The Maltese Talonflame Chapter 1: The Cerise Letter

[rustytengo]

When it finally came to Jeanne's turn she smiled and waved at her new boss "Jeanne Montgomery. Pleased to meet you boss." She said happily.

[Yours Truly]

"I'm Elias, the new intern." Elias makes the rather simple introduction and waits for Daniel to address the group.

Once the groups has finished introducing themselves, Daniel stands there, silent. He notes small details about the fresh recruits. "Ah a locksmith, that seems useful enough I guess....and You, child," he points his cigarillo at Kayn's direction, "do your parents know you that are here? Because I told Emilia to not hire any children". He brings the smoke back to his mouth as he says "And the girl from S.H.I.E.L.D....are you sure you want to associate yourself with them? I mean their agency is mediocre, at best.". He looks thoughtfully at the musician as he says, "Arlen... Arlen Eldes? Nope, I can't say that I have heard that name before, which makes a lot of sense; as I am sure that you wouldn't be here if you were any good at music after all.".

 

He lets out a sigh as he glances at Aster's direction and exhales from his smokey treat, "And as for you Mr. Aster Wren, you shouldn't assume that much about anything. You are not here to get along with me, you are here to use your unique 'insight' to help stop your kind of people from commiting any more mistakes.".

 

He stops to take another puff from his death stick before he says "Kampton, you say? The one with the Horsea? Well I must say that we are expecting a lot from you." He puts on his most sarcastic tone of voice before he says "Well well your daddy must be so proud, somebody finally gave you a job...." he then pulls out a pokeball, and lets out a rather confident looking magikarp before he points directly at Jayden. "And let's face it, this Magikarp has more prestige than your university could ever hope to attain. And lastly I expect great things from you young lady, unlike your father of course.".

 

Daniel takes one last drag from his old joe before he throws the burnt out butt down to the ground, "Great, we have an excellent batch this year." Daniel turns to stare at Emilia before he says, "Did we really need to do all of this? Are you seriously telling me that you wasted my time, the companies resources and all of this effort for what? Two or three actually competent people and whatever the rest are supposed to be?. I sincerely doubt that any of them could even defeat this magikarp in battle.".

[IntSys]

The last few words were particularly annoying to Serra's ears. But, she knew better than to lose her cool on her first day at work. She made herself heard again swiftly, intending to snatch the initiative before anyone else lash out and decides to fight the Magikarp for their own ego.

"We can make up for our lack of strength and skill in Pokemon Battling in other areas. After all, you were hiring detectives, not Pokemon Trainers."

[Newt]

Although he was called a kid, Kayn didn't get stressed about it.

"I see."

Kayn then looks at the boss.

"So this is how you are going to test us, huh? You say something to each one of us that make us angry, and wait to see how we will react. This is very clever, although I was already expecting something like that."

[rustytengo]

Jeanne smiled at Daniel "Why yes my daddy is very proud that I got a job and expects you to take care of his dear daughter. After all if something horrible where to happen to her he might be so full of grief that nobody would know what he would do. He might even pull his funding from this place.  Now that would be a tragedy wouldn't it?" She said happily before pulling out her phone. "Now smile." She said as she snapped a picture of her new boss.

[Anime]

"You might see them as incompetent but i see my fellow subordinates as competent, after all you can't really judge anyone since we didn't even go on our first mission" said Adara before Daniel turned to Emilia. She then turned to Serra and said "you did good girl, at least we hopefully no one will talk back to the boss's taunts."

 

[Yash]

Lars, upon not even being acknowledged by Daniel, gets a little upset. He takes out his pokeball and throws it on the ground in front of the Magikarp. From the pokeball a Charmander pops out and stands facing the Magikarp. "I'll take up that challenge. Guys and girls, come on. Even if he is the new boss, he shouldn't throw down a challenge like that. Lizzie will roast that karp." Lizzie then lets out a small roar, and a tiny shot of fire, clearly imitating a charizard it must have seen sometime in it's life.

[IntSys]

Serra facepalmed at Elias' display of foolery. She shot an eye at him, then her new boss. She finally turned back to Elias. "And for we're going to be working together, you'd best do everyone here a favor and not fight the Magikarp. It's a lose-lose no matter what the outcome is," her tone grew stern.

Keeping up the act was tiring, but she would not let a random guy ruin her first day at work. She still had one more backup plan should the young man completely ignore her words and fight anyway.

[DemICE]

"Now now, lets calm down, okay? Do you really think jumping headfirst into a pokemon battle will be good for your image?  It is not the pokemon league challenge here." Horace said to Elias. Though he secretly was curious about how would that battle turn out.

[Yours Truly]

23 hours ago, IntSys said:

The last few words were particularly annoying to Serra's ears. But, she knew better than to lose her cool on her first day at work. She made herself heard again swiftly, intending to snatch the initiative before anyone else lash out and decides to fight the Magikarp for their own ego.

"We can make up for our lack of strength and skill in Pokemon Battling in other areas. After all, you were hiring detectives, not Pokemon Trainers."

Daniel rummages around inside of his jacket in search of his packet of cancer sticks as he says, "A detective should be able to set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, sneak past several armed guards and write a comprehensive report in the end of the day about why all of this helped their investigation. Specialization is for gym leaders".

 

He finally manages to locate his packet of smokes and takes them out for just long enough to hear Jeanne say that she is taking a picture of him, and he immediately stuffs them back inside of his coat before he fakes a smile and says "Please do tell your father that we appreciate the funding he provides, and that we will make sure to at least try and keep his youngest daughter alive for the couple of months she will spend her before she quits out of boredom".

 

He takes out a cigarette from his pack as he blatantly ignores everyone else to respond to Elias's taunt by saying "And what exactly are you planning on doing with that wiry Charmander of yours young man? I am quite sure that even a small child," he noticeably glances at Kayn's direction, "Could see that one side has an obvious advantage against the other".

 

As Daniel says this a small Bulbasaur dragging a sack along with it hands everyone other than Elias a small envelope for some reason or other.

[Anime]

Seriously now?! thought Adara when she saw Elias' foolish action. "Like everyone said, we're not here to battle, and what you're doing is unreasonable. The boss is a bit harsh, yes, but that only means that we have to keep calm and not let his taunts get us, stop now. She wasn't about to let her first day be ruined by some foolish guy. Although i wonder what would happen if they fight, i heard Magikarps can be quite slippery and fierce Thought Adara before a small Bulbasaur handed her a small envelope. She noticed that everyone but Elias got one. She wasn't really surprised but she was curious to see where this leads.

[DigitalAmber]

Jayden had been watching the people around him argue and simply chose to stay out of it. If these fools wanted to argue, then they could do just that. Jayden restrained Inva from stealing a hat or cigar and took the letter from the Bulbasaur. “Honestly, battles between Pokémon are counter intuitive unless you are hopelessly outmatched. Although I would not want to, a well placed bullet can kill a decent amount of Pokémon. The ones that don’t melt the bullet or psychics or those ones that the bullet bounced off of of course. A battle really should only take place when you have no choice, as all disguises are thrown out the window then. You can put a silencer on a gun, but not on a Hyper Beam.”

[krim]

Well, that hit a little close to home.  Arlen thought, but letting it get to him would be counterproductive."Could you get to the point?" he asked. "You've already led us on a tour of the building, which you wouldn't have done if you planned to turn us down now. Taunting us won't get you very far." then he looked to Lars and sighed under his breath "Well, most of us."  before bending down to receive the letter from the bulbasaur.

[Aurorix]

"Teh, so much for trying to be friendly." Aster crosses his arms in annoyance and grits his teeth. He didn't feel like he needed to prove anything to the geezer, but that didn't make him any less ticked off. Snapping at him for assuming he's doing his job, what is he suppose to think his boss ir lazy or inept. Plus, what was about him snapping at him for trying to be friendly. Oh well, the gramps is already on his "shit list" at least, that's for sure. Then he reluctantly takes the envelope from the bulbasaur. 

[rustytengo]

Jeanne smiled as she typed away at her phone. "Don't worry I'll tell him. If its as  interesting as I was told it was I'll be around for awhile, and if I find it even more so I might put a good word in to daddy and he might increase his contributions." She said with a giggle. Oh why thank you cutie." She said as she took the envelope the bulbasuar handed her.  

[Newt]

Sigh. This guy will just ignore everything I say, won't he? Guess I'll have to learn to deal with that if I want to stay here.

Zaru then takes the envelope from the Bulbasaur, and before opening it out of curiosity, Kayn takes it from Zaru's hands. Kayn looks around and sees that no one opened it yet, so he decides to wait.

[Yash]

Lars looks at Daniel and says, "Well, old man. I assume you were challenging us. Even if I am at a disadvantage, if I back down without even trying, I really won't be doing my job will I? If you aren't challenging us, then my apologies. I assumed your reason for abusing everybody was to challenge us and see our capabilities with our partners. If that wasn't your intent, then I'll call Lizzie back." He takes out the pokeball and holds it up. "Also, on a side note, even though your Magikarp is a water type, that doesn't mean it has any advantage. Even if your Karp knows it, tackle is it's only aggressive move, which isn't super effective versus my Lizzie, where as I can easily use non fire type moves. So all in all, I'd say the battle should be pretty even. As for you all, how do you know this isn't a test? He could be checking to see if we have the guts to stand up to him. In any case, maybe you didn't realize this, but the boss didn't really say anything to me." he says, turning towards Serra and the others. He tosses the pokeball in his hand. "So, what will it be, boss? Do we battle or no? It will be fun in either case." He smiles at Daniel, simply enjoying the possibility of a battle. 

[Yours Truly]

Daniel's takes a step forward after he hears Jayden's response, and he gestures at the rest of the group before he says "This isn't the movies kid, a bullet isn't some magical weapon that instantly kills anyone it so much as grazes in a particularly unfortunate spot, in my long career I have seen men survive getting shot twenty different times in a row for long enough to give a mostly coherent report and make it back to the hospital for their life saving operation, and don't even get me started on how hard it is to reliably take out a Pokemon with a service pistol...," he then lights the old joe he has in his hands before he points it at Jayden's direction, "And believe me when I say that when the time comes and you have a clear shot towards your target, that most of you won't have the guts to pull that trigger until it is much too late."

He takes a good and long drag from his cancer stick and he waits for everyone else to say something as you all hear the sound of a cell phone ringing as Emilia picks up her phone and answers the call. Daniel then turns to stare directly at Elias's eyes as his Magikarp stares blankly at all of the people who were not feeding it for some odd reason, "Well of course I was challenging all of you! As I needed to know if the bunch of young ne'er do wells I am apparently hiring are actually good for something. But as it seems that none of you are reckless enough to face me in a Pokemon battle, I will just have to teach all of you to never underestimate your opponent by saying the next six words.".

Daniel points his finger directly at Elias's Charmander before he shouts out the words "Titan! Use Bounce, on the Charmander", causing his Magikarp to slowly start to bounce higher and higher on the grassy ground as it drew closer towards its target, before it suddenly leapt several hundred meters over the ground.

The Bulbasaur smiles warmly at the rest of the group as it hands everyone their envelopes, and it decides to hide somewhere behind Jeanne after it hears Daniel shout out orders for his Magikarp to follow.

[IntSys]

Serra gave Elias a long, hard stare, before breaking into laughter. With him willing to make the stand and sacrifice himself for everyone else, there wasn't any reason to stop him anymore. And besides, it would've been a nice opportunity to see the Magikarp's abilities. She simply responded with a surprisingly warm "Good luck."

She thought about intervening with Cleffy by snatching the Pokeball, but she decided to scrap the plan for now. She took the envelope and paced toward Emilia, all while paying half of her attention to the unfolding battle.

[Yash]

"Lizzie, smokescreen! Let's piss him off." as Lars gives the order, the charmander lets out a smokescreen, surrounding itself and a large part of the field. It hides in the smoke and waits for the magikarp to come down again.

 

Emilia, before either Pokemon could attack says, "Stop! Both of you. We all need to head inside the office. A client has arrived and I think we all need to go meet him, now. It is very urgent. It's Professor Oak." With that Emilia starts walking back to the office building.

[IntSys]

Serra was somewhat disappointed by the interruption. She, of course, continued with what she was doing and followed Emilia back to the office building. She raised one more question, though. "Miss Emilia, what's in the envelopes?" She asked as she showed the envelope given to her by the Bulbasaur.

[Yours Truly]

(12) Elias's Charmander frantically covers the area around it in black smoke, causing everyone standing on the field to suddenly experience difficulties with being able to open their eyes without experiencing some discomfort, and those of weaker constitution in the assembled group would start to cough a bit after they spend a few moments breathing an unfortunate amount of smoke inside of their lungs. But on the bright side this certainly helped Elias's Charmander avoid the Titan's bounce as the Magikarp (12) went for whatever seemed to be its original target.

And rather unfortunately the only other nearby Pokemon that had an odd looking tail was (Random target roll 9) Zaru, and the Magikarp crashed straight into the poor Aipom and knocked it off of its trainer's shoulders despite its attempt at slapping it away with a surprisingly slow Fake Out (1). The Magikarp then bounced once more off of its target and landed on the hard ground with a visibly roughed up appearance before Daniel swiftly put it back into its Pokeball.

Throughout all of this Emilia maintained her professional demeanor as best as she could by answering Serra's question with a simple "Why don't you just open it" while she returned her Bulbasaur back into her Pokeball and walked back towards the agency.

[DemICE]

Horace was too busy watching Daniel and Elias to notice that the Bulbasaur was handing out envelopes,  so at some point he felt something nudge his legs,  and it was an envelope doing so, gripped gently by the bulb pokemon's mouth.  

"Oh, sorry little one, thanks." He smiled to it as he took the envelope.  

He opened it to examine its contents, only for the Smokescreen to have happened at the perfect timing.

He sighed, and waited for the smoke to dissipate so he could finally read the envelope's contents.

[Anime]

"Oh really now?" said Adara, clearly annoyed by the smoke sreen looks like its up to me to do something "Gastly! please use Clear Smog to get rid of the Smoke Screen." Hearing Adara's command, Barth quickly released his Clear Smog to finally get rid of the annoying smoke. "Thanks sweetie!" She then sighed and started to open her envelope.

 

[DigitalAmber]

Jayden groaned at the beginnings of chaos that was unfolding before him. He had to physically restrain Inva from joining in the fight. He would have had her use her lights to pacify the group slightly, but he doubted that Inva would actually do that. He stared at the letter in his hands before opening it.