[X] My Assistant

[Dragon Maiden]

Adele nodded her thanks to James as the Sableye unwound the last rag from her face. Stretching her hands, she reveled in the feeling of being able to move freely again. She knew she could count on James to come to rescue. James was a tough and reliable Pokémon and always came through for her in every situation. She patted the Sableye on the head when suddenly the door was kicked in by someone's heel. Adele knew who it was.

Sol entered into the room with a man in tow, a man Adele suspected was the man they had come to rescue. Job completed then... mostly. They still had to get him out of the building.

Sol spoke up, “Are you ready to go?”

Adele thought that was a pretty dumb question. Of course she was ready to go. What was the use of speaking when only stupid questions were asked? Instead of replying she gave a curt nod and scrambled to her feet. First she would save her Pokémon and then she would escape with Sol. It was a simple plan, but one that made sense.

Walking over to the door, Adele poked her head out and looked down both hallways. Turning pleading eyes on James, the Sableye grunted and pointed in the direction of where the grunts stored the Pokémon. Nodding her thanks, Adele ducked around Sol and started running down the halls, her heavy boots thumping all the way. She briefly turned around and gave Sol a look. Gesturing with her head, she tried to persuade him to follow.

[knil1]

Adele nodded in response to Jened's question and stood up. She must've been ready to go. She walked past Sol and looked down the hallways. James pointed in a direction that Adele soon followed. Sol was a little confused as to where she was going, but when she turned and gestured him to follow, he did.

While they ran down the halls he spent most of the time speculating on why they were going this way. James of all of the pokemon would have known where the exit was, so they must be heading in that direction, altough he thought the exit was the other way. He only thought to himself that James had found another exit on this side. Which was a possibility seeing as how none of this part of the building seemed familiar.

Then he noticed her lack of pokemon. Sol foound out exactly what was going on. He wanted to get out of the building soon (although, Harrison was growing whinier by the minute), but Sol was kind of glad he could stay in the base a bit longer.

[Dragon Maiden]

Adele was satisfied when she heard the thump of Sol's feet behind her. She was a bit annoyed as she heard the man they had come to save whining incessantly though. Couldn't he just be glad he wasn't locked away anymore and be happy with that? Whining wouldn't help anyone at the moment.

James struggled to keep up with her. The Sableye's small legs weren't meant for running. James's legs were so short every one of Adele's steps was two of James. The Pokémon was getting tired out. Stopping abruptly, Adele nodded to Sableye. Grinning with relief, James scurried over and perched on her back in her customary spot. As James settled in, Adele began running again, feet pounding against the floorboards.

As they came to each corner, James would point in the direction they needed to head. It felt like hours of running, but suddenly James's hand squeezed Adele's shoulders. Adele stopped where she was when she heard voices coming from the door she was standing in front of.

"Can you believe that girl that broke in had a shiny Pokémon? That one would be worth a lot on the black market... I may just have to..." a girl's voice floated to her ears.

Adele immediately hid herself in the shadows and listened to snippets of the conversation.

"You dolt! Don't steal that Pokémon! Someone will notice if that shiny goes missing and I'll be blamed! Let’s just put it away and get out of here. My lunch break is coming up."

There was mumbling from the girl and then Adele heard footsteps. Looking at Sol she gestured with her head. This was definitely the place and those grunts were just about to walk out the door.

[knil1]

Sol followed Adele as closely as possible. He kept his eyes peeled for any sudden blockades. His uncle whined extraneously and Sol had had about enough of it. He slowed behind Adele to talk to Harrison, who was busy moaning at all of the extra labor he was being put through.

"Could you please stop?" They came to a corner and Sol hugged the wall until Adele took off in another direction.

"Stop what, my dear nephew?"

"Your adorable whining." Sol flashed a very rare smile that implied the greatest amount of sarcasm and unappreciativeness he had to offer.

"Wow. I bet that hurt."

"Damn right it did. Why the moaning? I think by now you've gotten enough attention already."

"Just to make you mad." He smiled endearingly and put his finger on Sol's side in an attempt to tickle him. It failed tremendously.

"Well, it's not going to be good once your whining is the cause of us being caught."

"And?" They came to another cross hall and waited for a direction to follow. In an instant they were off again. "I have my pokémon. They can take on more pokémon than yours can, so fighting a Grunt is no problem of mine."

"I have pokémon too."

"In what health?" He mocked him as they ran.

"Enough health for me to shove my boot up-"

"Uh, I'd rather it not go there."

"Well, I do have one pokémon. She's new. What should I name her? It's a Hoppip." Harrison looked a little shocked.

"Wow, I never knew you were sentimental. How about Amethyst? You can call it Amy for short." Harrison smiled, but different from his normal smile, it seemed slightly sad. Sol's stopped almost immediately, and then remembered he was running almost as quickly as he had forgotten.

"Yeah, Amy is nice." He always became saddened by the mention of his parents, but he was soon to shrug it off. It seemed as if he didn't care, but he really did, he just knew he had to get over it at some point.
Amethyst was the name of his mom's Jumpluff and she had named it that because her name was Amy and she liked having a pokémon that shared the same name as hers. As they ran down the halls, he listened to his keys jingle around his neck.

Then the group stopped as the sound of voices was heard. They all his and watched as two grunts came walking by talking about Adele's pokémon. Once they were gone, Adele gestured for another direction. Her pokémon were about to be rescued.

[Dragon Maiden]

Adele stiffened as the door opened and two grunts walked by. They were still deep in their conversation and didn't even notice her hiding in the shadows. As they walked by and around a corner, Adele released her breath in a whoosh and turned back to why she had come. Slowly and hesitantly she made her way to the room the grunts had just left. As she crept closer, she made sure to keep her ears open for any sound at all that would clue her in that there was anyone inside. The room was deathly silent. Still, as Adele stood in front of the door she couldn't help feeling she wasn't alone.

Peeking around, she stuck her head into the room and looked inside. There were shelves with pokeballs stored on them. This must be where the grunts and others stored their Pokémon. Adele scanned the room once more to make sure it was really empty and then stepped inside. As soon as she took one step inside the door slammed shut behind her. Whirling around, she turned to face the person who had flung the door closed. It was her father.

Silently, Rex locked the door. The moment it took him to put the lock on the door was excruciating. This whole situation was excruciating. As the door locked with an audible click, he turned around to face Adele. "That is to keep your little friend out of here while we talk Adele."

Adele swallowed as her father slowly made his way towards her. The very air was thick with unsaid things. It felt like forever until he was standing directly in front of her. Adele closed her eyes and waited for whatever was coming. She wasn't expecting what did. Before she could react, her father had wrapped her in massive hug. He held her so tight it felt as if she couldn't breathe.

"Why did you do this to me Adele? I was so scared when you left. We couldn't find you. Anything could have happened to you out there on the streets. You're my daughter! How could you put your father through something like that? I love you." His voice was strained from holding back tears.

Adele still couldn't find anything to say. There was too much running through her head. She didn't even have the opportunity to speak because soon her father's demeanor changed drastically. Letting go of his daughter, he scowled and rage made him shake. He ran a hand through his mop of red hair as he tried to control his urge to scream. "How could you do this to me Adele? How could you betray me and join the rebellion? Did you know one of those Pokémon you have was proven to be stolen Magma property? That can get you sent to jail for a very, very long time." he seethed.

Suddenly, he walked across the room and leaned up against the wall. Covering his face with his hands, he said so quietly Adele could barely hear "We can fix this. You're still a minor so I might be able to talk the sentence down to a few months. I have the influence. After you get out you can come home again. We can forget this ever happened. You'll grow up and join Magma and everything will be perfectly fine."

Finally Adele found the strength to talk. "That'll never happen dad."

Rex moaned and then said "I know."

[knil1]

Jened watched as Adele jumped into the room and a man jump in right behind her. Sol ran to the dor and rammed against it, but the click of the lock was heard just before he hit the wooden board.

Harrison looked up in interest and smiled. "Now thingsaren't as boring." He grabbed one of his pokeballs and released his Gengar. "Topaz, I need you to get in there and unlock the door." The ghost looked tired, he hadn't been healed since his brawl with the Magma Grunts pokemon earlier.

The Gengar nodded and walked through the door. Harrison looked at Sol, "I'll hold the man, you get the girl and I'll be right after you." Sol nodded in response.

Once the handle clicked, Sol's uncle thrust the door open and found the man. He pinned him against the wall before he could do anything. Sol yelled for Adele, "Quick, grab your pokemon and let's go!"

Jened looked through the hallways hurriedly and found te exit. When he believed Adele had her pokemon, he yelled again, "Harrison, we're leaving!" Then running could be heard coming down the hallway. Topaz reappeared next to Sol and cast a Shadow Ball down the hall, causing the building to collapse, leaving a barrier between the two groups.

Harrison jumped out of the room and the group ran down the hallway, hopefully approaching an available exit.

[Dragon Maiden]

Adele gasped as the door was broken down and the man they had rescued pinned her father to the wall. Obviously he had no idea who this man was in the least. Best to keep it that way. She couldn't allow her family background to jeopardize this mission. Throwing an apologetic look at her bewildered father, Adele hurried over to the shelves where the pokeballs were stored. She fumbled along the shelves, looking for the ones that were hers.

Her hurrying made her fumble. It took more then a minute of frantic searching to find the pokeballs that were hers. She always marked her pokeballs with the letter A just for such an occasion, so she would know which were hers as quickly as possible. James helped her look for the pokeballs from her perch on her back, between the two of them, they were able to locate them all and replace them to her pocket. As the final pokeball landed in her pocket she heard Sol scream to them "Harrison, we're leaving!"

She looked over at the man that was pinning her father to the wall. Her father's face had turned from bewildered to blue. Perhaps Harrison had been a little overzealous with the pinning. "Drop him before you choke him and let’s get out of here!" Adele said urgently.

The truth was her urgency was more focused on the fact that her father's face was blue then they needed to get out of here in a hurry. No matter if she and her father differed in viewpoint, she didn't want to see him standing there, having the life choked out of him. She loved him. How could it be otherwise? He was a Magma member. He wasn't even here biological father, and yet she loved him despite all these things. She was the one who had raised her along with her mother. There was no possible way she couldn't have loved him.

Before she could look at her father's blue face again Adele dashed from the room. She was afraid she would punch Harrison in the face if she saw him hurt her father for any longer. She couldn't afford to do that. That would be an irrational display of emotion that would portray weakness.

Adele loped off after Sol as quickly as her legs could follow. The whole time James pointed out hallways towards the nearest exit. It was only a minute that passed till James was pointing frantically at a door that looked just like any other. Adele wasn't sure whether Sol had already gone through or had accidentally run ahead but she didn't have time to consider. The ruckus they had made while retrieving her Pokémon was bound to attract attention.

She burst through the door and found herself standing outside in an alleyway. Blinking, she took in a deep breath of fresh air and smiled for the briefest moment when she knew no one was watching. It felt great to be free, but there was still more to do. She wasn't out of the woods yet. In response to this thought, Adele heard a voice behind her. "Well, well. If it isn't Ms. Snobby herself."

Adele whirled around and glanced blankly at Brianna. The girl was lounging against the wall, a look of bored indifference on her face. She held between her fingers a cigarette. She raised it to her lips and took one deep breath before blowing out the smoke and giving Adele a hard glare. "I know, I know. I'm too young to be smoking and these things will kill me. I've heard it all, but I don't care. It's my break anyway. I shouldn't have to care during my break, but seeing as you're here.... I suppose that means I'll have to stop you."

Brianna smiled lazily. "Ready for a rematch princess?"

[knil1]

"Where is she? I thought she was right behind us." Harrison was running back through the halls frantically. The door behind him slammed open and Jened stormed in while cold night air flowed in.

"I thought you said she was right behind YOU." Sol followed his uncle and soon passed him, getting annoyed with both his and his uncle's performance. "I'll go this way, just look for other doors."

Harrison ran down the hallway opposite of his nephew and Sol ran West. After a long time of running he found that he had backtracked to where he left the Grunts and the man. He hid behind the corner and watched as the barricade they had created was slowly taken apart.

"I saw them go to the right!" The grunts argued until they finally decided which direction the group had gone. Sol rerleased Ardaine and Caie and listened as everyone in the hallway next to him hushed. He could hear the shuffle of feet as he told Ardaine to prepare ember and Caile to get ready to use Supersonic. He held them facing behind him and ran across the hall. The Grunts all followed him down the left. As they followed, the pokemons attacks slowed them down severely, yet they still continued to follow him. Soon enough he had lost the Grunts and he was positive they had no idea where he was.

Sol soon ran into his uncle, who looked tattered and beat up. "Ran into a Grunt, I didn't really want to use my pokemon."He smiled proudly. Harrison reported that he hadn't been able to find a door, and Sol had only distracted a bunch of grunts. They walked out the door close to them and found Adele and another trainer, preparing for a battle.