[X] My Assistant

[stbyleth]

Underwater Discoveries
OOC Thread
Benjamin Venefsukja, Beat Braunstein, Khezu Moga, Fredda Alcedonia, & Lisey Hunter

The air was absolutely dark and damp. One could not see the hand in front of their face had it been placed ten feet away from said face. Of course, one could detach their hand and hold it that far away. The air was so dreadfully damp that it was almost impossible to be able to breathe without gaining some percent of water weight and/or choking on the air.

And that’s exactly what the Icelandic man did. Although he didn’t show it – except for the little bead of sweat trailing down his spine, but that wasn’t visible to anyone – the Venefsukja stood in the small office of the rather intimidating man. He had been called in a few moments earlier by a higher up, and this man wasn’t even higher up than the other. He wasn’t the highest, but still…

The man sat in his chair, shuffling around papers on his wooden and rickety desk. The papers were all pale and words were printed extremely neatly on them, as if someone had taken forever to print them up. The lowly Grunt was sure that it had been forced, but he pushed that out of his mind and glanced around the room.

Lacquered wood framed photos of presumably the family of the commander, though he wasn’t present in any of them. Ben justified that as he was either too busy or that he was the one taking the photos. He shifted in his spot, arms folded calmly behind him. He was rather good at hiding his anxiety, but if he had to stand any longer like this, his unruffled demeanor would break and he would be a mess. He looked above the commander’s head, out the window. It was dark out, but then again, it was dark inside, because apparently no one believed in lights.

“Benjamin!”

He snapped back to reality, blinking a few times, confusion completely taken over his face. In a second or two, he nodded and the confusion washed away, replaced by determination. “Yes, sir?” he asked. Afrit, the always curious Mime Jr., was not out of his pokéball as he usually was, so there was no pointless mimicking of the skinny Ben. That was a good thing – Ben had forced him inside so that he wouldn’t get distracted by the Pokémon partner whilst he was talking to the higher up.

Commander Gregory sighed. “Now I know why you’re failing your missions. You space out too much.”

Ben, appalled on the inside, stayed quiet, and the commander continued on without waiting for any retaliation to his statement.

“You are failing your missions,” he repeated. This time, however, he did pause.

“I know, sir.”

“The High Commander isn’t very pleased.”

Ben shifted uncomfortably. “… I know, sir,” he said again.

Gregory shook his head. “I’m going to send you on a mission with two people you’ve met and two new recruits. Braunstein and Moga were with you your last mission, at the ball. That was a group failure. You’re not going to fail this one, Venefsukja. I won’t allow it, or we will both be in deep trouble. As most would know, I am not a big fan of trouble.

“There are also two new recruits, as I mentioned before. She seems like she could use a bit of guidance… and maybe they’ll help you not fail…” grumbled Gregory under his breath. His brown eyes were deep set in his face, and he looked far too old for his actual age – which was undisclosed, but Ben gave him the benefit of the doubt. “Their names are Amanda Reynol and Fredda Alcedonia. They’re all gathered in the room a little ways away.” With that, he stood up, actually being shorter than Ben realized he was. He was still taller than the Grunt was, though, as per usual.

Commander Gregory moved out of the room, expecting the Venefsukja to follow him, which he did. He stayed a few feet behind, a comfortable distance but not enough to make him seem creepy. They reached the room in a matter of minutes.

This room was a pleasant contrast to the office they had just been in: The walls were stark white and a fluorescent light shown down. The others, as the older has said, were indeed already within the room, aptly named ‘Meeting Room 4’. There was a table, but no one sat at it. There was also a pitcher of water and a few plastic glasses.

“As you know, Braunstein and Moga are right there.” Gregory gestured at the two males. “This here is Amanda,” he gestured, “and the other is Fredda.” He glanced at his watch. “Ah, another meeting already? Here are the papers,” he handed a manila envelope to Ben quite hastily, which resulted in the other almost dropping them, “with all the information. Read it, know it, memorize it, don’t fail.” And with that, the grey-haired man hurried out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Benjamin took a moment to recompose himself, fixing the manila folder and holding it tighter. He pulled some ginger hair out of his ice eyes, and stared at the others.

“… Hello again,” he said to Khezu and Beat. He glanced at Amanda. “… Nice to meet you,” he said. The girl looked familiar…

But he couldn’t quite place his finger on it.

His eyes traveled to the other girl. She was rather large, and he blinked, trying to figure out how someone could so large. This made him think of his own weight, and he cursed himself for having a piece of bread that morning; he wouldn’t slip again. “Nice… to meet you as well.”

This post has been edited by clock lock works: Dec 5 2010, 05:10 PM

[Lup]

Today was not Lisey's day. Or month, for that matter, and it probably wasn't going to turn out to be the greatest year of her life the way things were going.

In the course of twenty-four hours, the Magma grunt had been pushed and shoved back and forth between commanders that had no idea what to do with her. She wasn't someone they wanted around with such a reputation of destruction. Normally they wouldn't have treated her like this, but normally recruits didn't set warehouses on fire on their very first guard duty.

It eventually occurred to one of the commanders that she could be sent out on some sort of spy Aqua duty and "accidentally" destroy the enemy's equipment instead. This seemed to be a brilliant idea to all those around them, and an Aqua identity card was forged faster than you can say "sabotage." A bit of money was loaned for a disguise, and soon enough, Lisey could pass off as an Aqua recruit.

Lisey was not too thrilled by this. While she liked being able to go on missions again after her probation following the fire, she wasn't fond of Aquas, and being surrounded by them all the time was horrifically frustrating to her. Several times, she nearly blew her cover, but each time she narrowly managed to escape defeat and possibly capture. Her only hope was that her efforts would finally lead up to meeting the boy she blamed for her failure. While he wasn't entirely at fault, Lisey was like many people in that she'd rather blame another for something she'd done wrong. Her major problem was that she hadn't been able to find him since the fateful guard duty. His appearance was ingrained into her brain, but there was no name to go with it, making any searches difficult if not impossible.

Finally, after what seemed like months of training but was really only a few days, Melissa Hunter (or Amanda Reynol as she was now called) was finally ready for her "first" mission. She hadn't heard a word about what it entailed, leaving it all to her extremely vivid imagination. She had been sitting on her freshly made bed in the recruit bedrooms when her mission fantasy about having to jet-ski down a river while being chased by Sharpedo which were killed by miraculous falling boulders was interrupted by a call to the room in which she would meet her "teammates."

A quick trip down to "Meeting Room 4" revealed that while one of the other Aquas she'd met on her first mission was present, the redhead was not. This, of course, frustrated Lisey enough to make her shoot a glare at the Aqua with dreadlocks, the one she knew, as though it were his fault the other wasn't there. There was a table with a pitcher of water and some glasses, as well as seats at said table, though no one had touched the glasses or the chairs so she assumed they were off-limits.

Lisey adjusted her hat slightly as she shifted uncomfortably inside the room, though she'd only been there a few minutes. Being surrounded by this number of Aquas was making her nervous, and made her question how good her disguise really was. She stared at her boots, rubbing the toes into the carpet as she swung her arms slightly. Her boredom was obvious, and by the time the commander entered to debrief the crew, she was about to start poking the only other female in the room to see how quickly she'd get annoyed. Lisey was unaware of her omnipresent calm, though, so it was more of a benefit to Lisey when the commander came in, as it stopped her from getting frustrated with the large woman's lack of annoyance at the action that never took place.

The undercover Magma looked up at the Commander as he started to speak, then froze. Standing by him was the very same Aqua grunt she'd faced off against in the warehouse. As much as she wanted to run across the room and punch him in the face, Lisey retained her composure and tried her hardest to look indifferent. This came out as a half-grimace in terms of expression, but it would have to do.

“As you know, Braunstein and Moga are right there," the Commander said as he gestured toward the two males that had been present before the latest additions, though the names meant nothing to Lisey. “This here is Amanda,” with a gesture toward her, and the Commander finished with yet another gesture toward the rotund lady as he said, “and the other is Fredda.” Lisey thought it important to remember this name, since it was the only one she could associate with a face due to the Commander's vague gesture toward the boys. The commander glanced at his watch, as he probably had better things to be doing. “Ah, another meeting already? Here are the papers,” he said in a rushed tone as he pushed a manilla envelope toward the redhead, who nearly dropped them, “with all the information. Read it, know it, memorize it, don’t fail.” The commander finally left the room, shutting the door behind him as quickly as he seemed to be able to.

The object of Lisey's current fixation pushed some of his hair out of his eyes. He greeted the males first, then turned to her.

"… Nice to meet you."

Lisey tried her hardest to temper her seething rage and put on a smile, but the apparent leader of the group had already moved on to Fredda before she could return his greeting. This, of course, made Lisey even more angry, but for fear of blowing her cover she stayed silent, playing with the silver Wailord attached to a chain around her neck.

The boy would pay for her failure. Lisey would make sure of that.

[Rasu]

Khezu was leaning against the wall with Double S carefully going from one shoulder to another through his back in a way that gave enough space to the monkey to do his playful acts. Clipped onto his belt was a Pokeball containing his Rhyhorn along with a Luxury Ball (that was retained from the original owner) with his newly acquired and rather energetic Houndour.

Carefully and tightly warping a small segment of bandages around both of his palms, Khezu was trying to relieve the tension from the meeting that he just had with an higher-up who seemed that the only reason he called him in the first place was just to curse his incompetence on the field and slap another mission in his face. Khezu didn't like higher-ups and their meetings nor rooms filled with people he didn't know and girls. Oh yes, girls. The one thing that would beat his fear for Grass-types was being in the same room as a female and, in that precise moment, there were two of them right there. Sure, Beat was there too and one of them looked like a Snorlax along with the other that seemed like she wanted to be there as much as Khezu wanted but that didn't change the fact that they're girls in one way or another.

Just as he deemed himself screwed another higher-up different from the one that gave the "You suck" speech to Khezu came out through the door, followed by Ben who looked as frail as ever.

“As you know, Braunstein and Moga are right there.” he spoke while Khezu raised an eyebrow at him. Moga? What's this? The military? He tried to retain himself from making a smart-ass comment while the man was still in the room who, thankfully, left a few minutes later after handing the mission files to Ben, apparently late for yet another meeting with another poor bastard, Khezu presumed.

"Goddamned higher-ups." Khezu spoke out, finally being able to be his normal self with that guy out of the room, however, gaining a "I heard that, Moga!" from outside. Turns out the man wasn't as far in the hallway as Khezu thought. Wooops.

He gave a quick greeting to Ben as he said hi and watched as the second girl seemed to get even more pissed after he greeted her.

"So, what's the objective this time? Go and steal Ponytas from Magma reserved for a party or are we done with the ball bullcrap?"

[Vena Sera]

Meeting Room 4, Beat decided, was his least favourite room in the whole Aqua compound.

Sure, the other rooms were a hell of a lot more run-down - and, in some cases, covered in a film of what was most likely mold - but at least they had a sane amount of lighting. In this room, everything was white - the walls, the ceiling, the floor; even Beat's dark red shirt seemed to have faded to an ugly sort of pink. And it smelled like cleaning chemicals, which had made Verdani gag the second the two had been ushered in by their commander after his whole 'you are a failure to this organisation and I would kick you out but we're desperate' rant. She'd gone straight inside her ball (which Beat was making a habit of carrying around these days) after a nasty look from the commander that said, very clearly, that if any Poochyena-vomit got on his pristine white tiles his daughter would have a new fur coat for Christmas.

Yes, Terrence 'Beat' Braunstein hated Meeting Room 4 with a passion.

The tall, tanned man leaned back in his chair, placing a foot on the table to keep the seat balanced. The beats in his dreadlocks clacked together as he put his hands behind his head, staring glumly at the blindingly white wall ahead of him. Ben would like this, he thought, pushing his chair backwards a bit. Nice and clean and sterilized. Can't stand it. He didn't know why they'd picked for another mission if he was such a screw-up, but here he was. He hadn't even had time to go home and see his family - the limo had whisked him and Ben away from the ball before dropping them off at the warehouse front for one of the many Aqua offices. Ben had been led down some other hallway by his boss, still picking at that ridiculous dress he'd been wearing. Thankfully, Beat had been given his change of clothes back, although he could only hope Ben'd be as lucky.

Soon enough, other grunts began to filter in - the guy with the Aipom for the ball came in, his commander looking particularly sour. Beat gave him a friendly wave as two girls walked in - one who was somewhat familiar - had she been at the failed mission, too? - and one who was rather...large. At least she looked a hell of a lot calmer than the others. Beat pushed off the table and let the chair legs hit the ground with a loud clank, dearly hoping it'd leave a nice mark on the floor. It wouldn't hurt to kill some of the tension, either.

Beat was just about ready to get up and leave when the door opened, all heads turning towards it. The stern, grey-haired man scrutinized the group before moving aside, revealing the scrawny boy behind him. Beat felt a smile tug at his face as Ben entered the room, making a mental note to shove some food at his friend as soon as they were out of this Arceus-forsaken building. “As you know, Braunstein and Moga are right there. This here is Amanda, and the other is Fredda." Wow, he was on last-name basis with Ol' Greg. Awesome. And at least he knew the girls' names. “...with all the information. Read it, know it, memorize it, don’t fail.”

"Goddamned higher-ups." Khezu said, as soon as the door was shut. From the response in the hallway, Gregory either walked like a Turtwig or wasn't in as big a rush as he'd said. Still, it diffused some of the tension and Beat laughed, leaning over to wave at Ben and pat the seat between him and Amanda.

"So, what's the objective this time? Go and steal Ponytas from Magma reserved for a party or are we done with the ball bullcrap?"

"Dunno. I know I'd pay to see Ben in a dress again. How many guys hit on you? Three, four?" He knew Ben was sour about that whole incident, but Beat couldn't help but take a chance to take the mickey out of him, especially since the fiasco was finally over. "But to be completely serious, I hope it's something small. I think we could all use a break...uh, us three, at least."

[Darkrow]

Sedo had gathered a few apples in the morning while Fredda was sleeping that day. She had woken up earlier than she normally did due to the Meditite accidently dropping them on her head while yelping rather loudly. She barely had time to tease her first pokémon, like she usually did, that an Aqua Executive knocked at her door. Still in her sleeping gear and a bit drowsy, she listened to the very brief mission details before getting dressed and following the Executive's orders, which were to go to the Meeting Room 4.

Munching on a carrot on the way there, she made Sedo go back inside his pokéball, not needing him for a while. It seemed like she was the first one to arrive, or maybe the others she was teamed up with were away at the moment. Meeting Room 4 was completely quiet, except for the very faint sound of Fredda's slow breathing. Noticing that her hair wasn't tied into a bun as usual, she reached for the chopsticks she always had with her, whether it was in her pants' pockets or in her hair, and quickly tied her black hair into a bun, using said chopsticks to hold it in place. While she was doing that, her teammates entered the room, within close intervals of around thirty seconds. This was all very organised, or so it seemed.

Nodding as a greeting when each member entered the room, she soon started examining it. It was white. Everything was white inside. That was actually the reason why she was wide awake now; the white hues of the room had blinded her and thus woken her up completely, which wasn't a bad thing by itself. She looked at her teammates after inspecting the meeting room as another scrawny one came in. The one the Commander known as Gregory refered to as 'Braunstein' seemed fairly likeable while the one he refered to as 'Moga' seemed a bit bitter, judging by his facial expression. The only other woman, who was next to her and called Amanda, apparently, seemed rather ill-tempered judging by her impatient posture. Maybe a tough woman with a soft heart?

The scrawny one though... he seemed a bit strange. Stuck-up? Maybe. His voice was dull, lacking any emotion. It felt strange to be near him, for some reason. He was so thin though, almost like he was meant to be her polar opposite. She was too heavy, he was too light. All in all though, her teammates all seemed potentially likeable, even though some seemed a bit disturbed by her size, including the cold man who had just entered Meeting Room 4. She was sure that his ribs were visible at all times. Ah well, it was none of her business.

"Pleased to meet you too," she said, her voice as serene as always, as she bowed slightly when he greeted her. It seemed like he already knew both Braunstein and Moga. All the better. With a small smile, she tilted her head slightly as she looked at him. "So, what will this mission consist of...?" She paused after speaking, as if asking him what his name was. After all, he was the only one who still had no name attached to his face right now in her mind.

This mission would be interesting, judging by how different every member seemed to be.

[stbyleth]

The Icelandic man smiled at all of them, unaware of ‘Amanda’s’ present anger. Either that, or he choose to ignore it. It was probably a combination of both, but he swore in his mind – to whatever higher being there was that was causing him this much grief – that if she made him fail this mission, she would pay. And not with money.

He nodded at the two females, then sneered at Beat. “You will never ever find me in a dress again. If you pay someone to put me in one of those wretched things,” he hissed at the dreadlocked man, “I will find you and I will rip all that pretty little hair off your head.” He was telling semi-truth; he did think Beat’s hair was pretty, and thus he wouldn’t yank it off. He just was not having a good day today.

With that, he turned to the two ladies, face returning back to his characteristic unchanging, expressionless look. His eyes glinted a bit as the large woman bowed. He ignored the other one for now. “My name is Benjamin Venefsukja. That’s ven-neh-soo-kyah,” he enunciated clearly for them. After all, he did hate it when his name was pronounced incorrectly, even when the person had never seen the Icelandic spelling of it. “I am not high up, but I am not the lowest of the low.” He realised he would feel awkward were he to be the only one sitting, so he stayed sitting, placing the envelope neatly on the plastic table. He undid the metal, moldable hinges and slid out the papers. He quickly scanned over the papers – had the commander realised he put all of their files in here as well? – and set them on the table. He placed the personnel files back within the envelope.

“‘ The select Aqua operatives,’ he began reading aloud, “‘are to travel beneath the waters and around the north of Noverus using newly manufactured, Aqua-commissioned submarines and infiltrate Ember’s, a bar owned and operated by Team Magma. There, they are to go undercover’ –” at this, he paused, picked up the envelope, and spilled out the IDs. They were hand laminated, contained their pictures, and even false names and realistic ages. They looked like the real deal. “‘ – being provided false IDs and allegiance IDs – and “hang out”. They are to pick up any and all information regarding Magma and report it back to the HQ,’” he concluded.

“Well,” breathed out Ben, puffing his cheeks, “seems simple enough. These IDs are legit enough, and Magma is so stupid that they won’t notice even if there are errors. So I think we’re good. Another sneak-and-listen kind of deal, like that God awful ball…” He shivered.

He dispersed the IDs amongst them, eyes unchanging, and saved Amanda’s for last. It was at this point in time that he decided to address her “anger problems”.

“If you cost me this mission, I will drag you back to my home and bury you in the snow. Got it, recruit?” he whispered furiously at her, scowling.

As he was tidily putting the papers back into the folder, he noticed something clanging around. He pulled them out. Keys, blue rubber surrounding the grippers of them, mark of Aqua clearly printed.

There were only three.

It took him a moment to acknowledge what they were, and he quickly said, “Submarines. They have numbers on them. They only fit two, I learned.” A pause once more. “I shall go with Beat. Khezu, you may go with Amanda.” He looked toward Fredda and seemed genuinely apologetic. “I’m sorry, miss, but you’ll have to go by yourself.”

He may be a cold, arrogant, manipulative bastard, but his Baba did teach him his manners.

This post has been edited by clock lock works: Dec 6 2010, 11:36 PM

[Lup]

“You will never ever find me in a dress again. If you pay someone to put me in one of those wretched things, I will find you and I will rip all that pretty little hair off your head.”

Lisey couldn't help but giggle internally at the thought. Her self-proclaimed archnemesis in a dress. Now that would be a sight to see.

However, as soon as he looked past her, she was angry again. “My name is Benjamin Venefsukja. That’s ven-neh-soo-kyah." Lisey frowned. He was treating them like they were idiots or something. But at least there was a name to put to that face burned into her memory now. Lisey thought some more about revenge for a while, choosing not to focus Ben's actions involving the envelope, but she was brought back to the here and now by his voice.

“‘The select Aqua operatives are to travel beneath the waters and around the north of Noverus using newly manufactured, Aqua-commissioned submarines and infiltrate Ember’s, a bar owned and operated by Team Magma.'" Lisey smirked. That would be interesting, assuming they even got that far, especially since her mother frequented the bar.

"'There, they are to go undercover’ –” and with this statement, ID cards clattered onto the table. Even from Lisey's experienced perspective, they looked nearly identical to real Magma IDs. “‘ – being provided false IDs and allegiance IDs – and “hang out”. They are to pick up any and all information regarding Magma and report it back to the HQ,’” he finished.

"Hang out," Lisey said under her breath. "What are we going to do at Ember's other than drink? I'm not getting drunk." In the meantime, Ben had apparently still been talking, but the redhead hadn't been paying particular attention to Lisey, and so probably hadn't noticed her aside.

However, she did pick up a particular part of his statement. "These IDs are legit enough, and Magma is so stupid that they won’t notice even if there are errors. So I think we’re good." Lisey was quite close to swearing at him, but instead gritted her teeth and took the insult.

She wasn't prepared for what happened next, though. Ben dispersed the IDs, giving Lisey her ID last. “If you cost me this mission, I will drag you back to my home and bury you in the snow. Got it, recruit?” Ben hissed, and Lisey gave a brief nod accompanied with a disdainful glare. This was not going to be a fun mission at all, unless...

She could only hope she got into a submarine with him. If there, she could maybe extract some information from him about the Aquas, annoy him in the meantime, and maybe punch him once or twice just for kicks. Yes, that would be very satisfying.

Unfortunately this was not the way things turned out. “Submarines. They have numbers on them. They only fit two, I learned.” He paused. “I shall go with Beat. Khezu, you may go with Amanda.”

Khezu. Whoever Khezu was, he wasn't Ben. A grunt came from Lisey's throat, but she decided to reserve her anger until she actually entered the submarine.

"So." Lisey spoke for the first time aloud to everyone since entering the room. "If we're all set and we know our partners, can we get this show on the road already? I'm not too fond of this room. Really, I'm not. At least in the water I'll have some... freaking... Feebas to look at or something." Lisey's anger was mounting, and if they weren't going to get moving quickly, she'd take it out on someone who didn't deserve it.

That undeserving person just happened to be Khezu Moga.

[Rasu]

Khezu finally moved from his little corner closer to the table. "Hey, you remember my outfit for the ball? And you remember that bow I was wearing. Yeah, there was a camera inside. Filming. And I'm pretty sure I pointed it towards you once or twice." he told Ben with a smirk on his face waiting for any kind of response from him. "Okay, mission details, what are th- Oh." by the time Khezu finished his speech Ben had already set the papers on the table and began reading out loud.

"'The select Aqua operatives, are to travel beneath the waters and around the north of Noverus using newly manufactured, Aqua-commissioned submarines'". Great. Prototype submarines that were probably not tested beforehand were being handed to a group that had almost no experience with underwater machines. Just great. "'and infiltrate Ember’s, a bar owned and operated by Team Magma.'" Wait a second. Bar? There were being sent into a mission to drink? That was pretty awesome. "'There, they are to go undercover - being provided false IDs and allegiance IDs – and “hang out”. They are to pick up any and all information regarding Magma and report it back to the HQ,’"

"Well, so much for getting drunk." he sighed while his Aipom jumped down to the table, picking up both IDs with his tail and returning to Khezu's shoulder, holding the IDs close enough for the teenager to read them.

"Teodor Daniel, seventeen, Magma grunt. I like it, except the Magma part." he took the IDs from the Aipom and thanked him before noticing the three keys on the redhead guy "I call shotgun!" he quickly shouted, basically tearing one of the keys from Ben's hand and headed towards the door. Or wall. Everything was so white in the room that the door could barely be recognized anymore.

"Khezu, you may go with Amanda.”

"Wait, what? Who the hell is Amanda?" he questioned before realizing that the named had been mentioned earlier and finally got a face to go with the name.

"...You have got to be freakin' kidding me."

[Vena Sera]

“You will never ever find me in a dress again. If you pay someone to put me in one of those wretched things, I will find you and I will rip all that pretty little hair off your head.”

"Hey, you remember my outfit for the ball? And you remember that bow I was wearing. Yeah, there was a camera inside. Filming. And I'm pretty sure I pointed it towards you once or twice."

The back-and-forth banter pulled an ever larger smile from the tall man and he sat at the edge of his seat, eager for details. This time, there wouldn't be any screw-ups - Ben would surely keep the newbies in line with an iron fist of terror if need be. He just hoped the mission would be to infiltrate a restaurant or something.

"'The select Aqua operatives are to travel beneath the waters and around the north of Noverus using newly manufactured, Aqua-commissioned submarines and infiltrate Ember’s, a bar-"

"Nice," Beat said. "Should have something to eat." Or drink, in Khezu's case.

"-owned and operated by Team Magma. There, they are to go undercover - being provided false IDs and allegiance IDs – and "hang out". They are to pick up any and all information regarding Magma and report it back to the HQ.'"

Beat's smile didn't waver as Ben passed out their IDs. Viggo Minders, 18, Magma Grunt. Sure, the name wasn't the best and the picture was from before Beat got his dreads, but it was good enough for a lowly grunt like him. He stood and shoved the ID in his pants pocket, his hand grazing the three Pokeballs inside. Verdani would go stir-crazy in such tight quarters; she had issues with the bathtub back home. Stahl would try to eat the sub, and the last thing Beat needed was a good drowning. His hand lingered on the last Pokeball - he hadn't had his newly-caught Chinchou out since the ball, and being in the water might help the poor guy recover from his enforced servitude. Pulling the blue-topped ball out of his pocket, he tossed it in the air a few times while waiting for any more details on the mission.

Ben was busy hissing angrily at Amanda - a talent he'd honed quite well - so Beat leaned over to the second recruit.

"Fredda, right? I'm Beat." He held out his free hand, feeling some of the beads in his hair clatter against the piercings in his ear. He winced - it was not a pleasant sound. "Uh, sorry about that. My sister decided my hair needed decoration, and she threatened to sic her Magikarp on me if I took 'em out. Angering Mr Fish is not something I wanna do."

"...only fit two, I learned." Ben did not sound very enthusiastic. A quick headcount told Beat why - there were five people for three subs. Either one was going to get very crowded or someone was swimming solo. "I shall go with Beat. Khezu, you may go with Amanda. I’m sorry, miss, but you’ll have to go by yourself."

"Bummer," Beat muttered. "You'll miss out on Ben's sparkling personality. Unless the subs have radio, in which case we're all doomed." He offered Fredda an apologetic smile and walked around the table, stopping at Ben's side. Amanda seemed unusually tense, and Khezu didn't look too happy with his new sub buddy. Maybe Fredda wasn't missing out, after all - he was starting to get a feeling that the team wasn't going to live up to his boss's expectations.

"Uh. So. Do they have any McDonphan's underwater?"

[Darkrow]

Fredda couldn't help but smile, amused at Braunstein and the still nameless man as they bickered at each other, almost like two brothers would. Something about dresses, apparently. She restrained herself from laughing at the image of the skinny man in a dress. Those two were obviously friends, or had at least worked together in the past. Still smiling serenely, she nodded at Benjamin when he told her his name. Fairly easy to remember, nothing really fancy. His last name, however, was a bit... exotic, to say the least. Ven-neh-soo-kyah; she had no idea how that name would be written. Not that it mattered anyway.

She stayed silent as he read the mission briefing. “'The select Aqua operatives are to travel beneath the waters and around the north of Noverus using newly manufactured, Aqua-commissioned submarines and infiltrate Ember’s, a bar owned and operated by Team Magma. There, they are to go undercover, being provided false IDs and allegiance IDs – and “hang out”. They are to pick up any and all information regarding Magma and report it back to the HQ,’” the scrawny man said to her and the three other, giving them the aforementionned false IDs as he mentionned them. Fredda's had a fairly recent picture, though her hair was loose on it. The mission sounded fairly straightforward.

"Hmm, Annie Pletcher. It has a nice ring to it," she said mainly to herself. Braunstein seemed to have decided that it was time to introduce himself to her, seeing as how he extended his free hand and said his name, Beat. She nodded and shook his hand as the beads in his hair clattered against his earring, causing him to apologise for the sound and making her flinch slightly. "Yes, that's right. And do not worry about it, you didn't mean to do that," she said before chuckling slightly at his short explanation. Making a Magikarp attack someone? That was an amusing thought.

The bulky woman allowed her focus to switch to the other woman of the group, Amanda. Everything about her, facial expression and posture, especially, almost literally screamed anger and frustration. Khezu seemed rather excited at the idea of infiltrating a bar. That is, until he was told that he would be sharing a submarine with the apparently moody Amanda. His face showed a mix of surprise and, strangely, fear. Then again, it wasn't that strange; moody people were feared sometimes. After all, anger made people do horrible things sometimes, just like jealously.

Focusing on Benjamin again as he told them the 'teams' for the submarine ride, she smiled and nodded when he said that she'd have to go alone, not looking particularly comfortable in telling her that. Both him and Beat seemed sorry for her. Maybe they felt a bit awkward due to her size? Pretty much everyone was and some people her size were quite sensitive to their weight, something she actually was when she was younger and naive.

"Ah, don't worry about that, I don't mind at all. After all, if they're that small, then I doubt someone else could fit with me anyways," she said with a big smile, showing that she was telling the truth. After thinking about it a bit, it looked like Beat was very likeable. She liked his positive, light-hearted attitude. It was a refreshing change from Benjamin's strange attitude (she still hadn't truly figured out his basic personality) and Amanda's apparent pessimism. She didn't know much about Khezu as of now, but that would probably change during the mission.

"Sorry Beat, I don't think they do have those underwater unless you bring some with you, of course. Looks like you'll have to wait," she said light-heartedly, almost playfully. After shooting a glance at Amanda, she told herself that she'd try and calm her down or something; maybe she was only anxious, being a new recruit and all, and that made her touchy? She noticed her feet were starting to hurt, so she decided to put on her sandals (she was barefoot at the moment), which were hungg on her waist pack whenever she wasn't wearing them.

Looking at Ben and Beat, she shoved her hands into her grey trousers' pockets. "So, shall we get started if everyone's ready?" Fredda asked the scrawny redhead, fiddling with her fake ID card, which she was holding with her right hand, as she spoke. With her other hand, she was lightly tapping her large thigh at regular intervals, which was a small harmless tic she had developped whenever she was waiting.

Furthermore, the whiteness of the room was starting to make her eyes hurt. She wasn't used to be exposed such brightness; she was used to being outside, where the blue water, the brown trees and the green grass all melted together created a beautiful scenery that was a feast for her eyes. Hopefully, they'd go outside soon. Unless the submarines were actually inside the building, which wouldn't be that surprising.

This post has been edited by Darkrow: Dec 16 2010, 09:40 PM

[stbyleth]

Ben stared at Khezu; he was silent for a moment before he grumbled furiously beneath his breath, “Ekki gefa honum nokkra athygli… Hann er bara heimskur og hér…!” He took a deep breath, shut his eyes, regained his composure. He didn’t like being tortured like this; and because he was never tortured as a child because he was so sheltered, it got on his nerves like there was no tomorrow.

When he reopened his eyes, Khezu had spoken again. “…You have got to be freakin’ kidding me,” he groaned.

It was the redhead’s turn to smirk at him. “Is something wrong? Well, nothing can be wrong, simple as that. You have to go with Amand – Oi, Beat, shut up!” he spat at the dreadlocked male, shoving the papers angrily and violently onto the table in front of him. He got a paper cut, but he didn’t notice, and probably he wouldn’t notice for a long time. “And to my knowledge, there are no radios, so you don’t have to worry miss!” He was flustered now as he groaned more in his native tongue and grabbed his own ID. He glanced down at it. Marc-André Brière. That didn’t sound too much like him; too French. He didn’t know French. He could just say that he was born in Noverus… Didn’t know the language. Yes, that would work! Great plan again, Ben!

As he was in the middle of mind-congratulating himself, allowing himself a smile – that was sort of but not really a real smile, as his lips curled in a funny way and it turned out more like a smirk and/or grimace – Beat had said something about McDonphan’s. He hated that place. The smile/smirk/grimace dropped immediately from his face and a shiver ran up his spine. So much disgusting food, it made him queasy. He refused to set foot in it.

Shoving the thought out of his mind, he picked up the folder and tucked it within his coat, zipping it up; he’d put it in a safe place in the submarine when he was there. “Alright so if none of you – ” He stopped himself before he could say something mean and uncalled for, though he wanted to because all he was doing was getting picked on by them. “… people have any more comments, we should go,” and with that, he turned and led the group down the hallway.

He got lost momentarily, having never been down to the submarine area before. Ben, stubborn as always, refused to ask for help, and he made it seem like he actually knew where he was going – not really, but he thought so. He would ignore any remarks about him getting lost, and sighed heavily once he stepped foot into the room.

The room was rather large, and it smelled of chlorine – which was strange, seeing as how it was the sea, but maybe cleaning purposes? There was a large chunk of the floor cut out in the middle, allowing water to openly sit; several wooden lanes ran across the holes, criss-crossing every which way. About a dozen subs were in the holes, bobbing gently up and down.

An officer came up to them, and Ben conversed with him a bit before they got led away to three subs. They were only allowed three, of course. He gave the first key to Khezu, the second key to Fredda, and kept the final key within his own hand. He pursed his lips as he looked at the others. “Alright, try not to crash. The radio only lasts so long until you go down to certain depths,” he said, recalling what the officer had briefed him on. “So our communication with one another will be cut. Stay near each other.” Ben nodded to them, like a general giving a speech to his cadets, and strode over to his and Beat’s submarine.

When one thinks of submarines, they think of long and huge, metal monsters, with a scope on the top to peek out of the water. These submarines, however, were the exact opposite. They were teal and dark blue in colour, round, and relatively small. Ben huffed and opened the door, clambering in. He waited for Beat to climb in as well before he shut the door, turning the round wheel to secure it. On the interior of the contraptions, it looked cramped. There were two seats, bolted into the floor, set before the control panel; there was a small hallway that housed some things – Ben found out there were underwater suits and a few air tanks – and nothing else. The large, rounded off window at the front, above the panel, was large and allowed exceptional view of the underwater – or so the man assumed, as they weren’t underwater yet.

He tucked the manila folder into the crevasse with the air tanks and sat down on the left hand seat. He glanced at everything, found a keyhole, and put the key he was given in it. He turned the key, and the contraption roared to life before quieting down.

“Sit down,” he commanded indifferently to his partner.

[Lup]

“Is something wrong? Well, nothing can be wrong, simple as that. You have to go with Amand – Oi, Beat, shut up!”

Of course there was something wrong. Lisey frowned and rubbed her temples. This was going to be a very... "entertaining" ride seeing as neither of the passengers seemed to want to be with the other. Her frustration was growing by the second, but just by glancing at Ben and seeing his obvious irritation, a small giggle escaped her throat. He hadn't even noticed he'd gotten a papercut. “And to my knowledge, there are no radios, so you don’t have to worry miss!” This made Lisey roll her eyes. No communication. Wonderful...

Wonderful! If there were no radios, she could easily hijack the sub and go for a joyride, or something. Smirking at the thought, Lisey's gaze went back to Ben and his stress, apparently at the mention of McDonphan's. "Note to self, dislikes fast food," she muttered as he continued to move about, and finally stopped in front of the door. “Alright so if none of you... people have any more comments, we should go."

Lisey was going to try to make sure to be directly behind Ben, but due to her status on the opposite end of the room this was nearly impossible. In reality, she ended up near the back of the line, only beating out Fredda (and this was only due to the large woman's politeness). Lisey grumbled more, but at least appreciated the kindness of Fredda briefly before resuming her mental complaining.

After a long time of Ben pretending to know what he was doing, they finally reached the docks. Lisey coughed on the air, which stunk horribly of a pool smell; and backed away as Ben gave Khezu and Fredda their keys. She moved back toward Khezu while Ben started to talk again.

“Alright, try not to crash. The radio only lasts so long until you go down to certain depths.” Brilliant! As soon as she got deep enough she could start pushing buttons. Hopefully some of them would make the ride interesting, or maybe get Ben's attention so he'd have to be in a sub with her. Or something along those lines. Lisey's plot was not very well thought out, but she was also not well-known for her planning skills. She plugged her nose while Ben continued.

“So our communication with one another will be cut. Stay near each other.”

Like she was going to listen to that. As soon as possible, she and that poor Khezu were going for a ride. She smirked, waiting for Khezu to open the door, then climbed in after him. Noting that she didn't have the key, she frowned. This might make things a little more difficult, but she could always just smash buttons on the panel while he tried to drive.

Shutting the door and turning the wheel behind her, she grinned. This might be more fun than riding a Magmacycle.

[Vena Sera]

Right before Ben nearly took his head off by slamming the door shut, Beat pulled out Chinchou's Pokeball and pressed the release. He backed up and found himself in the least comfortable position he'd ever been in - he had to tilt his head just to stand, and there was so little room in the sub that he felt like he'd been swallowed by a metal Wailmer. Grimacing, he shuffled around, trying to memorize where the wetsuits were in case of drowning. At the helm, Ben was frowning.

"Sit down," he commanded, turning the sub on. Beat shrugged - well, it passed as a shrug in these tight quarters - and made his way to the front, plopping down in the seat next to Ben's. Beat could see twin golden spots in the water beneath the window; Chinchou was waiting patiently in front of them.

Beat looked down at the buttons on the panel before him. "So. Uh. I don't have to do anything, right?" He gingerly poked a docile-looking green light, eliciting a loud clang from somewhere in the back of the sub. Beat quickly took his hand away from the panel. "...Yeah, I'll leave this up to you, alright?" HE leaned back in his seat, only to smack his head against something. Ouch.

"I hate this thing," he muttered, rubbing his head as the sub descended.

Once the windshield - wait, did they call it a windshield or a porthole? A window? Whatever. - was fully underwater, the way out was clear - a large opening in the metal wall on the other side of the pool. The hole was in the very middle of the wall, two large doors slowly opening to let the subs through. It looked like some giant monster's mouth to Beat, and only Chinchou's nonchalance as he swam through in front of them eased Beat's apprehension.

"So. How have you been? Did you get any flak about the ball?" It was a sore topic, but Melissa had taught her children to get stuff like that out of the way so they could focus on what was really important. Granted, said important stuff was usually homework, but that was pretty much the same thing as a potentially deadly underwater mission. Right? "I thought my boss was gonna throw a table at me, but he cooled down a little when I told him about Chinchou. Said I was showing 'character' or something." Speaking of Chinchou, Beat took a good look at the little guy. When Beat had rescued him he'd been a shriveled mess, clearly suffering from being used as decorative lighting at the Magma party. Now that he was in the water, his skin seemed less pale and his lights were glowing brighter. Soon, the little fish would be back to normal - well, whatever normal constituted in the underwater world.

"How long are we going to have at that place? Ember's?" Beat's stomach growled, filling the sub with a weird sound. "Uh. Sorry. Are you gonna get something to eat, too?"

This post has been edited by Vena Sera: Dec 23 2010, 12:33 PM

[Rasu]

As soon as Khezu stepped into the kind of port located inside the base the first thing he noticed were the pretty big submarines. With a smirk on his face and the key on his hand he headed towards them, only to be stopped halfway by one of two Aqua guards standing nearby.

"Hey, kiddo! Where the hell do you think you're going?" Khezu stood still to face the approaching guard and held out the key with the smuggest face he could make that later turned into a confused look when the other guy started laughing, followed by the guard standing in front of him. Taking a few breathed between his laughs the guard then spoke about how mistaken the kid was.

"Look, that key is not for those subs!" he laughed a bit more before actually continuing "Those are for the big people, get it, kid? The ones you're looking for are over there." he pointed to a group of much but much smaller subs next to the gang of people what Khezu was following some minutes ago. And with that the guard left - probably back to its outpost - with his companion, both laughing pretty hard at the teenager's lack of orientation before the latter left as well, mumbling and cursing under his breath.

The small submarines couldn't possibly compare to the others. Seriously, these were more of a Barboach and the others more of a Sharpedo and Khezu did not like this change. At all. Smaller subs would mean less space and that would mean being closer to Amanda. This wasn't a mission, this was torture to him and Khezu could only hope that the girl wasn't carrying a Grass-type of some sort. Climbing inside the machine he noticed that it looked even smaller from the inside. Just great. Oh look, two seats, side by side. At this point he just wanted to get the hell out of there and punch the higher-up that gave him that damned mission in the freaking face. Moments after going inside Amanda entered the sub as well, closing the shuttle behind her, Khezu, however, didn't even wait for her to sit down and inserted the gave life to the mechanical beast with the key he had previously received. The sub shook violently for a while before reaching a calmer but still noticeable shaking.

"Uh.. Now to submerge this piece of crap.." he noticed on a flashing red button on the wheel and, even though red buttons aren't actually supposed to be pressed in most situations, he pressed it anyways. Thankfully, the sub didn't explode or anything like that and instead went underwater. Checking for some button or pedals that would make the thing go forward Khezu bumped into a lot of stuff, mostly with his knees and cursed every time he did so.

"Goddamn machin- Oh hey, it's working." after finding the pedal that actually moved the thing he hoped that the rest of the trip would go smoothly, only having to turn the wheel to avoid obstacles and stuff but little did Khezu know that Amanda had other plans for the machine.

[Darkrow]

So they weren't going outside. Ah well, Fredda would have plenty of time to get some fresh air after the mission. After all, the only time she ever was inside her house was to sleep. She stayed silent as the officer spoke to Ben and when the latter gave her the keys to the small submarine. She walked up to it and stared at the door for a few seconds. She would fit inside it. Not much space to move, but she'd fit. That's all that mattered, right? At least Benjamin hadn't paired anyone with her, or else she would have been forced to tell her companion to either find a way to fit in or to go with someone else. What were her superiors thinking, squeezing a woman of her size in that tiny thing?

"Hopefully my belly and my breasts won't get in the way too much..." she told herself quietly, going inside. She had to suck in her belly a bit to get inside the submarine. She slowly sat down, not wanting the small marine vehicle to tip over due to her sitting down too abruptly. She was wide enough to occupy the two small chairs there, but then again, a healthy man would probably barely fit in them. Seeing that her belly and breasts would, in fact, get in the way, she shifted forward as to be sitting on the tip of the two chairs. She could've sworn that they had creaked dangerously as she did. Then, something struck her; she didn't even know how to make this thing work!

She looked around for something, anything, that resembled an instruction booklet. She pretty much needed that or else she'd be driving the submarine clumsily, if at all. Finally finding what she was looking for after a few minutes, she reached for it, the chairs creaking loudly again as she did, and proceeded to read it, muttering whatever words she was reading. It seemed rather simple, which relieved her. She didn't want to try things in the middle of a mission, after all; if anything she'd be more likely to fail the mission than anything else. After reading it, she put it back where it was, chairs creaking once more, and then waited for the others to start heading towards Ember's, not wanting to get in their way.

[stbyleth]

The Icelandic man sighed as the other sat down. It was cramped and they were practically shoulder to shoulder. It wasn't good, nor was it bad, but it sent butterflies through Ben's stomach. And for Arceus's sake, he could not figure out why it was happening. He shifted in his space — if it could even be called that, ha! — and huffed.

“Let's see here…” he breathed out, mostly to himself, "…what do…” Ben sighed and shuffled around, trying to find a manual. He wasn't big on randomly pressing buttons until something happ—

A loud clang resounded throughout the small submarine, and Ben jumped, almost hitting his head off the top of the metal contraption.

“...Yeah, I'll leave this up to you, alright?” Beat said as he leaned back, Ben turning to glare at him. Ben was about to scold him when the other hit his head on a metal pipe that was helping hold the roof up under heavier pressures. 

“Don't touch any— Be more careful!” Although he was still scolding in a sense, his voice wasn't as harsh at it normally would have been, changing on a dime to a more worrying like tone. He shook his head. “Passing out here would be a very bad idea. I might throw you out for the feebas to eat,” he snorted. Turning his head away and to his left, he found the manual and read over it quickly. 

The small blue button was to activate the radio, the knob next to it was volume. With a flick of his girlish hands, the radio was on and turned up to a comfortable volume. “Tell me if it gives you a headache,” he murmured, “as it's bound to pair with the metal walls to make this hell.” Benjamin returned to reading. The red button made it dive, and so he set the manual down. Placing both hands on the wheel — which resembled more of a plane’s joystick than a car’s steering wheel — he pressed the button gently before replacing his hands. 

The submarine made a confirmation sound before dipping the nose down and sloshing around before getting fully underwater. 

Ben’s grip on the wheel tightened considerably, his rings shining brightly against the whiter-than-normal skin on his right hand. He was tense, obviously, and Beat just set him off more.

“So. How have you been? Did you get any flak about the ball?”

He snarled, without meaning to, his answer. “Oh I've been just dandy. Really. Fullkomma!” He let out a sigh — he's been doing that a lot often, hasn't he? — and watched the Chinchou as it led them through the hole and into the open waters. His grip, still, tightened even further; the rings were digging into his skin by now. He was silent for a minute before talking in a quieter, forced-hushed voice. “It…could have gone better. My officer said that he may have to call in the Boss if we fail this one.” He grimaced, not particularly wanting that to happen. “So let's not fail.”

He stared out the window. Swarms of Finneon rushed past them, playfully mingling with the Marrill and Lumineon. Relicanth slunk past them slowly, making that face Relicanth make without even trying. Octillery seemed to glide past, fly even. 

Seeing the peacefulness in the sea, Ben began to relax. He took his hands off the steering to press the LOCK button, keeping the sub going in one place. He stood, using Beat’s shoulder so he wouldn't topple suddenly. He peeled off his coat and draped it on the back of his seat. He sat back down, the movement showing off just how much of a stick he really was, but hesitated. He was feeling mighty self-conscious now and he almost put his coat back on; he contemplated,  messing with the small teardrop-shaped necklace charm in one of his hands, and decided against it. It would get hotter later on, probably, anyway. 

“How long are we going to have at that place? Ember's?” Beat asked. 

Ben shrugged, not yet removing the steering lock but placing his hands back on the wheel. His clutch strangled the wheel and his back stiffened at the strange roaring resonating through the steel. It took him a moment to realise it was Beat's stomach, and it took another few moments to calm back down.

“Uh. Sorry. Are you gonna get something to eat, too?” the other said.

Benjamin paused and then shook his head. “Nei, I won't be eating. I… don't eat out,” he lied, and he quickly changed the subject. “We should radio the others.” With that, he pressed that blue button and spoke into a microphone attached to a wire, similar to what truckers use. 

“This is Benjamin. Everyone well?” he said, the usual apathy returning to his voice. “Follow me, or the Chinchou. No straying away. We'll lose radio soon—” A loud beeping noise erupted from the radio's speaker panel.

“… Skít,” he breathed, shooting his partner a worried glance. 

Signal was lost. They were on their own.

Sorry for the wait! Hope everyone had good holidays.

I've cut off radio so the characters within the subs can bond (or characters and their pokémon ). Now there is no particular posting order except. 

When Ben and co near the cavern, I'll note it, and Lisey may behind destroying shit. Fun fun. 

Cheers.

[Lup]

Lisey glanced around the sub, noticing that it seemed to already be sinking. "Ah, shit," she mumbled under her breath, mentally cursing even more at Khezu for not waiting for her. Adjusting her hat while she made a dash for the control room, she slipped on the wet floor and landed flat on her back.

"Aah! Ow. Oh, you have got to be kidding me," she growled as she got up from the floor and crawled into the seat. "Today is not my day," she continued, staring at Khezu with an irrational hatred before she turned back to the control panel. "So what do these buttons do?" Some of them were blinking. Lisey flicked a switch sitting in front of her, and what looked like windshield wipers started moving across the glass in front of them. She rolled her eyes, flicking the switch back and staring out at the Feebas. Even though she hated Team Aqua and Sharpedo and in a way, water itself, she still couldn't help but like water-types. One in particular flapped its fin in her general direction, and she waved at it with a smile.

“This is Benjamin. Everyone well?” This snapped Lisey out of her distracted mood and reminded her that she wasn't here to be happy, she was here to help her team and get revenge. The voice of her nemesis crackled over the radio and echoed within the walls of the metal sub, making Lisey grimace. “Follow me, or the Chinchou. No straying away. We'll lose radio soon—”

Then the radio was gone. Lisey frowned, smacking the speaker, but to no avail. She growled in frustration, slamming herself into the back of the seat. No Ben, no destruction yet since it was too early on and would be too suspicious... She crossed her arms, sat back in the seat, and stared out the window again.

[Darkrow]

Fredda allowed her mind to wander off after the submarine was fully immersed as she watched the little Finneon trying to catch up with their mother. It was an adorable sight for her; she loved Finneon and Lumineon. She changed her focus to the deep blue sea as she thought of a way to avoid breaking anything in this little thing.

"Would Sedo or Vires be able to help? No... they're a bit too tall to do much... So is Misaki... Oh! Fides could help!" She reached for her pokéballs, making the poor chairs creak under her massive weight once again. After finding the Spinarak's pokéball, she pressed the button in the center, which made a red beam of light come out of the red and white sphere. It soon shaped itself into the form of a six-legged spider before said spider materialised, chirping her species' name quite merrily.

"Alright, Fides, calm down," the woman told her pokémon. However, as she was speaking, the Spinarak had already started scrambling about the submarine, repeatedly saying her species' name. Fredda giggled at her spider-like pokémon until the cheerful little bug-type finally calmed down and hung upside-down from the ceiling right next to her trainer. The latter didn't even have time to open her mouth that Benjamin's voice crackled from the radio.

"This is Benjamin. Everyone well? Follow me, or the Chinchou. No straying away. We'll lose radio soon—" As if he had predicted the future, they did lose radio. Fredda looked at Fides, smiling. "Fides, dear, could you give me the manual? I don't remember how to steer," she said. The Spinarak shot a thin, yet strong, web at the instruction manual and gave it to her trainer. Thanking the small creature, she leafed through the manual until she found what she was looking for. Following the two other submarines, she let her thoughts take over her mind once more, watching some Finneon swimming about again.

[Rasu]

"Oh for Arceus' sake, don't. Touch. The buttons. You're gonna crash the freaking thing somehow. I just know it." Khezu nervously sighed before turning to Slinger Shot who was still warped around his shoulders. He ordered the little monkey to find the manual, the latter jumping out to the metallic floor and beginning his search for a book of sorts. A short while after he handed Khezu something with his tail. A car magazine.

"Keep searching." he told the Aipom who did so. After another short while he handed a much bulkier book and sat down, obviously tired from throwing stuff out of the cabinets and shelves. Khezu folded through the book as Ben spoke on the radio, eventually losing connection and leaving an awkward silence. Since the radio was out and there was no way the others could deliver useful information Khezu took out his Pokegear and switched it on, shifting through the various cards until he reached the MP3 one and selected an upbeat music, something to pass the time.

"Pom!" something had startled the Aipom and Khezu checked through the windshield (or watershield?) for anything unusual. A huge, blue, serpent like body moved in the darkness of the water down below and Khezu cursed once again. Flipping through the manual pages he tried to find the commands to both slow down the sub and turn off the lights. He did so. The lights reverted back to it's dormant state and the sub slowed down to the speed of a fish Pokemon almost.

"Shut up." he turned to Amanda before continuing "There's a Gyarados down there. Unless you want to be eaten, I suggest not pressing any goddamn buttons 'til it leaves." he looked back to the windshield and saw the sea serpent move once again. Silence covered the room again, the only exception being the muffled sound of his headphones

"Goddammit.. We'll have to catch up with the others later on. For now lets just try not to piss that thing off." Khezu gently pressed the pedal so that the sub wouldn't go way too fast to cause an uproar with the machine's engine.

"Worst. Mission. Ever." he murmured under his breath while keeping a watchful eye on the Gyarados.

The Gyarados is just an excuse for Khezu to slow down so that when the sub crashes the others won't be there to lay any suspicions. It won't destroy anything but if you want to use it for something feel free.

[Vena Sera]

"Well, crap." Not the most eloquent thing he'd ever said, but it was certainly apt considering the circumstances. Beat sighed and leaned forward, careful not to hit his head on anything else. The last thing he needed was to get a headache in a sub. Especially with Ben there.

Speaking of Ben, Beat took his eyes of Chinchou and snuck a sidelong glance at his partner. He'd calmed down a bit - a good thing, the second-to-last thing he needed was a tense Ben in a sub - but Beat felt his eyes drawn away from his face. Was that a rib he saw? ...Nah. He was probably just seeing things. The lighting in the sub was weird, after all.

Turning back to the window, Beat relaxed as he took in the sights. Schools of fish darted past, colours flashing in the diluted sunlight. Deeper, where the water turned a thick, dark blue, Chinchou was the only source of light. Beat saw a few Clamperls slamming shut as the sub passed, and even caught a glimpse of bright pink. He winced and silently praised Chinchou for rising - Gorebyss looked beautiful, but Beat knew that they got their lovely colour from sucking the blood of other fish. A Relicanth floated by, its lobed fins making it glide through the water like air.

"Man," Beat breathed. "It's so...cool out there." Kind of a lame description, but oh well. Beat was about to propose finding a camera when Chinchou's lights suddenly went off, plunging the sub into darkness. Straining his eyes, Beat peered into the depths. He thought he was something big down there, but he wasn't sure...

Within a few moments Chinchou's lights were back on and he was leading them away, swimming much faster than before.

"Something spooked him. Hey, do you know if Carvanha or Sharpedo live in the river?" Slightly uneasy now, Beat started to scan the water again - most of the marine life had darted away seconds before Chinchou had unplugged, and they were now slowly coming back into the picture. Whatever had passed, it didn't seem unusual - some of the Pokemon looked downright bored, as if it were routine. Beat shrugged and whacked his head on a pipe again, groaning. Well, whatever it was, it was behind them now.