Rigorous Relationships

Devon Corp. Disaster

[authors note: sentences that are underlined are associated with the last person to speak and are a part of a conversation written on paper]

(Three Hours Ago)

Ash walked swiftly and with purpose towards the large building; its gold lettering acting as both a beacon and a warning to him, as if saying "this is where you're supposed to be" and at the same time saying "turn back you shouldn't come here". Ash didn't listen to the letters and walked straight into the building, stopping only once to tell President Stones secretary, a petite brunette in glasses with an almost melodious voice, that he was here to see her boss.

The woman pressed the intercom connecting her desk with her bosses and after a second an old man answered, speaking in a voice that was overflowing with charm. "Yes Meredith, what can I do for you today?"

"Mr. Stone an Ash Catchup-." "Ketchum." Ash interrupted, correcting the butchering of his family name.

"Oh, sorry dear." Meredith said, obviously not sorry. "An Ash Ketchum is here to see you, sir. Should I let him in?"

Mr. Stone didn't respond and his silence made Ash rather nervous. His nerves were steadied though, when the doors to the office flew open and let out the man he'd been looking for. Mr. Stone had a head of icy white hair that he kept trimmed in a unique fashion involving a spiky appearance on the back of his head; he wore a dark purple suit that complimented his frosty hair and made him look more like a fun grandfather than a businessman.

"Ash my boy, I wasn't expecting you until tonight. Why the sudden appearance?" Mr. Stone said smiling kindly, all the while sending signals with his eyes warning Ash not to say to much around Meredith.

Ash thought quickly, as he needed a valid reason to see the man that didn't seem to absurd. As he shifted his footing his excuses came to him, as they shifted in their pouch and bumped against his chest. "I just acquired some odd stones and thought you'd be able to tell me some things about them." Ash said as he pulled out the bag of stones Rhyolis had given him.

Mr. Stones smile widened as appraising stones was something he did often and didn't come off the least bit suspicious to Meredith, who had become uninterested as soon as Ash mentioned stones; knowing that Mr. Stone could go on for literally hours, explaining the schist out of stones.

"Ah, well come right this way; you know I've cataloged over 70 species of rocks and have over 1200 in my personal collection." Mr. Stone said, exceptionally zealous to be on a topic he understood better than most.

Ash was starting to dread bringing up stones with Mr. Stone, but portrayed an excited facade to convince Meredith that he was a fellow rock enthusiast, as he followed the man into his office. Once Ash had stepped through the door Mr. Stone closed it behind him, and told him about all the rocks he had in his collection as he lead both of them to his desk. The rock talk was mostly a cover up so Meredith wouldn't tune in on their conversation, as their real discussion was held on a notepad they passed between each other.

"So Ash did you know I spent an entire week in a mine in the Kanto region mining for a sample of Tanzanite?" Mr. Stone said as he slid the notepad to Ash. "Keep talking about stones with me, they've got the room bugged."

"No, I didn't know that. Did you manage to find any?" Ash said sliding the notepad back. "What's happening, who has your place bugged!?"

"Yes actually I found a lovely cluster of them about to be eaten by a gang of Golem; thankfully my excavation team managed to fight them off and buy me enough time to collect them."... "My building was invaded yesterday and taken over by Team Rocket; they're after a large piece of Lucinian that Rhyolis gave me years ago."