[attr="class","cam"]Though her wrist was screaming and burning with a fiery pain, Camellia wrestled with the underboss as best she could. He was just too damn fast.

She knew that it was human skill or practice. He must have a connection to a higher power. Cillian's movements were inhuman in speed as he moved, the blade he know wielding striking several points on her body.

The air was knocked from her stomach, leaving her gasping for air on the ground as her lungs felt like they had collapsed in on themselves. Despite the blurring in her vision, Camellia would kick and thrash at Cillian like a feral animal, trying to bring him down with her.

The SPRIDETIDE STORM left her RUNERIGUS weaker, though it still attempted to attack her foe with a barrage of SHADOW BALLS. Then, she decided to go defensive, throwing up a CRAFTY SHIELD.

[attr="class","camtag"]Cillian Quinn | recruitment: act i

[attr="class","cam"]"Until it attacks us again?" Camellia asked, raising her eyebrow.

"There's always a chance of attack. It's unavoidable. You have to stay on your toes at all times. That means you too," she said, pointing to the girl's CYNDAQUIL.

"Or else you risk a forfeit of your life."

[attr="class","camtag"]NIKOLA CATELLUS | into the wild

[attr="class","cam"]He was suddenly on her, so quickly that she didn't have time to react. "Shit."

Instead of words fleeting from her lips, a pained and angry cry cut through the mountain air, a disgusting snap of her wrist a prelude of what was to come.

While a normal person might give up, Camellia was no normal person. She'd been broken to pieces before. She was taught to endure the pain and fight through it. After all, you never know when your target would fight back.

The hand he'd attacked and twisted dropped the knife, but she was quick on swiping it back with her nondominant one, slashing at his abdomen with unhinged violence.

Meanwhile, her RUNERIGUS let an angry noise toward his DEHLMISE, SWINGING BRUTALLY forward with no remorse for safety of trainer or Pokemon.

[attr="class","camtag"]Cillian Quinn | recruitment: act i

[attr="class","cam"]Her attention drew away from her MEOWSCARADA, the masked individual approaching. After her meeting with Cillian Quinn, which had resulted in a few broken bones, multiple cuts and bruises, and a much needed rest in the infirmary, Camellia had decided Rocket made it worth her time to do some research into the ladder of importance.

This clearly had to be...

"Neon," she addressed simply, without much fanfare. Or, "cock sucker" as she'd called him in the encounter with the WHITE KYUREM in the Silent Icelands.

Not that he needed to know.

"CALYREX is resting. Nothing significant has happened, except for that poor SALANDIT showing up." She stepped forward, taking back her knife from the ground. What remained was a tail, the Pokemon having probably scurried away from the tree. "I'm sure it'll grow back."

Camellia glanced back at him, raising a brow. "You have suspicions they'd come here?"

[attr="class","camtag"]mint frost | protect the dyna tree

[attr="class","cam"]Camellia almost laughed at his question. In one of his leader's eyes, yes, she was one of them. In her own?

Well, she wasn't quite sure of that yet, despite the aching bruises and the occasional burning cut from Cillian Quinn's "lesson."

"You could consider me that, yes," she replied, finally turning her head to regard him with observant, red eyes. A man she'd seen on the other side when WHITE KYUREM attacked. It was only glimpses, but it was enough to recognize him.

"You were here too."

[attr="class","camtag"]Tempest Quinn | post-tsdt

[attr="class","cam"]"Did you know that even the most skilled and adept assassin has their fears?"

It was one day that Camellia happened to be sitting beneath the Dyna Tree, CALYREX out and yearning for some sort of story. Her attempts of shooing it away were met with silence and failure. After grumbling under her breath, she decided to speak.

Not that this creature could convey words unless another being was around. And then, it may even think she was lying.

"We are trained to be fearless and handle even the worst of situations that anyone could face. But we are still human. Let me tell you about a girl, in MOULIN SANG..."

The girl was stolen from her family during a housefire. She was so young, she couldn't recall the faces of her mother and father. The only thing she could remember was the smell of soot and char, the heat of flames licking at her feet. The fire to consume her.

She became the most skilled assassin in her class, but even so, she refused to approach even fire Pokemon due to the terror of that night. Her classmates had set fire to MOULIN SANG in the uprising she led, and despite her leadership, her fear was all consuming.

The girl had to become the fire to vanquish her fear. She eventually let the fire consume her, so much so that her heart became nearly nothing more than coal. Until she met a man of ice, who began to slowly extinguish her flames.

However, she melted him away day by day, until his ultimate betrayal evaporated him completely. He ceased to exist, and it was because of her fearful flames.

The woman of fire thought she'd been cured of her fear, but now the flames are evermore consuming. Perhaps, she too, will eventually burn out.

There was an almost bitter look on her face, until she looked over at CALYREX. "Gah, the hell am I telling you this for? It's not like you care."

Camellia stood, and she walked away.

[attr="class","camtag"]fire and ice

[attr="class","cam"]Despite his insult, Camellia's lip quirked upright in amusement. He seemed easy to stir. Rocket appeared important to him.

She wondered just how much he'd sacrifice for his cause. His family? His lover? His life?

Power and glory?

Pathetic.

"That word. Belong. I hate it." She practically spat it out of her mouth like venom. "I belong to myself. You're group doesn't own me." Her back pushed off the rock, taking a step forward.

Camellia's Pokemon waited behind her, though a dagger slipped into her hand. An assassin was always armed.

"No, I'm afraid I never take the easy way. I like to play a little before my opponent's down. Guess that means you'll have to 'push harder.'"

[attr="class","camtag"]Cillian Quinn | recruitment: act i

[attr="class","cam"]Camellia descended down the chasm, sunlight fading as apparent nothingness appeared. The severed crack in the earth now held many treasures that she was interested in finding.

And it seemed she was not the only one.

Plaisantin gracefully landed at her side, with a bow as if she had just performed. Tera shards and crystals sparkled around them, grouped in jagged and colorful formations while reflecting brilliantly blinding light. It seemed impossible that this place was so dangeous.

"Stick close. Gather what you can."

[attr="class","camtag"]kyle lopez | the great chasm of hoenn

[attr="class","cam"]Galar memory?

That one in particular sounded interesting enough, and it was certainly not something she'd heard before. Camellia opened her mouth to speak, when her ROTOM phone began to ring.

Cursing under her breath, she looked at it, answering and speaking in quick Kalosian. After hanging up, she gave Josh what she thought was the best apologetic look she could muster.

"I'm sorry. Work has called me in. Hey, can you package the rest to go for me?" she waved down the bartender.

"Keep those stories in handy the next time we meet, Josh Devlin."

[attr="class","camtag"]Josh Devlin

[attr="class","cam"]The Silent Icelands are just that. Cold, freezing. Quiet.

All except for the crunching footsteps of Camellia and her companion, Iron Crown. She hadn't come up with a name for it, so she just called it that: Iron Crown. Its joints did not creak despite the cold wind and snow pelting down on them. Instead, its head was raised just as proudly as she had seen it.

Born in the crack of the chasm.

"That's it. Where I caught you. Do you remember?" she asked, not expecting a reply from the mechanical beast. Indeed, it stared back with soulless, unblinking eyes as her scarlet gaze peered down the crack in the earth.

Chaos and blood had been fresh upon the frozen field, where avatars had abused their powers to attempt to take control of the situation. For the League! Or for Team Rocket!

Who truly gave a damn when the world was going to crumble in the hands of ARCEUS in the end? They were delaying the inevitable.

"They think they can play god, with their legends. They worship them and bow down, and the end result is this: new problems with no solutions. More for us to bear while they sit idly by."

In truth, she thought she'd been alone, until her assassin-trained ears picked up the sound of crunching footsteps nearby. "Seems we have company."

[attr="class","camtag"]Tempest Quinn | post-tsdt