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Although he pretended not to hear, Shawn took careful note of the discussions the others were having close by. What he could hear, anyway. If these guys are that upset, it must mean the Rockets took in a pretty good haul this time... he thought. Somehow, though, it wasn't really uplifting to think about such a thing when there were so many gloomy people around. Shawn sighed and went over to a vending machine to get a soda and a bag of chips. He hoped the blue-haired tattoo girl liked chips. Maybe if she ate a little, she would feel better.

He inserted his currency, pressed a few buttons, and retrieved the food and drink from the machines. Upon hearing Izumi's next words, however, he almost dropped his packaged prizes. "Your b-beldum?" he asked. It wasn't anything he thought he'd heard of, but he was pretty sure it was safe to assume the thing was a pokemon. At least it would have explained the funny nickname.

Returning to Izumi's side, he handed her the soda. "Hungry?" he asked, opening the chip bag before holding them out to her. "Uh-huh...so this Wheatley was your...pokemon, then." That made things a little more complicated. He doubted Team Rocket made a habit of returning their stolen pokemon. Sighing heavily, the kid rand a hand through his spikey hair. He couldn't exactly sympathize with the girl...not when he didn't understand the sort of relationship she could have with a pokemon to call it her best friend. He decided to stick to pretending it was a human in his mind.

"Listen...I'm really sorry for your loss. That's terrible, but...what was so special about this pokemon that makes you call him your best friend?" Or waste tears on him, for that matter? It's not like he died. "Can't you...er...just get another one?" Oops, wrong thing to say. You can't get another human best friend just like that, Shawn. Pretend it's a human. A human guy! "Er, I mean...if he misses you as much as you miss him, won't he come back to you the first chance he can get?"

Yeah right, thought the boy cynically. Not even human guys do that. Stupid assholes, abandoning girls when they get sick of them... He couldn't see how a pokemon - an inhuman creature - could care for their human companions as much as their humans cared for them. Still, Shawn held his tongue. He'd probably made things bad enough as it was.

Lindsay had stopped growling. Now that she knew this lady wasn't after her Shawn or vying for his affections, she was alright with her. In fact, Izumi presented a point of interest to the Jolteon. The Rocket-born eeveeloution had often wondered just how much more trainers cared for their pokemon than Rockets seemed to. Izumi's tears seemed proof enough. With a strange sort of pity for the girl, the Jolteon let out a short, sharp bark and lay down at Izumi's feet, surprising Shawn. It seemed to be her way of attempting to comfort the trainer.

As he heard the discussion about the Beldum progress Dith slipped a hand into his pocket to brush his fingers against the surface of the plain grey pokeball hidden inside. It meant a lot to you, a pokemon that had been with you since you were young. You grew up together, had so many adventures and endured so many mishaps, many of which were your own fault and a part of growing up... Was there anything he could do? He wanted there to be, he really did but the whole thing just seemed too big. Sometimes that didn't matter though, now did it? When the cause mattered you fought, no matter what might happen to you if you failed.

Maybe he was just brighter now than he had been in his teens.

Maybe he just wasn't as brave.

He remembered that determination and passion though, he'd have joined in with every one of his parents' schemes had he been allowed... but what could he do here and now? Saying 'I will try' was useless when there was nothing to be tried. What was he going to do, try to guess where Team Rocket might turn up and try to fight them? With one pokemon? Maybe he'd start by getting another pokemon then, or two, or three. He could plan out a solid team for himself, really work on their training. It would be better than just standing around shrugging his shoulders surely, if he had a strong team then maybe next time he could actually do some good... If there was a next time, of course. Seeking out Team Rocket would be stupid, hadn't he come close enough to dying this time around?... Still, it couldn't hurt to get a couple more pokemon.

A weak smile appeared on Guy's face as he listened to Rosie. She was right; all that mattered right now was that they - she, Dith, and himself - were all okay. No one was horribly injured, as far as he could tell, and all of their other Pokemon were intact and out of harm's way. Still... It didn't seem like enough. The shock of having Vany'n stolen from Rosie overshadowed all of the fortune that had come out of the terrible misfortune that occurred not but a few hours about. It was devastating.

At Rosie's thanks to him, though, Guy merely shrugged his shoulders. His eyes grew slightly cold and steely. "...It wasn't enough, though. Nowhere near enough. I tried, but I couldn't actually do anything. Because..." He placed his head in his hands. His eyes were now shut tightly, as if he was trying erase all that had happened last night from existence.

"...Because of that damned Asch. I don't know what it is with him, but he's so... disconcerting." That was a lie. Guy knew exactly what about Asch bothered him so badly. The fact, the simple fact, that Asch knew his birth name was reason enough to arouse suspicion, but the fact that was nearly identical to Luke was too eerie to be any kind of a coincidence. It was like they were one and the same... Even down to the expressions in their eyes. "I can't wrap my head around him."

Out of the corner of his vision, Guy could see a couple other figures a short ways away from them. One of them, the blue-haired woman, he instantly recognized, but just couldn't place the name... What was it? ...Izu? Umizu? Izaya? As soon as Rosie said it, though, it instantly came back to him. "Oh my... It's miss Izumi..." Guy began to stand up to go over to her and try to console her for an obvious loss, but he was beaten to the punch by a strange adolescent in a long coat. ...Ah, well. Hopefully, the kid would have more comforting words for the woman than Guy did. ...A failure of a swordsman, that's all that he was.

Anonymes was surprised to see miss Rosie reaching up towards him and holding onto him. It was not a bad thing, no... Just unexpected. It was definitely nice, though, to be held by miss Rosie. Miss Rosie was so nice. She deserved all the happiness in the world. No one as sweet and kind as miss Rosie should ever be this sad, ever. Those mean people... The ones who ruined the contest... They were the ones who made her this sad! What mean, cruel people! Anon should teach them all a lesson, yes he should! He would make those mean people pay for making miss Rosie sad, yes he would! His expression turned from sad and sympathetic to happy and friendly as he latched onto Rosie and gave her a big hug. "Laaaam!"

Ah, yeah, first time flyer, Perdy could recognize though, meaning he was going to have to take care flying with this one. But at least Luke go on without much hesitation, or protest.

Once the bird knew the human was on alright, the Pidgeot took back to the air, flying with Luke all the way to the hospital, where he had last left his trainer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She watched Guy quietly, tilting her head to the side.... she could tell this was hard on him. something had happened during that fight, there was something about this Asch...
Asch... She couldn't believe it. why did he do this? took her mother's Pokemon, one of her best friends, her more treasured...
Hands clenched, remember the sight of the knife held so close to her.

Bowing her head against Anonymes, grateful for the embrace... really needing one right now.

Perdy was alarmed when the human suddenly jumped off of him and bolted to the hospital.
He continued to glide after, though eventually had to land to keep from knocking into to many people.

Rosie was standing quietly, watching Izumi from where she stood, hearing her story, and feeling her chest hurt even more.
Why would someone do something like this? It HONESTLY made no sense to her... who WANTS to hurt people like this?

There was commotion at the entrance of the Hospital, several people stopped where they were, and muttered, someone had thrown open the doors, seemingly desperate, and was standing there. Poor, quite disheveled looking individual.
Thats not what Rosie noticed though. Staring across the raining room with wide, blue eyes.
"L Luke?"
What was he doing here? He had been back in Camphoreon, staying to keep out of the uncomfortable summer heat.
He looked like he had gotten plenty of heat though.

Guy's heart was heavy. He felt so helpless. What on earth could he do? What power did he have over the barbarism and evil of Team Rocket? ...Alone, next to nothing. He couldn't even stop one man from taking one of Rosie's most precious Pokemon. A large sigh escaped him as he glanced over to Rosie. He could tell she was taking this loss very close to heart, and he was sure that she was hurting. Even so... she only thought about the safety of others. She really was a virtuous person.

The sound of Rosie speaking brought Guy out of his daze and caused him to look up in surprise. Did she say 'Luke?' Sitting up straight now, he glanced towards the entrance and his eyes widened in surprise. It was Luke!... And he seemed to be exhausted. How did he get here, anyway...? "Luke! What are you doing here?"

If Anonymes had a mouth, it would be stuck in a cheerful grin at this moment. He was giving miss Rosie a hug! Hugs were good! They helped people to feel better! Miss Rosie needed to feel better, so he gave miss Rosie a hug, and it worked! She was feeling better! Anon could tell. He heard Rosie say something, and he turned his head around to see what she was looking at. Gasp! It was sir Luke! He was Master's friend! Any friend of Master's was a friend of Anonymes! The happy Lampent gave the human boy a large, friendly wave in welcome.

This disparity between seeing and knowing was bridged his friends' address. The fact that they were speaking to him reinforced the fact that they were there, winning out over the possibility that they were elsewhere, wounded or even-- That wasn't an option anymore, and he cleared the worry from his thoughts. With a heavy, expulsive sigh, he visibly relaxed, his former urgency parting from his posture and taking the vast majority of his nervous energy with it. The fact that he had just sprinted from Camphoreon to Sandalwood in the middle of a summer afternoon caught up with him almost immediately, and he found his way to the nearest chair and unceremoniously slumped into the seat. His first instinct, to be absolutely taken aback by the sheer scale of the giant that approached him shortly thereafter, was subverted by the fact that said giant was offering water and Arceus yes so thirsty.

A murmured response, possibly - but not likely - a thank-you, accompanied the hand that reached to accept the bottle. He drank deeply of the contents, not unlike a Goldeen being reunited with water for the first time in years. When he was satisfied, he was at least refreshed enough to hold a coherent conversation and regarded the other trainers in the room with an anxious curiosity, "What on earth happened?"