“Okay, so there’s this group- gang, more like it- of poochyena, right? There’s like five or six of them, I believe. Anyway, they always do this thing where one goes into town and steals a bunch of stuff, then the next day another guy goes. Each person goes every day of the week, so they’re always loaded with goods. Now, every third week of the month, they take a break and head to the lake not too far from their base, and it just so happens that this is that week. I’ve always wanted to go out there and uh…’borrow’ some of their goods, if you catch my drift, but I needed an extra person to help carry the stuff. That’s where you come in, my friend!”

Rocko went on to explain how their base is a half a day trip, and that in total they only have three days to initiate this plan, otherwise they would have to wait another month before trying again. He told him what stuff to expect, and took some time explaining the plan B in case things go south for any reason, which was just to fall back and try not to get killed. 

“So, any questions?” He asked after finishing his long-winded explanation. 

Beau had several questions. Actually, he had more questions than his brain could even process, though that could be because he was trying to process the plan itself. 

“No, not really. Seems pretty straightforward…enough.” Beau replied.

“Good! We should definitely leave before noon, so grab whatever you wanna grab- erm, not that there’s much to grab anyway.” 

And so they set out. Beau followed close behind Rocko as they went back into the woods. The leaves and branches of the trees closed off the sky, leaving little spots for the sunlight to wiggle its way through to the ground. It certainly didn’t help Beau figure out what time it was, though that didn’t matter now. It was going to take all day- maybe even all night before they reached the gang’s base. 

“How long have you been living out here?” Beau asked, wanting to break the silence.

“I’m not sure, time seems to get kinda…nonexistent after a while. I want to say about a year or so now, but it could be longer.” Rocko said.

“Where did you live before then?”

Rocko turned to Beau, “When did we start playing 20 questions?”

“Sorry, I was just…curious. I mean, what else are we gonna do besides walking?”

Rocko smiled, “Yeah, I know. I was just messing with you,” He looked straight ahead and fell silent for a moment before explaining, “I’ve kinda been all over the place. My mom abandoned me when I was young, left me to fend for myself. Guess that’s just how it is in the wild, huh? I found that town not too long after and lived in the alleyways for a good while. Once using my cute charm and begging for food stopped working, I just moved back into the woods. Then began a period in my life that I’d rather not talk about, probably lasting two or three years. After that, I ran away from it all and came back to where I was abandoned and built that shack. Then a year or so later and here we are now. That’s my life story, I guess.”

“Damn, and you’re still sane after all that?”

“Surprisingly yes, though there were times when I wondered if I was going insane, especially during that time in the shack. It makes me glad you came along,” Rocko turned and smiled at him again, “Oh, now that we’re on the subject, is there anything you could tell me about you? I’ve been babbling about myself all this time and I still know so little about you. You don’t need to tell me everything though, I understand some of it’s…personal.”

Beau wasn’t entirely sure what he could say. His whole life was spent with his owner, so not only was there very little he could tell, but what he could tell would be near impossible for him to do. But he felt Rocko deserved some kind of explanation.

“Well, I used to live in that town. I lived there all my life, actually. I…” Beau struggled to get the last part of his sentence out, and he was almost convinced that he wouldn’t be able to, “..I had an owner. We lived together my whole life. Then..th-then…I just had to leave. I needed to.”

Rocko went silent again, this time contemplating what to say next. It gave Beau anxiety, worrying that the mention of him being owned by someone would bring up some kind of hatred towards those kinds of pokemon. But with a faint “hm”, Rocko responded, “You were someone’s pokemon? Y’know, I don’t think I’d ever guess that if I’m being honest. You said you lived in that town all your life, right? Well damn, it’s surprising you’re able to adjust to the wild so quickly.”

“I don’t know about that, there’s still so much that I don’t know what to do or how to do it, and honestly I think it was just beginner's luck with the eggs and the fire. I don’t exactly have that natural instinct- that wild side, I guess.” Beau said. 

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that, man. There’s a wild side in all of us, it’s just a matter of tapping into it. And if you ask me, I think you’ve already done so, you just don’t seem to know it yet. Trust me, you’ll see it eventually. I know you will.” Rocko reassured him. 

Beau was admittedly skeptical of that claim, but there was still a little part of him that believed every word, “Heh, if you say so.”

Their journey lasted almost all day, reaching the gang’s base at dusk. The base was in a huge opening in the woods, but unlike Rocko’s shack, they used up the entire space. Wooden shacks scattered the place, and they even utilized the trees by making what seemed to be tree houses and wooden bridges that connected to all of those tree houses. Beau was awe stricken at this sight, amazed that anyone was able to build all of this. It was like a tiny village.

“Welp, this is the place,” Rocko said, “You see that shack on the way back there? The one directly in front of that tree?”

Beau scanned the area and, sure enough, there it was. It was a little bigger than the other shacks and had a cheap, ripped up tarp covering the doorway. 

Rocko continued, “That’s where all the goods are. There should be a couple baskets in there, so you could use one or maybe even two of those to carry as much as you can. Obviously we won’t get everything, and honestly it’s for the best that we don’t, so don’t worry about that.”

“Wait, don’t you think-?” Beau turned to face Rocko, but he was gone. Turning back, he watched Rocko make his way to the shack. He wasn’t as annoyed with him going ahead without warning than he was confused as to how he got so far so quickly. 

No matter, with a disgruntled sigh and quick eye roll, Beau followed. He was halfway toward the shack by the time Rocko made it to the door. He turned around to see Beau was behind.

“Hurry up!” Rocko whispered loud enough for it to technically still be considered a whisper.

“Maybe you should have given me some warning first!” Beau whispered back. 

He finally made it to the shack. Together, they pulled the tarp aside to reveal the poor, make-shift door. There were holes everywhere, to the point where they wondered why they even had the door in the first place. Beau looked in through one of these holes, and inside he saw what could only be described as a prehibernation den. Piles upon piles of food took up the back, and there were several jugs of water scattered amongst the floor. There was also, to Beau’s surprise and confusion, a coffee maker and a microwave sat on the ground with the water jugs. 

Rocko opened the door. Just outside the view of the door were some wicker baskets in poor condition, fitting the theme of the shack it resided in. Rocko was beaming, “Hell yeah! Just with what we can carry, there should be enough to last us another month! Come on, let’s take what we can get and get out of here, we’re gonna be living like kings!”

Rocko picked up a basket and set it beside the pile he would start rummaging through, and Beau took two to another spot. There was so much they could take: fruit, canned goods, candy bars, other various junk foods. Beau also noticed within the pile were sodas and energy drinks. They filled their baskets to the brim with goods, and when they were done, they set them in the middle of the room to observe their own personal stash. There certainly was enough to last them another month, maybe a little longer. The both of them were smiling, satisfied with their haul. 

“Okay, let’s get the hell out of here” Rocko said, staring at his basket.

Grabbing their baskets, they booked it toward the woods where they came from. As they were running, Beau noticed a shadow pass over them. He slowed down, watching the shadow move toward their exit, then turn around and pass them again. He stopped.

Rocko turned, noticing Beau wasn’t beside him, “Hey, what are you do-”

Then he saw what Beau saw. The shadow kept moving back and forth, and as it did so, it also got gradually bigger. The shape, however, was what made them both cold. It was bird shaped. In unison, they slowly looked up into the sky. It was a pidgeot, and it was making its way down to them. 

“You’ve got to be shitting me” Rocko mumbled to himself.

The pidgeot landed between them. First it looked at Beau, noticing the full baskets in his hands. Its eyes squinted, then turned around to face Rocko, and then its eyes widened. He winced.

“You,” the pidgeot said in a harsh, feminine voice, “I knew you would come to steal from us eventually!”

Rocko sighed, “Yeah, and I thought you’d be dead by now, you old hag”

“Nope, still alive and kicking I’m afraid. So, who’s this? Did you finally find some poor sap to do your bidding?”

Beau watched them both bickering, and his confusion only grew, “Rocko, do you know her?”

The pidgeot snapped back around to Beau and grinned, “Oh, you didn’t tell him, Rocko? Did you wanna tell him now or should I?”

“Rocko? What’s going on?”

His head dropped and he sighed, “Yeah. You know earlier when I was talking about my life and said something about a period of my life I didn’t want to talk about? Well…this is it. I used to be a part of this gang. They- …she took me in. I was at the lowest point in my life, and..I was willing to do anything for food and shelter. They gave that to me, but at a cost, and I’m not really proud of the things I’ve done here. I wanted to forget I was ever here, and that’s why I didn’t want to bring it up.”

The pidgeot chuckled, “Oh, but why would you ever want to forget us? I know deep down you enjoyed it all: The stealing…the killing.”

“Killing? I thought you said they only-!”

“Oh yes!” The pidgeot cut Beau off, her grin widening, “They were loose ends that needed to be tied up, and Rocko was our very best! He can deny it all he wants, but no one could kill the way he did without having even a glint of enjoyment for it. But he couldn’t accept that, and he ran! Rocko! And I knew from then on he would try to get us back, that’s why I set up my own little hideout close to where he lived. Hell, I laid my own eggs in that spot! And-”

“Wait,” Beau stopped her, his body going cold once again, “Was it in a weird tree? Probably a branch or two up off the ground?”

The pidgeot looked at him curiously, “Well, yeah, but..how did you know that?”

Beau gulped, “I uh…we…we ate them”

Silence filled the air. She stared at him, wide-eyed. Looking just past her, Beau saw Rocko mouthing out in utter terror and confusion, “those were hers?” The silence was arguably worse for Beau than whatever the pidgeot could possibly scream at him.

“You…you did..what?” she said, seeming to stare through him.

“Look- I was hungry, and I hadn’t eaten anything in the past day. I’ve- I’ve never been out in the wild before, I am- was domesticated, but I know of survival of the fittest, and I- and I…went with that. To be honest, it’s kinda your fault for-”

“You kill and EAT my children, and you have the fucking nerve to say it’s MY fault?!” She screamed. 

“Yeah! Because it is! YOU left them alone on a tree that stands out like a sore thumb! Not to mention on a branch low enough a fucking magikarp can reach it without really trying! You put a target on those eggs saying ‘Hey! Here I am! Fucking eat me!” Beau yelled back, now annoyed that she would blame him for what he saw as her mistake.

“You bastard, I’ll kill you!” She screeched.

She lunged toward Beau, her talons ready to grapple him, but he jumped to the side at the last second, avoiding her attack. With how fast she was going, she almost tripped when she landed back to the ground. She turned to Beau, hatred glaring in her eyes.

“No one touched them the entire time I had them there,” she spoke out of breath, “they were safe. Everyone knows not to mess with a pokemon like me, but it’s clear you don’t!”

She lunged at him again, this time catching him off guard with her monologue. She grabbed him by the arms and pushed him down to the ground. 

“Leave him alone!” Rocko yelled, running toward them to stop the fight before it got worse. But the pidgeot was quick and screamed at him, “Stay out of this!” and knocked him away with her wing. He fell to the ground, struggling to get back up. 

Beau pushed her chest as hard as he could, making her stumble back a few steps. Now free, he got up quickly and stepped back to gain distance from her. 

“How could you?! How could you kill them!? I would have figured someone domesticated would have had more of a fucking heart! Why are you even here!? Did your owner not love you anymore? Did he throw you out?” She continued screaming at Beau, her voice going back and forth between anger and sadness, “Figures…guess it would make sense for the owner to be as much of a selfish, heartless prick as you!”

Beau paused. He couldn’t believe she had the audacity to insult his owner- someone who cared for him his entire life, and he will never feel the warmth of his love again. Rage filled Beau’s body. He stared at her, and she was red. Everything was. 

Before the pidgeot had the chance to utter another word, she barely saw Beau as he zipped directly in front of her and punched through her chest in a single second. She halted, paralyzed in shock and for a brief moment unable to even process the pain he had inflicted on her. 

“You motherfucker” Beau muttered, staring her directly in the eyes. 

She saw in his eyes all that he felt: Pure, unbridled rage. As fast as he punched through her, he pulled his arm out, blood spewing out from her chest. Then he punched her in the face with as much speed and strength as he could, causing her to stumble back. He punched again, and again. She tried to block one of his punches with her wing, but he grabbed it right before making contact and snapped it back. He shoved her back, making her fall to the ground, then he sat on top of her and continued punching. 

Again and again and again, each one fueling his rage more, but at the cost of his stamina. Eventually, he was unable to punch any more. Her face was barely recognizable, and her breathing was heavily labored, as if on the verge of death. However, he was still angry, and leaving her at the state she was at wasn’t good enough for him. He grabbed her by the neck and screamed with the purest form of rage, but instead of sound, a jet of water blasted out of his mouth with power equivalent to the anger he felt. He couldn’t stop, even if he wanted to. As he continued to blast her face, he felt his rage slowly leave his body.

He stopped, panting from using the last of his stamina. The pidgeot’s face was nonexistent, with only a perfectly circular hole left behind. It was then that Beau finally came to and realized what he had done, and that realization made his heart sink. He slowly got up and turned to Rocko, who was absolutely horrified by what he just witnessed.

“Run”