she makes it out of the shitstorm and gets thrown right into another. at some point, she was separated from Naomi Sato and the absence is a weird, bitter feeling in her. but she swallows it and shoves it aside and waits nervously on her waverunner. it's a similar model to the one she'd used all those months ago to snag some sharpedo teeth for some quick cash. 

ships have been coming in and out and the drop-off points have kept changing. with false leads and failed takeovers, her supervisor isn't too happy. but when that massive steel ship cuts for dewford's waters, spirits are lifted. 

it's electric, the sudden rush they all feel. parker grins despite herself. idling engines wait for the order and then when it's given, they roar to life in unison. the sea crashes underneath them as they whip around the rocky bluffs they'd skulked behind. 

parker's greninja outpaces her as they near and launches himself out of the water and onto the deck. iron clasps to the rail and a rope swings down. several more like it are hooked by various water and flying-type pokemon, and then the rockets begin to climb. 

skyler dross

☉

"To your positions! Enemies incoming!" Skyler barks out, a blur of movement amid the frenzied deck. "Stay the course! We're not stopping for these bastards."

She leaves a white-faced quartermaster to their job, stalking past crates and busy crewmen up to the bridge. The door swings violently inward to admit the captain, startling the navigator within. "At ease, Navvie. Keep to your post." A golden key emerges in Skyler's hands, and she slots it into a groove on the control panel, turning it just so. 

From now on there was no commandeering the ship without her personal say so.

Skyler catches the navigator's eyes and grins. "See ya out there."

Outside, Clarabelle the Lopunny joins her. The first few hooks catch on the Sotally Tober's railing - and Skyler breathes in deeply, anticipation stirring amid ocean brine.

The primal connection between herself and the ocean leviathan pulls taut, answering to an unspoken question.

She watches the first stirrings of conflict from a vantage point, taking stock of what they are up against. A wave of Rocket operatives swarms the deck, finding immediate resistance from the crew and their collection of water types.

A second wave arises, and this one Skyler meets head on.

Clarabelle swoops down alongside her trainer, nearly as bloodthirsty as the captain herself as she morphs into her Mega version and roundhouse kicks a Mightyena into the ocean. Skyler's smile is a study in both belligerence and rapture as her fist coils to ram into a Rocket's solar plexus. 

parker jones

☉

parker hauls herself up with the first wave of them - the beasts are baying and the crewmates are clashing and chaos has inevitably ensued. there is a wild fight in her and it comes out now with her comrades in arms, the greninja at her back. 

a water pulse sends her ass over tits and soaks her through to the bone, but she's up not a minute later, laughing wildly as she clocks the pokemon's trainer in the face. greninja goes to heave the vaporeon over the side of the ship, but it melts into the wet floorboards and moves away. 

they're to disrupt the supply and take what they can for themselves, but things go to shit as the all-out brawl commences. if she were smarter, she would've seen through rocket's veil; they're throwing their grunts to an open maw in an effort to slow the league down.

greninja sees a mightyena blast off the side of the ship and he comes in swinging hard at the lopunny in question, water shurikens gathering in is palms.

parker hears a grunt behind her and she laughs; her hood falls down as she throws another punch at the person in front of her. "y'alright there, toby?" she calls over her shoulder.

skyler dross

☉

Toby was, in fact, very much not okay. He'd been one of the first weasely little rats to board the ship thinking he could've hoarded some of the loot for himself. Resistance from the ship's crew had afforded him enough time to try and get his slimy hands on something - which could've worked, had he not been caught red handed.

By the captain, no less.

He's on his knees now, and Skyler briefly thinks that it's a good look on him before ramming a knee against his jaw, rendering him unconscious. He crumples to the ground, but the captain's barely paying attention - something else's caught her eye.

Or better yet, someone.

It's the laughter that snags her attention first, the bloodthirsty joy of it. The absolute lack of restraint that Skyler had thoroughly enjoyed - and partaken in - on several different occasions.

The breath catches in her throat, but she forces herself to let it out. 

"No, he's not."

They hadn't spoken since their meeting in the Ultra Deep Sea. Skyler had kept a healthy distance from Parker's usual haunts, but the temptation had always lingered there just under the surface.

"What the fuck are you doing on my ship, Pinkie?" Skyler's chin tilts up, and she takes a dangerous step forward. Muscles coil in violent anticipation. "Askin' for an ass kicking?" 

Nearby, the Lopunny is caught off guard by the Greninja's attack, scarred fur painting itself crimson in the aftermath. She stumbles forward for only a moment, then swings around with a Mega Kick.

parker jones

☉

shit's pretty crazy, sure, but parker's in her element. fists flying in absolute chaos, every muscle stretched taut and burning. blood sprays and faces don't matter. this isn't beating the face of GIDEON GRAVES into a pulpy mess. this isn't intimate. 

this is wild and free and careless. she becomes more than just herself. she becomes part of that seething, writhing mass of bodies. nicks on her skin, elbows to the side, even a punch to the head, and none of it matters. 'cause that energy is just coursing through her and into the next person that crosses her path. 

until, of course, the world comes crashing real hard and cruel around her. 

she whips around in disbelief, face paling, and not 'cause toby looks like he's gotten back from a two-week bender. blue eyes lock on silver and nothing else matters. they're back dockside, a sea of cultists swimming around them and harking prayers to their goddess. they're at that stupid bar with drunks jeering in a circle

they're anywhere and everywhere at once and it hurts 'cause skyler's been as gone as she was before parker confessed something awful. she hadn't been expecting flowers or a note or anything, but even a fuck you would have sufficed. even a little i see you, i know you, i can't know you. 

"i'm doin' my fuckin' job, dross," she snarls back and closes the distance with a swing.

several feet away, her greninja gets a well-deserved kick in the abdomen and goes to join the mightyena in the waters below. fortunately enough for the frog, it swims better than its canid counterpart. 

skyler dross

☉

Skyler had always recklessly hurled herself into the maws of life with the sort of religious fervor associated with fanatics. She'd walked every step of her existence with the steadfast belief that if the world didn't bend to her, she'd make it. One way or another.

Except that Parker looks at her with the full force of furious heartbreak in her eyes, and Skyler's footing grows unsteady. Her heart rises to her throat, caging any words before they slip past the captain's mouth. No excuses, no apologies, no fuck you's.

And perhaps that's for the best. Because Skyler sees in parker jones that glorious, untethered disregard for anything beyond the rush of flesh under her knuckles - and that possessive urge rises again, clawing at her throat, flashing across her expression.

Yearning, it turns out, is an emotion Skyler is altogether too intimate with. She's always wanted more, regardless of consequences.

So when a fist rams into her face, she knows she deserves every bit of pain that explodes over her jaw. The force of it throws her back against a wooden crate and she immediately tastes copper on her tongue.

"Fuck." Her chest heaves up and down. The back of her hand comes back bloody when she wipes her lips. She pretends - unsuccessfully - that it doesn't feed into some primal, savage part of her. That the blood isn't like ambrosia on her lips.

"Doin' this the hard way then." A rough bark of laughter escapes her, drunk on adrenaline and their shared memories. Skyler bends her knees and muscles coil - then launches her full weight into tackling Parker to the ground. 

parker jones

☉

it gives her a sick, twisted sense of pleasure to see skyler bleed. love is so, so close to hate, isn't it? and she doesn't know which is which, whose is whose, when skyler looks upon her like she's just delivered her salvation. that fucking look that makes parker feel like she's a whole world and skyler her tides. 

"this isn't - fuck - " the breath wheezes out of her as skyler hits her like a truck. she doesn't have sea legs and with all the fighting rocking around them, she loses her balance, back hitting the deck with a loud thud. her head smacks against the ground and she sees stars. 

"this," she seethes, ankle hooking around skyler's, grunt of exertion as her left shoulder comes up, abs crunching, to roll them over, "this isn't the hard way, fucker."

and fuck her for knowing that. 

skyler dross

☉

Skyler sees stars, but not for the same reason Parker does.

An ankle hooks around hers and suddenly the world twists around and she's being shoved against the wooden deck. And Parker's all gritted teeth and passionate savagery and her words fail to reach Skyler's ears because the captain's too busy staring. Drinking in. Getting lost. Because her breath's gone before she's hit the floor, and it comes back tasting of misguided affections and ocean brine.

Fingernails scrape against the deck and muscles strain against the weight of Parker's grip. She thrusts her hips upwards, once, twice. A mass of rebellious gold frames a savage baring of teeth that comes perilously close to parker jones 's hand.

The sounds of battle fade into distant cheering, and it takes Skyler a moment to recognize the voices within. The roar of foreign engines, the shiiink of metal cuffs closing around wrists. Rocket had been sent here to slow them, not stop them.

It'd been a hopeless task from the start.

"Fuck." She doesn't know whether parker jones's heard it, if she's even paying attention. It's a small miracle that Skyler is. "Pinkie, It's been fun but you gotta go." 

One hand catches parker jones 's collar and yanks her down to Skyler's level. The other rises at the same time to cover the woman's lips. 

The way silver catches on blue allows no room for discussion. 

"Towards the bow there's an escape hatch. Hide in there and I'll make sure no one's watching."

parker jones

☉

they're all just fodder. they're allowed their freedom, their battlefield to let out their animals, but at the end of the day they go back to their cages and they wait and wait and wait until they're let out again. and it's intoxicating, tasting freedom when they have it. too soon, it's over, and parker's squandered her time over a woman that's put her behind her own proverbial bars. 

skyler bucks under her and parker grins deliciously down at her, thinking if she ends up rotting in a jail cell, maybe it would have been worth it for that. lucky man, her husband, if she's anything like this in bed. 

she makes a strangled sound as skyler yanks her down, eyes going wide with confusion and disbelief.

an argument struggles to her lips, dies just as quickly when skyler presses a hand there. her brows furrow and there's a lot swimming in her blues - raw pain, thinking that for once, someone gives a shit about her. 

muffled, she says, "i dunno bow from tits, dumbass." but the concession is there. 

skyler dross

☉

"Well, it's time to learn." They're somewhat hidden in the shadows between two piles of crates, but the encroaching voices assure her that that won't last long. And the crew would soon notice the absence of their captain.

Still, a mischievous grin steals over Skyler's lips, a thing with an appetite for trouble. "I'll make a sailor out of you yet, Pinkie."

Is it a dare? A joke? A promise?

Moving her hand away from Parker's mouth, Skyler braces against the floor and shifts just enough to point towards the front of the ship. They're relatively close to the salt-tipped railing, and the waves beyond, but not enough that Parker would escape unnoticed.

Not without help.

"There, see?" Calloused fingers tip Parker's chin so she faces the right direction. "That pointy tip at the front of the ship? Beneath that, right by the blue crate." A pause, then. "Try not to miss, will you?" 

It always feels as if their goodbyes are rushed, half-finished things that linger under their skin.

Skyler slips from beneath Parker's body, crouching in the shadows for a moment. Her mouth opens, hesitates, falls closed. "Take care, Pinkie. I'm not bailing you outta jail."

Liar.

Then she rises and steps into the sunlight, away from the other woman, shoulders set into a proud and commanding posture. Her voice rises over the assembled crew - and the clock starts ticking for Parker.

parker jones

☉

control is shifting quickly. from the sounds of it, her allies have given up their fight. they'd done what they needed to do. even now, there will be paper pushing; skyler's going to have to deal with due process of the arrested. she still wishes it had been anyone else's ship. 

her eyes narrow as skyler paints her in a little sailor boy's outfit. the word kinky presses on the back of her tongue, but she's lost her fight here. again, she's thrown herself into the ether, only to have this one pluck her from the wild and shove her back to whence she came. 

her chin turns, not of her own volition, and she maps out the route in her head. she's slower than she'd like to be, with a few fancy cracked ribs, but she'll be able to manage.

the warmth of skyler's sunkissed body is gone from her all at once. parker looks up at her from where she's laying on the ground, completely at her mercy. 

"go easy on them, eh? they're just doin' their jobs." and then skyler's gone and parker sits up, cradling her midsection with a grimace. her shoulder's pulling in that way it does when it's telling her you're pushing it, idiot! don't stop soon and i'm gonna pop back out! she rolls it and she turns to go, but she gets stuck staring at skyler's back, the commanding presence that crawls up her spine. imagines her mercury gaze, sharp and unrelenting - 

fuck. she scrabbles up and away, staying low even though it hurts like a bitch. she ducks under cover and slides around the aforementioned crate, expecting only to see the promised hatch. and she does, but it's open, 'cause someone else is crawling down it. 

toby looks up at her, bewildered, and says, "the fuck? i saw you. i saw her. how -"

"get moving, toby, or i swear to arceus i'm gonna clock you in the head," she spits and threatens a boot on his head. the gears are turning in his head and there will be damage control to deal with later, but right now he relents.

skyler dross

☉