Lucas walks over and takes his place on the battlefield when Priam runs back inside. Board he takes out his phone and opens instagram. He swipes through the countless rock photos that were in his feed. Just as Priam arrives he slips his phone away.

"No not really. Haven't really looked into apartments around here. But I can help you after the battle."

Lucas releases an archen from the pokeball he picked up earlier. It's barely taller than the shroomish at the opposite end of the field.

"So do you want to fight on the count of three for this? Or just sorta take turns?"
[break]

priam conrad

As the aerodactyl flew to its likely defeat Lucas has to give it to the gym leader. They didn't go down without a fight.

"Turn around, now stop! Steady, steady!" Lucas calls out to the vikavolt as aerodactyl approaches at top speed. He watches the prehistoric pokemon intently as he attempts to time his counterattack correctly. The aerodactyl is on the edge of death's door and Lucas is intent on finishing it.

"Thunderbolt now!" Lucas roars out the command. Vikavolt releases the thunderbolt right before the aerodactyl collides with its massive hitbox. The collision sends vikavolt hurtling through the air uncontrollably.
[break]

Alexei Ivanov

Just behind probopass Lucas spots what looks to be a promising geode. Slowly he approaches, but the probopass is doesn't move. Unlike the nincada from earlier it wasn't frightened by people easily. Lucas releases a grapploct.

"Taunt him over here," Lucas whispers as he points further down the tunnel. Grapploct scurries in that direction without further prompting. It throws several stones back towards the probopass to taunt it away from the geode. Enraged the probopass follows, giving the head scientist an opportunity to snag the treasure.

While Lucas snags the geode kabutops pincers the probopass with grapploct's help. Kabutops encases itself in water and slams into the probopass' back with a devastating aqua jet. It leaves the probopass swaying from side to side uncontrollably. Grapploct takes advantage of probopass' momentary confusion to use its superpower like strength to smash the steel type against the tunnel wall relentlessly.
[break]

capture attempt

Lucas didn't have a functioning device not in use to fact check the employee. Though that didn't diminish the confidence that he was in the right.

"Well if you were really closed you wouldn't have picked up," Lucas quickly points out. "Now I've already unplugged and even rebooted my computer but I'm still getting a black screen." In the same breath he explains what he's tried to fix the computer.

"So what do I do now?
[break]

marcel maeda

Resting on a table next to the backdoor is a single pokeball. It was placed there earlier in the day in preparation for Priam's arrival.

"So you started looking at apartments yet?" Lucas scoops up the pokeball before sliding the door open. "I can drive you around to look at potential ones." He steps out onto tile work that lines the back of the house. Separating the tile work and the battle area is a long section of grass.
[break]

priam conrad

Lucas ponders Illeana's question for a moment. It was a tough one for the senior head scientist since his days were never consistent.

"What about eight am whenever you finish with them?" He picks the most consistent time he was in office. "Or if he's hired by then you can leave them with priam conrad. He'll be my new assistant for the summer."

"Ah," Lucas thinks for a moment as Illeana turns his question back at him. "No I don't think so. That's everything for today." Lucas reaches out and turns on his monitor to continue where he left off when Illeana arrived.
[break]

illeana reyes

Lucas watches as a Nincada scuttles out of the light when he turns a corner. It hides in a little alcove it'd dug for itself between two fallen boulders. Lucas makes no attempts to disturb the pokemon, instead opting to walk past it to continue his geode search.
[break]

skip

Lucas directs the light a pinch to the left so he make out the graveler's outline more clearly. Its finer details are obscured in the darkness, but Lucas makes no move to remedy the situation. Too much light on the graveler could risk it becoming agitated.

"No, too big. Well," Lucas stares at the graveler and thinks. "No way too big."

Turning his flashlight up ahead Lucas begins to traverse the cavern once more.
[break]

skip

"Any time? Okay so," Lucas lingers on the word as he thinks. "What about tomorrow at eight am? I'll just be here answering my emails around then." Much later than that and he'd be busy at work, but that went without saying. Lucas trusts she'll be punctual.

"No need to rush. If you need them for longer just let me know."

The pair of pokemon would be hardly missed. Lucas couldn't even recall the last time he'd let them get a breath of fresh air.

"Now if that's all sorted is there anything else you'd like to talk about while we're here?"
[break]

illeana reyes

Lucas looks at Illeana quizzically when she shows signs of doubt.

"Perfect, then there's nothing to worry about."

He moves on from the subject quickly. He had no intent of prodding her work history any further.

"Now then, what day and time would work best for me to bring in the pokemon? I don't plan on being here during weekends just so you know. Trying to practice some work life balance finally. But I'm in from seven thirty-ish till," Lucas pauses for a moment to think. "Till pretty late. Usually here till around six or seven."
[break]

illeana reyes

"Oh of course you have, how could I forget," Lucas responds in a cheerful manner at his small mistake.

"Of course. The worst he can say is no right? As long as you didn't burn any bridges when you left he'll likely say yes.'" Lucas smiles gently when Illeana finally takes the sticky note from him. "You didn't burn any bridges, right?" He quickly adds and looks at Illeana expectantly.
[break]

illeana reyes

Lucas shows his party pass to the employee guarding the tunnel entrance. "This is it?" They asked, the pass allowing up to three other guests to join the pair. "This is it," Lucas responds happily. He'd spent a large sum of money anticipating on the pass so his other friends could join him, but none did. What'd been a money saver at the time turned out to be money wasted. But the head scientist didn't let that get him down.

"See this Priam? Now this, this is a vacation." Lucas says happily as they enter. Lights hang from the wooden support beams of the tunnels. "Just a couple men and some rocks. Life doesn't get any better than this."
[break]

Mission
priam conrad