As a female voice called out to him, Thomas turned to face it. Another cloaked figure raced up to him. Once she got closer, and he could discern her features, he recognized her. While he had avoided gatherings of the rich and famous for the last four years, he remembered the people he would run into for the most part, especially those in his peer group.

"Marie-Jeanne? Fancy seeing you out here."

Had she met or remembered him from their early childhood, she'd remember him as a quiet boy with little in the way of self-esteem, a punching bag for the bullies within their little peer group. After the age of ten, however, during the few gatherings he found himself able to attend, she'd have noticed a change in him, that he had become stoic, harsher in nature, and refused to take shit from those he had just taken it from before, much to the delight of his father.


While her Ms. Perfect image may have been taken at face value by others in their group, Thomas, ever the cynic, was suspicious of her. Perhaps it was the natural idea to him that someone acting in such a manner was hiding something ugly underneath the surface. But then, all he could do was play it cool, and see what she wanted.

"Yeah? And where were you headed, exactly?", Thomas asked her.

Their little conversation was interrupted when a Bastiodon would charge towards the Agent, attempting to slam into him with Iron Head. Thomas would immediately begin to strafe to the right, before performing an evasive roll at the last moment, swiftly dodging the larger creature before she could smash into him. Thomas would quickly pick a Pokeball off of his belt, sending out Brutus the Pangoro.

"Brutus, use Bullet Punch to soften the target up.", Thomas told the Pangoro. With a nod, the dark panda swiftly charged the Bastiodon, before delivering a flurry of punches to the ancient Pokemon, seemingly to little effect. In response, the armored Pokemon would unleash a Metal Burst. But thanks to the weak nature of the Bullet Punch, the Metal Burst did little better in inflicting damage, and only caused the Pangoro to stumble a few steps back in surprise.

"Now, Hammer Arm!"

The Pangoro raised his arm up, roaring as he charged back at the Bastiodon, before slamming his fist into the ancient Pokemon. Unlike the Bullet Punch, which seemed to do negligible damage to the Bastiodon, the Hammer Arm would smash into the creature, leaving a nice mark before the Bastiodon would collapse to the ground, rendered unconscious by the attack.

"Good work, Brutus.", Thomas called out to the Pangoro, who nodded stoically in response.

---

@faustine

Thomas watched as the Gurdurr was thrown out of the area by the Kadabra. While there was no doubt that Brutus could've handled the Fighting-type, the assist made his life easier. Once the commotion was done and over with, Thomas turned back to Faustine, his Pangoro remaining by his side, should more trouble come their way. "Thanks for that.", Thomas told her.

"Fallarbor Town? That's where I just came from, actually.", he would tell her. While he was still skeptical of her claim that she lost her way with all this falling ash, considering it wasn't falling hard enough to really obscure one's vision, he still felt the need to see where all of this was going. "So what bus-", Thomas tried to ask, before a loud noise would cut him off.

Thomas would walk over to investigate the source of the sound, finding small brown legs sticking out of a large pile of ash, flailing around desperately. It seemed that a large pile of ash had fallen on top of something from above. With a sigh, Thomas grabbed the thing by the legs, and began to pull it out of the ash pile. The trapped Pokemon turned out to be a Stufful, who seemed to gasp upon being freed from the ash pile. Upon looking up at her savoir, she stared at him, mouth wide open in shock for a moment, before jumping up to snuggle the human. While most Stufful didn't like to be touched, this one seemed to be rather friendly. Whether that was in her nature, or a result of the human saving her was unknown.

Thomas smiled, and began to pet the pink and brown bear. The flailing Pokemon didn't seem to mind his touch at all, a good sign. "Hey there, I'm glad you're okay~", Thomas cooed at the creature affectionately. The Stufful continued to snuggle into the Kalosian affectionately, letting out a happy cry in response.

"Would you like to join me?", he would ask the Stufful, fishing out a vacant Pokeball from his bag, and offering it to the Stufful.

It was now up to her whether she wanted to join him, or remain wild.

---

@faustine

Cap attempt on Stufful