[Fin] This isn't supposed to happen!

[TawnyAngel]

It was late, cold, and pissing down. The rain that poured over the city as though from the shower of some careless deity or other was really only a few degrees away from being ice, the water ran down the back of his collar in a freezing trickle and soaked his jeans. These were not conditions for flying and as such Aulus was hurrying along the darkened streets in search of a place to wait out the storm, several bags containing Christmas gifts clutched in his hand. Why had it had to bloody well do this today? Why couldn't it have done it in a few days time when he was going to be stuck inside the base? He could at least have laughed at the suckers that got stuck out in it while he was busy being bored out of his skull but nooooo, it had to happen to him didn't it?


Unbeknownst to the rocket, somebody was tailing him and had been since he'd returned Tortie to her pokeball when the downpour started. That was one pretty Absol, looked pretty strong too, and that would make it pretty valuable. The contents of the other five pokeballs was an unknown to the lanky figure but doubtless they intended to change that very soon.

Padding alongside the would be thief was a very wet, rather displeased looking Liepard but the feline pokemon was focused and - when given the signal - it slunk closer, closer, closer and then rushed with a Thief attack.


The force of the attack sent Aulus sprawling on the ground. Without much input from his brain his body scrambled upright and grabbed for his pokeballs. There was only one left, and the shape of a sleek pokemon was disappearing rapidly down the street. Aulus' face contorted into a snarl and dropping his bags carelessly onto the ground he took off after it at a dead run, expanding his remaining pokeball as he went. Somebody was going to seriously regret their life choices in the not too distant future and it sure as hell wasn't going to be him.


The thief was already some way ahead of their pokemon and on a different side street, now hurrying along like any normal citizen caught out in the rain. Ever the opportunist however they kept a sharp eye out for any further potential targets, more was always better.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Well s**t. "Sorry buddy," Abel said as he aimed an apologetic look down at his colorful Espeon who looked rather put-out by the sudden downpour, "I didn't think it'd rain this bad. At least I brought an umbrella though, yeah?" Isaac merely made a displeased noise, his large ears twisting back as he hunkered down a little lower to the pavement, not at all wanting to leave the dry safety of the small awning they were hidden under. But as Abel opened his umbrella and braced himself, the psychic-type huffed lightly and flicked his forked tail in irritation before hurriedly following after his trainer as the blond walked briskly through the rain, one hand in his jacket pocket while the other held the umbrella tightly, holding it as low over his head as he could to keep it as close to the ground as possible. Not that it did much good for the unfortunate Espeon, who did his best to try and stay beneath the umbrella to avoid getting even more wet.

It didn't help much.  

[TawnyAngel]

The Liepard went over a wall and Aulus went too, he-

He tried to go too. After years with Jerome it was a nothing, that wall, but the problem was that he tried to grab the top of it with his right hand.

He fell, not too badly but he did and that was lost time, lost momentum, bad! He'd lost them, no he couldn't lose them, no ******** ******** ********! He was up again, glancing about and backing off to have another run at the wall.


Meanwhile the Liepard dropped down next to her trainer, he pocked the pokeballs and motioned towards the new trainer he had eyes on, the one with the umbrella. The Liepard nodded and moved out, preparing to charge with Pursuit. Once his pokemon was in motion the thief moved too, preparing to throw a capsule of sleep Spores at the Espeon. As soon as the trainer was down and the psychic type asleep he would find its pokeball and then he would be off and away to an auction. This was turning out to be a great night!  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Isaac was most displeased with this turn of events. He didn't mind a little rain normally, but for one this wasn't so much rain as it was more like a Kyogre was up in the clouds or something, and for two it was cold. A little chill wasn't too terrible, but the icy downpour had long since soaked through his thin, fine fur and it was a most unpleasant feeling, being so cold. Maybe he could convey his desire to be carried to his companion...

One moment Abel was walking down the street, questioning every life choice that had led up to the decision to go out today and wondering if he should go somewhere to dry Isaac off and then carry him in his jacket or something, and the next moment his umbrella flew out of his hand and flopped onto the pavement as something quite forcefully collided with his back and knocked him over. Isaac stopped and his wet fur bristled. "Prreon?!" Before he could even think to react, something exploded into a thick cloud of dust at his paws that immediately dulled his senses, and he staggered forward a step or two before slumping over on the ground, asleep.

While Abel did manage to land on his hands and quickly roll himself over, he wasn't exactly in practice with such maneuvers and it took him a second or two longer than he would've liked, but he still succeeded in righting himself and paused, kneeling on the ground and looking quickly to figure out what the hell had just happened and how Isaac was.  

[TawnyAngel]

A few things happened rather quickly.

The thief rushed forward to scoop up the fallen Espeon and ran onward without a glance backwards.

Lightning split the heavens and thunder rumbled.

Aulus appeared over the wall like the wrath of Gods, slipped on something unseen in the gloom, swore, scrambled upright, and released his last pokemon. "Alright you little s**t, I am going to feed you your own teeth and make you thank me for it!"

The pokemon that appeared was a Charizard. It was tall and it looked deeply suspicious for a moment before a sharp whistle from its trainer made it look angry. Char looked down his nose at the Liepard and then unleashed a flamethrower, sending the weaker pokemom reeling.

Aulus meanwhile was after the trainer, wrath of Gods firmly back on its feet, moving, and severely pissed off.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Though the Spore cloud had dissipated almost as soon as it had erupted, it needed just that split second to take its toll on the unconscious Espeon who remained so as the stranger grabbed him and headed down the street. "Hey!" Abel tried to grab the guy's ankle, the edge of his pants, whatever he could, but failed to do so, and even practically fell on his face in his efforts to do so. With a few choice swears the blond pushed himself to his feet and tore down the street after the thief, completely forgetting about his umbrella that lay forlorn and abandoned on the sidewalk. Someone else appeared with a large pokemon, but Abel didn't really pay either any mind, so focused was he on chasing his target. "Alright you a*****e, you've got three seconds to stop before I make you stop," he shouted after him, absolutely furious and cursing himself for not bringing Isaac's ball, or for not bringing any of his other pokemon - but really, why would he do the former? He never carried their pokeballs with him, and he hadn't intended to make this a big outing and so didn't bother bringing his others. It occurred to him that times like these would be the perfect opportunity to flex one's pokemon training muscles - too bad his were noodley and underdeveloped.  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus did register that somebody else was there and that the man he was chasing was carrying an Espeon that he didn't recognise and seemed to be unconscious. That however was not important, what was important was drawing level with the thief and tackling him to the ground. The feat was little sooner thought than achieved, and once it was achieved Aulus rolled over with the man once and then yanked him into an arm lock.

The snatched Espeon was dropped.

The Liepard was treated to another flamethrower and collapsed.

There was another flash of lightning, another rumble of thunder, and then stillness.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

As the other guy - now that he was forced to acknowledge there was another person there - drew ahead and stopped the thief, Abel found himself slightly disappointed that he wasn't the one to do it. Either way, though, he was glad - very glad - that the man was stopped one way or another, and he skidded to a halt by them. He hesitated for a moment, trying to figure out whether he should punch the guy or if he should tend to his pokemon, but since he cared a lot more for his pokemon than he did for punching some random stranger (not that he was that great at punching anyway), he abandoned thoughts of violence and instead knelt by the Espeon where he'd fallen, and carefully scooped him up into his arms. Despite being unconscious, he looked fine, but he didn't really know what the thief had done to him or why besides render him unable to defend himself, and the thought angered him. At least he was safe again, though, not that that quelled his anger. "What the hell was that for?! What did you do?" Hopefully nothing serious - not that trying to steal his lifelong friend wasn't serious.  

[TawnyAngel]

From this angle it would be easy to break the man's arm, really easy. Aulus pushed the limb just a bit short of that, his teeth bared. "You little <********> you pustule on the diseased and bloated mass of humanity, you putrid little s**t what did you think you were doing back there?"

The man made a vague pained noise.

Aulus looked up and over at the man bent over the Espeon, concern wiping out his rage at least for a moment. "Hey, you, your Espeon alright? I've got cures with me." In the gloom he couldn't see much, s**t he couldn't even see if it was breathing. If it wasn't... well he knew a bit of first aid for pokemon of that vague size and shape but best thing would be to get it back in its ball and to a Centre ASAP.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The other man's vehement and nicely phrased anger served to sate his own just a bit - not much, but a bit - and it also made him need to think of what else to say before he added anything else. The other guy set the bar a little higher with that one.

But then he distracted him rather easily by asking about Isaac, and Abel's anger dissipated as he glanced down at his still-unconscious friend. "It's a little hard to tell," he admitted, and the thought made his stomach turn, "but he's unconscious. Still breathing, though." Thankfully. Could be that the guy had just knocked him out, but how did he accomplish that? Did he have some kind of smoke ball thing that could knock out pokemon? Did his Liepard do something?  

[TawnyAngel]

"Hang on." Aulus whistled again to Char and jerked his head at the man he was holding down.

As soon as the fire type relieved him Aulus headed over. The right sleeve of his jacket had come free of the pocket in all of the chaos and blew half-heartedly in the lingering wind as Aulus stooped beside the stranger and his Espeon. After a couple of moments he reached out to check the pyschic type's pulse, gave a huff of satisfaction, and turned away. "He did something alright," he muttered. He then rounded on the captive and smiled again like something that considered Sharpeado a light snack. "Care to own up, sweetheart? Come on, play nice with us and we might with you, hu?"


The thief, now pinned by a Charizard let out a whimper. "J-just a Spore ball! No harm comes from it, just sleep! Please let me go, I've got a family!"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

As the Charizard took over for its trainer and said trainer came over to inspect his pokemon, that brief moment was all Abel needed to take in the limp sleeve and his scarred face - that coupled with what little he'd seen of his fighting prowess (which admittedly wasn't a whole lot) combined to make him think this guy was probably something of a badass. Not that that mattered too much at the moment, as the unconscious Espeon in his arms was without a doubt his top priority. "I'm sure they're real proud of having a common thief provide for them," he said bitterly with a sneer. He didn't usually think much of thieves - until, of course, they tried to steal something of his or one of his pokemon.  

[TawnyAngel]

"He's a skidmark on the pants of the species homo sapien, no point trying to shame him, he hasn't the brain capacity to appreciate it." Said the Rocket! The thief! The b*****d and whatever the hells else one might call him....

But not tonight.

It was alright, right? Nothing special to see about the Espeon, pretty though it was, so he didn't have to get it. He was loyal beyond dispute, of course, but sometimes.....

Well everyone had regrets even when they were happy in life. He was no angel but there were worse people, probably.

Aulus reached into his pocket to grab his berry box and tossed it to the Espeon's trainer. "Third from the left when the hinges are up, rub the berry on his gums. If it's only a sleep condition that should bring him around." Oh the most wonderful time of the year when good will to.... Good will.... Good.... "********, I dropped my presents."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Despite himself, the blond couldn't help an amused snort at the man's words - even though the situation itself was far from funny. "That's a good one," he said, trying to return to feeling more serious - but really, that was a good one. A skidmark on the pants of humanity. He'd need to take lessons from this guy or something, that was great.

That was for another time, though, and he caught the small box when it was tossed to him and opened it. So far he'd managed to ignore the rain, but as he tilted his head down to inspect the box's interior, water gratefully obliged and ran down his hair and into his face, causing him to blink rapidly and wipe at his eyes. Ugh, why had he come out today? He should've just stayed home. Either way he took out the berry and set the box down, cradling the Espeon in his arms as he did as instructed. It seemed to work as, after a moment or two, the psychic-type suddenly jolted awake and jumped to his feet, but stumbled in his groggy state. With a shake of his head and an effort to focus on what was happening, Isaac whipped his head around to survey what he could understand as he still tried to wake himself up, though his attention snapped to his friend as the blond spoke, "It's alright bud, don't worry." So saying he reached out to run a hand over the Espeon's ears, and Isaac quickly moved closer with a relieved sound. With his free hand, he closed the small box and frowned before saying, "Sorry about your presents, man." It reminded him of the umbrella he'd dropped, but that wasn't that much of a concern anymore. He could always get a new one. Remembering the box, he said "hey" to draw the man's attention before tossing it back - he didn't want to toss it when he wasn't looking, after all, because wouldn't he just look like an ungrateful d**k then.

Isaac had taken up a post half-curled up at Abel's side, facing the human on the ground - he assumed that human was the cause of this whole thing, given the circumstances upon his waking - and offered him a vicious snarl, his forked tail twitching in agitation.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Hu?" Aulus blinked and then played over what he'd said in his mind. "Oh, thanks." He did tend to get creative with insults like that, it had been a conscious effort once upon a time but these days he'd rehearsed so many possibilities so many times that it came naturally.

The matter at hand - oh har-har - however was.... Well several things. He was soaked, bruised from the Liepard's attack and then from the fall, he'd lost his presents, and had to work out what the hell to do about the would be thief. At least the Espeon seemed to be okay, Aulus nodded over at its trainer and caught his berry box as it was tossed back.

Alright, one thing at a time. Dashing water from his face Aulus checked his retrieved pokeballs and released Puck. The Gengar took a moment to get her bearings, took in the prone man who was being menaced by Char, and turned to Aulus with a quizzical expression.

Aulus pocketed his pokeballs again and gestured back the way he had come. "I dropped a bunch of shopping bags back there, go find them will you?"

The ghost waited for a moment in case anything more was going to be explained but as it seemed that it was not she shrugged and vanished.

That was one problem dealt with, or as dealt with as it could be at this point. There was no help for the bruising right now and that left just one immediate problem. Aulus turned back to the Espeon's trainer and gestured at the man on the ground. "Now what the hell do we do about this b*****d? Oh, name's Kurt by the way." He would really prefer not to deal with the police, his face might not be known to them but that didn't mean he was comfortable with the idea of close interaction with officers of the law.