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Posted by: Kamaitachi Jul 10 2011, 12:30 AM

Tag slowly scanned the group of trainers. Part of him wished that he could've been allowed to tackle the Temple all on his own, but his more reasonable instincts told him that being in a group would probably be safer. However, with such a reckless team on board, perhaps that might not have been the correct decision. One kid, with bright orange hair, had crashed a car with some other teenagers into it into the ditch that lead to their current location. The kid with the dirty blonde hair, who had appeared familiar to Tag, had been flying around in a meteor storm on the back of a steel bird. Nothing about that combination sounded particularly safe.

There appeared to be a rather sensible looking boy with the ground. He wore wire-framed glasses, and had brilliant blonde hair in a long braided ponytail. Tag surmised that this teenager seemed a little more sensible and rational than the other two. He hoped he was correct in his assumption.

There was a girl that appeared to be fairly...hyper. Her long black hair seemed all a mess, but that was probably from the latest bout with the Goletts and Golurks. She seemed to be hovering very closely to the dirty blonde guy. The part that worried him the most was the two younger girls. One of them appeared to have an injured leg, but the scariest part of all was that they were probably twelve or thirteen, which meant Tag was double their age.

For a brief moment, he felt really old. Therefore, as the oldest person, he felt compelled to take the position of leadership. He'd hold himself responsible for the teens in his group, and do his best to get them through this ordeal allive.

He moved towards the rainforest edge, waving to the six other people in the team.

"Hello Team Steel" he said in a fairly commanding voice. Despite the 'greeting' message, it still carried the tone that Tag applied to his pokemon in pokemon battles, which was quite odd. He looked around, giving a final sweep over the assembly, then turned to leave. "Let's head for the Steel Temple, we can introduce ourselves on the trek over."

The Steel Team, the most metal of the metal, departed from the Gigas Temple, woefully unaware that they had chosen Nightmare Mode uncertain as to how they'd get through the perils that lay ahead. Tag was certain that preparedness was one of them, and at the very least, he wanted to know at least the names of each of the people he was to be working with. He had the sensation that he'd be guiding a few of them along, as well as probably holding their hands through some of the more difficult parts of the adventure. Not feeling particularly chatty, he walked at the head of the group, unsure as to how to go about introducing himself. He'd heard himself referred to as "Tattoo-Guy", "Tiki-man" and now "Baby-Eater", and he was pretty sure he needed to get the drop on this one by introducing himself before a nickname was established.

"My name is Taggarty Lee. Though I'd prefer if you call me Tag." That wasn't so hard, right?

Posted by: Asterna Jul 11 2011, 01:09 PM

Rose looked away from her conversation with Kaya as the tattooed man -- their de facto leader, it seemed -- moved away from the temple, towards the edge of the rainforest. He greeted them all in a commanding voice, making it even clearer that he would be taking charge of their group. Judging by his performance in the battle earlier, he probably knew what he was doing, so Rose followed along after him obediently.

Team Steel walked along for a little while in near silence. No one seemed up to talking, and Rose couldn't blame them; much as she loved to chat, this situation didn't exactly promote that sort of atmosphere. For lack of anything better to do -- she would have loved to examine some of the plants they were walking past, but they probably didn't have time for that -- Rose looked around at the trainers surrounding her. There were Kaya, Jaima, and Douken -- all people she was acquainted with, and whom she knew were good trainers. Other than them, there was an orange-haired boy -- Alex? -- whom she vaguely recalled had battled Kaya earlier. There was also an unfamiliar teenage girl, with long, messy black hair.

With a vague sense of nervousness, Rose realized that she and Kaya were the youngest trainers there. She knew that she wasn't very experienced, either, particularly in comparison to some of the others in Team Steel. Three years of traveling and research didn't make one an expert battler, after all. But we can handle it, she told herself firmly, squaring her shoulders. We kicked those Goletts' butts, and we can deal with Registeel too -- especially with these people. She marched forward a bit more determinedly, refusing to doubt herself further. Anxiety would do no good whatsoever, and Rose much preferred being positive.

Just then, the tattooed man up front spoke for the first time since they'd left the temple, introducing himself as Tag. Cheered by the prospect of lifting the silence, Rose piped up with her own introduction. "I'm Rosalind Fiore, but call me Rose. Nice to meet those of you that I don't already know."

Posted by: Master Houndoom Jul 12 2011, 01:08 AM

Jaima took in the group, between bouts where he was unable to keep from glancing toward the direction Meiko had gone. He shouldn't have gone along with the plan to split up, even if it had been half his own idea. He's been nervous enough at the Castle of Mr. Vonmoto, especially after the avalanche hit, but now, when the unannounced disaster hit first, he was even more nervous.

Which is why he sent Shadow with her.

Regardless, it was time to look upon the matter at hand. And what was at hand was that, once again, a rag tag group of trainers was going to go out and attempt the impossible.

Jaima smirked as Mercury intoned, with mock gravity, Second verse, same as the first!

"Come on, Merc," he said, quietly, fully aware that no one else had heard her, "It's not so bad. The fact that it keeps happening and we keep surviving means we're doing something right!"

Or, she said, still sucking on the rawst berry Douken had given her, we're due for a butt kicking.

"This isn't like you, Mercury," Jaima said, half concerned and half adminishing.

I know. I've had... some things to deal with. I'll be fine. With that she gave one of the fakest, bravest smiles Jaima had ever seen and floated off to properly thank Douken for giving her another rawst berry.

It was then that Tag began to speak, establishing himself as leader, much to Jaima's relief. There were actual adults present (though Jaima was considered near enough of one himself in the circles he usually ran with), and he felt that he could relax. He wasn't exactly the leader of his group; at least, he didn't consider himself it. Darryn and Meiko, and even Tuesday all pretty much took over when needed. But outsiders seemed to talk to him first. Meiko had commented, once, that it was because of his height and his innate "dadness", and Jaima, though he'd been suitably outraged at the time, couldn't fault her for the frank analysis (he thought of it as personality dialysis). So it would be a nice change not to be the one looked to.

"Tag introduced himself, putting emphasis on what people could call him. Jaima nodded, as Rose did the same, without the over-exaggerated stress of the nickname.

"I'm Jaima Kuonji, from Cherrygrove in Johto... everyone pretty much just calls me Jaima."

Posted by: Douken Sota Jul 12 2011, 10:56 PM

Douken gave off a smile as he saw the blue Kirlia enjoy the berry. Maybe it was the fact that she seemed a bit nervous over the situation. Maybe he just remembered she enjoyed them and was spoiling her a little bit. Who knows. Sh seemed to enjoy sucking on it, so he wasn't one to complain. When she floated by to thank him, he flashed a smile her way and said, "Your welcome. Hope things won't be as bad as the Castle." he didn't need two Pokemon traumatized. It was bad enough that his Croagunk spazzed out whenever he heard "Ursurang" or see a Hyper Beam.

And with that, a girl's voice hovered over his back, looking at the girl with the large backpack. "Anita... right?" he asked, remembering the large back and the white ribbon. She seemed very anxious and curious on what was going to happen, and seemed to be interested on who he was. It was almost like he gained himself a fan girl for saving her life.

Before he could introduce himself to the girl, the tattooed man from before called out to them, seemingly to be taking the role of the leader. He was nearly glad about this, since he didn't want to be held responsible for so many lives. Still, he didn't seem to want to wait and pushed the crowd forward. Douken could of spared a second to take a Revive from Nurse Joy, but he wanted to make sure it was for better usage than his pup, even if Fire is great against Steel.

With the crowd moving along, introductions were being made one by one, starting off with their leader. "I am Douken Sota," he announced to the crowd. "If you guys are in need of Berries, don't be afraid to ask. Whether it be healing, ailments, or hungry stomachs, I got what you need, but my bag can only carry oh-so much." It was one of the things he could offer to the table.

Within the moment, something stirred in his gut, saying they would need a bit of protection just in case, and the split second of releasing a Pokemon can easily mean life and death. Taking a ball off his belt, he held it out and released his poisonous frog, who gave out a slow croak. "Hey Koldo, think you can keep an eye out for any poisonous plants? We need to make sure we get out of here with as little casualties as possibles." With a croak, Douken watched the Poison Frog Pokemon hurry his pace, catching up to the front and keeping his eye out for things. Steel types have protection from poisonous plants and attacks, so it may make sense their trail may be littered with them. However, a Poison type Pokemon is used to a variety of Poisons, and can recognize their signs to be sure they wouldn't get any deadly infections.

At least, that is what he hopes.

Posted by: FirePower Jul 13 2011, 04:22 PM

"No thanks," Kaya said, not noticing when Rose glanced at her broken leg. "All my pokemon are either fainted or already healed." At that point the guy with tattoos on his face, seemingly the leader of the group, greeted them in an in-chargey voice and suggested they start heading to the temple. Kaya went with the group, keeping up reasonably well despite her injury. She had a tendency to stumble, though. Once her splinted leg caught on a root and she tripped. Luckily she caught her self before she hit the ground. At that point the tattooed man introduced himself as Taggarty Lee, but he said he preferred they all call him Tag. Then Rose introduced herself, followed by the guy with glasses and a braid, who introduced himself as Jamia. Then the boy who had made her her leg splinted, Douken.

Kaya suddenly realized that she and Rose were the youngest in the group. Kaya hoped no thought they couldn't fight just because they were younger than everyone else. After all, she'd been traveling the Furoh Mainland her entire life, three years of that with only her pokemon. She knew how to battle just as good as they probably did, so what if she was only thirteen?

"I-I'm Kaya Rovera," Kaya said, still feeling rather shy. "I have some berries too. They're mostly oran and lum, though."

Posted by: FlyingMew Jul 14 2011, 12:13 AM

Who: Anita
To: Douken/ the beatiful blue Kirlia/ anybody else who feels like joining in
Where: Oh, god... THIS question again? Follow the story! Following the group waving her bag around.

Anita was still standing near where she had stopped to look for the leader of the group she was joined with. Looking around, she noticed a rather unusual pokemon near its trainer. Anita wondered if this was a Kirlia. She has seen them in her mother's daycare center before, but those ones had been green and white with red horns. Anita took off her backpack and began rooting around in one of the smaller side-pockets. Retrieving her Pokedex, Anita flipped it open and pointed at the blue beauty.

~Kirlia- The emotion pokemon. If its Trainer becomes happy, it overflows with energy, dancing joyously while spinning about. ~ the pokedex quipped. Aniita looked in surprise at the picture of the green Kirlia next to the blue one. ~New form registered. Kirlia- shiny.~ the machine said. Anita's eyes became wider as she looked at the gorgeous blue Kirlia. She closed the pokedex and stuffed it back into her backpack. She looked over at Douken as he stated that he had some berries to share, and her eyes glittered with admiration of him. She stared at him, stunned as he handed the shiny Kirlia a Rawst berry, who had eagerly accepted it.

Anita watched as the Kirlia moved to stand near a rather tired-looking man. Wondering if this pokemon belonged to the man that it was standing near, she opened another pocket and began to root around for her berry bag. Her berriy supply was perhaps a little higher as her and her Skitty had located a berry forest before arriving in Starfall Field. Locating the pouch, she looked up at Douken. "Hey, Douken-kun! I've got some berries I'd be happy to share, too, if that'll help." Anita stood up and pulled her arms through the straps of her backpack, hiking it up on her shoulders, while continuing to hold her berry pouch. Looking around, she waved her berry pouch in the air above her head, smiling. "Hey!!! I've got Oran, Rawst and Pecha berries if ya need 'em!" she said loudly. "My name's Anita Lyfe if ya gotta find me!"

Posted by: Proby Jul 17 2011, 03:52 AM

Alex walked rather excitably over to his new group. He was going to do something ridiculously dangerous, but he was sure it'd be fantastic at the same time.

Still, you've got the challenge of Tag, who looks like he disapproves of me... but I suppose there's Douken, who seemed OK, he saved me after all, and that guy with the...

"OH MY GOODNESS, IS THAT A SHINY?" he said and ran over to the Kirlia. "Man, I so badly want one of these..." The Kirlia looked at him, sucking on a Rawst berry. She, Alex thought it was a she anyway, he could sort of tell, looked at him. Alex then remembered that this Pokemon had an owner, and looked up into the guy's face. He was quite tall, with blond hair and glasses.

"Hi, my name's Alex. Alex Slasher. Nice to meet you. You have a lovely Pokemon over there."

He then turned to the rest of the group, which included Tag, who looked quite menacing and leaderish.
"So yeah, I'm Alex. I lived in Mauvile until I was two, and now I live in Daas."
Alex then realized that he was the centre of attention. He cursed to himself, so that nobody heard, and flipped out his Pokegear and in an instant, Blaze the Combusken appeared.
"And this is my buddy Blaze."

The Combusken looked around, smiled warmly at everyone, then looked Alex in the eyes and his eyes turned hard and determined. Alex nodded. They would make it through this challenge together.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jul 17 2011, 11:15 PM

Tag made a quick mental list of the trainers in his group. Because he'd spoken earlier with his stentorian voice, it appeared that all the kids looked to him with the eagerness of people needing direction. Not that they were sheep, but this was certainly a life or death experience. It was rather alarming to have so many people looking up to one in such an expectant manner. It was as if they wanted Tag to bark out orders the whole time. While he certainly had no qualms doing that, he was a little nervous about the whole thing now. He wasn't exactly a natural born leader, as shown by his fairly gruff yet educated demeanor.

So...he had Rose Fiore, Jaima Kuonji from Cherrygrove. A few memories of Cherrygrove flashed through Tag's eyes. Most of them involved sinking beneath the water, with the former dragon trainer haven given up all prospects of life. Strange that just a single mention of a city he'd spent so little time in evoked such powerful memories, even still.

Then there was Douken Sota. The name sounded familiar, almost infuriatingly so. Tag still couldn't place where he'd heard it before, or where he felt he'd met this kid. Either way, he was now working with him, so it was a fairly moot point.

Then there was the other young girl, Kaya Rovera, who seemed to be limping a bit still. The splint seemed to be holding splendidly; whoever had patched it together did a solid job. Not that Tag was any doctor, but that was his assessment regardless.

Then Anita, who was...hyper. She'd probably get annoying very quickly. Taggarty Lee, who was most likely de facto grumpiest as well as oldest, would most likely have found himself annoyed by this far-too-cheerful girl.

And lastly, Alex Slasher. Yet another hotshot trainer, who had crashed a car into the ditch. He didn't seem to have his more reasonable counter-part with him, so this would most likely be a kid he'd have to keep from running off of cliffs. Alex did, however, have a Combusken partner. The Combination of Fire and Fighting would most likely prove absolutely vital in the upcoming Steel Temple.

"Okay guys, here's a ground rule that might help us." Tag looked over his shoulder at the group. "It would probably be best for us to save our fighting and fire pokemon until later. It's more than likely that the more difficult enemies will be within, and we don't want the pokemon with the best chances of defeating them too fatigued. Let's try to ration our energy, and our stock of healing items, or else we may not get too far at all."

As he finished his speech, the group stepped through a particularly rough patch of underbrush into a clearing.

The sight that met them was an astonishing one indeed. Right in front of them stood a rather gargantuan pyramid. The direction of the temple, as deciphered by Pandora Gibbs, had been correct. The building was impressive in its simplicity: No decorum, no decoration, no embellishments. The monolith was simply a set of four, large, smooth, triangular walls, reaching up fairly high into the sky. The only reason they'd missed seeing it was most likely due to the thick foliage of the jungle canopy. But now here it was, towering before them, casting an ominous shadow over the team. Tag halted the team at the fringe of the underbrush, surveying the area before them for any signs of danger.

"Well." Tag blinked, not visibly shaken by the sight. "I guess this is it."

He scanned the side of the building, seeing nothing much but the smooth and surprisingly unmarred sides of the large metal building. However, closer to the ground, there seemed to be several indentations on the walls, that looked to be circular...or even hexagonal with small circles at each vertex.

On the ground in front of each one of the wall indentations were several large slots. From their distance, Tag calculated them to have a length roughly equivalent to the diameter of the keyholes. What they meant, he really wasn't sure of, though.

"Well...looks like there are 10 indentations here on the wall." Tag pointed them out to the group. "Those are probably the keyholes. Let's try and find the keys."

With a determined nod, he stepped forward. If anyone had ever seen a movie, they probably would've expected Tag's foot to sink slightly into the ground, making an odd, grating noise. Tag stopped dead, his face blanching as he stared down at the ground.

There was a slight rumble from the ground, and suddenly a convenient ten shapes shot out of the ten slots on the ground, where they floated in the air. For all the world, it looked like ten thin lines were simply hovering in the air. After a moment, they turned slowly, revealing that the lines were in fact Bronzor, a Psychic and Metal type pokemon.

Of course, they didn't seem at all pleased to see the group of 7 trainers in front of them.

Tag flipped out his pokedex to get a good scan on them, perhaps to see what moves they knew...but to his dismay, the screen of his pokedex remained dead.

"Something's fried my pokedex." he frowned. "I think the temple just fried our electronics." It would make sense that the steel temple would also deal with magnetics and electrics, and since the Furites didn't exactly rely on modern technology, it wouldn't be an inconvenience for such a magnetic field to exist.

He turned to the group, something between a grimace and a grin appearing on his face.

"Well Team Steel. Let's do this the hard way." With that, his hand snapped down to his belt. "I'll take care of our defenses. The rest of you, show me what you've got!"

With that, he summoned to the field Suzu, and only Suzu. He was absolutely set on watching and determining his comrades' battle capabilities, and what sort of pokemon they had, how they battled, etc. It seemed only fitting that he take a sort of backseat to this fight.

"Suzu, Safeguard!" The Five-Star Pokemon crossed all four arms in front of her, gathering energy, before throwing them out with surprising gusto. A silvery powder shot forth into the air before her, forming into a sort of misty veil between Team Steel and the Defending Bronzors. The Safeguard would protect the team from a majority of the status effects that Bronzor could muster, which effectively nullified their Confuse Ray and Hypnosis attacks. This way, the rest of the trainers could fight with a little more focus on offense.

Posted by: Douken Sota Jul 18 2011, 12:34 AM

"Douken... kun?" Douken asked, looking at Anita. "Are you also foreign like Jaima?" If he remembered right, Jaima called Douken "Sota-san" before they all took off on the helicopters back home, or at least back to where they were before their journey took such a strange turn. He couldn't help but think about everything that had happened on that day, which turned a simple gathering into a chaos turn for survival. Deja vu anyone?

When Tag spoke up again about keeping Fire and Fighting types on standby, he gave a small nod. [i]If we are going to actually fight Registeel in order to cooperate, then those would be our best elements. Ground would also be useful, but right now, didn't really affect Douken. Rufus was still out, so he was going to recover naturally, and Koldo would make some effective use later on if those giant statues came up again.

Once inside the pyramid-shaped temple, Douken looked about, checking out the main hall, listening on to Tag determine how one might proceed forward... and trigger the first booby trap. With a quick statement about electronics being fried, Douken got curious and pulled out His Pokegear. sure enough, he mostly got crackling and static as the screen had trouble keeping the map on screen. "Wow, talk about a lot of magnetic ener....gy..." Strange as it sounds, Douken got an idea on how to fight the floating plates.

"Koldo, stand back." The poisonous frog stared back at his human companion, giving him a black face Douken had gone to recognize. "Now Koldo, be patient. There are going to be better targets up ahead. A lot stronger than these Pokemon." With a small spitting sound, Douken returned the Poison frog to his POkeball befiore switching out for another.

"Now Rusty, time to show us what you got!" With a chuck of the Pokeball, he released out his magnemite, who looked at the set of plates. With his magnets moving in front of him, it seemed the timid Pokemon was not enjoying the numbers, until it felt the energy radiating from the temple. "Alright Rusty, we can take care of these plates. Go! Electro Ball!"

With a small nod from the Magnet Pokemon, a ball of electricity began to form between the North and South poles on its right magnet. Not only was it gathering its own electric energy, but it was also drawing forth the natural magnetic power of the temple itself into one fierce ball of bolts soon to go flying into the face of the front-right most Bronzor.

"Magne!" Right after the first throw, Magnemite's body soon began to glow bright white, a typical sign of evolution. This made Douken's Pokegear screech and show white noise like crazy just from the pure magnetic energy being thrown outwards. However, the light faded and Rusty was still a simple Magnetite. "Okay, Rusty seems to be ready to evolve, but didn't... Why?"

Posted by: Proby Jul 18 2011, 10:57 AM

Alex nodded at Tag's sound words. It made sense for him not to use Blaze in battle so the kick-boxing Pokemon could be in tiptop condition for the tough battles later. The same would be applied to Swamps, whose ground type moves would come in very handy in the Steel environment. Leo would also do well in the electric-conducting environment. Lucas would also do well. But Lucas was woefully under-levelled and wouldn't be strong enough

So Alex would have to use his newly caught Fluffee, Stryk and Lucas earlier on. And so they started to head for the Steel Temple itself. But whilst they were walking there, Alex spotted a Pokemon in a nearby pool that he had wanted for a while; an Anorith.

"It's an Anorith!" he exclaimed to the group. "I really want that! See you in a couple of minutes!"
He then dashed towards the pool. The prehistoric shrimp Pokemon turned round and looked with its sweet innocent eyes at Alex.

"Go, Swamps!" yelled Alex. Out came his Swamp monster, ready to battle.

"Swamps, use Water Gun!" ordered Alex. He didn't care about his humming routine right now. This would be a quick battle. Swamps nodded and spouted water expertly and accurately, hitting the Anorith square between the eyes. The fossil Pokemon's expression suddenly turned angry and it used the same move, but directed it at the ground instead. It then got out of the water it was in and slapped the soil, now Mud, sending a Mud Slap attack at Swamps. Luckily, he wasn't too hurt, so responded with a powerful Water Gun.

This, surprisingly, only made the Anorith angrier, and it charged at Swamps and used a powerful Scratch attack. But swamps deflected this too with relative ease. he launched a final Water Gun and that did the trick. The Anorith was now weak enough. Alex found a Net ball in his bag, and, knowing it was doubly effective on the Anorith, the it. The Pokeball clicked and Alex walked over to it.

"Well... yay. That was easier than I thought it would be!" he said. "I caught an Anorith! Right, I'm naming your Aldo." he said this last phrase to the Pokeball. He knew that inside, his newly caught Pokemon had heard him.

But now, he had a dilemma. He had to send a Pokemon to the PC! He wanted to sue Anorith now... He then decided. Lucas was far too weak for this. He swiftly switched over Aldo's Pokeball with Lucas', and in an instant, Lucas' Pokeball had mysteriously disappeared.

Alex then headed back in the direction where he'd seen the rest of the group go. He couldn't afford to stay behind for long. he arrived in the middle of the battle with a few odd looking Pokemon that Alex recognized at Bronzor. James had one. Alex knew its weaknesses.

"Go, Stryk!" he cried, and his Staravia came out of he Pokeball, looking fiercely at the shield-like Pokemon.

"Red Bull!" he said. Wing attack. Stryk charged into the fray.

Posted by: Asterna Jul 18 2011, 10:33 PM

Rose listened as the others introduced themselves, making note of their names and general personalities. Both of the younger strangers in this group -- Alex and Anita -- seemed rather excitable at the moment. For the upcoming battles, perhaps? Rose herself felt a small rush of excitement at the thought. After all the fighting she'd done today, she was beginning to understand why trainers enjoyed battling so much. True, it had been dangerous, frightening, and nerve-wracking, but there'd also been a certain joy in the adrenaline rush of putting herself up against an opponent and a sense of accomplishment after defeating them that she had never felt before. To her surprise, she actually found herself looking forward to the upcoming fighting.

She turned her attention back to Tag as the tattooed man spoke up, giving very sound advice about saving their most effective offensive Pokemon for later. So far, all that he'd said had been very reasonable and intelligent, further enforcing her impression that he was quite competent. In her case, she had no super effective Pokemon, but Nina would probably be her most effective attacker when the time came, so Rose decided to keep her Panpour in reserve for the time being.

Then they reached their destination, effectively blowing tactical thoughts out of her mind momentarily. She let out a soft whistle as she stared up at the enormous pyramid. It was quite plain, but its astonishing size still made it quite the awe-inspiring site. Of course, she didn't have time to stand around gawking at the architecture, impressive though it may be. She followed Tag's gaze to the indentations in the wall, nodding as he told them to go look for keys. No sooner had she turned around to begin searching when she heard a grating noise. She whipped around to see that one of Tag's feet had sank into the ground, depressing a block of stone. Her mind flashed back to all the cliched adventure movies that she'd watched in her childhood, and her eyes widened. A trap!

Sure enough, a group of ten Bronzors popped out of slots in the ground. Rose reached her Pokedex and flipped it open, only to find the screen black and dead, just as Tag had said. She tucked it back into her belt, eyeing the Bronzors. Well, they looked like Steel-types, and since they were levitating... perhaps Psychic as well? Their hard, shield-like appearance meant that they probably had high defense. Normally, she would send out Nina in this case, but since she wanted to save her for later... Making up her mind, she tossed two Pokeballs onto the field, summoning Alaia and Ciar. Alaia could support Wyatt with her disabling moves and special attacks, and he could do the up-front attacking. Ciar would be limited since he only had one attack that would do any real damage, but he was still the best option available.

"Alaia, Stun Spore, then Leech Seed! Ciar, Pursuit!" she ordered, pointing at the nearest Bronzor. This was the same basic strategy she'd used with the Goletts -- it should be fairly effective here as well. They both leaped into action, Alaia spraying yellow powder onto the targeted Bronzor to paralyze it before sending in her seeds to sap its HP. Meanwhile, Ciar charged up to it and tackled the Bronzor. He didn't seem to be doing much damage, but that was expected, and Leech Seed would help with that.

Posted by: Master Houndoom Jul 19 2011, 08:50 PM

"Fang, take the furthest left one! Spark, then Fire Fang!"

The electric cat gave a smirk, and then, with a mighty roar, charged toward the Bronze pokemon to the farthest left, electricity arcing from his forelegs. He leapt, shoulder forward, and slammed into the plate-like pokemon, electricity arcing between the felinoid and the living mirror. Flipping behind it, he opened his mouth wide, his teeth wreathed in flames, but was sent flying off by a telekinetic burst from the psychic type. Flipping in the air, he landed on his feet, shaking his head with a snarl.

The bronzor turned toward Fang, who kicked dirt behind himself with his forefeet. His eyes held nothing but smug contempt, which phased the bronzor not at all.

Another bronzor was struck in the anterior side with a ball of mud, sending it reeling. Tsunami leaned her head side to side, readying another mud ball even as the bronzor readied an attack.

Mercury floated at Jay's shoulder, and, at his feet, Desertdancer paced. <Bother! I feel so useless! I think I should have stayed with my trainer.>

Nonsense, friend, soothed Mercury, still sucking on the rawst berry Douken had given her. Trainer Jaima is simply biding his time. You'll see. Besides, I am the one who is nearly useless in this situation.

<I very much disagree, my dear. Still, if they didn't float so, I believe I would give them what for!>

Posted by: FirePower Jul 20 2011, 06:54 AM

Kaya nodded in understanding when Tag said to save their fire and fighting types for later. It wouldn't really affect her battling. She didn't have any pokemon that were of those types, let alone that were battle ready. She was pulled from her thoughts when they arrived at the temple. It was huge! It was quite simple, with no carvings or decorations on the outside except for ten indentations near the bottom. Quite similar to an Indiana Jones movie, Tag's foot sank into the ground and ten bronzor came out, clearly not too pleased with their rude awakening.

"I think the temple just fried our electronics." she heard Tag say just as she reached for her pokedex. Sure enough, it had short-circuited. She sighed. It had taken her three years to get that pokedex.

"If I had the money, I would so sue the bright fella who came up with pokecon!" She muttered under her breath before she sent out her psyduck.

"Blitbli!" Manera cried. It reared up on it's hind legs, ready to fight.

"No, Manera. Don't fight this time," Kaya commanded before turning to Attila. Pointing to the bronzor on the right edge of the group, she commanded, "Attila, use water gun on that one!" It was in the fray in an instant, squirting a high-pressure stream of water at the bronzor. The move was a bit off-center, causing the bronzor to spin. It took advantage of this to use a powerful tackle attack. Attila tottered back a few feet, dazed by the strength of the move.

"Okay. Not a good idea," Kaya said, returning the psyduck. "Flit, go!"

"Spea-row!" it cried, ready to fight.

"Flit, use peck on that one. Hit it on the top," Kaya ordered, once again targeting the one on the edge. Flit dove towards the bronze pokemon, stabbing at it with it's beak. The attack landed without flipping the bronzor over.

"Keep it up Flit!" she shouted, adrenaline pumping through her veins. She was getting excited now, and so were her pokemon. Manera could barely keep itself from rushing into the fight, and Flit was attacking with surprising enthusiasm. Eventually Flit got too careless, and the bronzor landed a powerful tackle, knocking the spearow out of the air.

"Careful Flit," Kaya commanded as it got back up. Flit nodded and continued attack, now more cautiously.

Posted by: FlyingMew Jul 20 2011, 11:16 PM

Anita turned to answer Douken's query just as the Bronzor army came floating up in front of the group. Her immediate response was to utter a short squeal of surprise and jump about two feet up into the air. "Wha-wha-wha-WHAT THE HECK!?" she screamed. She was of course one of those who didn't know what these Pokemon were. She landed on her feet and crouched down, as if to avoid the floating pokemon, and began to crawl forwards at a rather fast pace.

In her panic, Anita forgot about her all-too-familiar backpack being a rather large target, and as she crawled under the Bronzors, one of them began floating after her. Anita continued crawling underneath the Bronzor, as the battle broke out. Somehow, she had managed to crawl past the pokemon, and reached the other side of the room. As she neared the far wall, Anita turned around, only to come face-to-face with the creepiest Bronzor imaginable. The result of this was a resounding "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKK!!! Poof! Get your fuzzy butt out here and HELP ME!!!!!"

Red light flared out of Anita's pocket as a rather ruffled-looking Mankey shot out of his pokeball like a cannon."Maaaannk-YYYYY!" The little fighting-type. landed in front of his trainer in a protective stance, the vein on his forehead standing out. "Mank! Maaaaaannnnnnnnnyyyyyy KY!" he squeaked angrily. He glared at the Bronzor, readying himself for battle. Anita, at this point, managed to get up into a standing position. "Poof," Anita said, "Focus your energy!"

The Mankey closed his eyes and took a deep breath, which he held for a few seconds before releasing a contented sigh. Opening his eyes, Poof looked at the bronzor, focusing on the orbs on the edges of it's body. Anita got the hint. "Poof, Covet!" she ordered. The little fuzzball suddenly jumped towards the Bronzor, and latched onto the topmost orb of the Bronzor. "Kee, kee!!! Maaaan!"

The Mankey held tight to the Bronzor, as it simply hovered there in mid-air. Poof looked at the orb that he was holding onto, puzzled. "Kree? Mank!" he cried. He began frantically pulling on the Bronzor's orb, which caused it to slowly start spinning. The resulting sight was rather comical, the enraged mankey pulling harder and harder as the Bronzor silently rotated in place. Anita stared blankly at them, her eyes dull as if she was being hypnotized.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jul 21 2011, 01:23 AM

This was Tag's first real chance to study his team in earnest. While he didn't particularly enjoy playing leader, he honestly felt that he had to in this group of ragamuffin teenage trainers. At the very least, he could get an idea of what sort of battle abilities that Team Steel would utilize in the upcoming temple.

The first thing he noticed, was the only synergy was in target picking. Each of the trainers successfully picked one, but there were seven trainers and ten bronzor.

Douken Sota had opted to attack with Magnemite, which made sense defensively. The magnet pokemon would receive minimal damage from the Steel/Psychic Types. Tag watched curiously as the Magnemite prepared to evolve. It made sense that it would be absorbing the magnetic energy from the temple, forcing into evolution. However, once the light faded, Rusty remained a Magnemite. The Bronzor that had been struck with the Electro Ball reeled from the attack. Electro Ball's damage was based on how much faster the user pokemon was from its opponent, and the speed difference between the two was minimal. Bronzor was not a particularly fast pokemon to begin with, but neither was Magnemite. The Pokemon opted to retaliate with an Extrasensory, which probably wouldn't do too much damage, but had the potential to flinch its opponent.

"Maybe it's just not ready." Tag shrugged, throwing in his two cents concerning the non-evolution.

Turning his attention to Alex next, he watched as the trainer picked a Staravia to battle his Bronzor. Wing attack proved fairly ineffective, both against Bronzor's Steel-typing, but also its very high defenses. Tag watched as the Bronzor retaliated with a confusion attack, sending waves of psychic energy at Alex's pokemon.

Rose, despite her age, appeared to be a very, very sharp girl. She opted to send out two pokemon Tag hadn't really seen before. Realizing that he hadn't seen them before could only mean that they were Unova pokemon. (Not that Tag had seen every pokemon in the world, but he'd seen plenty of them in his time.) The fluffball was using Stun Spore and Leech seed, which while not dealing outright damage, would help sap the life force from the Bronzor. Pursuit was a dark type attack, which obviously meant that the little black and red fox was a dark type of some sort. Naturally, Tag inwardly cooed at the cuteness of the duo.

Once again, he turned his attention to another part of the battle, where the blonde haired Jaima Kuonji was taking on a pair of Bronzor with his team of Fang and Tsunami. The duo looked quite formidable, taking on the Bronzor with a certain amount of aplomb. It was definitely the most interesting battle to watch so far. Even yet, Jaima had a Kirlia floating near his head, and a rather cute, but stuffy looking Sandshrew at his feet.

The other young girl, Kaya, did not seem to be as competent a strategist as her friend Rose. Either that, or she simply didn't have the pokemon team to fight effectively against these floating steel types. She had taken on a Bronzor with an angry looking Psyduck, then opted for a Spearow. Either way, she didn't seem to be making too much progress with her Bronzor opponent.

The least successful of all seemed to be Anita. Not only had she completely ignored Tag's suggestion, summoning a fighting type pokemon, (which was double-suicide in this encounter, due to Bronzor's psychic typing), but she had essentially crawled into the enemy portion of the field, where she was in very real danger of getting hit by attacks from not only the Bronzors, but her own teammates as well. The girl had actively made the choice to make the battle that much more difficult.

With Seven of the Bronzor actively engaged, Tag watched as the remaining three divied themselves up amongst the combatants. Seeing as one Bronzor was outnumbered 2 to 1 by Rose's Cottonee and Zorua, another floated over to join them, evening the odds. Both Bronzor fired off confusion attacks at her pokemon. Ciar would remain completely unaffected, obviously, but Alaia might not've come off so lucky.

The remaining two Bronzor noted Ledian hovering towards the back of the ground, and began spinning slowly, moving towards her in their Gyro Ball technique.

Tag sighed, a little peeved that they were targeting his pokemon rather than the other pokemon providing the offensive threat. It seemed that these temple keys were also the guardians, and that they had some semblance of strategy when it came to defending their home turf.

"Suzu, Silver Wind."

Suzu fired off a powerful blast of energy from her wings, the powdery, silvery wind slamming hard into the two oncoming attackers. The attack stopped their Gyro Ball techniques in their tracks, and the two quickly lost interest in haranguing the Ledian. One floated off to go team up on Jaima's Marshtomp, while the other made its way towards the temple, aiming to bother Anita and her Mankey some.

With that, he stepped back again, Ledian hovering gently by his side. "Everyone seems to be doing fine." Tag muttered to his pokemon, who buzzed and nodded quietly in assent. "We'll step in again if the tables start to turn."

Posted by: Proby Jul 21 2011, 07:06 AM

Alex cursed as Stryk got hit by a seemingly powerful Confusion attack. Clearly, whoever had wanted any intruders to stay out of the Registeel Temple had done a great job doing so, by training these Bronzor to be excellent strategists as well as hardy battlers.

"Dammit, Stryk, you don't have any good moves on the ground, do you? Well, I guess we'll have to resolve that. Stryk, come back to my side!"

The Staravia looked at Alex and nodded. She flew like a bullet towards him, and landed expertly without hurting him on his shoulder. She nodded at Blaze, who was standing beside his trainer in silent understanding, before looking back at the battle.

Alex, who hadn't heard Tag's earlier comment about the electronics not working due to the fact that he was capturing his Anorith at the time, was very confused at that his Pokegear was not working.

"DAMN YOU, YOU STUPID THING!" he yelled the the device, nearly knocking Stryk of her perch in shock. Suddenly, Alex's party appeared from the device. Alex briefly remembered Tom explaining the mechanics of a Pokeball once to him, saying that when the Pokeball stopped working, it automatically released the Pokemon from the device. Clearly this was what was happening here. Out came Fluffee, Leo, Swamps and his new Aldo, looking very relived. The broken device must have taken a toll on their minds and they were sighing that they were now safe.

"Great," grumbled Alex, quite loudly, "So now, my Pokeballs don't work! Now ain't that just the Cats' Pyjamas..."

Oh well, so your Pokemon are going to have to stay out of their Pokeballs... there could be worse dilemmas. he reasoned with himself.

Then he remembered the battle. The Bronzor he was facing was coming closer, and Alex didn't like that. He needed to resume this battle. But Blaze, Swamps and Leo needed to be kept for later, Fluffee and Stryk had massive type disadvantages meaning they wouldn't be able to penetrate the solid defence of the opposing Pokemon. That left Aldo.

"Well, I guess he needs to battle sometime." said Alex, before shouting "Go, Aldo!"

"Ano!" screeched the Ancient Shrimp, before launching himself in the way of the Bronzor. The Bronzor turned round, as if cocking his head, before smiling maliciously. He then started producing a bright white light. he looked like he was charging up for a Flash Cannon attack.
"Steel is super-effective against Anorith." said Alex. That meant he needed to act. Fast.
"Aldo, send that Flash Cannon to the sky! Use Water gun!" he ordered. Aldo paused for a second as he took in the orders and thought about what to do with his Water Gun. But he quickly realized and spouted a powerful gush at the Bronze Pokemon, at the top of it. This meant that the thin Pokemon's entire body was flung so it faced upwards. The Bronzor couldn't bring its position back in time, and so the Flash Cannon was shot directly upwards instead of at Aldo.

"No, Aldo, follow up with Mud Slap!" cried Alex excitedly but confidently. He was always like this in battles. He loved the thrill of it, but at the same time, he knew was he was doing. Aldo began work on his next move. Just like when Alex had caught him a few minutes earlier, the Old Shrimp Pokemon waterlogged some of the soil right near him to it became gloopy and muddy. He then raised his two front claws in the air, then swept the muddy ground with a powerful force, sending some flying at the Bronzor. It made contact with Aldo's opponent, sending it spiralling out of control. It crashed into the temple walls, and fell to the floor.

But no sooner had one enemy fallen that another appeared. Alex sighed. This may yet turn out to be a long fight. And at the back of his mind was the Golurk battle earlier. It was quite likely that the original keeps of this temple would have put in a backup security system. That meant there might be some Bronzong. Those were some tough cookies,. Alex hoped they would encounter those.

Posted by: Asterna Jul 21 2011, 02:05 PM

Rose made a face as another Bronzor drifted over to join its comrade. She'd been hoping to make up for her lack of offensive power and damaging moves with superior numbers, but it looked like that wouldn't work. "Alaia, same combo on that one!" she called, pointing to the second Bronzor. The Cottonee managed to get off a Stun Spore, paralyzing the new Bronzor, but then the Bronzor both attacked in tandem. The Confusion attack passed through Ciar harmlessly, but Alaia wasn't able to get off so lightly. She was knocked backwards with a cry of alarm, bouncing once before she got her balance back.

Rose, eyes widening, muttered something rude under her breath and ran to check on her Cottonee, but not before turning and sending out her Rufflet to back up Ciar. "Wyatt, Wing Attack on the right Bronzor! Ciar, Pursuit again! Keep attacking, but try not to get hit!" she ordered.

Wyatt eagerly fell upon his new opponent, smacking the mirror-like Pokemon with his wings and distracting it from targeting the Zorua. Of course, given that Flying wasn't very effective against Steel, it hardly seemed to affect the Bronzor, but that didn't dampen the young Rufflet's enthusiasm in the least. Ciar, meanwhile, smashed into his opponent again with dogged determination. He was having more success than Wyatt at the moment, both his constant Pursuits and Alaia's Leech Seed whittling away at the Bronzor's health. It looked like she wouldn't be able to use the same strategy on the second Bronzor, though, Rose thought as she reached Alaia.

The Cottonee was still conscious, but probably not up to battling -- just the one Confusion had done plenty of damage, having caught her off guard. This, coupled with her species' low defenses, was enough for Rose to take her off the battlefield, for fear of having her be knocked out. She only had four Pokemon, after all, three of which she'd already brought out, and no Revives, for which she was quietly cursing herself for. Rose recalled Alaia with a quick murmur of thanks, resolving to heal her later, when they had time. Now, she had to get back to the battle.

She hastily ran back to her previous place, chewing absentmindedly on her bottom lip as she thought quickly, trying to decide on her next move. Her Pokemon were still attacking their opponents, but weren't dealing as much damage as she would like. The Bronzors, due to their superior levels, were able to do more damage to her Pokemon -- a fact that she didn't want to test again, as the two Bronze Pokemon readied attacks again, spinning rapidly as rings of light appeared around them. Rose didn't recognize what move it was -- Gyro Ball, perhaps? -- but either way, she didn't want to get hit by them.

"Guys, get out of the way of those!" she called, just in the nick of time as the Bronzors released their attacks. Ciar, being quite speedy, was able to dodge out of the way in time, but Wyatt wasn't quite fast enough. He managed to dodge the brunt of the attack, but was clipped with the edge of the beam. He recoiled with a cry that was as much anger as pain. He'd taken damage, but still seemed well enough to battle -- for that matter, Rose didn't think he would let her recall him, if the way he was glaring at the Bronzor was any indication. His surprisingly frightening expression gave her an idea.

"Wyatt, Leer, then keep using Wing Attack!" she ordered. The Rufflet glowered at both Bronzor, puffing up his now singed feathers threateningly. Both opponents seemed to shudder slightly; their defense was now lowered slightly, so Rose should be able to take them down more quickly. "Good! Ciar, keep using Pursuit on yours!" she shouted encouragingly.

Posted by: Douken Sota Jul 22 2011, 09:32 AM

"I have my doubt about that.." he muttered as Rusty began to glow again, releasing another wave of magnetic energy, causing his Pokegear to screech again, fading as soon as it subsided. "If I remember right, Magneton, which is Magnemite's evolution, is pretty much three different Magnemite combined through magnetic forces. Whenever he seems to glow for evolution, a strong magnetic wave is being released, which can be told by the Pokegear acting up whenever it gets ready..." That was when it clicked. "I get it! Rusty's ready. The only problem is that there are no other Magnemite around to fuse with to actually become Magneton." If that's the case, only one would be labeled the Alpha of the trio, and its the stronger one that gets the title. Rusty is getting a serious advantage boost inside here charging up.

Now then, looking back on the battle on hand, Douken looked at the Bronzor. With its eyes glowing gold, the floating plate fired off a multicolor beam full of white crescents at the Magnet Pokemon's steel body. Good thing that steel body could take the front, and even then, if it was way too Powerful, Rusty would still be standing thanks to Sturdy. "Now Rusty, give them another hand of Electro Ball!" Sure, both Pokemon were consider slow, but at least Rusty was still faster than the Bronze Pokemon, which meant another good hand of damage.

Douken looked about, seeing each trainer taking on more opponents. The three that weren't taken decided not to simply wait around, though. One went to help out an outnumbered ally as the other two tried to mess around with the Ledian. However, with a powerful Silver Wind, they, too, divided themselves, one for Jaima to even out and one for... Anita. She was standing there in a complete daze as a Mankey tried to pull away one of the six orbs that were apart of the Bronze's body.

"Talk about a mess," he sighed as he removed another Pokeball from his belt. Tossing it out, his Dewgong appeared. "Maya, help out the girl with the backpack!" With a swift nod, the giant seal slammed her fins onto the floor, surrounding herself in water before launching straight at the second plate that wanted to mess with Anita.

Posted by: Master Houndoom Jul 22 2011, 06:26 PM

Jaima was bothered by something, but couldn't put his finger on it. In the mean time, he had two Bronzors to contend with. One had figured out Fang's major strategy and was trying to keep him at bay with distance attacks. However, the pokémon that looked like a floating bronze mirror could not keep up with the feline's speed and power. Fang would dash by, hit him with a Fire Fang, and dash away before the bronzor could compensate. The gleeful smirk on Fang's face spoke volumes over how much he was enjoying this.

In the mean time, Tsunami was doing more to keep her opponent off balance, sending jets of water from a distance to hit it from the side, before slamming with another mud-slap or mud ball. That returned the bothersome feeling to the back of Jaima's mind.

Then it hit him.

"Hey, at least some of these can be hit with Ground attacks!"

He turned to inform Tag of this, then noticed that three of the pokemon had split up, one going toward a girl, Anita, and the other coming at Tsunami. He also noticed as he turned that one of the girls, Kaya, was in a precarious position. He started snapping orders to his pokémon.

"Desertdancer," (OK, his girlfriend's pokémon, too, but he was on loan!) "Attack the one Tsunami is on! Use Sand Attack and see if you can hit the other one! Keep them distracted if you can, and if you have to, take out any you can hit! Grondir, the one there, keep it back! Don't let it hit Kaya!"

Trainer Jaima, you might be spreading your forces too thin! Mercury reminded him, worried at her own uselessness as well as the danger they were all in.

"That's where you might come in handy, Merc. See if you can't communicate with any of these guys. Explain the situation and call them off, if you can!"

Posted by: FirePower Jul 22 2011, 10:33 PM

Kaya took a second to check on how everyone else was doing. They all seemed to be handling their battles quite nicely- well, all except for Anita, but Douken looked to be taking care of that. As it was, She wasn't doing all that fantastic herself. Peck didn't do all that much damage against the bronzor, and the tackle attack Flit had received was beginning to take it's toll. It wasn't fighting with it's usual pep anymore. Before she recalled the spearow, she had one last idea to try and beat it.

"Atilla, go!" She said, sending out her psyduck once more. "Atilla, hit it from behind with water gun. Flit, peck it in the face after that." Atilla nodded and snuck behind the mirror-like pokemon and hit it towards the bottom with a powerful stream of water. It flipped upward. At lest that part of the plan worked. The bronzor, who Kaya forgot could also hear her orders, launched a confusion attack upwards, making Flit run into it head-on. Now the spearow was definitely in no condition for battle.

"Both of you return," Kaya said, kicking herself for forgetting that her pokemon weren't the only ones with ears. "Manera, it's your turn. Shock wave!"

"Zleblitzlebli!" It cried as it launched electricity at the bronzor. The steel type looked dazed by the attack.

"Great! Three quick attacks, then charge!" Kaya said, her excitement rising again. Manera reared up on it's hind legs before charging as fast as it could at the bronzor. Then it turned around and repeated the process twice. As it came to a stop, it's fur began to spark with static electricity. Kaya had hoped the bronzor would spiral out of control and straight into another round of attacks, but apparently that wasn't the case. It managed to keep from running into Manera's electrified fur and began to prepare a confusion attack.

"Charge again, before it can hit you with that confusion!" Kaya said, hoping her blitzle was fast enough. Luckily, it manged to finish the move just before confusion was launched. The blitzle was knocked back a few feet, but it was still up for fighting.

"Another shock wave!" Kaya shouted. She was in her own little world now. Nothing else existed except for her and the two battling pokemon. She smiled to herself as manera released the powered-up electric attack and the charge left. The bronzor hurtled at Manera, which sidestepped the attack and waited for Kaya's ext order.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jul 28 2011, 01:02 PM

Tag continued to survey the battle from his position in the back. Alex Slasher had switched from his Staravia to...a pokemon that Tag had not seen before. It looked like a little flat trilobyte with feathers sticking out of the side. Normally, he would've flipped out his pokedex, but since it had decided it would show all pokemon data as static, it didn't seem possible at the time.

Alex had named it Aldo, which sparked in Tag's mind the pokemon name "Armaldo". However, he had heard that Armaldo were rather large, fearsome creatures. This thing looked like a little bug. Either way, he wasn't sure.

The most surprising thing, to Tag, was that the pokemon used Mud-Slap...and it connected. Tag had thought for sure that these Steel/psychic pokemon possessed the ability Levitate. Then it hit him: Some Bronzor possessed the ability Heat-Proof in lieu of that, meant that ground moves would work just fine. Alex's Bronzor fell, leaving nine guardians remaining.

Rose had opted to gang up on her Bronzor, but the Bronzor had other plans, sending another over to make it an even 2 on 2. The little black and red fox seemed to be doing fine, same with the fluffy-headed eagle. However, the fluffy ball that had used Leech Seed appeared to be on the verge of defeat. Before long, though, the combination of Rufflet and Zorua seemed to work, finally taking down their two opponents. That left seven.

Douken provided an excellent explanation for why his Magnemite didn't evolve, which made perfect sense to Tag. Pokemon evolution was still a fairly mysterious thing, but Douken seemed to have figured this particular situation out quite nicely. Finally, Rusty's Bronzor went down, clanking to the ground with a dull groan. Six left.

Jaima's end of the battle seemed to be going quite well. With two pokemon to deal with the two bronzor, Jaima seemed to be faring the best against his opponents. It wasn't long at all before Fang, Tsunami and Desertdancer claimed victory over the three bronzor plaguing them. Three to go!

Kaya was constantly switching between her Spearow and Psyduck, but finally opted for her Blitzle, who seemed to be doing the most damage to it. Her Bronzor was on the edge of firing off another powerful confusion attack at Kaya's pokemon, until a strong vine wrapped around it, slamming it into the ground. All the damage it had received from Kaya's pokemon, then Grondir's fierce attack, left the metal mirror pokemon defeated there. Kaya's end of the battle was complete, thanks to aid from Jaima. Two left!

Unfortunately, the two pokemon left were the ones haranguing Anita and her Mankey, Poof. Tag turned to Suzu, pointing at one of the Bronzor "Take it out. Give me another Silver Wind."

Tag watched as Suzu flashed through the calming battlefield to the Bronzor Anita had wound up facing. Just as the second Bronzor was about to unleash an attack on the back of Anita, it found itself floored from a powerful Silver Wind attack from above. Almost grumpily, it flipped itself around and fired off a confusion attack at Suzu, who reeled back, but shrugged off most of the damage. With what could only be described as her battle cry, she let fly with one more Silver Wind, slamming the Bronzor further into the ground, where it lay, defeated.

Poof, the Mankey, had to jump off of his target as Maya came hurtling through the air, slamming into her target with outstanding force. The Bronzor sailed through the air, slamming into the side of the temple.

"Suzu, Mach Punch!" Before Maya could launch another attack, Suzu flashed over, slamming two of her fists into the wall-bound Bronzor. As Suzu floated back, the metal pokemon slowly slide down the temple wall, before it fell to the ground, unmoving.

"Well team...well done." Tag nodded walking through the makeshift battlefield. He checked the ground tenderly, to make sure he wasn't about to set off any more traps.

Either way, after a moment, he'd gathered up the Bronzor with the help of Suzu and inserted them into the slots on the temple wall. The wall, in turn, suddenly glowed with the psychic energy from the Bronzor. It became alive with a series of flashing lines of light that sped along in various zig-zag patterns over the temple, before shooting down along the wall to the area where the trainers were. Before their very eyes, part of the wall detached itself in a perfect triangle, folding out towards them and making a ramped entrance.

"Well. There it is. Heal up if you can, then let's head in."

The inside of the temple was a sight indeed. On the floor they had entered, it appeared that everything was lit by big glowing electrical orbs, which cast an eerie blue light on everything. There seemed to be long platforms for them to walk on, but big, open space everywhere else, scattered about with several similar looking platforms that, for all intents and purposes, were floating in space. Looking upwards, the team could see the top of the temple, which most likely meant that the main bulk of it, and the area where Registeel lay dormant, was in the opposite direction: Downwards.

Tag surveyed the area, noting just how dangerous this temple was. There were platforms all over the place, with no discernible way to travel between them. He was prepared to send Suzu around, when he then noticed a chunk of the platform they were on slowly start to rise into the air, moving to join with another.

"Oh. Elevators." he blinked. "I guess...that's how we get around."

Posted by: Douken Sota Jul 29 2011, 07:15 PM

Walking up to Maya, he rubbed her horn, telling her, "Good job, girl." It was almost like a thing he trained her for. If she got too rowdy, he would "bonk" her horn. When she's good, he would rub it. Part of him has been glad that she hasn't been bad since evolution. With her horn bigger (and quite possibly sharper), he wouldn't want to know how much he would hurt his hand.

"You rest up, alright?" Returning her to her ball, he placed it back on his belt before knight at the floating Magnet. "How about you, Rusty? Feeling good?" With a low mutter, he would tell he was shaken by the multitudes of faces. Interesting, Douken noted. In battle, it seems that Rusty ignores the surrounding area. Otherwise, it would of been shaken up all this time. "Well, you seem to be in good condition from that Confusion attack. Go ahead and rest up." Holding out another Pokeball, he let the red beam surround the ball of Magnets, but broke away as soon as it touched.

Now, Douken knew it was Rusty's Pokeball. It just seemed that it was prevented from leaving. Maybe the strong magnetic field is causing some sort of pseudo-Magnet Lock effect? If that was the case, Steel Type would have trouble resting up. Turning over to the crowd, he called out, "Just a fair warning, your Steel type Pokemon may not be able to return." He may not know who if it affected (if anyone besides him), but it was best to allow others to know.

With the crowd soon on the move (Rusty drifting behind Douken's head), they on arrived in a wide open space, many floating platforms around them. Clearly, they were supposed to get from Point A to B this way, but the sections seemed way too far apart to jump. Douken could try riding Sabre through here, but if the area had a pseudo-Magnet Lock, then a third of his team would be trapped outside and unable to rest. Best bet was to keep on foot with the others. Just stay on the platforms as they moved, and try not to fall off and die.

Posted by: Master Houndoom Jul 31 2011, 01:36 AM

"Well," said the blonde boy, looking not only at the three his team had helped dispatch, but all ten of the bronzor who had attacked what had somehow been dubbed "Team Steel".

I'm not going to be much use to you, Trainer Jaima,

Jaima looked at his kirlia. Despite her words, she did not seem upset, but was concentrating on something Jaima couldn't see.

You're too hard on yourself, Mercury, Jaima projected, knowing that Mercury would hear him despite his lack of psychic ability. You're more important than just someone to fight with.

A wave of fondness surged through the link he shared with Mercury. No, Trainer Jaima, it's only that with most of our opponents being steel types, I'll be less effective in battle. She looked around and sighed. The Guardians of this place wouldn't listen to me, either. I am tracking Shadow, though. Everyone's fine. Trainer Meiko seems to have embarrassed herself, but Shadow is being to discreet to let me see what it was. At this, she sounded exasperated, but Jaima simply smiled.

"It's OK, Mercury," he said, rubbing her crest softly with the palm of his hand. "Just make sure we're all safe when this is over. If anything, We can teleport out if things get too rough, OK?"

Mercury looked at her trainer and nodded, fondness again shining through her eyes and through their link.

As they moved inside, they found the elevators. the sandshrew began to tremble.

<Are you all right, Desertdancer?>

Desertdancer looked up at the kirlia floating before him. <Oh, I'll be fine, my dear, just fine. It's only that I'm not overly fond of heights, you see. Many of my type are, admittedly, but I seem to have more of a problem than most.>

Mercury's brow furrowed. <I'm sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to help?>

<I don't suppose you could somehow keep me distracted?>

Mercury smiled. <I'm not sure. I don't know much about ground types. The only one I've known before you was a baby diglett I used to play with before Trainer Jaima found me... and I only saw his head.>

Oh, my dear, diglett are rather fascinating creatures. It's been said that no one knows what might be under the ground where their head disappears, but, of course, many digging species know. It's just that it's so hard to put into words...

Desertdancer continued speaking, extolling the wonders of the diglett species, until the elevator hit the top of its run. With a surprised blink, he coughed. Why, thank you, my dear. That worked out quite nicely..!"

Posted by: Asterna Jul 31 2011, 11:39 AM

Rose punched the air victoriously as her Pokemon both knocked out their respective Bronzors. "Yeah! Great job, guys!" she cheered, grinning as she jogged up to them. She gave them both congratulatory pats on the head, looking them over. They both seemed to be in fairly good condition -- Wyatt had taken damage, but not enough to warrant using one of her limited healing items on him. Nodding to herself, she recalled them both with a quick word of thanks. "Take a nice rest -- you earned it," she told their Pokeballs before clipping them back onto her belt.

Now then... She pulled out Alaia's Pokeball to summon her briefly. The injured Cottonee peered up at her with a quiet, questioning noise. "Hey, 'Laia. Sorry for calling you out again, but I need to heal you," Rose explained as she pulled out her remaining Potion, spraying Alaia with it. The medicine worked its magic as usual, and the Cottonee was soon back in fighting condition, if still not at full health. With a small smile, Rose recalled Alaia once again. Now that she'd used up her last Potion, she was down to a few berries to heal her Pokemon with. Hopefully, she wouldn't run out of them before they were done. Not for the first time, she cursed herself for not buying enough medical supplies. Then again, it's not like I expected this to happen... With a mental shrug, she decided to just accept the situation as it was -- though she did make a note to herself to buy more potions as soon as possible.

She watched curiously as Tag inserted the Bronzors into the slit in the wall, blinking as the light show started up and the temple wall opened up to reveal the interior. She looked around appreciatively as they entered. Dang, this place is cool, she thought as she peered at one of the orbs of electricity. She was almost tempted to poke it, but she had no idea what would happen then, so she turned away with some reluctance to follow the rest of the group.

She stared at the platforms when they came to them. Part of her wondered how they were floating like that -- but more importantly, how were they going to get across? That question was soon answered as the platforms began to move.

She peered dubiously at them, then looked down further down. This proved to be a bad idea, as she saw exactly how deep down the temple went. Determinedly ignoring grisly images of falling to her death, she kept her head facing upwards and away from the drop as she stepped onto the first moving platform, following Jaima and his Pokemon. "This is kind of like a video game, huh?" she commented, trying to keep her mood light.

Posted by: Proby Aug 1 2011, 04:04 AM

The next Bronzor came up, but before it could, it was knocked out by one of the other trainers' Pokemon. Alex sighed a massive sigh of relief. He looked around, and saw that the battle had ended.

Tag congratulated their little victory and instructed that they heal up as soon as possible. Alex nodded. he used a quick potion on Stryk. Aldo hadn't got hurt too badly. He then followed Tag, Douken and the rest of his team into the Steel Temple itself. Once again Alex admired the intricacy of the temple. Truly the makers of this place had spent many painstaking hours making this temple.

But the weirdest thing was the elevators. They were a feat of engineering in the extreme.
"Right, once I become the Champion of Furoh, I'm gonna make one of these temples or somethin'." said Alex. He'd been truly astounded at how awesome this all was and was inspired to make something like it.

Then, to his left, a girl, who Alex remembered vaguely as being named Rose, mentioned about the similarity to a video game. Alex chuckled before responding to her.
"True, true." he said. "But it's real life. And we don't have any extra lives."
He didn't mean to say that, it just sort of slipped out, but it made everyone aware once more of the dangers they faced here. It was a rough place, able to throw anything at them. And as Alex stepped on to the first elevator along with everyone else, he felt slightly nervous as they slowly descended into the depths of the Registeel temple.

Posted by: FlyingMew Aug 7 2011, 12:21 AM

Anita, dazed, was unaware of what was going on around her. It seemed as though Anita was hypnotized, and she was staring glassy-eyed into space. Poof, sensing his trainer's utter lack of responsiveness gathered himself up off the ground where he had landed after the sudden "rescue" of him and his trainer. Furious at being interrupted, the Mankey let out a rather rude sound in the direction of the other trainers. Standing up, he turned and walked over to Anita.

~Poof~ The young Mankey was furious. No one had even asked him if he needed help, which he didn't. They just assumed that he couldn't handle himself in a fight. So what if he had no idea what to do against the floating plates? Anita had understood what he wanted. Those round orb thingys looked valuable! And Poof wanted one. Since he couldn't seem to get one off, though, he realized they must have been attached. Talk about stupid.

Poof walked up to Anita and stopped in front of her. Waiting for her response, he stood there at her feet, head hung in anger. Poof stood there for a moment, breathing deeply to calm himself down.~"Why isn't she saying anything?"~ Poof suddenly wondered. He looked up at Anita's face, and noticed the blank stare. ~"What the...? Great. She's just staring. Well, she hasn't exactly slept in about a week. Maybe she's finally gonked out? Yeah, that's it."~ Poof's anger dissipated as he reassured himself.

Poof reached up and grasped Anita's hand. He began pulling until Anita took a rather unsteady step forwards. Poof looked down at her feet in uncertainty. Should he really be leading her when she was like this? Poof turned and looked around at the other trainers and Pokemon. He noticed them moving towards what looked like some kind of elevators. Shrugging to himself, he began to lead Anita after the group. As he led her, he began looking for some one to help wake his trainer up. Spotting the young man from earlier (Douken his name was?),he began leading Anita towards him.

Poof managed to get Anita onto the elevator platform with little issue. Getting off, on the other hand, seemed like it was gonna be an issue. The platform began ascending into the temple, Poof looked around. It seemed as though things were going to get rougher from here on out, considering their first actual battle. <Things just couldn't get ANY worse, now could they?> Poof thought to himself. Little did he know, Anita would have told him NEVER to ask that question of any situation. And things were about to get a lot worse.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Aug 7 2011, 02:17 AM

The elevators turned out to be not so straightforward after all. There weren't just elevators, but moving platforms that moved horizontally as well. Team Steel slowly, but surely made its way around the room, in all three dimensions, as if they were traversing a giant, invisible labyrinth.

Tag found himself getting a little frustrated, as his analytical mind was short circuiting; he couldn't find any rhyme or reason to the movements of the platforms. They seemed to be almost completely haphazard. Their only rule was that once they moved in their desired direction, they did not change course until they looked with another platform. If this was a program or an AI of some sort, it was very well algorhythmed. However, Tag wasn't quite sure how the ancient furites had programmed anything at all really.

The group stuck together, moving as a single unit, until they reach what appeared to be a central platform. To Tag, it was the signal that the team had reached something of a checkpoint. Hopefully, it meant that they were at least half-way through the veritable maze. On the other hand, it could just have as easily meant that they had to start over at square one.

Team Steel unconsciously spread themselves out on the platform; they'd been cramming in the entire time, so as to make sure they could all travel about. Now that they had some room, they most surely intended to take it.

"Well, hopefully this thing just lowers us to the next level, so we can continue." Tag shrugged. "I'm no expert on this sort of thing." He didn't mind at all that he'd just admitted his inexperience on the matter. The unfortunate part was, as soon as he finished speaking, seams appeared on the platform upon which they stood.

Before long, they separated outwards in nine separate pieces, leaving only the center square remaining. At the end of their trajectories, each of the moving platforms connected once again with a larger segment, providing the trainers room to move again, especially now that they were split.

Tag looked around, trying not to panic, then finally decided to get a good luck at the platform above him. He noticed right at the center, embedded in the thick metal, was a shape that was quite familiar.

"Magnemite!" He called out to the separated team "Magnemite are moving these platforms!"

As if on cue, the largest platform yet seemed to rise up from the ground, reconnecting everyone's platforms in a fairly spectacular way, creating a sort of flat, segmented field made of the same polished steel. The centermost fragment once again lifted, revealing an angry looking Magnezone.

It roared its metallic sounding cry, apparently alerting the temple. What appeared to be about two Magnetons and a swarm of perhaps a dozen Magnemite appeared on the field. Eleven total enemies scouted about, seeing the human intruders spread out across the platform and quickly dove in to attack, the Magnezone and Magneton remaining at the center, as if acting as a nucleus to coordinate the defense, rendering themselves, at the moment, a non-threat offensively.

Tag looked around worriedly; the most effective attacks would most likely be ground attacks, but they were suspended above the ground, and moves like Bulldoze or Earthquake could bring the whole thing tumbling down.

"Take 'em out!" Tag roared across the battle field, his hand flashing to his belt. He still wasn't keen on bringing Tobi onto the field just yet, seeing as he probably needed his 'firepower' (HA!). The flashes of light from the dual pokeballs metamorphosed into two recognizable shapes. Kyoko, Tag's Bellossom, and Zuki, Tag's Poochyena.

"Kyoko, Magical Leaf!" Kyoko bowed once, sounding out her name before spinning deftly in place, sending glowing leaves from her skirt flying out every-which way, homing in on the four Magnemite that had selected to attack Tag. Each of them reeled back for a moment as a few leaves slammed into them, halting their advance momentarily. "Zuki, Assurance!" The dark type puppy sprung up, his paws glowing with a shadow energy. He twisted his body, slamming his front, then hind paws onto one magnemite, leaving a small burst of the dark power on the Magnemite's exterior, before using it as a springboard to the next, where he repeated. After bouncing off all four, he adroitly landed next to Kyoko just in front of Tag, awaiting a counter-attack.

Sure enough, the four facing Tag fired off what appeared to be tandem Thundershock attacks.

"Zuki, behind Kyoko."

Kyoko stood firm. The Bellossom had not only a naturally high special defense and defense, she also resisted electrical attacks. The simultaneous shocks appeared to do fairly minimal damage to the flower pokemon. Instead of hurt, she looked a little peeved that her pretty leaf skirt seemed a bit ruffled. Zuki poked his canine head out from behind her, blinking owlishly at the magnet creatures in front of him.

"Alright kids!" Tag yelled "They don't appear to be that strong! Give'em hell!"

Posted by: Douken Sota Aug 7 2011, 03:34 AM

"Hey! We aren't kids!" Douken yelled out, watching two Magnemite come at Douken and Rusty. "We are survivalists! We are full of talent! We are trainers willing to do what it takes to live! Rusty! Lock On!" With a small morale speech out of the way (most likely being called a kid, he felt like Tag was looking down at the group), he gave the command to his own magnetic partner. Firing off a small red beam, an image looking like cross hairs appeared on the further back Magnet Pokemon. Not like it seemed to mind as the duo launched a pair of Sonic Booms. Both sides could easily reduce their damage, so it seemed smart to open up with a move that is believed to have a set amount of damage to them, if thought in a numerical sense.

"Alright! Line up and use Rollout!" With the central body spinning between the magnets, Rusty placed itself in front of the first Magnemite, plowing through it to reach the one it had locked into, keeping this rhythem with several sweeps. Still, it wasn't like much damage was dealt out, and every time, the opposing magnets tried to stop Rusty with their electric attacks.

"There has to be a way..." Douken muttered, biting his thumb. He had to take care of these two Magnemite, but his one was not a match. Unless... "Rusty! Wait for them both to use Thunder shock, and intercept with your on!"

It wasn't soon that the blasts were attempted, and rusty launched in its own. With the three electrical beams holding together, he could hear his Pokegear crackle again, screeching louder and louder and the three Magnemite were being forced together as the trio all began to glow brightly!

"Magneton!" With the light faded, and his Pokegear fried altogether, Douken's plan on eliminating the troublesome foes worked, but at what cost. What was once was three minds was now one. Question was, "Who is in control?" If it was a success, then he would have a stronger ally. If it failed, he had a stronger foe. Douken's hope was that since the Magnemite were adapted to the magnetic energy here, they would be base level, but Rusty, being freshly introduced, was supercharged from the energy.

"Rusty... Is that you Rusty?" With the evolved Magnet Pokemon turning about and gazed into Douken's eyes, the metal Pokemon's reflection showing off of the lenses of his glasses. There stared for a moment as Douken prayed in his mind before the Magneton tilted forward. Rusty nodded to him. "Alright!" Looknig at the center, he could tell the other Magneton were not going to let them pass to help the others, let alone that Magnezone. However, Tag did let Douken on a juicy secret.

"Rusty, take control of this platform. Detach it and move it over to Tag's." At the moment, he seemed like he would need a hand at the four guards he had to deal with. And with the command acknowledged, Rusty connected himself onto the platform with its own magnets and commanded the platform to detach. Slowly, the platform moved out of place, a shakier ride that before, considering Rusty never driven a floating platform, and moved him into position behind tag and reconnected. Running up, Douken took a Pokeball from his ball and threw it above the tattooed man's head, releasing his reaper of a ghost.

With him catching up, Douken grinned and said, "You look like you could use a hand. Reep, Confuse Ray! Rusty, Tri-Attack!" As the Duskull launched a flurry of waves at the foe to confuse them, the Magneton decided to kick in its newly awakened power. Between each pair of magnets was an charge going through them, but instead of all one color, it was a trio; red, yellow, and blue representing Fire, Lightning, and Ice respectively. With the three charges combined, it was launched in a massive flurry. The combination attack let off an intense energy, also giving the option of Burning, Freezing, or Paralyzing in one attack.

"Hope I am not ruining your fun this way..."

Posted by: Proby Aug 7 2011, 12:54 PM

The little platform journey was enjoyable enough, but it was quite uncomfortable for Alex, whose pokegear was broken, and, as a result, had to keep his Pokemon outside their Pokeballs. Stryk and Aldo found comfortable perches on Alex's shoulders, Cottonee in his arms, and Leo by his feet, but Blaze and Swamps just took up too much room, meaning the group felt a little squashed.

So naturally, Alex was relieved when the platform became bigger. He was less relieved, however, when the Magnemite attacked the group. Two of the odd magnetic creatures floated towards Alex. If an emotionless creature could look angry, then these certainly did.
"Obviously, we're disturbing their personal space." said Alex to the others.

Then, one of the two Magnemite attacked Blaze, using a light Thundershock attack on him. Alex's trusted chicken Pokemon looked very annoyed at this. Alex wanted to keep him back for later, but the look on Blaze's face showed that he was ready to fight, and that nothing would stop that from happening. But who else to send into the fray? Alex looked around. Swamps would be invaluable later, as would Leo, who, as an electric type, wouldn't be much use here anyway. Aldo had just battled and could do with a rest. Stryk had shown earlier to be useless against floating steel objects, so Alex decided to try Fluffee.

"Ok, Blaze, Fluffee, take out those Magnets!"

"Cotto!!!" cried Fluffee.
"KEN!" screeched Blaze. He was angry, Alex could tell.

"Right then, Cottonee, use your Stun Spore on that one on the right!" ordered Alex to his Pokemon, who had yet to be used in battle. Now was her time to shine.

Fluffee seemed to understand this and jumped into the attack, releasing a concentrated blast of paralysing spores at the Mangemite. Alex knew that Fluffee was a fats Pokemon, but this was just incredible. As soon as she'd heard the command, the Spores had come out. What could it be?

He turned to Tag and Douken, hoping for an answer.
"Um, guys? How come Fluffee's so fast? I'm not familiar yet with Unova Pokemon."

He let the answer come, but kept an eye on the battle. The Magnemite was now finding it very hard to move due to its paralysis. However, It still could attack, but wasn't able to move very easily.

Alex didn't need to tell Blaze to do. He just looked at his buddy and nodded his head at the Paralysed Magnemite. Blaze knew what to do. Blaze knew what attacks to use in what situations. Scratch and peck wouldn't be useful here, but his other moves would be super-effective.

I want to avoid contact, in case that static electricity paralyses me... so... he thought, before interrupting himself as he leant back slightly, opened his beak before leaning forwards again and letting rip a powerful ember attack that zoomed towards the Magnemite. Blaze's opponent had nowhere to go; his Paralysis limited movement, he was slow anyway, and the accuracy of the ember attack was so great that it hit the Magnemite full blast. It was forced backwards by the attack, and once the fire had faded, Alex saw it fall from the air. Its Magnetic and Electric abilities had been completely scrambled, and it couldn't hold itself up any longer. It fell into the darkness below.

"Well, I guess it's one more to go!" said Alex cheerfully. This battle was going well so far.

Posted by: FlyingMew Aug 7 2011, 03:15 PM

~Poof~ After having led his trainer over moving platforms in her condition, Poof now had to deal with these pesky things? He'd clung to Anita's hand up until now, just hoping for her to wake up from her stupor. Now, however, he was going to have to deal with these Magnemites. And some Magnetons. And..... Was that a Magnezone? <Crap> he thought. <Just what I SPORKing need! An evolved Pokemon that has absolutely no idea what I'm about to do to it! Although... Some backup would be nice.> Poof looked up at the other Pokeballs on Anita's belt-loops. The Mankey seemed to grin a bit, as an idea formed in his head.

Poof Pulled Anita's arm until she dropped to her knees. The dazed look in Anita's eyes changed very little, except to imply that she felt her knees hit the metal platform. Once poof made sure that she was safely in a kneeling position, he grabbed Fluffy and Excalibur's balls. Holding them above his head, Poof pressed the buttons on the front of the pokeballs, releasing his fellows. The plan that poof had come up with involved them and maybe some of Anita's oran berries.

Excalibur popped out of his ball with an indignant screech. Obviously angry at being recalled during the best feast he'd yet eaten JUST because of some falling rocks wasn't his idea of a good time. He landed lightly on his feet, and whirled around to face Anita. He began chattering incessantly at the top of his lungs. Walking up to Anita, he reached up and rapped her smartly on the head with his cane. Anita didn't respond with her usual yelp of surprise, which caused the Snivy to immediately turn and yell at the Mankey. "If this is the state our trainer is going to be in EVERY time she is accompanied by you, I doubt I'll ever let you out of my sight." he said angrily to Poof.

Fluffy, on the other hand, landed on his feet, only to fall down onto his side, panting heavily. That earlier Magnitude had been a real doozy. He had started to recover, but it would take some time before he was up to "biting" strength again. As he lay there, Fluffy watched as Excalibur began arguing with Poof. <Well, doesn't that figure...> the Growlithe thought to himself. <I get knocked out and miss all the action.> Fluffy turned his eyes towards Anita, and saw the uncharacteristic blank stare. He frowned in concern, and began to try to get up. He rolled onto his belly and tucked his paws in underneath him. pushing with his legs, he tried to support his own weight. Unable to lift himself up, he flopped back down, shaking from the effort. Fluffy lay there for a moment, panting even more heavily than before.

Poof turned to face Excalibur as the accusations started to fly. "Now isn't the time, you pompous little leaf-hoarder!" he yelled back. "I'm sure you are well aware of Anita's current sleeping habits, as are the rest of us. Fluffy's hurt, Nyan-nyan is out cold, you're still covered in punch, and, in case you haven't noticed, there are Magnemites, Magnetons, and a really derpy-looking Magnezone attacking our group. Now stuff it, or I'll put Anita's dirty underwear in your mouth!" This retort came out rather suddenly, but it was effective enough to render Excalibur speechless (miraculously), so Poof decided to let it sit. He looked over at Fluffy struggling to stand. Assessing this as an attempt to reach Anita, he turned to Excalibur. "Why don't you help Fluffy get over to Anita? I'm gonna try to find those Oran berries in her bag."

Excalibur nodded and walked over to where Fluffy lay. Standing next to Fluffy, Excalibur's tail suddenly sprouted two vines. The vines wrapped around Fluffy's middle. Lifting Fluffy to his feet, Excalibur looked at the fire pokemon. Smiling, Excalibur quipped, "Fancy a walk with me?" Fluffy nodded tiredly in response, and began shuffling his paws in an attempt to walk. Excalibur began slowly walking towards Anita and Poof.

Meanwhile, Poof had climbed up onto Anita's backpack. He'd began unzipping the many pockets and sniffing. There seemed to be no scent from the berries in any of them. Poof frowned, worried that they were gone. Excalibur and Fluffy had reached him and Anita during this time, and Fluffy lay down with his head on their trainer's knee. Excalibur unwrapped his vines from the Growlithe's belly and climbed up to where Poof was. "They're in the inner pocket of the big center one, if you please." Excalibur said. Poof immediately dug his arm into the pocket that Excalibur mentioned, and emerged with the berry pouch. "Thanks." he said, hopping down. Excalibur hopped down after him.

Poof walked over and opened the berry pouch near Fluffy. He reached in and grabbed a few Oran berries. Holding them out to Fluffy, he said, "Eat. We're gonna need you." Fluffy raised his eyes to Poof and opened his mouth. Poof dropped the berries into the puppy's mouth and hoped for the best. Fluffy closed his mouth and began to chew. Swallowing, his tail began to wag slowly. "Ahhhhh..." he sighed. "Nothing like a little pick-me-up to get your tail waggin'. Although, I'm gonna need a breather, if ya don't mind." Nodding, Poof turned to Excalibur. "I need you to Stay with Anita while we try to clear these jerks outta the way." Excalibur nodded back, and stood next to Anita in a protective stance.

Posted by: Asterna Aug 7 2011, 07:26 PM

Their little trip over the platforms was somewhat nerve-wracking at first, but as Rose got used to the height, it actually became somewhat fun -- like a video game, as she'd said earlier. Of course, this was real life, and she couldn't respawn, like Alex had remarked earlier. Even so, Rose managed to enjoy herself a bit... until the larger platform split, that is. She gave a startled yelp, wobbling a little as her platfrom began to move, but thankfully managed to steady herself in time. She looked around wildly, about to ask what was going on, when Tag answered that question for her. The large platform rose up beneath them, connecting their miniature platforms again. Rose breathed a sigh of relief at that, only for her unease to return almost immediately as the Magnezone, Magnetons, and Magnemites appeared. There are an awful lot of surprises in this temple... Rose thought to herself as she readied herself for battle once more. A Magnemite soared up to her, sparking threateningly.

"Well, here we go again," Rose muttered to herself. Like everything else in this temple, they appeared to be Steel-types, and the magnets pointed to a dual Steel-Electric typing. That left Nina and Wyatt out of the question. Alaia resisted electric-type attacks, so... "Alaia, it's up to you!" Rose called as she summoned her Cottonee. Given that her previous strategy had worked well earlier, Rose went with her tried-and-true battle starter. "Stun Spore, then Leech Seed!" Alaia immediately burst into action, ready for battle once more.

Of course, the Magnemite wasn't going to just take it lying down, paralyzed though it might be. Just after Alaia had Leech Seeded it, the Magnet Pokemon shot a Thundershock her way. Alaia gave a startled cry as the small bolt of electricity struck, but wasn't heavily damaged. Still, better safe than sorry -- Rose wanted to keep her Pokemon from fainting, unless it was completely unavoidable. "Mega Drain!" she ordered. Steel resisted Grass, true, but it would still do some damage, and heal Alaia to boot. Along with the steady damage dealt by Leech Seed -- not to mention that that healed Alaia as well -- it was only a matter of time before the Magnemite fell.

Satisfied that her battle was going well, Rose briefly turned her attention to her teammates, though she still kept one eye on her own fight. Alex, who had a Cottonee of his own, caught her attention with his query. Having grown up in Unova with her own Cottonee, Rose felt obliged to answer. "I think it's because they're so light," she explained, pitching her voice a little loudly over the sounds of battle. "They're not weighed down at all, so it lets them move really fast."

Posted by: FirePower Aug 7 2011, 07:52 PM

Manera snorted and stepped back in surprise as a vine grabbed the bronzor it had been battling and slammed it into the ground, knocking it out. The blitzle looked at Kaya expectantly, hoping the trainer knew what it was. She shrugged. The sudden attack had come completely as a surprise to her as well. A bit disappointed that neither of them had any idea where the strange vine had come from, Manera trotted back to it's trainer.

Kaya decided to give her blitzle a berry even though it hadn't taken a huge amount of damage. Manera would need it's energy if it were to stay out of a pokeball. Flit was likewise healed, though it required a few more berries than Manera. She decided to not heal Attila just ye, to save supplies. Ready, she hefted the bag over her shoulder and followed the group into the temple.

Once inside, Kaya's hear skipped a beat at the sight of just how high they were. Heights weren't normally that bad for the nomadic teenager. Manera, on the other hand, was on the verge of a panic attack. The blitzle hated heights, and being so high up really unnerved it. Kaya held up the blitzle's pokeball as a silent invitation to recall it, but the it shook it's head, determined to not go into the (cramped, in her mind) pokeball ever again.

Manera lurched as the mysterious narration voice in Kaya's head ran out of things to say the platform began to rise. Looking down at the ground far below it began to hyperventilate.

'Don't look down. Don't look down,' Manera thought, trying to will herself out being scared. She glanced downward, and began to freak out all over again.

"I'm looking doooowwwn!" the blitzle cried, about to faint. When the platform stopped Manera lost it's balance, stumbled over the edge, and would have fallen if Kaya hadn't caught it by a hind leg.

"That settles it. You need to return," Kaya said, grabbing Manera's pokeball and returning it with her free hand. She could feel it virbrating slightly in her hand as the pokemon inside protested, but it was for the greater good, angry zebra or not.

When the magnemite appeared Kaya decided ,after much mental arguing, to send Manera again. By the looks of themthey were electric types, which meant her only other conscious pokemon would be at a disadvantage. The blitzle came out, too relieved to be out to be worried about their altitude. A thundershock attack was promptly fire at it by by a nearby magnemite. Instead of taking damage, as Kaya suspected it would, but instead the blitzle's mane glowed with new energy. Then she remembered. Blitzle almost always had either lLightningrod or Motor Drive as an ability, empowering them if hit by an electric type move.

"Alright, Manera. Use quick attack!" Kaya ordered, experimenting. Depending on the blitzle's ability, it would either be faster or it's ranged moves would be stronger. The pokemon moved like a blur, ramming into the magnemite before it had time to react. It responded by ramming into the blitzle for a tackle attack.

"Alright, manera! Tail whip and then another quick attack!" Kaya said, smirking. Manera reared up, sounding a battlecry before charging at the magnemite.

Posted by: Master Houndoom Aug 9 2011, 08:08 PM

Jaima stepped forward as the little magnemite floated toward him. Sparks crossed between the magnets on its body, and the one eye seemed to indent at the top, giving it an angry look. Jaima looked down at Desertdancer, Meiko's sandshrew on loan to him. "What do you think, DD?"

The sandshrew looked up, then at the magnemite. <Well, my boy, I think perhaps this will not be as easy as you might think. The species has long been a native of every land yet encountered, and though my typing would suggest an easy victory, it would be imprudent to assume that is the case. They are magnificent creatures, as all those who evolve into trifoms must be, and have a variety of attacks other than electr->

<Desertdancer, sweety, I think he was speaking rhetorically...>

Desert dancer blinked up at Mercury, then at Jaima. He ducked his head, his cheeks beginning to burn. <Ah. Yes. He doesn't speak the pokemon language. Rather silly of me...>

Mercury smiled at him, and Jaima did, as well. "Good observations," Jaima called, and Desertdancer looked at Mercury in wonder. "Still, Meiko trained you up right. I'm going to give you the edge here. Open with Sand Tomb!"

Desertdancer began to spin, wildly at first, then so fast it seemed he was all one blob. The steel-electric type was soon touched by a growing mound of sand beneath it, which enveloped it, then covered it so that nothing but the large, unblinking eye showed. The was a pop, and the sand shifted, but nothing happened: electric attacks couldn't even get through the sand.

"Quil! Ava!"

"Shrew..."

Ember stepped up, hopping on her back feet, the front feet stationary, so that her rump moved up and down to one side. Desertdancer looked at her, then bowed, gracefully, gesturing her forward. With a wink, Ember pitched her back up, sending flames into the eye. There was a squeal, and then the eye disappeared. Desertdancer stopped the attack, and the sand fell away, the magnemite rolling out.

"Huh... guess this one was young, eh?"

Posted by: Kamaitachi Aug 11 2011, 02:51 PM

"Hey! We aren't kids!" He heard Douken yell over the field. Tag let out an annoyed sigh. He had planned on retorting with something along the lines of 'I'm twice your age.', but that, for some reason, made him feel ancient. He hadn't called them kids to be a jerk, he called them kids because they were.

"Um, guys? How come Fluffee's so fast? I'm not yet familiar with Unova Pokemon." asked Alex Slasher, who was employing the second cute fluffball Tag had seen so far.

"I think it's because they're so light," the girl, Rose, responded. "They're not weighed down at all, so it lets them move really fast."

Tag, unfamiliar with the Prankster Ability, had no choice but to agree with Rose. However, he didn't particularly want to show his ignorance on the matter by saying something now, so he simply remained quiet; he would research it on his own later.

Meanwhile, Douken had latched up his Magnemite with two others, forming a Magneton. This made perfect sense as to why Rusty was ready to evolve earlier but didn't. Now, Douken had easily removed two of the guards by fusing with them. With that, he moved his platform over to Tag's, and joined in the fight with Tag's four magnemite.

"You look like you could use a hand." Tag rolled his eyes. He was absolutely sure that he never looked like he needed a hand. What was it with people? When one saw an intimidating person, the best course of action was to stay away. This kid seemed deadset on befriending him by being battle buddies. It was quite the opposite of what Tag intended, but he did have to admit that he rather enjoyed fighting alongside these talented trainers.

"Hope I am not ruining your fun this way..."

"Yeah, you're ruining my fun." Tag sighed "The help is still appreciated, though."

Now the four magnemite Tag and Douken faced were all Confused, and one of them had been burned.

"Kyoko, Leaf Blade! Zuki, Assurance!" Tag switched up his damage dealing combo. Zuki, as a poochyena, had little ability to damage the Steel Type Magnemites, but his Assurance's power doubled if the opponent had already suffered damage. Even despite the fact that Kyoko and Zuki didn't have advantage over their enemies, their efforts combined with Reep's and Rusty's were enough to take down their four, meaning that half of the offending Magnemite were now off of the field.

Alex had taken down one of his two, Rose was well on her way to defeating hers, Jaima had taken his down with a brilliant combo. This battle, like the Bronzor one, seemed quite easy. Either that, or the team was just that good.

And then, a sickening lurch passed over the large platform where the battle was taking place. Tag snapped his head over to the center, where the two Magneton and single Magnezone were centered. Tag surmised that the reason they didn't join the fight, was because they were the ones holding the platform up. The sickening lurch could only really mean one thing.

The Magnezone raised itself up into the air, ready to attack. This, however, meant that only the two Magneton were holding the platform up, and without the strength of the Magnezone, the inevitable happened.

The platform broke apart and plummeted, dropping every earthbound person in precisely that direction.

* * *

Tag, Kyoko and Zuki landed heavily on the ground on top of the platform upon which they'd been standing. They hadn't fallen too terribly far, but it was enough to have shaken them a bit. Potentially the first to get back on his feet, Tag surveyed the area, seeing nothing but metal walls, save for one opening behind him, which was probably the only and correct path.

The unfortunate fact of the matter remained, though. The Magneton who had attempted to hold the platform up seemed to be unconscious, but the main man Magnezone floated downwards, casting its eerie metallic eye over the down team.

With surprising accuracy, it turned to Tag and fired off several small metallic orbs from its body. Without much warning, they sped towards Kyoko and Zuki, homing in on them like little missiles, before exploding on contact, kicking up the traditional cloud of dust. It cleared to reveal an unconscious Zuki, and a nearly defeat Kyoko.

"Man, that's a powerful Magnet Bomb." Tag sighed. Looking around to see if the rest of the team had readied themselves to face this behemoth, Tag recalled his Poochyena. "Excellent work, my friend." He muttered to the ball before replacing it in his pack.

"Kyoko, Sunny Day." There were a few grass pokemon on the field, and Jaima was even sporting his Quilava, while Alex showed off his Combusken. They'd receive a definite boost from this move.

The light in the cavern grew intensely bright, as if a miniature sun had formed right above their heads. Tag knew that this move couldn't really benefit the Magnezone in any real way, but at least it would power up most of his teammates' pokemon.

In retaliation, however, the Magnezone let fly with another Magnet Bomb, focusing the entirety of it on Kyoko, who took the full brunt of the attack as expected. She lay on the ground, defeated, only to be recalled by her trainer. "Well done, pretty girl." He whispered again, before replacing the pokeball on his belt.

Tag drew another pokeball, summoning Bachi to the field, who bristled expectantly at the rather large Magnezone in front of him. Bachi, unsurprisingly, was wonderfully un-intimidated. He'd taken down a Charizard in his time, and this creature didn't seem all that much more powerful. Hopefully, these maneuvers had given everyone some time to recover and join in the fight.

Posted by: Douken Sota Aug 11 2011, 03:22 PM

As the platform fell, Douken quickly took a hold of Rusty, who, at the best of his ability, tried to drift his away onto the floor. Reep, however, still floated where she was, having to move herself to be level with everyone. Got to be glad for Levitate. Still, Douken was a bit too heavy, and all Rusty was able to do was reduce the impact of his fall, knocking out the timid magnet Pokemon. "Sorry, buddy," he said, pulling out his Pokeball and returning him... which meant that the Pseudo Magnet Pull came from the Magnemite and Magneton from before.

As everyone attempted to recover from the landing, Douken took in the situation. The room was brightened up for Grass and Fire Pokemon by a powerful Sunny Day, everyone was trying to recuperate from the fall, and the Magnezone, at its high level and power, was completely full heath. Well, so was Reep, but he could still play off of a certain move.

Without much need to pull out reinforcements, he figured now was an awesome time to try out the move once more. "Reep! Target the Magnezone and use Pain Split!" Reep told Douken of this move she inherited when he first caught her, but due to her low strength back then, it used more energy than she received. Now, however, she was quite strong indeed, having a nice assortment of moves and strengths available on hand, and Pain Split was one secret move that would throw anyone off. With an aura being visibly exposed to the other people in the room, she launched it out and made it latch upon the floating Magnezone, soon to have his show up more in a bigger "flame" of an aura. Now that she knew what he was at, and her at maximum, all she had to do now was drain away at the steel and electric type until the size of his aura matched hers.

"Alright! When the flames are the same size, everyone go on the offensive!" After being drained to Reep's health, good chance that an assault from 5-6 trainers would finish off the powerhouse... hopefully... Pain Split was still a one-shot deal.

Posted by: FirePower Aug 13 2011, 09:07 AM

Kaya quickly returned Manera as she felt the platforms lurch. "Well, that can't be good." She clutched the side of her platform as they all fell, eyes shut tight and biting the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming her head off. Flit came out of it's pokeball and tugged at Kaya's shirt, hoping to slow down it's trainers landing. All it ended up doing was tearing the shoulder out of Kaya already ratty shirt.

Kaya felt the wind being knocked out of her, along with a painful sting as the platform fell on her fingers, when she hit the bottom. Her teeth tore the flesh of her cheek and she tasted blood in her mouth. She felt her hands to make sure all the bones withing were intact. Luckily they were, though she bruised her fingers pretty badly.

'Of course. You can't go on a grand adventure without hurting yourself, can you?' she thought to herself, getting up. Flit landed on her shoulder, concerned. It cooed softly to ask if Kaya was okay.

"I'm fine," she told the spearow, picking herself up with a grunt. "at the moment there's more important things to worry about." She motioned her head towards the magnezone. She recalled Manera, who didn't seem to have liked the sudden returning.

"Would you rather have fallen with the rest of us?" Kaya told it. The blitzle looked up at where the group had been before, then realized they were on the ground. It shrugged, not telling Kaya off anymore but still grumpy. Kaya looked at the battle with the magnezone. Tag and Douken had already joined in the fight, Tag with a nidorino and Douken with a duskull. The duskull used a move Kaya had never seen before.

"Alright! When the flames are the same size, everyone go on the offensive!" Kaya heard Douken say. She nodded then turned to her blitzle.

"Alright Manera, you heard him. When the flames get to be the same size, use quick attack on the magnezone!" She ordered. Manera nodded, ready to attack.

Posted by: Asterna Aug 13 2011, 01:18 PM

Rose let out a startled shriek as her platform dropped. Clamping her mouth shut to keep from screaming, she hastily reached out and grabbed Alaia, holding onto the Cottonee to make sure she didn't fly off somewhere. She thudded down onto the platform, landing painfully on her butt in the process. Hissing with pain, she let go of Alaia and slowly got to her feet, rubbing her sore bottom. "That was not the smoothest landing," she muttered under her breath, wincing.

At least she hadn't hit her tailbone -- it could have been worse, and, of course, there was a larger concern right in front of them. It's just one thing after another here, she thought to herself as she eyed the rather intimidating creature before them. She'd never seen this particular species before, but it was probably one of the evolved forms of the Magnemite she'd fought previously, so it should be of the same typing. That meant that Alaia was a safe bet to use against it.

This particular magnet Pokemon certainly looked quite a bit stronger than the little Magnemite she'd faced before, though, so it would definitely not be the easy fight that its pre-evolved form had been. This was soon proven as it rapidly took down Tag's Poochyena. Rose made a mental note to try to avoid being hit by that move as much as possible. While Tag and Douken made their moves, Rose tried to formulate a strategy. This was a group of strong trainers, so they should be able to take down the magnet Pokemon. Now, the problem was how.

Rose had been thinking about paralyzing it or trying a different status move -- her Pokemon certainly weren't as hard-hitting as Tag's burly Nidorino, for instance; her attacks would do less in terms of pure damage anyway, not to mention that her Pokemon's moves would not be very effective. She thought it might be best to help the others take it down in a less physical fashion. However, Douken called for a mass offensive attack after his Duskull used Pain Split.

Deferring to Douken's superior experience -- he probably knew what to do better than her -- Rose went with his plan. "Okay, Alaia. You heard him, so when that happens, use Mega Drain," she ordered, pointing (probably unnecessarily) to the Magnezone. The Cottonee made a noise to indicate her assent, readying herself as she watched the "flames" change size. Not very effective or not, Mega Drain was still Alaia's most powerful attack. It was unfortunate that she didn't know anything like Solarbeam, given the Sunny Day that Tag had set up -- but that was the best she could do in terms of damage.

Posted by: FlyingMew Aug 15 2011, 02:33 AM

As the platform fell, Poof, Fluffy and Excalibur clutched Anita. Screaming was heard all around, as pokemon and trainers alike plummeted into the so-called abyss beneath them. The platform hit the ground, hard. Anita may have been hypnotized before, however, as Poof and the others landed on top of her, Anita's head struck the platform's edge, knocking her unconscious. Poof and Fluffy landed with their heads on her breasts which acted as air-bags upon impact, and soon after Excalibur landed on his belly on them. Anita's backpack fell next to them, still open and spewing out Anita's rather small bundle of clothing.

Excalibur raised his head and looked around. Noticing the falling bodies around him, he immediately looked up to make sure there weren't any falling towards him and his companions. Fortunately, the "sky" above them was clear of raining bodies, so Excalibur rolled off of the rather disgruntled duo he'd landed on. The Snivy landed gracefully on his feet and, using his cane, straightened his top-hat.

As Excalibur got off of him and Poof, Fluffy groaned as he managed to stand. Looking over at an angrier-than-usual Poof, he shivered. Poof was a Mankey. The stories that Fluffy had heard of Mankeys and Primapes tearing buildings to shreds came to mind, and Poof looked like he was about to tear something or someone into itty-bitty pieces. Fluffy turned and looked at Anita's face. Noticing that her eyes were closed, he stepped between her breasts and towards her face. Fluffy licked her cheeks for a few minutes in an unsuccessful attempt to wake her.

Poof was mad. Things just had to get worse. This was why he hated caves. They were dark, full of places you could fall down into, and full of pokemon who would like nothing better than to start fights with you. As he thought about these things, his breathing became shallower, quicker. Finally, the vein in his forehead stood out and he snorted. "Keeeeeeeeeeee!!!" he wailed angrily. Forgetting all about his brilliant plan, he jumped up onto his feet and began running around, berserk. He pulled his fur out, he rolled his eyes, he jumped up and down in a down-right fury! Then, he turned and ran directly at the Magnezone as the flames from the ghost pokemon began to even out.

Posted by: Master Houndoom Aug 15 2011, 05:51 PM

Jaima grit his teeth as the floor went out from under him. With a practiced hand, he recalled Grondir, Ember, and Desertdancer. Fang was already leaping from boulder to boulder, using the remnants of the elevator as stepping stones to find the safest way down. Tsunami shot water down as they fell, slowing her own fall slightly, and intending to soften the landing with mud, but the floor underneath the thick dirt was steel and too shallow to be of any good, and Tsunami regarded her with a sad look on her wide face as he recalled her, too.

He was just turning in mid air to try to get Mercury when he noticed. He shouldn't have had as much time as he did. As he thought about this, he saw Mercury floating next to him, her eyes glowing. Just as they reached the ground, she began to falter, but was only sweating a little when he was finally able to support his own weight.

I'll have to work on that, she said, her mental voice calm even while she panted slightly. I wanted to help everyone, but I could only lift you... She seemed slightly ashamed, but Jaima rubbed her crest.

"Don't ever say the word useless when speaking of yourself again, understand," he said, fondly, and Mercury blushed.

Fang trotted up, and that was when the magnezone made itself a threat. The trainers all got ready, and Douken called out his command (and there was no mistaking the tone, despite the politeness of the words). Jaima nodded.

"Ember, Desertdancer, I need flamethrower and sand tomb as soon as I give the word!"

Posted by: Kamaitachi Aug 18 2011, 10:53 PM

Noting that Douken had enacted a Pain Split gambit, Tag summoned another pokemon to the field: Suzu. The Ledian appeared next to her long-time Nidorino friend, Bachi, and the two waited for the sign to go.

Before long, the two flames appeared to be equal in size, indicating that it was time for the offensive. Tag hoped that the Pain Split had at least halved the Magnezone's stamina, which meant that they had a good chance of coming out of the situation in good standings.

"Suzu, Mach Punch! Bachi! Double Kick!" His two most loyal pokemon sounded out their name-call battle cries, charging forward towards the larger pokemon. Suzu flashed into range before anyone else could muster an attack, slamming her fists into the Magnet's underbelly before immediately flashing off. Bachi's more trundling charge followed up as he jumped into the air, slamming his two hind feet into the enemy, teetering it off to the side.

Before the next set of attacks hit, though, the Magnezone, perturbed at being attacked so viciously, turned and fired off a thunderbolt attack! The fierce burst of electricity streaked towards Reep, the Duskull, as she had been the pokemon to inflict the most pain.

The beam never struck the Reaper pokemon, as Suzu bodily threw herself in its path. Tag watched, surprised, as his own pokemon took a powerful blow meant for someone else's pokemon, and his heart surged with both pride and worry as she took the hit. Suzu's maternal instincts for the other pokemon on Team Steel had obviously gone berserk, but perhaps she understood that Reep's tactical importance in this fight and potentially the next was greater than her own.

Tag ran over as she plummeted from the sky, catching her as he skidded to a halt. Slowly, she looked weakly up at him and smiled, even as her body twitched spasmodically in his arms from the electrical energy coursing through her body.

"Dammit, Suzu" Tag sighed "You're a big damn hero, you know that? And that's why I love you" He recalled her back into the pokeball, a bit irritated that the battle wasn't quite going the way he had hoped it would. Well...the floor falling out from under them really wasn't a predictable outcome by any means, but even still.

Manera the Blitzle bounced essentially harmlessly off of the much larger Magnezone. Meanwhile, Alaia, Rose's Cottonee, began sucking up some of the Magnezone's health with a power-boosted Mega Drain.

Perhaps the most amusing by far was Anita's Mankey. The awake-but-comatose-trainer's Mankey, Poof, had charged recklessly towards the Magnezone in something akin to a berserk rage (which Tag thought was more commonplace in its evolved form, Primeape). While Poof had the vigor and enthusiasm of some primal rage in his attacks, he lacked any sort of major physical strength. At best, the Mankey was able to make a scratch here and there on the Magnezone's ferrous body.

The Magnezone, easily peeved that the team had been landing such tremendous hits on its body, and began charging up. Just as it discharged its...well...Discharge attack, Desertdancer's Sand Tomb erupted up around it. As the lightning struck the sand, a curious phenomenon occured. The sand sprayed outwards from the attack, but due to the ferocity of the lightning, it had all turned to glass. In the middle of the room stood Magnezone, trapped in a beautiful display of glittering glass.

With a bit of a struggle, the enemy pokemon burst free, sending shards of glass tumbling every which way (this would potentially be a walking hazard later on), and proceeded to charge up another attack.

This attack never came, as Ember's Flamethrower swept over it, throwing it backwards through the air and into one of the cave walls, were it clunked heavily to the ground and lay unmoving.

Tag took a moment to reassess the situation, frowning as he looked around the room at the team.

"Let's keep moving." Tag nodded, pointing at the opening behind him. The steel structure behind him seemed like a tunnel, leading to what appeared to be another main room on the other side of it. "Let's find Registeel and get back to the rest of our friends, okay?" Tag nodded, hoping that his incredibly brief pep-talk worked.

* * *

The tunnel was not terribly long, probably about the fifty meters or so, but it was surprisingly rectagangular, with everything fairly flat. Along the ceiling of the tunnel, long lines ran along, in a fairly intricate pattern. Yet, mysteriously enough, these lines shone with enough light to illuminate the tunnel through which they walked. It was a rather interesting phenomenon, and perhaps had something to do with the constant flow of electricity and magnetism through the entire tunnel. Tag surmised that at any second, yet another trap would spring itself and the team would once again have to face imminent doom.

He had no idea that it would happen as soon as he finished his thought.

At both ends of the tunnel, something suddenly slid into place, effectively blocking off both exits. Both of the constructs were decidedly squareish, with a few protrusions around their edges. If anything, the design on them appeared to be like a side of dice, with six orbs and an underbite. It was a face that Tag had only a glancing familiarity with.

"Uh...I think those are Bastiodon." Tag blinked as he looked ahead and behind him. "And that means we're trapped."

His notion was absolutely spot on, as the two Bastiodon at either end of the tunnel slowly began to walk forward. The defensive pokemon were incredibly slow, but if they got the Team between them, poor Team Steel would end up as mush between the two shield-like heads of the Bastiodon!

Posted by: Douken Sota Aug 19 2011, 12:58 AM

Douken let off a sigh when things settled up once more. Things were going crazy down here in this pyramid of a temple. To think, right now, there really was no way back unless the Magnemite cooperated and moved the plates back to the entrance. Forward was the best way forward.

Gazing about, he looked at what kind of carnage occurred. Reep seemed worried about the Ledian who took the blow for her, and a group of Pokemon were concerned about the unconscious girl. Talk about best luck ever. "Reep," Douken called out to her, patting her on the head. "You did well, but you have someone to thank." Holding out a Sitris Berry from his bag, she understood well what he meant. So, as Douken drifted to the out girl, Reep moved over to Tag.

While there, she rested her body on the older man's shoulder, initiating contact to allow her to communicate a quick message. "Please tell her thanks for me," she told him, her voice echoing into his mind as she held out the berry to him, meant for the Ledian when she wakes up. With her gift delivered, she drifted back to her trainer, who was examining the out body.

The Growlithe she had still seemed exhausted, and the Mankey was still steaming. The green Pokemon with the top hat... well, he had no idea what he was doing, or what he was in the first place. Still, she seemed out. "Well, i got one way to wake her up," Douken told the surrounding Pokemon. "Just sorry for this in advance. Reep, think you can give her an Astonishing shock?" With a nod from the ghost, she drifted low to the floor and straight through the body of the out girl. Hopefully, that woke her up. Otherwise, he would carry her through the next phase of chaos the temple.

Well, whatever happened, when everyone got their breath back and on their feet, and Douken's Pokemon back in there Pokeballs, the team went on through the tunnel. The walls were well-lit, considering what was going through was pure electricity or magnetism. That was nothing, however, to what appeared to them. How these two huge Pokemon came out of nowhere came out, he had no idea, but they had to deal with them still. Big issue though was how worn out everyone was getting by the constant threats. Taking on two big shields before becoming sandwiches was not a good idea. Both had to be knocked out, or else one would still change them into the other, and they would still have a Trainer Sandwich.

Douken, slightly irritated by these constant waves, ran for the rear one. "Everyone, stay warm, cause this may most likely block off our missing exit anyways." Tossing out a Ball, Maya came back within her spunk back, feeling fresh, even after the Golurk, thanks to the Rest. "No one gets in front of Maya as she turns the rear into a freezer. Sheer Cold!" It was a low accuracy move, but in return, highly effective (as in if it hits, instant knock out). In Douken's mind, the confined space would hopefully help out the accuracy as Maya blasted a massively cold wave down the tunnel, freezing the walls at the massively below temperatures. Unfortunately, with lack of knowledge of any "fossil" Pokemon, he had no knowledge of Bastiodon's ability.

Posted by: Proby Aug 19 2011, 04:50 AM

Alex hated the falling sensation of all sensations, so naturally, he felt really ill after they'd landed. For this reason, he barely noticed the reason for the group falling and the battle going on. His Pokemon were tied between wanting to attack, or staying to help Alex. In the end, they did neither, because Alex started throwing up, and the battle ended so quickly.

Alex had just finished emptying his bowels when Tag took the group into a tunnel. At least this wouldn't suddenly drop...

"Ugh... I really hate throwing up... so sorry you guys had to see that. Umm... so.... Where do we go now?"

That was when the Bastiodon started charging at them. Alex knew all about these guys... Rock and Steel types, Sturdy ability...

"DOUKEN, NO!" Alex screeched. "They have Sturdy ability. Sheer Cold will just do nothing to them, and It'll probably hurt our Pokemon instead!"

But his cries were too late. The Dewgong, Maya, let rip a hugely powerful Sheer Cold attack that froze the whole of the surrounding tunnel's walls. Suddenly the temperature dropped massively, and Alex started shivering. As a Summer child, he hated the cold. He was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Not exactly the best attire for cold.

"So much for me not being on Team Ice." he grumbled. "Blaze, use Ember! I want this ice melted! Swamps, Use Water Gun on that Bastiodon!"

His two Pokemon nodded. Blaze started using Ember, away from the group, warming the air inside the tunnel up again, and melting the walls slightly. And Swamps turned to face one of the Bastiodon. He spouted Water powerfully, injuring the Bastiodon enough to make it stop, and shake its head.

"Well, that should slow them down..." Alex said, with hope more than actual belief in his words.

Posted by: FirePower Aug 21 2011, 07:33 AM

Flit made a face as Alex threw up not far from where they were. Kaya couldn't blame the spearow, it was pretty gross. She turned her attention to Manera as her blitzle came back. It wasn't hurt all that badly, so Kaya decided not to to give it a berry. Returning Flit, she followed the rest of Team Steel into the tunnel, genuinely impressed with the lighting system.

Kaya rolled her eyes and scowled as the two bastodion moved into place. "Things just keep getting better and better, don't they? Attilla, go!"

"Psy!" the psyduck said, ready to fight. She was about to order it, when she got an idea.

"manera are you still up for battling?" She asked Her blitzle. It nodded. She pointed at the one Alex and douken weren't already occupied with. "Great! Let's try something. Attila, soak it first. The Manera, you use shock wave." She might not have gone to school, but she was smart enough to know that metal conducted electricity and water did too. She was half-hoping that combining the two would be enough to send a powerful shock to at least slow the bastodion down, if not take them out altogether.

"Psy!" Attila said before launching a stream of water in the bastodion's face. It simply blinked, the water gun attack doing nothing to stop the large pokemon. It squired several more blasts of water at the shield pokemon with no effect.

"Climb behind it and get the rest of it wet," Kaya said, doing her best not to go into a rage. "I want that thing soaked." Attila nodded and climbed behind the bastodion. It knew better to mess with Kaya when she was angry. It doused the large pokemon. First where it's shield head connected with it's body, then down it's back, then it's tail. After that it climbed back over and soaked the ground at the bastodion's feet. Afterward it ran back to Kaya, thoroughly tired. Signaled by a nod from it's trainer, Manera made it's move. It started running down the hallway towards the wet bastodion, it's mane glowing with yellow electricity. It skidded to a halt and a ring of electricity burst from the ground at it's feet, epanding towards the bastodion.

Posted by: Asterna Aug 21 2011, 10:54 AM

Rose watched the Magnezone's flashy defeat with no small amount of awe, particularly the Sand Tomb-turned-glass part. Well, that's something you don't see every day, she thought to herself, eyeing the unconscious Magnezone as the group passed by it. She took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh, mentally preparing herself -- given how things had gone so far, she doubted that this reprieve would last long.

And of course, it did not, as their next enemy showed up only a short while later. Rose made a face as the massive masked creatures appeared at both ends of the hallway and slowly began moving forward, threatening Team Steel with imminent death by crushing. She'd never seen this Pokemon before, either; Rose mentally cursed her unfamiliarity with many Pokemon outside of the Unova region. Well, they were part Steel-type -- she knew that much. According to Alex, who unfortunately shouted his warning a bit too late, they also had the Sturdy ability and were called Bastiodon.

Shivering a little in the sudden cold, Rose called out anxiously to her Cottonee, who was still out of her ball. "Alaia, you alright?" she asked. Alaia shrunk from the now iced-over walls and huddled closer to Rose for warmth, but she still gave a determined affirmative. "If you say so," Rose said with a small frown. The ice couldn't be good for her Grass-type, but since she was so determined to stay out... "Well, okay. Stun Spore on that one!" she ordered, pointing to the Bastiodon Kaya was attacking. "That should slow it down a bit more..."

The Bastiodon let out a low moan as the yellow powder hit and the paralysis set in, making the already slow behemoth move even slower. Rose nodded approvingly -- this would at least buy them more time. Now, she couldn't knock them out or push them back, so she might as well try to siphon off some of its health and help out Kaya. "Mega Drain on the same one!" she called.

Posted by: FlyingMew Aug 21 2011, 06:54 PM

Anita had woken, startled by the sudden feeling of being invaded by an other-wordly being. Looking around, her she'd seen everyone heading down into a tunnel. Shaking herself to be rid of the feeling she had awoken with, Anita promptly followed, still dazed and a little confused as to how she had gotten here. Poof seemed more disgruntled than usual, and Fluffy was still tired, so Anita returned them to their pokeballs. Looking for Excalibur, she noticed him dragging her backpack as he attempted to follow her.

Anita stopped and turned around, walked over to her Snivy. Kneeling down next to him, she stuffed the clothing bundle that was partially hanging out back into the big pocket of her backpack. She pulled the backpack up onto her shoulders and helped Excalibur up on top. Turning, she noticed a dark wall two large creepy-looking eyes at the other end of the tunnel. "Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkk!!!!" she screamed. Anita grabbed Excalibur and held him out in front of her like a shield. The ensuing battle was not going to be an easy one, she realized. Excalibur wasn't a fighter, Nyan-nyan was unconscious, Fluffy was too tired and Poof... was Poof. And angry to boot. Anita figured she'd best let these other trainers do what they could. She was still a novice after all, and wouldn't be much help.

Hearing a familiar voice, Anita turned and saw Douken tell his Dewgong to use Sheer Cold. As the beautiful white Pokemon exploded from her ball, Anita realized that this meant ice. She immediately pulled Excalibur in closer, hoping that he wasn't going to fall prey to the resulting drop in temperature. Reaching down into her pocket, she grabbed Fluffy's ball out and released him. "Fluffy, do me a favor an use Ember." The Growlithe barked happily and began spitting out fire onto the ground around his trainer's feet.

Posted by: Master Houndoom Aug 22 2011, 05:34 PM

Trainer Jaima... The voice in his mind, usually calm or bright, now showed a rarely displayed element of fear. Jaima could scarcely blame her: two large bipedal pokémon he had only ever seen in books had shown up and circled them.

He thought he understood their tactic. They were massive, and had huge steel plates for faces. Likely, those plates could take a lot of damage. If they got on opposite sides of each other, whoever was between them when they took it in mind to charge would be smashed like a sakura mochi between two plates.

Trainer Jaima... However, they were with a group of good battlers. Likely, they would be just fine. Except for the fact that Mercury had her misgivings, Jaima would have just sat back and let the action happen, allowing his own pokémon to rest for a while.

"What is it, Mercury?"

These pokémon are very old... and very strong because of it. I don't think we're going to have an easy time of things!

Jaima shook his head. Of course not. Since when was life easy? "Grondir, I want you to try to trip up the one to my left," he said, trying to formulate a plan. "No attacks, just slow him down. Don't let them get across from one another! Mercury... can you reason with them?"

They're both very single minded. I might be able to suggest, but their minds are hard to get through! She looked at Jaima, seeing the determination in his eyes, and bit her lip... what passed for a kirlia lip, at any rate. I'll try...

"Good enough. Desertdancer, Ember, Fang... be ready. Tsunami, you too. We may need your strength..." We may, Jaima thought, need all of their strength...

Posted by: Kamaitachi Aug 24 2011, 02:47 AM

Tag visibly started when Reep touched him on the shoulder. First of all, a ghost was touching him, which was an eerie sensation on its own. Secondly, the ghost was speaking to him. In his brain.

He shook this off, attempting to smile at the Reaper pokemon, but failing. A pained grimace appeared on his face in lieu of the attempted grin, but he nevertheless managed to say:

"I'll do so. Thank you."

He neatly deposited the Sitrus berry into the backpack. Rather than summoning Suzu to the field to treat her with the berry, Tag opted to let her rest in her pokeball; he'd save the Sitrus berry as a treat for her, perhaps.

* * *

"Sheer Cold!"

Tag turned around in surprise when he heard the order for the One Hit KO technique. He was both surprised at the fact that a pokemon on Team Steel knew the move, and that it was being applied at such a brilliant time.

However, the Bastiodon seemed absolutely unfazed at the attempt, and continued to trundle slowly forward, scraping the sides of its head along the now cold steel walls. Tag clutched his duster to himself in an immediate attempt to ward off the now chilling temperatures. He'd obviously been wearing the duster the whole time. (More specifically, since he acquired one in "Par-Tay in Gigarte", which occurs chronologically before these events, he now has it.)

"Sturdy." Tag sighed with a sad realization that such moves would do them no good, considering the Bastiodon's innate ability.

He then surveyed Alex Slasher's attempt, utilizing Blaze and Swamps. He watched with great interest as Blaze's ember attack actually suceeded in melting part of the wall proper, instead of just the ice. That meant that this metal was both an electrical conductor of some sort, and had a fairly low melting point. He knew Flareon's flames could burn over 3000 degress Fahrenheit, for instance. An adolescent Combusken's probably did not reach that intensity of heat, but it was enough to melt part of the wall. Whatever compound metal that the walls were made from could be melted, which gave him an idea.

Kaya made a valiant attempt at slowing down the Bastiodon. Attila the Psyduck had managed to climb up the face of the Bastiodon, and squeeze through the small space between Bastiodon head/shield and the ceiling. This was all very comical to Tag, and he couldn't help but laugh, even in such a dire situation.

The creature managed to hop back over, and she had her Blitzle, Manera, fire off a Shock Wave.

Absolutely nothing happened. The Bastiodon seemed to blink once, then continue to move forward at its usual pace.

Rose and Alaia had been rising admirably to the challenge at hand. Tag found a great respect for such a bright young girl. He was convinced that with time, she'd blossom into a magnificent trainer. He was so moved, that he felt the need to tell her, since they were potentially dead if they failed.

"Rose." he said rather firmly, not quite sure how to voice such an awkward sentiment. "If we survive this, I'm sure you'll make a brilliant battler. So...let's survive this."

Alaia's stun spore was a magnificent way to slow down the encroaching pokemon, and Tag hoped that someone would do the same to the vanguard Bastiodon closing in on them from behind.

Anita proved to be the comic relief of the group. For an instant, Tag was convinced that she was about to use her small snake pokemon like a sword, which would've been excellent given its namesake. However, she opted to warm the area around herself with an ember from her growlithe. It wasn't a bad idea, since they needed the fire for Tag's plan to work.

Jaima Kuonji, who was thankfully one of the more talented battlers Tag had ever met, had conserved his team's energy, and had almost an entire team of six pokemon with which to tackle their latest threat.

Tag quickly moved into action, watching everyone else around him. Suzu, Kyoko, and Zuki were of no help in this situation. Bachi, Tobi and Orin were all he had left. The situation was as followed: Bastiodon A was in front of them, paralyzed, but still moving forward. Bastiodon 2 was behind them, still moving forward at regular intervals. Occasionally, one of them would glow with a quick sheen, most likely indicating their use of their Iron Defense technique, making physical attacks that much more worthless against them. They didn't have to attack, really, they just had to keep walking forward and defending, like a fossil phalanx.

Tag stepped up, summoning Orin and Tobi to the field. He had to slow down the two Bastiodon in order to buy them tiem, and he had something of a plan to try. Orin chirped worriedly as she appeared on the field. Evidently she seemed concerned that two rather large dinosaurs were bearing down on her from either direction. Either that, or it was her constantly concerned-looking face. Tobi, on the other hand, appeared almost at peace with the fact that he was about to be crushed into a pulp between two ugly pokemon.

"Orin, Spikes on the one in front!" The snow-hat pokemon obediently waddled forward and began to spin. With each rotation, she shot out a small wave of little spikes that appeared on the ground in front of the paralyzed Bastiodon. As it walked forward, it stepped on them, shattering them instantly, but it seemed hesitant to continue walking forward into something that hurt, especially while paralyzed.

"Tobi, Hypnosis on the Bastiodon behind us!" Tag had picked up on Douken's usage of their narrow space. Low accuracy moves didn't require as much aiming, and the Bastiodon would have a difficult time avoiding Tobi's debilitating technique.

The little fox nodded and immediately bounded off through the crowd of trainers before coming literally face to face with the encroaching Bastiodon. His eyes glowed blue. Then the Bastiodon's eyes glowed blue. Voila. The giant metal triceratops-looking creature stopped dead in its tracks, snoozing while standing.

"Okay, that should buy us some time on that end." Tag watched as Bastiodon A from earlier continued to move forward, albeit much more slowly. He ran through a mental list of commands, wondering if Tobi's Roar would actually be of any use. The Bastiodon would have a difficult time fleeing, as the backpedaling would most likely be as slow, if not slower, than their forward motion. Even if they did not the creatures unconscious, there would still be no way around them, and then they'd die of old age while the rest of the world was pelted by meteors. Right. There were still meteors hitting the earth above them.

"Alright kids, I have an idea." Tag turned to the group, signalling for them to listen. "If we knock them out, they'll still be in our way, so we need to find a way around them. The metal melts. The only way I see out of this is to melt the floor underneath the Bastiodon, that way when they get there, it'll make some space over their heads. Then we can climb over them, right? Anyone with a fire pokemon, focus on the ground in front of that fellow there-" he indicated Bastiodon A, who was barring their forward progress, but was in turn barred by the Spikes that Orin had set up. "and all other pokemon should be ready to continue to stall the other one" he indicated the sleeping Bastiodon 2. "If the melting-floor thing works, we can do that on our way back out with this fellow."

Tag wasn't quite sure if anything he'd just said many any real sense, so he attempted to show the Team Steel with his own pokemon.

"Tobi, Ember" He indicated the ground in front of the still-awake Bastiodon, and watched as Tobi's little flames began to make some leeway into the ground. This also produced the effect of the Bastiodon not wanting to move forward, due to the very hot fire and liquid metal in front of it.

That, and there were spikes.

However, Tobi's progress, with his own limited flame, was really quite slow. The vulpix did not yet have Flamethrower in his repertoire, which would've sped things up admirably. However, the combined forces of several fire pokemon would potentially do the trick.

In the mean-time, however, Bastiodon 2, behind them, slowly began to stir, almost ready to rise from its enemy-induced nap.

Posted by: Douken Sota Aug 24 2011, 12:00 PM

"Doesn't that figure," Douken muttered as the one hit KO move had no effect at all. He thought at least with itss huge head, the ice would slow it down as he would of needed to plow through it, building the ice in front until it was too hard to move. So much fr that idea, especially since someone was trying to remove it with Ember. Well, a plus side was that they found out that the walls had a low melting point. With Tag's thinking, it could be worked to their advantage.

However, first off, they had to deal with the Bastiodon. Taking him a shield for a face and steel type, he had high defenses (getting higher) and could easy protect itself with, well, Protect. If the giant shield used it to block our plan, things would be devastating. "Maya, to the other Bastiodon." Turning her head about, she flopped her way past the collection f other Pokemon before she went and faced the forward dinosaur. "Its using Iron Defense, so use Encore!" Just as the Shield Pokemon's body glowed silver, indicating its third use to max defense, Maya gave it a sudden applause, cheering him on to use it some more. It was an amusing tactic, but it also blocked off any other technique for a while, and during that time, their plan would already be in action.

Next up was his part in the fire attacks, and he had one Pokemon in mind. "Rufus, come on out!" With the Pokeball opening up, the Puppy Pokemon emerged, barely recovered from that Magnitude from before. Seemed like he recovered in time. Pulling out a couple Sitris Berries, he let the pup munch his way back into better condition. And thus the energy rushed back, and the ADD pup was bouncing about, until Douken Caught him and ruffled his collar.

"Alright, Rufus, take a look over there," h said, pointing at the Bastiodon. "See how there's that gap on the underside of that face?" Rufus stared, but at what, Douken hoped was what he was pointing out. "Once you care clear of the Spiks, go ahead and use Flame Wheel through those horns and underbelly to the back of him, then begin firing a wave of Ember at the floor and his rear feet. Got it?" With a bark of a reply, Douken let go and said, "Get 'em, boy!"

With the plan in action, Rufus went for a straight charge, hopping past the spikes as his paws began to flame up, as well as a fire in his mouth. During the left couple feet, he curled right up into a ball and rolled his way underneath the dinosaur, creating a straight charred line in the center of the Bastiodon's walking path. Breaking away from the ball form, he went with his waves of Embers, just as planned.

Posted by: Asterna Aug 25 2011, 08:09 PM

Meanwhile, Rose had had Alaia keep using Mega Drain on the paralyzed, but still slowly approaching Bastiodon. It wasn't doing much damage to it, but Alaia was getting healed a bit by using it continuously, and if she kept whittling down its health, it would eventually faint. Of course, it would still be in the way, but at least it would stop moving. They could figure out how to get around it when they weren't about to be crushed.

However, she was distracted from her task by Tag, as he called her name in a rather firm voice. Slightly startled and a bit confused -- Am I doing something wrong?, she wondered -- she turned to face him. Before she could voice her confusion, however, he spoke, telling her that she would make a brilliant trainer if they made it out alive. She blinked at him speechlessly in pure surprise for a moment before she recovered her sense. I-I am? she thought, before remembering that she should really say something to him in return. "O-oh, um. Thank you very much!" she managed. "And yeah -- we'll definitely make it out of here!" she added, flashing a bright smile at Tag before turning back to the Bastiodon. He's definitely not as scary as he looks, huh? she thought to herself.

Now feeling pumped and raring to go, Rose listened intently as Tag laid out his plan, nodding to indicate her understanding. It was a good, logical plan, and it was really their best choice at the moment. Unfortunately, Rose herself was bereft of a fire-type Pokemon to help melt through the floor. She called off Alaia, motioning to the other Bastiodon. "You heard what he said, so let's get ready."

They hurried over to the sleeping Bastiodon, dodging past trainers and Pokemon as they went. It was still sleeping, though somewhat restless, so Rose took the time to prepare herself. Ciar and Wyatt, with their physical attacks, would do practically nothing against the Bastiodon with its massive defense, but Alaia alone probably wouldn't be enough, so she called out Nina as well. The Panpour popped out of her ball with an excited cheer -- apparently, she'd been waiting to be let out so she could fight as well.

Now that her Pokemon were out, Rose mentally debated over her next course of action. She could try getting some free shots in now, but that might wake it up, and she ought to let it sleep as long as possible so that the others would have more time to melt through the floor. "Okay, guys," she said, calling her Pokemon's attention. "When it wakes up, start bombarding it with attacks -- Mega Drain and Water Gun. We want to stall it as long as we need to," she told them. After a moment's thought -- Tag's Vulpix was occupied, so it probably wouldn't be able to put the Bastiodon to sleep again -- Rose added, "Alaia, paralyze it before you start attacking." Course of action decided on, Alaia and Nina readied themselves, waiting for the already stirring Bastiodon to wake up.

Posted by: Proby Sep 2 2011, 04:13 AM

Alex watched, impressed. Tag, despite with seeming withdrawal and dislike for the role, was an excellent leader for the group. He lead by example, with his Pokemon being incredibly clever in their attacks.

Blaze had sort of managed to warm the place up, and Alex was proud. But he was more proud that Blaze had inspired Tag's latest strategy, which seemed very well thought out. And it might just work, too.

"Ok, Blaze, you heard him. Full Ember ahead!" shouted Alex. Blaze nodded, took one leap using his powerful legs, and landed among Tobi, Tag's Vulpix, and Rufus, Douken's Growlithe. He nodded silently to them in respect and began using his Ember attack at the ground, like the others.

Meanwhile, the second Bastiodon was getting worryingly close to waking up. Tag had instructed for the other Pokemon to keep him back.

"Well," he said to all of his Pokemon, at his side, not including Blaze "Let's get ready to RUMBLE! Leo, I want you using Spark. Swamps, join him, using Water Gun. Stryk, follow Aldo. Aldo, you need to use Mud Slap. Stryk, I want you watching closely. Try and copy it it! You're GOING to learn Mud Slap! You can do it gal! Fluffee, I want you by my side. I need to keep one of you back.

"Marsh!" cried Swamps joyfully. He then proceeded to do a weird dance.

Odd Creature. thought Alex.

"Lux!" barked Leo in response. He too looked really cheerful, and just happy to be involved in the battle.

"Star!""Rith!" said Stryk and Aldo in unison, agreeing to Alex's commands.

Meanwhile, Fluffee jumped into Alex's arms. She looked very concerned for the safety of the other Pokemon. He was obviously quite scared of the large, Bulky Bastiodon.
"Cotto..." she said, very quietly.

"It's Ok, Fluffee." said Alex to his cute little Cotton Ball Pokemon. He was obviously going to have to work with this one to get her less scared.

Alex watched all the Pokemon and trainers working together here. It was truly astounding to see this level of co-operation. Clearly such disasters caused people to trust eachother quickly and to work eachother well. Alex barely knew Tag, but right now, he trusted the guy. He didn't know Douken very well either, but was equally trusting of the trainer. It was really rather interesting.

Posted by: FirePower Sep 2 2011, 08:57 AM

Kaya shrugged as the Water Gun/Shock Wave Combination she'd been hoping to pull off turned out to be utterly useless. 'Well, you win some, you lose some I guess.' Rose, meanwhile, managed to paralyze it, at the very least shortening the time until the were all slowly and painfully killed by crushing. Tag, though, thought up of a plan to get them all out. Apparently the walls had a low melting point, and as such could easily be moved. The people with fire-types were to melt the floor at the feet of the paralyzed bastodion, allowing them to move forward. The one keeping them from going back was promptly put to sleep, and everyone else was to bombard it with attacks once it woke, hopefully slowing it down.

Kaya repositioned herself on her crutch, trying to think how she'd be useful. She had absolutely no fire types, let alone ones that were still capable of battle. For the most part her battle-ready pokemon used special attacks and she didn't want them to be walked over by the shield-like pokemon. That left Flit out entirley. Otherwise she had Attila and Manera, though they weren't by far the strongest pokemon in the group.

"All right! Attila, hold it back with water gun when it wakes up, but make you keep some room between the two of you. Manera, the same goes for you, but use shock wave. Flit, stay here. I don't want you getting trampled by that thing. I don't want you guys getting trampled by that thing." Attila nodded enthusiastically, and Manera followed suit, though without the malicious smile the her psycuk companion was wearing. Flit on the other hand, protested loudly.

"Now don't be like that, Flit," Kaya said. "Like I said, I don't want you getting trampled." The spearow was still cross, but it had stopped protesting. It settled on Kaya's shoulder in a disgruntled manner and prepared to watched the battle unfold. Manera and Atilla got ready to fight the bastodion.

Posted by: Master Houndoom Sep 5 2011, 11:49 AM

"Ember, you heard the man," Jaima said. "Lava Plume on the floor under that bastiodon on his command."

Ember looked up at Jaima, blinking, and he scratched her head gently. "It'll be all right. It's a good plan." He turned to his other pokemon. "Tsunami, I need you yo be ready in case the one behind us wakes up soon. If he does, pelt him with Mud Shot. Desertdancer, ground's too hard to dig. Sand Tomb. Keep him as much in place as you can."

Desertdancer's face contorted into what looked much like a grimace, but he made no move to counter. <Once again, relegated to trapping and becoming a barrier.>

Don't be like that, please. If Jaima could, he'd have you fight much more openly.

<Oh?> The sandshrew seemed ashamed of his complaints, but Mercury's mental voice was gentle.

He mentioned the ground. He wants to use you to battle. It's just not possible right at the moment.

Desertdancer sighed softly. <You're right, of course, my dear. It's simply very frustrating to know you can be a help and have circumstances become a barrier to you at every turn.>

Believe me, my friend, I know the feeling.

Desertdancer chuckled. <You are providing the service of being a boon companion to your trainer, and of keeping tabs on the one with which his heart lies. There's more use to that than you might believe.

The two pokemon smiled at each other, then prepared for the task of keeping their trainer, and his group, as safe as they could.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Sep 5 2011, 05:49 PM

Tag watched as Tobi's ember flames slowly started to meld together. The little darts of flame were joining together into a more coherent stream forming...well...a flamethrower. Tag's heart swelled with pride as Tobi upped his game, blasting out the waves of concentrated heat at the ground in front of the Bastiodon. He peered into the flames to see if they had any real effect, and to his surprise, it did. The floor was melting, even at a slow pace.

Rufus, the growlithe, began launching his flames as well, adding to the already intense heat that Tobi's flames were producing. The growlithe was on the other side of the Bastiodon, due to a daring move from his trainer, Douken. The corner of Tag's eye caught the trainer egging his pokemon on. This was yet another serious contender on the trainer front. Taggarty Lee couldn't tell whether or not to be excited or anxious that there were so many talented trainers in his midst.

Alex Slasher, by far the most foolhardy of the group, still had some sense as a battler, and had a team of very eager pokemon at his side. If he ever matured a little bit, he too would prove an excellent battler. Of course, he needed a bit more of a solid head on his shoulders. Even now, though, Blaze, his Combusken, joined the ranks of Tobi and Rufus, adding his own fire to their display.

Tag turned to Jaima, giving the young lad a stern nod. As if on cue, his Quilava's brilliant Lava Plume technique joined the Flamethrower and embers.

"Anita! You too!" Tag called out to the girl who had contributed the least during their time in the Steel Temple. Fortunately, now was her moment to shine, and she took it. Her Growlithe, Fluffy, sprang out of her pokemon's ranks and stood proudly between Tobi, Blaze and Ember, adding his own Ember to their combined assault.

The combined fire easily melted down the floor in front of the Bastiodon. Tag raised his hand for a literal cease fire, and all the attacks stopped, revealing that a large area had been melted down.

"Orin, Icy Wind." The Snorunt waddled forward before firing off the intensely cold wave from her mouth. It washed over the pool of liquid metal, instantly cooling it at its lowered point, and proceeded to wash over the Bastiodon, who continued its trek forward.

As it stomped the spikes flat, it entered the area that had been lowered, providing, as Tag suspected, plenty of room to go over it.

"Tobi, Hypnosis!" Once again, the Vulpix's eyes glowed a bright blue, which lit up the Bastiodon's eyes to a similar colour. The creature closed its eyes and sank down, providing even more room for the team to clamber over its face and out the back.

"Let's go!" Tag moved forward at a brisk pace, picking up Tobi and Orin and bodily tossing them over the Bastiodon, then signalled for everyone else to continue forward. He'd, naturally go last.

* * *

At long last, the team entered a large chamber that seemed completely sparse. Along the walls were the brilliant lighting lines that had lit the previous tunnel, but this time they were spread out in beautiful criss-crossing patterns. The entire room was filled with that same, eerie, dim glow that the tunnel possessed.

Tag, the last the enter, gave a low whistle, indicating that he was, in fact, impressed with the architecture, despite how spartan it was.

A low whirr filled the room, and suddenly, the center of the floor opened up, revealing a perfectly circular hole. Electricity seemed to rush along the ground, following the patterns that had lit the floor, causing the entire room to suddenly glow brightly.

Slowly, painstakingly, something rose out of the ground, standing perfectly still on a rising platform. Team Steel watched as the Golem that they had been searching for appeared right before there, standing on a pedestal, but completely still and devoid of life.

Upon closer inspection, there appeared to be writing on the pedestal, but Tag, at least, had no knowledge of ancient Furite. At the very least, crudely, there was a large lightning bolt scribbled in, which indicated that they probably needed a jump start from some source of electricty.

"Okay guys, Electric pokemon this time." He was thinking, of course, of Douken's Rusty, Jaima's Fang, Kaya's Manera, and Alex's Leo. "Battery's not included, so we need to give it a jump start." Tag indicated the pedestal. "It's all yours, guys."

Posted by: Douken Sota Sep 5 2011, 07:33 PM

As the floor below the Bastiodon fell, Douken quickly returned Maya back to her Pokeball and began his run forwards. As Tobi did her work, putting to rest the barrier that stood between then, Douken went and jumped above the shielding head back to where Rufus was. With the pup wagging his tail happily, Douken ruffled up the collar of the ADD dog, telling him, "Good boy. Nice job," before returning him back to rest.

And at long last, after three separate trials, they all arrived at the main room, where soon after arrival, arose the legend they sought: Registeel. Sure, he was nothing compared to Regigigas in terms of power, but legends stated that he formed the iron the land used, as well as being one of the three keys to reawaken Regiggias. Giving a respectful bow and small thank you, as the Amazons did to respect them, he went out and followed the next plan: lightning.

Pulling his Pokeball out, he threw out and released Rusty once more, who seemed to of been more dazed by the previous landing than anything else. "Alright, Rusty, time to give Registeel a nice jump start. Thunder wave!" With blue sparks flying between the magnetic ends, the Magneton fired forth a blue bolt, soon to engulf the Golem before them. Since there seemed to of been no over point of interest, why not use the direct approach?

Posted by: FirePower Sep 5 2011, 08:54 PM

"Good job you two," Kaya told her two pokemon as Tag's snorunt cooled the melted floor. "But now we need to get out of here before we're trampled. Attila, return." The psyduck returned to it's pokeball, more out of tiredness than obedience. Kaya had decided to keep Flit out, since the spearow seemed comfortable.

Kaya decided on letting the others besides Tag, who seemed determined to go last, go before her as to not be an inconvenience to anyone due to her broken leg. She was glad she did, too. It was with no small amount of trouble she managed to clamber over the bastodion's head, helped by Flit's good intentions, though once again it succeeded only in ripping it's trainer's shirt. After she successfully scaled the pokemon's face she continued behind the rest of the group, except Tag, of course.

She was once again impressed by the intricate lighting system of the temple, and while she was no architecture fanatic she continued to be awed by the design of the temple, the complexity of the various contraptions, and how well thought-out the booby traps were. She jumped when the electricity began to surge along the floor, and Manera's mane glowed in unison. This surprised the blitzle just as much as Kaya, and it snorted in surprise.

Human, spearow and blitzle watched, mouths slightly open, as the registeel came out of the ground for a surprising turn of events. It seemed inactive though. It seemed like they would have to carry it back to the temple... or give it a quick wake-up call. It was as though Tag read her mind when he suggested they power up the steel golem with the group's combined electric attacks. Kaya's spirits lifted. For once she'd actually be of some help.

"Let's get this heck of a mech movin'! Manera, shock wave it with everything you've got!" Kaya said, getting excited. Manera, the excitement of the teenager carrying on to it, gave a triumphant cry and shot several powerful rings of electricity at the statue.

Posted by: Asterna Sep 5 2011, 09:00 PM

Rose looked over from the Bastiodon she was standing guard by at Tag's shout of "Let's go!" With a nod, she returned her Pokemon -- Nina made a disappointed noise as she returned to her Pokeball, sad that she hadn't gotten to see more action -- and jogged over to the other Bastiodon, clambering over it with only some difficulty before jumping down safely to the other side. She gave a soft sigh of relief -- that was yet another ordeal dealt with -- and moved forward, trekking along with the rest of Team Steel to their next destination.

As they walked along the tunnels, Rose kept looking around, half-expecting another group of Pokemon to jump out and ambush them. When nothing of the sort happened after some time, she relaxed a little, turning her attention back to the road in front of her. Nothing's happened yet... so are we getting close to the end? she wondered. Of course, the next trial could just be farther away than the others, but Rose still felt her hopes -- and nervousness -- rising. On the one hand, the sooner they reached Registeel the sooner they could get out of this place. Beautiful as the ancient temple was, it was a tad too dangerous for Rose's liking. On the other hand, she was a bit nervous about encountering the legendary Pokemon. She wasn't sure if they would have to fight it or not, but if they did, it would surely be powerful. Well, whatever's coming, I'm ready for it, she thought determinedly.

Finally, they reached their destination: a large chamber, with architecture even more stunning than the rest of the temple. Beautiful as the crisscrossing patterns of lines of light were, though, they didn't keep her attention long. Rose watched, transfixed, as the steel golem rose slowly from the floor. When Registeel and its pedestal finally rose completely to the surface, Rose's hand twitched instinctively towards her Pokeballs, but she relaxed again when it remained motionless. She tentatively stepped forward a bit to look at the carvings on the pedestal; she didn't understand a word of the ancient Furite, but she at least got the point of the lightning bolt carved into the stone along with the archaic letters. With a small sigh, she stepped back; this was something she wouldn't be able to participate in, not having an electric-type Pokemon of her own. She stood out of the way and watched as the others pumped electricity into Registeel.

Posted by: Master Houndoom Sep 6 2011, 02:33 AM

Jaima nodded, returning Ember and Desertdancer to the pokeballs (Desertdancer seemed a mite depressed... he'd have to make sure Meiko knew) and scrambling over the dozing bastiodon. Mercury awaited him on the other side, as he knew she would, having teleported past it once she'd known the way was relatively safe.

On the other side, he released his pokemon, allowing them once again to walk free. Fang took the place usually occupied by Shadow, slightly in front of the rest of the team. His eyes roamed the hallway ahead, narrowed slightly, as if daring trouble to come. Since he'd involved he seemed to have lost his swagger (the attitude, not the move), but gained a kind of more subtle regality. Jaima smirked. If he'd been a plant type, he'd have named the pokemon Vejita. But that was neither here nor there.

Grondir took his usual spot, in the rear of the pokemon fighting lines. His vine whip and mostly-projectile attacks made him more suited to the back, and if whoever might be trying to attack Jaima got through, his bulk and strength made him perfect as the last line of defense.

Ember took the left, her eyes watching almost as warily as Fang's, but using faster movements. She was sleeker, more streamlined than the luxray, and also had lived her life more timid, so was therefore used to being watchful.

Tsunami was in the middle, directly in the middle, being suited for both range and close quarters. To her left, where Fang usually was, was Desertdancer, the only indication that this was a formation that the team had come up with: he was, at times, faltering, unsure of his place in the group. It was, in fact, only the reassurances from Mercury that kept him from giving up and hiding.

Mercury was the only one who seemed not to match the ersatz formation, and that was because it mattered little where she was when an attack came. She could teleport entire city blocks to join the action if need be, and her psychic attacks didn't rely as much on position. She floated above Jaima's left shoulder.

The formation had been Shadow's idea, wholeheartedly supported by Fang, and discussed, to Mercury's great amusement, during training, secure in the knowledge that he couldn't hear them without help. It wasn't that they believed he would stop them, but Mercury herself had felt uncomfortable with telling him, knowing that he would be upset that they were protecting him from danger when he felt it was his job.

Fang had succinctly, even rudely, summed up the team's position on the matter. <He'll get over it.>

Finally they arrived in the great chamber, where the massive, legendary Registeel rose on its platform, lifeless, yet still impressive by sheer size.

Tag gave his command, and Fang didn't even wait for Jaima's acknowledgement. <Let's get this done,> he said, bending at the forelegs and charging his body, letting the electricity from the muscles in his forelegs build up and course up his body. It was time to put his newest move to the test, he thought with a smirk, loosing the bolt of electricity from his tail.

Posted by: Proby Sep 6 2011, 02:58 PM

Alex kept his eyes Steadily on the Sleeping Bastiodon. Any minute it would wake up, and most likely crush Team Steel into tiny fragments. Alex couldn't help it, but these gruesome images stayed in his head as if they'd been burned into his mind.

Therefore, the flame haired boy was immensely relived when the Fire Pokemon had finished their work and the Snorunt had cooled the pit down, making the Bastiodon low enough to climb over. Blaze returned to Alex's side, and he smiled at his Pokemon.

"Dude, you were awesome." he said to his kick-boxing chicken, who answered with a "Comba!" of thanks.

Tag then indicated to everyone to go over. But Alex knew he had to find a way to get everyone over at once. He couldn't risk making lots of trips to get all of his Pokemon over. Not with the Bastiodon alive and probably not asleep for long. Alex mind worked like Klink at lightning speed, and he soon came up with a plan.

"Ok, guys. Right, this is what I want you all to do. Stryk, fly Aldo, and of course yourself, over. Leo, use those powerful muscles, you can climb over relatively quickly. Blaze, get Swamps helping you with this, but those Leg muscles of yours means you can jump over that Bastiodon with relative ease. I want you to do that, but carrying Swamps. Fluffee, I'll carry you over. Okay?"

The Pokemon all shouted their cry in unison in agreement, and all jumped to their task. Blaze and Swamps surprisingly were first over. The two knew exactly how to get eachother to do what they wanted, and did it expertly. With one leap, Swamps and Blaze clinging to eachother, Blaze jumped over.

Stryk was second. It was easy for her to carry the relatively light Aldo, who wasn't able to move quickly enough for Alex. Leo came after, climbing over the Bastiodon's head with ease and jumped of the end of its torso. Finally, Alex climbed over, with Fluffee jumped over in front when Alex needed both of his hands. Eventually though, they all made it over and walked along the pathway. Alex was half-expecting another threat to come his way. There was no actual structure to the group, but Swamps was at the back, Blaze and Leo at the side, Aldo and Fluffee on his shoulders, and Stryk flying overhead.

Eventually the group made it into the final room, and they saw Registeel in all its glory sitting there. There was huge Electrical current in the room, and Alex was surprised when his Pokegear suddenly lit up.
"Ooh, goody! The Electricity is just right in this room! My Pokegear works again! YAY!"

Then Tag indicated the statue of Registeel, which needed Electricity to work again. Alex looked at Leo.
"I don't even need to tell you what to do, do I?" he asked Leo, and the Luxio nodded cheerfully. He jumped happily towards the statue and used Spark repeatedly to try and give Registeel a Jumpstart.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Sep 6 2011, 06:27 PM

Tag stood by Rose Fiore and Anita Lyfe, as this half of the team had no electric type pokemon on their teams.

"No pokemon on your Team are effective against Steel Types, yet you chose to join Team Steel anyways. That's commendable, you know." Tag crossed his arms as he looked over at Rose. "Be ready though, in case we need to fight one more time. You know the drill: Alaia, Stun Spore, Leech Seed."

Tag watched as his orders were carried out, still a bit surprised that people were willing to listen to him. He'd often spent his time in the company of his, for all intents and purposes, rival, Justin Smart, and the fiercely independant Raven Amaranth. Then again, he hadn't been surprised when some of the younger trainers, like Malcolm Smith, Eron Ingress and Seiccan Serroc had simply followed his orders (even if the latter hadn't seen through his paper thin disguise).

The Electric Pokemon of Team Steel rose to the challenge, pumping all the electricity they could muster into the pedestal. Rusty, Fang, Leo, and Manera's fantastic display of lightning energy coursed into the pedestal, and all along the crisscrossing lines of the temple room, causing the entire chamber to light up in its full glory.

Tag shielded his eyes for a moment, but did his best to keep his eyes on the Legendary Pokemon before them. Once the electrical assault died down, Tag watched as the beeping 'eyes' of the Golem suddenly sprang to life, reminiscent of a computer, or an R2 unit.

Slowly, it turned its entire torso left and right, surveying the scene. Then, it slowly lurched forward without moving its legs, painstakingly moving into a creaking bow.

"Good Morning, Registeel." Tag stepped forward amidst the group of Trainers and Pokemon alike, returning the bow. "I trust you slept well."

Tag's natural politeness took over. His proclivity for the formal seemed absolutely perfect in dealing with an ancient, sleeping pokemon. Registeel's eyes beeped back at him, in a flashing display that while haphazard, seemed somehow gentle.

"We humbly request your aid."

With another display, the Registeel opened its arms wide, a low drone emanating from its body, as if it were a large, hollow bell. The entire chamber ceiling suddenly opened up, revealing the bright, unnatural sky of the great underground chasm.

The entire room was an elevator, and with Registeel's power, it was slowly rising back up to the surface.

Team Steel found themselves back outside, right back at the entrance to the temple. It was from the Registeel chamber that the original Bronzor had emerged from, evidently, and they now floated from the wall, chiming happily at the presence of their Metal Lord.

With a slow wave of its hand, they returned to within the temple, the door slowly closing behind them.

Without bothering to move its legs, Registeel slowly began moving forward, back towards the Gigas Temple, where hopefully, the rest of the PokeCon Survivors were waiting for them.

"Well everyone." Tag swept his eyes over the team, giving them one brusque nod. "Excellent work. Let's get back."