[attr="class","beck"]the jolteon and venusaur struggle, clearly outnumbered and overpowered, but their trainers prove too stubborn for their own good. but then again, they are fighting for their lives.

they will be shown no mercy.

click.

a DRAGON PULSE emits from dragonite, slamming their trainers into the wall. it turns back and throws another ICE PUNCH. nidoking continues with relentless POISON JABS.

scout.

[attr="class","noodles"]Cillian Quinn

There's no hesitation, no concern shown for the trainers. There are only orders and Gavin's haste to obey, turning for the stairs.

He takes them two at a time until he finds himself on the second floor. Long, vacant halls. Muffled echoes of the fight raging on the outside, screaming, but no sound from any of the closed doors. His gaze shifts left, right.

Lucario follows him up, slams its paws together as its AURA SENSE pulses.

It shakes its head.

Whistle. Pitched, patterened like birdsong. All clear.

[attr="class","beck"]with the two trainers slammed against the wall, they're left to scramble to regain their bearings. there's no apparent reason to rush but he does anyways — he refuses the comfort because he knows one little mistake is all it takes.

he raises his gun, points it at them. the VINE WHIP that flies towards him is stopped by nidoking's strong grip. their trainers were doomed the moment they stayed instead of fleeing.

bang! bang!

just in time for the whistle.

"take care of them."

he starts climbing the stairs, ascending.

[attr="class","noodles"]Cillian Quinn

His chest hurts, too tight. His muscles are unbearably tense.

It's affecting Lucario's AURA SENSE; he can see the way that the canine winces as his stress begins to overwhelm in the calm. Gavin focuses on shutting them out, focuses on thinking about anything but the gunshots that rattle up the stairs.

He's gotten a hold of himself when Lucario growls, soft, to get his attention. It points to a room at the end, just as Theo ascends the stairs.

Wait, Gavin signs to his mentor.

When he tries the door, it's locked. No sound comes from beyond, but Lucario's senses were sharper than his own. It follows him, nods.

Crobat swoops up the stairs after Theo and, with Gavin's signal, fires a concentrated HURRICANE to blow the door from its hinges. As dust and papers whirl in the violent wind, Gavin spots the researchers cowering under a table.

They're terrified, trembling, pleading with their eyes.

Orders are orders.

Gavin turns his head to Theo, signs. Targets.

[attr="class","beck"]more tremors come from beneath him but he doesn't need to look back down to know his team has it handled. they've been trained to survive with or without their trainer. the others likely weren't.

he stops the moment merlino signs.

a HURRICANE soon follows, bellowing the locked door off its hinges. he doesn't need the sign to know what awaits them in the room. merlino's sign only confirms his dread.

for moments, he considers their options. he looks to merlino, pauses, then turns around, offering him a lifeline should he want it.

"deal with them."

[attr="class","noodles"]Cillian Quinn

'Deal with them.'

That there is any choice of mercy is lost on Gavin; he has not been trained to be merciful. He has been trained to kill.

He is not allowed a gun, and his knife will do little good against multiple targets. Pokemon are more powerful than humans with their paltry weapons. There are laws — Pokemon are not meant to attack people. But Rocket cares little for the law.

He clicks his tongue twice, points.

Lucario fires a pulse of energy toward the ceiling, shattering part of the building to cause a ROCK SLIDE to collapse upon the huddled scientists. Crobat slips through the debris to finish them off with its CROSS POISON.

Gavin catches up to Theo. There is no trace of remorse.

"Sir."

[attr="class","beck"]nothing but lifeless bodies remain when theo returns to the ground floor. his eyes gloss over to a cracked spot in the ground, bloodied beyond repair, and he guesses it to be where a jolteon once was.

his pokemon regard him with nothing more than a glance over as they await more orders.

sir.

he turns but says nothing at first. he simply stands by a pillar and peers out at chaos that spills through the town. he feels little.

"how do you feel, merlino?"

[attr="class","noodles"]Cillian Quinn

He expects orders. The question blindsides.

Gavin blinks.

He isn't feeling anything. He feels empty because it is the only way to survive.

"Fine, sir."

[attr="class","beck"]"i feel the same."

nothing. because this is the only way to survive.

he reaches into a pocket, fishes out two cigarettes, and lights one. he extends the over to merlino.

"do you know what's the next target?"

of course he does. they both do.

[attr="class","noodles"]Cillian Quinn

Gavin takes the cigarette between long fingers that do not tremble. He lights it and takes a deep drag, lets cigarette smoke taint the image of destruction before him.

"Yes, sir."

A pause, when he wonders if Theo expects him to recite it.

"The Pokemon Centre, so we can take over the facility to treat our wounded and prevent them from doing the same."

Them. The other, the enemy, the target.

Crobat and Lucario return to him, the former dripping blood and toxin from its maw. Lucario seems to study its trainer as its AURA SENSE pulses, perhaps understanding the depths to which Gavin has gone to feel nothing at all.

[attr="class","beck"]the burn in his lungs isn't even registered. he exhales smoke, then nods.

"the pokemon center. right."

the pokemon center. their target. their enemy. he repeats it again as if it'd make a difference. he takes one final drag before dropping the cigarette, leaving it to the rubble.

"let's go."

[attr="class","noodles"]Cillian Quinn

Gavin's not halfway through his cigarette when Theo finishes his own, but he still drops it to be crushed beneath his heel when the admin gives the order.

Obedience runs so bone-deep that he doesn't even think to hesitate.

He follows.

[attr="class","beck"]he half-expects the pokemon center to be abandoned by the time they arrive but it's anything but. a large group of officers have clearly bunkered down in the two-story building. its dome-shaped roof has caved in but it seems to be doing little to thwart the officers' efforts.

this won't be as easy as he would've liked it to be. but then again, it never is.

"plan?"

it's not according to theirs so they'd need to adapt. he turns to merlino, notices a flash behind him, and clicks his tongue in reaction. his dragonite dashes forward in an EXTREME SPEED and slams into an arbok before it manages to sink its fangs into merlino.

[attr="class","noodles"]Cillian Quinn