parker bounces on both feet, gives yumi a shit-eating-grin. "sounds fan-fuckin'-tastic," she says, throwing a couple of mock punches for flavor. if they were all like cal, she's pretty sure she could come out on top even if it was ten on one. 

thinking about it gives her an itch she won't be able to scratch until she's a few drinks deep and slogging her way to KING WAYLAND's bar. there are only a couple there that can meet her match, but every once in a while she dogs the owner himself to meet her in the ring. 

gives her a lot of satisfaction when she smashes that ugly mouth of his. 

she follows dutifully in step when yumi orders her to (because yes, mommy?). great minds think alike because parker's gaze drifts to some street meat. she doesn't say anything. just licks her lips and tugs the hood of her jacket up.

Yumi Hasegawa

☉

parker thinks about it. she'd be lying if she said she didn't enjoy the freshly blistered pain on her knuckles from punching sand bags and breaking noses. but a cut like the one on her cheek? she's a fucking baby about those. burns from when she's cooking? yeah, fuck that. 

having a magical little fairy on hand that can poof those away would be stellar. really.

so she snorts and says, "i think it might. y'ever need someone roughed up, i'll take it as an iou if my shit gets real fucked." she's only half-joking. she keeps her head down, but she's not an idiot. the region is in literal shambles right now.

but then she's quieted when her companion quotes poetry from somewhere - right? that's what that has to be? her brows furrow and, confused, she looks out into the water. 

"i think the scariest thing in there's probably sharpedo." a beat. "nah. kyogre." and its fuckin' master. 

illeana reyes

☉

this is the part where it satisfies that hungry, animalistic thing inside her. the iron tang of blood and its messy scrawl gives her goosebumps, tightens her fingers, tilts her lips. he whines pitifully underneath her as she exercises a fraction of her strength and she feels a god among men; for a moment in this dreary existence, she is more. 

and then she relaxes her grip and he falls to his knees, knocking his chin into the table. her lips twist into a disgusted grimace and she doesn't even need yumi's question to give him a (softer-than-he-deserves) knee to the face. 

he crumples like a piece of paper and parker returns his earlier gesture by spitting in his mess of blood-matted hair. 

"rocket always gets its due, motherfucker," she snarls and it takes everything in her not to kick him on her way out from behind the stall. for good measure, though, she does take the salad spinner. 

from her pocket she pulls out a worn cloth, stained brown. fresh blood gets wiped onto it; some of it's already dried on her hands, but most of it comes off. most folks in this part of town look a little roughed up anyway. 

"y'know," she says with a sigh, "sometimes i wish it wasn't so easy." she shakes her head. "what a joke."

Yumi Hasegawa

☉

"sure, cupcake," she says without really thinking about it. mid-stretch, arms still waving over her head, she blinks and then zones back in, gaze soft with an awkward apology. "force of habit. sorry. sure. sal's prob'ly got a sleeping bag somewhere we can roll out, but dunno how much you'll sleep. we're gonna make some noise."

still, there's food waiting for them down the street. she touches her jacket - unsurprisingly, it's still wet. she's roughed worse and it's not that far. 

"wolf, don't do anything without me here," she warns. the gabite waves her off, shoulders squared, but a hard stare makes him deflate.

as she shoulders her way out the door, locking it carefully behind them, she says, "so, bet you'd have turned this shit down if you knew how'd involved it was. granted, i didn't know you were gonna make a supersoaker spectacle outta it."

nina larson

☉

parker recognizes the look - the addicting, rejuvenating, exhilarating thrill of domination. of the hurt and the heat and the blood in their ears and the danger-sense prickling their skin. she licks her lips and throws a hand forward - amulius and remus follow her, and lex's, direction.

"ghosts are freaky as fuck," parker says as she lopes up after them, all the while watching the haunter float up through the ceiling. "give me the heebie jeebies."

the door is, laughably enough, locked when they reach the top. amulius kicks it in with ease; the metal groans and clatters out onto the rooftop, where the remaining lackeys are shouting orders in confusion. 

lex's ghosts are proving to be a very nice distraction.

her pokemon are left to their own devices because parker rounds on the one nearest to her with a snarl.

Alexandra Briarwood

☉

parker stands back, carelessly tossing the salad spinner aside. she hovers with arms crossed, gaze sliding coolly from yumi and to the very unimpressive piece of shit in front of her. her weight rests at the front of her hips and anyone walking by might have thought her bored. 

she's seen this before, to players new in the game. and they've been popping up fuckin' everywhere. something about the end of the world really bringing the crazies out and about. she can't complain though - that's more money in her pocket.

when he spits, she follows the trail and stares down at the glob of white, mouth twitching in a smile. amulius doesn't bother shifting; he won't be needed here and all present company knows this, except maybe cal.

parker steps neatly around yumi, lithe frame skirting the foldout table to join cal's side. she throws an arm heavily over his shoulder. to his credit, he doesn't flinch. just screws up his mouth and exhales hotly.

"get off me, bitch."

ah, so that's it. he's not scared of them 'cause yumi's damn pretty and parker's - well, parker hasn't turned it on yet. 

she grins widely, all teeth, and her arm tightens. before cal can blink, his nose is - SQUELCH - spurting blood like a fire hydrant, bone crunched. pain lances through his whole head and the immediate jerking response parker feels from him is subdued, 'cause she's leaning her weight onto his back and holding his face messily against the table. 

"name's six," she says matter-of-factly and he moans blood. "not bitch."

she leans in harder. "now, i think you were telling my partner here that you're sorry and where you keep the money and the stash, yada yada."

Yumi Hasegawa

☉

parker's fairly dense when it comes to reading complex emotions. she's seen her fair share of fright, anger, frustration, ecstasy, but she hasn't been able to peg nina since the beginning, nevermind now. while wolf works, she looks over the blueprints she'd spent ages on. triple-checking her list to make sure she has all the materials.

"what, you gonna steal my shit and bail on me?" parker says with a snort, without looking up. 

"look, i just know those fuckers are gonna be ripping your part o' town apart. this shit's expensive and they're gonna be fucked for the race. and 'sides, one of us oughta get a good night's sleep." she shrugs and then finally hops off the table. stretches. 

nina larson

☉

here's the thing about parker though - she's a sucker for pretty women. and even though she's hopelessly hung up on a spitfire woman who'll never be hers - whose mercurial eyes still haunt her though she hasn't seen them in months - that doesn't mean she can't fancy just about anything else that walks and talks and is distinctly feminine. 

at first glance, she's a dolled up wannabe that'll easily be chewed up and spit out in this business, but that smirk on her face and the venomous look in the backs of her eyes tells parker there's more going on behind that pretty face. so she follows with a grin of her own, thumbs poking out from her pockets as she strides behind. 

"mm, i do like things sweet," she muses. she doesn't mind yumi taking the lead on this one. curiosity's got the better of her now. 

amulius follows dutifully behind her, standing a ways away with eyes like a hawk to ward off any potential 'buyers' to cal's stall while the two women take care of business. 

parker has to give him credit. the blank look on his face at yumi's proclamation ought to give him an oscar. "no clue what you're talking about," he says smartly. 

parker reaches out and sifts through some of his 'wares.' the knickknacks are a wide variety - twisting metal sculptures of legends locked in battle, half a dozen baby binkies (why?), some somewhat-melted candles, and more. one pile in particular topples over when parker pulls out a salad spinner out from under it. 

the rest of the shit falls to the ground and cal stiffens, though tries his best to look annoyed. he eyes yumi's snake.

"look, i haven't done anything wrong, okay? so why don't you go bother someone else, hm?"

Yumi Hasegawa

☉

rocket doesn't like leaving room for error and neither does parker. her reputation within the organization itself is nearly nonexistent, but the poor schmucks she collects from know damn well the sound of her boots outside their homes. she's never had a late payment and she's never royally fucked a mission and it sure as hell isn't going to start here.

amulius nudges her when someone pointedly approaches them, emerging from the crowd like some fictitious protagonist from an action movie. parker, with her ripped black jeans shoved into well-worn boots and her grease-stained jacket on a muscle tee - well, the two of them really are a sight for sore eyes. 

"the one 'n only," she says and then, as a way of acknowledgment: "yumi."

she rolls her shoulders. "so our ol' buddy cal over there's selling league radars or some shit. y'know, for the right price and if you look hard enough past his mountain of garbage he's trying to pawn off. he thinks he's clever. how d'you wanna rough 'em up, eh? short and sweet?" (i.e. beat the living daylight out of him and forcibly take their due, leaving a kind foreboding for next time.) "or try an' talk him through his woeful wrongdoings?"

Yumi Hasegawa

☉

parker drains half a bottle of water. she stretches her shoulders, feeling an uncomfortable and all-too-familiar twinge in her left one. "sonuva-" she bites out with a grimace, rubbing the sore spot with her hands. sighing, she shakes out her arms and readjusts her red jacket. her blaziken waits patiently beside her, keeping a keen eye out on the other marketgoers. 

their target's a new stand that's set up shop over the course of the last few weeks. parker and one other have been assigned to keep the peace - which means they're to start collecting from the pudgy-faced shopkeep or run him out of town.

she checks her watch. it's a one-man job surely, but this is how the cookie crumbles. rocket doesn't like leaving room for error.

Yumi Hasegawa

☉

parker makes a face but otherwise doesn't say anything when nina drops her phone. it's an old piece of shit, really. it can barely run the apps she has downloaded on it. on the whole, though, it does what it's meant to do and that's more than enough for parker. 

while nina picks out her food, parker watches wolf work. the glass screeches under his claws. it comes free quite delicately though and he finagles it out of the car with ease. when he hops back down from the car, parker helps heft the windshield onto the workshop table. 

"tube's over there," she says and the gabite goes to get a rubber tube of insulation to install around the newly made rough edges of the back. 

"eh, we'll figure it out. as long as we beat that champion's ass. do pick-up, by the way. place is near my apartment. i can drop ya off 'fore it gets too late. i'll be up workin' on this all night."

nina larson

☉

"'cause you've got guts," she says. she swings up onto the table and drags the chair over, using it as a footrest. after shimmying a little, she fishes her phone out from her back pocket and scrolls through some delivery places. after picking a couple of meals out for herself she does a mock throw and then a real one to nina. 

"that's sick though. done a couple missions with 'em." she doesn't say which, nor divulge her scant history with jayden. she still has trouble sleeping at night, thinking about his empty eyes and vacant voice when dealing with that bust...

"but i try an' stay under the radar, y'know? keep me outta the culty 'fall on your sword for us' bullshit." she snubs her nose. 

"and i was just askin' in case you're a piss poor driver and we gotta swap."

nina larson

☉

"somethin' like that," she says. nina slides into the seat and parker makes herself busy with other things. her fingers ghost over her toolboxes. idly, she undoes her belt and tosses it with its pokeballs up onto the workshop table. and then she finally shakes out of her damp red jacket, tossing it on a rolling chair that's seen better days.

it's gonna be one hell of a night. the gang they'd stolen it from was ready to have a whole crew working on the thing tonight, but all parker's got is herself. well, and amulius and remus. cool gray eyes wander from what she's doing and over to nina.

she shakes her head and laughs. "you'll see when we get'er on the road."

knuckles crack. and then tap one of the pokeballs. a gabite pops out of this one and gives a stretch. parker orders him on top of the car and sighs while he meticulously goes about removing the back windshield with his claws.

"so...aside from surprise super-soakers, how's your battling?" she asks. 

nina larson

☉