4.0 Dedicated to its Members and Fans of Pokemon A Pokemon Sandbox RP
Pokémon Dubstep (ft. Lindsey Stirling)
W
elcome Adventurer to EPOCH! A Pokemon Sandbox Rp set in the original region of Nue. Everything you need to know will be in the Guidebook and PokeDex 101!
EPOCH uses the Manga and is built on the Original ideas suggested by our members.
We are more than just a Pokemon RP, we're a friendly community with a goal on being a memorable experience for those that look in.
Golden Rule: Treat others as you wish to be treated. If you find yourself content with being an asshole EPOCH and its members will not tolerate you.
RULES
Understand We're All Human. Respect the staffers as well as your fellow members and guests. We all have flaws, tempers and quirks. Be patient with one another, but if issues involving other members come up please don’t just grin and bear it. Contact a staff member, informing them of what's going on so they can address and resolve the situation. The staff won't know what's bothering you unless you tell them.
EPOCH is PG-13. Proboards’ Terms of Service:
Sex; When you get under the clothes, fade to black.
Violence; Do not go into extreme nauseating detail.
Cursing; This is so fucking allowed, but don't go overboard.
Suggestive Content; In avatars, signatures and templates can attract the wrong kind of attention. So be careful.
Post by Ricki Jace on Nov 18, 2013 18:52:44 GMT -5
I HAVE 1,309 WORDS FOR JASON THAM
Today was the day, the massive paycheck was coming his way and quite frankly, Vane was pleased to finally be getting this job complete. Most prisoners would have broken by now, but not this little card he’d gotten stuck with. Oh how he’d love to just smash her head on the wall, but with recent dealings, he didn’t feel like tempting fate. At first, things had gone quite well, honestly. The interrogator had treated her kindly, tried to get her trust and leak out some information, which kind of worked, but in the end she was quiet. She didn’t talk and so it was the signal to use other means to get her to talk, and that, well…
Calico colored eyes watched as two of his goons shifted the exhausted woman into a wheelchair. The group of goons made sure to stand around them to ensure no passerby could see the process. A blanket was draped over her to hide the ropes and cuffs that kept her in place no matter how much she struggled. Now no bones were broken, but bruising and fighting for nearly a week was certainly draining on the human body he gathered. He was sure the broad could walk if she wanted to, but he didn’t want her to. After the various times she’d put up a fight, he was done giving her any sort of lenience. If he had his way, that wheelchair would be pushed off the end of a pier, but that wouldn’t get him anywhere.
Moving over to take hold of the handles of the wheel chair once the green-haired woman was situated, he let out a merry chuckle. The sound got her attention, causing her head to fall back and a set of golden eyes to rest on him. At first, the fire in those eyes had been a blaze, but after fighting for so long with little rest, he’d noticed those eyes of her’s had last their initial spark. My, what a pleasing sight, it put a grin on his face as she gave a questioning hum. “Finally going to be rid of you once and for all. Bluntly put, I will not miss you at all” he sighed in delight, briefly toying with the peculiar green hair this young woman had. The resentment in her eyes, he merely smiled and moved to grab the hood of the black hoodie she’d been forced to wear. “Now, not a word, you little trick” he informed, tugging the hood up roughly to cover Ricki’s head. The act forced her to briefly lean forward before he let go and she slumped back in the chair.
The group moved along the street, all of them wearing casual wear and seeming to just be a group of people enjoying a day out on the town. Ricki’s old wardrobe had been shoved inside of her bag and she was forced into some spare clothing of one of his female grunts. No need to bring attention to her, after all. As they walked, a couple of the men had moved to the front of the group to reach the destination first. “My, the park certainly looks pleasant today, doesn’t it?” he purred, content with the jab even if his prisoner didn’t respond. Ahead of them, the two men had approached another man standing outside of an empty office building. Inside, it appeared construction had just recently been completed. It was pretty bare, with a set of windows at the front for display areas. A couple of stories tall with scaled down windows on the upper floors, he eyed it carefully, before nodding to the two men.
It was some idle chattering before the man would gladly allow the group to go inside and inspect the space. The man was the building’s owner, under the guise that they were interested in purchasing the place. Maybe later, after some talk that one of the hire ups was interested in the white collar crime style, but for now he just needed to borrow it for the day. The man had followed them inside and they went through a simple tour of the building before they managed to convince the man to leave for the day. He was reluctant, but he left. With the civilian gone, it was time to get the place set up.
Standing at the entrance was a bulky gentleman, smoking a cigarette and waiting. All that Jason had to do was approach him and he’d guide him inside. The first floor was almost completely wide open, except for one wall that separated a fourth of the back of the building from the front. Back there was the stairs, an elevator, bathrooms, and an area for a staff lounge of sorts. A back door had been locked by a chain and bolt, with another bulky man situated there. He had decided to use the door as his leaning point, meaning even if the lock was picked, it would take notable effort to shove it open and get him to move forward. The elevator would go up to the third floor, with the second floor merely being another wide open space with a basic set up of windows letting light into the place. A fire escape could be seen outside the windows on the right side, and only a few of the Rocket goons lingered around here, seeming to be killing time with a deck of cards.
On the third floor, it was another matter. Clearly designed to be an office area, there were halls and rooms set up throughout the place to create work space for up to twenty different workers. The halls were patrolled by various grunts walking around, most of which hovered towards the left side of the building where Ricki and him had set themselves in.
She was set in her chair away from the windows. The blanket had been tossed onto the floor to reveal the various ways the men had gone about locking her down. If she were in better condition, she would’ve been amused by all of the rope and cuffs, but at the moment, all she could do was sit there and wait. With her back to the room, chair facing the corner, she couldn’t really turn enough to see if any of them were close to her. Not that it mattered with her wheelchair being locked into place. Standing to the right of the door, in the middle of the wall, he simply waited. A couple of the more physically capable and better fighters of his grunts had taken to just idly chatting across from him. They were rifling through her duffel bag as well, leaving her things scattered around them on the floor. This whole thing was almost done with, thank Arceus. He looked over at his captive and then back to his grunts. Humming curiously, he pulled out the woman’s PokeGear from his pocket and tinkered with it.
Ignoring the peculiar Druddigon wallpaper she had, he moved on to check the contact history and her contact list. “My, you’re quite the popular young woman” he idly commented, once more not getting a response from her. He tossed the Gear to one of the grunts and looked back over at her. “You think he’ll come for you?” he questioned. “Turn himself in and go back to work, just for yo—”
“He’ll come” she sighed. Her voice was soft, rasped, and heavy with exhaustion. “I’d suggest you make sure you’re ready for when he does, too.”
“We’re plenty ready, don’t you worry.”
“Whatever you say…”
She glanced down briefly at her stomach, before slumping back once more in her seat. She eyed the ceiling tiles above for a moment, before closing her eyes. Just a little while longer… She just had to wait a little while longer.
NOTE:
Feel free to go ahead and blaze through the guard NPCs, didn't get too exact with the building lay out and am up for changing it up if needed. Feel free to choose the time, from Afternoon, Evening, or Night Time. I don't have really any preference.
Post by Jason Tham on Nov 20, 2013 23:35:25 GMT -5
I DON'T WANNA BE BROKEN
I HAVE 2096 WORDS FOR Richelle Jace
Emotions were funny things - fleeting, momentary, and in Jason's case, more often than not distant and almost nonexistant. Given his personality and what he'd been forced to do for the last decade of his life, though, the man had taken that for granted, a natural reaction to distance himself from the sins he'd committed and the mental and emotional stress that came with them - he had been broken that way once already, and it was probably the only way his mind could cope and remain sane despite his past role in Team Rocket. When Jason had left, though, he'd assumed that wouldn't be the end of it - he knew too much, and he was years' worth of investment and training. Simply letting him go hadn't been an option in most of their minds, and with that knowledge he'd spent the last two and a half years of his life on the run, only withdrawing from Rocket funds when he had absolutely needed to.
It was ironic, then, that it'd been his efforts to cut himself off from them once and for all, to simply disappear into the world as they had taught him to, that had led Rocket back to him. Something that, normally, would have been a nonissue - he would simply have left town at the first sign of their presence and remained invisible for another several months before daring to show his face again, likely halfway across the world. That, however, was not an option this time around - the people tasked with finding him this time had taken a leaf out of his old "employers'" book, and someone who shouldn't have been involved or even aware of the mess to begin with was now smack dab in the middle of it all, and for the first time in years the things he'd once known as emotion were finally seeping to the surface of his mind again. One of the two he knew particularly well - guilt, over getting her involved to begin with and the knowledge that by the end of the day he would be responsible for every injury she'd incurred by their hands. The other, however, was far more foreign to him, and one that he only vaguely knew of through the actions of others - that of anger.
For the first time that Jason could remember, he actually wanted to hurt someone, in this case the man who had spoken with him over Ricki's Pokegear when he had been in Pewter days before. During the entire trip between there and Celadon Jason's mind had come up with a hundred ways to hurt and maim the man, and hundreds more since arriving on how to end his existence in the most painful ways imaginable. It was only the oath that Jason had made to himself before that had prevented him from acting when the group had first arrived in the city - their arrival, while quiet and discreet by public standards, had been laughably easy to spot for someone who knew they were coming and who knew what to look for and where, and it would have been so easy to simply snuff out the light in the blonde man's eyes on arrival. That, however, was not his objective - there was a hostage involved, and having acted in such a manner would have guaranteed her harm or worse.
And so Jason had waited. He had allowed the Rockets to deploy the full measure of their manpower, and to place every piece they had available to them on the board. All out in the open, with no surprises for them to pull on him. He had watched them set up their security systems, had watched them deploy their men and memorized their patrol patterns through what he could see through the windows of the building and the public floor plans, and he had identified no fewer than seventeen Rockets in total. All Grunts, but all with at least two to three of their own Pokemon - a veritable army, and not something that he would have been able to deal with if he had upheld his end of the bargain. The operative word being "if".
Having waited for the sun to set, Jason could not help but take specific note of the fact that many of the building's lights had been left on - both by the patrolling guards on the third floor, and by the Grunts loitering on the second that had been playing cards when he had checked in on them around noontime. An amateur move, but one that would play to his advantage - their night vision would be compromised at best, which would give him at least a window of a few precious minutes before they managed to adjust to the darkness. That, though, would come later. For now, simply managing to get into the building undetected was the goal - anything less would put Ricki at risk, and he needed to get Rep to her before he moved onto his next goal, namely that of removing the Grunts holding the building as a threat. Both to remove any chance of pursuit, and to send a message to Team Rocket that involving civilians in their personal business was unacceptable.
The Lucario at his side, eyes closed and head flaps on end as Rep and Jason stood next to him, the man simply waited for several minutes as the sun continued to set - it would only be when Rep gave a short, subdued bark that only the man standing next to him would hear that Jason moved, taking a running jump over the short gap separating his rooftop from the neighboring one of the Rockets' building. Jet black clothing keeping him hidden as the Grunts that Rep had been tracking on the third floor passed by a nearby window, Jason felt the familiar jolt of momentary free fall before his gloved hands made contact with the stone edge of the building's roof, one hand momentarily slipping before his other managed to clamp down. Reaching back up to steady the grip of both hands onto their respective handholds, Jason took a moment to brace his feet against the side of the building as Rep moved to the edge of the other rooftop to watch as the black clad human began to shimmy his way along to the side to reach the fire escape, the metal structure's streetside access blocked by the noticeably absent ladder in the alley below.
Feet making contact with the metal surface and quietly touching down as he lowered himself from the building side, Jason retrieved Rep's ball from his belt to recall the other Pokemon before making his way down and pausing to quickly glance in through the second story window. As before, the Rocket Grunts from that afternoon were still there, loitering by the window with their backs to him. Fairly relaxed, and likely as they wouldn't expect an incursion from their floor - the most likely points of entry would be the first and third floors, and lacking Pokemon of his own they probably would have expected to be able to react to his presence before he could neutralize them had he attempted to force entry from the fire escape. A good thing he had Rep, the Pokemon would be invaluable, and frankly his only trump card. He didn't know these Rockets, but they knew him - had he been forced to attempt this on his own it would've been impossible, and they had clearly planned their occupation of the building knowing that. Rep's Pokeball still in hand, Jason moved to begin climbing up the fire escape again to reach the roof, taking pains to stay out beyond the sight of any of the windows on the way up before releasing Rep from his ball again.
"Second floor, window opposite the fire escape. I need a diversion, but do it quietly - once they're dealt with, circle around and follow the path I took in."
Pokemon simply nodding in response, Rep began to head towards the opposite side of the roof as Jason likewise began to make his way back down the fire escape, stopping once more at the second story window and leaning forward just enough to peer through and give him a view of both the Rockets inside and the opposite window - even with their backs facing him, though, Jason remained alert and ready to pull back at the first sign of unexpected movement, one eye on both the stairs and nearby elevator. Within moments, however, the window on the far side of the building would be faintly tapped as a blue and black blur would drop past it and the Rockets, likely having been aware that he probably wouldn't be playing by their rules, jumped to attention, hands going for their Pokeballs but stopping just short of releasing their Pokemon. Two of the men glancing to the third, the one closest to Jason's window simply motioned towards the far one, the four beginning to cautiously move as a group to investigate.
Given the opening he needed, Jason didn't waste a moment as his hand came up out of his coat armed with a simply, long edged knife that was summarily slid into the thin gap alongside the edge of the window and slid to cut both the trip wire that had been tied in place there hours earlier, disabling the crude alarm the Rockets had brought with them, and popping the cheap latch open with a quiet snick, the sound covered by the Rockets' own footsteps. Easing the window open and silently stepping through and onto the second floor, Jason would begin creeping up behind the group without a sound, waiting until the last moment to lunge forward. Hand coming up to cover the mouth of the leader who had been sticking to the back of the group, Jason would quickly plunge the knife through the man's hand to break the Pokeball it was holding before he could respond before shifting his arm around the man's neck to clamp down on his carotid arteries, rendering him unconscious within seconds. Quickly lowering the man's unconscious form to the floor, Jason was preparing to move in on the remaining three before one of them happened to glance back, perhaps to look for direction from their superior.
Even before they could open their mouths, however, a blue blur would race past Jason and the man he was holding as Rep, having already circled around the building, used Extremespeed to reach the second man, paw coming up to strike him in the throat and silence him - events already happening too fast for Jason to control them, the man would leap back up and rush forward to strike the third Rocket in the throat as the man began turning in response to Rep's appearance, hand holding his Pokeball already rising. Silenced but still a threat, Jason would again use the blade he was holding to plunge it through the third man's hand, disabling the ball it was holding much as he had the first, followed by an unrestrained strike to the side of the man's temple as Rep likewise knocked his Rocket unconscious. The fourth and final Rocket, still in the process of turning with still less than fifteen seconds having gone by since the neutralization of the floor's leading Grunt, didn't even make it as far as the third Grunt had before Rep was on him, the fourth and final Rocket silenced and neutralized.
Wiping his blade clean on one of the uniforms, Jason, paused and stood, glancing at the downed men. So far, so good - it wasn't perfect and hadn't gone quite as planned, but there were no fatalities and the floor was clear of threats. Sheathing the knife and moving towards the downed men, Jason took only the time to drag them to the side wall and out of immediate sight of the stairs and elevator and to relieve them of their Pokemon, placing them in a small bag strapped across his back. They might get them back later, but for now, he simply couldn't take the chance. Bodies moved and only a relatively small amount of red on the floor to tell of his passage, Jason began to move for the stairs to the third floor, Rep trailing behind him.
Summary: Second floor clear, the four Rockets silenced and neutralized. No fatalities or alarms - Pokemon have been confiscated. Jason and Rep are moving for the stairs to the third floor.
Just a little while longer, she would once more think to herself. Minutes slowly started to become an hour and the hours passed slowly, but surely. She found herself counting the dots in the ceiling tiles, the number of tiles, anything to keep her mind off of the idea that this nightmare may never end. Nothing really helped for long, though. The goons behind her rifling through her things would occasionally make this noise that would break her train of thought and once more her focus would go back to the reality of her situation. If he didn’t come to get her… If he ran off to save himself…
Well… She couldn’t really blame him if he did. Had she been in his shoes, she might have even considered the thought, though she knew she wouldn’t be able to. But, for so many years he was just their tool, their pawn, the guard dog that kept people quiet and secrets secret. The things he must’ve done must’ve seen… As her thoughts once more drifted to it, she almost hoped he didn’t come. She hoped he would take this as his chance to run. Run far away and never have to deal with this past of his again. After all, if they resorted to this method and the fact they avoided going to meet him, the idea of them trying to go the direct route was something they couldn’t do. So, he was safe if they thought taking a hostage wouldn’t make him come, right?
Him being safe, she really wanted that. But, she didn’t want to be shipped off to be put to work for these people, this Team Rocketshi—Rocket. He had to come and save her, but he should run and save himself. She didn’t want to live this life again, she didn’t want to be some criminal, some terrorist or whatever, but she didn’t want him to go back to the life he had before, either. Surely if he came back, he could easily take down all these people. He’d fly through the building, but would he kill again? He ran away because he didn’t want to do that anymore, right? He could do it without killing people, yeah, he had Rep with him after all. Her thoughts clashed and crashed, constantly conflicting and stirring her exhausted body again and again. She was so tired, but her mind was very much awake.
With the thoughts constantly churning, Ricki had shut her eyes in a vain attempt to just get some moments of rest. Her eyes would shut, time would pass, but her brain was so alive the make-shift slumber would do nothing for her. Every time she opened her eyes, she wouldn’t feel anymore rested, but time would surely be passing. One moment, she’d shut her eyes to the sounds of the goons talking, and immediately open her eyes to silence. Close them, and open them to noise… After enough times, Ricki’s head would finally crane back to try and look at the Rockets behind her. No matter how far she tried to tilt her head back, though, she couldn’t see what they were doing.
The fighters that were digging through her bag had gotten to her notebook by now, and were flipping through it carelessly. Ink practically coated every single page with rage-induced scribbles, crudely drawn stick figures, and other things like details for work or venting. They flipped on through, pages getting torn, a few falling out and amusement shined in their eyes. She couldn’t see that; she could only hear the snickering and commentary as they turned the pages. Gritting her teeth, she was hit with the desire to shout, but she withheld temptation. So tired, she just didn’t even care at this point. Let them read it, let them publish it, whatever, fuck them. Ricki simply turned her head to glance at the one figure she could actually see from the corner of her eye. Vane was still standing to the side with his back against the wall.
“Taking an awfully long time, isn’t he?” he purred softly when he noticed the golden eyes on him. The taunt got nothing more than a deadpan from his tired captive, though. So, he pressed on “You sure he’s coming?”
“He’s coming” she muttered almost by instinct alone.
“The sun set a while back, Richelle. The day is almost over” he easily countered her, turning his gaze to the window. “Time’s almost up” he tacked on in a teasing tone. Ricki would fall silent once more, and Vane would finally move from his place against the wall. He made his way over to his captive and got a grip on the handles of her wheelchair. “Boys, go ahead and check with the other floors” he ordered as he unlocked the wheels. The notebook was dropped aside in response and one of the men pulled a walkie talkie from his belt with a simple chuckle. As he got to some radio chatter, Vane began to turn Ricki’s chair around, allowing her to see the full extent of the damage to her stuff. The various Legendary Pokémon figurines she’d been collecting were shattered and in pieces, her Pokémon’s pokeballs all looked damaged, and it dawned on her that her board was actually missing. Her eyes would remain on her damaged things as she was rolled across the room. “Would you look at that…” Vane’s voice gently spoke as they stopped in front of one of the windows. With the light in the room on, if one didn’t try to really focus on what was one the other side, it would be rather easy to focus on their reflection. “Perfect, isn’t it?”
“Not really” Ricki admitted, eyeing her own reflection with little reluctance. She looked like shit, no surprise there given the week she’d had. The response got a snicker from Vane, but would be interrupted by a call from one of the other grunts in the room. He’d been quiet, as if trying to not get Ricki’s attention, but given the fact the room itself was quiet, his whisper for Vane to come closer wasn’t that hard to catch. With a heavy sigh, Vane released Ricki’s chair, locked the wheels, and turned to speak to the grunt.
“What is it…?”
“No one on the second floor is responding, sir. I tried every radio and even switched stations, but I didn’t even get a peep. I got one of the guys on the first floor to go take a look but…” trailing off, the man’s news was clearly not going to be good.
“But what?” Vane questioned immediately.
“Something wrong?” interjected their captive, only to get a broken figurine chucked at the back of her head.
“But what?!” Vane demanded.
“All of them were knocked out! Their pokeballs were missing, some were wounded, the window by the fire escape was open, and the guys had all been put in some sort of pile.”
Vane could feel his own blood boil at this revelation. He yanked the walkie talkie from the grunt and began barking orders, asking questions, and demanding answers. Several of the guards patrolling the halls would make their way towards the hall that was the entrance from the stairs to the third floor, and many guards would move to position themselves around the room Vane, the couple of grunts, and Ricki were in. A few grunts continued their regular routes, but many of the men and women were obviously unnerved by the new development they had heard through their radios.
Once the Rockets would scramble to new positions, Vane chucked the walkie talkie back at the grunt. A combat boot would slam down on the top of another one of Ricki’s figurines, before smashing down on another one, and another one. The two grunts there simply got up from the floor to get in gear for the potential fight that was about to be had. Ignoring the fit their boss was having, they wanted nothing to do with his rage. Vane was not pleased, not at all. First it was this green-haired bitch being a stubborn piece of shit, and now it was this guy taking down his men. “Deals off” he snarled, snatching a shard from one of the figurines from the floor.
Dazed from the initial whack to her head, Ricki didn’t even catch the snarl that could have warned her of the incoming pain. As she began to look up at her reflection, again, she had just a brief second to see a hand being raised before—!
SHINK!
The wing of an Articuno figurine was shoved into her arm with no restraint from her attacker. The sharp tip of the hard broken plastic had no problem going through the thin cloth of her black shirt’s sleeve and breaking through the skin. She couldn’t hold back the scream of agony from the initial impact, her voice only seeming louder in the nearly silent building. While Rep would have already alerted Jason to the change of positions of those on the third floor, there would be no doubt something was awry by the distant scream. She cursed and squirmed, crying loudly with no more restraint on herself.
The response was satisfying to see, Vane practically reveled in her struggles. His anger was nearly forgotten at the sight, actually. His two grunts only briefly turned at the first scream, before turning their focus back to the door. After a moment, he ripped the wing from her arm and tossed the piece to the floor carelessly. With the wing removed, Ricki could only turn a wide set of eyes to her arm and she began breathing heavily, trying with all her might to calm down. Breathe and slow her heart down to try and slow the bleeding. Shifting in her seat, she tried to use the restraints to cut off circulation, but the effort provided little to no results for her. While the wound wouldn’t be lethal if treated soon enough, it didn’t stop her from getting unnerved. If this intruder wasn’t Jason, or if she didn’t convince someone to take her to a hospital or something…
While Ricki tried to deal with her new wound, Vane would move around her and just lean back against the wall next to her. Now he was just waiting for another update from the crew about someone finally catching this annoying pest that was Jason Tham. This bastard would go back to work, this bitch would be shipped off to Sinnoh, maybe, and Vane and his crew would finally get their well-deserved paychecks. At least they were happy, and that’s all he really cared about.
NOTE:
Annnnd again, feel free to go ahead and blaze through the guard NPCs, didn't get too exact with the building lay out and am up for changing it up if needed. If I need to add more, I will, and if the "Ricki getting stabbed" might be too much, I have no issue taking it out.
Advancing up the stairwell to the third floor, Jason would pause and begin to slowly move for the closed door before he felt the Lucario's paw on his arm - the creature having followed him up the stairs, the Fighting type would simply shake his head as Jason glanced back. Another team in the hallway, and so soon? Based on what Jason had seen earlier he had figured they would have at least a good two minute window to get down the hall and duck into another room before those Rockets came back around, but apparently not. That did not bode well - either they changed their patrols every few hours and were more competent than Jason had expected, or they knew he was there, and that knowledge more than anything else unnerved him. Glancing back over Rep and down the stairs to ensure that no one was suddenly rushing up behind them to box him and the Pokemon in, the man would quickly start to revise his initial plans. If they knew he was there and that he had already taken out the second floor guards, it meant that he hadn't been fast enough and had inadvertently placed Ricki in further danger - still, not was all lost. They were there for him, and assuming that they operated as most of Team Rocket did, a hostage wasn't going to do them any good until they tried to contact him. If she was dead or gone, he would be as well, and a moving target was much more difficult to protect than a stationary one. She would be safe until then - they needed her here, and they needed her alive if they had any hope of catching him, and they knew tha-
And with that thought, a sound that Jason knew much better than he would have liked to admit suddenly rang throughout the building - while it was muffled by the numerous walls and other physical barriers between them, it was one that only the highest quality soundproofing would have been able to completely silence. And with it, Jason simply abandoned any plans he had towards subtly dealing with the issue - he had offered Vane a deal, and the man had broken it. It might not have been in the manner that the Rocket wanted, but Jason had followed his promise to the letter - he was there in the building before the time limit was up, and with the cessation of any attempt at civility went any bit of restraint Jason might have been exercising in dealing with the gangsters in as gentle a manner as possible. With Rep still watching the door, the Pokemon having likewise tensed up in response to the scream, Jason simply edged to the side and out of the way, leaning up against the wall and drawing two blades, one for each hand. This would need to be quick, and he didn't particularly care anymore whether or not it was painful. There were eight Rockets on this floor, and with all semblance of stealth gone each and every one of them would need to be dealt with. A good thing they traveled in squads.
As the group that Rep had sensed earlier finally began to pass in front of the door the Pokemon would rush forward, the wall seeming to explode as the creature plowed through the wooden barrier with Extremespeed to break on the far side of the hall, denting the drywall. Even as the humans struggled to recover and began to direct their attention to the Pokemon in question, however, Jason would follow through the now open entrance - grabbing the first and nearest Rocket from behind with an arm wrapped around the man's neck, Jason would quickly plunge and drag one blade through the man's bicep, severing the muscle and preventing the use of the arm while the second blade dipped low to sever the tendons behind the knee on the same side. Maneuver complete in only a handful of seconds, Jason would quickly shove the cripple away and into another Rocket as he began to turn and draw a Pokeball - both knocked down and hands splayed out to try and break their fall, one of Jason's knives would quickly find itself embedded in the floor, through the offending hand and the Pokeball it carried. Rep, having dealt with the third Rocket with another throat jab and blow to the side of the head, would simply watch as the remaining gang member would turn and begin to flee, barking a warning to Jason in the process. Still with a blade left in his left hand, the assassin would simply turn for a moment to throw the blade as he had the first, the weapon catching the fleeing Rocket in the lower leg, the pain sending him into a tumble. Redirecting his attention to the Rocket whose hand was pinned, Jason would pause only to step forward and onto the pinned arm, delivering a snap kick to the man's head to knock him out before yanking his blade free and moving towards the last Rocket, the gangster having pulled the blade free and begun attempting to crawl away.
Summary: First of two squads of four clear from the third floor.
It hurt, oh lord did it hurt. She cursed weakly to herself and looked to the wound on her arm, trying to keep her breathing even as she eyed the extent of the damage. It was hard to move her arm with some of the muscle receiving the impact of the damage, but it was manageable. She wasn’t going to be throwing any left hooks any time soon. Her gaze turned back to Vane, glaring at him through her pain, and he merely gave her a twisted smirk. He reached over to roughly pat her head, but as his hand began to come close to her, she immediately reeled back and even tried to bite his hand.
Mid-attack, Vane’s hand would turn to back hand her, and making her head whip to the side. “Looks like someone got a bit of her fight back” he purred, moving to grip a clump of Ricki’s hair. He yanked her head back to force her to look at him, his smirk turning to an unamused gaze when she spat in his face. “… Too much of it in fact” he commented, letting go of her hair and wiping off his face. Studying his hand briefly, he’d take note of a speck of blood from the spit. Seemed his smack was hard enough her own teeth ended up cutting her cheek. He wiped off the rest of his face and moved around to pick up another shard from the figurines. “Just because he might be here, you’re gonna get all fired up again?” he questioned and paused at the eyes locked on him.
Eyes once more alive with a fire, Ricki gritted her teeth through her pain and merely glared at Vane. As he held her head back, there would be the distant sound of the Lucario breaking down the door and Ricki slowly smirked. The men outside the door were on high alert, now. The crawling away gangster attempted to get to his radio, but would most likely be interrupted before he could get a word out. The grunts’ radios sparked with brief static before silence. Well, that wasn’t a good sign. One of the men outside the door would pull out their own radio to demand some answers, but would be met by silence. It unnerved the horde and one of the men even dared to open the door to the room Ricki was being held up in.
“We need to get out of here before he gets here” was all he managed to get out before he was clocked over the head by one of the fighters. The two men just bickered for a few seconds, before a shout from Vane would result in the door being slammed shut. After being locked, the door would be locked and a wall was set up between grunts and the four inside of the room. One of the grunts outside the door knocked roughly, but was ignored for the most part.
Following the momentary tension amongst his group, Vane’s grip on Ricki’s hair only tightened and he pulled more to force her to sit up right. This was getting too annoying, part of him just wanted to get rid of this girl, and it was a rather tempting thought. He held up the Zapdos fragment and brought it closer to Ricki’s exposed neck. The determination dancing in those eyes would just briefly turn to horror when she felt the jagged edge against her neck, a slight sting as it began to threaten to break the skin. When he was about to go for it, another man spoke up. “We’re going to need her alive if we want to try and bargain with him.” There was a hint of urgency in his voice, perhaps a part of the grunt not wanting the girl to die, or simple fear from what was running around out there.
The words meant little to Vane, though. He still just ever so lightly moved the jagged edge, eyes warm with content at the power he held. He stopped, though, just leaving a very slight cut on her neck. Well, if he couldn’t kill her… He pulled the piece from her neck and adjusted his grip to raise it up into the air. His eyes rested on her’s as he impaled her leg next and watched the wave of pain shoot through her body and reflect in her golden gaze. She tried to hold in the scream this time with a heavy gasp. Heavy breathing followed and Vane left the wing in her leg this time. He coldly laughed at the reaction and used his grip on her hair to make her head slide side to side. “C’mon, you’ll feel better if you just let it all out” he cooed, attempting to convince her to scream or cry, again. She held it all in, though, tensing her body to prevent herself from giving in. It had occurred to her again and again these people could kill her, but she never dwelled on that. She never dared to let the idea of dying settle in on her. She wasn’t going to die, she was ‘too important’ and it was a moment like this where she remembered this same situation long ago.
Chained and dragged along by a group of men who couldn’t kill her. They wouldn’t kill her, she was ‘too important’ they said, and they were all killed on sight the moment rescue came. Ricki… Ricki was a vindictive person, but as she looked up at Vane and then slowly up at the ceiling, she realized she didn’t want that. As much as she hated these people, as much as she wanted to hurt them, she didn’t want them to die, and she didn’t want them to kill her. Jason left so he didn’t have to kill anymore, right? But if he… He wouldn’t…
Right?
NOTE:
Go ahead and kick ass, break down the door. The two grunts in the room with Vane and Ricki are a bit of a higher caliber of fighters than those in the halls. You can take control of Vane, do with him as you will.
Post by Jason Tham on Dec 14, 2013 18:20:35 GMT -5
I DON'T WANNA BE BROKEN
I HAVE 1952 WORDS FOR Richelle Jace
The last Rocket likely finally realizing that he was not going to be able to crawl away from his attacker in time, the Grunt's last action would be to stop and reach down for the radio on his belt - hand closing around it and enabling the electronic's "speak" function, his hand would just as quickly release the device as Jason caught up, casually lifting his foot a few inches higher with the final step before bringing it down on the Rocket's already injured leg. Painful to begin with and made infinitely more so by the sudden shift of a certain something breaking inside of it, the radio pulled from the Grunt's belt would be dropped with a clatter as a yell not unlike Ricki's moments earlier echoed down the hall before Jason would lift his leg again for a precise kick aimed at the back of the Rocket's head, putting him out of his misery - at least for a few hours.
Pausing for a moment after dispatching the last Rocket from the first group, the former Masked Child would turn to look down the hallway from where Ricki's scream had come before, tightening the grip on the single knife he was holding and removing his foot from the final Rocket's more than likely broken leg. The response that Jason had been expecting, however, never came, and the only movement to make itself known was that of Rep getting up to move away from his last opponent, also unconscious. Where were the other Rockets? Jason knew he'd gotten his count right when he'd first prepared to take the building on - there had been one squad of four on the second floor, already dealt with, along with the one he'd just neutralized on the third floor. That still left another full squad along with the ringleader and his two henchmen, bodyguards, whatever they were called. The latter three would likely be locked in the same room as their hostage, but the last squad should still have been patrolling the hallways - and more than that, ready to respond at a moment's notice to any disruption, and his method of dealing with these ones had been anything but subtle.
Rep, looking first to Jason and then back down the hall as if questioning why the man was staring that way, was the only thing to put the ex-Rocket at ease, or at least enough to finally look away. If the Lucario wasn't nervous or expecting trouble, there was no reason for him to be - he didn't like the lack of response and it unnerved him more than it probably should have, but Rep's species were famed for their ability to sense individuals and danger alike. If he didn't sense anything there wasn't a chance in hell Jason would see something coming, so there was little point in worrying about it. Besides, if he wasn't on a timer before, he was now - that Rocket had managed to at least turn his radio on, and even a burst of static cut short was usually more than enough to put most professionals on alert, especially in this line of work. A line of thought almost instantly justified as the radio suddenly erupted with sound from the floor, another Rocket attempting to contact his fallen colleague. Kneeling down next to the unconscious man, Jason would pause to wipe his blade clean on the man's uniform and sheath it before reaching to retrieve the radio, pausing again for a few moments as he looked it over, the Rocket on the other end evidently catching the hint that no one was going to pick up and falling silent. Turning the device's volumn down to the point of muting it, Jason would clip it to his own belt before turning to continue down the hallway, retrieving his second blade and cleaning it much as he had the first before stowing it.
Slowly making his way down the hallway and turning to continue down the next, Jason kept his pace slow and concise - despite the inherent issue of time and it likely being tied directly to Ricki's well being, rushing this was just as likely to get them both caught. Technically speaking, he'd kept his word - he had promised the ringleader in no uncertain terms that he would be in the building to meet the man before sunset. What he had not agreed to, was to the health or safety of him or his men - still, he doubted the sadistic monster would see it that way, and judging from that earlier scream he was either correct or the man had never intended to keep his promise at all in the first place. Approaching the next corner further down the hallway, however, Jason was jerked to a stop as Rep, the Pokemon having been following him, grabbed hold of the man's arm, stopping him from continuing forward and turning down the last hallway. Making no real effort to fight against the Pokemon's grip, Jason would simply reach down to the muted radio on his belt and quickly tap the talk button - enough for a burst of static, and exactly what he got from down the hall that the Lucario had stopped him from advancing down.
Just one? That didn't make much sense. Even if it was where Ricki was being kept, probably given the stationary position of the static burst, where were the others? Or was one all they had outside of the room? Not that it mattered - judging from how far away it was the one guard they had would get warning off to those inside the room long before Jason ever got to him, and he doubted he would disable the man from that far away with a knife without causing permanent and likely lethal trauma. It wasn't like the pace was a fortress, though - the room had a window, and while it was risky it was certainly an option. Not the preferred one, though, and as Jason felt the Lucario tug on his sleeve again the ex-Rocket got another idea, looking back at the Fighting type to see it pointing upwards. Following the single digit up, it took him a moment to understand, but when he did Jason almost had to wonder why he hadn't thought about it before. This place was built as an office building - complete with tiled ceilings, made hollow for electrical access and ventilation. Even better, the walls from the actual floor plans rarely ever existed up there - too much for the electricians to work around, and unnecessary clutter for ventilation.
It'd been a long, long time since he'd used that particular trick, though. How old had he been last time? Fifteen? Fifteen years old, a good foot or so shorter and at least forty to fifty pounds less - he'd been a lot smaller back then, and the area wasn't meant to be used as a crawlspace by adults. He had no idea if he'd fit, but... if it worked, it would save him a lot of time and effort, and even give him the advantage. If not, he was back to square one again, and Rep seemed to be of a similar opinion as the Pokemon moved to place his back against the wall, paws clasped low to form a foothold. Glancing at the Pokemon and back to the ceiling again, Jason only hesitated for a moment before making a quick step towards the Pokemon, the Lucario almost instantly launching him upwards with enough speed and force that Jason almost didn't have time to react. Thrown upwards, the unsecured tile easily came off, and as gravity took hold of him again Jason almost missed his chance to grab onto the leading edge of the cinderblocks that marked the top edge of the hallway wall,falling just enough for the left side of his face to impact with the hard surface - what most certainly would have been a broken nose under normal circumstances, but thankfully the mask merely developed a hairline crack running under the left eye.
Securing his grip with a second hand, Jason pulled himself up into the ceiling and on top of the cinderblocks, not daring to try and put his weight on the tiles that most certainly would not hold him. Recalling Rep to his Pokeball and pocketing it, Jason would then turn his attention to merely making his way forward. As he'd thought, the place was not meant for adults - cramped and with barely enough space to move, a number of minutes would slowly drag by as the man pulled himself along, following the blocks making the wall as he made his way down the "hallway" that presumably led to the room Ricki was being held in. On reaching the end of the hallway and another set of cinderblocks set at a 90 degree angle to the wall he was following, Jason would pause once again to reach down and tap the radio. Only barely muffled by the thin tiles separating Jason from the floor below, the sounds were much more distinct this time - there was the one of the guard out in the hallway, and then three more. Two almost directly below Jason, obviously standing guard by the door and ready to jump whoever came in, and then another - one single burst of static, further back and towards the center of the room. Vane. It had to be - Jason doubted he'd risk standing on the front line, and he was more than certain that the man would rather position himself next to the hostage, traditionally where it would be safest.
No way to reach the man directly given the problem with the floor tiles, but he could do the next best thing. Shifting his hand to reach for Rep's Pokeball again, Jason released the Pokemon into the ceiling space next to him, holding up two fingers to signify the guards and then pointing down. The Fighting type shifting around in preparation, much more comfortable in the cramped space than the human was, Jason shifted around to bring himself up into a very cramped, very uncomfortable crouching position, his head bowed down low to allow him to room needed to move. Drawing both knives again, the man paused for only a moment to tap the radio's talk button once more to confirm the locations of his targets - and with that, he stepped forward.
His weight breaking the fragile particleboard tile beneath his weight, gravity would pull Jason down feet first through the ceiling and directly onto the shoulders of the guard beneath him, the ex-Rocket's weight and momentum forcing the Grunt first to his knees and then his front as Jason's hand clamped onto the back of his head and shoved it forward to crack into the linoleum floor with little warning, almost instantly rendering him unconscious as Rep performed a similar maneuver in nearly perfect synchronization. Less than two seconds gone since their entry and the man standing in front of Ricki only beginning to turn around, Jason would dart forward, blades flashing as he brought one up to plunge into the man's left shoulder from behind, disabling the arm as Jason used the leverage it provided to spin who he could only assume was Vane around to deliver a vicious headbutt to the man's face - more than enough for a broken nose and a few cuts, and hard enough to finally dislodge the cracked piece of his mask's left eye.
Summary: Both Rocket guards in the room knocked out, Jason having lodged a knife in Vane's shoulder to use as a handle before headbutting him in the face.
Post by Ricki Jace on Dec 14, 2013 21:59:13 GMT -5
I HAVE 1,263 WORDS FOR JASON THAM
Head held back, Ricki merely stared at the ceiling as she inwardly panicked about just what was being done out there, what was Jason doing. She was terrified of the idea of what he may resort to here, this situation. She gritted her teeth and grimaced as her hair was pulled on even more. “Stop it” she managed, but Vane merely ignored her words. He was getting anxious and Ricki was acting as his source of distraction, so he merely began pulling her hair more and more. The more he pulled, she could have sworn the chair started to lean back on the back wheel and she tried to lean forward in a vain attempt to keep the chair from falling. A buzz… Vane and the two Rockets both paused what they were doing to glance at their radios. Was it the fallen grunt trying again?
Ricki wasn’t sure, but finally her hair would be let go and the chair would fall to rest properly on its four wheels. She leaned forward as much as her restraints would allow and shook her head in a fruitless attempt to shake away the pain. When the shaking did nothing, she went limp to rely on the restraints holding her up. The world was fading in and out as exhaustion and pain was taking its toll on her again. While she was still conscious, the world seemed to be distant from her, her mind drifting farther away as her vision blurred. Time passed without her really even realizing it, and her body was all but encouraging a break from her fighting. After a few minutes, she found her hair once more grabbed, this time in a looser grip. Ricki’s eyes slowly drifted up to the ceiling rather than the cold calico eyes studying her.
“You’re not about to pass out, are you?” Vane grumbled, tightening his grip and pulling more. Another buzz sounded from the radios and his grip slowly tightened on her hair. He began to pull her back, and Ricki put up no fight this time. He slowly quirked a brow when his act of pulling her hair hard enough that the chair was once more suspended on its back wheels provided no more response then a pained look. A smirk slowly formed when he saw tears in her eyes as he began to speak, but she didn’t even register his words. Her eyes merely drifted to a spot in the ceiling where a tile was suddenly cracking.
Buzz.
The tile cracked and Ricki’s eyes flew wide as she was once more tugged back to reality. Probably more so by the jolt of the wheelchair falling back and hitting the ground than the epic entrance, though. She recognized that black clad figure if only from pictures she’d seen and she let a tired weak smile form when she saw with him was her Lucario as well. Ha, she at least saw that one coming. Moving faster than she could register for a moment, Ricki’s eyes widened at the sight of the knife being drawn and plunged into Vane’s shoulder as he was pulled away from his spot behind her. Her head craned back to watch the brutal headbutt, one she’d congratulate Jason on later, take place and cause Vane to stumble away and hit the ground. Following Vane’s cries of pain, Ricki’s view would be blocked by a black and blue figure. The scruffy Lucario of her’s moving to grab her chair and set it up right. Not a moment after the wheelchair was upright would the ropes around her torso be undone and she took a deep breath as if she’d been holding her breath for a long time.
Rep was quickly moving to remove the restraints, before pausing as he saw the Zapdos wing sticking out of her leg. He gave a whine, but she just quickly shook her head. Oh Arceus, it was finally over. Her week of being on guard had taken its toll and just this sign of being free finally was enough for her to start caving. As Rep would move to free her from her restraints, Vane would be facing the other monster in the room. A scene Ricki could only barely see from the window’s reflection was unfolding behind her. After being stabbed and headbutted, the man had fallen back and cried out in pain, using his only good hand to come up and hold his face. His gaze locked on Jason, and the cries of pain gradually took the form of hysterical laugh. “My oh my, aren’t you pissed, Jay Jay?!” he taunted, against better judgment. The man struggled to get back up, but only managed to get up enough to be leaning heavily on the wall. “You going to kill me now?” he tacked on, not bothering with the knife in his shoulder, preferring to not well… Bleed more.
“Don’t—Shit… Don’t do that” Ricki forced out, compelling herself to turn enough to look back for a moment, only to slump back in the wheel chair, again. Rep grabbed her right shoulder and leaned her back in the wheelchair before moving on with removing the various means of restraints they had used. He briefly mused the fact there were multiple types of restraints meaning she’d definitely put up a huge fight that would’ve deemed her worthy for so many precautions. An old trick of a controlled mini-Aura Sphere being shot into the handcuff locks blasted the locks and released Ricki’s wrists and ankles. He tossed them aside, pushing Ricki’s arms tenderly to her lap so they wouldn’t fall in the way of the wheels. “Is Jason…” came a mutter from the crashing Ricki, and Rep turned his head to look up at her. She was beginning to turn around to see what Jason was doing, but the movement was too much for her caving body. She shrank back down in a grimace, before looking over at Rep who gave her an assuring look. While the scene was most likely not pleasant, she seemed too out of it to really register what was going on behind her. With a nod, she muttered “Check the team, and under my shirt…”
The last part made him pause, but Rep merely nodded and moved to follow the commands in the order they had been given to him. As Jason would deal with Vane, he’d slide the bag of broken figurines, defiled journals, and riffled through things from the floor and over next to Ricki’s chair. He got to the task of examining every Pokémon in every pokeball and gave a curt nod. A smile was offered to the Pokémon inside who all seemed perfectly healthy, but just as worried as he’d been the past couple of days. He looked up at Ricki with a look of calm that told her all she needed to know. She nodded slightly and looked down to started pulling up her shirt slightly to show… Tape and a lot of paper stapled together in various ways, paper clips, and all shoved in a manila folder taped to her gut. She tried to peel some of it off of her terribly bruised torso, but her weak fingers and short nails couldn’t do it. Cursing quietly, Ricki managed to finally get one corner loose and left it to Rep to get the rest. She muttered for him to hide it at the bottom of the bag and he immediately did so, pushing aside the damaged journals and figurines to hide the worn folder underneath everything.
NOTE:
Will make any edits where ever necessary. Also, if Jason finishes up beating Vane fast enough, feel free to have him go and interrupt Rep and Ricki / notice the folder being stashed in Ricki's bag. Ricki is set to probably pass out by the end of my next post.
And with that, things were essentially over - the guards in the room had been dealt with and were no longer a threat, and it would be an easy enough matter to call the police with the door locked from the inside to prevent the other remaining Rockets from recovering Ricki before they left. Given how he was dressed Jason couldn't risk remaining there - there was doubtless someone still assigned to his case file if one existed with Interpol, and aside from the obvious complications it would be more than problematic to get Ricki involved any more than she already was. The only question now was what to do in regards to tying up the few loose ends that were left - the primary concern clearly not smart enough to keep his mouth shut despite his position. Temper flaring again, Jason didn't even bother listening to what Vane was saying as he sheathed the remaining knife before delivering a vicious kick to the Rocket's leg to bring him to his knees and jerking the blade embedded in his shoulder to prevent any resistance that might have come - and, following that up, Jason's now free hand would snap up to clamp around Vane's neck, forcing the Rocket's back down to the floor.
The other Rockets weren't the underlying issue - they might have been stupid enough to follow Vane's plan, but the fact that several of them had likely fled before Jason had even made it to the room meant that they would no longer be a threat once Ricki was back in public. The police would at least be aware of where she was in the following months just as a precaution to prevent further kidnapping attempts, but Jason doubted that would stop Vane. The man was dangerous, a sadistic monster - there was rarely ever a reason to harm hostages, and the fact that he had beaten his so thoroughly did nothing but hint towards the fact that he had enjoyed doing it. The prison system might hold him for a while, but nothing that he did here was worth a life sentence - eventually he would find his way out, and Jason didn't doubt for a moment that the thing he had pinned to the floor would try and seek some form of revenge if only out of spite. Jason wasn't worried about himself - he knew how to disappear - but Ricki was another matter. It was a lifestyle you had to commit to since even the smallest link to the past could be enough to form a trail, and that was the problem. She had a life, and Jason had spent enough time around her to doubt that the trainer would simply be able to abandon everything, to go through her entire life looking over her shoulder, to let paranoia dictate every single action she made.
The solution would be so simple, too. As Jason tightened his grip around Vane's throat, the knife buried in his shoulder ready to still any form of resistance, the ex-Rocket could feel the carotid arteries to either side of the windpipe, pulsing with the man's heartbeat. A few more pounds of pressure on both, and held for not even a minute, and all of their problems would simply be... gone. Jason doubted the world would miss Vane, either - there had to be other people like himself and Ricki who hadn't been as lucky, the man enjoyed his "work" too much to be new to it. This wouldn't be like before, either - Vane wasn't just a threat to them, and at this point he doubted that something as twisted as him would count against Jason at this point anyways. The reason he had sworn not to take another life had been to avoid harming innocent people as he had been before, and to maintain what had at the time been a fairly fragile grasp on reality. That may have been his own anger speaking, an emotion he had not felt this strongly before in his life, but at this point Jason didn't particularly care if that was what was driving him or not - the reasons that his mind had presented him with were more than enough, and the only thing that stopped Jason's hand from tightening any more than it already had was the only other voice in the room finally speaking up.
Vane silenced and, for the moment, immobilized, Jason would actually pause to glance over to Ricki, the one eye visible through the hole in his mask shifting over to lock onto the bruised and battered woman. Spare him? Bluntly put, Jason had no idea what was going through her head at that moment - not after what Vane had done to her. If anything she of all people should have been the one most interested in him being removed as a threat - Jason didn't know if it was that the trainer simply wasn't aware of what letting the man go would mean and the risks it would entail, or if the pain and blood loss was impairing her judgement. From what he could see she barely had enough strength left in her to stay conscious.
"Why? What good could that possibly do? He'll just be back out of prison in another five to ten years, and his kind doesn't forgive or forget. He went after you to get to me - what do you think he'll do to get to you?"
Tucking everything away quickly as he could, Rep would take a moment to clear out some of the broken figurines from her bag. He was ready to dump all of the shards out, only to stop as he felt Ricki’s eyes on him. She stared at her shattered collection with clear sadness, but she didn’t utter a word. With the eyes on him, Rep settled for zipping the bag shut and hooking her belt of pokeballs around the strap to show the damaged pokeballs. He simply planned to give the bag to Jason, so with the pokeballs outside of it, he hoped that would be a hint to the other to seek they were fixed as Ricki was clearly in no shape to go and tend to the matter herself.
His work with preparing for leaving was interrupted when he started to pick up once more on the unfamiliar rage of Jason Tham. His eyes drifted from the duffel bag and up to the ex-Rocket. The sight would immediately result in his fur bristling as the sight clearly unsettled him. Ricki took note of her Lucario’s sudden edginess and started another attempt to look back at the scene behind her of Jason and Vane. A sharp pain through her arm followed by a grimace was a reminder of her state and forced her to remain slumped back in the wheel chair. As she sank down in the chair, she shot a look to her Lucario and slightly cocked her head back as a signal to turn her around slightly. Rep hesitated, before moving to only turn her wheel chair just enough to let her see the scene if she turned her head.
A chill slowly crawled down her spine after she saw what was going on though. It was exactly what she feared and all her instinct cried for her to go and force Jason to stop it, to get off of that bastard, and hit Jason very hard for even considering what she was sure he was doing. It was clear to her she wasn’t going to be getting up for a while, though. She tried for a moment, but wouldn’t be able to even rise up an inch from the chair. When movement was nothing but an act of vain, Ricki decided to break the silence that weighed down on the room with a plea for Jason to stop. Thankfully, it seemed her words would manage to get through to him for a few seconds when she noticed he stopped.
Immediately, her relief would be torn from her when she saw Jason’s eye, though. Her mind went blank, eyes widening slowly at the gaze being locked on her. Furious, he was downright pissed. It was a cold slap of reality for her, the sight of the almost always calm and peaceful Jason actually being… Angry. At first she had no idea how to react to the sight, her mind blank, but her body clearly reacting to the gaze locked on her. Fear? Was she… Afraid? Of Jason? The idea was completely foreign to her, something she thought to be absolutely impossible, but it was becoming clear that was the case. Without being consciously aware of the action, Ricki actually found herself leaning slowly away from him. When sliding away caused her body to press against the arm rest, she stopped and her mind finally sputtered back into gear.
“Why? What good could that possibly do?”
Gradually, her right arm would begin to tightly grip the arm rest she had propped her side against. Was he really trying to justify this?
“He’ll just be back out of prison in another five to ten years, and his kind doesn’t forgive or forget.”
She was going to be sick, she could already feel her stomach churning now. Her vision began to blur with building up tears as frustration started to settle in. No, she wasn’t going to let him do this, she wouldn’t forgive him if he did. The fact he was actually arguing with her about it was mind blowing, and completely upsetting. Oh she was going to hurt him the moment she could move.
“He went after you to get to me – what do you think he’ll do to get to you?”
“Probably exactly what you’re doing right now!” she immediately cried out. She could practically feel her own heart breaking. “Stop it.” Gritting her teeth after the sharp order, she battled through the mess that was her mind to think of a way to calm him down. There was a fight to hold down a sob that she barely won, only releasing a harsh cough instead. “Didn’t you run away so you didn’t have to do this anymore?” she weakly asked, grimacing as she turned in her seat to try and better face Jason. She struggled to find words, her mind a mess with panic, exhaustion. “I know you’re angry and… Th-That’s okay. An-And I’m not saying he—Geh” a grimace briefly cut her off and she had to let out a short cough once more to carry on. “Fuck” came the quiet protest to her pain, followed by a sharp inhale.
That was it, she was done debating, arguing, just done with this whole mess. “I don’t even want to argue this anymore!” she cried, looking at Jason with a pleading gaze for him to just let it go. “He’s a piece of shit, but you’re not. I’m not letting you drop to his level, so just… Just knock him out, beat him up for all I care. Just anything but that one, please…” she started to trail off, her final waves of emotion starting to take its toll. Her gaze was blurring and she knew she was reaching the end of her wits. She tried to stay upright, but slowly she began to sink back with a weak frustrated whimper. She was going to hit him so hard for this. Not a single cell in her body could care for what happened to Vane after this, maybe he’d come back, maybe he’d die, get hurt, or move on. Point being, she really didn’t care. He could die from a heart attack right now, and she wouldn’t shed a tear for him, but she wasn’t going to let Jason do this. As much as she was sure he wanted to, after the days of reading his file again and again, she was adamant on making sure he didn’t stray ever again. He was so much better than this, she knew there was. Arceus, she wanted to say so much more, to try and drive the point home, but all she could do now was silently beg him not to do it.
All of her battles to stay awake were futile and as Rep slowly stepped around the wheel chair to study her, he’d find she was finally out cold. Her face remained stuck for a moment in her tense disgust, before gradually relaxing as she embraced a chance to finally rest. Rep slowly looked over at Jason, but followed the motion by paying him no mind. Whether the other killed the man or not didn’t really matter to Rep, other than the fact he knew his trainer would be thoroughly disappointed. He almost moved to intervene himself when that thought crossed his mind, but his trainer’s current state demanded his attention even more so. His focus shot back to Ricki, and he moved to carefully turn the wheel chair once more, so Ricki’s back was to Jason, again. He got to the task of setting her in a more comfortable position, and grabbed the blanket that had covered her earlier to cover her once more in an effort to keep her warm on this cold winter night.
NOTE:
Ricki has passed out by the end of this post. Jason's choice to kill Vane is up to you, as I personally don't care either way. If he doesn't, Ricki's gonna love Jason to death, but if he does, he's going to be dealing with ( Hell hath no fury like ) a woman's scorn.
Despite the fact that Jason knew full well that it was anger driving his actions at that moment, the fact that Ricki's own response to his questions were based more in emotion rather than reason did little to sway his opinion on the matter - while the masked man did not tighten his grip on Vane's neck any further or move the knife again, neither did he remove them from the Rocket. She was intelligent enough to know that Jason wasn't lying about Vane - in all probability the man would be back again later if they simply let him go now, and the most direct solution to the problem was sitting right in front of them. Yes, she was right in that he had left Team Rocket to avoid having to do what he was considering - at that moment the only other feeling in him aside from rage at the Rocket for forcing him to this point was self loathing for even considering the idea. That being said, though, liking it and understanding the simplicity behind the notion were two completely different things.
With that, though, the trainer seemed to have expended the last of the strength she had left for the time being. Not entirely surprising, especially given what had been done to her and the mental stress that came with it, but as silence once again fell over the room Jason's mind would return again to the matter at hand, only to finally loosen his grip on the Rocket's throat after several more moments. Pulling his hand away and removing the knife from the monster's shoulder, Jason simply stood over the unconscious Rocket, suffocated by Jason's earlier action. All things considered, this still wasn't his decision alone to make - as simple as it would've made things to never have to worry about the filth again, the one who had the most claim to deciding what to do with him was Ricki in the end. She was the one who'd taken everything he had dished out, and as for possible solutions... anything that wasn't done now could always be done later, and death was something far too permanent to be taken lightly. Taking only another moment to wipe his blade off on the man's uniform before retrieving his Pokeballs, Jason would use the blade to break the opening mechanisms beyond repair as Rep tended to Ricki.
"Help should be on the way in a few minutes, you should be able to handle any of them if they wake up again." Jason said, directing his comment to the Lucario after taking a moment to glance over Ricki - while there were a couple of relatively sizable holes in her arm and leg, from what he could see they weren't much more than flesh wounds. As far as medical expertise went, though, that was about as far as he was qualified - Jason didn't feel comfortable with the idea of moving or checking her injuries, not when he had no real idea what had been done to her so far. There was always the chance that he'd only injure her further in the process - the best bet would be to get an ambulance there, and fast.
Moving over to Ricki and Rep, Jason would search the floor before locating the woman's PokeGear, and after retrieving it from the ground he would immediately begin to dial the local emergency number while moving towards the window and undoing the lock on it with his free hand, the 'Gear already connecting to emergency services. Given his own past the last thing he could afford was to be caught there when they arrived - he needed to be long gone by the time the police and paramedics got there, but not too far. A day or two at most, long enough for Ricki to get situated at the local hospital before running the risk of showing his face anywhere public. In the meantime, however, he'd find a way to stay busy. There were still a handful of Rockets that had left before he'd found Ricki, and he had no intention of letting them walk free.
