Lucy had no memory of a past life where the world had been better. It helped her cope. For Amethyst however the world may very well seem... haunting. It was empty and quiet... as if all life just up and left one day. The sound of wind blowing through the trees was one's only comfort.... unless they had a friend. Lucy was used to it. It honestly didn't bother her as much. The empty homes of pokemon long gone, the ruined buildings that had once housed a much kinder society of people, driven from the world by conflict. It meant nothing to her, because she'd never known anything else. And yet... despite the fact that Amethyst may have no idea of the horrible crimes that had been committed in the name of life or death upon the grounds they stood, the lingering energies may very subtley nibble at the corners of her consciousness, hinting at something more than meets the eye...

Lucy attempted to glance up at Amethyst as the other leaned over her head, though her awkward position made this slightly difficult. What a strange little girl... Amethyst's culture was long gone in the world, and so Lucy had never really observed anyone... /like/ this before. A rather frustrated look came across her face all of a sudden, perhaps at something Amethyst had said. Her parents had deliberately sent her /here/? From the past?! Now what kind of sense did that make? That seemed awfully cruel to her. She may have been used to living life here, but that didn't change the fact that it objectively /sucked/.

"That's..."

She didn't even know what to say to that. Amethyst apparently didn't know anymore than she did. For the moment she had something else she wanted to address. Lucy pointed off into the distance at the silhouette of a mountain range.

"We'll be going through there on our way to Children's City. We can stop and see!"

Lucy continued moving, though an odd sound came to her ears. What was that sound? Was that--Lucy abruptly turned, spotting a group of adults crowding around something or someone hidden from view. Lucy frowned. What made them group that closely?.. As she thought about it, she got this sinking feeling she had an idea. When she spoke, her tone was somewhat serious in contrast with it's usual light-heartedness.

"Amethyst, hold on tight... Someone's in trouble."

As if not completely trusting Amethyst not to fall off on her own Lucy reached up and lightly gripped Amethsyt's lower back. In a moment Amethyst would find out why. Lucy proceeded to abruptly break out in a full on run! The ride instantly became rather bumpy and one could only assume having a passenger made this a more difficult feat for her. Yet, she managed. As the adults crowded around Creed their attention would abruptly be diverted by the sound of one of their own crying out as Lucy literally knocked them over and totally stepped on their face as she bounded into the crowd, powerfully shoving several more people much larger than herself out of the way. It didn't seem to slow her down all that much, and the impacts were hard enough that the adults honestly just... stayed down, quite possibly hurt. This didn't seem to deter Lucy as she rushed into the center of the crowd, lifting a single leg and literally kicking Creed onto his back! Yet, Creed was a pokespirit wielder and the attack didn't seem to be backed with a great deal of power. He might be a bit sore, at worst. The move seemed to take the breath out of her, given her passenger, yet she wasn't done yet. Moving over to place said foot on a fallen Creed to keep him from trying to get up she abruptly began to glow with an icey blue energy.

What proceeded to happen would either scare or amaze Amethyst, depending on how much sympathy she had for the adults around her. Blasts of similar colored energy shot out of Lucy's body in every direction, accompanied by a shockwave of sorts, ripping into the crowd and immediately incapacitating a good fourty percent of the humans around her. Both creed and Amethyst were spared, Amethyst being too high and Creed being too low to be hit by the attack. It all happened in a matter of seconds.

Several of the adults that had avoided the attacked screamed, all of them immediately dispersing, running for their lives. A distraught fallen man begged for his life and Lucy merely glanced at him briefly. She had no desire to spite him. She turned her attention to the boy she'd just assaulted, briefly smiling down at him before removing her foot from him. Yet, as she finally got the time to get a better look at him she noticed something. He already had a pokespirit. ...Huh.

"Hey... You look a little strong to be being rescued from them, don't you think?"

This time her tone was somewhat joking. A smaller girl, perhaps seven years old, sat upon Lucy's shoulders. Amethyst was also a pokespirit wielder, from the looks of things.

Lucy made a point to lift one hand and gently place it just above Amethyst's respective knee in a reassuring manner. She got this feeling she'd scared the other. The smaller girl was sitting atop her shoulders, which didn't seem to bother Lucy all that much, ...given her apparent strength. Meanwhile, what Creed had said provoked thought. Were adults really remotely dangerous? It was hard for her to imagine that. How did a regular old human hurt a pokespirit wielder? They had no powers. Would they hit them? She was pretty sure she'd seen someone break their hand trying as if they'd punched a brick wall. On the other hand not all pokespirit wielders were as willing to hurt people, she supposed. Perhaps so many scary yelling voices could incapacitate a person? Could they do that? Could they yell at you to death--or maybe capture and find out some more effective way to deal with you? All these questions and more ran through her mind for a moment before she dismissed them in favor of responding.

"I'm Lucy."

She couldn't help but notice there was something odd about Creed's eyes. She was unable place her finger on what it was, but they looked strange to her, unfocused and unresponsive to visual stimuli. Unfortunately she lacked the wisdom to use this to figure out he was blind. Perhaps his pokespirit had strange eyes as well? She also just... completely missed the reference to a pokemon that hadn't existed since before she was born, giving Creed a mildly puzzled look.

"We were just heading off towards the great mountain when I heard the commotion--"

A thought occurred to her.

"...We were actually just stopping there before heading to Children's City. It's a town just for kids like us--/Maybe/ you'd be safer there?"

It seemed like the boy was unwelcome in Eterna, and perhap wasn't good enough at stealth to avoid conflict, and so she'd thrown the suggestion out there. The lack of her saying otherwise also somewhat implied he might come with them, though whether Creed was interested in following a couple of girls across the region was up for debate in the first place. The hand Lucy had placed just above Amethyst's knee remained there for the moment being, both acknowledging the other's presence and attempting to comfort her. Whether it worked was another question entirely, but the gesture was made with good intent.

Lucy just sort of casual shrugged off the thanks and praise as if it weren't a big deal whatsoever, perhaps oblivious to how big a deal saving someone's /life/ actually was. In a world like this, it was hard to remember that someone's life had actual value. And then the boy exclaimed that they shouldn't travel together. Huh... well, that was fine with her she guessed. Trust was difficult, and she wasn't going to bother trying to convince him otherwise. Despite her willingness to battle off a bunch of adults, he still was just a stranger. She could've walked away right then and there if Creed hadn't continued.

...He... he would enjoy listening to them what now? An offended expression creeped onto her face, and one of fear as well. See, it was double entendres like that that occasionally made her avoid men. How did Arceus manage to screw up hormones so badly if he had to have created them /before/ he could create substances to get high off whilst creating things?! Teen angst aside, the expression on her face was rather confrontational. She would not act like a coward that fled at the slightest reason in front of her... charge.

"..."

The boy bowed to them and proceeded to try to walk away, leaving Lucy unnerved at best. He then... fell, and began to...Wait, really? Was this karma punishing him for saying such an awful thing to those that had saved him? Huh... Lucy stood at a distance, raising one hand to lightly grip Amethyst's leg. She hoped that by reassuring the smaller female with her grip she would provide some form of comfort, as if silently saying 'I've got you. Nothing is going to take you away.' ...You never knew what sort of strange powers pokespirit wielders might have.

And... then the boy began talking to himself before he got back up and ran over to the two females, the smaller of which was still riding on Lucy's shoulders. This actually spooked Lucy, considering the way he'd been acting. Was he crazy? Was he about to attack them?! She'd heard of wandering pokespirit wielders that went insane, and were violent to all near them.

...Lucy reached out and grabbed the boy despite his best intentions as he came within reach. Next thing he knew, he'd be pushed down and come face to face with... a stomach mouth! Lucy's midsection opened up and enveloped Creed as she helped push him inside rather forcefully. She... honestly made it look easy. To keep it brief, it was cramped, and exactly what you might expect from a stomach. Only, there was no acid. Lucy had decidedly... not released them. He was honestly not in danger of dying... for the moment.

Instead, she promptly used acid armor to give her body an elastic-like stretchiness, thereby making it much more resistant to physical attacks in anticipation of a backlash. Creed would... honestly find escape impossible, though he could try and hurt her from inside if he wished. Oh lordy; Amethyst just watched her new friend eat someone. Goodness knew what she'd think, considering her initial fear of such a thing.

Lucy, now carrying quite a bit of extra weight and a somewhat gravid looking belly, slowly stumbled forward a bit almost immediately before regaining her balance. As for Creed, holy crud that girl just ate him! But perhaps after the initial horror wore off he'd wonder... if he wasn't dying, what was she trying to do?

"Nnn...Geez..."

Lucy just sort of stood there for a moment, anticipating a struggle, because... I mean... Let's face it! How else does one react to being consumed? To her surprise though... nothing! No punching or kicking, no fire, no explosions. She became aware of muscle tension in the girl riding her shoulders and paused. Something was up with Amethyst. Only then did it occur to Lucy what she had accidentally forgotten Amethyst was probably afraid of... Lucy let out a sigh, shifted her weight to one hip, and poked her stomach, a gesture Mako would easily be able to feel. She hadn't... killed him had she? It wasn't like her belly-mouth had teeth. Lucy rested one hand on said belly for a moment before her ears picked up a muffled voice. Was... he talking to himself in there? Strange. She decidedly stopped paying attention to Mako for the moment to give her young companion some attention.

"A-alriiight..."

Her tone was a tad awkward if not gentle and a bit rushed. Mako would be able to pretty clearly make out what she said.

"Um... I'm sorry, Amethyst. It... really only looks weird, I promise. This was the power I was given, and... I guess I'm just used to this--I did that to protect us. He's... actually fine, /for now/."

Lucy pointedly prodded her stomach again at that last, less gentle remark, her words indicating a distrust of Mako and a willingness to take away his relative safety. Meanwhile, she let her other hand rest on Amethyst's leg, once again trying to use physical contact as comfort.

Lucy began to move forward, continuing onwards with disregard for the life she was carrying around, at least for a moment. Her movement speed was reduced to a walk, but with the sheer increase of strength provided by her pokespirit she manages to handle the load with relative grace.

"..."

She thought into the situation a bit further, trying to figure out how to better assure Amethyst that things were okay. She decidedly did not know what else to say.

"Now, /you/ mister...-"

Yet another belly prod.

"...are going to have to explain yourself if you want me to let you out of there!"

...She sounded like a scolding parent. It was either hilarious or terrible depending on which way one was looking at it. Lucy was trying to gauge how crazy and or violent this boy was, and... apparently had no intention of letting him out until she got a better idea of what she had contained.

"...And, uh... speak up. It's hard to hear out here."

Hailey just sort of furrowed her brows in thought at what Tim said. He didn't find Nicholas scary? /She/ found Nicholas scary, and she had a death wish. After a moment she spoke up, in an oddly amused tone.

Hailey: "Can you imagine looking up into the rage distorted eyes of an invincible man who wants nothing more than to end everything you've ever known as he prepares to do just that?"

She shivered lightly.

Hailey: "You're either a champion of masculine values or the silliest boy I've ever met~"

Notably, this was not an insult. In a world of physical labour and tough knocks take one guess what had somewhat prospered. Sexual inequality. Being called masculine was generally considered to be a compliment, oddly enough even if you were female. Traits associated with femininity just... weren't seen as all that valuable in many cases. It was an arguably unfortunate effect of society collapsing into a struggle to survive. One could simplify what Hailey had said as calling Tim the bravest person she'd ever met, or y'know... crazy.

Hailey: "Regardless. My plan is simple. We head to the outskirts of the city, far enough away to avoid attention but close enough to be in clear view of it. You will all use any techniques you know to power yourself up..."

A pause for breath.

Hailey: "...And I will copy them using my own technique. Hopefully that will give me enough power to remotely drop a gravity bomb, creating a controlled area of destruction. They'll never even see it coming. They will believe that Arceus herself has forsaken them, which she has. The knowledge that it could happen again at any time and not knowing who or what caused it will result in the city /staying/ abandoned."

...Huh. Hailey had referred to Arceus as a girl. Cue petty argument. Regardless, Arcea remained silent through all of this.

Hailey: "Even Nicholas himself would be forced to acknowledge the achievement."

Hailey smiled lightly, as if mildly enjoying the thought.