Blessed Blade

-==IC: Olivia Seaton -- Camphrier Town, Kalos==- Olivia listened to the half-explanation, but then nodded. "I believe ya. I won't press things if that's not whatcha want. It's your choice when and where and if ya wanna share more, after all, and I can't ask ya to do something you don't wanna do." The redhead gave a slight smile, though, as she thought it over. "I don't think worrying over it too much would do any good though. I know that one from both personal experience and pretty much every other person I know. I can't ask ya not to worry, as that's a natural thing, but just know we'll likely back ya up." -==IC: Ryan Hikari -- Vermilion Base==- Ryan tried not to seem too surprised at the hand holding, but accepted it without complaint. He tried to rationalize it in his head as to not get lost in the crowd after they left, and to help reassure Aori. Still, he glanced over at Shannon for a moment, as he wondered just what her feelings were right then, especially after what happened with that mimicking Instance. He also thought back to Miriam, as he wondered what could have caused that sort of reaction. Ryan resigned himself to simply looking forward with a small worried frown, lost in his thoughts, but not alone. -==NPC: Lusamine -- Aether Paradise Conservatory==- "Hm." The blonde woman put a hand to her chin, mouth curled downward slightly in contemplation. "What do you have to offer us?" Lusamine asked, a curious-yet-unreadable look on her face as she seemed to have a cautious tone in the words that followed. "And for that matter, what makes you think that we can help with that sort of research?" -==IC: Taylor Beryl -- Sunyshore City, Sinnoh==- "What's everyone monkeying around about?" Taylor asked as she stepped off the boat after them, an amused smile on her face at the other two's antics. "And actually, where are we going first?" -==IC: Ray Hakuda -- Vertrag==- Ray stood still, intimidated by the sheer... vastness of the room. Ryan's question snapped him to reality as he frowned slightly, looking around uneasily. "I half wanna suggest checking out the other rooms, but..." A thought crossed Ray's mind, and the separatist took a step forward and held out his hand. "A History of Unova." He tried to think of a good book that might exist in the library; he figured that either Ford had a brilliant system to archive, or that magic might be involved. After all, with how magical the rest of the place seemed to be, with magic elevators and cameras that shifted to Ford, it was worth a shot. -==IC: Chloe Hikari -- Vertrag==- Chloe stepped into the room she had chosen. She blinked as she saw that the decor was once again barren and very similar to how the rest of the base was. "Maybe it's me..." The girl mumbled with a slightly unnerved tone in her voice, but then shook her head. She walked forward and glanced around - the first thing that caught her eye was a picture on the nightstand. She saw a red-haired man that made her skin crawl next to a blond haired man who also made her skin crawl. She decided to not focus on the picture of Raimundo and McKinley for any longer. Instead, she picked the picture up and placed it into her purse along with the things she found in Hayes' room. Her foot nudged an object in the corner as she was organizing her purse however. As it fell, and as she saw what it was, she let out a brief loud yelp, and quickly used her telekinetic powers to lift the long slender object into the air before it could hit the ground. She paled visibly as she examined the sniper rifle, then carefully set it down on the bed. "I don't know how much longer I want to be in this room." She said out loud with a very audible amount of fear in her voice, as she decided to open the nightstand's drawer. Before she did so, Chloe moved the pillow to the side, just in case there was another piece of evidence hidden like in Hayes' room, but this time there wasn't. She found a notebook in the drawer, however, and frowned as she opened it. The psychic woman couldn't actually understand most of the entries in the book, as they were a list of dates and locations, with what looked like scratch marks next to them. Or tally marks...? Chloe mused over that as she continued to read. She froze as she saw one of the entries, which listed Four Island. She looked further as her eyes widened, as she realized that the date that belonged to that entry, was the same day that Rocket invaded the Alamo. "One... two... five... ten... at least ten..." The woman paled more with a gulp, as her eyes moved from the page to the rifle she had set down on the bed. She took a step further away from the bed, then pocketed the book as well. She decided to leave the room after that, finding Emmerich already back. "You know what? I don't know if I found everything in there, but I don't want to search any more. In fact, you know what? Screw that room, there was a sniper rifle in there." Chloe still sounded very frightened of what she had found in the room, but took a deep breath. "I probably should have taken a picture of it, though... I found a couple other things, and it seems like the room belonged to that Raimundo... Raymond... Warren... whatever his name was."

-==NPC: Lusamine -- Aether Paradise, Alola==- The youthful-looking blonde considered James' words for a moment, as she mulled them over. "What is it exactly that Team Liberty is looking for, then?" Lusamine asked with a business-like smile on her face. She seemed to have another question on the tip of her tongue, but appeared to opt not to ask it right that moment. -==IC: Ryan Hikari -- Vermilion Rocket Outpost==- As Shannon and Aori talked, Ryan simply listened in. Outside of finishing up with what Miriam wanted, he didn't really have any ideas of what to do next. As he thought that over, Dack approached him. "What are you all doing now, then?" Ryan asked, half to try and see if asking someone the same question he was asking himself would give him any new ideas. -==IC: Olivia Seaton -- Shabboneau Castle, Camphrier Town, Kalos==- Olivia chewed on her lip for a moment as she thought over the best way to start the conversation. "First off, ya don't have to worry about too much judgin' on my part. I've been doing some thinking since the incident and it wouldn't be right. Oh, and I wanna just apologize for the other day too, not because of anything from today but it's just... that was on me. I wasn't used to that sorta thing and got caught of guard. Ya didn't do anything wrong thinking it all over, though, trust me." The woman glanced around the room for a moment as she tried to think of what to say next. "If ya wanna talk about what happened though, I'm all ears. I helped my girlfriend out with her worries over something that happened back in Unova that went pretty wrong, so I don't mind listening." She was tempted to add on more about how she didn't like what Lionel said to Jared earlier, but figured that given Jared's dislike of the man already, that he already had the same sort of idea there. -==IC: Chloe Hikari -- Vertrag==- "Hmm... I found a few things in Hayes' room, most of the stuff might be things Sonja would be interested in more, but overall nothing really important other than that." Chloe wondered how much she should actually explain to anyone that wasn't Sonja, but for the sake of privacy, opted to just keep quiet on it. "Moving on to the next set of rooms, then?" -==IC: Ray Hakuda -- Vertrag==- Ray considered responding to things a couple times, but opted to just chuckle at the appropriate moments. He had been about to agree with the order that Sonja had suggested when Ryan went ahead first. With a small shrug, he followed into the door, readying himself for what might lie beyond it. -==IC: Colleen Llyan -- Camphrier Town, Kalos==- Colleen was just as surprised as Zoe was. She was about to ask if Em was sure about doing that, but simply decided to smile instead as Zoe seemed to be happy by the offer. The girl nodded as well. "Thanks Em." She said with a big smile, opting to not make this a group hug, but still also very grateful.

-==IC: Lucia Zyther -- Camphrier Town==- "I have nothing in mind right now, so the castle seems like the best option." Lucia replied with a smile as she looked over at Jamie. "There's not really anything in town that'd interest me that isn't here already." -==IC: Chloe Hikari -- Vertrag==- Chloe stepped into the room with a slight air of caution despite what she had said to the others. Although she thought that there wasn't going to be anything bad, she still was uneasy as the atmosphere of the room felt exactly the same as the rest of the base. The room was just as dark and plain with the same eerie glow that almost everything else in the base had so far. She resisted the urge to shudder as she stepped further into the room and looked around. From what she could see, there wasn't much furniture, as aside from the bed, she only could see a nightstand and a small dresser - a stark contrast from the previous room they had checked out. Chloe noticed a piece of burnt roof tile sitting on top of the nightstand. She walked over to take a look at it with a curious look on her face, but she couldn't make out what it could be from or what it was about. She then glanced over to the bed and walked over to it to look at it further. A piece of blue something under the pillow caught her eye, however, and the woman pushed the pillow aside to look at it. It was a neon blue folder of some kind, that bore the Plasma logo. Inside were a bunch of files that seemed to pertain to Team Plasma - as Chloe read through them, her eyes widened as a number of times it referenced people with the name 'Baron' that she didn't recognize; she had to take a guess that it might be related to Sonja's parents. This confirmed to her whose room this was too. She didn't read the document it too much, but did notice a few scribbled-in names on the pages, some of which were scratched out. She also noticed that some of the names that weren't scribbled out included each of the Plasma Sages' names. Unsure what to make of this, the woman stuck the dossier into her purse for the moment and continued the search of the room. Despite looking everywhere she could, Chloe could not find anything else of note, so she decided to simply leave the room, concerned about what this might mean to Sonja and Hayes. -==IC: Olivia Seaton -- Camphrier Town==- "Thought ya might wanna talk about things." Olivia subtly motioned to Lionel in a way to try and indicate that she didn't want to have him around for the conversation. "Not that good at that, but ya know, I think I can channel my sister pretty well."

-==IC: Lucia -- Kalos, Camphrier Town==- "Nope, I think that castle's in a different country." Lucia replied to Jamie, as she eyed her father up slightly. While the two hadn't exactly spent that much time together in the past, something still seemed... off about how he was acting. It was almost as if he'd gotten less compassionate since she'd last seen him; something she noticed especially with the mention of being impressed by Jared's... show of power, for lack of better terms. She kept quiet for the moment, but thought about bringing it up later, when things were a bit quieter. -==IC: Colleen -- Camphrier Town, Kalos==- "That'd be nice." Colleen grinned for a moment, then examined her current outfit a bit more. "I had a red scarf before I left for Kanto, but I think it got misplaced somewhere when I was packing my bags some point or another... it wouldn't really go with this outfit anyway, I think." She laughed with a smile as she glanced over at Zoe. "I have to agree on the beret, I think, too." -==IC: Olivia -- Camphrier Town, Kalos?==- Olivia kept toward the back of the main group that hadn't split off as she walked. She wanted to talk to Jared about things, but it looked like Lionel might keep chatting with him. Still. While she was uneasy with the idea of bringing attention to herself at the moment, she knew that staying back wouldn't present any opportunities to talk. She walked forward and tapped Jared on the shoulder. "Hey, can we talk for a bit?" The redhead asked finally, motioning with her eyes to Lionel in an indication that she didn't want to talk near the newcomer. -==IC: Ryan -- Camphrier Town?, Kalos? Vermilion City, Kanto==- Ryan stayed silent for a good few minutes as he tried to figure out how to respond to that. He decided that it was best to just... tell the truth, even if it hurt. He nodded. "I'm sorry, but she was... I don't really know how things were, but she looked like others too at different times." The black-haired man bit his lip, as he knelt down to Aori's level. How are you, though?" -==IC: Chloe/Ray -- Vertrag==- Chloe stood there baffled as she looked between the two screens. She was curious about how the technology worked, but decided to keep that to herself for the moment. Instead, she listened as Ray started to speak on the other end of the line. "We found a bunch of computer screens in the like, main room that connected here, this place, and what seemed like an interrogation room. There's still one last room we haven't checked here though, but this arguably is the most fascinating, just because of this camera stuff. But like, all this magic stuff is like... it's kinda neat in its own ways. I wonder if we could find any ways to put this sorta stuff to use in the rest of the world? It could make a lot of things a lot more convenient, and maybe might help against the Missing Zero..." Ray put a hand to his chin as his explanation began to descend into the magic-fueled rambling, but Chloe glanced over at the other three in her group. "Well, we found that Pierce guy's room for one, and were about to check the rest, so we haven't really found that much on our end. We'll keep you posted, though."

-==IC: Colleen -- Kalos Route 5==- "It's not really that common, no..." Colleen replied quietly with a small frown. "Usually it only happens when like, something big happens, and I've never seen that happen, let alone it go back to its original colour right after." -==IC: Lucia -- Kalos Route 5==- "It was a bit..." The woman decided that she'd choose her words a bit carefully. "Damaging, yeah. I wonder what prompted it though...?" Lucia turned to look at Jamie for a moment, trying not to look too surprised that she had thought that move to be that cool. -==IC: Ryan -- Hatchery hallway==- Ryan stood frozen, breathing heavily as the danger of the situation slowly seemed to pass. "That was definitely... I don't know what to say, but that was rather dangerous..." He glanced around at the others, who all seemed to have been affected just as badly by that fight in one way or another. "If anyone needs to talk about what just happened, just give the word, okay?" The man looked at Dack and Miriam in particular, who seemed to have been hit the hardest by what happened there. -==IC: Chloe -- Vertrag==- Chloe looked over at Kyle in surprise at the mention of Ford's name. When she looked at the screen again however, she noticed that the figure did indeed resemble the imprisoned man that they had visited a few days ago. But how could that be? She stayed quiet but wary - she wondered what he could want, did he have more information? "Ford?" The shadowed man repeated, a hint of confusion present in the man's voice. "What are you talking about? I'm not Ford."

-==IC: Colleen Llyan/Olivia Seaton/Lucia Zyther - Kalos Route 5==- Colleen reflected on what happened as she followed the group. As she walked, she gave Em a small pat on the shoulder before mouthing 'thank you' to her. Still... she glanced over to Jared after that with a frown. That had seemed completely out of character for him - plus the odd shift in aura when it happened. She made a note to ask about that later, but knew that wasting time right now causing strife between the group would be a horrible idea. Olivia, meanwhile, made sure to warily watch Jared. She had an idea as well that something odd was at work, as the only issue she'd had up until then was how he had acted during the training session that one time - which she had forgiven after finding out why - and how he seemed to want to speed through the investigation without any breaks or side paths. This seemed completely out of the norm, and she figured that they'd need to know what was going on before they continued. She knew well how easy it could be to do things that weren't intended, but she also wanted to make sure that this wasn't something that could put them in danger. Olivia also briefly wondered if Xander should know about this, but decided that could wait until after they found out about what was up. Lucia, on the other hand, was a lot more conflicted. What did I get myself and Jamie into...? She wondered as she bit her lip. She wished that she could have helped out the Frogadier or the injured Scrafty even despite what the Scrafty had done, but... she also knew well that it was not a wise idea at all. So she just kept walking, trying to figure out what could have caused Jared to do what he did. -==IC: Ryan Hikari - Hatchery==- Ryan looked down at the shapeshifting creature in front of him. "Aori is upstairs - you can't fool me. You tried to hurt my friends." He wished that there was some way that Miyu could just be saved from being this creature - but did 'Miyu' even exist? He couldn't risk it regardless of the case. "I'm sorry." Ryan simply said, as he snapped his fingers. Tyranitar gave the transformed Instance a look of pity for a split second, before he attempted to very quickly Crunch down on the Instance's body, even as the image of Aori made the Tyranitar nearly hesitate during the usage of the attack. -==IC: Ray Hakuda - Vertrag==- "Hmm, I could give it a try." Ray said, as he glanced around the room. "If... we could find it. Hmm..." The man frowned slightly as he looked around a bit more. There had to be something that could be used to control the camera, unless it was a tablet. But as he thought some more, he realized that they likely would have had to have found it by now, and that it didn't seem as secure to use a tablet when there was this sort of elabourate setup. A laptop would make sense too, but that still brought up questions. Ray walked over to the chair and sat down as he began to look at the desk to figure out the mystery. He wondered if there were any kind of hidden panels or drawers that would hold what they were looking for, then began to run his hands over the desk. As he did so, Ray noticed the desk seem to react to his touch as he could see numbers on it that were arranged like a dialpad. Out of curiosity, he decided to tap in the number for Chloe's PokéGear, wondering if it was related to phones. -==IC: Chloe Hikari - Vertag==- "Yeah, let's keep going, just in case the others found something already - we don't wanna keep them waiting. Still, I kinda do wanna see what the other rooms have, especially if it's anything like these are." Chloe bit her lip as she wondered if the home decor stuff extended to Ray and Sonja's rooms as well, but decided not to voice those thoughts.

-==IC: Lucia/Colleen -- Route 5, Kalos==- As the Scraggy attempted to kick Blissaga, the Blissey quickly stepped to the side to take advantage of the disorientation the pain from punching Lionel's Bisharp had inflicted. "Alright, punch it now!" Lucia called out as she held her hand forward. The Blissey might not have known any sort of moves like Mega Punch, but certainly knew how to throw a regular one. She placed all her strength into the one attack, aiming to hit the Scraggy square in the middle of the face. It seemed surprised by the sudden assault right up until the attack connected. The Scraggy stumbled backwards as Blissaga got a running start. The Dark type's last sight before it was knocked out, was of a giant egg-shaped Pokémon soaring through the air with the greatest of ease, leg outstretched to kick it in its face. "Good work, Blissaga." Lucia said with a pleased smile as she glanced around the battlefield. The others seemed to have things covered - she contemplated sending her Blissey to help Jamie, but with Lionel's Lilligant there felt that it wouldn't work well. She waited for the moment instead, to see if anyone else might need help. *** Colleen, meanwhile, advanced on the Scrafty herself. She got the sense as well that the Frogadier didn't trust them, but... she also knew that her and Jared were the only two here who could draw the fight to a close if need be. With a quick glance to Myriam to make sure she was doing alright with her battle against the Scraggy, Colleen ran forward toward the downed Frogadier. As she approached, the girl noticed that Jared and Lachina's Pokémon were also attacking and distracting the Scrafty. Colleen took advantage of the opportunity granted by the distractions to fire off an Aura Sphere toward the Scrafty's chest, before she made her way close to try and force the Scrafty into a checkmate. "Please give up now, and you don't need to be hurt any more." Colleen said, deciding to add in the 'please' to get brownie points with the Frogadier. To back up her words, she held a hand out toward the Scrafty, prepared to quickly charge another Aura Sphere if that was necessary. -==IC: Chloe -- Vertrag==- Chloe was silent for the longest time because of the emails. "That was the guy who..." She let her sentence trail off again as she turned her head. "I wonder... if his brother knows..." -==IC: Ryan -- Hatchery==- Ryan grit his teeth as he considered everything that the others were saying as well as what was currently happening in the battle itself. "That might be best..." The man conceded to the idea of luring the Instance back out of the Hatchery. He contemplated what he could do as his Tyranitar groaned out from the force of the blow. "Tyranitar, use Payback to knock it out of the Hatchery. We can't afford a long term fight in there!" Ryan called out, as he motioned for everyone to move back and make room in the outer room for the inevitable fight. The Tyranitar let go of the Nobuddy briefly, before trying to pivot and punch the Instance back out of the Hatchery as was instructed. He grimaced at the force of the Mega Kick, however, and ruefully realized that he couldn't afford to take too many more of those.

-==IC: Colleen/Lucia/Olivia -- Kalos Route 5==- Colleen was about to scold Zoe for trying to provoke the Pokémon that just wanted to keep things calm, but her voice got lost in the din of battle. With a sigh, she instead turned to the fight and sent out Myriam. The Mienshao turned her attention to one of the Scraggy as soon as she was released and ran forward to try and punch the dark type out as quickly as possible. Colleen herself turned her attention to the leader Scrafty, as she attempted to read its aura to find out the rough reason for why it was doing this. Even still, she cautiously charged up an Aura Sphere as she did so. Lucia stood with a frustrated look on her face as everything turned horrible. Wordlessly, she recalled the helpless Gotharita, and sent out her Blissey instead. She changed targets to one of the Scraggy, very much not wanting to aggravate the Frogadier any more than they already were. Olivia groaned. "And here I thought today would be peaceful..." The woman mumbled under her breath, as she sent out her Vibrava. "Jhen, back up whoever ya think needs it the most." The ground type nodded and zoomed off toward one of the Frogadier, not trying to attack at the moment, but calling out a warning to stop and focus on a shared enemy.

-==IC: Ryan Hikari -- Vermilion City Rocket Base, Hatchery==- Ryan was about to respond to the others, when he saw and heard Miyu. He hadn't expected the Instance to show up so suddenly, but thankfully his Tyranitar acted quickly to get in front of him. The giant lizard was knocked back by the attack, threatening to nearly also knock both Pokémon and Trainer prone. Ryan's Tyranitar regained his footing as soon as he could, however, and launched his fist forward with a Payback at the Instance, emitting a growl as he did so. "Alright, this is a lot more... dangerous than I thought." Ryan mumbled under his breath as he glanced around the room. He realized he was breathing faster than normal, but grit his teeth slightly as he didn't think he had a chance to stabilize that. "Tyranitar, try that! We need all the help we can get!" The black-haired man held his hand forward as the rock lizard roared out again. He didn't know whether this was how it worked, but tried to concentrate on his Tyranitar evolving again like what happened back on One Island. He didn't know if it would work. . . Then the Tyranitar was surrounded in rainbow light. Ryan couldn't help but be surprised at the phenomenon despite having already witnessed it once. However, he knew there was no time to waste being surprised. "Tyranitar, use Crunch! It's one of our best bets right now since we're inside!" The Tyranitar roared in acknowledgement as the rainbow light faded, revealing the enigmatic evolved state once again. He hoped that Miriam was watching closely, as the Tyranitar aimed to move forward to snap his jaws down on the Instance. OOC: I hope that wasn't too many attacks, but it felt like it fit the situation... -==IC: Ray Hakuda -- Vertrag==- "Clockwise sounds like a good idea." Ray said with a distracted tone as he gazed at the many screens around the middle of the room with a combination of nervousness and intrigue on his face. "It's so fascinating, though, isn't it? Like... this whole place, but this room in particular. He was so intent on watching everything; how did he know what to look at?" The orange-haired man shook his head. "It's kinda sad that he went about things the way that he did, but like... imagine if this kind of stuff, if magic could be put to better use?" -==IC: Chloe Hikari -- Vertrag==- "What happened here...?" Chloe wondered out loud as she examined the state of the room. It didn't make sense to her that there could be such a... difference in the state of the room on both sides. With a small frown, she looked at the pictures to try and see if she recognized anyone in them, deciding to focus on that before anything else. She felt that getting an idea who the occupant - or occupants - might paint a larger picture to why the room was the way it was.

-==IC: Lucia Zyther -- Kalos Route 5==- "Oh, for a little while when I was like, 11 or 12 or so? I joined Ranger camp one year and didn't really... do well at it--" Lucia's explanation was cut off as she, along with everyone else, noticed the commotion with the wild Pokémon. "I'll explain more later, Jamie, you can ask whatever you wanna know about then too." She gave a smile to the Heroine of Time, and then glanced around. She noticed that the Frogadier didn't seem to be hostile, though Zoe didn't seem to agree with that. With a frown on her face, the redheaded healer threw her Gotharita's Poké Ball forward, intending for the psychic-type to pass and delay the Fennekin before any fights could break out. As the ball opened, Gothara attempted to tackle Esmeralda, while she called out an apology to the Frogadier about the impulsive fox. OOC: Will respond to Parugi's ICs tomorrow

-==IC: Olivia Seaton -- Kalos Route 5==- "Oh huh, I wonder how she got there?" Olivia mused out loud, though realized that the tiny Pokémon must have vanished sometime before the Burks left and that they had never noticed at all. She turned her head as Elaine spoke, curious about that. "What kinda field work do ya do, Professor Alderson?" The redhead asked curiously, as while she had mentioned a few different things already, none of it really seemed to combine together into something she could make sense of. -==IC: Lucia Zyther -- Kalos Route 5==- "Oh neat. Sounds pretty cool, are the three of you close?" Lucia asked with a curious look on her face at the mention of Dahlia as well. "Also, you're a ranger, aren't you? I find that pretty cool. I once wanted to be a ranger, but I couldn't cut it for a lot of the things I needed to do, so I focused on what I did excel in and became a healer instead. But rangers are very cool." -==IC: Colleen Llyan -- Kalos Route 5==- "A ca--" Colleen's question got cut off as Zoe asked about the same thing with way more excitement. She felt her sister's hand tighten around her own after the mention of Pokémon losing their powers, then thought for a moment. "Well I heard that a couple Pokémon or so got their powers back the other day. Haven't really seen that happen to any of ours yet, but that kinda is a good sign, right?" Colleen grinned as she looked between Emily and Zoe. "Everything will work out. But until then, Alex is right. We should focus on the scenery for a little bit, no? We're here and walking right past it; maybe we shouldn't stop and look at times, but we do have time to look while we walk and when we talk breaks." She turned her gaze to Emily in particular after that. "I do want to see this castle, though, you got my attention there."

-==IC: Olivia Seaton -- Kalos Route 5==- Olivia mulled over the suggestion from Dahlia for a moment as she recalled how Jared had seemed to not be pleased with the detour the day before, despite the potential for information. "I dunno if we have the time. I'd be onboard, but did ya see how things were yesterday? It felt almost like we couldn't stray from the path for a moment for something important without making the atmosphere feel like we were doing something wrong..." The redhead frowned slightly, but then sighed. "If we do make it there in time, though, I think ya might find it cool. Maybe Willow might too, she's seemed antsy since we left last month." -==IC: Colleen Llyan -- Kalos Route 5==- Colleen was about to pick up her pace to reply to Emily's question, when Zoe started to talk about how they hadn't been there before. The beige-haired girl resisted the urge to sigh as she considered it. "Yeah. I've been as far as Lumiose before, but this is mostly past where I've been allowed to travel before. Maybe I should take some time to travel around when everything settles down." -==IC: Lucia Zyther -- Kalos Route 5==- "What Jamie said; we're here on vacation, and this is pretty much part of what we'd be seeing anyway. So we might as well tag along to keep company and help out when needed." Lucia kept a lot of that quiet to keep it from Lionel, but figured that he was engrossed enough in his Holo-whatever talk with Jared that he wouldn't hear anyway. "How about you?" -==IC: ???==- As the door began to fly, a voice echoed throughout the room as a red flash of light illuminated the surroundings. "STONE EDGE!" Unlike the typical usage of the move, a flat column of stone rose from the ground in the path of the door. The column crumbled under the weight of the door, but managed to slow the momentum enough that it tumbled to the ground. Ryan Hikari ran onto the scene, his Tyranitar beside him. "Where is... whatever that is?" The black-haired man hesitated to name the being formerly known as Miyu anything in particular. Without waiting for a response, he looked to the hole where the door used to be, then ran toward it quickly, using the video recorder on his Poké Gear to try and find where the Instance had gone, in case invisibility was one of its powers as well. -==IC: Chloe Hikari/Ray Hakuda -- Vertrag==- "Umm..." Chloe hesitated as the group was choosing how to split up to search the rooms. On one hand, she wanted to check out the unknown room that likely was Ford's command room. On the other, she suddenly felt nervous about being there with Sonja after what happened in Goldenrod. She knew it wasn't a fair unease, or anything that made sense, but yet... she just did not feel comfortable at that moment. "I'll... I'll go with Kyle." The psychic woman said after a few moments. Ray glanced over uncertainly at Chloe, as he could tell that she seemed uncharacteristically nervous. Even so, he looked toward the door that likely led toward something important. "I want to find out what's behind door number 1. I'm gonna go check it out with Sonja." He said finally, though he noticed Chloe had decided to examine the rest of the room they were in while she waited.

-==IC: Ray -- Vertrag==- Ray walked forward and scanned the surroundings, oblivious to Ryan's suspicious glare. "I couldn't really say, honestly. Half the time they kept me in my room, honestly..." The man said, a small frown on his face as he scanned the room for any bookshelves. When he couldn't see anything like that, he sighed. "There's two places I could think of, even though I have not a clue; I don't want to say the second right now, though..." Ray bit his lip. Still, Ford sent them here, which meant he felt certain this book was here. "Let's try to find wherever Ford ran things from first... I'd guess that if this book is important, that he'd want to have kept it close by." -==IC: Lucia Zyther -- Hotel Richissime, Lumiose City==- "That..." Lucia paused to try and think about whether she knew about that or not. "I never really paid much attention, to be honest. I was usually waking up later, but that's because a lot of the places we've traveled to together have been like... a lot later in the day." She bit her lip as she thought. "I'd guess no, but... I can't really say for sure whether he sleeps in or not." -==IC: Jenny Hakuda -- Heahea City, Akala Island, Alola==- Jenny stared at the wall of their hotel room. Despite wanting to get to sleep, she instead smiled widely as she thought over everything that happened. Along with feeling much better than most of the past week, she had made a new friend in the form of her Tenlite. The Plasma agent glanced back at the snoring Evan Tierra, but then continued to smile at the wall. "Let's make it an even more memorable day tomorrow…" Jenny whispered to herself as she resisted the urge to hum. She really wanted to at that moment, but knew that waking Evan up would be unfair to him. The woman closed her eyes as she tried to get as much sleep as she possibly could. -== -- ==- Four years earlier A groan rang out through a sterile white room as a woman groggily opened her eyes. As she slowly and painfully sat up, numerous amounts of wires falling down. The woman looked at them in confusion as she tried to figure out where they were all connected. "Ah, you're awake." A man dressed in nurse's garb said with a kind smile as the woman looked up. "Do you happen to remember your name? You gave us all quite a scare, suddenly appearing here like you did. The people at the docks noted that it seemed like you were about two feet from outright falling into the ocean." "I-..." The woman tried to speak, but then coughed instead. The nurse frowned slightly as he noted down something on the woman's chart near the bed. With a wince, the woman glanced over at him. "You should take it easy and get some rest. You were out cold for a good two days or so, and you seemed to be on death's door when you showed up. I would say that you're likely still recovering. Your Pokémon are all on the belt where you had them, though only two of them seemed to be occupied, even after the fisherwoman recalled..." The nurse paused as he noticed the look on the woman's face, which seemed to be a mix of fear and confusion. "This is a tough time for you, do you remember anything?" The woman shook her head. "I... w-was..." The woman realized that she had slightly found her voice once again, and powered through. "Running..." She trailed off after that, a look of pure confusion on her face. "Anything after that?" The woman shook her head. She looked around as if something could help her with that, but resignedly shook her head again. The nurse didn't seem to be judgemental about that, and simply nodded. "I understand. It can be a tough time, and it sounds as if you were in a traumatic situation. I would guess that you have amnesia. If you need any help with anything, please feel free to ask. I'll relay this information to the doctors and get back to you as soon as I can." As the man walked away, the woman slowly lowered herself back to the bed and stared at the ceiling. Who was she? Where was she? These were all answers she did not have. The woman closed her eyes as tears began to build up in the corners of them. She wondered if she would ever find those answers out.

-==IC: Colleen Llyan/Olivia Seaton/Lucia Zyther -- Hotel Richissime, Lumiose City==- "Oh, um." Colleen wasn't entirely certain how to respond to that, but smiled, although her face turned slightly red at what she had been called. "It was pretty okay, but I still feel somewhat sleepy. It's so weird how plane trips can do that, especially 12 hour ones." The aura girl walked over to get all the ingredients for her coffee - although it resembled Emily's coffee at the very slightest, if not more cream-and-sugary. "How about you?" Olivia looked over as Lucia walked in with Jamie. She then looked over to Elaine when the latter asked about their names. "My name's Olivia Seaton. Nice to meet ya." She turned back to her food, as she eyed the woman who was still standing there, curious to whether she was going to sit down. "Are ya having anything to eat?" Lucia glanced over at the woman and let Olivia go first. However, she gave a wave. "Hi, I'm Lucia Zyther. This is..." She gave a small smile as she thought over the conversation. "...my girlfriend, Jamie Arthur. My dad's the one who scored us the hotel."

-==IC: Colleen/Olivia -- Hotel Richissime==- Colleen and Olivia made her way to the dining area once they woke up - though they both looked like they were still at least three quarters asleep. "Mmm, breakfast looks good." Olivia mumbled as she sleepily walked toward the table. Colleen, meanwhile, decided to teasingly poke the back of Emma's head as she passed by. "Morning." The bedheaded aura girl said with a yawn as she glanced at Emma's coffee cup. "That looks good right about now... where'd you get the coffee from?"

-==IC: Olivia==- "Nice to meet ya, and hmm... I think a lot of us are only tied because of others in Liberty." Olivia said as she thought about things. "Lessee, there's Jared, who's here because of Lachina. My sister and I are here because of knowing a group of Liberty people, me specifically because of my girlfriend... and Zoe's only here because she hitched a ride with us without actually knowing that. Then our other two new friends are here because they were on vacation and ran into us, and my sister Dahlia knows one of them." When she actually finished saying all that, she realized just how odd the group had become, for a Liberty-run mission.

-==IC: Ryan Hikari -- Vermilion City Rocket Outpost==- With a nod to Luke, Ryan hurried past the two. He hoped that Miriam would lead the two of them to where the hatchery was, but he didn't feel there was time to waste. "Are we going the right way?" The agent asked, his Tyranitar's Poké Ball in hand. -==IC: Colleen Llyan -- Hotel Richissime, Lumiose City==- "Hm." Colleen was torn - on one hand, she knew that they needed to check in, especially since she felt extremely tired after the long day they had so far. On the other, she had kinda wanted to talk with the others some more still. "Alright..." She said after a moment. Still, something bugged her about how Jared had phrased about the group's growth. Colleen decided that she'd just leave it be for now until he brought it up any more. -==IC: Lucia Zyther -- Hotel Richissime, Lumiose City==- "Big businessman-type guy. Last I checked he owned a bunch of big technology companies or something." Lucia shrugged slightly, as she scratched the back of her head. "Not going to lie, I've been a little preoccupied for a while between my medical field training and getting into my job to begin with, so I... might have been slacking off on paying attention a little." The redhead gave a sheepish smile to Dahlia, as she glanced around at the people from the other group that had shown up, not recognizing a single person from that group. -==IC: Olivia Seaton -- Hotel Richissime, still, Lumiose City==- Olivia, meanwhile, walked up to the new girl that had shown up with the Café group. "Hiya. Name's Olivia." The redhead said as she extended a hand to the short-haired girl. "Did ya get brought in by the others?"

-==IC: Jenny Hakuda/Evan Tierra/Kris -- Heahea City -- [2-1]==- "Alright, start us off, Scizlite!" Jenny called out, as her Scizor flew forward. The Meganium took a direct punch from the steel bug, but didn't seem any worse for wear. He quickly tackled the Scizor in return with a full-body slam, which knocked the Scizor off balance for a couple moments. Meanwhile, the Cloyster had his shell closed tight until Gnip attacked, since he had a lot less movement options without Pokémon Power active. “Rush the Cloyster, Gnip!” Evan yelled out, and Gnip rushed forward towards her target. She slashed out with her right claw, hoping to reach into the groove where the shell opened to attack the weak spot on the Bivalve Pokémon. When she managed to accomplish gripping with her right claw, she reached with her left claw, and attempted to pull apart the shell. The Cloyster opened much easier than likely expected. . . and then used the momentum to spring forward, as he attempted to clamp shut once more, this time on Gnip's snout. The Scizor and Meganium were having an equally tough time trading blows, for as many punched the Scizor threw at the grass dragon, he seemed to just shrug a lot of them off. Gnip was soundly surprised and felt a crushing force on her snout as the Cloyster snapped his shell shut on it. Growling indignantly at the pain she was suffering, The Mach Pokémon tried slashing at her foe’s shell to no avail. It was then, she got a brilliant idea. Despite the pain, she essentially had a bludgeon on her face. She saw Scizlite’s war of attrition with the Meganium, and rushed towards the other opponent, aiming to smash the clam into the Herb Pokémon. The Meganium looked toward the Garchomp even as he endured more of the Scizor's rapid punches. He first attempted to move slightly so Scizlite would be hit instead, but knew that dodging would be out of the question with the Garchomp's speed. Instead, the Meganium reached up at the shell as Gnip was about to smash him with it, and then bit down on the other end to keep the Garchomp and Cloyster in place. Gnip growled as her brilliant idea was stopped cold by the Meganium’s counter. Evan saw this and tried to think of a plan that could turn this around for his prized Pokémon. He considered what the variables were, and came to a sound conclusion. “Gnip, Tug of War!” At her master’s command for one of the games they played in off times, Gnip yanked her head back, aiming to get the Cloyster off, and hopefully, with that action, at least shock the Herb Pokémon with the sudden lack of opposing force. -==IC: Colleen -- Scarlet Café, Lumiose City==- Colleen was slightly surprised by the enthusiasm displayed by Emma and Zoe, but smiled as she had to admit that the hotel sounded pretty amazing - especially to someone who hadn't actually ever been in one before. She tried to at least slow Zoe's charge toward the door as she spoke. "I agree." She said, as a yawn began to cut in briefly. "We should get going before it gets any later, I think." When she received no objections, however, she began to head to the door herself. The trip to the hotel was rather uneventful, though Colleen glanced back a few times to Elaine to make sure she was okay - the aura wielder worried that the conversation from earlier might have been too much, though it seemed like she was doing okay. When they reached the hotel, however, Colleen froze in her steps as she looked up at the large building in awe. "Whoa. Now I see what you mean." The young woman was pretty certain her mouth was open wide as she walked up the steps to the entrance. "We're staying here?" She asked no-one in particular as she glanced back to the group. She noticed a taxi pulling up to the sidewalk, but paid it no attention for the moment.

-==IC: Colleen -- Scarlet Café==- "Uh, hmm." Colleen bit her lip slightly as she thought about that. "I don't know if we ever actually thought of any good place, but Elaine wanted to visit Professor Sycamore, so that might be a good place to meet up." She thought for a moment as she frowned and lowered her voice to Lachina only. "I hope that Jared doesn't want us to camp tonight, though, that feels exhausting after our plane ride..."

-==IC: Lucia -- Lumiose City==- "If you need like, space for people, my dad got way too many rooms than was needed, and I have some of them." Lucia piped up as the others were talking about the sleeping arrangements for the night. Olivia glanced over at her with a slightly raised eyebrow. "He just so happened to get a bunch of rooms for ya? It sounds like he might have had other reasons..." Olivia mumbled the second sentence slightly under her breath to try and avoid Lucia hearing. "Still, that's a good idea. Do ya have enough rooms for at least three more people?" She was half tempted to leave out the 'at least' at the beginning, but then realized how their own group had already doubled - it was better to have possibly more space than not enough. Lucia thought for a moment as she counted on her hand. "Yeah, should be enough, with room to spare." She finally said with a nod. "When and where are you meeting up with them?"

-==IC: Chloe/Ray -- Mount Silver==- As the group made their way onto the elevator, Chloe thought about the things that had happened the last few days. She sighed and looked at the Poké Balls that lined her purse strap. She wondered if she had become hesitant to rely on her team despite how strong they were even without their powers. Still, she didn't want a repeat of what happened to Kamina. She'd use them if there was a good opportunity to, but not if they would be put into unnecessary danger. Ray, meanwhile, marveled at the sight of the elevator, amazed by how it had just appeared, but also how it felt so... real, for lack of a better word. He looked over the interior of the elevator as he waited for them to descend, curiously looking at the walls and mechanics that they could see, to try and understand it better in any way. -==IC: Ryan Hikari -- Vermilion City Rocket Outpost==- The man nodded as he opened the door and walked through. He saw Aori and Luke waiting there for him, but no-one else, which felt troubling. He figured that Luke had been asked to keep Aori back and watch over her, and was thankful for that at least. "Luke, we're headed to the hatchery, there's trouble. Can you continue to keep an eye on Aori, please? Things could get... rough." Ryan didn't want to actually explain what was happening - or his suspicions about Dack's message - but he didn't have any time to argue about things at the moment.

-==IC: Ryan Hikari -- Vermilion City Rocket Branch==- "I..." Ryan paused for a moment, then wrote up a message quickly asking where the others where. "I'm going to find that out now. But this is what's up." The man flipped back to the image and held the Poké Gear up so Miriam could see. "My friends are in danger from the looks of it. I don't know how to explain it." -==IC: Taylor Beryl -- The Alamo, Four Island==- "Alright." Taylor nodded in response, not feeling confident enough to respond to the comment about their dads feeling annoyed. "I have most of my stuff still packed, so it shouldn't be a problem to be ready by then at all." -==IC: Colleen Llyan -- Lumiose City==- "I have no problem with your aunt joining." Colleen said with a smile. She decided to not respond to Zoe's protests, especially since they had in fact trained just the night before. Still, she wasn't entirely certain about the nickname... she thought things over for a moment, and decided that one person wouldn't hurt. "I don't mind you calling me Collie for now."

-==IC: Ryan Hikari -- Vermilion City Rocket Branch==- Ryan nodded as he reached for his Poké Gear to check on the address. "I don't know if it would help, but the reason I came to Vermilion was to help out the girl from that video, Aori." The black-haired man glanced up at Miriam for a moment. "Her parents are... MIA currently. So..." His eyes traveled back down to the screen - two messages. Out of curiosity, he opened the one from Dack first. Ryan smiled at the message, but then froze when the image loaded. That wasn't Miyu. "We need to go." Ryan's voice took on an urgent tone as he suddenly stood up. "There is something very wrong right now, and we need to get to the others right now." The man's hand shot to his Tyranitar's Poké Ball as he headed toward the door. "You might get a look at the amazing evolving Tyranitar sooner than you thought." -==IC: Taylor -- The Alamo, Four Island==- Taylor was about to respond to Claus' comment about yelling out as soon as they saw each other - but the mention of a lead on Lucas was enough to distract her. "I'm in." The young woman said, as she glanced down at her watch. "I still haven't been able to get a hold of my dad either. Maybe..." She bit her lip - she didn't want to say that things were connected in case it wasn't a good thing. "Maybe we'll hear from him while we're there." With a moment's pause, she glanced back at Claus. "When do we leave?"

-==IC: Natalie -- Black City==- The wording of what Guin said made Natalie a little curious, but she nodded. No matter what, she needed to keep her poker face while in here, or things could get very hairy. Natalie wondered how they would get the information this time, but was prepared to use the Yuki disguise once again. -==IC: Ryan Hikari -- Vermilion City Rocket Outpost==- "Alright. Where's the studio from here?" -==IC: Taylor -- The Alamo==- "Oww..." Taylor grabbed her forehead as she looked up, first in annoyance at being crashed into, then in recognition as she saw who it was. "Oh! There you are, Claus; I've been looking all over for you. How's it going?" -==IC: Lucia -- Lumiose City==- Lucia felt torn with everything seemingly happening at once. She wanted to pay attention to what was happening, but then she was distracted by what happened to Jamie. She wanted to help out Jamie after that, but then was distracted by the oddly familiar doctor after he showed up. She ignored him to fish for first aid supplies from her bag, but then Dahlia took care of that. She was going to respond to the doctor again, but then Jared decided it was time to go. Lucia just ended up giving up and quickly organized her bag while waiting for the others. She stayed just as quiet when they actually started to leave the room. -==IC: Olivia -- Lumiose City==- The redhead looked up as the hospital doors opened and the rest of the group walked out. "Any luck?" Olivia asked with a curious look on her face as their faces implied that they hadn't. -==IC: Colleen -- Scarlet Café, Lumiose City (Partial Jam with Merc)==- Colleen stayed quiet as she listened to what Elaine had to say. It definitely fit with what she'd heard from Xander and everyone else who seemed to want to actually talk about Flare. She slowly stood up and nodded. "Alright. I need to go get my sister and friend first." The aura wielder said. She paused briefly. "Oh, what are you gonna do, Emily?" Emily smiled lightly. "That depends on what Alex wishes to do. If he's going with you, then so am I." Colleen seemed surprised, but nodded after that, a small smile on her face. "That's pretty nice." Before they began to move, she bit her lip. "Maybe I could try and give some aura training too if you come along? I mean, there's no real guarantees but it could be nice to try..." The Performer's eyes lit up and she nodded. "I'd love that!" Colleen's grin widened at the response. "Alright, that sounds like a plan. Let's go find the others, then." The girl glanced around to try and find the others, though it didn't take too long to find her hammy sister. She led the other two over, as she walked up to the table. "Heya, looks like we have to go now." -==IC: Ray/Chloe -- Mount Silver==- "Hmm..." Ray looked around to try and find the source of whatever it was that was causing this odd sensation. Chloe and Ray combed the area, but didn't seem to find anything with just a glance. Ray felt an odd sensation as he searched over by one corner, however. "I might have something over here." As Chloe walked over to where Ray was, the orange haired man brushed aside some of the brush near the wall. Hidden behind it, he noticed a rune engraved on the wall. It was a fancy symbol that vaguely resembled a "JF". Tentatively, Ray held his hand out toward it, as he wondered if this was why he felt such a pull.

-==NPC: Receptionist==- The receptionist looked up at the group with more than a hint of a frown. "I'm sorry, but I do not believe that would be a good idea. The doctor's orders are..." The woman saw the look on the group's faces before she finished her sentence, then sighed. "Follow me to the consultation room. I'll get the doctor in charge of his case."