The decision was made and unexpectedly respected. There had been far too many people that would throw themselves into his problems without needing to be there. Or well, one person. They were gone. The underboss watched on as he evaded the next attack.
[break][break]
The pokemon would ramp up, the energy was shifting. Not much time left, as the other man had stated. Not much time left to collect as many of the shards as he could. Not that there were that many to collect in the first place.
[break][break]
There was really no way of knowing if he was doing a good job or making a mockery of himself and everything he was choosing to fight for. However, no one was dead so... really that was all he could rely upon. Clearly his masked friend was content enough to call it a day. Maybe Levy had been expecting more challenge, but he definitely wasn't about to object on the challenge of a space-time distortion.
[break][break]
"Okay, I've got them. Should we go?"

[break][break]

+ Recruitment: Act I | Martín del Mar

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

Levy admittedly didn't like the idea that he didn't have anything to give to Wren. It felt selfish since the other was always thinking about him. Granted, he didn't actually know what this gift was, but Wren rarely did anything without consideration for other people. He was good like that, the best of everyone, in Levy's maybe somewhat doting opinion. That didn't mean, of course, that he was going to turn down Wren's gift, no matter what it was.
[break][break]
It also didn't sit right that this gift felt like a cover up for something larger, but that was probably his imagination. Wren didn't seem capable of that, really. Then again, the other was his blind spot. Always was and always would be. The blonde could commit murder and Levy would gloss right over it with a "they probably deserved it" excuse. Then again, his rationale for things was different. Wren had often told him his judgments of others and, more so, himself had a tendency to be too caustic.
[break][break]
Levy fidgeted a little as he sat down, scooting one of the little cakes across the table to the other. It was all a distraction, of course. Good cake or not, he was mostly getting it to cover the nerves of anticipation and paranoia. It wasn't easy being around someone that felt like everything will eventually bite. Levy was constantly on guard to prevent himself from getting hurt. Only Wren seemed to have snuck through that guard.
[break][break]
Wren began rambling, as he was prone to doing under stress. The pokeball rolled under view. Levy's brow furrowed in question, glancing up with a question. "You want me too...?" He didn't understand half of what Wren was on about, but clearly he'd caught something that he wanted him to see. With a shrug, he released what had to be the most feral looking Eevee he'd ever seen. He glanced down at Juno, but the difference between the two was clear. Her hind leg was missing, most notably. Levy didn't really know what to say. Wren wanted him to have her? That couldn't be right. "I don't know if I'm the right person to... you're— you're the pokemon whisperer, not me." He swallowed, unsure why his throat closed up. "Are you sure?"


[break][break]


[break][break]

+ wren rourke

The way the other's face brightened upon seeing him made a giddy sort of feeling bubble up in response. It was the kind of exhiliration that said in plain: I'm glad to see you. It said nothing pitying or resolute or quiet grieving his sudden presence. It offered no sustenance to the dark little thoughts that lingered in Levy's mind that he was no wanted there.
[break][break]
Even worse, that his presence was only humored for his own sake. Levy liked to think himself pretty tough and self-sustaining after years on his own in a rough environment. Yet, Wren only made him realize how fragile he could be. How easily it would be to break him. Yet, it wasn't the break he feared, but the other sticking around simply so he didn't have to feel at fault for it.
[break][break]
"Yeah I'm fine." He said, swallowing down the itching nerves that told him he was outside of his comfort zone. Wren always made things easier and being around him made it easier to accept that he was in a place he didn't want to be. He could feel the heat in his skin as the other complimented him. He couldn't help the little smile, looking away hastily. "Yeah yours is... it's cute. I like it." Wren made for a perfectly cute bulbasaur, that was for sure. Though he didn't go without noting how that might have sounded now, which didn't help for the heat on his face. He was a little thankful for the sudden distraction as Wren pulled him forward. "Where are we going?"

[break][break]

+ wren rourke | m: a little party never hurt nobody | T-T

It was late. It wasn't necessarily a problem, considering that Levy was inherently a night owl. Sleep had never come naturally to him and thus he spent a lot of time reading or sitting awake waiting for sleep to finally seize him.
[break][break]
That didn't mean he wasn't tired, it just usually was exhaustion stretched over a long period of time rather than at the appropriate hours. Salandit silently perched on the ground beside him, fixatedly staring at a single spot as if it may suddenly move.

[break][break]
A report of strange noises throughout the submarine didn't seem necessarily odd to him. They were in a submarine after all. Didn't these things normally creak and groan from water pressure and normal... watery things? So it hardly seemed odd to him, if anything it was probably a waste of time put on new recruits so that they would lose sleep. Or maybe it was a prank and he was about to be thoroughly humiliated and not want to leave his room again like a pissy teenager.

[break][break]
Luckily, or maybe unluckily (?), he wasn't alone in this grueling activity of patrolling a stagnant underwater vessel. "Margot, I'm assuming? Or are you here to tell me I've officially wasted my time?" Maybe the disrespect and disregard was laid on thick. He was no longer in a position to tell or remotely care, at least not right then.

[break][break]

+ margot mori | m: ghost in the machine

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

It's probably fucking sad, the desire to be seen as useful. However, growing up without purpose had a way of doing that. Survival had been all that his life measured up to. Live to fight another day, that was the gist of it, right? That was all this was, but there was more to it. There was more to this. He knew the societal opinion of Rocket and it wasn't like he could blame them. He wasn't oblivious. He wasn't taken advantage of or the victim preyed upon. No, he was the villain in the story and he didn't care to even justify his reasons. They were his own. If he had to prove to this guy to effectively prove his own self-worth, then he was willing to do that.
[break][break]
Shard in hand, it seemed a very small means to whatever end. Truly, he hadn't a damned clue what it was for, Signa suites aside, but if M.A.G.M.A wanted them then that was enough for him. Centiskorch dealt another blow of INFERNO and the Scolipede was naturally done with beneath the intensity of the heat.
[break][break]
"No." He said, maybe a touch too sharp. His tone was maybe lacking in the prior respect he'd shown before, but he had never asked for assistance and had deemed he never would. That would probably change. This was a team sport, to say the least, but he wasn't ready yet to accept that. There was another loud crack, thunder like. He twisted at the sight of a shadow behind him, rolling out of the way as a new, yet unseen pokemon crashed down on the ground he'd just been standing with a SLAM.

[break][break]

+ Recruitment: Act I | Martín del Mar

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

He's seen these distortions before, but never within one. It's fascinating, to say the least. Had it been any other time and even remotely possible, he would have liked to study it further. He isn't exactly the scientific sort, but that doesn't mean he isn't somewhat intrigued by the way the world works. How fragile everything feel when it can splits open like this and changed so easily.
[break][break]
There is an unnatural feeling about the empty darkness, the gaping maw to some vacuous abyss. He's been told not to peer into darkness, to ignore that little voice to submit to it. However, at the moment, it is unexpectedly hard to focus. It's the other man's voice that pulls him out of his own head. He nods then, "Yes, sir." Then he is moving again. There isn't much room for fear or anxiety, even with instinct building in that natural desire for fight or flight.
[break][break]
He spots the first shard relatively soon, but it's blocked off by a large Scolipede looming over him. It's somehow even taller than his own centiskorch, which scuttles forward to block the other pokemon's POISON STING. The Centiskorch blazes hotter, lashing out at the bug with INFERNO. While the two anthropods battle, Levy makes a dash for the first shard.
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+ Recruitment: Act I | Martín del Mar

[attr="class","pokeclass"]