Without Power (Quest)

After her last quest, Honoka had found another while she was travelling. Apparently some guy here was having trouble with his power lines and it was pokemon related and such. The note didn't make a whole lot of sense, it was more angry rambling that was hard to follow than anything. But he offered to pay whoever fixed his problem, and as a traveling trainer she was always willing to take on odd jobs for food money. That was how she found herself standing outside of an apartment building, ringing the buzzer for the number on the note that had been posted on a bulletin board in town.

"Yes, hello? Who is it? I can't hear you. Blast those damn Pokemon chewing on the lines." The voice that answered the buzzer was male, adult, and grumpy. She seemed to be in the right place, at least.

"Uh, hi? I'm here about the Pokemon eating the power lines?" She would press the button to allow her to speak, hoping that he heard her.

"What? You're here to fix this? Good. Come inside already before they break the door mechanism." He sounded exasperated and impatient, Honoka making a face at that, but went in anyway. The door opened with a click, allowing Honoka to pull it open and get inside the building. She took the elevator up to the third floor and looked for the room number. 368. It wasn't terribly hard to find, which was nice, and a few minutes after she entered the building she was knocking on his door.

He answered immediately upon the first knock, not even letting her finish as the door swung open. She stood there a moment, hand still in the air ready to knock, surprised. The man looked her up and down, sniffing at her as though he was unimpressed by this small, unimposing blonde woman. She tried not to be offended at that, and put on a smile, though it was slightly forced.

"Mr. Harlan?"

"Well, get in here already. I don't have all day, and I'd like to get rid of these things before I have to call the power company to replace my lines again." He stood back, allowing her room to enter his apartment. It was small and simple, and looked like it had probably been predecorated before he moved in.

Mr. Harlan himself seemed to match the room. He was probably about five foot ten, starting to bald. What hair he had was a light brown with streaks of silvery grey on the sides. He wore brown rimmed glasses and looked to be about fifty or sixty years old, or somewhere in there. He had on a brown - again - cardigan over a grey button down, and wore light grey slacks. He had his slippers on which, much to Honoka's delight and amusement, were bright pink and white Sylveon slippers. Bows and all. It was all she could do not to burst out laughing at this little bit of color. Everyone had their thing, she supposed.

He motioned her to sit, so she did, perching comfortably on the little tan suede love seat. He poured her some tea he already had made, and she declined his offer of cream or sugar. She liked her tea plain, and that seemed to suit him fine as so did he. The teacups, to her further delight, matched his slippers. The head was above the handle, which was made from the ribbons Sylveon normally had. She wondered if he had a granddaughter, or a daughter who delighted in gifting him color for his apartment.

"So," he began, in a much more pleasant tone than earlier. "I have a problem. You see out there?" He motioned to the window off to her left, his right, and she looked. She could see little forms and lumps scattered across power lines and telephone lines, and she nodded. "Those little pests have been chewing through the cables for months. I've had to call the company that's responsible for those lines twice to come and replace them, and this will be the third time if something isn't done. I'm at my wit's end with the little beasts, and I want something done about _them_."

Honoka looked back at him, turning her head slightly so she could watch both him and the pokemon. "I don't know what they are, and I don't care. I want them gone. Can you do that?" She turned back to face the window again, squinting at the lines, but the Pokemon were too far away to definitively tell what they were. Mr Harlan was waiting patiently for her answer, surprisingly, given how impatient he'd seemed at the door.

"Yeah. Yeah, I can do that. Shouldn't take more than the afternoon, provided I don't run in to any complications." She turned back to face him, nodding, and finished her tea in a large gulp. Which, really, was a shame. It was really good tea. She might ask him for some as payment as well or instead, or at least ask where he gets it from.

"Good." Mr. Harlan stood, having finished his own tea a few minutes ago while Honoka was watching the pokemon on the lines. "I don't care how long you take, as long as you succeed. Come back here when you've finished. Provided they don't break the door or the intercom, I'll be waiting for your buzz."

That seemed to be that. She stood as well and smiled at him again, and turned to leave. As the exited the door, she would glance back again for a moment. When she did, she spied a duo of Sylveon, one blue colored and one normal colored, rubbing happily against his legs. She would make a little 'huh' noise under her breath, smiling a bit to herself as she left the building.

Down the street, the problem was much more obvious. There were dozens upon dozens of Joltic scatteres over the lines. Even a few Galvantula here and there. This was going to be a little trickier than she'd hoped. She looked away from the power lines scattered with electric Pokemon, down at her belt of Pokeballs. She had a few Pokemon with electric moves, but she wasn't sure if it would be enough to draw them off. If she could build a big enough energy surge, the Joltik might follow that, but for all she knew they'd come right back here. If she could get the Galvantula to follow her too, though, they might stay near them instead. The Galvantula should, considering there were just under a dozen, emit enough power to sate their smaller counterparts once they were drawn away from the lines.

Honoka would release her Dratini from his ball as well as her Mareep. The staticky little Pokemon would attempt to hug her trainer, zapping Honoka in the process and making her hair stand on end. The zap would make her yelp, the Mareep looking guilty but like it wanted another hug. "I know, kiddo. But we have a job to do first." She would attempt to smooth her hair down as she spoke, eventually giving up as it stood on end and floated around her head. She'd sigh, and turn back to look at the power lines.

"We have to get these guys out of here. And if I'm right, you two are perfect for the job." The Mareep would bounce ecstatically at this. She was always up to help, she _loved_ helping in whatever way she could. "These guys eat electricity. So we're going to give them a train to follow. And when they move, the Galvantula should move, too. They stay in groups, so all we have to do is get them far enough away from the city that the Galvantula can set up some big webs and keep the Joltik sated. And hope they don't come back. Sound good?"

Both Pokemon nodded at her, one considerably more enthusiastically than the other. She grinned at them, and the work began. "Kin, I want you to use Thunder Wave consecutively. First throw it at the power lines. If it knocks out the power, don't worry. When you're done, cast it both along the ground behind you and at Mareep here. Mareep, dear, I know you're already overloaded, but you're the key to this. Between that excess power and the Thunder Wave Kin will be using, the Joltik should follow you like kids to candy. When they start following, we're going to walk, or run, depending on how fast they go, out of the city. We need to get a fair way out so they don't just come right back. Ok?"

They both seemed to understand, so Honoka gave her Dratini the nod to use the first Thunder Wave. She watched as the electricity jumped along the ground and up the poles and onto the power lines. There was a large spray of sparks, and the small electric hum one could normally hear around power lines went silent. The Joltic began to grow restless, their food source suddenly missing, causing the group of Galvantula to become restless too. She nodded at the Dratini again and he began a stead stream of electricity along the ground from them to the lines. The Joltik picked up on it quickly enough, and they began to scurry down the poles and along to ground, following the source. Meanwhile, her Mareep would begin using Thunder Wave on itself and would begin walking of its own accord, following her trainer's instructions.

There was a steady stream of tiny yellow pokemon coursing around Honoka's feet now, following after her Mareep. A few would climb up her legs here and there, but all they did was cling, so she didn't mind. She would carefully start shuffling after the Mareep, and her Dratini would follow, his face pressed into her back as they went. Whenever the Joltik would get distracted, Honoka would call out for her Mareep to use Thundershock on a spot on the ground nearby. She looked back and saw the eleven Galvantula following the horde of Joltik. Good, it was working.

It would take them ten minutes to get to the edge of the city like that. By now, Honoka had about a dozen Joltik from her legs to her waist, clinging to absorb her natural bits of electricity. It wasn't nearly as much as Mareep's, but she must have been close enough that they didn't care, or they ate bigger meals than most of the rest. She could tell that her Pokemon were getting tired from the contant use of electric moves, but they had to keep going. "Not yet guys, keep it up. We're almost out of the city. Almost there." The steady stream of electricity was doing nothing for her hair, even if they were being careful about not hitting her with it. The air was charged, and she could feel sparks dancing across her skin. They probably looked like one big, sparky, glowing group to someone else.

Another seven minutes passed, and Honoka spotted what would look like the perfect spot for them. She called out to the Mareep and pointed at it, the small Pokemon making a sharp turn, the bands of yellow streaking after her. They reached the large grove she had been aiming for, and she told her Pokemon to stop using their attacks. Both of them were exhausted, now, and her Mareep was sparking less than usual, almost looking normal.

"Great job you guys. Break time." She would recall both of her Pokemon, then, and the Joltik would begin to get frantic again. Out of instinct, she watched the Galvantula begin to spray statically charged webs around the grove, makaing a home for themselves and the Joltik. She grinned and sighed, and began her trek back to Lacaille.



"What, you're back already?" She didn't even get a chance to ring the buzzer when she heard Mr. Harlan's voice through the intercom and the door clicked open. She rode the elevator back up to his apartment, and he was waiting for her at his door, a grin on his face. His whole demeanor had changed, and it had little to do with the blue Sylveon perched on his shoulder. "Well, come on in, then. You managed to get rid of those things faster than anyone else whose tried, so I owe you one. Let me go grab your reward."

She waited patiently in his apartment, going in to pet the other Sylveon that was dozing comfortably on the plush rocker across from the love seat. Mr. Harlan was back out in a few minutes with an envelope and many more thanks. He noticed her petting the Sylveon, and reached up to scratch the one around his shoulders affectionately.

"My granddaughter brought me a pair of Eevee for my fifty sixth birthday a few months ago. They evolved into these just two months later. I hear they have to be quite fond of the trainer, and I have to say, I wasn't a big fan of them when I first got them. I warmed up to them pretty quickly though." He smiled at Honoka. "Thank you for getting rid of those things. They were making my babies nervous, not to mention all the problems I'd been having with my stove and rice maker. If they ever come back, I'll be sure to hunt you down to get rid of them again."

She grinned back at him, and then remembered the tea. "Mr. Harlan, if you wouldn't mind, could you tell me where you got that tea? It's delicious."