[X] My Assistant

[Kamaitachi]

The Magma Fatigues did not suit him. No, they did not suit him at all. Kanoa scratched idly at his uniform. It was a little too form fitting, and rested too tightly against his skin. It really didn't compliment his slender build in the least, since he had little to no musculature. He had been a skateboarder, and it really showed. His ex-boyfriend had constantly chided him for looking like a heroine addict, but it was just because he was skinny (and had veiny arms.)

Kanoa had attempted to calm his wild hair, so he could wear the uniform, but opted instead to go with the red hood (and secretly wore his black beanie underneath.) Despite his attempts at shaving, the five o'clock shadow persisted, and he looked fairly scruffy. Hopefully, the Brass would be okay with that. After studying himself over and over again in the mirror, he decided he really didn't like the look, and would be much more comfortable wearing street clothes, but with something of a dutiful sigh, he remembered that he'd signed up for this. Perhaps Aqua or the Rebellion got better uniforms. He somewhat regretted his decision to join Magma on a whim. (Yes, over the uniform.)

He'd received the e-mail that morning to meet up outside of The Keep in order to receive his first, low-ranking mission. Naturally, he had no idea at all what it is, but his recruiter, Lennox, had told him that it was nice that he'd be receiving a mission, especially with the bare modicum of training that Kanoa had received. He was to be partnered with a fellow peon, and then made to do some menial, horrible task, of course, but it would be a way to gain rank if he and his partner completed it well. He wished in the back of his mind that he would not be paired with some jerk. Last time, he'd be Big Chief (Julian Dreggs), and secretly hoped that it would be him. The other people he'd met at the fancy party didn't seem to like him very much at all, or even pay any attention to him, so he kinda hoped that he wouldn't be paired with any of them either.

So there he stood, outside of the Keep, and really bored out of his mind as several other Magma Operatives of various rank, size and shape passed by, sometimes ignoring him, sometimes offering a friendly or dutiful nod. He'd respectfully give a little head-bow back to them, but these non-verbal instances of communication were so brief, he didn't quite know how his little bows were being read. Magma seemed kinda...rigid.

He stood somewhat at attention, but really just wanted to slip his hands into his pockets and slouch, but with his proximity to the Keep, he figured it would be ill-advised to appear slovenly beyond his appearance.

Hopefully his partner and the briefing officer would show up soon.


(bogartedit: you spelled Warehouse wrong, so I thought I'd help. You can edit this out once you've seen it!)

[Kranic]

A solitary woman walked, all dressed in red and black. She walked tensely, concisely paying attention to her every step, her every sway, her twitch, she paid thorough attention to each and every movement. She moved slowly and her nervousness became more and more obvious. She sighed and looked down to her uniform. It consisted of a few key items: A black one piece which cut was high enough to give ample image of her thighs, a red hooded shawl, which worked like a shirt for the outfit, despite not covering much asides from her breasts and her shoulders, a pair of red and black gloves, with matching stylized pair of boots. And a red belt, mandatory in the uniform. In essence, it was a basic female Magma uniform.

The woman pondered as she looked at her clothing. Was this really the right way to go? Yes. She had already decided. This was what she was going to do; it was too late to go back anyways. Her sudden resolve gave her confidence, but that confidence fell as she thought more into the issue.

“This is my first mission… and I’m partnered up with someone.”

She again sighed and thought back to the beginning of the day and the message that would outline today’s day. It came from one her superiors and defined the details of receiving her first mission and some other minor details. The idea of working with someone frightened her. She wasn’t well trained and she feared that despite being a newbie much like herself, this other magma grunt may have been much better fitted for the job and thoroughly embarrass her in their superiority. She shook her head violently trying to get these thoughts out her head.

“It’s going to be fine Estelle, don’t worry. Any mistakes you make will be expected. It isn’t that important.”

In trying to reason herself out of her nervousness, she looked up and spotted a black dot. She smiled and waved toward the speckle. The speck flew down eventually forming the shape similar to that of a bird. It flew onto the girl’s shoulder, eventually evidently becoming a Murkrow. Estelle rubbed at the bird’s hatlike feathers and then let it go fly off to its previous position. She smiled and nodded.

“There is nothing to worry about.”

That being said, her anxiety wasn’t gone, but she did feel a little better.

Finally Estelle reached the Keep. She looked about to see if she could find her apparent Partner and soon became disappointed when she saw Kanoe. He was fairly young, short and most of all a twig, especially in comparison to her own age, incredible height, and slightly profuse frame. Before approaching the boy, she let out a sigh of relief, understanding that he couldn’t fit some of the fears that she held earlier, further increasing her confidence. Finally, she walked over to the boy and smiled,

“I’m assuming your Kanoa then. My name is Estelle, I’m assuming you’re my partner.”

[Kamaitachi]

An amazon approached him. Well, perhaps not an honest to goodness Amazon, but a tall, powerfully built woman decked out in the intimidating threads of a female Magma operative. Kanoa tilted his head slightly as she drew closer, trying to figure out why such a woman would stoop to approaching him at all.

Unless...

Unless SHE was his partner.

Well that certainly made things much easier. For his very first mission, he'd get to play wingman to this buxom woman, and perhaps he could ride on her coattails a bit. She seemed confident (At least in comparison to him), and even introduced herself with assumptions.

"I'm assuming you're Kanoa then. My name is Estelle. I'm assuming you're my partner."

There were no questions in her introduction, just short sentences.

"Double right." Kanoa's cheeky lopsided grin appeared as he extended a hand to her. "Nice to meetchya." He made sure to cease scratching himself in all the itchy spots, and to maintain eye contact with her. The scratching out of respect, but he figured that in dealing with fellow operatives, he should at least maintain the eye contact so as not to appear weak. "Wow, you're lucky they told you my name. They didn't give me even the slightest hint as to who my partner would be." He looked her up and down once, with a content smile. She seemed a mite more experienced than him, which was good. Hopefully she'd keep him in check from letting his mind and objectives wander too frequently.

"Uh...so...we're supposed to investigate one of the Warehouses over in the Suburban District...cuz...uh...the brass thinks there's some suspicious activity going on there. They obviously don't think it's too important, else they wouldn't be sending a first timer like me, ya know?" He placed his hands behind his head, slouching a little bit as he smiled at her. "But, man, you look like you can handle yourself. I'll try my best not to piss you off, right?"

[Ganymede]

Halfway across the city, in the shadow of Groudon's Thumb, lay a mostly-abandoned warehouse plot. The plot, like most that had been built within the city itself and not near the water, had been commandeered shortly after Magma's rise - usually from those charming little mom-and-pop stores everyone loved. The very spot that the rather small Warehouse Tango Alpha Gamma now stood had once been the site of a little candy store; back when Tango was functional, the workers would joke about finding ancient gum wrappers and fossilized chocolate bars in the john.

That age too had long since passed. Magma built bigger and more secure warehouses in other parts of the city, the workers had been moved to different jobs, and all but one of the buildings on the plot had been locked down. Until the higher-ups found a use for the now-empty space, the warehouses stood in a somber cluster, silent and empty.

Until about two months ago.

■

"No."

If the warehouse had still been empty - save for the tightly-locked Officer's Room, still occupied by boxes full of paperwork, blank cards, and the ghost of coffee - the soft voice would have echoed off the walls. Now, however, it was barely audible over the whisper of leaves rustling together. The floor had been torn out; pieces of concrete now lined the shadowed walls and corners of the large room. A particular corner had the pieces arranged just so, forming a sort of anteroom accessible only through a small gap. The 'room' had a large, crumbling mattress laid down inside, with a ratty quilt thrown haphazardly over the top. At some point the quilt may have been a bright, colourful thing; now it was only a scrap of greyish-brown cloth.

Across the main room one of the pillars that held up the roof had been collapsed, ripping a hole in the ceiling of the warehouse. Where the pillar had once been was now a small white tree, looking quite thin but obviously strong enough to survive the weak light coming in from above. Next to the tree was a bush, and next to that was a small pool of water. Sitting on the pillar was a pile of washed-out grey rags.

The rags stirred.

"No. Not there. Left, maybe. Over the bed." The words were soft but concise, aimed at a small group of Bug-Pokemon on the walkway above the mezzanine. They were holding a small chunk of concrete rather clumsily; most of it was covered in a thin, sticky film. At the sound of the voice, the Weedle angrily dropped his corner of the concrete, doing the best impression of a scowl that he could. The Caterpie next to him let out a little sigh.

"Apis, please. Don't like getting wet. Neither do you. Help?" Spider's grey-blue eyes peeked through his pale hair, trying to meet the Weedle's angry glare in what he hoped was a pleading look. "Very important. Don't want to make Aporia do all the work."

At this, the Weedle's attention was caught. He glanced at the sad-looking Caterpie next to him, and then at the Spinarak on the other side of the concrete. Theridon nodded, struggling to keep both the piece from crashing on the walkway and his balance. After a moment's hesitation, Apis picked up his end of the piece and the three began to make their slow way left.

Spider smiled. He'd save his precious friends the work and move the concrete himself, but the stairs leading from the mezzanine to the walkway had long since rusted away; Theridon's silk, while strong, was nowhere near durable enough to lift Spider's admittedly laughable weight. Hopefully the Spinarak would evolve soon - work renovating the warehouse would be easier once Spider could access the walkway. For now, though, he could only watch as the three tried to give his bedroom a shelter from the rain.

"When done, we could get some honey," he mused out loud. Aporia's antennae perked up and the bugs stopped for a moment. Honey was a rare treat - only the higher-ups in the Hive were treated to it, as the Queen owned the Vespiquen and Combee that made it. The first thing Spider had done when he escaped was to squander his few Poke on treating the cluster to a single jar of honey, taking small, slow gulps to savour the rich sweetness. Even the mere mention got the gears turning - Apis, Aporia, and Theridon hurriedly picked up the pace, nearly sending Apis flying off the walkway in their rush.

The last two months had been like this - calm and pleasant, a vast change from the harsh life in the underground cult. Even though he was in a city gripped by a secret war, Spider had found a haven - and peace.

Two Magma agents were about to ruin that wholly.

[Kranic]

“I guess the higher ups just like me. It doesn’t make a big difference since they were pretty vague with my directions as well. ”

Estelle shrugged. She couldn’t honestly believe that her façade actually worked, so wonderfully. The boy couldn’t even pick up the slightest bit of nervousness in her; in fact, he actually began to look up to her. This confirmed that her fear of an outstanding partner was unnecessary, as the boy proved to be particularly pathetic. Estelle soon fell into more disappointment as she realized what a dweeb her partner turned out to be. She considered whether or not she should tell the kid about this being her first mission or not. It would probably break his morale if she told him so and if she didn’t tell him, she would probably be forced into a leading position and with her experienced, and that too wasn’t a good idea. Looking at the boy’s face directly, she couldn’t help but admit that he did have an adorable smile. She then decided that she would continue her façade, despite her nervousness.

“Be sure not to.”

[Kamaitachi]

Well things were looking brighter by the minute. Kanoa had just met his partner, who was tall, confident, and apparently commanded attention in her walk alone. Add the fact that the brass had purportedly taken a favour to her...well...the mission was sure to be easy as cake.

In the back of his mind, he wondered where he'd gotten the notion that they'd be investigating a Warehouse. Perhaps it had been in the e-mail after all? Who knew.

As if on cue, his old recruiter, now superior officer, Lennox, appeared. The man walked with a serious gait today, as if perhaps the mission he was about to debrief the two grunts on was truly a difficult and meaningful one. He approached the two and bade them to stand at ease before any motions were even made. Kanoa wasn't even sure if he was supposed to stand at attention to Lennox, who had constantly urged Kanoa to regard him as a friend and mentor, despite never showing signs of either.

Maybe Lennox had more important things on his mind, but regardless of the reason, he seemed to whiz right through the mission briefing. It was, in fact, the investigation of a warehouse. The now virtually unused Warehouse Tango Alpha gamma had reports of suspicious activity in its vicinity. Notified by the latest patrol that the activity had continued, the figured they'd send in some expendables some low level grunts to break their teeth in. The secondary objective was to obtain several blank cards that would later be turned into ID cards. This was perhaps the only useful thing the warehouse now held.

He did not go into detail as to where such things would be kept in the place, or even if they were still there. Common sense would have to be the judge. Before Kanoa could even say by, Lennox gave the duo a stern nod and hurried off.

"...Bye Lennox." Kanoa waved idly towards the back of the man. With the briefing, well, brief, Kanoa turned to Estelle, smiling.

"Alright Miss Roy, shall we deploy?" Without really waiting for a response, he began moving in the direction of the Keep's train station, moving at an excited, but not quick pace.

* * *

Kanoa had chatted away on train ride into town. Since the Keep was located outside of the city, it seemed odd that they would call the two out of Noverus, only to send them back in. Perhaps this was just how grunts were treated, or maybe it really was just a backburner operation on the back of Lennox's mind. Anyhow, Kanoa had made several attempts at conversation, but nothing pokemon related. Books, music, the type of men Estelle went for (never once implying that he was in any way a candidate), amongst whatever else came to mind. He avoided asking her personal questions right off the bat, saving that for when they were out of the train and walking towards the suburbs.

"So, what brought you to Noverus? I kinda came here on a whim, so I haven't figured anything out yet, really. 'Nfact, I just kinda joined Magma on a whim." He looked at her almost eagerly to hear her response.

Though, while she responded, the row of Warehouses just at the edge of the Suburban district would start to appear, and they'd have to search through the nearly identical lanes to fine the one in question.

[Kranic]

Shortly after Estelle’s arrival, it seemed one of her many superiors made their way to debrief her and Kanoe. He seemed a bit serious a bit serious before explaining the mission, but when it finally came time to explain, he moved through it quickly, ignoring some very useful information, going against his solemn attitude from beforehand. Estelle assumed he was probably preoccupied with something else and the briefing was just an annoying task he had to complete. She gave it little mind and quietly listened as he explained the mission. Once the man left, Estelle stared in surprise as Kanoa seemed to try and casually say goodbye to their superior. She quickly hid the expression on her face as the boy looked over to her.

“Alright Miss Roy, shall we deploy?”

The boy then walked off, leaving Estelle to follow behind. The woman curiously looked at the boy; he was certainly interesting, although not in an entirely positive manner. She grew curious about his actions and what could possibly be his reasons behind it. Did he have some type of special relationship with that superior from before or was he really that absent minded or could it be that he has some type of plan behind his absent mindedness? She couldn’t help but believe that the second was the most likely, but she couldn’t help but wonder.
Estelle followed the boy’s track and eventually the two found themselves on the train, chatting about some minor topics. Eventually the question arose about how Estelle ended up in Noverus, she smiled before answering,

"I was born here."
Estelle followed with a simple shrug. She then added onto the sentence, expecting a second question.

"...and well, in till recently, I was pretty wealthy, so I never really had much of a reason to leave. I would have probably left right away and try to find a living for myself, but being a part of Team Magma changed things a bit.”

That last bit was a bold face lie. Estelle knew very well there wasn’t anything left for her to do but join one of Noverus various factions. She had already looked for a career, long before she lost her fortune, and nothing came up that she found fitting and even if she did find something fitting, she would have never left. There was too much in Noverus for her to just leave, there was much too much for her to learn.

Once she finished her sentence, she thought back to the reason why Kanoe joined Team Magma and felt a particular sadness. He was really naïve and not too fit to be part of any of the Factions in Noverus. He seemed to be the type that could be easily abused. If she was a kinder person, Estelle would advise the boy into leaving Team Magma, but it wasn’t her place. She didn’t join Team Magma to help people. She joined Team Magma to help herself. If she was caught trying to convince a newbie into leaving Team Magma, thing wouldn’t turn out good for her. She couldn’t risk her livelihood in Team Magma just for the sake of one kid.

“So, Kanae, where did you come from?”

Just as Estelle finished her question, she noticed it was time for the two to depart. She rose from her seat and proceeded into her next comment.

“Looks like it’s time to get to work, I guess I’ll just have to ask you some questions later.”

This post has been edited by Kranic: Oct 31 2010, 03:18 AM

[Kamaitachi]

"So, Kanae, where did you come from?" He winced as she butchered his name. Really, it wasn't that hard. He was just about to answer with a solid "Hearthome, Sinnoh", when she cut him off with her net comment.

"Looks like it's time to get to work, I guess I'll just have to ask you some questions later."

"Uh...okay." Kanoa sighed as he slumped his shoulders back, sliding his hands into his uncomfortable Magma pants. Some part of his brains had simply figured that the pants themselves would be made of magma, but that would've been far more irritating than the current threads. Polyester, or Poly-alloy...or polycarbonate. Carbonite. The pants were made of carbonite. Pants train of thought aside, he figured it wise to keep a means of contacting his partner, and wondered why, in all honesty, he hadn't done that upon their initial contact.

"Uh, 'Stelle." He dropped the opening "Eh" of her name in a half-hearted attempt to give her a nickname. However, he found that he rather enjoyed the sound of 'Stelle'. "We should register each other in our gear, in case we get separated."

The two would naturally take a moment to do that, hopefully. If not? Oh well. Regardless of the outcome, Kanoa would somewhat enthusiastically bound ahead, looking at all the signs on the various buildings for any indication that there was a Warehouse with the name: "Tango Alpha gamma." He pondered for a moment why Magma had chosen to jump between Military lingo and the greek alphabet (The only one really bridging the two being "Alpha"). He figured that with Magma's resources, they probably had a lot more warehouses than any three-letter code could name, so they'd switched it up to produce more combinations. If one did some fantastic math involving permutations, factorials, 26 and 3, they'd probably come up with the exact number of combinations, but Kanoa himself didn't quite have the mind for that. His earlier chatter had died down, as he attempted to be somewhat professional on this leg of the mission. Even his occasional spurts of movement, be they a quick jump up onto some bench or fence, or even just a small dash forward to read a sign, caused him to lose some of his professional veneer. He nonetheless ceased conversation with Estelle in his quest to find the Warehouse.

Eventually, after what felt like a decent amount of time, he stopped in front of one particular warehouse and pointed at it, much like a pointer-dog points in the direction of prey, except with his finger and not his nose.

"'Stelle, I found it." He beamed proudly as he pointed to the sign. Sure enough, it had the word "Tango", followed by the symbols for Alpha and gamma. "Uh...how do we get in?"

[Ganymede]

The trio had finally made it to the portion of mesh that hung above Spider's bedroom, dropping the concrete with obvious relief. Apis immediately crawled over to Aporia, checking the Caterpie for any signs of stress. Theridon left the two and skittered to the edge of the walkway, lowering himself down on a finely-woven strand of silk. Once his front legs touched the soft dirt floor, the Spinarak moved swiftly, pulling himself up the fallen pillar and into Spider's lap. The boy gently patted the area just behind the Pokemon's head, watching as Apis and Aporia made their way to the floor. Apis looked the part of the perfect gentleman, scanning the dirt for even the tiniest hazard his beloved Aporia could injure herself on. The Caterpie, on the other hand, looked as though she could care less - with the insect equivalent of a sigh, she moved into the now-darkened bedroom and curled up in a corner.

"Don't want to get honey with us?" Spider questioned, standing up. Theridon moved up to his shoulder, wriggling under his hair to hide in the shawl's hood. "Won't be long. Store nearby. Won't be noticed-"

Spider froze, his near-white eyes widening slightly. Theirdon had stopped moving around and was now perfectly still, clinging to Spider's neck. Voices, faint but unmistakable, wafted in from the hole in the ceiling. "Not unused, after all," the pale boy murmured, beginning to move slowly towards his bedroom. If the mystery people managed to get the door unlocked (in addition to an ancient, rusted lock, the door was tightly sealed with silk), they'd have no problem realising that the warehouse was not abandoned. Although Spider had designed the space to be as natural as possible, it was clear that human hands had been involved.

There wasn't enough time for Spider to take his usual exit - a small hole in the side of a building a collapsed pipe had created - and besides, it was too close to the door. Barricading himself in his bedroom would be his best hope of avoiding discovery; or, at the very least, launching a decent counter-attack. He felt a pang of sadness as he ducked into the small room. Spider and the trio had spent so long building the warehouse into a home, and no matter the outcome of the next few minutes, he'd have to leave. He couldn't risk the police - or worse, the two warring organisations within the city - coming in to investigate.

Pulling a ripped towel across the entrance to the room, Spider sat and waited.

This post has been edited by Haunted: Nov 29 2010, 08:47 PM

[Kamaitachi]

Kanoa had been somewhat bouncy, anxious to get the mission fully under way. With almost a playful skip in his step, he bounded about the outside of the warehouse, searching for a way to enter. He gleefully avoided the front door, as that was the natural way to enter. As this was a Team Magma mission, he figured he would do something nifty. Raising his eyes upwards, he saw the fairly dilapidated windows at the top 'floor' of the warehouse, but that proved silly, seeing as there was no way to get up there. Skorupii might've been able to scale the wall, crawling sideways...but Skorupii was a scorpion, and as far as Kanoa was concerned, Scorpions didn't climb walls. That would be in the job description of spiders, as well as most other insects.

With something of a disappointed sigh, he faced the front door and gave its handle a little tug. Then another little tug. Then a heftier tug. His tugs proved of little use in opening the door.

"Well. It's locked." He muttered "Naturally, Lennox didn't equip us with any keys. I'll go scout around the building!" His cheerful, upbeat step returning, Kanoa essentially took off in a skip around the side of the building. Before long, he discovered a small hole in the side of the building. It was small enough for a small child to crawl through, so Kanoa figured he'd try his luck. He got down onto his belly and army crawled forward, then wormed his way further in, then wiggled around a bit.

He took a moment to take in the surroundings of the inside of the warehouse. It was wide, and open, as most warehouses were, with a few boxes strewn hitherto. Were Kanoa a more observant sort, he might've noted how the placement of things seemed a little unnatural, and that it in fact appeared that a person had lived there. Fortunately for Spider, Kanoa was not a more observant sort. He merely chalked up the odd array of the various boxes and concrete had been placed in their arrangement through carelessness, and poor organizational skills. He didn't notice that any of the silk string around him was recent; he thought it all to be cobwebs from the warehouse falling into disuse.

He pumped a victory fist at his entry. His first mission was going smoothly, after all. His next step would be to open the door for Estelle. It didn't make much sense to have the taller woman crawl through such a small space (and in truth, she seemed the sort who would be rather off-put by the idea). After taking a second to push his shaggy brown locks from his eyes, he made his way to the door.

It appeared that there was more cobweb silk on the door...except that it seemed more calculatingly placed, as if to function as a second lock. Knowing how sticky those threads could be, Kanoa opted to summon one of his pokemon. In a flash of light, his scorpion, Skorupii, appeared. As always, the bug pokemon looked angry, but perhaps it was merely its slanted eyes. He clacked about in a sort of flamenco dance as he appeared, his eyes forming something that resembled a smile. Surely if he'd had a mouth, it'd be easier to read.

"Skorupii, would you please remove these threads?" Kanoa knelt down next to his companion, patting his head softly, obviously not minding that it was the slick carapace of a bug. The pokemon clacked his claws in response, and with its tail and pincers, set about removing the thread. Within moments he had finished the job. Kanoa thought better of recalling Skorupii, as he realized by now that the silk threads meant that some insect pokemon were out and about. He unlocked the door and gave it a push, opening the warehouse to his partner, Estelle.

"Now then...let's find those ID cards. The place itself seems...well...pretty deserted."

[Ganymede]

They were in. Inside his sanctuary, his home. Theridon's opithosoma shook rapidly and Spider gently brushed one of the arachnid's legs, trying to calm him down. Aporia had crawled into a small silk nest Apis had made for her earlier, zig-zagging the entry with wet string. Directly below the nest Apis clung to the wall, the horn on his tail pointed straight out, ready to spew poison at the first person who dared come near his precious love. Spider himself sat on his bed, stock-still, trying to discern what the people wanted. With any luck they'd leave soon to give the four enough time to escape unnoticed.

"Now then...let's find those ID cards. The place itself seems...well...pretty deserted."

Good. The drone had been fooled. The only problem was that he was bonded to a Skorupi. Spider still remembered Scorpion's betrayl; the pained, almost manic look on his face as he dragged Centipede back down the tunnel, his terrifyingly calm voice telling them of his deed. Of the four children only Spider had made it to freedom. Thanks to Scorpion, Centipede and Moth were probably dead. A whole cell gone, just to be the Queen's plaything.

Forgetting himself for just a moment was all that was necessary. Leaning slightly backwards, Spider's eyes widened as he lost balance and fell onto the mattress. Theridon, already tense and now in danger of being crushed, let out a terrified shriek and leapt off Spider's back, scuttling into the warehouse proper. Spider threw all stealth aside - now he would have to attack.

"String!" Spider shouted, watching as Theirdon scrambled to find his target before twisting his body around, aiming his spinnerets at the drone's Skorupi. A line of soft yet strong silk shot out, catching a glimmer of light from the roof-hole as it arced towards the other Bug Pokemon. Knowing that Apis and Aporia were unlikely to join him, Spider ran for the door and grabbed the large bar in the middle, heaving it shut before the other drone could enter.

[Kamaitachi]

Kanoa just about leaped out of his skin as a little white haired kid fell from the ceiling.

"Holy Balls!" he essentially shrieked, instinctively hopping to one side as Spider dashed past him. As he turned back to the scene, he noted that Skorupii was now entangled in the same string that he'd found on the doorknob. "Uh...uh...Skorupii...Pin Missile!" He yelled. Without having to move, Skorupii pointed his tail and claws at the offending Spider Pokemon and fired off a barrage of needles, flying dangerously towards the enemy pokemon.

He then turned his attention to the White Haired boy who'd led the charge.

"Man I hope you're not Aqua, kid." He blinked at what appeared to be a small child, much shorter than him. He bent over at almost a 90 degree angle, peering back upwards towards the kid's face. "'Cuz if you are, I don't know if I can take you. It's only my first mission." He flipped the hood back to scratch his messy brown hair as he reared back up to his full, slouched, height "But if we're fighting, then take it easy on me, okay?"

Kanoa then proceeded to curse himself silently for such an honest admission of his inexperience. He was good at lying, but that was only to superiors who were trying to catch him in the act of making trouble. But here he was admitting to the enemy that ambushed him that he hadn't really had any experience as a Magma grunt, and that he really didn't know what he was doing.

At the very least, something exciting was happening on the mission now. He crossed his fingers and hoped that it turn out okay. He wasn't asking for Stellar or Amazing...just Okay.

[Ganymede]

Spider's pale eyes narrowed. Why would the drone admit his incompetence? Was he trying to fail? Jumping on top of the fallen pillar, Theridon angrily shook out most of the pins from his body, quivering as he waited for another command. Spider was already forming a plan - if he could incapacitate all of the drone's Pokemon, it would give the foursome a chance to escape. He just needed to get Aporia - wherever she went, Apis followed.

"Constrict." At the sound of Spider's whisper-light voice the arachnid sprung into action. He crawled onto the side of the pillar, aiming his spinnerets once again at the Skorupi. This time, however, the silk was not light - it was heavy, intending to stop the opposition instead of simply slow it. While Theridon was busy Spider quickly ran to the left, making his way to a stack of cardboard boxes he hadn't yet picked clean. He pushed the stack over, hoping to at least inconvenience the drone while he made a dash for his bedroom.

His mind raced as he blew the towel back, reaching into the silk next before either of the two worm-like Pokemon could react. Lifting them both out, he tried to think of a way out as the two crawled underneath his shawl. The other drone was still outside; the door was out. The one inside had entered through his tunnel, which was next to the door. Unless he suddenly grew wings, he couldn't get out of the roof-hole. The window in the decrepit bathroom was both too small and too thick to break, and the window in the door on the other wall had wires behind it...

...The other door. Spider knew, from how the outside of the building looked, that there was probably a room there. Hopefully with a large, easily-breakable window. The only problem was that the door was locked, the metal rusted shut. Still, he had to give it a shot. Theridon wouldn't last forever, and under no circumstances would Spider allow himself to be caught.

"No choice," he murmured, going back into the fray.

[Kamaitachi]

Kanoa wasn't quite sure how to battle the bug pokemon spitting string at his Skorupii, and he was also pretty sure that this wasn't an officiated league battle by any means...that meant he didn't quite have to follow all the rules, and not following rules was something at which Kanoa excelled.

"Budew, Shroomish, you're up!" The two small plant pokemon appeared in a flash of light, dangerously outnumbering the spider they were facing. The latter of the two sparkled with an odd light as he appeared, his deep red spots glinting in the limited sunlight. Both pokemon seemed almost opposite one another: One was all smiles and cheer, whereas the other looked quite dour.

"Shroomish, Helping Hand! Budew, Stun Spore! Skorupii, uh...Acupressure!" The Scorpion's tail lashed downwards, striking himself in the back of his shell. Effectively, it cut some of the heavy string constricting him, and also served to raise his defense by hardening said carapace.

Meanwhile, Kanoa's shroomish danced about merrily on his tiny little stub-feet. He glowed for a moment, before it seemed to seep out the top of his head. The glow floated over to his partner, Budew, who accepted it heartily before firing off a noxious cloud of green spores towards the enemy Spinarak.

He then noticed that the kid was running back, and Kanoa took up a defensive stance, in case the kid chose to attack him directly.

"Hey, uh, kid! I'm really not trying to hurt you, you know? You attacked me first!" his voice sounded a bit pleading; perhaps he'd gotten in over his head? On his very first mission? This was going to be a little messed up.

[Ganymede]

Theridon let out another high-pitched shriek as the cloud of green spores encased him, sending short, intense tremors throughout his body. Part of the training back in the Hive had been throwing off staus effects, but the spider Pokemon had never been too good at that. Struggling to free himself, Theridon only managed to dislodge himself from the pillar, falling dangerously close to the pond.

Spider, who had been making his way to a smaller chunk of concrete leaning on the wall next to the office door, heard Theridon's cry and abruptly turned. The drone had sent out two more Pokemon, both Grass-types. He wasn't playing fair, but Spider was used to that injustice - the scar on his face a testament to that. Weta had taken every chance she could to attack her cluster, often with all of her Pokemon while everyone else was asleep. Coming to a stop, Spider decided to change the game. Reaching under his shawl, he pulled out Apis and Aporia, the former looking like he was about to start stinging randomly.

"Please help," Spider murmured, setting the two on the ground. The Weedle immediately struck out, a multitude of small, poisonous barbs lacing the air around the Shroomish and Budew. Aporia, ever the more conservative one, shuffled behind Spider's foot and let out a pitiful String Shot that fell just short of three feet. Spider sighed.

"Effort," he grumbled, picking up the Caterpie and moving her next to Apis. While those two were fighting, Spider ran over to the pond and picked up Theridon, cursing himself for not storing up berries. Holding the paralysed arachnid he made his way back to the office door and, with some difficulty, managed to push the concrete block next to it sideways. With a loud, resonating crash the block fell, neatly snapping off the door's lock - and the knob. Spider kicked the door in, sending a wave of important-looking papers sweeping across the floor. Sure enough, he could see a large window in the back, unguarded by wires or bars.

"Almost there."

[Kamaitachi]

Kanoa blinked owlishly as a barrage of poisonous needles flew threw the air. Shroomish and Budew shrieked in pain as the suffered the brunt of it. Then he found himself almost laughing at the impotent string shot from the little Caterpie. However, he watched as the white haired kid broke into the office (Rather ingeniously at that), and decided to give chase. Scooping up Skorupii from the string, he raced into the room afterwards. "Uh, Shroomish, Budew, keep'em busy! Double Stun Spore!"

His two grass pokemon shook themselves rapidly, unleashing more clouds of the paralyzing green spores in the direction of the two larvae pokemon.

Kanoa skidded into the room, still clutching Skorupii to his chest. This effectively put him in between Spider and his two bug pokemon, which was potentially a dangerous place to be. This was probably a tactical error, but Kanoa hadn't yet realized it.

"Kid, stop. You attacked me, so I wanna stop the fight. Can we chill for a hot sec? Please?"

[Ganymede]

Puffing out the front half of his body, Apis valiantly pushed Aporia behind him as the yellow cloud drifted overhead, sending painful ripples through both insects. Apis squeezed his eyes shut and prepared to launch another Poison Sting, opening his eyes just in the nick of time - Aporia was approaching the other Pokemon! Letting out a cry he shot forward, curling around his beloved protectively...only to blink stupidly as Aporia simply crawled over him, looking the very height of bored. She was soon standing before the Budew and Shroomish, and, wiggling her antennae and ignoring the fit Apis was pitching, held out a single, sticky leg in truce.

She was way to tired to fight, after all.


"Kid, stop. You attacked me, so I wanna stop the fight. Can we chill for a hot sec? Please?"

Great. The drone had followed him inside the room. Hopefully Apis and Aporia would finish off his Pokemon soon and attack from behind - with Theridon the state he was in, there'd be no battling in the small room. Right now Spider had the upper hand and he did not want to lose it.

"Trespasser," he hissed, backing up until he was safely behind the dust-covered desk. "Why did you enter? Nothing here. Dust and bones." His pale eyes focused on a large, heavy object on the desk, white letters embossed on a one-shiny surface. He leaned forward and held it loosely in his hand - the drone's reassurances of a cease-fire were not to be trusted.

[Kamaitachi]

Kanoa sighed. If this was the sort of work Magma operatives were actually supposed to do, he'd find himself getting tired of it quickly. He figured he'd be scaling walls and performing all sorts of awesome and dangerous stunts...but this was an errand that happened to go wrong.

"Look, kiddo, hear me out. There's something here I was sent to get...some blank ID Cards somewhere in...well...this office. That's all I need." He thought for a moment. His original mission was to investigate the warehouse due to suspicious activity. It wasn't Aqua...and it wasn't a Rebel it looked like. It was just some harmless kid. Nowhere in his mind could Kanoa find it right to do more harm to a little kid and his pokemon, even if it was a kinda creepy looking albino kid.

"Uh...so let me get the ID cards, and I'll tell my bosses I didn't find anyone here, okay? Shroomish, Budew! Stop!" Kanao flipped down his hood, revealing his very unkempt brown hair. He flashed what he perceived to be a winning smile over in Spider's direction. He flashed a thumbs up too, for good measure. In his mind, a thumbs up was a universal gesture of good will, but even still, he was somewhat unsure as to how Spider would take the gesture in such a tense situation.

* * *

Outside the office, Budew and Shroomish looked questioningly at the Caterpie before them. They weren't exactly sure as to how to shake hands in truce. This was because neither of them had any hands to begin with.

Kanoa's shroomish made something of a happy face, even though in all honesty it appeared to still be quite grumpy. However, he leaned forward and pressed his forehead to Aporia's little leg. Budew, behind him, smiled and danced about happily. Both of Kanoa's grass pokemon seemed more content to make friends than to battle. It really was kind of a cute sight, three small pokemon making acquaintances while a fourth threw something of a fit.

* * *

Skorupii clacked about angrily in Kanoa's arms, as if demanding to be released to do more battle. However, the trainer simply recalled the scorpion pokemon, leaving himself defenseless in front of the kid.

"Uh...and if you don't mind my asking? What're you doing living in a run-down ol' joint like this?" He finally took a moment to look around the office, wondering just how healthy it was for a small child to be living in such destitute conditions. It might explain, at least, why the boy was so pale and ghostly white.

This post has been edited by Kamaitachi: Jan 13 2011, 11:56 PM

[Ganymede]

"Look, kiddo, hear me out. There's something here I was sent to get...some blank ID Cards somewhere in...well...this office. That's all I need."

The nameplate slipped in Spider's weak grasp. He remained silent and still, eyes focused on the drone. If he was telling the truth - not likely; the one lesson the Hive made sure their larvae learned was that the outside world was full of liars - then he'd let the drone get what he needed and leave before finding a new home. If he was lying, the more likely option, he'd whack him upside the head and go off to find a new home.

Either way, he was going to have to leave the warehouse. He didn't like that.

"Uh...so let me get the ID cards, and I'll tell my bosses I didn't find anyone here, okay? Shroomish, Budew! Stop!"

His grip faltered again. Looing past the drone, Spider's eyes widened as he saw that the fighters had stopped already, with Aporia holding out a feeler in truce. The boy felt his eyelid twitch - nothing was going the way it should. Why couldn't he just be left alone? The weight dropped out of his hand and crashed to the floor, startling Theridon into movement. The Spinarak jumped out of Spider's grip and stood protectively in front of his friend, hissing at the Skorupi in the drone's arms.


If Aporia had a mouth like that of a human's, she would have smiled. Turning around she made her way back over to Apis and gently poked him with a feeler, instantly calming the Weedle down. He still looked grumpy, but at least he wasn't convulsing anymore. Leading the reluctant Apis, Aporia moved closer to the Budew and Shroomish and, in the way of Pokmon, introduced herself. Apis was pouting. Why did these new Pokemon make her smile so easily? He hadn't been able to do that in over a year!


The Skorupi didn't look like he appreciated Theridon's advance very much; he was returned by the drone. Spider blinked in confusion - he was completely unarmed!

"Theridon. Back." The spider Pokemon hissed in frustration, but nevertheless complied, crawling up Spider's leg and perching on his shoulder, still tense.

"Uh...and if you don't mind my asking? What're you doing living in a run-down ol' joint like this?"

"Living. Not run-down. Open. Can breathe." His pale eyes darted around. Was talking like this a diversionary tactic? "Home." There. Underneath a rusted file cabinet was a sliver of plastic. The bottom drawer was slightly ajar. Moving sideways, Spider pushed the drawer all the way open with his foot, revealing a messy tumble of plain white cards.

"...Mission."

[Kamaitachi]

The child spoke in fragmented thoughts, almost like a caveman. It was becoming more and more clear to Kanoa that the child wasn't exactly normal, so he probably hadn't been afforded proper schooling. He looked back over his shoulder to see his pokemon goofing off with the kid's, and he couldn't help but smile at the sight.

"Hey, check it out. Our pokemon get along just fine. Neat." He turned, smiling to the white-haired boy. Shroomish seemed thrilled to meet both Apis and Aporia, chatting away animatedly at them as he sparkled in the dim light. Budew seemed perfectly happy to bounce around in the back, as if supporting all of Shroomish's advances and moves, like some sort of bizarre, armless cheerleader. "I'm Kanoa Kaipo. Pleased to meet you."

He really wasn't quite sure what he was doing, but Kanoa was still a naive young kid, despite all his boasts at adulthood. He wasn't sure how the world worked, or what he was doing in it, but he had something of an idea of what to do here.

"Um, I have a pretty big apartment here in Noverus. Why don't you just stay there with me until we can find you a proper home to stay in? And, that way, the only one who can bother you is me." He grinned cheekily at that one, taking one knee in front of Spider (at least this way he appeared lower than the kid, and less threatening due to his height). He scooped the blank white cards into his backpack, turning to smile at Spider. "Besides, wouldn't sleeping on my couch be a bit more comfortable than sleeping on this concrete?"