[X] My Assistant

[Amissa]

Caroline and Destiny both gathered their pokemon and prepared to head back to work. "I can't wait to see Dustin's face! Budew is such a cute pokemon. No one will expect it to be a threat."

"Are you going to name it?" Caroline asked as she placed her pokeballs back on her belt. She gave Tyler a nod as he collected his pokemon and said goodbye. He really did seem like a decent person or else he was just a really convincing actor.

"Nah, I'm no good at names. What about that sandshrew you caught? Are you going to name it?" Destiny dropped her two pokeballs in her purse and started walking towards the door.

"Yeah! I want to call her Terra. I can't wait to start training her. I hope she gets along with everyone." Caroline replied, worrying a bit about whether Friday would be able to tolerate a new pokemon or whether Swiper would try to bully the newbie. She turned to wave goodbye to Rick and to Karuto. Tyler had already gotten up and retrieved his own pokemon and appeared to be talking with her brother. Then her brother got out of his seat and walked over to her and Destiny.

"See you later, Destiny. Go ahead back to work. Caroline will catch up." Rick stared down at Destiny as Destiny looked back and forth between him and Caroline. She didn't like the idea of leaving Caroline right now, but she didn't like the way that Rick was looking at her either. She was well aware of the uniform that he was wearing, and she figured that whatever was going on between him and Caroline had to do with his work. If that was the case, she could hardly interfere.

"Oh...Okay. I guess I'll see you a little later, Caroline," Destiny said with a great deal of uncertainty before making a swift escape.

"I'll see you later, Rick," Caroline said before trying to push past her brother and follow Destiny. Rick repositioned himself to block her path.

"Give us the bird, Caroline," Rick said to her softly, obviously trying to avoid making a big scene. "This is business, so give us the bird."

Caroline's eyes narrowed, though she wasn't surprised. She'd been figuring that this had more to do with his work than her pokemon's well-being. "No. I already told you no. I'm leaving now."

"You're not going anywhere until you give me that bird! Now hand it over!" Rick shouted, no longer holding back his frustration. Many people in the Pokemon Center glanced up, but no one interfered. If anything, they did whatever they had to in order to stay out of the conflict. Even Nurse Joy set Karuto's healed pokemon on the counter before swiftly disappearing into the back of the building.

Caroline glared hard at her brother and took a step back. She'd been very tactical up to this point. She'd considered her options and possible consequences before reacting or taking any action. However, her temper had finally reached a boiling point. Her brother had brought his friend to her so that they could both try to lie to her so that she would willingly hand over her most vulnerable pokemon. Now, he wanted to get her spearow by intimidating her. Since her brother joined Team Magma, he'd made it his own personal responsibility to run her life, telling her what jobs she could or couldn't have and what school she needed to go to and where she ought to live. She'd had enough of him! So she did something really, really stupid.

"Why don't you make me?!" Caroline cried and regretted it instantly. It had been an automatic response. It was the sort of thing that she would say to him when he might demand the T.V. remote or when he'd try to get her to go along with some of his more delinquent behavior. It was her usual defense when she thought that her brother was bullying her too much. Unfortunately, Rick was currently in uniform. Worse yet, they were in public, in view of everyone in the Pokemon Center including Tyler, who was currently Rick's subordinate.

Rick's temper was also at its peak. His thoughts were almost symmetrical to hers. Everything that he did, he did so that his family could have a better life. He took this job to support his family, help them live in a better home, and so that his sister could go to a good school. However, ever since he'd come home, Caroline had been behaving very strangely. She was rebelling when she usually wouldn't and complaining when she shouldn't. Before he'd left home, Caroline had regarded him with the kind of love and respect that one would place on a demigod. Now, she was so selfish that she wouldn't even give him a crummy little pokemon. What had happened? What was wrong with her?

"I don't know what the hell is wrong with you, Caroline," Rick growled as he pushed his sister roughly against the counter. She appeared to be in shock. Either way, she put up no fight as he grabbed her wrists and pinned them behind her back. "Tyler!" Rick nodded his head to Caroline's belt, indicating that Tyler should take her pokeballs. "Don't fuss about which is which. Take them all and get to headquarters. We'll figure out what's inside later."

Caroline was silent except for a soft and barely audible whimper. Her wide eyes stared straight ahead into space as she tried to keep from crying. What had she done? Now she might lose all of her pokemon! How could she let this happen? She didn't dare to fight back. Rick was much stronger than her, and a much better fighter besides. All she could hope was that if she was obedient and submissive, Rick would make sure that she got her pokemon back later.

This post has been edited by Amissa: Aug 18 2010, 06:46 PM

[Xal]

Karuto nodded to Destiny as she left. The situation with Caroline, her brother and the other Magma was getting increasingly hostile, so he was very grateful when Nurse Joy dropped his pokémon on the table. He picked the three pokéballs up and clicked them onto his belt. The idea of just leaving was tempting but he didn't think that he could just wander off if Caroline was in any trouble. He wouldn't mind battling the two grunts either, but when Rick ordered Tyler to take her pokéballs that idea suddenly became a lot more dangerous. His pokémon were strong but not strong enough to take on two Magma grunts on their own. They'd have stood a decent chance if it were all four of them, but without Luna, Destiny and now Caroline there really wasn't much hope. Unless the Eevee was really an incredibly skilled battler who had just had the misfortune to come across the most powerful Raticate in existence back in the alley, Karuto didn't fancy his chances.

It took a bit of consideration, but he decided not to suddenly launch into a battle. Even if Caroline were to join before Tyler got a chance to take her pokéballs the chances of victory would be limited at best, and that wasn't even taking into account that there might be other Magma members lying in wait. He wouldn't even be surprised if civilians were to jump to the aid of the Magmas, a lot of people here must have become rich by kissing up to Magma and Karuto was sure that they wouldn't miss a chance to do so some more. Maybe they'd get some perks or payment for helping Magma out. There wasn't a lot to do except just let them take the pokémon, chances were that they'd return them anyway. Magma were all about looking after themselves and their families, even though that was almost always at the expense of everyone else. Even so, he was going to keep an eye on the situation. He'd step in if he thought it would do any good, but he didn't expect it would. The odds were stacked against them, whether it was in a battle or not. At least if they didn't battle and just went along with Magma they wouldn't anger them and Caroline would stand a good chance at having her pokémon returned. He needed to keep reminding himself that this wasn't any of his business anyway; as far as Magma was concerned, he was just a guy who'd reluctantly accompanied them to the pokémon center. And that was exactly what he was. If he were to walk out of the room now he didn't think anyone would care, this wasn't his fight and with any luck it wouldn't turn into his.

He leaned back against the counter, getting ready to leave but still keeping an eye on Tyler. The entire situation depended upon his following actions, and what Magma were planning to do next.

[deyv87]

Tyler had been hoping Rick would be more civil with his sister than he actually was, and Tyler was quite shocked when he grappled her arms as he did. Tyler leaned against the wall behind him, wishing he could become invisible to the onlooking civilians. It was bad enough to get those hateful, half-hidden sneers when he wore his Team Magma uniform. Unfortunately, with the way things were going, these people would remember him for some time and he would have to endure those looks from these people all the time. At least they were all currently paying attention to Rick, instead of himself.

"Tyler!" Rick's voice boomed in the pokemon center. Crap, well there goes that. Tyler thought. "Don't fuss about which is which," Rick continued, "Take them all and get to headquarters. We'll figure out what's inside later."

Double Crap. Tyler sheepishly approached the almost lifeless girl, keeping an eye on Karuto and Destiny, who were currently the most likely people to try to put a stop to this.

"I'm really sorry about this," Tyler said as he opened his briefcase, his voice quivering for a moment before he continued.

"but Friday really does need professional help." Tyler gently pulled the first pokeball from her hip and placed it in his briefcase.

"Your pokemon will be well taken care of until you get them back." Tyler continued, hoping to keep her calm as he put the second pokeball into his briefcase.

"What I said about the procedure being invasive was a worst case scenario," He placed the third pokeball into his briefcase before moving to Rick's other side to reach the last two pokeballs.

"and in my opinion, it'll go real smooth." Caroline's fourth pokeball now sat next to the other three.

After seeing how Rick treated his own sister, Tyler thought it best to make a suggestion before leaving. "Please, Rick, do the right thing and lend your sister a pokemon to protect herself." Tyler pleaded, and although he didn't speak in a particularly loud voice, he knew that in the silence of the pokemon center it would carry to Karuto and Destiny's ears. Tyler spun the combinations on his briefcase, locking it, before awkwardly exiting the building.

Toward the motorcycle, or just straight back to base? Tyler pondered for a moment before remembering that Rick had the motorcycle's key. Still fairly shaken up by what had just happened, Tyler decided to take a somewhat winding route back to base. He casually walked down the sidewalk, trying to blend in with the pedestrians, as he occasionally took an unnecessary turn, but generally steered himself toward base. Whew, almost done, Tyler.

This post has been edited by deyv87: Sep 1 2010, 10:23 PM

[Amissa]

Caroline couldn't remember ever wanting to punch someone so badly. She couldn't fight her brother, and she wasn't going to try. Her body shook now more from rage than from fear. Who was the object of her rage? It was Tyler, of course. Sure, her brother was being a jerk, but at least he was good at it. He had cussed at her, shoved her, and restrained her. He didn't tell her, "Don't worry, I'll take good care of your pokemon and I'm really sorry" while he was robbing her. How dare he try to be nice to her while he was robbing her! What sort of psycho was he? Of course, it was also a lot easier for her to hate Tyler than it was to hate Rick, at least for her.

Her brother held her arms firmly behind her back as Tyler picked off her pokeballs. She wanted to spit on Tyler. She wanted to beat him and hit him until blood dripped down his fancy clothes, but as it was, the only thing that she could do was pelt him with violent thoughts. I hope Swiper swallows you whole! I hope Thor let's you pet him so that you can spend the night twitching and paralyzed in the city streets. I hope Friday yanks out all of your too-nice hair and leaves you completely bald forever. I hope Terra...digs up your garden?

Rick held onto her until Tyler had time to take off. He was pissed off at Tyler too, but it was nothing compared to what his sister was feeling. "Do the right thing" and crap like that. Who did he think he was, telling Rick what to do? Sure, Tyler may want to convince himself that he was the only one with a conscience on Team Magma, but Rick at least had enough sense not to leave his own sister to run back to work in the poor district without any protection. Besides, Tyler still followed through. If he thinks he's such a great guy, he could have said "no". He could've told me to go to hell. He's not any different, not really.

Rick let Caroline go once he was sure that Tyler was clear. She didn't turn around. She didn't look at him. It was probably for the best because he didn't know what to say. "Here," Rick said as he placed one of his own pokeballs on the counter. It was his starly. He had two other pokemon, but seeing how much trouble Caroline had with her ekans, it was the only one of his pokemon that she could probably handle. "Now you had better get back to work."

Rick pulled out the keys to the motorcycle and twirled it on his finger absently as he began to saunter casually towards the exit. "I'll probably see you tomorrow or something, Caroline." He paused to turn back and lock eyes with every person present in turn, dedicating a bit more time to glower menacingly at Karuto. No, he couldn't remember his brief encounter with the boy a week earlier, but he didn't like the look of him anyway. He wasn't sure how he felt about this kid hanging around his sister. Could he be influencing her and causing her to behave so rebelliously? He had nice hair though, Rick had to give him that. "The rest of you guys...have a nice day."

Starly (male)
Level 9
Ability: Keen Eye
Attacks: Tackle, Growl, Quick Attack, Wing Attack

This post has been edited by Amissa: Aug 25 2010, 06:58 PM

[Xal]

Karuto considered stepping in when they practically stole Caroline's pokémon. He'd expected they do as much, so he wasn't at all surprised when they revealed their true colors in perfect Magma style. Tyler was still trying to act nice about it though. He assured her she'd get them back and that they'd be well taken care of until then, which Karuto was starting to believe. They were already robbing her without any resistance, it wouldn't make sense to pretend she'd be having her pokémon returned if they weren't going to give them back. As he thought about it Karuto thought that would probably be worse for Magma; at least if she thought they'd been stolen then it would probably be the last they'd hear of her (unless she planned some kind of rescue, but Magma would have known that her attempts would be hopeless so not worth worrying about), but if they told her she'd get them back when they had no intention of retuning them they'd have to deal with her pestering them about it. One of them was Caroline's brother, so the issue would probably come up whenever they met.

That still left the issue of why they wanted the pokémon, though. Tyler had mentioned the Spearow was harmed at an accident at one of the Magma facilities. Perhaps psychiatry wasn't the only thing on Team Magma's mind, perhaps whilst they were using psychic pokémon to 'help' Spearow they might erase a trade secret or two he'd picked up as well.

The thought was comforting. He felt guilty about not helping Caroline but growing up in Noverus had taught him to mind his own business, especially where Magma was concerned. If you tried to defend someone against Magma you'd end up worse off for it. The previous week's encounter with the grunt stood before him was a reminder of the fact that even a single Magma grunt had a decent amount of firepower. If he were to intervene here then even if he won he didn't expect it would be the last of it. Tyler urged Rick to do the right thing and lend his sister a pokémon for protection, which was a little odd. Perhaps they wanted the pokémon to spy on Caroline, or maybe they really were being merciful. But whatever it was, like Karuto had been telling himself it was none of his business. He watched as Tyler left and decided he should do the same. Her brother left soon after, so that was when Karuto decided to go too. There was nothing he could do now and no reason to remain. It was time to go home.

"Hey, Caroline." He said, a small amount of sympathy evident in his usual uncaring tone. "I've gotta go now, I'm sorry about what's happened. I'm sure you can find Destiny if you need any help, she can't have got far."

"Well... bye then." He said sheepishly, walking out the door feeling slightly ashamed.

[deyv87]

The base was in Tyler's view now, a few blocks down the road. He had abandoned his winding escape route several minutes prior. He figured that if they had managed to pick him out of the crowd and follow him for this long, it didn't make sense wasting his energy. Besides, the few times Tyler had doubled back he hadn't seen Caroline or her friends, so at this point he was probably just running away from his own imagination.

Why did she have to say no? Tyler obsessed as he walked. Other than being a Magma, what did I do wrong? Why would that even matter to her? I mean, her brother's a Magma. Oh, right... her brother's a Magma. The moment I gave him control he manhandled her like a... like... well, I've never seen someone manhandled like that before. Ok, so she understandably doesn't like Magmas. I hope she's okay. Wait, I gave him control?! But I'm the lowest on the totem pole in Magma. Pull yourself together, Tyler. That doesn't matter now.

Tyler shook his head, bringing himself back to reality. He had been standing in place staring at the base for several seconds. he half heartedly tried to decide what to do next. He desperately wanted to walk in, hand over all of the pokeballs he had stolen from Caroline, wait for them to do whatever they were going to do to Friday, and take them all back to Caroline. He also desperately wanted to move up in the ranks of Team Magma so he wouldn't ever have to do this sort of mission again, and the best way he knew to do that was to actually complete his mission. That meant turning over Friday, not a small collection of pokemon. He'd have to figure out which pokeball actually held Friday, first.

Tyler found a nearby bench, sat down on it, popped open his briefcase, and looked at the pokeballs within. He wasn't really paying that much attention to the pokeballs themselves when he took them from Caroline, but rather her face. So, he was somewhat surprised to see a 'T' written above the button on one of the pokeballs. He rotated the other pokeballs around to get a better look and found that two of the other pokeballs had letters on them as well: an 'S' and an 'F'. Huh Tyler thought, Well, the obvious guess would be that the letters stand for pokemon... but they could stand for nicknames. Shoot, I could be completely wrong and they might just be hand-me-down pokeballs from her cousins "Steve," "Fred," and "Trish." Guess I'll just have to open them up and check.

He picked up the one marked 'S' and set his briefcase down next to him, hoping this would be simple and the 'S' would stand for "spearow." Tyler opened the pokeball, and out came an ekans facing away from Tyler, ready for battle and looking for an opponent.

"Nope." Tyler muttered. Clearly, the ekans hadn't expected a guy's voice coming from behind him. It quickly spun around to face the Magma recruit, glaring intently into Tyler's eyes, attempting to paralyze the human with fear.

"I guess 'S' stood for 'snake.' Next." Tyler lazily scooped the ekans back up into its pokeball and set it back in his briefcase. "Ok, 'F' for 'Friday,' then." Tyler released the pokemon from its ball, and sighed with relief when a spearow was hopping in front of him. "Finally!" Tyler exclaimed, startling the spearow, who hopped around to look at Tyler.

The spearow didn't look quite as disheveled as he had expected. Tyler had imagined a crazy, aggressive spearow would have its feathers ruffled. Friday actually looked like he was well taken care of. His feathers had a slight sheen and seemed to be regularly preened. The only thing that actually made Friday look any different than any other spearow was the bandage over his eye, and the fact that he shook his head every few seconds. I wonder what they're actually going to do with him at the base? I guess turning him over can wait a couple of minutes so he can have a snack and some fresh air. Tyler grabbed one of George's cookies from his briefcase and held it out to Friday. "Want a treat, Friday?"

The spearow continued to shake his head. "Well, if you want it, it's yours." Tyler said before dropping it on the ground in front of the fidgeting bird. Tyler leaned over to close his briefcase, and when he sat back up he noticed that Friday had hopped closer to the bench, but to Tyler's left. The bird had begun rubbing the side of his face against the bench leg. "Heh, got one heck of an itch there, eh Friday?" The spearow continued for a moment before hopping away and shaking the now peeling bandage off of his face. Friday immediately pounced on the cookie and scarfed it down before looking up at Tyler, head tilted to the side as if asking for another, sunlight glinting off of the bird's eyes.

Eyes. Tyler reluctantly realized. This spearow has both eyes.

"OH, WHAT THE MUK!"

[Amissa]

Caroline's hand was still shaking as she wrapped it around her brother's pokeball that he'd left for her on the counter. It was all that her brother had left for her before he walked out of the Pokemon Center. This was swiftly followed by Karuto leaving her as well. "It's okay," she told Karuto after he said that he had to go. You're just leaving? This hurt her more she had expected, though she tried not to show it. Luna had gone her own way shortly after their battle in the park, then Destiny left, and even her brother was gone now (though she had to admit to herself that it was probably better that he was gone). Karuto had been the only one left for Caroline to count on, but now it was looking more and more like this was going to be a situation that she would have to handle alone. "I'll be fine. See ya, Karuto," She replied rather weakly.

Caroline dropped herself into a chair in the cafe area and sipped at her coffee, which had now gone cool. She hoped that the drink might restore some of her energy as she thought about what she needed to do next. There was no way that she could go back to work. Dustin could fire her for all she cared, but there was no way she would be able to think about working when her pokemon were in the hands of a thief. But I know where he's going, Caroline thought, I know where Magma headquarters are. They don't have to let me in, or they could throw me out if I showed up. However, going there is probably my best bet.

"Caroline!" Nurse Joy's voice rang through the Pokemon Center and Caroline snapped her head up to look at the nurse. "Your pokemon is ready."

Caroline didn't understand. She looked around the room, but the people who had been in the Pokemon Center before were nowhere to be seen. Even the girl working at the cafe appeared to have gone into hiding after her brother left. With a puzzled expression, Caroline walked back up to the counter. "You already gave me my pokemon, thanks."

"No, not this one. This is your spearow, the one that is missing an eye." The young nurse gave Caroline a shy smile. "I'm sorry that I didn't give it to you with the others, but I had heard the men talking. I knew that they wanted to take it from you so I thought I'd keep it safe for you. I don't want you to think I would ever keep a pokemon that wasn't mine." The nurse sounded nervous, probably from witnessing a robbery in her own Pokemon Center. If anyone else had tried to take someone's pokemon in the nurse's presence, she had some tough pokemon of her own that she would use to intervene. However, there was nothing that she could do against Team Magma without worrying about retaliation. There was nothing that she could do openly that is.

"Oh no! I'd never think you were....and thank you! Thank you so much!" Caroline cried as she eagerly scooped the pokeball into her hands. It didn't have the "F" marked on it that her original pokeball had and Caroline was eager to call Friday out just to double check. She gave Nurse Joy an appreciative smile and the nurse just backed away.

"Oh it's nothing. But if anyone asks, it was just an accidental mix-up. I don't want any trouble." A look of worry came over the young nurse and she held her hands up in front of her as though to shield herself from any blame. "And also, could you let her out outside. I'm mean, she's a bit, um..."

"Oh yeah, I know. And don't worry, I won't tell on you. Thanks again and goodbye!" Caroline said cheerfully before going outside, suddenly feeling much more positive.

Nurse Joy watched the girl leave and heaved a sigh of relief as she walked outside. "It was lucky that you were able to do it so quickly. We don't want any Magmas coming back here nosing around for that bird. It's too bad that such a sweet girl should be so caught up with those awful folks. By the way, how did it go?"

A figure walked out from the back room of the Pokemon Center to join Nurse Joy at the counter. The man had been one of those eating at the cafe when the group of kids and two Magmas had arrived. Little did anyone suspect that he was actually a member of the Rebellion or that the Pokemon Center was actually The Sanctuary, the biggest rebel stronghold in Noverus.

"No good. That bird's brain is scrambled like an egg. We can't get any information about where it was or what was going on there. I mean, if we didn't already know better, we wouldn't even be able to tell from its thoughts and memories what species of pokemon it was! We know that they were experimenting on pokemon and that those experiments were seriously bad stuff, but that spearow doesn't know much beyond that. Dead end." The man said as he examined a list of names on the nurse's computer. "Karuto Jones? That's Miko's younger brother isn't it? He looked all grown up, but I wonder if he's got what it takes to really stand up to them. And Caroline Kelly, yeah she seemed nice enough. She might not have been able to fight much but still, it takes some guts even to tell those guys 'no' when you've got something that they want."

"Are you thinking about recruiting them?" Nurse Joy asked, sounding nervous again. "You saw for yourself, that girl's brother is a Magma."

"But she ain't Magma. Besides that, something about what I saw today makes me think that she and her brother ain't quite on the best of terms. Why don't you put these two on our 'watch' list? We'll keep an eye on them. Who knows, they might be just the sort of folks we could use around here."

_______________________________________________

Caroline went outside and looked around. For some reason, it felt like she had been in the Pokemon Center forever. Everything had changed in such a short span of time, but at least she still had Friday. She needed to find a place without any people around so that she could call out her pokemon safely and make sure that she was okay. Thus, Caroline headed for the alleyway that she and the others had walked through on her way to the Pokemon Center. Sure, she didn't like the place, but it was the closest location where she knew she could be alone.

Once she reached the alleyway, she checked around a bit just to make sure there was nobody around for Friday to attack before releasing her pokemon. The spearow appeared in front of her in a flash of red light, tilting its head this way and that as though doing its best to make sense of its surroundings. "Hey Friday! C'mere girl," Caroline called and held out a hand. Friday quickly flew up to perch on her outstretched hand, still looking around the unfamiliar alleyway. "Are you okay?" Caroline asked as she gently pet the front of her bird with a finger.

"Spea-rooow," Friday replied softly with a quiver of uncertainty in her voice.

"I'm in some trouble, girl. Some guys stole the rest of my pokemon. I need to try and get them back." Caroline said but Friday just blinked at her. This was a problem. Caroline knew that pokemon were a lot like people when it came to intelligence. Some were very smart and could understand very easily. She considered Swiper, her ekans, as one who fit into that category. However, there were others who were much slower and took a lot more before they would really make sense of human speech. Friday was closer to this end of the spectrum. She was far from stupid, but her insanity condition made it hard for her to grasp certain ideas and concepts.

"Okay, let's try this," Caroline thought for a moment before speaking again. "There were some bad men. Bad men." Caroline made a mean angry face and made claws with her free hand. "They took the others, Swiper, Thor, and Terra. Well, you don't know Terra very well yet but she's a pokemon like you and they took her." Caroline made the mean face again and used her claw hand to grab at Friday. The bird squawked irritably and tried to peck at the claw hand but Caroline quickly moved out of her reach. "Now, we need to go and get them back. We need to rescue them. We need to save them and bring them home." Here Caroline used her free hand to pat herself on the chest. "Home. Do you understand?"

"SPEEEAAROOOOW!" Friday crowed, head tilted to the sky as she made her war cry. She understood that something had taken Caroline's other pokemon and that Caroline wanted them back. She understood that whatever took them was a very bad thing, and that it would probably be best for everyone is she killed it.

"But there's more, girl. The bad men, they want you too. Do you understand? The bad men want to take Friday away too." Friday growled as she heard this. So, this monster "Bad men" wanted a piece of her too, eh? Well it could just come get some! She'd tear it apart piece by piece! Friday nuzzled Caroline's hand to reassure the girl and flapped her ragged wings in anticipation for the fight. "Okay, we're going to go try and find them now. Come back to your pokeball and I'll call you when I need you."

Friday put up some resistance before being put back into her ball, but Caroline managed to get her inside so that she could open the pokeball that her brother gave her. Once again, there was a flash of red light before a small brown bird appeared in front of her. The starly backed away from her and looked skittish.

"Hey there, I'm not going to hurt you." Caroline said as she crouched to the ground with one hand extended towards the pokemon. "It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you." However, the pokemon would not come any closer no matter how she cooed or called. The only things that she knew about Starly was what her brother had told her. She knew that he hadn't had it very long, so it hadn't become very strong yet. She knew that it knew Tackle, Quick Attack, and her brother's favorite attack that Starly had was Wing Attack. It probably had others, but Rick only talked about its offensive attacks. "Okay then, let's go," Caroline said brusquely as she called Starly back into its pokeball.

These two little birds were all that she had against anything that came her way. Hopefully, she could get her pokemon back without a fight. The trouble would be getting away before anyone could take Friday. Tyler was bound to find out that he didn't have her spearow, and then he was sure to come looking for her again. Since he had all of her other pokemon, she couldn't just take Friday and try to run away or go into hiding. She hated having to give up Friday, and she'd fight to the last to keep her. At least now that Friday had an idea what was going on, she might have a chance to defend herself or try to fly away. No matter what, though, it looked like she would have to confront Tyler again.

Caroline quietly exited the alleyway and tried to draw up every scrap of courage she had left at the end of this particularly hard day. She took a deep breath, tried to focus her mind, and began to march resolutely towards Magma headquarters.

This post has been edited by Amissa: Sep 3 2010, 10:08 PM

[deyv87]

Tyler recalled the healthy spearow back to its pokeball and remained sitting on the bench for a while as he tried to make sense of the situation. There were several explanations he could think of to account for this clearly being the wrong spearow, but none of them seemed reasonable. The original information on which the mission was based could have been flawed... except that Caroline admitted that Friday was messed up. Caroline could have swapped Friday for this spearow at some point... but when? Tyler had taken all of the pokeballs on her belt, and he didn't remember her carrying anything around with her to hide Friday in. Maybe Rick had swapped the pokemon and was on his way to turn in Friday on his own. Tyler wouldn't put it past Rick to try to make himself out to be more competent than he really is, especially by throwing Tyler under the proverbial bus. But no, Tyler replayed the incident in the pokemon center over and over again in his mind, and Rick simply didn't have the time to make that kind of a switch without anyone noticing, especially with everyone in the room staring at him.

The only other person who had access to Caroline's pokemon to make a switch would have been Nurse Joy, but Tyler knew her. There was no way she would swap Caroline's pokemon just to mess with Tyler. She had been healing his pokemon since he was a child. Sure, they weren't exactly close friends, but they would chat fairly frequently, and Tyler had come to trust her over the years. If she was working shifts at two different pokemon centers, though, she might have slipped up and accidentally given Caroline the wrong spearow.

Tyler decided that his best option was just to go back to the pokemon center, hope that Joy would listen to him, and ask her to trade this spearow for Friday. He put the spearow's pokeball back in his briefcase before locking it and walking back toward the pokemon center. Tyler glanced at his PokeNav to make sure he was taking the most direct route, then let his mind wander a little as he traveled. I still need a nickname for that voltorb I caught. Tyler thought. He contemplated different puns he could use based on the fact that the pokemon is essentially an electric sphere, but failed to come up with anything more clever than "ball lightning." Then, as he was thinking of what moves his voltorb knew, it hit him. "Amp!" He said aloud, startling a nearby pedestrian. "Sorry, ma'am. Just naming a pokemon and got excited." The older woman mumbled something about kids these days before turning down a side street.

As he walked, Tyler realized that as far as Rick knew, this mission was practically over. Tyler really didn't want to, but he knew that the best thing to do would be to contact rick on the radio and let him know what was happening. He pulled his Team Magma issued radio from his briefcase and clicked it on before tuning it to Rick's frequency.

*Ksht* "Umm... Rick? Do you have your radio on?" *Ksht*
...
...
...
*Ksht* "Over." *Ksht*

Several seconds passed before Tyler tried again.

*Ksht* "Well, if you're listening, we got the wrong bird. The one your sister had has both eyes, and is definitely not crazy. I'm heading back to the pokemon center. Meet me there. Over. *Ksht*

Tyler set the radio to a low enough volume that the background noise wasn't very audible, but if Rick decided to say something, Tyler would hear it. He slid the radio onto his belt before continuing down the street. After a couple of blocks, Tyler turned down a street to continue on his path back to the pokemon center. There, not more than a couple dozen paces away, Caroline was walking toward him. Tyler stopped, and tried to think of something appropriate to say... but there probably really wasn't anything he could say that anyone in their right mind would deem "appropriate." So, he went with the second best thing, "Polite."

"Good afternoon."

[Amissa]

Somewhere in Noverus, a red motorcycle sped through the streets of the city. People looked up as it passed. Rebels and troublemakers moved out of the way or quickly hid from view. They knew a Magma when they saw one, and they would probably still know that the rider of the motorcycle was a Magma even if his bike was bright yellow and his outfit was neon orange. The rider drove with a sort of carefree recklessness of someone who knew he had no serious adversary for miles around. The engine was loud and the sound of the wind blowing past was louder, and through his helmet, Rick could hear little else. He certainly couldn't hear his walkie-talkie or Tyler's message. As far as he knew, the mission had been completed successfully. The damage was done, but Rick was confident that nothing had broken that couldn't easily be repaired. First, he needed to get back to headquarters. He'd probably make it before Tyler did, but Tyler could use the exercise in Rick's opinion.

______________________________________________________________

Caroline continued her march toward Groudon's Thumb, trying to focus on simply putting one foot in front of another. She had tried so hard to get her head right, but by the time she finally came face to face with Tyler, she didn't feel nearly ready for another confrontation. She was usually distrustful and even a tad paranoid, but what had just happened in the Pokemon Center still had her freaked out. It was a powerful 'freaked out' that continued to hinder her ability to reason. At the sight of Tyler, her brain felt like it went on ice and left her fear and instincts to take over.

Her hand immediately lowered to hover over her pokeballs at her belt. Even if she couldn't take him in a fight, it was important to make him worry. He didn't know what pokemon her brother had given her and he didn't know how tough her spearow was. Besides, she didn't need to win. She just needed to get her pokemon back. Caroline eyed Tyler's suitcase before looking back at his face. She probably looked scared, her abnormally wide eyes taking on the look of a cornered animal.

"Good afternoon."

"Hi," Caroline responded weakly giving a rather pointed glance to his briefcase. She would let him make the first move, but she didn't intend to let him brush her off either.

[deyv87]

Crapity crap crapola mega-crap. Flashed through Tyler's thoughts. He had assumed that Caroline would have given up trying to chase him down by now. After all, he could have easily turned in her pokemon by now if he had only gotten the correct spearow. Tyler consciously made sure he was ready to protect his briefcase after noticing that Caroline was practically staring at it, but tried not to tighten his grip on it. If she wanted what was inside his briefcase, he had to make her think there was no reason for her to actually want it.

"Well... this is awkward." Tyler started, still frantically coming up with what he should be doing. "Look, I'm really sorry that happened the way it did at the pokemon center. I had hoped Rick would just try to talk to you about it, instead of... well... you know. I can't say I actually expected better from him, though... I'm sorry. I probably shouldn't be talking like that about your brother to you. At least he lent you some pokemon, that's a plus."

Tyler's thoughts started to make more sense as he continued apologizing to the girl. Tyler had been assuming that Nurse Joy was the one who switched Caroline's spearows, but maybe Caroline had done it herself somehow. He needed to remember that as he talked to the girl. Maybe he could get Caroline to give up Friday if she had him without letting her know that Nurse Joy might have him.

"In any case," Tyler continued. "I'm really sorry about all of this. You should be able to get your pokemon back in a few days, though, assuming Friday is in fact the spearow they're looking for. If he's not, they still should be able to help his psychological problems, but they'll probably have to hold onto your pokemon for much longer. They'll want to be sure they have the wrong spearow before giving him back, and if I know the guys in the lab, they'll probably take their sweet time doing so. I wouldn't worry about that, though. You were actually quite helpful in identifying Friday as the spearow from that accident."

That would work nicely. Hopefully if Caroline had Friday she would do whatever she could to get her other pokemon back as quickly as possible and save the other spearow from unnecessary mind prodding from a powerful psychic pokemon. If she didn't have Friday, though, he could still go talk to Nurse Joy about it and get Friday back.

"So, should I just tell Rick when your pokemon are ready to be returned, or should I get in contact with you directly?"

[Amissa]

Caroline shrugged awkwardly, looking at the ground as Tyler apologized. "Whatever, Rick probably wouldn't have been able to talk me out of my pokemon, and I guess it's pretty obvious now that you never intended to take 'no' for an answer. Next time you play a game like that with somebody, maybe be a gentleman and let them know what the stakes are first. And yeah, my brother knows it's not too safe around where I work. He's probably pissed at me, but not pissed enough to want me to get, you know...mugged...by people." People like you, was the implicit message in her look. However, she had caught the plural in one of his sentences. He doesn't know that I have Friday. He thinks Rick gave me two pokemon.

Caroline's attitude toward Tyler had softened slightly upon hearing his apology, but it didn't take long for him to open his mouth again and renew her anger. "How could I have been helpful?" Caroline almost shouted at Tyler. "You never even let me know what you were really looking for. Even now, you talk to me as though your only interest was in the well-being of my pokemon the entire time! Can you please, STOP LYING for just a few minutes? Aside from that, it's pretty obvious that you weren't listening to a word I said when I was telling you about Friday. She's a girl spearow! At this rate, I'm damned surprised that you even remembered her name!" Her tone steadily elevated during her tirade until she was practically screaming at Tyler. She also threw her arms into the air to emphasize the point.

"All you know about Friday is that she's a bird that's got some problems. She's injured, and she's scared and somehow I don't think kidnapping her and brainwashing her is going to make her better. Don't you dare come to me and act like you're doing all this for her benefit! You're nothing but a crook and a con artist, and you're not even good at it!" She would have loved to go on shouting and insulting Tyler. The idea of spitting on him or beating him up with her own hands sounded pleasant to her too, but she had more important issues to attend to.

"I don't want to have to talk to Rick," she said finally. "And frankly, I don't want to talk to you either. Ever. I had thought that you might give me my other pokemon back even if you were bent on keeping Friday, but it's pretty clear now that you're not interested in helping out anyone but yourself. Nothing matters to you but pleasing your superiors and getting the next promotion. I'm heading to Groudon's Thumb now to get my pokemon back myself. They have no reason to keep all of them if Friday is the only one that they want. But then, knowing your organization, I'll never see any of them again anyway. There's no telling what you people are capable of." Caroline didn't care to soften her speech or pay any respect. At this point, she was too exhausted and heartbroken to care if he arrested her for unruly conduct or anything else he could imagine. She was through with being reasonable, and now Tyler would feel the full brunt of her emotion since she had temporarily lost her ability to pull her verbal punches.

As she got to the end, she needed to blink furiously to fight back the tears welling up in her eyes. She had really been counting on Tyler still having her pokemon, but he'd had more than enough time to take them to his headquarters if he had been hurrying. If what he was saying was true (and this time, she had no reason to believe that he was lying), then there really was the possibility that her pokemon were gone for good. It was almost unbearable, and the young girl had to fight back the sob that tried to escape her. She didn't want Tyler to see her cry, so she bravely wiped her eyes with the back of her wrist and marched forward again, lowering her head as she came closer to Tyler so that he wouldn't see her face. How had her day managed to swing from 'pretty good' to 'practically hopeless'?

This post has been edited by Amissa: Sep 21 2010, 01:29 AM

[deyv87]

Wow, the way she wields guilt, we should recruit her into an infantry position. Tyler thought as Caroline walked past him.

"Wait." Tyler exclaimed in an exasperated tone. "Yes, I had a job to do. And yes, I screwed up on Friday's gender... but to be fair, Friday does sound like a guy's name." Tyler set the combination on his briefcase and popped it open, making sure that the lid blocked Caroline's view inside. He picked up the pokeballs labeled 'S' and 'T,' as well as the pokeball without a letter written on it in his left hand, then closed his briefcase. He saw no reason not to give Caroline back her pokemon now. After all, she clearly didn't have Friday, or else he assumed she would jump at the chance to turn her spearow over if she could get her pokemon back faster. "I'm sorry about just now, I doubt this makes a lot of sense, but I needed to make sure I turned in the right spearow. Anyway, here are your pokemon back." Tyler set the three pokeballs down on a newspaper stand next to him. Sure, he was willing to walk away, but an angry, crying girl with five pokemon might decide to try to fight him. He didn't like the odds of a five vs. four battle, so he wanted to be at least a few paces away by the time she actually reached her pokeballs.

He turned to walk back toward the pokemon center, but hesitated and turned back. "And not that it matters now," Tyler started, some of his frustration billowing out of him, "but I told you a lot more of the truth than you want to believe. Your bird is seriously messed up, and I want to help. The rest of Team Magma might not give a damn, but for some reason I do." Tyler opened his mouth to say more, but stopped himself, sighed, and finally turned away to walk back to the pokemon center.

[Amissa]

On his way back to base, Rick Kelly was suddenly overtaken by a very powerful feeling. He felt a hunger, a desperate craving.

"I need..."

It was enough to run any thoughts concerning the mission or of returning to the base in a timely manner right out of his head. He swallowed, looking left and right as he sped through the streets of Noverus on the motorcycle, hoping to see something that might satisfy the deep emptiness that he felt. He decided to take a detour. They probably wouldn't miss him at the base. After all, Tyler would already have delivered the spearow. No, Rick now had a more important concern.

"I need..."

The need was so great, so powerful, and so sudden that even Rick himself couldn't be certain what was calling him at first. It was like a siren's song originating from somewhere nearby. Before long, the delicious smell of cooking meat and spices filled his nostrils, and he knew without a doubt what it was that he needed.

"TACOS! Yeah! Spicy Taco!" Rick cheered, homing in on the delicious smell. He could see the building now and parked the bike in a nearby parking lot. "I guess I'll pick up something for Tyler too while I'm here, since he did...wait a minute..." Something wasn't right. The streets in this area were pretty empty since most people were busy at work or school, but Rick could see two very familiar figures standing nearby. It looked just like Caroline and Tyler. Rick cast one last lustful look at the Spicy Taco sign. "I'll be coming back for you later." He promised the image of a giant taco before heading towards the two in order to find out just what was going on.

As he came closer, Rick couldn't quite hear what was being said but he could figure that Tyler was talking to a very upset Caroline. Rick's first assumption was that after delivering the pokemon to headquarters, Tyler had for some bizarre reason come back to taunt Caroline. However, that line of reasoning didn't quite fit. Why was Caroline out here anyway when she should be at work? Then Rick saw the two pokeballs at Caroline's belt. That was suspicious, but maybe she used his starly to catch herself a new pokemon. It wasn't until Tyler pulled Caroline's pokeballs out of his briefcase and put them where she could get them that Rick became concerned. He couldn't be sure exactly what was going on, but something seemed screwed up.

"Hey Caroline, where'd you get that second pokemon? You want to tell me what it is?" Rick asked as he came within shouting distance of the two.

Caroline quickly wiped at her eyes and tried to regain composure. On the one hand, the fact that Tyler was simply intending to give her pokemon back to her was lucky beyond her greatest hopes. Just moments ago, she had been unsure of ever having them back again. She'd expected that the monsters at Groudon's Thumb would keep them to hand out to their new recruits or as rewards to those who did their missions well. However, just as relief and joy began to flood over her, she heard her brother's voice. Oh no! Caroline bolted towards the news stand, ignoring her brother's question. She was not about to lose her chance now!

"Tyler, where the hell are you going? What the hell is going on here? Did you deliver the spearow already?" Rick shouted as he walked closer. He didn't like being so confused. He didn't really mind Tyler giving Caroline the rest of her pokemon back as long as they weren't necessary for the mission, but he felt uncomfortable not knowing for sure whether or not the mission was completed. It may have been a mistake to trust Tyler to finish up. For all that Rick knew, the recruit might have gone soft and decided to return all of Caroline's pokemon back to her. Rick wasn't about to tolerate that kind of mistake.

Caroline grabbed all of her pokeballs off the news stand and set the pokeball containing Rick's starly on the stand instead. Having just had her pokemon taken from her, she was not willing to keep her brother's starly from him no matter how angry she felt. Now that she finally had all of her pokemon, she just needed to make a clean getaway. She knew that she wouldn't be able to go home where Rick would be able to find her, but maybe she could lay low at a friend's house for a while. Maybe Destiny could help her hide or even Luna. Caroline tried to run off down a side alley, but her way was suddenly blocked as her brother summoned his totodile.

Caroline and the little jaw pokemon glared at each other. A part of the girl's brain wanted her to try and punt the little monster and make her escape, but she was wary of her brother's totodile. Though her experience with pokemon was pretty limited, she had never encountered one who delighted as much in battle and generally causing harm. At home, while Caroline would keep Swiper and Friday inside of their pokeballs for her brother's sake, Rick kept his totodile inside its pokeball for her sake. It scared her. It may be small, but most of it was teeth. "Totodiiiile" The little beast growled at her, causing Caroline to take a nervous step back.

"No way, Caroline. You're not going anywhere until I know exactly what's going on. Are you going to tell me what's in that extra pokeball of yours or not?"

"It's empty!"

"Yeah, right. You've never kept your empty pokeballs on your belt with the rest of your pokemon before."

Caroline's eyes darted for a moment before she took off again, this time trying to run past Tyler. "Tyler! Block her!" Rick commanded as he positioned himself so that he and Tyler would be blocking the only escape routes. He managed to edge over to the newspaper stand and pick up his starly as well, just in case he needed it.

[deyv87]

She shouldn’t have had 2 pokemon?! Tyler thought to himself before hastily tossing Furious George in front of Caroline, blocking her escape. “Don’t let her past, George.” Tyler tried to integrate the fact that Caroline had an extra pokemon into what he already knew as quickly as possible, and came to a single conclusion. “I’ll explain later Rick, but that extra pokemon has to be Friday!” He informed his fellow Magma.

“There had better be a good explanation, but I’ll just run with it for now.” Rick responded in a clearly pissed off voice. This was cutting into his Spicy Taco time, after all.

“I’m still sorry about this Caroline, but we need that spearow. I kind of suggest you hand it over.” Tyler tried to say in as calm a voice as possible. He tried to, but the frustration of the entire day had been building, and was quite evident in his last spoken sentence.

After what appeared to be Caroline searching for another escape route, she released her ekans and electrike in front of the two Magmas. Tyler felt a twinge of excitement that he would be able to properly vent his frustration. “George, give that ekans a scratch.” Tyler commanded.

Caroline quickly spouted out, “Swiper, use glare on the mankey. Thor, thunder wave the totodile.” Before George was able to lunge forward for his attack, the enemy Swiper glared deep into the mankey’s eyes, who’s movements suddenly slowed dramatically. The electrike lowered itself into a pouncing position facing Rick’s totodile, then shot a stream of electricity out, paralyzing the water type.

George finally snapped out of his hesitation and scratched the snake, though it didn’t seem to actually harm the ekans too much. After Rick commanded his totodile to do so, the crocodile shot a stream of water forth from its mouth, nailing the electrike with a water gun attack.

At Caroline’s order, Swiper coiled itself, then lunged at Rick’s totodile, biting it on its side. Thor similarly dashed at the totodile, but skimmed past the recoiling pokemon, completely missing his tackle attack. “Try a low kick out on the electrike.” Tyler called out, hoping that a fighting type move would be more effective. Curious George leapt at the dog pokemon, kicking its front legs out from under it and smashing its face into the ground. In an almost pitiable turn of events, Rick’s totodile then proceeded to fire a water gun blast into the top of Thor’s head. When the water mist cleared, it was apparent that the electrike had feinted, as his hind end was now also on the ground.

“Ha! Gotcha!” Rick cried out. The only response he got back was a cold stare from Caroline of determination.

“Go Terra.” She said simply after returning the electrike to his pokeball. “Sand attack that totodile, and Swiper, bite totodile again.” The sandshrew hesitated and glanced around for a moment, since this was her first battle. Meanwhile, Swiper dug its fangs into the totodile’s arm. After finally taking in her surroundings, Caroline’s sandshrew kicked up a cloud of dirt into the totodile’s eyes.

Man, Caroline must really dislike that totodile Tyler thought for a moment before telling George to use fury swipes on Swiper. The mankey began flailing his claws at the enemy snake, getting three glancing blows on it, bringing the snake close to unconsciousness.

“Totodile, use water gun against that sandshrew.” Rick exclaimed. The croc took aim at the ground type, but then froze up, foaming at the mouth as latent electrical energy fully paralyzed him.

“Shrew!” Terra squeaked, expecting a face full of water.

“C’mon Swiper, finish off that totodile with another bite! Terra, Scratch totodile just for good measure,” Caroline said. Swiper lunged at the croc, biting it in the leg, but totodile still stood, albeit barely. Terra ran up to the totodile, clawing him across the face and finally dropping him to the ground.

“That’s it? Fine, come back, Totodile. Go Meditite, confuse that snake.” Rick’s Meditite simply sat in place and glanced in the ekans’ direction, who writhed in pain for a moment before eyeing up the new pokemon on the field.

“Give it another fury swipes, George!” Tyler called out. Again, the mankey swung wildly with his claws at the snake pokemon, this time striking four solid times, two of which hitting after Swiper had already feinted.

Caroline glanced around again, this time in what seemed to be a more panicky fashion before recalling swiper and releasing a spearow. “Save yourself Friday! Fly away!”

[Amissa]

"Save yourself Friday! Fly away!" Caroline commanded the spearow that she just recently released into the air. She'd started with a plan, and she had hoped that sometime during the battle she would find an opening or an escape route. However, no opening came. She had no way to escape, and she didn't think that she could win this battle and make it out with all of her pokemon again. This was the only way that she could think of to ensure that Friday didn't fall into Magma's greedy hands.

The one-eyed bird barely heard her. Instead, she was trying to remember what Caroline had told her last time she was out. It was something about bad men who wanted to take her away from Caroline, wanted to take her away from her home. Now, Friday saw two men and she could hear desperation in Caroline's voice. Clearly, these were the bad men. Bad men needed to die! "Speeearooow!" Friday cried as she dived directly at the nearest "bad man" who happened to be Rick.

"Oh hell!" Rick yelled as he tried to beat the tiny bird pokemon away from his face. However, Friday was relentless. She tore at whatever flesh she could reach with her clawed feet and beak. "Meditite! Get it Meditite! Use confusion!"

Meditite's appearance remained peaceful despite the chaos of Friday's appearance. If anything, Meditite looked a bit amused with a hint of a smile tugging at its lips. However, he still followed Rick's orders, and soon Friday was lost among the surge of random colors that appeared in her vision due to the confusion attack. Friday flew up and circled until the attack subsided. Meanwhile, Caroline used the brief distraction to plan her next course of action. Since escape seemed impossible, she might as well do her best with this battle and see if she can find another way out of this mess. She wasn't ready to give up yet, even if it was impossible for her to win against the two magmas at once.

She was actually proud of how well her pokemon were doing in this fight. The double battle that she'd had with Luna and Karuto earlier had turned out to be good practice. Swiper, when she called him out to fight, was still angry from losing and disappointed in his own battle performance against Luna's growlithe and abra. This time, he decided to actually go along with all of Caroline's instructions for a change. Because of this, he and Thor managed to paralyze all of the opponents, greatly hindering their speed and saving Terra from a water gun attack that may have left her unconscious. Now, if Friday would cooperate, she might be helpful in the fight as well.

"Friday, protect Terra. Use peck on Mankey!" Caroline called up to her spearow while pointing at Terra. It seemed that Friday was more likely to obey if she understood the reasoning behind the commands. She had fought Terra as a wild sandshrew in order to protect Caroline. Would she fight Tyler's mankey in order to protect a fellow pokemon on her team?

Indeed, Friday wasn't just protective over her trainer. She was almost equally as protective over her trainer's pokemon. "Rooooow!" Friday screamed her war cry as she came hurtling out of he sky, only slowing enough to avoid striking the ground, and landed a super effective peck attack on top of the fighting type pokemon's head before rising smoothly back up into the air.

"Maankey!" Furious George growled, clearly irritated as it brought its hands up to soothe its aching head.

"Shake it off, George, and use low kick on sandshrew!" Tyler commanded.

"Terra, use your sand-attack on meditite!" Caroline called, and her sandshrew almost joyfully kicked some loose dirt from the ground into the sitting meditite's eyes. Meditite made a grumbling noise and irritably rubbed at its eyes just before Tyler's mankey kicked Terra's back legs out from under her, sending her tumbling onto her back. Terra scrambled back onto her feet and backed further away from the fighting type pokemon, glaring at it warily. She was a bit bruised up, but showed no major injuries.

"Meditite, use confusion on that bird again." Rick said calmly. He felt sure that he and Tyler had everything well in hand this time, and he was going to make absolutely certain that everything went right. Meditite watched bird from the ground, blinking rather frequently from the grit in his eyes. Nevertheless, his aim was true.

"Spear?" Friday whimpered as she was suddenly overcome with a severe pain in her head as her eyes flooded with various strange colors. It was too disorienting for her, and the overwhelmed pokemon fell out of the sky in a faint.

"Friday!" Caroline yelled as she ran out to where the pokemon were fighting in an effort to save the spearow from a painful fall. Tyler's mankey, however, stepped in front of her with a challenging glare. He was already riled up from the fight, and Tyler had instructed him to keep her from getting past it. He clearly intended to follow orders even if that meant that she couldn't rescue her pokemon. Meditite, however, graciously used its psychic powers to slow Friday's fall to prevent any grievous injuries. Caroline reached for her pokeball to call Friday back.

"Don't let her get it, Meditite. I need that spearow!" Rick ordered. A red beam of light shot from Caroline's pokeball, but was deflected by an invisible force. Caroline glared at the Meditite that was somehow keeping her from recalling her fainted pokemon. Rick gave her a victorious grin before stepping forward to claim his prize, but before he could reach down and pick up the fainted spearow, Caroline's sandshrew swiped at his legs with her sharp claws. "Gah," Rick jumped away from the little pokemon, which only glared at him. "Fine then, we'll just have to take this one out too."

"Terra, use scratch attack on Mankey!" Caroline ordered. The sandshrew, who had been looking over Friday's limp form with a look of concern, quickly rushed to obey the command. Furious George happened to still be distracted by Caroline, and was watching to make sure that she didn't make a run for it when he was suddenly attacked from behind. Terra landed a critical hit, digging the claws of one paw deep into the mankey's tender flesh. The pig monkey pokemon squealed in agony even as it clenched its teeth in unbridled rage. Terra quickly backed away before the mankey could lay a paw on her, completely unaware that Furious George was thinking of nothing other than her destruction.

"George, try another low kick attack." Tyler commanded. George wanted to obey his trainer. He wanted nothing more than to unleash the full brunt of his rage upon the unsuspecting ground pokemon. Unfortunately, his body simply would not obey. Yellow sparks of residual electric energy bounced around him, and veins in his head began to bulge as he strained to make his attack but was too paralyzed to move a muscle.

"Oh geez," Rick rolled his eyes at seeing Tyler's pokemon unable to attack. "Come on, Meditite. Use confusion on that sandshrew so that we can finish this!" Meditite was still rubbing at his eyes and blinking furiously. He formed the attack in his mind and sent it forth, but Terra showed no indication of being harmed. Meditite grumbled some more as Rick became concerned. "What? Did you miss? Oh, for crying out-"

"Terra, use another scratch attack on Mankey!" Caroline called, and Terra ran and almost casually drug her claws across George's side. "Maaankeeey!" George howled, not in pain but in rage so deep and so powerful that his whole body quivered with it. Aside from that, he was also badly injured. In his anger, however, he could scarcely even feel the pain.

"Okay George, use your fury swipes this time." Tyler said. Even before he had completed his sentence, his mankey had bounded forward towards Terra. With each step forward, he took another swipe with his claws. Terra danced from side to side to avoid the attacks, hopping just out of reach every time a blow came her way. Every time that Furious George missed her, his strikes ended up hitting the concrete below them instead. When his attack was complete, he had dug shallow gouges in four places in the concrete. Caroline gasped and covered her mouth in horror thinking about what attacks that powerful might have done to her poor sandshrew even as Terra looked blithely oblivious to the threat.

"Meditite use confusion. And try to hit it this time," Rick said, clearly irritated. This one sandshrew was all that was keeping him from completing his mission. He was ready for it to faint already. This time, Meditite was able to lock his sights on Terra, and before the sandshrew could do anything the confusion attack had her. Her head was filled with a sharp agony while her vision was swirled with demented colors that made her feel dizzy.

"Terra, hurry and scratch Mankey before it can come after you again," Caroline called. Desperation could clearly be heard in her voice. By now, Terra was growing weary. Fighting two pokemon all on her own was proving very difficult, but she gathered her strength and once more swung her clawed paw at the pig monkey pokemon.

"Mank-eeee," Furious George moaned as Terra's claws raked against him once more. He sank to the ground in a faint and Tyler recalled him into his pokeball.

"George, return. Go...uh...Wattson! Yeah, Wattson." Tyler said awkwardly, apparently naming his pokemon on the fly. There was a burst of red light and his voltorb appeared in front of Terra. Caroline stifled back a whine of protest. She'd felt pleased that Terra was able to defeat Tyler's mankey in a two on one battle before she remembered that Tyler had at least three other pokemon. "Use sonic boom on Sandshrew."

The voltorb rocked back and forth a bit before gathering its bearings. It then began to glow white as a powerful shockwave ripped through the area. Caroline was forced to back against the wall behind her to avoid taking any damage from the attack herself. Terra's eyes widened in terror as the blast of sound approached her, but luckily voltorb's aim was a little bit off. It was just enough miss the sandshrew and blew harmlessly into a nearby wall.

"Friday!" Caroline cried, worried for her already fainted pokemon that was helpless on the battlefield. To her astonishment, it appeared that the bird pokemon was also unharmed by the wayward strike. Meditite seemed to have manifested the same invisible barrier that kept her from recalling her pokemon in order to keep Friday safe from harm. Caroline felt a twinge of appreciation for that. The last thing that Friday needed was more scars or less feathers.

"One more time, Meditite! Use confusion!" Rick commanded. Meditite once again unleashed the psychic attack on the little ground pokemon. The colors swirled sickeningly in Terra's mind as her head ached with the attack. Then, her vision faded to black as she fell into a faint.

"Oh, Terra," Caroline cried mournfully as she ran forward again. Rick bolted forward as well and scooped the unconscious spearow off the ground before Caroline could reach it. Caroline glared at her brother, then heaved a resigned sigh and pulled her sandshrew into her arms.

"Alright, you beat me. I guess I really can't stop you from doing this." Caroline said sadly as she hugged the warm body of her unconscious sandshrew to her chest. Then her eyes turned fierce once more. "But I want to go with you, then. I'm holding you accountable for anything that happens to my pokemon, Rick. I promise that if anything happens to her or I don't get her back, I will make you pay! I'm going with you to make sure that she comes back to me!"

Rick frowned down at his little sister as he placed the spearow in a pokeball of his own. "I guess. You can ride on the back of the motorcycle. You're okay with walking, right Tyler?"

"Yeah, that works." Tyler responded dismissively. He sounded exhausted. "Whatever it takes to finish this Groudon forsaken mission," he added under his breath.

As Rick led the way back to his motorcycle, Caroline stopped to give his meditite a friendly pat on the head. "Thanks for looking after my girl. It's not your fault you have to put up with my stupid big brother."

"Meditite," The pokemon responded, giving her a small amused smile. Knowing that it was a psychic type, she wondered if it was capable of responding telepathically. If it could, it chose not to, and Rick called it back into its pokeball.

"Hurry up, Caroline, or I'm leaving you behind," Rick said as he got on the motorcycle and handed her the helmet.

"I'm comin', I'm comin'" Caroline responded as she recalled her sandshrew back into her pokeball and put the helmet on her head. The carefully got on the motorcycle behind her brother. "I've never been on one of these before, so not so fast okay."

"Whatever. You're such a baby," Rick complained, but he did mind his speed on his way back to the magma base. The two of them managed to arrive quickly and without any significant incidents, and Rick led the way inside. Rick handed the pokeball with Friday inside to the secretary in the front lobby. "I need to see Mark Sotoro." The secretary nodded as she paged the man that Rick asked to see. Meanwhile, the two siblings took sat in the lobby and waited.

Caroline called out her sandshrew and set the beaten pokemon on her lap. Terra was awake, at least, but she whimpered as she cuddled against her trainer. "You're such a good girl," Caroline cooed. She was pleased with how friendly and tame her new pokemon seemed to be. It was probably a result of living in the park around so many humans. "You fought so well today. I can't wait to take you home. Then you and the others can all rest and have a good meal." Caroline hugged Terra gently, running her hands over the rough hide of the pokemon and taking care to mind the bruises. "You're so cute! It's too bad that we don't have a contest hall in Noverus."

"Do you have to dote on your pokemon here, where I work? It's making me sick," Rick said, deliberately leaning away from her as though afraid people would see them and know that they were related.

"You can just be sick," Caroline said carelessly, and continued to focus all of her attention on her sandshrew. From time to time when her brother wasn't looking, she would glance at the pokeball that her brother had Friday in, but he was keeping it well away from her. Besides, there was probably no way that she could take Friday back here and make a good escape. Everyone here was either a Team Magma member or worked for Team Magma in some other fashion.

Rick was thankful when his supervisor, Mark Sotoro arrived. The man was tall and deceptively powerful. His appearance said "accountant" though Rick knew Mark's background was more like "experienced mercenary". "Here's the spearow that you wanted, sir." Rick said as he stood and placed Friday's pokeball in the palm of the man's outstretched hand.

"Very good. It seems that we may have found a mission that even you can't screw up, Rick." Mark said with an amused grin.

Rick looked down and made a half-hearted attempt to return the smile. What he really wanted to do was punch the man in the nose, but alas, Rick valued his job too much to end his career in such a fashion.

"And this is your sister. Her name is Caroline, isn't it?" Mark said, zooming in on Caroline even as the girl willed herself to become invisible.

"Yeah, that's her."

"Your cooperation in this matter is appreciated, Miss Kelly. But it looks like your pokemon has seen better days."

Caroline shrugged. "You win some, you lose some. Today I've mostly just been losing."

"We all have days like that. That is how you learn. Maybe one day you will become a great trainer, and then you will only be winning. I'll have someone bring a Full Revive for your pokemon."

"Uh, thank you, sir." Caroline said awkwardly. She didn't want the man to think she was in his debt, but she didn't want to turn down medicine for Terra either. She still had to make it back home, after all, and none of her pokemon were fit for a fight. "Could you please return my spearow when you're done with it, too?"

The man paused for a moment, as though surprised that Caroline had the audacity to ask such a thing. Then he simply shrugged his shoulders. "That's fine. We have not use for it." Mark walked out of the room and down a corridor that Caroline couldn't see.

[deyv87]

As Rick and Caroline drove away, Tyler leaned his back against the nearby wall and slid down into a sitting position. All he wanted to do was go home and sleep, but he knew he had to make sure Rick actually reached the base and completed the mission. "Come on over here, Wattson," Tyler said, trying to ignore the pedestrians who were obviously trying to avoid the area. Rather than simply rolling to its master, the voltorb began spinning like a top before gliding lazily in an arc toward Tyler and coming to a rest beside him. Tyler chuckled to himself. "You're kind of an odd one, aren't you?" Tyler muttered.

"Voooltooorb." Wattson buzzed in a static monotone of a voice.

"Erm, yeah... I'll introduce you to the rest of the team later tonight," Tyler told the oversize pokeball, "but I suppose we should get going." Tyler scooped Wattson back into his ball, stood up, straightened out his clothes, and started down the sidewalk back to base.
________________________________________________________

The receptionist looked up as Tyler reached her desk. "Can I help you?" she said irritatedly.

"I hope so. Do you know if Rick... I think his last name is Kelly... do you know if he came through here?"

"Yeah, he did. You must be Tyler Paulson. Take a seat, Mr. Sotoro will be out to see you shortly."

Before Tyler could respond, her face was buried in a romance novel. Who's Mr. Sotoro? Tyler thought as he found a seat. Several minutes passed before a tall man in a business suit approached him.

"You're late." The man stated simply, a slight grin appearing on his face.

"Sorry, Sir..." Tyler stood, not entirely sure if he should make a quip or not. The grin told him to go for it. "...missed my ride." The grin disappeared, and was replaced with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, better late than never. Better on time than late, of course, but at least you proved you're not entirely useless." The grin was back.

Does this guy just get off on mocking people or something? Tyler mused. He realized he was grinning to himself as well. "What can I say, I aim to please." Tyler cracked.

This time, Mr. Sotoro's smile remained in place. "So I've noticed. I heard about how you wasted time today trying to sweet talk young Caroline out of her spearow." Tyler gulped. "I trust you've learned something from this mission, and that it won't happen again." Tyler started to stutter, about to explain his thought process, but Mr. Sotoro stopped him. "That being said, you acted as you needed to when it came to it. As long as you continue doing so, I think we might be able to promote you soon. Have fun with the rest of your day off. We'll call you when we find another mission for you."

"Yes, Sir." Is all Tyler was able to say before Mr. Sotoro walked away.
________________________________________________

Before he realized it, Tyler's feet had already directed him back at the pokemon center. His head was in a daze from the long day, but he did remember that he had a spearow to return to Nurse Joy; he just hoped she was still working. He entered the pokemon center to find nobody behind the counter. He rung the bell on the counter. "Just a minute!" Joy's voice came from the back room.

"Ok, no rush." Tyler called back. Tyler walked over to a vending machine and purchased a lemonade, nodding politely to a fellow in a blue bandanna sitting at a table who had looked up over his newspaper for a moment. He walked back to the counter, taking a sip as Nurse Joy came out of the back room.

"How can I help you?" Joy said sweetly.

"Well, my pokemon could use your magic touch, especially Furious George." Tyler replied as he placed his pokeballs on the counter, a smile coming over his face. For some reason, talking to Nurse Joy always made Tyler feel a bit better. "Also, I think this spearow is yours." Tyler set the spearow's pokeball down in front of her.

"Oh, thank you! I thought I had mixed her up with another customer's! It's been a stressful couple of days." Nurse Joy explained. Tyler really couldn't blame her.

"Yeah, I feel for you." Tyler started, realizing this might be a chance to vent. "I just started working for Magma today, and man was it terrible..." Tyler explained his entire day to her as she worked on his pokemon. How his mission was basically a glorified kidnapping, how his "partner" was a colossal jerk, how he nearly turned in Joy's spearow to Team Magma... everything.

"...and at the end of it all, my boss, or at least I think he's my boss, chews me out for showing up late and for 'wasting time' by trying to be civil about stealing a little girl's pokemon. After being chewed out, he said that I might be promoted anyway though... but I don't know. I might quit. I joined because I wanted to eventually change their policies so that they would actually work toward helping common citizens, but really... if this is the kind of stuff I have to do to get a high enough position for that, I don't know if it's worth it."

"Uh huh." Nurse Joy responded, clearly deep in thought.

"Heh, sorry about that... I didn't mean to chat your ear off, but thanks for listening." Tyler said as Joy handed him back his pokeballs.

After he turned to leave, Joy called after him, "Hey, whatever you decide, it sounds like you're heart's in the right place. I'm sure you'll do fine."

"Thanks, I hope you're right." Tyler replied before leaving the center.
_______________________________________-

A moment later, the Rebel bodyguard left his newspaper on the table and walked up to Nurse Joy. "So, what do you think?"

"About Tyler?" Joy replied.

The man smirked "Yeah about Tyler! I mean, the kid clearly hates Magma... and he's already on the inside! Can you imagine how useful he'd be if we could recruit him?"

"And can you imagine how dangerous it would be if he told them about us? The kid's sweet, but he is a Magma, remember?"

"I know, but he's at least worth looking into, right? You said it yourself, his 'heart's in the right place.'" the guy finished his sentence in a falsetto. "Look, either you talk to the boss man about him, or I will."

"Fine. But just so we're clear, I think this is foolish. And another thing..." she started as the door opened, and a young girl entered the pokemon center. "...your pokemon are fighting fit! We hope to see you again." Joy finished with a smile.

[Amissa]

Mark Sotoro took the pokeball holding the captured spearow into the nearest laboratory where one of his colleagues awaited him.

"Yes! Yeeeesss!" A short, buck-toothed scientist cried as he danced in place with delight. "You've found her! You've brought her back to us! The last survivor of the original battle experiments, she is ours once more! Mwuahahahaha!"

For a moment, Mark was unsure whether he should be amused or creeped out by the behavior, but after a short pause, he decided that amusement was most appropriate. He smiled before pressing the button on the pokeball to release the unconscious spearow onto a cold metal table. "Now, I told the girl that she could have this bird back when we are done," Mark explained. "Don't make me a liar."

"Of course! Of course! But this little darling probably won't make much of a pet. She's been enhanced for battle. We used smaller, weaker pokemon like spearows and wurmples specifically due to the spike in aggression that we observed in the test subjects. We had to be able to control them, and eventually, all of the others had to be destroyed when they got out of hand. That doesn't mean that we've given up with creating battle enhanced pokemon. It just means that we need to perfect our means of controlling wild pokemon first."

Then there was that fire, and some carelessly neglected fuel tanks...what a mess! Making up excuses to tell the public about the blast was a headache. This one probably only survived as a result some of the chemicals used on her. She might be a great deal tougher than your average pet bird. Now, we need to erase her memory, don't we? Well, I have Soul all set up already, so we can get right down to it." The mad scientist explained as he motioned towards his pet Solrock. The massive psychic rock was hooked to a computer via many strange cords and wires. "Anything that Soul sees inside of the spearow's mind will be shown to us on this computer monitor. This will help in identifying the portion of this pokemon's memory that must be deleted."

"You may begin whenever you are ready," Mr. Sotoro said, folding his arms across his chest and watching the proceedings with curiosity.

"Begin now, Soul," the scientist commanded.

The solrock, levitating slightly above the floor of the laboratory, gazed intensely at the tiny wounded bird. It's eyes began to glow, and a soft hum filled the room, sounding like electricity running through a circuit. The space immediately around the spearow began to glow as well, though much softer with smaller, more brilliant particles of light floating around the bird. Then, sounds floated out from the computer speakers. They were sounds of the wind blowing, of pokemon passing nearby, until finally there came the voice of a girl.

"Ew, what is that, Swiper? Don't eat it!" The girl's voice said. "Uh! Oh no! I think it's dead!"

Suddenly, and image appeared on the computer monitor. It appeared lopsided, strangely fuzzy and two-dimensional. It took Mark a few moments to realize that it was an image of a large green eye, probably the eye of the bird's current trainer, as it was first seen by her pokemon. "Wait no! You're not dead. Poor little thing, I'll get you to a Pokemon Center right away. That will make you feel better." The girl in the memory said.

"I think this is after the accident. Does this bird have a rewind button? We need to get to what happened before this," Mark said as he tapped a foot on the ground impatiently.

"Uh, let's see. Soul, try to get to some earlier memories." the scientist ordered his pokemon.

"Sooooooool," The psychic pokemon moaned in response.

"Er, by the sounds of it, Soul is having some difficulties. He says that her mind is damaged. Erasing all of the bird's memories is still an option, of course, if her mind is too fragmented."

Another image appeared on the monitor. This one was of sky, some tall buildings within Noverus. The humans could recognized the luminescent sign of the Spicy Taco in the background. Then, the girl's voice could be heard again.

"Friday, protect Terra. Use peck on Mankey!" The girl cried. On the monitor, an image of the girl appeared as if from an aerial view. She looked uncertain, but Mark Sotoro noted the look of determination in her frightened eyes. With one hand, the girl pointed to a sandshrew who was engaged in a battle with a meditite and a mankey. The bird turned and dove down, screaming a war cry. As the image of the mankey swiftly became magnified, Mark Sotoro spotted Tyler in the background, evidently commanding the fighting type pokemon.

"This is obviously a memory of a pokemon battle. I thought you said that the test subjects could not be controlled." Mark stated in a bored tone. "It seems like this girl has discovered something that even you scientists couldn't figure out."

The scientist "hmphed", not liking the suggestion than any ratty little child like Caroline Kelly could ever manage to do anything better than an educated man of science. "I doubt it, though that may seem to be the case. Are you absolutely sure that you want to return this pokemon to that trainer? It could cause many problems. If she is training it, trying to make it stronger, it might be able to do some serious harm to her as well as others. When it evolves, it would truly be able to wreak magnificent, er, I mean terrible amounts of havoc!" The scientist sounded strangely elated.

Mark Sotoro rubbed his chin, watching the footage of the battle from the pokemon's perspective until the spearow fainted in its battle. "Yes. The pokemon must be returned to her. All of the experiments were kept in a controlled environment with limited human interaction, weren't they? I wonder, if it has more to do with the power of the trainer...this girl may actually be of value to us. Make sure that you don't remove any of the spearow's memories of her trainer!"

"As you wish. You heard him, Soul. Make sure you get it right, my pet." The scientist answered, giving his solrock an encouraging pat. A few more minutes passed and every now and again, more sounds and images would appear on the screen. Many of them were frightening and confusing. They were disjointed. They were scattered bits and pieces of a short and mostly terrible life. "Soul has gathered all of the memories slated for deletion. He is proceeding to erase them now. Oh, and one other thing..."

"Yes."

"Soul is telling me that his is not the first psychic intrusion that this bird has had lately. You see, it is difficult to enter any creature's mind by force without leaving some trace behind. However, the first intrusion was done by a much weaker pokemon than Soul here, and he doubts that it had the capacity to cope with being in contact with such a damaged consciousness. It is extremely difficult, even for him, so certainly no pokemon with less training and experience would be able to understand these memories."

"Interesting. I will keep that in mind when reviewing Rick and Tyler's performance on this mission."

"Soul is done now. He is terminating his mental link, and you should be able to return this pokemon now." The scientist informed Mark. The glowing both around the spearow and from the solrock's eyes ended abruptly, and the scientist began to remove the wires connecting the solrock to the computer. Mark recalled the still unconscious pokemon into its pokeball and left the mad scientist to his mad science.
_______________________________________________________________________________

"Oh Caroline!" Destiny cried as the ran into the lobby, completely blowing past the highly annoyed receptionist. "I'm so glad you're all right! I thought something terrible might have happened, so I went back to the shop and got Dustin."

Sure enough, Caroline's manager, Dustin came stalking in behind Destiny with his poliwhirl leading the way. The older man looked surly as he glared about the place. "You okay, Caroline?"

"I'm fine," Caroline stood up from her seat in the lobby where she had been sitting alone since her brother left to return to the Magma barracks. She was honestly touched that Destiny and Dustin would come out to help her. She hadn't ever suspected that Destiny liked her very much, and she had felt very abandoned when she was left by herself at the Pokemon Center. "I'm just waiting for my pokemon. They've promised to bring her back."

"And here she is, safe and sound," A silky and confident voice interrupted. Caroline turned her head quickly in order to catch sight of Mark Sotoro walking towards her with a pokeball held up triumphantly in one hand. "For you, my dear." He said as he placed the pokeball in Caroline's upturned palm as though he were bestowing a crown upon the head of a queen.

Caroline, naturally being the distrustful sort, immediately released Friday from the pokeball. Destiny panicked and threw her arms over her head to protect her precious hair. However, the spearow that was released seemed strangely docile. Friday erupted forward in a burst of red light, but then immediately alighted on Caroline's welcoming hand.

"Row?" Friday chirped up at Caroline, tilting her head to look at her trainer with her one eye.

"What's wrong girl? You look confused." Caroline pet Friday with a finger and looked her over carefully. She didn't appear to have any new injuries. They even healed her wounds from the last battle, but Friday kept looking around, as though there was something that she knew she'd dropped. She knew that she had forgotten something, and she peered around as if she could find the memories somewhere and simply pick them up and replace them.

"Spear," Friday responded, sounding disappointed.

"It'll be okay. I'll take you home and you'll feel much better. Poor baby, come on then." Caroline called Friday back into her pokeball, but had to will herself not to glare at Mark Sotoro. She forced her face into a polite and blank expression and addressed the man. "Thank you for healing my spearow and my sandshrew. Goodbye then."

"Goodbye Caroline, and stay safe." The man said cheerfully.

Caroline left Groudon's thumb with Destiny and Dustin on each side of her, with her sandshrew carried in her arms and Dustin's poliwhirl marching in front. "Thank you guys so much for coming to check on me, but I can make it home by myself."

"You sure you okay? Did they hurt you? If I ever find out any of those losers touched either one of you girls, I swear I will..." Dustin raged, clenching a fist and gritting his teeth, but Caroline interrupted him.

"You don't need to do that. I really am okay! But I've got a lot to think about, and I just want to go home now."

"I can understand if you can't come into work tomorrow." Dustin sighed, sounding regretful. Caroline just grinned at him.

"You can expect me on time tomorrow. I'm not as fragile as you're making me out to be. Goodnight guys, and thank you again for looking out for me." Caroline said as she waved goodbye and disappeared down a side street away from Dustin and Destiny.

"Later Caroline," Destiny said with a lazy flick of her hand in farewell.

"Goodnight," Dustin growled, sounding irritated but resigned to let Caroline do what she wanted.

Caroline went on alone, though the sun was setting and casting the city of Noverus in eerie shadows. She didn't worry much since she was traveling through the nicer districts and in large open areas. Plus, she had Terra and Friday to protect her. Terra had been given a full revive while she waited to get Friday back, so she was just as peppy and curious as ever.

"You're going to love our house. It's super nice and we have plenty of space. Of course, the only reason why we have it is because my brother sold his soul. I think you'll find it's a good deal for such a low price," Caroline told her pokemon. She might feel sorry for saying such things later, but for now they made her feel a bit better. She hadn't even noticed the strange shadow that had been following her until she neared the park by her house.

"Who's there!" Caroline demanded, when she first saw the movement. It was too big to be a wild pokemon in this area of town. It was either a trainer's pokemon, or a human, or both. She turned toward it where it was hiding in the shadows of some trees, but as soon as she looked, it vanished before her eyes. "What? No way! Terra, be ready! Stay on guard!"

The little sandshrew leapt from Caroline's arms and sniffed around, but the voice came from behind them.

"I don't want to fight you. I just want to talk. I saw what happened to you today, and I want you to know that you are not alone."

"Come out where I can see you, or else I'll scream bloody murder and bring everyone in the area running out here." Caroline said, though she was thinking of screaming anyway. She turned around and found the shadow hiding in a new location. Slowly, a man stepped into the waning light. Beside him, his kadabra moved forward with him.

"It wouldn't matter if you screamed. Kadabra could teleport me away before we'd be caught and you'd just look like a fool. Besides that, you and I are on the same side." The man looked young, in his early twenties perhaps or his late teens. He had a blonde, blue-eyed, innocent look about him. He wore a sleeveless black top and baggy blue jeans, but his clothes were clean and well-kept.

Caroline's eyes darted around. This area was presently deserted, and it was a rather vulnerable hour. The light from the sun was fading fast, but the street lamps hadn't come on yet. It would be very difficult for anyone to see what was going on, and the man and his pokemon were walking closer. Caroline stood her ground and tried to appear unruffled. She thought that her pokemon could handle the kadabra and she knew enough about defending herself that she could probably send this little stalker boy packing on her own. "What side is that?" Caroline asked casually. "I wasn't aware of joining up with anyone."

"You don't know it," the young man whispered to her as soon as he was close enough, "but you are already a combatant in a war. This war has been going on ever since Noverus was conquered by Team Magma. It is a war that Team Magma has waged against the people of this city."

Caroline raised one eyebrow curiously. It wasn't the sort of thing that was taught in school, but it sounded believable. If she had to pick a word to describe her experience with Team Magma and the atrocities and tragedies that she had witnessed, "war" would certainly fit. "Go on," she said. Her interest was piqued.

"As soon as they arrived, there was resistance. What people don't understand is that there still is! It's quiet, and it's hidden, but it exists. As long as the desire for freedom still burns in the hearts of the citizens of Noverus, the Rebellion will never be destroyed."

"That sounds real nice, but it doesn't seem possible." Caroline said, trying to quickly extinguish that spark of hope that had ignited after hearing the man's words. It would burn her up inside if she let it go, and then she might do something that she might regret.

"It is possible! It is true! I've seen it! I...I'm a part of it. You can be too. I've watched you, and I think that you belong with us. Please help us!" The blonde man whispered urgently. He became excited and grabbed Caroline's shoulders, but the girl jerked back and the man remembered himself. "Sorry, I just got carried away. Those Magmas are destroying us! None of us will ever truly be able to live until we've run them out. I think you've got what it takes."

"I've seen you before. You were at the Pokemon Center today, weren't you? You saw when I was..." and Caroline didn't finish that sentence. She was too ashamed of what had happened there, of her inability to protect her own pokemon.

"Sorry, I couldn't blow my cover. That's the thing about being in the Rebellion. It has to stay a secret, no matter what."

"So why are you telling me then?"

"Because you won't tell. I know you won't tell." Those big blue eyes gazed at the ground for a moment, and Caroline took the second to rally her thoughts.

"It's impossible. I would be found out. My brother is part of Team Magma, and he would figure it out. My whole family could be punished if I got mixed up in something like that."

"Least you've got a family to worry about. My family is outside of Noverus, and because no one is allowed to leave, I can never see them again." the man muttered with an air of bitterness. "If you joined, we would teach you how to stay secret. We'd train you. You'd learn how to hide, how to fight, how to steal, and most importantly, you'll learn how to lie. We'd teach you to play to your strengths. Together, we could change everything!"

Caroline glared at the man. She didn't like the way he made her hope, the way he encouraged her to think brash and dangerous thoughts. Deep down, she wanted nothing more in the world than to finish Team Magma, but she had never seen an opportunity. She focused all of her attention on just surviving that she could never before conceive of fighting back. "This is a big deal," she said, breathing heavier. "I don't know...if I can risk everything, put it all on the line. I've had it rough, but I know I have an awfully lot to lose."

"Your brother abandoned you," the man said, and Caroline flinched because he had struck a chord deep inside her that caused her so much pain that she could barely think of it. "He left you! For them! And when he had to make a choice between being kind to you and doing his duty for them, he chose them!"

"SHUT UP!" Caroline screamed at the man, her hands balled into fists as tears threatened to fall from her eyes for the second time that day.

The man's eyes darted around quickly, but no one appeared to be coming. They were still alone, so he plowed onward. "You can't count on him anymore. You don't need to! You're just as capable, aren't you? Maybe it's time for you to do your part for the good of your family. For the good of your whole community. He didn't think that there was any other way, but now you know there is. Join us, please!"

Caroline's lip quivered briefly. She couldn't think about what was done to her. She couldn't think about her brother, not now anyway. It hurt too much, and it was all too complicated and confusing to deal with. But just like Rick, she was desperate for a way out. She needed a way out of bondage, a way out of Noverus, and at last the opportunity had come. "I'll do it. Sign me up, I guess, for the Rebellion."

The man smiled kindly and nodded, as though he'd never doubted that she would agree with him in the end. "Meet me tomorrow at the Pokemon Center where you saw me today. Come after your work. I'll fill you in on all of the particulars and we can start your training."

"You know too much about me," Caroline complained half-heartedly. "I don't like it. You need to at least tell me your name. And quit spying on me and stalking me and stuff. Honestly, if I catch you at this again, I won't be nearly so nice to you."

"You can call me Jack Spade. Don't worry, there will be no more reason for me to watch you. Remember, tell no one! Also, try to think of a code name. See you tomorrow, Caroline." Jack said before placing a hand on his kadabra's shoulder and teleporting away. The next second, the street lamps came on and Caroline and her sandshrew stood in the safety of the bright lights.

"C'mon Terra. Let's just get home. I really can't deal with this right now. We can think about it tomorrow." Caroline said as she wearily bent to lift her pokemon into her arms. She trudged on until she reached a little house with a neat front lawn and a porch swing. The front light was on, and Caroline knew that inside a hot dinner and comfortable bed was waiting for her. By the next day, her pokemon would be healed and Caroline would be ready again to face the new challenges that awaited her.