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Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Oct 28 2011, 01:33 AM

The Tormented
http://forums.gtsplus.net/index.php?showtopic=10528 - http://forums.gtsplus.net/index.php?s=&showtopic=9558&view=findpost&p=834750
http://forums.gtsplus.net/index.php?showtopic=37696 - http://forums.gtsplus.net/index.php?s=&showtopic=9558&view=findpost&p=1068240
http://pane.wikia.com/wiki/Nate_Guzman

Since the events at Starfall Field, Justin and Nate had completed a single mission in Petropolis. It was simple enough - They were escorting an officer during a black market transaction. What was being transferred, they did not know nor care to know. Their job was not to know, anyway, so it all worked out. Over time, it seemed quite clear that their reputation as epic screwups was diminishing. It's difficult to screw up when you command as powerful pokemon as Nate and Justin did and you're given jobs which really only require you to have strong pokemon. Thinking was not quite their forte.

Shortly afterwards, however, they were called into one of the Team Deception secret hideout apartments within the city and given a job. Justin was particularly upset with the small amount of down time between jobs, especially due to his inability to spend time with Pan, who was supposedly his girlfriend. Or something, he wasn't quite sure. They hadn't really spoken since Starfall Field, but he knew she was in Petropolis. She knew he had something private going on that he couldn't talk about though, and that he was working on it. She'd be understanding. Well, she'd be understanding as long as she didn't know the truth.

"Justin Smart and Nate Guzman, yeah?" The officer asked as they entered the room. He was sitting at a desk in the corner of the living room of the apartment. There was one man at the door and a woman sitting on a comfy looking chair near the middle of the room, but off to the side a little.

"That, uh," Justin began. "Yeah, that's us."

"Okay," he seemed overwhelmed. "There's a, um, an issue going on in Gigarte." They just had a mission in Gigarte about a week earlier, but they weren't really complaining. Tag was probably still there, looking for Raven, since she didn't seem to show up at Starfall Field. It'd be nice to see him again. Maybe. Their relationship with Tag was somewhat ambiguous as well. "One of our higher ranking officers is sick with something."

"Oh," Nate said. "That sucks."

"Yeah, it sucks a lot," the guy continued. "Anyway, his unit along with two others just finished a heist in Arasam, made off with a lot of gold from a group of people we figured were of little threat. But he passed out once they got out of town, so his unit and the other two rushed him to Gigarte."

Justin and Nate just nodded. Clearly this story wasn't over yet, since they weren't involved. "The rest of his unit is being contained for questioning and maybe even quarantine. One of the other two units was sent to Arasam to investigate and the other is watching over the officer. We need you two to go to Gigarte and help protect him. You'll be working with Unit 28 watching over Officer Helms of Unit 17. The members of Unit 28 will be your supervisors, so do as they say. They'll probably just have you watch the outside of the safehouse, but if they have you do something else, do it. Any questions?" There were none. "Okay, good. There's a helicopter waiting for you outside the city to the east. Cale will escort you there. The pilot will gives you instructions on how to get to the safehouse once you're in Gigarte. Good luck, Unit 90."

There was a look of slight confusion between Justin and Nate, who were supposedly Unit 101. "Yes, that was your promotion. Enjoy it. Get the fuck out of here."

Cale, the somewhat larger man who was guarding the front door, took Justin and Nate to the helicopter and saw them off as they flew the fair distance to Gigarte. It didn't take too long by flight, though. It was odd being promoted so quickly and so suddenly. They skipped over 10 units, which either meant one unit was disbanded (or met a different fate) or everyone from Unit 90 on just got pushed back. Perhaps it was their recent show of competency or an obvious affinity for pokemon battling.

So, they got to Gigarte, they got to the safehouse and were met by a man at the front door, who was sitting lazily on the front steps. The house was in a fairly urban neighborhood and the man they met was dressed accordingly. He had on baggy clothes and a baseball cap. He also sported a neat goatee. "Unit 90?" He asked.

It sounded weird. "Yeah," Justin nodded. "I'm Justin, this is Nate."

"Okay, tight," the man said. "I'm Ace. This is my house, so it's safe 'cause I know all these kids who run around here. Helms is inside, he's still not right."

"He just passed out?" Nate asked.

"That ain't it, though," Ace said. "Somethin' ain't right with him. He out, but he's feelin' somethin'. He tossin' and turnin' like he just in some kinda fucked up dream. You can go inside if you wanna see for yourself. Omar's the black dude in there, the leader of our team, and Miriam's the fine piece o' ass you ain't about to miss. You treat both of them with respect, got it?"

Both Justin and Nate just nodded and walked inside to see a very tiny house. Maybe this was just Ace's hideout place, but for a guy in Unit 28, they sure hoped he got paid more than this implied. There weren't any rooms, aside from the living room and the bathroom. The kitchen was attached to the main room and there was a twin bed in the corner, where Officer Helms was lying, though resting would be inaccurate. Indeed, he was tossing and turning and even yelling nonsense with hints of obscenity.

There was a couch and a small TV in the middle of the room, where both Miriam and Omar were sitting, though the TV was off. They both immediately looked towards the door when the two entered. "Uhh, hi," Nate said. "We're Unit 90? Ace told us to come in."

"Yo," Omar said. "Glad you kids could make it." Omar was dressed far too nicely for the area. He wore a beige suit and a blue tie. Unlike Ace, he was clean shaven. He was tall, had a shaved head and, as previously described, was black. He was very black. "I'm Omar," he stood and held his hand out, shaking both Nate's and Justin's individually (and in that order). "This is Miriam,"

Miriam stood as well. She had somewhat darker skin, but was white, possibly Hispanic. She had long and wavy brown hair and big brown eyes. Despite the somewhat frantic situation, she had makeup on and looked very good. It was very intentional. "Hi," she said, confidently, shaking their hands as well, firmly.

"So, it looks pretty bad," Justin said, looking over to Helms. "Any ideas?"

"Nah," Omar said, crossing his arms. "Our other team's back in Arasam lookin' for some ideas, but I'm pretty sure they're not gonna find anything."

Nate sighed. "I don't guess you could just shake him awake, huh?"

"No," Omar rolled his eyes. "This isn't a normal kinda sleep, kid. It's poison or something else that's keeping him under. It's intentional and it's malicious. Something wants him hurt, and that's why we're here - To make sure it stays at this. He's weakened, but we can make sure no one takes advantage of it."

"Sounds good," Justin nodded. "So what do you need us to do?"

"Your mission is very important," Omar said. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah," Nate was getting a little anxious.

"You should get somethin' to write with, 'cause this could get complicated."

"Okay, um," Nate began, looking around. "Where do I-"

"There should be-" Miriam began, pointing to the kitchen area of the only room in the house.

"Check the drawer over-" Omar said over her. "Yeah, right over-" Nate moved over to the kitchen and opened a drawer. "No, not- Yeah, yeah that one."

"Okay here?" Nate asked. "Oh, okay. Yeah, got some." He walked back over next to Justin. "Okay, ready. What are our orders, Cap'n?"

"Alright, here's what I need," Omar began. "I want a double meat, double cheese with bacon, lettuce and tomato only. No pickles, no onions. Ketchup on the side, with french fries and a medium coke." Nate sighed, but wrote it down anyway.

Miriam piped up, smiling. "Just get me an order of onion rings and a diet coke."

"You sure?" Omar asked. "It's on me."

"No, thanks, I'm trying to watch my weight."

"Why the hell you tryn'a do that, girl?"

"I'm always trying to watch my weight, Omar," she smiled. "Not all of us have high metabolisms like you."

"Whatever," Omar shook his head and handed some money to Justin. "Ask Ace what he wants, get yourselves somethin' too, but don't go over 4 dollars each, alright?"

"Yeah, you got it," Justin sighed.

"Oh, and another thing while you're out," Miriam added. "Here," she handed Justin a pokeball. "That's my Marowak. She's pretty weak, so if you could swing by the pokemon center on your way over, that'd be great."

"No problem," Justin said.

"Thanks, babe," she smiled.

And so they began their epic journey the couple of blocks to the pokemon center and then to the nearest burger joint to pick up lunch.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Oct 30 2011, 10:54 PM

While his misadventures at PokeCon and in Aridana had been exciting and fulfilling, Tag had not yet even begun to accomplish his current goal: Find Raven Amaranth.

Thus, Tag decided to travel back to Gigarte, where he'd last seen her. In all honesty, carting off to Starfall Field and later to Aridana on random spurts of intuition had not been very fruitful. He'd gallivanted off on his search without even really consulting the clues.

Gigarte would prove to be a bit difficult, since he had to keep a rather low profile. His last time here, he'd rescued/stolen a pokemon from the circus, and he was sure that they'd probably recognize him.

So when he stepped off the elevator into the city, he made sure to pull his leather duster up, so as to conceal a bit more of his face. Briefly, he considered wearing the Go-Goggles that Vernon had given him in Aridana, but he figured goggles would stick out, drawing more suspicion to him.

For now, he made a bee-line to the Pokemon Center, where he could rest up, and maybe try to figure out a plan of search. The newspapers, journals and even tabloids weren't showing her face, despite the fairly recent media buzz they'd created concerning her surfacing.

Once in the Pokemon Center, he set the tray down on the counter, where it was carried off by a smiling Chansey. The Nurse Joy on duty registered him in the computer before bustling off. Tag noted, smilingly inwardly, that the Nurse Joy had forgotten that he'd brought Tonbo here for the first time, and had been almost accused of Pokemon maltreatment.

Before long, his Pokemon were returned to him, cured of their scrapes and bruises from their various encounters coming down from Aridana.

Two Chanseys appeared shortly thereafter, setting down a few trays of food on the ground, labeled for each of his pokemon. Not one to begrudge his compatriots a meal, he summoned them out of their pokeballs to feast.

Suzu appeared first, standing in front of her bowl with her arms crossed. To any observer, she would appear to be scrutinizing the food. However, Tag knew from experience that Suzu was always the last one to start eating; the Ledian liked to make sure that all of the other Pokemon were seen to before she would even begin her own meal. Typical, matronly Suzu.

Kyoko appeared next, in a twirl and a hop. The Bellossom had grown from the shy and demure Gloom into a veritable ray of sunshine. The cheerful pokemon immediately hefted up bits of her food, and chewed away with evident relish.

Tobi and Zuki appeared in tandem. The Vulpix and the Poochyena were quickly becoming friends, though Tobi would occasionally upturn his nose at Zuki's roughhousing play. They were something like a Prince and a Pauper, Tag thought to himself. Tobi, vain and noble. Zuki, impish and uncouth. Yet, the two were quickly becoming inseperable, both in and out of battle. Their juxtaposed personality showed as they ate; Tobi daintily biting in small nibbles, while Zuki ate like he'd never get the chance to again. (This was a trait he shared with his trainer; Tag, too, tended to eat with an alarming voracity.)

Next to appear was Orin, Tag's Froslass. Having recently evolved, she still maintained her timid personality. Hiding behind Tag for a moment, she peered out at the food, as if it would spring up and attack her at any moment. Upon realizing that it was, in fact, edible and not, in fact, an enemy, she floated down and began to sniff at it. There was always the chance that they were simply waiting to explode.

Finally, Bachi appeared in the Pokemon Center. The Nidorino dove into the food with a surprising gusto, bristling his pins about dangerously as he did. The other pokemon scooted away for a moment, giving Bachi clear reign over the dinner area, until Suzu stepped in, waggling one of her arms at him in a stern manner, as if reprimanding him. He bristled at her, growling at his oldest friend, something Tag found a bit odd. Bachi was not normally this aggressive. Perhaps it had something to do with the losses in Aridana. But perhaps it was also the fact that he was in close proximity to a Moon Stone, which was a source of power to him.

Tag wondered if Bachi was attempting to display these Alpha Male behaviours in an attempt to prove to Tag that he was, in fact, ready to evolve into a Nidoking. Naturally, there was only one way to find out.

Reaching into his bag, Tag withdrew the moonstone, which glowed faintly, even in the bright Pokemon Center lights. Bachi's head immediately snapped over, and he moved over to Tag, his eyes shining brightly and intently.

"Are you ready, my friend?"

Nodding eagerly, Bachi puffed out his chest proudly, strutting a bit in a macho display.

"Promise me you'll come down, and stop bullying our friends. I'm already convinced of your power, and so is the rest of the team."

For a moment, Bachi seemed embarassed for his display, and nodded, a bit more humble than before.

Tag held out the Moon Stone, which Bachi tapped once with his horn. The stone shone brightly for a moment, sending a warm glow all down Bachi's horn, then across his body. Tag watched the bright silhouette of his friend warp and flow about in the room, easily drawing attention from the other patrons in the Center. Once the light faded, a powerful creature, standing well over four feet tall. Bachi was now taller than most children, and easily much larger than he was before. Moving about experimentally, Bachi flexed his arms, then his new tail and powerful hind legs. The whole thing seemed quite foreign to him, as he was used to being a quadruped.

"Congratulations, Bachi." Tag smiled, holding out his hand. Bachi had seen it many times before, humans shaking hands. It was evidently a sign for many things; this time he was being thanked. Returning Tag's smile, Bachi reached out and let Tag clasp his hand. "You're magnificent. Never forget that."

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Oct 31 2011, 12:44 AM

"I'll second that," Justin said as he and Nate entered the pokemon center. He walked over to the two, shaking hands and nodded to Bachi and Tag, in that order. "Congratulations, both of you."

"You're still here?" Nate asked. "Looking for Raven?"

The last time Nate and Tag met was actually there in Gigarte, thus his confusion. Justin knew that he, at least, traveled to Starfall Field, since they met briefly there. However, it was also true that Tag had spent his time in Starfall Field looking for Raven. Aside from the whole saving the world thing in which they both engaged.

"I'm actually, ah, gonna go get this Marowak healed up."

As Justin made his way to the counter, Nate continued the conversation with Tag. "So yeah, sorry about last time we met. Glad it didn't turn messy. But yeah, how are things on the search front?"

Posted by: Kamaitachi Oct 31 2011, 01:07 AM

Tag awkwardly shook Justin's hand. On the sine-wave that was their tenuous friendship, this was evidently an up-swing, and he'd run with it. Bachi beamed at Justin, giving another flex for his sometime-ally sometime-opponent, obviously pleased with his new appearance.

"You're still here?" Nate asked. "Looking for Raven?"

Tag cast a sidelong glance at Justin. Either Justin had told Nate absolutely nothing about the PokeCon, or had neglected to mention that Tag was there and had done super-cool-awesome stuff. He found himself slightly miffed at that, but didn't quite know why.

"I could ask the same of you." Tag nodded, reaching out, somewhat awkwardly, to shake Nate's hand. "I took a little journey, but wound up back here."

Justin excused himself, leaving him with Nate, who promptly apologized.

"It's nice to know that we can still settle things diplomatically." Tag shrugged "The outcome wasn't ideal." He wondered, for a moment, if Justin scooted away since he hadn't yet freed that poor Seviper yet. He quelled the surge of injustice quickly, reminding himself that Justin had promised, but they'd been off trying not to get crushed by meteors. "The search front is...dismal at best."

Tag suddenly stopped, a little confused.

"Did Justin catch a Marowak?"

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Oct 31 2011, 01:22 AM

"Catch a-" Nate began, a confused look on his face. "Oh! No. That's for a, uh, a friend. She's kinda tied up and just asked us to, you know. Heal it up for her."

"I miss anything?" Justin asked, stepping back up to the other two.

"Tag's still looking for Raven."

"Oh," Justin nodded. "So I guess it makes sense to come back here, huh?" He asked. Justin and Nate quickly glanced at each other and back to Tag. Whatever relationship Tag and Raven had apparently developed was necessarily not strong enough to warrant this level of obsession Tag seemed to have for finding her. "Well, um," he continued. "What if she's not-"

"Do you want help?" Nate asked. "Looking for her. You know, she went through a lot of trouble looking for Da Bomb. I could at least return the favor."

Justin raised an eyebrow at Nate, but quickly returned to normal-face. They were on a mission, albeit a somewhat menial one. What would Ace, Omar and Miriam do without their burgers and Marowak!? "Yeah," Justin nodded. "Least we could do, right?"

Posted by: Kamaitachi Oct 31 2011, 01:37 AM

Tag was instantly suspicious at Nate's sudden offer to help. So far, given their track record, Tag had concluded the following: Justin alone = Decent. Justin + Nate = Trouble.

Yet, Taggarty Lee was trying hard to turn a new chapter of his life. While he found he did enjoy the loner life, companionship was becoming more and more welcome these days. That was, after all, why he was so desperately looking for Raven. His intense gaze softened a bit, and he nodded.

"I'd appreciate the help. To be honest, I had just planned to wander around the city, fight uppity trainers, and see if I could find even just clue. Her re-emergence was evidently something of a big deal, since she was a famous musician back in Johto."

The Marowak was the only suspicious piece of today's puzzle, and Tag was sure he'd found out soon enough what role it was playing. For the mean time, though, he was glad for the help.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Nov 2 2011, 03:28 PM

"Uppity trainers are our specialty," Justin smirked. "Or something. So, yeah, let's go."

Going to the same location as the circus just made sense. Though it had been a few weeks since then, if there was going to be a clue as to her location, it would probably be in that area. They walked in relative silence. Though Nate was normally quite the chatterbox, Tag tended to bring out the silence in people.

Finally, Justin spoke to Tag. He didn't do it secretly - Nate could hear - But he was speaking mostly to Tag. "So, thanks for not, uh, blowing my cover, I guess, to Pan. Back at the, uh, Starfall Field? I plan on talking to her about what I do, I'm just looking for the right time, you know?"

Posted by: Kamaitachi Nov 4 2011, 10:43 PM

Tag raised his eyebrow as he listened to Justin while they walked. The end of the world and their several near death experiences with meteors would have been the closest thing to a "right time" as he could possibly think of. However, Justin seemed to disagree. Even now, after they'd survived the entire ordeal, Justin had not yet come clean to his lady friend. A part of him felt very sorry for Pan. She seemed like a really nice girl, even when Tag had nearly devoured one of her pokemon, and probably didn't deserve the run-around Justin was most likely giving her. He remembered how he'd felt when Nate had told them that they were criminals.

To be fair...they were still criminals. But criminals who were sometimes allies. Tag bore no real ill will towards them, even if they did manipulate him from time to time. It was entirely possible that he was being manipulated now, but it would've taken a much smarter person than Tag to figure out exactly how that was happening at this moment.

"It's no problem." Tag shrugged "Your business with her is your business with her. I had no place to intrude."

As per usual, the tattooed trainer was a horrible conversationalist, since the topic was nowhere near Pokemon Battles. He wasn't even sure if it was wise to bring up the Seviper, which was something of a sore spot between the two. Without much else to say, Tag once again opted for silence.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Nov 5 2011, 01:07 PM

They ended up just walking around the area of Gigarte where the circus was a few weeks earlier. None of them really knew what kind of clues for which to search, and neither Justin nor Nate particularly expected to find anything of relevance, but it seemed like the right thing to do, to help Tag look. They needed some good karma, after all. Really, Nate just felt bad for the guy and felt like he owed him, since both Tag and Raven helped to save his pokemon at Mt. Carello. Justin just followed along, as he tended to do.

But, inevitably, their earpieces (neither of which were actually in their ears) began to buzz. Simultaneously, Justin and Nate sighed as the put them in their ears to take the call, which they expected to be nothing more than a "where are you with our burgers?" Things seemed a bit more frantic, however.

"Smart, Guzman, we need you back here now," It was Omar. "Forget the burgers, something...strange is.."

"Uh," Justin began. "Omar?"

"The hell happened?" Nate asked.

"I don't know," Justin shrugged. "Um, Tag? I'm sorry, man, but we really do have to go."

Nate nodded. "Good luck. I'm sure we'll run into each other soon enough."

And so, with their parting words, Justin and Nate hurriedly made their ways back to the slums to get to Ace's house. Somehow, saying goodbye to Tag never really made sense. So rarely did they meet on good terms, and even in those cases, there was some sort of catch. On top of that, they never, ever made plans to meet up. They always just kinda...Did.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Nov 6 2011, 10:25 PM

And just like that, Justin and Nate were abandoning their search and running off due to some guy named "Omar". Unsure entirely as to how to react, Tag frowned and gave chase, catching up to them in a jog, then slowing to their hurried strides.

He wasn't entirely sure why he decided to tag along with the duo, considering that it was possible they were headed off to do criminal work. Several factors were working at once: a.) He could potentially thwart whatever nefarious deed they were up to. b.) Despite their constantly being at odds, they had helped each other many times in the past. They were a good team when they decided to be one. He definitely wouldn't want to be the one who didn't help his pseudo-frenemies and not hold up his end of their perceived relationship.

c.) Tag had absolutely no leads on Raven whatsover. His plan to meander around Gigarte was quite possibly the worst plan ever, and it would definitely get him nowhere. While the chances of him finding anything on this adventure were slim-to-none, at the very least he'd have something to do.

And finally, d.) Tag didn't want to admit this, but he was growing to enjoy any sort of company. He'd been a loner for so long, and he'd finally found some people that he somewhat partially enjoyed. He idly noted as he jogged that he'd stopped referring to them as 'idiots' and had started using their names. If anything, that was a sure sign that he had some level of respect for them.

There was also e.) the chance to potentially battle Justin again. Hitmontop could not have gotten that much stronger since their last confrontation...or so Tag thought.

In any case, Tag was soon astride with the power-walking duo, despite their awkward farewell. Tag was unfamiliar with the "Say-goodbye-but-walk-in-the-same-direction" awkwardness, due to his lack of exposure to fellow human beings outside of battling, so he continued to walk with them with his usual, stony face set.

"I'm joining you." Tag stated, matter-of-factly. As far as he was concerned, that was the only explanation he really needed to give.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Nov 6 2011, 10:50 PM

Justin and Nate continued walking as Tag jumped in beside them. "Uh," Justin began, then turned to Nate, who promptly shrugged. "I guess that's okay?"

In any case, they continued to the slums. It was at that point, that Justin was sure Tag was getting mighty suspicious that they were up to some sort of criminal activity. Fortunately, however, they were not. They were certainly engaged in a Team Deception "mission," so to speak, but there was nothing illegal about what they were doing. Simply being a criminal is not in itself a crime. Well, assuming Furoh laws are anywhere near just.

Nate had planned on telling Tag to wait outside Ace's house as he and Justin went in, but as they made their approach, the thought completely left his mind. The door to the house was already cracked open and there was Ace, lying face down in the doorway still outside the house. At this point, things probably took a leap past suspicion.

They just looked at each other, and then over to Tag, and ran over to the door. Nate went inside as Justin turned Ace over to see his face. He was alive, but he was asleep. It was clear by the way his face moved that it was more than just being passed out. He was dreaming, and it was clearly not a very pleasant dream. Similar to Helms, he was locked in some sort of nightmare. He looked up to see Nate standing in front of the couch where Miriam and Omar had fallen asleep as well, tossing around as well.

"What do we do?" Justin asked. "Why'd he call us and not someone who might actually be able to help?"

"Maybe he didn't have time," Nate said. "Is this thing contagious or something?"

Justin just shrugged and turned to Tag, the more well traveled of the three. "Have you ever seen anything like-" He paused for a moment as an odd and unfamiliar sensation came over him. "Have you, uh,"

"Justin, are you- Oh," The same sensation apparently befell Nate.

"No, I just uh," Justin continued. "I know what I was saying. Let me just. Give me a second to, uh. Tag. You're uh. You're-"

And with that, Justin fell face first into the floor right next to Ace. He was a big guy and the crash indicated as such. "Haha!" Nate laughed as a daze came over him. "That had to hurt, right?" He continued laughing and then suddenly stopped as he fell backwards onto the floor.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Nov 10 2011, 01:27 PM

Despite his ever stoic face, Tag's suspicion was indeed increasing exponentially as they reached a...slummier...part of town. Not that being in a poor part of town meant that crime was imminent. Tag, thus, attempted to quell his own suspicions; it was an unfair assessment. At the very least, they would be safe from an odd thief or bully, as Tag and Justin were rather intimidating, and they were travelling together with a third person, who while not physically imposing, had some street sense. That meant, if there were any obstacles to face, it would be a large horde of morons.

This was most certainly not the case.

As they approached the house, they noted that the door was open, and that someone was lying face down. Tag's face creased into a frown. The fact that Justin and Nate were showing any sort of surprise at this meant that this was not, in fact, part of their plan or their mission.

"Have you ever seen anything like-Have you, uh." Justin turned to him to ask a question, and rather buffoonishly stopped short. Tag rolled his eyes and replied with his most elegant summation:

"They were put to sleep." Tag surmised it to be some sort of Hypnosis/Nightmare combo. It probably wasn't some new form of disease, as Nate had suggested, but probably the work of a pokemon, given the circumstances.

Nate and Justin were both evidently affected by some stupid disorder, as they seemed to have complete and utter difficulty with speaking. Tag surpressed a laugh as they wobbled about, as if intoxicated. However, when they two crashed to the ground, evidently under the same affliction as the other people in the house, Tag realized that he should've had his guard up the whole time. In fact, he normally would've in that situation, why didn't he?

"Oh. Shit." Tag sighed, feeling woozy. The effects had hit him more slowly and more gradually, to the point where he hadn't realized he was already afflicted. Without further ado, Tag, too, felt the weight of his own body buckle underneath him. He crashed unceremoniously to the ground, where he joined the rest of the room in sleep.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Nov 10 2011, 07:27 PM

What followed was far too real to be simply a dream. It happened too quickly after falling asleep and, perhaps the most convincing tell that what followed was not a normal dream - Everything felt uneasy. Even in nightmares, one has some sense of belonging to whatever twisted world the mind had created. But nothing felt right. Nothing felt like home.

There was no "waking up" moment from the time the three fell asleep. Upon their eyes being closed, they were already open in this new reality in which they must have been. Justin was the first to see what had become of the living room of Ace's house. The strange thing was, the setting wasn't all too different from the one which they had just left. They were still in an urban environment, but the feeling of danger that comes with such an environment was through the roof. Justin couldn't quite put his finger on what was so strange about where he was, but as he looked down at his own body, he saw that it had remained the same. He still wore the same sleeveless T-shirt and jeans and his pokeballs were still strapped to his belt around said jeans.

He allowed his hand to rest on Hitmontop's pokeball, as he tended to do during times of danger. Nate was the next to arrive, right beside him. He looked to his left to see Nate, just as confused as he had been. "The fuck?" Was Nate's response. At least he had someone to whom he could ask, "The fuck?"

They heard rapid fire gunshots in some direction. It was hard to pinpoint the direction because the sound was echoing all over the place, but it seemed far. "Same question," Nate said again. "Justin, where are we?"

"I think," he began. "We're in some sort of urban battleground."

"Like, what?" Nate asked. "Like riots?"

"Seems more serious than that," Justin responded. "Riots don't usually involve much automatic gunfire."

"Okay," Nate said. "Any ideas on how we got here?"

That was about when Tag showed up, popped out of thin air. "I think we're in that same nightmare Helms was having. Apparently it was contagious."

"Well," Nate sighed. "That sucks."

"Yeah."

"At least we got to bring our pokemon, right?"

Justin sighed. Somehow the idea of sending out Ninjask against rebels wielding AK-47s didn't ease his worries at all.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Nov 10 2011, 08:10 PM

The sensation of waking up after being awake did not sit well with Tag. He appeared next to Justin and Nate, looking fairly pale, and almost sick.

"I think we're in that same nightmare Helms was having. Apparently, it was contagious."

"Well, that sucks."

"Yeah"

"At least we got to bring our pokemon, right?"

Tag blinked as he listened to their voices. He knew for a fact that he was dreaming. He'd fallen asleep, and his brain still registered that much. However, Justin and Nate's voices didn't have that...echoey-ghostly-reverb that dream voices tended to have. In fact, everything appeared quite normal, and sounded quite normal, except for the fact that there was the constant sound of gunfire.

On top of this, even though the gunfire sounded nowhere close to them, Tag felt as if the hairs on his nape were on end. It was the sort of feeling that animals got when they were about to be devoured by a snake, and his was going off the charts.

"Well, standing here isn't going to get us out of this faster." Tag shrugged "I suggest we look around for clues." He wondered that if they ended up dying in the dream, if their consciousnesses would be sent to another dream level, sort of like a limbo, where buildings stood there for no reason by a beach, and crumbled on a whim. He wondered if he'd find a spinning top in a safe. Maybe he was actually asleep on a plane.

Tag moved back to the door from which they had 'entered', earlier, and chanced a peek around the outside. He took a moment to carefully survey the area, and it seemed, for all intents and purposes, that they were still in Gigarte. Or...was it Petropolis? Part of his mind couldn't quite keep the two cities different, and he was having a difficult time deciding as to where they actually were.

"Maybe...we should get guns of our own?" he suggested helpfully.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Nov 10 2011, 10:31 PM

"Yeah," Justin nodded. "That sounds like a much better idea."

They were in some sort of alleyway, and so they moved to the corner of the abandoned building behind which they were hiding. As Justin moved his head from around the corner, he saw three men down the street carrying automatic weapons. One of them happened to be looking in Justin's direction and shot, causing Justin to recoil back behind the building. "Fuck," he said.

"What do we do?" Nate asked. "Run the other way?"

"I kinda don't feel like getting shot," Justin said. "Even if this is some sort of dream world."

"Use Shedinja," Nate suggested. "They can't shoot her. Uh. It?"

Posted by: Kamaitachi Nov 10 2011, 10:42 PM

"It sure would be nice if we had some grenades." Tag grumbled as he ducked into some cover. More gunshots rang in the alleyway. At the suggestion of using Shedinja, Tag realized that he too had a ghost pokemon on his team.

"Orin, Ice Shard!"

Tag's Froslass appeared up in the air, and was immediately met with gunfire. The bullets passed harmlessly through her, as she was, after all, a ghost. Unfortunately, she was still spooked by the loud noises in turn, and the projectiles hurtling at her. If bullets were a steel type attack, she'd have been dead. With a panicked dive, she floated next to Tag, shuddering in fear.

An odd mix of sympathy and frustration fell over the tattooed trainer as he reached out to hold his Pokemon's hand.

"Lass."

"It's okay, Orin." Tag nodded slowly "We'll think of another way."

He looked to Justin and Nate, unsure as to how to handle the situation now.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Nov 10 2011, 10:55 PM

"Shedinja should be okay," Nate nodded after seeing Orin fear for her life. "It's immune to pretty much everything, bullets included, I think. Give it a try, Justin."

Justin nodded and called out Shedinja from its ball. "Hey," he said kind of awkwardly. He had yet to build a rapport with Shedinja. "So, I guess I'll spare you the details. But there are some dudes out there shooting at us and since you're immune to that damage, we need you to do something to stop them. If, uh, if you don't mind. That is."

It paused for a moment and hovered around the corner, leaving Nate and Tag to look with whatever judgmental eyes they might have had for Justin given his apparent lack of command and even fear of his own pokemon. About two seconds later, they heard a loud crash. Justin and Nate quickly turned to confused looks and Shedinja promptly returned to Justin's side, still in the open space behind the building. It looked outward and Justin decided to peek his head around the corner.

There, he saw the same three soldiers crushed against the side of the wall by a satisfied looking Rhydon. Killing humans was, of course, prohibited in the human world of reality. But this Rhydon seemed rather okay with the ability to break the law in the world of dreams. Omar, Ace and Miriam walked over to the Rhydon calmly, leading Justin to believe it was one of theirs. "It's them," he said with relief to Nate. "Omar and them. They're allies, Tag. Good people. Come on."

Posted by: Kamaitachi Nov 10 2011, 11:12 PM

Tag and Orin winced visibly as the loud crash was heard. The two chanced a peek around the corner to see the trio of soldiers dangling lifelessly against a wall. A triumphant looking Rhydon had rammed into them, smashing them into the wall, effectively ending them.

His stomach took a little flip as he watched the dead soldiers slump to the ground, but he had to remind himself that this was a dream. Signaling Orin to get ready, he prepared to leap out from behind his cover and attack the Rhydon next.

Justin, luckily, pointed out that the Rhydon and its human friends were allies to be trusted. Allowing himself a soft sigh of relief, Tag and Orin moved out from behind their cover to join the group in the center of the field. After a moment, he realized that the three people before him, Omar, Ace and Miriam, were the three people that they'd discovered asleep. It was true then: the nightmares were contagious, and they were now all sharing one rife with Urban warfare.

Tag, ever awkward in these social situations, stood off to one side, arms crossed, waiting for Justin or Nate to do all the talking. In the mean-time, he devoted his thoughts to figuring a way out of the dream.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Nov 11 2011, 08:05 PM

"Hey," Justin said, an appropriate look of confusion and seriousness on his own face. "Glad to see we're all okay. I guess."

"Who's this?" Omar, straight down to business.

"Oh, uh," Justin began. "This is Tag. He's a friend of ours."

"You brought him to my house or what?" Ace asked.

Omar sighed. "This really what you're gonna concern yourself with, Ace?" he asked. "Far as I'm concerned, we got one priority, and ain't none of it have to do with anything going on in the real world. In case you guys haven't figured out yet, we're in Helms' dream."

"How do you know it's Helms'?" Nate asked, curiously.

"'Cause he used to do shit like this," Omar said. "He was in the Special Forces back in Kanto and he was involved in missions like this. Makes sense that this is what he has nightmares about, you know? Shit like this'll scar a man good."

"So where are we?" Justin asked.

"That's a difficult question, Smart," Omar continued. "One might say we're still at Ace's place in Gigarte. That's where our bodies are, in fact. Others could say we're in some alternate reality. The dream world."

"Dream World?" Nate asked. "Is that a real thing or are you just making it up?"

Miriam chimed in. "It's been known to exist for some time now," she said. "Since the spread of Munna and Musharna, more and more people have been able to find a link between our reality and that of the dream world, which is different for every pokemon. The thing is, traditionally, the Dream World is only accessible by pokemon. So, it's hard to say if this is the same one. It's worth noting that the Dream World I'm talking about is not nearly as...Violent."

"Well, okay then," Justin nodded. "But when I said 'Where are we' I meant-"

"I know what you meant, Justin," Omar interrupted him. "But the truth is, I don't know. I don't know all the places Helms has been. I didn't even know there had ever been a war like this. We're used to seeing pokemon used as weapons, but I've never seen weapons used as weapons."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, they usin' pokemon as weapons too," Ace said, crossing his arms.

"Tag?" Omar walked forward and held his hand out to Tag. "My name's Omar. This here's Ace, and that's Miriam. Don't know what you're doing here, but don't care at all. You look tough, and I can see you have pokemon, so you're more than welcome along. Here's the deal, guys. There's a building a few blocks away from here surrounded by troops firing into it. Smart money says Helms is pinned down in that building. I don't know what happens if they get to him and he gets killed, but I know I'm not lookin' forward to finding out. This world is reliant on him, after all, but I don't think him dying is our ticket to waking up. We need to save him."

"Problem is," Ace said. "As Omar mentioned, the building's surrounded. We got no way to get in there, and even if we did, it's likely suicide."

"Is it?" Nate asked. "Can we 'die' in this Dream World? I mean, don't physics kinda go out the window in situations like these?"

"Makes sense," Omar nodded. "In theory. But I wouldn't wanna volunteer to test that theory out, and I wouldn't ask it of any of you. This entire thing is unfamiliar, so I think it best not to assume anything. We keep everyone alive as best we can and we figure it out from there. For now, our best bet, and I'm pretty sure of this, is to get to Helms. Unless there are any objections, I say we go in from the east side of the building."

Miriam spoke. "We did some scouting earlier, it's how we found you guys. The east side has the least amount of soldiers, which lead us to believe Helms was on the west side."

"It'll be tough," Omar continued. "But if we can make our way past those soldiers and get into the building, I don't think we'll have too much trouble getting through the building itself."

"Aside from the bullets flying into it, of course," Ace shrugged.

"Well," Omar nodded. "We'll just have to use cover. So. Objections?"

Posted by: Kamaitachi Nov 13 2011, 10:08 PM

Ever the judgmental one, Tag decided that he disliked Ace immediately.

"Tag?" After being lost in his own mind and wracking his brain for answers, he snapped back to reality as Omar approached. There was strength in the approach, with the sort of confidence that Justin lacked in his. Tag immediately grasped the hand firmly, and in lieu of shaking, just clenched tightly as Omar did the same. From the handshake alone, Tag knew that he and Omar were cut from a similar cloth; they'd respect each other, and could potentially enjoy working with one another. Despite the killing of the three dream soldiers, Tag realized that he enjoyed the ruthlessness of Omar and Rhydon's direct approach.

As they continued their brief meeting in the middle of the alleyway, Tag decided, firmly, that Miriam seemed practical, and that Ace deserved his name. Not due to his skill, of course, but rather because only douchebags sported the name "Ace".

Tag wanted to suggest using their ghost pokemon as a distraction, but there was no way in knowing whether or not the enemy possessed guns, pokemon or both, so it was not an option, considering there were too many unknowns to formulate a full plan. Sending anyone on a distraction mission was surefire suicide, and Tag didn't want to risk anyone for that; not right now.

"No objections."

Not wishing to recall his pokemon, lest he need her on the battlefield immediately, Tag left Orin floating near him. He glanced over his shoulder, nodding for her to follow closely, to which she slowly nodded in reply.

"Shall we?"

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Nov 14 2011, 11:19 PM

"Good," Omar said. "Let's get going." During his and Tag's brief conversation, Miriam and Ace had picked up the weapons of the three fallen soldiers (Ace held two). When Omar turned around, Ace handed him one and so all three of them were armed. They were, after all, the higher ranked members and were, clearly, better prepared for this very unexpected situation. There was little objection from Nate or Justin in letting Omar take the lead here. Besides, they had their pokemon, and neither of them had used guns anyway.

The group of six made their way through the war-torn city of Helms' nightmare. There were few soldiers simply littering the streets, and it was very clear that the gunshots were all coming from a single direction: The one in which they were heading. Sure enough, Omar stopped them around the corner of another building to take a peek around.

One thing worth noting was that this was no naive or rag-tag group of six in some pokemon adventure. These were adults, and capable adults at that. Ace and Nate grew up in urban environments and were quite scrappy in situations like these. Miriam was particularly observant and thoughtful and, more importantly, knew exactly what to look out for in dangerous situations. Omar had already proven himself uninhibited in the endeavor of taking lives of these "dream soldiers" (an act with which no one in the group seemed to take much issue, if at all) and was somewhat of a badass in his own right. Tag, while he had not made his tactful mind and battle skills known to Omar, Ace or Miriam, was...Well...Taggarty Lee: Furoh's resident badass.

"Okay," Omar turned to the group. "I counted fifteen armed soldiers on the nearest side of the building. They're all aiming on one of the higher floors, but it looks like their goal is simply to put pressure on their target. Ammo doesn't appear to be an issue to them either. Willing to bet it'll be an issue for us and for Helms, though, since that's how nightmares work.

"Anyway, here's my plan. Feel free to disagree or whatever, but I think it's solid. We're outnumbered, right? But, we have the element of surprise, and we can hit 'em fast before they hit us. Unfortunately, we only got three guns, so that gives us three shots and, 'f things go well, three kills, 'fore we grab attention. Element of surprise don't mean shit if it only chips away a fifth of their group.

"But we ain't weak. All of us have pokemon. I wouldn't want anyone's pokemon to get shot I'm just sayin', if we can pull the soldiers close, we got a real good chance of takin' them out."

"So, how do we do that?" Ace asked.

"I'll be the bait," he said. "What I'm gonna do, is I'm 'onna go into the third story of this building right here," he slapped his hand against the wall in which he was leaning against (to reflect on what a jackass he truly was) and continued. "I'll fire the first shot, and I'll take out a soldier in the middle, so they can all notice something's up. I don't expect all the soldiers will wander towards this building and abandon their posts, but they'll send a few to check it out at least.

"After that, we'll have two of you guys, let's say, Tag and Justin, protecting me inside the building. When the soldiers get close, you two will stay hidden, and you'll attack when they get close enough to do so with your pokemon. I recommend using your Shadow Pokemon, since they won't have reserves about killing humans."

Justin sighed at this suggestion. Of course, it was true. Pinsir was a huge dick and didn't have any respect for life. He had killed many young Kabuto during their short stay in the Rock Temple under Starfall Field, and nearly killed Bachi, Tag's Nidoran. Hell, there were times, it seemed like Pinsir wanted to kill Justin, even. For once, this trait was going to help them. "Was your Rhydon shadow?" He asked, mostly out of curiosity.

"No, in fact," Omar shook his head. "But he does what I say regardless."

"Okay," Justin nodded. "So, me and Tag protect you inside this building. What about Nate, Miriam and Ace?"

"Right," Omar continued. "So, Miriam, I want you to hide out in that building across the street here, so you can see into this one without drawing attention. Once Justin and Tag start fighting, you go ahead and help them from a distance. I won't be able to see as much as you can from my perch, so you'll be our eyes. Ace, I want you to take Nate to a hide out somewhere on the other side of this building. Can't see much from here, but somewhere where they can't see you, but you can see them just fine. When they split up and the group that comes to this building leaves your sight, you and Nate make the assault on the soldiers who remained. Cover Nate so he can get close and clear a path for us."

"Aight," Ace nodded.

"Sweet," Nate did too.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Nov 14 2011, 11:46 PM

Omar was someone who understood the art of war, and it showed clearly and brilliantly. He most likely knew the battle capabilities of Miriam and Ace, which was why he split them up, trusting them to their ends of his plan. He'd probably read files on Justin and Nate, knowing full well what the two of them were capable of. Tag was also quite sure that he'd shown up in a report or two (especially concerning his last foray in Gigarte), but was otherwise the unknown factor. Knowing the strength of Justin's Pokemon, and Tag's nature as a Pokemon trainer, it was safest to pair Justin with Tag, as Justin would most likely have the most success in keeping him in check.

Since this wasn't some sappy, happy sort of environment, the group didn't put their hands in the middle and swear by their friendship that they would win. They all wore looks of grim determination, knowing that it had the potential to be a life or death situation. At least, it felt like one, due to their circumstances.

The desperate alliance nodded in some semblance of unison before breaking their huddle. Tag and Justin moved into the building behind Omar, allowing him to ascend to a suitable shooting position. Tag was prepared for Pinsir to appear on the field, but he wasn't exactly sure which of his pokemon would be acceptable in this situation. Running through the mental checklist, he knew he had Suzu, Bachi, Kyoko, Tobi, Zuki and Orin. Of his team of six, he figured that two of them had the potential to kill a human.

Orin wasn't prepared for more violence, not at this time. While surprisingly brave in pokemon battle, this was an area out of her expertise. Tag returned her to her pokeball, noting that he didn't want to subject her to this, even in her dreams.

Drawing out two pokeballs, Tag summoned Bachi, his newly evolved Nidoking to the field, and his surprise choice, Kyoko. The flower pokemon was outrageously courageous for such a happy looking thing, and Poison Pin Pokemon now had phenomenal brute strength and the bravery to match.

"We've got to kill them." Tag stared his team down. "Some humans will come in here, and we've got to kill them, or they'll kill all of us." The two pokemon returned his stare, trying their hardest to remain convicted. "Don't worry, they're not really human. They're just dreams."

Tag noted, sadly, that he had just used what was quite possibly one of the greatest, but most horrific strategy that militaries used: Dehumanizing the enemy. But in this situation, it was do or die, and he was a survivor. He'd survived his own suicide, and weathered many a great tragedy (while causing some of his own), and he wasn't about to go down in someone else's dream.

"I won't have the time to issue commands, so here are your orders: Bachi, Horn Attack, Fury Attack and Poison Jab. Shoot to kill. Kyoko, Leaf Blade. Aim for vitals. Eyes, Necks, and any gaps in their armor."

His two pokemon nodded. The tone in Tag's voice immediately conveyed the level of danger they were in, and their loyalty to their trainer erased any cloud of doubt in their minds; he would never order them to do such things unless it was absolutely vital to the situation.

Bachi clapped his hands together, stepping back with Tag to a corner of the room. Anxiously, he clasped and unclasped his new hands, instinctively knowing how to use them, but not sure if he'd be able to control himself once he got started. The newfound power from the moonstone was intoxicating, and it was quite the boon to be able to unleash it so fully, so soon after evolving.

Bold Kyoko, meanwhile, stood in front of Tag, waiting for her chance. She was a brave soul, and slowly, she drew two long, thin blades from her skirt. She fought with the dexterity and agility of a fencer, and learning to use two blades at once greatly increased her offensive potential. She was ready for this fight, and the look of concentration on her face showed it.

Tag looked across the room to Justin, nodding quietly.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Nov 15 2011, 10:06 PM

Tag wasted no time calling forth the two pokemon he'd be using, while returning Orin (whom Justin had met only briefly, as a little Snorunt) to her pokeball. Bachi, the newly evolved Nidoking, was looking quite ferocious and ready to rip some people in pieces. His pokemon looked so much stronger every time they met, and more and more, he began to be grateful that Tag forfeited during their last less-than-friendly encounter.

He kept Hitmontop in his pokeball and, instead, called out Pinsir. This was a strategy more often than not avoided, simply because Hitmontop was not only much stronger than Pinsir, but far more reliable and loyal. But when Pinsir appeared from his pokeball and the light faded, revealing more than just an outline of his form, it seemed as though everything changed. Indeed, this was not the same Pinsir.

For starters, he was blue. His horns were a little brighter as well and, rather than immediately snarling and looking for the nearest thing to tear apart, he looked somewhat confused. Even humbled. "Pin," it began, looking around. Once it made eye contact with Bachi, it took a few steps back in what could only be fear, but not from Pinsir. Pinsir knew no fear. How long had it been since Pinsir held little Bachi between its two horns and pushed them closer together, trying with all its might to do more than defeat its foe, but to kill the poor poison pin pokemon. Justin had to summon Hitmontop to knock out his own pokemon in order to save Bachi's life. It was entirely possible that, at this juncture, the tables were entirely reversed. Nidoking could crush Pinsir like an appropriate simile. Can't think of one at this very moment.

But again, with the blue thing. This wasn't an entirely new concept to Justin. It wasn't long ago that his Nincada evolved into an odd colored Ninjask (leaving behind the frustratingly apathetic Shedinja). But at least there was some sort of explanation behind why Nincada changed. It evolved from its shell by breaking free. It was always colored differently, but was hidden behind its bland colored shell. He could think of no reason why Pinsir suddenly became blue.

"Uhh," he began. "Are you my Pinsir?" It nodded awkwardly and Justin just looked to Tag and shrugged, then looked back to Pinsir. "This is odd timing. I kinda need you to kill some people." It seemed to ponder the request and then, with some reluctance, nodded his head. "If you don't want to-" It shook its head in protest and then its horns slammed against each other repeatedly. It seemed prepared.

"What the hell happened to you, Pinsir?" he asked. "You're so different."

Posted by: Kamaitachi Nov 15 2011, 10:28 PM

At the sight of Pinsir, Bachi immediately tensed, leaning forward. Tag's arm shot out in immediate restraint, but even he knew that if Bachi so desired, Tag's arm simply wouldn't be there.

Growling ferociously, Bachi peered over Tag's tattooed arm, procuring a glare that Hades himself would've envied. There was an opponent who had broken any sort of Pokemon Honor Code, and completely humiliated him in a fight. The intoxicating power coursing through his body had found a source of release, and Bachi wasn't about to let it idle.

"Bachi. Pinsir is our ally. You'll have your chance later." Tag shot Justin an odd look that appeared to be combined with promise and relish in equal parts. There was no doubt that Tag, too, looked forward to a rematch. Bachi visibly deferred to Tag's commands, but from the look in his eye, he was ready to inflict some serious violence on his old foe.

"It's pokemon melanism." Tag sized up the new, blue Pinsir. "Differently coloured pokemon. For some, awful reason, they're referred to as 'Shiny'. Tag never liked the term "Shiny", mostly because, to him, it seemed a child's way to describe a scientific phenomenon. Not that he was a scientist by any means, of course. He simply didn't like dumbing things down to such a level. "There's no explanation as to why he suddenly chose to be blue, unless it's part of his own dream."

This was certainly an odd turn of events. He wondered if their strategy had now been compromised by the sudden change in personality. Then, he blinked, dumbfounded.

"What did Omar mean by shadow pokemon? Why would Pinsir be a shadow pokemon? He's an insect."

It was certainly an interesting question. Tag had always figured that there was something odd about Justin's Pinsir, especially since he had a bizarre repertoire of attacks unbefitting his species. What did the adjective, or code-word 'Shadow', have to do with this bizarre Pinsir.

Likewise, Nate's Teddiursa, back in the Arasam mountainside, had used a bizarre set of moves as well. Tag didn't really hone in to things like pokemon personalities when they weren't his pokemon, so he wasn't sure if Pinsir and Teddiursa were simply cut from the same jerk-cloth. But there was definitely something suspicious about their techniques.

"It doesn't matter." Tag shrugged before Justin could answer, despite the obvious length of time Tag took to process the whole thing. "What matters is that he can fight. We can wax philosophical about this later, I'm sure."

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Nov 20 2011, 05:58 PM

Omar was the third person in position, after Justin and Tag. All he had to do was go up two flights of stairs and find a nice hiding spot near a window looking onto their target building. From there, he had a nice view of the fifteen soldiers on their side of the building, but he knew it wouldn't last long. The second he fired his first shot, gunfire would be coming in his direction, and he'd need to back up. He was somewhat glad he had a few moments of planning out his exact movements, since he did still need to wait for Nate, Ace and Miriam to get into position. Though he didn't have any way of knowing when they were ready, he had some idea of how long it would take, so he'd give them that plus some grace.

Miriam was the next in position. She did have to cross the street, which was dangerous since it left her somewhat exposed, but she did it quickly and quietly, and with the help of Nate and Ace, who were her eyes as she crossed. Once she was sufficiently hidden, they made their way through the middle building (the one in which Tag, Justin and Omar were) and to the other side.

They had their backs up against the building and Nate was right up on the corner. "See what you can see," Ace said. Nate nodded and took a deep breath before turning his head slightly around the corner of the building to see the same fifteen soldiers at whom Omar was looking. He quickly removed himself from what would be their line of sight if they weren't so focused on Helms and nodded. "Yeah, there's a lot," he said. "But they're not even paying attention to us. No idea we're here."

"You'd think the gunfire a few minutes ago woulda tipped 'em off," Ace shrugged.

"So," Nate began. "We're supposed to hide, right? Is this where we're gonna do it?"

"Seems a good spot for you," Ace said. "Only thing, I won't be able to cover you from here, 'cause I can't see 'em. So, what I'mma do, is I'mma cross the street here and wait in that building, so I can cover you good, and so I can let you know when's a good time to go in."

"Yeah," Nate nodded. "Sounds good." He said this without making eye contact. His eyes were distant as he spoke and he only barely listened. Of the six of them locked in an unknown dream, Nate was the most afraid.

"Nate,"

"Yeah?"

"Calm down, man," Ace said. "You gotta breathe or this shit ain't gonna go down good at all."

"That's helpful."

"I'm being for real," he continued. "What you gotta do is think about the mission. Think about what you're gonna do if something goes wrong. Think about what you're gonna do if nothin' goes wrong. But don't think about how scared you are. Don't think about gettin' shot or failing. Just think about what you're gonna do."

"Okay," Nate nodded. "I, uh. Yeah. Okay."

"What are you gonna do?"

"Hm?"

"Well, when I shoot, you're gonna fight, right? So, what are you gonna do?"

"I'll summon Teddiursa, my Shadow pokemon. Probably Ninja, too, my Sneasel? Since she's really fast, and um. Yeah, I think she'll be good."

"Aight," Ace nodded. "Cover me while I cross the street, and I might go head and prep your pokemon for a battle."

Nate nodded and peeked around the corner again to make sure the soldiers were still preoccupied. "You're good," he said. Immediately after, Ace bolted across the street while remaining very quiet. While he climbed the stairs to get a better view of the situation, Nate took his advice and summoned Ninja and Teddiursa. Unlike Pinsir, Teddiursa looked the same as he always did. There was still something different about him, though.

"Hey guys," Nate said, not noticing the difference in Teddiursa. Ninja looked very confused about her surroundings and Nate just nodded. "Yeah, it's fucked up. Anyway, what we gotta-" He stopped right then when he realized that Teddiursa also showed signs of confusion, which was strange given that the little guy had been virtually emotionless before (Not quite the sociopath Pinsir was, though). "Teddiursa? Are you okay?"

"Ted..." It began, but stopped itself. It wasn't the kind of confusion Ninja was facing. It was a deeper "Where have I been the last two years?" kind of confusion. Nate was unperceptive of the difference, however. What was important, though, was that, in the dream world, neither Teddiursa nor Pinsir were Shadowed.

"Okay. Well, here's the thing. There are some guys out there that want to kill us. I don't mean knockout, like pokemon do. They have guns and they'll shoot. So, I need you guys to not hesitate." He paused for a moment to let it sink in, which it seemed to be doing. "Go for the throat," he said. "And keep moving, as fast as you can, so they can't shoot you."

Without even commanding it, Ninja closed her eyes. The air around her changed somewhat and when she opened her eyes, she seemed far more fierce. She used agility, a normally useless move on such an already fast pokemon, but Sneasel isn't naturally faster than bullets. After an agility, still no, but certainly faster than a human trigger finger. Nate just smiled. "Good job. Nice."

After what seemed to be enough time to get in position, Omar took a deep breath and fired the first few shots. He had an automatic weapon and the accuracy wasn't perfect, but it didn't need to be when he could fire multiple shots in a few seconds. There were fifteen soldiers in front of him, all of whom had their backs to him, so the first shot was very easy. He got the one right in the middle, so there were seven to his left and seven to his right. All of them, as soon as the shot was fired, turned to see what happened. Their comrade took a few bullets to the back and quickly fell to the ground.

The soldiers on either side of him turned to Omar's location and open fire into his building, but he had already backed up and avoided the shots.

At that point, six soldiers went around the left side of the building, where Miriam was facing and where Tag and Justin were waiting. Three went around the right side, where Nate was hiding. Nate was unaware they were coming right for him, but Ace saw the whole situation play out and knew that they were coming. He didn't want to give his position away too early, so he just kept his sights on them. If he fired too soon, Nate would take that as his cue to jump out and initiate, but it was still too early.

Once they were right up against the corner (they didn't just jump around and hope the coast was clear, after all) Ace fired, riddling him with bullets. Nate heard the gunshots as well as the grunts of the fallen soldier just on the other side of the wall and nodded to Teddiursa and Ninja. "Okay, guys. Let's go."

Ninja was out first, not wasting any time. Teddiursa was right behind her. She ran past the fallen soldier and straight towards the five who remained shooting into Helms' building. Teddiursa turned the corner and noticed there were still two soldiers right there, some blood splattered on their faces from their fallen friend. They seemed somewhat confused that a small, unarmed teddy bear was what turned the corner, but their confusion grew when so too did the teddy bear.

In a quick moment, a bright light surrounded the pokemon, too bright to watch carefully. By the time it subsided, there stood not a teddy bear, but a ferocious bear with a ring on its belly. Though it still lacked the weaponry of the soldiers, to say it was unarmed would be a grave mistake. Its first act as an Ursaring was to slash at the nearest soldier, tearing open his face. The one behind him moved out of the way and prepared to shoot the bear, but was grabbed from behind by the very small Nate.

He reacted effectively and elbowed behind himself, knocking Nate to the ground, but before he could ready his weapon again, took a few bullets from Ace, who had quickly made his way out of the building to backup Nate. He didn't bother helping Nate up, but rather moved very quickly and shot as many bullets as he could into the group of soldiers, who were also occupied with the Sneasel moving around as her nickname would imply, cutting at the soldiers, climbing them and, when possible, tearing at their throats, as Nate suggested. Meanwhile, bullets were flying in so many directions (Ace and Omar were both shooting into the group), and there was a bear charging them, they could not fight effectively.

While all that jazz was going on, the six soldiers who came around the other side of the building were met with a surprise as well. They waited by the doorway for a few seconds, all the while Miriam had her sights on them, but they couldn't see her. One nodded to the one in front, who kicked open the door and prepared to raid the building. They ran in, two at a time. Once the door flew open, though, Miriam fired her weapon, quickly killing the last two soldiers to enter.

The first two soldiers to enter were met with a flower, a giant rhino and a ferocious looking beetle, as well as Justin and Tag, who, though unarmed, weren't lacking in intimidation. Pinsir should have been the first to make a move, but he hesitated, which, hopefully, Bachi and Kyoko did not do. There were four armed soldiers, who weren't about to not use their weapons in these confusing times.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Nov 21 2011, 02:33 AM

Bachi and Kyoko, the highly trained pokemon that they were, did not hesitate in the least to follow Tag's commands. As the soldiers entered, they flanked out, checking the corners immediately, as they were trained to do. However, the instant they turned towards Tag's side, they were met with the fearsome visage of a growling Nidoking, hungry for battle. As they prepared to open fire on the creature, they did not see little Kyoko, only a foot tall, and that was their fatal mistake.

The normally cheerful flower pokemon was not short on bravery, and her face shone with the grim determination to protect her comrade. Springing up, her first rapier blade shot upwards, into the chin of the first soldier. As he 'urked' in surprise, she slashed horizontally at his throat with her second leaf blade, ensuring that the job was done on the man. As he fell, the other soldier sidestepped out of the way, only to be met with a venom-dripping horn into his chest. Roaring, Bachi lifted the dying dream soldier off the ground and into the air, and with a shake of his head, sent the man across the room. Kyoko doggedly chased the airborne man down, and with a flash of her leaf blade, ensured that the job was done.

Continuing his assault, Bachi's clawed arm, now glowing purple from the venom he was secreting from his body, grabbed the next soldier's face, slamming him violently into the wall. Even Tag, battle hardened and stoic, couldn't help but avert his eyes. He had expected his pokemon to be efficient, but he had not been prepared for the outright brutality that his longtime friend was displaying. He took a brief second to remind himself that this was a dream, but he was now worried that Bachi would display the same violent tendencies back in the waking world. The gurgling scream of the soldier cut short as Bachi tightened his grip, dropping the twitching body to the floor.

This left only one soldier for the odd Blue Pinsir of Justin's. The soldier, however, had been left dumbstruck by the brutality of the flanking assault, and left his back wide open to Pinsir, while he pointed his gun shakily at the King of Poison Pin pokemon's back.

"Justin!" Tag yelled, as Bachi was not agile enough to turn around and attack, and Kyoko was out of range. It seemed the life or death situation now revolved around the normally bloodthirsty Pinsir.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Nov 21 2011, 01:28 PM

Pinsir stayed back as he, Justin and Tag watched Bachi and Kyoko relentlessly tear into the soldiers. One would think bullets would be far more effective than what were essentially very smart animals, but apparently fear was able to overtake even figments in nightmares. While all four soldiers were affected by the assault, there was only one who remained standing at the end.

As the fight began, that one soldier took a piece of Kyoko's Leaf Blade, causing him to drop his weapon. While Bachi and Kyoko continued to rain terror onto his three comrades, he found himself focused with trying to pick his gun back up. By the time he did, the rest of them were dead, but he refused to hesitate this time. He held his gun up to the Nidoking and got just so close to pulling that trigger.

It was not Pinsir who halted his attack. Justin tackled the trained soldier to the ground, though he kept his weapon with him as he fell. Still, Justin was too close for him to aim and fire, so instead, he pulled out his knife and slashed at the teenager. While Justin was preparing to punch the man in the face, he saw the knife move for his own, and he backed up. The knife, instead, slashed the left side of his left forearm. The soldier got up to charge Justin but, this time, was stopped by Pinsir.

The blue bug pinned the man up against the wall with his large pincers. He tried slashing away at the bug, but his exoskeleton was too strong to be penetrated. He squeezed harder and harder and, finally, pulled the soldier slightly off the wall, allowing his pincers to close in, cutting the man in half. He was too low to know the move Guillotine, so let's call it Vicegrip.

He turned around to face his trainer, whose life he would not have even considered a priority a day earlier. He didn't want to have his first lucid act in a span of time of which he completely lost track to be murder, but for it to be saving Justin was okay. Justin, after all, had taken care of Pinsir since the day they met. Even though the bug pokemon absolutely hated his trainer and actively misbehaved and mistreated him, Justin continued to take care of him. Murder was the least he could do to repay the favor. He only hoped he would remain in this state.

Omar came down the stairs around then and nodded. "Well done," he said, stoically. "Let's move. Ace and Nate finished off the other soldiers and they're waiting in Helms' building for us.

Justin nodded and then looked to Pinsir. "Thank you," he said. "It's nice to finally meet you." Pinsir didn't look pleased or excited that his trainer had thanked him. He still felt down about what he'd just done, but he managed to nod to Justin before being called back into his pokeball.

"Justin," Omar said, approaching him. "You got cut pretty bad, looks like."

He looked at his left arm which had a significant gash in. He hadn't even felt it with all the adrenaline pumping, but once he noticed it, it began to hurt. He'd taken pain before, though, and he was still more concerned for his life and the life of his friends than having to deal with a little bit of pain. "Yeah," he said. "Hopefully we'll save Helms and wake up before it gets worse."

"If not, we'll need to mend it somehow," Omar said. "Laws of physics seem to work pretty realistically in here, which means you could probably get infected. But yeah, lets get to the other building first."

When they left the building they were already in, Miriam was waiting outside with her gun. She nodded to them and they all moved quickly across the street. Though the soldiers in their direct vicinity had all been killed, the coast was far from here. Soldiers were still combing the streets, and there were plenty of soldiers still shooting into Helms' building on the other three sides of it. So, they moved quickly and as quietly as possible until they met Ace and Nate on the inside, who were already crouched down.

Getting into the building caused a whole new set of problems though. Though the soldiers were shooting into the upper floors, they'd still get a stray bullet flying through once in a while. Moreover, there were plenty of glass windows and they didn't want to be seen.

Thus began their trip up the stairs, where more and more bullets would be flying in their direction. Still, they didn't expect to see very many, if any, enemy soldiers as they moved. Just more and more bullets and, eventually, Helms. How'd they get him out was a different plan about which no one had even thought yet.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Nov 22 2011, 09:51 PM

"Thank You." Tag nodded to Justin and Pinsir as the latter disappeared back into his pokeball. The Blue Pinsir evidently still held his penchant for violence, but Tag still couldn't place his finger on what was different about him. Well, aside from the colour, of course.

Tag looked to his pokemon, sizing them up quickly. Bachi seemed quite ready for more combat, his heaving breath still in place from the adrenaline rush of battle, while Kyoko quietly sidled back up to Tag, placing her little hands on his leg. The tattooed man thanked the two before recalling them to their pokeballs, before turning to Justin.

Omar had returned to the scene, and after surveying the aftermath of the chaos, noted Justin's arm.

Before long, the entire group had reconvened, and were heading up to Helms' location still in tact. It appeared that they'd best the worst this dream had to offer, and Tag was ready for it to be over. Even as they ducked at the sound of too-close gunfire, he still moved forward with the same intent on finishing this dream and getting back to the real world. Part of him regretted following Justin and Nate in the first place, but another part of him really wanted to thank them for the constant life or death experiences they were constantly putting him in. It was rather exciting, he had to admit, and the warrior blood deep inside him was constantly exhilirated by it.

"So we get to Helms...then...we...do what, exactly?"

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Nov 23 2011, 01:28 AM

Tag's question was really perfect. It was a perfect question, possibly the best he could have asked, and in no different manner. The tone of confusion and ambiguity truly epitomized the emotions through which every single one of their group was going. The truth was, there was no way to know what happened after they found Helms. It was the perfect question because it simply could not be answered.

Rarely is there a perfect answer to a perfect question, but Omar nailed it. He stopped walking, turned around to make eye contact with Tag for two seconds and then, without displaying a single emotion, turned back and continued moving towards their goal (essentially following the gunfire).

The gunfire grew louder as they approached the next floor, and they even heard some coming from inside the building itself. Omar raised his hand to halt the group as he moved forward to survey the situation. What he saw was a torn apart office with the desks and chairs fallen over to build a makeshift barricade. The scene was off, because the office looked as though it was part of the western world, and it looked as though the carnage was very recent. Meanwhile, outside, it looked like the middle of a third world city. Such is the world of dreams, after all.

He saw Helms, armed and crouched down behind one of the desks. He was alone, and had very many dead companions around him. When he made eye contact with Omar, his first response was to hold the gun up to him. "Helms!" Omar shouted. "Helms, no! It's me. We're here to get you out of here."

"You're-" he began. "Omar! Son of a bitch! When'd you get here? How'd you get here? I'm dreaming, right?"

"Yeah, I think you are. Guys, come out!" Miriam led the rest of the group to the barricade floor. "Stay low," Omar added.

"This seems too real," Helms said. "Did you guys fall into this same nightmare? Or am I dreaming you too?"

"I think we're all here, Sir," Omar said. "I don't guess you have any idea what's going on."

"A little," Helms nodded. "But now's not the time. Look, I know where we are. I can get us out of here, if I know you're all with me. Ace. Miriam." He nodded to the two. "And these three?"

"Unit 101," Omar said.

"90, actually," Nate corrected.

"Oh yeah. That's right. Anyway, this is Nate, Justin and, uh. Tag." While it was true that Tag was not a member of Unit 90 or even of Team Deception at all, that information was directly irrelevant to the situation at hand.

"Great," Helms took a deep breath. "Alright. If you guys can get me out of this building, I'll get us out of this city. Once we're out of Hell, it'll be a little easier to figure out how to get out of the rest of the nightmare."

Posted by: Kamaitachi Nov 23 2011, 02:17 AM

Omar's response seemed to quell any doubts Tag had about the situation. The simple, silent answer explained everything to Tag without any cloudiness, and Tag, in turn, dispelled any further questions he had. Those, after all, were unnecessary to their mission at that very moment.

The vision that met them at their end of their trek upwards was one of total carnage. Only Helms remained. That meant, due to the light amount of return gunfire he was sending, that the enemy soldiers would be entering the building at any moment.

Tag's earlier plan of getting a gun was easily fulfilled. He nodded as he was introduced, but immediately picked up a gun and some ammo from one of Helms' fallen men. After all, there was no point in it going to waste. Sure, he didn't know how to use one effectively, but nevertheless, it would potentially come in handy.

Plan-wise, Tag was at a loss. There was no hope for reinforcements, no hope for extraction and no hope of fighting through a horde of enemies. The only chance was to flee, and they had to do that as effectively as possible. He knew that in dreams, one tended to wake up right before one died. However, people didn't normally share dreams, which meant that he didn't know precisely which set of dream-mechanics were in effect here.

Tag chanced a glance out the windows, taking in as much as he could before ducking back down, narrowly avoiding a hail of gunfire exploding around him.

"Once they realize that there's no more gunfire up here, they'll swarm the place to cut us off. Outside fire escape is too exposed; they'd just pick us off. Our best bet is to go down the way we came in."

He looked over the group, realizing that there wasn't much in terms of dissent. With that, he grabbed pair of guns, handing them to Justin and Nate, then looked to Helms for a set of orders. While Pokemon Battles were a forte of his, he was out of his element when it came to real life battles. Helms was the expert on their situation.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Nov 26 2011, 12:28 AM

Omar took a moment and then nodded. "I'm with Tag."

"Sounds fine to me," Helms agreed. "I'm ready to just get the fuck outta here."

In agreement, the group turned for the door, but not before hearing something fall on the ground near them. "Grenade!" Helms shouted, while simultaneously ducking behind another of the desks. It happened by the door, but he was the only one quick enough to listen for such a sound and respond effectively.

The flash grenade effectively stunned everyone in the room, with the exception of Helms, who avoided the flash. While the rest of his team was undergoing a 5 second blindness, he readied his weapons and aimed them at the door in preparation for soldiers to enter. When they did, they quickly found their target, Helms, who did not waste any time firing away. The soldiers, in kind, returned fire.

Justin shouted and held out the gun Tag had given him in somewhat random directions before opting to just set it down. He was more likely to shoot a friend at this rate. And yet, slowly, the blindness he experienced faded and he got a more clear view of the situation. There was Helms, lying against the desk, riddled with bullets, a pool of blood forming beneath him as he slid to the floor, the life quickly draining from his eyes.

The rest of the soldiers had their weapons on the rest of the team, but had refrained from firing at them as they were stunned. And yet, their weapons began to shake. No, it was the whole room. The building itself was beginning to crumble around them. "Uhhhh, Omar?" Justin asked.

"Just hold onto somethin'!" Omar shouted.

"What the hell is this?" Miriam asked, standing up, for the first time since they entered the building, in an upright position. She walked over to the window looking outside. "It's not the building," she said. "This whole world is collapsing. The sky, the ground. Everything is falling apart."

Justin looked at Nate and then at Tag, if only to communicate the fear through which he was going. He wanted to summon Hitmontop, to thank him for standing by him even through his questionable decisions. Hitmontop was always the better of the two. He wanted to summon Pinsir to apologize for the Shadow which had affected him. Ninjask, whom cared so deeply for Justin. Sudowoodo, whose friendship had slowly become valued. Octillery and Shedinja didn't have the connections the others had with Justin, but hell, he wanted to say goodbye to them too. But how cruel would it be to summon them into this strange new world just so they could experience death?

As the rattling became more and more unbearable, his vision began to fade back out. It was slow, at about the speed it came back from the flashbang, but it was a more unsettling kind of lack of vision. It was an eerie darkness into which they were being swept - the kind from which nightmares were made.

And so, yet again, they lost consciousness.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Nov 26 2011, 02:09 AM

"Grenade!"

The iconic line from every war movie and video game was completely lost on Tag, who had trained himself to respond to Pokemon attacks by calling out Pokemon Attacks.

Tag, like Justin, waved his gun around, but the sensation of being blinded and deafened was completely new to him. The entire white world spun rapidly, with only an incredibly high pitched whine of his eardrums going insane could guide him in any conceivable direction. However, all conceivable directions were hopeless, and Tag simply held out his gun in front of him.

As the white faded back into normal vision, Tag snapped his head around, seeing Justin, Nate, Miriam, Ace and Omar...and lastly Helms. They had failed the dream mission, which potentially meant that they were trapped forever. They were about to die in a dream, since there were soldiers facing down on them. Perhaps the trauma of dying in his head would transfer over to his body, back in Gigarte, and that too, would simply die.

Then the world crumbled. Tag had to admit that getting shot was probably the better way to die. Quick and painless, not with the entire world dropped on his head. Either way, death was swiftly approaching once more. It was similar to when the massive meteor hit, except this time, there was no legendary quartet of pokemon to save them. His hand reached down, gently roaming over the smooth surfaces of his six pokeballs. It was a shame that their journey was to be cut short too.

Tag closed his eyes and waited.

* * *

With a low groan, Tag slowly opened his eyes, propping himself up on his forearms. He had been lying on his back, the vision of a crumbling ceiling indicated that perhaps they'd survive the collapse of the dream world. Sadly, with one scan of his surroundings, he realized that he wasn't in the same place anymore.

He caught sight of the other prone bodies around him, laying in their various unconscious positions. The room they were in didn't look like the war-torn office, nor did it look like the apartment. That meant, through a swift deductive process, that they were now in someone else's dream. Helms, now dead, was probably not the owner of this world, and this wasn't the sort of place that Tag dreamed about. (Tag usually dreamed about cute things, like floating in the sky amongst a cloud of Hoppip, or floating on his back while Wooper gamboled about.)

Slowly standing, he checked to see if he was entirely in one piece, and then checked his pokeball inventory. He gave himself a satisfactory nod upon completion of his check before setting about checking the rest of his team. They were all breathing, and they were all still equipped, save the firearms from the office, which had mysteriously vanished.

Looking around the room to see if he could find more clues, he noted that they were in some sort of empty room, with doors at 'north' and 'south' ends of the room. (Tag had no way of deeming which way was actually north, of course.) The only other inhabitant of the room, aside from the team, was something that looked like a wardrobe, standing completely unused.

His curiosity piqued, he figured it was probably something to help them through this segment of dreams. So, naturally, he moved to go open it.

The fatal flaw with his logic is that he thought they were 'dreaming'. While they were doing just that, he neglected to remember that they were in a nightmare. As he pried open the cabinet door, he reeled back in horror. Within the cabinet was a body. While that should've been no surprise, the state it was in was the most shocking to the 'bad-ass' trainer. The body within had been methodically chopped up and pinned to the inside of the wardrobe, with individual body parts completely detached from one another, and labeled. The head had been vivisected down the middle, though the eyes, mouth and everything was still intact in a wide-eyed, horrified, but silent, scream.

Tag promptly vomited.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Nov 27 2011, 03:34 AM

Though Justin felt some level of consciousness flow back into his body, the world remained black. He was afraid to open his eyes, to see what new world he was in. He was afraid to confirm that he had been killed, most importantly. But, as he heard sounds of movement around him, he opened his eyes.

The room was still dark, but he could see his companions. Notably absent was Helms, who had been killed in his own nightmare. Everyone else was still there, though. Nate was leaning against one of the walls, while Miriam, Omar and Tag seemed to be looking at the wardrobe, the only piece of furniture in this otherwise empty room. Tag, evidently the boldest of the group (or the most forgetful that they were in a nightmare and not simply a dream, which was the case) decided to open the wardrobe.

Neither Miriam nor Omar objected. Why would they? They were just as curious as Tag to see what was inside the wardrobe. They made sure to take one or two steps back as he did it though. They say curiosity killed the cat, but oftentimes it's the pussies who live.

Then they saw what Tag saw. Miriam quickly averted her gaze, as did Justin, while Omar showed no sign of emotion. He stared the corpse (if it could still be called that) down while rubbing his chin, as if expecting a goatee to be there. Nate couldn't quite see what was inside from his spot on the wall, and he seriously pondered whether or not it would be worth it to move just to see what was inside, especially given the somewhat violent reactions from his allies - Notably Tag's.

However, there was one among the group who reacted worse than Tag. Indeed, Tag's response was reasonable given the circumstances. Omar's probably was the only one out of place, but then again, there seemed to be nothing capable of removing his poker face. But Ace didn't avert his gaze either. He didn't move, but his face was far from calm. His eyes widened, his breath stopped and his arm hair stood on end. It was like he was trying to blink or look away or really do anything to get this thing out of his vision, but he couldn't do it. It was like his eyelids were taped open, forcing him to look on this disfigured human as if it were some form of torture in and of itself.

Though Justin's first assumption was that this was Tag's dream, given his vomiting, Omar was the one to notice otherwise. He simply stood between Ace and the wardrobe, but it was clear the image was imprinted in the man's mind permanently, or at least for the remainder of the nightmare, which was clearly his own. Omar turned and closed the wardrobe and turned to face the rest of the group.

"Uh," Nate said. "What was in it?"

"We're in Ace's dream," Omar said, ignoring Nate's valid question. "Everyone here reacted relatively reasonably to the sight we were unfortunate enough to see just now."

"I didn't see it." Nate shrugged.

"But Ace is petrified," Omar continued. "Even before you opened the wardrobe, Tag, Ace was uneasy, moreso than the rest of us."

"It makes sense," Miriam added. "After Helms, Ace was the first to fall asleep. It's hard to make a definite pattern with as little info as we have, but if this is anything like Helms' nightmare, it's gonna target Ace. Remember, the soldiers only really attacked us when we were in their way of killing Helms. When the flash hit us, they only shot and killed him. We were spared."

"Maybe they just didn't have time to kill us before the building collapsed," Justin said. "They looked just as confused as the rest of us."

"Either way," Miriam shrugged. "They only shot one person."

"Yes," Omar nodded. "But Helms was also the only one of us who remained armed after the flash. It's possibly they only shot him first for that reason, and were still planning on killing us before the nightmare collapsed. Assuming any of us are safe just because this isn't our nightmare is fatal. That being said, let's all keep an eye on Ace just in case."

"It's kind of a small room," Nate said. "I say we just keep our eyes on everybody."

"We're not staying in this room," Omar said, with expected reactions of confusion. "Just like in Helms' dream, there's an objective here. If Ace dies, it's safe to assume we failed, the dream ends, and we move onto the next one. I'd rather find out what happens if we complete the objective, though."

"But we don't know what the objective is." Miriam said.

"Same as last time," Omar replied. "Get to safety. This is some sort of torture house or a serial killer type situation. I know I don't want to just wait in this room for whatever's after us to kill us."

"Ace," Miriam said, crouching down in front of him so she was at eye level. His face was still pale and fear was stricken across his face. "Can you tell us anything about this nightmare? There's a reason you're having it. I know it's probably very hard to talk about, but we really need you to so we can get out."

Posted by: Kamaitachi Nov 28 2011, 03:14 AM

It took Ace a moment to recover, which was just fine in Tag's book. He took a few moments of his own to finish spitting up the remnants of sick still lingering in his mouth. Even if this was a dream, the taste of vomit was still pretty evident.

"I don't scare easy, you know?" Ace's breathing slowed back down, and the terrified look half-faded from his face. He'd stepped out of his paralysis for the time being, although he was still visibly shaken from the setting. Not to mention, the image of the corpse was clearly still burned into his memory. Even as he continued to look at it, which was when Tag took the effort to close the wardrobe back up. "This horror shit always gets to me. Not the 'surprise-loud-noise' parts, but the really gory, gross shit."

Tag raised an eyebrow at the thought. He couldn't quite bring himself to believe that this was all brought on by seeing a film or two. But, he reminded himself, they were in a dream world. Those horror films were a lot scarier when one was living it. Part of him was still convinced that this was probably some sick fantasy of Ace's, because no normal person could come up with something so grotesque.

There wasn't really much time to ponder the truth of Ace's statement, nor was there really much time to dilly dally.

"Who's our enemy?" Tag asked.

"My guess? A psycho serial killer. He's gonna find us, then kill us in really sick ways." Ace shuddered at the thought, clutching himself as if he were suddenly cold. "Need to get out of here. Now."

That was something with which Tag wholeheartedly agreed. He really wanted to look to Omar for a plan of action, but there were only two doors, so it wasn't really a discussion on how to proceed. Unless Omar had vast experience in these torture house scenarios, then he'd go with his gut.

"Let's go." Wiping his mouth on his sleeve for good measure, Tag moved over to the 'north' door, and cautiously opened it. After a quick peek, he opened the door wider for everyone to see.

The next room was almost precisely identical to the room they were just in, except that the doors were now 'east' and 'west', and another wardrobe was directly in front of them.

"You've gotta be kidding me." Tag sighed. He moved to the center of the room, eying the wardrobe cautiously. More than likely, there was some other poor dream soul locked in that wardrobe in perfectly sliced pieces, so he didn't dare bother with it.

Once the rest of the group stepped into the room, the door they entered from shut violently. Tag ran back over, testing the handle, only to find that it was locked.

"Of course." He muttered dryly under his breath. As he rejoined the team back towards the middle of the room, he eyed the other two doors. "They're probably also identical".

Placing his forefinger and thumb to his temples, Tag made a grunting, unhappy noise. "If we mark the rooms to make sure we don't double back, we might be able to get out faster. On the contrary, we'd leave a trail for the killer, and he'd be able to find us faster. What do you guys think?"

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Nov 28 2011, 12:42 PM

"Keep moving," Omar said. "I'd rather take more time getting outta here than give the killer a path right to us." He nodded his head to one of the doors, completely arbitrarily. As they moved, he did his best to look for anything which stood out - A hole in the wall, a crack in the wardrobe - But everything was perfectly perfect. In the real world, there's always something that separates two things, even identical ones, but in this nightmare world, if something was meant to trick them, it was going to trick them. Their only option was to weather through it.

But as Tag's hand touched the next door, the wardrobe began to jiggle, causing everyone to turn their heads towards it. "Oh God," Ace said, taking a step back. Justin's hand went instinctively towards Hitmontop's pokeball, but then he realized that a simple pokemon battle probably wouldn't save them.

The door to the wardrobe flew open and an equally mangled corpse was visible. Then, a Mismagius floated slowly from outside of the victim's body. At that point, everyone else also moved their hands towards their pokeballs. They were, in fact, dealing with a pokemon, but it was still up in the air as to whether or not this Mismagius was a foe.

Then, it released a horrifying scream, which continued on for way too long. Before the end of it, Nate summoned Ninja, his Sneasel, who didn't even need a command. She heard the scream and saw the Mismagius, and knew that the group was still in a dangerous situation. She quickly vanished from sight and appeared behind the screeching Mismagius, and slashed at her. It did a lot of damage - Not enough to KO her, but enough to cause her to stop screeching and turn around. As Ninja readied herself for another attack, though, more Ghost type pokemon began appearing through the walls.

They didn't waste any time shooting Shadow Balls and other attacks against Ninja. These pokemon were extremely aggressive, and Omar didn't waste any time summoning his own Dark type pokemon, Houndoom. "No question here," he said. "We fight."

Posted by: Kamaitachi Nov 30 2011, 01:24 AM

The screech was absolutely horrendous. Tag clapped his hands over his ears, attempting to shield them from the atrocious noise. Ninja, a sneasel, could've more than likely handled the Mismagius on her own. In fact, she seemed to be handling it just fine in the initial round of combat.

But this advantage would not last: Several more ghost pokemon began pouring through the walls. A slow realization crawled into Tag's head; The Mismagius had been an alarm. Now everything in the 'house' was alerted to their presence, and more than likely, their whereabouts.

Knowing ghost pokemon to be notoriously tricky, Tag opted to play support for the rest of the team. "Suzu, Safeguard."

Appearing in a dazzling display, Tag's Ledian immediately shot into the center of the room. With an aerial twirl, a thin white veil formed around her, which in turn formed identical ones on the rest of her teammates. In this case, at least Houndoom and Ninja (As well as any other ally pokemon who entered the field). For now, their team would be protected from the various status ailments that ghost pokemon typically provided.

As she finished spreading the party buff, the ladybug pokemon quickly shot to one side, receiving a glancing blow from a Banette's Shadow claw, and immediately floated back over to Tag.

"Suzu, Agility." With a nod, her sunglasses-eyes glinted with understanding, and she immediately buzzed around the room, picking up speed as she went. As she gained the speed, she continued to avoid the various attacks sent her way, but never bothered to retaliate. She had taken a few glancing blows, but due to her evading, had not taken any serious damage.

"Baton Pass." Suzu faded into a field of red light, which shot back towards the pokeball in Tag's belt. Bursting from his side, Zuki exploded onto the field, drastically sped up, and wrapped in Suzu's safeguard technique. "Use Bite." With a nod, the eager Poochyena sped off into the room, leaping and biting ferociously at any of the various enemy ghost pokemon in the room.

"Can we wrap this up?" He asked irritatedly, anxiously watching the three doors in the room for any unwelcome entrances. It was wholly possible that the psycho-killer Ace had mentioned was approaching them, and would arrive in their room to finish them off any second.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Nov 30 2011, 08:04 PM

Omar was admittedly impressed with Tag's quick reflexes and understanding of the nature of pokemon battles. He had initially taken Tag for more a brute force kind of battler, who would have a plethora of powerful pokemon to do a lot of damage. He had caught a glimpse of Bachi and Kyoko, and though Bellossom isn't typically known for being a powerhouse, the fact that Nidoking was there too was enough implication for him.

But Tag's decision to negate all the Thunder Waves, Hypnoses and Confuse Rays was a welcome one.

Justin was tempted to summon Shedinja, his own Ghost type pokemon, due to its own Dark type attack, Night Slash. If it had access to a Ghost type attack, that would be preferable, but Night Slash was its strongest attack against other Ghosts. However, being a Ghost type itself, it was weak to that very same type. Justin was no expert on pokemon battling, but he had been getting to know the type chart, at least surrounding his own pokemon. Seeing as how Shedinja was extremely fragile, he had to know its weaknesses inside and out, since a single hit from any of those types would take it out.

He opted to, instead, call out Sudowoodo. Ghost being weak to Ghost was a disadvantage to Shedinja, but not to Sudowoodo. He was not a Ghost type, but he had access to a Ghost attack. Well, not right then, but he soon would.

"Sudowoodo, use Mimic on the Gengar's Shadow Ball,"

As he commanded it, Nate looked at his partner with a nod of approval, but he made his way towards Justin while summoning his notably high leveled Eevee, who knew Bite. "Whip, use Bite on the Banette," he said, somewhat casually.

"Justin," he said. "Sudowoodo's physical attack is really low. Shadow Ball isn't gonna do any damage."

"Oh," Justin sighed, thinking his strategy was brilliant.

"Try to mimic a physical attack. Ghost or Dark will work. Whip just used Bite, so you could-"

"Right," Justin nodded. "Dark. Sudowoodo knows Faint Attack."

"You're an idiot, Justin," Nate slightly smiled. "Use it!"

"Sudowoodo, use Faint Attack!"

Sudowoodo nodded, completely foregoing any attempts at mimicking at that point. It was worth noting that Sudowoodo was not one of Justin's overleveled pokemon (a title attributed only to Hitmontop) and so, even though his Faint Attack was indeed Super Effective, it wasn't knocking the Ghost pokemon out instantly.

Miriam had summoned her Scizor, which was getting full use out of super effective technician boosted Pursuit. Ghost pokemon did not have the option of repositioning themselves once Scizor targeted them. They were going to get hit by it, and trying to avoid it only made the damage worse. A Banette learned that the hard way when, as Scizor began charging, it turned to run away and got hit in the back, knocked out immediately.

Omar's Houndoom wasn't wasting any time, either. Its Bite attack was fearsome, and she was a fast pokemon. Omar, however, felt not the need to control his Houndoom. Similar to Justin's relationship with Hitmontop, they fought well without interference from the trainer. Of course, if Omar needed to step in and make some calls, she would obey, but at the moment, dealing damage was enough of an order, and Omar had other things to worry about - Notably, Ace's sudden absence from the group.

Nate, meanwhile, had called back Ninja the Sneasel, as she had taken plenty of damage during the fight (while, of course, taking down a noteworthy number of Ghost pokemon). His damage, at that point, was reliant on Whip, who, while high leveled, was still just an Eevee.

Until, of course, he evolved right in the middle of the battle. A Banette decided to be clever and use Screech on Whip, in an effort to lower his defense and allow him to be focused much easier. As he sound waves reached him, however, a visible barrier appeared in front of him, simultaneously bouncing the soundwaves back towards the Banette and engulfing Whip.

He was shining brightly and, when it was all said and done, there stood a magnificent Espeon, whose ability changed while in the Dream World to Magic Bounce. Nate was unaware of what exactly just happened, but he was smart enough not to let Whip, a Psychic type, stay in the middle of a swarm of Ghost pokemon. Part of him wished it had evolved instead into an Umbreon. "Wait, it's day time?"

Justin just shrugged, still next to his partner. "Fuck if I know, dude. Maybe it's going by the time of day in the real world. Congrats, by the way."

"Yeah, thanks," Nate sighed. "Let's just hope we don't get killed so we can all enjoy how pretty he is."

------

Near the beginning of the battle, when the rest of the team was focused on the swarm of Ghost pokemon appearing, Ace, in fear, backed up against the wall, shakily reaching for a pokeball, any pokeball. Part of him did want the extra protection. Part of him wanted to be useful in this battle. It was his nightmare, after all. But most of him was just scared shitless. Every one of these ghosts represented a dead person, and that was the most terrifying thing of all.

But it wouldn't be a nightmare if crazy things didn't happen. Before he even got a chance to scream, he felt himself being pulled backwards by two large and ghostly hands - Backwards into the wall. He closed his eyes, but never felt himself being shoved or smashed against it. Then, when he opened them, instead of seeing the battle in front of him, he saw solid wall.

He had been pulled through the wall into the next room. Slowly, Ace turned around, his hand still on a pokeball, to see a Dusknoir, cracking its boneless knuckles in preparation for a fight. Ace took a deep breath and summoned his nicknameless Flygon. "Crunch," was all he could muster himself to say. While the Dusknoir pulled back its fist, which was being enveloped in shadowy purple, Flygon let loose a powerful Crunch, which was, evidently, enough to KO the Dusknoir, who fell to the floor, motionless.

Then, Ace had a chance to look around this room, which completely lacked doors. The only thing in the room was yet another wardrobe, which he was justifiably terrified to open. But given that his only other option was to sit in the corner forever, he went for it. What was inside was not a mangled corpse or a beaten body. It was something much more startling, causing Ace to take many steps back and have to actively catch his breath.

It was his father, whose seemingly lifeless and yet fully in tact body fell out of the wardrobe and onto the ground in front of him. Flygon, still out of his pokeball, hovered back to allow Ace to move forward. "Dad," he kneeled down next to the body and moved to roll it over, to see his face. But as he did so, it coughed.

"The fuck!"

His father stood up and dusted himself off in front of him. "Hello, Terrance," the man said, smiling at his son as Ace stood up.

"What are you doing here?" Ace asked.

"What's it look like I'm doing here?" His father asked back.

Rather than answering, Ace asked another question. "Are you the thing I'm nightmaring about? Or are you the thing I gotta protect?"

"Son, why would you be having a nightmare about me?"

"Because you're dead!" Ace shouted. "You died! Ten years ago. You're a ghost."

"But I'm still your father, right?"

Ace looked down, breathing heavily, and then spoke, still eyeing down his own feet. "It wasn't random, was it? It wasn't just a random mugging went wrong."

"Of course not," the man shook his head.

"You were a killer," Ace said. "A gangster. You killed people, and they eventually killed you back. I went all this time thinking that it was just random, that you just died being normal. I never once considered the possibility that you deserved it."

"Why not?" his father asked, grabbing his son's head and pulling it up so they were looking into eachothers' eyes. "Why would you think I was a good guy? Don't you remember what I used to do to you?"

Ace shoved his father's hand away from his face and stepped back, looking away, tears immediately filling his eyes. Memories which he had completely and unintentionally blocked were flowing back. Suddenly, the bad ones outnumbered the good and when he turned to look back at his father, the smile became much more sinister. "There it is," the man said. "There's that hatred. But don't forget, Terrance. This isn't my nightmare."

All of a sudden, that fallen Dusknoir got up. Evidently a single Crunch wasn't enough to take it down and it was just playing faint. Flygon reacted quickly, but not quick enough to avoid an Ice Punch to the gut, immediately knocking it out. Ace charged his father, but Dusknoir intercepted him, grabbing both of his arms and beginning to pull them away from his torso. His own screams of pain and his father's maniacal laughter echoed in this single room, which could not be heard next door.

------

Omar, along with his Floatzel, was exploring the immediate vicinity of the the room in which the rest of the group was battling. He was checking the adjacent rooms and the rooms adjacent to those, while keeping in mind exactly how to get back to the group. Ace was missing, and finding him was Omar's top priority. But, after searching, he eventually made his way back to the group.

The ghost pokemon were still many in number, but they were being handled effectively. The problem was that they just kept coming. Evidently, fighting was not the solution to this particular puzzle. They were meant to run through the place with the ghosts on their tail. Fighting was simply a waste of time. But at the moment, they had more important concerns.

Miriam made eye contact and Omar just shook his head and went to Tag, who was closest to him. "Did you see where Ace-"

But then, a familiar shaking occurred. The ghosts, too, like the soldiers in the office building, were confused at the pending destruction of their home. "Fuck." Omar sighed.

Justin and Nate recalled Sudowoodo and Pinch (Nate's Kingler, who he sent out in place of Whip), knowing that this place was about to fall. Evidently, somewhere, Ace had been killed, but no one knew where he was. Before the blackout, though, the very same Dusknoir appeared through the same wall through which he pulled Ace. The ghost was holding Ace's decapitated head by the hair, doing its best to instill the last bit of horror before everyone's fall into the next nightmare.

Justin and Nate looked away, while Nate rushed his hand to his mouth as he felt he was about to vomit. "Oh God!" Miriam shouted as she fell to her knees. "Ace..."

"Nah fuck that!" Omar shouted. "Lily, use Bite, Tiger use Crunch!" Lily, his Houndoom, jumped forward and used Bite while Tiger, his Floatzel, did the same with Crunch. Paired with Flygon's Crunch from before, it was enough to knock the ghost out just before their descent.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Dec 1 2011, 03:11 AM

Tag watched as the battle continued to erupt all around them. His agility-boosted Poochyena charged around after Omar's Houndoom. As the vicious bites sank in, the little dark-pup pokemon would leap overhead, attacking shortly afterwards with his own Assurance attack, which definitely assured that any pokemon touched by Lily was defeated.

Tag couldn't help but shake his head at Justin's lack of understanding about his own pokemon. Part of him felt that it would be his only advantage the next time they squared off (for he knew for a fact that there would be a next time), but the more honourable part of him felt like he should train with the musclebound kid and actually teach him a thing or two. However, Nate seemed to have that pretty much covered.

"Did you see where Ace-"

Tag was about to respond with something along the lines of "Who?", but then the world started to fall apart again. That sort of thing was really enough to keep anyone from talking. Well, anyone except for Omar, who resorted to expletives.

The crumbling of the world was clear indication that they'd failed, once again, in their objectives, and that they were now moving on to the next nightmare. Tag calculated that it was most likely Miriam's, as Omar had been the one to call Justin on the phone, meaning he'd fallen asleep last. Well, last before Justin, Nate, then himself.

As if the insult of losing yet another level of this nightmare, Tag visibly shuddered at the sight of a Dusknoir holding what was left of Ace. Insult to insult. Luckily, Omar marshalled his pokemon into action, and the Dusknoir was swiftly eliminated, which was something of a tiny victory in the grand scheme of things. Well, tiny but worth it.

* * *

Once again, the group inexplicably transferred over to a new location. The pokemon still out of their pokeballs had instantly returned into their little homes, even in that blink of their eyes. Like Helms' dream, they were simply 'awake' in a new scenario. However, the new scenario was nothing like the grim scenes they'd found themselves in earlier. They found themselves standing by a body of water, in the middle of summer. The sun was out and shining gaily, while pokemon frolicked about in the usual way.

Tag, of course, recognized the place instantly. To anyone who'd been to Johto, they stood a chance of recognizing the waterside area near Cherrygrove. A sad look crossed his face as he gazed out over the water.

"We can't fuck this one up." Omar's voice floated over towards Tag, who was barely listening. "Everyone protect Miriam." The authority in his voice was absolute, and there was definitely no denying that sort of voice. "Can you tell us anything about this?"

"Not really." Miriam seemed a bit confused at the incredibly happy settings. The team grouped around her a bit, probably also trying to figure out why they were in such a pleasant scene, despite their earlier nightmares. "Only thing I can think of is that I'm terrified of drowning...but...we're next to the water, not in it."

"Keep an eye on the water guys." Omar nodded, instantly understanding the situation. "Some shit's gonna pop out of there, and we're gonna kick the shit outta it."

"Oh God". Miriam frowned, realization dawning on her face as well. "Something's gonna try and pull me underwater, isn't it?" her pretty face slowly began to pale, and her hands started to tremble gently. Evidently, fear of drowning also encapsulated fear of something drowning you.

With the Dream Team facing the water, surveying it for any signs of life, they evidently did not notice that someone was drifting away from them. Not even realizing that no one was watching, Taggarty Lee slowly walked away from the group, as if in a trance. The man, with unsteady and uncertain feet, simply walked into the surrounding woods. Before long, if anyone turned around, he'd simply have disappeared.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Dec 2 2011, 01:03 AM

Justin just stood to the side with his arms crossed as the group discussed the next dream, which was evidently Miriam's. Unlike Ace, however, she didn't seem to be petrified with fear. In fact, she seemed to be in complete control and understanding of the situation. Granted, she was much more of a pragmatist than Ace anyway, so it was really hard to gauge. None of them were on solid ground, so to speak.

Omar took a step towards the lake and rubbed his nonexistent goatee yet again. "I'd like to make a motion," Nate said, somewhat casually. "If the lake is the nightmare, let's get away from it?"

"The lake is important," Omar said, not turning around to address Nate. "It represents something to Miriam, and it's our job to find out what. Unless she can tell us."

"I don't even know," she shrugged. "I, uh, I guess I had a bad experience when I was a kid. My dad just threw me in the pool and told me to swim, and I panicked. I just don't think that qualifies as traumatic compared to Helms' war history."

"Trauma is different to different people," Omar said. "If you're afraid of water, then the water is important. I'm not sayin' let's all jump in, but we do need to figure out what to do. Running away from the water is the exact opposite of that, though."

"Why?" Nate asked. "The water's dangerous, so we get away from the danger."

"Nate," Omar finally turned around to address the kid. "If we could just walk away, this wouldn't be a nightmare. More importantly, we wouldn't ever get out. We still haven't found out what happens if you accomplish the mission. Helms failed his, Ace failed his. So, let's make sure Miriam passes hers, and maybe we can get out of here. I don't want to just sit around in the forest in this nightmare world, though."

"Okay," Nate nodded. "You're the boss."

So the group just stood, looking into this very peaceful looking lake. Honestly, the most disturbing thing about this place was the lack if disturbing qualities. There was nothing scary. In different circumstances, this would be an awesome place to hang out. And yet, Miriam refused to look up. She kept staring at the ground. Was she really that terrified of drowning that she couldn't even look at a lake?

"Hey," Justin said, walking to her and putting his hand gently on her right arm. "We're gonna figure this out, alright?"

Nate, meanwhile, just took a step back and rolled his eyes. This was Justin's natural reaction, to be chivalrous and comforting. He wanted so badly to be a hero to somebody without having to lie to them. How many amazing heroics had he performed in front of Pan? It didn't matter, because there was a whole, villainous side to him about which she had no idea. It didn't mean he was hitting on Miriam, but he liked being able to comfort her.

"It's Ace," she sighed. She wasn't crying, but it looked like she wanted to. She fought to keep herself from doing it, to accept the situation for what it was and deal with it like Omar was doing. "I can't get his head out of my," she paused. "Head. That image, you know?"

"Yeah," Justin let go of her arm and rubbed the back of his neck, then moved to cross his arms. "Yeah, that was, uh. That was rough."

"Honestly, I think that's one of the most traumatic things that has ever happened to me," she continued. "Seeing one of my closest friend's decapitated head. I have to wonder why that's not what my nightmare's about. I know the next time I go to sleep for real, I'm gonna have nightmares about that."

"I think we all will," Justin nodded. "Unless your dream just totally blows us away, right?" He forced a smile. "Like. Like, uh, like zombie fish pokemon with, uh, with swords. And trails of blood, but you don't even know where the blood's coming from, like if it's coming from the fish or from the fish it ate. Or from the humans it ate!?" Miriam cracked a smile. "I got high expectations from your dream," Justin added. "I'm gettin' about sick of this peaceful lake crap."

"No you're not," she said.

"No," Justin shook his head and looked up at the lake, his arms still crossed. Miriam joined him in looking out into the water for a few seconds before he continued. "No, I really am not. How could I be? This place is beautiful."

It was during their conversation that Nate found himself looking around. In truth, he wanted to make fun of Justin's romanticism alongside Tag, but Tag he could not find. Omar seemed lost in thought and Justin and Miriam were too busy chatting it up to notice, but Nate noticed. He figured the guy just walked off to get some air or a cigarette or something, so he went into the woods to look around, but kept the rest of the group in sight.

"Nate!" Omar shouted when he noticed the kid was walking off. "What are you doing-Wait. Where's Tag?"

"I don't know," Nate said. "That's who I was looking for."

Justin and Miriam, at the point, both looked back to Nate and also noticed that Tag was missing. Tag wasn't stupid enough to just walk off. Something was up.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Dec 3 2011, 01:36 AM

For a brief moment, the world around them faded into black once more. It didn't crumble like they'd failed their mission, but rather it faded like a cut-scene. The group was suddenly in a pool of constructive light, with shadowy figures behind them, and a tall, towering figuring before them. Despite the fact that they were all grouped together, it still felt like each of them was standing at the direct center of the light, directly facing the towering judge before them.

The faces were indistinguishable, but they were nevertheless people. Shadowy voices whisped in and out, but were for the most part undecipherable. The air in the room felt heavy, as if the pressure could at any point topple someone to their knees.

"Taggarty Lee." The tallest figure spoke, his voice booming and loud. "In the eyes of the council, you are found guilty on all charges."

"Nine cases of Manslaughter", "twelve reports of pokemon deaths", "Property Damage in value greater than 500,000", "Violation of the Sacred Code" The rest fell into whispers again, but it was clear that the list of charges had not ended there.

"Your status as a dragon trainer is revoked."

"Your pokemon are hereby confiscated. Deemed as property of Blackthorn City, they are to be placed in the care of the Council of Elders."

"Taggarty Lee, you are hereby exiled from Blackthorn City, never to return."

* * *

With that, the scene faded, and the group was still standing over the placid lake. However, the peaceful scene was beginning to change a bit as the sun set. The gentle, playful wind died down, leaving the air thick and heavy. The water lay still, placid, but ominous. Even the sound surrounding them was suddenly cut off, leaving nothing in the air except the sound of their own breathing.

Then suddenly, a figured appeared at the other end of the lake, on the opposite bank. There, standing in all his glory, was Tag, who had obviously been the person actually standing in the center of the judgment room. He looked up once or twice, but even as he looked at the familiar people opposite him, he didn't quite seem to acknowledge that they were there.

Slowly and deliberately, he stepped forward into the water. While his steps were halting and almost fearful, it was clear on his face that he was going to continue forward no matter the cost. Taggarty Lee was about to Virginia Woolf himself right in front of his comrades' eyes.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Dec 5 2011, 12:09 AM

During the trial, the group remained silent and watched. In truth, there was nothing to say, no revelations that weren't being made more clear just by listening. It didn't need to be said - This was not Miriam's nightmare. It was Tag's. The last terrifying nightmare thus far was Tag's, something which both Justin and Nate found suspicious.

In truth, though, Tag's nightmare was perhaps the most terrifying, to the person having the nightmare at least. He was on trial for terrible atrocities, atrocities which Justin thought beyond Tag's capabilities. Manslaughter? He wasn't 100% sure what that meant, but it sounded a lot like the slaughter of men. Nine of them, to be specific.

And afterwards, looking across the lake, it was very clear that Tag did not have control over himself. If he did, he would have simply been able to tell himself that this is just a dream. But there he was, walking into the lake without inhibition. He was his own nightmare, which put the rest of the group in an odd position.

"Tag!" Miriam shouted. "Snap out of it! It wasn't real!"

"Ain't gonna work," Omar just shook his head and walked towards the water, which lost its serene peaceful tone. Normally Justin was the first person to take his shirt off in any situation, but Omar was outdoing him in every way it seemed. Perhaps this wasn't the time for insecurities, but Justin couldn't help being somewhat envious of the way the weakened sun glistened off Omar's cut up body.

He looked to his right to see what Nate was doing, but he had already done the same, it seemed. Justin was the third one in. He didn't wait for Miriam or even look back to make sure she was coming. He just swam. He swam fast. Omar may have been more ripped, but Justin was much stronger and swam much faster. The three just swam as fast as they could to try to reach Tag before he fully submerged himself, or at least before he drowned completely.

Miriam stepped up to the edge of the lake, looking into the water. She looked up to see the three men swimming, and took a deep breath. She didn't want to be outdone, but it was true that she was terrified of drowning, and this being a nightmare made things scarier. She pulled off her boots as quickly as possible and took off her shirt as well, just because it seemed like the cool thing to do. Clearly, she was way out of her element.

When she started swimming, she was far behind the group. There was some immediate regret, but not enough to turn around. She wasn't a slow swimmer, but what she saw that the others did not would slow anybody down. It looked like a snake slithering around in the water in front of her. Against her better judgment, she opened her eyes under the water to see what was going on.

There were a lot of water pokemon swimming around, and not Goldeens and Finneons. The snake she saw was a Huntail. There were Carvhana, Sharpedo, Basculin, Tentacruel. It was awful. She would have screamed if she weren't under water. To make matters worse, these fish were not just swimming aimlessly. They were brooding around her. Up ahead, she saw there were a lot of pokemon swimming under Justin, Nate and Omar.

Of course, her first reaction was to pop up, grab some air and shout to the others to be careful. However, the Tentacruel's tentacle wrapped around her leg made that difficult. These pokemon were not there to eat the rescuers. They were simply there to stop them from saving Tag. Miriam began flailing wildly, trying hard to come up for air. She managed to get just her mouth above the water to grab a quick swig of air before being submerged even harder.

As she was being pulled further and further down, the horrible huntail swam right up to her. This was not a cheerful looking Huntail. It looked angry, and it looked thirsty for flesh. It moved its sharp tail to stab towards her, but Miriam stopped flailing for a moment and grabbed the sides of its tail. It seemed confused, but she took the opportunity to pull the tail and cut through the tentacle wrapped around her leg. She began swimming straight up as quickly as possible, but as she did, the Huntail took a bite right out of her right arm. She kept swimming, knowing her fate, but she could do one thing, at least.

Justin, furthest ahead of the group, still had a good distance to swim before reaching Tag. His heavy jeans were slowing him down, but it was too late to stop and take them off at that point. He was sure he'd be able to make it to Tag in time, at least, and that's what mattered. At least, until he heard Miriam shout from far behind him. "Fish pokemon!" came the muffled female voice. "Attacking us!"

They all looked back to see her being pulled under water, blood encompassing the area around her submerged body. "Holy shit!" Omar shouted. "Miriam!"

Justin just continued swimming forward. They were closer to Tag than they were to Miriam by that point, and she looked pretty dead. Omar turned around, though, to save his partner, which was respectable. As he swam, he grabbed one of his pokeballs and called out Tiger, his Floatzel. "Get to her," he said, sternly. "Save her." Tiger didn't waste any time. He jetted into the water to try his best to save Miriam.

Justin, meanwhile, summoned Octillery. Thanks to the warning given by Miriam, Octillery was able to land a preemptive assault on the fish pokemon beneath Justin. Bullet Seed was not his strongest attack. It was, in fact, one of its weaker attacks. However, due to the sheer ease of firing a single Bullet Seed, he was able to do it in such rapid succession that he was able to effectively counter swarms of pokemon, specifically those weak against Grass type attacks, such as Water pokemon.

Nate's only water type, Pinch, his Kingler, sank to the bottom. She may have been a water type, but she was no fish, and could not swim. That didn't make her ineffective, however. As she sank, a Basculin tried to attack her, and had to get close, only to be met by Pinch's claw bashing it away, in Kingler's version of Stomp. She continued to shoot bubblebeams, which were effective in water and acted as jets of water, pushing enemy pokemon in whatever direction she so decided. In this way, she was able to keep pokemon who got past Octillery's Bullet Seed barrage from actually attacking Nate or Justin.

However, as the group swam in the various directions in which they were swimming, Omar quickly found that he was unprotected. His only water pokemon was busy fending off a swarm of Tentacruel pulling Miriam further down into the water. Tiger found himself ineffective against their sheer numbers. Though he had agility, he lacked the power Octillery had in his supereffective Bullet Seed to take on a swarm. He was getting beat up so bad, he didn't notice that a group of four Carvhana were swimming in circles around his own trainer, Omar.

What really caught Omar off guard, however, was the Jellicent who began pulling him. Omar's first reaction was to punch the damn thing in the face, but its ethereal ghost form made that impossible. He made sure to take a deep breath before being pulled under and decided he would just have to focus on fending off the Carvhanas while Tiger focused on what Omar considered a more important task. Any time one of the piranha pokemon jetted forward, Omar countered with a powerful jab. Though his fists were getting cut up pretty good, he was avoiding getting cut up more brutally. The blood misting around him was somewhat demoralizing, however.

Pinch, meanwhile, had noticed Omar's predicament. She was unfamiliar with him, but Nate and Justin seemed to be doing okay. Octillery was handing up like he does, and she was smart enough to recognize an enemy pokemon when she saw one - That Jellicent was not an ally. So, she shot off a Bubblebeam, which really only served to to annoy the ghost pokemon. That was fine, though, because it made the Jellicent let go and swim towards Pinch.

This allowed Omar the chance to swim up and grab some air. Though Pinch could not effectively counter Jellicent, the ghost pokemon couldn't really do anything against Kingler either. They continued exchanging weak blows while Nate and Justin were able to swim towards Tag.

Though Tag was fully submerged at that point, it was clear he was still alive, though just barely. Justin swam into the tattooed man and pulled him towards shore, kicking wildly as he did. He felt successful when they reached air and he basically threw Tag to the ground, unconscious. For a moment, he wondered if he had been successful, and he didn't know how to react to this. They didn't teach CPR in criminal academy.

Apparently, though, Nate had seen enough episodes of Scrubs to know exactly what to do in this situation. He performed CPR like actors do (Notably not like doctors do, since actual CPR has a tendency to cause injury, but in life or death situations, it's worth it. In television, it's not, so they do it differently. Nate did it like he saw in television, which was less effective, but apparently still has a chance of working, since...) and it was effective! Tag shot up the water he inhaled and began breathing again.

"Hey," Justin said, looking down onto Tag. "Looked like you tried to off yourself. You okay?"

They looked up to see Omar, now free, swimming as fast as he could towards the bloody pool of water where Miriam had been pulled. Justin and Nate looked at each other with skeptical faces. Neither thought Miriam made it. Omar didn't seem to care, though, and he swam as fast as he could. But, as he swam, the world began to fall apart again.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Dec 8 2011, 01:15 AM

Coughing and spluttering wild, Tag catapulted himself back upright. Looking around, he saw Justin and Nate standing over him, which meant one of them had revived him. He had relived his attempted suicide, and just like before, it didn't go as planned. Looking back and forth between the two, he made no effort to hide the frustration at his failed attempt.

"If either of you idiots ever touch me again, I'll murder you both." Tag managed to pant, a rare, broad smile crossing his face. Killing himself had definitely not been on his agenda in quite some time, and it was odd to relive the depressed sensations once more. However, unlike his past life as a loner, he now had people who actually cared about him enough to not let him drown. Raven wasn't the only person in his life with whom he could connect; he had Justin and Nate. While they were idiots...amendment: While one of them was an idiot, they had the decency to rescue him from his own nightmare.

"I appreciate it." Tag slowly stood back up and watched Omar in the middle of the water. Taking scope of the situation, he imagined that Nate and Justin, both shirtless, had traversed the hostile-filled water to get to him. Omar and Miriam had done the same, evidently. The battle in the water looked fierce, as Tag didn't quite remember the droves of terrifying water-pokemon as he drowned previously.

However, the now-less-than-peaceful scene of the lake disappeared entirely as the world fell apart. Tag, now familiar with this sensation, departed once more for another dream, but for the first time in this adventure, they'd succeeded.

* * *

With yet another inexplicable transition, Tag stood with a once again fully clothed Nate, Justin and Omar. It appeared that Miriam had not made it through Tag's dream, which was still much more violent than he'd remembered. In any case, the rules of the game had changed: It didn't matter what order they fell asleep in, for one. Tag had been the last to fall asleep, and he'd had his dream before Miriam, Omar, Justin or Nate, which meant that it could be any of the remaining members of their stalwart troupe.

Miriam had died in Tag's dream, which meant that it wasn't only the 'target' of the dream that was in danger. This stepped up the dire reality of the situation a bit more, considering that dream-deaths could occur regardless of whose dream it was. Not that they hadn't taken precaution before, but somehow, the stakes still felt higher.

Tag was completely unfamiliar with the setting once again. It looked...vaguely urban? They appeared to be in a fairly poor part of town, but unlike Helms' dream, there were no signs of any life around them.

He looked between Nate, Justin and Omar. The setting was non-descript enough that it could've belonged to any of the three. Tag noted, idly, that the three of them were fully clothed, and all of them were nice and dry. Once again, the Pokemon summoned had already returned to their pokeballs, courtesy of the nightmare world. If anything, it was its only kindness to them, considering the horrific situations they'd been in. At the very least, they had their pokemon partners to help them through.

As he sized up his three remaining comrades, he found himself sincerely hoping that it was Nate or Justin's dream. Omar was a man who evidently had no fear, which meant that a nightmare of his would probably be the most difficult thing they would ever have to face.

Which meant, the easiest thing to do would be to simply kill Omar in this dream, regardless of whether or not it was his. It was cheating, but it meant that they didn't have to face whatever it was that Omar was afraid of.

However, if it wasn't Omar's dream, he would rather have the support of the fearless man, as he was the only one who had, thus far, kept an entirely cool head throughout the experience.

"Who's dreaming this time?" Tag crossed his arms, waiting for an answer "And whoever it is, tell us everything. Quickly."

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Dec 11 2011, 11:57 AM

Justin and Nate looked at each other after Tag's question, which was on all of their minds. When both shrugged, they looked to Omar, who was back in his nice suit, tie and all, just looking out into this abandoned city. Omar looked to the rest of the group and slightly shrugged. "Well it ain't mine. Least, I think not."

"What are you afraid of?" Nate asked.

Omar just chuckled nervously in reply. "Omar don't scare."

"That makes it even worse," Nate said. "If you've never been scared, you don't even know what we're dealing with. I think you're full of shit though. You've been scared before."

"Nate," Omar crossed his arms defensively. "The scaredest I've ever been was the first time I walked into an office building full of white people, who stared at me until I left. Now, unless you guys think a bunch of rich white guys in nice suits are gonna start looking at us suspiciously to death, I honestly don't know what to tell you. If this is my dream, it can't be that bad, 'cause I ain't never been scared."

Just as he spoke, though, they felt the ground beneath them shake. It wasn't the kind of shake like a Snorlax just fell from a few feet. It wasn't the kind of shake like a Whiscash just used Earthquake. It was a particularly violent and seemingly devastating earthquake caused, not by a pokemon, but by the earth itself - Tectonic plates shifting or colliding or whatever it was, it was a dramatic earthquake.

The group was forced to find something onto which to hold in order to keep from falling over. "We gotta move!" Omar said, coming to the immediate realization that this was, in fact, his dream. It made perfect sense in his mind. The only thing which truly frightened him was a lack of control over any situation. He needed to know exactly what was going on and exactly what to do in order to achieve the best results, but something like this, a natural disaster, over which he had absolutely no control, was certainly a fear worth having. He was dreaming about the apocalypse.

What made matters worse, there was no end goal, like in all the other dreams. The apocalypse is just that - The end. But what he did know was that in order to avoid death right there and then, they would need to keep moving in order to avoid the earth cracking open beneath their feet, lava and fire shooting at them from some distant unseen volcano and probably wild pokemon going crazy from imminent death.

Omar lacked control and understanding over the situation. He did what he could do: He ran. Justin and Nate followed.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Dec 13 2011, 10:55 PM

Of the various genres of horror and thrillers that they'd gone through, (Helms: War, Ace: Torture, Tag: Dramatic), Tag had not thought the group would wind up in the sort of situation where the world was crumbling around them. Well, it had been doing that the entire time, but that usually indicated that they were moving on to the next dream. In this case, the dream world was crumbling in a way that was designed to kill them.

As Tag broke into a run after the other three men, he wondered how this dream would play out. Sure, the distracting thing was that there were cracks opening in the earth, and debris was falling from the sky, but he was wondering whether or not a tornado would swoop down from the sky and sweep them up, or if a fire would just blaze through everything and toast them all.

Sure, he was no stranger to this sort of event. Last time, he had been running towards a ditch while meteors fell all around him. Then there was the sight of a massive meteor bearing down on them to end all life on the planet. However, this time, it felt familiar. It was still terrifying, but Tag had experienced this before.

So it was all the more reason to survive this. It turned out that all four of the men were in fairly good to excellent shape. Tag's rugged Pokemon Trainer Adventurer lifestyle evidently afforded him a similar stamina to Justin, Nate and Omar, which let him keep up.

But, after a while, Tag was beginning to tire of running. There had to be some semblance of escape from the natural disaster. It would either eventually catch up to them, or there would be a way to escape it. Unfortunately, all he could think of was to brace himself in a doorway or hide under a table...but he was pretty sure that the earth would still swallow him if he did that. There was no foreseeable way out of this, except to keep running, so that's what he, doggedly, did.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Dec 14 2011, 10:15 PM

The more they moved, the more they world around them changed. Not only was it crumbling apart, but the setting itself seemed sporadic and unpredictable. They ran through the urban city, a suburb, a lakeside, a desert. The general theme seemed to be that the whole world was falling apart, not just this one little area. The scene changes were not seamless, but Justin, at least, was too preoccupied with the cracking earth beneath him to notice.

Omar came to a quick halt at one point when the ground in front of them opened into a massive canyon. It seemed to go out in both directions infinitely and, given shoddy dream physics, probably did. It was too far across to jump over, too, meaning their options of directions to run were wearing thin. Left, right or backwards were their choices, and none of them were the type to run back, especially since behind them, the earth was cracking as well.

In truth, though, this was happening in both other directions as well. At that point, there was no safe direction to run. "Omar!" Nate shouted, putting his hand on Omar's shoulder. "What do we-"

"I don't know," he said, with surprising calmness. Normally, his calmness would not be surprising, but he lost this coolness in the moments before. He ceased thinking and opted to, instead, run like hell. But, at this point, it seemed he had given up. He let go of his need to understand, control or otherwise manipulate the situation. "I think this is it."

Nate took a step away and looked to Justin, and then to Tag, nervousness overtaking his face. "What do we do?" He asked, weakly.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Dec 15 2011, 11:29 PM

The group of seven had dwindled down to four. However, with this turn of events, it appeared that it was about to be zero, and that meant game over. Tag had absolutely no clue as to what would happen if they all died, but he knew he didn't want to find out.

Even though they had stopped running for the moment, and Omar had reached some sort of Zen moment in spite of all the chaos, Tag knew that they had to do something, or else risk all dying in this horrid dream world. If it came down to it, he knew that there was one sure-fire way to end the dream, and that would be to make sure that Omar died. Tag took a moment to gather his breath back up, taking slow and deliberate breaths to calm his body down, even while the world was literally exploding around them.

In truth he felt bad about it. Before the dream had even begun, he'd already been plotting to kill the man (mostly to prevent this precise situation from occurring). Helms and Ace did not get to complete their dreams happily. Tag had completed his, and even had a nice revelation to go along with it. While the nicer part of him wanted Omar to survive the ordeal, learn something about himself, then proceed to help them in the next two dreams, he had come to his conclusion.

"What do we do?" He heard Nate asking. Turning, he met eyes with the terrified younger man.

"Well. If Omar dies, the dream continues." Tag stated openly and plainly, not wishing to show any signs of deception amidst...well...Team Deception. He looked between Justin and Nate to see if he could get a read on any of their reactions, but it seemed that they were still recovering from what felt like miles of running. Ultimately, his eyes settled into Omar's. Both pairs of eyes remained strong and steady, even despite the impending danger. Omar appeared to be contemplating Tag's proposition, but at the same time, they radiated with the energy that implied that he was being challenged. Omar, however, could not find the words to stop Tag, even if his hand wavered over his pokeball belt. "So it's either you die, or all of us do. And if that's the case, Omar, I choose you."

Reaching down, he drew the pokeball for Kyoko. The option for killing a man, as he'd learned earlier, drew down to Kyoko or Bachi, and Bachi's preferred method of murder appeared to be far more violent. Out of respect, he'd at least choose the quicker and 'gentler' of the two options.

"My apologies, Omar. Kyoko." Once again, the cheerful flower pokemon seemed incredibly out of place in the nightmare world. "Shoot to Kill. Leaf Blade on Omar."

Her happy face instantly sombered, and Kyoko drew one of the leaf rapiers from her frill skirt. She took a moment to hesitate, since Omar had not been one of the dream soldiers, but rather an ally throughout the entire ordeal. Steeling herself, and knowing that Tag most likely had a good reason to issue the command, she launched herself forward.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Dec 18 2011, 05:38 PM

It took Justin a second to comprehend what Tag was suggesting. He sort of knew what it was he was getting at, but he kept working around the truth and trying to find something, anything really, that he could have meant instead. After all, Tag would never be the kind of person to suggest killing an ally. He didn't react well to killing fake dream-world people, how could he possibly be so cold?

And yet, Tag was full of surprises in the series of dreams they had. Justin also didn't take him for the kind of person to commit suicide, or murder a multitude of people and pokemon back in his hometown. Still, to always seem so holier-than-thou about Justin and Nate being in Team Deception while Tag had his past, and now he was suggesting probably one of the worst things ever. For a moment, he felt superior to Tag for not even considering that as a possibility.

"No," Justin said, not quite stepping between Kyoko and Tag, but he did face against her. "This isn't what we do."

Nate stayed silent during the exchange as Justin and Tag eyed each other down, but then Omar spoke. "Justin, he's right."

"What?"

"Tag's right. If I die, you guys can go on," Omar nodded. "I have to believe that dying here doesn't mean being dead in the real world. For Miriam and Ace, you know."

"Omar!" Justin yelled, as a warm breeze overtook them. "Shut the fuck up. We're not going to kill you. There's a mission here." He looked up to see a Salamence, a Dragonite and a Hydreigon circling the patch of remaining ground on which they were standing. All around the four, the ground was cracking, almost intentionally, and falling into nothingness. Justin quickly looked back to Omar, realizing that these dragons were not going to waste time trying to knock the humans off of the ground. "There's a mission. Right? There's always a mission. Helms had one. Ace had one. Tag had one. What's yours? We just ran, but there has to be a mission. Do we beat the dragons? Is that it?"

"No," Omar shook his head. "That wouldn't make sense. We'd still be trapped here. This pillar is about to fall too. I can't-"

"Think!" Justin shouted. "What's the mission? Or, no. Don't think. Just say what the mission is. What's wrong here, and what do you feel like you need to do to fix it? How can you fix this?"

"I can't!" Omar shouted. "That's the fuckin' problem. I can't do anything to turn this around. I don't have control over this world. Something else- Wait."

"You got it?"

"Yeah. Fight the dragons, I'll need a second."

It was unexpected, but Omar closed his eyes. Justin looked to Nate and then Tag, and then back to Omar, who seemed to be meditating or something. Then, he looked back up as all three dragons dove at the same time towards the three.

Nate was a little confused as to what was going on, but he knew exactly what to do in this situation. While summoning Ninja, his Sneasel, he yelled. "Use Hitmontop, fight the three headed one. It's Dark type, he'll tear it up! I'll take the Salamence. Tag, you take the Dragonite."

Posted by: Kamaitachi Dec 19 2011, 12:45 AM

Kyoko stopped instantly as Justin stepped in to face Tag. Of Tag's current nine pokemon, Kyoko was one of the few that actually enjoyed Justin. Thus, as he put himself between her leaf blade attack and Omar, she instantly stopped and drew back to Tag, looking up to her trainer for guidance.

Tag was surprised to hear Omar agree with him, but both men were fairly practical. In battle, Tag preferred tactics and trickery, while Omar appeared to be more brute force. However, in real life, the two were very similar survivalists: Get the job done in the most efficient way possible. Omar continued on to make an excellent point about his teammates, Miriam and Ace. Briefly, and tangentially, Tag wondered if Justin and Nate had a similar team bond. They didn't act like it, that much was for certain.

Justin then proceeded to shout at Omar, to which Tag simply crossed his arms. Shouting at a man whose fear was 'not having control over a situation' would most likely exacerbate their situation. Surprisingly, it didn't. In fact, it gave Omar an idea. (One that didn't involve getting skewered by a leaf, hopefully.)

Omar remained motionless, but the new task was to fight a trio of Dragon Pokemon that had appeared. They'd been running from Earthquakes, falling debris, and the end of the world. Part of Tag didn't quite feel right stepping into a pokemon battle as part of a natural disaster...but he didn't really have time to question the dream logic of it all.

Nate, who finally spoke up, issued orders to Justin and Tag. The latter simply nodded and pointed upwards, uttering a command.

"Kyoko, Charm."

He had to admit...it was odd fighting a Dragonite after all this time. Dratini had been his very first pokemon, and after his subsequent evolutions, had proved to be Tag's most loyal partner back in the day. Having fought alongside a Dragonite for a majority of his pokemon training career, he knew the ins and outs of their movesets, abilities, speeds, attack powers, etc.

In his opening move, Kyoko's cheerful smile reappeared, and she danced around for a moment, essentially charming the enemy. Not wanting to inflict full damage, the Dragon Pokemon held back its full strength. Its tail still lashed out, scoring a fairly gentle hit on Kyoko...which caused her immediately to retreat into her pokeball.

Tag seemed confused for the moment: He'd never remembered a move that could do such a thing. With a grunt, he decided that it was probably one of those new techniques that had been discovered over in Unova, which was both a shame and somewhat enthralling. Once he got out of this mess, he'd have a whole lot of time to learn about all these new moves and abilities.

With the ground rapidly crumbling, and the footing growing increasingly poor, Tag didn't want to risk summoning out more of his grounded pokemon, and that left him with only Suzu or Orin.

Naturally, Orin was the best choice for the situation.

Appearing in a shower of light, Orin immediately took to the sky. Tag knew that even with a quadruple weakness it Ice, most of Orin's attacks would still not do a phenomenal amount of damage. Dragonite trainers would often hope that their pokemon had been born with Iron Tail, or teach their pokemon moves like Steel Wing to help counter Ice Type pokemon. Orin was fairly frail, meaning that if, for some reason, this Dragonite possessed a steel-type move, she'd be out, leaving Tag in a mess.

"Orin, Confuse Ray." With a nod, two sinister beams of light shot out from her eyes, meeting the Dragonite's like tiny laser beams. The glazed look that came over the Dragon Pokemon eyes indicated, easily, that he had been confused. It didn't stop him from launching a direct hit Wing Attack, though, which sent Orin sailing through the air.

"Orin, Double Team!"

To add to its already apparent confusion, now Dragonite was surrounded by not one, but what appeared to be a dozen snow-ghosts. They eyed him coyly, with one kimono like sleeve gently covering the area where their mouths were. Perceiving the gesture to be a taunt, the Dragonite started to writhe violently in place. Tag saw the energy whipping up around his foe, knowing the move to be the very deadly Dragon Dance. The frenetic dance would re-boost his lowered attack capabilities, while also boosting his speed. However, this left Orin with her after-images in tact, as well as the advantage of fighting a confused, albeit more powerful, opponent.

"Ice Shard!" Sweeping her sleeved arm in a graceful arc, the Froslass flashed out dozens of small, sharp icicles. They sliced menacingly through the air, impacting with the thick scales of the Dragon Pokemon. Some jabbed their way into the skin, while others simply exploded on impact.

Tag watched carefully as the Dragonite prepared to retaliate once more, his tail starting to appear metallic in nature, which could only mean that an Iron tail was on the way. The confused and angry Dragonite lashed out at one of the after-images. This served to make him angrier and more confused once he realized that he'd in fact hit nothing at all. As the after images faded, his eyes seemed to come back into focus, singling out the remaining Froslass, which was his actual enemy. The confusion had ended for now, and the Dragon was charging Orin, preparing to crush her with his Iron Tail attack.

"Protect"

A tangible sphere of energy wrapped around Orin as the attack slashed viciously at her. She winced visibly as the tail rebounded harmlessly off of her protective barrier.

"Icy Wind."

Nodding once determinedly, Orin floated forward, making a motion reminiscent of blowing a kiss. From her mouth, a cone of cold air whipped out, filled with bits of ice, snow, and various other frozen debris. The Dragonite reeled as it impacted, feeling its own scales freezing over a bit from the attack. It wasn't the dreaded "Freeze" status, but rather it felt that the speed it had worked up from the Dragon Dance was leaving its body.

Tag looked back to Justin and Nate, who were battling it out with a Salamence and a...High Dragon? Tag hadn't seen that species before either, and once again attributed his lack of knowledge about Unova species of pokemon. The thing looked powerful, and Nate had said something about it being a dark-type. Tag wasn't sure that he could flat out beat the Dragonite facing him, as it seemed rather powerful, and even his 'four-times effective' attacks seemed to not be doing too much damage. Hopefully, he could at least buy enough time for Omar to finish whatever it was he was doing.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Dec 20 2011, 03:12 AM

Justin didn't waste any time once he was given orders. Summoning Hitmontop was, more often than not, his initial plan of action in any circumstance, so being told to do it by someone who actually knows a thing or two about pokemon battles was more than enough incentive to let the beast loose.

And so, for the first time since they began this nightmarish adventure, Hitmontop was released from his pokeball. Imagine his surprise when he sees not the peaceful land of Furoh, where the biggest threat is Team Deception, for which his trainer works, but a crumbling wasteland whose sky is filled with falling embers and roaring apocalyptic dragons. Though he emerged from the ball spinning, ready for action, he quickly slowed to a stop and tilted on his right hand, looking onto the collapsing world.

"Hey bud," Justin said. "No time to explain. We gotta take down the three headed one. You know what to do."

Hitmontop's opening two moves in almost every fight were the same: Fake Out and Mach Punch. Both were precision based moves, which were boosted by Hitmontop's Technician ability while Mach Punch was further boosted by his Fighting type. Both were extremely fast and could be used in conjunction with the opponent having no time to react to, avoid or attack before either move. As the Hydreigon flew in closer to their island pillar, Hitmontop leaped up into the air and clapped his large, circular feet together right in the dragon's faces.

Needless to say, the attack was unexpected and took it by surprise, giving Hitmontop ample time (much more than was necessary) to speed forward with a Mach Punch. Like a bullet, he shot off the pillar and socked the middle face good and clean before using his feet to push himself off the dragon and back onto the pillar. Angry and wounded, the Hydreigon decided it wouldn't go down without a fight.

Unlike Tag's opponent, the Hydreigon opted to focus entirely on fighting. Rather than building itself up with Dragon Dance or, in its case, Work Up, its three heads all opened wide and shot out a pulse of barely visible energy which seemed to quickly engulf Hitmontop. Though the fighter kept spinning, it was apparent that the attack had wounded him. They were dealing with a pokemon of a very high level to do significant damage to Hitmontop, which did not bode well for Tag and Nate.

As the fight continued, with Hitmontop and Hydreigon exchanging Mach Punches and Dragon Pulses, Nate's battle was going similar to Tag's. It started off effective with Ninja, who shot a sharp chunk of ice at the distant Salamence. Ice Shard, like Fake Out, was Ninja's favored opening move for a similar reason - It was incredibly fast. Even though Salamence was faster than Sneasel, the Ice Shard hit first, and it hit hard. It reeled back for a moment but then charged its offender as its mouth grew bright orange.

Ninja's claw began glowing blue and she punched forward once Salamence reached her, but his Fire Fang landed first, and it landed hard. He did still catch a piece of Ninja's Ice Punch, but his attack as well as his intimidating glare weakened the blow. Ninja was barely conscious. She stayed standing for just a moment, trying to eye down the Salamence, but she wobbled and fell. She didn't fall in any good direction either. She fell off the pillar.

"Ninja!" Nate shouted, jumping for her, but Justin reached over and pulled Nate back, much to his partner's dismay. "Let me go, you dick! Let me go!" Nate was crying and shouting, trying as hard as he could to pull himself away from Justin's strong grasp, but he couldn't. Finally, he took a swing at Justin, who blocked the attack with his left hand and used his right arm to push Nate to the ground. He was better off injured, hating Justin than dead.

Unfortunately, that left Salamence unchecked. It roared and looked at Hitmontop, who was on his last leg (so to speak) against Hydreigon. Justin moved to grab Sudowoodo's pokeball, who had learned Ice Punch from Nate's fallen Sneasel, but before the dragon landed its hit, it reeled back in pain, as did Hydreigon and the Dragonite Orin was facing. All three dragons halted and, not coincidentally, so too did Omar, whose eyes remained closed. Omar, in the middle of the pillar, surrounded by Justin, Nate, Tag, Orin and Hitmontop as well as the three dragons. His yells of what seemed like pain grew louder and so too did the dragons'.

Then, the falling fire from the sky seemed to grow more powerful. This seemed to be the end of the nightmare, the part where everyone dies and no one wakes up. Justin, who still had Nate pinned to the ground with his foot, looked to Omar, ready to push him off the pillar. Ultimately, Tag was right and if death was looming this quickly, then it might as well just be one of them. He figured, though, that Kyoko could do it faster.

"Summon Kyoko," He said, nodding seriously to Tag. "It has to be done."

But then he looked up and saw a rather large fiery rock fall towards them. It was perhaps too late, or so he thought. The meteor did not land on the pillar, but, rather, the Salamence, bursting onto the dragon and pulling it down into the pit of darkness beneath them. Two similar rocks landed on the two remaining dragons, while a second pillar shot up next to them. On this pillar was a fainted Ninja, still entirely in tact, and still alive.

"Uh," Justin began. "Never, uh. Nevermind?"

Fire stopped raining and the ground beneath them ceased to tremble. Omar stood up, a calm silence overtaking him as well as the dream world. Nate, too, was allowed to come to his feet as he wiped the tears from his eyes and called back Ninja. "What happened?" Justin asked.

"This is my dream," Omar said. "So I should be able to control it. We all should. Not consciously, 'cause that's not how dreams really work, but there's some level of control. But our dreams are not being controlled by us. They're bein' manipulated by a dark force. It's strong, but I beat it. I regained control of the dream. It's mine. And I say it's not a nightmare. It's-"

And the scenery immediately changed. All the summoned pokemon were returned to their respective balls and the group was crammed in the alleyway between two seemingly abandoned warehouses in the dead of night. They looked around. "This is what you landed on?" Justin asked.

"No." Omar just shook his head. "I was tryna take us back to Gigarte, the real world."

Omar, once he gained control of the dream, made it stop being a nightmare. With his nightmare over, the dream immediately changed scenarios to a different person's nightmare. They had successfully completed Omar's mission, but the dark force refused to allow them to return to the real world as he wanted. Thus, it immediately transported them to the next dream, either Justin's or Nate's, as they were the last two of the group who hadn't had their turn yet.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Dec 21 2011, 02:34 AM

"Ninja!" Tag snapped his head over to Nate as he heard the strained cry escape from Nate's throat.

"Orin! Go get her!"

Tag's order was swift, but in his effort to save Ninja, he left Orin wide open to the faster Dragonite. A blistering Iron Tail slashed through the air, slamming the unprepared Froslass onto the ground near Tag. The tattooed man grimaced angrily at the complete failure; Orin was unconscious, and Ninja had not been saved. He quickly returned her and throwing caution to the winds, summoned Bachi, who immediately tore forward at the powerful opponent. The Dragonite wasted no time drumming up a Dragon Rush to meet the Poison Pin Pokemon with.

"Poison Jab" The two attacks collided, sending both pokemon titans reeling backwards. Neither had escaped unscathed, but it was clear that Bachi had taken the heavier damage. Unluckily for both the Nidoking and his trainer, Dragonite seemed to be suffering no effects from poison either, which Tag had hoped would turn the battle in his favour. The two pokemon charged at each other once more, but something interesting caught Tag's ear.

"Summon Kyoko," Tag heard Justin say, "It has to be done."

Nodding grimly, and really not enjoying this option, he reached down to his belt, flipping out the pokeball for Kyoko. However, just as he was about to summon her out to kill Omar, a meteor tumbled from the sky.

We were too late Tag sighed. This wasn't the first time he'd seen a massive meteor tumbling towards him to end his life. It seemed rightly fitting that something that failed to kill him in real life would end him in his dreams...but then it slammed through the Salamence. Then similar rocks completely wiped out the Dragonite and Hydreigon...and Ninja floated up on a rock pillar that whimsically decided to appear next to theirs.

Omar then explained that he'd taken control of the dream. On the one hand, his explanation made perfect sense, but Tag shrugged it off as merely some more crazy dream logic, and therefore made perfect sense regardless.

Then, of course, the dream shifted once more, and they were in...a warehouse?

Omar had passed his dream. Whether or not he'd actually bent the rules, or the objective of his dream was to bend the rules (which would simply make it part of the dream, and thus no rule-bending had occurred), but he was there with them. Now there were two sections remaining: Justin's and Nate's. The order of everything had gotten all screwy, so there was no telling whose dream it was. From the fairly non-descript situation they were in, it could've belonged to either Justin or Nate, both of whom had grown up in Petropolis (as far as Tag knew), and therefore were used to these sorts of places.

"I'm getting really tired of this." Tag frowned, crossing his arms as he looked between Justin and Nate. "It's down to you two." Though he didn't say it out loud, he really didn't want to force Kyoko or Bachi to kill either of them. "Spill it."

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Dec 22 2011, 04:12 AM

Justin thought about it for a second and realized that, yes, it was down to him and Nate, both of whom, he figured at least, would likely have similar nightmares, seeing as how they both grew up in similar environments. Well, they both grew up in Petropolis, though in different parts altogether. This didn't, however, look like any part of Petropolis he'd ever seen. "I don't think-" he began, but was interrupted by Nate.

"It's mine." Justin and Omar (presumably Tag as well) simply looked at Nate for him to "spill" said "it." "I've had this dream before."

"So, what do we-"

"Shh," Nate shook his head quickly. "They're coming. Stay quiet."

The group remained silent and looked in the direction Nate was, into the more open area outside of the warehouses. As Nate predicted (unimpressively, as he had seen it before), a team of what looked to be six S.W.A.T. officers run straight by the alleyway. Justin held his breath as they moved past, but once there was some distance, Omar looked over to Nate.

"Seems like an important piece of information to leave out," he said.

"I was getting there." Nate said, nervously. It was clear that the sight of the men scared him, but Justin couldn't quite figure out why. Were they police officers looking to kill Nate because of his criminal ties?

"Who are they?" He decided to just ask.

"Team Deception." Omar said. "Disguised as SWAT."

Justin was somewhat suspicious, but he looked to Nate, who simply nodded. "How do you know something like that?"

"By looking at their faces," Omar replied. "One of them was Helms."

They looked to Nate for answers. "Helms wasn't in this dream the first time I had it, but I guess he sort of represents a high ranking officer to me now."

"So, you're afraid of Helms?" Justin asked.

"No," Nate shook his head. "I mean, not like, not really."

"It's Team Deception," Omar interjected. "The organization as a whole. You're afraid we're gonna off you guys."

Justin was almost tired of Omar's perceptiveness at that point, but it was true. There was fear among the lower ranks that their position was always in jeopardy and the lack of definitive rules about those who are kicked out or otherwise leave were notably unclear. Nate and Justin, themselves, had discussed the fear they had of leaving the organization paired with their desire to do so. The ambiguity was the main reason they stayed as long as they did.

"I guess a higher ranked member telling you that we're not gonna do that won't make you any less afraid," Omar continued.

Nate just shrugged. "That's exactly what you'd say if you did plan on doing it, though."

Omar just nodded. "It's a good point. Okay, so what's the mission?"

The question itself seemed to startle Nate. He seemed afraid to even admit what the mission was. In fact, the more Justin noticed, the more Nate seemed to be avoiding eye contact with Omar, as if he were afraid of the man himself. "I, uh," Nate began. "The mission?"

"Yeah," Omar said. "What do we gotta do to move onto Justin's dream?"

"We, uh," Nate was breathing more heavily and was now darting his eyes around the buildings. "We gotta- We, uh."

"Hey," Justin said, grabbing both of Nate's shoulders. "Look at me." Nate took a moment, but met Justin's eyes. "Take some breaths, okay? Calm down." Nate followed Justin's command. "Look, Omar's our ally. He's a member of the organization, but in here, right now, he's with us." Nate took a moment and then finally nodded. His fear of Team Deception was heightened in the dream to the point where Omar himself was a representative. Justin, however, he continued to trust, because, to Nate, Justin was not loyal to Team Deception, at least not as much as he was loyal to his unit.

"Okay," Nate finally nodded. "Right. Omar, I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," Omar said. "Unless you get us all killed. Then you can be sorry."

"I'll try not to let that happen," Nate blinked. "Um. So the mission. We have to beat them."

"Beat how?" Omar asked.

"Knock out? Kill?" Nate suggested. "I don't really know. I just know that we can't run. We can't hide. We have to fight." And at that, it was clear why Nate was nervous about saying the mission out loud to Omar. His fear of Team Deception was only conquered by him actually defeating them, and mentioning that subconscious level of thought (and subsequent conscious action against it) was somewhat tactless to a higher ranked person within the Team itself.

"So we battle," Omar nodded. "Finally, a straightforward fuckin' mission."

He didn't waste any time. He walked out of the alleyway and into the more open street, gripping one of his pokeballs as he did. Once he made himself visible, he made himself audible as well. "Yo!" He shouted. "Bring it on, bitches!" He summoned his Rhydon, who roared and stomped in a combination of confusion and rage. Perhaps his knowledge of Team Deception in the real world was the reason for assuming they preferred to fight with pokemon. Indeed, in the real world, this was the case. But this was not the real world. This was Nate's worst case nightmare scenario.

Of course these men had pokemon. Having monsters on hand to shoot fire or lightning at an opponent was a power too good for any warrior to pass up. However, guns weren't off the table either.

The others saw it before Omar did: A red dot on the back of his head as he commanded Rhydon to charge the six officers who passed them up earlier. Rhydon didn't waste any time running forward, but the shouts from his allies still in the alleyway for him to get down went uninterpreted for a second too long.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Dec 23 2011, 12:04 AM

As was presumed, Tag turned to Nate as well, watching him inquisitively. First and foremost, he wanted answers to the ever-shifting and downright infuriating situation that they were in. He, like Omar, needed a mission, and needed to work on it immediately. After all, the sooner he started, the sooner they'd be awake in Gigarte, and Tag could resume his life.

At Nate's instruction, Tag pressed his back against the wall he was against. He did his best to suppress his breath somewhat, but the adrenaline pumping through his blood (you know, because he was in a nightmare), made it difficult with each little pulse. He tilted his head curiously as several S.W.A.T officers ran by, but was confused as to why they were out to get Nate. Logically, they were the enemy in this dream, even if they were, for all intents and purposes, good guys.

Omar then filled in for Nate, explaining that the S.W.A.T officers were Team Deception. Tag grunted a bit grumpily at the thought. The fact remained that Team Deception were his enemies and his allies at the same time (he was the only one lacking an affiliation other than happenstance acquaintance). Either way, he was getting sucked deeper and deeper into the Underground Criminal World of Furoh. Not that he was in particularly deep, but he was now technically abetting a Team Deception unit for the third time on their missions. Once, he and Justin happened to team up to be big damn heroes, but that didn't count.

Tag was amazed, however, that Omar had managed to recognize someone, even through all of the heavy gear. The man was incredibly sharp, and had seen through and led them through each mission thus far. Tag realized that Omar was a phenomenal ally now, but he had the sneaking suspicion that the man would make a devastating enemy one day.

At the announcement of their mission, Tag cracked his knuckles, revving his engines up a bit. However, Omar needed no such prep time, and simply strode out into the open before a strategy was proposed. There really was no point in arguing any more, since Omar had already made his war declaration in plain sight.

Omar had bravely and foolishly moved to take on six enemies, which in itself was incredibly impressive. However, Tag had finally caught on to the most important mechanic of the nightmare: "It's never that easy."

As Justin yelled for Omar to take cover, Tag finally noticed the red dot on the back of his terrifying ally's head. He clapped his hands over Justin's mouth to keep him from making any more sound. The last thing he wanted was for Justin to give away their position.

As horrifying as it was to watch, Tag kept his eyes glued on Omar, to see if he could discern anything from the gunshot. Most notably, if there was some way to trace the angle of the shot back to the sniper. However, bullets were much faster and harder to see than say...an ice beam or thunderbolt. The next thing he knew, there was a small explosion of blood, and Omar was laying face down on the ground.

Looking between Justin and Nate, he realized that he probably had to step into Omar's shoes and lead them through the duration of the dream. Not that Justin and Nate were a terribly unreliable duo, but it was simply that it was Nate's nightmare, which made him scared, and Justin was a knuckle-headed idiot.

"We can't give away our position." Tag whispered harshly to Justin "Don't screw us over." He racked his brain, trying to think of the best way to fight these highly trained men with weapons that were easily more powerful than Pokemon Techniques. For the moment, Rhydon would probably distract the soldiers for a bit, but it wouldn't be long before gunfire took the poor beast down.

Tag moved forward, careful to keep his back against the wall from the sniper-side, so that he wouldn't be spotted. He gingerly peeked as best he could, observing the battle. It looked like Rhydon had managed to take two of the enemies down, as two bodies were limp on the ground. The remaining four and the sniper had successfully defeat the monster, who was teetering about dangerously. Tag watched carefully, formulating a half-baked, mostly insane plan and drew a pokeball from his belt. As the Rhydon fell, he dropped the ball on the ground, masking the sound of the opening of his pokeball. The flash of light seemed inconsequential after all the gunfire, so he was pretty sure no one had been looking for it.

Tobi appeared for the first time in the adventure, looking rather perturbed at the situation they were in. Most notably, the first thing he saw after Tag was the body of Omar lying face down in the street.

"No time to explain. Tobi, four men are going to come over and check that body. Once they're there, use flamethrower on them. Don't stop until they're dead." Tobi nodded unsteadily, then loyally turned to face the direction of the corpse, starting to build the flame up within his body to unleash upon the dream enemies.

Unless Justin or Nate stopped him from his rather outrageous plan, Tobi and Tag would engage in some rather fiery violence momentarily.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Dec 24 2011, 03:23 AM

He didn't believe it at first. Admittedly, running into the street like that was extremely tactless and somewhat out of character for Omar, but neither Justin nor Nate really knew him well enough to make that judgment. What Justin did know was that Omar had been leading them through this series of nightmares and his confidence and stoicism provided confidence to everyone else. Even during his own nightmare, he managed to keep his cool long enough to actually overtake it entirely.

Seeing him fall in such a less than graceful way (though fitting, given the warrior he was) was such a hard thing to see or to even comprehend. He couldn't die. He was the leader. He was the strongest one. He was going to be the one to make it to the end, through all of the dreams. Without him, they were just...Justin, Nate and Tag.

They were down to just these three, which was, in the very least, familiar. The three of them had been in more than a few escapades together, although all of them were unplanned. The moment Tag stepped up was the moment this familiarity clicked for Justin. Tag didn't waste time mourning the death of their comrade, but he immediately assessed and took control of the situation. It was comforting to Tag to see the dynamic of the group unfold as he knew it. Perhaps it was just comforting to know that someone at least had a plan, and that he didn't have to be the one to come up with it.

He and Nate remained quiet and watched in suspense, confusion and fear as Tobi the Vulpix stood, prepared to commit what he thought to be (given the lack of explanation on Tag's part) outright murder. For Tag to not even have time to explain himself either meant Tobi was far less morally inclined as his adorable appearance would have one believe, or he truly and completely trusted Tag. Though Tag was rough on the outside, both Justin and Nate knew him well enough to see that it was likely the latter.

The four survivors from the Rhydon encounter did approach the confined gab from which Omar bursted forth, but they were far more cautious than him. They kept their backs to the warehouse, so that they remained invisible to Justin, Nate, Tag and Tobi on the adjacent corner of the same warehouse. They weren't certain that their targets were there, but they were efficient, thorough and careful.

The one closest to the edge, Helms, nodded to his comrades. He turned quickly and quietly, his gun pointed out, but was unable to react fast enough to avoid Tobi's incredibly hot Flamethrower. He dropped his weapon before even getting a chance to fire and took many steps back, fire overtaking him. Finally, he fell, first to his knees, then to his face.

The very moment the fire died down, the next officer in line stood forward, his gun this time pointing towards the direction from which the stream of fire came, at the Vulpix, who was taking the time to inhale after the fairly hefty exhale. He didn't fire, however, which Justin thought was strange. Instead, he just looked at Tobi. Behind his mask, it was clear there was some confusion within his mind. Something was going on.

"What is it?" they heard a soft voice from the officer's left. He seemed startled by it and immediately turned towards his two comrades and fired his weapon, killing both of them. He dropped his gun and shouted in confusion, anger, pain or something, but his troubles disappeared when that same red dot appeared on his head and blew it off.

The officer's confusion translated into Justin's confusion until he looked behind him to see that Nate had summoned Whip, his newly evolved Espeon, who, apparently, had successfully confused the officer. It appeared that Nate took a hint from Omar and refused to be beaten by his own nightmare. It was difficult, but it was the only way to make it to the end successfully. He couldn't be engulfed in fear. He had to fight, and he had to remain effective, even though every part of him wanted to just shut down.

"Good job," Justin said.

"Thanks," Nate sighed. "Still need to find that sniper."

Posted by: Kamaitachi Dec 24 2011, 08:35 PM

Tag's breath caught as the first dream soldier rounded the corner. Of the remaining four, it had to be the one with whom he was familiar: Helms. Well, they weren't 'familiar' insofar as they'd met briefly before Helms was killed several dreams earlier. They hadn't even really met, for that matter. Tag still felt a sharp pang of guilt cross him as he saw Helms' eyes go wide a split second before the flame overtook him.

Tag's breath caught one more time as the next soldier rounded, having used the trajectory of the flame to pinpoint Tobi. However, to everyone's surprise, the soldiers simply...hurt himself in his own confusion?

Three shots were fired in fairly rapid succession, and like that, the remaining three soldiers were down. Once more, the sniper had fired off a shot with outrageous accuracy, ending their confusion-induced ally.

"Good job," he heard Justin say behind him. He wasn't sure if it was to him or to Nate, but Nate took the liberty of responding.

"Thanks. Still need to find that sniper."

Tag wondered for a moment, attempting to piece together any semblence of tracking down their remaining enemy. There was also the possibility that the sniper wasn't the only remaining enemy; it was a nightmare after all.

"Tobi, return." Tobi looked shaken at having a gun pointed at him, but otherwise seemed capable of continuing, but Tag saw no need to endanger his friend any further in this instance.

"Got an idea...give me a few moments to set it up." Tag dropped the pokeballs for Suzu, Orin and Zuki on the ground. The trio of pokemon appeared before them in the narrow alleyway. Suzu, Orin and Zuki were all pokemon that had been summoned earlier, but were still confused at the constant change in locale. Normally, they'd have been fine with disappearing and re-appearing in various places, but perhaps the nagging feeling of being asleep made it all the more jarring and confusing.

"Suzu, Agility. Orin, Double Team. Zuki, Snatch on Suzu."

The team complied quickly. Suzu began to buzz a little louder, charging up, but an aura passed from her to Zuki, who's eyes were sparkling mischeviously. Zuki had used his "Snatch" technique to steal Suzu's power-up, giving him a great boost in speed.

Orin, meanwhile, had created a few illusory copies of herself, making it seem as if there were three of her in the air.

"Suzu, Agility. Orin, Double Team. Zuki, snatch on Orin."

Once again, the team complied with their power-up maneuvers, this time Suzu gained her own speed boost, while Orin helped her Poochyena comrade boost his evasion through illusory copies of his own.

"Suzu, Double Team. Orin, Double Team."

The now very swift Suzu created bunshin copies of her own, while Orin doubled her own numbers from three to nine in one go, which made the alleyway seemed rather cramped at the moment.

"Suzu, Baton Pass." Suzu nodded, disappearing back into her pokeball. A light shot out from Tag's waist, as three Kyoko's appeared on the field. The Flower Pokemon had inherited her partner's buffs, giving her a speed and evasion increase.

"Okay...let's get out there. Orin, use protect, try to draw fire from the Sniper. Zuki, Odor Sleuth. Grab the scent from the soldiers here, and try to sniff him out in the distance. Kyoko, Try to find the gunshot location and fire off a Magical Leaf."

Tag's complex set-up appeared to be very well thought out, though he was sure the sniper was waiting to take them out the second they appeared from the alleyway. The sniper was not prepared for their speed however, as what appeared to be a batallion of pokemon charged out into the field. A shot was fire out, bouncing harmlessly off of Orin's protect. The pokemon moved about swiftly, still, attempting to pinpoint the location of their enemy. After a brief reload moment, another shot rang out, piercing through the image of Kyoko, which swiftly faded, leaving two remaining.

"Orin, Ice Shard. Kyoko, Magical Leaf!" Now understanding the general direction of the sniper, the remaining Orins and Kyoko's chirruped in chorus, firing off what seemed like a veritable volley of ice and leaf projectiles.

Zuki barked happily, indicating that he'd caught on to something, to which Tag signalled for him to retreat back into the alley. The time between the shots had increased, and that meant either he was really taking his time to figure out the real enemies, or he'd left his spot now that he'd been uncovered. Kyoko and Orin rushed back into the alleyway with great haste as their clones simply faded from sight.

"Alright...hopefully we flushed him from his hiding place. Zuki's got his scent, so now we just need to follow him."

Tag looked to Justin and Nate, nodding. "Let's go. Don't stay still long enough for him to shoot you." With that, Zuki took off, with Tag following in a crouching run. Orin soared after him overhead, with Kyoko following close behind on the ground. The man intended to end this part of the dream with a victory: They were so close to the end, after all. It was time to get back another win for the team.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Dec 28 2011, 05:18 PM

Justin and Nate followed almost blindly. Tag seemed confident, and a confident Tag could not lose, or so it seemed, at least. Zuki, one of the newer of Tag's army of pokemon, seemed to know his stuff and already trust Tag enough to run towards a sniper. "It'll be hard to get close," Nate said as they ran. "The guy's still armed, right?"

"Yeah," Justin said, pulling out one of his pokeball's. "I think I got an idea, though." He summoned Ninjask, the extremely agile and potentially lethal pokemon. Her speed was perfect against a single target whose attention was elsewhere. He used her in the underground at Starfall Field to take on a Golurk amongst a sea of Kabuto, and she seemed to be somewhat effective. Against a human, whose flesh was easily cut, she'd be perfect.

Once summoned into the dream world, she didn't waste any time flying right by Justin's head and perching on his shoulder, her claws sinking into his skin on accident. "Hey girl," Justin said as he continued following Zuki and Tag. "See that Poochyena up there? Follow it. He's tracking down a guy with a gun, trying to kill us." She remained on his shoulder, not making a sound, but absorbing the information. Justin wondered how much she could understand, but he kept talking. "Follow him, find the shooter. Kill him. Slit his throat." And with that, she reacted, somewhat negatively. She dug her claws deeper into Justin and made buzzy sounds in protest. "I know it sounds awful, but you have to trust me. He's not real, this is Nate's dream world. Do you trust me?"

"Bzzt?"

"Do you trust me?"

With that, she lifted off Justin's shoulder and flew ahead so she was right next to Zuki. She communicated something to him and then gained some altitude and flew right above him. She was ready to do what had to be done.

"Tag," Justin said, running next to him. "I think Zuki and Ninjask can handle killing the sniper. We just need to make sure we don't get shot while they're doing it."

Posted by: Kamaitachi Dec 30 2011, 03:10 AM

Zuki bounded ahead, a look of grim determination written all over his adorable puppyface. As Justin's BEAUTIFUL Ninjask zipped up to him, he chanced a glance up at her. The pup was still trying to track down the faint scent in the air, but managed to squeak out a reply to whatever it was Ninjask had asked.

Tag noted, with a small, smug sense of satisfaction, that Justin still had to ask for trust from his pokemon. Tag had summoned his team into this distorted and crazy dream world, and for the most part, they'd trusted him without him having to explain. It would not have been possible with the three boxed pokemon, Tonbo, Kana and Uchi, simply because he hadn't known them long enough. Zuki, the novice of this team, had still been with him throughout the Starfall Field debacle, and helped him immensely in his last major battle against Pino. Trust was built through battle; Tag's trials by fire had earned him the trust of his pokemon. Justin, on the other hand, rarely used Ninjask in battle. He'd faced her once before as a Nincada, but other than that, all he ever really saw were Sudowoodo and Hitmontop (had he also, perchance noticed an Octillery? Or was that part of the dream?)

"I think Zuki and Ninjask can handle killing the sniper. We just need to make sure we don't get shot while they're doing it."

Tag blinked at Justin's question, because part of it sounded inappropriate for some reason. He couldn't figure out why, and he didn't quite want to place his finger on it.

"Good point. Let's find somewhere safe."

The problem with Tag's current suggestion was simply that he didn't know of any place safe in this dream world. That, and the on-going trend of 'everything-going-wrong' made the situation that much more impossible.

"Nate? Know any good hiding spots?" Tag looked over his shoulder, partially to make sure Nate was still there.

Meanwhile, Zuki barked excitedly, speeding up. The agility boosts from earlier were helping him speed ahead, but Ninjask, being a naturally very fast pokemon, allowed her to keep up with great ease. From the sound of it, the Poochyena had sniffed out the enemy sniper, and was now making a beeline for him.

"When you find him, use Sand-Attack, then Bite. Make an opening for Ninjask." Zuki barked an affirmation before veering off to one side, tearing down the alleyway.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Dec 30 2011, 03:06 PM

"Let's just, uh," Nate began. "Hide here. I guess." The warehouse district through which the group was running was surrounded with junk, due to the apparently abandoned nature of it. They knew the general vicinity from which the shot came, but they didn't know exactly, at least as well as Zuki. They knew enough, the point is, to hide behind some old crates of stuff and potentially draw fire and attention away from Zuki and Ninjask to give them an easier opening.

Justin reluctantly followed Nate to the crates and sunk down behind them, entirely uncomfortable with Ninjask being out there with only Zuki to protect her. If Tag trusted Zuki, Justin figured, he was a trustworthy pooch, but Ninjask wasn't like Hitmontop. She was his baby, not a warrior who can be unleashed with devastating effects. And here, he was hiding behind a box while sending her to face off against a trained killer. He couldn't even see her.

"Here," Nate said, summoning Da Bomb, his powerful Numel who had not yet seen the dream world. "Hey Da Bomb. I need you to shoot fire up in the air as high as you can. This should draw the sniper's attention."

As Zuki and Ninjask sped towards their destination, they stopped for just a moment to notice the fire in the distance, summoned by Da Bomb where the others were hiding. They looked at each other for a moment, but then just kept moving to the location of the sniper. They had a mission and neither pokemon wanted to let their trainer down. Ninjask had been in a few battles before, but so rarely had she been the difference between victory and defeat, and least of all the difference between life and death. Justin cared for her, she already knew, but he didn't trust her like he trusted Hitmontop to get the job done.

So she flew, and once Zuki slowed and peeked behind the corner of a barricade made of crates to see the sniper, his focus cleanly on the explosion in the distance. As Tag commanded, he let loose a barrage of sand on the sniper and ran in to bite at him. As the sniper tried to deal with the small dog biting at him by pulling out a knife from his boot, Ninjask buzzed in behind him and allowed her sharp claw to quickly, effectively and so simply cut a line clean across the front of the man's throat.

As the two made their way back to their trainers, blood trailing slightly from Ninjask's claws, the world began to, yet again, crumble around them. They took a more direct path to get back to their trainers faster, and Ninjask, somewhat expecting Justin to be smiling on her triumphant return, found him more worried than anything. The nervousness in his face worried her, but he did give her a nod of satisfaction before recalling her safely into her pokeball. Nate recalled Da Bomb as well, after patting him on the head. "Good job, Da Bomb."

Justin's nervousness came from the inevitability of what would come next - His nightmare.

Once they found themselves out of the abandoned warehouse district, Justin opened his eyes to see familiarity, but an uncomfortable one. They were in a house in a seemingly nice neighborhood. There was light shining in through the windows, nice looking furniture and an entertainment system with a TV and DVD player. Nate's first guess was that this was Justin's home back in Petropolis and had to keep himself from rolling his eyes. Nate had a much more impoverished youth than Justin, he knew, but he didn't know how nice Justin had it growing up.

But then, this wasn't Justin's house. In fact, Justin had only been in this house once before, at it was fairly recently. This was the last house he tried to burgle before getting caught by the police. Rather, this was the house that got him arrested. After his experience in the underground when he discretely stole a small piece of jewelry and realized that there were easier ways of making lots of money than working 16 hour days in the heat in construction, he decided to take up home invasion as a part time job.

He was successful, until he was caught (as tends to be the case) but found himself released without any penalty due to some level of corruption. Team Deception had bailed him out and somehow pardoned him of his crime in exchange for his joining Team Deception to become a professional criminal. In essence, the crime he committed here, at this house, was the last one he did on his own terms.

"This your house, or what?" Nate asked.

"Nope," Justin sighed. "This is the last house I knocked over before joining Team Deception."

"What's it mean?"

"I don't know."

Posted by: Kamaitachi Dec 31 2011, 01:19 AM

As Zuki trotted back towards Tag, his head held high and proud, Tag wasted no time in noticing the small trail of blood coming from Ninjask's claw. A part of him was instantly saddened, seeing as for this situation, they'd turned their pokemon into killers. Even if it was still just a dream, he was sure that the memory would haunt them a bit for awhile to come.

The Poochyena seemed very pleased with himself, having completed his mission to the tee. Tag reached down as Zuki arrived, scratching between his ears for a moment with a sad smile. As the world started to crumble, he returned the pooch to his pokeball. Before they completely blacked out again, Tag took the moment to lock his eyes with Justin's. There was only one more possible dream, and it was Justin's.

Lex parsimoniae dictated that the easiest way to end this all was simply to kill Justin, just as he had speculated with both Omar and Nate. Once again, though, he decided that he really didn't want to do that. It would be unfair if they didn't at least try to help him first.

When they appeared in the nice suburban house, Tag found himself utterly surprised. Naturally, his first instinct was that this was Justin's home (akin to Nate's instinct). Tag realized that some people lived comfortably, of course. However, he was surprised to see such a nicely furnished house. His home back in Blackthorn had been fairly spartan, and he'd spent the rest of his life travelling from pokemon center to inn to hotel to hostel.

"This your house or what?" Tag was glad that Nate asked first.

"Nope, this is the last house I knocked over before joining Team Deception."

Tag felt the instant need to judge his longtime friend/enemy/thing. However, he had not heard any lip fro Justin concerning Tag's...well...murderous rampage and trial. It still didn't stop him from feeling smugly superior to a common criminal. Tag's crime had been one of passion, after all. Justin's was petty comparitively.

But, he reminded himself that it wasn't his place to judge Justin, especially after all they'd been through thus far.

"What's it mean?" "I don't know."

"What's the mission?" Tag scanned the room, looking for any semblance of hostility. It was absolutely vital that they figure out what their objective was before they attempted to do anything. Considering the way the nightmares had gone, anything from a serial killer to a tornado could've easily popped out of the TV at them. "We're almost done with this nonsense, so please, figure it out so we can finish it and go home."

Tag wasn't exactly sure that his prescribed sequence would play out in the way he hoped. For that matter, there was the possibility that even if they won this mission, they would still be trapped in a nightmare limbo forever. After all, they still had no idea what had put them to sleep or even caused the nightmare dreams.

The problem facing them now, though, was that they were in Justin's dream. The dense one would probably take a moment to figure it out, and Tag had no idea as to Justin's past whatsoever. He did find himself tempted, though, to take a seat on the comfy looking couch.

So he did.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Dec 31 2011, 03:38 AM

As expected, Tag's response was cool, precise and leaderly. Justin and Nate watched as he took a seat on the couch and then Nate looked to Justin. He didn't say anything, but had an expectant look on his face, as though asking the same question Tag just did.

"I don't, um," Justin began. He paused for a moment, remembering what he had told Omar. It wasn't about thinking, it was about doing. He had put pressure on Omar to just say what the mission was, and that was enough for Omar to just figure it out. Of course, the mission objective usually came after the terrifying event of whatever sort. It didn't seem right to just force a mission out of a comfortable living room. Worst case scenario, it seemed, the three of them sat around in this nice home watching DVDs of Firefly or The Wire.

But there were Nate and Tag, ready as ever to get out of this dream world. Justin himself wondered whether moving on would be such a great thing. What was there beyond his own nightmare? No one had any dreams left. Would the cycle just continue until someone died? Would everything go black? Would they reappear magically back in their own bodies in Gigarte? There was absolutely no way to know and so forcing a path one way or the other really seemed counter-intuitive. You don't run in a dark hallway.

"I, uh," he stalled yet again, but then nodded. He only closed his eyes for a second, and found himself engulfed with whatever pressure this dream world was putting on him. All of a sudden, he felt his tension heighten to extreme levels. When he opened his eyes, everything was different. Everything was darker and meaner. Physically, nothing had changed, but in Justin's mind, everything had. The looks Tag and Nate were giving him were far different from what they seemed to be before. Now Tag was looking down on Justin with a smug sense of superiority. Nate's curious look switched to disappointment.

"Stop it," Justin said.

"What?" Nate asked.

"Stop it!" He yelled this time. "Stop looking at me like that. Stop talking to me like that."

"Justin, we're not saying-"

"Shut up!" He yelled. "Shut up before I knock your fucking teeth out."

Nate looked to Tag, confused, but then back to Justin, the confused face remaining, though Justin just saw hate. "I don't know what to-"

"Tag!" Justin continued. "I didn't free the Seviper. I didn't do it on purpose. I'm never going to do it, because capturing it was my first Team Deception mission. It symbolizes everything that I am. I'm the bad guy. I'll always be the bad guy. I don't free pokemon, I don't have long term relationships. I don't have friends, and I don't need partners. Nate, all you've ever done is hold me back, and Tag, I've had enough of your goddamn judgmental looks. Hell, at least I didn't murder a bunch of people. Sorry, manslaughter, was it?

"I'm not surprised at all that your first idea in Omar's dream was to kill him. You thinkin' of doing that to me too? You wanna kill me? Try it. Try it, you asshole. I fucking dare you. Try it!" Justin reached to his belt and called out his newly purple Pinsir, who looked around, somewhat expecting to see a terrible setting as it did before, but was as confused as Tag and Nate were when they saw the nice house. "Pinsir, that big tattooed guy threatened my life. Kill him. If the little one stands in the way, kill him too."

Pinsir turned to Justin reluctantly. He didn't want to kill Tag. He didn't even want to kill the armed soldiers who actually were aiming to kill him, but he recognized Tag from that same battle, as the person fighting on his own side, whose pokemon Pinsir had actually tried to kill in the past. Nothing about this was right. But, since his shadowness was removed, his desire to please his trainer was heightened, and he lowered his head, snapping his pincers, in the direction of Tag. He charged.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 1 2012, 04:18 AM

Justin's behaviour was completely uncalled for.

One moment, he seemed perfectly fine, albeit a bit nervous. Now, suddenly, he was raging about, threatening both Tag and Nate. The tattooed man caught Nate's confused look, and returned one of equal confusion in turn.

Justin went on to explain why he hadn't freed the Seviper. Evidently the Poisonous Snake represented guilt to both men, which was one of the few things they truly shared in common. He struck a chord with the words 'murder and manslaughter'.

Then Tag realized the dream mission. It was surprisingly similar to his own: Justin had to be saved from himself. Tag's mind raced to come up with a diplomatic way to placate the now furious man. He wanted, in that moment, to explain that he was making up for his sins, and that he was consciously living to move on and not make the same mistakes again. However, in Justin's state of mind, it probably would've come across as 'holier-than-thou'.

The next thing he knew, a terrifying purple bug was charging at him. This was a complete surprise, because if Justin had been thinking clearly, a Hitmontop fake out and Mach punch combo would've instantly won the fight, considering Tag didn't have the same constitution of most pokemon. One Mach Punch from a Breloom awhile ago would probably have severely injured him had it not been for a well thought out Reflect screen.

Tag sprang from the couch to the side, avoiding the attack. He hit the ground fairly hard, but quickly propped himself into a crouch, tossing out, on instinct, the first pokeball his hand grabbed.

Light flashed, and a low, dangerous growl filled the room. Once the light faded, it revealed a very dangerous looking Nidoking, whose tail twitched about anxiously. Upon seeing his opponent, he moved into a crouch, his toxic spines bristling in anticipation.

The veteran trainer felt an immediate pang of regret the second he realized that he'd called Bachi to the field. True, Bachi had been his clincher in so many battles, but the newly evolved, very battle-hungry Nidoking would potentially charge off into this heated fight. There was history between these two pokemon, and Bachi seemed eager to enact his vengeance.

"Bachi, you absolutely have to trust me." Tag slowly rose into a standing position. "Use Toxic Spikes."

Bachi cast a glare and charged forward regardless, forgetting his new, more powerful moves, and resorted to one of his old favourites: Fury Attack. The King charged forward, head lowered, and launched into a series of rapid thrusts with his venomous horn, aiming to rip apart the carapace of his foe. Before the first blow could even land, however:

"BACHI!" Tag roared. It was rare for Tag to use the full extent of his vocal chords, and the stentorian baritone rang through the small apartment. The Nidoking backed off, looking pleadingly over his shoulder at Tag. "You will obey me."

The authority in his tone was immensely clear. Without hesitation, Bachi lowered his head, easing back to place himself in front of Tag. "Toxic Spikes, first. Then, do as you please."

Surprised, but pleased, with his master's orders, Bachi moved into a crouch on all fours, which was an extremely defensive position, given his poison pins. Pinsir was hopefully, not willing to run headfirst into the needle-cushion sitting before him. Shooting out all over Justin's side of the room a veritable carpet of rather painful looking poisonous spikes, embedding themselves in the ground.

Tag forced himself to lock eyes with the angry Justin, fervently searching for a solution to the situation.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 1 2012, 11:23 PM

Pinsir's only viable attack on Bachi, the Nidoking, was Vicegrip. All of his other attacks were either of the Fighting or Bug persuasion, and were ineffective against Bachi's Poison typing. As he prepared to use it, he couldn't help but back up in some fear as Bachi charged him so aggressively. "Go!" Justin yelled. "Fight it!"

Tag did manage to reign in his pokemon. He tossed down poisoned spikes across Pinsir and Justin's side of the field, but Justin was relentless. Pinsir charged Bachi, his head down and pincers out, prepared to strike, though far from ready. Just as Bachi finished throwing the Toxic Spikes out, Pinsir landed a single Vicegrip, the damage of which was far from insignificant, but not not enough to build confidence.

Then there was Bachi's counterattack. His Fury Attack was exceptionally furious and did hefty damage to the newly conscious pokemon. Pinsir cried out in pain, but the attack continued. Five times, it hit, and Bachi didn't let up. Pinsir tried, he truly did, to continue his own assault, but he was simply far too low a level compared to Bachi, not to mention his own intimidation by the roaring and angry pokemon, to bring down his foe. Bachi's relentless assault continued, and it knocked Pinsir out.

"Useless piece of shit," Justin cursed, calling back his fallen ally. "It's over anyway. I just wanted to give him a chance to prove himself to me. Hitmontop!" And with that, he summoned the beast, likely the only pokemon Tag or Nate really feared on Justin's side, and possibly strong enough to wipe both of their teams,

Upon entering the room, though, he looked ill. Agile as he was, he found himself unable to avoid taking damage from the toxic spikes. Justin noticed, at last, what it is these things did and why Tag took the time to make them. "Get rid of them!" He yelled, without so much as an encouraging cheer. Hitmontop knew, immediately, that something was wrong with his trainer, but he wasn't going to question it quite yet. It was true that there were toxic spikes in here, and doing away with them seemed like a sensible thing to do.

He used Rapid Spin, spinning around on his head, kicking and punching as he did, knocking the spikes all about. One of them hit Bachi, but the damage was likely minimal, and he was immune to poison anyway.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 2 2012, 12:43 AM

Both Tag and Bachi looked on in silent surprise as Pinsir hit the ground. Tag had noted that the pokemon didn't seem as vicious as before...but neither trainer nor Nidoking had expected the pincer-beast to fall so easily. Bachi backed up, crossing his arms as he stood in front of Tag. He had the option of continuing the attack his unconscious enemy, but he opted not to, waiting for Justin's next pokemon.

Tag felt a surge of pride course through him as he watched his pokemon curb his bloodlust. Even though there was the definite grudge, Bachi had taken the high ground, and not stooped to the level of the formerly shadowed pokemon. Tag had definitely seen the urge to destroy the Pinsir, but he watched as Bachi simply relished in the victory with a small smirk.

However, both the prides and satisfactions disappeared immediately as Tag heard Justin call out "Hitmontop!". The two felt their hearts sink as the Hitmontop appeared on the field. However, the Toxic Spikes that Tag had Bachi set up earlier did their job with aplomb. Hitmontop was not immune to the poison, and it showed on his upside down face. The command for rapid spin easily blew them all away from Justin's side of the field, a few racking the bare minimum of damage on Bachi's thick hide.

But this was a shining light in itself: Hitmontop had not started with his Fake Out - Mach Punch combo. The main key to Justin's strategy was to get a head-start in damage by using that combo, which usually set the enemy to about half of their strength before the fight even really began. Had Justin been in his right mindset, he might've gone with Fake Out - Rapid Spin. Well...Tag doubted that Justin would've thought to do that too.

Bachi looked back at Tag, casting him a sidelong glance, muttering a single: "King". Tag read into the look, seeing the definite want to test himself against this titan of a foe. Tag gently shook his head, pointing at himself and mouthing: "Trust me." Bachi seemed disappointed, but nodded, turning back to face the pokemon.

Now, there was the definite chance of a Mach Punch coming at any time, from any angle, and any immediacy. Justin had nothing to fear from Bachi's Poison Point defense, due to Hitmontop already being poisoned. Even with a resistance, the Mach Punch would still be incredibly painful. Hitmontop had used up his turn in using Rapid Spin, giving Bachi the next move. However, Tag was unsure as to whether or not Justin would bother to follow proper battling etiquette in this scenario.

He chanced a glance over at Nate, whose eyes were locked on the battle. Tag knew Nate to be a competent trainer and an excellent strategist. If it came down to it, he'd use his entire team to bring down Hitmontop. He had to trust Nate to take down the remaining four. So with that in mind, he decided on the next set of moves.

"Bachi, Flatter!"

Bachi seemed surprised at the choice, but it made sense: Flatter was a move that greatly increased the enemy's special attack, but confused them. Hitmontop had virtually all physical moves, meaning he wouldn't receive any increase in power to his main attacks. It would confuse him, which opened the opportunity for the Spinning Top Pokemon to hurt himself, on top of the poison which was already sapping his strength. While Bachi was easily the best brawler in Tag's team, there was no way he would match up with Hitmontop in a contest of strength alone. For what was essentially the first time since his evolution, Bachi was grateful that he had the tactical knowledge of his highly experienced trainer to guide him. Tag plotted out the next couple moves in advance: He'd probably have Bachi use Counter, which would only work if Hitmontop didn't flat out obliterate him in the next hit, but it also relied on Hitmontop actually getting off an attack, which was a gamble now due to the confusion. He'd have to time out Bachi's next technique extremely carefully in order to pull this off.

In the mean-time, Tag split his attention to formulating strategies for the remainder of the battle. He had to rely on roughly one move per pokemon, since Hitmontop had the capability of OHKOing every member on his team. While Tag set himself in 'concentration face', Bachi dropped his guard, extending a friendly hand to Hitmontop. It sounded as if he were engaging in parlay, but was really complimenting the Hitmontop on the enormity of his strength and sharpness of his techniques. It was definitely something way out of place for a battle, but hey, it was a viable move.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 2 2012, 02:10 AM

Hitmontop did not become confused.

It was strange, because Flatter was not an easily avoidable tactic. However, the tactics which it employed were somewhat negligible in this particular situation. Nidoking was being friendly to Hitmontop, this is true, but the two had met a few times before, and it had always been on somewhat friendly ground. The friendly banter, so to speak, was not in the least confusing because Hitmontop had no idea they were in combat with each other. All he knew, all Justin had commanded thus far, was to knock the toxic spikes away.

In fact, Hitmontop was more confused by what his trainer commanded next. "Use Earthquake on Bachi." He didn't use Earthquake, but simply turned to look at his trainer, and then back at Bachi, then to Tag, then Nate. Not only was Earthquake a proven dangerous attack, as the last time he used it nearly brought down a circus, but Bachi and Tag were friends of Justin's, and this wasn't the kind of scenario for a friendly duel. Hitmontop looked back at Justin, unsure of what to do.

"You heard me," Justin said. "Earthquake. Don't make me say it again. Tag's trying to kill me, and so I gotta kill him first."

Hitmontop knew something was wrong, and he knew it wasn't with Tag. Neither Justin nor Tag were the type to command their pokemon to kill (granted, Hitmontop did not know Tag very well, and certainly didn't know about his past) and so the problem, he figured, must have been with Justin. Though it went against his better sense, given that the poison was slowly working its damage, he continued stalling, not using his move.

Justin had initially just figured this stall was due to confusion, so he just kept commanding it and Hitmontop just kept standing there. Finally, the fighting pokemon flipped over to his feet and walked to his left, so that he was not in front of Bachi, not between Justin and Tag. He stood to the side, near Nate, who continued to stare in confusion. When Justin looked at Hitmontop, furious, his favored pokemon simply shook his head. He was not going to fight Tag. Not like this. Not to the death.

"Fine," Justin said. "I don't fucking need you. Enjoy the poison." And with that, he summoned Octillery, though without first calling back Hitmontop. He was going to let Hitmontop take the full effects of Bachi's poison, and faint due to his insubordination.

When Octillery appeared, it seemed just a tiny bit confused, but remained calm and relaxed, just looking at Bachi. If the two had been acquainted, it was briefly, and didn't really count. "Octazooka!" Justin shouted. Its most powerful attack, Octazooka, was also super effective against Nidoking's ground type. One of the very few things Justin did know about pokemon battling was type matchups and Octillery could handle most.

And that he did. A huge blast of water shot out of his Birdo-Mouth aimed right for Bachi. It was powerful, yet inaccurate. If it did hit, it also had a chance of blinding the target as well. There was a lot of luck involved in this attack.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 2 2012, 02:48 AM

Flatter was ineffective.

In Tag's experience in Furoh, confusion gave the opponent a glazed look. He'd used confusion numerous times as one of his favourite tactics (Suzu, Bachi, Orin, Tobi and Zuki were all capable of inflicting this status). However, with Hitmontop unaware that he was even in a battle at all, it appeared that it came across as nothing more than random, friendly compliments.

Tag had not been sure whether or not Justin would use Earthquake. There was a chance of bringing down the entire building, especially given Hitmontop's outlandish strength. There was a reason most Pokemon Tournaments were held outdoors.

And yet, to the surprise of everyone in the room, Hitmontop simply refused to use the attack. Tag watched as the noble pokemon quietly stood there, staring unblinkingly at his own trainer while the poison worked away. Before long, he simply removed himself from the battle, standing off to the side and silently dealing with his own poison.

Justin callously left his longtime friend on the sidelines to deal with the poison, summoning...Octillery? Tag wanted to say something, even as he kept his eyes on Hitmontop. He wanted to ask Justin to use an antidote...but no one had used any items in the nightmare world. They probably didn't even have any on them. Tag chanced a quick glance over to Nate, trying to see if the other man in the room had any sort of plan or even a crapshoot contingency to deal with this rapidly devolving situation.

It was at that moment, when Tag turned his attention away from the battle, that Justin yelled out "Octazooka". To Tag's knowledge, Justin owned Hitmontop, Sudowoodo, Pinsir, Ninjask, and a Shedinja (He had been in a trance when Octillery made his first appearance here). Tag had not been in Lenoilia when Justin caught it, nor had he seen the pokemon in Gigarte or Starfall Field, during their last encounters. He had thought Bachi a perfect choice to deal with the remaining pokemon. This was a curve ball that he hadn't expected, and Justin had unwittingly capitalized on it.

Bachi, large and powerful, was still a fairly lumbering pokemon. Creatures of his size required momentum to work up their speed, and from a standstill, the behemoth was painfully slow in all directions except forward. The blast caught him head on, throwing him backwards and narrowly avoiding his trainer as he slammed into the wall, which, surprisingly enough, held. There were large circular holes rammed through it of course, but it appeared that Bachi has used his newfound tail to brace himself as best he could. Worst of all, Tag's luck in the situation had clearly plummeted. When Bachi resumed a fighting stance, Tag noted that he wasn't even really looking at the Octillery insofar as he was looking in the general direction of Justin. Octazooka's inky water had blinded him for the moment, which meant that this round of the battle was nearly over, and Justin would have taken out Tag's most powerful pokemon.

Toxic spikes was a possible option for Bachi's final move, but since Ninjask flew and Shedinja floated, there was the possibility that it would only effect Sudowoodo. Earth Power was a dangerous new move that Bachi had learned upon evolution, but Tag was pretty sure that it was as dangerous an option as Earthquake had been. With Bachi's new strength, and sudden lack of accuracy, there was the chance that he could destroy everything.

"Poison Jab." Tag wished he had taught his pokemon the 'clock' system for these moments. Octillery was not an agile pokemon, but Bachi couldn't see, and would more than likely charge straight ahead into another wall. "Slightly to the right." If Bachi understood the concept of "1 o'clock", then it might've been easier to direct him. Bachi, nevertheless, nodded offhandedly at his trainer, trying to reinspire some confidence, then charged forward, his vicious new claw seeping with poison.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 2 2012, 02:28 PM

"Finish him." Justin insisted. "Bubblebeam." Not one to argue with Justin, especially given his newfound rage, Octillery prepared to fire a beam of bubbles, still a fairly powerful move, but not quite as devastating as Octazooka. What it did have was accuracy, however, and Bachi had already taken a significant amount of damage from Pinsir and Octillery already (and even Hitmontop by accident from his little Rapid Spin, though it was boosted by Technician!).

Though Bachi's Poison Jab hit, and it hit hard, it lacked particular effectiveness against Octillery like Water attacks did on the Nidoking. Octillery took the hit and rolled backwards, but used its tentacles as it rolled to maintain control of its body so that after a complete 360, it was back on its tentacles, its snout towards Bachi, and bubbles shooting out of it like a jet.

Though Pinsir had typically been the fiercest of Justin's pokemon and Hitmontop the strongest, Octillery had always been the tactical choice. He was strong, unemotional, and had a massive repertoire of attacks for just about any opponent. With Hitmontop out of the fight, Octillery was Justin's next strongest pokemon, and he wouldn't go down easily, at least without taking down at least one pokemon with him.

Nate, meanwhile, stood beside Hitmontop as the poison did its work. He looked at the pokemon, one of the strongest in Furoh by far, sitting idly by as poison, inflicted by what he considered to be an ally, slowly took him down. He couldn't stand watching it, and he couldn't stand watching the battle. He couldn't stand watching Justin do whatever it was he was doing, be whoever it was he became.

He excused himself from the living room, the fight between Octillery and Bachi active enough to keep Justin from noticing. He went down the hallway and checked each room, looking specifically for the bathroom. This was a nice house after all, and nice house meant decent wealth, which meant good supplies.

He walked into the bathroom, looked at the mirror. There, he saw himself, tired. None of the marks he surely got from previous dreams had scarred his face, but the weariness of the series of them remained all too clear. Sighing, he opened the mirror and saw an impressive assortment of medicine, both for humans and pokemon. This made sense, too, since well to do families did tend to keep pokemon as pets. Hell, so did poor families, but richer families had the capacity to care for them a little better.

With the Antidote in hand, Nate made his way back to the living room. Hitmontop was the first to notice him, specifically that he was carrying an antidote. Poison had done significant amount of damage to the fighting pokemon before, when Justin was on his way to Arasam. He was attacked by a Skuntank and poisoned, which forced Justin to make a detour to Loch Ranch. Justin had cared so much for Hitmontop that he refused to let him finish his fight with Skuntank, and instead made Pinsir do it, then he ran nonstop to find the nearest shelter, where the Lochs finally gave him an Antidote.

Clearly, this was not the same Justin.

Nate gave Hitmontop the Antidote discretely. Justin had wanted his pokemon to take the full force of the poison, to faint from it. If he didn't, he would have called him back into his pokeball, which wouldn't cure the poison, but it would certainly have weakened it for the duration of his stay inside. Nate healing Hitmontop was against Justin's wishes, and Justin was rightly to be feared right about then. It didn't mean it was right, and so Nate healed him anyway as the battle raged on.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 4 2012, 01:31 AM

A low growl escaped from Tag's throat as Bachi found himself blasted back by the bubblebeam. Justin's Octillery was a pretty powerful hitter, and it showed. In just two attacks, Bachi had been pretty much felled. Then Nidoking's eyes rolled back in his head and started to fall forward. Before he hit the ground, though, he was surrounded by the soft red glow of the recall beam before disappearing into his pokeball.

Tag had not expected his most offensively viable pokemon to be taken out so easily. He deduced that the bubblebeam attack, while powerful, should not have been able to take out Nidoking, even with the type advantage. But then he factored in the possibility of a critical hit, especially given what was potentially Octillery's special ability, "Sniper". Sniper tripled the power of critical hits, and that was probably what had knocked a Nidoking out so easily.

"Suzu!"

Having taken a moment to calculate his next pokemon choice earlier, Tag figured that Kyoko could easily take out the Octillery, but Justin's Sudowoodo held an advantage over Suzu, Tobi, Orin and Zuki, meaning he needed to draw it out before he sent out Kyoko, lest she fall prey to one of Justin's other pokemon before he could deal with the Fake-Tree pokemon.

Suzu appeared on the field, tilting her head curiously at Justin, whom she was once again facing. Suzu, like her comrade Kyoko, actually liked Justin, and seemed rather confused to be fighting him. It registered that she was still in a dream, but Justin had been an ally earlier, not an enemy. She had also never met Justin's Octillery, but here he was, with his gaping mouth-tube, standing before her as an opponent.

"Suzu, Comet Punch"

Octillery didn't have too many, if any moves, effective against Suzu's typing. On top of this, she was fairly solid when it came to special defense. He wanted to test the Octillery's defenses until he found the opportune moment to land one painful blow.

Suzu had other ideas, though. Instead of flashing over to Octillery with her usual blinding speed, she simply flew over. But, she built momentum in the air as she flew forward, careful to not let the cannon mouth aim at her at all. Just as she reached up to launch the comet punch, her hands began crackling with electricity. With a cheerful "Yan" noise, she shot forward, thrusting all four of her fists the Octillery's forehead.

Not recalling teaching her that, and not recalling where she would've learned a move like that, Tag could not figure out how Suzu had learned the technique. (Although, mind you, he had heard that some pokemon in the dream world had different abilities, or even techniques not normally obtainable by them.) He felt rather proud to be owning a fairly unique Ledian, and that she was such a quick learner. She'd used that technique 0 times before, but had little difficulty in executing it.

Tag watched Octillery closely, to see if the technique had also been enough to deal hefty damage or inflict paralysis.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 4 2012, 11:52 PM

The damage dealt was far more significant than a Comet Punch would have been, certainly. But, unlike the rest of Justin's team, Octillery's level was actually near Suzu's. Though the hit was super effective, as they say, it ran off of Suzu's undeniably low physical strength, one of the few electric type moves to have this property. Octillery was, by no means, a defensively powerful pokemon, and so the damage still hurt, but it could have been much worse. His counterattack, though, was to be feared.

Anger pouring from his eyes, Justin called out to Octillery. "Rock Blast!" As mentioned, Octillery was the most versatile of Justin's team because of its diverse movepool. Rock Blast was the attack it first used against Justin just outside of Lenolia when he caught it as it was trying to protect a Remoraid in the small pond. He always thought it was strange for an octopus pokemon to be able to shoot rocks from its snout, but it stuck in his mind. Agaisnt Suzu's Bug and Flying type, it would be extremely effective.

And with that, Octillery shot out four rocks in very quick succession, each doing the damage of four rocks. If poor Suzu remained conscious after all four of these hits, much could be said for her tenacity. However, whether or not she could beat Octillery with this in his arsenal one on one was hardly debatable.

Justin crossed his arms, smugly.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 5 2012, 03:13 AM

It was not often that Tag found himself surprised by the events of a battle. Usually he could calculate most of the moves to be used against him by the opponent, and formulate working strategies. Whether or not his strategies were effective was another story all together. Yet, the fact remained that Taggarty Lee could read his opponent's abilities with great accuracy.

Perhaps it was the stress of the long adventure so far. They'd been going for what felt like days, at this point, since there had been little time to rest (except for the part where he was drowning. That had been peaceful.) Perhaps that with Hitmontop out of the picture, he'd gotten cocky. Perhaps he'd held on to the fact that Justin didn't know his pokemon's moves most of the time.

It didn't matter; he was incredibly surprised. He knew Pokemon move pools in and out, barring the new Unova pokemon, abilities and techniques. However, Octillery were native to Johto, his home region, and he'd made a gross oversight on its incredibly diverse move-pool.

Justin's Octillery fired out four sizable rocks from his snout (which in itself seemed implausible. Where had those rocks appeared from?) and slammed into an equally surprised Suzu with outrageous force. One rock alone might've been enough to knock her out, but four was overkill. She was flung backwards into his arms, and with a grunt, he caught her. The ladybug pokemon hung there limply in his arms, completely unconscious despite her tenacity.

Shame and embarrassment swept through his mind. He was not one to make such painful misjudgments, nor was he one who let his pokemon get so utterly humiliated in battle. He had rejoiced early, and his celebration had been cut painfully short.

He couldn't take too much time, though, and he recalled her instantly, muttering a soft apology under his breath. Justin was still trying to kill him, and there was a chance that Octillery would fire off something and utterly destroy Tag's person.

"Kyoko" he had to play type advantage to his favour, but after reviewing his mental list of Octillery's moves, he remembered that Octillery favoured Beam moves, most notably Aurora Beam, but possibly the devastating Ice Beam.

Kyoko, a Bellossom, was not the fastest pokemon around. In fact, she probably contended with Octillery for "NOT FASTEST" on their respective rosters (this considering that Tonbo, Tag's Slowpoke, was safely in the Johto region). Luckily for Tag, Kyoko was faster than Octillery.

He had to choose, very carefully, which move to go with. Sleep Powder would've been the most effective attack, but Justin was probably expected that, given Tag's modus operandi. However, Sleep Powder was a gamble due to its low accuracy, and then Kyoko would be punished. Magical Leaf was sure to hit, but it didn't do great amounts of damage, even given the same-type attack bonus and the defensive typing of Octillery. Lastly, there was Leaf Blade, which operated off of Kyoko's lower attack power, but was still a more powerful attack than Magical Leaf. Accuracy was good, and there was a higher probability of critical hit.

Tag opted to send her out guns blazing.

"Kyoko, Leaf Blade." Hopskipping forward, the happy flower pokemon slipped two thin leaf blades out of her skirt and immediately set upon destroying the Octillery. Kyoko had been one of the first pokemon Tag had summoned to the dream world. While she'd had some hesitation in killing dream soldiers, she had absolutely no problems taking on another pokemon. She was, admittedly, a bit weirded out at fighting Justin, mostly because she never had. (In fact, Justin had actually commanded her while she had been an Oddish).

But, she dutifully charged forward, figuring once again to trust in her trainer. The thin rapiers flashed dangerously as she lashed out at the Octopus Artillery Pokemon.

Meanwhile, Tag mentally crossed his fingers for utmost success.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 6 2012, 05:45 PM

"Aurora Beam!" Justin shouted as Tag simultaneously commanded Leaf Blade. Kyoko, as mentioned, was much faster than Octillery, but her attack power was notably weaker. Unfortunately (or, perhaps, fortunately), the attack was critically effective, landing a clean slice across Octillery's face. He tried to block with one of his many tentacles, but in the end, the attack was just too clean. This, paired with the Thunderpunch from Suzu, was enough to knock him out before he even got to shoot off his icy beam (which wouldn't have taken Kyoko down anyway).

Next up was Shedinja, whose special ability made most attacks entirely ineffective against it. "Shedinja, use, uh-" he began for a moment, then paused. "Fuck. Use Night Slash!" Justin shouted, anger building on top of his already existing anger. He was losing this fight, as he only had Shedinja, Ninjask and Sudowoodo remaining, all of whom were notably weaker than Tag's team on average.

Shedinja slowly floated over to Kyoko, ready to use a fairly powerful (though not incredibly so) Night Slash. Its Bug typing would have made a great attack against the grass type, but it had slipped Justin's mind that Shedinja did not know any decent Bug attacks. Leech Life wasn't even worth mentioning, especially since the life steal effect was useless considering one hit would take it out anyway. Here, he was hoping to be able to wear down the Bellossom, who hopefully lacked any moves which could damage Shedinja.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 6 2012, 10:16 PM

Tag stifled a laugh as Shedinja appeared on the field. The sad fact of the matter was that each of his remaining pokemon were able to take it out. It's bug type was a strong choice against Kyoko's grass type, seeing as Kyoko couldn't do any damage from her grass attacks. However, Justin's oversight was that pokemon didn't only receive damage from direct attacks. The outrageously frail Shedinja was susceptible to damage from weather to statuses. Luckily for Tag, status-ailments were Kyoko's forte.

As Shedinja floated over to initiate his night slash, Kyoko raised both of her leaf blades in defense, but even the shell-claw of Shedinja easily shattered the two thin blades, scoring a strong hit on the Bellossom. The odd thing about Bellossom as a species: Their defenses are weirdly high for such small, gentle looking creatures.

"Kyoko, Toxic."

Recalling her days as a pokemon with a poison type to her, she slowly secreted venom into her throat, drumming up a disgusting blob of toxic goo. With a look of exertion, she spat out the huge glob from her mouth, aiming to cover Shedinja in the poisonous fluid. Toxic wasn't a move that dealt direct damage, no. It was one to inflict poison, and in Tag's memory, that was all he needed to do to end the floating little monster.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 6 2012, 11:36 PM

The Night Slash hit, and Justin wasn't too sure what to think of the Toxic attack. Poison wasn't one of the types which could penetrate Shedinja's ethereal body. Then, sure enough, at the end of the turn, the bug pokemon stopped and turned around to look at Justin. It was entirely unapologetic, as it, too, could sense that Justin was being an asshole. And so, with that, it fainted after getting off only a single weak attack.

Justin just rolled his eyes and called it back. Two pokemon remained, Sudowoodo and Ninjask, neither of whom were particularly strong. Both of them had been with Justin from pretty much the start (though Sudowoodo was first, along with Hitmontop). Only one of them made sense to go against Kyoko, and this one, he knew, possessed an attack powerful against her.

Ninjask popped out of her ball with initial skepticism. She had seen the previous world, Nate's nightmare, which was dark and violent. She killed a guy. But, after some looking around, she saw that they were in a nice house and she was surrounded only by Nate, Justin, Tag, Kyoko and Hitmontop, all familiar faces. There were no bad guys here, or so she thought.

"Ninjask," Justin said, his arms crossed, a look of intense determination about him. She recognized his intensity and became concerned her own self. "Swords Dance." It was an attack she recently learned, but had so rarely used. Evidently, Justin had looked into it a little bit to see what it did, and effectively doubling her attack power was not a terrible thing. However, the only other pokemon not belonging to Justin was Kyoko. Like Hitmontop, she recognized that she was fighting Kyoko, and not in a friendly duel.

But she trusted Justin, unlike Hitmontop. She trusted him entirely, loved him and cared for him. Hitmontop cared for and loved him too, but he was too smart to let help Justin make a fool of himself. Ninjask, sadly, faced Kyoko and buzzed around, the wind sharpening her claws as she moved. Her speed, too, was increasing as she flew about. She was prepared for a fight, but that didn't mean she wanted to do it.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 6 2012, 11:49 PM

As Shedinja turned and promptly fell to the ground, Tag knew that victory was closing in. He had Four pokemon remaining to Justin's two. This was now only a matter of holding out against the final two, which he knew to be Sudowoodo and Ninjask. Justin wasn't stupid enough to face Sudowoodo against Kyoko's array of grass attacks, and Ninjask had super resistance to that selfsame array.

Ninjask appeared on the field, buzzing about in all of her sparkly glory. Like Hitmontop, she appeared confused that she was facing Tag. However, Tag was not so lucky as to have her sit this fight out too. The tattooed trainer was not one to judge as to whether or not Hitmontop or Ninjask was the smarter, but all he knew was that Ninjask was ready to fight, despite the circumstance.

Tag knew Ninjask to have a rather bothersome ability, called Speed Boost. Each turn, Ninjask would gain more and more speed, which made this a very dangerous match for the slower Kyoko. Tag had a means with which to curb the rate at which the Ninja Bug accelerated.

"Kyoko, Worry Seed".

Kyoko nodded. After taking out Octillery and Shedinja, she had gotten the chance to watch Justin, and she had figured out that this wasn't the Justin she met on a few occasions. His normally good looking face was twisted and contorted, and he radiated with what felt like anger. She understood that Tag was fighting him (and not that he was fighting to save him), and that he needed her full cooperation.

She fired out, without hesitation, a small seed, that upon contact with Ninjask, would blossom into a little flower. The aforementioned flower would instill a new ability in Ninjask, nullifying Speed Boost and replacing it with Insomnia. While it meant that Ninjask couldn't sleep, it also meant that Speed Boost would no longer be a factor in this match.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 7 2012, 12:12 AM

"Bug Bite!"

Ninjask had a decent array of super effective bug attacks. Leech Life, Bug Bite and Fury Cutter. The strongest of these was Bug Bite. There was some sense in using Fury Cutter, which started out weak, but grew in power as the battle went on. Justin, of course, took issue with the idea of staying in a long battle against Kyoko, who could riddle the poor pokemon with status effects. Justin wanted to finish the battle as fast as he could, which would, of course, put Ninjask at a disadvantage against Tobi. A boosted and built up Fury Cutter might have been effective against him, but a Bug Bite not so much.

Nevertheless, Ninjask charged Kyoko, foregoing her reluctance once the command was made. She did trust Justin, and so she bit down, hard, onto the grass type. Though she didn't get a chance to boost her speed, thanks to Worry Seed, her attack was significantly boosted due to Swords Dance. The Bug Bite was super effective, boosted and was boosted by her Bug typing. Though Ninjask was at a severe level disadvantage, the attack was going to do significant damage.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 7 2012, 12:42 AM

A well placed Bug Bite had the potential to change a battle...if the opponent was equipped with a berry. Luckily, Tag rarely did that with his pokemon.

Nevertheless, Ninjasks' Bug Bite hurt. The boost from the Swords Dance and the doubling of her attack made sure the attack hit home and that it hurt. Combined with the Night Slash from earlier, Kyoko was pretty near the end of her rope already. Tag noted this, and knew that it meant that he had to set up for his next companion, to make sure that the team synergy remained in tact. Even with the Bellossom's surprisingly good defenses, she still probably wouldn't make it through another hit...unless she dampened it somehow.

"Kyoko, Charm." Having negated Ninjask's ability to raise her speed, Tag also set out to halve her current attack capability. This would put her levels back at square one, but it was better than having a wicked fast pokemon with a high output for damage. There was no way Kyoko would come out victorious in this fight, so the at the very least, Tag could get her to pave the way for the next members of his team. He immediately began formulating strategies for either Tobi or Orin, whomever he selected next.

In the mean time, Kyoko pranced about cutely, despite her diminishing stamina. She blew kisses and spun in twirls in order to enchant the Ninjask into lightening up in her attacks. Even in the heat of battle, Tag found himself blushing a little at the cuteness of it all. He wasn't embarassed in the least, though. Even if it was a life or death battle, Charm was a viable tactic, and he intended to use everything he had at his disposal in order to beat Justin, which would somehow lead to winning the dream later, which would in turn lead them...somewhere. Well...even with so many unknowns facing him afterwards, he at least could focus on the battle for now.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 7 2012, 01:00 AM

He could have used Swords Dance again. It might have been a smarter choice than simply finishing off Kyoko, to be better prepared for the next battle. But when faced with the decision to boost his own pokemon or to defeat his enemy, he made the only choice he could at the time. "Bug Bite!"

Ninjask shot forward. Her attack was not incredibly strong at this point, but her damage was still decent and Kyoko had taken a fairly hefty hit already. She watched as her opponent fell and buzzed back to Justin, clearly not pleased with what she had done. She did consider Kyoko a friend. She was there when Tag adopted her, after all. Well, maybe not right there, but she was around, at least.

Rather than looking Justin in the eyes, as she knew he wasn't going to give her praise, she looked onward, towards Tag, to see who he would send out next. Ninjask had grown confident in her battling skills, but she was far from confident in this battle.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 7 2012, 01:10 AM

Kyoko dropped to the floor after Ninjask's next Bug Bite. Not stirring, it was clear that she had fallen unconscious and therefore couldn't battle any more.

Charm had been an effective choice, leaving Ninjask with essentially her basic speed and basic attack, both of which could've risen to quite formidable heights. With the major factor now being Ninjask's speed, Tag needed a way to not only counter that, but inflict damage and resist hers as well. (Well, that seems to be the basic idea for most choices in a pokemon battle.)

"Orin."

The more expected choice would've been Tobi, with his fire type. A Will-o-wisp from him could've been incredibly crippling, but more importantly, his flamethrower would've been devastating. Tag, however, was saving that as a Plan B. For now, he would try to outspeed Ninjask with the one move in his entire arsenal that could do that.

"Ice Shard."

Ice Shard, as a technique, had seen its fair share of use throughout the dreams, and Tag was coming more and more to rely on it as an opening move. His Froslass was a fairly ideal opener, able to set out an entry hazard (and block Rapid Spin from affecting them), set up a weather condition, inflict statuses, or get the jump priority wise. In this case, the snow ghost appeared, prepared for battle. She had met Justin briefly as a Snorunt, and had been his ally during a few of the dreams. But unlike Bachi, Kyoko, and Suzu, she had no affection towards him.

Sweeping her 'sleeve' in front of her, she shot out a small wave of tiny ice needles, shooting out faster than Ninjask might've anticipated. Few pokemon were faster than Ninjask, and it was probably odd for someone else to attack first for a change.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 7 2012, 01:19 AM

Justin was expecting Tag's Vulpix, Tobi, to appear, but was somewhat relieved to see Orin, the Froslass. After some thought on what move to use, however, he became less relieved. Ninjask had no abilities capable of doing significant damage to Froslass, while her Ice typing was perfect against Ninjask.

The tactical decision here was to switch to Sudowoodo who, while still at a level disadvantage, would have the type advantage as a Rock type (with Rock attacks, as well). Justin did not have the most tactical of minds, however, and it was even less so in his rage. "Bug Bite!" was her strongest attack, and so it's what he went with. He knew the attack Ice Shard somewhat well, as it was a staple attack in Nate's arsenal. Ninja was Nate's most used pokemon since he obtained her and Ice Shard was one of her most used attacks.

That said, he was not surprised that it went before Ninjask, nor that it seemed to hurt. It didn't knock her out, though, due to a few important reasons. Ice Shard is a fairly weak move in and of itself, and it was running on Orin's very low physical strength.

Of course, Ninjask's Bug Bite would do very little damage as well. The battle between these two would last longer than they'd been, but it would inevitably go to Orin.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 7 2012, 01:31 AM

Tag had expected Ice Shard to do more damage than it had appeared. The Cicada-like Pokemon clamped down on Orin's arm. The Froslass, in turn, let out a haunting wail through the air as she shook to rid herself of the pest. After a moment she freed herself. While the Snow Ghost was not receiving great amounts of damage from Ninjask's attacks, it did not mean that she could simply act with impunity.

Floating back, Orin waited for Tag's next command as she kept a wary eye on the whizzing form of her opponent. Upon hearing the command for an "Icy Wind" in Tag's familiar baritone, she leaned backwards before snapping her head forward. In doing so, she launched a gale of frigid wind in an expanding cone shape at Ninjask. The wide range of the attack, as well as its ability to potentially lower speed, (not to mention it working off of Orin's Special strength), made this a fairly ideal move for the current situation.

Tag's hands slipped into his pockets as he stared out over the field. It had been awhile before he had stepped into his favoured battle stance, but now he was relaxed into the flow of the battle. Of course, it was far from over, but for now, Justin's stinging words from earlier had completely left his mind.

Ninjask took the cold wind much less well than she took the Ice Shard. It was clear she was in much more pain at that point, and her unmatched speed was finding itself matched. At that point, Orin was faster, but that didn't stop Justin from commanding one final Bug Bite! She charged, but her speed left much to be desired. Getting her final hit off was unlikely.

Yet, it happened.

Orin, confident in her numerous victories so far, made a grave miscalculation, despite Tag's stern face. She had turned away from Ninjask to turn her attention to Hitmontop. She, of course, was wondering if she had to fight him as well. After all, she was unaware that Hitmontop was one of the most powerful pokemon known in Furoh at current and was sizing him up. She wasn't overly fond of battle, but had grown to understand that it was simply how Tag operated, and that she could fight for him if not for herself.

It was that moment of reverie that left o her open to Ninjask's Bug Bite. While surprised, it still only managed to conjure up some neutral damage; most certainly not enough to knock Orin out.

"Orin. Focus. Icy Wind again."

Once again a cold blast of air spread out across the room towards Ninjask, hoping to take her down and pave the way to a victory. Tag, of course, began formulating and rejecting some tactics to use on Sudowoodo, a pokemon who held type advantage over two of his pokemon, and had the defenses to be safe against the third.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 7 2012, 01:58 AM

Ninjask was pleased to get her Bug Bite off, but on her way back to Justin to regroup, she felt the familiar cold air of Icy Wind surround her tiny little body. Fear struck her wings stopped fluttering and she fell to the ground, bouncing once and rolling over. She had fainted a few times before from battle, but they were rare occurrences, as Justin tended to remove her from the battle before things went that far. Today was clearly different.

He called her back after her defeat, not saying anything or cursing at her. He had expected her to lose that fight, and so he didn't blame her doing so. This is not to say he was particularly pleased. Her fainting wasn't even mildly upsetting to him.

And so, his final pokemon, Sudowoodo, came out to see some familiar faces. Like Ninjask, the last thing he expected was to be fighting Tag. He saw Hitmontop standing next to Nate, looking weary, and he saw Orin in front of him. Everyone was worried or concerned, and he wasn't really sure why.

"Rock Tomb on Orin," Justin said.

Sudowoodo looked to Orin. He hesitated for just a moment, but decided Justin knew what he was talking about. The two didn't always get along, but ever since Loch Ranch, they had somewhat of a bonding moment, and Sudowoodo (then Bonsly) grew to trust Justin, and vice versa. He picked up a rock from somewhere and chunked it as hard as he could at the icy ghost.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 7 2012, 02:20 AM

Tag wasn't yet ready for Orin to go down in this fight. She was a bit faster than the...odd rock tree...and Tag managed to yell out: "Protect!"

A shimmering sphere of light instantly materialized around her just a split second before the rock came crashing into it. The boulder, that had been drawn from hammerspace for all intents and purposes, fell harmlessly to the ground, sparing Orin the super-effective hit. However, he couldn't just sit there and use protect; it had a tendency to work less frequently the more often it was used.

The sphere faded, and she floated calmly in the air, still facing her new opponent. Though, ever so slightly, she shifted back towards her trainer, inching towards him in the air out of nervousness. She figured that the next time around, she wouldn't be able to put the energy into the protect sphere in time. The previous one had been summoned by the surprise of an impending rock tomb attack.

Tag knew that he couldn't simply go blow for blow with the rock-type Sudowoodo. Also, the creature had the annoying moves "Copycat" and "Mimic", which with a slim margin of luck, could recreate Orin's techniques and use them against her. Moves like "Confuse Ray" and "Attract" could easily backfire, given enough luck on Justin's part. The same went for moves like "Ominous Wind" and "Astonish", seeing as unlike Sudowoodo, Orin was weak to her own ghost moves. He'd noted that Justin's instinct was to use Sudowoodo's Mimic and Copycat moves as a surprise tactic in battles, and he wasn't going to give him the opportunity this time.

"Orin, Wake-up Slap"

Normally this was a move he preferred to use in tandem with Kyoko or Tobi, both of whom had sleep inducing moves. But in this case, it was probably the one move she could use without fear of Mimic Retaliation, as it was fighting type. That made it super effective against Sudowoodo (though still horribly weak, due to it being a physical attack), and if Sudowoodo used it back, it would be ineffective entirely. Of course, though, Justin was simply going to keep up with the rock attacks, but that was a less embarassing way to lose a round of a fight.

Orin floated forward, swinging her slapping hands fiercely, aimed to strike at Sudowoodo's face. Tag needed her to wear the fist-bumping, rock headed tree for his final two pokemon.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 8 2012, 11:15 PM

Justin rolled his eyes in frustration as Tag commanded Protect. It was a good strategy to test the waters, see what the opponent was going to do as an opening move. Notably, it would have been effective against Hitmontop, who liked to open the battle with Fake Out, which only works if it's a surprise. Of course, Fake Out wouldn't work on Orin anyway. But there was some merit in Tag knowing that Sudowoodo had Rock Tomb at his disposal, and that Justin was planning on using it. Based on the battle up until then, assuming Justin would continue using Rock Tomb was a fair assumption. That's what he'd been doing the whole time, with the exception of Swords Dance on Ninjask.

And yet, Tag still managed to overestimate Justin by using Wake Up Slap instead of what would surely have been a much more powerful special attack (using Froslass's high Special Attack against Sudowoodo's low Special Defense) or a status inducing move, which was Froslass' specialty.

"Rock Tomb!" Justin called out. Though Orin attacked first with her particularly weak Fighting attack (which did some decent damage due to his weakness to it and her notable level advantage). It hurt, to be certain, but not as badly as it could have. His Rock Tomb, however, would do decent damage, assuming it hit (and there was some shaky accuracy to it), as Sudowoodo had decent strength and Orin's physical resilience left much to be desired. If it did manage to hit, her speed would be reduced, though she would still probably be faster.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 10 2012, 10:04 PM

Tag had hoped for Wake-up Slap to do more damage than it did. He wanted to end the battle without 'crushing' Justin's pokemon, as some show of faith. He wasn't taking it easy by any means, but he definitely wasn't playing his usual strategy of controlling the field through slick combinations and status ailments. He was meeting Justin head on, and it was working in his favour.

Yet, the painful Rock Tomb on his Froslass snapped yet another painful reminder that he could absolutely not afford to lose this battle. He was sure Nate would back him up if Justin tried to kill him, but this was something of a grudge match that Tag had looked forward to since Justin beat him outside of Petropolis. (Then later again inside Petropolis.)

Orin felt herself moving a bit more sluggishly than usual, but as a very speedy pokemon against a much slower Sudowoodo, she still retained her advantage.

"Ominous Wind"

A gaseous, dark cloud swept up in front her in a cyclonic manner, obscuring her from sight. Without too much warning, Orin gently waved her sleeved arm, sending the conflageration towards Sudowoodo. It was one of her most powerful attacks, but she definitely didn't have the stamina to pull it off many times in a match. Ominous Wind also carried the chance of boosting herself up by absorbing the dark winds into her body, but that seemed to have passed to no effect.

Tag needed this to be the last move in the match. Tobi would find himself at a great disadvantage, and Zuki's main array of moves would find themselves against Sudowoodo's rocky hide, potentially proving ineffective.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 11 2012, 12:20 AM

"Rock Tomb, again!" Justin called out. As Sudowoodo prepared for another Rock Tomb, Orin launched her Ominous Wind, which was loaded with hurt. It was clear to Justin that his bro was in no shortage of pain, but stayed in the game long enough to launch another Rock Tomb, which, if it landed, would likely finish the Froslass off.

Either way, Tag had two pokemon remaining, though Justin didn't consider the possibilities. His strategy did not involve the future, unlike his more tactical opponent. Sudowoodo was on his last leg, and without the help of Hitmontop, Justin really didn't stand much of a chance. Still, though, he stood strong and insisted that Sudowoodo give it all he had, though his encouragement lacked much in the way of positivity.

Sudowoodo, more than likely, was going to go down after one more attack from Orin or, if the Rock Tomb knocked her out, one or two more hits from Tag's next pokemon. Justin hadn't thought of what would happen if (when) he lost. All he knew was that he wanted desperately to win, and to beat the living hell out of one of his only friends (granting a loose definition of the term, of course).

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 11 2012, 01:19 AM

Despite the Ominous Wind wreaking some ominous havoc on Sudowoodo, the Pseudo-Wood pokemon stood firm. Even while being attacked, he launched another Rock Tomb. The few Bug Bites from Ninjask and the super effective Rock Tombs was pretty much all a frail pokemon like Orin could take. The heavy rocks slammed into her, knocking her forcefully to the ground. Slowly, she rose up again, only to gently float back down. With surprising grace, she simply laid down on the floor, appearing as if she were asleep.

A red beam shot out, recalling her to her pokeball to rest. Tag's hands drifted over the remaining two pokeballs, in the fourth and sixth slots respectively on his belt. Justin's Sudowoodo stood, still ready to fight, but appeared to be teetering on the brink of unconsciousness. He felt a surge of confidence, sensing the end of the battle rapidly approaching, but made sure not to get cocky.

"Zuki" The cute puppy pokemon appeared on the field, staring curiously at Sudowoodo and Justin. He, too, like most of the pokemon who had appeared during the battle, had been working alongside Justin and Nate throughout the entire series of nightmares. Looking back at Tag curiously, his ears drooped, indicating that he didn't particularly want to fight.

Tag looked down at his companion, then back at the enemy, simply ordering:

"Zuki, Bite!"

Zuki had a fairly shallow move pool at his disposal, and at current, Bite was the most powerful move he had. Luckily for him, Sudowoodo didn't resist his dark type attack, which was rather bizarre. Sure, the rock-tree had considerable defense against the attack. But, in Tag's defense, Zuki was probably the better trained of the two pokemon; Sudowoodo evidently rarely saw battle, thanks to Justin's almighty Hitmontop.

With a solemn nod, Zuki charged forward, baring his little fangs as he lunged for his enemy.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 11 2012, 09:54 PM

Zuki's appearance had little impact on Justin's demeanor or his strategy: Hit as hard as possible. "Wood Hammer!" For a move not of the same type as the user, this was an incredibly powerful attack. It was more powerful than any of Sudowoodo's Rock attacks, even given his boost to that type. Low Kick was a Fighting attack, which would be super effective against Zuki's Dark type, but would do minimal damage because of his low weight. Wood Hammer, a Grass type, typically had the negative effect of hurting the user, but because of Sudowoodo's ability, the sheer force of the attack put its full force on the opponent.

Of course, the attack would deal decent damage to Zuki, if it ever got the chance to hit. Poochyena was not a particularly fast pokemon by any means, but it outsped Sudowoodo fairly easily. Bite hit and it didn't do too much damage, but Sudowoodo was already defying his own unconsciousness. Sudowoodo fell to the floor with a thud, causing Justin to angrily call him back into his pokeball.

He stood, shaking with rage, staring Tag down. "Justin-" Nate began.

"Shut up," Justin said. "Shut up, Nate, I swear to God."

"It's over, man,"

"No!" Justin yelled. "It's not over!"

He charged Taggarty Lee. Maybe he couldn't win a pokemon battle, but he could still beat the guy to death. Tag wasn't a small guy, but Justin was freakin' huge. Even though Zuki stood in between he and Tag, Justin did not hesitate to kick the puppy across the room in a preemptive attempt to get to his target. Justin charged Tag with speed, rage and power in a desperate attempt to accomplish something, but he had no idea what that something was.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 12 2012, 06:35 PM

Tag's Poochyena had not been expecting a bodily attack from a human. Such things were really quite rare, and he took a full blow from Justin's kick. A sharp pang of pain, he flew through the air, slamming into the wall near Nate and Hitmontop and sank down to the ground, wind clearly knocked from him.

His trainer's eyes widened in a shock that quickly gave way to anger of his own. Tag was not known to be an emotional sort of person, but here he was, his pokemon injured by a pique of rage, and it inspired a rage in his own.

Most obviously, he was at a clear disadvantage when it came to engaging Justin in fisticuffs, and it was pretty clear that Nate, a much scrawnier guy, would stand even less of a chance. Yet, spurred into action by Justin's callous treatment of Zuki, Tag met the man head on.

As gallant as his counterattack had been, Tag had virtually no experience in scraps like these, and immediately took a punch to the face, sending him staggering backwards. It would only be a matter of moments before Justin was on him again, but clearly he would spend those moments dazed and confused as to why he was bleeding from his nose.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 12 2012, 10:53 PM

Justin wasn't surprised by Tag's counterattack, but he hadn't been expecting it. As previously mentioned, the future was not a concern for him in his state. As Tag stumbled back after the hit, Justin refused to let up. He moved towards Tag relentlessly and, in Tag's state, a defensive move would have been difficult. Justin's next punch, aimed for Tag's nose, would do some serious-

He was stopped before his next assault could land. He couldn't figure out what happened, but he had been pushed to the side, away from Tag, from his left side. No, he'd been punched, taken completely by surprised, and was thrown straight into the wall. Pain came from so many parts of his body and all he could do was fall to the floor, face down.

It was Hitmontop. He used his notorious Fake Out Mach Punch combo on his own trainer to keep him from punching Tag out of pseudo-consciousness. (Of course, I would say consciousness, but can one really call their dream world bodies conscious? Maybe. Neither Justin nor Hitmontop were much for philosophy.)

Justin Smart slowly pushed himself to a sitting position, upright against the wall, so that he could look Tag, Nate, Hitmontop and poor Zuki head on. For a moment, he looked confused. Then, his confusion turned to shame. He lowered his head, looking at the ground in a desperate attempt to save face. He had completely failed his allies and his dream world objective, whatever it was. He was the bad guy in his own nightmare, and he couldn't do anything to stop it.

"I, uh," he began, with absolutely no idea how to begin. "I don't know what that was." His eyes grew a little bit watery. Justin was admittedly somewhat of a drama queen, but crying wasn't generally his style. This was a strange experience for him, the amount of guilt and emotions he was feeling at that moment. "Tag, I- Zuki..." He looked at the puppy, who he had kicked across the room. Zuki was a fairly high leveled pokemon, but that didn't seem to apply to humans, not that it was a common experiment.

"Hitmontop!" His words were coming out all at once, and he didn't know how to say everything he wanted to say. He had wronged all of them, every one of them who was staring him down. He recalled the sound Zuki made when he punted him, the anger and emotion in Tag's eyes. Ninjask, Sudowoodo, Pinsir, none of them wanted to fight, but they all did. Hitmontop was the only one to stand up to Justin's reign, and he took punishment for it. Finally, he forced himself to stand, and said the only thing he knew he could. "I'm so sorry."

"Justin," Nate stood forward, shaking his head. "What that was, that was all part of the nightmare. This whole thing was just a nightmare, remember that. That wasn't you, who did all those things."

"No," Justin shook his head. "I wanna just say that, yeah. But the thing is, it was. It was me. I knew what I was doing the whole time it was happening, and I was the one doin' it. All the things I said, the awful things, I meant them. I don't, uh. I mean, I don't know like, how I feel about them now. But everything I said, I meant. And everything I did, I meant to do. I wasn't just possessed. I was me. I was just really, really mad. Like, so mad. Madder than I've ever been. And scared, too. And lonely, a little bit, I guess. I don't know. I just, I didn't trust anybody. I didn't trust you guys."

Justin had failed his nightmare, and he had failed his allies. But his allies did not fail. They saved him. They all did. Even Nate played a part by rescuing Hitmontop from Bachi's poison. Without that, Justin likely would have wailed on Tag to death. Justin didn't trust any of them, which seemed to be the root of his nightmare. But in the end, they proved to be extremely trustworthy. Few pokemon are willing to punch their trainer in the face. Even fewer are willing to do it because they love and respect that trainer.

"I was wrong, though," he said. "I was wrong not to trust you. Obviously, I was wrong about everything else, about all the shitty stuff I did, but I was wrong not to trust you. Thank you. All of you. Nate, Hitmontop, you guys are my best friends. I need to tell you that. I trust both of you. I love you guys. Tag, I hate to say it, but," He paused for a moment and looked at Tag. "You're definitely one of my best friends too. I know you were looking forward to battling me again, I was too. Sorry it had to be like this.

"And about the Seviper. I plan on keeping my promise. I'm gonna free it."

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 13 2012, 11:12 PM

Still reeling from the attack, Tag managed to think to himself that...well...Justin had some really large fists. This particular one was aimed at his nose, and that was a lights-out sort of hit.

But the blow never landed. Justin was flung aside, and in his place, noble Hitmontop stood...or...headstood. Justin was laying face down on the floor, knocked out by his own pokemon.

As Smart slowly raised himself from the ground, Tag slowly sank to the ground, still reeling in pain from the blow. Zuki limped over, whimpering slightly, and Tag scooped the pokemon into his lap briefly. He gave a quick scratch the Zuki's haunches before pulling out the pokeball and drawing the canine back in.

"I'm so sorry."

Tag fought the urge to respond with: "You should be." While that would've been a line that he would've used back in his earlier days in Furoh, he'd softened considerably. He shrugged, making a sort of "no worries" face. Nate then proceeded to justify Justin's actions, which made a surprising amount of sense. Tag hadn't even thought about the dream objective the entire time, since he'd simply been wrapped up in the battle. He was definitely glad that he wasn't forced to kill Justin, even in a dream.

The downed man blabbered a bit more. It was awkwardly worded, but wonderfully sincere. To date, Tag figured it to be the most honest thing Justin had ever said.

"You lashed out. It happens." Tag nodded sagely, neatly summing up Justin's ramble. "This may come as a shock, but you two are probably my only friends. We'll battle again, under better circumstances." He smiled at Hitmontop, pointing at him "And I expect to take you on this time, too."

"And about the Seviper. I plan on keeping my promise. I'm gonna free it."

"Glad to hear it." Tag rose back up, walking over to offer Justin a hand up.

The moment Justin stood though, the world began to fall apart again, but in a different way all together. It appeared, this time, that the world was simply unraveling. Someone appeared to be pulling it apart at its seams, fading everything into a soft, white light. It wasn't blinding by any means, it was just gentle.

Tag looked around, a bit worried. Normally this was the end of things. White light meant death. Maybe all of the fighting they'd done, all the horrors they'd just endured and all the pain they'd just went through...was it all for nothing? He couldn't accept it, but at the same time, he couldn't find the motivation anywhere in his body to move, or even make noise. Then it all faded out into that beautiful white light.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 15 2012, 09:41 PM

As the world around them began to crumble again, Justin recalled Hitmontop into his ball and accepted that this was the end. Of what it was the end, he wasn't entirely sure, but he figured this was for the best. Then, the three of them were stuck somewhat motionless in this empty white space. There was nothing here but some white light, which thankfully at least allowed them to see each other.

Then, a male, low pitched voice spoke very calmly. "This is my nightmare."

Before them, appearing out of virtually nowhere, they saw a ghostly black figure. This was Darkrai, a very rare pokemon known for its effects on people's dreams. It was what forced them into their nightmares. It was the bad guy. It continued. "You do not have control of your own bodies right now. Even before now, in the previous dreams, you were simply being manipulated by your own fears, the way I designed them.

"This is what I fear. Being controlled or manipulated by someone who does not have my interests at heart. Being captured in some pokeball, in other words. Even in such unfamiliar and dangerous situations, your pokemon followed you, all of you, with little question or concern. I saw innocent pokemon tear people asunder, blood dripping from their claws as they continued. All because you told them to do so.

"With one exception. Justin Smart, to say that your Hitmontop outshined you would be a grave misstatement. He is not 'your' Hitmontop, and he has proven this. He is his own pokemon, and you are lucky to be his friend. But you are not his trainer; he is too strong for you, and I don't just mean physical strength.

"I refuse to be a pokemon bound to a trainer. It is for this reason that I spread this nightmare, to protect myself from those who wish to possess my power. But the three of you have proven your strength. You survived all seven rounds of torment, and I can no longer hold you captive. I will release you, as well as your friends, from this dream world twisted by myself under one condition: You must not reveal that I am making a return to Furoh. I like my privacy, and I don't want trainers in over their head seeking me out, forcing me to lay them to rest in endless torment.

"Things that happen here in the Dream World do have the power to come true, and I can grant this power even in this twisted version of it. Those pokemon whose minds and bodies were clouded in shadow will be released. Special abilities and moves used here will also be able to be used in the real world from here on out. Pinsir will retain his altered pigmentation, which was only inhibited by his shadowed form. Most importantly, if any of your pokemon wish for freedom, it will be granted. This is the condition - If one of your pokemon wants freedom, you must release it.

"If there is an understanding, I will release you."

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 16 2012, 03:24 AM

Of course.

Mentally, Tag rolled his eyes. Of course it was Darkrai. The Team Deception people, Helms and company, had probably been after the Legendary Pokemon, hence the dreams they fell under. After the events of Starfall Field, Tag wanted to think that he was used to seeing Legendary Pokemon by now, but he still found himself awed at its presence.

Tag listened slowly to Darkrai's soothing baritone. Under the rules of dream logic, he had absolutely no questions about the fact that this pokemon was speaking english with perfect accuracy. The shadowy pokemon floated before them, as plain as day, sounding bold, but sounding slightly scared. Darkrai was offering them a deal because they'd gotten through his nightmares. They had the potential to beat him, possibly capture him, which meant that they, too, were also a part of Darkrai's nightmare.

He felt a gradual re-gain of his body...well...enough that his face could move, which probably meant that he could talk. He attempted to do so, staring the Nightmare pokemon directly in the eyes.

"I understand."

Hopefully it didn't take long for Justin and Nate to agree; he wanted out. He wasn't in the least bit worried that his pokemon would leave him, and he simply wanted to wake up.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 16 2012, 08:00 PM

"Yeah," Justin nodded. "Okay." Nate simply nodded, but any form of communication was likely enough to portray what they meant to Darkrai, who was in essence the king of this world. The pokemon did not speak again, but instead just disappeared into the white light. Then, the white light began to fade into darkness. The entire world slowly became black.

Justin opened his eyes while simultaneously jerking awake, sitting straight up, gasping for air. He just sat, breathing for a moment, going over what had happened in his head. He took in his surroundings. He was back in Ace's house, right at the doorway where he had fallen into nightmare. There was Ace right next to him, who woke up somewhat less abruptly than him, but still with some sense of fear on his face. Tag was also right there in the doorway, which was wide open.

He looked to his right to see Omar, who fell asleep on the couch, already standing and pulling Nate, who fell right next to the couch, to his feet. Miriam stood from the couch as well and over in the corner, Helms was sitting up on his bed, running his right hand through his hair to pull it out of his face. Omar turned to look at Justin and nodded at him. Justin waited a moment for that to register in his mind and responded with a nod in return.

Everyone was alive, but there was little doubt that they all went through the experience together. "Justin," he heard and looked up to see Ace standing, offering a hand. As Justin took Ace's hand, he noticed two things at once - Ace had a red ring around his neck, what looked like a recovering cut. He also noticed a similar cut in his own left forearm, where he was cut in Helms' dream. It didn't hurt or sting in any way, but it was still there, likely as a reminder of the horrors they had experienced and of the subsequent promise they made.

"Thanks," Justin said. He had some concern with the idea of allowing his pokemon free if they wanted it. He wasn't sure about Pinsir, and Shedinja didn't seem to care about anything. Then there was Octillery, who had never showed any level of affection for his trainer. Justin looked at Nate and, once eye contact was made, there was some level of communication between them. Their nightmares were closely related and a solid discussion about them would likely change their futures. It was important that Tag be let in on this conversation.

"Nate Guzman and Justin Smart," Helms approached the two, shaking Nate's hand first and then Justin's. The three met by the couch. "Omar told me a little about what happened here and mentioned that the two of you are the only ones to make it through everyone's nightmare. As well as that Tag guy. I just wanted to say that I appreciate what you've done for me and for all of us here.

"Tag," Helms approached the man and shook his hand as well. "I don't know what you were doing here, but I'm glad you were here. I didn't get to see much happen, unfortunately, but Omar did speak highly of you."

"Tag," Omar approached him as well. "I wanted to offer you a position in our organization, in Justin and Nate's unit. You showed that you're capable of keeping your head in dangerous situations, and that kind of thing goes really far with us. What we do is, I'll admit, in a legal grey area, but we pay well. Think on it, and feel free to say no. It's important that this be your decision and that you not feel pressured to join. That's not good for anybody. So, if you do say no, we'll part ways, but it's important that you not speak of what happened here, or of our organization at all.

"So, think on it. Talk it over with Smart and Guzman."

With that, Helms nodded at the two, nodded at Justin and Nate, then at Ace and Miriam. Then, he just left the house and began walking. He probably had a destination, and Omar probably knew of it, but Justin and Nate were at least smart enough to not ask.

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 18 2012, 01:52 AM

Quickly lifting himself off of the ground into a standing position, it took a full moment before Tag realized where he was. The discombobulating effect of waking up had taken its toll, and he seemed almost wobbly as he looked about the room.

It looked like the apartment in which the team had fallen asleep. Most importantly: Everyone had returned, and was now awakening in kind.

Unlike Justin or Ace, Tag had no horrific reminder of his time in the dream world: He'd gotten off rather unscathed. Drowning didn't leave many marks save some petechial hemorrhaging, but that had been more likely to come from his violent vomiting several times throughout the dreams.

His face, though, hurt like crap. Justin's dream punch had the same effect of a not-dream punch, which stung worse than it did from when Justin had actually hit him.

Then Helms approached him before he could get the rest of his thoughts in order. It felt incredibly odd, talking to someone whom he'd seen get gunned down, THEN get torched by Tobi's flamethrower in two separate dreams. He'd watched the man die twice, once by his actions (This first by his inactions), and now the man was speaking highly of him.

Then Omar, whom Tag had also watched die via sniper shot, offered him a position in Team Deception. He felt odd on this decision too. He didn't know much about Team Deception except that Justin and Nate did some questionable work for them, and that Omar, Miriam, Ace and Helms were members. "Legal Grey Area" seemed the best euphemism for the Team's shady activities. He understood that they were criminal in nature, and that was enough to solidify his answer.

"I'll think on it."

Tag simply could not accept a position, considering how hypocritical it would've been for him to do so. He'd given Justin and Nate (Justin in particular), such a hard time about it, that he simply couldn't shrug it off and go "Okay". It wasn't that easy. On top of it, Darkrai had made a chilling point: Tag had killed dream people sans hesitation. That part of him he'd sought to bury back in Johto, where he'd killed actual people in a glorified temper tantrum.

Yet, simply saying no meant potentially making an enemy out of Omar right then and there, even if Omar had said it in the most cordial, professional way possible. Omar was not someone he wanted to face on such uneven grounds, considering that Ace, Miriam, Justin and Nate were all working under Omar at that moment. He'd have to give his rejection in the way of silence: Not answering Omar's question would ultimately provide the answer.

Likewise, Omar's instructions as to not talk about the events came with the lingering hint of a threat. The fiercely calm man would not say such a thing without implying the punishment that came of not accepting that part of the agreement. Tag had no choice but to comply there as well: He was on his own.

Also, not to mention, that Tag had learned virtually nothing outright about Team Deception except that they had units, and that they had maybe been hunting Darkrai.

"I won't say a word." Tag nodded. "I should get to the pokemon center. I'll need to hold up my end of the bargain." He wasn't sure if Omar knew what he meant, but Justin and Nate did. He'd have to see which of his pokemon wished to stay with him, and which wished to go. With three pokemon waiting via PC Storage, there would have to be some swapping around. "See ya."

With that, he left Ace's apartment as well.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 18 2012, 02:40 AM

"We'll be in touch," Omar said as Justin and Nate, too, left Ace's house sometime after Tag had left. There was confidence in Omar's voice and a sense of pride that somewhat implied there may be a promotion in their future. Though they pretended to be gracious for his kind words, neither Justin nor Nate felt confident about their continued career as criminals.

As they walked to the pokemon center, entirely to meet up with Tag, they remained silent for the first minute. Discussion was going to be had, of that they knew, but the question was who was going to start it.

Nate did. "You were afraid of yourself," he said, eliciting a sigh from his partner. "Why?" The way he asked was not rhetorical, but he did it in a tone which implied he already knew the answer, like when a teacher asks a question to a student.

"Team Deception," Justin said. "The way I treat Pan. The way I treat pretty much everybody. I hate that the more I grow, the more and more I become the bad guy. I'm afraid of waking up one day and being like Omar, cold and ruthless."

"Omar is cool," Nate shrugged.

"Yes," Justin said. "But I don't wanna have to be that cool. I don't want to have to be that tough. I just want a normal life, you know? I like relying on people and having friends. But you're the only person I can really talk to about everything, because I can't talk to anybody else. I wanna be good. That's what my dream was about."

"Okay," Nate nodded.

"And yours?"

"The opposite," he replied. "I'm afraid of Team Deception itself. I'm so much more afraid of our bosses, of Omar and Helms, than anyone we've ever fought. You remember Dr. Mondo?"

"How could I forget Dr. Mondo?"

"I still have nightmares about that fucking maniac," Nate said. "Justin, I never signed up to do this for my whole life. No one told me there was a lifelong commitment, but here I am afraid to leave. Afraid for my life. You heard what Omar said to Tag. They're worried about word spreading, and we know so much more about Team Deception than Tag does."

"What do you suggest?"

"We talk to Tag," Nate said. "Omar offered him a position in our Unit, and maybe we can use that."

"What do you mean use it?"

"I mean I think we should start to seriously consider bringing down the organization from the inside. It's the only way I'll be able to get out without being hunted down, and it's the only way you'll get to be the hero you apparently wanna be."

It was about then the two got to the Pokemon Center and found Tag. "Tag!" Nate got the man's attention. "We got some stuff to discuss."

Tag looked up to face the two as they entered, nodding to them in greeting. "Go ahead."

Nate looked to Justin to speak. Of the two, Nate was likely the smarter, more strategic, but Justin had developed more of a rapport with Tag, though whether or not it was positive was still up in the air. Either way, they figured he was the better one to talk to him. Justin nodded and spoke. "Nate and I want to bring down Team Deception. We want your help."

A curious look crossed Tag's face, and he slowly crossed his arms in a subconsciously Justin-like manner. His first instinct told him that this was a trick. Yet, after what they'd just endured, he couldn't bring himself to believe that. "How exactly do you propose to do that?"

"We don't know," Justin shrugged. "We just agreed on it, so we don't have any plans yet. After, uh, after what happened today, we both kinda realized that it's tearing us apart, but we can't just leave."

"Don't take his offer, by the way," Nate said. "About joining. Don't do it. Just in case."

"Fair." Tag nodded. He hadn't exactly expected them to have a plan on such short notice. "I didn't intend to take the offer." A grim look crossed his face for a moment; he wasn't sure what he had to gain by taking on Team Deception, of which he knew very little about. On the opposite end, he potentially had a lot to lose. But, Justin and Nate were, in the end, basically his only friends in Furoh. The least he could do now was help them out in their attempt to get out of their lives of crime. "Fine. We're allies. Officially."

Posted by: Kamaitachi Jan 19 2012, 08:53 PM

One task remained.

A large lump formed up in Tag's throat; he wasn't looking forward to asking his pokemon the next question.

Turning from Justin and Nate, he drew out all six of his pokeballs and dropped them onto the floor. An overwhelming radiance briefly lit the room, causing the few clients in the Pokemon Center to look over.

Arranged in a neat semi-circle, Tag's active roster of six pokemon appeared, facing him curiously.

"Suzu, Bachi, Kyoko, Tobi, Orin, and Zuki." He cast a sad stare over them, meeting each of their eyes in turn. The team watched him, and their breaths held quick as he spoke:

"Do you want your freedom?"

A deathly silence filled the pokemon center. Such a move seemed unprecedented, though no one knew the conditions of Darkrai releasing the trainers from the nightmare world. All six of Tag's pokemon, in stunned silence, simply stood there, awkwardly.

Suzu, naturally, was the first to finally act. She buzzed forward, wrapping herself in a hug, with her face in Tag's chest. A look of great relief crossed Tag's face as he returned the hug. Suzu had been his most valuable friend and partner for the longest time. Her birth had been a symbol of his rebirth, and he couldn't have standed to lose her now.

Bachi trundled forward too, spurred on by Suzu's action. Even despite his greater size, he stooped down to nuzzle at Tag's hand, an action he'd done since he was a Nidoran. A second relief crossed Tag's face. His old friends would stay.

Bold Kyoko wasted no time in following. As Suzu removed herself from Tag's grasp, she jumped up into his arms in her stead. The Bellossom smiled happily up at him, nestled in his arms like when she was an Oddish. Tag had adopted her after her abandonment back in Petropolis; she wasn't going to abandon him in turn.

Tobi trotted forward, yawning boredly and settling down at Tag's feet. Tag eyed the little earring that Tobi wore, and had not removed. Neither had wanted it, as it had once been an identification tag on the black market. Tag had risked a lot to save the Vulpix, and Tobi was not backing out now.

Tag looked to the remaining two pokemon before him. Orin and Zuki. Orin had been captured in the wild deep in Mt. Carello, and Zuki had been caught almost on a whim at Starfall Field. These two pokemon were the first pokemon in Furoh that Tag had not rescued, and he was anxious to see their responses.

Orin slowly floated over, placing her sleeved hand on his shoulder. It seemed that she was not a loner by trade, and needed the company of others to flourish. Only in Tag's care had she grown from the timid little Snorunt into a beautiful and powerful Froslass. She also didn't have anywhere to go.

Lastly, Zuki remained in place. Five pokemon before him had approached Tag and confirmed their loyalty. He looked between all five of them, meeting Tobi's pleading face. The Vulpix usually seemed bored with everything, but the two had bonded during Zuki's tenure.

However, with a soft bark, the Poochyena turned and moved towards the door of the pokemon center. Tag had caught him while running around in Starfall Field, and all he had done since then was get hurt. He'd seen Tag command the other pokemon with great aplomb and skill, while Zuki had been beaten repeatedly and repeatedly. His win against Justin's Sudowoodo had been his first real win, and he was tired of battling already.

"Zuki." Tag blinked away the tears welling up in his eyes. After a moment of that, his usual, stoic face returned. "Take care."

The Bite Pokemon nodded to the team and trotted out the door into the streets of Gigarte, not looking back a second time. Tobi, at Tag's feet, let out a sad, strangled noise, but didn't move to go after him.

Reaching down, Tag picked up Zuki's pokeball, and in one motion, popped it open, and snapped it in two. Moving over to the computer, aware that all eyes were on him, he returned the five to their pokeballs and began tapping away.

Within moments, Zuki had been removed from Tag's pokemon registry. Placing pokeballs for Orin and Tobi on the machine, they disappeared in a flash of light, with three balls returning in their place.

Without waiting, and greatly fearing the outcome, Tag summoned his remaining three pokemon, taken from their second home in Johto at the Elm Lab.

Tonbo the Slowpoke, Kana the Spinda and Uchi the Nosepass appeared now in the Pokemon Center, all looking at him in the same way that the first six had.

"Do you want your freedom?"

Uchi immediately slid over to Tag, grabbing on to his leg. The tattooed man seemed a bit confused by this, as he'd just captured her recently. But, the nosepass seemed to have taken a liking to him immediately, and her eyes smiled up at him happily.

Kana stood with her eternally confused look on her face, then tottered forward, hopping up onto Uchi's head and holding out her arms at Tag. Tag scooped her up, also confused, as the two girls had been caught in an attempt to rescue Tag's pokemon. Perhaps they'd sensed that this was a trainer who would spare no expense at saving them? Perhaps this was a trainer they could really get behind. Tag squeezed the Spinda in one arm, kneeling down to hug the Nosepass as well. He resolved to get better acquainted with his two new friends here.

Tonbo slowly moved forward, his ever-blank stare meeting Tag's.

"Poke." he said, simply. Standing in place and staring at his trainer, Tag finally took that to mean that he wasn't leaving. Still a bit rattled at Zuki's departure, Tag reached out and pulled in the Slow Pokemon as well, hugging the three close. He didn't blame Zuki for choosing freedom, but he was surprised that the other three had gone along with it so easily.

Not saying a word to Justin or Nate, Tag simply sat there in the pokemon center, holding his three pokemon, whispering 'thank yous' to them as he did.

Posted by: Yzarc Drowsnam Jan 19 2012, 10:19 PM

Justin and Nate watched the scene along with the rest of the crowd at the pokemon center, holding their breath. Of course, the big surprise of the day was that Zuki had opted to leave. He didn't even give Tag the opportunity to take him back to his home. He just left, as soon as he got the opportunity.

Then, Tag stood, embracing his remaining pokemon, filled with emotion. Justin and Nate looked at each other for a moment and nodded. Tag did it. They did make a promise. They had to do it too.

But it seemed tacky to do it in the same building while Tag was still embracing his pokemon. So, just as Justin was about to begin calling out his pokemon, Nate touched him on the shoulder and just shook his head, then nodded it towards the exit. It took a second, but Justin got the gist.

They left and each called out their pokemon. Hitmontop, Ninjask, Sudowoodo, Pinsir, Octillery and Shedinja, in that order, were called in front of him. He looked at them, sadness on his face. He couldn't get the image of Zuki walking out on Tag, and Tag's subsequent face. Every single one of these pokemon had served him in the dream world, and they were all mistreated by him during the final sequence. He gulped and began.

"I'm sorry," he said. "For what I put you guys through. That fight against Tag, when I pushed you further than I should have. It was wrong of me. And I'm sorry. I made a pr-" He was going to tell them about his promise to Darkrai, that he had to give them the option to leave, but after some thought, it felt like a cop-out. "I don't have a good excuse for that. It was the dream world, it made me mad. Something in me changed, but I don't know well enough what it was to make an excuse out of it. So, I'm offering all of you a choice. All of you suffered because of me, and so here it is. You may leave. If you do this, I will take you back to your home where I caught you, and release you.

"I'm not saying this because I want any of you to leave. Pinsir, I-" He looked at his Pinsir, still that bright purple color from the dream world. "I'll admit that I hated you for some time. But I now realize that it wasn't you I hated. You're different." It was true. Not only the color of Pinsir stayed, but his entire demeanor. He was calm, looking at Justin with less anger and more concern. His shadow form had been revoked. "Anyway, I want you to stay. I want all of you to stay. But if you want to leave, I'm giving you an out. Feel free to think on it."

He stood in front of his pokemon. Hitmontop, perhaps the most mistreated of his pokemon in the recent battle, was the first to step forward. It was a bit too serious of a moment for him to be spinning happily on his head, so he walked awkwardly towards Justin. He wasn't too great on his feet, but Justin appreciated the added effort. Almost immediately after, Ninjask and Pinsir stood forward. They didn't waste time. Sudowoodo was next, waddling lazily over.

Next, Shedinja and Octillery looked at each other. Justin really wanted Octillery to stay with him, as he was one of his strongest pokemon, but he wouldn't blame him for leaving. The eight legged pokemon looked at each of Justin's pokemon, and then glanced at Justin himself. He did a sort of shrug and pulled himself forward to join the team, which left Shedinja, who floated for a moment. It looked over at Nate, oddly enough.

Nate's pokemon had all joined his side. Ninja, Da Bomb and Pinch all joined him immediately. Whip, whose Espeon evolution had remained and Ursaring (who had evolved as well) joined him as well soon after. Shedinja saw this and decided to join Justin as well. Why this was the case, Justin wasn't clear, but he wasn't going to complain. He just smiled and got down on both knees to be closer to his shorter pokemon. "Thank you," he said. "For staying with me. I won't let you down."

He called them back into their pokeballs and looked to Nate, who had done the same. "Congratulations," Justin said.

"Thanks," Nate replied. "You too. What happened with Shedinja?"

"No idea," Justin shrugged. "It seemed to care about you, though."

"Well," Nate shrugged. "I'm a lovable idiot."

"Something like that," Justin smiled. "We should get back inside."

"Tag's probably going through a rough time," Nate said.

"Yeah," Justin nodded. "Hey, real quick."

"What's up?"

"I meant what I said. After the fight?"

"Hm?"

"You're my best friend, Nate," Justin said. "I didn't like you when we first met, but I'm really glad it worked out the way it did. I hope that whatever happens, we can still hang out and stuff."

"Yeah, but," Nate said. "What about the other thing?"

"What other thing?"

"You said something else," Nate said. "Something pretty specific."

"I'm not-"

Nate raised an eyebrow and let loose a slight smile.

"Okay," Justin said. "Fuck you."

"Nope," Nate shook his head. "I believe the exact words you used were 'I love you guys' about me and Hitmontop."

"At least I didn't make it all gay,"

"You made it pretty gay," Nate shrugged. "But who am I to judge? You have a girlfriend, after all. Don't you?"

"Maybe," Justin shrugged, opening the door to the Pokemon center. "I'm gonna take a nap before we do whatever it is we do next." He could only hope that his sleep was entirely dreamless.