5 Pain- The Word Of The Day

Misty slowly opened her eyes to look up at the ceiling above her. Though her vision was slightly blurry, her head and stomach were throbbing in pain, and she felt like she was going to throw up, her mind remained as clear as water. She remembered all the events leading up to the point where she had been knocked unconscious which was saying something considering how hard she was hit. She didn't even have time to defend herself, let alone bring out a Pokemon. The people that had attacked the Center were in a league of their own and were to be taken seriously.

Misty finally recovered to the point of sitting up, her vision clearing up despite the throbbing pain still being there. She still felt like throwing up but she ended up ignoring it and taking a look around. At first she was unfamiliar with where she was but after a few seconds of looking, it was clear that she was in the back of the Pokemon Center where they kept the Pokemon that were either injured or just recently fully healed. The reason she hadn't recognized the room at first was because of the numerous furniture that had been pushed against the door.

"What the-," Misty muttered, but quickly stopped talking when Nurse Joy and a Pokemon known as Chansey ran past carrying numerous Pokeballs in their arms. Joy seemed rather panicked as she darted into a separate room and stayed in there for a minute before rushing out. She only stopped when she saw Misty sitting up, immediately running over to kneel by her side.

"Young lady, your finally awake," Joy said with a worried expression, clearly concerned about the state Misty was in. "You took a rather vicious attack back there and I thought you'd be out for a while longer. Please try not to move too much."

"I'm fine," Misty said, ignoring the sudden throb of pain from her gut. "More importantly, whats going on? Who were those people? Where's that boy?"

Misty had so many questions swirling around in her head that it was hard to focus on a single one. She didn't know much about the attackers except that they were obviously incredibly skilled, not even bothering to use Pokemon to wipe her out. Normally her first thought would have been thieves, but it was hard to wrap her head around mere Pokemon thieves having such skill. If they did have that much skill and strength then they should have been robbing places that had much better Pokemon rather then injured ones like the Pokemon Center. She just couldn't make sense of anything, and the pain was quite detrimental to her thinking too deeply on the matter.

"I'll explain as best I can though I don't know much either," Joy said as she helped Misty to her feet. "The two from earlier are most likely Pokemon thieves, and rather elite ones at that. I've heard about them from my cousins in other cities. Apparently they're a group known as Team Rocket, an organization bent on stealing and exploiting Pokemon for power. Just one of their main elites is at LEAST on the level of a Gym Leader if not the Elite Four. These two are no doubt some of the elite group. In reality, with what little strength we have, we're no match for them. All we can do is send the Pokemon to a neighboring Pokemon Center. I've already prepped the machine and have begun sending them."

"How very brave of you," A voice said from behind Joy. "Also very smart when in a crisis, however I'm going to have to ask you to go to sleep. Maybe if your lucky, help will come and you won't die."

There was a moments pause before Joy, with a rather shocked look on her face, fell face forward onto the ground, out cold. Three deep lines could be seen extending from her left shoulder to her right hip back, blood spilling from the open wounds. Behind Joys body, on top of an unconscious Chansey was a rather short figure with a small cloak, a top hat, and glasses, same as the figures near the front of the Center. It was obviously recognizable as a Meowth which, combined with a bloodied Joy and a knocked out Chansey, caused Misty to quickly back up to the point where she fell back down.

"You...your talking," Misty said as she pointed towards the Meowth, who had jumped off the Pokemon and was now walking away. "How?"

"I do apologize for this as you weren't supposed to be a part of the plan," Meowth said as he stopped by the door Joy had been in previously. "The only victims were supposed to be this Nurse and her Pokemon. I never meant to kill that other girl but she got in my way when I tried to destroy the Transfer machine. It can't be helped though. Just stay out of our way and you'll be spared. I don't need further complications."

"What?" Misty couldn't wrap her head around what she was hearing. According to what this Meowth was saying, someone had already died by its hands.

"James, the back is clear," Meowth said as he walked away from Misty. "Proceed with the second part of the operation. The cops have unfortunately been notified when I broke in through the rear entrance. We have roughly seven minutes to finish the job. I repeat, the back has been secure and the second part is clear for go."

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

"Ten seconds are up kid," The blue haired man said as he watched Vex stand up from the ground. "Make your choice."

"Pikachu, thundershock," Vex yelled as he backed up a bit. "Full power."

Sparks began to fly as electricity quickly built up in Pikachu's red cheeks. Even from where he was standing, Vex could feel the hair on the back of neck stand on end. Judging by the amount of power being built up, it seemed that even he would get caught up in the blast. Vex quickly retreated as far as he could, all the way up to the door which he tried to push open but to no avail.

The blue haired male finally made an expression for the first time since his arrival, and it was one of irritation. "I hate when there are unnecessary complications. Very well, I gave you a choice. Death it is." The blue haired man pulled out a small pokeball from under his cloak and pressed the button twice, enlarging it. "Fighting novices is always the most dangerous. Thats why its better to just kill them. Go Koffing."

There was a flash of light that followed the click of the button on the pokeball, a bright white that illuminated the whole room for a full second before disappearing. In place of the light, floating a good several feet in the air, was a purple spherical creature that Vex assumed was called Koffing. It had vacant eyes, a wide mouth with a full set of teeth, numerous protrusions similar to geysers, and a skull and crossbones directly underneath its face. The whole thing looked kinda goofy but Vex had already learned that anything called a Pokemon could be filed under potentially dangerous. He wasn't too keen on underestimating this thing just because of its expression.

Vex turned his attention towards Pikachu who had until this point been building up his power. Just when it seemed like the power was at its peek, it released it straight ahead with surprising accuracy, headed straight for the man. However, Vex had heard him utter words before the bolt was fired, words that he couldn't hear over the sparking of electricity.

The newly arrived Pokemon known as Koffing intercepted the blast of lightning, taking it straight on, its whole body glowing with a bright green light. When the lightning finally stopped, there wasn't so much as even a scratch on the purple creature while Pikachu looked like he was already tired.

"Koffing, Gyro Ball," The blue haired man said as he began walking forward. "Take out that Pikachu. I'll finish the kid real quick."

Without even hesitating, the Koffing began to spin, the outline of its body glowing white as it spun faster and faster. It then hurled itself towards Pikachu, who nimbly but barely dodged it. The Koffing bounced off the floor and then the wall followed by the ceiling before once again attempting to smack into Pikachu. The speed was steadily increasing with each thing the Koffing smashed into to the point where Vex could only see a purple blur.

While Vex wanted to watch and give Pikachu orders, he was distracted by a sudden fist slamming into his temple. Pain erupted and clouded his vision as he stumbled backwards, more pain erupting as he felt a fist slam into his gut. He felt like he wanted to pass out, but he grit his teeth, ducked, prayed for a hit, before jumping back up with an uppercut with all his strength. Luck was on his side as his uppercut managed to connect with the tip of the mans chin, causing him to back up and fall onto one knee.

Vex moved forward to take advantage of the situation but was knocked unconscious by a kick to the side of his head which sent him flying sideways. The red haired female looked over at the unconscious youth before helping up the blue haired man. "If that kid was lucky enough to catch you unaware then you need more training. Lets go, Meowth just called in that its time for part 2 of the plan. Leave the child and the Pikachu, we have no need for them nor a need to waste precious seconds killing them. Call your Koffing off."

The blue haired man looked towards the young man before getting to his feet, amazingly fine even after having his chin hit, which would incapacitate person for about a minute or so. However, no matter how you looked at it, the man was unfazed as he picked up his pokeball and recalled Koffing back into it. Then him and the red haired woman retreated rapidly from the Center.