@TheNoCoKid @Crimson Flame @Mistress Dizzy

Jumping out of the car, Oriana stretched her back and headed to Norah's side. "Seeya, and will do!" She waved to Rory as he drove off.

At Norah's mention of touring the city, Oriana bounced on her heels. "Oooh, tour sounds good! As does food of course!" She'd worked up quite an appetite exploring the foothills, and she supposed her Pokemon must be hungry too. Well, one of them anyway - did a Roggenrola even need to eat? She'd have to learn more about caring for different Pokemon.

"I heard this city has quite the history! It'll be great to learn more about it, and see the old castle! And any other ruins! And museums, and the architecture, and... Uhh, if I'm talking too much, I apologise." She gave a stiff bow, as if to royalty.

"Anyway, come on out, we've got some exploring to do!" She let out both her Pokemon. Shakudo craned his neck and stared around, while Carnelian swivelled her body from side to side, presumably taking in the new sounds. "I know, it's amazing, huh?" Grabbing her phone, she started taking pictures of the old buildings and battlements. Even though Hesperus was only a short distance from Mercer, she'd thought she'd never get the chance to see it.

It was soon decided that they were going to spend the day in Hesperus while Rory had other business to attend to. Norah was familiar with his dad, but that wasn’t a surprise. Everyone should know who his dad was. “Of course you know my dad. He’s awesome. One day though, I’m going to be the Pendragon everyone is talking about… Anyway, food first. We can go on a tour afterwards!”

George sent out both his Pokémon. Devastator sat on his trainer’s shoulder. He tried to wrap Venom around his arm like he had seen done on TV one time, but she just hissed at him, and slithered on the ground. ”By the way, Orianna. We still have to have our own battle, remember?”

@TheNoCoKid @LuckyBlackCat @Mistress Dizzy

"You don't need to be so formal with my mom and me," explained Darlene as she saw Orianna bowing. "The whole royal thing is just ancestry. At this point, we're as regular people as you. Well... about as regular as you can get when you represent a major fashion chain and your mom is the Overseer." As the kids sent out their Pokemon, Darlene marveled at each one.

"Wow! Your partners are so cute! Let me introduce mine!" Producing a set of Love Balls from within her jacket, Darlene threw them in the air, "Come on out, my attendants!" Each ball opened in mid-air and from each of them appeared a Galarian Rapidash, a Granbull, and a Sylveon.

"These are my friends: Grani, Arthur, and Eris," she pointed at each of the Pokémon respectively. "These three have been with me forever, and they'll be the bulk of my team when I replace my mom as Overseer." Darlene saw Norah giving her an odd look and she playfully threw her hands up, "Of course I'll challenge you for it first!"

As the group discussed getting a tour of the city before heading over to the Kingsley residence, there was a sudden sound of commotion coming from the center of town. Out of nowhere, both Norah and Darlene's DexWatches began ringing. As they opened the communication app, a man's voice could be heard, "Ms. Kingsley, are you there?! There's a robbery in progress at our main store in Hesperus! Officer Jenny is en route, but we could use the Overseer's help!"

Looking to the group, Darlene gave an apologetic look, "You'll have to excuse us I'm afriad. This is something we have to take care of first!" Returning Arthur and Eris to their balls, Darlene hopped on Grani's back, "Grani, ExtremeSpeed!" The Rapidash took off at blinding speed, leaving a trail of light in its wake.

Meanwhile...

At the Venus Threads store, there was a strange group of individuals currently in the process of gathering... winter clothes? A group of thieves, all dressed in a black paramilitary garb, were moving through the store gathering any items that might be needed for a long trek into a cold climate. Among them were an unusually tall man, and a young boy.

@Crimson Flame@LuckyBlackCat@Mistress Dizzy@Suicharte@King Cosmos@Chev

It'd been a while since Val had taken something by force. It was oddly nostalgic, except this time it wasn't just him and Knight raiding a store, but a whole troupe of Team Star members. He figured theft was behind him for the most part, but he had no qualms stealing from 'royalty' anyhow, and the prices on some of these goods were obscene in his mind, so no feelings of guilt were on his shoulders by this course. Regardless, he did question the optics of such a manoeuvre. To the average person, they must look like common thugs in the moment, but he was sure that the average person would come to understand the good nature of their cause, even if it took time.

One particular grunt had taken Val's interest though. He was definitely younger than the others, and he had a fiery spirit that he recognized from his youth. One of defiance against the system, and a determination to succeed. There was value to such a motivated mindset, and should he improve going forward, he would be a valuable asset to the team, though who knows how long that would take. Though, he figured that it would be a good time to grant the young man experience in an important role, the lookout. Responsibility had always been the best teacher.

"On the double everyone, we've only got so much time before Jenny's here, and I'd rather things not get violent if they don't have to. Tim, keep watch out front and let me know if we've got company. Rest of you, prioritize the coats and scarves, and remember, function over fashion." he spoke with authority, although it still felt strange to him. To be able to command other people felt odd to him. He bore the responsibility for their well being, and their lives, and he didn't necessarily mind that as much as he thought he would. In a way, he was beginning to like it. He looked at his belt, where his Pokémon rested, sighed for a moment, and began packing more clothes into the large bags they'd brought. What sort of a leader doesn't also help with the job?

@King Cosmos

His journey to become a trainer was progressing a little bit differently to how he had imagined.

What had started out as a meet-up so that he could be introduced to and meet some of the other members had suddenly turned to talk of Team Star’s purpose in the region and their goal of reaching the top of Mt Calagon, which then led to the topic of the overseers they would need to defeat along the way. A simple comment from Tim about how he was finding it difficult to get started as a new trainer caused a ripple of agreement to go through the group and brought out a surprising amount of vitriol from the others.

‘The whole system is stacked against you’, they said. ‘Unless you go to that professor and get one of his starters, then they practically lead you by the hand’, another had continued. It seemed he wasn’t the only aspiring trainer to run into problems along the road and find their way to Team Star and soon enough his own voice was drowned out of the conversation as the others continued to rant about the ’privileged trainers’ and the unfair advantages those chosen by the professor or those with connections with the overseers would receive. It was all news to him, who had never heard this kind of stuff before.

It made sense though; any trainer getting their first Pokémon from the professor had a leg up on the rest of them. No traipsing through the woods looking for a Pokémon for them, no having to save up money to buy their first Pokéball to catch it yourself; someone just handed them a rare and strong Pokémon and sent their on their way with a pat on the head. He had thought that was it, but when he thought about it, why would it stop there? What other advantages did having a professor of Pokémon backing your efforts get you?

How they led to them robbing a clothing store he wasn’t sure.

Sure, it was store run by this towns Overseer and, sure, the others had said some stuff about how the prices for winter gear were too high so that they could price poorer trainers out of being able to complete their journey, but Tim wasn’t really convince of all that. Even if it all *was* really expensive. At least he was only acting as lookout and wasn’t taking part in the robbery itself. He still felt uneasy about this whole thing, but just keeping watch wasn’t so bad.

Around twenty minutes after they had started Tim saw someone approach; two someone’s actually and they were approaching pretty quickly on the back of something that had to be a Pokémon. He turned around, placed a finger on either side of his mouth and let loose with his loudest, highest pitch whistle.

“Someone’s coming!”

@Suicharte@TheNoCoKid

Nora shot an apologetic glance to the children. “I’m sorry. Please come with me.” She pulled an odd looking Pokeball from her belt, which summoned a Mudsdale. It was borrowed; perks of being the Overseer. She gestured for everyone to climb on, and as soon as the trio were secured, they were off.

About a minute later, they were there. Nora climbed off, fury in her grey eyes as she saw the shop being robbed. “Stay here, kids.”

She stormed up, joining her daughter’s side. “Hey, what do you think you’re doing?!”

George was not amused. He was a Pendragon being told to stay there, meanwhile there was action going on. George wasn’t about to sit on the sidelines and do nothing. One of the burglars was his age too. How hard could it be. George got off the Mudsdale, and also stormed up towards the guy standing in front of the store. “Alright loser. The name’s George Pendragon the third. I have a dragon’s blood flowing through my veins. We’re gonna put a stop to this nonsense right now!” He threw a pokeball up, and in a flash of light, Devastator appeared with a roar.

@King Cosmos@Mistress Dizzy@LuckyBlackCat@Suicharte@TheNoCoKid

@TheNoCoKid @Crimson Flame @Mistress Dizzy

At the reminder of the planned battle, Oriana nodded. "Yep! I haven't forgotten! We'll want to be somewhere near a Pokemon centre, but once we are, prepare to get swept!" Pokemon were pretty hardy, as Devastator had proven, but she'd want to get them healed up as quickly as possible. "Ohh, I heard they have cafeterias in Pokemon centres, that's where we could grab lunch!"

Darlene's explanation that she didn't have to be so formal put her at ease - well, as at ease as she could be around new people. "I mean, that's still pretty impressive!" While high fashion had never personally been her thing, she knew from her parents that running a business presented plenty of challenges. Venus Threads' level of popularity was quite the achievement.

When Darlene sent out her Pokemon, Oriana gasped. "Wow! Is that a Rapidash? I've never seen one like that!" Rapidash was known for the flames streaming from its body, but this one had a flowing pink and blue mane instead. She cringed inwardly, wondering if most everyone knew of this variant. If so, her lack of experience was showing. In front of an Overseer and her daughter, no less.

Shakudo slowly approached and sniffed at the three Pokemon, before apparently deciding it was a bad idea to get close, and slithering behind Oriana. "Hey, it's ok." With a laugh, she turned and pet him. "Yes they're fairy types. No they won't hurt you, they're friendl- What the heck?!"

She jumped up at the sound of a commotion. As someone explained the situation over DexWatch, her stomach went tight. A robbery? In broad daylight? If it was during the day, in front of everyone, the thieves were surely using force, or at least threatening to. Her parents hadn't been kidding about the world being a dangerous place.

Returning her Pokemon, she clambered onto Norah's Mudsdale. Before long, the scene of the crime came into view. Through the store's large windows, she could see a group clad in black, clearing shelves of items as workers and shoppers withdrew. Eyes wide with horror, she watched George storm right up to one of the thieves, a teen boy keeping watch in front of the store.

"George, careful!" She jumped off of the Mudsdale and sprinted over to George, jabbing a button on a Pokeball. In a flash, Carnelian appeared. She wouldn't involve shy Shakudo in this if she could help it, but a two versus one scenario could prompt the boy to back off.

While he had been tasked with standing here and being the lookout, Tim hadn’t put much thought into what he would do if someone actually showed up. He’d called out to the others, let them know that a group of people, apparently trainers, were coming, but after that he wasn’t sure what to do. The idea that he might have to actually fight someone over this, to protect a bunch of criminals that he was now technically working with was something he wasn’t sure he was okay with.

Until that caped idiot had called him a loser.

As soon as the other trainer sent out his Pokémon, Tim was sneering at him. The dragon Pokémon, the fancy clothes, the voice that reeked of a sense of superiority, the talk of ‘dragon blood’; yeah, this was one of those pampered trainers the other guys had been talking about, a true dragon fanatic. Must have been nice to be handed a rare Pokémon like that right away; but he didn’t have to work for any of what he had.

“I’d like to see you try!” Tim reached for one of the Pokéballs at his waist, eager to get the battle started, when someone else jumped in and send out a Pokémon of their own. “Both of you then. I ain’t gonna back down just because you're ganging up on me!” He tossed the Pokéball over to his other hand and then grabbed the second one as well, throwing out both at once as he released his Houndour and Yamper.

“Hades, use smog on the dragon. Storm, nuzzle that rock.” Both Pokémon leapt into action, one a little quicker than the other thanks to their longer legs, to attack their opponents. Houndour unleashed a stream of poisonous smog towards the Bagon, while the Yamper jogged over to the Roggenrola and tried to rub its statically charged body against it.

@Crimson Flame@LuckyBlackCat

@Crimson Flame @Suicharte

This wasn't how Oriana had envisioned her first battle.

She'd imagined it'd be a friendly match against a travelling companion. Not an actual serious fight against a criminal. One who undoubtedly had much, much more experience than either her or George. Just as she'd feared, the boy didn't back down, exuding confidence and belittling them instead as he sent out two canine Pokemon.

"She's a Roggenrola, NOT a rock! Carnelian, use, uh..." Before Oriana could give a command, the Yamper rubbed its sparking face against Carnelian. The Roggenrola tried to kick out, but toppled onto her back, twitching, sparks dancing across her rocky carapace. Paralysed.

"Ah! Carnelian!" Oriana crouched and helped the Roggenrola back up, yelping as pain shot through her hands from the static. Flexing her fingers, she stood, at a loss for what to do. Realisation dawned like a weight sinking through her that she didn't even know Carnelian's moveset. For a second, she found herself as immobilised as her Pokemon, but pushed through the panic and jabbed at her DexWatch. Her entire body tensed as she knew just how pathetic she looked, her inexperience plain to see, but she had no choice.

"Fire versus rock, huh?" Trying to hide her fear by talking tough, she glanced from the Houndour to the screen - and her stomach dropped. Carnelian had yet to learn a rock type move. More painfully aware than ever of her newbie status, Oriana nonetheless forced her expression into one of confident resolve. "You can do this! Tackle the Houndour!"

For one awful moment, Carnelian looked unable to move, but she shook off the convulsions long enough to launch herself at the Houndour. Oriana watched, fists clenched, hoping against hope she and George had a chance against this thug.

The boy sneered at him, and George had to wonder what this guy’s problem was. After all, he was the one robbing a clothing store. He was probably upset he got caught. Whatever the case, it looked George was going to get the action he wanted. Then, Oriana came running in with her rock, telling George to be careful. “Relax. I got this!” Regardless, the battle had begun, and it was a double battle. The guy sent out two canine Pokémon, a Houndour and a Yamper. The Yamper had targeted Oriana’s Pokémon, while the Houndour used Smog on Devastator.

The small dragon was enveloped in the poisonous gas, and started flailing his arms and coughing.

George furrowed his brows. “Again with this poison shit?” Devastator had already been poisoned by Venom earlier, and now this? Well, not this time. He rolled his eyes. “Shake it off Dev! Break through the Smog, and fire an Ember at the Yamper.”

In between coughs, Devastator opened his mouth, and fired a small ball of fire in the direction of the Yamper.



@King Cosmos@LuckyBlackCat

Unlike these pampered kids, Tim didn’t have time to talk during the fight; no time to make unnecessary comments or to encourage his Pokémon. All of his focus was spent on keeping track of the four Pokémon on the field and all of his words needed to be spent giving clear and concise orders, barking them out in short bursts to keep everyone moving at the right pace.

“Hades, block the fire.” The Houndour didn’t hesitate to jump in front of the ember heading towards the Yamper and take the hit instead. Why would he, when his ability made him immune and even powered him up when hit by fire type moves? The flames flickered over his black fur and might even have looked like they were being absorbed into it as his eyes took on a newly energised glint.

Then the Roggenrola slammed into him, unable to both avoid the incoming tackle and protect Storm at the same time.

“Shake it off! Storm, bite the rock. Hades, show them a real ember!” The Yamper bounded forward again, this time opening its mouth and flashing little fangs at his opponent, while the Houndour turned back to the Bagon and shot forth a fire ball of its own; bigger, stronger, both because Hades was an actual Fire-type and because of the boost from the Bagon’s own flames.

@Crimson Flame@LuckyBlackCat

Darlene angrily strode up to the large man who was directing the thieves. With her mother behind her, the young woman threw her Pokeball, releasing Arthur. The Granbull growled as it picked up it's trainer's anger.

"Hey, you! What's going on here?! This is official Venus Threads property! If you don't stop what you're doing, you're going to have to face us in battle!" As if to illustrate her point even further, a large shadow appeared behind Darlene and as much larger Pokémon took the stage, Norah's Kingbull. The sight of the large dog alone caused several of the Team Star grunts to stop what they were doing right away, but the tall man was unfazed. In fact, he seemed totally emotionless. That alone caused a sense of worry to rush through Darlene, but she had to be strong. They were stealing from her and her mother. If she backed down now then she could practically hear Norah telling her she didn't have what it took to be an Overseer.

By her side, Darlene could see Arthur shuddering as well. This actually made her smile a bit. Arthur's Rattled ability meant that he'd get a power up whenever he was scared or on edge. That would be a huge boost for this fight. Seeing the man grip a Pokeball of his own, Darlene steeled her nerves as the battle was about to commence.



Meanwhile, Rory had long since left town, taking a short drive of his own. Thankfully, due to having collected Marks of his own years prior, he had the freedom to travel the region as he pleased. He was supposed to meet a contact in Hesperus, but an emergency call out to the mines had prevented this. Rather than wait around, Rory took matters into his own hands. He'd been driving for a few hours when the Terran Mines came into view. Pulling the jeep over to a spot, he jumped out and smirked as a certain figure in a cowboy getup stepped out.

"Sorry to just turn up out of the blue like this, but I trust you understand why I'm here?" When the figure looked up, Rory offered a handshake, "Always good to see you... Overseer Steele."

@Crimson Flame@LuckyBlackCat@Mistress Dizzy@Suicharte@King Cosmos@Chev

@Crimson Flame @King Cosmos

Oriana looked on in horror as the Houndour absorbed Devastator's fire attack, and spewed an even bigger flame jet of his own, the air heating up from its sheer power. Meanwhile, the Yamper bared his fangs and leapt at Carnelian, biting down on her foot. Although he couldn't pierce through her tough carapace, the Roggenrola looked ready to topple again as she struggled.

"Stop calling her a rock!" Oriana's fists clenched tighter. No way could Carnelian use Tackle or anything of the sort like this. "Carnelian, resist with Harden!" The Roggenrola's body glowed blue, facets gleaming like those of a polished sapphire, as even with her limited movement she tried to wriggle free of Storm's jaws.

"Always good to see you... Overseer Steele."

Overseer Darren Steele of Terran Town let a small grin form on his face as he took the offered hand and shook it.

"Rory Bennett, Good to see you again." Darren said as the grin widened. The grin faded somewhat as muffled cursing and yelling began to make itself known as four burly mine workers dragged two men unfamiliar to Darren out through the entrance of the mine. "Give me a minute here, Rory. Gotta take care of something real quick."

Darren turned away from Rory and stared down at the two men who had been dragged out of the mine. "What's all this about?" He asked calmly. One of the unfamiliar men managed to get himself free from the grasp of the mine worker and took a threatening step towards Darren who calmly threw a Pokeball into the air and a moment later, a large red Pokemon appeared in a blaze of light. The Camerupt growled and two pillars of flame shot into the air. As the demonstration was intended to do, the unfamiliar men froze up.

"I'll ask again. What is this about?" he asked calmly. "Found em trying to make off with a bunch of ore, boss." The largest of the mine workers said. "Caught em red-handed."

"It wasn't like tha-!" One of the men started to say only for the Camerupt to growl at him. "Okay, so maybe it was what it looked like. We've got nothing right now! We blew everything we had last night!"

Darren's eyes turned cold and a frosty smile formed. "So you blew all your money so you decided to steal from us, Hmmm?"

"Yea-...uh...no."

Darren put his arms around the shoulders of the two men and motioned towards the mine. "Today is your lucky day, my friends. Just so happens two of our men were just promoted today. We have an opening for two new mine workers. Its honest work and you'll get to make all sorts of new friends and your probably going to gain a lot of muscle over the next few months!"

The two men looked helplessly at Darren and then back at the mine. "What if we refuse?!"

"Then you will never be allowed in this town again. I know everyone here, fellas. They'll tell me if you show your faces around here if you decide to decline this opportunity."

The two men looked at one another and then at the mine and sighed and headed towards the entrance. "Good choice!" Darren called after them. He looked at the two larger of the four who had brought the men out. "Rocky, Slade, consider yourselves promoted. Your new job is to keep an eye on those two. Don't let em run off with anything."

Rocky nodded. "Got it, Boss. They won't get away with anything with us watching em."

The four headed back to the mine and Darren grinned before turning back to Rory.

"Sorry about that, friend. Been having more and more issues with people lately. Tough love approach seems to work though."

@TheNoCoKid

Rory watched the situation unfold with vested interest. "Hey, whatever works. I'll be honest, I envy your people skills. Now that I've got those kids the Professor wants me to look after. Noting Darren's expression, Rory just chuckled, "But... That's not important right now. Like I said, I hate to bother you at the mines, but I just spoke to the Overseer's office in Solarix. Normally I'd have gone to Nora first, but she's preoccupied." Producing a Pokeball, Rory threw it in the air and Floatzel popped out. "So are we battling here? It'll be just like old times."

Both men shared a laugh at the memory of their first battle. When Rory had first traveled to Terran town, he'd decided to stop by the mines and had accidentally challenged Darren without knowing who he was. "Although, I think you'll find we're not going down so easily this time." As Floatzel and Camerupt readied themselves, Rory aimed a finger at his opponent, "Floatzel, use Hydro Pump!"

@Chev

"Although, I think you'll find we're not going down so easily this time."

Darren was caught a little off guard by the move Rory's Floatzel was using.. His Camerupt was going to have a difficult battle this time and if Camerupt were to take a direct hit from a water attack that powerful he wasn't sure if the Pokemon would be able to take the hit. Camerupt was the oldest member of his team and he didn't want to see it hurt or in pain.

"Camerupt!" He called out. "Avoid it by using Dig!"

George muttered several curse words under his breath. Of course that damn dog would take the Ember. Why didn’t he think of that?! Now Devastator was forced to take an Flash Fire powered Ember that brought him to his knees. He still survived because Dragons resist fire, but that was dangerous. Meanwhile, Orianna was forced to go on the defensive.

“Ugh, how annoying! Alright, fine then. Devastator, use Leer, then Bite on the Houndour’s tail!”

Devastator gave the most intimidating look he could give in his current state, then ran foward with his teeth bared attempting to chomp down on Houndour’s tail.

“I don’t care what it is, it’s going down!” A rock, a Roggenrola, who cared what he called the damn thing; this was a fight! So long as Storm kept that thing tied down like it was currently doing then the only thing he had to worry about was the fight between Hades and the Bagon. He was damn sure his Houndour could deal with that thing by itself so long as he didn’t have to worry about this being a double battle. “Keep biting it Storm, don’t let go.”

Speaking of which, the Bagon withstood the ember, barely, and was looking to turn things around. It leered at his Hondour to lower his defence and then lunged in to take a bite out of him, but the disadvantage with giving multiple commands at once was that it gave Tim and his Pokémon warning of what was coming. “Dodge it Hades!” The Dark-type withered under the glare of his dragon opponent, but when the bite came he was able to quickly turn his body away to pull his tail out of reach.

“Good, now hit it with another ember!” Another boosted ball of fire shot from the Houndour’s mouth towards the Bagon. Dragon or not, it would be feeling the heat of all of these attacks soon enough.

@LuckyBlackCat@Crimson Flame

Much to Nora's displeasure, the children had followed and gotten into a double battle. It was like Darlene all over again. She'd have to talk with them. Then again, one couldn't climb a mountain without a little bull-headed bravery.

She released two Love Balls from her belt. A shiny Sylveon and a Kingbull appeared, and she got to work. Some of the masked thieves took off running, but enough stayed to start a few battles of her own. It didn't take too long for her well-trained, well-loved Pokemon to outclass and defeat them, though. All the while, she was keeping an eye out for someone who looked to be in charge. Something this organized had to have a leader, and she had a feeling they were still here.