So continues the indirect adventures of Professor Hank. Mentioned only in passing this installment focuses on the hapless and not so hapless Pokemon Trainers he has since sent out into the wider world!

Words to accompany yet another delightful sketch by a friend

Hope you enjoy!

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---

“What are the magic words?” Cayla taunted.

Ears pulled flat against his skull, Arthur's whiskers wiggled in irritation. The Siamese, still smarting, turned out his pockets.

“Areceus above, Arthur!”

“Just take it,” he mrowled as he held his hand out before him. A handful of crumpled bills rested atop his palm.

Shaking her head, the Samoyed clasped her hands around the Siamese's own and forcefully balled up his fist. “You are not bribing your way out of this.”

Head tossed back, Arthur pitifully mewled as he confronted the terrifying prospect of swallowing his pride. Tongue pressed against the back of his teeth, the flustered feline struggled to sound it out.

Before them, their respective Pokemon contentedly played with one another. As Arthur's Abra slowly spun about in place, it's pointed ears brushing against the earth, Cayla's Kecleon carefully adjusted its camouflage and coloring so as to remain invisible even as the Psychic Type lazily twirled.

“Thhhhhhhhhhhh-” Arthur furiously raspberried.

Rolling her eyes, Cayla watched on in disbelief as the Siamese went red in the face.

“Thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-” Panting, Arthur was forced to catch his breath after another attempt. “Thhhhhhhpt. Thhhhhhth. Thhhhhhhhhhhannnnn.”

The Samoyed wordlessly arched her brows.

Shoulders bunched and his lungs drawing empty, Arthur gave the unspeakable utterance one last go. “Thhhaaaaaaaaannnnannnnk you,” he painfully spat out.

“...You're welcome,” Cayla snorted.

Slouched over and hands resting on his knees, Arthur wheezed. Acknowledging, much less accepting, Cayla's help had almost proven too much to bear. “What kind of Professor hands out a Pokemon that can only use Teleport, anyway?” the Siamese whined.

Hands tossed up, Arthur's Abra hissed happily as it psychically conjured a constellation of stars above its head. It eagerly wiggled to and fro when Cayla's Kecleon reached up to tap and spin them.

“The kind that expects you to exercise some patience and humility?” the Samoyed sassed back. “Besides, I thought his assistant set you up with some Pokeballs back in Violet City?”

Arthur's tail swished behind him nervously.

Cayla papped a hand against her furred forehead. “You could have just asked for more!”

“S-shut up. I got past him all the same! ...After my brother traded his Pidgey to me for the day,” he mumble grumbled. Head hanging low, Arthur unfurled his fist and shoved a handful of Pokedollars back at his dread rival for services rendered all the same.

The Samoyed's shoulders drooped as she heaved a heavy sigh. “Arthur, it was just Swift. Those kinds of TM don't even cost that much, if anything, anymore! Heck, all I did was sniff about online and burn it onto a blank-” The Samoyed barked, and found herself taken aback, when the Siamese insisted on compensating her for services rendered. Nostrils flared, she reluctantly took his money. “... You haven't even grabbed your first badge yet, have you?”

“...”

Cayla tried, and failed, to knead out the lines forming along her furrowed brow. “So back to Violet City then.”

“I guess...” Arthur moped. I tried wandering off the beaten path to sneak a peek at Ecruteak City but Professor Hank physically blocked my path.” Cheeks puffed out, the feline kicked at the dirt road. “He told me it was too early to start sequence breaking whatever that means.”

Shaking her head, Cayla grunted as she ambled over and scooped her Kecleon up. Arthur mrowled in surprise when his Abra simply teleported into his arms.

“H-hey!” the feline mrowled. “Wait up!”

The Samoyed, her cloudy tail swishing behind her, sauntered down Route 32 without bothering to wait for her self-appointed rival. Chin resting atop his Abra's head, the Siamese chased after her with all due haste.

---

“It's not like they've copyrighted it or anything, have they?” quipped the mysterious stranger.

“You find a better rhyme for it then,” retorted their green eyed accomplice.

The stranger grunted. “That's their thing though! Prepare for trouble and make it double is... it's a classic!”

“I feel like we're missing the point here.”

“Right you are!” chimed in a sing song voice. “There are three of us after all so of course the classic Team Rocket motto would fall short!”

“Aughhhhhh.”

Shaking their dark furred head, the mysterious vulpine argued their case. “We want this to be memorable though!”

Eyes half-lidded, their exasperated and emerald eyed partner rustled within the bush they had claimed as their hiding spot. “...What part of us accosting them, and breaking them into the wild world of Pokemon, isn't memorable? In and of itself that should be plenty.”

The stranger, and her melodic companion, argued otherwise in unison. “There's an art to this! You can't just... just... up and accost someone!”

“Clearly we can but, by all means, do go on.”

The frustrated fox grumbled and fidgeted within her own respective hidey hole. “We're professionals not some petty thugs! Look. First and foremost, we need to nail down our introductions. Hum... now that I think about it we haven't even rehearsed out script yet!” As the mysterious fox elaborated at length their grumpier companion, wide eyed, watched on warily as Arthur and Cayla moseyed past unaware and unbothered.

“Melissa,” the more serious of the trio interrupted with some urgency.

Humming and hawing, the dark furred fox paid their would be marks little mind. “Triple the trainer and triple the trouble! Melissa's the name and it's time to rumble!”

“Oh. OH. Oh that's good!” chimed Melissa's cheerier counterpart. “We're keeping that.”

“Melissa. Please.”

“Team... team... what do you think rolls off the tongue better?” Melissa asked. “Troupe Melissa? Troupe Manylissa? Or maybe-”

“MELISSA.”

“Team Melissa really jumps out at you, huh? Me too!” sang the most harmonious among them.

An emphatic slap sounded out through the brush as Melissa's emerald eyed companion clapped their palm against their forehead.

“What?” Melissa cocked a brow when her accomplice, their furred arm jutting out from the bush they were concealed within, pointed towards the pair of Pokemon trainers leisurely disappearing over the horizon. “Oh.”

Sighing, the aggravated accomplice rose to their feet. In the process they uprooted their disguise, literal roots and all, and bumbled out onto the beaten path as dirt and leaves trailed behind them.

Pulling herself up and out of the hovel she had all but buried herself in, Melissa scrambled out and gave chase as did her melodic moral support. “A-after them!” the gray furred fox shouted.

“This'll be memorable alright,” the much more grounded, and irritable, of Troupe Melissa sighed with a roll of their eyes.

---

“What do you mean what do you do? Tell your Abra to spam Swift,” Cayla incredulously barked. ”

Arthur's expression faltered as he held his Abra out before him. The Psychic Type, its curiosity piqued, took to tugging at the Siamese's whiskers.

Shoulders slouched, mostly courtesy of the Kecleon that had come to perch upon them, Cayla pressed onward. “It's really not that complicated. You just walk into the Gym, explain to Faulkner that Professor Hank just set you up, and off you go! Your first Gym Leader battle!

Pouting, the Siamese protectively cuddled Abra close.

“...You haven't fought so much as a single battle have you?” Cayla sassed.

“What was I supposed to do?!” Arthur indignantly meowed. “All we could do was Teleport away!”

The Samoyed shook her head and smirked. “Would it help if I walked you through a Double Battle or two? Just to get a feel for things?”

“As if! I don't need my hand held!” the Siamese mewled with his nose turned up.

“Suit yourself then,” Cayla shrugged. Her soft ears perked to attention at the furious pitter patter of footsteps drawing close.

Their disguises having fallen apart, and pooled around their ankles, Melissa and her similarly foxy counterparts trudged towards the aspiring Pokemon Trainers.

Squinting, Arthur regarded the sight with out and out confusion. “What the...”

“Hold it right there!” a jumpsuit clad fox panted as rocks and gravel poured out from her pants legs.

“Ahhhhhhhhhh look what you did!” Cayla moaned as she tossed her head back.

“W-what did I do?” Arthur whined.

“You made eye contact with them that's what!”

“Y-yeah? So?”

“Well now they're going to assume you're down to battle! You acknowledged them!”

“WHAT.” Stamping about in place, Arthur worriedly mewled and mrowled. “Cayla! Help!”

The Samoyed simply snorted as she crossed her arms about her chest. “You just said you didn't need any.” Her resolve faltered in the face of his increasingly panicked and pitiful mews.

Cayla's Kecleon instinctively returned to its Pokeball when she unholstered the spherical device from her belt. “You're welcome,” she mouthed off as she rolled her Pokeball about her palm.

“Thank youuuuuuuu,” Arthur immediately replied as his Abra did much the same when he too drew forth his Pokeball.

With some delay, the vulpine trio jogged to a halt before Cayla and Arthur.

“Prepare for... wait... no... darnit that's not how it went,” Melissa panted.

Rolling her eyes, Melissa's suspiciously similar and much more serious counterpart produced her own Pokeball and held it out before her.

Eyes ablaze, Melissa mimicked her counterpart's antagonistic gesture. “Triple the danger and triple the trouble! Something... something...!”

The more rhythmically inclined of the foxes raised her voice as she readied for battle. “Melissa's our name and it's time to rumble!”

TROUPE MELISSA WANTS TO BATTLE!