The owner of Lumiose City's only bar ripped the door to his establishment open, and tossed an obviously drunk young man out onto the street by the collar of his jean vest. The owner looked down at the man on the ground, and angrily kicked him in the ribs. He had started a fight in his bar, the black eye the teen was sporting wasn't the only indication there had been a fight. Everyone still in the bar was raging, glasses were being smashed on the floor and punches were being thrown. After being assaulted, the teenager curled into a ball, and began mumbling about his buzz was being killed.
"Don't come back until you can behave!" The owner screamed down to the drunk man. He spit in his direction, then stormed back inside and slammed the door to go calm down and serve his almost sober customers.
He laid there for about an hour, and several people leaving the bar tripped over him. After the third tipsy woman in too high heels stumbled and kicked him in the face, he managed to sit himself up and eventually get on his feet. He ignored the bar he was kicked out of, and with his mind foggy with alcohol he stumbled to a Pokemart nearby.
His torn black sneakers shuffled through the sliding door of the store, but once he managed to drag himself in he had to blink a few times and squint just to adjust to the light. The woman behind the counter called out a meek hello, but all she got in response was a drunken glare as he ambled through the store. It took him five minutes to get to the coolers with alcohol in it, and the girl behind the counter could only watch as he jerked the door to the cooler open, and grabbed the first thing he saw. He turned to walk, or stumble, out of the door with the bottle of whiskey he picked up, and the girl finally spoke up once she realized he wasn't planning on paying.
"Hey, you can't just take that!" She cried out from behind the counter, and then instantly regretted her outburst. He had a sudden moment of clarity where he walked to the counter, looked her in the eye, and smashed the top of the bottle on the counter. Shattered glass and alcohol scattered on the counter, and the clerk timidly backed up to avoid flying glass and booze. Without looking away, he brought the bottle to his lips and took a big gulp before walking out, burping loudly. The door to the PokeMart snicked shut behind him, but before he left he slammed his fist on the glass pane of the door, earning a shriek of terror from the clerk.
He wandered around the city for a while, bumming any alcohol he could from people and trying to start fights with anyone who would pay any attention to him. But after a while he got bored, and he ran out of things to do and people to harass so he decided to go home. He manage to stumble and stagger out of Lumiose City to his hometown, Laverre City, past the outskirts of town to the abandoned lot he lived in.
The lot was located behind the Pokeball Factory. It consisted of two cars, both half sunken into the ground. The grass had died and withered away, food wrappers and various articles of clothing were scattered throughout the lot. Beer cans and liquor bottles were scattered around a dusty, once silver van that was now gray with grime. This was his home. The back window was the only window that could have been seen in or out of, the only reason being because it was shattered. Only a few fragments were stuck in the rear window pane, and the rest of the windows were caked in dirt and cracked. The front of the van was crushed and sunken into the ground, and a missing wheel in the back caused the entire vehicle to wobble.
The drunk stumbled into the lot, throwing the broken whiskey bottle onto the ground with the rest of them. He crawled into the van through the back window, cursing as he hit his head on the roof and then kicking the left passenger window in a drunken rage as a shard of glass dug into his arm. He finally slumped into the driver's seat, and dropped his feet onto the dash where the steering wheel should be. The radio had been stolen and the dash was busted open, wires were splayed out into the interior of the car and the carpet was stained with blood and vomit.
He pulled a dirty pokeball out of his vest pocket, and turned it around in his hand before pointing it to the passenger side of the car and releasing his only pokemon.
He had had Ignitus for for seven years. He was tossed into a trash can in Lumiose City when he was just a puppy, and had been found when a young teenager was digging through trash cans, hoping to get a hit or two off leftover cigarette butts. He found Ignitus in the bottom of a trash can, with a huge gash on his face and covered in leftover food.
He took Ignitus only because pokemon got a profit in the black market of Kalos, but after a few days of the little companionship the Houndour gave, he kept the pokemon and shelled out the only money he had to buy a pokeball.
Ignitus, now a Houndoom, sat up and stretched up in the passenger seat of the van as he snorted a hello to his trainer and wagged his whip like tail. The scar from his youth had left a huge pink gash on his muzzle, but it only added to the fear factor of the menacing pokemon.
"Hey buddy," He said, rubbing in between his horns. Ignitus' eyes closed in enjoyment and he showed his sharp teeth with a evil looking grin. After he was done petting his pokemon, he lifted the lever on the side of the passenger seat to lower the back of the chair, giving him somewhere to lay. Snorting again in thanks, Ignitus laid down and relaxed, glad to finally be out of his pokeball.
The man closed his eyes, leaning back in his seat. He tried to sleep, but after a few minutes he sat up and flipped the drivers side visor down to look in the mirror. His green eyes were bloodshot from his heavy drinking, smoking, and lack of sleep. His face was covered in grime and stubble was barely visible under the patches of dirt, the corner of his bottom lip was cut from the broken bottle and clotted with dried blood. He ran a hand through his long, dirty black hair, and then leaned back into the seat.
He looked himself in the eye in the visor, and scoffed. "Ah, Jimmy." He flipped the visor up and folded his arms behind his head, "What a fuckin' loser."
Ignitus opened an eye, looked towards his trainer, and snorted in agreement.
Break
Astrid wandered throughout Parfum Palace, strolling and twirling as she admired the elegance of the castle. Her Mime Jr. sat on her shoulder, and chattered on occasion as she pointed to pieces of artwork or the scenery outside. Astrid had managed to wander so far through the castle that she reached the entrance, and once she got there both her and her pokemon stopped to stare up at the golden statue of a Milotic. Reaching out, she placed a perfectly manicured hand on the Milotic's face, and smiled softly, "I might need to add a Milotic to my team… I could work it into a performance, it's quite elegant." She thought to herself, but her thoughts shifted once she lifted her hand away. When her nails clicked against the side of the pokemon's golden face, it echoed, and sounded hollow.
"Hmm…" She thought, and rapped her knuckle against the statue several times to verify her suspicion. "Most definitely hollow," She mumbled. "How unfortunate." She went on, tapping it one more time before walking away back into the labyrinth like castle. "Everyone and everything in this world is fake… Life has become nothing but a performance."
"Life is the hollow illusion of a beautiful piece of artwork."
"Nothing more, and nothing less."
Break
The next morning, Jimmy was woken up by several loud knocks on the driver's side window, then the sound of someone spitting and wiping the dirt off the cracked piece of glass With a splitting headache and a groan, he rubbed his eyes and looked out of the now partially clean window to see a stupid grin and a dirty face staring at him from outside. Ignitus was just as thrilled as his trainer, he only looked over to see who was making the noise before laying back down, uninterested in the closest thing his trainer had to a friend.
"What do you want Rico?" He asked, contorting himself to kick the door of the van open. He had to push hard to get the door open, but after a creak and a groan it opened, then fell off the van completely.
"Fuck," Jimmy spat as he lifted the door off the ground. The connecting scraps of metal were rusted and partially missing, there was no way to reconnect the door to the vehicle. "Now it's going to be colder than it already was at night." He complained throwing the door down, but his friends mood wasn't darkened by his own.
Rico danced around the lot, humming and attempting to rap before slipping on a beer bottle and landing on the ground hard. "Whatssuuup!" He shrieked, getting up and jogging back to Jimmy, who was feeling around his pockets before pulling out a crumpled pack of cigarettes. He fumbled around for a lighter, but after a minute of two he gave up and pulled one out of the pack before poking his head back into the van.
"Hey, Ignitus, gimme a light?" He asked, and his pokemon leaned over to lick the tip of the cigarette. It started to smoke, and Jimmy quickly puffed it a few times to get it burning before ducking out of the van.
"Hey, give me one," Rico whined, jamming his hand out.
"If you woke me up just to bum my smokes I'm going to kick your ass." He grumbled, but tossed the pack at him anyway. It hit him square in the face, and fell to the ground. Rico stumbled to pick it up, but instead chose to sit on the ground as he lit a cigarette and grinned up at his friend.
"Oh, no no no!" He interjected, showing the dimples under his dirty face. He threw the pack back at Jimmy once his cigarette was lit, "By tomorrow, you'll have enough money to buy the shitty pokemon factory you live behind."
He looked at Rico in disbelief before getting defensive, "You live in the Lost Hotel, don't act like you're so much better than me."
"We both have shitty lives, but that's not the point." Rico shot back. Ignitus gave up on sleeping and slinked out out of the van, and sat up next to his trainer. "Listen man, I got a great idea." He said in between cigarette drags.
"What is it?" Jimmy asked, uninterested and unconfident in his friends plans. A newspaper was thrown at his feet, and Jimmy picked it up and looked the headline over.
"The Carnegie Circus has made it's way throughout Kalos, and is hosting a special event in Parfum Palace."
"What's the big deal?" He asked, tossing it back. "You gonna join the circus and become a circus monkey?"
"No you dick, look!" Rico got up and shoved the newspaper back in his face. A grimy finger pointed behind the crowd of circus people, and to a golden statue of a pokemon. "That thing is solid gold, all we gotta do is break off a chunk and we'll be a couple of rich motherfuckers." He threw his cigarette butt at Jimmy, who's pokemon then shot embers at Rico.
Jimmy laughed, then threw his own cigarette butt on the ground. "Do you know how hard it is to break solid gold?"
"We'll bring a torch or a hammer or something," Rico added, "Or we can get that hellhound of yours to bite a piece off." Ignitus growled at Rico, but it didn't phase him. "Come on, what else do you have to do?"
"I could have stuff to do, besides, your plans never work." Jimmy said flatly.
"If it doesn't work, then we can just loot the people in the circus. Either way, we're getting something out of it." Rico replied, and Jimmy sighed finally before walking away without another word.
"Come on," He said over his shoulder. Both Ignitus and Rico trotted to catch up with him, but Jimmy pushed Rico away.
"I was talking to Ignitus."
Break
Astrid ran through Parfum Palace, giggling with her pokemon as she heard her boss screaming for her to come back. She couldn't tell his location, but regardless she ran down the second story main hallway, hoping to avoid him. She did have to stop, however, once she got to the middle of the hallway. Her gasping was a mixture of laughter and fatigue, but she soon cried out in fear when a large hand jerked her outside onto the balcony. She was pulled so hard her Mime Jr. was flung from her shoulder, but she was brought face to face with with an angry man and couldn't see where her companion was tossed.
"Where have you been?" He roared, his white mustache close to touching the tip of her nose. He held onto her arm tightly, but she somehow managed to separate herself from him and turn her back to him in a rude manner. Astrid stuck out her arm, and her pokemon jumped to balance on it, and shouted an angry "Mi mime!" at the raging man behind them.
"Good thing the crowd will be down on the ground, your breath stinks." She retorted, not looking back at him. It was unnecessary, he whirled her around by the elbow and looked down at her.
"Where. Were. You?" He repeated. He looked down at the gold watch he had on his wrist and then back up at her.
Astrid definitely scoffed, and lifted her arm to put her pokemon back in its place. "I was just looking around. Lose the temper and invest in some breath mints, Carnegie."
He raised a fist, but looked around and saw the rest of the people on the balcony and lowered the fist along with his temper. He smoothed out his gold, red, and black suit, took a minute to collect himself, and then began, "The show starts in two hours." he started, his voice calm despite the hateful look he was giving her. "You are not in your stage outfit," He motioned to her simple pink tunic dress, "And do you even know what you're doing on stage tonight?"
She paused and looked around, and realized she was the only one not practicing and in costume. Her friend, Valerie, was preparing her Vulpix for their fire act, and the Pyroar trainer Kazu was grooming his three Pyroar's fur. "My act is last," she justified her lack of preparation, "And I know what I'm doing." She declared, crossing her arms. "It's just going to be a big deal so it's a secret."
"A big deal how?" He asked, not buying her lie.
"It's something that has never been done." She taunted with a grin.
"It better be good." He hissed, his voice and gaze filled with ice. "The only reason I didn't leave you in Sinnoh after the explosion incident," He lowered his voice and emphasized 'incident', "Is because you're the top performer, and you have the most pokemon."
"Then treat me better! If you had it your way I'd be caged like the Pyroar!" She complained, but after her outburst Carnegie pushed her backwards back into the hallway.
"Quiet, now! Go get changed, it's getting dark so hurry. And DON'T pull another disappearing act, Astrid." He growled, "We'll discuss your recent behavior after the show." He pointed down the hallway after he saw she hadn't moved. "What are you still doing here? Get going, NOW!"
She stormed off down the hallway, but only to avoid him yelling and her having to smell his breath.
Break
"Do you see how many people are here?" Jimmy grumbled, pointing to the palace. A large crowd had began to gather, and there were signs attached to the gate to direct the crowd to the show. Ignitus trotted beside his trainer, and he occasionally whipped his tail around to annoy Rico by slapping him behind the knees. He wasn't fond of his trainers friend, Ignitus thought he was stupid and got Jimmy into trouble.
"That's the idea," Rico retorted, "Everyone is focused on the show, and nobody will notice that we're taking anything!" Rico laughed at his own plan until Jimmy got annoyed and slugged him in the jaw.
"Which way are we going?" He asked as they got to the golden gate entrance, and Rico shrugged and stopped walking. "Well where the hell is the statue?" He was met with a blank gaze.
"Fuck if I know, dude." Was all Rico said, and after he got a murder filled gaze from both Ignitus and Jimmy, he held his palms up and began stammering a defense. "It won't take long to find! I kinda remember what it looked like..."
"We walked all the way from Laverre City and you don't know where the hell this damn thing is?" Jimmy asked in a mixture of shock and anger.
"I didn't even know if you were going to agree to this!" Rico whined.
"Where's the newspaper then, let me look at it." He stuck his hand out, and Rico gave a sheepish smile.
"I uh, left it in the lot." He grinned so wide you could see his missing teeth.
Jimmy groaned and grabbed his friend by the front of his ripped shirt, "Come on, let's go with the crowd and see if we can find a way inside. It'll look weird if we go in from the front."
"What if someone asks where we're going?" Rico wondered as he was towed through the crowd.
"Just say you need to use the little idiot's room." Jimmy replied, swinging him forward.
"You're so smart." Rico said sarcastically, "And a real dick."
He punched Rico, then ignored him entirely as they joined the crowd in the back of the palace.
Break
Astrid meandered to the front of Parfum Palace, past the gate to Route 6, where the troupe's trailers were hidden in the tall grass of the route. She was in no hurry, and lazily entered her own personal trailer with a sigh. "This has lost the excitement it once held for me," She thought as she set Mime Jr. on her bed, then went to the bathroom to change her clothes.
"Cramped and mistreated, the only reason any circus performer or pokemon stays in a troupe is because there is nowhere else for a carnival freak to go." She sadly realized as she slipped into a black one piece bodysuit and ripped black tights. She grabbed the black and silver tuxedo jacket off the hook on the door, then buttoned the front so it ended mid abdomen and flared out in the back. She rolled up the sleeves as she left the bathroom and sauntered to a dresser, then picked around her jewelry box until she found two black chains and wrapped one around each wrist. She stepped into a pair of black heels that were discarded next to her dresser as she tied a silver bow tie around her neck, and to finish off the look she took the black top hat off her dresser and placed it on her head. She twirled it around until she found the chunk of the rim that had been bitten off by her Zorua, and positioned it so it was visible. She looked in the mirror and adjusted her blue hair and applied smoky makeup and bright red lipstick to add to her stage effect, and finally slipped in two silver hoops into the piercing on the right side of her lip.
She looked herself in the eye, but her gray eyes were dull and lifeless as they stared back. She broke the gaze and picked up her black leather belt with six pokeballs attached to it, and looped it around her slight waist twice before buckling it.
"Time to go, dear." Astrid called over her Mime Jr., who was still lounging on the bed. Mime Jr. popped off the bed and levitated to her trainer, but opted to float around her head instead of land on her shoulder or let her trainer carry her.
Astrid strolled to the door, but paused in the doorway. She looked down at the sword leaning on the doorframe, and picked it up then attached it to her belt. It was a prop, it wasn't sharp but it could deal a great blow of blunt force. "I'll use it with my act tonight… If I ever figure out what I'm going to do."
"Maybe I'll just bash Carnegie's head in."
Break
It was much easier to get into the palace than the the two anticipated. The crowd buzzed with excitement, the show had begun and the sun was beginning to set. They easily slipped into the palace, and nobody questioned them as they slunk through the halls. They could hear the crowd from inside the building, Jimmy hoped it would be enough noise for them to search Parfum Palace quietly. He searched the hallways thoroughly, and picked up the occasional small, but expensive decoration to pocket it in case they came up empty. Rico stumbled behind him without a care, but after Jimmy noticed he slapped him on the back of the head and whispered for him to focus.
Rico yelped in surprise after the assault, and his mouth was quickly covered with a hand to quiet him. Rico sputtered and jerked away before spitting and wiping his mouth, "Jeeze, your hand tastes terrible." He complained.
"Sorry, my wife and kids used all the soap from my three story mansion in Snowbelle City." Jimmy snapped. "Now shut up, you're going to get us caught. Where's Ignitus?" He asked, but he didn't need to wait for a reply. He saw a small burst of flames further down the hallway, and marched down the hallway towards the fire. His Houndoom sat below a staircase, his tongue lolling out and his tail wagging as his trainer praised him. "This way,"
They walked up the golden staircase in silence, but both men panicked as they saw the balcony, and realized they were behind the stage. They fled to the opposite side of the hallway, and stood close to the wall to try to hide in the shadows of the performance. Ignitus darted ahead of the two behind pieces of furniture scattered through the hallway, but once he was past the balcony entrance and in the dark of the hallway, he stopped and began to growl.
"What's he growling at?" Rico whispered, but Jimmy couldn't see that far ahead and just shrugged.
"Don't move," he ordered, "He's looking at some up towards the ceiling."
…
Astrid was sitting on the top of one of the pillars separating the balcony from the hallway, watching the two thieves quietly with her pokemon until a rumpled mess of a pokemon saw her and notified the two of her presence. It was snarling and looking straight at her, fire was licking it's fangs. She was thankful she was several feet in the air.
Mime Jr. whimpered and crawled up into her top hat, but the Zorua sitting in her lap wasn't as nervous. "Zorua… Imitate." She giggled gleefully, and her pokemon jumped from her lap, casting an illusion instantly as she landed. She snapped, and Mime Jr. teleported them into the shadows to watch from a safe distance.
…
At the snap and sudden impact of Zorua hitting the ground, both men jerked towards the noise and tensed up at the mixture of shock and fear. "What the fuck," Jimmy thought.
Zorua, with the illusion of Jimmy, slunk towards them in her best impression of the man. With an angry glare and fists jammed in pockets, she strode towards the two as they backed up in confusion.
"Now there's two?" Rico groaned, but his complaining held an edge of fear. Zorua said nothing, but quickened her pace to close the distance between them. She smiled evilly at the looks of fear the two gave her, but once Ignitus grabbed the illusion of his trainers pant leg, Zorua jumped in the air and with a flip, transformed into Astrid instead. Once she landed, she kicked Ignitus in the muzzle and hissed, sending the Houndoom skittering towards his trainer.
The illusion of Astrid stopped stalking Jimmy and Rico and waved at them with a flirty smile. The two thieves went from fearful to confused, but Rico quickly forgot the events that just took place because his focus was fixated solely on Zorua.
"Hey, look at her," Rico said slyly, nudging Jimmy. "Pretty hot!"
"Oh, why thank you!" Astrid made a grand appearance, and paraded from the darkness to stand beside her pokemon. Ignitus began to growl again, but Zorua just turned and wiggled her still visible tail as Astrid began to laugh. She bowed, and Mime Jr. teleported from under her hat and floated above the ground.
"You're one of those circus girls, aren't you?" Rico asked, "I bet you're flexible if you know what I-" Rico was cut short by a Water Gun attack. The Zorua, now an Empoleon, shot a massive blast of water at him, but both Ignitus and Jimmy were soaked with water along with Rico. All three of the circus performers laughed, and as the three thieves shook water off themselves, Zorua went back to her original form and jumped into Astrid's arms.
"We needed a bath anyway," Jimmy sighed, wiping his face clean. "The hell is that thing?" He asked, pointing to the Zorua.
"A Zorua," Astrid giggled, "We were bored. I'm the last performance and don't really have anything to do so I decided to mess with you," She explained, but she looked at the two men and then to the stage. She could see Valerie and her Vulpix on stage, Valerie was standing on a tightrope with her pokemon, and both were breathing rings of fire to the ground. Astrid stopped to appreciate the work that went into fire breathing, and nodded approvingly once Valerie and Vulpix leaped into the fire before she turned back to question the two men.
"What are you doing in here, the show is outside?"
Rico scoffed and with a smug tone said, "We're stealing the Milot-" He was clapped on the back of the head by Jimmy, and Ignitus whipped him in the arm with his tail.
"We're just trying to find a bathroom." Jimmy lied quickly. "This guy's really gotta go," He put Rico in what seemed to be a playful headlock, but he put enough force behind it to show Rico he was pissed.
Astrid snorted, and with a wave of her hand began walking back to the direction she came from. Her two pokemon followed her obediently, and Jimmy grimaced when he saw the sword she had strapped to her waist shine in the light of Valerie's fire spin trick. He thought Astrid was gone for good, but she paused before she disappeared down the hallway.
"You must have come in through the back. The statue you're looking for is in the front room, directly across from the entrance. You couldn't have missed it." She smiled slightly before turning down the hallway, leaving the two alone.
"Idiots, the lot of them. Going through all that trouble to steal a worthless piece of art. They will be sorely disappointed in their choices."
"But then again, so am I."
She sadly looked out towards the stage. She was the next act, but she had lost the excitement she once had for performing. Finally realizing her lack of time, she began to panic. She told Carnegie she had an idea that had never been done, and she had around five minutes to think of a mind blowing act.
Remembering the sword she had, she drew it and after a few seconds of her mind racing, she thought of a dangerous idea. If it worked it would be something nobody would forget, but if it didn't, she would end up sliced to pieces.
Before she went out on the balcony, she told Zorua what her plan was. Zorua almost didn't agree, but Astrid reassured her that she trusted her pokemon and that it would be fine. Reluctantly, Zorua turned into a big pink pokemon, and hoped she wouldn't accidentally kill her trainer on stage.