[attr="class","rigidw"]

Those were definitely not bubbles unless bubbles made bouncing sparks that sounded like sparkler fireworks. Maybe they could be mistaken for some kind of volcanic activity; that would work out even better for Ruby, actually. One piece of the sodium was blasted away from the rest and landed on the ground, where it continued to crackle as the water reacted with it.

[break][break]Cerberus's ears perked up at the sound of footsteps. He nudged Ruby's leg to alert her, and Ruby followed his gaze toward—ah, crap, someone was coming their way! She was wearing all black, so hopefully that would make it harder to notice her as she and her Houndour slipped around to the front of the building. But she wasn't dumb enough to think she'd get away completely unseen. She needed to come up with a plan, fast.

[break][break]"Cerb," she whispered, "use Smog."

[break][break]The Houndour poked his head out from the other side of the building and opened his mouth in a growl. A purple gas flowed from his open maw and floated up, hopefully obstructing the stranger's view and giving him a nasty surprise if he got too close.

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Holy shit, Ruby couldn't believe this guy hadn't seen her. If she weren't trying to be stealthy, she'd be laughing her ass off. For the time being, she was safe from the Smog thanks to face covering and the fact that Cerberus had fired it in the opposite direction. All she had to do now was slip around this guy while she still had cover, and—

[break][break]And he had a Tyranitar. Great. There was no way she'd be able to sneak past the both of them that close to the door. Fine. She'd just have to use brute force to get past them. She liked it better that way, anyway.

[break][break]She reached for Arachne's Poké Ball but stopped when Cerberus jumped in front of his opponents and let out a Roar, trying to get Titan and his Trainer to back off. Ruby grit her teeth. "Dammit, Cerb," she hissed under her breath. The Houndour didn't stand a chance against a Tyranitar, but Cerberus was too cocky to back down now.

[attr="class","rubyw"]

Cerberus looked baffled at the trainer and Pokémon completely unaffected by his mighty Roar. His confusion morphed into indignation when the human ignored him and commanded his Swoobat to blow the Smog away... right back toward Ruby. He let out a bark of warning, but there wasn't much he could do to stop the cloud from drifting over to his trainer.

[break][break]Even with her balaclava on, Ruby covered her mouth and nose with one hand as the smoke came closer. Dammit...! Fine, if this guy was going to play like that, then Ruby was fine with doing this the more... direct way.

[break][break]"Oh, shut up already." She stepped out of the shadows, which might have looked more dramatic if she hadn't picked up the pace to get away from the Smog cloud. It didn't help that her speech had been muffled by her hand, which she only lowered when she was safely away from the gas. "I don't have anything to 'talk out' with you. And I'm not afraid of a bunch of old coots! What are they gonna do, tell me to get off their lawn?"

[break][break]Cerberus lowered his stance and growled, knowing full well that Ruby, unlike this Ranger, did want a battle. And Cerberus himself wanted to show that he wasn't one to be ignored. "Respect"? What a load of Tauros waste!

[break][break]"Beat 'em Up, Cerberus!" Ruby shouted, pointing at the Swoobat.

[break][break]Now that was what he liked to hear! Cerberus raised his head and howled as his body was enveloped in a dark energy. That energy gathered in his mouth and then flew to Ruby's Poké Balls. Then, one by one, the Balls burst open, but instead of a white light, the Pokémon emerged surrounded by the dark aura that had summoned them. First came an Araquanid, then a Skorupi, then a Scyther, and finally a Garchomp, all flying out one by one to strike at the Swoobat before retreating back into their Poké Balls. At the end, Cerberus also leapt up to aim one final strike at his Psychic-type opponent.

[attr="class","rubyw"]

You've gotta be kidding me, Ruby thought when told to speak up. She was usually naturally loud, too! And it got even worse when he completely misunderstood what she'd said! Could anything go right tonight?

[break][break]"Oh, Arceus, don't start lecturing me," Ruby said, raising her voice so she'd be easier to hear. "You're not the only one doing a job here. And right now, you're in my way." It was a weird job, to be sure, but it paid the bills and kept her sister safe and happy. Well, okay, she might not be so happy if she knew exactly what Ruby did for a living, but that was the whole point of keeping these kinds of operations a secret. Which was really hard with a huge Pokémon blocking the way.

[break][break]She let her command to attack speak for itself: This discussion was over. She grinned at Noah's perplexed response to Cerberus's Beat Up and his Swoobat's failure to dodge all but one of the attacks. Yet his jumping in to protect his Pokémon with his own body had Ruby's eyes widen in shock. Why would he do that? Humans weren't built to take attacks like that, were they?

[break][break]Not like that'd be a problem either way with his Tyranitar stepping in front of him. Between its size and type, Cerberus's attack all but bounced off of it, sending him skidding back. And then the Stone Edge came his way.

[break][break]Well, crap.

[break][break]Cerberus didn't stand a chance against an attack like that and fell to the ground, dazed. Ruby let out a "Tch" as she recalled him back into his Poké Ball. Yet the opportunity to taunt her opponent made her smirk. "Nice job protecting this place," she said, looking at freshly cracked ground. She took another Poké Ball from her belt and tossed it into the fray. "Arachne, Lunge!"

[break][break]The Araquanid emerged from her Ball with a hiss, surrounded by green Bug-type energy. She leapt at her opponent and aimed to jab her legs into the holes in its rocky hide.

[attr="class","rubyw"]

It seemed Noah had no idea just how relevant his desire to protect Pokémon was right now. Ruby wasn't here to steal soap. She was here to steal a Pokémon egg being kept here for some reason. Maybe the steam was supposed to help it hatch faster? She didn't know, and thinking about it would only distract her from her mission. And right now, she had a roadblock to that mission to tear down.

[break][break]She clenched her teeth and fists at Noah's words. "You're the one hurting them, you bastard! And now, we're gonna hurt you!" Noah's attempts at pacifying her simply crashed into the wall she'd built up over the years. She didn't care that she'd started the fight. She didn't care that by all accounts, she was in the wrong here. Instead, she honed in on the fact that Noah was trying to blame her for Cerberus's injuries when he was the one who'd given the order to attack.

[break][break]In her own way, Ruby did care about her Pokémon. If she didn't, she wouldn't bother making sure they were healthy and cared for or praise them on jobs well done. But she also knew two very important things. One, Pokémon were tough creatures that were practically built for fighting. They could withstand lightning strikes and counter with localized earthquakes from their own bodies. Even when they did get hurt, they just needed a bit of TLC to get back on their feet again. In her experience, it was rare for a Pokémon to sustain an injury it couldn't recover from, and that usually only happened when its trainer was being a reckless idiot.

[break][break]Two, you couldn't talk yourself out of every situation. Hell, Ruby had found that violence worked more often than words in her life. Sometimes, words did work, but those words were usually threats of violence or other consequences. So really, it was the same thing.

[break][break]There wouldn't be much room for Arachne to dodge in here. A Thunder Fang was definitely bad news, but Ruby was confident that Arachne could take it, especially with Lunge factored in. And she had a few other tricks up her sleeve, too. So instead of giving the order to dodge, Ruby gave a different command.

[break][break]"Leech Life!"

[break][break]It seemed Ruby, unlike Noah, was more than happy to let this fight continue. Arachne let out a pained screech as the Thunder Fang bit into her, but like Ruby had predicted, she held on. While her foe was still close, she aimed to dig her fangs into another gap in its rocky hide to drain its blood for her own nourishment.

[attr="class","rubyw"]

As far as Ruby was concerned, battling was just part of the job. Okay, maybe this job specifically was supposed to be more stealthy, but she wasn't going to pass up a chance to kick some ass. And hey, it looked like it was working; the Ranger was begging for her to stop and saying that he'd let her take whatever she wanted if she just called off her Pokémon. Beneath her mask, Ruby grinned. Just more proof of how useless the League was. She might have taken his offer if Arachne hadn't already latched onto her opponent. Oh, well.

[break][break]Despite his pleas, Noah sent out another Pokémon, specifically a Cinderace. Ruby narrowed her eyes, prepared to shout another command, but then the Tyranitar suddenly threw another Stone Edge at Arachne, sending her flying to the ground with a hiss. The Araquanid pulled herself back up on shaky legs, holding on thanks to her newfound vitality, but she was clearly running out of steam.

[break][break]Noah's next words visibly surprised her: Instead of giving another command to attack, he said that he and Ruby needed to knock out his rampaging Tyranitar together! Ruby wanted to laugh. "What, can't control your Pokémon?" Not that she had much of a leg to stand on with Delphi in her party, but Noah didn't need to know about her. "Heh, I was gonna kick his ass, anyway! Arachne! You heard him; show this thing what you're made of!"

[break][break]Bolstered by her trainer's command, Arachne channeled what remained of her energy into her water bubble. She hissed in challenge, then ran straight at the Tyranitar to headbutt it with Liquidation, aiming specifically for his head to trap it in her water bubble. This wasn't prey, so she didn't aim to kill, but she did want to weaken him as much as possible.