[attr="class","wildbgsaf"]

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

[attr="class","wildshiny"]

[attr="class","wildpkmnbox"]

[attr="class","wildtab"]

'Hoo '

A cry broke the silence from somewhere above John. A gentle, searching sound. Pushing off the wall he turned his eyes skyward and did some searching himself. The world blurred, a dark blue swatch run through with streaks of starlight.

'Hoo '

The cry came again as everything steadied around John. The stars found their place, the edges of rooftops emerged from the smudged sky. Telephone wires went from invisible to only just. Mostly thanks to a fat bird weighing them down.

'Hoo '

One more time the Noctowl called, its big eyes fixed on John.

"John Nelson," he shouted back up and the pokemon ruffled. A ripple of motion ran through its feathers and John figured that would be the end of it, and the spooked bird would fly off. It alighted instead.

To John's surprise it practically threw itself at him, and landed on his shoulder. The sudden weight almost toppled him and startled the Noctowl again. It began to beat its wings.

"You're not helping you fucking thing," he said, trying to steady his feet and push one large wing out of his face. The Noctowl replied by leaning down and nipping at his ear.

"Hey! None of that!"

He pushed the bird's face away so it switched target from his ear to his finger. The squeal John let out surely woke at least one person in the sleepy neighborhood.

"Agh! Ow ow ow, let go!"

It didn't. John could see a trickle of blood begin to run down his hand. Desperate he searched for some quick way to free himself without hurting the pokemon. A stick to spook it with or maybe if he could get his phone -- but when he reached in his pocket the first thing he found was a pokeball. Empty.

He'd grabbed a few mostly on a whim before starting his bar crawl. In the moment he was grateful as he pulled the pokeball out and practically smacked the Noctowl with it. The pain stopped abruptly as the capture light practically blinded him.

In his hand the ball shook. Once. Twice. Thrice. Click.