She’d ran until running burned, ignoring the people around her, darting around someone who’d tried to slow her down…
Gio is after her.
And only slowed when she hit the beach. It wasn’t her training spots, there were no boxes or Rockets, but Sevii was an island, all you had to do was run long enough, fast enough, and there was water everywhere.
And the water never looked so good.
She’d drawn Blasty, and maybe she hadn’t been clear. He’d froze, seeing the tears and snot running down her face clearly not hearing a word she said. His canons popped out, his forepaws clenched, and he was scanning the beach for whatever upset her…
Oh Green is so upset! Poor thing! 🥺
And Blasty looking to protect her feelings by blasting the badguys is precious. 🥰
But there was no one and that wasn’t helping her now.
“We have to go… just.. In the water and go… We’re being followed.”
Would be followed, same difference.
Blasty nodded, sinking low, the offer obvious, and Green moved to scamper up. Once she was secure atop his back he straightened, careful and slow, and she swung her arms around his thick neck, with a whine.
“Just get us out of here.”
Her relationships with her mon continue to delight.
She felt his nod, and then they were turning to the water, and from behind came a false thunder of wings.
Green whined in her throat, because why… why why why…
Oof! He sent a bird after her! Because of course he would!
Blasty snarled, turned them away from the surf, gaze going up. A honchkrow swung low and then swept up with a flurry of flaps. The blastoise didn’t see the dark form slid off the avian though, only saw the bird, understood birds were bad and followed it first with his eyes than an ice beam as the bird went up. Both trainer and ‘mon watched the jagged blue line scratch an off sky hue run across the sky, race after the bird, only for the black bird to lost in a flurry of red light right before the attack connected.
Oh! Gio must have been riding it and recalled it to prevent the attack from hitting!
Green looked down then, following the light even as Blasty snarled at the thing across the sand, safely distant from them, but bound to the bird as it’d recalled it.
And birds were bad so it deserved the snarling.
That's right, Blasty! You snarl at
all the birds!
Giovanni lowered his arm, clipping the bird’s pokeball on his belt. He might have been windburned, and ragged, Green wasn’t sure, but the pair must have flown insanely fast to catch up to her here because Green’d ran for ages.
Well, catching up with her was too little too late.
Lips curling in a snarl of her own Green shifted her grip on Blasty’s back. Watched, wary as Giovanni slowly raised his hands, gesture universal. He had no weapons, it was safe.
Huh. This seems considerably more amicable than I would have guessed considering how enraged Gio was at the end of the previous chapter!
Huffing a breath that steamed like it was the coldest day and he was warm, Blasty spat, not a full-fledged ‘beam but ice crackled into being, cutting a line in front of the Rocket, blooming ankle-high icicles of sand and edges at his feet.
“Leave me alone.”
He looked ragged like she’d ripped something out of him. Good, she hoped it hurt. Still, his voice was calm, a level baritone, near gentle. “This doesn’t need to be a fight. Recall your Blastoise…”
Gio is really trying to be civil here, but I can understand why Green wouldn't be so quick to de-escalate.
Another snarl, another line of ice, Green didn’t have to say a word, she just hunkered between Blasty’s canons in a motion the blastiose knew, had known from squirtlehood and up. Withdraw. This black thing was attacking his Green to the point she’d withdrawn.
That's a cool way of interpreting it. Likens Green's actions to be like a withdraw attack.
Blasty roared and the sky once clear snarled back. With a crack of true thunder, the heavens opened up
And it started to rain.
Did Blasty use raindance?
Green thought she heard him swearing, tilting his hat so the water wouldn’t run into his eyes the Rocket flicked his gaze about, and this beach was all but secure. Too rocky for anything but a masochist hiker. The businesses around them were distant enough not to have onlookers and there we laws about no cameras pointing at the beach.
That’d of been spying, and gross, and good people didn’t do that.
Oof and yet her parents had been using a camera to track her!
So, right then and there, they were as alone as they could get.
And Green wondered if Giovanni knew that. She warmed at the idea that he might not. He hadn’t lived here after all. When you got down it, he was nothing but a really rich tourist with a bunch of ground types.
And it was raining.
And he was saying.. something… Hands still up, carefully stepping over the ice, drawing closer. Whatever he was saying, she didn’t care, because it was raining and there was water in her ears and her pulse was thrumming in her head, drowning out everything.
Hmm seems like she is going to attack again. It seems Gio is left with little choice.
Red’d done this. Kicked Giovanni’s ass. And Green’d kick it too. She’d win. Then she’d run (because what else could she do?) and she’d find Silver, warn Silver, and they’d hide. Hide in Unova or something.
Someplace so far and distant Rocket and Mask would be nothing more than bad dreams.
A bold plan.
XXX
“You shouldn’t have gone after it, sweetie…” Green’s mother soothed, smoothing Green’s hair, passing her a tissue. They’d toweled her down, she was still wet, had drawn Blasty to try to fight back. Small mercies he hadn’t been lost to. Green snuggled his pokeball like it was precious and Mary Azule resigned herself to the fact the turtle would likely be out and in their living room tonight, to be watched over by a nervy Green. “You don’t have to play hero or anything… You’re home, your safe…”
Hmm... So this suggests that she won a battle against Gio? Not sure I could call it a battle if Gio didn't draw a mon to fight back. Since it's her parents talking with her, I assume there is delusion involved so I don't trust this...
There was only one truth out of three, Green realized, allowing herself to be snuggled. Blasty was a toss or drop away, that made her safe, not home. And really, hadn’t anyone taught her mother how to better mix truths with lies? The more truths the better, it made it harder to spot the lie.
Yep. Called it. Yeah, Green is an expert liar.
XXXX
Giovanni’s normally immaculate hair was a royal ratatta’s nest. She mentally spat juvenile curses at him as he ignored her and Blasty’s threat displays. She hoped his hair tangled tight, that it took comb teeth, that it fell out, lips curling up in a soundless snarl, she shook and glared at him.
In this moment she hated him, more than Mask.
WOAH!
THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING!!!
Mask at least never pretended to care about them; Giovanni’d pretended to care for Silver, he was worse.
He didn’t deserve Silver.
Ohhh! Ok, so THATS the angle she has! Interesting. But Gio actually does care about Silver. That's the thing she isn't picking up on. He cares about Silver so much that he holds himself back against Green.
Blasty rumbled under her, green eyes thinned, leg scuffing the sand, he wasn’t going to keep waiting for orders for long.
“This doesn’t have to be a fight.”
How dare he sound calm! How dare he!
Considering how calm Gio is, I get the feeling this is going to go VERY badly for Green. As soon as his gloves come off, she is TOAST!
Hmm... except I think we already got a snippet showing she won?
“Close and crunch.” And she tightened her grip because she wanted in on it, wanted to be close enough to feel the echo of the fangs sinking in.
Blasty spun, an about-face and hunkered into his shell, water cannons jetting him back and setting him to spin. An impossibly large stone skipping across the sands, the direction and both his and Green’s hostility, made his intent obvious.
Yeah, Gio's hand is now forced.
There was a flash of red light and then Giovanni wasn’t alone. She managed to get a view of something tall and grey, then he barked a word in Italian and the earth sunk and rose, sprouting a line of stone that wasn’t playing by gravity’s rules.
Rhydon, it seems.
Some sort of special attack, a wall of sharp rock that Blasty spun into and spun out on with a horrid scraping sound that made Green grit her teeth.
The stones hung about Giovanni and his ‘mon, a stealth rock turned shield. Swirling to his feet Blasty twitched his canons and Green shifted, braced. The stones absorbed the bulk of the resulting spray even as Blasty was shoved back into a furry at his own water canons. And seeing the attack coming Giovanni barked orders and the stone shield rose, stacked, an erratic shield that turned the devastating steel punching force of a water canon tom something tolerable. If painful. She hears swears and snarls behind the imperfect wall.
And even now, Gio is playing defensively.
I also want to mention that having read lots of Tetra's fic with battles, as well as some other fics, your prose surrounding battle stacks up nicely against them!
Giovanni’s yelling words, words in Italian, and stones were born of nothing, sliding out of the sands. Springing up behind her, besides her, distant but close enough to make a squarish boundary not quite the size of a sports field.
It was a box, a cell, and it kept her trapped, away from the water.
A snap of his fingers and the stones swirled down, settling into a line once more but not gone.
And, again, Green could recognize a threat when she saw one.
Stepping beside his ‘mon, hands in his pockets, he glared at her, looking… bad. Pale and tired and… just bad. Walking up to the line in the sand, the line of stones he and his ‘mon made, he spoke, words slow and sure.
“Withdraw your blastoise, come back in, and…”
“And what? You won’t throw me to the sharkpedos?”
Ah, should be sharpedos
And yet, I kind of feel like Gio is being sincere here. But Green ain't going to listen, is she?
He didn’t even hesitate when he promised. But then Green knew he was a good liar. Probably one of the best. So she laughed –and laughing felt like burning, the world was blurring, she blinked the rainwater away-, because, yeah, right, like she was falling for that.
“Liar.” Then to blastoise as she swung off. “Spinout.”
Stones went flying, sand twisted into wet sandstorms that made a mess of everything. It was only luck windows weren’t broken and buildings damaged.
Oh crud, I can't imagine this is going to go well!
When the winds and sludge of sand and water died down the walls Giovanni build had become debris that was scattered far and wide. Giovanni was standing alone, having withdrawn his Rhydon to spare it the bludgeoning, and only luck had kept him from being brained or buried.
Wow so that was dangerous for him! He took a RISK for that!
He looked like he’d been dragged down a sand dune backward, and was on his hands and knees, sputtering, scraping madly at his face. Sand and muck coated his hands, made a collar around his neck, a pile at his knees, nearly obscuring them. Each motion was one spent clearly fighting to breathe and see, and Blasty stepped, one step that made sand and rocks crackle, and Giovanni turned, eyes wide, able to see one thing at least.
So sad... too bad… His black clothes made a perfect target against the white of the nearest houses and the yellow tinted sands. Poor him.
“Blasty, hydro-!”
“Now!”
And Giovanni dropped all pretense of weakness, diving to the side even as Blasty shot…
And the earth under Blasty’s and Green’s feet caved in. A Dig being played out in full.
Yeah, Gio had to do that or he was going to take a Hydro pump to the face. And something like that would have killed him. Green just tried to
kill him!
Giovanni hadn’t withdrawn anything, he’d used Blasty’s adlibbed sandstorm to hide his Rhydon, his Rhydon’s digging.
Green fell while standing in place, the ground giving out. And when things settled she was shoulder deep in sand, Blasty was up to his neck beside her.
And the rain was dying, rain dance only could summon squalls for a few minutes anyway.
Ok so it
was rain dance!
Sand bulged a few feet away and Rhydon shrugged out of the earth with a grumbling grunt. It was an eerie liquid grace how it rose up, sand sliding off its scales, surging up like how flying ‘mon would jump off the earth to take to the sky.
Clawed feet making stones crack on impact as it hopped out of its hole. The ground type was up and out and shaking sand off its scales. Splattering them with sand, the jerk. The beast tipped its horn down, indicating them, then turned to its trainer. The slow claw flex like a suggestion, an unpleasant one.
“Enough, return.”
Squirming, trying for up with none of the Rhydon’s grace Green managed to make some of the mud stir, just a little. She really squirmed when Giovanni walked over, futile she knew, but unable to not.
So it seems like he disabled her
without hurting her. That is NUTS!
It also shows his unwillingness to hurt her!
Then he was there, and Green was dead, she just knew it.
Her thoughts rattled in her head, advice given too little too late. She should have run, screw fighting, she should have run, run ages ago. Never talked to him. Just up and been gone the second he called… No one would of cared, not Them, not Him, she should have been gone, or with Silver, not here where she was now.
Regretting her life choices.
Dang, she really does think it's over...
And he was digging at her… right arm… digging it out? It was a single-minded effort, like a ‘yenna digging up carrion and she panicked, realizing what he was going for.
“No, hey!” He didn’t even look up at her cries. She tried to bite him, got a taste of his coat and mud and he glared down at her, shifted a bit, and went right back to digging. Digging for her hand that was still locked around Blasty’s ball.
“I don’t have it, I dropped it!”
“If you pull one more stunt, try one more lie, I will have Rhydon make your hole deeper and fill it.”
“Silver’d…”
“Never have to know.”
Ok Green, time to shut up and behave now!
And never mind Giovanni Sakaki looked waterlogged, and mud smeared, and like hell, he was terrifying.
And considering the thought he gives to appearance, he is likely borderline murderous.
Green didn’t dare breathe a word as he dug up her pokeball. Her arm was high, crossed over her chest right before she’d fallen, Giovanni hadn’t had to work too hard. He wrenched Blasty’s ball out of her tingling fingers and one flash of red light later and they were alone.
He sat with a grunt, staring over her, at the sea she guessed, all Green could see was the rocky sand in front of her, and feel hurt and pinched too tight.
“I had meetings, little girl. Your little outburst has disrupted my day, immensely.”
Moving her arm, he didn’t say anything about that, so she swung it around so it was under her chin and she could rest on it. Grit and goosebumps, best pillow ever. She spat a bit of sand to the side, near him, and again, he didn’t comment.
Goodness Green is such a handful! But I guess that is kind of what she does.
He took to a twisted sort of kneeling that he could surge out of in a moment if he needed to, and since it wasn’t her back getting hurt holding that pose, she left him to it. Sinking a bit deeper on her arm, seething.
Not even bothering to dig herself out. Just too tired.
She sulked, while Giovanni caught his breath. Not all that’d been for show earlier it seemed. Good, Green hoped he choked. In a royal sulk then Green glowered at sand and decided that Red, was a liar.
Unless he had some Champion way to battle while buried, then he was just crazy…
Yeah, Gio
really isn't that easy to defeat in battle. 😅
She waited and he waited, for what? An apology? Probably, adults loved those. Well he could wait until Green starved, he wasn’t getting anything, and more to deal with an itch than anything else Green started digging at the sand around her neck, pushing the rocky muck back and squirming.
And, again, he didn’t say anything.
Finally, he drew a loud deep breath, and let it out slow, bracing himself for something, and if she could have, Green’d of squirmed. As it was, when he spoke she screeched bloody bloody denials and started digging at the trap like mad. He ignored everything with an infuriating calm, even when she tried to chuck some of the sand at him to make him leave.
And he didn’t, damn him..
Clearing his throat, as if she hadn’t heard, he repeated himself, tones utterly unruffled, and damn him for that.
“We need to talk.”
It's pretty funny how she is just trapped in the sand.
Literally the only way to get her to stop and listen.
XXX
And Mary Azule was right, and wrong, in a way. Blasty was let out, and the familiar, small Jiggly as well. The turtle had pushed aside the living room sofa so it had room to sprawl, and Green’d skulked between her room and the living room, making trip after trip down to fetch all her blankets, all her pillows, and she made a wall of fluff about the turtle, chattering and soothing it. Running fingers over its scratched-up shell, to soothe herself.
Making small, sad, assurances that things weren’t changing.
They were together, and nothing bad was going to happen because of that.
Hmm... I wonder what the talk with Gio was about? I'm really curious!
To that onslaught of denial, Frank looked pointedly at Maria, a bit of warning to his expression. They should… nip that assumption… Should, truly, to reinforce that they were there, that their presence was as steady as could be and that ‘mon (specifically Dittos) were fickle creatures. Very much epitomizing easy come, easy go, and probably.. happy with their new trainer?
Ditto? What happened to Ditty?
The last felt like a push and Mary’s lips twisted into a self-recriminating grimace of distaste.
Perhaps that last was a bit much… It was a Rocket after all that had Dittel.
So Gio took Ditty away? If so, I guess that's like his version of grounding her?
Granted, I think he grounded her pretty well. In the sand, against her delusions, and by taking away Ditty! Dang, a triple meaning!
Maybe you should change the chapter title to that?
Still, it was one down… how many to go?
Another trip down and Green was dragging her backpack with her, crawling on the hard tan belly shell of her pet, and settling atop a blanket she threw over it to soften its scales. Secure on her perch she lay on her belly, legs bend and tapping a tattoo against scales as she dug out a book and flipped it open.
“I know it’s not “Wonderland” but I’ve got Iliad here, wanna listen to chapters nine through twelve? I gotta test on it soon.”
A puff and “Jig” and Jiggly descended from its slow flight around the room. So Green had an enthusiastic audience of one at least. The turtle Green addressed, rolled its green eyes, and pulled its head into its shell with a rumbled sigh.
“Critic. Oh ow… do not make faces… Not worth it… Ouch ouch…”
After everything going on she is reading a book because she has a test... Yeah... Speaking of wonderland, I wonder how much longer that will last...
But regardless of the context of it all, the interactions between her and her mon are always top notch.
“Alright up there, Sweetie?” Frank called out, hollering a little. Not quite willing to leave the kitchen.
Mary settled on the misplaced couch. It was reasonably close to Green and Blasty so if Green needed her for anything she could just say the word. It was close enough that if Mary stretched a bit she’d brush her fingers against the scaled thing’s shell. Or face, if it withdrew it. Green eyes glinted out at her from the shadows of a shell,
A shell? What Shell? Did Green somehow crawl inside Balasty's shell when the camera wasn't looking?
squinted at her no less, making that a firm no, it was not popping its head out to get pets from her anytime soon.
Green is pretending to be a Blastoise refusing pets?
“Yeah, fine.” And their Green was being so brave barely a twinge of pain or fear to her voice. “Figure I might as well read a bit until I can’t, you know?”
And pragmatic. Frank canted a smile up at his daughter, though nose in her book she couldn’t see it.
“Let me know if you want any ice.”
“Will do.”
Frank met her eyes flicked his fingers, a three then a head tip. Three days seemed more than fair, for Green to recover. Then they’d tell Green everything, about her license being pulled, and retiring her team so she could be safer and live a normal life.
Oh no... that would NOT go over well with Green!!
Because Rockets only went after you if you had rare ‘mon, and while Dittle had been her rarest, a blastoise wasn’t much safer.
And until then... they’d indulge her a little. Let her have her pets out, it was only going to be for three days.
Wow, Gio is perhaps only temporarily holding Ditty captive, but Greens parents want to permanently rip ALL Greens mon away from her!
Wonderland is about to come crashing down.
XXX
Green’d take poison before using ice willingly, straight off of Nidoking’s spines. Giovani could get his Nidoking out and she’d find a glass and take it, right now, this second.
Just watch her.
Using ice? For what?
“I’m like all banged up from the beach why couldn’t you just go with that?”
“Overt injuries inspire more pathos.”
Tauos shit,
📝Tauros
he’d wanted to punch her. And he had, without warning her either.
Which meant he deserved her pulling her knife and swinging out of instinct.
Punch? I thought Gio said
talk?
OH! The ice is for the bruise after he punched her!
Considering who Gio is, Green is lucky to be
alive after she tried to kill him.
She hadn’t hit him hard, just scratched his arm a little, and made a mess of his sleeve. And who knew that the big bad Boss of Team Rocket was a baby? He’d cleaned his arm in a sink; the water was on, despite the place looking older than heck. And he dug out a first aid kit from under the sink. He was disinfecting around the wound like she’d stabbed him in the meat of his arm or something.
And Green slashed him with a knife... oh dear...
Applying pressure, he picked up some bandages and got to work. Like her wussy cut on him, running from near wrist to elbow was going to do anything if he left it. But Giovanni didn’t. He glared at her in irritation as he worked, tying off the bandage with a few practiced twists and having the knack of knowing how to do it one-handed as well.
Makes sense he would be good at that kind of thing.
Not that she’d help him, even if he asked, but it was a pretty good technique so Green watched and took notes.
Ok, I was
not expecting to laugh during
this! 🤣
“I don’t trust you.”
Hate on him looked different, she’d seen his hate and this was just irritation as he sighed and killed the water. Dabbed at the mess in the sink for a bit, not looking at her.
“So you’ve established.”
“And you want to take everything...”
Her team swept up by false “agents” when her Mother and Father’s plans kicked up, herself taken to Viridian to meet up with Silver, her by Silver’s side, her in Giovanni’s pocket.
Just how he’d wanted it, her fight getting her nothing.
It's true that she is his best way to get to Silver. The
question is if he cares about Green
because of Silver or if he is learning to care about
Green.
And if it's the latter, that's an unexpectedly wholesome direction for things.
“We’ve gone over the variables…”
Where she was screwed if she ran on her own. How she had no allies. He’d gone over each and every one of her counters, tearing into them like a Persian with a really fluffy bird. And the feathers and tempers had flown for it.
Speaking of Persian, his came in, tail tip high, purring its name and clearly wanting pets. Her MP3 dropped off at some Flare place or other.
“And you’re getting everything back.” He reassured, almost in a monotone. She was sure his teeth were gritted together.
Oh... So he pretends to take Green's mon away, Greens parents think they severed Greens mon away from her, and then Gio gives Green's mon back to her?
So the punch was for a story Green was going to go with. This has something to do with her parents.
Well tough, he was the one with the bastard’s reputation. He’d done it to himself by acting like one.
Her team to be supposedly returned, ect, ect, she got the gist of his plans, understood how he’d promised it was supposed to work…
But she wanted something to make sure he’d do as promised, had demanded it without specifying what she wanted. Hoping he’d let something real valuable slip.
He didn’t, of course.
So she is in a situation where Gio is holding all the cards and her only play is to do what he wants.
“You’re asking me to give you collateral? My car for example? Right here, right now?” And his eyes crinkled, an almost Silver laugh. Cleaning done, he left the towels in the sink as if expecting someone to be in here to clean up after him. Considering the water was on Green suspected they might after he left. “I’ve a honchkrow, little girl, you can have him if you like.”
Ok, that's darkly funny.
He enjoyed that one.
He offered, grin tight and cruel, like the Persian at his feet. “ Anyways, you can’t’ drive.” He scrolled his gaze over her, amused. “I doubt you could reach the peddles.”
“Your car?” Green scoffed, meeting scorn for scorn. “You’ve got like, nine, right? No, I want something bigger.”
She has a point. A car means little to him...
“I’m not getting you any power over any corporation, you can’t’ even work at any of them for five years at the least-“
Oh wow, I wonder what someone like Green would do with that?? Oh man... It would be glorious. Horrible, yes, but
glorious.
His scorn was like shooting down a child for wanting a rapidash. And it was six years, not that she was going to tell him that.
“Your Rocket ID card.” Because while grunts were chipped, Executives go the chip removed and had ID cards, hidden in their own actual IDs. Will’d swiped one, and gotten in far and deep in places so cruel his psychic sense had sung him horror stories. Stories he’d shared with the younger to make them slip up, to be scared.
But that wasn’t important, what was, was the card.
“The one made with sliced rotom plasma, the one synced to your soul, aura, whatever it is… That makes it so the card won’t work if you change loyalties.”
Woah. That's really convenient but hey, it's Pokemon, so why not?
Wow that is an oddly specific bit of trivia for Green to know!
Because there was a grain of truth in that saying, selling your soul to Team Rocket. Will’d said carrying the thing had drawn on his, twisted the thoughts in his head, and it’d stopped working for him after a bit. He’d crawled back to Mask, sick and worn from his mission, papers got, eyes swimming with malice, and somehow more off in his head than he had been before.
Giovanni stared at her, frozen, still, not dead still like before, but obviously shocked before he blinked and his expression folded into familiar no tell-lines..
“I’d like to know why you think something so fanciful exists.”
“Will.”
And that front of “oh nothing’s wrong” was felled with a grimace. He glared down at her and she waited, dripping on tile floors because he’d’ dried himself off and left her nothing to dry off with.
“I really must put that boy in his place.”
So... Gio was going to try to use a Rocket card to see if he could trust Green? Is that it?
Six feet under Green was sure, but Will wasn’t her problem.
“So, you either give me the card or I’ll take my chances. And if Yellow doesn’t hear from me, and doesn’t pass anything along to Silver about me, how long do you think until he comes to Sevii?”
Huh... So Green is saying "if anything happens to me, Silver will come here"
Because something was going on. Giovanni being here screamed it. He’d gone to Silph, to Illex, when things were at the tip of a disaster; guiding the collapse to twist it so whatever he wanted fell into his hands.
Or he meant to.
Dex holders seemed to add a variable he couldn’t do anything about.
Rocket, the boxes, his meddling with her and her folks, all these parts were of something bigger whole Green couldn’t even see the edges of. And when things happened like that, Giovanni moved heaven and hell to keep Silver away. Per Silver he’d been furious with Carr for bringing Silver to him during Rocket Business, the murder attempt had only gone to make him a smidge more angry…
So something bad was going to happen here because the Rocket didn’t want Silver here.
Ok, so Gio doesn't want Silver there right now. Probably from his tetris boxes on the beach.
“I think,” Because Green’s remembering his threat and only someone stupid would think she was smiling just then. “That if I go… quiet… he might never know, you’re right there. But he knows I was at Sevii last, and he’d make it a top priority to come here, don’t you think?”
Giovanni’s eyes twitched, clearly not appreciating the blackmail. His expression so still that it made Green’s skin crawl.
She imagined she could see temptation flit across his eyes, as he considered her, and “putting her in her place” perhaps, but the moment came and went. He pulled open the cabinet under the sink, and Green caught sight of… tarp, cleaning things, tape, a hack saw, metal rattled as he shoved the first aid kit back where it’d been, and he dug a bit deeper in. A few moments later and he came up with a towel, white and rough looking.
He tossed it at her and the thing might as well be sandpaper.
“Dab, don’t wipe, we need some verisimilitude for this act so don’t dry all the way off.”
So they are gearing up for the act involving her parents.
She waited, caught the thing in hand, eyes thinned, and he pulled open his wallet, flipped out a card that Green’d of sworn was a credit card, save looking at it made her skin crawl like looking at a ghost type did.
Hell, Will’d not been lying. It hovered, literally hovered, making light and space seem to dip around it so it could be nestled upon nothing at all. Looking away made the effect die down, and a span of blinking sharply had it settle on the kitchen island between those fractions of a moment Green couldn’t see it. Chasing droplets off the ends of her hair the thing looked as normal as could be.
Despite giving Green the heebie-jeebies just being this close to it.
“Will went crazy, carrying this thing, for five minutes,” Green noted.
“Caveat emptor.”
“Which means?”
“Not my problem.”
“I’m taking Italian next semester…” Well if she went back to any school, ever, still it wasn’t a totally hollow threat, Viridian had a library she could check out some books or something. “Because I am sick of you people and your lying.”
And he almost smirked, almost.
“Go home Green, but… before you do.” Giovanni offered… no extended a hand in a mute demand. She passed him Ditty like they agreed. And Cav’whatever back at him. She trusted Ditty to give Giovanni hell. Giovanni was tossing the pokeball in his hands, back and forth, as if weighing Ditty and gauging him by how much heft he had before sliding the ‘mon on his belt. Her red and white holder looked smaller and dingier compared to his gym leader yellow and black.
Ok, so she
did willingly give him Ditty. The story is that she got beat up and someone stole Ditty from her.
She tried to ignore how his eyes were boring into her like a Pidgeot when she moved to pick up the card. Green didn’t feel sick when she touched it. She flipped it over, once, twice, studied both sides, then slid it in her pocket. It was like pocketing a sliver of ice. Unpleasant, but not alien.
So I guess it confirms that she is loyal to Team Rocket? Interesting!
Not touching it directly dimmed the effect, and then it was like it wasn’t there at all. She patted her pocket, just to make sure it hadn’t slipped out, or teleported off, and since it didn’t she was good. She’d pop it a school book or something until she could think of a better hiding spot.
And Giovanni looked both amused and disappointed by… Whatever... Watched her leave. Tossing her sandpaper sliver of a towel at him she was on her way out, Green was eager to get gone, twiddling lies and tones in her head as she went. Until Giovanni’s Persian ditched the Rocket to cut Green off, right at the back door.
“And your wallet, for verisimilitude, you understand,” Giovanni called after her as if robbing her was an afterthought.
Again, Green tried to kill him. Taking her money is just another form of him grounding her.
Glaring up at him, and glaring was hard since one eye wasn’t working quite right, Green snarled. “You. Are.Kidding.Me.”
“Well, now that I have nothing else to do, keys to the kingdom in your back pocket….” And he was lying and she didn’t need tells to tell, this was such tauros shit- “I’m finding myself strapped for cash.”
She seethed up at him, near lost it… Then taking a deep breath Green forced herself to calm down, She was still in her control. She had Giovanni’s Rocket… whatever… proof he was in Rocket considering fingerprints and things. And she had tales to tell Silver. Long, detailed, ones about how he should never, ever, have anything to do with Giovanni, ever.
Hmm I'm not sure she wants to do that. Even if Gio is maybe learning to care about Green, if she keeps Silver apart from him that's not a good position to be in...
If it came down to it all the aces were in her hand, and she had a few spares up her sleeve, just in case.
So Green threw her wallet at the Rocket. She hoped it hurt, knew it was too light and hoped anyways.
“See you in a week, Green Azule,” And Mew, she knew how Da’ felt just then and felt a bit bad for him despite everything. “It’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”
Ok, I think next chapter is going to have some crap go DOWN in it!
