"No, we're talking about this now." A hot tempered Spanish accent pursued Blanche through the doorway and into the kitchen, and its owner swung right in after it.

Her reply was let out as a curt, frustrated sigh, as if she'd said this a dozen times already which, actually, she had. "Candela, I am busy. Note the busy-ness that is me."

Just as Blanche had begun to run a set of test tubes under a stream of water in the sink, the finely dressed woman to her left plucked them out of her hands and put them aside on the counter top. "No, no, no, you can clean your beakers later. You and I are gonna have this out right here, right this second."

The sudden slosh of water down her front caused by her rival leader's hasty action was one thing, but what finally got Blanche to bite was seeing the careless indelicacy with which Candela handled the fragile glass objects. Letting out an indignant gasp, she finally met Valor's glare. "What the hell is your problem!?"

"Oh, my problem? My problem is your Mystic members waiting for hard working Pokemon trainers, like mine, to depose Instinct from a gym, only so they can crawl out of the woodwork at the last moment and claim it for Blue without doing any of the work." Arms folded and a scowl locked in place, Candela looked firmly down at the other leader from her slight advantage point, provided mostly by her more fashionable, and therefore taller, heels.

"Oh!" Blanche scoffed. "Oh, that's your problem, is it?"

"Yes, that's my problem."

"Well look at you acting all high and mighty as if your Reds have never swooped in to steal a gym while my people are deliberating."

"Hey! That's different! Our teams collaborated on those combats and 'your people' insisted on taking a dog's age to settle on a defender to place." Whether she intended to or not, Candela moved forward into an aggressive stance upon hearing Team Valor slandered. Not to be intimidated by this, or by the accusations against Mystic, Blanche matched the motion, taking a step closer and incidentally accentuating the difference in the size and build of the two women.

"That is so typical of Valor! Just shove in whatever pokemon happens to have the highest combat power as defender; heavens FORBID someone pause to consider tactical benefits for thirty seconds."

"Thirty seconds? You wish! I'm constantly amazed to see any Mystic gyms at all because it would mean that one of you know-it-alls would have actually had to take action for once rather than analysing every single variable. Oh no, wait—that's right, you steal them all out from under hard working Reds!"

"Why you— I'm astounded that pokemon ever manage to survive contact with you lot. Some real thinkers you've got in your pack, there, Candela!" Blanche's fists clenched and her eyes narrowed, undermining any nonchalance her sarcasm could have afforded her. "No, sure! Stick that Flareon into battle against a Lapras! I'm certain it'll be fine because it's SO strong!"

Candela laughed in disbelief. "You wouldn't know quality combat if it kicked your ass! When was the last time you even battled?"

"I'll battle your right now just to make you shut your mouth."

"Any one of my pokemon could tear any one of yours to pieces without trying," was the sneered answer.

"In your dreams, maybe." Blanche was beginning to get all up in Candela's grill and showed no signs of flinching.

"Fine, I'll even let you choose the 'mons! Go ahead! I'd tell you to choose wisely so you won't be too embarrassed when I crush you, but then we'd lose half the day while you weighed up pros and cons."

"I'm going to wipe that smug look right off your face!"

"They worked hard for that gym!"

For a split second there was silence between them as they ran short on breath and tried to bore holes in one another's faces with their eyes—Candela's burning with anger to meet the icey flash in her opponent's.

Then, in what almost seemed like a natural transition somehow, their argument raged on with tongues but not with words. They'd run out of words. This was the only language they had left with which to duke it out and find triumph.

It was unclear exactly who'd launched at whom first. Perhaps both of them had at the same time. However it happened, they were now grappling for dominance, lips locked together forcefully, tongues pushing their way roughly into enemy mouths.

Blanche bit down harder than was kind and heard Candela yelp, but the other woman didn't retreat. Even if she had wanted to, Blanche held the back of her head fiercely with her right hand and had her left wrapped around to Candela's back, keeping her in place. If she'd wanted to back down. Big 'if'.

Before Blanche could form too pleased an assessment of herself for eliciting such an involuntary response from her rival, Candela's own hand had found its way up, winding into long white locks. She let it rest there a moment before tugging hard on Blanche's ponytail, wanting to leave just enough time that Blanche would kick herself later for not seeing it coming. She almost positively would.

Breaking contact for an instant Blanche saw Candela smirk and knew she was losing ground. Creating any distance between them was to be taken as a sure sign of forfeit and like hell was she forfeiting to this asshole. She bared her teeth angrily and went back in with an even more painful kiss this time, given the small cuts she'd left on part of Candela's lip and her tongue. Meanwhile, to emphasise that she had no intentions of giving up, she ran her fingernails hard up the outside of the Red's thighs, taking the hem of her trendy skirt up a little ways with them. It wasn't as though the action exposed much more than already had been; the article of clothing was so short that it stood to reason Candela shouldn't have been affected. But Blanche's point was made and she was sure that the other woman had flinched ever so slightly, so whether Candela was a woman of reason was up for debate.

Candela, not to be outdone, closed her darker hands tightly onto lab coat lapels and leveraged her superior strength. Even in shoes like hers, she managed to spin the two of them around and cross the few short steps to slam Blanche into the nearest wall with both ease and force. She was handling her co-worker with the same indelicacy with which she'd treated said scientist's equipment.

Well, not quite the same.

Looking over to locate the test tubes, she reached an arm out quickly to sweep them off the bench top and send them shattering to the tiled floor.

There. That was more accurate.

A gleeful glint lit up her face as she watched Blanche's expression register what had just happened. It was a look of fury that Candela would long savour and cherish, but right now she was busy. Candela didn't waste time getting to work making sure that one-upping her from here would be no mean feat.

Pressing Blanche's body up against the wall again with her own, Candela pinned the Blue's wrists up on either side of her head and set about the creation of a hickey. A really embarrassingly visible one.

Blanche may have been no match for Candela's physical might, but she'd be damned if she was losing the battle to the hot head. Thinking was what Blanche did best and, fuelled by vengeance for her smashed instruments, this quality was only amplified. Pushing through the tingly fog spreading through her from where Candela was kissing at her throat, just beneath the corner of her jaw, Blanche plotted her retaliation. Candela's footing was already uncertain thanks to those ridiculous heels she wore, so Blanche hooked her leg behind the stronger woman and shifted her weight. If Candela wanted to continue on her set course, she'd have to more actively support Blanche's body against the wall. Just as she'd anticipated, Candela's hands dropped to hold Blanche up at the waist, granting Mystic's own hands their freedom.

Initially Blanche allowed her fingers to dig into Valor's back through her coat, hard enough that she felt confident they would leave a mark. Swiftly though, they made their way between the Red and Blue torsos, groping for purchase on the expensive coat's pristine front. Candela remained unaware of what was about to happen, diligently focused on the task at hand, as Blanche made to tear her jacket open, aiming to break as many buttons as she could in the process. If you fight fire with fire then it only made sense to fight the destruction of scientific apparatus with the ruin of designer clothing.

Candela's head snapped back at the yank she felt, accompanied by a series of popping noises as buttons scattered and bounced across the room, to look down and take in the damage. Her fiery eyes fixed back on the face of Mystic once again with a growl, her once immaculate top now hanging limply between them. She rushed back in with renewed vigour to stop the self-satisfied look on Blanche's lips with her own, busted and bleeding. Picking up the smaller woman's slight frame fully, with the help of the kitchen wall, and guiding Blanche's remaining standing leg to wrap around her also, she—

"Oh, geez! Really, you two? We eat in here! This is where we prepare our food!"

Suddenly, as quickly as it had begun, the wordless argument was replaced by heavy breathing and shocked looks in Spark's direction as he stood in the doorway eyeing them with distaste. The two deer, having been caught in the Instinct leader's headlights, didn't move much except to allow Candela to put Blanche back down.

"You know there are easier ways to kill each other," Spark continued, unfazed by the dumbstruck expressions before him. He gestured wildly at the room around them with his hands; "Ways that that don't involve tainting shared spaces—or at least only tainting them with blood, I mean, come on!"

Candela wiped some of the crimson away from her bloodied lip with a thumb and Blanche adjusted her ponytail to hopefully obscure a little of the bruised mark Candela had left there.

"Urgh! Just no. Do not want, thank you very much. You guys can't just hate each other like normal people?" He shook his head turning away a fraction. "Anyway, I just came to let you know that while the both of you were making out to the death, my team and I went and took all your local gyms for Yellow."

"Huh— "

"Wha— "

Vague sounds of protest and surprise were all that his female associates could muster, so he supplied them with a grin and a wink, adding quickly, "I left my own personal pokemon guarding them, so good luck with that 4000+ CP Dragonite. Eat it, losers! PEACE."

He bellowed the last word deeply as he turned and strutted off down the hall, throwing two fingers up in a backwards peace sign behind him, and leaving an air of profound satisfaction in his wake.