[X] My Assistant

[Amissa]

Daniel watched Douken hit the start button on the machine and heard the whirring sound as the machine came to life. Anxiously, the young trainer leaned forward, eager to do his part as well as he could. He didn't notice the rumbling at first, the ominous sound that grew louder and louder. All at once, the rumbling noise reached its peak and the entire castle shook violently.

"Whoa!" Daniel practically squeaked in surprise after he toppled from his chair onto the floor. The lights in the room flickered on and off and then went out entirely. Daniel was so surprised and confused by the situation that he wasn't aware enough to dodge when the berry blender toppled over in his direction. The boy felt the sharp pain of the glass blender striking the top of his head and collapsed on the floor completely for a moment. He wasn't hurt badly, his most significant injury being the throbbing bump on his head, but Daniel decided that his chances would be best if he just stayed low to the ground and covered his head with his arms. All around the trainers was cacophony, the clatter of pots and pans falling, the crash of dishes breaking, the screams of people suddenly frightened and possibly injured. It occurred to Daniel that the kitchen could possibly be the worst place in the whole castle to be during a disaster.

Once the shaking subsided and the emergency lights came on, Daniel crawled out from under the berry blender and quickly surveyed the area. The Nidorino pounced upon the berry blender, eating the berries inside. Malcolm and his pokemon seemed fine. Douken had somehow managed to use the distraction to snatch the tag off of the Nidorino's horn. Where the heck are my pokemon?

Daniel stood up, examining the wreckage more closely. "Geb!," he called, "Herc!" They had been here a little while ago, before the trainers had started the berry blender. He'd been aware of them wandering off, but hadn't thought much of it. He'd figured that they wouldn't wander too far, probably just cause some minor trouble in the kitchen at worst. He could never have predicted this disaster, or the consequences of failing to keep an eye on his pokemon. Daniel wandered into the larger section of the kitchen, where he guessed that his pokemon would be most likely to be. All around, Daniel could see people trying to recover, shards of broken dishes, and food and drinks splattered across the floor and counters, but not his pokemon. Perhaps they had gotten frightened and run off? Daniel was beginning to feel a nauseated sensation in his stomach as he realized he had no idea how to locate his missing pokemon who were probably terrified and possibly injured.

A sobbing sound reminded him that there were other people in need of help, and he bent down to help a fallen cook back onto her feet.

"Will you be all right?" Daniel asked the lady as he righted one of the fallen chairs so that the woman could sit down. She seemed too wobbly on her feet for Daniel's comfort.

"I'll be fine," she sniffled. Her pretty blonde hair was pinned up out of her face and under her hat while her blue eyes glistened with tears. Normally, Daniel would at least be blushing at the sight of her, but his shock seemed be hindering his normal reaction. "It's just that, we've been working so hard to get everything right. It's a catastrophe! Now what do we do?"

"We help each other, I guess. You must have some kind of disaster procedures. I'm going to try to help the others." With that, Daniel began wandering around the ruined kitchen, looking for people to help. None of the injuries were lethal or crippling, and it could easily have been worse considering all of the heavy objects and sharp knives around. The cooks and servants all had a much better grasp on first aid procedures than Daniel did, but he followed their instructions, all the while trying to think through his rising panic. Hercules, Geb, where could they be?!

This post has been edited by Amissa: Feb 15 2010, 06:47 PM

[Master Houndoom]

KRUMPF!

The entire castle shook with the impact of a mountain's worth of snow against it, burying it and shaking it from the top of it's highest tower all the way down to the lowest foundation. Not a room escaped damage, no matter where it was, though some were more minor than others.

In the deep kitchen, where both snacks for visitors to the other rooms (their most recent being coffee and hot chocolate for the cave in the aquarium) and dinner for that night was prepared, spices and dishes had fallen from the walls, two ovens had shifted from their moorings, and spices scattered from shelves. However, for sous chef Henri DuGarde, the worst was just being discovered.

"No," he whispered, then raised his hands, curled like claws, to the ceiling. "No! NO! CURSE YOU, MOUNT CARELLO!"

Jaima picked himself up off the floor, dusted off his pants, and looked around. "What is it," he asked distractedly, taking stock of the room and his companions.

"Ze soufflé! She ees ruined!"

Jaima, Mercury, Ember, and even some of the food preparers turned to him and blinked. Shaking his head, he looked around, bending over and helping a fallen young man who was the kitchen's gofer. "I think we have other things to worry about. Such as what the hell that was." Lonnie's voice over the speaker system explained exactly what the hell that was, as well as what to do.

Trainer Jaima, I have been contacted by one of Trainer Vonmoto's pokemon. She's given me two routes to use to get to the exits. One is back the way we came, and the other is through the doors here.

Jaima nodded. "I'd like to go the way we came, so we can get the pokemon we've left in our rooms." To Mercury, and Mercury alone, he asked, Have you been able to find anyone in our group..?

No, Trainer Jaima, she said, sounding a bit worried. There is so much psychic disturbance, I'm having trouble weeding who I'm looking for out.

Jaima touched the top of her head, then turned and led her and the rest out the door they had come in. Walking briskly down the hall, they came to the door which lead into the tubes that ran through the giant aquarium. Upon opening them, however, the group stared in shock.

There were cracks running up the tube that lead to this door, presumably from center. Water was spraying into the passageway. A large crackling noise sounded, running up and opening along the tube. Jaima felt himself pulled back, and the door slammed just as the sound of breaking plexiglass sounded in all their ears, like the harsh cracking of several large bones.

Everyone's feet were soaked with cold water, which began to rise into the hallway. "Somehow," Jaima said, swallowing thickly, "I don't think it's a good idea to go this way..."

[Douken Sota]

Douken blinked as he saw the tube cracking before the door slammed shut and the water began to surge through. The water still passed through the bottom and the cracks. "The door won't be able to hold back the pressure if it builds like this," he muttered, before something came through his head. Looking at Jaima, he said with concern, "Wasn't there another team in that tank?! You know, the girl that posed to you and her team! What if they are in danger as well!?" One of his concerns was the Gyarados in there that would of gotten raged up by the impact of the avalanche that hit. "That team was higher up, and the lower we go, the more of a chance we would get flooded. Though they say the basement is the best bet, I think we need to find the other team and see if they are okay."

To make sure he had all of his team, he checked his belt. He still had three Pokeballs, but to make sure, he opened them up, letting out his Croagunk, Seel, and Growlithe. "Good, you three are still here." Returning them, he looked around before seeing a Machop in a fettle position under a sink. Running over, he checked him out to see what injuries it may or may not have before calling, "Whose Machop is this?"

[Xal]

"All right you two, it's probably safest if you stayed in your pokéballs for now. I don't want you getting lost anywhere." Malcolm said as he recalled the two pokémon back into their pokéballs. He didn't have a chance to clip them onto his belt before there was a flash of light and Pichu reappeared.
"Pi!" She shouted out happily. She didn't seem to realise the seriousness of the situation, it was all a game to her. Malcolm wasn't going to argue with her though, if he tried to make her go back in she'd just come out again.
"Fine, just be careful." He muttered, rolling his eyes.

Lonnie's voice echoed through the room over the intercom, explaining the situation. They'd been trapped in an avalanche and were to head to the basement. He told someone called Calypso to send the psychics the root of the castle, and Malcolm instinctively looked for Jaima's psychic pokémon. It took a moment's searching through the chaos but eventually he saw some familiar figures. They were on the far side of the room, walking out of the kitchen the way the group had come in.

"They must know where they're heading if they have the routes. Come on Pichu." Malcolm said, setting off at a slow jog to try to catch up without appearing too worn out. As he entered the hallway he froze with horror at the sight of the tube running through the aquarium. The aquarium was gigantic and the amount of water it must have contained was unimaginable. The only thing keeping the water out was the material of the clear tube, and cracks were crawling across its surface. The doors slammed shut mere moments before a sickening shattering sound threw itself down the hallway followed by a surge of water. It was only up to his ankles, but it was still rising.

"We need to get out of here..." Malcolm gasped, to no one in particular. If the whole thing shattered the room could be filled in an instant. He nervously held Fishy's pokéball in his hand as he felt the water moving up his shins.

"That's it Pichu, no more games. You won't want to swim through all this anyway, get in the pokéball." He said, turning towards her. What he saw was unexpected to say the least, she'd found one of the bowls that had been flung from its surface by the avalanche and seemed perfectly content to sit in it as it floated about. As she heard his command she shook her head stubbornly, and Malcolm knew that she still couldn't take this seriously. Even so she was probably just as safe in her little makeshift boat as she would be in a pokéball (especially since, after all, the Pichu family were somehow renowned surfers), and there was no way of getting her to stay in one at the best of times. When she was having this much fun out of it he'd stand no chance.

"Fine." He sighed, giving up again. "Just stay near me and be careful."
"Chu." She said, plucking a floating spatula out of the water and using it as a paddle.

This post has been edited by Xal: Feb 19 2010, 09:24 AM

[Amissa]

Daniel trailed behind as they investigated the way through the aquarium, still too shocked and distracted to give much input or opinion. Upon seeing the cracks in the walkway, however, Daniel felt a cold sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Guys..." he croaked just before the door slammed shut and the sound of death-barely-missed resounded from beyond. Thank Lonnie for high technology. Those doors must automatically lock if too much damage is done to the tubing. Technology wouldn't save them for long, however, as water began surging in through the cracks in the door.

"Uh oh, that might not hold too long," Daniel muttered as the water continued to rise. "Geb! Herc! Where are you guys?"

"Nin!"

"What?"

"Cada!"

"Oh!" Daniel finally spotted one of his pokemon and stood next to Malcolm marveling for a moment at the Nincada floating in the bowl with the little Pichu, the Pichu cleverly paddling with a spatula. Daniel guessed from some of the blue residue in the bowl that it had at one time held a kind of chesto berry pudding, which explained why Geb would have gotten into it in the first place. The trainer was lost for a moment to the pure cuteness of the scene before taking out his cell phone and snapping a picture and then recalling Geb into his pokeball. "Sorry to steal your buddy, Pichu, but ground types don't dig water so much. Get it? Dig?"

"Whose Machop is this?"

"Hopefully mine," Daniel answered, splashing over to Douken by the sink. "Hercules! Is that you, buddy?" The little machop opened one eye and uncurled slightly before recognizing his trainer and reaching up frantically.

"Chop! Machop!" Hercules demanded as Daniel lifted him into his arms, a task that would have been much easier if the pokemon wasn't all wet from the water flooding the room.

"Yes! Douken and Pichu for the win! That's everyone then." Daniel looked around and saw that the personnel in the kitchen were already filing out through some double doors. "I take it we go that way now?"

[Master Houndoom]

Of course Trainer Jaima knew about the other team in the tank. It was the one thing on his mind that could distract him from getting everyone to safety, seeings how his girlfriend was on that team, and his adopted sister being on another team, and his best friend being on yet another, so basically he had three people he had no way of keeping tabs on that he cared for greatly, and he'd had to recall Ember when the water started rising, and Doukenhad to remind him of this, and it was going to be so hard to keep him-

Calm.

Thank you, Tr- HEY! Jaima's mental chuckle was appreciated, but Mercury was slightly disoriented by the role reversal. Aren't you worried about your friends?!

Have you tried to contact them and been unable?

Um... No...

When that happens, Jaima thought severely, then I'll worry. Oh, and thanks for pulling me out of the tube and closing the door.

Right. Sorry. You're welcome.

There's a lot going on, sweety.

To his human companions, he was much more terse. "You're right, Douken, we have to find a way to help anyone in there. But we'll have to try the other way." (Found Lady, Mercury reported. Trainer Darryn's OK, but 'the red moss head is a child and should be dealt with', she giggled, doing a fair impression of Lady) The water was up to their mid thighs, and stopped there. "I'm guessing the water's flooded the other four hallways that lead into the tubes, (Found Zorro. Trainer Tuesday was buried, but has gotten out and is leading one of her teammates to safety, reported Mercury, relieved) and probably didn't empty the whole tank. Meiko headed downward, see? There must have been plenty of water there. (Found Shadow. He's helping in the main hall) Hopefully, the pokemon were tame."

Jaima bit his lip, but refrained from asking about Meiko. If he was right, the majority of Mercury's concentration was looking gfor her now.

"This way, guys," he said, leading back to the kitchens.

[Douken Sota]

Douken was glad the water stopped rising, but it was still made it a challenge to walk through, especially with the floating and sunken debris of food, pans, and sharp knives.

Slowly, he followed Jaima in the cold water, making sure he wouldn't harm himself. As he headed there, trying to kick the items away for a safer path, he began thinking, How can I help this be less of a problem? Croagunk's attacks couldn't break the floor, Seel's Ice attacks may make things worse, and all Growlithe knew offensively, as far as he knew, was Bite! It gave him a small feeling of helplessness thinking that the skills he learned from his breeder parents were a bit useless in this situation.

It may have taken a while, but he soon made it to the other end. "Please tell me the way is up..."

This post has been edited by Douken Sota: Feb 21 2010, 02:44 AM

[Xal]

Malcolm waded through the kitchen, closely followed by the good ship mixing bowl. The kitchen somehow seemed better than it had done before he'd left for the hallway, and he guessed the initial shock and horror made it look worse than it really was. Then again nobody was lying on the floor any more and the clutter which wasn't underwater seemed somehow neater floating, so that probably played a role in it as well. Most of the mess from the food had been washed away as well. The whole room was still a mess though, even if he was starting to get used to it.

The water may have stopped rising but they still weren't safe. If the next corridor went downhill and water had got in they'd certainly be trouble, the only way out would be swimming. There was also the possibility that the basement was flooded too and if that had happened then the whole situation was pretty hopeless. Even so, Lt. Surge was there, and he'd be able to sort something out. Malcolm had admired him for years, and always dreamed of someday facing him at the gym.

[Amissa]

The group exited the kitchen through the double doors and entered what looked like the banquet hall. Or it had once been the banquet hall. They hadn't been through this portion before, but Daniel guess that it had just minutes ago looked pristine and ready to filled with hungry, happy, pokemon trainers. Like the kitchen, food lay splattered and spilled all over and broken glass and ceramic dishes littered the long tables and carpets.

In the center of the large room was a life-sized sculpture of the legendary bird, Articuno. It was clear as though carved from clear quartz or ice, though Daniel doubted that Lonnie would have an ice sculpture indoors. The ice look was probably just for effect. It was miraculously intact and still standing. On either side of the room, there were very tall windows, most of which were broken allowing the chilly air to enter. On one side, the side that faced the upper slope of the mountain, the true results of the avalanche could be seen. Snow had blasted through the glass windows as though they were mere plastic wrap, flooding the rest of the room. This melting snow, combined with the small flood of water released from the kitchen as they exited resulted in knee-deep freezing slush for everyone to wade through. The entire room was eerily silent and ghostly under the illumination of the emergency lights.

"There were people in here before," the blonde chef said to Daniel, shivering slightly in the cold. "But it's so quiet. They must have already left. There's a stairway down at the other end here. They must have gotten there ahead of us."

"Yeah, that's probably what happened," Daniel said, shifting Hercules's weight a little. It wasn't easy trudging through this mess with a machop in his arms, but he wouldn't make him walk and he couldn't bring himself to put him back in his pokeball either. It may have been selfish, but Daniel felt just as shaken as everyone else did. He needed the moral support of his pokemon at the moment.

They reached the center where the Articuno statue stood and Daniel read the inscription aloud.

"To doomed travelers braving icy depths
This winged one guards your trembling steps
Go forth!
Fear not!
Though the way be frightening and harsh
Trust fate to lead you
Adventure favors the lost"

Lost? Daniel thought, puzzled. Why the lost? Shouldn't that be the brave or something? He shook his head and walked on. Had he looked a bit closer, he would have noticed how the snowflakes blown in by the open windows seemed to dance and spiral around the statue as if of their own accord. He may have also noticed that the statue appeared to give off a very faint illumination of its own, that it was not just the lights reflecting off the snow onto it.

At least the snow was drier closer to the end of the room. The blonde chef pointed to a door labeled "emergency only" in big red letters with the picture of a staircase on it. Well, this certainly counted as an emergency.

Yeah, I went through the effort of figuring out where everyone was heading once we reach the stairs, without reaching the stairs. But I could only think of one place that double doors from the kitchen would lead to, especially since it was the only other exit. Anyway, I was thinking of continuing on to the stairs but then I figured everyone would want a chance to react to the dining hall. I can edit the post if there are any problems.

[Xal]

The group moved forwards, out of the kitchen and into a massive banquet hall. Snow had forced its way in through the windows resulting in a dangerous mix of ice, snow, water and broken glass. Pichu strained to paddle her bowl through the slush as it thickened towards the snow, eventually coming to a full stop. A disappointed look fell on her face as she stepped out, slowly sinking into the slush but showing no sign of stopping.

"Careful there." Malcolm said as he picked her up and allowed her to climb his arm and rest on his shoulder. His legs were in agony, the water was literally freezing cold and when he wasn't wading through that he was wading through slush or snow. Everyone else was in the exact same situation though, so he just put up with it and didn't say anything.

Looking around the room Malcolm couldn't help but feel what a terrible shame the avalanche was, and felt slightly guilty about not thinking that because of the possible injuries people had, or worse. A lot of work had gone into this castle and this event, and a massive amount of it had been undone in an instant. Before the avalanche the banquet hall must have been amazing. There were decorations (or at least remains of them) all over the room. Some seemed old or even antique, but others had a slightly more modern feel. In the middle of the room a statue of Articuno stood proud and tall, somehow unaffected by the disaster. Malcolm thought it was suitably fitting, almost funny, that the ice sculpture of the legendary ice pokémon had survived the snowy carnage. Daniel stopped and read the description aloud, and Malcolm mulled the words over in his head. Adventure favors the lost? It seemed a little odd, but to people like Malcolm it made perfect sense. He'd found himself lost plenty of times, and it was always an adventure. Every time he lost his way he found an adventure. Being lost was almost an adventure in itself. Malcolm stayed to admire the statue for a few extra seconds as the group moved on, noticing that the snowflakes seemed to dance around it in the air. It must have been how the wind moved around it he decided, with the windows blown open there was a reasonably strong wind flowing through the room.

He quickly rejoined the group who were moving towards a pair of double doors. It said that it was for emergencies only, and Malcolm couldn't help but smile at his instinct to just leave them alone and find another way out. Doors and stairs with a sign saying "Emergency Only" just registered as "No entry".

[Douken Sota]

The cold snow cooled down the water as they walked though the slush that filled the decorated, yet wrecked, dining hall where they were supposed to feast together. To talk, to laugh, to share their stories and offers tips to those who needed it. Now, it was full of water with more silverware, plates, and cups floating or sunken. The cold water was even making his feet feel numb as he had to move to the table to try and support himself instead of collapsing. Trying to support himself, he gazed at the magnificent ice sculptor of Articuno, unharmed from all the damage, as if saying it would not be harmed from her own element.

Looking on, he listened on to the poem on the bottom, finding the irony of hearing of it in this time. "Makes it sound like Articuno wrote that for whoever found it because of what happened..." he muttered to himself. It was then one of his legs gave out for a while and he fell to a knee. "The water's too cold... I need to get them warmed up and out of this water..." going down would mean going with the water. He would need to go higher in order to get away from the water and heat up.

[Master Houndoom]

As the double doors opened, Jaima watched the cold slush-water flow out and down the stairwell. Jaima looked in and noticed that there were two stairwells, one down and the other up. Jaima looked at Mercury, who, concentrating all of her prestigious mental energy on finding Meiko, merely pointed down.

Jaima hopped up two steps on the upward stairwell, where it was dry, and released Ember. The quilava looked around, confused. "Ember, we need heat. We just trudged through a roomful of cold water, and some of us are feeling it." Ember nodded, dropped to all fours, and flared her back and bottom flames, evaporating water a step below hers and taking the chill out of the air. Jaima had found himself kicking off his wet shoes and socks, laying them on the step, where they steamed.

Found her! Mercury's mental cry was still controlled enough to only be sent to her trainer. Jaima's vocal response was, however, shaky at best.

"Is she safe? Is she OK?"

She's not hurt... Mercury trailed off, then she sighed. Safe is relative. She's helping Trainer Pan rescue some pokemon...

Jaima stared at Mercury, then smacked his forehead with his palm. Mercury merely raised brows. and you fully intend to go find her, and Trainer Tuesday, and Trainer Darryn. So you have no room to talk!

Jaima snorted. "Listen up, folks! Mercury has been informed that the basement is the way to safety. Likely they were prepared for this eventuality. They probably have blankets, and warm drinks, and the water has ways to run out before it gets there. That's the smart way to go. For myself, I'm going to go up, find my sister, my girlfriend, and my best friend, and help them get down, if they need it, or help them help other if that's what they're doing. My advice is to go down. But you're free to come with." He pulled the blue tag out of his pocket and handed it to Malcolm. "Which ever you decide, good luck."

To Mercury, he asked her to gather his team, save for Shadow, who was helping where he was. She accomplished this with a series of teleports. Fang, who's electricity could harm those near, with all the wet, and Grondir, who was susceptible to the cold, were grudgingly recalled, as was Ember when everyone was as warm as she could safely get them. Mercury and Tsunami, a marshtomp, traveled up the stairs with Jaima.

[Xal]

Didn't the Grovyle have the red tag? I thought that Jaima got a blue tag from Caterpie, and Douken had a green one from Nidorino.
A minor detail though, so I wouldn't be surprised if I've missed something somewhere. EDIT: Nope, you were right. I changed it in my post - MH

Despite the circumstances Malcolm couldn't stop a ghost of a smile flicker across his face as Jaima offered him the tag when they walked towards the stairs. It almost seemed absurd to worry about the game now, but thinking back he was sure he saw Douken snatch another tag right when this disaster started. Well, an avalanche was a better distraction than most, he thought.

He hesitated before accepting it. If Jaima was going to put himself in danger to help his friends it seemed almost cowardly to go in the completely opposite direction to safety. He should be going to help whoever he could, not trying to save his own skin. But what could he do? All of Jaima's pokémon that Malcolm had seen were powerful, he couldn't see how Pidgey, Pichu or a still unidentified fish would be able to help if they got into trouble. Malcolm himself wouldn't be much use either, and would probably be at least as big a hindrance as a help. Fishy could probably be a massive aid in water though, which would mean going down. If they went down Fishy might be able to help other people they came across, as well as speeding up their journey to the basement. Other tubes lower down in the aquarium must have broken too, so he didn't expect that their trouble with the water would end very soon. The quicker they got to the basement the quicker they could tell Lonnie, Surge and whoever else was there what was happening.

"All right." Malcolm nodded, accepting the tag. "I'll head to the basement and tell them what everyone's doing. With any luck they might be able to help in some way."

He looked back into the banquet hall, the water was still flowing down the stairs but the water level hadn't dropped all that much. For a moment he wanted to take everything he said back and run up the stairs just to get out of the freezing cold water, but it was too late for that now.

This post has been edited by Master Houndoom: Mar 1 2010, 10:15 AM

[Douken Sota]

He was thankful for the Quilava, for the heat she let off helped him feel his feet again after the slush was drained out for the most part. getting back to his feet, he kicked the ground lightly to re-insure feel in them. Still, watching him run off like that, he merely sighed, saying, "And here I thought it was unwise to go off alone..." and ran for the upstairs staircase, tossing the green tag to Daniel, "Stay close to Malcolm. You are better in numbers!" was the last thing he said before he vanished into the upstairs staircase.

His footsteps echoed behind Jaima as he ran behind him. "Wait up," he called out to him.

[Amissa]

Daniel snagged the tag out of the air when it was thrown to him, but nearly lost his grip on Hercules. The fighting type got the idea, and hopped down without Daniel asking. Once his feet touched the cold water, he clenched his teeth and breathed in sharply. He was determined to handle it.

"See you later, guys, be careful," Daniel said, a little weakly as Jaima and Douken took off. A part of him, a large part, was jealous that they were running off on some new and exciting adventure without him. The reason why he was staying was for the kitchen staff. He worried that if all four of the trainers ran off, there would be no one to insure that they all reached the basement safely. The shock was wearing off of Daniel now, and he was becoming increasingly aware of the pretty blue eyes of a certain chef.

He gave Malcolm a brief smile, pleased that the other trainer decided to stick with him, but at the same time shivering from the cold. "Well, down we go." Daniel returned Hercules to his pokeball, hoping to spare him the freezing cold of the water flowing over their feet or the cold air pressing in around them.

With that, Daniel and Malcolm led the kitchen crew down the stairway, clutching the railing in order to remain steady on the wet, slippery steps. The nidorino followed at the rear of the group, going slowly since the steps gave him a great deal of difficulty. "Why does it feel like it's getting colder the further we go?"

[Umbrae Calamitas]

"Stupid sparkly-headed fancy-pants know it all."

Reilly trudged through the castle, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans as he grumbled to himself. He was mad at the pretty boy for being right, for being the unanimously-named leader of the group that Reilly was stuck in by chance, for being a show off and having such awesome pokemon, for being accepted...

"Damnit!" Reilly kicked the wall. "Ow!" He hissed through his teeth, shaking his foot, before sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. "Damnit," he muttered, putting the heels of his hands against his eyes. He hated running into Darryn. The boy's natural tendency to show off and be better than everyone around him made Reilly's failures that much more apparent. It wasn't enough that he was prevented from joining the family business, but now in his search to find out where he could possibly belong - a search that was proving to be futile - he was having his failure thrown into his face at every opportunity. It was as if the world lie in wait for the perfect opportunity to hurt him.

I am not going to cry, damnit. Reilly pressed the heels of his hands tighter against his eyes, but the tears still came. It was stupid and childish and ridiculous and Reilly wanted to kick himself, but his foot still hurt from kicking the wall.

The fourth pokeball on his belt burst open and a buneary appeared, pressing her paws against the fur of her ears as though primping herself for a photo shoot. She turned her head to the side to glance behind her at Reilly, and her voice, slightly whiny and very stuck-up, curled into his mind through the use of whatever latent psychic powers she strangely seemed to have.

"Tell me how beautiful I am."

Reilly laughed softly, wiping his eyes. "You're more cute than beautiful, Morgan." She pouted lightly at him, but he stood and scooped her up in his arms. She struggled momentarily, but then conceded, cuddling in his embrace.

"My fur's really soft and beautiful, isn't it, ReiRei?"

"Yeah. You're like a little stuffed bunny," he said, poking her nose. She twitched her nose at him and pouted, but he didn't notice, as he kept walking on.

"You should let me enter a contest."

"You're banned from participating in contests, Morgan, you know that."

"I'll be good this time, ReiRei. I promise."

"I had to sign an agreement that I would never enter you into a contest just so I get trade for you, Morgan. I'm not breaking my contract."

The buneary crossed her arms over her chest and scowled and pouted, but to no effect. "You're a butthead, ReiRei."

Reilly pushed open a door with his foot, but came to a staircase that led downward - not the way that he was intending to go. He was about to turn back, when he saw a familiar girlie braid of blonde hair, and then Jaima came into sight. The boy stopped dead on the stairs at the sight of Reilly, just as he had frozen at seeing the tall trainer.

Reilly's initial shock faded into annoyance and his eyes narrowed. "Great, now I guess I'm stuck with you."

"And you're still a butthead, ReiRei!"

Reilly sighed, dropping his head on the floor. "Yeah... I know."

[Xal]

Malcolm hesitantly started walking down the staircase, clinging to the rail to steady himself. The water was still flowing quite strongly, causing a series of tiny waterfalls on the stairs, as well as the much larger ones that just went through the rails and straight down. He looked over to Pichu, who was still on his shoulder, to make sure she was all right. She didn't seem bothered and was yawning into her palm, the current situation must have been getting boring for her. The steps weren't too slippery and normally they wouldn't have been much of a problem but the water flowing past his feet made it all the more treacherous.

After a short struggle with the water he eventually reached the half way mark and as the stairs changed direction he saw something that was, at best, inconvenient. He was only a few feet above the water, but the floor was still at least ten feet down. The water had been flowing in and the corridor ahead was completely submerged, and it seemed that the only was through was by swimming. But how was that even possible? There wasn't that much water heading down, and even if there were other leaks they couldn't all have converged in a single corridor.

Malcolm looked towards Daniel and the kitchen staff to tell them what he thought was going on.

"I don't see how this whole corridor can be flooded, since we didn't even let the water in that long ago. I'm guessing that the corridor must have a door not far ahead, keeping the water in. If we open that the water should flow through and we'll be able to walk through."

As Malcolm was explaining his plan he realised that the water was still falling down, and as he looked up at the barrage of water flinging itself towards them he didn't expect it would stop anytime soon. If it carried on they could be stuck in the same situation soon and it wouldn't be so easily fixed.

"I'll need to close the upstairs doors first." He sighed, realising it would have been a much better idea to do that before they went downstairs. With the doors closed the water would stop flowing down the stairs and the water level in the kitchen and banquet hall would just return to what it was before they'd opened the staircase doors. He tried to take a few steps up, but as he slipped and almost fell flat on his face he realised that that wouldn't be possible. The water flowing past his feet was just too strong to go against. He thought for a moment before he came up with a plan. He pulled Pidgey's pokéball off his belt and released the bird pokémon, who fluttered over and took a seat on the banister.

"Pidgey, I want you to fly up there and see if you can close the doors for me. Can you do that?" The pokémon nodded and disappeared up to the next floor.

Pidgey soon returned to their previous position, sighting the doors. They'd opened outwards into the banquet hall, so with the water pushing with him they wouldn't be difficult to close. He glided over to one of the handles and pulled, and although it took a lot of effort and strain the door slowly began to move through the water. When that was done he moved to the other door, and tried to do the same thing. It was more difficult with more water flowing through but after a short struggle he managed. The water flow slowed to a trickle, but there was still some water flowing through the gaps between the doors and the frame. There was no helping that though, and he'd done everything Malcolm had wanted him to. He occasionally got annoyed that Malcolm usually only called him when he needed help, but this wasn't one of those times. He was just happy to be playing an important role in this catastrophe. With a strong sense of pride with completing his mission he flew down back to Malcolm, who was waiting for him with the other humans and a few pokémon.

"Well done." Malcolm smiled as Pidgey came back. "Right, I've got a fish pokémon I'll use to reach the doors quickly, assuming there are any. I'll go for as long as I can before I get Fishy to take me back if we don't find them, and if that happens we'll just have to find another way out."

Malcolm pulled another pokéball from his belt and released Fishy into the water.

"Hi Fishy. Ok, I know you don't know what's going on here, but I need to get down that corridor and open the doors. But the thing is, I'm not entirely sure if there are any, so we might need to come- wait, Fishy! No! Come back!" Malcolm yelled to the pokémon but Fishy was long gone. Before Malcolm even had a chance to react the orange blur had sped down the underwater corridor. Just as Malcolm was about to break down in frustration he suddenly felt his feet vibrate. He looked down and noticed that there were ripples coming through the water, followed by a small vibration in the stairs. It was almost as if something in the water was banging at something. Great, had Fishy got into a fight? The ripples soon stopped though, and whilst Malcolm was pondering this he failed to notice that the water level was dropping dramatically. When the water was so low it was below the corridor's ceiling a roaring sound, which sounded bizarrely like a toilet, suddenly made him realise what was going on. He looked downwards and, sure enough, the water was flowing into the corridor with great speed, but Fishy had managed to fight it and was near the bottom of the stairs. Malcolm looked down at the pokémon and smiled, thanking him before returning him to the ball. He'd have liked Fishy to stay out longer, but the water was getting dangerously low for him.

[Master Houndoom]

Jaima trudged up the steps, chomping at the bits to take them at double time. Douken, however, had been adversely affected by the cold, and Jaima felt it would be impolite at best to leave him behind.

That, and Mercury was adamant, speaking directly to his mind that if he wanted to help, he should help everyone. Despite his worry for his girlfriend, and his sister, and his best friend. Who, by the way, were perfectly capable of taking care of themselves (moreso than Jaima sometimes) and had perfectly competent, powerful pokemon with them to help them, just like Jaima did. Jaima, sighing mentally, knowing that Mercury was listening because he had NO power to project, finally conceded her point, and asked her, in her words, to kindly shut up.

Jaima did, however, turn to Douken. "Are you sure about this? It's not too late to head down to the safety of the basement. I wasn't kidding when I said it was the best idea."

He didn't have time to answer, because just as they crested to another landing, Jaima saw a sight that both amused him and surprised him. He had, while in Lenoilia, gotten close to a Nurse Joy, close enough that, had he not been more concerned with finding Ember, who'd been stolen, to have been able to call her his first girlfriend. They had, of course, broken up due to her being more or less static (despite her transfer, later, to Arasam) and his being more or less moving. While in Arasam, he'd met someone who was both fascinating and surprising: A boy who could cause Tuesday to act rashly. This boy, for some reason, reminded him of that particular Nurse Joy, even though there was no real reason that he could see.

He was standing at the landing, one hand on the handle of a door that lead to the hallway, the other holding a buneary curled up lazily in his arm. The buneary preened a bit at the sight of Jaima and Douken, puffing her flexed ear as if it were a set of curls. It reminded him of a comic character which always boasted of her "naturally curly hair".

"Great, now I guess I'm stuck with you." Jaima had opened his mouth to answer, when Reilly hung his head and said, "Yeah... I know."

Jaima frowned. Maybe, he thought, the boy was lashing out for a reason, but what it might be, or why he was now seeming to expect a negative reaction, Jaima couldn't tell. And, in the long run, it didn't matter.

"You're not stuck with us, Reilly. I've been telling my companion, Douken, that it would probably be safer to head to the dungeons." He shrugged. "But if you want to come with me, I won't say now. You've got a strong team, and--"

A roar sounded through the halls, and Jaima could tell that Mercury had bent her mind to finding out what was happening. She stiffened, swallowing thickly. I know the direction it's coming from, to the left and above us, but I can't sense anything there! The shake in her mental voice was unmistakable. A dark-type pokemon was, somehow, involved.

"and I have a feeling we're going to need help on this." Jaima's face set into a grim look. "It's possible wild pokemon are getting in. We'd better keep moving."

As they walked, looking for another stairway, Jaima heard a faint voice, as if far away. It was as if someone had found the mental part of himself he'd trained to listen for Mercury, however this voice was not Mercury's. It was much too high pitched, and there was a whine to it. I'm scared, ReiRei! Hold me tightly!

Jaima blinked. "Who's ReiRei?"

"SHUT UP!" Reilly snarled, flushing, and they continued on in silence.

[Douken Sota]

He was going to answer Jaima by telling him, "And yet you go alone? You are better off surviving in a group." Instead, he was cut short by someone holding a Bunneary. Judging by the conversation they had, they knew each other some how.

the roar was heart shaking, soul piercing... If... If I can't pass a trial like this, there is no way I can get better, he thought to himself. I will have to face foes like this anyways. Might as well learn how as soon as I can!

Hearing the comment on "ReiRei," Douken couldn't help but let off a small chuckle. Still, the silence was a bit annoying, and they seemed to know each other, so Douken asked Jaima, "So who's the guy with the Bunneary? Seeing how you guys act, you got some history with each other..."

[Master Houndoom]

"I'm sorry, that was rude of me," Jaima said. "Douken Sota, meet Reilly Cooms. I met him in Arasam after the contest there. Reilly, this is Douken. We were on the scavenger hunt when the avalanche hit." Jaima grinned. "Reilly's a fantastic battler, from what I've seen."

Just then, the roar sounded again. The two pokemon who remained out from Jaima's team looked at each other.

<<Mercury,>> Tsunami began, her voce quiet, gentle, like a stream of water running down a well worn path. Mercury turned her head to look at her. <<That roar is probably coming from a... Large pokemon, right?>>

<<Yes, Tsunami,>> Mercury said, sighing and smiling softly. She had an idea of what the marshtomp was getting at.

<<Are we getting closer to it for a reason?>>

Mercury's smile widened. She had been right. <<Trainer Jaima's thoughts are quite clear on the reason. There is a chance one of his friends is there, and if there's any way to help them, he will do it.>>

Tsunami looked pensive, then nodded, muttering to herself. Mercury, having the benefit of slight mental contact, heard the mutter clearly.

<<Then I wasn't a fluke...>>

<<What do you mean?>>

Tsunami's head snapped to the kirlia's face, blinking. She flushed near her gills. <<He... He didn't just save me on accident. From the bad water, I mean. He... He would have sought me out...>>

Mercury's heart went out to the marshtomp. <<Is that important?>>

Tsunami nodded, looking ahead. <<The one who threw me out... He said I was worthless. And that no one would care. If Jaima would go toward danger to find his friends, and would look for me of he knew I was sick, without knowing me, then maybe the other man was wrong. Maybe I'm not worthless...>>

Mercury beamed at her, wiping her eyes. <<Tsunami, let me tell you how Trainer Jaima found you...>>