Clydus 'Corkscrew' Lomata
Neutral
Ruined Cipher Laboratory

Clydus was pretty much a Nomad at this point. He didn't exactly have any set patterns or anything, just places safe and sound from the conflict and all the factions.

In a sense, they were all a**holes. Cipher was the biggest one by far and away, but he saw the recruitment attempts by the Organization to be about as much of a deathtrap as waltzing onto Cipher HQ, and the Mt. Battle folks are a secluded bunch who probably wouldn't accept Corkscrew...And for that matter, it was his goal to get away from Orre and to the more fertile lands of Hoenn. He honestly would like to see the war over with and peace restored, but Clydus was not a soldier, not a fighter, and dislikes the idea of killing others. This place was living hell, and everyone with a brain knew it. You either stood your ground for a faction, which would make it somewhat LESS of a living hell, or you get out of here completely, and Clydus liked the second choice better. The second choice meant none of them could get at you for their recruitment into a war that would inevitably end well for only one faction. In that sense, even the general good-guy-ness of the Organization and/or Lab (they couldn't decide on a name) was quite dampened by that. Really, Clydus saw no option but to escape.

He had to keep moving-Cipher, though brutal, was eager to get him on their side, and Clydus was not joining any side of this bloodshed. He was just looking out for money, food, and a way out. Orre was surprisingly lacking in airports, and the trek to the nearest region that wasn't Orre was death incarnate, barring if you were a champion or the like. Then it was only incredibly daunting. By Clydus'es standards, sea routes were the only way out.

Sadly, only a few kind of Pokemon could cross the sea-four, in fact. Kyogre was a legend, so that was out already. The major predators-Jellicent and Tentacruel, the bane of all boats-would ironically keep the others at bay, as they would consider Clydus their prey, and let the duo pass to their 'territory.' Lastly, Wailord, which was just too big to stop. Everything else invariably died to the massive swarm of predators coming at their a**. The one issue with the entirety of that plan was that those Pokemon were basically never going to show themselves to his face for his control, apart from an ally. The only other option? Grab a ticket for a boat out of the region. War be d**med, Gaeton port would get you anywhere-at a cost, and it was one he couldn't pay as of current.

So, really, finding enough money to go to Gaeton port was his best and only option. Thus far.

He pulled out a Poke Ball, and sent out his best and oldest buddy and friend in the whole wide world, Caliox the Hippopotas. He wondered why he never evolved the thing-but then again. Caliox didn't find himself in too many fights, especially after Clydus obtained Brutaeus.

"Caliox, we'll be moving across the Desert. I'll need a Sandstorm rolling before we go anywhere." Clydus said to Caliox. It didn't respond outside of nodding to Corkscrew: the poor thing was mute.

The Sandstorm deterred people from crossing him like nothing you could ever believe. Sure, all the people had crazy supernatural powers, but a surprisingly small amount of them dealt with dissipating a simple sandstorm. It had a surprising effect on powers-several people he met literally attempted to blast him to oblivion only to die because the projectile hit a piece of airborne sand and exploded immediately, or the shots themselves whittled in strength on the way to Clydus, making hits survivable. For a region where deserts were everywhere, you'd think they'd have a lot of stuff to deal with it, and you'd be right, but it was a force good enough to screw with powers like nobody's business. Granted, eventually he'd meet someone with control over the wind or something like that, and then it would backfire in his face, but until then, he was good. Time to leave this broken lab.

The ruined Cipher Laboratory...It was much more calming than it sounded. Very few people went here-this time, he was alone whist he slept. He hardly considered it a base, but his nomadic travels led him here several times in the past, and he's not seen any signs of territorial Shadow Pokemon-at least not in the past. He's still kept an eye and an ear out for those things. Nearly had his crotch bitten off by a Shadow Trapinch once, owned by a trainer attempting to purify it. The loss of his crotch was a fate narrowly adverted by sheer luck, and he'd rather not repeat it.

He started to move on. He knew of a nearby oasis that had several berries and whatnot for him to eat, which was typically what he did. He needed to save up that money for the trip to Hoenn. He originally spent money to get food at one point, but he started to avoid civilization entirely once the 4th cluster was reported to be in Phenac city-AKA, the new Cipher HQ.

It was a shame, really. The boost in Parahuman power Cipher got from that really screwed with his hopes the war would be done early due to the heavy Parahuman lean on the side of the Organization. But he was not interested in helping the war effort anyway. For either side.

He hoped he didn't get found by some 'random bystander'. They had a habit of being a**holes, Cipher-related or no.

...

Harold 'Ditto' Jackson
The Organization/The Lab/Whatever it wants to call itself
Agate Village

Ho-hum. Another day working for the Organization. Or the Lab.

Honestly, if he was in charge, the first thing he would do is make sure it had an official name to clear all doubt, rather than having two equally applicable names. He's seen utterly no preference from anyone he's spoken to on the matter. Rather weird.

If this was some odd attempt to confuse Cipher, it was failing spectacularly. It would take someone particularly simple-minded to not notice they were one and the same.

Regadless, he hadn't ACTUALLY been called to duty yet. You could say he really wasn't working for the Lab, not right then and there...So he was currently digging his nose into a book, instead. Making some use of his time. Any good spy/recon person knew about where he was, where he would go, and basically, everything he could about the locations he would visit, or was already visiting. In this case, he was reading up on Agate town. To be more precise, he was reading about the odd stone pillar in Agate town.

Recent events-the first two occurrences of Cipher's attempt at takeover-have led many to believe it could cure the Shadow Condition from a Pokemon-which is otherwise irreversible by a human hand, even if they could come as close as possible to getting a Shadow normal. It was quite a powerful artifact, though rumor also had it that it was losing said power. Granted, it was mostly irrelevant at this point: The power it had inspired those purification machines who's name he forgot, so it didn't really matter if ONE purification method was lost, when the other was basically everywhere. CIPHER probably had a few of those fancy machines in case they made a mistake when making their Shadows. Didn't seem illogical.

The real kicker was who supposedly did the work: Celebi. Guardian of Time and Light. Supposedly, playing the correct flute with the correct tone at the statue would summon Celebi to do some deed, but only once-the only evidence that there was any relation to either at all.

The kind of power Celebi wielded would be a great boon for either side-Cipher OR Organization. It was incredibly powerful on its own, so it was inevitable that at least a few lunatics who believed in that nonsense would try to seek it out. Cipher would probably twist the thing into a Shadow itself, which would probably lead to a Pokemon who could instantly make other Shadows, mind control thousands...So on and so forth. Generic evil organization stuff. The Organization, on the other hand, would probably put those supposed purification powers to work, and basically use her (Celebi was highly rumored to be a girl) to remove one of the bigger advantages Cipher has-Shadow Pokemon. That would almost instantly turned the tide-Cipher's kind of audience typically included people that needed the kind of boost Shadows give to cover up for a lack of mental faculties. Remove their key source of power, and Cipher was basically doomed.

Of course...Harold didn't believe in stuff like that. They were myths and Legends. A lot of people CLAIMED to see them, but not one piece of evidence. Even the so-called Shadow Lugia that Cipher apparently managed to make was subject to a lot of rumor, and ultimately never made it on any media. It was likely the Legends simply didn't exist, or were abstractions of powerful Pokemon: A lot of people confused Arcanine for Entei due to sheer similarities, for instance.

It was still interesting though: if not powered by Celebi, then what gave the stone its powers?

It was confusing to the Dropout Aethist that was Harold, but he didn't really think too hard on this stuff. He just decided to keep on reading.