Painted Paradise
Prologue
Icy water clawed across the riverbank, smooth black pebbles staining the water an ominous harsh gray. Slick smudges of silver-grey flashed across the river in small schools, crafty and skilled enough to avoid the jutting rocks too thick to avoid the erosion of the water, ready to deliver a bone-crushing blow if met on impact. Silver, the Meowth, licked his lips in fascination. The silver smudges were fish crossing down the fresh water stream, some of the few existing in the Pokémon world, and some of the even fewer to be bigger than the tiny minnow. Silver curled into a suspenseful crouch at the river, trying to lock his eyes on a single target. The fish hadn’t survived on luck alone, as they were well known for surviving in both fresh and salt water, crossing to and fro from currents of any kind. Only the most skilled Pokémon were capable of snagging one as the fish used the currents and their powerful lithe muscles to flex their fins through the jetting water. Silver was not one of these, but he was no fool either, and knew how to use the land as well as skill to snag the fish.
He flexed his claws in and out of his paw, looking up the stream to pin his focus on a single jetting fish. He waited where the stream was at its thinnest near a single pointed rock standing out of the water solitarily, forcing the fish to swerve away from the rock and making it easier to grab a fish as it tried to avoid the rock. Extending his claws, he not only locked on the fish, but how the gills moved on the aquatic creature, swiping into the water and hooking his claw onto one of the flaps as the fish he had locked on swerved to avoid death colliding into the rock. As soon as he felt the slithery animal’s weight on his paw, he thrust his arm up and forced the fish to break through the water and fly across onto the land. Silver knew well that the creatures, while slick and lithe in the water, where clumsy and inaccurate on land. With his teeth crunching into the head of the fish to deliver the kill, he began to drag his catch back through the forest.
The forest neighbored a small dessert, which neighbored a mountain range, which neighbored sheer cliffs, which neighbored the ocean. However through the expanse of Nature at work, Silver knew that he had to swerve a bit to avoid the giant treeless expanse hidden at the edge of the forest. Using dark thick forest trees and thorny bushes as cover, this was the base of Team Magma. Silver nearly shuddered at the name; it was not only the enemy of his former team, Team Rocket, but also the place that housed too many memories and distractions. He knew Team Magma had one main goal, to expand the amount of earth of the ground and awaken Groudon, but he also knew that Team Magma carried a containment unit carrying Pokémon inside. Like Team Rocket, Team Magma helped keep its base strong by carrying imprisoned Pokémon in a large building, hidden in the forest.
Silver quivered, Team Magma wasn’t the only Team in the forest. Hiding in a slightly larger base on the opposing part of the forest was the base of Team Rocket. It carried much more Pokémon and much more land in its boundaries, but also had much less strength and workers. The deal was, Team Rocket were several times richer and had several more workers than that of Team Magma. However, Team Magma had more workers that had stronger Pokémon and where more willing to work, than the grunts that worked at Team Rocket. Silver also knew of Team Aqua’s base, sheltering not in the forest, but in a large cave on the other side of the mountains, carved by the endless battering of the ocean waves. Team Magma mostly had quarrel with Team Aqua, and nearly no quarrel with Team Rocket, making it simpler to share the forest as a secret base. Silver remembered his time at Team Rocket almost too well, suppressing another quiver at the thought of his past.
Silver was once the prized pet of Giovanni, adopted at an adoption center several years before Giovanni had created Team Rocket. Back then Giovanni had a wife, Christie, and Silver was made the family pet, originally the gift to Christie before their marriage. Two years later, Silver had gone down with an unknown illness, wheezing, peeing blood, violent mood swings and loss of appetite. After Christie insisted on taking Silver to the vet, it was discovered he had Lassitudia which was a mental illness. Roughly two weeks afterwards, Christie had developed Breast Cancer and died a few weeks later. Giovanni collapsed into a depression, blaming Silver for giving Christie his illness and killing her, despite that Lassitudia is a genetic illness, soon kicking him out of the house to never return. Soon afterwards, Silver had realized Giovanni had gone to create Team Rocket.
As usual, memories brought back Silvers weight back onto his shoulders, his mental illness. In order to fully understand Lassitudia, you would need to understand Pokémon. Pokémon where evolutions from animals millions of years back, learning attack moves in order to defend themselves from each other. The moves where forms of dark energy passing through the Pokémon in the form of the attack whether it be compressing it, adding elements to it or expanding the dark energy into something as simple as a Flamethrower, or more complicated as a Willow Wisk attack. When the Pokémon evolved into the next stage of its life is when the Pokémon had gathered enough dark energy that it can no longer control the amount inside it. This is similar to when a snake sheds its skin as it loses its old tight skin and goes into its larger skin, or when a human grows out of its clothes and goes into the next size. Pokémon need dark energy to exist, gathering it in its body. The more it gathers, the harder it becomes on the Pokémon’s body until it must evolve. In this case, the Pokémon takes on a larger body in order to hold more energy as it learns to be more capable of learning how to deal with access dark energy.
If the Pokémon is unable to evolve, it holds more dark energy which is inverted to learning moves quicker; however it’s much easier on the Pokémon and healthier if it evolves. Dark energy, if you didn’t know already, is the spare energy that exists all around us that isn’t currently being used in any shape or form. The dark energy, like regular energy, cannot be destroyed or produced. After an attack is used, it quickly changes back to dark energy again. Back onto Lassitudia, Lassitudia is a malfunction when the Pokémon's body cannot take in Dark energy nearly as well as normal Pokémon. In such cases, the Pokémon is usually very weak, easily exhausted, sometimes goes dizzy or weak, cannot learn new moves, cannot level up, cannot evolve and does not live long. In rare cases, Silver knew, the host Pokémon of the illness can learn a single attack move that must be a STAT move, however they cannot level up or evolve. Without the help with Fury Swipes, Silver would have a much harder time catching forest prey.
Although Lassitudia is mainly a physical illness, it is named as a mental illness due to the strange phenomenon that at about ten years of age, the brain suddenly considers the dark energy passage as a foreign containment, even though dark energy is what lets the Pokémon live such as blood is what pulses the heart of a human body. After this, dark energy is barely able to pass through the Pokémon, and as a result the Pokémon dies. Meowths otherwise would typically live to about thirty years of age.
His mind whirling after eating the fish, Silver remembered everything that had happened since. He had other priorities now…
He flexed his claws in and out of his paw, looking up the stream to pin his focus on a single jetting fish. He waited where the stream was at its thinnest near a single pointed rock standing out of the water solitarily, forcing the fish to swerve away from the rock and making it easier to grab a fish as it tried to avoid the rock. Extending his claws, he not only locked on the fish, but how the gills moved on the aquatic creature, swiping into the water and hooking his claw onto one of the flaps as the fish he had locked on swerved to avoid death colliding into the rock. As soon as he felt the slithery animal’s weight on his paw, he thrust his arm up and forced the fish to break through the water and fly across onto the land. Silver knew well that the creatures, while slick and lithe in the water, where clumsy and inaccurate on land. With his teeth crunching into the head of the fish to deliver the kill, he began to drag his catch back through the forest.
The forest neighbored a small dessert, which neighbored a mountain range, which neighbored sheer cliffs, which neighbored the ocean. However through the expanse of Nature at work, Silver knew that he had to swerve a bit to avoid the giant treeless expanse hidden at the edge of the forest. Using dark thick forest trees and thorny bushes as cover, this was the base of Team Magma. Silver nearly shuddered at the name; it was not only the enemy of his former team, Team Rocket, but also the place that housed too many memories and distractions. He knew Team Magma had one main goal, to expand the amount of earth of the ground and awaken Groudon, but he also knew that Team Magma carried a containment unit carrying Pokémon inside. Like Team Rocket, Team Magma helped keep its base strong by carrying imprisoned Pokémon in a large building, hidden in the forest.
Silver quivered, Team Magma wasn’t the only Team in the forest. Hiding in a slightly larger base on the opposing part of the forest was the base of Team Rocket. It carried much more Pokémon and much more land in its boundaries, but also had much less strength and workers. The deal was, Team Rocket were several times richer and had several more workers than that of Team Magma. However, Team Magma had more workers that had stronger Pokémon and where more willing to work, than the grunts that worked at Team Rocket. Silver also knew of Team Aqua’s base, sheltering not in the forest, but in a large cave on the other side of the mountains, carved by the endless battering of the ocean waves. Team Magma mostly had quarrel with Team Aqua, and nearly no quarrel with Team Rocket, making it simpler to share the forest as a secret base. Silver remembered his time at Team Rocket almost too well, suppressing another quiver at the thought of his past.
Silver was once the prized pet of Giovanni, adopted at an adoption center several years before Giovanni had created Team Rocket. Back then Giovanni had a wife, Christie, and Silver was made the family pet, originally the gift to Christie before their marriage. Two years later, Silver had gone down with an unknown illness, wheezing, peeing blood, violent mood swings and loss of appetite. After Christie insisted on taking Silver to the vet, it was discovered he had Lassitudia which was a mental illness. Roughly two weeks afterwards, Christie had developed Breast Cancer and died a few weeks later. Giovanni collapsed into a depression, blaming Silver for giving Christie his illness and killing her, despite that Lassitudia is a genetic illness, soon kicking him out of the house to never return. Soon afterwards, Silver had realized Giovanni had gone to create Team Rocket.
As usual, memories brought back Silvers weight back onto his shoulders, his mental illness. In order to fully understand Lassitudia, you would need to understand Pokémon. Pokémon where evolutions from animals millions of years back, learning attack moves in order to defend themselves from each other. The moves where forms of dark energy passing through the Pokémon in the form of the attack whether it be compressing it, adding elements to it or expanding the dark energy into something as simple as a Flamethrower, or more complicated as a Willow Wisk attack. When the Pokémon evolved into the next stage of its life is when the Pokémon had gathered enough dark energy that it can no longer control the amount inside it. This is similar to when a snake sheds its skin as it loses its old tight skin and goes into its larger skin, or when a human grows out of its clothes and goes into the next size. Pokémon need dark energy to exist, gathering it in its body. The more it gathers, the harder it becomes on the Pokémon’s body until it must evolve. In this case, the Pokémon takes on a larger body in order to hold more energy as it learns to be more capable of learning how to deal with access dark energy.
If the Pokémon is unable to evolve, it holds more dark energy which is inverted to learning moves quicker; however it’s much easier on the Pokémon and healthier if it evolves. Dark energy, if you didn’t know already, is the spare energy that exists all around us that isn’t currently being used in any shape or form. The dark energy, like regular energy, cannot be destroyed or produced. After an attack is used, it quickly changes back to dark energy again. Back onto Lassitudia, Lassitudia is a malfunction when the Pokémon's body cannot take in Dark energy nearly as well as normal Pokémon. In such cases, the Pokémon is usually very weak, easily exhausted, sometimes goes dizzy or weak, cannot learn new moves, cannot level up, cannot evolve and does not live long. In rare cases, Silver knew, the host Pokémon of the illness can learn a single attack move that must be a STAT move, however they cannot level up or evolve. Without the help with Fury Swipes, Silver would have a much harder time catching forest prey.
Although Lassitudia is mainly a physical illness, it is named as a mental illness due to the strange phenomenon that at about ten years of age, the brain suddenly considers the dark energy passage as a foreign containment, even though dark energy is what lets the Pokémon live such as blood is what pulses the heart of a human body. After this, dark energy is barely able to pass through the Pokémon, and as a result the Pokémon dies. Meowths otherwise would typically live to about thirty years of age.
His mind whirling after eating the fish, Silver remembered everything that had happened since. He had other priorities now…