The Harlequin and the Joker


Rosa and Colress have a close run-in with Galar's law.


Timeline: ~2 years, 9 months after Black 2's epilogue (placing it just a few months before Ultra Sun's events)

Setting: Galar

Notes: Strong language, violence, moderate blood, minor character death

Characters: Rosa, Colress, Rosa's Genesect, Shadow Triad

Prerequisite Reading: Black, Black 2


Even with Dr. Colress' watchful eye by way of his machinery and Rosa's crafty expertise she honed over the course of a couple years with her metallic suit and Genesect's assistance, Galar's police turned out to be a force to be reckoned with. Far superior to other regions, as Dr. Colress had complained, they soon started tracking down their temporary camps easily. Although most nights they were able to escape long before police actually arrived at their makeshift homes, they were not so lucky one evening. Dr. Colress and Rosa had been caught entirely off-guard as Dr. Colress' superior perimeter detection technology, which essentially used elaborate echolocation to warn of approaching danger, went ignored as they both slept clear through the alarms. Rosa had allowed them both some slack the evening before, claiming that since they had just relocated, they had at least a day or two before they had to worry about being tracked down again.

She had been very, very wrong.

Awakened to the sound of Arcanine barking and loud voices, Rosa leapt to her feet like a startled Purrloin and shook Dr. Colress awake violently. Not bothering to see if he actually got up or not, she dove for her bag next to the pad of blankets they had formed into a bed, hastily fitting her suit on as quickly as she could as she heard the voices outside start to make sense. They were demanding both of them come outside, or they would send some Arcanine into the tent to drive them out. Curling her lip at the entrance, hunched over, Rosa just barely held her tongue from snarling, "Go ahead, then!" She was hardly afraid of some pathetic Arcanine. In fact, most pokémon paled laughably in comparison to her suit or her Genesect. Still, once comfortably in her suit, she moved back to their sleeping pad and helped a groggy, confused Dr. Colress to his feet. "Call the Shadow Triad!" she hissed. It wasn't worth drawing further attention to themselves by injuring the police and their pokémon if conflict could be avoided altogether.

"Right," he mumbled, rubbing his face. Disjointedly throwing out his right arm, he tiredly slurred, "Shadow Triad, come to me…"

A couple of Arcanine entered the tent then. Slowly, they lowered their heads and held their jaws just slightly ajar, flames visible in their mouths and ready to fly at a moment's notice. Rosa caught sight of them and froze momentarily… then, pitched Genesect's Ultra Ball. Avoiding conflict was preferable, but she wasn't about to take her chances with these pokémon, and she sure hoped Genesect would intimidate them into submission. The beastly Bug-type unfolded from the red beam and its height ripped the tent open at the top. The wind pulled the fabric away from them all, the tatters blowing in the occasional gusts of the breeze, leaving her and Dr. Colress exposed to the elements and visible to the gathered police. The heavily armored men and women sat astride Mudsdale with thick riot shields in hand, some exchanging words through walkie-talkies as well. Rosa almost smirked. They certainly had reason to fear her. This wasn't the first time they had seen her Genesect.

As soon as the two Shadow Triad brothers (Dr. Colress had shrugged and insisted that, even though one of them had died, Shadow Duo just didn't quite have the nicest ring to it) appeared, the two Arcanine shot off deadly Fire Blasts at them each. Instinctively to save themselves, the two vanished from sight again, and before Rosa even managed to get a word out to tell her Genesect to do something, the Arcanine both attacked. One latched onto her arm and started to drag her away from the Genesect, while the other leapt at Dr. Colress. A third Arcanine then rushed in and zoomed at Genesect, clipping its teeth on the pokémon's small, vulnerable arms, causing it to aggravatedly turn its attention there instead of on helping its trainer or its creator.

"Stop resisting! Recall the pokémon, get on your knees, and put your hands behind your head, both of you! The Arcanine will not harm you if you cooperate!" she heard someone with a loudspeaker call.

Narrowing her eyes contemptuously at them, Rosa could only smirk beneath her mask at the disconcerted expressions that followed, assuming they had seen the way her glowing, digital eyes had cut at them in cruel delight. Although the Arcanine's weight on her arm was uncomfortable, its teeth couldn't hope to penetrate her suit; and so, she easily just raised her right foot and landed a kick squarely in the Fire-type's throat. With a pained yelp, its teeth dragged along the suit, throwing sparks, as it was thrown away from her and landed in a heap, failing to rise again. Just as she did that, her Genesect lowered its head and the weapon crowning its head glowed an eerie violet. Although the Arcanine started to fall back and she heard one of the handlers calling for it to return, Genesect's attack fired off before it could listen, and the Arcanine went awash in blindingly white light as it was struck with a point-blank Hyper Beam, one designed for killing instead of merely fainting. The Arcanine collapsed following the strike, its fur blackened and smoking, eerily silent.

Turning her head to Dr. Colress with the intent of telling him to call the Shadow Triad back, Rosa felt as if she were watching in slow-motion as she saw the Arcanine attacking him knock him to the ground, and then clamp its powerful jaws around the blue sensor encircling his head. All in one terrible second, she heard him cry out in pain, saw electricity rush down the sensor, and that pale green forcefield appeared around Dr. Colress. The Arcanine howled and jumped away, blood spattering Dr. Colress as it pawed at its muzzle. Dimly, Rosa realized the protective forcefield had deeply lacerated the pokémon's face as it activated, but those details were lost to her as she rushed to Dr. Colress' side. Upon her approach, the forcefield flickered and then faded entirely.

The sensor, she had come to learn, was quite literally embedded to Dr. Colress' skull and brain and allowed him a variety of abilities. From quick, complicated mental math to borderline encyclopedic recollection of information to idle collection of environmental data, that sensor was vital to Dr. Colress himself as well as his research. Yet, she had seen the Arcanine tug on it before the forcefield had taken effect… she had heard the sharp, inhuman howl of pain that she had never, ever heard from Dr. Colress before… Fearful of what something tugging on such a sensitive device could mean, she inspected where it fit into his hairline, and saw the skin had pulled away and he was bleeding profusely. He looked to her dazedly and moved his mouth as if to say something, but whatever it was died in his throat, and then his golden eyes rolled into the back of his head. He suddenly went very limp in her hold.

"Fall back, fall back!" she heard that loudspeaker cry again. Feeling an indescribable numbness from head-to-toe at feeling Dr. Colress' weight slump against her arms like that, Rosa slowly turned her head to watch as the police team on the Mudsdale reared away from her Genesect, which towered over them menacingly. She felt as if her eyes glazed over as she heard them rapidly talking strategies between one another. They were hesitant to throw out anymore pokémon to face Genesect, she could tell, based on what had happened to the three Arcanine. Of the three they had sent out, only one had staggered back over to them, and its face was stained scarlet with where Dr. Colress' forcefield had struck it.

Slowly, Rosa unlooped her arms from Dr. Colress and stalked closer to her Genesect. Normally, she would have simply called the Shadow Triad herself at this point and have ordered them to bring them both to safety. However, a deep-seated hatred burned in her as she overlooked the group of police, their bleeding Arcanine, and she leaned her hand against Genesect's cool, iron body. Shivering in a rage she couldn't have begun to understand, she shrieked against the brisk air of the night, "Genesect, Flash Cannon them all!"

Turning away as the pokémon obeyed, lowering its head, and aiming that massive gun at them, Rosa sank back to her knees next to Dr. Colress. She curled her arms below his shoulders and struggled to pull him close—he was a lot heavier than he looked—and almost hugged him as she watched Genesect raze the group of police. Her eyes were still unfocused as she saw the strident blast of light scorch the ground ahead, sending a tremor through the earth. Everything went comfortably quiet after that and her Genesect lumbered back over to her. There was nothing left of the hunting party that had been sent for them. They had drawn a very bad hand indeed.

Yet, Dr. Colress was still out cold, and Rosa could not bring herself to think of what potentially was wrong with him. He was the scientist, the brilliance; she was the enrapturing Queen of Diamonds, the skill and protection. Yet, a simple Arcanine had brought Dr. Colress down and she had allowed it to happen. Clutching him even tighter, she shivered violently as she saw his blood leak down her arm, beading off her suit, a lump of painful, turbulent emotion rising in her throat. She was ignorant to the cold in the air, to the fact a much stronger hunting party would be sent after them following the disappearance of so many police officers like that, and even ignorant to the idea of staving off his blood loss and trying to help him in any way she could. She was just too lost in her haunted guilt and an all-encompassing sadness that swept up on her like a tidal wave. Even if she did stop the bleeding, what would that do? The internal damage was done. Her mind looped on that thought like a broken record, unable to think beyond it without shattering the rest of her composure. A more primal part of her mind was begging her, screaming at her, to ask what she would do if Dr. Colress did not recover, but she wouldn't acknowledge it. She couldn't acknowledge it. That was a place she was unwilling to go, unwilling to consider, because she needed her King… King of Diamonds. She had tauntingly compared him to Nate before, calling Dr. Colress her King of Hearts instead, but that just wasn't true. She liked Dr. Colress and she liked being at his side. If she was the Queen of Diamonds, then he was, in fact, her King of Diamonds.

The two Shadow Triad brothers appeared on either side of her, but Rosa ignored them, even as one whispered, "We should move."

Another ten minutes or so passed before the other prompted her as well. "Miss Rosa."

Seizing at the use of that name, of which only Dr. Colress and now the remnants of the Shadow Triad called her, Rosa gritted her teeth. "I'm not going anywhere," she growled at them. Stubbornly, she had decided she would not move until she had figured out what she was going to do. If that meant staying there all night, then it meant staying there all night.

"Well… we can't stay here. It's dreadfully cold, Miss Rosa…"

Rosa almost dropped him in her shock as she heard Dr. Colress' slur those exhausted words at her. He weakly pushed against her hold and she let go, watching in a mix of terror and hopefulness as he sat up in front of her. With a trembling left hand, he wiped away some of the red fluid that had cascaded over his face, and cracked that winning smile at her, the same one when she had first met him. It looked so demented and eccentric with half his face drenched in his own blood. "Come, now, you don't think I hadn't thought of something to make up for how exposed this thing is?" he asked as he pointed a finger to the flashing sensor. "Miss Rosa," he dramatically tilted his head back and pressed the back of his left hand to his forehead, "I do hope you know me better than that!"

"Then, why'd you scare me like that?!" she huffed, embarrassedly flushing crimson beneath her visor. "And why are you bleeding like that? You passed out when it got tugged!"

As if he didn't know what she was talking about, he drew a finger across his face, blinking surprisedly at the scarlet fluid on his fingers. "Mm, the human head has a habit of bleeding profusely at the smallest of injuries. What poor design…" he trailed off disappointedly. "Nevertheless, I've come to work with this shoddy design! I passed out because it getting tugged like that is definitely a serious problem. The forcefield, however, activates to get rid of whatever is causing the disturbance and then, ah… Hmm, how to explain… Some chemicals are released that fix whatever little damage was done, to grossly oversimplify. It renders me unconscious so I don't potentially disturb the process."

As Rosa reeled from the information, he shakily stood up and stretched, then overlooked the still-smoldering hillside in front of their crashed campsite. His beaming grin faded into something more akin to a mischievous smirk, and he raised a brow at her. "My, Miss Rosa. I was out for a mere few minutes and you made such a mess without me!" He craned his head slightly to inspect the marks in the ground. "There is nothing left. Mm, I see the Genesect project is still functioning well! Good, I was worried about a few potential kinks still in the program…"

Crossing her arms and glaring at him, she defensively huffed, "You scared the shit out of me!" Don't you EVER pull anything like that again! she possessively thought, her lips twitching with all the other furious words she wanted to let fly at him, even though she was thrilled that he was alive and well.

"I did?" he asked in a faux innocence, fluttering his eyelids at her. "Now, what sense does that make, Miss Rosa?" he teased.

He had leaned into and fully accepted the idea that he would never understand whatever relationship they had. In a way, so had Rosa. Nearly losing him had drummed up such a deep pain in her chest, one that threatened to rise up and swallow her entire world into darkness, and although she didn't want to show just how grateful she was to still have him there, she couldn't fight away the grin that had spread beneath her visor, nor the way her digital eyes were upturned in glee on it. She practically skipped over to him and seized one of his hands in hers. Her voice laced with a fake, apologetic tone, she snickered, "My bad. I suppose that means we'd better skip on out of Galar for a while." Tossing a look over her shoulder at her Genesect, she dramatically added, "Since they'll want to know what happened to their teammates and all that…"

Playing along with her, Dr. Colress rolled his eyes, a playful smile still pulling at his lips. "Yet more human emotion in the way of our studies, mm, isn't that right, Miss Rosa?"

"You should have seen them," Rosa teasingly taunted. "'Fall back! Fall back!'" she mocked them, giggling after. Reaching out a finger before he could respond, she traced it upon his lower jaw and stopped it just at the end of his chin, moving his face slightly so that his eyes focused directly on hers. "They didn't know just who they were messing with, though," Rosa dangerously whispered, loving the rush of power that came with realizing she had all but vaporized an entire squad of police… and she still had her delightful Dr. Colress to show for it! Those hopeless enforcers had accomplished nothing, and they had learned why they shouldn't have ever bothered in the first place. They had earned their retribution for daring to harm him. Oh, she knew a saner person would have found her justification horrifying, but as far as she was concerned, everyone else was wrong. She and Dr. Colress were inhuman on an entirely different plane, and nobody would ever take her King of Diamonds.

They were welcome to try.

But they would fail.

And she would lavish every second of their delicious failure.

"Mm, no, they did not," Dr. Colress responded breathlessly, relaxing in the slight hold she had on his chin. "Even so," he yawned after a long, lovely moment like that, "I should clean up and get this wound taken care of. Then, we shall go elsewhere, Miss Rosa. Where to next?"

"Galar is always so dreary and cold," Rosa complained huffily as he started to walk away, crossing her arms. "Maybe… somewhere sunny? With beaches? What's that little region nobody knows much about, or even takes all that seriously?"

"Alola?" Dr. Colress distractedly asked as he started to dig through a bag.

"Yes, that's the one!" Rosa exclaimed as she excitedly bounced a little. "What's a beach vacation sound to you?"

"They do have a most interesting phenomenon there that I have not been able to glean much information about from books or even the limited Internet access in Galar," he mused interestedly. "Z-Powers, I believe they call them, comparable to the Mega Evolution I studied in Kalos, or so I have heard. Since I already have data on Mega Evolution, perhaps it would be a great opportunity to see which ability is better at drawing out power from pokémon! Imagine if I could fabricate a Z-Power or Mega Evolution for the Genesect project!"

Laughing, Rosa said, "So, that's a yes, then?"

"Indeed, Miss Rosa!" he called out as he whirled away from the bag, triumphantly holding a tube of something over his head. "To Alola!"

"After you fix your busted head," she reminded him pointedly, almost like a mother chiding a child.

"If you insist," he sarcastically complained.

Rosa recalled her Genesect, and sat there with him, assisting him in cleaning his face and then applying the surgical glue that would reaffirm the hold between his skin and the device spiraling from his head. Leaning her head on his shoulder in the end, she found the idea of spending some time in Alola with him to be delightful. She was more than ready by the time he was done, and just like that, they grabbed what they deemed critical from the campsite in a few hastily thrown together bags, and then…

To Alola they went.