Rule one of Team Rocket communications; when your burner rang, you answered.

Isaac wasn't a big rule guy. Procedure to him had always felt more like a suggestion than a rule. Even in his brief time with Rocket, there were times where it had gotten some hackles raised. Yet even he knew that ignoring a call from a potential Rocket boss could've gotten his ass in the line of fire. It wasn't a very hard task. Just stop what he was doing and check the line to see if it was important. Even in the middle of a pitched battle, it wasn't hard to steal time for a glance.

Just one problem. His eyes were busy right now. So were his hands. In fact, right now Isaac was using every ounce of his concentration to swerve through the Sootopolis outskirts Salt and sand kicked up in his wake as he weaved through the cliffsides, trying in vain to avoid the hyper-persistent Skarmory that was hellbent on divebombing him.

As it got its beak wedged in a nearby cliff, Isaac saw his chance. He nudged his phone out of his pocket, stealing a glance down to see just who had shot him a text. The good news; it wasn't a higher up. In fact, it was a fellow rookie from his cohort. Kind of a moody looking guy, maybe a few years his younger, but being the new kids on the block meant that they'd crossed paths fairly frequently by this point. The bad news; just because it was a higher up didn't mean it wasn't urgent.

The ugly news? The call for backup was over a childrens' sleepover party.

Perplexed, Isaac held the phone closer. He squinted, trying to confirm if the message was real. It was. Was it a mistext? No, you didn't mistext a freaking Rocket phone. A prank call? From someone as morose looking as Gerald? Yeah, no way. It could've been a coded message, but they'd never even talked codewords before. If he showed up with Barnaby the Goodra balloons to a drug deal-

CRACK! The Skarmory's beak had just broken through sheer stone. Isaac's train of thought needed to return to the station earlier than scheduled.

"Watson, buy me some time for a sec?" Isaac asked, looking to the Totodile in his sidecar. His eager started shot him a salute, then jumped to the front of the motorcycle to give Isaac a helping hand. It took all of his rather unimpressive wingspan, but he managed to stretch from handlebar to handlebar. It was just enough to roar the ride to life, forcing the Skarmory to go back on the chase.

With that, Isaac had time to respond. ha. good one bro he texted, then started a mental countdown from ten. Nope. No japes here. This was the real deal. wait youre serious. okay. i got this. be right there k? With that, he slipped his phone back into his pocket, ready to puzzle his way out of this mess.

In the five minutes his attention had wavered, Watson had slipped off of the handlebars. His tiny feet windmilled in panic as he clung to the left handlebar with his mouth, letting out muffled sounds of distract. Joining him was Vivi, his trusty Eevee, who had pounced onto the right handlebar to form an attempt at a counterbalance. Against all odds, they were actually keeping the motorcycle somewhat straight. Sure, they swerved like they were blackout drunk and there were at least a dozen near-misses with the cliffs, but it was the thought that count.

Isaac sighed as he regained control, prying Watson off of the handlebars in the process. This was a hell of a start to a hell of a day, huh?

---

When an exhausted Isaac slumped against the back wall of Gerald's home, he could only imagine how much more tired Gerald was. After all, he only had to deal with a pissed-off terrorbird. Gerald had to deal with a pack of children in need of enrichment. Frankly, they were about equal on the danger scale. He took a few moments to catch his breath and worked up a brave smile. Small children could smell fear and weakness. Just like Tyrunts.

k cool im here Isaac texted. how we doing this?

Come on, come on! What was taking so long? It was time for the awkward foot tapping and shuffling that always accompanied being stuck out of place. At least on neutral ground, he wouldn't feel like he was lurking around somewhere he shouldn't. Maybe this was a prank after all. Maybe Gerald was waiting to see how long he could stand outside some stranger's house like a total ding-dong. Sure, his poker face was strong, but the quiet ones always had the secret sadistic streaks. Why, he had half a mind to-

The door creaked open, and Isaac perked up. "Sheesh, took you-" Gerald was taller than this. And darker haired than this. And Isaac was pretty sure he didn't sleep in bright pink Skitty pajamas. "-aren't Gerald."

No shit, Sherlock. Not only was this not Gerald, but this was one of the childrens! Maybe even the literal boss baby of the slumber party, judging by her remark about this being her house. She was pretty nonchalant about a stranger showing up, but a cursory peek upwards revealed why. Two birds were scoping out the roof like a freaking SWAT team. The good news was that it meant the kids were going to be safe today. The bad news was that if Gerald didn't pick up the flippin phone, Isaac's remains were going to be stuffed in a bird feeder.

Lies, tricks, and schemes would do no good here. Adults were either too bound by social obligations or too burned out by the uncaring march of time to question such japery. But children? No, the word 'why' ruled their lives, and even the most convincing con would run aground after slamming into enough of those.

No, today he'd be going legit. It'd be fine! Unless he was asked what they do for work, in which case there'd be a problem. Honesty stopped where Rocket stuff began, and he had no clue what Gerald's cover story was.

"The name's Isaac. I'm your brother's work friend," he said. "He wants to make sure this is gonna be the best party ever, so he asked me to come over and give him some backup. This way, you guys get twice the planners, twice the party, twice the fun. Pretty sweet plan, huh?"

The day had only just begun, and Isaac was already sure that Gerald would owe him for this one.

Isaac reslly should've seen that one coming.

Maybe not the part where Gerald's sister (whose name he definitely did not know) turned out to bd so savage, though. Just plainly saying that she didn't think he had friends was a deathblow. Isaac had to hold back a snort, part because of the sheer audacity of ghe situation and part because one of Rocket's most intimidating rookies had just gotten decimated by a six year old.

Still, it was kind of sad in a way. Did he really live such a quiet life? To the point where his own sister just casually called him out on it? "Guess he's just at quiet at home as he is at work, huh?" Isaac asked. "I swear. If it wasn't for the pizza incident, I dunno if I'd have even met the guy."

Yes. Yes! This was his out! Now Isaac could either show he knew Gerald or ramble on long enough that he could think of a proper strategy. And all it would take was a little bit of showmanship. "See, if we're all doing a good job, the place we're at brings in pizza. And it's the best dang pizza I've ever had in Hoenn. Maybe even a little . . . too good. We learned that the hard way when the boss' Onix slipped out and decided to have some for itself. You ever see an Onix? Cause they'rd huge, and hoo boy do they have the appetite to match. It pretty much took over the whole kitchen on us, and wouldn't share a slice

So you can't have pizza friday without pizza, right? That's when your brother and I bravely volunteered-" Okay, so they drew the short straw and were told to handle it. Did that really matter?

And, speak of the devil, there he was. He counted the kids, and seemed a little distressed by the number. Isaac took that as his cue to switch gears. "We waited for it to take a nap. And then we snuck into the kitchen. Slowly. Real slowly. And quietly. Real quietly," he continued, listening as closely to the window as he could. Most of the conversation was muffled, but with his own hushed voice, he could faintly make out a name. 'Anna.'

Gerald really was a reliable guy.

"One wrong move, and the Onix would wake up. But we made it to the boxes. We slipped the boxes out of its coils. Ans then, just as slowly, just as quietly, we got back to the door. It had all gone according to plan. But then, right at thw last minute . . .

I sneezed.

The Onix woke up with a mighty ROAR! And let me tell you, I don't know if you've ever seen Gerald run. But when he needs to be, he's real fast. We ledft a box behind for the big ol' rock, and then the two of us bolted from that kitchen faster than we've ever run before. But we pulled it off. The pizza was saved, and so was everyone's Friday. So, sure
He might be a quiet guy, but when you're running for your life and balancing a stack of pizzas with a guy, it's hard not to at least call him a friend."

Isaac had gone into detail for a bit longer than he'd intended, hadn't he? Part of it was a tactical maneuver. By then, Anna would have either failed to notice or forgotten that her brother had just said her name. However, a part of him just wanted to show this kid that her brother was more okay than she thought he was.

"That answer your question, Anna?"