A bespectacled young woman clad in dragon pajamas walked out of the local Poké Mart, carrying two large bags of Pokémon food in each arm. "Mr. Lars was right. Feeding you really has become a challenge!" She said to the green Zweilous that walked beside her, eyeing the bags with an eager expression shared by both of his heads.

A sudden explosion shook the very ground they stood on, causing the dragon-hooded girl to stagger backwards, dropping her bags to the ground. "W-what was that?!" She stammered in a dumbfounded state, gazing at the burning building across the street. Meanwhile, the Zweilous ignored the ongoing crisis, simply chowing down the food that had spilled out of the bags. "This isn't the time to eat, Chomper!" His trainer chastised him.

Andrea picked the bags back up, staggering again due to their weight and bumping into a certain pedestrian. "Oops, sorry..." The flamboyantly-dressed girl hastily apologized, but quickly found herself intimidated by the other woman's foreboding presence. "Uuhm... This is bad for you, you know..." Andrea sheepishly remarked, pointing with her head at the cigarette.

Lulu Flint

☉

even despite the bright dragon-hooded outfit, lulu seemed not to notice andrea and her zeilous—until she was bumped into. ”wha—” moved half a step over, her face snapped around with a scowl. and this kid had the gall to lecture her?

”bad for me?”

she turned and took a long drag, glare lingering on the girl, even as sirens howled louder. eventually, she held the cigarette out to look at it, as though she hadn’t thought about this one in a while. her eyes drifted back, narrowing more.

”do you really think anyone does this because they think it’s good for them?”

she waited for an answer, bringing the smoke to her lips again. down the road, an unmarked car squealed around the corner. not a cop, but someone surely in a hurry to get there ahead of them. lulu didn’t seem to note their approach—or, she was expecting it.

Andrea Vaneau

☉

The draconic cosplayer put her finger up, as if to say something, but quickly lowered it. That woman had a point; Nobody actually thought that smoking was good for them... not unless they lived in the 1930's at least. No amount of soapboxing was gonna make her quit her unhealthy habit.

Speaking of things that could kill you, a car sped past them, violating at least ten traffic laws. Andrea hugged the wall nearest to her in order to avoid being run over, but it seemed the lunatic driver was headed for the burning building instead. How strange...

Having picked the last remaining food crumbs off the pavement, the shiny Zweilous turned his attention to the scowling woman. His trainer looked at him quizzically. "What's the matter, Chomper?" She asked, as the two-headed dragon drew closer and sniffed the older woman's coat like a police hound. Whatever item she kept concealed on her person, it seemed to have drawn his attention.

Lulu Flint

☉

the sedan sped onto the scene, brakes squealing. the driver jumped out, stumbling on the curb and then running towards the fire. he stopped short when it occurred to him it was over; there was no way in. hands came up to the sides of his face in distress. he yelled something incoherent.

lulu’s attention had left the girl. she was focused on her prey, ignoring the zweilous sniffing at her pocket. she was a dog-owner. briefly, her eyes flashed back to the dragon-hooded girl. prime witness. that was ok. she could take care of that after.

her eyes lingered, as the pinched the filter of her half-smoked cigarette and flicked it away. sparks jumped across the pavement.

”there. happy?”

darkness crept up her features then, until they disappeared altogether, and all that was left was a shadow standing there. it flattened into the ground, zig-zagging under dark patches of grass and rubble until it righted again, and became her. just across the street, she held a gun up at the man’s forehead. the words couldn’t quite be heard, but there were sharp expletives.

something about not stealing from team rocket.

Andrea Vaneau

☉

The man's distressed yelling - reminiscent of a merchant lamenting the loss of his cabbages - briefly distracted the dragon-costumed girl, but Chomper's anxious yapping made her focus back on the older woman, who appeared to be... blending in with the shadows? What kind of power was that?

In a matter of seconds, she was standing across the street, holding the wailing man at gunpoint. Andrea could barely make out what she was telling him. Something something Team Rocket...

What to do? She wasn't equipped to deal with someone who was armed. But she couldn't just stand there and watch either. "Gigi, save that man!" She threw a Pokéball forward, out of which a Gengar popped out, immediately firing its Destiny Bond move towards the pair.

Ethereal rings of pale light manifested around Lulu and the man, as their fates got intertwined. Should one of them get shot dead, what would happen to the other?

The Gengar grinned widely.

Lulu Flint

☉

”hm?”

as ghostly energy swirled around her and her perhaps would-be victim, she sneered. eyes cast immediately over to the girl across the street. ”bitch,” she hissed, utterly poisonous. it was just enough of a moment for the key-thief to act for his life, batting the gun out of her hand, and into too-hot rubble. she stumbled back a step. somehow, her anger grew.

the sirens were growing louder. they would be here any minute. she wasted no time, with steam practically coming out of her ears. her fist wound back and sailed into the man’s nose with a sick crunch. ”say anything and you’re fucking dead.”

with that, she turned, suddenly focused on the girl in the dragon costume. reaching for a pokeball. she tossed it, and a beheeyem appeared. PSYCHIC TERRAIN sparkled across the ground, a pink sheen rippling over grass and ruin, and the street, and eventually past the toes of the girl and her duo.

”wipe her memory!” she commanded.

lights flashing rapidly on its arms, it surged forward towards them.

Andrea Vaneau

☉

Needless to say, the black-haired woman was not happy with Andrea's meddling, calling her a bad word, while ordering her Beheeyem to wipe her memory. "N-no, don't wipe my memories! I-I need those in order to function!" The dragon-hooded girl pleaded for her life, while staggering backwards. "Gigi, Confuse Ray!" She cried out.

Her Gengar nodded, hurling an orb of sinister light towards the creepy alien. She wasn't sure whether the Confuse Ray would work under the Psychic Terrain, but hopefully it would buy them a tiny bit of time.
(author's note: terrain moves have a million effects and I refuse to read all of them.)

The draconic cosplayer turned on her heel and made a run for it with her two Pokémon in tow. That woman was dangerous and, unlike THEO BECKETT, made no attempt to hide her true intentions. She wanted to hurt Andrea just for having the courage to stand up for a man's life. If there ever was a good time to run away, it was now.

Lulu Flint

☉

the PSYCHIC TERRAIN did little to nothing really. beheeyem was hit squarely with the CONFUSE RAY, the complex workings of the alien's mind suddenly short-circuiting. it twisted in the air, arms aimed in its trainer’s direction instead. she practically growled, her shadow ducking out of the way and disappearing, just as the sources of sirens finally began pouring in. the beheeyem vanished as well, gone on its own in the bright light of a TELEPORT.

the crime scene was swarmed with law enforcement, firetruck and ambulance, just as they were on the run in another direction. how timely.

just a little down ways the street, a second beheeyem would appear in front of the girl and her two pokemon, indiscernible from the first they’d successfully taken care of—at least for that moment. dealing a taste of their own medicine, the beheeyem unleashed a strange power which glowed around them like a nebula, vibrating with low telekinetic force—CONFUSION.

lulu appeared on the other side of them, her shadow swirling into the ground again at her feet.

”you can’t run from me. what you saw back there should have been proof enough of that.”

Andrea Vaneau

☉

So much for running away... Surrounded from both sides, there was only so much that Andrea could do. Gigi floated in front of the girl to shield her from Beheeyem's Confusion, only to take the full brunt of the attack and get knocked out by it. She was part Poison type, after all.

Calling her knocked out Gengar back into its ball, the young PokéManiac turned towards the approaching woman with a mortified look on her bespectacled face. She was right; There was nowhere to run, as she would continue to go after them no matter where they went.

"L-leave me alone! I haven't done anything to you!" The dragon-costumed girl pleaded, while wrapping her arms around Chomper in desperation. She didn't wanna die here. She had so much left to accomplish!

Lulu Flint

☉

there was no smirk of satisfaction at the gengar's fainting. lulu’s wrath was ravenous. not only was this girl a witness, but stepping within the line of fire when lulu sought personal revenge was a dangerous thing to do. 

”leave you alone? this is what happens when you don’t mind your own business! beheeyem—!” just as she was prepared to command another attack, sirens all but drowned her out. another blastoise-armed firetruck was barreling down the road at high speed.

lulu glanced up it briefly, before deciding her time to deal with this had run up. the dragon-hooded girl would know her face. so be it. she despised this city, anyways.

”best watch your back,” she warned poisonously, as her shadow climbed up from the ground. once it had reached the top of her head, it pulled her all the way back down with it, elongating, stretching toward the dark mouth of a gutter, and then disappearing up its chute.

the beheeyem TELEPORTED away.

Andrea Vaneau

☉

With the blaring of sirens drawing ever closer, the shadow woman evidently decided that dealing with Andrea right then and there would be very risky, departing with a stern warning instead. A wave of relief washed over the dragon-hooded girl, but also of worry. What if that woman came after her? Or, worse yet, what if she came after her friends and loved ones?

"How do we keep getting into situations like these?" She asked Chomper, who licked her face in an attempt to comfort her. "Heh... Thanks." The young PokéManiac chuckled weakly, before opting to take her leave as well, running off with her partner in tow. She wasn't gonna stick around to find out whether the shadow woman would come back to finish the job.

Lulu Flint

☉