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MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

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AIRI WATANABE

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HOLY DIVER YOU'VE BEEN DOWN TOO LONG IN THE MIDNIGHT SEA, OH WHAT'S BECOMING OF ME?

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“Thanks for coming, Airi.” He looks the part of a warrior about to march off into battle. Broad shoulders, heavy from the weight of many lives carried upon them, frame a body meticulously carved for warcraft. Ahead of them surges a power spot, the last remnant of a hyperborean titan. Inside of it be monsters. They will be very fortunate if they do not encounter one before the day is through.[break][break]
“Not many women I’d trust to have my back.” He doesn’t notice the operative word in that sentence, or how it is phrased. He is too preoccupied with the mission. Lives are at stake, and that means there is no time for banter. Instead, he checks his six pokeballs one more time and walks over to the edge of the power spot.[break][break]
“Let’s go over this one more time. Don’t mean to patronize you, just wanna be clear. Someone fell into the power spot. Happens all the time. Dumb kids, Rocket goons, treasure hunters…all kinds end up down there. It’s our job to get ‘em out. There’s tunnels down below, rich with dynite ore and tera crystals. Bad business. It gets you sick if you’re down there for too long, so time’s of the essence. Pokemon roam about, and they can dynamax if they get too close to big chunks of ore. The tera crystals can make you hallucinate. Bad business.”[break][break]
His gray eyes find her cerulean blue, searching them with a calm expression. Given the sheer absurdity of the information he just dumped on the ranger-nurse, his lips can’t help but play at a smile.[break][break]
“Any questions?”

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"No problem, Navy. You can always call on me for assist," Airi responds with a warm and gentle smile pressing against her scarlet red lips. As usual, her ranger outfit embraces her hourglass body shape and gives the impression of a stunning goddess preparing to take on the mightiest of beasts on the battlefield. Her long, chocolate-hued hair is styled neatly in a high ponytail that causes her striking, high cheekbones and deep sapphire orbs to stand out against her fair face even more. The sound of her boots kissing against the warm sand creates a soothing sound to her keen ears as she walks alongside Navy with quiet air of confidence surrounding her. Her statuesque body swaying from side to side with each step as her cool eyes takes in the sight of the power spot. She has never seen anything like this up close and personal. There is quite a bit of excitement mixed with a little of anxiousness building up inside of her body as she continues to stare at the power spot for a few seconds longer.

[break][break]


"Hmm, I suppose I should take that as a compliment, huh?" She laughs, shaking her head at her partner's close of words. "You got my back and I have got yours," she responds, giving him a radiant smile. This is no doubt in her mind that the two of them will be make it out alive and rescued the missing individual, too. It has been proven at least once that the two of them make a pretty powerful duo. Therefore, this mission will not be any different.


[break][break]

Airi nods her head as listens to Navy give her a quick recap of their objective. "Aww, you mean to tell me that we're not going to be protecting cute turtles this time?" She teases him a bit. "This sounds like a mission full of risk. It is nothing that I cannot handle. Especially, with a talented partner like yourself by myself," she adds, her cunning smirk slowly transitioning to softer smile. Her mesmerizing azure orbs making eye contact with his steel gray ones for a few seconds before she takes the first graceful leap inside of the power spot.

[break][break]

Landing flawlessly on her feet, Airi takes a few seconds to take in the sight of the new environment. Her eyes slightly widening in amazement at the mysterious dimension surrounding them. "Eerie, yet beautiful." She speaks out, admiring the beauty of the shimmering tera crystals, but also remembering just how dangerous the enchanting gemstones can be.




[break][break]

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[attr="class","Navypog3-title"]
MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

[attr="class","Navypog3-tagged"]
AIRI WATANABE

[attr="class","Navypog3-subtitle"]
HOLY DIVER YOU'VE BEEN DOWN TOO LONG IN THE MIDNIGHT SEA, OH WHAT'S BECOMING OF ME?

[attr="class","Navypog3-pkmn"]

[attr="class","Navypog3-post"]




“Ladies first.” He motions towards the hole in the middle of the power spot and watches her jump. A younger man would make a joke about how surprised he was she didn’t rock heels, but it dies in his mind. They’ve got work to do, and he doubts their unfortunate victim will mind being rescued by someone like her.[break][break]
“Ollie, where the hell’d you find this one?” That he says, readying himself for his own plunge. The fall is another one of Hoenn’s many little jokes, a wink from the Creator saying that physics and geometry as humans understand them mean little to the universe. He falls, and falls, and falls, until at last he hits the bottom. The fall lasts long enough to kill, but it barely registers as more than a hard thump under his combat boot. A smooth roll ends with him rising up with a pokeball in hand like a Liepard.[break][break]
“Lucky for us, I’ve got a good deterrent on hand. Ballbreaker, get out here.” Navy throws out his pokeball, unleashing a lumbering prehistoric mammoth. Scientists name this creature Great Tusk. This specimen stands tall even compared to its brethren, a lumbering behemoth that regards Airi with a beast’s eyes before turning to take ponderous steps forward. His steps shake the ground, and Navy thinks that is good. It signals that they’re coming, and most of the Pokemon in his path flee.[break][break]
“Gotta admit, the view’s better down here than the other place the League used to mine for dyna ore.” There’s more tera crystals here, and he finds he is fond of them. They’re cancer for their world, but he cannot deny the beauty caught in their reflection as he passes by.[break][break]
“Or maybe it’s just the company.”

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Airi's deep azure eyes shifts away from the dazzling tera crystals the moment she hears Navy's voice ringing through her ears. She turns around to face him, taking in the sight of the powerful behemoth that he summoned from its Poke Ball. "Great Tusk. Impressive. I have never seen one up close before," she says, a soft smile curling against her lips. She then remembers that she should probably call forth one of her own Pokémon to accompany her too. Airi withdrew a Poke Ball from the utility belt around her slim waist. With a graceful wrist flick, she releases her gorgeous and elegant Gardevoir from her orb. The Embrace Pokémon let out a soothing greeting as her long, flowy dress danced in the air. Latte glances over at Navy, giving him a serene smile before floating over to her trainer's side.



[break][break]


"And what did the other place look like?" She asks him, raising her left eyebrow a bit to express her curiosity. As she waits for Navy to respond to her previous question, Airi's deep sapphire eyes takes notice of the disheveled scientist guarding tools and supplies. The scientist keeps a watchful eye on them, and he even seems a little bit suspicious. Still, it did not stop Airi for approaching him. She greets him with her alluring smile, then allows her piercing blue eyes to do the rest of the talking for her. Easily, he gives them a few supplies. However, the blood red stain over his boots did not go unnoticed by the Ranger Nurse. Her keen eyes take a few seconds to carefully scan over his body to see if he has any visible open wounds or cuts that may need some medical attention. Oddly enough, she did find anything took abnormal about him other than his stained boots and exhausted demeanor. A nice warm shower and a little bit of rest should do the trick for him.





[break][break]



"He was an interesting fella, huh?" She giggles, glancing over at Navy as the two of them continue to explore their surroundings. So far, everything seems to be going fairly well for them. In the distance, Airi notices a young man staggering or "dancing" around like a Wild Spinda. Loud and suspicious groans escaping from his mouth before he collapses against the ground. Without any hesitation, Airi sprints towards him with her nimble speed. She places her index finger and middle finger against his wrist to check for a pulse. Great. He still has a pulse. She glances up at his face, taking notice of purple shading appearing around his cheeks. "I knew it. He is poisoned and delirious from being down here too long. You make sure that we are safe, and I will take care of him," she tells Navy with a warm smile, not meaning to take charge of the situation.



[break][break]


She immediately begun to treat the young man's condition with some of her self-made remedies made from Pecha Berry and other medicinal herbs that she forged a few days ago. The purple glow around his cheeks soon faded away as he started to open his eyes. Airi giggles, when the young man mistaken her for his "true love". "It looks like you are still suffering from the hallucinations," she informs him. "Just relax for a bit," she tells him. Latte soon floats over to her trainer, and he injured young man. Latte closed her eyes then extended her arms towards the man. Multiple sparkling pink energy waves flows from her hands, restoring the man's health.








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[attr="class","Navypog3-title"]
MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

[attr="class","Navypog3-tagged"]
AIRI WATANABE

[attr="class","Navypog3-subtitle"]
HOLY DIVER YOU'VE BEEN DOWN TOO LONG IN THE MIDNIGHT SEA, OH WHAT'S BECOMING OF ME?

[attr="class","Navypog3-pkmn"]

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And what did the other place look like?[break][break]

“Hell.” He says without hesitation. There are words he tries to filter out of himself in the presence of women. Sometimes he thinks himself a chauvinist for it, but he is simply a man who thinks women deserve better words than men. Even still, there is no other word that comes to mind when he imagines the bowels of a sleeping god.[break][break]
“There’s dead things sleeping down there. Poisoned angels in the dark. I wouldn’t wish that place on my worst enemy.” The words form a paradox. Eternatus is his worst enemy. The discarded fourth child of the Creator, slumbering on the edge of the universe, waits to awaken once more. It will long outlive all of them, roost upon stars when their bones have been reduced to ash, and it will not even remember that mortals once mined its heart for power.[break][break]
“It’s not worth thinking ‘bout. It was my job, making sure nothing in there got out into Dewford.” Somewhere in his words is an intel breach, he thinks. He finds, as he often does, that he does not care. Airi is no Rocket spy, nor are her painted lips loose. She will keep the secret, for she will be too busy spilling blood and saving lives for the League to do otherwise. He prays that those whose injuries she treats are not rendered thusly by the Skeleton Gigantic’s fell power.[break][break]
His mind turns to a matter closer at hand. He recognizes the first man they meet from an old dream and says nothing to him. Navy simply lets him pass, letting Airi do the talking while he watches their path forward deeper into the darkness. Farther along the path, they find their target for the day. Airi gets to work, ever a woman of action.[break][break]
From the darkness wanders a Charmander. It is a small thing, innocent eyes filled with curiosity at the humans. It smiles, as if it doesn’t now what’s about to happen. A chunk of ore glows. Only now does he notice they are in a massive, open area. Massive…[break][break]
“Gout!”[break][break]
He shouts an odd word as another pokeball flies free, quick as a gunshot at high noon. From it spills an ancient parody of Entei. Gout is the name he has given this creature Scientists call Gouging Fire. It sees the spread of dynergy and spreads a burning bulwark over Airi, her Gardevoir, and the man she heals. Flames guard them, but do not burn them. Heat swells as the force is returned upon the creature which now towers above them.[break][break]
Innocence is replaced with fury. Charmander is caught in a net which has killed too many Pokemon before them. The creature little understands that it is walking dead. It looks down upon them and spreads flames across the ground. Sunlight spreads…[break][break]
And both Ballbreaker and Gout feel the sunlight empower them. Navy does not understand protosynthesis. He is no man of science who seeks some deeper understanding of such things. Action and battle are his watch and his warrant.[break][break]
“The stuff the League mines here, and down in that place I’m talking about, it’s what lets them build artificial power spots. It lets Pokemon dynamax. Only problem is, when there’s a natural one, and Pokemon without a dyna band dynamax, it kills them.” He offers her that explanation before turning to his Pokemon. This is an impossible fight, but that is precisely where the warrior is at his strongest.[break][break]
Ballbreaker is not one of the ones his master carries on him often. There’s too much plain, apparent, feral joy at the act of combat in the Great Tusk’s eyes. Just now, that ferocity might prove their salvation. So empowered by the sun, he rolls into a ball and charges forward like a wrecking ball. He smashes against the Charmander’s barrier head enough to make the creature recoil. It cannot step back, but it shrieks.[break][break]
“Gout. Keep guarding Airi.”[break][break]
And so his beast does. Ballbreaker meets the Charmander again and again and again in a headlong rush. The barrier cracks. The cracks spread. Finally, upon the third charge, it breaks utterly. Charmander shrieks, and they are left with a small, dead thing surrounded by wildfires.[break][break]
Ballbreaker is withdrawn. In his place comes Hattori, his small brave Greninja. He gets to work fighting the fires with water spouts at once while Navy turns to check on Airi, still shielded by Gout.[break][break]
“You alright?”

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A small twinkle of sadness reflects in Airi's deep ocean blue eyes as she listens to Navy share some of his experience with the other place that the League used to mine for dyna ore. "Yeah, sounds like it would make this place seem like heaven," she says, glancing over at him. "You are a courageous man, Navy." She tells him, an alluring smile slowly curling around her full, ruby red lips. Still, she could not help, but to worry about the older gentleman a bit. It must become somewhat lonely and tiring carrying the weight of the world over his broad shoulders. Protecting and care of everyone else, but who is there to protect and care for him. "The kind of work that we have to take on sometimes can be physically, mentally, and emotionally draining. It is important that we do make time to care for ourselves, too. I do hope that you are making time to care for yourself,
Navy," she adds, her precious, cerulean, blue orbs staring deeply inside of his eyes for a few seconds before diverting away from him.



[break][break]


Airi and Latte continues to focus their attention on caring for the injured and disoriented trainer. It is not until Airi's keen eyes make notice of the other majestic beast that materializes from a crimson light, that she notices that Navy is facing off against a massive Charmander. Dynamax. She has heard amazing tales about the gimmick with roots from the Galar Region, but she has never witness it in person. The phenomenon itself is slightly intriguing, but quite terrifying, too. She glances away from the fight then turns her attention towards the strong, and regal beast using its unique powers to protect the rest of them. She nods her head and smiles at Gout, thanking it for its protection as she goes back to tending to the young trainer.





[break][break]



The once calm trainer starts to move around and panic a bit from the sight of everything else happening around him. "You are safe. I promise. Relax and we will be finished in no time," Airi encourages him using a calm voice, then flashing him with a comforting smile. The trainer continues to struggle with trying to move away from her and her Pokémon, but he eventually calms down enough for them to continue caring for him. Honestly, she could have easily become upset and frustrated with his antics, but she remains poised and professional. She could not even imagine just how stressful it must have been to experience visual and auditory hallucinations mixed in with the other madness happening in the background.



[break][break]


She finds herself worrying about Navy's and her Pokémon's wellbeing with facing off against the oversized Charmander. It is not that she doubts their ability to defeat their opponent, but more so along the sides of not wanting them to become severely injured trying to protect them. She desires to assist him with the fight. However, her sole responsibility at the moment is the injured trainer. A few more minute goes by before Airi and Latte manages to finish up with the stranger. Airi carefully helps him up to his feet and keeps him balanced by placing his arm over her shoulder. Although he is in better shape, she still needs to get him to a hospital as soon as possible to run some labs on him to ensure that he is perfectly fine or not.

[break][break]

"Mhm! Everyone is fine over here, but it looks like you could use a little bit of help," she states, watching the wildfires starting to engulf the place. His Greninja seems to be doing a decent job of taking care of some of the fires, but there is still a lot left to tend to or else everything will be burnt to a crisp. Planting her feet into the ground, Airi swiftly retrieves one of her Poke Balls from around her waist and tosses it high into the air. A gentle and majestic then Dragonite emerges from the orb. "Rain Dance!" The Dragonite swiftly performs a beautiful dance, causing dark storm clouds to appear above them. She lets out a loud roar and within seconds a downpour of rain falls from the sky.








[break][break]

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MORE HUMAN[break]THAN HUMAN

[attr="class","Navypog3-tagged"]
AIRI WATANABE

[attr="class","Navypog3-subtitle"]
HOLY DIVER YOU'VE BEEN DOWN TOO LONG IN THE MIDNIGHT SEA, OH WHAT'S BECOMING OF ME?

[attr="class","Navypog3-pkmn"]

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“Dragonite.” The sheriff whistles, impressed at the Pokemon she releases. Though they’re gentle compared to most dragons, Dragonite still bears that word in its very name. His own specimen, Grendel, can be roused to terrible anger when its territory is in dispute. When it summons rain, Navy’s shoulders grow slack. The rain douses the remaining fires. Gout does not relish being in the rain, and so the sheriff lets him rest in his pokeball.[break][break]
Stepping into the center of the room, he picks up the Charmander, another in a long chain of Hoenn’s sons that have died too young. Pulling out another ball from his bag, one reserved for lifeless matter, the Charmander too disappears. Later, they’ll give the creature a proper, worthy burial. The matter at hand seems close to its resolution. All they have to do is make it back in one piece.[break][break]
“You’ve got good taste in Pokemon, Airi. There aren’t many who can train somethin’ like that. Dragons break a lot of trainers.” Maybe with something like that at her disposal, she could join him on a trip to that other place, though he does not think the trip wise. Better she bask in the light than delve into the dark.[break][break]
“Well, let’s head back.” He turns and addresses the man they have rescued. “Here. I’ll give you something to ride. Just stick close with us and you’ll be safe.” Without much need for delicacy or careful searching, he releases two horse Pokemon. One is a Rapidash with a silver mane. The other is a beast rarely seen even in folklore, its mane purple and body dark as midnight.[break][break]
“That’s Silver Bullet. You can ride that one.” He nods at the Rapidash. “And this is Valkyrie. She’s mine. Airi, you can ride either one if you don’t have your own.” Mounting his Spectrier, he turns, waits for Airi to mount up or conjure her own ride, and leads the way back.[break][break]
“I do my best.” He says, almost as an afterthought to a thing Airi said before the battle. “To take care of myself, despite everything. I didn’t before, and it almost cost me a whole lot.” Pulling on Valkyrie’s reins, he turns a corner back the way we came. “I can tell you all ‘bout it sometime, when we’re not busy. Probably not the most flattering thing you’ll ever hear from me, but I don’t mind talking about it.”

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The cool shower of rain pours over Airi's body, soaking her figure-hugging ranger uniform and causing it to embrace her goddess-like curves even more. The water droplets kissing her fair skin delicately, causing it glisten like a diamond. Despite her dark chocolate hair becoming slightly weighed down by the downpour, her rose painted lips never smeared thanks to the waterproof lipstick coating them. She retrieves Latte's Poke Ball, returning her back to her orb to protect her from the rain. She turns her attention towards Navy and gives him a quick head nod along with a bright smile. Once again, the two of them managed to work flawlessly together to save another life.



[break][break]


The downpour soon fades away after all of the flames have been extinguished from the "battlefield". "Thank you, Navy. If you haven't noticed by now, I am not a woman, who is afraid of a good challenge," she responds back to him with a cunning smirk curled against her luscious lips. Cream soon lowers herself from the sky and down on the ground next to her trainer. "Great job," she gently pats the Dragonite on her head. The Dragonite lets out a cheerful coo before affectionately nuzzling her trainer's head. Like most Dragonite, Cream possesses a calm, gentle spirit until she is provoked, or her trainer is in danger.





[break][break]



"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I believe that we've had enough for today," she agrees with Navy statement regarding leaving the hazardous place. She watches Navy summon two of his horses. She takes notice of the Rapidash's ghostly flames, then shifts her attention towards the other mount, who appears to be a lot eerier than the Shiny Rapidash. At this point, she should not be too surprised by Navy's collection of rare Pokémon, yet she still finds herself becoming slightly intrigued by them.



[break][break]


"Thanks for the offer, but Cream will do just fine," she smiles at Navy, climbing onto her Dragonite's back before it takes flight in the air. The Dragonite does not hoover too far away from the rest of the group, so that Airi is still able to communicate with them without having to strain her voice.

[break][break]

"But alas you have learned to care for yourself and that is all that matters," she tells him. Her azure eyes connecting with his darker orbs for a few seconds. "I am sure that we can make that happen, just as long as it will not be too traumatizing to you or anything," she adds.








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