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Jacob Thatcher was a difficult man to find, at nearly all times. He was quite congenial when in sight, but simply was not seen frequently. Truth be told, it wasn't that he didn't like to be found; it was that he didn't like to be still. Not at all unlike Paul and Mikhail, he was a man accustomed to action and he had been relegated an administrative job, so he was always on the move through the city, from one branch of the Protectors to the other. He delivered messages himself rather than through courier, with the side-benefit of making him look even more personable than he naturally was, and of course there were his... side-projects, for the rare cases when convicted murderers within the city were banished instead of being executed. He just liked to be on his feet.

He was on another of his fairly unnecessary missions through the concrete and glass jungle that had become his permanent residence when he saw something that cut him to the bone: Mikhail and Paul, sitting, silent, on a bench, armed. In short order, he watched them joined by Ian and Jeremiah, and the four exchanged noncommittal greetings. And then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something that darkened his visage from his perfect sympathy and amiability to a black rage. Clearing that, he strode up to the quartet of bored-to-death mercenaries, while a blond-haired, blue-eyed woman froze. Bishop Schwartz realized that she was f***ed. Her hand went to her cheek, rubbing it, and she stood.

"Paul, Ian, Mikhail, Jeremiah," he greeted them with a smile that showed exactly how deeply he understood their restlessness. He ad-libbed cordialities with them, asking how they'd been, were their families still okay if they had any, etc., and then sat down next to Paul. The glare of the mid-day sun reflecting off the city streets made him squint. "I may have something to occupy you while we finish preparations for the Pack's assault. Did you all see the Russian who showed up yesterday?" Paul and Ian would have, definitely, and the others perhaps, simply by observation. "Benji Halloway, that medic you brought in, Paul, was murdered last night, and we found handfuls of her hair at the scene after we sedated his ledian. Well, what looked like it." Said ledian had been found crouched and nearly dead on a pile of slashed bellsprout roots and in a puddle of what had probably once been a grimer, as well as sporting a tuft of vaporeon fur. There had been a slap-dash patch on Benji's throat wound, but it hadn't been enough to keep him from bleeding out. Jacob pretended the target hadn't just gotten up and fled south towards the old Oak house, trailing her dirty street rat of a "nephew," who followed her with a sort of bored languor. "I've kept an eye on her, since we also found vaporeon fur at the scene and whaddaya know, she had one when we checked her in, and the way she watches the young'ns during meal times, the way she glares at her 'nephew' whenever she thinks he's not looking... it's worth checking her out."

At least one of the men there raised an eyebrow, and one of them finally said, "You want all four of us to go after her?"

He laughed. "Sounds like overkill, huh? I don't want to sound any alarms, so do it discreetly, but I learned a lot about these... 'Dreamweavers'... through Benji while he was still loopy. And alive. If she and that kid are their agents, I'm not going to be responsible for any of you ending up dead. They're dangerous. And they're in my damn city. And y'all are bored, right? so until there's something better to do, I'd appreciate it if you could track her and her nephew down and figure out exactly what this 'organization' has planned. She's got that vaporeon, a hitmonchan, and an electabuzz, and that kid of hers has about as many vermin pokémon as you can name. We almost didn't let them in, with that kind of firepower, but it's not Glenville's nature to turn away refugees, especially from Woodmount." He shrugged. "Sound good?"

The past three days had warped Alyssa from being a survivor-ess with a heart of steel and a soul of diamond, to being a survivor-ess with a steel-plated bismuth heart and a soul of diamond. This change had come about in her new friend, Doquz.

Doquz, a short well-mannered female cubone, sat at Alyssa's feet while Alyssa sat against a tree and ate a sandwich she had picked from the nearby cafeteria. Three days of city-living, though it had done much to attach her to her cubone, had done very little to change Alyssa's habits. She still preferred to be alone than in a crowd and she preferred to be outside rather than in. So it was she spent most of those three days outside.

But she had let herself slack on knowing things, as she was rather oblivious to any sort of buzz going around. In this survivor's mind, if it was important, it would likely find her.

Alyssa took a bite of her sandwich and nudged Doquz with her foot. Doquz yawned.

Tsuki had kept himself busy during the past three days and had gotten his cyndaquil, Kaji, used to his daily routine of light exercise in the morning. At the begging of the training, he was very reluctant to join in, but had tried it after Tsuki had just done a few stretches and jogged a bit. As Tsuki started to run a little faster, Kaji kept pace but reluctantly.

Kaji only had one problem that seemed to make it different from other tame pokemon and Tsuki found this out after the light workout, He hated the pokeball but would go in it if necessary. For the most part, Kaji tended to hide in Tsuki's shirt or stayed on his shoulder. It was all good to Tsuki who didn't care about it, but it did make rainy weather a problem.

The second day of having Kaji, Tsuki started his workout again and this time Kaji started with him. They went for just as long as the day before and went all the way through willingly. The cool down went by smoothly and went by without accident. The rest of the day went by smoothly with hunting on the fringes of the wood and the practice of Kaji's moves. He only knew tackle and leer. When a small animal or pokemon came by, Tsuki let Kaji do what he wanted to the pokemon but made sure that the animals were left alone f they were to young.

The third day was a day of relaxation and meditation. They spent the whole day roaming around the town, hunting down something to do that was easy, but couldn't find anything. As the night came, they went back to the place they had spent the last two nights and slept till the morning.

As Tsuki awoke, he quickly moved to where Kaji could rest some more. He changed his clothes after a quick bath and went to wake up Kaji. To bad Kaji was already awake and hungry. "Cynda," he said and looked up pleadingly at Tsuki. "Oh, why not. Let's go get something to eat," he said and picked up the cyndaquil and placed him on his shoulder and went to the mess hall.

In the mess hall, he got a bunch of small snacks and bites. Taking a seat away from the mess of people he set Kaji on the table in front of him and set the grapes and fruits in front of him while taking the beef jerky and breaking it into pieces before giving that up also. "To bad you don't talk, then this would be perfect," he said before taking the banana and peeling it. "Wonder where Lexi got to. I could use a friendly face," he said and took a bite before leaning back and slipping into a slight daze.

"Thanks. I'll have all the borders we have eyes on closed down. She just left, roughly thataway." Jacob pointed southward, towards a more suburban district, with a bit of a smirk while an odd darkness hid behind his eyes. Ina would be missing more than a finger by the time he was done with her. "I'd prefer you don't stir up the populace with this. They don't need to be aware of any loose cannons. Good luck, guys. Maybe once you're done with her, we'll have a battle plan. Or something. The Oaks... are bad at talking, if you haven't noticed." He stood up and rolled his eyes. "I'm off. Routine orders and such like that. Boring-a** stuff." He sauntered off, then, whistling and scratching his butt.

Bishop Schwartz would be difficult to find. The direction she had gone was about the edge of the downtown area, and as much as Willam was not a fan, he knew that it was useful for her to stay alive, if only so he didn't end up with the more distasteful job of having to follow a different agent. Ina was terrified, and slowly staving it off. She knew she had been sent into a deathtrap, and her only current solace was having successfully extinguished the defecting medic.

((I will try to make a map for you guys. For now, bear with me.))

At the first intersection she came to, there was a gas station on the southeast corner, an Indian restaurant with three stories on the southwest, and to the northwest and northeast were twin office buildings for "Bath & Bath Interior Design" that rose to ten stories and stopped. Willam had already vanished, and once Ina was gone, first-story windows in both big buildings were broken into. The east-west cross street was a dingy alleyway, and a hose faucet from the Indian restaurant was running down the east side, spilling water down the street and towards the intersection.

---

Alyssa and Tsuki were surprised to find that they had chosen similar places to be alone - the central park of the university, which sat somewhat north and west of the main university building itself and away from the bustle of traffic closer to the center of the city. And then Dr. Terrian was there.

He blinked at both of them, as usual seeming completely uncertain as to where he was or why he was there. "Have the Oaks figured anything out, yet? Damn. Their mom was a saint and a maniac. 'cuz once they figure out what comes next, you guys can do something useful. Something other than sit around and be creepy little loners." He sat down just barely out of arm's reach of Alyssa, then lay on his back and yawned. His hat landed on his pallid face, and for all visible intents and purposes, he may as well have fallen asleep.

---

Dirk and Ulysses stared at the cavern into which they had been led. They were in the hydroponics reservoir, off to the east of the "orchards." The entire place, as experimental as it had been originally and as quickly as it had been expanded, was earthen and supported primarily by hastily-placed steel girders, except for the original laboratories that housed most of the staple crops - two enclosed acres of corn and wheat whose climate took the majority of the university's remaining electric power to keep alive and regulated. Recklessly- but shrewdly-applied pokénomics and hormone therapy meant they produced bushels by the day for storage, while the larger farmlands outside the city provided the still-enhanced, but more generous quantities of food.

Two members of the "Biodome" - Protectors whose sole jobs were guarding these underground facilities - were escorting the older men as they finally entered this chamber. The room was... well, frankly, to eyes accustomed to seeing every minute space taken up in the name of efficiency and survival? It was obscene. Two thousand square feet rose in a dome shape forty feet up housing a simple two oak trees. They flourished, and at their base were thousands of acorns, husks, and piles of leaves that had simply rotted there as the years went by. On one was a faded circle of red paint. On the other was a faded circle of blue paint. There was no wind, and the only smell was of mouldering vegetation.

---

The rest of the young'ns found themselves in the training arena/chamber/testing facility again, and waited on the authors of this RP to do the rest of this post, while idly chatting and training and snacking.

In spite of his typically reserved demeanor- which seemed to be slipping with age and the apocalypse- Ulysses Shonevsky found himself quite simply gawking at the two trees. All this... for two trees? It had to be a Beatrice thing, which meant it was a puzzle, which meant there were bound to be a plethora of minute and discreet clues.

Take the paint for example: "Do we know why they were painted like that or who did it?" Ulysses expected a no on both counts, but he liked to be methodical in his research. It reminded him of better times, times when he had a job, and a family, and normal responsibilities. A much more appealing time in contrast to his current situation: an aging man charged with the defense of a small class of children who were supposedly the solution to the apocalypse. He couldn't deny it was interesting, though.

Ulysses shook his head, and the rambling thoughts ran off track. Red and blue. The colors had no particular significance at first glance. The trees were Oaks; they were easy to recognize and potentially represented that thin connection to Beatrice that still lingered after her death. With nothing more readily evident, he began to walk a slow circle around the red one, inspecting every inch of the trunk and exposed roots.

In the case of Lexi and her spearow, it had quickly become difficult to tell who was actually training who. After being trapped in a pokeball for a while, it didn’t take any prodding to get the spearow moving around and making full use of the large space it had been introduced to. Lexi had been content to watch until the bird brain decided to grab her hat and take off into the towering structure of tubes hanging from the ceiling. It had taken the girl a little while to figure out how to get up there, but climbing the trees in her backyard helped, and soon she was chasing the flying-type pokémon around the maze. Once inside, she found the place to be much like one of those structures that she used to love at fast food restaurants…minus the ledges and knobs that made the former easier to climb around in. Eventually, after much complaining, name calling, and the occasional cussing as she nearly fell out of the structure, she got her hat back, and the peanuts were shared in a dead-end tube with a view.

After running crazy at the behest of her new partner, she decided to take a look around. The room was interesting, but there was more to Glenville than one big room, and she wasn’t the type to ignore that fact, so she soon headed out, only using the door she came in because it was the sole option. While still underground, she had quite lousy luck getting into anywhere interesting and saw little beyond halls. Above ground, however, she found a whole city with doors, if not arms, open.

Exploration took much of her awake hours (and probably a few she should have been asleep) for the next few days. What remained went to the necessities of sleeping and eating, a few successful hunts for internet access (her computer had not been destroyed in the fall, hence Tsuki still being alive), and the occasional attempt of her spearow to drive her nuts. The two of them got along well, but were probably better compared to siblings than friends. It was when they were on each others’ good sides that Lexi finally figured out a name for her bird: Phoenix. What better a name for a friend made soon after someone decided to hit the reset button on your life.

By the time Tsuki and Alyssa ran into Terrian, Lexi had gotten a better idea of how Glenville was put together, and who the various people she’d run into were, but she still had no idea what she was doing here. Yeah, yeah, something about saving the world, but the idea of a runt who rarely fought and the spearow who had no problems pecking her doing anything about the current state of affairs failed to hold much weight in her mind. Then there was the letter she’d gotten from her dad. The Guardians were known for overkill, but it sounded like things had gone nuts, even for them. They screwed up raiding this one guy’s house and lost more people in one day than they had since the Cataclysm. She wasn’t sure that she liked her dad sticking his nose into things so fishy, but she was miles away, and it wasn’t like she’d done anything different. Part of her was glad he finally got his adventure too.

She was reading the letter through again as she walked back to the room where she had initially been given Phoenix. When she got there, she noticed another one of the kids… The girl’s name slipped her mind, other than she was pretty sure it was the name of town too. She’d been exploring so much that she hadn’t seen too much of the others, which she slightly regretted, but... Still, she grabbed a snack and put the letter away, deciding to be sociable now that she had the chance. “Heya, how’s it going?”

"Hm?" Juno turned to the source of the voice and found one of the kids. With a smile, the blonde teen said, "I'm doing alright. How about you?" For the life of her, Juno couldn't remember the other teen's name. It was somewhat embarrassing, but better to get that out of the way now than to let it build up later right? "And uh, sorry about this, but what's your name? I'm really good with faces, but I have trouble remembering names."

Darkwing was waddling along beside Juno, hiding behind her legs. Unlike his easily angered owner, the psyduck was rather shy. It seemed odd to pair her up with such a timid pokemon, but maybe it was the headaches that forced Darkwing to stay away from loud places...and loud people and pokemon. Juno couldn't be sure, but whatever his personality, he seemed to enjoy being around her.

Sergeant Jeb Donaldson looked at the bodies scattered around him. This had been a good plan. Everyone hated McCulloch, anyway, and damn, would it be easy to report that the crazy loner's booby traps had shot a dozen men in the neck and trampled a few of them. Now they could all dream the good Dream.

There really wasn't anything between.

Sergeant Jeb Donaldson looked at the remains of a human being. Hertzfeldt had been pretty useful until he died. Now he was dreaming the good Dream. Good man. He waved at the bishop who was sitting as Hertzfeldt's secretary, and the thin man waved back. So did his mr. mime. Time to go.

There really wasn't anything between.

Sergeant Jeb Donaldson looked at the bodies scattered around him. This had also been a good plan. The Protectors hadn't been prepared to be sniped, he guessed. Made a really easy way into the city. Good thing he'd shot the walkie-talkies first. Weird spot they'd been guarding, but this was where he'd been told to go. Little entrenchment in the middle of nowhere. He opened the door, knifed the first thing that came at him, and the second thing. They didn't make a whole lot of noise, and now they were dreaming the good Dream, too. The sergeant descended into the Glenville hydroponics reservoir and waved behind him. Another man and woman followed. They were deacons of the Dream, here to weave a net.


---


The strange man in the black hat blinked as Doquz took his hat. He had not anticipated this. There were many, many things that Alex Terrian anticipated, but having his hat stolen was not one of them! For a very long time, he simply stared at the little creature and its helmet. The temptation to steal the skull was incredible, and only held back because Terrian had no desire to endure the wrath of a cubone whose prized possession had been stolen. Instead, once he had the hat back and had registered Tsuki's request for an introduction, he hopped to his feet in a motion that was... too fluid, as though he were suspended by wires.

"My name!" he shouted with a flourish of his hat, "is Dr. Alexander Terrian. I am the two-fold demigod, Janus, and I am a SCIENTIST!!!" He did a cartwheel, then, and posed when he completed it. At some point during the cartwheel, he released an ivysaur. The frog-like, dinosaur-like, ivy-like, tulip-like creature gave a sort of bored "saur," the noise raspy and guttural, and Alyssa could have sworn she saw it roll its eyes. "And this is Amber. He doesn't think it's a girl's name, so neither should you. And these are Lexi and Juno, whom you know, a little bit." Quite suddenly, they were inside the university, actually in the room with the aforementioned ladies. Either by chance or the hand of the gods due to their having been directed there for training by any of a number of adult figures, Aaron, Stetson, Sequoyah, and Toby were also there, bringing the total of young'ns to eight. The four boys had presumably been teaching their pokémon to spar, as young trainers might, and they all stopped at the sudden appearance.

"I'm here to teach all of you! Also because a lot of people just entered Glenville's boundaries. Don't worry! The Oaks always know about these things. They also know I'm here, though, and they'll try to stop me, sooooo..." Everyone in the room felt their ears strain from the suddenly strange atmosphere as a psychic wall went up around the tremendous training arena.

"Look," Terrian said once he'd opened his eyes again. Everyone there noticed those eyes flash purple, very briefly. "The Oaks don't understand how urgent this is, because things aren't going the way they should. There is a lot of pride involved, and it's slowing things down. Mine, Beatrice's, the Dreamweavers', Rufus's, Skye's, Jacob's, Olivia's, mine - really, everyone. But I'm telling the eight of you that you HAVE. To train faster. You have to believe harder. You have to be the very best, like no one ever was. You're different, and you need to save the world. The mew is not forgiving, and won't remember erasing a planet until it wakes up, hundreds of years from now, unless you are what you are destined to be." Memories began flashing through their heads - memories they didn't know they had. Vague, dreamlike images of white laboratory coats, muffled, raised voices, and a general sense of confusion. For Lexi, Stetson, and Juno, there was also an unidentifiable source of anger, or betrayal.

The entire time Alex spoke, his demeanor seemed to become... less certain. He grew paler, and less wrinkled. His skin started to gain an unhealthy, violet tinge in some places. His hat twitched. "So I'm going to train you, because no one else is doing it, but I do. I know those pokéballs. I know those pokémon. I know every single one of you. I haven't known how to act. Ulysses - bless him - made me think about how I can AAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHH." The sound was loud, but not screamed. His expression didn't change during it. The entire time, his moon-white face just looked at the assembled children and pokémon, with a tiny hint of a smile on it. But the noise was painful, and almost inhuman. "So I'll train you!" he lilted finally. "Prepare for trouble. Make it octuple."

Amber, the ivysaur, crouched on one end of the arena underneath a set of climbing bars that had clearly been designed for mankey and aipom problem-solving and dexterity training. He lashed his vines up into them and swiftly had gained the top ledge. His eyes, clearly his namesake, had a friendly sort of challenge in them as he looked down at the group of young'ns.

"No, seriously, do," Terrian clarified, "'cuz Amber will kill each and every one of you if you don't engage in an eight-on-one pokémon battle with him and if you die during this you clearly aren't worth the time and energy invested. Ready go!" He sort of danced to the side of the arena and sat down, grinning childishly.

---

Ulysses' search was fruitful. He almost tripped on a spherical obstacle under the leaves, and once he had recovered and reassured himself that he hadn't rolled his ankle, he realized that it was a pokéball. The trees each revealed a metal box on the other side, with three pokéball-shaped cavities and obvious wiring. The one on the red-marked tree simply read "PD v 1.1" and the other "PD v 1.2."

((I'll try to move a little faster with you, Blackbird, since this is a puzzle area. Sorry 'bout the delay.))

---

Paul's alakazam snatched his shoulder and practically threw him backwards on his a**. A line of blue electricity crackled where the man's head had been, connecting the two broken-in windows. In the brief light from the darkened buildings, a magnemite and an elektabuzz could be seen - the magnemite in the west building and the elektabuzz in the east. They were summarily recalled with flashes of red light, though Zoidberg was fast enough to batter one of them with a psychic blast before it went in. For those in vehicles, so far, neither an aerial view nor a ground view was revealing anything.