Welcome to Gaia! ::

Paul stumbled, rolled into a prone position, then kicked off the ground into a sprint. "Killzone, get down!" Paul shouted, charging out of the street and leaping into one of the broken windows. He had anticipated a violent reaction, but he had supposed they'd be too focused on running to try an ambush. Stupid, stupid, stupid assumption. It was like cornering an animal - too desperate to think to run, just desperate enough to turn on enemies. It wouldn't end well for them, though.

"Zoidberg, do you have target locations? I'm going to find the stairs."

So, so much had happened to the dynamic, young Stetson Schraeder in the past three and a half days. It all seemed a little surreal, even to him.

They had come here, chased and attacked as they had been, struggling against dangers that the young scholar could not even understand, let alone identify. They had been told that they, a group of children (most younger than Schraeder, by their looks), were the hope of saving the world from another Cataclysm. Schraeder had done a good job of keeping his game-face on, at least in his mind, and so he had exchanged words with the Doctors Oak and pretended like he was in some semblance of control while they decided what to do. He was filled with relief when he and Sequoyah were sent down to the lab to train with their new pokemon. It was when Ulysses called, "Good luck, Schraeder," after him that Stetson finally allowed a shudder to pass through his entire body, the only physical indicator of the intense turmoil inside of him.

He listened absently as Skye droned on, his own thoughts turned inward. What would he and the others have to do, in the coming days? What kinds of danger would they face? What would Schraeder have to see, have to do? Was there any point in trying, or were they going straight to the slaughter? Their opposition, nameless and ferocious as it was so far, certainly didn't seem to want to make it easy for them. Who knew what they would resort to in order to stop the party once they were actually on their way.

Finally, they arrived in the training center. Schraeder looked all around. This was a decent enough facility, though training indoors had never really been Schraeder's style. He wasn't a pokemon trainer, of course, but he had at least thought about the idea before. He knew what he wanted to do.

Once he had received the pokeball from Skye, Schraeder bowed his head slightly, turned on his heel, and walked right back the way they had come, his heels clicking sharply on the cement floor. He didn't answer to Skye and he didn't answer to any of the other children, there was no point in saying anything... so he didn't. Schraeder made his way back to the surface with little mishap, taking his pokeball and heading a small distance away from town, towards the trees. He wanted to meet his new partner one-on-one.

Schraeder stood in a clearing among the trees, tossing and rolling the pokeball around in his hand for minutes. The small, perfectly round ball of metal felt cold and unrelenting to his touch. This may be my only resource in the days that are coming. What a sobering thought that was. Still, he knew there was no way around it, and at least he could finally have a pokemon partner of his own. Pressing the small, raised nub in the center of the ball, Schraeder tossed it a few feet away.

In a flash of light, Schraeder was blinded, raising a hand to block his eyes in what was ultimately a wasted effort - the light show was over before his hand was even fully raised. Lowering it slowly, Schraeder was faced with a diminutive steel-plated creature, gleaming emerald and shiny gold in color, standing just under two feet tall. It looked up at him with curious, yet somewhat stern eyes. Placing its hands on its tiny hips, it squeaked, "Larvitar!" proudly.

Schraeder didn't know what to say in response. Feeling like he was in a dream, Schraeder knelt down and held out a hand slowly. "Stetson... Schraeder," he murmured, unsure of what he was even doing. After two seconds that felt like two days, the larvitar experimentally extended its own hand to him, gingerly touching his palm for a moment before Schraeder closed his hand and shook it slowly.

And that was that.

Over the next three days, Schraeder and his new larvitar spent a lot of time among the trees around the city, walking and, at least on Schraeder's part, talking. Mostly he was talking to himself, or, more accurately, to hear himself talk. Some part of him desperately wanted to talk about this, but he had no idea whom to talk to: Ulysses was busy with the trees, the Doctors Oak had far too much on their collective plate to speak with Schraeder, and the other young ones were probably just as scared and confused. No point there. So Schraeder had turned to his larvitar, who was only just getting to know him, and talked. He spoke to justify, to explain, to placate, but it was all for himself anyway.

He told the larvitar all about his family, his life before and after the Cataclysm. He talked about what he had wanted to do, what he had wanted to be. He talked about his friends, the girl he had fancied. He spoke of it all with a certain helpless passion, a ferocity that perhaps was a reflection of the fear that he felt, combined with the inevitable sense that their fate was inescapable. One way or another, the young Schraeder was going to have his life changed, irreversibly, against his will, yet again.

The larvitar listened silently.

On the second day, Schraeder spent the whole day talking about what they could do, what they should hope to accomplish. Along the way, the larvitar would break the silence by slamming itself against trees, small rocks, and sometimes other pokemon that they encountered. Schraeder rapidly realized that despite its small stature, the larvitar was solid and heavy, very heavy. He knew from his studies that larvitar was a combination of the rock- and ground-types, plus whatever "latent ability" it had. Interesting. For the first time, Schraeder felt a faint stirring that he quickly hushed... because it felt like a ghost of hope.

He and the larvitar entered the training room on the day that Alex Terrian decided to make an appearance, for the first time since Schraeder had been given the pokeball. This was an interesting first test, especially given the fact that Schraeder had been unable to take part in the fight with Terrian the first time around. The madman was claiming to be here... to teach them? Schraeder was instantly on his guard. His previous encounter with the mad doctor had been dangerous enough - no telling what Terrian had in store this time. Schraeder's unease grew as Terrian sealed them in some kind of bubble that the Oaks (presumably) would be unable to get through. So, it was just up to them.

He listened intently as Terrian spoke, trying to appear cool and steady as Terrian's eyes flashed purple, he cried in what appeared to be anguish, and generally acted like the almighty crazy that he was. Schraeder was trying to project his icy demeanor to keep the other, younger ones calm, only releasing his pokemon when it became clear that a fight was unavoidable. The larvitar was among the first of the pokemon to be released, and waddled to the front of the group without hesitation.

"Why you little sumb--" the Doctor interrupted himself with a sigh when he laid eyes on the source of his discomfort. He carefully dropped to one knee, as most aging people are wont to do, and took hold of it, analyzed it, and then activated it to see what would pop out.

Djinn was also unleashed as a precaution, and his thumb hovered over the release for Gloria's pokéball. The purple ghost-pokémon rolled his intangible shoulders and grinned his everlasting grin at the pokéball, anxious to see what all the fuss was about.

At the other girl’s question, Lexi smiled, rubbing the back of her head, slightly embarrassed as well. “No worries, It’s not like I’ve been around so much, and I’m no better off… The name is…”

“…so neither should you. And these are Lexi and Juno, whom you know, a little bit.”

When Lexi heard the voice coming from behind her, she spun just in time to see Tsuki and the other girl appear out of thin air with the sable-hatted bullet-juggler who had appeared similarly in the forest a few days back. Terrian. She’d thought she’d seen his face before, and with his strange behavior, he seemed the most likely path to any information on the strangeness that was surrounding her. It didn’t take long to figure out where, once she had some spare time. So this is the other guy who predicted the Calamity… Mews, ether, explosions, and a cave under Pompeii. He’d been laughed out of the science community for the idea, much like the mother of the Oaks whose lab she was now in, but the story they’d told was unsettlingly close to what had ended up happening. Dr. Oak had bet on the Arctic, he thought Pompeii, but it was the same tale. Naturally, since the tale included predictions of an even more severe apocalypse coming soon, the internet community was going off the wall about it right now.

Part of her would have loved to hear the story from his own mouth (she hadn’t been able to find a video of his talk, much to her frustration) but this didn’t seem to be the time.

Pressure on her ears forced her to swallow to clear them as the space they were in took on an odd quality, but it was the look in his eyes that put the hair at the back of her neck on end. If she wore glasses, the look she was giving him would have been over the rim of them, and she was frowning, considering his words. A curiosity for the majority of her remembered lifetime was apparently taking over her life and the expert seemed worried by the way things were going, and more than a little bit… She felt cold, like she’d spent hours in the rain. He’d told them that they couldn’t trust him, but the desperation she saw in his face made her believe what he was saying now. They really were supposed to stop the next round.

Confusion flashed across her face for a second as the memories came into her head, bidden by thoughts of destiny and Terrian’s claim that they were different, but somehow coming from a location that hadn’t been in the registry a minute before. Interesting, to be sure, but they were laced with a sour feeling that left her wondering what she’d forgotten. How do you stop a mew from dreaming? She wasn’t sure what to think of the answer her mind provided. Once again, she believed the guy who couldn’t be trusted when he said Amber would kill them, but for a whole different reason. “Keep them from dreaming…keep us from dreaming.” She murmured, more than a little annoyed that he did want to kill them if he found them unworthy.

Phoenix’s eyes hadn’t left the strange man since he’d arrived either. She watched him from Lexi’s shoulder, first like he was an interesting shiny thing, but then more like an ekans hunting for eggs as his behavior got odder. By the time Terrian had opened the battle, she was more than ready to go. Lexi went deaf in one ear for a half-second as the spearow let off a sharp caw before leaping off her shoulder. The bird wasted no time trying to rake the bulbasaur’s bud with her talons.

((If you haven't noticed, we're staggering responses here until we can be more reliable. Also, there have been a few withdrawals, and they are going to be enacted shortly, just so you all know and aren't all "ooooh nooooo" when suddenly folk start popping up dead and/or missing. I'm so glad this is back on track!))

While all the others seemed to be lining up in some sort of odd formation, Amber sort of rolled his eyes. He had been tensing up and swinging, monkey-like, to aim his bulb, when Phoenix came fearlessly screeching in on a full-frontal assault. "Saur!" he grunted in surprise, losing his precarious balance on the jungle gym and having to catch himself with one vine, meaning the one that would have whipped out to punish the incoming bird went wide. No blows were exchanged, but Amber went on the defensive, using agility not often seen in his species to get himself ensconced in the maze of metal bars, about five feet off the ground. He spewed a haze of mixed powders and pollens around him that expanded to a copious volume in a five-foot radius and, partially hidden, but also partially blinded by his own powders, used his vines to gyrate in a twisting spiral, firing out a stream of bullet-like seeds, none of which hit home on the encroaching pokémon. Once he had settled, it was clear his silhouette was crouched and ready to spring.

In a freak accident, or perhaps intentionally, one of the seeds found its hyper-powered way into one of Aaron's blind eyes, cracking the glass in front of it in a small spray of gore and sending the stunned boy staggering. Any of those paying attention - in particular, Alyssa, who was staring at Terrian already - could have seen his finger twitch in the boy's direction before the young'n vanished in a violet flash along with his zubat, and for a brief moment, the psychic pressure lessened before it grew again. "What?" Terrian shrugged, finally deigning to answer the questions thrown at him, and the glares that likely followed what looked very much like a murder. "He's fine. Ish. Just useless. You saw him just standing there. You want a blind coward on your team? And to answer you, Miss Dido, you don't have to fight me, but if you want to, I'm sure I won't stop you. Well, I will, but I won't stop you from trying. I'll let you go if you win, I promise." He turned to Juno with a gentle smile. "I know you because I watched you being chosen. I was in on the design of your pokémon. You kids aren't special just because someone said so. You're special because a selection process like this hasn't been this strict, or important, since the time of pharaohs."

Paul and Jeremiah both rolled over broken glass that had been frozen into upright positions with a bed of ice. The only thing that saved them from muscle-deep lacerations was, again, Zoidberg's ability to think faster than they could act ((-2 AP SirBayer, -1 AP NativeForeigner; ret-con to save 1 AP each and still be cut; wounds non-fatal)). He wasn't fast enough to prevent everything, though, and his nigh-prescient burst of forethought (something more common among the unparalleled minds of alakazams than other psychic pokémon) weakened him such that the men still suffered surface scratch wounds.

They're climbing the stairs, Zoidberg answered, and pointed to a stairwell behind a heavy door. She just released something, and it's waiting while she keeps climbing. She's... third floor... fourth. And it's third... no, no, also fourth. Fifth... sixth... it's her hitmonchan, or something else that can jump that fast and carry her. They stood in a lobby, currently, that had been raided for chairs, lightbulbs, and carpets since the Cataclysm, and so was gray and dusty in the dimmed light of the afternoon sun. There was plenty of cover, from counters to a hallway towards elevators to a large side office to a marble statue of some kind of abstract art.

There was no movement visible from outside, but Zoidberg noted and reported a swarm of activity in the other building, with the only human presence completely motionless.

((This is all for Blackbird, who gets 3 AP for his completion of the puzzle.))

Djinn blocked the ekans' path and Ulysses approached with mild caution. Years of living in solitude and fighting for his home had left him fearless. Where the average man feared even your typical snake, Dr. Shonevsky grabbed it just behind the head- the safest place to grab a snake if ever there was one- pinning it to the earth. He slowly dropped to one knee yet again, and carefully inspected it. Djinn eagerly awaited any attempts on Ulysses life, anxious for a scrap and an easy dream-meal. The snake was moderately perturbed, but other than that, it was docile. There were no particular markings he could see, though a second glance at the pokéball showed a manufacture date of 2003.

Ulysses returned it to the pokéball and moved to the other tree. All the while he thought of what he had already. Red and blue insignias, “PD”? The only PD he could recall in relation to Oak is the pokédex, which would easily explain versions 1.1 and 1.2, and which she obsessed over completing. Their importance, however, had yet to be determined, let alone the accuracy of his assumption. Djinn tapped Ulysses on the shoulder after a moment and pointed out a second pokéball, which had been revealed from the interaction with the ekans. The aging man smiled, nodded, scooped it up, and revealed the enclosed pokémon. This one was a pinsir, and the great beetle, though irate, was also very confused and weakened, and thus more of a threat by virtue of its unpredictability than anything else. One by one, by shuffling through the leaves, he discovered four more pokéballs and corresponding pokémon: a meowth, a sandshrew, a mankey, and an elektabuzz. By the time the last was released, Ulysses was smiling. He had figured out the pattern.

In short order, the pinsir, sandshrew, and meowth were in the blue-marked tree, corresponding to the second version of the pokédex that was released to the public. It differed from the first slightly, as the two had been independently compiled. The other three were in the other tree, and Ulysses stepped back with confidence… to the sound of an electro-etheric pulse sealing the doors behind him. The man soon realized there was no ventilation in his room, though he had been left lights, at least. He blinked, and for long minutes, stared at the trees in silence, double- and triple-checking his choices. There was nothing else he could think of. He noticed speakers on the two boxes, and tried reciting pokémon names, pokedex entries, anything that might make the system respond. He had no way of getting out. And then suddenly, it occurred to him – Beatrice had, as he remembered, obsessed over COMPLETING the pokédexes. Accordingly, he swapped the pokéballs. Immediately upon placing the elektabuzz in the right place, the Flash theme started playing. “Flash! Oh-ooooh!” Similarly, after placing the sandshrew, the theme from “Dig-Dug” started playing. Finally, when all were in the right place, a trapdoor opened between the two trees, with stone steps leading to a lightless cavern from which blew cool air with an earthy scent.

The cavern was clearly one that had existed for eons and, given the dripping of water heard from below, likely held part of what fed the hydroponics reservoir. The stairs were shallow and slightly moist, and there was a steel handrail. As Ulysses took his first step down, Beatrice Oak's mirthful, warm-hearted voice sprang from the speakers, as from beyond the grave: "Congratulations, Ulysses. No surprise it would be you down here." He made sure he had taken all six pokéballs with him, and after quickly summoning his personal lantern, Gloria, Ulysses found himself smiling. That voice always had a way of brightening his day, and flattery never hurt. He answered reflexively, “I do what I can, Beatrice.”

There was no further response from the speakers, and except for light, fluttering noises, a deathly quiet came over the place. The trapdoor closed behind Ulysses as he left it, and the metallic clank of its closing brought a flurry of flapping noises and high-pitched squeals. Shadows of eyeless zubats were apparent near the high ceiling, and after about a hundred steps, there was finally a flat area. It seemed to expand hundreds of meters around, and was mostly rock, with patches of soil. Gloria's light did not fully illuminate the area, though it did intimidate the zubats enough to keep them away. "Thank you, Gloria," he praised the Ninetails in a soft voice. This was partly to avoid disturbing the bat pokémon, and partly due to his disappointment that some portion of Beatrice had not been stored here as some powerful AI. To be perfectly honest, he had been hoping for an after-death encounter of sorts. He proceeded with due caution; there was no need to inform Gloria that she had the liberty to incinerate any and all zubats that attempted an assault. The zubats, somehow seeming to understand both her ability and willingness to do so, left them alone. Enough wandering led Ulysses to realize why this place was not advertised in Glenville, or lighted: only a tiny crack in one wall, big enough for the zubats but too high for him to reach, still connected it to the rest of the world, and the moisture came from above him, dripping down from stalagmites. He eventually found a sign over a patch of moist earth from which nothing but lichen grew, which read, "Access to the Créche of Stars."

While Gloria cautiously teased the walls with flame in the hopes of illuminating some message or clue, Djinn phased through the walls to check for the outside. The wall with a crack in it was not terribly thick, and the cavern beyond led back to the hydroponics reservoir, but there were no obvious hints. The ninetales, on Ulysses’ suggestion, “encouraged” the zubats through a crack. After a brief, loud scuffle with them, she threw them back, and they left, but to no avail. Finally, something clicked. The songs that had played. Of course! “Dig-Dug.” Gloria was immediately commissioned to begin digging. All of her grace, though, no matter with what magnificence the dust and dirt billowed behind her, led to little avail – ninetales were simply not born diggers. Putting a palm to his face, Ulysses begrudgingly released the sandshrew he had discovered on the soft earth near the sign. The bewildered creature, notably more alert than it had been at first, appeared to have been instilled with a new instinct, and a new capacity to carry out what it was telling her: DIG. After a few short moments, the digging motion has taken the small creature ten feet down and unwittingly flipped a switch that drops her and a small cascade of soil down into a well-lit, small room, with steel walls that would require greater ******** being old. Ulysses sat on the lip of the new earthen orifice, then slowly edged himself into the whole. He landed on two stolid legs in a crouch, but winced something fierce. ******** being old. If his legs had been even ten years younger, this would have been no problem. As it was, he'd be feeling stiff and miserly around the kneecaps for hours- maybe days. It was something he could ignore for now, though. The sandshrew was thanked sincerely and petted- in his experience, Ulysses had learned all skilled pokémon responded positively several-fold if some genuine affection was provided to good deeds. Then he returned it to the pokéball and scoured the scene for helpful information. The door above shut behind him. The room was lit from the cracks in the edges. One wall drew Ulysses' attention in particular: the bass-relief of a charmander morphed into that of a machop while he watched. The other five surfaces were covered, in no particular order, with bass-reliefs of a bulbasaur, articuno, pikachu, drowzee, and sneasel and a hologram of a familiar form was projected next to him, facing him.

An alakazam, a particularly tall one by the species' standards, seemed to smile, the expression more an upward curling of its mustache. Its great eyes were soft and kind. In one hand it held a wooden stick with simple golden adornments that Ulysses knew had been a gift from a trip to Tibet. In the other was a silver teaspoon, ornately crafted with a melange of oak leaves and acorns on the handle. Nebule, Beatrice's closest confidant, greeted him with a sound that seemed to come from everywhere, and was deep and comforting. "Ulysses. It is good to see you." The image flickered a little, and there was brief white noise before the pokémon said, "Do you recall the film with Bruce Willis and the red-headed alien? Beatrice so adored that movie…” It flickered again and became more natural after that.

Ulysses elicited a soft sigh. Nebule was no Beatrice, but he was a definite close second. In the very least they could relate in their relation with the enigmatic genius that had been the focal point of both their lives. Unfortunately, neither Nebule nor Beatrice persisted into reality it seemed. Ulysses heaved a second sigh, one of yearning. None of the children could understand his situation; even the adults lacked insight into what truly troubled Dr. Shonevsky. And just when he thought he had rediscovered a confidant, it was naught but illusion once more.

Reminiscences aside, Ulysses was relieved. The Fifth Element was the reference, and so easily was it placed. After all, when one's own job was simply a study of the ancient magical elements, it was difficult NOT to have seen a movie so easily intertwined. "I do," he answered, expecting no response to his own. It seemed strange that succeeding a reference to the ancient four elements (five, including the alien as a symbol of life), that he would be presented with grass-, ice-, lightning-, psychic-, fighting-, and dark-types. Far from what the movie depicted. Best not to delve too deep, however; last time he did that, Ulysses nearly surrendered his own life.

"I am more real than you imagine, Ulysses," Nebule responded, in no way masking that he had been peering in on the doctor's thoughts. "Pardon my intrusion. It has been lonely, these six years."

Ulyssses smiled with obvious elation. "Nebule, the closer you creep to truth, the happier I am. Please, scour my mind at your leisure- I offer it to you. In return I only ask that you answer as candidly as possible: what is the meaning of this inanely convoluted ensnarement?"

"I cannot give you the answer," the creature answered, shaking his spoon in mock-chastisement. "Beatrice wanted to be sure that only the most intelligent of her colleagues would find me here. There are things that I know that not everyone should know - not even her children."

Ulysses could not suppress the laughter that bubbled thereafter. To explain, he uttered, "You speak like Terrian in the voice of my conscience. I can only wonder just how closely you reflect my own fears and suspicions on this whole venture." He shook his aging head with weary neck muscles. "No need to answer or relate. Just give me time to think this through."

And think it through the Doctor of Ether Studies did.

Nebule nodded kindly in understanding. "Of course, Ulysses. We will talk later." The creature lapsed into peaceful silence.

"In a future not too distant from the present," he mused before also succumbing to silence. A short deliberation revealed each embossed motif suffered weakness to one of the six pokémon procured prior in his search amidst the fall's discarded scraps. Conversely, each benefited of resistance to at least one of the six unique imprisoned and extremely weak ether-powered creatures. Dr. Shonevsky decided it safest to tempt fate with the weaknesses first: the pinsir was summoned to do bug-type assault to the drowzee-decorated plane.

Though resistant at first, the pinsir was easily coaxed to launch an assault on what it perceived as a natural enemy; the drowzee flattened and vanished. Satisfied with the results, Ulysses followed it through to its logical conclusion, sicking the elemental weakness upon each glyph until all were removed. Once removed, the panels all fade to smooth steel, except the one on the floor. This one reveals a tiny panel that is swept away, and from the center, not unlike in the movie, a little column arises, on which sits a USB thumb drive. "That will be my cue, then," Nebule says with a smile. "I need to speak with the boys, Ulysses." The trapdoor overhead swings open again, letting down dust and dirt.

"I suppose by 'the boys,' you reference Beatrice's children?" he asked, still seeking clarification.

"Oh, yes. They will be… surprised," he chuckled, and faded, his presence being drawn into the thumb drive.

"Hindsight's a b***h." Jeremiah muttered. "Why didn't we bring radios?" He grumbled and unconsciously scratched at his cuts. Jumping through a window may not have been the brightest idea, but the cuts weren't much of a bother. He had suffered worse in the past. Jeremiah smirked at Paul's question about the flammability of the building. He liked where this was going.

"I like your way of thinkin'." He told Paul. "But I doubt a fire is going to act quickly enough to catch 'em. Something more... explosive might be more appropriate for the job."

Tsuki could only blink when he was transferred to the new area. He didn't have anything to say so he just stayed quiet. When the ivysaur started on its attack, he took a step back in surprise. He wasn't used to pokemon actively attacking him. Kaji ducked under his collar and started to shake some, but Tsuki quickly pulled him out. "It's alright, nothing bad will happen, so just play with the ivysaur for a bit and roast a few vines with that fire of your," he said and set him on the ground. Kaji's fire blazed a bit and then went back to nothing. He didn't like the prospect of fighting, but playing was another thing entirely. He quickly folowed the other pokemon that were against the ivysaur and let his fire blaze a bit. He was excited to play, but if things got to rough, he would probably run and hide behind Tsuki's leg.