Quick Meeting [Josh / Complete]

[Izumi Yamamura]

Izumi knew that she had little time in order to actually meet with Josh—since she was still on duty at the café after their phone conversation had ended! Ugh, hopefully I can slip out for a few minutes or so. This is very important to him… she thought as she then dropped her phone down her pocket, before making a mad dash up the stairs found at the back, just beyond the kitchen—she and her mother maintained their living quarters above the café; as opposed to renting an apartment somewhere in the small town—they did like to keep an eye on their business as much as possible. She then dashed down the hallway before skidding to a stop outside her room, fumbling for a bit with her other pocket and then unlocking the door that led to her room. Once she was inside, she then flipped on the lights—and began looking for a certain “carrying case” that housed her own Key Stone as well as the marbles she’d dug up so far. Thankfully, I know half the details. The other half is still beyond my capacity; however… she thought as she then thought of looking for the safe that was hidden in the wall, behind a certain wall hanging that stretched from floor to ceiling. As she then wound the safe’s dial, she then tried to compose just what she was going to tell him once they’d met—and how convenient, he was somewhere near Lavaridge so meeting would be all but a simple matter! Once the safe’s door had sprung open, she then reached inside for the black “box” that housed her eight marbles and Key Stone; before swinging the door shut and then hearing the locks click. She then made sure to lock the door behind her again, and flipped off the light switch before making another dash downstairs, dropping her “box” down her pocket and taking of her apron as she leapt down two at a time. She then came to a stop and was facing one of the other waiters, and she then exchanged a few words with him; before handing him the apron and promising to cover for them next time, as she then made a mad dash out the back entrance of the café where she could slip into the town unnoticed. A few moments later, she had dashed past the town borders, and was now out in the wilderness known as Mount Chimney—as she began to look around; he did say he was somewhere near the town proper at the moment. Where was he? She then decided to throw caution to the winds, and then cleared her throat, before saying in her best audible voice, “Psst, Sass Master! Are you here? Whistle if you are so I know where to find you,” and then waiting for the signal… | | | | | WORDS 480 TAGS Josh Dragomir NOTES Thread takes place right after the phone conversation

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[Josh Dragomir]

Josh knew it was likely from the sound of her voice that she was busy. As much as he loved to see her, he felt bad about getting in the way of her shift, but she had aaked for him to come.

As he sat around in the outskirts of town, he wondered what this was about. What was so important about the marbes he was collecting that had caused Izumi to drop everything in order to meet up?

Upon hearing her voice, he smirked. That was Izumi alright. "Over here, Stinkinator!" He called out in response.

[Izumi Yamamura]

Izumi knew she’d asked him to whistle in order to announce his presence, but instead she got a bit of snark; and she felt her ears burn red out of embarrassment! “Hey, I am not a Stinkinator,” she hissed, finding the source of the voice and following it, finding Josh seated in one of the hidden clearings around the area! Now that she had found him, she then quickly cut to the chase, before beginning, “Well, do you have your marble collection with you?” she asked, one of her hands reaching towards her own back pocket, in preparation to reveal her own “mini-collection” of marbles… as well as the other peculiar shining “marble-like” rock that glittered with all colors of the rainbow. “Let’s have a look at it, so I can confirm whether or not they’re the same ones as I’ve been finding as well out in the Badlands…” she trailed off, realizing that she’d let slip way more information than what she was supposed to! She then waited for him to bring out his little collection; because her fingers had already brushed against the small carrying case that housed her own collection that she guarded with her own life. “I know what they are, but I need to see yours in order to make sure that we have the same thing…” she trailed off as she then began rubbing her hand against the cloth of her own carrying case, waiting for him to slip it out and show it to her. | | | | | WORDS 252 TAGS Josh NOTES I'll show you mine... if you show me yours.

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[Josh Dragomir]

Josh smirked as he watched Izumi come over. He was curious about the nature of this meeting she had called, so he remained silent. His questions, of course, could wait until another time in the near future. Perhaps within a few minutes?

He chuckled. "Could smell the spices from here" he teased cheekily with a gron. At mention of his marble collection, he would pull out a carrying case he had gotten for them once they had started to pile up.

Inside was, if Isumi knew her mega stones, stones for Kanghashahn, Heracross, Meditite, and Blastoise. Also included in the middle was... A Keystone!

Josh tilted his head curiously as he eyed her. "Recognize them?" He asked.

[Izumi Yamamura]

Izumi then felt her own ears burn even more as she then unconsciously scented the air—before aiming a half-hearted wallop to hit him upside the head! It was up to Josh if he wanted to dodge or not; otherwise she then took a deep breath in order to calm down—and then watched as he brought out a carrying case and then presented the contents for her viewing pleasure. She was taken aback—mostly because the marbles surrounding the Key Stone were ones she did not have (or hadn’t encountered) yet; but all the same, the rainbow-like shimmer of the Key Stone caught her attention. “Heh. I’ll say, you have better luck than I do,” she continued, smirking as she then pulled out her own carrying case, unzipped it, and then swiveled it around so that he could see what she’d found. “I can definitely tell you. The one in the middle is a Key Stone, because I have that too,” she began while pointing at his Key Stone, revealing that her carrying case was split into meticulous compartments; the side that sealed down onto the velvet bed below held her own Key Stone; while the stones that were pillowed on the velvet shimmered and glittered, arranged in a clockwise fashion. “I’ll tell you which one is which, at least the ones I know of,” she continued, pointing to each of them in turn. “This one’s for Ampharos… this one is Garchomp’s, and ironically I have two of them… the next one…” she trailed off, smirking all the while because she was tapping Momo’s Mega Stone with a feeling of pride. “…Gardevoir’s. Next one is Gyarados, I think… while the one that looks almost similar to it, believe it or not, is Vincent’s—Lucarionite. The last one, I’m iffy on whose it is, but I think… it belongs to someone that I have but haven’t evolved yet,” she admitted with a sheepish grin on her face. “I have this other one so I’m not sure whose it is,” she added, pointing to the Alakazite; since she’d skipped over it earlier, “…but I’m taking another guess that it’s for someone I already own…” she trailed off. She then gathered her thoughts, before continuing, “Alright, here’s the thing. I know what they are, but I don’t know how to use them. Apparently you have to go to Shalour, climb that blasted tower, and beat two people in order to actually know how to use them. I…” she trailed off, feeling all the color drain from her face at this point. “…I tried to challenge the tower before, but ended up getting a horrifying defeat. My Hydreigon’s still not recovered from the shock of waking up and seeing that he was trapped in ice. I haven’t used him ever since then…” she trailed off, hissing at the sudden “bull-headedness” her Hydreigon was going through. Maybe it was a “rebellious teenager” phase? Who knows? | | | | | WORDS 491 TAGS Josh NOTES Well, well.

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[Josh Dragomir]

Josh would instinctively dodge, responding by tickling Izumi's sides playfully. That's what she got for attacking him, after all! Regardless, after the Raging Asian or whatever she was (This is going to be an inside joke, just you watch) would calm her blasted hornones, they would play a little game of show and tell. She seemed to have no idea what his... Mega stones were, she called them.. Were, but she seemed to know what a keystone was along with what her particular mega stones were. She attributed them to Pokemon and he wondered... Did it give them special abilities, perhaps? He didn't know, but he was suddenly excited to find out!

"I have.... No idea what any of mine are for" he admitted with a sheepish laugh. "But I'd like to find out"

[Izumi Yamamura]

“Wait, let me snap a picture of yours…” Izumi trailed off, quickly fishing out her mobile phone from her pocket. “I can… actually ask around on what these stones of yours are. Just hold your box still…” she trailed off, flipping through the menu screens until she finally managed to activate the camera and then adjusted a few settings. “Cheese now,” she added, holding as still as she could before snapping a photo of Josh’s miniature collection. “There, thank you,” she said with a grin on her face a few moments later, before saving the photo and closing out her phone’s menu; and subsequently dropping it down her pocket. “So… now that I told you what the Key Stone is capable of… are you still going to challenge that Tower I told you about in Shalour, when we do get on our eventual journey?” she asked after a few moments of silence, before zipping up her own carrying case and stuffing it down her pocket. Now that they had completed the somewhat “exchange of information”, she then waited for his answer to her question—she had plans of challenging the Tower again in due time, but she didn’t want to do so alone… the only thing is, she’d heard rumors that two people teaming up and challenging the Tower wasn’t exactly allowed as of the moment… or was it? She then took a deep breath, tying to calm herself down—because ever since the first attempt, her own Hydreigon was still being a bull-headed, rebellious “teenager” of a Dragon-type and she was still having “trust issues” with him. Unlike Sora, who recovered pretty quickly, Riku is still… rampaging wildly… she thought idly, wondering if she needed to have another talk with Thomas if they met again, in order to help her with her “rebellious Dragon” problem. | | | | | WORDS 306 TAGS Josh NOTES Now we plan

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[Josh Dragomir]

He laughed a bit. "Cheese" he cheekily said as he held up the box for her to take the pictures. Hopefully, Izumi would be able to get to the bottom of this. He wondered what these did... And what Pokemon they worked for. He wondered if any Pokemon he had would work with any of these, he had to admit. Some kind of secret for helping Trainers raise Pokemon, perhaps? Whatever it was, to Izumi it seemed important. He knew Izumi valued how her Pokemon battled and were taken care of, so Josh couldn't help but be curious. He had to know just what this did so he could do the best he could for his Pokemon with all means possible.

He listened to her story before nodding. "Mhm" he said flatly. "It's a challenge that I'm not backing down from, Izumi. If it's something that can help me, help my Pokemon... If I can get to the bottom of this, and this is the only way, then I'll challenge that tower no matter what. And we'll keep challenging it and challenging it until we get it. My Pokemon... I trust them. I believe in them. And I know they believe in me too. Together, I think anything's possible, even taking on the two trainers in that tower"

"But.... You mentioned the power of the keystone, but yet, what does it do exactly?" he asked. She hadn't told him exactly what it was for... Just that it was important.

[Izumi Yamamura]

At his words, she came up with an idea. It was a crazy idea, but it was one all the same. “You know… I suddenly just got an idea. Normally people would only challenge that place alone, but I’ve heard reports that ‘dynamic duos’ can go ahead and give it a shot. As a matter of fact…” she trailed off, staring at the sky—because she was deep in thought, trying to remember the exact words—“…I know that my mentor took on that tower with one other. It… well, you could call that the results of “investigative journalism”, I don’t know… but yeah, it is possible to go up with another. But then that would mean the two would have to work in perfect…” she muttered, trailing off into silence… until she got an idea. It was another crazy one, a very long-shot, but hey, it had to count for something! “Heh. I know… I know we’ve been chillin’ together… and now that you are with the same problem that I am in, knowing only half of the magic of the Key Stone… you want to go up the Tower together, stomp through the place, win the battle, and complete the knowledge?” she said in a very fast voice, hoping that he caught the drift! At the mention of the Key Stone, she then sighed, before continuing, “What I know is this: that shining rainbow thing we both have? It’s apparently used for Mega Evolution. The problem here is that… I don’t know how to use it. That creepy shopkeeper in Lumiose only told me so much, and what little he told me, I had to go digging in order to find the rest luckily, I met another individual who’d found a Key Stone long before I did, and he told me what it was, although even he was on a loss as to how to use it. Mister Creepy,” she trailed off, meaning the shopkeeper, “…told me that there were Mega Stones tied to it. But he didn’t tell me any more than that. The last thing he told me was ‘to get to Shalour if you want to know the rest of the secret…and scale the Tower there, if you can’ with this devious-looking face. Apparently, he was right—I got punted out of that Tower faster than I could go crashing up the steps,” she ended with a sigh; and she’d been stuck with this information for a while now. | | | | | WORDS 414 TAGS Josh NOTES spillin' secrets... or at least what I know

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[Josh Dragomir]

Josh listened to her offer and gave it a great deal of consideration. It would certainly increase their chances. Instead of having the both of them take turns facing two trainers at once, them teaming up would allow them to attribute their abilities together as a unit to take a stab at it.. Of course, it could be disastrous if one team member couldn't pull their wait, and Josh almost declined, considering declining for a moment due to the fear he might hold Izumi back... If he made a mistake, Izumi would be thrown out of the tower again, her Pokemon would lose faith in her again... She would blame herself, and it would be all his fault.

But yet... Izumi seemed to have faith in him. If she didn't think he had the skills to pull it off, she would never have offered. They seemed to be around an equal skill level, in terms of battling... They had the same goal as well. It couldn't hurt, he supposed. If they got in sync, they would be unstoppable, and Izumi was probably the best person for Josh to be in sync with. They worked together so well, that it was a perfect match if they could pull it off.

He then listened to her talk about the Key Stone. It was the key, no pun intended... To unlocking mega evolution. It was the center of it all, that was why it looked so different... Why it felt so different, so mysterious, so powerful... It was the commander, the controller. The source.

He took a breath, considering it one last time.... And finally, he nodded.

"I accept" he said calmly. "We'll go together"

[Izumi Yamamura]

“O-of course, this means we have to start training together… well, at least until your Pokémon are hardy enough. It was suggested that in order to successfully challenge the Tower, you got to bring fully-evolved Pokémon as much as you can… because they are, and will, trounce anyone who doesn’t bring in a fully-evolved one. They’re serious business… it’s no wonder I’ve heard a lot of reports over in Kalos about a lot of people giving up on challenging the Tower because they get kicked out… but I’m not one of them,” she added quietly, looking around the area. “Ironically I went there with a team of fully-evolved members, but they were severely lacking in move sets… that’s why I’m trying to pick up speed with their training as well. Now, the question is,” she trailed off, thinking to herself for a few moments before continuing, “…who can I bring along, and what do we have to work with?” At this point, she was considering a lot of things; like how would they get around the strategy, and should they go on the defensive or strike first, fast, and fierce? There were so many possibilities at this point, and her mind was starting to plan ahead for the situation. “Well… if you want to get a better scope of who I have… why don’t we find some time, slip away to Unova, so I can give you the grand tour of my… horde army? From there we can pick… although I’ll tell you now, they keep tabs of all Trainers. How they do it, I’ll never know; but they’re bound to realize that at some point, you’re a Fire-type specialist… and that I’m just a pushover. But they’ll never see my ‘return’ coming. They’ll never know what hit them…” she ended, this devious-looking smirk all over her face at this point. She was already in full-on “scheming” mode, and once she started thinking… well, it would be pretty hard to stop her! | | | | | WORDS 332 TAGS Josh NOTES Plans, plans everywhere

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[Josh Dragomir]

He scratched his head. "Huh... If that's the case, I guess I should probably start move training some of my higher evolved Pokemon, and evolve the others" he said. "I need to pick Pokemon to use for this... But who? I don't know if Fawkes, Vulcan or Inferno will be able to handle it if they know I'm a fire type specialist... This could be tough" he said, sighing. "Lightning would be a great choice, but if they've scouted me, they know Lightning is my partner. Luckily, I have some wild cards" he said.

"Looks like we'll have to train together quite a bit though" he agreed with a slight smirk. "You could join me in the mountains next time I go, perhaps. If we work together, those Pokemon that like to bully the ones living there won't stand a chance. Normally, we use them to train ourselves, by ourselves, but with you I think it could be a lot of fun" he said with a laugh.

At her offer, he shrugged. "I've never been to Unova before. It could be a nice getaway" he said with a smirk. "I'm in!"

[Izumi Yamamura]

“It’s always a good idea to have some ‘wild cards’ on-hand. they already know I used a Hydreigon and a Braviary, so I’m not going to use them on our eventual attempt to scale the Tower…” Izumi trailed off, before she began muttering in her second language, the tone getting quite darker and darker; yet there was this devious look on her face. If he could understand what she was saying… this is what it would’ve been; “Well, I have some extra electric-types that are fully-evolved now… but that doesn’t mean I can just bank on one type… I could either go with Ivan, or Kei… but I can’t use Draken, I don’t want to get blasted with another damned Ice Beam and have it all go up in smoke… the best bet would be a weather set-up, but with what?” before stopping for a few moments and falling into silence, trying to think of who would be the best option to bring along; before suddenly looking at Josh again and switching back to something that he could understand. “I have a question. Can you raise either Bastilo or Vector into their final forms and then make them a tank-type of shield?” she asked, and waited for his answer. She already had a plan forming in her mind; and luckily two of her Electric-types had recently attained their final forms; namely an Electivire and an Ampharos. Now, if one of them can pick up on Thunder, and one of his Pokemon uses Rain Dance, we have a devastating rain storm on our hands… provided they don’t dodge every single chance they get… since I know Water-type moves also get amplified in a rainstorm of that magnitude… she thought to herself, starting to pace back and forth, muttering under her breath as she tried to formulate something that could get them the full knowledge of Mega Evolution that they now needed. I dragged you into my half-knowledge problem; now I have to get us out of it… she continued musing to herself, trying to come up with a good move pool for either Electivire or Ampharos at this point. | | | | | WORDS 358 TAGS Josh NOTES All the devious planning

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[Josh Dragomir]

She was scheming... He could tell. But was it bad for him or bad for their opponents? He supposed they would just have to find out in time. She started going over possible strategies, and Josh closed his eyes, considering every single one. His fire types were powerful, no doubt... They packed a serious punch that would be great in a fight with powerful Trainers. But power is nothing without strategy...

Izumi mentioned the possibility of a water type learning Rain Dance to comfort Izumi's electric type using Thunder, much like Josh had used storms in the past in order to boost up Lightning's Thunder attack. It was a sound strategy indeed, but Josh would have to choose which to give it to... Bastilo, or Vector?

"I can certainly try" he said. "But Vector had a difficult time evolving recently, and Bastilo is still recently evolved. They will both take awhile" he said. "As for electric types... If you have a water type that can learn Rain Dance, I could always go with Lightning" he said, smiling as he rubbed the head of his little electric rodent, who coo'd as he clung to his shoulder. "Chaaa~" Lightning chirped affectionately, loving the attention. "We've been training like crazy, and we have some tricks up our sleeve now" he said with a small smile.

[Izumi Yamamura]

“Water-types… let me see,” she trailed off, scouring her mind in order to be able to figure out just what to do with their little strategy… and then it was as if a light bulb had been switched on in her mind. “We can go with either or, it would depend. I have a few Water-types myself, now it’s making me consider taking out a few of them from storage and stuff. But the thing is, they’d most likely have prepared for your Lightning. They… I don’t know how to phrase it, they know how to keep track of who travels with who… maybe they haven’t figured out who I travel with since I like to change up team members so much…” she ended, with this pensive look on her face. “We have to keep training… keep trying, they’ll get to their final forms eventually…” she said with an encouraging pat on his shoulder—and that’s when her phone went off. “Shoot, give me a minute,” she said, turning around and grabbing the vibrating thing in her pocket. “Oops, looks like I have to get back to the café now…” she began with another sheepish look on her face; before quickly typing a message and sending it on its way, and then turning back to face Josh. “Wait, let me…” she trailed off, digging around her other pocket until she found just the thing she needed—a hefty wad of coupons she’d racked up due to all the times she had to do wait staff duty over the times she’d helped out at the café. “I’ve got way too many of these. Here, have some,” she continued, quickly pulling out several from the wad that she’d been carrying around. “We wait staff get these coupons way too often; it’s for one free meal of your choice. That’s enough for several trips… just present it to anybody when they come over to take your order,” she explained with another sheepish grin on her face. “I’ll get to scheming once I get back to work… I’ll call you or something if I come up with any good plans we can use,” she added, before debating on whether or not to give him a hug—in the end she did give him a quick one, before saying, “Catch you later… work calls,” she ended as she then turned tail and made a mad dash back to Lavaridge. | | | | | WORDS 404 TAGS Josh NOTES word count not found lels

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