Far above Adrian, a pink-haired figure watched the alley below. Her eyes flickered eagerly from person to person. What part of them drew her in varied. Sometimes it was the funny hats. Others it was the brightness of a Pokemon or the quality of their watch. One woman held her attention longer than the others. To be more accurate, the magpie in Harper was attracted to the fancy earrings. “Wowee! “ She hissed excitedly. “I bet those are worth a pretty chunk of change!”

The Castform behind her shifted briefly to his rainy-day form. Trying to rob that woman seemed like a really, really bad idea. The men with her were like Rillaboom and that smile barely reached her eyes. To him, it felt like a trap. But, so did everything. Cumulus was kind of—i.e. Extremely—paranoid. His head shook as he bumped his ward in the shoulder. The teenager rolled her eyes and muttered beneath her breath. “Spoilsport.”

With that target out of sight, Harper settled down to eye the next group. But quickly ticked most of them off for various reasons. He looked like a storybook prince. That guy had given her candy once. The one in the ratty trench coat was totally naked under it. That or he stank. Harper wasn’t sure which was worse. Finally, her eyes settled on Adrian. “What about hiiiim?” She queried with a wine. “Guy is probably a total-wotal bore.” The kind who didn’t want to be followed and totally wanted to blend in.

The Castform didn’t even get a chance to shake his head.

With almost cat-like precision, the pink-haired thief stalked Adrian into the wilder, less tame alleys. Her feet, silent, made quick work of familiar alleyways, easily skirting familiar trash heaps and shattered lightbulbs. As his journey continued, the Rocket would start to notice a light fog setting in. All she needed was another crowd for him to brush into. A place where an errant hand would go unnoticed.

Then, she saw the Pokemon. The next words weren’t a whisper. “Uh-oh.”

Normally, Harper would have been squealing at the Mareep. It was a cute, fluffy little sheep! It even had a shiny tail and stripes. And, then, there were its cute little hoofies! OMGEE!



! But her attention was, instead, fixated on the Purrserker. She’d met this grumpy gill before. When she’d been tiny—living in one of these warehouses—it’d terrorized her on more than one occasion. A lot of hard-earned spoils had been lost to its knife-like claws. It terrorized other Pokemon into this whole honey bait thing. They sat there and looked cute. It sprang on them like a bear trap.



Now, judging by its pose, the steel type was about to do the same to this guy. This left Harper with three options: One, she could wait for it to grab his stuff and pick up the scraps. Two, she could warn him and let him take care of the can opener cat. Or, three, she could finally get some revenge. And, at the same time, she’d look like a hero!



Cumulus really didn’t like the look in the adolescent’s eyes. It was the kind of scheming expression usually seen on cartoon villains. But whatever plan she had went up in flames. Or, uh, steel claws. The Crobat took down the Mareep. In that same instant, the cat charged.



“Hey! Mister! Look out!” Harper called from her perch. The cat jerked up red eyes to stare her down. She stuck her tongue out. Then, she remembered that this thing was a piston and now very angry at her. Oh, shoot! What now!? This thing was going to shishkabob here! “Moo! Hit her!”



The Castform jumped into action, tossing a high-powered weatherball right into the irritable cat’s face. It fell and rolled.



Harper knew she couldn’t let it get back up. A Pokeball was tugged from her knock-off purse and lobbed at the dazed cat’s head.

Attempting to catch the Perrzerker

Moo used Weatherball!

[attr="class","wildtemp"]

[attr="class","wildbgsaf"]

[attr="class","wildtitle"]A WILD QUAGSIRE APPEARED!

[attr="class","wildshiny"]

[attr="class","wildpkmnbox"]

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtab"]

[attr="class","wildtabox"] FEMALE	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] WATER ABSORB
[attr="class","wildtabox"]AQUA TAIL	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]WATER GUN
[attr="class","wildtabox"]MUD BOMB	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]SLAM
[attr="class","wildtabox"] ---	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] ---

[attr="class","wildtag"]Adrian Malcolm Harper Mann

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

[attr="class","wildtemp"]

[attr="class","wildbgsaf"]

[attr="class","wildtitle"]A WILD SPRIGATITO APPEARED!

[attr="class","wildshiny"]

[attr="class","wildpkmnbox"]

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtab"]

[attr="class","wildtabox"] FEMALE	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] OVERGROW
[attr="class","wildtabox"]HONE CLAWS	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]MAGICAL LEAF
[attr="class","wildtabox"]U-TURN	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]SLASH
[attr="class","wildtabox"] ---	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] ---

[attr="class","wildtag"]Adrian Malcolm Harper Mann

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

BOTH OF YOUR CAPTURE ATTEMPTS ARE SUCCESSFUL!

Adrian Malcolm
The pink-haired girl felt her breath constrict as she watched the ball twitch. At this distance, nothing would stop that Perrzerker from scarring up her face. When the ball settled into her hand, its weight was almost welcome. She’d defeated an age-old enemy and now held its life in her hands. Harper handled the Pokeball like a soldier would a grenade. Each shift of her fingers was cautious as if it might explode at any moment. Her thumb swept into place over its button.

But this excitement was short-lived.

What had she gone and done that for!? It was kind of hard to rob a guy she just totally rescued, which meant she’d have spent all of tonight for nothing. And how the heck was she supposed to feed this cat? It’d probably rip her arm off if she tried! Monstrous punk or not, Harper wasn’t even sure selling it was an option. Doing that was kind of weird when you’re dad was a Pokemon too.

These thoughts ended when Adrian turned toward her. “You’re welcome! I didn’t want her to scratch you.” She rubbed her hip with one hand. “Those claws really smart.” And, being metal, they did a real number on your skin. “I never did like how sneaky that thing was.” When he shared his name, Harper beamed. “I’m Harper! But my best buds call me Batman.” Not really. Even the Castform seemed skeptical of that claim, whirling to face her with a thin brow quirked upward. “My parents are dead, and I keep to the shadows.” These things were said with the same singsong cadence.

Wow! He was cute up close. Even with that stupid disguise on. “I don’t think I’ve seen you before either.” Which is likely why she’d marked him in the first place. Her job was a lot harder to do a second time. As she turned to watch the Quagsire, her eyes caught on the Sprigatito. “Whoa! Lookit this, Adrian! It’s so cute!” Was that a cat? What was she doing in the garbage?

Harper approached it, offering the kitten a bit of the cookie in her pocket. It brought to mind her younger self—hungry and desperate for food in any place. It was still clumsy. “You want to sleep with us tonight? Bed’s pretty comfy!” Big red eyes just blinked up at her as Harper held her breath.

Ah, man. There went dinner for the night.

[[Attempting to capture Sprigatito.]]

[attr="class","wildtemp"]

[attr="class","wildbgsaf"]

[attr="class","wildtitle"]A WILD DOUBLADE APPEARED!

[attr="class","wildshiny"]

[attr="class","wildpkmnbox"]

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtab"]

[attr="class","wildtabox"] MALE	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] NO GUARD
[attr="class","wildtabox"]PURSUIT	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]TACKLE
[attr="class","wildtabox"]SLASH	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]FURY CUTTER
[attr="class","wildtabox"] ---	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] ---

[attr="class","wildtag"]Adrian Malcolm Harper Mann

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

[attr="class","wildtemp"]

[attr="class","wildbgsaf"]

[attr="class","wildtitle"]A WILD CHARJABUG APPEARED!

[attr="class","wildshiny"]

[attr="class","wildpkmnbox"]

[attr="class","wildpkmn"]

[attr="class","wildtab"]

[attr="class","wildtabox"] MALE	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] BATTERY
[attr="class","wildtabox"]MUD SLAP	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]SPARK
[attr="class","wildtabox"]BITE	[attr="class","wildtabox2"]CHARGE
[attr="class","wildtabox"] ---	[attr="class","wildtabox2"] ---

[attr="class","wildtag"]Adrian Malcolm Harper Mann

[attr="class","wildnote"] WHAT WILL YOU DO?

BOTH OF YOUR CAPTURE ATTEMPTS ARE SUCCESSFUL!