A true hero... in training (Pokemon Gym Leader's apprentice quest)

<><Outside veilstone city><>]

'Alright Lal you got this, no if, and's, or but's about it.'

Pants are clean and unruffled, showing no signs of having just been used to walk through the woods.

'You're gonna walk in there and they'll see a dedicated, cool, and collected mail man just trying to deliver one of his packages, they totally won't see the anti-criminal team team member that also happens to be a mailman.'

Blue button up is clean and unwrinkled, official mailman patches on left breast, collar of white undershirt peeking out from the undone buttons at the top.

'You are the fire, you are the night, you are ZUBAT-MAN'

Hiking boots are well taken care of but still show signs of having been used for quite a while.

'Yeah, alright, you got this no problem, no problem at all'

And hat, my hat is...in a tree branch? Why? Ugh, whatever.

Alright cap firmly back in place, I was once again the very model of a modern postal service man.

"Arceus above, I hope there wasn't a psychic close enough to hear that."

<><><>

Two grunts stood in a lobby, growing tired of the silence the younger one turns to his compatriot.

"Hey."

"What."

"Do you ever wonder why we're here?"

"Nope."

Taken aback, he let out a soft oh before turning back to face forward. Glancing over at the other grunt the elder sighed. Scratching his neck, he opened his mouth to speak, offer some advice to try and ease the kid into the grunt life style but before he could the doors opened up.

Snapping to attention, he couldn't help but be flabbergasted.

'How the hell did a mailman know to come here of all places to deliver something?'

Straightening himself he spoke "Anything I can help you with sir?"

The mailman tilted his head to the side and spoke with a grin "I don't rightly know, sir. My name's Lal, I'm a postman for spiral deliveries and I have a package for someone named Cypher? Cyfler?" Checking the package he gave himself a light smack on the head. "Sorry, Cyrus, yes I'm looking for someone named Cyrus and i was told I could find him here?"

As soon as the boss' name had passed through his lips, the grunt had begun looking to make sure he wasn't some kinda cop, he didn't notice anything much but he did find the pokeballs at his hip interesting.

One premier ball, three regular pokeballs, a dusk ball and a great ball at the end. All had seen obvious use, and the premier ball had obvious signs of age, this isn't some civilian who had taken a partner for safety, this mailman whoever he was had been a trainer at some point.

Glancing at his junior he took a small step forward and started "Well you got the right address, give me a moment to radio someone higher up and I'll see if he's here."

Glancing to the other grunt he was pleased to see that he had stepped forward to distract the visitor while he went to see what to do about this situation.

<><><>

"Yo-you're cleared to head level three sir." Arceus above, normal civilians aren't even allowed to go farther than the lobby, heck he wasn't even allowed to go to level three, why are they letting him?

"Thanks alot my good sir, I'll be right on my way then." Grinning the man quickly hurried over to the stairs.

"Uh, sir we have an elevator right over here, why not use that?" Confusion was blaring across his juniors features, but he already knew what was going on.

"Oh, I don't believe in elevators!" Came the bright cheery response.

Dedicated or high end trainers were a bunch of weirdos and kooks at the best of times.

<><30 minutes later><>

Popping my back, I allowed myself to relax with a yawn. Loki sat across from me, the malamar gently going over my memories of the galactic hideout.

When they were back she could create an illusion to show off what he had saw, but until then I think I'm gonna spend some time relaxing before heading back out.

I could stop by the department store, maybe check out the gym if I really felt like it and hey there used to be a game corner around here right? Maybe it's still open.

'Just a day or two than I'll get back to work. First I need to send a message so they know I'm not dead.'


[An: I am well aware that my writing is sub-par in several ways but in my defense I did this on a phone and I like this quest. If you're in the discord than you might have some idea as to what's happening in here but if not than I'll leave explanations to other more qualified individuals. Thanks for reading, and if ya feel like roasting this than feel free.]

[Forgot to include that Loki was a malamar, problem is now fixed.]

Whelp by virtue of being the only other omake that's actually done yet here's the misadventures of my own guy.

---

"Okay Ma, Pa, see you later!" Wild called as he ran out the door.

"Have a good day at work sweetie! You're representing our shop out there!" the man manning the cash register shouted back as the door clanged shut.

As Wild ran he checked his Poketch. A message from Tempest. "High priority package," it read, "Teleportation required. Pickup at the Pokecenter."

Wild rolled his eyes, "Jeez, that's cold Temp, really cold."

The road to the Pokecenter was as beautiful as Wild remembered it, but he kept a close watch on his surroundings.

"High priority" wasn't in and of itself a warning sign. But "teleportation required"? Hell yes. Teleportation was already a requirement when it came to his deliveries. He had no Pokemon that could fly, and they didn't have a system in place that would allow customers to request "teleportation only".

Still, nobody suspicious really stood out. Celestic town was rather small, even considering Cynthia's status as champion. Everyone knew each other.

The most he found was some stray Starly and Bidoof here and there. Those, he watched especially carefully. It was only when you knew how to trick people that you got really suspicious yourself.

After all, he had used those same tricks himself before.

One Starly got particularly friendly and hopped towards him, nudging his leg. Wild stared at it. It stared back.

"Hmmm…" he tilted his head one way. The Starly tilted its head. Wild tilted his head the other way. So did the Starly.

"I'm watching you," Wild gestured from his own eyes to the Starly with two fingers stretched out, "I'm on to you buddy."

Laughter from nearby caused Wild's head to snap back up. A couple were walking the other way on the same path as him.

"Up to the same tricks as always, huh?" the woman asked.

"Ah, yeah, you know me Susan. Just… keeping an eye out," Wild laughed nervously, "A-anyways, I have a job to get to. See you later Susan, Ted. Stop by and get a bite to eat sometime!"

"Don't we always? I mean, we still have the usual arrangement right?" Ted raised an eyebrow.

Wild flashed him a thumbs up. "Absolutely! Table for two right by the window, Saturday at six on the dot! Bye then!"

Wild decided to play it safe and rush to the Pokecenter. Out of the corner of his eye he noted with satisfaction that the… "Starly"... had followed him for a few steps before deciding it wasn't worth it.

The Pokecenter soon approached. Small and rustic, like with most things in Celestic town. It had a small lot to itself with an area in the back for battle practice. The walls were stone, again like most places in Celestic town. The roof was wooden, the red paint now faded. If Wild had to guess, it would need repainting in a month or two. Not that it'd get it.

Celestic town's residents preferred things that way. Low-key and homey. Leave the metal buildings and fancy city environment to the rest of Sinnoh. Damn city folk. Wild spit to the side on reflex.

Walking inside allowed for a quick blast of cool air. The lobby was well-lit, if sparsely populated.

"Hey there Joy," he walked up to the receptionist's desk, "I'm here to pick up a delivery."

"Sure thing," Joy smiled and ducked below the counter, "You're just in time. It came in with the supplies shipment thirty minutes ago."

Joy handed him a brown package, the kind that isn't in a box but gets put in those slip envelopes with a lot of bubble wrap. But this was a lot of bubble wrap. 'I think I felt some pop just taking it from Nurse Joy.' He thought.

"So," Wild tried to ignore that beautiful sensation of popping bubble wrap, "Where am I taking this?"

"It's going to be headed to a man by the name of Gilmore in Veilstone city. His address is on the bottom of the package, actually," Nurse Joy sighed, "And I think you should stop if you want there to be any bubble wrap left by the time you get there."

Wild opened his left hand, inadvertently getting another pop out. The package was safely secured in his right arm like a football, and he was cuddling the package to his chest, trying to squeeze out more bubble wrap with just the pressure from his right arm.

"Look, I'm kind of offended Joy. We've known each other for a while, ever since you came here five years ago, right? I think you know me better than that."

She put her hands on her hips and looked straight at Wild. "That's exactly why I'm saying this."

Wild pointedly ignored the "Ooooh"s coming from the growing crowd of watching trainers. Bunch of immature ten year olds. "Alright, my pride and integrity have been hurt long enough. I'm out of here," he spun on his heel and marched out of the doors.

A cheery "Bye!" was ignored as he stomped over to the street corner. With a flash Houdini was released, the Alakazam teleporting him away immediately.

Wild and Houdini materialized in one of Team Spiral's underground bases. In no time the package was laid out on a table in the center of the large room.

"Alright Houdini, tell me what you're feeling," the words were barely out of Wild's mouth when Houdini's eyes began to glow.

Psychic-abilities allowed for a telekinesis-like effect, and Wild used this to have the Alakazam feel out the concealed object. Houdini's psychic abilities could feel out the tiniest change in the package, in essence mapping out the object telekinetically. The fact that telekinesis could work through objects meant that the package's outer wrapping didn't matter.

Of course, such a task is very hard, so it stands to reason that most people and organizations aren't aware that such a thing is possible, much less try to defend against it.

By the time the scan was done, Wild had Houdini transfer the data to Doppel's mind. The Ditto then used Transform to turn into a physical copy of the packaged object.

"What is this supposed to be? You have any idea Houdini?" the Alakazam shook his head.

Wild sighed and snapped a picture of it. He then encrypted the picture and sent it to Mon. Barely five minutes later he got a reply with one word, "Pokeradar".

Wild's jaw dropped as he looked back and forth between Doppel's transformation and the text on his Poketch. "A Pokeradar? Aren't those only given to really trusted Dex Holders? Shit, this could be big."

He returned Doppel and hefted the package under his arm. "Well Houdini? Feeling up to a jump to Veilstone?" Houdini scoffed and grabbed him in answer, the two of them flashing away without another word.

In a matter of seconds they were standing in front of a nondescript house. Wild knocked on the door without checking the address. Houdini knew what he was doing.

"Yes?" the door opened to a kind of weedy looking man with crooked glasses.

Wild held up the package. "You Gilmore?"

The man shifted a little, something about him growing sharper. "Ah, that's right. Thank you so much for the delivery. The payment will be…" He drifted off as a puff of pink mist was blown into his face.

Wild smirked and subtly gave a thumbs up where he knew Freud was hiding behind a Reflect illusion. "Right, I'm going to have to make sure that everything goes through first. You don't mind if I come in, do you?"

"Oh, not at all. Feel free," Gilmore listlessly opened the door for them.

When the police would get there three hours later they would find a shirtless Gilmore sitting in a chair, a Mime Jr. blow up doll slowly spinning in circles as it hung loose from the softly whirring ceiling fan. Every time it passed his field of view he would let out a yelp and go slack, barely recovering before it passed again.

Gilmore would reportedly faint in shock, and a thorough investigation would reveal that the anonymous tip was correct with the loads of questionable material found on his computer, along with files incriminating him as a member of Team Galactic.

The wayward Pokeradar was safely recovered from where it was bundled up for transportation in his attic.

Back in the underground, Wild sat back in his chair at HQ. With a yawn he cracked his knuckles. A flurry of tapping later, he saved the file and exited with a sigh of satisfaction. The Pokeradars were known to be able to detect the potential levels of wild Pokemon. Nothing perfect, but the algorithm was set by the combined efforts of the biggest Professors in the business along with testimonies given from a collection of Champions, current and past alike.

They weren't in a position to break into the Team Galactic HQ, and the nefarious evildoers were sure to change their plans when word of Gilmore's arrest reached them.

But with the data they already had, along with the modifications to the Pokeradar code that Mon had found, Team Spiral had all of the leads they could get out of the day.

"A plan foiled, and some leads uncovered. Shadow Pokemon potential… wonder what that is. Well, today was a good haul, eh? Let's head back home Houdini."