A voice she did not know, issuing a command on the top of the hill, briefly distracted Parvati from the tired looking symbol Pokemon; but then she saw the dark shape of something even larger and much more ominouso overhead, and hastily gathered the Unown in to a pokeball for safe-keeping. It didn't resist, but it didn't seem interested in her canteen either. Its for the best little guy, I promise. Parvati clicked the now-occupied pokeball to one of the spare holsters on her belt.

There was more shouting from the hill and as Parvati now had the freedom to watch, there was a pale cat-like Pokemon interacting with the bulbous shadow; Parvati only got a glimpse before they were both crashing through the trees away from her. She watched as the other woman made a show of throwing a pokeball and then calm returned to the pathway.

Parvati's expression brightened with awe. "That was --!" Her words were cut off as a startled figure came rushing from among the trees, hands raised as if to cover their head. A second shape moved stealthily among the branches of the trees in the opposite direction, each reacting to the chaos of the downed Dusknoir.

Thinking that this new shape was a person (as it was very humanoid in appearance) Parvati moved to lend aid to them - and the Gothitelle dropped its hands from around its head to scream, and in the resulting confusion, hurried off down the hillside. Parvati's racing heart was quaking at a more rapid tempo than it had been during her run.

"What the hell was that!" She wheezed.

He said her name, which surprised her a little bit, but it shouldn't have. He looked familiar; plus being newly enlisted, many people were not privy to her name and various details within her file. She would have to get used to being recognized (even in this vague sense). When offered a seat she took it.

The candy in the jar, however, earned a brief glance and a coy dismissal.
"Oh, no thank you. I don't have much of a sweet tooth."

The man was going through some papers on his desk. Parvati watched him, trying to remember if she'd seen him before. Maybe he'd come by the house before she enlisted? He looked young but not quite her age; it was impressive to her that someone could have a position such as his, at his age. Maybe she was misjudging things - he could've just had a youthful face.

the sound of the river moving from north to south, towards the road where parvati was stationed, gave everything a low hum. she could smell the water pretty clearly, even with the woodsy alpine notes of the trees.

she was distracted by the sensations of nature around her, so when her current working partner spoke up, she shivered like a rabbit caught outside of its warren - looking bright-eyed towards officer lopez as if he'd just materialized.

his poochyena was already on the case; well trained and eager to please, more than parvati at this stage of her training. she felt a little bit out of her depth with this assignment. it didn't help that the officer wasn't taking this seriously - or so parvati gleaned from his question.

"i hope its neither," she answered honestly, with no small amount of naivety present.

"i'd rather this be a wild swanna chase where nobody is hurt, or -- or dead."

still, they wouldn't have been sent out here if that was the case. parvati had only skimmed the case file and most of what was written there still went over her head, so she was relying on the more experienced officer to show her the ropes.

to get her mind off of the darker possibilities, parvati grabbed one of her pokeballs and in a flash, summoned a partner to help alongside the poochyena: her scorbunny, savitya. the rabbit pokemon looked around hastily and then ran a quick circuit around both of the trainers, before seeking out the poochyena, at which point parvati had to call him back.

"hey, hey! we're here to work, not fight. see if you can find any sign of another person in the area, okay? if you find something come right back here." it was hard to keep savitya focused; even before parvati was done giving orders, the rabbit was hurrying up the path.

it was fortunate that arya's instincts were so keyed-in to the dangers of the fight, or else nothing would have happened. parvati was too nervous to say any orders aloud. everything was happening so quickly - most of which invisibly, and so she had no idea what to do or how to instruct the natu.

arya on the other hand was trying not to die, seeing as they were facing a giant bug with swords for arms, and the bird had never been put in to a situation quite like this one before; she chirruped and on cue with the sound, teleported to the opposite side of the scyther and once she was there, leered at the back of their head.

"arya, don't just stare at it!" parvati called out, ignorant to the fact that she had just been staring at the entire battle as it unfolded, which made her a hypocrite.

no, of course, totally joking. the way the boy responded made parvati realize that her sense of humor, dry as it was, might've gone right over this guy's head. he might've been super literal, or at least more serious than she was (which was quite the feat given how cold she could be); but that was all fine with her, she could handle the no-nonsense types. most of her family didn't connect with her that well either so this was par for the course.

"right, okay," she was quick to accept the plan. they wouldn't be culling the spiders from the building but trying to relocate them. if that got the job done, that was fine.

she wasn't sure about the next part though. "I'll leave one of my pokemon with you then, and i'll go fetch those nets." a moment later, parvati was unclipping one of the pokeballs from her belt. a flash of light corporealized in to the shape of a small, sad-eyed dinosaur.

the tyrunt looked dejectedly up at parvati and then over to the red-headed boy.

"gagan, you're up. when oliver here tells you to roar, you roar, okay?" she didn't like the way she had to talk to him; but the tyrunt was sensitive, so she had to be careful about the tone of her voice. she bent down and pat him on the top of his head, which earned another heavy sigh from him. but, he waddled towards oliver afterwards.

"okay. uh, be right back -- i guess." and off she'd go with the creepy landlord, one hand at the ready to bring out another pokemon if her suspicions were correct about him, and he was up to something skeevy. while she was off retrieving nets for the spinarak oliver could make his calls.

gagan huffed, watching the road for any sign of parvati's return.
when will my trainer be back from the store...

parvati's expression was cold but determined. she crosses her arms in front of her chest.

as she looked to the natu and the natu glanced at her, but then was watching the scyther intently; the bird didn't even blink, but it moved so that it was always keeping one eye on the bug.

should the scyther move too quickly, or too close (both very likely) the natu would focus its intent upon the other pokemon and direct a confuse ray at it; whether or not such an effort was successful would be anybody's guess.

parvati was a mixed bag of her own thoughts: wanting to do a good job, trying to remember natu's abilities, trying to think of the best strategy, and wondering if she'd chosen the right pokemon from her team -- all of which the natu could pick up in a jumble, at least in a liminal sense.

The rumble of something mechanical appeared and grew, then abruptly cut off. Parvati wasn't sure what direction it came from due to the foliage alongside the path, serving as noise cancellation to some degree. She was mindful of her position on the path and moved to step aside, on to the grass, in case the sound started again and a vehicle came out of nowhere.

After a few minutes of listening and catching her breath, she noticed that the sound hadn't resumed. She shrugged and began to move again - following the path as it ascended along a hill, which soon had her thighs burning. As she reached the top she noticed something strange: there wasn't a single sound from the trees, but there was a dark shape almost hovering near the base of one of the trees.

Parvati was wary on her approach and as she got nearer, she saw what the object was - a floating letter, of all things. She crouched so that she'd be on the same level as the creature, and checked her pulse with a pinch of her wrist just to be safe. "Well, look at you..." Whatever you are. A moment later, the creature blinked and Parvati nearly fell on her ass in surprise.

She wasn't sure what to do, except to unsling her canteen and pop off the cap. She hadn't brought anything to eat with her but there was always the chance the sluggish Pokemon was thirsty; so she extended the canteen towards it and with a raise of her eyebrows, offered: "You thirsty little... buddy?" Crap, did the alphabet have pronouns?

The entrance was sparsely populated when she arrived. Those that were within the building already seemed intent on being somewhere else, hurrying up some stairs or down the hall, or out the door just as she was ducking inside; for all her height Parvati was agile and didn't so much as disturb the air around the stranger as they passed one another.

At the front desk she paused, in part due to the serious expression on the receptionist's face as their attention was swiftly garnered.

"Cadet Parvati -- I mean, Atiyeh, here for --" She stammered.
The receptionist didn't respond; they didn't appear to even notice Parvati there at all.

It was another body, arriving quite suddenly beside her, that ushered her away from the desk and down a hallway. The assistant was talking but not to Parvati - the Councilman then, through an earpiece. Before she knew it she was being shown a door.

As Parvati opened it and stepped through, she was welcomed in to a large office space. She didn't look around very much because there was a man there, drawing her attention immediately. Even sitting at his desk he looked tall, broad-shouldered, and more tanned than most of the people Parvati had come across. He could've passed for a distant uncle or something.

"I'm.. I hope I'm in the right place...?"