As scrambled as her head had become, she remembered.

One, two, three. Knocking them back.

Before the ranger had noticed her, eyes wandered his bare-chested figure. She had never quite paid attention to it so much as now. It wasn’t just the summer sun, though.

Lulu was different than the last time they’d met; and even since the last time they’d made only brief seconds of eye contact, from across a rampage of Tauros earlier in the year.

Evil had crept into her heart, and had rewired her almost entirely.

It smiled at him.

“Hey, stranger.”

All of the minor rage he’d seen in her before had vanished, replaced with one far more overpowering and dangerous beneath. Its teeth still flashed, deceptive as hell.

When she’d neared enough, eyes wandered with utter shamelessness. They were almost animalistic.

They found his eyes again and stayed there, and the curl of her lips only grew.

“Do I?” She did a small turn. “Thanks. I’d say Hoenn’s treating me pretty well, after all.”

Then, she neared—maybe almost too close. “How’ve you been?”

Engagements. It almost soured her mood. Was she jealous? Over a man she’d had a one night stand with? No. She shook it off. That’d be silly.

She had his eyes right now, anyways. That was enough for her.

“Sounds exciting. Congratulations.”

Head tilted at him, not asking any more.

“Are you in the tournament?”

Then, “Want to battle me?”

Lulu’s dark grin faltered only so as they settled in across from each other. Unexpectedly, memories stole her back to the warehouse, where they’d first battled. Where Weezing had blown a hole through the wall. Where’d she’d been hit in the head, and the ranger had taken care of her.

Sénon Game had seen her at her weakest. Maybe that fact had a lot to do with things; with how she’d disappeared, and how she’d glared at him from afar. How she still clung to him (while not literally) in the oddest way, for little obvious reason.

The appearance of his Croagunk caused her to frown a little.

“A Croagunk? That’s a bit of an insult, don’t you think?”

Then again, Sénon Game had seen her in the very beginnings of her training. In what was approaching her one year in Hoenn, Rocket had fully transformed her into a force to be reckoned with. Avatarship had only furthered and intensified her training.

But as far as Sénon Game knew, presumably; Lulu was, literally, no good. Much better with a gun than a pokeball, maybe.

She considered a moment. “Ok. This is the fairest match I've got on me.” Pulled Murkrow’s ball from her belt and tossed it into the sand. Its jagged black feathers flapped in the air as it rose from the red beam and squawked. Eyes homed in on the foe with a MEAN LOOK.

“…”

His question caused her to think a moment. Senon had an air of confidence about him that had always attracted her. It occurred to her, finally, that the man probably knew what he was doing.

After all, he had yet to disappoint her—except for his affiliation.

“You know, never mind. Prove me wrong.”

The first hit was one which would put them under a time crunch. The bird squawked in pain as it was immediately POISONED by TOXIC.

Lulu's commands to the Murkrow would be made up of whistles that almost cooed, avian-like. Since finally settling into a full lack of sleep, she’d grown close to a slew of nocturnal birds. They gathered on and around her lighthouse at night, now, attracted to the soundwaves put out by a beacon she’d constructed.

She’d discovered lots of sounds they liked.

The bird began flying forward to break any distance between them. About mid-way, still perhaps a little short of reach, it sent a ghostly ASTONISH cutting through the air, in hopes to cause the frog to flinch.

Seeing a chance to capitalize on the other's shock, Murkrow gave a bone-chilling caw before descending, dark wings spread to attempt to shroud the frog in shadow before battering at it with a powerful WING ATTACK. 

Meanwhile, Lulu’s eyes seemed less interested in the battle than they were in Senon, and continued casually drifted over to him unabashedly. Smirking. 

Well, damn.

VENOSHOCK hit it square in the face. Gross! The Murkrow squawked even more gratingly, and hit the sand, flapping about. Sediment collected on its poison-dripping feathers, ensuring it’d be too weighted down to take flight again.

Lulu’s eyes finally turned from the ranger and on to the battle, which was not going well for them. Shit. This was what she got for trying to be fair, maybe.

She was still adamant that she could beat the frog if she actually tried. Blaziken would stomp this thing.

Whatever.

“Get it back.”

Stumbling a little through the sand, darkness began to swirl around the messy looking bird, and suddenly, a surprisingly powerful attack exploded out from it. Feathers flew, its beak parted and lashed with ASSURANCE.

It was tough little crow. It would soon succumb to its toxin, but not without getting a decent hit or two in first.