[WAR] Role Play: Terminus

[Lord Celebi]

Norton "Norb" Whitehall
President Jonathan Frisby's Office, Evergrande
Hoenn
Affected RPers: None

President Jonathan Frisby was an old friend of Norton Whitehall's. Whilst Frisby was from the bustling city of Slateport, his family maintained a cottage in Fallharbor. While the two were never explicitly "friends" as children, they both have known about each other since their humble beginnings. This relatively minor thread connecting the two was enough to arouse respect from one another. Whitehall, along with several other prominent members of the Defense Committee, had been called in Frisby's office personally to discuss Hoenn's position towards Orre.

"Gentlemen, Orre has attacked our navy and absconded with two of our ships, in addition to destroying several others," Frisby began. "This news is going to go public in four hours. We need to have a strong response to this or the media is going to have my ass. If I could unilaterally deploy Hoenn's military and invade Orre, you damn well know we'd have boots on the ground right now. However, our Constitution prevents us from doing that. I have brought you all into here to answer one simple question: what do I need to give you to authorize a military campaign against Orre?" Whitehall looked behind Frisby and saw a vulture-eyed Hans Vehlstein watching the room closely with a look that could be described as being somewhere between disgust and disdain. Whitehall and Vehlstein locked eyes for a moment. Next to Vehlstein was the current Secretary of War, Bron Krad, who was Vehlstein's boss despite Vehlstein's vehement denial.

Orson Barkley was standing on the other side of the room as Whitehall, his face was ghostly white. He knew that he couldn't speak against Whitehall, yet he was also aware that going to war with Orre would mean the end of his political funding. For Barkley, he was stuck between a rock and an iron maiden.

"I think its finally high time to blast Orre back into the stone age!" Blazes Boylan, junior representative from Lavaridge bellowed across the room. Several other politicians echoed his resolve immediately. Boylan's wholehearted endorsement, however, did not automatically generate enough support to bring the war proposal to the floor of the entire Parliament. By Whitehall's count, he still needed two votes. He smiled. So looks like I'll be deciding this one after all.

Everyone in the room, quickly realized that Whitehall and Barkley were the only undecided votes in the room. One of the peace supporters, Myron Asch, looked at Barkley and said, "I'm sure you're going to be voting against this sham of a war, right?"

"I'm not so sure right now. We should listen to what Norb has to say," Barkley replied. All eyes fell onto Whitehall.

"It's quite clear that we have some very divisive opinions on the subject of war," Whitehall began, approaching the front of the room. He stared Vehlstein directly in the eye as he approached the table Frisby was sitting at. Whitehall had a hunch that the General was twisting Frisby's arm to go to war. "But perhaps shooting first and asking questions later is not the best way to approach this problem. Likewise, ignoring the problem won't fix anything either. I propose a two layered solution to this problem. Mr. Krad, as Secretary of War, I'd suggest that you meet with a diplomatic party from Orre and try to work out the problems between the two of us. In the meantime, I'm aware that Mr. Barkley has... extensive connections with several important Orre politicians and businessmen. While Mr. Krad is putting pressure on them in public, Mr. Barkley's associates will put pressure on them from behind to yield and perhaps make some economic concessions to us. If this blows up in our face, then a military campaign against Orre will be warranted."

The room was quiet for a second until Barkley spoke up, "I agree with Norb." Voices in the room quickly echoed Barkley's sentiment.

"Well then, I suppose its decided," Frisby said begrudgingly. "We'll be speaking softly, but carrying a very big stick."

--

Raidon Makoto
Hellcat, En Route to Orre
Affected RPers: @Neo Emolga

Raidon Makoto and Finch Reynolds had opted to take the Hellcat fighter to Orre. It was an experimental VTOL helicopter with enough speed and fuel to take a trip around Maridia's twice over. Makoto had activated the autopilot while himself and Reynolds had a beer in the back. As he was making his way to the mini-fridge to grab a second beer, Makoto's phone buzzed. Noah Ashfield's picture popped up on the screen.

"Commander, if you look outside for a moment, you'll see two new ships docked besides the Deathwing. Well, those are our ships now. Oh, and by the way, Hoenn thinks Orre stole 'em."

"Excellent, glad to hear about the new ships," Makoto began. "I just hope our patron saint doesn't think you've rocked the boat too much with the Orre thing."

[Neo Emolga]

Noah "Neo" Ashfield
Mirage Island, Hoenn
Affected RPers: N/A

Hoenn had considered the ship theft a total act of war against Orre. Now that was just hilarious. Well, I figured they were already at war, so this didn't change much. Them blowing both of each other up solved everyone's problems.

What did draw me in was the unveiling of a new type of cybernetic implant research going on at the Progressive Science Expo in Mossdeep. Definitely Honen's hot spot for lab rats and potential specimens they disguised as "volunteers." Supposedly, some guy by the name of Malcolm Hayes was presenting these new cybernetic toys before a crowd. Some big shot scientist. Supposedly I would have known more if I bothered reading those stupid magazines that I didn't give two boogers about. Expo security was always tight, so I'd have to work around that. The research would be something of worth to us, so I figured heading over there to take it off his hands would be worth the time.

I was going to make this a three man operation. There was me, and then Luke "Strangler" Benton, who was good at recon and getting a sitrep on situations. Then there was Kenneth "Racket" Fields, who was good at disabling security alarms, surveillance cameras, and stuff like that. As much as I would have liked to head into there with guns blasting, I was going to have to reserve that as a Plan B. Or just resort to that when I had what I wanted and knew it wouldn't go running off in some damn chopper or something.

Raidon was impressed with the ship captures, but made it clear that we needed to be careful about how we bashed around the hornet nest. Once this operation was done, we'd probably have to piss off Orre for a while to balance things out. I was cool with that. With Hoenn getting all pissy with them, I was sure they were preparing some kind of very steal-worthy countermeasure.

"Hayes has some deep connections," Luke told me, almost as a warning. "You planning on framing Orre again for this one?"

"Hmm... maybe," I replied, not really caring too much about that. "Might not even need to do any framing at all. We'll see."

Once we got all our gear together, we headed off in an unmarked gray speedboat. Really, if this Hayes freak had connections, just the opportunity to piss all over his media image would be worth it all, nevermind whatever the research junk contained. Now given, I was sure the hardcore stuff was not what he was showing to the public. That was a duh. Nah, I was hoping we'd be able to get way more out of this than just some brochures and some stupid, mind-numbing tour of science garbage that would bore me to bleeding tears anyway.

---

Janine "Angel" Price
AMS Deathwing, Mirage Island, Hoenn
Affected RPers: N/A

PokéTarts were starting to take root in Hoenn. You could just smell the doom in the air! A great internet search engine, Chatot's Talk, got me the latest scoop on how most trainers felt about PokéTarts. And the social site MyPlace had people commenting on them constantly.

"My Vulpix seems to really like them. I have yet to find one Pokémon that doesn't seem to enjoy these things."

"I have a Chespin that seems to really enjoy PokéTarts. He keeps begging for more."

"My Pachirisu snuck behind my back and ate the whole bag yesterday. She's a naughty girl, but she sure loves her PokéTarts."

Oh, oh, oh, you could just feel the nightmare unfolding behind the scenes with those words! The hints were there but no one noticed them! I giggled at first and then couldn't help but let out a burst of maniacal laughter at times. The pandemic would be slow at first, but when it began to escalate, pow, these silly sap trainers were royally screwed, ha ha!

In the meantime, I checked and saw they had recently recreated the first batch of Shadowfall tanks and were now training people in how to blow up lots of stuff with them. One dude told me they weren't even that complicated and did a lot of the lock-on aiming and blowing up stuff for him. Heck, I think even a lab rabbit like me could take on one of those things! Might be fun.

MEND was reaching the last steps of completion. The first rounds of tests were working great and the testers were actually totally baffled at what MEND could do. I mean heck, anyone could benefit from it, but the combat guys were the ones that would probably like it the most.

I used the research from MEND and carried it over into my genetics side project. Since Tiantus and that Lando dude wanted documentation on everything I was screwing around with down here, I figured I would just label this as a "Metamorphosis Investigation" just to make those guys happy.

I managed to conjure up an early mutagen, but I wasn't too crazy about it. Cancer risks and brain damage potentials were too high, and I highly doubted anyone wanted to use anything that would turn them into a drooling, cancerous freak. The risk had to be totally 0% or no one was going to want to touch it. I mean heck, people were even superstitious about opening an umbrella indoors!

But, first part first, I had to construct the mutagen's sequence that would be doing all the grunt work and fluff. In order to be effective, it had to work fast. People liked things fast, so yeah. Metamorphosis in the field had to be quick. I figured a syringe delivery system would be the best. All someone needed was for the mutagen to enter the bloodsteam and it would quickly run around on it's own.

With just a little time I could get the engine on this project rolling. But the real fun stuff would be coming up.

[Death's Spook]

Alastair Harper
Goldenrod City
Affected RPers: @Velocity, @XaiakuX, @TheProtobabe

Lenore took a moment to think, then accepted Alastair’s hand, "I'm more than prepared for trouble, as well you know. It just troubles me. This upheaval, it's like its own atmosphere. I suppose paranoia is contagious." She smiled.

Alastair let out a little laugh, “Well, you know, as a bodyguard, it’s going to be your job to be paranoid. I hear protection detail is just the worst.”

Alastair was about to continue, when Leviathan contacted him, <Speaking of protection detail, Alastair, how do you want to enter the building? I know it’s supposed to be friendly, but I’m sure you understand that->

<That it’s very easy to turn our hidey holes into fox traps, I’m well aware, thank you. I don’t put anything past our disturbingly large number of powerful enemies. Let’s talk strategy.>

Alastair had long discovered a few nifty things about telepathy that made it useful for the trainer coordinating his Pokemon in a campaign. For example, provided that the psychic communicating was powerful enough (and Leviathan was extremely powerful), it was easily possible to include multiple beings in the conversation at once.

<Behemoth, I want you posted on the ground. Be friendly, but if anyone tries to be hostile, raise the alarm. Leviathan, Kodama, with me directly. Be prepared to accept collateral to the building to get people out if we’re attacked, especially Lance. Onna, you’re coming too, but stay in the shadows. Lance should be able to see you, but that doesn’t mean anyone else will. Abaddon, join Simurgh in the skies and update her on the situation.>

Abaddon seemed uneasy, <Are you sure I cannot come inside with you? I am not exactly a weak individual.>

Pushes and pulls. How to phrase this…, <I get that you’re concerned, Abaddon, but you should be able to do more to protect us from the outside. Simurgh is a good eye in the sky, but she’s only one person, and can only direct her focus one place at a time. You’ll keep us far safer in the air, watching and preparing to help us get away if we need it. You aren’t weak, but you’ll be able to protect us more outside.>

Abaddon grumbled, but conceded the point, taking to the air.

***

Walking into the Harper Industries building was a surreal experience for Alastair. It had been years since he had come to Goldenrod, let alone the company building, and the contrast between the last time he had seen it and now was stark. The way Alastair had remembered the building, it was alive, filled with activity and business. The building was grandiose both then and now, but while then its extravagance helped it look opulent, it just made the place look both depressing and disconcerting. The building now was wide open and empty, and both Alastair’s and Kodama’s steps echoed as they walked along. Leviathan’s gem glowed slightly as he levitated beside his trainer, and it served merely to further disquiet Alastair.

When Alastair made it to Lance’s office, he took a moment to erase any discomfort off his face. He gave a big grin as he opened the door to see Lance and… some girl?

Alastair decided to ignore the girl as he pulled his brother into a hug, “Hi Lance! It’s been a while! How have you been?”

[Akaida]

Zach Pierce
Route 115
Affected RPers: None

Zach and his squad had arrived at their camp area before their next mission, the thick forest outside of Meteor Falls. Rustboro City was the main city for Hoenn’s military. While other Aqua forces and agents operated in Slateport, stealing already built ships, Zach was meant to stop any support for Slateport from Hoenn’s military. The successful mission at Rusturf Tunnel delayed that support in a huge way. With reports of the attack hitting the news, Hoenn is in a state of disarray.
The next mission would be different. This time they would have to invade Rustboro City itself and enter the military’s Research and Development department for a set of stealth fighters and bombers named the HAF Skarmory and HAF Salamence. Both would be highly efficient for Aqua’s force, and the bombers could also be used as a double for squads like his to jump from the plane into other missions similar to this. This time however it was a matter of getting in and out quietly, something he feared with Slaughter in company.

They would take flying Pokemon and airdive onto the building in the night. From there they would have to descend to the proper floor and find the plans. He expected resistance, but Burst Hearts would not be the ideal form of combat. They were flashy, explosive, attracted a lot of attention and caused an amount of destruction that could endanger the whole mission itself. He expected some tough security, but with himself and his squad all capable close combat specialists, he had confidence in the mission.

He pondered the possibility of Burst Heart soldiers. They came at just the right time and Hoenn would rather see their plans destroyed than fall into the hands of the enemy. Getting into a long protracted fight was not what he wanted. Potentially, he could kill someone before they were able to enter a Burst form. The greater abundance of these could easily overwhelm Zach’s squad, if they were ambushed at all, responding with their own burst forms may prove to be too slow. Zach prepared his equipment, and readied his mind for the mission only hours away.

---

Taegon Erenor
Route 119
Affected RPers: None

Taegon walked amongst his fellow followers throughout the forest camps that they had set up around Route 119. They had used their Pokemon to create shelters from the caves and trees and making small huts of their own. Their equipment and supplies far outmatched their shelter, courtesy of Aqua. They had been raging a guerilla conflict against Hoenn, going throughout the forests and poking at Mauville and Fortree City. Over this time they had only gained more supporters.

The amount of new supporters they gained each day easily outweighed the casualties they would suffer in the skirmishes and fights. Taegon knew that now was the time to press out from the forests they had sufficiently taken over and make their first move. The Weather Institute had become Hoenn’s last eyes and ears in Route 119. Before their resources were required elsewhere, it had been fortified and used as a science research outpost to study more about Burst Hearts as well as the use of Legendary Pokemon and how to harness them for war.

Not only would taking the institute be yet another loss for Hoenn and further cement the Followers of Kyogre as a force to be reckoned with, but their studies would further Taegon’s mission to meet his savior, the one that brought him back from the dead as a stronger man than he had ever been before, Kyogre. With the power of this Legendary he would bring about the rebirth of the whole world as Kyogre brought his rebirth.

He had called together the hundreds almost reaching thousands of people together. In front of all of them he would announce the attack on the Weather Institute. Using that fervor they would march and take it down through sheer force of numbers. He stood on top of a large wooden platform, his giant machine gun resting on his back, and he stood imposing over everyone

“My fellow followers of Kyogre!” Taegon bellowed. “We have grown over these weeks and months, bolstering the numbers of the faithful and we have stricken harsh blows against the nonbelievers who have done nothing but ignored and hurt us ever since we were reborn in Dewford. Now we will land the largest blow that Hoenn has ever seen. We will march on the Weather Institute, and take it for the one that has given us life! Our fervor will drive us to victory. Ready yourselves, we march to battle now!” Taegon roared and the crowd of followers were in a frenzy as they gathered weapons and supplies, already on the march, north towards the Institute, going through the forest.

They would never see it coming, a small army of furious devoted followers of Kyogre, marching through the forests and demolishing what forces Hoenn had guarding their last post on the Route.

[Neo Emolga]

Noah "Neo" Ashfield
En route to Mossdeep, Hoenn
Affected RPers: N/A

We typically loaded up the speedboat with alcohol, but we saved the drinking until after the mission. Getting plastered before a mission usually resulted in us doing something stupid. While I drove the boat, Kenneth and Luke were getting gear ready. Depending on the situation, we figured we might end up having to take Hayes hostage. Or at least get him to tell us where the real stuff was.

The plan was to appear to be media reporters. I would be the interviewer, Luke would be on boom mike, and Ken was the camera guy. Our approach? Pushy. Really pushy.

According to Luke, this Hayes guy was a big shot researcher, but something about the whole cybernetics thing seemed a little weird to him. I figured I'd ask why and how, but he said that Hayes was usually into biological research and not technology, but it was possible he was working with others.

"Thing is, he's the kind of guy that will work with a team of other labs, but wants his face and name to be all over it," Luke told me, making it clear it was this guy who wanted all the fame and credit.

"I see what he's getting at," I replied over the sound of the speedboat. "Why do you suppose he's sharing this info anyway?"

"Definitely investors," Luke replied. "These guys work on a budget and the crowd he's looking to appeal to are medical professionals. We're talking robotic limb replacements. Sounds like he's found the answer to getting the nervous system to work in conjunction with cybernetics flawlessly."

In Hoenn? Obvious answer was he was planning on weaponizing something like that. He knew there was a war going on and he was just another guy that wanted to profit from it.

"Shouldn't be too long now, I see Mossdeep in the distance," Luke told me, pointing it out ahead. "Convention will start in an hour, gives us plenty of time to get set up."

Good, I was looking forward to seeing what we could squeeze out of the weasel.

---

Janine "Angel" Price
AMS Deathwing, Mirage Island, Hoenn
Affected RPers: N/A

PokéTarts were becoming a Hoenn sensation!

Already, I proved to the higher ups in Aqua that they would seen a nice chunk of change from this whole thing. The candy still seemed to be in a state where people didn't see anything wrong with it... yet. I imagined most people were thinking everything was fine while most Pokémon were in that stage where one or two PokéTarts was keeping the greedy little buggers under control. Considering the cost of what it took to make these things compared to the cash they made in return, we had a great business venture going on here!

People wanted to invest in stock in the company, but everything about Happy Buneary Candies was a total mystery. It remained a closed corporation with only a P.O. Box address. Meanwhile, we acted as our own trucking company and acted like we had no idea what we were carrying for the retailers. Nonetheless, this kind of crazy vertical business integration was throwing people off from tracking down the real origins of the candy. And most people didn't even care as long as it made their Pokémon crazy happy.

In the meantime, Project MEND was almost complete, nearly readying the last stages of finalizing the completion. Live subject testing was a success, and the results were positive. Any mishaps of the project were being addressed and weeded out. Call it biological debugging or whatever, but it was working pretty darn good, I'd have to say.

As for my "Metamorphosis Investigation," I finally managed to come up with a mutagen that wouldn't cause cancers or brain damage! Now that was really good! Yep, so I wouldn't be creating ugly zombies with this thing. Using the mutagen as a kind of software program, I could have it identify what parts needed to be modified, allowed it to perform the speedy transformations, and presto, it should work then. It was just a matter of deciding what needed to be changed. Kind of like picking an ice cream flavor!

Now, with MEND, I had an easy time getting volunteers. When told about what MEND entailed, a lot of guys liked the sound of it. With this, pft, they looked at me like I grew a second and third head out of my butt. I asked about ten Team Aqua grunts if they wanted to volunteer and see if I could give them the tail of any Pokémon they wanted, just to see if it was working correctly. No dice. Turns out, most Team Aqua grunts can do their job just fine without tails and having a tail just wasn't a socially acceptable thing yet.

Well, poo.

Then I got a better idea! I could just skip the silly process of asking other people and just test it on myself! Dang, should have just went with that sooner! I could have just skipped the silliness of asking these guys! At this point now, it was just a matter of picking what Pokémon's tail I wanted to try on. I figured if I could swing it around, make it wag, or sway from side to side, I was doing this right.

Now, just needed to find a good Pokémon's tail to use...

[XaiakuX]

Lance Harper
Harper Industries Headquarters in Goldenrod City
Affected RPers: @TheProtobabe @Grassy_Aggron @Velocity @Death's Spook

---

"So, you want to play this way, Speedy?" Lance asked, challenging his Scyther. The emerald mantis hissed at him and raised his scythe arms to intimidate Lance. Lance simply grinned and laughed at Speedy, "You'll need to do better than that, Speedy. It's been two years, and that old trick doesn't work on me."

Lance reared back and swung on his own Pokémon. Speedy simply ducked to the side, buried a scythe into the dirt, and using his own arm as leverage, delivered some level of drop kick which knocked Lance to the ground.

"That's not even a Pokémon attack, you idiot!" Lance cursed his Scyther. Lance stood to his feet, and immediately charged the giant insect. His shoulder slammed into the Pokémon's chest and knocked it back a couple of feet. The creature was surprised that his trainer finally managed to land a hit. However, this also made him angry. He glared at Lance, who was gearing up for another charge. At this point, Speedy was ready for him.

Lance came running with a fist back, ready to strike the Scyther. Just as the fist was coming down, Speedy stepped back, and threw out one of his incredibly sharp arms. The original intent was to strike Lance with the blunt side of his arm. However, blinded by fury, the Bug Pokémon nailed Lance Harper in the chest with the sharp edge of his scythe.

Lance hit the ground, writhing in agony. Blood was pouring from his chest, and his screams echoed throughout the courtyard of the Harper family estate. This brought everyone readily available to his immediate aid. Lance's father, Oliver Harper, returned Speedy to his Pokéball, and readied his family for the worst.

---

Lance looked her up and down, "Wow, you clean up nicely, Helena," he said, hinting a genuine interest. Just as swiftly as he spoke his comment, his attitude shifted back to business. "Alright, so there's this doctor that used to be connected to my family and Giovanni. There's a good chance that she probably knows something about where he might be," he opened up a drawer and retrieved a tattered leather-bound journal. "She was an old friend of my mother's, although they grew distant after Alastair was born. I don't know why, and I don't know all the facts. But this hunch might be our best connection at this point."

He began to flip through the pages of the journal and pace about, "She's a doctor over at Goldenrod General Hospital. I'm hoping I might be able to get some contact information from this book, because it'd be a real pain in the backside to have to drive all the way across the city to get to her." He noticed other possible links that he didn't bother sharing with Helena. However, when he didn't find Claressa's information in the journal, he sighed, and closed the journal.

"It looks like we're going to have to head over there. That's the first actual step here, it seems. So, here's my idea," He held the journal in his right hand, and turned to face her, "After we play our public roles and head over to the hospital, we'll split up. At that point I'll distract the doctor, if she isn't already busy with patients. While that's happening, you can sneak into her office and try to dig up some dirt."

Lance paused for a moment, and sighed. He turned his gaze to the laptop that sat upon the mahogany desk right next to him. "Part of this is to get back at Giovanni. But I want to make sure he learns a lesson. I don't want him dead. I want him to learn that every crime he's ever committed has a consequence. I want him to pay the right way," he closed his eyes as he finished speaking. "Part of me hates him. But, if I act out violently, or attempt to take revenge.. That doesn't make me any better than him."

"I can't forget about this war, either. The people will look to me for some level of direction. I can't imagine myself being any level of soldier, general, or warlord. While Kanto is blaming us for this, the real enemy is going to be Hoenn. They started all of this. We must make amends with Kanto, then join forces to take down Hoenn, and put a stop to all of this madness." At this point, Lance was just thinking out loud. When he realized this, he quickly snapped back into focus.

He tucked the journal into the inner pocket of his blazer, and closed the desk drawer. "Listen, I'm sorry for just kind of forcing you to do all this. I sometimes get really caught up in the moment of things," his voice was honest, but he spoke to her indirectly. He turned to face her, and smiled, "Since I didn't ask you, before, I'll ask now. Will you help me to take down Giovanni? Will you, the only other person who knows this secret, help me save my company, my city, and my country from this tyrannical psychopath?"

It was at this point that an unexpected surprise came bursting into his office. A tall fellow who appeared brooding in physique, yet otherwise cheerful. You wouldn't expect such a positive vibe off of this tall stranger. Yet, this was no stranger to Lance. Lance was present for this tall man's birth, and every day after until he turned sixteen. This cheerful giant was his younger brother, Alastair. He was thrown off guard with the sudden embrace, and feigned being crushed by his arms. "Oof! Alastair, it has been too.. long," he stuck his words, gently squirmed from the hug, and then placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Little brother has come home! I haven't seen you in.. well.. two years," his words trailed off at the end, with unhappy memories resurfacing. He immediately shrugged off those memories, in order to retain a comfortable reunion with his only living family member. "You must have many stories to tell of your travels! We were just leaving, and you're welcome to join us. We're going to the Hospital across town to visit the patients and wish them well. To also thank the soldiers who have been fighting for us against Kanto and Hoenn. Sounds like a good tactic to say that the Harper name isn't going down without a fight."

He patted his brother's shoulder and turned focus to Helena, "My goodness, I was so caught up in the moment, I forgot to introduce you to my new friend! Alastair this is Helena, she's a potential investor in the company. I'm really trying to pick this company back up after everything that's happened. It's hopeful that she will be a great asset to us in the long term of things."

[OoC: I imagine a response will also be allowed for my question to Helena before Alastair walks in.]

[TheProtobabe]

Helena Gray
Goldenrod City
Affected RPers: @XaiakuX, @Death's Spook

"Wow, you clean up nicely, Helena," Lance told her. His voice sounded distantly impressed.

"Tch," she scoffed dismissively. Another woman might have been flattered, but Helena never truly cared about her looks--or anyone else's. Her beauty was only a tool to her, another thing she could use against people. She wasn't much for outright manipulation, but sometimes it was needed.

"Alright, so there's this doctor that used to be connected to my family and Giovanni. There's a good chance that she probably knows something about where he might be."

Her eyes dropped to the journal he pulled out--old, and obviously well-used. But that battered old thing promised information. Her fingers itched to snatch it out of Lance's hands, but obviously she restrained herself from doing so. Lance would take offense, since it was something so personal... and she really couldn't afford to offend the only person who had the resources to the Ancient Burst heart she so desperately needed.

"She was an old friend of my mother's, although they grew distant after Alastair was born. I don't know why, and I don't know all the facts. But this hunch might be our best connection at this point."

He continued thumbing through the pages, gleaning more information out of them--enough for a lead, anyway. She knew he probably didn't divulge anything he didn't want her to know, the information being too personal, but at least he was helping her out somehow. Helena nodded thoughtfully after he snapped the journal shut, claiming that they had to visit the actual hospital to find anything out.

"Sounds like a plan," she conceded after he voiced his idea on how to gather information on the doctor. "I can do it blind, but having a blueprint or at least a layout of the place may make the operation go more smoothly. I suggest we do that before heading inside."

She crossed her arms as Lance went on about how he did want to play Giovanni back--but not with violence. Helena resisted the urge to scoff. In this world, being kind equated to weakness. But Lance, so far, was useful to her, so she shut her mouth and made no response to his words.

"I can't forget about this war, either. The people will look to me for some level of direction. I can't imagine myself being any level of soldier, general, or warlord. While Kanto is blaming us for this, the real enemy is going to be Hoenn. They started all of this. We must make amends with Kanto, then join forces to take down Hoenn, and put a stop to all of this madness."

"Making amends with a country who points fingers so quickly will be so close to impossible that it's pointless," Helena said in her flat tone. "Even with proof that Hoenn is the culprit, Kanto's hatred of Johto is so deep-seated that it will take some sort of sappy miracle for it to work. War means that people die. Deaths of relatives aren't so easily forgotten," she pointed out. "You should know, Harper."

"Listen, I'm sorry for just kind of forcing you to do all this. I sometimes get really caught up in the moment of things," he told her. His voice sounded sincere, but she just raised an eyebrow in answer.

"I couldn't tell," she answered dryly. Her crossed arms moved to plant a hand on her hip.

"Since I didn't ask you, before, I'll ask now. Will you help me to take down Giovanni? Will you, the only other person who knows this secret, help me save my company, my city, and my country from this tyrannical psychopath?"

Helena stayed silent for a few ticks of the clock, her eyes flicking from one of Lance's eyes to the other. Oh, he was sincere all right. One of those 'hero' types, probably. A good guy. But she honestly admired his resolve, at the least. She sighed.

"Yes. I'll help you, Lance Harper--so long as you know I'm in it more to find Giovanni than anything else. One other thing--" she added. "I'm used to working alone. Don't throw people at me without asking, first."

Her eyes flicked over to the door just before it burst open, a cheerful man entering and throwing himself at Lance. Helena had moved quickly to the side to avoid this, and she watched with more than a little satisfaction as Lance was crushed in the embrace.

'Good. Serves him right for pinning me into his little tag-team,' she thought vindictively.

But as Alistair--for she knew his name--turned to look at her after being introduced, she gave her best demure smile. It was well-practiced over the years, and it made her look positively harmless. She reached a hand out, palm-down, to Alistair.

"Pleasure to meet you," she said, her flat voice now more lilting and soft.

[Neo Emolga]

Noah "Neo" Ashfield
Mossdeep City, Hoenn
Affected RPers: N/A

The Progressive Science Expo was a place for nerds, geeks, and freaks to all convene and drool over the latest geeky crap lab rats like this chump Malcolm Hayes was showing off. Once we landed in Mossdeep City, it was easy to notice this joint was devoted to science. Most of the civilians here were researchers, technicians, mathematicians, and engineers. All the guys that could literally puke math by the gallon.

Sure, I knew most of the weaponry and technology we had was thanks to crap like this, but it was the technical garbage that made me angry enough to punch babies. This was definitely not the place I wanted to live in. I would blast heavy metal all day just to piss people up a tree.

The sun was out and the day ordinarily seemed typical. The ocean breeze made me feel like doing other things, like drinking up the beers and booze in the boat. My three-man crew got our equipment together and headed toward the expo, leaving the beer behind. Meanwhile, the camera and boom mike weren't real, they were simply containers holding our real equipment.

The crowd wasn't nearly as big as I thought it was going to be. Sure, a few people from Science Tomorrow Magazine were there, along with Computer Guru. All magazines I wouldn't be caught dead reading. And there was one other news channel team there. We blended in pretty well. Crowds were light so we wouldn't be facing too much screaming and stupidity.

I took note of the helicopter that Hayes used to arrive. Ken managed to get a tracking bug on it pretty quickly, but my plan was to get what we wanted before Hayes even left the island. Still, I could tell this schmuck was rich. Rich people always love to fly away.

In the meantime, the place was lightly guarded. The guards here were armed with handguns and nothing more. It seemed like things around here couldn't possibly be more boring for these guys. And from the look of it, it seemed like these guys hadn't seen anything in years. I imagined they were probably out of practice at that.

The expo was pretty big. Open, airy, lots of stupid triangular windows in a dome formation, white pillars, marble floors, potted palm trees, and other expensive crap. It was hard to resist the urge to just break something. Couldn't be by accident either.

Hayes was just one event of the expo. There were six others that went into other various crap that I wouldn't care about. One was ancient archaeology. Sure didn't give a crap about that. Those tribals were dead and I didn't care about their pots or ugly figurines. Another was for future communication. So what? I figured I'd just buy whatever was at the store in due time. But there were always some people that ate this stuff up. Nerds.

Mission step one was to act like we weren't actually all that interested in Hayes's stuff. I actually made it look like we were interviewing the joker by the space exhibit. He went on and on about describing a planet out there that didn't have a dang hint of life on it anyway. Who the hell cares about it then? It sounded like he was trying to sell it. Idiot. I might as well be buying a star.

Next exhibit, the botanist girl. All I really cared about was that she looked hot. While she was going on about some kind of sunflower or whatever thing, I was trying to picture her naked. In only minutes, her lecture was over and only when she leave did I snap out of it.

Then, we moved onto Hayes. And this was where the fun would begin.

---

Janine "Angel" Price
AMS Deathwing, Mirage Island, Hoenn
Affected RPers: N/A

PokéTarts had reached that stage between "hot seller" and "there's gotta be something wrong with this stuff." Trainers were becoming concerned that their Pokémon were quickly becoming PokéTarts junkies and now downing entire handfuls at a time. As many trainers had discovered, Pokémon were turning into whiny, greedy beggars if they didn't get their fix.

But most of the general public still refused to see it as a problem, which was funny. People just figured hey, it's a popular item, Pokémon love it, ain't broke, don't fix it! And hey, I was cool with that! In the meantime, production of this stuff was rolling along and each bag of the stuff was a pretty much guaranteed seller.

In the meantime, we finished and finalized the successful results of Project MEND! Total, sheer victory on this one! Team Aqua quickly realized what MEND does when we pulled the bow and wrapping paper off of this baby.

Regeneration. It was that simple! If you got shot, stabbed, burnt, pierced, impaled, or whatever form of wounding the other side came up with, all you had to do was give it a handful of seconds or so, and the injury would start healing totally on its own! Now big injuries, like getting your hand chopped off and such would take a few days to grow back, but you would totally grow another working hand! It was freaky and weird, but kinda cool in a way! But, unfortunately, it didn't exactly make people immortal. Total destruction of the head or heart would still be deadly. You could still get killed by drowning, falling into lava, or getting crushed to death by a whatever. But minor and even some serious injuries... no problem! Bandage sales go down 100%!

MEND was kept under tight wraps. Team Aqua only. We weren't even thinking of selling this thing. It meant whoever thought of fighting us was in for a big surprise! Among all the other things, of course. Now, how to get MEND? It was a special kind of injection that was only being given in the labs. We really didn't want anyone to steal this.

Meanwhile, I was working on the Metamorphosis project. Since I wasn't making too much progress with getting a lucky Team Aqua volunteer to try on a new Pokémon tail, I decided to go for it myself. Had a tough time picking, though! But in the end, I decided to go with a Furret's. Every Furret had a nice, cute tail to work with, so I figured I'd try that out.

Tiantus had plenty of Pokémon DNA samples and Furret wasn't exactly the most legendary Pokémon out there. So, I decided to work the Furret DNA with the mutagen I created and worked through the configurations to give myself a nice Furret tail. Now, I needed to compensate the mutagen with a threshold value to make sure my body could actually move it around and feel natural as opposed to being a limp coil of useless fluff that I would drag everywhere. That'd suck.

Once it was ready, I figured hey, time to give it a spin. So, I took the syringe, jabbed myself, and inserted the mutagen. Easy money.

First check was it was working quickly. Great! If it was too slow, no one would have bothered with it. So at least the mutagen's effective speed was great! So, within just a few seconds, a nice, fluffy Furret tail tore its way out above my butt, through my jeans and lab coat, and extended for a few more feet. So far, I couldn't feel it, but it was still working so I give it a little time. It was really quite a big tail!

Then, I tried to move it, and hey, that was working too! Wow, it was crazy, having a tail was like having an extra arm that could bend in any direction you wanted it to! Everything seemed to be working great! No crazy cancer or brain damage either! And those potential volunteers didn't trust me!

And then it happened.

I felt pretty good about the mutagen's success, and then as luck would have it, I suddenly realized the mutagen wasn't stopping at the tail. Nope. I suddenly realized I was growing brown and beige Furret fur all over my body, and then I felt like my bones were starting to shift and transform as well.

"No, no, no, you can stop now!" I pleaded, as if the mutagen could actually hear me. "Yikes, why isn't it stopping!?"

But it didn't. It kept on going and going because hey, the mutagen was dumb and though well, to make the threshold work, the cells near the tail need to be transformed. And the ones next to that as well. There wasn't really any special kind of stop indication that said "this is Janine's DNA that you're not supposed to mess with!" Nope, it just decided to mess with everything!

I was coated from head to toe with Furret fur, my freaking arms and legs were sucked into my body, leaving me with only hands and feet, and my ears grew long and pointy. Meanwhile, my entire skeletal frame was changed around with a lot of crunch, snap, and pop sounds that could have make me puke.

I felt like I had been turned from a human into a furry Slinky with hands and feet. Oh sure, it was extra cute, but I didn't want it to turn out this way!

End result: 100% Furret, tail and all. 0% human. Way to go, Janine! My clothes were now just in a pile while I slinkyied my way out of them. Crap, I mean, wow, being a Furret was really cool, cute, and fun, but it was not what I wanted. Plus really, turning people into Pokémon, Bill figured out how to do that years ago. This was like me suddenly inventing the HAM radio... again.

Oh well, time to get back to work and figure out what I did wrong!

[TheoreticalSelkie]

((Crap, this took too long, sorry!))

Clarisse Thompson
Slateport City, Hoenn
Affected RPers: Tazz

Today was one of those bad-luck days for Clarisse. A rare sight at that, since a fair amount of the time, her plans went off without too much of a hitch. This was not one of them. With the appearance of the 'rat' and his equally as formidable Pokemon, she was really thinking on her toes there.

A customary grin plastered across her face, Clarisse turned around. Her sharp ears had picked up on Yarvick's quiet footsteps, allowing her to respond a little faster to his attack. Well not that quickly, as the meteorite was wrenched out of the box by the Alakazam's telekinesis. It floated above their heads. Despite the meteorite being her main target, Clarisse was okay with having it slip out of her hands for the moment. What was going on right now was far more interesting than a hunk of rock. There was a thud as she dropped the box and whistled loudly, hopping backwards out of Yarvick's range. With that little hop, she had dodged the Ice Beam also, feeling the chill as it whooshed past her into the door.

The sound echoed in the hallway, causing several different responses from Clarisse's Pokemon. Sequana was slumped over, snoring away. It received a faceful of the powder and went down without much of a fight. Loki, fighting nearby, scowled as he duked it out with Iapetus. He was clipped in the shoulder by the earlier intervention when he was aiming for the Alakazam, but that was nearly nothing compared to the bone-crunching bites Sequana could deliver... and had delivered in the name of training. His ear-horns perked up as he heard the whistle and he grinned. What the whistle meant was 'Do whatever the hell you want, but get back here~' and he was going to do just that. This damn upstart wasn't going to stop him at all.

Loki threw a handy Sucker Punch, a blow that wasn't meant to damage but only to catch Iapetus off-balance. He instantly darted away into Sequana's shadow. While that wasn't going to stop Iapetus for any length of time, it gave him the opportunity to hit Sequana up to the ceiling with a Thunder Punch. If that didn't wake up the Floatzel, nothing would. Then again, it was a drug-induced sleep. That could be different. Sequana crashed back into the ground without so much as a twitch. Lazy... Loki sighed and turned back to answer Iapetus's next moves with a Dark Pulse, keeping an eye on that creepy Whimsicott floating around. It would be nice if Se actually got around to waking up.

As for Cu, he was getting badly beaten by the Infernape. His only consolation was that he turned aside to reduce the damage from the blows, meaning that he was still standing afterwards. In the narrow hallway, Clarisse darted past Yarvick, getting behind him. Her hand reached out and slammed down on her opponent's back.

"Fire Blast, Cu, I don't mind the heat. Try not to hit anyone, however. As for you, you're quite the interesting fellow. You can have the rock for now." She addressed Yarvick, lapsing back into the persona of the blonde thief "Mark my words, I'll be back for it eventually."

As she finished her words, Cu spat out star-shaped flames, scorching the hallway behind the tussle. The flames quickly dissipated, reflecting the pain Cu was feeling at the moment. There was a click as the sprinklers turned on, drenching everyone in the building.

[The Nonexistent Tazz]

Yarvick "The Raticate" Xelsez
Team Aqua
Slateport Aquatics Museum, Slateport, Hoenn
Affected RPers: The Selkmeister General.

Hyperion had gotten the rock with Telekinesis, and quickly whipped it into his hand the instant it was above everyone's reach.

In that instant, all else was irrelevant. The other thief, her Pokemon, the guards, everything. It was time to go.

"Everyone, back to Yarvick, I've got the loot!" Hyperion Telepathed the group. Yarvick kept on-guard and backed off of the mysterious female thief. Her unconscious was not the goal-she had let it slip away in self-defense. Logical, but just as planned.

Rhea could have made a Mach Punch to the Arcanine's face, making it faint and ending the Thief's getaway cold. However, She didn't need Hyperion to tell what Yarvick wanted of her, and so, like a loyal student to her master, she returned to Yarvick's side, and into her Poke Ball. One of four.

Atlas realized what was going on from the cameras, and didn't need Hyperion to tell him what to do. He fled the cameras, knowing they were still not recording by default, and also back into his Poke Ball. Two of four.

Eos was done with 'Se,' and turned her attention to Loki, keeping her distance. She found it incredibly odd that the other Gengar attempted to wake up the Floatzel with a Thunderpunch to the face. That ought to have hurt...Really, it probably made it sleep deeper. Nevertheless, the fellow Iapetus fought was a tricky one, but two against one was not a hard battle at all. It would have been fairly easy, despite her types being quite insufficient against a Gengar-the distraction alone was gold for Iapetus. But, Hyperion telepathed to get back, he had the loot. So, she fled down the hallway, where Yarvick went, above the ceiling and above the conflict with her light and floating body. She quite liked that part of herself. She touched down next to Yarvick and poked her own Poke Ball, which sucked her in, complete with a flash of red light. Three of Four.

Iapetus was quite infuriated with his counterpart. If Humankind was its own worst enemy, then Gengarkind had a thread to share with it. The duo's fight was comparable to a boxing match-a Sucker Punch became a hit-and-run jab, a Shadow Ball a hard hook. If Iapetus was Ali, this one was Frazier. However, he found it a laughable mistake to use his Sucker Punch as an opportunity to punch his teammate awake. Even if off-balance for a brief second, it was not enough. He was preparing to aim a Hypnosis during that time. Most of the time, he just had to use it, but aiming it meant great things, and a Hypnosis was as good as a KO. But, Hyperion's call went, and he did not stick around. It became irrelevant. He took a Dark Pulse to the back for turning his back on his foe, but it was still irrelevant, they could meet again. He fled with Eos, back down the hallway, darting into the shadows, narrowly avoiding the Arcanine from before as it came by, and touching his Poke Ball, sending him back inside with a red flash. Four of four.

Yarvick, in response to the girl shoving her in the back, just went into a roll and stood up again, not chasing her at all, grasping Hyperion's arm with his free left hand. He didn't respond to her threat of stealing it back at all. He's heard it a few times before and they could not deliver. Or, rather, they couldn't deliver when it mattered to Yarvick. By the time the rival thieves had caught up to their intended prize, he had already been paid. It did NOT matter to him that his customer got stolen of the prize, just that he gave it to him. That was the contract, and that was what he got paid for-back then at least. Aqua wasn't even going to pay him for if he got it back, just that he stirred up the requisite chaos.

Hyperion teleported himself and Yarvick away from the hallway, just as the showers rained down, back to the bench at the front of the Slateport Aquatics and Naval museum, where they sat minutes before. The guards had all been lured to the back of the museum, the alarms were mercifully silent, and in any case, who would expect a thief to escape to the FRONT of the museum? No footage existed to tell who, exactly, stole it, in any case. Atlas ensured that much. Only the disguise thief knew.

Hyperion circled around Yarvick, checking for where the disguise thief touched Yarvick, and in several other places. Finding nothing out of the ordinary, he checked himself, then the meteorite he carried. Finally, his diagnosis: "No tracking devices on either of us or the target...And this is the real Meteorite...Yarvick, we did it," Hyperion said. An Alakazam's intelligence in any subject it knew a good deal of was never to be questioned. That was excellent news: The disguise thief would have to be quick to find him, and The Raticate would give her no quarter in this.

Yarvick sent Hyperion back into his Poke Ball, the Meteorite safe inside. He would not risk losing it, and henceforth Hyperion would not be sent back out until he returned to Mirage island.

But, before any of that c**p, to actually get back there. Which meant dealing with him.

The last Pokemon. The one he hadn't sent out against the Disguise thief. Oceanus. If he had REALLY wanted to kill the disguise thief, he'd have sent him out. But he was dangerous. Without Hyperion or Rhea by his side, it was an invitation to kill Yarvick, and even with them around he was still quite tempted. Yarvick attempted to make amends: He apologized, he explained it was an accident, he fed him, sheltered him, trained him to the best of his ability, and didn't give him much sass for his lack of cooperation. Oceanus was not an ungrateful a** and he was, slowly, warming up to Yarvick, but he was still all too angry about losing his original owner, Colonel Brillo.

Yarvick had two hard counters to his incredible strength and intelligence: Hyperion, who was smarter and who could probe Oceanus for his plans no matter how hard he tried; and Rhea, who Oceanus had a huge crush on. Yarvick would not risk the meteorite being out in the open, even if it meant Rhea had to get close to the water and Water Pokemon, so out Rhea went. She was unscathed from the last fight, mercifully: Oceanus loathed it whenever she was wounded.

Then, without further ado, Yarvick called out Oceanus in a flash of red.

Oceanus took a look around at his surroundings, including Rhea, next to Yarvick. Oceanus gave a hard gaze at his trainer, but softened upon looking at Rhea. Rhea repriocated his feelings towards him...To a limited extent.

"Oceanus, we've got to get out of here. We're just heading out back to the you-know-where..." Yarvick said, checking around him, even above him, to make sure nobody was looking from above. He would not refrence the AMS Deathwing by name in public. Or even refer to it as a ship in public. "...We need to get back there. Rhea is coming along because I know what you'll do to me on the water without her."

Oceanus looked at Yarvick, hard. Rhea saw this grabbed Yarvick's hand in response, a reminder of the bond she had with Yarvick, the bond Yarivck knew that Rhea would not break, a bond that would make her love of Oceanus wither away upon his murder. Oceanus knew this, and so did Yarvick. Oceanus gave a nod.

The trio quickly found a dock that wasn't under heavy scrutiny by the navy-for suddenly they were abuzz like a hornet's nest, rushing to and fro, officers angrily shouting orders to their men, an attitude of anger surrounding them. From what he could gather from the Navymen, 'Orre Terrorists' stole two ships from the docks and blew up two others. Yarvick didn't know if he was early or late to the party in that regard. Eventually, they found an isolated patch of water, away from the millitary hubbub. Yarvick would dodge as many confrontations with them as possible.

"Thank you," Yarvick replied as he situated himself on Oceanus, "For giving me the pleasure of a ride today."

Rhea grabbed onto Yarvick as she stepped onto Oceanus'es back. Yarvick knew she was not a good swimmer, but both of them knew the importance of keeping Oceanus in check. That, and Yarvick knew she was the type to brave her fears.

Oceanus started off slowly, and they were off at respectable speeds in no time, though still slower than Oceanus'es top speed. Probably because of Rhea. Yarvick made sure to look back, up, and around, to check for pursuers or anyone watching him, as they left the Slateport coastline.