Welcome to Gaia! ::

((It's how conspiracy theories start))

Salieri was never a team player. She had never even been on a team before. So when it came to fighting on her own, she was no stranger.

"I'm the last person you need to tell that to," she stated matter-of-factly, hoisting up Wukong so he didn't slip off her back. "But if I see enemies, I can't promise that I'll save any for you guys to beat up."

Henrietta had emerged from her shell over the past few days. It was a nice change of pace to see her take charge of her own life. "I'm leaving Driftveil after I get lunch. When are you heading out?"

No, Salieri, it's that confidence that makes this meant for you more than anyone else.

"I need to go shopping, so I'm meeting up with Azucena. I need to do some packing, too." She wouldn't be able to return home, to that house. Today would be her last time there.

"If something happens, let everyone know."

You're too strong to be reckless.

Henrietta stared at Salieri for a second, a very very long second. In that second she had an internal debate. She couldn't voice it, though. What needed to be said.

Don't get cocky and let what happened to Liuye happen to anyone else.

"I'll see you in Driftveil."

((Whoops, missed your post. Sorry Takamaru))

"I'll probably be leaving after that, there's something I need to take care of." Henrietta didn't relay the same message she'd relayed to Salieri to Takamaru. To her there was no need. Takamaru's training helped him to run, he was structured around survival - he would be fine.

Nimbasa City: Takamaru

"Why, was it that bad? Did you throw up on live Tv or something? If so i totally have a new nick name for you!" He began, feigning vomiting

"And no, im waiting for the all clear from Hiba till i head out towards Driftveil, mom's not to thrilled im a hero so he's playing damage control" The youth Rolled his eye's. "Either She's going to try and drag me back home to Olivine or have Hiba do it. Ill put money on it." he said, kicking a piece of rubble on the ground, making it land in a near by bin.

"Sure, ill come with you, no use waiting for the all clear to head out if the result going to be the same right?"

Either way he had a plan to evade being taken back home

Driftveil City: Hiba

After departing from Ska, Hiba strolled towards the Hotel Mai and Kari where staying at, whistling a merry tune.

It would be nice to go out drinking with people like Ska

On the way back to the hotel he mulled it over, weighing the pro's and con's. HE figured that if anything went wrong his strength would be enough to get him out of any trouble.

"Fwends?" Kari Asked.

the muscled youth shrugged. "Dunno yet, well see."

Soon he and Kari were walking through there hotel room door.

"Where Here!" he called.

"Ok, lunch's on the table!" Mai called from the Bed room.

"So Tk should be in the city in a few hours at most!" he called, going over to the food. Mai had prepared some Angle pasta. Scooping up a heeping amount for himself and a smaller portion for Kari.

"So i was thinking-" Mai began as she entered the room,dressed in a light yellow sun dress, "-When Tk get's here, i want to take him back home." it was a statment.

"You know he's not gonna go for that right?" Hiba rebuked.

"Of course i know that, but that's where you come in. he'll listen to you"

"ok, so what if he does. you already said you didn't want him to stop traveling when we were back in the market, so instead of just scoping him up and flying home, why not get him to keep out of government business?" Hiba reasoned.

There goes my night

"And you think you can do that?" Mai was skeptical.

"Course' "

"Fine, i leave it to you. just don't go overboard."

"No Promises."

Nimbasa City

The Battle Girl directed a shut-up glare at Takamaru's comment. When Henrietta's back turned to the duo, Salieri shook her head knowingly and mouthed the word "Bullshit" to TK. Then she left, leaving the two of them together.

"If you like all of this pokemon trainer-hero stuff, your mom can't tell you not to do it. Just tell her she's stomping on the pride you have for your work." She felt is was wrong for a parent to direct their child's future. Everyone should have the chance to follow their dreams. "Don't let her hold you back. And hey, if worse comes to worse, you won't have to talk to either of them. Just send in the clones, dude."

She inched towards the center's motion sensing doors and they opened in her presence. "I'll call you when I'm ready to go, I need to treat this guy to lunch." Sal gestured to the Infernape on her back and headed into the center. "See you later, TK."

Robby Tobb was alone, more or less. His pokemon had been returned, except Fried who was waiting outside. The pokemon was holding the first bag, while he was filling both of his shoulder-bags with the foodstuffs from the kitchen. Mostly spices and whatever else he could carry. Pokemon could be found for meat, though he found himself wishing for a Miltank, or ice types to chill the food. Heck, with Fried there, he was sure a refrigerator wasn't out of the question. But an electric type needed to power it.

Instead, he settled for taking "portions" for that day, a few cold things he might need for a meal for himself, and any of the rest of the crew, into a cooler. Whatever else was needed, he could find somehow.

He'd asked Henrietta at some point during the lockdown, and she'd told him he could take whatever he needed. The lad had responded by building money to buy what he'd needed to carry it. Extra bags, and the cooler filled with ice.

Nimbasa City

I need to find the balancing factor to this equation. N's eyes scanned the street, searching for one of the other Legends Crew members. Before long he came across Salieri, who was walking in his direction and eating a sandwich.

Oh man this is so good. I could probably eat another one right now...I bet I can finish the rest of this in one bite. Crap crap crap it's way too big-uh-oh, there's N! Salieri's hand swung up to cover her puffed up cheeks while she chewed as fast as possible.
“Hello, Salieri.”
“Mmph-mm!”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Mmph?”
“What do you think of Team Plasma?”

Salieri held up a hand for a pause so she could finish swallowing her lunch. Not another conversation about Team Plasma. “We talked about this before, N. I don’t care about Team Plasma.”
“I know, but why?”
“Because they have nothing to do with me? They can hate me all they want but it makes no difference to me.”
“So…you don’t hate them, then?”

The Battle Girl shrugged. “No, I guess I don’t.”
“Do you think they’re evil?”
“I don’t believe in evil.”

That was an answer N hadn’t expected. Salieri had made it very clear to everyone that she didn’t want to be a hero, and because of that she had all but forfeited her candidacy. Such an answer to come out of someone with less convictions than the rest of the Legends Crew was a surprise to the green haired trainer.

“Can you tell me why?”
“Are we playing questions or something?” Salieri asked, raising an eyebrow and smiling with the corner of her mouth. N became flustered at her attempts to change the conversation. He gulped.

“What? No, I-I just wanted to know.”
“I mean, okay….I just think evil is a word people use when they want to hate something they can’t understand. So people can be assholes, but that doesn’t make them evil. They probably have a good reason that they’re assholes. So maybe there is such a thing as evil, where you have no good reason to do the bad things you do. But if that’s the case, I’ve never met anybody evil before.”

She looked at the ground. “I fought the same Team Plasma grunt twice. He was a chauvinistic pig, but he…wasn’t a bad guy in the end.” Even though Bill had been unrelenting in his taunting, he did save Henrietta’s life. An evil person wouldn’t go out of their way to do that.

There was a moment of silence where Salieri rubbed the back of her head. “Now I sound like a dork. Bottom line, Plasma isn’t evil. And I don’t care what they do. Whoever gets in my way gets trampled no matter who they are.”

N nodded. “I, uh, I see.”

Sal rose an eyebrow and leaned forward, examining him closely. It only made him more jittery. “N, what’s with all the questions? It’s my turn to ask you questions now.”

He could tell her. She already wished to be out of the running, so if he let her down no one’s candidacy would be compromised. She believed in the good that could come from those who opposed her, even if she didn’t like them. If she discovered he was on Team Plasma’s side then surely, like how she felt about the rest of Team Plasma, she wouldn’t care. And she already wanted to know more about him.

“Uh…Salieri….”

Salieri hung on his words, waiting for what came next. She had never seen him so nervous before. His vulnerability was adorable. “Can you meet me at the amusement park in exactly an hour?”

She blinked a few times in shock. Her face slowly turned pink. “The amusement park? Just the two of us?”
“Yes. Please don’t bring anyone else.”
Her eyes grew wide. “So, like, a date?” she squeaked, biting her bottom lip.

A date? N recalled hearing this word used in unfamiliar contexts many times lately from random people. After looking it up in the dictionary, he discovered it was either a sweet fruit or a specified point of time with some significance. Due to his lack of fruit, N assumed she referred to the latter.

Her strange question put him more at ease. He actually smiled a little and shrugged. “How could it not be?”

Salieri felt her jaw slipping, and quickly snapped out of her stunned state. “Wow…oh, yeah. Yeah, I’d love to do that!” She nodded at him enthusiastically, cursing herself on the inside for looking like a dweeb.

Her sudden shift in demeanor, from outspoken confidence to shyness helped N feel more relaxed about his decision. For some strange reason, she seemed very happy about this arrangement. It was nice to see her light up like this after her past few days of rough training.

“Good. Then I’ll meet you there.” With that, N continued to walk past her down the street. He had only so much time to prepare what he was going to say.

Salieri waved meekly after N, watching him go until he was out of sight. Her blushing hadn’t stopped, but she was too excited to care. She released a pent up breath and felt her heart. It was beating so fast.

“Wow…”
A big smile was stuck to her face and she didn’t feel like it was going anywhere anytime soon. I gotta get ready! was the most prevalent in a sea of thoughts as she headed back to Henrietta’s house with a skip in her step.

Nimbasa City: Takamaru

With one clone Practicing Free running and another training there Pokemon. The real Tk was free to browse the shopping district, Having won quite a bit of money from trainer battle's in the first few days after the big stadium incident. However the last few days no one in there right mind has gone out of there way to try and battle him or anyone else in the legends crew for that matter.

So After giving Henrietta some money to help keep up the house while he was staying there, he still had quite a bit of Poke to his name. Poke had been planning on buy some gear with.

There where a ton of sport shops that sold all manner of gear in Nimbasa, what with being in such close proximity with the little court and big stadium. But none of the shops had what he was looking for. A Good pair of Tonfa's.

"I need something that can last..."

during his fight with Odin, the pair of police batons where cut to pieces. along with the array of half inch cut's along both of his arms. all of which were completely healed.

the silver haired youth went in and out of at least 5 different sports equipment shops, none of which offering him any real deal combat ready gear. just practice junk. that wasnt going to cut it in a fight with Plasma of the FLF.

So he continued walking around the shopping district until he came across a little shop called 'Raven's arsenal'.

the out side didnt look impressive or eye catching and he almost passed it up. Just when he was walking by the front door of the shop, when the front door was flung open, whacking Tk on nose and forcing him to stumble back and onto his arse.

"Ouch Ow ow ow, What'd you do that for!" he yelled up at the apparent store owner. Holding his already healing nose.

the store owner looked around the open door and down at Tk who was sitting on the ground nursing his nose and glaring up at her.

"Oh ho~! sorry there kid, my bad my bad. but you know, you shouldn't be standing in front of outward open doors! so technically its not all my fault" she said, laughing a boisterous laugh that reminded Tk of Hiba.

The woman was tall and defined, she looked about 27ish. she had raven black hair and one of here eyes was covered with an Eye patch. stepping around the door she reached down and pulled Tk to his feet by the collar of his shirt with no effort.

"th-thanks.." he said, put off by her eye patch. 'Pirate?'

"Don't mention it!" she called before looking at the silver haired youth under a scrutinizing gaze. "Hey, don't i know you?" she asked, leaning much too far into Tk's personal space.

"Ummmm..." he opened his mouth to say that she probably seen him on Tv but she beat him to it.

"Yea! your that kids from the stadium. You were pretty bad a** in there!" she all but yelled, launching into another round of loud good natured laughter. "Whats a kid like you getting mixed up in all that for?" she asked, walking into the store, motioning for TK to follow.

"Well, me and my friends thought it was plasma, turned out to be a terrorist group. And since we were there we stayed and fought." He said like it was the most normal thing in the world. Leaving out that he himself began having second thoughts about going toe to toe with a terrorist group, but in the end, glad he did.

"Well what'cha got against plasma?" she said accusingly. "Sure there flawed but there hearts are in the right place." she brought Tk and Ice pack that he no longer needed, but took just to be polite.

the youth walked over to the counter and leaned against it. holding the ice pack to his nose and looking around the shop. "Yea, im learning that-" he began before remembering a point N had made in there earlier discussion. "-but nothing is ever just black and white. although...Im still not to sure there an enemy anymore. FLf on the other hand..." He finished before walking around the shop. it wasn't the most spacious shop in the world but it had ton's of cool stuff. Swords of all shape's and size's, sets of armor, traveling gear for pro's and tons of other equipment that Tk didn't even have a name for.

"there the one's plasma should be aiming for first though." the shop keeper agreed.

"Ne ne, whats this?" Tk asked, lifting up a long pole with a curved blade at the end.

"Something that's meant to take a life." the shop keeper stated a matter of factly. causing Tk to place it back on the shelf hurriedly and continue browsing.

"so whats your name kid? everyone's calling you cloner sega or something right?" she asked, watching Tk look around the store with a buyers eye.

"It's Takamaru, but every one just calls me TK. And its Clone Saga" he explained, making his way back to the counter. "What are you called?"

"you can call me Rita." she said. "So what are you lookin;' for? I can give you a great deal on some chakram's!"

He almost pointed out that she hit with her door and that he didnt come in here to buy anything at all. and for one reason or another, Tk could not see himself going into a fight with a pair of spinning death wheels.

"No thanks, how about a pair of tonfas?" hell, maybe this store would have something worth looking into buying!

Rita's eyes lit up. "Good call." she all but whispered, disappearing into a room behind the counter. while she was gone Tk went over to look at a pair of what looked like boxing glove's but more compact and fist fitting, there were also slots for your fingers. something an MMA fighter would wear. Takamaru immidietly thought of Hiba and picked them from the shelf.

"Take a look at these kid!" Rita called, re-appearing from the back room of the dusty shop. In Her arms she held a wooden box, about the length from shoulder to fingertips of Tk's arm.

sitting the box down she took off the heavy wooden lid just as Tk neared the counter. In the box sat a pair of silver Tonfa's, both handles where tipped black. But other than that they only looked like a very nice pair of tonfa's.

"they look cool" Tk shrugged, looking at the price tag. "But not cool enough to spend a years salary of trainer winning" he said in disbelief.

"Oh ho ho! these babies arnt just any ol' pair of tonfa's, there goverment issued tonfa's. the kind of things goverment agent use." she explained, looking proudly at the pair of tonfa's.

"....what makes these so special a goverment agent would use em'?" the youth asked looking over them again. again they looked like a normal pair of tonfa's.

Rita Chuckled. a shook her head.

"These Tonfa's are made of a special aura lined titanium alloy, not easily breakable. It would take at lest three full grown Tyranitar to even dent let alone destroy em'. But get this-" she picked one of the tonfa's up out of the box and flipped it around so the elongated part of it was pointed at the wall opposet of Her. Pressing a hidden button on the handle with her thumb, launching a hook and chain from the end of the extended part.

the hook latched into the cement wall. Rita gave a few hard tugs but the hook stayed, un moving. removing her thumb from the hidden button on the handle the chain and hook retracted.

Now Tk was interested. "Wait, where did the chain and hook come from?" there wasn't enough room in the actual tonfa to store a chain let alone a hook.

"Hehe, good question. The chain and hook are made if a high tech compressed metal that is able to be shrunk when retracted into the tonfa's base. Kinda like how a Pokemon is made small to fit into there prisons. I mean Pokeballs."

Now Tk was interested.

"But thats not all. check this out." Rita said as she pressed another unseen button on the handle. this time a small compartment opened up at the other end of the elongated part of the tonfa. "In this you can store these little pellets-" she pulled out a small black sphere. there were three different colored orbs, all about the size of marbles.

"This one if a smoke screen, the yellow one is a tear gas, the red one if a laughing gas. you can load two into this end on both of the tonfa's!" she laid the tonfa back into the wooden box. "But a kid like you could never afford this kind of gear." she said blankly, shurgging and placing the lid back on the box.

Tk's face saddened. "Why'd you show me that when you knew i couldn't afford it!" he demanded.

"Cause you don't need to afford it" she began slyly "Give me 1,000 Poke and its yours. and the MMA gloves will cost you 300 poke, only cause they are lined with an aura laced thread that helps prevent injuries to your fists, but its limited" she paused, looking over Tk suspiciously. "you don't look much of a boxer or MMA fighter though...?"

I really shouldn't, i only have 2,000 poke. But those tonfa's are sooooo cool...

Tk bit his lip as he reasoned buying the tonfa's. "Wait! why are you giving them to me so cheaply?" the silver haired youth asked suspiciously, arching and eye brow.

"Cause, when ever your asked were you got this from, your gonna direct the person who asked to this shop. and since your famous now you'll probably be getting that question a lot. Think of it as an endorsement." she said with a sly wink.

Tk took another look at the tonfa's and was sold. "Deal!" he made the charge to his trainer account.

"Good eye mate! and here, ill throw in a bag of replacement pellets for free. if you ever need more just call me from your Xtranceiver at this number." She scribbled the shops number on a scrap piece of paper and handed it to Tk, who pocketed it.

"so why you busying the MMA gloves?" Rita asked, nodding at then Black and Red pair of MMA stle fighting gloves.

"there for a friend of mine. He love's boxing and i wanted to get him a little something to soften him up when i get to Driftveil city."

Rita didn't Ask why his friend would need softening up, instead she said, "Just be careful out there you hear! don't rely to heavily on those Tonfa's!"

"Yea, sure thing. and Thanks! ill send whole score's of people your way!" He called, running out of the store at a sprint, excited with his new purchase.

Rita smiled at the kid as Takamaru ran from the store.

"Cute kid." she said aloud as she walked back into the back into the back room where she retreived the tonfa's from. Standing there in the back room was a tall Man with short Silver hair, lined with taunt tan muscle, and sporting a pair of cargo pants, an iron lace'd fishnet shirt covered with a hooded white and grey sleeveless coat that was open in the front. On his shoulder was a shoulder guard that extended own the entire length of his shoulder to the elbow. On the guard was a blue and black P. Plasma's insignia.

"I know right? He take's after me ya know!" the man said proudly.

"Hmph, So why'd you all but pay it off for him?" she asked, leaning against the wall opposet the man.

"What? a Dad cant do something nice for his son?" he asked with a feign sad look before looking down at his Xtranceiver. "whoops, gotta run, supposed to meet up with the boss man, later, and thanks again! we owe ya' one!" Shiro called before taking off through the back door.

"Ya know, if you wanted to do something nice for him you could have, i dunno, went out and taught him a thing or two." She said, to which she only got a wave from over Shiro's shoulder.

There was a loud screech as his black skarmory took to the sky towards drift veil. his grin gone, replaced with a glum look. He wanted nothing more than to approach his son and tell him how proud he was of him, but there was a time and place for that. One that if done right, would harden his Sons resolve to join team plasma's ranks.