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Pokeball Item mission. http://www.gaiaonline.com/guilds/viewtopic.php?t=21376993

"Oh sweet!" Hawk gasped, staring up at the rather large building labled Silph Co. It had been about a week since he'd arrived in Saffron city, and was getting used to its bland appeal. Well, when you came from Unova, where the buildings were colorful and flamboyant, anything less than that would just be dull. "Hey guys, check this out." Hawk pulled two pokeballs from his pocket and released the Somewhat-dazed Lilipup and Twelve, the Oshawott. Both pokemon regarded the building with silent apathy, since to them it was just another building. "Yeah whatever. I'm not here to amaze you guys." The two pokemon were returned to their balls and Hawk strode into the building.

The inside was even more impressive than the outside! People everywhere, carrying folders and papers and cases and even crates! It was just like a heavy market day at home. Hawk strode up to the counter, rapping it gently to catch the attention of the woman behind it!

"Hello, and welcome to Silph Co. May I ask what your business is today, sir?" The woman chirped happily, even though it seemed like a pre-recorded reaction to seeing someone come up to the desk.

"Yeah uh.. I was trying to see where to go about the uh.. delivery shenanigans that's goin' around."

"....? Oh! you're a trainer looking to deliver some pokeballs for us?"

"Yeah! Yeah! that's what I meant..." Hawk said, laughing slightly and shrinking away from the woman. "My name is Susan Hawk." He couldn't stop himself from making signs of obvious disgust at the sound of his own name. The rest of the registration process went off without too many complications, and soon Hawk found himself staring at a globe. He was to pick a place where he would deliver the pokeballs to. "Now, I'm in Saffron city now..." He muttered, turning the ball to the right. "OhOh! ok, I'll make a delivery to Pewter city." He said, turning and marking it down on the form. "One Crate to Pewter city."

"Are you sure about that? it's a long way away from here..." The woman said, sounding a bit worried, but Hawk could tell her focus was more on the product rather than Hawk's safety. "It could be a long journey... especially navigating around Mount moon."

Hawk cut her off with a scoff and a wave of the hand. "Don't worry about it. I'll just take that Diglette... thing. all the way there." Hawk said, dusting himself off and looking at her confidently. "I take it all the time!"

"You do....?" She asked, looking down at his files. "But if you're from Unova, how could you have-

"OK. Well, I'll be taking that crate now." Hawk said, fleeing from the lady and heading off to the Loading docks. Now, when he had said he wanted a Crate, he imagined something he could just lift and carry. However, the large assortment of Boxes stacked onto eachother and wrapped in plastic was a bit... daunting. How they expected to move this was beyond him, but that was his problem now...

First, it was the Diglett and the Trapinch. Hawk and his two pokemon battled valiantly and took both down. Then came a Geodude and a sandile. The combination was slightly harder to beat, but The battle was won. Now, with his pokemon tired and damaged, and his will to battle fading, Hawk found himself without an opponent. All the other guys were crying and fleeing, complaining about how they never really wanted to be here. Hawk looked over to the thug, who was busy harassing the women. "HEY." Hawk called, his confidence renewed from the serious of battles. The thug turned and grimaced at him, stomping his way over.

"Oh, so you thing you tough huh, kid? Yeah, I ain't like the kiddies" He said, jerking a thumb in the direction of the other battlers. "I ain't gonna go easy on you 'cause you just a kid." The thug took a second to wriggle his pants up higher on his body and fetched a great ball from his belt. "Go, Rhyhorn!!" The ball was tossed high in the air, and fell to the ground with a small "Peng!"

Hawk, who has never seen the pokemon called Rhyhorn prepared himself for the worst. When the mass of stone hit the ground, Hawk almost soiled himself. He'd never seen anything like this. It wasn't ugly, it wasn't cool it was just.. scary. "Ok... Lillipup... you take care of this." Twelve, noting the concern on Hawk's face, moved over to the truck without complaint, noticing the Machamp's absence. "Osha..." mumbled the otter pokemon.

So, Hawk and the Thug stood with their pokemon between them. the Rhyhorn on one side and Lillipup on the other. "...and so it begins." Hawk gasped, pointing dramatically at the mass of mobile stone. "Lillipup, use Leer!" The puppy ran forward, put on its puppy face and gave a small bark, but the Rhyhorn was unmoved.

Rhyhorn, use Take down." The pokemon surged forward, crashing into the tiny puppy and tossing it high in the air as it ran, still coming towards Hawk! Hawk dived out of the way, managing to not be trampled by the pokemon. The sickening crunch and the creak of metal told Hawk that the truck was done for. The crash of it falling over didn't help too much. Hawk pulled himself up off the ground and glared daggers at his cackling opponent. His Lillipup lay twitching on the ground. With a sigh, Hawk returned the pokemon to its pokeball. "Twelve... It's your turn." Hawk said, watching the thug return the pokemon to its pokeball.

Twelve jogged over and took its place, slightly bitter about the ungraceful defeat of its team mate. "Sha. Shawott." He said, pointing at the thug dramatically.

"What? whatever. Let's get this over with, you and your little freak Mudkip." The thug said, throwing another great ball and releasing what Hawk could only identify as a long collection of Rocks. He had no idea that he was facing an Onyx. The thing was huge! "Onyx, Use rock throw."

"Uh Uh... Twelve, Use.. Razor shell?" Hawk stammered, watching the rock snake lift a large rock from the ground and lob it in their direction. Hawk stumbled backward. Twelve rolled his eyes, took a deep breath and let out a spray of water, using water gun to knock the rock off course. "What. What was that? I didn't know you could do that! what else can you do?" Hawk standing up and looking to his pokemon with a regained joy.

"HEY KID. Keep your head in the game." Hawk heard, looking up to find the Onyx speeding toward them. It seemed to go passed Twelve, but with a quick turn, it was tightly coiled around the small pokemon, using Bind to squeeze it!

"Ah! Uhh... Twelve.. uh.. use .. uhm..." Hawk stammered, losing his nerve now that he was losing the battle. Twelve rolled its eyes again as best it could. It took in another deep breath and sprayed the rock pokemon with a water gun. The onyx let out a loud, pained roar and let Oshawott go, who landed on the ground with a greacefull "thump" since it landed on its backside. "Yeah! do that! Just keep that up!"

The onyx came rushing at Twelve again, prepared to use another Bind. Twelve, with his nastiest face aimed at.. Hawk? Twelve began to wiggle his tail back and forth, glaring daggers at his trainer. The onyx came to a screeching halt, looking bewildered at the shaking of a pokemon butt at it. The three of them, Hawk, the Onyx and the thug stared as nothing went on besides an Oshawott moving its tail around. Hawk took this chance to take some kind of action, slipping a pokeball into his SNAG, he turned it into a snag ball! If he could just... take the onyx then all he'd have to worry about is that other pokemon. "Twelve, use Razor shell, dangit!" Everyone snapped out of their stupor in time to see The Oshawott coat its shell in water, take a big leap and slap the Onyx in the side, water splashing about as the Onyx roared in pain!

Now. Now was his chance. As the Onyx recoiled, Hawk pulled his arm back and threw that snag ball as hard as he could. It struck the pokemon in the head, opened and pulled the onyx inside. The thug looked dumbfounded. "What the--" He said, watching the ball fall to the ground. The thug moved to go get the ball, but Twelve stepped in his way, swinging his shell at the man. "SHAWOTT OSHAOSHA!!" it howled.

Hawk ran forward and scooped up the ball, which was still rocking, its red light flashing. "Whatever!" He yelled, charging the thug and shoulder checking him. The thug fell to the ground and Hawk, taking a page from Oshawott slapped him in the face with the pokeball as hard as he could. Panting and full of adrenaline, Hawk stood over the groaning man, the snagball having finished catching the Onyx. With a sigh, Hawk and Twelve made their way over to the tipped over crate. It was still in one piece, but the truck was done for. They had to get out of here before the thug came to. Hawk looked down to the pokeball in his hand, and sent out the Onyx.

Hawk and Eight, his litwick, stood outside of a large company amongst a crowd of elderly men and women. They varied in size and some of them looked downright awful. During his time here, four old men came up to him, asking who they were, then remembering and trying to get their hands on his pokemon. So, He learned to move frequently and keep an eye out for the more senile looking ones. The crowd was gathered outside of a large industrial building. They had amassed a small army of beefy looking pokemon to tear down the door, but unfortunately, none of the pokemon knew any moves. Hawk could only wonder why that was.

"Hey there, sonny!" An old woman called to hawk, tapping him on the back. Hawk returned Eight before turning around to find the old woman staring up at him. "Why don't you go in there and stop this thing?! You're young enough!" Several others nearby overheard her plan and were murmuring their agreements and things about their bones.

"Oh me? uhhh sure why not.... what am I stopping again? Also, why are you all here? I thought this was the line for the lunch cart..." Hawk looked around, swearing up and down that he'd seen it somewhere in the crowd. The old woman rose a shaky hand at the building.

"Them no good manyafacturrrrs makin ta put us outa business! Their... new... fangled.. machines.." The woman barely was able to get out a shake of her fist before she fell asleep standing, drool slowly falling out of her mouth.

"Riiiiiight..." Hawk said, baking away out of the crowd and through the line of dazed pokemon. "Man, those Move deleters must have went to town on these guys.." Hawk walked up to the large metal door and gave it a knock. A few seconds later a man in a suit opened it, looking at hawk a bit bewildered. "Uh yeah, I was wondering if you knew anything about these Mind-groping geezers?" Hawk was ushered inside and the door closed behind him.

"Yeah, well, they've been out there for a long time now. They're unhappy about our machine. It's like... an anti TM." The man said, leading Hawk through the facility and into the R&D sector. Behind a glass wall was a small lizard like pokemon spouting fire around. Along side it was a man holding what looked like a pen. He applied sunglasses to his face and held the pen up to the pokemon. There was a flash of light and the pokemon stopped throwing around fire, as if it'd had forgotten how. "See? this is it. The Move Deleters outside think that we're doing this to put them out of business, but they don't realize we're trying to make their jobs easier. In case you haven't noticed, they aren't the most physically adept."

Hawk nodded, watching the display and listening to the guy's words. "So, if we can get them to shut up, everything will be Jake?" Hawk said at last. He walked over to a nearby door, ignoring the stammering man in the suit. Hawk entered the room and snatched the pen from the operator. With a grin Hawk fled the room, shouting, "I'll bring it back!" behind him.

The old people were still yammering and causing a commotion outside when Hawk reopened the door. "I stole the device!" He said, raising it high above his head. "See?? look at the thing that'll put you all out of business!" The crowd looked and began to cheer. Hawk pressed the only button his finger could find and covered his eyes. When he looked again, everyone was looking more confused than usual. their murmurs of discontent were replaced with complaints about the weather and asking each other if they wanted moves deleted. Slowly but surely, they began to disperse, going back to their lives. Hawk had no idea if this would work, or how much they had forgotten, but if one thing was for sure

The move Uproar was forgotten.

Tier advancement mission 2. - Can't see the forest for the trees

Building a giant Cascoon in the forest wasn't the hard part. Neither was finding a big tree with loads of bugs on it. The hard part for Hawk was keeping a Braviary confined and quiet inside of it.

Hawk's plan was genius. He'd flown out to the Ilex forest and had spent the last few days trying to find the best hiding spot. He'd notice some people coming here over the course of the time he was here. They didn't really do much, just came and looked around at all the pokemon. They were walking around in a pair of pajama bottoms and the top part of what looked like a robe. It was...an interesting use of clothing. So, Hawk set to work, making a large Cascoon out of glue and discarded shells. It was easy to get them. As long as he didn't mess with the bugs, they didn't mess with him... as long as he stayed out of sight.

And so he sat, silently peeling berries and feeding them to the bird to keep him quiet. They had been sitting in the disguise for a while now, and it only seemed to be getting worse and worse. He'd heard pokemon buzzing about, trying to lift him up to the tree and failing. The bugs were beginning to become suspicious, asking each other who birthed such a lardass, though Hawk was unaware of this.

One's instincts told him it was around midnight when he started hearing voices. They were muttering about in Human, and as they were not hollering things he understood (such as: Aerial ace, Food, Sky drop or Kill), He didn't bother trying to understand. He just gave Hawk, who had fallen asleep, a swift kick to the face.

Hawk awoke with a start, and a sharp pain in his face. He was about to swing on the bird, but he quickly found out why he'd been kicked. Voices.

"Ok, so like we said. We just gas the big ones and take the little ones desu." an Unfamiliar voice said. "Then we have all the Kawai desu Poison type-sankuns all to ourselves. How sweet is that? Hey uh... Do.. Do Cascoon get that big?"

The voices began muttering, and getting closer. Hawk grinned. Now was their chance. "One, Sky Drop!" Hawk whispered. With a screech, The Braviary tore through the discarded wrappings and took to the air, Grabbing the closest person by the shoulders and hauled them up into the air. Despite their screams and kicking, One tossed them, throwing them into the base of a tree and stopping their screams.

Hawk looked behind him. The trees stirred, but Nothing came to start killing them. Hawk jumped from the shell, releasing Eight. There were a bunch of them... a lot more than there were before, even with the guy with the... ohsnap, is his head bleeding?!

Takashi pushed his way forward, looking a lot less happy than he had the first time they met. "You again." He said. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Hawk sighed and folded his arms. "You guys just never learn do you? I'm trying to protect you idiots! You're going to get yourselves killed!"

Takashi stomped forward, Hawk came to meet him. The two got in eachother's faces, Hawk staring up at the... drastically taller guy. "Oh, and you're not trying to do that? Look at what you did to Nick!!" He howled.

Hawk snickered. "Nick? Not a very... Ninja name.." But then his serious face came back. "These pokemon are venomous. They'll drop you faster--"

"Than a giant red bird?" Came from the crowd,

"Shut your lackies up before I let One Drop em."

The two stared eachother down for a few seconds. The tension was so thick even the normally buzzing and chittering bugs around them grew silent. Wait... bugs don't normally do that, do they? The two separated slowly, looking at the trees and bushes around them..

Eyes.

It was a forest of eyes, all staring at them. "Gah, you shitheads. See what you've done?" Hawk hissed at them from behind his clenched teeth.

Eight cheered, sensing the impending doom. he was a flippin ghost. He could be hurt, but he was already dead. One was soaring above, keeping watch. Hawk turned on the ninjas. "Get out of here, you idiots! I'll hold em off!"

They took heed of his word and turned tail, grabbing their comrade and running for their lives. Takashi sent out His Shedinja. Then the swarms began. Beedrill and Butterfree. Dustox and Beautifly all came forth, desperate to protect their children and mates.

"Eight, Flame thrower! One, Use Aerial Ace!" Hawk called out, instantly seeing One blur out of vision, only to reappear several times, knocking bugs out of the air. Eight sent waves of flame about, burning Bugs and keeping some back.

"Ninjask, Use Hyper beam!" Takashi said, sounding a bit sad when using the Shedinja's odd nickname. The pokemon responded, letting loose a beam of energy from its Halo. It blasted bug after bug, but more just kept coming.

The swarm pushed inward, taking Fury swiped at the pokemon. One was able to dodge, but as he expended energy, he'd get slower. Which means his acrobatics and aerododging wouldn't last forever. Since fury Swipes didn't work on eight, who simply phased out when they swung, The pokemon began bombarding him with Pin Missle and gust. He'd have a hard time keeping them off of him and not setting the forest ablaze at the same time. Hawk noticed that no matter how many times 'Ninjask' was slashed, it just kept floating in the same place.

Things were going to hell, and fast. The swarms were getting bigger. Hawk had sent out Twelve and Zero, who were doing their best. Twelve with his mystic water were washing away bug after bug, Encoring the Ones who dared to use Leer or moves that weren't very type-advantageous. Zero, with her new Lucky egg tucked inside a little backpack, was happy to Tackle smaller bugs that got close.
Even Takashi had called in more help. He had his Dustox slapping things around with Psychic and Whirlwind.

Then all of a sudden, it stopped. The pokemon retreated back into their homes, finding it better to just... shield their loved ones and hope these intruders weren't malicious enough to keep attacking. The good part was, one of them wasn't. Takashi ordered another Hyper beam from his Shedinja.

"What are you doing? They stopped!" Hawk shouted at him. "Eight, Flame thrower on Shedinja!" Eight cheered again, firing another bout of flame at the poor corpsebug. It went out as soon as the flame touched it, falling out of the air like a brick. Takashi screamed something incoherent, and Dustox blasted Eight with a Psybeam. After taking all that damage, Eight was in no condition to be hit by a psychic attack, and was quickly returned.

Hawk and Takashi stared at one another, the Bug pokemon watching as the two turned on each other. One and Zero took up position infront of Hawk, snarling and glaring at Takashi. Takashi released a Weezing to supplement the Dustox, and the two trainers stared eachother down. "Do you think... if we met under different circumstances.. We would be friends?" Takashi asked, looking down at his feet.

"...No. you're too much of an idiot for me. One, Aerial Ace on Weezing, Zero, Tackle the Dustox!" Hawk said, gritting his teeth. He had nothing but contempt for this other guy. He was going around messing with pokemon and had the nerve to ask if they would be friends?! Hawk's pokemon took off, One slamming the Weezing into a nearby stump, while Zero scored a full-on Tackle on the Dustox. The Dustox, like Eight, was in no condition to be getting hit, and fell to the ground. Hawk didn't notice the subtle glow from the Lucky egg. He was busy looking at Takashi.

The other Trainer looked up. "Weezing. Self-Destruct." Takashi looked the other way as the pokemon began to glow, radiating energy from its gut.

"s**t! One, Aerial ace!" Hawk shouted, a sharp whining coming from the Wheezing nearly drowned him out. If that thing blew it would take them all out. One had... well.. One chance! He flew as hard and fast as he could, but didn't make it in time. The Wheezing, One, Takashi, Zero and Hawk were engulfed in a bright light.

-------

When Hawk woke up, he was on the edge of a crater, Takashi on the other side of it. One, Zero and the Weezing were all inside of the hole, all injured from the blast. Hawk dug in his bag and rushed over to his pokemon, Using his last two regular Revives to wake them up. They seemed happy to be awake, like they weren't expecting to survive the blast. Hawk returned them and walked over to Takashi. "...I'm sorry I lied." He muttered, grabbing the guy's pokeball and returning his weezing for him. With that done, he'd begin dragging him along.

Once they got out of the trees, Hawk found the rest of the group waiting for him. Well, they were waiting on Takashi, which explains the shock when they saw Hawk come out. Their shock became confusion, and then Rage once they saw him dragging Takashi. They began shouting at hawk.

"You monster!" "You blew him up, didn't you?!" "It was a trap!" etc.

Hawk sighed and looked at them all. "You guys can't keep playing around this forest I mean, if you just wanted to catch a pokemon or two, fine sure.. but you're just going around harassing pokemon for your little games!" He dumped Takashi on the ground and grabbed a pokeball. "Now, We're going to battle. Right here. I win, you guys leave this place alone. You win, you're still going to leave this place alone but... I'll give you money or some junk."

The wannabe ninjas looked at eachother and murmured, the three of them coming forward and grabbing pokeballs. One of them rushed over and pushed a weird disc into his hands before running back to the others. If Hawk had been from somewhere else, he probably would have been confused. It was a Rotation battle. He clicked a switch on it, deploying a Platform, the ninjas did the same.

Hawk sent out Twelve, One and Ten, the Wailord's presence causing his platform to expand a little. The Ninjas sent out Two Medicham and a Sableye.

Hawk Quickly rotated Ten to the head of the group. The Wailord was happily suspended in the air thanks to its Float Stone, which was tied to its fin. "Ten, Use Rollout!" The Wailord began to spin violently, taking off towards the Medicham in front... that is until it spun out of the way, being replaced by the Sableye. The Gem it used as an eye gleamed slightly before positioning itself to avoid the rolling Whale. Ten rolled back into place and Hawk grinned. "Nice move, I guess. Now, Ten use Brine!" The Wailmer floated so that its blowhole faced the opponent, and released a jet of water. The Sableye would have been pegged, if a Medicham hadn't rotated into the way, being blasted off of the platform, having been critically hit. It was quickly replaced by an Ariados.

The battle waged on, with any advantage one side gaining being short lived and easily reversed. Hawk's Wailmer took many hits, and gave many more before it eventually went down, Hawk using it to Tank the battle. She was replaced by Zero, who was quickly rotated out for Twelve.

The Foe's Sableye had relied too much on its detect, and soon found itself being blasted off by a hydro pump. The second Medicham and Ariados weren't too lucky either, as the trainers kept rotating to disperse damage instead of Tanking like Hawk was. So in the end they met defeat as well, leaving the replacement Sableye and Seviper a man down.

Twelve proved to be quite useful against the Seviper. It had used Mean Look, and he'd countered with Encore. It was almost funny to see the Seviper keep making mean faces while it was battered into unconsciousness. It was quickly replaced by a Ninjask and rotated out for the Sableye. Hawk never knew Shadow Sneak could be so devestating. Well, he and Twelve learned that the hard way. Hawk returned the fainted pokemon and rotated to One. They switched back to Ninjask

They thought they had time to boost its strength with Swords dance, but One had other ideas. "Sky drop!" Hawk commanded. The bird complied with a jovial screech, flying over and grabbing the bug. He'd take it high into the air. "Hahaha! That's One for ya. He loves that move... ya know, that's how I met him." He called over to them. They grunted and shouted something like 'shut up' and 'we don't care'. Hawk shrugged.

Takashi woke up to see a battle going on. Hawk was infront of him, and was battling his crew in a triple battle. He groaned slightly and pushed himself to his feet, watching the events.

One soon came back and slammed the ninjask on its platform, critical-super-effective hitting it. The bird seemed to laugh triumphantly as it came back to the platform. Suddenly, its own shadow shot up and struck it in the chest, Causing him to fall to his own platform, KO'd.

It was down to Zero versus the sableye. Hawk knew Tackle wouldn't effect it. he was tempted to just give up, but Zero looked at him, her little backpack glowing with a mysterious golden aura. "Ok... Let's do this!" Hawk said, clenching his fist. "Go, Zero.. uh.. attack!" He said, tossing out the vague command. The shinx ran forward, snarling as she ran.

"Ha, Tackle's not going to work against a sableye." Takashi laughed, which caused Hawk to spin around, wondering when he'd gotten up.

Shinx's snarls grew louder as it bared its teeth, darkness flowing from her fangs. Later, when asked by the other pokemon, she'd tell them that darkness tastes like a mix between breathing cologne and iron sand. When asked about how she knew of those things, she'd start Biting them. Anyway, Zero took a flying leap at the Sableye, who had dropped his guard due to Takashi's comment. Her teeth bit into it, the darkness exploding out, harming the pokemon, but also filling her mouth with that horrible, yet addictive taste.

"Gah! Use Detect! Detect!!" The trainer called.

It worked at first, the sableye dodging the shinx's bites with ease, until it got Juked. Zero started going one way, then suddenly jumped the other way, clamping down on the other pokemon. She was so happy to see it go down. She ran back over and jumped into Hawk's arms. "ha! A deal's a deal. you guys stay away from here, or I'll kill the lot of ya." He laughed triumphantly, turning and abruptly kicking Takashi in the shin. "You may have been KO'd when we made that bet, but you're sticking to it." He deployed his hoverboard and hopped on. With that, he'd sail off, laughing triumphantly. Of course, he made sure to throw that dumb Triple battle thing into the bushes on his way.

Through a series of Teleportation, Hover Board races and Pokemon riding, Hawk and Chirp found themselves on Route 3 in Unova. The two of them had decided to spend some time together after their most recent falling out in Fallarbor Town. Their adventure had been pretty tame. It was just them traveling around, sharing each other's company.

It was the dead of night when they exited Pinwheel forest. Chirp was laying on her back, riding Feebas through the air. He didn't seem to mind too much, as he enjoyed just being out of his pokeball. There's... not much glamor to be expressed from the inside of those things. Hawk was sitting on his Hover Board, letting his legs dangle and occasionally scrape the ground. The only source of light they had was the Charged Luxio at the head of Hawk's board. The two of them were sitting in silence, enjoying the sounds of the wild pokemon and the stars above them.

"..It really isn't something we saw much of at home." Hawk said, reaching out and running a hand across Zero's back. It was like being touching a wet outlet. It tingled severely, but at the same time, he could feel how much of that energy she was holding back. "The Night sky just seems so much more alive out here."

"Yeah, that's for sure. You can just feel the night. Like it's some kind of cold blanket." Chirp replied, looking at her hand. The only reasons she could tell it was there was because it blocked out some of the stars, and the faint amounts of light reaching her from Zero. "Sometimes... when you left... I looked up at the stars and wondered if you were seeing the same twinkling lights..." She looked over at Hawk as she asked.

"...Birds don't have to look up, Chirp." He said. "Our priorities are almost always below us."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She asked, sitting up.

"It's what my Dad says. It's supposed to mean that we're expected to rise high, like birds, but we can never forget those less fortunate."

"...Is that why you hung out with me?"

"Oh no. I hang out with you because you were nice to me. Dean kinda just hung around me 'cause I knew how to get in and out of places... and I hung out with him 'cause of Flip. He asked me to try and be Dean's friend.... Say, What's up with that light? Think The Old Couple is up having hot, dry old people hump time?" Hawk pointed ahead of them, at the only building nearby with its lights still on. He knew of this place because of his time spent traveling with his Father. He'd never been taken far, just passed the forest and to the Desert Resort's entrance.

"Uh... I don't want to think about any old people humping any time soon. Anyway, Maybe we can mooch some dinner from them... you do know them, right?"

"Well, I met them when I was little. They were watching my dad's Zebstrika while he was on vacation, and my mother did a little work for them. She's a-"

"An expert on Mechanical pokemon. I know. She gave me a Voltorb a while back... and uh... well, it's at Celestial Tower now." Chirp said, the tone of her voice wavering slightly. She'd still been shaken by the Noodle Incident, and its effects were obvious.

They dismounted once they reached the stairs to the Day Care. Chirp returned Feebas, and Hawk put away his Hoverboard. Letting Hawk and Zero lead, she'd follow them up to the door. As he knocked, Chirp looked next door. She could make out what seemed to be a playground, and another building. "Must be the day care for kids" she muttered, remembering an article about someplace like this in a magazine.

The Old man opened the door and squinted at Hawk. "Uhm, I'm sorry but you'll have to come back in the morning." He said, his voice was deep, and rolled like thunder. If someone were to just hear him, they'd think he'd be in his late 40s, and definitely not look as old as he did.

"Oh, sorry.. I guess you don't remember me. I'm Susan, Mr. Hawk's son. You watched his Zebstrika."

"Oh! Why yes, I remember you. It's just that We're not open right now, so we can't really watch your..." He adjusted his glasses and looked down at Zero. "your Luxio at the moment.. And I just have to say, you've sure grown a lot, there, Susan."

Hawk smiled, the thought of him being remembered was.. slightly heart warming. "Oh, it's just that me and my friend were looking for a place to spend the night. We're not that comfortable camping so near the Pinwheel forest." He explained. It was... well.. it was the truth for him. Unlike Chirp, he felt uneasy around wild bug pokemon. he just couldn't trust them to not use Bug bite or something on him.

"...... well, uh... sure I guess it's alright... Helping trainers is what we do! Come on in. Are you hungry? I can get Gertrude to reheat some of the dinner we made." He said, allowing them inside and closing the door after them. They walked behind the counter and into the house behind it. It was a clear shot between the front desk and the back door, which lead to the yard. All along the hallway were empty pokeballs, with names scrawled on notecards under them. Red and green lights behind each ball indicated if the pokemon was inside it or not. "Gertruuude. I need you to come help me!"

Hawk and Chirp were in awe, looking around at the set up of the hallway. It was.. so high-tech! These old coots really knew how to keep up! After a while of turning corners, they found themselves in a rather simple looking kitchen. They were ushered into seats and the man got to work fishing out left overs and handing them to a Magmortor with a nametag. Hawk could make out the words "Hello, my name is Gertrude." It was kinda funny, as he figured the Old man was calling his wife. The pokemon hugged the containers for a while before placing them on the table. When the lids were removed, the contents were piping hot, thanks to the Pokemon's Flame Body.

Chirp, in an act of curiosity, looked under the table and found the Magmortar wearing a pair of boots specially made to keep it from burning the house down. "So uhm... Where's your wife? If you don't mind me asking?" She asked, watching him serve up heaping helpings to them.

"Oh she's out back... We've had a few problems with pokemon disappearing, and she wants to catch the culprits. but don't worry, You're safe here! They never come in here, or take anything else.. Just some of the pokemon in the yard." He said, slapping some fish onto Hawk's plate.

Hawk, who was in the process of eating anything that touched his plate, said: "mmf fumph phoo fmmmr fmm." and looked at the Old man expectantly, still shoveling food down his face.

The Man stared at him, and looked to chirp for some kind of explanation. Her shrug indicated that she had no clue either. "Uh.. So yeah, After you two are done eating. Gertrude will show ms... uhm..."

"Oh, I'm sorry! My name is Tia."

"ah, yes. Gertrude here will show you to the guest bedroom. Hawk, I'll help you unfold the couch. It's pretty comfy once you get it out all the way." He said, putting the lids back on and setting the containers on the stove. He set to work getting them glasses of water to wash down their dinner with.

Chirp had begun eating, just as Hawk finished. It really wasn't much of a contest, because Hawk would have large amounts of the food down before The Man finished serving them. It was a wonder that he hadn't choked.

(when in reality, Hawk had actually choked several times in his efforts. He'd just learned to solve this in a relatively subtle manner.)

So, The man and Hawk left the room, leaving her and the flaming Magmortar in the room alone. She felt a bit awkward, as the pokemon was staring her down in what she must assume was the pokemon's 'hospitality' face. Too bad it was the farthest thing from welcoming she'd seen in a while. So, eventually she finished and was ushered up the stairs and into a bedroom. The pokemon shut the door behind her, so she figured this must be the Guest bedroom, and frankly... it was pretty nice. She got cleaned up and got to bed, sighing with relief to be in a soft bed.

After unfolding the couch into a weird cot, which used the couch cushions as a mattress, Hawk found himself and Zero laying in a dark living room. It would have been silent, but Zero was enjoying some of the fish they had eaten.

and so they slept.... well, Chirp and Zero did. Hawk was left awake on the worst bed ever, his stomach now trying to kill itself from all the food it had been stuffed with at once. So he got up, figuring he would walk it off. At the same time, it would be rude to walk around their house in the dead of night. So he made his way into the back yard.

On his way out, he encountered the Old woman! she was sleeping in a chair by the door. arms crossed and feet planted as if she were waiting for the culprit and had just fallen asleep. He reached out to wake her, but found himself petting Zero instead. wait, what? The big cat had followed him outside, and misinterpreted his gesture as an act of petting! Hawk smiled and reached out again, gently tapping her.

"THIEVES!!!" she howled, jumping to her feet and flailing her arms. "BART, TAKE EM DOWN!" From seemingly nowhere, A Gengar came down, a ball of darkness resting in its hands. Like a pro basketball player it shot the ball directly at hawk as if it were passing a ball.

Hawk squealed in surprise! He hadn't expected to be attacked this late at night, and had left his pokeballs in his bag! Thankfully He found himself pounced out of the way by Zero. The ball slammed against the door, knocking it down the hall. Zero leaped off of Hawk and into the air, snagging the Gengar by the leg with a Bite and dragged it to the ground kicking and screeching. Before they touched down, It let loose a Shadow-Punch and knocked Zero off of it.

Hawk got up in time to be tackled into the nearby wall, an arm across his throat and an old woman yelling at him. "WHERE'D YOU PUT EM, YA LOON?! I GOT EM! I GOT EM RIGHT HERE!" she howled.

Hawk looked around and found several more people coming towards them. They had flashlights and Herdier. Ohgreat, the police. Chirp and the Old man came outside too, looking bewildered.

"What's going on?!" Chirp asked frantically. As she spoke, her progress was stopped by a Gengar flying passed and hitting the wall. Before she even had time to react, a Luxio with a mouth full of lightning flew passed and landed on said Gengar, biting down on it. The ghost lay fainted, and The Luxio... promptly fainted as well, having been poisoned by a Toxic attack in the confusion.

"Son, you've been stealing pokemon? That's not something we can let you off on. You're going away for a long time.." One of the officers said.

"I'm not the thief!" Hawk grunted, pushing the woman off of him. "I just came out for some fresh air! Geez!" He dusted himself off and looked at the Old man. "Man, you're wife's a nut!"

The old man nodded slightly in confirmation. She was a loon, yes, but she was his loon. "Officers, this young man and his friend are our guests... I doubt they were the thieves."

The old woman looked at him, scrunching up her face. "We have guests?" She turned to Hawk and looked at him, and then did the same for Chirp. "Oh! well welcome, dearies! Have you eaten yet?" she had flipped to being nice as if she hadn't just slammed Hawk against the wall.

Chirp nodded. "Uh.. yes ma'am." She said, fearing saying much else. It was apparent that this woman would flip out at the drop of a pin.

The Officers groaned and began dispersing once more, going back to their various patrols. Hawk and Chirp walked further into the field, leaving the Old Couple to chat.

"Hey Numbnuts, NoNuts." came a voice from their Snags. It was the AI, Grey...or.. Gray? It was the Snagem's AI. "Just gonna interrupt you two's night on the town. There's a mission involving this place. Find out what's going on, and stop it. Blahblah. Get off your lazy bums and get to work. I work too hard for you guys, and what do I get in return? Nothing." and then the voice stopped.

Hawk and Chirp looked at each other and shrugged. "We're already here... so... wanna do it?" Chirp said, sounding a bit excited! It was her first mission!

Hawk shrugged. "Eh, might as well. So, let's hide out somewhere and do a stake out." And so they did! they found a nice cozy spot in the bushes and hid there. looking out at some Lilligant having a late night tea party. They spoke in pokemon sounds, drinking water from the nearby pool and chewing on pokemon food like they were fancy biscuits. Everything was normal until suddenly one disappeared. Straight from thin air. The other Lilligant continued as if everything was normal, until it noticed its friend was gone! Being a proper lady, it looked around, feigning calm. That is, until it disappeared as well.