Gotta Catch Em' All: Platinum Version (Open!)

[Lychee]

Trainer Palila Rae
Location: Route 203
Team: Dartrix (25/25) Staravia (17/17) Prinlup (25/25) Wingull (25/25)
Partner Pokemon: --
Items: 3x Pokeballs, Pokedex, Journal, Sketchpad, Poketch Plus
Points: 50 (+1 from posting -50 from evolving = 0 ) Posts: 28

While Dartrix had been out the whole walk from the restaurant, since the explosion, Palila had thrown out all her pokemon.
This was the point. Pokemon training was for protection. To protect people.
This was part of why she started her trainer journey.
The pokemon seemed to feel this, and while the smokescreen was around, kept their wings still but puffed themselves up bigger, ready to intimidate.

Levelling up Dartrix
Level 17 --> 25 (16 points)
Points Remaining: 34

Levelling up Wingull
Level 20 --> 25 (10 points)
Points remaining: 24

Levelling up Prinplup
Level 16 --> 25 (18 points)
Points remaining: 6

Levelling up Staravia
Level 14 --> 17 (6 points)
Points remaining: 0

The air swirled with energy, and her pokemon seemed to grow a little tougher, harder, more determined.
With a beat of huge wings, the smoke cleared. A huge black charizard. An absolute monster.
And that energy that seemed to be in the air? With a flash of light, that energy caused a MEGA EVOLUTION.
"Oh... thats a .... thats.." Palila and all her pokemon looked up at the huge creature that had landed in the group.
It roared. Her pokemon wilted, and shot her a glance.
"...We can't beat this!!"
Part of being 'streetwise' meant that she knew when it was time to get the heck outta dodge.

[Lychee]

Trainer Palila Rae
Location: Route 203
Team: Dartrix (25/25) Staravia (17/17) Prinlup (0/25) Wingull (0/25)
Partner Pokemon: --
Items: 3x Pokeballs, Pokedex, Journal, Sketchpad, Poketch Plus
Points: 1 (+1 from posting) Posts: 29

Palila clenched her fists, and looked over at everyone else in the group. Things were not going well, and it didn't really seem like anyone else wanted to battle either. However, Amy had stepped up to the plate. She bit her lip, and looked down at her team.
"Okay, who volunteers to fight this monster? And who volunteers to go beat up the trainer?"
Her team turned to each other, and split neatly down the middle.
"Alright! Go Staravia, Dartrix! Swift through the forest- check on people and find someone whose butt we CAN kick!" She pointed them into the forest and up the path- away from the Charizard, towards where the initial blast had come from. They took off with all too much enthusiasm. Palila breifly wondered if they would ever come back, or if that was goodbye.

Looking accross to Amy, who had finished her battle and was now hiding behind a rock wheezing something encouraging, Palila stepped forward. If nothing else, there was some value in being a distraction.
"Right, Wingull and Prinplup, its time to go toe to toe!"

Opponent: Mega Charizard
Attacker: Wingull
Opponent's HP: 341
Attacker's HP: 25
Opponent's remaining points: 296
Attacker's remaining HP: 0

Opponent: Mega Charizard
Attacker: Prinplup
Opponent's HP: 296
Attacker's HP: 25
Opponent's remaining points: 251
Attacker's remaining HP: 0

Palila returned her two tired birds to their balls, and looked hopefully up the path.
"C'mon, c'monnn...." She couldn't see anything yet, so she looked around at the group of trainers.
"We need more time! Someone else needs to battle, while one of us calls the cops!"

[Lychee]

Trainer Palila Rae
Location: Route 203
Team: Dartrix (25/25) Staravia (17/17) Prinlup (0/25) Wingull (0/25)
Partner Pokemon: --
Items: 3x Pokeballs, Pokedex, Journal, Sketchpad, Poketch Plus
Points: 2 (+1 from posting) Posts: 30

Palila watched as Neith let out her pokemon, then Marina. She felt a surge of pride towards everyone who was standing up and battling, but then her gaze shifted to those who were not.

Kinnie was...gone? Drake was fussing over Sophie, along with Tony. Neither of them were helping the battle, and both of them seemed overly concerned about a single burn, when they were all about to get annihilated.
"You're not going to get instantly better! Soph's not going to die from it- but we are ALL going to be boiled if you don't get into this battle! Drake,Tony, Sophie, you better ALL get into this fight So Help Me Gyrados!!" Palila shook her fist at them from across the clearing, channeling her angry mother.

Oh, and then there was Cody, who had sent out one single pokemon. It was amazing, to be fair, but for some reason he also got his other pokemon to pin Sophie down. What the farfetched?? Palila glared daggers at him. Holding someone back in a time of such dire need was a foolish thing to do--
And then WHUMPH
With a great gust of air, Palila found herself with her cheek to the dirt.

----

Meanwhile, Dartrix and Staravia had been hurriedly swooping through the underbrush, searching for the source of the shot (along with Kinnie).
They didn't spot him- but they did spot her.
Being used to hunting prey in the forests helped them to hone in on the tiny movements she was making. The two swooped silently along through the trees, Dartrix almost moving like a ghost. And then, out she jumped- and they swept through the air behind her, breaking into the clearing again with a screech.
Claws outstretched, they flanked either side of Kinnie, ready to attack whatever it was that she was attacking.
They may not have been her pokemon, but they were on her side, and they were on a mission.

[Lychee]

Trainer Palila Rae
Location: Route 203
Team: Dartrix (13/25) Staravia (9/17) Prinlup (0/25) Wingull (0/25)
Partner Pokemon: --
Items: 3x Pokeballs, Pokedex, Journal, Sketchpad, Poketch Plus
Points: 3 (+1 from posting) Posts: 31

With a screech, the birds Palila had sent were flung from the air.
Thump.
They landed beside her in the dirt, and retreated into their Pokeballs.

Palila looked blurrily around, roused by the noise- she saw Kinnie get caught too, and heard the crunch of being punched in the head. This battle was rapidly getting out of control.
There was a slight noise of rocks, and Palila tilted her head.
Over to her left, and also on the ground, Amy seemed to be wheezing and having an asthma attack.
William was standing near the man, saying something.
There wasn't enough time to see what everyone else was doing.

Palila put her hand to her wrist, very slowly, hearing her own heart pounding in her head almost louder than the ambient noise. William was threatening something, saying something important? The assailant began a speech about crushing Pokemon, and vaporizing people.
Into her Poketch, she typed with as little movement as possible.

Help
R 203
Ambush
//send to all

Unfortunately, she had never used a Poketch to send a message before- only to receive.
So, she had clicked the most obvious button.

Her eyes flicked up instantly, as everyones Poketch's suddenly went off.

[Lychee]

Trainer Palila Rae
Location: Route 203
Team: Dartrix (13/25) Staravia (9/17) Prinlup (0/25) Wingull (0/25)
Partner Pokemon: --
Items: 3x Pokeballs, Pokedex, Journal, Sketchpad, Poketch Plus
Points: 4 (+1 from posting) Posts: 32

"So TAKE the SHOT"

Palila watched with horror as the spindly 11 year old boy shouted. Marina clung and pleaded, Drake appeared out of the bushes and decided that now was the time to finally start fighting, but he was so ineffective that the man didn't even acknowledge him at all.

And then, they all witnessed murder.
The corpse on the ground was smoldering, letting off a horrible plasma/flesh smell.
Palila felt her stomach flip over, and bile rise up in her mouth.

"If you don't like these kids, we will take them off your hands..."

Palila's first instinct in most emergency situations was to act- breaking down was something to do later. She kept her mouth tightly shut.
Now was not the time for words.

She ran forwards, towards the horrible smell, towards Marina, who seemed to be next in line. Palila could hardly bring herself to look down at Williams corpse. Her brain was not ready for that reality yet.
Feeling as if she was in some kind of numb dream, Palila grabbed onto Marinas uninjured wrist, using Neiths grotle as cover. All her muscles were in overdrive- no pain, seemingly needing no air, maximum strength with every move.
It was the same vice-like grip Marina had just used on William- the same fear in Palilas eyes, if Marina looked at her.
But this time, they knew there was no point in pleading. She yanked Marinas wrist to the side as hard as she could, hopefully pulling Marina onto her feet and having the two of them break into a stumbling run towards the treeline.

As Palilas vision swung around, she was vaguely aware of a pokemon flying near Amy, protecting her, and Kinnies grotle still trying to rouse her trainer. Neith seemed to be shouting at her porygon too, but Tony was standing there like a stunned magicarp. Palila made a note to slap him on the way past to snap him into action. Sophie was nowhere to be seen- stashed away in the bushes.

We are going to die
We are going to die
We need to get away
We are going to die

[Lychee]

Trainer Palila Rae
Location: Route 203
Team: Dartrix (13/25) Staravia (9/17) Prinlup (0/25) Wingull (0/25)
Partner Pokemon: --
Items: 3x Pokeballs, Pokedex, Journal, Sketchpad, Poketch Plus
Points: 5 (+1 from posting) Posts: 33

Palila was relived to have Marina jolt into action- dragging her the whole way would have been much harder. As it was, she felt as though she was watching herself in third person perspective. She could hardly feel the thump of her feet against the ground, or the breath in her chest. Even the sounds in the scene were dulled, coated in a blanket of shock. They were running, but now they both had their backs to all their enemies.
Palila just hoped that the grotle was still blocking the way.

As the two girls ran for cover past Tony, Palila reached out to smack him in the cheek. At this point in time, she probably didn't even realize she was angry. She did it from a blank face of total serenity. Slapping someone was such a mild form of aggression compared to what they had just witnessed. It was nothing. It was the only thing she could do. It seemed the most logical way to get him to pay attention and run. She vaguely noticed her hand feel tingly from the effort.
If it made him cry, well, that was too bad.

Just a few more steps, and they would be able to dive behind trees or bushes.
From then on, she would let go of Marinas hand and hope that everyone else knew to scatter like rabbits.

[Lychee]

Trainer Palila Rae
Location: Route 203
Team: Dartrix (13/25) Staravia (9/17) Prinlup (0/25) Wingull (0/25)
Partner Pokemon: --
Items: 3x Pokeballs, Pokedex, Journal, Sketchpad, Poketch Plus
Points: 6 (+1 from posting) Posts: 34

Palila had her back turned as all hell broke loose in the clearing. She heard the cannon firing again, the shouts and screams of grunts, and the roar of not only charizard, but some other horrible monster. She shot a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure nobody was aiming or even looking at her, and then took off into the trees.

She ran towards Jubilife, remembering that had been the plan. Surely a city would be slightly safer than out here.
If nothing else, there are more targets to hit, other than me She thought to herself, and instantly felt sick for having the thought. Some kind of survivors guilt was playing at the edge of her consciousness, but she didn't have the mindspace to think about it.
As she ran, she began to notice noises of the other kids running through the bush too- the easiest ones to hear were heavy footfalls from Renny and Matthias, who were each carrying a girl.
Palila raised her eyebrows, surprised that the unmuscular, unathletic Renny could carry the not exactly waif-like Amy. Equally surprising was that often-on-his-own Matthias was carrying a team Galactic grunt- the same people who looked like they were holding him hostage not long ago.
Well, maybe team Galactic had pumped them both full of powerful growth hormones and empathy or something.
She could also hear Tony, who probably wasn't used to this much running, and Sophie, who seemed to be struggling with her arm but was capable of keeping pace with the main group. The others might have been there, they might not. From where Palila was, she couldn't tell yet.

After an hour of running, they seemed to be slowing down enough.
Perhaps it was time to regroup and see who had made it out.
"How far to Jubilife? Do you think he's chasing after us?"Palila asked nobody in particular, still stuck in short sharp emergency sentences mode.