"No way, they're not yours! Only thieves use guns!"
Noel covers behind a nearby stack of crates while shouting out to his Mareep "Nap, duck and dazzle."
On command, Nap discharges and weaves behind some debris, moments later appearing on the other side with neon lights traversing down its horns, reminiscent of a psychedelic amusement park ride. A confoundingly erratic beam shoots out from its head, homing itself in on the newcomers.

While training with his Pokémon, Noel had made up a long list of code-words of varying length and obfuscating specificity for use in battles and make-believe missions. This was one of the more practical ones, effectively translating to hide and use confuse ray, in that order.

The handler screams and drops her gun. Utter chaos descends. The path to the hatch is clear, for the moment.

"Well that solves that." Hal turns to Noel, giving him a grin before nodding towards the open hatch. "Now or never then. Hope you're not still afraid of heights." With that he moves towards the edge of the hatch, clinging onto the supports with him good arm and waiting for his brother to jump before making a move himself.

"C'mon Hal, that was when I was eleven!" Noel makes a sarcastic pout as he makes his way over to the hatch. "Nap, we're getting out of here."
Reaching the edge and looking down, he flinches a little and stumbles half a step back. "U-uh. Maybe, a little push?"

"U-uh. Maybe, a little p--"

The airship lurches hard. Cargo pallets slide across the floor, fire extinguishers topple over and roll to the side, the handler's fallen pistol careens out of sight...

And just like that, Noel, your foot treads empty air, and you're through.

4:38 pm. It's a wonderful cool evening over Mt. Silver, whistling in an easterly October wind and glittering with the vermilion sunlight reflected from Tohjo Falls and beyond. Below you the world is divided in two halves, like the red and white of a freshly peeled Apricorn: a great grim wall of barbed wire and concrete cuts the region from horizon to horizon.

In the west, the twin towers of Johto are silhouetted against the dying sun, rising from the cherry blossom pink and umber of the ailing Imperial heartland, like the colorless wings of a dying Ho-Oh on its last flight. To the east, Kanto disappears beneath somber gray clouds and curtains of smoke, run through by the skeletal frames of skyscrapers under construction, shimmering with the budding lights of industry that has yet to be. A cold welcome.

You hang there in the air, frozen in free fall, holding Nap in the Apricorn in your left hand and cradling your package with your right. You're dimly aware of Hal falling beside you. You don't know whether to laugh or cry -- you did it. You really did.

As the ground approaches, Hal and Noel, you find each other's hands and hold on tight, two ships adrift and anchored only to one another. You count down and pull your parachute cords, and hit the air resistance as though you were falling together into a soft downy bed; you glide, glide on the evening wind, falling closer, closer to ground.

Eddie, you're in position. You can see the parachuting boys from your vantage point. It's time to get them back safe and sound.

Eddie, where are you and how do you make your appearance?

Eddie watches their descent from his hiding spot in a nearby thicket through a beat-up pair of binoculars. There was an abandoned cabin in the woods hidden a few miles from here that they could use as a safe house before making their escape. Eddie reaches into his pocket and pulls out a crumpled up note he'd written in advance.

"Lead them over here and we'll head to the cabin. Make sure that they read this."

Flo jumps up and grabs the piece of paper in her beak.

"If anything funny happens, get out of there. No story is worth getting killed over."

Flo nods slightly—more acknowledging the sentiment than agreeing with it—before taking off in the direction of the brothers. She circles them, drawing their attention and making sure their landings go smoothly.

I PMed you with the relevant info.

Hal and Noel, you see a Farfetch'd winging its way towards you, just as you were told there would be. With a flap of its wings, it wraps you in a powerful tailwind that blows you towards Viridian Forest. You float down into a green canopy that's remarkably unchanged from the time you played here as kids.

As you alight and shed your parachutes, the Farfetch'd quacks and deposits a crumpled piece of paper at your feet.

Eddie, over to you.

The paper says, "Don't leave behind any evidence that you landed here. If they catch your scent, we'll be in a world of trouble.

My friend here will show you the way.

-Ed"

Alright. The wording of the letter makes it seem like that is the case, otherwise I probably would have went with acquaintances.

Noel makes some "Woosh!" sounds as he glides around, taking in the scenery. "Hey, I can see our old tree-house! Think our old stuff is still there? Maybe your old outfits would be about my size now" he suddenly exclaims, pointing towards trees among trees in the distance. Keeping his eyes towards rising tree crowns, Butterfrees in the air, the Farfetch'd guiding them, and anywhere but the ground, his descent eventually makes a stop with his head several inches closer to the mud than what is conventional.

"Oh, it dropped something." Despite the anxiety before jumping, he looks a bit disappointed over the ride having ended. Leaping towards the curious note, he folds it open and holds it for both of them. "Don't leave behind any evidence that you landed here, it says. Asking us to clean up after us first thing? He sounds like uncle, this Ed person." Being the good boy he is, Noel already had no plans to litter the forest, and starts folding his parachute.

Hal remains quiet during the brothers decent, mostly concentrating on keeping the two of them together and ignoring the massively increased pressure on his arm from the parachute - even getting a little numb as it was the thing still hurt. He simply gives a smile when Noel points out their old hide-out, not having the heart to tell him the thing had probably collapsed by this point, or at the very least been overrun by bug types.

After making the somewhat awkward landing he takes a moment to rub some feeling back into his limbs, wandering over with some curiosity when Noel snatches up the note. "More like uncle to just leave us a note." While not really feeling up to the task he knows well enough that hiding the chute would be the smart move and sets about collapsing his own.

The Farfetch'd leads you through a twisty forest trail, shifting in the half-light and given over to decay. There's no signage or lighting along the path, only a raw overgrown dirt track to mark the passage of feet. It's slow going.

It's night by the time the safehouse comes into view. It's an almost quaint-looking shrine from the prewar days, dedicated to Celebi or one of the many mythical Pokémon that watch over the forest. You pass underneath a rotting wooden torii and bow as you cross the threshold of the sanctuary. You'd make a donation at the bell for good luck, but given the state of the shrine, you doubt anyone's listening anymore.

Eddie is inside the temple building, where all the trappings of the past have been fused with modern technology. He's sitting at a metal-framed desk and tapping away at a typewriter in between sips of piping hot Kalosian coffee. Behind him there's a giant red R stencilled on the stairway, and there are stone Ekans statues on pedestals with an eerily modern electrical glow in their eyes. This must be the Team Rocket hideout at the Viridian Earth Temple.

As you enter, Eddie glances up from his work with a grin, and the Farfetch'd flaps over to the desk with all the conscientiousness of a typhoon.

Everyone, what do you do?

"Wow, awesome! This place is almost as cool as our tree-house. Is it yours?" Without second thought, Noel enters and starts excitedly touching anything and everything that looks interesting, but making sure to not press any buttons. "Oh, I'm Noel by the way, nice to meet you. Somehow think you knew that already, though."

Eddie finishes the sentence he was typing, then gives Flo an affectionate pat on the head.

"It's not really my place, but it's not really anyone else's either."

He stands up, extending a hand to the boys.

"The pleasure's all mine. The name's Eddie and my friend here's Flo. Rocket sent me to get you boys outta here safely."

Ed gestures towards a first aid kit in the corner.

"If either of you boys are injured, now would be the time to deal with it."

He scratches the back of his head.

"I'd also like to make sure both packages are okay. Otherwise the lieutenant'll give me an earful about it when we get there."