The Maltese Talonflame Chapter 1: The Cerise Letter

[Newt]

Hmm... So he was with another guy? Weird.

Kayn, who was quiet until now, approaches Aster.

"It doesn't seem that the guard knows anything else about it. Unless you want to buy some supplies with the vendor, I suggest we enter the forest."

 

[Yours Truly]

21 hours ago, rustytengo said:

Jeanne looked over the data she was given on Lukas, She didn't see anything in it that would make him a likely suspect. "So Steve just to make sure this is the man that named Lukas that you meet with right?" She asked well holding up a picture of Lukas she was found in the data. After giving him a bit she continues. "I have an idea that might help you remember more. Its not guaranteed to work, but would you be okay going along with it?" She asked giving him a cute smile.

(Jeanne's roll: OVERSHOT)

Steve rather nodded along to everything the attractive woman with the cute smile had said with a slightly wooden expression on his face as he stopped thinking with the head on his shoulders. This caused him to experience a more than slightly uncharacteristic surge of bravery that caused him to exclaim, "YES! TO EVERYTHING! As long as it will help!," as he practically leapt out of his seat....and bumped into Jeanne a bit as he came back down on the ground.

 

21 hours ago, IntSys said:

"... No Pokeballs better than these, you say?"

Then why didn't they mug you instead?

 

"How do I know that you're telling the truth?" Serra pressed on, her eyes slowly revealing a hint of skepticism. Of course, she just confirmed that the balls didn't fit the description, but would it hurt to test the limits of the vendor?

(8)

The vendor seemed to be telling the truth, or at least as close to the truth as he was aware of when he said, "I swear that there are no other Pokeballs in existence that are as masterfully made as these....unless there is some project going on somewhere that I have never heard of, or if the old man trained others."

[IntSys]

"... I see. How confident are you in the balls' abilities? Say, if I were up against something like a Basculin, what are my odds?" Serra decided to gauge the vendor's Pokeballs' power against one of the hardest-to-catch Pokemon in Unova. 

 

Despite how tasty they can be, they are notoriously hard to catch, sometimes compared to the Mantine in Johto in difficulty.

 

(Catch Rate: 25)

[Aurorix]

He was with another person, things just keep getting fishier by the second. Aster ponders to himself before looking towards Kayn, "Agreed," The boy says nodding, before taking out the dusk ball attached to his belt and throwing it out. Out popped Frostbite with veils of shadow along with him,  "Everyone keep an eye out for any suspicious areas, as well as have your pokemon out. Not only for wild pokemon but for other unwanted guests who may be lurking in the area." With that little shtick out of the way he walks into the Forrest beckoning the group to follow him. However both him and Frost made sure to keep an eye out for any evidence along the path.

[rustytengo]

Jeanne giggled at Steve's reaction well rubbing where he bumped her."Okay glad your willing so just sit there." She said as she pulled out a luxury ball, and released the Pokemon that was inside onto the table. Once the flash of red faded on the table was a ugly looking fish Pokemon know as  Feebas. "This is Satin she will be helping with this. So Steve i want you to stare into her eyes. What i'm going to try and do is put you under a light hypnosis to see that if your subconscious mind can remember more then you." Jeanne tells Steve. Has he looks into Satin's eyes she whispers to Satin "Hypnotize him for will you darling."  Hoping that her plan will work.

[DemICE]

"I believe you could possibly be of help to us, miss.  And yes, you heard right, because we are investigating such a case. An item was stolen, and we have good suspicions that the culprit would try to make business of it down here. I'm of the opinion that one can't work around here for hours without noticing things, so could you have possibly seen someone in black holding either a briefcase, or a small silver case?"

[Yours Truly]

On 3/18/2018 at 5:12 PM, IntSys said:

"... I see. How confident are you in the balls' abilities? Say, if I were up against something like a Basculin, what are my odds?" Serra decided to gauge the vendor's Pokeballs' power against one of the hardest-to-catch Pokemon in Unova. 

 

Despite how tasty they can be, they are notoriously hard to catch, sometimes compared to the Mantine in Johto in difficulty.

 

(Catch Rate: 25)

The vendor seemed more than a little embarrassed to say that, "Well rather unfortunately my Secretballs can't help you there, since they only quintuple the catch rate of Pokemon that still have an evolution...."

 

On 3/19/2018 at 12:28 PM, rustytengo said:

Jeanne giggled at Steve's reaction well rubbing where he bumped her."Okay glad your willing so just sit there." She said as she pulled out a luxury ball, and released the Pokemon that was inside onto the table. Once the flash of red faded on the table was a ugly looking fish Pokemon know as  Feebas. "This is Satin she will be helping with this. So Steve i want you to stare into her eyes. What i'm going to try and do is put you under a light hypnosis to see that if your subconscious mind can remember more then you." Jeanne tells Steve. Has he looks into Satin's eyes she whispers to Satin "Hypnotize him for will you darling."  Hoping that her plan will work.

Steve felt extremely embarrassed when he found himself quickly mumbling out an apology as he awkwardly sat back on his seat. And his mind was too busy panicking about his current predicament to pay attention to whatever it is that Jeanne had said...although he at least had the presence of mind to nod along to it.
He stared blankly at the Feebas's eyes after a part of him realized that she wanted him to look at its eyes for some reason, and he stared and he stared until he just found himself drifting off t-.

 

[Anime]

Adara was about to talk, but Jeanne sent out her Feebas. She probably has a plan, i'll just watch for now then. She thought to herself, hoping Jeanne's plan would work.

After a few minutes, Steve was staring at the Feebas's eyes blankly, as if his mind was not his own.

[Yash]

On 3/19/2018 at 10:05 AM, EXLink32 said:

He was with another person, things just keep getting fishier by the second. Aster ponders to himself before looking towards Kayn, "Agreed," The boy says nodding, before taking out the dusk ball attached to his belt and throwing it out. Out popped Frostbite with veils of shadow along with him,  "Everyone keep an eye out for any suspicious areas, as well as have your pokemon out. Not only for wild pokemon but for other unwanted guests who may be lurking in the area." With that little shtick out of the way he walks into the Forrest beckoning the group to follow him. However both him and Frost made sure to keep an eye out for any evidence along the path.

As Aster walks into the forest with Frostbite casing along in the shadows. They walk a good 15 minutes into it and as they walk around a turn in the forest, from a distance, they see a person running towards them at full speed. Behind him, they can see a Venonat chasing them. As the boy notices the group ahead of him, he holds out his hand and slows down. Stopping in front of them, he puts his hands on his knees for support as he bends down and wheezes a little, before straightening up, smiling at them and saying, "Hi there. I'm Shaun. How are you doing today?"

 

On 3/19/2018 at 3:42 PM, DemICE said:

"I believe you could possibly be of help to us, miss.  And yes, you heard right, because we are investigating such a case. An item was stolen, and we have good suspicions that the culprit would try to make business of it down here. I'm of the opinion that one can't work around here for hours without noticing things, so could you have possibly seen someone in black holding either a briefcase, or a small silver case?"

The girl looks at the slightly older man and then thinks for a second. "I mean, I've seen a bunch of people come and go through the alley. I did see a guy in a black suit with a briefcase, but I don't think he was the one you were looking for since he is a regular client of Jasmine and a rather big businessman in the city. As for a silver case, I don't recall seeing anyone with a silver case either." She looks down at her watch, and again at her friends, now having caught two men between them and says, "Can I go now?"
 

Elias, thinks it over for a second and asks, "Ok, how about somebody wearing black or dark clothes, with a bag, not necessarily a briefcase. Somebody of the criminal persuasion?" He hands her a bill for 100 pokedollars, and says, "Whatever you can think off would be helpful. I guess you can go afterwards, right H?", as he turns to his colleague.

[DemICE]

Horace  pretended to ignore the tip and just answered with "Yes, miss, we just need a bit of a lead.  We can pretty much work with anything that would point us in the possibly right direction."

[IntSys]

"... Hm, is that so. That's not quite what I'm looking for, then. I'm looking for something more... general-purpose," Serra said, with a faked, yet somewhat convincing frown, "but hey, I should give you something in exchange for all that. Say, do you have a competitor or two around here?"

[Aurorix]

"Uhhhh... hi." Aster says with a hint of distaste. The boy was strange and a bit too enthusiastic for his taste. The kid was probably just another trainer trying to get all the gym badges he's probably not too much of a threat. Even still he kept vigilant, there was a robbery here not too long ago after all.  "Judging by the way you came from you must be heading towards Goldenrod, right?" He asked putting his hands in his pockets.

[rustytengo]

After it looked like Steve was under Satin's hypnosis she started to speak. "Okay, Steve listen to the sound of my voice. I want you to go back to when you were attacked and tell me everything that you can see just remember, I am here so you don't need to be scared." She said hoping that Steve will be able to remember more underneath the hypnosis from within his subconscious.  

[Yours Truly]

On 3/21/2018 at 9:20 PM, IntSys said:

"... Hm, is that so. That's not quite what I'm looking for, then. I'm looking for something more... general-purpose," Serra said, with a faked, yet somewhat convincing frown, "but hey, I should give you something in exchange for all that. Say, do you have a competitor or two around here?"

The vendor seemed to give Serra a slightly disbelieving stare when he said, "Well I can assure you that I have no competitors here who can offer you a finer product, and that I shouldn't have to tell you about how anyone who says that they can sell you a general purpose ball that can catch practically anything with no effort required is a scammer."

 

On 3/22/2018 at 9:00 AM, EXLink32 said:

"Uhhhh... hi." Aster says with a hint of distaste. The boy was strange and a bit too enthusiastic for his taste. The kid was probably just another trainer trying to get all the gym badges he's probably not too much of a threat. Even still he kept vigilant, there was a robbery here not too long ago after all.  "Judging by the way you came from you must be heading towards Goldenrod, right?" He asked putting his hands in his pockets.

'Shaun' quickly started to nod at Aster before he said, "Yes I was just takin-" he quickly turns around and catches his Venonat with a slight 'oof' when it practically leapt on his chest and knocked his breath out of him. He then starts to pet his Venonat and before he turns around to say, "g Venny here to the Pokecenter." The Venonat let out a few appreciative cries after it heard its name being spoken, and it nuzzled up to the boy's hand. "So what are you doing here anyway mister?."

[IntSys]

"Nah, you got me wrong. I thought about getting some info from your competitors for you, but I guess you're really the top dog here. Truth is, I'm cracking a case on chasing down a special Pokeball, stolen by some thugs. It's just a hitch, but, you never know if people around here would stoop as low as to stealing intellectual properties to get an edge over you," Serra said with a serious tone.

"If this case goes anywhere, it'll be beneficial for you, so, which one of your competitors would you suspect?"

[Aurorix]

"I guess you could say I like taking walks in the forest," Aster lied, not keen on giving the kid the real reason he was here. While he may just be another youngster, during his time before becoming a dog of the law he learned to not be as easily trusting.  "Anyways, you're about fifteen minutes from the exit of this forest." The boy took his right hand from his pocket to gesture his thumb behind him. He was about to continue walking forwards before he considered asking the kid some questions,  "Actually, since you just walked through here, got any suggestions of neat places to go? Anything that stood out on your way over here?"

[Yours Truly]

On 3/23/2018 at 10:03 PM, IntSys said:

"Nah, you got me wrong. I thought about getting some info from your competitors for you, but I guess you're really the top dog here. Truth is, I'm cracking a case on chasing down a special Pokeball, stolen by some thugs. It's just a hitch, but, you never know if people around here would stoop as low as to stealing intellectual properties to get an edge over you," Serra said with a serious tone.

"If this case goes anywhere, it'll be beneficial for you, so, which one of your competitors would you suspect?"

"Well, they can try getting an edge over me, but nobody can really manage anything like that. As for my competitors, it's that big ass department store that sells those pokeballs. Though I guess I don't really need to bother since all my products are better than theirs, if a little more expensive."

 

On 3/24/2018 at 4:50 AM, EXLink32 said:

"I guess you could say I like taking walks in the forest," Aster lied, not keen on giving the kid the real reason he was here. While he may just be another youngster, during his time before becoming a dog of the law he learned to not be as easily trusting.  "Anyways, you're about fifteen minutes from the exit of this forest." The boy took his right hand from his pocket to gesture his thumb behind him. He was about to continue walking forwards before he considered asking the kid some questions,  "Actually, since you just walked through here, got any suggestions of neat places to go? Anything that stood out on your way over here?"

Youngster Not Joey had thanked the weird older guy the moment after they gestured towards the exit, and he quickly replied to the man's question with, "I know the way around here. I live in a small village just outside the forest. If you want to find an interesting spot the shrine is probably a little weird, you can try that out. And I think you can find small caves and hills just outside the forest towards the east, maybe try there."

 

On 3/22/2018 at 3:06 PM, rustytengo said:

After it looked like Steve was under Satin's hypnosis she started to speak. "Okay, Steve listen to the sound of my voice. I want you to go back to when you were attacked and tell me everything that you can see just remember, I am here so you don't need to be scared." She said hoping that Steve will be able to remember more underneath the hypnosis from within his subconscious.  

At first it seemed as if Steve really didn't have anything else to say as he simply started to repeat pretty much everything he had already told you about. Although he did manage to say a couple of additional details that he hadn't mentioned or remembered earlier, such as how his attackers were eerily silent when they commanded their pokemon to attack him, or how two of the attackers looked similar to each other and how one of them was definitely female. In all honesty his entire speech mostly led to a couple of dead ends until he mentioned how there was some sort of...dark red symbol or letter on the torso of his attacker's outfits. Although he was still finding it a bit hard to remember what shape that letter or symbol was.

On 3/21/2018 at 4:37 PM, DemICE said:

Horace  pretended to ignore the tip and just answered with "Yes, miss, we just need a bit of a lead.  We can pretty much work with anything that would point us in the possibly right direction."

The woman stared at Horace for a second, thought real hard and then said, "I can only suggest you try searching outside the city, since most gangs don't function inside it, being afraid of the cops and the detectives. Now I'm leaving. Goodbye." She turns to Horace and then winks and says, "If you know how to show a lady a better time than the boy there, why don't you come visit me when you have gotten off."

[Anime]

Hm, let me see what we got so far: A Silph Co Executive, but from the information that Emilia gave us he doesn't seem suspicious. Then we have the attackers not speaking a syllable when their pokemon attacked Steve, perhaps they were trained to attack as soon as they were sent out of their pokeballs? or perhaps they used some kind of device that transfered their thoughts to their pokemon?. Anyway, next tw of the attackers looked similar to each other, one of them being a famale. Hm and this strange dark red symbol on the attackers shirts.. it seems familiar, i'm certain i have seen it before. Though Adara to herself. "Mrs. Emilia, would you mind looking in the database and finding what known criminal groups have a dark red letter or symbol on their uniforms or shirts?" She said, as she waited for Emilia's reply

[Newt]

"Ok, that kid was actually useful."

Kayn looks at Aster and Jayden. "Should we split up? I could take a look at the weird shrine he mentioned. You two could go to the caves or to the village."

[Aurorix]

"No, splitting up further would be a foolish idea. From my experience you always want someone watching your back and if those thugs are still lurking in the forest they'll just pick us off one by one. I say we search this shrine together. Three versus five is a lot better than one versus six." Aster spoke turning head towards Kyan, arms crossed.

[DemICE]

Horace was skeptical at her answer. Out of the city... well we do have some of us investigating ilex forest, so theres that.   On second thought, this meant that the lady had not helped at all! If anything, sending them off the city would mean she could get rid of, and be far away from them.  His internal thoughts were interrupted by her adding the part about meeting her while off-duty.  "Oh... sure!"  he replied, straining a smile.   If anything, maybe she would be easier to leak any information during a casual meeting. 

[Yash]

Elias looking a little hurt at the last comment turns to Horace and says, "Let's just go find Serra. That woman was useless. I don't think we need to go outside the city anyway, since one team is already going and checking it out. I doubt she knows much of anything we want here." He starts walking towards the main alleyway.

 

 

~Adara, Jeanna and Emilia~

Emilia thought for a second, recognising the expression of familiarity on Adara's face. "Well, I know of a criminal group that has been rather known for such efforts, but it has been ages since they were active. I'll run a check if any new or smaller groups have popped up, or if there has been any recent activity from that old group." She pulls out her xtransceiver and starts searching on it. After a few seconds, she frowns and sighs. "That's odd. There seems to be no other criminal organisation that has a red logo or letter on their uniforms other than my initial suspicion. It seems like only Team Rocket had such a uniform and logo. But they have been defunct for a few years now. This is really odd. If you both want to continue questioning him do so. Once you are done, come meet me in the conference room again." Emilia walks away from them and makes her way to the lift, going back to the conference rooms.

[IntSys]

"... I see. Anyway, I don't think you've told me the price for the balls yet. How much for one?" Serra asked once more. She figured she'd get a decent excuse to be done with the surprisingly earnest vendor by reacting to the price.

[DemICE]

Horace pats Elias on the shoulder "Don't give it much thought, women like to be mean like that. It makes them feel strong. Speaking of which, yeah, let's go find Serra, i think i saw her interacting with a ball vendor... follow me" Horace leads the way.

[rustytengo]

Jeanne smiled "Thank you Satin time to got back to bed you did great." She told her Feebas while feeding it a blue pokeblock before she returned it to its ball. She then tapped Steve on his shoulder to wake him up from the hypnosis "Thank you, Steve, we got some useful information. I have no further questions for you so you should be free to go I would guess.Unless my colleagues needed anything else. Though I wouldn't leave the building until everything is said and done. You never know when we might need your help again." She said to Steve while giving him a smile and a wink before she left to head to the conference rooms.