[X] My Assistant

[Ganymede]

He ignored the file drawer; instead, he continued looking at Spider. The constant eye contact was starting to get unnerving. The boy shuffled from side to side, Theridon hissing with each movement. It was clear that while the others had become unusually fast friends - even Apis seemed happy, albeit in a grudging way - the arachnid was not going to calm down until the drone was far, far away. Which would hopefully be soon.

"I'm Kanoa Kaipo. Pleased to meet you."

Or not. Why was he still talking? And what kind of name was Kanoa? He'd never heard of any insect like that. Maybe it was a native one he hadn't seen yet. While he was mulling it over, The dro- Kanoa approached him, slowly getting on one knee. Theridon let out a slight shriek, his body tensing as he prepared to leap at the man. Spider caught him and held him close, backing up a little as Kanoa scooped up the blank plastic rectangles and began to speak.

"...only one who can bother you is me. Besides, wouldn't sleeping on my couch be a bit more comfortable than sleeping on this concrete?"

At this, Spider dropped his defensive position and blinked. "..Couch?" The word felt strange on his tongue. Tilting his head to the side slightly, he frowned as he tried the word out again. "Couch. Couch. ...What is a 'couch'?" Kanoa was smiling at him. In the Hive, showing that many teeth was a sign of aggression - years of enduring Weta's cruelty had taught him that well - but on this drone is seemed harmless; silly, even. A small squeak from the doorway told him that the two caterpillar Pokemon had arrived, most likely with Kanoa's Pokemon in tow.

While he stuffed the last few cards into his bag, Spider took a moment to look the man over carefully. His clothes were baggy and had chains dangling off them - a potential hazard in a forest, where low-hanging branches could catch. His hair was dark but looked remarkably similar to Spider's tangled mess, only shorter. His ears completely stumped the boy - why was there metal in them? Had he been punished for something? More than a little confused now, Spider sighed. At least he wasn't carrying a weapon.

"...Do not know what 'apartment' or 'couch' is. But will go with. Only for a little while." The boy paused, looking thoughtful. "Honey?"

[Kamaitachi]

Kanoa turned as the squeak behind him sounded. The two caterpillars (one was Caterpie and the other Weedle, if memory served him properly) arrived. Budew and Shroomish appeared behind them in the doorway. With a happy set of squeaks, Budew toddled forward, hopping up into Kanoa's arms as he shifted the backpack around. He smiled and nuzzled his pokemon affectionately, watching as Shroomish jealously rubbed up against his shins.

"Hey there, fellas" he smiled, scooping up the little Shroomish as well. "These are two of my pokemon, Shroomish and Budew...I'm still trying to come up with good names for them." Kanoa laughed as Budew's head/hands tickled his face a little bit as the happy little rosebud pokemon wiggled about in his arms.

"Uh, What's your name, kid?" Kanoa turned, beckoning Spider to follow. Perhaps it was that Kanoa was an only child, and that he was, in all honesty, a pretty terrible Magma Agent, but he had already taken a liking to the kid. At least this way, there would be no more reports of disturbances at the warehouse, and he could have a sort of...feral...little brother. Kanoa tilted his head at the notion that Spider had no idea what an apartment or a couch was. "An apartment is where I live. Like my hive?" Kanoa took a stab in the dark that the kid liked bugs, and that was probably a place to start with analogies. "And a couch is...well, you'll see."

"Honey?"

"It's a little soon to be calling me that" Kanoa laughed "I'm not taking you back to my apartment for that." He wasn't sure if Spider understood innuendo, even though it seemed to be something that all fourteen-year olds understood. "But sure, we'll pick up some honey on the way home, if that's what you really want."

As he moved back towards the little hole in the warehouse, he let out a sort of yelp, dropping his two pokemon. He stumbled backwards, swatting at his face. Upon turning and making odd squeaking noises, the rest of the room saw that a Zubat had attached itself to his face and was not letting go.

With the little bat pokemon flapping madly in his face, Kanoa didn't quite have the wherewithal to un-clip Skorupii's pokeball, so he pointed at the creature and made noise.

The noise, naturally, spurred his two grass pokemon into action. Budew, for lack of command, leapt up and attached herself to the bat in an attempt to use Mega Drain. However, it flapped and spun around in his grasp, slicing upwards with a fierce wing attack. The glowing wing struck Budew, sending her tumbling down back towards the ground. Shroomish then tried his luck, launching himself forward in a tackle attack. As the grumpyface pokemon leapt upwards, he managed to barrel full force into the Zubat...and Kanoa. The lanky teenager fell over backwards, sprawling out on the floor with a loud "Oomph!"

The Zubat took to the air, visibly peeved at the trio that had barred its entrance into the Warehouse. He had obviously wanted to get in and away from the overwhelming sunlight, but he had run slap bang into Kanoa's very confused countenance. Now there were pokemon attacking him, and he wasn't happy about it. Now, Zubat did not have eyes, but in the place where they would've been, a soft blue glow appeared, shooting out a ring of light towards the grounded Budew. As he stood up, he found himself enveloped by the light, and decided that he was really quite sleepy. Still standing, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, snoring happily.

"Oh, that was Hypnosis." Kanoa remembered having seen that attack once before. "That's cool!" He smiled broadly "Shroomish, Worry Seed on Budew!"

From the top of Shroomish's head, a small seed appeared, shooting out at his partner. Budew sprouted a little flower on the side of his head, and instantly, he woke up. Worry Seed had changed his innate ability to Insomnia, thus disallowing sleep in general.

Zubat had other plans. With surprising speed, he zipped forward, striking Shroomish square on the face with his glowing wing. Without breaking his flight, he swooped around and came back up at Budew, slashing him as well. Both Super Effective attacks landed squarely on the two grass pokemon, sending them reeling back.

"Right, Flying is strong against grass." Kanoa frowned, holding his hand to his chin while still laying flat on the ground. "Alright boys, Double Stun Spore!" Once again, the Zubat thwarted his plans by screeching loudly. The sound waves bounced around the room, causing both of Kanoa's pokemon as well as Kanoa himself reeling. Even Spider, Apis and Aporia probably attempted to curl up from the resounding supersonic attack.

As Kanoa sat up to cover his ears, he noticed both of his pokemon wobbling around, their eyes dazed and unfocused.

"Uh, guys?" He looked to his two pokemon, who decided to slam their heads into one another (Well, they were composed mostly of head) before toppling over.

Kanoa sighed and recalled them to their pokeballs, calling out Skorupii for a one on one. It seemed bleak, since Zubat had the advantage over Skorupii's bug type, but Kanoa figured he could try out a thing or two, at least.

"Skorupii, Bite!" Zubat had turned his attention to Apis and Aporia, and was preparing to swoop down at them until Skorupii leapt up, clutching the bat's body between its little mouth pincers. Zubat shrieked, making a horrific row as he plummeted towards the earth with a scorpion attached to him.

With surprising agility, the Zubat moved himself around a little, ignoring the pain from the bite. He lashed out with his wing again, knocking Skorupii clean off of him, releasing the powerful bite attack. However, it was a bit too late, as the trajectory of his fall left him little room to recover before slamming into the ground. He flapped up, wobbling around a bit dazed as he tried to get back into the air. However, he never quite made it.

Not being sure how much longer Skorupii would last, he was pretty sure Apis and Aporia weren't strong enough to take on a Zubat. In order to end the battle, he drew an empty pokeball and flung it, striking the wobbling Zubat head on.

There was brief half-of-a-shriek as Zubat disappeared in a flash of red light, but the ball wobbled only briefly before the pleasant 'ding' signified a successful capture. Kanoa grinned picking up the ball and smiling. He resisted the urge to hold the ball skywards and yell "I caught a Zubat!", as it seemed kind of dumb, and not a cool thing to do in front of his new roommate.

He then noticed Skorupii hissing at Apis, Aporia and Spider, clacking his claws menacingly. Kanoa snapped his fingers, barking a "hey, hey, back off!" to his Pokemon before scooping it up into his arms. "Excellent work against the Zubat, but these are friends now, okay?" The Skorupii clacked excitedly, clearly not happy to have fellow bug comrades. "Fine then, grouchy, stay in your ball." The red return beam flashed out, recalling the unhappy Skorupii back into his home.

"Alright, that was a silly detour...let's get goin'!" He cheered, as if he hadn't just been bitten in the face by a Zubat, and moved to exit the dank warehouse through the same way he came in. "C'mon Whitey."

[Ganymede]

Spider watched in silence as Kanoa introduced his Pokemon. They both seemed fairly nice – there was something off with the Shroomish; had it eaten some bad berries? - and if Apis approved (however reluctantly), they had to be trustworthy. The way the Budew wiggled was weird, though.

"Uh, What's your name, kid?" Before the boy could answer, Kanoa barreled on. "An apartment is where I live. Like my hive? And a couch is...well, you'll see." After that the drone kept blathering on, something about calling people honey (which was ridiculous; why would he call Kanoa that? He was a drone, not a sweet.) and more having to do with the mysterious apartment. Spider hoped that by 'hive' he meant the good kind. With only a slight pause he began to follow Kanoa, Apis and Aporia joining Theridon underneath the overlarge shawl. The effect was rather disturbing – Spider's thin, wispy hair and pale clothes moving about, seemingly by themselves. The three calmed down rather quickly, however, becoming still as rocks.

Three steps into the main room, Kanoa began to flail about, waving his arms in front of him madly. Raising an eyebrow, Spider was ready to ask if this was a drone thing or if Kanoa was just special when the sound of wingbeats filled the air.

Time very suddenly stopped. Every drop of water in Spider's mouth seemed to vanish, and he felt the world around him begin to sway. A blue shape flashed by his head and the boy let out a pained whimper, trying to step backwards and succeeding only in losing balance and falling flat on his rear. He couldn't breath, drawing his legs up to his stomach and trying, vainly, to calm himself down. He could feel crawlers all over him, worried nudges from his Pokemon as they tried to get him up and moving. The flapping drew near again and Spider let out a squeak, screwing his eyes tightly shut and slapping his hands over his ears.

”What are you waiting for? Hit them again.”

“Are you sure, Mantis? Some of the kids are starting to go into shock.”

“Just keep doing it. Orders from the Queen. The larvae need to learn.”

“If you say so.”

Spider wasn't moving. If he didn't move, the birds wouldn't see him. He could hear Moth screaming, pleading for help as the Fearow and her children targeted him. Even Weta, that cruel, horrible monster, was huddled in a corner, silent sobs wracking her body. The tunnels echoed with screams and cries, almost drowned out by the shriek of the flock.

“No, no, nononono...”

It wasn't a Spearow, but it had wings. That was enough.

After a few suspenseful moments, Spider realised the wingbeats had died down. He slowly opened an eye – Kanoa was jumping up and down, shouting "I caught a Zubat!” triumphantly. The boy carefully uncurled himself, his three friends crawling around him, plainly concerned. A low hiss filled the air, and the boy saw that Kanoa's Skorupii was coming towards him, claws clacking. Theridon immediately scuttled in front of Spider, fangs bared. Still recovering from his panic attack, Spider could only blink as Kanoa recalled his Pokemon and Theridon cautiously crawled back to the boy, shooting glares at the drone along the way. The pale boy shakily stood up.
"Alright, that was a silly detour...let's get goin'!" He sounded much too happy. "C'mon Whitey."

“...Spider.” The boy took a deep breath, looking around his warehouse. He was still a little short of breath, but it would go away soon – as long as Kanoa didn't bring out the Zubat again. He was never more thankful that this strange, rainy city was lacking in birds.

[Kamaitachi]

"H'okay. C'mon Spider." Kanao's simple grin was plastered on his face. Something about completing his first actual mission, as well as catching a new pokemon AND making a new friend, well, it made him sort of giddy.

They exited the Warehouse via the same way Kanoa had entered. He pondered, momentarily covering up the exit, but in case Spider didn't like his apartment, he could at least come back to the Warehouse and plug it up from the inside.

As they moved around the side of the Warehouse, the Magma recruit noticed sadly that Estelle had all but vanished into thin air. He had really been hoping to get along with her, as he still hadn't really made any acquaintances in Magma yet. There was Lennox, who never had any time, Big Chief Dreggs, who was off doing whatever it was he did, and now he had hoped there would be Estelle, whom he could be partnered with. After all, she had appeared to be the experienced one, but had left Kanoa with all the work. Perhaps she was off sipping espresso somewhere warm and safe? Kanoa hoped she was, at the very least.

"Spider, huh." Kanoa blinked "That's a wicked-cool name!" he smiled broadly "How'd a pipsqueak like you get such a sweet name, huh?" He laughed a little as he led the way back to the train from which he and Estelle had disembarked.

* * *

They got off at the station closest to Kanoa's apartment, and walked through the fairly empty streets. Kanoa chatted away animatedly about whatever came to mind, pointing out places cool little cafes he'd discovered, as well as neat little bookstores, the arcade and various other locales of his interest. He prattled on about how new he was to Noverus, but how he'd enjoyed it so far. He'd had to travel all over the place because he kept getting kicked out of boarding schools for misbehavior and the like.

At one point, he stopped off at the little corner grocery store and purchased a jar of honey. Squatting down in front of Spider, he held it out to him. "Here. Honey."

* * *

They arrived at his apartment shortly thereafter, climbing the two flights of stairs until they reached the door. Kanoa fiddled about with the key, opening the door to reveal his rather spare looking apartment. It wasn't much of an apartment, really. Just a studio flat he'd managed to secure for himself. It was one of those decently sized, one open room style flats, with Kanoa's bed in one corner, a couch and TV in another corner, a kitchen in the third, and the fourth 'corner' was another side room, the bathroom. complete with shower stall, toilet and sink.

"Here we go. It's not much, but it's home." Kanoa grinned. He signaled to the room around him with a grand sweep. "And for as long as you like, you can stay here too. This is a couch" he pointed to the elongated, cushioned armchair. "You can sleep here. It's really comfy." He pointed to the fridge "This is the refrigerator, or 'fridge' for short. We keep food in here, and in the cupboards up here." He patted his bed "This is my bed. This is where I sleep."

Kanoa indicated to everything around the room. "So make yourself at home. I'm going to go report my mission's status to my superior. I'll be back in an hour or so."

He paused for a moment, eying Spider. Was it really so wise to invite a stranger back to his home, then leave him be? It didn't really matter much, the only real things he had of value were his pokemon, and his wallet, which were already on his person. The rest were just clothes and furniture, easily replaced. The only object of clothing with any sentimental value was the black beanie he was currently wearing as well. Oh well.

He reached into his sock drawer and pulled out a spare key, tossing it to Spider "Here you go, in case you get locked out." He did a quick change back into his Magma uniform and left the room, and Spider, to his own devices.

* * *

"Ah, Kanoa."

The ride to the Keep had been dull and uneventful. Even the stop by the local pokemon center was somewhat dull. Kanoa just handed his pokeballs to the Chansey, and they returned in no time flat.

Kanoa was still sort of weirded out that he had to ride all the way out to the Keep just to report the completion of his mission. Lennox greeted him at the station, curious as to where Estelle went.

"Oh, Miss Roy had a bout of fever come over her, so I sent her home." Kanoa shrugged, lying easily through his teeth "Hopefully she's feeling better." This would potentially save both of their hides from Estelle merely abandoning the mission in such a way. Kanoa really hoped she was enjoying her espresso.

"That's fine. We'd rather have our operatives in top form, after all." Lennox sniffed, tugging idly at one end of his Errol Flynn Mustache. "As for the disturbances?"

"Just this Zubat" Kanoa popped out "Evidently the neighborhood figured that this little guy was a bunch of Aqua goons. Turns out it was just my new friend here."

"Ah" Lennox pulled out a palm pilot and began tapping away with a stylus. Kanoa figured he was filing away the report electronically, as well as registering Kanoa's new Zubat as part of his active roster.

"The Blank ID Cards?"

"Here sir" Kanoa held out his backpack, which was filled to the brim with the little white rectangles. "As ordered."

"Excellent work, Mr. Kaipo. Your very first mission is a successful completion, which is more than we can say for most of our first time operatives. Excellent work indeed. Return home for now, and we'll call upon you for your next mission."

"Thanks, Lennox" Kanoa smiled, saluting before hopping right back on the train.

* * *

On the ride back towards the apartment, he wondered if Spider had already destroyed his home. It was clear that the kid was sort of a little savage, with little in the ways of a clear education, or even upbringing. He even acted kind of like...oh...kind of like an insect. He was probably one of those Mowgli stories, where the kid was raised by animals in the jungle. Spider had probably grown up with a bunch of Spiders, like Spinarak, which would explain why the little bug was so protective of him.

"I should probably name my lot too..." Kanoa spoke aloud to no one. There was no one else in his metrocar, and he figured he could use just a little company. Popping open all of his pokeballs, the four pokemon appeared before him, looking up at him curiously.

"I'm gonna give you all nicknames." Kanoa smiled "Won't that be cool?"

They all seemed fairly bemused at the idea, and clambered up all around him (the Zubat flapped over his head before perching curiously on his shoulder.)

"How about...Shakespearean Men!" Kanoa held up a finger. "Like...Oberon and Cesario, and Tybalt." The pokemon shook their heads disapprovingly, and Kanoa had to agree. The names were kinda lofty, and all of his pokemon were very small. "Uh...how about...Periodic Table elements?" he offered weakly. It didn't fly. "Stars? Constellations?" They shook their heads again, and Kanoa had to agree, again. He had to give them names that meant something to him, as well as them...and finally he settled on:

"I got it. Skateboard techniques!" The four pokemon looked curious. Being pokemon, they didn't really know what Skateboarding tricks even were. Skorupi and Budew had an idea, since they'd been with Kanoa since his time before Noverus. "I got it." Kanoa grinned. He pointed to Skorupi "I'll call you Darkslide". The Skorupi clacked his claws approvingly, smiling in pleasure at his new, fairly awesome name. "And how about... "Helipop" he poined at the Zubat on his shoulder, who nodded enthusiastically, flapping his wings in response. "And...for you" the Shiny Shroomish with its grump face leapt up into his lap "Let's call you Benihana." The Shroomish's grumpy little face didn't really change, but he hopped up and down excitedly in Kanoa's lap. "And lastly" he reached over and picked up his Budew, holding the bud pokemon up in one hand. "How about....Coco Wheelie!" With a cheer Budew reared up and flapped open his 'hands' revealing the blue and red pads underneath. Kanoa blinked as the Budew began to spin in place, spreading his arms out, all on Kanoa's open palm. Kanoa had to lift him up a bit to avoid from getting hit in the face, but Budew...no...Coco Wheelie began to glow.

"Oh...Coco, you're...evolving?" Kanoa seemed pretty stunned, not sure exactly what to say except the obvious. After the spinning concluded, the light faded to reveal a Roselia, balanced expertly on one foot on Kanoa's hand, holding a blue and a red rose out to either side. "That's fantastic"

"Hooooboy!" Kanoa laughed, pulling the Roselia close "I guess the awesome nickname caused you to evolve huh. Coco Wheelie, whaddaya think?" Roselia crooned happily in his arms, smiling up at him with a wink. "And Darkslide, Helipop and Benihana. I've got the coolest pokemon ever." He hugged them all close. "Let's go home everyone. Spider and co. are waiting for us."