Mareep in Wolf’s Clothing
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Darren’s feet, clawed and shoe-less, pounded the pavement. He could feel his Eevee friend trembling in his arms, and guilt tied his stomach into a knot at the thought that Fox had suffered through that needless abuse because of him. Why had he protested; he knew Team Rocket, had known them since he was born.
He only slowed down a little as he reached the Pokécenter’s entrance, barely giving the automatic doors the chance to slide out of the way before he passed. Once inside, though, he had to slow down, staring at the clean, neat waiting room and reception with wide eyes. In his worry for Fox, he didn’t really take notice of the people in the room — everyone from the pink-haired nurse behind the reception desk to the people waiting their turn to the teal-haired, uniformed woman who came out of one of the examination rooms together with a Growlithe with a bandaged paw — staring at him at least as awestruck.
“Please, help!” It wasn’t a whisper, but he was too stressed to speak in anything but a high-pitched squeak.
For a few more moments, the room was still. Then, training took over; the nurse was across the room, ushering him towards the reception desk and the gurneys of varying sizes discreetly parked by it. “What happened?”
“He was attacked by a Raticate.” Darren couldn’t think; his replies were automatic. “It surprised us, and he couldn’t get away.”
“We’ll get him patched up,” the woman promised, showing him more kindness in those five words than he was used to getting in the space of a week. “Don’t worry. Just put him down here and…”
Darren had, anxious for his friend’s health, followed the nurse’s instructions the moment he heard them. When she trailed off, he stood looking back at her for several long moments, frowning in confusion at her open-mouthed staring at his chest. For a few seconds, the world was still, more or less, as he knew it.
Then it collapsed, like a house of cards.
“Officer Jenny!” the nurse cried, close to a panic, backing away from Darren. “It’s Team Rocket!”
“No! Please, you have to help us!” It was the clothes, of course. She couldn’t have seen the ‘R’ insignia on the front of his jacket as long as he was cradling Fox, but once he’d put the Eevee down, she’d jumped to conclusions.
“Stay right there.” The teal-haired woman and her Growlithe were coming towards him, and try as he might to look brave, his antennae wouldn’t stop quivering. “Identification, please.”
“I… My Pokédex was stolen on the way here,” Darren whimpered. “I swear, I’m just a trainer, and Fox really is mine. I don’t want anything to do with Team Rocket any more than you do.”
The policewoman’s eyebrows pinched together a mite, and her eyes narrowed. “You walk into a building full of weakened Pokémon wearing a Team Rocket uniform, and you expect me to believe that?”
“It’s the truth!” His antennae lay slicked back against his head, and he looked pleadingly at Officer Jenny. “They gave me the clothes, that’s true, but I really am no sympathizer of theirs.”
He held his empty hands out towards her, intending it as a gesture of goodwill. Maybe the Growlithe reacted to its trainer’s apprehension, or maybe it felt threatened on either its trainers or its own behalf by the sight of his clumsy, clawed left hand. Whatever the reason, it roared loudly, and before Darren knew quite what came over him, he’d scooped up Fox and was making a desperate run away from it, further into the Pokécenter. Behind him, he could hear footsteps and the Growlithe’s barks, and it spurred him to run faster, disappearing from one spot and appearing in the next when people coming through the corridor got in his way.
It was probably the speed he was moving at, but the walls felt like they were moving in on him. The humans’ steps and shouting voices were far behind, but no matter how much he exerted himself, he didn’t seem able to get any farther from the barking fire Pokémon. Finally, a door with a small square window appeared at the end of the corridor as he turned a corner, and he made for it, unable to think of anything but how he’d be safe once out of the Pokécenter, away from the Growlithe that had taken up the chase despite its bandaged paw.
He had to stop to open the door, his hands shaking enough to make opening the simple lock on it a non-trivial task. Just when he managed to crack the door open, the Growlithe rounded the corner, barking at him with its ears flat against its skull. The look it gave him made him dizzy, and he staggered backwards against the door. He was still reeling when the shivering bundle of fur in his arms squirmed loose, glowing blue. During its half-fall, half-jump towards the floor the Eevee’s fur glowed, and when it landed, stumbling and almost falling, it was sporting dense, flat blue fur, fins on its head and a thick, fish-like tail.
The Growlithe skidded on the tile floor, stopping just short of Fox-the-Vaporeon. Barely standing, and quivering with the strain of even that effort, the water Pokémon hissed, spreading its fin-collar wide. Then, when the police dog didn’t back off, the weakened Pokémon opened its mouth, releasing a jet of water at the Fire-type puppy. Darren could hear it yelp, and then both Pokémon were lying shivering on the floor.
Maybe it was the Growlithe being out of commission for the time being. Maybe it was the fresh air coming in the door from outside. Whatever the reason, Darren felt the desperate, primal need to be somewhere else dissipating, and with the release of that pressure, the realization that now he was really in trouble. Bad enough when he’d been suspected of being a member of Team Rocket based on his clothes. Now he’d made himself look that much more guilty by fleeing for some reason he didn’t quite understand himself, and on top of it his Pokémon had attacked the policewoman’s Growlithe.
He did the only thing he could do. He called Fox back to its Pokéball, exited the Pokécenter, and kept running.
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