CLEOPATRA IS THE ONLY

Stormy is just about to get into a fist fight with these petty criminals when the pair of bandits are electrocuted.

Their jarbled cries of pain and surprise only last a moment before their clothes smoke and they fall to the ground together in a heap. Stormy's clenched fist is held tight to her chest, having been fully prepared to connect with someone's face. The fire in her eyes dies slowly, being replaced by confusion.

The woman turns, watching as the tiny shape of a Minun sprints away from the damage he caused. Surprisingly, she herself is not injured. She even pats herself down to make sure. There may be a little static electricity clinging to her clothes, but she appears unscathed.

Stormy blinks a couple of times, then shakes her head. Finally, she turns to see where the electric-type had run off to. For one thing, a Delibird in this part of the 'woods' was strange.. but an electric type?

Her eyes follow the Minun to a man standing not too far away. Some of the smoke and distance makes it a little bit hard to tell who it is at first glance, but his voice is unmistakable.

"Yo, picking fights again? You sure are a magnet for trouble, huh."

Stormy takes in a breath rapidly, excitement bubbling up in her chest.

"Senri?" she gasps, rubbing her eyes as if amazed it may be him.

Without really thinking about it, and having completely forgotten about the bandits that had just been electrocuted, she sprints towards her friend. Stormy collides, full-tilt, into the young man, arms wrapping around his neck. She buries her face into the nook of his neck and shoulder.

However, embarrassment warms her cheeks and makes her chest grow tight, and suddenly her affectionate embrace is stiff and awkward. If he doesn't extend the hug, she'll likely slide out off of him stiffly and take a step back to smooth out her clothes and look a little dumb.

Meanwhile, the Delibird has continued to meander along, dragging his oversized sack and catching it on rocks and boulders that are immobile.

"It's.. uh. It's good to see you."

deltra of gangnam style

CLEOPATRA IS THE ONLY

It's probably just his own surprise that leads him to not really respond to her embrace. The pair separate, both glowing a dark pink across their cheeks. Stormy finishes tugging at the bottom of her shirt, feeling a little bit self-conscious about the whole ordeal.

She had mistakenly assumed he would have enjoyed seeing her... but perhaps not given his reaction.

Storm looks up as Senri greets her, a small smile on her face. She tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear, tugging on it absently.

"Oh, him? No, no. I just stumbled across him. I was just doing a little adventuring I suppose. He was being attacked by a couple of criminals so I decided to step in. I suppose maybe we should figure out what he's doing, though."

Since their last meeting, Stormy's team had also grown quite a bit.

"Catching up sounds fun. Has anything new or exciting happened recently?"

Before he might be able to respond to her, however, she became a little more bashful and awkward - and instead decided to greet the Delibird.

The little penguin did not seem at all thrilled to see her, and placed himself firmly in front of his bag. It looked like he was trying to prevent her from seeing it or touching it.

Angry squawks leaped from his mouth in what she could only assume were insults.

"I'm only trying to offer help, you ungrateful bird! It wasn't me trying to steal your bag! You are definitely not the same sort of bird I met in Rusturf - he gave me a present!" she said hotly, cheeks glowing with frustration this time.

She crosses her arms over her chest, her patience wearing quite thin as the Delbird continues to puff out his chest and refuse help.

deltra of gangnam style

CLEOPATRA IS THE ONLY

Stormy's head whipped around, eyes wide with interest as Senri began to explain what was new. Except.. then he stopped because she had ran away. An awkward silence fell between the pair as she continued to argue with the Delibird. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

This embarrassment only seems to increase tenfold as Senri laughs a little bit at their stand off. He squats next to the puffy red penguin, speaking kinder, softer words of encouragement. Normally Stormy would as well, as she had recently charmed and helped a Chansey in the past. Perhaps her anxiety and awkwardness around Senri was adding fuel to her aggressive fire.

The Delibird seems to relax a bit at Senri's cool, confident approach. It even lowered its shoulders and let the bag droop a little, as if a little bit thankful that Senri was offering to help. Of course, it still refused to allow him to take it, for fear the pair of them weren't quite as honest as they said they were.

Thankfully, Senri comes up with the wise idea to carry both the Delbird and it's heavy sack. As if by miracle, the Pokemon agrees to this, and the young man hoists the penguin up on his other shoulder.

"Are you sure you can carry him? Don't hurt yourself."

Despite Stormy being a little red-in-the-face embarrassed and jealous that Senri had so easily won over the testy Delibird, and she hadn't, she's a little grateful that he had been there to convince the bird to let them help. It was sort of like good cop and bad cop.

"If your Minun wants, he can ride on my shoulder."

Her voice sounds a little smaller, but her offer is genuine. She swallows, buckling up the courage to actually talk to Senri.

"And.. what were you going to say earlier? You were going to say what's new and exciting, but I cut you off."

Now that Senri was carrying the Delibird, the three of them were all moving much, muhc faster. The travel to Lavaridge should be a piece of cake.. unless something else comes out to stop them.

deltra of gangnam style

CLEOPATRA IS THE ONLY

When the Minun gives out a cry and hops on her shoulder, Stormy grins. She immediately reaches over with a free hand to try and give the adorable electric-type a pat.

Now, however, Stormy was at full attention to Senri, listening closely to what he had to say. When not concerned with the weird squeezes in her chest whenever she tried to talk to him normally, she was totally relaxed and at her normal pace. There was barely a hint of the previous awkwardness she had displayed earlier, now that she was invested in what he had been up to.

"Poachers? Where? I wish I could have gotten ahold of some of those scumbags, they'd never forget the wrath of Stormy."

Heat rose in her cheeks as she envisioned beating the crap out of criminals, but she quickly cooled down at the mention of the Wintertide Open. Stormy's eyes widened in surprise as she recalled being there.

"Oh yes! I was there. Actually, I saw you perform! You, ah.. you were quite amazing, actually," she coughs, feeling that tightness once again. She manages to breath past her odd emotions to continue.

"I wanted to participate but I wasn't sure the judges wanted to see fire-types for a wintery, icy theme. Seemed like a disaster waiting to happen, y'know?"

Stormy trails off, cursing herself mentally on why she decided to admit to that sort of character weakness. He didn't need to know she was afraid of anything, after all!

"I was at the ball, too! I didn't stay long, though."

This time, she does keep quiet about what happened there. There was no need to go into detail about her confrontation with her brother and the shit show he had started later on.

For a moment, the pair continue to walk quietly before Stormy answers Senri's last question.

"It's been interesting! I've caught a couple more Pokemon since we last saw each other. Actually, let me show you this tiny one I found!"

Excitement peaked in her voice as she fumbled for her Litwick's pokeball. In a flash, the tiny purple candle Pokemon appeared, wiggling with excitement to be out and about.

"Isn't it adorable? I found it in a candle shop in Mauville I think was the city... I think he was trying to keep warm."

deltra of gangnam style