“That was a little much, don’t you think? Ask yourself, what did that accomplish other t-nevermind.”
Thorton wisely quiets his caustic tongue as Jade glares daggers down at him, her muscles still tense with adrenaline from the Frontier Brain’s beatdown. Plasma’s prized prisoner stays silent this time, unfolding his sulking, resentful figure as he gingerly tests out his limbs for functionality. The Battle Girl, still looming over Thorton like a malevolent spirit lurking in the shadows, cracks her knuckles and takes a moment to revel in the blissful silence, smiling under her mask.
She had really lost control for a few minutes there, but if this was the payoff...perhaps it was all worth it.
“You’re a fast learner,” Jade comments snidely, finally breaking the fragile calm settling inside the trashed cell. “It’s my duty to maintain you, but it’s also my duty to iron out your flaws. If you really are as smart as you claim to be, then you’ll assume your role without issue from now on--as Team Plasma’s weapons dog.”
Jade’s eyes gleam as she drops to a knee in front of Thorton, her face lit up by a sliver of moonlight from the grimy Cold Storage window.
“If you follow my orders and create quality weaponry, I won’t interfere with your little side inventions,” she declares, taking up some surprising neutral ground. “I respect ingenuity--it’s something that this organization lacks. If you do your job well and manage to escape Plasma’s hold with the help of your other projects, then you will have earned it. However...”
Jade stands up again, kicking a bent piece of machinery and sending it skittering into the stone wall. “...if your preoccupations become distractions, I have no problems providing you with a little extra motivation. Do I make myself clear?”
The Plasma grunt boss rolls her tattooed shoulders easily as she exits the small cell, only to return with Thorton’s evening meal (bread, soup, and an apple, no silverware) and the Gurdurr Gauntlets. She sets the steaming tray down carefully on the askew workbench, and turns towards Thorton one last time, looking down at him like he’s some sort of bug.
“Plasma will be doing a field test with these Gurdurr Gauntlets tomorrow,” she mentions with a telling edge to her voice, testing him. “Are there any features that I should know about beforehand, or usage tips?”
Jade slips one of the metal battle gloves over her hand and bends her fingers, bregrudgingly marveling at the equipment’s flexibility. Thorton’s latest contraption glints menacingly in the moonlight. A warning, not even veiled, falls idly from the enforcer’s lips.
This woman was clearly skilled at something, she confidently talked to Vayne as if she was any kind of match for her. Her entire aura exuded confidence and discipline, it made the Team Rocket grunt want to vomit. She could feel herself fighting back a gag.
“You may be an adult, but you act like a little child,”
Vayne cringed, skipping a step closer to her. Lifting her arms up in a sarcastic shrug, “Well it sounds like you had to mature a little earlier than me, rough life?” She added with another sugar sweet smile. As Jade turned away and began her descent upstairs, the way she made it seemed like she was expertly prepared for any kind of attack made her openly let out a small giggly.
Jade feels the tension in the tunnel rise to feverish heights before a sickening squelch jars her disciplined focus and halts her progress up the dirt-flecked steps. Glancing down quickly at her boot, the Battle Girl arches an eyebrow as the gelatinous form of Ditto swirls underneath her foot. The distraction lasts for only a few seconds, but Vayne only needs a few seconds to shift their twisted little face-off into its next stage.
Jade feels Vayne’s painful kick to the back of her calves but doesn’t fall, buckling slightly as she rips her boot free of Ditto’s slimy hold. Without missing a beat, she drops some leftover Energy Root from her hand, and the transformation-based Pokemon immediately recoils away into the shadows, traumatized by the hated plant. Jade grins beneath her mask, her slightly-turned sight catching the glint of Vayne’s blade.
“Let me show you a real kick, you sneaky little bitch.”
And Jade does, twisting her body to drive her foot full-force into Vayne’s stomach. The threatening knife clatters harmlessly down the stone steps, and as the winded Rocket Grunt pitches backwards, the Battle Girl leaps after her with a ferocious glare in her eyes--there would be no breaks tonight.
Jade feels her blood running hot beneath her skin. This encounter reminds the young fighter of her days as a delinquent, before Chuck bound her up in strict rules and dojo discipline. A part of her has been craving this release--there’s something so gratifying about a no-holds-barred rumble in some grisly alleyway.
From her slightly higher vantage point, Jade is able to pounce on Vayne as the ruffian falls back, pinning the younger woman to the concrete.
“You’re fast, and you may even have some skills...” she pants, moving quickly as she puts the grunt in an unforgiving chokehold. “...but you should really learn to shut up. And pick dumber targets.”
The Battle Girl has a feeling that her assailant isn’t quite done yet, so she tightens her hold, her toned arms hardening as Vayne’s adam’s apple quivers against the crook of her elbow. She normally wouldn’t go this all out on some poor soul, but this annoying, psychotic tunnel dweller is a special case.
“Nod if you give up and promise to leave me alone,” she growls into the grunt’s ear. “I don’t want to end up popping your head off, brat.”
Whit had no way to defend himself as she accused him of being closer to 100% on the fault scale; however, he thought it was unfair since he wasn’t normally in charge of the Pokémon. Rather than arguing he simply nodded. “Yeah, I can see that I guess.” He was just vague enough that his answer ended that conversation.
When the front door banged open he felt his heart stop. He glanced at the other without turning his head to gauge her reaction, but she seemed stone faced as the kids surrounded them with a chorus of questions. The kids seemed to soften her mood even just a little which was an extreme relief. While she didn’t exactly seem like the type to beat up a bunch of kids, he still had some fears that some kids would end up crying by her icy exterior.
After the kids seemed satisfied with the answers she had given them they began to pester Whit.
“Can we play with Miss Jade?” Children truly felt no fear in their small bodies.
“No, Miss Jade’s boo boo will hurt if you play with her so I’m going to take her inside. You can color with her if you’re nice and don’t jump around until your parents get here.” That seemed to placate them, and a few ran back inside to get their crayons and coloring sheets. The others joined the few that went to play with the Pokémon. Whit let out a sigh of relief.
“They’re mostly harmless. They’ll just want to show you the drawings they’re coloring; you should be able to rest.” He slowly started to walk again to prod her into hopping once more. Whit was certainly impressed by her athleticism, but he wasn’t going to mention it lest it become a point of contention because of her ankle.
“They’re mostly harmless. They’ll just want to show you the drawings they’re coloring; you should be able to rest.”
Jade merely grunts in response, voicing neither agreement nor dissent as she channels all of her energy into making it past the well-worn wooden door of the Unovan Day Care. The children follow both the Battle Girl and the Nursery Aide like an overeager entourage, but Jade pays them no mind as she leans hard on Whit’s shoulder, half-hobbling, half-hopping through the raised entrance with a wince.
The Day Care’s interior is cozy and open, with pillows, blankets, and books strewn over colorful mats and cots. Jade pushes off of Whit slightly and almost collapses onto a vacant sleeping spot with a sigh, the cot’s old springs sagging valiantly under her weight. The kids immediately cluster around her with crayons and paper, all chattering, and Jade can almost feel her head splitting open with exasperation.
Pausing only momentarily, she feels Whit’s concerned gaze from a few feet away and forges onward.
“Your princess looks like a regular girl,” Jade bluntly tells her first presenter, a little blonde student who proudly holds up a picture of hastily-drawn royalty. The criticism is harsh, and the little one turns away with a huff. To her immense credit, however, she doesn’t shed any tears--and a few minutes later her crayon-crafted princess is back for another inspection, this time with a golden crown and a flowing dress. Jade peers at the drawing for a long time.
“Good job,” she finally declares, and the Day Care girl glows, running off to tell Whit and her friends of her new modifications.
The children proceed excitedly now, all hungry for advice, and Jade dutifully obliges every one of them, her demeanor still stone-cold stoic as she recommends flames for a doodled Charizard, a pedestal for Unova’s Champion, Alder, and many other embellishments. Despite Jade’s critical honesty, the children depart with big, goofy grins on their faces all the same--telling their parents how their drawings so much cooler now that Miss Jade has seen them.
“Is this Crasher Wake?” the Battle Girl curiously asks the last child in line, a timid, bespectacled boy who nods slowly as he holds up his drawing. “I like him too. You drew his mask very well.”
“He’s cool,” the boy replies meekly, a hesitant smile on his face as he takes in the praise. “When I grow up, I wanna be strong like him. Or you.”
There’s a rare warmth in Jade’s eyes as she gives the last Day Care student an approving nod, sending him off with a “work hard, and don’t give up.”
The last boy says his goodbye to Whit and shuts the door respectfully, and for the first time in a long time, quiet settles over the Day Care Center. Jade leans back with a sigh, elevating her ankle as the undersized cot comically protests beneath her bulk. When she finally speaks, there’s less disdain and something lighter, maybe even playful in her voice as she peers up at the Nursery Aide.
“They’re better than your undisciplined Stoutland...” she decides, referring to the kids almost fondly by her standards. Her eyes betray the small, teasing smile forming under her mask. “...but I’ll be collecting my fee for the art consultation all the same, bandage boy.”
▲ - From one criminal organization transferred into another. No matter what he did, no matter how hard he worked to invent his own kingdom and erase his Galactic past, it seemed life had other plans hardwired for him. It was like the world’s punishment. And he deserved it.
He was captured so easily and the thought of it, the memory of the incident, infuriated him to no end. The one time he stepped outside the safety of his factory and off the Battle Frontier territory to “hangout” with the Tycoon’s lost cause of a son and what did that do for him. Kidnapped. Held captive Arceus knows where, without his beautiful gadgets, or his daily grooming kit! Now he’s back in a situation that was all too familiar and made him seriously contemplate to blow the entire area up.
The harsh, unmistakable sound of the iron door opening shocks Thorton back to the present, the blood rushing to his ears as he quickly switches the completed tracking remote with a crude prototype of a heater- only for the heater to be crushed under the grunt’s metal delivery.
Keep reading
For such a small, scrawny man, Thorton had such a massive mouth.
A small part of Jade can’t blame the Frontier Brain for the constant stream of passive-aggressive vitriol presently spilling from his lips--after all, sharp-edged words are his only defense now--but a much larger part of her wants to kick in the prisoner’s teeth.
The visit today--heaps of verbal abuse, another broken invention--seems almost routine for them, but Thorton is laying the taunts on with excess now, and Jade--like a prodded Tauros--feels white-hot anger overpower her cold, distant sensibilities as it all builds to a boiling crescendo...
Insult me one more time.
“Oh, and in case you didn’t know, the door is twenty-two degrees turn right and six feet away relative to your position.”
Snap.
Jade stiffens slightly, her vision flashing with Thorton’s smug expression. Something in her eyes has changed now...they’re dangerous, narrowed to slits. Wordlessly, the Plasma elite carries the Gauntlets outside and leaves them in the hallway, slowly strolling back into the room--and shutting the door behind her. The lone, oily light bulb flickers ominously in the silence, casting her silhouette over Thorton’s cluttered workbench. Glowering, Jade cracks her knuckles--and finally speaks.
“It seems like you haven’t learned your place yet--we’re not in your little Battle Factory anymore,” she says in a low, dangerous murmur. There’s a cold, cruel edge to her voice now. “I think I’d better teach the prisoner some respect.”
The next few moments happen in a blur--Thorton’s little cell is not designed to hold someone like Jade back, and there’s no escape as the Plasma devotee reaches down and hefts the metal workbench to the side with a grunt, sending papers and miscellaneous gizmos everywhere. In the midst of the chaos, Jade doesn’t take a break--she’s on Thorton in a flash, easily shoving the Frontier prisoner into the back wall. He wouldn’t be a physical match for the Battle Girl on a good day, but now--with a wild, pissed look in her eyes--he’s almost prey.
As Thorton sinks back against the brick, Jade kicks him in the ribs, not hard enough to break anything but with her boot still connecting like a lightning strike. “I don’t understand...” she snarls, standing over the Brain and punctuating every breath with another harsh, calculated blow to his body, “...why you...keep pissing off...your one connection...to the outside world.”
Without ceremony, Jade picks Thorton up by the lapels only to drop him to the ground like a rag doll--as if to simply show that she can. “That’s a stupid move, especially for someone who claims to be so smart.”
The Battle Girl has reached the finale of her little display of power, and looms over the Frontier Brain, her boot pressing lightly on the back of his neck.
“Apologize,” she demands through her teeth. “And--since we’re finally clearing the air, you can tell me honestly if something’s intentionally wrong with the Gauntlets that you just handed out. You’re too smart to make the same mistakes, and yet they’re always so hard to use and fragile. That inefficiency makes me angry.”
The boot presses down a little harder. Jade’s so over waiting for some sort of breakthrough.
“And you don’t want to make me angrier right now, so I’d choose your next words very carefully.”
Although she wasn’t exactly praising him, Whit took it as such and beamed at her compliment. “Well thank you; it’s always good to have medical knowledge when you take care of kids.” Also he got himself hurt, frequently. He immediately winced at her change in tone when he mentioned the PokéCenter. He didn’t realize it was going to be such a big deal. ‘The ultimate sign of surrender’ seemed like a very over the top reaction to getting an ankle brace, but he supposed he couldn’t judge. He didn’t go to the PokéCenter because then they’d try to get him to wear his glasses.
“Er– well the kids are about to go home.” He looked down at his watch; it was ten until 5 which was their designated pick up time. “I can take you into the building and make sure your ankle doesn’t get worse. Although everything in there is…small.” Whit had to bite his tongue at the thought of her laying in one of the children’s cots, but it was her only choice. It was better that she be laying to help keep the swelling down anyway.
Whit chose to ignore the comment about him being spineless, mostly because he couldn’t refute it. “When you stand up try not to put any pressure on your ankle. The more it swells now the longer it’ll take to heal in the long run.” He packed away his items and passed the strap of the bag over his head. When he stood, he held his arm out to her so that she could steady herself.
“I know this was at least 50% my fault, but what happened that made all those Pokémon jump after you? I’d never seen them act like that before…”
“I can take you into the building and make sure your ankle doesn’t get worse. Although everything in there is…small.”
Jade gives her leg one last squeeze and sighs as the pain finally starts to melt away, leaving only the piercing throb in her ankle. Whit is right--this is a bad sprain--and she curses herself silently over the rare physical setback. How could this have happened? The Battle Girl, even in her pained state, starts thinking of ways to make up her lost training time down the road. This whole ordeal is so inconvenient.
I can take you into the building and make sure your ankle doesn’t get worse. Although everything in there is…small.
“Don’t worry about my comfort--your hospitality is more than enough,” Jade replies indifferently, casting a sideways glance at Whit as the Nursery Aide in question voices a few more hesitant concerns. With a sharp breath, the Battle Girl slowly picks herself up--the thrown-together splint protests, but Whit’s handiwork manages to hold everything together--and stands solidly on one foot, showcasing her fitness once again. This time, however, she accepts the Aide’s assistance without complaint, gripping his arm firmly as she half-hops, half-limps towards the Day Care, her crimson eyes focused. Jade’s no complainer.
I know this was at least 50% my fault, but what happened that made all those Pokémon jump after you?
“It’s almost 100% your fault, bandage boy...” she mutters, squeezing his arm tightly before conceding just a little, “...but they probably viewed me as a threat. It’s hard not to think that way.”
There’s no bitterness in Jade’s tone--maybe there’s even a little bit of pride--as the Battle Girl states the simple truth surrounding her appearance. The pair makes it a few more steps before the Day Care doors fly open once again to reveal an entirely new stampede: kids. Excited, starry-eyed, grinning-from-ear-to-ear kids. They make a giggly beeline straight towards Whit--and his strange, new friend.
Jade lets out a held-in breath...and something in her expression softens, just a little bit.
Some of the kids run off to play with the Pokemon before pickup, but most form a curious circle around the pair. The undeterred little ones start bombarding Jade with their insights--who drew on your back? do you have a boo-boo? you’re scary looking--and the Battle Girl can almost hear Whit’s nerves fraying at the ends with worry.
“My name is Jade,” she declares, and her firm voice silences the babble as the kids digest the new information. “Bandag--Whit is going to make the boo-boo on my ankle feel better.” She takes another deep breath. “It’s nice to meet all of you.”
The tension in the air melts away, and the children seem satisfied with her introduction, turning their attentions back towards Whit as their parents begin to arrive. Amid the bustle, Jade allows herself to lean sparingly onto the Nursery Aide’s shoulder--her ankle is still pulsing, but she feels slightly more at ease now, all the same.
Watching as the woman stopped in her tracks, it seemed Vayne was successfully getting to her. Lowering the medical mask she used to cover her mouth, she smiled at the other. Golden eyes widened with excitement, she just loved it when they played hard to get.
She was hoping this might turn into a little game of cat and mouse.
Finally, she turned around at Vayne’s final prodding. If anyone tried to talk to her like that, she would have torn them to pieces. As she tried to calm her breathing, the smaller girl found an opening to skip forward once.
Time for her to go home? past a little girls bedtime? Letting out a childish laugh she held her stomach for dramatic effect. “What if I don’t want to go to bed, are you going to tell my mommy?” something about the way she spoke would be enough to send legitimate chills down someones spine.
“I’m not much younger than you, I’m an adult, I pay my taxes.”
Actually you work for a criminal organization you don’t pay taxes.
“What if I don’t want to go to bed, are you going to tell my mommy?”
Vayne steps forward boldly with those syrupy-sweet taunts on her lips again, and gods, Jade wants to put a fist through her smug expression right then and there. The Battle Girl miraculously holds back, but just barely now, nails digging into her palms as she glares down at the unhinged blond before her.
Jade’s eager to put a swift end to this encounter, not only because Vayne’s erratic behavior has her on the defensive, but also because she’s finally nearing the end of the Goldenrod Tunnel, moonbeams streaming eerily down the steps. The Battle Girl is almost sure that her slightly psychotic pursuer won’t let her escape above ground without a fight--and, she has to admit, her long-buried wild side is excited at the thought.
Still, despite her simmering anger, Jade makes a heroic effort to keep her hands to herself, halting in front of the stairs to say some final words.
“You may be an adult, but you act like a little child,” she retorts, her voice a low hiss. “And...whatever it is you want, I’m not interested. It’s late, and I don’t have time to waste with bratty girls like you.”
With that being said, Jade makes the bold decision to turn away from her assailant, taking her first confident steps up the stairs, towards safety. However, the Battle Girl is expecting retaliation--her muscles are tensed, and hot-blooded adrenaline is running through her veins. If Vayne strikes, she’ll be ready--after all, her foe is so small and seemingly all talk so far...child’s play, to be sure.
Jade purposely ascends another step, her ruby eyes set unflinchingly dead ahead.
He was slightly unnerved by her intense eye contact as she basically dared him to help her. “Uh…right, okay, I can do that.” Whit whistled at his Delcatty who sprinted off behind the building, quickly running to his side with his first aid bag in tow. As he rifled through it, he began to offer her advice to get rid of the cramp.
“You need to slowly stretch out your calf. When it starts to hurt you need to massage it, then stretch it more until it hurts and massage that. Rinse and repeat and it’ll feel better.” Whit pulled out a small foam block and used it to raise her ankle. It was swelling pretty badly at this point, which was probably from the extra weight she was putting on it while carrying the Pokémon. “Mmm, that’s no good.”
Whit took a cool jell pack out of his bag and gently placed it on her ankle before returning to his first aid items once again. “You know you’re not going to be able to just run off after this, right? A sprain is worse than a break in a way, because it takes a lot longer to heal. You’re going to need to keep pressure off of it for awhile…although, uh, I can sense that that’s not going to jive well with you so, uh…we can try this.”
He pulled out two splits and measured them along the side of her ankles as he nodded to himself. “I think that should work, until I can get a real ankle brace.” Whit temporarily removed the jell pack in order to wrap the splints on either side of her ankle with a support wrap. Once he decided it was properly tightened, but not without giving it some room to breath, he replaced the jell pack again.
“Well, really, you’re supposed to keep your ankle elevated to keep the swelling down. I, uh, imagine that doesn’t really match up with your plans. We’d have to get a real ankle brace at a PokéCenter; I only have ones for kids here.”
Even Jade has to admire Whit’s efficiency in caring for her injury--it seems like the Nursery Aide isn’t lying about his medical prowess after all. Without hesitation, the Battle Girl leaps into her caretaker’s recommended exercise, gingerly rubbing her cramping calf muscle with a handful of hissed curses and a permanent facial wince (mercifully covered up by her mask). As Whit fits a splint to her swelling ankle, Jade finally feels the pain ebb away under her firm massage.
“You are quite the skilled nurse,” she declares softly, in a tone that suggests neither a compliment nor an insult. Her crimson eyes soften, and one can almost imagine a playful smile beneath the layer of fabric over her lips. “Yes, you make a good bandage boy.”
However, her gaze hardens once again when Whit brings a Pokemon Center into the equation.
“I will not be caught dead in a Pokemon Center--that’s the ultimate sign of surrender,” the Battle Girl hisses, resting on her elbows to emphasize her disdain for the Establishment. “I am not even seriously wounded, this is just a little-ouch-setback.”
“...But I would like to remain under your care for a short while, if possible,” Jade admits begrudgingly. “I could leave by myself right now if needed, but...even if you lack most of your spine, you still make for a competent healer.”
“I will repay you for your hospitality, of course,” she finishes, lying back down in the grass with a sigh--this is embarrassing, but it needs to be done. “Make your decision and let’s get on with it either way, bandage boy.”
It was really hard to keep a low profile when you’re as cute as Vayne thankfully the diversity of Goldenrods inhabits kept her pretty hidden. Fixing the medical mask that hid the fangs she uses to scare children away as if she was a thing of nightmares. She began to survey the area around her, it was already late and she was getting bored. It seemed as if her information hunt would be fruitless.
The blondes eyes widened with fresh excitement, she looked like a nice target. She was looking for someone who’d try to fight back. Vayne stuck close behind, a predator on the prowl. As she followed the woman around, for funs she’d get a little too close.
A smile spread across her face as she found herself skipping back three paces. “My my, you’ve got good sense!”
She walked away without paying any more mind, Vayne was practically skipping to catch up. “ooh, you’re quite scary hm? Whats got you bothered tonight?”
The singsong voice that responds to Jade’s threat is surprisingly young-sounding, almost halting the Battle Girl in her tracks out of shock alone. With trepidation raising goosebumps on her skin, the Cianwood native finally turns around to get a good look at her pursuer--
--and one glimpse at the short, grinning blonde in front of her is enough to set alarm bells off in her mind. Jade’s senses were always sharp, and now something about this girl screams danger. Perhaps it’s the fact that she’s all alone in Goldenrod’s most dangerous area with the smuggest expression imaginable on her face. Or perhaps it’s because she’s looking Jade over like a predator eyeing up a big piece of meat...
Her composure rattled, Jade turns back towards her solo trek--only to realize that her pursuer is still tailing her, words falling from her lips with a sickening sweetness.
“ooh, you’re quite scary hm? Whats got you bothered tonight?”
Unable to resist, Jade whips around again--this time more out of anger than curiosity--and glares down at the smaller girl, her crimson eyes narrowed to irritated slits behind her mask. She remembers Chuck’s deep-breathing strategy for controlling anger and quickly pushes it aside--something about this person is really digging under her skin.
“You’re bothering me tonight, you brat,” she hisses, in no mood to play Vayne’s little game, her muscles tensing. “Leave me alone and go home...it’s past bedtime for little girls like you.”
Whit was absolutely dumbfounded by her question. “My coworkers? Well there’s one person in the building and the other person is taking care of the kids. It’s the weekend so it’s not as busy as it usually is.” He scratched his cheek. She was probably right that they were severely understaffed at this present moment. “And the owners try, it’s just hard. Maybe they should open another branch–”
Before he could finish his thought, the woman dropped to one knee and hissed in pain. Whit was nervous to help her considering she didn’t seem very interested in him existing as a person, but he knew more first aid than she might think. Children were prone to many, many accidents. He slowly inched towards where she had flopped on the grass before crouching down to look at her ankle, which is quickly swelling.
“You probably have a sprain, you know.” He started to reach for her ankle to check, but quickly retracted his hands before he huffed. “If you’re nice to me for, like, five minutes I can wrap your ankle and you’ll never have to see me again.” Whit looked at the muscle in her leg, which was clearly cramping based on the position she was holding it.
“I can help with that too if you don’t mind my, uh, brainless self offering you assistance.”
“If you’re nice to me for, like, five minutes I can wrap your ankle and you’ll never have to see me again.”
Most of Whit’s words are lost in Jade’s present haze of excruciating pain, but the soft-spoken self-deprecation that falls from his mouth sticks with the Battle Girl. Noting the Nursery Aide’s (understandable) hesitance to approach, she wastes no time turning her gaze up at him, crimson eyes narrowed with pain--and renewed focus.
“Don’t be so thin-skinned,” she mutters through her teeth, her calf muscles pulsing angrily. “I’m not going to rip your head off if you try to help--it’s not like I’m in a position to stop you, anyways.”
Staring up at Whit, Jade suddenly feels the irritating pang of guilt--an emotion that the assured Battle Girl doesn’t feel often. Perhaps she has been a little too harsh on the poor aide--she’s been judging him for the Day Care fiasco and not for his ready willingness to lend a hand, after all. Despite her misgivings, Jade decides to throw him a line of sorts.
“You said that you were better at taking care of people, right?” she pants, blinking away spots in her vision but never breaking her eye contact with Whit. Her soft but firm tone is laced with challenge, and she releases the iron grip on her injured leg.
Whit’s face fell as his hand was smacked away, and he took a step back as the woman stood up. Awfully rude of her! When she cracked her back he winced at the noise; the dragon tattoo was very intimidating, but Whit decided that he would have snapped his neck on sight if she was really mad at him.
He was wounded when she accused him of being a bad caretaker – even though he was, clearly – and place a hand to his chest looking quite offended. “Excuse you. I didn’t ask to be put in charge of the Pokémon. I usually take care of the kids, and I’ll have you know I’m excellent at childcare.” Whit blinked as Jade scooped up the Lillipup’s so fast you wouldn’t have caught it if you closed your eyes for a second. His Delcatty was appreciative of her help – traitor – and continued to herd the smaller animals back towards the day care.
Whit jumped at Jade’s barking command and scampered after her, although it felt weird to be hurrying up to catch up to her considering he was several inches taller. The larger Pokémon lept or climbed over the fence to get back in the outdoor enclosure. Whit picked up a few stragglers and placed them on the other side as well. Once they were all back where they were supposed to be, Whit let out a sigh of relief.
“Well, I guess I’ll have to tell the people that own this place that this fence is absolutely no good at keeping the Pokémon in.”
Jade hates excuses, and Whit has some prepared right off the bat as they track down the runaways together--he’s better at taking care of children, the fence is too short... The Battle Girl blocks him out with a groan and ignores the twinging pain in her ankle, grunting as she almost wrestles a feisty Herdier back over the fence. To the Nursery Aide’s credit, he quickly stops griping and focuses on the task at hand. The three of them--Jade, Whit, and Delcatty--complete their admirable recovery effort in minutes.
“Well, I guess I’ll have to tell the people that own this place that this fence is absolutely no good at keeping the Pokémon in.”
Jade is now locked in an intense glaring contest with Houston the Stoutland--she wasn’t about to let that walking carpet get the better of her twice--and almost misses Whit’s remark. Without averting her crimson gaze, she sighs.
“The fence is not the only problem with this place,” the Battle Girl states matter-of-factly. “Looking over both Pokemon and children at the same time...that is an unreasonable task to ask of one person. Where are your associates?”
Jade grins under her mask as Houston finally blinks, the small victory assuaging her bruised ego somewhat. Turning on her heel to face Whit once again, the Battle Girl’s stare is less annoyed and more earnest as she prepares to depart. “If this is the only Day Care Center in Unova, the owners should work harder.”
There’s nothing out of the ordinary as Jade takes another step in exit, until a sudden flash of white-hot pain seizes her leg. The Johtoan abruptly falls to one knee with a hiss, her expression contorted into a pained grimace. “Cramp...” she gasps out, gripping at her calf muscle, spots of agony dotting her vision. “...gods damn it, I must have...gone too far, fetching those demons right after my run...”
Jade lays back down in the cool grass and wills away some of the pain, her teeth clenched. This is her second time on the ground today, and she hates it. How embarrassing--especially in front of him. The Pokemon are staring.
“I’ll be back on my feet in a couple minutes,” she lies, her breath hitching as the pain continues to pulse, half-hoping that Whit will leave her alone in the Pokemon pasture to cope. “This is nothing.”
Whit was taking care of the Pokémon side of the daycare today and wasn’t enjoying himself very much. Since he didn’t spend a lot of time over there, the Pokémon spent most of the day blatantly ignoring his instructions, which quickly turned into pleas, which became just straight up crying by the time he lost a Lillipup and Purrloin. He was searching the perimeter to see if they got stuck underneath the fence. Whit’s Delcatty was attempting to herd the other baby Pokémon into a corner to prevent other’s from escaping.
Just as he was about to ask someone to check outside, every single one of the Pokémon in the daycare came running towards him before leaping over the fence in an absolute frenzy. Whit immediately panicked – it would be just his luck that all the Pokémon would escape on his day to watch them – and took a running jump to get over the fence to follow. He missed, of course, misjudging the distance without his glasses.
After flopping on top of the fence then falling over the other side onto his back, Whit had to take a moment to evaluate his current situation. He heard the Stoutland currently under his care barking like a madman and managed to stand up and book it towards the sounds of Pokémon yowling and crying. Whit nearly fell into the crowd of Pokémon who appeared to be surrounding whatever the Stoutland pinned down.
“Are you okay? I can help clean you up back at the daycare if you want.”
Her world is nothing but smelly, furry darkness before the stranger arrives, and moments later, Stoutland mercifully retreats, his suffocating weight lifting off of her upper body. For a while, Jade doesn’t respond to the young man looming above her, opting to greedily suck in breaths of fresh air through her mask as she glares daggers between his eyes. All of this qualifies as a thoroughly embarrassing situation, and part of the Battle Girl hopes that the compact earth swallows her up, away from the scene.
Still, Jade is never one to wallow, and after that slight, awkward pause, she swats the outstretched hand away irritably, standing up tall and cracking her back with a sigh. The dragon tattoo emblazoned across her shoulders twists as the Battle Girl finally rights herself and turns towards the Nursery Aide, a very judgmental edge to her crimson gaze.
“Someone put you in charge of all these Pokemon?” she asks bluntly, her tone unimpressed as a pack of Lillipup scamper away from the Day Care’s flustered Delcatty. “You shouldn’t be worrying about me right now--you should be worrying about doing your job correctly. Come on.”
And then Jade turns and blitzes after the escaping Lillipup, her athleticism on display as she manages to scoop up one in each arm on the fly. There’s a stinging twinge in her ankle, and the Lillipup are trying their darndest to wriggle out of her dual football holds, but the Battle Girl toughs it out, passing Whit again as she heads back towards the Day Care ranch. Delcatty, nudging some Purrloin back towards the fence, glances up and meows appreciatively.
“Let’s go,” Jade snaps back at the stranger, always all business with no tact. “Don’t make me do all of the work for you.”
au starter for @factoriprince / a potential au look for plasma!jade
LIBERTY. UNITY. POWER.
The three faded words--Team Neo Plasma’s ironic slogan--sit above a heavy set of doors leading into Driftveil City’s Cold Storage, the headquarters of the sordid organization. For Plasma as a whole, the third time was the charm--years after Ghetsis fell to a pair of unknown trainers, the shadowy force rose again with new energy and better technology, once again spurning the usage of Pokemon. This time, there were no mysterious young heroes to bail the region out, and most of Unova quickly complied to the ruthless Team’s new rules. Driftveil City, once a picture of prosperity, quickly became a metropolis of fear, with no-good Grunts patrolling the streets and gleefully enforcing strict rules.
Given their newfound power, Team Neo Plasma used their reach to extend their nefarious grip to other regions. They snagged prizes under the cover of shadow--a handful of promising Trainers, even a Frontier Brain--and forced them into employment. Most of the captured individuals were sealed off in the Cold Storage, which also served as the organization’s impenetrable detention center.
Block 22B, Jade remembers as she unceremoniously enters the base, pushing through the heavy set of doors with purpose, her crimson gaze intent. Grunts step aside for the intimidating woman, all sleek muscle and tattoos, as she passes them by--nobody wants to get on the bad side of The Jade Dragon, one of Neo Plasma’s lead enforcers. With the seeming disappearance of the Shadow Triad, the no-nonsense Battle Girl quickly proved to be a capable replacement for all three. Her main duty at the moment? Tending to the Team’s most precious specimen--and she hates it.
Jade’s confident stride quickly carries her past rows of warehouses, and she scowls as she shoulders a pair of broken, futuristic gauntlets in her arms. She enters the farthest detention house and opens one of the doors without fanfare, the dim light of the dinky room revealing clutter, decay, and him.
Thorton, yes that Thorton from the Sinnoh region, is tinkering with a flimsy piece of delicate machinery on his cluttered workbench, and in that moment, Jade despises him even more. The Frontier Brain is everything that she isn’t--mouthy, weak, and impossibly smart. Thorton can’t even give her the courtesy of looking up when she enters, his entire focus devoted to the latest project.
Her muscles tensing angrily, Jade walks up and unceremoniously drops the dented, well-worn electric gauntlets on the workbench, smashing Thorton’s little invention to pieces. “Fix them now,” she demands coldly, never one to waste words. “This is the second time that the Snagem Gauntlets have given out this week in testing. If you can’t create good weapons, then we have no more use for you here. Do I make myself clear?”
Unova is much better the second time around, Jade concludes contentedly in the middle of her training run around the region’s scenic Route 3, the summer breeze rippling through her dark flyaway locks. After being heavily involved with Team Plasma’s nefarious schemes years ago, the Battle Girl still can’t shake off the imagined target on her back, but Unova seems to have moved on from the past. And she’s thankful for it.
Presently, Jade is hellbent on taking advantage of her rare time away from the Cianwood Gym. She already went to Virbank City to get her dragon tattoo touched up, fawned over some Striaton Brothers merchandise, and guiltily indulged in a Casteliacone. Now, as her feet rhythmically pound over the route’s wooden bridge, it’s back to training--losing her edge is not an option, after all.
Lillipup! Purr-loin!
Attempting to avoid the two little Pokemon that have suddenly wandered onto the walkway, Jade nearly falls into the glassy lake. The Lillipup and Purrloin snicker to each other--prank completed!--and Jade commits a fatal error when she leaps to her feet and lunges for them with a growl.
The two Pokemon duck out of the way--taking stock of the muscular, tattooed woman with a face-mask glaring holes through the both of them--and let out distressed cries. Then, all hell breaks loose.
Jade looks up to see a collective mass of fur leap over the fences of the nearby Pokemon Day Care, a mess of fellow Purrloin, Lillipup, Zigzagoon, and other fluffy Pokemon from around the world with only one mission on their minds: save their young friends from the scary woman.
The Battle Girl hears a shout in the distance--the mass migration from within the Day Care had captured someone’s attention--but she’s not sticking around to figure out the source. Her legs pump furiously, but not fast enough...a rogue Stoutland easily catches up the the poor trainer and pins her to the earth with his impossibly fluffy body.
I can’t go out like this, Jade protests, but she’s terribly winded from the big dog’s graceful ‘pounce,’ his soft weight crushing her chest. The other Pokemon crowd around threateningly like a gang, and the Johto native shuts her eyes, silently praying for release from this cuddly hell...
baratheonpilled
theartofmadeline
izzy806
yousharknotpass
