[IC] Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Void

[KaBling]

"Just fucking die already!" With one hard slam to the left, the Zubat was forced onto the rough path to Celes' house, coughing out the last few bits of blood in its stomach. "I'm not done yet... I'm not done yet Celes, I'm not done yet..." I said, twitching and enjoying a brief bit of happiness. Ignoring Celes... was quite hard, and I had to swallow everything I knew about myself. Then again, no one was to harm my teammates. Those bastards thought they could rob this house. In the end, they were criminals. Those Pokemon didn't look good in a certain page in my book. "They have no right to become petty robbers, let alone be able to harm us..." My voice quivered as I finished my sentence. All I saw were horrified faces, frozen and trying to think about better days. As I approached them however, to my own fading anger, I could see it wasn't just Team Zan in despair. In front of just about everyone... even Celes' family and our teammates... I knew the general consensus was how far I would go. No one expected this after all, not from me. I felt as if life owed me though. "I... r-run! God damn it, bollocks! I'm comin' for your arses!" And with that, I shooed them off into the wild plains, striking lightning bolts to send a message. I scorched a small patch of rough shrub, leaving just a flower consumed by small flames. The natural sound of the plains had gone, with the Zubat still bleeding from its head and trying to groan. Some of the family members glared at me, while others gave me signs of disapproval and tried to help the Zubat. In the distance, I just saw limping and crying. I stuck my magnet back onto myself, watching it wriggle a bit. I frankly didn't care about the red tinge beginning to develop. It was likely blood anyway. "Let's just go. Come on." Quietly, I floated over to Celes, avoiding interaction with anyone else as I picked up Spruce's unconscious grey body, waiting for anyone to teleport for us. I knew what I was starting to become, though I was afraid to confront it afterwards.

[bobert778]

Xeno accepted the handshake, understanding the concept but clasping Matt's hand at an odd angle which made the actual shaking part awkward. Quickly Xeno withdrew his hand, finding the texture of Matt to be somewhat unpleasant as he was used to solid and plain surfaces. "Team," Xeno muttered as a few other pokemon began to discuss something. His attention was drawn again to the objects he'd been given, and his earlier question was thankfully answered. "And 'Anthony' is the other squishy one, correct?" Xeno tried to clarify, attention turning to the pokemon in question. He'd need to figure out exactly what was going on regarding this 'team' but that didn't seem important at the moment. The crystal while not normally something he'd be overly interested in did look kind of appetizing, and it would be good to know if it was important.

[Card Captor]

Kamina With their foe's routed and the atmosphere ruined, all they could do was return home. "Until next time Celes' family" Kamina said before activating his badge to teleport them back the the guild. Once they returned, Kamina took Spruce form M and handed him over the Celes "here; our good friend Spruce will need treatment soon. As his lover, I think he would rather have you by his side. As for us; M and I have some things to talk about." For a brief second, Kamina marveled over how he now towered over everyone else. It was quite a novel feeling. Grabbing M with his mouth, Kamina took him to the team's room before letting him go "I saw how you acted at the end of that fight. Is there anything you want to talk about?" --- Tini When Bonnie told him that Attract kept her mother alive, he reacted normally...for someone who had just seen Yog-Sothoth in his entirety. "A-Attract saved a life...but it's one of the Three Unforgivable Moves, it is pure evil. How...how could anyone use it for good?" And that's when things started to get weird "It doesn't matter! She just confessed to having used that move multiple times! She must burn, burn in the really bad place!!!! B-b-b-but Bonnie is our friend...we can't do that to a friend. Lies! Anyone who would so readily use one of the Three Unforgivable Moves is no friend of ours! As agents of justice, we must ensure that she is punished!!! She was only trying to save her mother!!! We have a mother too, are you saying that you can't understand that? It doesn't matter, she has sinned! There's reason why they're called the Three Unforgivable Moves for a reason! Are you saying that you forgot what that witch did to use with Attract, what she almost did to us!? No, no! I could never forget that, it was so scary. It felt like our brain was drowning, and every time we managed to surface, we just got pushed back down. And she was doing the very same thing to someone else! Can you really justify that!? She was protecting her mother! That's what hero's do; they protect others. I-I-I-I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S RIGHT ANYMORE!!!" Then there was an audible 'crack', and Tini fainted. 7.36 seconds later, he woke back up "Huh...where are we? I feel like I just forgot the last 1736 seconds of my life...I don't like it when that happens."

[Sumable]

-William- "... Bonnie, I think everyone in our team is fit to go to an insane asylum..." I say, looking at Tini as he freaks out and then breaks... something, and then faints. Suddenly, a group of Sandslash and Scrafty and other pokemon approach. "Hey!" one of them says. "INVADERS!" another one yells, and they begin to charge at us. "I really wish I had something other than transform right now!" I say, becoming a Scrafty. I look at them and use High Jump Kick on a Scrafty, which made him fall over and bleed from the nostrils, but he got back up and used Crunch, biting my hand. After he let go, a Sandslash used Fury Swipes and cut my arms an front, and I said "I think I need help!" as the other Sandslash begins to attack Samuel. The two scrafty, one bleeding from the nose, approach both Bonnie and Tini, and prepare to use High Jump Kick together.

[Lugia]

[Spruce] I woke up in front of the mission board with only Celes near me, and a giant snaketrack in the wood leading somewhere. That M... he almost killed someone! I don't want to end up on the outlaw board. Maybe he's just stressed out I think as I try to think of some way to lighten him up, or, cheer him up. Maybe a good old-fashioned prank would do. I've still got that bucket in my room, all I'd need is some water, and a door. I ponder as I head towards my team's room, making a note of where that indent led, as well as a single poke that seems to have fallen off of someone. I take the bucket from behind my bed, one that I used to use to occasionally refill the guild's well during droughts, a job that I never liked too much, and I head off, passing by Celes again. I head towards the guild's well, which wasn't too far. Just a few steps to the right of the guild, and there it was, missing bucket and everything. I tied the rope to my bucket, and lowered it into the well, eventually getting some water, and raising the bucket back up. Obviously, it was much heavier like this, so it took a little longer than lowering it. As soon as the bucket was back up above ground, I took it using my vines, and headed back towards that room that M MIGHT have been in... with my only clues being a giant snake track, and a single pokecoin that nobody seemed to want for some reason. I open the door very slightly and very carefully, and place the bucket on the top of the door using my vines. I then head back up to the mission board, standing next to Celes as I act like I've been looking at missions this whole time. --- [Anthony] "Hey! That's my water gem... actually... I think you can keep it. I don't use Bubble all that often anyways," I say to Xeno, as I notice him hold up the water gem I was saving in my bag. It was originally going to be a gift to Martin for being my friend and helping me and my mother out of our situation, but, well... everything kinda changed that day, and I found out what Martin was really up to. I heard that sableye, such as Xeno, eat gems as if they were food, so, I'm sure that he'd appreciate the gem, at the very least. I then explain Xeno's possible confusion on the word 'team', saying "Well, as a teammate of ours, you can, fistly, always teleport back here, using that badge, but it also means that we will help you out of any bad situations you might find yourself in, and you'll do the same for any of us... oh, and we split all of the reward money amongst each other... I hope you at least know what money is," I then head towards the outlaw board, and notice a very familiar-looking mudkip on a poster.

'This hoodlum has been seen kidnapping and stealing from rookie and veteran exploration teams, and even random civilians who try to explore Foggy Plains, and he always seems to escape from officers due to the fog of the area. Hopefully someone can catch this crook.'

The reward seemed to be a hefty 4,000 poke, that is, after the guild fee, of course. I then showed the poster to the rest of the team, wondering if they also remembered this mudkip... from when they first met me, of course. --- [Bonnie] "So much for stealth... urg..." I comment as I notice a giant group of enemies appear. Two scrafty were already trying to use high jump kick on me, and the only thing I could think of doing was to duck. It worked on one of the attacks, but the other nailed me right in the face, and flung me backwards several feet. I try to use attract on one of them, however, she, as I now know, simply laughed at me, and tried to attack again, this time with low kick. I jump to avoid that attack, and head over to the sandslash, using frustration on him, somehow dealing quite a bit of damage. "Tini, mind using Fairy Wind? There are a lot of enemy fighting types, around," I say to Tini, who seemed dazed and confused after waking up. The two scrafty from earlier then show up again, and, cornered, I try to think of something to do, and end up basically flinging myself towards the scrafty who laughed at me earlier, making sure to kick as I jumped towards her... I think I might have just used jump kick, somehow. Either way, the move knocked her down, and allowed me to escape, or, at least, get out of that mess. I wasn't going to leave the rest of my team behind, but I wasn't about to be stuck with two scrafty and a sandslash all trying to attack me at once. The other scrafty, as in, the one I didn't knock out yet, then runs towards me, and I try to use the move again, but, the heat finally gets to me "Water... shade..." I say just before I pass out from, well, I guess the heat of this place, alone. I could hear someone laughing at me as I said that, but what could I do, right?

[Evanist]

Celes, who saw her whole team leave off, looked at her parents. "I guess I need to go also." she says before her mom moved closer. "Before you go... I want to give you something..." she says. She then goes back in the house, and comes back with a silvery pendant. Celes looks at it before her mother opens it, revealing what seemed a picture of a sylveon with a leafeon. She looked at it. "What is this?" she asks, her mother looking down, saddened. "Something we never told you about. Something we wanted to tell you for a long time..." she then says, with Celes staring at the picture of the couple. She looks at them, feeling a chill slightly. "What.... who are they?" Celes asks, with her mother crying just a bit. "They.... they are your real birth parents." Her mother then says. Celes stares at her in shock, looking at her. "H...How?" she asks. Her father moves forwards. "You see... one day your birth mother arrived at our house, bloody, almost dead. She was saying something about shadows chassing her, wanting her dead. With her... was a egg in her bag. She told us to take care of the egg... as if it was our own child. It was her lasts words before she... died... We had burried her, sad about what happened, and wanted to give her last wish. We took care of you." He then said. Celes looked down, sad a bit. "With all the differences you had, we knew you were not a normal eevee, but we still wanted to love you just the way you were. Though more and more you started to feel.. ghosts moving to the house, causing trouble. We were worried that it might make you get hurt... We wanted you to change because we wanted you to be able to protect yourself, though we were too hard on you... We are sorry about this." her mother then says. Celes looked down. "All this time.... all this time I was adopted... All this time I though it was just me being strange." she says, with her mother looking down. "The pendant is the last memory of your parents. We never knew what happened to your real father, but seeing how your mother died... he probably met the same fate." Her mother says. Celes looks down. "I need to think.... Thank you... mom... dad...." she says, saddened by this. They moved closer for a group hug. Celes looked at them and at her family that was there. "Well... here I go... goodbye." she says before using her badge, teleporting back to the guild. When she got to the guild, she saw that Spruce was back up, feeling better now, waken up. Around her own neck was the pendant which she holded with one paw, thinking, before seeing Kamina going taking M and bringing him to a room, probably to scold him or something for how he acted back there. She then saw Spruce going and placing a water bucket at the same door that Kamina brung M to. She sighed calmly. This could make M pissed off a bit like back there. She never saw him get so angry before. She just hoped that he would be alright. She then turned around and looked at the board, rather silent, not saying a word now. She looked at her pendant a bit more, opening it with her paw, looking at the picture of the sylveon and the leafeon, looking happy, looking forwards. A deep uncomprehensable sadness was felt inside of her. All this time she never knew her real parents... and that ghost that she saw before. She looked at the picture of the sylveon. Her mother... her real mother. It is like if she was always with her, even after death.

[KaBling]

Firstly, I was shocked. Secondly, I was intimidated. Thirdly, I was annoyed. Shocked: Of course, I still couldn't believe Spruce was badly beaten by Team Zan. It didn't help I tried to kill them, and not in a way which they'd faint. I just banged my head against the wall, remaining there and trying to pretend as if I was as weak as the others. Truth was, I barely even got a scratch. It occurred to me I was now the guardian of the group, though that role was quite twisted with me being the supposed guardian. I drove them off, but I witnessed a side of myself that pointed out the flaws in myself. I kinda kept banging gently against the wall at regular intervals. However, not one minute went past when suddenly I was jerked by my magnet. Intimidated: Well, oh shit. I forgot Kamina had evolved and somehow grabbed me with his fins. I was forced into another room, clearly disused and seemingly used for storage. Cloth lay on the floor and on pieces of unused furniture, gathering dust and even a bit of mold. How the hell did he know about this pla- No point talking like that - I don't have a mouth. I rubbed my eye with my rather odd appendage from behind, wondering why it resembles some dark hand now. Even worse, my magnets started to feel rather... bendy. Some shit was definitely going on. The feeling of worry set in, but soon enough I was quite annoyed. Annoyed: Kamina had dragged me here to get some answers out of me. Against my will. Well, time to repay that. I stood my ground, not willing to be intimidated nor hassled over recent events. I frowned at Kamina, focusing on the facts. "I was doing my job. Those bastards were suddenly as deadly as Desia herself." I said, keeping my distance and drawing comparisons to the real threat to the world. "Surely you wouldn't just sit back and watch our leader getting beaten down like a horse, no?" Without even saying goodbye, I had already slammed the door on my way out, intent on returning to Spruce and getting the fuck away from the truth. ...Anger: Though, it seemed life had other plans. I WANTED TO get away, but before I knew it I had gotten water all over my fucking face, as well as a bucket painfully dropping onto my eye. Normally, if you WEREN'T a Magnemite, you'd just be annoyed. This was lethal, that bucket of water. I had felt the energy behind drained out of me within seconds. "Ok. Just who the fuck did that...?" I said, eerily calmly while popping off the radar dish on top of my body.

[bobert778]

All Xeno could think to do was nod, his attention returning to the badge as he examined it closer. 'Team' seems advantageous. Better survival in groups, and these pokemon seem to know more than me. At least for now being with 'team' is good, the sableye pondered, trying to approach the situation as logically as he could. Xeno began nodding again, a little more confidently as he looked back up at the other pokemon. "Yes, team would be a good thing," he thought aloud, starting to actually like the idea. If all he needed to do was aid them they would supposedly aid him in return, a concept he'd had thoughts about before but never really had the chance to try as before nobody had wanted his help. Unsure what to do now, Xeno took a brief stock of his items. A map leading to the mountains, his new badge (which was only the slightest bit dirty now from him holding it for as long as he had), and a 'water gem' that could serve as a snack later. He'd only just recently ate, as he had been successful finding coal in the mountains, and Xeno licked between his teeth out of habit to try and salvage any remaining coal dust on his teeth.

[Card Captor]

Kamina Yeah...no. Kamina wasn't going to let it end here. Going out the door, he snatched M back and brought him back to the room "okay, clearly you misunderstood me. I didn't drag you here to talk about you fighting back to defend our friend and comrade Spruce, I dragged you here to talk about why you did it so brutally. I can understand getting passionate in a fight, however I never aim to torture someone in a fight, getting angry just makes me want to end it sooner. What I saw you do on the other hand, looked like you were trying to make him suffer rather then defeat him. Not only that; but I've never seen you express so much emotion. To me, this seems like a sign of some sort of physiological issue. And don't say I wouldn't understand!" His voice as he said that last sentence "In case you forgot; less then an hour ago, I was a Magikarp. And while I've never regretted being born a Magikarp...that doesn't mean life was easy for me before I joined the guild. I'll admit it; Magikarp are naturally the weakest race of Pokemon alive, so it's not hard to imagine that we end up targets of cruel people. I've been beaten up more times then I can remember, just because I couldn't fight back. This led to me developing some...mental problems. Getting over them was a long and painful process. The difference between me an you is this; I had to deal with all of those problems alone, you don't. Because unlike I was back then; you are not alone. You have people around you who care about your well being, myself included. You don't have to deal with this the hard way; all alone. I know what it feels like to hurt inside so bad, that physical pain starts to become become duller. So while I might not understand whatever it is that you're going through, I can understand pain. I don't expect to get your entire life story. Right now all I want is for you to admit that you do have a problem, and that you want help. So please M, let me help you" --- Tini Tini had no idea what was going on; the last thing he remembered, they were traveling to some sort of village so that he could he could smack the crazy out of some poor people (he wasn't quite sure about the details, but that was okay; his teammates knew what they were doing, which was good enough for him). Now however, they were being attacked by a group of Pokemon that had (from his point of view) come out of nowhere. Of course, there was only one logical conclusion "WE'RE BEING ATTACKED BY NINJAS!"...to anyone use Tini logic. Leaping to action, Tini declared "don't worry guys, my old mentor taught me how to fight ninjas. It's a little known secret that all Ninjas are violently allergic to mint, and while we don't have any on us, the smell will work just fine. Fairy Wind!" He cried as he blew a minty gale at the largest group of 'ninjas'

[Riddles]

Josh and Matt looked at the poster. "Hey, isn't that the guy that you used to work for?" Josh asked. "Didn't we arrest him, though? What's he doing in Foggy Plains?" "He must have escaped." Matt said. "Well, since we haven't the slightest idea where the rest of the orbs are, I say we go after him for now." "Yeah, I agree." Josh said. He then looked over at Daniel and Xeno. "Oh, right, I guess we'll have to explain this to you two. Basically, we were sent down to Beach Cave to rescue an Emolga who was kidnapped by this guy. That's when we ran into Anthony. He was working for him at the time, ad had no idea what he was really up to. Needless to say, Anthony switched sides as soon as he found out."

[Sumable]

-William- After seeing Bonnie faint, and the scrafty laugh at her and then promptly get wounded by Tini's attack, I had my head placed between the covered foot of a scrafty and a sandstone wall. They used High Jump Kick, and I think I lost a tooth and my nose was bleeding. I stood up and looked at the scrafty, spat out the tooth dust, and took a bottle, throwing it right into the thing's head! It fell over and I ran and took the bottle and hit it once more, for good measure. I wiped my nose, and ran over to help Tini with the final scrafty and sandslash. I threw the bottle again, but this time it shattered on the scrafty's forehead. The bottle didn't seem to faze it; it must have had a thick skull.

[Lugia]

[Spruce] After actually looking for a new mission, and taking one off that had to do with finding some sort of rare gummi in some place called 'sludgy swamp', I notice Celes looking at an open pendant with what appeared to be one of her brothers, and another sylveon... though... I'm sure we would have heard about it if one of her brothers got married, and I'm certain they'd notice another sylveon in the family, given that, at least five minutes ago, Celes was the only one. I then got a look at her face. For some reason, Celes was staring at the pendant with a look of sadness... why, though? "Celes, are you okay?" I ask her, looking at the pendant, myself, and trying to figure out what about the thing could have possibly caused this. I then show her the mission, and say "Since we have no idea where to go next, I suppose we could take on this mission, right? Maybe it'll cheer you up," I then look back to see what happened with M, and, it appears as if he fell for the prank, and the door was open, but some loud roaring from Kamina could be heard from inside the room. That was odd... it was as if M got out of the room, had the bucket of water fall on him, and then Kamina just pulled him back in for another round of lecturing, or something. "Maybe we should wait for those two, first," I then add, not trying to get ahead of myself this time, and not trying to leave any potentially useful party members behind. --- [Bonnie] I was knocked out from the desert heat alone, but, my mind was anything but peaceful at this time. Images, and faint memories of my past with my father flashed by, oddly enough, without any color, this time... as painful as those were, the worst part was the memory that didn't just flash by, it stayed... the one where I caught my dad eating my recently-murdered mother's corpse. He said his usual threat, 'If you say a word about this... you're next!' This would normally be about the time when I would close the door, and run away, but this time, it was worse, I wasn't just running from the scene I just saw, no, I was running from my father, as well! Looking back, he was chasing me with all the speed he was known for, and I was thankfully, at least a step or two ahead of him. "You squealed, you little piggie!" I hear him shout from behind me. This is just some horrible nightmare... just a nightmare and nothing more... I think as I continue to run from my obviously angry father, oh, why did the BLOOD on his face have to be the only thing that had any color in this twisted nightmare? Eventually, I make it to the guild, yet, none of the pokemon there were moving. I couldn't interact with them either, not even William, Tini, or Samuel, all of whom were just standing by the mission board, still as a rock. I looked around them and noticed that they weren't even blinking. I then hear my father again "They can't help you, and in the case of Tini, they WON'T help you, Bonnie. Don't you understand? They're good pokemon, they know that if they say anything, I'll come for them, too... so, they're keeping quiet about this, and they're keeping out of it, too," I tried to head to the ladders to get somewhere else, but my father was too quick, and easily blocked the only exit. "No... this isn't real! None of this is real! They'd help me, they're my friends, my teammates!" I shout to my father, who just laughs, and says "Are they? Are you SURE you can trust them? Go ahead, try to get their help... just try it, I dare you," he then sat back, and waited there as I shouted to William, first, then Samuel, and after that, Tini... to no avail, unfortunately. --- [Anthony] Josh recognized the villain on the wanted poster, yet Daniel seemed utterly confused until Josh cleared it up for him. Daniel then asked "Are you absolutely sure that we can trust Anthony with this mission?" I was taken back by that, and answer with "Of course you can! I've fought the man to a stalemate before, but I kept going, I think I'm more than ready to fight him again," Daniel then just says "Alright, I guess, let's go, then," he then flies out of the guild, and I was expected to follow. I did so with my usual speed, saying to Xeno as I leave "By the way, missions are typically dealt with in mystery dungeons like this one, ugh, just follow us and we'll usually find our way there, um, eventually," I then try to figure out where Daniel flew to, but trying to follow his shed feathers didn't get me anywhere until he dropped from the sky and asked "Why are you so sluggish, Anthony?" He then cackled at his own joke, and I mumble something that not even I knew what it was, and just continue on, knowing that with my speed, the others wouldn't lose sight of me unless they planned on having lunch before leaving again, or something. As I was slowly heading for Foggy Plains, Daniel literally flew circles around me, making wisecracks as he did so, mainly about my speed. Normally this would get to me, but I let it slide, given that I knew he didn't mean any of it, he just wanted to get there faster than I could, or, he knew this was going to take a while, so he was trying to lighten up the mood while we traveled.

[Evanist]

As Celes looked at her pendant, she suddenly turned and looked at Spruce. "Oh... I... I am ok... it's just..." she says, looking at the pendant. "Something my parents said before they let me go... They gave me this..." she says, looking at the image, a slight sadness. "Something about my own pass. I... I discovered that they actually adopted me from when I was just a egg... My real mother was killed. She had been injured to death but was able to bring me to my current family before dying." she says, looking at the image a bit more. "I didn't tell anyone but one night after we fought against your brother, I woke up, only to see a strange ghost of a sylveon. Next thing I knew I went back to sleep. I though it was just a dream but it felt so real... and strange. I still don't know exactly where my own powers come from, but I expect it has something to do with her. With how she was before." she says, looking down and then at the door where M was brough with Kamina. "I think we should leave them be. I think they might have a lot of things to talk about." shes says before sitting down, calmly, looking at the pendant a bit more. "To think all this time, when I felt ghost's around the house... most of the times was her watching over me... even after death." she says. ------------------------ Meanwhile, at the entrance to Distant Desert up from north, a figure was walking forwards, a large rag covering him, protecting him from the wind and sun. Eralion was moving forwards, looking at a distance into the large desert ahead. He had been training to survive harsh places for a while now, surviving. The sun was beating down on him, the heat being harsh. His rags were used to protect him from the weather of this place, but he didn't have much else for supplies. A gourd of water with some oran berries with him, as well as a apple. He knew he had to pass the whole desert. For him, this was a test of will and strength more then anything. A test to see if he was fit to join the guild or not. He continued forwards, seeing at a distance some Bunnelby digging tunnels underground. He kept moving, entering into the heat of the desert. It was time for his test to begin. As he continued to move, he was sudden attacked by a mud slap of a diglett. He turned to look at it, with the diglett looking... menacing at him, eyes of hate. Seriously... He quickly rushed and used karate chop, striking the thing right in the head, making it drop down in the floor. It then popped up right behind him and used scratch on him. He turned around. How the heck does a diglett use scratch anyway? He used karate chop again, fainting the digglet now. He breath deeply as he continue to move onwards. He continued to move, seeing multiple pokemons that attacked him, until he saw a village in the distance. He was hearing a uproar. He moved closer, but stayed hidden, before entering. He was listening carefully, hearing something about a sacrifice and a pokemon that was going to be offered. He stayed hidden. Those guys... wanting to hurt someone just for their beliefs. He moved silently, hoping to see the flaaffy and possibly free it.

[bobert778]

Though Xeno didn't fully understand what was going on, it was apparent the group had plans of some kind. According to Anthony, they were heading towards a dungeon, and all Xeno could think of for a response was a shrug as he tucked away his map and new badge, one behind each ear. With nowhere to put it Xeno still held the gem in his hand, contemplating eating it now as even if he wasn't hungry it would be good nutrition. Once outside, Xeno's eyes took a little while to properly adjust and he constantly held his empty hand over his forehead to shield his eyes. Eventually though the sting of the light lessened and Xeno found so long as he avoided looking to the sky he felt fine. This did however restrict him to following Anthony specifically, though he didn't mind too much as he kept a steady pace. After a while of walking, Xeno could feel something in the back of his throat and began to cough, holding his fist to his mouth to try and quiet himself as oily black saliva sputtered from his large mouth. After his short coughing fit he regained his posture though and kept moving, such a thing being normal for him.

[Sumable]

-William- I looked about and saw a well in the middle of town, and I ran over, cranking the handle and watching the bucket go down, and when it came back up, it had nothing but dust and dirt. I sighed, and took a look at our badges. They were red, so we couldn't just leave unless we wanted to give up all our money and let someone die. I rub my eyes, and look, seeing a large crowd. There was a mutilated-looking flaafy tied to a large wooden stake, with bundles of sticks and dry grass being carried by a charizard. I looked at the size of the crowd; Almost 10 pokemon. There was no way we were going to defeat all of them, so I whispered to Tini "There's nothing we can do for now... just go back and take care of Bonnie, I think I may have a plan..." and I transformed into a Sandshrew and blended in with the crowd. I watched them set up the stake and the flaafy woke up. He could hardly speak, but he began to faintly sing a tune. The charizard set fire to the sticks and grass around the stake. The flaafy began to cry. I gulped, since this wasn't going to be easy. I hid quickly, and transformed into an invisible kecleon, and snuck up while they were circling and chanting to Giratina, and I picked at the ropes, and then took a stick and set fire to the knot. The flaafy fell into the fire, and I tackled him out of it, and broke through the crowd with him and began on a wild goose chase, before getting back to the 'safehouse'. The flaafy was unconscious again, so I set him on the bed and I heard the crowd approach the house.

[Riddles]

Josh and Matt followed closely behind the rest of the group. They were moving at a painfully slow pace, but most of the group didn't seem to mind. They were used to it at this point. It would take them a while to get to Foggy Plains, though. Josh looked at Xeno for a moment. He seemed to be having trouble adjusting to the sunlight. "So, where are you from, Xeno? I'm assuming you used to live in a cave. You don't seem to be used to the sunlight yet." Josh said. "I had trouble adapting to everything when I first came here, too. You'll get used to all of it eventually."

[KaBling]

"Get the fuck away from me, Kamina. I don't need help and I won't bug you for it, so do me a favour and respect my decision." I had no idea what that fish wanted from me. 'Psychological issues' my ass. I had bigger issues to deal with, such as finding out who nearly killed me with a bucket of water. Slipping my radar dish back on my head, I hid my anger from Kamina as I left the dust-filled room again, not willing to talk to my own teammates over supposed trauma. I got over my shit, and so far it's just made me stronger. I was left with the smell of embers and fresh water, wiping myself as I would get to the bottom of this mystery. Despite hiding my anger, something dark was brewing in my face. I had just gotten out of a fight for our lives, single-handily driving those try-hard kids away - and instead I was getting shit for it. We were all battered of course, but I was close to snapping thanks to issues that couldn't be fixed through violence. "Hey, Spruce." I yelled out, noticing him waiting outside and looking better than before. Same with Celes, though I expected her to be annoyed after our quick exit and show of brutality. "Do you know any sons-of-bitches who just happened to misplace a water bucket, hm?" I came up to him and Celes, contempt on my mind. "Y'know, I nearly died."

[Card Captor]

Kamina After M left in a huff, Kamina sighed "it seems like I failed to get through to you friend. I have to admit; this isn't quite the glorious introduction to the life of a Gyarados. Then again; I suppose I've gotten used to life letting me down, so I can't say I'm surprised." Kamina then left the impromptu intervention room. "Perhaps I should check on Spruce now. Or maybe not...I wouldn't want to intrude on his alone time with Celes after all. They don't get enough of it as is. I suppose that leaves me with nothing to do now. I guess I might as well take a nap now." With his monologue finished, he went to the room he shared with his team, only to find out something he hadn't thought about "...that's right; I got bigger, a lot bigger. It looks like my old bed won't fit me anymore. Perhaps this new body is going to take far more getting used to then I expected." He then coiled his body up for a nap --- Tini Tini was torn. On the one hand, he needed to save those poor crazy villagers with his frying pan. But on the other hand, his friends were counting on him. Such an internal struggle tore at the poor little guy's mind relentlessly...for about 5.3 seconds. Putting his trusty frying pan on his head like a helmet and giving William an adorable salute with the tip of his tail he said "you can count on me." He then proceeded to stare at Bonnie intensely

[Lugia]

[Spruce] I honestly didn't know how to respond to Celes' description of the amulet, and the fact that it had a picture of her dead parents in it, but, whatever I would have said was obviously going to be cut short, as it seemed as though my prank didn't do anything to calm M, no, instead, it enraged him. "Uh... I did... why?" I ask M before he explains how he supposedly died. I then add "What? How? Water isn't exactly lethal to electric types, is it?" After that, I think a bit, remembering type match-ups, and say "No... if that were true, water would at least be super effective against electric types. How did that nearly kill you?" This was strange, given that he really shouldn't have been all too harmed by the liquid, and somehow, I could almost feel something else stirring inside of M... something more... well... evil, and somehow, I could also see a faint image of Yveltal surrounding M. Of course, I ignored what was probably a hallucination, or a trick, but even so, I found it difficult to speak after my previous statement. I then look around the room for anyone who might be able to help me out in case things went south, but, the only one I could find was Celes... and I already knew she can't handle steel types very well, thanks to her fairy typing. If she knew some sort of confusion, or sleep move then we'd have a chance, but, no... if he decided to betray us right here, I'm not sure if I'd be able to stop him... not with whoever was nearby at the moment. --- [Bonnie] My father laughs at my failed attempts to get any sort of help from my friends, their blank stares doing nothing to help, either. "Why...?" I end up asking, with a voice that used to be all too familiar to me... a quiet, scared-sounding voice, my own from before I was able to escape my house. My father apparently overheard that, as he answered "Because you've betrayed every single one of them. Yes, you've done something horrible to each and every one of these so-called 'friends', Bonnie, so now they're just going to leave you here... with me," I then finally get some sort of speech from them, starting with Tini, who turned to face me, and whose voice sounded angry "You used one of the Three Unforgivable Moves, even AFTER I told you to stop," William then added, turning towards me just as Tini did, his voice sounding more annoyed than mad "Why did you ditch us back in that mansion? You could have killed us all, and, what? Just because you're afraid of a SKITTY!?" Before I could answer, Samuel turned, and with a voice as angry as Tini's said "I know you think I'm some sort of idiot for burning that place down, but, let's face it, we didn't have any other options! You're not a genius, yourself!" I then manage a "But... I..." unfortunately, I didn't have any excuse, and at this point, I couldn't find any redeeming qualities I could point out to the trio. "Ah... I see that you're finally realizing that you're dead weight. You're not just weighing down the team with your uselessness, either, you're weighing down the planet," my father then said to me, knowing that I was too emotionally beat down to actually attack him at this point. An image of my mother's head then appeared next to my father, and holding back a scream, I hear my father explain "This could have been avoided you know... if you never said a word about what you saw that night, this never would have happened... but, I guess we can't trust you with any sort of knowledge, can we?" I try to manage an answer to my father's question, but can't come up with anything, only thinking Why do my dreams have to torture me? Why can't I just have normal, happy dreams like everyone else? Have I really wronged that many pokemon? My father then finally attacks, and with me having no real escape. He apparently wasn't greedy today, as he went for slash rather than pay day. I had no escape... I wasn't in the right mind set to attack back, or even evade at this point... the only good thing about this was the fact that I was dreaming... right? RIGHT? --- [Anthony] I just kept moving along, noticing that Xeno and Josh seem to have something in common, but not saying anything about it. Eventually, I make it to what could be described as foggy plains, mainly because it as foggy, and as far as I could see, the land was, well, plain. For a brief moment, I see a silhouette of a mudkip, a pokemon that was normally foreign to these plains, and obviously our target. The silhouette was gone before I could act, or say anything, but, at least I knew he was here, and probably not too far from us at the moment. I then notice some clouds moving around, and eventually end up taking an astonish attack from said clouds, somehow. Moving clouds? Attacking clouds? Wait... aren't swablu common in this area? Oh... this must be one of those. I think as I try to use bubble on the moving clouds, unfortunately missing them. Daniel then appears behind the clouds, using assurance on the pokemon, this time hitting, and actually doing some damage to the hidden pokemon. It then flies away squawking and shouting "BOSS! They're tough!" that was odd. "Hm... seems like Martin found some new recruits..." I say to the rest of my team as I watch the pokemon fly off and attempt to follow it to, well, hopefully the 'boss', my old buddy. Either we really were too tough for the area, or that pokemon just gave up too easily, as all it took to scare the thing was one attack not missing due to the fog of the area. Unfortunately, I couldn't track the swablu too far, and ended up waiting, no, not for my team, I'm too slow to ever have to wait for my team, I was waiting for another pokemon to appear so I could scare it into bringing us closer to Martin, and whatever group of thugs he banded together since he apparently escaped from jail.

[bobert778]

"I certainly hope I get used to the light. I'm not sure I can go home," Xeno replied to Josh, shaking his shoulders to try and get rid of any thoughts regarding the dark crevice he'd nearly died in. The light wasn't too bad so long as he didn't look up, and upon reaching the foggy plains the low hanging mist in the air served to block out some of the light in the sky. Tired of holding the gem in his hand, Xeno popped the rock in his mouth, chewing noisily as it was ground to powder and he swallowed. Faintly the sableye could see things moving through the mist, his keen eyes picking up shapes here and there but upon realizing they could be hostile his curiosity was replaced with paranoia. "Wait, why are we here? Are these things after us?" Xeno began asking, noticing the group continued moving and he quite persistently stayed close.