Episode 1: A Stranger In Familiar!

[fallers_npcs]

Today on Melemele, there has been a strange and rash sequence of events!

Officer Jenny has been busy, as a series of thefts has been noted across the city. The wealthy industrialist Viren has been targeted several times with valuables relating to the Pokemon Groudon.

As researchers are coming into the town today to help work on the Ultra Hole situation, on invite of the Aether Foundation, it seems that someone might have slipped through into the town. A certain woman in green might have been spotted in several of Viren's locations before a theft has been seen.

Some people might be starting to get uneasy about the influx of people. Perhaps it's time to investigate some of these rumors that a thief might have made their way onto the island...

Comments

[darkenedmoon]

Ever see an Oshawott look pleased with himself? Because that's where Gosetsu is right now.

His Trainer even has a fierce and tight smile on her face as she dashes to meet her Pokemon. "Do not get too cocky now, Gosetsu." She narrowed her eyes at the downed Skarmory, wracking her brain as to what to do next. No, Water Sport was not a good move to put forth in this instance...

"Another Tail Whip if you please, Gosetsu!" Even if Yotsuyu didn't want him to get too close to the immense Pokemon, she knew he could at least help the others' moves hit harder. It seemed a good strategy.

[soft_focus]

Meanwhile, near the fight but certainly not At It, a certain little girl is being rather naughty. Sophy and the other guardians said they had to evacuate. But if so many people were fighting, what if something went wrong? What if there was something they missed?

....Well it turns out they're fine. But amid the sea of battle ready emotions, something stands out just barely. Something...different.

Reira creeps through the bushes and such, slinking toward it...

[hashtagparkerluck]

Things seemed to be going okay at first but then things took a rather unexpected turn.

"Oh God!" The giant Skarmory cuts through the webs and he's suddenly sailing through the air. He's very sorry for any property damage. Just as Peter's sailing through the air, a shot of web catches him but he's got too much momentum and Shelob is just sailing with him. With a sharp cry he smashes into a tree, hard and apparently now upside down. Shelob smashes into him seconds later and he curls his arms around her to prevent any damage as he falls the rest of the way to the ground. Sorry, Parked car.

"Oh god, that sucked." Peter states, setting Shelob down and shaking his head. "Come on dude, that the best you got?" He calls out, firing his webs again, Spinarak.

"Hey Shelob, let's try a poison sting!" He lets himself land on a nearby roof."

[adora_plz]

With the Skarmory thrashing despite being pinned, stunned, jabbed, poison stinged, zapped, and otherwise indisposed, She-Ra came charging in on Fred, whipping the Sword overhead as she landed atop it, the Sword transforming into a rope as she lashed it around the thrashing body.

Tying it down, she pulled it tight, and yanked, trying to keep it from struggling. "I got it, I got it--whoa!"

Being whipped around like, well, Spider-man, was a new sensation.

"I don't got it, I don't got it!" She yelled, She-Ra being a giant glowing ball on a chain.

[hearts_beat]

"Okay... so things aren't too bad here, good." Cure Beat thought over her actions a bit before nodding at her Ghastly.

"Ghastly, use hypnosis... you got that, right?" she said.

"Ghast!" the ghost Pokemon replied before turning its attention to the Pokemon, using its attack on it.

[fallers_npcs]

Hammered from all sides, the unexpected thing happened.

The last move from Ghastly started to make it feel drowsy? Its eyes started drooping and it started thrashing slower and slower... slower and slower... and slowly, surely, it sat down with a heavy thump.

The glow around it subsided and it started to shrink until it became a normal sized Skarmory. And then -- it bubbled and shrank into a blobby Ditto who oozed into a puddle of snoozing liquid.

Jenny frowned as she went over and "cuffed" it. "This is unexpected. Ditto contained."

Elsewhere, a young man suddenly lost his cool as he snapped his pencil, only to realize Reira was standing there. "What are you looking at?" he demanded.

ROUND TWO COMPLETE! RAID BATTLE - COMPLETE!

[bestmomever]

Lusamine's earpiece beeped. "Yes?"

"Understood," she said after a moment, turning to address the others. "Everyone! We've located the Dynamax Culprit! Police have identified the suspect! Be on the lookout for a man named Brodie, Interpol has notified the Aether Foundation and the Alolan Police Department."

Jenny turned to the rest of the Fallers. "Spread out, please, all of you. If you see this man here," and she flashed a picture of Brodie and the current appearance of him as Tracey. "He's disguised currently as Professor Oak's Assistant, Tracey Sketchit who was seen entering the region."

[acmellash]

"Brodie? I remember him," said Ash. "Don't worry, we'll find him." said Ash. "Let's go everyone!"

With that, he took off in a direction, searching for Brodie.

[soft_focus]

Reira just...stares. And stares. And-

"....You don't feel like someone scared," she eventually says. "And... ....you weren't fighting the big one. ....What's on the paper?"

[fallers_npcs]

"What makes you think I'm not excited for this situation?" said "Tracey?" "This is exhilarating to draw Pokemon."

[hashtagparkerluck]

Guess it was that Brodie guy after all, Peter thinks to himself before glancing around the area. "Okay Karen, you know what to do." He tells the AI.

"Brodie has been located." Karen zeros in on the disguised thief. "He appears to have taken a hostage."

"WHAT!?" Peter cries out, outraged. He fires his web again and flips over to Brodie's location, landing in his usual Spider-like crouch.

"Hey buddy, picking on a little kids now? That's just no bueno. I'm gonna have to ask you to let the little girl go."

[soft_focus]

Before Peter is quite there, Reira has a speedy little quip back for 'Tracey'.

"Because you're not. That's not what you're feeling at all."

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

"I...wait, what's going ooooonn...?" okay bye officer jenny thanks for the info NO REALLY, WHAT'S GOING ON.

Sena blinks confusedly at the "cuffed" Ditto, slowly going over everything in his head.

"I guess...that Brodie guy is supposed to be behind that whole attack for some reason...?" He's startled by the agreeing yip of his two Pokemon who come back, clearly proud of themselves for the effort they put in. "You did great, you two...thanks. Return for now, okay?"

He puts their Pokeballs away after they assent, and takes out three other Pokeballs. "Nin, Shell, Yan, you're up!"

A trio of bugs pop out of the balls - Ninjask, Shedinja, and an oddly colored Yanmega. Two of them immediately start flitting around energetically, while the Shedinja instead just opts to float silently, an unnerving contrast to the other two.

"You guys, we've got someone out there causing trouble for everyone...see that picture? Look for someone nearby who looks like that." The bugs nod, before they all spread out in different directions. Funnily enough, despite the other two's obvious speed advantage, it's Shell that comes back first, probably because it searched more methodically rather than the rapidfire random searching the other two more impulsive bugs are doing.

"Lead the way, Shell!" It doesn't take long for Sena and Shell to follow up behind Spider-Man and Reira, goggling at the sight.

"Wh...what, hey!" okay now what did he just walk into

[darkenedmoon]

"Very well." Yotsuyu nodded to Lusamine. Gosetsu raced up to her heels, and she crouched to let the Oshawott know just what they were looking for.

Unsurprisingly, he took off like a shot and left his trainer to run after him, hiking up her skirts. Perhaps she ought to consider getting herself a sensible pair of trousers, after this...

Perhaps sensing something amiss, while Gosetsu does swiftly find his quarry--and leads Yotsuyu right to him--they both stop at the sight of what appears to be Brodie menacing a young girl.

Yotsuyu narrows her eyes and tilts her head at the man, but makes no sudden movements and says nothing. She might seem useless, but it's her mind that's going a malm a minute, trying to calculate some way to turn this situation to an advantage.

[hearts_beat]

“Got it...!” Cure Beat said, nodding. With that, she used her form’s incredible power to catch up to the others, leaping and bounding herself over to where Reira and “Tracey” was, putting herself between the two.

[fallers_npcs]

This was going down the tubes real fast.

Real, real fast. And it seemed like everything was going to go real south real quick. "Excuse, but I wasn't... you know what? This whole situation is going down the tubes already." Replied "Tracey" as he tossed his sketchbook at the crowd that was growing and released a Golbat from its PokeBall.

"Let's see how you deal with things when everything goes topsy turvy! Golbat use Psychic!"

The Psychic attack targets the Pokemon of Spider-man, Sena, Cure Beat and Yotsuyu.

[swiftasacoursingkawa]

"That won't work against Shell!"

Gotta love that Wonder Guard, man. The Psychic attack just phases over it.

"Hurry and use Shadow Claw-!"

Shell hisses and darts over to the Golbat, trying to nail it in one go.

[soft_focus]

If Reira were the type, she'd blow a raspberry at this man right now from around Cure Beat. Instead however as she looks around she frowns. Reira doesn't have a pokemon. Reira has an egg. Everyone else has a pokemon, and they're doing things, but that's not doing her much good either. So Reira thinks to herself, 'What would Niisama do?'

...Well, frankly her brother would probably either talk his way out, bluff his way out, or just not be here.

...

What would Kurosaki-niisan do?

There are no more words. Or thoughts, actually. Reira just scoots around Cure Beat as fast as her teeny tiny legs can take her and balls her equally teeny tiny hands into fists.

And slams one squarely at the man across from her, entirely unaware that she's hit possibly the most vital spot in her reach.

"Hmph!"

Take That, Mister Liar.

[hashtagparkerluck]

Peter watches as the Pokemon battle for about two seconds before he just sort of rolls his eyes. They've got some cool moves but they seem to be missing the big picture here.

"Alright, that's about enough of this-you have the right to-Oh man!" He winces in sympathy because ow, that had to hurt. Yikes.

"Uh... that's rough buddy." He fires his webs but his slight distraction seems to have messed with his aim, luckily though it seems like it's gonna turn out okay as Brodie falls right into the webs.

"Well.... sure."

[darkenedmoon]

Yotsuyu was, briefly, more worried about the strike that had caught Gosetsu, but truly, could anyone miss that punch?

A grown man, being taken out by a small child. He ought to be ashamed of himself.

She just gathered her Oshawott up, tucking him in his proper spot in the crook of her arm, and looked rather amused. This had all worked out to her satisfaction, so why should she not be smug?

RAID BATTLE COMPLETE!

[fallers_npcs]

Brodie sunk to his knees, covered in webs as he collapsed. "Taken.. out... by the stupidest things..." he groaned, before collapsing in pain.

Quickly, the authorities arrived as Jenny pulled up, Ash behind her as Jenny frowned. "Captured, one Brodie. Good job everyone. Thank you for your timely assistance."

As the police officers carted him away in handcuffs, she smiled to everyone. "Thank you everyone for your assistance. Without your help, we could have suffered a lot more damage. It would have been more than a disaster. Alola owes everyone here a debt of gratitude."

"Indeed," said Lusamine. "You all did well. To this end, the Aether Foundation will be providing you all with more resources in the future, and more updates on our progress. Be noted there will be gifts for you come the morning."

Jenny smiled. "Everyone, off to bed with you. I think tonight's been an eventful day."

Lusamine nodded. "When tomorrow comes, I hope to ask each and every one of you, to come join our response team. The Ultra Guardians, in times of need. Till then, rest well."