stubbornly going strong.



"...Huh." was about all Jolteon could manage to say to this woman's... antics. He seemed to look almost impressed as he looked over the Electabuzz. After a brief moment, he looked back over his shoulder, calling out, "Hey, Water Boy, feel free to help any time, by the way. I figure I can at least trust you to take on that dude and his fearsome Caterpie, at least, but just tell me if the little bugger's too much for you." With a chuckle, Jolteon turned back towards the Electabuzz.

"As for me, well..." he began, bringing a hand towards his mouth (for as little much as that would do with his helmet) and cleared his throat, "Do a Flippy-Zappy Strike, me, and make it personal. Think you can handle that, me? Of course I can, as long as I have you at my back, me." Before he went on, though, Jolteon went a bit limp, letting out a contemplative sigh. "Eh, think I killed it." he said, seeming disappointed, "Well, let's see if I can get two-for-two on killing it." With that, he leaped into the air towards the Electabuzz, kicking off its face with his bootless foot (getting plenty of static electricity on his sock in the process), leaping even further so as to land behind the Vietnamese girl, standing on one (considerably more boot-covered) foot, quickly taking off one of his gloves in the process of spinning around, jabbing a finger into her back as he nearly whispered the word, "Zap." And zapped she was. Not so much any of this magic or technological or whatever it was zapping, though, so much as just a nasty shock of static electricity.

Meanwhile, while you couldn't really tell past that black sheet cloak he refused to take off, "Steve" was frowning so hard right now. "Look, just because he's small, doesn't mean... I just..." he said indignantly, trying to defend his precious Caterpie, but quickly deflated as he just let out a sigh, "Just... just use String Shot or something, Caterpie. Aim for the legs, maybe you can trip him if you try really hard. Just... try not to get squashed by him if he does."

To its credit, the Caterpie did seem more than ready to do its duty, standing proudly (at least, as much so as a little caterpillar thing even can stand, proudly or not) as it fiercely spat silken string at Vaporeon's feet. Which, I mean... it was all coming from the front, not wrapping around his feet or anything, so I mean... maybe if he danced flailed his feet around, he'd managed to get tangled up and fall. Maybe.

((!#%$ I MAY BE ACROSS THE DAMN ATLANTIC BUT I GET WIFI OCCASIONALLY AND I CAN SEE WHEN THERE IS TIME; SOMEONE WHO KNOWS WHO THEY ARE HAS TO MAKE A POST AND IF IT IS NOT THERE WHEN I RETURN I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WILL DO BUT BE WARNED I HAVE SPENT HOURS PRETENDING TO BE RICHARD NIXON IF HE WAS PART FEROCIOUS EAGLE. I WILL END YOU.

P.S.: We don't have an OOC thread. No time for a real post. Go ahead and mod this away when there is a THING. Or I will when I return. Just felt that since there is a month of time, I will punch things if I have to vomit words on people!!!))

(WHOOPS SORRY when you didn't log on for a while I figured you just didn't have any internet! I'll finish it...tomorrow, because I just got mah Wii)

_________________

(SO ABOUT THAT TOMORROW, STUFF SORTA HAPPENED.

But with Wally coming back soon, I'll be making time to post more frequently.)

Eevee tumbled inside the elevator after Espeon, the door shutting with a resounding wooshing noise, ascending the many floors of the Sliph Co building...

---

Vaporeon, seeing this, lept into action! And by lept I mean he...he just kinda...sprayed a little and batted the string shot away with it. He sighed, opening his arms wide and turning to Jolteon. "Seriously? A Caterpie? That's seriously what you're telling me to deal with?" He let out another deep sigh, two so soon in a row!, then put his hands into a classic water pistol shape and began spraying water with excellent precision at the Caterpie. Water being shot out with quite a lot of force. Pew pew.

Ms. Vietnam, meanwhile, shocking about in place, teeth clattering in an excessively comic fashion as the static shock ran it's course through her body. "CANN'T MOVE." She said with loud displeasure...and then the Electabuzz touched her hand. It might have been hard for Jolteon to tell what happened next, but it seemed to involve the fact a very electrically charged fist, possibly siphoning off the static (Via Static?) was coming right towards his face from the electric beast.

---

The elevator's ding reverberated throughout the room as the duo arrived at their destination, Eevee stepping out, unsure and on the defensive...the room was dark, giant curtains of black lowered to cover all but the faintest slits of light on them, a most mysterious choice given mid-day, not a single lamp or light turned on. It was...carnivorous, Eevee thought, as if the room's shadows were surrounding and ready to devour him at any moment.

As he stepped out, still keeping his arms up, ready, to move for defense or a quick strike at a moment's notice, he noted the peculiarities of the room: What was, for a President's room, markedly sparse furnishings, modeled for comfort over practicality, save a sleek dark oak desk that rested in the darkness, only slightly distinguishable from the shadows, the outlines of Pokemon of water and dark typings betraying a child-like sense, paintings of grotesque and yet beautiful art, twisted into shapes lining the shaded shapes, of Dark Pokemon and crashing waves with jagged rocks, a fascination with the unfamiliar and the glee of young comprehension of the lurking darkness...

"No lights, curtains down, mid-day..." Eevee noted to himself, quickly looking behind him. It had been there, for just a moment, the flash of shadows moving and turning, gone and blended once more. "That's extremely unusual. Someone is here." He stated in a low voice, just loud enough for Espeon to hear. "Get out and send the elevator to another floor. We don't want them escaping."

_________________

The boy stared at Leafeon. There was a long moment, he felt, where it almost seemed like he wanted to say something. This girl's eyes - or at least, the eyes on her completely ridiculous looking helmet - seemed like the sort of eyes that just coaxed confessions out of you. He was certain that faceless goons that stared into these eyes wound up having tea parties or enjoying muffins or some other horribly friggin' stupid thing. His mouth opened for a moment. There was a razor's edge sort of moment where he was sure, if he were to speak, he would say something like, "Look, lady, you don't know what I've been through for the past few weeks. Do you have any idea how much I used to like steak? And don't even get me started on the bat, oh, god, always with the stupid bat - did you know how much bats had in common with roosters? Lousy, flying, blue, !#%$ alarm clocks with teeth-" and it would go on and on and he was sure, judge of character that he was, sure that she'd offer to talk about it over coffee and they could not rob the bank. In his mind, he eyed that razor's edge tentatively, looked down at it, and-

"Frig that noise, lady," He whipped the standard issue Team Rocket pistol at his side out quickly and leveled it at Leafeon, "I may not be a completely willing component of the meaningless violence gang over there, but if you think I'm about to make civil conversation with a kitchen appliance and his chirpy sidekick, you have another thing coming."

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

Espeon was all over that button, which is to say that he flicked it casually shut with a mental press after walking out of the elevator. He looked around warily. It was oddly dark in here. Really wasn't his style if he were asked to opine on it. Something about the darkness was untrustworthy, shifty, nay, perhaps even evil. Eeeeevil. He felt himself hiss a little under his breath, quietly, before catching himself and stopping. And who even drew curtains shut on an afternoon like this anyways? With all the sculptures of Dark Pokemon too, to boot? Some kind of crazy person? It just absolutely boggled the mind and Espeon, for one, was not about to, in any way-

"W-Whoever's out there," He mentally kicked that train of thought somewhere else before he fixated on it, pointing one finger forward in the direction of the desk. "There's no way out of this room now without going through-" The arm he had pointed out swiveled upwards to point up at the ceiling, as he spread his feet casually to a hip width apart, raising the other hand into a fist in front of his face, "Espeon Ranger, and Trusty Boy Wonder, Eevee Ranger!" His scarf picked up a little behind him in a dramatic wind that seemed to only be around the lavender ranger, as he also levitated a nearby paperweight.

"Eevee," He whispered out of the corner of his mouth without in any way breaking his pose, "We should probably find the lights. And for goodness' sake, adopt Boy Wonder Pose #32 while you're at it."

---------

Flareon's body wasn't oriented completely right in the ruins of the desk he had been slammed into by gravity. He coughed, as he glared up at the man that had nearly bisected him three different times. This was definitely the real deal - even avoiding the actual direct hits still put him in a bit of a tight spot. At least, he hoped the pain in his chest was tightness from chunks of cheap, mass-produced iron pressing on it, because otherwise something had fractured. Without thinking any further on it, his hand groped down at one broken leg of the desk and swung it upwards awkwardly, going more for speed than accuracy or coherency.

He was rewarded by a sharp clanking sound as the man's left arm seemed to blur out of existence and the top third of the leg was hacked cleanly off, sent spinning up at the ceiling from the sudden violation of its physical form. A quick breeze blew slightly above where his head had been located. On the other hand, the sudden materialization of said left arm around his right shoulder and lower neck as he realized the green-clad swordsman had hunched down and sheathed the left sword was somewhat less of a reward, as was being lifted up roughly as fingers pressed into his suit in a painful vice-grip.

"Four times." The man's eyes coldly looked up and down the red ranger as he effortlessly held him up with just the one arm as if he was a particularly empty sack of potatoes. "I doubt you can manage five." He pulled up his right hand and the corresponding sword to Flareon's throat.

Flareon sputtered, trying to resist his focus narrowing on the blade that was going to slit his throat. "Heh. Well," He raised his left hand up shakily, thumb poised on the palm. "Then this should be an eye opener." Acting as quickly as he could in the hopes he had the element of surprise, he flicked the thumb across his palm, sparking a burst of flame directly in his opponent's face. The hand grappling him quickly let go, sending him thudding to the floor, which he turned into an awkward roll. It got him a little distance from the swordsman, but, he reflected as he slammed against the wall with his upper back, not nearly enough.

Jolteon, being slightly less than prepared for that punch, was sent flying into the nearby wall, crashing rather ungracefully to the floor. "Ow. Okay, guess I got a little too !#%$. For being complete idiots, maybe you're not complete idiots." he said, holding his helmeted head as he shakily made his way back to his feet. "So I guess electricity's just out the window, I got it. I guess I'll need some brute force... wish I had Glaceon with me, or even Flareon would do. But I can... geeze, can I just say, trying to outsmart you guys is really hard when you make me so dizzy." he rambled on, stumbling a bit more as he lightly shook his head, trying as best he could to focus his thoughts. "Alright, okay. I may not be the toughest around, and I just have the Soggy Sack over there with me, but... we can still work with this." he continued, nodding to himself as he straightened his posture.

Not wasting another moment, he ran straight toward the Electabuzz, fist held up at the ready, preparing for a big punch... and then dropped to the ground, sliding between the Pokemon's feet as he snatched its tail, quickly reaching over with his other hand and pulling the Vietnamese woman close. "C'mere, sweetie." he said, not being able to hold back a small chuckle at his own line, quickly tying the tail around the woman's waist before giving it a tug and backing off.

MEANWHILE, on the other side of the alley (which is to say, probably, like, five feet away), a poor Caterpie was now struggling on the ground in a pool of water, more than a bit disabled by Vaporeon's water blast. "Hey, now, buddy, don't give up now! You can... totally still win this..." "Steve" called out, sounding less than convinced of this himself, "Just... use a Tail Whip... That's a thing you know, right?" You're embarrassing everyone involved here, "Steve," get your !#%$ together. Regardless, the Caterpie... well, it flailed a bit harder in the puddle of water. It couldn't really get up, which was kind of a problem. "Hey, now, come on... you can... you can do... something." "Steve" went on, still unsure in his own words as he knelt down, lightly picking up the Caterpie and placing it back on its feet, just outside the puddle. It'd be adorable if it wasn't so pathetic. The Caterpie, now completely ready for everything, flung itself at Vaporeon, whipping some string from its hind-side towards the ranger. Like, maybe if he had some exposed skin, it might sting a bit, like a towel snapping, but... I think Vaporeon was pretty okay, all things considered.



Leafeon just stared for a moment at the gun aimed at her for a moment. You couldn't tell past the helmet, but she was frowning so hard right now, you guys, you have no idea. After a brief moment, she spoke again, "Maybe we could, like, compromise? Just... you guys promise not to hurt anyone else, and we let you leave with, like... half the bank's money, or something? I think that sounds pretty fair." She nodded, seeming satisfied with that as she managed to completely forget she had a gun pointed to her head.

Glaceon, meanwhile, was pretty quick to notice this, despite being on a rabid bull. Grabbing hard onto the horns of the Taurus, Glaceon pulled hard toward Leafeon's assailant, attempting to steer towards it. His success was... limited, to say the least, but that didn't stop him: launching an icy blast at the floor in front of them, he managed to create a makeshift ramp of sorts of ice, causing the Taurus to furiously slip around in the vague direction of the boy, going so quickly and out of control that Glaceon was forced to extend the ramp further, to the point that he and the Taurus were now running almost completely horizontally towards the boy. It was, no doubt more than a bit intimidating.

Leafeon, meanwhile, was quick to notice this, letting out a whiny "Nooooooooo!" If she was frowning hard before, man, now she was frowning super crazy hard. You're just going to have to take my word on it, but man, I didn't it was possible for a mouth to bend that far downward.