Ozzy Hendrix's Story

The story told seemed to be the same old one. Three birds, big bird, water, apocalypse, worship, pokemon, ash. All the usual. But Grace seemed wrapped. "I haven't come here in years! My mom used to bring me here all the time and she'd tell me the story along the walls like it was a book. I think she was reading off of a pamphlet... But it was still really cool. Do you know the story?"

Her finger jabbed at the starting point, as if she expected him to read out the rough jist of the images, almost a challenge in her eyes with the playful smile she wore.

Grinning at the challenge in her eyes, he moves to stand slightly behind her. Not too close, but not so far away either. Leaning forward slightly he is almost talking into her ear as he leads her along, brushing their hands along the drawings as he tells the tale. His voice pitched for effect.

"Disturb not the harmony of fire, ice or lightning, lest these titans wreak destruction upon the world in which they clash. Though the water's great guardian shall arise to quell the fighting, alone its song will fail, thus the earth shall turn to ash. Oh, Chosen One. Into thine hands bring together all three. Their treasure combined, tame the Beast of the Sea."

Finishing the tale he smiles, "I went there once actually, to Shamouti I mean. For the festival."

All of the touching and closeness was just a little too much and she went from stiff as a board to almost melting away from him, a mix of excited tingles and nervous shudders rushing through her as he spoke. "Oh cool, was it exciting?" she asked. She had never been to a festival, so it sounded exciting to her... The Ralts had suddenly taken an interest in something, leaving Grace's side to wander right past Ozzy, end of its short dress-like body brushing over his shoulder as it passed, like it was trying to guide his attention.

"It wasn't bad," He admits, not saying anything as she moves away. Still smiling he thinks back to the festival, "honestly, I think I liked the trip there best. Traveling is why I originally became a trainer." As the Ralts moves past he lets his eyes follow it, it was the first real reaction the thing had had since they'd met up and for some reason it raised the hair on the back of his neck.

The Ralts swept around on the spot, suddenly staring at Ozzy silently. Wait, not actually at Ozzy. Past him. There was a rustle of Grace's bag, then suddenly the snap of a pokeball opening. In a moments notice, if Ozzy turned, Grace's arm would be elbow deep in her backpack obviously stuffing something inside while a pokeball hit the ground with light red on the front. One pokeball was missing from Grace's belt too.

Eyes narrowing at the Ralts as he hears the happenings behind him, though the sharp look has already vacated his face as he turns quickly to catch the tail end of the encounter.

"Oh! Congratulations. What is it? Odd I didn't see it before it was on top of us." There is no accusation in his tone or bearing, but his mind is a completely different story. Something definitely just happened. What did I miss? Why was she in her bag? Questions just kept piling up.

Grace looked a little stunned herself, just staring at the ball for a moment before blinking. "It was a Claydol, I just wasn't thinking I just..." She walked over to the ball and scooped it up. A small smile crept onto her face. "Oh wow a Claydol, I didn't even know they were in this region, it must be super rare!" With a gesture of her hand the pokemon was cast from the ball again, just to affirm what it was, though Grace didn't seem to be watching it. She was watching Ozzy.

Whistling in appreciation Ozzy nods with a grin. "Good on you, I guess we can add that one to your list of exotic pokemon, huh?" Externally he's exstatic for her, his thoughts tell another story though.

What the hell? A claydol, how did I miss a Claydol? Not to mention, how is there a Claydol in a cave with even moderate traffic? He and Blake should have heard about that, something wasn't right, not to mention that Ralts had definitely distracted him while this was going on. Noticing her watching him, his grin turns from congratulatory to a more teasing/playful grin.

"What? Is there something on my face?"

"Yeah, jealousy," she teased before placing the ball on her belt. The Ralts finally drifted back to Grace and she hugged it, as if some sort of congratulations from the pokemon too. "I think its lunch time!" the girl suddenly announced, marching confidently for the cave entrance once more, pride clearly on her features.

Grinning he shakes his head while chuckling. Patting the pokeballs at his waist, "I think I'm good with what I've got." Following in her wake he contemplates what his next move should be, things were progressing smoothly, but strange things kept happening. Trust the boss to give them a job like this. "Lunch sounds good."

"Cool! Let's go get a table!" she said, wandering over to the cafe and looking for a good seat with a view. "Where should we sit?" Grace asked catching herself utterly indecisive.

"There looks good," Ozzy decides after only a couple seconds of deliberation, confidently making his way towards it. It was clean enough, and neither too close or too far into the sun, so it wouldn't be too hot, or too cold from the cool cave breeze. He lays out the food items he had bought earlier.

Grace took a seat and stared out over the hillside at the rolling forest below with a smile on her face. The Ralts settled next to her and in a moment she took out her lunch box and some pokemon food to share, leaving it in a container to the side next to the Ralts who just stared. "It's nice out here," she said idly staring into the distance, "Sometimes when things get too much for me I just want to run away and live in the forest or... Or just get away from the city."

The forest was truly a beautiful sight to behold from this vantage. The wind sweeping through the tree tops causing them to sway, almost as if they were dancing and the various bird pokemon flitting about. It was almost picturesque. "It's really beautiful," He says, while looking at Grace. Nice as it all was, he still had the job. "I can understand that," He agrees, while opening the cap on the juice he'd bought, He didn't say that he actually had run away into the forest the night before. That would be foolish on his part.

"Maybe I could go on holiday someday with the money I get from working," Grace joked, but she was leading up to something, "I'd invite you to come with me." She tried to play it cool, but there was a tell-tale redness in her face that just gave away she secretly hoped...

Inwardly stunned, this was going better than he could have ever hoped. The job was looking good. Letting his features soften, Ozzy leans forward, a soft smile on his lips, "I think I'd like that," He puts as much depth and gravity as he can into those five words, as he stares into Grace's eyes, an idle thought crossing his mind. I am a terrible person. He shrugs it off, he couldn't refute the fact, this was far from the worst thing he'd done, even if it was the most personal.

An elbow planted on the table and a hand was thrust in Ozzy's direction, a lone pinky extended from an otherwise closed fist. "Promise?" she asked with a grin.

Letting out a breathy chuckle, he grins right back, before plonking his elbow down onto the table his pinky coming forward to slowly entwine with hers. "Promise."

"Gentlemen, welcome!" Alexander Maycross greeted with a gesture of his arm to the side. Just down the road from the Golden Links Casino was a grand new business office managing all of the operations of Maycoss Industries on the Terran side of things. The portal to Ridgecrest gave ample opportunities for good business that let them spread their influence and raise the level of operations to be all the more intense.

Alexander Maycross was a tall man dressed in a fine gray suit and a matching trilby hat. At his belt, always, was six pristine and polished pokeballs, the team that had been with him ever since he had been disgracefully banned from being declared a the pokemon champion. But such things were in the past. Today he had guests! Well, employees, but he was going to treat them like guests. After all, this was their first physical meeting.

"Blake, Ozzy, so good to meet you both in person. I'm very excited to hear all that's been going on. Phone calls and text messages are so impersonal, just really sets the wrong tone. And I have an associate of mine who will be working with you just inside, but he's a little shy."

"Thank you for having us, sir," Ozzy says, his voice no nonsense but polite as he walks confidently forward. Any nervousness on his part well hidden from their esteemed boss, it didn't do to show nervousness in the presence of predators. He looks through his sunglasses at the new HQ, running a hand through his slicked back hair, something he'd had to convince himself to do for this mission, as he thought of it. Not a meeting with their boss, but a mission with his and his brothers jobs and lives on the line.

Ozzy had dressed up for the meeting, as would be expected when meeting someone like Alexander Maycross, he'd used some of their discretionary fund to by a fine black three piece suit and a dark red tie, the glasses had been a last minute edition by the sales girl, but he did like them, the long coat went well with it, and allowed him to conceal far more firepower than he would normally have been confident carrying on his person, and he was thankful for that. There were very few reasons their boss would want to see them in person, and even fewer of those reasons were benign. He only had a pair of pokeballs with him today, if things were to go bad, Vlad and Joey would be little more than a hindrance to him, he'd left them somewhere safe

"Of course sir, I've prepared a detailed briefing for you to bring you fully up to date on our ongoing operations." If things were to go bad it would be during that talk, he hoped it didn't go that way though. He was intrigued by the tell about an associate that would be helping them, but didn't let on other than a small incline of the head at the mention, far be it for them to turn down any help the boss thinks they need.