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At the sound of a query- albeit, unfortunately, one she had no answer to- Chari started forward, briefly cupping her ear as if hard of hearing. She wasn't, in fact, but it made a lovely excuse to be 'thinking' while getting into range.

"What? Oh, the Pokemon Center. Damned if I know, sweetheart, just got here myself.."
By a mysterious process known primarily to old women and underfoot dogs, she was standing directly next to the young man- in fact, squeezing his bicep between bony fingers.
"...but I'd be only too happy to help you and your lady friend, here."
She moistened her lips and winked at the lady friend, then, after a moment's observation, took a closer look.

Slim, not entirely unattractive, muscular....who did she remind her of? Oh, yes. Cousin Han. Punch like an iron bar, head like an iron ball.She raised her hands to either side of her face, a gesture of apparent surrender, in the face of the girl's suspicions.

"And don't you worry about me being strange; I'm plenty strange, but I dearly love young people, don't you worry. I'm full of hugs and...kisses."
Her hands moved to her face, comically squashing her cheeks.

Phobos and Deimos moved in to plant a cool, bony smooch on either of the girl's cheeks, rising from the ground in silence and at speed....

Friar Sand, meanwhile, was steadfastly ignoring the Eevee's patient nibbles. It was a sort of moral lesson, perhaps; if you chew something that isn't a cookie for too long, you get broken teeth. And dropping his shell on it would probably be rude.

Salieri tilted her head to one side. Old woman teleportation was a natural occurrence, so that wasn't what bothered her. The stranger was definitively strange, and was not afraid to admit it. Salieri decided that the old woman was relatively harmless. So long as she didn't touch her.

A shiver ran down her spine, signaling the re-arrival of the two ghosts. Training for ears to trust her senses gave way to her instinct, which was to hop backwards to avoid whatever was coming. Phobos and Deimos would just miss her face and end up kissing each other.

"Gwaah!" Salieri scooched back more and took out her pokedex, scanning the Hoenn native pokemon with a sickly color in her face. Duskulls like to hear children crying? "Lady, if you want to help you can start by calling off those ghosts! I can't think straight with them flying around my head."

This doesn't taste like a cookie...tastes like...a rock?

Salem kept sniffing the shell, then tried to take a tentative nibble.

A hot rock?

((@TK - same, even though I write a lot of them razz I do better these days smile ))

"Waaaaait, wait... wait." Wayne held up his hands then pointed down at Chari's a**, "How can you sit on a Torkoal's main vent? That should fry your, uh, behind."

He rubbed his neck, thinking with a frown. She couldn't... unless!

"Hang on, are you a zombie? Cause if you are that's so cool!"

As soon as things literally started to heat up, Salem jumped backwards instinctively, narrowly avoiding getting blast of steam. She stood in place, blinking profusely as the side of the comparatively massive pokemon. “Vee?”

Friends with ghosts? For a moment, Salieri imagined traveling along the road with those two Duskulls constantly popping up out of nowhere to scare the bejeezus out of her. I think I’ll pass.

The whistle of the steam was enough to distract Salieri from suspiciously eyeing the dancing ghosts above her. With her arms folded, the Battle Girl walked around to Friar Sand’s other side, inspecting the Fire type. It wasn't often that you got to see a pokemon grow so unnaturally huge.

“Friar Sand...you said he’s old, right? That explains why he’s so big.” The pokedex had mentioned that the average Torkoal was a little under two feet in height. Not Friar Sand. This Torkoal was an anomaly.

Salieri squatted down and tilted her head to inspect Friar’s underside, like a mechanie looking at a car engine. “Is he strong? Looks pretty slow to me.”

"Nah, it's pretty simple. Like my Hitmonlee can kick down walls, probably. He's pretty strong. But those waiters before? Their pokémon kinda sucked, so they're weak."

Wayne folded his arms and carefully eyed over the elderly combination.

"I know a really old pokémon. An Aerodactyl. It was old 700 years ago or something. You know, like in that war?"

Ancient history: there was once a world war fought between the regions around seven centuries ago. Armies consisted of men and pokémon; it was during this period that pokéballs were invented to capture fallens pokémon foes and retrain them for use in battle. After the war ended, the practice became more recreational; the pokémon league was founded and pokémon training began.

It was also when soldiers were first trained to utilise Aura for battle, but that aspect is omitted from your standard textbook. Everything else is common knowledge.

"Anyway, it's probably older than your Torkoal. I think it was around before steam was invented."

---

"I dunno," Zack smirked, "maybe it's better you tell him."

He leaned up against the house, arms folded as he stared at the sky. Zack knew that Wayne had lost his pokémon not so long back. He had a good idea that the kid would want some kind of revenge. Interrogating a Plasma member?

Heh. That's what happens when you spend 10 years with someone; you start to rub off on each other.

"He's not gonna listen to me if I tell him to stop. I wouldn't. Still..." Zack frowned. The final call would be down to the World Government council and President Sasaki; it's not like the input of a clandestine operative, a former one at that, would really influence their decisions. Interpol, on the other hand, could take a hint.

"A lot of people are in danger if nobody does anything, not just the ones we know. If Wayne's in trouble, I'll take care of that. If you can't convince him to be careful, I'll make sure he's prepared. But the focus has to be on keeping normals from getting caught in the crossfire."

Just like...

"What are Plasma really after?"

---

"Kero," Elizabeth said, voice almost a whisper, "that's not appropriate discussion for a dinner table."

She stood up with a screech of her chair. Elizabeth's eyes flickered down at the beast of a man; as physically imposing as Kero was, she just didn't give a s**t.

"Hearing you talk like that," she met his eyeline without a falter, just a slight narrowing of her gaze, "it sounds like you don't know your son at all."

"Now," Elizabeth shot a glance to her daughter, "Katelyn," grabbed the girls' hand, "it's time to brush your teeth, honey."
"'kay."

History? There was nothing interesting in history except for motivation. Only the future interested Salieri. It was what she strived to control. The Battle Girl's journey was aimed to bury the past with the landslide of her future success.

Salieri stood up and paced around the turtle back to Wayne and Chari’s side, letting her hand pass over the shell as she walked. “You’re forgetting about a fighter’s spirit. The will that makes them move around after their body doesn’t want to anymore. The same will that can simply howl and end a fight before it even begins. Wisdom, virtue, chance, force, whatever. Those other things are nothing without spirit.”

Her Eevee cocked her head to the side. The humans started talking about metaphysical concepts. She had stopped paying attention after Friar Sand blew steam into her face.

“So you still haven’t answered my question, lady. Is the fighting spirit of your Torkoal a fiery roar?”

The Battle Girl did not look to Chari, instead standing in front of Friar Sand so they were eye to eye. A confident grin bordering on arrogant flashed on her face.

“Or is it a one shot firecracker? I'm just curious because I'm looking for proof that Unova's got a real challenge waiting for me, not just lame Gym Leaders like Lenora.”

****

Hexum looked to Jump for help with Zack. A father was supposed to protect their child. Humans often forgot that when they sent their ten year olds to travel the world. But Jump simply shrugged.

“You think it’s my place to tell Wayne to stop? Don’t you remember the s**t we did as teens?” Jump jabbed his thumb to his side at Zack, still addressing his Lucario. “Like father, like son. It wouldn’t be right to tell Wayne to sit back and relax coming from us. And I wouldn’t anyway. If he has business to take care of and wants to be a man about it, then I gotta support him.”

[You act like you’ve always fought blind.]

Kiedis narrowed his eyes up at the rising moon, standing on the stairs to the house a short ways away from Jump and Zack. [I have no interest in letting a child go to the monster’s den without giving him some advice first.]

“Oh, I’ll let him know what’s up. He should know that much.” Jump flicked his thumb over his nose. “We can always find him tomorrow. But if he still wants to keep fighting Plasma after I do, then at least he’ll understand what kind of trouble he’s getting into.”

He grinned. Just like old times. When he used to be an adventurer, it was always him and his friends against the world. Part of growing up was fighting for yourself.

“So you think this Pokemon liberation thing is a hoax too, huh?” Jump sighed and rubbed his chin. “Problem is, I have no idea what they’re really looking for. If I had to make a guess…”

He pushed off of the house and began pacing back and forth in little circles around Hexum. “That guy gathered up, like, a league of Sages or whatever and brought them all here. No activity overseas, just in Unova. So they must be after something in this country. And whatever it is, they need power for it. And good PR.”

The Lucario spun around on his heel to try and keep facing Jump. It wasn’t that Jump was blessed with deduction skills. It was that his mind thought so quickly that he narrowed down to conclusions quickly as well. Not that they were always accurate, but more often that not he had some sort of point to make.

“Could be a massive scheme to steal pokemon. But there haven’t been any major pokemon thefts in Unova recently, so that’s unlikely. Either way, they don’t want trainers in their way. Getting rid of a trainer’s pokemon kinda gets rid of the trainer. And getting rid of a trainer's will to train? Definitely takes them out of the picture."

Suddenly, he stopped pacing to look back at Zack. “There is one thing that gets me, though. Ghetsis has never announced himself as the leader before. The Seven Sages are all on equal standing, I think. But how many times have we faced a crazy terrorist group calling themselves a team without a leader, Zack?”

Kero said nothing as Elizabeth led Katelyn away. "Remember to get to bed early tonight," Kero told Helena and she nodded and went off up the stairs toward her room. Taking the dishes, Kero went to go wash them.

((I have nothing interesting to post until Takamaru does <.<; ))

After getting a good walk through the large port area Kijin was amazed by the sight of the ships and how many were in this one port it wasn't until he left the port that he saw more ports running down the shoreline. He was amazed by them they all looked the same but were different at the same time some you could see had large towers that were as big as buildings in the city others had special trucks and carriers, but as much as he would like to go on he knew he couldn't stand there and watch this all day since he needed to get to the pokemon center to make a phone call and get a room.

After walking through the city for a couple of hours looking for the pokemon center in this city he would let out a grumble as he comes to the other side of the city, he was already getting agitated by the process of finding this place. "Oh come on no other city is this hard to navigate let alone find one pokemon center I mean look at this place its massive and yet I can't find one STUPID BUILDING!!" He shouts out to the heavens as if blaming Arceus for this place and how it was built, his shouting was drawing some eyes to him not in the best way as many just looked at him like he was crazy or something. He continued to yell for thirty minutes before continuing his search. This time though it takes him a little bit longer before he finally comes across the center he lets out a sigh,"Ugh...finally." He slumps forward a bit as he walks into the building a little amazed by the design of the building since it looked more like a large hotel then a pokemon center with three separate counters only two of which had a nurse joy in front of them and the third had another lady but seemed busy with the large group of people that were lined up in front of it. He watches the line a little bit before walking over to the counter close to the door,"Hi there i'm here for a room for a few days."

The nurse pulls out a large book and opens it to the last page scrolling down the listing she points to a empty spot,"Here you go just sign here and you will good to go." She says in a cheerful tone as she hands him a pen and turns the book around. Kijin looks at the nurse then down at the book signing the page but as he signs he notices a lot of names that were on the list covering both pages in dozen of names, some were crossed off but a majority of them were still on the list.

After signing the page the nurse takes the book back and closes it as well as the pen and hands him a key,"Your room number is room 336 enjoy." She says with the same cheerful voice, Kijin raises a brow and nods a little,'Uh thanks." He says before turning around and heading towards a elevator that was lined with glass all around it except for at the door giving him a complete view of lobby, he looks at the door looking at the seven buttons that lined up the panel he presses the one of the buttons assigned to a floor and was sent up. Moving up the floors quickly he watched as the building seemed to be moving around him until the elevator stops on the third floor he left the elevator and started to walk down the hallway looking at each of the doors trying to match the room number with the key number he had soon finding his room he unlocks the door and sees how large the room was compared to other pokemon centers he was a bit amazed, there was enough room here for some of his pokemon to come out and relax as well. "Well this isn't too bad."