[mission] break your step

[delilah]

[attr="class","dnote1"] bluh i'm sorry this is terrible and that delilah isn't exactly ...... sociable Nikolai

[attr="class","dtext1"]if you had told her three days ago she would have been in charge of babysitting recruits, she would have laughed and asked if you were drunk -- but now was not three days ago, and the man who had told her what her mission certainly had not a drop of liquor in his system. (if anything, he needed a drink to get that massive rod out of his ass; was it a requirement to be a total killjoy to rise up in the ranks?) she had accepted, of course -- as if the woman really had a choice in the matter -- and thus, there she was, standing outside blackthorn. delilah's manicured fingernails rapped against a button on her coat as she glanced around. anything unusual? the gallade by her side shook his head. other than the occasional spearow, it didn't seem like there was anything around to be wary of. she smirked. "well, i guess we should get the party started." decarabia stared at her. sensing his concern, she snorted. "c'mon, cara. it'll be fun." the woman lightly punched her gallade in the arm before taking his hand. "you remember where we're going, right? i don't want to end up in the ice caves again." the psychic pokemon looked down in embarrassment. i -- i promise that won't happen again. delilah laughed, nudging him with her shoulder. "let's just go." with a nod, the pair of them vanished from outside of the city. everything around them meshed into a massive, abstract swathe of colors before coming together to form the training grounds of blackthorn. she cleared her throat loudly, raising an eyebrow at the pair sparring in front of her. no one paid any attention. the woman rolled her eyes. "excuse me." no response. "dude, over here." still nothing. delilah, m-maybe you should -- "over here, you fucking idiots!" silence. she could feel the eyes of the trainees on her. with another eyeroll, she glared at them. "i could have shot a ton of you in the time it took you all to fucking pay attention," she snapped, placing her right hand on her hip. "all of you, hurry up and get your asses in line." a few of the more obedient ones shuffled into order, but one of them sidled up to her. he took in her carefully-done nails and dyed hair before smirking. "you sure you're in the right place, missy?" delilah looked up at him. he easily had a foot on her height -- she wasn't exactly tall, really -- and he had that look on his face. (the one that didn't take her seriously.) delilah's mood soured, and her knee shot up to collide with his groin. he doubled over with an agonized groan, and the woman promptly sent her fist into his face. the crack of his nose was quite satisfying, actually. she stood over the fallen man as her gallade rushed to tend to him with a heal pulse. delilah turned her glare on the rest of the recruits. "lesson one: always be prepared." the woman grinned. "your enemy won't take it easy just because you aren't wearing a cup." the woman shot a pointed glance at the still-moaning man before looking back at the now-silent group. "any other stupid questions before i get started?" d-delilah? what? you ... have a partner on this mission, remember? oh. she sighed. "on second thought, let's wait for a few more minutes." delilah rolled her shoulders. the party would just have to wait until whoever it was decided to get there.

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[Nikolai]

To be honest, Nikolai didn't like leaving his gym.
That didn't mean that he hadn't jumped to make arrangements to have his single-seater plane fueled and prepared as soon as he read the digital message summoning to Blackthorn, or that he had responded to said summons with anything other than a curt affirmation. It wasn't his place to complain.

He really wished he was still in Vermillion, however.

Blackthorn City had been a tricky landing. Though it was a bastion of Lux power, it was still a very insulated mountain town; in fact, its defensive location was probably why Blackthorn made such a convenient Lux base. Though an airstrip had been set up, it was a narrow strip settled between two peaks, requiring good skill to land on when the storm winds kicked up. Caught several thousand feet up in the air and requesting permission to land, the lieutenant found his normally patient demeanor quickly becoming irritated as he was asked to complete loop after loop after loop around the peaks as his request to land was denied. A landslide had apparently blocked the path near the end of the runway. Pah. Gaia seemed to have much more patience for their delay, enjoying the admittedly beautiful view of Blackthorn's mountains and dips as she sat complacently on his right, his ever faithful co-pilot.

Eventually, the blockage was broken down and cleared away, and Nikolai was given the green light. He touched down less than five minutes later. His plane, little more than a single-engine puddle jumper, could have probably avoided the rubble entirely had he braked hard enough. The runway was kept long enough to take much larger planes than his, after all; being forced to wait just in case had been, if anything, a formality. Unfortunately, Nikolai had never been one to question the formalities.

He hated being late, so he wasted no time after taxiing to a stop to head towards the training grounds. He soon was glad he had left his old bomber jacket on - it was much cooler here than in Vermillion. Gaia stuck close to his side, though she was much more interested in taking in the sights of the small part of Blackthorn they briskly strode through before the city gave way to row after row of identical barracks. Nikolai wasn't sure what he'd find when he got there. Did they think that teaching soldiers to "expect the unexpected" was some sort of standard procedure? The best way to expect the unexpected, the Lieutenant firmly believed, was to stick them in the heat of battle. A strange emotion brewed in his chest when he ruefully realized that they would most likely experience that particularly awful thrill soon enough.

Only when he reached the meeting ground did he remember that he was supposed to have a partner. He was a little surprised to see a woman standing in front of a scrappy-looking group of soldiers, seeming to have gotten them into into place though still not beginning any sort of exercises. Hm, it was unlike him to forget such an important detail.. Nikolai preferred working solo - he didn't need some little girl questioning his decisions and getting ideas of insubordination into the soldier's heads. Hopefully she wouldn't be a problem.

As he approached, he noticed one man already curled up on the ground, nursing a bloody nose and moaning pathetically. A Galade was by his side, seeming to try to heal the injury. Huh. So the little girl had some teeth. The lieutenant smiled to himself, though he quickly wiped the smirk away from his face. Still, the lieutenant wondered why this act of violence had been necessary; commanding respect through fear was effective, sure, but these were meant to be some of Lux's most up-and-coming soldiers. Surely they did not need to have their arms twisted this early in the morning? Gaia ran up to the crumpled soldier ahead of Nikolai, concern clear on her open book of a face. Nikolai followed, inspecting the line of soldiers as he did so. He gave the girl a curt nod, then looked down at the crumpled soldier.

"On your feet." he grunted, his rather formidable shadow falling over the soldier's body. When Nikolai decided that the soldier was wasting too much time, he grabbed the young man by the scruff of his neck, dragging him to his feet as if he was some small kitten. Still clutching his hands to his nose, the soldier had no choice but to find his feet under him or risk being choked by the large man's iron grip. Nikolai let go when the man appeared to be more concerned with his breathing than his nose, allowing the soldier to scramble back into line.

They certainly didn't seem ready for action.
Only one way to find out for sure.

Nikolai stuck a hand in his bomber jacket, feeling his fingers close around a cold metal object he had brought with him on his journey to Johto.

"I apologize for my lateness." he said conversationally, fiddling with the spherical object in his pocket.

"Now..." he looked at the soldiers, trying to hold their attention in his steely gaze.

He pulled the object out of his pocket, revealing a grenade. It appeared to be, by all appearances, of standard Lux issue.

"Act."

He pulled the pin, tossed it towards the soldiers, and waited to see how prepared these soldiers truly were to "expect the unexpected."

ooc: ugh sorry my muse is being lame. D:

[delilah]

[attr="class","dnote1"] i have no idea what you're talking about it's a fab post Nikolai

[attr="class","dtext1"] Delilah, someone's here. Decarabia's thoughts sounded in her head, and the woman turned to see an imposing figure approaching them. (Arceus; how the fuck did that pop out of a woman?) Her expression turned down in a less-than-pleased scowl. He was vaguely recognizable -- Surge, the gym leader. Of all the lighting-haired, buff giants she could have been paired with, it had to be him. As if she weren't already aware of her height (or lack thereof). The woman was slightly surprised to see him walking in (walking was such a mundane way of travel), raichu by his side, but masked it with open irritation. "About damn time," she murmured, inclining her head at his nod. "Let's just get this over with." The gallade glanced at Gaia, waving a hand as if to say 'stay back.' The psychic pokemon could help stem the bleeding and numb the pain, but full recovery depended on the man -- there wasn't much else he, or anyone, could do. Her foot tapped impatiently as he manhandled the injured man into line, although she couldn't help the small bud of amusement from growing within her. The other recruits were clearly uncomfortable with the situation; first came the short girl with a temper, then came the brawny giant to torment them. While she resented Surge on principle, as those with height complexes were prone to do, she couldn't object to his methods. No one had told them to be gentle with Blackthorn's recruits, after all; they had been handed what amounted to a get-out-of-jail-free card on a silver platter. It was fantastic. She raised an eyebrow at Surge's apology -- "You think?" -- before he pulled out the grenade. Reflexively, she reached for her gallade. Both pokemon and woman had disappeared from the yard the next instant, while the soldiers remaining scrambled for cover. There was silence in the area as they all waited with bated breath for the explosion. It didn't come. Laughter rang through the area from a rooftop across the yard, where Delilah had her gun drawn and pointed at her 'partner.' "A fake." The woman shook her head, grinning, as she holstered her weapon. "And here I was thinking I'd have to give you another hole in your head." Decarabia jumped from the top first, with his trainer following suit once he landed. The gallade caught her with ease, and the two made their way back into the center. "Surprising, but I suppose that was the point." Delilah didn't bother to wipe the grin from her face as she addressed the soldiers. "Hurry up and get your fat asses over here." One by one, they hesitantly came out of hiding -- all of them cast wary glances at their surroundings, as if the walls could spit out another grenade at them. Delilah scowled. "Hurry up." They hurried. She looked over them once more with a critical eye. They were all shaken, it seemed. (Good.) "Most of you probably would have gotten out okay, but you guys --" she gestured at a few of them -- "are really fucking slow, you know that?" And, unlike in training, grenades in battle could be thrown from anywhere at any time -- the ones who reacted the slowest were the ones that got turned into charred human meat. Yummy. 'Constant vigilance' may have been beaten like a dead horse into every new recruit, but Delilah didn't doubt the truth in those words. Cara, ask him if he has anything in mind for these idiots, she thought before turning her frigid blue gaze back to the group they were supposed to be surprising. "So we all know how well you guys reacted to shit you can see," she began, "but what if your opponent is something you can't?" The woman smirked, waving her finger in a circle through the air. "Take a look at your shadows." The men and women curiously took a look behind them -- before one of them suddenly dropped to the ground, snoring away. Another one, shocked and morbidly curious, glanced over -- and a second later, joined her friend asleep on the floor. There was a flicker of bright scarlet on the ground before disappearing, and the rest of them began to scramble for -- for whatever they could, really. There was a breathy, almost eerie giggle as a few more unfortunate souls checked their shadows and collapsed. (When would they learn, she wondered?) Meanwhile, the gallade tentatively reached out to touch the gym leader's mind. Delilah asked m-me to, um, ask you if you had any, uh, pl-plans? he asked timidly. I th-think she's, um, stalling f-for time. Which was true -- now that they were 'partners' on the mission, she figured it was only nice to take the man's opinions into consideration. Not to mention she liked his little grenade stint, even though it took her by surprise.

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[Nikolai]

He wasn't much surprised by the scene of chaos that unfolded with his little grenade stunt. That was okay. Most of the soldiers were quick enough that had they been faced with a real grenade, they would not have lost their lives; the number who would have been in danger of losing an arm or foot, however, was a little saddening.

After throwing the fake grenade, he had been so focused on assessing the soldier's reactions that he had not noticed where his "partner" had gone till the sound of her laughter, amplified, echoed over the training grounds. So she, too, had reacted to his little training stint - better than the soldiers before them, though admittedly with the help of that Gallade. She seemed to find a certain humor in it, unlike the men and women who looked at him with a range of emotions, from sheepishness to outright anger.

Back during his Unova military days, that grenade trick had gotten quite old when his commanding officer had taken the idea of keeping them "on their toes" to extremes - in the middle of the night, during training exercises, even while they were showering the crazy old coot had liked to roll a grenade on the scene and watch them scramble. After a while the shock factor was dampened, but that didn't mean they didn't scramble; one, such insubordination would probably have resulted in several laps in shower towels, and two... well, better to be safe than sorry.

He was glad she hadn't chose to shoot him; it was too early in the morning for bullet wounds. Though he didn't respond to her light comment as she holstered her weapon, the lieutenant did think that, had he been a Nox spy trying to go out with a bang, he would be smart enough to choose a better target. Killing scrappy group of trainees situated in Blackthorn, a city that was, quite literally, the dragon's den, was a waste of a perfectly good grenade.

Delilah rejoined him, and did not hesitate to retake control of the situation. Nikolai couldn't help but disapprove of her rather abusive manner of speaking; it was, in his opinion, unprofessional. He, the looming giant, and she, the petite spitfire, were shaping up to look like some comedic good cop-bad cop routine that you saw when there was nothing good left to watch television. That would have probably made Nikolai the good cop... though he wasn't sure that throwing fake grenades didn't somewhat tarnish this reputation.

He, like his soldiers, looked confused and curious at her next words.
Then the first soldier dropped, quickly followed by another. Some soldiers were trying to spring into action, but what could they do? It wasn't as if running from their shadows was an option. The glowing red flashes seemed to slip from one shadow to another, falling a soldier whenever he or she made eye contact. Nikolai suspected it must be some sort of Pokemon attack, though the Gallade by Delilah's side looked docile at the moment. Another one of Delilah's creature then, perhaps? One that could work through shadows.

There was little a group of human soldiers could do to combat this sort of shadow creature - Nikolai suspected it was the workings of some kind of ghost, and you most certainly could not fight, or run, from a ghost. The number of individuals dropping into sweet slumber, however, was beginning to grow embarrassing. Nikolai met the eyes of one terrified soldier who was looking from him to Delilah and back, perhaps wondering why this strange duo had been elected to scare the shit out of him twice in one morning.

"You there, soldier." Nikolai said, pointing. The terrified soldier's eyes snapped to him, but quickly darted back to his own shadow, his feet shuffling uncomfortably like a spooked horse.

"Look at me when I speak to you, soldier." the Gym Leader commanded, folding his arms and keeping steady eye contact with the kid.

"S-sir."

"Describe the situation, soldier."

The Blackthorn soldier was now looking at Nikolai with ill-masked confusion and doubt. Why the hell did he need to describe the situation? It wasn't as if they were speaking through an ear piece; the lieutenant could see well for himself just what the hell was going on.

"I don't kn--"

"Describe it."

A hint of annoyance flashed across the soldiers face - he was a little busy trying not to be knocked out right now! His gaze started to slip, sure that he could see a flash of red out of the corner of his eye, the thump of bodies behind him making him feel rather sick...

"There's uh, something in the shadows... Seems to be making us all fall asleep...sir."

The "sir" was a little delayed for the lieutenant's taste, but today he was not teaching a lesson in respect... well, not right now. When the soldiers were not dancing around eying their shadows, they now appeared to be watching the encounter between Nikolai and the young man with curiosity about just what the hell he seemed to be getting at.

"I see. And how is it doing so?"

"N-not sure. Flash of red light and... poof."

Ah yes, poof. A very technical term.

"I see. I would then be of the opinion that perhaps those of you still standing should take a cue from your fallen peers and, ah, stop staring into your shadows."

A few more heads were looking up now, watching the big man. It was hard not to keep looking at your shadow when you were quite sure something was in it, but it seemed that the shadow-monster's reign of terror was slowing down significantly as the men and woman looked away from their shadows, and thus did not make eye contact with the hypnotic gaze that would emerge from their silhouettes.

"There, now." Nikolai said, his voice taking on an oddly soothing quality as he held the attention of the soldiers.
"While we are taught to always keep our eyes on the enemy, when our enemy is able to use this fact against us, it's important to learn to... adapt. Gaia?"

The Raichu, who had been watching the movements of the Gengar with first curiosity, then amusement, looked up at her looming trainer. Seeming to understand instinctively what the big man was asking her to do, she took a few steps forward, sparks flying to her bright yellow cheeks before letting loose a weak, rather harmless bolt of electricity towards where she had seen the shadow Pokemon lurking last.

It was then the lieutenant felt a strange sensation in his head, a sort of pressure that the military man had learned to associate with a Psychic's touch. Once upon a time he had learned to communicate via telepathic link with a certain someone, though the entire process was something he had preferred to avoid altogether. Nevertheless, he warily listened as the timid voice of Delilah's Gallade filled his mind. So, the girl's name was Delilah. He filed the name away, saving himself the embarrassment of revealing that he had been rather negligent in reading the details about his partner for his mission.

I did have some ideas... What if we--

It was taking a great deal of focus for Nikolai to speak telepathically instead of out loud, as he had done the first few times he communicated via psychic link. He cut off his psychic train of thought early, realizing that it would take him a good deal of time standing and looking like an extremely concentrated fool to explain.

I'll just... show you...

He wasn't quite sure how an "idea" translated in telepathy, but a hodgepodge collection of snippets of thoughts and first-person perspective memories of the ice caves were sent over to the Gallade's mind, along with a few of the old training exercises that the lieutenant himself had been trained on. Together they formed an idea, though a vague one at that; enough, perhaps, to give a rough idea of what Nikolai had been thinking. He was no psychic, but the simple and organized fashion to his thoughts must certainly help in these situations...