---

"oh, thanks." he feels himself being rejuvenated, his breathing less labored and his heart rate less rapid. dell offers a smile to his teammate, realizing just how useful it is to have such a dedicated healer on his team. to turn down such help would be...stupid, maybe? "you're a huge help, you know that?"

it immediately becomes clear to dell what the strategy will be -- he beats shit up, shay cleans him up afterwards. its doable.

two basculin appear, and his grip on the hilt of his longsword tightens as one immediately launches itself at him with an aqua jet. the other follows, and dell tanks both hits, feeling his defensive stat rise. he immediately shifts gears before using smart strike on each of them, several flurries of his sword sending both pokemon sprawling. their health bars decrease, but not by enough.

another aqua jet from each, another smart strike from him, and they both disappear, just like the previous enemies. he grins a little, knowing that any pain will subside in moments thanks to shay

avery jones

---

---

onus watches as orion unleashes a bevy of strong pokemon, each acting in such a way to synergize the group's effort. a hydro pump soars across the cavern, immediately putting the runerigus on the defensive.

"it's a runerigus. galarian yamask evolves into this instead of cofagrigus. never seen one in hoenn..." he trails off, watching as the wild pokemon recovers and unleashes a shadow claw at the trainer's nickit, its arms flailing in all directions in an attempt to hit someone or something. dell dodges lithely, his small forme coming in handy as he dips away from the attack. the nickit returns with a sucker punch for an upcoming repeated shadow claw, throwing the runerigus back.

his eyes go beyond the runerigus, spotting a convex curvature of the cavern wall into an area darker than the one they stand in now. his feet quickly carry him in a circular path around the pokemon, the foe too distracted by the slurry of attacks to notice him.

"there's a room back here." he calls to orion, peering in without daring to step a foot inside. yes, the miners could be inside -- but what else?

Orion Lykos

---

research.

onus rolls his eyes. his eyes roll their eyes. his eyes' eyes roll their eyes. a nearby stump? also rolling its eyes!

"no shit." he spits, shaking his head softly while reaching over to pick up the pokeball he'd just used to capture Scraggy. it's a cute little pokemon that packs a punch.

he deposits the sphere in his pocket, its shrunken down form hardly a burden. "for someone who insists on hanging out, you sure don't have much to say? what happened to our close friendship?"

whether he is not aware of the arbok and grimer or he just doesn't care is not entirely clear to the outside world. he passes on both of them, his pokemon remaining close to his side while he looks at sidonie.

"we haven't braided each other's hair and told our deepest darkest secrets in forever! i'm sure you've gotten a few more secrets since we last worked together."

---

---

the floor rumbles, taunting them to search more curiously for the culprit causing the shaking. they continue to walk, orion speaking sparingly and quietly as they march forward. ground types seem likely, onus agrees, as the trembling intensifies.

the guessing games end abruptly as a runerigus appears, its ghastly extremities undulating in a terrific dance. the ground below them shakes more, an earthquake erupting. "shit. let's move!" he yanks orion by the arm off to the side, officially entering the opening that the runerigus seems to inhabit. somewhere, miners must be near by -- he just hopes they can find them before the runerigus manages to cave all of them in here.

dell runs beside them, squaring off between the runerigus and the trainers. "foul play!" the nickit dives into the center of the circular room, darkness enveloping its body as it leaps for the much larger, likely stronger foe. it hits and retreats to the side of his trainer.

an exchange of energy occurs between the two of them, an aura filling the void between them to signal that their abilities have switched.

they might as well bury the thing while they're here to make sure it doesn't continue to cause trouble moving forward.

Orion Lykos

---

his proposal is met with something that was either elation, desperation, utter despair, or loneliness. he cannot find the answer in Shay's face as she buries it in his armor, sobs erupting from her mouth and echoing back off the dense armor. his arms hover in the air above her and a look of awkward discomfort occupies his visage until he ultimately gives her a few pats on the back. "Oh -- okay. yeah, awesome, okay. you're hired." he pats her a few times more, gently trying to get her to separate from him.

"er, not hired, per se, since i have no money and this is a game and i don't even know if you can hire people for things? so uh, yeah. friends helping friends then. i need a good healer or i'm toast anyways." his hand rubs the back of his head as he finally separates himself from Shay. "i'm dell." he reaches out a hand for shaking, but the introduction is cut short by the arrival of a pair of octillery. "oh, let's put this team to the test, i guess."

he draws his sword, standing between the two pokemon and his healer, sure to protect her as best as he can. he uses one shift gear to boost his speed and attack before using a smart strike on the first octillery. its attempt at gunk shot is futile against the steel-type warrior, who again uses shift gear before the second octillery uses octazooka. he tanks the attack, using smart strike on the first octillery to get rid of it entirely. the second uses octazooka again, hitting him again.

another smart strike and both octillery are gone.

"whew."
avery jones

---

---

onus lets himself grin a bit at parker's joke, watching her silhouette as she saunters off to the entrance. onus is quick to find some rope in the cavern. "can you all just sit?" his voice doesn't have much command in it but they appease anyways, all allowing themselves to be tied up with little resistance at all. they know they've lost, and, with any luck, the league will recruit them as scientists for their own cause. onus knows that even without rocket openly running about, the league still needs all the help it can get.

with the scientists tied up, he chases parker off to the entrance, leaving behind his pokemon to watch them.

when he reaches her side, a sigh escapes his lips before they curl into a grin. his eyes lock with parker's for a second. "nice work. you're not so bad. i was worried to be paired up with another rookie, but we made a pretty good team back there."

"maybe we'll have to link up for that drink after all." he chuckles, half serious, but allowing for dismissal. "at the very least, we can team up again in the future, yeah?" he's confident enough in his own performance to offer up such a proposal, knowing that, if she's smart, she'll say yes. even if it is an empty promise.

---

he watches the pair of sealeo manifest from nothing, a phenomenon he still grows used to each time it happens. his training partner immediately boosts his attack and special attack, invigorating him in an indescribable way. he leaps forward and attacks one sealeo with a smart strike, its health dipping way down.

"works out well for me, I'm a warrior so i can tank." it returns with a body slam, and his Stamina ability boosts his defense. he returns another smart strike and the pokemon disappears.

the second sealeo uses another body slam, this one hurting less and raising his defense once again. another smart strike and it disappears. it's odd being the one vanquishing pokemon and not just watching.

if this were reality? it wouldn't be so easy for him to strike them down.

"thanks. i think we'll manage, yeah?"

marcel maeda

---

---

has been used.

sidonie's choice of the word "use" is usually deliberate and never, ever good. onus was never enlightened to just what he was protecting when they were working together in galar, but whatever it is, it cannot be good. he searches her face -- he's not sure what for -- maybe a sign of humanity?

it isn't there, and the void is filled with another snarky line directed at him. he cannot help but chuckle, nodding his head. "just my same, bubbly self."

his eyes fall upon a scraggy, and he grins. the pokemon is one that he finds endearing, and so he tosses zen's pokeball again and unleashes the tropius. the flying type unleashes an air slash at the pokemon, who dodges, and returns with a high jump kick. with another air slash, zen is able to redirect the scraggy into a nearby tree. both the tropius and his trainer watch a shiver go up the entire body of the scraggy as it tumbles to the ground, defeated.

onus tosses a pokeball and looks back to sidonie.

"let me rephrase my previous question, then. what are you doing here, in hoenn?" he knows the answer to that question will not come, but it is clear that she will not leave him alone any time soon. to force the conversation back upon her is to, hopefully, get her to leave him alone.

---

---

he feels drawn to the senior ranger as orion speaks of his bond with his absol. though the words share little, he can hear everything they've been through in the man's voice. a sideways look to dell make him smile just a little, thinking of all they've been through, too. evolution will come in due time, of course.

the thought vanishes from his mind as he and orion watch their pokemon walk away from them, deeper into the cave. at orion's suggestion, onus begins following the pair, his stride falling in line with orion's. his ears are perked for any signs of intelligible sound, though none registers quite yet. whatever it is that he heard before, it is loudening and loudening with each step, confirming that they are on the right track.

he falls a half step behind orion to give himself the opportunity to look at him for just a moment. something about him just commands respect -- onus, of course, complies. he wonders if, one day, he'll have that kind of aura about him.

probably not.

they're even closer now -- whatever the sound is, its a group of wild pokemon. the breed, or breeds, he cannot distinguish yet, but he looks to the more experienced ranger to see if he has any insight yet. "we about to walk into a mess?"

Orion Lykos