i'll sleep when i'm dead | mission | industrial district

[Charlie Esposito]

It was sundown. Charlie walked through the streets of the Industrial District, her eyes sharp. Most people would not have chosen this area as their destination for a mission that involved defeating a trainer. Most people would have chosen to go to the very core of Hyo City, where there were more people and less pokemon. Charlie knew better than to make that mistake, though. The people in the core were people who lived in Hyo City, mostly commuters and sometimes tourists. Only the bravest Resistance grunts showed their pokemon and their true colors in Hyo's core.

The Industrial District, where pokemon hid behind every corner - that's where she'd find a Resistance kid. She'd seen them over her last couple of months here as she explored the city, learning its alleys, passages, and hiding spots. This was the prime area in Hyo to find pokemon, and that was what she wanted - a trainer looking for pokemon.

She kept her badge hidden in the pocket of her waist belt coat for easy access. She found that sometimes a badge just made things worse, but she wanted it available in case she needed it. Beside her, Lux, her mareep, walked confidently. She knew the sun set quickly this time of year, and the streets were not well lit. Lux's tail would come in handy if it got dark.

She took a deep breath, calming her nerves. She could handle the trainers around here. She knew she could. She just needed to stay calm. She had nothing else to worry about - all of her pokemon were with her, and Jett was at home in her apartment with his babysitter, who had babysat him for years. If she could complete this mission, it would get her more than enough money to pay the babysitter for the next several missions, plus have a litte left over to take him to see that movie he'd been rambling on about. What was it again? Sugar? Cocoa? Something like that.

She could do this.

I know the mons here are weaker than her average, so feel free to 'roid them up. She's just a hair shy of going to fie forest, so I decided this was the better option since its already an automatic high risk.

Pokemon on hand:
Galahad (deerling) - lvl 11
Lux (mareep) - lvl 10
Remy (eevee) - lvl 12
Riley (eevee) - lvl 11
Jewel (dratini) - lvl 10
Helios (darumaka) - lvl 16

Adding one level to Lux, bringing her to 11 and the average to 11.8333.

[Deleted]

The streets seem to span on for what seems like forever. The darkened alleys you've become more and more familiar with over time have become less frightening, and the sounds of people shuffling about here and there pass you - none seem too promising of being a secret agent of the resistance. Then again, how can you tell? How many people actually operate on the side as a hobby? Was it something worth being a hobby? Not likely.

As quiet as the streets are, a city would not be complete without people and pokemon, and sometimes people make fully intentional friends with these pokemon - or unintentional. You know that pokemon are hiding here, somewhere, but any that want to remain alive and wild have learned to hide themselves very well - there's hardly a sign of anything.

When you do come across a pokemon finally, it's a rather excited poochyena jumping around an older man. He seems to be waving the pokemon away as he sits, resting on a bench and out of breath. If you listen closely you can hear him muttering, "Go on now, you shouldn't be out right now, anyway - go on home." He could've dropped a piece of food for the pokemon, and now it was following him around just for that..

If you look down further, there are some kids playing, dodging in between columns of a building, playing what looks to be some form of tag. If any of them were resistance, they could be easy pickings.

[Charlie Esposito]

For the most part, Charlie walked silently past those around her. Very few people gave a glance to the mareep walking beside her, either too afraid to challenge her or just simply wanted to remain out of the trouble that might come for trying. She pushed past faceless citizens, taking in details that might be important for later, but otherwise ignoring them. Eventually, the crowd began to thin, and she found herself seemingly alone down a side street.

Lux spotted the poochyena at nearly the same time that Charlie did. They both stopped, and Charlie pulled herself towards the wall of the building to her right for a moment while she watched the canine pokemon. It seemed to be jumping up on an older gentleman, curiously friendly with the man. Charlie's eyebrows furrowed as she thought. Just because the pokemon was... oddly... friendly, didn't mean that it belonged to the man, and anyway he was trying to shoo it away. And even more, even if the pokemon was the older man's, it didn't necessarily mean that the man was apart of the Resistance. Her mission was not to take an illegal pokemon, but to defeat a Resistance trainer.

It was as she was mulling over her options that she also spotted the group of kids playing past the older man. Charlie squinted, watching them for a few seconds. She couldn't see any pokemon with them from here, and they were just kids, but kids playing around these parts almost always meant some sort of trouble.

So, she came up with a plan. "Play along, Lux," she muttered to her mareep as she stepped out from the wall. The sheep looked up at her trainer and then followed her towards the older man.

"Hey there!" Charlie said loudly as she approached the man - hopefully loud enough to garner the attention of the kids down the street. "Looks like that poochyena's giving you trouble. Want some help?" she asked, giving her mareep a smile?

Her badge remained safely tucked in her pocket.

[Deleted]

The man looks around at the sound of someone calling and soon spots you. He looks confused for a moment, blank in the face as he looks between you and your mareep. As you get close, he smiles nervously and waves a hand. "Oh, hello. No, no, that's okay. This little one.. well, my wife feeds him no matter how many times I tell her to, you see, so he hangs around our house and follows me to and from work. He's no bother, really." He reaches down to give the pokemon a gentle pat, but the poochyena avoids his hand. "Well, he's friendly enough, I suppose. I've gotten quite used to him, if I'll be honest.."

He seems sincere in not mentioning owning the pokemon..

As you had hoped, the kids seem to notice you approaching the man now. Only one of them stops - the biggest of the three - and comes down from their game of chase. He's young, but he looks almost too sure of himself as he steps toward you both. Now that their brother has disappeared, the other two follow along, staying a little further back from the pokemon.

"Hey, Old Man, you still got this poochyena following you around?" He looks at you for a moment and puts his hands on his hips, then points to himself with a thumb. "I can get rid of this stupid pokemon!"

"Mom says wild pokemon are diseased-" the youngest-looking - a girl - says.

"No, she says that about dog pokemon, dummy," snaps the third child - another boy.

Strange..

The oldest grabs at the poochyena suddenly, pulling its back against his chest with a mischievous grin on his face. As soon as he grabs for the pokemon, the poochyena starts growling a horribly angry, raspy growl. For its size it's likely more bark than it is bite. Still, the man shows a little bit of worry for the pokemon. "Hey now, put him down.. he doesn't like being touched at all."

The other children look on, laughing a bit. "Grooooooss~" the girl jokes.

OLD MAN Not too fond of Boy 1...	RAWWRGH - lemme DOWN, dammit
BOY 1 Doesn't seem to know what a 'brat' is...	BOY 2 Quietly standing by with his sister	GIRL Shyly standing by, teasing her brother

[Charlie Esposito]

Charlie listened to the man's explanation. If she was being honest with herself, it didn't seem likely that this poochyena was owned by this man. Unless he had seen her coming and had guessed her intentions before she even spotted him, he was most likely telling the truth. The kid that approached them seemed to confirm that this poochyena was just following the man around.

Charlie grinned at the kids. "You're not going to get the poochyena to go away just by carrying it," she said. "Poochyena are known for their long-lasting energy, as well as their sense of smell. It'll struggle until you let it go, and then it will run back to the man." When Charlie was done info-dropping to the children, she smiled and crossed her arms in front of her. "In fact, the only way for this man to actually get it to leave him alone is for someone to catch it, I bet. You look too young for that, though."

[Deleted]

The youngest boy tilts his head at your explanation. In the chaos, he seems to be the only one who really listens to you. "So like.. what, battle it or something then?" The girl noticed when her brother spoke up. "We don't have any pokemon.." She looks at you curiously. "Do you?"

Their older brother kept on holding on to the poochyena as well as he could. Something of stubbornness, to prove how long he could hold onto it or some other game, but the poochyena never stopped struggling nor growling that horrible sound. The man mutters something about the boy being spoiled - that seemed to get his attention. He dropped the pokemon - it yelped when it hit the ground so suddenly and ran to the man to growl at the boy some more - and the boy turned his attention to the man.

"What did you say, you old smelly man?"

The man frowned, but he stands his ground. "I said that you're a spoiled child. You should be ashamed for treating a pokemon so."

"You don't know shit!" The boy reaches into his back pocket and pulls out what looks to be a slingshot, but your view is distorted by the two other kids running up and pulling his arm back, fighting over the slingshot.

"Hey! Stop! If mom finds out, you're dead!" "Yeah, you can't hit someone with that, Benny!"

OLD MAN 'Kids these days..'	GRRRRRR
Benny About to attack the old man	BOY 2 Trying to stop Benny	GIRL Trying to stop Benny

[Charlie Esposito]

Charlie smiled a friendly smile at the youngest boy. "That's right," Charlie said to him. "You have to weaken pokemon before you catch them and you do that by battling!" She then turned to the small girl. She was either a great actor, or these kids didn't have any pokemon. "I do," Charlie answered, and just as she did so Lux walked up to the small girl, an equally friendly smile on her face. For a moment, Charlie was nervous that Lux was planning on shocking the girl as she liked to do, but Lux had decided to follow her trainer's lead and wouldn't be a brat. Instead, she baa'd at the small girl and allowed her to pet her fluffy wool, if she wanted. "This is my mareep, Lux. She's very soft."

It was just then that she heard the yelp from the poochyena being dropped. Losing her smile, Charlie turned to look back at the old man, who was now being guarded by the poochyena. As the boy pulled out his slingshot, Charlie frowned and his siblings both ran to stop him.

"Now now, Benny is it?" she asked, stepping in front of him, between him and the old man. Lux noticed that her trainer was now in direct line of the slingshot if the boy chose to use it, and a few sparks jumped around in her wool, but otherwise she stayed where she was. "You wouldn't want to get in trouble with your mother, would you? Or even worse... with the police." As she whispered that last part, she raised her eyebrows and gave Benny a knowing look. "They don't take kindly to kids attacking old men."

[Deleted]

"Oh.." The boy seems to take your explanation to heart. Maybe he wants to work with pokemon - when he's older, of course. Who knows? Maybe one or all of these kids will join you in Plasma one day. The girl jumps at the sight of Lux, but your reassuring voice makes her reach out to touch the soft wool. She pulls her hand back, smiling and making quiet little gleeful sounds, then reaches out again before the two jump on their brother.

The only one that listens to you as you talk is the oldest, who gives you a nasty face and then pulls his arms free of his siblings, who both fall from loss of balance. They scramble up, but neither tries to take on their older brother again. The younger ones stay near and look between you and their brother. "I don't care about what my mom says or what any police say!"

A clicking of heels distracts everyone's attention, and a woman carrying a brown paper bag wearing a waitress outfit is moving toward you. "Benjamin, what the hell do you think you're doing?!" The all turn to the woman and Benny practically jumps out of his skin.

The man, meanwhile, doesn't seem very phased by the slingshot. It is a child's toy, but a good - or really bad - aim could definitely do damage. The old man nods to you. "I don't mean to make any trouble for you. I'll go on home.. Maybe the kids will calm down and that pooch will go on home as well.." The last part is lower, for your ears only. The man begins shuffling away, though rather slowly. The poochyena growls, but when he notices the man leaving he backs away slowly. He follows behind the man like some kind of lost child hoping to come home, even as the man continues to shoo at him.

The woman walks up to the kids and snatches the slingshot from a trembling Benny's hands. He's not quite so courageous in the face of what can only be assumed as his mother. "I told you; you're not allowed any of these! Where'd you get this one from? One of your friends." Benny looks at the ground. "I told you three to stay right where I left you." The other two kids turn their heads down now as the woman puts her hand on a hip and shakes her head. She sighs before she turns to you.

"I'm sorry.. were my kids causing trouble?" She seems sincerely apologetic. She slips the slingshot into the bag, and you can see some food sticking out the top of it.

WOMAN

Benny Embarrassed

BOY 2 Embarrassed

GIRL Embarrassed