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Ulysses was detoured from his initial line of thought and conversation by the arrival of Thomas Rikes and Sigmund Oak in near tandem. Having dealt with almost nothing but Pokémon and their etheric tendencies and abilities, it was hard for the retired Dr. Shonevsky to resist an outburst.

"I would be more than happy to help the young man. Thomas was it? I'm Ulysses Shonevsky." He offered his large hand to the boy.

"I'm... not entirely sure I can help you," Paul told him carefully. This was not a man to be toyed with. "There's something... important. I can't explain because I don't understand, fully, but that girl - that girl means a lot to a lot of people. To the kind of people who can get you into Woodmount in the blink of an eye, without anybody knowing about it." Paul hesitated, then continued. He'd started with his tale. Why did Terrian care how many people knew about him? "I just feel... obligated to her, too. I got her here safe, and I feel like I can't just let her go. Especially not with that Willam character. A gun for hire, certainly, but with double the risk, since I'm not entirely convinced he can hold a gun. She needs someone more competent than that. And... with the kind of people I've encountered... she needs someone more than a Minuteman. Unless you can spare a squad or two to drag her back to Glenville, I'm not sure I can accept."

Paul hesitated. He didn't want any enemies here, either... "I don't mean to ask too much, which I know I am. But at the same time, she can help us more than I can help you. It's a matter of waiting for greater returns, I think. How long I don't know."

How much of this was what, Paul wondered? He'd known the girl for... well, hardly even a day. But somehow, somewhere he knew he couldn't just let her go. He saw in her what - well, what he'd hoped to see in his own children. The children he would probably never be allowed. Was that it, then? Some sort of emotional transfer from mythical, non-existent children to this sixteen-year-old? She was mighty old to be his daughter, and yet she tweaked some chord in his heart that hadn't been touched for years, not by sibling, parent, wife - or child.

So he was getting dangerously attached. What if she were a freak of nature? Beatitude knew something about her that Paul didn't. And when it came down to it, Paul had to be prepared to kill her himself. Getting so close to her -

no, it's natural

- was a dangerous thing, Paul snapped at himself, his face never changing to reflect his thoughts. Long times spent hiding emotions, spent pretending he didn't miss his lost loved ones, now paid off yet again. He could not show weakness. Ever. Weakness was a c***k in the armor, and knives were always driven into the weak points. She could be carrying one too. So many, her age, carrying guns, staring into his eyes with empty horror as he was forced to kill them. Sometimes from far, sometimes with his own hands. So many just like her, and she might be no different, she was no different, she -

she is different, don't lie to yourself

- she could not be different. Paul couldn't let that happen. He could NOT let anything in, not this stranger, not so quickly. He couldn't -

And so the debate raged, Paul's mind consumed with these thoughts rather than a serious consideration of the man's offer.

Paul considered his options. So far straight-up honesty had never failed to get him what he wanted, and dodging the truth or lying about it had failed spectacularly every time. Matters involving Terrian and Beatitude apparently subverted - nay, inverted the rules Paul lived by every day of every week of every year. So Paul quickly decided that complete honesty was the best policy.

"Well then, Brighton, let me explain something to you. Yesterday, afternoon or thereabout, the first man - well, he was just in my house. I didn't let him in, I didn't see him on any of the cameras." Paul gave this a moment to sink in. "He told me about the kids. How I needed to protect them. Then he just kinda... disappeared. Second guy shows up like a normal person, demands that I arrest the kid, and gives me an ether-based calling card. Well, early next morning the first guy - first guy's Dr. Terrian, apparently - without ever seeing me just teleports me, perhaps with a psychic pokémon. I don't pretend to understand what he expected out of me, but ever since I've been riding with Juno, and she is a danger magnet. I've been in at least two life-or-death situations within the last four hours, and... and there's more.

"Beatitude... when he was talking to me, he let something slip," Paul slowly began. "Freudian slip, big time. He was describing the children to me - said they were part of some experiment conducted by Beatrice Oak, I think, and that they were 'modified.' Least that's what I think he was going to say - he cut himself off. Now either he's trying to mislead me, which I haven't discounted, or he's a bad liar and there's something different about these children, a group of which Juno is a member. For obvious reasons I don't think she should hear about this, but I wonder if that's part of the whole 'danger magnet' thing. I have difficulty justifying two incidents, both as dangerous as they were, both seeking her out specifically, as happenstance.

"So I think she needs the best. If you can't spare a damned good escort, then I think I ought to go with her. If you can then I'm more than willing to take care of your Woodmount problems. Throw in a couple of dead folks to sweeten the deal."

Alex flinched slightly when she felt the Bishop's hand on her head. DAMN YOU. DAMN YOU TO THE FIERY PITS OF HELL. "O-okay."

Giddy hid in the trees carefully keeping focus on Sarah's face. If Lexi was paying attention, she could have lip-synced what Sarah had said.

"I am to terminate Codenames Red and Blue? Yes ma'am." Wait, who were they again? There were many names to keep up with and more codenames on top of that. "Just remind me again who they are?" It would sound suspicious that she'd forgotten, but give her a break - she is just getting off her high. Codenames for people were not on her immediate list of things to remember. Not to mention the kids will be able to get the names and warn them if I can't get away fast enough. Good thing she'd put the camera on record setting. I did do that right? I think I did. I'm not too sure. Eh. Lexi was smart enough to it if Alex had forgotten.

------

Juno would have held her hands up as if to surrender but she had her hands full with Evie. "Hey, ask him who sent him to chase me. Maybe you'll have better luck at getting answers." She scratched behind the little pokemon's ear and continued talking. "I got sent out here to do a mission. A rather simple retrieval mission mind you. There shouldn't have been any more danger than facing some wild pokemon. Instead I get him and several other dangerous people chasing me." She shrugged. "At the risk of jinxing it, it could be worse." She wasn't at all sure HOW it could be worse, but for sure she knew that it could be.

She lightly narrowed her eyes. "So you were gonna use him." She shouldn't have felt so let down. After all, he was using her too. She was being used by everyone; she should have felt used to it. "Eh. Guess I can't say I wouldn't have tried the same...I wasn't down there for as long as you and I was ready to get out using whatever means necessary."

She sighed. "On that note, we gotta go find Paul. I have to be heading back now, and I don't want to leave without seeing if he's gonna be joining us." Though said as a fact, she sounded unsure. "Listen I'm gonna warn you now, I am not a safe person to be around. Not that I'm dangerous or anything. It's just that...well...I seem to attract dangerous people. And before you ask, I have no idea why. You want a bodyguard or someplace safe to stay, you can bet it won't be around me. Heck, I bet within an hour I'll run into another person who wants to kill me." She gave a sad smile. "Just giving you a heads up."

They started walking back to where they left Paul. I hope Unca Ben is still there. I want to say good bye to him.

((Sorry about the hyper shortness. I didn't have much to go off of))

Ramsden stepped into view, Erin his Scyther, and Zips his Magneton following closely. A burning black cigarette was in his mouth, the cherry on the end of it crackling every time he took a drag. He had an M500 shotgun strapped to his back with a strip of shells on the right side of his hip. He wore black combat boots for today, along with his usual attire of grey slacks, a dark green shirt and a black overshirt, white pinstripes running up and down it with a USN Petty Officer 2nd Class dress-blue patch, red chevrons, he hadn't been in long enough before this happened to get gold, containing the AM specialty mark sewn onto the back of it. Erin stood tall for a Scyther. Rather than the common 4' 11", she stood at a massive (for a Scyther) 5' 4". She had a bit of discoloration around her feet, they started a very saturated green, then faded to green yellow like the rest of her body and most other Scythers. Ryan believed the reasoning for this was that somewhere in her close family tree, there was a shiny, but he waved it off merely concluding for the odds, that is was a simple mutation. Erin also had one other unique thing about her, she had five horns on her head rather than four, the fifth being between the center front horn and the one directly behind it, giving her three horns horizontally and vertically. Zips floated near Ryan, nothing to special about him except his screws had been replaced with bolts by Ryan. "Better strength-to-weight ratio" he had said when doing it. Magneton hadn't seemed to mind when the process was happening. It just took a while to gather up all the bolts before actually trading them out. Ryan approached Paul, interested in this girl that was so important. "Excuse me there sir. Paul I believe your name was? Are you looking for an escort for this young woman? I believe I can be of help. AM2 Ramsden, minuteman, former 2nd Class Petty Officer in the old United States Navy, here to help when needed, along with my two pokèmon, Erin" He patted his Scyther on the shoulder twice causing Erin to look up at him, then towards Paul, "And Zips. Quite possibly the best Magneton on this planet." He said, putting his other hand on Magneton with him floating next to Ryan. "So," he said, "do you want my help?"

Ramsden looked slightly taken aback by all that. "You went through all that to transport that girl here? Well I'll be damned she must be something special," he took a drag, "I've been through plenty in my life too. You ever hear of a class Delta fire? That's when a plane catches on fire. Do you know about magnesium? We like to put that on our planes for weight control, although I say aluminum would work just fine, and when that s**t burns, and it doesn't stop. When magnesium burns, it makes its own oxygen, so even after we push that burning jet over the side, it keeps on burning while sinking into the ocean. My experience with it though wasn't ordinary, this plane was almost ready to go," another drag, "It was loaded up with six five-hundred pound bombs when it caught on fire. That in turn caused a few more planes to ignite when those bombs exploded which resulted in a loss of a good chunk of the flight crew. I've dealt with some heinous stuff on a ship, I think I should be fine. Although yeah, what you went through does sound pretty stressful." There was no sarcasm toned in his voice as he said that, and took another drag.

"You have no need for extra men besides myself. I can indeed keep a very watchful eye on her, and bullets aren't really a worry for me either so don't worry about that. Zips' magnetism directs them away from me when he's creating a magnetic field. Do you recall the story from the bible of the man who stood on the wall and preached to the city whose leaders did not wish to listen? When they fired their arrows at him, not a one hit. They all missed him barely, as though an angel were deflecting the arrows from his body. The idea is the same. On my offensive though, well, not many have fought Erin and lived. Well, not many have fought her, but from the percentage that have that is, not many lived. Speaking of which," Ramsden looked towards Erin and told her, "ready your blades. Looks like we'll be running into some hefty combat while we're on our way." Erin looked up at him, what she always did whenever he spoke to her. "Aye," she said upon receiving the command. Erin protruded her tongue from her mouth, which where normally red, was now purple, coated in Toxic. She licked each side of the edge of each blade for arms. They glistened a cold violet. After applying the Toxic, she rubbed her blades against each other, not only sharpening them, but coating them in Toxic, spreading it over the full area of her blades, making her cuts now thousands of times more damaging. "She works the Toxic in to keep it there for a few hours. She responds to hand signals in case of quiet being a necessity as well. While I was a Sailor, I made a large amount of Marine friends and they taught me about combat. Don't worry, the girl is in good hands. I'm not exactly sure what's going on, but if you seem this concerned and Commander isn't telling you to shut up and get out, I'm sure it's of importance. My own questions aren't really that important; right now, it's about the mission. I'll need to know is where I'm taking her though. Why isn't required, but it would be nice to know." He took another drag, almost killing it that time.

"And you'll have to give me a few moments to prepare of course. I'll pack my seabag, and this attire simply won't do for combat so, allow me a few minutes to change into my old combat uniform. I miss wearing it anyway." He said that last part with a nostalgic tone.

"Commander, I'm going to need a few supplies. Like more ammunition for my M500, and an M9 would do wonders for me, along with, oh say, 2 full clips and 5 more clips worth of ammo so... one-hundred and five rounds for the pistol. However many you can spare for the shotgun would be appreciated. And food. Young girl is going to need a lot." He took a final drag on his cigarette and extinguished it on his boot, turning back to Paul, the light, metallic sound of blades rubbing still going on in the background.

"So, willing to spare about fifteen minutes while I prepare?"

((Hey Windfiar! Welcome to Cinders and I look forward to RPing with you. In fact, I look so forward to it that I decided to speed up that meeting. Siber, I hope you don't mind me rejoining the others. sweatdrop ))

If Alex hadn't been trying so hard to remember who Red and Blue were, she might have seen the Bishop's (very likely) angry face. "Oh wait! I remember now. Apologies for the stupid question." I have to kill the Professor Oak brothers. "I just..." Forgot because I was thinking of drugs. Yeah. Some recovering drug user I am. "How long will the hit last this time?"

She was lucky she remembered to ask that; it had been scratching at the back of her mind. I feel like I'd die without them. And they always make me feel better. The next hit will be coming soon. What she'd have to do to earn that hit scared her. No! I'm not giving up my friends. Not for that. But what if I die? Freeze. Rewind. Hey....when did they ever say I would die without them? These newly developed drugs were addicting and were certainly stronger than any other that she'd heard of. They're good, but I'm pretty sure Bishop Almund didn't make it a dependent kind of drug. She spent weeks (probably) out waiting for Lexi - if she were going to die from withdrawal, wouldn't it have happened then? I was so used to thinking I'd die without these drugs...but they never said it was dangerous to cut off from it. So was all this a mental leash? Was she really that screwed up? Ack! No, stay on track. Immediate Problem 1: Bishop.

--------

Juno and Willam walked back in relative ease. "Eh? Where the heck did Paul run off to?" He said something about checking his house. Maybe he went there? Problem was, she had no idea where the house was.

"Well this is great." She was ready to just go and find a diner and wait till someone looked for her when she heard someone call her name. She perked up and looked in the direction that she heard her name. "Eh?" It was another one of the minutemen - well, perhaps it would be minutewoman. "...Mrs. Hanson?"

"Juno! It really is you!" The older woman picked up Juno and squeezed the teen. Evie jumped out of Juno's arms just in the nick of time. The blond girl was pretty sure she heard her back pop in several places. "I heard from Benjamin that you were here. I thought he'd finally lost it. But then I heard from the other that they'd seen glimpses of you. So I just HAD to find you and here you are!" She finally put the young girl back on the ground. "Jesus Christ you're alive."

Juno smiled at the Minutewoman's antics. "I didn't know you were a part of the Minutemen Mrs. Hanson." The older woman saddened at that. "I joined them after the attack that well...killed your parents." Juno nodded. Riverdale would have needed new recruits. "Then as a Minuteman, maybe you can help me now? I'm looking for Paul's house." Mrs. Hanson looked shock and then outright laughed. "Oh that's funny. Going to his house...he's got that place more booby trapped than an Indiana Jone's adventure site. Why would you want to go there?" Juno explained that she and Willam were looking for Paul. "Oh in that case, just go straight through there," she said as she pointed at a door. "He was in there last I checked." Juno smiled and hugged the woman in thanks.

Now the two teens moved to where Paul was holding his conversation. At first she only saw Paul so she walked up and said, "Hey Paul, when are we leav--" Oh dang. Paul wasn't alone. There were two other men there and it looked like she just interrupted a conversation. "Oh I'm sorry! I didn't mean to interrupt your conversation." She scratched the back of her head while Evie carefully checked out the two new men.

She looked at Commander Brighton and instantly knew who the man was. She'd never met the man, but she remembered from what her father told her: extremely tough but a good man. "Commander Brighton I presume? I am honored to meet the man that my father thought so highly of." She also remembered that this was a man that held and deserved a lot of respect.

She then looked at Ramsden. "I'm afraid I don't know you...if we've met before then I'm sorry to say I don't remember you. I'm Juno Galladeigh." Yes, it was probably very rude of her to stay (they probably didn't want her to hear whatever they'd been talking about) but she really wanted to know when she could leave.

"I came to ask when departure time was. As much as I want to stay here for a while longer, I have to go back to Glenville." She looked between the Commander and Paul as she said this.