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Adam hit the ground hard, his sneakers muffling his fall onto the concrete. Haunter floated next to him, keeping an eye out for any trouble. Adam, only 14 years old, with his shaggy brown hair and skater gloves, looked more like a guy at a concert than a theif.

"Come on Haunter." Adam whispered, pulling his cap low over his eyes. His small backpack bulged with stolen Pokeballs. "Let's get home." He said and walked out of the alley way next to the research center and walked down the street as calmly as he could.

Adam let out a strangled yell as he hit the ground. He looked up at the girl. Just a girl. Not the police. His heart was pounding. "Watch where you're going." He said, pulling himself back to his feet.

The alarms in the research center began to wail loudly. The guards must have finally noticed the missing Pokemon.

Adam's eyes widened. Normally he had more time to get away. Still, he had to stay calm. Running would only draw attention to him. He looked back at the girl. "You ok? I need to go. Come Haunter."

"Haunter. Haunt Haunt" Haunter said, tugging on Adam's sleeve. He noticed that the girl was chasing after him. Adamn stopped and turned to face her. This was bad. He couldn't get caught up here! The last thing he needed was the cops trying to question him as a witness!

"You want something, girl?" He asked, keeping an eye out for any cops. If anything happened, he could always have Haunter use hypnosis.

Adam clutched the Pokeball tightly and watched the girl walk off. Well if she was going to find Officer Jenny, he really had to get out of there. "Come on Haunter." He said, putting the pokeball back in the backpack and zipping it up. "We've got to go."

Just then several police cars drove up to the research building, sirens wailing. Officer Jenny hopped out. "Everyone spread out! Look for anyone suspicious!"

This was not good. This was not good at all.

The young woman with short golden locks cursed under her breath repeatedly, her mossy green eyes always darting back over to the empty storage area from behind half-rimmed glasses. Her hands were getting fidgety; tugging at the hem of her soft green sweater-vest, brushing imaginary dust off her brown uniform-like dress, and hiding into the deep pockets of her pristine white labcoat.

The head professor had left the young assistant in charge of the lab while he and the other researchers attended a conference in the next town over. For the majority of the day, everything had went swimmingly. It was when she had let her Pokemon out for a quick stretch and some dinner that things began to take a turn for the worse. Magby, the youngest in the group, was feeling particularly rowdy that evening; going around and bugging the other members of the team. By the time he got around to annoying her main partner Ivysaur, he had ruffled Hoothoot's feathers askew, bugged the indifferent Tentacool into an almost irreversible grumpy mood, riled Electrike into a barking frenzy, and brought Rhyhorn - who was quite sensitive - practically to tears.

Instead of letting the baby Pokemon get to her with his antics, Ivysaur decided to give the young one a taste of his own medicine; a light PoisonPowder attack. Unfortunately, the toxic dust had gotten into Magby's eyes which made him start into a horrible bout of crying. Frantically, their trainer tried to remedy the situation by splashing some water onto the Magby's eyes. But if there was one thing Magby disdained more than stinging eyes, it was water. This only made him cry louder.

She was so distracted with trying to help her baby Pokemon, she almost didn't acknowledge the sound of the facility's alarm. She dashed over to the pokeball storage area as fast as she could - Magby still howling with pain in her arms - but only caught the slightest glimpse of the theif as he made his escape with all their research subjects in tow.

A phone call to the police and many minutes later, she was leaning against one of the stainless steel tables; practically a nervous wreck. Magby sat suprisingly quietly next to her on the table while Ivysaur leaned against her leg in a supportive way, the rest of them had been returned to their pokeballs. Just when she thought things couldn't get worse, she heard the 'whoosh' of the front glass double-doors open. The professor's voice rang through the sterile white-walled halls clear and true.

"Fiona, what in Arceus's name happened here?!"

Crap.

The head researcher - Professor Aspen - turned to officer Jenny, his face as bewildered as ever. "Honestly officer, I'd like to know the exact same thing!" He turned his attention back to his assistant. "Well? Spill it girl, where are all the Pokemon at?"

Professor Aspen was quite the spry and lanky older man, he barely looked thirty-two despite being at least ten years older than that. His shaggy orange hair always looked awry - no matter how many times he combed it out - with the first hints of silvering hair in his sideburns. He had these eccentric purplish-blue eyes that always made one wonder what he was up to. Because of the conference he attended, his clothes were only a little wrinkled, which kept him from looking like a homeless man as he usually did. He wasn't usually this intimidating, but considering the circumstances, it was quite appropriate.

"Well, uh..." Fiona began nervously, Magby getting up to hide behind her. "My Pokemon and I were about to have dinner, but my Magby here got into a little trouble with my Ivysaur. I was preoccupied with fixing the matter when the alarm went off. When I got to the storage area, the theif was fleeing out the window with all the Pokemon!"

If she thought Prof. Aspen looked bewildered before, he seemed absolutely stunned now. "S-Stolen? ALL of them? How could you let this happen?!" He ran a hand through his unkempt hair in disbelief. "Did you at least get a good look at the crook?"

Fiona shook her head sadly. "the only thing I saw was that he was a brunette. I'm really sorry professor...."

Prof. Aspen looked at the empty storage, to Fiona, to the window, to her pokemon, and then back to her before letting his hand drop to his side with a sigh. "It's...It's alright Fiona. If you were having as hard of a time with that fiery little rascal as you usually do, I can't really blame you." He laid a long-fingered hand on her shoulder. "But that window is coming out of your pay! We barely get enough funding for our studies as it is."

Charise rubbed her Swablu's downy wings. "I don't think I saw anyone suspicious... I met a guy with a really scary haunter but no one really suspicious looking, I don't think. Yes, Nina?"
"Swablu, blu-uuu, blu! Swab!"
"Nina, you shouldn't accuse people like that... For all you know he was just in a hurry to get home with his granny's medicine or something! I'm sorry officer, my Swablu has been watching far too many espionage films lately!" She smiled serenely as she held her struggling Poke`mon who was now chirping frantically at the police unit's Arcanine and Growlithe.
"Swa-swablu-uu! Swabluu!!" ( I know what I saw now! Really!)
"Hush Nina!"
Nina ignored her trainer and continued to tell the other Poke`mon about the young man her trainer had spoken to.