NIGHT LIGHTS [C]

Julius did know what was going on, but he had a different approach to things than Sylvester. Perhaps it was just that he had a different approach to most people, but whatever. He leaned easily against the entrance of the alley, waiting like a lion hiding in the grassland. He paused his tapping against the brick wall long enough to hear a deranged scream. God, criminals made his blood boil. He decided he could throw his strategy down the gutter if they were actually causing someone to scream like that, and turned on his sole to go into the alley when suddenly the magma goon himself bumped into Julius, struggling to get out.

The glasses wearing male shoved his confusion aside for a bit, and ducked under to deliver a punch to the man's guts.

x-x-x

Seconds later, Julius walked inside the alley, finding the kid about to walk out. He stopped the kid a bit and knelt next to him in a friendly manner. "Hey, hey, don't get caught up in things like that, alright." He paused, a hand going to his belt. "Souvenir for you." It was some of the money the magma grunt had taken from the kid, and Julius placed it inside his palm. The kid ran off, and Julius was left to awkwardly sheild him from the sight of the mangled body of the magma grunt on the floor. He sighed and was about to leave when suddenly he noticed the presence of someone else in the alley. Detesting his observational skills for not being keener, he gave the stranger a dark glare.

"And who are you, some leftover scum?" His voice turned nasty, a sort of threatening, testing tone. But the suspicion was baseless, and it was more of a reassurance than anything. Still, bystanders that stood by instead of actually helped pissed off Julius a lot more than people who committed crimes.

The amount of goons in Hoenn was, just as Sylvester said, too damn high.

But that was when Julius saw the Sylveon and Shroomish at his side, and his eyes lit up a little in surprise. "Don't tell me you..."

Ah, crap. Had he overdone it again?

Well it wouldn't be the first time.

The glare didn't mean much to Julius, but rather just earned the male more plus points in his favor. Usually the people he met either thought he was an 'extremist' and edged away quietly, or outright stated that what he did wasn't 'kind.' It was a wonderful change to be appreciated for once, and Julius smirked at the stranger in response.

"Hardly alone. It's just that the majority of people against them are them themselves. You'd think they'd have killed each other off by now..." His words came out raw, and he wasn't expecting them to. He hadn't met someone like this Sylvester in a while, and was pretty surprised at himself with the sudden bout of rambling he managed to do.


The male began wlaking out of the alley and Julius followed him, one hand running through his hair and the other fumbling with a packet of cigarettes. "Julius," he answered, calmly and silently judging the man before completing his answer with a final "Kingston."

He paused a while and shrugged. "I'm a trainer as well," he silently offered the packet to Sylvester, fine if he accepted it and fine if he didn't. But while the silent offer was made his sharp green eyes scanned the male before him, watching with mild interest and a mischievous twinkle.

Hoenn was full of amazing surprises, what could he do if he found more like minded people than he knew what to do with?

After the talk he'd had with Andrea, Julius was completely interested in this man, someone he would usually not care so much for. He was observing the male with intense interest, and an approving look quickly shimmered in his eyes. Julius nodded and the male took a cigarette. The hipster would have given him a light, but Sylvester already had one out by the time Julius could offer his.

Julius chuckled at the rhetorical question, and also at the coughing and sputtering from earlier. He was so used to it he hardly coughed at alll anymore, but the first few times had been hellish. Now he was almost never without a cigarette, as much as he tried to keep them aside. It wasn't healthy, but Julius didn't care.

Julius quirked and eyebrow at the optimism, and shrugged. "Little sacrifices we make for the world," he said sarcastically and with a smile, as though him giving up on having fun like this would change the world. If only it could.

"Oh, yeah. The next badge will be from Rustboro, now." He allowed a flicker of excitement to show before turning back to Sylvester. "And you?"

Julius cocked one eyebrow up, half at the little suspense the man put up and half because he was amused he could so easily start a conversation about simplistic trainer-things with anyone he met. It was funny how much people had in common, really, by just being trainers. A single cause to unite them all and...

"Hmm?" He seemed to snap out of a daze and continue nodded, as though he had actually been listening. "Right ah, there's Hachi, my growlithe. Just a new born, really. And then my rotom who was pretty much what made defeating Norman so easy. Normal moves can't touch ghost, you know."

He said, gesturing calmly as a friendly source of advice. "But I really could have used something that could throw a few punches. Like tyrouge or something." His voice drawled off, and he became focused on sending more smoke clouds into the sky.

"So anyway, what are you aiming at? The usual, becoming the champion?" he asked, more focused on the conversation now. The question was asked with relative teasing, as those dreams were often, at least from Julius's angle, only held by little seventeen year olds with the whole world in front of them. Maybe he was just getting old.

"Who didn't?" He said easily in response. Everyone had little dreams of being a pokemon champion. Admittedly his childhood fantasies were of joining the rangers or, before that, becoming a singer, but it wouldn't hurt to establish some sort of familiarity with the man in front of him.

Julius decided the man before him was easily trusting, a little too much so. Was it easy to trust him, or was Sylvester a little too kind? Julius wasn't sure, and it wasn't like he cared, either. It was just an interesting revelation that, in the end, despite what common goal united them, people would always differ from each other.

Ahh, there he went, bringing it up. Julius smirked, the gesture itself occupying a lot of his face and moving the cigarette a little in his mouth. He reached out and pulled the stick away, blowing out and then turning back to Sylvester.

"To bring an end to injustice," Julius commented, acting as though it was uninteresting just to test the waters a little bit. "Why not just join the rangers?" He questioned, not daring to let the smile he was holding back slip out. But it was a question that needed to be asked, for the sake of knowing. He would ask everyone he met that, and he would determine the flaws of this society. And he'd change it.

Andrea had got him high enough to believe he could. Maybe he'd die trying. But he knew the second the words had come out of his mouth that this was what he was supposed to do.

His eyes met Sylvester's head on for the first time in a while, daring him to respond.

The words that came tumbling out of Sylvester's mouth sounded like the most pleasant of melodies to Julius's ears. Finally his deep, vacant gaze broke, and a smile sprouted from each corner of his mouth, filling it with the mirth he had put on display before, like he had switched from person to person.

"Sylvester, my friend, that the greatest answer I've heard all day." He spoke without much regard as to what Sylvester was thinking, or what the stranger made of him and his weird tendency. Normally he wouldn't be like this, normally he would be cool and able to withold information. But right now? He was fizzing with excitement, the sudden urges of a new pet project of sorts forcing him to say and do all kinds of things.

"You know, whatever it is you do, Sylvester. Don't stop. There are more people like us in the world. One day you find out how and why you want to get stronger."

He had a cheshire grin on his face now, yes. Sylvester was the man he needed- the first knight on his board, maybe. Things were getting interesting, and he could feel himself heating up from the inside. Everything he did from here on out would be for Cassie, for Carissa.

"And then, we'll meet again." Julius extended his arm for a handshake, absolutely and genuinely happy to have met Sylvester.

"But hey, in case Arceus wants to prove me wrong and we don't, mind giving me your number?" He added, a rather playful and friendly tone taking over his voice. He quickly pulled out a pen and a paper from his pocket- two items he had decided to keep there ever since that encounter with Andrea.

Julius smiled eagerly as he read over the number a few times, and began writing it down. In all honesty, he probably wouldn't need the paper- he had always been good with numbers more so than people. Which, for what he was planning, made so much sense he could hardly contain it. No matter which way he looked at it, it felt like he had been born with this plan in mind.

And now here we was, fulfilling it. He pushed the paper inside his pocket and pretended to be annoyed with Sylvester, still smiling though, so he would know Julius was only kidding.

"Well I sure hope I don't look like I go around giving false information." He put the pen back in his shirt pocket and waved at Sylvester, legs slowly carrying him away. He turned around as quickly as he could, effectively hiding the giddy smile that crept onto his features.

Yes. Going about this alone had been thrown out the window the second he had met Andrea. He'd change the world, but he wouldn't force it to change. Everyone would realize, soon enough. The true way to go about things. The true corruption that lurked, he'd expose it. Just like Cassie always wanted.