[FIN] In Over Your Head

[Suudonym]

"Look, it's not-- Ugh!" Hunting creatures that could shatter stone and breathe fire wasn't the safest pastime, and from it Sorey had developed a keen sense of self-preservation: If you're hit, get some distance. This instinct betrayed him now as his hands reflexively released the girl's so that he could back away.

Fortunately, Mikleo was still ready and willing - even eager - and in the next moment, he generated a globe of water before him, firing off the Water Pulse at the girl's legs.  

[Blood_Goddess]

"AHA!" The girl cheered! Stepping back away from Sorey, and pulling her hand out of the bag. Staggering back already seeing the movement from the other three as she freed herself.
"I don't think so!" the girl cried out, thrusting her hand forward and pointing the berry at Mikleo
.... wait... Berry?!

It was very clear that the girl had not expected to be holding what she was holding. Her wide eyes blinking and going white as she pulled it back and looked at the squished and dripping berry.
"Oh sh-"
With a squeal her legs were knocked out from under her, causing her to fall flap on her chest
"Ow!" She groaned, rolling over onto her back and holding her torso.

Rosie pushed herself forward when Mikleo attacked, bringing herself over to Sorey. "Sorey! Are you okay?"

The girl was clearly more determined to get away then they though, as she was suddenly on her feet, and with a rustle was suddenly completely out of sight.
"Wait!" Rosie called out in a bit of a shaky voice. "Y-- You're under arrest..? Uh..."
Two of her poke balls burst open. A large portion of space was suddenly taken up by a large Sawsbuck with a massive display of antlers. the second springing forth a glittering form of a Lopunny, who, once hitting the ground, sprang up with an impressive height, using the Sawsbuck's antlers to further propel herself forward after the human who had tried to attack and rob Sorey.
she called out to him as she arched over him, and thudding hooves behinds Mikleo announced to fast approach of the large deer.  

[Suudonym]

Sorey patted his knee lightly; it was sore, but there was no lasting damage. "I'm fine," he replied with a nod, then he quickly turned his eyes back on the girl who had... taken one of the lum berries that he'd gathered at the ruins, for some reason. The frown on his face was more confused than anything else.

Mikleo turned as he was addressed and, startled by the sight, quickly made to jump aside and take up a place at Sorey's heel. he muttered.

"Uh..." Sorey looked from the stranger with the handful of squished lum to Rosie, "What exactly is going on here?"  

[Blood_Goddess]

Rosie's eyes widened slightly as she watched two of her pokemon take off after where the strange girl had run off to. her hands moved to clasp together tightly before looking over to Sorey, relived that he wasn't hurt. "Thank goodness."

"She's probably Team Rocket." Rosie explained "There have been reports of similar things happening. if not then she's someone who just tried to steal Mikleo from you..."

Though she didn't feel particularly confident Rosie moved to hurry after her Pokemon who had left to chase down the escaping girl.
Rosie was surprised that they hadn't run very far. Both of her Pokemon were standing just on the other side of some bushes, by the edge of the lake that they had been looking for.

Pop looked up from where she was crouched, a paw pressed to her cheek.
She admitted.

Rosie's eyebrows arched as she looked to the water, that clearly looked like it had been recently disturbed.
"Did... Did she...?"

Grealhorn finished for Rosie, drawing the trainer's attention.

"U-uh... oh...." Rosie hovered by the waters edge, unsure of what to do as she watched the water rippling gently.  

[Suudonym]

"Steal Mikleo?" Sorey repeated, looking down at the Vaporeon in question. "But how would she... Ohh, wait, I think I get it." She'd looked pretty surprised to see the berry in her hand, and that was after pointing it at Mikleo. She must have thought she was grabbing a pokeball - which made a lot more sense than the idea of a rogue berry thief. Well that was an effort doomed to failure from the beginning.

Sorey and Mikleo followed as well, navigating through the forest growth after the pokemon that had gone ahead. The situation only got stranger when they arrived at the edge of the water.

Mikleo said, incredulous, as he approached the pond's shore and peering past his reflection. Why?>

Sorey scratched at the back of his head, equally confused. "What should we do?"  

[Blood_Goddess]

"I don't know." Rosie admitted to Sorey's question. "Maybe... she thought she could hide?"

Northern floated up next to Rosie, blinking down in the water "... she's proud of herself." She told the trainers and pokemon.

Pop drawled, pushing herself back up to her feet and stretching an arm behind her head.

"How long has she been down there?" Rosie asked glancing over to Grealhorn again.

the stag replied without looking away from the water surface.

Some time passed, the water had grown still and Rosie still didn't see any signs of the girl coming up out for air, though Northern insisted that she was still in the water.
"... Team Rocket does have some pretty good technology, maybe she's got something to help her breath down there?" she offered, looking at Sorey. She was starting to get a little worried with how much time had passed.  

[Suudonym]

Rosie wasn't the only one feeling that way, and Sorey looked over to Mikleo, giving his suggestion, "Do you think you could go check it out?"

Mikleo made an expression as if he'd just been asked to eat mud but heaved a resigned sigh nonetheless.

With that, the Vaporeon stepped forward into the lake, his body becoming nearly transparent wherever it was submerged. Once fully immersed, he gave a flick of his tail and swam forward, searching for the figure of the alleged Rocket.  

[Blood_Goddess]

"Be careful..." Rosie said as Mikleo moved forward to enter the water, hoping against hope it wasn't a trap.

"Panic..." Northern muttered,
Rosie blinked at her before the sound of the surface of the water breaking fulled the air and a DEEP breath was taken.

The girl with black hair now sopping wet and splayed around the surface. she wore a smirk on her face at first, until she caught sight of the two trainers starting at the edge of the water.
Eyes wide, she took another breath and dipped her head under again.

"... Does.... Does she think we'll just go away?" Rosie said in bewilderment.
by now Pop was laughing so hard she had to reach out and put a paw on Grealhorn's leg just to keep herself upright, Greal letting out a grunt of disapproval as he watched the surface of the water.  

[Suudonym]

"I... kinda feel bad," Sorey admitted, his brow knit. "She doesn't seem to be very good at this. It sort of feels like we're bullying her..."

Beneath the surface, Mikleo waited for the submerge again, then looped around towards her, positioned himself near her feet, and veeery carefully reached out with an open mouth to n** her toe.  

[Blood_Goddess]

"I kind of want to just leave her alone too... but she she is part of Team Rocket then she chose a life that will lead her to hurt other people and Pokemon, I really should try and take her into the KSO before she tries this kind of thing again..." Rosie explained, tightening her hands together "At least we should find out if she even is Team Rocket... hear her side."

The girl yelled out in the water, letting out a burst of bubbles that reached the surface seconds before she did.
Taking another deep breath she found herself staring at the two trainers again, frowning deeply at them.  

[Suudonym]

"I see..." That did complicate things a bit. She seemed harmless enough, but that was probably just because the odds were against her. What if he had had a pokeball for Mikleo and she had grabbed it instead of the lum berry? What if Northern hadn't been there to send the Blastoise away? What if her opponent had been a lone child instead of two people who could handle themselves?

The girl surfaced again, and when she did, Sorey called out to her, "Why don't you come out of there and talk to us? My Vaporeon's in the water, so you're not going to be able to stay in there. Even if you could, we're not going anywhere."  

[Blood_Goddess]

For a moment she didn't say anything, just remained where she was treading water and pouting at the surface.
finally, after she seemed to have gone through and run out of options she reached her hand up to her ear, and grumble something under her breath before she started to swim toward the shore where the two trainers were.
"I still won't tell you anything!" The girl retorted to Sorey, ignoring the hand that was offered to her by Rosie as a help out and crawled out of the water herself.  

[Suudonym]

"Weeell that's kind of a problem," Sorey said, "'cause it sounds like we have some things we need to confirm with you. Like, 'were you trying to steal Mikleo from me' and 'are you with Team Rocket.'" It was hard not to feel bad for her when she was looking so bedraggled, but if she really was a bad person trying to do bad things, that was a problem that needed to be resolve.  

[Blood_Goddess]

The girl looked between the two for a couple of seconds, her eyes settling on Sorey.
"... no. I'm not." she replied "I was just trying to find something to eat, since I was hungry." she sounded like she was serious.

"... she's laughing."

"What is this ones DEAL?" the girl asked pointing to the Jirachi, "Obviously I'm not laughing! This is laughing! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Pop shifted forward forcefully her balled fist at her side ready to knock the women back into the water, but a hand on the Lopunny's chest stopped the Pokemon from going any further. "Its okay Pop. We're just talking now."  

[Suudonym]

"That's... not true," Sorey said, delivering the words cautiously. He desperately disliked calling others liars, but... there was no way he could as much as act like he believed that. "You said you were lost and wanted to see a map. If you wanted food, shouldn't you have just asked, instead of lying and then trying to steal it? I mean..." he tilted his head slightly, "...even if it's true, you were trying to steal food from us, right? So that's still criminal behavior."