http://forums.gtsplus.net/index.php?showtopic=55238
"RING RING RING RING RING RING RING BANANA PHONE!"
The cell phone ring tone seemed as loud as a jet taking off. Terra threw the covers off the bed, then sat up and looked at the nightstand. The phone wasnt there, but the clock was, and it was barely 7:00! Annoyed about having to leave that awesome flying dream this early, Terra got up and began digging through her bag, the banana phone song seeming to pierce her eardrums.
"Grandparents" was displayed on the phone's plastic screen. This better be an emergency... Terra thought. She pushed the talk button. "Hello..."
"You were asleep, weren't you?" The voice on the other end said.
"What gave you your first clue..."
There was a pause. "Well, waking up early never hurt anybody. When I was your age-"
"Grandpa!" Terra snapped. "Did you call just to wake me up?"
"No. I went to feed Aurora and she's missing. I'd like you to help me look for her."
Terra sighed. "Okay...I'll be right there." Aurora was her grandparents' fat old glameow. She had next to no battle experience, so she wouldn't survive long on the street. This counted as a...small emergency. Terra hung up the phone and put it back in her bag.
She chose a pair of jeans and a T shirt and changed into them, then grabbed some pop tarts and the hotel room key. She slung her bag over her shoulders and took the elevator down to the lobby, then checked out and walked out the front door.
Cesc rose slowly from his bed, stretching languidly in all of his shirtless glory for a moment. He looked down his tanned body, smiling at how nice it looked. This was no narcissism, no. He had been working out constantly since he decided to be a coordinator and decided that he needed to look as good as possible alongside his pokemon.
He looked over at his clock: 7:58, two minutes before his alarm was set to go off. He lay back down on his bed, a small smile on his face as he waited for the abrasive noise to sound.
Sure enough, as the numbers flipped over, a harsh beeping filled the air. As if on cue, to pokemon skittered into the room, leaping up onto the bed. Valentine the Chimchar and Oberon the Sneasel, fully recovered from their trip to Fidona, gamboled about happily in his bed, calling incessantly at him until he rose back up, hugging them closely.
"Good morning, my dear dear friends." Cesc squeezed the two tightly, before rising back up. Both hands went to work as one rubbed the side of Valentine's head, while the other scratched the underside of Oberon's chin. "Today, friends, the objective is to work on our combination techniques. Secondary objective: We add a new performer to our troupe. How does that sound?
The two pokemon bounced excitedly on his bed, sounding their obvious approval with their jovial little voices.
"Cesc, we have a delivery!"
Cesc blinked. The business had been so slow lately, that there hadn't really been that many deliveries. It was surprising to have two in the same week. He quickly hopped out of his little bed and into the restroom in the hallway.
* * *
Before long, Cesc reappeared, snappily dressed as always. He had opted to wear a suit today, going for an almost mafioso like theme. The suit was black with pinstripes, with a deep purple kerchief in the breast pocket. His tie was a black with a textured pattern of slanting stripes, still black, but more interesting than a simple solid. On his lapel, he had pinned a small white rose to match the rose-shaped gold cufflinks he wore. To finish off the ensemble, he wore a fedora, similar to the one Oberon wore to their trip to Fidona.
His pokemon sported interesting looks as well today. Valentine wore a black bandana over his head, with a black scarf wrapped around his waist to form a belt. He had a hoop earring in his left ear. Oberon, meanwhile, sported a white tie and two silver bracelets. Of course, all of the clothing had been tailor made by his Aunt and Uncle.
"Francesco, you look so handsome in that suit!" Cesc's Aunt smiled as he rounded into the kitchen "I hope everyone asks you where you got it from!"
"They undoubtedly will, Aunty." Cesc smiled, leaning in to hug her. "Now, where's the package to be delivered?"
"Port Barley today. A woman named Tina Redman has requested a formal gown in nautical colours, perhaps for a evening affair. Who knows. Either way, get the package to her as soon as possible, we've already received the payment in full."
"Understood Aunty." Picking up the package from the table, Cesc exited the little apartment, meeting the hated Skarmory, Speed, outside.
"Okay Birdbrain. Let's not make it too miserable today, okay?"
I used to think maybe you battled
Now baby I'm sure!
And I just can't wait til your pok'mon
Are sprawled on the floor
You fought me with an oshawott, man
And then a sandshrew!
But I got a pokemon with me
That can defeat you!
I'm fighting with Sunkern! WHOA-OH!
I'm fighting with Sunkern! WHOA-OH OH!
It evolved to Sunflora! WHOA OH!
And Don't it feel good!
Terra walked toward the pokemon center. Normally she would've gone in and socialized a bit, but today she had no time. Aurora could be in great danger. She was so concentrated on that thought that she didn't notice the small girl coming out of the door, who she collided with.
Blinking, she looked forward and saw the girl. "Oh, sorry. I'm in a hurry and-" She noticed the cubone toddling behind the small girl and chuckled softly. "Is that your cubone? He's quite fashionable...or she..."
As Cesc and Speed soared over the bustling port city of Barley, Cesc took a moment to reminisce about his arrival in Furoh. They'd left the gateon Port in Orre, landing here some time later in Barley, before renting a car and trekking their way out to Arasam.
As they hadn't been in Barley that long, Cesc really had no major memories of anything taking place in the Port. Nevertheless, he thought that he recognized a place or two as they made their way towards the Pokemon Center. He had to make his delivery, but Speed always took him to the closest Pokemon Center.
Once the red-topped building drew closer, Speed flared out his iron wings, stopping abruptly in midflight. The hapless Cesc was thrown off, sailing unceremoniously through the air, screaming curses at the Skarmory as he flew.
He landed with an undignified thud and skid. Slowly, he rose up off the ground, dusting himself off in vain in an attempt to clean up his outfit a bit. Adjusting the fedora so that it was out of his eyes, he turned to watch the Skarmory fly off, a cackle mixed in with his usual metallic caw.
"That's right, birdbrain, you'd better run!" Cesc shook his fist at the retreating Steel Bird. Once he settled down for a moment, he turned to see two young girls within feet of where he stood.
"Oh...uh...hullo ladies." He flashed what he thought to be a rather dashing, urchin smile.
A flash of silver and red appeared in the corner of Terra's vision field. It was close enough that she merely needed to move her head a bit to see what it was. Is that a skarmory? She hoped she was right, and that the skarmory was wild, and that it just wandered into the town. Even though skarmories were native to her home region of Johto, she had never seen one save for on TV or in books. And she'd always wanted one on her team.
The flash slowed to a stop in midair. It WAS a skarmory. Terra brought her hand down to the pokeballs at her waist, grabbed one, and opened it, all in one swift movement. At the same time that the pokeball was opened, a person plummeted from the skarmory's back and landed on his belly on the ground.
"Maow!" Wildclaw was raring to go. He unsheathed his claws and puffed out his fur, displaying his tough battle pose. This only lasted for a few seconds, until he noticed the retreating bird pokemon and the human on the ground. He was confused. Surely he wasn't supposed to attack the human? He looked toward Terra, and she looked as puzzled as he was. I should see if he's okay... Wildclaw padded over to Cesc, then sniffed him cautiously until he started to move. The meowth's tail bristled as he hissed and ran and hid behind his trainer.
Well, so much for that bright idea... Terra didn't know whether she was more disappointed or weirded out. She watched the man shout at the skarmory, then blinked as he addressed her. "Uh, hey. You better...go after your skarmory. Doesn't look like it's gonna come back..."
The next few moments of Branwys' life had gone by in a flash. There was a lot of colliding, falling, yelling, and weirdnesses, which took Branwys some time to analyze, but in the end, after she had time to think about it, she came to one conclusion: She was in a very strange place.
First of all, there was the door to the pokécenter. She had been so excited to get out and explore this strange new region that she hadn't watched where she was going (though Dimo and Tinka would tell you, should you find yourself able to speak the pokémon language, that this was not exactly a new situation for the youngest Muphenz, and could not be directly put upon the newness of the area). Because Branwys was small, she rarely collided with anyone by virtue of not taking up a whole lot of space at a single time. The faster she moved, the less likely she was to be in a certain point in space long enough to crash into anyone. So when she did so, it usually happened in small hallways, doors, and once, a window (poor Lucrezia had subsequently gotten caught sneaking back in from a late date, and her and Branwys had been grounded over it. Lucrezia had increased her sentence by making Branwys cry, since Branwys was so much younger at the time).
This time, however, was at a door, and had the added benefit of two people not looking where they were going, which had the added benefit of one person noticing she got bumped into, and the other laying sprawled on the ground, blinking at the sky and wondering what in all of the nine levels of hell had just happened. Anyone could guess which was which.
As Tinka "klink"ed in surprise from her place notched onto a special setting on Branwys' bag, and Dimo put his claw to his helmet in exasperation, the other girl, who had barely been effected, began to apologize and then noted Dimo and his unique fashion sense. Branwys sat up, blinking, as something had seemed off, when it hit her. No comment about how tiny she was. No asking if her mommy was around, or if she shouldn't be more careful with all of the "big people" walking about. Simply an apology and a notice of her uniquely decorated pokémon.
Branwys had stayed quiet for a second longer than she ordinarily would (ever), causing Dimo to cast a worried look at her. When she finally opened her mouth to reply, a skarmory (Branwys had only seen one in Agatha's pokédex) stopped short by flaring out its wings, dropping a cursing and screaming man from its back before it took off with a cackled cry and a roar vaguely reminiscent of a tie fighter.
Branwys watched, silently and still on the ground, as the man rose from his similar predicament, wiped the dust from his suit as best he could, and then saw them.
It was as obvious that he had been caught off guard as it had been that the other girl, who was staring similarly to Branwys, but from a much higher standpoint, was stunned. When the young man raised greeted them, Branwys raised her hand, waving shakily.
"Um. Hi."
Dimo put his claw to his head again.
“Uh, hey. You better…go after your Skarmory. Doesn’t look like it’s gonna come back….”
One of the girls, the older looking one with reddish hair and green eyes, was addressing him directly.
The other one appeared to be a grade schooler, and she was clearly the shyer of the two. Her hand seemed to tremble as she waved meekly at him. Perhaps this was because he was an older man (of 22), or because he had just, for all intents and purposes, fallen out of the sky. Cesc was completely unaware of Branwys’ hypopituitarism/dwarfism (whichever it actually was.)
“S’not my Skarmory” he grumbled for the moment. “That lousy hunkajunk belongs to my aunt and uncle. He’s just my means of conveyance. Oh. And he hates me.” Cesc continued to dust himself off, running his fingers through his hair to re-apply it before replacing the fedora back atop it to reconfigure his look. He deliberately placed it at a slightly jaunty angle, perhaps for the cool-factor of his appearance. He hadn’t put his hair back up in its usual silk brocade, so he had to tuck it back up under his hat, rather than let it fall back down to his shoulders.
“Well, since I landed at your feet, I suppose I ought to introduce myself. Francesco Rojas, of Arasam. Delivery Boy and Coordinator.” He swept his hat off once again, despite the fastidious care he had taken in placing up on his head, and swooped it under his chest in a very graceful bow. “Do you two lovely ladies also have names?” He mentally smacked himself for that one. Of course they had names. Oh well. Too late to fix that little blurb. “And hello to you, as well, Cubone Friend.” He winked at the little bonekeeper before straightening back up to survey his surroundings a bit.
He might have seemed a little distracted, but he was listening to the ladies, waiting for their response. In the mean time, he figured he’d catch his bearings first. Trips of Speed were always very disorienting (in both senses of that sentence). Only after a moment did he realize that he was directly in front of the Pokemon Center.
He flipped out the package from his backpack and checked the tag neatly attached to it. He’d have to find Captain Jack’s Seafood Shack, and deliver this to one of the waitresses, Tina Redman. In the meantime, he’d have a little time to explore and adventure, since Speed was not due back until later in the evening.
Terra nodded. "I see...no wonder he threw you off and flew away. Perhaps invest in a moped or something?" She paused a bit, then added: "The name's Terra. And this..." She turned around and picked up a still nervous and squirming meowth. "is Wildclaw."
"Mrowr." Wildclaw was staring straight forward, with a "if looks could kill" expression. The glare wasn't necessary directed at Cesc, but it appeared to be since the delivery boy was right in front of him. He still had no idea what was going on. On top of that, the adrenaline rush that he had felt before had worn off, and he was NOT a morning person. He wanted to go back to bed and take a catnap until it was time to eat. Then he'd probably go to sleep again. Then he'd eat again. Then he'd be up all night. It was a cat thing. He squirmed and kicked with his back paws until Terra put him down, then returned to his place behind her.
"Klink"
Branwys looked down at her bag, next to her from when she hit the ground, and nodded. "You're right, Tinka. I guess it's an off day for me."
She stood up and, like the young man who had introduced himself as Francesco, brushed dirt off of her skirt and the back of her blouse as much as possible. She repositioned her bag on her shoulder, brushed out her pigtails as much as possible, straightened to her full height of three feet, and put on her most charming smile. Luckily, her mother was used to the social graces, and her sister, Zola, had taken after her mother and helped Branwys to learn how to act in "polite company" (which meant anyone who wasn't spending time building things in a shop, according to the older sister), so the smile looked delightful.
"Seńor Rojas," she said, bowing slightly in the young man's direction. "Terra," she said, a little awkwardly since it was more polite to address a new acquaintance by their surname unless otherwise specified by the person in question. "I am Branwys Muphenz from Castellia in the Unova region. You may call me Branwys. Are you all right, Mr. Rojas?"
Dimo, behind her, gaped. This was not the mistress he had followed for so long now! His eyes narrowed behind the skull: The blonde one had gotten to her.
Branwys herself grimaced, straightening and sighing. "I'm really not good at this, but I promised my sister." She waved a hand in dismissal. "I'm Branwys. This little cutie is my cubone," there was a short pause as Branwys gave a soft squeal of delight, "Dimo, who, yes, Terra, considers himself very fashionable, and quite the hunter as well! And this," she said, holding out her bag to show the decoration on it, "is Tinka."
For a moment or two, the decoration simply looked like any other decoration. Then, with an audible "klink!", it turned, once, and the two black and white spots, one on either gear, blinked at the two humans. Branwys smiled from behind the bag. "I've only just arrived last night. You never said, are you OK, Mr. Rojas?"
As Branwys began her conversation anew, Dimo let his shoulders drop in relief, except for the brief moment when he puffed out his chest as his mistress introduced him.
"Castelia, huh?" Terra replied, smiling. "I happen to be from Ecruteak in Johto. My grandpa's told me about Castelia, he's a sailor and he went there once. He says it's like a huge maze and he got lost and had to ask for directions." Her smile turned into a worried expression after that, for she had remembered what she was supposed to be doing.
"Oh...sh- shoot." She muttered, quickly changing the four letter word into something more appropriate for a small child like Brawnys to hear. "Speaking of my grandpa, I'm supposed to be looking for his lost glameow...have either of you seen one running around?" Terra paused for a second, then added: "Glameows are blue cats with long tails that spiral and have white tufts at the end...they're native to Sinnoh." She glanced at Francesco. "Yeah. You never said where you're from. I didn't know whether you guys knew what they looked like or not."
Terra's suggestion of a moped seemed utterly ludicrous. Cesc tilted his head slightly, with a questioning expression. After a split second he realized that she'd possibly made a joke. He offered a quiet, sympathetic chuckle, even though he really didn't understand the joke. Mopeds couldn't go over water, after all.
The girl introduced herself as Terra, which somewhat made sense. The girl had a rather earthy apperance to her. Whether or not this was merely Cesc's own fabrication remained to be seen, but naturally, he agreed with himself.
Wildclaw, the introduced Meowth, stared at him with his wild, Meowth-y eyes. He apparently did not enjoy being lifted up and shown off to anyone, and resisted quite squirming-ly to this levitation. Cesc leaned down a little, smiling at Wildclaw while giving a friendly wave.
At Branwys' introduction, Cesc felt rather taken aback at being called "Mister" in two languages. It made him feel incredibly old, especially in the presence of a girl who probably hadn't yet hit puberty. Not only that, but the little bow she gave only further showed the disparity of their heights. Not that Cesc was remarkably tall...but this girl was very, very short.
"Branwys." he began. He paused for a moment, eying her oddly for a moment before testing the water with: "Branny.", then "Brans". Finding distaste at both, he tried again with "Branwys. Call me 'Cesc'. No need to be so formal." he shrugged. He was used to being called "Brother Cesc", "Big Bro Cesc", "Cesc Nii-chan" (by his cartoon-watching friends)etc. Being 22 evidently officially made him a 'Mister', and he really didn't like that in the least. Of course, Branwys wasn't quite a child, but that's what made the situation a dramatic irony.
He was also a little confused as to what exactly Branwys had promised her sister? To call any older men 'Mister'? What a horrid promise that was.
"Hello Dimo." He took a moment to study the Cubone's very fashionable skull. In his mind, he began designing a matador's suit for the little bonekeeper. It was utterly adorable. "Hello Tinka." He blinked at the little gears, who blinked back at him in return. He'd never seen such a pokemon before, and was honestly a bit stumped as to how he'd dress that one up. As far as he knew, gears didn't wear clothes. Stickers maybe, but clothes: no.
"I've only just arrived last night. You never said, are you OK, Mr. Rojas?"
"Oh, I'm just fine." Cesc flashed a winning smile. "It's how I start all of my days. You know, harangued by a giant metal bird. It's a wonder more people don't have that same problem."
Terra announced that she was from Ecruteak, despite not really being asked about it. Her definition of Castelia, secondhand from her sailor grandfather, made the city seem fairly unpleasant, though upon reflection, The Under was a bit of a maze too."
Terra launched into an explanation of her quest, and also of a glameow. She ended with: "Yeah. You never said where you're from. I didn't know whether you guys knew what they looked like or not."
"Oh, well I just toppled out of the sky" Cesc blinked awkwardly at Terra "I don't think I had the chance to look for any glameow there. I'm from The Under, in the Orre Region. Just moved to Arasam a little while ago." He had never been to Johto, Sinnoh or Unova, and felt rather under-traveled just upon meeting these two. He also wasn't sure whether or not to refer to himself as "from The Under" or "from Arasam". The Under felt a bit more like home, so he supposed he'd keep using that for awhile. "And, uh, thanks for the description of the pokemon. I wouldn't have known it if it bit me in the a...ss." He couldn't think of a suitable new word to replace his 'swear-word', and so merely spoke it in a slow and awkward voice.
Well, he had some time to kill, and didn't mind playing the good Samaritan. Hopefully, the search wouldn't take them too far from his destination (which he still wasn't sure precisely where it was located).
"So...I'll help you look for this glameow." Cesc nodded, attempting vainly to move the conversation beyond the point where he'd used a foul word in front of a pre-teen.
[Vould hyu look at how dey talk to de mistress?] Dimo folded his stubby arms across his chest. [Dey treat her like unt child!]
"Klink"
[Hy don' care dot she looks like a child! She is no child! The Mistress is unt schmot gorl.]
"Klink"
[Shot op, hyu.]
Dimo's eyes narrowed behind his skullhelm, and he eyed Cesc's leg as if it were a tasty treat. He also sized up Wildclaw, the meowth now stationed behind the girl named Terra. If it came down to a fight, he thought, Dimo was plenty a match for the feline. But there were, likely, more. Even the Mistress had brought him and Tinka with her.
In the meantime, Branwys' mind had strayed in two directions. One of them had been the familiar, grudging annoyance at being mistaken for a pre-teen, again, which was also annoying by the fact that no less than five of her eight siblings had counseled her to be ready for it. Everyone in Castelia knew her by now, and she was only mistaken for a child by various the odd tourist and visitor; even the regulars at the dock knew better. Even there, it benefited her half the time with a free Castelia Cone or Lemonade. Branwys chewed on the inside of her cheek for a short time before allowing the aggravation settle to its usual "why did I have to grow so short" place in the far reaches of her mind and set her mind to the other, more intriguing track of her thoughts.
From Cesc's description, the skarmory that had dumped him so unceremoniously did so out of spite, and there was a mutual hatred there, but that didn't mean Branwys couldn't help him overcome it. It obviously wasn't a real hatred, otherwise the beast would have dumped the poor man from a much greater height, intending to hurt him.
Branwys grinned, a slow, mischievous grin that was well hidden by the fact that she was not currently being paid attention to, and turned to Dimo.
"All right, my little hunter, I need you to work some miracles again," she said, softly enough that only pokémon with good hearing, or those who were close enough and actively listening, would hear her. "I need some straps, about two inches wide, like crash webbing or a seat belt. I need a metal clip, or a ring, I can thread them through, and three or four magnets about yay big." She described the size with her hands, making a circle about three inches in diameter. "They'll need to have a ring or something attached to them so I can attach the straps to them, and I'll need something to do that with. Preferably nuts and bolts, OK?"
Dimo looked up at her, then nodded, the plume sprouting from the back of his helmet waving at the motion. He saluted with one claw, which came to about eye level, and spouted something in his own language, ([I hont!]) which Tinka responded to with her usual "klink", and scampered off.
"Oh, and keep your eye out for a glameow!" Branwys called after him.
Turning back to her companions, she smiled bashfully. "Sorry. Dimo's going to run some errands for me. I'd like to help, too, though! And that's a very good description, Terra. My eldest sister and brother are a researcher and trainer, respectively, though, so I would know a glameow, especially if it bit me in the ass!" she finished with a sly look in their direction.
I swear, she thought to herself, I'm going to flash the next person who mistakes me for a little kid!
((OOC: Introductions are done and the plot is moving rapidly onward. Now we need some ideas for things to go on between now and the time they get to the thieves' stronghold...post in the OOC topic. We'll brainstorm there.))
Terra blinked. "Okay..." She was trying to figure out what the contraption Branwys had described was going to be used for, and after hearing that word come out of that small mouth, she was naturally a bit shocked. Kids learning words like that was nothing new...but then she noticed Branwys wasnt built like a little kid at all. She mentally smacked herself. Why didnt she notice that before? She really needed to take in the whole picture, not just a person's height...
But when she was about to open her mouth to apologize, a loud squeal sounded from the sidewalk in front of the building next door. The squeal sounded familiar...just like...
"Aurora!" Terra's voice was loud enough for the glameow inside the cage to hear. Aurora went ballistic, rattling the cage and meowing as loud as she could.
"Shut up you dumb cat!" The cage carrying man roared, slowing to a stop. That stop was all it took for Wildclaw to catch up and jump onto the man's face. Ignoring his trainer's attempts to call him back, the meowth attacked in a flurry of claw swipes and flying fur. A truck pulled up, and the man staggered into the passenger side. The truck zoomed away, slamming into a post in the process. An antenna topper was ripped from its perch. It rolled down the sidewalk and landed in the gutter.
The antenna topper was one of those yellow smiley faces, but it certainly wouldnt be smiling if it could see the look on the face of the person holding it. Fantastic. Terra thought. How am I supposed to find those bozos when this is the only clue I have...if only I had a bloodhound or something... If she was in a comic strip, there would be a light bulb over her head then. She DID have a bloodhound. Well, she had a houndour, but close enough.
"Arf!" Moonrise emerged from his pokeball, then sat down and awaited orders. Terra kneeled down and showed him the antenna topper. "Here's the scoop, Moonrise. Wildclaw and Aurora have been kidnapped. This came off of the kidnappers' vehicle. Can you use that powerful nose of yours to track them down?"
Ugh, cats...they're more trouble than they're worth...but she'll make me into a rug if I refuse... Moonrise sniffed the antenna topper for about a minute, then looked up and wagged his tail.
Terra smiled. "That's good." She turned to the others. "Cesc, Branwys. Moonrise here has caught the scent. We better get moving."
Branwys mouthed some words at her Cubone, Dimo. This was combined with some bizarre form of sign language. Dimo seemed to understand perfectly. He gibbered some Cubone-speak back at her before waddling off in the way that only Cubones do.
Cesc did find himself slightly taken aback as the child repeated his own profanity back at him. He wondered briefly on the protocol for soap-to-mouth washing. He had heard that it was a fairly antiquated form of punishment for foul-mouthed children (his aunt had threatened him with it many a time.) In the end he decided that he didn't quite know how to respond, and that the girl would eventually learn the word, just as everyone else had. Perhaps she still associated the word with the animal. Who knew?
In any case, things started happening at a startling pace. A man appeared with the pokemon they had been searching for. This would've been most convenient had she not been in a cage being loaded into the truck.
The man holding said cage decided to roar at the glameow, which took all of his focus. In his momentary stop, the man was soon assaulted by a more different cat, Wildclaw. Then out of nowhere, a truck appeared, the man got in with Aurora, and Wildclaw was somehow left behind? The truck zoomed off, leaving Cesc incredibly confused. He hadn't sprung into action, and had essentially stood there slackjawed and dumbfounded as the events unfolded.
He shook himself out of his reverie, realizing that he'd have to work on his reflexes if he was ever going to enter the field of coordinator battling. He had to be able to issue commands at the drop of a pin, and it seemed like at least several pins had fallen between the time Dimo left, and the time Terra decided to lead them off after her grandfather's pokemon.
Not that Cesc minded helping out, really. He did have some time to kill before making his delivery. Perhaps he would've rather been asked then commanded to 'get moving' along with two people he'd just met. Oh well.
Cesc turned to Terra, nodding in compliance as he prepared to follow her and her Houndour, Moonrise.
"Branwys, those men look dangerous. You sure you want to come along?" Cesc cast a sidelong glance down at the diminutive woman, still completely oblivious to the fact that she was probably a little older than him. "You're also down one pokemon, since you sent Dimo off, will you be okay?"
Branwys actually had to blink at the young man asking her if she'd be OK. Gritting her teeth, she appeared to mull it over a bit, giving herself time to keep from shouting at Cesc that she was old enough to drink, for crying out loud. With a bit of a sigh, she nodded. "What's the use of starting your adventure if you're just going to sit on the sidelines? Besides, I can't abide dummköpfe who steal other people's pokémon." Branwys smiled at him, a full faced, squinty eyed smile that she knew did nothing to dispel the illusion that she was anything more than a ten year old girl. Let him figure it out on his own, she said. It'll be fun to see how long it takes.
As they began following Terra and her houndour, Branwys looked over her shoulder. "Besides, Dimo will find me. He always does, and always with what I need."
As they walked, Branwys reflected on her life, briefly. She'd always had her brothers and sisters there to put aside anyone's wonderings. And, despite the fact that she had not exactly been a recluse as she grew, there were quite a few wonderings about her. Those, somehow, weren't so bad, not as much as the people who hadn't heard about her before meeting her. To them, she was, for all too awkward a period of time, a novelty to be gawked at, or, worse, asked to perform.
There was also that one creepy guy who had followed her around, but Tinka and Dimo had put a stop to that, and Gilgamesh and Moloch, her middle brothers, had made it clear that the man's interest was the furthest from welcome her could think of. Which, she found out later, caused him to go the furthest from her he could get without leaving Unova.
For some reason, though, this man's assumption was grating on her, even worse than the girl's, who, when faced with the truth, wasn't at all unlike Zola's treatment of her. Perhaps it was because this man looked close to her actual age, or that he and Terra were the first people she'd met that wasn't on the boat or a Nurse Joy (who, to her family's credit, treated all trainers alike, and wasn't unlike the Nurse Joys she knew in Unova, weird hair notwithstanding), and she'd wanted to be treated like a normal person.
Or maybe, said a niggling, teasing voice in the back of her head that sounded annoyingly like Zeetha, it's because he's a very handsome boy...
Branwys hoped that the heat in her face wasn't an indication that she was blushing.
"So," she said, a mite too loudly, "what do you two do for a living..? Besides miss details, I mean," she muttered, not realizing she was still speaking aloud.
"Missing details is my specialty." Cesc responded blithely, having completely missed the subtle jab at him. After all, if he was to be insulted by a child, he was expecting terminology such as: "Doodoo-head" and "Boogerbrain". Not that he didn't stoop to those when confronted with the lack of proper insults, but even still. "It's embarassing," he continued, "I still live with my Aunt and Uncle. They run a tailor shop over in Arasam, tailoring custom clothes for humans and pokemon alike." He stepped forward brusquely, giving a somewhat graceful rond-de-jambe to show off his attire. He casually flipped his hat off, letting his long hair fall down to his shoulders before flipping it back up and under his hat.
He really did look something like a mafioso from early 20th century New York, and the white rose on his lapel (and matching cufflinks) gave him a fairly dashing look. Even his shoes were two tone, white and black, which had once been a specialty of his Uncle's. Two tone shoes were fairly uncommon these days.
"I'm training to be a co-ordinator, as it's probably the best advertisement for our tailor shop. Oh, here, let me show you some of our pokemon wares." Fully aware that he was shamelessly plugging his Aunt and Uncle's product, Cesc, nevertheless, had no shame in showing off his pokemon.
"Oberon! Valentine!"
The two pokemon appeared in front of the group, none too far from the sniffing Moonrise. Valentine appeared wearing his bandana and sash-belt, with the clip on hoop earring still in his ear. He looked rather swashbuckling for a Chimchar, and stood there, hands akimbo, eying these new women (and the Houndour) closely.
Oberon appeared with the more subdued appearance, sporting his white tie and silver bracelets. Cesc hadn't been too sure about this particular outfit, but it seemed to be growing on him as he watched the Sneasel slink around Valentine.
"Finest quality pokemon wares you'll find anywhere around." Cesc grinned proudly at his Aunt's work.
Branwys stared, agape, at the man who was now hawking his wares like a street vendor. The suit was nice, like one of those old movies her father would watch with her while she was growing up, full of men with suits and tommy guns and speaking in weird voices. None of their hair was as long as Cesc's, but the effect was similar. Jubilife Gangster Chic.
In the mean time, a poké-napping had just occurred right in front of them and this... this... guy was showing off his aunt and uncle's outfits, including special pokémon accessories, as if he were some street vendor.
Who hadn't watched two pokémon get kidnapped in front of him!
"Yeah, yeah, that's great, but aren't we supposed to be, I don't know, following the van where Terra's Grandfather's glameow and her meowth were both pokénapped in?"
Raising her brows, she looked between the two, pointing after the van, then, for emphasis, pointed with both hands while still looking at them.
Terra looked at the sneasel and chimchar. "Nice props. I'm sure they've won a lot of contests, am I right?"
Then she heard Branwys' outburst, and was about to say something when Moonrise stopped in front of a warehouse and barked. "Is this where they are, boy?" The houndour's face had a caniney smile, and he wagged his tail and barked again.
"Meow!" A scared meow came from between a shelf and a stack of boxes. A cream and brown tail was sticking out. "Wildclaw!" Terra ran into the building and began moving the boxes. They were a bit heavy, but not too much. Moonrise helped too, grabbing the corners of boxes with his teeth and pushing them away. When the boxes were all moved, Wildclaw jumped into Terra's arms. Terra hugged her meowth and petted him. "I'm so glad you're safe!"
"Damnit!" The man from before appeared, his face scratched up. "I was just about to dispose of that pest!"
"You're not disposing of anything." Terra glared at the man, trying her best to look intimidating. "I'm here to get back my grandpa's glameow. Tell me where she is. Now."
The man snickered. "Or what? Will a couple of lovebirds and a little girl come to the rescue? Is this the best that old geezer can do? Ha!"
Cesc beamed for a moment as Terra complimented his pokemon. He found himself immediately crestfallen as she supposed that he'd won several contests. Cesc had not yet even entered a single contest! This notion reminded him that he had more training yet to do before he was ready. In the meantime, this little adventure was probably precisely the pokemon training he needed for the battle portion of contests.
Branwys, however, reminded him that the situation was dire, and there was no time for lallygagging as he was. It really was sticky, as two pokemon had disappeared due to a pokenapping, and he was effectively slowing them down through advertisement. He did find himself chuckling at Branwys' exaggerated motions, thinking to himself he'd seen that in a comedy flick one time. Once again, he felt himself snapped back to reality once the gravity of the situation hit him once more.
"Oh right, let's rescue some pokemon, right?" he put on a brave face, adopting a heroic pose before resuming his place next to Branwys and Terra. Valentine and Oberon followed close to him, more aware of the situation than their trainer, and painfully worried that they, too, could be next on the docket should the kidnappers have returned.
The next thing he knew, they had found the warehouse. The next thing after that, boxes were flying everywhere, and one of the two disappeared pokemon had returned. Things moved far too quickly for Cesc to fully process, but all he knew now was there was an enemy in front of him.
Terra had two pokemon out, Cesc had two pokemon out, and Branwys had the...Klinka? Branwys had the Klinka on her backpack. This meant that they were currently 5-0 in terms of fielded pokemon. There was banter, and the man with the scratched face seemed pretty confident despite the fact that he was outnumbered. He made mention about 'lovebirds', but he saw no love or birds anywhere nearby, so the comment sailed gracefully over Cesc's head.
"Valentine, Oberon, at the ready!" The two pokemon bounded forward from behind Cesc and stared down the man. Cesc, unlike some trainers in Furoh, was fairly hesitant to attack an un-pokemoned human.
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..."
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.
"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.
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.
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..."
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.
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.
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!"
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.
"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.
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.
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.
"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.
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?"
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."
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?"
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!"
"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?"
"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.
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..."
((So, to make up for lost time, I'm just gonna plow ahead with the story. W-0-0-t!))
Cesc and Branwys followed their scouting pokemon, rounding the corner of the warehouse.
"After this, I'm going to get a beer."
"Isn't Port Barley reknowned for its Root Beer?" Cesc cast a smile down at her. "Maybe I dreamed that. Who knows?" he shrugged, half talking to Branwys, half to himself. He wasn't quite sure anymore.
Oberon, meanwhile, had spotted a series of crates leading to a conveniently placed scaffold, which in turn had a ladder in the middle of it. The problem with it, though, was that it more than likely led to a death drop on the inside of the Warehouse. He looked back to Cesc, inquisitively, who shook his head.
"No, buddy. I meant backdoor quite literally." As he looked further down the hallway, he and Oberon both spotted just that. "There, let's go!" The two bounded ahead of their companions, reaching the door in a short, overdramatic and seemingly random burst forward.
Once there, Cesc took off his hat once again, reaching into his long hair, rustling around a bit. After a moment, he procured a bobby pin, which he slipped into the keyhole.
After a moment, he stopped and blinked, standing back up and replacing his hair back under his fedora.
"Well...it was open the whole time." He smiled sheepishly towards his diminutive companion. "Sorry, I'd really wanted to show off a bit there." With that said, he slowly opened the door, peeking in. After a few, painstaking moments, he withdrew his head and nodded purposefully at Branwys. "Coast is clear. Let's go in!"
Sneaking behind a big stack of crates, he looked around, noting several grunt looking personel. There seemed to be at least three people shuffling about, moving a cage here or there. It seemed rather pointless; most of the cages were empty, which meant that their cargo had been shipped off already.
In the meantime, there remained a cage with a Glameow, which was most likely Aurora, and two cages containing a very angry looking Zangoose and Seviper respectively. The Cat-Ferret and the Poison Snake were shaking at their cages, attempting to activate their age old blood fued, even through their prison walls.
"Okay Bran." Cesc crouched down. "I have half of a plan." He paused for dramatic effect, then turned back to the scene at hand. "And here it goes. Oberon, free those pokemon. Quick Attack on the cage locks."
Obediently, Oberon dashed forward, moving at a startling speed towards the cages. The three goons grunted in surprise as Oberon streaked past them, slashing at the locks for the Seviper and Zangoose.
Sure enough, the cages burst open, and the two pokemon were quite literally at the other's throats. The men yelled in surprise, getting out of the path of both the Seviper's poisonous fangs and tail, as well as the Zangoose's razor sharp claws. There was a whirlwind of white and black, with small flashes of red and blue, as the two pokemon tore about the warehouse, fully intending to kill one another. With all the chaos, Cesc burst into the open, striking a fairly dramatic pose.
"Oberon, free the Glameow!"
The dark weasel pokemon scooted over to the cage on the truck, swiping hard at the lock and effectively knocking it off of the cage. The barred door swung open, revealing the Glameow, who made an instant bee-line over to Cesc, where it stood, hiding behind him.
"Oh crap!" Mook #1 roared as he saw Cesc gather up the cat pokemon. "Get them!" He tossed out a pokeball, summoning a houndour to the field. "Ember!"
The small fireballs were aimed directly at Cesc and Aurora! With Aurora behind him, Cesc couldn't exactly move out of the way to let the Glameow get hit with the attack, so he stood his ground firmly, crossing his arms in front of him and closing his eyes.
The attack never connected. Well, at least not with him. He heard a shriek of pain, and watched as Oberon fell to the ground in front of him, smoke rising off of him as he lay on the ground.
"Oh buddy..." Cesc dropped to his knees. "Why would you do that?"
"Houndour, another Ember!" With two of the men busy attempting to wrangle the Zangoose and Seviper, Cesc only had one person to contend with, but he seemed to preoccupied with tending to his pokemon to defend himself from the next attack!
It was not like her to be this quiet, and it wasn't her usual style to follow. So when Oberon had found the makeshift ladder to the window, Branwys had already started to make her way up. She stopped on top of the first box as Cesc corrected his pokémon and they moved on.
She was still kind of annoyed with him, but she also had to remind herself that he hadn't been told how old she really was. Really, it should be obvious; this wasn't one of her baggier tops. But until she grabbed his ear (and as tall as he was, that would involve him bending over or her climbing up him) and out and out told him that she was twenty two freaking years old and could have a beer if she darn well wanted to, she wouldn't allow herself to get too angry.
But for pities sake, at least ask!
The door looked as if it might have been a problem, and Branwys started digging in her satchel for a set of lock picking tools, something she'd learned as part of a small repair business she'd run on the side in Castellia, if doing what amounted to handyman work counted as a business. It did keep her well stocked in poké before she'd left for Furoh. She was quite proud of the fact that at least 75% of the money she was using on this trip was money she had earned on her own.
As she found the tools and pulled them out of her bag, Cesc pulled out a bobby pin and proceeded to work on the lock. She rolled her eyes, but he opened it, and she was, briefly, impressed: picking a lock with one wire bent in half was much harder than with two separate tools.
Then he admitted that the door had been opened the whole time, and she had to giggle. Neither of them had tried the door! Zeetha would have rolled over in her grave, if she wasn't such a good humored person, and alive to boot.
They made their way into the warehouse, finally finding where the pokémon were kept. Evidently, they had just started gathering pokémon for their little circus again, or they had shipped the majority off already. Judging by the many cages, Branwys would guess the first scenario, since they would likely need to take cages with them.
There, however, was a glameow, and Branwys was sure it was Aurora. She wished Terra was there to confirm it, but if wishes were buffalon, everyone would be eating steak.
Cesc outlined his half of a plan by demonstrating it, and she couldn't fault him for the execution. Two battling pokémon with what seemed to be an ancient grudge between them was a perfect distraction. She was about to set Tinka on the lock to Aurora's cage, but Oberon, once again, beat her to it.
After that, everything happened quickly. One of the mooks spotted them (not hard to do, since Cesc had made a point to jump out as dramatically as possible), an Ember attack came roaring toward Aurora and was blocked by Oberon, and another was ordered to be sent at the downed pokémon's stunned trainer.
"Cesc!"
Branwys didn't think, she simply pointed at the houndour. "Bone Club!"
[Hyu in for it now, leetle poppie dog!]
Dimo charged at the houndour, the bone club in his hand extended behind him, and brought it forward as the houndour was just beginning to turn to look at him. She reeled as the bone collided with her skull-like head plate, staggering to the side in a nearly uncontrolled stumble. Finally, she got her feet under her and turned to her new assailant, snarling fiercely.
The snarl lasted a few seconds as it finally caught up to her that the theropod dinosaur was not in a battle stance, but had one end of the club on the ground with the other, knobbed in near his chin, and was leaning on it. His left claw went up to smooth the feathered ruff on the back of his helm down, and his eyes were hooded.
[Zo, hyu are unt gurl, ja? Dot changes thinks. Hy don like to heet de pretty gorls.]
The houndour's head tilted in confusion, then she glowered and gave a short, deep growl.
[Hyu unt me,] continued Dimo, waggling what could be seen of his brow ridge under the helm, [coud make beeyootfool music, hy tink.]
Concentrating on his conquest, Dimo didn't see Branwys slap her forehead in consternation, nor did he see the mook commanding the houndour sidle up to her, looking bemused.
"What is he doing..?"
Branwys sighed, keeping her eyes on the pair of pokémon as her cubone continued to woo the houndour. "He's flirting with her…"
"Your cubone is flirting with my houndour?" The mook seemed nonplussed by the situation, but Branwys merely gave a longsuffering moan.
"Yes. He thinks he's something of a ladies poke…"
Just then, the two seemed to realize who they were talking to. Branwys looked up at the mook. The mook looked down at the girl.
The mook grinned, wickedly, reaching for another pokéball. "Yessss…" he hissed.
Branwys bit her lip. "No," she said, lashing out suddenly and kicking the man in the shin. He howled and hopped backwards, holding his shin.
"That's it!" he growled. "Johnny! I need your help over here!"
One of the men trying to re-capture the zangoose and seviper in the midst of their epic conflict spat back, "We're kind of busy here, Paul!"
"George can handle it! Someone's trying to steal the pokémon we stole fair and square!" He turned, finally releasing his pokémon, a small, purple humanoid pokémon with red trunks. "Tyson, go punch the bone head in his boney head!"
Dimo looked up from where he had a stubby arm across the neck of the houndour, who seemed much more inclined to flirt now that bones weren't swinging toward her face. [Hut ho, dahlink, I tink we gon' haff to shtop. Hyu keep dot number, though, unt ve'll see wot happens.]
[HEY!] The tyrogue cried out, punching his fists together and popping his neck. [It's time for a FIGHT!]
[Ja, ja, hold hyu blitzles.]
[You'd better take me seriously! And stop talking like that!]
[Talkink like vot?]
"Oh, screw you guys!" came from where the two feuding pokémon were fighting when another of the men showed up, pulling a pokéball off of his belt. "No, no, I'm fine I don't need any help! I HATE YOU BOTH!"
The new arrival released a small pokémon, a blue sauropod with what looked like a black head of hair that covered his eyes and went down his long neck. "Ringo, hit the little girl's decoration!"
"AAAH!! NOT IN THE FACE! IT BIT ME IN THE ASS! I WANT MY MOMMY!"
Branwys cast around. Tinka floated up at her shoulder, "klink"ing angrily. Cesc still seemed to be upset about Oberon.
"CESC! I'm going to need some help here!"
Had Cesc been paying attention to the 'fight' between Dimo and the Houndour, he most likely would have found it incredibly hysterical. Yet, he missed the entire thing as he fussed over his pokemon, Oberon. It was an odd time to find himself stupefied, but he had never found himself so concerned for his pokemon before.
Likewise, he would've found Branwys kicking Paul Mook in the shins. Johnny Mook and Georgie Mook were far too busy with the distraction that Cesc had conveniently created at the onset of the battle, so they were currently non-factors in the match.
"Hey, hey buddy...you didn't need to do that" he muttered softly "I would've been fine." The Sneasel looked up at him, his normally mischevious eyes looking much less shifty than usual. If anything, they seemed regretful. Oberon coughed weakly as Cesc picked him up, cradling him. The poor creature had been through a lot today; probably more than he was capable of handling healthily. It was absolutely time for the boy to take a rest. Cesc squeezed him gently once before recalling him into the pokeball.
"CESC! I'm going to need some help here!" Branwys' cry resounded out through the warehouse. Cesc mentally cursed himself for getting so distracted and distraught while there was a battle going on. It was most likely something he'd have to work on, since he had developed an odd tendency to drop out mentally in times of duress.
Quickly scanning the situation, it appeared that Dimo and Tinka were facing two pokemon with whom Cesc were unfamiliar. Then there was the Houndour. Cesc had not witnessed Dimo's seduction of the creature, so in his mind, it was still a viable enemy. That meant it was three on three.
"Valentine!" With a flash of light, Cesc's Chimchar appeared on the field, immediately adopting a dramatic pose right out of Cesc's book. The fire monkey appeared to be leaning his weight on one side, the same hand akimbo, while the other pointed dramatically out at the trio of enemies.
"Okay...uh...Valentine, Fake Out and then Fury Swipes on...that thing!" He pointed at the Deino, who really did bear an odd resemblence to his namesake.
The chipper Chimchar launched himself forward, clapping his hands in front of the beast to stun it before launching himself into a series of swipes with his outstretched claws.
In retaliation, Ringo opened his mouth, firing out a brilliant mist-like beam with surprising force. The attack screeched over Valentine's head, startling the Chimp somewhat. The attack seemed powerful, but fairly inaccurate, which was surprising considering the lack of distance between the two.
"Okay Valentine!" Cesc tipped his hat towards the enemy trainer "I think we got this. New move: Will-O-Wisp!"
Cesc hadn't the chance to test the move out before hand, and he wasn't quite sure what it was. He watched, fascinated, as the Chimchar raised his hands in the air, summoning a trio of purple coloured flame. The fire triplet spun around itself, orbiting the area just above the outstretched monkey hands. With a shrill battlecry, Valentine threw the conflageration at the Deino, who accepted the attack with a shrill cry of its own.
While the damage seemed indiscernible, the Deino itself seemed rather irritated from the technique.
"Oh...must be a burn!" Cesc smiled suddenly, realizing that through experimentation, he'd just turned this encounter in his favour. Shame though, since he still had to watch out for the other two pokemon (but hopefully Bran-Bran had those under wraps).
Bran-Bran did indeed had those under wraps. As Valentine moved forward to take on the deino, which she would have told him was much better suited to Oberon, but thought that she would have hated to have him tell her who to call for combat, Branwys arranged her own pokémon.
Dimo, however, having realized that they now had help, merely turned back to the little houndour, leaning against her back as she turned her head to face him. [Zo, hyu com heer often, leetle poppie?]
"Dimo, stop flirting! This is serious!"
Sure enough, as if someone were behind a keyboard, writing out a story, Georgie Mook staggered up, panting. "Hate... you... guys," he said, glaring daggers at his comrades through a maze of cuts, bites, and scrapes. He looked across at Branwys and further at Cesc, and sneered. "I hate those guys even more."
He reached for his belt and pulled a single pokéball from it, clicking the release. The ball opened, and a strong, thick stream of white light gushed out of it, slowly forming a creature more massive than Branwys had seen in her life. Her face paled as the light grew higher and higher, nearly blinding her, blocking out the windows beyond even when it dimmed, forming into a gigantic snorlax.
"Somnus! Hyper Beam!"
This nearly sent Branwys into a panic, except that, despite her vision just beginning to tunnel, she saw the snorlax give a look of pure contempt at his trainer, close his nearly shut eyes, and begin snoring, falling instantly into a deep sleep.
So maybe things weren't so serious after all.
"You idiot," yelled either Johnny or Paul, Branwys hadn't really tried to figure it out. "I keep telling you, that thing is way too strong to listen to you now!"
"Shut up! He was fine as a munchlax!"
"When you named him PacMan?" snickered the other. George shot him a venomous look. A look that suddenly transformed to an envenomed look, and George Mook crumpled to the floor.
"Crap!" shouted John (or Paul). "The seviper's loose!"
Branwys was not one to look a give bite in the mouth. She snapped orders to her pokémon. "Dimo, Bone Club! Tinka, Vice Grip!" Tinka floated to the tyrogue and, with an angry klink, spun her gears on his arm. Dimo, however, continued to flirt with the houndour.
"OH, COME ON," Branwys hollered, stamping her foot.
[Hokay, hokay!] He turned to the houndour, shrugging apologetically. [No hard feelinks, huh?] The houndour was confused, but shook her head rapidly when Dimo's Bone Club connected with her chin. She gave a snarl, then smiled, her eyes rolling back into her head, and fainted.
"THANK you..."
In the mean time, the tyrogue was flailing about, screaming his head off and beating Tinka against the wall, the floor, and his trainer's thigh (his trainer did not appreciate the gesture). Nothing would loose the twin gear from his arm, however.
"Just punch it with your other hand, moron!" That was the same that had called George an idiot, and he'd been right about that, so the Tyrogue reared back his other fist.
The gear pokémon slipped off, causing him to miss. He used his other, sore hand to try to punch,and was dodged. The klink floated up to near his face, and the tyrogue grinned. Both hands came flying up from behind the metal pokémon, except that it wasn't there anymore! It had risen up and...
POW!
The tyrogue had punched himself with a double fist to the face, and he fell backwards like a felled tree.
Branwys stuck her tongue out at the two standing crooks and turned to see if Cesc needed help with the fearsome dragon type.
Cesc and Valentine seemed to be faring quite well against Deino and John/Paul. Whichever. Poor faceless mooks rarely get names, so while this lot was lucky to receive the honours, it almost didn't matter which one got which. (Though, it potentially meant the order in which they would bite it?)
In any case, Cesc and Valentine easily utilized the Fire Monkey's natural agility to take advantage of the shaggy sauropod's poor vision. One would think that a hair-cut would've been the most simple solution. Perhaps a hat or a headband. Or maybe the Deino had no eyes. Regardless of what the situation actually was (and its potential solutions), Cesc kept the creature at bay.
Then, the fattest fatty ever to fat took the field. Cesc found himself in the looming blubber shadow of a creature called "Somnus", which he recognized as a very rare Snorlax. To be fair, how such large creatures were missed in the wild was absolutely beyond him, but he simply knew that they were rare.
The command for Hyper Beam sent horrid chills down Cesc's spine, and he prepared himself for imminent defeat. He probably would've been less scared had Sephiroth used Supernova, or the Iseria Queen used Empress Massacre. This was mostly because the creature about to fire the beam was a giant lardo, who would probably sit on his corpse and crush it into oblivion.
Then the creature fell asleep. Cesc sprung back into action, rallying his pokemon up against the Deino. The Dragon-type had finally managed to land the lucky Dragonbreath, and it easily sent Cesc's Valentine reeling across the floor. One of the Mook's prepared to celebrate, raising one hand in the air to command a final blow.
"Ringo, Dragonbreath!"
Powerful draconic energy began to form in the creatures open maw, condensing the breath itself into a weapon... then the Zangoose crashed onto the field, knocking the Deino sideways, which sent the Dragonbreath firing haphazardly off to one side and directly into Somnus, who remained entirely and absolutely unfazed.
Cesc blinked at the white cat-ferret laying on the ground, looking quite displeased at its inability to move. It was a fairly pitiable sight; the wounded Zangoose, struggling vainly to stand itself back up and resume its fight with its most hated foe, while the aforementioned 'most-hated-foe' slithered slowly towards it. A very predatory and trumphant relish crossed the Seviper's eyes as it approached its defeated foe, coiling up with a wicked smile as it prepared to lash out one final time with its deadly bladed tail.
Cesc frowned, and drew an empty pokeball from his backpack. He didn't want to see the Zangoose killed right before his eyes, and it was essentially his fault that the two had been set upon one another. The dapper co-ordinator flung the capture device, striking the Zangoose and sucking it into the realm of the pokeball, just as the Seviper's executioner tail struck the hard floor.
The Seviper didn't immediately comprehend what had happened. One minute the Zangoose had been defeated and ripe for a deathblow, then it wasn't there. Cesc watched as the Seviper calmly watched the pokeball stir slowly before halting, indicating that something had been captured. Seviper, unfortunately, are not dumb creatures. It quickly surmised that since the Zangoose was no longer present, then it had to be in the pokeball, which was something that carried pokemon. Raising its tail high into the air once more, Cesc watched as it aimed for the pokeball with the Zangoose in it. Not allowing himself to be dumbstruck this time, Cesc yelled:
"Valentine, Flame Wheel!"
The Chimchar, though weakened, hurled himself forward with all of his might, tucking into a ball which instantly lit aflame. His trainer watched with fascination at the flaming projectile that his pokemon had become. The fire seemed all the larger and more intense than usual, which didn't quite make sense.
Then, after some thought, it did make sense. Valentine's ability was Blaze, which meant his fire type moves powered up when he had taken sufficient damage. The Dragonbreath attack had been powerful enough to knock much of the wind out of the pokemon, but his ability seemed to help him muster up enough strength.
The conflageration slammed heavily into the Seviper, sending it reeling back with a violent hiss. The sinister serpent did not appear to wish to continue fighting, as it stayed in place. Its deadly eyes locked onto Cesc, as if memorizing his features for their next encounter. It clearly wanted to fight the Zangoose again, and had sensed the newfound sovereignty Francesco Rojas held over its age old foe. With one more hiss, the creature slipped off silently through the warehouse, leaving the wretched place once and for all.
"Ringo, Dragonbreath!"
John or Paul didn't seem to have much sense other than to order the same attack repeatedly, but it didn't stop it from hitting Valentine yet a second time, swiftly and decisively knocking out the poor monkey. Cesc immediately recalled the pokemon and frowned; he had been defeated.
"Sorry, my dearest." Cesc turned a forlorn gaze over to Branwys "I'm afraid I've been beaten. It's all up to you."
Branwys looked at Cesc, stricken. Dimo would fight, yes, but against a dragon that knew Dragonbreath? He didn't stand a chance! Tinka was slightly better off: Dragonbreath wouldn't be effective against her steel body, but at the same time her only offensive move wasn't that strong, and the dragon would wear her down easily.
Then she struck her closed fist against the palm of her other hand. How silly of her to forget! She knelt next to Dimo, Tinka closing the gap between them to listen as well, and sketched out her plan, murmuring softly.
Oddly, the mooks waited. Perhaps they believed that talking was a free action. Perhaps they were over confident. One of them did try to listen in on the conversation, but a nasty glare from the tiny blonde girl sent him shuffling back to his comrades.
Tinka floated off, to the side of the men, unnoticed as they watched her trainer in gleeful anticipation of Dimo being trounced and them getting a bunch of new pokémon for the circus. Dimo stood his ground against the deino. He already knew the basis of what Branwys was planning, and thought she was brilliant.
Branwys stepped back to consult with Cesc. She pitied the poor guy, both of his pokémon having fainted. Oberon would have been brilliant against the dragon, but if he wasn't out, and Cesc was saying that he'd been beaten, then Oberon had to have been fainted.
No matter. This plan would work. It HAD to.
"Grab Aurora. I'm going to give a command, and I want you to follow through it. I know," she said, when Cesc seemed about to protest that his pokémon were fainted. "Just trust me."
She walked back up, facing her opponents squarely. Johnny, or Paul, whichever, was still trying to wake the snorlax, with more frantic and violent measures. Just before Branwys opened her mouth the snorlax woke, sending a chill of fear up her spine. He opened one eye, glaring at Paul, or Johnny, and lifted a paw, smacking the poor hapless Mook brother into, then through, a wall.
The other two mooks turned as the snorlax fell back to sleep, and, after a short pause, PaulJohn called back "I'm OK..! I'm... I'm just going to lie outside and... enjoy the breeze..!" He sounded pained, but if either of his comrades wanted to avenge him, they weren't willing to do so mano-y-snorlax.
George grinned. "Deino, Dragonbreath!"
Branwys swallowed. "NOW!"
From behind the men, Tinka set off a rapid set of "klink"s. The deino, thinking it was facing the wrong way, turned toward them as Tinka fell silent and raised out of the way. The men froze, screaming as the dragon finished its attack, sending them in a trajectory familiar only to certain members of a Kanto syndicate.
"RUN!"
Branwys dashed past Cesc, who had the feline in his hands, and bolted for the opposite door, Dimo and Tinka hot on her heels. Soon, the only living creatures were a large, sleeping snorlax and a confused deino, who began tackling the snorlax, as if to see what it was.
Branwys didn't stop until they reached the first line of houses that marked a more inhabited area than a warehouse district. Cesc was panting, but not as much as Branwys was, having to work twice as hard to cover the same distance. She grinned as he looked, laughing. "Deino," she said, stopping to catch her breath when the single word sent her gasping. "Deino," she continued, "are blind... always... they don't get eyes until they've evolved a couple of times... I guess... they didn't know that." She chuckled breathlessly. "If Agatha and Tarvek heard that I'd forgotten, I'd be teased for weeks!"
Cesc stood, somewhat shocked that Branwys took vital battle time to confer with both of her pokemon. What shocked him even more was that the Mook brothers actually allowed her to do so. (Were they actually brothers? Did anyone actually care?)
Branwys explained her plan to him, next. Cesc held a hand to his chin in a very stereotypical 'listening and thinking' posture. This was mostly because he was, in fact, listening and thinking. The idea, though, was to make the enemy sweat a bit. Cesc couldn't decide whether or not the girl was brilliant or mad. Perhaps she had the touch of both, and it really was a surprising plan from such a young girl. He had to admit it: he was impressed.
It really was unfortunate that Oberon was down. He wasn't fainted by any means, but he was on his last leg; the entire trip had been rather harsh on the Sneasel.
With the plan set and ready to be executed, he watched nervously as Branwys stepped up to the plate again. It was then that Somnus awakened...and promptly engaged in some friendly fire, effectively removing one of the Mooks from the equation. JohnPaul had been turned into a projectile, and had decided that the entire affair earned him a nice nap outdoors.
George, on the other hand, did not care that his Mook Companion (Mookanion?) had just been slammed through the wall. He was aiming for Branwys and Dimo.
Tinka did her best imitation of an alarm clock, having clandestinely moved her way over to where the Mooks were standing. Sure enough, it turned and let forth its amazing Dragonbreath attack.
At the same time, not wanting to be the one to ruin the plan, Cesc scooped up the Glameow, Aurora, who protested verbally at being held, but did not attack her rescuer.
* * *
Cesc and Branwys reached relative safety, the duo stopped running.
"Oh...really?" Cesc crouched down, letting the Glameow down gently. "I thought it was just its silly haircut. Either way, excellent work. You're a pretty brilliant." He wasn't sure who Agatha or Tarvek were, but they were probably relations or friends of Branwys'. Perhaps he had them to thank for Branwys' astounding set of knowledge.
"Okay, Princess." Cesc stood up, smiling once he'd regained his breath. "Once you're ready, we'll get this cat back in the bag."
* * *
Cesc and Branwys, with guidance from Aurora, ultimately made it back to Terra's Grandfather's joint. Terra, herself, had not yet returned, but her Grandfather assured them he'd call her to let her know that Aurora was safe. Hopefully, she was too.
Their random little mission was now completed, and Cesc turned to Branwys, smiling downwards at her. "So, Pokemon Center, then I've yet to make this delivery. But after that, can I buy you dinner?"
Terra's grandfather was a nice man. It was evident enough by Aurora's loyalty, and the joyful "Glam!" she let out when they had finally reached his house. Tinka, who had been keeping a pair of eyes on their six (ah, tactical terms: How she loved them!), "klink"d fondly as the glameow and her master were reunited.
Branwys briefly described the place where the men had taken her, both the transfer point with the likely stolen TMs and the main drop off point where the mook brothers (or not) were probably cleaning up in preparation to leave. Television told her that those two places would be empty by the time the Jennies got there, but real life wasn't television. Terra's grandfather promised to make the call, and call Terra, and Branwys and Cesc left.
That was when he asked her to dinner. Branwys could feel her face heating up, despite the fact that, for most of the day, and possibly still, Cesc had obviously thought of her as a pre-teen. She looked down to calm herself and then, finally, looked up. "Yes. I'd like that very much," she said with a brilliant smile.
Kid or no kid, she was going to dinner with an attractive man, and that, she thought gleefully as she made her way to her room, was something!
*-*-*-*-*
It didn't take her long to get cleaned up and dressed. She knew that Cesc wasn't from around Port Barley, so he likely wouldn't have a change of clothing, but he looked pretty dapper in the outfit he had on, even if it was a little dusty. She was sure he had a solution to that.
As a side note, she might order a fedora from his employers. If she could arrange time for a fitting.
Currently, she sat with her replacement phone tucked firmly between her cheek and shoulder, sitting on the bed, swinging her feet, and putting the finishing touches on the project she'd started when she'd first met Terra and Cesc. Her new phone had been delivered via express delivery from the Muphenz estate, and Branwys could just sense her sister Zola's hand in that. Right now, however, she was talking to her youngest older sister, Zeetha.
"No, no, it's not a date. Not yet," she said, giggling. The phone murmured to her, too soft and too muffled by the long hair she let hang loose about her shoulders to be heard by anything with normal human hearing. Meaning that Dimo, having walked himself back to the room after a grudging session with Nurse Joy, could.
"No! I am not wearing the chiangsom! Zekrom and Reshiram, Zeetha, it's not even a date, and if it was, it would be a first date! That's more of a third date dress." Again, the phone murmured, a hint of humor coming through the line, and Branwys flushed deeply. "Don't rub it in, jerk," she mumbled, embarrassed. "I may not have had any third dates, but I know what the possibilities are for a third date, and that's what a slinky dress is for!" Her fingers deftly worked the mechanism she had decided to place for the project, a set of levers on each magnet that would raise and lower the magnet, allowing for quick release in case it was needed.
When she was finished, she looked at her handiwork. It was, essentially, a pair of crossed red straps, the width of a seat belt each, held together by a square metal bracket. On each end was a magnet, cowled in aluminum settings, with a level on the top to lower the magnet flush with the bottom edge of the cowling or raise it to the top of it, allowing the magnet to be released from its hold on a object made of ferrous metal, such as, say, the skin of a steel type pokémon. In fact, Branwys had tested the magnets on Tinka, and they held strongly. Hence the cowling. She didn't have time to stress test it, and it was made for someone much bigger than she was, but she was sure it would hold, even through tricky maneuvers. Nodding to herself, she folded it neatly and wrapped it in a plain blue paper.
Hopefully, when Cesc came to pick her up, he would at least like this, a way to keep from getting thrown off of his transportation's back.
"Yes. I'd like that very much."
Cesc beamed an equally brilliant smile back at Branwys, crossing his arms with a bright smile. He didn't get to interact with the lady-folk very often, usually because his deliveries kept him out and about all the time. Very soon, though, he'd probably start traveling around on his own, so as to train up his pokemon to finally begin participating in contests. That meant he could potentially run into his new friend, Branwys, again in the future.
At least, for now, they'd part ways to freshen up for dinner. Cesc still had a delivery to run.
* * *
The delivery was a complete success. Cesc received the signed receipt, and was on his merry way. Returning back to the Pokemon Center, he made his way straight to the counter, wherein he was handed his three pokeballs from the resident Nurse Joy. With a slow smile, he relished in the feeling of having not one, not two, but three pokeballs there in front of him. Perhaps it was time to meet his new companion.
"Come on out, new friend!" Cesc popped open the pokeball, not blinking from the customary flash of light. It faded to reveal the Cat-Ferret pokemon, scratching his head with his long, deadly claws.
He took a moment to size up his new trainer, then crossed his arms over his chest, tilting his head.
"I'm Cesc. Nice to meet you!" Cesc slowly extended his hand.
"Goose." With a definite snap of his head, the Zangoose turned away, slapping Cesc's hand away. Cesc blinked at the gesture, meaning that the pokemon clearly did not respect him or his leadership, or even his friendship. Then he realized that the pokemon had been rescued from a blood-duel with his hated enemy, Seviper. He'd interfered in something incredibly deep seated.
"I'm sorry, you know." Cesc folded his arms too, feeling a little hurt at this rejection. "You were about to die. I had to save you."
The Zangoose clearly heard, and more than likely understood; it didn't mean he was happy about it.
"While you may have rather died, I wouldn't have like to see that at all, so...now you're with me, whether you like it or not. So now we need a name."
The Zangoose turned his attention back to his new trainer, glaring directly at Cesc's eyes, prompting the next thought:
"What, art thou drawn among these heartless hinds? Turn thee, Seviper, look upon thy death." Cesc quoted, smiling brightly "I'll give you a deadly and vengeful name: Tybalt."
The Zangoose wasn't quite sure who or what a Tybalt was, but the words 'deadly' and 'vengeful' he understood. Tybalt nodded approvingly, evidently pleased with his new name. It seemed, already, that in the simple act of being given an appropriate name, Zangoose was already having an easier time accepting Cesc, even if it was by a marginal amount. Cesc returned his new companion into the pokeball. It was time to meet Branwys for dinner after all. He took off the suit-coat, setting it onto the coat-rack. He rolled up his sleeves a bit and untucked his shirt, letting it fall lazily over the brim of his pants. Gently taking out the cufflinks and placing them in his pockets, he rolled up his sleeves, then proceeded to loosen his tie, and unbutton the top button...then next button of his shirt. Since it was mostly the suit that had gotten a bit dirty, especially from carrying a Glameow, he didn't mind the rest of his ensemble appearing a bit more casual. Adjusting his fedora, he took a quick glance in the window, attempting to catch his reflection.
This was a passable look. Not his best, but he didn't have the luxury of a change of clothes.
With that, he made his way over to Branwys' room, rapping smartly on the door.
"Just a moment!"
Branwys jumped off her bed when she heard the knock. She stepped toward the door, then, thinking twice, dashed into the bathroom to get a look at herself.
The dress she was wearing was one of the few that she had ordered specifically to fit her. It was a cream colored dress that went all the way down to her mid-thigh, flaring out at the hips. There were sleeves, but they were little more than shoulder covering and opened from where the collarbone met her shoulder, sweeping downward in a graceful arc to just below the top of her sternum. Her hair, usually up in twin ponytails, was let down and brushed simply to reach just barely to the base of her neck. She wore make up, however one could only tell if they'd seen her face without it, or if they knew exactly what to look for.
She turned, checking to make sure the back of her dress was straight, and then, not wanting to keep Cesc waiting for much longer, made her way to the door. Having had experience, she had opted for a pair of elegant shoes that had only one inch of height in the heel. It wasn't as if high heels added enough to make a difference, and ending the night with a turned ankle wasn't a very appealing option.
She patted Dimo's skull helm. "You did so good today, Dimo. But I need you to go in the ball for now, OK?" He looked at her, his face unreadable, hidden as it was by the skull mask, and then shrugged. Branwys held up the pokéball and clicked the button to recall Dimo. In a flash of red light he, his bone, and his helmet with the feather ruff were gone.
Tinka waited on Branwys' purse, a smaller version of her bag. Inside was her Trainer's card, her pokédex, and the present she had made for Cesc, plus a few odds and ends and a small tool kit. One never knew when one might have to fix something. Tinka set herself into a special bracket made for her by Branwys, identical to the one on her larger messenger bag, and looked like nothing more than a decoration.
Finally, Branwys was ready. She stepped up to the door, opened it, and stood for a moment, allowing Cesc to take her in and for her to get a good look in return. "Half of the night is presentation", she remembered her sister, Zeetha, saying. She would know. She planned parties, from children's birthdays to elegant soirees, for a living.
Still, it was odd taking fashion and etiquette advice from a woman with green hair.
Cesc fought quite hard to keep his jaw from dropping. Branwys was clearly, and very clearly not a child. Between taking in the fairly stunning, albeit small, image before him, and chastising himself for treating her like a child, he wasn't quite sure how to say "hello".
"Oh Hi!" He said, blinking as he obviously looked her up and down, mixtures of awe and confusion swishing through his face.
* * *
"I gotta say, Castelia Cone's sound delicious." Cesc grinned, "But back in the Under, we had Undercakes. They're not much more than funnel cakes, and the name makes them sound like they belong in a bathroom, but they're absolutely delicious. You could get them topped with Nutella and berry preserves, and oh man, so good!"
Cesc had listened to Branwys with fairly rapt attention, and had even gone so far as to explain his life as a rapscallion and scamp in the Under.
Now that he'd payed close attention to his date, and now that said date wasn't wearing pigtails and what could essentially be described as everyday clothes, but was in fact, in a fairly elegant dress with her hair down. She was drinking Sparkling Water, (he'd somehow found himself assuming that she'd order a shirley temple), and was holding a full on conversation with him. He simply had to brave the question now, despite the potential embarassment it'd cause him:
"Branwys, I know it's impolite to ask a lady her age, but how old are you?"
Branwys was still thinking about Undercakes, and Undercakes with a Castelia Scoop on top was just beginning to make her want to order desert when the question finally broke through those thoughts. She fixed her eyes on Cesc, breaking into a slow, delighted smile.
"It's about time," she cooed. "I was starting to wonder if you were going to think I was ten forever." She leaned back in her chair, looking him up and down. "I'm twenty two now. I'll be twenty three in a couple of months."
She grinned at him, leaning forward again. "You know, I really can't blame you. More than the height, all of the clothing remotely in my size is for little girls, or else I have to have it specially made for me, and that can get really expensive. Not to mention my hair. I just prefer to put it up that way. It keeps it out of my face and from interfering with my hands when I'm working on a project." She blushed, looking down at her plate. "I can be a bit hyper, too," she said, sheepishly. "I just can't help it. I get excited sometimes." She looked up at Cesc, looking right in his eyes. "It takes a while for people to realize I'm not a little kid. Even back home. I mean, I don't think Zola, one of my sisters, really understands that now, and she was in her early twenties when I was born!"
Branwys took a long look at Cesc. She knew a lot about him now, a lot more than he possibly might have told a little kid. She'd heard about his time in the Under, and how he came here, and, of course, about his aunt and uncle's business. She still wanted to order a fedora from them. If he survived the trip home...
"Oh!" She smiled sheepishly. "Before I forget... and... I will," she said, blushing, "I want to give you this."
She reached into the purse that she had insisted not be checked (it had Tinka on it, after all), and pulled out the now folded mess of straps from within. She placed it on the table between her and Cesc. "It's... well, it's a harness for the next time you ride a skarmory. Most steel types have ferrous skin, meaning there's actually traces of iron in it. I doubt your ride would let you strap a harness to him, but with these magnets," she said, indicating the ends of each strap, "he won't be able to stop you, and he won't be able to throw you off."
She blushed, suddenly self-conscious at the gift. "I... I hope you like it."
"Well damn!" Cesc laughed as Branwys revealed her age. He felt absolutely wonderful now that he didn't need to censor himself, verbally, as he wasn't in the presence of a child.
This didn't mean that there weren't children within earshot anyways, but no one cared about them. Not even their parents.
"Bran, I would never have pegged you for someone a few months older than me."
She then explained practically everything about her appearance and behaviour that had fed his assumptions about his age. He nodded, smiling, almost more relaxed now that the cat was out of the bag. Then, it sort of tugged like an awful feeling at the back of his head. This was a very pretty girl sitting with him at a Fancy French restaurant, and she wasn't half of his age!
She then presented him with a present.
"A harness. Brilliant!" Cesc lifted it up "That old bolt-brain won't be able to throw me off at all!" He smiled brightly at the young lady before him, quite blatantly pleased with the gift. "I love it!"
He then scanned through his own brain for a moment, wondering what sort of gift he could come up with in return. She'd spent the entire day on it, since he mentioned it offhandedly that Speed the Skarmory enjoyed bucking him off of his metal mount. (Well, she'd also witnessed it first-hand.)
"How about this." Cesc leaned forward "In return, and I insist that I give you a gift in return, I'll design an outfit for Dimo and some accessories for Tinka. I'm sure my Aunt would be happy to make them for you. I'll bet I can also get you a discount on some clothes for yourself too, you know?" As the night had progressed, Cesc found an increasing sense of enjoyment. "And, you know, when she makes them, I'll have to deliver them to you. That's my job, after all!"
Branwys looked at Cesc, concentrating on his eyes. After the initial annoyance of being thought of as a child, he was quite handsome. And nice, in his own way. She briefly wondered if he was a trainer who specialized in Musicals. Branwys had been to Nimbasa a few times to catch the musicals, and the performance of Madame Beautifly was still able to make her cry. Of course, she didn't understand the words, since all the performers were pokémon, but that was the beauty of the musicals: Pokémon could be exposed to human culture, and grow closer to their trainers, and humans could be touched without having to rely on words. And the performance she had seen of "Three Little Muks From School" was more graceful than she could have guessed.
His question about making outfits for Dimo and accessories for Tinka literally almost made her squeal, but she managed to hold it in with just the outer evidence, her eyes nearly closing in delight and a minor wiggle of her bum, which, because she was sitting at a table in a decently fancy restaurant, was more than likely hidden from view.
"Yes! I would love that! I mean, Dimo's particular about what he wears, but I bet if it looked like a military coat he would love it! And Tinka acts as my accessory, I bet she'd love to be prettied up!"
"Klink" came a sound from her purse, and Branwys smiled down toward her feet. "I think that's a yes."
She looked at Cesc again, smiling softly. In her mind, however, there was a turmoil, a flood. Calm yourself, Brannycakes, came a harder version of her own voice. He's twice your height and you've only just met him today. Besides, he's spent most of the day thinking you're a little girl! So no, you're not in love with him just because he started paying attention to the fact that you're not.
That blew Branwys right out of her reverie. Love? Lord above. Was she really trying to trick herself into love?
Well, she was all right now.
Besides, it may not be love, she thought, admiring the cut of his clothing again, but was there anything wrong with a little bit of innocent lust?
Cesc was definitely thinking along the lines of lust, but perhaps his 22 year old mind was thinking more about the not-so-innocent aspects of it. The classier part of his brain, though, gently nagged that he'd just met the girl, and he'd spent most of the day thinking she was a pre-teen, which tended to complicate things ever so slightly.
"I can definitely design something militaristic for Dimo. I was almost thinking more matador, with the gold plume on his skull. I bet he'd get a kick out of a dashing shoulder cape.
As for Tinka, I was thinking little magnetic bows to match her trainer's."
The bill came, and Cesc, in a gentlemanly maneuver, pushed it over to Branwys, smiling winningly. Hopefully, this would dismay her and get her dander up. When she'd open it, however, there would be a blank sheet of paper. Cesc had already paid the bill! It had probably happened when he went to the bathroom.
"I hate arguing, because I always lose" he shrugged "So I just paid the bill secretly earlier, so we wouldn't quabble over who paid. And don't pout, I'm more than happy to have treated you to dinner, especially since you saved our butts back in the Warehouse, then made me this bitchin' harness." Once again, he found himself in great relief to be able to use potty words. There are things people simply take for granted; swearing being the foremost of them.
He flashed another smile over at her, with his cheeky, slightly lopsided grin. "When I get home tonight, I'll design some things for Dimo and Tinka, and I'll deliver them to you. But, I need to know where to find you, so..." he moved over to her side of the table and dramatically took a knee, holding her hand in his "Would you do me the great honour of telling me your phone number?"
There was some suspenseful silence as the captive restaurant audience watched them. For all intents and purposes, it looked like he was proposing marriage, but really, he was just being dramatic.
Branwys giggled as Cesc moved in front of her, kneeling, asking, politely, for her phone number. "Oh, yes, yes!" she proclaimed loudly enough for the now curious spectators, who were likely anticipating a proposal. "I will give you my phone number!"
That elicited a groan from the young couple behind them, and a chuckle from the older man and woman sitting with what might have been their grand children. Before too long, anyone watching was concentrating on their own meals again, and Cesc had sat down.
Branwys fished a piece of paper out of her purse, and a pen, and jotted down the sixteen digit identifier that would call her cell phone. After a bit of thought, she added the number to the XTransciever on her C-Gear. It wasn't great for cell-to-C-Gear communications, not yet, but it would do in a pinch. After all, Branwys had heard that other regional devices were developing compatible apps for C-Gear communications.
All too soon the night was dwindling to a close, and there was dessert, then the check (sneakily paid for, though Branwys was well used to paying for dinners; she had fixed him with a mock glare as he explained. And it was a gallant gesture...) and the walk back to her hotel.
"Let me know how that works," she said, searching for anything she could think of by now to extend the night. She had felt like she was walking on air on the walk back; now that it was over, she was floundering to keep that feeling going. "The harness, I mean. And be safe! And... um..."
There was no more time. She looked down, then back up, smiling gently. "I had a wonderful time tonight. Thank you." She opened her door, but did not go inside.
There was one more thing she had left to do, had wanted to do, and she motioned for him to wait. Flushing bright red, she dragged a chair over to the door way. Climbing up on it, she found she still didn't have the height she needed, but was able to stand precariously on her tip toes, lean up and kiss =Cesc on the cheek, right on the corner of his mouth.
When she rocked back, standing flat on her feet on the chair again, she smiled, flushed, and watched him for a reaction.
"You know, battling a crime ring makes an excellent set-up for dinner." Cesc laughed, "but yeah, I really, really enjoyed myself tonight, so thank you! I didn't picture today being so lovely."
The next thing he knew, Branwys had reached up and planted a kiss right on the corner of his mouth. As she leaned in, he was half-tempted to turn his face a fraction, in order to receive the kiss full on and return it with equal gusto. Instead, he flushed a shade to match hers, and smiled equally sheepishly.
"Wow." was all he managed to muster, unable to contain his obvious pleasure. He fumbled around, a bit awkwardly, as he blushed, not exactly sure how to respond to such a thing, so he opted with.
"I...uh...I...I'll let you know how the harness works, as Speed should be here any moment."
As if on cue, the Skarmory dropped out of the sky, landing on the grunt with a disgruntled "Skar". Cesc immediately slipped the device on and jumped onto the Metal Bird, which was how he perceived that the contraption worked. To his surprise, he found himself quite firmly attached to his mount, and wiggled about in an attempt to see how much room he had.
"Well, I'll see you around, Branwys." then he leaned forward, winking at her "Sooner, rather than later."
With that, the Skarmory took to the sky, and very shortly found himself confused at the fact that his charge was not having the same difficulty staying on board as he did before. However, that ornery bird was already devising ways to make his rider even more miserable than before.
Before long, Cesc was nothing more than a little blip in the sky, but he didn't once stop waving back.
Branwys had practically floated back to her room on a cloud, but after a shower and getting dressed for bed, she was back down on the earth. At least,, for long enough to call home.
"Hi, Theo!"
Branwys had a large family, courtesy of her father's first marriage. Four boys, now men, and four girls, now women, all lived in the same house since they were little ones, and now had their own families and little ones there as well. The Muphenz patriarch was big on family togetherness, and, being the mogul of a huge corporation, was also fluid enough financially to make this work.
Branwys' mother had been the second Muphenz wife, the first having passed due to a tragic illness. The kindest of the public paid no attention to her death. The least kind blamed the fact that she had so many children.
Branwys had been raised in a house with six teens and college age siblings, and each had made an effort to remain close to her, from giving her pokemon advice to acting as a second mother. Theopholus, the youngest of her brothers, however, was one of the few who had treated her as an equal from the time she could talk.
"So, sprout," he began, his rich baritone voice already soothing Branwys' homesickness. It had been him who would read to her as a child when her mother or father couldn't. "How was your first day in the Mysterious Land?"
Branwys had tried to hold her excitement in, but couldn't. She ended up telling him, over the next hour, and in great detail, about her adventure that day, and her almost-date that night.
"And he asked for my phone number! I gave him my C-Gear number, too--"
"Oh, hey, kid, I forgot to tell you," Theo cut in. "I did some checking, and XTransceiver communications won't be in Furoh for a while. Dad's paying to push it as fast as possible, of course, but he can only provide so much, you know?"
"Oh. Well, he's still got my cell number..." Branwys, sitting at the little desk in her room, stopped short, gave a squeak, and then let her head drop, at a decent speed, to the desk.
"The phone you lost overboard on the ship? Zola's still going on about that."
"Awww, man!"
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