[X] My Assistant

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

Justin chuckled when Chi-Chi snapped the picture of them and then again when Pan got defensive about it. He graciously accepted the breakfast tacos and headed out, smiling back at Pan as they moved in opposite directions. He hoped it would work out, but as he got closer and closer to his destination, he came to realize that the reason Tina left still applied and Pan didn't seem the type to be dating a professional criminal. He would either have to lie to her, which would surely come back in a bad way, tell her the truth, which would probably make her leave or leave Team Deception altogether. But the money was so good. He was on his way to a job where he would make thousands in just a few days. How could he leave that behind?

The thought made him feel lonely, so he decided to release all three (not including Pinsir, obviously) of his pokemon to walk with him. Out came Hitmontop, Nincada and Bonsly.

"Hey guys," he said as he continued walking and they joined him. Hitmontop was to his right, Bonsly waddled to his left (slowing the rest of the group down, but Justin didn't mind) and Nincada scurried up Justin's leg, tickling him a bit, and rested on his shoulder. "Just wanted to say thanks for being there for me. I know I'm not the greatest trainer in the world, but I'm pretty damn sure I got the best pokemon."

"See?" Hitmontop gloated to Bonsly, "He cares about all of us."

"Me most though!" Nincada insisted. "See look? He's carrying me. Look. See?"

"Oh wow, I forgot how annoying you were," Bonsly sighed.

"I'm not annoying. You're annoying. Dummy. Hi Tyrogue."

"Hey girl," Hitmontop laughed. "I go by Hitmontop now since I evolved. See? Check me out."

"You're upside down. I'm still gonna call you Tyrogue, kay?"

"That's fine,"

"Can I call you Tyrogue?" Bonsly asked sarcastically.

"No,"

"You have to call Tyrogue Hitmontop because he's better than you. Dummy."

"You know, you're starting to hurt my feelings, calling me dummy so much." Bonsly said without sincerity.

"Be nice to Bonsly, alright, Nincada?" Hitmontop said, "He's feeling sad because he doesn't think Justin loves him."

"If he thinks that he very much is a dummy!"

"You know what? That logic's really hard to argue with. You're a dummy, Bonsly."

"Ugh," Bonsly sighed. "Please put me back in my pokeball."

[Toogee]

Pan looked up as Douken rose to the air on his new skarmory. He was turning into a fantastic trainer, able to command a new pokemon to fly him around without much fuss. With nicknames for each of his pokemon, their tight bonds would only improve their skills in battle.

“Alright then, to Petropolis!”

She urged Fenrir forward to begin their journey. The arcanine began with a trot, then sped up into a full on run. The ranch zoomed past them as they went faster and faster, leaving the waving Loch family far behind. Douken flew above them, joining Pan on the journey. Together, they raced towards greater adventures.

The End

“Hey Ron. Your ol’ man's here. He’s waiting in the hatchery.”

At the time, Ronald finished up another broken post for the fence surrounding the tauros pen. Upon hearing the message from a fellow ranch hand, he stopped what he was doing and walked rapidly to the hatchery. Upon entering, activity was fairly normal. The clan of chansey was busy watching little pokemon while a couple of ranch hands were busy repairing incubators and pens. The only other thing that seemed out of place was the black-dressed man standing aside his alakazam. Though his face was entirely concealed behind an eyeless ski mask, Ronald could somehow tell he was happy to see him.

“It is good to see you, my son,” said the robotic voice that emanated from the man.

“You know you shouldn’t be out on days like this. You know what the sun does to you,” Ronald replied, a bit of concern in his voice.

“As you can see, I’m well protected,” said the father, his arms outstretched to show off the black trench coat over the rest of his clothing. “When I heard of the events from last night, I wanted to come see if you were uninjured.”

“Well, I’m fine, as is the egg.”

Ronald opened the incubator beside them, revealing the purple and green spiritomb egg.

“Ah yes. Our master shall be very pleased. He expects great things from the creature within this shell. If you don’t mind, I shall be taking this egg to him directly. Not even this place is safe from unwanted interference.”

The man withdrew a pokeball from his coat, absorbing the egg into the device. Ronald signaled to Joy of the check out. From there, the two continued their conversation, this time in whispers.

“We were attacked by the same people who struck at the warehouses. Black cloaks, white hair, red scarves. Even the pokemon had scarves. What do you make of it?”

At this, the alakazam raised his hands to connect both Ronald and his father. Ronald shared the memories from last night, painting a clearer message of the events. The black-dressed man simply nodded and answered.

“Yes, we obtained one of the suspects from the incident: a large mohawked man. He claims to be part of a group known as the Cult of Darkrai. This attack was an attempt to obtain another spiritomb in their efforts to summon their master into the real world. Crazy as they sound, they were able to get two spiritombs, the parents of this egg, from our warehouses. Needless to say, the master is not pleased.”

“What’s next?” Ronald asked curiously.

“They will not be coming back here. They will try to obtain the nearest odd keystone artifact. That’s in Petropolis. We will be watching their progress carefully. Much as my master dislikes their activities, if they somehow summon a legendary pokemon, we must be ready to capture it, we must remain deceptive. It would be very valuable in furthering the master’s goals.”

The father paused a moment to look back at Ronald, his hand outstretched.

“Good work, Ronald.”

“Oh, don’t thank me,” Ronald said as he reluctantly shook hands. “We had a few visitors. Let’s see…Justin…Douken…and Ms. Gibbs. They’re just now leaving."

The black dressed man walked over to the window, watching curiously as the three departed.

“What does fate have in store for us?” He said to himself, recognizing the names of two of the group members. “May we find out soon enough…”

As the father had an introspective conversation, Ronald interrupted.

“How is everyone back home?”

“Your siblings are just fine, Ronald. Just fine…”