"The town of rugged mountains…" Naill read the signpost before looking up at the city before him. Pewter City, the place for his next assignment. However, there wasn't much of an assignment to begin with.

After his return from the pickup that almost went wrong, he had to give a debriefing of what happened after the other two members had. Naill kept his story simple, he collected the package and waited at the pickup point until the van arrived, adding that perhaps the guy handing him the package had ratted them out. He was heard before being told to wait for his next assignment.

"Go to Pewter City" that was all the message on his phone said. So here he was.

There wasn't much in Pewter City, Naill thought after entering it. A few houses, a Pokemon Market, a Pokemon Center, a Pokemon Gym and a Pokemon Museum. Naill headed straight for the Pokemon Center to wait for any directions that might come his way. A moment after he gave his Pokemon to the Nurse to heal, a young boy came rushing in with a Nidoran in his hands. He went straight for Nurse Joy, who took the Pokemon and asked the boy to wait. Naill changed his sitting place to be beside the boy.

"What happened?" he asked, trying to muster up whatever empathy he had. There weren't that many opportunities to show any empathy, so he feared he might not have any. Luckily the boy relaxed, meaning he did have some to use.

"I tried to challenge Brock for my Gym Badge" The boy wiped his tears. "But his Onyx was too strong for me to handle."

The Gym Leader had a powerful Pokemon… That sounded like the start of a good plan.

Naill patted the boy on the back before allowing him some privacy when Nurse Joy called his name.

"Does this happen often?" he asked the Nurse, motioning to the despondent boy on the couch.

"More than I like it" the Nurse sighed. "New trainers come passing through Pewter City thinking the first Gym is going to be easy. They all underestimate how strong Brock can be."

"A shame" Naill muttered, collecting his Zubat's Pokeball.

"Are you planning on challenging Brock?" the Nurse raised a brow.

"No no. The Pokemon League thing isn't for me" Naill smiled. He walked out of the Pokemon Center without another word, ruffling the boy's hair along the way.


Catching Brock's Pokemon would be the best-case scenario, but Naill was not aiming for the best-case scenario. Not yet at least. His Pokemon was too weak to stand against the Gym Leader. So he was doing the next best thing, hiding in an alley and waiting for defeated trainers to come rushing out, his Zubat perched on a building nearby. According to the Nurse, new trainers always come to challenge Brock and get their asses handed to them.

But she never told him how long he had to wait for these trainers to arrive. It was almost half the day gone before a trainer arrived and then rushed out with an injured Pokemon.

Zubat swooped in, using Supersonic. Much like Pokemon, humans did not get along with the move Supersonic. It irritates their eardrums and more often than not they will run from it if they have no way to fight it. Like how the trainer rushed away from it. Zubat flew around still using the move and the trainer had no choice but to run into the alley. At that moment Naill stood before him wearing a Gyarados mask. Zubat swooped in again, knocking the trainer out with a Wing Attack to the back of his head.

Naill stepped forward to check on the boy, taking his money and the Pokeballs he had on him. Only three of the ten Pokeballs had Pokemon in them, a Caterpie, a Pidgey and a Rattata. Naill pocketed them all, returned his Zubat and left the alley. He trashed the Gyarados mask not far from there and pulled out his phone.

"Requesting Pokemon Extraction."

Naill hit send and waited for a response while he walked. It came almost immediately.

"Connect the phone to a Pokemon Transfer Machine and send."

Naill had learned about those things. You'd usually find them in a Pokemon Center.


The Nurse greeted him with a smile when he returned.

"Haven't gone to challenge Brock have we?" she asked almost teasingly.

"Goodness no. I was training in the forest outside town" Naill smiled. "Can you tell me where the transfer machine is? I need to send a few Pokemon home."

"Just over there" the Nurse pointed to some video telephones. Naill smiled and thanked the Nurse before heading over to it. He saw a port on the device and connected his phone to it. The screen turned black and the words "Transfer Pokemon" appeared on it in green. Naill sent the three Pokemon over, the text changing to "Transfering" and "Transfer complete" in the process. After all three were sent, Naill disconnected the phone and left the Pokemon Center with a wave to the Nurse.

The moment he stepped out, a boy rushed towards him. It was the same trainer Naill had stolen from.

"Please help me!" the trainer begged.

"What happened?" Naill asked, internally relaxing. The boy was asking him for help, meaning he did not know it was Naill who stole his Pokemon.

"I was leaving the Gym when someone attacked me! They took my money and my Pokemon!" the boy almost cried.

Naill took the boy inside the Pokemon Center and handed his care to Nurse Joy.

"I'll go out and see if I can find him!" Naill stated before rushing out. But he wasn't running around the city looking for the guy who stole the boy's Pokemon. Why would he?

Instead, he pretended to do so before coming back. By then the police had been called.

"I don't know. It all happened so fast. One moment I was running away from a Pokemon trying to attack me and then I passed out" the boy wailed.

Nurse Joy noticed Naill coming back and raised a brow.

Naill shook his head.

"We'll look for this… mysterious guy that stole from you" the Officer frowned. "We'll let you know if we find anything."

The Police left without another word.

"Why don't you go and check out the museum? I'm sure it'll take your mind off of things" Nurse Joy said kindly, before looking at Naill almost beggingly.

Naill smiled and nodded, while on the inside he was not pleased. This would be the last time he's friendly to anyone at all.


The trip to the Pewter Museum had been more fruitful than Naill thought it would be. Now at a small hotel for the night, the sixteen-year-old thought back on what he'd seen.

The Museum displayed all the fossils found in the nearby Mt Moon, each one more magnificent to look at than the other. But it was not the displays that made the Museum visit fruitful. While there the boy accidentally touched a display glass. It triggered the Museum security and the police were called. The misunderstanding was cleared immediately and the police were sent away.

Naill learned that each display had sensor-based security other than the guards strolling by. There were cameras on every corner of every floor, above every fossil on display. Naill saw where the security box to deactivate the alarm was, a sharp-eyed catch that he patted himself on the shoulder for.

He could break into the place after hours to steal the fossils on display. Use Zubat's haze to take away the visuals on the cameras and supersonic to confuse anyone who tried to stop him. Or he could cut the power entirely and do it.

His musings came to a halt when his phone buzzed.

Naill flipped his phone open and smirked at the text.

"Heist at Pewter Museum. Gather at the following location."