You can't steal GENIUS! {alissa & lorem's charrie}

[BURGH]

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[atrb=style, height: 326px; padding: 0px 78px 0px 103px] The Castelia City Gym was relatively quiet today. Occassionally, a pokemon could be heard, rustling through the undergrowth of the small forest within the gym, but other than that, only the voice of the gym leader, Burgh, and scratching of a pencil on paper were audible. Currently, he was drawing various poses of his leavanny, Hana, in hopes of revamping a leavanny-themed clothing line that hadn't really caught on. Burgh didn't understand why not many people had liked it (I mean- who doesn't wanna dress up like a bug pokemon?), but he had plenty of ideas in mind to make it better. "Over a bit more... Perfect! Now don't move a muscle..." he commanded the leavanny, immediately sketching out the pose. "Now, turn around... Hold out your right arm... Now the left... Face me again..." he continued, flipping a page in his sketchbook and sketching something down in between each command. This went on for awhile, until Hana got tired. Burgh gave her permission to take a break, though his still had a few more poses he wanted to capture before the day's end. As Hana lounged around with the other pokemon, Burgh flipped a few pages ahead in his sketchbook (leaving room for the remaining poses) and started turning the ideas he had captured into a jacket. 'Yes! At this rate I'll be finished in no time!' he thought to himself with a grin. TAGS ✏ alissa & lorem's charrie WORD COUNT ✏ 235 NOTES ✏ I hope it's fine ^^

[atrb=style, height: 172px; padding: 103px 161px 54px 164px] By JAWN of AA, OTE, and TC

[ALISSA]

Alissa crouched low in the undergrowth of an indoor forest. All of her pokemon except for Licorice were around her, the Mandibuzz just couldn't be trusted around so many bug types. Still, she had everything she needed. Sunglasses to hide her face, spiked and light running shoes for a getaway, and her monkeys (plus a Scrafty) by her side. She motioned for the troop to follow behind her as they made their way through the shadows to apprehend their target.

The target was the gym leader Burgh, not someone Liss had ever come in contact with before but still, she knew that bug types were easy to raise for young orphans. They evolved fast and were a favorite among young boys. And so she was going to take some of Burgh's. They passed a Leavanny and other pokemon on the way. Alissa motioned for M and Skittles to go distract her with Taunt and Torment, just so that they were home free.

She figured that the leader would have the most amount of pokemon on him, at least the most stealable pokemon that was. The girl motioned for Pepsi the Scrafty to do something. Pepsi fished in his bag for the right explosive and, finally locating it, rolled it back into the forest they had come from.

Twenty seconds.

It took fifteen to sneak behind the gym leader. Ten for her to get into position. Only five seconds. Like a runner out of the blocks and the explosion as the starting pistol, Liss exploded out from behind the gym leader in a burst of speed. Cinamon leaped onto Burgh's head quickly, to startle him. Liss reached for the bag she thought he had in his lap. But she misjudged her target. Instead, it was a book. No pokeballs in a book. But it was too late to go back, too late to fix her mistake. She could only run.

Spikes at the bottom of her shoes tore at the soft ground as all of her pokemon joined her, filing in one at a time. They raced for the exit, the adreniline pumping through their veins as they ran for freedom.

[BURGH]

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[atrb=style, height: 326px; padding: 0px 78px 0px 103px] It all happened in the blink of an eye. One moment Burgh was drawing in his sketchbook, intently focused on perfecting the sleeves of the jacket he'd been designing, and the next moment all hell broke loose. If he hadn't been so caught up in his work, he might have noticed the indignant "Leava!"s Hana made as the monkeys distracted her. But, as it happened, Burgh barely noticed anything that wasn't on the paper, and when the smoke bomb went off, he was completely disoriented. "What the-" he began, but was cut short when he felt a pokemon jump on his head. He might have felt something slip out of his lap if he had his wits about him, but the unknown pokemon had caught him off guard. Then, as quickly as it had come, the chaos ended. The pokemon was gone, and the smokescreen subsided. Now all Burgh could do was look around the now calm gym, thoroughly confused. It took him a minute to recollect his senses, and when he finally did, he noticed that his sketchbook was gone; someone had stolen his sketchbook! But why? He decided that there would be time for questions later, when he actually caught the thief. For now, he had to act fast. Quickly recalling his flustered leavanny to her pokeball and placing it on his belt, Burgh rushed out the gym door and, after a moment's pause, picked a direction and ran. He had picked correctly, or at least he thought so, because he saw a girl, followed by a troop of monkey pokemon (and a scrafty), running as fast as her legs could take her. Without a moment's thought he pursued her, his long legs moving faster than they had in years. He had absolutely no idea what to do with her once he caught up to her, but he figured he'd cross that bridge when he got to it. For now, he had to focus on the situation at hand. TAGS ✏ alissa & lorem's charrie WORD COUNT ✏ 331 NOTES ✏ Wheeee~~~~

[atrb=style, height: 172px; padding: 103px 161px 54px 164px] By JAWN of AA, OTE, and TC

[ALISSA]

Alissa thought that she was safe. She slowed her pace to a jog, her spikes making grinding noises on the concrete. She tossed the stolen book to her Chimchar and Aipom, it was worthless to her. Well, maybe she could sell it. It had appeared to be a sketchbook of some kind and she had read somewhere that Burgh was a good artist. She believed it.

Pepsi let out astrange cry and Liss turned around to investigate. There he was. Burgh. He was running after her, going fast too. And she had had a head start! Life just wasn't fair! No time to complain. "Go, go, go!" She yelled for her group to make a break for it. Liss pumped her arms and legs as fast as they would carry her, weaving in and out of the crowd skillfully. But she didn't know this city. Which way now? Right, then left, then right again. Somehow Alissa ended up on a pier. That ended with a sheer drop into the water.

Alissa was trapped, with nowhere to go but down. She skidded to a stop just on the edge and slowly turned around with her hands up.

[BURGH]

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[atrb=style, height: 326px; padding: 0px 78px 0px 103px] Eventually, Burgh was able to corner the girl, the chase leading them to the end of one of the many piers in Castelia City. Knowing that the chase was at its end for the moment, he slowed to a walk, panting. As he neared her, he easily spotted the sketchbook in the possession of her chimchar and aipom. Thank goodness! He had tracked the right person down. It would have made finding the true culprit far more difficult if he hadn't. and a man chasing an innocent girl never looked good "Now, hand over the sketchbook," he stated after he had caught his breath. The request was given rather calmly, though his anger with the girl and frustration at the situation were made apparent by his severe expression and low tone. To him, the drawings and designs in that sketchbook were irreplaceable, and he was prepared to do anything to get it back (though he wasn't quite sure how to go about doing so. He figured asking was a starting point, no matter how naive and simple it seemed). He hoped that the girl would return it quietly and that the both of them could go on with their lives, though he prepared himself for complications. Maybe after the fact, he would be able to ask her just why she had stolen his sketchbook (which particularly piqued his interest). TAGS ✏ alissa & lorem's charrie WORD COUNT ✏ 229 NOTES ✏

[atrb=style, height: 172px; padding: 103px 161px 54px 164px] By JAWN of AA, OTE, and TC

[ALISSA]

The bug leader had Alissa cornered. He wanted his sketchbook back. But Alissa didn't give back her hard-earned prizes for nothing. She looked back at the rolling sea behind her. If she could just swim... Not without damaging the book she couldn't. And she could tell from the leader's pleas that the sketchpad was valuable.

"What's this book to you? You're not just getting it back for free," She smiled and pointed to her Aipom. "Take one more step and my lovely monkey Ari tosses your precious book into the waves. We both don't want that, now do we? Judging by your voice, this is worth quite a lot to you, now isn't it? It'll fetch quite a pretty penny, now won't it. Unless you're willing to buy it from me." The girl winked with grin. Pepsi, her Scrafty, hefted one of his makeshift smokeballs to cover an quick evacuation. Just in case. The others stared at the leader. Had Liss gone too far this time? Burgh sure did look angry and the monkeys knew from experience that an angry gym leader was never a good thing.

[BURGH]

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[atrb=style, height: 326px; padding: 0px 78px 0px 103px] 'What's this book to ya? You're not getting it back for free.' "What's this book to me?! It's-" Burgh was about to begin a passionate monologue about all of the sweat, blood, and tears he had poured into his career as an artist and that the book in her aipom's possession could contain exactly what he needed to further said career, when the thief continued to speak. She was going to throw the book into the sea if he didn't cooperate? Yikes! There was no question in his mind that the girl, young as she was, wouldn't mind following through with her threat of tossing his sketchbook into the churning waters. After all, she had no reason to value it, unless she was an aspiring artist looking to steal ideas. Or did she? 'It'll fetch quite a pretty penny, won't it?' Oh, she was looking to sell it. In that case, it'd be easy enough to get it back from her. He didn't doubt that she could make some money off of it. He was a pretty famous artist in the Unova region after all (partially because of his gym leader status), and he was certain that there were at least one or two art collectors that would pay handsomely for it. But it would be a horrible mistake to let her know this. Instead, he'd consider buying it back. No need to risk anything else. "How much do you want for it?" he asked after a short pause. His naive way of going about dealing with a criminal was probably not the best way (with asking for his book back and doing exactly what the criminal wanted him to do), but it was, at least at the moment, the safest. If things got rough, at least he had his pokemon with him. TAGS ✏ alissa & lorem's charrie WORD COUNT ✏ 303 NOTES ✏

[atrb=style, height: 172px; padding: 103px 161px 54px 164px] By JAWN of AA, OTE, and TC

[ALISSA]

"I-I..." Alissa trailed off. Up to this point, She had though that Burgh would want to fight for his sketchbook. Or that she would lose him in the crowd (well that hadn't happened). She had been prepared for a fight. Never in a million years would she expect Burgh just to give in!

"I don't want your money!" She told him with a smile. "I'll just snag some from all those oblivious buisnessmen across the street. I would, in exchange for the safe return of your sketchbook, like all of the spare, first or second evolution bug pokemon in your possession. No questions asked please. And I don't want the police on my tail. Now Ari, give mommy the sketchbook." The Aipom hopped over and placed the sketchbook in Liss's hands. She was almost sorry to take something from Burgh. He was so passionate about art, it was almost like stealing candy from a baby, not something that she would do. But then again, she couldn't just let this whole job go to waste, she needed something for orphanage in the upper city... Still, she couldn't give those kids Burgh's good pokemon. Alissa didn't want to risk police involvement and it was just wrong to take a gym leader's pokemon anyway.

"So, let's get a move on! Back to your gym, get your pokemon, give them to me, then I'm gone. You never have to see me again and we can pretend that this never happened, eh?"

[BURGH]

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[atrb=style, height: 326px; padding: 0px 78px 0px 103px] She was willing to give the sketchbook up for free? Wow, that was unexpected. Maybe Mom was right about asking nicely for things after all! Or not. In exchange for the sketchbook, she wanted all of the unevolved pokemon in his possession. Now he understood. She must have not had any real purpose for the sketchbook, but wanted his pokemon instead. What made her think that he'd be so willing to give his pokemon up? Most of his pokemon were evolved, but he did have that larvesta of his, Scarlet. And like he'd ever give her up, even if he had no emotional connection to his pokemon. (Larvestas don't exactly grow on trees, y'know) Beyond that, there were some young bug pokemon at his gym, but he was certain they would hate having to leave. "Why? I cherish my beloved pokemon, and I doubt that you have any real need for them," he protested rather bluntly. His argument was short, sweet, and to the point. No need to drag this out longer than necessary. And he had no intention of giving in. TAGS ✏ alissa WORD COUNT ✏ 182 NOTES ✏ Approaching pokemon battle? ;3

[atrb=style, height: 172px; padding: 103px 161px 54px 164px] By JAWN of AA, OTE, and TC

[ALISSA]

"No, no, you have to have spares! Pokemon that you give out to young trainers, to your gym trainers. Really, what kind of gym are you running here?" Liss tried to play it cool but her heart was hammering in her chest and the truth was that she was panicing. This couldn't be happening. The presence of the flustered gym leader had brought a crowd at the other end of the dock and it wouldn't be too long before the police got involved. And then things would get a little bit more than interesting.

And then Burgh went on to say that she wouldn't need the pokemon? Did he really just say that? "You obviously don't know me, Burgh." Alissa grinned despite her nerves. "No, I don't need your pokemon. But people, people who have no one to help them, need your pokemon. And who are you to deny them such a privelage as owning a pokemon? Let me tell you, I was one of those people. And I won't let what happened to me happen to anyone eles ever again." Alissa looked behind her and frowned. If she really had to... she could jump. The girl had never learned to swim and so she could easily drown. But really, would she rather spend a life time in prison? M might be able to help her stay afloat but even that was a long shot. If worse came to worse, she would jump, sketchbook and all, and take her chances with the waves.

Alissa didn't want it to come to that. She would take the next-best option. "If I don't get what I want, you're gonna have to come and get this book from me." Liss nodded at Pepsi, her Scrafty, and the pokemon stepped forward and readied himself to stop Burgh, or anyone else, at any cost.