it takes dominic a few long seconds to recognise marcel maeda in the weak light, and as his eyes flicker from him to priam conrad, dominic's teeth briefly glint in a cheshire cat smile. now isn't this just getting more and more interesting?

his entertainment is short-lived; dominic feels the room shudder around him, somehow both horrible and exhilaratingly familiar all at once. motes of dust fall around them, and for a second dominic hesitates because he recognises the glow of flames on the other side of the trunk among the branches.

dominic's gaze lingers on the fire, flitting back to his group as priam conrad and marcel maeda unearth the hatch and enter.

wordlessly, he steps aside for a moment, indicating to Eva Dumont and @zacharias that they should go ahead of him. as soon as the last head dips out of view, dominic pulls the bandana around his neck up to cover his nose and mouth and issues an only slightly muffled command to houndoom.

for a heartbeat, dominic watches @zacharias seem to linger. he half-mutters, half-snarls, a short string of profanities and shoves him toward the hatch.

turning back, a flick of his hand clarifies his words to the pokemon, and the houndoom gives a long, drawn out exhale as thick SMOG the colour of dark slate begins to fill the storage space. any rubble that threatens them will have to contend with the PROTECTIVE dome of marcel maeda's sylveon.

dominic recalls his pokemon when the poisonous smoke begins to sting his eyes and drops down to enter the hatch after the others. with his body mostly inside, dominic extends one arm and snatches the sylveon as he snaps the hatch shut and descends.


tl;dr: watches priam conrad and marcel maeda enter the hatch, ushers @zacharias and Eva Dumont inside next. houndoom uses a volatile, combustive SMOG to cover the room and obscure the view. recalls houndoom. dominic enters the hatch last out of his vending machine + marcel group but before the others. awkwardly picks up marcel maeda's sylveon and takes it down with him.

6s_THoJZ

the sleeping snorlax wedged between tight buildings was a common enough sighting back in kanto, and also one of the only things dominic didn't miss about saffron.

"move you fucker," he snarls, throwing his entire body weight against the pokemon for maybe the fifth time with little to no effect. he pounds at its stomach with his fist and practically feels his hand bounce back fruitlessly.

he could probably find another alleyway to get to his destination, but dominic is stubborn and although not quite inebriated, his head spins and the space behind his eyes felt like it is packed with cotton.

dominic hits the pokemon again, emitting a loud and satisfying smack.

"are you all just fine with this?" dominic hollers to no one in particular as he continues his one-man drunken assault on the snorlax.

Remiel Calcifet

"deaf motherfucker," dominic hisses under his breath, glaring at the back of @zacharias's head for second before accepting the bag from Eva Dumont. he mutters a thanks to her and fishes through it for a second to feel for the safety equipment he knows to be inside, slinging it over his shoulder when he's sure it's all there.

wordlessly, he takes off after priam conrad, sprinting through each of the dressing rooms, veins pumping with a new type of adrenaline. the bisharp follows at his heels - sliding across the floor on its razor-sharp legs and leaving deep gauges on the floor as it went.

after priam kicks the door in, dominic steps forward to survey the scene and his eyes linger on beckett carlson, illeana reyes and Kaida Adachi for a heartbeat too long. as they haphazardly make their way across the ice, dominic imagines lunging at them and throwing them back down to the hard ground. he steels himself and bites back the urge to exact violence - he has pokemon for that.

"both of you leave something to snare the others," he says, addressing his klefki and bisharp. in unison, the two pokemon snap their attention to the makeshift arena: the ground between the dressing rooms, the tree trunk and the staircase. it was too late to affect that three league that passed them by, but anyone else will find themselves caught.

hidden in the debris from the tree - among the leaves and branches - ice turns to stone, preparing to impale anyone that trespasses with bisharp's STEALTH ROCK. perhaps slightly more visible but no less dangerous are the dozens, perhaps hundreds, of glinting SPIKES klefki scatters with a delighted chirp. satisfied, dominic recalls the bisharp and lets the klefki return to hiding on his person once more.

"go around the perimeter," he says by way of warning to his three companions, and then, sighing, gestures to the edge of the walls leading to the stairs because, again, zacharias is a deaf motherfucker and needs visual cues.

as he begins to descend the staircase behind the others, dominic releases his houndoom. the pokemon follows closely behind his trainer, exhaling smoke from its vicious maw in anticipation of a fight.


tl;dr: runs through the series of dressing rooms and reaches the stairs leading down to b2. has klefki set up SPIKES and bisharp leave STEALTH ROCK in the area spanning between the stairs, the dressing rooms and the tree. recalls bisharp. warns his companions to follow him along the perimeter to the stairs to avoid being clipped by the trapping moves. releases houndoom.

qGmdtNJS

DEEP DARK FANTASY (50 PD) - displayed, please!
houndoom, hydreigon, honchkrow, bisharp, zoroark

FULL METAL JACKET (50 PD) - hidden, thank you!
klefki, bisharp, skarmory, perrserker, bronzor

CHANCE ENCOUNTER (10 PD) - hidden, thank you!
ho-oh at navel rock tower counts, right?

Z-MOVE USER - displayed, please!
houndoom

the houndoom returns with something disc-shaped clamped in its jaws. if it weren't wriggling very slightly and screeching angrily, dominic would have assumed he was being delivered a frisbee.

he couldn't really see much detail of the pokemon - two glaring yellow eyes, very light scorch marks and dents where the houndoom's fangs had sunk into its body. dominic tapped on the exterior and heard the ring of metal. weird that it didn't take more damage from the fire, then.

"you're a little late, bud," he said to the houndoom, patting it between the ears. "we're done collecting steel-types for the boss."

regardless he squatted down to be level with the bronzor and leveled an empty capsule by it. dominic watched the bright flash as the wild pokemon contorted momentarily as it was forced inside by the pull of the pokeball.

capturing!

"hey," dominic said, giving the houndoom a pat at the spot its neck met its back to get its attention. "go find me something good."

the houndoom gave a lazy wag of its tail to acknowledge the order and trotted ahead, its dark fur allowing it to seamlessly blend into the inky shadows.

the pokemon's track record with "finding something good" was 50/50, but dominic was a gambler.

solo wild

a small pile of cigarette ash was accumulating at dominic's feet. he flicks yet another one to the ground to extinguish it with his heel, but he's courteous enough to turn away from samuel when he exhales smoke.

"a couple, it's different every time though," he said, stifling a yawn.

"in kanto we'd, y'know," dominic punctuated his speech with a shrug. "put up roadblocks, ambush the truck, toss out the drivers, rough 'em up a little."

he spoke of the violence in a lazy, laconic tone, as he scanned the road for the vehicle. his gaze lingered on a few members of the r&d and they looked away. the distaste was mutual - he kept glaring through narrowed eyes for a long while.

"what about you? you're a hoenn guy, aren't ya? was probably nice and quiet before we came in."

Samuel Boothe

dominic watches as chaos ripples across the room but he forces himself to stay still even when his muscles scream at him to move to the center and thrash them all.

his gazes falls to marie jules and her restraint keeps him locked in place for a second longer, giving him time to scan the room for a second longer. dominic recognises some of the more notable league figures, but they collectively prove more of a nuisance than an actual threat his own actually cohesive faction.

dominic watches marcel maeda's sylveon begin preparing for a teleport, and as Cillian Quinn and Emma Wolfe cluster around him to benefit from it, he flashes his teeth in a brief grin. he's unsure if they'll see it but he will try to warn them anyway; dominic briefly raises four fingers in the general direction of his teammates before turning to his group and the guard blocking their way.

he takes the trolley holding the boxes of soft drinks and rams it at the guard with as much strength as he can muster, intending to topple the man backwards and clear their path.

"move," dominic says flatly, herding Eva Dumont, priam conrad and @zacharias inside the dressing room. he doesn't spare the extra effort to firstly, avoid being in the frame of priam's recording, and secondly, to shove zacharias in with what could be construed as aggression.

when they're inside, dominic slams the door shut behind him and unclips his keyring to speak a command to it. the keys jangle cheerfully as the klefki opens its eyes and chimes that it understood. as dominic raises it to the door, the pokemon emanates a soft pink glow as it feeds chains through the keyhole into the entrance room in a FAIRY LOCK.

if marcel, gavin and emma were still in that space, they'd be out of luck. it's just unfortunate dominic didn't recognise Katherine Fairburne as she would be stuck with the others when the klefki's chains surround the field.

dominic returns the pokemon to his belt, side-steps the trolley, and moves to the next door. a faint shimmer of a screen catches his eye before he walks directly into it, and dominic pauses to contemplatively knock on it.

he releases a second pokemon, a bisharp, and snaps his fingers at the screen. "break that with an IRON HEAD."

as the bisharp's skull is surrounded by the flashing of steel when it lunges forward, dominic backs away so as to not be pelted with shattered fragments should there prove to be any residue.


tl;dr: every rocket should be referenced between this post and last post poggers! swings the trolley with the soft drink boxes into the guard at kyle's door, pulls eva, priam and zacharias inside with him. closes the door. klefki uses FAIRY LOCK, and that should affect anyone attempting to leave after marcel. bisharp smashes barrier with IRON HEAD.

|DBealw2

zacharias was one man, and that was a needlessly large television.

"heh, maybe you'll scratch the shit out of the screen before you can bring it back."

dominic swung around to face zacharias, pillowcase full of valuables in one hand, with the closest thing to glee he had expressed in a while. it wavered for a moment because apparently he was working with an overgrown child.

that isn't to say he wouldn't make liberal usage of zacharias's video game library if the opportunity arose.

dominic jingled with an assortment of trinkets when he ducked around zacharias and his new television and stepped back into the hallway. a few more paces where he throws open each door as he passed until he came across what was ostensibly the kid's room.

a made bed that was unnecessarily large for a child, a neat desk, shelves lined with books and figurines, another television, though slightly smaller, hung on the wall, with a set of consoles lined up underneath. dominic descends on them like a ravenous mightyena, biting back the bile of jealousy rising to the back of his throat.

"over here," he called out, which was neither helpful nor descriptive.

@zacharias

dominic glowered first at zacharias and then the magby for good measure. if he had to guess, dominic would say zacharias brought it along because he thought it'd be popular with the girls, which almost sort of made sense.

dominic approached the duo, freezing in his steps at what he could only assume was meant to be some kind of taunt. he mulled over zacharias's words for a second, then closed the distance between them in a bid to wrest the bottle from his hands. if he couldn't get a good enough grip, then fine, he'd ensure it smashes instead.

"that's enough from you," dominic growled, as he roughly shoved zacharias toward the dark expanse.

"move. and get that thing to lead the way."

@zacharias

dominic liked this route primarily for practical reasons - it was situated close the middle of the region, with easy access to a handful of major cities.

it was also a decent place to let his pokemon run wild without destroying property or eating any pets; they needed to get the energy and aggression out somehow and he didn't need the attention if he were to attempt to do it in a more populous place.

however, as dominic headed toward his favourite bench, it wasn't a houndoom or one of his handful of dragons that accompanied him on the outing. scrolling through the messages on his phone, he would stop every few steps to kick at a creamy, speckled egg.

piiiii, the togepi would coo, and dominic would kick it again, sending it onward at a vicious velocity. if he read something unpleasant, dominic would kick the pokemon harder, briefly rendering it airborne. here and there, vein-like cracks web out across the togepi's shell, but it didn't exactly protest enough for dominic to take note let alone stop.

eventually he turned the corner to where his bench should be waiting for him, having already kicked the togepi in that general direction. only then does he glance up to see it already occupied. dominic took a moment to stare at the woman, glancing her up and down briefly, and thought she jogged a memory but it wasn't enough to draw concern.

clearing his throat, he would approach close enough to extend a leg and pull the togepi back with the athleticism of a soccer player.

"sorry," he said, sounding pretty much everything except apologetic.

Bailey Cooper

he continued stewing in silence, waiting for his contact to show up. something about a lucrative trade offer including a native hoenn pokemon?

he stretched out on the bench but not enough to actually be comfortable because comfort and complacency are the same thing, and surprised himself by enjoying the sun's warmth.

minutes passed in blissful silence until he heard the tapping of little feet and straightened up - less alert and more annoyed. dominic's eyes landed on the intruder pretty much immediately - a round pale egg, uncoordinated and unsure in its steps.

dominic made an annoyed sound in the back of his throat but that didn't dissuade the pokemon from foraging nearby. as the minutes ticked by, he got increasingly agitated by the togepi's presence. its only saving grace was that it wasn't from this region, and even then it was testing its luck.

he rummaged around in one of his pockets until he finds a crinkled bag of poketreats. dominic takes a handful of the "pokepebbles", and began tossing them one by one at the togepi's head.

bonk. "get." bonk. "out." bonk. "of." bonk. "here."

with each hit of a pokepebble, the togepi would desperately try to reach for it to put it in its mouth, sabotaged by how short its arms were. dominic watched in disbelief. this pokemon simply did not deserve to live. he was so awed that it came as a surprise when he saw the familiar figure of his contact approaching.

"fuck," dominic hissed, glancing down at the pokemon as it dropped the pokepebble for the dozenth time. clenching his teeth in a grimance, dominic pulled out an empty capsule and tosses it at the togepi's head with significantly more force than was necessary all things considered.

a very loud bonk. "fuck," he repeated.

wild, capture attempt, holy shit