mar liked mika. the woman had a good head on her shoulders. this would normally be something to despise in anyone outside of rocket, but mar always had a soft-spot for powerful women, and she felt like this trainer right here was one to watch. it was just intuition, but that'd never led her wrong before. she was unsurprised to hear mika wanted to be prepared for any situation; it was the kind of forethought mar saw often in trinity but didn't frequently have herself.

"ye have a toxel? baby pokemon can be so difficult to wrangle. ye have a lot of patience. i heard toxtricity is worth it, but i'm not sure i'm cut out for the raising part of it." she liked her aggressive pokemon. they complemented her approaches as a criminal. mar walked alongside mika as she considered what the other trainer's team said about her. "a claydol down here? this tunnel is full of surprises."

it was an interesting pokemon and offered good coverage that mar lacked, but she wasn't inspired by it. it's strange appearance kept her attention all the same. actually, on the subject... "yer lycanroc doesn't look like one i've ever seen before. where'd you find him?"

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Mika Nakayama

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mar ducked as an emolga swept down and over her head. the little rodents were cute. but she didn't have trinity on her ship often enough to warrant catching any rat-like pokemon for the purpose of scaring her. emolga's appearance might alleviate the fear factor too much, too. she let the soaring pokemon escape her.

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mar smiled at the other woman, something not quite genuine but certainly kind. she understood the desire for stronger pokemon, though mar left her strongest, dhelmise, to keep her ship grounded at the coast. "i wouldn't mind a strong pokemon, but i'm out here fer some steel types with interesting moves. it helps that i don't own any, but ye could never have too many durable teammates. steels are good fer that, though i never intend to simply outlast my opponent in battle."

the tanking strategy didn't work for her as she preferred something far more aggressive and cutthroat. still, she intended to try to challenge the gyms in hoenn in case that demonstration of strength would help her when face to face with a mythical, or were she so lucky, a legendary pokemon. she couldn't afford to burn bridges in her search for secret treasures within hoenn.

"mika. i'm marguerite." she considered offering her hand, but an excadrill came to the surface between them, and mar stood transfixed as she watched it sniff the air between them and burrow back under. "it'd be nice to have a buddy in the tunnels. clobbopus likes the feeling of dirt, but he's not the best-equipped for this kind of expedition." she laughed a little, despite herself. feeling macabre, she added: "and getting trapped in here would be a terrible way to go, hm?"

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Mika Nakayama

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mar stretched her arms overhead. her comfort with her own abilities and her pokemon left her often feeling at ease despite her criminality, but she felt especially restful in slateport. it was like being surrounded by friends all the time. without any heavy expectations, of course. it was no ocean, but she loved the feeling of this city.

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mar used her pokemon like coworkers when it came to intimidating, just a crew of villains achieving a goal seamlessly. trinity, however, was so in sync with her pokemon that it likely warranted an experiment or two, but hopefully not at the hands of one rocket's own mad scientists. it was choreographed with words, and it offered the grey-haired rocket a control over any situation that inspired mar.

their new goon felt less inspired until all of trinity's pokemon collaborated on emphasizing the message: get with the program or get gone.

mar gestured to the no-longer-struggling form beneath her, and her and the goon helped lift the cop overboard and into basculegion's mouth. after, mar dramatically brushed her hands off each other as if clearing dirt from them. "well. that was nice. we got a recruit and it ain't even past lunch time." she looked to the girl with ease. "hungry?"

she clapped the recruit on the shoulder. "take it easy, eh! we won't get caught. there's no evidence and the one that got away witnessed nothing. yer in great hands with us two. let's get ye a sandwich before we drop ye off by slateport for orientation."

trinity beckman

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mar nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden presence of another woman. thankfully, it was clear the other woman had good intentions, so it wasn't like mar needed to rough her up or anything. "ah, i'm just takin' a gander." she grinned, then turned to the wild pokemon.

the orthworm was tempting as she desired hard, metal pokemon to serve her, but he didn't quite suit her tastes. but he was a little cute.

"aren't ye a cutie?" she bent down, hands on her knees, and wiggled a finger at the little guy as he continued on his path. the hippopotas was less to her tastes for their proclivity to mud, but she did also know their mothers were deeply fierce and protective. "these ones don't seem too violent," she assessed aloud, "but i did hear there was some aggressive metal-on-metal noise reported in these tunnels early today." she didn't name her source, but she always had her ear to the pavement for these things.

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Mika Nakayama

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trinity's response displayed her analytical nature, but it wasn't very persuasive to mar. "rotom doesn't match yer style," she said decisively. "ye need some blue n grey pokemon to match yer style." aesthetic did have some tangible value as a rocket, but it came second to pure power. it was reasonable for trinity to want a rotom, but reason wasn't everything.

"or pick something with a helpful personality. rotom's chaos wouldn't help ye. capsakid? her deviousness helps me see things i missed. clobbopus is bold, brave. helps me remember that i take things by force. i don't ask for them." they supported her beyond her trainerhood.

she shrugged at trinity's question. "got some eggs in some baskets. been looking at some leads. real interested in rusturf tunnel, but i ain't found anythin yet. heavy on the yet." a gleam entered her eye as she passed by the pokemon in their path. "i'll find out what's in there eventually. but what are you up to out here? more focused on climbing the ranks, keeping your head down? or planning something far more dangerous?" she loved danger. more specifically, she loved danger with women like trinity, who understood it better than a person, better than a firearm, better than anything you could break down and analyze because danger was too fluid and organic and abstract for such analysis. and trinity knew that.

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trinity beckman

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mar fumbled a small mission involving some greased palms and averted eyes, but she'd missed someone else that needed to be on rocket payroll and the entire shipment was seized. it was small fry compared to her usual work, especially because she smuggled and trafficked decent quantities with her own ship, but. foolishness had to be punished.

her penance was to settle a long-time bee problem in the area. she thought the administrator who'd assigned the task was exaggerating, but the swarm of combee before her said otherwise. "g-get away!" she flinched back from one that was desperate to smell her hair or something. she released her clobbopus and capsakid from their pokeballs. the two loyal soldiers turned to her and awaited her instruction, which she delivered with a clenched fist and an eager kalosian accent: "we're gonna beat them into submission."

Calliope Alvara

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dhelmise sank to the sandy bed, locking mar's pirate ship in place. she was right off the shore, thankfully where there was no fighting taking place. the onslaught between factions has headache-inducing and far more direct than she was used to. her battles for rocket were done from the shadows or the security of her ship, often in other regions. she was barely situated in hoenn and here she was, ordered to work intel.

another rocket had robbed some encrypted phone from a ranger during a skirmish, but it was buried on the beach over here for later pick-up. being that pick-up, mar found herself extending the wood bridge to dig into the sand. "let's go, kids!" despite the boring work assigned to her, she was in a good mood over avoiding the riffraff of the war. capsakid marched alongside her down the bridge, and clobbopus pushed past her and mar both to be the first one on the beach. "yeah, yeah, ye won. hustle up and look fer that phone, yea?" her pokemon got to digging at the beach, giving mar a moment to observe the shores for any obviously-disturbed areas.

paxton concordas

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mar had several leads about the region, but there were largely unsubstantiated and unclear. vague instructions weren't her favorite, but she had the patience to work with them if the reward warranted the effort. and as far as she was concerned, hoenn had hidden riches that more than justified the work.

the lead she had regarding rusturf was almost non-existent, but she couldn't help but explore it anyways. she was in the area and clobbopus was happy to play in the dirt despite his inclination towards the sea. the two of them were eager to take on the tunnels and see if there were any runic drawings on the walls or secret excursions into its depths.

Mika Nakayama

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mar's expression brightened as the woman switched to kalosian, and mar matched her. "aye, i'm a little green to hoenn, but i'm not quite new to the, eh, life." she tucked a loose hair behind her ear as the woman talked swords, demonstrating an ease of expertise that mar was thrilled by.

"aye, less a traditional cutlass and more a wider blade, something fit fer a pirate." mar's eyes glittered with mischief. "yer right on the money. ye can call me marguerite -- nay, jus' mar. i suspect we'll cross paths a few times in the near future." mar reached into her coat pocket slowly as a show of good faith (even rockets could be cutthroat to each other, despite the cost of such a betrayal). then, she pulled out a folded piece of paper. a map.

"i came to hoenn for the treasure and secrets that fill the region to the brim. there's allegedly some treasure not far from here despite all the modern developments. something long-forgotten." she tapped the paper, right where x marked the spot. "if ye could make me a cutlass, i would feel much better making the trip. i lent my scyther out, and my current team ain't huge on navigating this sort of terrain. more of a seabody, i am."

Aurelie Lefevre

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