//------------------------------// // Dark Pokemon // Story: Celestia's Rocket Adventures // by Snake Staff //------------------------------// Luna stared at the two birds, for once simply dumbstruck. The more she looked at them, the more obvious it was that something was terribly, awfully wrong with these two. Their feathers seemed just a few shades darker, as though they were somehow absorbing more light around themselves. They were poised differently as well. She’d gotten to know the standard flight stances of their species over these last few days. Spearow and Fearow were aggressive, yes definitely, but they were also perpetually poised to flee before stronger opposition, to submit to a more dominant bird rather than get pummeled. These two… they looked for all the world like they simply waited for a cue to attack without thought for restraint or self-preservation. And their eyes… the bird Pokémon normally had such an alert liveliness to them. Perpetually alert for the next meal, or a predator, or a challenger from within the flock. They were in constant motion, flicking this way and that at all times. But now their dark eyes fixed unwaveringly on the princess, empty of feeling or awareness. There was their next target, and nothing else. “Drill Peck now!” Luna was snapped from her horrified reverie by the sound of a human voice. Without hesitation, Fearow threw itself at her in a corkscrew move, razor sharp beak enveloped in grey energy and pointed directly for her throat. The princess threw herself to the side, flapping her wings to gain some altitude. The beak struck home on the branch behind where she had been shattering the wood into a thousand sharp fragments. The alicorn felt a few of them patter against her flank, drawing a little blood. When Fearow turned swiftly about she saw several had cut into its flesh, but it didn’t even seem to notice. Since when can Fearow do that? I fought this very creature for leadership and it never demonstrated that kind of attack. “Spearow, Peck!” The princess cried out in shock and pain as something slammed into her back with far more force than such a small Pokémon had any right to. Pitched forward by the sheer impact, she barely twisted out of the way as Fearow shot by with another Drill Peck, aiming for her head. This time she aimed a shot at its back with the move Floette had termed Dark Pulse, but suddenly her vision was filled with an incredibly angry tiny bird trying to jam its beak into her eye. Luna jerked her head back but Spearow’s beak still scraped her cheek, drawing more crimson into her dark blue fur. But the little bird’s reckless attack put it far too close to dodge when she unleashed a point-blank Dark Pulse into its chest. Spearow was hurdled away by rings of black and purple energy almost as big around at is was. Before the princess could so much as look around she was finally struck in the side by Fearow’s corkscrewing attack. The alicorn screamed, thrown from the air by the overpowering force of the attack. She hit the leaf-covered dirt right flank first and skidded a good few yards. Fearow plunged after her, beak aimed to plunge into her chest before she could recover. Luna’s mouth curled into a snarl, one forehoof glowing bright. Beak and hoof collided, strained with one another for a fraction of a second, then the energies exploded against each other. Luna was knocked onto her back and sent skidding back several more yards by the force of it. Fearow flew backwards and smacked headfirst into a tree. But even as Luna watched, the bird Pokemon struggled to rise and continue, eyes staring at her with naked malice – a far cry from its previous cowardice. How is suddenly this powerful? Did that device of the humans do it? “Now’s our chance,” one said to the other, “it’s weak!” “Right!” the other human grabbed another black orb from her belt and pitched it hard as she could at the alicorn. The princess scrambled, rolling hard along the rough ground. The dark device hit the forest floor some several feet from where she lay, but did nothing. Luna jumped to her hooves and, with one vicious stomp, shattered the little thing to pieces. “Hey!” the woman snarled at her. “We have quotas to meet and Dark Balls don’t grow on trees!” Celestia would probably have made a sarcastic quip about how sorry she was to inconvenience them, but Luna just bared her teeth in a naked snarl. “This one’s a real pest,” the man said as he returned the snarl. “I don’t feel so sorry for what’s going to happen to it.” “What’s going to happen?!” the princess demanded. “What devilry is afoot here, you brigands?” “Fearow,” the man stretched out his hand. “Attack with Aerial Ace!” The Pokémon, which had managed to return to its feet, hurled itself into the air and at the princess once more. A silver-white energy enveloped its wings, trailing off into the air behind it. Luna closed her eyes, drawing on the energies of the moon inside her, a pinkish-white sphere of energy taking shape before her face even as Fearow tore through the space between them. At the last possible second her eyes shot open and the sphere was hurdled at her subordinate turned foe. At such close range, it was all but impossible to dodge. The bird, set on its target to the exclusion of all else, didn’t even try. An explosion of fey energy rocked the forest as Luna’s attack took Fearow head on. It went soaring like a baseball in a home run, flung back and back and back some more until it finally struck the earth. It bounced and skidded yet further, kicking up leaves along the forest floor until it finally came to a halt at the feet of the human duo. The princess watched, but this time Fearow did not rise. “R-Right,” the female grabbed three more orbs from her belt and tossed them into the air. “Spearow, attack as one with Fury Attack!” The orbs exploded into more dark energy, revealing the remainder of Luna’s scouting party. They too, she saw, had the dead eyes and dark complexion that seemed to come from those evil devices. They all surged forward with beaks aglow. Such a strategy might have worked if they had all attacked in tandem with Fearow to begin with, but now the alicorn had their measure. A Dark Pulse blasted one from the air, and the others pressed forwards without hesitation or the slightest regard for their fallen comrade. Their mindless aggression made them predictable, she shot a second bird down with another beam of black-purple energy. The third and final bird managed to close the distance, only to be rewarded with a glowing hoof rising to meet its beak. Even with its powers magnified, it was considerably weaker than Fearow and was sent flying by the attack. After making sure it was down for the count, the alicorn’s eyes darted back to the humans. Or rather, where the duo had been. They were a considerable distance from there now, sprinting down the forest trail at full tilt away from her. Fearow was left to lie there on the forest floor, beaten and unconscious. “Cowardly curs,” Luna snorted, then opened her wings and took off after them. The outcome was never in doubt, the princess had centuries of racing against the best pegasi in Equestria and they had sheer terror. Luna gained ground rapidly, a snarl on her face. When she came close enough, she unleashed another Dark Pulse from her horn, this one sweeping into the ground in the space between the two. The explosion flung both humans in opposite directions, though both were hurdled into trees. The man’s face was a grimace of pain as he looked up to see the alicorn descending on him like an avenging valkyrie. He reached for his belt, but quickly yanked his fingers back as a hoof descended, pulverizing the remaining black orb affixed to his right side. There was a sudden discharge of black energy from one of them as it was destroyed, and Luna’s eyes widened when she caught a glimpse of it around Fearow’s prone form as well. Turning her gaze to bird Pokémon, she saw its dark complexion fading away even while she watched, healthy brown returning to its feathers. Luna’s ears twitched, and she jerked her head around to catch another black orb enlarging in the woman’s hand. Another Dark Pulse to the tree behind her hurled the human forward on the shockwave. The alicorn stuck one foreleg to her side, just in time to catch the human woman in the midsection. She all but bounced off the unbending limb, hitting the dirt on her back. Luna’s hoof smashed the devices still attached to her belt, one more attack consumed the one that had been ripped from her hand. The princess noted to her satisfaction that on the destruction of these the Spearow’s bodies crackled with dark energies and immediately began regaining their normal complexion. “Now…” she turned her hard blue eyes back to the prone humans. “We have a great deal to discuss, you and I.” Meanwhile, Team Rocket and all their Pokémon were once more jammed into the janitor’s closet. With little enough room to envy sardines and time pressures mounting with every passing day, it was little wonder that none of them were in the mood for games. “Meowth, report,” Jessie demanded. “You’ve been lounging in the closest with miss sunshine and rainbows all day, it had better have been worth it!” “We had to clean out the bathrooms today!” James fumed. “Can you imagine how much plumbing goes into a secret underground base for hundreds of people? And can you imagine what happens when it breaks? You can’t exactly call a plumber down here!” “Moving on from that slightly nauseating thought,” Celestia interjected quickly, “why don’t you tell them what we have?” “We spent all day trackin’ da cranky lady with da bad hair and funny visor,” Meowth said. We saw whereabouts she lays her head and sent Inkay ta take a look.” “It’s just like you figured,” the little cephalopod offered while the cat translated. “The boss lady has her own room – a real nice one too – and she isn’t bunking with any grunts around. Near as I can figure there’s no one liable to notice real quick if she takes a nap.” “Good,” Jessie nodded. “And our distraction?” “Ready and waiting… and heavy,” Inkay saluted. “Really heavy, actually.” Jessie arched an eyebrow. “You wanna scrub toilets instead?” “N-No no,” Inkay waved his tentacles. “Heavy works for me!” “That’s what I thought,” Jessie put her hands on her hips. “But if everything’s in place…” “Then there’s no time like the present,” James finished. “Showtime, ladies and gents.” “Wobbuffet!”