Shadow Heat Chapter 11:

Wes and Rui looked over the scrap of the drone that the mayor had given them. They realized they couldn't exactly easily haul it somewhere else for safekeeping, and to acquire the data drives on it would require fast work.

Work that Rui doesn't even waste time to prepare for, as she is quick to undo the buttons on her jacket. "Wes, do me a favor, and try not to stare for too long? I don't mind you watching my work, but… well… you'll get it clear enough in just a moment." Rui speaks to Wes, as Rui tosses aside her jacket, as Rui moves to lift her shirt up and tosses it aside, revealing her perky breasts covered by her bra.

Mercifully, she doesn't remove her bra, but she does remove her white skirt, quickly undoing her silver pants like they were nothing, which then reveals an equally sparkling cyan set of panties underneath once removed. Most surprisingly of all, though, is that Rui has a small belt to her aside with a specialized toolbox at her hip, and with a quick press of a button on it, it expands in size to a full sized toolbox. With Rui taking it off of her belt and setting it down in front of her, she moves to get down on her knees as she takes out a wrench.

"Jeeze, whoever designed this thing must've had the intent that not even a Blastoise could destroy this thing, which only has me more intrigued with how something could've so much as dented this drone." Rui speaks up, as Wes' gaze is fixated on both Rui and the strange drone as well. He seems to be doing good at paying attention mostly to the drone, but Rui's removal of much of her clothing is… unusual, but it didn't begin to sway Wes' attention just yet.

Key word being yet.

Rui takes out a pair of heavily covering gloves, as she also takes out an armored mask and a blowtorch. Once putting on the gloves and equipping the mask, the visor on the mask begins to shine a light onto the drone before her. Upon flicking the switch on the blowtorch, she begins to burn away a straight line of heavily condensed armoring out of her way.

"This is drone is a model I'm not familiar with, except for the fact it's heavily using a template from Aggron-grade armoring to keep it's data drives intact. Usually, these drones keep their drives installed within the cores of them, and for us to recover the data drives, we basically tear off the armor as much as we can, and then grab the core." Rui states, as she begins to remove the first outer plate of armor from the shelled drone, as the secondary layer proves to be stronger than the first, as her blowtorch begins to have a slower time burning through it.

"So what do we do with the bits and pieces of scrap once we got the core?" Wes asks, as Rui looks at him and raises an eye from behind her obscuring face mask.

"Really? You do realize nobody's going to pay full price for a drone that's going to be this heavily dismantled, right? The only way either of us are going to get any money off of this is to sell the individual pieces of salvage remaining once we grab the core. Once we grab the core, everything else is useless aside from being sold to a recycling crew. The Mayor doesn't seem like someone who would want it back after how much armor I'm going to have to tear through here to get what we need." Rui elaborates more, as she manages to get halfway into removing the second layer of armor, before prying with enough force to remove the second layer.

"Oh… you've got to be kidding me… Whoever designed this is a complete and utter pervert..." Rui states, bluntly, as she removes her mask and puts that and the blowtorch away, as she looks at Wes with a bit of a glare. "Turn around. I don't want you to so much as consider any dirty ideas of creeping up behind me while I'm working at this frickin' third layer of armor, alright?!" Rui tells Wes, as Wes raises an eye.

"What's the big deal? Isn't this just like removing the other two layers?" Wes inquires, as Rui shakes her head, as she grabs a very peculiar device from her toolbox that catches Wes off guard. A much larger blowtorch that, upon igniting the torch, draws out a complete, concentrated blade of violet fire before it. Quickly sheathing it, Rui begins to put her mask back on to cover her face.

"Oh hell no; this armor is so tough that not only will I have to use this bad boy to remove it, but I can't keep my hands steady if my body isn't free to feel sweat at every. Last. Portion of it." Rui states, as Wes blinks.

"… And what is that implying?"

"I have the skill to tear the piece apart, but I have to be completely nude to keep my mind focused away from my sweat long enough for me to get the job done. So off goes these..." Rui states, as she simply undoes the strap to her bra and strips her panties off, kicking the latter away and tossing the former onto them. "Now then, let's get started." Rui states, panting a bit audibly as she sounds rather torn between excited and worn out with what to do next, as she activates the visor of her mask to light her line of sight, as she proceeds to practically drill through the third layer of armor with how much noise her specialized torch makes burning through the third layer of armor.

Wes does what he can only guess is the best choice of action, as he attempts to turn away from Rui as to avoid looking at her. However, by this point, something about this whole situation seems to eat away at his mind.

'You're honestly going to listen to her and not tap that glorious ass you dense idiot?! She's in crystal clear view with every bit of her exposed and you're just going to be a boy scout at her demands?!' Wes' mind begins to think towards him, as though having a conversation with him in some way.

'I'm not-… I-I… Do you not realize she might burn herself if I touch her at a time like this?'

'You dolt, you do realize that she doesn't have any logical reason to strip like a whore with something like this? Weren't you covered in armor when you last fixed up your ride?'

'And which ride would that be? They're both stunningly beautiful and-'

Wes' eyes open a bit as he winces at that mere thought alone. His hormones are getting the better of him, as he could've sworn he could smell some kind of alluring scent in the air, coming from Rui's direction. Wes covers his ears, as he closes his eyes.

"And we're just about done." Rui speaks, as there is an awkward pause with Wes that he doesn't react to what Rui had just said for a solid minute. After hearing a few scrambling of mechanical parts, Wes can hear Rui begin to stand up and put her toolbox back where it belongs as her side, and then proceeding to walk up towards Wes. Wes dares not look, but Rui taps on his shoulder a bit; Wes nearly grabs her arm, but forcefully stops his hand from trying to touch her. Wes is shivering, trying to subdue his own primal urges at this point, as Rui looks at Wes and sighs.

"I'm not going to lie, normally whenever I have to tear apart wrecked vehicles or drones, I usually wind up having to pleasure anyone who has the misfortune of being stuck with me while I work my craft. Since you're trying a little too hard to be a gentleman, though… could you possibly hand me this PDA of yours for a moment…?" Rui asks, as she forcefully snatches Wes' PDA from just underneath his coat collar, as Wes opens his eyes and looks as Rui moves to snap a photograph of herself, completely naked, covered in all sorts ash and black smudge across her whole body; he couldn't even see any more private parts of her due to how much was covering her, but once Rui has the photo taken, she simply hands Wes his PDA back to him, as she simply saunters off back to the bathroom to get herself cleaned up.

"Now then, you'd better make sure that ride of yours is fully fueled up before we leave. I've put the data core in my toolbox, and considering how it's normally covered, nobody will realize to look there for it if we run into trouble." Rui tells Wes, as she shuts the door to the bathroom, as almost immediately the shower could be heard being used by her. Wes' eyes are a tad wide as he can't help but gawk at the door, but he moves to open his PDA and check the photo, but before he even gets the chance, there's a note attached to it.

"If you want my other services, I want to know if you're comfortable with me before I try asking again. I'm giving you this photo of me as a reward for listening to my requests. To my savior's 18th birthday, Rui 'Mirei'~"

'… Wow… S-She's… Okay with letting me have this? Why, though…? Even if what she's implying is true, I can't afford to let Cipher catch me off guard. Although, on the other hand, this could be a useful means of hiding should we ever find ourselves infiltrating the frickin' Under at some point… Those suspicious, paranoid pricks stay out of your way when you're with someone and doing eachoth-'

Wes doesn't waste time in punching the nearest wall with his left fist, leaving a sizable dent in the wall, as Wes tries to vent his internal frustration and sheer confusion. Said confusion is only amplified, however, when the wall begins to crack away at an immense rate, before shattering the paint clean off as fragments fall to the floor. Wes looks at the wall, thinking he's now going to have to shill out who knows how much cash to fix it.

However, that thought changed with the strange imagery the wall showcased, leading him to think nobody would dare consider repainting over this now revealed tapestry of a massive Pokémon being surrounded by spires, appearing to be engaged in combat with Groudon and Kyogre, despite heavily resembling Groudon itself with something attached to its backside. A large, heavily built dinosaur, with massive arms, firing an energy beam from its attachment as Groudon fires flames and Kyogre spouting water; both of the two primordial forces of Land and Seas… working together?!

"Okay, if you need to shower before we leave and- HOLY SH… What the heck is this you've uncovered?!" Rui asks, after having stepped out of the bathroom, fully dressed, but unable to comprehend what this odd tapestry she is looking at is trying to depict. Wes' eyes are wider than they've ever been this whole day, as Wes steps back a bit as he photographs the tapestry with his PDA.

"Rui, we need to bail, now! There's no way Nurse Joy's letting us stay after I broke the wall yet alone exposing whatever this fucking artwork is meant to represent!" Wes states in a moment of panic, as Wes calls out Soliaré from his Poké Ball as well as Tenebra. Tenebra nearly freaks as he suddenly whimpers upon the sight of the gigantic form clashing against both Groudon and Kyogre on the wall, as his breathing suddenly becomes heavier. Rui notices something is wrong with Tenebra, though, as her eyes begin to glow a bright crystalline blue with shock.

"Wes!" Rui calls, as Wes turns towards Tenebra, as Tenebra's entire body suddenly turns pitch black as his eyes suddenly glow a savage red in color, letting out an ungodly howl into the air, as he suddenly charges Wes into the wall and begins to tear with his fangs at Wes'. Wes' left arm blocks the attack, though, but Tenebra's jaws grip tightly onto his artificial limb as Soliaré ducks and hides behind Rui away from where Tenebra and Wes are as Wes grabs the scruff of Tenebra's neck.

"Tenebra! Cease! Yield! Tenebra! Listen to me and stop this at once, please! TENEBRA!" Wes calls out, repeatedly with a loud, harsh tone, but only because he can't tell if Tenebra can even hear him right now, what with Tenebra snarling like a mad dog as he tries to forcefully tear apart Wes' prosthetic as Rui and Soliaré back away, utterly helpless, from the whole scene.

After what feels like an eternity of Wes trying in vain to call out to Tenebra, Wes finally manages to get a strong enough grip on the back of Tenebra's neck, with his prosthetic keeping hold of Tenebra's hips as he holds him suspended in the air in front of him. Wes and Tenebra are both heavily breathing, but with Tenebra's wild barking and shrunken irises, it doesn't appear Tenebra even seems to care that Wes is trying to get him to calm down.

A drop of water hitting the floor, though, makes Tenebra suddenly shut up completely, as his irises widen. The look he gets from Wes; he's scared shitless, no matter how hard his expression tries to indicate otherwise, as a tear had trailed down his face from one eye. Followed by another tear from the other.

"T-Tenebra… please… I don't want to see you suffer like this… I lost you once already, I don't want to lose you ever again… P-Please… just… be a good boy for me, and calm down… please..." Wes speaks, his tone horrified and distraught, as Tenebra appears to be in utter disbelief as to what he must've done. Tenebra, feeling utterly horrified as to what must've happened, suddenly breaks out of Wes' grasp by manifesting into a smoke-like form, before manifesting in full proper and bolting out the door of the bedroom. Wes doesn't even move, or attempt to stop Tenebra, too heavily shocked to try anything just yet. Rui, and Soliaré, both move forward to approach Wes.

"W-Wes… Is everything going to be alright…?" Rui asks, as Wes can't even bring up a glare when he suddenly looks her way; instead, closing his eyes as he tries to not break down crying before her.

"I wasn't strong enough right then to keep him from running… I'm beginning to think Tenebra is now considering himself a threat to everyone in this room… I already know that's the last thing he ever wanted to be viewed as since so many years ago since..." Wes stops himself, as he tries to form words to describe what happened, before suddenly yelling out a massive scream as the downpour of tears begin to intensify a little.

Not before, however, Wes forcefully manages to get himself to stand up, as he analyzes his left arm briefly before making sure of what to say.

"Rui, I need you to check on my bike to make sure it's fully fueled, I know exactly where Tenebra's heading and I know what to do, but we have to act fast. Right now I need to make sure I grab something from the nearby PokéMart so that we can get Tenebra back." Wes says, as he immediately leaves the room, with Rui and Soliaré both quickly following behind.

"Got it, but where could Tenebra possibly be heading?" Rui asks, as she looks warily at Wes, uncertain of what might happen next if they find him. Wes, closing his eyes, shakes his head a bit, as he opens his eyes.

"He's heading to the place him and I had first met, but not without good reason. He's there. Waiting for him. Waiting for me." Wes speaks, eerily, as Rui looks at him and speaks up.

"Who?"

"The one whose name speaks with thorns of vice… his name is Rosso."