[X] My Assistant

[ceruledge]

To: Daniel
Location: Breeder Stall & Sky Ranch Table

Adelaine had wandered down a stall from the Sky Ranch Table, to the breeder's stall right next to it. There were shelves and shelves, a rainbow of Pokemon eggs. She browsed through them for a few moments, wondering which types of Pokemon came from which eggs. Of course, the breeders themselves knew, but this particular stall was left a secret, "Pokemon Roulette," they called it. It was like a gamble, you never knew what you would end up with.

Walking among the shelves, she came across one egg that was particularly intriguing to her. She stared at it for a minute or two and then picked up the egg to get a closer look at it. It moved momentarily in her arms, but then it stopped. "That means it likes you." There was an old lady working at this stall, her face worn with many laugh lines. "When they move in your arms like that." Adelaine smiled at the old woman and looked at the egg some more. It was pretty heavy, heavier than a normal egg. It was blue with tiny, darker blue freckles around it.

"You know what, I think I'll take it." There was something about the egg that just called out to her. She walked back to the front counter, being careful of the egg.

"Here, darling, you can put it in here." The old woman laid an egg incubator on the counter and Adelaine put the egg inside. She watched the egg move around a little bit before settling into the incubator.

All of the sudden, Adelaine heard a scream. Thinking it was a child yelling for help, she turned to find a large man running from Phoebe. What will I ever do with her? Adelaine turned back and paid the woman so she could attempt to coral her Pokemon.

"Hi, how've you been?"

Adelaine heard a familiar voice and saw Daniel standing next to the Sky Ranch table. She had momentarily forgotten about Phoebe's antics, grabbed her newly purchased egg, and walked over to him. "Hello," she smiled.

[FirePower]

To:Rose/Alex
Location:Buffet/in front of tent booth

"Luke and I don't really have any plans. Our boat to Fidona got had to get repairs, so we're not going there for a while. We decided to check out this place. There's bound to be tons of trainers here to battle." She remembered vaguely hearing someone offer a battle. Over by the tent stall. She didn't know how strong his pokemon were, but she was still confident after catching beacon. She had plenty of spare cash from battling trainers on the way.

"I'll take you on," She said, walking over to the boy, who appeared to be fourteen.

[Master Houndoom]

To: Lyla
Where: Her tent

Meiko turned at the sound of a familiar voice. "Layla!"

Jaima turned as well, both of them taking in the spectacle of Lyla trying to put up a tent with the "help" of her baby pokemon (which, both could attest, ended up making whatever job they had been "helping" with take about three times longer than needed). Finally, Meiko knelt and took part of the tent in hand, releasing her feraligatr to help her spread it properly.

"I'll tell you what, Lyla. You and I will set up the tent, and Jaima will go find a place for us to camp, hmm?" She finished the sentence with a pointed look at Jaima, telling him in no uncertain terms with her eyes that she would brook no argument.

"Yeah, ummm," Jaima looked around, then nodded, "I'll just be over there. Struggling... you know, with our tent."

Meiko gave him a grand smile as he walked off, and set to putting up the tent.

"So, is Darryn around, Lyla? I'd really love to see how he's doing!"

-----

To: No one in particular
Near: The participants tents (near but not at Pan's)

Jaima was impressed with the amount of people around, and a little overwhelmed. To that end, he let his pokemon out of the pokeballs they had been trapped in for the entire bus ride, half because it was, after all, a bus, and half because he hadn't wanted to buy twelve extra tickets. Or more.

Grondir was the first to look around and was able to find a spot that they could squeeze their tent into, setting himself at the edge with Ingrain to make sure it wasn't taken. This turned out to be lucky, as one rough housing person had tried to take it before being warned off by a cranky ivysaur.

Jaima set about setting up the tent, a small two person affair much smaller than most people's family sized housing. He swallowed again. It was a cramped space, that was for sure, and though he and Meiko had shared a bed, for sleeping, after the ordeal before arriving at Petropolis, they hadn't made a habit of it.

He tried to put it out of his mind as he, Mercury, and Shadow worked on the tent. Fang took his opportunity to go out and explore, wary of the absol he'd smelled around, and Tsunami went to do what she did so well when they camped: she found and fetched some water.

When they were done, Jaima looked at his handiwork. With two pokemon helping, three if you counted the odd vine from the otherwise immobile Grondir, the tent had gotten up as quick as anything.

He heard a couple startled squawks, and turned in time to see a pair of blurs charging right for him, shouting, in unison, "TOU-KUN!"

Oh, boy... was the only thing he had time to think before he was tackled to the ground, and the only thing preventing Shadow from intervening was the sight of Mercury rolling on the ground, giggling her head off.

[Jonahman10]

To: Delainey, Daniel
Location Sky Ranch Table

Hope whizzed around her cart, making the ribbons twirl around gracefully. The nice breeze from her wings was refreshing on a hot day like this. The small Combee gladly announced the presence of her stand to the crowd below. However Austin, her Pidgey, was much less active; he simply perched on a small jar of Grade A honey. Even though the Grotto Disaster had terminated her debt, she still needed to make an income somehow. If she hadn't brought several hives, she would have already sold out.

Sweat beaded down onto her face; the dense seas of people made the heat even worse. Hope seemed undeterred, Amelia couldn't help feeling that she had chosen such an appropriate name. Most people had gotten here in the last few days, but she had been here several weeks to prepare for business. It was a good thing she went sightseeing with her Pokemon before the crowds showed up. It seemed liked the tent grounds had nearly tripled over night!

Suddenly a muscular man with a childish scream smashed in to her cart, sending jars of Honey flying. Amelia could only catch a few jars, but most of the rest flew off the cart and smashed into the ground. Amelia couldn't contain her anger and she started yelling at the man.

"Look where you are going, clumsy! You're gonna pay for all of that honey, and maybe it will teach you a lesson about paying attention. Someone could've gotten hurt, stup-AUSTIN!"

Amelia, whose finger was pointed directly towards the man's chest, dropped to the ground searching for Austin's small form. The shards of glass could've shredded him to pieces! She herself had already gotten some cuts from the glass, would Austin survive the sure mutilation which had been acted upon him so cruelly by this masochistic man? Tears fell from her eyes when she didn't find Austin...

"This is all YOUR fault!"

Amelia went up and smacked the evil man in the face. He crashed to the ground. As she opened her mouth to scream a multitude explicatives, she felt a pecking on her head. Looking up, she discovered that Austin had landed in her bandana. The tears were no longer from grief but from happiness, and her body immediately began to relax, to an extent that is. The man would still have to pay for the honey.

Was she hearing laughing? Floating above the cowering buff dude was an old friend; Phoebe. The man cringed every time she drew near to him. Great, a man with enough gall to run into her stand is still afraid of a harmless Pokemon.

"Hey Pheobe, Is Delainey here? Maybe she could help me teach this jerk a lesson!"

[Rasu]

Location: On of the many art stalls
To: Zach

It didn't take long for Tyson to find the art stall he was looking for and, subsequently, his grandfather. As he tried to approach it something grabbed his left foot and hung him in the air upside down. A Venusaur stood in front of him, preventing Tyson from hitting the floor with only one of it's vines.

"Gaah, calm down!" with this statement the Venasaur dropped Tyson who hit the floor a second later. The Venusaur let out a cheerful "Saaaur" at this.

"Happy to see you too, Todasul. I'm assuming Gramps' around here?"

"Saur." he pointed with one of his vines to the stall behind him and, conveniently enough, out came Javier Ealdwine.

"What's the meaning for all this racket, Todasu- Oh, Arceus, if it isn't Ty! How's it going, kid?"

"Been better." he looked at Todasul who simply grunted "Anyways, what are you up too this time?"

"Oh, you know, art pieces, kid! What else would I be doing?" Javier took a good laugh before continuing "Say, isn't that Cookie following you around?"

"Wha-" the Rotom quickly darted around Tyson before backtracking a few "steps" and doing to same to someone who had been following Tyson for a bit.

"Cookie, come ba- Wait. Zach? What are you doing here?"

"Friend of yours, kid?" Javier laughed a little more "Looks like Cookie is excited with all this fair stuff."

"You tell me abo-" before Tyson could finish his sentence the ground beneath him started rumbling and made him fall flat on his back once again. A small brown figure emerged and proceeded to run off to the food shacks. "Was that... Gobi?! Aw, crap! Zach, help me out chasing this thing!" Tyson didn't even wait for an answer and darted off to chase Gobi, Oniden following close behind.

"Hey, kid!" Javier shouted to Tyson who was already a few meters away "Pass by here when you can, there's something I need to give you!" he nodded before running off after Gobi. Arceus knows what trouble that Hippopotas could cause in this kind of events.

[Toogee]

To: Darryn
Location: Buffet table

It was great that Darryn was on a quest to find himself, not simply going through the routine. What was concerning, however, was that he was distancing himself from his best friends to do it. Sure, he had family going with him, but…

“Well, don’t drift too far away from everyone. You might find that a big part of yourself is in the friends you keep. And by the way, I think I met Lyla briefly at one of your birthday parties. From what I remember, she didn’t seem like someone who could brave the outdoors. I mean, I’d rather you travel with her than no one at all, but can she handle herself on this big journey?”

And then, Darryn started using his mindspeak.

Among the things that Pan experienced at Castle Vonmoto, she had at least one psychic pokemon speaking through her mind. It wasn’t a new sensation, but what was new was that her old friend was somehow able to use the same skill.

“Wow,” she replied. “I guess the whole coordinator business has a few more perks than I thought it did.”

As she spoke, Pan took a quick glance back to her tent. It looked like all her pokemon were accounted for, and Douken was striking a conversation with Justin. It was nice to see that he was still doing fine.

…Wait, what? What was Justin doing here? Supposedly, he had a big job in Gigarte, or at least she thought it was big. He certainly left abruptly back in Lenoilia, not even saying good-bye. It was something Pan could not let go easily. It even made her angry that he would lead her on so, leave, and show up here. And yet, she had a gnawing curiosity about his motives. Who was he and what was he trying to accomplish out of all of this? And then, there was a growing passion to jump into his chest and leave all the details for later. The combination of feelings left her feeling very confused.

And then she realized that Darryn had a nifty gift of talking mindspeak. And that he may or may not be able to read what she’s thinking at that very moment. There really was no point in lying about, and she did want to talk to someone about her problem.

“Darryn, there’s this guy…”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


To: No one
Location: PokeCon Main Office

Off to the side of all the activity, several portable buildings were set up for the administrative portion of PokeCon. There really wasn’t anything of interest, unless you were an employee looking for a paycheck. It was here where the head organizer of PokeCon, Marie Thingamabob, resided in her office. Currently, she was on the phone with one of the other organizers, gloating about her decision to keep the event on schedule.

“I told you! If anything, those absols are attracting even more trainers over here! They’re getting captured left and right. I’m telling you, by dawn, there will be no absols on the fairgrounds.”

As she talked on the phone, she looked through the blinds on her window. What she saw caused her to end the conversation abruptly.

“I gotta go. I’ve got a pod of wailords rolling in!”

“Oh, and get the Ferris wheel running!”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: No one
Location: Camping grounds

Much of the grounds were already taken by eager trainers that arrived early. From the air, the sea of green was dotted by a rainbow of colors. The exception was a closed-off patch of field that no campers were allowed to set up in. Signs all over read “VIP only”.

Driving towards this section was a convoy of large vehicles. To call them trailers or RVs would be considered an insult to their owners. They were yachts on wheels. One had a deck, the trainer watching the scenery from the vantage point. Another had a pool on the roof. Each was custom painted with designs of ornate pokemon flying through the air.

The rich kids had arrived.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: Myself
Location: Pan’s Tent

<<DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM…>>

Turnip had his ears plugged with his own vines to drown out the absol’s repetitious warnings. The creature kept standing in front of the venusaur, proclaiming loudly of the incoming doom. Turnip was not interested in entertaining the delusions of a seemingly crazy pokemon.

Chi-Chi however…

<<OMGDoom?Whatdoom?>>

<<Flaming Doom! With flames! And DOOM! DOOM DOOM DOOM!>>

At the sight of an approaching trainer wielding a pokeball, the absol dashed away, but not before exclaiming “The end is nigh!”

<<Crazy critter…>>

[switzerIand]

To: Tyson
Where: Running after Gobi.

As Zach approached the person, a Rotom came out of nowhere and started to swivel around Zach's head as if he had his own gravitational pull. Suddenly, Zach heard a voice call out to him. "Wait. Zach? What are you doing here?" Zach looked around and spotted the person who had said his name, and surely enough, it was Tyson.

"Hey Tyson! Wha.....whoa!" Zach cried out, dropping to his knees as the earth trembled beneath his feet. He watched in shock as several people, including Tyson, did the same. All of a sudden, Tyson's Hippopotas, Gobi, popped out of the ground and dashed in the direction of the food tents. "That can't be good..." Zach muttered to himself.

"Was that... Gobi?! Aw, crap! Zach, help me out chasing this thing!" Tyson called out to Zach as he started chasing after the Hippopotamus Pokemon. Zach got back to his feet and gave chase after the fleeing Pokemon. Mid-stride, he pulled two PokeBalls off of his belt and released Spark and Bones in a flash of light.

"Bones! Spark! Help me and Tyson stop Gobi! He's going towards the food table!" And with a nod, the two dog Pokemon took off in the direction of Gobi. With their incredible speed, they were able to catch up with Gobi and all that could be heard were barking and "Pooooooooooooooootas!" (Translation: FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!) Heroically, Spark got ahead of the Pokemon and stopped completely in the path of the charging pokemon, only to be trampled on by the hippo. Bones stayed with him, however, and because words persuasion wouldn't work, he decided to bite the tail of Gobi.

Gobi let out a loud, "Pooooooootas!" and crashed to the ground, sliding a foot or two on the ground and stopping only feet away from the food tent. Moments later, Zach and Tyson caught up, panting heavily.

"He's pretty quick," Zach said, in between breaths. "Sorry about taking him down like that. Nothing that a quick trip to the PokeCenter won't fix." He looked down at Spark, who was resting in his arms. "Speaking of PokeCenters, this little guy needs to get to one too. He got run over pretty bad." Zach let out a nervous laugh.

[Amissa]

To: Delainey and Amelia
Location: Sky Ranch Table and other stalls

"Oh, is that a pokemon egg? I wonder what kind of pokemon has an egg like that." Daniel latched on the egg as a topic of discussion and felt his blush fading as he relaxed a bit. Pokemon were the perfect social lubricant. Bring up the topic, and you can instantly go from awkward to interesting. "Maybe it'll be a squirtle, or a female nidoran. Hey, I'll bet you'll be a great mom!" And back to awkward again.

Their conversation was abruptly interrupted by a crash at another table, followed by a woman's angry yelling. Daniel curiously looked up and over, and saw a honey stand a bit down the line. The woman yelling was none other than Amelia, the same woman who had gathered them all together for the first time in order to save their town. He looked over just in time to see her smack some guy senseless. Literally senseless, the poor man hit the ground with the force of the blow. Daniel flinched in sympathy for the guy and reminded himself never to make Amelia that angry, but he was more worried now about him trying to take revenge on Amelia.

"Hey, Delainey, look!" Daniel pointed the stall out to his friend. "There's Amelia, and I think she's in some kind of trouble. Wanna come and check it out with me?" Daniel kept an eye on Delainey, but he didn't wait for her response before he came over to Amelia's honey stand. He naturally assumed that she was coming too. After all, they'd been in all sorts of danger together, so she obviously wouldn't be scared of a fight.

"What's up?" Daniel asked as he came over and surveyed the destruction. Several glass honey containers had fallen and shattered, spilling their gooey delicious contents all over the ground. The large man was attempting to stagger to his feet, but Amelia had cuts from the broken glass and she looked like she was crying. "Hey, hey, everything is gonna be all right. Don't cry. Let me take a look at those cuts, okay?"

As Daniel set down his pack and began to remove some bandages and antiseptic cream, the large man and culprit honey smasher finally stood back up. He looked apologetic, and there was sure to be a bruise forming on the side of his face where Amelia hit him.

"I'm real sorry, Miss. Yow, you didn't have to hit me so hard. I was startled is all. There was this ghost. It just came out of nowhere. I mean, I can handle a lot of things, but ghost pokemon just scare the bejeesus out of me." The man looked middle aged, with black hair slightly balding at the top. Daniel felt sorry for him. He thought ghost pokemon were scary too, but he'd never had such a reaction to them even when they were at their worst. In those kinds of situations, you had to keep your head. It wasn't any good to panic and go running in a random direction and possibly land yourself in more harm, the way that this man did.

Ultimately though, it was up to Amelia how much mercy she felt the man deserved. "You should get something cold on that bruise. I'll look at it once I'm done here, okay?"

He wanted Amelia to let him tend to her cuts. If she allowed it, he would clean the injuries with some alcohol and bandage her up, and she would find that Daniel seemed to have a particular talent at mending wounds. In places where his hands touched, pain would subside in an unnaturally pleasant way. Daniel, however, was unaware of this fact.

Then, Daniel activated and instant ice pack and gave it to the ghost-phobic man. "I carry stuff like this around all the time, on account of my getting hurt so often. After all, a trainer can't take care of his pokemon if he can't even take care of himself."

Meanwhile, the smell of honey seemed to have attracted other visitors. A wandering absol made his way over and sniffed at the fallen contents. He licked his lips hungrily, but looked up at Geb hovering over him before he proceeded to help himself to the free honey.

<<You are all going to die if you don't get away from here.>>

Geb eyed to dark type pokemon curiously before responding. <<No sir, you are going to die if you eat that honey. You see, it's full of broken glass.>>

The absol's eyes widened in surprise, before glaring up at the ninjask. <<Well played, insect. But booby-trapping the honey will not preserve you from the mighty destruction that is to come. Fear it!>> And with that the pokemon bounded off, either looking for less deadly food to devour or other pokemon to preach his warning to.

[Kamaitachi]

To: No one in particular. Then maybe Darryn and Pan, since they're there?
Where: Entrance to Buffet Tables.

PokeCon. Tag had no idea precisely why he'd chosen to come to the massive event filled with essentially trillions of people. He hated people. If anything, perhaps he had wanted to come across some fantastic new pokemon and perhaps indulge himself in a few fantastic battles. Tag liked pokemon, and Tag liked battles. When he put it that way, he felt like some sort of a caveman. Regardless, he was sure that there was something interesting to do, and most likely there wouldn't be too terribly much socializing.

Tag had never seen wild absol before. He had traveled through Hoenn, and only fought Wild Absol in his travels, but he'd never seen so many. Not the superstitious type, Tag paid their presence no heed. He assumed that this was what people had referred to as 'swarms'. Sometimes pokemon swarmed. How was this any different?

The "field of tents" seemed pretty impressive. Sprawled out everywhere were trainers, cavorting about with their pokemon and doing typical trainer, breeder, pokeathlete and coordinator things. If anything, he could, from a glance, note at least 400 different species of pokemon running about. It seemed like a fair estimate, with a standard deviation of about a hundred pokemon species or so.

Hands in pockets, Tag strolled at his usual leisurely pace. With his tattoos, wife beater and jeans, he appeared to be something of a thug, and cast his usual intimidating glares over at anyone who happened to glance at him. Despite his aversion to socialzation, Tag was very fond of making eye contact, simply because it forced people to avert their eyes.

The stalls around him seemed quite interesting, at least. Pokemon wares of all kinds seemed to be set up. The breeder stalls seemed somewhat interesting. The bright, colourful pokemon eggs drew his attention as they sat serenely in their holders. Pokemon Breeders doted over them, and silently, from his distance, Tag stoically did the same. No one would've pegged Tag for the sort of person to be holding an adorable, newly hatched baby pokemon in his arms, but it was the sort of thing he loved most in the entire world. He briefly flashed back (just in his mind) to his first few moments when Suzu had hatched from her egg. She had immediately clung to him with all six of her arms and stared up at his scarred face with her adorable saucer eyes. This memory warmed his heart somewhat, even his face retained its emotionless gaze. Eggs evoked memories. Perhaps he'd purchase one....oh wait...broke. Moneybags Raven wasn't around to buy him one, so he'd have to wait a bit.

Then, a beautiful sight stopped him dead in his tracks. Tag gazed out with utmost awe and what was probably the closest thing he'd ever felt to ecstasy. Before him, spread out for what was essentially as far as his eyes could see was a fantastic spread of food. There was so much food.

Barely able to contain himself, he cautiously approached the glorious image of the tables, parking himself next to a frat-boy looking guy with glossy brown hair. The kid looked like an Abercrombie and Fitch model, and normally Tag would've taken some time to sneer at him. This kid (Darryn), was talking with a very cute girl with short black hair. She seemed pretty fashionable, and had intelligent hazel eyes (THIS BE PAN), but Tag paid little-to-no heed to the couple. They seemed to be talking about something mundane, asinine and altogether useless.

This moment of studying the two had distracted him from the food before him, and that made him somewhat irritable. He glared challengingly at the food, mostly to see if it would respond. Slowly, as if in prayer, he reached out and picked up the closest food-thing to him. Snapping out of his trance, he immediately crammed it into his mouth. Not taking the time to fully chew the food, Tag reached out and grabbed most of the food within sight, cramming it messily in his mouth. The food was glorious.

His food-frenzy was interrupted by a shrieking noise. It snapped him out of his gluttony-trance immediately as he stared down his face. His mouth was enclosed around part of a squirming, star-shaped pokemon. He stood there sheepishly, blinking owlishly at the Cleffa in his mouth. Slowly, he removed it and held it out in front of him with both of his hands.

"Oh, sorry." he muttered to the pokemon. "It appears I thought you were edible."

[ceruledge]

To: Daniel and Amelia
Location: Sky Ranch Table, Honey stall

"Oh, is that a pokemon egg? I wonder what kind of pokemon has an egg like that. Maybe it'll be a squirtle, or a female nidoran. Hey, I'll bet you'll be a great mom!"

Before she could answer, their conversation was cut short by the sounds of glass shattering and a woman screaming. Adelaine pivoted in her spot, turning towards the sound of the crash. She sighed when she saw Phoebe floating around, will she ever calm down?, but smiled a little when she saw that the angry woman yelling was Amelia.

"Hey, Delainey, look! There's Amelia, and I think she's in some kind of trouble. Wanna come and check it out with me?" Daniel ran off to Amelia's stand, with Adelaine in toe. She didn't make it over as fast as he did, since she had to be wary of her newly purchased egg. This may get a little difficult, carrying you around. Daniel took care of everyone's wounds, so Delainey took it upon herself to help clean up.

"Hey, I'll be right back. Phoebe, you come with me." She gave Phoebe a stern look as if she were in trouble. Scolding Phoebe was like scolding a small child.

Adelaine walked the length back to her tent. It took her a few minutes, since it wasn't very close to stalls, but she quickened her pace so that it wouldn't take her too long. She sat down her egg inside of her tent, "Fuy, I need you to stay here and keep an eye on it, okay? Phoebe, you stay here and watch it, too. You can scare off anyone who tries to take it, okay? But you have to stay here. Got it?"

"Yes, Mistress."

She picked up Axel, who was still snoozing in the sun, and carried him back to the honey stall. "I need you to do me a very important favor." This time, she ran back to the stall and made it there in no time.

Adelaine borrowed a small broom from one of the nearby stalls and swept all of the glass into the piles of honey. "I need everyone to stand back. Axel, I need you to use Ember on all of the piles of honey. Sora," she said, turning to her Taillow, "I need you to make sure none of the flames jump towards any other stalls. We need to keep it controlled."

Axel used his fire power on all of the piles of honey. Since they were all on the ground, covered in dirt, the flames didn't leap off in different directions. The heat of the fire was high enough to the point where the honey was evaporating. "I don't think anyone would want dirty honey." The glass, also, was melting. Once the flames went away, she quickly ordered Sora to use his wings to cool them down. The rapid cooling of the glass caused all of the small pieces to mold together into one. There were about five different piles, five pieces of glass left. Once they were cool enough to touch, Adelaine picked up the glass and piled them on Amelia's cart. "There. All gone."

[Jonahman10]

To: Delainey and Daniel
Location: Sky Ranch Table and Amelia's Honey Cart

Not only Delainey, but Daniel came running towards the wreck of her cart. It was nice to see them, but not under the circumstances. She blushed realizing that she was still crying from the relief that Austin wasn't dead. She quickly ended the tears. Now that she wasn't crying, she realized just how badly cut she was.

Daniel quickly attended to both their wounds; he was always prepared for stuff like this. If he wanted to, he could probably become a Doctor or a first responder or something. His parents probably wouldn't have any problem affording that kind of school anyways. He was always prepared, even in the grotto.

Frankly, she didn't quite believe this guy. She knew that Daniel was mildly afraid of Ghosts, but he didn't overreact ridiculously. He still could've killed Austin! Regret didn't bring people back from the dead. Plus, it didn't pay for her losses.

"You could've killed my Pidgey! Plus, if you don't pay for the loss honey how will I cover the production costs! I need to make a living somehow! I need some sort of compensation!"

Delainey was busy cleaning up the mess and Daniel was still applying first-aid. It was good to have friends. Austin was still fairly shell-shocked, but Hope was gazing off into the distance. Amelia almost yelped when she saw an Absol nearby. They said that they were always around before something truly devastating happened, something much worse than spilled honey.

"Thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate the help. After me and this guy get sorted out, we should get together and do some investigating again..."

[Toogee]

To: Tag
Location: Buffet Table

“CLEFAAAA!”

As Pan was talking with Darryn, a mysterious stranger covered in tattoos started devouring food left and right. Among his entrees was Lima! He took the cleffa out of Pan’s arms and had one of the pokemon’s limbs in his mouth. It was quite terrifying for Lima. One moment, she was resting comfortably in Pan’s arms. The next, she was staring down the gaping maw of a scary looking man who briefly considered her to be “cleffa-cream pie”. Needless to say, she was on the verge of tears.

Before she could burst into a crying fit, Pan snapped Lima out of Tag’s hands. The cleffa buried her face into Pan’s shoulder, while Pan stared Tag down in disbelief. It was one thing to have a tauros burger. It was quite another to snatch a baby out of her trainer’s/mother’s arms and devour it before her very eyes.

“My pokemon aren’t on the menu,” Pan said with a good bit of anger in her voice (a rare occurence). She didn’t need to be much more forceful than that. That’s what Fenrir was there for. The arcanine turned his attention to the stranger, ready to drive him off at Pan’s command.

With a number of eyes directed at the group, rumors would no doubt spread of the man who eats baby pokemon...

[Angels Fall Firs...]

To: Twila Reanne
Location: Breeder's Stall/Tent

Finn was surprised at the girls response, asking him to go to the stall with her. He, of course, agreed to it and followed suit. Silently they browsed the stall, looking at the different pens of Pokemon. Some that caught his eyes were that of the kittens. All were adorable and cute, something that was always Finn's weakness.

Twila had been doing the same, interacting with all the different Pokemon in the pens. Finn copied her, sticking his hand in the kitten pen, and petting all the different cute Pokemon. One of the cute Pokemon's that caught his eyes were that of a Skitty. The pink cat sat at the edge of the pen and Finn, gently brushed its' ear. It purred, then brushed itself on his hand. "You're precious." He laughed, gently moving his hand under it.

As he was about to lift the kitten up, it brought its' fangs down and bit into Finn, causing him a lot of pain. He yelped in pain and swung his arm back, cursing under his breath.

"I'm so sorry!" One of the owners of the stalls shouted, hurrying on over towards Finnley. She brought up a rag and wiped his arm that had been bit. "She is the last of her litter." The woman looked down at the Skitty and sighed, "Again though, I'm so sorry about her."

"It's fine," Finn said, slipping his hands away from her deathly grip. "I should be fine." His eyes wandered back down to the Skitty also, watching it as it was doing the same too. "I see why she's the last though, she's got an attitude or something."

"That's true." The woman replied. "You're a trainer aren't you?"

Finn was afraid to answer the question, but he shrugged it off and went on with it anyways. "Yeah, why?"

"Why don't you take her with you?" The breeder asked. "I'm pretty sure some discipline will do her good. That's all she really needs."

"You've got to be kidding me," Finn sighed. "Taking a Skitty that just bit me? If it bit me now, what makes you think it will even listen to me." He turned around, a little irritated by the bite. He went a few paces away and looked at the other pens. Puppies, fish, eggs, you name it. Finn was going to leave empty handed. The breeder was willing to give the Skitty away for free. If Finn wanted to become a better trainer than he would have to start getting more than he had.

"Fine." He muttered, as he turned back around. "I'll take her. For now though."

"Of course," she replied, "for now."

In a matter of minutes, the exchange was done. Finn had a new Pokemon in his team, a little Skitty by the name of Kyla. She was spunky and stubborn, who liked doing her own thing. The trainer was going to have his hands full. Rue appeared a moment later by Finn's feet, staring up at his trainer and his new pal in the Pokeball. It chuckled and then looked ahead, watching as Twila appeared out from a tent with an egg in hand.

"Looks like I'm not the only one with a new Pokemon, huh?" Finn said, waving his Pokeball.

[SaphireShadows]

To: Finn Oakley
Location: Breeder's Stall

Twila gazed at her new egg and smiled as Finn commented on her new addition. She could feel it shake from time to time; something that the breeders said eggs did when they felt comfortable in their surroundings. She gave it a loving stroke and placed it in the traveler incubator. The device was odd indeed: it was somewhere between tin foil and fabric, and you had to tie it around yourself like you would a sash. Twila carefully situated it in the folds of the incubator, then tied the device around her shoulder somewhat like a toga. That was when she noticed Finn waving a new poke ball at her.

"I t-take it you, umm, got a new one as well? A new P-Pokemon, I mean," she asked, stumbling through her words like she always did. "I mean, I d-didn't get a Pokemon. I g-got an egg. But, umm..." she mentally smacked herself. Why couldn't she just shut up instead of babbling away like she couldn't stop herself? A montage of soothing mental pictures suddenly flashed through her mind, and she instantly knew it was Mai trying to calm her down. She took a deep breath in, and released it slowly.

"Ab! Sooool!" the noise startled Twila almost to the point of dropping her new egg. She gripped it protectively and looked around to find an Absol prowling around the pens of the breeder stall. It looked to be talking to the Pokemon in the pen, but what it was saying, Twila did not know.

"Huh...that's the fifth one I've seen today," she muttered. The Pokemon in the pens were starting to become afraid of the Absol, which made Twila feel like she had to step in. "Go on, shoo! Stop scaring the babies, you troublesome Absol!" But the Absol would not move. It kept repeating it's cries of "Ab! Sooool!"

That is, until Mai stepped up.
------------------------

<DOOOM! DOOOOM! DOOM UPON YE WHO REMAIN HERE!> The Absol declared, yelling at the frightened young Pokemon.

<And what is this impending doom?> Mai asked, tilting her head to the side. <I've heard many of you preaching to any Pokemon that will listen today, yet you never say what is coming. Why are we all in danger?>

The Absol looked put off by this question, and responded with anger to hide his confusion. <WE DO NOT NEED TO EXPLAIN OUR PREDICTIONS TO MERE CAPTIVES. WE ABSOLS HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE, AND ALL YOU NEED KNOW IS THAT WHAT IS COMING IS FIERY! YES! AND DOOM-Y! FIERY DOOM! WITH FIRE! AND DOOOOOM!>

Mai cringed and said, <All right, all right, I get it. Would you cease with your yelling? It's hurting everyone's ears.>

And surely enough, each and every Pokemon in the pens were covering their ears and trying to keep as far away from the loud Absol as possible. The Absol looked around sheepishly, then turned to leave.

<I concede. I shall leave, but heed my warning. HEED IT! THE END IS NIGH!> And with that, the Absol was gone.

<Crazy old thing. Still, he may be right. I feel something's about to happen, but I can't put my finger on it. Whatever it is, though, it feels like trouble.>

[Living Arrow]

Who: Darryn
To: Pan / Tag
Where: Buffet table

"A boy?" Darryn leant closer. "Tell me more!" Darryn hadn't heard of Pan's exploits with men since... Well... Since their exploits? He mentally shuddered.

Pan just about opened her mouth when a scream from her baby Cleffa (still amazingly cute) snagged their attention way from the topic at hand. What the pair turned to find was a struggling Star Shape Pokemon in the hands of some thug with more than a little barbeque sauce around his mouth and muscles to die for. He was clearly a fellow trainer, though - Pokeballs decorated his belt - despite his outwardly rough appearance. Pan's Arcanine bristled almost immediately - he was clearly well raised.

*And there's no malice there. He's just clumsy.* Darryn noted, being careful not to get too consumed by the ball of red growing in Pan's Emotaglow. *Why do things always end up getting out of hand so fast? I mean, seriously! Drama drama drama!*

"Pan, be cool." Darryn murmured, laying a hand on her shoulder for comfort. "It's probably just a mistake. Your Cleffa does look good enough to eat, right?

*****

Who: Lyla
To: Meiko
Where: Field of tents

"Oh, like, Darryn is totes here!" Lyla craned her neck to look around the immediate area. "But he's being, like, super slow at getting here and helping with the tent." Her complaint was short lived. "But no you're here and we don't need boys, right?!"

"Riiight..."

"Boys smell! Say's so on a Tshirt!" Lyla giggled, messing with the tent flap uselessly. In her own mind, trying to look busy was as good as the real thing. Plus, Meimei was so much better at this camping business than she was.

"But Dar's doing well right now, I guess. He's so fixated on getting, like, totally more awesome totally fast?" Lyla chewed her lip. There were more reasons why he wanted to get stronger but she didn't know how much he'd let her divulge without his say-so. His predicament with Lady was a growing concern with Lyla, not only because the two were so distant from one another now but because Darryn seemed to be punishing himself for whatever had happened between them. Lyla wanted desperately to take his sadness away every time he tried to speak to her outside of the Pokeball but skills like those were for Darryn, alone. "He's pushing hard to nail every move, every combination. It's hard work but he's come a long way in a short time." Lyla finished with a hopeful smile. "But with fans like us, he'll never go wrong, right?!"

[Rasu]

"God... Damn... it!" Tyson was panting heavily now. At least Zach's Houndour manage to put a stop to Gobi's rampage towards the food stalls. Not before he ran over Zach's other Pokemon, that is. Tyson took the chance to return Gobi before the situation got any worse and held a firm grip on the Pokeball to prevent it to open at the Hippopotas' will. And he thought Hippopotas were meant to be slow. Zach was now saying something about the Pokecenter and how they should take the time to heal the Pokemon involved in the chase. Gobi did get bitten in the tail and Zach's Electrike had taken quite the beating from the rampaging hippo.

"Sol..." a cry interrupted their chat, though, and yet another Absol was standing in front of them. Spotting the Dark-type Tyson called out Tyrogue.

"I got attacked by one when I arrived. Better safe than sorry." he turned to Zach, warning him that these Absol were trying everything to gather attention, even attacking the trainers.

---

<<Disaster is about to strike, foolish idiots, yet you still won't leave. Do you have a death desire, Fighting-type?>> the Absol seemed much more calm than the others roaming around who were just shouting their doom profecies. This one spoke in a much more collected way but no less direct.

<<You're the one who's going to suffer a disaster if you don't shut up, furball.>> Tyrogue wasn't amused or afraid in the slightest. Worse come to worse he'd take down the Absol himself.

<<Quite the courageous one, are you? Mark my words. You have been warned, Fighting-type.>> this last bit infuriated Tyrogue, for some reason. Perhaps the Absol had used Taunt on it?

<<And you mark my fists!>> Tyrogue lunged into attack, fists glowing in a metallic color. Without any warning he unleashed a flurry of Bullet Punches on the Absol who was knocked back slightly. With the exact speed of Tyrogue's attack the Absol responded by smacking him with his body and then using his scythe to send Tyrogue flying back to the ground. Taking this opening it started to create a whirlwind around it's body.

<<Such rash behavior will only kill you faster, Fighting-type. Calamity is upon us and there's no escape.>> and with this said the whirlwind concentrated on the Absol's scythe who then swiped it against Tyrogue in the shape of a blade made of pure wind.

[Kamaitachi]

Who: Taggarty Lee
To: Darryn and Pan
Where: Buffet Table.

"My pokemon aren't on the menu." The girl snatched the baby pokemon out of his hands rather roughly. Tag bowed his head sheepishly at her, holding the back of his neck with his hand. Despite his thuggish appearance, he looked incredibly sympathetic.

"Pan, be cool. It's probably just a mistake. Your Cleffa does look good enough to eat, right?"

The boy seemed the more reasonable of the two. It was to be expected, of course; he didn't have a pokemon that was nearly eaten. On the other hand, the Arcanine nearby (that he'd completely failed to notice), bristled at him. The more insane part of his head found himself cooing at its appearance. He'd always loved Arcanine as a species, and this one seemed particularly cute. The more sane part of his head realized that he was in very grave danger of being burned alive then eaten. Hopefully no one had a sense of poetic justice.

"Your friend is right: it was a mistake." Tag looked to Pan. "Please, forgive me. I was hungry." Despite the contrition in his voice, it still wasn't any sort of good excuse to attempt to eat a baby. "I travel a lot, so, I don't often see food like this. When I do, my own voracity overtakes me." His further explanation probably wouldn't sate the clearly irate Pan. He raised himself back up to his full height and met Pan's eyes. "How can I make this up to you?"

His eyes moved back to Lima and he offered something of a smile. Really, it was the best one he could muster, but his own natural instincts moved it into the realm of a smirk. In an attempt to fix this, he made a sort of...bizarre smile frown and then simply looked embarassed again. "Your Cleffa was pretty tasty?" he offered in an attempt at a lame joke. Oh Tag. Too soon?

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

Justin Smart

To: Douken, Sven, Lyna Sota
Where: The Sota's Stand

"Good to meet you both," Justin nodded, giving a firm handshake to both of Douken's parents. His grip was a little bit looser on Lyla, but it remained firm. "You raised yourselves a good boy here. You should see some of his epic heroics," Justin was referring, of course, to Douken's very recent battle against a monstrous Zoroark, almost completely on his own.

The conversation took an awkward turn when his parents mentioned Pan. It seemed they believed there was something more between Douken and Pan, which worried Justin for a moment. Was there something going on there? Douken's awkward blush truly did nothing to ease Justin's concern at first, but then he relaxed. Yes, the blush meant he had probably begun to develop feelings for her, but it also meant that Pan had yet to reciprocate, at least verbally. Still, though, it was only a matter of time before Douken made a move - a real move, unlike Justin.

"So!" Justin broke the tension, 'You guys are breeders, huh? What's that like?"

[Angels Fall Firs...]

To: Twila Reanne
Location: Breeder's Stall

Finn was surprised to see Twila react to the Absol with no hesitation. He had just met the girl, but when she talked to him, she was always stuttering and nervous. Now with the Absol she went straight into an attack mode, along with her Ralts, who just had a conversation with the angry Absol.

The green haired trainer wandered up and stood behind Twila with his smirk as the Absol disappeared, "Seems like you and your Ralts have a strong will to protect others." His little piglet took a seat next to Finn's feet and nodded, smiling at Mai, for what she had just done. "Tay-pig!" It cheered for them.

"And yeah," Finn continued, "I did get a new Pokemon. A Skitty," he said, tossing his ball into the air. "Hopefully it listens. Unlike someone I know." He looked down to his feet and chuckled, giving Rue a wink.

[SaphireShadows]

To: Finn Oakley
Location: Breeder's stall

"Good job, Mai!" Twila cheered as the Absol vanished. Mai turned toward her trainer and smiled. "Although," she said, turning from happy to disappointed, "it would have been nice to get to battle it. Come on, you know you need more training." Mai gave Twila a flat stare. Twila grinned at her Pokemon.

"Seems like you and your Ralts have a strong will to protect others." Twila started. She had completely forgotten Finn. She turned around to find that he was standing right behind her. She quickly took a step back as she turned cherry red.

She rubbed the back of her neck nervously. The lack of space between them when she had turned around had left her completely lost for words.

"And yeah," Finn continued, either unknowing of her predicament or not wanting to bring it to attention, "I did get a new Pokemon. A Skitty." And he dropped the Poke ball in his hand, revealing an adorable pink kitten.

"Awww!" Twila cried. She had a soft spot for any furry living thing. Twila was about to stroke the kitten's head when she jerked her head up and bit down hard on Twila's hand. Twila gasped as she felt the little kitten's fangs pierce her skin, and a few moments later she was trying desperately to get the little devil off of her, tears streaming down her face. Hey, having sharp kitten teeth lodged into your flesh hurts.