Another pokeball is collected and tucked away for later inspection. Mt. Pyre was crawling with ghosts and they couldn’t afford to miss a beat. The sudden appearance of a Gothita distracts her from the Misdreavus which Theo easily catches.

“Hmph,” Lex watches the psychic-type disappear back into the cemetary.

“Let them destroy themselves,” she responds in reference to the League, “Power like that is not benign, there’s always a price,” as he said. Her gaze drifts back to Theo, “And now we have to pay it too,” whether she’s referring to Rocket as a whole of their respective personal lives is left unclear.

THEO BECKETT
Skipping!
-3 premier balls

Her gaze remains fixed on the strange ghost. Instead of the darkness of shadows that typically accompanied the typing, this one cast a strange light that seemed to keep the shadows at bay. How odd.

The look in her eye is curious rather than judgmental which is the typical ‘Lex look’, “Illumina,” she repeats the word. It’s one she has heard before along with the crystalblooms Mars mentions, “But it’s still a ghost?”

The way it behaved seemed strange. Perhaps this process tames them? With a small smile Lex leans over to reach a hand down towards the pokemon’s belly. She scratches it vigorously to get a rise out of the pokemon, “What do we need to do?” she has zero experience with sample collecting . . . aside from the one time she stood there while jayden cross collected samples from her Spectreir.

Martín del Mar

Lex retrieves the pokeball with the Frillish, tucking it away in her back pocket while the stranger lingers. Having done its duty, the Spectreir lingers as well. A ghost hoof scrapes against the rock as it approaches the redhead. She rests a protective hand on the equine’s ebon side, “It’s a Spectreir,” she forgets it’s not a common sight, “There’s not many in Hoenn . . . but there was a time when they began to appear in quite the number,” she hasn’t heard of one appearing since. Even when they were appearing, they were quite selective.

Another ghosts appears, creeping up from behind Dione with a mischievous grin across it’s sealed lips. Spectreir phases into PHANTOM FORCE and reappears to strike at the Banette. A pokeball quickly follows.

Dione Sutoringu
-2 premier balls
Catch attempt!

His promise implied there’s a future after all this. Unfortunately, Lex wasn’t so sure. There were too many unknowns for her liking. Hell, she didn’t even know where she was going to be tomorrow. The worst part, is that they won’t be together. It’s unsettling, and her stomach twisted into a knot at the thought of it. She wanted to scream at him, beg him not to go, but she knew it would be useless and that’s not how she would want to spend their last night, “I know you will,” she whispered, conceding to the future she can’t change.

“I have good ideas sometimes,” her tone was obviously playful. She gave him one last kiss on her head before taking another sip of her whiskey, “I wish we did too,” but that was another thing she could not change.

She quickly licked a bit of rogue whiskey off the corner of her lip, “I hope the barrier disappears after all this . . .” but even if that happened, she doubted Rocket would give them a break. A freshly taken city would certainly stir up a few conflicts, “I’d like to plan a wedding,” preferably in Johto, but to her it didn’t matter where, she just wanted to marry him.

Killian Decker

It’s time.

A last minute switch to the Littleroot front did throw her off. Suddenly, her reconnaissance for Mt. Pyre meant nothing. Time to mold and adapt. Unfortunately, that’s not how Lex does things. Every mission, every heist, is meticulously researched and planned. Now, she finds herself alone, in the forests on the outskirts of Littleroot, with Rocket at her back and the League before her.

“Easy,” she whispers to the Spectreir below her. The stallion is restless. He can feel the tension building the air and silence where they sit drives him mad, “Not yet,” it’s not their time. Too early and they may be overwhelmed, too late and the others may finds themselves under heavy League fire.

Both the ghost and its rider turn their attention to the East as the whisper of chaos starts to travel on the wind. She couldn’t see the theater or its protectors, but she could hear The League starting to panic to protect their precious city.

Time to burn it to the ground.

“Go!” her heels drive into the sides of the Spectrier. He’s eager, and ready, leaping forward into a full gallop over Littleroot’s grassy hills and over the small bank to the west. Stealth wasn’t the point of this mission, so instead of phasing into the Phantom Plane to avoid being seen, the Spectrier uses its speed and the element of surprise to overrun the PRIMAL POINT. The rider and ghost erupts from the woods, Lex sporting a wildly dangerous smile. They don’t slow down. They don’t stop.

The Spectreir bears ahead at full speed, aiming to BULLDOZE the PRIMAL POINT, and anyone who stands in their way.

---

+ Lex moves to M-11 on the back of SPECTRIER
+ Spectreir attempt to BULLDOZE the Primal Point and anyone who stands in their way

LSaIf5db

Yes, everyone seemed to be too busy to continue with the MAGMA research for the time being. Honestly, they must have been quite desperate to resort to the least qualified Beast and Martín del Mar for scientific research. It was a bit comical really. So much, in fact, that Lex didn’t quite have the heart to take it seriously.

Or perhaps she needed a little something, something to make her a bit more pleasant for an afternoon with Martín del Mar. It’s not that she disliked the underboss Mars, she just had a hard time trusting others. It’s something Lex recognized in herself, but did little to change her personality.

Except for today. Today she had a little extra help form some special brownies.

“Hello Mars,” she smiles when she enters the lab, her hands stuffed into the pockets of her leather jackets. She seems . . . more carefree than usual.

“Ghosts? Yes, I prefer them over others,” their stealth, their mystery, their power. It was all very appealing. When Mars released the Illumina Dragapult she couldn’t take her eyes off it, “Whoa, it’s . . . not like my Dragapults,” Lex frowns, considering the options, “What is it?”

Martín del Mar

Of course he thought this was all fascinating. Not dangerous. Not absurd. Not even unrealistic. Of course, Killian’s perception of reality changed the moment Deoxys bestowed certain abilities onto him. He was invincible, Lex was fragile. The finality of death was still something she thought about and weighed heavy on her conscious.

Lex allows his head to rest her shoulder, the fingers of her free hand curling to tangle in his dark hair. Her lips brush against his hair, a deep breath taking in his perfect scent, “It’s fine,” her voice muffled as she kissed his head, “I should have expected it.”

Killian Decker

After she retrieves the pokeball, she turns towards Theo, “It absolutely can,” Lex has never kept it a secret that she despises Avatars. Perhaps its been her negative experiences with multiple, but it’s also her past that influences her opinions, “They all want something . . . and they’ll toss away their tools as soon as they get it,” she’s convinced of it. There’s no other reason why a being of such power would tie themselves down to a mortal.

“It’s reckless,” she was controlled once, and she barely escaped with her life.

Another Gastly appears, practically volunteering itself to join the ranks of her ghosts. Its infatuation with the Shadow Gardevoir is its undoing. It creeps close enough for the pokemon to snare it in a HYPNOSIS. As it drifts to sleep, Lex tosses a pokeball to collect it.

THEO BECKETT
-3 premier balls

Lex is just agitated – she’s always agitated. She’s wound so tight she’s constantly about to snap. She really needed a vacation with Killian. Perhaps back to Johto once all this nonsense with the meteor is over. If they survived.

“Yes, then burn it,” it’s rather simple as long as the specter doesn’t interfere. Hopefully their ghosts take care of that. Lex releases a rather strange looking Typhlosion to trial behind her as she goes up the stairs, “I’ll take upstairs, you take the basement,” she decides without consulting Amor. The basement would probably be creepier anyway, he’ll love it.

Amor Rose

“Yes I’m sure,” she snaps back without turning to give him the icy glare that shone in her eyes. Fucking amateurs.

She disappears around a hallway only to quickly reappear back in the foyer having found nothing of use, “We have to banish it, send it back,” to purgatory for human spirits, or wherever the hell it is they went. They didn’t belong here in the ghost’s Phantom Plane, that’s why her Gardevoir is so agitated and Lex had never seen a human spirit when she traverses it on the back of Spectreir, “Does your Dragapult know Phantom Force? It’ll be in the Phantom Plane, perhaps they can corner it while we find the body,” salt and fire should do the trick. Real Supernatural dshit.

Amor Rose

With came responsibility – none it that Lex wanted. She wasn’t a team player, and she certainly wasn’t interested in moving ‘up the ladder’ any further. It surprised her enough to find herself amongst the Beast. Imposter syndrome was real and even after all this time she felt as though she didn’t belong. But the higher the climbed, the less opportunity there was for others to stab her in the back. Having the high ground was always an advantage.

“Hm, right,” is all she has to say about that.

Naturally, she finds herself drawn to the Dragapult and her attention lingers on it for a moment, “Already ahead of you on that,” and as if on cue, a piercing shriek echoes through the halls of the manor. It’s bone chilling and even makes Lex’s hairs stand up on end.

The Beast tenses as temperature in the air drops a good 10 degrees, ”OUT” comes a booming voice.

Lex is taken by surprise, never once has a spirit actually spoke, “This isn’t a pokemon,” she decides, and this wouldn’t be her first encounter with the dead. She remembers battling the spirit of ALEXANDER STONE in the streets of Sootopolis.

She also remembers how angry her ghost-types were. No wonder her Shadow Gardevoir was so anxious to get into the building. Whatever was here didn’t belong, and the ghosts would make sure it disappeared. For good.

"Find it!" she own voice booms back as she stalks forward into the house.

Amor Rose

Lex can’t help but laugh as she turns to enter the building, her Shadow Gardevoir had already phased ahead. “You’d be surprised, how easy it can be,” sure, it’s easier said than done, but as someone who has spent a lot of time around ghosts she’s learned a few things.

Of course, their job today wasn’t to sneak up on them, it was to investigate the hauntings of this manor, one Rocket wanted to use in the future. Most grunts wouldn’t step foot in it if they knew it was haunted.

The house doesn’t look like a typical ghoul’s hideout. It’s quite clean, and a flick of the nearby light switch turn the foyer’s lights on, “Hm, doesn’t seem too bad in here,” but looks could be deceiving.

Amor Rose

Lex’s thoughts didn’t wander too far from Amor’s. The sudden partnership with the masked man was unsettling. She knew nothing about him, yet he had already won’t he favor of several higher ups in the organization. Was he there to kill her? Hide it behind the supernatural happening in the house before them? Rocket should know better by now, she’s not the same girl she was when Gavin trapped her in a room and made her fight to the death.

Paranoid, as always, she kept a keen ear out behind her, noting the mechanical rhythm to his step, “Doesn’t that suit annoy you?” she asks suddenly as they reach the door. Amongst the breezeless night, a chilly gust blows by her to open the door, “It doesn’t offer much stealth,” perhaps that’s not what he’s looking for. Does he rely on strength? Perhaps this is her night to find out more about this mysterious new Rocket.

Amor Rose