Onyx watched with pointed disinterest as the mark stumbled and fell. He scrabbled across the suspiciously damp-looking cobbles, jumped to his feet, and tried to bolt, to no avail. He hit the ground again with a noise halfway between a whine and a grunt.

Then he went for his Pokemon, which, Onyx felt, should’ve been his first go; the Voltorb stared him down, electricity crackling across its shiny red and white surface. Onyx dropped Mordekaiser’s Pokeball at his feet and the dragon burst forth with a bloodthirsty shriek.

The purple smog cloud erupted and Onyx had to wince against the sting of it in his eyes. The red-haired man met his watering eyes across the short span of their battlefield. “Agreed.”

Mord launched forward, aiming a vicious slash directly across the Voltorb’s spherical form.

Casey Fincher
blow! them! up!

☉

Onyx lived his life by a few core concepts and one of those was he’d try anything once. Or, in the case of Clamperl Diving, over and over and over again, for the promise of free shit.

He’d also gone diving for shark teeth and his hand still ached, but that wasn’t Splashfest’s fault.

“If I ever was, I’m not anymore,” he says, honest to a fault. While an admirable trait in leadership, it was one that went both ways in the rank and file, especially those in his line of work that did more of the sordid bits.

“I think maybe if I never see another Clamperl it’ll be too soon.”

Zia makes a raucous shrieking noise and pins a Rufflet down to the ground, holding the squirming chick beneath one obsidian foot, watching it flap and flail its wings. Onyx zaps it with a Pokeball.

“Did you enjoy the festival?”

THEO BECKETT
flying/water
catch attempt rufflet

☉

Onyx grins. He likes Administrator Beckett, he decides. He likes a person who calls it like he sees it. That was an admirable trait, especially in leadership.

Zia harrasses a Psyduck into the path, leaping onto its back and knocking it cold with Drill Peck.

"Staying firmly on dry land over all that diving,” he said.

THEO BECKETT
flying/water
catch attempt psyduck

☉

Onyx wouldn’t call himself expendable, either. Not personally, of course, but it was all a matter of business, you see. Dumb muscle could be hired. Money expended could be made back. Losses, cut. But brains-- minds-- were harder to cultivate, produce, procure.

“Till it’s over, I guess,” he said, snapping the latches on the case and pulling out the machinery: meters for barometric pressure, Geiger counters, an electroscope, and a bunch of other smartass mumbo jumbo that Onyx didn’t know from junk.

The Distortion snapped around them. Space collapsed with a shriek-- Onyx felt his ears popping-- then expanded, crackling like fire. The air took on a purplish hue, like looking through a soap bubble, and all sound became muted, far away.

Even his own voice. “Fucking weird.”

Another crack, then a loud tearing noise, and a burst of light. Three Pokemon suddenly appeared in the space between them: Lickilicky, Sylveon, and Ursaring.

The bear turned on Onyx, launching at him with a roar, swinging its claws wildly. Onyx jumped backwards, flicked his wrist and dropped a Pokeball in the space between. Mordekaiser burst forward with a roar, breathing right in the Ursaring’s face with a dragon breath.

The Sylveon and Lickilicky turned on Gerald. A slightly pink-tinged mist began to flow from the Sylveon, bathing the area; the Lickilicky lashed its tongue, aiming to wrap Gerald in the sticky, pink muscle.

Gerald Kaiser
ursaring used fury swipes!
sylveon used misty terrain!
lickilicky used wrap!

☉

Onyx squints at the form coming up on the trail; tall, strapping, partially undressed, hair slicked back and wet.

Onyx squints harder.

Theo Beckett?

He doesn’t realize he’s speaking out loud until he makes an unattractive squawk as Ziadem drops a soggy, wet Skrelp on the trail in front of him. She lands, cocks her head, caws.

“Administrator Beckett,” he amends, phrasing it properly-- read: not a question-- as he zapped the flopping sea dragon with a Pokeball. “Out for a stroll?”

THEO BECKETT
flying/water
catch attempt skrelp

☉

Onyx kicked a rock over the cliff edge. It was at least six seconds before it splooshed into the water below. The sound made his stomach turn. After so much time diving and wrestling fish out of the water, he was ready to spend a decent amount of time on dry land.

He continued his climb up the ridge, towards Petalburg Woods, the taste of salt a ghost on his tongue.

THEO BECKETT
flying/water

☉

Onyx came around the c-curve, hands in pockets, catching the faintest scent of something peachy and floral on the wet Slateport air. His target had bumped into someone and stumbled back, ass hitting the pavement.

A shadow passed overhead, bridging the both of them in darkness for the briefest of seconds.

“Define ‘with’,” Onyx said, breathing measured, trying not to show his irritation. Additional factors in the equation… complicated things. He wasn’t a math guy, he was a hitting guy, so he wasn’t much fond of surprise numbers.

Casey Fincher

☉

Onyx stood at the loading bay door of the warehouse, staring off into the dark of the Slateport night. The hot air smelled like dead fish, salt, and grime; a single, flickering incandescent lightbulb gave everything in a three-foot radius a jaundice-yellow glow.

The asphalt was hot beneath his boots as he walked to the concrete bulwark and looked over the railing; the sea was inky black and nondescript, sloshing at the makeshift pier. Forty feet up a long dock stabbed into the water where ships would come and dump cargo, the big crane creaking in the permanent sea wind, stalwart bastion knifing into the cloudy sky. Across the little bay the lights of Slateport smeared on the sea, sounds of Splashfest still going on heavy into the night.

Onyx flicked his cigarette ashes over the railing and walked back to the warehouse. The cronies and grunts (well, other grunts) were busy loading the cargo-- crates of Pokemon being moved in carnival game prizes and fake Clamperl shells, rigged for that stupid diving event. Onyx was just there to facilitate the movement and smooth over the bumps if any popped up.

OPEN
mission: slateport showdown

☉