The Sights & Sounds (Fin)

[Morrigan]

Sharada's eyes seemed to widen slightly as Joe mentioned the flavour of the drink. She wasn't going to let on, but it was her absolute favourite and she wouldn't mind hanging around with him for a little while longer if he were to treat her to more. Tapping her fingers eagerly, she stood back and watched as Joe inserted his coins and selected the drinks. Though something seemed a bit odd. He was taking a while and seemed to be really hammering down on the keypad. Slowly rolling her eyes, Sharada lifted an arm and gently rubbed the back of her head, "Wow... Can't even get me a drink, hm? Figures."

A look of horror soon spread over her face as Joe and his pokemon started to attack the machine. As if they hadn't already tried to steal enough for today. It was obvious the machine had eaten the money and if this would've happened during the day, it would've been one embarrassing scene. Sighing softly, Sharada turn away slightly, "Just give it up Joe. I'll pay you back what you lost, if you need it that badly. No need to destroy the poor machine."

[The REAL Joey]

Joey turned around and shrugged to her. "Oh come on, it's only a couple of coins... Nothing I can't win back from earnings made in battles..." He turned back to the vending machine and really shook it a few more times violently. His Pokemon moved away, exasperated from trying to make the machine work. Joey sighed and decided to give it one more try. He really tightened his grip on the sides and began shaking with incredibly might. Unexpectedly, the machine actually retaliated and part of the front turned into a huge fist and slammed it's way into Joey, sending him flying over to the bench.

The oddly shaped fist oozed back into the shape of a vending machine and seemed to wobble around slightly. It leant forward and turned into almost a carbon copy of the Joey that was lying on the ground. It's eyes and mouth seemed to be a bit off though, however. It looked at Joey on the floor and spat out a few coins at his feet and then began to blow a raspberry at him. Joey rubbed his head feeling slightly concussed. He looked up and opened his mouth wide in shock at the double blowing raspberries at him. "H-Hey what the..." Murmured Joe as he was trying to get a handle on the situation.

[Morrigan]

Sharada nodded to him as he mentioned the few coins he had lost. She lifted her arm and pointed down a quiet street of Violet City, "Well if they were only a few coins and if you stiiill want to treat me to a drink, then let's find another machine?" she offered, but he seemed to complete ignore it. Rolling her eyes, Sharada turned away from him, not wanting to watch his childish attacks on the vending machine any longer.

But as soon as she turned, Joe was sent flying back towards the bench. Hearing the thud, Sharada sighed, "What have you done noo-ow?" She blinked in confusion as she noticed the vending machine had turned into a giant fist. Though her facial expression just became even more confused as the machine had now morphed into a copy of Joe.

Sharada's eyes danced from one Joe to the other, she even began to rub her eyes several times just to make sure she wasn't seeing things. But it was made deffinate since the copy had started to make odd noises. Raising her eyebrows slightly, Sharada made yet another displeased sigh, starting to think that this was another one of Joe's jokes, "A clone? Seriously Joe? Hah. As if your stupid tricks couldn't get anymore... stupid!"

[The REAL Joey]

While staggering from the blow still, Joey sluggishly helped himself up with his Pokemon nudging him slightly. He brushed his clothes down and looked at the double of him with confusion and resentment. "This isn't one of my tricks! Seriously!! You think i'd have some... Some... Clone just jump out of nowhere and punch me like a haymaker in the gut?!" He cradled his stomach and his stomach and began to turn his frustration towards the clone. "Hey! Hey!! HEY!" He shouted with his rage building up. "Just who the hell do you think you are thinking you can get away with this?" With a spit on the floor he then shook his fist angrily at the double. "I'm going to make you pay, punk!" With that, Joey began charging towards the double at a ferocious velocity. The double jumped on the spot realising he was about to be on the receiving end of a severe beating. "Nyah nyah nah nah nah!" Teased the clone just as he began to run away himself in the opposite direction.

Joey's eyes leered and he paused running for a moment and reached for his belt to unleash some more Pokemon to join in on the retribution. "CHARMANDER, PIKACHU, CYNDAQUIL! Help us get them!" His newly released Pokemon nodded and began sprinting after Joey who had resumed his chase. Koffing had Meowth balancing on his head and they floated towards the clone with great speed. Elekid barged along crazily with his arms shooting off random bolts of electricity in random directions. Joey looked over his shoulder and yelled to Sharada. "WELL?! You gonna help me or no? Quick!"

[Morrigan]

Sharada watched carefully as Joe staggered back up onto his feet. As he spoke, she made a hmph noise and shook his head at him. He did seem to be playing his part pretty well, it almost looked as if he was hurt. "HAH! Sure sure! And Magikarps can fly right?..." her voiced trailed as he continued to speak, making her raise an eyebrow, "And I wouldn't put it past you. I'm sure a thief, like yourself, would make up the oddest of situations to get what you want."

Standing to one side, Sharada and Swablu continued to watch as Joe lunged for his clone. But with a simple jump to dodge the punch, the clone was now running towards Sharada, infact, he sped straight past her at an incredibly fast rate. "Joey, what the heck are you doing?" she muttered as Joe sent out all of his pokemon to go after the clone. But even as she spoke, Joe had already started to dart off himself as well as shouting back at her to help.

Sharada pondered for a second before picking up her feet. She still had a feeling that this was a stupid joke, another way to steal her pokemon somehow. But even if it was, she would have a reason to beat him to the ground. Nodding to her Swablu, Sharada spoke, "Alright Swablu! Fly on ahead and catch up with, erm... Joe!" As Swablu bounced into the air, it spread it's fluffy wings and zoomed off ahead, leaving Sharada to catch up with Joey. Running just a short pace behind him, she frowned and yelled forward, "Damn it Joe! Why do you have to be so annoying?!"

[The REAL Joey]

The fake Joey sped along a stretch of pavement that led towards a busy segment of Violet City's streets and was attempting to lose himself by blending in with the crowd. Joey scowled and muttered to himself within his mind. "Nice try chump! I've gotten used to these streets so I know them pretty well know... If you wanna dash ahead that way..." He skidded to a halt and then charged down the side of an alleyway and continued his way along it; dodging empty garbage bins and sacks of rubbish as he made chase.

His Pokemon were now starting to lag behind him a little bit and instead of following the real Joey, they decided to create a pincer movement and place continued stress on the heels of the impersonating Joey. Their little legs made them to the corner of the street and by which time they turned to follow the imposter Joe down the street. Just as it looked like he might get away, a triumphant Joey stuck his arm out like a clothesline and the fake ran straight into it without noticing and effectively swept him to the floor. Joey laughed victoriously and placed his boot on the fake Joey's chest, glaring down at him with a vicious grin plastered on his face. "So... Think it's funny to be me huh? We'll see about that!" Shouted Joey threateningly.

[Morrigan]

As Sharada sped up towards the clone of Joe, she tried to land the odd peck attack on his head, though everytime she swooped in the clone seemed to dodge with ease. She looked back now and again to see Joe's pokemon. Swooping backwards slightly, she floated next to the Koffing, "Swa-Swa-bluuu!" she chirped, trying to suggest a plan to Koffing.

However, as for Sharada, she had been seperated from Swablu as she decided to shoot down the short cut with Joe. She began to pant softly, running wasn't something she did often. But then again she didn't chase after clones often! Also noticing how serious Joe seemed to be about this chase, she was starting to think that this may not be a joke.

As she followed Joe around the corner, she crashed into his back, not knowing until last minte that he had stopped in his tracks. Quickly pulling herself away from him, she felt something fluffy land back on her shoulder, Swablu! It seemed as if they had captured the mimic!

Sharada stepped forward from Joe's back and gazed down at the double. She smiled softly before gently poking Joe in the shoulder, "Hey hey! This guy has done a pretty good job! He looks even better than the real thing!"

[The REAL Joey]

Joey turned to face Sharada and felt slightly rubbed off over what she had said. He let his grip of the imposter and began rebutting what she said. "It looks better than ME?! I'm the real deal. You don't get much better looking then tha--..." He paused mid sentence realising his hot headedness made him forget to keep a secure hold on the imposter. He begrudgingly turned his head to see that where the imposter was once flat on the floor was now an empty spot. He slapped his forehead regretfully and sighed. "Great, he went. And how the hell did he slip away so easily unnoticed?!" He looked to Sharada and poked her back. "Did you see him anywhere?"

He crackled his knuckles in an annoyed manner before noticing a black rubbish bin to the side of then. "Dammit!" He yelled as he let loose a lightning fast kick to calm himself down and froze suddenly as the black rubbish bin flew through the air and transformed into a blue Ditto before splatting against the wall in front of them. Joey, with his foot still in the air, mumbled to himself. "W-Wait... WHAT?!" Having come to the realisation all these impersonations were likely the cause of Ditto messing with them. "WHY YOU LITTLE!" He jumped for the Ditto and grabbed it with his bare hands. "What the hell d'ya think you're doing?!" Roared Joey with indignation as he shook the Pokemon violently. The Ditto wobbled around like a piece of jelly and his eyes rolled around confusedly.

Joey tutted and reached for a spare ball he had in his pockets. "Screw this, i'm capturing you! Least I won't have some juvenile copycat messing with me." He grabbed a ball and forced the Ditto into the Pokeball. As the ball wobbled, Joey clamped his hands down tight to avoid the Ditto escaping. "Nuh uh! Not today, you're not escaping me!"

[Morrigan]

Quickly realising that she was rubbing Joe off the wrong way, a large smirk crept across her face. She lifted her hand and began to waggle a finger from side to side, "Now now! Jealousy is an ugly thing!... Besides, he has a much cuter face, unlike your scruffy one..." As Joe realised that he had lost his hold on the imposter, Sharada turned her head from side to side, trying to look for any traces of him. Looking back to Joe with a confused gaze, she gently shrugged her shoulders, "Who knows? Serves you right for looking at me instead of focusing of him!" she teased further and couldn't help but smile as he got angrier.

Giggling silently to herself, Sharada watched as Joe lifted his leg to kick over a bin... but the bin soon turned into a Pokemon. Blinking several times herself at the ever-changing events what was happening before her, she was finally able to speak as Joe began to approach the splatted Ditto, "S-So it was a ditto causing all the trouble? I thought they could only transform into Pokemo--OOOH! Joey! What are you doing?!"

Sharada pounced forward and gripped onto Joe's arm as she realised that he had forced it into a pokeball. Pulling him around, Sharada growled at him, "What the heck are you doing?! That isn't fair! You didn't even give the poor thing a chance!" Though Joe was much more stronger than her and was easily able to shrug her off. Then, just as he did that, the group fell quiet at the sound of a ping... Joey had actually caught the ditto.

With a slightly unsure look on her face, her eyes looked up to him, "Well well well. You don't just steal but you force pokemon into pokeballs too?!" she lifted her arm as if to smack him but instead just patted his back, "You easily win the 'strange' award."

[The REAL Joey]

Joey grinned triumphantly as he finally caught the pesky Ditto which had been running them ragged. He held the ball up victoriously before diverting his gaze back to Sharada. "I force them into Pokeballs? Only in this one extreme case. Did you even SEE the stuff he was pulling off...?! Plus, he had more than enough chances. In fact, he could have avoided being a vending machine altogether, that'd have saved us all a lot of trouble from the very beginning." He straightened his leather jacket out and brushed himself down again. "Besides... Do you have any IDEA as to how useful a Ditto is?! They can use the move Transform and pretty much turn into anything. You saw how uncanny the resemblance was just then when he impersonated me."

He chuckled to himself and looked over to her as she patted his back. "Strange award?" He seemingly paused to think the title over and shrugged. "Meh, i've heard worse. I wouldn't say I am strange though." He shoved the petulant Ditto into his pocket and looked to Sharada. "Say, seeing as we're in the main City part why don't we go for those milkshakes?" Joey was about to ask something else when the ball he shoved away into his pocket glowed and opened up on it's own. The Ditto escaped out of it and appeared with it's back to the both of them. It had it's small little arms folded and an unimpressed disgust on it's face. Joey jumped on the spot as the ball opened by itself. "T-That's not supposed to happen!" He looked to the Ditto and raised his fist. "Listen you! I call upon you, you don't just pop out when you like..." He slowed down and looked at him with a slight leer in his eyes. It eventually eroded as he continued speaking to the Ditto. "Say... I'm Joey. Sorry for forcing my catch on you but... Someone's gotta make sure you don't wreck havoc on everyone else. Plus i think you could help me." The Ditto blobbed to it's side and looked at Joey with a raised eyebrow on it's face.

"See, i'm a thief. And well... I can see your talents being of good use to me. SO whaddya say? I keep a watchful eye on you and give you a nice home to live in, in exchange for your services. How about that?" Asked Joey inquisitively. The Ditto wobbled side to side slowly as if pondering the request. Eventually it stretched out it's small hand for a handshake to seal the deal with Joe. Joey grinned and turned to Sharada and spoke. "See? He's calm down now..." He moved his own hand to shake the Ditto's but the Ditto suddenly transformed into Joey once more and began blowing raspberries at him. Joey's eyes flinched and he let out a defeated sigh. "In the ball you go!" The Ditto suddenly realised he was being called back and returned to his ball. "Phew... So. Milkshakes then? I'm pretty thirsty after all that running."

[Morrigan]

Sharada smiled softly as Joe began to blurt out how useful that the ditto would be to him. She shrugged her shoulders before letting out a soft laugh, "Of course it would be useful to you! You're a thief! Hell, even I could think up a number of pranks to pull with that thing..." With a sudden frown, she began to wave her arms around in the air, trying to fix what she had said before Joe got any ideas, "N-Not that I would do anything like that! GRAH! It's because I've hung around with you too long. You're just stupid! Hmph!" she added on quickly, folding her arms.

As Joe offered up on the drinks again, Sharada made a hesitant nod and started to walk on ahead before yet another thing happened which stopped her in her tracks. The ditto had burst out of it's pokeball, allowing Sharada to have a better look at it. Her eyes widend as she realised it was a slightly different colour than other dittos, meaning that it was a rare shiny pokemon! She grinded her teeth together silently before muttering to herself, "How the heck was he able to snatch something so rare!?"

Once Joe had finished talking with his ditto and spoke to Sharada again, she sharply turned to face, ignoring the thought of tasty milkshakes for a moment. "Hold it right there!" she mumbled, pointing to the Swablu on her shoulder, "Swablu's are supposed to be blue, but mine is gold. Ditto's are supposed to be pink, but yours in blue..." Trying to be as suggestive as she could, she began to squirm around uncomfortably, "I can't believe you now have a shiny pokemon too! It's so unfair! I kinda wanted a one up on you, but now we're even!"

Letting out a sigh, she pulled a pokeball from her bag and slowly returned Swablu, "But yes... A milkshake! Now you have such a cute and interesting pokemon, I might want to talk to you for a bit longer." she giggled, sticking her tongue out at him.

[The REAL Joey]

Joey pondered about what Sharada had said about their Pokemon both being of a different colour. Her mentioning it seemed to have made Joey more aware that Ditto's weren't typically blue. "HUH?! I thought something seemed off about this Ditto. Aren't they meant to be a pink colour?!" He paused and grinned. "Guess I lucked out huh? Lady Luck's been smiling down on me a lot lately." He laughed as she mentioned that they both had shiny Pokemon now. "So we do. Just think, I could get Ditto here to transform into your Shiny Swablu and there'd be two of 'em!" He grinned and picked up his pace so they were now walking side by side.

Joey seemed to be deep in consideration over something. Eventually, the silence seemed to bother him so he decided to speak what was on his mind. "I don't usually nickname my Pokemon but hm..." He paused before going on, afraid what he was going to say next would sound silly. "Back when I was a kid this game got released called Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and in it there was this copycat mimic called Doopliss... I was thinking of calling my Ditto that just because its so incredibly accurate." He let out a small smirk and shrugged. "I'll think it over."

They finished strolling along the streets of Violet City and it wasn't long before they reached a small bar. "Looks like they do milkshakes here. We might as well sip something here." He opened the door and walked in but turned around and held the door open for Sharada. "After you milady." He gestured jokingly.

[Morrigan]

Sharada gleamed happily at the thought of two shiny Swablu's flying around with them, "Heehee! That would be rather sweet!" She grinned at Joe and bounced excitedly, "You'd better try it out later, okay?!" As Joe suddenly picked up the pace to walk beside her, she smiled softly and walked a little slower.

Though from then on, it indeed fell silent. Sharada glanced over to Joe from the corner of her eye and noticed that he was deep in thought. She focused on ahead, keeping her eye out for any interesting shops until the sound of Joe's voice broke the silence. As he mentioned his thoughts to her, it took her a great deal of strength to hold back her laughter. He didn't seem the type to nickname his pokemon.

Her eyes soon widend, however, as she finally took in what he had just said. Turning to him, she pointed in his direction, her voice filled with disbelief, "Y-You played Paper Mario?! That is so awesome! It is one of my favourite games ever!" She then thought about it a bit more herself and started to nod her head several times, "Yes yes! I agree! Doopliss totally fits his personality. Heehee!" She let out asoft giggle before looking back ahead, "You're pretty cool afterall!"

As the pair soon stopped in front of the bar, Sharada eyed it carefully before giving him a nod of approval, "Uh-huh!" she replied, following him towards the door. As Joe held open the door, she seemed to laugh at his jokey tone. Walking past him, she gently poked his chest, "Wow! How gentleman-like... for a thief."

[The REAL Joey]

Joey opened his mouth and mockingly acted surprised with her. "Gentlemanly for a thief?!" He rolled his eyes and shrugged casually. "I'll have you know most thieves are gentlemanly. They pride themselves on a number of principles..." He paused and rubbed his forehead slightly. "Well most of them do. Just like people themselves we have good and bad ones. The good ones are a sauve bunch though, no faulting them." He nodded and clenched his fist in front of him. "I'm determined to sink Team Rocket's plans." Joey's eyes seemed much more focused, ablaze now almost. "I don't really agree with their underhand dealings and treatment of Pokemon as mere tools. So because of that, i'm gonna use all the grunts as stepping stones on my way to thwart the executives!"

He smiled almost day dreamingly thinking back to past events over the years. "There was that one rogue trainer who took out the Rocket boss all by himself. The thing is, the trainer was only a kid! A KID!" He continued on, wrapped up in the whole tale. "If a single kid can make 'em disband you can damn well believe i'm going to mop up the ones left behind. No Rocket will be safe from Joey's lighting fast strikes! I'll assemble the perfect team and take 'em out using my abilities as a thief." He grinned and sighed. "OH! MILKSHAKES!" He remembered absent mindedly. "Lemme go get them..." He dashed over to the counter and was quickly served. He paid the staff with his coins that were retrieved from Doopliss and moved back to Sharada and sat on a tall stool. "So yeah... That's a bit more about myself." He smiled and handed her a milkshake. "Enjoy!"

[Morrigan]

As Joe began to talk, Sharada seemed to look around nervously. Though there wasn't too many people inside, they duo sure looked odd standing by the doorway, talking about how thieves. But one thing did draw in Sharada's attention, when he mentioned Team Rocket. The odd thought had passed through her mind that he was a member himself, but then again he seemed like a lone wolf at the same time. She suddenly made a sigh, almost of relief, "Phew... I'm really glad!" She grinned up at him and began to speak slowly, just incase she worded herself wrong, "I was kinda thinking that you were Team Rocket or part of a gang yourself, thieves usually are... But but I don't mean you are nasty or anything! Plus you treat your pokemon nicely, even though you do teach them to steal..."

Realising her ramberling didn't make much sense, she slowly shrugged her shoulders and moved towards a stool, "Sure Joe, I'll grab us a seat." As she sat down, her eyes flickered over to the nearest window. It was starting to get pretty dark, making her think about where she could go. Would Joe want to go with her? Nah, she was probably getting on his nerves far too much by now. Her deep concerntration was soon broken as Joe placed the milkshake in front of her face. She quickly took it off of him and began to take a few sips from the straw, "Thank you, Joey!"