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…