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[Xander, Callista, IzzyPants]

They worked together? Xander had seen him this morning? While this information was incredibly uplifting, it was not very revealing at all; why was Xander being so vague? Did it have something to do with the reason Snezhok had stopped writing?... Not that he knew what that reason was. All in all it was pretty suspicious. "This morning, hu?" Dith stroked Viktor's fur, trying to remain relatively calm. "Where was it you saw him this morning?" Xander could have been anywhere in Kodo this morning and arrived here by now. Somehow he got the feeling he wasn't going to get a straight answer on the matter, but he was damned if he was going to let some punk teenager stop him finding out what he wanted to know sooner or later...

Oh, and now Nakura came back. He seemed like a nice young man but he really didn't have the time anymore. Nevertheless Dith found a small smile to flash at him. "Nakura, hi, he's... a friend of a friend of mine. Apparently. We're having an important discussion..." He really couldn't think of a polite way to ask the red-eyed man to bugger off and leave him alone with he grilled the frustratingly evasive blond, although now at least Nakrua seemed to have located his date; maybe he was just coming to say hello before vanishing with her... Wait, hadn't he said she was taking part in the contest? This evening was raising far too many questions, some of course were far more important then others. Where was Jack, and what line of work were he and Xander in exactly? He was going to find out, either that or certain people were going to find themselves uncomfortably inverted off the edge of a rope bridge before the night was out.

Viktor nodded, And now Celty and her trainer plus another human with an Eevee were scurrying over to them. Conrad's trainer looked annoyed, whilst his own looked - and felt - tense.

[Callista] [Dith] [Xander]

"Oh, your sister? You mean the one I did meet personally?" Nakura asked her, wondering if she would be smart enough to catch his drift. Just to be sure, he added a few more details to the mental picture. "With the big, poofy tail and the sharp teeth that bit me? I rather liked her. Maybe I'll date her instead. Or perhaps I've been dating her all along, if she goes on your accounts." With a brief chuckle, he glanced back at the pink-haired girl to see how she was faring as he moved their little group along. He had experienced such a large number of death glares and unspoken threats that the grunt barely registered Callista's sinister gaze upon him. He didn't have time to. What was the girl talking about now?

"The contest?" Oh, how Izaya would have loved to just sit there and watch the contest - or, more specifically, how he would have enjoyed watching the human participants. He would have relished watching the changing expressions on the contestants faces; watch emotions flit across their features - anger, jealousy, envy, rage, detemination - but that wasn't possible at the moment. There was work to be done and a set time limit to be filled. The clock continued to tick away. "Yes, yes, very nice. Lots of sparkles and flashy, glittery things." He really hoped Callista wasn't actually paying attention to the contest, because then it was very likely she was giving it more of her focus than the task at hand.

She and Xander exchanged glances. They nodded to each other. Good. As long as they knew what was going on, because in a minute, Izaya was about to test the reaction, adaptation, and improv abilities of his 'teammates'.

"Spirr," Celty whirred quietly, lowering to greet the pink eevee but also wondering at the same time how the little one could not sense the current sort of atmosphere she was engulfed in. Perhaps it was because she was so young. It certainly was an exciting and distracting place for anyone, let alone a curious little pokemon. But as Rocket-trained pokemon, she thought they were supposed to be more professional than that. Maybe the little one was just pretending...? No matter the case, the ghost's attention was only partially on Eden as she watched Izaya out the corner of her vision. She couldn't afford to lose sight of him at what she was sure was climaxing to a crucial stage in this operation.

"A friend? Why, yes, I can see that," Nakura laughed good-naturedly, pretending not to have heard the words Dith had spoken afterward. "Please, let me introduce you to a friend of mine! This is Callista. I found her while I was looking for the paper with her name, and I was right! We were just meant to be! It was love at first sight. Only now I'm beginning to think it may have been her sister who sneaks onto her online account instead that I'm in love with, because she's nothing like the girl I talked to. Anyway, I know I said she said she was competing in the contest, but it turns out she was having trouble because her precious, little pink eevee wasn't exactly as potty-trained as she had thought." He pat Eden's head absently for emphasis without even looking down at the eevee.

"Callista, this is Dith and his espeon, Viktor. Looks like you both had contest-worthy pokemon who didn't make it for some reason or another," he stated, winking at the pink-haired girl. If she didn't catch his hinting, there was no hope for her. He was practically gift-wrapping this espeon and throwing it in her lap since, with no red-head around, it was clear no one else was going for him. As for Xander...

"Oh, look! Eevees gallore!" Izaya cried suddenly, eyes growing wide as he noticed Conrad and snatched him up from Xander's lap. "Why don't you play with the pretty pink eevee for a while, mm?" he asked, thrusting the spotted male at Callista to hold with Eden. "You two can talk to Viktor and ask him how he grew up to be so gorgeous and get lots of pretty girls...or guys." While abandoning his own chance at Viktor may have been a foolish choice for any other Rocket, Nakura was not nearly as ambitious as to risk his neck by allowing Dith to connect him with the theft of his pokemon; especially now that he had met him personally. That was, if Callista managed to even steal the thing. It was up to her, now.

Though he'd only heard snippets of the conversation, Izaya thought he had heard more than enough to get the feel of the tension between Xander and Dith. He had overheard enough on the way to get the jist of what was going on, but only with some assumptions he'd made himself due to Xander's careless displays of flusterment prior. He had a feeling that Xander wouldn't have wanted to be the one associated with Viktor's theft either, considering Dith already seemed pretty upset with the boy. In fact, Xander probably owed him for what he was about to do. Little did Izaya know that aside from Dith, he was also saving Xander and himself from the wrath of another potentially angry man who would possibly be enraged if he found out his best friend's long-time pokemon was stolen.

"Hey, don't I know you, pretty boy?" he asked, tilting his head at his fellow grunt. "That's right...we met in the showers some time back. Still have that birthmark you showed me?" Izaya grinned. "What about that scar I gave you? Still there?" Perhaps Callista wouldn't be the only Rocket to want to kill him after this particular raid, but at least neither her nor Xander were Executive Agents. Little by little, he shoved Xander up and out of his seat. The more intense it seemed, the more convincing it would be and the more likely Dith would be willing to wait his turn to get a chance at the teen. At least that was the hope.

"That's right...we have a score to settle. Excuse me, Dith, but this young fellow and I need to have a discussion of our own. Callista...don't wait up for me." They were small shoves at first, but got gradually more aggressive until Nakura was practically pushing the taller blonde down the row toward the men's bathrooms. It was for his own good. Really. Maybe 'some punk teenager' wasn't going to stop Dith from finding out what he wanted to know, but a sly info broker might. Especially an info broker experienced in dancing on the edge of danger while still keeping important info safe and his mouth tightly shut.

With the look he had glimpsed on Dith's face just before Izaya's arrival, the grunt figured the Russian might have killed the teen to know what he wanted - or worse. Nakura was all too wary of men who weren't aware of their own strength; particularly said men who claimed to be against violence until their temper was provoked. Truth be told, Dith was starting to remind Izaya a bit too much of a certain someone for his liking. They had to get away from him, and they weren't coming back. Callista could keep Conrad safe until they met back up at the base. Likely Xander had another pokemon or two handy for the mission.

Once they were out of sight and in the bathrooms, Izaya released his laughter before making sure Celty was following. After some inspection, he realized she had stopped right outside the mens' bathroom door. Typical. Of all the pokemon that can phase through walls, I get the one that wants to respect gender boundaries. At least he knew she was still with them, more or less. Unlike Conrad, Celty was the only pokemon her trainer had brought on the mission and he couldn't do this without her.

Grunt Nakura took a deep breath as he recomposed himself. "I'm not going to bother saying 'sorry', since we both know I'm not really, but maybe you can forgive me as payment for just saving your life," he told Xander, looking at his reflection in the mirror rather than directly at the young man himself. He straightened his sleeves and his V-neck shirt along with his hair. Ugh, there was Pidgeot excrement still in it! He quickly dunked his head under a faucet to wash it out.

"Ahh...now that that's taken care of, I suggest you get out of here and find a new target as soon as possible before Mt. Dith comes in looking to bash both our skulls in. Mind you, that's the worst case senario if Callisto doesn't manage to distract him first and/or take his pokemon." Turning on his heel, he walked past Xander towards the door, ready to rendezvous with Celty before going to seek out a certain light-blue-haired technician. Of course, that was only provided he could get out before Xander recovered and decided to do something to him.

[Nakura] [Xander] [Dith]

As much as Callista disliked all of the frankly quite ridiculous-sounding (to her at least) fabrications that her fellow grunt was spewing, she knew better than to contradict him directly. Instead, she would need to take what he said and adapt it to her own story - which, aside from a few... unwelcome... additions, wasn't all that different from what she had already worked out for herself.

"It's nice to meet you," she said, less because she was interested in conversation but rather because it was a part of her character-for-the-day. "I thought that it might be a good idea to watch the contest this time, rather than participating... I need to see if this is something that's really 'for' Eden," she said with a fake smile as she took a seat.

Then, the next thing she knew, she had her arms full of Eevee and was left alone with the very large, very angry man. At least the Espeon did seem like a worthy enough target, depending on whether his trainer actually stuck around long enough for the raid to really start. Though considering all that she had apparently walked in on, and with the hurry that Izaya had shoved Xander out...

Yeah, he wouldn't be staying around her for very long if she was capable of any guessing... but at least here she had a good view of the people around her, and there were other promising looking targets if she couldn't get her hands on that Espeon...

Eden, however, was having the time of her life. She knew there were important things to be done, but she wasn't going to stop making friends just because they might (would) be fighting soon! Having another Eevee and an Espeon in her immediate vicinity was enough to make her nearly explode with excitement - which, she didn't, but she certainly looked like she might have a potty-training problem with how she kept wriggling all over.

(( OOC: And the raid continues! ))

Once Guy's appeal had finished, Nurse Joy merrily clapped her hands. "Oh my, how cute! The coordinator and Pokemon have matching swords!" While the Chairman set back in his hair and laughed heartily. "Ho ho ho! Yes! Litwick! Simply. Superb! Sublime! Adorably! Cute! Like. My Dodorio! Smart! Quick! Deliciously! Fantastic! Extravagantly! Keen!"

"Yes, that was a very strong display of cuteness! Quite the appeal for a single Pokemon!" The announcer continued as Guy was then ushered off to the waiting box with the other coordinators. "Last but not least, is our next contestant! Please give a warm welcome to Mister Asch and his Pokemon Tyke the Zorua and Saber the Zoroark!"

As the audience did their applause, Asch stepped through the entryway and into the trainer's box. Effortlessly he tossed a pair of balls into the air, releasing the aforementioned Pokemon. Tyke appeared first, followed by his much larger counterpart, Saber. In a flash of light the small Zorua suddenly changed its appearance using his Illusion ability to look like the Zoroark next to him. The pair of Pokemon glancing at each other with a grin before springing into action.

The forms of the dark duo suddenly wavered and shimmered, before splitting and creating replicas of themselves, Double Team. The stage now occupied with six Zoroark. In sync, they raised their arms above their heads just as a reddish aura surrounded them. "Zrrrah!" They all shouted, just before bringing down their arms and creating a shock wave of crimson energy and light, in a Night Daze. The forms of the many Zoroark were then suddenly out of view for an instant, then reappeared as they streaked past each other, aiming blows that never hit, and instead resembling a complicated array of footwork. Each Zoroark would pass another, before disappearing, then reappearing again to dart past yet another one, Faint Attack. "Zrah! Zrah! Zrah!" This went on for several moments until all six lept into the air and landed, folding their arms across their chests and taking a bow. Four of them then disappearing, and leaving the two originals.

"Oh! How lovely!" Nurse Joy exclaimed as the appeals came to an end and the crowd once more erupted in applause. "And the coordinator's costume matches his Pokemon so well!"

"Zoroark! Zorua! Simply! Alluring! Wonderful! Brilliant! Marvelously! Excellent!" Crowed the Chairmain as he slammed a hand down on the table in his exuberance. How exciting! He always loved these contests!

Guy bowed once more to his audience as his Litiwick did the same. That little Ghost truly had met his expectations and more. Guy never thought that Anon would think to copy his sword techniques! Perhaps he could teach him swordplay one day. Maybe he could buy the Ghost a dagger or a small saber... His train of thought was rudely interrupted when he was ushered out of the trainer's box. He quickly recalled Anonymes and retreated to the waiting box with the two previous coordinators, sitting himself nearby Rosie.

He and Anonymes watched the appeal of the mysterious man named Asch with curiosity. That man was good, certainly. His two Pokemon were like a miniature drill-team, all synchronization and stoic movement. They were obviously powerful... The mention of the man's costume made Guy start. Now that he took a good look at it... Those clothes were undoubtedly from the Grande Isle! Guy was sure of it! Did that mean that that Asch man was from the Isle as well? Were the odds even possible that such a doppelganger of Luke could exist in such a small place? It was definitely...

"Interesting..."

Lola scoffed at Asch's performance. "I've seen better." The snobby trainer didn't seem impressed by any of the other appeals. She was going to win, daddy had bought her the best pokemon money could buy, after all.

Rosie glanced over when she heard Lola's comment, blinking a couple of times, but she just offered the girl a smile.
"Everyone's done so well so far. I guess we'll find out soon. good luck Miss Lola~"

"Its mostly on personal preference from what I understand" Rosie replied to Guy, glancing over at him before leaning forward on her seat and looking out over at the judges table, it meant of course that all of them had done a good job, at least in her opinion.

She was nervous again, waiting for their reply. Taking a break she pushed herself to her feet again, kneeling down next to Vany'n and putting an arm around her Vaporeon as she waited.
Her eyes found Asch again, he wasn't in the box quite yet. if she wasn't so nervous she would be talking to Guy right now, she had a few question.