People had always told him that he was more headstrong than a Tauros. And even more prideful. So even when the tides of this event he had started seemed to now be turning against him, the thought of conceding defeat was no where in the silver-haired boy's mind. But grudgingly, he accepted the realization that no matter how hard he may try now, his chances of successfully murdering the girl were about as great as the chances of Ho-Oh suddenly descending upon them from the skies right at that very moment. And as a professional in what he did, leaving a witness didn't sit too well with him. Regardless, preserving his own life was more important than stealing hers.
Warily, the dragon trainer eyed the two blue Pokémon looming in front of him before momentarily shifting his gaze to his Salamence and the Milotic. The fight had seemed to calm, with the latter more interested in protecting her mistress than in her opponent. If the watery group could just be distracted… Dark eyes sweeping the path again to make sure the plan formulating in his head could be accomplished, the boy slowly picked himself off the ground and stood ready, looking past the girl and her creatures to lock gazes with his own beast. The two of them did not require words, having been stuck with one another for so long.
But the tense silence that had settled down over them now unnerved Otomé. Did he have a trick up his sleeve? He was outnumbered and yet he just stood there, face blank, as if waiting for something. It was during this temporary peace that she also suddenly realized that the tiny licks of flame from the blue dragon's earlier Flamethrower now had grown into strong, albeit small, fires. He had interrupted her before she could finish commanding her Quagsire to extinguish them, and between the battle and almost getting killed, she had quickly forgotten.
"Aiyeee! Umi! Put out those fires!" The girl immediately ordered, the Water Fish Pokémon obeying without second thought. Hopping over to the nearest flame, the Wooper Evolute was quick to put it out with a well-placed gush of water from its mouth. Though upon observing this—and how distracted the water trainer now was—the male teenager grinned. Perfect.
"Salamence! Now!" He barked suddenly, springing out of the way as his beast suddenly charged forward with a roar, having little regard for the obstacles that stood before it. Otomé and her Pokémon scrambled to get out of the way; Miho had to weave herself among the trees that lined the path, fore the space available was not large enough to accommodate both her bulk and the bulk of the Bagon Evolute; The Feraligatr dived to the right, pulling its mistress down with it to protect the girl from being tackled by what could've very well been a speeding truck; And the Quagsire shrieked in surprise before tumbling backwards into the brush along the edge of the route.
Obediently, the Salamence skidded to a halt once it was close to its master, hunching down to allow him to climb onto its back. And hurriedly the boy did so, grinning smugly as he was now sat astride his great beast's back. "You wield a lot of water," he remarked out loud. "But this is still a forest. And you know very well that my Salamence can breathe fire…"
Still sprawled out on the damp ground due to the force her Big Jaw Pokémon had used to pull her down, her would-be murderer's haughty comments didn't register in the blue-haired girl's head at first. 'What in Suicune's name is he going on about?' She mused in an aggravated mental tone as she glared up at him. Unfortunately, her rhetorical inquire was answered when the—what had he called his dragon again? A… Sala… Mance? Sala… Mence?—azure dragon pulled its head back and then threw it forward, maw open as yet another Flamethrower was released from its mouth. But this time the target was all the foliage around them.
And before Otomé could do anything but stare in a stunned yet disgusted manner, the boy laughed manically and urged his beast upwards. Without hesitation, the Salamence launched itself at the dense canopy high above, its axe-shaped wings shredding a great many leaves as it climbed higher and higher before hitting the canopy and bursting out of the other side and into the clear, night sky with relative ease.
Down below, the water trainer had already jumped to her feet and pulled from her bag two more Pokéballs. She tossed out the one in her left hand quickly, a burly Poliwrath appearing from the flash of crimson light a few moments later. "Ai! Miho! Umi Nami! Takumi!" She barked in a slightly panicked tone. The fires were getting more worse by the second. "Put out these flames! Bubblebeam, Water Gun, Surf, Hydro Pump, anything! Use anything!" Having enough faith in her team to know that they would carry out her orders immediately, the girl turned away from them without even waiting to check if they would obey. Instead, she pressed the white button in the center of the Pokéball in her right hand to release the creature within.
Despite how the golden beast barely listened to her as its mistress, the Blackthorn native was still proud of her own dragon. The creature was magnificent; a bright shade of gold and a soft shade of white, with large, teal-sailed wings and two gracefully curved antennas placed atop its head. "Kin, c'mon! We've got to chase after the idiot that did this!" Hopefully the Dragonite would not choose this time to sleep or loaf around rather than obey.
Glancing around, the golden dragon surveyed the burning surroundings and her teammates' efforts to quell the fires, then turned its attention back down to its mistress. For a second or two that seemed like an eternity, the Dragon Pokémon did nothing but stare, as though it were debating the merits of helping out. Finally, it lowered itself to all four legs and crouched down to allow the girl passage onto its back. Swiftly, Otomé clamored aboard and before she could even situation herself firmly, the Dragonite sprang into the air, zooming out of the same hole in the canopy that the Salamence had made only minutes prior.
The water trainer was honestly surprised to find that dratted boy and his beast still hanging around, lazily swirling around the break in forest top that they had created. "By the Northern Winds!" She cursed, then shouted to him as they faced each other in the sky, "Why in the world are you still around?! I thought you were running away!"
He smirked in a sadistic manner and called out in return, "I was waiting for you to fail, so then I could watch that worthless forest burn to the ground!" He ignored the roll of her eyes. "But how… Fitting… For you to have a Dragon-Type," he commented in slight nonchalance as he examined the Dragonite she rode upon.
"What did you expect?" The girl threw back impatiently. "I TOLD you I'm from Blackthorn City!"
As if that meant nothing to him, the dragon trainer shrugged. "But what do you plan to do? Fight me?" He added the last part in almost a scoffing manner, as if the prospect of her actually taking him on was a preposterous one.
"Duh! I'll make you pay for setting the forest on fire and for trying to kill me!"
"You should've just ran while you had the chance, Otomé!" His tone was a delightedly cruel one, fore now he would have a second chance at disposing of this insistent pest. "You may've been able to hold up against me on the ground, but we're in the air now, which is where I rule! And while you only have that one dragon, I have four others that can help me destroy you!"
Hissing, she shot back, "Not if I turn you two into ice cubes first! Kin! Blizzard!" With a roar, the Dragonite rightened itself so it looked as though it were standing on its back legs in the air, now beginning to beat its wings faster and more forcefully. Yelping slightly in shock at the abruptness of the attack, Otomé wrapped her arms around her beast's thick neck as best as she could and held on for dear life. Though she was seated in front—or rather now, on top—of Kin's wings, the pace at which it was moving them threatened to throw her off the Dratini Evolute's back. And if the girl slipped, she would surely plummet to her death.
The silver-haired boy, however, was definitely more concerned with the area's rapid and unnatural shift of weather. The inky heavens that had once been substantially clear of clouds were now filled with them and dark, foreboding ones at that. They quickly slid to cover the pale moon and stars as the winds began to pick up and howl like an insane Houndoom, all in a span of four or five seconds. And all the while the temperature of the air was dropping, plunging from a comfortable warmth to below freezing in less than a quarter of a minute. By the time a good sixty seconds had passed, the two trainers found themselves amidst a screaming, unforgiving Blizzard.
He would've shouted to her how much of a genius idea this had been, seeing as her own Dragonite would be doubly weak to the Ice-Type attack, but he knew that his voice would simply be lost in the shrieking winds that battered his beast and him and threatened to toss them around like two Caterpies in a Twister. Stupid girl! He hated the cold! Growling, he hung onto his Salamence more tightly, leaning closer forward in an attempt to retain some of his fleeting heat. They had to get out of this storm or they really would freeze to death.
Though they were on opposite sides of the fight, Otomé and her own beast were having much the same issues as their foes. Although Kin wasn't at as much risk of getting tossed about, both it and its mistress were still very much subjective to the cold so intense it burned and seared. And it did not help that as the flecks of snow pelted the girl's bare arms and melted due to her warmth, the water they became made holding on to her dragon more and more of a chore, as if it wasn't already difficult enough.
But the biggest danger of all was that the water trainer had much more skin exposed than the boy. So while he simply shivered on a level that was just below violent, she was already struggling to stay awake as their dragons did their best to endure the Blizzard and not lose their riders. Though when it felt its mistress's grip loosen significantly from around its neck, Kin knew that something was not right. Despite the Dragonite's penchant for apathetic disobedience, it still cared about the girl. Somewhat. So with the same power it had used to summon the Blizzard, the Dratini Evolute now forced it to die, the shrieking zephyrs beginning to quiet, the clouds beginning to part, and most importantly, the temperature beginning to rise.
The Dragonite, however, did not wait for its attack to fully dissipate before descending in circles and returning back through the hole now obvious in the canopy. The silver-haired boy, as well as his azure beast,—both slightly encrusted with ice—were immensely grateful for the letup of the storm. Any longer… Shaking to warm himself in a way that mimicked a seizure, the would-be murderer managed to catch a glimpse the golden dragon as it disappeared back into the Illex Forest. Dumb girl. What the hell was she thinking, using Blizzard in an aerial battle?! Was she out of her mind?! But before he could command his Salamence to use this apparent retreat to escape, it too had begun to descend, following its peer and squeezing back through the hole. The beast was freezing and in no condition to fly.
The boy had only been no more than ten seconds behind Kin, yet the Dragonite had already landed and pulled its mistress from its back, the girl now laid out by the single fire that had not extinguished by this point. He couldn't achieve a decent view of her due to the fact that he watery creatures were crowded around her out of concern, but he managed to discover that her lips were a blue that was only a few shades lighter than her hair. This only proved how dumb she had been.
Upon hearing the behemoth creature land behind them, the water trainer's Pokémon all turned around quickly to face the pair of foes. What the hell did he want now?! Come to finish his failed task while his prey was unable to fight back? But the boy returned their untrusting glares with an annoyed glower.
"Go burn in a desert, the lot of you," he hissed poisonously. "I'm only here because the air is still too cold for flight." As soon as the temperature had returned to its previous mild warmth, he'd be out of that forest faster than Fire-Type trying to outrun a rainstorm. Huffily, he then ignored the creatures of the deep as he slid down from his Salamence's back and recalled the poor, shivering beast back into its Pokéball. He then proceeded to locate another tree branch a suitable height up from the now burnt and still-smoking path and like an Aipom, scaled the tree to land squarely on the chosen branch. But unlike his previous perch, this one was much more illuminated and out in the open. If he tried hiding again, those damned beasts would just think he was up to something sly. And like he needed any more harassment from them.
But now, there was nothing else to do except wait.
When you had nothing in which to occupy your mind, time seemed to pass awfully slowly. For the umpteenth time in the two hour period they since had been waiting, the silver-haired teenager sighed in a slightly frustrated manner. Arms folded across his chest, he focused his dark eyes on his feet that where placed a ways down on the branch he sat on. He had a horrid sense of time, so he had no idea how long it had been now. But the chill in the air leftover from the Blizzard had been completely and utterly gone for a while. Surely he could leave now! But for some reasons unbeknownst to him, he could not manage to rouse himself from his place.
Once again only his free will was holding him back, yet he remained where he was, unmoving, with no idea why. Was some instinct keeping him grounded? He wasn't… Concerned for that idiot girl's well being, was he…? Frowning, the boy shook his head. No, he was probably just being lazy; he was actually quite content on his perch. But he ceased his bored musings when a groan from a familiar voice reached his ears from down below.
"Oooowwww…" Squeezing her eyes shut tighter, Otomé turned her face towards the meager fire she had been placed beside.
"Quag!" Umi Nami cheered, immediately encircling her mistress's head with her flipper-like arms as best as she was able. "Quag! Quag! Quag!"
Sputtering slightly, the girl chuckled and attempted to pry herself out of the Quagsire's grasp. "Ah ha ha, glad you're so relieved, I guess, Umi. Just don't strangle me!" Around her, her five creatures grinned (well, except for Takumi. How could a Poliwrath grin?). Once the Wooper Evolute had released her, the female teenager then proceeded to ask, "How long have I been out?"
"Ssssiiirreeee!" Umi drew out in response. Whatever answer that had been seemed to stun the girl.
"That long?" A look if despair crossed her tanned face. "Oh! Now watch! Clair's gonna smack me seven ways to Sunday for being so late! Man! First blondie and dumb Team Rocket, and now this!"
As boring as such a whining remark was, the mention of the world's largest and most feared crime syndicate, however, intrigued the dragon trainer very much. "What's your connection to Team Rocket?" He suddenly inquired in a serious tone from his tree branch, now interested. Blinking once or twice, Otomé looked as though she had no idea who had just spoken. After a second or two, it then registered with her that her would-be killer was still there.
"Shouldn't you be long gone by now?" She countered dryly with lidded eyes. 'Stalker.'
"Just tell me," He shot back with a tinge of annoyance. 'Stupid girl.'
Exhaling audibly through her nose, the Blackthornian closed her eyes once again and was silent. Why in the world did he want to know such information? Or better yet, why in the world should she tell him?
"I have no idea actually," She answered finally after a moment's pause. "I'm at Lake of Rage with my mother one day and then suddenly, bam! They come after us, and have been after me ever since." As if being apparently hunted by Team Rocket was miniscule, the girl shrugged and opened her eyes again.
Yet another mystery. Now why would the great Team Rocket be after such an unimpressive, unimportant—and not to mention dumb—girl like the one that lay below him? Frowning, the male teenager decided to put such a puzzle out of his mind for now. It probably didn't matter. "Yes, I'm still here," he remarked again suddenly, answering her, albeit rhetorical, question as he swung his legs over the branch to now sit sidesaddle on it. "The cold from your genius Blizzard made the air too cold for my dragons." With ease, he jumped down from his perch and once again landed on both feet almost perfectly. "But now it's gone, so I'm leaving."
From the ebony belt wrapped around his waist, the dragon trainer unclipped a minimized Pokéball and restored it to its original size. Without waiting for any sort of remarks from the peanut gallery, he pressed the white button on the center and forced the two-toned sphere to snap open and release the red light within. In mere moments, another dragon had appeared beside him.
It was smaller than the Salamence but still larger than its master, though not by much. It was almost entirely a soft green, with a long tail that sported dark green bands and ended in three red-edged diamonds that were positions in the fashion of a fan (its large wings were also this red-edged diamond shape). It had powerful-looking back legs, but its forelegs looked short and a tad scrawny. Its neck was nearly as long as its tail and two uneven antennas in dark green topped its head while its eyes were covered by what appeared to be small domes of translucent red.
Taking a second or two to stare at this new dragon, Otomé then suddenly grinned and remarked in a girlish voice, "Awww! It looks so cute!" This strange comment caused the boy and his dragon to look at one another as if she had spoken to them in some foreign language they couldn't comprehend.
"Did that cold freeze your brain?" The male teenager replied in an apprehensive tone. "How can a Flygon—or any dragon—be 'cute'?" But the green reptile responded with a cheerful bray, obviously liking being complimented. This, however, caused the female teenager to croon again.
"Awww! He even sounds cute, too!"
The silver-haired boy simply rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to comment. But before he could even utter a sound, a third voice, deep and resonating, remarked with a calm smugness, "That shouldn't mean much, seeing as you find almost anything cute."
The boy saw the tall shadow first seeing as it melted from the surrounding trees behind the blue-haired girl and he had been facing her. And judging by the look on the boy's face that whoever had spoken was behind her, Otomé spun herself around and hissed before scrambling back two or three feet from the figure that now loomed so menacingly over her.
Male. He was definitely male. His voice was too deep for even the most butch of females. Though the dying fire wasn't a fantastic help, the dragon trainer could still make out most of the features of this intruder, mostly thanks to his honed ability to see relatively well in the dark.
His hair was shaggy and short, and an extremely pale blonde. He was tall, taller than the boy himself, and wore nothing but black; decently-fitted jeans and a sweeping yet simple trench coat over a shirt that would have been unordinary had it not been for the giant, bold 'R' blazed in a bright red on the center of the chest. Upon seeing that infamous logo, both the boy and his Flygon growled. Well speak of the devil…
"You!" Otomé, however, hissed through clenched teeth. "I thought you weren't going to follow me through the forest!" The blonde man simply shrugged with a frown.
"I changed my mind."
"So I take it that this one of the Rocket's you say has been stalking you?" The dragon trainer suddenly interjected as he eyed the man. He had to be at least six feet tall… The frown of said man deepened at this inquire and caused him to stare down to the girl a few feet away from his boots.
"Otomé! You went and told another man about us? How could you?!" Hissing in indignant aggravation, the water trainer jumped to her feet and was promptly dwarfed by the man due to their severely contrasting sizes. But with her massive Water-Types at her side, she would've seemed so tiny even without him to be measured against.
"Go jump off a cliff already! Yes, he's the Rocket that's been bothering me the most!"
"'Bothering'?" The man echoed in a hurt tone that was painfully fake. "Otomé, my dear, you know I only want what's best for you…" But then a cruel smile suddenly twisted his lips and threateningly, he took a heavy step towards her.
Refusing to show her fear, the female teenager adopted a mask of bravery, but took two steps back when the Rocket approached her. "'Best for me'? Please! Trying to kill me is not what's best for me!"
With a mock pout, the blonde sighed through his nose. "It sounds so harsh when you phrase it like that… Regardless, you know your choices, dear Dream. Come with me, or die." He stated the second option so calmly it was almost amusing. Though the silver-haired boy instead rolled his eyes.
"Like you could succeed where I failed?" He muttered under his breath. This remark won him the blonde's piercing gaze. "Well, what do we have here?" He remarked as though setting eyes on the boy for the first time since appearing. "Oh? A Flygon? Splendid! The Boss loves Dragon-Types."
"It'll be a cold day in hell before you get one of my dragons," he shot back in a challenging manner, his Flygon fluttering forward to position itself between the water trainer and the Rocket before lifting its head and exhaling a puff of blue fire. It hadn't been bidden to protect the girl, but perhaps it had taken a liking to her because of her compliments.
Either way, this new obstacle caused the blonde to sigh for a second time and cross his arms impatiently. "Dream, just come as you are told, without a fight, or I'll have to kill your guard Growlithe…" Before Otomé could retort, the boy instead replied.
"Hate to burst your bubble, blondie, but you're not getting her. Or killing her." Though his words seemed protective, his voice however was void of any emotion. And then as if to confirm his statement, the silver-haired teenager marched forward boldly, snatched one of the girl's wrists in a grip almost as tight as a vice, and began to tug her back to where he had been standing. "You… You're coming with me. Get those blasted Pokémon of yours. We're leaving." Like hell he'd let the scum that was Team Rocket get something they seemed to want.
Having not been expecting such a fierce tug, Otomé stumbled once or twice as she was practically dragged back. Her five Pokémon and the Flygon followed cautiously, their eyes fixated on the tall man to make sure he wouldn't try anything underhanded.
Despite how he was being watched so closely, the Rocket allowed his wall of unshatterable calmness to fall momentarily as he bared his teeth at the two retreating trainers in a silent growl. But upon clearing his throat, he once against returned to his unfazed calmness.
Reaching into the interior of his trench coat, he withdrew a strange, purple and white Pokéball with thick latches and an 'M' on the front in a violet shade. "Hey Otomé," he began in a sly tone as he unsealed the ball and made a grab for the white beam that promptly escaped. It took the light only a second or two to form and take the shape of a slender, lavender feline with large, pointed ears and a long, dual-tipped tail. "Look what I got…"
The dragon trainer tightened his grip on the girl's wrist in an attempt to tell her not to look. It was just a trick. He should know. But of course, she disobeyed and turned to see what that Rocket could possibly have in his possession. By Aruseus, how stupid was this girl?! But when he heard a worried gasp escape from her throat, he, too, became regrettably curious.
"Omi!" She cried in despair. The Espeon that the blonde presented did not look to be in very good condition. Held up by the scruff of its neck, its entire body was limp and unmoving, its fur matted and stained with dirt and what was probably blood. "What did you monsters do to her?! Give her back!"
The Rocket, however, simply chuckled at such a demand and swung the feline to and fro slightly, as if to taunt the female teenager. "If you want her so badly, why don't you come get her?"
Had it not been for her would-be murderer's iron grip around her wrist, she would've taken that bastard up on his challenge! Baring her own teeth in an almost feral way, Otomé glared death at the blonde. But the growls of her five Water-Types suddenly gave her an idea. Imploringly, she looked up at each of her creatures, refusing to look away until they made eye contact with her. Sure, she was unable to rescue the Espeon… But they weren't.
Once she was certain that her team got the gist of what she wanted them to do, the girl then set her hateful gaze back upon the Rocket.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" He jeered. "Too scared?"
In an annoyed manner, she narrowed her eyes. But then without warning, shouted, "NOW!" Without much of a delay, her five beasts charged forward, Kin and Takumi coming from the left, Miho and Umi Nami coming from the right, and Ai, the Feraligatr, coming from dead center.
The water trainer chuckled almost sadistically as she watched her foe drop the psychic cat in favor of attempting to dodge the sudden barrage of MegaPunches, Tail Whips, and Headbutts. While her teammates kept the man busy, Ai dove for the Espeon, scooping her up with a surprising delicacy before whirling around and making a B-line straight back to its mistress.
Otomé had little time to snatch up her bag, take Omi from her Feraligatr, and then recall the reptile, as well as the rest of her team, back into their Pokéballs before the silver-haired boy slung her onto the back of his Flygon and then jumped on himself in front of her. Without prompting, the Mystic Pokémon launched itself into the air, zooming almost like a missile through the hole in the canopy his Salamence teammate had made hours earlier. The loud, colorful curses of the blonde Rocket were almost instantly lost to the melodious humming the Flygon's beating wings produced.
Though the abruptness of such a takeoff had nearly thrown the blue-haired girl off of the back of the desert spirit. The only reason she was still behind the dragon trainer was solely because once she had felt herself begin to slide off, she had shut her eyes tightly and fearfully twined her arms around his torso, trying to stay steadfast by gripping the hide of the Flygon with her legs as well.
"Hey…" She could barely hear the hail due to the wind rushing around her. Although she wasn't paying much attention anyway. Otomé only realized she was being spoken to when she felt the body she had her arms so strongly around moved and twisted around.
"Hey…" Cautiously, she cracked open her eyes, then slowly opened them (though was soon squinting slightly due to the wind) and looked up only to meet the slightly annoyed gaze of the silver-haired teenager.
"Would you mind letting go of me?"
Suddenly, the girl became embarrassingly aware of how tightly she was latched onto her would-be murderer. Almost instantaneously she withdrew her arms and instead placed them around the Espeon to cradle the obviously injured creature. "Ah… S-Sorry! I almost fell off, so it was kinda o-out of reflex…"
"Well, it doesn't matter now," He dismissed. "He's flying pretty steady now, so you don't have to worry about falling off… What? Did you expect that Rocket to follow us?" He made sure to raise his voice slightly so the female teenager would be able to hear his words before they were whisked away by the wind.
Still abashed, she didn't dare meet his gaze, trying hard to quell the fire that was rising in her cheeks. "Ah… Yeah," She admitted after a moment of thought. "He always has before… Every time I would try to escape on Kin… He has a Pidgeot."
Upon hearing this information, the boy smirked smugly and once again turned his back to the water trainer. "Like a Pidgeot could out fly a Flygon? Especially this one?" He inquired with a subtle pride. Hoenn's green dragons were known for their speed, sure, but his seemed to be just a little bit more fast than the rest, which was completely an unbiased judgment. Really!
"So even if that clown had wanted to catch up, he wouldn't be able to!" The male teenager concluded, still with that masked pride. Then again, he half-turned so he could face his would-be victim in order to add, "And… Jet… My name is Jet."