[PXFIRE] PXFIRE II Roleplay: Convergence

[Shruikan]

This thread of for the actual RP; if you haven't yet, sign up here (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?18021-PXFIRE-SU-DS-PXFIRE-II-Roleplay-(I-don-t-have-a-name-for-this-yet-)).

Judging Guideline:

Each player will be graded by the following categories, with 100 points divided appropriately between all participants of that week based on their scores.

Spelling & Grammar: Self evident; if you post entirely in 1337 text speak then you won’t get many point here. As long as it’s readable, you should do fine.

Driving Force: How vital is your character to the events of the story? A background character simply watching events unfold won’t score as much as one in the heat of the action.

Posting Frequency: While quality is more important, you can only move so far in a single post. A person who post regularly will get more points than the guy who just shows up once a week.

Player Interaction: How much of an impact on the other characters are you making? Whether working with your teammates or against enemy teams (Or even against your teammates or with enemy teams,) the more interaction with other players the better.

Continuity: Did you pull a death ray from out of thin air, with no indication that they even exist? But wait, now the metal tower you’re fighting on is made of glass, and you’ve just fallen through the plot hole you created to your doom! Good use of foreshadowing will score you points here, whereas big continuity errors will lose them.
Rules:
Follow PXR Rules: It’s happening on this site, so it’s a no-brainer that you need to follow the rules.
No Godmodding/Bunnying: Don’t make your character invincible, unstoppable, or pretty much god-like. Using knowledge gained out of character also count for this. And no controlling other people’s characters either. Pretty standard rules.
Try to keep it PG-13. Think more Saturday morning cartoon superheroes and less deadpool.

Map:

https://i.imgur.com/7QoR4f4.png

Characters:

Nathan "Neo" Winterfield - Neo Emolga - Avalon Apostles (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?18021-PXFIRE-SU-DS-PXFIRE-II-Roleplay-(I-don-t-have-a-name-for-this-yet-)&p=279734&viewfull=1#post279734)
Daniel El Raye - LKWayvern - Sabotage Squadron (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?18021-PXFIRE-SU-DS-PXFIRE-II-Roleplay-(I-don-t-have-a-name-for-this-yet-)&p=279737&viewfull=1#post279737)
Brent/Angel Hughes - Noblejanobii - Avalon Apostles (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?18021-PXFIRE-SU-DS-PXFIRE-II-Roleplay-(I-don-t-have-a-name-for-this-yet-)&p=279915&viewfull=1#post279915)
Emmett “Gawain” Marshall - Velojello - Avalon Apostles (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?18021-PXFIRE-SU-DS-PXFIRE-II-Roleplay-(I-don-t-have-a-name-for-this-yet-)&p=279956&viewfull=1#post279956)
Camellia Estrada - K'sariya - Avalon Apostles (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?18021-PXFIRE-SU-DS-PXFIRE-II-Roleplay-(I-don-t-have-a-name-for-this-yet-)&p=279747&viewfull=1#post279747)
Eddie Shadolurk - Bulbasaur - Agents of the Shadows (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?18021-PXFIRE-SU-DS-PXFIRE-II-Roleplay-Convergence&p=280189&viewfull=1#post280189)
Leo Star - Morzone - Order of the Sun (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?18021-PXFIRE-SU-DS-PXFIRE-II-Roleplay-Convergence&p=280198&viewfull=1#post280198)
Ezekiel "Zeke" Star - Morzone - Order of the Sun (http://www.pokemoncrossroads.com/forum/showthread.php?18021-PXFIRE-SU-DS-PXFIRE-II-Roleplay-Convergence&p=280198&viewfull=1#post280198)


All posts must contain a header containing your characters name, team/affiliation, and location.

[Shruikan]

Doug Vincent
USF Commander
USF Headquarters, Trinox

Another day as usual. Rifts appearing left right and center left very little free time for members of the USF. For Doug Vincent however, this wasn’t a problem. He always felt uncomfortable standing around, waiting for action, and with the appearance of the rifts he spent the majority of his time in the field. This was not one of those times.
Having returned from his previous mission two days ago, Doug was getting restless. He had spent so much time in the bases gym that he had been practically banned, for fear of overworking his muscles. The blank metal walls of the USF base felt like they were closing in on him more with each hour that passed, and he felt that if something didn’t happen soon he would go insane. As he finally decided to head back to the gym to see if he could convince them to let him workout for just an hour or two more, Doug was intercepted by a young man in a messenger uniform.
“Commander, sir! A new rift has been reported near Erana.” Doug had seen this runner a few times, he’d just started last month, and looked rather nervous as he stood to attention.
Doug’s excitement at a new mission quickly turned to dismay. Damn, so close to the capitol? Hopefully it won’t be too dangerous, or else this could end badly. “Any word on what’s come though?” He barked.
“The pokemon is as of yet unknown, but from the damage surrounding the Rift, it appears to be big. Several nearby trees were uprooted entirely.” The runner replied, voice wavering slightly.
Just my luck. It’s never the small ones that appear near the city. “Alright, dismissed.” The messenger saluted, looking rather relieved as Doug turned away and began briskly heading back towards the briefing room, speaking into his comms as he did so. ”Gear up men, we’ve got a rouge spotted, and it’s a big one. We’re moving out for Erana in ten minutes.” Well, looks like I got the action I wanted. I just pray that the city will still be there by the time we arrive…



Trey Sunders
Wormhole Researcher
Kenta Apartments, back streets of Sendrel

Over the last month three new Rifts have been spotted near Krite. Many feel that nothing is being done about the pokemon problem, and vigilante groups have run riot, with several reports of citizens being assaulted for traveling with a pokemon. Meanwhile, in Ruztag-

Trey turned off the TV wish a sigh. If only I hadn’t been so reckless. If I had never shared my discoveries with the world, none of this would be happening. Though there was no concrete evidence proving the Rifts were caused by the destruction of the wormhole depots, there were few other explanations for why the rifts only started appearing now. And even if there were, Trey likely would still blame herself. Prof Trey Sunding had practically disappeared from the public after the Rustol disaster, the backlash and threats causing her to go into hiding for her own safety. Using the alias Mira Rutherford, she now lived undercover in a cheap apartment in the back streets of Sendrel, on standby for the USF, waiting for a rift safe enough to research. But in reality, that meant she was just sitting here watching the world fall apart because of her. I should be doing more to help. I should force the USF to let me go on their next mission, regardless of the danger.
Deciding she needed to clear her head, Trey flung on her jacket, and throwing up the hood to cover as much of her face as possible, set out for the market.

[Neo Emolga]

Nathan "Neo" Winterfield
Avalon Apostles
South of Maris, Aluna

"They're unnatural!" "Send them back where they came from!" "They're murderous!"

I swore, if I had a buck every time someone said these things, I could buy every city on the continent by now.

As of late, my job became all about putting out hysteria fires and trying to gather evidence that this whole crescendo of freaking out and panicking really wasn't necessary. But it was becoming difficult as a lot of rifts were opening up and these "Pokémon", which were probably lost, confused, and just as afraid as these people were, felt they needed to strike back and defend themselves. Every time this debate came up, I tried to see things from their point of view. How would you like it if you were sucked into an entirely different world where you are lost, alone, afraid, and simply struggling to survive? I figured most humans would be very guarded and be ready to steel themselves against everything. The only difference is these Pokémon definitely have more at their disposal than what humans have. Being able to breathe fire, discharge electricity, unleash blizzards of ice, and what have you was quite a feat in comparison to what humans can do.

But that didn't excuse what happened in Redinas and it was obviously a problem that couldn't be ignored or treated casually. This was a matter of trying to find and pacify hostile Pokémon and see if there was any way they could be controlled and brought to an understanding that peaceful human to Pokémon relations are possible. And we had already proven it was possible with some of the smaller, more tamable ones, but there were still plenty of very aggressive ones that wouldn't stop until they had more tranquilizer chemicals pumping through them than what would be needed to kill a human. But when push comes to shove, we had to be ready to sometimes make the call to put one of these creatures down if things became deadly.

Regardless of the efforts that were being deployed to get a grip on the situation here, there were many people that just plain didn't want them here regardless of the data, the studies, and the statistics that teams like the Avalon Apostles were trying to provide to prove the facts and weed out the fiction. Regardless, there were a lot of people that didn't want to listen to it and were in denial of these facts. Yes, I could understand these invasive creatures and there was no telling what introducing them to the environment would do to the area's biomes and ecosystems. We were still trying to understand both the short term and long term effects of what these incidents would bring. Still, more and more issues came up on a daily basis. We had people claiming they were causing other mishaps beyond even just regular destruction and injuring people. Some people claimed they were carrying diseases and infections and that humans here were very susceptible because we were only be exposed to these for the first time.

And that was what I was currently trying to investigate. Once again, I was deployed with a small team to capture a few wild Pokémon that locals claimed they were infected with something and bring these Pokémon back for scientific study and analysis to see if there was any validity behind that or if it was just paranoia again. Once again, that involved capturing them and holding them in cages usually meant for animals. But with Pokémon, we needed to be extra careful. We were still running into a lot of Pokémon we had never seen before and we didn't know what they were capable of until it was usually too late. Making assumptions could be fatal, but we were recognizing patterns. Usually a Pokémon's body coloring indicated what kinds of powers they were capable of. Reds usually meant fire, yellows usually meant electricity, and blues usually meant water or freezing attacks. But that was no guarantee of anything.

Still, as my team and I headed further south from Maris and deeper into the forested areas, I knew we were getting close to the incident site. We needed to be ready for anything. Thankfully, we had the homeland advantage, but they had the power. It was anyone's game right now.

[Bulbasaur]

Eddie Shadolurk
Agent of the Shadows
AoS Headquarters, Trinox

"So what's the report?"

The number of reports had tripled, at the very least, since the rifts had first been discovered. This meant we had been having to take much more action as of late. I already recruited three new agents in the past week. It was tough keeping the balance between talent and sheer numbers, but the need for numbers has gone up lately, so I worked hard to find three agents deserving of the position. One of them claimed to have a report already, so hopefully they were a good choice.

"I heard some new rumors on the street about yet another rift, by Erana. Not sure on the Pokemon quite yet. I know it's little bit of a hike from here, but it's supposedly quite large, and could pose danger."

"Does the USF know about it yet, Chris?" I inquired, not moving an inch.

"I don't know, but chances are, if the rumors reached Drusk, they do."

"Doesn't matter. Not like they'll get there in time, anyway. Bruce!" My trusty Bulbasaur came running to my side.

"We have to get going. Another rift was reported in Erana, and the USF may or may not know about it. We need to get over there as soon as possible, and fix this mess ourselves. Go get a few more agents." Bruce gave me a nod, and ran off.

I have to admit, I'm a little concerned about the location, being the capital of Aluna. Hopefully the USF doesn't know about this, yet. Hopefully they aren't on their way...

[VeloJello]

Emmett “Gawain” Marshall and Kayla the Togekiss.
Avalon Apostles.
Maris; en-route to Erana.
ARPers: Everyone on Gawain's contact list - if you're an Avalon Apostle, you're eligible for the shortlist!

Gawain remembers a time when Maris was just another city to him. He’s been here a thousand times in his life on one errand or another; way back when, he was unnerved and awed by the quiet and the stone-stillness of it. Time and care have transformed it, made several of its districts into a conglomerated Avalon that’s so peaceful it borders on idyllic. While the Avalon Apostles don’t run Maris by any stretch, their presence is strong here, and unused urban areas have long since given way to community gardens and shelters for refugees. Watching a pair of Swablu darting through the trees and a young girl petting a massive, sleepy Stoutland, Emmett can pretend for a moment that all is right with the world.

The moment doesn’t last, however, as Emmett walks alongside Kayla toward the painfully prominent triage center. Cots and mats dot the tarp that’s been laid over the grass, and a few people mill about the scene. A few new patients have been brought in; they’re mostly human, looking dressed for the battlefield, although there’s an injured Pokemon there that looks like a fox with plant matter woven into its tissue. Emmett clicks his tongue and gestures to the fox, then kneels down and begins his work, barely looking up as Kayla leans over the fox with healing light glowing in her claws.

Thankfully, barring further injury or outbreaks of infection, none of this particular crop of wounded is unsalvageable. Once Kayla is finished with the fox - “Will it be alright?” he asks her, and she croons and pushes a sense of reassurance back against his inquiring mind - she begins to help Emmett, humming a healing chime to banish poisons and restore spirits. The last Emmett treats, a young woman who’s lucid enough to have removed most of her strike gear and press a bag of ice to her bruised head, gives the Togekiss a wary look.

“Over here, please.” Emmett tries not to be annoyed with her fear. He knows that Kayla means no harm; he also doesn’t live out a day-to-day series of battles with Pokemon. So he offers no challenge as he shines a light in the woman’s eyes, watching the action of her pupils carefully. “It was a rough one, I take it?”

The woman nods, keeping the ice firmly clutched to her forehead. “Big bison-looking thing. Called Bouffalant, as I recall. We brought Leafeon because he’s usually pretty good at settling violent Pokemon. Turns out, his attacks only made it stronger. Took a few rounds of buckshot to bring it down.”

Emmett nods sympathetically, thinking privately that at least this lot tried the peaceful solution rather than shooting first and asking questions later. “You’ll be relieved to know that the rest of your squad will be fine,” he says lightly, putting his flashlight away. “Now, do you have any nausea? Disorientation or dizziness? Ringing of the ears? Memory loss?”

Running though the symptoms is rote, simple. He diagnoses the woman with a mild concussion and tells her to take it easy and to find a physician if the symptoms flare up again. Kayla tries to reassure the woman with a hum; she looks disappointed when her overtures are met with suspicion, but follows Emmett quickly when he clicks his tongue and gestures for her to follow.

A doctor’s work is never done, especially in a world besieged, but there are respites. Gawain takes one now, sitting with his back against a tree and petting Kayla with one hand while scrolling through his phone with another. He hardly notices as she begins preening his hair, instead focusing on scrolling to a particular contact - one Camellia Estrada. “Any leads on Professor Sunding yet?” He texts, and he’s about to go over the articles he’s collected on the conspicuously-absent wormhole inventor when a news alert catches his eye.

His sigh draws Kayla’s attention and a fretful croon. “Duty calls,” he says. “Something big is about to tear up Erana, and we want to make sure as many people come out of that alive as we can.” He doesn’t put his phone away yet, though; he switches over to a well-used group message thread including several prominent Avalon Apostles members - everyone with the wit and the willingness to turn up at rifts and lend a hand. “Rift opened up near Erana, unsure of precise location. Something big coming through. USF likely already dispatched. Am on way from Maris. - Gawain”

The message sent, Gawain whistles a few notes and gestures to Kayla, who obligingly ducks low to the earth, not rising until Gawain is secure on her great feathered back. As she stalks toward an open patch of grass, he calls out to the others, “I’m off to help with a rift in Erana! If you’re willing and able, help is accepted! Wish me luck!” A few turn to look at him, some wave; then everything vanishes in a tumult of white feathers, and Gawain and Kayla are racing through the sky.

[Morzone]

Leo Star
Order of the Sun
Western Edge of the Secret Valley, at the foothills of the Rutgard Mountains
Affected RP'ers: N/A

"There!" Leo declared triumphantly, releasing the bibarel out of his grip and back into its dammed up river. The poor thing had been badly burned when Gardivor had found it, and had needed treatment for several days. Thankfully, that process ended today. Leo couldn't help a smile as he watched the bibarel quadruple check to make sure its dam was sturdy enough. Pausing to take a drink from the fresh mountain stream, Leo considered what was next on his list for the day.

"Let's see... Count out the oran berry harvest, check. Water the Belue berries, Check. Do morning perimeter, Check. Redo the bandaging on the rhyhorn, check. Clear out the poison ivy from that one grove, check. Companionship tests with the combuskins, check." Leo massaged a small bruise on his arm, "Final check up on burned bibarel, check. Just the afternoon perimeter check and rendezvous with Gardivor to go!" He ticked off on his hand each requirement before standing, stretching, and heading off toward the edge of gardivor's protective influence over the valley. In truth, these checks weren't really needed, as long as Gardivor was on the watch she'd know immediately if her perimeter was intruded upon. Still, between government poachers, angry humans, and other threats it was always good to check.

Roughly an hour after leaving the bibarel, Leo found himself finishing his perimeter check along the northern border of the valley. If he stood in just the right spot and the weather was clear he cold see the ocean to the north.

Suddenly, a tall white and green pokemon teleported in front of Leo, a red horn protruding from its chest and its reddish eyes alight with psychic knowledge and power. This was of course Leo's one and true partner: Gardevoir.

The psychic pokemon made a rounded symbol with their hands and impressed upon Leo's feelings a desire to travel. The hand symbol was their sign for rifts that had appeared, clearly Gardevoir wanted to go investigate.

"Want me to come?" He inquired, but the pokemon shook its head. "Alright. Make sure to prioritize safety. I don't know what this valley, or I, would do without you."

Gardevoir nodded again, sending him feelings of reassuerment. Well, he'd have to trust them. A moment Later Gardevoir had vanished again, teleported away toward the newest rift appearance.

Leo sighed and looked back at the distant ocean as he felt Gardevoir's presence vanish as she teleported away south. It would take them several teleports to get there, but already somehow the valley felt much more empty without their presence.

Ezekiel (Zeke) Star - "Cardinal North"
Order of the Sun/Team Claw
Northern Claw headquarters, Cardinal's office.
Affected RP'ers: Shruikan

"I don't know what you're complaining about, West. You were the one who refused our subjugation equipment."

"Don't Give me that North, my Specialists are more than capable of controlling these beasts. But your supply has been drying up. We can't afford to keep losing them over these 'rampages'

Zeke rolled his eyes at the hologram transmitter on his desk. West, the cardinal of the Undercover Operations branch, was transmitting to him from their headquarters in Aluna.

"Sure. Sure. And my capture squads can fly to the moon. Look, it's not my branch's fault if you keep wasting our perfectly good captures on these fake rampages. What did you do this time anyway?"

Just some divergence. I actually called to request the nearest capture team. A wormhole opened up near Erana and apparently there was a siting of a group of particularly rare electric pokemon known as Rotom that came through. According to my agents at least. From previous reports rotoms have unprecedented potential to cause havoc through electronic devices. We absolutely must capture them. So we enraged and let out that wonderful Mamoswine to rampage toward Erana and distract people away from the actual prize. I heard it's pulled up several trees by their roots already. Any foolish government worker is going to be jumping all over protecting the city after all.

In truth, Zeke had stopped listening the moment rotoms were mentioned. Rotoms were some of the best poaching prizes of them all. If several of them had come through, it would be a major upset to gain control of them.

"Sounds perfect. I'll send one of my Elite teams there as fast as possible. I can't help but feel that the mamoswine is a bit wasted on a mere distraction, but if catch enough rotoms it'll make up for it."

Shutting off the hologram transmitter I quickly selected out the proper button and sent a radio message to one of my Elite Delta squads that was stationed not near by to Erana.

"Davison, you've got your work cut out for you this time. Some rotoms have appeared from the Wormhole near Erana. West has unleashed a rampaging Mamoswine to keep the governments busy get in there and get out before its subdued. You know what failure means."

[Bulbasaur]

Eddie Shadolurk
Agent of the Shadows
The Erana Rift

"Looks like we're the first ones here!"

I let out a sigh of relief. No one outspeeds the Agents on my watch, but I was afraid the USF would manage it. I kneeled there behind a bush with a few other Agents, making sure to not be seen. Several trees by the rift laid on the ground, completely uprooted. It was quite the spooky scene, honestly.

Now what was there to do? Bruce must've been thinking the same thing, because I noticed him looking up at me. I paused for a moment.

"Let's stay here for a bit. If anything appear from the rift, I want you to tie it up to a tree nearby with your vines. Then, once we've identified it, we'll go from there and take the necessary precautions. Got it, Bruce?" Looking up at me, the green plant monster nodded.

Less than thirty seconds later, I saw the first shape emerge from the rift. Before I could even see the details of it, vines were already wrapping it up tightly. As the constricted creature was moved over to the closest tree, I made out some of its interesting features. It looked somewhat like a blue crocodile, but it stood on two legs. It had a few red spikes on its head, shaped sort of like a crest.

But the most notable thing about it was its eyes. They were fiery red. I don't think the coldest ice could've cooled this fire. It was like the eyes of a demon.

"Slam it against that tree, Bruce. Just enough to knock it out, and then we'll bring it back to see what information we can get." Bruce did just that, and before this creature could get its bearings, it was out cold. Bruce looked up at me, winked, and pulling the creature in like a fishing pole. We started heading back to the headquarters with this monster, with our backs to the rift.

[K'sariya]

Camellia Estrada & Ajani the Venusaur
Avalon Apostles
Erana



The small child crouches low on raised heels next to her, leaning so far forward that he has to gently prop out an arm to keep himself from falling over. His olive-skinned hand places softly, carefully in the rich, dark earth. He's round and baby-faced with dirt smeared on his features. The boy can't be more than six or seven.

"And so you dig a lil' hole, like this, David." She speaks his name with a soft a and a hard i that drips comfortably with an accent. Her fingers sink gently into the slightly-damp dirt, parting it into a small pocket. She reaches into a red-capped pocket of her pink apron to pull away a small packet filled with seeds. She rips them open, sprinkles two or three into her hand, then reaches to do the same for him. He holds out his hand and stares, enchanted, down at the precious little nodes, barely larger than specks. Then, his face twists in a funny way that just screams skepticism.

"This'll be food?" he asks incredulously, like she's pulling a prank. The dark woman can't help but give a fond chuckle. She sprinkles her own seeds into her hole, then creates another small cavity a couple of inches away.

"With a lot of love and a lot of time. Here." She helps guide the child's hands to drop the seeds. He brushes them together to unstick them from his skin. She smiles, shows him how to cover the seeds, and watches as the soil washes in to cover them like a blanket.

A call rings out from a distant house. "Caaaaaleb!" The kid perks up immediately and bounces spryly to his feet.

"Coooooming!" he shouts back at the top of his lungs. He starts to run off between the rows, but stops to run back to Camellia. He rummages in his overall pockets and pulls out rounded little pebble he'd stashed away. It's perfectly round, probably a river stone plucked from the shores where it'd been tumbled for years. "Put this one 'ere, so I know it's mine!" She takes it from his waiting, outstretched hand, and watches him run into the squat houses of the neighborhood.

Camellia stares after him, smiling softly, then crouches back to place the stone in front of the little mound. She hears heavy footsteps and rustling leaves behind her, and feels a wide muzzle nuzzle against her back. Hand rests gently on the creature's head for a moment as she stares at the spot where Caleb had disappeared. Then, she turns to her companion and starts checking up on the small ecosystem fostered on his back.

Her greatest regret was having to dip out when Gawain had saved Ajani. She knew they didn't have much of a choice; Gawain had basically traitor'd his Strike Force, and the last his unconscious teammates knew, there was a poisonous spitting lizard on a murderous rampage that had escaped with a big blue afro'd lady. By the time things settled down enough for them to come back, her mother's house was gone, leveled. As soon as she'd stopped paying rent, they reclaimed it, bulldozed it to sell it the property.

Such was the cycle. She'd already seen it happening the last few years she'd been there. She remembers her mother turning away buyers. They were offering the sort of money that would have made their problems go away for a bit, but it'd been passed down for generations. That house had her mom's great-grandfather's blood, sweat, and tears in it--and most importantly, his love. All because the areas in the city had been too filled up with the poor folk tryin' to get close to the jobs, so it became trendy to live in the suburbs where the rising rent drove the people out who'd been there for years. A nice-looking family had filled the space with a nice, tall house and a pristine green lawn with manicured grass, and paved over where Camellia's garden used to be with a wooden deck propped on a concrete slab.

As soon as she came back, the community gardens in the heart of the city's stone walls were her baby from day one. She remembers toddling next to her mother in their backyard, sunhat on and plastic shovel clenched tight in chubby hands. She hoped she could do that for someone else, too. One of the greatest feelings for her and her mother was knowing they'd have food on the table, and there wasn't anybody that could take that away from them.

She's raises one of Ajani's chipped fronds--the backwardmost one--to take a look beneath. "Oh, look at that," she breathes with a smile. A small round leaf pokes from the damp soil spread on the creature's flat back. "It sprouted! Great job, Aj'!" She'd been doing a little horticulture experiment. Ajani seemed to naturally grow some leafy fronds on his back naturally (as well as a pretty smelly rafflesia-type plant that may or may not smell slightly of dead bodies and attract a concerning volume of flies in the summer). His skin was a strange mixture of a reptile's scales and an amphibian's porous, water-permeable membrane. It seemed to excrete a slightly adhesive slime on the softer parts of his back. That's what gave her the idea of seeing what else he could grow. A little soil to stick to the back, some seeds to test on, and the natural humidity of his moist skin sheltered beneath wide fronds made the perfect greenhouse.

This one was a mint plant. She hoped it would help hide the dead-body smell of the flower on his back.

Now she just had to figure out how to get sun to it. She'd had him rest with his vines peeling back that frond for a bit during the bright hours of the day to give it a little, but that wasn't very convenient or sustainable. Maybe she'd see if any of the Avalon--

A vibrating in her pocket interrupts her. Speak of the devil.

"Hmm," is all she says at first as she checks the message from Gawain. He was headed here, and something big was headed to Erana. She purses her lips, then climbs up behind Ajani's head, minding and pushing aside his frond. Even as she does, she sees a massive flock of birds take wing like a distant gray cloud at the edge of the city. "Let's go." Heavy feet fall as they thunder their way in that direction. Camellia keeps an eye out for the white-winged rendezvous in the sky.

[LKWayvern]

Daniel El Raye
Sabotage Squadron
Drusk, en route to Erana
Affected RPers- Bulbasaur

The Sabotage Squadron was one of the more famed rebel groups. That being said, chaos was written into its deepest tenets. Famed though it may be, organized it was not. Still, it had its way of making things work. This was in no small part thanks to the Operators. They facilitated communication, ensuring orders got to where they needed to be on time, for hits to go off successfully.

Daniel woke up fairly normally. He was between clients at this moment, but had a few gigs he was intending to look into. So he started tea, put out food for Elric, and began making eggs for himself.

It was then that a small yellow mammal abruptly popped into existence on Daniel’s shoulder, holding a note.

Daniel flinched at the abra’s sudden existence, burning himself on the pan, letting out a loud yelp.

In response to his distress, his partner barelled into the kitchen, barking sharply. The little abra dodged around Daniel’s body, using the Squadron member as a human shield. As Elric growled, Daniel dropped to one knee, putting a hand to the Absol’s head.

“Hey, it’s fine, just burned myself,” he murmured. Elric calmed, however when Daniel stood up and went to the sink, Elric stuck by his side, glaring at the abra suspiciously.

Daniel reached out an arm, swiping the burner lower so the eggs wouldn’t burn, and then running water over his hand. He then grabbed at the abra, leaning on the counter as it let out a squeak of alarm.

“Now, what’ve ya got for me…” he muttered, snatching the note out of its paw.

It read as follows:

We are aware you are free at the moment. A new rift has opened in Erana, and has gotten the attention of a bunch of organizations. Keep it off civilians, but definitely ensure the government doesn’t meddle. Abra can get you there speedily and discretely.

After flushing the note down the toilet, finishing breakfast, and getting on battle gear(Elric’s collar and his ring), Daniel sat down in sweatpants and a black hoodie, hood drawn over his short hair and casting his face into shadow, grabbing Elric and hugging the lupine creature to his chest.

He held out a hand, grinning. “Cool, abra, do your thing!”

The little abra darted forwards, grabbing the offered hand. Daniel felt the ringing in his ears intensify, and the slight haze of static over his vision magnify into all he could see. Sensation slipped away, chased off by an intense sense of pins and needles. Had he been standing up, he certainly would have fallen over again once he felt solid earth beneath him once more.

By the time he felt confident enough to get on his feet again, abra was curled up on a small dog bed. Elric stepped off his lap, shaking out his mane. Daniel glanced around, noting he seemed under a bridge. Nearby was a dried, smallish looking riverbed.

The way it worked if you wanted to get in touch with an Operator was you had to find a drop-off spot. You could leave messages requesting things, or for others, from there. Those higher up, who distributed missions and directed supply deliveries and paychecks, perhaps had faster, more reliable ways of getting in touch with the Operators.

Daniel darted out from under the bridge, glancing about, then got out his phone, loading a maps app and looking up first where he was, then where Erana was. He was by Sunnyview Boulevard, and Erana seemed to be very close by. He glanced back at the abra.

“Don’t suppose you’d be willing to give me a ride over?” He asked, grinning confidently.

The abra gave him a huff, and ignored him.

“Fine, fine. Hey Elly, ready for a jog?”

Fortunately, since getting his various jobs, Daniel’s stamina had been on the up. It only took thirty or thirty-five minutes to get to what must have been the scene… It looked like a battle had taken place here. Uprooted trees, puddles of water… Daniel felt a shiver run involuntarily up his spine.

But there was no Pokemon.

He glanced about. Had it flown off to another area? But with all this wreckage, it’d surely leave a trail of destruction, it’d surely be presenting a danger. He glanced at Elric. When the absol sensed imminent danger, he tended to fluff up, seeming to increase in size, and he got a seemingly anxious, energetic look in his crimson eyes. The absol’s snowy fur remained flat.

Someone’s gotten here before me.

Under his breath, Daniel muttered a swear. He looked to Elric. “Looks like someone was an earlier bird than us! But,” he grinned, “you know how the rest goes-- the second mouse gets the cheese. Think you can track them?”

Elric let out a snort, then began running again, Daniel keeping pace, both trying to be as quiet as they could. It wasn’t long before they saw them-- a tall man in jeans and a short reptile with a bud on its back, carrying a crocodilian creature. That must’ve been the one from the rift.

They hadn’t yet seen Daniel or his partner. Hopefully this would be easy.

Daniel made two gestures to Elric. Light as a feather, Elric closed the distance between himself and the Bulbasaur as Daniel tried sneaking up on the human. As the Absol tried to end it swiftly with an Aerial Ace, Daniel tried to sharply knee the human in the back.

[Morzone]

Ezekiel (Zeke, Cardinal North) Star
Order of the Sun/Team Claw
Northern Claw headquarters, Cardinal's Office.
Affected RP'ers: Bulbasaur LKWayvern

Zeke tapped his desk impatiently, watching his equipment. Every one of his teams had been wired up with secret surveillance equipment so he could watch their progress in top missions like this one. He wasn't about to let any of his teams get away with falsifying report to get away from punishment.

It didn't take too long for Davison's team -a team of 5 veteran poachers- to arrive near the location of the rift. The first sightings were good, uprooted trees, clear signs of destruction, pretty much what West had described the rampaging mamoswine had done. But something was off. Well, several things were off. Despite the obvious destruction, he couldn't seem to pick up any signs of the mammoth beast anywhere nearby. Had it been subdued already? Unlikely, perhaps it had traveled far enough away from the rift by now it was out of range. Even more troubling was the lack of any signs of Rotoms, which should have been even easier to pick up. If West had wasted his time and that perfectly good mamoswine for nothing he swore he was going to... *sigh* well it wasn't like he'd hadn't had false alarms before. but West would definitely owe him for this if no ghost electric pokemon appeared.

A piece of movement edging off the screen caught Zeke's eye. A quirk rotation of the hidden camera showed him what it was. Other people had gotten there first! More over, two groups had beaten them there. Typical. poaching was always harder with more people around. One of the groups seemed to have some kind of reptile pokemon slung over their back. The other was tracking them, clearly planning to steal the prey. As Zeke watched, Davison's team split into two groups. One group -comprised of 2 people- shadowed those that had arrived first. The other three spread out to search for rotoms, as was the original mission. Good, best not to get too distracted. Zeke wasn't particular worried about the other organizations. Davison's team were experts in disabling pokemon quickly and efficiently.

Tapping his camera settings, Zeke whirled the view to examine davison's team themselves. Their various tools seemed to be in oder, but what Zeke was more concerned for was their uniform. The concern was unfounded however, as each member was disguised in USF soldier uniforms. Good. The boss didn't need people getting too wary of Claw's presence before any major moves.

[Noblejanobii]

Brent Hughes + Koyla the Audino and Chavdar the Zoroark
Avalon Apostles
En-Route to Erana

Brent straightened out his collar as his team traveled through the woods towards Erana. They had changed their course already since after receiving Gawain’s text about the rift in Erana. Brent scanned his surroundings carefully and constantly. Koyla hung close to his side, her pink fluffy ears twitching as she listened for suspicious sounds. She was also keeping an ear on Chavdar. The Zoroark was still wary of large groups and was currently following from the trees, or something. Brent had a hard time keeping an eye on him anyway so he just left him be.

Brent hated traveling through the woods. Rifts opened here occasionally that went undetected. Several good team members had been lost to these surprise attacks. But this was the quickest way to Erana. He could see the outline of the city in the distance. It wouldn’t be long now. Good thing they had packed extra supplies just in case this exact situation happened.

Brent shifted his bag on his back. He thought about writing in his journal, leaving a note for Angel. However, he had already left a message conveying the change in destination. There wasn’t much more to contribute to that other than lamenting his boredom, which Angel seldom liked to read about. He could feel the Zoroark’s treasure shifting inside the bag as well. Unlike Angel, Brent was a bit torn about keeping it. It seemed wrong but Angel was sure this was the best method to earn the creature’s trust. Brent had decided he would return it before too much longer if nothing else changed.

Brent lifted his head a little as they drew ever closer to the city. The screams and signs of destruction were already blossoming. They needed to hurry. Brent looked at Koyla and nodded to his partner. “Let’s go, they’re going to need some medics.” Koyla nodded back in agreement and they took off into the city.

[Neo Emolga]

Nathan "Neo" Winterfield
Avalon Apostles
South of Maris, Aluna
ARPers: VeloJello

As we walked through the heavily-forested area and got closer to the incident site, I glanced over some of the mission details and civilian reports. The witness descriptions weren't very reliable. Right now, we had only three. A "bushy turtle," a "fuzzy octopus," and "some kind of giant shrew." And there was some debate on the number as well. Some said there were at least three while others reported seeing four, possibly five. They were convinced these things were Pokémon and while I wasn't denying that, this stuff wasn't all that helpful.

That was when I got a message from Gawain.

I’m off to help with a rift in Erana! If you’re willing and able, help is accepted! Wish me luck!

As much as I wanted to join in on that, the folks in Maris would chew me out if we just decided to leave. But I wanted to let Gawain know that as soon as this mess was taken care of, I could head right over.

Got my hands full here at the moment, so I might be late to the party. We got a few ferals around Maris that the locals would like to see get some TLC. As soon as we tuck these guys in for a good night sleep, we'll be right over.

I then got to tracking the Pokémon, looking for disturbances in the ground, in the bushes, and among the trees. I needed to see if there was anything that seemed easily distinguishable from everyday animals. Right now, there wasn't much. From the looks of things, Vicky and Dave hadn't seen anything either, but they hadn't been out in the field for as long as I had been.

We were getting closer now and I took additional glances at the report. A lot of this didn't seem right and some of these rumors were pretty wild. One ten year old kid reported he saw a werebat that was infected with some kind of disease the Pokémon brought in and three adults reported there was some other kind of disease that caused some kind of skin fungal growth. Blamed that on Pokémon, also. The pictures were blurry, the only video they had was a ten-second clip that was half blurriness and silhouettes in the forest while the other half was panicked shaking. And it was impossible to listen in on definitive sounds or Pokémon cries over the screaming. Really, if you're under attack or being chased by something, the last thing you want to do is scream and let it know where you are.

Once we reached the site, I managed to find definitive clues that I found easier to follow. I led the way and eventually we found at least one of the potential targets. It was a simple Grotle, a medium-sized green and yellowish turtle with two leafy, bush-like formations on its back. The armor would make getting a tranquilizer shot in slightly more challenging, but for experienced snipers, it was not a difficult shot and this could be potentially ended without too much commotion.

"That's one of them," Dave whispered.

"Yep," I replied quietly. "A little trickier than usual, but we'll get this one."

Right now, the Grotle was checking the vegetation, probably trying to see if anything was edible. I still hadn't learned what these creatures have for a diet. I was more knowledgeable about their behaviors. Still, I grabbed my tranquilizer rifle and aimed for one of his softer spots just below the shell. Usually I go for a shot to the back of the neck, but that wasn't an option here. Once everything was checked, I made the shot and the dart struck it just a little lower than what I would have liked, but it still should do the job. With the amount of dosage, he wouldn't get too far. In a few minutes, he'd be down and ready for capture.

I had let my guard down...

I didn't realize we had been being watched by one of the other Pokémon. Suddenly, out of the bushes, we were flanked by a Ninetales. I figured that what was probably mistaken for the "fuzzy octopus." A rush of flames fired out, forcing Dave to take cover, and I was forced to react with haste.

I must have lost my cool in the heat of the moment. I immediately turned the rifle on this new attacker. Truthfully, this Ninetales was pretty majestic, looking carefully-groomed with her golden fox fur and her nine tails. This Ninetales suddenly charged into me, bumping away my rifle with its snout, causing me to misfire and hit a tree. It then bit me in the arm in the pain was searing for a moment before the adrenaline kicked in. I swore, this thing was not going to get away from me after these antics. I reached out to grab it, trying to pin it down so Vicky and Dave could get in a clear shot. Naturally, grabbing one of its tails seemed like an effective way to slow it down. I grabbed the closest one I could snag and called out to the others.

"Shoot it!" I cried out.

At least two darts struck the nine-tailed fox, but I couldn't hold on for too much longer after that. It suddenly yelped and fled away, but I knew the tranquilizer would drop it in due time. Still, even while it was running, it looked back to me with its red eyes, glaring at me before running off. Well, the joke was on her, because I figured she was just sore she was going to be facing a losing battle soon enough with the tranquilizer.

"You okay, chief?" Vicky asked me, looking concerned. "Your arm's a mess."

I had forgotten about that for a moment and she was right. There were gashes and there was quite a bit of blood trickling down. Could have been a whole lot worse, but this wasn't the worst I've seen. In my line of work, getting injured and cut up was a common thing.

"I'll be fine," I told her. "But if you don't mind, let me get this patched up and you take care of the containment for these two. They should be down soon."

"Copy that, sounds good," she smiled.

I figured they were experienced enough with this part, but I needed to make sure this didn't get infected.

[Morzone]

Leo Star
Order of the Sun
En Route to Sendrel/South of Maris(Gardivor)
Affected Rp'ers: Anyone who wants to spot a gardivor near the Erana portal, Neo Emolga

After about 50 teleports, Gardivor finally managed to arrive near the site of the Erana portal. The psychic type was not very happy with what it found there. Massive damage caused by a large pokemon, a Mamoswine judging by what it could sense off in the distance, was just the start. Several people could be spotted nearby, fighting over some reptilian pokemon, and a Group of poachers -they were dressed as USF soldiers but their specialized equipment made gardivor suspicious- were hunting down rotoms that were appearing out of the portal. Gardivor wasn't going to be able to stay here for too long, they'd be spotted very quickly- Oh no. ONe of the guys dressed as USF tapped his buddy's shoulder and alerted him to gardivor's presence.

Acting on a sudden urge to flee as the two men turned their attention toward the psychic type, Gardivor teleported northward at random. Unfortunately the unwarrented panic didn't fade and the pokemon teleported several more times. Finally they landed in an unknown forest, and managed to calm their nerves enough to catch a breath. Why had they panicked like that? It was like someone had been secretly watching, someone they really did not following their movements. Well, surely they were safe now- what the?

Suddenly, a Ninetails went passed, two tranq darts stuck into its side. Poor fox pokemon seem to be fighting the tranq as it attempted to run. For all of gardivor's panic a moment ago, the adrenaline left over fueled anger at the attacks on this poor pokemon. They could sense two hunters nearby. Well they knew they had tranq darts. Gardivor had experience stopping tranq users before. Admittedly, they'd had Leo's help but Gardivor was sure they could help protect a single pokemon. If she had to teleport away with it she could but... well teleporting wasn't as easy as it looked, especially if they ended up having to bring along a second person.

Do not worry, Ninetails, I will help you. She told the pokemon. Toward the two hunters she transmitted: You Are not welcome. Go back. Of course all they'd receive was a wave of fear, intimidation, and hostility pressing upon their minds and emotions, but Gardevoir was confident they'd understand the message.

Many Miles to the north, just South of the hidden valley, Leo had set out toward Sendrel. He routinely visited cities, mainly for colelcting/buying supplies for the pokemon in the valley, but also because it allowed him to hear news of nearby pokemon packs that may be targeted. Once even He and Gardivor had busted out a shinx that was being held captive to be sold, just on a whim after accidentally discovering it. Well, Gardivor could detect those things if they got close. He doubted he'd be able to do it. Still, some of the medical supplies were running low. Crop yield wasn't coming out strong and he needed medical herbs.
[hr]
Ezekiel (Zeke, Cardinal North) Star
Northern Claw Headquarters in Sunos, Cardinal's Office
Affected Rp'ers: Bulbasaur LKWayvern

Zeke practically jumped out of his chair when the gardivor appeared out of thin air not far from the smaller group of poachers. He knew that Gardivor. It was Leo's partner! The one that had convinced his brother to protect whatever secret valley he had discovered. From all he had heard of the valley it was a goldmine of variety. Leo and that gardivor had rescued so many pokemon and taken them there... oh how he so wanted to be able to send a massive team of poachers to the place. But he'd never been able to properly find its location. It was too well hidden, both through Leo's secrets, Gardivor's psychic abilities and just natural geography.

He scrambled to turn on his microphone. Forget the rotoms and whatever crocodile thing those other guys had gotten, if they could catch that gardivor it'd be worth 10 times anything else Davison's team captured. But just as the Cardinal was pressing the button, the gardivor seemed to realize it was being watched and vanished into thin air, just as fast as it had appeared. Zeke groaned internally, having turned the comms on for seemingly no reason now. To cover up the mistake he gave new orders to the team.

"let the crocodilian pokemon go, Focus on extracting the rotom." He ordered, and watched as the two poachers turned away from the two groups fighting over the knocked out pokemon to rejoin the other three. The rotom extraction was going well. From what Zeke could see, one rotom was already captured. The other two were zipping around but slowly being confined by Davison and his team. It involved a tricky job that forced the poachers to get creative with their tools. Idealy they would have some kind of device that would trap the ghost-electric after it possessed the machine, but such a thing hadn't had the study behind it for functional use. Rather the group had to use their electric-pokemon equipment to stop its movements then the ghost holder to trap it and keep it from phasing away. Well, now that the other two had joined the two other rotoms should be caught fairly quickly. Hopefully there were more. at least 5 would be preferable but you'll take what you can get.

Pusing in his intense surveillance, The Cardinal North leaned back and grabbed a TV remote sitting on a back table. Hitting the power button a large TV monitor flared into life on the wall to his right, showing several news stations. They all said, with some slight variation, "Wormhole appearance outside Erana, USF unable to get close, Rampaging Mamoswine attacking City border." Good. Well at least that was going well. If the USF hadn't been so hung up on protecting people they could have just sent people around the mamoswine to the portal, but alas poor them had to spend all their effort stopping the rampaging beast. Zeke couldn't help but chuckle.

[Neo Emolga]

Nathan "Neo" Winterfield
Avalon Apostles
South of Maris, Aluna
ARPers: Morzone

Thankfully Kevin, one of the Avalon Apostle field medics, had come along, or else I'd be trying to bandage this mess myself. Usually I didn't need to resort to his expertise, but every now and then, one of these incidents come up. More often it was Dave who needed patching up because a Pokémon got extra bitey or slashy, but even the professionals don't always have a perfect day.

I had gotten treatment back at the helicopter, where he had been staying the whole time we had been out. On a good day, he wouldn't be needed for anything. But "good days" were rare. Though in most cases, usually it wasn't me getting hurt.

"Your arm's fine," Kevin told me, finishing up the bandaging. "I've seen bites much worse than that. Hope you didn't mind that I tried out some of the new hemostatic gels we have."

"Thanks as always, doc," I told him with a smile.

"There's... something odd, though," he told me. "Almost seems like you have atrial fibrillation. You look a little pale, too."

Oh great. I figured this was the part where he would tell me that Pokémon really was infected with something. Well, I couldn't afford that and honestly, I felt fine.

"I'm fine, we're needed in Erana anyway," I told Kevin, really feeling like a full medical check could just wait. "When we're done, I'll see if someone in Maris can look into it. Once we've taken our captives in."

"Understood, but just get that looked into when you can," Kevin nodded.

Shortly after, Dave and Vicky had arrived back. They looked like they were freaked out of their minds. I was expecting for them to have come back with that Grotle and that Ninetales, but instead they were empty-handed.

"There's... something bizarre out there," Dave muttered, looking really nervous. "We were going to try and capture that Ninetales, but some Gardevoir showed up and I think it used some psychic attack on us or something. We just panicked and headed back out of there."

"Might be one of the other targets the locals mentioned," I figured. "What happened to your equipment, though?"

"It's still back there," Dave confessed sheepishly. "I'll admit, we panicked. It's those damn psychic types. I'm sorry, Neo, I thought we were ready."

"I'll admit, I've never seen a Gardevoir before," Vicky replied, taking a glace back. "I don't know why it was so scary. Somehow that thing can control fear."

It was a rookie mistake, but nothing that couldn't be fixed. I'll admit, encountering psychic Pokémon was not really something fun for rookies to experience and I didn't think this assignment would involve them. A Gardevoir didn't sound like it was part of the sightings, but hey, people are mistaken all the time.

"Not a big deal, that's what psychic types do," I told them both. "It was probably trying to claim the area as its territory or something. We still need to go back, though. That equipment is expensive and we need that Grotle and Ninetales for research."

They didn't seem too thrilled about going back, but they seemed to trust me about this. Normally I wouldn't do this after a work injury, but those Pokémon would just cause problems again if they weren't taken care of and dispatched.

I eventually tracked where our Ninetales friend would be, using disturbances in the grass. She couldn't get far with the tranquilizers running through her body, but I wasn't sure about this Gardevoir. Dealing with psychic types is never fun.

I spotted the two, and I could tell the Ninetales was losing consciousness. However, when she saw me, her eyes lit up. She tried to get in our heads, probably trying to hijack our brains into becoming afraid and anxious. Usually it was very difficult to prevent this, but seasoned operatives could resist it a little longer than the rookies. However, with Dave and Vicky, yeah, they didn't even last a few seconds before their flight response kicked in.

"Let's just forget about this!" Vicky shouted. "This was a bad idea, let her have it, damn it!"

"Keep your cool and don't panic!" I called back to her. "We can get this under control."

Damn it, it was already too late. Dave and Vicky just made a run for it and unless I found a way to handle this myself, I was going to have to explain this mess both to my supervisor and the Maris reporters. Lordy, I didn't feel like dealing with that and making us all look incompetent.

I just decided to try and make this quick. Shoot the Gardevoir, go back and get thermal sensors, and then bag the two of these Pokémon when they both dropped from the sedatives.

I took aim but then when I last suspected it, suddenly my grip on the tranquilizer gun was loosened and then it was yanked out of my hands by the Gardevoir. I reached out to try and grab a hold of it before I watched it drift away in midair. It was well out of my reach before it just floated before the Gardevoir, obviously suspended in the air and controlled by some kinesis power. Holy crap. Forget it, Dave and Vicky were right, this definitely wasn't worth it. We could just try again some other-

I suddenly felt hot and faint for a moment. It made me feel delirious and dizzy and I tried to get away but I barely made it two steps before it became too much. I had to get down on the forest floor with my hands and knees and suddenly I felt very, very strange.

Psychic fear attack again? This felt very different though. And it almost seemed like it was coming from the Ninetales instead. What the hell was this now?

My skin began to itch and tingle as suddenly my few strands of black hair on my arms and legs was replaced by light yellow fur. I didn't understand, what was the meaning of-

And when the nine tails ripped sprouted out and through the seat of my pants, I suddenly realized what was going on as they formed a giant fan-shaped formation behind me. Was... was she turning me into a Ninetales too!? How!? And why!? Now this I never saw happen before.

I panicked, hoping there was some way to get this Ninetales to stop this. Even despite the shock of my nose and mouth turning into a snout and my hands and feet turning into paws and hind-legs, I had to at least try reasoning here! All of my clothes and gear had been ripped off from my body changing form and shape and for a minute I went completely deaf before my hearing returned as I suddenly now had fox ears coming out of my head. The sounds of my bones crunching and reforming was the worst.

"What the hell is this!?" I exclaimed, wincing as the transformation continued and suddenly my hair turned into a mane. "Stop, whatever this is!"

...Nope. It was definitely too late to stop as I was sitting there and looked like I was never a human in the first place.

The transformation completed, and I had no idea what to think of it. This!? This is what it was like to be a Ninetales? This was.. beyond ludicrous. I knew Pokémon had some pretty incredible powers but I never would have thought 1,000 year curses like this were on the list. How the hell was I supposed to warn the others now!? I could only talk... to Pokémon now...

"Consider yourself lucky," the Ninetales spoke to me. "Most 1,000 year curses are usually far more crippling and devastating than this."

"T-thousand year... curse?"" I asked, sound and feeling a bit odd I was actually talking to this Ninetales now as one myself. "W-what for?"

Do you have any idea what pulling the tails of a Ninetales does!? she asked me.

"No?" I asked, shrugging. "Besides stop it from moving for one thing."

A curse. A 1,000 year curse to be precise. And I can sense your honesty, but your ignorance won't be excused.

"What!?" I exclaimed, thinking that was a hell of a severe punishment for just a little three-second tug. "Are you serious!? That's kind of extreme for a short, little tug, don't you think!?"

Consider yourself very lucky. Usually these curses are far more severe, but this seems more fitting given the situation and it gives me salvation.

"What the blazes do you mean by that!?" I asked, having no idea what she was referring to.

Suddenly the Ninetales unleashed a Flamethrower attack, and I quickly jumped out the way. However, being totally unused to moving on all fours now, I stumbled a bit. But I quickly realized the attack wasn't meant for me. The Ninetales had incinerated most of my destroyed clothes and my ruined gear, leaving only ruined bits in a blackened crater.

"Wait just a minute!" I exclaimed.

And that was when the Gardevoir shot me with my own tranquilizer gun. Twice. In the same spots Vicky and Dave had shot the other Ninetales. Oh god, now I fully understood what this diabolically clever fox's plan was. I looked around in my last few seconds of consciousness, hoping Dave or Vicky witnessed this, but there was no one around. No one was going to learn the truth about this. When they did the search for the Gortle and to find out what happened to me, they were going to find me, but I was not going to be what exactly they were looking for. But they would have absolutely no way of telling what really happened here.

Let's go. The Gardevoir told the Ninetales, letting the tranquilizer rifle drop to the ground. I can only suspend the tranquilizer for so long, but I can take you to a safe place to rest it off.

And so it is. The Avalon Apostles will get their Ninetales to study, but they'll think you, Nathan Winterfield, was killed in the fight, and only these barely recognizable remnants will be all that remain. You'll take my place, which seems right. You'll know what it's like to be pricked, probed, encaged, and treated like some monster. For the next 1,000 years. At least be a good Ninetales and don't do anything stupid that would bring shame and disgrace upon my kind. Oh, I'm sorry. Our kind.

No way, I couldn't believe it.

I wasn't sure if it was the tranquilizer kicking in or if I was passing out just from how utterly defeated I felt. In a quick glimpse of light, both the Gardevoir and the Ninetales disappeared, probably teleported off to... god knows where. I tried to run as far away as I could in hopes that I could avoid letting that Ninetales's plan come to pass, but my attempt to get away quickly turned into a struggling walk, which became barely a crawl, and that turned into complete unconsciousness. I didn't nearly get as far away as I would have hoped.

I had to admit, despite all my usual means and optimism to make a bad situation better, this was not going to be an easy thing to get fixed. If it was even possible...

[Shruikan]

Doug Vincent
USF Commander
En route to Erana

Doug had been spoiled by Wormhole travel, the flight to Aluna was uncomfortably long, and the helicopter too confining. Doug found himself wishing that he had a partner that could teleport, but those pokemon were so rare that whenever the USF got a hold of one, it went straight to the research lab.
When they landed near the Rift location, Doug spent no time in getting to work. The group was to split into two teams; His job was to protect the city from whatever had come through, while his second in command secured the rift and stopped any more unexpected visitors.

Even from a distance, the damage was apparent. A large chunk of the outer wall had been utterly demolished, and several of the outlying buildings looked almost as bad. Shards of ice glimmered amongst the rubble, and encased in parts of the ice were what looked unfortunately like human bodies.
And in the center of it all, was the culprit. Classified as a Mamoswine, the huge mammoth-like creature was on a rampage, knocking down lampposts and tearing through cars like they were made of paper. The city was in a panic, and the screaming almost drowned out the sounds of destruction.

Doug wasted no time in ordering his men into position. Within a minute he had the beast surrounded, with snipers trained on it from four different locations. As the few citizens remaining were evacuated to a safer location, Doug began to feel confident. “Alright, on my mark… Fire!”

The dart shot true, impacting straight into the beasts neck, but there was no apparent effect, aside from drawing the beast’s attention. The mamoswine retaliated with a shard of ice, hitting the sniper and causing her to drop the rifle she held, clutching at her arm where the attack had wounded her as she fell to the ground. A second dart was shot, and again, it appeared to have no effect.
“Sir, the darts aren’t making it through the fur.” The voice crackled across the radio as the mamoswine turned it’s rage back to the nearby buildings. The roof caved in, dropping the third sniper 20 feet into the rubble, where they lay immobile.

Dammit! I didn’t want to do this, but you leave me no choice. Dropping his tranq gun, Doug pulled out his rifle, and took aim at the mammoth. “Incapacitate it at any cost! Permission to use lethal force granted.”



Sylvia Wintermoon
USF Deputy Commander
Near the Erana Rift

Find the Rift. Easy, right? Just a 12 to 15 foot hole in the middle of aches of untamed forest. Can’t be that hard to miss. Luckily, Sylvia had the best tracker in the USF with her; the downside was it was a raccoon. Sorry, a zigzagraccoon, or whatever they called it.
As Scout was busily rushing around, nose pressed to the ground, Sylvia felt something wiz by her head, giving her an electric shock as it passed by. By the time she looked around whatever it was was already gone.
“What was that?”
“I’d say it’s one of the pokemon we’re meant to be stopping”
“Well, obviously I knew that. Okay, new plan. You guys continue to the Rift as planned, I’ll go after that thing.” A few of her men opened their mouthes to object, but Sylvia cut them off. “And before you argue, that’s an order. I can handle it alone. Scout, can you pick up it’s trail?” The raccoon-like creature nodded, then after sniffing some more, dashed off into the trees, with Sylvia following in close pursuit.

Not for the first time, Sylvia marveled at the zigzagoon’s abilities. She didn’t know if was was through scent, sight, or some other unknown sixth sense, but Scout was able to track the flying creature with apparent ease. Leading them through the underbrush, both companions slowed down as they head voices from up ahead. Crouching amongst the foliage, Sylvia could see several figures up ahead, and at least two smaller creatures whizzing around in the air. “You stay back here” she whispered to the zigzagoon, before emerging into view of the strangers.

Sylvia was surprised to see that they were dressed as USF soldiers. “I wasn’t informed that any other teams were dispatched here.” She said, surreptitiously reaching for her sidearm.
Glancing around, she saw that the “soldiers” had suspiciously specific equipment with them. The already had one pokemon captured in a ghost containment chamber, and from the looks of it were in the process of capturing two more. That must have been what I had felt earlier, she realised.
“Now, I know you’re not with the USF, but I’m willing to make a deal. You give me your info on the rift and ditch the uniforms, and we’ll turn a blind eye and let you keep on with whatever you’re doing. Otherwise, I’m afraid we’ll have to bring you in.” She hoped they wouldn’t call her bluff. There was no way she could handle them alone, and she had no backup coming, but they didn’t need to know that…


???
???
The Erana Rift

As various fights went on around the rift, attention was drawn away from the rift itself. Unwatched, dark tendrils of mist began to seep through the crack in space. A flickering shadow appeared momentarily, menacingly towering above the surrounding combatants, before melting into the ground, leaving no trace that it was more than just a trick of the light…

[Noblejanobii]

Brent Hughes + Koyla the Audino and Chavdar the Zoroark
Avalon Apostles
Erana

Brent felt the ground shake as he and Koyla entered the city of Erana. It wasn't hard to see why. A mamoswine had made its way into the city. Sure enough, the USF was trying to take it down. Brent glanced at his own partner. Koyla seemed horrified at the calls for lethal force to take down the raging beast. He wondered if they had once known each other or if Koyla was just empathetic. Both of equally likely explanations. Still they had a job to do. Brent dropped his bag to the ground and pulled out two white armbands with red crosses on them. He held one out to Koyla before putting one on himself. In situations like this, it helped to signal that they were no threat. It didn't always work, but it was the best solution he had.

Koyla slipped the band onto her arm and nodded to Brent, signaling she was ready to go. Venturing further into the city, it wasn't long before they were finding victims of the rampage. Several buildings had already been collapsed. Koyla's ears twitched and she quickly pointed to a nearby building. Brent looked over and saw an arm peeking out underneath the rubble. He knew what that meant. "Alright, we'll rescue and treat these people first. Koyla, do you think you can move some of the rubble?"

"Dino!" Koyla responded with a hearty nod. Shifting her ears back in concentration, Kophay took a deep breath before letting out a loud screech, knocking away a large amount of the rubble and unearthing several of the trapped victims. Brent dashed in and began to try and free those that were trapped. Kophay continue to attempt to break the rubble in order to free more victims. Brent lifted two unconscious adults and moved them to safety before heading back in. His next target was still pinned under a rock. Brent grunted and tried to lift it, but to no avail. The rock was too big, and having Kophay try to break it could endanger the pinned victim more.

"Zoroark!" Brent barely had time to react before Chavdar appeared out of thin air and smashed the rock with ease. He gave Brent a disgusted look before vanishing again. Brent blinked a few times in surprise before snapping out of it and picking up the previously trapped victim. He'd thank Chavdar later. Brent doubted it would be the last time the zoroark helped with this mission.

As Brent began to treat the wounds of those pulled from the rubble, he watched Kophay scan the area for anymore. She returned after a moment and gave the all clear. Seems most of the people were able to evacuate before the collapse. Holding her hands over the nearest victim, Kophay closed her eyes and began to emit a soft pink light, sealing up the wounds that Brent had finished treating. Brent always was a bit envious of that power. It would make his job like a thousand times easier. He shook his head and returned his focus to cleaning this person's open wounds before wrapping them. He furrowed his brow in displeasure as he began to shake. Now was not the time to get nervous! He had done this a thousand times and now he was getting stage fright? It was only after Kophay screamed that Brent realized it wasn't him shaking.

Brent's head snapped up in attention as he realized the mamoswine was barreling back this way to try and escape the gunfire from the USF. Brent swore loudly and looked at the victims. There were too many to carry. They'd have to stand their ground. "KOPHAY!" Brent shouted. The pokemon turned her head to Brent and lifted her ears in attention. "We need to defend our ground. Can you hold that thing back?" Kophay's ears fell a little before she nodded, determination filling her expression. If there was one thing Kophay would fight for, it was to protect her patients.

Standing up, Kophay shifted her ears back and growled as the mamoswine came towards them. Tightening her paws into fists, Kophay let out another hyper sonic screech. The mamoswine seemed somewhat dazed at the attack but otherwise didn't seem very deterred. Kophay took a few steps back and released another screech followed by another, and then one more. Brent worked as quickly as he could, trying to pull the victims back into the rubble just to get them out of the beast's path. He had to work quickly though, as he could see Kophay's attacks growing weaker, her throat wearing out with each screech.

As Brent pulled the third victim out of the way, he noticed Chavdar observing nearby and shook his head. Of course the zoroark chose now to not help. Brent spit to the side and yelled, "You know I really don't appreciate your pickiness when it comes to helping people!" The zoroark made a scoffing sound and turned up his snout at Brent. Go figure. Brent wiped some sweat from his brow and ran back to pull the next unconscious person out of the way. Just a few more, all Kophay had to do was hold the beast until then.

[Morzone]

Leo Star
Order of the Sun
Location: En Route to Sendrel (Leo to the north, Gardevoir to the south west)
Affected Rp'ers: N/A

Leo leaned on his elbows and stared out at the landscape flashing by. Only five minutes ago the bus he'd taken had left the stop, but Leo couldn't help but feel impatient. A sense of foreboding had been hanging over him ever since he'd left the valley. Maybe he should have waited for Gardevoir to come back... If he was honest with himself what he'd really wanted was that Gardevoir had taken him with them rather than traveling to Erana alone. And now here he was heading to the big city for supplies that probably could have waited for the psychic pokemon's return. It was as if something or someone had refused to allow him to be able to sit still and wait in the valley while Gardevoir was out in possibly dangerous territory. Rediculous...

Many miles to the south west of Leo's bus, Gardevoir struggled to stay conscious as they and the ninetails headed away from the transformed human. Slowly the pair climbed through the hilly forest, looking for a convenient spot to hide momentarily and recover. The previous episode had left quite the toll on both of them. Gardevoir had been fighting to keep the ninetails' tranq dose back during the confrontation, a difficult task due to its potency. Due to its strength Gardevoir hadn't been able to stop the movement of the drug without slowing the ninetails' blood flow to dangerous levels. Rather the psychic had had to supply replacement energy to combat the tranquilozers effects, essentially resulting in both pokemon being effectively tranq'd once the psychic couldn't sustain the supply.

There...There should be a safe place among those rocks... the ninetails pointed out a rocky slope with several boulders large enough to shelter between and stay mostly hidden. The two pokemon chose the nearest crack in the stones and sat down in the small space. Gardevoir mustered the effort to pull the darts from the fox's side -something the ninetails was quite glad for despite the sharp pain- before collapsing back down in their previous sitting position.

I should be ready to teleport given an hour of rest. Hopefully I'll be able to wake you. Gardevoir told the ninetails, who seemed on the verge of properly fainting. Soon enough the many tailed pokemon was asleep against the rock wall. Gardevoir dearly wanted to sleep as well, but knew that their safety was by no way guaranteed and needed to be awake in case of an emergency. SO the psychic settled for closing their eyes and reflecting on the encounter they'd just walked away from.

If Garveoir was being honest with themselves, they weren't entirely comfortable with what the ninetails had done to the human. Had this been over a year ago before they'd met Leo, Gardevoir probably would have been all for it. Now though... well perhaps it had merely been those old memories and emotions dredged up from her flight from hunters into more hunters. Of course, any pokemon knew never to mess with a ninetails whose tails had been grabbed. Many had had that fury turned on them by accident while attempting to dissuade or stop one, and Gardevoir had no plans to be the next.

Worst though, far worse than any regrets about the fate of the human was the horrible feeling of having picked up the human's weapon and fired at him. They could still feel its weight, its malice, its power in her hands, which were quaking ever so slightly. It was as if they'd crossed some invisible line and given up part of themselves to their anger when they'd picked up the human weapon for revenge. It made their chest hurt just thinking about it.

Drawing themselves together gardevoir wrapped their arms around their legs, placing their head on their knees, trying not to feel a chill that didn't seem to have anythign to do with the day's weather. And not for the first or last time the pokemon wished they hadn't left Leo behind.
[hr]
Ezekiel (Zeke, Cardinal North) Star
Northern Claw Headquarters in Sunos, Cardinal's office.
Affected Rp'ers: Shruikan

Davison's team paused, having just finished securing the third rotom in the ghost-cage, when a USF officer appeared in front of them. Judging by the badge on the uniform they were Commander- no, deputy commander. Most likely they were someone who worked more in the field than behind the scenes, enforcing commander's orders right up to the front lines. Assuming that was the situation it was odd they were on their own, leaving a risk of more back-up coming. Still, judging by the offer they'd made a conflict was something that was going to preferably be avoided.

Davison -who was wearing a special captain's USF uniform- stepped forward toward the deputy commander, not in any kind of threatening fashion but rather with an air of importance and status. From his breast pocket he took a small leather punch, which he unfolded and showed to the USF officer. Two badges glimmered in the forest light. One was the standard USF license of identification that all members carried, it named him as Harrison Frallends. The other however was a badge identifying him as a member of the Special Ops division, A group of USF members who supposedly only worked on orders directly from the top.

"I understand you are following orders but I insist that you do not speak of my team's presence here. These Pokemon assigned for capture are extremely dangerous in our current society and needed to be caught immediately. I suggest you and your group intercept the poachers that captured a reptilian pokemon and fled in that direction. We must see to our mission first." Davison told the USF officer with a tone of authority, pointing off in the direction the other poachers had gone off when fighting over the crocodilian pokemon. Behind him, the other four of the team collected cages and the equipment they'd been using, attaching them to their belts or vests in preparation to move to a different location.

...

Back in his office Zeke prepared to send a message to the Southern division. Several of the Gilded branch had high ranking members embedded into the USF in order to give cover for the fake USF identities many of the other branches often used during their work. Hopefully this officer would merely take note of the faces of each of his poachers and report the strange occurrence later for investigation. That would be best for Zeke, who would merely need one of the southern branch to report back on the investigation with an explanation that the secret ops had in fact been sent their by a confidential order. Given the look of this USF soldier they didn't have proper rank to question higher up investigation results, so the matter would be dropped.

[K'sariya]

Camellia Estrada & Ajani the Venusaur
Avalon Apostles
Erana
Affected RPers: Noblejanobii



Even as they made their way toward the border, the terror escalated around them. People began to dart out of their businesses and homes, spreading the news. A symphony of sirens rose like a haunting wail over Erana as medical vehicles streamed toward (and after a few minutes, away from) the disaster site. From afar, she was forced to watch as a massive beast thundered through a part of the outer wall, brandishing massive tusks and thick fur, tossing aside cars and smashing through buildings.

Camellia purses her lips. People rush past them, and as they close in, she prepares herself for what is to come.

As she approaches, she sees a USF squad surround the creature and open fire on with darts. They get caught in the beast's shaggy fur and uselessly hang in the thick matts, unable to pierce the coat. Like flies, the beast shakes them away and plows through a nearby building, but not before firing off an ice shard at one of the soldiers. Camellia's hand traces over Ajani's skin reassuringly, and he responds with a low rumble. That kind of power makes them both nervous, but they weren't about to stand down and let it destroy the city.

The earth quakes with the beast's footsteps, with the beast's destruction. Camellia slides from her Venusaur's head and onto the unstable earth, dismounting in a small gardened spot, and immediately spies a familiar mop of dark hair, as well as a familiar round, pink form trying to hold the gargantuan creature back by dazing it.

"Brent!" comes Camellia's shout as they rush forward, letting her comrade know that he's got reinforcements. She flings her arm out toward Ajani. "Let's try to get it restrained." The wide-skull behemoth nods, blood-red eyes slipping closed for a moment. Tendrils of roots snake from beneath his fronds, slowly at first, and then they suddenly crack down and through the earth of the small lawn they stand on. Ajani ingrains himself to the side of the creature's immediate path. Strength flows through him as he saps nutrients from the earth, red eyes taking on a vibrant emerald glow as he stares intently at the Mamoswine.

He feels for the strength from down below, his natural affinity for plants reaching out until he finds what he's looking for. Suddenly, the concrete right in front of the Mamoswine ruptures and bursts in a fountain of dirt, causing the beast to take a startled step back. A mixture of dull green ivy and thick brown tree roots erupt from the split and secure themselves around both of the Pokemon's massive tusks. Ajani's grip tightens and jerks the behemoth's ivory into the ground.

The beast won't be startled or restrained for long--Camellia's already seen what that ice can do. "We've got to find a way to give Ajani cover before he loses his grip!" she shouts to Brent--and anyone else around helping.

[Neo Emolga]

Nathan "Neo" Winterfield (As a Ninetales)
Avalon Apostles
Avalon Research Labs, Maris, Aluna
ARPers: N/A

I woke up with a jolt, suddenly thinking everything I had just gone through was a really terrible dream, but now it was time to get out of bed and begin the day with that morning cup of coffee I always look forward to. Shame that's not exactly how the reality of the situation was working.

"WATCH IT, HE'S AWAKE!" I heard someone shout.

I opened my eyes and I saw metal bars. An obvious cage. A shock at first and then a "oh yeah, it makes sense now." Beyond that, a white tiled room and lots of funky research equipment I had never seen before. Oh great, I could bet this was where all the fun and games would begin.

I saw a few of the researchers in white lab coats. Older men, young ladies, one middle-aged guy who looked like this was his first time seeing a Pokémon.

"Relax, we've got him under control."

I could tell they didn't take any chances. There was a muzzle on my snout, obviously to stop me from setting a whole bunch of things on fire, which I didn't even know how to really do yet. I hadn't even tried using a Ninetales's powers and capabilities. Heck, I wasn't even used to having nine tails coming out of my rear yet, so this was definitely going to be a tricky process. Of course in a cramped cage, it wasn't the ideal situation to get all caught up in Ninetales 101.

"This is the thing that killed Winterfield?" I heard one of them ask.

"Yes, he completely incinerated him," one of the others confirmed. "Flames hot enough to even destroy his bones. We barely found anything to identify the body with."

That's because there were no bones, you goofballs!

I couldn't even get my mouth open just to make Ninetales foxy noises, though I highly doubted that would ultimately do anything to get me out of this cage. How the blazes was I supposed to tell them this was totally not what they thought it was when I couldn't speak to any of them? Oh forget it, it was going to be just like that Ninetales said. I was going to end up with rectal thermometers up my rear, getting blood tests five times a day, and getting more wires around me than a mainframe computer.

I needed a way to communicate with them. Talking was out. They couldn't understand a thing I'd say.

"David Lee's report confirmed this Ninetales had attacked the team aggressively," one of the older researchers told the others. "Nearly killed Lee in the encounter and he bit Winterfield in the arm. After Winterfield headed back to the helicopter for treatment, the report states they tried to recover the equipment, but Lee and Chambers were forced to evacuate the area after encountering a Gardevoir. Winterfield insisted on staying. A search party was sent out later to recover the Grotle, but all we found of Winterfield were his ashes and this Ninetales that had almost escaped."

This was really going from bad to worse. Okay, first, I needed to get out of this mess and this cage. Then I needed to make these lab rats realize who I really was. Then, I had to track down that Ninetales, although holy crap, she could be anywhere by now. Well, assuming I get lucky and I find her, I had to reason with her and get the curse undone. Because... oh yeah, who am I kidding, that worked so great the last time I tried talking to her!

I needed... a bargaining chip, too. Something the Ninetales desperately needed. Like some kind of big life-saving thing that would make her consider undoing this 1,000 year curse. What could that possibly be!? Yeah, she really seemed adamant about this curse thing. And she seemed like she had all the things she wanted in life. Cookies and Valentine's Day chocolates weren't going to cut it with her. She couldn't even do anything with a winning lottery ticket! Oh, and this was only if the curse could actually be undone. Right, well a 1,000 year curse wouldn't be a 1,000 year curse if it could be easily canceled like a spammy email subscription now, would it?

Well, I guess this is my life now. Yippee ki yay.

Oh, and then it hit me! I needed a pen. Or a pencil. Marker, chalk, crayon, I didn't care! Just something to write with. I mean, it was going to be tricky to write with paws lacking opposable thumbs now, but well, if I could at least hold it with my two front paws and write somewhat legible letters, I could write a message for these white-coated crazies! "Stop don't probe me" seemed like a great start. I had my priorities.

I looked around and there were plenty of writing implements! Plenty of paper too! Of course, these guys had to track results and take notes all the time. Now I just needed to somehow get a hold of some and try doing that. But there was the slight matter of the cage. And obviously these white coats weren't going to expect a Ninetales to fill out forms and consensual agreements. Great. The one time I could have really used one of those, I wasn't going to get one just because they believed Pokémon were illiterate.

Well, one thing at a time. I decided to be... odd. Yes, oddly cooperative. Right now, they were all thinking I was some savage, murderous nine-tailed fox that nearly killed Dave, took a tasty bite out of poor, poor Nathan Winterfield, and then cremated him free of charge just for fun! If I acted in absolute stark contrast to that, it might get them wondering something weird was going on. YES, something weird was going on, people!

"We need to take him out for transfer to the containment chamber, but I need two of you to be ready to use belt restraints," the head scientist declared. "He may attempt an escape. Remember, these are untamed, wild, and very aggressive creatures we're dealing with here."

"Understood."

Oh boy, were they in for a treat.

They popped the lever on the cage which allowed the roof to be swung open. I decided to be very chill, very relaxed, and oddly casual. The more I weirded them out, the better. I simply stood up, still feeling a bit odd to be standing on all fours, but yeah, I might need to get used to this for a while. Possibly a long while. A possible VERY long while.

The two assistants, who were ready to strap me up like a death row felon, had their restraints ready to go, but I simply proved that wasn't necessary. I just stepped over the cage wall gently, relaxed, and then made my way onto the metallic lab table. Easy peesy.

Wasn't at all what they were expecting. I acted as tame as a friendly, loyal hound. I could even try cute! Hey, who wouldn't love a nice, cuddly furry fox as a friend? Just watch the tails. I mean really, sure, go ahead and tug a tail. Make my day. If I could do curse things now, too, would I really need to go that deep into nasty territory? Really, my worst 1,000 year curses would be like your ice cream will always be one degree warmer or your pens will run out of ink just a second earlier. You wouldn't even notice them if I never told you what they were!

The head researcher was a little baffled, but he decided to try something.

"Come," he spoke.

Ooh, I obeyed! I softly and gently approached him and even bowed when I got to him waiting at the other end of the table. Now they were suspecting something really strange was going on. Surely this couldn't be the murderous Ninetales that killed Winterfield, could it?

"...Sit," he commanded.

Sure! I sat down on my rear and relaxed, waiting patiently for his next command. Ha ha, oh, you're not winning this one, Mrs. Ninetales! I'm going probe-free tonight!

"The specimen seems oddly compliant considering we recovered it from the wild," the female researcher said.

"There's no way this is the creature that killed Winterfield," one of the others said. "He even understands and follows commands. This has to be someone else's trained Pokémon."

"Don't be too quick to jump to conclusions," the head researcher told them. "These creatures are very intelligent and crafty. Some of them even moreso than humans. Don't get your guard down with them."

Oh for Pete's sake, let's just get this over with.

I used one paw to snag and slide over a nearby notebook. Then, I used the same paw to slide over one of their ballpoint pens. Perfect. Let's get the party started.

They just watched, totally baffled, as I tried to write, bracing the pen between both paws as I slowly wrote the letters slowly, but legibly. They were a little messy and looked like a first-grader trying penmanship, but they were legible letters. I needed it to be short and sweet because this wasn't exactly easy to do with Ninetales paws. Just three simple words for now.

I AM NATHAN

Eyes went wide, the female researcher gasped, the restraints were dropped, and everyone had a good time.

"That... the head researcher stated in a cold voice. "N-Nathan Winterfield, you're in the body of that Ninetales?"

Boy did I nod to that one. Well, that was one thing out of the way. Thousands of steps more to go, but I was making great progress!

[VeloJello]

Emmett “Gawain” Marshall and Kayla
Avalon Apostles
Erana
ARPers: The Mamoswine Fighting Squad.

The flight passes quickly; surprisingly so. Kayla wings along at lightning speed, seeming to understand Emmett’s urgency. She doesn’t slow down until Erana is visible on the horizon. Emmett’s stomach clenches as he watches ice crystals forming, smoke rising, trees falling. It’s chaos out there.

A few buzzes of his phone draw Emmett's attention. Once Kayla descends, preparing to land, he scrolls through his alerts. A few promise their help; a few apologize for being unable to come; a few are already in the city. Between Erana’s preexisting personnel and the other Apostles, Emmett feels a little bit of confidence. But… no matter what, people are going to get hurt today. People are going to die.

The Mamoswine is honestly hard to miss. It’s on a roll, destroying buildings with its massive tusks and trampling the streets into rubble. It looks like this portion of the city has been evacuated by this point; the Mamoswine is in quarantine and it’s liable to go down at any second. And yet, one of the USF members is pointing a good old-fashioned rifle at the beast, lining up the deadly shot.

Emmett grumbles under his breath, torn. On the one hand, the Mamoswine is a frightened animal; it should be given a chance. On the other, it’s killed multiple people, injured more, and destroyed half a city block. Maybe the best thing to do is to just let this officer kill the Mamoswine. It’s got an insane amount of destructive power, and Gawain can’t afford to make any more enemies in the USF for the Avalon Apostles’ sakes. But…

“Kayla, drop me near the gunman,” he says, and Kayla immediately descends. As she does, Emmett waves his hands and calls out, “I’m a medic and an Avalon Apostle! This Pokemon is under control! Don’t shoot,” because the last thing he wants is for these already-jumpy crew to let loose on him and Kayla.

Before Emmett can plead with the leader of the platoon - he recognizes Doug Vincent, a stalwart but somewhat harsh man, with the rifle, but the others are strangers - he hears a horrid screeching sound. He looks over to see Brent and his Pokemon holding the Mamoswine back, and his heart lightens. The relief only grows as he sees Camellia and her Venusaur digging his claws into the earth, shooting vines around the Mamoswine’s legs. Maybe they can end this without any more blood.

“Give us two minutes. One hundred and twenty seconds,” Emmett says to Doug, half-ordering, half-pleading. Without checking to see if Doug is listening, he hurries forward, Kayla running at his side. “Air Slash, Kayla, rapid-fire! Don’t let it get the chance to catch its breath!” Kayla unleashes a cry of acknowledgement and takes flight, wings already glowing with white light that she quickly brings to bear in a rain of blades that falls on Mamoswine’s vulnerable face. Hopefully with Kayla distracting it, Ajani and Koyla will be able to siphon its energy in relative safety and leave it unconscious rather than just another corpse on the street.

[Bulbasaur]

Eddie Shadolurk
Agent of the Shadows
Heading back to AoS Headquarters
ARPers: LKWayvern

As I walked back with Bruce, I couldn't help but think that this all felt too easy. We had captured a Pokemon from the rift, knocked it out fairly easily, and got away quickly.

And I was right. A forceful blow to my back suddenly told me that this mission was about to get a bit more difficult. Not expecting the hit, I fell to one knee. Glancing over at Bruce, I saw he had been hit too; he was hit by another Pokemon, to be exact. He looked hurt, but I've seen him endure much worse. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a human standing over me. At this point it was evident that someone else had caught on.

I focused my eyes back to Bruce. "Lay some of Sleep Powder on these guys, Bruce." Little blue spark-like dots shot out of his bulb a few feet into the air, and starting falling as a blanket over all of us. I quickly pulled a non-rebreather mask out of my pocket and strapped it to my face. Bruce ran over to my side, as we readied ourselves to escape.

[Noblejanobii]

Brent Hughes + Koyla the Audino and Chavdar the Zoroark
Avalon Apostles
Erana
Affected RP'ers: The Rampaging Mamoswine Squad

The sound of someone else's voice had never been so relieving to Brent in his entire life. As reinforcements arrived in the form of Camellia and Gawain. Koyla quickly retreated to Brent's side, resting her throat for a split second as Ajani and Kayla managed to stun the beast. Brent nodded at Camellia's command. Koyla would need to provide Ajani cover if they wanted to be successful in their attacks. Koyla, however needed to rest. Brent looked back over to the other building and frowned, the gray fox staring back at him. Chavdar was still proving to be useless, of course.

"Koyla," Brent said, "Do you think you can help cover Ajani?" The audino panted a few more times before managing a nod. That meant no but she was going to try. Brent dug some water out of his bag and passed it to Koyla. "Drink and gargle this. Get your throat ready. We're gonna need a lot of hyper voices." Koyla gave Brent a thumbs up before downing the water. Brent brushed his fingers over the blue orb housed in his bag. He knew Angel had used this to force Chavdar to stay with them and even act under his command, but Brent really didn't want to do that if he didn't have to. Since mega evolution was out of the question though, that might be their only option. Slinging the bag back onto his shoulder, he nodded to Koyla. "When you're ready, head in."

Koyla took a few more deep breaths before handing Brent back the empty bottle. She dashed back in and stood between Ajani and the rampaging mamoswine. Swishing her ears back, Koyla began to release another series of screeches. Putting all the force behind the attack she could, it was the only attack she had not dedicated to healing, so it was their only hope other than whatever Kayla and Gawain had in store to allow Ajani time to get prepared.

Brent looked over at the collapsed victims and sighed. "I need to get them out of the city. I know there's medical teams outside the city. Maybe I can-" Brent nearly jumped out of his skin as Chevdar materialized in front of him. The zoroark growled and pushed a finger into his chest. "What?" Brent asked. Chevdar pointed at the victims before pointing at himself. "You want to carry them?" Chevdar nodded. "Al... alright. But don't just dump them anywhere okay?" Chevdar made a mocking sound before heading over to those unconscious, grabbing as many as he could, and beginning to carry them out of the city.

[Shruikan]

Doug Vincent
USF Commander
Erana

So far opening fire had only scared the mamoswine more. Just as Doug lined up what should be the final shot, a giant white owl flew down from the sky. “Oh great, Gawain’s here.” He muttered under his breath. Deep down however he was glad. The Avalon Apostles had a much better track record for peaceful solutions, something Doug was all out of right now.
The “Knight” requested two minutes to try and stop the creature, before jumping into the fray. Doug
“Alright men, hold you fire until I give the signal.” He said through his comms. I hope you can handle this, he thought as he kept his weapon trained on the mamoswine.

Limping slightly from a few bullet wounds, and combined with the buffeting waves of sound and the vines wrapping around it’s tusks, the Mammoth finally began to slow. When the added assault from Gawain and his owl began, the mamowine tried to face itself upward to aim at it’s new attackers, but the vines around it’s tusk held it firmly in place. Desperation flashing through it’s eyes, the pokemon raised it’s back legs as high as it could before slamming them down, sending a miniature earthquake through the town, hoping to unbalance it’s assailants.



Sylvia Wintermoon
USF Deputy Commander
Near the Erana Rift

Syvia’s face drained of colour as she saw the badge held before here. Crap, they’re with the special ops. “Ah, s-so sorry about that. I’ll uh, just let you get back to work then.” Sylvia said meekly. Crap crap crap. Why did I assume they were poachers.
As the men began to pack up their gear, Sylvia rushed back to where Scout had been waiting, making a mental note to memorize all the personnel files once she got back to HQ. “Okay boy, looks like we’ve got a new lead.” After taking a moment to check in with the rest of the team, she hurried off in the direction Harrison had pointed.

Following the directions she’d been given, it wasn’t long before Sylvia found the “poachers.” The two men appeared to be fighting each other, likely over the large unconscious teal crocodile being dragged along by a bulbasaur.
They’ve got to be the poachers, she though. But not wanting another misunderstanding, she decided to play it safe. Drawing her pistol from it’s holster and holding it at the ready, Sylvia slowly walked into view of the combatants, Scout at her heels. “Hey, you two! Cease your combat at once!”
Still holding the gun at the ready, Sylvia reached with her left hand into her jacket with and quickly withdrew her USF badge. “USF. Now, both of you call off your attacks show me your license to handle pokemon, or else I’ll be forced to take… take you… in…” Sylvia’s eyelids began to droop. Only now did she notice one of the men had a mask over his mouth and nose, and there were blue spores floating around. I am so getting demoted for this… she though as she began to lose consciousness. Scout staggered a few steps towards the crocodile, before falling heavily to the ground, fast asleep, followed a few seconds later by Sylvia, badge and firearm dropping to the ground as she fell comatose to the earthen floor.

[K'sariya]

Camellia Estrada & Ajani the Venusaur
Avalon Apostles
Erana
Affected RPers: Noblejanobii VeloJello



Gawain arrives, and for Camellia, the Avalon Apostles leader will always be a reassuring force. Even in his focus, Ajani looks over to the knight and gives a low grunt of greeting as he charges into the fight. His familiar white owl joins him, gliding in on beautiful white feathers to deliver cascading blades of air. Soon after, Brent and Koyla follow suit, the Audino's cries rippling out to disorient the beast.

Camellia can see that it's starting to wear, but knows it's not down for the count. She sees the panic still in the creature's eyes, pupils rolling back to show its whites. Its weights shifts forward and into the vines that bind its tusks, front limbs spreading, and then it raises its hind limbs.

"Crap," Camellia whispers, and then shouts: "Brace yourselves!" The blue-haired woman steps against Ajani and braces herself against him. Tremors rock through the nearby area. Debris falls from damaged buildings that are still standing. Only by clinging onto Ajani is she able to keep her balance. They're wearing it out, though--it doesn't do nearly as much as the first round of damage did. The grassy behemoth's low-set weight, stocky limbs, and Ingrained roots lets him hold their balance, and lets him retain command over his bindings.

Camellia's relieved that they're at least getting somewhere.

She hurriedly wipes away the sweat that's threatening to drip into her eyes with the back of her palm and casts a hurried glance over to Gawain. "Let's start calming it." Gaze turns over to her flowering behemoth. She raises her voice, casts it forward in their path, especially toward Koyla, who stands between them. "Clear a path." She places her hand onto one of his fronds before stepping away, giving him distance. "You know the drill."

And so he does. He gives the Audino a chance to move--and a chance to take a much-needed break--before closing his eyes. On rooted limbs, he begins to shake the plants on his back by swaying his body. From beneath the wide, thick membrane of his rafflesia comes a shimmering green dust. The tailwind from Kayla's Air Slashes carries the Sleep Powder forward, towards the bound Mamoswine.

[VeloJello]

Emmett “Gawain” Marshall and Kayla.
Avalon Apostles.
Erana.
ARPers: The Mamosquad.

When the ground itself rocks beneath Gawain’s feet, he worries that he might have made a mistake. It seems like earth is as much this beast’s element as the ice it’s scattered across Erana. He flinches as he hears buildings tremble, crack, shatter in the distance. Mamoswine is tearing Erana apart, and it’s fully possible that nonlethal methods will fall flat here.

But that’s no excuse not to try. Koyla’s cries continue; Brent and Chedavar are doing their best to save the wounded; Camellia and Ajani brace themselves, digging in for battle. Like it or not, Gawain is their leader, and he has to show conviction.

There’s a pause in the action as Ajani releases a Sleep Powder attack - one that Kayla uses to wheel away from the heavy green spores as a matter of caution. She looks prepared to attack again, but Gawain figures that hurting the Mamoswine will only keep it awake longer. “Hold back!” he orders Kayla, who quickly checks herself and begins circling in tight, restless arcs around Mamoswine, ever-ready to dodge a flung chunk of stone or ice. “Use Yawn, then get away from Mamoswine quick as you can.”

While Kayla gives no overt acknowledgement, she swoops down in front of Mamoswine, close enough to make Gawain’s heart race with nerves. Her beak opens wide and a bubble of pale pink energy forms there, rolling off the tip of her beak and homing in at Mamoswine’s face. Her wings then flap furiously; there’s no blades of air, just speckled white feathers fighting to catch as much air as possible and escape the danger zone before Mamoswine either retaliates or collapses.

[Neo Emolga]

Nathan "Neo" Winterfield (As a Ninetales)
Avalon Apostles
Avalon Research Labs, Maris, Aluna
ARPers: N/A

I was kind of limited in how I could communicate to these guys, especially considering I could barely write with only paws and no opposable thumbs. So I just wrote "keyboard please" and just as I thought, pressing buttons for letters was a whole lot easier than trying to draw them.

I tried to explain everything by typing it all out on a screen. The mission, the encounter with the other Ninetales and her Gardevoir friend, the 1,000 year curse thing and how that was supposed to be her revenge on me, and all that jazz. Real lovely stuff.

"So how does one go about undoing a Ninetales curse?" one of the researchers asked. "Is there a way?"

I shrugged. Appease the cursing Ninetales? Save their life? I didn't know, but my best guess was this an IOU kind of thing and I needed some kind of tribute offering like a "hey, you'd be screwed without me so change me back" kind of thing. Otherwise I better get used to fur, paws, and a whole lot of tails for a good, long time.

"Things haven't been going well in the meantime," the head researcher told me. "A Mamoswine is laying down havoc in Erana and it's been a real struggle to keep it under control. It's already killed multiple people, caused millions in damage, and the debate to pacify it by tranquilization or euthanizing it is causing its own problems."

Sheesh. And to think I could have ended up right in the middle of that.

"Perhaps... Operative Winterfield can possibly communicate with the Mamoswine?" one of the researchers asked. "He's the best connection between humans and Pokémon now that's he's... well, experienced both sides."

"Might be the only possible choice we have left," one of the others agreed. "He is the only negotiator capable of both human and Pokémon communication. Not to mention he could potentially translate what the Mamoswine is saying."

Well, this was definitely going to be different for a change. But if it saved lives and ended things peacefully, it was worth a shot. Maybe that cursing Ninetales would learn about it and see I wasn't such a bad guy after all and undo the curse! Maybe. Or everyone would see this as a big success and feel I should definitely stay this way. Oh boy.

I nodded, giving them a quick sign that I could roll with this plan even though there was this fun fact that it might just get me stuck this way.

"Then we should have Winterfield deployed to the strike zone and equipped with a keyboard input device," the researcher confirmed. "Winterfield, you're going to need to try and tell the Mamoswine to stand down. Find out what it wants and what humans can provide in exchange for having it cease its assault on Erana. We will be waiting and watching what you type in. Hopefully it's something we can easily fulfill without any need for lethal force."

Weird how I've gone from pacifying Pokémon by shooting them with tranquilizer darts to now chatting with them and seeing if we can become friends that way instead.

"If we're going to do this, then we need to hurry," one of the female researchers said urgently. "Get Winterfield ready for deployment, although how do we explain this to the others that we have a negotiator Pokémon capable of translating what the Mamoswine is saying?"

"We really don't have the time to explain that to the whole strikeforce, especially when they have their hands full," one of the others said. "That can wait, but this cannot."

Wow. Mass confusion. High chance of death. Heavy collateral damage. Hulking Mamoswine wrecking everything. What were we waiting for!?

[Noblejanobii]

Brent Hughes + Koyla the Audino and Chavdar the Zoroark
Avalon Apostles
Erana
Affected RP'ers: The Rampaging Mamoswine Squad

Brent could tell that the beast was starting to reach the end of its strength. Another strong attack would probably finish it off in some way. But then, the unexpected happened. Brent barely had time to react as the beast sent an earthquake rippling through the city. Unable to brace himself on anything in time, Brent found himself sent flying from the shock wave. A thousand thoughts flew through his mind as he tried to figure out what to do in order to prevent extreme injury. But the panic that raced through him like adrenaline blurred it all. All he could do was cover his head before he slammed into some of the debris on the ground.

A sickening crack echoed in Brent's ears and pain surged in his left arm as he let out a loud cry in pain. His vision was blurry and everything around him muddled. He blinked several times as his surroundings slowly started to come back into focus. Slowly turning his head to the side, Brent immediately winced as he could barely make out some bone sticking out of his arm. "Okay, okay, not good." His head throbbed with each movement, but Brent knew he needed to apply pressure to the wound first, at least until he could get someone else to actually treat his arm. Using his teeth, he managed to pull off his arm band and used it to apply pressure to his wound. He'd also need to immobilize his arm but for now this was the best he could do without assistance giving how much his head felt like it had become one with the cement he had body slammed.

Koyla's ears went straight up in alert when she heard Brent's scream. She balled his hands into fists, resisting the urge to run to him immediately. She had been lucky in that her Hyper Voice actually disrupted the shock wave before it could hit her. She didn't escape unscathed, but she wasn't as bad off as Brent. She prepared to release another scream when Camellia called over to her. Koyla turned her head and gave her a sharp nod before taking off towards Brent. With any luck she could heal Brent to some extent before the real technicians arrived.

[Neo Emolga]

Nathan "Neo" Winterfield (As a Ninetales) + Blitz the Emolga
Avalon Apostles
En route to Erana
ARPers: N/A

I had gotten Blitz up to speed on what had happened before we both got on the chopper to be taken to Erana. He wasn't too crazy he had been left behind on the last mission because I thought he needed a rest since he was overworked last time. I didn't want to make him think I was abusing him like I was binge-watching the latest TV series everyone was talking about.

"You go on a mission without me and this happens?" the irritated Emolga asked me. "I thought I told you that was a bad idea! Now look at you! Tell me, Foxy, how does not listening to your pal and getting busted with a whole of tails and fur feel like!?"

"Oh yeah, like I was totally supposed to know this was going to happen," I rolled my eyes at him sarcastically. "Wasn't my fault every Ninetales doesn't come with a warning label of 'WARNING: DO NOT YANK ON TAILS. DANGER OF BEING SUBJECTED TO RANDOMIZED 1,000-YEAR CURSE."

"While I get that you didn't know, of all the possible Pokémon mishaps you could have fallen into, you sure didn't pick a very good one," the Emolga shrugged before looking away. "Usually a Ninetales is a very vengeful and spiteful Pokémon. Yanking on one of its tails is like flipping it the birdie and making mockery of them."

"Pft, these?" I asked with a cynical smile, casually waving my fan of tails around a bit. "Woop-dee-do! Oooh, a little kid pulled my tail! So bad! What a vile, murderous, demonic tail-pulling cretin of pure unholy evil! Am I really supposed to be that much of a grouchy wretch that I curse the kid for a whole bloody millennium over that? That's like cutting someone's arms off just because they put gum in your hair."

The little white and dark gray flying squirrel narrowed his eyes a bit, looking off to the side and nodded a bit.

"Well... when you put it that way..." he replied, deep in thought, "...I guess it really is over-reacting quite a bit."

Unfortunately, that didn't exactly change the situation. It just meant I had some figuring of things out to do. But in the meantime, I needed his help with a few others things.

I wanted to learn as much "backup maneuvers" from another Pokémon in the event that the Mamoswine really didn't feel like chatting with another Pokémon or if I screwed up in trying to talk to it. Which was a high possibility, although even trained Pokémon wouldn't know the magic of reciprocity like people did. But what I really think was we needed someone to find out what was driving this crazy kook into frenzy mode.

Meanwhile, said "backup maneuvers" consisted of learning exactly how to Ninetales. Blitz was pretty helpful in giving me the heads up about what fighting as a Pokémon usually consisted of. Even though he was an electric type, he had some insight on what was needed for me to cough up some fire, kick some tail, conjure up a Confuse Ray, and things like that. What a Ninetales usually likes to do to things they don't like when those funny and oh-so-irresistible 1,000 year curses really just aren't enough! While one chopper ride was definitely not going to be enough for me to play catch up on being a such a happy and vindictive multi-tailed fiery fox, it got me started and maybe with some field experience I would be okay. Blitz was helpful in the sense that I got the basics down, but let's face it, I wasn't formally trained for this stuff. It was going to take a lot more than this.

At the same time, the researchers had strapped a keyboard on me that was wirelessly hooked up to a monitor that would be watched remotely by some tactical operative or something in a safe area away from the strike zone. The only issue was I couldn't see what I would be typing on a screen, so I was hoping these guys wouldn't mind a few spelling mistakes here and there. Hey, you try typing with paws for a change!

Once I propped my front paws up on the window and peeked outside, I saw Erana in the distance. I figured the plumes of smoke and signs of chaos were a good sign no one was feeling bored down there.

[Morzone]

Ezekiel (Zeke, Cardinal North) Star
Order of the Sun
Sunos, Claw's northern headquarters, Cardinal's office.
Affected Rp'ers: N/A

Zeke let out a sigh of relief as the USF officer took the bait. Most of the time the cover worked fine, but it was always a hassle to quash rumors and investigations that risked revealing Claw's presence. Well, it was alright now. Zeke watched as Davison's team finished collecting their equipment, having caught three rotoms, and head out away from the rift. He had to admit, he was surprised the rift was still open. Normally they vanished fairly quickly. Well, it wasn't his problem. Not yet anyway.

Shutting off his monitor Zeke stood from his chair and stretched. He needed to head out and see if he could find his brother. If that gardevoir was what he thought it had been, Leo should be on his own and an easier target to try and follow to his 'secret valley.' Well, that pokemon could teleport so they'd probably meet up fairly quickly anyway, but might as well.

As he stepped out of his office the secretary sitting outside immediately stood up at attention. "Good Day, Cardinal." She said in a crisp, authoritative tone.

"You can Sit, send a message to the Southern Branch that Davison's team might need some cover in case of an investigation. Some USF officer saw them working, but took the bait with the special Ops ID. Also, please call in for a report on what my brother is doing, I'm going to be out on the field tailing him."

The secretary nodded, then re-seated herself at her desk and began sending out messages. After a moment of pressing buttons and relaying information to the tracking department she looked back up and reported, "You brother is currently on a bus heading south into the city of Sendrel. His ETA will be roughly 7 minutes."

"I see. Keep me notified if anything urgent comes up. Davison's team should be arriving through the Western Portal, most likely Erana but don't count on it. West's Mamoswine is still rampaging but I doubt for much longer. Once they're back have them go to the internal trade department, they'll have some rotoms that'll be needed by the other branches."

"As you say, Cardinal North." the secretary replied to zeke's back as he headed out toward the elevator that would lead him down to the portal station. Claw had a secret portal station in almost every city in every nation. Even some between cities, though that was mainly in the overly populated south. As Cardinal he had his own personal portal set up, which allowed him access to nearly every portal in the Claw network. Excluding the boss's offices of course. In any case it had only been a few minutes since the Cardinal had left his office that he found himself stepping out of a portal into the Claw headquarters of Sendrel.

Leo Star
Order of the Sun
Bus into Sendrel, cave southwest of Sendrel near Aluna Border.
Affected Rp'ers: N/A

Leo was in fact on the verge of arriving at Sendrel. He couldn't help but wish he'd had a way to portal travel to the city, but without Gardevoir's teleportation he'd have had to take a bus to Sunos to get access to a portal anyway. Well, you gotta do what you gotta.

Many miles to the south west, Gardevoir and Ninetails had awoken from their resting. Despite Gardevoir's best intents they ended up sleeping anyway. Luckily no one had noticed the two pokemon so the pshycic pokemon had gotten a much needed rest undisturbed.

We should get moving. Gardevoir informed the fox pokemon, standing up and peering out of the crevice they were sitting in. They wanted to get back to the valley as fast as possible,

"Hold on now, I am thankful for your help with those humans, I do not have any plans to follow you further, gardevoir." The ninetales cut gardevoir off, still sitting back in the cave.

I know a safe place, if you come with me I can give you a place where hunters can't reach.

"Well, that is an appealing idea, but surely only an idea."

Gardevoir sighed, clearly it wasn't going to be so easy to convince this pokemon to come with them. Sitting back down they looked out the entrance to the crevice.

"If you are determined to help me, as it seems you are, tell me about how you have survived in this world beyond the rifts."

Gardevoir turned back to the ninetales. They'd never really gotten a chance to converse with other pokemon like this sicne coming through a rift. If it went well perhaps they could convince the ninetales to accompany them.

How long have you been in this world?

"A few weeks, the rift appeared near my den in the northern mountains. As the one the strongest fighters in my pack it was my duty to inspect it. Well, you can see how that turned out, can't you."

The northern mountains, I did not know ninetales inhabited those areas. Aren't they covered in snow and ice? Surely your pack would have preferred a more hospitable place?

"Yes well, according to the elder tales we were driven north many years ago and had chosen the place so they could hunt ice types easily. I wonder how my pack is getting along. I have nothing of other rifts appearing, but I can only assume they are."

yes, quite often in fact. Each rift brings more pokemon from our world to this one. There was one earlier today in fact, near a place called Erana.

"If only I could find another rifts... then surely I could return to my pack and our old world." The ninetales let out a huff of frustration mingled with a sense of lonely exhaustion. Gardevoir couldn't say they hadn't felt the same feelings before themself.

Many of the pokemon in the valley hope a rift will appear there one day and they can go back, but for all I know I've never heard of any pokemon being able to return to our world once they've come to this one.

"Do you know if any have tried? Surely some pokemon must have had that lucky chance to re-enter a rift, or, I fear such a thing, have the humans attempted to cross through the rifts to our world?"

Each rifts brings out new pokemon into this world, I believe no human has been able to safely get through the wary newcomers to approach a rift before it closes. They do close fairly quickly, never have they really given the chance for anyone to go back through the portal to our world.

"So these rifts are slowly pulling our world into this one. Like a pool of water slowly filling up a second puddle until it balances out, perhaps humans are somewhere being brought to our world unwillingly, like we were brought here."

If they have I haven't heard any reports of such things. Perhaps they have been kept secret by those humans who run things, but no word has reached me despite my travels.

"You did seem experienced dealing with those humans earlier, just how long have you traveled in this world?"

Well, for starters I came through a rift roughly a year and a half ago.

"Oh? Where did you come from?"

I used to live in the great coral forest in the west-

"The Great Coral Forest?!? the psychics from those lands are of legend! I didn't think you were from one of those ancient clans!"

Gardevoir gave a nervous laugh, they'd forgotten about that particular legend about their homeland. There were some great psychics there, but I'm afraid I certainly wasn't one of them. No I was often shunned for my lack of skills.

"Even so, surely your powers were amazing. You said you had a safe place, who else could have done such a thing but a great psychic? These humans are nasty and vile but too cunning to be avoided forever. Only someone like you could trick them to keep a place safe for us, for pokemon."

No really, I had help. I couldn't have done all of this alone. But does that mean you believe me? Will you come with me?

"A gardevoir from the Coral forest, even if I do truly believe I would do my pack a disservice by refusing to chance to see a work by someone the elders would whisper legends to us of."

You yourself are a powerful pokemon, just look at what you did to that human after all. You seem to put a lot of stock into a clan you've never met, one that is forever lost to us.

"You're too humble. And you don't know it's lost to us. Why if we work together surely we could find a way to travel back through the rifts."

I don't know... right now my only focus is to protect pokemon who have come to this world with my partner.

"You said you had help, who is this partner of yours? Surely they could help us discover a way to travel back."

Oh he would.. or at least he would foolishly dedicate himself to it until he ran himself into the ground. His name's Leo, and he's stupidly kind to all the pokemon he meets. I couldn't ask him to take on such a ridiculous task.

"Hmmph. Still, I want to meet this Leo. What kind of pokemon is he anyway?

Leo's not a pokemon, he's a human-

"WHAT!?!" The ninetales jumped to its feet, its fangs bared in a snarl. Gardevoir jumped as well, they were accustomed to pokemon having hostile reactions to learning Leo's identity by now.

I'm aware you don't-

"You would partner yourself with one of these vile humans?! Those things that hunt us for pleasure, torture us for knowledge, drive us as slaves to do their personal bidding?"

Leo is different! He protects pokemon! Gardevoir tried to explain, but the ninetales snarled again. Flames sparked throughout the fox's fur.

"Do not lie to me! No human exists that shows kindness to us. They see us as nothing but stupid animals to be put in a cage and tested upon. Your 'Leo' is no different. Are you under his control? Do you willingly bring other pokemon to him for whatever sick experiments he performs?"

Do not lump Leo in with those hunters and poachers that chase you! I judged him! I judged him until there was no doubt left in my mind that he would help pokemon, not hurt them!

"So he showed you kindness, and you got fooled like a lost child who runs to the first sight of warmth. Well Here's the truth, that's no kindness. It's nothing but vile, cold cunning intended to keep you on a leash like an obedient pet. Only to be kept until you're no longer of use."

Don't speak of Leo that way! You haven't met him, you too would believe in him if you would only give him a chance.

"I don't need to meet every human to know the same sick intentions and desires run through each and every one of their heads. Is this why you're so determined to give up the search for a way back? Afraid that your clan will lean the truth that you lowered yourself to a slave before the vile race known as man? Well!? Or.. perhaps you too are have been pervaded with their thoughts and nonvalues, do you too see other pokemon as beneath you? That your former clan and world nothing were but a barbaric wilderness of dumb creatures? Are you one of them?! Are you one of those cold heartless creatures that care not for family or origin? Are you a one of those monsters who'd burn everything they leave behind for no other purpose than to make it easier to control what sits in front of their eyes?!"

ENOUGH!!

The ninetales took an involuntary step back as the psychic pokemon emanated such a wave of grief and anger that the fox pokemon felt itself nearly brought to tears. Gardevoir stood before them, hands clenched in shaking fists and their head bowed. Emotions broken free from whatever internal prison they'd been locked away in radiated from their psychic's slender frame with the force of tidal waves upon an unsuspecting beach. Clearly a nerve had been struck, no, the mother of all nerves, the deepest darkest secret feelings of those who put on the brave face had been been broken into with all the subtlety of jackhammer. The ninetales could do nothing but stand there and attempt to shield their own mind from the onslaught.

Do you think I do not miss them? The brother's and sisters I lost? Do you think I don't think of them every day? See them every night in my dreams? The home I can no longer reach, thefood I can no longer taste, the loved ones that are nothing but memories now?

Do you... Do you think I wanted to come to this world?! And suddenly gardevoir broke down, collapsing to their knees and covering their face with their shaking hands. Sadness emanated stronger than ever as the last vestiges of resistance to their own despair broke down inside the pokemon.

They Knew... they all knew and told me not to go near it. Not to investigate the rift, But I... I hated them, I hated their strength and knowledge and wanted to have something they didn't. All I wanted was their acknowledgement, to show them all I wasn't the weakling, the failure I was. But I didn't listen... and I lost it all. Everything I loved, everything I hated and desired, everything I knew was ripped from me because I was too stupidly jealous to listen to their warnings. Alone... it left me alone and weak and without anything. I realized that... when I saw the rift close behind me I knew. I had desired everything but in my folly I had reduced myself to nothing, I had no identity, no existence in this foreign world. I was truly without anything.

There is nothing... was nothing I desired more than too return, to beg and cry and apologize to my clan for my stupidity if only it meant I could go back to a place where I wasn't so entirely alone. But I couldn't do it. I couldn't go back. And I couldn't give up on life. So all I did was go and lead an empty existence, protecting other pokemon in vain hope that it would one day appease whatever horrible fate that had lead me to this world. I didn't care what happened, I didn't care if one day I would be captured and tortured and forced to work for those people who hunted us mercilessly. I didn't have a purpose.

"I- I went too far, I'm sorry-" the nintales tried to cut in, but gardevoir didn't even seem to recognize the words, merely continuing to ramble.

But... But then... I met Leo and he gave me a purpose. Together, together we built a secret place, a place of safety where pokemon can live in peace just like in our old world. Even then and even now I'm chasing a foolish dream, living through my memories in a vain attempt to recreate what I lost. Leo is... the only thing that has given me identity in this world. Without him I'd just be an empty shell of memories. And even so all I've ever done is force him to help me chase this impossible dream...[/i]

As Gardevoir broke down in fresh tears, the ninetales could see the truth, fueled by the emotions coming from the psychic. They were alone. Just as gardevoir had said there was nothing too them in this world. Their past, their packs and clans and family, their beliefs and knowledge, their identity, the very things that had made them who they were did not exist in this world. All things were meaningless. To chase after those things that had not come through the rifts would lead only to the life that had driven this Gardevoir to this maddened state.

But... no that wasn't entirely true, surely. Even if they were nothing but memories now, they were their memories. No other living creature had them and that gave them identity, a reason to live on so that their memories would live on with them.

"Where is this Leo? If he is truly as you say, a human who shows us pokemon kindness, then we should meet him as fast as possible." The ninetales told the Gardevoir, attempting to inject their voice with a level of authority in an attempt to bring this gardevoir back to their senses.

He- the valley needed some supplies... he likely went to Sendrel, a human city, to get them. Gardevoir replied, looking up at the ninetale's sudden leadership.

A human city huh... well this Gardevoir could teleport. And they were rested up now so they should be able to escape properly if trouble did come.

"we must go immediately. I trust you'll be able to teleport us there?" Gardevoir nodded, getting to their feet and placing a hand on the fire fox's side, "Then I'll also trust you to guide us to the correct human."

With one final nod, the psychic pokemon and the fire fox silently disappeared from the cave. Leaving nothing behind them a lingering burnt smell and an air of sadness.

[Shruikan]

Doug Vincent
USF Commander
Erana

The Mamoswine’s eyes darted madly as it tried to pull itself away from the spores, but it was in vain. Shortly after, Gawain’s Togekiss added to the assault, the Mamoswine’s eyelids began to droop, as it’s struggling became weaker. In desperation, the Mammoth let lose another attack, shooting a blast of cold air towards the Venusaur, but weakened as it was, the attack dissipated before making contact, and a few moments later, the Mamoswine fell to the ground motionless, the only sign of life being the slow rise and fall of it’s chest.

Whatever that powder was, R&D would have a field day with it. Maybe I should reconsider working with a pokemon. He mused as he silently motioned for his men to prepare for containment, then approached the nearest Avalon Apostle.
“Uhh, good job. It won’t wake up for a while right?” He said quietly, not wanting to accidentally awaken the beast.
Walking away to a safe enough distance from the mammoth, Doug checked in on the rest of his team. As he listened over the comms his face fell. The rift was nowhere to be found, and his deputy had gone off alone and hadn’t been heard from since. “Roger that. We’ll rendezvous at the drop site once the Mamoswine is secured. Over and out.”



Trey Sunders
Wormhole Researcher
Sendrel

It turned out, the city center wasn’t such a good move. A large crowd had gathered to hear a man giving a speech denouncing all pokemon as unholy abominations that should not be allowed to exist. Meanwhile, TVs in a shop window showed reports of an attack on Erana by a rampaging Mamoswine. Keeping her head low so as to avoid recognition, Trey quickly completed her shopping and began to head home.
She was about ten meters from her apartment, when she heard shouting from up ahead. More vigilantes hunting down pokemon from the sound of it. Ignoring them, Trey continued towards the door, reaching out for the handle.
That was when the air shimmered, followed by a small spherical green bird materializing on the doorstep in front of her. Trey was stunned, both by surprise and fear. She had never been this close to a pokemon before, and she didn’t know what powers this one might have. Was it about to kill her? But the pokemon just stared curiously up with it’s big round eyes. Trey noticed it had bruises and scrapes across one side. As the two locked eyes, Trey felt strange feelings overwhelming her. Sadness, fear, curiosity. A weariness, tired and alone. Hope too, and excitement. A feeling of adventure, but also of homesickness.
“There it is! It’s over here!” The shouts broke the spell, the bird quickly turning and launching into the air, fluttering away down the streets. From the direction of the voices came a group of seven or so people, brandishing various improvised weapons, such as slings or metal pipes. Such vigilantes were commonplace in Sendrel, as the local law enforcement was often too busy with the rifts to deal with them. They didn’t even notice Trey as they passed by.
Normally, Trey would have stayed out of it; messing with angry mobs while defenseless was never a good idea. But all the negativity from the day had got to her, and she was still shaken from the emotions she felt emanating from the pokemon, so before she knew it, she was racing after the mob. While not entirely sure what she could do to help, she certainly wasn’t going to go back home and stand around again. If I can’t help save the world, I can at least try and make it a bit better, one step at a time.

[Neo Emolga]

Nathan "Neo" Winterfield (As a Ninetales) + Blitz the Emolga
Avalon Apostles
Erana
ARPers: The Rampaging Mamoswine Squad

Hooo boy. The calamity was way worse than I thought. I was really beginning to think this was a dumb idea and this Mamoswine thing was just out of control completely. What was I going to say to it? "Oh hey, maybe... stop?" Negotiation really wasn't my specialty, but right now I was really the only one that could do this. Humans had no clue what Pokémon were saying and right now I was the only available translator that knew both the languages of humans and Pokémon.

It was crazy to think this one Pokémon was ripping Erana apart, and I could tell it was getting well past the point where nonlethal options were going to be struck out and they were going to have to put this thing down. Geez. As soon as I ran out of the helicopter, I was racing on all fours and feeling the wind in my fur.

While Blitz glided overhead, I ran through multiple streets that were ravaged by this thing, still trying to get used to running on all fours. Still, as I looked at the ravaged streets around me, I could only think one thing. Just wow. I was surprised they hadn't put it down already. When you really factor in for the benefit of the greater good, keeping this thing alive wasn't worth truckloads of dead people.

I ran through the devastation until I got eyes on the culprit itself.

Asleep.

I wasn't sure what they did to it, but it seemed to have worked. Of course, I'm sure whatever sedative that was working on it wouldn't last forever, but with this many people here, this would probably be handled in time.

"Looks like... we're late," Blitz told me, happy the problem was solved, but a little disappointed we weren't really the heroes this time.

"Guess we're not going to find out what provoked this big guy after all," I sighed, hoping maybe we could have figured something out.

Blitz looked around, gliding to the rooftops to get a better view and assess the damage. He then swooped down and rejoined me as I was just chilling in the streets.

"Can't really say for sure what was running through the Mamoswine's head when it was doing all this," Blitz shrugged. "Probably scared. Lost. Has no clue what humans are and what these cities are all about. Everyone probably felt like a threat to the guy. Probably just wanted to go home."

Hmm, seemed like a plausible theory, but I wouldn't know for sure. Still, no one knew how to control these rifts. These Pokémon were stuck in this foreign world and had no choice but to live with it. But like Blitz said, everything was strange to them. They were away from their families and friends, had no clue where to go, and they were homeless, hungry, and totally out of their element.

I'd probably be thinking the same thing if I was dragged to wherever they came from in the first place...

[K'sariya]

(( quick post, will be turning NPC medic over to you for whatever you wanna do, Noble! ))

Camellia Estrada & Ajani the Venusaur
Avalon Apostles
Erana
Affected RPers: Noblejanobii Shruikan



The powder races toward the Mamoswine on the remnant breeze from Kayla's Air Slashes, followed up by her own Yawn. A USF individual approaches her, and both she and Ajani cast a glance over to him. Camellia's stance is firm, perhaps somewhat guarded, and Ajani's half-moon eyes don't leave him as he moves. He quietly asks about how long the beast will sleep for.

"Long enough," comes the answer, dry but still managing to be affable. "Should be able to get your own tranqs in underneath the fur." They both watch him as he walks away. The woman's eyes eventually drift to around them, to the rubble and the injured, and she sees Brent on the ground, with Koyla hovering over him. She gives her Venusaur a pat and they run over.

"Oh, *****, Brent," she murmurs beneath her breath as soon as she nears enough to see the pale red of a bloodied bone protruding from his arm. She crouches beside him to take a look, then looks over to Ajani, who has stepped forward with his hulking mass to give the wound a distant but inquisitive sniff. They needed someone to set the bone, and that wasn't her area of expertise. She stands again to wave over a medic. A man dressed in green with a medic pack sees her, and then begins to run over.

[Neo Emolga]

Nathan "Neo" Winterfield (As a Ninetales) + Blitz the Emolga
Avalon Apostles
Erana
ARPers: N/A

Unfortunately, we weren't going to figure out the real reasons why the Mamoswine attacked. Not until it woke up and right now, I didn't think we were going to be around for that. But for now, while the powder kept it asleep, they were going to apply additional sedatives to make sure this Mamoswine wasn't waking up until it was probably in a maximum security cage that could hold just about anything. So in other words, a huge, government underground vault that only certain people had access to. And I could so easily bet I wasn't on that list.

"So what now?" Blitz the Emolga asked me, shrugging with a disappointed look in his eyes.

"Still need to find that Ninetales, but she can be anywhere," I sighed. "Oh yeah, and I need something to bargain with. Heck, I could find her a million times but it means nothing if I don't have something she wants."

"Heh, yeah, she'll just tell you to buzz off and enjoy your curse!" Blitz chuckled. "So, any ideas about what she might want?"

Something valuable enough to undo a 1,000 year curse? Beats me. I had no idea what she wanted. And if I tried asking her, I highly doubted she would cooperate. There was only one thing that came to mind.

"I think the only thing she'd be interested in is a rift to head back to where she came from," I told Blitz.

"Yeah, but... you don't have that!" Blitz countered, looking surprised I would even mention that. "No one has that. You might as well suggest giving her a magical lamp with a genie that grants wishes."

He had a point. The only other ideas I had were kind of evil and involved trapping her, blackmailing her, and doing all kinds of other grizzly stuff to fork over a way to get this undone. Nah, I wasn't the type to do that, but that did put me in a tight spot with trying to come up with appeasement ideas.

And then I thought in another way. Maybe if I couldn't send her home, build a home for her right here. I mean, I had the finances for it. Well, all that was earned when I was still human, but I could use that money and make something nice for her. Exactly how she wanted it and where. Maybe that could get this mess undone. I just had to find her now and ask what her dream home would be and if that was enough to get this curse undone.

Or, well, the other option was to just get used to being a Ninetales from now on. I mean really, if this was my life now, it actually wasn't all THAT bad. But, I preferred not getting too used to it.