Dark Places [Julius]

Julius wasn't in a very good mood, maybe he never was. After running into Rory and having to deal with a shitload else, he couldn't care where he was going. His hands were in his pockets, the usual fierce and distinct look in his eyes and he continued to walk, regardless of the pedestrians surrounding him. The cigarette between his lips was, as usual, letting out a steady flow of smoke.

"Tcht," as all his said as his body clashed into another one, and his gaze shifted to the man. His eyes quickly summed up the man infront of him, he looked like a general goon, with bright red hair and a cruel, malicious look in his eyes. Julius rolled his eyes at his display of brutish strength.

"Sorry, but I hope you can easily tell wasn't my intention to go touching some trash like you," he drawled, boredom ringing in his tone. The male looked shady, and even though he knew the effects of prejudice it was hard not to judge from the outside looks. He paused there on the street long enough to remove the cigarette, blow out smoke, and place it back in.

He was usually friendly, perhaps even apologetic, but right now he wasn't in the mood to deal with crap from someone like that.

Julius stared, half impressed and half disgusted. The male seemed to be the epitome of the annoying criminals you see on streets every day, and he didn't care if he had no conclusive evidence: everything about the male rubbed Julius the wrong way.

"And you, yes you must be toughest kid in your home school, yeah?" But now Julius was more than mildly annoyed, he was pissed off. And even more pissed off that the cheap ass aggression tactics the younger boy was using were working. In the end, Julius was a man, and he couldn't back down from such a blatantly proposed challenge.

But what Darius said at the end made Julius laugh. "You've gotta be kidding me," he said, shaking his head to the left and then to the right, a sort of quizzical display of mirth after his more than just cold actions before. Right now, Julius actually seemed to be trying forcefully not to crack up, and yet smirking anyway. But he didn't seem in any rush to say what exactly he found humorous so instead of explaining he shrugged in a what can you do fashion and stepped backwards a bit, before throwing a pokeball into the air seamlessly.

"If all you're looking for is a fight, a pretty pleas would've been nice," he taunted, just as the flash of white went out to reveal En, flapping by meticulously, fangs barred as per usual. The zubat hovered around Julius, flapping comfortably as it eyed the other human.

The people on the street began to make way for a pokemon battle, some gawking while others took no notice.

Julius meanwhile, was still smiling, for reasons unknown.


en - zubat - 100% - no ailments
lvl 15- inner focus - female
on standby

Julius was sick to the stomach just hearing the male speak. How could anyone be so pointlessly aggressive, and sounds so much like an uncultured swine trying to be something useful. He looked at Darius with a look of mild pity as a slurr of profanities left his mouth. TO be honest Julius had stopped attempting to decipher what he was trying to say- trash can only speak in trash.

But trash like this? It was useful, undoubtedly.

Julius's stomach fell a little at a gible that propped out of the pokeball, and suddenly he knew why the male seemed to thing he was the hottest shit in town. He sighed. Beating this would be tricky, and the sandstorm that stared up soon after would do nothing but hinder Julius. But he needed to win. It would hard if he couldn't, for what he had planned, anyway.

The zubat screeched at the horrid sandstorm and began flapping around wildly, dodging the dragon rage in more of a panic than anything else. Julius didn't order his pokemon, that would be useless. He used his time instead to think about how he could go about this.

A psychotic little mutt that would go around chasing any strong trainer it could, especially magma and aqua. Dangerous, especially with that starter. But extremely valid too, and worthy. If Julius could knock him down a few pegs, he could possibly earn his respect, or maybe he'd just hate him more. He was sure.

But as the Zubat started diving madly towards the gible, Julius could not help but idly wonder. If he started doing things like that, was he really different from a criminal? From magma or aqua?

en - zubat - 100% - no ailments
lvl 15- inner focus - female
dodges dragon rage.
buffeted by storm.
uses wing attack x2

He frowned, keeping the thoughts that took him by storm out of his head. He wasn't concentrating as hard as he should be on the battle, not right now, anyway. It was simple enough, he needed to win. But he felt like even if he did win and managed to get Darius on his side, it would make him feel hollow. If was serious about this, about an organization, what would he do if it ended up just like magma and aqua, full of goons like his current opponent?

En swiveled out of the way, and Julius caught sight of his pokemon having trouble. "Tch...." he was grinding his teeth in annoyance at the dragon rages that kept coming- if En dodged one she would be hit by another. The zubat was hit and Julius did not wait fro confirmation. He pulled out a pokeball and threw it into the air, unleashing the pokemon he had been holding back.

Octo appeared in another flash of light, her icy body shimmering in the sun. "Icy wind, now!" Julius didn't care how many pokemon it took, he'd win if the only thing the trainer infront of him had was a gible. He allowed himself to smirk again as the ice type unleashed a fury of cold wind that combating the dry heat of the sandstorm.

Julius wondered if his plan would work and watched the gible, suddenly interested in the battle.

octo - bergmite - 100% - no ailments
lvl 10- sturdy - female
zubat faints
octo is buffeted by storm.
uses icy wind (reduces speed, 100%) x2

"Correct," he said, simply, before adding as a snarky after thought, "For once." But honestly by now both trainers had gotten used to the rhytym of the battle and at the very least for Julius it was more of friendly taunt than anything malicious. He was too absorbed by the battle and his own tactics to care much about anything else.

The gible seemed to have lost valuable momentum due to the barrae of cold wind, and for Julius it was now his chance. He threw open Octo's pokeball before the pokemon could be hit by a purple flare. Instead he switched in Cinque, his Clauncher, who hardly had time to react let alone dodge. The dragon rages both made their mark and Clauncher was forced into his pokeball yet again.

The next turn started, and Julius did not, contrary to what Darius might have been thinking, send out Octo again. No, Octo could hardly take down a gible as strong as that, he hardly had enough experience under his belt. Instead the pokemon that appeared was a ball of yellow and brown. Zwei, Juls's hyper active little critter that always managed to have something good to say.

"Quick attack, Zwei, no hesitations!" The pikachu nodded quickly, and became a shrouded blurr as it moved to take the gible down- a rush of speed and energy. In insane speed of the move that Zwei used would enable it to attack first regardless, and so Julius was confident he could get some punches in.

The pikachu dived forward, and Julius watched it go.



zwei - pikachu - 100% - no ailments
lvl 15- lightning rod - male
bergmite switched out.
clauncher (lvl 14) faints
pikachu is buffeted by storm.
pikachu uses quick attack x2

The pikachu dived forth, right into its own demise, no doubt. But if there was one thing that was alright about Julius and where he was going with this battle, it was that he did not so much as flinch regardless of however many of his pokemon fainted. His expression remain placid as the flames hurt one of his favorite companions, and he looked almost bored as he took the next pokeball out. But suddenly he remembered what he had meant to ask.

He tossed out Cirque again, the Bergmite immediately letting loose a flurry of icy winds at the gible without having to be told what to do. Julius, on the other hand, looking at Darius. THe raven haired male didn't give much of a warning to his question, nor did he bother with reason. Logic wouldn't work on an ape like this male in front of him, and Julius was alright with that.

"Why do you hate rangers?" It was a bit of a gamble- the hothead could have been a ranger himself, or even liked the rangers, knowing how screwed up Hoenn already was, Julius wouldn't have been surprised. But he was willing to experiment to get the answers he wanted. More than anything, though, his mind was asking another question, a question that dealt with the battle and how he might lose, a question dealing with something greater than Darius and this little banter.

Was the solution to wild cards like him being inside an organization pure dominance? Aggression, hierarchy?

Wasn't there something he was overlooking, some key component in all of this, some way to unite people better than the flimsy ideas Magma and Aqua had thrown together?

cirque - bergmite - 100% - no ailments
lvl 10- sturdy - female
pikachu (lvl 15) faints
bergmite uses icy wind x2

Fine, it worked. This guy also hated the system. Despite the fact that the respect Julius had for him was flimsy at best, it existed because of that singular belief. The world couldn't be made completely of reasonable people, there had to be people like him, like Sylvester. Like Andrea. They were all different. Force wouldn't unite them, but a cause could.

A cause...

"Tch! You're the one talking about annoying moves, now?" Julius asked, the words a little harsh but a smile playing on his lips, the little dialogue more friendly banter than anything. The second he sensed a little familiarity in Darius, and the second he got an answer to his dilemma, the animosity had faded. Julius found at a last one thing he could use, one final piece that had been missing from his plan. Everyone wants to help, everyone will do anything to bring about a better world. In this match, all his pokemon were up against one monster dishing out one dragon rage after another. But didn't the little things count? The things like Zwei's little quick attacks, like En's wing attacks.

Small things.

"Dodge on, then brace yourself!" Bergmite rolled out of the way of one rage, and then seemed to become infinitely smaller as the second one kicked in. But the bergmite did not fall, its ability kicking in in the nick of time.

"Again!" Icy winds left the bergmite's mouth, a howling of the air as a chilled gust flew towards the gible.

cirque - bergmite - 1% - no ailments
lvl 10- sturdy was activated! - female
bergmite dodges one dragon rage!
bergmite uses icy wind x2
sandstorm faded!