her greeting is met with one of similar timbre -- perhaps unconcerned, unchallenged by the surroundings. aya turns to face the woman before her but finds herself attracted to the hulking garchomp behind her. it's massive form is enough to bring a smile to the huntress' lips, curling them up ever so slightly. "nice garchomp." the girl's question goes unanswered for a moment as aya finds the strength to bring herself back to earth and look at the woman.

"i'm here to catch pokemon!" it's a quip she's come up with dozens, if not hundreds of times for curious spectators. "you never know these days, you know?" the line refers to the growing discourse between the league and team rocket, something with which she is too familiar. she twirls a piece of hair between her fingers playfully, smiling wider now.

"i wouldn't think you two had to train at all." she eyes the garchomp up again as it towers over its trainer obediently and commandingly. somewhere in her periphery, aya is aware of soma wandering off, though she does not bother to be concerned with the wanderlust in her pokemon. that is, she is not concerned until the bayleef yips at her, grabbing her trainer's attention with the practiced call: a potential catch was near.

without as much as a thought, aya is able to eye up the granbull and toss out Wilks, her cofagrigus. the ghostly pokemon levitates before his trainer as the granbull squares up. "burn it." a will-o-wisp materializes in the ghost pokemon's shadowy hands and quickly circles the granbull. wilks unleashes a hex before granbull can retaliate.

the burn burdens the granbull but does not prevent it from using ice fang on the cofagrigus, who is unbothered. the attack is weak, even for a burned pokemon. aya brushes the granbull's presence off like a mere gnat. "finish it, wilks." another hex and the granbull faints before the coffin pokemon.


@gengar you can take the weavile!

aya is spared enough time with her own battle to watch the other unfold. the garchamp is swift and unforgiving, like aya herself. its moves are precise and nearly fatal -- would be fatal, under the right ownership. weavile are fragile but this one goes down quicker than most thanks to a terrifying opponent. the pokemon huntress finds herself looking at the garchomp hungrily once again, desperate to have one for herself. "rusty my ass." the words are sharp but soaked in a humorous tone, a grin painted on her face as she looks at the girl.

"who needs type advantage when you're 15 times bigger than your opponent and radiate power?" aya's own pokemon are strong but do not have the same sense of authority as a garchomp might have. "so how long have you two been together?" what sounds like a question one might ask about a boyfriend is directed at the girl with regards to her pokemon. the answer, however, is interrupted with the emergence of two more pokemon.

she knows it is a female salandit -- the pattern is unique somehow, or at least that's what she tells herself. her instincts are good enough to get her by with things like this, so she allows her cofagrigus to fight once again. the coffin-like monster unleashes its ominous black arms, hands outstretched to grip any opponents. "Shadow Ball." dark energy fills the air as wilks launches an attack on the salandit.

aya watches the pokemon struggle with one another; salandit is a toy to be played with by wilks. she fights back desperately, unleashing flamethrower after flamethrower as the cofagrigus plays with her. fire lights up aya's eyes and she grins in the face of the battle.

another shadow ball and salandit goes down. she unleashes a pokeball to capture the little pokemon.

@gengar

the ground quakes beside her, but aya marlow goes unfazed, too focused on retrieving the pokeball as it comes to rest. she bends at the waist and picks it up, an action she's done hundreds, maybe thousands of times now. before, she was just a source of weapons, the dealer behind the curtain as war unfolded on the other side.

now she is in the war and must keep pokemon for herself. the salandit's pokeball clips onto her belt with ease before she turns to acknowledge the other woman again.

"anyways, you were saying? how long?" she feigns interest in the backstory as it becomes more and more apparent that her chances of getting this garchomp are next to zero. the woman strikes her as someone with only one pokemon, and a find like this one would not be let go easily.

the appearance of more pokemon interrupts the answer once again; this time, a shiinotic and nidorina. the species of pokemon doesn't matter though -- they all go down the same. between them, she chooses the shiinotic, summoning Barth, her Drapion, to battle.

The hulking poison/dark-type immediately attracts the attention of the Shiinotic, who unleashes a Moonblast. He tanks the hit, his long, strong body powering through the attack to send it shimmering through the afternoon sky. The distance between them closes rapidly, and a single Cross Poison is enough to knock the Pokemon out.

Aya throws another empty pokeball, her desire for more ammunition ramping up with the success of her first catch.

She turns back to Luca, a glint in her eye. "Hopefully we're both getting what we came here for?"

@gengar this is blaargh