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A finger poked the back of Henrietta's shoulder. "S'cuse me, miss."

Behind her was a boy with spiky crimson hair, just a little bit shorter and clearly younger than her. The light dotting of freckles on his cheeks only highlighted Jaiden's youthfulness. The hood of his red sweatshirt was up to shield his face from the sandstorm. And full recognition.

He grinned at her. "Sorry to bother you, but I was just watching that battle from over there on that hill, and...and..."

Suddenly, Jaiden jumped backwards, looking too excited to stand still anymore. "It was awesome! There were explosions like BOOM, and then those two pokemon were just wailin' on each other and it was COOL!"

He clasped his hands together. "I don't have any pokemon of my own, but I wanna catch one so I can have cool battles like that! Can you help me do it?" Jaiden looked like he was ready to beg. "Pleeeeeease?"

****

"Hey, what's the rush, buddy?"

As Luka rounded the corner of a sand dune, he would run into the lanky figure of a Pokemon Ranger. His hat's brim was pulled down to shield his eyes from the sand. The Ranger had one hand on his hip as he gave Luka a once over glance.

"Don't you know the sand gets deeper over there? If you don't watch where you step, you'll get suck. That's why we set up these traffic cones here, see?"

The Ranger stepped aside to reveal the main road behind him. Surely enough, where the main road ended was a line of orange cones indicating that passing the barrier would require some caution.

He took off his hat for a moment to run a gloved hand through his salt and pepper colored short hair. "A young trainer like you should know the terrain before they go out on their adventures."

((Luka so owes Henrietta money for that win.))

Henrietta tensed at the poke, accompanied by an involuntary squeak. When she turned around she noticed Jaiden. The hyperactive young fellow was full of excitement over her battle. Was it really that good? Looking back on it, remembering it, it seemed pretty normal for her. Save for one or two battles, all of her seemed very high end. She'd watched Melty battle over hot lava, risked burning the park like area in Striaton, watched exploded gas knock out a Steelix in the streets of the same city. She'd watched people receive fatal wounds in Pinwheel Forest, seen a man half burned to death rescue her from certain death.

Darumi fighting through the flames of a flamethrower to land the battle ending hit seemed normal.

"I.."

Wait, there was something she could do.

[flashback]

All things accounted for, Henrietta had a nice sum of money. Runner up in the tournament plus left over money had left her with enough to repair her xtransceiver. So, she stood in the lobby of the Pokemon Center, suddenly in the middle of an inner debate.

How were Pokemon captured? Normally you trained against them first, right? To train against them, you fainted them. And then what? They were supposed to like their attacker? They were supposed to survive with heavy injuries - enough to beat them unconscious? Henrietta couldn't just live with that.

So, when she left the Center that morning she'd left with an empty pocket. She'd win her gym match, she told herself, and use the earnings to repair her xtransciever.

[/flashback]

"Th-this way," she said and she lead Jaiden to the outskirts of the desert, Darumi following after. He didn't appear injured, no burns, the two attacks that he had been hit by he resisted naturally, so it wasn't really a big deal. More pain tolerance training - as this desert was meant to be.

The outskirts was where the wild pokemon had trailed Darumi, and subsequently been knocked out by Frate. The differing types of Route four lay there. Not broken, but beaten.

"J-just pick one," Henrietta said curtly, apparently she didn't want to be dragged into a conversation - she wasn't good at those.

She then - starting with Darumi - set about using her stock of potions to recover the injured Pokemon. The spray would disinfect their injuries and help the regenerative process. It also helped keep Pokemon fighting by acting as a pain killer. The sweet and short of it was that with some rest, all of the Pokemon would be fine.

Henrietta's plan was to go around the entire outer circle and help every Pokemon that had been defeated, likely accompanied by interaction with Jaiden.

Henrietta focused on the task at hand, it made it easier to talk when she didn't have to look at a person. Like giving anonymous commentary. "I did, but only the ones that went after Darumi." She gestured to the Darumaka. "You said you wanted a Pokemon, you have to weaken them to capture them. But this way they'll all be able to return to the wild without permanent damage, and your starter Pokemon won't need to be run to the Pokemon center immediately."

There wasn't a whole lot of work, but a lot of walking with some stops. "Trainers attack Pokemon and Pokemon attack trainers - that's inevitable when you go out into the wild. Still, though, I feel bad hurting them."

Perhaps she's disconnected herself from the conversation, or perhaps talking had just become easier but she added a "sometimes I'm afraid my Pokemon won't like me because of the training, or how they were captured. Still.. they listen and I'll fight for them if I have to." Which was true, she still held fresh marks on her face and hands, the marks where scabs had been peeled still clear to the observant eye. She'd have more, too, had it not been for Shery's healing back in Striaton.

"Weaken them without a Pokemon? That'd be really dangerous. You could always befriend them," Henrietta said. She didn't really take note of Jaiden's moving around. She did, however, continue to reply. Her voice was quiet, soft. She sounded younger than she was, looked it too most of the time.

"I don't think Pokemon are like that. They'll listen because they're caged." She tapped one of her empty pokeballs. "They don't have any freedom unless it's given to them. I mean normally, I don't like doing that. I recall them when they're injured, when I need to get them healed. But I usually try to let them do as they please."

She turned her head to look toward Jaiden, but her hair - constantly billowing in the wind - obscured her view. "I've asked them, told them, if they don't want to fight or train, they don't have to. I've been thinking that fighting wild Pokemon, it's pointless. They won't get stronger or faster fighting, and I can only learn and adapt to tactics by fighting other trainers."

Why was she talking? She asked herself this. Suddenly it felt weird. She quickly looked away from Jaiden and went back to work. "S-sorry. It's just, the last few days have been hard."

Salieri couldn't focus entirely on what Kijin was telling her. Not only was that situation a hazy memory -she only recalled spraying people with a fire extinguisher before running into the forest-, but Chari's words were still echoing in her head.

"I, uh..."

"You lost the moment you hit me."

A renowned martial artists once said that a good fight is like a dance that is played out by the properties of yin yang. If one person expands, the other contracts. If one contracts, the other expands.

What Chari was telling her was to switch it up. Be the one controlling the fight, not the one reacting to it. But how do you win if you don't attack first? I don't understand. Where are you, Moze? You'd be able to tell me what cryptic things old ladies are saying.

"That feels like ages ago. Did I spray you with a fire extinguisher?"

Oh, right. Manners.

"Kijin, this is Chari. Chari, Kijin."

****

Jaiden didn't respond right away as Henrietta finished her thoughts. So this was why she was one of Lord N's candidates. A pokemon trainer who thought of pokeballs as cages. Sounded just like him.

You're unsure of yourself, Henrietta.

"So pokemon training is...bad?" Jaiden inquired, feigning confusion. "If pokemon don't like being in pokeballs, then why do we catch them?" He pouted. "I don't want my first pokemon to hate me."

He paused. The past few days were clearly having some wear and tear on the girl. Wear and tear was good. It made her less sharp. More vulnerable. The more her ideas of what was right and what she should do conflicted, she easier it would be to control her.

So he would try to keep it going.

"I heard that what happend in the Pinwheel Forest yesterday was because of some bad trainers who couldn't control their pokemon." Jaiden frowned. "Team Plasma tried to save the forest and the pokemon, but it all burned down. Are there a lot of bad trainers out there like that?"

Mull that over.

((Also the summary thread is up to date!))

((Totally keeping track, people I'm determined to have Henrietta fight today;(RP today)
Wayne
Salieri
Avan
Robby
AJ
Kijin
Crimson
Fleya
Chari
Takamaru
Hiba
Luka
Burgh))

She had hours today before her mother would be by to pick her up. Lots of higher up stuff going on to get things together before she had to head out. Her manager, for one, was already hard at work. This left Helena a whole day to herself pretty much.

Dressed in her usual style of dress, she headed out to see someone. A family member that hadn't been by for dinner that night.

Finding him would be a simple process. With the Scizor behind her - he father's - being a tracker for the World Government, she was sure they'd head in the right direction.

The brown haired, blue eyed girl was famous to anyone that stuck with the times. A famous pop singer, actually. There was a funny sort of association that followed that - she wasn't approached by a single person. Actually, most of them outright avoided her. This was because of the Scizor, constantly giving off enough killing intent that even normal people would see a dangerous aura around her. Weaker Pokemon and children that got close would likely piss themselves.

***

Meanwhile, back at the Redgrave's residence, Kero had his own guest. At the kitchen table he sat dressed in a muscle shirt and jeans. Hardly the intimidating attire that his guest wore. Emily - still garbed in her uniform - was here to give her report.

"So you lost track of her because of this unseen figure," Kero stated.

"Yeah, the team is still currently out hunting. I'll let you know as soon as we get a positive I.D." Emily said.

"No, I'm taking you off of this mission." Kero Redgrave was the leader of the Justiciars unit. A unit that specialized in the tracking and execution of wanted fugitives that displayed the ability to use aura. As far as black ops assassinations went, they were usually assigned the most dangerous ones.

"Sir?" Emily asked.

Kero produced a folder, sliding it over to Emily. Everything was hand done, the picture of the target taken with a camera that print pictures immediately. Not a single thing had any association with a computer. Upon looking, Emily could already tell why.

"Your job is to assess the threat level. You are not to trust anyone and you are not to report in any way but in person. The Justiciars will have a new temporary field leader in your absence." Kero said these things mechanically, never revealing the name of the target out loud. To put it frankly, he didn't even trust saying these things in an empty house, or one that might still be filled with family members.

"Yes, sir," Emily said as she stared down at the folder's contents.

"You are also to burn and scatter that when you are done. We can't risk someone finding it, or using recycle on the remains."

"Yes, sir."

"Dismissed."

***

"Why did you help me?" Amber asked as she stared out at the sea from the windows of the ship she was now in.

"T' piss off the government, why else?" the giant's voice boomed.

"Strictly such a thing?" Amber's voice was sweet poison, her expression the same. The unburned half was beautiful, soft and caring - the face of a young mother. The burned half was horrific to say the least, the curl of her lips on that side deforming her face, like some horrible creature.

"'Course, why else would I risk myself? We can't recruit a woman like you, ya don't have any will to help us out, ya already said as much."The giant shrugged.

"And where are we?" Amber asked.

"Ship I won, exchanged this guy his gamblin' debt to me fer it. Runs real smooth."

The giant rose from his seated position and headed for the door.

"And where are you headed, sir?" Amber asked.

The giant shrugged. "Find somethin' to do while I wait for my ride. You do whatever ya want, lady. Yer an interestin' one."

Amber watched silently as he left before turning back to the sea.

Out in Castelia, the ten foot man of muscle came across quite the sight. A lineless eating contest with two contestant. A grin now plastered on his face.

"Just in time, sir, will you be entering?"

"Yup," boomed the giant.

The man stared up at the giant, professional facade hanging on in place of awe.

"Lucky, we'll be starting the contest right after I process you. Your name, sir?"

"Goldberg, Lawrence Goldberg."