Markus 'Mark' Novolos
Viridian Forest
TSUNAMI the SQUIRTLE (5/5); TYPHOON the BAGON (5/5); TORNADO the SPEAROW (6/6);
Points: 1 + 61 (62)
Items: Poke Balls x 9, Potions x 2

Pokemon Evolving: Tsunami the Squirtle
Evolving Into: Wartortle
Points Required: 16
Points On-hand: 62
Points afterwards: 46

Pokemon Evolving: Tornado the Spearow
Evolving into: Fearow
Points Required: 20
Points on-hand: 46
Points afterwards: 26

Pokemon Capturing: Azurill
Item used: Poke Ball
Effects: N/A
Cost: 5
Points On-hand: 26
Points afterwards: 21

Link: In Signature.

Markus sat outside, glum. It got worse when Virtue had to be rolled out in a wheelchair. "S***, Vii! That...Wow. Is it...Uhh..."

Thus far, Vii's injuries were the worst by far, and if they were taken at face value Vii had literally ended her own Trainer career in minutes: She could theoretically keep to the gym and train hard, but that would seriously limit her compared to, say, being out and about, and usually any leg injury enough to put you in a wheelchair ended a journey cold. Hopefully this was temporary.

This whole debacle had put an awfully black taint on the whole thing.

Then the Azurill came along, six total and one for each of them, happy as can be and carefree. That was some slight happiness in a day highlighted by chaos and extreme pain.

Markus sent out three Pokemon, intending to Capture one as its fellows took a capturing and they started to take to flight. They jointly surrounded one. Typhoon, being the idiot he was, immediately re-engaged in the height comparison contest. The Azurill obliged and matched it.

"Tornado, Tsunami, Typhoon, attack it, head on! Get physical!" Markus said.

Typhoon was a little too caught up in his height comparison test. Meanwhile, Tsunami and Typhoon immediately complied and both used Tackle to immediately bash the Azurill into a considerably weakened state. Then, Markus threw a Poke Ball directly at the Azurill.

The Bagon looked kind of confused as the ball rocked back and forth, back and forth, back and forth...And clicks. Azurill caught.

"Heck yes." Markus said, picking up the Poke Ball and heading back inside.

He thought he could leave his Pokemon alone, with the care of the other five, for FIVE seconds. When he came back outside the Pokemon Center with a fully-healed Azurril, Tsunami and Tornado were beating up on Typhoon viciously. Markus bet it was something stupid Typhoon did that riled them up. He figured he'd need SPECIAL training with that one if he kept it's prideful Draconic ways up. He returned Typhoon and took HIM to the Pokemon Center.

When he got back the Two Pokemon waiting outside for him were considerably different. There was a turtle and a bird, yes, but the Turtle's tail had turned to cotton, it got wings for ears, got a darker shade of blue, grew larger in general, and had some fangs for it. Meanwhile, the Bird gained considerable beak length, wingspan, and a head crest, a far cry from it's tiny nature before.

He was promptly hug-tackled by the new Tsunami and Tornado, who had just evolved while he was out.

"OK, no more letting you out of my sight, I wanted to see you Evolve! But good jobs, both of you, I'll make sure Typhoon gets the picture!" Markus said, petting his happy Pokemon.

...

Bells.

Always Bells. They were the most consistent and most haunting dreams, and unlike most of his other bad ones he had no basis for their existence at all. The dreams with Avalon were probably due to meeting him head-on, the Dreams with the shadowy figure were a derivative in all likelyness, the slaughter factory was a derivative of the 'friend in the cogworks' incident, and he hadn't had any Porygon dreams. Markus had no mental precedent for bells. And yet, this dream always hit home. The first time left him screaming and in a cold sweat. The surprise was mentally lessened over time.

This dream went roughly the same in each iteration. First, nothing but some glitchy static, like a graphical distortion. Then the bells-they rang four times first, then came a guitar wihle the bells rang four times more, then the unidentifiable music kept on until a jumpscare happened. Literally. Something. Always freaking angry, but different every time. There were usually no lyrics, and nothing changed at all, until the end.

This is where Markus started realizing something was different. The bells...They rang, and the glitchiness recoiled. By bell ring number four, it was gone. He was standing somewhere...Quite unlike anywhere else he's ever been. It looked like a town, but it also looked like the fabric of reality was being torn to shreds around it, or some massive, Indecipherable Wave of some completely impossible substance was surging towards it.

Then it shifted, to a place where it was almost pitch black, with only a single, ominous light in the distance. Then, to a place with tons of floating islands and no bottom nor top, some bleak and desolate place. Then a place with a grounded bottom and top, bleak and reeking of death. The bells rang with every shift, and with the last...A scream of agony.

Markus figured the font size suitable for the scream and it's rage was far too large for the forums to handle, so he'll leave you with that complete and utter breach of the fourth wall.

Before he could see what happened next, though, the scene changed-the glitchiness briefly returning as the bells finally faded and the unidentifiable music kicked in. If Markus was a musician he'd write this down.

"I'm rollin' thunder, I'm pourin Rain!"

Huh. Markus didn't hear lyrics before. Whoever sung that ought to get a reward. Nevertheless, he was standing in some kind of marsh with two other people, neither of whom he recognized, and a fourth he stared at directly, the only one who looked even remotely like she was actually familiar with the place at all.

"I'm comin' on like a Hurricane!"

It cut. Markus was fighting. Markus had a shield, black as night, and he was bashing some guy's head in quite gruesomely. Markus hoped that this wasn't going to become true at some later date, it looked awful-that, and not shortly after did a Lucario come in and kick him in the face with a nasty drop kick while he was preoccupied with that.

"My lightnin's flashin', across the sky!"

It cut again. Markus was somewhere...Uh, underground. Looked like an Onyx tunnel from description-just a long straight hole, but it lead to an underground city of some kind? Definitely didn't look in one piece. He was approaching some guys-

"You're only young but ya' gonna die!"

It cut. Markus had a hell of a BFG and it was pointed in the general direction of a woman, on fire and looking very dangerous. He could almost make out the figure behind her, if not for the heat. A new figure stood beside him and flung something blue at the woman, though, casuing her to-

"I won't take no prisoners, won't spare no lives!"

IT cut again. He was meeting someone, but unlike everyone else, who had the mercy of a crisp description, this guy/gal/thing had a completely white outline, though he/she/it was holding something long, like a staff or something. He/her/it had his/her/its own group, and Markus was walking up to him/her/it-

"Nobody's putting up a fight!"

It cut again. It was some kind of arena, and some dudes were unconscious. A massive serpent made of metal accosted him and the white outline man along with both of their groups. It dove, but Markus dove out of the way. Looking at himself, his outline and body were completely black, and also looking, he could almost-

"I've got my bell I'm gonna take you to hell!"

He was in a ruined city, people were dead, Pokemon were dead, the Pokemon had clothes and guns? They did, as well as the humans, it looked utterly wrecked, like someone tried a terraforming operation to turn the place into a desert with some very angry Tyranitar. He saw a gray outline, couldn't make it out, but he was running, he was angry-

"I'm gonna get you! Satin(*) get you!"

It did not shift, the gray outline turned around, it faded-

HIM.

"Hell's Bells!"

Up until that line, he sounded completely different. But he was the singer, he saw those lips move! He also looked angry like hell. Markus roared, he felt himself stronger than he ever had awake or asleep (as himself), he tried to punch him with a right hook.

"FFFFFFUUUU-"

Markus woke up, yelling briefly until he realized that monster was not, in fact, actually there at all.

...Something had shifted. Something about this journey was going to go horribly wrong. he had seen no prophetic visions of the future, but his dreams had conditions and patterns that they followed, and that was a nasty and overt subversion to them. The Beedril horde took no victims he recalled, but if that wasn't already a bad sign, this was.

...Yet, if it kept showing him that monster, maybe he'd find the monster.

Maybe he'd kill it at last.

That was worth it if nothing else.

In any case, it was just a dream. Dreams change. Maybe the change awoke a different change?

He'd find out.

((*I'm aware of what the line actually is, but considering a certain Dragonball Z character going by that name without censoring, I'm not entirely sure if it's safe or not, so enjoy that intentional misspelling as an alternative. Also, the song is the first part to AC/DC's Hell's Bells, including the lyrics, in case you couldn't guess.))