[attr="class","parigidw"]

Pace had imagined that, while the Ninetales seemed calm enough, they where big and fancy enough to frighten off most annoying would-be conversationalists. Luckily for Pace - and perhaps unluckily for Barnaby - this annoying conversationalist was not deterred by the gaggle of foxes. Though they were very well-kept, and Pace did somewhat want to pet them. But no! He was on duty![break][break]

"Do you come here often?" As flirty as it seems, it's kind of a necessary question. "If so... do you pay attention to the Magikarp pond? Noticed anything strange, maybe some pokémon hanging around? Had reports of them getting eaten"

[attr="class","parigidw"]

Pace laughs in kind, too, at her little quip. Is it coyness, an attempt to push his compliment away, to make herself humble? Or perhaps she truly believes it - which would cause Pace grief indeed.[break][break]

"Maybe I'm not interested simply in Kalosian blondes, though. Maybe it's the way we talk that interests me so much - you have to admit, you can't have this kind of conversation with just about anyone." [break][break]

He'd learnt so delicately the art of conversation, like a dance. When to dip, when to separate and re-join, when to allow his partner to take the lead, and when to hold them still while the music swelled. It reminded him of playing soccer at school, in a way - a game of strategy far beyond what most people assumed. For the uninitiated, isn't soccer just kicking a ball? For the reserved, wasn't flirting just compliments? But each had an entire culture of webs beneath the surface, and each string tugged pulled another five things along with it. To experience that game with Elisabeth Fiorelli was enticing - like playing chess against a champion.[break][break]

His thoughts often wandered, that much was true. Timers, timers, always ticking on - was theirs set for hours or months? It was hard to know, but Pace revelled in not knowing.[break][break]

Pace laughs then, properly, out loud - draws a look from a table nearby.[break]
"Not music? Oh, miss Fiorelli, how very cruel. This man puts himself up on the stage to sing about love and you chastise him?" It reminds him of half-drunk bitching he had shared with a woman who he had previously loved very much in the past, who still stained his heart even now. But far from him to wallow in sadness, it delighted him.[break][break]

"Are you much of a musician yourself, then? A singer, even, perhaps? I hate to think what you'd judge my attempts at Karaoke as"

[attr="class","parigidw"]

"I'll be honest with you, I had no fucking clue this place even existed. It's so out of the way here I'm not sure if we could've known"[break][break]

Because, seriously, some temple in the middle of jungle that he'd barely knew delved this deep? From everything he knew about the local area, this place had never been mentioned even once. Pace knits his brow, ready to make some other quip, but then a great deal happens at once.[break][break]

An air of dread accompanies a great barrier, translucent and quivering like electromagnetic waves. The scream of a pokémon echoes, and then the battle begins. The shuriken comes fast, as do the leaves, quick like lightning. Adrenaline takes over as he hears the orders of boruta maher and Kaida Adachi to his side, following them and releasing Akhenaten as he takes cover.[break][break]

The Pyroar lets out a roar in the direction of the other rangers, emboldening their pokémon with a resonating helping hand.[break][break]

"Fucking hell-- their battle or not, these guys are causing way too much trouble!" He calls from behind his Pyroar's flickering fur. "We need to shut this shit down before the whole place ends up destroyed."[break][break]

A pain stabs at his bicep - moved too fast and pulled a muscle, perhaps? As he puts his hand across to his arm to check, it comes back bloody. Pace looks down to see a slice in his arm, likely from one of the projectiles he'd dodged, but as he presses his hand against the wound it's white-hot like infection. No time to think about that now - have to deal with the immediate danger, first.

[attr="class","parigidw"]

He raises a brow - Mars takes the bait. He scoffs back at Pace, a quip remains unspoken about how they were never equals, that Pace was just some little pool boy-turned-killer, a Marzán servant in everything but name. It was true, after all, and Pace wouldn't put it past Mars to view him that way now, but back then? He had let Pace into his life and bed with such welcoming arms, not only with himself but with Natalia, too. He had laid with the two of them like lovers, and now one was dead and the other wanted to see him suffer.[break][break]

Mars reaches into his coat, and Pace feels his extremities suddenly run cold. Was this it, then? He was going to shoot him, alone in the woods? Leave him for the birds to find, a sad, lonely sky burial that nobody would ever know he'd been subjected to? But no, the hand doesn't pull out a weapon. It taps something, and that something glows bright, and resonates with the Urshifu.[break][break]

"Still hiding behind your pokémon, Mars? Where would you be without them, hm?"[break][break]

Another thing said to hurt, to anger. Does he mean it? Yes and no.[break][break]

The MEGA EVOLUTION happens in a shine of light, the Urshifu's body changing and burning with the flames of power. Aggron is downed in seconds, and in Pace's distraction he catches a glimpse of running fire in front of him, Akhenaten taking the force of the SHURIKENS to protect his trainer. Still standing, but clearly hurt. Mars had always had him beat in battles.[break][break]

"Name or not, Mars, you're no god. You can stand and shout down at me all you want but it won't change the fact that you have no control over me. You never did - we were friends. I followed you out of respect."[break][break]

Equals.[break][break]

The Pyroar stands at attention, watching diligently, every muscle poised. Pace glances to him, and then to the Greninja. As if subconsciously reading his mind, the lion pokémon springs into action, bearing it's fangs and OVERHEATING. The branches and foliage around them catch licks of the flames, bathing the two men in flickering light.[break][break]

"Leave the Aggron. I don't want this to go further than it has to, Mars"[break][break]

A warning masking a pleading request. Pace didn't know how far his mind could take him against someone who was so much a part of him. And, hesitantly, he hoped that Mars held that same reservation, in the deepest, most locked-off parts of his heart.

[attr="class","parigidw"]

Between the Combusken and the Carkol, the young man was lending decent credit to the coming here to training thing.[break][break]

"You must work out, though, I bet. You're in great shape"[break][break]

A smile, again, ever-present. Pace couldn't help it - to shine came naturally to him, as it did to the sun. Especially in the presence of a pretty thing like his new acquaintance here, and nothing else of note to distract him.[break][break]

"I'm Pace. It's good to meet you, Elliot" Pace offers a hand to shake. "What do you for a living? I bet people've told you before that you could be a model"

[attr="class","parigidw"]

Pace was about as subtle as a brick through a window, and he had created that image very particularly. Never to the point of brazen disregard for other people, but always just on the edge - it was what had allowed him to be the little bit of roughness for the upper classes he'd met before, while still fitting in enough to not be kicked out of important functions he had to be at.[break][break]

So, subtle as a brick indeed, he takes his place without her asking him to, and smiles as she notes it in her speech.[break]
"Was I supposed to return to my seat after encountering the perfect woman once again in the flesh? Your siren song tempts me, I'm afraid, miss Fiorelli... let's only hope I don't drown, hm?" He laughs, taking a drink from his flute.

"And lovely to meet you as well, miss Petunia" He tips his glass to the Vivillon, who seems like she could care less that Pace was here. His charms didn't extend to pokémon just yet, it seemed.[break][break]

"Don't timers exist all the time, though, miss Fiorelli? As a ranger, I could be called out on a mission whenever needed... perhaps a life-threateningly dangerous one." He raises a brow - it was true, after all, but Pace was never one to care much about danger and worry. It was one of the things Amelia Livy had had to learn on all her missions with him - Pace was much more likely to put himself in more danger with his ridiculous stunts and attempts at impressing pretty girls.[break][break]

He didn't realise it at the moment, of course, but drinking with a stranger who dealt in poisons was plenty dangerous in and of itself. But weren't the most beautiful flowers always the most deadly?[break][break]

"...So perhaps that's why I like to make my move so quickly" It pulls a smirk to his face. Make his move indeed. "Aside all that, my life's going swimmingly. The same old same old, you know?"[break][break]

Before asking about her, as he had intended, he notes her expression and turns to face the stage, then turns back with a grin as wide as Unova's battle subway.[break][break]

"...Do you dislike karaoke, Elisabeth?" Pace asks out loud, leaning back into his chair a little with a chuckle. Th distance between them is yet more teasing and also challenging - she'd have to reply loud enough that he might hear across the table, and anybody else sat nearby, too. Would she indulge in bitching, he wondered?

[attr="class","parigidw"]

"Sure hope it’s the same ones."[break][break]

boruta maher says, and Pace tilts his head. That's not a thought any of them want to be thinking right now - the possibilities of their being multiple of these things. One enough was enough to cause all this damage, the idea of two was something that didn't bear thinking about.[break][break]

"We don't have anything to suggest that there's more than one..." Pace says, looking over to Bo and Elaine Highland . "...And maybe it's not worth worrying about it until we do, y'know?" They had to keep their options open, but for now, the case at hand involved just one thing.[break][break]

"We don't have any other leads but to follow the trail, right? Though, there's the danger factor, so maybe..." He looks, as the others do, to Kaida Adachi for guidance. "Your choice, boss"

[attr="class","parigidw"]

Pace looks to Martín del Mar, too, and doesn't see a traitor so much as he sees anger. How much of it is his own anger at himself projected through Mars' eyes? How much pain and rage and disgust that he fears is Mars' is his own heart, stuck in his throat? There was a time when they shared everything - friends, lives, bodies. It had melted away in the everlasting heat of the sun, wax wings shedding to a deathly plummet.[break][break]

There was a time when Mars' calling him a good boy would have elicited a laugh, an arm around him, a twinkle in his eye. Now he furrows his brow, almost speaks before he witnesses Mars' Urshifu attack the Aggron.[break][break]

Without a word, he lets Akhenaten from his ball, the PYROAR's great fiery mane lighting the area around them, and without Pace needing to tell him lets out an echoing NOBLE ROAR. He watches the situation diligently, eyes flicking between Pace and the battling pokémon to his side. Not yet, Pace's eyes spoke, but clarified a maybe later in the way they narrowed.[break][break]

"You don't get to tell me what to do, Mars. Last I knew, we were always equals"[break][break]

Is it mean to say, when he purposefully tickles that nerve? At the very least, it's inciting.[break][break]

"I'm not leaving."[break][break]

Not this time.[break][break]

"Call off your pokémon and leave the Aggron alone, and you'll have nothing to do with any of this. Finding another Aggron isn't difficult for someone like you, is it?"[break][break]

It was never that easy, obviously, and Mars would retort quickly enough. But deep within, he didn't care whether Mars agreed to his terms or cussed him out. However sharp his words were, at least they were his. It had been so long since he'd heard that voice, seen that face. Mars could beat him to death here in the backwoods and a part of Pace would want to smile just for feeling his touch again.[break][break]

God, he missed him. And hated him. And was so, so sorry.

[attr="class","parigidw"]

The doorbell rings and Pace nearly jumps to it like an untrained puppy, so gleefully excited at the arrival of his hook-up. Was it the fact that it had required so much more effort than usual that excited him so much? Was it Percy himself, so elegantly poised and purposefully tactful with everything he said, practiced to perfection - and in turn, the idea of mussing all of that up and seeing him so inelegant? Whatever it was, it was a major turn on.[break][break]

He opens the door and smiles at his guest, inviting him in with a step aside and a brief hand wave in the direction of his place. Not the biggest or the fanciest, but it was neat and contained sweet little things that people might not associate Pace with - carefully cared-for houseplants, a book of prayers, a yoga mat.[break][break]

"Hey - how was your day?" He starts off gently, nodding towards the couch. Would it be fair to start by pinning Percy to the wall and leaving deep purple marks along his neck? No. Would it be hot? Yes. But it also, again, wouldn't be fair - and Pace, for all his whorey shortcomings, wanted people to be comfortable in his home.[break][break]

Pace pulls a bottle of wine from a cabinet and points it enticingly at his guest. "You okay with red? Also, can I just say- you look gorgeous tonight"

[attr="class","parigidw"]

There's there faintest of noises that Pace wouldn't have picked up on if it wasn't for the tense silence, from the trees behind him, and he's unable to turn before the shuriken find their mark just in front of the Aggron. It rears back with a roar, taking a couple steps back towards the underbrush. Pace reaches for his pokéballs, but stops when he hears a voice.[break][break]

A voice he recognises, too, the moment it hits his ears. Because it's a voice he's heard so many times before - a voice that he knows like a brother, because if not a brother then what had Mars been? Beyond best friends, something that had no modern word. How else could you describe someone that you could paint with a blindfold on, knowing each part of their body and soul off by heart?[break][break]

Pace moves his hands up and turns, slowly, to face him.[break][break]

"...Mars."[break][break]

A thousand thoughts run through his head. Is this something to do with the syndicate? Is this Aggron his?. He won't get an answer even if he asks, but that doesn't stop him from pointing a finger.[break][break]

"I suppose you're something to do with all this, then. I have a job to get this thing safely caught and returned to the headquarters"

[attr="class","parigidw"]

Last time he'd been around to assist with pokémon breeding habits, he'd spent the night under the stars with Amelia Livy. Tonight felt a lot like that night - the sky between the trees was clear as crystal and every star shone brightly, far away from the light pollution of Slateport or Mauville.[break][break]

Ranger job, but a non-ranger was helping out too, apparently. Whoever they were, he was happy not to spend hours out here alone. Already the sparkling dust of the Ledyba and Ledian looking for partners started to fill the midnight air, and while it was beautiful, Pace was glad to share it with another.[break][break]

With Nedjem settled in his lap and Satiah already poised on the look-out for any birds that might swoop down, he waits patiently for his company to arrive. Who knows, maybe tonight would end as romantically as the previous one had.[break][break]

[attr="class","parigidw"]

Pace takes a brief break from cleaning up - brushing his teeth, applying deodorant and tidying the place - to realise that his booty call is going to have to climb a ladder and walk the rope bridge to get here. Would that burn some of Percival Munn 's midnight oil before he even turned got in the door? Pace hoped not - if everything went well, he was looking forward to the next few hours.[break][break]

He was also deftly aware, though, that Percival Munn (HNN) was not the kind of guy who could be greeted with a lewd look and a description of exactly what Pace wanted to do to him, and agree to go to bed. He'd agreed to come over, sure, but he seemed the kind of guy who's dough needed a little more kneading. Some booze, some flirtations, some light touches.[break][break]

Pace could play that game.