PART I

A young pikachu groggily digged his way out of a small burrow near a patch of Oran berry bushes. Van, as he was called, dug the shoddily made hole in the ground the night before. Judging from his tense, almost rigid posture as he was crawling out, it was safe to assume he didn't get much of a good sleep the night he spent in it. The cave-in that had covered up the entrance, forcing him to dig, couldn't have helped much either. Obviously he hadn't quite gotten the hang of it he thought he had just yet, and the quality of living space suffered for it. It was just one of many bothersome factors that were steadily egging onto Van's homesickness.

Right then and there the comfort of home he was longing for was the deep, almost cave-like den his raichu father had built for the family. But during his days as a tiny little pichu, Van had always heard of the stories of his parents' adventures--which came to a screeching halt when he and his four sisters were born. Naturally their traveling days were over, but the memories were kept alive through bedtime stories they told their children; the same stories Van found intoxicating once before and made him want to be an adventurer himself.

Now that he was living his dream though, he was beginning to realize just how much work it actually turned out to be. In the back of his mind, Van was wishing he had listened more to his mother's words, while he was busy shaking the dirt out of his long ears. Perhaps if he did, he'd have known his father was prone to spinning yarns that somewhat stretched the truth. Like how it probably wasn't possible for a raichu his size to run for days at a time, or how a simple hole in the ground may not have made for ideal living quarters. Thankfully, his mother had the foresight to teach him some of the means to fend for himself while his father wasn't busy trying to turn him into another meat-head. 

Oddly enough, Van also started to miss his mother's nagging, and his fathers terrible advice too. Remembering the nice, cozy room his dad built just for him, and the delicious meals his mother prepared only added upon his homesick feelings. There was nothing he could do about it now, though.

"Urgh," Van groaned as he got close to the surface, "If my little sis was around, she'd say I'm in too deep!"

There was no way he'd return home empty-handed. Not so much because his family was expecting him to return home with some kind of trophy. It was the pride instilled within his very being, another thing he might have faulted his father for. It was the only thing keeping him from retreating back to the safety of his parents' arms, without some stories of his own to tell.

Light started to shine through the soil now, coaxing Van, who was already sick of digging, into speeding up his pace. He eagerly clawed away until the morning sun beamed down upon his dirty face. With the sun in his eyes, he promptly hopped out of his hole in the ground, throwing up his arms in victory, before crumbling down onto his back upon the earth in exhaustion. The trees of the forest towered over him, covering his eyes with shade from the sun.

As the pikachu lied down, he sighed. "Well, can't get much worse than this, right?" he assured to himself.

As a matter of fact, it did. Two pairs of feet from a tiny little feline suddenly ran over his face in a flash.

"AGGBHT!" Van sputtered as mouth felt the taste of a dirty paw. He rolled over in the direction his sudden fly-by ran off to, just in time to see the poofy tail of a skitty disappear into the green cover of the woodlands. Needless to say, he was quite irked.

"Hey! Watch where you're going, you crazy little cat!" he yelled, shaking a fist.The foliage the skitty ran into made no signs of stirring, after the initial rustle she caused in running through them. She wouldn't be returning anytime soon. With a growl, Van lumbered back onto his feet, with the taste of paw still freshly palatable in his maw.

An Oran berry would have definitely washed the foul taste away, not to mention sate the roaring hunger brought on from digging out of the earth, mere moments ago. He was far too angry now to think about his stomach though.

While he stood there simmering, and glaring in the direction the skitty had gone, his ears twitched at the sound of something odd. What was that, some kind of alarm?

"Wee-ooo-wee-ooo-wee-ooo!"

It was loud, obnoxious, and deafening screech, not to mention approaching from behind him fast. Not knowing who or what it could have been, Van turned around and braced himself, cheeks sparking in preparation. His anticipation of a battle from out of nowhere swelled to great proportions.

Alas, anticipation soon led to a huge disappointment, as a plusle and minun ran into the scene in haste and stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of the pikachu. The minun, the source of all the racket, promptly clammed up, as the plusle pointed and squeaked.

 "You, newcomer!''

Van took a moment to glance around. He couldn't have meant him, right?

‘'Me?''

‘'Yes, you!''

The slightly shorter plusle's squeaking quickly changed, more like a houndour's bark in resemblance. He was definitely older given the tone of his voice, though the plush-like body kept him from coming off as threatening as Van possibly should have taken it.

‘'We're chasing a thief! Have you seen any suspicious skitty in the area?''

‘'Maybe he's seen what she was carrying?'' the minun to the plusle's right whimpered. Van could tell she was the younger of the two, possibly just a tad greener than he was.

‘'Possibly! Well son? Have you seen any in the area or not!''

For Van, the sergeant-esque attitude the plusle boasted was very easy to associate with his father. Didn't he say he was a battle cadet or something like that? Van didn't think too much into it; it was a little hard for him to repress the urge to salute to this plusle though.

‘'Yessir. she went that way,'' He quickly replied while pointing over to the bushes the skitty from before ran through; it was the only skitty he saw that morning after all.

‘'Excellent work newcomer! Lead the way!''

The sudden command gave Van some pause. "Wait, what? You want me to lead? Hang on, did I just get drafted or something?" the pikachu asked. This was going a little too fast for him.

‘'Good, now I won't have to say it! Lead the way!'' He barked again, looking a little more agitated the second time.

‘'S-sir, do we really need a civilia-''

The minun might have gotten out "civilian" if she wasn't busy eeping in fear. Her plusle superior had one hell of a glare, that was for sure. None of this was helping Van get up to speed in the slightest.

‘'Lead the way!'' the plusle ordered a third time.

"Okay, okay! I'm leading!" Van, left with not much choice in the matter (and feeling very sorry for the poor minun) started to scurry in the direction the skitty had fled while the plusle and minun closely followed. Thankfully, his nose had a trace of the scent the skitty gave off since the cat ran right over him. Thanks to his mother's training, this gave him a trail to follow. It surprised him that something akin to law enforcement existed all the way out here, but the last thing he wanted to do was get on their bad side.

This oughta be a piece of cake, actually! he thought, once I help these guys track down that little kitty, I'll have something to tell that'll really make my family proud. And the locals here would be impressed too, right? Right?

His line of thought was derailed as the minun behind him went off again with her vocal siren.

"Wee-ooo-wee-ooo-wee-ooo-wee-ooo!"

Van cringed. "Sir, does she have to that?" he asked the plusle.

"As part of Team Justice, she is required to be the siren as long as she is a trainee. If you have a problem with that, you have to take it up with me!"

"Sir, I am taking it up with you! Won't that scare off the skitty if that cat hears us coming?!"

The suggestion, proving quite valid, turned the plusle red in the face with anger.

‘'D-don't question me grunt! Do your job!''

Van groaned to himself and kept his eyes glued on the path, figuring he'd rather keep an eye out than waste his breath anyway. Just what did he get himself into, he wondered? As long as it got himself some fame, he really didn't care.

***

Meanwhile, that skitty was making her way out of the thicket, about a hundred yards away from where Van met the members of Team Justice, the jerks who've been following her all day. She wasn't able to hear that ridiculous siren in the woods through the chorus of rustling leaves anymore, warranting a brief sigh of relief. As the drawn out sigh went on, she allowed her prize, a small, brown sack, slip from her once-toothy grip, and onto the grass between her paws. Now she was gasping for air. Running all morning was starting to take its effect.

The sound of the morning breeze racing through the tree leaves was nothing compared to the racket the stream in front of her made. With so many large rocks erupting from the rushing waters such noise was to be expected, not that it prevented her from getting annoyed. In her current state of high alert , fatigue, and the escalating concern of Team Justice finding her, skitty had become rather irritable, if not a more than a little delirious.

‘'Damn! Why is everything so loud?!'' She shouted at the top of her oxygen-deprived lungs, in an attempt to drown out nature's musical buzzing obnoxiously in her ears; almost as obnoxious as that damn siren. Still no sign of Justice? Skitty actually felt a pang of worry after crying out like that, but soon calmed down after taking a second to listen.

Still no sirens. She must have gotten some lead on them, almost enough to make her want to shout again, this time with joy-- but that would have been pressing her luck, which apparently found its way to her after taking a wrong turn in the woods. Thinking about it made her want to cry. Not that they would have been tears of joy.

‘'Great...what now?'' Skitty whimpered in a state of uncharacteristic helplessness.

She knew full well what she had to do. The bag staring up at her wasn't going to carry itself.

It had to go to him.

Her squinted, teary gaze glanced down at the bag she worked so hard to get that far. It had the same ‘'Team Justice'' or ‘'TJ'' logo he had described so thoroughly to her mere hours ago. If only he'd taken the time to tell her what exactly she was stealing for him, though she could only assume it was something extremely important.

So far all she was ever forced to ‘'commandeer'' for her new master ranged from berries to small trinkets- things she told her conscience wouldn't be readily missed for long anyway, however that apparently wasn't the case with whatever was in the bag. Not with how Justice almost immediately gave chase it wasn't. The skitty never had to run from anyone before, especially not the law, so as a result the pent up anxiety and nerve she felt only added to her escalating fatigue.

In this case escalating fatigue brought about her equally perked curiosity. Above all else, aside from making sure the bag came back unharmed, he made it perfectly clear that she wasn't allowed to open the bag, under any circumstances. How did he know Justice had the sack tied in a double knot anyway? It somehow boasted the contents importance in an odd way.

‘'Maybe just a peek...'' Skitty panted, while pawing at the double knot.

Without warning, she stopped pawing, not that she was doing a whole lot of it anyway. The same pesky feeling she wept to earlier was clawing its way through her head, and easily overshadowed whatever sense curiosity she had.

Guilt.

To her, the bag looked absolutely miserable in the paws of a ‘'remorseless'' thief.. If she didn't know better, the skitty would have thought the bag was crying with her, weeping and blubbering along for its rightful owner, but that was because her hot tears were now falling on the brown cloth.

Several beams of sun-light shone through the thick trees, peppering the grassy soil like holes of swiss cheese.  One of the beams fell on the wet surface of Team Justice's bag. With the light now on it, she could make out the glow of a round, shiny object; momentarily the skitty put a halt to her water works, giving her curiosity another chance to put her guilty conscious in the back seat once more.

‘'Hello, Delila.''

The terribly soothing voice came from directly behind her, just as she was about to reach out and get a feel of the round object with her paw. Once again, her eyes went blurry as she quickly darted around to face the one who'd snuck up behind her.

 As usual he didn't make a sound, at least not one the frantic girl could hear. A male zangoose, the very same man who was forcing Delila to steal for him. He was the real criminal mastermind behind the young feline's heists. Nervously she backed away, moving over the bag and almost tripping her rear into the flowing water. At the same time, her ‘'boss'' was padding his way forward, keeping the distance between them consistent. He might have continued coming toward her if his foot hadn't knocked at the bag, and caught his attention.

‘'Oh..I see you managed to acquire it after all. Here I was about to punish you for taking so long.''

Delila watched as her boss bent over and tore a hole in the back of the bag, more than a bit taken aback in knowing how close she was to being on the other end of those sharp razors. Then, her eyes went from mooning over those purple claws of his, and over to the contents of the bag. Was that a ball? No, not just any ball. After the zangoose eagerly scooped it out of the torn wreckage, Delila was finally able to tell what it was. A pokéball.

She'd heard of them once or twice in her own travels, before what she called her ‘'life of crime''. Rescue teams made the devices out the acorns of certain, denser trees, and used them as mini-prison cells to trap or transport vicious criminals. With that in mind, her little heart almost sank. It clearly explained why Team Justice members were chasing her so ruthlessly for so long, and knowing someone had to have been one of the worst of the worst pokemon alive to have a pokéball used on them, made the situation all the more dangerous for her.

What's more, from the way the zangoose smiled, Delila knew then that her boss planned to open it.

The clawed cat ferret pressed the button on the pokéball. It flipped its top open and blinded the little skitty with unnatural light. Upon seeing the pokémon that was once trapped in the round device, but now free, the little feline petrified on the spot and was struck dumb with horrible dread. 

The zangoose didn't realize it yet, but Delila could already tell: They just made the worst mistake of their lives.

***

"You ought to be honored that you've been given the opportunity to help in the ongoing mission for justice, newcomer."

"Sir, given the opportunity? You drafted me, sir!"

"All the same!"

Van, the militaristic plusle, and the poor, shy minun delegated to siren duty, made slow but steady progress in tracking down the feline thief. The plusle had reasoned that now they had a scent-tracker, the skitty could run all she wanted but would never be able to hide. The long arm of the law would reach her in time. The pikachu, however, intentionally kept up a fast pace as he followed the skitty's scent, for the longer he had to hear the minun wail away, the sooner he'd lose his marbles.

Thankfully, that fast pace brought peace to his long, pointy ears sooner than expected. The minun, having to act as siren and keep up a jogging pace with the pikachu and her superior, inevitably failed to keep up her oxygen intake. Her siren wavered into an exhausted groan before she fell over to her stomach in a heap.

Van and the plusle both stopped in their tracks and turned back to the fallen trainee. The pikachu's first thoughts on the matter were ‘oh, thank goodness,' but he kept his tongue still at the sight of the minun gasping for breath. The plusle, however, frowned as he walked up to the minun and pulled her back up to her feet.

"What do you think you're doing laying down on the job, trainee?" the plusle said sternly, holding the minun by the shoulders.

"Please, sir. I can't do the siren while we're moving this fast." The minun's eyes begged for mercy.

"When I was a trainee I'd have to do the siren while running an entire marathon's worth!" the plusle barked in her face.

Van thought the plusle was being way too harsh on the minun, but he was hesitant to intervene. His thoughts proved valid, though, when the little bunny girl with the blue ears and cheeks broke into tears. The pitiful display pierced the plusle's rugged demeanor straight into his heart.

"I'm trying as hard as I can, sir. Please don't be mad at me," the minun wept.

The plusle turned away for a moment and grumbled as the guilt hooked deep into his conscience. After some quick thinking, he suddenly placed his paw over the minun's mouth in order to quiet her. The minun stared back fearfully as fresh tears glistened her eyes.

"Sometimes I forget that the standards for Team Justice have changed over the years, trainee," the plusle stated, "I don't always agree with the changes, but I uphold our protocol to the letter. So, under the provision of the code for undercover investigations I give you permission to cease the siren. But I do not expect you to cry anymore. You have to be stronger than that if you want to be part of this team. Do I make myself clear?"

The minun silently nodded. Once the plusle removed his grasp from her, she quietly added, "Thank you, sir," as she wiped the tears from her face.

The plusle turned away from her, changing his focus back to the mission. "Newcomer, you still have that trail on the thief?" he asked the pikachu.

Van nodded. "Sir, I wouldn't lose a scent that easily."

"Good! If you keep this up I just might ask you to join Team Justice full-time. Now stop standing around like a slacker and keep on that trail!" The plusle ordered.

The pikachu groaned. "Yes, sir."

Ugh. At least the minun doesn't have to scream in my ear anymore, he thought. Looking back to the blue bunny, now visibly relieved, he added to himself, Huh. Ya know, when she's not yelling at the top of her lungs, she's got one cute face...

The blue bunny in question quickly glanced up, noticing that Van was paying an awful lot of attention to her all of a sudden. Right before he twisted his face forward in a quick huff, he noticed the subtle blush on minun's face.

It was more than likely the blush came from the fact that she made an utter fool of herself crying like that in front of a complete stranger, but that wasn't what Van was thinking.

One really cute face! Almost as cute as mom's...Not that he'd ever admit that about his mother. Not only would his father kick his ass (along with his mother) but he felt somewhat ashamed of finding his own mother attractive. Now he was thinking of home again, great.

Damn! This is no time to get homesick. Not right now, anyway.

"Hold it! I see something! Right there in the distance!" the plusle exclaimed. Van, lost in his thoughts, had lost track of time and stumbled to a halt. The minun, even more careless, bumped into Van's back and almost tripped backwards, but she regained her balance before she could embarass herself any further.

A bag could be seen left abandoned in the distance near a roaring river. At once the plusle scurried up to it. That left the pikachu to turn and face the minun, whose cheeks turned as red as her superior's.

"You okay back there, toots? You ran into me pretty hard," Van asked out of concern (and perhaps to test his chances with her.)

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to," the minun eeped.

"Yeah, but are you okay?"

"Well...yes. I'm okay."

"Well, that's good! Then you won't mind coming to my place?"

The minun's eyes popped. "What did you ask me?!"

Van flinched as he tried to save said chances. "I mean, once we catch the thief we're going to be hungry, right? I've got plenty of Oran berries back home. You're more than welcome to them."

The minun sighed. "Oh. I thought you meant something else. I'm sorry...again."

‘'Er, no problem I guess," Van replied, thankful he had dodged a bullet.

As if on cue, the plusle up ahead screamed ‘' FUCK!'' at the top of his lungs. If it didn't sound as urgent as it did, the minun might have given a sigh of relief (Not to mention a mental ‘thank you' to the plusle for saving her from the awkward conversation) but because it did, she ran right past Van without a moment's hesitation, leaving the pikachu alone and momentarily perplexed.

The bag was empty. Judging from the way the minun's superior was clutching both sides of the sack angrily with those stubby paws of his, she deduced that he wasn't in the best of moods. The red vein popping out of the side of the plusle's head didn't help much either.

‘'She took him! Damn that skitty!'' He roared.

Him? Minun thought to herself with a paw covering her mouth. Like the skitty who once held the bag the plusle was nearly tearing in half, the minun had no idea what, or apparently who was in the bag.

‘'Sir?''

As if sensing minun's actual question, plusle turned to face her, having to look both ways before realizing she was standing by his right side. The stressed gritting of his teeth showed he wasn't in the mood to play twenty-questions with a trainee.

‘'Talk later--Newcomer! Over here on the double!''

The orders of the plusle proved to be exasperating at this point for the pikachu, but nontheless he quickly joined the plusle and minun to face the two as the three now stood by the flowing, noisy stream. He pointed out in annoyance, "Sir, I do have a name. It's ‘Van.'"

"Don't give me lip, Newcomer! We have a Code Black situation on our hands and if we don't find the skitty responsible, this forest is likely to go to hell in a handbasket," the plusle barked.

"A code black, sir?!" gasped the minun, her paws covering her mouth in shock. The plusle paid no heed. Van, meanwhile, had no idea what the bunny with the red ears and cheeks was talking about, and stared at him, puzzled.

"Get back on that skitty's trail," the plusle ordered Van, "We will chase that thief to the end of the world if we have to and interrogate her on what she's done with the contents of that bag!"

The pikachu nearly groaned aloud in response, but the piercing eyes of the otherwise cuddly-looking bunny silenced his tongue.

"Yes, sir," he said instead, restraining his irritation at the situation. He put his nose back to work for Team Justice. As soon as he zeroed in on the Skitty's scent again, he went off at a near-sprint. The plusle and minun followed Van close, matching his speed, as the pikachu tracked the little cat like a rodent possessed.

 That cat trampled me and got me dragged along on a wild goose chase! Grrr...as soon as I find her, she's got some explainin' to do, Van thought angrily.

Little did he know that moments after the pikachu thought this, he and the skitty were about to meet head-on. Literally.

BAM! Van, in the middle of his sprint, ran right into the skitty, Delila, who was running in the opposite direction with quite a fright. The two pokémon painfully butted heads, yelping in pain, before falling onto the sides of their torsos, both suffering concussions from the impact.

"There she is!"

The plusle leapt in a long arc like a predator pouncing his prey, landing right upon the skitty before trapping her bulbous noggin in a headlock. Not wanting to slack off, the minun rushed up and pinned down the skitty's tail with her paws. Now the pair from Team Justice had the little kitty right where they wanted her.

"That was far faster than I expected, newcomer," the plusle complemented van, "I commend you for your work!"

the pikachu was still recovering from the concussion at that point. He shook his body a bit before rising up to two feet, holding his head from the lingering pain.

"Ugh...Thanks, I guess." He saw that the skitty hadn't fully recovered yet either from her own concussion, but he couldn't help but grin. At this point, the feline was clearly toast. But as she began to stir, the feline quickly struggled with the two electric bunny-things pinning her down in a state of panic. Try as she might, though, she lacked the strength to throw both of them off.

"No, no! Get off! I have to run away!" she cried.

"You're not going anywhere, thief. You're under arrest!" the plusle barked, "Don't make me put a sleeper hold on you! I know you snatched away what was in that bag, and if you don't tell us where it is immediately I will use force to the maximum extent of our code!"

As the plusle spoke, squeezing his lock on the skitty's neck as he did so, Van noticed something strange. Not too far behind the skitty and Team Justice, he saw a peculiar glint hidden under the cover of foliage. His nose then caught a new scent. To his surprise, it smelled very similar to his raichu father, but this scent did not fill him with the memories of home.

It filled him, instead, with a sense of imminent danger; someone was about to strike!

"Sir! Behind you!" Van tried to warn, but it was too late. Something round and shiny suddenly flew out from the bushes, hurtling towards the plusle. He had turned his head to try to see the threat Van warned about, only to see a pokéball shoot past the space between the minun's ears and bean him square between the eyes.

"Agh!" the little commander called out in pain. Before he could react, the pokéball popped open and shot out a beam of red light at him. The plusle disappeared in a bright flash, nearly blinding everyone around him in the process, and then the pokéball closed and fell down to the ground, wiggling about as its new prisoner fought to break free.

The minun gasped as everyone's eyes looked down at the ball. "Oh, no! Sir!" The blue-eared rodent released her grip, about to run up to the pokéball to press the release mechanism. She barely made a single step, however, before a large paw suddenly grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and lifted her off the ground.

The skitty, seeing the paw that yanked the minun upward, screamed in fright and ran towards Van for cover, cowering behind the yellow rodent helplessly. Van almost wished he had cover of his own, for he now saw with his own eyes the threat that towered over the lot of them. It was a raichu, the first Van had seen since he left the comfort of his home, and this raichu seemed as old as his father as well. By the sight of the thick muscles of the orange rodent's legs, the swing of his massive, sharp tail, and the sparks of static in its cheeks as he looked closely at the minun now squealing and thrashing about in futility, the pikachu could tell that this raichu was powerful, rugged, and ruthless beyond compare.

"Ehehehe! This day just keeps getting better and better," the raichu laughed, "First I wiped that cocky look off that damn cat ferret's ugly face, and now I've got that little pipsqueak of a commander in the same pokéball he put me in. I even got his little trainee girl for a plaything!"

The minun thrashed about even harder now, her fear quickly escalating, annoying the raichu to the point that he had to resort to tucking the little blue rodent under his armpit, restraining her arms as he casually walked to pick up the pokéball from the ground. Van leaned back a bit in anxiety when the raichu drew closer, stepping back into a defensive stance, but it was obvious the raichu failed to see any threat in the smaller, yellow rodent.

"Van, please! Help me! Don't let him take us a-MMMPH!" As the minun pleaded for help, the raichu shoved the pokéball into her mouth.

"Carry that for me, will you? Thanks," the raichu told her, patting her head like an obedient dog.

The minun could do nothing now, except cry, as her tears begged Van to save her and her commander. Almost instinctively Van barked "Hey, put her down!" whilst puffing out his chest, putting him in direct eye contact with the vicious looking raichu. As the raichu's maniacal sneer turned into a feral grunt, Van found himself deeply regretting the fool-hardy decision gesture.  With his chest deflating out of fear the two males continued exchanging intense glares, leaving the minun sobbing and glancing frantically between the two.

‘'Who are you?'' raichu snorted aggressively. Though he saw very little threat in the smaller rodent he made it known by his rough stare that he'd have no problems dealing with Van should he give the raichu a reason. Van's throat tightened in a futile effort to stop a croak from escaping.

Me and my big mouth! Van thought.

"What's the matter? Skitty caught your tongue?" the raichu taunted with a sneer. The feline whimpered behind Van as the raichu said this.

Caught in a moment that tested his character and resolve, frustration at his own cowardice forced the pikachu to press on in spite of his gut screaming for him to run for his life. "Van! Th-that's who I am," the yellow rodent replied as courageously as he could (not very well, unfortunately), "And I don't like the way you're treating that cute minun!"

The raichu stared at him for a moment, letting the words sink in. "Oh! You were planning to fuck her too!" he exclaimed suddenly.

Van immediately became flustered. "No! I mean, Yes! I mean...uh, er-"

The large rodent in front of Van threw his head back and laughed loud and heartily. When he finished, his audience staring incredulously at him by now, he began to speak:

"Let me tell you something, Van. A long time ago I had a pretty girl right in my clutches. She was a pikachu, just like you, and she was the cutest virgin I ever laid my paws upon. But just when I was hard and ready to put it in, WHAM! My friend conks me out and runs like hell out of the territory with her! And the worst part is, when the general goes hunting after them, he doesn't come back with the girl that should've been mine. No! I'M the one who gets in trouble instead because of some bullshit claim that my friend got the right to her first! Double-crossing backstabber!"

The raichu clenched his paw and shook it angrily to the air before calming down. "What I'm saying, Van, is that I hate cockblockers. The lot of them could go die in a fire for all I care. But you know what I hate just as much? Being a cockblocker! So tell you what: instead of cockblocking each other we'll settle this like males ought to: with a fight!"

Van's heart nearly leaped out of his ribcage as his body surged with adrenaline. But just as he was certain he was absolutely, positively boned, the raichu shook his head.

"No, not right now! How the hell are we going to fight if we've got to keep one eye on our girls? Got to secure the goods first," he explained.

"Girls?" Van repeated anxiously.

"Hell yeah! You think the skitty's not up for grabs too? Two is better than one, I always say."

Delila, the feline behind Van, could no longer contain her panic. "No, no, no!" she cried.

The skitty took off in fright from Van's left, desperate to escape from the raichu. She only made it by a few gallops. With terrifyingly swift reflexes, the raichu shot his free paw towards the fleeing feline and unleashed a leaping current of a paralyzing thunder wave. The electrocution struck Delila hard as she tripped onto her side, her muscles now refusing to work.

"She's limp as a fish now," the raichu quipped.

Van's jaw dropped at the sight as he gasped at the ruthless act of violence. At once the pikachu rushed towards the skitty, checking for electrical burns as he turned her onto her back. Thankfully there were none. His gaze turned back angrily towards the raichu.

"Hey! One of us had to keep her in line," he said, annoyed at Van's reaction, "I don't know how you were raised, but where I come from girls are supposed to be our property. Sometimes you've got to remind them where their place is; but if your heart's not in it, you've got every right to forfeit. Then I'll take the girls to do to them as I please and you can fuck off for all I care."

The minun's teary eyes glistened as they begged for Van not to abandon them. He saw similar dismay in the face of the skitty below him. Pressure began to mount on the pikachu to do the right thing. But how? He thought of what his father might do. Alas, he lacked a raichu's strength to clean this particular raichu's clock. No, he needed a different approach.

An idea, crazy and not likely to work, suddenly clicked in Van's head, but with little else to go on he ran with it anyway. "Okay, I'll take you on. I've got to ask, though: you sure you want to settle this with a fight?"

The raichu before him raised his brow curiously. "What? The hell you talking about?"

"Okay...say we do fight. We go at, butting heads and throwing thunderbolts at each other. But whoever's going to win is going to be so banged up and jittering with electric sparks that he won't get the chance to enjoy his prize anytime soon, am I right? And if the winner gets bones broken or electric burns, that's even worse!"

the larger rodent cocked his head, taking some time to go over Van's argument. He was ultimately unimpressed. "So you might get a lucky hit and ruin my plans for the next few days. So what? How else would we settle things? Males always fight for the pussy!"

"Yeah, we guys fight for it...but what if we drank for it instead?"

Now the raichu's interest was piqued. "Go on."

"Nothing makes a male a male more than their thirst for alcohol," Van continued with enthusiasm, building momentum for his crazy idea, "And everyone knows mixing Max Elixirs makes one really hard drink. So, instead of fighting, we'll see who can down them the most! Last male standing wins! And the worst thing that can happen is a hangover, so all the winner has to do is sleep it off and they'll soon be good to go!"

The moment hung as Van finished his offer and waited to see the raichu's answer. He hoped beyond hope that his idea would work. All the while, though, the skitty and the minun eyed him like he had gone off the deep end. Again the raichu had to take a moment to let it all sink him. His eyes scanned the ground, weighing the proposition...

...until at last he looked back towards the pikachu before him, contorting his muzzle into a grin. "I like your style, little guy. I haven't had an excuse to get drunk in the longest time, but to win a pair of pussies and watch you fall to the ground in a pool of your own vomit is as good a reason as any! Just one condition: we're bringing our own drinks. I still trust you about as far as I can throw you."

"What? Oh! Not a problem. Not at all," Van blurted, surprised that his idea actually worked.

"Good. You better bring plenty of those elixirs, ‘cause you're gonna need every last bottle. We'll meet up right at this spot again at midday, just us and the girls. Oh, and lots of rope to tie'em up too."

The raichu turned his back on Van and began to walk off. "I'll let you look after the little cat until then. And just so you know, even with a drinking game your chances of winning are slim. I wouldn't blame you if you snuck in a quickie, if you know what I mean."

Van was able to catch one last glimpse of the minun before the raichu had turned. Beneath the tears he spotted a shimmer of hope in the fellow rodent. Still, he hated the idea of leaving her alone with the raichu and he hated not having the strength to smack that raichu down. It could've impressed her so much to be her knight in shining armor.

As soon as the raichu was out of sight, Van let out a long, heavy sigh. He dropped down, close to where the skitty lied on her back, still paralyzed, and rested his head against her tiny belly like a pillow. Understandably the skitty started to glare at him, for it at once frightened and angered her that Van could very easily do what the raichu had suggested.

"This is all your fault, you know," Van mentioned matter-of-factly, peering back unfazed at her hostile gaze.

"I didn't know I was doing a jailbreak, I swear!" Delila blurted back, "The boss always had me stealing things. Apples, elixirs, stuff like that. He never said anything about a pokeball! But it doesn't matter anymore. He killed my boss! And if we don't get out of here we're next!"

"Something tells me he's not aiming to kill you," Van remarked, as if making light of the situation.

Delila's eyes flared with a mix of anger and fear. "I'm not going to be his plaything!" the skitty declared.

"No, you'd rather let the rookie cop take your place on that one, right?" Van confronted, getting up to stare down right into her gaze. He crossed his arms and frowned. "You get to kill two birds with one stone and run off scot-free. Is that what you were thinking?"

"W-w-what? No, it's not like that!" Delila insisted. "You saw that raichu. He's a huge thug. We don't have a ghost of a chance taking him on if he shocks us. What's keeping him from double-crossing us and just taking what he wants?"

"He hates being a cockblocker?" Van suggested.

"What kind of messed up reasoning is that?!" Deliah exclaimed.

"I don't know, but it's all we've got to work with," Van answered back. "What's your name, by the way? And you think you can stand now?"

Delila tested the motion of her tiny little legs. The feeling had started to come back in them. "It's Delila. And, I think so," she said, unsure.

"I'm Van. And good. I'm going to need all the help I can get grabbing those Max Elixirs. There's no way I could buy enough of them on my own. I mean, the ends will justify the means, right?" Van explained. He stepped over to one side of the skitty and scooped his paws beneath her waist to raise her upwards. The grab surprised Delila as she was placed on her feet.

"H-hey! I can get up on my own!" Delila insisted.

"Relax, kitty. If I wanted to rape you, I would've started as soon as the raichu left," the pikachu assured her. He then added, while petting her brow, "Plus, you look really cute when you get teased."

"Take off the paw or I'll take it off for you," the skitty hissed.

Van promptly pulled his paw away. He didn't feel like getting bitten. The cat hurt him enough today as it is. "Okay, fine. I'll respect that personal bubble. But you're still helping me get those max elixirs."

"That's the most that I owe you," Delila added, staring at Van icily.

The pikachu felt his chances with the skitty plummet like a stone. He let off a defeated sigh. Guess I shouldn't try my luck when tension's running high, he thought.

***

The little blue rabbit labored to breathe. The pokéball that kept her superior captive had stayed in her mouth ever since the raichu tucked her underneath one arm and stuffed it in her mouth to quiet her. By now she had been trapped in the raichu's grip for hours, carried about through the woods like a highly prized catch.

"Don't even think about dropping that pokéball," the large, burly rodent had warned with a smile, tormenting her on purpose, "I won't pick him back up if you do. You don't want to lose your commanding officer, do you?"

She had whined and shook her head. Thus she remained gagged. She put up with the unpleasant taste of the ball in her mouth as best as she could, as well as the humiliation of being a hostage when she was supposed to be an enforcer of the law. Some backup she turned out to be! She should've been the one in that pokéball, not the plusle. She should've jumped in the path of that thing so the plusle, one of the best in Team Justice, could've shown that brute that no one was above the law!

But no. Instead, the raichu strutted about like he owned the minun and everything else beneath the forest canopy. Despicable.

The bunny witnessed, as the hours of the morning ticked by, how the sizable rodent gathered the elixirs. He dashed through the wilderness with little effort on his set of thick, muscular legs, following his nose to beeline to the nearest supply. Said supply was usually in someone's hut. But did that stop the raichu? Not in the slightest. Usually it played out like this:

"Oh, Furret, it's wonderful to be by your side in your cozy, humble hut."

"It's just as wonderful to be by yours, Furrette. What say we drink the day away with our elixirs and...consummate our relationship?"

"Hee-hee-hee!"

SMASH!

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!"

"Oh my word, who are you?! You punched the door right off its hinges!"

"I'm only gonna say this once! Hand over all the elixirs you got or else I'm giving your mate the hottest dicking in her life! I'm dead fucking serious!"

"Nooooooooo! My precious virginity! Furret, give him what he wants, quickly!"

"T-Take them! Just leave my dear Furrette alone, you brute!"

"Gladly!"

Such brazen methods proved to be the raichu's modus operandi. But they worked. Most inhabitants of the forest lost their nerve at the sight of him busting into their homes, all whilst carrying the gagged minun, which further convinced them that the raichu would make anyone his plaything, given the chance. His unusual set of morals regarding sex, however, meant the aggressive usurping of the elixirs relied on nothing more than a bluff. An effective bluff, but still just a bluff.

By the time mid-day drew near, the raichu smugly carried over his shoulder a sack nearly stuffed to the brim with Max Elixirs, its opening closed tight with a knotted rope. He had casually strolled to the rendezvous point in the woods, not worried that anyone would make an effort to stop him. When he did arrive, he discovered he and the minun were the first to get there. No sign of the pikachu or the skitty, or anyone for that matter.

"Looks like we have some time to kill," the raichu observed. He dropped the sack to the side and sat down in the middle of the clearing, right where he first snatched the minun and gagged her with the pokéball.

The minun popped her eyes in surprise and gasped as the raichu yanked said ball out from her mouth. "No, wait!" she pleaded.

"Would you relax?" the raichu grunted. "No yelling, or I stuff it back in."

The little bunny's heartbeat quickened, fearful of what the raichu would do with her commanding officer. Would he throw him away? Destroy the pokéball, killing the plusle in the process? The longer the raichu held up the small sphere to peer at it, the greater her paranoia became.

Eventually, the large rodent chuckled. He pushed the pokéball deep into the bag of elixirs, mixing it with the bottles inside. When he pulled his paw back out, the minun saw he now grasped a drink for himself, which was kept in a discreet, brown bottle similar to a flask but with a bit of a bulge. This relieved her worries very little. The last place she wanted to be was somewhere alone with this thug, and that fact came to the forefront of her mind once the plusle was stashed away. 

He beamed to the minun in his grasp. "I got a ton of drinks and a little cutie," he boasted, "Just you wait. Once that little pikachu keels over and passes out from the alcohol I'll show you and the skitty what you've been missing."

The minun silently glared back.

"Haha! Lots of females give me that look. But ten minutes in with me, and they start singing a different tune," he went on boasting.

He pried off the cap of the bottle with his teeth and spat it aside. He took a few modest sips. The drink went down smooth and proved harsh on the tastebuds, but that's exactly as the raichu liked it. As he drank, however, his ears picked up the sounds of the captive minun starting to whimper.

"You wouldn't make me sing. You'd just make me cry. You're a terrible, terrible male. I don't know why anyone would want to break you free," she said.

"Oh, you mean like that zangoose? Haha!" replied the raichu, "The way he looked down on me and showed off those claws of his you'd think he was king around here. He was trying to make me his muscle! But I don't take orders from anyone, or else my name isn't Amp! And I bet he's pretty pissed up there that I'm going to get his little pussy. Well, sucks for him!"

Amp placed his drink down on the ground, right beside his bag. His paws took hold of the minun on both sides of her waist as he removed her from beneath his armpit to hold her up. As the bunny hanged in the raichu's grasp, her eyes level to his, she bit down on her lip. The raichu eyed her much like a predator eyeing his prey.

"The pikachu and skitty sure are taking their time. Maybe they bailed on you, little bunny," the large rodent speculated, "I wouldn't blame them if they did."

Amp pulled the minun closer in. Without warning, he stuck out his tongue and cleaned the tears off the spots of blue on her cheeks with a couple of slow, firm licks. The minun's heart skipped a beat as she gasped. "N-no! Don't! You're supposed to wait for them!" she pleaded, pushing back against the raichu's cheeks in vain.

"Oooh...haven't felt a touch that soft in forever," sighed the raichu. "You and me, minun, are going to have some fun."

***

 Delila never felt so undignified. "Why do I have to wear this stupid thing?!"

The skitty meant the collar around her neck and the leash attached to it, which Van held at the other end a few feet behind her. The two pokémon walked together en route to the meeting point, albeit slowly. The pikachu's bag of elixirs proved quite heavy, making every step the yellow rodent took quite the chore.

"I told you, Delila, we have to be convincing or else he'll call the whole thing off," Van groaned. "If he thinks he'll lose the chance to win you, he'll bail with the minun, and we can't let that happen. That's why you're wearing that leash."

"Just because I'm wearing a leash, though, doesn't mean you have to carry it. I'm not your pet!" Delila hissed.

"Well, you can't promise you won't lose your nerve when you're near that raichu again," Van reasoned, "So I might as well carry it now. Besides, you look really cute with a collar on."

"Uuugh! I can't believe you're still hitting on me," said Delila with disgust. "Please tell me you're not going to all this trouble just for a chance to get laid."

"What? No, of course not."

"Liar! Males are all the same. They'll do anything to get laid."

"I swear, I'm just trying to do the right thing. Come on, Delila, you're being unfair. I'm the one helping to clean your mess! Hell, you'd already be the raichu's plaything if I wasn't around to save your bacon."

"Marching me back to that thug with a leash is your idea of saving my bacon!?" Delila exclaimed.

"Well, how else were we going to save the minun, huh? I didn't hear any bright ideas from you while you were cowering behind me," Van argued.

Delila hung her head as the debate between her and the pikachu left her more and more distraught. "I steal one wrong thing and I end up being gambled between males without a hint of shame, just so you can get in bed with a damsel in distress! I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!"

The skitty's whining really started to get on Van's nerves. "I know what I'm doing, Delila," the pikachu stated with irritation, raising his voice as he spoke, "When this is over, that raichu will be too drunk to be a threat to anybody. We'll save Team Justice and I'll get on the minun's good side and then you can run off and do whatever the hell you want!"

Delila's stride came to a sudden halt, as if the words of the pikachu stunned her. She stared towards the ground and trembled as a well of emotions inside her threatened to burst. Van came to a stop as well, at first perplexed. But his long, pointed ears wilted to the sides as he soon realized he struck a delicate nerve.

"Delila? Are you alright?" Van asked.

No answer, save for some sniffling. Delia struggled with every ounce of her will not to break down on the spot. It demanded so much from the skitty that she couldn't budge from where she stopped.

"Everyone wants to use me. No one cares about me," the skitty started to cry, "My boss, that raichu, even you! All of you just want to use me!"

Her willpower succumbed to sadness as she crumbled to a sitting position, bent her head back, and sobbed to the heavens. The tears of the feline poured pitifully down her cheeks. For Van, the sight of the skitty crushed by life's misfortunes proved heart-wrenching. At the same time, though, panic struck him. He never dealt well with weeping girls. Usually the girl in question was one of his sisters and he'd be at fault in some way or another, but his mom would swoop in to make everything right. Not this time, however.

Oh, hell! Think of something fast, Van, he thought, I can't bring her along like this. She couldn't take it! Okay, so...what was it that mom did to cheer up my sisters? Oh yeah, that! That worked every time!

Van dropped the bag of elixirs and the leash from his grasp. He rushed towards the skitty. He paused for a moment as he stood in front of the feline, who in her sobbing was oblivious to the pikachu's proximity. He gulped a knot down in his throat as the likelihood of getting clawed in the face crossed his mind, but he was out of options and had little time to spare.

Here goes nothing! The pikachu threw himself forward and opened his arms wide. The skitty's crying stopped with a gasp as the yellow rodent pressed the warmth of his body against her chest and curled his reach around her back. To the feline's shock and surprise she now sat so deep in the pikachu's embrace that their hearts thumped right against each other.

Van immediately assumed, as his little sister often said, he was in too deep. He surely crossed the line. He gritted his teeth as he repeated in his head: please-don't-scratch-me-please-don't-scratch-me-please-don't-scratch-me-oh-god-oh-god-oh-god.

Once the initial shock wore off, the feline's eyes immediately flared with incredulous fury. The skitty swiftly responded as one might expect: she flailed her tiny forepaws and punished Van with some serious scratching.

"Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!"

"Don't touch me like that again!" Delila hissed, once she was done, "And if you're serious about that minun, don't touch her like that either! She'll think you're a slimy, no-good creep!"

The poor pikachu reeled in pain, thoroughly raked by the skitty's modest claws. He counted his lucky stars that said claws were tiny and the feline hadn't aimed for his face, or else the fury swipes would've slashed and scarred him like a run-in with a homicidal blender.

"Well...aaagh...it got you to stop crying, at least," he joked between groans of pain as he tried his best to brush off his mistake. He hobbled over back to the sack of elixirs and  the leash to pick them up. "Come on, Delila. Let's keep going. You won't have to worry about anyone using you after we've dealt with that raichu. He's the real creep. I'm just bad with females."

"That you are," Delila confirmed with a narrowed gaze at Van. She wiped off the tears from her face before walking onwards to the rendezvous point.

"Rub it in, why don't you? Geez!" Van bounced back as he followed the feline.

"It's less than you deserve," Delila answered matter-of-factly.

***

"Please, stop! I'm not enjoying this!"

"Liar. Your body's telling me otherwise."

The minun, pinned to the ground upon her back by Amp's paws and greater size, trembled as the raichu's touch, by his grasp and his tongue, shamelessly indulged in violating her. He had already stolen a kiss from her, aggressively intertwining their tongues in the process. Now, she buried her face in her paws in humiliation. The raichu had forced her tiny legs apart and lifted them, giving himself easy access to the sensitive spot between them as he lied prone.

"Body and mind...are two different things!" the minun insisted, gasping between phrases.

"Didn't think you were the big-thinker type," Amp teased between licks. "Maybe that means you don't get laid enough."

"N-no!" the blue bunny whined.

"No, you don't get laid enough?"

"No it's not *gasp* true!"

"Oh, so you get fucked all the time then?"

"Nooo!"

"I bet that red rabbit's putting it in every day. I bet he pounds you like you're a lopunny!"

"Stop it!" the minun whined on, shaking her head, "Stop saying those things!"

"What? I know how bunnies are," Amp pressed on, rubbing one paw between the minun's legs to tease her further, "There's no middle ground for any of you. Just one little hint of lust and you end up fucking each other like crazy."

The minun clenched her teeth and dug her paws into the soil as she struggled to resist the raichu's attempts to arouse her. "That's an *gasp* ugly *gasp* stereotype!" she insisted.

"There's a grain of truth to those," Amp rebutted, smiling devilishly, "And it's going to work right in my favor."

The raichu dropped the minun's legs back down to the ground, only to seize his grip upon one side of the little bunny's torso. The eyes of the rabbit widened at this sudden move, knowing what the raichu had in mind would be anything but innocent. The raichu then confirmed the blue rabbit's fears as he rolled her without warning upon her stomach.

"No, wait a min- Agh!" She had tried to push her chest off the ground, but the paws of the raichu pinned her down. She turned her head to rest one side of her spotted cheeks against the ground as she clenched the earth beneath her with newfound anxiety. She had to in such a position to keep the taste of dirt from her lips.

Amp continued on preparing the minun, so sure he was that he owned her now. He kept one paw pressed down on the rabbit's little back as his other paw reached for the blue, rectangular protrusion that sat on her stout, rounded tail.

"Don't touch that! Please!" begged the minun, but such begging proved futile. Amp played with her tail, stroking and bending the protrusion, until he bent it back to fully expose her glutes. The nerves in the tail proved sensitive to the raichu's touch, causing her breath to stammer. Said breathing became even more erratic as the raichu let himself down and pulled his body forward. Inch by inch the large rodent slid over the little rabbit, trapping the minun beneath the weight of his body as the warm flesh and soft fur of his underbelly intimately and provocatively rubbed against her.

In just moments, Amp had moved to spoon his groin against the minun's glutes. If the dominating position didn't clue the rabbit in on the raichu's intentions, the moist, hardened member gave her the most salient hint of all. As the length of the raichu's malehood rested against her sex, the minun's heart pounded frantically against the ground. She took rapid breaths as her composure began to crumble, the dominance and libido of the brutish male on top of her threatening to set off her instincts.

"Bet you never felt that kind of dick before," Amp teased. He subtly rocked his hips to hug the lips of the minun's sex around the girth of his erection. They turned all the wetter, much to his delight. By now, the minun barely had the capacity to talk, but she got out one last plea between breaths:

"Please...spare me...I can't...not ready...I'll do...anything!"

"Oh, it's way too late for that," Amp answered, "I'm going to fuck you, and keep fucking you, until dark. Then we'll find a nice hole in the ground where I'll keep on fucking you, again and again, until the sun comes up. Oh, you're going to be quite the little nymph when I'm through with you."

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" 

A sudden voice in the distance caught Amp's attention. He lifted his head, just in time for a bottle of Max Elixir, tumbling through the air, to whack him in the face. He recoiled from the hit, pulling his penis away from the minun. The minun lifted her head as well. As soon as she spotted a certain pikachu who had thrown the bottle moments before, flanked by a certain skitty on a leash and an oversized bag, her spirits leaped as if she had just been rescued.

"Oh my god! You came after all!" she exclaimed.

"And not a moment too soon!" Van replied, "Are you okay?"

"I'm just glad you're here," the minun answered back, sighing, "I nearly gave up."

"You just hang in there, girl! Van's going to make everything right. Just you wait!" Van assured her.

Amp rubbed the sore spot where the bottle struck him, making sure to keep the minun in place. In great irritation he glared at Van. "What the hell took you so long?" he growled, "I thought you bailed so you could keep that cat for yourself!"

As the raichu's eyes fell upon Van, the sight of some scratches gave him pause. Then, he connected the dots, or so he thought: "Oh, I get it! You got caught up showing that skitty who's the boss! No wonder she's on a leash," he observed with a laugh.

Van and Delila peered to each other quizzically for a moment before the pikachu stumbled to save face. "Y-yeah, that's it! I showed her who was the boss. Yeah," he confirmed, though not very convincingly.

"He sure showed me who was the boss," the skitty added with mild sarcasm as she gave the pikachu an amused look.

"Well, good for you!" Amp said, the sarcasm lost on him, "And I'm glad you brought that leash. We'll get the girls tied up with that and then we'll start our contest proper. I hope you're ready to lose, little pikachu!"

The skitty and minun both frowned, not too thrilled with the idea of being bound like damsels in distress. But Van put on his best face. The situation called for tenacity.

"Don't give yourself too much credit. It ain't over ‘til it's over," Van stated, pointing a finger of his paw with confidence at the raichu as he struck a heroic pose. Delila stared at him in utter disbelief, her confidence in Van's plan rapidly plummeting.

The raichu grinned. "You'll learn to think twice before messing with Amp."

***

Amp first took it upon himself to tie up Delila and the minun. The leash the skitty wore proved quite useful in "securing the goods," as the raichu would put it. Once detached from Delia's collar, a good part of its length coiled around the two females by the waist, binding them back-to-back, while what remained of the leash wrapped around the trunk of a nearby tree, thus tying them right against its bark. Delila glared at Amp all the while as he tied the knots, but the minun kept from making eye contact, instead keeping her gaze upon Van, who had no choice but to watch for now. The pikachu shot the minun a wink and a smile in an attempt to keep up her spirits.

"Don't worry, girls. I'll be right back to give you both a really good time," Amp assured.

"Die in a fire!" Delila hissed.

Amp laughed off the verbal barb as he turned and walked away, heading towards Van. As he did so, the minun sighed.

"I hope he knows what he's doing," she said worriedly.

"Who, Van?" the skitty whispered back, "He doesn't, really, but he's doing it anyway. I swear, males will do anything for a pretty face. I mean, does he even know your name?"

"Well...it never came up," the minun replied sheepishly. "It's Azu."

"Delila. Your dad an Azumarrill?"

"Yes," Azu answered in embarrassment. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Well, listen up, Azu," Delila went on to say quite seriously, "If Van doesn't screw up, that thug of a raichu won't be sober enough to stop us from breaking free. Just wait until I give the word."

"But how are we going to break free? There's a lot of leash wrapped around us," the minun pointed out.

"Let me worry about that," Delila told Azu.

Just a short distance away, the pikachu named Van stood face-to-face with the raichu named Amp. Beside each of them sat on the ground their respective bag of Max Elixirs. There were just moments left before the two rodents would gulp down the contents of each bottle, one by one, as though they were dying of thirst in the desert.

The raichu noticed that the pikachu kept eyeing the two girls tied up behind him. "Yeah, you better get a good look at them, ‘cause it's the last you'll ever see of them," Amp taunted, "Now toss me one of your drinks."

The request surprised Van. "Wait, one of my drinks? Why?"

"You think I don't expect you to try to pull a fast one on me? I know my Max Elixirs. If what's in that bottle is too watered down, I've got every reason to smack you around for being a dirty cheater. Now hand one over!"

"Alright, Alright! Sheesh," Van conceded as he pulled a bottle from his bag and tossed it over, "What kind of rodent do you take me for?"

"A desperate one, at least," Amp answered, before popping off the cap of the bottle with his teeth. He tipped the opening of the bottle right into his mouth and noisily chugged its contents. Soon afterward, he tossed the bottle aside, then promptly burped.

"Oh, that's genuine alright! My taste buds don't lie," Amp commended, "Max Elixirs don't get any purer in taste than that. Now here, take one of mine. Don't want you thinking I'm a dirty cheater."

Van caught in his paws a bottle of Max Elixir thrown to him by the raichu. He twisted off the cap and smelled the contents. "Ah heh heh," he laughed nervously, "Well, the scent is genuine. But how do I know there isn't something slipped in this thing I wouldn't want to drink?"

"What, you mean like a roofie? Hell no, that's not my style! The blue bunny can tell you I didn't mess with any of them. I was fooling around with her instead because you and the cat were so damn late!"

"He's telling the truth, Van," Azu confirmed, though with a hint of shame.

"Well, if that's the case...then, bottom's up!" Van picked up the bottle and tilted it right against the lips of his mouth. As soon as the liquid rushed over his taste buds, however, his eyes popped open in shock.

"Ack! Cough! Hgh!" The pikachu stomped the bottle down into the ground, leaning upon it as he convulsed and cleared his throat in revulsion. The worst of aftertastes lingered in his mouth, as though he had just drank a quart of gasoline. "That's the worst thing I ever put in my mouth!" he exclaimed.

"What, you think I'd go for something fruit-flavored?" Amp remarked with a laugh, "That's a girl's drink! Real males drink it pure."

Van started to settle down as he straightened his stance and wiped his mouth clean with the back of his paw. Though tempted to remark sardonically about Amp's conception of a ‘real' male, he kept his tongue still. But to his surprise, someone else spoke up in his defense.

"Van is more of a real male than you'll ever be!" Azu proclaimed loudly, much to Delila's horror.

"Ex-nay!" the skitty warned in a whisper.

Amp peered back to the bound minun with amusement. "Oh really? You know what I see when I look at that pikachu? A pretty-boy who can't handle his alcohol. He should've been born with a notch in his tail! Ha, ha, ha!" 

The insult struck Van like a two-by-four in the face. His clutch tightened angrily on the neck of the bottle he held. "I'll show you who the real male is!" he challenged, before throwing back his head and chugging the rest of the bottle down in seconds. Once the bottle was drained, he tossed it over and behind his head, standing as tall and proud as he could while girding himself against the elixir's horrible flavor.

Amp responded in kind, welcoming Van's challenge, as the raichu finished off his own drink and tossed it aside as well. "Then may the best male win," he said.

***

Glug, glug, glug...

Glug, glug glug...

Glug, glug, glug...

The pikachu and raichu consumed their beverages one by one at an alarming and reckless rate. The empty bottles, together now numbering over a dozen, formed two piles, one beside each rodent. Those piles proved a good indicator of the amount of alcohol ingested, as well as the steadiness of their feet (or lack thereof), the slur in their speech, and the growing tint of red in their beady eyes. Though Amp proved stabler than Van on his feet, he hiccuped frequently and slouched in depression, whereas the smaller pikachu constantly leaned and wavered against the bottle he was drinking, enduring the deepest, drunken stupor he had ever experienced. The two bound females watching the scene unfold understandably felt less than comfortable, for they were like forced witnesses to the breakdown of the rodents' mental inhibitions. Delila and Azu knew in their hearts that nothing good could come out of this.

"Oh mah gawd," Van slurred (how he could in his present state, no one could say,) "The more Ah drink dis, tha better it tasteth!" He pointed an unsteady finger at Amp. "Heyth! It's your tuuuurn naow. Drink up!"

"Why're you so damn chirpy? What do you have to *hic* be so happy about?" Amp rumbled. He tossed his head back, guzzled down an elixir, and threw it down to the ground. "Everything's terrible!"

Van stumbled to get a new bottle from his bag. "I dunno what yer prob is, Amp! These drinks are greeeeeat!" The pikachu lost his footing and fell on his back, but he just laughed it off and tipped the contents of his umpeenth drink straight into his mouth.

"You want to know what's *hic* pissing me off?" Amp replied, as he tore off the cap of another bottle to chug yet another drink, "The more drunk I get, *hic* the more you start looking like her!"

The answer half-registered in Van's head as he peered over to the raichu from where he lay. "Ya know, tha mor ah drink, the more ya look like mah dad. Thath's so wierd!"

Amp, still plagued from a drunked stupor, raised a brow thoughtlessly. "Whaddaya talk'n about, *hic* notch tail?"

Though he was just as inebriated, Van couldn't help but take offense. Granted he lazily forgot what it was he took offense to after another quick swig from his bottle. "S-screw you, A..." Van promptly fell over, having lost his footing a second time. That time he didn't get back up. Instead he sat up to meet his opponents gaze. Under normal circumstances Amp might have tackled Van out of principle, but the effects of the alcohol compromised his footing. The raichu instead fell upon Van like a dead weight, trapping the pikachu beneath his chest. His eyes locked onto Van's face, who stared right back in puzzlement.

"H-hey.." Amp struggled to lumber. "Now you realy lok liger..!" Van remained motionless, unable to move under the massive rodent's weight. He didn't understand a word of what Amp had just said, but Amp was starting to look a lot more familiar to him up close as well.

"It is you!" Amp quickly shot onto his feet, grabbing Van by the arms and lifting him up at the same time. The sudden, sporadic, movement coupled by the menacing glares he was getting from the raichu holding him didn't phase Van all that much outside of a slight but dull surprise.

"What happnd t'dat dickhol, Surge?" Amp randomly blurted on, evidently mistaking the pikachu he was holding for someone else. "Knew, *hic*, dat notch was ther fr'a reason!"

Azu and Delila looked on helplessly; as helpless as one could be while bound to a tree.

"Oh my god," the skitty whispered in shock. Azu was silent, but the minun's eyes began to widen as her cheeks turned red. Both of them remembered the spiel Amp gave on his personal history, the cutie who got away because of that cockblocker. If that was who the raichu thought he now held up high in his arms, what did that mean for Van? Nothing good, for certain.

"Don't talk ‘bout my dad that way...jerk..." Jerk being all Van could come up with on such short notice. Amp promptly stopped talking, like he needed a moment to process what was said. Van, of course, thought he went speechless out of spite.

"Surge was yer dad?" Amp mustered with a notable hint of disgust. "He was gonna bone is'girl..? Da'sick bastard!"

"What the heck are they going on about now?" Delila spoke loud enough for the two males in front of them to hear, though neither seemed to acknowledge her.

"I'm not sure," said Azu, who took a brief sigh of relief. The minun wasn't sure what to make of the scenario anymore, and fittingly looked as confused as the Skitty beside her. Was it better if the two rodents hurried along with their drinking match, or if they wasted time with lame banter? She just couldn't tell; either way she could only wait for an outcome of some kind. It still wasn't yet safe to attempt to break free.

Confusion escalated between the two rodents as the alcohol blurred their comprehension. Van only heard Amp's reaction in part. "He was gonna bone who? Bone me? Dad wantsta bone me?!" the pikachu erupted in panic as he dangled in the raichu's grasp. "Oh gawd, he must know ‘bout mom!"

Amp raised a brow, looking at Van curiously as he eyed him closer. "What's dis about *hic* mom?" he asked.

"I like my mom. Ah think she's really, really, really cute!" the pikachu confessed, "But Dad'll punish meh! I don't want him boning me fer thinkin' that way ‘bout mom!"

The raichu's red-tinted eyes widened significantly as his stupor concocted a false epiphany that provoked him dangerously. "Oh, girl! I knew he *hic* was messing you up! I knew it! But I know exactly what he was tryin' to do. He shoulda *hic* trusted me to you, if that's what was going on! If anyone can set a girl straight, Amp can!" he proclaimed.

Van and the girls quickly found out what the raichu meant. Amp kept his clutch on the pikachu firm as he manhandled the drunk, yellow rodent, squeezing his arms tight around Van. Before Van had a chance to react to the overly intimate hug, his eyes popped wider than in his entire life as the raichu engulfed his muzzle in an open-mouth kiss.

"Hhhrrrmmh?!" Van cried, muffled.

"Oh my GOD!" Delila added. Azu now looked as red as a cherry.

Van struggled to pull himself away. When that didn't work he flailed, continuing to protest. When that didn't work, the red spots in his cheeks at last sparked violently with electricity. Before he could discharge, however, Amp dropped down hard to the ground, body slamming Van in the process right onto his back. The pikachu's electricity cut short as air jumped out of his lungs. The raichu pulled his mouth away but remained lying heavily against the yellow rodent he mistook for a girl long lost, barely giving Van the chance to gasp for breath. The raichu's aggression, meanwhile, so confused and terrorized the other, drunken rodent, that the yellow mouse now grossly mistook Amp for someone else in turn.

"Dad...No, Dad...Spare meh!" Van heaved.

"You callin' me *hic* Dad now, girl?" Amp observed in amusement, as he reached down with one paw to caress the side of Van's waist. "Yeah, that's right. You're my *hic* little girl now. And daddy's got a lesson for you. Now *hic* no shocking, or papa spank!"

Azu finally managed to snap out of her utter shock. "Delila, we have to help Van," the minun pleaded.

"You think I haven't been clawing like mad already at this leash?! Dammit, why did that dumb rat get something so thick?!" Delila blurted in panic.

"Well, claw faster!" Azu demanded.

"I'm clawing as fast as I can!"

The two of them heard a sudden thud upon the tree they were tied against, the sound of which startled them terribly. Their heads snapped towards the sound. They immediately gasped: while the two spoke in panic over saving Van from his newfound predicament, Amp had whisked the wheezing and inebriated pikachu away from the ground, staggered towards the very tree where the girls were tied, and haphazardly pinned the yellow mouse against its bark, right next to Azu. The minun, to her dismay, had front-row seats to the raichu's lechery. Van's body lied flush against the trunk of the tree against his stomach as his arms were held up by Amp's grip. Further down, the pikachu's backside cupped against the raichu's crotch, his yellow, jagged tail brushing against Amp's chest. The larger, lusting rodent pushed himself up onto the tips of his sizable feet, to ensure he stayed spooned against Van and kept the pikachu right where he wanted.

Amp peered over to Azu and Delila, "Oh, geez! *hic* Almost forgot about you two! Gotta *hic* do this one first. She's *hic* overdue."

Van's terrified gaze peered up to the tree's branches as he felt something hard poke erratically against his glutes. Amp, in his current state, could barely aim, as he sought an opening that wasn't there. "Oh gawd, daddeh's gonna bone me!" he labored to say, still short of breath.

Azu couldn't take it anymore. She yelled at the drunken raichu, "Leave Van alone! He's not the girl you think he is!" Delila had nothing to say, for she clawed furiously at the leash binding the two girls.

"What? *hic* This isn't Van, this is Surge's girl, the one he *hic* stole from me! I'm taking what's *hic* rightfully mine!" Amp insisted. "Where the hell is *hic* that hole of yours, girl?!"

Van tensed the more Amp pervertedly poked him. His paws scratched into the bark as his heart raced with fear and his lungs rapidly drew air into his chest. Azu teared up, not knowing how else she could stop the pikachu from being violated. Even if the leash broke apart right at that moment, the combined strength of the skitty and minun couldn't possibly pry the raichu off of the pikachu. There seemed nothing that could possibly stop Amp now. That is, unless...

"Urk!"

Amp froze for a moment where he stood. Much to his displeasure, the contents of his stomach began to lurch. Much to the surprise of the two bound girls, his face suddenly turned sickly green as he let go of his grasp on the pikachu's arms. He staggered back, exposing his erection and dropping Van onto the ground beside the tree, as his forepaws reached to grab his belly.

"I don't...feel so good! URGH!"

The raichu took off with surprising speed to stick his head into the nearest bush. Moments later, the ill effects of excessive alcohol seized Amp as he let out the loudest, most disgusting upchucks of his stomach.

"Hang on...*hic* not again! HUUUUUUURURUHGH!"

As the gross noises offended the ears of all present, the leash wrapped around Delila and Azu quietly fell to the ground. The skitty hushed the minun immediately, warning not to make a sound.

"Ugh...don't remember eating that. HUUUUUULGH!"

Delila moved to pull Van away from the tree, letting him drop down limply onto her back. The ordeal proved too much for the pikachu, for he fast fell asleep. Azu, meanwhile, crept up to the raichu's bag of elixirs and stepped inside. She rummaged as quietly as she could, until she stepped back out, pokeball safely in her little blue paws.

"BAAAAAAARRRRFGHLH!"

The skitty gestured to the minun to follow her closely. As the raichu continued to suffer seemingly endless bursts of vomiting, the girls tiptoed carefully away. As soon as they were out of sight, they scurried off as fast as their tiny legs could take them, carrying Van along in the process. They did not dare to look back.

***

Van slept for a while, oblivious to the passage of time, his last memory of events blurred and obfuscated by intoxication. His inability to recall recent events made things all the more confusing for him when he finally began to stir from slumber. He found himself lying face down on his stomach, surrounded in darkness his head pounding with a serious headache.

"Rrgh, my aching head," the pikachu groaned softly. He faintly channeled electrical power to his cheeks. In moments they glowed, softly illuminating the area. Van at once realized he was back in his hole in the ground, the very same where he spent some of the morning digging his way out to the open.

"How did I end up back here?" he wondered. "Wait a minute...who's next to me?"

Van turned his gaze to the side. Immediately he blushed as his eyes widened with surprise. Azu, the cute, female minun he met earlier that day, lied right beside him, seemingly asleep. The look on her face as she slept on her stomach and rested her cheek against her blue paws made her all the cuter to the pikachu.

"She...actually came back to my place...while I was drunk?" Van pondered in a whisper. All the implications that came with finding the minun as he did proved provocative. In moments, the pikachu felt lured towards her face. He nervously leaned closer in, now tantalized by the desire to lie with the blue-eared bunny by another definition of the word.

This must be my lucky day, he thought smugly, gaining some confidence as he gently pressed his lips to the minun's.

The eyes of the blue-eared bunny popped open instantly. "EEEEEEEK!" she cried, nearly scaring the living daylights out of Van as she scrambled to her feet. The mood in the pikachu's den turned on its head as Van scrambled to his feet in turn in panic, not knowing at all what was going on or what went wrong.

"What'd I do? What'd I do?" he blurted, horribly confused.

"I was just taking a nap! I didn't say you could kiss me," Azu exclaimed, flustered as she flailed her little paws up and down.

"You're taking a nap right next to me in my home! I thought it was okay!" Van defended, trying his best at damage control.

"You've got the wrong idea, Van. I'm supposed to be on guard duty, I swear!"

"Well, you sure got cozy for someone on guard duty, and I don't even know your name yet."

"It's Azu!" the minun told him, a bit irked that it took so long for Van to learn her name in the first place.

"Azu! That's a cute name. So, if you're here to guard...can you tell me what's going on? I don't remember much after the first few drinks, but by all accounts I'd assumed we dealt with Amp. We're both safe now, aren't we? Aren't the plusle and the skitty safe too?"

The minun visibly grew uncomfortable, casting her gaze to the side. "Um...yes and no. It's complicated."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Van asked, raising a brow.

"When both of you got really, really, drunk the raichu...he..."

Azu had hesitantly began to explain, but then trailed off. "Oh, don't make me say such things!" she pleaded.

"What things? Azu, I've got to know what's going on. Why am I the one getting protection now? Please, tell me!" Van insisted.

The minun took in one deep, prolonged breath, before at last telling Van what he wanted to know, albeit in the most rapid and embarrassed manner possible:

"Hethoughtyouwereagirlandtriedtorapeyoubutgotsickbeforehecouldandtheskittybrokeusfreeandweallescapedbutwedidn'tgetthechancetoputhimbackintheballsohecouldbehuntingforyounow!"

The rushed words of the minun took a moment to sink in as she gasped once again to get back some air in her lungs.

"Amp...tried to put it in?" Van asked in disbelief, "And he's still on the loose?"

The minun nodded. "He thought you were the pikachu he lost the chance to take long ago."

"How was I reacting to all this?" Van pressed on, "I must know!"

"You...you thought he was your dad, punishing you for something you've done. You were helpless! If he hadn't turned ill-!"

"Agh! Enough!" Van exclaimed, throwing up his paws. "Let's not dwell on that, okay? The important thing is figuring out what to do next. If we all escaped, but Amp's still out there, and has any reason to think that contest wasn't fair, I've just become his mortal enemy. And he's been around me long enough to know my scent."

The pikachu took hold of the minun by her shoulders. "Azu, until we have a plan to take him down we can't stay in here for long. Where's your boss and the skitty?"

"He went back to where the raichu was with the pokeball, hoping to catch him still sick, and the skitty-"

"The skitty's right behind you, thankful you didn't try to glomp her in her sleep," Delila suddenly chimed in, "And wondering how Azu could resist asking about your dirty little secret."

Van spun around to face the feline in the room, who had been quietly eavesdropping for who knows how long. He felt his heart skip a beat. Azu quietly pleaded to Delila, with the waving of her paws, not to venture into that minefield of a topic, but the skitty took no heed of the minun's protest.

"What dirty little secret?" the pikachu cautiously probed, not sure if the skitty was throwing out bait.

"Oh, come on. Don't play dumb," Delila continued to needle with a mocking gaze, "Surely you'd know the sort of terrible thing you'd think your dad would go out of his way to rape you over. It's just so...juicy!"

Van began to fear the worst, but hid his fears behind an angry glare. "You don't know anything, Delila!" he shot back with a point, "And that's some way to treat the dude who just saved your bacon."

"Um...Van?" Azu put one of her blue paws on the pikachu's shoulder to get his attention. "She's not bluffing. You...you blurted it out to Amp while the both of you were drunk."

The pikachu blinked slowly as he turned to look at the minun with genuine shock. "R-really? I did? But that means-!"

"We both know you have the hots for your mother!" Delila proclaimed, before laughing aloud.

Van grabbed at both of his ears and pulled down on them hard as the stress set off a fit of panic. "Aaaack! No one's supposed to know that! Not anybody! And I threw it out there like an idiot in front of a stupid macho male, a cat who hates every male on the planet, and the cutest bunny I've ever seen in my life! How could this happen?!"

The pikachu ran up to the nearest wall in his den and smacked his head repeatedly against it. "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!"

Delila watched Van's suffering smugly, while Azu put her paws to her mouth and held still her breath, visibly pained by what she witnessed. "Now, now, Van," the skitty spoke up, "It's not the end of the world, you know. I'll just hold that little factoid over your head as long as you live, that's all."

Van spun around to confront the feline. "You better not tell a soul about this! I mean it!" he demanded.

"Oh, I'd much rather keep that our little inside joke. Though, if you try to pull another stunt like you tried on Azu moments ago I just might reconsider," Delila threatened.

"Oh, come on! What do you want from me?!" the pikachu exclaimed in exasperation, "If you were in my position you'd have thought it was okay to kiss her. Isn't that right, Azu?"

The minun softly gasped, not wanting at all to get stuck in the middle of this fight. "Um...er...it's not really in my place to say," she nervously murmured.

"Peh. Only a male would see an opportunity for sex where there isn't any," Delila scoffed, "You sure you're any different from that raichu we narrowly escaped, Van? Because you aren't exactly showing the best of your gender right now."

Van fumed. The oedipus complex he harbored now empowered Delila to act like a heartless bitch, and he hated it. Oh, he hated it. He clenched his paws into fists, fighting the urge to lash out. As the fuse in his mind burned at a dangerous rate, however, the minun suddenly hopped in to stand between them.

"Stop it, Both of you!" she pleaded. Her gaze narrowed as it fell upon the feline. "Van can't help it if he's awkward around girls, Delila. He's doing the best he can, and I'd rather be around an awkward male than the brute that nearly raped me hours ago. Can you leave him be, just for the sake of some peace? Please?"

The minun's intervention threw off the skitty's train of thought. The feline soon conceded, however, as the blue bunny pacified her attacks with the heavy weight of a guilt trip. Looking away, the cat muttered, "Fine. But stand up for yourself, okay? Van isn't a saint, either."

"Oh, I know he's not," Azu confirmed, "But he's still a good male in the end, right Van?"

"Gee, thanks," Van added sardonically. He took in a deep breath and sighed. "Is the plusle going to be back anytime soon? The sooner we can leave, the better."

"Barrett should be on his way back by now," Azu answered. "We can keep a look out for him if we go outside."

"Barrett? His name is Barrett?" The pikachu inquired.

"Yes. He's actually my brother," Azu answered, "I call him ‘sir' because he's the team leader. I wish I didn't have to, though. But you know how he is."

"Yes. Yes I do," Van answered back, "He must be insufferable."

Azu looked away, hesitant to respond to the pikachu's remark. "Let's head out, okay?"

Van nodded, knowing not to push the subject. "Ladies first, then."

"Nuh-uh! You're not pulling that old trick," Delila suddenly piped in, "Don't fall for it, Azu. It might seem nice but he just wants a chance to oogle at us."

The pikachu groaned. "It's just a polite gesture, Delila. But I could go first if the thought of my eyes checking any cute girl out like any healthy male on the planet would is that much of a problem for you. Though, if I do that, won't you ladies be oogling at me?"

"I've got no intent to stare at your ugly yellow butt," the feline snapped. "Now go ahead of us already!"

"It's not that ugly," Azu murmured.

"What did you say?" Delila asked the minun.

"Oh! Nothing," the minun insisted, somewhat embarrassed.

Van couldn't help but grin to himself as he made his way out of his den. It was good to get out of such a claustrophobic hole in the ground on such a positive note. He stood on top of healthy, green grass now, surrounded every which way by the trees. The sun overhead still shined brightly, with plenty of daylight hours still left before dusk. As the skitty and minun emerged soon after to stand with the pikachu and look for the approaching plusle, the yellow rodent thought to himself just how ridiculously packed the day has been. More has happened today than he thought possible, and ever before with such danger, thanks to Amp and his aggressive, lecherous ways.

The thought of how indiscriminate the raichu was in his libido, as long as his victim was feminine enough, made the pikachu shudder. Van blamed the incident on the flowing alcohol. He wanted to assure himself that he'd never end up in that predicament again with Amp, but a bit of paranoia kept creeping into his mind. The raichu's frustrations surely reached a fever pitch by now, having lost the contest. There was no telling just what Amp might do.

Azu pointed to somewhere in the distance. "There he is!" she exclaimed.

"He's coming in awfully fast," Delila observed.

Barrett was running towards them through the foliage on all fours, carrying the pokéball in his mouth in the process. Moments later he skidded to a stop in front of the three pokémon. He spat out the sphere in his mouth onto the ground and heaved to gather his bearings.

"Good! You're all...still safe," he said to them.

"Oh, no," the minun said with worry, "Sir, is the raichu-?"

"We still have a code black on our hands, trainee! There was no sign of the raichu when I got there, save for a fresh pool of the former contents of his stomach. He could be anywhere by now."

"Wonderful," Delila added in sarcasm.

"Newcomer!" the plusle called for Van's attention, "I hate to break it to you, but you're in more danger now than any of the females here. You better come back to our base of operations if you know what's good for you!"

Those words did little to comfort the fears Van dwelled upon moments ago. "Oh, R-really?" he asked, as his stomach began to tie knots, "Why is that?"

"I'll explain it to you later! For now, we fall back to HQ. Oh, and before I forget...there's a loose end that needs tying."

The plusle, Barrett, picked up the pokéball from the ground with his red-hued paws, then, without warning, lofted it right towards Delila.

"No, wai-!" the skitty protested, but the sphere bounced off her forehead. Moments later she disappeared into the capture device. It wobbled back and forth on the ground in futility before the plusle picked it back up again. Azu and Van, as they looked on, couldn't help but frown, feeling a bit sorry for Deliah.

"She may have helped you two in the face of danger, but she still has to answer for her crimes!" the plusle declared, "We'll determine the penalty once we reach the base. Now, move out! On the double!"

"Yes, sir!" Azu confirmed.

Van bit his tongue to stifle a groan as the plusle, minun, and pikachu headed out at a running pace with Barrett at the lead. The commanding plusle truly was insufferable, but with Amp on the loose, Van needed all the help he can get.

At least I get to be around Azu some more, Van thought, as he eyed her from behind in mid-run. If he learned anything valuable from his father in regards to relationships, it's that it pays to be persistent.

***

PART II

Team Justice's base of operations proved to be the most conspicuous thing Van had ever seen. Built right in the middle of the woods, surrounded by furrets and watchogs on sentry duty, and designed in the spitting image of Team Justice's leader, the plusle Barrett, the place looked like a giant, wooden, red-eared bunny gasping for air above the ground. The pikachu bit his tongue, though, for the last thing he wanted to do was get on the bad side of Azu's older brother.  A certain raichu still on the loose was also a matter of concern.

When he, Azu, and Barrett went in through the open door that disturbingly resembled a gaping mouth, Van discovered the method to Team Justice's madness in architecture. The "ears" of the plusle building were different wings of the Team Justice base. The ‘head' housed the main lobby and the wooden doors to said wings. The lobby itself was a simple, wide-open space with a dome ceiling and a floor of smooth, hardened earth.

"Okay, newcomer, I'm giving you the quick version of the tour," Barrett barked to the pikachu, using hand gestures to point out the different parts of the base. "The big head room we're in now is where we train our members and hold briefings before leaving on patrol. The left ear room is where we keep our records and our prisoners, and that's where the trainee ought to be going RIGHT NOW to secure the thief!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Azu acknowledged. She left in a hurry with the pokéball in hand, carrying off the skitty Delila inside to her prison for the time being.

"You're going to send Delila straight to prison?" Van asked.

"Just until we've lined up some community service for her, newcomer," Barrett explained, "Now let me finish. The right ear room is a place you will never, ever, ever go into because that's the living quarters for myself and the trainee. If I catch you trying to sneak in there I will break you in half! Do I make myself clear?"

"Sir, yes, Sir," Van grumbled. So much for that idea.

By now, the minun had returned, the pokéball now safely deposited with the rest of the prisoners. "You're back in record time. Good work, trainee!" Barrett commended.

"Thank you, Sir," Azu replied in turn. She stood by Van, just close enough to make him blush a little in his spotted cheeks.

"Now then! Newcomer, am I correct to assume that your father goes by the name of Surge?" Barrett inquired.

The question surprised Van. "Yes, but how the heck did you know that?"

"The raichu seethed about him just about every time we let him out of the pokéball for his berry meal, newcomer, without fail! He always rambled about Surge did to him: walloped him in the face, stole his dream girl away."

"Hey, wait a minute: that's the story my dad told me about how he met my mother!" Van exclaimed. His paws slapped against his bow, "I thought that was just a tall tale! Ugh!"

"The raichu on the loose claims otherwise, newcomer," Barrett went on, poking Van in the chest with one paw, "And now he knows you're the son of the pikachu he wanted to bone and the raichu he hates more than anything!"

"You mean-"

"Yes, newcomer," Barrett interrupted, cutting off Van, "You've just become a high-value target!"

Van felt sick to his stomach. He dipped his head into his paws and groaned loudly. This predicament was a first for him in his life, and the resulting stress felt raw. Azu sensed this. As she began to feel sorry for the yellow rodent, the minun raised a paw to console him with a gentle rub on his back.

"Van, it'll be okay," Azu assured, "You're not on your own. You've got Team Justice on your side."

Van looked over to the minun. The cute smile she wore to cheer him up made him forget his troubles, if only for a moment, as he turned redder in the cheeks than before. But part of him had serious doubts over just how much help the law-enforcement team could provide. Amp's strength easily compared to Van's father, who had no issues at all intimidating his son when the situation called for it. If that raichu was right here, right now, what chance did they have to keep Van safe from him, nevermind capture him?

Barrett frowned. "I already know what you're thinking, newcomer, but Team Justice is more than just a base fashioned in my likeness! There are others in our group who are mainly on patrol, as well as other bases that work in conjunction with us to cover more ground. I had already sent word to the northern branch to send down the specialist that helped us catch the damn raichu the last time!"

"Specialist? Who?" Van asked curiously.

"Their resident excadrill, of course! That big brown mole with those steel claws of his has got no problem getting in a tango with someone like Amp. That's because excadrills can take any electrocution like a champ. I requested him before we had gone hunting for the thief, just in case we ended up with our code-black situation, so he ought to be arriving any minute now."

It was just then that one of the lookouts rushed in through the entrance. This one, a furret, burst into the scene with short breath, carrying a piece of paper that looked like a hastily scribbled letter.

"Siiiir!" He called out immediately. At once he grabbed the attention of Van, Azu, and Barrett. The plusle could already tell by the look of the long-bodied rodent's face that there was trouble. Van and Azu could do so as well, which did little to cheer the pikachu's mood. He immediately expected bad news, especially for him.

"What's the situation, sentry? Is it word from the northern offshoot?" Barrett asked.

"Y-yes, sir, and it's not good!" the lookout blurted. He handed the letter over. Barrett took the message into his little, red paws. His eyes darted back and forth as he read the letter as fast as he could.

"WHAT?!" Barrett erupted. "The excadrill's on vacation, expect delays!? FFFFFFFF-"

"Wait, sir! That's not everything," the sentry furret pressed on, cutting off Barrett's imminent curse.

"You mean something even worse than that, don't you?" Van muttered with a sigh.

"H-how did you know?"

"Just spill out already, sentry!" Barrett barked.

"An aerial patrol caught sight of the fugitive on the move not far from here, sir," the sentry pressed on, "If he stays on the course he's on now, he'll be right at our base in a matter of minutes!"

Azu audibly gasped. "Oh, no!" she exclaimed. She trembled at the thought of Amp assaulting the base to do god-knows-what, the raichu's rape attempt still very fresh in her memory.

"Oh, great," Van mumbled sarcastically, "Looks like he can track by scent too. Just wonderful."

Barrett did his best to save face, refusing to let a worsening situation bring in panic. "Now listen here! Newcomer, trainee, sentry, all this means is that we don't have to hunt the fugitive down. We can work out a plan to get him back in the pokéball where he belongs. I have a good guess of what that raichu's aiming for, so it's time we prepared the bait!"

"Bait? What bait?" Van asked. But then he quickly put it together. "Wait, you don't mean-!"

***

"Uuuuuurgh. He did mean that. You bastard."

The pikachu Van stood alone in the meeting room of Team Justice, smoldering quietly. The doors of the prison and the bedrooms of Barrett and Azu were firmly shut under lock and key. Every member of Team Justice had evacuated in record time and had gone into hiding around the perimeter of their base. In a matter of moments the raichu Amp would arrive, his sights surely focused on getting to Van more than anything.

"I'm too valuable to Amp to be killed, he says. Let him come right at you, he says. I'm starting to think I should never have let that little red bunny boss me around. But then..."

Van's open thinking dwelled on Azu. "She would've been Amp's plaything if I wasn't around. She's really thankful for that. If I see this though and help get that thug back in his pokéball, she'd like me even more."

The yellow rodent tapped his paws together, the spots on his cheeks turning a bit red as he did so. "Then Barrett wouldn't have a say in the matter if we got together and...did some things. Dad would be proud of that, wouldn't he?"

"Vaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"

"Yipe!" Van almost leaped in fright as his heart almost jumped in turn right out of his ribcage. In his daydreaming, he had paid little attention to the heavy, stampeding footsteps that rapidly grew in volume, until the loud cry of a raichu he now knew all too well rang in his long, pointy ears.

"Damn that plusle," Van cursed beneath his breath. He took a defensive stance in the middle of the meeting room and stared at the open entrance of the base, waiting to see Amp rush in any second now.

With no resistance given from anyone Amp could see, he beelined right for the base, oblivious to the trap that the plusle had set. Soon as he ran through the entrance and ran on into the meeting hall, he skidded to a stop just feet away from Van. He drew in sharp, heavy breaths as he gathered his bearings and glared down at the pikachu he had been hunting down for much of the afternoon.

"Finally found you, you little notchtail," Amp said between breaths. "You really thought coming all the way to Team Justice's base was going to protect you from me?"

Van visibly shrank. He tried his best not to panic as he cleared his throat. "Uhm...to be honest? Not really. This wasn't my idea."

Amp narrowed his eyes. "The hell are you doing here, then?" he asked with irritation. "And Why'd Team Justice do something so stupid as leave you alone?"

"Oh, that. In case you haven't caught on, Amp...I'm bait," Van spelled out matter-of-factly.

"What?!"

At that moment's Azu's voice could be heard blaring in the distance, serving once again as the siren. "Wee-ooo-wee-ooo-wee-ooo-wee-ooo!"

Amp spun around with genuine shock on his face towards the entrance of the base. Van, however, couldn't help but look towards the sizable rodent with incredulity. To think that there were pokémon in these parts with so little brains.

The leader of Team Justice, Barrett, yelled at the top of his lungs to nearly match the power of a megaphone. "THIS IS BARRETT OF TEAM JUSTICE! WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED, AMP. COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"

Amp reacted much like any cornered beast would. He lurched for Van and picked him up by the scruff of the neck to trap the small, yellow rodent in a headlock. "Like hell I am going to do that, you loudmouth rabbit! I got the pikachu right where I want him, so don't try anything or the pipsqueak gets it!"

"Mhmmm-Bhmmm!" Van's face was smothered into Amp's chest by the headlock. He flailed a bit as his air supply dramatically dwindled to the smallest breaths he had to bear in a long time.

"BE REASONABLE, AMP. THERE'S NO NEED FOR ANYONE TO DIE TODAY. WE CAN END THIS PEACEFULLY," Barrett yelled back.

"Oh, we can, can we?" Amp replied back. "You want a peaceful end to this?! I want this pikachu's mother brought right here, right now! You know who I'm talking about, Barrett. I'm talking about Sandy. We've got unfinished business, but I'm not going to let it stay unfinished for long!"

"Aiiiiir!" Van wheezed.

Amp pulled Van away for a moment, giving his captive a chance to deeply inhale before he was smothered in a headlock again.

"IF MEETING HER IS WHAT IT TAKES TO END THIS PEACEFULLY, WE WILL ARRANGE IT! BUT THAT WILL TAKE TIME TO DO!" Barrett yelled.

Amp showed little patience under his current stress. "I don't want any damn tricks from you, Barrett! You want the notchtail alive when this is all over, you get Sandy in here and Sandy alone within the hour!"

"WE WILL DO THE BEST THAT WE CAN AS LONG AS YOU KEEP VAN SAFE!"

Amp smirked. "Then we have an agreement. Now piss off!"

Van felt Amp's grip pull him away, only to be tossed towards the rear of the meeting room. "Oof!" he tumbled to a stop upon the hardened earth beneath him, roughed up but not seriously hurt. He got up to stand on his two feet as Amp stared down at his captive.

With a sigh Amp spoke up. "You've got no idea how long I've waited for a chance like this. Your mother was the prettiest little pikachu I had EVER laid my eyes on, but your dickhole of a dad had to go claim her. Well, now I'm finally going to get my turn."

Amp took in a deep breath to relax his nerves. "Not much to do until she gets here, though. So, you and I are going to have a little chat. Not like you're going anywhere."

That left Van feeling more than a little confused. "You threaten to kill me and now you want to chat it up like barroom buddies?" he asked Amp with disbelief.

"Yeah. You got a problem with that?" Amp shot back.

Van held his tongue for a moment. Ugh. I've got to be careful not to blow this. Amp doesn't know there's an excadrill on his way to take him out, and I have to stay in one piece until that excadrill gets here, he thought. Just play along, Van.

"No. I suppose I don't," Van answered.

"That's a good notchtail," Amp said with a smirk as he walked up to stand closer to Van.

In spite of the circumstances, Van couldn't help but be visibly annoyed. "Hey, I am not that feminine!"

"You've got almost all of your mother's looks. Far as I'm concerned, Arceus played a joke on you and gave you the wrong equipment," Amp taunted.

Van bit his tongue. He had some choice words to challenge where Amp fell in his sexual orientation, but to do so would surely be a fatal mistake. Instead he quietly fumed and allowed Amp's words to hang in the air like the insult he perceived it to be.

"How's your mom doing, anyhow?"  Amp then asked.

"So far in better paws than back then," the pikachu replied matter-of-factly. He kept his words cool and to the point, for he had no intent on becoming Amp's friend in these circumstances. "Dad told me a lot about you. You remind me of him a lot, except he's not a serial rapist or a criminal fugitive."

Amp narrowed his gaze towards his captive. "Peh! Surge was a softie who broke the code and stole what was rightfully mine. You should've been my kid, not Surge's. Any boy of mine wouldn't have turned into such a notchtail. I bet you're still a virgin, too."

"Am not!" Van forcefully snapped back, returning Amp's glare.

"Bullshit. You're as green as they come. Some male you are," Amp taunted once again.

"Grrrrr..." Van plopped himself down against the wall of the meeting room and crossed his arms. "You can forget about chatting if you're going to keep calling me a girl all the time!"

Amp watched Van quietly for a moment, before he let out a sigh and shrugged. He stepped towards the wall where Van rested his back and sat down right beside him. He reached out one arm to wrap around his captive and dragged him a bit closer in. To say Van felt a bit uncomfortable would understate things.

"Fine then. Don't talk to me. I'll just sit right here with you and hold you close so you can't flee. I can just spend the hour imagining all the sex I'm going to have with your mom as soon as she walks through that open doorway. I bet you're looking forward to that."

"Frickin hell, Amp!" Van cursed under his breath. The images now running though the pikachu's head of such a brute doing his mother and raising him made him sick to his stomach.  "What made you think she'd go for you anyhow? You tried to rape her, for Arceus' sake."

Amp poked his paw into Van's chest."Oh, Van. Let me tell you something about females. They usually don't realize they want it until you give them a little nudge in the right direction. That's exactly how it'll go down once your mom gets here. Five minutes with her and she'll be begging for it. On that you can trust me."

Van did all he could to not punch Amp in the face right then and there. As disgusted as he was, he had the silver lining of not having this thug of a raichu for a dad. But the full scope of the problem, by now, had slowly dawned on him in the back of his mind as he exchanged words with the ruffian of a raichu.

This guy's never going to stop lusting after my mom as long as he thinks he has a chance with her! Even in prison, he'll track me down by my scent the moment he's done serving his time. I can't just let that happen. I've got to get a bucket of ice water and dump it all over the head of this sick bastard. But how?

Wait...I think I got it.

Van cleared his throat. "Well, Amp...I hope you like doing that sort of thing to someone older."

Amp dipped his head towards the smaller rodent and eyed him quizzically. "Come again?" the raichu asked.

"Do a little math, will you?" Van insisted with a wave of his paw, "Whenever dad told me that story about my mom, he said she was as old as I am now. How old do you think that makes her now, too?"

"Uuum...wait. How long has it been? One, two...oh. Oh. Oooooooh!" Amp now said. As the realization sank in, his eyes flashed open with his epiphany.

"She's not the pretty little flower my dad wooed for a mate that she used to be. She's matured. And you still go for someone younger, don't you?" Van pressed on. "I got that impression, the way you went for the minun."

"Oh, no. Oh, no! Auuuugh." Amp groaned loudly as he took his grasp off of Van to bury his face in both of his paws. "Sandy...my Sandy! She's gone forever...noooooo."

Far as Amp knew, Sandy likely aged and evolved into a raichu herself by now. All hopes Amp had to recapture the moment he lost with Sandy so long ago was torn to shreds. He fell silent, peeking over the paws that clutched his face with newfound distress, as the impossible reach of his goal dropped his state of mind deep into crisis.

"How fucking stupid I've been," Amp whispered, "I've kept a picture-perfect idea of her in my head all this time, trying all the while to compensate by doing all the pretty young girls I could get my hands on, but I could never let go of her. And now I realize I'll never get that chance with her. This standoff, with you...so far it's been a fucking waste!"

For once Van felt pity for the guy, albeit a tiny amount. He knew what not to say, but it seemed the end of the crisis might come sooner than planned.  The pikachu started to ease his nerves, thinking that the excadrill's skills might not be needed after all.

Alas, a sudden glimmer of newfound hope shined in the eyes of the evolved rodent. He turned to Van and seized him by the shoulders. He shook the pikachu as he spoke in a frantic tone. "No! I refuse to give up that easily. Van, you better tell me nothing but the truth, right now: Do you have any sisters?"

Van's eyes widened. "Wha?"

"You heard me! Do. You. Have. Any. Sisters?!" Amp reiterated, now shaking Van quite violently.

In truth, Van had quite a few sisters, most of them younger than he. But he would rather die painfully in a fire than drop any hint of their existence to Amp. As his head whipped back and forth, Van prepared himself to lie as best as he could to the emotionally distressed raichu. The safety of his family depended on it.

"I don't have any sisters! I'm an only child!" He proclaimed.

"No." Amp squeaked out in barely a whisper. His shaking stilled. He fell silent in the most unnerving way as he stared, stared, stared at Van. Van struggled to keep looking back, for he knew a bad liar peered away when not telling the truth.

"Amp?" Van prompted.

Amp said nothing.

"Um, Amp? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Amp still said nothing. Van sat there beside him for the longest time, his heart thumping in anxiety, not yet recognizing the pandora's box he just opened as Amp stared not so much at the pikachu but at the event horizon now tempting him to cross. That temptation grew as the paw that had reached out to draw Van in closer now wandered its way down to idly brush against his waist.

"Umm....Amp, where are you going with that thing?" Van questioned. Little did he know how soon he'd get his answer.

***

Azu's eyes widened as she watched the scene in the meeting room about to begin its downward spiral. From her hiding spot just at the edge of the doorway outside, she could easily relay what was happening to Barrett standing close by, who now groaned with his face in his paws, for he knew the sort of hole Van dug for himself well before the pikachu could.

"Oh, no. He's got the same sort of eyes now that he had set on me," Azu whispered to the Team Justice leader. "I think he's going to go for it!"

"You just had to open your big mouth, newcomer," Barrett groaned to himself.

Azu gasped. "Oh! Amp just grabbed Van. He dragged him to the ground! He's...Oh...oooh! Kissing. He's kissing! Van's not strong enough to fight him off!" Azu peered back to Barrett. Her blue cheeks now nearly turned as red as her brother's. Barrett returned a look of mild disgust.

"Trainee," he began, "That's becoming a bit too much information for my taste. That fugitive's rambled about his fantasies so many times I'd rather not hear a play-by-play recap on it."

"What are we going to do, then?" Azu asked, "If this keeps up, Van will be-!"

"Believe me, I know," Barrett reiterated, cutting her short, "But if we barge in there without the excadrill backing us up, we're all toast, including the newcomer. But now we know beyond a shadow of a doubt the fugitive won't kill him, long as he thinks he's in control."

"This is terrible," Azu sighed. She rested her brow against the wall of the base.

"Yes, but the newcomer walked right into it. If he's got any smarts left, he'll keep the fugitive occupied until our backup arrives. We can't make a move to help him until we have that excadrill or his life is at stake. I'm sure now it won't come to the latter. So, keep an eye on them. Is that understood, trainee?"

Barrett noticed just then that Azu had gone back to watching.

"Trainee? Is that understood?"

"Y-yes!" Azu finally stammered. By now she looked incredibly bothered.

Barrett raised a brow, now significantly disgusted. "And please don't get carried away. I'd rather keep my lunch."

***

Van's mind barely had time to catch up to here and now, for Amp barely gave him a chance to breathe. The burly raichu's weight pinned the pikachu firm against the hardened earth while he cocked his head to aggressively embrace said pikachu's lips. He even slipped in a bit of tongue! Amp tossed his sanity and inhibitions out the window to pursue his dream the only way he knew how.

Aaaaaah! What the hell even going on anymore?! Van thought in panic. Forget about the thunderstone, I said. You'll look cuter to the ladies, I said. What the hell was I THINKING?

"Amp... Amp!" Van tried to protest in between the gasps of breath he could get, for whacking Amp in the side of the face didn't even make the raichu flinch."Let's talk...about this! Get..a damn grip!"

Amp complied, sort of. His idle paws wrapped around Van to tighten his embrace even more. Understandably, Van began to freak.

"NOT THAT KIND OF GRIP!" he exclaimed.

Amp broke away from Van's lips as he licked his own indulgently. "You're every bit like your mother. Hot damn."

"Wait a second!" Van snapped as he gathered his bearings. "Stop pretending I'm such a girl. I don't have the same stuff down there and you know it!"

"Oh, you can do plenty the same as a girl," Amp assured. "You'll be every bit just like my Sandy."

"Eeep!" Van tried to pull away, but Amp held him tight.

"So what if you have the same thing I do? I got you outclassed. Way outclassed," Amp gloated, "In fact, I can show you if you don't believe me."

Van rapidly shook his head back and forth. "Oh, no-no-no-no! That's totally, completely, absolutely unnecess- AAAAAH STOP DOING THAT!"

Much to Van's dismay, Amp had shuffled the weight of his body forward to show Van just how outclassed he was. The paws of the larger rodent unfurled to anchor into the ground and suspend his chest above the raichu's face. He let the lower half of his body drop and slide against Van's crotch, introducing the size of his pronounced erection atop Van's own member.

"I'd say yours is so tiny in comparison you could even call it cute. Don't feel bad, though. To get me riled up this much...that's something only Sandy could've done," Amp commended.

Van felt his body burn up in embarrassment. He peered down where their crotches met and got an eyeful of Amp's penis. The member's size was downright intimidating compared to his own. But it troubled him more that he could even compare his erection to Amp's right now. Tension seized his body, which he drove into the grip of his paws against the ground beneath him, as the raw aggression of the raichu's libido left him bewildered and confused to a dizzying degree.

"Y-yeah...you are pretty big!" Van stammered as he looked up to Amp's face. "You've made your point! Now could you put that thing away? Pretty please? I don't really swing that way. Really, really, really, don't. You could take care of your problem in the corner or something, I don't mind! Really!"

"Oh?" Amp commented as he looked down to the Pikachu with sheer cockiness, "I think you're enjoying this as much as I am.  Maybe you swing a different way."

Van raised his voice as he shook his head back and forth. "I'm telling you, I'm into girls, not BEING a girl!"

Amp chuckled. "That's up for debate. We're going to find out for sure. Real soon. Oh, yes."

Aaaaaagh! No one better be watching this! Van cried out in his mind.

***

The furret and watchog sentries maintained their perimeter around their home base as their leader Barrett had ordered. But the lot of them, being within earshot of Van's increasingly frequent whining and yelps from inside said base, began to visibly squirm in discomfort. However, Barrett and Azu suffered much worse. The plusle folded down his ears with his paws in an attempt to drown out the increasingly provocative chatter of Amp and Van, while the minun witnessed the escalation in deviant acts Amp aimed to perform upon his captive.

"Agh. That excadrill needs to hurry the hell up. It's turning into a damn porno in there," Barrett cursed.

Azu's widened gaze couldn't bear to look away. "Oh, Van," she exhaled in heated breath. The poor girl squirmed a bit as she crossed her legs.

Barrett dipped his head, dismayed at the aroused state of his sister, and groaned quite loudly.

***

Several feet below the surface of the earth a certain mole spun rapidly through soil and rock. Word had quickly reached him of a fugitive causing havoc amongst the locals, a hedonistic, oversized electric rat he knew all too well.

Hah! Seems only yesterday I wiped that smug grin off his chubby face.

Decker, as the excadrill called himself, had taken on the task of taking down the notorious raichu in order to imprison him several months back. He had felt much glee in seeing that son of a bitch's genuine surprise once Amp realized Decker was immune to electrocution. Amp had then gone on to get his butt handed to him by a fellow rodent nearly half his size. Decker had wrestled that unfortunate criminal to the ground and wore a cocky little grin as the pokéball reserved for Amp secured its target.

And now it's time to do it all over again. Amp's gonna learn another lesson! Soon as I get there, that is. Better check how close I am!

Decker guided the spin of his drilling upward towards the surface. He popped right out of the ground, unfurled his sizable set of claws from the sides of his metallic visor, and landed right upon his feet in a matter of seconds. Just as soon as he stood above ground did he spot the all-too-familiar base of operations of Team Justice not too far in the distance, as well as Barrett, Azu, and the sentries closely surrounding it. They had yet to spot Decker, for all their attention was towards the base itself, particularly whatever was unfolding inside there.

"What are they all doing outside?" Decker asked aloud. But then it dawned on him. "Oh, crap! Amp must be loose in the base and they're barely containing him. Well, no time for a briefing. I gotta get in there and take him down stat!"

Decker eyed the distance from his current location to the base. "Okay, fifteen seconds straight on ought to do it. That'll put me right in the meeting room. Here I come, Amp! Your beat-down's long overdue!"

Up into the air the excadrill leapt. At the peak of his jump, he brought together his claws to his visor and spun with incredible speed to drill right into the ground for several feet. He adjusted his course to head straight for Team Justice's base, his approach hidden by the very ground he dug through with ease. He counted down the seconds in his head as his mind prepared for the aforementioned beat-down Amp was begging to receive.

Four, three, two, one, and RISE!

Decker shot right back up. The hardened earth inside the meeting room of the Team Justice base burst open right in the middle. Soil few in all directions as Decker dramatically popped out from the ground once more and landed with claws splayed for hand-to-hand combat. Not too soon after Decker arrived did he hear the annoyed growl of his target not too far behind him.

"Dammit to hell! I should've known you'd show up," Amp said.

"That's right, it's De-!" The mole spun around to confront the oversized rat making a mess of the home base, but his words cut short by the drop of his jaw when he discovered just the sort of mess Amp had in mind. His gaze widened at the sight of the tense, laboriously breathing pikachu standing on all fours against the provocative press of the raichu close behind, as well the thick shaft of Amp's cock that rubbed upwards and in-between that pikachu's buttocks.

"Wha...? Amp, the hell are you doing trying to drill a dude?!" Decker exclaimed.

Amp glared back at Decker as he paused, so close he was to putting it in were it not for Decker's interruption. "Van here's the closest thing to the dream girl I wanted so hard, so I'm taking what I can get!"

Van looked up to Decker, his own mouth agape, as the burning in his cheeks and the daze in his eyes betrayed an unforeseen experience of lust. Decker stared for a moment, feeling his own blood rushing down to the nether regions at the sight of the little rodent's incredibly cute yet far-from-innocent stare. In a flash he covered his crotch with one of his sets of claws.

"Decker, that's how you normally swing? Hah! You can forget having Van. I'm making him mine!" Amp proclaimed.

Van interjected at that point, loudly. "Decker, stop staring and HELP ME OUT ALREADY!"

That finally snapped the excadrill out of his thankfully brief daze. Forgetting the erection that began to protrude from below, Decker rushed forward in a mad dash towards Amp. The fugitive reacted much like anyone else would react to a mole with oversized claws of steel going on the attack: he freaked.

"Fuck!" Amp yanked Van from the ground and tried to hold him up as a shield against Decker, but that tactic proved useless. Decker shot his claws right past Amp and tackled both the raichu and the pikachu with the weight of his body. Amp toppled backwards and fell to the ground just as Decker's claws stabbed deep into the earth. Now Decker had Amp pinned tight against the ground, unable to roll out or do much of anything except flop and kick around in futility. Unfortunately, Van ended up sandwiched between Amp and Decker from the tackle, which meant that Amp's violent attempts to break free and Decker's constant shifting to counteract grinded erect pricks relentlessly against the pikachu's glutes and crotch. A very audible gasp of a certain minun could be heard from the entrance as the three males wrestled. Amp fought to break free, Decker fought to keep him down, and Van fought to keep his sanity amidst the heaping amount of homoeroticism that nearly turned him into Amp's little bitch.

"I'm going in! No one else comes in without my word!" barked Barrett. He rushed past the pile of rodents straight for the door to the prison wing. He unlocked the entrance as fast as his little paws could move, ran in, and ran right back out with an empty pokéball all in a manner of seconds.

"Decker, you fucking cockblocker!" Amp cursed. "My dream's ruined again because of you! Fucking hell!"

"You ever thought of visiting hours, buddy? There's plenty of fish in the sea," Decker pointed out, "Obsessing over one girl's not healthy for you."

"Get him in a pokéball already! Gaaaah!" Van whined.

Though using a pokéball is as easy as throwing it towards the pokémon meant to be captured, Barrett dared not to take any chances being off the mark from a long distance. He rushed forward until he stopped mere inches from the top of Amp's noggin.

"Fugitive, your sentence is officially extended!" He barked.

With a dip of his body Barrett rolled the pokéball smooth along the ground until it bopped the raichu right on the head. At once it popped open, shot a beam of flashy, red energy, and absorbed Amp into the pokéball's interior in mere seconds. As Amp disappeared, finally secured in his pokéball once again, gravity dropped Van and Decker hard against the ground.

"Oof!" Van felt the weight of the excadrill specialist land upon him. Decker kept smooshing him, albeit accidentally, and the erection the steel-clawed mole wielded proved quite difficult to ignore.

"Hey, Boss!" Decker greeted Barrett. "I didn't come a moment too soon! Amp totally lost it there."

Barrett kept strictly to business. "Sentries, I want you all to go back to your normal shifts. Trainee, stop gawking at the newcomer and go to the living quarters to clean yourself up. And if you don't get yourself off that newcomer, Specialist, I'll have you arrested for sexual assault!"

"Yes. Please, please get off me." Van eeped out from beneath Decker.

"Oh!" Everyone that Barrett ordered around followed their commands as Decker swiftly moved to cover himself while getting up off of Van.

"Newcomer, how are you feeling?" Barrett asked. He reached down to pull Van off of the ground and brush him off a little. As Van now stood, he felt an immense weight lift off of his shoulders, but he couldn't help but dip his head and groan into his paws.

"That was the worst operation I think I've ever seen any authority figure devise. I'm sure I'm traumatized for life now. Thanks a lot."

"Now, now, Newcomer. Don't fret so much. With everything you've been through, you're more than capable of being a Team Justice member now," Barrett commended as he patted Van on the back.

"...I'll get back to you on that, Barrett," Van politely replied. "I...I just need some time to get back to a normal life."

"Newcomer, normal left you a long time ago." Barrett commented, knowing he saw a lot of what he didn't want to for today.

"You think I don't know that?" Van sighed. "I've never felt so damn confused. I wanted your sister to throw herself at me, not some big, burly guy!"

Barrett visibly twitched. "Come again?"

"Ah, um, that is, I meant to say, uh...oh, crud."

"You just wanted to get close to Azu from the start, didn't you?!" Barrett accused.

"I-I didn't mean any harm.  I like her bu-but I'd never try to get on your bad side!  Honest!" Van stammered, but his desperate attempt to sooth Barrett's boiling emotions proved futile. Thankfully, Van quickly discovered he wasn't alone to face the wrath of the Team Justice leader.

"Hey, Hey, Hey! Boss. I ought to point out some things," Decker intervened, much to Van's surprise. The excadrill stepped forward, one set of claws still covering his indecent exposure. "Van stayed in the base for you so we could catch Amp again, right? He even was about to...you-know-what. You think just any guy who just wanted to hit the sack with your sister would go that far just for sex?"

Decker peered back to Van out of the corner of his eye and shot him a wink. Van coughed. He wasn't quite sure why Decker shot him such a- oh, wait. He actually does. What? No. No! Too soon!

Barrett dipped his head as he fell deep into thought. "Well...that would be an extreme length," he mulled aloud, not noticing that the color drained from Van's face as the yellow rodent realized the ulterior motives of the steel-clawed mole. But then he snapped a piercing gaze right upon Van.

"Listen here, Newcomer! You may have earned brownie points but it's not an automatic pass. You will date her just like any other suitor and if I get the slightest hint you are taking advantage of her, I will still break you in half! Is that understood?!"

With a gulp, Van nods to him.  "U-understood...sir," he said with unease, albeit with slightly more confidence than before all the havoc Amp had caused.

"Good. Now, you and the specialist are thereby dismissed. I did cut his vacation short, so it is only fair."

"Oh, thanks, boss!" Decker exclaimed.

"Thank you, sir," Van said in turn. His suspicions about Decker only grew more.

"Newcomer, if you have second thoughts about lending a hand to the Team Justice mission, you know where to find us," Barrett offered, as he reached down to pick up Amp's pokéball and carry it towards the prison wing. "I would appreciate it. So would Azu."

Oh. He called her by her real name all of a sudden. It dawned on Van that his opportunities with Azu definitely improved, if only slightly. "I will keep it in mind, sir!" Van assured.

"Oh, and...don't wait up for Azu. She's going to need time to get what she saw out of her system." Barrett added with a cough.

"Oh. Um...then I'll just be going, then." Van replied.

Van, at last, started to walk. He walked out of the base, past the perimeter of sentries, and got on the path towards the hole in the ground he called his den. He needed to get back home, more than anything, to clear his head and consider Barrett's offer. The leader of Team Justice saw good in him and gave him a rare opportunity to stay close to the minun Azu. Such opportunities only knocked so many times in life.

But...he had to stop halfway home. Turned out, Barrett wasn't the only one offering opportunities. Van's ears wilted down as his unease grew.

"You...you've been following me ever since I left. Aren't you going to get back to your vacation?" he asked as he began to turn around. Sure enough, the excadrill Decker was a short distance away. He looked like he had been mustering the courage to speak up before Van turned to confront him.

"Oh! Van, I didn't mean to stalk or anything," Decker replied, "It's more of a staycation, really. I've just been relaxing at home. Been bored out of my mind, in fact, until recently."

"Until...recently, you say?" Van repeated. He eyed the excadrill, hearing him out at least, but already sensing what the excadrill was trying to get at. Oh, not this again.

"Yep.  And I do want to thank you, somehow, for breaking me out of that boredom. I mean...I don't want to imply anything that's not true, but...when I first saw your face, I could've sworn you were enjoying it a little. What Amp was doing, I mean."

Van coughed loudly, several times. He didn't want to recall that incident so soon. He blurted out,  "Believe me, I despised it!  The whole ordeal was torture! So what if he french-kissed me so hard the saliva dangled between our lips?! So what if he rubbed me all over and poked a huge dick right against my backside?! I'm telling you, that whole thing was a nightmare!"

The excadrill drew in a bit closer and peered down to the pikachu. His eyes scrutinized the little yellow rodent. "Van...can you look me straight in the eye and tell me you didn't enjoy it just an itsy, bitsy, teeny-tiny bit?"

Van stared right back up at Decker for what felt like minutes on end. After what felt like an eternity of silence, the pikachu finally answered:

"I...enjoyed it a little bit."

Decker threw up his claws in celebration. "Oh, thank goodness! I knew I read you right. How about you and I go back to your place and we can do some...experimentation? I promise I'd treat you juuuuuust fine."

Van turned red as cherries in the cheeks. "Um, um, um!"

"Come on! Let's go! You and me! You're going to have the best time ever!" Decker proclaimed.

Van could only shake nervously as he pointed towards the direction of his home. "Well...my home's not too far away from here," he said quite weakly. "Follow me, I guess?"

"Alright! I'll follow you!" Decker confirmed, a little too enthused.

"Ooookay then," Van confirmed, now with a bit of a quiver in his tone. He walked towards his home, feeling like he just embarked on a death march as Decker followed close behind. Van had gotten out of several frying pans today, but now he was sure he had just tripped right into the fire. This was one particular life event he planned to keep to himself.

==THE END==