[X] My Assistant

[Douken Sota]

His thumb seemed to of been caught on the string through the command of "Disable," which locked away Mara's Absorb attack. In his mind, he compared it to forgetting a chord or a stanza, and taking the time to remember it, a few more stanzas would be missed, throwing off the rhythm. It was that amount of time that made her open for a Zen Headbutt.

"Alright, shake it off, shake it off," he called out to the rattling cactus as she struggled to get back up. "I think I get some of your moves now, and if I am right, those flowers are there not to just make you look pretty." This made Mara fall over again, her face red from the comment. "Yeah, i am sure you can sweeten things right back up. Now let's go! Sweet Scent!" With her back on her feet, the flowers on her head began to spin, surrounding her in a cloud of clear pink dust, spreading it over to the Dopey Pokemon. "Alright! Now, let's fight back with another Pin Missile!"

It was a good thing he remembered a Pokemon can only forget one thing at a time, so he couldn't use Disable to seal away every move (unless it was only the one). So, with the command on hand, the Cactus Pokemon held out her arms once again. The thorns on her body began to glow brightly before firing yet another barrage of pins.

[Kamaitachi]

It seemed that Tonbo's Zen Headbutt was a surprisingly powerful attack. That, or Mara the Maractus was really quite weak. Tag looked closely at his new Dopey Pokemon, who, despite his vacant expression, seemed to be enjoying the battle. Perhaps Tag imagined it entirely, but he at least felt some sort of joy emanating from the Slowpoke.

Then, a Sweet Scent followed up by another Pin Missile set in. The Sweet Scent would lower the Slowpoke's already very low evasion, which seemed rather pointless. However, the Pin Missile was a super effective move. This time, unlike the first two direct attacks, Slowpoke seemed to be showing signs of pain, meaning that it had connected, perhaps critically.

Since the trainers were issuing two moves at a time, Tag had no problem continuing the trend, in order to expedite this victory:

"Tonbo, Curse." Tonbo yelled a swear word. Obediently, the Slowpoke closed his large eyes, steadying himself. He glowed briefly with some dark energy, increasing his attack and defense capabilities at the cost of his speed. Fortunately for Tag and Tonbo, the Slowpoke was true to its namesake, so the loss in speed made little difference.

"Zen Headbutt." Summoning the psychic energies to the crown of his skill again, the Dopey Pokemon launched himself forward once again into the Maractus. She had had a difficult time earlier in dealing with the attack, Tag wondered how she would handle the boosted one.

[Douken Sota]

"Aw, crap..." Seican muttered as he watched the Dopey Pokemon's head glowing a bright blue before slamming into the rattling cactus in a huge puff oh smoke. When it all cleared up, the shy Maractus' eyes were replaced with a pair of swirls. One of the most obvious signs she was knocked out besides the fact that her last bit of energy was muttering a part of her name.

Letting out a heavy sigh, he returned Mara as his head stayed drooped. There was a small pause as he tried to get his mind back straight. However, it just lead to more yelling. "Good going, Tiki-man! How do you feel about kicking the ass of a Pokemon I was not familiar with, huh?! I bet you and that mindless pink salamander thing enjoy your victory!"

However, one thing cross his mind. Would his Pokedex possess data on Maractus? Curious, he pulled out the red box, and man, was it in bad condition. the frame was tattered, dented, and the color was faded. There was even a bit of duct tape at the hinge to keep it held together. Skimming through the data, he went Alphabetical search and found... nothing. "Well, shit..." he knew it had data on Makuhita and Whismer, so it was at least on Hoenn setting. However, that was it. It even failed to process Pokemon from Sinnoh. "Stupid piece of hand-me-down crap!" Throwing the dex on the floor, he stomped the living daylights out of the poorly treated machine until it was broken into multiple pieces. Good luck trying to salvage that.

With the frustration spent, he looked over at the man, still standing there. "Let me guess, you want your prize money, eh?" Pulling out a few Poke' from his pocket, he walked up to the tattooed man and held it out to him. "Don't spend it all in one place... I will be sure to earn it back later."

This post has been edited by Douken Sota: Jul 17 2011, 11:57 PM

[Kamaitachi]

Tag watched as the rattling cactus pokemon met the top of Tonbo's glowing head. The collision was rather fantastic, even going so far as to throw up a big dust screen. Even Tag hadn't anticipated his Slowpoke's attack power increasing that much from a single Curse-boost. Either way, Mara was defeated, and found herself recalled back into Seiccan's pokeball.

"Good going, Tiki-man! How do you feel about kicking the ass of a Pokemon I was not familiar with, huh? I bet you and that mindless pink salamander thing enjoy your victory."

Truth be told, Tag really wasn't enjoying the victory all that much. Even though he'd had trouble in the initial stages of the battle, Tonbo was, evidently, a very powerful pokemon. Mara had most likely been a fairly inexperienced one, considering the low spectrum of techniques she knew. If anything, this really made him feel worse for picking the fight in the first place. However, all that did was make him feel more ambivalent on the matter. Though Seiccan deserved a thorough beating, his pokemon, Mara, certainly didn't. Tag contemplated, briefly, punching the boy. Repeatedly.

He didn't, however, take kindly to his new friend being insulted.

"Listen, blockhead. That was the first time Tonbo and I had battled, just like you and your Mara. It was clearly a learning experience for both of us." Tag crossed his arms, "And I'll thank you not to speak ill of my friends." He knelt down, placing a hand on the Slowpoke's head.

The Slowpoke, in turn, looked up at Tag with his large, vacant eyes. In truth, he hadn't been used to this sort of respect from...well...anyone. Here was a human stooping to defend him against even a verbal slur, and was a good enough trainer to help him against a Grass Pokemon. Perhaps the name 'Tonbo' came with a good trainer, and the good start to a new life after all.

Tag watched as Seiccan pulled out a tattered old pokedex. It seemed to have seen years of mistreatment and neglect. Then, in something of a tantrum, the kid threw it on the floor and stomped it to kingdom come.

"Let me guess, you want your prize money, eh? Don't spend it all in one place...I will be sure to earn it back later."

Tag frowned, eying the money almost disdainfully. The kid was essentially shoving the cash directly in his face. Even having defeated the kid, Tag felt that Seiccan hadn't learned even the slightest lesson in respect.

"Keep your money, imbecile. You'll need it to buy a new pokedex, anyway." He felt his hands balling into fists as he spoke. Absolutely EVERYTHING about this ignoramus made Tag want to hit him. "In any case, I admire you. I've never had the courage it takes to be loud, obnoxious and stupid like that."

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

"Did you enjoy your battle?" the guard walked up to the two as Justin stood back, arms still crossed, hidden from sight within the crowd who had gathered to watch the fight. Of course, Tag would likely immediately recognize this guard as the man whom he had punched in the face. "Get outta here, kid," he said to Seiccan. "It's my turn."

Noting that Tag's current pokemon was part Water, part Psychic, the man summoned his only Dark pokemon, Skuntank. The moment it made its appearance, the area stunk up something fierce. Justin was reminded of a bad encounter he had somewhat recently with a stunky who poisoned both Hitmontop and Pinsir. "Pinky, use Night Slash!"

For those of you keeping track (Justin sure wasn't), Night Slash is a very powerful dark move and Skuntank doesn't learn it until fairly high level. Here's where Justin was keeping track: It was going to hurt Tonbo. As the pokemon moved quickly towards its prey, who had already been slowed by its own Curse, it found itself cut off as Hitmontop joined the fray with a Fake Out.

"The hell?" the man took a step back as Pinky joined him in fear of the intimidating and spinning Hitmontop before him. Then, Justin walked into the circle from outside of the crowd. He didn't look at Tag or at Seiccan.

"You're a dick," Justin shrugged at the guy, "That poor Slowpoke has had the most miserable life because of you. Then you were just gonna discard it, and now you want it back just 'cause it was stolen? And in order to do this, you figure your best course of action is to attack it while it's weak? I dunno what else to say, so I guess I'll just say it again. You're a dick."

"Alright," the guy nodded. "Okay. So you think you can take me? You think your Hitmontop can win? Pinky is part Poison, you'll have a tough time doing a lot of damage with Fighting at-"

"Hitmontop, use Earthquake."

"Tacks?"

The move was powerful. Hitmontop was very powerful. The combination thereof? Holy shit. Maybe too powerful. It felt like the entire earth was...quaking. Okay, well, I guess that makes sense. Still, it wasn't a focused attack. Skuntank seemed to be particularly affected by it, running around, fearful of random spikes shooting from the ground or something. But it was affecting everyone around. Even Justin became scared as it seemed like buildings were about to collapse. Many tents in the area were already falling over, people were losing their balances and falling all over each other. Hell, Even Hitmontop almost had to stop spinning. He didn't, though.

The pavement underneath Pinky began to crack and dirt just burst forth from it, completely covering the poor skunk pokemon. During its extreme confusion, Justin did the only prudent thing. "Follow up! You know what move!"

Mach Punch. Combined with Earthquake, it pretty much did the pokemon in, but Hitmontop's decision to switch to a different attack didn't stop the ground from trembling. Pinky was knocked out. Justin had just engaged a fellow Team Deception member in battle. However, that would be nothing compared to the punishment he'd receive for destroying the whole circus.

"Hitmontop!" He yelled over some of the panic. "Stop the Earthqake!" Hitmontop just looked at him confused. He didn't know how to do it. That was about the time when Nate walked up next to him and summoned Da Bomb, his trusty Numel.

"Da Bomb, use Magnitude to neutralize the the quakes." As the Numel concentrated, the ground began to move a little less slowly and then, finally, it stopped moving.

[Kamaitachi]

Tag turned, wide eyed as the guard from earlier approached. He clearly didn't have enough force in his punch to down the guard for very long. That, and the battle with Maractus had problem taken a bit too long.

The guard summoned a Skuntank to the field, which would most likely indicate doom for his poor Tonbo. However, the Slowpoke turned, ready to face the man who kept horrible watch on him. His incarceration hadn't been quite dignified, and the Dopey Pokemon was ready to fight for his new trainer quite eagerly.

Tag's mind raced as the Skuntank charged forward, ready to inflict what would potentially be the first and only move in the battle. Before he even had a chance to order Slowpoke to retreat his partner into the pokeball, a very familiar Hitmontop exploded from the crowd, intercepting the Skuntank with a very effective Fake Out.

Justin had charged in all cavalry-like once again. Tag glowered at the young man for once again playing the Big Damn Hero and essentially stealing the scene. However, as Justin spoke, Tag's respect for the musclehead skyrocketed.

It quickly plummeted as Justin commanded Earthquake.

"You idiot!"

Earthquake was incredibly powerful, rocking the entire area, throwing the spectators about, Tag included. Tag fell to the ground with a thud and a loud "oof". He watched helplessly as his new pokemon was tossed helplessly about by the jutting earth. Several times, he shot out the recall beam from the pokeball, only to have it deflected by the chunks of ground shooting up everywhere. Slowpoke cried out in pain, landing on the ground landing next to Tag with a solid thud. Tag immediately recalled his unconscious pokemon, saddened that Tonbo's battle debut had ended in such an ignominious defeat by someone who was essentially a teammate.

Luckily, Nate stepped in and neutralized the quake with another familiar pokemon, Da Bomb.

"Justin!" Tag shot back up, his fists clenched. "Earthquake? Are you serious!? You just bludgeoned my Pokemon! Do you EVER think anything through!? Are there even brains in that fat head of yours?"

[Douken Sota]

"Hey! What was that supposed to mean?!" he screamed at Tag, money still balled in his fist before a new voice entered thee fray. He wanted Seican to get out of there, wanting a fight with the man he fought himself. hell, he was still there and went straight for battle, targeting the Slowpoke he weakened a bit through battle with a Skuntank of all thinks. His nose was burning with the horrific smell! Covering it up, he watched as the giant skunk went for a very powerful Night Slash, but got quickly intercepted by a Hitmontop.

Listening on, he heard of the small background check of the Slowpoke he just fought. It seemed to of been treated like trash anyways, and good chance what he said didn't help in any way. Life hit him in the gut, telling him, "You were a complete asshole!" and was going to go and apologize to Tag for all that... if he didn't fall on his ass again by the powerful Earthquake. What wade it worse was the echoing ping.

To him, everything went quiet as the three got into arguments over what just happened. To him, hall he cared about was looking at his guitar where the D string broke. He would of honestly preferred forgetting a chord over a broken string, as one string missing would throw off EVERY NOTE PLAYED! Forget apologizing! echoed through his head as he took another Pokeball in hand.

"YOU ASSHOLE!" Seican screamed. "You just threw off my entire sound AND now I have to find out where to grab new strings!" Chucking the Pokeball in fury, a small pink Pokemon popped out: Whismer. Taking the neck in hand into a chord, he yelled out, "Speaker, E major!" With a powerful strumming motion, he played out the guitar as if playing the note, and the Whismer followed up with an Uproar within that pitch of the combined strings. If no one was going to calm him down, he was going to get his butt kicked by yet another powerful Pokemon.

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

"That's, uh," Justin began as the crowd immediately turned on him. They were applauding him for his epic heroism just moments before. "Yeah, that's my bad,"

"Shut up," Nate said to Justin. "Everyone, clear the area, nothin' left to see here. You," he then turned his attention to the very defeated and disgruntled guard whom had picked a fight with the wrong guy. "And you," he added to Justin. "Come with me,"

As the three followed Nate, who had stepped up in a pretty big way as of late, Nate turned to make eye contact with Tag. Indeed, it hadn't even been an hour since he had berated Tag for assuming that they were working at this circus and that Team Deception was running the show. There wasn't really much to say, but he couldn't really apologize either. So, he shrugged and turned to continue walking with Justin and Circus Guard #11 in tow.

They found themselves in the same tent from which Tag stole the Slowpoke. "A fight?" Nate asked the guy. "In the middle of the fucking circus? Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Hey you're not my boss!"

"No, I'm not," Nate shook his head. "But I've fucked up enough times to know what not to do. This whole thing is a front. The whole point is that we don't draw attention to ourselves. We gotta seem like just a regular circus. And you," he turned to Justin. "That was pretty awesome,"

"Right?" Justin laughed. "Holy shit, Hitmontop almost brought the whole place to the ground. Speaking of which- Well, I guess it's not actually related, but whatever. What's with you lately? You're trying so hard to do what's best for us."

"Maybe I'm sick of being Unit 101," Nate shrugged.

"You guys are Unit 101?" Guard 11 asked. They should really have asked his name at some point; it just seemed so inconsequential. "Justin Smart and Nate Guzman!! You guys are fuckin' legends!"

"We-" Justin began. "What?"

"Notorious fuck-ups!" the guy laughed. "Idiots with crazy strong pokemon. I knew that Hitmontop seemed really strong. Of course! It's Justin Smart's!"

"Seems our reputation has preceded us," Nate sighed. "Get back to your job," he said to the man. "Me and Justin are going back to guard the stage. No more stupid shit."

As they left, Justin and Nate got a chance to talk. "I think we fucked up," Justin said. "Again,"

"You mean Tag?" Nate asked.

"Yeah," Justin said. "He knows now, you know? I mean, we were obviously acting on some level of authority back there, and then you stepped up and that guy just followed you. Tag is... He's gonna be mad that you lied to him. And I wouldn't be surprised if he went out of his way to disrupt this place and try to free the pokemon. You saw his face, right? When he saw the Seviper. In the very least, he's gonna try to free it since he feels responsible for it being captured."

"Yep," Nate nodded. "I guess it's our job to make sure that doesn't happen."

[Kamaitachi]

E Major was probably Tag's least favourite chord. He was more of a minor, diminished, and suspended 4 with augmented ninth fan. At least, he would've been a fan of those if he actually knew the terminology for it. Tag was no musician.

However, the Uproar hit nothing, as no pokemon were out on the field any longer. The waves of sound rolled around, doing essentially nothing except create a loud tantrum noise.

"For the love of Pete," Tag rolled his eyes, before allowing them to settle back down on Seiccan "Just shut up. No one cares." He was half tempted to draw out another pokeball and simply mop the floor with the Whismur, but the fight had deflated out of him for the moment. He had a wounded Slowpoke, who probably needed medical attention.

Yet, immediately, his battle instincts flared back up as Nate passed by him. Silence fell over him as he stared silently at the younger man. The whole thing was just a front, and he knew it. The guard was listening to Nate and Justin. Well, mostly Nate. Therefore, they were in cahoots. Nothing more to it. This place was run by gangsters and mobsters, just like the Black Market in Lenoilia had been.

Tag's mind flashed back to his attempted rescue of the Black Market pokemon. While it had been successful, he, his comrades, and all of their pokemon had the living snot beaten out of them in the process. Suzu had nearly been sliced in half by a Seviper, and Tag himself had been shot. There was absolutely no way to break all of the pokemon out of their cages, and lead a successful rescue mission here. He was outmanned and outgunned. Well, he had a potential partner...

No. No he really didn't. Once glance at the temper-prone Seiccan simply proved that rag-tag teams of people with common goals couldn't be properly formed. There would be absolutely no chemistry here. Cameron Ramirez had annoyed him greatly, but the kid had grown on him considerably. WHen it came down to it, Cameron had been right there with him on the field, launching what was essentially a suicide mission.

This kid...Seiccan...there was absolutely no way in hell Tag would attempt any sort of co-operative work with this kid.

"Seiccan Serroc." Tag spoke up, hopefully once the guitarist had calmed down. "Use the prize money to buy yourself a new string."

Hopefully, the guitarist would simply scamper off, on his own merry way to whatever it was he did. In the mean time, Tag had decided on his next course of action: He would free the Seviper himself, as he now felt the lingering clouds of guilt from abetting its capture. Then, he would report the circus to the authorities. They would never believe him; he looked like a common thug. Probably nothing would come of it, but he'd have tried in that regard. It was probably a smarter move than taking on the entire circus single-handedly.

"Excuse me." Tag brushed past Seiccan, making extra sure to shoulder bump him on the way past. He probably couldn't use any circus facilities; no doubt they'd been warned about his theft. It simply meant that poor Tonbo would have to remain unconscious for a spell, while Tag freed the Seviper and left.

[Douken Sota]

Even though the small pink Pokemon was letting out a tantrum, she was able to quickly calm down when she noticed the lack of enemies. With a small chuckle, she soon relaxed and walked back over to Seican, who was, once again, getting a quick lecture from Taggery. After watching the three people walk off, he simply stared until tag went pass, bumping into him. He let off a small growl in responce, but simply let it pass by. "C'mon Speaker. We should take some time to re cooperate..."

It took him some time, but he was soon able to find a Pokemon Center Stand right next to a convenience stand. "Hey nurse," he said, walking up to the counter. "Think you can take care of my little friend here? I also want to know a bit more about her, like moves, if that's no trouble." With a smile from the nurse, she took the Maractus' Pokeball and waited by looking at the stand next to it. "Sweet! They got a deal on Revives!" Using the money that tag denied, he was able to grab a half dozen of golden crystals and a bottle of water for himself.

"Excuse me," the nurse said, looking at Seican. "You Pokemon is good to go. Also, this is what you wanted, right?" Heading back to the Center stand, he took he Pokeball alongside a small paper giving off what he requested. How the hell does a plant use Peck? echoed in Seican's mind before relieving his thanks and heading off.

With crystals in his pocket, he cracked open the bottle of water, and instead of drinking it, poured it over his head. It almost looked like he was trying to physically cool himself off from getting so steamed up. "What's with that Tiki-man anyways?" he muttered before looking forward. It was odd because he saw a Seviper being moved in a cage down away form the main tent. Clearly, this snake was not going to be a local attraction, and the rocker was curious on where it was headed. It didn't take him long to get curious enough to follow, not realizing his hair was still dripping from the water dump.

[Kamaitachi]

'That Tiki-man' was actually quite busy trailing the Seviper cart. In the time it had taken for Seiccan to find the Pokemon Center, Tag had found himself a mask that looked suspiciously it came from a Kamen Rider outfit. He'd also, conveniently, found a brown leather duster that looked like it'd been worn through a battle in a valley light years away. The main point was, Tag was now incognito. Most people probably wouldn't recognize him in passing without seeing his very distinctive tattoos.

He'd thus spent his time slowly following the Seviper cart, waiting with dedicated patience for the right moment to strike. The success of the moment depended on where the Seviper was left, and whether or not it was guarded by anyone. His mind was struggling madly to find a solution to the problem of freeing the charge from its probably untrained guard. Luckily, no one could see the utterly ridiculous 'thinking face' Tag was making, thanks to the equally ridiculous mask he was wearing.

Most likely, he'd opt for the straightforward attack, then opt for the "Run-Like-Hell" escape plan. He was well aware that he was risking his Pokemon, as well as potentially his own well-being, in exchange for this one pokemon. That meant that failure was simply not an option. Surely there were more options, but Tag's fairly black and white thinking on the matter was "Do or Die".

Then, in a total moment of sheer bad-luck, he noticed the idiot guitarist from earlier, Seiccan, step out of the Pokemon Center and follow the same cart. He looked like he'd run under a fountain, or something equally stupid, but after a moment it became expressly clear that Seiccan was following the cart.

Hopefully, Seiccan proved dense enough to not notice the Kamen Rider Browncoat purposefully stalking both him and the cart from a safe distance back.

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

Justin and Nate decided it would be best for one of them to remain on the duty to which they were actually assigned. So, Nate stayed guarding the door to backstage, even though he was a rather unintimidating bouncer considering his height (or lack thereof) while Justin went to protect the Seviper from Tag. Perhaps it should have been the other way around. Justin was actually a large guy and he would be much better at keeping people from even thinking about sneaking backstage, while Nate had proven that he was better at speaking to Tag.

Justin insisted, though. If things erupted into a battle, he trusted his own Hitmontop more than any of Nate's pokemon, and he didn't much expect either of them would be capable of convincing Tag to back off with anything less than a battle.

Sure enough, once he found the cart where the Seviper was being held, he saw a suspiciously clothed and even masked man about the size and figure of the very same Taggarty Lee. Part of Justin wanted to help Tag free the poor thing. It had been living in captivity for months and was taken directly from the wild and kept in a cage. He justified it to himself time and time again that a cage couldn't be much worse than a pokeball, but the truth was, he had no idea what it was like inside those little balls. Still, captured pokemon never seem particularly sad, but this Seviper looked like it had simply given up. He wondered, if Tag were allowed to free him, would he even be able to make it out in the wild again?

He didn't act; just watched. He wanted to know Tag's plan before he could foil it.

[Kamaitachi]

When it came to Pokemon Battle Strategy, Tag was pretty good. When it came to other sorts of strategies, Tag was not nearly as good. As the cart reached its destination, Tag drew a pokeball, almost casually tossing it forward.

The ball landed behind the mook moving the cart, who turned in surprise to see a Bellossom. Looking up, he saw a masked man in a trenchcoat?

"Who the hell are-" "Sleep Powder"

As the man reached for his own pokeballs, the pink spores shot up into his face, curling around him as he breathed it in deeply. A sleepy, happy look appeared on the man's face as he slumped to the ground.

Looking around, Tag moved forward, dragging the body aside and propping it up against some conveniently stacked crates.

All the while he was completely ignoring Seiccan. The kid was more of a hindrance than anything, but at the very least, he could be used as cannon fodder in case more grunts showed up.

Tag moved over to the cage, wondering exactly how to go about this. Part of him just wanted to release the Seviper, but it didn't seem to be in any sort of state to escape on its own.

Tag reached down to find an empty pokeball, so he could capture it like he had Tonbo...and to his dismay, there were no more! This was decidedly poor foresight, so Tag had no choice but to...

"Hey, Idiot Guitarist." Tag turned to Seiccan, who had probably been watching the hold time. "Capture this Seviper."

[Douken Sota]

Huh?" That was a random command. Capture the seviper? Didn't it belong to the circus anywyas? And who was this strange masked man anyways. "You know that jacket does not suit that helmet, right?" Clearly, he was not connecting the heights of this guy and Tikiman. "You know if you try to cosplay, you need the full suit."

After a most likely barking from him Seican turned around and began to run forward, tripping over his feet nearly immediately, but caught himself and began running in the area with the Seviper like a dumb ass. Not only that, but he failed to realize that one of the golden crystals he bought fell out of his pocket, the Revive gleaming in the open to Tag.

While running past everyone, he soon got a mob of guards charging at him as he sent out his Makuhita. "Drummer, take care of these fools!" With a Arm Thrust to each face, he gave off a stupid grin before turning back around. "Now where the hell did that snake go?"

This, unfortunately for Seican, led him to the dude with the Hitmontop.

[Kamaitachi]

"You know that jacket does not suit that helmet, right? You know, if you try to cosplay, you need the full suit." Luckily Seiccan couldn't see Tag's face through the mask/helmet. It was one of utmost incredulousness, as if Tag's very face was saying: "Too stupid; Didn't Happen."

He wanted to yell at the kid. In fact, in most scenarios he would've yelled at the kid. In this rare occasion, Tag found himself utterly speechless. He had been stupified by Seiccan's response.

In that silence, Seiccan ran forward full tilt, engaging the remaining guards with the Makuhita he'd seen earlier. In the process, he dropped a revive.

Tag recognized it immediately, and stopped to pick it up. Sadly, the words "Good news! It's a suppository" repeated over and over in his head in a surprisingly old voice. Tag did not discard his newfound fortune immediately, mostly because it didn't belong to him. That, and reviving Tonbo in the presence of the guards would merely alert him to the fact that the trench-coated gentleman was in fact the thief from earlier that day.

While Seiccan engaged the guards, which was precisely the opposite of what Tag had commanded him to do, Tag moved over to the cage, where Kyoko stood waiting for him.

"Uh, Kyoko, break it open. Leaf Blade!" The Bellossom gave a quick smile and bow to Tag before drawing a thin leaf from her skirt, which she brandished with surprising gusto. With one fell leap, she met the cage head on, slashing repeatedly with her leaf rapier. Within moments, the cage bars burst apart, allowing the Seviper free passage into the open.

However, the poor broken creature remained huddled in the cage. Despite it's natural weapons, and despite the fact that a path to freedom had just been cut open for it, it remained curled up in its cage, unwilling to face the thought of freedom lest it turned out to be merely an illusion.

"C'mon, move." Tag ordered it, pointing out in a relatively clear direction. After a moment, it became evident that it probably wasn't budging, and that Tag probably needed to clear it a path anyways.

"Alright Kyoko, let's help out here. Hit them with Magical Leaf!"

With a graceful spin, Kyoko let fly with a barrage of glowing leaves, hammering the guards Drummer had hit with a furious salvo of, well, magical leaves.

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

Justin found his attention was distracted as Seiccan somehow attracted the aggression of some people. These were not guards, however. They had no reason to chase after the kid, after all. He hadn't done anything wrong. It was understandable how he may have been confused by this, as he certainly did have plans to do exactly as Tag had commanded.

It was two men. Perhaps it was their sharp dress that hinted at a thuggish nature, but that didn't really make sense. Maybe Seiccan was just on edge. One was an agent and the other, his assistant, and they liked what they heard. The agent, Jonah Ronn, was by no means big time. He was, after all, working a circus, but, hey, neither was Seiccan. He had a marketable sound, and Mr. Ronn wanted to sign him. That was, at least, until he and his assistant got Arm Thrusted in the face by the kid's Makuhita.

"Jesus," Justin sighed when he saw this. Justin knew nothing about Jonah Ronn or his assistant and what they did. He did know that they weren't guards. This was a place of business, a circus patronized by children. There were not masses of guards standing around, chasing after people simply for looking suspicious, especially not in the middle of a crowded area. The kid eventually ran into him. Justin just grabbed him by the shoulders in an effort to get him to calm down and quit running around like an idiot. "Calm the f-"

During this actually successful distraction, Tag had managed to cut the Seviper loose. Justin noticed this a bit too late, but was thankful that the snake was too scared to actually leave. Then he was upset that he was thankful, because that was a terrible thing for which to be thankful.

He tossed Seiccan nonchalantly to the side and approached the cage, his hand resting firmly on Hitmontop's pokeball, to confront Tag, but he hadn't yet summoned the destructive fighting pokemon. "Tag," he said, shaking his head. "What are you doing? Did you not think I was gonna come stop you? I kind of get why you're doing it. I do. I'm not happy with the fate of a lot of these pokemon. But do you really think that freeing one caged Seviper is going to solve anything? Will it honestly do anything besides appease your fucking guilt?"

He continued, refusing to allow his rival to speak. "I don't like what I do. And I hate that you look at me like you're so much better than me." He paused for a moment, but his heavy breathing indicated that he wasn't finished. "Because it's true. Because you're willing to risk everything for one pokemon. I hate that I have to be the one to stand in your way. But I will. Tag, if you don't walk away right now, I will take you down. Some day, I'm sure we'll have a battle, a real one. A good one. But this can't be it. It's not worth it, man. You need to pick your battles, and this isn't one of them.

"So I'm asking you," he continued. "Because I respect you. And because I like you. Walk away. Let me handle the Seviper and the cage. Let me handle the situation with the idiot guitarist," he looked over his shoulder to Seiccan, but then immediately back to Tag. "You saved the Slowpoke. He's yours. The Seviper is mine."

[Kamaitachi]

Tag stopped dead in his tracks as Justin called his name. The disguise, while paper thin, had been more than enough to fool Seiccan. While he figured a sharper person like Nate might've immediately seen through it, Tag had not expected Justin to have spotted him so quickly.

Justin's arrival, however, spelled the end of Tag's endeavour. If it came to a battle, Tag would lose, it was simple as that, and he had no desire to send his pokemon up against Hitmontop again, now that it had become such a powerhouse. The earthquake he witnessed earlier was enough to convince Tag that Hitmontop could probably OHKO his entire team. It was just that bad-ass.

Tag listened closely as Justin monologued at him. It was an interesting speech, to say the least. Tag couldn't tell if he was being respectful or condescending, and he wasn't exactly sure how to take it.

"Justin." He finally spoke. Stooping down, he picked up Kyoko, holding her to his chest. The Bellossom, in turn, looked at Justin oddly. While Suzu and Bachi had faced Justin in battle, at least twice prior, Kyoko had only ever been an ally to Justin, when Tag entrusted her as an Oddish to him in a battle many moons prior. She seemed bewildered that her friend Justin was opposing Tag.

"I've made a lot of mistakes in my life." Tag spoke slowly, and calmly, despite the fact that he was clearly in a losing situation, with Justin's weighty advantage. "This is one of them. Whether it's helping you escort this poor creature to your bosses, or trusting you in the first place, I'm still not sure. Either way, yes. Freeing Seviper will ease my guilt somewhat. Now that I know that I abetted you in getting this Seviper here, even if its arrival here was out of your control, will still bug me forever."

Then, before he realized it, he just continued talking, which was a fairly surprising move for Tag. He wasn't a big talker unless it was about Pokemon Battles, but this was probably the most vulnerable he'd felt in a very long time.

"The solution, to me, is simple. I'll walk away, on the condition that you take up the mantle of rescuing this Seviper. It doesn't have to be immediate, though sooner is preferable to later. You do that, and I'll know for sure that I can at least try and trust you once in a while. If you can promise me that this creature will ultimately be freed, then I'll gladly walk away."

Tag wasn't completely sure why he said that. It was a fairly desperate gambit, but using force was out of the question; he'd lose.

"If that's not possible, then we're at an impasse, and neither of us are ideas people, Justin. We're warriors, that's wherever we meet turns into a battlefield, either as allies or enemies. So these are our options: You let me get away with the Seviper. I leave, but you free the Seviper. Conversely, we fight here, and we're bitter enemies forever. Your call."

Taggarty Lee didn't like insurmountable challenges. He much preferred surmountable ones. But at least, in his mind, if he engaged Justin, he could get Seiccan to run off with the caged Seviper (and maybe as an added bonus, the Seviper would eat Seiccan in turn). The unfortunate truth was that Tag still didn't know if Seiccan could be trusted with such a weighty task. It made his third option the most shaky of the three, and one that the risk might not have been worth it for. That ultimately relegated the 'fight' option to the function of a bluff.

[Yzarc Drowsnam]

Justin sighed. He didn't want to be enemies with Tag. Truthfully, he always looked up to the man. "This Seviper matters a lot to you. But you're an idiot. It's ironic that you always call me an idiot." It wasn't ironic, but Justin barely graduated high school, so give him a break. It's one of the most incorrectly used words in the English language! "All the bad going on in the world, and you only care about this one Seviper. How selfish is that?

"But okay," he continued. "You walk away. You tell your boy, that guitarist, to stand down and stop attacking innocent bystanders, and I'll do what I can to help this snake."

He waited for a moment as Tag began to walk away, but then spoke again. "Tag, if you could do me another favor. What I do, who runs this circus. It needs to stay quiet. The only people who know are you and, uh, Raven. This is what I do. I don't need you to agree with it, but I'd really like for you to respect it."

[Douken Sota]

So what if during that moment, he accidentally attacked mistaken bystanders and ruined a good chance to go to the top easily? Not like he knew. Well, maybe actually paying attention to those who were going after him instead of by him would of helped. Maybe he would of realized this if he actually went to pay attention.

It seemed it was the guy from before who released the wreckless Hitmontop, and was soon thrown down when the "Kamen Rider" popped up to encounter the guy, still aiming to free this Seviper. Now, Seican still had no idea it was tag, nor was he familiar with the background of the pair, so all he did was lay there on the floor, listening on as the Makuhita stared at the scared Seviper. It was only until he heard about the Slowpoke and freeing it did the ends click: The Kamen Rider was Tiki-Man!

Getting up on his feet, the guitarist stared at Tag before moving his gaze to Justin, and after a while of silence, he muttered loud enough to hear, "What the hell is going on here?"

[Kamaitachi]

"What the hell is going on here?" He heard Seiccan not-so-subtly mutter.

"Adults are talking." A hardened glare from Tag shot off like a laser beam at the young guitarist. Seiccan was more than likely of adult age, but Tag felt particularly inclined to be very demeaning to him. In the mean time, he turned back to Justin to continue their conversation.

"It's not selfish." Tag crossed his arms, almost poutily. "All the bad going on in the world, and I'm still doing something about it. You're merely contributing to it. So, in the same way I'm an idiot who calls you an idiot...you're selfish but call me selfish."

Tag was convinced that what he had just said wasn't entirely a sentence, but it would suffice. It seemed like the only way to vocalize the terribly complex rebuttal he'd crafted. He wasn't pleased with it, but it would suffice.

"But okay, you walk away. You tell your boy, that guitarist, to stand down and stop attacking innocent bystanders, and I'll do what I can to help this snake."

It was a compromise, and one that didn't end with Tag's pokemon as bloody smears all over the floor of the Circus. Slowly, the former Dragon Trainer nodded. He really didn't have much of a choice, so he'd have to accept. Unsure as to whether or not to trust Justin on this matter (or any matter, for that matter), he simply uttered:

"Thank you, Justin."

"Hey, idiot guitarist." Tag walked over to Seiccan, reaching into his pocket and holding out his hand. "You dropped this." On the flat of his palm was the revive crystal Seiccan had dropped earlier. "Consider my returning this your payment for helping me. Goodbye. Hopefully forever."

"Tag, if you could do me another favor. What I do, who runs this circus. It needs to stay quiet. The only people who know are you and, uh, Raven. This is what I do. I don't need you to agree with it, but I'd really like for you to respect it."

Tag stopped short in his walk, in that really cool way that people did in moves. He was still holding Kyoko, which made the moment less cool and a bit more adorable. Regardless, he turned back around to face Justin, as talking over his shoulder would render his words inaudible (albeit much cooler).

"Fine. You keep your word, and I'll keep mine."

Then, at the mention of Raven's name, he felt his throat clench up a bit. He attempted to be cool about the situation, but it was fairly obvious that he was a bit flustered about it.

"You...you haven't seen her around, have you?"