The Cycles

First topic message reminder :

The night was dark as a trio of teens neared the lab where a pokemon research center resided. The group mumbled between each other and constantly shushed each other as they made their way towards the window.
"Who's going to go in?" a masculine voice asked.
"I'm not!" A feminine voice snorted.
"Then why are we even here?" another female voice snorted, "If we're found here, we're DEAD. You hear me? My mom is already mad enough to keep me out of the house, do you really think I want another month added on to her anger?" This particular female had the name of Paige, she was medium of size, had blonde pixie cut hair, and two silver studded earrings. The group wore dark clothes and were sneaking about, the other two teens were her friends, Finch and Hinya.

"They have pokemon, and all I-I Mean we, have is a Drowzee and Paige's Froakie,Oshawott, and that black and white thing" Hinya huffed.

"That THING is a Tanussion, and Tawn and the others have names too!" Paige hissed in defense of her pokemon.

"Whatever, just go in and get us some pokemon!" Finch huffed.

"I'm not going in-hey! What are you doing!" Paige began to speak only to be interrupted as Finch grabbed and held her arms behind her, stepping back far enough so she could not back kick him in the groin. Paige looked in front of her, demanding the meaning of this to find a drowzee's hypnotic eyes and chant taking control of her.

Her struggles grew weaker until she stopped struggling at all, and she was under a complete hypnosis. She was a mindless drone now, as she opened the unreasonably unlocked window, maybe the lab was a little TOO trusting, and stepped in. A bag was tossed in after her, and her two "friends" guarded the window entrance for any sign of someone coming while they awaited their minion to get them their prize.

Paige made her way through the lab, searching for the pokeballs that held lab pokemon. She could not control herself, nor was conscious of her actions. All that mattered to this mindless robot was getting the job done by any means necessary.

"And who would do that to you?" asked the professor, figuring that if this girl didn't want to steal the pokemon, then the people who did should be found and punished accordingly. Reese said nothing, though she had been about to ask roughly the same question as Prof. Maple had. Instead she awaited the thief girl's answer. Reese still wasn't entirely sure about this whole ordeal. The girl seemed to be telling the truth but it just seemed so convenient.

"I'm not going to tell you!" Paige snapped defensively, "Do I look like a snitch?" she hissed. Froakie began to sense her owner's anger and in turn became angry as well, releasing an irritated croaking sound with a mean look in its eye. Tawn's white fur was raised as her tail stood straight up, pokemon often shared feelings with their trainer depending on the bond, and Tawn was both scared and angry.

Paige paid no attention to her pokemon, thinking that she still needed them out just in case the other pokemon the other girl had decided to attack. She felt like a rat cornered by not one but two cats, she wasn't the kind of rat to roll over with its belly up but would rather go down fighting, maybe the cats would ruin their meal too much for her to be eaten during the fight and wouldn't get what they wanted in the first place.

The professor narrowed her eyes a little at Paige as she refused to tell, crossing her arms.
"'Friends' of yours then?" she asked, both ginger haired females watching Paige's reaction carefully at these words, "You're only going to get yourself into more trouble than necessary if you continue to protect them. If you can't tell even me, then the police will just take your hypnosis story as an excuse and arrest you."
What Professor Maple was saying was, unfortunately, the truth. There would be no way for Paige to get out of this unless she outed her friends, after all unless she did so, she would look like the guilty party as her claims would stand for nothing if she could not give a name, or even a description, as to who had hypnotised her.

None of Reese's pokemon had any intention of attacking Paige and her pokemon again unless they were provoked, or Paige decided to try and make a run for it again. Nevertheless the remained calm in the face of the animosity displaced by the three before them.

Paige's face was stone as the professor had guessed correctly. She was once again cornered in that area too, when was she going to NOT be cornered!? Although it was against what she believed, she figured she had no choice but to rat. She would rather be known as a snitch rather than the kid that went to juvie. She gave a huff and mumbled, "Yes."

She crossed her own arms and looked away, not liking what she had done one bit even though it was necessary to save her own skin. The irritation was written plainly on her face, "Would you two chill?" she whispered to her pokemon even though she herself was not "chill."

The froakie looked at her trainer uncertainly before relaxing, as did Tawn. The two stopped showing aggressiveness and seemed to relax a bit more, though were still on edge because of their trainer.

Reese let out a small breath she hadn't realised she'd been keeping in as Paige called for her Pokemon to stop being so aggressive. Satisfied now that the not-so-thieving-girl wouldn't do anything rash, Aerona halted her circling and landed neatly on Reese's shoulder. Reese proceeded to gently pet the Steapie, glad that she had the skills to train such an unruly Pokemon, as they sure were loyal when you had their trust.
"Perhaps you should sit down, and we can call the police and get this matter sorted," suggested Reese, gesturing to a comfortable couch on the other side of the room. Isolde and Aiden turned and headed back to the library where they had previously been sleeping, hoping to catch a little more shuteye before the night was up. Ryuu and Aerona however stayed put, the Steapie on Reese's shoulder and the Eevee following it's trainer protectively.

"I think that's a wise idea," smiled professor Maple warmly. She paused for a moment before continuing, "Oh how rude of me, we should probably introduce ourselves. I'm Sarah Maple, and I own this laboratory."
"I'm Reese. Cartwright if you need a last name," she introduced herself before nodding to Ryuu and petting the Steapie on her shoulder once more, "And this is Ryuu and Aerona."

Paige grudgingly gave off the games of her and her pokemon, "Paige, the Froakie is Croak, The oshawott is Shelly, and the Tan is Tawny."

"I'd rather we NOT make a big deal out of this though," Paige huffed, this was the kind of situation that would be all over the region. She could already see the headlines, "Girl Hypnotized to Steal from Pokemon Research Lab! Why You SHOULDN'T Allow your Kids to Go Out at Night!" The media would probably be all over her house, wanting questions, and answers. They would want to know her every day life, find SOMETHING that caused her to hang out with such friends and what compelled her to steal. She dreaded the very thought of hit, but a tiny part of her wondered if she was just over-exaggerating things in her mind.

"I wouldn't worry about it, dear," replied professor Maple with a yawn as she and Reese wandered over to pick up the pokeballs that were still scattered across the floor.
"I apparently have quite an influence around here. I can ask the police to keep it quiet," she smiled warmly, replacing the pokeballs on the shelves. In her tired state she had just placed them wherever and as soon as Prof. Maple turned away, Reese quickly switched them around so she wouldn't forget which one was where when it came to waking the pokemon in the morning.

Reese soon had the last of the pokeballs in her arms and Prof. Maple turned to find the phone in the room. Dialing the personal number of someone who she knew would be on duty, she began to explain the situation. Reese meanwhile finished re-organising the pokeballs before sitting down on the couch that she had previously pointed out to Paige. Ryuu took advantage of her sitting position and quickly hopped up onto her lap, curling up and attempting to catch up on his sleep as Isolde and Aiden had decided to do earlier. Aerona had fluttered onto the arm of the couch as Reese had sat down.
With a yawn, Reese's green gaze rested on Paige once more. "So, Paige, do you live nearby?" she asked, trying to make friendly conversation rather than sit there in a silence that would prove only to be rather awkward for the both of them.

"I'd rather not say," Paige huffed, she couldn't really call her house a home right then because she was not technically allowed in the house. Well, it wasn't like she was being kept out intentionally, just her parents scare the crud out of her when they were angry and she didn't want to face them and their rather harsh punishments. Paige remained standing as she waited for...something. She wasn't sure what she was waiting for exactly, to be simple she wanted to get the heck out of there. Then she would have nowhere to go. Paige returned Croak and picked up Tawn, who remained uneasy since her trainer was still uneasy, "Look...I'm Sorry...okay?" she found herself huffing in distaste.

"Whoa calm down. I was only trying to make conversation. If you'd rather not i'll just go back to bed and leave Professor Maple and the police to interview you and send you home," she replied, getting to her feet -though not before scooping Ryuu into her arms. He was nevertheless displeased about being disturbed again.-
Reese began to walk back towards the stairs when she realised that her Steapie had quite hurriedly fluttered up to the top of the shelves in the room when she had risen from the couch. Turning, back, she sighed, putting her hands on her hips rather crossly.
"Aerona," she said simply but sternly.
There was a slight hesitation in the Steapie's movement in which Reese's green gaze glared up at the magpie pokemon. After a few moments of this, Aerona finally fluttered off the shelf and over to Reese, dropping something which Reese caught in her now outstretched palm. Aerona fluttered straight upstairs in a huff and Reese turned to Paige, waving a shiny cell phone before she gently tossed it back over to her.
"I'd keep an eye on anything of yours that's shiny around her," she blinked nonchalantly before turning once more to head back upstairs, Ryuu flicking an ear from where he was being held in Reese's other arm.

The clock ticked noon as Paige climbed out of her window. She had told the police everything, and they had surprisingly listened and believed her. This was a first when it came to authorities under the law. They brought her home to her astonished mother and stern father, who had acted nice until the police left, saying that they believed her as well. When they had left they had immediately grounded her and expressed how much they didn't believe her. Paige had merely ignored them, which only made them angrier but at this point she didn't care, and went to bed. When she woke, she had remembered that Maple had invited her to visit for some reason. She had decided that going there would be better than staying around in her room all day. Besides, who knew? Maybe the the professor was going to give her a pokemon as a sorry for her oshawott being injured to the point of being knocked out. Paige highly doubted it, but it would good to be optimistic to some degree.
Paige arrived around one pm, wondering where to go and what to do. She was at the lab's front door and had already knocked/rang the doorbell, but she was used to just barging into places whether it was to steal or to visit one of her "Friends".

A bright eyed Professor Maple answered the door with a cheerful smile and a greeting of, "Afternoon, Paige," before showing her inside. Reese was nowhere to be seen, but that was clarified by Prof. Maple a few moments later. Reese was actually outside, spending some time with her Pokemon and continuing their training. Her and her pokemon's constant seeking for improvement was what enabled them to so easily best Paige's pokemon the night before, even without Reese's directions. Of course, Reese's natural talent for bringing out the best in her pokemon certainly aided that process too.
"So how did it go with your parents?" asked Prof. Maple. She was only curious, after all the police had taken her and Reese's statements before taking Paige's and then taking Paige home. She didn't know what had happened after that.

"It went fine," Paige stated, lying. She had to sneak out to even get here. When her parents found out she had sneaked out they would surely be even more furious, but eventually the fury will fade and they will cease to even care like they usually did. It was a process, get in trouble, get grounded, disappear for a few weeks, come back. That's how it went, but Paige was getting tired of it. Each time she would stay away longer and longer. She wondered when it would just become the time where she just didn't go back.

Professor Maple could tell that Paige was lying, -she and Reese were rather skilled in that respect- however she chose not to pry, instead respecting the girl's privacy and leading her out to behind the laboratory where Reese was occupied with her Pokemon in the large open area.

Isolde and Aiden were sparring with each other in one corner, their strength practically matched and easily cancelling out each others moves with their own. At the same time they appeared to be practicing move combinations that presumably Reese had taught them before now.
Reese herself didn't notice Paige and Prof. Maple as they came outside, being so absorbed in helping Aerona to develop her Hidden Power move. In it's basic form, Hidden Power wasn't really very impressive, but it was definitely very versatile once mastered correctly. Aerona's Hidden Power was in fact ground type, and so Reese, with the help of Ryuu, was developing a way for the Steapie to use it in order to tunnel beneath the ground and catch the opponent unawares.
"Alright, Ryuu use Swift! Aerona like we practiced! Hidden Power!" she called out.
The Eevee flicked his bushy tail before parting his jaws and letting a spray of star shaped projectiles fly towards the Steapie. Aerona in turn dived towards the ground in a spinning motion, activating Hidden Power and using it to control the earth and dig a tunnel through the ground. Despite this success, Aerona exited the ground in the wrong place, coming up in the center of the Swift attack.
Thinking quickly, Reese called out, "Flick the soil up around you!"
Aerona acted swiftly and did as Reese called, rising soil from the ground and flicking it at the star shaped projectiles around her. It hit them out of the way, causing them to spiral down and hit the ground, leaving the Steapie to hover in the air, unscathed.

Paige waited for either the professor to grab Reese's attention or for Reese to finally notice the two standing there. She watched the spectacle, but held no feelings towards it. She just didn't care for the training, she had very rarely trained with her own pokemon, but the "training" they did was using them to escape an issue or cause on inadvertently. The teenage girl spoke without looking towards the professor, "Sooo....why am I here?" Paige asked, sounding rather bored and unimpressed, since that was pretty much her casual tone.

"Oh yes!" blinked Maple as Paige woke her from her thoughts. However, before she could continue a sharp ringing sound came from her lab coat pocket.
"Oh, hold on, sorry about this," she replied with a hesitant smile before grabbing the phone and taking the call. Meanwhile Reese crouched down so that Ryuu could hop into her arms before rising to her feet and wandering over to Paige and the professor. Standing next to one another, one would realise that they almost looked like family even though they had no relation to one another besides mentor and student.
"Paige right?" she asked, "Welcome to the lab I guess." Aerona landed on her shoulder shortly before Isolde and Aiden joined them, wondering what was going on.

A few moments later, Professor Maple finished her phone call, snapping her rather old looking mobile phone shut and dropping it into her lab coat pocket once more and turning back to the girls with a grin on her face.
"So who fancies a little adventure to the next town over?" she asked. She paused for a moment but Reese merely blinked before Prof. Maple continued with a grin, "Why thank you both for volunteering!"
The kindly but apparently rather mischievous professor lead them both back inside with a wave of her hand, Reese quickly returning Isolde and Aiden to their pokeballs as she followed.
"I've actually run into quite a problem. I have a friend in Barkwood Town who wishes to find out more about a few specific pokemon. After discussing with him I offered to give him some of my own pokemon and I was supposed to take them to him today. I'd completely forgotten about it until he rang me just now so if you two could be dears and take the pokemon to him i'd be very grateful," she smiled, "I would do it myself but I have rather a lot of things I need to do today."