maki ponders the question, turning ideas over in her head. the situation isn't favorable; if they confront the other trainer, they may chase away the gardevoir. but if they don't act, the stranger might get to the gardevoir before them... the best way to deal with things would be to avoid a fight out in the open.

"...one of us should try and lure the other person away," she finally concludes. "we could pretend to be on opposite sides. if you fake an attack on me, maybe our mystery guest will attempt to defend me. and while you're distracting them, i can sneak away and capture some gardevoir." she knows well enough that she can use her disarming appearance to her advantage. and if the other person here has no desire to be a hero, they can still ambush them and take them out together.

"so we need to draw their attention without alerting the gardevoir," maki concludes.

[ jayden cross luke hyacinth ]

so much for the subtle approach.

the gardevoir panic, not understanding what's happening. maki pulls her mask up to cover her face and follows after jayden, keeping quiet. she hovers near the trees, watching as each gardevoir is cut down and captured. they clearly weren't expecting to be accosted here, seeing how few of them fight back.

silently, maki releases her froslass, ordering it to hover closer to the treeline to keep an eye on the trainer lurking nearby. the only thing left to do is wait. she eyes jayden's movements, noting how easy it is for him and his pokemon to battle multiple opponents. despite her training, she's unsure she'd be able to manage if their roles were swapped. she'd always been taught with more of a focus on stealth and subterfuge, which is why she suggested the deception earlier.

she waits to make her move, her froslass hiding in the trees above.

[ jayden cross luke hyacinth ]

the squawk of the bird pokemon alerts maki to the danger, but there's no possible way out of that aerial ace. it strikes her froslass hard, the pokemon letting out a cry of pain. immediately maki shifts into battle mode. "don't let it get away!" she commands. her froslass's moves won't be able to keep up with it if it does, so the pokemon reaches its arms out and attempts to wrap them around the squawkabilly to prevent it from escaping.

if they can just hit it once or twice, their type advantage should do the trick... "frost breath." the froslass breathes out painfully cold air, an ice type attack that's always critical if it hits. the air around them immediately grows colder. maki glances at jayden out of the corner of her eye for a brief moment, then turns back to the fight at hand. she knows he can handle himself well enough. what's more important is dealing with this nuisance so it can't alert anyone else as to what's happening.

[ jayden cross luke hyacinth ]

the frost breath isn't enough to down the chatot in one go. as it raises its voice, maki's froslass squeezes tighter, releasing another frost breath to try and finish the job. another pokemon enters the fray-- an elekid this time, something that could be easily dealt with if only maki had ground type moves at her disposal. jayden's flash cannon tears through the gardevoir, and heads on a collision course toward the elekid.

and in the midst of all the chaos, maki notices the man reaching for his phone. she's too far away to do anything about it, though for a split second she contemplates the chances of rushing him to knock the device out of his hand. ultimately, she decides it's not worth the risk, so instead she calls a warning. "JAYDEN!" she yells, pointing briefly at the man to indicate something is wrong.

with more gardevoir downed, and while she's unable to do much else without risk, maki starts throwing more pokeballs. if they can just get out of this safely, they'll have what they came for.

[ jayden cross luke hyacinth ]