Hal, the coat is a little too big for you. It's uncomfortable to move around in and the bottom of the coat trips you when you walk. You could fool someone from a distance, but up close it's obvious that the coat doesn't belong to you.

Taking a moment to throw the coat over himself just to see what it would look like, Hal gives a slight chuckle before removing the garment, folding it up and stuffing it into his backpack. "No plan yet. Walking around in a lab coat is just screaming for attention though. You could have dressed down a little you know? So where exactly is it you need to get to?"

Eddie, you know the way. It's not difficult to drive there - the main concerns are distance, and getting spotted by any Indigo League patrols that might be on the lookout for you. There are a few possible routes you could take.

One, you could cut right through the city center. That's the shortest way between here and the Earth Shrine, and you'd be able to get Rick to the safehouse by late afternoon and still have time for tea. But the city center's also where the municipal military police outpost is, and you'd be right in the lion's den if you got spotted. You'll also need to figure out how to have your lunch.

Two, you could detour through Minami-ku, the south side of the city. The run-down industrial estate is Rocket territory, so you'd be a lot safer and you might even get advance warning on any Indigo League heat coming your way. Problem is, the road ends at Nyoromo Lake - you'd have to disembark from the car and travel through Viridian Forest on foot, and you'd reach the Earth Shrine after dark. You'd have to pack lunch and dinner, and be on your guard for wild Pokémon.

No matter what, you can't risk leading the Indigo League to the Earth Shrine's location. It's all of your heads on the chopping block if you do.

What do you do? Do you have any other plans?

"Our best bet is to take a detour through Minami-ku. It's slower than going directly, but if we're trying to avoid the heat, it's our best bet. We'll have to walk from Nyoromo Lake to the base and pack a day's worth of food, but we should have a much easier time avoiding the Indigo League this way."

Eddie releases his Farfetch'd from her apricorn ball.

"I'll have Flo here scout ahead for us a bit; and Rocket should be able to warn us about anything big that might happen in Minami."

Eddie pauses for a moment.

"Any objections?"

Rick's bodyguard shakes his head. "I think it's a good plan. It's good, right?"

He inclines his head at the counter. "If you're thinking about dinner, don't worry about packing food or nothing. The restaurant lady knows we're taking a hike. She already made onigiri for us." He raises his voice. "Saki! SAKI! Hey wrinkleface!"

"Keep your shirt on, knucklehead," the old woman grumbles, emerging from the kitchen with a platter of unappetizing rice balls. "I can hear you louts just fine. Not for long if you keep yammering on at that volume."

The woman sets the platter down with a clatter and begins manhandling the rice balls into cloth bundles. The rice looks like it was smashed up together with a mortar and pestle -- you really don't want to think about what goes on in the back of this restaurant.

"There," she says, tying off the final bundle. "All yours. Don't go off eating them in one bite. Do you boys even know the price of rice these days? Or the price of salt? I swear you rascals will be the death of me..."

Any last preparations? Eddie, what do you tell Flo to do?

Noel cautiously walks up to the fearsome woman. "Thank you ma'am. I'm sure they taste great!" he beams. Finding the counter a little high, he stretching his hands outwards to receive the bundles.

The old woman melts. "Oh, aren't you just the cutest little Rocket-kun! Take all the onigiri you want. Don't let those nasty ruffians bully you, okay sweetie? If they ever make you feel scared, come to Grandma Saki and I will grind them up and slurp them through a straw." She glares at Rick's bodyguard, who shrinks into the corner.

Rick grabs the packed lunch. "Thanks for your help," he says before gathering his things and preparing for the journey.

I will be unable to post for the next 24 hours or so while I get Hobgoblin Lives underway.

Eddie tells Flo to scout out the area ahead of them on the drive and to report back both periodically and whenever she sees anything that might be a problem. He tells her to meet him back at a specific location in the city should she be unable to find them or suspect that she's being followed.

@Garren: These rice balls are cheap stuff; they're essentially clumps of rice sprinkled with salt, the equivalent of buttered bread in an American context. They aren't on the menu since this is a specialty noodle shop that doesn't normally sell this kind of thing. If you had to guess, you'd expect to pay something like 200 yen for one bundle.


10:02 am
Minami-ku Crossing, Viridian City

Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding.

You pull up at the railway crossing, wincing as the car clatters to a halt on the rocky street. The specter of the electrical tram looms in the distance, accelerating towards you with the motive force of dozens of charging Tauros. Through the windows of the engine box, you see banks of Voltorbs hooked up to the massive dynamo -- a new breed of Pokémon bred for power generation and discarded when no longer commercially useful.

Didn't the Indigo League invade the country to prevent this kind of exploitation?

A small crowd has formed around the car -- some salarymen walking or cycling to work, some gawkers who've never seen a real petroleum car up close. Eddie, you sound the horn and rev the engine a bit so they don't get their hands all over the windscreen. Some of them fling you glares and scowls in response. Same old, same old.

Rick, this arrangement is even more cramped than you thought it would be. Maybe a minivan like the ones they have in Orre would comfortably fit six passengers, but a tiny Imperial sedan like this could barely fit four in the first place. With the boys, Klaus, and your suitcases all jostling in the rear seat, you can't help but worry about the condition of your prototypes.

Hal, you have Noel sitting on your lap. You drew the short straw and you're stuck with the giant Rocket bodyguard in the back seat. You've had enough car rides for one day -- it's all you can do to not vomit when Eddie takes the automobile around a bend. The sooner you can get this over with, the better.

Ding. Ding. The tram sails past, trailing sparks where the electrical lines connect to the antenna...

And you hear a crack from behind you that makes your ears pop.

No way. A gunshot?

The people gathered at the crossing scatter in a chorus of panic. There's no mistaking it. Coming up at the junction behind you is a pair of black military police cars... and above them, coiling imperiously in the air?

A Gyarados.

What do you do? Flo is not available at this point in time.

Rick's eyes go wide at the side of their pursuers and his heart skips a beat. He looks over to Eddie with grim shock lingering on his face. "We've been made! Drive!"

Having, against his better judgement, worked up the courage to sample one of the old woman's rice balls Hal now regretted having forced her to accept payment for them. The mass (calling it food would be charitable in the extreme) sat in the pit of his stomach, hating all and in turn being hated. The miserable snack already had him heaving with every sharp movement - a problem Eddie's driving wasn't helping in the slightest. He had considered the approach of the tram a hidden blessed and had been sorely tempted to simply jump out of the car and walk the rest of the way, were it not for his being wedges between the rocket giant and the professors mountain of suitcases.

The gunshot however did manage to snap him out of his torpor. His first action was simple enough - push his brother down and position himself between him and the rear of the car. "Noel, keep your head down! What are you waiting for Eddie - an invitation?! Make this thing go already!" Glancing over his shoulder and out of the back of the car he spots their pursuers, his eyes obviously resting on the gyrados. Even amid his panic he had to admit that managing to somehow park a sea monster in a car was rather impressive.

Eddie quickly determines whether or not it's feasible to drive through the intersection immediately or if he'll have to wait to avoid hitting the tram. If he thinks he can make it, he tries to do so.

If the wait seems too long, he makes whatever evasive action he can to avoid being an easy target for the bullets.

"How did they find us?"

The implication scares Eddie more than the Gyarados looming over their heads. He turns to look at the people in the back seat and pays special attention to their facial expressions.

"Why the HELL do they know what our car looks like well enough to shoot us on sight?"

Eddie punches the steering wheel in frustration. He hadn't expected for them to be caught off guard like this. Was it the professor? The Rocket goon? Could someone have identified them through the car window? Had Jamie told his buddies to tail Eddie? The possibilities buzzed in his head, and he didn't like any of them.

"Their guns, their Gyarados, their wheels, their engines—we're not going to lose them for long unless we can take out at least one or two of those things."

The gates of the intersection are down. You'll need to wait a few seconds before you can make a break for it. You could also try another strategy, like reversing and trying to outmaneuver the Indigo League cars, or getting out and trying to lose them in the crowd.

In the back seat, Eddie, you see that Rick looks terrified. Rick's bodyguard is leaning out the back window, trying to get a bead on the pursuers with his own gun. Noel is jittering in his seat. And Hal... Hal looks like he's having trouble keeping down the contents of his stomach. You don't get the feeling that any of them had anything to do with this.

Come to think of it, where's Flo? She should be making her return trip by now, and she looks like just an ordinary Farfetch'd... she could be a wild card that the Indigo League pursuers won't expect.

And, well, you could always backstab the rest of them by turning yourself in. You've gathered more than enough material for your feature article... right?

Remember to roll for your action.