a ski mask covered her face, both to shield her from the wind of a swift getaway, and conceal her identity. her blonde hair was tucked into her black hoodie, and she was almost wholly anonymous in appearance—to anyone who didn’t know her well enough, and didn’t get close enough to recognize her by her eyes alone.

and her eyes? she couldn’t fucking believe them.

as she’d crawled into the back to return fire, it took no time to realize who was tailing them. and yeah, it took a second to do something about it. at her strange partner’s aggression, she chucked a nearby object at his headrest and bared her teeth.

“arseholes all around me.” she hissed to herself, getting small in a corner and releasing both a klang and a magnemite from their pokeballs which returned their own perhaps more intentional fire, both with ZAP CANNON.

nostrils flaring under her mask as she did her best not to shake, as she also aimed a small rifle at the front wheel of his motorcycle, intentionally taking a bit too long to take a shot. her solrock sat low in a seat further up, not seeming to be doing anything, but focusing all of its energy on keeping the woman calm. and yes, this was calm.

solrock could no longer contain her. it sank in the seat.

there was ice, and fire, and the woman snapped clean over the wind, “QUIT YOUR BITCHING.” and finally pulled the trigger, essentially lashing out at both men simultaneously.

feeling the speed stall for a moment and watching the ranger get closer flashed her back to the cruise, only for a second. she blew sharply out of her mouth and took another shot, seizing the opportunity, mostly just for show. she didn’t seem like a bad marksman at all, but she was still missing—mostly on purpose, and perhaps partly because her hands, typically stone still, wouldn’t stop shaking.

at the voice behind her, her eyes went wide. “fuck, fuck.” there was a short chorus of expletives amongst them as she headed for the back with sharp reflex, sliding him the gun and putting on her detective hat.

bombs. trackers. something in one of the pokeballs? the idea of throwing them out was certainly a good one, but knowing what kind of tricks someone was trying to play was good information, and that most certainly fell under the category of her job.

then she realized, it was senon. this was all the league. they'd been set up.

she gritted her teeth and made her way to the very front, barking at the grunt. “stop.” a confused ‘huh?’ was met almost before it fully left his lips with an ever more enforcing “STOP DRIVING.”

and the van, sure enough, slowed to a full stop, rather quickly. at that moment, lulu honestly didn’t care if senon’s bike crashed into the side of it, killing him instantly—given he’d made it over the obstacle course of pokeballs.

lulu returned to her partner, stating rather viciously and with utter loyalty, “it's the fucking league.”

if her partner had picked up her gun and whether or not he might use it was of no momentary concern to her. unfortunately for senon, they were in the middle of nowhere, in a different region. whatever hell he faced was his to deal with now.

she watched him throw the pokeball, just as he lost control.

’help us.’

it was at that moment the solrock ended all deliverance of helpful sedation to lulu, and she felt the full weight of emotion and her body’s panic. for a moment, it was crippling—especially when she heard the body hit the side of the vehicle.

the magneton who suddenly became her only company fell victim to a powerful HYPNOSIS. lulu watched the results, taking a moment, glad there was at least no one around to watch her have to catch her suddenly ragged breath. assuming, hoping the grunt they’d selected for their interregional smuggling mission had enough moxie to get out and fight if the enemy—senon—wasn’t dead, she breathed through her nose and went to work.

she recalled all but solrock, attempting to reduce the disturbance in the electromagnetic field, hoping the slumbering magneton wouldn’t interfere too much. she then pulled a radio frequency detector from her backpack, and began running it closely over the pokeballs as quickly as she could. nothing.

swallowing and taking a breath, she kicked herself out of the vehicle. she felt like she was floating. she didn’t look at the scene behind her, which was probably a bit dumb, but it was all she could do to keep walking (with haste) down the road, keep scanning. and finally, she found something.

she felt perhaps a tear. it didn't fall, but she felt it. she also felt rage. what a fucking liar. she took the pokeball and shoved it forcefully, angrily into her backpack with a jammer, rendering it useless. “we were being tracked!” she yelled, and finally turned, deciding, for a second time, that she didn’t care if he wound up dead.

metang. cool.

she sniffed. she’d have taken a moment longer to scowl at the ranger in disgust, had they not been in such a hurry.

the sight of ranton reminded her of a favor she wished she could forget—a wish which was almost immediately granted as a stray gunshot sailed overhead, causing her to duck. she was then in motion, headed for the van.

by the time her partner jumped in, lulu had already shoved the sleeping magneton out the back, thrown something and barked at the driver for taking off prematurely. she watched as the zoroark returned in a red glow to its trainer, who had just pointed a loaded gun (in an apparently loose hand) at its head.

she couldn’t believe she had to remind herself she wasn’t in the bleeding hearts club.

speaking of which: all of the previous nonsensical yelling. poacher? they hadn’t… poached. they were smugglers. their bosses hired the poachers, right? they were just the middlemen. but, nonetheless, it hurt, somewhere in the bottom of her cold, dead soul.

having also quickly gathered the embarrassing remainder of the pokeballs from their haul, she ran a hand over a few. something overtook her, and she grabbed it. as they headed in the other direction, she hung out of the vehicle for just a moment, looking directly at senon in whatever state he was in before dropping the pokeball on the road with a pointed gentleness. while she hoped it had gone unnoticed by those on her own team, her cover would be that it had been a trap, if it was mentioned.

she then got sort of small in her corner again.