Chapter Nineteen: Petty Foes And Eggs

Serperior had obvious experience in sniffing out the two villainous teams. Why hadn't Elise told us this? Maybe she hadn't ever asked him to do this. It led us to a warehouse, on the edge of town. How typical, I thought, testing the door. It was locked, of course. I returned Serperior to his Poké ball.

"Twilight, can you manipulate locks with your magic?" I asked. She nodded, and with a glow of her horn, the door was unlocked.

"What kind of lock was it?" I asked.

"Deadbolt," she explained.

"Right. Let's get to work." I opened the door, and we stepped inside.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except for a large open box, filled with Poké balls. I threw one of them, in case they had something in them. There was; a Lillipup emerged from the ball. I returned it to its ball before it could determine what was going on.

"They've kidnapped all of these Pokémon," I said.

"Why would they take so many of them?" Fluttershy asked, "or any at all?"

"Money, or something. I don't know."

"Of course we kidnapped these Pokémon, the boss needs 'em for his plans," a voice said from somewhere amongst the crates.

"And don't try to run away, we've got this place locked down," another voice said. I turned around to face the door. It was locked again. We could open it from this side, but it would take time. Several Rocket grunts appeared from behind the crates, and blocked our exit. More grunts appeared around us. I sent out Serperior.

"We're going to need your help here, Serperior." The creature nodded. The Rocket grunts each sent out their own Pokémon. An assortment of Ratattas, Watchogs, Woobats and Zubats. A mix of Kanto and Unova Pokémon, and, of course, light fare. However, their numbers were concerning- there were about a dozen grunts, and each was holding another Poké ball in reserve. We were outnumbered, four to one, if I counted right.

"Team Rocket, attack!" a voice shouted, and the various grunts began to shout commands. Rainbow took flight, Serperior raised its head and looked to me, awaiting command, Fluttershy shrunk, Spike looked around nervously, and Twilight's horn glowed. It was time for a Pokémon battle. I had no weapons of my own anymore, but they'd likely target my Pokémon, and not me anyway.

Rainbow got to work immediately, strafing the line of Pokémon in front of the door, striking them with her hooves. Twilight fired blasts of magic into several Pokémon as they tried to close the distance. Fluttershy took flight and flew frantically away, minding the egg in her saddlebag, as a trio of flying Pokémon came in her direction.

"Alright, Serperior, use Razor Leaf," I commanded, uneasily, indicating the target to be Fluttershy's pursuers. Glowing leaves shot from Serperior's lower half toward them. Despite the move's type disadvantage, it easily incapacitated all three of them, the superior power of the fully-evolved Pokémon clearly showing. "Nice work."

There were four Pokémon engaging Twilight in physical combat, and despite her size advantage, she was being overwhelmed, but had taken down three already with her magic. Spike had been knocked off, and was attacking a Rattata with his claws to some effect, and the rodent-like Pokémon was sent into a retreat. One of the Watchogs used Retaliate, and sent Twilight sprawling. She was really getting beaten up today, I thought.

"Serperior, Razor Leaf, again." The powerful serpentine Pokémon's multiple-target attack struck three of the assailants, who fainted and were retrieved by their trainers. Twilight was able to use her spells to deal with the other one. Rainbow was still striking at various targets to great effect, and three more Pokémon had fainted from her attacks, and another three or so had been hit.

One of the grunts threw a net over Rainbow Dash from on top of a crate, causing her to crash. There were about half of them still left.

"Serperior, fire at will," I commanded, and ran over to a cowering Fluttershy amid the chaos, shielding her saddlebag, which held the egg, with her body, in case something tried to steal it. Serperior hadn't been told to attack at will before, evidently, and used his moves and speed with great efficiency now that the trainer's commands were out of the equation. The rest of the Pokémon fell in short order.

"Uhh, retreat! Retreat now!"

The Rockets scrambled toward the exit, one of them stopping to pick up Rainbow, still in the net. Serperior fired a razor leaf at the wall behind him, and he dropped it and ran with the rest of them. I walked over and undid the net.

"We totally destroyed them!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"I hope they'll be alright," Twilight said, wincing as Spike got onto her back again.

"Nice work, Serperior, you probably saved our necks. I'll be sure to tell Elise that." The serpentine Pokémon raised its head proudly. It had taken very little damage, as its sheer size and level of training made it nearly impervious to the petty attacks of any assailants. I was glad they hadn't packed any ice- or fire-types.

"Are you alright, Twilight?  You got a little bit banged up," I asked.

"I'll be okay, don't worry."

"We hurt so many Pokémon..." Fluttershy said.

"Fluttershy, they'll be just fine. As I said, they're extremely resilient to lethal damage. We should take this box, and hand it over to the authorities," I suggested.

"I don't get it. How do those Pokémon obey their trainers if they do such awful things?" Spike asked. He had a point. I was unsure of the answer, though.

"I don't know. Maybe it's because they caught them and raised them that way, but I really don't know why they obey without question. Serperior obeyed me without question, and I haven't done anything to deserve his respect."

Serperior hissed in a friendly manner.

"Huh."

I picked up the box, finding it to be rather lightweight. We left the warehouse, bound for the Pokémon Center near the center of town. If trainers were looking for their missing Pokémon, they might look there. So I dropped it off and notified the nurse, who inquired about my strange Pokémon, like everyone else. I told her they were from far away, again, like everyone else.

"What do we do until Elise comes back?" Twilight asked. I was kind of tired of being asked what we would do all the time. I might be the leader, but I didn't know everything.

"I don't know. We have no money and about two hours to spend."

"Umm..." Fluttershy sounded like she was about to say something.

"What is it?"

"The egg..."

The egg was moving, shaking slightly. A crack began to appear on it. Then another. I took the hatching egg from the saddlebag, and placed it on the ground. The eggshell broke, and a very small Blitzle sat in the shell. I'd caught and used a Blitzle in the games, I recognized it immediately.

"It looks like a zebra!" Rainbow observed. Its mane glowed yellow, and it cocked its head.

"A unicorn zebra?" Twilight half-asked.

"It's tiny," I said, "and adorable."

"What is it?" Twilight asked.

"A Blitzle, a baby Blitzle. It looks like a zebra, but it has electrical abilities as well. It wouldn't be as smart as Zecora, it's not sentient, but like most Pokémon, they're smart, I'm sure."

"Electrical abilities? So it can do magic like unicorns?"

"No, not really. It can only use electricity, that lightning bolt-shaped horn is more like a lightning rod than a magical horn," I explained, "it can summon thunderbolts, for instance."

"Wow, so it's like a unicorn that can control the weather like a pegasus?" Rainbow asked.

"No! That's not what I'm saying. It's not a unicorn, and it's not a pegasus, and it might look like a zebra, but it's not a zebra etiher. Get it?"

"I get it," Spike said. The others nodded. Serperior just looked kind of bored.

"Alright... how are we going to take him with us?" Twilight had a point.

"I don't know. Maybe Elise can help us, or take him off our hands. I don't think we should take a Pokémon with us when we leave."

"Why not? He's awesome!"

"Because, Spike, I know almost nothing about raising Pokémon, and if I took it into my world, people would notice."

"I could take care of him," Fluttershy volunteered.

"Are you sure?"

"It would be like raising a foal, right?" Twilight asked. To them it seemed that' baby zebra Pokémon' meant 'pony'.

"You could think of it that way, sure, but Fluttershy, you haven't raised a foal before."

"I babysit all the time."

"You don't babysit the Cake twins."

"Alright," Rainbow interrupted, "your knowing everything about Equestria and having only been there for what, a week in total is kind of creeping me out."

"I know why. You don't know my secrets, and I know most of yours. It makes you feel insecure. I don't have any interesting tales to tell and I don't live in a land of magic. Let's get back on topic, this baby Blitzle." Rainbow gave me an odd look, and Fluttershy continued.

"If you can't take care of it, I will. I'd love to have a new friend." She nuzzled the newborn Pokémon.

"Alright, let's keep him."

Fluttershy set about taking care of the baby Blitzle as well as she could, and the rest of us just waited around. Elise would be back soon, we'd just have to wait.