The Maltese Talonflame Chapter 1: The Cerise Letter

[IntSys]

"... Right." Serra muttered at Emilia's disappointing answer as she hastily followed her in an attempt to escape the spiraling chaos occurring behind her. The smokescreen was quite bothersome, so she decided to open the envelope after she got inside.

[Yash]

Daniel finds the smokescreen a little irritating, and as he hears Emilia say they have a client, he sighs. It would have been fun to have a battle with Titan. I guess it will have to wait. He then raises his wrist to his face and says, "Send in a pidgeot to the field and clear this smokescreen." He raises his pokeball and calls Titan back, "Come back Titan. We have business to attend to." As a flash of light takes the magikarp to it's ball, a gust of wind clears the smokescreen. Daniel sees the charmander standing in the middle, while the nearby Aipom has been knocked out. Damnit. He hurries towards the fainted pokemon, and takes out a few berries, feeding it to the Aipom. "sorry about that little one. Titan rarely battles, so it gets excited easily." He turns to the group and says, "You heard Emilia, we have a client. We can't keep them waiting. Let's go." He ushers everybody towards the building.

 

Upon entering the building he notices Katie standing by the door. "The professor is waiting in conference room A. Shall I send in some snacks and coffee?" Daniel nods towards her, as he hurries towards the conference room. "Emilia, get the others inside as well. I guess we can push them into the field right now." He rushes inside the conference room as the rest of the group enters the lobby.

 

Emilia turns to the new entrants as her boss rushes past her. "Well, all of you can take a look at your letters and then enter the conference room. If you're lucky, you may be put on this case." She then walks inside the conference room.

 

Contents of the envelope

1. Letter of acceptance

2. Note

This is your official letter of acceptance. Please sign at the bottom and give one copy to Katie, who will deal the remaining formalities for you.

A few things you should note:

~Your mandatory physical examination will occur two weeks from now.

~You must report for weapons training once a month if you are proficient with it or else twice a week if you aren't certified by the instructor.

~Your pokemon must be inside its pokeball inside the library, conference rooms, bullpen, computer centre and records room. It can be left free in the designated habitat room for it, if it fits in place.

~If you are not on a case, you are expected to report to the office daily for training and testing purposes.

[rustytengo]

Jeanne was rather annoyed at the smoke screen and used the envelope as a makeshift fan as she walked out of it. She followed after her new boss well opening it. It wasn't stuff she was to surprised about though it was annoying they where actually going to make her take a physical exam and have to shoot a gun that much gunpowder smelled anyway.  

[Newt]

Kayn who was inside the smokescreen, felt an impact on his shoulder, and felt Zaru falling to the ground.

"Zaru?! Zaru, are you okay?"

Kayn tried to find Zaru, but couldn't because of the smokescreen. After some seconds, the boss sent a Pidgeot to blow the smoke away, and Kayn finds Zaru fainted in the ground. The boss then run towards the fainted pokemon, feeding it some berries.

"Oh, thanks! I think he only needs some rest now."

I guess he isn't a bad person after all. 

Kayn then returns Zaru to the pokeball, and reads the letter while following Emilia to the conference room.

Well, nothing out of the ordinary. Now I just a pen to sign it.

 

[DigitalAmber]

Jayden coughed as the smog and smoke was blown in his direction. He read over the letter and got somewhat annoyed by the physical exam bit. He was by no means overweight, but that didn’t mean he was physically strong. He used to run track, but he lacked the stamina to do too much running. He wasn’t completely wimpy, just more so then the average joe. Jayden grabbed Inva and let her wrap her wrap her tentacles around his shoulders, allowing her to hang upside down on his back. Jayden walked inside. 

[IntSys]

Serra was actually not all that bothered by the whole training regimen and checkups deal. Truth to be told, she had never held a gun, or needed to use one, for that matter. It'd be a neat experience, she thought. She took out a ballpoint pen from her pockets and scribbled her particularly ugly signature on the bottom of the letter.

She stared at Jayden as he continued keeping his Inkay out of the ball, judging silently. She shrugged it off at the end and followed him into the conference room.

[krim]

Arlen let out an annoyed cough when smoke began to crowd the area. Not taking the boss's bait still seemed like the best decision, so he turned and followed Emilia while ripping open his letter. Standard procedure...and here I thought it would be interesting. he then put it in his pocket to make copies of later. Professor Oak though...sounds like a high profile job. Maybe it won't be too boring after all.

[Anime]

Adara, forgetting that Clear Smog carried a bit of poison, had to endure it until the Boss's Pidgeot cleared it away "Come back Barth. We have business to attend to." She said as a flash of light took the Gastly to it's ball. She then took out a soothing bell from her pocket, and handed it to Horace. "Hey, this is a gift for you." She then opened her envelope and read her acceptence letter, she pulled out the pen that she always carries with her, and scribbled her signature on the bottom of the letter. Then she followed Emilia and the others to the conference room.

[DemICE]

Horace found the envelope's contents quite alright.   Free exercise and training, while he had to pay for those before!  He saw some people around him obviously disappointed with what they read.   It seems not everyone wanted to take this job to help put criminals behind bars. 

 

As he was about to move on towards the conference room, the obviously reckless girl that almost poisoned herself with her own pokemon decided to give him a Soothe Bell as a gift for some reason he could not fathom.  He was never one to turn down gifts, but he had to ask,  "..Thanks, but ...uhm.. what good did I do to you to deserve being given a gift?"

[Anime]

"I know we only met recently, but i feel that we're going to be good friends. So consier it a frienship gift."

[DemICE]

"...I don't know how can you reach that conclusion with someone you just met. Don't get me wrong, friendship is a good thing. But you seem to take it too lightly. I will hold on to your gift, because I like the gesture. Most probably we will get along. I don't see a reason why not to, after all."  He smiled faintly and proceeded to enter the conference room.

Weird romantic girl. She seems genuine though. Not my type though.

[Aurorix]

Physical examination, sounds like a big pain. It's not that he wasn't fit, if anything Aster was more physically inclined than most people. Just the sound of an examination just oozed of wasted time and energy. Oh well, what could he do about. Might as well suck it up. Also, he should remember to get a pen to sign that paper. Either way, it'd be best just to head into the conference room and that Aster did.  "Let's find out what our dear professor needs assistance with shall we?"

[krim]

Arlen made his way to the conference room, but stopped to grab a pen on his way. He scrawled his name quickly but decided to keep it, since he felt like there would definitely be more paperwork coming soon.

[Yash]

Lars is the last to enter the room, right behind Arlen. As he enters, he sees a long rectangular room, with a large oval shaped table with glazed glass on top kept in the center of the room. The table is surrounded by swivel chairs, with arm rests and a high back rest. The conference room is pretty much similar to every other conference room one would expect to see in a corporate office. On the table, is a speaker phone, some notepads and pens. At one end is a large television screen, and directly opposite hangs a white screen, for presentations. At the head of the table near the television screen, Daniel is seated with two other men, while everybody else is finding a chair around the table. In total there seem to be 14 chairs.  Daniel and Professor Oak are exchanging pleasantries. "How are things going at the lab professor? I heard a rumor you might start giving new trainers an option to choose starter pokemon of all the different regions. Is that truly the case?" Oak laughs and says, "Well, if you want to start again, I'll be happy to show you everything I have. Though after Titan, I'm sure you won't enjoy any other starter, will you?"

 

As Lars finds an empty chair near the door to the room, Katie opens the door, and a man rolls in with a few pots of coffee, bagels and an assortment of spreads on a cart. "Hello everybody, I'm Joseph, but you can call me Joe. I'll bring the cart around and you can all take what you want." He then goes around the room once while everybody picks what they want from the cart.

[DigitalAmber]

Jayden remembered to return Inva to the pokdball, he didn’t want to make a bad first impression after all. Jayden grabbed a coffee and two bagels and sat down at the table. 

[IntSys]

Serra noticed Katie opening the door, and passed the letter to her. She then saw Professor Oak. Not exactly someone she'd see a lot, as after all, his shows only aired in Kanto and Johto. Though, she had heard a few things about the man himself.

She nodded at the professor before taking a bagel, a cup of coffee, and some butter. She then sat down, taking a sip of the coffee. Not bad. She gave it another sip before putting it down.

[DemICE]

Horace entered the room,  and felt awkward, meeting the biggest shot in pokemon research in the world  up close for the first time,  as he was taking his seat. 

"Hey,nice to meet you Joe, I'm Horace." he said as the cart stopped by him, and he took his share of coffee and bagels and three different spreads.  "Thank you very much."

 

Magnum  shifted a bit in his inner pocket.  Horace got the message, and took some praline spread with his knife and dicreetly slid it down his inner pocket careful to not stain his clothes, he let Magnum do his thing while he sipped his coffee and gazed around at the others as if nothing was happening. When he figured the wannabe gun was done, he put the shining clean knife back up and started putting the three sprads in different parts of the bagel.  Rythmic bulging movements at his side told him Magnum had gone back to sleep, content.

[Anime]

Adara passed the letter to Katie and then proceeded to find an empty chair near the large television screen. I'll probably need those thought Adara as she picked up a notepad and a pen. "Greetings Joe." she said as the cart stopped near her. She took a bagel and a cup of coffee. She nodded at Daniel and the professor. She had watched his show when she was young. She did not particularly like it, but she did not hate it either. She wasn't really surprised that professor Oak, the famous pokemon professor, would show up in this Agency. The guy was well known by a lot of people. She took a sip of her coffee as she gazed across the room.

[krim]

"None for me, but thanks Joe."  Arlen said after taking his seat. He grabbed a pad of paper and took out his newfound pen after seeing Adara do the same. He doesn't seem too upset. Wonder what's going on. he thought about Oak.

[Yash]

Finally when Joe reached professor Oak and Daniel, they both take a coffee and then Joe leaves. Sipping the coffee, Daniel smiles at Oak's offer to start again. Daniel lets out a slight chuckle before he says "I'm afraid that I wouldn't be able to start over even if I wanted to; I just don't have the time these days, and I don't really feel the need for it. So professor, now that our new batch has managed to settle down, and we all have our coffee, why not tell us how we can help you?"

 

Oak puts down his cup, and lets out a rather heavy breath. He turns to put his hand on the shoulder of his companion. "Let me introduce you to Steve. Steve here, was delivering something of importance to me from a close friend of mine, but was attacked on his way and had the item stolen. Steve, why don't you tell the good detectives what happened?" He allows Steve to narrate the incident. As everybody looks at Steve, they notice that the man, who really seems to be a teenager, is visibly shaken, as he seems to have been ambushed and so far has said nothing, not even raise his head except to take a coffee, which he has been staring at. He looks up at the crowd, and they notice a strange fear in his eyes. "Um, um, I was, I, I was on my from Azalea town to Goldenrod city and was walking through the forest." He shudders a little at the thought of the forest. "As I was walking through, somewhere near the end of the forest, I was,.... mugged. Waaahhh, I was so scared." He closes his eyes, recalling what seems to be a frightening incident. "These people with black clothes came out of nowhere, they surrounded me with their pokemon and threatened me. I had to hand over the briefcase that was the item to be delivered. I was so scared.. I didn't want to die, so I gave it to them." As he says this, he starts crying a little, whimpering at the harrowing experience. "The two of them then ran away with it. I ran straight to professor Oak and we came here." As the incident is narrated Steve puts his hands in his eyes and starts crying. Professor Oak turns to the rest, and everybody can see that the professor has been keeping him calm, and seems a little annoyed.

 

Daniel asks Steve, "Did they harm you Steve?" At which point the crying man shakes his head. "So, you are ok, right? Come now, don't cry. Is there anything else you can tell us about them? What did they look like? What pokemon did they have?" Steve shakes his head, and a muffled reply is heard. "I don't remember. I was too scared." Daniel shares Oaks look of annoyance. "It's fine Steve, I'll have Katie escort you out and take you to the cafeteria." He pushes a button on the speakerphone on the desk and Katie soon enters through the door. "Yes, Daniel?" "Katie, please take Steve to the cafeteria and ensure he stops crying. Try getting him some food." As he says that, Katie leads Steve away. "So Professor, what can you tell us about this incident? The boy definitely didn't do anything to protect the item, nor did he seem to have a reason to be this scared, if it was just two people against him."

 

Oak nods and says, "Well, I tried to tell him it was alright, but the boy seems to have been severely affected by it. I knew going to the police would be an issue and he would probably be more frightened. Plus the object that was stolen is too vital to just send the police after it, so I'd like you to retrieve it. The object was in a small briefcase and not very heavy. I'd prefer you not open the briefcase, should you get it. Daniel, I'm counting on a swift and ensured retrieval of the item. Do you have any questions for me?"

[DemICE]

Horace who was listening intently to the conversation asked,

"Wait, so, I take it, we joined like an hour ago and we will already be deployed into this case? Otherwise there would not be any point in us being here, right?"

[rustytengo]

Jeanne listened to what Oak and Steve said she cleared her voice and smiled at Oak "Well i doubt you are going to tell us what was in the brief case so will skip that question. Did anyone other then you and possibly Steve know what was in the Brief case and would they have known where Steve was taking it t?" she asked 

[IntSys]

"I see," Serra said. NO I DON'T SEE ANYTHING, YOU'RE GIVING ME SO LITTLE LEADS THAT IT MAY HAVE AS WELL AS BEEN A WANTED POSTER FOR A LOST LILLIPUP.

 

Annoyance aside, she noticed Jeanne's attempt at disregarding the clients themselves as well as their intelligence. Probably not the best message, she thought, so she decided to amend that.

"Professor, can you tell us what the thugs will most likely do with the contents of the briefcase?"

[Anime]

Whatever item was in the briefcase, seems very important and seeing that the professor was not willing to share his knowledge of what was that item, it seems its up to us to lacate and find it. Tought Adara after hearing what Steve and Professor Oak had to say. "Ah, yes Professor. Please do answear Serra's question" Damn she was too fast and asked before i did, good girl.

[krim]

"In addition to that, did Steve give you any more information on the thugs? "Men in black" seems quite vague...and perhaps their pokemon would help in identifying them? He did say that's how they threatened him." Arlen said to Oak.