Felix ducks, too, as the Eevee riding along with him squeaks out a warning. Instinct brings his hand to the hilt of his wooden sword, but he soon lets go and straightens back up, nodding. "Go on, Ordelia," he tells the Eevee. "Quick Attack."

It's familiar enough to Gremlin, of course; he's practiced getting the jump on most of Felix's Pokemon with the move at one time or another, and several of Felix's have returned the favor. Ordelia's moving almost before Felix finishes talking, streaking from his shoulder into a flying leap almost faster than the eye can follow with a cry of Vee! to crash claws-first into the Zubat, getting in a good swipe before landing lightly again and turning to face her opponent.

The bat opens its mouth wide, making a sound that doesn't hit the humans' ears until after Ordelia flinches back, ears flattening against her head, and stumbles--confused. Felix frowns. "Listen. This way. Bite and Covet. It's over here." He guides the Eevee toward her foe, and after a clumsy scuffle in which she manages to injure both the Zubat and herself, she lands a decisive slash of her claws and brings the bat down to earth, swiping the berry it was carrying in the process and holding it up in her mouth triumphantly.

Felix gets the injured Zubat into a pokeball without much trouble, then scoops Ordelia up in one arm while he fishes in his bag for a few potions--one to heal her wounds and one to clear her head. She munches her prize berry happily while he mutters quietly, giving her pointers and praise in equal measure. That done, she resumes riding on his shoulder, and he reaches out to take Dimitri's hand again.

"Hm. I think Jinx would like to train a bat." He tucks the pokeball away in his bag. "Oh. Right. Your mysterious project. If you need to teach your rats a new technique or two for the gym challenge, I can pick the disks up in Goldenrod. I'm warping there to find a few other things soon as well."

Felix rolls his eyes. "Quit agonizing. Obviously I don't mind and it's not an imposition when it was my suggestion to begin with." Then he shakes his head. "I haven't. What is it?"

"Is that so? I can see why such a thing would appeal to you." He watches Gremlin's course carefully, making note of the rat's progress. "Is that one of the disks you want to find?"

"Hm. Something to look into, perhaps. Particularly for the Eevees and the cats." Ordelia makes a small chirping sound of interest. "Did you know that some Pokemon can only evolve when they build up enough trust with their trainer?"

Felix nods, beginning to pick his way across the room, following Gremlin's indicated trail of safe places to walk and tugging Dimitri after him, since the man seems intent on climbing this entire tower while holding hands. "Then let me know what you're looking for. I'll probably go tomorrow."

"Mm. Some of Eevee's evolutions are the same. Ordelia chose to evolve as an Umbreon, so we'll have to get to know each other better." The Eevee nods with resolution.

When they reach the rat, Felix turns to say something only to stop at the look on Dimitri's face. "...what? Why are you looking at me like that."

Felix's face floods with red. You can't just spring this stuff on people out of nowhere, Dimitri!

"You're what's unbelievable," he mutters, but he follows it up by pushing up onto his toes to kiss Dimitri, his free hand coming up to rest on the other man's chest. This date of theirs really is shaping up to be a lot like the "adventures" they used to have when they were young, tugging each other around the hidden corners of Fhirdiad by the hand and giggling whenever they went somewhere they weren't supposed to be...

No, Dimitri's right, sometimes it is hard to believe that somehow, they managed to get this close again. It's different, of course, in more ways than one, but...being with Dimitri no longer feels like a painful tug of war between the halves of his heart. He can let himself love this man without reservation.

Still, this man is being awfully embarrassing right now. Felix clears his throat, trying not to smile like a giddy child.

"Come on, before this place comes down around our ears."

"I'll get up there myself." Give him a lift, psh. Who does Dimitri think Felix is? "Besides, if you do that, you still have to deal with the stairs. What's the point?"

“It’s too late to worry now, you’re the one who wanted to climb the tower with the huge ‘do not enter’ sign. Now you reap the consequences.” He smirks and moves to tread lightly on the stairs close to the wall, feeling out each step as he goes.

“Not on your life.” He tests a stair and it creaks a little too much; he steps lightly over it, but the next stair isn’t all that sturdy either, and he hurries to take his full weight off of it. “Watch your step, here.” Ordelia hops down from his shoulder to test the remaining stairs ahead of him.

With the Eevee's help, Felix makes it up to the next landing without incident, pointing out trouble spots to Dimitri as he goes. "So, you can only break rules when it's a sign telling you what to do, not a person, I see."

He looks around this new floor. It's a burned-out wreck just like the others, and the damage is getting worse the higher up they go, it seems. "Why haven't they torn this place down already?"

"It's not a 'stretch' to call a sign that literally says 'do not enter' a rule. If you gave an order like that, you wouldn't expect your soldiers to assume it's just advice."

At the skittering, Felix's hand gets halfway to his sword before he remembers that Pokemon like the Zubat just...live here. "You did. That it was meant to match the other tower but was struck by lightning. Something about legendary Pokemon. That's all."

Felix only gives him an unimpressed look at his whining.

As Dimitri explains, he takes in the scorched and ruined interior of the tower again with this new knowledge in mind. "Huh. Could be. These three transformed Pokemon, were they transformed into Ghost Pokemon? Is that why they supposedly gather here?"