[X] My Assistant

[Master Houndoom]

Branwys had rolled her eyes when the two decided to get serious, but quickly forgot her ire when Terra found her meowth. They were in a warehouse, which, had it not been for the fact that they had watched Wildclaw get meowthnapped, would have been assumed to be abandoned. A voice from between the shelves quickly dispelled that notion.

While Terra and Moonrise had cleared the shelves, Branwys, being too small to be of any real help with the boxes, had went around the other side of the shelves to see if there was another way to get to the meowth. The man had been on the opposite side of the shelving, and Branwys, a natural climber, had worked herself to the second tier, a foot and a half higher than her head, when he made himself known. Terra had her pokémon at the ready, and Cesc called his instantly as well. For her part, Branwys was seriously rethinking sending Dimo out to get parts.

"Tinka," she whispered, biting her lip, "get ready to help the others-- oh, scheiße!"

"klink!"

However, as Tinka rose from her (its, really, but the klink was now used to being referred to in the feminine and thought of herself as such) place on Branwys' bag, spinning her gears in protest at the language the young woman used, she understood the vulgarity. As they had been distracted by the appearance of one man, there were two others approaching, both with tough looking pokémon out, moving to flank. Branwys bit her lip. Tinka had one decent move to attack with at the moment, but she was pretty tough in taking attacks. Dimo was her main attacker, but he wasn't here at the moment.

The two men had a poochyena and stunky at their ankles, but at least one of them had two pokéballs on his belt, meaning he at least had other pokémon. Probably just one she thought grimly.

"OK, go tell Terra and Cesc's pokémon that there are others coming in!" As Tinka floated around to make sure she wasn't seen too early by the men, Branwys climbed down and joined the other two. The observations and commands had taken seconds, and the man sneered.

"Will a couple of lovebirds and a little girl come to the rescue? Is this the best the old man can come up with?"

Branwys sighed. "I prefer 'vertically challenged', thank you," she snarled. "And by my estimation, we have you outgunned!"

The man smirked, shaking his head. "Give a kid a pokémon and they think they're adults."

For crying out loud, I can legally drink! I get carded, but I can legally drink...

The two men Branwys had seen stepped from the shelves, their pokémon at their side, and released two more pokémon, as the man pulled out his own devices. "These four will be good for the act, too, once we get them trained... too bad for you kids, we have no need for you..."

[Bronze Charizard]

Terra looked around, her eyes blazing with fury. Were there more bandits than they could handle? There was no time to worry about that. Aurora's freedom, and possibly her life, depended on the result of this battle.

"You...good for nothing son of a bitch!" She was going to cuss like a drunk gang member now, and she didn't care. "I wish Wildclaw would've clawed those eyes right out of that ugly face!"

"Oh really?" The scratched face man laughed. "How about I make the pussy cat into a fur hat? Pepe, use night slash!"

The stunky dove at Wildclaw, fangs bared. The night slash move connected with Wildclaw's haunch, and the meowth yowled.

"Don't just sit there! Fight back!" Terra called, then released her remaining pokemon. "Moonrise, ember the poochyena! Wildclaw, scratch! Redsky and Leafwind...wait for orders!"

Moonrise took a deep breath, preparing to blow a flame. The poochyena tackled the houndour and knocked the wind out of him. Moonrise staggered to his feet, growled, and this time the ember hit. The poochyena yelped.

[Kamaitachi]

"Let's take out the ones on the field first." Cesc nodded to his two comrades, who nodded eagerly in reply. "Focus on the Stunky. Valentine, Flame Wheel!"

Valentine dutifully threw himself forward, catching himself on fire. Unfortunately, Cesc had not taken into account the fact that Valentine's costume was not fire-proof. The bandana and sash burned away, eliciting a gasp of shock from the coordinator. However, the attack charged forward, oblivious to the sudden 'nudity'. Cesc quickly had to regain his focus:

"Oberon, Quick Attack!" As the Flame Wheel charged forward, Oberon burst forth in a quick sprint past it, hitting the Stunky with surprising speed before using it as a springboard to escape. As the Stunky struggled to recover, the Flame Wheel hit it dead center, knocking it back several more paces.

"Excellent work, friends." Cesc cheered, moving into a "Tiger-Woods-Fist-Pump" motion to celebrate his victory. However, targeting a single pokemon left both of his open to attack from any of the other pokemon on the field. Both Oberon and Valentine were essentially open to attack from the other two pokemon that had taken up the battle.

[Bronze Charizard]

Redsky's head crest was standing straight up, for the pidgey had seen Oberon. After seeing her parents and brothers brutally murdered at the claws of Oberon's species, Redsky did not take kindly to sneasels. She flashed a dirty look at Oberon, then flew to the top of a shelf and perched there.

Terra sighed. "Wildclaw, Moonrise, Leafwind. Keep up the good work while I give Redsky a pep talk..." She walked over to the shelf. "Redsky, please. You have every right to be bitter. But that sneasel is on our side. What happened in your past isn't his fault."

Redsky stared at her trainer.

"This is no time to judge others based on species alone! There is both good and evil everything. Holding a grudge against sneasels for the rest of your life will do more harm than good. And besides, if that hadn't happened, you wouldn't have the good life you have now."

The scratched face man now had a liepard out, and was pointing at the same shelf. "Go get the birdie, Lionel! If you kill it I'll cook it for you for dinner!"

"Rowr!" The liepard unsheathed his claws and lunged at the shelf. Terra had to think fast, or else Redsky would be turned into pidgey nuggets. "Redsky! Sand attack! Leafwind! Absorb on the liepard!"

The blast of sand hit the liepard's face, causing him to ram into the shelf and knock it over as Redsky made her getaway.

"Treeck!" Leafwind landed on top of the liepard, spreading her arms in typical treecko fashion, as she absorbed some of the liepard's energy.

[Master Houndoom]

Branwys pointed dramatically toward the poochyena, biting her lip at the new pokemon on the field. If there was, however, one thing about Tinka, she was tough, having natural resistances toward a lot of the types of attacks out there.

"Tinka, Vice Grip on that pup! Don't let it get to anything else!"

Tinka hit the ground with a "klink" and turned sideways, separating slightly with a small spark of electricity between her two gears, which allowed her to rotate them the same way and shoot toward the poochyena like a rollerblade. Once the klink reached the dark pup, her gears snapped together on her tail. The poochyena gave a cry of pain and turned, trying to bite the gear pokemon.

The man who owned the poochyena scowled. "OK, fine, we have a volunteer target, Snarl! Sand Attack!"

The poochyena pitched forward on its forelegs and scratched its hind feet on the ground, kicking up sand. Unfortunately, instinct caused the poochyena to pitch its tail over its back, letting Tinka avoid the attack as well.

"Oh, come on!" The trainer snarled at his pokemon. "Don't worry about your tail! I'll clean it up after we kick these bratty kids out of here!" The poochyena grunted in annoyance and flipped its tail into the line of fire, causing the sand directly into Tinka. It then howled again as the gear tightened on its tail.

"What th--?!"

Hee hee, she's already clamped on, blinding her won't work! "Now, Charge!" The electric charging wouldn't hurt the poochyena , even at this close range, but it was sometimes uncomfortable for a pokemon that was in direct contact with the charging pokemon. Sure enough, the poochyena started to twitch, shaking its tail to try to get the klink off if it.

"Bite! Tear it off your tail!"

The pokemon began to chase his tail, trying to bite the offending pokemon, but the gear's extra weight caused it to fling a little wider than the poocheyena's mouth. Finally, Snarl stopped and let the tail come to him, but Tinka released, dropping off to make him bite his own tail. She them tried to clamp onto his ear, and missed.

"We have her now! Tackle!"

The poochyena charged forward, slamming his head into the gear pokemon's main boddy. That sent Tinka skittering, but did little else. She righted herself and floated a little above the ground, klinking away as her gears turned.

"Looks like I'm not so easy to get rid of, am I?" Branwys bragged. The man sneered at her.

"Sand attack!"

The pokemon kicked again, sending sand at Tinka and leaving the one open eye on each gear closed. Branwys bit her lip then and grit her teeth as the man chuckled darkly.

"Your pokemon can't see... it's only a matter of time..."

[Kamaitachi]

Cesc had to admit to himself that it was an easier battle due to their numbers. He made sure to remind himself that, lest he get carried away. He did have a tendency to get swept up in the spirit of things. However, now was not the time to let his guard down and make mistakes.

As he scanned the field, he noted that the Stunky was getting back up, a...dark leopard...pokemon was being tag-teamed by Terra's pokemon (She'd gone off and given a speech in the middle of the battle, since talking is a free action.) Apparently the Pidgey had a strong dislike for Oberon. That was to be somewhat expected; Sneasels ate bird eggs.

Branwys and her gear pokemon seemed to be handling the Poochyena rather adroitly, so that just left the Stunky in front of him at the moment. He did sneak a few fascinated peeks over in her direction. She really didn't act like a child, despite her appearances. That usually meant one had to blame the parents. Either way, he was pretty glad that she was a decent battler, and not just a scared little child. He regretted asking her whether or not she'd wanted to come along. He, therefore, took a mental note never to ask her again, and just invite her along.

Meanwhile, the Stunky had charged forward, emitting a foul gas from his tail as he ran towards them. This was most likely a poison gas attack, which needed to be nullified immediately.

"Valentine, Ember!" The little balls of fire struck the oncoming Stunky, who whipped his tail forward, sending the gas drifting over towards the duo.

"Oberon, uh...Quick Attack." The Sneasel sprang forward, passing through the oncoming gas, dispersing it somewhat before striking the Stunky once more. However, as he returned to his place in front of Cesc, he doubled over, looking quite pained.

"Dammit" Cesc knelt down next to his comrade, procuring the pokeball. "Return for now, let's not risk it." The Sneasel disappeared back into his pokeball, leaving Cesc with only Valentine on the field.

[Bronze Charizard]

Redsky chirped. The sneasel was down. Serves him right, that rotten...no. I'm not going to spend the rest of my life hating sneasels. But I won't be friends with them either...

"Redsky, tackle the poochyena!"

The pidgey blinked as Terra's command interrupted her thoughts. About a few feet away from her, a poochyena was battling what looked like a magnemite. A closer look revealed that it wasn't a magnemite, but a different small steel type that Redsky had never seen before. She shrugged, then launched herself into the air and dive bombed the poochyena.

This post has been edited by Bronze Charizard: Jun 8 2011, 12:59 PM

[Master Houndoom]

Branwys chewed her lip, thinking more than worried, though there was a bit of that as well. Tinka was blinded, and she was still relatively young and didn't have a wide move pool. However, the poochyena didn't have attacks that were very affective against her, and while it was, indeed, a matter of time, Tinka still had some advantage.

While Branwys was pondering what to do next, the delimma was solved by the timely attack from Terra's pidgey, which dove from the top most shelf it had been on and slammed into the poochyena in a tackle attack.

"Tinka, come back to me!" Branwys called. The gear began the same maneuver it had used to get to the battlefield; slightly separating her gears, linking them with a small electromagnetic bolt, and spinning her gears as wheels to travel over the ground. Unfortunately, because she was blinded, she went the wrong way, perpendicular to the course needed to get to Branwys, and slammed into some boxes.

Branwys had to stifle a giggle and pulled Tinka's pokeball from the messenger bag at her side, recalling Tinka. She instantly called her back out at her feet.

"klink"

"Oh, hush. It's not like this is a sanctioned battle, we're defending ourselves! I'm not breaking the rules!"

"klink klink"

Branwys blinked. "Oh. You're welcome." She surveyed the field and noticed the rattata moving to attack the chimchar. Branwys smirked. "Tinka, go block that cute purple pokemon!"

Tinka "klink"ed, and revved up in her ground-travel formation, speeding to get herself between the rattata and Valentine. With a small gonging noise, the rattata's quick attack struck Tinka, causing the rat to back up, shaking his head, and Tinka to fall flat on her gears. As Tinka rose, the rat chittered angrily, hopping up and down threateningly at the gear pokemon.

Branwys gave a cheeky salute to Cesc and turned back to the battlefield just as the rattata's owner snarled out, "Rikki! Revenge!"

"Oh no!" Branwys put her hands to her cheeks. Revenge, if she remembered right, and she did, was a fighting move, and Tinka had trouble with that.

Suddenly a pair of boxes crashed from under the nearby shelf, revealing a cubone. He was wrapped in what looked like thick straps and had a lot of metal in his hands, which he dropped. His skull-helmet was decorated with gold stripes and a plume at the back, and the bone club he brandished was almost new.

<Oh, ja!>

"Dimo!"

[Kamaitachi]

There was quite a lot going on in the battle now. Cesc was having a difficult time keeping up. After all, this was far less straightforward than a simple 2 on 2 like he'd been training for. No, this was more like a melee, or brawl. Maybe sortie was the better word.

In any case, Cesc only had one pokemon out on the field. Terra had all four of hers, but they seemed comparatively weak. Branwys, now had two pokemon on the field, with the timely arrival of the very stylish Kool-Aid Man Dimo

Dimo was a ground type, so he would probably do quite well against the Stunky that Valentine was currently facing. With that in mind, and not in the spirit of barking orders at a little girl, Cesc figured she'd simply follow up with the switch.

"Valentine, block the Revenge!" It sounded like a really odd sentence, but Chimchar took the brunt of the Rattata's powered-up-but-still-weak-because-it's-Rattata, Revenge. Valentine leaned up against the Klink for a moment, winking at it before launching himself forward off of her.

"Valentine, Flame Wheel." Valentine used the moment from launching off of Tinka to throw himself into another wicked Flame Wheel attack, travelling much faster than before. He blew easily threw the Rattata, tossing it upwards into the air where it was vulnerable to anyone's next attack.

Meanwhile, however, the Stunky he had left behind turned its attentions to Terra's pokemon, releasing another cloud of poison gas in their direction. Cesc frowned, as he'd miscalculated; He should've stuck to taking out the Stinky Stunky.

[Bronze Charizard]

"Redsky, look out!"

The cloud of poison hit Redsky square in the face just as she had turned to see what she was supposed to be avoiding. Coughing and hacking, she flapped her wings and launched herself into the air.

"Now's your chance, Lionel!" The scratched face man gestured toward the poisoned pidgey. "Finish it off!"

With a single claw swipe, the liepard did just that. Redsky plummeted to the ground and landed with a thud.

"Oh no." Terra ran over and returned Redsky as fast as she could, remembering what the scratched face man had said earlier about letting his liepard eat her pidgey. She then directed her attention to her other three. "Moonrise and Wildclaw, ember and scratch!" She pointed at the liepard as she gave that command. "Leafwind, pound the stunky! Watch out for the poison gas!"

Wildclaw stood behind the liepard, and Moonrise stood in front. At the same time, the houndour shot a small flame onto the liepard's face, and the meowth swiped at his hind legs.

The stunky's trainer had ordered another poison gas attack. But Leafwind was faster, so a heavy treecko tail smacked the stunky's head while he was preparing to spray. This took the last bit of the stunky's energy, and he fainted.

[Master Houndoom]

Branwys gasped in relief as the chimchar, Valentine, blocked the blow that would have devastated her Tinka. And now Dimo was back, things had edged closer to victory than ever.

She pointed to the stunky, but just as she was about to give the command for Dimo to attack, Terra's three still active pokémon engaged it. Branwys blinked hard as the three teamed up to give the stunky a decent comeuppance for hurting their comrade.

"Dimo! Take that poochyena out with Bone Club!" There had been a lot of switching of enemies, which, tactically, was sound. If the enemy didn't know what their opponent might be from moment to moment, they had no time to prepare a proper offensive.

The man who trained the poochyena must have seen this on some level, cursing like he was, even if it was in Gaelic. Branwys grimaced at the filth coming from the man's mouth, but distinctly heard, in all of the swear words, the perfectly understandable call of an attack: "Poison Fang!"

He must have hoped the swearing, or gibberish to people who didn't know the language, would confuse his opponents, and likely it would have, except that Branwys did know Gaelic, and she caught the difference in the words.

"Tinka, you're his shield!" The klink didn't bother to wheel herself, she simply floated to Dimo and imposed herself in front of him, taking the Poison Fang attack as if it had no effect on her, which, since her body, organs, and circulatory were galvanized steel, and her blood was electrical current, was the actual fact of the matter.

"That's cheating!"

"So's attacking three people for no reason!" Branwys shook her fist at the man, who's poochyena reeled when the bone club hit. Branwys grinned, looking around briefly. The liepard was still left to be dealt with, as was the poochyena. The rattata was being handled by Valentine, and Branwys and her team had the poochyena wrapped up.

"Now," she said as the poochyena sunk to the ground, "tell us what's going on here. Before I get really upset..." She tried not to look disappointed when the three men started to snicker.

[Kamaitachi]

The battle was reaching its final notes, it appeared. Valentine made short work of the imposing Rattata with a commanded Fury Swipes attack, forcing the rat pokemon's recall. Cesc almost felt sorry for the little thing. It didn't appear to have been very powerful, but was forced up against his Valentine. The Chimchar, while perhaps more worn from the earlier battles, was still overwhelming in terms of the differences in strength.

It appeared that Dimo the Cubone had taken out the Poochyena, and Terra's trio had knocked out the Stunky. All that was left was the Liepard, at the moment, and none of the other enemy trainers seemed to be calling out any pokemon.

It was now 6 on 1. The Liepard, feeling outnumbered, bristled angrily at the pokemon facing it.

"Now, tell us what's going on here, before I get really upset!" Despite the fact that they were outnumbered, the men snickered at Branwys. This didn't sit well with Cesc at all. From his time in the Orre Region, he'd developed into the role of Big Brother, and even though he had just met these two girls, he felt a sense of Fraternity with them. This was most likely because they were all fighting for the same cause. In any case, Cesc did not take kindly to the older men taunting Branwys. Not because she was a little girl (although it might've partially been that), but mostly because she was in his group, and therefore under his protection. Cesc moved to stand behind Branwys, crossing his arms and glaring at the men across the way. With his mafioso appearance today, it gave him that extra edge of intimidation.

"You heard the lady. Tell us, or this'll get ugly." Valentine moved over to Tinka and Dimo, standing straight and crossing his arms in the same manner as his trainer was.

"Liepard, Fury Swipes!" The trainer responded. It wasn't what Cesc had wanted to hear, but it was a good enough answer for now. Cesc decided to answer in turn.

"Valentine, Fury Swipes!"

The fire-monkey pokemon sprang out in front of his comrades, meeting the Liepard head on and matching it slash for slash. His claws might not have been as honed as the Dark-Leopard's, but he matched them with speed and resolve. The two took up the center of the floor, hacking away at one another viciously until they backed off again, glaring at one another across the warehouse floor.

[Bronze Charizard]

"You three have some explaining to do!" A loud voice bellowed from outside the warehouse, and the three bandits stiffened as a man wearing a leather jacket and ripped jeans walked in. "I give you one task. One measly little task! And instead of bringing the pokemon to headquarters, you get into a fight with these little pests and lose!" This man was clearly the leader, and after his rant, he pointed at the liepard. "What is THIS miserable bag of fur? I told you to get a glameow and evolve it into a purugly! This is a liepard, and quite a weak one as well! It's useless!"

"We did get a glameow, boss! It got shipped off about an hour ago!"

Terra stood up as tall as she could. "Is that what this is about? I'll have you know that the glameow you took is a pet. She can't battle. So why don't you just do us all a favor and return her?" Moonrise, Wildclaw, and Leafwind stood at their trainer's feet and sounded their approval.

The leader sneered. "Pet or no pet, glameows are extremely rare here. That's the fact of the matter, missy. We've been offered a fortune for a purugly, and it doesn't matter that it can't fight. We'll get it to evolve. We have our ways." He then turned and started going out the door. "Come on, you lumps. I'll let you off with a warning for now!" The bandits followed their leader(the liepard's trainer returned him to his pokeball first), then got in a truck, which sped off.

"Treeck treeck." Leafwind stared up at Terra, with a "what now" look on her face. Terra seemed to understand exactly what it meant. "Moonrise got us here, right? He can certainly track them down again."

A box tumbled off a shelf and landed beside Wildclaw, who hissed and bristled until he saw that it was only a box. A round CD-like device rolled out. Terra picked it up and read it. "Hone Claws TM." She hesitated for a bit, looking around the room. "Well, I guess it's for me! Those thugs certainly won't put it to good use..." She then pulled out her pokedex and fit the TM into the data slot.

"Hone Claws." The pokedex began an explanation in its computerized voice. "Hone Claws is a dark type status move. By sharpening its claws, the pokemon's physical attacks become more powerful, and all attacks become more likely to hit."

"Claw sharpening...I see." Terra removed the TM from the pokedex, then put the pokedex back in her pocket. "Wildclaw. You found it, and it's perfect for you!" The meowth purred and looked up at his trainer. With a push of the button in the center, the TM emited a beam of light into Wildclaw's eyes, then the light went out and the machine's inner workings screeched to a halt. Terra took one last look at the TM and threw it in the trash.

This post has been edited by Bronze Charizard: Jun 13 2011, 10:37 PM

[Master Houndoom]

In a fit of pique, Branwys stomped on the ground as the men left. They had just defeated three opponents with difficult pokemon by acting as a team, and their boss had come in and acted like the men had screwed up! This was an accomplishment! How dare he!

Vaguely she understood that stomping a foot on the ground did not dispel the illusion that she was a child, but she didn't care. She was frustrated, in more ways than one, and she had to show it somehow! She looked down at Dimo, who had looked up at her with a sense of reproach, and pointed right at the nose of his skull-helm. "Not one word..."

Dimo looked away, putting his claws behind his back and attempting to whistle.

Then Terra found something that made the anger fly away like smoke in a windstorm. There... was... Tech about!

"Oh, TMs!" She scampered to the box and began pulling them out. Some of them were the old CD types she had seen from regions like Johto and Kanto, some were the DVD and Blue-Ray versions from Sinnoh, Hoenn, and even her own Unova, and there were some advanced nearly virtual reality devices designed to play them back. A small box housing one of them boasted that it was "compatible with all TM formats", and Branwys grinned as she took one and handed one each to Terra and Cesc. "If you can get one from Unova, keep it, 'cause they don't auto erase like the old ones do."

Branwys looked through the discs and selected two she knew would come in handy, especially with her two. One of them she could teach to both of her pokemon, so she loaded it into the player and motioned to Tinka, who floated over. She managed to fit the TM player to the pokemon's open eyes, and played it. The device whirred, ground, and flashed, and after a few moments, went black with a slight musical chime to signify it was finished. Branwys removed it, and Tinka bobbed up and down, looking and klinking as if she were pleased. She hit the button to restart the TM, but frowned as a message flashed on the tiny display.

NO PROGRAM AVAILABLE

With a huff, she removed the TM from the device and examined the disc. "'Made in Mauville City.' Stupid Hoenn piece of crap!" She threw the disc down and extracted the other one, but Dimo pulled on her skirt. She looked down at him, then up at her friends, a look of shock on her face. "Oh! Right! We should get going!"

She had Tinka return to the bracket on her bag, but left Dimo out of his ball for protection. He had gone and grabbed the straps and other components he had found, which Branwys put in the bag. Rummaging around, the girl called for Cesc's attention and tossed him an antidote, then did the same for Terra. "One left," she muttered. "Better be careful..." Looking up at the two again, she smiled. "Well, which way now?"

[Kamaitachi]

And just like that, the men were gone, and the team was none the further along with their rescue mission.

As he stood back up from his kneeling position, Branwys handed a strange looking device to him.

"So this is one of those fancy technical machine devices, huh." Cesc blinked, holding it at all different angles to see if he could figure out it. He sheepishly watched the diminutive Branwys apply the whatchamacallit to her Tinka, who seemed to have learned a new move.

He re-summoned Oberon back to the field and immediately set about applying the antidote, thoughtfully supplied by Bran-Bran to his poisoned pokemon. The sneasel winced at the shot, but appeared better for the wear after the medicine had been applied. At least the poison gas would pass from his system soon enough.

"Thank you, Branwys." Cesc nodded politely, before flashing his urchin grin at her. "Don't know what I'd do without you."

He then proceeded to place the VR device over Valentine's eyes, despite the fire monkey's protests, then slotted in a TM for the move "Will-O-Wisp", which sounded very fancy. After some whirring and a musical chime, Valentine appeared to have learned a new move, simple as that. He lathered, rinsed and repeat for Oberon, who protested less verbally than his counterpart, and within a whirr and a ding he had learned the move "Double Team"

Once that was all well and done, the discs simpled cracked down the middle, which made little to no sense to Cesc. He tossed the remains of the cds haphazardly into a nearby bin.

"Well, which way now?"

"I bet Moonrise over there still has their scent, yeah? Let's keep following the trail; they made no move to cover it, after all." Cesc smiled, looking over at Terra. "You and Moonie lead the way."

[Master Houndoom]

Branwys stood up, ready to go, idly loading the TM machine with the other TM she had taken from the box. That's when it struck her.

"Wait." She stopped in place, staring off into nothing, eyes squeezed nearly shut. Something wasn't right about this. They were missing something.

"Wait," she repeated, softer, lost in thought. "I don't think we should follow those men."

She swallowed thickly, looking up at her companions. "If thy were going to take Aurora to where they were going to evolve her, or sell her, or whatever, why would they stop here? And they said they shipped her off a while ago, yet here they were... I think they're a... a kind of pick-up team or something. They bring the kidnapped pokemon here and take anything that could identify it off, and then send it on to wherever it is they're taking them... following those men won't get us to Aurora, I don't think..."

Her brow furrowed, and she sighed. "We should look for something of Aurora's. Even if we can find where they held her while they were here, we could get her scent and Moonrise can follow that. I mean, she's got to be scared, and scared animals tend to give off a scent, which translates to other animals as 'I'm freaked out, help!' At least, that's what my sister says, and she's a breeder..."

Branwys slipped the TM device over Dimo's eyes, then looked at her new companions while she waited. "What do you guys think?"

[Kamaitachi]

Branwys was very smart for a 12-year old. Cesc came to this conclusion as Branwys proposed a far better solution than he had. Since she was an intelligent child, he had no problems treating her like an adult. She sure acted like one. Kids these days: They wanted to grow up so fast.

"Oberon here is a natural tracker, too." Cesc smiled down to his Sneasel, who placed his arms akimbo, pleased at the compliment. "Sneasel are excellent hunters, so I'm sure he can help us hunt down Aurora." He recalled Valentine back to his pokeball before looking around the room.

"Alright, champ. Let's find the scent of a Glameow, and we'll follow it right to their hideout." The Sneasel nodded and immediately began moving about the room. His sense of smell was not as entirely acute as say, Moonrise's, but if the Glameow had, in fact, emitted fear pheremones, a Sneasel nose would be more than adequate to locate it.

Cesc followed Oberon around as the dark weasel pokemon searched for the particular scent. The Sneasel's baser instincts kicked in in the next room, where he gleefully had located the smell of fear. This was something the dark type particularly relished in, and indicated animatedly towards a back door, which appeared to be another exit out of the building they were currently in. Since it wasn't the one the first group of goons had exited from, Cesc clicked it together in his mind that Branwys had been 100% correct. There was a pick-up group, and they were now headed in another direction.

"Bran-Bran, I daresay you're absolutely right. Another group left the building this way." He indicated the door, opening it for Oberon to step out into a back alleyway. "They went this way. Let's go!"

[Master Houndoom]

"Well," Branwys said, a while later when the group split up, "I don't understand why she didn't come with us."

She wasn't exactly looking at her companion, the tall, dusty yet dapper Cesc, since she was working with the materials that Dimo had brought her before getting involved with the fight. Fitting the magnets (to his credit, Dimo had found some with holes for something in the casing, and had been thoughtful enough to bring four pair of D-Rings, which Branwys was now trying to fit, two to a magnet, with him) to the straps were becoming a hassle, but she was sure she could jury rig something.

Anyone from Castella would have known that Branwys had two advantages in doing what she was doing. One was that she was, after all, so short. People rarely saw her, and even more rarely bumped into her. Unless it was in a door way. Those were always problematic.

The second was that she was used to this. Since she was a child and first understood that sometimes toys had insides, and sometimes those insides got messed up, and sometimes she could open them up and fic them, she would walk around with her project, out in the air and sun, and tinker with it. This was the reason her brothers and sisters started calling her Tinkertot. As an interesting aside, her brother Molech had, when it was revealed she was actually fixing, and sometimes improving, what it was she was walking around and tinkering with, wanted to callher Walky-Fixy, but everyone except his pokemon, an otherwise maladjusted scraggy and a mandibuzz with a mother complex, all agreed that it was far too silly a name.

And the jury remains out on the scraggy. He could have just been being a jerk.

At any rate, she was used to walking around with her eyes on some gadget or toy or device of some kind and had developed the same almost preternatural sense of proximity that scholarly types gain when reading a book while walking. Also, Dimo would, if it seemed like she was paying less attention than normal, nudge her (and, once, shove her; she didn't notice and kept walking past the quartet of dancers she had almost collided with) to a better course.

"I mean, I guess she's concerned with her grandfather's glameow, but isn't it better to stay together? Especially with those poke-happy jerks. What if they attack her?"

She stopped talking to reach into her bag, taking out a long, thin bolt and using it to secure the D-Rings into the larger hole in the magnet's case. Finally, one of the ends of a strap was threaded through, and pulled to make sure it would hold. It seemed like it would. She began working on the other side, making quicker work of it than the first one, having figured out the best way to attack the magnets to the straps. Before setting the other two, she threaded the straps through a metal bracket, connecting the straps in an X like shape. Which is, finally, what she had: Two crossed straps connected via a central bracket and held in place with an industrial sized rubber band twisted acr0ss where the straps met, with 4 magnets on each end. She beamed at her work, then stuffed it all in her bag (in a special, lead-lined compartment of her own design, even though all of the media she had in her bag was not affected by magnets anymore) and looked up at Cesc. "Much longer?"

[Kamaitachi]

"well, I don't understand why she didn't come with us." Branwys voiced her concern while tinkering with something mysterious. The child seemed to be expertly crafting...something. Precisely what that something was would remain a mystery to Cesc, as he could only watch with sneaked glances over at her handiwork.

In the meanwhile, he had to focus most of his attention on Oberon, who was bounding ahead to sniff at various things. The acrobatic little dark weasel was jumping up on various trashcans and dumpsters, even up onto handrails and vehicles, but he'd only always ever really find the scent on the floor directly in front of them in an alleyway.

Somewhere in the back of his brain, he remembered that he had a package to deliver, but for now it was safely secure in his messenger bag. He patted it once, twice, thrice just to triple check and make sure it was still there.

"Well, Terra probably really worried about her grandfather's pokemon." Cesc nodded absently, keeping his eyes on the erratic movements of his Sneasel. "It does kinda make sense to cover as much ground as possible. This way, we have two leads, and three people working on them."

"I mean, I guess she's concerned with her grandfather's glameow, but isn't it better to stay together? Especially with those poke-happy jerks. What if they attack her?"

"Sure, there's safety in numbers" Cesc shrugged as he ran "But she looked like she was able to handle herself fairly well back there." He glanced over and down at Branwys, winking. "Besides, we're a fantastic team. She probably just got jealous."

Cesc was absolutely sure that jealousy wasn't the case for the team splitting up, but even still.

"Much longer?"

"Who knows?" The Co-ordinator in training shrugged once again, still not sure how to handle all of Branwys' questions. They were frequent, after all. "As soon as...oh!"

Oberon stopped in front of a door, prodding it with his claws inquisitively. Naturally, it was a warehouse. That's where all villains liked to store contraband. Cesc stopped outside the door, staring at it awkwardly.

"Well...what now? Do we just bust in guns-blazing? Or should we find another way to enter?" He looked down at Oberon, who stared back up at him inquisitively, as if awaiting orders.

"This is the place Aurora is?"

The Sneasel nodded eagerly.

"Well, would you please find us a more suitable back door?" With a nod and a "Snee", the Dark Weasel bounded off around the building.

[Master Houndoom]

Branwys had stopped when Cesc had, peering at the warehouse. The question, whether to go in guns a blazing or to find another, quieter way to enter was posed, and Branwys had definite thoughts on the issue. As much as she liked to battle, and as much as she liked to put bullies in their places, she knew that there were more in there than there were at the place they had left, and that they were down to half of the pokémon they had before. Stealth, for as long as they could manage it, would seem to be the wiser choice.

She was just about to open her mouth to point this fact out when Cesc, having come to the same conclusion, instructed his pokémon to go and find different, hopefully less conspicuous entrance. It still didn't change the fact that they could be discovered at any minute.

"Tinka," Branwys whispered softly. "Go with him. If he runs into trouble, you can be backup, or if he's taken for some reason, come get us."

"klink"

Dimo looked up at her, the eyes behind his skull helmet glaring, but Branwys simply tapped his helmet between them, something she had discovered he reacted to as if it were any other pokémon being scratched behind the ears. "Tinka's small, Dimo. She won't be noticed if trouble happens. And you'll be listening, right, in case we have to go get her?"

Dimo nodded, and the group began to follow the sneasel and klink, searching for the door. Branwys muttered, forgetting there was another human with her, briefly, "after this, I'm going to get a beer..."