Love and Anger (Chapter One)

"Chansey, can you hand me the bandages please?" Joy asked her pokemon/assistant.

"Chan." Chansey replied handing them over to the nurse.

Joy then carefully wrapped the bandages around the paw of the injured Vulpix that was brought into the Pokemon Center about an hour earlier.

It was getting late that night and Nurse Joy was hoping to get finished with this patient soon, so that she could still catch a movie with her best friend, Officer Jenny.

The two women had grown up together in Safforn City, each knowing that one would grow up to run the local Pokemon Center and the other the local Police Dept. It was rare to see one of the girls without the other. Even now as adults the two were practically inseparable. However, each of them had very important and busy jobs, giving the women very little personal time to spend together.

Suddenly Joy's work was interrupted by the sound of the door to the Pokemon Center opening. Looking through the small window into the waiting room, the nurse smiled at the sight of her best friend walk into the room.

Joy quickly finished applying the bandage to the Vulpix's paw. Gently picking up the pokemon in her arms, she handed the fire type back to its trainer. "There we go. Vulpix should be all better now."

"Thank you Nurse Joy." The young boy said before walking out of the treatment room.

Joy turned to Chansey and held up a pokeball and directed it at the pink pokemon. "Thank you Chansey. That should be all for the night." With that, a red light appeared, transporting the pokemon into the red and white ball.

The nurse then left the room and headed straight for Jenny. The officer was still in her uniform and waiting patiently for the pink haired woman to finish her work before the two went to spend the evening together. When Jenny spotted Joy entering the room she smiled and stood up from the chair she was sitting in.

"Hey you! All done for the day?" Jenny asked Joy as she reached to give her friend a hug.

Returning the affection, Joy replied, "Almost. I just need to make my final rounds for the night and then I'm free."

"Take your time Joy. I'm not in any hurry." Jenny said with a light smile. She was very willing to wait a few minutes longer if it meant spending time with the nurse.

As that thought passed Jenny felt her heart pounding just a bit faster. The officer had been having that reaction a lot lately when near the nurse. Part of her knew what that feeling meant however, the other part was too scared to admit it.

Just as Joy turned away from Jenny to go further into the center, she was almost shaken off of her feet from a blast coming from somewhere else in the building. "What the hell was that?" Jenny asked feeling the blast as well.

"Whatever it was, it came from the pokeball room! Come on!" with that Joy raced out of the room with Jenny right behind her.

The two women saw the smoke filling the hallway as they ran toward the source. As they reached the room where Joy kept all the trainers pokeballs, they saw a huge hole in the wall and some smoke was still in the room.

Coughing from inhaling too much of the smoke the women could see the two responsible for the small explosion. On the far side of the room, there was one man and one woman with a Raticate standing between them. Both of the people were in black uniforms stuffing pokeballs into a big sack.

Stepping in front of the nurse, Jenny spoke, "Who are you two and what are you doing with those pokeballs?!"

The two thieves turned toward the two women with large grins on their faces.

"Prepare for trouble," said the blonde woman

"And make it double," followed the man

"To infect the world with devastation"

"To blight all peoples in every nation"

"To denounce the goodness of truth and love"

"To extend our wrath to the stars above"

"Cassidy"

"Butch"

"Team rocket circling the earth both day and night"

"Surrender to us now or you'll surely lose the fight"

Then the Raticate jumped up calling "Raticate!"

Jenny and Joy gave each other confused looks then turned their sights back on the two thieves. "Whatever," said Jenny, "but that doesn't explain what you think you're doing with all those pokeballs! Where are you taking them?"

"We're taking them to give to our boss in exchange for a check. What else?" Butch said as if it was obvious.

"Unless you and you're little nurse friend actually think you can stop us." Cassidy laughed and then turn more serious and yelled, "Go Raticate!"

Before the pokemon could attach Jenny reached to her belt to grab her own pokeball. Giving the ball a toss she also yelled, "Growlithe use flamethower!"

With a burst of white light the puppy like pokemon sprang from the ball and shot fire out of its mouth and onto the other pokemon.

Cassidy ordered for Raticate to counter attack, "Use Hyper Fang!"

"Dodge it Growlithe!" with the command from Jenny the fire type leaped to the right as the rat like pokemon lunged at its neck.

Another flurry of attacks came from both pokemon. Jenny and Cassidy both shouting orders at the pokemon and after a few minutes it looked as though Growlithe would win the battle. The blonde looked over at her partner in crime, "What are you waiting for Bip?"

The guy became mildly enraged at that, "The names Butch!"

"Whatever! Just help me!" screamed the annoyed woman.

Setting down the sack that was filled with the stolen pokeballs the man reached to take his own out of his belt. "I choose you, Primeape!" and with that the angry looking pokemon emerged within a burst of light. "Attack with Fury Swipes!"

Just as Primeape was jumping up to attack Growlithe, Joy saw that the blue haired officer was becoming overwhelmed in the battle. Very rarely did she ever call Chansey out to fight in a real battle, but this was an emergency. The fight then became even when Joy threw her pokeball and the pink pokemon appeared.

All four trainers began shouting commands at their respected pokemon. Growlithe spit fire at both of these opposing pokemon and whenever Raticate or Primeape's attack did make contact with the fire type, Chansey used its Aromatherapy attack to quickly heal its friend, as well as use its Double Slap attack whenever it got close enough to either Raticate or Primeape.

Joy saw that Chansey already knew exactly what to do, so as Team Rocket focused on the battle, Joy slowly made her way towards the sack that Butch had dropped.

As she made her way toward the pokeballs, she kept her eyes on the two robbers. Making sure to create as little noise as possible and do her best to go unnoticed, Joy finally made her way to the other side of the room and very carefully moved so that she was directly behind Butch.

Slinging the sack over her shoulder she tried to make her way back across the room to Jenny. However the nurse wasn't as stealthy as she believed.

Cassidy, out of the corner of her eye saw the woman attempt to make off with their loot. Without giving it a second thought, the blonde pointed at Joy and shouted, "Raticate! Use Double Edge on that nurse."

Raticate immediately obeyed its trainer and lunged at Joy with everything it had. After a fight like that Raticate was pretty tired but it used to last of its strength to attack the woman. This was more than enough strength to knock Joy unconscious. As the furry pokemon plunged at Joy's chest, everyone in the room heard the snap of the woman's ribs breaking.

Jenny looked to where Joy was laying, unmoving, on the floor. The officer was so caught up with the battle she wasn't even sure when her friend left her side to try to snatch the sack. It was when she saw Chansey rushing over to its trainer that Jenny chanced looking away from Joy and back toward Team Rocket. Both smiled with looks of triumph on their faces. Neither would have that look on their face for very long.

Jenny bolted toward Cassidy. She ran passed the pokemon not even bothering to command Growlithe to attack for her. Almost in the blink of an eye the blue haired woman was directly in front of the blonde.

Before the female member of Team Rocket could understand what was happening, Jenny balled her right hand and delivered a hard blow to the other woman's jaw. But Jenny did not stop there. She threw punch after punch at the woman who caused her friend pain, the woman who caused the pain in her heart. The only thing in her mind was the sight of Joy on the floor and the smile on Cassidy's face afterwards.

Butch was terrified as he watched the officer beating up his partner. Being pokemon trainers and well as thieves, neither he nor Cassidy knew much of fighting with their fists. The other pokemon stood and watched too. Primeape looked up to Butch obviously confused as to what to do next and Raticate was too exhausted from the battle to defend its trainer.

Growlithe, however, knew what had to be done. The pokemon had never seen such rage in its trainer's eyes before and it wanted more than anything to bring back the happy sparkle in her eyes. The fire type was smart enough to know though, that this situation called for some tough love.

Using its Tackle attack, Growlithe shoved Jenny off of the now unconscious Cassidy. At first Jenny was enraged at her pokemon for stopping her assault on the woman, but then she looked at Growlithe's eyes. Instead of the anger that she expected to find, instead she saw love and sorrow. The puppy pokemon had been her partner since basic training at the police academy. Next to Joy, Growlithe was the one being in the world that Jenny trusted the most. Then she looked down at her hands then over at the blonde and saw the blood and the bruises on her face. Looking at Cassidy she knew her pokemon had done the right thing. She wanted the thief to suffer but she had no intension of hurting her that badly.

So many thoughts were going through her head that she almost did not hear a small voice coming from the other side of the room. "Jenny?" The officer looked over to see that Joy was slowly waking up, and wincing in pain as she tried to move.

"Chansey, do you best to get Joy comfortable while I take care of these two." She said as she took off the jacket of her uniform and tossed it over to the pokemon, who then folded it up and placed it under Joy's head.

Reaching into her belt she grabbed both pairs of her handcuffs. After quickly cuffing Cassidy's hands together and went over to Butch, who was looking at her with a petrified look on his face, like he was afraid that Jenny would do the same to him that she did to his partner. Jenny would be lying if she said she wasn't considering it.

"Put Primeape into its pokeball then get Raticate's pokeball from Cassidy and put it inside it. Now!" Jenny order to Butch. The man jumped right to work following Jenny's command. Once the two pokemon were safely inside the pokeballs he handed them over to the officer. Jenny then made Butch crouch down so that she could cuff him to the desk by the wall near where Cassidy laid.

"Watch them Growlithe." She said looking toward the pokemon who then placed itself right in front of the two thieves.

Jenny practically ran to her to her friend who was fighting just to stay awake. Then Jenny got out her communicator and called for a police car for the thieves and an ambulance for Joy.

She was now on her knees beside Joy, Jenny could tell how much pain the nurse was in. She wanted, more than anything, to pick up her friend and give her a comforting hug, if nothing else but to prove to herself that Joy was still here. But not wanting to put her through any unnecessary pain, Jenny gently picked up Joy's head and moved her jacket aside. She then placed her legs under her friends head so that Joy was now resting in her lap.

"I'm here Joy. Don't worry sweetie. You're going to be okay, that I promise." She whispered to her friend as a single tear rolled down her face.

Jenny then was almost startled when she felt a hand touch hers. "I always feel safe when I'm with you." Joy said in a very weak voice.

The two women looked each other in the eyes both were crying slightly. Jenny could see the truth in Joy's eyes and gave her the best smile that she could manage. And with that the two sat in silence until they could hear the sirens.