[FIN] When Paths Cross

[BlackFireKitsune]

The Scyther cried out and staggered back at the sudden fire attack, then hissed angrily. That hurt! It raised one scythe menacingly, readying it to swing down towards the offending Vulpix, but Agatha darted past Swift and jumped up onto the bug-type. If it had opted for violence rather than having an actual battle, she would do the same; with a furious snarl the Weavile sank one set of claws into its shoulder to hang on while she stabbed the other straight into the Scyther's eye. It shrieked and swung its scythe regardless, but with its eyes shut it could no longer aim for its small target.

Sera was gone and Taavi looked to be in a great deal of pain, possibly because of her trainer's sudden departure. No one seemed to have noticed Valour's disappearance yet - except Anya. She shrank down towards the ground with a whimper. She knew what that meant, she knew what happened to pokemon that were stolen, how hopeless and impossible everything felt, and now it would happen to Valour. The Arcanine had stolen two pokeballs though, which meant the Rocket could steal two pokemon. Valour was one, and since Taavi's blue Scyther was still there despite continuously trying to attack the Metang, the Umbreon could only come to one conclusion. She shouted as she dashed after Sera, though she veered away at one point to n** at one of the Vulpix's tails. With her warning given, she turned and darted after Seraphine again.

Said brunette had reached Jacques at the same time Isabella turned and ran off - she wasn't in any state of mind to see where, although the Scyther and its assailants would be able to clearly see her barreling towards the bug-type, her fangs bared - and Sera sank to her knees beside her Zoroark, unaware of how she repeatedly mumbled, "oh no, oh no," over and over. She didn't have any recollection of pulling his pokeball from her belt on her way over to him, but it fell from her hand as her arms, her whole form trembled, tears already forming and starting to roll down her cheeks. "Jacques?" She asked, hesitantly laying her empty hand on his head, gently, gently stroking his ears, though deep down she already knew the answer to her question.

The Zoroark didn't stir.

The brunette sank down further and wrapped her arms around her lifeless pokemon's neck, holding him close as she buried her face into his mane as sobs wracked and shook her small frame. Anya keened and whined as she leaned against Sera's side, her ears slicked back against her head.  

[TawnyAngel]

s**t, s**t, s**t! Tim clenched a fist as he stared down at the battle below, they were taking his Scyther apart and there was nothing he could do without getting close, all of Metang's ranged attacks were psychic type! Swearing under his breath Tim took Scyther's pokeball from his belt and aimed downward, trying to recall it from among the chaos.

_______________

Swift was left breathing hard after unleashing the powerful fire attack and before he could gather enough energy for another strike Anya was beside him. <> The grey Vulpix looked around with sudden panic, he wasn't here when he had been a moment ago! Oh no. As realization dawned Swift dived under the nearest bush with Quick Attack and hunkered down small as he tried to block out reality. The Zoroark wasn't dead, Valour hadn't been taken, everything was going to be okay!

Now recovered from the Confusion blast Strikes the Sky made another leap for the Metang but it was ready for her this time and deflected her attack with Protect; she was able to flutter safely down to the ground this time but snarled with frustration as she went at her failure to harm her enemy.

As the battle raged on Taavi managed to get to his knees and then to his feet. With the world wavering unsteadily around him he stumbled over to Sera and her Zoroark friend where he dropped to his knees again. Letting his injured arm hang down loose by his side he reached out with his other hand to feel for a pulse in the dark type's throat. He knew he wouldn't find one but he had to try.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The Scyther reeled, shrieking in both anger and pain as it flailed its scythes, trying to swipe at Agatha to get her off. After the third try she retracted her claws and jumped away from it; it growled angrily, glaring at her with its one good eye, but before it could try to attack her Isabella slammed into it, sending it staggering backwards into the underbrush where the Rocket couldn't recall it. The Absol immediately leapt in after it, hackles raised and snarling with unbridled fury.

With Isabella handling the Scyther and the Rocket's other pokemon all but gone, Agatha stood there for a moment, flexing her claws. She turned and trotted over to the pair of humans kneeling on the ground, watched Sera weeping and hugging her felled teammate, watched Taavi try to check him to see if he was okay. Judging by the amount of blood staining Isabella's fur as well as seeping into the grass around him, the Weavile knew perfectly well that Jacques was dead. She saw the Scyther stab him, saw it fling him into a tree like a doll, saw him slump to the ground; she saw these things, and yet she held onto a small shred of hope that he'd be okay. It seemed she was mistaken.

Seized with a cold fury, a growl bubbled up in her throat. It turned into a snarl as she wheeled around and jumped up into the trees, leaping from branch to branch to get closer to the Rocket; she started shooting off Ice Beam after Ice Beam in rapid succession. Were she closer, she would jump onto the Metang and rip the Rocket to pieces herself, but he was much too high to do so; she could only throw what ranged attacks she could in the hopes he'd get knocked off. She shouted, spitting and snarling as she threw another Ice Beam and jumped higher, closer. go away! Your Scyther is dead, do you hear me?! Dead!> She practically spat the words; under the trees rose the sounds of a furious scuffle, Isabella snarling and the Scyther hissing. A sickening snap was muffled by the sheer amount of foliage, but it did little to muffle the pained shriek of the bug-type. Agatha continued, undeterred, though in her angry tirade and onslaught of ice attacks her control faded and her ascent grew haphazard and stumbling. ever see either of you again I will tear you apart myself - especially him! I swear I will rip both of you to pieces, tear you to shreds and leave you to rot!>

Taavi would find no pulse. Sera remained huddled over Jacques, clinging to him and tangling her fingers into the thick fur of his mane, mumbling muffled apologies and pleas, while Anya squeezed her eyes shut and hunkered down against her trainer's leg.  

[TawnyAngel]

Shiiiiiiiit. "Go go go!" Tim slapped his Metang on the top of its head, hunkering down against the metal surface to shelter from the Weavile's attacks. There was no getting his Scyther back now, damn thing hadn't done as it was told anyway.

The Metang didn't need telling twice. With a dispassionate glance at the raging Weavile it rose higher and shot away over the treetops.

______________

Nothing. Taavi's shoulders slumped and he reached out to touch Sera's shoulder, he didn't know what else to do.

What else to do; his radio!

"Ah, Valour? Valour please... please bring my radio." He'd have to tell HQ what had happened. Zoroark was dead and the Rocket had got away.

After a few moments Taavi heard soft footsteps behind him and then a thump as his radio was dropped on the ground. When he looked up he was greeted by the scarred and now rather singed and battered form of Sky.

<> The Scyther hissed and raised her head to look into the dimming sky. <> As she said this last she bowed her head to Sera's pokemon.

"...Gone?" Taavi stared at Sky for a few moments and then cast around wildly, gripping his injured arm against his chest again. "Valour? Valour!" No familiar cry, no silhouette gliding overhead as he returned from seeing the Metang off. He couldn't be gone though, if he was gone then the Rocket must had taken him. He couldn't have taken him.

Taavi heard his radio crackling and then a concerned voice coming out of it but he didn't pick up the words and nor did he move to pick up the radio.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Agatha shouted after them. She stumbled along a branch and with all her might hurled a Surf upwards at the retreating pair. The water soared up and then crashed down somewhere a few yards away, while the Weavile herself stumbled and fell to the ground below, snapping a few thinner branches along the way. She landed with a whump and lay there for a few seconds, winded, before she pushed herself back up onto unsteady feet. Her gaze immediately shot upwards and she began to dart back and forth through the clearing, panting the whole way, moving this way and that to look through the hole in the trees to see if she could see them anywhere.

She couldn't.

Once she finally slowed to a halt in the middle of the clearing, still panting heavily, still staring upwards, she finally allowed her fury to dissipate. she announced.

The touch at her shoulder made Sera physically recoil. She flung her arm back and glared viciously at Taavi, her face red and tear-stained. "Don't touch me!" She hissed, absolutely furious. She had to be furious. Anger was so much easier to deal with, so much easier to cope with than sadness. If she was angry then she could try to deny what had just happened, try to convince herself that Jacques would be fine if she could just take him to a pokemon center --

But she knew he wouldn't. She knew he wasn't okay, and he never would be again. Her anger evaporated just as quickly as it flared up and her expression faltered; new tears sprang to her eyes and threatened to spill. And it was then she realized Taavi had been looking for Valour. Sera's fingers returned to knot themselves in Jacques's mane, her puffy red eyes glancing around for the young man's bird. "..he's gone?"

Anya whined quietly again, but now that the Rocket was gone, it was more or less safe, even though he'd left terrible things in his wake. She called uncertainly, her large blue eyes scanning the underbrush in the hopes she would see the Vulpix, that he hadn't been taken too. This was horrible. Everything was horrible. Why did this have to happen?  

[TawnyAngel]

"Gone," Taavi echoed hollowly. Zoroark was dead and Valour was gone. The world seemed to go cold around him, the enormity of it was too great to comprehend and so he was left numb inside and out. For some moments he stared blankly up at the sky, he might have remained like that for longer if he hadn't heard his name called from the fallen radio. From then it took him another few moments to process what he needed to do; pick up the radio, press the button. "Taavi here. We... the battle's over. We need... we need...." What they needed nobody could give them. "Can you send somebody; over?" As he waited for a response Taavi turned to look at Sera again and tried to think of something to say. "I'm so sorry." It was nothing at all but it was true.

Swift crawled slowly out from under the bush and crept over to Taavi, where he lent against his trainer's leg and tried not to look at the corpse of the Zoroark. He had died protecting his friend. He shouldn't have died. This shouldn't have happened. He hadn't really understood all of the training to fight Team Rocket before but he did now. He wished he didn't.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

The battle was indeed over. Any noises or screeches the Scyther had made before had ended abruptly, though the occasional sounds of something snapping or tearing continued for several minutes. Eventually Isabella limped out from the underbrush, blood staining various patches of her otherwise white fur, although it wasn't clear how much of it was Jacques' and how much of it was hers. She finally slowed to a halt and sat down heavily beside Sera, staring down at the dead Zoroark at her feet with a puzzled expression. Any fury she'd had before was gone, had been all but spent on tearing the Scyther apart limb from limb, and now she was left with a cold emptiness. That and vague confusion, as she stared down at the fallen dark-type as if trying to figure something out, something she didn't quite understand.

Agatha slowly walked over to join them but remained standing, staring down at Jacques's body with her bloody claws flexing and clicking together. She was a pokemon of action, but there was nothing to act on anymore. She didn't know what to do.

A variety of emotions contorted the face that Sera turned to Taavi, each emotion struggling to be the most prominent - anger, fear, sadness, loneliness, emptiness, helplessness - but in the end sadness won out, fresh tears rolled down her face, and she bent down over her Zoroark as she started to weep again.

Anastasia hesitated, uncertain of what to do. What they should do. Was it safe here? The Rocket had requested assistance, but assistance never came - would he get them and bring them back here instead? Maybe they should go... Possibly. She wasn't sure. Either way, she at least leaned forward to pull Luna's pokeball from Sera's belt, drop it on the ground, and press the button to release the Rapidash. Luna manifested nearby and glanced around, startled at the scene before her. What had happened? She didn't share Anya's thoughts of escape, and instead lowered her head to gently slot her muzzle in the crook of Sera's shoulder to offer what comfort she could.  

[TawnyAngel]

It was hours later and long dark by the time he was dropped off outside Abel's apartment building. Jenny wanted to walk up with him to make sure he got in okay but he turned her down with sharpness out of keeping with his usual character enough to make her relent and send him on his way with a gentle squeeze to his good arm.

Wearing a borrowed shirt and with his other arm in a sling and a cast he headed inside and over to the elevator, where he stared at the metal doors for a few moments before remembering that he needed to press the button to call it.

He pressed the button and waited.

Eventually the elevator came, he got in, and it went up and then dinged at it reached the right floor. Shortly after this he stood in front of Abel's familiar front door, and here he hesitated. If he went inside and saw Abel then all of it would become real. Maybe... maybe he could just quietly turn around and leave, go somewhere else and become someone else who didn't have to deal with any of this.

Taavi swallowed and knocked on the door.

Swift slunk along at Taavi's heels, his tails practically dragging on the ground from physical and mental exhaustion. He couldn't stop seeing the Zoroark - Jacques - lying there in the dirt soaked with blood, and he couldn't stop thinking about Valour. Where was he now? Did he even know he'd been kidnapped yet? What would the Rockets do to him? He didn't know if he wanted to know.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Even though Taavi had messaged him to say he'd be back later than anticipated, Abel couldn't shake the feelings of misgiving that had taken hold. Taavi wrote and typed about as much as he talked, which could be quite a lot depending on what he was talking about, but the text he'd sent had been uncharacteristically short - just four small words - and Abel couldn't stop worrying over it. On one hand he felt it silly to be so worried about something so small, but on the other hand with all the s**t going on with Alyssa, it was hard to avoid being so paranoid that something would happen, something would go wrong. Despite the soreness and stiffness in his muscles that argued that he rest instead, despite the pain that flared up whenever he moved, the blond couldn't help but succumb to the restlessness that built up over the short period of time. He started pacing the apartment.

Luckily he'd only been doing so for a brief period of time - probably less than half an hour - before he heard a knock at the door. Sonia was waiting near it so she hastily jumped up and, once she was sure it smelled like Taavi and not Alyssa, opened it to allow him to enter. She didn't expect the cast though, or Swift's downcast appearance; her ears perked and eyes widened just a bit. "Zor?"

Abel had so many questions he wanted to ask, but all of them died in his throat when he saw Taavi on the other side of the door looking practically nothing like himself - and he had a cast on. "...what happened?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Getting Abel to stop pacing was a task that felt a little like trying to stop the tide and so Zevran hadn't bothered, choosing instead to sprawl on the couch and play a few hands of poker on his phone. He was half way through a game and doing rather well when the knock on the door came and when Sonia opened it he ditched his stake and sat up; something had happened.


What had happened. What had happened? Taavi stepped inside, struggling to find words. "He took Valour." Taavi swallowed and then took in a sharp breath at the pain that seemed to flare much worse in his chest than it did in his arm. "There was a Rocket and... and... he took Valour. And he killed Jacques, Sera's Zoroark, and he got away." How could he have let him get away? How could he have lost his best friend like that? He hadn't even noticed until Sky had told him. How could he not have noticed?  

[BlackFireKitsune]

He took Valour.

The words left him stunned, frozen to the spot. Valour was gone - stolen - and another pokemon had been killed. He didn't know Sera or her pokemon like Taavi or Isaac did, but he knew Valour was Taavi's best friend. And now he was gone.

Words didn't really seem like they'd do any good, even if he could think of any to say, so instead Abel walked over to Taavi, ignoring the stiffness, the aches and the pain that protested, and pulled him into a tight hug.  

[TawnyAngel]

Swift whined softly and sat down on the floor, one of the beds or the couch would be more comfortable but he was too tired to walk that far and didn't really care enough either. Valour and Taavi had been the first real friends he'd had and now one of them was gone, probably forever.

Being pulled against Abel's chest sent stabbing pains along his mauled arm but that didn't mean he wanted to let go. Taavi wrapped his good arm around Abel and held on tightly, his breath coming quick and shallow. "I didn't even notice. We were fighting, the Arcanine had my arm and then the Scyther killed Jacques and I went to them and... and I don't know when in all that it happened. He's gone, and worse than that he- he- the Rocket was using dark pokemon. He's going to do that to Valour." He knew it with a sick certainty, it might already have been done. As his thoughts reached their logical conclusion Taavi's legs buckled abruptly. If he ever saw his friend again the best thing he could do for him would be to kill him.

As Taavi collapsed against Abel Zevran hopped lightly to his feet and crossed the room quickly to take the dark-skinned man's weight if Abel would let him, the last thing Abel needed was to be holding people up right now. Zevran had no idea what a dark pokemon was if it wasn't a type, and it didn't sound like it from what Taavi had just said, but it had to be terrible to cause a reaction like this. s**t, had all of them done something to especially annoy the fates recently?  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Sonia hesitated a moment before she bent down and scooped Swift up into her arms, then turned to carry him over to the couch. Isaac trotted alongside her, his ears back as he let out a soft, concerned whine for both the Vulpix and his human friend.

Abel had a similar idea - between the sharp stabs of blinding hot pain, of course - and he gratefully shifted the bulk of Taavi's weight to Zevran when he came to the rescue. Not that he didn't want to hug and support his friend when he needed him most, because he certainly did, he was just.. unfortunately not really able to as well as he normally could. "Here, let's go sit on the couch, yeah?" He said, half to Taavi and half to Zevran, "and you don't know that for sure, he might not. Don't they sell them sometimes? We can go looking for him," he suggested, though even as he said it he realized that he probably wasn't fit to really do that either... Damn, why did Alyssa have to stab him right before something like this happened?  

[TawnyAngel]

Zevran nodded silently to Abel's suggestion and half led half carried Taavi over to the couch where he helped him to sit down before withdrawing discreetly, he liked Taavi but didn't consider that he knew him well enough to be of any help right now... At least not in an emotional sense.

Having hung around here for several days while he was ill and now several more to keep an eye on Abel Zevran had discovered that unless he brought it in there was never anything much in the cupboards besides coffee, instant noodles, and pokemon food. He hadn't said anything about it but since Abel had come home he had changed it; he had promised to cook no? Well he was cooking, and Abel was a captive audience who had no choice but to suffer it! It had been an easy excuse, he didn't exactly know what Abel thought of it but feeding him properly was the more important thing right now.

The upshot of all of that however was that, while shopping earlier, Zevran had picked up a few things so that he could cook when Taavi came back. Cooking might not be on the cards now but the drink he had bought might just go down well.

Swift lent against Sonia's chest, grateful for the help and the contact. When he was set down on the couch however he moved quickly to Taavi's side and curled up against his thigh.

"No, he will," Taavi replied as he was helped over to the couch. The world blurred as tears filled his eyes but he couldn't summon the energy to raise his hand to wipe them away. "Sera's Absol killed his Scyther and... and I'm pretty sure I stabbed his Arcanine in the eye. He'll want to get payback for that." That was the kind of people Rockets were. "Pokemon are tools," he said, aware that he was stuttering now but no more able to stop that than he was able to stop the tears running down his cheeks. "We broke one of his tools and damaged another, so he'll want to replace it." He hadn't even noticed that Valour was gone, he had just assumed he would be there like he'd always been there since they'd met.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

Isaac hopped up onto the couch as well and curled up against the Vulpix to offer what solace he could.

Ah, well... That.. didn't sound good. Taavi sounded so sure, and he'd know better than any of them... But what did they have to hope for? They could hope that he'd be okay, but they wouldn't know for sure... "Well," he started uncertainly as he carefully sat down beside his friend and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, "the only thing I can suggest is to not assume that'll happen until you see it for sure. I know how hard that is, but he wouldn't want you to give up on him so quick, yeah?" He kept his voice gentle as he gave Taavi's shoulder a squeeze. "I'm sorry that happened, I can only imagine how awful it was," though he'd been through some pretty awful situations himself so he maybe had at least an idea of how terrible it was, "but we can go out tomorrow to look for him, or talk to people who can keep an eye out for him. Does the KSO know, or the League people?"