Pokémon Legends: Liberation (Open)

[Artemis Wolfe]

"Yeah, one sec," Eunmi sighed. She dialed her xtransceiver and let it ring to contact Sal.

[Ask her if she got breakfast already!] D-Vee said.  

[XGamerRichy]

((.....Well, someone coulda told me.))

Luka saw Lenora standing there, tall and powerful. She took one look at him and seemingly roared, "You're useless. You will never amount to anything. You just live in that little world of yours where everything is perfect and let the colours dance about you. Grow up and do something about your life or get out of this library."

Luka just stood there. He didn't know what to say. His eyes dropped to the floor and he mumbled, "I'm doing my best...."

Lenora roared again, "And your best is good enough! NOW GO!" Lenora's roar emitted shockwaves which sent Luka flying into the nearest concrete wall -

- and onto his bedroom floor. He looked at the clock: 9:50. He'd slept in a little longer than planned... But that nightmare.... Ugh. He shivered. He'd never heard Lenora speak like that and he'd never had a nightmare quite that realistic. Still, he couldn't let a little nightmare scare him. He got up off the floor, got ready and headed out into Nacrene.

((I'll get him to the closed Museum later))  

[Jump Einatz]

In the time that it had taken for the girls to go to the pokemon center, Salieri had already begun her training. She stood with her arms folded as she watched Wukong and Liuye spar. Neither of them were using regular attacks. They were just practicing their hand to hand combat skills. Her xtrasnceiver began to vibrate. Where she was, she wouldn’t be able to hear it.

Sal looked down at it, and then back to her pokemon, holding up a finger to signal that she’d be right back. The Battle Girl began to swim up from the bottom of Route 3’s lake, and once she reached the surface she took off her aquatic breathing device and turned on her xtransceiver. The device was conveniently waterproof.

“Hey, where are you guys? I can’t talk for too long, I’m kind of supervising something right now.” The good thing about training underwater was that her pokemon’s speed and power would increase from battling against the water pressure. The bad thing was that she had to supervise them to make sure their breathing devices didn’t accidentally come off during training. The longer she stayed at the surface, the more anxious she got to return to the bottom of the lakebed.  

[Avalite]

As Eunmi began her call with Salieri Henrietta began to look around. She caught a familiar face then, as someone walked in the distance. She recognized the person and she turned to Eunmi with a smile.

"I-i'll catch up. You go on ahead." She turned to head after said person.  

[Jump Einatz]

“Again, Zero. This time, don’t be afraid to make it feel real.”

N stood with his arms folded and his eyes closed in the abandoned trainyard. Even if they were open, he wouldn’t be able to see the invisible Zero. But he knew that she had gotten the order, because in the next second his senses were overloaded. The green haired trainer fell down into a fetal position, clutching his sides while laughing uncontrollably. It felt as though he was being tickled by feathers all over his body, even though nothing was touching him. Tears streamed down his eyes as he struggled through the laughter to raise his hand for it to stop.

And suddenly, it ended. N stood up, brushing himself off and regaining his composure. “That was good. It felt much more realistic this time around.” His expression changed back to observant stoicism.

But his instincts told him that he wasn’t alone.

“Did you follow me here?” he asked casually as he turned around to see Henrietta a short distance away.  

[Avalite]

To say that the train yard looked like an abandoned train yard would be a silly observation. It looked like a battle ground. For example, there was a train(train car?) that looked like it had been thrown by some force. The whole place looked like some pseudo-battleground for the youth of Nacrene. Perhaps this is where the locals held their battles?

Henrietta, being a shy girl, diverted her eyes once N acknowledged her presence. She was staring off at the train yard now, at a caboose that stood stoic, worn only by time.

Her left hand rested on her right arm. Why had she come out here? It hadn't actually been to follow N, though he was familiar. The person she had been following was gone, she observed. She must've been just a bit too slow.

"N-no, s-sorry," was her response. She looked around a bit more, twirling around once before she stopped, facing N again, her eyes on his feet.  

[Jump Einatz]

N looked Henrietta once over. The girl was just as timid as ever, it seemed. Based on her examination of the area and behavior, N concluded that she was looking for someone else. Was it connected to him in some way? If not, she wasn't a threat to his identity. But he didn't know if Plasma troops were still stationed in town. Any one of them could possibly drop evidence that would lead right back to him. With this in mind, he decided to remain cautious.

"Why did you enter that tournament in a disguise?" he asked her suddenly, still looking right at her. It wasn't just something he was curious about. It was also a question that could through her off guard if Henrietta really was here to confront him about something Team Plasma related.  

[Avalite]

Henrietta was indeed caught off guard. The tournament had been all around bad and she remembered just now that he'd been her first opponent. "Th-th-th-that w-w-w-was." Calm down, breathe. She took a deep breath.

"I-i was just trying to get my Pokemon back. I didn't have any other options." Vague, she thought. But she didn't like to think about it, to remember it. "T-team Plasma took one of my Pokemon, and h-he entered the tournament so..."  

[Jump Einatz]

Henrietta's connection to Darumi was exactly why N didn't want her coming here. With Darumi being one of his current traveling partners, his presence would enable Henrietta to put the pieces together. Fortunately, Darumi wasn't here. Where is he, anyway?

"So what Team Plasma sees as liberation, you see as theft...I'm sorry, I do hope that you meet your pokemon again one day. You seem to care about it a lot. Although I wonder if your resolve will be enough to defeat theirs."

N looked over at the area where he and Wayne had battled yesterday. "I'm willing to test your resolve, if you'd like to have a battle with me."  

[Artemis Wolfe]

"Yeah, sure," Eunmi waved. She turned her attention back to Sal. "Where you at? We got side tracked."  

[Jump Einatz]

"I'm at the bridge on Route 3. My pokemon are doing underwater sparring," she told Eunmi with a grin. On Eunmi's screen, Wukong's body floated up from the lake in the background behind Salieri, facing down. Electrical sparks from Liuye's Thunder Wave were dancing on the Monferno's body.

"Yeah, it's tough but I think they can handle themselves. They're pretty tough, yanno."  

[Avalite]

A battle? Henrietta looked at N. Not in his eyes, more so at his chest, but it was the best you could expect from her. "I-i've resolved to avoid making my Pokemon fight battles they don't want to fight," she said. She shook her head. "I-i've decided to get Darumi back with my own two hands." She held them up. She didn't have her shinai, and her martial arts training consisted of some odd hours with Eunmi, as well as some practice some time before the tournament.

Needless to say, the frail looking girl there couldn't do much on her own. However, her resolve was to do just that, if she could. She'd already dragged Eunmi into it, she didn't intend to drag anyone else.  

[Artemis Wolfe]

"Underwater? Wow, cool!" Eunmi said, grinning. "Alright, I'll meet you over there."

The teenager made for the Pokemon Center exit, now that Henrietta was out of sight. As she did, not watching where she was going, she crashed straight into someone, knocked backwards and off her feet.

"Oww!" she murmured, leaning upright. D-Vee, being more careful than the girl, stood back and looked up at the person who bumped into her - he had also fallen on his a**.

"What the heck?!" the boy said, adjusting his glasses to his face. Eunmi blinked and looked up, recognizing the voice.

"Cheren?" she said in surprise. Beside him, on her feet, was a girl in a green hat.

"Emi!" she said happily with a wave. The boy, Cheren, however, did not look as amused. He scrambled up, dusting off his pants.

"Still causing trouble?" he grimaced, catching the green-hat girl's hand as she extended it to help the korean girl up. Eunmi rose to her feet, her expression dropping slightly by the boy's attitude.

"I didn't intend to knock you down," Eunmi replied as she dusted herself off, smiling politely at the girl. "Hi, Bel, nice to see you too."

"I heard from your mom you started Pokemon training, but I didn't think you'd actually do it," Bel chimed up. She peered down at D-Vee. "Still just you and D-Vee? Any others?"

"Who cares?" Cheren said. "She probably just lied to her mom so she could go on a shopping spree in Castelia." He pulled Bel back as he started to walk away. Bel stumbled, looking down at him.

"That's ridiculous, Cheren!" she said, pulling her hand away. "Right, Emi?"

Eunmi scratched the back of her head and looked down at D-Vee. She had sort of lied to her mom. Not for a shopping spree, no, but she also hadn't really wanted to be a trainer either.

"See?" Cheren said. "She hasn't changed-"

"Wrong," Eunmi said, a smirk on her face, hand on her hip, a poke ball drawn. "I challenge you to a Pokemon battle!"

"Wh-what?" Cheren said as he took a staggered step back.

Eunmi screwed up her senior year, and Cheren's judgements of her were based on how their long-standing friendship had crumbled to bits because of her actions. She probably hurt Bel, too, but the blonde girl was more forgiving, it seemed.

"Scared?" Eunmi asked, tossing the Poke Ball up and down. "I thought you were really into Pokemon, last I checked."

"And last I checked, you didn't even know what the rules to a match were," Cheren said, drawing a poke ball.

"I've changed," she said.

"Too often," Cheren frowned.

"Try to keep up," Eunmi said, tossing the poke ball forward. With a flash of light, Dali appeared. Cheren paused, smirked, and placed is poke ball back on his hip. He moved his hand to another one and tossed it forward. A green Pokemon appeared - a Snivy.

"Looks like you still don't know much," he said. "I've got the type advantage."

"You can take your type advantage and shove it," Eunmi said. "Dali, Fury Cutter!"  

[Jump Einatz]

Salieri grinned and gave Eunmi the peace sign. "See ya."

The xtransceiver turned off with a ding and went back to vibrate mode. Salieri turned around and looked back to see Wukong floating face down and paralyzed on the lake. She rolled her eyes.

"Ugh, I said no pokemon moves!" she groaned in annoyance. Salieri sighed and swam over to Wukong to give him CPR.

~~~~

When N heard what Henrietta said, he narrowed his eyes. This is what he had come to expect of her. She was turning out to be an interesting candidate. He smirked a bit, so tiny that if you weren't paying attention you'd miss it.

"I see. You want to test that resolve on you own? That's very considerate of you to not get your pokemon involved that way." He folded his arms. "You're shaping up to be a true hero, Henrietta."  

[Avalite]

Hero? Henrietta wasn't a hero. She shook her head. "I-i'm not, I-i just want to help Darumi," she said. She looked to the ground near N's feet. "I-i'm not heroic at all."