Triad / The Diamond Ladies
Heahea City Urgent Care Center, Heahea City
Affected RPers: @Desolate Divine @Noblejanobii @HorusMyDude @Shruikan @Chakramaster

Cassandra had just notified Steven regarding their thoughts about the potential of destroying Agatha’s reagent warehouse, which Cassandra felt had to be fairly large to store everything they needed to cast the complex and wide variety of spells they were unleashing upon Akala’s current inhabitants. She mentioned that it was likely these Shadowcraft witches she had called in had to be in a fairly large and permanent establishment that likely was abandoned. Since the island wasn’t very large, there weren’t too many places where they could hide. Cassandra also figured it couldn’t be too much of a dump, either. She tried thinking like the enemy. Since she was a witch herself, if she had joined up with Agatha, but saw the place she had prepared to live and work in was a dilapidated pile of garbage, she would definitely have second thoughts about sticking with the plan. She figured she would have had to make it at least somewhat bearable to give up whatever they had been doing prior to this gathering.

Once their standard shifts were over, the three Ladies had changed back into their normal street clothes and gathered around the breakroom table with their cups of tea. After the discussion they had earlier, they wanted to talk over possible leads on Agatha’s warehouse. While they had easy access to a tourist’s map of Akala, it only showed the tourism hotspots. Only the southern half of the island was featured, save for a few scarce tourist travel hotspots like the Wela Volcano Park, a guided tour of the Lush Jungle, and the Fossil Restoration Center. It didn’t clue them in on any of the natural off-the-beaten-path locations or any of the private residential areas.

“It almost seems too obvious…” Violet muttered, looking at the map.

“Huh, really?” Jarena asked. “Could be anything nestled around this whole rock and we only have like half the map on this. Where do you think it is?”

“Here,” Violet replied, pointing to the abandoned Thrifty Megamart on the map. “This would have everything they need, including ghost Pokémon. If that isn’t their main base of operations or their reagent warehouse, then they have to be using it in some form, or at least extracting its stockpiles.”

Jarena and Cassandra both looked at it, and while the tourist map didn’t provide much detail, it did mention that it was closed to the public and warned against trespassing due to the presence of ghost Pokémon. She was curious to know why it was abandoned, but she figured asking the locals might yield some answers.

“Well, would certainly have lots of ghosts and supplies for them to work with,” Cassandra stated. “If it really is their warehouse, it could very well be defended like a military base. Hexes could be all over the place like a minefield.”

“Yeah, but we could try taking a look at it from a distance, somewhere like one of the stores on Royal Avenue,” Violet suggested. “Or at least ask one of the offensive line operatives to scout it. If there’s any kind of activity there, we can-“

But then, suddenly they were interrupted by Sami, who appeared to look very gaunt with an ashen face. She had stumbled into the breakroom, almost shambling about like a zombie. Cassandra, Jarena, and Violet were suddenly shocked that they almost didn’t recognize her at first.

“Guys, I… I don’t feel so good…” Sami moaned, looking more ashen by the second.

“Oh crap, she’s been hexed…” Jarena muttered, backing away a bit from her. “Sami, hang on, we’ll…”

And then, Sami had just stepped back once, and right before the three of them, her skin and clothing had hardened and she had completely turned to stone. Her flesh and body had become like granite, and her last expression of dismay and weariness had become her last permanent expression before she had become like a statue.

And then a sudden voice of alarm pierced into their heads…

<Ladies, if you can hear me, RUN! RUN OUT OF THERE NOW!!>

“W-was that Victini…!?” Jarena exclaimed.

“You heard him, let’s move!” Cassandra shouted.

The three of them had bolted out of the breakroom, already having a strong idea they knew exactly who was attacking them. As they entered the main waiting area, they weren’t sure who was still around, but they had to pass the message.

“Everyone out!” Cassandra shouted to everyone that was within earshot, passing Victini’s message along. “Run for it, we’re under attack!”

A sudden crash of broken glass was heard behind them, but Cassandra didn’t waste a moment to turn around to see who or what it was. She already figured whatever was responsible was out to get them and destroy their witchcraft hospital. She quickly dashed for the exits, feeling terrible that there was nothing she could do for Sami, but if she stuck around, she knew she would be a victim of some terrible hex or transformation, also.

Cassandra had felt her phone vibrate with a call, but all she could focus on was racing out of the sliding doors and through the streets, sprinting away from the scene of the attack as Jarena and Violet were closely behind her. She wasn’t surprised she heard screaming coming from other people as well as sounds of more commotion.

The best hiding place she could find was under the dock pier. Once the three of them jumped off the dock and got to cover onto the wet, sandy ground, she was able to take a peek at what was going on. And she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Holy crap, that’s Giratina…” Cassandra muttered at the sight of the nearly fifteen-foot-tall ghostly dragon, totally in disbelief Agatha had a legendary like that under her control.

It had already done extensive damage to the urgent care center, smashing the windows and tearing holes in the walls and the roof as it let loose a shrieking howl. A few brazen trainers were trying to fight it with their Pokémon out in the street, but out of the shadows came groups of ghost Pokémon and several hooded figures, revealing only their stern mouths muttering spell incantations. They appeared to be like dark monks, and as they stepped forward besides the hulking ghost dragon, Giratina.

Those who were trying to resist were hexed and brought down where they stood. One older male trainer and his Incineroar were suddenly turned into bronze statues while a teenage female trainer and her Clefable were suddenly enveloped by explosions that looked like fireworks before they mysteriously disappeared, leaving only char marks where they once stood. Both those that resisted and those that tried to flee were dealt with the same, their bodies transformed into helpless forms unable to fight back.

Just the sight of it was enough for Cassandra to hide behind the pier again while hoping no one saw her. She could only hope she could undo what had been done to all these people and Pokémon, but if they had destroyed the spell reagents they needed, it was going to be close to impossible and she might be forced to choose who got healed and who didn’t if there weren’t enough supplies left for everyone.

She really didn’t want to make those kinds of choices…

“Oh god, it’s bad…” Cassandra muttered as she turned around. “They might have just essentially killed that girl and her Clefable…”

But she was suddenly greeted with an eerie silence from Jarena and Violet. She had turned out of the corner of her eye and saw Jarena had been struck by a hex herself. Suddenly purple and green flower petals were sprouting out of her waist along with green leavens laden on top of them as her skin was starting to turn green. She had fallen to the wet, sandy ground on her rear, suddenly shocked at what was now growing out of her.

“Cass, she’s afflicted!” Violet shouted, trying to suppress the hex, “Help me stop this thing before it overtakes her whole body!”

As she could see, some hex that had struck Jarena was now rapidly turning her into a flower as more leaves tore through the back of her shirt and her long hair had turned pink like that of a cherry blossom as a few more flowers and leaves bloomed in a headband. Cassandra quickly joined Violet, unable to undo the hex, but she tried her hardest to at least stop the hex from fully transforming her. With the both of them focusing together, they managed to suppress the curse’s hold over her and managed to suppress the transformation just in time before it had fully overtaken her body and reduced her to nothing but a giant flower.

“Ohhh man…” Jarena muttered, looking over her newly-formed leaves and flowers, “oh mannn, this is bad. This is really bad. These guys are out of our league!”

“Jarena, are you… alright?” Cassandra asked, unsure of how she was feeling at the moment.

“Uh, no, not really…” Jarena replied, still looking bewildered at her leaves and purple flower petals. “At least I’m not… totally a bouquet, you know?”

Before long, a familiar face had arrived, one that Cassandra could easily say she long missed. Carefully approaching, Victini had joined the three ladies, but he quickly realized Jarena had been hit with a hex.

“Victiti…” (“Normally I’d say ‘hey, great to see you again,’ but this reunion situation kinda sucks…”) Victini told the three of them, unable to take his gaze off of Jarena’s floral affliction. “Vic-tini-ni…” (“It’s a disaster out there, when I suddenly realized Giratina was heading toward where the three of you were working, I tried to move as fast as I could to warn you.”)

“It’s… all good, little dude,” Jarena told him, sighing. “We’re still alive. Kinda. I mean, this is something we can fix, right?”

“We’ve undone worse than this,” Violet told her, though trying not to get her hopes too high. “Problem is what we need is getting ripped to shreds by Giratina at the moment. Our books are still in that place, too.”

Cassandra hated to admit it, but Violet was right. Jarena’s affliction was deeply ingrained and now her body was now much more like a flower than a human, which meant they would definitely need reagents to reverse it. While Cassandra and Violet were somewhat confident they could perform the spell again after having performed it quite a few times and memorized it out of repetition, they were going to need at least a star piece to power the reversal curative process. Too much of her had been changed to try working without it.

“Can you at least walk?” Violet asked, wondering if they might have to carry her.

Struggling to get up on her transformed stem-like legs, Jarena initially struggled to get back up, but after a bit of stumbling and balancing, she was able to stand upright and maintain her balance while being able to move around.

“I… think so…” Jarena replied. “Man, this feels so weird…”

“Vic-ti-tini…” (“As much as I know you want to get the stuff you need to cure her and the others, I think we’d better run out of here before they sweep the area.”) Victini suggested. “Vi-ti-tini…” (“Come on, I think I know a way out.”)

“Okay…” Jarena nodded. “Lead the way, little dude.”

As the rest of the urgent care center and the people and Pokémon in the streets were being attacked and fighting a losing battle against Agatha’s witches and her Giratina. She wasn’t sure how many were out there, but she was confident there were at least ten, leaving them outnumbered and without much in the ways of reagents to attack with.

Still, Cassandra couldn’t help but notice that a few strands of Nami’s fur had clung onto her t-shirt. It wasn’t much, but it could save her and the others in a pinch. As the four of them headed north toward the Tide Song Hotel, they tried to use as much cover and concealment as they could, though most of the havoc was happening in Heahea City in and around the urgent care center. But Cassandra had a bad feeling as they moved further and further away from the center… and further and further away from the reagents they needed to cure Jarena’s affliction…

“I don’t think we fully stopped it…” Violet whispered to Cassandra as she was just out of earshot from Jarena.

“I have a bad feeling you’re right…” Cassandra quietly whispered back. “We only slowed it down. I think she’s only got until about 10pm tonight before she fully turns.”

As Cassandra looked back to Heahea City now being terrorized, she didn’t care what it was going to take to shut this witchcraft terrorism down…

…even if it meant she would need to reveal who she truly was…