[RP] Spiritwater – Tides of Witchcraft

[Neo Emolga]

AGATHA
Manager Office, Thrifty Megamart, Akala
Affected RPers: @Desolate Divine

“You wouldn’t dare!” Willow shouted at Nicodemus. “What the hell is wrong with you!?”

Willow’s shouting could be heard throughout most of the Megamart, and it was definitely enough to get Agatha’s attention. She had confronted the two of them, wondering what had caused the commotion.

“Tell me this is something important,” Agatha growled at the two witches. “Details. Now.”

“Through my ongoing research, I have discovered a means to accelerate the Netherclysm spell,” Nicodemus hissed with a smile. “Additive reagents, to be precise. Very rare, but very effective.”

“And what are these reagents?” Agatha asked, taking an interest in this proposal.

“Eon blood, specifically,” Nicodemus flashed a gnarled, toothy grin. “The blood of Latios and Latias combined. It would resonate well with the nether energies the spell needs to feed upon. Their blood, the vital fluids of brother and sister legendaries… would be a banquet, my liege.”

Agatha then looked to Willow and could understand what the commotion was about. She knew Willow happened to be the trainer of Latias, and she was especially fond of her.

“How much sooner would this accelerate the spell?” Agatha asked, wondering what Nicodemus had uncovered in his research.

“At least a whole day…” Nicodemus smiled. “But we would benefit more the sooner it is added to the Netherclysm’s feast…”

“This is insane!” Willow shouted in dismay. “I’m not going to hurt my own Pokémon to bleed. Especially not Latias!”

“Barely a sacrifice,” Agatha countered in a firm tone, losing her patience. “You draw out as much as Nicodemus needs and nothing less. Pokémon exist only to battle, and they’re no strangers to bleeding. Draw it out in the apothecary room and stop wasting time about this.”

“But we don’t even have Latios with us,” Willow replied, trying to justify her lack of compliance. “Don’t you need both of them? This could all be for nothing!”

Agatha’s patience with Willow was growing thinner and she already despised the fact she questioned her judgment and authority. Normally, Willow had been compliant and obedient throughout most of what had transpired, but this was a major deviation from the traits that Agatha had liked about her. Now, her lack of cooperation was becoming a serious problem.

“We already know Latios is here,” Agatha growled at her. “And with him is none other than Jon Drake. Aaron and his scouts had spotted him during the attack in Heahea.”

“Indeed, I had been made aware of this as well,” Nicodemus grinned. “I wouldn’t have brought it up otherwise if I didn’t think it was possible to get our hands on his blood.”

“You really expect to get Latios’s blood?” Willow asked, thinking that was absurd. “Jon would murder you if you tried.”

“Oh, I welcome him to try!” Nicodemus laughed maniacally. “I do. I most certainly do. But he is just but a simple man. Now, prepare the bloodletter. I have something I need to take care of first, but I’d better see you in the apothecary once I’m done. Because, as you well know, human blood has its uses as a reagent, too…”

Willow bowed down and nodded, although miserable and regretful about what this was driving her to do. As Nicodemus shambled away back into his chambers like a zombie walking, Willow sighed and made her way to the makeshift apothecary that had once been one of the back storerooms. She had decided she had already taken a few bad steps to getting on Agatha’s bad side and she really couldn’t afford to deviate much more if she didn’t want to be branded as a traitor.

Once she had stepped into the apothecary, Willow’s nose was immediately assaulted by a plethora of strange odors from the many vials, flasks, and bowls of herbs, oils, and other bizarre reagents placed upon the shelves, tables, and workbenches. The dusty and poorly-lit room was filthy from all the use of reagents and lack of etiquette in cleaning up. With a heavy heart, Willow had taken Latias’s Pokéball, primed it for release, and summoned the Eon Pokémon before her. Within seconds, the red and white draconic jet-shaped Pokémon suddenly materialized from the white light. She levitated above the ground, looking at her surroundings to see the unkempt apothecary around her.

Normally, Latias was a happy, cheerful, and optimistic Pokémon, but lately things had been hard for her. She was happy to see Willow, but the look on Willow’s somber and regretful face said this wasn’t a happy occasion. Normally, Latias wouldn’t peer into Willow’s mind out of respect for her privacy, but now she had a bad feeling…

<Willow, what’s… what’s going on? This place is a mess.>

She could hear Latias speaking to her telepathically, like they had communicated several times before.

“They need your blood,” Willow told her, being as up front and as honest as she could be with her. “Turns out it’s a powerful amplifier reagent for the one big spell they want to cast.”

<Netherclysm, isn’t it…?>

“Don’t let anyone know I told you about that… please…” Willow whispered, checking over her shoulder to make sure no one was within earshot. “They’ll kill me if they found out. Or worse. But yes, they need your blood… and your brother’s blood. Latios.”

Just the mention of her brother’s name got her on the alert, but then… she felt a presence. She hadn’t sensed it before while she was in her Pokéball, but now that she was outside of it, she could sense him… nearby. On this very island. She then looked back to Willow.

<Exactly how much blood do they need?>

“I don’t know…” Willow muttered, looking downcast and almost in denial this was happening. “It sounds like… they want a lot. Everything they’re doing is all for this spell and from what I’ve seen, no sacrifice is too great…”

<We should just go. Forget this place and let’s just go back home. There’s something wrong with all of this!>

“I know, but we can’t leave…” Willow replied, shaking her head. “They’ve entrapped everyone on the island. If I run, I’m dead. I swear, I never should have come here…”

Latias felt terrible about the whole situation, but she knew it wasn’t Willow’s fault. She had remembered the way Willow described this whole excursion, and at first it sounded like a way for Willow to learn and amplify her Shadowcraft powers. But now it had taken a very dark turn, and cutting ties and getting caught would be fatal. But at the same time, Latias knew they couldn’t stay here. Even if she wasn’t a psychic Pokémon, she could just sense this place was brimming with dark, unholy ambitions, the kind that Willow was not expecting to have to deal with.

Instead, Latias had closed her eyes, sensing through the expanse of space. Her connection to her brother was strong, and now… she needed his help. More than ever. It didn’t take her long to pinpoint his location once she focused on her psychic power.

<Latios… brother, if you can hear me, please. I’m here… and we need your help. They’re…

…they’re preparing something truly horrible, and… it involves me… and you…>

---

Triad (The Diamond Ladies)
Meeting Room of Eon Squad HQ, Eon Squad Villa
Affected RPers: @Desolate Divine @Shruikan @Chakramaster

After Jimmy and his Pikachu had arrived, Jon had started the meeting with a strong opening that he didn’t want anything confidential to leave this meeting. Already, they had suffered numerous casualties, and there was still possibility that some of their darker secrets could be compromised if things weren’t taken seriously. The whole time, Cassandra was hoping people would take her seriously… even if she was dressed as a giant Butterfree. At this point, with the whole festival having gone to hell, she wouldn’t mind wearing something else…

Jon had covered what his team had been doing, getting to the details regarding the curses and the hybrid left behind by Brianna. Upon a closer investigation, Jon had revealed that it seemed Brianna was following her own motives, not allied with the League or with Agatha. The matter of getting her help was a question, as Jon was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

“As much as I hate leaving a potential threat like her unchecked, if it means we can deal with the confirmed threat with less casualties, then I think we focus on Agatha for now, and deal with Brianna when we absolutely have to. We won’t tell her a damn thing, but won’t bite that hand either…” Steven said, “That’s assuming that the page references she gave are actually helpful?”

“Only Triad can answer that, and I will let them do that when they share what they have found out.” Jon explained, “Dylan Squire and Abbee Strauss are assigned to investigate her, and Dylan already has some solid leads, so I will leave that investigation with them.”

“Triad?” Jon asked, as he took a seat, “What did the pages say? What do we need to know before we plan our next move? And what do you need from us?”

“Yeah, we looked into this,” Cassandra replied, trying to pretend she wasn’t in costume. “Page 216 of the Zeketh tome goes into details regarding a spell called the Expavescimus Charm. It redirects spells back at the one who casted them. The reagents aren’t too difficult to get, either. That simply requires a broken mirror to be ground up into dust and mashed-up feathers from an unevolved flying Pokémon. The three of us figured those should be easy to acquire as well, as Wingull feathers are easy to find on the beach and should suffice for the spell.”

“The other spell mentioned on page 384 is called Luxum Patibatur, a curse that causes the victim to hemorrhage energy,” Cassandra further explained. “Reagents for that include human blood, ginger, and paint thinners. Should be relatively easy to acquire. Now, the method to turn these two into a hybrid, which the three of us never delved into before, is known as a Simul spell, which needs ashes of burnt paper. Before that paper is turned into ashes, it needs to have two overlapping handprints in red ink. All this together leads up to a hybrid spell that would not only redirect a spell back at the caster, but it would also make them bleed out their energy.”

“Sounds pretty brutal,” one of the other attendees replied. “Would be nice to see them get a taste of their own medicine. If every one of us was protected by this…”

Cassandra nodded, knowing that while that was the case, it wouldn’t be the knock-out punch they were likely hoping for. To her, it almost seemed too easy, and she knew that while Agatha was evil, she wasn’t stupid.

“It’s a start,” Cassandra replied. “You could take out several of Agatha’s followers with this if every one of us received this before we attacked them, but they would catch on and would know what to be on the lookout for. Once they find out what they’re dealing with, dispelling it would soon become standard protocol, so it has to be a supplement to other strategies and we need to be dynamic in how we handle this.”

“As in other hybrid protective spells?” Cynthia asked.

“To an extent, yeah,” Cassandra nodded. “Having ‘defused’ a hybrid spell myself, they’re tricky to disarm and it bears the risk of setting off one spell as you try to disarm the other. On a good day, a good six or seven of Agatha’s pawns will get wiped from this. The others will see these redirects happening and will hold their fire until they’ve been able to identify the reason and come up with possible countermeasures. But it would likely still mean we’d have to face their Pokémon while they try to discern the means to disarm this hybrid and work around it.”

“And you don’t think it would take them a while to figure it out?” one of the attendees asked.

“It could, but it’s like having a Pokémon team of only fire types or only water types,” Cassandra explained further with an analogy. “You can’t have everyone bearing the same strengths and weaknesses.”

It had led up to another question. And as Cassandra thought about it, while she didn’t trust Brianna, this hybrid spell was a starting point and was a piece of sound advice that they needed to go deeper and get creative. She had to think of other possible combinations to use with Simul and use those against Agatha and her followers. Instead of everyone having the same protection, she felt diversifying the protective spells and wards would keep Agatha and her followers guessing who was protected with what. Wasting precious time trying to discern what protections their enemies had and then scramble trying to undo them would cost them precious time and would make them lose the fight.

“Right now, reagents are the big challenge,” Cassandra told the group. “Diversifying is key, but we can’t go overboard to the point where we need mountains of reagents. So my thought is having this protective redirect spell be one among five that we can use the next time we confront Agatha. As for the other four, we’ll need to delve into the books to come up with some useful options for this situation. What I thought might also help is varying the nature of our attack.”

“As in…?” Steven asked, wondering where Cassandra was going with this.

“Some of us can attack as human trainers,” Cassandra proposed. “Others, those who are a bit braver, can be transformed into Pokémon and attack on that front, leaving Agatha and her followers guessing who is the trainer and who are the actual Pokémon. Not to mention there are far more spells made to transform humans than there are spells to transform Pokémon. And then there’s other transformations and traits that can be utilized. For those who are really brave open to the idea, preemptively transforming someone into say a pixie, a lycanthrope, or a mermaid, for example, complicates things for the other side. It forces one transformation spell to have to overwrite another. Sometimes that’s possible, sometimes it’s not, or sometimes it can be difficult and doesn’t take the first time. Given, a number of us have already been hit with spells like this and haven’t been cured, yet. Quite frankly, it’s better to keep them on if they’re bearable enough and you can still move and fight with them. It’s very easy to transform a human and most of these spells were made to do just that. But if they’re already something else, there’s a solid chance the spell may fizzle trying to transform a human when the target is not that at all.”

“This sounds bloody crazy…” One of the operatives muttered.

“I’m not denying that,” Cassandra replied. “I’m not even expecting most people to be open to some of these extremes, but I’d rather survive as something outlandish and inane to better our chances of winning this battle than be killed as a human in some horrific and unnatural way like some people experienced this afternoon. Besides, I wouldn’t transform anyone into something that we can’t undo later. This is all temporary until we’ve won. But it’s your choice, and I don’t even mind providing a list of options once we’ve worked out what we can do with reagents that I think can be within our grasp of obtaining without too much trouble.”

But with that said, Cassandra knew it was, at best, still a proposal. She could see from the looks on Steven’s and Cynthia’s faces that they weren’t so sure about this, but they weren’t about to trash the whole idea as it could very well be the least costly option, especially if everything they would do would be dismissible once the war had been won. Ultimately, Steven decided how best to react to this.

“I might need to see your list of what all of our options are, first,” Steven replied before settling on this strategy. “I’m hoping this doesn’t require us to go to extremes… but we’ll do what we must do…”

Cassandra could understand his thoughts as she knew this was something they had never considered before. But she knew that if they wanted to win against someone who could do what was once thought to be impossible…

…they would very well have to go to extremes…

[[Desolate Divine]]

Latios
Above Eon Squad HQ
Affected RPers: @Neo Emolga

Creative License with Neos Permission

As the meeting happened, Latios resumed sentry duty, remaining invisible above the villa, ready to reach out to Jon if anybody approached with nefarious intentions. Whilst people could disguise themselves, their emotions were on display for him. Whilst it wasn't an exact science, as not any angry person meant harm, the different mixtures of feeling people displayed to Latios allowed for educated guesses. Someone displaying anger and contempt together was liable to be a danger.

"Latios… brother, if you can hear me, please. I’m here… and we need your help. They’re…

…they’re preparing something truly horrible, and… it involves me… and you…"

Latios jerked around, looking everywhere for the source of the voice in his head. The voice was feminine, but he didn't have a sister... At least, not one he knew of. Whilst Latios didn't keep track of time the way humans did until he met Jon, Jon estimated that Latios would be roughly twenty years old based on his size and, as Jon put it, 'maturity or lack thereof'. Fourteen or so of those years were with Jon, and at a guess based on Latios' size in his own memories, Latios left Southern Island two years before he met Jon, though he couldn't remember why. He didn't remember a great deal of the first four, give-or-take years of his life. Only really learning to communicate with telepathy in the last four years, he learnt that most creatures, people or Pokemon can't remember their early days. But he'd know if he had a sister?

The presence in his mind lingered for a second as the message faded, and Latios had a sense of familiarity, and now that he was having it, he recalled having that same sense many years earlier in a tournament, distracting him and losing the battle.

Feeling the consciousness that had scraped his own start to fade, Latios used his own telepathy to jump on it, trying to strengthen the link, and figure out its source. Jon would not approve of such a risky manoeuvre during a mission, as it could be a ploy from Agatha, however he knew it wasn't. He had felt this sense of familiarity well before Agatha was in the picture, and there was no way she could have mimicked it so perfectly...

As Latios dove into the consciousness, the familiarity grew, as he suddenly remembered something from before he left Southern Island, as well as experiencing someone else's memories, causing pieces to come to together.

He was still small, barely even two feet tall, sitting alone under the shade of a tree on Southern Island, trying to stay out of the storm that was billowing outside, and stay dry himself. However, more important than that, was the white and red egg, a little under a foot tall, he huddled around, trying to keep it warm.

Latios didn't know his mother. She had left long before, as she knew her time was nearly up. She had told the native Pokemon of Southern Island her story, and the cruel luck of Legendary Pokemon. The reason those that can breed are still so difficult to find. Very rarely can they reproduce, it usually taking years, and when they are able to, it usually took too much of a toll on them to live much longer. Because of this, most Legendary Pokemon grow up alone, with no parents, and the cruel cycle continues.

He had hatched a year earlier, and been told by the other Pokemon what became of his mother. Laying not one but two eggs took all the strength she had, and not wanting her offspring to hatch, only to find her decayed body, she left. The Pokemon presume she died somewhere in the ocean between Southern Island and the Hoenn mainland. She had left one other message.

"Look after each other."

Latios was the first to hatch, and hear the story. He stayed by the egg, only leaving when absolutely necessary, until two years later, the egg hatched, bringing Latias into the world. From then, the pair were inseparable, as only they truly understood each other.

The next two years, they both grew, Latios reaching four feet tall, and showing a natural talent and creativity for psychic abilities, limited only by his own physical strength he harnessed to use them. Latias was three feet tall, still too young to be able to use these abilities, however starting to learn how to refract light, to change her appearance to anything she wanted, at the time though, she only knew the Pokemon on the island. Whilst they could both fly, Latios quite quickly given his age and size, leaving the island wasn't possible. Latios could potentially make it to land before needing rest, but Latias wouldn't have been able to make it.

This however all changed, when Latias heard strange noises coming from the beach of the island, early one morning...

"I'm telling you, my source is legit, there is this gem that is supposed to be on this island. They call it the Soul Dew?"

Latias couldn't understand the voices, however was curious, wondering if new Pokemon had arrived on the island. Latios was still asleep, and not wanting to disturb him, she made her way towards the noise, curious to see what Pokemon had found their way here, and how.

She made her way out of the home her and Latios had built in the trees, and found three, strange looking Pokemon, nearly twice her height, and standing on two legs. She had only seen flying and water type Pokemon on the island, so this was new. They all looked slightly different to one another, which was odd for Pokemon, yet still all seemed similar.

She cried out, greeting them, catching them by surprise.

"Is that... A Latias?" said one of them "I heard rumors they were here, but didn't think it was true..."

"She'll fetch a better price than any gem..." said the other, as he slowly moved his hands to his waist, "Go get the net from the boat..."

Feeling uneasy, Latias slowly backed away, however the strange Pokemon noticed, before throwing a strange object in front of her. It exploded, revealing a black Pokemon with yellow markings the same size as her. It had red eyes, and looked at her intently.

"Mean Look." Said the stranger, causing the four legged Pokemon in front of her to glare at Latias. Suddenly she felt paralyzed, as if she were too terrified to even flee, as the other stranger returned with a large metal tube, before pointing it at her.

There was a boom, as both the strangers staggered, as if shoved by an invisible force, as a white and blue blur darted out from the trees, tackling the four legged Pokemon in front of her.

She felt the presence of her brother in her mind, telling her to flee, but she couldn't.

"Just our luck, there is one of each, and they're too young to do any real damage..." Laughed the stranger who summoned the black Pokemon.

"Surrender..." said the black Pokemon, before darting towards Latios. It slammed into Latios knocking it back, as Latios prepared to lift it using his Psychic abilties, however the Pokemon seemed unaffected.

"Quit wasting time, and capture it!" Said the stranger to the one with the tube, who pointed it at Latias. A moment later there was a bang, as Latias found herself trapped under a weighted rope.

"Brother!" she called out. Latios looked back in horror, before taking another hit from the black Pokemon. Roaring in anger, Latios lashed forward with insane speed, gripping his jaws around the black Pokemon's neck, and forcing them shut, as a loud crack pierced the air.

"Umbreon!" Said the stranger, "You'll pay for that!"

Latios turned to face both of them, tossing Umbreon's limp corpse towards them, his eyes beginning to glow. This time he focused his telekinetic abilities into a smaller area, instead of spreading it in every direction. He had learnt the neck was the weak spot on the black Pokemon. Maybe it was the same with these strange Pokemon.

The stranger with the tube saw Latios, quickly darting behind a nearby tree. The other wasn't fast enough. Latios focused all of his psychic power into a concentrated blast, aimed at the strangers neck. There was another loud crack, whilst the stranger was blasted backwards, alongside his Pokemon and thrown off the edge of the island.

Fatigued from the psychic attacks, but not willing to give up, Latios darted to the other stranger who had emerged from its hiding place, and mauled it between its neck and shoulder, causing one of its arms to go limp. It screamed in pain, before smacking Latios hard over the head with the metal tube, knocking Latios unconscious.

Latias watched as the stranger threw Latios to the ground.

"He is too much of a liability to bring along... Caused too much trouble..." The stranger said, "But you, I think you will behave yourself..."

The other Pokemon of the island had already fled, and as the stranger gathered the net that bound Latias, tying it off and taking it back to the boat it used to arrive, Latias could only cry out desperately, hoping her brother would wake up and rescue her. She continued to cry as the boat departed, leaving Latios alone on the island.

Latios awoke hours later, alone on the island, with no memory of anything that happened before. He was too young to understand that this wasn't normal, nor was there anyone around to tell him. He knew he existed, and was on this island, but nothing more.

Over the coming days, Latios felt drawn to the sea north of the island and what was on the other side. He eventually found the courage to leave the strange island, and see what was on the other side. Eventually he reached it, finding it full of other Pokemon, and strange creatures that they called humans.

After a few close calls due to Latios' ignorance, being saved by the local wild Pokemon who understood something was wrong, they informed Latios of how special of a Pokemon he was, and that humans would want to capture him for no other reason than wanting to have a special Pokemon. If he wanted to survive, he would have to avoid humans. And he did just that.

The next two years were spent wandering Hoenn, learning about the world around him, and avoiding humans, as almost any he was unfortunate enough to run into would try and capture him. And whilst he wasn't opposed to being friends with a human like some Pokemon did, he certainly didn't want to be friends with one who only wanted him for some sort of status he held, and had no choice in whether or not he held it.

After two years wandering the Hoenn mainland, Latios met a strange human. He was being attacked by another Pokemon, under the orders of their human friend, when another human intervened, allowing him to escape. The human who attacked him was angry, but the human who helped didn't seem to care. He barked back just as ferociously until the first human left.

Latios wondered if this was the sort of human he wanted to be friends with. Curious, he watched the human from a distance, however he was unsure if this human wanted to be friends. Maybe he just wanted to help and that was it. In order to be sure, Latios came up with an idea. Latios would let the human see him, and point towards where the island he came from was. That way if the human did want to be friends, he could come find him.

Latios tried it, before returning to the island, waiting to see if the human would arrive, however he didn't. Latios returned to the mainland, trying to find this human, and when he did, did the same thing. He pointed to the south, where the island was, crying out, before flying towards there. He waited and still the human didn't come. Latios wasn't sure if the human just didn't care, or was dense, so tried six more times, when finally, the human arrived at his island. However, he had one more test for the human. He wanted to be friends with someone strong, and the human had to prove it.

And he did. The human proved his strength to Latios, who then let the human capture him in one of their strange capture balls. That was how he became friends with his now best friend Jon.

Latias on the other hand, was taken by the human, and when they reached the mainland, locked in a cage. Her psychic powers hadn't manifested yet, and eventually the human gave her to another human, in exchange for a black case that the other human seemed to want very much.

The human she had been given to lived in a large house, out the back of which was dozens of glorified cages, each containing fake mementos of the original homes of the Pokemon inside them. Whilst she hadn't seen most of the Pokemon, she came to understand that they were rare. Their coloring was different, or they were a type that only lived in certain places. And a couple of them, the human said were like her. Legendary.

She was placed in a cage, where she would spend the next two years. She grew, and soon after learnt how to use her Psychic abilities, as well as mastered the ability to turn invisible, or make herself appear differently, however the grounds outside the cages were patrolled by Pokemon that were trained to fight, and she knew she stood no chance of defeating them if she had to.

The time in the cage was made slightly better by the friend she made in the cage next to hers. It was a Charmander, which according to the other Pokemon there were uncommon, but not enough to justify this. Not that anything could justify it. However this Charmander was black. Being prisoners together, the two developed a strong bond. However as time went on, the light in Charmander's eyes dimmed slowly and slowly with each passing day. Eventually, Charmander stopped getting up in the morning, just laying in the same place it had slept, not wanting to talk to or see anyone. Until one day, Charmander just didn't wake up. It had just lost the will to live.

Latias realized at this point that if she didn't escape, she would die like Charmander. And if she did, she would never see her brother again. So she planned an escape.

By the time she reached that point, she had become strong enough in her psychic abilities to destroy the lock containing her, however didn't. She couldn't escape the Pokemon guarding her, and didn't want to give away the fact she could break out until she knew it was possible. She had also not let any of the Pokemon guarding her see the illusions she could create in her place.

The Pokemon that guarded her weren't treated much better. They slept outdoors, rain, hail or snow, which worked for her. She waited until she could see one struggling a lot in their sleep, having a nightmare. She pressed her consciousness against its own, and began to see what scared it, taking note of it.

After this, every night for weeks, when that Pokemon slept, she would press herself against its consciousness, and force that same image from the nightmare. When it was finally time to enact her plan, she waited for that Pokemon to be the one guarding her cage, before using her ability to change her appearance in the eyes of those around her, turning her into the monster of that Pokemon's nightmare, before blasting the cage door open.

The terrified Pokemon fled, as she darted through the door, seizing freedom. She wanted nothing more than to try and free the others but knew she couldn't do this now, and would just get caught if she tried. Instead she promised herself she would return one day, and free the other Pokemon there.

Latias returned to the island, however found it empty. When she arrived back in the mainland, she made herself appear human, and tried to track down Latios. It took nine months before she did. She was in the city the humans called Lilycove, when she felt the familiar presence of her brothers mind. She followed it into a stadium, making her way through the crowds to see Latios, now nearly six feet tall, battling against an Incineroar. Behind Latios at the end of the field was a young man in his late teens, directing Latios, as he fought the Pokemon opposite him.

Latias, still disguised as a human, walked through the stands, going to the seats closest to the human directing Latios, which were empty due to being in Incineroar's firing line. Whilst she wanted to wait until the battle was over, she had already waited nearly three years, and couldn't wait a second longer. She reached out to Latios' consciousness with her own, seeing Latios jerk at the contact, and swing his head around, looking at her, though the emotion he felt, and the look on his face showed he didn't remember her.

Suddenly, Latios was hit hard by Incineroar, knocking him back towards his trainer. He groaned in pain, and tried to go back into the battle, before his trainer spoke up.

"I resign." the trainer said, "Latios is hurt."

Latias hadn't noticed the harsh bruise that had already manifested where Latios was struck by Incineroar under the wing.

"You alright?" she heard the trainer say to Latios with a gentle voice, "What happened out there?"

Latias watched, realizing that Latios had found someone he was safe with. He seemed genuinely happy with this trainer, and was now safe from people capturing him to be part of a collection, or worse, part of a private zoo...

Latias left, listening to the commentator refer to Latios' trainer as Jon Drake, taking note of the name. She wanted to be able to know he was okay.

Latias travelled Hoenn, trying to find a safe place to call home. The island was empty after the disaster that had occurred there, and she didn't want to live in isolation, away from other Pokemon. Within a few weeks she found a place to call home in the depths of Meteor Falls, where she remained undisturbed for a few months.

However, one day, she heard the sound of footsteps in a nearby cavern. Human footsteps. Remembering the last time this happened, she froze with fear, unable to move, as she saw a light coming from around the corner. The footsteps grew louder, until a human walked around the corner, and stood facing her, holding a lantern. She was in her late teens and looked shocked to see her. Latias prepared to fight, however stopped when the human spoke.

"I'm sorry, is this your home?" said the girl, "I stumbled across these caverns and wanted to explore. I didn't mean to intrude..."

Latias eased a fraction. The girl didn't stare at her with that aura of greed or possessiveness she had seen in most humans who saw her in her true form. The only other one who was the same was Latios' trainer, Jon.

"To say sorry." the girl said, pulling a wrapped sandwich from her pocket, and removing the plastic wrap. She placed it down at her feet, before saying goodbye and leaving.

Latias looked at the food left for her, and realized for the first time around a human, she felt the same way Latios must feel all the time. Safe. What if this human could be to her, what Jon is to Latios?

Latias picked up each half of the sandwich, before following where the girl had gone. When she caught up, she cried out, getting the girls attention, before handing her half of the sandwich. That was how Latias met Willow...

Willow had already beaten the gym challenge in Hoenn, however didn't get past Victory Road, instead pursuing whatever interests she had at the time. Her and Latias were inseparable, becoming even closer when Latias learnt to communicate telepathically with her.

As the years passed, Willow helped Latias keep tabs on Jon Drake, and by extension, Latios. She watched in horror at the footage of Latios seemingly attacking civilians on the S.S. Wishmaker, and breathed a sigh of relief when Jon revealed they were investigating allegations of witchcraft, and her brother was really some sort of spy doing good, and not a destructive maniac. Willow also watched these events with great interest, discovering the existence of Shadowcraft, and beginning to partake in it herself. And life was good.

Until Agatha came into the picture. A vision that Willow received, given to all Shadowcraft wielders, summoning them to Alola. Willow had gone hoping to learn more of Shadowcraft, and was now in too deep, and Latias was now also at risk...

"Latios… brother, if you can hear me, please. I’m here… and we need your help. They’re…

…they’re preparing something truly horrible, and… it involves me… and you…"

Suddenly, it all made sense to Latios. Those missing years, and that feeling of familiarity. The calling to fly north to Hoenn...

Now he just had to tell Jon...

Jon Drake, Abbee Strauss and Dylan Squier
Eon Squad Meeting Room
Affected RPers: @Neo Emolga, @Chakramaster @Shruikan

Jon was curious to know the effects of the spells Brianna had referenced with the page numbers, and hearing this, he was almost excited. Rayquaza only lost against Giratina because of a cheap shot from a witch. But with this protecting it...

This cemented his stance on Brianna. She was in no way their ally, and they weren't going to compromise their mission or safety to get her assistance. But if she kept giving them advice like this, they would take it warily. They needed all the help they could get to beat Agatha...

Cassandra began describing other plays which in theory would work, but would be uncomfortable to say the least. He trusted her when she said she wouldn't transform someone if she didn't know she could transform them back, but naturally the other operatives were apprehensive. He sighed quietly to himself at what he was about to do.

"She's right. We can have actual Pokemon who know how to fight other Pokemon holding off their Ghost Types, and have people who volunteer to become Pokemon giving hell to the witches. If their magic is ineffective, they are human, and a flamethrower will still burn them..." Jon said, before hoping his own confidence would inspire others to be willing to try something out of the box, "I volunteer to temporarily become a Pokemon. My own team are trained in how to battle without my direction, and Latios can act as a central hub for communication between myself and them. Rayquaza is an exception, but I have faith I can get it trained reasonably will if I have a little time to spend with it..."

Jon waited, hoping at least one other would volunteer as well...

[Noblejanobii]

Avery Miller & Abital Ecke
Tide Song Hotel Lobby
Affected RP'ers: Anyone still at the hotel (which I don't think there is anyone)

Avery felt their heart sink a bit as Cassandra delivered the news that they weren't sure what sort of spell Avery had been hit with, so curing them right away wasn't an option. They'd need to use a special Nox Purge spell, which wasn't possible at the moment due to how draining it was. Given they had just performed it on Jarena, they wouldn't be able to perform it again until tomorrow. It was disappointing news for sure, but not something Avery couldn't accept. "I understand. No need to strain yourselves on my account. One night as a centaur won't kill me. It'll just take some getting used to." Abital didn't seem quite as at ease with this decision as Avery was, but Avery knew this was simply because their husband lacked an understanding of how Shadowcraft worked. They'd have to explain it to him later.

Avery and Abital watched as pretty much everyone in the lobby filed out to head somewhere else. "Any idea where they're headed?" Abital signed to Avery. Avery shook their head. Even though the Triad had just mentioned dinner, they had a feeling that wasn't where they were headed.

"Let's follow them," Avery said quietly. If there was something going on, they wanted to know about it. Unfortunately, this was a lot easier task said than done. While Avery and Abital initially were able to trail behind the Triad, Jimmy, and the others, between Avery's constant stumbling due to their lack of familiarity with their centaur form and possible supernatural forces at work, the duo quickly found that they had lost the group and were now alone in the streets of Heahea City.

"So now what?" Avery asked Abital in exasperation. It seemed that for now the witch attacks had stopped so at least they could potentially enjoy this moment of respite out in the open.

Abital tapped his foot in thought before gesturing to a lone open kiosk. Avery cocked an eyebrow at Abital, glancing down at their own lower half, before looking back at Abital, causing their husband to snort. He simply signed in return, "I'm sure it's not the weirdest thing they've seen today."

"You have a point there," Avery mumbled. The newlyweds walked over to the kiosk and made their orders. It was a bit of an awkward process since the clerk didn't know FSL (Fiore Sign Language), or any signs for that matter, so Avery had to translate. While normally not a problem, when you're suddenly 7 feet tall, this means you're now usually taller than the kiosk window itself, leaving them in a bit of an awkward position as they tried to bend over to speak with the cashier. Still, just as Abital had said, the service worker didn't seem at all bothered by Avery's half-horse form. Either that was a testament to the hell of the day, or perhaps the food industry at large, but nevertheless it was a relief to be able to grab some dinner while they were here.

Taking their food with them, the duo sat down at a table near some grass. Avery wasn't exactly made to sit in a chair so they simply knelt down in the grass like they had seen Daybreak do many a time. Both spouses made short work of the sandwiches they had ordered. Neither had had a proper meal in days since the chaos started, so these sandwiches seemed like the best things ever for the time being. By the time they had finished eating, Avery had an idea of what to do next while they waited for the others to hopefully return from wherever they had gone.

"I think it might be worth getting used to moving around in this form more. Namely learning how to gallop and potentially carry you if need be," Avery said.

Based on his expression, Abital didn't seem entirely opposed to the suggestion, but he did have some questions. He quickly signed, "But if they're just going to Nox Purge you tomorrow, what's the point?"

"No offense to the ladies but..." Avery hesitated a moment before shrugging, "I don't fully trust that they're going to cure me tomorrow. They'll cure me eventually, I know them well enough to know that they'll get around to it before they disappear again. But there's something much bigger going on here right now, and I don't want to get in the way of it. This Nox Purge ritual seems to take a lot out of them, and I'd rather they conserve their energies on doing whatever it is they're planning rather than fixing My Little Keldeo over here."

Abital rubbed their chin and nodded slowly in agreement. It did seem better to prioritize people in much more dire situations. They had tried to ignore the broken statues and piles of goop they had seen on the way here, but those images weighed heavily on both Abital and Avery's minds. The girls needed their strength for the big battle, and it didn't seem right to demand they fix Avery now when presumably their condition wasn't life-threatening. The operative word there though was presumably. There was no guarantee this spell couldn't backfire in some way and potentially kill Avery somehow, which is what Abital was really worried about. "Promise me then that if you start to feel different, anything at all, you'll tell us so we can get them to cure you right away."

Avery smiled and pat Abital's arm. "Of course. We haven't even been married a week yet, you're not getting rid of me that easily."

"You sure you're okay staying like that for longer than a night though? It can't be comfortable," Abital signed.

"Bah, it feels more normal by the second," Avery responded with a cocky grin. "Besides, when's the next time you're gonna be able to say you went horseback riding on the beach with your spouse as the horse."

Abital's expression fell flat and they glared at Avery. "Not funny," they signed simply.

"Incorrect, I am hilarious. Now come on, probably better to practice back closer to the hotel where we can wait for the others to return."

Avery and Abital made their way back towards the Tide Song Hotel. Standing out in the roundabout in front of the hotel, Avery sent out the entire team. Since the majority of their team consisted of Pokemon with hooves, it made sense to learn directly from them. Abital took his seat on a nearby bench and let Gloria rest in his lap, the little Shaymin not being able to help much in this situation. They both watched in amusement as Avery tried to take directions from their team, though the process was chaotic at best.

"You need to lift up your front left leg and your back right leg at the same time!" Daybreak chastised.

"I'm trying! I'm not exactly used to having an extra set of limbs," Avery retorted.

"Just take your time," Knautia said, "You've gotten the hang of walking and trotting. Cantering is the really tough one for most young horses, and you're practically a foal for all intents and purposes. So just take it slow."

Daybreak nodded. "Come on, another lap around the roundabout," he commanded.

Avery let out a huff in exasperation and tried to canter again around the fountain, with Knautia, Mint, and Acacia following behind and beside them.

"You're doing great!" Acacia cheered. "Keep it up!"

"Yeah! You can do it, Boss!" Mint bleated.

[Shruikan]

Luneth Tarot
Heahea City
Affected RP'ers: @Desolate Divine

Before Victini could reply, the trainer had, saying that she was called Abbee, which made Luneth even more curious about her. Had she been turned into a pokemon in the past, or was she able to speak pokemon from something else? She had some many questions she wanted to ask, but she didn’t want to distract Abbee while the traveled. Who knew then they might be attacked out here? So she kept her questions for later, and focused on the journey in silence.

As the traveled, Luneth tried not to look at the remains of victims that now lines the streets. She felt sick to her stomach at the thoughts that anyone could do things like this, and terrified that it might happen again. She just spent the trip staring at Abbee’s heels to avoid having to see what had happened. As such, she hadn’t realised they’d arrived until they were at the doorstep.


Luneth Tarot & Glimmer
Eon Squad Villa
Affected RP'ers: @Desolate Divine, @Neo Emolga, @Chakramaster, anyone else at the meeting.

More people had filed into the room, Glimmer was starting to get impatient for the meeting to start. She needed to get out there and find out what had happened to-

Before she could finish the though, a familiar Alolan Vulpix had walked in with an unfamiliar girl. Well, speak of Giratina.
Glimmer barely managed to hold herself back from running over, but still walked briskly, quickly scooping the Vulpix up.
“Vul?” (“Glimmer?”) Luneth said eyes wide with surprise. “Vulpii-” (“But aren’t you-”)
“Shh, we’ll talk after the meeting, ok?” Glimmer said quietly. “I’m sure it’s a long story on both our ends.”

Making her way to an empty seat, Glimmer awkwardly sat down, taking up a chunk of space from the adjacent chairs thanks to her outfit’s wings. Luneth sat on her lap, looking to any who didn’t know like she was just one of Glimmer’s pokemon.

As the sat waiting for the meeting to start, Luneth was acting unusually subdued. Glimmer wondered what had happened to her while they were gone, but like she’d told Luneth, it would have to wait until after the meeting was done. However, she settled for nudging Luneth and motioning to her bag, whispering “pokemon” to the Vulpix.
Upon seeing it Luneth sagged with relief, though she still looked more sad than usual. At least her team had stayed safe from Agatha’s witches. She wouldn’t make the mistake of leaving them alone again this mission that’s for sure.

The meeting began, Luneth stared intently at the speakers. Determined to take in everything that was said here and not get distracted like normal.

Upon mentioned a Hybrid curse, Glimmer leaned forward with interest. She’d experimented with alterations to existing spells, but hadn’t even considered that you could fuse them together like that.
Followed by the fact that the caster of said Hybrid could cast spells without incantation and Glimmer was hooked. If this witch that was helping them, maybe they could teach her how to work Shadowcraft like that too.
However, as the kept talking, her face fell into a frown. While Brianna had helped save people, she had knowingly held back and let people die when she could have warned them. She’d have to have a really good explanation for that if she was ever going to work with her.

Next a representative of Triad stepped up. Glimmer was glad to see that she wasn’t the only one wearing an unwieldy outfit still.
She outlined what Brianna had told them. Glimmer was glad to hear that they knew how to make hybrid spells at least.

They suggested using hybrid protection spells alongside turning some operatives into pokemon as protection. Glimmer was impressed. It seemed like a solid plan. Luneth didn’t look so sold on it however, but didn’t speak up against it.

Glimmer noticed Luneth winced as Triad mentioned the victims from earlier. It had been bad enough on her seeing the remains of some of the people on her way here, but Luneth had probably seen the actual spells being cast. Unlike the other trained agents here, she obviously hadn’t got over it just yet.

After they were done speaking, the man who had set up this meeting, Jon Drake, had offered to go along with the plan and be temporarily turned into a pokemon. He seemed to Glimmer like he was used to leading people, though there was something up with the way he talked about the Rayquaza that didn’t quite fit. Sure someone like him would know how long and hard training a legendary was, yet he was confident he could do it in a matter of days, if not hours? She wasn’t going to call him out on it though, and risk jeopardizing the plan, but maybe she could ask Rayquaza themself later…

Glimmer stood next. More so that other operatives, She would be suited to this plan. She wasn’t exactly inexperienced at battling as a pokemon, having fought in many leagues by now. True, most of her fighting experience was in sky form, and with the Shadowcraft laying like an oppressive aura over most of the island the sunlight could get cut off at any moment, leaving her relatively defenceless, but it was still more than pretty much anyone else in the room.

“I volunteer as well. I’ve been under the affect of similar spells before, and I’m not afraid of them. I can probably be more help as a pokemon at this time.” Well, it wasn’t a lie, exactly. Just omitting that she naturally a pokemon herself, and was in fact under such a spell right now, just in reverse.

[Neo Emolga]

Willow
Apothecary, Thrifty Megamart, Akala
Affected RPers: N/A

As she waited, Willow tried to think of all her options. The pros and cons of everything, but nothing seemed like a good choice. Her mind kept running in circles, and her inability to decide just kept falling back on “I wish I had never come here.” But nothing seemed to suffice for an exit strategy.

Suddenly, her thinking was rudely interrupted as Boris had walked into the room through the creaky, wooden door. Boris, another one of Agatha’s witches and currently serving as an apprentice to Nicodemus, was a lanky, acne-ridden male with unkempt dirty-blonde hair, blue eyes, and pale skin. His black cloak was already a frayed mess despite having only just received it a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, a rather plump and overfed Morpeko was perched on his shoulder.

“Wha… what are you doing here?” Willow asked Boris.

“Fillin’ in for Nico, that’s what,” Boris chuckled, flashing his crooked teeth. “He’s busy, told me to take care of guttin’ your… whatever the hell her name is, for some blood.”

“Latias,” Willow corrected him. “And you’re not gutting her for anything. It’s simply a donation. I think just a pint would be enough, it’s the same amount a human would donate.”

Latias still didn’t like the idea of having blood drained, but if it helped Willow avoid trouble for the small price of some momentary discomfort, she was willing to do it for her, even though she still didn’t like the sound of this Netherclysm spell for the little she knew about it. However, the way Boris reacted to her correction did not give her much hope in terms of avoiding trouble.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Boris replied mockingly as his Morpeko also imitated a cynical face. “Does widdle Latias also wanna cute Band-Aid with little pink Jigglypuffs on it, too?”

“Don’t be an asshole, Boris,” Willow warned him. “We’re being more than generous with this. You get a pint or you get nothing.”

“I get as much as a damn well please,” Boris replied, unfazed by her warning. “Ain’t your order, either. Now step aside and shut up.”

Latias had withdrawn a bit more into the corner of the room, really not liking the situation. There wasn’t much room to move around, and already she was precariously close to knocking over shelves that held many bottles and vials of reagents.

“How much are you taking?” Willow asked.

But Boris didn’t answer as he prepared a surgically sharp metallic bloodletter rod and hooked it up to an unsettlingly large glass collection jar connected to a tube. Between that and the fact it looked like Boris wasn’t even going to apply disinfectant at the insertion site, it was more than enough to clue in that Boris didn’t give a damn about Latias’s welfare.

“I asked how much are you taking!?” Willow asked again, growing angry.

“I thought I told you to shut up,” Boris told her, approaching an anxious Latias. “You’re either deaf or dumb. Probably both. Heh, heh, definitely ugly, though.”

Guess you’ve been a stranger to mirrors, lately…

But what made Willow snap was the way Boris had approached Latias, looking like he wasn’t just going to inject the bloodletter into her, but ruthlessly stab her with it instead. As Latias’s anxiety quickly escalated to panic, Boris began to growl.

“Hold her still, why don’t you?” Boris asked Willow, annoyed that she was just standing there.

Willow used the opportunity to cast a spell, not for Latias… but for Boris himself. Boris wasn’t even caring to listen to what exactly Willow was casting and just expected her to be an obedient servant to the cause. He was more enthralled in having this dark opportunity to harvest a legendary’s blood, and prove his worth to Nicodemus for his own self-gain. He had a feeling this was an initiation task, and he had to prove himself heartless enough to deceive his own ally for the sake of the “art” as Nicodemus called it.

He, however, failed to fully deceive Willow…

Just before he had impaled Latias with the bloodletter, Boris felt his hand suddenly itch. He stopped for a moment to scratch it vigorously, but then his whole arm began to burn, followed by his leg, and then his face. It became so intense that he dropped the bloodletter, causing the deadly instrument to clang to the tiled floor. He only realized he had succumbed to a spell when it was too late…

“Erghh, what the f--k are you doing!? Boris shouted, suddenly violently raking his skin as it began to boil, bubble, pop, crack, and peel off.

“Protecting my Pokémon from soulless monsters like yourself,” Willow told him in a dark tone.

Boris’s Morpeko grew furious at this attack on his trainer, and lunged toward Willow as he prepared to sink his teeth into her neck with a rabid fury. But the fat Morpeko sailing through the air made him an easy target for Latias, who had furiously swept through the air with her claw, striking him in the back with a powerful blow. The furious strike had thrown him into the wall as a last squeal of pain and agony left his lungs upon a devastating impact, never to inhale another breath again…

He limply plummeted to the floor, rolling over once before blood pooled around his lifeless body and dripped out of his gawking mouth.

By now, most of Boris’s skin had dissolved, rendering him into a horrific abomination of blood and exposed muscle tissue. He could no longer speak, but instead simply turned to Willow, hissing, as if to suggest he would try to haunt her from the dead if he could. And then his lifeless body crumbled to the floor with his blood and vital fluids pooling around his mangled, dissolving corpse.

Latias looked at her claws, wincing a bit that she had to use them to take a life, but as her trainer protected her, she protected her trainer.

“I wish this hadn’t been necessary…”

“I hear you, but we need to get out of here…” Willow told Latias, already feeling extremely anxious. “I… have an idea, but we’re only going to get one shot at this…”

Willow then quickly explained what her plan was, and Latias had agreed. They didn’t have too much time before someone noticed Boris’s dead body. Willow was just hoping that by the time they did, both of them would be long gone…

As part of Willow’s plan, Latias let out a cry of pain, a shrill and haunting howl that carried out through the Megamart. Then, making her move, Willow headed out the door, trying to look as pale and as ill as possible. But she held the door open just long enough for Latias to swiftly exit while cloaking herself to be invisible. No one saw her leave as Willow slammed the door to the apothecary, trying to best to feign shock and dismay, although her current level of anxiety was making it rather easy to put on a convincing act.

“I can’t watch…” Willow wept. “I… I can’t watch! Why her!? God damn it, why!?”

The witches that had seen her fleeing from the room and heard her weeping were all under the same deception. All of them thought Willow had left the room in a panic, traumatized by the bloody and gruesome sacrifice of her Latias to Agatha’s cause for the Netherclysm spell. But all of them were unaware that the one who was supposed to conduct the extraction of Latias’s blood was now dead behind the closed door.

They all thought Willow was either too weak or still too loyal to the cause to have done what she did…

The whole time, as Latias deftly made her escape, Willow headed out the door of the Megamart, looking traumatized and in need of fresh air and time to be alone. It would buy her time as they all thought Boris was taking his time drawing out Latias blood, which as they knew was a time-consuming process. By the time they discovered what had truly transpired, Willow was hoping to be far away.

She had made distance away from the Megamart, using the cover of buildings to keep herself out of sight. The night sky was also helping her with her concealment. Her only problem was figuring out where to go exactly, but anywhere away from Agatha and her dark assembly of witches was at least a start.

She had lost track of Latias, but she felt she wouldn’t be too far behind and she had the feeling she may have been watching her, hidden in the sky with her cloaking ability.

Willow knew she wouldn’t be able to escape from the island, but it all came down to if she could put her life in the hands of the League… and fully betray Agatha. After she closed her eyes, deep in thought, she knew she couldn’t go back. And looking around at the atrocities that Agatha’s witches had unleashed upon innocent people and their Pokémon, what they did was unforgivable.

For now, she decided to hide at the Pokémon Center on Royal Avenue. She had taken off her black cloak and stuffed it into a nearby bush. She was done with Agatha and her band of witches…

She was about to make another dash toward Heahea, but then she turned around and saw the grinning face of a Gengar. Agatha’s Gengar.

“Garrrr…” (“Going somewhere?”) he sneered with a dark grin.

---

Triad (The Diamond Ladies)
Meeting Room of Eon Squad HQ, Eon Squad Villa
Affected RPers: @Desolate Divine @Shruikan @Chakramaster

Cassandra was a bit surprised Jon was willing to volunteer to temporarily become a Pokémon, especially considering how things were four years ago. But, she figured his time as an Altaria likely convinced him that it wasn’t so bad, had plenty of utility, and as Cassandra wasn’t afraid to admit, was actually considerably fun. Although now, it had her wondering just which one of the 894 Pokémon Jon was willing to become.

“I volunteer as well,” a voice behind her had stated. “I’ve been under the effect of similar spells before, and I’m not afraid of them. I can probably be more help as a Pokémon at this time.”

Cassandra didn’t recognize the nearly six-foot tall lady behind her, standing beside the Alolan Vulpix that Cassandra knew was Luneth. As she looked at her face and long black hair, she didn’t know who she was, but decided if she knew Luneth, she could trust her.

“Oh please tell me we’re doing this,” Jarena smiled to Cassandra with a twinkle in her eyes.

“Don’t see why not,” Cassandra replied, smirking a bit. “Plus it would solve our issue of not having real clothes at the moment.”

“We’re going to need the immunity to ghosts anyway,” Violet replied, siding with the idea since it gave her a good reason to get out of the Vivillon costume. “Considering Agatha and her followers likely target humans and the most powerful, fully-evolved Pokémon as a priority, it should give us first strike advantage in most cases.”

“Yes!” Jarena smiled. “I mean, yeah, totally makes tactical sense.”

With that addressed, Cassandra felt right volunteering as well.

“The three of us opt in to become Pokémon as well,” Cassandra told the group. “We have some familiarity with this, but if there’s any other volunteers that are thinking about this and want to know what it involves, let me know, I can go into details later.”

And then, there was another point that Violet wanted to mention.

“Offhand, before we were attacked, I was looking into where they might be possibly hiding,” Violet told the group. “Signs seem to point toward the north, but I concluded Agatha and her followers need at least some sort of base of operations, something that has been out of sight for a while. The Thrifty Megamart to the northeast may be a possibility given it was known to house ghost Pokémon that Agatha is known to have an affinity for. The other basis is that the leftover material that was left behind could be used as spell reagents. It would explain how Agatha and her followers are able to diversify in their spellcasting.”

“Given, it may not be the only site that Agatha is using,” Violet told them, avoiding eye contact with any of the other operatives. “It’s also possible she may not be using it at all. Worst case, if we secure it and find she’s not there, it’s at least one less place she could use. But at this point, it would be in our own interest to start shifting away from the defensive strategy and move toward closing in on them.”

Cynthia nodded, understanding where Violet was coming from. While it seemed having the Ladies as “doctors” was helping the operatives and civilians, it was only a temporary measure against the floods of witchcraft victims. They were going to need to shut down the main source of the problem before it kept escalating to becoming beyond something they could remediate.

“I understand what you’re saying,” Cynthia nodded. “I think it would be best if you transfer to Steven’s team.”

“And put them on the offensive line?” Steven asked, not sure about that. “If we lose them, we have no one to cure these witchcraft afflictions!”

“That’s if you lose us,” Cassandra replied. “You won’t. We’ve been through more hell than you could imagine and we’ve gotten a better idea of how these witches operate. If you really want to protect Heahea and all these other towns and tourist traps, then let’s keep them out and constantly on the defensive.”

Cynthia nodded, and then looked back to Steven.

“We can’t stick with the same losing strategy,” Cynthia told him. “Unless you coordinate an offensive drive into Agatha’s territory with this lead that Triad has given us, then Heahea will be under fire again with more people and Pokémon dead. We need this chance and to make best possible use of it.”

“Fine,” Steven replied, feeling outspoken. “But I don’t want you venturing off on your own. We can’t afford to lose you.”

“That’s fair,” Cassandra replied. “Then if Jon’s willing, I purpose a joint operation between Triad and Eon Squad to take things to the offensive frontline.”

Though Cassandra didn’t want to openly admit it, she trusted Jon more than she trusted Steven. Jon, though he still networked with Steven, didn’t solely depend on Steven and the League and put the lives of himself and his family in the League’s hands. If all went to hell, Cassandra was convinced Jon would still have an exit strategy and it would work. Steven, on the other hand, while knowledgeable in terms of Pokémon battling, knew next to nothing about Shadowcraft, and she could see it in his eyes why he was struggling with trying to organize this offensive strategy. She knew he wouldn’t step down as the offensive coordinator for this whole operation thinking he would find a way to swing this around, but she wasn’t convinced it would be in ample time and not before heavy losses were suffered in trying to learn how to deal with the Shadowcraft. She honestly felt the rest of Steven’s operatives might be better suited to support from a distance, as being on the frontlines wasn’t working for them.

She didn’t mention her past experiences working with Jon, but she felt if there was anyone she had strong synergy working alongside with, it was him…

[Chakramaster]

Jimmy Kendo
Eon Squad HQ, Meeting Room
Affected RP'ers: @Neo Emolga @Shruikan @Desolate Divine

The members continued to discuss what needed to be done. Between the witches and anything else important. That included Brianna. A witch that seemed to be following her own rules and game. Triad had come up with something to share with Jon and the others it had seemed.

“Yeah, we looked into this,” Cassandra replied, trying to pretend she wasn’t in costume. “Page 216 of the Zeketh tome goes into details regarding a spell called the Expavescimus Charm. It redirects spells back at the one who casted them. The reagents aren’t too difficult to get, either. That simply requires a broken mirror to be ground up into dust and mashed-up feathers from an unevolved flying Pokémon. The three of us figured those should be easy to acquire as well, as Wingull feathers are easy to find on the beach and should suffice for the spell.”

“The other spell mentioned on page 384 is called Luxum Patibatur, a curse that causes the victim to hemorrhage energy,” Cassandra further explained. “Reagents for that include human blood, ginger, and paint thinners. Should be relatively easy to acquire. Now, the method to turn these two into a hybrid, which the three of us never delved into before, is known as a Simul spell, which needs ashes of burnt paper. Before that paper is turned into ashes, it needs to have two overlapping handprints in red ink. All this together leads up to a hybrid spell that would not only redirect a spell back at the caster, but it would also make them bleed out their energy.”

“Right now, reagents are the big challenge,” Cassandra told the group. “Diversifying is key, but we can’t go overboard to the point where we need mountains of reagents. So my thought is having this protective redirect spell be one among five that we can use the next time we confront Agatha. As for the other four, we’ll need to delve into the books to come up with some useful options for this situation. What I thought might also help is varying the nature of our attack.”

It seemed like they found a way to counter many of these spells and hexes. Jimmy thought that may be good, but that's be a lot of people to cover at the same time. Like Cassandra wanted. Jirachi could restore the urgent care. Giving them enough of their resources back for whatever they may need. Jimmy still had his plan to discuss as well. Just waiting for the right moment to speak up. Then one thing Cassandra said stood out.

“Some of us can attack as human trainers,” Cassandra proposed. “Others, those who are a bit braver, can be transformed into Pokémon and attack on that front, leaving Agatha and her followers guessing who is the trainer and who are the actual Pokémon. Not to mention there are far more spells made to transform humans than there are spells to transform Pokémon. And then there’s other transformations and traits that can be utilized. For those who are really brave open to the idea, preemptively transforming someone into say a pixie, a lycanthrope, or a mermaid, for example, complicates things for the other side. It forces one transformation spell to have to overwrite another. Sometimes that’s possible, sometimes it’s not, or sometimes it can be difficult and doesn’t take the first time. Given, a number of us have already been hit with spells like this and haven’t been cured, yet. Quite frankly, it’s better to keep them on if they’re bearable enough and you can still move and fight with them. It’s very easy to transform a human and most of these spells were made to do just that. But if they’re already something else, there’s a solid chance the spell may fizzle trying to transform a human when the target is not that at all.”

It sounded like a plan, but not everyone was for it at first. Some even chiming in saying it sounded crazy. Thing is, we all knew that very well. Most of us here knew exactly what we were getting into coming here. Some of us didn't and are along for the ride now. Though even Steven knew that we had to do what we must. Even if it comes to the extremes.

"She's right. We can have actual Pokemon who know how to fight other Pokemon holding off their Ghost Types, and have people who volunteer to become Pokemon giving hell to the witches. If their magic is ineffective, they are human, and a flamethrower will still burn them..." Jon said, before hoping his own confidence would inspire others to be willing to try something out of the box, "I volunteer to temporarily become a Pokemon. My own team are trained in how to battle without my direction, and Latios can act as a central hub for communication between myself and them. Rayquaza is an exception, but I have faith I can get it trained reasonably will if I have a little time to spend with it..."

Well this was a bit unexpected for Jimmy to hear. Jon volunteering to become a Pokemon himself. Soon after another stood up. Volunteering themselves.

“I volunteer as well. I’ve been under the affect of similar spells before, and I’m not afraid of them. I can probably be more help as a pokemon at this time.” Jimmy didn't quite recognize them, but it was another to the forces needed for a team. She also had that familiar looking Alolan Vulpix with her.

“Oh please tell me we’re doing this,” Jarena smiled to Cassandra with a twinkle in her eyes.

“Don’t see why not,” Cassandra replied, smirking a bit. “Plus it would solve our issue of not having real clothes at the moment. The three of us opt in to become Pokémon as well,” Cassandra told the group. “We have some familiarity with this, but if there’s any other volunteers that are thinking about this and want to know what it involves, let me know, I can go into details later.”

Looked like Cassandra and her team were about to join the fray as well. Cynthia thought if that were the case they needed to transfer to Steven's team and fight more on the offensive line. Steven and Cynthia fought this out. He was right to a fact though. If we lose them and very powerful key against this enemy would be out and we wouldn't have much in line to help cure anyone. Sometimes we gotta use unexpected tactics to take a pivotal piece. Thing is, the first to make such a move could be a game changer.

"Ah why the hell not. I volunteer as well." Jimmy spoke up. "I've been a turned into a Pokemon as well. Even had a few years of training as one too. So I can help this team out."

Jimmy also thought this would be the perfect time to get what he needed said out.

"I do have one question. Regardless of being transformed. We would still have to watch out for other such as hexes placed no? While a direct spell would be something that could easily be redirected when cast. If they placed an indirect spell or hex it could still take effect right? Without that direct connection they could still get through. Though I do have an idea to get through that."

Jimmy pulled out a bag from his gear. Pulling one of the items from it.

"This is a special star piece. It's imbued with special psychic energy and a form of wish energy. Not many know other than Steven, Cynthia, and a select few others here that I own a Jirachi. It's location is at our own HQ which is anonymous for good reason. I feel if our enemy got ahold of the fact a Jirachi is here it could become a target."

Jimmy took a breath for a moment. "Back on topic. These special star pieces have a few special powers that it grants you. It helps to detect nearby fluctuations in shadowcraft power and alike. So if a hex or spell is placed in an area, target, or object. This thing will shake and glow to make sure you are aware."

Jimmy point to his thunderstone pendant. "I had mine imbued into this pendant. Best part about this is it can also work as a radio connection with Jirachi himself. He can keep track of anyone that has this and their surroundings. So if anyone around here doesn't have access to a psychic Pokemon and needs one. This star piece will give you that ability to connect with Jirachi through his telepathy as if he were there right beside you."

Jimmy looked to Steven before speaking out again. "Steven, I know you were looking forward to an explanation about how I planned to help rebuild the Urgent Care as I mentioned. Well, this is how. We've been using these to help mitigate Jirachi's power. While he has a direct connection to whatever he's connecting with. It takes less time for him to focus. So using any of his powers have been like many of us taking a breath of air. Simple as snapping your finger."

Jimmy grabbed one of the piece and held it to himself. "We plan to have the Urgent Care Center restored totally. Though it will appear completely destroyed still. Anyone with these will have access to the real one that we will have rebuilt using Jirachi's power. It will be a place hidden deep underground and hidden from any shadowcraft abilities to detect. Only those with one of these star pieces will be able to enter and even detect it."

Jimmy placed the star piece back in the bag. Holding it out for anyone. "I understand not everyone will want one and that's your choice. If you would like it you can use this for your own protect. I had Jirachi help craft these to help mitigate his power and help protect everyone on this island at any cost. So if you'd like one we have enough for everyone here and more. Before coming on this mission we gathered as many star pieces as we could muster. Having known Jirachi can focus his powers on these ever since training him. So this is our gift to everyone. Protection, safety, and more. Anyone can talk with Jirachi or request for help. It can easily work as a walkie talkie if needed as well. It just takes communication with Jirachi to connect those you need to talk with." Jimmy held out the bag.

"So anyone that wants one you're free to take one. It'll offer some protection against these witches, offer you a place to enter in case we need an emergency meeting place, and Jirachi can teleport you if need be to central places we have posted. Though right now the places you can teleport are limited for now." Jimmy said nodding to Steven. "But for now that reasoning is being held classified to avoid any leaks whatsoever. Speaking of, Jon." Jimmy looked to him.

"I know that you wanted everything in this room left here and here alone and to that I can assure you it will stay, but these star pieces do have direct lines with Jirachi and Jirachi alone. So even though he is not here. He's always listening through these. They also work as listening points. So he can hear our surroundings, see our surroundings, and more. So for that I apologize, but can assure you no one else can hear. Jirachi has been trained over these last four years to do what's right, what's requested, and better improve our lives. Everyone's lives. The information here is still secret and of that I can assure you." Jimmy nodded to him hoping he would understand.

"There's more information I can disclose on Jirachi and what we are planning on our side, but I think I've over spoke." Jimmy said as he looked around for anyone that may want to have one of the star pieces and that may have had any questions on his side.

[[Desolate Divine]]

Jon Drake, Abbee Strauss, Dylan Squier
Eon Squad HQ
Affected RPers: @Neo Emolga @Shruikan @Chakramaster

More people began to volunteer to be transformed including Triad who proposed a joint operation with Eon Squad to take the offensive, which Jon approved very quickly. Then Jimmy began to speak, and Jon began to feel uneasy the more got revealed. Whilst access to a safe place, and warning of spells was something that could definitely help, Jon began to have more doubts at the fact that Jirachi was constantly able to listen in. These sorts of operations relied on a food chain. At the top was Steven and Cynthia, below them were the people who reported directly to them, such as squad commanders like Jon, and those with talents or gifts that they act independently such as Triad or Jimmy, and then their subordinates, Jirachi being a subordinate to Jimmy. With what Jimmy proposed, not only were their thoughts now not private, but if Jimmy were to give everyone of of these Star Pieces, in terms of information, it would put Jimmy and Jirachi at the top of that food chain, and based on what Jimmy said next, though Jon had his suspicions of it the moment he mentioned Jirachi being telepathically linked, Jon had little faith in.

Then Jimmy mentioned Jirachi had been listening the whole time, acknowledging that the information was supposed to not leave that room and that he had been broadcasting it to Jirachi the entire time. Even if this wasn't a big deal, he had to make a big deal out of it. There were people invited to the meeting who had grumbled and groaned at the secrecy of it when Jon mentioned it. If Jimmy has brought up the fact in front of everyone that he has been broadcasting to Jirachi and there isn't some sort of reaction, his words will seem empty as a commander, and keeping the operatives from sharing this highly sensitive information will become a lot harder.

Jon slammed his fist into the wall next to him, creating a loud bang, causing a few people to jump up from their seats.

"I know you wanted this information to not leave the room, but instead of telling you Jirachi was listening in before when you said it, I have been leaking information to someone not in the room the entire time. Hope you're okay with it." Jon said with a much too calm sounding voice, paraphrasing what Jimmy had said, "That's basically what you said, right? I've known about you having Jirachi since the day you got it, and you know that. You could have told me that Jirachi was listening in before the meeting, and in all honesty, I would have been okay with it. You had no reason not to. You waited until all the sensitive information was on the floor, and not only that, even if Steven and Cynthia knew that this was going on, you, as a trainer with the natural authority that comes with training a Mythical Pokemon, revealed you were going against Steven and Cynthia's orders for secrecy, in front of every other operative here, some of whom I know are on the fence about whether to follow the protocol for secrecy, and now have seen you break it..."

Jon turned to face the group of operatives.

"Everybody here, look me in the eye, so there is no misunderstanding..." Jon said, his voice firmer than before, "Jimmy Kendo might have already broken protocol, or he might have had prior permission from Steven and Cynthia, and it just looks like he did because he ran his mouth when he shouldn't have. I don't know, and I will be having a good chat to Steven about what has happened here later. But regardless of what he has done, do not take this as any sort of indication that we are not as serious about keeping this information classified as I said we were at the start of this meeting. Regardless of which squad you are in, if anybody leaks information, they will have me to deal with, and my current idea is to use leakers as bait to lure out Agatha and her ilk... Am I understood?"

There was a quiet murmur from the group in front of him, before Jon spoke up again.

"Am I f**king understood?" Jon shouted angrily, as the group (of NPCs) called out yes.

"Good. Follow the rules of this meeting and we won't have an issue." Jon said, back to his more firm voice, before turning to Jimmy, "As for you Kendo, I speak on behalf of all of Eon Squad when I say we will not be accepting your Star Pieces for a multitude of reasons, practically and personally."

"Practically, if Eon Squad is to form the front line offensive, then us being in possession of a key to our the only sanctuary, and a telepathic link to a Pokemon that can grant wishes, and is a central hub of information for everyone in possession of one, is foolish. If one of us is captured or killed, and found with it, this whole operation is jeopardized. Instead, you are better off finding a secure place to hide one, where if any of us from Eon Squad do need to access it, we can without risking keeping it on our person." Jon said, "Additionally, you said you have spent the last four years training Jirachi. Four years ago, Jirachi's biggest issue was doing what it wants, regardless of what you, the trainer who has authority over it, wants. It took people, my own wife included, prisoner, planning on turning them into Pokemon so they could all play. Alyssa escaped, and whilst Jirachi only turned the people in that room who wanted to be turned into Pokemon, at least two people outside of the room, one of which was a dangerous prisoner, who had luck been on his side, could have escaped, into Pokemon without their consent."

"I told you four years ago that I thought you could train Jirachi well, Kendo. I guess I was wrong, because back then Jirachi's problem was it didn't follow the rules it should have, and now you have come here, four years later, and have that same problem, when the two highest authority people in this operation, Steven and Cynthia have demanded information doesn't leave this room. I don't believe you have trained Jirachi, I think Jirachi has trained you..." Jon said coldly, "And in that case, I don't trust either you nor Jirachi with the ability to listen in on my squad's thoughts, and having instant access to any information we dig up. If you want any information from Eon Squad, you have to get it from me or one of our shared superiors..."

There was an uneasy murmur from the crowd. Jon wasn't trying to discourage them from taking up Jimmy's offer. The benefits of it were great. Warnings of potential danger, as well as sanctuary were something that would be game changing for this operation. But they needed to know the flip side of it completely...

"Meeting adjourned..." Jon said quickly, "Eon Squad and Triad, remain here so we can discuss offensive measures. Anybody who would like to transfer to Eon Squad and be on the front line, remain as well."

Whilst Jon normally preferred to have the sorts of conversations he just had with Jimmy one-on-one, the fact Jimmy had mentioned Jirachi listening in, and the only people in the room who knew for certain whether or not he was breaking protocol being Steven and Cynthia, it was necessary to make an example. He couldn't have other operatives thinking because Jimmy allowed Jirachi to eavesdrop, they were able to tell their drinking buddy without there being major repercussions.

Two of the operatives that Steven and Cynthia invited, approached Jon, wanting to transfer and fight on the front line, which he approved. They had seen him lead at his angriest, so knew exactly what they were getting in to. Jon waited as the rest of Eon Squad approached, for Triad to join him, as well as any other operatives who may have wanted to join Eon Squad to wander over, and those who weren't, to leave. Steven approached him during this time.

"Jon-" he began, though Jon had a hunch what this was about.

"Later." Jon said, not wanting those around to hear this conversation. He had done what he had to to keep the information secure, and if Steven tried to justify what Jimmy had done now, it would undo what Jon had just done, "We will meet later and talk through everything then..."

Steven nodded, before leaving the room with Cynthia.

As Abbee wandered over with Victini on her shoulder, the pair spoke telepathically.

"Was Jon like this back on the S.S. Wishmaker?" Abbee asked, "You were technically on the receiving end during the first part, so you probably know best."

Jon had usually kept a level headed demeanour at the Eon Academy, and when someone did need to be given a hard lesson, it was usually privately. She had never seen him blow up at someone publicly.

"It's hard to compare. He got violent on board, but that was usually in response to what he perceived to be an immediate danger. He beat a data analyst who leaked information that destroyed the planned cover-up before they could even start it, to get information out of him, and when Lance attacked Violet and Jarena during Cass and Avery's match, Jon beat Lance senseless, which in all honesty, is a good thing. He couldn't do anything himself from a hospital bed. But those times were a mixture of anger, protective instinct, and his own messed up childhood." Victini replied, "This is different. Jon is now leading a team, and being trusted by the highest authority in this operation gives a slight authority to some of the lower-downs outside of his squad. But maintaining that authority can't be easy, especially if someone publicly steps over it, and I think that's why he spoke the way he did. But he's the best person to answer that..."

Abbee and Dylan made their way over whilst Jon waited for the others to join him, and those not involved to leave.

Brianna Levine
Heahea Outskirts
Affected RPers: @Neo Emolga

Brianna watched the seemingly abandoned building from her vantage point on a nearby hill. The sun was setting, and she used the exaggerated shadows to remain undercover, hidden largely from view. That being said, it didn't matter too much. Even if she was found by Agatha herself, she had means of using Shadowcraft Agatha could only dream of. It would however hinder her own goals, so remaining hidden would be preferable.

She watched as a witch in her late twenties left the Abandoned Mega Mart, attempting to use the nearby buildings for cover, as she removed her cloak, hiding it. Brianna smiled to herself, realizing they had a deserter.

However, unbeknownst to this young witch, a shadow tailed her, most likely a ghost type. Whilst Brianna didn't want to see the League wiped out, which was the most likely scenario, she didn't want the fighting to end just yet, and a deserter could give a bit of an edge towards the League to allow the fighting to continue.

Leaving her hiding place, she made her way towards the young witch, hoping to catch her follower off guard...

[Neo Emolga]

Willow
Royal Avenue Pokémon Center, Akala
Affected RPers: @Desolate Divine (Brianna)

For the time being, no one at the Thrifty Megamart had suspected anything was wrong. Meanwhile, Willow knew she wasn’t out of the clear quite yet. It was getting much darker and she was hoping to make it further south before anyone realized what had happened. She was also hoping they wouldn’t suspect it was her, and that maybe they would need to conduct a further investigation to see what had happened to Boris. He was, after all, in a room full of reagents, and mishandling them could have potentially resulted in his grotesque death.

Willow had looked upon the Gengar, sneering at her. She had already flinched a bit from seeing him completely out of the blue, but she tried to remain composed and stand her ground.

“Leave me alone,” Willow snapped at the Gengar. “I’ve had enough hell for one day and I’d rather be by myself right now.”

“Gennn-garrr…” (“Your cloak… why did you remove it?”)

“Because it’s hot outside,” Willow replied, looking at him in the eyes. “Black fabric absorbs heat and we’re not exactly in the arctic tundra here, buddy. Give me a break. I’ll put it back on when I’m ready to head back. Like I said, I just need some time alone. Go pester Igor for a while, I’m sure you’ll get more entertainment out of him.”

Despite Willow acting a bit out of the ordinary, Agatha’s Gengar didn’t suspect anything major was wrong and decided it wasn’t worth pestering her some more. Especially when he felt she was right about taunting and teasing Igor and the thought of doing it again to him made the Gengar chuckle about what new things he could do to harass the rather irritable wizard. And he could agree with her about the heat. It was nearly 40C and they could literally see the Wela Volcano Park spewing out even more heat from their current location. Not to mention Agatha never bothered to repair the air conditioning in the Thrifty Megamart. None of them were even using electric power and the few appliances that needed them, such as the refrigerators for some of the perishable reagents, were powered by a generator in the basement.

He had decided to leave and head back to the Thrifty Megamart. Once he was gone, Willow waited for one more minute before getting back up, taking the black cloak, and running a fair distance away from the Pokémon Center before stuffing the cloak in another bush well out of eyesight. She knew if that Gengar came back and saw the cloak was still there, he would know she was lying to him. Him potentially coming back here to see if she was still here and making the assumption she eventually made her way back would buy her precious time.

The trip down Route 6 would be a long one, but she soon heard a comforting voice call out to her, speaking to her mind.

I think the coast is clear. There’s a few ghost Pokémon around, but they’re wild and shouldn’t slow us down. I’m right above you, I’ll let you know if I see anyone and…

And suddenly she was cut off. Willow didn’t know what happened, but then she sensed she wasn’t alone.

Willow, there’s… someone approaching you…

Willow looked around, relying on her sight and hearing to detect them. She sensed them, but couldn’t make out who they were. She didn’t recognize them as one of Agatha’s witches, but then again, Willow could freely admit there were witches on the island that were Agatha’s followers and she had yet to meet them as well.

“Who… who are you?” Willow asked the shadowy figure, her hand lightly hovering over her pouch of reagents, just in case she needed to quickly defend herself.

---

Triad (The Diamond Ladies)
Meeting Room of Eon Squad HQ, Eon Squad Villa
Affected RPers: @Desolate Divine @Shruikan @Chakramaster

Jimmy had volunteered to become a Pokémon as well, which Cassandra had figured would be the case considering he didn’t even need her powers to become a Pikachu, which she knew would be his Pokémon of choice. He had then asked if they, as Pokémon, would need to watch out for other hexes.

“Some yes, some no,” Cassandra told him, knowing it would be a little complicated to go into specific details. “Some hexes are specifically designed for each, but I think Agatha and her followers would likely prioritize wiping out human trainers first.”

“I do have an idea to get through that,” Jimmy explained.

He then went into details about the star pieces he had, imbued with psychic and wish energy that was derived from Jirachi’s powers, who was currently at an undisclosed location for his own safety. Besides being able to detect Shadowcraft presences, it allowed the bearer to communicate with Jirachi himself.

Jimmy then came up with a plan for the rebuilding of the Heahea City Urgent Care, only it would be hidden underground, open to only those with star pieces. Cassandra, Jarena, and Violet looked at each other with a bit of doubt in the plan, as they knew the Urgent Care needed to be open to anyone that had been afflicted, operative and civilian alike. And there were still a lot of civilians that needed both medical and spell cancelation treatment.

“Won’t be too much help like that…” Violet muttered quietly to Cassandra.

“Yeah, I’ll talk to him later,” Cassandra replied, knowing what they really needed was a rebuilt Urgent Care, but also with a better way to defend and protect it from Agatha’s witches.

Jimmy then went into details regarding how Jirachi was now currently listening in on the conversation and was privy to the details, for which Jimmy preemptively apologized for. Cassandra couldn’t help but wince for a moment, knowing that was a big mistake and was definitely not a good idea prior to Jon’s meeting.

“Bro…” Jarena muttered to Cassandra and Violet, making a nervous wince. “Really should have gotten Jon’s a-okay before doing that…”

As expected, it was enough to set Jon off, and Cassandra was not surprised he punched the wall, startling half the attendees with the bang it created. In the meantime, Cassandra had nearly forgotten she had healed Jon’s hand during an incident four years ago on the Wishmaker, and she was half-expecting to have to heal it again if he wounded it badly enough.

They weren’t surprised when Jon had scolded Jimmy for his mistake, and then addressed the group of operatives to not undermine his role as commander and to keep all information secure.

“Am I f**king understood?” Jon shouted angrily, which everyone called out yes, Triad included.

Jon then explained how he wouldn’t be taking the star pieces, making it clear that it could easily lead to an information security breach if one of them was captured and it was discerned what the star pieces were for, also mentioning how he had his doubts about Jirachi’s compliance and Jimmy’s ability to maintain control over the situation considering what had occurred four years ago on the S.S. Wishmaker. Back then, while Cassandra was relieved they had found a way to deescalate and defuse the situation before anything alarming happened, she could understand why Jon wasn’t leaning toward giving Jirachi the benefit of the doubt this time, especially after Jimmy had disregarded Jon’s authority and broke protocol.

Cassandra didn’t like the idea of choosing sides when it came to her allies, but she knew if she was going to be working closely alongside Jon and Eon Squad, they were going to need to respectfully decline Jimmy’s offer as well for the same reasons Jon had mentioned. On top of that, after Jon had agreed to form a joint operation between Eon Squad and Triad, Cassandra felt it would be in bad taste to go against her new commander’s authority and undermine it by taking the star pieces away without addressing Jon’s concerns about them. On top of everything else that had happened, she felt she still owed him a favor.

“Meeting adjourned…” Jon said quickly. “Eon Squad and Triad, remain here so we can discuss offensive measures. Anybody who would like to transfer to Eon Squad and be on the front line, remain as well."

“You got it,” Cassandra agreed, sitting tight for now.

While the other operatives had gotten up from their chairs and left, Jarena looked to Cassandra and Violet, looking iffy about the whole situation and how things went down between Jon and Jimmy.

“Well, that could have gone better,” Jarena sighed. “Sounds like something that would have been nice to have if… well, something… I dunno…”

“I wouldn’t rule it out totally,” Cassandra replied, trying to keep optimistic about it. “Let Jon and Jimmy talk it over later, paint over the ugly parts, and maybe they can compromise on how these things should work.”

“Jimmy needs to work on his conversational tact and diplomacy…” Violet stated, looking off to the side.

Jarena was staying hopeful that this was just a simple misunderstanding and hopefully Jimmy wouldn’t get discouraged, even if he needed to take these star pieces back to the drawing board in terms of development and what they should and shouldn’t do. Meanwhile, Cassandra understood why Jon’s reaction was as serious as it was. They had already seen humans and Pokémon essentially murdered in ways they had never seen before and this was a situation even the military would have difficulty with. They needed to be careful and consider every decision carefully. One bad mistake and it could be the end for Akala, and Cassandra had a feeling that may not be all if they failed in trying to stop Agatha and her followers…

As those that weren’t asked to stick around had left, Cassandra, Jarena, and Violet patiently waited for Jon to discuss the next plan of action for offensive measures and work out the details. Things were going to be different on the frontline and Cassandra knew she was going to need to prepare for it accordingly. Besides the hex that Brianna had introduced them to, she was trying to think of what else might be effective as the remaining four options, taking inspiration from Brianna suggestion and building on it to deploy an effective strategy that should help them turn things around.

Cassandra could agree that the best way to protect Heahea was to drive Agatha and her followers away from it. Playing on the defensive meant Heahea would constantly be under assault, allowing more innocent people and Pokémon to be in harm’s way.

To her, already one time was more than enough…

[Noblejanobii]

Avery Miller & Abital Ecke
Tide Song Hotel Lobby
Affected RP'ers: N/A

As Avery continued to practice cantering with Daybreak and the others, Abigail began to work away on his ranger styler. Since arriving in Alola, Abital had used his styler to capture a few Pokémon here, especially since the chaos broke out. While this provided him some temporary aid in the form of transportation or protection, capturing Pokémon with a styler had other benefits that were more long term.

Pokémon Rangers as a group worked as ecological protectors amongst other things. As a result, while they did occasionally work together to stop bad guys from exacting their evil vengeance on various regions, most of their day to day work actually had them doing a lot more wildlife focused work. This meant that every ranger’s capture styler also doubled as an information gatherer. Whenever a Pokémon was captured by a ranger, their current health profile was registered in the styler’s database as well. This meant that Abital could still view the health profile of the Mudsdale they had captured earlier even after releasing it. In addition, each captured Pokémon was also automatically chipped. This allowed rangers to track the current locations of those Pokémon based on satellite GPS. While normally this was meant to track the migration patterns of various Pokémon, in this situation it could serve a different purpose.

Abital opened his ranger database and quickly flipped through the pages of the most recent Pokémon he had captured until he came to the one he was searching for: A Shuppet. Abital shivered a little at the sight of the ghost, still not very fond of the Pokémon’s big yellow and blue eyes as well as its wide spooky grin. Taking a deep breath, Abital selected the page and began to look through the Pokémon’s profile. The Shuppet had been healthy upon capture, euphoric actually. It made sense. Abital had captured it right before the big attack began, when the Shuppet had been terrorizing some of the festival goers, so the Pokémon was likely part of the “first wave” before the witches launched their big large scale attack.

Still, given that Abital had released the Shuppet almost immediately upon calming it, that meant the ghost Pokémon had plenty of time to return and regroup with other ghosts. He hadn’t mentioned it to Avery yet but Abital felt like it was part of their duty as a ranger to assist in this situation. And now that the curse had been lifted from him, Abital didn’t have much of a reason to not do so any longer. He only hoped he could convince Avery to join him in the meantime, since he felt it would be unwise for the two to separate, especially when no one else was around to accompany them.

Bringing up the Shuppet’s tracking profile from the last few days, it didn’t take long for Abital to figure out where the Shuppet’s main base of residence was: the Thrify Megamart by Wela Volcano Park. Abital had a strong suspicion that was likely where the Shadowcraft users were based then, given the Shuppet had returned to that area several times in the last few days.

“Whatcha looking at?” Avery asked, peering over Abital’s shoulder.

Abital jumped a little in surprise before sighing with relief when they realized Avery wasn’t a ghost. “The tracking data for that Shuppet I captured on our first day here,” he signed. Abital quickly explained what he had discovered before posing a question to Avery. “I want to assist in combating the shadowcraft users. I think this might be a stronghold. Would you be willing to accompany me in doing some recon and possibly taking them on?”

“Recon? Absolutely. But taking them on? Definitely not. We need backup if we’re going to do that,” Avery answered firmly. “We’ve been lucky with what we’ve been hit with so far. I’ll take horse legs any day over a pile of goop. Having backup in some form would benefit us a lot since otherwise I doubt we’d be able to take it on by ourselves.” Avery chewed their lip in thought before suggesting, “Cassandra and the Ladies are supposed to come back here by tomorrow at least to undo my hex. We can ask them when they come visit, assuming we don’t have to move my then. How does that sound?”

Abital rubbed their chin before nodding in agreement. Sounded like as good an idea as any. Given Avery had much more experience with Shadowcraft than Abital did, he trusted their judgement on a plan of attack. So if Avery said they needed backup, then they needed backup. What form that would come in though would have to be seen.

[Chakramaster]

Jimmy Kendo
Meeting Room Eon Squad HQ
Affected RP'ers: @Neo Emolga @Shruikan @Desolate Divine

Jimmy had said his part that needed to be said. It was the honest thing to do and right thing to do given the circumstances.

Jon wasn't happy about any of it.

"As for you Kendo, I speak on behalf of all of Eon Squad when I say we will not be accepting your Star Pieces for a multitude of reasons, practically and personally."

Jon had then began to go off reasoning as to why he wouldn't and still didn't trust Jimmy or especially Jirachi.

"I told you four years ago that I thought you could train Jirachi well, Kendo. I guess I was wrong, because back then Jirachi's problem was it didn't follow the rules it should have, and now you have come here, four years later, and have that same problem, when the two highest authority people in this operation, Steven and Cynthia have demanded information doesn't leave this room. I don't believe you have trained Jirachi, I think Jirachi has trained you..." Jon said coldly, "And in that case, I don't trust either you nor Jirachi with the ability to listen in on my squad's thoughts, and having instant access to any information we dig up. If you want any information from Eon Squad, you have to get it from me or one of our shared superiors..."

Moments later Jon let those go that were no longer needed. "Meeting adjourned..." Jon said quickly, "Eon Squad and Triad, remain here so we can discuss offensive measures. Anybody who would like to transfer to Eon Squad and be on the front line, remain as well."

Hearing all this made Jimmy take a deep breath. Not moving from where he was. It finally made him realize what needed saying.

"Jon...I've held this in. Four years now. I've let you hold a spotlight to yourself for this long without saying anything, but in times like this someone has to shed some light on bullies like you." Jimmy had taken a more serious stare towards Jon.

"Sorry, but I won't be leaving. You really have to learn Jon. This whole thing isn't about you. You may command your own squad, but you are not and never will be MY commander. You sit on facts of the past, but you never learn. You gave me time to train Jirachi. You haven't even met him and yet you judge on something you haven't even seen. You're pathetic Jon. A commander should know better than that. Otherwise you're going to just lead others to their doom. A real leader assess a situation without false assumptions. It shows your weakness. You'd sooner attack others just to make yourself look better no matter who they are. Here's a hard lesson Jon. You can't live through life busting holes in everything just to make a point! You just end up making yourself look like an a**hole."

Jimmy continued. He didn't care who else was around or heard. He'd about had enough of Jon and constantly being his punching bag.

"You constantly talk about how I couldn't train Jirachi. Well he's fully trained whether you believe that or not. A "commander" such as you should know, but you can't be willing to accept the fact someone like me can train a Pokemon like this. I don't care what you believe about me. You can't just make ***** up and accept it as fact! That's the worst thing a leader can do, "commander." Think Jon! Like I said back 4 years ago. No one can't train such a special Pokemon in the matter of hours. Not even you. It takes time....and we had 4 years. 4 Years to learn every thing we could about Jirachi and his unique abilities. These tons more to learn. Legendary and Mythical Pokemon. No matter their power. Have so much more potential than any of us know. It's a part of what makes them so hard to train."

Jimmy took a deep breath before continuing. "No one man you ever hold the spotlight Jon. You can't beat others up to show you're the best for the job. It shows your real weakness. If you can't work as a team and accept others offering help. Then you shouldn't even be a commander. Stop belittling others and accept the fact that others even offer help in the first place. Times like this we all need to work together. Not fight just to show your command!" Jimmy had shouted as he continued to stare.

"Never once did I tell anyone the had to do this or that. Everything was offered and yeah there's things about what I said that sound flawed, but did you ever ask what those counters were? If they could be adjusted? Time and time again you assume things about me just because of Jirachi and how it acted. FOUR YEARS AGO! Stop living in the past Jon. If you don't. The past can come back to haunt you. More than you know."

Jimmy looked around at the others. "Look everyone. I don't know about you, but I'm here to help everyone. Not just me, not us here in this room. Everyone. What's going on here is bigger than the ego we have here in this self righteous pri*k we have here trying to get a hard on by showing he has the biggest fist here. He can't scream and punch a hole in the wall and they just walk away. No! We all have to work together here as a team. If we don't we ARE doomed to fail. Every little bit here can help."

Jimmy took a moment to turn back to Jon. "Look, I don't care whatever beef you have with me. No matter how much you look back on things. Time moves on and we all grow up. Are you so willing to protect your own dignity rather than work with others for the safety of everyone? I never once tried to take over anything of yours. Eon Squad or anything of yours. So why is it you're so against me when you base everything you know about me off baseless facts about Jirachi you know nothing about over the last four years. It's time to man up Jon. Not everything is about YOU. You need to learn to work with others for the better of everyone. Not everything is solely about you here. Wake up and smell the da*n roses!" Jimmy shout once more.

Jimmy took another deep breath. "I need some air." Jimmy said before walking outside.