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

☉

duty is a vile thing. there are eyes everywhere. ears in her comms. a hand reaches up to brush the earpiece, but it's too late for her to turn it off. to pretend it got lost in the scuffle. if she abandons her post now, it'd be treason. and she's seen what rocket does to traitors. 

her mouth waters at the mention of food and that's another slice of torment too. the rift stole her nice morning run and a bagel. the mist stole her brunch plans with Naomi Sato. that fucking rat (angelo vestri) stole her granola bars. and here's this angel with her golden halo offering to take her out and treat her to some ambrosia.

parker could kiss her, except she thinks i can't kiss her, for some ungodly reason. 'cause she's league? that's what it should be, but it's not it and before she can think about that, her earpiece is crackling and someone is warning her. 

eldin is thrown up against the wall of the cave. the ground shakes again. 

"you don't really get how this works, do you?" parker spits. and she charges, arms aiming to circle around the woman's midsection to launch them both off the platform.

francie myrtle

☉

defection is a steep price to pay for a bagel. if it were that easy, she'd have done it already. if it were that easy to walk away, she would have done it a thousand and one times. but here's the thing about someone like her: she's small fish. people like admin fox defecting? he's gonna be protected by the league 'cause he's important. 

but what's she got to offer but blood on her knuckles and anger issues?

"but y'are," she bites out. "that's what they'd pay me for kickin' your ass. a bagel." what a zinger. 

remus readies into a fighting stance and doesn't have to wait long for - what the fuuuuuuck? darkness collapses over parker and she stumbles on a stray broken plank, landing right into angelo's tight fist. remus' appendages rise and he understands the danger he's in immediately as he reads the aura of the battlefield.

parker's brain short-circuits as lightning zig-zags all around her midsection. she probably would have wet herself if she hadn't just emptied the tank. as it stands, she surrenders to instinct and finally, rage. 

tears smart in her eyes as she reaches blindly for his shoulders in an attempt to bring him to the ground with her. 

remus arcs above them with a powerful leap, striking at the altaria with a power-up punch.

angelo vestri

☉

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

☉

anything but that. anything but piss girl. fuck, she'd take skyler dross 's pinkie over piss girl. he's goading her and she knows it, but she hates it because of course she's going to do anything in her power to punch that smug grin off his face. fists curl. the rags on her hands, placed tenderly there by nomi, are still a little damp with salt water from her impromptu swim. 

it prickles at her split knuckles and brings her a sense of clarity, much to his strategy to taunt a raging bull.

her jaw tightens at his jabs. she doesn't offer her fallen comrades a second glance. her gaze does cut to the pokeball he fingers and she reaches for her own, mean grin crawling over her lips. 

"you think i don't fuckin' know that?" she bites out. all the pokemon at her hip are devastating and cruel, too much for the close quarters combat by her allies. even amulius can get too much with his fire if he's not careful. 

"i didn't ask to be here, bitch." she rips remus' ball from her side and throws it as she stops their circling, charging forward with another heavy swing. "i just want a fucking bagel."

angelo vestri

☉

she's fine, really. she doesn't need all the coddling. but she doesn't make a move to stop nomi either. some small selfish part of her likes that she's looking at her with such concern, thinking that a few cracked ribs are enough to ruin her day. 

amulius does his best to keep the mist at bay. every once in a while, he blitzes out a couple of warning shots from ember feathers, but as the portal nears, it crowds them very suddenly. parker is awash in a sea of it. when she realizes she's lost nomi's grip, it's too late.

her name is called. she whirls. "nomi? nomi!" but it's no use. 

something big and something hungry growls from all sides and amulius' priorities shove nomi to the bottom of the list. he yanks parker by the arm and throws her like ragdoll through the portal, following soon after.

"fuck. fuck, fuck, fuck."

"you, grunt. get away from the portal. looks like it's fluctuating. we need you on cargo duty."

she scowls at the portal and turns sharply away, nodding briskly to her superior. so much for brunch.

Naomi Sato

☉

she's left standing there, feeling like a dumbstruck fool, wishing she still had that stupid nick in her skin. something to hurt. something elsewhere to focus on the pain. but skyler took that from her too. 

amulius shudders violently and drops to his knees as whatever's inside of his meat is twisted about and turned inside out. he flexes his claws into the earth and makes a low, whining chirp, one even parker's never heard before. still, it doesn't pull her attention away from the hypnotizing figure as she withdraws back out the portal. 

parker flexes her fingers. she looks down at herself, utters a very forceful "fuck" and then drags her sorry ass over to where mitch is. 

she snaps her fingers in front of his face. 

"sober up, asshole. and repeat after me: you didn't see the glowing whale and the blonde chick's name never came up. got me?"

skyler dross  mitchel kane
JpiqVvFh

☉

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

☉

the wood crunches and groans under their combined weight and parker thinks that shit's gonna bruise but he seems to be taking it in stride, which is never a good sign. worse is the scathing tongue that survives being smacked around out of nowhere and she has the foresight to know something's coming. 

but he's a spry fucker. the elbow doesn't smash into her jaw like it might have if she were one of the other idiots lolling about on the ground with drool spilling out of their mouths. but it does clip her good on the chin and make her bite her tongue. that puts her in a right foul mood. 

she does not give ground. she comes right back in and tries to clip him while he tries to slink out from under her.

"why, y'afraid of a little piss?" she growls out and instantly thinks of three other, cooler things she could have said. 

besides, her hands are clean (of pee, at least). she thought about dunking them in some floating bubbles of water by her head, but then decided against it. that didn't seem safe.

"c'mere, you little rat."

angelo vestri

☉

she's heartbroken over skyler dross.

she's heartbroken over Yumi Hasegawa.

she's too stupid to realize Naomi Sato's sort of getting heartbroken over her. 

and heartbroken parker loves simping. so when this pretty blonde fuck-face bitch goes and sweeps in like a white knight, parker starts second-guessing the moral high ground she has to stand on. the dog's tongue lolls out of its mouth and parker takes one step back, then peers up as the girl comes into view. 

"i...you're not s'posed to check on me. what the fuck?" but now she's quite literally caught between a rock and a hard place. her back finds the cave wall. eldin doesn't even offer her a backwards glance because he's bulking up his iron defenses in preparation for whatever bullshit the mist creature is charging up.

francie myrtle

☉

parker might be obtuse, but she knows eggshells. she knows clammed-up-swallowed-down fear. 'cause her targets, when she's knocking down their doors, they all give her the same look. they give her that pleading, stupid look of don't you understand? and how much can i tell you? and how much will you see through?

and it's ground her down, but it hasn't made her any better at caring. now, though. now she's trying to wrack her brain thinking of what to say to fuckin' mist!nomi, who she's frankly certain isn't all mist anymore, but maybe she's a mist zombie instead. 

'brunch' makes her think of skinny blonde bitches clinking their little cutesy mimosa glasses together and going 'omg i'll have the avocado toast on gluten free bread!' but a big plate of half a dozen eggs and half an emboar's worth of bacon and some freshly squeezed orange juice and a couple sides of toast sounds fucking baller. 

her stomach gives a loud grumble, mouth watering. 

"why don'tcha come with?" she says, running her blood-streaked fingers nervously through her hair. "brunch sounds a lot fuckin' better than this crazy shit, don't it?"

Naomi Sato

☉