Aurora rolled her shoulder as she stepped out of the elevator. The corridor was quiet, with the occupants of the other two doors aside from hers apparently doing overtime in their respective companies. She had to admire their perseverance, but there was no need for overtime when you could finish your work and more in the alloted time. She mentally patted herself on the back before fishing the keycard from her bag.

As soon as the lock pinged and she pushed the door open, a bolt of yellow and black lunged at her. The force pushed her back, but experience had taught her to balance herself in preparation for the Pokemon that had been so eagerly awaiting her return. Kir was not big, but he was heavy and his fur had faint traces of static electricity that made Aurora's hair stand.

"Missed you too, bud," she stated with a chuckle, petting him on the head affectionately. A small yellow creature peaked from behind the fur and Aurora had to suppress a smile. "You too, Anja."

She peered past them to the glinting aquarium in the moonlight. In the faint light, she could barely pinpoint the serpentine figure held within. "Miss me, Karika?" A quiet "tic" echoed in the silence, and Aurora allowed a laugh as she shut the door behind her. Kir was quick to strut back to his throne, watching Aurora deposit her things on the couch with some interest. The Joltik jumped from her fellow electric Pokemon and wandered back into the kitchen, following the only human in the apartment.

Aurora briefly considered heating up some leftovers, but decided against it. Instead, she pulled a soda pop from the fridge and brought it out to the balcony. Six stories up, she had a wonderful view of the lights in a city that was as alive in the evening as it was in the morning. The cool, evening air was calming, and not for the first time, Aurora was thankful for everything that Unova had given her.

Her hum of appreciation was cut short by the sight of something moving in her peripheral. She turned, but couldn't see anything. Had that just been her imagination?

Itch eyed her surroundings warily. Those gijinka hunters had been pretty zealous lately, but as she had for so long, the Ariados continued to avoid capture. As she glanced at the alleyways between the towering buildings of steel and concrete in case of an ambush, only one thought not related to capture passed through her mind.

I'm hungry.

As she continued onward, there were plenty of fast food joints, convenience stores, or cheap diners, but there was one critical problem with eating at such a place. Itch had no money. She'd stolen a wallet from some chump in Striaton City once, but somewhere between there and here, she'd lost it and couldn't go back to find it, what with gijinka-hunting agents on the prowl trying to catch her for whatever sinister purpose they had in mind. It was quite the conundrum that left her penniless and relying on the kindness of strangers. Sadly, there weren't many people willing to hand out a meal to a gijinka, much less a bug-type like her. Itch had almost considered trying a disguise then turning in a kidnapped victim disguised as her to reap the big bounty, but part of her figured her pursuers were smarter than that. The rest of her just couldn't be bothered to find someone who looked enough like her for the job.

As Itch tried to think up other ways to get her hands on some cash to last her a while - none of which were exactly the textbook definition of what an upstanding citizen would do - she heard a pair of voices, and some frantic footsteps.

"There she is!"
"After here!"

Itch turned to face the voices, and...Give me a break already! More of those gijinka-chasers. And they had hazmat suits this time too! She couldn't just disable them with poison like normal, and although she was quick on the web-spinning front, they were too close for her to get one up in time! This had to be some sort of joke. There was really no helping it. Itch turned her attention to the building just behind her, took off her boots, and hung them up over the feelers on her back. It was pretty uncomfortable, but she'd live. Hands and feet now bare, she put her extremities against the wall, and started crawling upward. Up the gijinka descended, glancing below her only briefly as she turned and started to move around the building. The hazmat goons were still tailing her.

"Go away dammit," she muttered. The goons were already moving to meet her on the other side. She could make this work. Glancing around, she saw a story or two above her, a balcony! And the door was open, with the resident human standing outside. She seemed oblivious to what was going on. She'd do perfectly. Or rather, her open door would. Itch creeped her way along the wall, not turning to close in on the door until she was above the doorway and its human. She froze for a moment when the human - a woman - turned to face where Itch had been, thinking she'd been caught. But it seemed she'd just slipped this lady's radar.

Snickering in her head at her own genius, Itch crawled in through the open door and...promptly froze. Not one, not two, but three Pokémon. Crap. I hadn't thought about if they had these. Looking at the four-legged residents (and the no-legged one as well) of the apartment, Itch put a finger over her mouth to indicate that she'd really appreciate it if they kept quiet. However, that would not be necessary, as Itch was plenty capable of making the noise needed to rat herself out. As her boots slipped off her back, Itch tried to reach out and catch them, but the sudden weight shift and loss of a limb holding her up on the ceiling was enough for the other three to no longer cut it. Itch fell to the floor with a resounding thud, and would probably have a bruise on her forehead to remember the accident by before the day was out.

If she hadn't already been alerted by Kir's howling, then the loud thud that echoed in the silence of her apartment certainly would have. Aurora turned, eyes wide and hand raised, ready to wield the can as a weapon against this intruder. She was certain she would be able to handle herself against some goon... Unless they had Pokemon, then she would run into some trouble. She had her own, but two years simply living a leisurely life had diminished her Pokemon's urge to fight and she wouldn't know how to order them to fight. Not anymore.

Steeling herself, she took careful steps inside. Kir was crouched in front of someone with his lips curled back in an intimidating snarl. She ran a hand through his fur in appreciation at apprehending their intruder before she turned to actually look at said intruder. Now, Aurora wasn't an idiot. She may not have been kept up to date with the news, but she recognized a gijinka when she saw one. "Fuck!"

She had a gijinka in her apartment. If she squinted and gave it a little thought, she would have probably been able to identify exactly what kind of gijinka it was, but only one thing rang in her mind. Gijinkas were illegal, and she had far too much to lose if the police thought she was harbouring them. "Fuck," she repeated, the can forgotten as it fell on the floor. Her agitation seemed to only make Kir's grow, and she could see from her peripheral that both Karika and Anja were getting anxious as well.

So, she collected herself. She took a deep breath and glanced at the gijinka - a female Ariados, she now realized. "I do not want anything to do with you. Leave now, or I'll-" She paused. An Ariados...

Her eyes widened. It had been a passing thing, but she saw the poster. "You! You have a bounty on your head. A big bounty."