[PXFIRE] [RP] PXFIRE Roleplay - A Game of Storms

[Chakramaster]

Tina Volts the Pikachu
Prankster Platoon
Tempest Festival Stadium Stands

Tina was In the stadium. Getting ready to watch the ensuing chaos to come. After years of so much pain, crazies, and madness. She had build a tolerance for it all. It drove her to lengths where she yearned for it. Even if it was watching it there in person. Those around her already yelling. Cheering on the madness to come. Her fingers twitching as she develops a slight smirk. The cheering and some around her already fighting themselves. The sight and smell of blood filling the air already. Causing her more insane side to behind to come out. Suddenly she shakes her head. Taking in a deep breath as to keep herself composed.

"Not here. Not now". She says softly to herself. "I need to keep myself compose. I can't let my crazier side loose here. Not yet." Looking around Tina sees the crowd around her. Some laying on the ground knocked out, some gutted and bleeding out, some stoned, some confused, others making out in public right in the stadium.

"Ugh, every single place you go. It only gets worse". The Pokémon behind Tina bump into her. Causing her to turn back only to see it wasn't another Pokémon. Just trash. The event hadn't even started yet the crowd was filled with incredibly rude Pokémon. She pulls her tail to her front and brushes it off as to keep it clean. She looks back up to the center as to see what might be happening before the event starts, but other than killers, drunks, stoned, and so much more dispicable viewers. Tina couldn't help, but lean back and sigh again. "Maybe I should just let loose. Get a few more...kills to my count."

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

'Nora' the Lilligant
The Gracedia Order
Jadeblossom City, en-route to the Gracedia Intelligance Agency Building

"No," Nora said, defiantly. No way, no how. She had suspected it. But she was not going to do it. Not unless Yesley had a hell of a reason.

They were in a rather large van-a nice one with a great deal of bulletproof glass, perfect for foiling would-be assassins. Yesley and Nora were seated together, the two of them posing the most ridiculous contrast possible-Nora's deplorable apperance against Yesley's princely getup-and Yesley was agitated by the scent of Nora's polluted aroma but knew better than to open a window, just in case.

"I'll be quick with you. You are going. And before you raise your objections, I'll tell you why we're doing this now. The short of it is, the Black Lotus have been piece-by-piece piercing together your identity together, or at least, who they think is you. The 'rumors' of Lilligant being killed semi-indiscriminately are true-those are Black Lotus Agents, trying to get a bead on you, and considering that five assassins have been put to your location, I think that any intelligence officer with a brain would realize that there was definitely something suspicious about how every assassin sent to this specific spot would always wind up dead, and would then start sending Onyx Circle after you. Perhaps even teams of Onyx Circle, if they felt you warranted it. Of course, the fact that all the assassins have been as obvious as they are means we're fairly sure they either aren't taking you seriously, they want to maintain their higher-priority assassins on targets of higher importance and/or lower danger, or this is just a prelude to worse. In other words, we're coming to the conclusion that your days of being an operative in the shadows are going to be over very soon. But just not using that talent is a waste."

Nora blinked. She was slightly more sober, but still very angry about it. Good god, no. She knew exactly what that meant.

"... You're sending the best you have to the Tempest Festival, then? I don't do my business like that, I don't, I don't!" Nora yelled.

"You're not only going to the Tempest Festival. We'll talk more once you're with the others about the full details. You'll be kept very busy for this one, I assure you. That said... Yes. You're competing," Yesley said. "Now, can you please stop shouting about it?"

Nora glared, but complied. She mulled it over internally, sliding a leafy arm across the door handle. She wasn't stupid enough to argue with Yesley's points. She knew that they were closing in-the time between the fourth and fifth assassins were much closer than the first three, and altogether they had been steadily increasing in frequency. It was only a matter of time, but Nora had thought that would just mean she packed up and left for Hana city. Apparently, the Gracedia Intelligence Agency had completely different, and completely stupid ideas.

She did a lot of ridiculous jobs beforehand, too. Before and after joining the Gracedias. The sheer stupidity that was the Psycho Clefairy job was only the most recent; no, before then there was the Sylveon who had a 50% chance of being one of the very 'dark ones' that the Cult Felicity had been born to worshipped (Nora refused to believe in the supernatural and nothing outright was shown, but there were way too many coincidences going on with that girl to just be 'luck'); before then there was the job where she had to learn how to deliver a baby for a high-ranking Black Lotus agent, the latter of which Nora would kill after the baby was secured; Before then, before even her switch to the Gracedia Order, there was the business with the animator who was part of a brainwashing cult (unrelated to Felicity's cult), and before then, perhaps one of the strangest jobs she ever did, there was the business in Petrox City. Nora never thought she'd be putting up her work in an Art Museum. Nora also didn't think she'd have to learn how to perform laser eye surgery. And Nora definitely didn't think she would be fighting magical girl cosplayers-and Nora wasn't quite sure they were Cosplayers for their unusual effectiveness. When you're having to consider whether or not one of Liao's best-kept secrets is a friggin' team of high-school wizards in frilly outfits fighting crime in the name of love and justice that had somehow evaded all detection by even the best of the Black Lotus, you had gotten yourself into a real pickle. Nora had done some things that she had really had to stop and consider whether or not she had actually been tripping the whole time.

But all of those-one and all-were done on her terms. Alone, stealthily, as a lone operative, in the shadows to the best of her ability to do so, which was, in those particular cases, particuarly stymied by outside circumstances or just the odd rules of the job. She would argue her most interesting missions were her hardest for her screwups, or else being blatantly unable to operate without coming under scrutiny. But this was a different story. If Yesley had his way, she was going to be watched on live television, broadcasted to everyone, in one of the most bloody shows of fighting skills one could ever ask for, and expect her reputation to keep totally There would be absolutely no secrecy after that. And that was a lot to ask for an agent of the shadows, like Nora. And though she couldn't prove it-it was just a shoddy assumption-she had a gut feeling that Yesley had somehow expected her to do more than just compete, most likely her typical shady operations. She'd be caught, for sure... By some rabid fan begging for her autograph attracting enough attention to draw the whole Black Lotus onto her position. If she even lived.

She didn't want to do it, plain and simple. Nora did not count on being 'the one,' like so many foolish Pokemon did. Nora did not go into the culture of Liao-where the most important person in Liao is the most bada*s. Nora could foresee the whole assassination attempt on Taiya being scripted to remind her followers of her prowess (Nora didn't doubt Taiya's prowess herself). Nora could foresee the devotion to the Black Lotus being concordant with the power of the possibly-fake Ante that their best had. Nora could foresee the dictators of the last fifty years being previous winners of Tempest Festivals. Nora could foresee the Legendary Pokemon of ages past being merely normal Pokemon of near-unheard of fighting skill and prowess.

In a world of powerful beings who's uncanny superpowers were almost always only used for fighting... It was the only logical conclusion that everyone would so thoroughly enjoy blood sport. Everyone but the people who actually killed for a living. Might made Right. That was the first law of Xia. And Nora's might wasn't might she could leverage in the Tempest Festival. Not all of it. Nora did not want to compete. She couldn't see herself winning.

"... Boss. The Tempest Festival. That place. It is nothing short of a deathtrap. You'd be burning me as an asset. You'd be sending your best black operative to your death," Nora said, trying her best to speak clearly.

"... Nora," Yesley began, and Nora realized that this was the first time Yesley had ever said her 'name' directly. "I understand your life has been harsh, seemingly futureless, and I know that the Tempest Festivals aren't pleasent experiences. I know from experience. I know from the operatives I had to send there before, telling me horror stories and how they wouldn't take another life again from how bad it was. I know exactly what you are thinking," Yesley said. "I know. But I made this decision for two reasons. the first is, in light of all that's happened... You don't have a future in our business anymore. Not as an operative, not as you are. The Black Lotus is closing in on you. You will be found. You will be caught. You will be killed. It was always a risk-but now the risk is becoming more certain. Every minute they further and further pin down who and what you are, and why they should kill you. I know you didn't sign up for this to die. But the way this is going... You won't live."

Nora looked harshly upon him. "And I suppose the second reason is that you believe in me?"

Yesley looked mildly sheepish. "If I didn't believe in you, you wouldn't be here right now. And I believe in you perhaps the most. You're going to get every advantage I can leverage. The finest equipment. The finest weaponry. The finest in protection. Nothing but the finest. Nothing less, because I want to give you every edge you can get. The Gracedia Order is... Terrified, of the Master Blaze Jewel. Terrified of the Black Lotus and this 'ante' they're so strongly suggesting and rubbing into our faces. We're throwing you in there, Nora, because we believe you to be the kind of person who could... As cheesy as this will sound to you... Be the guide in the darkness. I would say 'light,' but that would insult you. You know the darkness too well. But now you need to make yourself known."

Nora honestly wasn't much more convinced than before.

"... We would also compensate you heavily. On top of any rewards you might receive in the Tempest Festival itself for any victories you may achieve," Yesley added.

Nora sighed deeply. Like it or not, she needed money, and burning the Gracedia Order on a major mission would mean killing her career. Yesley's speech worked-but it worked because Nora realized that if they were really this desperate, turning them down would mean the end of her career as an operative. And that meant no more money or easy drugs for her.

"... Fine. I don't like it. But I'll do it," Nora said, trying her hardest to sound as reluctant as possible.

"Thank you. From the bottom of my heart," Yesley said. "Now... We're almost here. Before we disembark, I should add one more thing, before we make this all official."

"Whut?"

"The Tempest Festival is universally a team sport, with the exception of the very last event, the Deathwish Endurance. You're not competing in all of them," Yesley said. "So you'll have to make yourself aquainted to our... Other operatives. And while you may think you're one of the most interesting we've ever recieved... Some of our others are competitors for the role."

"Eh, I've dealt with all sorts of weirdos. Cult gods, magical girls, psycho midgets, popular animators, newborns, clown assassins, post-ironic hipsters, all sorts. Workin' with 'em can't be too different," Nora said.

Yesley sighed, in a manner that came off to Nora as to mean 'Famous last words right there.' Or just 'I really hope you were tripping for most of that.' Hard to tell. "I hope as much," he said.

Nora nodded.

Nora didn't imagine herself seriously going to the Tempest Festival and participating in the bloodsport. She had when she was little, but never seriously. She couldn't see herself fighting those battle-ready lunatics that populated these events, not at any stage of her life, even as Queen Taiya took throne and reminded everyone now and again that Lilligant could be bada*ses, please and thank you. And especially not when the world of intrigues and secrets was open to her, not while she delved deeper and deeper into the works of spycraft and assassination.

Then again, she didn't imagine herself fighting magical girls either. She still thought she could have been tripping for all of that, though.

[Soups]

Jax the Marowak
Gracidea Order
Lytala City, Snag ‘a Room

Failure has never been Jax’s cup of tea. He understood the concept of it and its importance, but it wasn’t anything he was used to himself. To Jax, failure was life’s way of slapping you in the face, grabbing that same face, and shoving it in a pile of… well, you know where I’m going with this. To put it simply, Jax was, is, and always has been about success, and if you let him tell it, he’d rather die than fail.

“And that’s all she wrote…” Jax sighed, as he watched an extremely bold Toxicroak lose its life to Queen Taiya. “For him, at least…”

Of course the Toxicroak, its poor soul now travelling to the afterlife… well, hopefully... didn’t lose its life unnecessarily. What it attempted was courageous. If it had successfully taken the Queen’s life, it would’ve been talked about for years to come. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much left to talk about now… except the spilled remains of the poor fellow.

To no one’s surprise, not a tear was shed. In fact, the masses cheered in a way that they hadn’t cheered before. Was it because they legitimately enjoyed the public murder or was it because they feared the same would happen to them if they hadn’t? The latter isn’t far-fetched as it seems.

Jax didn’t care to personally attend the Opening Ceremony. Awards aren’t given for that. He understood what he was here for: to rid of the Black Lotus and push the agenda of his faction, Gracidea Order. How he was going to do that was unbeknownst even to him, but he knew he’d have to try… and it wasn’t going to be easy.

“Let’s try not to die, Jaxy…” Jax whispered to himself sarcastically, “It’s OKAY to do this… you know… not alone.”

Jax knew that his best chance at success and survival involved working with others. And who better to work with than his own family, the Gracidea Order.

“Tomorrow oughta’ be a treat…” Jax said sarcastically before switching the bedside lamp off.

[LKWayvern]

Laura the Umbreon
Prankster Platoon
Scheme City Central, Platoon Training Field
Affected RPers: @Velocity

Laura tried to keep the scowl off her face. She knew what Jones was saying made sense-- the umbreon was not built for a long-lasting fight, but mainly to assist allies and inconvenience the enemy. But in a one-on-one fight… Perhaps Laura could have had a fighting chance against Jones if this match had continued, but Laura wasn’t interested in pushing her luck unless it was absolutely necessary. She knew the helioptile had been right, but at the moment Laura was humiliated and exhausted, the paralysis in her limbs being the only thing keeping her upright.

She irritatedly flicked her ears. “Ugh, just-- yeah. Keep away from Confuse Rays in the future, I guess. They’re supposed to just disorient, sometimes they make you attack yourself but-- Can I just get a cheri or an oran or something?”

It didn’t take long for an irritated looking green-eyed luxray to approach her. “Surprised you didn’t just Heal Tone it. Helioptile was right, not your best finale.”

“Paralysis might’ve blocked it, freaking annoying,” Laura huffed. “So y’just gonna stand there or what?”

The luxray let out an only somewhat-exaggerated sigh. “Great then, c’mon.” He picked her up by her scarf, quickly depositing the smaller quadruped on his back, her stiff legs going every which way. “Get comfy.”

“Easy for you to say, you’ve never been paralyzed, fluff-for-brains! The hell are we even going, Xavier?”

The luxray, Xavier, sighed. “Back to our place. Not every quad’s got a mystic psychic stone like you, so I can’t exactly bring berries for when you get in trouble.”

Laura’s ears flicked in irritation again. “...Can you at least make it a bit easier for me to stay on. Please.”

Xavier adjusted Laura’s position with his tail so that instead of her being in a messy heap, it looked less like she’d abruptly fall off the moment the luxray began walking. “Is that more to your satisfaction, my lady?” He asked, teasing sarcasm evident in his tone.

Laura snorted. “It’ll do, my vassal. Onward!”

Laura and Xavier’s relationship was somewhat… unexpected. Officially, Xavier was her bodyguard. Nobody had really hired him to the position, he had simply gone along with Laura on her infamous ‘tour’ and continued hanging around her afterwards. At some point they had become ‘friends’. Around that point, Xavier and Laura began sharing the same home.

Upon arriving at the aforesaid home, Xavier unceremoniously dumped Laura onto her bed, and padded over to the medicine chest, flicking it open with his tail. He returned with a bottle of oran salve and a cheri.

“Lemme borrow the magical mind crystal, it’s ****ing annoying to get this lid off,” he remarked.

“If you can get the damn bracelet off,” Laura responded, “it’s yours.”

A few minutes later, the cheri had allowed Laura to regain sensation in her limbs, and the salve was comfortably soothing the injury Jones had left her. Laura stretched, easing out the remaining tension in her joints. “Mm, that feels good.”

Xavier laid down next to her, pawing at the remote. “Ya want this on?”

Laura shrugged. “I don’t mind.” The luxray jabbed at a button, the tv in their home coming to life with the sounds of explosions. Laura’s fur immediately fluffed up with surprise. “The frigging hell!?”

Laura felt Xavier’s tail flop onto her in what she supposed was meant to be a calming gesture. “Calm down. Just the opening night fireworks.”

“The what now.”

“Tempest Festival. Opening night’s tonight,” Xavier reminded her.

Laura felt herself calm down. “Right.” She sighed, relaxing. “You doing Blood Pit with me?”

“Yeah.”

She yawned. He gave her a look. “...Get some sleep. You’ll need a lot of energy tomorrow.”

“Can’t sleep, darkrai-damn fireworks sound like violent popcorn,” Laura complained. Xavier quickly hit the mute button. “Much better…”

Soon enough, the umbreon was fast asleep, tail and legs occasionally twitching.

[Morzone]

Theo the Quilava
Steel Scavengers
The Air over the Dueling Badlands, En route to Westfel
Affected RP'ers: N/A

There were too many clouds for Theo's liking. Or more specifically, too many different types of clouds hovering at different heights. It made flying safely bothersome. The last thing he needed now was for some Lotus jerk to surprise him because he'd had to fly through a cloud and go blind for a few seconds. Still, otherwise it was pretty straight forward flight. It gave him plenty of time to think.

As he went around a large puffy cloud Theo leaned over to get a view of the plains below. He wished he could've flown over the highway and stayed above Julia and the others, being on his own was rather unnerving when flying into Lotus territory. This whole festival thing was unnerving in and of itself after all. When Julia had told him a week ago they'd been asked to join the Grand Lady and the Knights in competing for the Master Blaze Jewel it hadn't really seemed to make any sense- the two of them were just some mechanics after all.

"Crazy Weavile's probably has some crazy idea that got us into this Crazy mess." He muttered to himself, just as he had done every other time his thoughts had turned this direction.

"At least we had a week to prepare, I bet some people are going to get forced into this mess the day it starts." He kept talking, patting his plane's controls with affection. "Finally I can show you off... still need to name you but we'll have time for that later."

It occurred to him that he had started talking to no one again. Julia would've just laughed and asked if invisible ghosts were hanging around. As he shook his head he flew around yet another cloud and before him in the distance was Westfel. It didn't take long to spot the special hanger that had been acquired to hide his plane during the festival. It may be hard to see from the ground, but it was clear as day from the air. Smiling, he leaned over and turned on his speakers. Flight of the Valkyries came on, and he hummed along as he began his descent.

Julia the Weavile
Steel Scavengers
Highway 3, En route to Westfel
Affected RP'ers: @Death's Spook

Julia was thoroughly enjoying herself. Despite some protests, she had opted to drive her monstrous destruction-derby car right down in the middle of the highway in order to get it to westfel with everyone else. Easily two to three times as tall as your average car, her presence was certainly known as other drivers gave her plenty of room. Of course, she was stuck driving behind the Armored RV that housed the rest of the knights going to the festival, but you couldn't have everything.

Deciding to liven thing up a bit Julia hit the horn button, blasting a sound as loud as a Train's horn across the highway. Then she leaned back, grabbed the wheel with her foot to keep it straight, and flicked on the radio. Some horrible scratchy music came out, prompting her to quickly fiddle with the dial to change channel. On came a live report of the festival's opening ceremony.

Talk about a mood killer, listening to that 'Queen's' voice. It made her question whether she'd made the right choice when Anthony had come asking for weapons and materials to fight in the festival with. Julia had responded that her price for helping was to be allowed was to have Theo and herself participate, which Anthony had granted once he'd heard why.

Julia shook her head. "No, it was the right choice. Theo needs this..." She muttered to herself, glaring up into the sky, imagining Theo's plane flying over head. Still, if there had been one thing she was unsure about it had to be how much she'd told that Mimikyu. To think Anthony's brother in law might be the very same Gallade that killed Theo's parents. She had to admit she wasn't entire sure about anthony having such a close interest in Theo. He wasn't a bad guy but... well maybe he could Theo to talk about the second half of the story behind his parent's death. She certainly had never gotten out of him.

"I've got too many problems. This festival better be the best stress reliever that ever existed." She muttered again, quite liking the idea of taking her frustration out in some violent road rage battles. Westfel loomed ahead of her, they'd be arriving soon. She wondered if Theo would get there before them.

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

'Nora' the Lilligant
The Gracedia Order
Jadeblossom City, Gracedia Intelligance Agency Building
Affected RPers: N/A
We Can Haz A-Team?

The Gracedia Intelligence Agency Building was a building preferring width to height, low to the ground, surrounded by a few patches of astro turf. Nora never saw it in action, but apparently there were missile batteries hanging under the turf for the occasions that the Black Lotus thought it acceptable to try to bomb them. It definitely happened once. The wreckage of the airplane that tried was still on display at the war museum.

The inside of the building was a bit of a maze. Yes, they had signs, but even then the layout was quite confusing. Nora hadn't bothered to memorize it, and only now escaping a mild hangover, Nora was definitely relying on Yesley to guide her through the halls and the numerous buildings, each one likely possessing separate committies endlessly debating the nature of Ante and how to counter it, among other, more mundane things. Nora still had a standing order to fish up a dead Onyx Circle member just to see if they have Ante-and if they do, what it is.

Finally, Yesley inserted a keycard into a reader in a door, and the click of a lock coincided with a green light. Yesley opened the door into a room with eight others.

Nora swept her eyes over the eight others, briefly. The one on the farthest-left was a Tyranitar, who's fearsome getup was tempered by the uniform of a local resturaunt. A fairly good resturaunt at that. He even touted a kitchen knife in his hands. The one to his right was a Bronzong, only recently having de-invested his time from the local newspaper to look at Nora. The third fellow was a Mienshao with an eyepatch who looked deeply distressed at some immaterial thing, even now. The fourth, center-left, was a female Heracross-who had heavily pierced his horn with various metal rings. She was the only one smiling. the center-right was the epitome of stereotypical military muscle, a beefy Machamp with a camoflagued getup and even some kevlar vest already on. The sixth one was a Furret so utterly, totally normal that you'd have to be really attentive to notice if this Furret was following you. The second from the right was almost the inverse, a smeargle so utterly covered in paint you'd be forgiven for being unable to peel your eyes away, not just from the colorful display but from the amount of demented happy faces painted all over the already crazed display. The final one was the only true quad in the group, a Mightyena-no, wait, not a Mightyena. That was an illusion. Stupid Zoroark.

Nora rolled her eyes as Yesley made the introductions. "It looks like we're all here. We don't have much time, so I'll introduce you to one another now. The Tyranitar is Boraz Ilian, and the Lilligant is Nora; they're two of the top assassins in the Order. Boraz's secondary skill is cooking, and Nora is addicted to everything I can think of as addictable-and exploits it well. The Mienshao, the Machamp and the Bronzong are, respecitvely, Anshan Ivory, Baragan Bales, and Ichabold Ulio. They aren't part of the GIA formally, but are loyal members of the Gracedia Order all the same; they've been picked up from our army for special duty, and they're the 'muscle' for this operation. They're not going to be a part of your secondary goal, they're there to make sure you can authenticate your claims as full-on competitors and nothing else. The Zoroark and the Furret are Talian Halsey and Faraday Galvant; both expert operatives specialized in infiltration. Finally, the Smeargle and the Heracross are the faces. The Smeargle, surprisingly, isn't a runaway from the Prankster Platoon-" Nora's ears and senses perked up at this, as did the other GIA agents. That phrase- 'isn't a runaway from the Prankster Platoon'-that was code. Code for 'kill this guy, he's a Black Lotus spy.'

Yesley did a much better job at containing his surprise over the sudden abrupt violence this time. Everyone in the room who was an actual GIA agent so swiftly pulled a weapon or readied an attack that their target didn't even manage to look surprised. The Smeargle had no clue what hit him. Nora did-it was about two bullets, a meat cleaver, a Focus Blast, and a Dark Pulse, near simultaneously. The Smeargle was dead. That was two in a day, a record for Nora when she wasn't on a mission. OK, it was tied with two other days, but they weren't both Black Lotus. The other three looked extremely confused and panicked, but as the others put their weapons away (bar the Tyranitar, who checked a pulse and then hacked the dead Smeargle's head clean off as a doubled assurance), they merely returned to being especially wary.

Yesley's throat cleared the room better than any janitor. "Oh, so sorry we couldn't tell you about him. Err, we accepted a known Black Lotus spy into our organization and have been feeding him misinformation for weeks to disable the Black Lotus to the best of our ability. He couldn't be around for the briefing," Yesley said, turning to the three soldiers. "Just so you know... The secondary meaning of what I uttered? That's only valid if the speaker is a GIA member. But you're going to be GIA members for the duration of this, so do remember that. Even an actual disgraced former member of the Prankster Platoon shouldn't be referred to in those terms... Moving on. Our last member here is Yvonne Gelia the Heracross, who was working with our diplomatic efforts until recently, and has foiled various assassinations on various VIPs," Yesley said, gesturing to Yvonne. "Also one of our better drivers."

"With everyone introduced-and the mole eliminated-it's time to get you up to speed on the assignment. To keep it brief: Your mission is to retrieve the Master Blaze Jewel being offered as a prize in the Tempest Festival, by any means necessary. To this end, we have arranged for you to move to Lytala city and participate in the Tempest Games, in an attempt to aid the Gracedia Order in retrieving the Master Blaze Jewel directly. We've assigned you to multiple events to play to your strong suits. Your schedules are out on that table to the left," Yesley said, pointing to a small coffee table to the side, where a stack of nine. "Don't take the folders with you, just the papers inside them, keep your schedule on-hand, and please, try to keep your survival as a higher priority than actually winning-but hang in there as long as you possibly can. In addition, the retrieval of any body of any suspected Ante-user, dead or alive, is to be retrieved and stowed as securely as possible in an attempt to research this 'Ante,' if you can. A reminder; the Onyx Circle aren't invincible. We just haven't gotten them into one of our mortuaries for study."

"What I have just said to you is your mission, and you will refer to it as such. However, there is another part of this mission. I said to retrieve the Master Blaze Jewel by any means necessary. I mean any means necessary. We have very little faith in the idea that the Black Lotus will honor the implicit bargain of handing over the Master Blaze Jewel to just anyone. While we will attempt to fight and win it over fairly, the odds of us so much as escaping the city intact with it are nil-the Black Lotus would consider us the 'terrorists' we are the minute we left the stadium and bring out as much force as possible to deliver it to Taiya, if not just deliver us a fake. Indeed, the way Blacklocke has managed to 'supply' it for the Tempest Games rather than simply being forced to hand it over reeks of suspicious activity. We do not know to what limitations the Master Blaze Jewel operates at this time-if they operate similarly to regular Blaze Jewels or have their own set of rules. However, if it is being offered as the absolute grand prize, we can tell that it is being advertised as a force unmatched openly, one Queen Taiya is unlikely to part with willingly. IN other words, the Gracedia Order believes that the game is rigged; even if the Gracedia Order or another faction were to emerge victorious, there would be no chance of retrieving the gem normally."

"We have not signed you up to cover every day-there will be days when all nine of you are simultaniously exempt from all events. On those days, as well as any other time you can, I want you to investigate Blacklocke Arms, the ones who apparently discovered the Master Blaze Jewel in the first place. Your primary objective is to secure the Master Blaze Jewel by any means necessary-and we believe that the only real chance of doing that is by stealing it directly from them. Your secondary objective is to discover how Blacklocke Arms came into possession of the Master Blaze Jewel-if it was found in some ancient dingy temple for archeologists to dream of, or manually created by some force. Anything else you discover along the way, related to the Master Blaze Jewel or not, would be welcome news for the Gracedia Order. For the most absolute secrecy possible, I must request that any discovery you make is at any point not uploaded to any device connected to the internet in any way or is in any way able to be hacked or bugged, in case of Black Lotus operatives hacking your personal computers-and we suggest that you do not get the aid of any third parties equally interested in this information. The Master Blaze Jewel, and the information surrounding it, should not fall into any hands that aren't the hands of the Gracedia Order."

Nora would honestly have preferred hearing the grim news of being the newest assassins for Queen Taiya to that. Blacklocke Arms were perhaps more dangerous than the Black Lotus or the Tempest Festival. Sure; they didn't send assassins to your door, and Nora knew that they weren't strictly providing to the Black Lotus on every occasion. But they had a reputation for being impervious to break ins. It was well-founded. Nora knew of nine break-ins, all of which failed. And that wasn't getting into how the headquarters of the Blacklocke Arms corporation were but two blocks away from Queen Taiya's palace, and anyone with a brain could tell you that Taiya had reasons to keep Blacklocke Arms on her side moreso than any other-which meant that some of the meanest Black Lotus agents they had would swarm the place if it was so much as touched. It was terrifying, therefore, that the Black Lotus were only instrumental in stopping a break-in once of those nine times. To steal their most recent and most prized possession right out of their hands was unthinkable.

... It also meant Nora would be rich for this. Really rich. To say nothing of being the potential owner of the Master Blaze Jewel-anyone in the network. And if anyone in Xia could do such a heist for the Master Blaze Jewel, it was Nora. Nora and this group of spies and soldiers. Hopefully.

"One last thing. While this is a recent development... One of the children of Athena Pallas, one of our other fighters in the Tempest Festival, has been kidnapped. It's precisely the kidnapping that's brought her into the Tempest Festival-apparently the Black Lotus kidnappers had it as part of the bargain. 'Come to the Tempest Festival or you'll never see him again'- direct, if nothing else. As with the Master Blaze Jewel, the odds of them playing fair regarding this are nil-and we suspect the worst. You're on the lookout for Marx, a Rowlet of about three years of age-if at all possible, retrieve him and return him safely to the Gracedia Order's headquarters in Lytala. You likely won't find him in Blacklocke Arms-you'll have to search. It's tetriary compared to the other goals... And you may need to, er-hem, remind Athena of her duties to the Order, should her parental urges compromise her."

Reminding them of their duties to the order. Quite obvious code, even the three non-GIA got it clear. It was code for 'kill her if she betrays us.' Every idiot who ever thought the Gracedia Order were just a bunch of lazy hippies were tripping harder than Nora ever could. The Order could not and would not tolerate differences in vision. Nora had been called upon to resolve those differences before-once.

"Of course, we wouldn't have let Athena get as far as she had if we believed she would succumb easily to the temptation. I have confidence in her strength of character, from her profiles. But just in case, don't hesitate," Yesley added.

"Are we clear?" Yesley asked, rhetorically. His voice was crystal and without double-meaning. There was no confusion. Eight heads tilted down and up in response. "Good, then. You are due in Lytala City today, before the events start. Take everything in the manila folders, except the folders themselves. They'll include your schedule, your passes for the events as competitors, a detailed map of Lytala city, and a 2-week long premium pass for the subway system in Lytala."

Nora retrieved the contents of her manila folder with only slight delay from her hangover. It had practically already gone. She made sure to get a cup of coffee to make sure that it didn't come back later while she interviewed her schedule... Huh.

Day 2, Blood Pit Arena Qualifier. Day 3, the Finals for the Blood Pit. Day 5, Field of Screams Qualifier. Day 7, Roadkill Warrior Competition (only day). Day 9, Field of Screams Finals. Day 10, Deadly Force Qualifier. And then the Deadly Force Final on Day 14. Days, 1, 4, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13 and 15 were all free.

"We're giving you the first day to recover from the trip, integrate yourselves with the order forces in Lytala, and prepare the best you can for the competitions ahead as well as the raid. As long as your attempts to raid Blacklocke do not compete with your schedule, you may attempt it at any time-though we have no competitions on days 6, 11 and 13 for any of you for a reason. Oh, and you may notice that none of you are assigned to Deathwish Endurance... Our strategic department has one and all concurred that the odds for that particular event are too heavily slanted, and as the ultimate reward is the master Blaze Jewel, it may become more dire to steal it away if the Black Lotus look certain to win it-even if we can't secure it, better that they look like they won't uphold their bargains in front of millions to the real winners than them being the actual winners. As they usually have," Yesley sighed. "Nevertheless, if you believe it may help, you may sign yourselves into the event personally, but the GIA doesn't believe it'll be worth your while."

"That is all. As of right now, the operation-Phantom Thorn-is a go. You are dismissed," Yesley said, putting the last little spin on it as he gestured to the door. Nora walked out, tension twisting her guts like a knife through her liver. Her poor, abused liver. Nora had to roll her eyes at the thoroughness of it all. It seemed the GIA had some instruction for every eventuality. Though, given the chaos of the Tempest Festival and the extreme importance this one had to everyone, perhaps such thoroughness was justified.

Nora was just hoping she lived.

[Neo Emolga]

@Noblejanobii @The Nonexistent Tazz @Soups @Death's Spook @Morzone @Velocity @LKWayvern @Steel Lunpara @Chakramaster

DAY 1 HAS ARRIVED
Active Events: Blood Pit Arena (Qualifying Round), Dread Metal Destruction Derby (Qualyfing Round)

Phoebe Helsden the Charizard
Black Lotus - Onyx Circle
Outside Blood Pit Arena, Lytala City

Phoebe didn't think much of last night's Opening Ceremony. It was the same deal and meant to entertain the lustful, sadistic masses. Even the news of the assassination attempt wasn't a surprise as it hadn't been the first time Taiya had to deal with it.

Phoebe had been ordered to take part in the Blood Pit with six other Black Lotus operatives, the max a single team could enter for this particular event. Her task as squad leader was to ensure the skies were swept clean while the rest of her team grinded everyone else down to a pulp.

The roster of entrants for the first qualifying round was filling up. Some had already preregistered, but it was very common for entrants to preregister and then get nervous and never show up. So when the actual round began in the afternoon, there was no telling how many entrants would be left. But for now, they were waiting and gearing up for every grizzly thing that would come their way.

Phoebe had her own strategy on how she wanted to handle exterminating the competition. She had her Death Spitter rocket launcher ready and she was in perfect shape to soar through the skies easily, even with the amount of armor she had on. Vekker, an Ursaring specializing in chainguns, was exceptional at laying down suppressing fire. That would give Grec the Gengar all the time he needed to use an EinCaliber sniper rifle to pick off anyone held down by Vekker or held back by Vurden the Volcarona's constant barrage of fire attacks. That was one thing about this team. She knew they loved burning everything and everyone to hell after punching numerous holes into them.

The Qualifying Round for this first match was expected to go well for Black Lotus. And in times past, if things went well in tomorrow's Qualifying Round, Black Lotus wouldn't have to even compete with a secured win.

"I'm sure you know how this all works," Phoebe told the rest of her squad. "We've been over it a dozen times so I'm not going to repeat myself. As a reminder, I don't want any taunting or sneering while we're on the field. Save that for when we win. We lost an operative last year because he felt like bumping the butt of his gun in the face of a dead opponent and never noticed a Scyther charging right for him from behind. We still have the head in case you need a reminder."

"Punk deserved it," Vekker spat. "If anyone got killed that way in front of me, I'd piss on their carcass."

"We're no idiots," a heavily armored Luxray named Unloc replied. "Some other Lotus operatives may like the gloating, but we know you. There's a reason we signed to be on your team instead of the others."

Phoebe nodded. Some Lotus operatives saw this event as fun, but Phoebe saw it much more like a job. Her task, along with the rest of her team, was to kill everyone fast and hard and not leave a single enemy soul standing no matter what. The only mercy offered from her and her team was a faster than usual death, and that was all they would be getting if they were lucky.

"Let's go," Phoebe told the rest of her crew. "I want to size up everyone that comes through that door thinking they can compete against us. Remember, as we're up first, we need to make this demoralizing on every enemy team. It will ruin them for the events ahead."

Phoebe would never say she enjoyed her job. But killing Pokémon was something she was very good at, and it was her job every day.

---

Jucden Tarblack the Raticate
Black Lotus - Onyx Circle
Lotus Den Slums, outside Lytala City

Today, the Lotus Slums would go from being an impoverished town to become a warzone and many Pokémon would lose the little they had from the collateral damage. Already, the slum intended to be the site for the Dread Metal competition had been cleared out. No impoverished citizen was going to stick around only to get killed and there was no way they'd ever be able to convince Black Lotus to reconsider. They could only hope and pray their mud hut or shanty wouldn't be blown up in the carnage that was to come, but the chances of that were slim considering it was common for half the town to be crushed or burnt to the ground in the aftermath of the event.

At the rules stated, teams could enter three vehicles at max into the competition. Jucden would be driving the Ripfire truck, which was a hulking junkyard beast that Jucden and his cohort Jaze the Conkeldurr had built together and involved a lot of weaponry that they both loved: explosives galore. Jaze enjoyed driving while Jaze was more than happy to be the one to sent every competitor to a messy and gored demise. Meanwhile, Jucden would never pass up an opportunity to decorate the Ripfire with flashing lights and a crudely-painted metallic smiling Pikachu head that had bullet holes shot into it.

The other two vehicles in today's Dread Metal was the Peaceslayer armored monster truck that Vorkot the Scrafty had spent all of last year modding and perfecting just for causing the maximum amount of damage. It was another heavily armored car where Vorkot would be driving and manning the front machine guns at the same time while his gunner on the rear was Xed the Arcanine, a wild pyromaniac that would burn the whole shanty town to cinders just for fun. Lastly, the Blackout was an armored hearse that was driven by Sevren the Dusknoir and Mevvan the Krookodile. Sevren would be the driver while Mevvan would be focusing on laying down heavy machine gun fire on everyone else, as well as using whatever dark projectile attacks would work best for the situation.

Jucden felt his only real competition was the other two Black Lotus vehicles. Everyone else was just worth kill points and he needed to get as many as he could to brag the hardest.

"It's a B-E-A-utiful day for same carnage, isn't it, Jaze!?" Jucden was laughing hysterically, tugging on the Conkeldurr's body armor. "It's hard to just stand here waiting for this! I've been watching the damn clock for the past two hours and we still have several more to go!"

"Hurr, hurr," Jaze chuckled, smashing his fists together in anticipation. "Dem runts gettin' gored inta goo. Pasty-like."

"Yesss!" Jucden hissed and snickered as he jumped up and down in excitement. "Pasty like! I like that! Yes, I like that! There better be more. Way more than last year! We're going to set a world record today!"

"Hurr..." Jaze snorted. "My kinda killin'."

[VeloJello]

Jones Sandstrider the Heliolisk
Prankster Platoon
Lotus Den Slums
Affected RPers: None

((Tony's name is a joke and I sincerely hope at least a few of you get it. Mazer post coming when I’m less exhausted, hopefully tomorrow))

Jones watched Laura walk stiffly away with a Luxray, sitting down on the ground and twitching her claws impatiently. It hadn't been good enough, that battle. Laura had only honestly attacked her once, and that had felt like a stiff breeze. A Pokemon less f***ed-up in the head could have easily powered through that Confuse Ray and killed Laura under the cover of that Sandstorm and been on their merry way. While Jones didn't think that Laura needed to be an absolute master of combat, the Umbreon was practically the face of the Prankster Platoon. No amount of bodyguards could protect her forever. In the end, everything came down to your own strength, and Jones was concerned that Laura wouldn't be strong enough if the time came for the Umbreon to defend herself.

Not that Jones had been perfect, either. Her tail began to flick in rhythm with the clacking of her claws against the side of her spear. She shouldn't have let those memories get the better of her. Amu had died years ago, and it had been Jones who'd done the deed, making sure that there was no pulse or breath left in the Haxorus's body before she'd fled. He was dead and gone, and remembering him was just going to mess her up. The "PTSD" or whatever the heck Cheshire and Tony called it was a severe annoyance and it was going to get her killed one of these days if she didn't deal with it right.

Of course, according to Cheshire, the "right" way to deal with it was to talk about it, which was super stupid. Talking about the past wouldn’t fix it. It was over and done with and Jones just needed her stupid brain to move on.

The Meowstic was still waiting on the edge of the pit. Jones might’ve dragged him into the training, too, but she didn’t think she could handle any more psy attacks. Besides, she knew from experience that the demure feline was stronger than he appeared. “Come on,” she said to him, “driving practice.”

Cheshire walked beside her - he was always careful to be beside her instead of in front of her; it felt kind of like babying, but she appreciated not having to look over her shoulder every couple of seconds - without complaint. “That Confuse Ray did a number on you.”

She grunted. “Flashback,” she said. “Stupid psy attacks always screw with me. I wasn’t expecting her to pull that one. I’ll be more careful in the future.”

“That’s not what I meant,” said Cheshire. He sounded like he was going to launch into another rant about touchy-feely scrap, so Jones walked faster, forcing Cheshire and his short little legs to hustle just to keep up. She didn’t slow down until they reached their destination, a wide-open makeshift parking lot full of brightly-colored vehicles, each of a different shape, size, and armor quality.

Cheshire sounded a little irate when he spoke again. “I was trying to get at the fact that you need to deal with your problems, Jones, and that you can’t keep running away.”

“I’m good at running,” Jones said. “Keeps me alive.” She began making her way through the lot, though this time she slowed down a little. She didn’t want Cheshire to lose track of her, since he would be kind of important for this next part. “Not all of us can just melt minds with our magic ears.”

The Meowstic didn’t bother explaining his metaphor. “You need to settle your mind.” Jones rolled his eyes; he sounded like one of those Gracidea Dream Smokers. “If you’re not at peace with yourself, you won’t be able to do well in the -”

The Dread Metal Derby was a storm of noise and smog stench, and it was extremely overwhelming - and overstimulation led to dissociation. Jones shook her head, clearing her brain of thoughts about yesterday because yesterday didn’t matter and Cheshire was an idiot about brain things and he didn’t know anything about her.

However, Cheshire wasn’t an idiot gunner, which was why Jones was incredibly glad to have him gunning for her. He’d be watching the left flank of the Screaming Talon, a sleek vehicle with light armor and splotches of red, blue, and yellow all over it - and most importantly, lots of spots for Cheshire to throw Light Screens, Reflects, and Protects, affording the vehicle lots of speed since it wasn’t weighed down with heavy armor. There was a lot of risk in having a psychic doing the majority of defense, but between Tony the Incineroar’s eagle eye for targets and her own lead foot and unpredictable, quick driving style, the likelihood of them needing Cheshire’s defenses wasn’t too high.

Not that this wasn’t a serious matter. Jones’s heart jackhammered nervously in her chest as she looked out at the other racers’ menacing cars. Hopefully no one would be shooting Confuse Rays.

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

((I see your tony the tiger and your chesire cat. I raise you my popular western animation reference.))

'Nora' the Lilligant
The Gracedia Order
Highway 10, En-Route to Lytala city.
Affected RPers: N/A

About fifteen minutes before they left Jadeblossom-because as it turns out, Yvonne needed to refill the flippin armored APC-Nora caught sight of a familiar face at exactly the right time. A rather dejected-looking Kirlia, clutching an Everstone-a good sign that it was a he, as very few men wanted to evolve into a Gardevoir. A Shiny Kirlia, at that. Her-HIS-unusual coloration was irrelevant to Nora; that was a known drug-dealer, and the backpack he carried had lovely Swift. And that Kirlia owed Nora one hell of a favor; the last time they met, Nora was looking at him getting near-killed by a very angry Arbok. If not for her intervention, the Kirlia would be food for-well, Nora did know that there was a hobo Pikachu with appetite for dead corpses around the same block.

Nora checked the street for cops-she'd rather not run into trouble with the Order now of all times-and walked up to the Kirlia when she was assured the only one around would be her own members. "Yoo, wazzuppp?" The depraved Lilligant called out.

The Kirlia's face widened with shock at recognition, but then swiftly-heh-composed. "... I remember what I said, I know what you're going to ask already, and lucky you, I want nothing more to do with Swift. Going legit. Say no more, don't even pay me. Just, take it!"

The Kirlia bounded away like he had just been liberated of the backpack. Nora, meanwhile, just looked confused, looked back around, and just took the backpack, again ensuring no police were watching the scene. Her teammates were dissaproving-but beyond the Tyranitar, uncaring-that the backpack was utterly loaded with Swift.

An hour later, Nora was still in the grips of a powerful, beautiful, ultra-awesome Swift-dream. Well, until now. She was so happily skipping through the face-fields without a care in the world, but then she tripped and fell in a room. And then she saw her. That friggin Sylveon. That Kako! She was rising up from the floor playing the piano, and it was made of fire! The demon! Nora tried to pull a gun, but somehow managed a sword. Nora caught sight of a mirror in the corner-she wasn't Nora! She looked like Queen Taiya all of a sudden. "We'll meet again-" Nora disregarded this sudden transformation and tried to rush her, but, aguh, a shackle around her spindly legs! Curses! "-Dunno where, dunno wheeeennnn-" She tried reaching her sword out to cut that stupid thing's throat for the time she was nearly crushed by a Piano, but no, she coudln't even scratch the piano! "-We'll meet agaaain, some sunny day!" That stupid sylveon stopped singing, revealing eyes of burning black. Nora wretched. The eyes bored into her soul without effort on the part of the Sylveon, so utterly, maliciously content she didn't even need to look anything more than the stupidest she possibly could.

"W-where are we?" Nora asked-but her voice wasn't her voice! She really was Taiya!(?)

The Sylveon-the Demon-chuckled. "We're on top of the pentouse suite! Come on, make yourself at home!" She said, so utterly totally saccharine that it would probably kill the Black Lotus if they heard it. Like, all of them. Pure sugar genocide. Nora-Taiya very reluctantly sat on a couch that she happened to know was behind her. "You know that thing is still alive, right?" Taiya-Nora tore her attention away from the Sylveon to the couch-oh Murhe, it was Felicity! With a sword! Coming from her mouth! The queen spun on the spot, narrowly avoiding the tongue-sword from the demented Sylve-Floatzel, as her blade casually met her air sac. The wound was much more fatal than it should have been-ooze leeked out, and for a moment the fat Floatzel looked like a Toxicroak.

"Oooh, yessss..." The Sylveon said, floating right beside Taiya, her slavering for the corpse muttered right in Nora's ears! Nora flinched as the Sylveon lept upon the Floatzicroak-Toxizel-whatever! And she ate, but she didn't bite in-no, she took the whole fat-a*s (was she fat, now?), and just shoved the whole thing in her mouth. It fit-there wasn't even a lump in her throat after she got her whole mouth around it, nor any bluge in her stomach, her proportions were perfectly normal. The body was gone. Even the blood-ooze seeped right into her mouth, and then the Sylveon laid down on the couch-wait, didn't she eat that? No, she wasn't laying on the couch, she was floating as if to suggest laying down on a couch which wasn't there, leaving a void of stupidity. Nora was sure that the reddish substance on the floor was liquid stupid.

"Quit the games, Cipher!" Noriya said. Wait, Cipher? Who was Cipher?

"Awwww, but these are myy games! My special games! Made just for yoooooooooouuuuuuuuuuu!" The Sylveon complained, huffing and holding-holding-a Key, made of some white substance-so bright it looked like starlight was stolen into it! Such a blinding Ivory key! Nora knew this was important, somehow! Her leafy-leafeon? She was a leafeon now? Oh, who cared, her paws reached for it. "Ap!" The Sylveon flicked her-in the nose! How dare she?! Black Lotus flocked into the room, oozing from the walls like zombies, each and all aiming directly at the Sylveon with their archaic rifles and their television remotes, determined to fast-forwards that Sylveon right out of existence. "This isn't yours yet. Also, I lied. We won't be meeting again, ever. Oh, but you'll have it! Err, you'll need it."

The Black Lotus operatives, one and all, clicked the buttons-and Taiya hadn't noticed that they were all Sylveon themselves-and then Taiya realized they weren't Black Lotus. Friggity Friggin Frackafrack! The one time she wanted it to be Black Lotus-wait, she was Taiya, that should be all the time-she wasn't Taiya, that shouldn't, but they weren't and that was bad this time! They all clicked fast forwards! The room sped up, like the world was ending. Nora degraded right in front of the Sylveon. The other Sylveon had their removes melt. The room melted. The piano peeled itself apart, withering away. The floor fell away. The Sky burned. The tide collapsed. Impossible doors were in the background being opened by living symbols. Golden Gods died under the flow of thousands of attacks. The very meaning of the end of existence and nihilism was extinguished. They were falling. The Black Lotus vanished into black petals. The remaining Sylveon looked very different-falling, falling! They were falling! She was praying to something, the Sylveon-that-was, and Nora could see the ground. Some silver thing was whilring up a storm, and thousands of monsters were charging into it. The thing-it looked like a pack of red Serperior-it looked like a massive Gardevoir-it looked like some take on humanity-it looked like her! That Sylveon thing looked like her now!

They hit the ground so hard that the ground exploded. Nora lost sight of the Sylveon. She flew up like a beech ball, and then back down, and-

Nora heard herself curse maddeningly before she even knew what was happening. She blinked. She was in the APC again, lying on the floor, her head back against a tire, which she probably hit. A bump in the road-one hell of a bump. She looked around. The Tyranitar chef guy, Boraz, was refusing to get near her in her state, and Yvonne was driving. The other five looked at her.

"You seem to have the most interesting dreams when you're high," the Mienshao said. Anshan, right? That was his name.

"Ayeeeeeee... Pro life tip! Always saave the drug dealers!"

"Was that what the whole thing with the backpack was about?" the Machamp asked.

"Yes, unfortunately... Before you ask, Swift gives off mild psionic signatures. It's why Psychic types take particuarly bad trips when they ingest it, but it also means that you can 'tune in.' Very interesting. Who was the Sylveon?"

Nora blinked, as her head turned to the Bronzong guy. Uh, he was Baragan? No! Ichabold. "... If we meet that Sylveon ever again I'mma see about the local cannibals."

"So probably not your best friend, then," Anshan snarked.

"that Kako should burn in hell, except I dunno if they're managin' that." Nora said.

"So literally a demon from the pits of Murhe. You think, anyways," Anshan smart-mouthed.

"That Kako should burn in hell, she dropped a piano on me!" Nora shouted.

"A piano?" someone said-no, wait, yeah, there she was, a furret! Talia? Talian? No, Faraday. "Like from a ledge?"

"She 'arranges' things, like pianos falling from planes. Do they even do that?... Frighighagh, ugh, lemme alone," Nora said, flipping over on her hard, makeshift pillow.

"Lucky you, we have eight more hours," Yvonne said, curtly. "enjoy your stupid swift-dreams, nut."

Nora just arranged a rude gesture from her back as the tire started to melt right in front of her. The Sylveon's face appeared again, mocking her. Nora punched it-and let out a torrent of explicitives as her weak, leafy hand met the hard metal.

"... This is one of our best, folks," said no-one in particular. Wait, no, there was a Talia guy? Talian. Faraday? No, Talian this time. "Yesley had better been serious about her effectiveness."

"We're all gonna die!" Said Faraday-definitely Faraday. You could add a colon and a closed parenthesis and you could not complete that sentence better. Silence followed, and Nora swore to Arceus that a Keldeo was now among the party. On the floor. Eating cotton candy. Which was actually his mane, from the looks of things. He also didn't have a face to eat it with, and was just shoving it into fleshy negative space below its snout soundlessly.

Swift-Dreams. Gotta love 'em. Gotta hate 'em.

[LKWayvern]

Laura the Umbreon
Prankster Platoon
The Psychotic Lobster Tavern and Inn, Lytala City
Affected RPers: None

Laura’s original plan for entering Lytala City had been dramatic. She had wanted to humiliate the Black Lotus Empire in their own capital, preferrably in a way that screamed ‘Prankster Platoon’. She had wanted to make it clear that she was competing, and she was unafraid of her opponents and any retaliation they could bring her. There was going to be paintbombs, a confetti cannon, and probably a very distracting laser lightshow.

Her bodyguards had unanimously shut down this idea, to absolutely no one’s surprise.

“But it’ll send a message!” Laura had complained.

“So will the dozen mercenaries following you after the show. And I doubt their message will be asking for an autograph,” Xavier had retorted.

It was generally agreed that the move Teleport would be the best way for Laura to enter Lytala-- but another problem was where Laura would stay while waiting for the finals, if she survived.

There are many massive cities in Liao, with Lytala being among the largest. Out of the millions of Pokemon in Lytala, it’s unsurprising that at least a couple hundred would sympathize with the rebellious teams across Liao, but lack the balls to openly support them. And it was inevitable that at least a couple would be fans of the Prankster Platoon.

At some point, those fans had decided that while they didn’t want to run away and join the Platoon, they still want a place to totally disregard rules and freely slander the Black Lotus Empire without fear of retaliation. As a result, small groups of them frequently got together to create speakeasies and places of constant chaos, most moving totally at random to avoid raids. Others unpopular enough to mostly avoid detection.

The public had, quite unsurprisingly, nicknamed these places ‘Asylums’. And it was determined that one of these asylums would be the ideal place for Laura to hide out until her events in Lytala City were over.

This was how Laura, Xavier, and a few other Pranksters found themselves outside the Psychotic Lobster Tavern and Inn.

The interior of the Psychotic Lobster was interestingly decorated, and anyone could tell it would not pass a health code inspection. Every surface was coated in painted and carved graffiti, as well as other unidentified liquids. The only true piece of furniture were the tables and benches, few of which were totally intact, and all bore signs of food, a battle, or some kind of bodily fluid. Crates were stacked in the corner, some of which had been smashed open at some point and now only contained crumbs or glass shards.

By sight alone, one could tell that if they treasured their sense of smell, breathing in through their nose was not highly encouraged.

It did not take long for a clauncher to enter through a backdoor. Xavier quickly stepped up to him.

“You’re Mortimer?” he asked, looking the crustacean over skeptically. “Mortimer Nerean?”

The clauncher in question began laughing hysterically, spraying spittle on the Pokemon nearest to him. Mainly Xavier. The luxray squinted, rubbing the spit out of his fur with a paw.

“Yep. That be me. Most call me Mort, though,” the clauncher corrected. “And you be the Pranksters, then?”

“Yes. Luxray Xavier Feurra, Claydol Kirrun Dimei, Mismagius Aria Kantra, and you recognize Umbreon Laura Bette Kaye,” Xavier introduced. “You have rooms reserved for us.”

“Aye, and just in time. Three days from now we’ll all be gone, the scent’s fin’lly driven away me regulars!” Mort began cackling again.

“Wise decision,” Xavier responded, drily. “I take it they’re in the back?”

Upon receiving affirmation, Kirrun telekinetically lifted up the group’s luggage, Laura carrying her own things with her Psychic Blaze Jewel.

Aria, possessing both intangibility and impatience, entered the room first, and found herself surprised by a bullet sailing right through her incorporeal form, and a banette brandishing firearms descended from the ceiling, quite obviously a Black Lotus assassin.

“May your soul be DEVOURED by Milady Renegade!” Aria shrieked, the projectiles of an ethereal Magical Leaf attack materializing around her and making straight for the banette’s throat. The other ghost quickly went incorporeal, avoiding having his throat slit but consequently dropping the gun with a loud thump.

Moments later the banette was on the ground, corporeal, reaching for his gun again. Aria squinted at the assassin’s incompetence as she sped towards him, causing him to flinch from the unearthly scream of Astonish. The banette responded with a scream of his own, which was cut off as Xavier entered the room, slamming the door.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Xavier pounced onto the shocked ghost, brutally attacking with a Crunch. The banette shrieked again as before it was silence by a second, and went limp.

Xavier dropped the banette and looked up, his one seeing eye blazing gold as he activated his x-ray vision and scanned the room.

No other enemies.

He glared at Aria. “This is why you let me scan the rooms first. Or did Uxie steal that from your thoughtless mind?”

Aria scowled back. “Arrogant kitten. He would have shot you the moment you entered.”

With the excitement over, the other two members of the small party entered, and all could settle into the room. It was, admittedly, sub-par, but surprisingly spacious and somehow marginally better than the tavern part of the building. Marginally being the operative word. While settling in the Pokemon found someone’s half-eaten lunch, multiple beer cans, a condom, a knife embedded in a wall, that banette’s gun(which Kirrun identified as a Lugia’s Force Rifle), several boxes of ammunition hastily tossed under the bed, and a dirty sock.

Most things were disposed of when Kirrun tossed them out the window. The ammunition was kept. The knife was impossible to remove from the wall, unfortunately.

“This is a horrible building,” Kirrun commented. “It must be condemned. Never have I been more glad to lack a nose to scent with, or a mouth to vomit with, for I would have done so the moment we set foot into the tavern. Not that I have feet. This is a disgrace. A disaster. It must be purg--”

“Whatever happened to the strong silent type?” Laura sighed, somewhat dramatically. “It sucks, Kirrun, we know. But cleaning it would take a decade.”

The Pranksters were as comfortably settled in as one could be in the room.

“So, we are all competing in Bloodpit, yes?” Aria asked. “How before we must arrive?”

“We have time,” Xavier assured her. He paused a moment, looking purposefully at Laura. “Our objective is to win, yes. But we are not taking unnecessary risks. A certain death could lead to much demoralization.”

Laura flicked her ears. “I know.”

“We’ll be sticking together, to make it difficult for other teams to pick us off one by one,” Xavier continued. “Any questions?”

There were none.

“Prepare yourselves, I suppose.”

The four proceeded to equip armor, and ready their weapons.

Laura slowly figured out her shiny new set of leather armor, trying to figure out how to sheathe and unsheathe the hidden knives along her forelegs and tail. She tried to avoid showing it, but hearing that assassination attack had increased her nerves somewhat. That was not her first attack by assassins, but it was a reminder of how close to death they would get that day.

When all were ready, Kirrun Teleported them to the arena.