Blessed Blade

-==IC: Chloe Hikari(Ally: 70%, Ren: 30%)/Ray Hakuda(Zangetsu: 15%) - Vertrag: Battle Arenas==- Ally focused as Gluttony opened his mouth to try and attack her. Trying to keep the creature's focus on her as long as possible, the Gallade summoned a shield of energy to Protect herself, opting to wait things out for the moment as she saw the two other fire-types pushing to close the heat in on their opponent. While she waited behind her shield, the Gallade tried to look for any openings that she might be able to use, her swords taking on a brighter glow as she twirled one of them in her hand while concentrating. The odds were with them at this point, they just needed to keep pressing the advantage. *** Zangetsu attempted to dodge out of the way of the attack, but it flew across the room at a speed that surprised the Zangoose. He was knocked back hard and took a tumble across the floor, seeming to barely still have the energy to keep going after that attack. Ren, on the other hand, took the attack directly, but still seemed okay even as she also got sent rolling across the floor. Chloe and Ray watched as the attacks collided with their respective Pokémon; although visibility was reduced for Ren until she tumbled out from the storm. The mega-charged Luxray stood up with a growl as she glared in the direction of the blizzard, prepared to rush back into the fray at the first command. Zangetsu, on the other hand, was having more trouble standing back up. Ray, however, noticed two things - one about how hurt Zangetsu was after that Disarming Voice, and the secondly that the steel-type attack hurt about as much as he expected. "Chloe, link us with Kyle!" Surprised by the request, Chloe nodded and did her best to establish a telepathic connection with Kyle as well. "Does this work?" The psychic girl asked as she barely managed to connect to both Ray and Kyle for the moment. "I think I need to work on this a little more, having a bit of trouble, but what's up?" "Kyle, if you can hear this, use Steel or Ice attacks on Adams. She didn't take much damage from Zangetsu's Close Combat, but his Iron Tail just now seemed to connect just as hard as Ren's Ice Fangs have been." Ray glanced around the field as he tried to keep the dragon in sight to make sure there were no surprise attacks. "Chloe, you try to distract her - I don't think that Zangetsu can do much unless there's a very large opening now, or he'll faint. I can't tell how much more damage he can take, especially from an attack like that." "Right." Chloe nodded as she tried to make sure that Kyle got the thoughts, giving him a small summary of the discovery herself just in case. She then opened a connection to Ren again, focused as she did so. "Ren, Quick Attack to get close! Make sure you only distract though - I don't know what's planned, but let's try to keep as many openings for the others as we can." The Luxray growled in acknowledgement as she took off toward the blizzard once more, using Quick Attack to close the distance and run around Adams to try and catch her off guard in the low visibility state. "Alright, Zangetsu…" Ray ran over to his injured Pokémon and quietly said his plan to the Zangoose. "So in summary, once you see an opening, get in, use Iron Tail again, then get out as quickly as you can, alright?" The Zangoose nodded, then slowly approached Adams once again, but stayed just out of range for the moment while he waited for the best opportunity. OOC: Ally: Protect > Herself, Swords Dance > Herself Ren: Quick Attack > Adams(Distraction), movement prepared to get away Zangoose: Waiting; Iron Tail > Adams(Prepared for when there's an opening) -==IC: Olivia Seaton(Jhen[Vibrava])/Colleen Llyan(Skulkraken[Magikarp], Pollyanna[Poliwag]) - River, Kalos Route 7==- Things happened so quickly. Hoping that the opposing Dragonair could wait a bit, Olivia's Vibrava quickly dived to try and catch the Inkay. Once he was certain that Marsala was safe, Jhen flew up toward the Dragonair in an attempt to slam into the malicious dragon and possibly return the spiking favour. "Is everyone okay?!" Olivia called out to the people who had fallen into the water, worried about them. She hoped that the others could be helped onto either their transports again or onto another, as she knew that the only way they'd get it to work here is if she wasn't on Dracos herself. Olivia wished for about the hundredth time that her team had their powers back, as it would make these things a whole lot easier to deal with. *** Colleen let out a surprised yelp as the unexpected dodge sent her into the river for the second time that day. She warily kept near her Magikarp for the moment, vaguely hearing the chaos of the rest of the fight. Pollyanna floated nearby as well, prepared to defend her trainer even as the girl fired off an Aura Sphere toward one of the Swanna that had attacked them. OOC: Jhen: Typeless Slam > Dragonair Colleen: Aura Sphere > Swanna

-==IC: Chloe Hikari(Ally: 70%, Ren: 50%)/Ray Hakuda(Zangetsu: 50%) - Vertrag: Battle Arenas @ TURNAROUND==- Chloe grinned at the sight of everything that happened. The damaging wind had hurt for a moment as it passed over the area that everyone was in - but the moment the attack dropped, the psychic woman held her hand forward, her link established with Ally once more. "Ally, let's do this!" Chloe clenched her fists in time with the sword-wielding Gallade as Ally vanished forward with Shadow Sneak once more. Appearing from the wendigo's shadow, the Gallade sliced forward with her swords, trying her best to keep Gluttony isolated to one area of the arena so that the group would have a better chance to land good hits. Chloe made her back down toward the arena proper, doing her best to give Sonja the distraction that was needed. With a deep breath, the psychic woman looked over to Ren and Zangetsu. "Ren! Broken record! Ice Fang!" She didn't want to actually say the entire sentence she had in mind because of not being sure if she could talk for long, but the general idea was gotten by the Luxray. It was getting to be the favourite move of the electric type in that battle, as her fangs once again glowed a brilliant cyan colour. Trainer and Pokémon analyzed what had happened previously - the Close Combat had failed to do as much damage as it should, but the Ice Fang had worked. While Chloe was tempted to try Crunch, she thought that the possible stalling factor of the ice would be much more useful even if Crunch worked well. *** Ray raised his arms as the weird wind attack blew over him. He was worried that this might stall out their momentum and reached out his hand as if he could attack like in his dream. The next moment he saw Gluttony fall into the magma with a horrid screech. A triumphant yell from Sonja caught his attention and he grinned in the direction of where she was and gave a thumbs up. "Good work!" Ray turned his head forward again to where Gluttony and the monstrous Adams were. He hesitated for a moment - on one hand, Gluttony seemed like the bigger threat here, but the more that teamed up against him, the more that attacks could accidentally hit their teammates. He turned his attention to the wildcard of the two that had locked them in that dream before. Ray revisited the thought about what Adams' weakness might be. He considered the two biggest options he felt it could be - Fairy or Psychic. Both would make sense in the context of the dream, though he wasn't certain it was either. If it was Psychic, Night Slash would be Super Effective - but if Fairy, then it would be resisted just the same as his Close Combat had been. But… A sudden thought came to the separatist with a smile. "Zangetsu, do a slash attack on Adams!" The Zangoose turned his head toward Ray in confusion for a moment as the Zap Cannon attacks crashed into Adams. The orange-haired Trainer made a motion with his hand and winked. The Zangoose looked down for a moment, then grinned. He turned back toward Adams and ran toward the near-grounded white dragon. As he ran, he felt a sort of shielding aura - this would very much help with his current plan. The Zangoose leaped toward the dragon with a claw pulled back as if he was going to use Close Combat or Night Slash once again; however, at the last minute, with the momentum that would have been used for Night Slash, Zangetsu whirled around in mid-air and used Iron Tail on the dragon's wing. It was a long shot, both the Zangoose and Trainer had to admit. But if it hit, then it was actually less of a gamble than Night Slash would be. Still, it would've been so nice to have that Dark suit here to at least try to analyze what the type of these things are… Ray thought with a slight grimace as he watched intently to see what the outcome would be. OOC: Ally: Shadow Sneak > Gluttony Ren: Ice Fang(again) > Adams Zangetsu: Iron Tail > Adams

-==IC: Colleen Llyan/Olivia Seaton/Lucia Zyther - Kalos Route 7==- "It looks like there might be a fight." Colleen said to Em before she turned her head to Zoe. "I'll attack if I need to, but only if I need to." The aura wielder scanned the waters as she sent out her Pokémon once again; this time Skulkraken and Pollyanna took center stage. She had to admit that the prospects of not fighting didn't look that good. She thought about using Vivian, but she wasn't sure how much the Clawitzer could do with how little she had been trained in physical combat or in the water. Still, just in case, she kept her hand near where the Poké Ball was. *** Olivia on the other hand, looked around quickly with a frown. "Ya don't have to look twice to see that they look like trouble." The frown turned to a grin. "Maybe this'll be a better test... ooh, maybe we'll have a situation like Ryan's Tyranitar did. That'd be much more exciting than yesterday." She paused for a minute and cleared her throat as she sent out her Vibrava for a moment. "What I mean is, uh, hopefully they actually decide to leave us alone." *** Lucia glanced around as the mentions of trouble sounded across Oggie's back. She reached for a Poké Ball, but hesitated as she didn't know what to actually choose. None of my Pokémon are actually that good at fighting above or under water... well, there's Claraga and my Slowpoke, but... The girl looked down at the water. She grinned. This can work, actually. The healer took hold of the Poké Balls that held her two water-types and tossed them forward quickly. "Stay close for now; Claraga, keep hold of Slowpoke for now. You'll both be pretty important if things turn bad."

-==IC: Colleen Llyan/Emma Lockwood - Kalos Route 7 River(jam)==- The river was pretty quiet at this early hour, and Emily was happily leaning against Colleen while also keeping a firm hold on Zoe. "This is nice," she said with a smile. "I've never traveled on water like this before." "You haven't?" Colleen asked curiously as she glanced around every so often, to make sure that they didn't get surprised by any Pokémon. “No, I usually ride on Spitfire. This is a lovely change of pace, though.” Emily stretched softly and leaned back as much as one could on the round dome of a Blastoise back. Her eyes scanned the river and she giggled as she saw a shape swimming alongside them. “Oh, look, a Marill.” "Oh?" Colleen looked over the side curiously as she saw the shape as well. "Wow, I wonder what it's doing here? Like, what with everything that was said about this place being dangerous now and all." “I don’t think it realizes.” Emily sat up a bit, humming. “I think I’m going to try capturing it “ She dug a ball out of her pocket and expanded it. The Marill, swimming along happily, noticed her and gave a slight grin. As Emily lobbed the ball -- nearly going over the side of the Blastoise shell -- the Marill leapt out of the water. Its tail smacked the ball, sending it down into the water before landing and continuing to swim. Emily stared, clutching Kammy’s shell. "Do you have another Poké Ball?" Colleen asked after a moment's pause. That had been a rather awkward attempt, but the beige-haired girl was now intent on this working out to make up for that. “Ugh, no,” Emily groaned. “That’s annoying.” The Marill had flipped onto its back and was sticking its tongue out at the girl. Colleen frowned, then dug into her backpack and pulled out an empty Poké Ball, then unclipped her Magikarp's Poké Ball from her belt. "Alright." She handed the empty one to Emily, then threw her Magikarp's into the air, sending out Skulkraken to fight - or at least distract the Marill enough. Emily raised an eyebrow as the Magikarp appeared, but gripped the ball tightly. The Marill took note of the approaching opponent and grinned. With a flick of her tail, she dipped under the water and popped up under the Magikarp in an attempt to throw it out of the water and onto Kammy’s back. The Magikarp was caught by surprise, but twisted at the only time that was possible to think of evading. Skulkraken bounced off the side of the shell, some scales flaking off in the process, before diving down under the water as well. Colleen, in the meantime, kept watch of what was going on and the tricks that the Marill was using against them. The Marill ducked back under the water, tail flicking to propel her into her opponent again in a pale imitation of a Tackle attack. The Magikarp attempted to nimbly dodge, but was surprised by the speed of the Marill's movements. She spiraled through the water for a couple moments, before speeding back toward the Marill to try and draw her back to the surface. Eager to play-slash-battle, the Marill followed unwittingly. As she popped up, back to Kammy, Emily threw the ball. Even as the ball hit its mark and the Marill disappeared in white light, Emily realized that she had overreached and was certainly going to go into the river. She cried out as she felt gravity take hold. Colleen quickly reached out and grabbed hold of Emily's arm, as she tried her best to keep the redhead on dry not-quite-land. She kept watch on the Poké Ball, her other arm ready to dig into her backpack for another sphere if needed. The ball split open, and the Marill reappeared, seeming dazed by the sudden change of orientation and location. Colleen helped Em back upright, then fished out another Poké Ball. "Alright, plan B; I don't think that'll work a second time, but we can maybe catch the Marill off guard. Here, you throw, I'll jump, and together it should work." The aura wielder grinned, as she adjusted her position, carefully standing up while making sure no-one else fell. Kammy glanced back in slight confusion at what was going on, but instead looked back up the river. Even still, an expression of concern was across the Blastoise's face. Emily smiled. “Think it’ll work?” Even as she said it, she took the ball. The Marill was watching them warily, but still had that grin on her face. Emily nodded. “You’re mine this time, Laramar.” Emily stood and lobbed the ball one last time. As Emily did so, Colleen jumped into the air. The Marill flicked the ball away with her tail, but the aura wielder had already did her best to factor that in. The capsule flew her way and the girl grabbed for it, barely gripping it in the tips of her fingers. With a look back toward the Marill, Colleen flung the ball her way, intent on making this attempt be the one that succeeded. The Marill was not expecting the two-pronged attack. As she was encased in the ball once more, Emily gave a small jump of joy. Landing on Kammy’s back, her shoe slipped on a slick patch. “Crud,” she muttered as her foot shot out from under her and she once more found herself taking a dive. Captured or not, it appeared that the Marill got the last laugh, as when Colleen saw the blur of moment in the corner of her eye of Emily falling toward the water, she realized that her own trajectory was right into the river as well. With a big splash, the beige-haired girl found herself swimming for the foreseeable future. As Colleen surfaced, she sighed, then swam over to go and help Em back onto the Blastoise. Em surfaced, gasping softly as her hair stuck wetly to her head and neck. Still, she grinned, when she saw something bobbing towards her. Quickly she snagged the Poké Ball and giggled. “We did it! Collie, we got her!” "Nice!" Colleen grinned at the Poké Ball in Emily's hand. She clambered back up onto the water-type, then held out her hand to help the redhead back up as well. Emily took the hand and leveraged herself up onto Kammy’s back with a laugh. “So much for--” “Everything alright back there?” Jared had moved to the rear of Oggie’s shell and was smiling a bit at the three Blastoise-riding girls. “You’re making a lot of noise, just making sure nothing’s wrong.” "Yeah, we just took a slight dip. Wanted to check how the water was while catching something. But we succeeded. The water's great, too." Colleen definitely was doing her best to not laugh at her own joke. She wasn't succeeding at that part very well. Emily giggled, hugging Colleen tightly. “I caught a Marill!” she exclaimed happily. Jared chuckled. “Good to hear. Let me know if you see anything else.” The silver aura user turned back to face the front and resumed his conversation with Lionel.

-==IC: Ray Hakuda - Vertrag, Battle Arenas==- Ray watched with a wince as Zangetsu took a heavy blow from the Draco Meteor. Even with the damage, however, the Zangoose planted a foot to remain standing. The two glared up at Adams, trying to figure out the best move that he could use. The fact that the dragon had taken the Close Combat so well perplexed Ray, which prompted him to consider what the typing of Adams could be. "Zangetsu, try a Night Slash this time!" Ray called out, though he knew that they needed to be careful. This would be a testing sign of which type the dragon was, however. The Zangoose waited for a couple moments, then leaped into the air again, aiming to slash out with his claws at Adams' wings. Pokémon and trainer alike knew that this was a risk, but it was one that Ray was willing to take. -==IC: Chloe Hikari - Vertrag, Battle Arenas==- "Ren!" Chloe grit her teeth as she saw her Luxray take the blow from the Draco Meteor, though she seemed to be faring better than the majority of Ryan's team. The Luxray defiantly stood up and growled at Adams even through the damage that had been dealt. "Alright, that seems to be doing well so far, so let's go for an encore, Ren! I know we can do this!" Chloe said telepathically to Ren as she began to slowly climb down the seats to where Ryan and Sonja were. The psychic girl was still trying to catch her breath, but that wouldn't be a problem for snapping sense into the cowering man. As Chloe made her way down the seats, Ren made her way up, trying to get as much height as she could before she leaped up toward the dragon. She tried to time it right that her pounce would happen after Zangetsu got his attack in, but she knew that if she hesitated too long, Adams could either move, or already have been knocked to the ground. So after she eyed the situation to roughly get to where she needed to be, the Luxray leaped toward the dragon once more, icy fangs at the ready to try to attack whatever she could get her teeth on. Chloe finally got to where the pedestal was, breathing heavily as she heard what Ryan said. "I... hang on... gonna use... telepathy." She didn't think anything was actually broken, but it was better safe than sorry. Plus, she wanted to actually be heard quickly. She opened up her telepathy to Ryan and Sonja both, so they could both hear and so it wasn't a one-sided conversation. "That's not true; that voice is wrong. I know from experience... After Unova, that's all I kept hearing. So I ran from all my problems; I ran from my friends. There were times when I pulled myself out briefly, but it was only just a couple weeks ago that that stuck... It took everyone's voices to really sink in. Every step of the way I had to fight it. I still have moments where I doubt myself, but you were the one who told me on the train to basically just keep moving forward. Heck, I'm scared even now, but I trust in everyone. We have to keep fighting. Making mistakes is just what makes us human." Chloe paused for a moment to try and help that sink in. "It's okay to be scared... but sometimes you have to face your fears. Alright? Let's all do this, together." The girl glanced around the battlefield to make sure nothing else was going to happen there, but hoped that this would sink in and pull Ryan out of the illusion. -==IC: Marie - Hau'oli City==- "...First it went like 'bah bah bah bah', and then it went like 'TAH TAH TAH TAH!'" Marie casually listened as Lindsey said things that she could not for the life of her understand. She guessed that it was about some kind of anime, but not one that Marie had ever seen. Not that that was tough to do, living in another world tended to do that. "I see…" Marie finally said with a smile as she tried her best to indicate that she was listening. "So the 'mah mah mah mah' people fought the aliens?" "Well, yes, but it was 'bah bah bah bah', then 'TAH TAH TAH TAH'! The order is important, and also the wording!" Marie was completely lost, but pleased that she at least got one thing right. "Right, got it, I think." She glanced over at the counter for a moment. "So what are we doing at the karaoke place?" "Singing! What else?" The matter-of-fact way that Lindsey said it was enough to make Marie just pause and nod as if it was the weirdest question she could have asked. She also dreaded the idea of singing.

Proposed Pokémon: Zangoose Appearance: (Sprite to be shown here) Focus: Focuses on physical attack power; defenses slightly lower, but the attack and speed goes up, making it a last-ditch effort. Type: Normal/Fighting Mega Ability: Tough Claws Stat Distribution: -ATK: 115 > 160 (+45) -SPA: 60 > 75 (+15) -DEF: 60 > 55 (-5) -SPD: 60 > 55 (-5) -SPE: 90 > 140 (+50) And for Ray's Zangoose: Mega Appearance: Same as normal, except there seems to be more of a mane of hair at the back. Mega Ability: Tough Claws Mega Specialty: In addition to normal specialties, has the ability to use slicing attacks from a distance with energy.

-==IC: Chloe Hikari(Ally, Ren) - Vertrag, Battle Arena==- Ally focused as Gluttony blocked her attack. She attempted to dash forward toward the Sin, but had to take a detour to the side as she felt her strength begin to be sapped by the odd attack. She glanced back for a moment, but saw that Chloe was still unfocused from the fight at the current moment. Her shadow extended, she vanished from sight long enough to appear just outside of Gluttony's line of sight. When she appeared, she moved to strike out with her twin swords with a Shadow Sneak attack, a fiery determination in her eyes. Chloe, meanwhile, was still focused on Ray when the shockwave hit. She took just one second to glance back to where the fight was going on, then raised her hand as her eyes glowed green, her attempt redoubled. However, the situation looked grim, especially as she thought she saw Ray's head droop… OOC: Ally: Shadow Sneak > Gluttony -==IC: HOPE==- . . . Although it felt hopeless… light continued to shine. Flashes in the darkness shone forward. A connection was made. And somehow, somewhere… things turned around. . . . . . . . . . -FINAL ROUND- "RAY!" A flash of rainbow surrounded Ray, a barrier blocking the man in the process. Both the Separatist and the monster seemed surprised as Ray realized that, whatever happened… it was something trying to help him. The orange-haired man clenched his fist, as he stepped forward. The surrounding area had completely vanished. It looked like the two combatants were standing on a transparent platform over a purple void. Ray took another step forward, then realized that he was once again wearing the Ice-type Power Suit, though it more resembled the prototype version that he had tested against the Darkrai. Still, he stepped forward again, the monster beginning to step back in surprise and shock. With every step, it felt like someone was there, encouraging him - empowering him. The Separatist created an Ice Shard, then dashed forward and struck the monster across the chest. The monster let out a shriek of pain that threatened to deafen Ray, but he pushed the attack, summoning a hail of ice around the monster's head. The shadowy creature attempted to swing its claws at Ray again and again as he kept up the assault, but it just kept bouncing off of the rainbow shield. The fighter slashed out at the monstrous creature another time before the shard of ice broke. It seemed for a moment that the suit might have run out of power. Ray seemed caught off guard by the Ice Shard breaking. The creature took advantage of that and tried to advance. However, a lightning bolt forced the monster back toward the edge of the platform. The Separatist glanced over where the bolt had come from, only to discover that his Pikachu friend had shown up to help, though in a more spectral form than he remembered. The shadow creature caught Ray's attention once again with a howl of rage. It looked for a moment like the trainer was out of tricks. However, Ray smiled confidently as he jumped backward, a flourish of his hand creating a spear of ice and proving that his suit hadn't run out of power after all. "Now, go!" Ray cried, as he let the ice spear fly forward. The creature roared out in pain as the spear found its home in the monster's chest area. Briefly, the creature morphed into different forms, including into that of his father. Ray turned away, however, as the creature began to have rainbow light shoot out of its body. When he glanced back, the shadows that comprised it burst into fragments, leaving only a rainbow silhouette of the same kind of Pokémon that the shadowy creature had took the form of. With a grin, Ray walked forward, the armour dissipating into green light particles as he reached out to the silhouette… -==IC: Ray Hakuda - Vertrag, Battle Arena==- Ray's eyes shot open as a glow of rainbow-coloured light engulfed the area in front of him. He planted his foot in front of him as he began to stand up. An orb like in his dream floated in the air - despite the searing light, he found that he couldn't look away. It was just like on One Island. When the orb broke open, he saw his Zangoose, except in a completely different form. A cursory glance around the room showed a similar situation for the others' Pokémon. Ray looked over to the stands, as he saw Ryan and Sonja being tormented by Adams in her monstrous form. The Separatist ground his teeth together, as he and Zangetsu ran forward, intent on stopping the dragon from harming either of the two. "Can't let you do that, Adams! Zangetsu! It's time to show everyone what we can do! Hone your claws, then use Close Combat on Adams!" The mega-charged Zangoose gave a growl of recognition to the command, then shot forward faster than before. The Zangoose ran with his claws down to grind them like using a whetstone, the larger-than-normal claws causing sparks against the ground until the Zangoose leaped up toward the stands. Trying his best to get in an attack before the dragon could react, Zangetsu slashed out in the way that he used Close Combat, to try and deal a big hit to the main body and any bits of the wings that he could. *** "Ren!" The Luxray looked over as Chloe finally paid attention to the fight attention and ran closer to where the electric-type was. "Let's go help out quick! Adams seems like the bigger threat here right now!" Chloe said with a determined look on her face as she re-establish connection with Ally to be able to give her commands from afar. "Now, Quick Attack to get close, then use Ice Fang again!" With a growl of acknowledgement, Ren quickly dashed forward, her legs moving faster than ever. One powerful leap later and the Luxray landed in the stands behind where Sonja was. Ren growled threateningly at Adams as she pawed forward to the side of Sonja. Once she was certain that neither Ryan nor Sonja would get harmed by the attack, Ren pounced toward Adams. While that was going on, Chloe focused forward. I've never done this before… but I hope it'll work. She took a deep breath, and then attempted to teleport forward into the stands. This was the first time she had actually wanted to test this power out, but knew that if she didn't try, then things might not go well for them. The psychic woman gave it her best shot, though luckily gave herself some wiggle room in her coordinates, as she was off by a couple rows of seats. She appeared in the air above some of the seats, but crashed down on one of the arms. Winded, she instead tried to reach out to Ryan with her psychic powers as she recovered. "Ryan, don't give up… you're trapped in an illusion, it's not real…" Chloe attempted to say, though she couldn't tell how much was getting through to the terrified man. OOC: Zangetsu: MEGA EVOLUTION, Hone Claws > Self, Close Combat > Adams Ren: Quick Attack > Close distance, Ice Fang > Adams

-==IC: Chloe Hikari -- Vertrag==- Chloe had attempted to push herself to her feet before the Demonic Hunger struck. She looked in despair as she wasn't sure what they could do. The psychic wanted to fight back, but she couldn't find the energy to even stand up. She watched, trying to find any way to turn the tide. From out of nowhere, Chloe noticed an aura of rainbow light surrounding Kyle's Pokémon. She raised an arm, but when it faded… the Pokémon that were there had different forms. Her eyes widened as she smiled. This sounded like what Ryan had described his Tyranitar having evolved into during the battle on One Island. The psychic girl struggled to her feet, a glow of determination in her eyes. We can do this… Chloe grinned as she watched the fight continue. Good job, Kyle… She glanced up in surprise as the light restored her strength. She wondered briefly about what the Jirachi was all about, but her attention fell back on Gluttony and Adams. The young woman's Pokémon gathered around her as she stepped forward. Chloe's eyes glowed green, as she connected with Ally. A rainbow light surrounded Ally and Ren as she advanced. Cyndy stayed back, but growled at the two foes intimidatingly. The glow faded. When the two Pokémon stepped out, they looked completely different than their normal forms. Chloe grinned as she looked at the Gallade and Luxray to briefly admire their new appearances. Ally now had a sort of longcoat that extended from her shoulders. Her helmet now lacked the "mohawk" and had a protective "visor" over her eyes. The white parts of her body now were dark grey, and her arm blades seemed to be gone. Ren, on the other hand, seemed to now have stars for ears, with a bunch of new markings. There were new star "pieces" around the tail, though Chloe didn't have time to scan around any of the other changes. She focused on her two opponents. Ally created two swords out of the Swords Dance and took them in hand. Flames danced around the edge of the ethereal sword. Ren growled a warning to her opponents. "Let's try this out! Psycho Cut on the not-dragon, and Ice Fang on the dragon!" Chloe pointed forward as her confidence shone through. Ally slashed forward with one of the swords and a psychic burst of energy shot forth toward Gluttony, flames intertwined as the energy traveled forward. Ren, meanwhile, dashed forward toward Adams and jumped up at her wings. Jaws glowing with freezing energy, the Luxray attempted to bite down on one of the the left wings. While that was going on, the girl quickly scanned the room; of the six members of the group, Ray was the one who still seemed to be stuck, knelt down in one spot. She had concerns about Ryan too, but for the moment, Chloe attempted to reach out to call to Ray. OOC: Alvis: MEGA EVOLUTION, Swords Dance > Self, Psycho Cut > Gluttony Ren: MEGA EVOLUTION, Ice Fang > Adams -==IC: Ray Hakuda -- Dreams==- -Day 3- Ray woke up. He glanced around the room; his Pikachu friend had seemingly left during the night. He shrugged for a moment and instead got ready for the day. Today seemed like a pigtails day - it turned out to be just barely doable. Ray clipped the hairclip onto his bangs, then grinned. "Alright, time to get to work." Ray headed off to the fridge to get something to eat. When he opened the fridge, however, a rainbow light shone through. He took a step back, as he thought of the first thing that came to mind regarding it. "Aurora borealis?!" The man looked at the light in shock. For some reason, this one thing seemed so out of the ordinary to him. "At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country, localized entirely within my kitchen?" Ray paused, then looked outside. It had the rainbow light too. "... Okay, maybe not entirely… but what's going on here…?" With a frown on his face, Ray grabbed his Poké Balls and walked outside. There was an odd feeling regarding everything - something appeared to be calling him from the top of the Radio Tower. Ray walked around Goldenrod until he was close to the Radio Tower, but it felt like it took forever. As he managed to reach the outside, though, he could hear a sort of echoing sound that he could just barely hear. With a frown, Ray pushed the door open and walked inside. The first thing that he noticed was that the room seemed twisted. Yet, as he walked through the room, it seemed to almost… twist with him. Every step he took seemed to "correct" the room, though when he looked back, he realized that it was only the area that was directly around him that was right side up. Ray pushed his way through the building, finding each successive level to be more twisted than the last. But it was almost like something was helping him, guiding him. He heard his name being called out - repeated over and over as he climbed the tower. When he reached the top floor, he saw a rainbow light shining in an orb in front of him. "What is this…?" The calling almost seemed to be emanating from inside of the orb. The feeling of the orb seemed… familiar almost. Ray took a step forward, as he felt drawn to it. He raised a hand up to touch the orb, as if in a daze. As he reached out to it, however, the orb seemed to distort with a red light. It floated into the air, then shrunk smaller and smaller, a burst of red and black lightning sparking around the edges. Moments later, a shadowy shape that vaguely resembled a Pokémon of some kind with gigantic claws appeared. As the shape opened its eyes, they were pure red. Ray backed up, as the shape approached, a malicious grin on its face. The man raised his arms, as the shape raised a claw. There was corrupted laughter from the creature, as it seemed to be savouring the moment. The monster brought its claws down. . . .

-==IC: Ryan Hikari -- Vermilion City==- Before anything else could happen, Ryan's Poké Gear beeped with a message. Ryan closed the message, then glanced at the room. "Well, looks like it's time for me to get going. Have a good day, you two, alright?" He smiled at the two girls as he went to pick up his bag to head out for the filming.

-==IC: Olivia Seaton -- Outside Battle Chateau, Kalos==- Olivia took a deep breath, as she looked up to the sky, Poké Gear in hand. She didn't like the idea of leaving Dahlia in the dark any more than her sister liked it herself. But she couldn't just tell her. The redhead idly played with the charms on her Poké Gear, an uneasy look on her face. A few moments later, a beep caught her attention. {"I got your message. What's up?"} Simple as ever. Olivia rolled her eyes slightly as she typed out a reply. {"Dahlia was asking questions about you… I'm not sure what to do."} There was a long delay after she pressed send. Finally, a beep signaled a response. {"Where are you, Olivine? Let's schedule a meet up."} {"That's not gonna work, Corey, I'm waaaaay far away from Olivine."} {"Well… then… I hate to say this, but just let it be for now. Maybe that meet up could be later. Anyway… how's everyone doing?"} Olivia sighed as she held her head with the palm of her hand. She knew that this was the only way that worked, but she worried that Dahlia wouldn't drop the issue until she got the answer. The Rocket agent stopped to think about that too. Was that normal for Dahlia? She felt guilty, as she didn't know the answer to that. {"Olivia?"} {"Oh, sorry, just… it's been a rough few months."} {"I getcha. The ceasefire sounded like it would help things, but stuff around Goldenrod has been hectic as well, especially since that flash the other day. It's as if they've emboldened people around here. It sucks."} Olivia laughed at the bluntness of the last sentence. She took a moment to think about everything as she chewed on her lip. {"Yeah… I don't know, though. Like, take this for example, when was the last time we even talked? It feels like this last month in particular has just been a trip through my past. Plus, I've gotten caught up in so much more than I ever thought I would."} {"Then like, things start going good, but I get scared, right? I start getting over protective, like if I don't keep fighting with all I have to make sure everyone I care about stays close, I'm just gonna lose them again. And that just hurts the same people I wanna protect…"} {"I've been trying to be better about it, but like… did I make the right call? I wanted to help everyone. But now it just seems like I just made it all worse for everyone. I don't even feel like I know my own sister anymore…"} {"That's… that's a lot for you to handle on your own, Liv. I know you had issues with Aspen, but, I didn't expect…"} {"I'm sorry. What were some of those good things, though? Maybe talking 'bout them could help?"} Olivia took a deep breath as she pressed against the wall, trying to keep hidden as long as she had time. {"Well… Some of the not-good things involved like, Dahlia getting kidnapped and us all getting wrapped up in big fights by accident."} {"Liv. Honey. Sweetie. I said good things. :-P"} {"Yeah, yeah, I was getting there!"} {"Anyway. As I was saying… All those things happened, but like, we got Dahlia back, I did meet some new friends, some of my Pokémon evolved, and I met up with Chloe and we're girlfriends now."} There was a notable pause after Olivia sent that message. {"CHLOE??? YOU MEAN, YUKI??? GIRLFIRENDS??? OH MY GOSH CONGRATULATIONS, OH GOD, WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN? I, OH, I THINK I MIGHT HAVE SEEN HER THE OTHER DAY???"} Olivia was a mix of amused at the response, and surprised that Corey and Chloe had met up. A mischievous smile crept on her face, however. {"It's to the left of the A key, Corey."} {"What? … Oh, haha, very funny Liv."} {"Joking aside, a few weeks ago; she helped me get Dahlia back, then after some… other stuff… we actually like, talked some things over. And here we are."} {"I'm glad. Oh, gotta go, some stuff just came up."} {"Alright, seeya."} The redhead turned off the screen of her Poké Gear with a sigh. She slowly stood up, unsure exactly how long she had been sitting there. After a quick stretch, she walked down the steps and looked around to see where the rest of the group had gotten to. -==IC: Chloe Hikari -- ???==- "Let go of me." Chloe said with a forceful tone. Things began to flood back to her, as she began to see more shapes in the background that felt familiar. But Madeleine held tight to her arm. "No. Don't you want to be my friend? Well here you have it." The blonde woman gave a toothy grin, as she leaned close, forcing Chloe to move back slightly. "We're fine here, and we can stay friends forever." "You're not Madeleine." Chloe wrenched her arm free as she stepped back. "This place… this isn't actually happening. Is it?" The young woman clenched her fists as snow began to fall around them. She watched as Madeleine chuckled to herself. "Oh, Yuki. If I'm not Madeleine, then who am I?" The blonde stepped forward again, mouth curled upward even more. "I don't know if you understand any of what's going on." "I understand enough!" Chloe said as she helped Ally's Poké Ball in hand. "You're the creation of a monster. That monster did all this." She tossed the capsule forward, as the Gallade appeared, ready to slice through the apparent apparition as quickly as she could. Madeleine seemed surprised, as she looked toward the ground. She laughed, though the laughter sounded sad at the same time. "You're… absolutely right. I'm just the creation of a monster. But so are you, aren't you?" When Madeleine looked up, her eyes had changed from the brilliant blue they were to a bright red. The sky turned stormy as the blonde floated into the air, red energy pouring from the place that Ally slashed at. "You aren't any more innocent in all this, if I'm the creation of a monster, Yuki. I thought you of all people would get that." The double meaning wasn't lost on Chloe. She looked up at her old schoolmate, thinking back to what happened. "Ally, let's get her out of the sky." With a sad look on her face, the auburn-haired girl stepped forward, her eyes glowing green. She had a feeling that she could break this whatever-it-was, but… she had a chance that she didn't want to pass up. Chloe reached out to grab hold of Madeleine as the blonde's words rang in her ears again. How she didn't understand what was going on. Maybe Madeleine was right. I thought this was just because of the flash, but… parts of this just seem to want to keep me in here, but other parts… Chloe waited until Ally got close. "Psycho Cut her!" She glanced away as the ranged shockwaves released more of the red energy and Madeleine fell slightly. The psychic woman reached out and took hold of the blonde girl with her powers, then pulled her back down to earth. "Why can't you just stop? Why can't you ever just let me win?" Madeleine cried out as she struggled against the psychic energy. Chloe walked forward, a calm and sad look on her face as the storm faded back to a light snowfall. "Maddy… that isn't the point. You've known that for a while, right? We discussed this…" Chloe stopped in front of the blonde. "But… you aren't actually here. This isn't actually real. I get it now, you showed up because this was going to stop me, right?" The other woman stayed quiet. "I think I could have broken out. I have the most control here… but… I wanted to say something. I'm sorry." Madeleine looked at Chloe as if she were stunned, but the younger girl with the auburn hair continued on. "I should have tried harder. I should have made sure you were safe more often. But I didn't. I let you down, just like I let Olivia and the others down. I… don't even know where you are anymore. If you're even still alive in the real world." Chloe bit her lip, but then closed her eyes and hugged the blonde girl tight. "But I was wrong to not try harder. Maybe one day we can meet again, properly. I still have to thank you properly for…" Chloe opened her eyes as she heard the din of battle once more. Why was her face wet? She felt weak and fell to her knees for a moment as she slowly caught her breath and tried to keep herself composed even as she began to shiver from the cold. I'll tell her those things myself one day. Right now… we have to fight. -==IC: Ray Hakuda -- ???==- -Day 2- "Huh?" Ray groaned, as he sat up. He didn't remember falling asleep in the beanie chair, but here he was. He yawned and glanced around with a smile. The battery packs he had bought lined up around the still-running generator, his Pikachu friend sleeping peacefully on top of it. Ray stood up with a stretch as he shivered. He'd have to remember about fixing that heater soon. A little while later, the young man walked through the streets of Goldenrod, hands in his pockets. He was too lazy to actually fix his hair today, which was extremely messy by now, so he instead fastened the hairclip to his shirt. He wanted to at least wear it in some way, even if it wasn't in his hair. He wasn't sure exactly what to do today, but stopped by the department store. No-one was actually around at the moment. That's strange… Ray thought to himself as he glanced around. With a grin, he began to look around the store. Well, I've always wanted to try acting as a self-checkout. After a little while, the young man had gathered up a lot of the supplies he would need. He munched on a snack bar as he considered everything. He had thought about getting actual groceries, but realized that it wasn't the best idea until he figured out whether the fridge worked or not. Still… "How are you doing on this fine day?" Ray asked, as he stood behind the counter with a grin. He quickly dashed around to the other side. "Oh, just fine, you know! I've found this neat abandoned building and I'm staying there because my father is a big mean jerk!" Ray replied as he dug out some money from his wallet, then ran to the other side again. "How awful. At least you've found some place to stay." The man rang in the items with a smile, placing them in a bag when he was done. "Yes, I've got a nice little Pikachu friend to keep me company, so it's pretty nice actually!" Ray stopped and leaned against the counter for a moment to catch his breath. "This running around is a lot more tiring than I had considered it to be." After he finished off checking out, he left the department store. With a nervous look, he glanced around. "This is odd, though… aren't there usually a bunch of people, if not in the store, like… around town?" Ray mumbled as he seemed a bit unsettled. Even so, he went home to his new hideaway. "I'm home!" The young man called out. After a couple seconds, the Pikachu squeaked a greeting as she ran up to him. Ray knelt down and scratched the mouse behind the ears. He shivered again, then dug out some tools to try and fix the heater. A few minutes later, he sighed. "Alright, so maybe I'm not the best at this, but I need to actually get this working. I can't actually check the fridge until it is…" He paused, and held a hand close to the heater. "Wait, why is it giving off heat if it's not heating the room?" -==IC: Ryan Hikari -- Vermilion City==- "That's a good idea, actually, we could maybe like, spend the day there after we check around town or something." Ryan glanced at the other two with a smile. "Alright, so to recap, you two check around here while I'm busy filming stuff, then we'll head to Celadon either later today or tomorrow, depending on when I'm done." -==IC: Marie -- Hau'oli City, Alola==- With a sigh, a young woman leaned against the wall of the photo center, tapping her foot on the ground. She glanced around, as she had been planning to meet up with a person she had traveled from Sinnoh to meet up with. "Typical..." The woman mumbled, as she brushed her blonde hair out of her face. She waited a few more minutes, then sighed as she began to walk back toward the Pokémon Center. "Oh! Marie! Marie! Over here!" The blonde turned her head as she saw a brunette girl run over to her. "Sorry, I thought you told me the Pokémon Center; I've been waiting there for the last half hour." Marie blinked at the girl, then snickered for a moment before it became fully fledged laugh. She grinned at her friend, and gave a thumbs up. "No worries here, Lindsey. I can't be mad at a reason like that. Alola!" She gave an Alolan wave, which her friend returned the favour for. "So, what were we wanting to do? I think you mentioned something about downtime or so?" "Girl, you've been working yourself so much on whatever it is you do." Lindsey crossed her arms as she raised an eyebrow. "Like, you keep doing something, but never tell anyone what it is. It sounds like you've only had a break recently." After a moment, she broke from her pose and draped an arm around Marie with a chuckle. "And then you start going to far off places like Kalos!" "Well... the travel is my downtime... I don't need to worry about my other project because it's finished, so... now I get to enjoy myself, I guess." The blonde girl rubbed the back of her head. Her friend rolled her eyes, however. "I don't know that you do know how to enjoy yourself, so! What we're going to do is help fix that! A night on the town!" Lindsey gestured dramatically at each mention, as she led Marie onward. The brunette continued to chat away about the different things planned, though Marie couldn't tell whether or not any of it actually appealed to her. She glanced away at one point, as she started to consider the girl's point. Did she know how to actually enjoy herself?

-==IC: Olivia Seaton -- Battle Chateau, Kalos==- Olivia took a step back, an extremely uneasy look on her face. "I can't start at the beginning." She said with an adamant tone, a hint of fear in it. "S-sorry, but I just can't. I wanna tell ya, but I can't without breaking the trust of someone." The Rocket agent took another step back as Dahlia kept approaching. "I just, I can't." She took another step back, then looked to the floor. "... I'm sorry." With that, Olivia turned and ran out of the hallway, headed outside. OOC: Possible warning of bad parents, tough to judge on this one. -==IC: Ray Hakuda -- ???==- -Day 1- After working on his hair for what seemed like forever, Ray walked out of his room and into the kitchen. He adjusted the belt-sash on his cyan tunic as he walked toward the table to sit down. "You're late." A stern voice said suddenly to Ray's left. As he looked over, he saw an older orange-haired man. The man tapped on a paper in his hands before he glared up at Ray. "You were supposed to be down here 15 minutes ago." Ray knew the man well, yet he felt surprised to see him. It must've been because of that dream. "I'm sorry, father." He knew that regardless of how he actually felt, he had to say that. Ray couldn't remember how long things had been like that, but it didn't really matter. "Hmph." The man turned back to his paper, an annoyed look on his face. "Get that hair clip out of your hair, too. Did you raid your sister's room again?" Ray opted to ignore both of those comments as he absentmindedly raised his right hand to the pink and gold star hair clip he had put on. Instead, he headed to the fridge and grabbed some simple bits of food at random. Patrick Hakuda glared back over the paper when Ray wouldn't respond. "Are you ignoring me?" "Oh, sorry, did you say something, father? I couldn't hear you, it sounded like there were just angry animal noises over there!" That was most definitely the wrong thing to say, but Ray grinned as if he were enjoying the game of making his father mad. He bowed as he began to leave the room backwards, his father slowly standing up. "Gotta run, though - was nice talking with you!" "Ray Mackenzie Hakuda, get back here this insta--" Without any more hesitation, Ray closed the kitchen door and dashed toward the front door, food in hand. It didn't seem too long after, but the young man stopped to pant outside an old abandoned building. "Perfect, hasn't been touched." Ray grinned as he ducked around some of the broken signs in front of the building, headed to a gap in the boards that he had cleverly hidden. It was getting to be a tight squeeze, so he figured he would need to adjust that later, but for now, he was in his home away from home. It wasn't much - the generator had to be charged with the Pikachu that sometimes frequented it, so it wasn't exactly reliable - but it was cozy to him. The orange-haired trainer sighed as he flopped down in the beanie chair. He frowned as he thought back to what had happened at home. Doesn't seem like I can go back now… Ray thought, but chuckled and sighed again. "Ah, who cares? I'll just fix this place up better. I'm sure that I can find some way to make it work." His eyes turned to the generator. He had just the idea of how he could do that.

-==IC: Olivia Seaton -- Battle Chateau, Kalos==- Oh. "Oh, um." This was going to be an awkward conversation, she could already tell. "He was a friend back when. We discussed Rocket before I joined, nothing more than that. I'm sure ya saw him around before." Olivia glanced away from Dahlia's inquisitive gaze, though it did seem like there was more to the subject than she was letting on. -==IC: Ryan Hikari -- Vermilion City, Kanto==- "Yeah, that all sounds good to me. I was thinking it probably would be best anyway, it'll probably be super boring at the studio anyway." Ryan smiled as he finished off his toast. "Did you have any thoughts on where to look if you two have no luck, Aori, Shannon?"

Nickname: Kammy Species: Blastoise Trainer: Colleen Gender: Female Appearance: Kammy has two darker stripes going across her head and down the back of her neck, two stripes around her eyes, and darker swirly patterns on her shell, but is otherwise normal. Since her evolution, the stripes around her eyes have grown thicker and curved down slightly, and the stripes on her head extend down further. The swirly patterns are also a bit more extensive. Since she evolved into a Blastoise, the stripes around her eyes have connected to her mouth and become thicker. The swirly patterns have grown to be a rather beautiful pattern, weaving in and out of the shell's segments much like you would see on a tapestry or bedspread. Personality: Kammy is upbeat, and a reflection of her trainer; however, without as much of the reluctance to trust people, since she isn't able to read auras like Colleen can. Her personality hasn't changed since her evolution; however, she seems more confident as a result of it. Kammy's confidence has shone brightly ever since she became a Blastoise, and is super protective of Colleen and her friends. She has learned how to read auras, but doesn't let that get in the way of how she feels. Ability: Rain Dish Specialty: Sharply increased Special Attack, Aura reading Known Moves: Dragon Pulse (EGG), Aura Sphere (EGG), Water Pulse, Bite, Protect, Iron Defense Imperfect Dragon Pulse > Dragon Pulse, Imperfect Aura Sphere > Aura Sphere, Added Protect, ADded Iron Defense Nickname: Elly Species: Elgyem Trainer: Colleen Gender: Female Appearance: The lines on Elly's forehead glow a dull purple. Personality: Elly is rather timid about things, as she feels out of place and scared sometimes. However, she is protective of her savior, and wishes to do whatever she can to keep Colleen safe. Ability: Analytic Specialty: Sharply decreased Speed, increased Special Attack, Aura reading Known Moves: Teleport(Egg), Barrier(Egg), Confusion, Miracle Eye, Hidden Power(Fighting), Psych Up /EDIT: [Ally] Species: Gallade Nickname: Alvis "Ally" Brand Trainer: Chloe Hikari Gender: Female Birthplace: Icefall Cave, Four Island, Sevii Islands Appearance: Ally has a greenish stripe across her chest or so, surrounded by a red "border" of sorts. The "spike" does not appear to be as prominent as on most Gallade. The "mohawk" that most Gallade have is not present on her anymore. Ally's "hair" is closer in length to a Gardevoir's. Ally's eyes are limegreen instead of the normal red as well. Ally's pants exist underneath a slightly longer version of the ballerina skirt she had as a Kirlia. The white parts of her body are now instead a dark grey colour. Personality: Ally is rather adamant when it comes to fighting and protecting her friends. She strives to live up to the legacy that her idol left; to be a true hero. Ever since her talk with Chloe, the two have become even closer and they trust each other wholeheartedly. Ally's fighting style typically depends on the two swords that she summons from a Swords Dance at the start of a fight, similar to how her idol once fought. Background: Ally comes from the "Brand" extended family of Ralts that live in Icefall Cave on Four Island. Her immediate family had a number of members who were skilled in using moves that drew flames alongside of them. She was often bullied for looking up to her idol, the first Gallade who had come to the cave from another region and who specialized in fire attacks like Will-o-Wisp and Fire Punch. The others in the family constantly mocked her for her interest in the first Gallade's fighting style, though Ally continued to press onward. It got to the point, however, that she would mask what was said to her even in dreams. During this time, however, she constantly visited a vein of Dawn Stone ore embedded in the cave wall, in awe at the light that shone from it. One day, when things were the roughest for her, she ran off from the rest of her family. This was when Chloe happened to be passing by while helping Cyan Vero - Ally could feel from the girl a similar feeling of being lost in the world, and joined up with her after a brief test of skill. However, she refused to speak until she evolved, hesitant even still. She attempted to keep her true self hidden, unwilling to open up fully to Chloe. Ally committed to this even when she was nearing evolution - she knew that evolving to a Gallade was a long shot, but as she felt the evolution energy activating, knew that she had to give it her best shot. She then tried to aim the energy to mimic the light given off by a Dawn Stone. She succeeded when it resonated with a shard of the ore that she had kept with her all that time as a keepsake. When she became a Gallade, she became the cornerstone of Chloe's team and arguably the closest member of her team. Despite this, the two continued to keep secrets from each other, culminating when the two lost synchronization when Chloe withdrew after the incident in Unova. The two made strides to make things better after Chloe began to trust in her more, but Ally just became more and more hesitant in revealing her own secrets. Despite Chloe letting her in more, Ally still refused to open up in return. When the Pokémon power went out, however, Ally had a lot of time to think over the cost of the secrets, and decided that it was the best time to explain finally. Ability: Justified Specialty: Attack ++, Speed ++, Shadow Sneak is stronger than it usually can be used for(60 BP in game terms), can channel the power of flames into her sword-based attacks - this can cause minor fire damage in addition to leaving a burn like a Will-o-Wisp can. Known Moves: Protect, Teleport, Swords Dance, Shadow Sneak, Psycho Cut, Close Combat Mega Appearance: Instead of a cape, Ally has a black "long-coat" that wraps around her, the "inside" of which is green. The "mohawk" is not present anymore, and instead the helmet forms over her head in a more traditional fashion. She has a protective layer over where her eyes are, that acts like a visor. The white parts of her body are instead coloured dark grey. Her arm blades are more retractable, to help not get in the way of her preferred fighting style. She has green markings on her knees, shoulders, and hips that look like armour plating would. Mega Ability: Inner Focus Mega Specialty: In addition to her normal Specialities, she can use Psycho Cut as a contact move with it gaining more power if used that way. [Ren] Mega Appearance: Same as normal Mega Luxray Mega Ability: Strong Jaw Mega Specialty: Keeps ability from being a normal Luxray; this replaces the Strong Jaw Speciality from normal form.

-==IC: Ray Hakuda -- ???==- There was a bright light, then it felt like Ray's mind went blank. Ray felt like he was floating as he opened his eyes. Where am I...? The Separatist wondered as he tried to look around. As he did so, something felt like it had twisted. A moment later, Ray tumbled down from what appeared to be a bed. "What just happened?" Ray asked out loud, as he slowly stood up. It looked like it was early morning - was that what the light was about? Was this all a big bad dream? He shook his head as he stretched. Well, no need to worry about it right now. Let's just get the day started. -==IC: Chloe Hikari -- ???==- Chloe shielded her eyes as the light washed over her. There was an odd feeling as she lowered her arm - something felt different about everything. Before she could process much, she heard the sound of footsteps approaching. "Heya softie. Long time no see, huh?" A blonde girl walked up to Chloe, treading on the lightly snow-covered grass as she did so. The girl looked familiar to the psychic girl, but something felt different. As if the girl was older. "Yuki, you're spacing out; usually you'd respond by now." The blonde placed a hand on her hip as she frowned slightly at the psychic's silence. "Madeleine?" Chloe tentatively asked, not sure why she couldn't quite place things for certain. The blonde chuckled and nodded as she fished a Poké Ball from her belt. "Wait, when did your hair get that long?" "When did yours get that short? The Yuki I know wouldn't've ever let scissors near her hair to the point where it was even shoulder length." Madeleine pointed to the auburn-haired woman's hair. Chloe fell quiet, as the other woman had a point. "Still. I figured I'd give it another shot. Doesn't really matter, though - let's battle for old time's sake." The blonde grinned, as she threw out a Poké Ball, a Croconaw popping out moments later. "I feel like I should be doing something though..." Chloe frowned slightly, as she thought she saw the flash of a shape in the distance - but when she looked, she didn't see anything there. "Huh?" Madeleine frowned as she glanced in the direction that Chloe was looking. "Yuki, you're spacing out again. You seem more prone to doing that than you did four years ago. Anyway, we'll be quick. I'll just stomp you into the ground like usual." "Hey, I think you only won like twice, and once was because I hadn't actually gotten anything but my Cyndaquil yet." Chloe retorted, as she fished Ren's Poké Ball off her belt, sending out the Luxray. The electric type gently roared, as Chloe pointed forward. "Thunder Fang!" Wait, but... that won't do anything, will it? The Luxray shot forward and clamped her jaws around the Croconaw, electricity crackling around in the process. Some things were starting to feel extremely weird to the psychic girl. Madeleine simply sighed, however, as she recalled her now-fainted Croconaw. "You've gotten a ton stronger since we last fought." The blonde woman said, as she placed her hands behind her head. "Sheesh, it's like I never stood a chance. I'm not even gonna try to continue on now--" "What's going on?" Chloe asked with a frown, as Madeleine hesitated. "This isn't like you at all; that was just your first Pokémon. Plus, Ren shouldn't have been able to do what just happened. And--" "Of course Ren would be able to do that. She's super strong now, and has a super good attack that's effective on my Pokémon." ... wait, she? ... I'm not going to ask right now. Chloe, nearly successfully distracted, frowned as she placed a hand to her head. "No, no, that shouldn't have happened. Ren doesn't even know that move anymore, I replaced it a few months ago. Plus, Pokémon can't use attacks right now." She glanced around. "No, none of this makes sense..." She froze, as Madeleine's hand wrapped around her arm tightly. When had she moved across the field? "It makes perfect sense." The blonde woman said in a not-too-patient tone, staring down Chloe in a manner more fitting to the Madeleine she used to know. "Don't question these things; hasn't it been five years since we last saw each other?" -==IC: Ryan Hikari -- Vermilion City==- Ryan yawned as he opened his eyes. The black haired man glanced over at the room's door as it opened. After a few moments, he saw Shannon and Aori walk in with food in tow. "Heya, breakfast in bed? I feel like royalty." There was a smile on his face as he rubbed his eyes. Ryan took the plate of food he was handed by Aori, then set it down on his lap as he glanced through his messages. "How's things been? Looks like the video thingy is later today, but did we have any other plans?" -==IC: Olivia Seaton -- Battle Chateau==- Olivia fell quiet for a little bit. "I guess..." She glanced out the hall's window for a moment, as she seemed lost in thought. "I'm sorry about that too. I dunno if Aspen and I'll get along for more than a few minutes, but I shouldn't've just left y'all without considering everything. I was just so lost back then that it felt like the only option. 'Course, Corey didn't help much there either, but still, I coulda done better." The young woman glanced over at Dahlia after that. "Changing the subject quick, but what do ya think of this motley crew we've got going on here?"

-==IC: Ray Hakuda/Chloe Hikari - Vertrag==- Ray paled at the sight of Gluttony and Adams. On one hand, this could kinda explain how the two got in. On the other… he knew both of them had died. The implications of that. . . The orange-haired man took a few shaky steps back. Before, he had prepared to send out his Zangoose and Bisharp just in case the enemies had gotten in. But now… as the man stepped back, he dropped the Poké Balls, which sent out his Pokémon as they hit the ground. The Zangoose and Bisharp quickly looked between the two foes and Ray, both in shock and to make sure he was okay. Ray couldn't manage any words, however, as he just felt a sinking feeling, especially with the group being effectively trapped in here. While he didn't want to take his eyes off of Gluttony in particular, the separatist looked over to Ryan. The Liberty agent seemed even more frightened than he did, which was both completely understandable considering the last encounter and what had happened. Ray didn't have a clue what could be done, as he felt himself start to shake. Could they even escape from this situation? Chloe was less affected by Gluttony's appearance than Ray or Ryan, but she was still super scared by the sheer ease that the thing broke the door down, even with it being reinforced. She had only caught a glimpse before the dust cloud forced everyone to cover their faces, but… the thing that had broken through did not seem like anything she had ever seen. The psychic girl was frozen to the spot. She wasn't sure what she looked like to the others. But yet… Chloe glanced at the others. Everyone looked afraid in some way or another. She was scared too, so she knew that the others had to be affected, especially with the dead woman that was with them. But they couldn't just… give up… Chloe closed her hand around her arm as she clenched her fist. She took a small step forward, despite her own fear. "We can't stop here…" Chloe said, almost a whisper, as she looked at Gluttony and Adams. There had to be something they could do. She reached up to her purse strap and grabbed the Poké Balls for her Typhlosion and her Luxray. "Sharla, Ren…" The psychic hesitated for a moment as she thought back to what happened in Keturi. She wanted to hesitate more, but then she glanced up at the enemies they had to face. "... I'm counting on you two and Ally…" She let the two spheres drop to the ground, opening up in front of her, as the two Pokémon took up a protective stance in front of her. -==IC: Olivia Seaton - Battle Chateau, Kalos==- Olivia rubbed her arm, an uneasy look on her face at Dahlia's question. "A lot… I know it's going to be good for her, and I know it was her choice, but it's still tough, ya know? It's very weird not being woken up at 6 AM by the little rascal too…" She seemed to focus on the wall more than Dahlia for a moment, but then shook her head. "I don't know… I'm worried, but I trust that she'll be fine, you know? I just hope that she's doing alright…"

-==IC: Chloe Hikari - Vertrag==- "Alright, what did you want to talk about, Alvis?" Chloe asked over the mental connection she opened with her Gallade. The Pokémon looked away for a moment, as if uncertain whether or not to talk after all. However, after a moment, the Gallade turned back to Chloe as they descended the final steps. "I wanted to… explain things that I've let go unsaid. You've opened yourself up over the past month, and I've… not. I say that I trust you fully, but yet, I can't tell you any of the truth." Alvis looked down at the floor as the group walked down the hall. "… I want to fix that, however. I want you to know my past just as much as I know of yours." "Alright, sounds good to me." Chloe gave a smile to the Gallade, who took a deep breath. "Okay… I can do this." Alvis clenched a fist as if remembering something difficult. "I was born to an extended family in Icefall Cave. We kept hidden in the deepest parts most of the time. We only ever wanted to be seen when times were right, to protect the weak members of the family. We held the family name 'Brand', based off of the legendary hero who first came to Four Island and established our family." "Legendary hero?" Chloe asked with a curious look on her face. By now, they were in the room past the stairs - Chloe only gave it a passing look to see that it was a giant battle arena of some kind. Alvis was her primary focus, however. "Let me explain…" -==Legend==- "Long ago, there was a Gallade from a far off country who was named 'Albrecht'. They had fled their home with their trainer and his family, but Albrecht and the trainer suffered grave injuries in the process. Although Albrecht fought valiantly to keep their trainer alive, in the end, they could not succeed. "Grief stricken, the Gallade wandered from then on. Although their trainer's family survived, Albrecht felt only guilt toward them. Assured that they could make it on their own, Albrecht left to explore the new country they had reached. They traveled far and wide across the unfamiliar regions. The journey was dangerous, but the Gallade constantly learned new ways to deal with their foes. They developed a fighting style and began to realize they had an affinity for fire attacks. "The Gallade reached a faraway island on their journey, though the humans did not take too kindly to the visitor at first. The Gallade kept to themself as best as possible, sticking to the Icefall Cave. However, a grave threat fell over the island one day, and the Gallade took charge. With their fiery swords, they drove the threat away. For a time, Albrecht was heralded as a hero across the entire island, though over time, that simply faded away to only legend in Icefall Cave. "Following the threat, they continued to stay in the cave and decided to make a family. Over the years, they passed down their fire skills to their direct descendants. Eventually, Albrecht fell into legend, and others took over as leaders of the family. But stories continued to be passed down about them via paintings and word of mouth." -==-==- "Oh wow…" Chloe seemed impressed by the story that Alvis told. She had no idea that something like that was critical to Alvis's past. She stayed quiet for a little while, waiting to see if Alvis was going to continue. "What… was your family like?" Alvis glanced to the side. "My immediate family was good. The rest of them… not so much. I looked up to the legendary hero; they were an inspiration to me. I aspired to be like them when I got stronger and evolved; I learned and practiced and memorized their fighting style as best as I could. But…" The Gallade let out a sigh. "They didn't like that. They constantly mocked and belittled me. Insulted me because I wanted to become a Gallade; because it's a rarity among my family for a Dawn Stone to react." "Why is it so rare?" Alvis let out a quiet laugh physically. "That's another thing I've been keeping secret. I was, hm, what's that term, I remember hearing it when you were talking with that person back in Olivine City… AFAB, was it?" Chloe nodded, but then paused as the phrasing dawned on her. "What, what??? Really, really???" The psychic asked out loud in her surprise and excitement. With a small blush, she opened the connection back up to Alvis only. "So, wait, are you...??? Wait, what should I use to call you? Have I been doing things okay?" Alvis eyed Chloe with a smile. "Hm… I think you've been doing fine. I don't know about anything else… All this time I never really felt… like anything was really out of place. It all felt more out of necessity than anything. I don't know. I like this name that you gave me better than my old one… I was Millicent Brand, daughter of the current leader. I was supposed to exclusively learn the fire moves, but it never fit my style. Neither did my old name." The Gallade thought things over for a moment. "I don't know exactly still. I don't think I'm transgender exactly, though I might need to consider this a little more at some point. For now, though… I think I want to try the old pronouns I had again, to see if they feel better." "Alright!" Chloe smiled and tapped her fingers together. "I'm glad you told me, Alvis… would you want me to call you Ally, then?" Alvis smiled, as she mulled the nickname over in her head. "'Ally'... That feels right. I want to take on that old last name too. I'm not like I was back then; I'm stronger now. I feel like I'm worthy of it now. It reminds me more of the hero Albrecht; Ally, you could say; than the pain I felt back home." The Gallade grinned, as she looked at her clenched fist. "Thank you. I've been wanting to let you know for a while, but I just… couldn't think of how to bring it up, even when you had opened up to me too. Let's keep doing better." "Right!" Chloe nodded in agreement, then gave Ally a quick hug before she took a step back. She glanced around the room, finally focused on it. "Whoa… to think that Ford had a place like this down here. This is cool! I wish that we had more time to like, try this place out, it feels like it would be fun." Ray chuckled, as he glanced over at Chloe. "Well, what you missed while you were talking was that we actually are planning to have a little friendly battle. I could be referee if anyone wanted--" "Unknown entities in the facility, I repeat, unknown enemies in the facility. They are headed your way. Secure your position." The message hung in the air, Emmerich's voice ringing loud and clear. Ray and Chloe both paled slightly as the two of them exchanged looks with the rest of the group. "How…?" Ray was the first one to speak, but instead of freezing into inaction, frantically began to look around the room. "Does anyone see anything that might be able to reinforce the door? We need to act now, what could we use…?!" The separatist seemed legitimately scared by what Emmerich said. Chloe gripped her arm to stop it from shaking. "L-let's keep calm. I'm sure we can figure out some way to secure ourselves if worst comes to worst… we just…" The psychic took a deep breath, as she glanced at the door. She ran through all the options in her mind that she could think of, but none of them seemed like they would work. She gripped her arm tighter as she held her other hand up, trying to see if she could reinforce the doors slightly. Chloe realized, though, that unless the room had another exit, they were effectively trapped if teleportation wasn't an option. Her stomach sank, as she took a step back. However, Ally placed her hand on the Liberty trainer's shoulder and simply nodded. Chloe looked over at the Gallade for a couple minutes, then slowly nodded back. She knew that Ally was trying to reassure her - she just hoped it would be enough. -==IC: Olivia Seaton - Around the Battle Chateau==- This… isn't battling. Olivia groaned as she crossed her arms. She didn't want to say anything to the others, as she had to admit that some of the fights did seem cool in spite of power being out. But the majority of the fights just… lacked something. It didn't spark her interest like normal. Her gaze fell to the ground slightly with a frown. What was her interest in battling? She hadn't actually tried to have a normal battle since she first got to the Alamo - and even then, she couldn't actually remember the last time she fought for fun. The only times she could think of were the fights alongside and against Chloe… when had she fought casually before then? The redhead sighed as she tried to think of anything else, then leaned her head against the wall. Despite the atmosphere of the building currently, she still had to admit that everything else was pretty cool. The decorations and design of the Battle Chateau was super fancy. Maybe not as fancy as over in the literal castle that they had stayed in the night before, but it came pretty close. Olivia walked forward, dodging around behind the trainers that were sparring, then leaned against the windowsill. This was a view that she could enjoy much better. The view of the river and the rolling hills past it was soothing in a way. She gave a small smile as she just peacefully watched the clouds pass by. For a moment, she thought she saw one of the clouds flapping away, but passed it off as just her imagination. Olivia fidgeted for a moment, then turned away with a sigh. After how busy the last few years had been, she wasn't used to things being so quiet - even if they were in a battling facility at the moment. She scanned the room, then dodged around more trainers as she made her way over to where Dahlia was. "Heya, sis." The Rocket gave a small wave to the gardener, as she smiled slightly. "How ya doing?"

-==IC: Chloe/Ray - Vertrag==- As Chloe descended the stairs, she found herself thinking about what they had discovered so far. Most of it was stuff she had already thought about, but she glanced over at Kyle and Sonja as she wondered how they would handle the stuff they would be most interested in. She was jolted from her thoughts as she felt her belt rattle. With a confused look, the psychic pulled Alvis's Poké Ball off of her belt. "Alvis? What's wrong?" Chloe asked out loud for a brief moment as she looked at the Gallade through the glass top. She reached out with her telepathy as the Gallade motioned to his mouth. Ray glanced behind himself as a flash of light briefly lit up the stairwell - he could see Chloe's Gallade now walking alongside the group, and it looked like the two were talking over telepathy. He saw Chloe glance over after a moment. "Oh, if I'm distracted, then sorry; I'm discussing something important right now. Just like, try to get my attention if it's super super important, alright?" Chloe gave an apologetic smile, but Ray nodded with a grin. "Gotcha. Just don't get too distracted that nothing will get your attention and we'll be fine." The orange-haired separatist focused forward once again, as he left the two to their discussion.

-==IC: Ray - Vertrag==- Ray felt like he had to remember how to properly breathe as he blinked, focused on the book that Sonja had picked up. "Well... if it's not the Grimoire, then it makes a pretty good impression of feeling like it." Ray managed a nervous chuckle, slightly winded from the pressure he had felt as well. He turned his head in surprise as he heard footsteps entering the room, but relaxed with a smile as he noticed that it was just Kyle, Emmerich, and Chloe. "Yo!" The Separatist gave a friendly salute to the other three, though still seemed to be affected by the pressure. "How'd the search go? We found a bunch of neat stuff here, including this entire room and this neat old book we were looking for." -==IC: Kris/Jenny/Evan - Ula'Ula Beach, Alola - [11]==- "What?" Kris looked over in surprise at the mention of why the woman had lost her memory. "That's… that's awful." Jenny nodded solemnly, but then noticed that Kris seemed to have an almost… sadly reminiscent look on her face. Suddenly, an idea popped into Evan’s head. “Jenny, recall what I did on Four Island, before we all went to fight the Ancient Darkrai? The memories I shared with you, and then the ones you shared with me? Do you…...think we should try that?” Jenny and Kris both looked over in surprise at the mention of the memory sharing. Jenny in particular thought it over for a few moments, mulling over whether it could work. "It's worth a shot, I think. Maybe it might work better if I tried it? It seemed like we already sorta had a little luck knocking something loose earlier, so maybe this might like… work best if I try it?" Jenny suggested, as she had almost completely forgotten about that idea. “Seeing as though you and I are linked with the power, maybe it -is- best you you try it yourself.” Evan said, as he started to faintly glow pink. “Here it comes!” With a look of mild exertion, the man focused on Jenny, the pink aura surrounding him suddenly vanished and was suddenly around the redhead. Jenny nodded, as she walked toward the surprised blue-haired woman. "Alright… here goes nothing." With a reassuring smile, Jenny held out her hand to Kris. After a moment of hesitation, the older woman reached out her ha -̴̭͛-̷̨͆-̴̭͛-̷̨͆ The surroundings seemed almost broken. People stood around, attacks flying everywhere. A blue-haired woman stood behind a Meganium - a young blonde girl at her side commanding an Espeon. The scenery was unfamiliar. Broken pillars scattered around a mountain top and an altar. A woman raised an object. Then blackness. The scene changed. The blue-haired woman chatted with two red-haired girls, and the blonde girl from earlier. One of the two redheads looked to have black streaks - but on closer inspection, that seemed to be her natural hair colour. The four stopped talking as an older-looking black-haired man with a stylistic "G" on his coat pocket walked into the room. Even while the man was talking - silence filled the room. The scene changed… Kris watched out the window as the blonde girl ran out the door to meet up with the younger of the two red haired girls. She opened her mouth, seeming to call up to someone, but no words came out. Seemingly satisfied, the woman left the house as well and headed off toward the market. A few blocks later, a Dragonite flew overhead, as screaming began to ring out through the streets. "A coup! It's a coup!" "Team Liberty?" "No, they were stomped out three months ago." Kris froze on the spot as she became hyper-focused on the Dragonite, beams of light shooting out at different buildings. She dropped her bag, as she turned back, running as fast as she could back home. She braced herself as a nearby house was struck by a stray attack, crumbling instantly. She made it back to her house, panting and alarmed. "Mom?" The redhead asked, as she rubbed her eyes sleepily. Kris seemed relieved, as she stopped to catch her breath for a moment, but then motioned toward the door to the bunker. The blue-haired woman made it to the door, and yanked it open. She looked back to hurry her daughter there. A flash of light filled her vision. Kris screamed out, as the house began to collapse around her. The scene changed… Kris was battered, bruised, and exhausted as her and her Pokémon took out the final agent in their way. She opened the door in front of her and stepped through. The first thing she saw was red, and the glint of steel. "I… had to…" The blonde girl looked at her - a broken look in her eyes. Kris looked down at the ground, and saw the man responsible for everything on the ground, dead. She did not feel pity for the man, and simply nodded. The scene changed. Kris opened her eyes. Where was she? It was so bright. With a groan, she sat up. She felt… younger, but didn't know why. "How are you…?" Kris confusedly looked up and saw a blonde girl - she looked to be around 14 or so. The girl offered her a hand that Kris accepted. The blue-haired woman slowly and uneasily stood up with the young girl's help. "I… don't know. I'm having… trouble remembering anything. I feel like I should be sore… but I don't feel hurt…" Kris raised a free hand to her head, which felt like it was going to break in two. "Who… are you?" The girl faltered. "I'm…" There was some hesitation. "My name is Marianna. I'm… I'm a local here, though I'm probably going on a trip soon." "Where is… here?" Kris asked, not noticing the girl's fidgeting. "I don't know where I am…" "You're in Alola. Melemele Island right now. I sent someone for help a little bit ago when I saw you washed up on the beach." There was an odd tone to the girl's voice, but Kris couldn't focus on anything through the headache. "Thank you… Marianna, you said? That's a nice name… I bet your mother is proud of you for helping, too." "... Yeah…" ---- Jenny and Kris were both left breathless as they stared at each other blankly and speechlessly. "Oh… Arceus…" Jenny finally managed to say, as she covered her mouth. “What happened?” Evan said, worry in his voice. “What did you see? Was it…...bad?” The man recalled the memories that he’d received from others and recalled how tough a few of them were to swallow. Jenny bit her lip. "I can't exactly say what happened for sure, but… Kris has been through something almost exactly like what I went through." She stayed quiet for a bit longer, and simply passed the spacial powers back to Evan. All of a sudden, Evan’s mind was filled with the same visions the redhead had seen. The man’s mouth hung open, and his eyes were wide from the sheer weight of the visions. “What…..in Palkia’s name……….WAS THAT?” The man exclaimed, sweating a little. “Was that…...what both of you saw?” Jenny thought for a moment. "It might've been, if you're that shocked… we can share the memory stuff too?" The Plasma agent seemed surprised at that, then bit her lip for a moment. "I don't mind if you saw too." Kris said, though she still seemed troubled, taking a seat in the sand for a moment. "So those were my… memories…" Evan took some time to process what he had seen, then realized something. “Was…..that Spear Pillar I saw?” The man asked. “I recognized the G on the uniform of one of the people in the vision. That had to be Galactic, but going by another thing, that means this was after Team Rocket took over, and so….” Then it dawned on him. “That woman was one of the Galactic Admins, but Team Galactic never came to Spear Pillar when we were there, so…..” Evan then looked at Kris, bewildered. “Are you…..really from here?” Kris and Jenny stayed quiet for a moment. "Can I… see that drawing for a moment?" Jenny asked hesitantly. The blue-haired woman nodded, and Jenny took the paper and looked at it closely. She noticed that, despite the drawing being rather simplistic, the hair colours of the three girls stood out, as if they were meant to be focused on. The tallest woman had blue hair like Kris'. The one to Kris' left was slightly shorter, with a mix of red and black hair, like the girl who had been caught in the attack. The shortest girl, to Kris' right, had dirty blonde hair, like the girl who had introduced herself as Marianna. Still. "Evan…" Jenny slowly began to say, as she glanced over at the other Plasma agent. "Did you feel like you recognized anyone in that vision?" “Yeah…...one of them…...looked like you, Jenny.” Evan said, as he considered everything. “What about you? Did you recognize anyone in that vision?” Jenny bit her lip. "What's more troublesome is that while I kinda vaguely recognize some people… I know for certain that I don't recognize that blonde girl. And that day, the one that had the Dragonite; that's not at all how that day went." The redhead looked at Kris, an uncertain look on her face. "You… must be from a different world, I think." -==I̷̼͓̟̒̈͌C̵͚͕̼͊͊: C̷̡̧͕͚̖̉ ̸̡̢̑ ̶̳̙̼̽̾̔͑̄ ̵̛̬̐͌̈́̈́ ̴̣̰̍̄ͅḙ̸̛̫̰̮̲̈́̆̋͝ - T̷͈̹͖͕̊̈́̊́̾ͅ ̵͇͝ ̷̢͚͖̰̞̋͒̎͂̕m̵̢̟̦̀́̒̈́͜ ̴̙̾G̵̢̯͖̻̀̀͋̍ ̷̰͓͉̟̝̀̿̉ ̷͙̘͎̦̖͛a̷̞͘͝ ̵͉͊́̒ ̵̧̐í̷̡c̷̛͖̀̈͠ ̴͕̩͆B̴̤̙̫͆͌̕ ̸͍̲̆s̶̨̤̳͠è̸͍̳͌́̚͜==- It's time now. It's time for things to finally be settled. I wish it didn't have to come to this, but it's all up to you now. And you stare down the monster who did this. The monster gave a roar of protest as you defeated the last Pokémon. "Come now! Don't you know this is useless? Why fight against me?" The monster roars out, but you aren't listening. Your hair covers your face as you take a step forward, hand trembling slightly. The monster's fangs have already been dealt with, so there's nothing to worry about. You hesitate, and so do I... is it really worth this? The monster notices your hesitation and grins, face contorted into a savage look. A hand shoots out at you, claws seeming to shimmer in the dim light of the room. Your eyes widen as the monster grabs you by the neck. I want to help, but I can't... You realize you can't hesitate anymore. The sound of metal cut through the air, as you swung the knife in your hand up. You are dropped and gasp for air, as you watch the monster stumble back. The roars of the monster echo throughout the room as you can't tear your eyes away. You watch the monster collapse to the ground. You then look down at the stained knife in your hand, trembling more at the realization of what just happened. The monster of a man was slain. Behind you, the sound of a door opening catches your attention. You turn around, and see a look of shock on her face... was the nod of approval? You can't tell anymore... The knife slips from your hand and clatters to the ground. You turn away, noticing a broken mirror to the side of the room. You walk over to it, and examine your reflection despite the broken shards. Your blonde hair and brown eyes shine back at you - you feel like the weight of the entire world is on your shoulders. Your eyes have a look no-one should have, let alone someone your age. But... don't forget this. No matter what, you're still you, Marie. No-one can take that away from you. Just keep moving, and one day you'll find your peace.

-==IC: Kris/Jenny Hakuda/Evan Tierra - Ula'ula Beach, Alola - [9]==- As the training moved onward, Kris felt herself lost in thought. She tried to figure out why that memory had shown up when it did. The woman looked out over the beach as Jenny and Evan prepared for the surfing part of the training. Absentmindedly, Kris pulled out her phone and flipped the case open. She stared at the picture on the backside of the case, though it felt distant, as if she didn't even know why she had it. The words written on it only frustrated her now. "You can't forget. Don't forget." Although she had seen the picture many times before, she studied it once again. It was hand drawn, and depicted what looked like a happy family. But when she stared at the picture, she didn't feel happy. "Kris! Over here!" Jenny called out to snap the woman out of her thoughts. Kris quickly closed her phone as she walked over to watch as Jenny and Evan began to swim out to the waves. The pair swam out into the Alolan sea, the salty water lapping at them with each stroke. Evan and Jenny each had a Mantine swimming alongside them, who seemed pretty laid back, despite everything. When the two had gotten far enough, Evan carefully climbed on the back of his assistant Mantine, and assumed the crouch Kris had taught him, and then faced the redhead. “You feeling ready?” Jenny was already on the Mantine before Evan even asked, a confident smile on her face. "Of course." The woman said back, as she shot the Hero of Space a mischievous look. "Aren't you?" Evan shot a resplendent smile back at his partner. “As I’ll ever be! It’s my first time, but I’m gonna do my best!” As he spoke, he saw a large wave swell up, capturing his attention. “Surf’s up, Mantine!” The moment his rider said that, the Mantine jetted towards the rising wave, the brown-haired man rising up into the stance his teacher helped him refine. Jenny focused as her Mantine sped forward through the water as well. She adjusted her stance as she watched the waves carefully. As the waves seemed to be highest, she steered the Mantine toward it, then held her breath as they spun into the air. Jenny was amazed, as even through the times she had flown before, something about this just seemed even more magical, what with the sun reflecting off the water and the spray from the ocean glistening in the air. After a couple more spins, Jenny regained her focus, intent on landing properly. The Mantine crashed back into the water a little roughly, but the redhead kept her footing, a wide grin on her face as she sped forward once more. Evan watched as Jenny and her Mantine flew the air, the sight taking his breath away. Focusing on the waves, the man urged his Mantine towards the waves, aiming to hit them while they were at their highest. As he drew closer, the Hero of Space took a deep breath as man and manta reached for the sky. He felt entranced by the rush that overcame him, as he saw the beautiful Alolan sky. “Mantine, let’s flip!” The Pokémon cried out as it nodded itself and Evan downward. As they did so, time seemed to slow down as the Hero held on for dear life. After righting itself, the surfer made it clear he wanted to do it again. Two more front flips, and the man felt gravity taking effect. He directed the Kite Pokémon to land as smoothly as it could as they approached the wave once more. The Mantine landed roughly, without it’s rider falling off. He gave Jenny a thumbs up as he jetted forward, smiling giddily. Jenny watched in surprise at the tricks that Evan pulled, but focused on the water ahead with a grin. She didn't try any actual tricks from that point on, but still continued to focus on keeping her balance while staying near the top of the waves. Meanwhile, Evan practiced spins and flips, trying to figure out how to integrate his posing into them, with varying degrees of success. After a while, he just focused on enjoying cruising around on the waves, the sea breezing blowing in his face. Kris watched with a smile as it appeared that both of her trainees were doing a good job with the surfing. She let herself simply focus on watching the two heroes surf for the moment, instead of trying to think of the memories. Still, she couldn't help but wonder… Kris shook her head a moment later as she waited for the duo to come back to shore. The pair returned to shore, Evan smiling as he felt the morning’s training, and the surfing take their toll on him. “That….was….amazing!” The man whooped and hollered out. “It was so cool being up there!” "That's good. Surfing can really help out with limbering people up, so enjoying it is the best way to really get in shape." Kris explained with a smile. "How do you feel your balance has gotten through that?" Evan pondered for a moment. “It’s certainly much better than it was before, especially since I didn’t wipe out while on Mantine, so that’s something!” "That's pretty good." Kris chuckled for a moment, then pondered something. "Do you feel ready to learn the proper poses for the Z-Moves? I don't think we should chain them together yet, even without power, but… it would still be good practice." The man’s fatigue faded away almost instantly at the mention of practicing poses. “I feel very ready!” He then turned to Jenny. “What about you, Jen-Jen? You feeling up to it?” "I think I'll sit out this first one, but I'll join in next!" Jenny replied cheerfully, as she took a seat on the sand, but looked up to watch curiously. Evan then focused his eyes on Kris. “All right, let’s get started then. Let’s strike a pose!” He said, striking one of his trademark poses. The Hero’s mind raced with what possible flashy poses would trigger such amazing moves, his excitement growing by the second. Kris smiled at that, then held her arms forward in front of her in an X-shape. "I'll show the activation pose first; the key pose that's needed before any of the other ones." She then swung her arms around quickly in a way that seemed arbitrary to Jenny. Evan, meanwhile studied the way Kris moved intently, making sure to capture every detail in his mind. After she swung her arms, Evan mimicked her pose, crossing his arms in an x-shape, and swung his arms, adding a flourish to it, since it didn’t seem to matter at the moment. Kris raised an eyebrow. "Huh, that's a different way of doing it. Keep practicing, though, that wasn't quite it." The woman seemed curious, however, as if she had never seen the move performed that way before. Evan nodded at what Kris said, and repeated the gesture, but this time neglected to add the flourish, figuring that the time to spice up Z-Moves would come along later on. He struck the activation pose more on the dot, and finished with a swing of the arms like the blue-haired woman….. "That worked pretty well. There's some things that could use some touch-ups, but you got the hang of that pretty quickly. I'm not too surprised considering how much you seem to like posing." Kris said with a smile. "Alright, let's work on that a bit more, then get to work on the actual poses." -==NPC: Lusamine - Aether Paradise, Alola==- Lusamine leaned forward with a small frown, as she read over the data that was displayed on the screen. Moments passed by without any word as the woman stood in contemplation. "I see." She said finally, as she stood up straight once again. "Very well. I'm intrigued by that research, if I may be honest. You have a deal. We might have a chat later though, if you don't mind, about how you found out about Silvally..." The woman kept a calm expression despite that, as she smiled in a friendly manner. -==ERROR: ERROR - ERROR - [ERROR]==- [ERROR] years ago... I felt like collapsing. I glared forward at the two people responsible. Every step felt like it took forever, and it felt like my body was slowly being torn apart. I tried my best to keep a grip on everything. I thought back to my family; to my mother, who did all she could to protect us and support us and comfort us when we got sad. Who kept hope alive even when it felt like there was none at all. To my sister, who brought light to everywhere she went. Who didn't like to fight, even when it was absolutely necessary. Who wished the war would just stop. To my father. I took another step forward and stumbled slightly. I couldn't make out the words the people were saying. I think that if things had been any different, I would have just laid down by now. But I took another step forward defiantly. I was losing my grip on the Poké Ball in my hand - if it even was still there - but I wasn't going to stop here. "THIS IS... ...NOT... ...GO" The voice was not my own. Despite its booming nature, I could barely make it out. Even those two people were confused. I tried to take another step, but fell. "... SHALL NOT... ...IT PASS... ...GO" I couldn't fight it any more. I closed my eyes, not even feeling able to cry anymore. I tried to call out, but my voice refused to work... And then... Everything felt normal again. -==IC: Lucia Zyther - Shabboneau Castle, Kalos==- Something about what Jamie was saying felt out of character to Lucia. She chewed on her lip for a moment as she thought it over. "I... do you mind if we like, go somewhere else to discuss this a bit more?" The Rocket quietly thought things over for a bit longer as she pieced things together a bit more. "I don't think he's on the mission anymore." She said, barely audible to even Jamie, as she wanted to return the privacy. -==IC: Colleen - Shabboneau Castle, Kalos==- "Zoe." Colleen had been trying to stay out of the fighting up until now, but with Zoe now involved, doing so was out of the question. "That isn't helping. This isn't one of our games anymore; getting mad at people who are helping us isn't going to solve anything." If she had gotten a little more sleep, the young aura wielder probably could have found a way to be less blunt about the phrasing, but she still didn't want this to keep up like it was. She looked around at the rest of the group with an apologetic look on her face for how her little sister was acting - though was also curious about why Jared's aura changed once again. -==IC: Jenny Hakuda/Kris/Evan Tierra/??? - Hau'oli City Center - [???]==- "Ahhh! Finally, we're off the boat; I didn't think it was ever going to reach land!" Jenny giggled as her foot touched the ground. She had been on longer boat rides, but wanted to practice hamming it up a little more. "So, what's the first thing we're going to do?" "Hmm…" Kris thought for a moment, as she glanced around the area. "Well, we should keep an eye out for like, observing how people work at some point. But when we get a bit further into the city, we should start practicing our battle techniques first. Sound good to everyone?" “I’m pretty sure our Pokémon could use some stretching out after their tutoring yesterday!” Evan said, grinning. “So practicing our techniques and such would be a good idea, especially if we want to fire up the people of Alola.” "Alright." Kris grinned, as she led the way into the city more. Jenny paid attention as the people passed by; there weren't many differences in how people acted that she noted so far, though she did see a bunch of shops that didn't seem like anything back home. ---- Unbeknownst to the three, however, a young woman with sunglasses and a black-and-red baseball cap was eying them from the entrance to the ferry terminal. Her hair was concealed within the hood of the hoodie she was wearing, but a frown covered her face. "What is she up to…?" The woman wondered out loud, as she glanced around the area. "First that notice she put out about the Battle Royal, and now… whoever these people are?" She glanced down at the device in her hand briefly. ---- After a little while of walking, the trio reached what Jenny presumed to be the middle of the city, next to the Pokémon Center and what a sign called the town hall. "Alright, I'll be right back. There's something I need to quickly do. You can begin training in the meantime, though." Kris said as she turned to the other two. "Alright!" Jenny said cheerfully as the blue-haired woman walked off into the building. The redhead turned to Evan with a grin. "So, what do you think we should do first?" Evan thought for a moment, and shot Jenny a grin of his own. “Well, I think…..since our Pokémon don’t have their special moves right now, thanks to the outage……” The man said, a sly look in his eyes. “We should come up with theatrical moves for them to make the crowd go wild!” "That sounds like a good idea!" Jenny said enthusiastically. However, she paused long enough to catch Evan's attention, as she noticed someone approaching them. "Um, hello, can we help you?" "Maybe." The hooded woman replied, a slight frown on her face. "I couldn't help but hear you were planning theatrical moves for something. Are you by any chance involved in that reopening of the Battle Royal that I heard about?" She asked with an even tone in her voice. “Sure am!” Evan said proudly. “We’re gonna make a splash in the Alolan battling scene and set their spirits on fire!” The man eyed the newcomer. “Are you a fan of the Battle Royal who’s come to size us up or something?” "You could say that." The woman said, as she looked off toward the Pokémon Center for a moment. "You're training with Kris, huh?" "Yeah! She's a pretty good mentor. She taught us a lot!" Jenny replied. The hooded woman gave a smirk that was nearly hidden by the shadows on her face. "I see." The hooded woman reached down to her belt and threw out two Poké Balls, containing a Cranidos and an Espeon. Even from behind her sunglasses, the look in her eyes seemed to be fiery. "Then I'll be your challenger here! The wicked flame of anomalies, Blaze Dark!" Evan inwardly laughed at the admittedly edgy name, and shot the woman a grin. “So be it!” The Hero said hammily, throwing out a Poké Ball. “I, Terra Incarnate accept your challenge! Monstro, come on out to play!” From the Poké Ball came forth a Swampert, who eyed his opponents warily. "Oh, we're using our made up names? Then I, Princess of Peril, will accept your challenge too!" Jenny laughed as she sent out her new Litten, who stared down her opponents. Jenny noticed that despite the edgy look the other woman had, she had a wide grin on her face. "Alright, Tenlite, time to shine!" The hooded woman wasted no time, as she nodded to her Pokémon. "Cranidos, use a combo attack! Espeon, send them into the air, and Cranidos use your head!" The two nodded and hurried forward quickly, as if they had practiced these moves hundreds of times. The Psychic-type bounced the fossil Pokémon into the air, then the Cranidos used their momentum to effectively fly toward the Swampert. They seemed to intend to land hard on the Swampert with their head, even as the Espeon dashed toward the small Fire Type. Seeing this combo attack, Evan thought quickly about what he could have Monstro do and flashed a grin. “If they’re gonna use their head, USE YOURS IN KIND!” Evan said, confident that Tenlite could handle the Espeon until Monstro wasn’t busy. The Mud Fish Pokémon focused on his rapidly incoming foe, and smashed his head against the rapidly approaching Head Butt Pokémon’s own skull, hoping he could send them flying away. The Cranidos was caught by surprise as Monstro stopped their attack and flung them back into the air. The rock-type crashed to the ground with a yelp, but rolled out of the way not long after, keeping an eye on the Swampert to make sure they couldn't be caught off guard again. The hooded woman glanced over the the Espeon, who was dancing around the Litten with ease. Tenlite had trouble keeping up with the pace. Despite an attempt to dodge out of the way, the Espeon still quickly and nimbly struck the Litten and knocked it back out of the way. “Evan saw how much trouble Tenlite was having with the Espeon, but smiled. “You can do it, Tenlite! I know you can!” The Plasma Agent said as he looked back at the Cranidos. “Monstro, hunker down and watch out for that Cranidos’s next attack.” Monstro took a deep breath and assumed a defensive position, eying his foe with anticipation. The hooded woman watched for a while, then snapped her fingers. The dance of dodging had left Monstro with his back to the Espeon, and she took full advantage of that. As the Cranidos stepped forward to keep Monstro's attention on them, the Espeon sped toward the Swampert and attempted to slam her whole weight into the water-type's back. The Cranidos then ran forward as well and tried their best to add their head to the chorus. Tenlite also then ran over and jumped onto the oncoming pile, though she was attempting to instead attack the Espeon. Monstro was knocked onto his face as the Espeon slammed into his back, which in turn allowed the Cranidos’s attack to smash into the Mud Fish’s head. Monstro growled at the pain and attempted to slap the Fossil Pokémon away with his right arm, a fierce look in his eyes. The Cranidos stumbled back from the force of the slap. They were about to try to attack again, when a whistle caught the attention of the Espeon and Cranidos. They glanced back in confusion, and saw the hooded woman kneeling down instead. "Alright… that's good enough… too hot to continue…" The woman grumbled as she tried to keep up the fight, but shook her head. "We'll… we'll have a rematch! And next time it'll be my victory, fair villains! For I am Blaze Dark, and I am overheated!" The woman pushed herself back to her feet, then recalled her Pokémon before running off. "Alright! That was a good fight, Ms. Blaze!" Jenny called after the woman, who simply waved a thanks in return. Monstro growled, having lost his chance to continue the big fight. He was tempted to chase after the woman, before he felt a hand on his head. “Easy now.” Evan said, as he looked towards 'Blaze Dark'. “I assure you, Blaze Dark, you haven’t seen the last of us! Muahahahahahaha!” Evan said, doing the best evil laugh he could muster and giving her a thumbs up for the performance. Monstro however, had a realization. For once, the Mud Fish didn’t faint in battle! The thought was enough to dispel the ire that he felt towards his foes, and to make him jump for joy. "What's up?" Kris asked a few moments later, as she walked toward the two trainers. "I heard you laughing all the way inside. Were you practicing a performance for the…" Kris glanced around, as she saw a crowd starting to disperse with murmurs. "... fight?" “I guess you could say that, Kris…..” Evan said, smiling. “Someone just up and challenged us on the spot when we told them we were going to be battling in the Battle Royal. She was definitely theatrical and silly, but also a good battler.” The man then added, grinning. “I do hope we can do battle again.” Kris frowned slightly for a moment, but then smiled as she could tell how excited Evan and Jenny seemed to have become by the battle. "I'm sure you will. If the person's a local, then I'll try to see what I can do after the Battle Royal is over." With a small chuckle, she grinned more. "Ready for training, then?”

-==IC: Lucia -- Shabboneau Castle==- "Jamie..." Lucia placed her hand on the other Rocket Agent's shoulder gently, then shook her head. "Even if Zoe's acting like this, that doesn't mean that you should do this. It's one thing for her to be like this, but retaliating the same way is just going to be seen as picking on her - and she's younger than you." The look in Lucia's eyes indicated a slightly different meaning to her last words than what she had actually said. "Picking on someone younger than you doesn't feel that heroic to me. So... please, don't go down that road, alright?" -==IC: Chloe -- Vertrag==- Chloe glanced around at all of the monitors that littered the center. "Tough to say; better question is if they even had the time to search all of them." -==IC: Ray -- Vertrag==- "Huh? Oh wow, neat!" Ray let out a quiet whistle as he saw the keyhole Ryan found. "Do we have a key, though? I don't recall seeing anything like that around, but if this is where that book is..." -==IC: Jenny Hakuda/Kris/Evan Tierra - Ula'ula Beach - [7]==- As the tires were being tied to the poles, Jenny had asked for one of them to be held off on for a moment until she got to see how the training with the tire worked. After she saw Evan work on catching the tire, Jenny thought over the situation. "Do you mind if I just like… haul this around instead? I don't think that I can actually like… catch it right now." The redhead chewed on her lip a bit, but tested pulling the tire around a bit. "That sounds good." Kris nodded as she glanced back at Evan to see how he was handling the tire catching training. From how Evan was doing, one would have thought he was a natural, based on his first catch. “I can say this is definitely new to me, but…” The man laughed as he threw the tire away. "You should focus more, Tierra. Heroes shouldn't lose their focus, or they might pay for it." Kris said with a frown, as she eyed the tire having the force of gravity slowly affect it. “What do you mean ‘focus’ I’m doing jus-OOF!” Evan gasped out as the tire made impact on his chest, knocking the air out of him, and knocking him onto onto the sand. “C-correction, I -w-was- doing just fine.” Jenny snickered as she slowly pulled the tire along the beach, slightly surprised by how much the weight of the tire affected her movement. Still… "Hopefully your focus returns. Because right now I think it went focus pocus." ”You’re telling me, girl.” Feral said, howling with laughter at Evan’s failure. Evan leapt to his feet, panting and grinning as he threw the tire back, and waited for gravity to do it’s magic. When it began to come down, the Hero steeled his stance and breath, and waited for the perfect moment. 3. 2. 1. Let’s go! The man caught the tire with minimal effort and threw it back again, smiling as he did so. When it came down, he caught it again just as deftly. "Nice!" Jenny said with a thumbs up as Evan caught the tire twice in a row. She put one foot in front of the other as she continued to move circles around the training area. She noticed Kris watching them intently with a proud smile. "So far so good. How are you two feeling so far?" The blue-haired woman asked as she crossed her arms, her hair blowing in the ocean breeze. Evan was knocked back by the tire yet again, but he got up again, chuckling as he did so. “I feel great! This is definitely helping my right arm quite a lot, Kris!” The man said as he tossed the tire back again and caught it. "Err, your what now?" Kris paused, her stance loosening slightly as she confusedly raised an eyebrow at Evan. "What about your right arm?" “I broke it when the boat I was riding on got attacked by Water-Type Pokémon!” The man said cheerfully. “One of them slammed into it real hard. Couldn’t use it for a good long while after that.” "... What?" "Yeah, and I can't catch tires because I have anemia!" Jenny said just as cheerfully as she continued to haul the tire around, before falling flat on her face not a moment later. Kris stood in silence as she just watched the two of them. There were no words for her to describe what she had just heard. Slowly, she just brought her hands up to her face with an audible groan. "Alright. Let's… let's take a small break." She said, as she more nervously eyed the two heroes. "I… would rather you two not die on me, or get hurt, or anything like that!" Evan caught the tire one last time happily, before tiredly walking over to where Jenny was, and plopped down into the sand hard. “A break sounds lovely.” The brown-haired man muffled in the sand. "We definitely have to work on that stamina." Kris mumbled, as she walked over and dragged the couple to a spot on the beach with shade. The three of them sat in the shade and observed the ocean for a moment, before Kris got up to get the three of them something to drink. "Kris is an amazing teacher! I can't wait to see what else she has in mind." Jenny said with a wide smile as she hummed happily. "How are you liking this so far, Evan?" The woman turned her head quizzically, as he did seem to have been exhausted by the tire-ing training. Evan turned to Jenny, breathing quite heavily and smiled. “My arms are aching, my lungs feel like they are on fire, and there’s sand in my shoes. I love it!” The man said. “Kris is so awesome at this! Whatever she has planned next is gonna be good, I can feel it in my achy bones.” Jenny nodded as she glanced up to the top of the nearby Berry tree. "This feels familiar almost. Not like this, but like… I don't know. It's a good familiar, though." She glanced over as Kris as she returned with the ice cold drinks. Evan saw Kris come back and waved to her, eyeing the drinks she brought back with her. Gratefully the man accepted the hard-shelled container and peered at the light-green liquid inside, and took a sip with the straw. Almost instantly, the Hero was amazed at both the taste of the liquid, and at how he felt more…...energized and raring to go again. “Kris…...what is this? It’s amazing…” "It's a regional specialty." Kris replied as she took a seat nearby. "A man from one of the nearby islands thought it up. It's become a hit on the beach especially, though he refuses to actually give out the ingredients. He pops by every week or so to restock - more times in the summer as it's more popular then." Evan thought about what Kris had said and looked back to the ocean. “Alola is certainly something else. Not even Sinnoh’s Battle Zone has something like this.” Evan said, and then shook his head and had some more of the beverage. “What do you think of Alola so far, Jenny?” "Hm…" Jenny thought for a moment as she sipped on her drink. "It's pretty nice. It has a different feel than other places, yet somehow I almost feel a sort of… energy around the place. It's hard to explain exactly what I mean right now." Evan mulled over his girlfriend’s words, and couldn’t help but feel she was right. “Energy, huh? You’ve got a point there. I haven’t really felt anything like this anywhere else I’ve been, even Mt. Coronet.” The man took another swig, and faced Kris. “What about you? Why do you think your home just feels like this to us, Kris?” "I can't really say, honestly. It is an odd sensation, admittedly." Kris said as she looked to the sky almost longingly. "I've felt this kind of sensation as well, and from what I can vaguely remember of my time in Johto, it didn't feel like this. I have a feeling it could be the… atmosphere of this place. Like, how everyone's hopes and dreams seem to almost meld together as people head out on their personal island challenge." Jenny nodded intensely as she paid attention. She gave off the impression that if she had a notepad and pencil in hand, she would be furiously writing things down. "I definitely get that." Kris stared at the sky for a little longer. "Why do you two want to get this strength? I know you answered about being a hero, but… what then?" She looked down to focus her gaze on Evan and Jenny. "Saving the world is an admirable goal. But what then? What drives you? What pushes you on and on, even past that? What will you do if there's nothing else that needs to be saved?" Evan thought long and hard about Kris’s question. For once, he didn’t have an answer he liked. “What if the world has no need for me anymore? What then?” Evan asked the blue-haired woman, a note of uncertainty in his voice. “I’ve…….never really given ‘after’ much thought. I could move on from it, but the truth is, beyond my personal goals after this is over, I don’t know….” Evan’s face then grew determined. “As for what drives me…..this may sound boring but, it’s the love I have for my friends and this world. There are so many people who have shown me kindness and love, and I want to protect that and the bright future I hope is awaiting us….” "That's an admirable drive." Kris looked down, as she saw Jenny was still deep in thought about it. "How would you put that drive into other things? You don't need to have an answer right now," She hastily added, but bit her lip. "But it could be that finding that out is your own personal island challenge. What will make you tick, if things become that peaceful." The woman shifted her position to look at Evan more. "I don't have much actual experience with this hero stuff, I'm not going to lie. But I know the idea of losing your purpose. I know how that feels, and how… empty things feel when that happens. In my opinion, a true hero is more than just that. A true hero has something other than just what's in the moment. It may take time to figure out - but that's okay. I'll help as best as I can." Kris said as she gave a kind smile. Evan was floored. The entire time he’d been a Hero, he’d never had someone, aside from his family and Jenny, consider stuff even close to what Kris was saying. “A true Hero….” The man put his drink down and smiled at Kris, a tear falling from his left eye. “I’d appreciate what help you can give us, Kris. I…..want more than just to be a Hero, but a true Hero. I don’t think I could handle losing my purpose, so….I welcome the chance to find more than just that.” Jenny nodded. "I'm not really that sure what my purpose would be either, but I want to find out. I might have a job now, but I want to know what I want to do even past that. I want to know who I can be, without just leaning on one thing." The redhead grinned. "I know we can do this! So let's give it our all, and maybe we'll get inspired somehow." Kris seemed pleased to hear both responses. "Good. We'll definitely work on that as well as the rest of the training." After she finished speaking, she paused for a moment, before she grabbed her head. "Urgh… little too much sun today. I'll stay here while you two get back to your training, alright?" With that statement, the couple nodded, and went back to their stamina training, a new desire burning within them, to find something beyond being Heroes... -==???: ??? -- ???==- (??? years ago) "How could this have happened..." I wiped my eyes as I briefly stopped running. I panted as I felt my heart racing. So much had happened in the past couple weeks, but why? One of the people dropped the name of who was responsible. I didn't believe it at first, but now... I clenched my fists, an uncharacteristic anger burning in my chest. I shook my head for a moment, then took a shaky but deep breath. I can't, not now. I need to keep focused. I need to find her, then we can fix what happened... I steadied myself, as I bent down to pick up a feather amid the rubble. "This was recent..." I reached down to my belt and sent out my Pidgeot, trying my best to keep my worry off my face. "Pidgeot, can you track this, one way or another?" A caw answered my request, as the bird spread her wings triumphantly. I let my Pidgeot study the feather for a moment, then once she had enough of an idea of what trail to follow, I hopped on her back. "Let's go. We might be able to catch up to her this way!"

-==IC: Olivia/Colleen/Lucia -- Shabboneau Castle==- "You stay there and eat." Olivia said to Dahlia, as the young woman placed a hand on her younger sister's shoulder before she could get up. "I've already finished." She gave a disapproving glance to the rest of the table for saying things to imply that the things needed to be moved out before Dahlia even ate a meal. Before she could stand up, however, the so-far-invisible Lucia raised her hand. "I know who's actually being talked about here; my brother Alex Zyther. It's not you, Alex I-Didn't-Catch-Your-Name." Lucia explained with a small shrug. -==NPC: Lusamine==- Lusamine took a deep breath to keep herself composed. She would have to track down the executive's informant later, but right now, there was nothing she could do to fix that. "Very well, then. What is your own research like, then?" The blonde woman asked, as she wondered what type of research James would be willing to bargain with for something on that level.

-==IC: Olivia/Colleen - Shabboneau Castle, Camphrier Town, Kalos==- As if on cue, footsteps could be heard from down the hall. Olivia turned her head to look as she saw Colleen walk into the dining room. She was already dressed, but looked at least three quarters asleep still. "Hi..." Colleen groaned with a halfhearted wave. "Sorry... late night talking and training and..." The aura wielder slumped down into her chair, head already on the table. "I only just woke up. I get this sleepy sensation that someone did something dumb though..." Olivia raised an eyebrow at the girl's choice of wording as Colleen yawned again, looking as if she were about to head right back to sleep already. -==NPC: Lusamine - Aether Paradise, Alola==- "I see." Lusamine pursed her lips once again as she paced the room. She gave off a vibe that she was uneasy. "So, you wish to trade your research, for our research and replication of the Elemental Plates, then?" The Aether president finally spoke as she turned her head to James. "If you know about Silvally, then you obviously must know about the Memory Drives. And therefore, the fact that Silvally can change its typing when one of these memories are attached." She looked straight at James, as if to test him.

-==NPC: Lusamine -- Aether Paradise==- Lusamine pursed her lips as she realized that she had been played into a corner. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she tapped her foot. "Alright then. What do you have to offer then?" The Aether president slowly spoke as she did not seem to be impressed by the direction this conversation had turned. Still, she gave a fake-seeming smile, trying to still remain cordial.

-==IC: Colleen -- Shabboneau Castle, Camphrier Town, Kalos==- "It... definitely doesn't feel normal." Colleen said quietly to Zoe, as she couldn't help but shudder at the sense she was getting from the Absol. "It doesn't feel natural either... it's all purple and erratic and just feels wrong." She frowned as she considered the possibility that the Absol couldn't be helped. She decided not to actually voice her opinions on that, though. -==IC: Chloe -- Vertrag==- "That sounds like a good idea, yeah." Chloe nodded in agreement as she glanced back at the rooms. "It's interesting, though, some of the rooms were just like, the rest of the base here that we've seen, but others were different, more like how Pierce's was different. Ellen's room even like, seemed to have a window, which is even weirder." -==IC: Ray -- Vertrag==- "Yeah, it feels odd in that sense. He didn't mention the elevator thing either, but he might have guessed that we'd be joining. Still..." Ray frowned, as he considered things. "Maybe it really is somewhere else. We haven't found Ford's personal room yet, and if this Grimoire is as important as it sounds, then it's a lot more likely that it'd be kept away from the rest of these books, right?"

-==IC: Olivia Seaton -- Camphrier Town, Kalos, that one castle I can't remember the name of==- "That sounds good to me." Olivia nodded at the request. She was curious about what it was, but decided to leave it at that for the moment. -==NPC: Lusamine==- Lusamine visibly froze at the mention of that name. "How exactly do you know of that?" The woman had a cautious tone to her voice as she eyed the Liberty Executive. She knew that was confidential information that had been kept under wraps by most people - and not even officially named by the company either. She half-wished that she was behind her desk right now, feeling that would give an easier time to keeping a good poker face regarding Silvally. -==IC: Chloe Hikari -- Vertrag==- Chloe headed forward as Kyle left, troubled by what her friend might have found. She shook her head as she approached the eighth door and opened it. Inside was a room that reminded her a lot of a room from the Alamo. Chloe guessed that this was probably Sonja's room just from recalling her to be the only Liberty trainer that had been recruited to the Children. However, as the psychic woman looked around, she didn't see anything of note at all. With a small frown, she wrote the room off as a dead end. With one final look to make sure she hadn't missed anything, Chloe left the room. When she got back to the hallway, she noticed that no-one was back yet. She waited for a moment, but then realized that only one room remained anyway, so she headed into that room. When she walked in, she had to blink. This room looked a lot different than any of the other rooms she had been in - like it was a young child's room. Chloe realized quickly because of that, that this room had to be either Levi or Ellen's. Ignoring that for the moment, she looked at the wall above the desk on the left. She noticed a bunch of photographs taped to the wall, and looked at them curiously. With a gasp, she covered her mouth. "How...?" Half of these pictures shouldn't have existed. She reached out and gently untaped them all from the wall. The pictures ranged from the possibly-real pictures that had Ellen with her family and Pokémon... to pictures of Ellen with the group of friends they had traveled with back in Unova. Chloe knew for sure that no pictures had been taken - there was never any time and none of them were ever in the same place for longer than two minutes it felt like. But here they were. The girl felt a little uneasy looking at herself in the photos, but at the same time, these were... Chloe wordlessly and carefully placed the pictures into her purse, taking care to use a pouch where they wouldn't get damaged. As she looked around at the rest of the room, she realized that the light that she had just taken for granted in the room so far was apparently sun coming from a window. Chloe was a bit surprised as she wondered if that was even possible, but shook her head as she simply wrote it off as being because of the magic in the building. She glanced back down at the desk as she noticed a small book sitting on it. The woman opened the cover and saw that it was a diary that belonged to Ellen. She hesitantly opened to a random page. "Dear diary... I wish that I could go home soon. I'm sure mommy and daddy can't wait to see me again and it breaks my heart to make them wait longer. Each day here feels longer than the last... just waiting for the appointed time. But Tyler says it won't be long now! Soon we'll all save the world, and then I can finally go home. I know mommy and daddy are worried about me, but I'm sure my friends are, too. I hope they'll still visit me after that. Not only everyone from Unova, but the other people I've met in Hoenn and Ford's allies. I just wish everyone could get along..." Chloe closed the diary after that as she bit her lip. I... don't want to read any more. It doesn't feel right to Ellen. She thought with a conflicted look on her face. Still, she put the diary in her purse as well, realizing that it was starting to get a little heavy. She didn't care about how heavy it was, though, all the things she had picked up felt like they meant something dear to the people they belonged to - or were important evidence. It was worth it to take them. With one last look at the peaceful room, Chloe walked back out to the hallway to wait. -==IC: Colleen Llyan -- Camphrier Town==- "I--" Colleen barely managed to get one word out before Zoe gave her suggestion. After a moment of consideration, the aura wielder smiled. "Alright, that sounds good to me." She said, as she was admittedly intrigued at what Em might pick out as an outfit for her.