Dashed Expectations

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.

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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.

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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."

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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)

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(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."

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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.