[PRP] Belly of the Beast

[Loreven]

Lore hurried to join Xander at Tambrey's side. It didn't look like she was seriously wounded, but it wasn't exactly an easy thing to diagnose.

"Look, enough of this. You've got us in a cell, everyone's feeling a little temperamental. Violence isn't necessary."

The unhappy frown had already left Deimos' face. "No, it was necessary. It's up to all of you if it becomes necessary again."

"What is it you want with us?"

Deimos chuckled and wandered closer to the bars, staying just out of arm's reach. He was grinning full force again, as though nothing had happened, "No need to keep up the act. We know who you are and we've sent Lucere a message. Your brother knows you're in good hands."

Lore winced as Deimos confirmed what he'd been afraid of. He recovered quickly, "He's not going to cooperate. If you want to put him in a better mood at least let the others go. If I'm the one you were after, you don't need them."

Deimos rolled his eye, "What makes you think we want him to cooperate? Or that you're the only one we were after? His brother and six of Team Rocket's finest.. lost." He made a flourish with one hand, "I'm sure he'll be worried sick." His expression took an eerie serious turn, "It's what he deserves for what he did." Deimos glared for a moment, then smiled again, "No, I think we'll be keeping you all here."  

[Rocket Agent Jerome]

Jerome knew it wouldn't shut the kid up, He knew it too well, he saw the look on his face, saw the defenses he was trying to put into place.
The others could say anything they wanted to shut him up, but types like this... Naw, that ain't how they learn.
Types like this learned the hard way, if they were lucky to survive it.
Jerome would know, he was the same way when he was younger.

The Gangster just hoped that whatever this was leading too... It wasn't going to result in the kid getting killed.
What came next though, was something completely unexpected.

The blue haired women released a pokemon, this prompted Jerome to pull his arm off of the bars, sliding a foot back.
He expected something to happen to the kid, he honestly did. But when the attack hit the women who was standing by Shadow, Jerome's head jerked back with a look of unexpected ********." Jerome growled, her eyes wide as he stared down at Tambrey collapse and convulse in ******** ********, what the ******** was this? Going after her to get to Shawn...
Jerome continued to watch as two of the other Rockets rushed over to check on her, his free hand lifting up to run over the shaved side of his head, seemed a little stressed and pissed off at what just happened.

Hearing a voice behind them again, this time from a man, Jerome shifted his weight to turn, letting him glancing back over as Eye-patch started talking, This was how they were going to play... this was not good.
The gangster didn't show much of how he was feeling right now, but his expression did become harder, one eyebrow tensing under his forehead.

Not everything really made sense, what the Rocket executive and Eye-patch were saying, Jerome didn't recognize the name 'Lucere', hence had no idea why that was relevant.
But to his credit the longer he listened the more he was able to add up what they were talking about.

Either way, It wasn't looking good for any of them.  

[Shawn Darrow]

When Deimos' one good eye narrowed at him before glancing over to his second in command, Shadow frowned. What was the guy here for if he didn't even do or say anything? He might as well have been like the Rocket boss; sitting up somewhere in his fancy quarters while his subordinates did his dirty work.

Before he could think on this long, though, the blue-haired woman had summoned a pokemon to her side. It was one of the few Shadow recognized, but he hardly expected the water-type to execute an electric-type attack, let alone on one of his teammates. Though it was the same attack that had been directed at Aulus' pokemon during the battle at the museum, in all the commotion, the teen hadn't been able to confirm its source. Not until now.

The kid's tough act melted and he sank to his knees. "Tambrey!" He was about to reach out to her, but the others were already by her side. And what right did he have to check on her? She had warned him several times and he hadn't listened. They all had warned him, but until then, Shadow hadn't understood what they had been warning him against. He'd never had expected the Galactic woman to see though him like that, and Tambrey had paid the price for his underestimation. Looked like he hadn't known what he was doing after all.

With the cuffs finally off, the grunt slumped back against the bars, feeling defeated. He was still in slight shock that the woman would have done such a thing to his teammates, but mentally he berated himself for having been so stupid. Lore's conversation with the purple-haired man vaguely reached his ears, but it meant little to him if anything, since he hadn't been a Rocket long enough to realize that Lucere was their boss's name and what that meant about Lore. Nor did he know what was meant by Deimos when he stated that it was what Lucere deserved for what he did.

The boy glanced back to Tambrey and the others in concern. His teammates probably hated him now for not heeding their advice and they had good reason to. Shadow fell silent, sinking slowly into a pit of despair. They were never going to get out of here.  

[Gwennythe]

Well, she heard her name shouted, but for a moment or two, the grunt wasn't sure where an earth it could have come from.
Her head cleared to a reasonable degree though and she could make enough of her thoughts to remember what had just happened.
Where was Shawn? Had he been..? No, wait. The attack had been aimed at her... She looked, checked, and found herself relieved; he didn't look happy over there, but at least he wasn't getting himself into trouble.

"...Ow." Tambrey muttered, starting to prop herself back up to sit on the floor as Xander and Lore joined her and she felt herself being helped upright.
Or, well, she let herself get as upright as sitting there on the floor anyway.
The attack hadn't left her seriously injured after all, she could just about figure that out, but she was still numb and still left sore from the event; a tingling, stinging sort of sensation continued to feel like it was crawling beneath her skin while she found herself left slightly out of breath.

"I... am okay." She told Xander, sounding rather surprised at the fact herself.

She heard the exchange while she recovered, though it took a good few moments to sink through the 'ow-that-frakkin-hurt' fog that her brain had decided to put up.
Lucere. Message. Made sense; they'd have to brag about their captives after all, maybe use them.
Brother?
"Brother?" She almost muttered it.
If... that meant what it sounded like... She managed to turn puzzled, narrowed eyes on Lore. That... would explain a few things, but it probably meant... uh- well, it /meant/ something important. She'd have to wait until her head cleared to be properly surprised and to remember this train of thought.

Purple-pirate-man was still talking... Six of Team Rocket's finest? Well. Alright then... That could be either good or bad news, that he thought that...
She turned her eyes on him, inspected and remembered him from 'The Machine' though not quite as vividly as his second in command.
He was... creepy- that was a good word for some of the strangeness, the grunt supposed- but he wasn't the scariest thing in the room.
Tambrey found her nerves creeping quite high as her eyes moved to Tethys; of course it had been her pokemon that shocked her like that... This was the woman who had, just about, shot her and left her with the scar that had served as so much more physical a reminder of that mission than her nightmares.  

[TawnyAngel]

As the blast of electricity lit the room Aulus flinched and closed his eyes. When he opened them he was momentarily surprised, and then not surprised at all. The Galactics weren't dumb. This was a... a psychological type thing, making them responsible for one another's pain. Aulus shot a glance at his partner and tried not to worry. He wasn't worried about what Hayes would do, not at all, it was himself and his stupid temper he was scared of. If he ******** up they might hurt Hayes... was it too late to pretend he hated the elite?


Hayes winced when Shawn ignored the warning in the woman's voice - a good thing, because the next moment brightness flashed against his eyelids and the grunt shrieked like a girl.

The blond rubbed the back of one aching wrist across his bloodied eye to better see, but his teammates' shouts were enough to know what had happened.

"s**t," he breathed - because he'd come to the same conclusion as Jerome and Aulus, because what Deimos was saying to Lore had turned their situation that much worse, and because now there was something in his eye.


Why was Hayes rubbing at... his... eye. What? The boss' brother? They were ********. Totally and utterly ********. This wasn't about hostages and bartering, it really was just revenge with maybe some information gathering on the side. No matter what, however, he was pretty sure this would be really painful, for all of them. He glanced over at Hayes again, still vaguely wondering what was wrong with his eye but mainly worrying about what might happen to him. The Galactics had taken their gear. Had they woked out Hayes was an elite and decided to make him suffer more because of it? He couldn't let them, he couldn't, but what could he do to protect him? Nothing. He'd promised to look after him, so much confidence and bravado. It was useless here. ********. Were any of them even going to come out alive?


Hayes' inclination was to stay quiet and let the Galactics say what they wanted until they left. But he'd been leading this mission - still was, presumably - and watering eye or no, as the second-highest rank here he was expected to.. do something. The question was what. Helping Tambrey - that was taken care of. Negotiating with the Galactics - Lore knew more than he did about the situation. Reassuring words to the party - not a good idea with an audience watching, and- there was no help for it. With a grimace, the blonde pinched the lens out of his right eye and blinked several times, tears clearing enough to see (with his left) the fleck of his blood that had slipped under the disc of thin plastic.


Oh, right, contacts.... Hayes really see well without lenses or glasses so far as he knew; he'd seen his friend blinking very owlishly on occasions when he'd taken his glasses off to clean them. Were they all going to be split up? He hoped not. At least if they were together he could be some kind of reassuring presence.

Having totally forgotten his resoloution of a few momnets ago to be hostile, Aulus shifted slightly towards his partner and treated Rapunzel and Captain Poof to a dark glare. Nobody was going near Hayes, not while he was still upright.  

[Galactic Deimos]

Though no questions had been posed to him, Deimos resumed speaking, "It wasn't easy, you know. Luring you out like this." Following the comic-book villains monologuing handbook, he started pacing and gesturing. "After what you did to my Machine I knew Lucere had to pay... but how. We started researching him. His history.. his family. I must say your leader's done an admirable job of covering his tracks. Unfortunately you can't erase everything. It was only a matter of time."

Lore cast a glance at his fellow Rockets. It was a sort of eyeroll that clearly said, is this guy for real?

Sighing, he sat down for the inevitable speech.

More than used to this behavior, Tethys folded her hands behind her back and took up a listening stance. Her Starmie floated just in front of her right shoulder, only slightly more expressionless than its mistress.

Deimos swept around, cape billowing as he turned to pace in the opposite direction, grinning at the Rockets, "Once we found out about Loreven here it was easy. We knew he was in Team Rocket, he was there when you destroyed my Ariados. And while Lucere might not have many obvious Achilles heels.. Loreven.." Deimos shook his head, "Quite the history of kleptomaniacal behavior. So the goal would be to set a trap that would lure out not only Team Rocket, the boss's brother. An item as rare and valuable as the Sky Plate going on open display at an average-security museum seemed adequate bait. So we purchased it, loaned it to the museum, implemented our own security measures and just waited for you to show up."

His second's gaze fixed briefly on Lore, bypassing the other Rockets. "You were expensive." Her bland tone suggested she didn't consider the man alone good value for money.

Deimos stopped pacing and faced the Rockets again. Maybe he was waiting for them to tell him how wonderful he was. He seemed to be expecting something. It was unlikely Deimos actually had a lot of experience with prisoner interactions outside of watching Bond movies.

After a moment of awkward silence Lore decided to speak, "Well.. good job?"  

[TawnyAngel]

At the risk of getting himself (or somebody else) electrocuted, shot, or something worse Aulus cleared his throat but didn't move from his position next to Hayes against the bars. "So now what?" he asked. "You figured out who he was, set a trap for him - and the rest of us - and you caught us. What're you actually going to do with us now you have us?" You ridiculous little poof. He was ridiculous and so was she; that ice queen expression with that stupid pretty princess hair was so incongruent as to be laughable. They were laughable. He was not afraid of them. He was not. He would not be afraid of them! ********. He was afraid of them, or rather of what they could have done to him and Hayes and Tam and the others. They were not looking for cooperation from Lucere. They weren't being held for ransom. Revenge, and not even against any of them ******** either of them seen who'd pressed the button that had destroyed the Machine? That had been Hayes, and he had been standing right with him. If this was about the Machine they were going to make Hayes suffer, or possibly him if they thought that would hurt the elite even more. He really, really hoped they hadn't seen who did it.  

[Gwennythe]

Tambrey had decided that, for now, she would be staying on the floor; it seemed like it might be safer somehow.
She watched Deimos pace and talk, and marveled just a little bit at the fact that these people had... given up such an artifact with the main intention of luring Lore to... well, this point. Even in such a situation, and still tingly and a little shocked from the... shock, her brain had stored away one little fact to enjoy later; They actually did have the Sky Plate!
... Except that they were all stuck here at the mercy of the crazy inventor-pirate and his scary teal-haired guard.
Lore's compliment to Deimos seemed the perfect response and Tambrey bit her lip; she was in no danger of laughing at it while she was this scared and (to be honest) a little stunned, still, but still, there was some humour to that.
Her thoughts had been running vaguely similarly to Aulus' for the most part, running along in the background until now while she dealt with, first, the fear that Shawn was going to make trouble for himself, and then the... fact that she had been electrocuted. Now, as he asked, she found herself hanging on for the answer, watching Deimos carefully.
He really was... odd.
She hadn't come to the conclusion about the button and Hayes and Aulus, but she had, several times, taken a mental count of who, who had been on the machine mission, were also here.  

[Galactic Deimos]

At Aulus' question, Deimos tilted his head and offered the most menacing grin he could manage, "Whatever we like." He chuckled and adjusted his cape, drawing himself up to look important, "Mmwell, Tethys and I have work to attend to. I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to catch up later. You all have a pleasant evening." With a final smirk, Deimos turned with a flourish and headed back the way he and Tethys had entered.

Lore watched the small leader depart, cape billowing behind him, then glanced at the others, "So uh.. ...anyone but me hungry?"
 

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus turned a singularly unimpressed look on Lore. This was his fault his fault! If it wasn't for him they wouldn't be in this mess and there he was asking if anyone was hungry? The man was ridiculous, nearly as ridiculous as the bloody Galactics! Why had it had to be Hayes' mission that got tagged onto by the stupid p***k, why couldn't it have happened to somebody else? This wasn't fair, he hadn't done anything to deserve this, hadn't asked for it! He wanted to go home....

It wasn't Lore's fault. Lore hadn't taken part in the destruction of the Machine, and couldn't help who he was. The people to blame were the ones who'd gone on that mission, himself and Hayes amongst them. He had done something to deserve this; he'd joined a criminal organization, and he'd started to enjoy his life there. Danger. Interest. Excitement. He'd been such a naive pillock when he'd jumped at the chance of those, doubly so to have thrown his whole life away for them. He hadn't done more than text his family on occasion since he'd arrived here in Kodo. He wanted to go home.  

[Natsuko-neko]

Xander stayed quiet as Lore and Deimos talked. He didn't want to set them off with any comments he might have said with the revelation of Lore being the bosses brother. It had been bad enough if it had just been Galactic getting revenge on a bunch of random Team Rocket members but to add in Lucere's family? The blond kept his eyes on Tambrey to make sure he didn't start sending the Exec. worried looks and in return missed Lore's little eye roll.

When Tambrey answered him, he gave her a nod, hoping that she was indeed fine and not just hiding something or just plain being unaware of a problem. Deimos' attempt to being intimidating made Xander bite back a snicker as he finally looked back at Deimos and Tethys as they left. It would have been more effective if the ice queen had delivered it after all. Though it was still worrying in the long run.

When they were as alone as they could be with the guards he shifted to sit between Tambrey and Shawn as he looked around at everyone. "More thirsty then hungry at this point." He said, glad for at least something to try to lighten the mood.  

[Gwennythe]

Menacing grin.
Or whatever that was.
What ever it was was just a little bit creepy; like a kid just before they put in some planned prank... or pulled the wings off a bug.

Deimos was a strange, strange little purple man, and he might not have had a grip on being classically sinister, but Tambrey still found herself giving a little bit of a twitch at the expression; she just couldn't help but find it creepy.
Possibly it was Tethys' lack of expression that was helping to amplify the expression into such in her mind; that and the whole 'just got electrocuted' thing.

Blink, blink. Hrm.
She didn't like her contacts at the best of times; now she needed them- was forced to wear them- and they were rather irritating. The blinking was to clear a fuzz that could have been either visual or mental- she really wasn't all that sure.

"Thirsty." The grunt responded to Lore, agreeing with Xander. "Could go for a nice cup of tea." She leaned back as Xander sat beside her. "Cup of tea and a nap... Uh, y'know... A non-plant-y sort o' nap." She paused, then added "In a bed."  

[Loreven]

The responses from Xander and Tambrey earned a smirk from Lore, though it only lasted a moment. He seemed more bothered by the look Aulus had given him.

Sighing, he ran his fingers back through his hair. As his hand passed the strands fell back down to frame his face. "I wasn't trying to be dishonest with you guys. Y'know it was Luce's id- er.. Lucere's idea. The not telling thing. I'm all for telling. But he wanted to keep it a secret because....." He quirked an eyebrow and glanced around the cell, "..he was afraid this would happen."

He scratched his chin, looking unusually serious. It was the first time anyone'd really seen him drop his jovial demeanor. It made him look surprisingly like his brother, "This is pretty clearly my fault I.. owe you guys an apology."  

[Rocket Agent Jerome]

Jerome didn't offer anything to say either as the Galactic in the cape just went off on this... unusual ramble.
It was a little surreal listening to this, he was almost starting to not take this whole situation seriously, He certainly didn't think he could take Eye patch seriously.
He didn't get to think that way for long though, since of course he didn't forget what the chick in blue did to their own girl, and the looks on the faces on the other Galactics in the room.
Naw... this was pretty damn serious.

The ex-gangster just watched the man in the cape tell his little proud story, and said nothing as the man and the women left.
Jerome stayed by the bars, not taking his eyes off of the room outside the prison at the same time listening to what his team takes were saying.

Other then the stiffness in one of his eyebrows, Jerome didn't look particularly bothered or riled, Hearing what they were here for, and what might be happening to them had cleared up a lot of questions.
Teh... it was just a typical gang war.

When Lore spoke with a more level and serious tone, the tattooed man finally turned his head, listening to him, talking about a Lucere, and how he owed them an apology.

"Man, knock that p***y s**t off." He grunted, though there was an oddly encouraging quality to his gruff tone and rude vulgarity. Turning as he spoke to press his back to the cold bars, being careful not to touch his injury to the metal.
"Would have happened anyway, y'heard Eye-patch didn't ya?
-Mean c'mon, S'how conflict like this works. We hit them, they hit us back, n' the hits r' just ganna get harder and harder till one f'us clears the other out. S'how gang wars go.
From the sounds of it, its been like that for a while now, ain't it?"

He tried to cross his arms, but only managed to cross his good arm over his waist and sigh deeply.

"... Who's Lucere? S'that our boss er somethin'?"
He was starting to wonder who was as the top of the pecking order.  

[Loreven]

Lore's smirk resurfaced at Jerome's unique brand of encouragement. The smirk graduated to a full smile at the question about who Lucere was.

He chuckled and nodded, "Yeah. He's the big guy. Wears $600 suits and everything."