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Before he could get an answer from the young Schraeder, however, Shonevsky was distracted by a misdreavus just floating right into his kitchen and back out. He raised the shotgun, eying it warily. With great caution he followed it to his front door, which he pulled open with a quick sweep so he could take the shotgun in both hands again. Outside was quite the sight- but today seemed to be full of that, and so the shock was minimal.

A young man was just staring at the stranger tied to his porch and downing what little remained of an apple. The misdreavus was at his side. Ulysses, tired of all these strangers throwing themselves at his doorstep and vying for his attention, decided to take things the quick route.

He pumped the shotgun, letting a perfectly usable shell fly, but that was a fact nearly impossible to discern. What was plain and obvious was Ulysses had no qualms with using his Mossburg which happened to be pointed at Jason. "Young man, you had best tell me who you are and what you want- and tell me honest- or I'm going to plug you and that trespassing little witch without so much as batting an eye. Choose your words very carefully."

Maddy had been a fairly awkward host since Roger had let the boy in a few hours before, it was shopping day so the fridge was barren except for a few bottles of water and a pack of batteries. After moving the rear axle that occupied it, she offered the couch to him, and then they sat in awkward silence. Eventually the phone rang, Maddy nearly broke the chair she was sitting on in surprise. In three years that phone had rung five times, two telemarketers and a wrong number made up most of them; it took forever to figure out what the number was, and then she had only given it to a few of her best customers.

She had heard of the oaks in Glenville, but half buried in the clutches of the higher powers there, she'd never gotten the chance to meet them. This Ulysses character either, the name wasn't completely unfamiliar but she knew nothing about him. The call was rushed and mostly one way, in about two minutes Maddy hung up and turned a worried eye to her guest.

"So, ever seen Glenville?" she asked, not noticing the implication

The only thing that really worried her about all this was the raids, any other day Glenville was a nice scenic ride up the rails but if there were armed forces in retreat... she picked up the phone again and started dialing.

"I got a feeling this is bigger than just us, and when you need something defended" she trailed off. The line rang twice then a soft click and silence. "Hey Paul, are you by any chance having a strange morning too?"

[[...bzzt...Houston, we have an incoming wall of text... over....bzzt...]]

The phone started ringing not long after the two Hale ‘kids’ headed off to bed, much to their displeasure. The first one was not for either of them. It was Mrs. Hale’s boss, one of the town leaders, which had just gotten out of a meeting with the head powers of the town, and was in a suitably bossy and pissed-off mood. There was going to be hell to pay for the attack, and they needed her to…well, things just ran smoother when the secretaries were around, even if they were underslept. And things needed to run smooth today, because Woodmount residents had died last night. Of course, Mrs. Hale wasn’t the one sleeping next to the phone when it rang. That was Mr. Hale.

It was maybe a half-hour after Mr. Hale had fallen asleep again that the phone rang for the second time. This time, it was for Lexi’s sister, who worked at the food storehouses. All those soldiers heading out to defend the town’s honor needed provisions, of course. Miss Hale’s boss wasn’t any happier than Mrs. Hale’s boss. Any other time, Mr. Hale would have given the man a break, considering it wasn’t easy to have a whole army at your back door demanding food, but right now all the man’s voice did was make Casey’s headache bigger.

The third time, Mr. Hale actually managed a whole hour before the phone disturbed his sleep, but this time felt even worse than the first two times he was awoken. He took it out on whoever was on the other end of the line. “All right, What now? Lisa probably just got out the door, so if she’s not there, wait five minutes…” He had no idea that it had been an hour since his elder daughter left, or that this call was of an entirely different nature than the first two…well, sort of. The voice on the other end of the phone tried to straighten the later misunderstanding out. “Wait, Lexi? Ugh, she’s gonna love this…all right, where’s she assigned this time around?” The man on the other end of the line told him. “What?! Glenville?! Who are you?!” This was also explained to Casey. He knew those names well enough, and he sat down on the floor quickly, surprised, but still wary. “And you want my daughter to go to Glenville why?” More conversation. He stared at the wall, stunned. “Doctor, that’s a long way, and as you just said, there were attacks on three of the towns last night. Around here, that means there’s gonna be war. They won’t figure out that they’re not alone until they overrun someone else and force it out…heck they still might not believe it.” He was pacing now, thinking rapidly. Trying to balance the chance of a lifetime for his daughter with her safety for the second time in six hours. It was all he could do not to just call bullshit at the idea that a dead woman, no matter how intelligent or prominent (yes, he knew of Beatrice Oak, and figured there would be no other long-dead woman those two would refer to), could know about his daughter. It was then he actually saw the doorway to his bedroom, and his younger daughter standing in it. ‘How long have you been standing there?’ he mouthed. ‘Since I heard my name.’ Lexi replied, shrugging. He knew she had heard what was going on…it would have been kind of hard not to. ‘So?’ But his question was almost rhetorical. She wanted to go, see what this was all about, he knew. He wanted to know too really, but he had a few more years of experience on him, and definitely was nowhere near as anxious to travel to Glenville. “All right Dr. Oak, we’ll see what we can manage.” He knew he didn’t fit the Doc’s bill of having powerful pokémon…he did at one time, but what remained of his team had died in the Cataclysm. But he probably could catch a new team. No way had he lost his talent as a trainer after just a few years off.

For a while, it was just a matter of packing. The two got dressed for a long day. Lexi’s computer, charging cord, and a long-range antenna Lexi had been experimenting with went in a well-worn sack, along with food, a few layers in case the day changed, and a blanket and change of clothes in case today flowed into tomorrow. Casey also went digging, coming up with an old leather jacket that looked a bit better padded than most, and was a few sizes too small for him. “When I was your size, I had the idea I could do stupid stuff with my pidgeotto. I needed something besides my skin for his talons to dig into.” But then the phone rang again, and he ran off, leaving her to try the brown jacket on alone. It was just a little big, but it probably fit too well going by the look on her dad’s face when he came back. She knew from the look, he had been called out to work this time. She didn’t know what he was doing, but he wasn’t going to be able to head her way. He handed her some of what passed for money in this town. “Lexi, I want you to head down to the gun shop. Not to buy a gun… if you wanted it, you could just take mine… but to find something that could protect you from one, at least a little. With any luck, maybe you’ll find that Dirk Tavish down there…the Oaks said he might be heading their way too. If you don’t find him, or he’s not headed for Glenville, just come back, we can go when this settles down. That would probably be best overall, but the Oaks, for whatever reason, had said they needed her now. He hoped they knew what they were asking.

Once Lexi got suited up in her motorcycle gear, she couldn’t help making a damp spot on her dad’s shirt before she left, hugging him with all her arms could manage. She wanted this, she wanted out of this town so badly, to live the life of her dad’s era of trainers, but this wasn’t that, this was a run against the warmongers. It was only a short distance, but every mile was a risk. All for the possibility that she might save the world, and who knows why she could do it when no one else could. Damnit, she hated the way this world had gotten twisted. “If I leave Dad, I promise I’ll do everything I can to come back, seriously.” He smiled as best he could “I know you will.”

Traipsing around the gun store was not Lexi’s idea of a good time, and all the men ramped up to go take on Riverdale couldn’t help but push around the girl who had no business hanging out in there. Luckily, by this point in her life, she was used to it, big time, and just kept her eyes down and let it happen, hoping to find either of the things she was looking for soon. She was going to be so glad to be back on her bike, headed one way or the other.

[[Yeah, I had way too much fun keeping Casey up all night morning...actually had way too much fun writing this in general, hence all those leters above...

Juno was not a very happy camper. Fortunately for her hometown, the shooting stopped and everything was mostly okay. She kept the gun - Lacy didn't want it, and Juno was happy to have her own gun rather than continue to borrow other people's weapons at the range. She waved goodbye to the scientist and headed towards the orphanage. More than likely, Unca Ben wasn't going to be home so what was the point in going there? He would have been out fighting and really, the orphanage was much closer to her. All she wanted was a couch to sleep on and some sleep.

Once she had gotten to the building, she collapsed on the couch in blissful sleep. While she may not have lived at the orphanage, she worked there part-time as a caretaker/babysitter and had a key to the building.

Of course, her blissful sleep was partially ruined by a phone call to Naya (it was pretty vague, but Juno could still tell the director of the orphanage wasn't all that happy) and then later by being woken up by Ryan. She'd accidentally smacked him in face but he didn't seem too angry about that. "Uh what? You're gonna have to explain this to me a bit more slowly. It sounded like you said that Brighton ejected you from the Minutemen? Really? That doesn't sound like something he'd do." Juno would know - he was her father's commander. After her parent's died, she had worried she'd be living in the orphanage, but her uncle took her in. From there, she still got into the Minutemen's area and hung out with (okay more like bothered) some of the soldiers when she could. Heck, she managed to get them to give her shooting lessons. Ramsden was one of the individuals who taught her how to shoot a gun.

"Mind explaining this bullshit reason to me?" Juno didn't understand and it bothered her a lot. They didn't turn their backs on each other...but she did notice that people were uncomfortable around Ryan - ack, Ramsden, he preferred Ramsden. She'd asked about it several times but people never told her why they worried. Not even Brighton would tell her. Juno didn't get it. Ramsden was a pretty nice guy to her and to those around him as far as she could tell.

"As for Toby, I'm not too sure. I figured he'd be at home." She would have told him where he lived, but at that point, Naya came in the room carrying a boy in her arms. She explained how she found the boy outside while throwing out the trash and that she was going to take him to the doctor when Juno stated, "Wait...that's Toby." Now Juno was really irked. One of her most annoying features was that she didn't really get scared - she just got angry.

She had nearly been kidnapped the night before and now Toby wouldn't wake up. What was going on? "The doctor at base should still be up right? We can drop Toby there to see if there's anything he can do for Toby while you and I go talk to Brighton." There was no way she wasn't getting some answers out of the Commander. And maybe her uncle was still around there...if Ramsden was up, then it was likely her uncle was awake just to be informed of Juno's (apparent) departure.

When Toby was seen by Ramsden, he was about to jump up and hurry over to see if he could do anything, but Juno beat him to the punch. It was clear she just wanted some answers, and Ramsden knew Nayana could take care of Toby no problem.

"So Juno. Naya can easily take care of Toby. Let's go see Brighton and head off shall we?" Ramsden really didn't want details at this point as he had almost had a freakout when he initially saw Toby, thinking the child was dead. He dispersed that theory quickly however when he saw Naya wasn't scared, and also hadn't brought him directly to the hospital. This was just not Ramsden's day.
"I need Juno right now Naya. Sorry for the sudden statement, but it really shouldn't take long. Juno has to come with me to see the Commander, and we'll figure out more from there. I wish I had more info, I really do, but I'm about to get every peice I can, and then I'll relay it to you. Just watch after Tobias please. He's more important." Naya was about speak, but realized Ramsden had a fair point and turned back to Toby.

Ramsden led Juno to his bike and jumped on indicating the back seat on his Ninja for Juno to join him. It was a dark cerulean color and a 2004 model. He had stripped the fenders off though. He never really liked them. Juno climbed onto the back seat and put her arms around Ramsden. He didn't move for a minute and said, "...damnit I don't have a helmet for you... Eh ******** it. Just hold on tight." her grip tightened, he started it up, and sped off.

Juno followed Ramsden into the space just before the doors to Brighton's office. Ramsden hit the door a few times and waited for Brighton's instructions to enter. "Speak as long as you want Juno. I want answers, and so do you. Ask away, and I'll do the same. We're gonna figure out what the hell is happening."

Schraeder laughed emptily and threw his hands up in the air. "Of course they did," he groaned to himself. A misdreavus coasted through the wall and looked around before leaving, taking Ulysses with it. Schraeder and Djinn were left alone, so the young man looked at the gengar and shrugged. He wasn't sure if the Pokemon understood, but Djinn's grin seemed to mock Schraeder's situation just enough to make the boy blow his breath out in an explosive sigh and walk out after Ulysses.

"Who's this guy?" Schraeder asked, looking down at Jason from his elevated position. Though he was about six years younger than Jason, Schraeder looked down his nose at him. He viewed him with a mixture of interest, mistrust, and disdain. "And...what does he want?"

He stepped a bit so that he was closer to the tied-up attacker. If this guy was here to cause trouble, Schraeder would minimize it by keeping the gunman from escaping while Ulysses and his shotgun handled the rest.

Ulysses didn't like the young man's tone: too aloof and apathetic about the world around him, not to mention what he was doing. Like a zombie. Schraeder arrived to add a little color to the scene.

The geezer answered, "Just what I was wondering: you have yet to tell me who you are. Let's make it quick because I have places to go and things to do, all of which are more important than threatening some zombie and his disembodied rag of a soul on my porch." Ulysses's words earned color as he became more irate, if only to more lucidly emphasize his mood and opinion of current goings-on.

By this point, Djinn was standing at the doorway a few paces back, holding backpack number two against himself. Gloria stood beside him and Junior continued to snooze on her back.