It had been a long night—one of the longest Sirius could remember having in a while. Last night was a prime example of why she preferred to work alone. The incompetence of some of the people that managed to get inducted into the T.B.R.A…. Well, let's just say it was enough to seriously piss Sirius off, and guarantee her a night of stalking around in the woods, chasing True Borns that would more-likely-than-not get away.
She'd been assigned to lead a group into the woods in pursuit of a True Born. It seemed he'd managed to escape from a breeding facility, and was quite the asset to the Synthetics. Sirius had been given strict orders to bring him back alive, which would have been simple had it just been her and her poke-trio. Unfortunately, the moment the True Born had been spotted, the agents in her command went nuts, releasing pokemon left and right in an attempt to trail him. In the end, the scum had gotten away by making a distraction with his companion dragonite, and it had taken so long for her to gather the troops back up and get order that there was no chance of catching up to him.
So they'd gone back empty-handed, much to the disapproval of Naomi- another True Born missing meant more rebels, and less chances for Synthetics to be synthesized. Sirius was disappointed in herself, but she was also extremely frustrated—she knew for a fact she could have caught the escapee on her own. They'd just been getting so many T.B.R.A. members lately, they didn't know what to do with them. A growing race meant growing interest in jobs and positions in the T.B.R.A., Sirius knew that, but she couldn't help but cringe whenever a rookie talked back to her. She'd been in the organization since she was
twelve. She'd poured her heart and soul into protecting her people, but it seemed that nowadays it was becoming less and less about the progression of the Synthetics, and more and more about what the new Synthetics could do on a day to day basis to keep themselves busy.
Sirius had crawled into bed as the sun was edging over the horizon, and she clapped twice to order the blinds closed. They slide together with the speed and slickness of a well-designed robotic machine, and for the first time that evening Sirius felt herself relax. She let out Nike and Dosne, who'd been in their pokeballs. They stretched as they emerged, calling out in their signature tones and key phrases.
Nike had waddled up to the bed and placed a flipper on Sirius' arm, looking up at her with stern eyes. It was nowhere near Sirius' fault that the True Born had gotten away, and Nike wanted to make sure Sirius knew it. Peeping deep in the back of her throat, Nike stood a moment longer before letting her flipper slide down the side of the bed to land on her chubby side with a soft
smack. She backed up with a clumsy grace, and then made her way into the bathroom on the far side of the apartment. Sirius heard the two flippers slapping together, the sound echoing off the tile walls and floor of the bathroom, and the bathwater began running softly. It was quite a soothing noise, and Sirius smiled, hearing Nike slide into the water with a quiet splash.
Dosne, who'd been running the entire time they'd been out in the field, flopped down on his pile of blankets next to Sirius' bed. A second later, and he was snoring before Nike had even made it to the bathroom.
Nayna had fallen asleep in Sirius' hair on the way back. Sirius reached her hands around, gently pulling the small blue and cream pokemon from her jet black hair. The little tike was snoring softly—barely audible over Dosne—and his head lolled forward comically in his owner's arms. She lowered him onto the bed in his usual spot on a pillow next to her own.
Finally, Sirius lowered her own head onto the pillow, and fell immediately asleep.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Even with the blinds drawn and the hard night's work chaining them to the bed, the group woke up around noon. Dosne first, having trained himself with an internal alarm clock throughout the years. He shoved the bed, waking Sirius, who sat up, waking Nayna, who started whining and eventually woke up Nike.
One big happy family, Sirius thought with a yawn, running her fingers through her short hair. She stood and went into the bathroom to get ready for the day ahead of them. With a clap over her shoulder, the blinds pulled back and let the sun in, causing Nayna to whine even more. He followed her into the bathroom to sit on the toilet-lid and watch Sirius brush her teeth and hair. The entire time he chattered to her.
"Min, minun nun min nun nun min."
Sirius just nodded, looking herself over in the mirror a few more times before wandering out to fix everyone breakfast. Dosne and Nike were sharing a chair at the table. Nike was trying to put a bandanna around Dosne's ear, and Dosne was half-heartedly attempting to thwart her off. In the end he failed, and she managed to secure the red fabric with a satisfied, "Prinp."
Sirius poked through the cupboards, finding them depressingly bare. This whole week was just going bad. Not only last night, but the day before she'd run into that stupid Colbie girl. She shuddered at the thought, picking up an empty box of cereal and tossing it into the garbage. Nayna, who was sitting on the counter, turned his head in concern.
"Nothing," she mumbled at him. He had been in his pokeball, but Dosne had been out. The girl's stupid luxray had made a point of being mean to them, knocking up against Dosne as he'd passed by. But that wasn't even the worst part—the chick had been insane! Sirius was all for killing the True Borns, but it had been like this girl thought of nothing else besides wiping them all out in the most gruesome and painful ways possible.
It figured, what with her grumpy little luxray. Electricity was not the kind of thing that killed kindly—she'd learned that when she'd gotten custody of Nayna. The first time they'd gone on a mission with him, the little blue, adorable creature had caused a True Born's eyeballs to explode in their sockets with a single Thunder attack. Nike had turned around at the sound from fending off a Natural Born Pokemon and almost fainted. It seemed Nayna himself had been surprised at the power.
"Alright guys," she said, pushing the horrific image out of her mind and making an effort to be a bit more cheery. "If no one objects, then let's go out to eat."
The trio cheered simultaneously. Sirius disappeared for a sec to throw some clean clothes on, and they headed out—Nayna on her shoulder, Dosne on her right, and Nike on her left. They stuck close, not being particularly large pokemon (though Dosne had to make an effort to keep his spikes down at times) and so not being in the way out of their pokeballs. The sun felt good to them all as the double doors split automatically. On the streets was the typical hustle and bustle of the Synthetic capital.
Turning left, the group headed towards one of their favorite restaurants. Getting closer, Sirius felt Nayna tug on her hair in excitement. She hadn't realized she'd been spacing out, but when she focused on her surroundings, she realized a battle was taking place on the sidewalk across the street. All she could see through the crowd was a large, pinkish Porygon 2.
Hmmmm, she thought.
I should probably put a stop to this.
Fighting on the streets didn't exactly encourage a peaceful atmosphere. She hustled across the street, Nike and Dosne close on her heels.
"Hey you two," she called out, her voice gaining the usual authority she took on dealing with organization matters, "move that somewhere else. People could get hurt with you two just battling on the sidewalk."
She came closer and caught a glance of the two fighters. One was a boy, but the other looked familiar. She could of sworn she'd seen the man before around the biodomes, but she couldn't match a name to the face. On her shoulder, Nayna bounced up and down happily.
