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Posted by: Kamaitachi Nov 11 2013, 08:47 PM

Cast:
Douken Sota - Douken Sota
Darius Dovakin - Toogee
Lyla Moore - Living Arrow
Hunter Price - freeOatmeal
Branwys Muphenz - Master Houndoom
Tikal Faylen - rt117

Posted by: Master Houndoom Nov 16 2013, 12:35 AM

The fact that such descriptions were running through Branwys' head, descriptions such as "fast as her stubby little legs could carry her" and "she doesn't have as long legs as the others did" and "it's not a race!" only spoke, in the young woman's mind, of her mental instability at this juncture. She panted, chasing after the poochyena who was chasing after the sword-wielding maniac, and who was being chased by other (she sincerely hoped...). She was getting tired. This spoke volumes for Darius' stamina, as well as the day's effect on Branwys.

She was getting tired. She wanted to go home and have a bath and maybe a good cry. In bold letters, no less.

But she couldn't do it. She'd spent so much time proving she wasn't a tiny little baby girl that when the chance to act and be a tiny little baby girl presented itself, she put her nose up at it as a matter of course.

That, and she didn't have Dimo and Oggie back, and there was no way she was leaving without them.

The tunnels were spinning past her rapidly, but she was beginning to slow down. Panting. Wheezing...

Finally she stopped. But not because she was tired, thought that would have been the cause in another ten feet or so. No. Because she had run into, and bounced off of, the posterior of the very person she was chasing.

The poochyena had the grace to look chagrined.

Posted by: Toogee Nov 16 2013, 09:46 AM

"AAAAAAAHHHHH...huh?"

Darius had continued his battle cry as he charged deeper into the tunnel. He had seen no pokemon along the way, which was understandable to the dragon trainer. Who wouldn't back away from the mighty cry of Dovakin?! As he ran through the tunnel feeling like a badass, he flinched. Darius stopped dead in his tracks as a cold sensation creeped down the back of his neck. He only had to look up to realize that feeling came from a droplet of water from the leaky ceiling. Looking ahead, he realized there were quite a few puddles, yet no pokemon.

"Cowards!" Darius called into the dark. "You cannot bring yourselves to face me. Release your hostages and I shall spare you from the might of dragons-"

His declaration was interrupted when a certain someone crashed into him from behind. He didn't even stumble from the impact, but he did check to see what was going on. Darius found his first compatriot to join him in the assault. She was a tiny woman, certainly not a girl from the way she was built. And yet, she did kind of look like a child. Initially, Darius was confused...until thoughts of Bilbo and Frodo entered his mind.

"Wow, a hobbit!" Darius said, happy that this adventure was getting more fantastical by the second. He reached out to Brawnys to help her up and/or shake her hand. "I always wanted to meet you guys! You must tell me where your village is so I can visit! After we rescue the hostages and our pokemon of course."

Posted by: Douken Sota Nov 16 2013, 12:33 PM

He couldn't sit idly by anymore. At least two of them had ran recklessly into a dangerous area, not even knowing where they were headed. However, as he kept on running, he definitely started feeling dizzy, which was noticeable in his movement.

"Are you okay, Temporary Master? the Gothita asked, looking concerned at the trainer she rested upon.

Responding with a quick nod, he stated, "Yeah, I think its just been too much stress. I mean, today was supposed to be a normal, relaxing day as well as training for my next gym match in Gigarte."However, he still had to stop before he fell over before reaching into his bag. Sitris berries were well known of restoring a Pokemon's energy, so he wondered how effective it would help him.

However, as he ate, the Gothita's eyes began to glo blue, a typical sign of Psychic energy being used. She was hoping to help ease his head by doing this, but found something strange. "I-I've never seen a scar like this one before..." However, this caught Douken to chok a little on the berry as he chuckled.

"Obviously got scars. I trained against Pokemon so obviously they would leave scars and bruises."

"Not physical scars, but mental ones. Damage in your mind that is healing. However, it takes dramatic events to leave an actual scar..."

"Would meeting a Dusknior ready to take you to the other side count?" Looking at her, he could tell it was ayes. Her eyes were wide open in shock, it seemed like they may simply fall out. Matched with the speechless expression, it was clear she understood what the scar she saw was. "Well, it also didn't help someone tried to kill my mentality earlier today." However, he had to keep moving if he was to meet wit the others.

"W-What kind of dangerous life do you live to encounter such dangerous things?!" He didn't have time to answer that one as he soon came to the stopped pair.

"Alright guys, listen. I know you are all for the adventure of search and rescue, but if you are going to act like pawns to these guys, don't run in blindly."

Posted by: Living Arrow Nov 16 2013, 03:34 PM

Lyla hurried along after Darius in a swiftly-moving panic stricken mess that would not let her get left behind with all of the insane and dangerous things that we're going on if she had anything to do with it. Even so, the breeder lacked the seemingly innate fitness that other Trainers managed to consistently show off in her presence which left her gasping for air as the group of other rescuers slowed down ahead of her. The way things were going, she was going to get left behind, forgotten about and worst of all lost, if she didn't do something about it sooner rather than later. She drew up slowly, considering who would actually be leading them into the unknown when a group of familiar faces greeted her.

Darius, that knightly Dragon trainer with a chivalrous smile that had promised to look after her in Tag's absence. He had run off first, dismissing her presence almost instantly when the decision for the rescuers to split up had been announced. What sort of leader was he to throw himself into action so willy-nilly? Douken, the spikey-haired trainer that she had met in Petropolis city and a very talented trainer if all of the channel four news reports were anything to go by. She liked him a lot - he had been kind and brave during the time they had shared company in Petropolis and he had arms that didn't quit (the turn of his calf was pretty nice, too). Then another face that she hadn't expected to see in a long time. Bran Muffin? Lyla liked the girl, too, even though they hadn't had much time to really get to know each other. Why was she on the floor?

Lyla made a bee-line for Darius (he was meant to be looking out for her, after all) and managed to catch what he was saying to the short girl that Lyla had briefly met in The forest north of Petropolis not long before the event. Realisation hit immediately and, not breaking stride, the breeder found her emotions bubbling up into an angry froth as she continued right up to Darius and...

SLAPPP!!!

Lyla's full frontal open-palmed slap hit the side of Darius's neck, rather than hitting the cheek that she had originally been aiming for. Her brow narrowed down into an angry stare and she stomped her foot petulantly.

"How... How DARE you run away like that!?" She yelled dramatically, still trying to catch her breath from chasing after her so-called protector. "You are meant to be looking out for everyone, Darius! Not stomping off and throwing stupid height-related jokes at Branwiss like that! Like, what sort of knight are you, anyway!?"

She turned her back on Darius furiously and fussed over Branwys herself, helping her back to her feet.

"You OK?"

Posted by: Toogee Nov 16 2013, 10:47 PM

Darius was quite perplexed when Douken appeared and called them all pawns. What was he talking about? Darius was no one's pawn! He was about to say as much when he was smacked in the neck by Lyla.

"OW!" Darius shouted loudly. "By the bloody tusks of Fraxure, what was that for?!"

When Lyla went off on the wrongs Darius committed, the dragon trainer stood there looking incredulous. After bravely leading the charge into battle, this is the welcome he got?

"Hold on! I was clearing the path of enemies so the rest of you could advance without fear. I think the words you're looking for are 'you're welcome.' And who's joking? The courage of hobbits is legendary; we're quite fortunate to have one of their esteemed citizens on our side."

It was of course true that battle passion got the better of the dragon trainer and his responsibilities. He wasn't exactly eager to admit that, so Darius focused on the good aspects of his "courageous" actions

Posted by: Master Houndoom Nov 18 2013, 09:18 PM

Branwys was, in a word, dazed. The rock hard muscles she had run into had been... hard... as a rock...

Oh, she knew she could come up with a better metaphor, if only the room would stop spinning for a little bit!

The man she was chasing (had she caught up with him? how? At least they were staying still, enough to let her catch her breath!) turned and said something to her she didn't quite catch, except maybe he called her a hobbit? That would be new. Not flattering, if that was the case.

Then there was another person, one she hadn't met before, and he had made mention of pawns. Why, she wondered, were they making short jokes at this time. Why, another, quieter part of her mind wondered, was she only hearing those particular words.

A slap rang out, causing Darius to shout, and that woke Branwys up a bit. She saw Lyla kneel in front of her, and never thought shed be so glad to see a familiar face.

"You OK?"

Branwys tried to smile, but a lump rose in her throat. "I don't know..." Soon, it all came out. Tinka having to be sent hoim, her depression, her wanting to go home but being encouraged to say, her just starting to come out of her previous depression when she had that marvelous battle with Darryn, and then Dimo and Ognian go missing. The diatribe, in which she willed herself not to break into a baby-fit, was ended with the usual detour for most of her baby-fits: Anger.

"And now, I'm being called a hobbit and a pawn!"

She stood, glad that Lyla helped her up, and marched straight to Darius. "YOU!" she called, pointing straight up to his nose. "A knight does not charge into battle when there are people relying on him! A knight is primarily defense for those weaker than them. Guess what?" She pointed between her and Lyla. "Two girls. No armor. No sword. Pokemon we don't recognize. One of whom tried to eat me! Defend!"

She turned on her heel and pointed at Douken. "You! I don't know everything you said, but you sounded condescending. Fine. You're leader. YOU keep him in line!"

She turned again and pointed at Lyla. "And YOU!!..." At that she stopped, then flushed. "I... uh... you didn't do anything wrong... Thanks for helping me... it's good to see you again... heh..."

With that, she fell into place next to Lyla, looking at the ground sheepishly. "Hobbit... seriously... I'm wearing shoes..."

Posted by: Douken Sota Nov 18 2013, 11:18 PM

he sighed, quietly letting the chaos around him ensue. The reckless boy was trying to defend his point by saying he was trying to clear the way, Lyra was in a complete fit and slapped the other guy, and the other girl was breaking into tears before apparently appointing him leader (though sounded more like babysitter to Darius).

"We got everything out of our systems?" he asked, handing Branwys afresh Sitris berry before biting into his own. "Try it. It helps calm me down, so it may do the same. Either way, what I said about us being pawns is no joke." Leaning on a wall, he explained with, "There is an underground group of criminals calling themselves Team Deception. They hide within society with normal jobs and excel at keeping their name quiet. If you don't believe me, then let me tell you that they used me and Pan to capture the legendary Pokemon known as Darkrai, all because we wanted to make sure his disciples weren't able to turn the world into a giant nightmare. Not only that, but to keep me at bay, they had a man hired to watch me and to take me out if necessary."

Reaching for his belt, he took off one of the Pokeballs and pointed at the device attached. "This is what they are after: the core to the level managing device. Imagine using this power with any Pokemon in your possession to their maximum, then imagine if they did it with what people only know of through legends."

Pulling it back away and revealing his thoughts, he took the last bite of the berry before letting out a sigh. "Now, with that out of the way, I'm Douken, an Amazon from Fidona. And yes, I am a guy." He always got strange faces when he introduced himself like that.

Posted by: Toogee Nov 19 2013, 10:07 AM

Darius was rather disappointed that Brawnys was in fact not a hobbit (admittedly, the shoes were a dead giveaway). That would have topped off his adventure quite nicely. Apparently, she too was angry that she was left behind. Who knew damsels in distress could be so needy? It seemed Darius had to put away the warrior for now and stay by the women. He regrettably put his sword back in its scabbard, though the lack of enemies helped convince him to stand down.

Brawnys then made the spiky haired kid the leader. Douken then proved his leadership skills by going full tin foil hat on the group. Apparently, anyone with a job was part of a clandestine organization out to get him and whatever device was on his pokeballs. His proof was that he captured some legendary pokemon with someone named Pan. He failed to mention any proof of that story or how it related to the previous tale or even who this Pan was. Darius was often called crazy at times, but this surely made him seem normal by comparison. As dense as Darius was, even he couldn't swallow Douken's story. His only response was to turn to Brawnys with a look that read: 'You made him leader?'

"Well, while we figure out what to make of this guy's story, I think they're some hostages waiting for our help. Go...Butterfly!"

Darius summoned forth one of his rental pokemon, who quickly corrected him on his naming conventions.

"Beautifly!"

"Fine, whatever. I need you to scout ahead to see if there are any hostages or pokemon around. Come back when you find something."

The butterfly pokemon quickly flew ahead of the group, gazing around the tunnel to see any other living souls around. With the rescue operation back in full swing, Darius turned back to the girls.

"OK, ladies. With Butterscotch on patrol, you now have the full undivided attention of Darius Dovakin. You are safely behind the frontlines. No enemies in sight. Consider yourselves protected!" The dragon trainer felt that all past grievances had been addressed and awaited the praise to come forth. Then he winced as another drop of cold water fell upon him.

"Ack! Stupid leaky roof..."

Posted by: Living Arrow Nov 23 2013, 03:18 AM

Lyla kept quiet as Branwys unveiled what had been the most recent traumas in her life and before long the Breeder had tears welling in her eyes. This was just horrible! The pain that Branwys must have felt when giving up Tinka, her Klink if Lyla remembered correctly, and the depression that followed would probably have been too much for the taller blonde to cope with but the petite girl had managed to soldier on and come to the Grand Invitational. One thing was for sure Branwys was a tough pocket rocket and Lyla had a newfound respect for her.

"Branwys..." Lyla whispered mostly to herself, turning over her thoughts of the poor girl's depression while trying to think of a way to help her.

Lyla watched on as Branwys seemingly took control and was thankful when the boys had something to focus on other than leaving the girls behind in a dangerous series of tunnels. She did not, however, understand a word of what Douken was talking about when he referred to Team Inception, nor did she understand where he had gotten his information from. If, indeed, a criminal gang were at work here, wouldn't someone have seen them by now or heard more about them since they were pulling off such large-scale illegal activities? Lyla frowned at that information and decided to keep her opinions to herself - tempers were riding high enough as it was without her getting everyone worked up again.

*And I really shouldn't have hit Darius like that... I'll have to apologise for it later - he only means well, I guess.*

Lyla offered Darius a soft smile after he sent a pretty Beautifly on patrol and announced his dedication to keep her and Branwys safe - that was exactly what she had been expecting when Tag had left her in the hands of a 'knight'. Even so, she kept a hand near to I her borrowed Jigglypuff's Pokeball to reassure herself while keeping in mind the positions of the trump-card Pokemon on her belt.

*I guess we'll move on now but didn't that woman say that there would be angry and confused Pokemon down here? Why haven't we seen any already?*

Posted by: Master Houndoom Nov 25 2013, 10:08 PM

Branwys gaped at Douken. She couldn't hide it. She no longer had the will to do so. While the argument with Cesc had been a release of sorts, and the dumping her problems on Lyla had been cathartic (she'd have to remember to hug that girl a few more times), listening to the boys nearly sent her into conniptions.

For all of Douken's calmness and supposed leadership qualities, the words out of his mouth were... she couldn't think of words strong enough to describe them. Not without swearing, and she was trying so hard not to swear for the rest of the day.

"Team Deception? Really?!" The condescension in her voice dripped. She had, of course, kept up with the supposed news reports of a supposed Team Deception in Furoh, but research had shown that they were the most inept group ever to use a name starting with "Team". A group of four of them were foiled on Mt. Carello by teenagers with pokemon that were either still in their first form or barely into their second, and another whole crew had managed to set a forest on fire around them, causing the Emergency Rescue Brigade to send not one, but three helicopters to save them. And that my gave been a different team, Team Rogue.

"Wait, wait, wait... you're telling me this 'team deception'," she emphasized that there was no way a fake team was worth capital letters, and two fingers on either hand curled to make air quotes as she said it, "not only forced you and someone named after a cooking utensil to capture a legendary pokemon, but actually sent someone to take you out? The same team that can be stopped by four teenagers, and can't get out of a forest without setting it on fire? THAT is the big humongous threat?!" She folded her arms, walking after Darius, her eyes hooded. "That's it. You're not in charge anymore. Lyla can be in charge."

Posted by: Douken Sota Nov 25 2013, 11:15 PM

"Say what you want, but these men are opportunists, willing to use anyone they can dispose of fast, make major threats, and even as we speak, grow in power. Yes,I am sure they got their grunts that only follow orders, but the ones who lead the pack are a threat, especially since right now they seem to know about something they called a Master Ball and used it. Now they have Darkrai, Lord of Nightmares, in their possession and can silence anyone in their sleep if need be.

"And she is not named after a cooking utensil. Her full name is Pandora Gibbs. She is a friend of Lyla, her cousin and mine." Still, he could not help but pull out the ID card that the warrior he was with tossed so recklessly. Just seeing the face gave him an uneasy feeling in his stomach. "I hope she got out of here safely."

Putting the card away, turned over to the Gothita and asked, "Hey Nina, how well are you at seeing life forces?"

His response was a blank blink before hearing the reply echo in his head, "I possess those kinds of powers?"

"Don't know, but I am sure psychics got some kind of link. Who knows, if we are lucky, one may possibly be strong enough for you to sense."

"I can try... but I can't make any promises. I'm not a Riolu."

"I know. I simply want to be aware of anything." After his conversation with the psychic type, he turned to the party, and though lost his leader title, he still suggested, "Well, why don't we start moving?"

Posted by: Toogee Nov 26 2013, 11:04 PM

"Yes we should get moving soon. I wonder if Beauty Pageant has come up with anything. Ooh, speak of the devil!"

Beauty Pageant, er, Beautifly flew back into view, this time with something in his arms. Darius could not tell what it was from a distance, but it was definitely important enough to bring along. As the pokemon came closer, Darius still couldn't identify the cargo within his hands. Finally, the beautifly set down the package to reveal that it was a pokemon! It looked like a horsea, but not one Darius had ever encountered. Instead of vibrant blue scales and cute red eyes, this one had sickening purple and brown skin and...not so cute red eyes. Did it have three wings?! One would have thought it was a rotting corpse, but it flopped around, crying out for water.

"Skrelp skrelp skrelp!"

"By the Majesty of Kingdra, what is wrong with that horsea?!"

The dragon trainer was not sure how to help this poor mutated horsea. It couldn't even say it's own name! Perhaps the pokedex could offer a hint...

"No entry?!" Darius exclaimed in anger as he slammed the device shut. "It's clearly a badly deformed horsea! This piece of junk is supposed to have every living pokemon in...the...world..."

The look of frustration on Darius' face quickly turned to horror as he looked upon the creature before them. Yes, every living pokemon was in the pokedex. But what if this horsea wasn't alive? What if it was...undead? Dairus had the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHwag0dpKds running through his head. The dragon trainer heard of too many tales of the dead rising from their graves. Perhaps that is what happened down here?

"We should have never come here!" Darius cried out as he unsheathed his sword. "Every living pokemon is within that device. This can only mean one thing. That horsea is of the undead, and winter has come! Dear companions, we're witnesses to the dawn of the ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!!!"

"Skrelp?"

Darius faced the darkness ahead of them, waiting for a zombie machoke riding upon a zombie rapidash to lead the charge of their undying horde. There was nothing but silence, which only escalated the fear factor.

Posted by: Living Arrow Nov 27 2013, 02:46 PM

“You can’t be serious!” Lyla protested firmly to Branwys at her suggestion that the Breeder become the leader of their ragtag rescue group. What was going on!? One minute she had the mighty form of the majestic Tag Lee to cling to, then the shiny-armoured form of Darius the knight had been promised as her protector until Mr-Legs-Douken had been appointed leader. So why, all of a sudden was she in charge!?

“Branwys, I can’t! I’m not-!” Lyla pleaded, grabbing both of the smaller girl’s hands in her own. “I-I’m not very good at… What I mean is, sometimes I’m not…”

Douken’s insistant claims that some evil terrorist organisation was at work unsettled Lyla a little more than they had at first, his tone and persistence seemed so genuine that she paused for a moment to consider… No – it ws too silly to really think about properly.

Darius’s borrowed beautifly made a swift return, carrying what the knight identified as a mutant horsea. Lyla almost instantly turned her nose up at the shredded fins and gnarled scales that made up the ugly thing’s body but when Darius’s cry that the Pokemon was a zombie filled her ears, only action was on her mind.

“ARGH! Zombie?!” She screeched, snatching for a Pokeball and throwing it wildly. “Get rid of it, Jigglypuff! Pound attack, now!”

Leaping free of her Pokeball, the round pink Pokemon dove upon the ugly horsea and punched it square in the jaw with a well-aimed Pound that sent it flying straight into the far wall. It hit hard, letting out a strangled gasp of “Skkkrreeeeelp!”.

Lyla frowned. “Did it, like, say ‘help’?”

Although Lyla had an ability to understand what baby Pokemon wanted when they made certain noises, there was no way she could actually translate Pokemon talk… Despite the shadows creeping towards them through the hallway from the direction the Beautifly had brought back the sickened Horsea. With her eyes widening, Lyla took a step back from the advancing shapes in the dark and edged slightly behind Branwys.

“Not in charge!” She protested once more. She poked Branwys lightly on the shoulder. “Tag… You’re it?”

Posted by: rt117 Nov 27 2013, 07:02 PM

(apparently i've been waiting for the wrong thread the whole time )

"Damn it... why do you have to be so quick for something so small..." Tikal sighed, finally nabbing the small Oshawott which had decided to make a run for Darius, scalchop still in hand as he waved it about. Recalling the small water Pokemon into its Pokeball, she heard what sounded like a screech coming from further down in the tunnel, in the direction that Darius and a few others had rushed toward.

"Now what..." she protested, rubbing her temple. All she wanted was to get her Pokemon and move on to the next gym, rather than get wrapped up in some ridiculous mess that had swapped out all her Pokemon. Shaking her head, the girl continued to run down the tunnel, where the sound of shouting could be more easily heard. Something to do about zombies apparently.

"Zombies? That's ridiculous... there's no such thing as..."

Nearly running into Darius in midthought, she peered over the armoured man's shoulder, to see the familiar figure of a Jigglypuff punch a small brown Horsea with a Pound attack. The girl blinked, almost recognizing the Jigglypuff as her own for a moment. That familiarity was quick to fade however, as while it was the same species as her own companion, it wasn't hers. No, hers was a bit more timid, not readily jumping out and pounding another small Pokemon.

But just what was that thing? Surely it wasn't a Pokemon she had seen before. And with Darius' open protest of his Pokedex not holding any data, it was clear that the Horsea-like creature was not a Horsea.

Still, the small, now injured Pokemon didn't seem to pose any threat toward them. As it let out a weakened "Skkkrreeeeelp", the girl cautiously moved forward, crouching in front of the Pokemon. It flinched, letting out another noise while trying to hop away. Carefully the girl scooped it up with both hands, in an attempt to calm it down. Still frightened, the small brown Pokemon proceeded to squirm, a stinging sensation running through her hands.

"It's okay..." she spoke, trying to comfort the small creature which still protested. Somehow the stinging feeling was familiar, remembering how she had accidentally poisoned herself on a few occasions when tending to her injured Nidorino, back when it was a Nidoran.

Standing back up to full height holding the somewhat calmed creature, the girl looked toward the group that she had somehow become a part of. It was hard to see in the dim light, but her features had become somewhat pale, not from fear, but poisoning instead. "I doubt it's a zombie, and I don't think it means any harm either." she finally stated, carefully rubbing the small Pokemon on the crest of its head, in an attempt to keep the small Pokemon calm. "I doubt it's a Horsea either, because it's poisonous."

Posted by: Master Houndoom Dec 2 2013, 04:23 PM

Branwys gaped at Lyla. Such base betrayal, putting her in charge when obviously she wasn't... she... there was... she was so SH--

She couldn't even think it without glaring at herself.

"Fiiiiiiiiiiiine," Branwys said, drawing out the bowl sound to the length of time it took to roll her eyes. "I'll lead. But if any one of you steps on me," she said, pointing to the boys while holding Lyla's hand, "I will release the Snorlax. And he will EAT you."

It would have been amusing, except that her eyes, older than her height and apparently childish statement, showed that she was dead serious..

Her leadership abilities were put to the test almost immediately when the Skrelp showed up. Branwys found herself stepping back, not in fear, but in incredulity at the suggestion of zombie pokemon. Her left hand went up near her cheek, pinky and pointer fingers pointing straight up, the two middle fingers curled downward and held in place by her thumb.

"ZOMB--" She sputtered for a bit while Lyla, the sweet, compassionate... flighty thing, sent the skrelp flying into a wall. She blinked. That was a tiny pink ball of... being a ball, and it had sent an intimidating pokemon flying. It just went to show, size really didn't matter. Neither did pink.

Pink was suddenly respectable, and Branwys had no idea what to do with this twist in her worldview.

Another girl moved up to them, then to the zombi-- the skrelp, it seemed, until it added syllables, that was what Branwys was going to call it. She picked it up, then approached the group with it, holding it in reddening hands.

Branwys sidled next to Lyla as the girl carried a proclaimed poisonous pokemon to the group. In a stage whisper, she said to Lyla, loud enough to be heard, "If she turns, aim for the head..!"

She was about to proclaim to the girl that she shouldn't have picked up a strange pokemon (as they had a chance to be, you know, electrical or burning or POISONOUS,) until she saw the same shadows Lyla had, but closer. From around the same corner that the skrelp came from came what looked like a gourd with a face, massive and floating as much as walking toward them, surrounded on two sides by what looked to be two walking evil trees and a whisp of smoke with a wooden mask.

Branwys' eyes went wide, and it was only her pride that kept her from appointing the newly poisoned girl the leader.

She was half afraid, when she turned to look at the new-comer, she'd be gaunt, undead, and leading these pokemon in a dance.

Posted by: Douken Sota Dec 2 2013, 09:35 PM

Douken couldn't help but blink at everyone's reaction when the "zombie Horsea" came into the picture. It wasn't in the Pokedex, so that meant it was a threat? "Uh, guys," Douken tried to get out as the chaos ensued, which involved Lyra summoning a Jigglypuff to attack it. "Guys..." That was when the newcomer came in, taking the mysterious Pokemon in hand and trying to calm it, though her face didn't look right.

Walking over to Tikal, he dug into his bag, soon to pull out a Pecha Berry and handed it over. "You should eat this before the toxins run deeper in your body," he advised before offering the Skrelp an Oran Berry. With those two taken care of, it seemed more guests had come forward, and sure enough, it was nothing they were familiar with.

"Guys, calm down," he said, stepping forward over to the new appearances and crouched up in front of them, putting out some more Oran Berries. "What if these are a new species of Pokemon in themselves? Think about it, we didn't know about Pokemon like Gothica here from that ooone placcceeee... Unova, right! Anyways, what's to say these are Pokemon that are new to the region that the dexes are not up to date with? Its one hell of a discovery, if you ask me.

"Speaking of Gothica," his head turned to the Psychic on his shoulder and asked, "Think we can talk to them?"

Posted by: Toogee Dec 3 2013, 09:09 AM

"Butterball, blow these fiends back to hell! Gust!"

"Beau. ti. FLY!"

As soon as more shadows appeared, Darius' focus was on the zombie horde (of three) before him. The winds from the gust attack blew around him, drowning out whatever sensible comments were being made behind him. He had to shout just to be heard from the windstorm.

"SAVE YOURSELVES! I'LL HOLD THEM OFF! WARN THE WORLD OF THE COMING ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE! MAY I BE REMEMBERED FOREVER! FUS RO DAH!"

If the dragon trainer were to die here, it would be a fitting end to his otherwise short legend. Saving those he was charged with protecting while halting the cataclysm before him: such stories would be passed on as legend to the surviving population. He would inspire the next generation into fighting off the undead and ending their reign once and for all. Every son of Furoh would be named Darius in his honor. He just wished he could be around to see it happen.

Anyways, the beautifly's gust was focused on the supposed leader of the group: the animated pumpkin. Darius hadn't realized how good of a choice the attack was: even if his enemies weren't zombies, they were part grass.

Posted by: Living Arrow Dec 7 2013, 01:04 PM

From her spot hiding regrouping behind the tiny shoulders of Branwys, Lyla panted heavily after her borrowed Jigglypuff had dealt with the rotten Horsea and thanked the Powers That Be that she had been entrusted with such a capable Pokemon. The round pink ball waddled back to her side quickly, getting a tickle of praise between his ears where a curl of hair dangled over his face. Lyla had always loved round pink Pokemon and this Jigglypuff was no exception. Her hand froze, however, as the forms of some decidedly non-pink non-round non-cute Pokemon introduced themselves to the already-crowded tunnel.

“Eep…” Lyla moaned as the creepy beings advanced upon them, finding only Darius as a barrier between them.

Without warning, Darius attacked and yelled for the rest to run for their lives and Lyla could only respond in one way. Swooooon… She caught herself quickly, almost taking Branwys down with her, but managed to hold her unsteady footing. How brave of Darius! For him to throw himself so willingly into battle for the rest of them to survive… His earlier discretions were certainly forgiven now.

*OMG he got hot all over again!*

Lyla bit her lip, her flight response not kicking in as quickly as it normally would. She would, after all, be alone if she deserted the others in panic and there was no way she was about to let that happen.

“Er…” Lyla leaned down, closer to Branwys. “Shouldn’t we help?”

“Jiggly!” The proud balloon at her hand cried, patting Lyla’s leg confidently. She nodded to him.

“Go for it, Jigglypuff! Hyper Voice, now!”

Posted by: rt117 Dec 7 2013, 01:52 PM

"I'm surrounded by idiots..." Tikal sighed to herself, slapping a hand over her face as Brawnys declared to aim for her head if she 'turned'. If only they would stop and realize how ridiculous that sounded. That was when one member of the group broke away, handing her a Pecha berry, and the small traumatized Pokemon an Oran berry. She took the small fruit with thanks, quickly popping it into her mouth. Almost right away the poisonous sensation that had been spreading from her hand was gone.

"Thanks." Tikal smiled, glad that at least one other person hadn't been drawn into the nonsense. Perhaps it would make things a bit easier to have one other logical person to help her out, then get stuck in the scenario that everyone else had apparently decided on. She was about to say something else, when the piercing shriek from the Jigglypuff caused her to wince, and try to cup her ears with her one free hand. She was fed up with trying to deal with the rest of those she had been stuck with, as they obviously wouldn't listen to reason if Darius continued to try and play 'hero'.

"I've had enough..."

And with that, she moved her free hand down to produce a Pokeball, calling forth the Meganium that she had obtained during the mixup.

"Meganium, use your Sweet Scent to calm everyone down." she called over the screeching Hyper Voice. Facing the supposed allies, the large Grass Pokemon let loose a pleasant aroma from the large flower around its neck, to clear the minds of those who breathed it in.

"Now can you all just please stop fighting for just a minute, and listen to some logic?"

Posted by: Master Houndoom Dec 10 2013, 09:41 PM

Branwys shook her head as the jigglypuff's hyper voice sounded. She had just potentially embarrassed herself in what started as a joke, playing along with the zombie craziness some of the others had begun, which had spiraled out when new pokemon had appeared. She put her fingertips to the bridge of her nose and forced herself to calm down.

Things happened though. his she was used to, and didn't even assume that it was done on purpose. She was small, she knew, and people tended not to listen. Douken helped the girl with the skrelp, who had reacted... exasperatedly at Branwys' joke (really, what should she have expected? Sarcasm by imitation often didn't look like sarcasm or imitation). Lyla and Darius attacked the oncoming "horde" (and lets face it, these things were freaky....) And then...

Aaahhh, that sweet, Sweet Scent.

A calm drifted over the scene as the girl, who had yet to state her name, appealed to the course of logic. It was a sweet scent in and of it self, and while Branwys was hardly prone to the thought process in and of itself, she had an appreciation for it.

"She's right. We can't go attacking willy-nilly at anything that's coming our way. Obviously there's new pokemon afoot. We're here to find and rescue lost event-goers, not act like this is a dungeon crawl. These guys, creepy as they look, did nothing but come walking down the tunnel. We have to keep our heads together and find those people!"

Posted by: Douken Sota Dec 12 2013, 05:13 PM

For the love of... He tries to bring up an idea that does not state zombies, and then knight-boy yells more and attacks! No since of chivalry or a mind in this guy's head, is there? he asked himself, the stress making him once again adding in a feeling of light-headedness. One that quickly turned to painful ears from a close by Hyper Voice from the Jiggilypuff.

Thankfully, the next attack to come out was a lot more relaxing Sweet Scent, hopefully relaxing everyone before the next oncoming action of stupidity. "Did everyone get that out of their system now?" Douken shouted back, making sure no one was going to attack again. Though one he was sure, he sighed and turned back to the collection and reached his hand out before touching one of the trees.

"Hey, hey, hey! Watch what you are doing there!" was shot straight into his head once he made a connection. Still, a smile came onto his face.

"You guys look like you have a good set of ears, yet not bothered by the Hyper Voice. Guess that means you are all Ghosts?"

"Well, well. Look who has got some brains here." Watching the tree cross his arms, he muttered, "So what now, gonna beat us up then walk past our lifeless bodies?"

"No, no. We misunderstood. You are simply not new to the region, so our 'dexes don't have information. One of us simply jumped the gun and thought zombies were invading." There was a small pause of statement before the tree let out a rich laugh.

"Oh man, and here I thought I've seen it all. Still, guess that's what they meant by the Introductory Parade. Tell ya what, why not some quick introductions here? Me and my sis here are Trevenant. Back behind us is Big Boss and brother-in-law Gorgeist. Finally, this little one is their daughter, Phanthump." With each one giving a wave in their introductions, Douken followed up by relaying the information to the rest.

"Okay, what about the little one in her arms," he said, pointing to the first accused zombie.

"Of, him? He's a Skrelp. Careful though. He is a cuddler, yet forgets about his Poison Touch. Don't know how many people got sick because of him."

With a quick chuckle, he added that information back before letting off a sigh. "Okay, now to business on hand, do you know if there is anyone in here that got trapped by the chaos?"

Posted by: Toogee Dec 13 2013, 02:20 PM

Though Darius wanted to be the hero of this tale, he couldn’t help but feel glad that Lyla joined in with her pokemon. He could appreciate a woman that wouldn’t be relegated to damsel in distress status so easily. He could have done without the hyper voice in his ears, but once he recovered, the dragon trainer was ready to lay the smack down on the jolly green giants.

That was until Tikal ordered a sweet scent that zapped Darius’ battle spirit away. The dragon trainer was astounded that she wanted to appeal to logic to a bunch of mindless zombie trees. Yes, he still believed they were zombies; he simply lost the will to fight them. It was then that the spiky haired kid adjusted his tin foil hat and started talking to them. Darius could not tell if they trees were talking back, so it appeared Douken was talking to nothing…and somehow getting a response. The dragon trainer stepped away to get Lyla’s opinion on this development.

“You know this kid? Is he always this crazy?”

In response to Douken’s question, the trevenants waved the others towards them, leading them deeper into the tunnels. As the others couldn’t understand a word they were saying, silent gestures would have to do. The gourgeist, having shaken off the gust attack, led the way, whistling a happy but very eerie tune that echoed through the hall.

“Let me guess. The survivors are this way. And we’re following the zombies to them? Oh sure, this is a great idea…”

Posted by: Living Arrow Dec 15 2013, 09:40 AM

By the time Lyla’s Jigglypuff had ended its intensely piercing Hyper Voice and the Sweet Scent from Tikal’s Meganium had calmed everyone down, the breeder was feeling suitably embarrassed. In the lull of battle where everyone could stop and think for a moment, it becamse rapidly clear that the strange Pokemon before them were not there to battle.

*And they weren’t hurt by Jigglypuff’s attack, either…* Lyla thought to herself, remembering the sensation of frustration that had stung her after the pink ball had unleashed its move. *So these must be Ghost-types, I guess?*

Douken’s tone was a little harsh and more than a little condescending for Lyla’s liking, even though he was right. She buttoned her lip and motioned for her trusty Jigglypuff to come back to her side where she picked him up and hugged him close. Even after the whole debate about who was going to lead the rescue mission through the tunnels, it did not seem like anyone had really stepped up to the official plate. Then again, Branwys seemed to be the best option and hadn’t exactly turned it down after Lyla had.

“Gonna call you Jiggers…” Lyla muttered to the balloon Pokemon in her arms, producing a non-commital shrug from her temporary partner.

“You know this kid?” Darius sidled up to Lyla, “Is he always this crazy?”

Lya frowned and looked from the knight to her spike-haired friend.

“Yeah, I guess we know each other well enough.” She admitted, remembering their time spent together in Petropolis. “But we haven’t spent that much time together. I didn’t know he could…”

*Do what, Ly? Use telepathy like Darryn? DARRYN!*

<Darryn, are you there?! Darryn!?> Lyla broadcasted her thoughts as plainly as she could but got no immediate response. Either her cousin was out of range, preoccupied, or… the last option wasn’t worth thinking about. No way was Darryn dead.

“I didn’t know he could talk Pokemon, I guess.” She finished up, keeping her cousin’s secret safe once again. “Maybe it’s just Trainer intuition?”

With whatever conversation had passed between Douken and the evil-looking tree, the pumpkin with wide arms began to lead the way deeper into the tunnels while singing an entrancing, heart-breaking melody. Whatever the song was it made Lyla want to follow closely just to continue listening to the mournful voice and sway with the lilting tones of the song.

“Oh sure, this is a great idea…” Darius’s sarcasm was heavy but Lyla couldn’t hear it.

“A great idea.” She agreed softly as she followed the ghosts deeper into the tunnel.

Posted by: Master Houndoom Dec 16 2013, 05:23 PM

"A great idea is not standing around making needless sacrifices for a bad cause."

Branwys didn't censor herself. She was tired, she was world weary, she missed her pokemon, and she wasn't impressed with anyone in this group, least of all herself. She reached down an patted the poochyena, who had never really been put away, and followed after. She nudged Darius' arm, a process that involved her reaching up and shoving his elbow.

"Look, I appreciate your bravery. Really, I do. But we, Lyla and I, and even these guys who's names I don't know, who are no less important than us, need you to be able to stick around. Running off and leaving us behind is not OK, it doesn't help use when you do that. Volunteering to stay behind while we scramble for help also doesn't work when there are other options available to you. I- WE need for you to think of how to stick around, keep us and yourself safe. Sacrifice makes for a great story, but it's not always tactical sound when you're trying to protect someone: The first act should never be sacrifice, or you fail in your duty for any other danger we might be in. OK?"

Without waiting for an answer, she moved over to Tikal. This was going to be harder. With Darius, it was more of just saying what she thought and moving on, letting him choose whether or not he listened. She cared, but she wasn't so blind to think he would listen to, and she quoted, the hobbit. With Tikal, though she didn't know the girl's name, she had made a fool out of herself. That was never easy for Branwys to swallow, especially knowing she tended to act first and think later. Her family blamed whatever it was that kept her short making her hyper and flighty as well, but she felt it was an excuse. It didn't keep it from happening t the worst time.

"Um, miss... I... I just wanted to say I'm sorry for my joke back there, about aiming for the head if you 'turned'. It was just so dumb people were bringing up zombies, and I let myself get carried away with it, even if it was a joke." She sighed and reached into her bag. "I have some rubber gloves here, if you want to use them to help with the... uh... skrelp, I guess it's called. That's what it was saying, anyway. They're huge on me, but they might still be too small for you..." she rummaged through her bag and pulled out a small box, like a tissue box. "Poison pokemon can be dangerous bare handed."

Next she moved back to Douken. She wasn't sure what to say to the boy. He still rubbed her the wrong way, but he wasn't doing it on purpose. She hoped. Was he? No. But maybe... She stopped her thought process and took a breath. "Look... we didn't get off on the right foot, and you probably won't even listen to me, but I'm going to drop this on you: You shouldn't let the first words around people be how you think they're pawns. It puts them off... also, and this is just a pet peeve of mine, but that," she said, pointing to the psychic floating next to him, "is a gothita, not a gothica. Unless you named her Gothica, then I apologize... anyway...."

Without much preamble, she drifted back toward Lyla, reaching up and taking her hand, not quite looking up into the girl's eyes. Some leader she turned out to be.

Posted by: Toogee Dec 25 2013, 08:30 PM

Darius was a bit bewildered that Brawnys had come up and ranted about everyone’s behavior. OK, she didn’t sound like she was ranting, but let’s face it, it was a rant. She didn’t want Darius to run ahead or stay behind, so it seemed. After she had told everyone off in the nicest way possible (going so far as to correct Douken’s spelling), Brawny’s went with Lyla and did exactly what she told Darius not to do. He already didn’t appreciate being told how to be a bodyguard by some know-it-all who didn’t look like she was out of grade school (maybe he would be more willing to take her advice if she actually was a hobbit…). The least she could do was follow her own advice and wait for the others. And he would have told Brawnys that had she not run with Lyla behind the resident pokemon. Clearly she could dish it, but it didn’t seem she was willing to take any criticism herself.

As for the formerly zombie pokemon, Darius was still trying to figure out what to make of them. Clearly, no one was on the zombie theory anymore. But were they really going to follow these strange pokemon? On one hand, they were already told that these pokemon were hostile. On the other, there was really nowhere else to go (other than back out). If they were to rescue whoever was down here, they had to follow. And so, Darius picked up his walking speed and followed Lyla and Brawnys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLFW2t3JDzY, while the little phanthump whistled along. It was quite a creepy tune, but what would you expect from ghost pokemon? What was strange to Darius was the increasing amount of roots appearing on the walls; he could have sworn one of them moved. Still the group followed their hosts, leading all the way to…a dead end?

The room they were end appeared to be a computer room, or was one at some point. Everything from the monitors to the linoleum floor was reclaimed by nature. The entire room was covered in roots, moss, vines, and even a few flowers. A broken ceiling pipe provided a tiny waterfall, draining into the center of the room to create a pond. It was a very nice setting, but Darius pointed out the obvious.

“Wait, I don’t see any survivors down here…”

“What are you talking about? I see…one, two, three, four, five survivors!”

Before Darius could react to what was said (which was difficult considering he didn’t speak pokemon), roots grasped onto his legs, leaving him firmly stuck where he stood. More roots grabbed the legs of the other trainers like bugs stuck in a web.

“I must disagree, dear sister, for I see five thieves. Thieves who have come to pillage this place of our kind and the stones. The stones that would overturn the natural order. Yes, I see five thieves and NO SURVIVORS!”

Darius didn’t need to understand the pokemon to know that this was a trap. Luckily, he kept one of his pokemon out, mostly because he forgot all about the beautifly.

“Bartholomew! Gust”

The bug pokemon didn’t bother to correct Darius (it was the best of the names after all), advancing toward one of the trevenant. A mighty wind struck the tree, but the enemy stood. That was when Darius felt the life sucked right out of his legs. He struggled as the leech attack continued, nearly falling over from the attack. Meanwhile, the trevenant recovered from the flying attack.

“What you take from us, we’ll take from you! Struggle more and we’ll feast on your souls!”

“Ah…what sorcery is this?” The dragon trainer used his sword to keep himself up, hoping to gather enough energy to start hacking at his chains.

While Darius was obviously distracted with the prospect of dying a slow and painful death, there was a silver lining on the monitors around the room. Almost every one of them blinked one message: SYSTEM REBOOT IN PROGRESS. The last monitor was showing a camera feed. It was showing Pandora Gibbs typing away, trying to fix what she started. Trying to get everyone’s pokemon back.

Posted by: rt117 Dec 26 2013, 01:54 AM

Tikal listened to Branwys' apology as she stepped forward to confront her, and upon listening to it nodded, and offered her companion a kind smile. "It's all right, no harm done." she responded, looking back down at the small Pokemon she held in her hands. "Things got a little heated, and when matters have the potential to become dangerous, it can be hard to tell a joke from something meant to be taken seriously. Besides, it's easy to get sucked into mob mentality, and I don't blame you for that."

In truth, Tikal had a hard time staying mad at people, unless they were true jerks that showed no remorse for their actions. While she barely knew Brawnys, or anyone in their group for that matter, she always tried to be sure to give people a chance. She would rather have friends than enemies after all.

Accepting the rubber gloves and tissues that were offered, the girl took them in thanks, attempting to juggle the two items, plus the somewhat calmed Skrelp. Fortunately once the gloves were on, things were a little easier in handling the poisonous Pokemon. "Thanks for the gloves too." she added, rubbing the snout of the Skrelp with her new gloves. "When my Nidorino was younger, I got frequent poisonings from its Poison Point ability. Unfortunately you never really get used to it."

With that, the group seemed to continue on further down the tunnel, following the small group of Pokemon they had encountered. Hoping to make a friend from Brawnys, she took to walking alongside her, hand brushing against her pocket full of Pokeballs, filled with Pokemon that did not belong to her. While there was hope that the group of Pokemon they had encountered were friendly, she couldn't help but feel some unease amongst the group about the strange species.

They soon entered a dead end, filled with all sorts of seemingly deactivated computers, a strange yet beautiful mix of machine and nature elegantly displaced about the room. Tikal set down the small Skrelp, which proceeded to hop toward the body of water that had formed near the middle of the room, before proceeding to dig out her camera from her bag. The fact she had forgotten to charge her battery was obvious, as she was greeted by a warning about a low camera battery. She zoomed up on the Skrelp, making sure to take a couple of photos, before slowly circling about the room and the group, snapping a few shots of nature's reclamation of human's design.

Posted by: Douken Sota Dec 26 2013, 08:05 PM

"Sorry," Douken answered back from the rant, scratching the back of his head, "Things have been hectic during the past months. Attacks from the Disciples, being used as a pawn myself for deception to get Darkrai, getting as close to dying as possible without actually crossing over, and now someone trying to kill me... Today was supposed to help relieve me of my stress before the Gigarte Gym, not make it worse.

"As for your problem on Gothita, okay, my fault. Not a Pokemon I am used to, but her name is actually Nina." He talked as they walked into the computer room, where one of the first obvious things was how much nature had taken over the room. If it was like this for year, yes it would be understandable, but considering the attack was less than an hour ago, it was too suspicious.

This ws where the betrayal flag was waved as the roots of Leech Seed wrapped around their legs. So they were kept still, but that could not stop him from reaching his belt. "Sorry, but you ruined a good moment. Here, I thought we could of done thing without violence." Pulling a Pokeball from his belt, he toss edit out, calling, "Snap, Shadow Claw!" What appeared was a female Gible, noted by the lack of notch in her fin. Right as she came out, her claws were overtaken by a dark aura before slashing at the Big Boss.

Though as one of the screens flashed, Douken saw a familiar figure. One he was traveling with for so long, he would know her features anywhere. "PAN!" What was she doing here!?

Posted by: Living Arrow Dec 29 2013, 01:27 PM

Lyla’s eyes saw the path that they took become more and more covered in roots and vines and also saw the havoc of the once-computer-suite but she didn’t really see them at all. Her eyes stared, unblinking into the near distance as she walked hand in hand with Branwys completely entranced by the haunting melody of the Gourgeist.
Her ears listened to the conversation between Darius and the Ghost-type Pokemon but she couldn’t hear the words that were exchanged, nor could she interpret their meaning. She was numb, completely cut off from her immediate surroundings and trapped within the trance supplied by the Gourgeist’s curse.

With vines ensnaring her friends, Lyla was left relatively unscathed as the song of her mental captor led her to the twin voices of two smaller Gourgeist laying in wait at the other side of the pool. The harmonious call reached her ears as soon as she entered the room and, like a magnet, she drifted their way as though on auto-pilot. A tug on her arm was felt but not registered – probably from little Branwys – and a few swaying steps later she found herself between the two Ghost Pokemon that looked like a pair of mini clones of the original pumpkin creature.

The hairlike arms of the Gourgeist reached out to receive Lyla in a soothing embrace of welcome and together they guided her to a soft spot of moss at the back of the room where she sat down vacantly. Pink hairs wrapped tenderly around her body and began to invade not only her senses but her very airways as the song of the Gourgeist continued. Tendrils poured into Lyla’s nose and mouth, resulting in slight choking as they found a place to rest inside the teen breeder’s head.
With little faces grinning with delight, the two mini Gourgeist fed upon Lyla’s suffering like rampant Munchlax in a Supermarket without a care for the rest of the battling going on throughout the room.

Posted by: Toogee Jan 9 2014, 07:05 AM

Evidently, anything Darius did to attack the trevenant would only hurt himself. Clearly his beautifly wasn’t going to cut it; he needed something that could knock out the tree ghost immediately. If only he had his charmander…wait! In his time in Blackthorn, the dragon trainer learned to watch out for ice types, and everyone knows ice wreaks havoc on plant life. He had just the pokemon with him, and one hell of an attack to go along with it. His arms currently free to summon his pokemon, Darius grabbed a pokeball and called out for…

“Pupsicle!”

“Glaceon!”

The ice type eeveelution tensed up immediately upon seeing his substitute trainer being manhandled be a tree.

“You’re in trouble now, Treebeard! …wait, is that Lyla?!”

Darius’ attention turned to the back of the room as he saw Lyla with a face full of pink spaghetti. Rather, it was the flying pumpkins that had come to feed off of her; at least, that’s what it looked like. She seemed to be in a lot worse situation than Darius, so he directed his pokemon to her.

“Winter is coming, you sorry excuses for Halloween decorations! Pupsicle, give that magnificent dragon pokemon a volley! Blizzard on the little ones!”

The glaceon raced over to the back of the room, getting ready for a powerful ice attack. He stopped between Lyla and the twin pumpkaboos and unleashed the winter storm. Grass froze over as the biting ice storm blew right into the faces of the enemy, transforming part of the room into a winter wonderland.

Darius wasn’t sure if the enemies were down, but it was a pretty kickass attack. He was grinning at the excellent work…until the trevenant began draining him once more.

“You foolish boy! Only the master can save you and your friends now! Yes, Suicune will come and judge you for your crimes. We will feast for sure!”

Darius now had a dazed look upon his face. If the roots would let him, he’d have sat down to recover from the dizzying feeling he was getting. For now, all he could do was wait for whatever to show up or blackout.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 19 2014, 10:53 PM

Everyone was certainly much calmer, even despite following a group of creepily singing monsters down an unfamiliar hallway. She only half listened to Tikal and Douken, and it seemed that things were at least back in order for the time being. Who knews how long that would last.

As they entered what appeared to be a computer room, Branwys brightened slightly. Machinery. That was something she could figure out. The nature-stuff was nice and all, but now she was back in the world of machines. She wasn't the most computer literate person in Furoh, but she'd be damned if she couldn't maneuver her way through a system. The chance to scootch over to a computer to search for information disappeared quite quickly. A warning bark from the little Poochyena by her side caused her to jump, and perhaps it was that jump that saved her from being ensnared by the Leech Seed that had appeared at their feet.

She tugged on Lyla's hand, hoping to get the girl to move, but the blonde moved slowly, with soft, child-like steps towards a pair of pumpkins. She gave a harder yank, but found that Lyla did nothing more than continue her dead-set trek forward.

"This Bualadh craicinn place." she groaned as she backed away from the group. Lyla had just sat down on the ground, Tikal had been too busy snapping photographs to notice the sudden betrayal, and Darius was ensnared by the feet. If Douken hadn't been caught, it appeared that the two of them were really the only ones free.

"Poochyena, sic!" Obediently, the little pup ran forward to attack the two gourgeist who had Lyla in their clutches. Darius was a guy with a sword, and Douken and Tikal could probably handle themselves with any luck, but Lyla. Lyla was the closest thing she had to a friend down in this Arceus-forsaken place except for...

Well.

She didn't really want to think about him right now. As she stared at the Pokeballs on her belt, she suddenly found herself clutching at her own body as Darius' Glaceon unleashed a Blizzard in the room, eliciting a screech from all the haunted flora attacking them.

The dark-type puppy launched forward with the icy wind as Branwys fumbled around for another Pokeball. Picking one entirely at random, she threw it forward, mentally crossing her fingers for any of them except that stupid Snorlax.

The flashing light revealed a rather serene looking pokemon that Branwys recognized from Unova. She knew its pre-evolution was native to an area South and east of Castelia, so at least some level of familiarity could be shown.

"Lu."

"Yeah." Branwys nodded as the canine eyes met hers. The serious faced Lucario nodded sternly as Branwys pointed out the other Pumpkin Pokemon that had Lyla.

As the Lucario turned, the two heard a yelp of surprise as one of the Gourgeist batted aside the Poochyena, who hit the wall with a dull thud. Shakily, he got back to his feet, still bristling at his opponents.

As the two Pumpkin Pokemon leaned back, Lucario burst forward to join his Poocyhena ally. As the enemies' heads snapped forward, firing off a machine-gun burst of bullet seeds, the Lucario's paws flashed around with surprising speed, neatly deflecting each of the fired seeds and batting them harmlessly aside with lightning quick reflexes.

Poochyena shot out from between Lucario's legs, clamping down on one of the Gourgeist with his little fangs. The bite attack seemed quite effective, as the Poochyena wrestled the larger creature to the ground with just a flick of his head. The other continued to hover protectively over his quarry (read: Lyla), and began forming a Shadow Ball in front of it, aimed at the offending Bite Pokemon. But the ball never had a chance to continue forming as Lucario's Metal Claw suddenly lanced through it, dispersing the gathering ectoplasmic energy and scoring a swipe across the ghostly plant. Its song stopped as it screeched in pain, trying to move away, but refusing to let go of the girl who had sat down on the moss, effectively beginning to drag her away.

Posted by: Living Arrow Jan 22 2014, 04:33 PM

As soon as the Gourgeist’s song was broken, Lyla became aware of herself once more. And oh was she aware.

“Ylllrghhhh!!!!!” Lyla tried to scream through the hair-like tendrils that invaded her nose and mouth but it only came out as a muted gurgle. She snatched at the cords infesting her airways, tugging at them sharply but with no success of loosening their hold. Instead, the ghostly plant continued to drag her, by the orifices, through moss and vines and away from the trainers that had been trying to free her.

Lyla fought wildly, kicking and grabbing at anything she could while sticky, hot tears rolled down her flaming cheeks in fear and desperation. She was dragged over a thick root, eliciting a bump and grunt which was followed up with a hollow ‘clack’ as a Pokeball was tugged free of her belt. With a wail and the strongest tug she could muster, Lyla pulled back hard on the Grougeist’s arms to give her some slack then threw herself sideways to slap the Pokeball open.

“TYPHLOOO!”

The Volcano Pokemon, Typhlosion, instantly filled Lyla’s field of vision and was rapidly joined by a powerful jet of flame. The Gourgeist screamed again, it tendrils slackening and withdrawing slightly from Lyla’s head. With a desperate yank, Lyla wrenched the hair-like vines from her throat and collapsed into the moss, drinking in as much sweet air as her lungs would take. Weak and afraid, Lyla curled up into a terrified ball and began to sob uncontrollably while the Typhlosion laid waste to the ghostly plant that had assaulted her.

Posted by: Toogee Jan 25 2014, 02:08 PM

Just as Darius was getting ready to shut his eyes in weariness, the roar of fire erupted on the other side of the room. Lyla had managed to call out a typhlosion, releasing her from the pumpkin’s grasp. The dragon trainer would have been impressed had the poor girl not been curled up in a ball of terror. Brawnys, meanwhile, was handling her own quite well with her lucario. She would need assistance getting Lyla out of there though. If only Darius could harness enough energy to perform the rescue. That nap was starting to sound really good…

“Yes, sleep. Surrender and end your thieving ways.”

It was then that the glaceon returned. Eager to get out of the way of the angry typhlosion, the ice-type returned to find his temporary master about to succumb to death by salad. The glaceon leaped onto the trevenant and bit down with icy fangs. The tree screamed in pain as his body stiffened into a frozen statue. No longer being drained of energy, Darius summoned his remaining strength and unsheathed his sword. He slashed the roots jetting out of the ground, loosening his bounds enough to free himself.

Darius knelt down to rest his legs, petting the glaceon in gratitude. There wasn’t any time to rest yet; the others still needed aid. He set off in a run towards Lyla, lumbering forward from the weakness in his body. The girl seemed in no condition to take command of the fire type, essentially leaving the typhlosion to do whatever it wants. For fire-types, that often meant burn everything to the ground. They needed to get out of here before that happened. In the midst of the typhlosion-gourgeist duel, Darius reached out for Lyla’s arm in an attempt to drag her away from the fighting.

“Let’s move before we’re turned to barbeque!”

Posted by: Douken Sota Jan 25 2014, 03:27 PM

"I will not run..." Douken muttered, feeling the stings in his legs sap his stamina. Biting into the Sitris Berry, his eyes locked onto the ghosts before them saying, "If Suicune will place me on trail, then do so! I gave you trust and no form of hostility, and this is how you repay. I have only one goal here, and that is to make sure the real thieves don't get their goals, whether it be the level modification devices or the legendary Dogs themselves.

"Either way, saving the dogs may be able to help me pay back the life Ho-Oh saved me from up on Mount Cornello. If I am to risk my life to save them, then so be it! I have already met Death once anyways. If we meet again, I am sure she will ask me how her daughter is doing. Snap!" not even needing to call out a command, the Land shark came over, claws glowing white as she slashed at the vines at his legs, freeing him from his spot.

Turning his head to Darius, he stared at him and said, "If you're going to get her out of here, you best get moving now. I doubt Darryn would be pleased if I got her cousin injured too badly." Clicking a couple Pokeballs off his belt, he turned back to the collection of ghosts as he threw them out, revealing the Flaaffy and Bulbasaur that had been stuck with him. "Last warning: Stop this nonsensical hostility towards us or be ready to face this Amazon's wrath."

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 31 2014, 12:49 PM

Okay. Lyla free. Check.
Darius free. Check.
Douken free. Check.
Tikal free. Check.

Branwys ran through her mental checklist, eying the other members of her group. While she'd appointed pretty much everyone else as leader, it seemed that she had to at least keep tabs on them. Lyla (poor girl), was sobbing uncontrollably while her newly summoned Fire Badger rampaged around the remaining ghost plants.

What a ridiculous sentence. Branwys frowned. At least I'll have a fun story to tell the family.

Darius had made his way over to Lyla, and was trying to convince her to move out of the blast zone. For once, the Knight in Dull Armor made some sense. Leaving Lucario and Poochyena to handle their end of the fight, she moved over to Lyla as well, placing her hands gently on the girl's arms. Lyla's body was wracked with heaving sobs, and she seemed incapable of any coherent thought. Who could blame her? Ghostly flora had been inside her face. While the very thought of it sounded unpleasant, surely the experience was worse by at least a hundred times.

"Shhhh...shhh...Lyla. We need to move." She stroked Lyla's arm gently, whispering to her in the hushed tones that Zola and Agatha had always done for her.

Not very effective.

While the battle rampaged around, the Douken-kid had taken to standing in the middle of the room, holding out Pokeballs and monologuing in the fashion of protagonists. Branwys' eyes narrowed once more as her irritation shot up to dangerous levels.

"What the hell are you TALKING about!?" She found herself screaming towards him. "Legendary Dogs!? Who the hell said ANYTHING about Legendary Dogs!? STOP trying to REASON with the things that are trying to KILL US!!!" She looked to Darius, who had been severely weakened, and Douken. "The two of you-" she gestured pointedly at the Double Dumbo Squad of Douken and Darius, "-need to carry Lyla out of her before we're all roasted alive!"

Posted by: Toogee Feb 6 2014, 10:08 PM

Darius was befuddled with everything Douken had just said. Level device? Legendary dogs? The dragon trainer was still under the impression that they were out to rescue people. After going on about Ho-Oh and death’s daughter, Douken told Darius to get Lyla out of there, lest he upset Darryn, whoever that was. He then threatened their foes with a pick sheep a plant lizard, declaring himself a member of a female warrior race. Many questions went through Darius’ mind, but only one was important enough for him to say aloud.

“That’s a woman?!”

There was no time to delve on that revelation; they needed to get out before more foes appeared. Brawnys, who was quickly becoming the most annoying hobbit he had ever met, began berating him about carrying Lyla out of there. Getting nearly chocked to death by a spaghetti pumpkin monster, she could have used a minute to catch her breath. Brawnys was right however; they needed to move. He turned to Lyla, who was still shaking in fear. She was no longer the brave girl in the tunnels fighting back the zombie horde. Death had nearly taken her. She could use some of Darius’ bravado. The dragon trainer knelt down and scooped up Lyla into his arms, his arms behind her lower back and knees for support. He tried to get her attention with a silent ‘hey’, squeezing her a bit to let her know she wasn’t in danger anymore.

“No more tears, Ms. Moore. Soon, that typhlosion of yours will make some pumpkin pie outta that thing. Right now, we gotta get outta here though!”

Darius whistled over his pokemon to come to him; both the beautifly and glaceon were by his side immediately. He slowly stood up as he tried to maintain his balance while carrying Lyla. He wasn’t about to require any assistance with carrying a damsel in distress, no matter how much strength he had!

It was then that a wind blew behind the group. Something sailed over them. Darius turned his head to see, but there was nothing but the raging battle of typhlosion of gourgeist. When he faced forward however, he nearly dropped Lyla in shock! What he saw could was only known to the dragon trainer in tales around the fire. The embodiment of wind and water, adorned with crystal crown and regal mane, stood before them as a king to peasants. A few seconds went by as they stared at each other. Darius wondered what they were to do next; surely they weren’t going to fight a legendary pokemon.

“That is…that is…”

“A welcome sight for sore eyes? Yes, I would agree.” Suicune replied to the humans with telepathy. Though no actual words were spoken, his tone was that of benevolence.

“I see your hearts. You are indeed strong, but you are certainly not thieves.”

At this declaration, the legendary looked over to whatever remaining ghost plants were left standing, urging them to retreat. Darius could see the light at the end of the tunnel. This would be a fitting end to this quest.

Posted by: Douken Sota Feb 13 2014, 05:04 PM

"I told you I am a guy. My mom is one and she raised me like one herself. I am sure you still have your ideals and lessons driven into you when you were growing up as a kid." Still, the Legendary Dog showing up was a comfort as it ran the ghosts off. Heading over to the blazing Typhosion, he began to pet its cheek, telling it, "Calm down. The threat is gone. You can relax."

Once he was sure the Jhoto starter was calmed down, he turn back to Suicune as dug into his bag, pulling out a Sitris Berry, quick to toss it over to the "knight" of the group. He was perfectly fine eating berries that helped recovered energy, so he hope the kid would get the idea.

However, once he got in front of Suicune, the trainer took to a knee and bowed his head, even making the "borrowed team" look at him oddly. "Suicune, embodiment of the north winds. Thank you for your assistance. As I stated before, Ho-Oh, said to have command over the trio of you and your brothers, saved many lives from an avalanche. Many of us are here thanks to his flames, but in my respect, I need to repay him for the lives he had spare, even if the task is complex and would take the rst of my life to pay off.

"However, first there is something I must know." Looking up, he continued, "On the screen, there was a woman working on the computer. Most likely, she is trying to fix the problem and get our families of Pokemon back together. However, I fear its a friend that should of left the land to a safer region as she is pregnant. Please, do you know if she is safe?"

Posted by: Living Arrow Feb 14 2014, 11:01 AM

Lyla buried her face deep into Darius’s neck. She threw her arms around his broad shoulders and clung to him tightly, all thought of rescuing the supposedly trapped scientist fleeing her mind and being firmly replaced with a desperation for herself to be back in the safety of the Pokemon Center. She sobbed heavily, her chest convulsing with strained breaths, without really knowing what was going on around her.

A stiff wind blew against Lyla’s back, the chill causing her to tighten her hold on Darius more tightly than ever. She squeezed her eyes tight shut, all manner of nightmares suggesting themselves to her as she tried to give the hard breeze an explanation so far underground. An explanation, however, with a proud voice that carried a tone of authority and wisdom.

Lyla removed her face from Darius’s neck slowly, her cheeks stained bright red with fear and tears.

“Wuh…” She blinked at the majestically beautiful sight of Suicune. Its mane and tails somehow rippled in a non-existant wind almost as though the breeze they floated on came from inside the creature itself. “What is that?” She whispered to Darius cautiously. She still quivered with terror but at least she had stopped crying, transfixed by the beauteous Pokemon addressing them.

A grunt from beside her ear signified that her Typhlosion had returned to her side and was signalling for Darius to put her down. After a moment, the knight complied and the Fire Pokemon warpped its much warmer arms around Lyla’s body. With the enormous weasel spooning her like a cuddlye hot water bottle, Lyla felt a little more of the stress drain from her bones. The Ghosts were gone and a powerful Pokemon was protecting her for the moment – all she had to do next was wait for the others to lead her to the exit. She was tired, hungry and not in any mood to fight anything else that wanted to suck out her brains.

*Please let us get out of here fast!*

Posted by: Kamaitachi Feb 14 2014, 12:43 PM

Normally Branwys would've been miffed that Douken flat out ignored her. However, the incredible majestic sight of Suicune appeared before them, and she was stunned into silence from the voice in resonating in her head.

Now a Legendary Dog was standing before them. How the hell did Douken even know they were here? And why was he talking about Ho-oh now? Things were quickly spinning beyond the realm of reason, and she couldn't stand it. This land was absolutely crazy.

Unconsciously, she found herself drifting behind Darius. While it wasn't usually her modus operandi, a part of her figured that his armor would somehow protect both of them.

She watched as her temporary allies, Lucario and Poochyena, moved to stand defensively next to Darius, staring down the regal Pokemon in front of them. As if they were sensing Branwys' hestitation, they crouched into defensive stances, eying the Suicune distrustfully.

With Douken evidently in a world of his own, Darius too much of a nutjob, and Lyla too busy being comforted by a fire weasel, someone needed to communicate with the Suicune properly.

"Excuse me, your Highness." She wasn't sure what to call a Legendary Pokemon, considering she'd never met one before. "We're tired...and lost. We came down here to rescue people...but there's no one to rescue. Could you please show us how to get out of here. I...I just want..."

She bit her lip as she felt it begin to tremble. Tears stinging at her eyes as she reached out her hand and clasped the Lucario's tightly. Normally, she would've hated the sight of herself, crying like a little child, and holding onto the hand of something bigger than herself. It was precisely the image she'd tried to remove from everyone's perceptions of her. She was capable. She was strong. But now right now.

"I just want to go home!"

Posted by: Toogee Feb 15 2014, 03:02 PM

While busy staring in awe at the legendary pokemon, Darius had a berry thrown at him. His arms full of Lyla, he was unable to catch the berry. It was a rather cruel joke for the tired and hungry dragon trainer as the berry disappeared somewhere along the ground. Darius’ sad face disappeared into confusion as Douken bowed to Suicune and talked about Ho-Oh and a girl on a screen. As weird as that was, Darius couldn’t help but have mad respect for someone who could encounter the extraordinary and have the pokeballs to start asking favors.

It was then that Growl came behind him: the typhlosion wanted his rental trainer back. Normally, Darius would have made an argument to stay as the knight in shining armor, but really was too tired to resist. Lyla seemed to be doing better with the pokemon anyways. His weary body was thankful for that.

Brawnys finally broke down after all the day’s events, expressing the desires everyone had in a single fit. Suicune found the entire group to be very un-thief like. Clearly they were not part of the threat to this place; they really were down her to help. With that, the legendary began to answer their questions.

“Ah, yes. The girl seems to be exactly where we left her. She should be safe from whatever else happens here. You see, my brothers and I were asked to come here to help with this celebration. We were to provide security, both for the new pokemon you’ve seen here, as well as the other secrets within the lab. When we were attacked, we were sure the attackers and looters would be flooding in soon after. It is clear that you are neither. As soon as you are back to the surface, I shall retrieve the girl.”

“Speaking of which, the fastest way out of here would be the way you came. It seems many of you are weary of this place, so allow me to summon another set of legs for you.”

Suicune gave a howl that echoed through the room, followed by a strong breeze that flowed over the group. This was followed by the trotting of hooves and the rustling of bushes. While Darius thought the creatures were coming from the bushes behind them, it turned out that the new pokemon were the bushes. Specifically, four large goat pokemon adorned with foliage came onto the scene, lining up behind Suicune for further orders.

“These gogoat have longed served Man in traveling across their distant land. They would serve you today. Climb upon them and allow them to take you back to the surface.”

“Hell yeah!”

Eager to climb on giant goat bushes, Darius took up Suicune’s offer. Upon approach, one of the gogoat knelt down to allow the dragon trainer to mount. As if on instinct, he put his hands on the goat’s horns, which were conveniently placed like handlebars on a motorcycle. Darius nodded in approval.

“Man, it feels like I haven’t sat down in ages. Thanks, Mr. Goat!”

“Go Go Gadget Gogoat!”

Posted by: Kamaitachi Mar 4 2014, 04:28 PM

The most difficult part of the ordeal thus far? Branwys had to admit defeat once again. The team had come down into the tunnels to rescue any survivors...but all they'd accomplished was getting into trouble. They had not worked as a team. Leadership had been tossed around from person to person willy-nilly, and each person appeared to be at their wits' end.

And they'd yet to rescue a single person. They were the ones that had been rescued. By a legendary Dog. That everyone had been surprised to see...except Douken. Perhaps running into legendaries was a regular thing for him.

Good for him, Branwys thought bitterly. Let him be the hero. Someone has to be. She was amazed at how unfazed he had been the whole time. How not a single surprise had managed to catch him off guard. She didn't have that kind of strength, or apparent pre-cognition. She, like Lyla, had just been tossed about like a pair of rag-dolls. Darius, while probably physically stronger, and more prone to suspending his disbelief to the magical craziness that had happened around them, was more likely to wind up in an instution someday. And as crazy as he was, she found that she had warmed up to him some. Perhaps it was something about the crazy she knew, and was tangible, and she could actually reason with that she enjoyed. Darius had made an excellent knight. Cesc, her whatever-he-was-now was probably off gallavanting with the other time, being all daring and debonair and swashbuckling as he did. Even if she had been the one to bail him out time and time again, at least he had the bravado to appear strong to everyone around him. She found herself happy to be in the company of such strong men.

But that was the problem. Why was she relegating herself to 'being in the company of strong men'? Why couldn't she be the strong woman? The warrior? The protector? The Leader? Why had she broken down in front of the whole team...proving to the patriarchy that the men were the stronger sex. She'd let all of her fierce and independent sisters down. She was weak. She was the runt.

Sniffling, Branwys, with help from her concerned looking Lucario friend, clambered up onto the Gogoat, motioning for Lyla to join her. Hopefully they'd encounter Tikal on the way back up, or maybe the girl had already gotten to safety.

"Please...let's just go before something else horrible goes wrong." She looked over at Suicune with tearstrained eyes, ashamed at her utterly devastated appearance.

"Thank you." She forced a little smile, finding comfort in the majestic and serene gaze of the Dog of the North Wind. For such a cool Pokemon, it had such a nice, warm energy to it. She nestled into the Gogoat's flanks with her legs, rubbing the top of its head tenderly.

"Let's just get out of here, please?" She looked around at the team, clambering up onto their newfound mounts. "Sir Knight?" She gave a little smile to Darius, "Would you kindly lead the way?"

Posted by: Toogee Mar 8 2014, 10:38 AM

Darius perked up when Brawnys referred to him as a knight. True, knighthood was still on his large bucket list of titles to attain, but it was nice that the girl finally softened up to him. Perhaps it was the weariness from their troubles though. In any case, Darius had no problem heeding her wishes.

“Well, you heard the lady,” Darius told his steed, “Onward, to the light!”

With everyone mounted up, the gogoat took off, speedily dashing through the roots that covered the ground. It seemed someone pressed the rewind button on their journey, for the dragon trainer saw every twist and turn of their tunnel flash right before his eyes. It wasn’t long before his eyes finally caught the bright light of the outside. They were nearing the exit. Darius couldn’t help but cheer as they prepared to enter the outside world.

“WOOO! It feels like months since I saw that sight!”

All the while, a cool breeze blew from behind the group. Suicune followed them to make sure they would exit safely. The end was finally in sight…

Posted by: Douken Sota Mar 8 2014, 12:02 PM

"Thank Arceus," Douken muttered under his breath, finding out that she was safe. But it still held the question of why she was there in the first place! However, he couldn't ask right now, and Suicune probably wasn't all that sure of why she was there in the first place anyways. Still, this meant getting everyone else back to safety.

While Douken's team was full of mostly younger Pokemon, his team would of probably been seen as the weakest, but it was clear he was more experienced in these death-defying situations. Then again, considering all he had been through, there could be a surprise he was yet traumatized by it all. this still meant they had to return to the surface, in which Suicune offered new Pokemon to them known as Gogoat. Returning all but the Psychic type, he approached one yet to betaken, brushing its cheek as he stated, "We're in your care," before following suit and mounting the large Grass type. Checking back on Lyla and her Typhlosion, he made sure she was set up and ready before following along.

Still, he had to admit the Gogoat was fast and very responsive to sharp corners. It would be amusing to see one of these try and race Pan's Arcanine. However, it seemed that things were almost drawn in for a close.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Mar 8 2014, 01:09 PM

Justin Smart, one of the villains working with the bad guys here, was placed in charge of capturing Suicune. So, imagine his surprise when the first corner he turned in the water tunnel, he saw the beast of legends seemingly charging towards him, though in reality it was just towards the exit. It had a posse of odd looking grass pokemon (Justin could only assume) mounted by humans.

He moved both of his hands to grab two pokeballs off his belt. One of them housed Hitmontop, his trusty sidekick, and the other was an empty, specially made pokeball, designed specifically to capture Suicune. When the charging pokemon got closer to Justin's imposing body, they came to a slow. Not for fear of him, but because they didn't want to run the guy over. That was when Justin noticed Douken riding one of the unfamiliar pokemon. He sighed.

"I'm sorry," he said to no one in particular and threw the empty pokeball at Suicune. It didn't even wiggle as pokeballs tended to do before capture. It just fell to the ground, captured. It was unlikely, Justin figured, that Suicune would obey whoever were to use it, but he also figured it wasn't going to be used for battle. Likely caged, either for entertainment or for even more nefarious purposes.

Before the group of trainers could react, Justin summoned Hitmontop. "Y'all are gonna wanna just stand back," he said. "Don't get involved with this. For your own sake." He then summoned a Ninjask from another pokeball. "Hey girl," he said softly. "Grab me that pokeball really quick,"

She chirped somewhat cheerfully, clearly not recognizing the scope of the situation, and with incredible speed flew to Suicune's pokeball, picked it up and returned it to Justin. Ninjask had recognized Douken, and even went so far as to make eye contact and do another cheerful chirp. She would not be used in this battle, so Justin called her back. Hitmontop, as well, recognized Douken, but he was able to comprehend that, at the moment at least, they were enemies.

Justin didn't want a fight, but he also wasn't stupid. He was the villain, he had not deluded himself into thinking otherwise, and these were the heroes. They had to stop him. Moreover, running wasn't an option, not with them mounted. So, he summoned two more pokemon, Pinsir and Octillery. Hitmontop was far and away the strongest pokemon in the tunnel, but Octillery and Pinsir would have a tough time. Their purpose was primarily to support Hitmontop.

Posted by: Living Arrow Mar 8 2014, 01:09 PM

Lyla really didn’t care what Pokemon she had to sit on to leave that place as long as it got them out of there fast. By Suicune’s instruction, she moved to one Gogoat nervously, her borrowed Typhlosion keeping a protective watch over her. Even with the fire weasel so close, the obviously Grass-type Pokemon didn’t flinch as it waited serenely for the Breeder to mount it.

“Uh…” Lyla looked around nervously to see what the others were doing and found Branwys holding out a hand to her. Relived that someone still knew what they were doing, Lyla recalled the Typhlosion with a whisper of thanks and hurried to her side. She reached out to take the girl’s smaller fingers in her own and began searching the beast’s side for a step or foothold or something... As thought he had read her mind, Douken appeared by her side to offer a quick bunk-up onto the goat to sit behind Branwys and together they began retracing their steps to the exit.

Although fast, Lyla couldn’t say that the Gogoat things were very comfortable. Bouncing around on the back of the fennel-scented creature, she locked her arms around Branwys’s narrow waist and spent the journey to safety promising herself a million oaths that she would never allow herself to do anything so stupid ever ever again.

*I won’t be thrown around and stomped on like that… Never again… I won’t be the weakling that everyone expects me to be… Things are going to change… I’m going to be strong… You just wait…*

“Hey… who’s that?” Branwys’s voice and nudge brought Lyla back to her senses. She looked up quickly to find a plain-looking guy, with a little muscle, standing in their way of the exit. The mini-herd of Gogoat automatically slowed, drawing to a stop so that they didn’t knock the poor guy over, but the blue dog Suicune continued its race through the tunnel.

Lyla could see the guy’s lips move but couldn’t make out what he said right before he threw the Pokeball. Maybe it was the classic “Pokeball, go!” or even “Suicune, you’re mine!” but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that the Pokeball sucked in the wondrous being that had showed the battered trainers to the exit and then stopped moving as soon as it hit the ground.

“No!” Lyla cried, holding up a hand to her mouth with her gasp. How could someone just capture a legendary Pokemon as simply as that?! Was that even legal?! She’d never heard of anyone actually owning a Pokemon that you only heard abot in stories and yet this guy… this guy… who was this guy!?

The evident Pokemon nabber used a speedy Ninjask to retrieve his Pokeball while three other battle monsters were summoned into the tunnel. Whatever was going on, his motives were less than admirable and he was certainly looking for a fight. Darius and Douken both looked ready to jump right in but Branwys was feeling as withered as a daisy on Mount Pyre.

*Stop him!*

Lyla heard the voice in her head but she couldn’t move. If this random guy could capture Suicune – Suicune – then what chance did she have at leaving even a tiny scratch? There was no chance… maybe one of the boys…

*No more caving!*

But if they were able to battle then surely she shouldn’t…

*Don’t just sit and watch! Don’t be who they all expect you to be!*

With her pink and white dress in tatter, smeared with dirt and stained with her tears, Lyla really didn’t look the part of a hero. Heck, she didn’t even feel like one. But she was damned if she was going to let someone just take away the one thing that had just saved their pretty behinds from face-invading ghost plants!
She threw a leg over the back of her Gogoat and slid to the ground, grabbing for a Pokeball and running to the front of the group.

“Go, ALAKAZAM!” She screamed, her blonde hair a mess of ragged curls around her otherwise pretty face. “Go get ‘em!”

Posted by: Toogee Mar 8 2014, 10:16 PM

Just as the end was in sight, a man emerged with a pokeball in hand. In a matter of seconds, he threw a pokeball. The breeze died. Suicune was captured without a struggle. Darius was flabbergasted. To capture a legend was unheard of, but to do it with such ease? It just wasn’t possible. The dragon trainer dismounted to join the others in meeting one last threat.

“No, you see, we’re already a part of this. We’ve been a part of this since the explosions started. And judging from the fancy pokeball you just used to capture our friend, I’d say you’re a big part of this too. If it’s a fight you’re looking for, this will be the quickest fight you’ve ever been in. Then you’re gonna let Suicune go. And then you’re going to tell us what you did with our pokemon!”

It didn’t matter if Darius didn’t have any proof. As far as he was concerned, Justin was the mastermind behind all of this. Lyla was surprising quick to battle; Darius wasn’t about to be behind the others as well.

“Get going, Cherrim! Sunny Day!”

Darius summoned his overgrown unbloomed flower. Shortly after, the tunnel lit up like a bright dawn on a new day. The flower bloomed into a maniacal flower child, the crazed smile stretching across her face. Not only was she primed and ready, her ability upped the stats (attack and sp. def) of the group’s pokemon.

“For the North Wind!” Darius shouted as he drew his sword.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Mar 9 2014, 12:33 AM

One moment, Branwys had finally felt an impending sense of relief nestled between a trotting Gogoat and Lyla. In the next minute, the breeze died away as Suicune disappeared in a flash of light. With the majestic legendary gone...Branwys' hope withered away entirely.

The mysterious thug-looking man who'd captued Suicune had offered to let them go, and, honestly, the better part of Branwys just wanted to let him get away with it if it meant going home. Lyla and Darius immediately rose to meet the man who was clearly an enemy. And, after all, Suicune had saved them, and she did owe it to at least try. She wasn't confident in her skills as a trainer, and she'd just recently spent time having a mental breakdown.

"Lilligant!"

With Cherrim's Sunny Day, it only seemed like the logical choice. And, possessing Leaf Guard, she'd be protected from Status Effects. Though, from the intimidating looking Pokemon that the thug had procured, it didn't look like statuses were going to be the problem.

She didn't quite have the will to fight. Lyla, Darius, and Douken could handle the fight, she'd have to make do with supporting.

"Lilligant." Branwys called shakily, "Sleep Powder."

Lilligant, who didn't seem to share her makeshift trainers' lack of enthusiasm, let out a graceful twirl and unleashed a cloud of Pink Spores towards Octillery.

Posted by: Douken Sota Mar 10 2014, 02:48 AM

When a figured showed himself, Douken squinted to try to get a glance. That was when the Pokeball came and captured the Suicune. Yanking back on the horns, the Gogoat make a painful yelp as it stopped, looking back at the male rider as Douken saw the Hitmontop, soon followed by the Ninjask, collecting the captured Pokemon, greeting Douken before it took back off. "No," he muttered. "You have got to be kidding me." Hopping off the Gogoat, his eyes burned in rage as the light from the exit glared his glasses. "Why? You of all people... Is this how far Deception is willing to go? IS IT, JUSTIN?!"

Without hesitation, Justin had three Pokemon on his side. All of them his own. His response: Aside form the Gothica on his shoulders, he sent out the Flaafy, Bulbasaur, Hariyama, Gible, and Sudowoodo... so everyone he had on this rental arsenal. The rage in him shot another headache in his head, but he ignored it. There was no way he was going to let this man get away with this.

"EVERYONE, ALL OUT ATTACK!" Douken screamed out, charging into the battlefield himself. he didn't want to issue commands. He was going after Justin himself, so to held give cover fire, his Pokemon took the offensive. First off was Gothica, shooting off a quick Charm to the powerful Hitmontop to turn him into less of a threat as she rested on his shoulders. Familiar with effrectiveless on water types, the Flaaffy tossed an Electro Ball at te Octillary. With the sun set up, the Bulbasaur used growth to boost up her power as she felt the sun make her faster as well. Encasing herself in blue flames, the Gible charged forward with Dragon Rush to crash into the Hitmontop. Hariyama, as if wanting to take on the Hitmontop himself, threw out the challenge by throwing off a Fake Out to leave the top Pokemon open. Sudowoodo, following the Electro Ball, ran behind with a Wood Hammer set and ready, not worried about recoil thanks to his Rock headedness.

However, when Douken got to Justin, he himself threw a punch at the opposing villian, screaming, "IS THIS HOW YOU ARE GOING TO BE A FATHER TO PAN'S CHILD?!"

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Mar 13 2014, 09:39 PM

Justin took the hit to the face and his head jerked to the side from the impact. He was expecting it to hurt less, as Douken was quite the skinny guy, but he was very tall, so it's easy to forget that a lot of muscle can be there, just distributed more thin due to his longer arms.

He turned his head back to Douken and began rubbing his chin with his left hand. He pulled his hand away to look at the blood on it. For a second, he didn't even care. He deserved it. He was an asshole for doing all this, and Douken was right to be mad. But then the kid said something he probably shouldn't have. Something that made Justin's blood boil, and he didn't even quite know why for a second.

"Is this how you are going to be a father to Pan's child?" He shouted.

Justin's gaze moved from his bloody hand to Douken's eyes, but the rest of his body remained completely motionless.

"You know what, Douken?" he began. "Yeah. Yeah, it's how I'm gonna be a father to her child. But more importantly? It's how I'm gonna be a father to MY child." And he dropped his arms to his sides while stepping forward. Douken was taller, but Justin was not lacking in intimidation himself. "Tell you what, buddy. How about if you're a parenthood expert, why don't you go out and have yourself a kid?"

He wanted to go further. He wanted to call Douken out for being so obviously in love with Pan. For spiting Justin because of it. But he didn't know exactly how to say all he wanted to say. He didn't even really know what all he wanted to say. He just knew that there was more behind that punch than just a concern for Justin and Pan's future child, and it bothered him.

------

The battle was looking to be pretty quick. Hitmontop managed to get off his signature Fake Out Mach Punch combo on the Hariyama rushing towards him, stopping Hariyama's own Fake Out, but was quickly hit by a Charm, weakening his attack power. Meanwhile, Bulbasaur grew incredibly powerful due to the Sunny Day Growth combo.

Octillery was put to sleep and subsequently hit by a moderately powerful, yet super effective, electroball. Pinsir had yet to be targeted, but his trainer appeared to be locked in combat of his own. So, he just picked the target he knew he could do the most damage to - Alakazam was weak to his strongest attack, X-Scissor.

Hitmontop, from there, kept his focus on the Hariyama, but at this point, his weakened attack power meant it was going to be a slow fight. With Octillery asleep, Pinsir was pretty much the only pokemon on Justin's side who could do damage.

Posted by: Toogee Mar 15 2014, 09:59 AM

Darius was shocked when Douken went into a rage and summoned his entire team of pokemon. He wasn’t only upset about Suicune’s capture; he knew this guy. Not that the dragon trainer cared. As far as Darius was concerned, Douken’s rage would only work in their favor.

Darius took note of the sleeping octillery and decided not to leave him be. They were just fine facing just two of Justin’s pokemon. Besides, he really wanted to test out the Cherrim’s most powerful attack.

“Solar beam the sleepy one!”

The cherrim’s eyes glew with the brightness of the sun. Out of its psychotic smile emerged a laser beam that shot straight for the sleeping pokemon.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile, Pan finally stepped away from the computer. It was done. This horrible nightmare would be over soon. All that was needed now was time, but did they have it? Pan turned to find one of the camera screens was displaying nothing but static. It was her only link to Darryn and it was gone.

“No.”

She rushed over to see if she could make out any shapes, see if the people there were visible. Pan couldn’t lose this connection now, there was so much left to say. Not knowing whether Darryn could actually hear any of this, Pan made an attempt to say goodbye.

Pan wiped the tears from her eyes; it was time to go. However, her focus on one camera had blinded her to the events conspiring on the others. Her eyes caught sight of Justin, but he was in a fight with…Douken, Lyla, and others. One guy had a sword out! Justin was fixing to get clobbered by the angry trainers, but the others could easily get hurt themselves. Pan had to get over there and end the fight before things escalated.

“Droid, get these doors open!” Pan commanded as she summoned her golurk. The massive pokemon immediately went to work, slowly prying the sliding doors apart. The sound of twisting metal filled the room as Pan rushed over the glass display of mega evolution stones.

“We’re going to need all the help we can get,” Pan said as she grabbed the only stone that had a name related to one of her pokemon: aerodactylite. The researcher never encountered the term “mega evolution”, but if the name gave the correct hint, her aerodactyl had a chance to evolve. She summoned Valkyrie and held the stone out.

“Don’t do this if it doesn’t feel right-”

The aerodactyl cried out as she began to glow. Rocky protrusions emerged from her body. A far more terrifying beast was emerging before Pan’s eyes…

Posted by: Kamaitachi Mar 16 2014, 10:47 PM

Douken had just bodily hurled himself at the enemy. His entire team of Pokemon were out on the field, and now it seemed like chaos, just to take down the three enemies. It would have been hard enough to co-ordinate between Lyla's Alakazam, Darius' Cherrim, and her own Lilligant...but now there were too many allies on the field. Douken's rage had just thrown strategy to the wind.

But she couldn't really blame him. He evidently had some personal stakes in the battle, and that this man impeding their path was someone's baby-daddy. Pan, evidently, whom he'd spoken of back by the computer, and the now-captured Suicune had mentioned.

Lyla had lost it. Douken had lost it. Branwys was never sure if Darius had it to begin with...things were just mess upon mess upon mess. Her earlier statement stood; she just wanted to go home. With Justin occupied, it would be so easy, especially give her small stature, to just move past him and be on her way. Yet, the nagging part of her begged her to stay and fight. It wanted her to stay and support these people who she hadn't known up until today.

Perhaps that was the voice that Douken and Darius listened to more clearly than she. Maybe that's why they were the heroes.

Clenching her fists and pressing them against her side, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Just for a moment, everything seemed to slow as she breathed in. She pushed down the rising, bubbling fear within her and just observed the battle. So many Pokemon on the field. So many clashes and skirmishes. So much noise and sound. So many smells of attacks, of Gogoats, of random Pokemon all in an enclosed space. The singed smell of a Solarbeam. The heat from the sunlight that had somehow penetrated into the tunnel. Her Lilligant had already been boosted, and if she recalled correctly, had an ability that corresponded with Sunlight.

"Lilligant, Growth. Quiver Dance."

While all of the enemy were distracted, she would use the chance to power up her Pokemon on the field. With the constant boosts, it looked like she'd be able to take on the super-powered Hitmontop, especially now that it had been weakened by charm.

Alakazam appeared to be preoccupied with a Pinsir trying to bifurcate it with X-Scissor, so she looked to Douken's Gothita. She felt odd giving commands to another person's Pokemon...but she'd been doing it all day already. Douken seemed to busy duking it out to notice, so he probably didn't care.

"Gothita, can you link up all the minds of our Pokemon? Like, is there a way to make sure that at least there's no friendly fire here?"

She had heard of Psychics who could do that using telepathy, but the little Gothita...was she powerful enough to pull off such a trick?

Posted by: Living Arrow Mar 17 2014, 01:29 PM

“Alaaaaa!”

Lyla’s bravado faltered, her borrowed Psychic Pokemon forgotten, when she heard the declaration of the identity of the man barring the trainers’ way. He was the father of Pan’s unborn baby?! This… this what? Criminal? Had that been decided already? What was there to even confirm that? Sure, he captured a legendary Pokemon, but other than that he had simply challenged the group to battle him by summoning his Pokemon.

“Pan’s baby’s father?” Lyla whispered to herself. “Is this guy?” She froze on the spot, dazed by the shock of the revelation. Douken appeared to know him (big surprise there – he seemed to know everyone) and was particularly angry with him. The first punch was thrown early, without warning, and somehow had little to no effect. The other guy was also angry, his admission to Douken that his actions were less than honourable shocking Lyla even further.

*Does Pan know about this?* Lyla wondered, her eyes wide with alarm. *Is she OK with what he’s doing?*

“Ka! Alaaa!” Lyla’s Alakazam shouted for her attention, his battered form waving spoons at her madly. His frustration seemed to snap the girl out of her stupor and her battling fire returned.

“Get out of there, Alakazam! Teleport!” Lyla cried, already throwing another Pokeball. “It’s your turn again, Typhlosion! Hit that Pinsir with Flame Wheel!”

Posted by: Douken Sota Mar 28 2014, 11:05 PM

Douken's fist clenched tighter on his comment. He had the faintest clue about being in real love. Being surrounded by Amazon, women who saw men more as tools and preferred to keep them out of their society, he had to become who he was to simply be with them. Sure, all that time with Pan may have created actual feelings for her, but he accepted their situation at the Hotel. But now?

"You don't get it, do you?!" Douken yelled back, "Because of your actions, Pan is trapped inside here, and the only one who knows where she is at is in that Master Ball!" Lifting his hand up, h coldly stated, "Now hand over Suicune, or you will be NO ONE'S father! Cause you can hand it to me, or I will pry it from your unconscious body..."

At the request of Branwys, the Gothita looked over and scratched the back of her head nervously. It seemed her pseudo-master had gone a bit crazy with rage, so someone else tried advising something on a large level. She could connect with them one on one, but not as a whole, let alone an interweaving connection. Still, she tried her best to get as much as possible.

Not being able to budge as it snored, the Flaffy decided she should charge up even more, noted by the crackling along her wool before firing off a Thunder attack.

With her speed and power boosted up, the Bulbasaur thought it was time to fire down on the Octillary as well with a Seed Bomb, making sure it was down and out. Though why so many was needed for three Pokemon was the main question, taking care of some ca cause those unneeded to back down.

However, it seemed no one was quick ready to back off, as the Gible saw the Alakazam get endanger because of the large bug. Sharpening up her claws, she get her ready to show the Pincer her powerful Slash attack.

Sure, one Fake out interrupted the other followed by a quick attack, the Hariyama still stood, though heaving from the damage of the powerful Pokemon. Still, it was stupid for it to staying in grip's reach. Aiming to grab the Hitmontop, he would be able to throw him around into a Seismic Toss, suplexing the spinning Pokemon... back on his feet?

However, with so much action, the Sudowoodo was a little busy looking around, trying to figure out who he should help? Maybe take the bug? It seemed the least preoccupied, so he figured it was going to ready a strong attack. Maybe it should retaliate with a Sucker Punch. Yeah, that's a good idea! Just wait for a sign of an attack and hit first!

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Apr 15 2014, 07:15 PM

Justin was half listening to Douken as he spoke, but only enough to feign concern. His real issue was with the fact that his pokemon were losing. Bad. It made sense, too. These people thought they were fighting the bad guys on behalf of good, why would they limit themselves to 1v1 combat against a stronger opponent?

Fighting was clearly not an option (no matter how much Douken made him wish it was) and so his only other real option was to run. Fortunately, he was already holding the three pokeballs of his summoned pokemon. So, as Douken lectured him on the wickedness of his ways, he took a few steps back, pretending to look intimidated (doubtful, though, that he did a good job) but only really so he could get a good look at the fight and get a clear line of sight on his pokemon in order to call them back.

Then, very quickly, he lifted the three pokeballs simultaneously (two in his right hand) and called back Hitmontop, Pinsir and Octillery. Realizing he didn't have much time before the trainers got back onto their goat pokemon, Justin wasted no time. He turned and ran. Perhaps the cowardly thing to do, but he was the villain - He wasn't supposed to be brave.

Posted by: Toogee Apr 15 2014, 10:30 PM

Darius looked on as Justin summoned back his pokemon and retreated like any of his cowardly ilk. Well, maybe not that cowardly. He retrieved his pokemon before they were beaten to a pulp. Not that that was going to stop Darius from pursuing.

“Alright, no pokemon battles then,” Darius said as he summoned back his cherrim. “We’ll settle this like men.”

Brandishing his sword, the dragon trainer whistled for one of the gogoat. His gogoat, eager to avenge his legendary ally, raced to Darius’ side. He mounted up, switching the grip of his sword so the handle was out. Villain this guy may be, but Darius wasn’t about to straight up murder Justin. Not when he had answers about their pokemon.

“FUSROHDAAAAAA!” Darius cried out as he charged after Justin, quickly gaining ground. He lifted up his sword arm, aiming for the back of Justin’s head. But his blow never landed.

Rather, the opposite happened.

The darkness of the tunnel hid the approaching terror, one that traveled swiftly from the dark recesses of the broken lab. Darius only saw a large shadow descend between him and Justin when the wind was knocked out of him. The dragon trainer was sent flying out of the shadows, flying over the heads of Douken, Lyla, and especially Brawnys. His unconscious body slammed into the wall, slumping over onto the floor.

The creature responsible stepped into the fading light of the cherrim’s sunny day, her shiny skin glistening in the setting sun. It was a familiar fossil pokemon, but far more menacing in appearance. Rocky protrusions extended out of her face and wings. The aerodactyl was in mega form, and made sure everyone knew it. As soon as the sunny day expired, Valkyrie bellowed out a mighty roar to stun those that would stop the rescue. It worked on Darius’ steed; the gogoat passed dangerously close to the others as he made his escape. Darkness covered the tunnel; only the terrifying cry of the ancient filled the air.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hidden behind the mega aerodactyl, a faint glow emanated from her back. To Justin, it was just bright enough to make out the glowing cheeks of a pachirisu, the face of Pandora Gibbs, and an outstretched hand awaiting to take him from this place. Whether she said anything to him was not known: the bellow of their ride drowned out her voice.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Apr 16 2014, 11:10 PM

One minute, Branwys thought she'd finally gotten a grasp on this new situation. The next? A giant rock dinosaur flew overhead, ridden by the girl she vaguely remembered as Marsh Mallow, and Darius was tossed like a skittle way over their heads. This little excursion into the underground tunnels just kept getting worse and worse. With Suicune captured, there was nothing keeping those horrid little ghosts from before from coming back and claiming their dinner. The rather plain looking villain's pokemon had been defeated, but cavalry came in the form of a gigantic-spiky-flying-rock dinosaur, whose deafening roar sent their mounts skittering back down the hallway from whence they came.

Branwys, who had stepped behind her boosted Lilligant, found herself suddenly exposed as her defending Pokemon disappeared. The unearthly roar had caused every one of the Pokemon present to retreat, not just their Gogoat steeds.

Trembling at the horrifying sound, standing there with no Pokemon to protect her...the two most viable human fighters in the group either crazy with rage or unconscious, she really had nothing left between her and the flying rock monster. She mentally checked through her list of Pokemon; none of them would probably be able to stand up against this creature. Snorlax would at least serve as a barrier, but that was more a question of which terrifying monster would attempt to eat her first.

So, she stood defiantly, her hands holding all of the Pokeballs, ready to summon her whole team to the field to face down the new threat. Her normally vibrant face seemed oddly peaceful, her watery eyes staring down the ancient terror in front of them with not so much a hint of any sort of feeling. She had no more tears, no more screams, nothing.

She was just numb.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam May 6 2014, 09:49 PM

Justin wasn't thinking about anything. Everything he did was on instinct. Those trainers weren't going to hurt him, but if he had to go back to Omar without Suicune, he knew his life was on the line. So when he got scooped up by Valkyrie, he just held on to Pan, his hands on her waist. When his senses slowly came back, and all the things that happened were more understood, he felt something he hadn't in quite some time: Comfort. For no reason at all, he knew that everything would be okay.

His slid his hands slowly to the front of her, so that they were on her stomach. She wasn't showing yet. Whatever was inside of her shouldn't even have been a real thing to him, yet he already felt like a father.

"Pan," he said, finally, knowing she was focused on the escape. "We need to get back to Omar. He needs to know we didn't fail the mission. I got Suicune. You set up the bomb. If he knows we did our part, then he'll have no reason to suspect us. You'll be able to go back home, where it's safe.

"I know you didn't want to do this," he continued. "We did a lot of bad things today, and it's hard to say whether or not it was even for greater good, or whatever. And when you're on the bad side, I know it's easy to say 'I didn't have a choice' or 'I was just following orders' but those are bullshit excuses. We did have a choice. We picked the selfish one. And it's gonna be tough to live with. But I don't think anyone died. People are gonna get their pokemon back. We just caused of a lot of damage. That doesn't make what we did good. But the thing is, I don't regret it.

"Not for a second. Pan, when I'm with you - When I just think about you - I don't have a choice in my actions. I have to do the right thing, my body won't let me do otherwise. But the 'right' thing it makes me do, it's not the right thing for the world, or for myself. I have to do what's right for you. For the baby. I need you to know that, from here on out, everything I do, all the good, all the bad, every fucking mistake I make, and every thought in my head, I do it for you."

He'd said it to his parents. He said it to Tina, his ex. He said it to Nate and Hitmontop. But he hadn't said it yet to Pan, the mother of his future child. "I love you."

Posted by: Toogee May 10 2014, 06:30 AM

As soon as Justin grabbed onto her, Pan leaned forward onto the aerodactyl’s back. Her head emerged from beside her mount’s. The researcher had the perfect view of who stood before them, and they the same. Her face dropped as she caught sight of both Lyla and Douken. After all the time they had traveled together, she felt as if she had betrayed Douken after activating the recall system. If Lyla was here, Darryn was also; she put them all in danger. Yet they were still trying to make things right by capturing Justin. Pan was denying them that victory, yet she could not leave the father of their child at their vengeful hands. All she could do was mouth a silent “I’m sorry.”

It was then that the reset finally reactivated the recall system. The rental pokemon were immediately returned back to their pokeballs, which started to glow as they did the first time. Their pokemon would be replaced, but Pan knew this was to reverse the damage she had done. In a matter of seconds, pokemon and trainer would be reunited.

Those seconds provided a big enough opening for Pan and Justin to retreat. The mega aerodactyl flapped her wings to propel upward. She took off, gliding over the trainers’ heads, back up into the computer room, and straight out into daylight. They emerged in the arena where it all started, complete with baffled police officers looking at the beast she was flying.

As they flew over the makeshift city, Pan listened to every word Justin said. He shared the same regrets she had, yet their actions were clearly for each other. She had torn her friendships asunder just to make sure Justin’s cover wasn’t blown. She had her doubts at first, but Pan loved him. She loved his undying loyalty, his goofy smile, and the way her body fit into his. She wasn’t about to give any of it up, certainly not to TD.

“Leave with me,” Pan replied to Justin. “Screw Omar. Screw them all. We’ll pick up Nate, head for Port Barley, and leave this place behind. I love you Justin, and I’m not about to share that with them.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mondo watched as the pair flew by on a mega aerodactyl. The scientist had never seen such a form before. It seemed this mission was far more profitable than he realized (no one had told him the fate of the leveling device however).

“Magnificent,” Mondo said to himself before speaking into his radio. “Make sure you gather any ‘curiosities’ down there. And get my chopper ready.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Ugh…”

Darius awoke from his rough blow to find the culprits gone and the rest of his team ready to move out. He also noticed his belt felt lighter: only two pokeballs remained.

“Basterds stole me pokemanz again,” Darius shouted, his speech still a bit slurred. His addled mind did not come to the realization that Bindy and Snake were by his side once more.

“Come back ‘ere and face me, cowards!”

Posted by: Kamaitachi May 10 2014, 11:33 PM

Branwys trembled at the sight of the terrifying monster. She'd already almost been eaten once by a giant pokemon...but Snorlax looked like a fat teddy bear. This one legitimately looked terrifying, and she didn't have the option of recalling it to its pokeball.

She was going to get eaten by this flying rock dinosaur. That was the end of her story.

Holding all of the Pokeballs she had available in her hands, she waited to summon them. She'd fight. No one would ever call her a coward. But here, the inevitability of her journey's end loomed over her. She felt empty. Incomplete.

Her mind reached out to Dimo and Ognian. Still missing. Still somewhere lost. Gone. Her mind reached out to Cesc, somewhere in the depths of this ruined hell they'd so easily traipsed into. Perhaps he had already been eaten. Perhaps they'd share this fate together too.

And without warning, the creature left, taking their enemy with them.

A huge sigh of relief escaped her body as the trainer sank to her knees. She hadn't realized she'd been holding her breath, so the exhale came as a surprise.

As she looked at the pokeballs in her hands, she watched them all glowing, and a small cry escaped her lips.

"No..." she whispered weakly as the pokeballs vanished. The closest thing she had to Dimo and Ognian was now disappearing, and she turned to Lyla, fearing that the closest person she had to a friend would soon vanish as well, just as everything else around her had.

Yet, when the light faded, she realized she was holding two Pokeballs. The very weight familiar in her hands, she opened them up. Looking at the ground in front of her, she was the familiar shapes materialize. Without saying a word, she reached out and wrapped her arms around the Pokemon, tears springing out of her eyes without warning.

Worldlessly, quietly, her happiness sprang out of her as she held the two Pokemon close to her.

Posted by: Living Arrow May 12 2014, 01:35 PM

“And now the Flamethrower!” Lyla cried, her Typhlosion laying waste to the Pinsir with its fire attacks like a boss. She grinned in spite of herself, the thrill of battle sweeping her off of her feet and into full battle mode. She was about to let the flaming weasel really let loose when the Pinsir was recalled by the mysterious trainer.
*Now what? Lyla prepared herself, holding out an arm to recall her injured Alakazam while Typhlosion hurried back to her side. *More Pokemon to battle? Maybe a-*

Lyla flinched, bringing up her hands to cover her head as the armored form of Darius went sailing over her and the others to crash into the tunnel wall behind them. Her wince unravelled into an eye-widening stare that capture the monstrosity of a Pokemon that had revealed itself to them. A draconic monster of doom, the winged beast bore horns like bodily teeth of black iron and screeched a primal deathscream at the few trainers that had hoped to stop the capture of Suicune.

“Typhlosion, I-“ Lyla began but was interrupted as the Pokemon protecting her flashed into red energy and swooshed back into the ball at her hip. Simiarly, the other Pokemon around her began auto-recalling to their balls without warning to leave the four trainers devoid of any sort of protection against the brutish creature bearing down upon them.

The trainer who had caught Suicune mounted that thing swiftly, his escape completely unhindered as the Pokemon trainers watching on in fear and awe. Lyla wanted to scream at him, demand that Suicune was released, but nothing but strangled breath could pass her lips.

*And yet again I’m the helpless one.* She chided herself while the Aerodactyl sped out of the tunnel like a living arrow. couldn’t help it

She looked across at Branwys, their eyes meeting each others in a confused stare of exhaustion. What was to come next? What else could possibly be thrown their way after what they had just been through? The shorter girl opened two Pokeballs into her hands, revealing two of the Pokemon that Lyla had seen back at the Boutique of Bonnies Breeding Center. Her tiny arms wrapped around the Cubone and Scraggy, pulling them tight as the girl broke down into uncontrollable sobs.

“Branwys!” Lyla gasped, her weak limbs finding energy to hurry to the girl’s side. She knelt down, wrapping her own arms around her friend and her Pokemon protectively, burying her face into Branwys’s hair. “It’ll be alright, Branwys! It’ll be alright!” She hushed into the golden curls, fighting the tremors that were working their way into her fingertips and the quiver that began to tremble in her lower lip. “It’ll be alright."

Posted by: Toogee May 16 2014, 08:19 AM

Darius stared out of the tunnel, waiting for his opponents to answer. He was caught off guard the first time, but this time he would be ready! The mega aerodactyl was long gone however. The dragon trainer had faced his first true test of his journey and failed. The bad guys got away, with Suicune in their possession. On top of that, his newfound rental pokemon were stolen by that accursed recall system, leaving him with only two pokemon. He couldn’t help but feel disappointed that the bad guys fooled him twice, but what could be done? Glumly, he took one of his pokeballs to see who was left.

“Chaarmander!”

Darius’s eyes widened as the fire lizard came into view, the pokemon performing a twirl for her big entrance. There was only one charmander in the whole world that would act so cute. It was his Bindy. He friends were by his side once more!

It was then that he noticed that Lyla and Brawnys were huddled together in tears. Darius went over to give them the good news. His charmander came with him, joining the girls in the huddle with warm hugs.

“Why are you girls crying? We have our pokemon back! See?”

Darius took out his second pokeball and summoned Snake. As he expected, the arbok appeared before their eyes…and quickly bit down on Darius’s neck. He laughed it off, having a neck guard as part of his suit of armor.

“Only Snake has the guts to strike at me. Even after everything today, he just wants to get back to training, right Snake.”

“Your armor can’t protect you forever! I will find a way around it…”