Team Rocket: Ak-Mun Shiniga's Story

O.ol

After a decent journey and series of battles, Ak Mun had acquired some coinage and a few items to sell. In all senses, Ak Mun was a thug. He carried himself with his chest puffed out, and if he beat you in battle, his Pokemon were known to steal items for you. Occasionally, his pokemon or himself would even beat up their opponent. Luckily, on his journey here, he hadn't done much of this since he was in unfamiliar territory.

This first place Ak Mun went to was the Poke'Center to heal his Pokemon. Following the short trip there, he went to the first shop he came across. Ak Mun would go the coolers and grab a cold drink, then to the chip rack for some pretzels, and then to the counter.

"Do you have an Stones for sale? I need some to evolve some Pokemon." Ak Mun spoke, but at the same time he was thinking that if the shop did and they were cheaper here, he could resell them for much more in another city.

He was home...

Looking down among the massive Celadon City he'd grown up with his whole life, Winter couldn't help but take a deep breath of nostalgia. These streets were his streets he'd always traverse with his childhood friends, who many have moved on from this place. There was the massive hotel he'd always sneak into and play ding-dong-ditch with the guests. The casino...well he wasn't ballsy enough to even dare try entering that place. And of course the gym, where Erika and her all-female staff took on challengers of many varieties. Watching the amazing Pokemon battles that took place was mesmerizing to him. Even now, he considered watching a match or two while he was in town, although the Gym Badge Circuit never quite appealed to him as his newer passion did.

"Squir-squiiiiirrrrtle?" Lucky tended to show an impressive ability to communicate with Winter just by the tonality of his Pokespeak and this was no exception.

Winter chuckled, "Yeah, buddy. We're home."

"SQUIRRRRRRRRR-!" Lucky seemed to cheer, hopping off Winter's back and rushing off towards the massive city. Winter couldn't help but laugh at Lucky's excitement to be back in Celadon City. After all, this is where the two first met. This was where their elite partnership began.

Before he lost sight of the elusive Squirtle, Winter caught up with him and they walked side by side into the city.

As they walked around, Lucky started pointing at the hotel, expecting that to be their first stop. Unfortunately for him, this was one of those rare times when Lucky was wrong.

"Ah, we're not going there yet," Winter told him, "We need to stop by the Poke'Center first."

Lucky had a confused look on his face and with every right to have one. None of his teammates were injured. They had enough Pokeballs of many varieties. They had just ate a nice picnic in the field before heading here. To Lucky, it seemed like he had no reason to head there first.

But Winter definitely did. "I need to see if Amy still works here." Another confused look by the Squirtle told Winter to keep explaining, "Amy was one of my old friends here. I never got a chance to say goodbye to her when I left town." Which was ironic because Amy had been Winter's closest friend and he'd had time for all his other friends except her. He wanted to hopefully catch up with her before he left town again to continue on his personal quest.

Lucky nodded in understanding and tugged on Winter's sleeve; that was his universal sign for "Let me piggyback!" Crouching down, he let the Squirtle hop on his back once more before entering the Poke'Center.

There were a couple of customers meandering about the place and one person at the checkout counter, asking a question. The atmosphere was odd considering the Poke'Center was often packed with people. But at the same time, Winter had never been in here this time of day. Perhaps it was always like this.

"Squirtle squirt?" he heard Lucky in his ear, pointing at the drinks. It was obvious he was thirsty.

"Shhh," he held a finger to his lips, "They'll have drinks at the hotel."

Another nod from Lucky. Winter made his way up to the counter, behind the other male in the store. Something seemed slightly off-putting about his presence. Lucky could feel it too as he shrunk just a bit lower on his back. He kept it in the back of his mind just in case it became relevant, but he didn't want to seem too judgmental from the get go. He didn't know where this man came from, there fore he couldn't strike an opinion about him.

So he waited patiently behind him and watched the possible transaction go on between him and the lady behind the counter.

There wasn't much luck on finding any stones in this shop. They were hard to come by anymore. All he could do is request a few potions and pokeballs to catch pokemon for his studies. With that, Ak Mun paid for his product and turned around,

When Ak Mun turned around, he came across Winter and his Squirtle. He would size Winter and his Squirtle up. No reason to stir up trouble here.

"Do you know where I can find some specialty stones to evolve my Pokemon? I doubt you can since your pokemon is still a Squirtle, but you never know." Ak Mun spoke, smirking at his Squirtle comment.

A sniff of fresh air had settle the mind of this young male, he had inhale, then exhaled. He was quite familiar with this place, to familiar. In fact this was his home town, celadon city which is located in the kanto region. He had known every in's, and outs of this place, and knew where everything was at.

Nothing much had changed since he left, but he did feel good being back from a small journey of pokemon hunting, he still wasn't finished, as he still wishes to catch more, and more. Filling up his pokedex with fascinating creatures from all shapes, size, and form. There will be some days where he wouldn't be able to catch one, and maybe just spot one.

Once he was done scanning a little handful of the area that he went onwards to the city. Harada had worn a white t-shirt with black strips twisting, and turning, he then wears black medium size shorts, and black leathered arm warmers. His hair was flaming hot red, and was freakishly long, long enough to almost touching the ground, but it came down towards his ankles.

Harada gazed through the city with his light golden eyes, as he see's kids, and parents filling up the city.

"Man what a good feeling to be hear, but I won't be hear to long, now then where is this guy. He should be around here." He says scanning the place.

"Squirrrrr..." Lucky's indignant response to Ak Mun's comment would show due to the slightly crossed look he gave the man. Winter would know Lucky was acting indignant by the way he dug his paws into his shoulder.

"Easy, buddy," he reassured Lucky and pet him on his paws. That caused Lucky to loosen his grip, but he still had that look of Come at me bro! on his face. Ak Mun just simply didn't know better, Winter reminded himself.

However, he wasn't going to let a snarky comment like that slide.

"I'll be honest. Not the best way you could've opened," Winter crossed his arms and raised his brow at Ak Mun, "You need my help and that typically won't get it. Whether my Squirtle is evolved or not, I still know how to make a Pokemon evolve. I'll chalk it up to potential social anxiety or never learning some manners as to why you said what you said. Still, watch yourself."

Now that he got the straightforward awkwardness out of the way, he told Ak Mun what he wanted to know.

"The PokeMart is your best bet. Here in Celadon's, they have just about everything you can think of. I've actually seen a Master Ball for sale once. High priced, but reasonable for an item like that. They'll have your specialty stones."

He stepped around him since he was done with business here at the PokeCenter, but he kept facing him as he did so. Something told Winter that he shouldn't turn his back to this guy.

"The PokeMart is down at the end of the road. Turn right as you exit this building and follow the road down. It's the second to last building on the right hand side. I hope you find what you're looking for there."

"Squir! Squir!" Lucky's way of saying Good riddance!

He turned around and began talking to the cashier on duty. "Hey, is Amy around here?"

" 'Fraid not, darling," she replied. "She hasn't been here for a couple years."

Really now? Winter thought. "Where'd she head off to?"

"Oh she started her whole adventure! Got her Bulbasaur and ran for the hills! Man, could that girl run. Said she's gonna try 'n complete the circuit."

"Oh," was all Winter could say. Now he felt more guilty than ever. But he understood her dream. She had been wanting to complete the circuit since they were very little. Now she was going to try. Winter had every belief she could do it, too.

"Say, ya do look familiar. Why you lookin' for Amy anyhow?"

The question kind of caught him off guard. "Oh, well I'm Winter. Winter Sak-"

"Oh, I know who you are!" the cashier interrupted, pointing at him. "You're that boy Amy always hung out with!"

"I...guess so..." Winter wasn't sure how to respond, so he responded in an unsure tone.

"Oh, Amy talked about you all the time, darling!"

That also caught him off guard. "Really? What'd she say?"

The cashier laughed, "Ah ah aaahhhh! Can't tell ya that one! A girl's thoughts are for a girl's ears only! That's my motto!"

As irritating as it was for Winter to hear that, he could respect it. "Alright, well thank you anyway."

"Any time, darling! Hope to see ya around!"

"Yeah, I'll probably be back. See ya then, maybe!"

"Squirrrrrtle!" Lucky waved at the cashier as Winter walked out of the PokeCenter.

Winter was kind of disappointed. He'd really set his heart on seeing Amy again and catching up. But that wouldn't be happening anytime soon. At least he could look forward to seeing his parents and friends again. Maybe finding out what they were doing now. But first, he had to check in.

"Come on, Lucky! Let's go to the hotel!" Winter told him.

"Squir!" Lucky nodded in agreement.

Ak Mun got an answer and he didn't really care much for what others thought of his attitude. In an abrupt maneuver, Ak-Mun vanished outside of the Pokecenter and to the Pokemart to see if they had what he needed. When he reached the Pokemart, he asked for three items.

"Do you have a Fire stone, Water stone, or Metal Coat? I really want my pokemon to evolve for the next big competition! I need the money and I know if I evolved them I could get it!"

For now Ak-Mun acted like a nice guy.

The store clerk didn't hesitate, immediately bringing the three items in front of Ak-Mun, "The Fire and Water Stones are 2100 Poke each and the Metal Coat is...100 Poke." He leaned his head on his hand as he spoke with a disinterested tone of voice. It was clear he was bored.

"Really? You sir, are a deal maker!" Ak-Mun was glad to hear that, expecting to pay a lot higher.

Ak-Mun pulled out a small card and checked his balance on his tweaked out Pokedex. When he was sure he had enough Poke credits, he offered the card to the clerk, "I'll take all three. At those prices, I have some extra to spend. What else might you have that I could use on my travels and strengthen my pokemon?"

The clerk shot a brow up at the individual in front of him. He wasn't expecting to hear those words out of his mouth. He immediately straightened up.

"Um...we also got Thunder Stones and Leaf Stones behind this counter," the clerk went on, trying to think of the other things they had. Celadon City's Department Store had just about everything, so it was a bit hard to keep track of everything they had. This was why they had so many clerks who sold different items.

"Um...there's some Battle Items and Vitamins on the floor above us. Natural buffs your Pokemon can drink to either temporarily or permanently boost their stats. Training Machines I'm pretty sure are a floor below us. I couldn't tell you prices, but I'm sure those clerks could. Potions and Pokeballs and things like that are on the second floor I believe. Anything else specific you have in mind?"

"I'll check out the buffs, thanks!" With that, Ak-Mun took off with his new items now in his bag.

Ak-Mun made his way to the 3rd(?) floor for the buffs. He wanted to load up on items and try to max his pokemons stats at an early level. As he made his way to the counter he grabbed a drink from the cooler and took a swig of it before he set it on the counter. His Pokedex showed his current balance, and when he was ready he called for the clerk.

"I was told you had stuff that can boost my pokemons stats?"

A young lady walked up from the back stockroom and saw that she had a customer waiting for her. She put on a pleasant smile and casually walked up towards Ak-Mun to serve him.

"Yes sir! Here, let me show you what we got," she reached behind the counter and pulled out a wide variety of items. "Alrighty then, the battle items range from 350 Poke to 950 Poke depending on what you get. There's Special, Speed, Defense, Attack, Dire Hit, Guard Special, and Accuracy. The Vitamins aren't gonna be cheap, though. 9800 Poke for each one. We got HP Up, Protein, Iron, Carbos, and Calcium. However, I will let ya know that the Vitamins are permanent, so they're a good buy. Anything-"

"Hey Julie!" A burly man with a black mustache came out of the backroom, "Didja hear about Winter?"

The girl waved him off, "Yeah yeah, I know. One of our own hometown heroes is the new Champion of the Kanto/Johto region. You've been going on about it for a week now. Can you put it to rest?"

"No, I mean he's here in Celadon City!"

That got her attention, "Really? Huh, I guess I'll keep my eye out for him then." she turned to wink at Ak-Mun, "It's not every day you meet a Region Champ. And apparently ours is floating around the city somewhere. Who knows, maybe you'll run into him."

She realized she'd gotten off track from her job and immediately straightened, "Ahem, sorry about that. Little gossip didn't hurt anyone. Now, anything here that perks your interest?"

Ak-Mun didn't mind the two conversation. It just told him not to make his move, that someone was there that could beat him. He would continue with other crimes such as stealing stuff. Using this time he was given, he scoped the place out looking for entrances, exits, and where the supply storage was.

"I'll take one Special Attack vitamin and I want 9,000 Poke worth of the others. Since you sell these items, i'll let you do it based on what you sell the most of. I have a few battles ahead of me and need to be ready for them. I got my stones for evolving two of my Pokemon." Ak-Mun spoke in an excited tone to the clerk, "By the way, what does this guy you talk about look like?"

The female clerk shot a brow up in honest confusion, "You don't know what he looks like? Don't you check the news often? It's the biggest thing to happen in the Kanto/Johto regions since Titania stepped down."

"He's probably from a different region," the male put a hand on her shoulder, "Just show him a photo."

While the female pulled out her phone and looked for a picture, the male went to work on the man's order, putting the Vitamins away except for the Calcium one, the one that raised Special Attack. He them began organizing a wide variety of battle items. People bought X Accuracy the most as they were the most useful item among them, so he set three of them aside. Dire Hit was next, so he set three of those aside as well. He placed two Guard Specials in the mix as well as two X Defenses and a single X Attack. He also placed one of each of the Special Defense, X Special, and X Speed, coming as close to 9000 Poke without going over. The math worked like this:



2850 Poke + 1950 Poke + 1400 Poke + 1100 Poke + 550 Poke + 350 Poke + 350 Poke + 350 Poke = 8900 Poke

The female held her phone out to Ak-Mun, revealing a boy with snow white hair and piercing blue eyes. He wore a plain white shirt without any fancy logos or colors on it. Notable accents to him would be the Tear Drop Pendant and the Squirtle that waved on his shoulder.

"I think he's one of the youngest Champions to date," the female went on, "But no one is gonna beat Iris on that record. Not even come close." She glanced at her register...or rather the total that was on it.

"18700 Poke, it looks like," she flipped her hair behind her head once more as she stared at Ak-Mun for a reaction.

Ak-Mun handed over his Poke card for the transaction. Ak-Mun had a rather excited reaction towards the purchase as he went on with his new shenanigans. The card would be declined. Ak Mun acted baffled to the situation and quickly pulled out his custom pokedex.

"Man, I just checked the account. Give me a minute and let me check it again." Ak Mun mumbled in a fake embarrassment as his fingers and eyes focused on his Pokedex.

Ak-Mun was well aware of what he was doing. Earlier he had transferred his funds into another account and set the stage for a denial. A blue light flashed on the top of his Pokedex and Ak-Mun looked up and grinned.

"Try it now." Ak-Mun spoke to the clerk.

Again the card would fail, but this time Ak-Mun quickly pulled the screen back to his account and showed it to the clerk, "You can see the Poke are there. What do you think the deal could be?"

The specific card Ak-Mun was using wasn't even the right card but wanted it to remain near the card system to record the transaction coding to reach the account, or at least where the system coding responded in a insufficient account. Ak-Mun began to mess with his pokedex again and using the tunnel to the stores account, he was able to find a tunnel into a customers account worth stealing from. There was no big move made, nothing to signal the systems.

"I got it! One more time!" If the card was ran again, the Pokedex let the blue flash off again, "It's letting me know a large purchase is being...(Beep)...Damn, my Pokedex just timed out for daily file cleaning. I'll have to reset this Pokedex, just give me a second, can't finalize purchase without approval."

Ak-Mun acted as if he shut the Pokedex down. A few moments later Ak-Mun was playing with it again and the blue light flashed, "Okay, now." When the card was ran again, Ak-Mun quickly 'approved the transaction' which took five seconds to register with the systems, keeping them focused on the Poke credit machine instead of him. In the five seconds, Ak-Mun was rerouting a large sum of Poke from someones account(possible Team Rocket somebody?), someone very wealthy with Poke, and rerouted a large chunk of it to his account. This money meant he didn't have to do it again. The transaction would continue as normal, as if nothing had happened, and the sale would follow through. Ak-Mun had the Poke in the account after his transfer and the stolen Poke went to the alternate account.

"I'm sorry for the trouble. Thank you for the items! I'll be back one day!" Ak-Mun spoke as he took his items and quickly shot off.

The clerks were unaware of exactly what kind of transaction was taking place. Ak-Mun had calculated that part perfectly, the store clerks not observant enough to realize that that wasn't a real card, not proactive enough to truly seek out the issue with they payment method. The male clerk even watched from afar, appearing confused by Ak-Mun rather than by the transaction, but other than that, no suspicions were tossed in his direction.

"Have a great day! Good luck on your journey!" the female clerk called as Ak-Mun bolted out the door.

But Ak-Mun had made one fatal mistake. Something that would actually give him a reason to run. Something worth running from. Ak-Mun had planned every step perfectly. Every calculation was correct. Nothing could stand in his way...except one factor that made enough difference to turn a success into a failure.

He never checked whose account he took from.

---

"What the-" Winter muttered as he checked his Poke balance and found it considerably lower than when he first got here...much lower.

One of the perks of being a Champion was the pay. Of course, that wasn't Winter's main reason to try for that title against Lance. The Poke never interested him as nothing more than a means to survive. It's why he had so little going into that fight. But ever since he won that battle and claimed the title, he had more than enough money to probably buy everything in the Celadon Department Store and then some. Until now, anyway.

"Hey Lucky," Winter called his Squirtle over to his side of the hotel room, "That looks lower than it did, right?"

Winter checked the PokeDex and scoffed at him as if to say, Yeah, but what's money to you?

"I know, I know, money really isn't an object to me," Winter couldn't stop staring at the number in front of him, "But something seems fishy about this." He sifted through the information, skimming the unimportant until he landed on "Previous Transactions". Clicking it, he watched the display fill up with a list of all the transactions he'd done in the past week. The most recent one read:

Money Transfer- Account Number 3745961 to Account Number 2774857 - 130,000 Poke

"Huh...I didn't authorize this," Winter mumbled. Now Lucky was peering over his shoulder, watching Winter's actions and paying attention to what was showing up on screen. "Welp...let's find this person."

Another perk about being a Champion was it gave him access to the criminal database of the region. Any recorded crime that has been committed in the Kanto/Johto regions was there, typically with a suspect of some kind associated with it. Winter pulled it up and plugged the account number in, seeing what he could find.

The first name that came up was Ak-Mun Shiniga, a Team Rocket grunt who was craftier than most. He was wanted for embezzlement as well as something in relation to his parent's history...something in relation to his Pokemon. Also known as Winter's first order of business as the champion of the region. Looking at the picture associated with it, something seemed familiar about the face...he'd seen this boy before...very recently.

"You stole from the wrong mofo," Winter mumbled before closing his PokeDex, sliding it into his back pocket, and proceeded to gather his belt. "Come on Lucky! We got ourselves a criminal to catch!"

"SQUIR!" A very determined Squirtle hopped on Winter's back with one jump from the bed that professional acrobats would envy. Hurriedly, they made their way onto the street to find Ak-Mun.

"Damn that was a good payout. Time to evolve some Pokemon!" Ak-Mun muttered to himself as he exited the store and stepped into the road.

"Charmeleon! Magikarp! It's time to evolve!" Ak-Mun spoke as he threw his two Dark pokeballs and let out his pokemon.

"Charmeleon, you're first!" Ak-Mun spoke to Charmeleon as he walked over and petted him on his head.

Ak-Mun would press the Firestone against Charmeleon and watched as a red energy began to emit. The air would instantly getting hotter as the red energy began to form into a ball around Charmeleon. While Charmeleon was evolving, he moved to his Magikarp and pressed the stone to it. The Magikarp in all fairness seemed very pissed off and its blackened scaling didn't make it look any nicer. When the Water stone was put to the Magikarp, a black energy began to pulse around it. This energy would knock Ak-Mun on his rump and pushed the newly formed Charizard sideways.

The Magikarp sized orb was now a lot large and cracked with red bolts of energy. The Dark Charizard and Ak-Mun stood next to each other as they watched this Magikarp evolve. Ak-Mun thought he just stole a pissed off Magikarp, but it was becoming relevant that this Magikarp was more than just mad, it was unique. As the evolutionizing magic vanished, a large shining Garydos that was black and red let off a massive roar.

Dark Charizard and Ak-Mun just stared at the mighty beast for a moment. Charizard stepped forward and communicated with the black Garydos.

"Do not be mad at our Master! We rescued you from that place!" Charizard pleaded with Garydos.

"Fire dragon, I know who our Master is, and I thank him. Even as a Magikarp, I wanted to thank him, but now I can!" Garydos spoke to Charizard.

"I gotta say, even I am jealous of you. I wish I had your colors." Charizard spoke, "If you're one of us, we will be undefeatable!"

Charizard nodded to Ak-Mun and Garydos did the same to Ak-Mun. At that moment, they all realized they were team mates. Ak-Mun would stick his Pokeballs out to retrieve his Pokemon and make way to the Pokecenter where he would stage a trade with himself to evolve his Onix into a Steelix. The only Pokemon he could not evolve today was his Dark Metang. Knowing Ak-Mun's luck, he would run into Winter before he made to evolve his Onix.

Winter wouldn't have to look long.

As the Indigo Champion made his way through the very streets he called home, he prioritized his destination. He remembered that the Team Rocket affiliate had asked about the Celadon Department Store, specifically about items to evolve his Pokemon. It would be a great place to begin his search.

However, his search was over before it had even begun as Winter rounded a corner and turned to see Ak-Mun walking down the street, heading towards the Pokemon Center. He had his hands in his pockets and that familiar smug grin on his face. He had seen not even ten minutes ago and already his walk held more authority...his being felt more powerful. A dark aura seemed to emit from the boy...one that did not encourage a friendly demeanor.

Winter was at least rational. He wasn't going to call Ak-Mun out on the street and start a scene. He wanted to deal with this...fop, in private. Where no one would be watching and no one would be holding cameras. The best way to take down a Team Rocket affiliate was in the shadows with no press. After all, the ill-intent organization held a much more powerful political stance in Ruula than many average citizens realized. It was best not to poke that bear.

"Oh hey buddy!" Winter walked up to him, a casual smile on his face and a lightness in his eyes that looked as innocent and naive as ever, "How was your visit to the Department Store? Did they get you everything you needed?"

As Ak-Mun was about to enter the door, he was stopped by someone talking in what seemed like his direction, "Hey! Yeah! Got everything I needed, thanks!"

Ak-Mun then turned back to the door and continued to walk inside. Normally, he might have talked a bit more, but at this moment he was wanting to stage his trade and evolve the last pokemon he could. While moving towards the stairs that lead upstairs to a trading room, the conversation the clerk had hit him, he knew who the guy was outside that tried talking to him. With a simple shoulder shrug, he dropped the thought completely and continued on.

As soon as he entered the room, Ak Mun placed two Pokeballs on each side of the trade machine. He then moved to the computer that controlled the trade.

"Would you like to trade Pokemon today? Yes or No."

"Yes."

"Would you like to add or remove items before trade? Yes or No."

"Yes."

"Please attach item now!"

Ak-Mun went over to his pokeball that contained his Dark Onix and attacked a 'Metal Coat'. It was a simple method to attach the item instead of drawing out his Onix inside the Pokecenter. The young man quickly tapped a few keys on the computer to input his completion of item attachment.

"Trade activated!"

The small machine let out a red glow while Ak-Mun watched the pokeswap on the computer screen. After a few seconds a beep went off and signaled the completion of the trade. Ignoring the follow up message being given by the trading machine, Ak-Mun scooped up his Pokemon and rushed downstairs where he would then set his Pokeballs on the counter.

"Can you heal my Pokemon right quick? They might not need it, but I just want to make sure they're healed for my trip."

"Ah, Yes! We can heal your Pokemon. It will only take a few seconds." The nurse spoke as she took the Pokeballs and placed them in the healing machine.

The pokemon healing machine would glow red a few times and beep when complete. The nurse removed the Pokeballs from the medical machine and set them on the counter before turning her eyes to Ak-Mun. The young nurse would bat her thick eyelashes at Ak-Mun while she watched him gather his pokeballs.

The woman never removed her green eyes off the young man and brushed her bangs out of her eyes, "I hope you have a safe trip and don't get into any trouble!", winking as she said the part about the trouble.

Ak-Mun stared blankly and slightly blushed when he felt her green eyes piercing his. Women didn't tend to look at him this way, but maybe she was into bad boys? Ak-Mun didn't know, nor did he care at the moment what her interests were.

"We'll see about that." Ak-Mun responded as he checked to make sure his pokeballs were secure.

The nurse continued to eye him from head to toe, "Well, if you ever need your pokemon healed and you're in the area, come and see me! And if you ever get into too much trouble..." She spoke the last part as she slid him a paper she wrote her number on.

Ak-Mun took the paper and stared at it akwardly before turning his eyes back to the woman who was batting her eyes at him and giving a rather enticing wave good bye. Ak-Mun took it as the conversation was over and that she expected him to come back around by not making him waste time.

"Thanks! What if i'm not in trouble?" Ak-Mun asked her as he tucked the number into his pocket.

The nurse just giggled and waived at hime, "That's up to you! Now you better hurry, that trip isn't going to happen if you're standing here!"

The young poketrainer nodded as he turned around to leave. Now his mind was stuck on the pokenurse and he completely forgot what was around him. With a loud 'thud', Ak-Mun walked straight into the sliding glass doors on the front of the Pokecenter. Ak-Mun turned around to see if he had been seen, and he knew he was caught when he saw the cute pokenurse giggling and waiving once again at him. He cleared out his throat and tugged on his shirt as he made sure to walk through the doors this time instead of in them.

When he was a few feet infront of the door, Ak-Mun pulled out his custom pokedex and began to input the number. He was sure someone was outside, but this was first phone number gave to him; meaning he didn't try to get it, it just happened. When he was done, he closed up the pokedex and put it back in his pocket. Then, with a quick glance around him, he noticed Winter still outside.

"Sorry, I was meeting someone to trade pokemon with and couldn't be late. You know, I might be wrong, but if you're who I think you are, there's a lot of people here who are your fan... What's your name?" Ak-Mun spoke as he walked over to Winter.

As he finished up his words and was in mid walk, Ak-Mun pulled out a rolled up herbal substance in a natural hemp paper. He'd place this herbal cigarette to his lips and pull out a 'Zippo' to light it. After a few puffs, the herbal cigarette had a glowing orange tip and was letting off a scent that smelled like Pinap Berry and skunk.

Winter's brow shot up curiously as Ak-Mun seemed to pay no attention to him or his presence, walking in to the Pokemon Center with nothing more than a few placeholder words it seemed. The Indigo Champion pondered this. What was so important that he couldn't be bothered?

"Squir!" Lucky stood by the entrance, giving Winter a sign that he was going to stay out here and be on the lookout. Winter nodded

Silently, Winter followed after him, keeping a careful distance away as the Team Rocket affiliate approached the stairs that led to the trading terminal. Quickly grabbing a newspaper, he waited until Ak-Mun was out of sight and then followed behind. The newspaper was just a precaution, not just in case Ak-Mun chose to look behind him, but in case other people recognized him as well. He had quickly become accustomed to the popularity curse Titania placed upon him and had some very simple evasion strategies that could be implemented at any time. He had come to Celadon City prepared.

Reaching the top of the stairs, Winter opened the newspaper and hid his face behind it, leaning against the wall casually so as to not attract attention. He would give timed curious glances towards Ak-Mun as he performed the trade. He watched the teen pull out a metal coat and place it on one side of the trading terminal. The Pokeball on the other side, Winter would presume, had no Pokemon in it. This clued him in as to what he was doing. He was trading to evolve something. And the Metal Coat was a pivotal ingredient to help him. This meant he could be evolving only one of two Pokemon: A Scyther into a Scizor or an Onix into a Steelix. Nothing coherently evil in nature, Winter knew. But he still stole money from a champion and that wasn't excusable.

He took all this information in stride, looking down at the newspaper once more when the transaction at the trading terminal was complete. He heard Ak-Mun's footsteps walk past him, not even realizing that the same boy he'd talked with in the Pokemon Center beforehand was the same boy he'd just ran into on the street was the same boy who was reading a newspaper watching him. All in all, things were going well. Winter waited a moment before going down the stairs. It was confrontation time.

As Winter sneaked his way around the outer corner of the room and to the outside, he gave another passing glance to Ak-Mun, who was healing his Pokemon. Did Ak-Mun have a previous scuffle beforehand? Winter didn't know, but it certainly seemed like it. He was talking with the other Nurse behind the counter as the nurse seemed to get a bit flirty. Rolling his eyes, the Indigo Champion sauntered outside and immediately looked to his left. Lucky was standing there, a lollipop in his mouth. He looked up when he saw Winter and gave a casual wave.

Amused, Winter couldn't help but smile, "Where'd you find a lollipop? I wasn't even gone two minutes!"

"Squir!" Lucky pointed across the street to a vendor who was walking around with a trolley, giving all sorts of sweets and treats.

"And how did you accumulate enough Poke to get one of those?"

The Squirtle didn't answer, just casually shrugged. He was just as amused by this as Winter was.

It was at this moment that Ak-Mun proceeded to step outside, "Sorry, I was meeting someone to trade pokemon with and couldn't be late. You know, I might be wrong, but if you're who I think you are, there's a lot of people here who are your fan... What's your name?"

He had pulled out an herbal cigarette and proceeded to smoke it. The smell of burnt Pinap and Skuntank permeated the air. Winter actually had to step back a pace to continue speaking without coughing. Lucky would be fine so long as he didn't hop onto Winter's shoulder.

"It's Winter," Winter crossed his arms and gave the Team Rocket Affiliate a cynical look, "And you have something that belongs to me."