"Sir,"

His impassive tone mirrored his supervisor's, voided of all emotion. This was another case of standard rocket procedure getting in the way of actual work, and to be frank, Felix's patience was growing thin when it came down to it.

But alas, here he was, ready to partake in another training session. Hopefully, there'll at least be something to learn from it.

"Copy."

A Charizard as black as coal emerged before him, smoke trickling out from his nostrils and slack jaw.

"First moves yours."

THEO BECKETT

Fire bit fire. Growling, the Charizard head swung backward as the flames roared around the typholson's neck, tickling the edges of his scaley skin.

Time to fire back.

Jaw stretching open, a gurgle of hot flames meet his opponents, as INFERNO came flooding out from his throat, bathing the world in front of him in flashes of red, gold, and orange.

"Ah." Was the underboss examining whether Felix was up to snuff, or was this another attempt to bond through training excerises? Either way, he wasn't the largest fan.

"And what do you think of their efforts? Of rockets?"

-inferno
-accidentally edited and reput the same thing

THEO BECKETT

Fire bit fire. Growling, the Charizard head swung backward as the flames roared around the typholson's neck, tickling the edges of his scaley skin.

Time to fire back.

Jaw stretching open, a gurgle of hot flames meet his opponents, as INFERNO came flooding out from his throat, bathing the world in front of him in flashes of red, gold, and orange.

"Ah." Was the underboss examining whether Felix was up to snuff, or was this another attempt to bond through training excerises? Either way, he wasn't the largest fan.

"And what do you think of their efforts? Of rockets?"

-inferno

THEO BECKETT

Plumes of smoke leaked out from burnt ends of their flames, clouding the area surrounding the two pokemon. Struggling against the heat of battle, the Charizard grimace in response to the most recent blow. The only thing that kept him swinging was the searing holes his trainer's eyes set burned through the back of his head and the thrumming adrenalin ramping through his veins. Another INFERNO sliced through the air toward his opponent.

"I agree."

Mostly. Loyalty wasn't something Felix could speak on, especially as of late, but that didn't stop the hypocrite from seeing the potential downfall from having more similarly like-minded grunts under their belts.

"How would you go about that, then?"

Militaristic training, instilling loyalty -- these were all general ideas propagated by everyone and anyone who has ever touched a leadership position. What differentiated them was their plans of action and the direct results. How would THEO BECKETT compare to the rest?

The flames of previous entanglements still licked the sides of Felix's stomach whenever his gaze met the underbosses'. But, for now, he could manage to swallow down these conflicting feelings for the betterment of both today's training session and the future of their working relationship.

-inferno

THEO BECKETT

Without support?

His face kept still, untouched. Shadows flicked across his expression and, for a sliver of a second, a glint could be caught in his eyes.

"Tell me more, then."

Thoughts moved to jayden cross , to mint frost . Support was to be found -- the only question was whether their goals aligned enough to warrant it.

In the fall of ashes, a titan lay at the other's feet, closing out the end of their battle. Defeat.

- KO 

THEO BECKETT