Many Days Later, somewhere around Anistar City

Ichtacya and Sol are sitting right below the main help desk, sipping from a saucer of warm milk. The two are paying a bit of an ear to what Silent is doing but otherwise are too busy.

Silent is sitting at one of the transport system desks, shuffling his team members around, looking a bit concerned as he reads a letter from someone in Lumiose. He turns to Python and talks to him carefully.

"Well, you can't continue doing that kind of stuff, Python. You need to be nice to people or you get me in trouble."

The Ekans rattles sheepishly then turns to Maekrite, who is stretching his legs around, and then turns back to Silent, glares.

<…>

"…"

<…> -- hisses.

"Well no, that was something completely different..."

Not too long ago

<…Does this look like the spikes of a low-level mon?>

-rumbles and grunts-

<…Does this scent like the venom of a low-level mon?>

-more rumbles and heavy pawsteps accompanied by rushed breath-

<…DOES THIS LOOK LIKE THE FACE OF MERCY?>

Somewhere in the cliffs near Ambrette, there are some screams coming from the forestline. Then a rumble among the thickets, and then a bruised wild Bagon rushes out of them, yelling and trying to find a large chasm to disappear into. Not far behind, a Nidoran♂ emerges from the bushes as well, looking irked, a persistent Leer in his eyes and his horn aimed at the Bagon during his chase.

Furball!Maekrite: <Want to call me low-level again?> -- growls -- <Come here! You're not getting out of this! I've only chewed on half your body!>

The small Nidoran continues his chase for a moment, but is forced to abdicate and turn around when he sees that the Bagon is much more agile in the hard-rock terrain and has enough of an advantage against Maekrite. The Bagon reaches the edge of the cliff, turns around to see Maekrite panting, sat between him and the forestline…

…and takes a leap to the pointy and rocky world some 60 meters below.

Maekrite stops, listens to the heavy thud from the fall, and turns his horn to the ground. He allows himself to rest for a moment, then walks a small circle around himself and tries to focus some Electric-type energy on the tip of his horn, but nothing comes out of it.

Furball!Maekrite: <Argh… why can't I yet...?> -- shakes head, yells ahead -- <Fine, keep running! That cliff leads to the town, you know!>

-and turns around to walk back to his team, muttering some not very graceful Lapine epitets towards no one in particular all the while-

-Silent sits besides Python and pets him carefully-

"I was just letting him destress himself. But you, little thing, had no excuse to try to bite people on those fine, magnificent, charming, stupendous hotel beds." -- sighs (more for the beds than for Python).

Python -to the last words: <…Mine!>

"…I can get some nifty silk bed if you want. I could get myself some as well…"

-This earns the Ekans's attention, he stops rattling and now stares at Silent intensely for a moment, before relaxing his posture-

"If you don't want to go you don't need to go." -- offers a berry -- "But I still need you to behave better."

-The Ekans examines the berry, then hisses at Silent and turns around, slithering back to Silent's bag.-

"…Aw come on! I wouldn't want to get Renard in trouble, would you?"

-And the Ekans disappears into the bag-

"…So much for bribery as a last resort. I'll have to be reminded to ask Tracer how did he do it."

-Silent waits for a moment for movement to subside, then turns to Maekrite who is lending an ear to the discussion-

"What about you? It would be good if you return to your home as well."

Maekrite -shrugs: <…I'm feeling fine.>

"Your mate said she would kill me if I didn't return you by the end of the month, and I have enough reason to believe her."

-Maekrite leaves a half-hearted chuckle, then hops up to Silent's lap where he gets some petting and scratching behind the ears-

Maekrite: <But I'm fine… I can stay a couple of days more. I just…> -- yawns.

"Would you still keep pestering and one-hit KO-ing the local populations?"

Maekrite: <…No...> >_>

"…Not the Quagsires?"

Maekrite: <...No.>

"Not the poor Ledyba who were chewing on some berries that weren't ours to begin with?"

Maekrite -drops ears: <...No.>

"Not the poor Weepinbell who just wanted to make friends with Ichtacya?"

Maekrite: <…>

-Silent crosses his arms-

"Not Zapdos if we see him land somewhere?"

Maekrite -growls: <To be fair that is outside my league...>

"..."

<...>

"…You haven't said no."

-Maekrite opens his muzzle as if to retort, but shuts himself down; he shakes himself and hops down-

Maekrite -sighs: <I guess I could... go back h-home. See the kittens... about time to teach them…>

-The Nidoran♂ scratches the ground for a moment, Silent rubs his cheeks and whiskers-

"Besides, I'm sure she will love to see you with your fur trimmed."

Maekrite: <…Gah.> -- blushes.

"Come on, you look like you were only a small kitten. Unburdened. Only older, more muscular and more experienced." -- clamps the Nidoran by the neck carefully -- "You know she'll like that."

-Maekrite resists for a moment then lies flat on the ground-

"…When is the next, how did you call it, 'marlao', happening anyway?"

Maekrite tenses and flusters at the question and carefully tries to swipe Silent's hand off him-

Maekrite: <I'm not telling you THAT.> -- leers up looking exasperated -- <And you know the answer anyway.>

-Silent laughs briefly and lets the Nidoran go, watches him go fetch a berry-

Maekrite: <…F-fine. If you're going to b-be fine here...>

-Silent shrugs and takes a look at Ichtacya and Sol by the desk, the Espeon having finished her nomtimes already-

"I have two Eeveelutions. I can handle it."

-A couple of minutes later, Maekrite and a berry are recalled to the former's Moon Ball and sent, together with some packages, back to the Goldenrod PEFE Branch.-

-Just about Silent is about to disconnect…-

"…Oh?"

-Silent retrieves the two Pokéballs from transport and checks them, noticing in the system they are marked for [Shahinne] and Roc-

"…Oh-" --  fiddles with Shahinne's Pokéball for a moment -- "I guess I'll finally be able to get some explaining."

-Sits back down and sends a message to Tagg, while Sol approaches and licks her paws-

-Sol observes the message while Silent sends it then pushes her forelegs on him and tilts head-

Sol: <Hey, can I ask a question?>

"Uhm... sure?"

Sol -most seriously: <Why is Maekrite tagged with [hotpink] colour again?>

-Silent frowns at Sol-

-Sol just keeps staring back-

-Silent looks back at his team index with Maekrite gone and suddenly Shahinne and Roc-

"…Sol, I have enough headaches for one day."

Somewhere off Rt. 15

Ichtacya is loafing around chasing random small mons and peeking up from the grass, when she smells something not very far away.

-she walks into the route to notice an Umbreon with a mostly familiar person walking around-

Ichtacya: <[!]> -- swings head leaf -- <...Every! And an Umbreooooon!>

-She then rears back and pounces with a bark-

Ichtacya: <Hello! Hello! A long time I haven't seen you!> -- walks circles about the Umbreon -- <And who are you? I'm Ichtacya~>

Gattaca seems to not be happy to have drawn Ichtacya's attention. Not that Ichtacya would realize, so she'll probably need to be called out on that later.

Sol approaches slowly, since she is still on the tall grass all that can be seen for a moment is a twirling tail. A couple of seconds later she peeks out from the bushes, and approaches Ever and Gattaca.

Sol -purrs: <Hello Ever.>

-The Espeon then sits and turns to Gattaca, twitching a little.

<Afternoon... I'm Sol.>

Ichtacya -sits proudly: <She thanks Arceus for the respite!> ^.^

Sol -looks at Gattaca for a moment then turns to Ichtacya: <Suuuuure...>

-She turns her attention back to Ever-

<Are you on a quest to find [items]? Silent is over there> -- points to berry trees -- <looking for things too. Maekrite isn't with him though...>

Ever reaches to where Silent and the birds are. Shahinne is quick to notice and trills a happy note and that causes Silent to peek out from between some berry bushes.

"…Oh?" -- sees Ever, walks out -- "Hello, Ever. What are you doing around here? I mean I'm here for absolutely no reason, I thought you and the others would stick closer to the cities…"

-Shahinne meanwhile glides nearby-

Shahinne: <Eeee! Where is aunt?> -- looks around -- <Does she have any food?>

-Roc, for a response, merely lets out a rasp chirp and goes perch on a low branch, staring at Ever and Silent all the while-

-Meanwhile far behind-

-Ichtacya rushes ahead, leaving Gattaca and Sol behind for a moment. The Espeon looks around for The T for a moment just in case The T decides to follow-

Sol -tilts head: <Uhm… oookay? Good to know that~> -- and keeps walking. IN SILENCE.

Gattaca seems like she would like a battle. In the meanwhile Silent goes grab Shahinne, who puffs her chest in annoyance at not getting any food.

"Oh I've been mostly well. We have been resting for a while, and I have been spending time letting some of my mons de-stress."

Ichtacya -to Gattaca: <Yeah, a battle! We've fought some trainers over there and I like the exercise! And->

-keeps talking while Sol approaches from behind Gattaca and speaks to her-

Sol: <I suggest you take your chance. She likes to dash after her own Energy Balls for a chain, in case it helps.>

Ichtacya -keeps talking: <-so I can lead the team~> -- barks proudly.

"…We've talked about this Ichtacya, Dintel leads the team." -- turns to Ever -- "But anyway, since my mons feel like up for a battle, what do you think of a one on one or something quickie?"

The battle commences with some… breakdancing! This is enough to confound Ichtacya a bit. She looks at Silent for instructions.

"Hmmm..." -- shrugs -- "Well, you wanted to attack, no? You don't have anything super-effective I think so..." -- thinks for a moment -- "try to land a decisive hit. First an Energy Ball!"

Ichtacya nods and takes the time to charge an Energy Ball which she then fires at Gattaca Cuseinga.

Thinking Ichtacya's attempt cute, Gattaca Cuseinga responds with a Quick Attack. Ichtacya is too close to attempt to avoid the attack and she is sent sprawling to the grassy ground, but she manages to naturally recover from that fast.

"Ichtacya!" -- Silent calls her attention before she attempts to get close -- "From the distance first. Razor Leaf!"

The Leafeon sighs her disapproval but chooses to obey the battle command; she steps back a little and strafes for a moment, then swings her head to release four sharpened leaves on an horizontal arc aimed at Gattaca Cuseinga's overall position.

Silent listens to Ever's recommendations.

"Poisonous, spiky and kind of adorable? Okay, just be careful that Maekrite and his mate don't hear you saying that" -- chuckles.

-Ichtacya, her mood a bit down at having her tail leaf slashed, snorts at Gattaca, then walks off to lie on the grass-

Sol: <Well this was nice~> -- yawns -- <I'm gonna go watch the stars.> -- waves a bye to Ever and Gattaca.

Silent meanwhile produces a berry to be determined by Ever and hands it over.

"Where are you heading next, by the way? And how is Mezzo doing?"

T: <This one Tells The Espeon To beware The voices.>

-shudder-

T: <They nearly used This one as Their puppeT... The poor girl They have now...>

Sergio Sycamore's Lab

The Pokémon Prof. is sleeping on the couch while dreaming of bagels for some weird reason. He seems to be snapping out of it slowly though.

At that point of time, Eridanus is lucky enough that Sycamore's cell phone rings, and the Prof [wakes up].

Sycamore: "…Oh. Oh!" -- yawns and tries to make himself awake -- "Not again one of them..."

-and shoves the cellphone under a pillow, where it keeps ringing-

-blinks and seems to notice a shadow (Eridanus) covering his field of vision-

"...Oh? Who's there? Are you a boy or a girl?"