[BATTLE] GARTH VS STORM

[lou]

ROUND 1
GARTH VS. VARNOCK STORM
BATTLE COMMENCE

[icestorm483]

Ever since Garth had taken up the position of Indigo Plateau Administrator, his duties there had made it such that he was unable to visit his home region of Sinnoh as much as he would've preferred. This wasn't to say that he hated his position, but that if he could change on thing about it, it would be the frequency with which he would be able to visit the Sinnoh region more often.Well, it turned out that Garth had gotten his wish, but the conditions were not even close to what he had envisioned. The last thing that he had ever expected was that he would be assigned to travel to Sinnoh, in order to liberate Veilstone City from Nox control. Of course, as fate would have it, that's exactly what happened. The Veilstone wall had recently been breached and Lux had spent a while planning their next course of action to throw the Nox scum out of the city permanently. In the end, they had decided on a full frontal assault, and throwing everything they had into the fight. As Garth had recently learned, 'everything' included him.

Garth had been assigned to be a part of the team which had been ordered to infiltrate the city under the cover of night enter, and secure the Veilstone Department Store. Doubtless Lux was attempting to sever the link between the Nox troops on the frontline, and their main supply of food, medicine and other essential items.

Having successfully infiltrated the city, thanks to his years of experience as a sniper, Garth now found himself at the entrance to the department store, in his full Lux Army Uniform. Unfortunately, it would seem that the rest of the team hadn't been as subtle, and Garth assumed that they were caught up in the fighting somewhere, and would need to fight their way to the store. Garth could be wrong of course, but the fact remained that he was there, and they were not, and that if he wanted to start the operation to secure the department store, he would have to do so, by himself.

Garth pondered the options for a few seconds. On one hand, he had no idea what to expect inside the store. For all he knew there could be a ton of hardened Nox soldiers stationed inside the store waiting for him. If that were the case, setting foot inside the store alone would be the last thing he'd ever do. On the other hand, the store might be completely deserted. Because it was dark out, it was highly unlikely that civilians were shopping at this time. This was good for Garth, because he had been ordered to take ever measure necessary to ensure that civilians were not caught in the crossfire.

Simply put, he had no idea how much importance Nox would place in defending the department store. Of course there was only one way to find out, and so Garth decided to take his chances. He walked up to the door, and slowly opened it, and gazed inside. He couldn't yet see anything inside the store, nor could he hear anything. Feeling a sense of apprehension, Garth slowly took his first steps into the store.

[storm]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] [style=float: left; margin: 0 5 0 10;][style=background-color: #ebebeb; border: 10px #0033cc solid; padding: 2px; height: 80px; width: 80px;] [/style] This is not the sort of situation Storm would have wished upon anybody. On a “business trip” to Veilstone City to those in Sunyshore, their well-liked Administrator had truly been meeting up with others in the spy network within Sinnoh Nox, performing his duty as a Collector and distributing information on a semi-regular basis. Then everything had gone to hell when Lux broke through the wall that had been so painstakingly constructed around the peaceful Sinnoh City. Quick observation of the state of things just a short time earlier told him civilians had sought shelter in the department store. There was potentially no worse place – the thing was a target. Storm had shoved his way through the door and found his way to the small group of civilians that were taking refuge in the corners of the ground floor when the front door opened. A whimper rises from the civilians grouped in their corner, and Storm breathes words he hopes to calm them with quickly, keeping them quiet. He wants to get them out, but in the dark and with someone from an unknown faction at the front, this would be difficult. Swallowing, Storm steps out from around the stocked shelves and in the direct path of where whomever had entered would walk. This would turn out either good or bad, and he would need to gamble what card to play. Nox wouldn’t know he was one of them, disguised as the Mayor of Sunyshore and a promising Lux officer hidden among the ranks of tyranny. ”Hello...!” Storm calls, keeping his voice calm and level to maintain his end of control of the situation, ”Who goes there? There are civilians here that need to get out!” He knows he’s revealing his weakness at the time, and prays silently to Arceus that they won’t take advantage of that. He holds up a hand, though it likely cannot be seen in the darkness shadowing the back half of the Store’s ground floor. ”Please hold your fire if you’re intent on fighting, or take me and leave the civilians!” His card to play here was to be cautious, yet willing to sacrifice himself to protect innocent civilians. In the dark, though, and in the middle of a raid, there’s no telling what someone else may do. [style=color: #0033cc; font-family: arial narrow; letter-spacing: 1.5px; font-size: 30px; font-style: italic;]family ties, strongest bonds, ❚ WORDS: 383 ❚ TAGS: Garth as Garth ❚ NOTES: the times when being a "loyal" spy come in handy... ❚ CREDITS: Ambassador Tanz [/style][/style][/style]

[icestorm483]

Well, no one was shooting at him. That was a good start. Perhaps fate had in fact intended that Garth take the department store on his own. It seemed like it was too good to be true. And it was. Suddenly, Garth began to hear a large amount of whimpering coming from a corner in the back of the store. Although he wasn't able to see anyone in that area due to that part of the store still being shrouded by darkness, he could tell just by listening that there was someone back there who was frightened about something, likely the prospect of being killed in the fighting that was enveloping the city. Of course, Garth had been given strict orders to do everything in his power to keep the civilians out of harms way. The last thing that Lux wanted was to have blood on their hands from killing innocent people.

As Garth was about to ponder what to do about the civilians to keep them safe, a voice rang out from the same area that he heard the whimpering come from. The voice pleaded with Garth not to harm the civilians, and asked that he be taken instead if need be. Was this person a member of a garrison assigned to hold the department store, another possibility was that Nox had chosen the department store to house refugees who were attempting to flee from the fighting. Of course, it was also entirely possible that this was a trap, in order to lull Garth into complacency so that he might be caught off guard. The fact that Garth still couldn't see all the way back there certainly didn't help in determining how to assess the situation.

Garth wanted to ensure the safety of the civilians, but at the same time, he wanted to ensure his own safety as well. He needed to find some way to comply with this persons request to keep the civilians safe, while making sure no one tried to kill him while he was focusing on that.

Garth spotted a service counter directly next to the entrance to the store. This would be perfect for his plan. He immediately lept behind it and crouched down beneath it. He was effectively using the counter as a shield. From his hiding place he called out to the man, "Are you the commanding officer of the garrison here? Tell the civilians to get out of here."

[storm]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] [style=float: left; margin: 0 5 0 10;][style=background-color: #ebebeb; border: 10px #0033cc solid; padding: 2px; height: 80px; width: 80px;] [/style] Storm breaths a quiet sigh of relief at the fact that he's not fired upon almost as soon as he speaks. The darkened silhouettes in the front of the building don't move save for the one that appeared to push open the door first and make his way inside. He can't identify them from here, but at the very least they seem to be willing to listen. He blinks when the silhouette moves to the side, vanishing from the line of light and melting in with the shadows of the darkened building. Crap. He wouldn't be able to see the man move if he did, in fact, draw a gun. Storm doesn't answer the question right away, instead prioritizing the safety of the civilians to identifying himself right away. "Come on, you heard him!" he says to the, perhaps, twenty clumped in that corner. There's shuffling as the group stands and moves, inching cautiously toward Storm's voice before bolting for the light coming from behind the doors across the floor. Storm raises his voice to be heard over the shuffling feet, and he, too, walks toward the light once the civilians begin filing out of the building. "My name is Storm. I'm the Mayor of Sunyshore City. I was here on business when everything started. I knew civilians would try to flee for the department store, so I came to check - in case the building gets targeted." He steps into the light, keeping his eyes focused on the shadows he last saw the first silhouette vanish into, "I can show you my I.D. if you need me to." [style=color: #0033cc; font-family: arial narrow; letter-spacing: 1.5px; font-size: 30px; font-style: italic;]family ties, strongest bonds, ❚ WORDS: 278 ❚ TAGS: Garth as Garth ❚ NOTES: -- ❚ CREDITS: Ambassador Tanz [/style][/style][/style]

[icestorm483]

Well that was certainly foolish of this man. He openly revealed his name and his position as the mayor of Sunyshore City to Garth. Quite narrow minded indeed. Garth would take note of this information and report it to the Sentinels immediately following the battle. This of course assuming that both he, and Storm actually walked away with their lives, which was far from certain. Garth would not be nearly as careless with his personal information as Storm was.

Garth saw the civilians heading for the exit, and stepped aside as they ran out. He took note that many of them gave him angry looks at him as they walked by. Had Garth not been instructed to keep the civilians from out of harms way, he might have been tempted to act against such a form of disrespect. No matter, he had bigger things to worry about anyway, and turned his gaze towards the still darkened back of the store, and watched the man finally emerge into the light.

Garth's immediate instinct was to defend himself. After all even though both he, and this man shared a common interest in keeping the civilians safe, that was all that they shared. Both of them obviously hoped to conquer (or defend) the department store for their respective factions. Garth suspected that the man intended to attack him, until the man spoke up and offered to show Garth his ID as proof of his previous statements about his name and occupation.

This man was even more careless than Garth thought. Why was he giving up his personal information so easily as though there were no possible consequences for doing so? Perhaps it was a trap to lull him into a false sense of security. Yes, that had to be it. Garth needed to stay on his toes for any possible trap that this man was setting.

In the meantime, he decided to try to end this confrontation peacefully and with a quick victory. He said to the man, "That won't be necessary. However, if you know what's good for you you'll lay down whatever arms you have and surrender. There's an entire Lux garrison on their way here as we speak. The chances that you will be able to hold this department store past sunrise tomorrow are slim to none."

[storm]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellspacing,0,true] [style=float: left; margin: 0 5 0 10;][style=background-color: #ebebeb; border: 10px #0033cc solid; padding: 2px; height: 80px; width: 80px;] [/style] Storm feels his expression harden into something considerably less friendly than it had been moments ago, though rather than taking on simply a grudging expression it became something far more stern, and Storm normally would have laughed at such an order. There's no reason for him to do something this man said, despite the fact he had more firepower. I won't bow my head to any more Lux trash than I need to! "I stand unarmed." he states simply, his voice hardened now. That was a lie, though, for although his outward appearance is unarmed, he has his knife tucked against his chest on the inside of his vest, and his pokeballs stored in the pouches upon his hips. "And I see no reason for me to surrender." Storm stays unmoving as he speaks, keeping his gaze directed toward the shadows. "Judging by your speech, you're confident Lux will overwhelm me," hence the mention of the Lux garrison, "...and you're assuming I'm Nox in that respect. I happen to be an Officer in Lux's force, hence my offer to show you my I.D. as proof." He sighs, before he narrows his eyes slightly. "I'm going to guess you're from the mainland," Storm says pleasantly. The Lux mainland, that is, being the sister regions where Lux was born, "You wouldn't be the first one I've met that doesn't know Sunyshore is safe in Lux's hands." Somehow. He almost wants to spit when he says it, but keeps his actions about him to maintain his façade. [style=color: #0033cc; font-family: arial narrow; letter-spacing: 1.5px; font-size: 30px; font-style: italic;]family ties, strongest bonds, ❚ WORDS: 253 ❚ TAGS: Garth as Garth ❚ NOTES: assertive Storm is assertive ❚ CREDITS: Ambassador Tanz [/style][/style][/style]

[ADMINISTRATION]

VICTOR: STORM

+ 400 to Nox