a coalossal roared at them both, angered to see the two intruders in her territory. before mar could garner any kind of response, capsakid wiggled out of her grip and used zen headbutt, knocking the coalossal a step back. the angered pokemon used rapid spin, but capsakid ducked underneath and used crunch. while her mouth was still on the wild pokemon, mar tossed a pokeball to keep it under wraps. the feisty pokemon would fit right in. hopefully, without butting heads with clobbopus.

catching coalossal

☉

mar stabilized herself as the wailord displaced water and rocked her boat. "skrelp, make 'em act right!" the seahorse generated a smokescreen while bombirdier came down to strike clobbopus, creating a visual disturbance to give clobbopus the opportunity to duck away. capsakid tugged on her leg, but mar tsk'd instead. "don't want ye to fight this guy when yer slated to fight the big man."

she turned to the do-gooder with a sneer. "aye, kyogre doesn't need yer help. and he belongs to the seas, which means he belongs to me." she jabbed a thumb to her chest, then drew her cutlass and aimed it right at him. "ye'd do right to turn 'round the way ye came." with the smokescreen in place, skrelp swam over to the smaller boat, generating a hydro pump to knock the boat away or flip it.

Gunner Graves

☉

mar threw capsakid's pokeball out, dropping the grass-type on the ice to try and thaw clobbopus out. as she did, she noticed motion and turned to see some dude on a wailord.

okay, style points for the wailord, but he obviously wasn't cool like her. he looked like a rule-follower. mar raised an unimpressed brow at him, internally cursing her luck for having another suit interrupt her while trying to harass kyogre. "are ye threatenin little ol' me?" she pressed a hand to her chest, dramatically aghast in offense. "why, i'm just takin a gander at this legend of the seas." she held her hands up in a show of innocence.

Rowan Wrynn

☉

mar grinned at aurelie's question.

"this artifact allegedly lets ye summon the dead. there's a lot of superstition around ghosts, and a lot of folklore, too. but in this case, things are quite easy fer us." she walked right up and knocked on the door three times. the door didn't move, but loud footstep-cadence sounds could be heard coming closer, and the earth shook a little with each impact.

the door was pulled apart by the golurk on the other side, leaning in to inspect both of them. it said something incomprehensible. mar turned to aurelie and shrugged. "this is the part where i'm supposed to be introduced by a ghost; this is a multigenerational family heirloom, older than any of the cities in hoenn, so yer blood relative is supposed to be related to the original family that secured this artifact. 'course, my family has no ties to hoenn, so." she laughed. "we gotta run!"

she ducked underneath the bent-and-inspecting golurk, slipping between its legs to get into the ruins. the artifact was hanging from the ceiling, surrounded by a series of duskull. the inside was dark besides the variety of litwick and its evolutions that wandered about, so mar couldn't quite see the rope that held the artifact.

a lampent curled an arm around her leg before she could decide her next action, so mar kicked her and sicced skrelp on her. the sea dragon used hydro pump while mar repositioned herself away from the entrance because the golurk was angry and turning around at its intruders. "let's make this fast!" she urged aurelie, but she spoke with glee. she loved the action. aurelie could hold off the pokemon while mar found a way to get up high to the artifact, or aurelie could get up there while mar did it, but they needed to move fast before hundreds of ghosts entered the ruin to stop them.

Aurelie Lefevre

☉

they got right to it. mar could appreciate the straightforwardness. hell, she could reward it.

"i want to use ye." she leaned forward, far more serious than she'd demonstrated before. "i think ye have the potential and skillset to make it far in hoenn, in rocket, in whatever goals ye hold dear. i want us to work together, and i will help get ye started in rocket. get their resources, get in their pockets. ye can have yer own trouble, but contribute to rocket's brand of it, too."

she let her words hang in the air for a moment. "ye can say no. i have no intention of hurting ye. and if we work together, ye can step out of a mission. but i expect ye to help me when i need it, and i will help ye. and together, we can accomplish goals for rocket and get more power, more resources, more... more." rocket was a gust of wind and the world was a bird cage; they were lucky enough to have the skill (the criminality) to open the cage, but they needed more to get going, to really maximize their freedom from the status quo and from society's expectations.

rocket offered that. and mar could help them dance between rocket and their own goals in exchange for their skills.

Aqua Kennedy

☉

the roar of an engine slowly trickled into mar's conscious awareness, as she had been very focused on giving capsakid a pep talk. in fact, it's the grass type who informs her that there's someone coming. she moved to the edge of her shipam and takes out a nautical telescope, watching the official-looking men approach.

ah. they are not friends, she determined quickly.

mar whistled, stopping skrelp and clobbopus from pursuing kyogre with the neck in their mouth and tentacle respectively. "knock 'em off course," mar shouted; skrelp shot a sludge bomb on the ship, a slower attack with a gorgeous arc in the sky. clobbopus had less tactical options and swam to the ship directly, hoping to climb aboard if the ship get close enough for such a maneuver.

Gunner Graves

☉

a salandit darted in capsakid's way, tripping the little villain up. the salandit carried on its way, unnerved by the experience, while capsakid face planted on the ground. "cappy!" she hurried over, picking up the little grass type. "please, darlin', what's goin on with ye?" she brushed some grit off the capsakid's face. "ye gettin' ready fer yer big change, eh? my sweet li'l thing."

skipping

☉

capsakid nearly ran into the fire-type that came down their path. camerupts and their types were normally not on mar's radar, but she couldn't afford to let capsakid around the fire pokemon while she was hyper like this. mar pursued even faster, but capsakid lucked out. the fire pokemon were uninterested in capsakid, which spared her. "caps, please!" she was not going to keep pace with such a small and energetic pokemon for much longer.

skipping

☉

"kyogre! i'm back, babeyyy!" her tune was jovial as she brought the ship to a stop with dhelmise's help. this time, she had a straightforward strategy: attack first, catch later.

clobbopus shot into the water, diving underneath to pursue the legendary. clobbopus used superpower, but the kyogre used Ice Beam immediately and froze the clobbopus into the water. thankfully, the icicle was porous enough that he floated to the surface, but it was a small victory. "i'm not scared! ye will fail eventually, ye ol' geezer!" she tossed skrelp into the water. the seahorse, however, did not attack directly just yet. it assessed.

the seas grew more reckless as the kyogre felt annoyance at her presence. but she'd be damned if she gave up such a sweet treasure so easily.

Rowan Wrynn

☉

dhelmise locked the ship down once mar steered them close enough to the floating kyogre. it was clearly sunbathing or something, but mar had been tracking it for the better half of the day to catch it having leisure time. she released clobbpus and skrelp into the sea, feeding them a net. "ye know the plan already. go get that in position."

people tended to overcomplicate, but life was simple. people constructed elaborate traps or plots for legendaries, but mar? she knew that simple worked best. a little net could contain the stupid thing, especially if she knocked it unconscious. she dropped capsakid on the deck, winking at her little villain as the duo met eyes. "get ready, babe. this is a tough fight fer ye." the capsakid used sunny day, empowering her and doubling her speed. she would need it if she were to launch out to the kyogre and hold her own in its own terrain.

she considered the logistics for a moment. perhaps overqwil could get her over there and ampharos could stun the sea beast.

Gunner Graves

☉