[RP] Journeymon: Blackout

[NuzlockeLover]

Jackson
Rustburo City
ARPer's: None

"Yeah.... I'm going with you Alex...." Jackson said quietly, "You coming Kronos?" "Scizor..." Kronos said, walking out the door with Jackson. As soon as they walked out the door, Jackson's PokeNav rang. He looked to see who was calling, but all it said was- 'Unknown'... He answered the call and nervously asked, "Hello?". The person on the other line said in a voice he could barely understand, "Why did you take my PokeNav.... I'm coming to get it back right now..." Then the other person hung up with Jackson's face frozen in fear of what could be coming. "I'm not sure what's coming, but I'm not sure if I want sure I want to know, how 'bout you Kronos?" "Sci-zor..." Kronos said shaking his head. Jackson gulped, as he wondered what could be coming, he didn't like the possibilities... "Let's go Kronos...." "Sci," Kronos said putting his claw on Jackson's shoulder. "You... you want me to stay and fight?" "Sci," Kronos told Jackson nodding his head. Jackson nodded his head in agreement. "You're right, fight all battles like they're our last...

[Saraibre Ryu]

NPC: Unknown
Rustboro
ARPer’s: Sieses [and who Sieses is bunnying], NuzlockeLover, Grassy_Aggron and Velocity

The weight on the girl’s chest was starting to cause her pain. Her aggressor wasn’t letting up, and was slowly leaning more and more on her foot, waiting for the girl to just give up. All the while her Nidorino was being spun in all kinds of circles by her Dusclops. The pair of people behind her kept watch, and that’s when one of them noticed something coming towards them from down two blocks. They poked at their leader’s shoulder, who was dwarfed by them in about a foot and a half in height.

“Hey Kelly, there are people coming this way…”

The woman, identified as Kelly, looked up and saw spots of people in the distance. She grabbed another Pokeball, smiling all the while as an Arbok appeared in a flash of light. His purple scales bore scars of past battles, but he seemed to wear them proudly as trophies of past victories. The piercing eyes on the snake leered forward, seeing the motion ahead of them as the bodies of humans and Pokémon began to become clearer. Kelly stood, a foot on the girl while the girl and her Nidorino were given a moment to breathe. Even Kelly’s Dusclops had stopped spinning his victim in circles to see who was approaching them.

“Mancer, Poison Sting please. Just a warning shot.”

The Abrok grinned, lowering his head and aiming carefully. Rather than a spray of toxic needles, Mancer had another idea. He saw a device in one of the trainer’s hands that looked quite troublesome, and sought to get rid of it quickly. With a blindly fast motion, a single, narrow and lavender needle passed between his fangs, hitting the PokeNav and shattering it into pieces.

“Good boy Mancer.” Kelly patted his head affectionately. “I’d stop there if I were you people. This isn’t any of your business, this is Wake business. Mancer here gave you a well restrained warning so you all can go back to your… whatever it was you were doing.”

Kelly didn't quite get the answer she wanted when her Dusclops was thrown aside by an Air Slash attack, giving the Nidorino the break in concentration that he wanted to escape. Unfortunately, the Arbok was much faster than predicted, and slammed a tail on the backside of the Poison type, holding him up with a tightly squeezed tail. He looked up quickly and hissed while Kelly saw something white heading right for her. She snapped her fingers, but was forced to side step off of the girl she was standing on, letting her break free and run off away from her pursuers. She stopped when she was a good bit away from them, needing to her her Nidorino back.

"Okay, that wasn't fun." Kelly said, avoiding the brunt of the attack but having her arm awaiting a future bruise. "YOU TWO."

The other two grunts shuddered, a Grumpig next to one of them who was too slow on the draw, and an Electabuzz owned by the other.

"S-sorry Kel-"

"Sorry doesn't CUT IT. I expect you to have a Protect up when I SNAP FOR IT."

The other two whined in response. Kelly turned back to the girl she was chasing motioning to her Arbok. "I've still got your Nidorino, and just because Mancer can't watch him slowly rot to death, doesn't mean he can't suffocate him."

"Grind..."

"As for the rest of you, no one gets to hit Nightshift like that and get away with it."


GM Note: NuzlockeLover, you didn’t obtain the PokeNav in an Inventory update, therefore losing it was a consequence for not following the Inventory Update rule. Please avoid finding things you aren’t awarded next time. Also other people would like it if the posts that were involved with their characters that affected yours were a bit more acknowledged too. ^^



NPC: Unknown
Slateport Beach
ARPer’s: Death’s Spook, DesperadoBRT

The male caught the key as it was thrown to him. He pocketed it quickly as his Tentacruel stared at the pair of them. He sat down on the jellyfish’s head, relaxing a bit as the pair of them didn’t even know what the Wake was. He looked back, seeing the sun was starting to peak over the horizon again. No doubt the other half of Hoenn was awake by now, and somewhat alive.

“Well if you don’t know what the Wake is, you don’t seem to be one of ‘em.” He started. “They’re a group of people trying to rework society back into Hoenn, but some of them have their own ideas about it. Not much more than that, other than at night, they sure like to keep a curfew. Sure, getting help against some of them would be nice, but they aren’t too fond of being out in the unpredictable ocean.”

He seemed to think for a moment, as if getting an idea of some kind. “I don’t need help with them right now, but I could use help with something else. You said you wanted to get use out of the key, so you could come with me to the Abandoned Ship down a good hour swim away from here. Ocean’s colder these days so you could ride my Lapras if you want. I know water Pokémon that aren’t to be messed with and your Azumaril fits that bill nicely. As for you there with the Wigglytuff, I figure the pink guy has some skills that could help. If you want to come along that is, I’m not one for forcing people to do what they ain’t feeling up to.”

He waited for an answer. “No tricks or anything. Mow-D and I swear it.”

“Cruuuulll…” The Tentacruel moaned.

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

Jin Leix
Route 113
ARpers: N/A

Jin took his first steps on the ash-coated route. The ash from mount chimney, cool and snow-like, flew down from the mountain onto this route quite often. The ash wasn't blinding, but the omnipresent coat made it difficult to have plants grow. On the other hand, the volcanic soil was also very healthy for the plant life. It was a double-edged sword for them, Jin supposed.

Jin kept his eyes peeled for any signs of movement. What would happen next-if anything happened next-would be based on whether a person or a Pokemon was what turned up. A person might be anything from a bandit to a very, very needy person, but typically the results were the same for Jin-a fight would break out and the other guy wound up dead. Or Jin, but Jin obviously hadn't died yet. A Pokemon might indicate a person nearby, which would lead into the same outcome, but on the other hand, it could be a wild Pokemon instead-which meant it could quickly become a part of Jin's team. Having multiple Pokemon exponentially decreased the chance of his death. They were also friendly company, which was hard to find in a world like this, especially from other human beings.

Percival followed closely behind, ready to alert Jin of any minds he figured out were in the area. Jin liked Percival's telepathic abilities-albeit they could easily be blocked from reading too deep, even by non-Dark types, just knowing minds-and henceforth, life-was in the area at all was enough to change a whole situation on it's head.

<"So, how far will we go?"> Percival asked.

"Maybe the end of this route, maybe a bit of the way into the north end of route 111...It depends." Jin thought.

<"Good, that Pokemon Center is a place I want to see again in the near future."> Percival responded. He did love how his injuries were almost instantly healed by those marvelous machines of theirs.

"As do I, Percival, as do I." Jin thought. That place could-and probably would-save lives.

You don't stray from what could save your life.

[Grassy_Aggron]

(What do you mean possibly Velocity? Her character attacked you, I'd say she's very much involved XD)

Grassy_Aggron
Enja Niir/Jade
Rustburo City
ARPers: Velocity, possibly Sieses (and bunnies), Nuzlockelover, and NPC

Araceli had her obvious hesitation when she suggested they split up, and it made sense. They had just met, and they were trudging off to battle - so she was nervous she would flee. But she wasn't, and it appeared her Pokemon reassured her because she agreed to it. Araceli then instructed her to follow close behind before taking off, which was a bit more difficult considering that they had to pick their way back down to the floor. As they did so, she formed a quiet plan with her Pokemon. She had good coverage moves, but there was still both terrible weaknesses to Ground Type and Fighting Type moves.

<We have cover from Asteria with those. It will be fine.>

Right, that was true. Plus Jade had a move to deal with Ground Types...But in any case, as they got closer, they ducked behind shrubbery that, in this case, Jade's unusual coloring actually helped their disguising. Enja peered through the shadowed leaves just in time to watch an Arbok spit a needle at an item someone else was carrying, destroying it. In addition to that, she heard something about the Wake. The name seemed vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn't focus on that as Asteria slashed the Dusclops allowing the Nidorino to escape while the trainer had to sidestep, allowing the girl pinned beneath to flee. Only, she stopped once the Arbok pinned the poor Poison Type once more.

So what she gathered was the Nidorino's name was Grind, the Arbok - Mancer - and Dusclops - Nightshift - owner was Kelly, and the leader. The two thugs had a Grumpig and Electabuzz. Enja's mind wasn't too worried about Mancer and Nightshift, and even Grumpig wasn't too much of a threat for her partner. But Electabuzz could be, and against Asteria, it could be a death sentence.

She kept her voice very low, and with the noise the others were making, knew she couldn't be heard. "Jade, we're going to wait. If she can get that Electabuzz over here without it knowing..." She saw Asteria and on her back, Araceli. Grabbing twigs that had fallen, she spelled out "Lur Electa here", not having the needed amount of twigs present and not willing to break any off the bush in case that sharper sound was heard. Araceli probably couldn't read the relatively small text, but Asteria, being a Flying Type, had sharper eyesight and as a result, hopefully could.

<What do I do then?>

Quietly, "If it is near the bushes...You're going to use Head Smash." She noted her Pokemon wince a little. "I know...It will...probably knock it out and...kill its trainer. If it doesn't - and I hope it doesn't - it'll leave it incapacitated. A smart trainer will withdraw." Although she had to question how smart its trainer really was.

[VeloJello]

Jade Araceli.
Devon Building.
ARPers: Grassy_Aggron (Enja), Sabi (NPC), Sieses (Alexei and Perry), NuzlockeLover (Jackson).

Adrenaline thrilled through Jade as Asteria pulled out of her dive. The Togekiss wheeled over Rustboro, staying decidedly out of range of all but the most accurate attackers. It seemed that their assault had only been partially successful - while the girl had managed to break away, the Nidorino had merely exchanged a Dusclops captor for an Arbok. That alone was frustrating but easily remedied; the real problem was that the other two Trainers had released their Pokemon. Jade could see a Grumpig standing at the ready, but the real concern was the Electabuzz hovering at the edge of the group. Asteria could deal with Ice types and Rock types just fine. However, Electric-types were a different story. Typically they hit hard and fast, and Asteria had no moves suited to countering them. Jade's mind reeled as she tried to think of a solution.

<Jade.> Asteria's voice was calm and composed. <Enja wants us to lure the Electabuzz toward her. She's in the bushes on the left side of the road, behind the Trainers.>

There was a plan that Jade could latch onto. Fortunately, the Electabuzz was already somewhat close. "Okay. We need to piss him off so much that he won't start spitting out lightning bolts. Circle back, start pelting him with Aura Spheres, and then get past the bushes. Don't worry about power, just get them out. And if Electabuzz gears up for an electric attack, don't worry about me; just dodge and dodge fast." If they were going to complete this rescue, they would have to conserve energy.

A blue glow formed around Asteria's body as she gathered power. Jade could feel the energy crackling around her, and she bent low over Asteria and tightened her grip as the Togekiss sped up and dropped down to go on the attack. A hail of cyan fireballs rained down from her mouth as she went through her bombing run, all of them concentrated on a single electric ape. Even amid the wind and speed, Jade could feel the tension in her companion's body. She sympathized; one wrong move and they were positively dead. Fortunately, Asteria's reflexes were excellent, and there was no one else in the world with whom Jade would trust her life.

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

(I asked Sabi on this: Pokemon have a few minutes or so to live if their Trainer dies-during which time a Trainer can make it a part of their team-before Blackout kills the Pokemon.)

Jin Leix
Route 113
ARpers: N/A

Jin had hiked for about thirty minutes now before he stumbled upon, well, any civilization whatsoever, really. It was actually surprising to see a house out here. Moreover, the house was only missing one wall-it's roof and other three walls were intact, sheltering it from the gentle rain of ash.

Jin rubbed his hair, shaking ash out, and put on his hoodie so he wouldn't have to deal with it. Percival took an even more battle ready stance-that place was safe and empty in and of itself, but it's nature made it the perfect bait for a trap. Jin, however, didn't go any farther than he did: that would be investigated on the way back, he decided. Finding a Pokemon-maybe-was his primary concern.

Jin started to head into the tall grass, remembering the days when Pokemon were practically packed in any grass taller than one's waist. Granted, he never got far with capturing, aside from an Abra. All the others were beyond his ability to obtain: his Abra, named Lester, had no moves to attack with outside of Teleport, so all Jin could do was throw PokeBalls, which they always broke out of. Granted, he got better luck once Lester evolved, but that was the start of the Blackout riots: He needed Pokemon. And now they were all dead. Percival was the reason he lived today, in fact.

The battle he lost Lester, his only Pokemon and a fully-grown Alakazam at the time, was in direct confrontation with the leader of a small gang who liked hoarding food in Mount Meteor. Jin got lucky in that battle-a rival gang attacked the bandits, forcing the Leader to fight alone while his underlings dealt with the raid. Unfortunately, his opponent wielded a Houndoom, and Lester's attacks were Energy Ball and Psychic. There was almost no worse match-up than that. Lester was mortally wounded during the battle, a minute or so from fainting when it happened. Upon the realization of the fact, the leader was too busy gloating over Jin's imminent death to realize that A), Blackout did not kick in until the Pokemon was actually unconscious, and B), killing the leader himself would work equally well. Jin threw his only knife at the leader, which thankfully landed the pointy side in. That in and of itself wasn't lethal-it hit the leader in the side. Jin was a thief, not an assassin. Fortunately, he and his Houndoom were too shocked to prevent Jin from kicking him off the cliff he stood against, killing him from the fall. That did not kill the Houndoom immediately, to his dismay, and the Houndoom seemed enraged enough to not think of just joining Jin and saving both of them, so Jin returned his fainting/dying Lester and ran like hell towards the battle, hoping that he could take a Pokemon off an unlucky combatant before Blackout could take him.

As it happened, the leader of the rival gang-who also died to a cheap attack-was handling a Gallade. Percival, specifically. Percival, upon realizing he needed a new trainer or he'd be visiting the grave a little sooner than he'd like, took his master's PokeBall and reached out to contact a new trainer. Jin responded, running towards the Gallade like his life depended on it-because it did. They fortunately met, and Percival managed to take on-and take down, thanks to a lucky hit-the pursuing Houndoom. Jin and Percival (mostly Jin) tried healing Lester, but Percival knew no healing moves, and Jin lacked items to heal with. Percival's presence for those few minutes was enough to secure Jin's life before Blackout took Lester. Lester the Alakazam had said his last words to Jin and Percival via telepathy, each in private. Jin heard Lester's simple request to stay alive for him and to not be sad about his passing. Jin assumed Lester's last words to Percival were about protecting Jin, though Percival never confirmed exactly what he said.

<"You're crying.">

"Huh?" Jin said, rubbing his face. Sure enough, a few tears were there. He had mostly gotten over Lester's death-it wasn't the first he had, though it hit closest to home.

<"Best keep looking around for that new partner we wanted, rather than waste our time thinking about what happened before, eh?"> Percival said. Percival was a more...Upbeat Pokemon. Granted, Jin guessed that it probably hit Percival harder to have his master killed than how Jin feeled over Lester. To a Gallade, loyalty to one's master was everything, and the life of the Pokemon was inferior to the life of the master. To let him or her die-to fail to protect him or her-was equal parts shame, guilt and betrayal. Jin never saw Percival cry, though, or show any remorse over it. Jin assumed he did it while Jin wasn't looking-no weakness in front of his new trainer.

Percival was right, though: Best to move on and look for that new partner.

Jin started walking towards the east again, into the thick grass.

[NuzlockeLover]

Jackson
Rustburo City
ARPer's: NPC

As soon as Jackson was about to put the PokeNav away, a needle hit and shattered. "What the-" He looked around and saw two people in the distance. There was an Arbok over there as well. 'That must be what fired the needle at me...' Jackson tapped Kronos and told him to look where he was looking. When Kronos saw the trainers he narrowed his eyes at them and lifted his claws up menacingly. "Kronos. Get ready to attack..." "Sci." Jackson climbed on to Kronos' back and whispered to him to jump towards the trainers when he gave the word. They waited for a couple minutes then Jackson whispered, "Now. Go." Kronos jumped and, with the help of his wings, was able to jump all the way over to the other trainers. The two other trainers turned around astonished. "What's the deal with firing Poison Stings at people hm...?" Kronos got into a fighting stance to get ready to fight their Pokémon. Jackson got ready to fight as well. They were ready. They had to protect their friends. Their family. They had to protect them....

[Death's Spook]

Derek Chase
Slateport Beach
ARPers: Desperado (Quinn)

Derek's smile grew wider and warmer,"We'd love to help! At least, Athena and I would. We've been keeping near water because it's easier to get food if we run out. But we were kind of hoping to get Rustboro. How about you take us there after you're done?"

Athena grumbled as there there was nothing more she would desire than to literally open this guy's neck and see what worked inside. Derek shot her a quick Look, and she subsided. There was a bounce in Derek's step as he moved towards–

"Hey, what's your name, anyway? I already know your name, Mow-D," Derek said to the Tentacruel before turning back to his trainer,"but you haven't given me any reference to use for you other than 'me' and 'I', and for reasons I hope are obvious to you, I just can't use those." He said the last one with a laugh lurking near the surface.

[SpinelWolf]

((Bunnying permission given by Dragotech))

Spinel
Slateport North Gate
Affected RPers: Dragotech, The Operator

When the three entered the gate it shouldn't have been a surprise that there wasn't anything useful immediately visible to them. Spinel broke away from the two to look around a bit, Rayner walking close behind her on all fours. During her travels she had trained herself to look more closely at things, trying to find hidden little treasures no matter what it is. She honestly didn't think they'd find much since this had to be a main route for other trainers. However after moving some rubble around she found a piece of paper with faded text.

"Found something," she said, taking the paper in her hands. "Looks like a set of numbers, but I can't make them all out."

"What are the numbers you can read?" Kyle asked.

"8-2-4 3-7," the young woman replied.

"I wonder what the numbers could be for," the Typhlosion mused, knowing that humans used numbers for different things. Codes, phone numbers, and locks are the most common things that numbers are used for in his experience. Now it was just figuring out what the other numbers are and what they could be used for.

[Sieses]

Alexei Stratos and Perry Sterling (Bunnying Rights)
Rustboro City Streets - Combat Zone
Affected RPers: NuzlockeLover, Grassy_Aggron, Velocity, Saraibre Ryu

“Yeah...” Jackson said, “I’m going with you, Alex...”

Before they got very far, though, the man was distracted by a PokéNav that was somehow working (maybe a stray blast from Chloe?) but Alex didn’t wait up for him. There was a fight going on, and Alex wouldn’t be deterred from involving herself in it.

Perry seemed to decide to follow as well, with his rodent taking it’s place on his shoulder. He didn’t speak a word, though, and Alex took this as a plus. Neither of them knew where the assailants were, so they couldn’t take the risk of giving away their position before they knew where the enemy’s was.

Unfortunately, when they first got a view of the lot, the leader of the group of thugs seemed to notice them first anyway. Quickly an Arbok was sent out and launched a poison sting towards them. It was aimed more towards Jackson, though, so Alex made no move to stop it, instead deciding to be ready for any further attacks.

She regretted this when none came, and the PokéNav in Jackson’s hand shattered.

“I’d stop there if I were you people,” the girl in charge said, and Alex felt a shot of irritation burn through her at the words. “This isn’t any of your business, this is wake business. Mancer here gave you all a well restrained warning so you all can go back to your...whatever it was you were doing.”

Alex didn’t even need to attack the woman to vent her frustrations, for an Air Slash attack collided with her Dusclops, throwing it to the side. To make the situation all the better, the trainer was forced to dodge as her own assailant - a Togekiss - lunged directly at her. She even tried a similar finger-snapping trick to Alex’s, but it did nothing at all, and she started to vent her frustrations towards her subordinates.

Alex used this pause to her advantage.

“Perry,” the girl said in a command voice that bode no arguments, “could Chloe repeat a similar flash to earlier if she wanted to?”

“Yes,” the man said with a nod. “It’s what we normally do, when we’re in danger.”

“Right then. I want you two to get hidden and when I snap my fingers five times,” the girl started as she demonstrated what she was talking about, “I want her to do it, alright?”

The two stopped to stare at each other for a moment before turning back to Alex and nodding. The dark skinned girl was quick to wave them off towards an alley off of the street, and they were quick to head there.

Turning back to the battle, she saw a sight that was both incredibly brave and incredibly stupid - the Togekiss was attacking the Electabuzz that one of the grunts had sent out. Alex could see the strategy - take out the grunts and the leader will be easier to deal with - but couldn’t she have taken out the Grumpig? Killer could have easily dealt with the Electabuzz!

Then again, Killer could also take out the Grumpig easily enough.

“The Grumpig, Killer,” Alex said simply, and her fingers snapped three quick times with practiced precision.

A ghastly purple energy started collecting in the hellhound’s mouth, and it quickly spat the Shadow Ball attack out at the pig. That wasn’t enough to satisfy Alex, though, and with a twitch of her head and three more finger snaps, Killer was launching a second Shadow Ball at the Dusclops.

“What’s the deal with firing Poison Stings at people, hmm...?”

Alex turned to Jackson to see that he had sent his Scizor towards the two grunts, but she was too hung up by what he had said to acknowledge that. The Blackout had been going strong for five years, and yet this man didn’t know how it worked yet...?

“This isn’t the time to wonder about such things,” was all the girl said, in the end. “Focus on the battle for now.”