"The humans' moon lander launches an hour before sunrise tomorrow, Adrat." Boss Cleff hollered from his office. "Do not forget your duties again."
"Aww, make Eli do it," Adrat hollered back. "He's done that kind of thing before."
"That's the point, my boy," Boss Cleff shouted, a hint of anger creeping into his voice. "You've got to make yourself useful one of these days; I won't let you bum around in my house forever! Besides, Eli's coming with me to make sure everything's hidden on our end."
"Oh, fine." Adrat grumbled. "I'll do it, don't worry. Waste of my time, though."
"Do I need to remind you how important it is to complete that inspection?" Boss Cleff asked. "The council needs to know if –"
"'Blah blah blah council blah blah blah' is all I hear." Adrat interrupted. "I said I'd do it, and you've told me how 'important' it is like a million times already."
In his office, Boss Cleff sighed a sigh of worry and resignation. Adrat would go and perform the inspection up to the council's specifications, of that he had no doubt – but did he have to be such a smart-ass about it? The kid was a good worker, but his interpokemon skills left something to be desired. Boss Cleff sighed again, grabbed the bag of moonstones the council had sent him, and waddled off to talk to check on Eli's preparations for their trip to the moon.
Early morning at the Johto Space Center found Adrat flying low above the trees en route to the launch pad where the first human lunar construction vehicle was scheduled to launch in a few hours.
"Late late late damnit late late late damnit late late late." He chanted to himself, pushing even harder in an attempt to travel just a little faster – but no use. His Clefairy's body wasn't aerodynamic enough to permit faster travel. Curling into a ball would greatly reduce his drag and allow for much faster travel, but then he'd be flying blind, and that would be just plain stupid for an assignment as important as this.
"Stupid moon-runes," he muttered. "Stupid teleport rune." He wouldn't have to fly in to the launch site if he'd taken the time to master basic moonstone use, but each new rune took so long to get right, Adrat really hadn't been able to find the time. Or couldn't have been bothered to find it, really. And now here he was, stuck flying in to his assignment for miles, in the cold morning air, at low altitude, too, so there wasn't even a view. Adrat resolved to work on the teleport rune first thing after he got back from this miserable mission.
Adrat spotted the trees giving way to cleared grassland up ahead, and slowed down. One rune that all Clefas were required to learn was the "avoidance" rune – when active, passerby wouldn't notice the user unless their attention was specifically drawn to them. In this way, Clefas could pass through populated areas completely unnoticed, so long as they were careful not to disturb anyone or anything. Adrat dropped to the ground just inside the forest's edge.
After carefully checking to make sure he was alone and unobserved, Adrat retrieved a small, polished bit of moonstone and a stick of chalk from his travel pouch. He carefully drew the avoidance rune on the moonstone, and cleared his mind. A small glow, a tinkling of faraway bells, and a fizzle and a pop later, Adrat felt the familiar feeling of the avoidance rune taking effect – everything blurred for a second, and he felt as if a period of time had passed. About an hour, he guessed -- he had about an hour of what was, for all practical intents and purposes, invisibility. He put the chalk away and took off again.
Now cruising toward the launch pad at just above ground level, Adrat scanned up ahead for the humans' "security" measures. A chain-link fence with a hired pokemon security officer every 100 meters or so were all that stood between Adrat and the space center's launch pads. With the avoidance rune, he easily flew over the fence unnoticed and proceeded to the launch pad.
At the base of the humans' "Lunar Construction Vehicle," as the Johto Space Center insignia painted on the side proclaimed, Adrat paused to admire the vehicle. It really was quite impressive for a first spaceship. Admittedly, it wasn't the humans' first ever ship; they'd orbited their planet, put some satellites into orbit, and touched down on the moon's surface before, but this – this was a true spaceship.
The thing was gigantic, with four huge ("primitive," Adrat thought to himself) liquid-fueled rockets supporting the main vehicle, which was to carry enough people, pokemon, and supplies in hotel-suite luxury to construct a bare-bones moonbase.
"More like a moon-hut, really." Adrat mused. He'd seen the blueprints for the humans' base -- Boss Cleff had obtained a copy almost as soon as the humans had decided on them – and it was smaller than a typical human house. Still, thought Adrat, it wasn't a bad start.
He shook himself out of his reverie and started in on the meat of his assignment – checking out the humans' craft and determining whether or not it was fit for its journey. Fuel lines, insulation, rivets, plating, cooling, fuel, soundness of the material, controls, couplers – everything was fine in theory (thanks to a few covert revisions to the original design by Boss Cleff), but had the humans built it right?
Adrat felt a small twinge – his internal clock, ticking off a half-hour. Only one more half left before he needed to get moving. The launch vehicle itself checked out, but now Adrat had to check the "moon-hut" itself. The moon-hut to be assembled on the moon, from pieces sealed inside the launch vehicle.
Adrat alighted on one of the struts connecting the launch vehicle to its supporting tower, and pulled out his chalk and one of the two remaining moonstones he'd been issued by Boss Cleff for this assignment. Scratching out the rune for "immaterial" on it, Adrat let it shimmer into effect, then stepped through the walls of the launch vehicle, fur tingling with the energy of two runes.
This was the hard part – unlike the launch vehicle, there was no way to tell by examining the materials for the moonbase whether or not the humas would put it together correctly when they arrived – and that was just as important as whether or not they arrived at all. Boss Cleff's office had determined that if the launch or landing were to fail, the humans would not have the correct combination of will and funding to make another attempt for the foreseeable future.
Adrat chuckled. "Foreseeable future." The regional Clefa boss, Boss Cleff's boss's boss, was allowed access to the runes and moonstones needed to look and travel through time, so he could, in actuality, "foresee" a next attempt. But temporal runes were never used except in the most dire of circumstances – and a small human moonbase hardly qualified as a "dire circumstance."
"Lazy bureauclefs," muttered Adrat. "They could just look and find out, but instead they send me out in the cold to check everything by paw. Hmph."
The moonbase materials checked out, too. Adrat had to admit, he was impressed the humans hadn't screwed anything up. Feeling a twinge coming on, he stepped out of the launch vehicle just as the immaterial rune wore off.
"Avoidance should be off soon, too," Adrat muttered to himself, and reached into his bag for his last moonstone – time to renew "Avoidance" and get back to Boss Cleff's office. As he was etching the "Avoidance" rune on his stone, Adrat heard a shout from down below, on the launch pad.
"Hey! Hey, look! A Clefairy! I'll bet it's come to wish us good luck, didn't you, little guy?"
Adrat, panicking, hid the moonstone and chalk in one paw behind his back, and turned to face the speaker. Two humans, apparently two of the astronauts who would be launching in a couple hours, were looking up at Adrat.
"Clefairy!" Adrat cried out to them, waving his free hand and hoping that they'd leave soon – he couldn't be seen acting like anything other than a dumb wild pokemon, or the Clefas wouldn't be afforded anywhere near the privacy they had now, but he had to finish his rune and get out of there. "Well, I know 'avoidance' wore off," he thought to himself. "Peachy."
"Yup, that's good luck, allright," said the other astronaut, pulling out a camera. "Smile, lil' fella!"
"That settles that," thought Adrat, as he dived off the launch tower strut for the opposite side of the launch vehicle. Being seen was one thing; humans could miss details like the paw behind his back or his travel pouch in the heat of the moment, but later, looking at a static photograph, he wouldn't be so lucky.
The camera flash went off long after Adrat cleared the far side of the launch vehicle; he was safe, for now. But now that the humans were aware he was there, "avoidance" wouldn't shield him from their eyes – he'd have to wait until they left before he could escape unnoticed.
"Where'd ya go, little guy?" Adrat heard from down below. Clinging to the polished, perfectly curved, glossy white outside of the launch vehicle, Adrat's pink fur wasn't exactly inconspicuous – he'd be spotted for sure if he stayed put. Still somewhat panicked, Adrat let go of the launch vehicle and rocketed blindly down toward the base of the launch platform. He sensed the ground approaching and did his best to uncurl and slow himself, but it wasn't enough -- He slammed into ground next to the launch platform and scurried underneath, praying that he hadn't been too noisy.
"Here, Clefairy, Clefairy, Clefairy!" Adrat heard from up above. "Where'd ya go? We're not gonna hurt ya…"
Adrat held perfectly still, forcing himself to breathe slowly and quietly despite his pounding heart. For a few minutes more he heard footsteps and muffled voices from the launch platform as the two astronauts searched for him. Finally, Adrat heard them walking off toward one of the other buildings of the space center. Heart still pounding, he fumbled for his chalk and moonstone, finished the "avoidance" rune, and took off back the way he'd come, relieved that at last, his mission was done.