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 Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 8:35 pm
((I worked this out with Siber earlier, I promise everyone I did not just take over Terrian's or Amber's actions.))
Juno narrowed her eyes in confusion. "How were we chosen and why? And why were you around for it?"
The doctor widened his eyes and snorted, muttering as though she couldn't hear, "Juno, I took you for one who would pay attention in school." He raised his voice. "For etheric susceptibility, duh. For your ability to tune into the etheric fields. Come on, girl. And I was around because I know a lot about it, and because I'm Beatrice's friend."
Juno deterred her eyes for a moment and shot a marble at the ivysaur. God bless Darkwing, but he was woefully disadvantaged against the grass pokemon. She'd help from the back if she could. "Just because I paid attention in school doesn't mean I know the exactly what you were looking for in a bunch of kids, or even if that was all you were looking for in us. Now quit being vague."
Terrian watched casually and winced when it struck the silhouette of Amber's bulb, making the creature twitch. "Pharaohs, Juno. In Egypt, where they were really serious about taming ether, they selected kids for how well they could link up with pokémon. Those kids became war leaders, philosophers, princes, and assassins, because it was considered not just dominion over an animal, but over a force that other humans couldn't touch." He face morphed from mildly scorning, to triumphant and glorious, to kind of sad, by the end.
Juno pursed her lips. "Then why disappear? Wouldn't it have been better to keep in touch with us so that we could better prepare for whatever we're about to go through?" The psyduck had taken to attacking the ivysaur during the brief distraction Juno provided him. He mostly maintained his distance unless the stronger pokemon was distracted by something else.
He smirked, and looked as though he wished he had glasses to look over. "Seriously? You want ME to be your tutor? Think about that one."
"You obviously know more than anyone else here about what's going on. I wouldn't have minded knowing about some of this earlier on." Juno was perhaps luckier than some others to have had training from various soldiers. But what about Toby? He hadn't had anything like that.
"The Dreamweavers have a lot of eyes and ears, Juno. If we had told you then, they'd have known then, that is for certain. I don't know how long they've been around, but they would have hunted you down and killed each one of you. Beatrice… I don't know why she wanted to wait until this late of an hour. I think she wanted to make it more urgent, and I think she wanted to leave very little time for her sons or anyone else to get their own ideas and screw things up. Look, Beatrice, I don't think they will. They're good boys. Luke and I can take care of this. And speaking of which, we're going to use the chamber again. No, no, we are, and there's nothing you can do about it. He's in PAIN, GODDAMNIT WOMAN." The man's face, this time, twisted into an ugly, angry snarl, and his eyes flashed purple again. He was clearly no longer aware of Juno. And then, suddenly, he was, and started speaking again as though nothing had changed. "And besides, it's hard enough for me to keep even some vestige of sanity now. Back then? Phew. I'd've chopped your heads off for fun."
Juno was torn between watching her pokemon and watching the half-crazed man. "Okay....who's Luke?" The girl nearly let loose another marble against Amber, but Darkwing managed to get in a good punch before being pushed back.
"Luke?" he queried, blinking at her. "I had a friend named Luke, but, you know, not everyone made it through the Cataclysm. Why?" His features became more sallow and pale, and the violet light behind his eyes flashed periodically, becoming stronger with each time, but ultimately flickered out.
Juno blinked and said in guarded voice, “You just mentioned him.” The teen saw Amber aim some of its vines at Darkwing again. The psyduck looked to be doing all it could to defend itself without any way of escape, so Juno took the opportunity to shoot another marble at the stronger ivysaur. Maybe the momentary distraction would allow let her psyduck escape from the vines as well as help another pokemon get a free shot while the ivysaur was distracted.
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Posted: Tue May 08, 2012 9:15 pm
"Epicurus, send word," Mikhail ordered. Inside the truck, Mikhail was at the wheel with Epicurus floating in the passenger seat and Mikhail was trying not to think too hard about how it was moving with the truck. Behind them, Hume was on the gun; it had taken some doing to convince people to let him drive it inside the city, but he'd gotten clearance.
Epicurus pinpointed Paul's Alakazam - another powerful psychic Mon - and signed off several concepts in rapid succession. Moving. Where?
Zoidberg sent back an image of the zone, followed by: Killzone. Traps.
Epicurus responded with Procedure?
Burn. Flee. The intent of the second concept was obviously for their targets, not them.
Role?
Patrol. Flank.
Affirmative.
Epicurus relayed the information to Mikhail, who set out to patrol the nearby area without ending up in the aforementioned killzone.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2012 7:12 pm
His job done, Ulysses sighed in relief, and claimed the thumb drive. His next task loomed, quite literally above his head, and seemed far more problematic than his initial quest to find this hidden room. In the end, he resorted to using his abra, Junior, to teleport out. They apparated at the top of the stairwell, the small psychic balled up in the doctor's arms. Seeing as the sun was still up and the day quite refreshing, Ulysses opted to keep Junior free of the pokéball.
Dr. Shonevsky chose to walk back to the campus despite his small friend's ability and sought out the brothers Oak to deliver them the news of the puzzle and the USB drive.
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Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 8:40 pm
Bishop Schwartz continued climbing, determined to get as high up as she could. By some miracle, the two buffoons after her were still alive. That alakazam was trouble; it was hard to set traps for something that could sense motives - especially one strong enough for brief glimpses of the future, like this one. Her hitmonlee carrier her higher, and higher through the stairwell, and when she finally reached the top of the thirty-story building, she leaned her head out the nearest window... and saw smoke. They were trying to burn her out. Like a rat. Well. She'd make them pay for that later. Now, she just needed to escape. And damn Willam! Leaving her, and safe in his little death trap! She'd kill him, too, eventually. For now, she gathered herself, and waited for at least a few short moments to give them all time to relax.
---
Dr. Terrian smiled nervously. "Did I, now...?" He stood back up, slowly. "Well, that's unfortunate. I guess it means I'm not getting enough sleep." He went silent, and watched the battle.
Amber had neatly driven back every melee attack that managed to make its way up to his perch. Those who got close were coughing and poisoned each time they were dismissed by Amber's punishing vines, but between the coordinated efforts of the small pokémon and especially with Juno's slingshot, he was not quite quick enough to react to the small cyndaquil that tossed the nigh-negligible amount of fire he could summon into what was effectively a powder keg the ivysaur had created around himself. He managed to swing partially away, but not before the thick haze of pollens was immolated in an explosion that knocked back every pokémon in the immediate vicinity and warped the metal bars of the "playground." Amber sailed through the air almost comically, trailing fire, and slammed into the far wall with a pained grunt. He staggered to his feet painfully, clearly still willing to fight, but his ether reserves were gone, as proved by the blackened bulb on his back. He stared through the maze of metal at his opponents and put his vines at the ready.
Some of the smaller pokémon had not fared so well. Both Toby and his chikorita were down for the count, the boy by a loosened bar that smacked into his forehead, and the chikorita by the fireball. "Huh," Alex mused. "I didn't really expect dumb luck to get you to this stage, but sure, why not? Not everyone who's considered a hero has earned it."
---
Ulysses would note that the hydroponics reservoir was curiously quiet. Normally, there should have been someone to greet him when he came out of the cavern, there should have been the sounds of idle chatter between the guards and the workers, and there were even generally the noises of working digletts and crobats that patrolled the area to keep out pests, but now, there was nothing.
There was one groan. Closer inspection revealed a man with a bullet hole in his belly, fingers clutching a potion, but unable to open it from blood loss. Once Ulysses had helped him and gotten the wound at least mostly sealed, he told the older man, "Ambush. We evacuated. Most of Biodome dead. Two invaders headed for the science buildings; can't find third. Don't know why through here." A sudden explosion rocked the place, sending dust tumbling down. It would be easy to track the location. "Could be underground access. University's basements pretty big." He fell asleep, then, but seemed stable.
---
The same explosion thundered around the arena in which the young'ns were trapped. Terrian looked in its direction; it had obviously been outside his wall of protection, and was across the massive chamber from the rest of them. "Hum. Odd. Keep fighting, keep fighting; I'll be back." He wandered off, then, after a careful meeting of eyes with Amber, who nodded back a little grudgingly, and kept his stance.
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Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 9:20 pm
As the man fell unconscious, Ulysses found his mind turning over conscious action to instinct. Djinn and Gloria emerged from their pokéballs, and his hands sought out his trusty shotgun- but it was nowhere within reach, naturally. He had left it in his room before coming out here. It left him grimacing, but determined none the less.
He began with a brisk stride toward what could only be trouble, then paused, turned around. "DJINN!" The ghost was looming over the wounded guard, clearly intent on dream-eating. At the doctor's bark, he managed a strange grinning frown, as though he were entertained by the challenge, but also severely disappointed. Gengar expressions were weird.
With the ghost pokémon in check, Ulysses resumed where he'd left off: striding briskly toward a nameless, faceless danger without a means of personal self-defense. While they walked, Shonevsky wondered- wondered why they would come, and (as the guard had been particular in noting) why this direction? The second seemed far easier to answer; it was a stealthier entrance, with fewer chances of being recognized and/or impeded. The first question, however, possessed far too many viable hypotheses: the Oaks, their work, the children, and perhaps a myriad other objects and persons of interest Ulysses was not readily aware of. That said, he had a strong feeling it was the children. They were invaluable, each one easily worth more than Ulysses's life and all nine pokémon in his current possession combined. And if push came to shove, he would be willing to sacrifice himself for that cause. It was difficult to say he would sacrifice the pokémon as well- he had always believed in a certain degree of freedom of choice for all creatures.
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Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 9:32 pm
"Here's the cavalry," Paul observed, crouched near the rapidly melting ice and glass. His kindling and Oddjob had done the job, and the building was now alight. They couldn't spend too much longer in here or they'd choke or get burned themselves, so they needed a bit of cover for the crossing. "Zoidberg, let's make sure Mikhail knows our plan here. Jeremiah, you ready to run?"
Fire is going. Crossing. Cover. Paul's voice accompanied the simple concepts: "Anything shows its face at the window in that building, you spray it. Don't care what it is, don't care what it's doing there, just put it down." This was accompanied, shortly thereafter, by Paul glancing out the window on the door and examining the far building. Once it was clear and the cover was in place, it was time to make a move.
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Posted: Tue May 15, 2012 7:19 am
Doquz had been reluctant to go in as the ivysaur surrounded itself with spores and hung about at the top of the mankey bars. She had spent most of the fight growling at the edge of the cloud and occasionally throwing her club about 2 yards into it before she would summon it back with the ether she bound to it.
In short; Doquz was useless for the majority of the fight and it wasn't until Amber was knocked down from his perch and the spore cloud went up in flames that she took the opportunity to charge at the expended pokemon, intending to headbutt it, then wail on it with her club fiercely. Doquz's bravery had been put in question after all.
Alyssa was busy trying to process the boy evaporating due to the twitch of the warped man's finger. The fact that this thing, for she no longer believed it to be a human, could so easily do away with them and yet was sitting here making them fight a plant-lizard dumbfounded her.
Then the thing and Juno started talking, and with every marble Juno shot Alyssa became envious. Her knife was all she had and she could not help Doquz with it lest she risk dying from poison. She also had no gear to help her jump right in. The speaking of Pharaohs was not lost on her, somewhere in her studies she had stumbled upon those facts but she never delved into them. She just thought it was myth honestly.
As Terrian excused himself to go check out that noise, Alyssa returned her gaze to the fight and was surprised to see her little cubone finally charging in.
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 10:55 am
Mikhail relayed Paul's instructions to Hume.
"Gol Golem." Yang liked to think that wasn't 'Mikhail Yang, you're a d**k,' but he wouldn't have bet money on it.
"Epicurus, keep track as best you can of anyone in the building."
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 11:30 am
By this point, the group following Ina had been informed of the assault on the hydroponics reservoir and the current chase to the university. The explosion - well, two explosions, really - was reported roughly two minutes before it was reported that the two infiltrators who had come above ground had been shot and killed by none other than Thatcher himself. They were confirmed as Dreamweavers. The third infiltrator's position was unknown, though it was presumed he was still underground.
A pokéball flew out of a window twenty stories up. The red beam it released formed into the shape of an elektabuzz, the strange creature seemingly straight out of a Dr. Seuss book. The two knobs on its head flashed, and the creature produced a blindingly bright glare that blotted out the vision of anyone looking up. Immediately, a hitmonlee with a blonde woman clinging to its back charged out of the window, flying through the air, and aiming at the next building. If unhampered by the presumably blinded crew below, she would crash through and into the next building, recalling her elektabuzz as she did.
---
((Blackbird and Jikial will be answered after I get another response or three from the young'ns.))
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 12:12 pm
Paul, as used to the concept of a flashbang as he was, did not quite have the reflexes to avoid it entirely. He ducked away from the window and slammed his eyes closed but wasn't quite fast enough. He wasn't blind, but there was a bright afterimage frozen over his vision. A tad too stunned to react, Paul wasn't even aware of the escape attempt.
Zoidberg, however, did not need eyes.
The same thing that made scanning a large area so difficult made following a single target so easy. Each update, every couple milliseconds, had only a small shift; it was easy to trace the etheric signatures of targets in such small increments. With a lasting memory like an alakazam's, a clear picture of the scene and its actors was easy to produce. Zoidberg knew precisely what was happening. He knew better than to permit it. And pokémon made such good airbags.
All it took was etheric bending, just around those signatures Zoidberg could already see. All it took was a change in the anticipated flight trajectory to put them all on the ground. A push down, firm and suddenly, and the Bishop and her pokémon would hit the ground. Hard. Twenty-two stories was a long distance to fall, but the hitmonchan would save her life. That or Zoidberg would do it. That, too, would be pretty simple.
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 1:39 pm
With a gut-wrenching sensation of horror, Ina felt the tendrils of psychic energy begin to tug at her. The window that had been her target floated, then flew upwards out of sight as she was suddenly sucked towards the ground as though reeled in by a fishing line. She started to scream, fought the instinct after a short yelp of surprise, and clung to her pokémon for dear life. She saw the group of militants below her, but wasn't quite willing to give up, yet, even knowing her chances were slim, and released the vaporeon. The sapphire-furred, vulpine creature targeted Hume first and released a jet of ether-powered water at the golem, then fell the remaining ten feet and was prepared to bolt towards the nearest human, Yang, with a burst of supernatural speed.
Meanwhile, the hitmonlee had landed, giving a low grunt of pain, and did its best to sprint to the closest not-on-fire building.
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 4:02 pm
"Epicu-" The etheric water was intercepted by the body of a certain starfish alien that had flown out of the window halfway through Mikhail's word. Hume let out a wordless roar as his more water-resistant ally took the hit and released a torrent of bullets at the Vaporeon. Mikhail, for his part, looked for a chance to bring the car back around and retrieve Epicurus, who - having been knocked away by the blast - was lagging behind.
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Posted: Wed May 16, 2012 4:24 pm
"Geh?" Paul managed. He was aware things were happening; he could hear and guess. But that wasn't all - images were being pushed into his mind, situation reports, and as confused as he already was he was lagging on it. Still, his initial reactions were enough to get Zoidberg a plan, and a damned good one at that.
It would, however, take him out. On the other hand, there were two other people, and if Paul lost his most valuable pokémon in exchange for one of two marks, well, that was more than a fair exchange.
Bishop Schwartz began feeling the same tendrils and pressures of the psychic, but this time they were more powerful and far less direct. There was a disorienting sensation of delocalization, and then a sudden feeling of heat. She barely had time to register what was coming on before she struck it.
Back inside the building, on the first floor, not more than twenty meters from Paul and Zoidberg himself, Bishop Schwartz and her hitmonchan appeared in the wake of a teleport. The hitmonchan, however, had not lost its momentum, and was first to hit the solid wall. It absorbed much of the force on its domed head, but its rider still experienced a face-full of brick.
Zoidberg then relaxed as Paul finally got his wits about him.
"That's... that's fine," Paul observed, leveling his rifle at his quarry. "Jeremiah, let's restrain this one and then we can get to work on the next one."
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Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 7:53 pm
Juno stared hard at Terrian feeling very unsure what to say. On the one hand, she really wanted to press for more information. Luke didn't sound like some random slip of the tongue. On the other hand, she hadn't forgotten that he transported (at least, she prayed that it was all he did) the blind kid out of the arena. She was an extremely curious teen, but she was also one that cared very much about not being poofed away.
When the explosion occurred, Juno focused on finding Darkwing and where he'd landed to. Unfortunately, that meant missing the fact that Toby got knocked out by a loose bar. "Toby!" She kneeled down beside the unconscious boy and panicked. The hell do I do?! Head trauma was never good, and she had no idea how extensive the damage was. Was it a concussion? Was he suffering from internal bleeding? I am not a doctor! She tried to shake him awake, but it didn't seem to be working.
Darkwing had shakily gotten up from the blast. It had taken him longer than he cared to admit to get back on his feet. It was bad enough he'd been doing poorly against the hellacious herbivore. It was made even worse because his migraine had made him wish for someone to just knock him out. All he really wanted was for the ivysaur to just. Stay. Down!
Darkwing's migraine suddenly felt like it had exploded, and that the explosion had been aimed towards Amber. The psyduck didn't care whether or not it the migraine boom had actually done anything to the ivysaur. For a blissful moment, there was no pain. His headache had disappeared. "Psyyyyyduck," he slurred as he fell over.
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Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2012 2:37 pm
Bishop Ina Schwartz was knocked out stone cold, a not-so-small trickle of blood leaking from her forehead. It would be a major concussion and likely a fractured skull - she wouldn't be putting up much of a fight when she finally woke up. Her pokémon left a crack in the wall and staggered onto its rear, spilling Ina, and the vaporeon, though able to evade at first and actually managing to leave a gash in Mikhail's arm, collapsed under the hail of chain gun rounds after she retreated for a second pass, bruised and beaten. Any search of Willam's hideout would reveal nothing - he had vanished.
Jacob's voice came in over the radio. "I hear a lotta noise. Everything good over there? You catch her? We haven't gotten down to everything, yet, here. The children are locked in the basement, Terrian's foulin' everything up somethin' fierce, the Oak boys are in conniptions, and Olivia's flippin' shits like pancakes when she isn't keeping the peace. City people are okay with a handgun or two, happened all the time, once, but a machine gun's a little different!" He laughed goodnaturedly. "Report back to my office when ya can. It's..." He proceeded to identify the location. It was a university building attached to the main hospital via a sky bridge over one of the larger streets. "Oh, and if you see a ledian coming towards you at any point, well... don't hurt it, but I wouldn't let it see that Dreamweaver b***h if I were you."
---
Darkwing's unleashed migraine, combined with a wallop from Doquz, sent Amber flying against a wall again, and this time, he didn't get up. With his etheric defenses down, there had been nothing to protect him from a purely etheric attack, although the perceptive observer might have noticed that he did not appear to have actually struck the back wall - instead, he had struck just barely in front of it, and then fallen far more slowly than expected.
"Well then," Terrian said, tight-lipped. "Good job. Only one dead and one concussed. Now. I'm hoping that this person isn't playing by the rules." Sergeant Jeb Donaldson, peering out of his pale blue eyes from underneath unkempt hair, and frowning through a severe overbite as he hunched over his rifle, walked through the door, his gun trained on Terrian.
"Now, Alex, I don't want no upset from you. I'm here fer the young'ns." His twang cut through the air. Behind him, a stag-like pokémon sauntered through, and a loud buzzing announced the entrance of a tremendous wasp - a beedrill. "I'll go through yew, though."
"Why... that would be breaking the rules," the doctor said with wide, child-like eyes. "If he breaks the rules, I can break the rules."
"He ain't told me 'bout no rules, Alex. All he done said is git the young'ns and git out. Now come now. I already said I ain't want any upset from ya."
Terrian deliberately placed himself in the rifle's firing path. "An' wut if yew accident'ly shewt me, ya durn dirty mongrel? Yew bin his since longer'n I have an' I think you done already traitor'd enuff back in Woodmount. Weren't it yew shot up Hertzstein? Weren't it yew might'a kilt Tsuki if I ain't put a hand out? Yew yelleh-bellied OOF!" A shot rang out that echoed through the whole chamber. Terrian looked down at the bullet that had lodged itself in his belly, then grinned a wicked grin.
"Young people," he said, addressing the five who remained standing, "this is what I want your pokémon to be able to do, when it comes time for you to fight. And it can happen, because you're all pretty damn special." The bullet shot back out of his belly, having left hardly a scratch, and went through Jeb's calves and thighs as though it were weaving them together. The beedrill and stantler shot towards Terrian in a rage, but he released one pokémon - a quilava - who, in a very mild-mannered fashion, turned his back on them and released an inferno that not only knocked back the beedrill, but charred it to a crisp while sending the stantler bucking and screaming from the room, fur on fire. That meant it had taken virtually no time for the flame to burn through their ether defenses and begin burning the pokémon themselves.
---
Ulysses had to put himself against a wall as a flaming stag galloped past him and towards the hydroponics pools. In short order, he and Djinn found themselves walking through a hole in the wall that led to two obvious turns in a hallway, and finally the testing chambers, where he saw Terrian gathering the exhausted ivysaur into his lap. "Ah!" the younger doctor lilted as he saw his old colleague, "I was just giving these kids a lesson. I think you can inform them of what you've learned, and wow, they'll have learned a lot today! I guess you found Nebule, right? I hope he didn't say anything about me. Poor guy. Anyway. I'll be on my way. Bye!" With that, he, the quilava, and Amber all vanished, leaving Ulysses to talk with the young'ns and decide what to do with Jeb's body. The poor man had bled out with both femoral arteries severed, and he was still clutching his gun and staring at the ceiling.
((AP happened... I think Bayer netted one, and Jikial and Isa both got one, though Isa lost hers, and then all the young'ns gained one each. Hooray survival!))
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