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[betterthanawiki]

[Uxie was a patient creature. He had taken a five-week course in Mu training honed his mind to tune out pain, to spam Endure hold fast until his body's natural processes made the aches and agonies recede. He was grateful to Dana for her intervention; there was absolutely nowhere else he would have rather been than safely tucked away from the world

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[icequeen_aran]

It had become very clear after browsing the network and reading the flurry of posts of what had happened in the past few days. Clear from Point A to Point C, anyway. Point B currently composed of cryptic gods with cryptic answers. Students were fearing for themselves. Adults were fearing for them. The school's cameras yielded nothing useful. Everyone was acting stupid and ridiculous and any information she could get she would seek, lest something even more gruesome happen again.

Not very long ago, Samus had the very supposed Being of Knowledge in her hands and she let him go. She was going to find him again.

Samus expected more cryptic answers but she wouldn't know until she hunted him down and asked.

[betterthanawiki]

And here came another mostly human soul. He need not have relied on his psychic abilities to pick up on that much; from this low on the ground, the vibrations of the floor and the sound of heels clicking against the tile were enough.

Ah, the Hunter! He'd expected to see her sooner or later. This was a woman who was fond of shaking hornet's nests; it didn not surprise him one bit that she didn't accept the Original One's vague replies, but sought her own truth.

Uxie pulled himself further into the corner. How exciting... would the infamous Hunter take notice of this small and insignificant thing tucked away on the ground, or would she walk right past? Even in his pained state, he simply couldn't refuse the chance to make a game of it -- he was a fairy down to his very core.

[icequeen_aran]

It was his very movement of pulling himself into a corner that caught her eye. Had he stayed still, it was very likely she would have walked right past the tricky Pokemon and his tiny form. The clicking of her heels stopped after she rounded a hallway corner, paused as if reconsidering what she thought she saw and then came back; the quick and determined strides now slower and barely audible. Prowling. Looking for further movement, or sound.

[betterthanawiki]

Ah, but what use was moving? There was no home free in this game of hide-and-seek. On foot, Uxie couldn't hope to outrun a fully-grown human in peak physical condition.

Had he not been in so much pain, he could have giggled. She'd caught the scent; could she follow it back to him?

It might have been the tiniest little glimmer in one of the gems embedded in his tail that gave him away, barely more that the smallest ripple of movement. Even if he'd resolved to stay still... Uxie couldn't resist peeking.

[icequeen_aran]

Had she been wearing her Power Suit with it's numerous fancy visor scanners, the Pokemon and the heat his body was producing would not stand a chance in hiding. That is to say the woman beneath the suit was just as capable of hunting without. She saw a glimmer of red out of the corner of her eye and snapped her head at the source.

There you are.

The blonde approached and then crouched down on her haunches, her arms draping over her knees and effectively boxing Uxie into the corner he had back himself into. If she didn't know any better she'd say he looked rather amused at something.

Samus did not look amused in the slightest. "I've been looking for you."

[betterthanawiki]

Excellent! A gold star for the Hunter.

Rather than congratulating her, though, Uxie merely curled up tighter, making the same fearful cries he'd made when Samus had last found him. Maybe he wanted to see just how she interrogated an unwilling soul. Maybe he just wanted to see how she handled a scared little thing. Either way... a game, a game, everything was a game.

[icequeen_aran]

Samus was admittedly not very good at handling frightened things, much less she knew she was frequently the cause of freight. It worked very well to her advantage against things of the Space Piratey nature but here...

A frown. "I'm not going to hurt you." She could try, at least. She wasn't planning on going anywhere until she had some answers, she knew this much. Slowly, Samus extended a hand; fearless but awkward, as if she had forgotten the meaning of gentle.

[betterthanawiki]

Slowly, one tail peeled away, though he kept his arms wrapped around the other like a security blanket.

"What is it that you're after, Hunter?" He whispered, voice timid and suspicious.

[icequeen_aran]

The name he called her had her freeze for a brief moment, but then her hand slowly continued it's course until she had what she wanted right at her fingertips yet again.

"Answers."

[betterthanawiki]

Hesitation. Uxie didn't move.

"Why do you seek them?" It was, he felt, a fair question. One could call the infamous Hunter a hardened woman: she had seen an awful lot of cruelty, and done far worse to nonhuman creatures than the mysterious assailant had done to him. It was clear her boyfriend had no interest in touching these matters with a ten-foot-pole. What, then, drove her to seek out the truth?

[icequeen_aran]

Samus tended to dislike gentle interrogations. They were few and far between with her, leaving her with little experience on how to handle them. Shoot first, ask later; that's how it tended to go. Furthermore she knew little of the fairy Pokemon in her hand; a lack of knowledge was a disadvantage. A kink chink in armor.

The human soul will ever reach for the truth. That was what Adam taught her... right?

What she knew was this: he was small. Adorable. Cried for protection. And was once attacked by humans before. He had warned her that whoever did that still walked among them.

"Wouldn't you?"

[betterthanawiki]

Slowly, almost like a (very beat-up) flower blooming, Uxie uncurled. One need not state everything aloud for meaning to reach the being of knowledge; that simple question proved a sufficient answer for his tastes.

"Ask your first question."

[icequeen_aran]

She had many, and picking the first one to ask came after an exhalation of breath. She had won him over. So far, so good.

"Did you know this was going to happen...?" Would his answer be the same as Bob's?

[betterthanawiki]

He lowered his head. Just as he'd started to bloom, he wilted.

"Yes," he whispered, staring down at the tile beneath him. "I did."

[icequeen_aran]

Samus had been preparing herself for that answer; resolved to steel away her inevitable anger at knowing something could have been done and nothing was. It was that same overriding resolve that bottled up whatever pang of sympathy she might of otherwise had for his wilting, guilty-looking form. She was on a mission, the questions would continue.

"Do you know who did this?" Her voice was as soft as it was before but those cold, blue eyes bearing down upon the tiny creature held a remarkably intense stare.

[betterthanawiki]

Though his eyes remained, as always, tightly sealed, it seemed as if Uxie took notice of the new steeliness in her gaze. He tried to sit up a little straighter, to bear the burden of his duty with pride. He expected as much from Samus Aran: she was, after all, a woman of action. The people who would run themselves down to the bone to protect others rarely thought highly of those who stood idly by. Even if it had meant knowing he was in harm's way as well... aiya, it really must have seemed terribly lazy, hadn't it?

"No," he replied, "I don't."

Lie.

"I did see someone, but..."