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There’s a degree of guilt she feels in not being open with Callie. Because Callie is so kind to her, and it reminds Blue of when they were kids and things were less complicated. But if she did tell Callie, that would all change, wouldn’t it?[break][break]
And Blue is terrified of what that might look like.[break][break]
A part of her considers stealing Callie’s cup when Blue drains the rest of hers. Briefly, her vision spins before it resettles on the party moving around them.[break][break]
“Just a little bit,” she echoes, grin turning sloppy, “just a lot.”[break][break]
She shakes her head and the false ears on her head flop down. A hand flies up to push them back in place. “Wouldn’t catch me doing it,” she scoffs while her eyes scan the room, looking for another drink stand. “This could cause so much drama if they got mistaken for the actual person.”[break][break]
Well, she thinks that would happen.[break][break]
“Er, I don’t really know,” she admits awkwardly, “I don’t really know popular people.” Not personally. Not even at a distance, really. She lives under a rock. Which is probably weird for someone who’s meant to be a normal, every day citizen.

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Her face twists in irritation, “Would someone have, though? Or is that just what you’re telling yourself to make yourself feel better for doing this to me?” Her arms fold, “I was left alone for months before you turned up.” She was a nobody within Rocket. It had felt as though she’d fallen through the cracks when she’d slipped away.[break][break]
The only person who had ever really seen her was him.[break][break]
He’s smart to keep quiet after this, though, undoubtedly to avoid stoking the flames higher. Not that Blue has ever needed much fuel in order to implode.[break][break]
“Why do you need me to care, Theo? I don’t want to do all of this anymore. I already told you that.” She huffs, eyes turning away stubbornly. “What are we doing out here now?”


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Had she made it weird? It seemed like she had. Frustrated, Blue shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. The silence was heavy, muting even the battle sounds in her ears.[break][break]
Her issues were not his to shoulder, or suffer the consequences of. Her broken, sullen behavior. Her inability to hold a normal conversation without devolving into a dodgy, skittish mess. A cornered dog, much like her own companion.[break][break]
There was nowhere left for Bonnie to run. And when the lapras stared down at her, she relented. The mighyena crouched low in defeat, belly brushing the ground as her tail swept low from side to side. Another match over, just like that.[break][break]
“Yeah, ‘course,” she replied, somewhat absently as her brows creased together. Her hand rose, pokeball clasped between her fingers to recall Bonnie in a beam of light.
Her lips pressed together as Caleb approached her, and her eyes rose to study his face carefully. Then, a hesitant hand reached back and clasped his. Blue nodded, slowly at first, before it picked up rapidly. “Yeah, uh–yeah. I’ll do that.”[break][break]
The tentative workings of a returned smile tugged at one corner of her mouth. Ghostly and flickering, but present all the same.


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Blue’s lips part in a subtle gawk as her eyes turn upward to follow the ascent of the dragon. She’s never seen anything quite like this–the way his scales shimmer with an iridescence in a myriad of hues. Blinking, she whistles to draw Bonnie back, but she is much too delayed in doing so. And the mightyena cannot hold up in the wake of such a powerful blast.[break][break]
It hits her square, and the canine drops like a sack of bricks.[break][break]
A low, keening howl rumbles in her throat, and Blue recalls her companion to her rest–the mightyena disappearing in a beam of light. Ruby eyes lift to study the woman across from her, curious and reverent toward the one who guides the ferocity of the dragon between them.[break][break]
Suddenly, perhaps, she feels sheepish. But in acknowledgement of her defeat, Blue meets her eye with a solemn nod.


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“Oh, I see.” Her response bore no real judgment, but something in her expression took a turn toward stricken. For someone helplessly stuck with hands tied, it sounded like a lifeline. Blue wasn’t so naturally trusting, though, and she had her doubts. If he were to voice his opinions, he would find her of a similar mind. Rocket or League, no one had really ever made her feel as though she mattered.[break][break]

Of course, Shinra Moro cared. But that was because he was Shinra, and she was Blue, and the nature of it had little to do with where they stood. And well. At one point, THEO BECKETT had made her feel as if she’d mattered too.[break][break]

Now, that only felt like a lie. Everything they’d lived in that fictitious Galar, foggy as it was now, had been exactly that. A story.[break][break]

What did this man, this Caleb, gain from telling her these things? Perhaps she was just another tally mark. A number in the system to make a program look good. Starting over? She didn’t know what the idea looked like anymore, as much as she’d failed to succeed.[break][break]

She swallowed down the flutter of panic in her chest, and let her gaze fall away to the footfalls of her mightyena as she struggled to turn tail and outrun the HYDRO VORTEX rushing her way. The torrent swept her off her feet and sent her plunging under the water only to be spat out on the far end of the field.[break][break]

Soggy and dazed, Bonnie howled–charging in one final, reckless bid to TAKE DOWN her opponent.

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The impact is a full crash course collision, and her own weight throws Bonnie into a barrel roll across the ground as the zoroark goes flying. It’s a hit on herself that she takes heavily, but the mightyena soon pushes herself back to her feet with a few yaps of victory.[break][break]

Blue’s brows rose as the canine trotted back, “Didn’t know you had that in ya,” she comments as the mightyena huffs in indignant response. Her gaze lifts to her opponent, and the fallen zoroark. “Good match,” she tries, a crooked and sort of apologetic smile tugging at her mouth.

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Bonnie was holding out, but for how much longer? The lucario had already been tough, but when mega evolved? It only intensified things that much more.[break][break]

The mightyena scrambled away from the close range quarters and the lucario’s battering punches. Once she felt safe at a short distance, Bonnie whirled– jaws opening to let out a TOXIC gust at her opponent.


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Fairy and dark energy collided as the two pokemon met one another in a combined show of attacks. Bonnie growled then peeled away, before circling back around. She charged the zoroark then, attempting to full body tackle it in order to TAKE DOWN her opponent.


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It hadn’t been intended as a distraction, but the glow of the tera typing served that purpose all the same. Bonnie’s teeth sank in and she whipped her head side to side to pull at the zoroark before it slashed out at her.[break][break]

Its claws landed, and the mightyena leapt back with a howl, unlatching her fangs from the other pokemon’s arm. She didn’t stay away for long, though–leaping back in toward it with the intent to PLAY ROUGH as fairy light sparkled around her paws.

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They kept up with one another well, that was for sure. But it seemed like the lucario had another trick up his sleeve. The brandishing of a mega accessory across the pitch had Blue looking toward her mightyena, hands cupping around her mouth to call out a warning.[break][break]

“Brace yourself, Bon,” she commanded. Blue knew what that glow meant – if only because she’d seen it many times before with her own lucario. When this one emerged, mega evolved, he took off with blinding speed. Despite Bonnie digging her heels in, she was still sent skidding back and scrambling to catch up to her opponent in the aim of a swift TAKE DOWN.

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“I didn’t think about that,” she hummed, head tilting. “But you’re probably right.” It’d be sort of boring, wouldn’t it, if they were trading mostly the same blows. But at least that wasn’t a problem in this case. She wasn’t even sure if her own lucario would be too interested in competitive matches like this.[break][break]

Bonnie sprang away after delivering her nipping bite, only to be pursued by the hefty blow of the lucario’s METEOR MASH. She tumbled with a yelp, battered by the repeated hits. Undeterred, however, she lunged in again–paws sweeping out in an attempt to knock the lucario over and PLAY ROUGH with him.

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She’d probably said too much. Normally, Blue was tight lipped out of sullen reticence, but maybe not the most deceptive person. It was why she’d been plucked out of the PD, after all, and then put to work where she could use her fists and her aggression more frequently.[break][break]

Where it had been believed her greater potential was.[break][break]

But Blue didn’t really want that anymore, no matter how many times Theo dragged her back.[break][break]

Her head tilted as he explained his placement, and then went on in a direction she’d not anticipated. Something fluttered in her chest, strangely akin to hope. But that wasn’t something she’d allow to flourish–not when she was in the thick of it like this.[break][break]

“That’s a thing? I had no idea.” She hummed, eyes narrowing slightly, “Involved like…a leader, or a member?”[break][break]

The blast of water served its intended purpose as it barreled into Bonnie, sending her back a few yards with a yelp. But she remained a persistent nettle. Circling the lapras, she darted in and way repeatedly as she snapped at Lyra with CRUNCHING nips like a herding dog.


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