[X] My Assistant

[Amissa]

It had been a week since that night at the Pokemon Center in the poor district where Caroline first made friends with a girl named Luna and met a boy named Karuto. Luna hadn’t explained much to Caroline about the excitement that happened that night, but from what she could gather, Luna rescued a poochyena who had been abandoned by its trainer. Karuto had seemed very interested in the pokemon, but then, all of them were worried over the poor creature. Caroline had wanted to stay at the Pokemon Center until it was healed, but she had to leave for work and then head home. Luna assured her that she would look after the pokemon after it recovered, but Caroline hadn’t seen her since then. She didn’t know how to contact Luna or Karuto and anyways, her life went through a sudden drastic change immediately afterwards.

The night after the big storm and her stay at the Pokemon Center, Caroline returned to her family’s apartment from work to find her missing brother sitting on the couch and watching television. “Hey there!” He said to her with a grin, as though he hadn’t run off and disappeared leaving his whole family to worry for him. “How’s my favorite little dork doing?”

Needless to say, much hugging, crying, and forgiving ensued. It wasn’t until the shock wore off that Caroline noticed his new uniform. It was typical Magma Grunt attire with a red hoodie and black pants. At his waist were four pokeballs. “Ironically, I don’t have any fire or ground types. I’m still trying to catch one. And I only have three pokemon. Which reminds me, are those pokemon that I gave you looking after you?” Rick asked.

“Yeah, they protect me. I caught a spearow too.”

“That’s cute. I’ve got a little bird pokemon too, actually. I’m still waiting to see if it’ll be useful.”

“So why’d you go and join Team Magma? We used to hide from them so that they couldn’t bully us or take our money. Do you remember that?”

“Yeah, but that’s the point, Caroline. Now I’m the bully, so nobody’s gonna bully us ever again. And it gets better. I already talked it over with Mom and Dad, so they understand. Caroline, you guys are moving to a better place up in the suburbs. No more finding wurmple eggs in the closet, no more shoddy plumbing, no more bad heating and sweaty summers, and no more cramped spaces. I got you guys a house. It’s not very big, but its bigger than this. I’ll be staying at the Magma barracks, so you get your own room. It’s just for rent though. I’ll warn you guys not to get too cozy. If I get promoted enough, I can have you guys moved up to the wealthy district.”

“Those Magma jerks sure were mean to us, Rick.”

“Yeah, but they look after their own. As soon as I signed up and proved that I could work hard, they treated me like I was part of their family. They say that you guys will receive a check from them every week for my work. They’re gonna pay for Mom’s hospital bills and Dad will be able to find a better job. Heck, they might even find him a job in Team Magma, though I don’t think he’d be a great operative. But maybe they could use a guy who knows computers the way he does. And you’ll get to go back to school.”

“I have a job here.”

“Well quit your job,” Rick snapped, irked that his sister was being so hesitant. She almost seemed to think that what he was doing was wrong. He pushed on, sure that he’d win her over eventually. He always did. “This will be better. You’ll see how much better it is. I kept tellin’ you that I would make things better, and that’s what I did. C’mon, I’ll help you pack. You’ll see the new place and you’ll know how much better it is.”

Caroline gave in and let Rick help her pack. They spent the whole week packing and moving and now they were already settled into the little house in the suburbs. During that time, she and her brother had a lot of fun together. He even introduced her to some of his Magma buddies, and they were really nice to her. However, she still felt shy around them. She still had to remind herself that her brother didn’t automatically become a different person when he put on his Magma uniform.

She spent most of that week feeling strange and confused. She explored the suburban district and even bought a leash insulated with rubber so that she could take Thor for a walk around the park. Even though the electrike had never been on a leash before, Thor took to it easily. Caroline spent a lot more time with Thor lately, since Friday was still mean as ever and Swiper had taken to trying to bite Rick. Thor was always reliable. Even though he couldn’t stand to be petted, Thor could sit peacefully and appear to be listening and caring. That the suburbs even had a park was a luxury to her. Children ran around there unsupervised and no one made off with them. She was still constantly looking over her shoulder and she never had the courage to go out without one of her pokemon outside of its pokeball. She felt like an outsider and sometimes like a ghost, as if people could look right through her and she had no substance. No one ever talked to her, so she didn't talk to them either.

Caroline wasn’t completely out of the poor district, though. She’d put in her two weeks notice at her work, but she still had to work at the little Pokemart in the poor district for about nine more days. That is, assuming it didn’t fall apart or get robbed out of business before then. Caroline thought that the outlook for the poor shop was grim when she went in to work, observing the graffiti on the outer walls. A homeless man sat near the street begging for money with his pet rattata beside him. He held up a sign that read, “Magmas arrested my son and took everything that we owned. Please help.” Caroline donated nothing, as usual, not because she didn’t care about his plight but because she didn’t want people to think that she might have money for them to steal. She went into the building quickly, without even giving the man a glance. Swiper was out of his pokeball and following her to keep her safe. Besides, he liked going in to work with her. Caroline’s manager loved Swiper.

Businesses don’t usually last long in the poor district due to the high crime and few customers. The Pokemart had only lasted this long because pokemon were so popular in the poor district. Pokemon were the best forms of protection. They were our reliable and loyal companions. Buy some pokeballs and catch lots of them! Caroline’s manager, Dustin, kept trying to get her to reconsider her resignation.

“I could give you more hours,” Dustin said, as soon as she walked through the door.

“No you can’t. I’d die. You’re working me hard as it is.” Caroline responded, clocking in on the register. There was a cozy pokemon bed set up for Swiper in a corner of the shop near a heat lamp. He made himself comfortable and looked over the shop.

“I can pay you more!”

“No you can’t. You can’t afford it. You’ll be okay without me.”

“No we won’t. We never have break-ins while you’re here.”

“Is that why you always have me working night shift?”

“We have more customers while you’re here.”

“Destiny’s a lot prettier than me. She’ll attract even more customers.” This was true. Caroline was a plain looking teenager. Her red-orange hair was limp and ragged looking and her green eyes looked too big, giving her the appearance of constantly being frightened or surprised. She was flat-chested and twiggy, but at least she was dressing better these days. Today she wore a new purple tank top with a blue design and a matching skirt. She found that she loved wearing skirts. She found that she loved shopping. She’d spent hours at the mall in the suburbs walking around and perusing the goods, though she only actually bought a few items.

“Destiny doesn’t have pokemon.”

“Sure she does. She has a pidgey. I’ve seen it.”

“A pidgey isn’t an ekans.”

“What’s wrong with pidgey?”

“It isn’t an ekans.”

“Swiper isn’t a very intimidating ekans.”

“Last time you were working the register, I saw a kid try to swipe a few Parlyz Heals. I was about to run over and yell at him when your ekans looked up and glared at the kid. He just glared at him! After that, the kid couldn’t even move. Ain’t that funny? The kid got paralyzed while trying to snatch some Parlyz Heals. I healed him and then made him pay for all the goods. He’ll think twice before trying to rob us again. I hope he tells his friends about it too.”

“I didn’t see that. I didn’t know Swiper could do that. I guess Swiper doesn’t like swiping.” Caroline laughed at her own joke.

“Please don’t quit.”

“Dustin…”

“Please, please, please!”

“Dustin! I’ve moved away! I’m going back to school! That’s all there is to it!”

“Okay. Well then, why don’t you go out with Destiny and help her catch another pokemon? I’ll even pay you to do it. You’re on the clock. I’ll work the register while you girls are away. I’ll give you girls some pokeballs and you just try to come back with something good.”

“Sure,” Caroline said with an eager smile. She couldn’t believe that she was going to get paid to go out and catch pokemon. “Swiper, come on, we’re going out to work today!” Swiper did not look pleased, but he reluctantly left his comfortable corner. Destiny came out of the storeroom when called, but didn’t seem thrilled to be asked to accompany Caroline on a pokemon-catching expedition.

“Where are you taking us again?” Destiny asked, regarding Caroline coolly with her dark brown eyes. She was the beauty among the two, with her warm chocolate complexion and perfectly styled black hair. She kept her hair up in a high ponytail with two curly ringlets framing her face. She was a tall full-figured woman, and though she was just as broke and poor as everyone else in the district, she managed never to look it.

“That depends on what kind of pokemon you want. Dustin seems to think you need some better protection.”

“Okay, well no bugs, no fish, and nothing that’s going to make a big mess or be hard to take care of.”

“Hmm…I think a grass type would be easiest to care for. You don’t have to feed it or anything, you could just leave it in the sun and water it sometimes. And it might learn some paralyzing or sleep attacks, which Dustin would appreciate. Would you rather go to the outskirts or maybe to the park in the suburbs?”

“I think the park will be fine,” Destiny suggested. She liked the idea of catching a grass type pokemon, but she didn’t want to go to the outskirts. That was a bit too wild for her liking. A nice park pokemon would do for her.

With that, the two girls and the ekans left the dilapidated pokemart in the care of the manager and his poliwhirl. They walked through the familiar streets and alleyways as they progressively became cleaner and better kept. It wasn’t long before they reached neat sidewalks of the suburbs and entered the park. At this point, Caroline called Swiper back into his pokeball and called out Thor and put him on the leash.
------------------------------------

Rick Kelly entered the lobby hoping to find the recruit that he was supposed to be babysitting today. He'd read the mission briefing and found it sorely disappointing. It read:

Approximately six months ago there was an accident at a Magma research facility. It was a big explosion, a huge mess that caused a lot of confusion and left a lot of people and pokemon injured. One pokemon test subject from that facility escaped during the chaos. Security cameras outside of the building caught footage of the badly wounded spearow hobbling to freedom. Its injuries were so grievous that Magma researchers were sure that it would perish in the wild.

However, this spearow seems to have miraculously survived, at least according to footage from Magma security cameras outside of the Middle District Pokemon Center recovered two days ago. This spearow, identifiable by its one missing eye, a wound left over from that fateful accident, is the holder of valuable Magma secrets. If one were to intercept the spearow before Magma could recover it, a powerful psychic pokemon might be able to retrieve these secrets to use against Team Magma. It is the goal of Magma operatives to retrieve the spearow before anyone else does and return it to the Magma base located at the center of Noverus. Here, Magma's own psychic pokemon can erase the memory of the accident and the research from the spearow's mind.

One detail of note is that the spearow belongs to a young trainer, a girl named Caroline Kelly, sister to Magma Grunt Rick Kelly. Due to her relation to a Magma operative, it is preferable that the trainer remained unharmed. She is not considered a significant obstacle to the mission.

Your mission is to retrieve the one-eyed spearow and bring it back to headquarters.

There was no reason at all why Rick should need help on this ridiculously easy mission. He wouldn't complain though, he knew that he was being punished. He'd managed to screw up his last easy mission all thanks to that girl with the weird accent and those pokemon. As a result, he was now stuck with The New Guy.

There was only one guy waiting in the room, so it was probably safe to assume that was who he was looking for. Rick walked over, trying to look authoritative in his Magma uniform. He always wore the hood down unless it was absolutely necessary. He didn't like to mess up his hair, which he dyed black and spiked upwards. His blue eyes sized up the new recruit as the lights glinted on the metal stud he wore in his right brow. At least the recruit was around his age, Rick didn't want to have to spend the whole day with some punk kid.

"Are you Tyler Paulson? I assume you read over your mission already. My name is Rick Kelly, I'll be helping you out on this one."

All bunnying done within this rp has been done with permission from the players.

This post has been edited by Amissa: Jul 15 2010, 09:23 PM

[Xal]

"Squirt, water gun!" Karuto shouted. It had only been a week since Karuto has battled the Magma grunt, if Squirt's beating could generously called a battle, but his pokémon were significantly stronger. Squirt had learned a few new moves, and even Deli's few battles had helped him learn a new ice attack. Battling against wild pokémon was proving to be much more effective than spontaneous attacks on Magma had been.

Squirt obediently followed Karuto's command and launched an attack at the Oddish. Despite having a type advantage against the Squirtle it squealed and ran away, leaving Squirt victorious. Squirt grinned and put his hands on his hips, or whatever Squirtle's equivalents were.

"Good job. Look, a Hoppip! Go!" Karuto shouted. Squirt reacted instantly, blasting it back with water gun. Hoppip looked disgruntled and glared at Squirt. Good, Karuto thought, this one had a bit of fight in it. It ran forwards and tackled Squirt head on, but he didn't seem too bothered by it. Squirt just shook his head and prepared for another attack. If Hoppip had been stronger then Squirt wouldn't have been so fine, but him and Karuto were targeting weak looking pokémon so Squirt wouldn't end up too badly injured again. Most of the pokémon in the park weren't that strong, he guessed they didn't battle much. People who passed by gave him disapproving looks. They could tell he wasn't one of them, that he didn't belong in this much more well kept part of town. He didn't care though. He wanted to get away from the run down streets every once in a while even if that meant upsetting a few posh people. If they could afford a decent living space they probably worked for Magma anyway, so he didn't really care if they looked down at him. Squirt's new strength was making him eager for a real battle, so he wished that just once someone would try to fight him. He'd need to be cautious, but between Squirt and Deli Karuto was sure he would win. Squirt must have nearly been at the strength he'd need to evolve too, which would only do good if they got into a battle. Karuto was starting to think that maybe a decent fight could make it happen.

Karuto looked around the park for more pokémon to battle. Most of the pokémon were staying out of their way, but he soon noticed a familiar face. It was Caroline, the girl he'd met a week earlier at a pokémon center, accompanied by someone he'd never met. He nodded his head back in recognition and gave a small wave, careful to not seem to eager to start talking again.

[deyv87]

Tyler sat in the Team Magma lobby, with his briefcase resting on his lap and his notepad on top of that. In his left hand he held the mission briefing he was reading, while he took notes on his notepad with his right. This was his first real mission, and even though they had given him an easy one, he didn't intend to screw it up. He was told that he would be accompanied by another Magma member, since recruits don't do solo missions. Tyler just wished whoever was going with him would show up already so he could leave the building and change into his street clothes. His magma recruit uniform was comfortable enough, but he just couldn't stand how people reacted to him when he wore it out in public. The one time he was out in public in uniform was after his initial training. Several people gave him either stern, fearful, or defiant looks, and Tyler was awkward enough without further provocation.

Tyler had just finished making his notes when he heard a voice in front of him. "Are you Tyler Paulson? I assume you read over your mission already. My name is Rick Kelly, I'll be helping you out on this one."

Oh great, Tyler thought to himself, looking over the rim of his blue tinted glasses at Rick’s spiked hair, then to his brow stud. it looks like I get to deal with a punk rocker today. “Yes, I’m Tyler. It’s nice to meet you.” Tyler said, slipping his mission briefing back into his briefcase, and his notepad into his shirt pocket. “I'm surprised they sent a grunt to help me, I was expecting another recruit.” Tyler stood to shake Rick's hand, who simply looked at Tyler's outstretched palm. After waiting a few seconds, Tyler lowered his hand to his side and continued.

“Well, in any case, Sir, I'm guessing you'd rather not be on this mission. It's simple enough that I'd feel bad asking you to help much. I've thought of a few ways to go about it, and my biggest problem was finding Caroline. Since she's your sister, though, I imagine it would be a slice of cake for you to find her. If you could do that, I'd be willing to do the rest of the work. First, though, I'd like to go catch a pokemon, in case your sister wants to trade for her spearow. Care to join me? I was thinking of checking parks or alleys in the poor sector for a fighting type or something. Just let me change into my street clothes.” Tyler finished, walking toward the male bathroom.

[Amissa]

Caroline led Destiny into the area of the park with the longest grass. It was in this area that pokemon trainers went to battle and capture pokemon. However, even this area of the park was fairly tame compared to the outskirts where she used to train.

"Okay, when you're hunting for pokemon, you want to be pretty quiet. Some pokemon are shy and will run away if they hear you coming. Though there are some pokemon who are just the opposite way, and those will actually come out to attack you. You have to be ready for anything and keep your pokeball ready."

"Right," Destiny said, following behind Caroline and her electrike. She took out a pokeball and held it ready. Suddenly and oddish ran out at them, squealing. It took one look at them and then ran away, apparently alarmed by something. "I missed it!" Destiny complained.

"That's okay. It was running pretty fast, so I don't think it wanted to battle. I wonder what it was running from." Caroline said. She and Destiny climbed out of the tall grass and entered a clearing. She looked around and caught sight of Karuto, who nodded and waved at her. It wasn't exactly friendly, but it was at least a kind of recognition and she appreciated it. She smiled back and headed over to greet him.

Caroline also noticed the sort of looks Karuto was getting from the other park-goers, and she wondered why they were behaving that way. Was there something about Karuto (or even herself) that set him apart? And if there was something, could it be more than just clothes and looks? Could living in the poor district leave one with a palpable "poor person" aura that other people would instinctually catch on to? Did it show in their attitude, in their bearing, or maybe even in the way that they trained their pokemon? After all, being from a different social class wasn't like being from a different planet, was it?

Of course, this thinking was mostly paranoia. She had no way of knowing if people were giving her those same looks when she couldn't see them. For all she knew, Karuto could have just robbed a bank or made a baby cry. It's not as though she knew Karuto well enough to know whether or not he deserved to be ostracized. However, Caroline did know that the only recognition or respect that she seemed to get nowadays was from people of meager means, like Karuto or even Destiny. She wasn't about to turn her back on a potential friend just because other people looked at him funny.

"Hey Karuto," Caroline said cheerfully, "It's been a while. How have you been?"

Thor sniffed at Karuto and his pokemon curiously. He wasn't sure exactly what he should make of them. He kept his body rigid and tense, too nervous to relax completely. He could sense that the squirtle was much stronger than himself, so he hoped that it would be friendly.

Destiny came over too, looking a bit annoyed. She was eager to catch a pokemon and she might have complained about the delay except that they were on the clock. So long as she was still getting paid, they could stand around and talk to Caroline's friends all day.

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Rick couldn't help but smirk as he heard Tyler go on about how he planned to carry out his mission. He was actually a little bit impressed and pleased. Many of the new recruits that came to Magma always thought of using violence and force before anything else. It often took experience before a recruit realized that some missions were just easier done without a fight. Moreover, anyone who bullied his little sister would pay. He didn't have enough rank to get anyone tossed out of Magma, but he did have enough rank (and friends) to make a new recruit the equivalent of his personal slave. It looked like this Tyler fellow would get to remain a free man.

He waited for Tyler to come back from the bathroom without asking why he wanted to change in the first place. Rick loved wearing his uniform. Wearing a Magma uniform was like having a special license that said you get to do whatever you want. However, there was no requirement saying that either of them had to wear his uniform on this mission. Frankly, Rick didn't care enough to comment.

"A trade is a pretty good idea, Tyler. I mean, anything would be better than that shitty little spearow. But you'll have to make a good offer if that's the case. She's real attached to that thing. My parents have been trying to get her to release it ever since she caught it, but she won't let it go. And I don't think you're terribly likely to find a fighting type in any park. I think we'll have to go to the outskirts for that, which will be quite a walk but there's tougher pokemon out there. My sister will be at work for a while now, so we've got plenty of time." Rick explained. He considered taking one of Magma's motorcycles, but decided against it. Just in case they came across a pokemon worth catching on the way, he'd rather take the slow way. "If you're ready then, let's head out."

[Xal]

"I've been all right thanks. Have you?" Karuto asked. He wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to get into a conversation but he told himself he needed to learn to trust people eventually. Not everyone was in cahoots with Team Magma after all, and Caroline seemed nice enough. Even Karuto found it difficult to worry that someone like her could have anything to do with the group.

Caroline's Electrike started sniffing at Squirt. The Squirtle stepped back slightly, tensing his muscles and preparing for a fight. He wasn't as distrusting as Karuto but electric types made him feel a little threatened. This one didn't look particularly rough or strong, but he still wouldn't enjoy an electric attack. The Electrike didn't look like it meant any harm though, so Squirt was able to relax slightly. He didn't think one of Caroline's pokémon would randomly attack someone anyway. He hadn't been there when she was meeting Karuto, but if he was talking to her then she couldn't be some kind of bully.

"Come on Squirt." Karuto sighed, noticing his nervousness. Squirtle stepped back behind Karuto, who then started pulling his faded jeans up. They were too long which was causing them to fray at the back of his feet and he needed to keep securing his belt around his waist to keep them from dragging on the ground. His grey shoes weren't in a much better state, and even he found it difficult to believe they were once a shiny white. His black shirt was the only clothing he had that was in decent shape. If he'd pay as much attention to keeping them maintained as he did to spiking his hair up every day they'd probably be in perfect condition. He couldn't help but feel out of place in the beautiful park on a nice day. It was clearly well looked after, which was more than could be said for Karuto.

"What brings you here?" He asked, just before her friend started walking back towards them. She didn't seem particularly happy that Caroline had got distracted, but Karuto couldn't really blame her.

[deyv87]

Tyler came out of the bathroom stall, back in his street clothes. He adjusted his black polo in the mirror, tied his hair back up in a ponytail with his pen and pencil, and began neatly folding his Team Magma uniform so it would fit back in his briefcase. He couldn’t help feeling that this was going to be a pretty decent day, and moreover that Rick would turn out to be a decent guy. He fully expected Rick to be the usual Magma jerk, and his appearance certainly didn’t help Tyler’s first impression of him. Yet even though Rick blew off Tyler’s handshake, Tyler couldn’t help but think he caught a smile on Rick’s face a moment ago. Perhaps it was a half smile? A glimmer of a smile? Whatever it was, Tyler noticed it, and hoped it meant he was doing well.

Tyler pocketed his Team Magma ID badge and finally headed back out to the lobby where Rick immediately continued on with the conversation as if Tyler hadn’t left. As Rick spoke, Tyler’s mouth opened for a moment to speak, but he decided to let Rick finish, as this was his superior talking. As they walked out the door, Tyler commented, “Heh, I guess we might have been at the park for a while, if you hadn’t said anything. I’ve never gone out looking for pokemon before. I mean, I’ve seen them around, obviously, but this is the first time I’ve decided that I want to look for anything specific.” Tyler made sure not to mention that this would actually be his first time catching a pokemon. He had seen children catch the occasional oddish or zigzagoon in the park, but he had never needed to actually catch one himself. His two pokemon on his belt, Ruby and Mary, his sableye and ralts respectively, had both been given to him as birthday presents over the last several years.

Tyler made sure to let Rick lead the way, since he realized that he really had no idea where he was. Frequently, Tyler would glance at road signs, then down at his PokeNav to try and catch his bearings. Even though Tyler had lived his entire life in Noverus, he had generally kept to a fairly small area of the suburbs. His parents’ house was practically located perfectly for convenience, letting Tyler easily walk anywhere he needed to go, not that he had left his room all that often as a child, anyway.

It was a moment or so after crossing the bridge when Tyler remembered what he had meant to ask Rick before, but once again as he opened his mouth to speak, Tyler realized that Rick was already talking. “Well, here we are. You can stop following me now. This was your idea, so I think it’s your turn to lead.” And with that, Tyler’s words were gone from his mind again. He could feel a twinge of panic start to build up as he took a few steps toward the tree line in front of him. What do I do? he thought, Do I just walk around in the bushes until something attacks me? I don’t have any bait… I heard about people using that in the Safari Zone. Maybe I should try to imitate a pokemon so it’ll come to me. I’m going to look so stupid, but here it goes.

Just as Tyler started lifting his hands to his mouth to let out a cry of “Maaachop!” he heard the scratch of a claw on wood above him. Tyler looked up just in time to see a mankey dropping from a tree. It walked a few steps over to a bush and began plucking and eating berries from it. Well, it’s no machop, but this’ll do. I guess today really is going to be a good day . Tyler sighed while thinking this. Hearing the sigh, the mankey looked up and raised its little fists in defiance. “Come on out, Ruby, time to play.” Tyler muttered as he released his sableye in front of the poised pig-monkey. As the pokeball closed, Tyler noticed a gleam coming out of the bush to his right. The light from the pokeball had reflected off of an approaching nincada’s compound eyes. Seeing what was transpiring, the nincada scratched its claws on the ground and raised its head, making a clicking sound, clearly ready to attack. That twinge of panic was back with a vengeance. “Crap.” He exclaimed, “Hey Rick! I’ve got two on me! A little help?!” Tyler called back. Over his shoulder he heard Rick respond calmly, “Don’t worry, you can handle it.” With a quick glance over his shoulder, Tyler could see Rick leaning on a nearby tree chuckling to himself.

“Double crap. Ok, Mary, looks like you’re up as well.” He loosed his ralts from her pokeball near the nincada as the mankey closed his eyes and flexed his arms, and then suddenly opened his eyes, staring intently at Ruby. Tyler was fairly sure the mankey had just used focus energy. He had seen a classmate’s rattata do the same thing once.

“Mary, I need you to use that will-o-wisp of yours now. Ruby, it’s time for Night Shade.” Tyler’s two pokemon, now in fighting positions, advanced on the two wild pokemon. The mankey leaped forward, swinging its left claws with all its might in a scratch attack, which met no resistance from Ruby’s form. This barely affected Ruby’s motions as she raised an arm toward the mankey. As a dark, translucent veil formed over the mankey’s face, Ruby clutched her fist quickly, contracting the veil which passed through the mankey’s skin as it let out a pain filled “Mank-!” Just as Mary pulled back her arms to launch her attack, the nincada quickly flicked up dirt into Mary’s eyes with its claws, partially blinding her with its sand-attack. Undaunted, but uncomfortable, Mary followed through, sending a tennis ball sized orb of white flame past the nincada, which was able to hug the ground and avoid the attack altogether.

“Triple crap. Good try, Mary, go for it again.” Tyler said while clapping, trying to encourage his ralts, “Try another will-o-wisp. Ruby, show that mankey you’ve got claws of your own, scratch it right back.” Unfortunately, Tyler’s last few words were drowned out by the mankey’s shrill cries of “Man-key! Man-key!” each syllable accompanied by a swing of the mankey’s fury swipes attack. Ruby, who only heard “show that mankey you’ve got claws…” looked back at Tyler with a puzzled look, then at the mankey, and then raised her hands wiggling her digits, demonstrating to the mankey that she did, in fact, have claws. With Mary still blinking her watery, sand filled eyes, the wild nincada hopped forward, sucking on Mary’s hip with its face bits. Upon this leech life attack, Mary’s movements became somewhat sluggish, but still she raised her hand up, and launched another wisp ball at her now closer foe. Clearly, the distance helped, as the bug went up in a blaze of fire for a split second, resulting in a burn on its back.

“No, Ruby, scratch it!” Tyler called out in confusion, “Why would you… whatever. Mary, it’s time to go for the brain basket, use confusion.” The now raging mankey moved a few paces away, throwing its arms up in frustration before spinning in place and jumping directly at Ruby, landing a kick to Ruby’s knees that would otherwise cripple most standing creatures. Predictably, the mankey instead passed directly through Ruby’s body. As the mankey flew towards her, Ruby held her right hand behind her back, which scraped up the mankey’s face before it landed dangerously close to Tyler’s feet. Tyler nearly jumped backward, but realized that the mankey was taking quite long to stand up. The enemy nincada winced in pain from its burn before quickly scurrying toward Mary, latching onto her leg and sucking out another bit of her health. Tyler thought he saw the nincada’s burn get slightly better, before Mary put her left palm to her temple. The bug merely let out a whimper, but that whimper let Tyler know that Mary was working her magic. It didn’t look like much, but Tyler knew that at that moment the nincada was seeing more shapes and colors at a faster speed than it could have even imagined before. The nincada slowly stumbled back, glared Mary, who was hunched over, and readied itself for another attack.

Tyler grabbed a spare pokeball from his belt and held it in his hand for a moment. “Mary, try to get off another confusion if you can.” Tyler had seen enough battles to know his Ralts was ready to pass out, but he hoped she could finish up this bug first, at least. “Ruby, I think I’ve got this one.” Tyler dropped his vacant pokeball on the stumbling mankey. The pokeball closed, and shook on the ground. Left, then right. Tyler was so excited that this would be his first catch, so focused on his twitching pokeball, that he momentarily forgot about Mary. He quickly remembered, and turned his head just in time to see the nincada dive at Mary’s chest, before being knocked out of the air, flipping to the ground unconscious, by the wing attack of a starly he had never seen before. Tyler looked down to see a motionless pokeball at his feet.

After picking up his newly caught mankey, Tyler quickly returned the injured Mary to her pokeball, then looked around to see where the starly had gone to. Next to him stood Rick, and at his feet was the starly, happy as can be. Rick scooped the bird back into its pokeball. “You know, that was pretty fun to watch, but you probably shouldn’t have wasted your time with that fire thing. Confusion worked out a lot better for you.” Rick put the pokeball back on his belt. “Oh, and your welcome for saving your ralts,” he said with a smirk.

Tyler simply raised an eyebrow, and in what he hoped was a sarcastic tone replied, “Yeah, thanks.” Tyler turned back to Ruby, whom he fake-petted, because his hand passed through the ghost pokemon. He could tell that Ruby liked the attention, so he continued for a moment while he let himself calm down. Why would Rick act like that? he pondered, I mean, he seemed decent enough before. Maybe he was just testing me? You know what? Whatever. Once I get this mission done, I hopefully won’t have to deal with him too much more. He stood back up, and returned Ruby to her pokeball. “Well, I need to get to a pokemon center now. But once Mary and… I think I’ll call him Furious George… or maybe just George… anyway, once they’re healed we should probably wrap up this mission. Which reminds me, I meant to ask earlier, but I kind of got distracted. You said something about your parents wanting your sister to get rid of that spearow. Why would they want that?” He asked, walking with Rick back into the city.

male Mankey
Name: Furious George
Level: 10
Ability: Anger Point
Attacks: Covet, Scratch, Low Kick, Leer, Focus Energy, Fury Swipes
Nature: Hasty

This post has been edited by deyv87: Apr 21 2010, 02:39 PM

[Amissa]

Rick's pleasure at showing off, increased somewhat with Tyler's sarcasm. It seemed like the recruit didn't find that last battle nearly as amusing as he did. Somehow that made it all the more funny. He started walking back towards the city as he talked, expecting Tyler to keep up.

"Apparently, the bird bites. I've never actually seen it because Caroline keeps it in its pokeball all the time," Rick said, "She's real protective of it too. It's like her baby or something. You know how some kids are with pets." He spoke as though he couldn't empathize one bit with being truly attached to a pokemon. As far as he was concerned, pokemon were tools and weapons. However, he regarded Caroline's love for her pokemon with a patient indulgence. If it made her happy, then why not? Maybe one day she'd even make a decent trainer. He couldn't well guess since he'd never battled his sister before.

Rick was leading them to the nearest pokemon center, the only one in the poor district. He navigated the way with ease, but kept keen awareness of his surroundings. Magmas didn't normally patrol this district as well, so there was much more crime in the area. That didn't scare Rick, of course. He was born and raised here and he knew every street and building. There was one person that he kept a special watch for, that girl with the weird accent. He was determined to pound her the next time he ever met her. Her and her stupid growlithe too!

"Keep your eyes open for troublemakers. This district is rife with them."

----------------------------

"I've been getting by okay. I'm showing Destiny how to capture a pokemon," Caroline explained. "Destiny and I work together at the pokemart, you know, the one down by..." She paused as she tried to think of what the shop was by. That street with the broken stop light? That beat up building that used to be a day care once upon a time? That homeless guy with the rattata? "It's the one with 'Eat shit Magmas' grafittied on the side. Destiny, this is Karuto." Caroline introduced the two and Destiny gave Karuto a shy smile.

Just then, a commotion broke out among one of the big flower gardens in the park. People nearby jumped back from the flowers in surprise as dirt and uprooted plants sprayed everywhere. There, standing happily amid the dirt and destruction was a sandshrew. It had apparently just burrowed up for some fresh air and sunlight and happened to ruin some flowers in the process. Two of the park groundskeepers began running after the pokemon with nets, but the sandshrew just observed them curiously before running off.

"Somebody, catch that sandshrew! It's been digging up our flowers all week!" One of the groundskeepers shouted.

"So that's what's been happening to those flowers," Caroline muttered, a bit amused. She thought for a moment before looking at Destiny. "Okay, now watch closely! I'm going to catch that thing!"

The sandshrew was running right for them, so Caroline had to choose which pokemon she would battle with and quickly. Experience fighting a diglett in the outskirts had taught her a thing or two about ground types. She knew that it would be unaffected by Thor's electricity, so she just tossed the end of the leash aside. She also knew that it would have an advantage over her poisonous ekans. That left her only with one option; one that she hoped wouldn't lead to more trouble in the end. "Guys, you might want to back up and give me some room. Also, don't make any sudden movements or anything to attract attention. I'm going to bring out my spearow."

"Come out, Friday," Caroline said as she released her spearow from her pokeball. The effect of the pokemon's appearance was harsh. Friday was easily the ugliest spearow anyone had ever seen, and quite possibly the ugliest pokemon. She sported scars and a few bald patches. Her feathers never sat quite right and her good eye twitched occasionally. Where she was missing one eye, it simply looked like the eye was closed. The groundskeepers immediately fell back, not willing to come any closer. A few other onlookers gasped and covered their eyes. Still more stopped whatever they might have been doing to watch.

"Spearow? Just a spearow? Caroline, you're talking like you're about to bring out a freaking houndoom. What's so dengerous about a stupid little--BWAAAAA!" Destiny had been in the middle of her rant when Caroline called out her pokemon. Astonished by the hideous little bird, she quickly brought her hands up to cover her face.

Friday, who was never one to attack a fellow pokemon when there were humans nearby to destroy, swooped at Destiny immediately. She managed to grab some of the girl's pretty black hair in her beak and she felt determined to yank it out of her head. The way the girl screamed and flailed her arms about only served to further enrage the bird, so Friday grabbed some more of her hair in her talons and pulled harder.

Caroline looked on with irritation and disappointment. She'd been looking forward to showing off her training skills in front of the others, but it seemed like that wasn't going to work out. On the bright side, hair pulling was almost downright playful when Friday was concerned. At least she wasn't trying to peck at the girl's face and neck, which was Friday's usual greeting when she met new people. At the same time, she felt impatient with both Destiny and the surrounding people. Sure, Friday looked kind of bad but she wasn't that ugly. And the screaming and stuff seemed totally unnecessary. Just what good did Destiny think screaming and waving her arms around would accomplish anyway?

Then Caroline noticed that the sandshrew hadn't run away. It had actually stopped to watch as well and it seemed to be giggling! That's when an idea came to Caroline. "Friday! Friday! Help! Save me from the horrible sandshrew! Hurry before it attacks me!"

Suddenly the spearow stopped her yanking and the sandshrew stopped her laughing. "Shrew?" The sandshrew said, looking up at the spearow. Who me? Why I'd never...

Friday untangled herself from Destiny's hair and launched herself at the sandshrew. Destiny collapsed in a heap on the grass, breathing hard and running her hands through her hair. She might have been trying to fix the tangled mess that it had become or maybe she was just trying to feel if any had indeed been yanked out. Eventually, she calmed down enough to sit with her arms folded over her knees and to glare at Caroline as she battled.

Step one of plan "use homicidal spearow in battle" was successful. Friday was now focusing her efforts on the ground pokemon, swooping in with peck attacks whenever she got the chance. The sandshrew tried to utilize its greatest defense, which was its sand attack. If flung dirt up into the air at the little bird with no real effect. Friday only had one eye, but that eye was so keen that no amount of dirt throwing would ruin her accuracy. It did annoy Caroline a bit though, and some of the onlookers. The groundskeepers shook their heads at the mess the sandshrew was making in their well-kept park.

What bothered Caroline was that Friday's attacks were hardly doing any damage. The sandshrew was one tough rodent and sooner or later it would stop with the dirt and get down to the real fighting. Once that happened, Caroline wasn't sure if Friday would last. She wasn't sure if Friday would obey commands though. Well, she had to try. "Friday! You need to use a Leer attack to bring down sandshrew's defense."

Friday paused, flapping in midair as she processed Caroline's instructions. Then she made sure that the sandshrew as looking at her face and gave it the meanest leer she could muster. Sandshrew's eyes widened momentarily, and Friday knew that her attack had produced the proper effect. This time when she swooped in to peck at the sandshrew, she felt that the pokemon was easier to injure. However, sandshrew was losing patience with this annoying bird. This time, when the bird swooped down, the sandshrew lept up. She managed to surprise the bird and bite it with her tiny, venomous teeth. It was a perfect poison sting attack and by the way Friday cartwheeled into the dirt before staggering and taking flight once again, Caroline judged that her pokemon had been poisoned.

"Oh no, Friday! Return!" Caroline cried. She already felt like an outsider in this battle. So far she'd only given one command and Friday was making all of the other decisions, and the little spearow wasn't through yet. She dodged the red beam of light emitted from the pokeball that was intended to bring her back to safety.

"Spearoooooow!" She cried. Friday defiantly dived in for another attack. She would stop fighting when either she or her opponent could no longer move. Now when Friday flew in for her attack, the sandshrew countered by scratching the bird with its claws. Before long, both combatants were obviously weary, but Friday was the worst off.

"Now, pokeball go!" Caroline yelled as she tossed an empty pokeball at the tired sandshrew. There was a flash of red light as the pokemon was incapsulated in the ball, then everyone watched as the pokeball twitched and shook on the ground. Finally, the pokeball sat still and sandshrew was captured.

Friday flew over and perched on Caroline's shoulder. The tiny bird nuzzled itself against Caroline's neck, too weak to cause any more trouble, too weak to even move. The poison appeared to have worn off, but Friday was left on the very brink of collapse. Caroline cuddled the little spearow, even turned her head and kissed the bird. She didn't care who was watching now. She was too happy and proud. Her brave little bird had helped her make a fine catch and now she deserved a rest. Caroline called Friday back into her pokeball and this time she did not resist.

She was brought back into the moment when she heard people clapping. She looked around, confused, and found that her battle had attracted quite a lot of attention. The groundskeepers, of course, were the most pleased by the capture. "Just try to keep it out of our flowers, okay?" However, some curious strangers had come closer and they were clapping too. She was now known as "the girl with the ugly spearow". It could be worse, she supposed, at least they noticed her now.

It took a few moments for the curious crowd to disperse so that she, Destiny, and Karuto could be left in relative privacy. She helped Destiny back to her feet and was surprised that the girl didn't seem raging with anger. "I'm really sorry about my spearow. I did warn you. She doesn't like people." Caroline said, trying to sound honestly apologetic even though she privately blamed Destiny for not following her instructions in the first place.

"Whatever. Hey, I'm going to take my pidgey and go look for pokemon on my own for a minute. Will you wait for me?" Destiny asked as she brushed dirt from the sandshrew's sand-attack off her clothes.

"Sure. Holler if you need help." Caroline then turned her full attention to Karuto. She felt immensely awkard all of a sudden. He'd just seen her lose control of her pokemon, after all. She looked down at his squirtle and her electrike standing nearby. Thor returned her gaze, tail wagging happily, pleased that she'd just made a capture. She picked up his leash again, though by now it was obviously just for show. Thor was so well behaved that the leash served no real purpose aside from making him look like a pet instead of a fighting pokemon. He looked like the perfect pooch, the contrast to Caroline's one-eyed wonder spearow. With only a short, shy glance up she said, "So...how is your squirtle doing these days?"

female Sandshrew
Name: Terra
Level: 9
Ability: Sand Veil
Attacks: Scratch, Defense Curl, Sand Attack, Poison Sting
Nature: Naive

This post has been edited by Amissa: May 20 2010, 09:09 PM

[Xal]

Karuto could only stand by and watch with a raised eyebrow as Destiny was set upon by the Spearow. It had certainly been through the wars, some areas looked as if feathers had been torn out and one of its eyes seemed to be missing. He wasn't that surprised though, ruthless battles were hardly rare occurrences. He knew that all too well. Friday even seemed to be a good fighter, although it was hard to tell since it was still attacking Destiny. It wasn't long before it moved on to the Sandshrew though, with a little encouragement from Caroline, and ended up flying down, pecking it and flying back up again. Neither pokémon was doing any significant amount of damage with each attack, and Sandshrew's sand attacks didn't have much effect even against the one eyed bird. It seemed like it would be a long battle, with no end or victor in sight. That was, however, until Sandshrew managed to leap into the air when Friday came near and poison it. Karuto couldn't help but be impressed even though he was obviously rooting for Friday. The Spearow's looks didn't bother him, if anything he thought it gave it more character than most pokémon had. Still, the attack was a strong one and Friday looked like it had come off badly from it. Caroline tried to recall it, but Spearow just dodged and flew back at Sandshrew. The pair got into a scrape and both looked worse for wear. It was at this point a pokéball flew towards Sandshrew, capturing it with no sign of a struggle.

The crowd that had gathered offered their congratulations before slowly dispersing. People in parks always seemed to move with the same sense of urgency of a slowpoke in a race with a rock, so it was no surprise that it took a fair few moments for them to return to the well kept path and make their way off. Destiny departed as well, leaving only Karuto, Caroline and their pokémon.

"So...how is your squirtle doing these days?" She asked.

Karuto looked down at Squirt as if to check how he was but he knew the answer. Squirt was fine, better than ever in fact.

"He's all right thanks, much better than when he was at the pokémon centre anyway. He's been getting a lot stronger too."

Squirt's new strength was down to all that battling he'd been doing, but Karuto had wished he'd been lucky enough to see a pokémon like that Sandshrew. All the ones Squirt had battled were quite weak, and although that was good for his stress levels it wasn't helping him get stronger in a hurry.

"How's that Ekans of yours?" He asked. The last time he'd seen Swiper the snake seemed incredibly independent, and he hadn't expected that to change over a few days. He was wandering, or slithering rather, around the pokémon centre, even wandering off in the middle of the night. That was the time Karuto saw Luna's Poochyena. It was definitely familiar and he knew exactly where from. It was the monster belonging to that vile grunt, he knew it. He'd had a hard time holding his tongue. What was Luna doing with a Magma's pokémon? Why was she healing it? He was starting to think that she was working with them, but if she was then it wasn't worth stirring up trouble. And if she wasn't, well, then she wasn't. Either way, accusing people of being part of Team Magma was never a good idea. In a best case scenario he would be wrong, and in a worst case scenario he'd make a personal enemy of a Magma grunt. Neither option was something he wanted.

This post has been edited by Xal: May 22 2010, 06:58 AM

[Amissa]

"Oh Swiper's fine," Caroline said, allowing her ekans out of his pokeball. The giant purple snake pokemon coiled itself before the trainers. He had actually grown a bit bigger in the last week. He was almost six feet and nine inches long, about two inches longer than the average ekans. He was by far Caroline's most well trained pokemon, despite his wayward behavior. It was apparent in the pokemon's appearance. His gold and violet scales glistened with health. His eyes glimmered brightly as his tongue flicked in and out. He recognized Karuto and Squirt's scent before he recognized their appearance. That was to Karuto's benefit, since he still styled his hair in the same way that Rick did.

Swiper's animosity towards Rick had grown as the Magma grunt began spending more time with Caroline and her family. He was finding that his feelings were growing more complicated. While he maintained the idea that Caroline was incompetent as a trainer, that she was too soft and shy. He could no longer believe that a harsh and detached trainer like Rick was what he wanted either. He used to believe that Rick's desire for him to protect his sister was his only reason for following Caroline around and looking after her. However, even after Swiper's loyalty to Rick evaporated, he found that he actually felt more protective of his trainer than ever before. He didn't just feel eager to protect Caroline, but this desire extended to her parents as well as to the other pokemon on her team.

Moreover, Swiper wanted to protect everyone specifically from Rick Kelly. Swiper was not willing to admit that he was actually growing attached to anyone, least of all Caroline and her family. Nor did he want to admit that he now viewed Rick as the greatest threat to his (Swiper's stomach churned at the word) friends. Therefore, he generally tried to ignore this feeling which bordered dangerously on compassion.

"According to my manager, Swiper's been teaching himself new battle moves and testing them on unsuspecting young shoplifters. My manager loves him, which is why he's so upset about me quitting. That's the real reason why I need to help Destiny catch a pokemon. The boss wants her to have something that can help to protect the shop." Not that she was being active towards that goal at the moment. Even though she didn't know Karuto very well, she felt like she'd rather spend time talking to him about pokemon than following Destiny around.

She was no expert on squirtles, but it seemed to her that Karuto had been doing a lot of training with his pokemon over the past week. The water pokemon didn't just look healthy, it looked battle ready. Moreover, it looked like a pokemon that Karuto was proud of. She thought that she would like to see it in battle, to get an idea of what it was really capable of. She wondered if she would learn anything more about Karuto too, if she could see his pokemon in battle. There was probably a lot that one can learn about a new person by seeing how they handle their pokemon.

Caroline wasn't the type to issue a challenge, though. She laid a hand on Swiper's head, only to hear the pokemon protest with a hiss. She removed the hand and looked Karuto in the eyes. She was trying to read him, to figure out what he thought about her and her pokemon. He always seemed so careful not to show much of himself. Maybe that was why she felt so intrigued.

[Xal]

"New moves? What are they?" Karuto asked, his interest spiking. Ekans weren't a type of pokémon to be messed with, and he'd always wanted to get his hands on one at some point. Swiper was the first he'd ever seen for himself though, all the others he'd seen were in books or on television. He wanted to see how one would battle for real, and was hoping that at some point he'd see Swiper fight. Karuto wished that he had a pokémon like that, one that was intimidating through species alone. There were plenty of species like that, so it couldn't be difficult to find and catch one. Then he could train it and make it a strong fighter, and once he'd done that he'd have nothing to fear from anyone. Having a naturally intimidating pokémon that was also strong would help him win almost any battle that wasn't completely hopeless. But then again Squirt was becoming much stronger, so why should he bother about how threatening a pokémon seemed? Power was power, in a battle when attacks were flying this way and that appearances were irrelevant.

That didn't stop him wondering how Swiper would battle. As he was thinking about this he had an idea. He wasn't sure what Caroline would think about it, but it was worth raising anyway. He wanted to see how the Ekans could fight and Squirt was in dire need of some real competition. A battle against another trainer's pokémon would be perfect. It needn't just be against Swiper either, Caroline must have other pokémon - and he knew of at least two, Friday and Sandshrew, but he didn't know if they'd be in condition to battle - to fight with. Deli could join in the battle if Squirt couldn't hold out as well, which would be ideal for the Delibird. He needed training too, more than Squirt even.

"How about you show me those new attacks then? We can have a battle, yours against mine." He decided, presenting the challenge. In all honesty he wasn't expecting her to decline, he wasn't really making it much of a question anyway.

[Aureylian]

Luna decided that it was time to move out of the Poor District. Her parents left her money, and lots of it. It wasn't like she was a millionaire or anything, but she had enough to last a while. She wanted to explore Noverus a little, even if she had to sneak around to do it. Being a part of the Rebellion was probably the most dangerous thing she could do. Luna never liked to fight, she always avoided conflict. Even with all of that, she wanted to do this. Magma was controlling everything and she had to do something to change that. She also knew that they had her parents, or at least they did. Her parents fought hard to stop Magma and they were taken from her. That would never be forgiven. She had to find them if that was the last thing she did.

Before she packed up her things, she took one more walk around the Poor District. It wasn't the prettiest place, but it had it's own charm. Everyone, almost everyone, showed who they really were. No one had a lot of money to show off, no one had a lot and they didn't seem to care. They were happy just to be alive and with their families. These were the people that she would rather be with. They never took anything for granted. She grew up, having everything handed to her, but she grew up well. Others, other "rich" people, did not grow up like her. They took everything for granted and never really enjoyed the life they were given. Like the Magmas.

She took the rest of her walk to try and clear her head. She was a little tired of letting her Magma hatred take control of her mind. She made her way back to the Pokemon Center and went to her room to pack up all of her stuff. It took her a moment to realize that she needed a place to go before she left. She never took the time to really think about it. Before she could, though, there was a knock on the door.

"Luna?" it was Nurse Joy," There is a call for you." She sighed, she really had to finish getting ready.

She walked down to the lobby and over to the net-phone. It was Mr. Rydel. "Hello?"
"Oh, Luna. It's nice to see you."
"You too, sir."
"I have recently gone undercover in Magma and I have found a mission that might interest you."
He held up a letter to the screen so she could read it.

Approximately six months ago there was an accident at a Magma research facility. It was a big explosion, a huge mess that caused a lot of confusion and left a lot of people and pokemon injured. One pokemon test subject from that facility escaped during the chaos. Security cameras outside of the building caught footage of the badly wounded spearow hobbling to freedom. Its injuries were so grievous that Magma researchers were sure that it would perish in the wild.

However, this spearow seems to have miraculously survived, at least according to footage from Magma security cameras outside of the Middle District Pokemon Center recovered two days ago. This spearow, identifiable by its one missing eye, a wound left over from that fateful accident, is the holder of valuable Magma secrets. If one were to intercept the spearow before Magma could recover it, a powerful psychic pokemon might be able to retrieve these secrets to use against Team Magma. It is the goal of Magma operatives to retrieve the spearow before anyone else does and return it to the Magma base located at the center of Noverus. Here, Magma's own psychic pokemon can erase the memory of the accident and the research from the spearow's mind.

One detail of note is that the spearow belongs to a young trainer, a girl named Caroline Kelly, sister to Magma Grunt Rick Kelly. Due to her relation to a Magma operative, it is preferable that the trainer remained unharmed. She is not considered a significant obstacle to the mission.

Your mission is to retrieve the one-eyed spearow and bring it back to headquarters.

"I believe this Caroline is a friend of yours?"
"Yeah... yeah she is."
"We need you to watch her. Make sure they don't get that Spearow. I've already called the Pokemon Center in the Suburbs, so you have a room waiting for you. You should hurry."
Before she could answer, he turned off the net-phone. Luna was nervous. She didn't want anyone to get to Caroline, but she didn't want her to find out she was a Rebel either. After all, her brother is a Magma.

She spent one more night in the Pokemon Center so she could leave early in the morning. After gathering her things and borrowing a bike from Nurse Joy, she said goodbye to everyone she had ever talked to, which wasn't a lot, and she left. It took a while to get there, but it was good exercise.

She eventually found the Pokemon Center and checked in. The Nurse Joy there showed her to her room to get settled. She also suggested a few places to visit, like the park or the mall, which gave Luna a great idea. She might as well make her first day here a somewhat good one. She took two Poke balls out of her bag and headed to the park.

------------------------

She found the park, after about ten minutes of searching, and let out her Pokemon. The first was the Gastly, Yelena, that her parents had given her. The second was the Poochyena that she had rescued from the Magma grunt that had abandoned him. Luna named him Sirius. He seemed very attached to her, probably due to rescuing him. She found a stick in the woods and threw it, which he actually ran after. It was bonding time for them. He seemed very afraid of other people and Pokemon, but was very protective of Luna.

Yelena started flying around. She caught the smell of something and followed it. "Lena, comeback!" yelled Luna. She ran off after her, with Sirius alongside her, but the Gastly, being a ghost-type, was very elusive. She stopped when she saw a familiar face. "Caroline?" whispered Luna.

This post has been edited by Ozzy: Apr 23 2010, 01:27 PM

[deyv87]

“Hm, I imagine that getting the spearow might not be as easy as I had originally imagined, if she’s really all that protective of it.” He commented, walking next to Rick. He pulled his notepad out of his pocket and looked over his notes. The more he learned about Caroline, the less he liked his mission. Rick was right; Tyler did know how some kids are with pets. He was the same with his own Pokémon, and was quite sure he would fight tooth and nail if someone tried to take them from him. Even if Tyler were offered a trade, he would have to know that the other person would take amazingly good care of his little friend. More practically, but less importantly, he would have to be offered something interesting.

But there was at least one difference between himself and Caroline that he knew of: his Pokémon didn’t bite. Also, Tyler knew where his Pokémon came from. Mary was his parents’ Pokémons’ child; and his mother caught Ruby, and then gave her to him as a birthday present. Tyler highly doubted, however, that Caroline knew her spearow survived an explosion, despite the bird’s missing eye. He wondered for a moment if she was just as protective of any other Pokémon she might have, but he imagined that the wounded bird got special attention.

Tyler needed some way to convince Caroline that the best thing for her to do for her spearow would be to let Tyler take care of it for a while. If a Pokémon Center hadn’t healed the spearow’s eye, Tyler was pretty sure that the bird would be stuck with that injury for life. However, he couldn’t imagine that anyone, or any Pokémon, could survive an explosion like that without being at least a little messed up. That would actually explain why the bird bites. Tyler knew that Team Magma had at least one powerful psychic Pokémon able to erase memories, that’s why he was on this mission after all, so why couldn’t it fix its biting problem. He didn’t really know if that was possible, but it seemed reasonable enough that he didn’t feel like he would be lying if he used that concept when talking to Caroline. This seemed like his best angle, it would work best if he could make it seem like a service, rather than a request.

Liking his train of thought, Tyler turned to a new page of his notepad and pulled his pen from his hair to write up a prop for when he finally met Caroline. First, he wrote a description of the spearow, and noted that it belongs to Caroline. Then he labeled a section to take note of symptoms, in which he listed a few random symptoms he thought of: insomnia, particular laziness, doesn’t listen during battles, loss of appetite. In the middle of the list, he made sure to list “aggression,” which he was sure he would circle later while speaking with the girl. Below the symptoms section, he labeled a section for contact information.

Content with his work, Tyler pocketed his notepad, making sure to remain on the same page, and then stuck his pen back in his hair. Suddenly he realized that for the past several minutes, he had been mindlessly following Rick, and his eyes were definitely not “open for troublemakers.” He looked around, searching for a landmark or street sign so he could possibly catch his bearings. He then glanced at his PokeNav, and once content that he simply wasn’t familiar with this area, resorted again to just following Rick.

“So,” he started, “I’ve been thinking of how to deal with this mission more. I was thinking of just explaining what happened and saying that we’re concerned for…” he paused, wondering if it was a dumb idea to talk about the mission out in the open. He’d already started; he’d just have to glaze over the details. “…her pet’s safety, as well as the safety of people in the community. I would also reluctantly offer her George as collateral. Mostly, I wanted to make sure it’s alright with you if I had to lie a little to her. Just to make things go over more smoothly.”

[Amissa]

Rick tilted his head to one side and then the other, thinking it over. However strange it might seem, Rick generally avoided outright lying to his sister. There were exceptions, of course, concerning Santa Claus, the toothfairy, and the ending to Old Yeller. But even as a small child, Caroline was too practical to buy into fairy tales for very long. And she was pretty quick to learn to read too.

"Naw, that's fine, but she might not believe it. She's pretty skeptical, but I'll back you up if you want." Rick said. By now the two of them had reached the Pokemon Center and Rick led the way inside. From the outside the Pokemon Center looked run down and washed out. The bright red paint job was now a faded orange, and the white walls of the building had become a grimy grayish color. Inside, however, it was everything that one would expect a Pokemon Center to be. It had a dining area and vending machines where trainers could grab some food while they waited. There was also a lounge area with couches and chairs and a television that was turned off. Music from the radio played softly over some hidden speakers. It must have been some oldies station because it had some decades old song playing.

You look like an angel (look like an angel)
Walk like an angel (walk like an angel)
Talk like an angel
But I got wise

You're the devil in disguise (Oh yes you are)
Devil in disguise
You fool me with your kisses
You cheated and you schemed
Heaven knows how you lied to me
You're not the way you seem

The building looked deserted and there didn't seem to be a lot of need for service today because the nurse's Chansey was dancing to the music near the counter and the nurse was nowhere to be seen. The pokemon perked up at their arrival and waved happily at the trainers.

"Chan-sey! Chan-sey!" The pokemon summoned its trainer. Within minutes the nurse made her way out of the back room. She gave the trainers a polite smile and a wave.

"Hello Rick, it's been a while hasn't it? What can I do for you and your friend today?" Nurse joy asked.

Rick blinked. He hadn't been prepared for her to remember him. He'd only been in this pokemon center a handful of times before he joined Team Magma. Worse yet, he could never tell her and her family apart. "Ah yeah, he needs his...stuff fixed." Rick muttered while making some vague hand gestures. He backed off towards the vending machines, leaving Tyler to have his pokemon healed.

------------------------------

"Uh, yeah!" Caroline replied to Karuto eagerly. She'd honestly never had a battle against another pokemon trainer. However, Swiper had never lost a fight before even if he'd only fought against wild pokemon, so Caroline felt pretty confident that he could handle a battle with another trainer. She wasn't so sure about Thor, since in spite of her best efforts to teach him new moves, Thor only seemed to be able to master two attacks. But pokemon needed experience in order to learn and grow, so even if Thor couldn't win the battle, he would still gain valuable knowledge and maybe it would help him figure out a new technique. Caroline realized that no matter what the outcome was, she and Karuto as well as their pokemon could gain a lot from a battle.

Already, the thought of the fight was making Caroline feel excited. She tried to calm herself, worried that getting too excited might cause her to make mistakes, but the first battle jitters were hard to fight. She was forming a plan in her head, already thinking about how she would begin. Before either one of them could start, however, Swiper grew agitated. He wriggled around in a distracted way, and flicked his tongue more frequently as though he'd caught a scent that interested him. Caroline tried to see what he was so curious about and suddenly caught sight of the startling form of a gastly. She leapt straight up, surprised and a little frightened. She was about to command Swiper to use a bite attack, thinking that the ghost pokemon was wild. It was then that she thought she heard someone call her name.

Caroline looked around, expecting it to be Destiny. What would Dustin think if he saw that Destiny caught a gastly? Who'd have thought that she was the type to love ghost pokemon? What was a wild gastly doing in the park during the day anyway? The pieces suddenly fell into place when Caroline's eyes caught Luna's familiar form.

"Hi Luna!" Caroline called over, smiling and waving, "Oh look! Your poochyena looks much better now. And your gastly seems to be doing fine too." She was amazed by her luck, finding Karuto and Luna again on the same day. Though the paranoid part of her mind (which was the greater part) warned her that such luck might not be just luck, she could think of no rational reason to suspect otherwise. For all she knew, Luna and Karuto had become great friends now or just liked to go to the same park. She was still thinking of her battle with Karuto too. She wondered if there was a way for Luna to battle too. Now that there were three of them, it seemed rude to leave anyone out.

[deyv87]

Tyler really hoped that Caroline would believe him. He didn’t like to think about it too much, but he was pretty sure that his way of going about things was the easiest on everybody. If he couldn’t talk the spearow away from Caroline, he would be forced to try to take it by force, and he doubted that Rick would be happy with that. Tyler wondered if Rick would defend her if the time came, and despite his confidence in his own Pokémon, Tyler knew he wouldn’t be able to deal with two trainers at once.

They entered the Pokémon Center, and Tyler began humming along with the song playing. This was one of his father’s favorite songs, so Tyler had heard it occasionally his entire life. Tyler himself didn’t mind the beat, but he had paid attention to the lyrics once, and was not a fan of the message. He found it oddly appropriate, though, as just moments before he was actively scheming about how to appropriately lie to someone so he would seem trustable. He was pretty sure, however, that kisses would be counterproductive.

He chuckled to himself after Rick walked off toward the vending machines. This was the first time he had seen his superior seem anything but arrogant or confident. Admittedly, Tyler was slightly perturbed, himself. He was pretty sure this was the same nurse that had always worked at the Pokémon Center near his house, in the suburbs. She must be pretty down on her luck if she’s taking extra shifts out here. he thought as he approached, Unless she had to move out here. I shouldn’t mention it; it’s probably a sore subject.

“Hey Joy, it’s just a few scrapes. Nothing you can’t fix, I’m sure.” Tyler said, while pulling his pokeballs off his belt. “I just caught this mankey, and he’s definitely a fighter… just a heads up.” Tyler handed his Pokémon over, and went to join Rick. When he got to the vending machines, he began looking for something that he hoped George would enjoy. He remembered that George was about to eat some Pecha berries before he had been captured, so Tyler purchased a pack of cookies. Hopefully, they would be sweet enough to satisfy George. He also bought some trail mix for Mary, who enjoyed pretty much anything dry. Ruby was always the hardest to get treats for, and Tyler was not surprised when he couldn’t find anything spicy in the vending machines. He purchased some beef jerky for her, hoping that the smoked taste would be close enough. For himself, he purchased a can of lemonade, which he quickly downed. As he threw away the can, he caught Nurse Joy’s eye, who was setting down the tray of his freshly healed Pokémon. He collected them and thanked her, and walked over to the lounge area to feed his Pokémon.

First, he decided it would be best to gain his new mankey’s trust. Setting the opened package on the chair next to him, Tyler held a cookie in his left hand and George’s pokeball in his right. He opened up the ball, and out popped Furious George in front of him, facing away, and fists held up. The mankey glanced left and right, looking for a threat, then turned around when Tyler said, “Back here, George.” Upon seeing Tyler, the mankey hardened its stance, preparing for a fight. “I got you a treat.” Tyler said, holding the cookie out at George’s eye level. A look of confusion overcame George’s face. He leaned in and sniffed the cookie, twitching his pig nose, before quickly snatching the cookie out of Tyler’s hand, hopping a few steps away, back turned from Tyler, and devouring the treat. George turned back around, arms down, clearly sizing up his new trainer. Tyler sat down, cross legged on the floor, and picked up another cookie, offering it to George, “Don’t worry; I’ll take good care of you.” Tyler said as George took this cookie, not nearly as hastily. “But I might have to let someone else look after you for a while.” George munched on his cookie, clearly more relaxed than he was moments ago. “I’m going to introduce you to the rest of the team, okay?” Tyler held up a pokeball. “This is Mary.” He explained, hoping George understood somewhat. He let his ralts out to his left. “I’ve had her for 8 years now, so we understand each other pretty well.” He held out his palm, and Mary gave him a low five.

“This is Ruby.” He held up another pokeball, and then released his sableye to his right. George, recognizing Ruby from earlier, instantly raised his fists, ready for another fight. Tyler held out his hand in protest, “Whoa now. It’s ok. Ruby’s a friend, too. Here.” Tyler held out the cookie package to his sableye. “Give him a cookie, he seems to like them.” At which Ruby picked up a cookie, and the mankey lowered his fists, still wary of his former conqueror, but intrigued at the prospect of more delicious food. Ruby held out the cookie, and George gingerly took it and slowly began eating it. Ruby, trying to break the tension, held out a hand toward the mankey for a low five. The mankey looked at Tyler, then Mary, and finally back at Ruby. George went for the low five, and his hand passed straight through Ruby’s. Ruby let out a giggle. “Heh, so anyway. Like I said, this is Mary and Ruby.” He gestured at the two Pokémon in turn. “I’m Tyler,” he pointed at himself, then at the mankey, “and I was going to call you Furious George, because you’re, well, you’re pretty furious when you fight. Is that ok with you, George?” To Tyler’s surprise, the mankey simply nodded at him, before offering a low five to Mary, who reciprocated.

Tyler gave George the last cookie in the package, and gave Mary and Ruby their treats as well. When they had all finished, Tyler returned them to their pokeballs, and joined Rick once more. “Ok, I’m ready now. Sorry about the delay.” Rick had already gotten out of his chair and was heading for the door. “ So, where does she work again?”

[Xal]

"Great, let's do this." Karuto said, grinning. This was his first real battle against another trainer for a long time and he was starting to get excited at the prospect of the fight. He was confident that he'd win, Squirt was more than ready for a battle and Deli could put up a reasonable fight as well. He was looking forward to showing off Deli's new move too, one that Delibirds couldn't normally learn. Karuto didn't didn't have any idea how Deli was able to use the ice attack but he didn't really care. That stuff was for professors and people who spent all day learning about pokémon. There was no reason why he would know it or why it should bother him. All Karuto knew was that Deli was able to use ice attack, and so wasn't stuck with Present all the time. Being given a present wasn't particularly threatening, especially when it sometimes even healed the foe. Then again, Karuto was trying to work figure out how he can use it as an opening attack on a Magma and accompany it with a witty opening line. "Hey you, I've got a present for you!", was his best so far. Needless to say, he was still thinking of a better one.

"Caroline?" He heard someone say in a whispered tone. It reminded him of what he was thinking about at the pokémon centre a week earlier, people seemed to think that talking in that voice made them quieter when they weren't talking that quietly at all. He looked over to the source of the whisper and was surprised to see it was Luna. She was the girl he'd met at that pokémon centre along with Caroline. He guessed the pair of them must have known each other and arranged to meet, the chances of the three of them bumping into each other miles away a week later weren't that large. It wasn't a tiny chance, but it was much more likely that they'd organised to get together or that they were meeting up for some other organised reason.

"Hi." Karuto smiled to her, but then got back to thinking about the battle. It was nice to see Luna again but heartfelt reunions and tales of the marvellous events of the past week in each other's absence could wait a few minutes. The nice weather wasn't going anywhere, there were no clouds in sight that Karuto could see so the three (no, four, there was Destiny too) of them could have a good old natter in the sun on the warm green grass once the battle was over. Karuto didn't care about the weather, and he couldn't see Squirt losing any sleep if it started to rain, but he guessed the others probably did.

"Are we still doing this?" Karuto said to Caroline, but then realised it might seem rude to suddenly just go back to the subject of the battle when Luna was there and had no idea what they were doing.

"Oh, we were just about to battle. Would you like to join in?" Karuto explained, looking down at Squirt to see if he was still eager. To Karuto's surprise, he wasn't. He was glaring in Luna's direction, apparently furious about something. Karuto was about to ask what he was so angry about, but when he looked towards the newcomer he realised. It was that Poochyena again. A week earlier Squirt had been attacked by that pokémon. Yes, Squirt (or rather Karuto, who gave him the order) was the one who started the fight but the Magma and Poochyena needn't have been so ruthless. Karuto had no idea how it had found its way into Luna's possession, but he didn't want to raise the subject again in case he offended her. He was sure she wasn't secretly part of an organisation like that anyway. Team Magma members liked to instil fear into people, not go for walks in parks in everyday clothes. He was still sure that the Poochyena was the same one though, and Squirt was clearly of the same opinion. Squirt would probably rather have a rematch with that one instead of any of Caroline's pokémon, especially with his new found strength and Deli as back up.

This post has been edited by Xal: May 2 2010, 03:18 PM

[Aureylian]

"Hi Luna! Oh look! Your poochyena looks much better now. And your gastly seems to be doing fine too."

"Hey, Caroline!" Luna looked around at her two Pokemon. Her Gastly was doing great. She was trying to bond with it more, which really seemed to be working. Lena, her parents had named her Yelena, but Luna just calls her Lena, loved to pull pranks on people. Luna let her most times, but she did have to keep her on a leash, so to say. Lena always floated around, attempting to scare people. One time, she floated behind a couple on a date, and when they turned around, the man almost jumped into his date's arms. It was a very amusing day.

Sirius, on the other hand, was still a little rebellious. I guess it's because of his last trainer... she thought to herself. He was a little weak and it also seemed like he was trying to prove himself to Luna's other Pokemon. Even though Luna has only had him for a short amount of time, he was trying to be the leader of the pack. Sirius was very protective and always seemed to advise the others. Sirius was Luna's baby. She tries everything to make him happy, apparently saving him was all she had to do.

Luna had only ever been this close to one other Pokemon. Rory. When Luna was little, she ventured out of her grandmother's mansion a few times, which was almost impossible to do. Her grandmother had always told her that the woods was no place for a young lady, that the woods were bad. Well, one time, she was just walking around the woods, and a small Rattata had jumped out from behind a bush, scaring little Luna. She was probably around six, and even though the Mouse Pokemon wouldn't hurt her, it was still a little scary. She had never really been around Pokemon and she wasn't sure what to do.

Out of nowhere, a small female Vulpix ran out in front of Luna, whose name was actually Lydia at the time. The Vulpix scared away the Rattata and cheered up Luna. Luna ended up playing with the Vulpix and befriending her, naming her Rory.

"Oh, we were just about to battle. Would you like to join in?"

Luna was brought back from her thoughts. "Um, sure. If it's okay with Caroline."

She looked down at Karuto's Squirtle. He was staring, unhappily, at Sirius. Her little Poochyena wanted to battle, she could see it, but he was too weak. She also hadn't battled with him yet, so she wasn't sure if he could do it or not, which scared her a little.

[Amissa]

Rick looked over at Tyler, as though he'd already forgotten about the other trainer's existence. "She works at this run down Pokemart. It's not far from here. It's pretty close to the apartment that we used to live in too. I used to steal from the place when I was first getting into pokemon. No easy feat, since the owner has this poliwhirl that will hypnotize you and put you to sleep if it catches you pocketing anything. The guy doesn't like Magmas much either. You should probably go in the place without me. Then just ask Caroline to go outside with you and we can do this without anybody else interfering."

Like in most cities, the Pokemart and the Pokemon Center were pretty near to each other. It was just a short walk down the street before they encountered the building. It almost looked abandoned, with one of its windows boarded up because someone had broken it. The white sides of the building were covered in graffiti, some suggesting that Magmas engage in some gross and vulgar activities. There was an alleyway next to the shop with a large dumpster and what looked like a person sleeping on some cardboard boxes. A racket broke out as the trainers neared the alleyway when a meowth and a rattata got into a fight over something they had both found in the dumpster.

In front of the shop was a poor homeless man sporting a grizzled beard and some dirty clothes. He didn't wear any shoes and he held up a cardboard sign that read "Magmas arrested my son and took everything that we owned. Please help." A plastic cup sat at the man's feet, empty. From the alleyway, the rattata had apparently won its battle with the meowth and it came running up to the man with what looked like half of a sandwich in its mouth.

"Good job, Lucky. Thanks girl," The man said as he reached down to accept the sandwich. He gave his rattata a reassuring pat and a scratch behind its ears. He diverted his eyes behind the trainers as they approached, pretending not to see them. Rick behaved in much the same way, leaning on the side of the building and signaling that Tyler should go inside. He was learning that ignoring was a lot more difficult to pull off than ignorance. He'd always known that people had it bad here, but now he needed to pretend not to see it. He had to be above it all. He was no longer one of them, he was a Magma now.

-------------------------------

"All right!" Caroline said cheerfully. She reached down and unhooked Thor's leash and set it aside. "I've got two pokemon left to fight with, but then I'd like to go to the Pokemon Center if that's okay with you guys." She looked up and noticed how Karuto's squirtle was eyeing Luna's poochyena. She cast a curious glance up at Luna and Karuto for a moment, wondering if they had battled before.

Swiper only tilted his head to one side. The tension between the poochyena and squirtle was pretty evident, but Swiper didn't know why. He would have said "hello" to the poochyena except that now he thought it best to appear unaffiliated. Whatever had gone down between those two pokemon, Swiper thought it would be best to stay neutral and find out. He was eager for these trainers to quit talking and get on with the fight. He wanted to show off his power and he was fairly certain that he could take anyone that he needed to fight against. Swiper was also pretty sure that Thor wouldn't be as successful, however, and he'd blame Caroline if either of them lost.

"But I'm not sure how this would work with three people. I guess two of us will need to team up." Caroline said, her voice losing its vigor as she pondered how the three of them should divide up

[deyv87]

Tyler wanted to not seem too out of place, so he tried to look like he knew where he was going and not glance around too much. It helped that he could see the Pokemart as they walked, but he still had to fight the urge to check for street signs or look at his Pokenav. Even if he acted like he was from around here, he knew his outfit drew attention to himself. Nobody around here would be carrying a briefcase. He didn’t want to stereotype, but he was pretty sure that his clothes would have to be a bit dirtier if he wanted to seem like he was a local. Most unfortunate.

Tyler’s hand twitched for a pokeball when he heard a racket break out down the alley, but he didn’t see anything coming at him, so he relaxed a bit. He smiled a little when he saw a rattata bring a part of a sandwich to a homeless man. The smile was knocked off his face when he read the man’s sign. He didn’t think the man saw his momentary smile, because he seemed to be specifically ignoring Tyler and Rick. Tyler could understand why. He looked at Rick’s Magma uniform, and wondered how Rick could stand walking around in it. Rick caught his eye and nodded at the Pokemart, as if to say, “Get going.”

Awesome, he’s actually sending me in alone. Tyler thought. “Gotcha, I’ll be right back.” If Tyler could talk to Caroline without her brother around, the whole ruse would seem a lot more credible. Tyler could claim to be some expert, or just a lackey, but neither explanation makes as much sense as Rick just doing Tyler’s job. Why was he doing this anyway? Rick is her brother, how difficult could it be for him to just ask for the spearow? Because the higher ups in Magma are testing you, Dummy. Forget the ‘why’; focus on the ‘how’. Now is your moment, so focus. And stop thinking to yourself like this. It’s weird.

Tyler entered and glanced around the Pokemart. Save for the older looking guy and a poliwhirl behind the counter, the place was dead. The man behind the counter perked up at the sound of the door closing. “Hi, can I help you find something?” he called to Tyler. Hoping that Caroline would walk out of the back room in a few moments, Tyler casually looked around and asked, “Actually, which way to the Pokémon snacks?” The clerk pointed at one of the aisles, and continued looking at his magazine. Tyler walked into the aisle, and spent a good minute or two searching for something fairly spicy for Ruby. After picking out a pack of Gummy Slugmas™, he also selected a pack of Tauros Jerky for Mary and a bag of Clefable Sticks™ for George.

As he walked up to the counter, he realized that the polywhirl had, and currently was, staring at him. “Heh, nice security.” Tyler said, nodding toward the Pokémon. He placed his items on the counter. “Just these.” Ok, here it goes, “Oh, and is Caroline around?” He said, trying to sound nonchalant.

The clerk looked up at Tyler, clearly judging him. “That depends, who’s asking?”

“Oh, well…” Tyler looked at the clerk’s nametag, “…Dustin. I’m Tyler, nice to meet you.” He held his hand out to shake Dustin’s hand.

Dustin kind of smirked, and then shook Tyler’s hand. “No, I mean how do you know her?”

Crap. “Well, we haven’t actually met, but I know her brother. Last I heard, he was looking for her. Plus, he mentioned that she’s got some interesting Pokémon, and I was hoping to see them.” Now Tyler needed to distract this guy just a little from Caroline. The less he pondered things, the better for Tyler. “Oh, I just remembered. Do you have any snacks that you’d recommend for a rattata? I wanted to help that guy outside.”

“Yeah, there’s some rodent food mix on that wall,” Dustin said, pointing at a shelf, “And no. Caroline’s not here right now. She’s off helping another employee catch a new Pokémon.”

Tyler walked over and grabbed a 4lb. bag of Ratt-Chow™, ‘Full of nuts, fruits, berries, and cheese. / Exactly what your Pokémon needs’. He set it down on the counter next to his other items. “Do you know where? Maybe I can let her brother know, or swing by if it’s on my way home.”

Dustin finished ringing up Tyler’s items, and tilted the cash register’s display at Tyler. It read 375. “I think she mentioned looking for a grass type in the park over in the suburbs. Or you could just wait here. She should be back in a while, maybe a half an hour or so.”

Tyler paid for his goods. “Ok, thanks. I would, but I’ve kind of got to get going.” Tyler stopped himself from asking when she got off work, realizing that would tip the scale to ‘creepy’ rather than ‘curious.’ “Have a good one.” He said, walking out of the store. Behind him he heard Dustin say “Yeah, you too.”

On his way out, Tyler set the bag of rattata food next to the homeless guy, and placed 50 in his empty cup. “Good luck, man.” Tyler said. On his way back to Rick, he heard the man say in a somewhat shocked voice, “Hey, thanks.” Tyler glanced over his shoulder, smiled at the man, and gave him a thumbs up, and then continued over to Rick. He could see Rick giving him a disapproving look, but decided to brush it off. “Let’s get moving.” Tyler said, looking at his Pokenav. He started walking in the direction of the park. When they were out of earshot of the homeless guy, Tyler started up again. “Ok, she’s out helping another employee catch a grass type Pokémon, probably at the park in the suburbs. The guy in there said they should be back in about a half hour. So I was thinking that we should try to rush there and catch her before she heads back to the Pokemart. Alternatively, we could head to the Pokémon Center that’s near there, but there’s even less of a guarantee that she’ll stop in there before returning.”

Tyler opened his briefcase and put the new supply of snacks in an internal pocket. He continued after closing his case, “So, I’d prefer going to where they definitely are, but if you want, we can head to the Pokémon Center instead.”

[Xal]

Karuto thought for a moment about how the three of them could battle. It would be ideal if they could find a way. Karuto wasn't overly concerned about the fairness of it or leaving anyone out (so long as it wasn't him, anyway), but battling two people would give Squirt and Deli more experience. He was having difficulty having ideas, though. Two of them could battle and then the winner could battle the third person, but that way some of the pokémon would be weakened and would be at a disadvantage.

"How many pokémon do we all have?" He asked, an idea starting to form in his mind.
"Two of us could team up like Caroline said, and only use so many pokémon that each side has the same amount. I think that would be the best way to do it, it's not the number of trainers that matters."

The plan wasn't perfect, but it would do. If it was a double battle the three trainers could battle simultaneously, and no one would have any real advantage or disadvantage from there being two trainers on one side and one on the other.

"It would work best if the person with the most pokémon is on their own, that way the other team can use that same amount so everyone gets to use more pokémon. I've only got two, so if I was on my own you two would each only be able to use one pokémon. Unless that's what we want, but to be honest I'd rather we used more. It would get everyone a little more battle experience, y'know?"

[Aureylian]

Luna thought for a moment. She hadn't actually witnessed Friday's "fun", but she had heard it. Caroline had talked about her too, before. She wasn't exactly the best Pokemon to use in battle. "Well, each of you have two Pokemon and I have four, so, why don't you two team up?"

That worked perfectly in Luna's mind. Lyra was probably Luna's strongest Pokemon, so she would save her and only use her if needed. Her other three Pokemon were the ones that needed the training. Yelena should be fine, being a ghost-type, she could easily dodge a lot of attacks. Yelena had a lot of training in that area. Mr. Rydel had told her a few stories from when Lena and Danil, her Abra, belonged to her parents. Both Pokemon were weak, but they were very useful. They were both used on retrieval missions. Yelena was able to move freely through small spaces, being made of mostly gas. Danil, on the other hand, wasn't as stealthy. He was able to use Teleport, but it was difficult. For him to Teleport, he had to know exactly where he was going, so he couldn't use it to get in, but he could use it to get out.

Luna was brought back from her thoughts when Sirius headbutted her leg. She knelt down and picked him up. She just wanted to take care of him. He was little and been treated terribly. No one deserved to be treated that way, especially one s that couldn't speak for themselves. Luna started to stroke his head and Karuto's Squirtle, Squirt, right?, was still glaring at him. She could see the intense hatred in it's eyes, that just doesn't happen all of the sudden. Something had to have happened between them. She remembered the night when she met Karuto. He had brought his poor beaten up Squirtle into the Pokemon Center. He must have battled the Magma. That was the only explanation that made sense to her.

"Come on, let's battle!" She hadn't really been in an actual battle, so she was really excited.