Username: Cajanic
Entering For: Banette
Pokemon Name: Spike
Guild: GTA
Prompt Number: One
Response: Armonia was a good town. A nice place bustling with activity, with pokemon coming and going every day. It seemed like there were always new faces heading in and out of the place, some off on grand adventures, others just passing through on their own, personal journys. Others were out for their own gain, and didn't cared who they had to step on to get what they wanted. For Spike the Banette, this place was home. Even since he had been small, and living in a foster home with a very kind Gengar named Spite. She had taken him in and raised him as her own, despite having two young Gastly of her own. And he had been grateful for the rood over his head, even if their were times he hadn't shown it. In his youth, he had always been a bit of a pest, roaming on his own and getting into trouble. Tricking the locals, mostly, out of coin and accessory. Yes, he had a knack for swindling those around him, and he knew he could make himself a fortune if he wanted to.
But it had always upset him that his loving mother had never supported his talent. She had always been proud of him, of course, and had said that he had some very amazing skills that few had when it came to communication. But she had also always told him that using his talents to exploit other pokemon was wrong, and that they needed their supplies to keep on living happily. She told him that, because he had come from tough roots where he'd had nothing, he shouldn't put others in a position where they might end up the same. In a way, it made sense, but he had always used his skills to help himself survive. If he didn't need to do that, and he couldn't use them just for gaining more, then what good were they?
The answer came years later, when he was a teenager. His mother had fallen onto some tough times, though she had never told that to her dear children, and had taken a lone with a passing Kecleon. But he charged her extortionate amounts of interest, and demanded more from her than she would ever be able to pay back. When Spike found out, he saw first-hand what his mother had always warned him about. What happened when swindlers got their claws into innocent people.
How it destroyed lives to be so selfish.
At that point, Spike was so enraged he could not stand by and let Spite try and sort things out for herself. Not when he understood how the Kecleon was working. For him, it was easy to see through the scheme. It was all just a game to him, and these tactics were no match against his own prowess in the field of trickery. So he made his plans and involved himself in the Kecleon's business, getting in the way of schemes that would cost innocent pokemon, while making sure the Kecleon lost all his money in the process. He turned the tables on the greedy pokemon, to the point where he was at Spike's mercy. That was when he made him clear the debt of his mother, along with any other pokemon in the town of Armonia, before clearing out of the area for good. No more loans, no more taking innocent beings for wild rides and leaving them with nothing.
When he returned to his home, and told his mother the good news, he finally saw the deep and profound pride in her eyes towards his talents. He had managed to prove he could use his abilities to help pokemon, not hurt them like everyone else with his same skill set.
From that moment on, Banette became a con artist of the good. He used his particular set of talents to chase off any who sought to disrupt the harmony of his town, while robbing them off their good in the process. Shady characters of the pokemon world needed to take heed- they were not alone anymore. One of their own stood against them.
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