<div class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeQuote" data-author="Sirnoobsalot">
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<div class="attribution type">Sirnoobsalot said:
				
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<blockquote class="quoteContainer"><div class="quote">On the plateau above, the Devon corp man with the lab coat waved the group of trainers waiting nearby back. "<span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0)">Hold on, hold on! One at a time! Whose Pokemon were these? No, no, give it a moment! It doesn't run on magic! Come back in a few minutes!</span>" He sighed, and rubbed the back of his neck, his glasses hanging sideways on his bedraggled features. "<span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 51)">Aiyaa...</span>"<br/>
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The man had knelt down over the machine and began fiddling with switches and wires when Naomi approached. "<span style="color: #006633">I said come back in a while!</span>"<br/>
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When he looked up and saw the Id badge now hanging from her chest his brow shot up and he stood quickly, shaking her hand vigorously. He was tall, and not altogether unattractive but for the haggard look about him.  "<span style="color: #006633">Oh! Haha, I thought you were another trainer! I didn't know there was going to another researched coming through here! Ah, or did Devon send you out?</span>" He sighed. "<span style="color: #006633">I wish they would tell me these things.</span>"<br/>
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</div>Naomi smiled at the clearly overworked man. She knew how field tests could get hectic, and it was doubtless made worse by the constant flow of trainers who didn't understand this wasn't an established pokecenter machine hooked up to a full power grid. 'Tai and Somnificent were coming up behind her, looking at the machine from some distance but more interested in the pokemon battles going on below.<br/><br/><span style="color: #6495ED">"Naomi Ozaki. I'm a field tester with the Testing Labs. I'm not surprised that they didn't tell you I was coming, I've been given something of an open assignment. 'Go out there, get a feel for the islands, and we'll give you your testing assignments when you report in.' So I'm free to help you, and it looks like you can use it."</span>She looks over the device. At closer range, it's clear that it's far along in the prototyping stage.<span style="color: #6495ED">"It looks like some of the design kinks I saw in the labs have been worked out. What do you need me to do?"</span><br/><br/>Before she could get a response, however, one of the trainers was barking at her. A heavy-set, choleric faced guy who nevertheless was wearing a well-tailored and fashionable outfit, he snapped, "We were here first, you're going to get yours healed after everyone else's!" The small mob behind him, milling about into some semblance of a vague line, all looked like they were agreeing with him, or at least indifferent. Some anticipated the possibility of a battle, and the heavy-set one obliged. "You've got two choices, either get in back, or battle me, and before you battle me, you'd better know that I have a special surprise to beat your pair of pokemon with!"<br/><br/>He hauls out a pokeball, and flicks the button. "Get out here, Whimsicott!" The ball cracked open and suddenly, the little brown and white cottonpuff pokemon appeared, holding a berry in its little paws. It looked about, clearly a little disoriented. "It's the ideal fighter against your two, it will beat them into unconciousness if you don't get to the back of the line now!"<br/><br/>Naomi sighed,<span style="color: #6495ED">"Look, I'm not here to.."</span><br/><br/>"I don't care! Back of the line or fight me!"<br/><br/>She gave the other tech a look, sympathetic. If this is what he'd had to deal with all day, no wonder he was looking frazzled.<span style="color: #6495ED">"I'll be back in a moment."</span>The man nodded, returning to the work he was doing. At least this looked like it would be distracting the crowd long enough to get something adjusted.<br/><br/>"Hey! Pick your pokemon!"<br/><br/>Naomi looked at the red-faced trainer.<span style="color: #6495ED">"Is this a single round battle, or is it one on one until one side is down?"</span><br/><br/>"Damn it, stop delaying! Single round, one on one, my Whimsicott can take either of yours!"<br/><br/><span style="color: #6495ED">"Very well then. Let's get away from the healing machine, don't want to damage it accidentally."</span>Naomi replied. She stepped back and walked away some distance, as the mob of trainers awaiting the chance to heal their pokemon formed an impromptu audience around the makeshift battlefield.<span style="color: #6495ED">"As for my pokemon..."</span>Naomi paused, and called out,<span style="color: #6495ED">"Loon! You're up!"</span><br/><br/>"Loon? What's a Loon?" her opponent looked confused.<br/><br/>Far above, the Farfetch'd heard its name. Looking down, it saw the cottonpuff pokemon, the arena, and it felt the urge to respond to Naomi's call. In a moment, it realised what it was being asked to do battle. It had been itching to do something, the fight with the Snorlax had been over so quickly! It turned over in the air, pushing hard, building up speed in the dive aimed at the brown and white foe.<br/><br/>"Which one is Loon!" he demanded, "Whimsicott, use, uh, use Growth!"<br/><br/>The little windveiled pokemon posed, an aura briefly flickering around it as it called out, "Co-ooo-oot!" Then there was a blur, a loud, dull meaty thud, and both Whimsicott and the Farfetched went tumbling in a ball of wings, dirt, grass and feathers.<br/><br/>As Loon tried to recover, wings flailing for balance, the Whimsicott lay there twitching, the berry having tumbled off into the grass.<br/><br/><span style="color: #6495ED">"Loon,"</span>Naomi explained cooly,<span style="color: #6495ED">"is my crazy Brave Bird."</span><br/><br/>"Whimm?" the little grass type called out, clearly in pain and disoriented, as it finally sat up. Loon faced it, also badly hurt, and aggressively quacked, "Far! Farfarfar!"<br/><br/>"That's not fair! You never said you had a flying type!" The other trainer looked like he was on the verge of throwing a tantrum, and shouted at the Whimsicott, "Natural Gift! Now!"<br/><br/>'Natural Gift?' Naomi thought to herself, watching as the Whimsicott brought up its hands and then looked about in confusion, before crawling towards...<span style="color: #6495ED">"Loon! Get the berry!"</span><br/><br/>The duck half flapped, half ran towards the dropped fruit, a talon coming down on it just as the Whimsicott made it there. There was a momentary pause as the two combatants looked at each other. There was a blur of wings, talons, claws and limbs as the two went at each other in a flurry of blows, the trainer's commands momentarily forgotten.<br/><br/>Suddenly, Naomi felt herself tackled from the front, falling on her ass. If it weren't for Somnificent laying on her pelvis, the bystanders could probably have seen up her skirt. From the melee came a bolt of darkness, indigo-hued at the edges, cracking through the air where Naomi had just been standing. She looked down at Somnificent.<span style="color: #6495ED">"Wow. Thank you."</span>she said. Though the drowzee seemed very slow in getting up again. Her eyes narrowed slightly and then he got up. Was that her imagination or was he actually humping her?<br/><br/>By the time Naomi got to her feet, the battle was over and the Whimsicott clearly unconcious. Loon wasn't in much better shape, bedraggled, holding a wing awkwardly as it teetered above the fallen foe.<span style="color: #6495ED">"You lost,"</span>she called to the opposing trainer while straigtening her skirt,<span style="color: #6495ED">"recall your Whimsicott and get to the back of the line. Stop interfering with official Devon Corporation business."</span><br/><br/>"This isn't over, you'll see! You'll regret crossing John S.J. St-John!" J.S.J.S-J bluffly threatened, using a pokeball to recall the Whimsicott in a beam of red light and stomping off irritably to the back of the small mob.<br/><br/>She sighed heavily, holding out the Farfetch'd's pokeball.<span style="color: #6495ED">"I know you don't have fond memories of this, but it'll keep you from hurting until you're healed."</span>She triggers it, and the beam of red light flashes out and back again, pulling the duck pokemon into its storage.<br/><br/>Finally, she trudges back to the waiting machine, dismissing the battle from her mind. She'd have to teach Loon not to open up with Brave Bird, but that's something for another day.<br/><br/><span style="color: #6495ED">"So, it charges with solar power?"</span>she asked as she walked up to her fellow Devon employee.<span style="color: #6495ED">"Did they include the secondary charging methods that we suggested in the working group, the induction plates?"</span><br/><br/><span style="color: #6495ED"><span style="color: #6495ED">Behind her back, her Drowzee and Dragonair were having a little discussion about what was and was not appropriate behavior. Somnificent was holding firmly to the opinion that a little dry humping never hurt anyone, while 'Tai suggested that sort of thing could wait until they were alone together and besides, Somnificent should have asked his permission.</span></span><div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>