"It seems that they had a backup generator, after all." The slightly taller of the two, an individual with strands of dark blue hair poking out, glanced around the Centers confines. The tinted glasses acted almost as mirrors, allowing Tenmei to see his own reflection. "These children weren't a part of the plan.'

The black haired youth didn't react immediately, but that was mainly because he was still assessing the situation. The way they were standing, their clothes, their vocal patterns, even the the way they themselves were assessing the situation. There wasn't that much to garner since they hid almost every part that would be recognizable, but Tenmei did what he could with what was presented. A bad feeling was rapidly forming in the pit of his gut, a feeling that was shouting at him to IMMEDIATELY vacate the premises, to move away from the two newcomers as soon as possible.

And he had always been one to trust his own instincts.

"It doesn't matter," the other figure replied, a shorter female with red hair roots showing. "We don't have the time to deal with any incongruencies in the plan."

"Right."

The unknown female glanced over the three of them. "Incapacitate them."

"Everyone move!! NOW!!" Tenmei didn't even hesitate as he spun around, leaping over the Centers front desk with ease, hand lightly touching the countertop. "Don't let him touch you!!"

The clothed individual said nothing as the teenager made his move, merely making his own as the man erupted into a run, making a beeline straight for Autumn.

(("He's fast,")) Tenmei noted as he wrapped around the desk, Nurse Joy right on his heels. (("Won't be able to outrun him."))

Time seemed to slow down as the black haired youth took in the area, hues flicking in all directions. All options for a retreat had dwindled to single digit percentages, the man being too fast and Autumn still being too stunned to properly react to the newcomers assault. Whether Tenmei liked it or not, he would have to step into the mix in order to save the two others he was with, even if he could just as easily save himself. Biting his tongue to keep some sort of pain flowing, the youth let out a single breath.

(("Think Tenmei,")) The young man took everything in, his senses on overload. (("Search for a way. There's always a way."))

"Nurse Joy, throw the egg!!" Tenmei switched his direction, aiming to intercept the man and a now moving Autumn. "Autumn, move!!"

The charging man turned his attention away for the fraction of a second, merely looking at the egg he had just heard about, noting its placement. That slight shift was all Tenmei needed as he skid to a stop in between Autumn and the newcomer, shoes squeaking on the tiled floor. It was only now that the girl seemed to realize what was going on so the youth just needed to buy her some time, more confident in himself holding the situation down than someone still partially confused.

"You're quick," the man said before throwing a punch towards Tenmei's face, of which he barely managed to block.

(("He's strong."))

Even with both arms shielding his face, the youth could feel the muscle put into that single punch, allowing him to gauge just how much he fûcked up. When he made the decision to intercede on Autumn's behalf, he had already known that he was gonna lose in a straight on collision, but he had at least expected to be able to hold himself long enough to be of some use before retreating. Now he was wondering if he could even last long enough to allow the girl and Nurse Joy to escape, let alone he himself escape. That single punch was enough to send him stumbling despite having had his feet planted, the disparity in their strength made abundantly clear.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

BAM!!

The man slammed a fist into Tenmei's exposed gut, causing the youth to hit the floor gasping for air. The only reason he was even still conscious was because he had tensed his stomach at the last minute.

"Bulbasaur. Vine Whip!!"

Thwip!! Thwip!!

Tenmei wasn't able to see what happened immediately, needing a few seconds to recover his breath and work through the pain, but when he finally raised his head, he was met with a perplexing sight.

The blue haired man was fixed into a position where his foot was mere inches away from the young man's head, a green vine wrapped tightly around his ankle. Another strand of vegetation was fixed to the man's arm, almost making the attacker completely immobile. Tracing backwards from the start of the vines, Tenmei's eyes landed upon the Pokemon creature from before, the one named Bulbasaur. Extending from the sides of the giant plant coming from the turtle creatures back were two strong, thick vines, the same ones that were holding the mystery man in place.

(("He can do that?")) Tenmei questioned internally as he struggled to his feet. (("The heck kind of animal IS that?"))

"Tenmei. Are you okay?" Autumn touched the youths shoulder, drawing his attention.

"Yeah." Tenmei took a few quick test takes of his body to ensure nothing was broken. "We need to move. Now!!"

"Bulbasaur, with me." Autumn called for the animal as she and Tenmei ran towards the door that led to the back of the Pokemon Center.

The plant turtle carefully edged its way towards the door, keeping its vine locked onto the man, as if it knew that the figure in question was an immense threat to its owner. Tenmei watched as, when Bulbasaur got closer, the vine wrapped individual pulled something from his belt with his free hand, a red and white ball with a button in the middle. Unfortunately, there was just far too much going on for the youth to wonder what the heck the man was going to do with that said spherical object. As soon as Bulbasaur had gotten close enough to Autumn, it unwrapped its vines and immediately rna towards the door, followed closely by two teens. Glancing back, the last thing TenMei saw before he closed the door was the sight of the man throwing the ball onto the ground in front of him.

"Are you two alright?" Nurse Joy asked as the duo fully walked into the room. She was still carrying the egg, luckily having not taken Tenmei's words very seriously, and she looked completely unharmed for the most part. "Did either of you get hurt?"

"We'll be fine," Autumn said, bending down to give Bulbasaur a pet on the head and a thumbs up. "Thankfully Tenmei-"

Scrrunnnnchhh!!

The young woman was cut off in the middle of her sentence as a large desk quickly passed by her, Tenmei shoving it until it was packed tightly against the door.

"We can talk about it later. Right now, we need to barricade the door and escape out the back. Does this place have an emergency exit?"

"It does," Nurse Joy said quickly, joining the black haired teen in his endeavor. "A single back door that leads off into an alley and then a main road. If it's forced open under any circumstances, a silent alarm is set to go off. In other words-"

"We just need to damage the door and then leave."

BANG! BANG!!

The now completely covered door, having been blocked off by desks, gurneys, books, and whatever else had been lying around, shuddered on its hinges. Judging by the sound of it, it wouldn't take very long for the intruders to fully make their way inside. It honestly hard to believe that they could do so much damage to a metal door that was BARRICADED, but it wasn't the time to truth worry about that.

"We can't leave yet. If they're Pokemon thieves, then we need to secure the Pokemon-"

"Rest assured, we aren't after the Pokemon."

A nasally sounding voice interrupted Nurse Joy mid sentence, prompting the three of them to glance in the same direction. Standing atop one of the desks, having come from an adjoining room that had just been closed off, was a clothed figure standing at 45cm. Dressed similarly to the other two intruders, it was easy to figure out that he was part of their team, although this newcomer looked a lot more.....beastly than the others did. Less human. It was hard to properly tell with all the clothes, cloak, and top hat.

"We're merely looking for a small metallic plate, almost like glass. Shaped similar to a rhombus but with two flat ends."

"Why would we tell you anything creep??" Autumn didn't look too thrilled about the situation, a look of anger on her face.

The figure glanced in her direction. "Well, this can go one of two ways. Preferably the one that takes the least amount of time. The easy way, where you hand over the item in question. Or the hard way, though can probably guess where that path leads."

The clothed figure raised his hand, the sleeve of the cloak pulling back to reveal a paw covered in fur. Claws shot out from the tips of each individual finger, razor-sharp nails that seemed to gleam under the Pokemon Centers dim lighting. Just as Tenmei had thought when he saw the intruder, the speaker wasn't human but rather some beast that had learned how to communicate.

"Bulbasaur, vine whip."

Tenmei got a front row seat as the vines from before reappeared from the plant creatures side and shot towards the clothed beast. However, unlike before, the thick green appendages were slashed to pieces before they could coil themselves around the target. The claws made quick work of the vines, the intruder effortlessly putting a stop to the Bulbasaur's attack.

"I guess we're gonna have to do this the hard way then." The beast let out a sigh. "Shame."