[FIN] Grade Card

[TawnyAngel]

After a sleep, a shower, a shave, and putting on his own clothes KO felt a little better. He had breakfast, had a coffee, and then felt just about up to another item he'd had on his agenda when he got back.

Sitting in his room still sipping his coffee he fetched out his 'dex and pulled up Elite Claire's contact details. //Hello, hope you're having a good morning Elite. Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, and so I was wondering if I could get some feedback on my performance in the last mission? If you can spare me some time please let me know when is convenient for you and I shall attend! There's something else I would like to discuss with you too.// He couldn't exactly hide it after all, he'd gone on the mission speaking to poison types but now.... Much as he wanted to pretend he hadn't thought anything at all was odd about what had happened to him there was little choice about this part.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

It would be several minutes before KO received a response to his message:

I should be free at 10am if you'd like a meeting in my office at that time.  

[TawnyAngel]

//Thank you, I'll be there.//

KO finished his coffee and spent a little while tidying up his room, and planning out the décor. He'd liked the plants he and Lu had had, so there would need to be plants, but what kind and what else? False drapes of some kind to cover those blank white walls, he'd found them pleasingly modern and minimalist before but suddenly they sent a chill down his spine. Now he wondered why that could be?

At 09:55 KO was outside Claire's office, lingering thoughts of interior decoration being driven out of his mind by anticipation and mild apprehension of what was to come. What would she make of the type change? That was his biggest concern, that it might be bad for him personally that whatever had been done to him had left such an obvious mark. That aside however he really was interested to know how she felt he'd done, though neither elite had been down in the depths of the caves with them he had no doubt they knew all but word for word what had transpired.

KO knocked and then, as he had an appointment, he tried the door. It was unlocked and so he pushed it inward and peered around it. "Knock knock?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

KO would find Claire's office sparsely furnished and even more sparsely decorated. A few framed pictures of scenery hung on the walls, and a pair of decently comfortable chairs sat in front of a moderately-sized desk, its surface neatly organized and held a single monitor, and in a more comfortable-looking chair behind the desk sat Claire. One hand sat on the mouse while the other tapped her chin thoughtfully, her eyebrows furrowed a little, and occasionally she'd moved both to tap away at her keyboard for a few moments before switching back. She was in the middle of typing when KO opened the door and peered in, so she paused to look up. Despite seeing and responding to his message, her expression was still one of surprise; her eyebrows rose and she had to look him over once or twice before finding her words, "Oh, come in."

She pulled her gaze away from him to tap away at her keyboard again for a few moments before she turned her full attention to him, still looking pleasantly surprised, as well as confused - confused or perhaps concerned - and gestured to one of the chairs in front of her. "I must admit, I wasn't expecting the message you sent me earlier for--well, for obvious reasons. How are you?"

Only two pokemon were out in her office at the moment; her shiny-looking Pikachu was asleep in the corner and didn't stir as anyone entered, while her striped Glaceon was sitting nearby and watched KO curiously as he entered.  

[TawnyAngel]

KO looked around the office critically; not bad, minimalist and classy. "Thanks." KO stepped inside and closed the door behind him. How was he? He considered the question as he walked towards the desk. "I'm well enough; tired but glad to be back, and busy telling everyone I'm not dead," he replied with a wry little smile and a shrug. "And you? I... must admit that I do not remember the end of the mission well. Were you hurt at all?" Humm, pretty Glaceon.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

She nodded and laced her fingers together atop her desk. Alexina watched them curiously, but chose to remain sitting quietly in her spot to observe from a polite distance. Claire nodded again at KO's words. "I imagine that leads to interesting conversations. I was also quite convinced of your death," the elite admitted with a frown, "though to be fair you looked... Well," she hesitated, "you looked rather far gone by then, so I can understand why you don't remember much of it." The elite turned back to her computer to pull up the mission report to skim over it again. "Everyone managed to get into the jet successfully but with various levels of injury, yours being the worst. Personally I managed to get away with only a few cuts and gashes along my legs and ankles." She turned her attention back to him and frowned a little, opened her mouth, shut it, then spoke up after a moment, "I know you wished to speak with me, but I would like to speak with you as well. I got accounts from the others about everything, but I would like to hear it from you as well, if you don't mind."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Accounts?" KO halted before the desk, one hand on the back of one of the chairs as he waited for permission to sit down. "The mission as a whole, do you mean? Or from when we split from you and elite Rook?"  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Claire gestured to the chairs again along with a "please, sit" since he had yet to sit down. "I'd like your account of what occurred while Elite Rook and I were waiting outside the cave, first of all, but I'd also like your thoughts on the mission as a whole, including the ambush on the Rangers as well as your time in the cave without us. Having multiple accounts of the same events helps get the clearest picture of what exactly we missed."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Thank you." KO sat and with his mind already wandering to the matter at hand he did so without much thought to how he presented himself to the elite, he practically poured into it as comfortably confident as a cat. "Hummmmmm." So, what did he think?

"I think the ambush went fairly well, though we damaged some of the uniforms more than was ideal. After that there was that confrontation on the jet; I understand the Gengar being unhappy with Clancy but the threat was unprofessional and its trainer let it go on too long in my opinion." KO exhaled softly and frowned slightly. "I think I placated the ghost but?... Mmh. Well I don't feel like I should have had to, shouldn't an Agent have their pokemon under better control than to threaten people for just talking s**t?"

Then what? KO frowned. "So then we went in, met the champion and we ran into some Mr Mine Jrs, easy enough to persuade them that we were rangers trying to help. After that we ran into a group of Sabeleye. I," he frowned as he tried to remember the exact sequence of events, "I remember we were all asking to get past them, and then I tried to offer them the pokegear I'd got from the ranger uniform to make prank calls with in exchange for passage buuut then somebody decide to use Hypnosis, and so they became aggressive and we had to find another way through.

"So eventually we heard sounds of fighting, and some people wanted to try to drill through the floor - which I thought was insane - but were persuaded to take the stairs. That's when we saw Xerneas." KO paused, frowning a little and smoothing his hand over his hair as he thought back. "So we attacked the pokemon belonging to the rockets fighting it, if there was a way to communicate our intent to the Kalos Rockets I couldn't think of it. So we took them down and started to 'subdue' the Rockets.... And then she seemed to become suspicious of us, or maybe she had been all along and was only just letting us know?" KO frowned deeper. "I remember her saying something like 'What enthusiasm! Maybe it mistook you for a Rocket?' when Tembery's Ariados surprised me. I don't know what gave us away: if it was in our manner, or if it was our unique pokemon, or the fact that Clancy - pretending to be a ranger - didn't know the species of his own pokemon but whatever the reason she rumbled us. I kept on trying to reason us out of it but I failed and eventually one of the Agents - Frost? The short pale guy - seemed to decide it was a lost cause, gave his name and the fight started. We all fled, and when we got outside we brought the entrance down to keep her from chasing us. After that we met up with you, caught Xerneas, and then...." KO took in an audible breath, shrugged, and shook his head. "Everything went to hell, it seems."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

She nodded once more at his thanks as he sat down, then switched her focus to her computer as KO relayed his account of events. Her fingers flew across her keyboard as she took down his version of events, and occasionally she nodded or murmured an agreement here or there, and after he finished speaking she remained typing for a few more moments before she switched to scrolling through the document. "That lines up pretty much exactly with what I've gathered from everyone else," she said at length once she'd finished, then turned to face him fully. "Not that I expected anything vastly different, but it's always good to confirm various accounts of the same story. It's also interesting to hear the varying opinions people have about the same events, as well, as those tend to differ much more often." She paused for a moment, then asked, "Do you have any final thoughts or anything else you'd like to add to your account before we move on?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Was there anything? KO frowned. "Well.... Over all I suppose I'd consider it a mixed success. We got what we went out there for and nobody was captured - or died - but Diantha figured us out and gave descriptions of us to the league. I think I played my part as well as I could, but I came here to hear if - from your observations or the accounts of others - if there's anything that I need to improve on, or if something I did was good and I should continue in the same direction."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Claire nodded once more. "Well, our goal was to meet up with the Kalos rocket team and to capture Xerneas to bring back to our headquarters, so technically it was a success, though I agree, personally I think it was a mixed success as well. As for your performance, give me a moment to review this and remember everything..." She trailed off and turned to her computer again to scroll through her document for a few moments to refresh her memory, though she spoke a bit absent-mindedly, "We were only able to personally observe roughly half - if that - of what occurred, so it will be more difficult to give an accurate assessment on individual performance than it usually is..."

Once finished, Claire turned her attention back to KO, "Based solely on what I myself observed during the mission, your performance was quite satisfactory. The ambush plan could have been a bit better organized and could've done with more moves that affect multiple targets at once instead of just one, though that's not entirely your fault given coming up with a plan was a team effort. After our group split up, you not only used your fastest pokemon to escape the cave unscathed, you assisted another teammate to escape as well, and if I remember correctly you were the first to arrive and use your Quick Ball. For situations like that, speed can mean the difference between success and failure - speaking in terms of missions or in terms of survival - so in that area you definitely excelled. For the middle chunk of the mission, however, I can't exactly speak for what I haven't personally observed, and so can't exactly give an individual performance report for that portion. By all accounts, though, it sounds like you did well, and I certainly didn't hear anything negative about you, so I can only gather you did well."

She paused and laced her fingers together and settled her forearms on her desk, twiddling her thumbs thoughtfully, then went on, "For you, personally, I'd suggest varying your team's types and movesets to try and cover as many bases as possible, to improve your ability to take advantage of type advantages, improve defensive techniques, or to attack multiple targets at once instead of only one at a time. I also encourage you to train to keep up your speed and reaction time, rather than become complacent with your past success. I apologize that I can't offer much more feedback than that," she said apologetically as she spread her hands over her desk, her expression one of slight disappointment that she hadn't anything better to offer him.  

[TawnyAngel]

As Claire spoke KO nodded and made noises of understanding at suitable intervals. "Not at all," he said with a flash of a smile when she finished. "Circumstances didn't exactly allow you to observe, as you said, and I'll definitely take on board what you have said. I hadn't really considered picking attacks based on how many opponents they can hit, I'll look into that."

And then... well, he might as well get it over with. KO's smile became a small frown. "Ah, and there was something else I wanted to tell you. I figured I should tell somebody and as I was planning to come see you anyway, I thought.... Well, anyway, to get to the point my communication type has changed. I don't know if you remember but I was translating for poison types on the mission? Now I can't understand a thing my Golbat is saying, but I can understand the Flabebe I picked up on the latest training mission perfectly."  

[BlackFireKitsune]

When he didn't seem upset by her lack of feedback, she nodded again and offered a brief smile, but it faded when he brought up his next topic. A surprised, puzzled frown replaced it instead. "Your type has changed?" She echoed, her tone just as surprised and perplexed as her expression. "I do remember you speaking with poison-types before, yes, but now it's changed to fairy? Changed, and not 'in addition to'? That's... curious," she finished with a frown. "I don't know overmuch about the egg but so far I haven't heard of anyone's type just... changing like that." Claire paused again to mull it over for a few moments before asking, "What are your thoughts on it?"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Nor have I," KO agreed with a small frown and a shake of his head. And what were his thoughts on it? "I... don't know what to make of it to be honest," he continued, shrugging and shaking his head again. "It would help if we had any real idea of how it works in the first place, and so what could cause it to change. Major trauma?" He rubbed his jaw, still frowning as he tried to get his head around it. "I seem to have healed very quickly so I'm assuming that the Kalos medics must have used the healing accelerant on me but I don't know if that could be a factor at all that's more to do with," he made a vague languid gesture, "cell division and so on.... Humm. I suppose I got fairly close to Xerneas, legendary fairy type. Perhaps its fairy aura could have affected me? But if so why only me?... So essentially I have a lot of questions but no solid theories about it yet."

It made him faintly uneasy, the change. Why? And why to Fairy? Was it just coincidence or had Xerneas had something to do with it? And if it had had something to do with it, what?