Pokemon Umbral Intermission: The Ensnaring Conspiracies

[Astral Harmony]

Renny & Lola

Lola didn't have anything to say to Renny, so she just let him leave. She was...troubled. She needed someone to talk to, but she knew she couldn't turn to Renny about this.
She found a piece of paper somewhere and scribbled down a note stating she would be with her sister Harliette tonight and left. After picking up a key and staring at it for a brief moment, Lola drove her car over to another apartment building that Harliette shared with her boyfriend Mouse.

It was pretty late by the time Lola and Harliette sat down. It was much like a slumber party of sorts, with Lola in her cute pajamas and Harliette wearing what Lola could only describe as a "denim thong" with a white halter top that at some point may have been a torn up t-shirt. It had holes in it that looked very slutty. So, obviously Harliette's taste.
Harliette listened with irritated disinterest as Lola poured her heart out over what she felt was a huge mistake. "I just...god, I should have told him to get out of Honmyr! It's only going to get worse and worse!"
"You can still go tell him to leave this rock," Harliette said after emptying her seventh can of beer. Unfortunately, the beer wasn't helping, because she still wasn't unconsciousness enough to no longer hear Lola's whining.
"I can't do that! After what I said, what I helped him do?! Gawd, it's such a mess and all because I couldn't stand to let him go! Seriously, Samantha, what am I going to do?!"

That was the last straw.
"I know what you're going to do," Harliette said, then stood up.
Lola sighed in relief that her younger sister had an answer for her, but before she could thank her, Harliette seized Lola by the throat and threw her onto the bed.
"Sister, what the-!" then Lola froze in terror.

Harliette placed her left hand on Lola's throat again, mostly to keep Lola from struggling.

Her right hand clutched one of her guns.

A gun that was pressed against Lola's forehead.

Harliette grinned viciously as she pulled back the hammer with her thumb and caressed the trigger with her fingertip. "You're going to listen to me very closely, Lolianne, and if you don't, I'm going to put another hole in your head so that maybe my voice can reach you a little better."
Lola's jaw quivered and her eyes were aimed at Harliette's face. Harliette assumed that meant that Lola got the message. "Good girl, because I've been meaning to reestablish our little relationship with each other. Get it through your skull, Lola. I hate you, and I sure as hell hate that little twerp Renny, so why the fuck am I listening to you bitch and moan about you and him?"

Lola didn't answer, but her eyes darted for the door when it opened. In stepped Mouse, wearing a kitchen apron and staring at the hot "girl with gun on girl" action.
"Try to interfere and I'm ventilating your dome next," Harliette said without looking at him.
Mouse shrugged. He knew not to push Harliette's buttons when the girl was pissed. "Nah, I'm just up here to tell you that dinner is ready, and it's your favorite: baked potatos with more sour cream and chives than potato."
"I'll be down in five, Mouse," Harliette promised sweetly, then the sisters were alone again.
"Now, where was I? Oh, yes. I find it hard to believe that I'm the younger sister, yet I'm so much more mature. If you think you made the wrong decision by following your heart, then you did, and you need to take some goddamn responsibility for it."
"Re...re...respuh..." Lola stammered. Clearly the good nurse had never had a gun to her face.
Harliette grinned wider to show off her wet teeth, particularly her very pointy incisors. This was even better than sex. "Yes, dear sister of mine. Responsibility. Simply put, you're the one who got Renny into this mess and now you have to see him through it. I'm sure he came to you about it and you foolishly told him to stay with you and PATCA. A shame, really. I would've liked it if I didn't have to see that little fucker anymore. If he comes to regret this decision, then it's your fault. And should he die, his blood is on your hands. So if I was you, and thank Rezonark that I'm not, I would go back to wherever you had him go and protect him. Protect him from the terrible decision that you made."

Lola was too shocked to speak, but Harliette finally released her sister's throat and put her gun away. "I'm going to go eat, and if you're still up here when I get back, I'm going to finish reaching orgasm by taking your pointless life. Now get the fuck gone."
Mouse was salting his potatos when Harliette sat down at the table, a beer in one hand and a satisfied smile plastered on her face. "Did you really shoot your sister?" he asked his girlfriend, then wondered how many people usually started table conversations like that.
"Nah, I let the cow take her udders back to her stupid beloved," Harliette said. "I figured if I killed my sister, I'd get addicted to the climax it'd give me and then I'd have to kill someone I hate for each and every orgasm thereafter."
"You're...not going to hate me, are you?"
"Relax, Mouse. I'm not going to kill the man who cooks my favorites every day and satisfies me every night."

When Lola returned to the hotel, she wore a hard expression. Harliette was absolutely right. "I'm going to make up for my mistakes," Lola said to herself, shaking away her tears and clenching her fists. "I'm not going to let Renny go. I'm going to protect him and get him through this if I have to destroy every enemy who stands in our way."
If this was an anime, it wouldn't be too much to see Lola making her pledge to Renny at the edge of a high cliff with a tidal wave crashing against it.

Maybe...Harliette's advice was a little too effective.

-----
Pierce & Irene

"You look beautiful." He complimented her.
"Thank you. All the slaughtering I've done in my life considered, I came out of it looking pretty good," Irene chuckled, then offered her arm for Pierce and they were on their way.

Being with Pierce had a way of melting away Irene's stress. So did eating.

And drinking.

More drinking.

Holy shit, her liver had to be made of the same material that composed Rayleen's artificial arm. Two bottles of wine down (well, Pierce had tried to stop her) and finally it looked like it was getting to her. All that happened must have gotten to her a lot worse than it at first appeared.

Outside, Irene's more aggressive nature started to surface. "Man, I'm smashed!" she announced with her voice only slightly slurred. "Pierce, take me now or lose me forever!"

Oh god, what the hell was up with this woman?

-----
Pierce & Kimonos

"He's certainly a friendly guy," Tsubasa said as Pierce moved on to handle business with the dojo.
"He seemed really nervous about something," Chizuru observed. "Will he be okay?"
"I'm sure he'll be fine," Kiyomi said. "We Kimonos know what we're doing. Pierce just made a very lucrative investment."
"True, but I kind of wonder why he offered to pay for our residence?" Shizuka wondered aloud. "We certainly have the funds to buy and set up operations just about anywhere."
"Sure, in the Hungry World," Tsubasa countered. "That's a long trek."
"Plus the entrance to the Hungry World is in the Corpsemire," Rio added.
"Plus gold is heavy," Kiyomi observed.
"Plus most of it is still under various curses from the demons we prized it all from," Mika chimed in.
"And god knows what we'll have to put up with trying to transport some of it all the way back here," Kirie sourly pointed out.
"Let's just take Pierce up on his creepily generous offer," Tsubasa summed it up. "It'd certainly be a lot easier for us to earn money through the dojo."

-----
Pierce & Mio

"I don't like anything," Mio said.

Trying to get Mio to converse was more painful than any physical wound.

-----
Charlotte & Phantomere

"Of course, Miss Beaufort," Phantomere said with deepest respect, then vanished from sight as he bowed.

Phantomere had sure changed a lot since he tried to murder every single person in Mystery Manor.

-----
Jeremy and Garus

"Ah, always good to meet a new face, Jeremy. My name is Garus. I'm a Pokemon Trainer reinforcement unit."

Garus' room was pretty much otaku heaven. There were three bookshelves, one filled with DVDs and Blu-ray discs, the other two crammed full of manga. And a good number of it was drawn by Garus himself. Any spare space on the shelving and tables was reserved for anime figurines of curvaceous girls in various states of undress that Garus apparently cleaned every weekend. His walls were decorated with posters and sketches he drew himself of the numerous females to be found in PATCA. Usually in dramatic poses.

Even Charlotte was represented, her coat dramatically blowing in the wind while her hands were posed in the process of loading buckshot into her shotgun, a cigarette hanging from her teeth.
"I don't usually get visitors, for obvious reasons. Not many people even try to relate to artists like me. Have you been shown around the headquarters? It's usually the job of one of the several receptionists we have here."

The drawing that Garus was currently working on showed Charlotte and Shannon embracing while staring longingly into each other's eyes, though the sketch was so rough that it would take a more thorough look to tell that it was them.