Welcome to Gaia! ::

Lacy kept an eye on the kid while she picked though pen caps and thumb tacks. She was glad to hear the Juno could shoot a gun at least though. That meant that she wouldn't have to. Lacy had never shot a gun before and knew that in a life or death situation she would be more of a threat to her own life with a gun then without. The scientist smiled when the blond asked her what it was she did here every night.

"I didn't think anyone would notice me being here, it's far enough from the town. I'm working on by dissertation. I'm a doctor of pokemon science. And as such, I have to continue my dissertation until I reach the limits of technology of my time. I'm working of a serum that nullifies ether's in pokemon."

The redhead smiled. She loved her work, no matter how grueling it could be at times. It was what she lived for, her research. No matter how tough life got she always knew what she was doing... working of her research. Lace flinched at the sound of gunfire. She immediately felt foolish for it, but the nights events were starting to affect her just a little. When she thought back on it.... She had just killed a person. An evil person, but a person none the less.

Looking down at her hands there was still some dark red under her fingernails and staining her blue tanktop and black pencil skirt. She walked over the the large stet of cabinets on the adjacent wall and opened one of the taller doors, inside were five or six lab coats. All were clean and fresh. Lace took one out and put it on, comforted by the feel of the soft cotton coat on her bare arms.

"Are you cold Juno?"

It was only polite to ask. Plus the coats had a lot of pockets, perfect for carrying ammo for slingshots. The woman walked back over to the Counter and opened the first aid kit, she started emptying it into the pockets of her coat by the hand full.

"Umm. What is it you want to go into? You know, when you grow up? "

It was one of her go to questions for kids. What do you want to be? It said a lot about the kid, and made an easy conversation. Lacy couldn't help it that she wasn't good which kids, at least she was trying.

When Lexi heard the scrabbling sound of Mr. Tavish’s cane speed up and get closer, she stopped and turned to see the man hobbling to catch up. She was slightly confused, but she nodded her assent and waited up anyways and, after some thought, decided she was actually happy to have the other man with her. That would reduce the chances of being mistaken for an outsider by any trigger-happy guards patrolling the streets, and he didn’t seem inclined to chew her out at the moment, which was a relief. However, then he said something more confusing. She hadn’t heard the creep’s demands as she had been running through Dirk’s house at the time, so she didn’t know that the creep had been looking for her. She ended up staring at the older man. “What? He was after me specifically?...” She looked off into the sky then shook her head slowly. “…I have no idea what he’d want with me…Admittedly, I have been having contact with out-of-towners…managed to get internet access a few years back, and I’m working on getting a working radio station, but it’s not like I tell people where I’m from…that would be stupid considering the town’s reputation…I always thought if I was going to end up with anyone after me, it would be from here, not somewhere else…”

Lexi nodded to confirm her web access, then when Mr. Tavish complemented her on getting it running, she blushed and looked down at the ground for a second. This man was quickly adding up firsts or near-firsts for Lexi’s experience. She was proud of being able to get the system running, but most people thought she had better things to do than mess with a forgotten method to communicate with people she should be stealing from, not chatting with. “Eh…it wasn’t that bad…the old base had some pretty durable equipment, and the rest of the web has just become the ultimate open-source project…” Then he offered her a job and she blinked…that would solve a whole host of problems…maybe people would quit making her go on raids if she got an actual job. “Serious? I might just take you up on that…have to ask my parents first but…yeah.”

Then he moved on to more serious matters and she shivered, her grimace returning. “No worries on the keeping an eye out…I’m going to need a good reason just to leave home for a few days after this…As for a loan…that’s probably not a good idea…So far every time someone tries to teach me how to use a weapon more advanced than a stick, they’ve snatched it back from me in the first five minutes. Guns take all of about thirty seconds.” The fact that this had less to do with her actual ability to learn, and more to do with not wanting to learn a deadly skill someone might force her to use hopefully wasn’t too apparent.

[[It may just be me, but it seems like the powers that be have already foiled you once on trying to give Lexi a gun, so I'm guessing she isn't supposed to have a gun at this point in the story...Siber/iD, correct me if I'm wrong on this...not that she wants one anyways...]]

((Okay, cool, we're back ^.^ AP will be updated shortly after I post this. Shaula and Ω, if I didn't want the gun to be passed over, I would have stepped in already. All: in this game, unless you're doing a series of posts in a row and people haven't had TIME to respond, or if it's something completely ridiculous, it is always better to ask forgiveness than permission.))

The machoke watched Tavish as though he could understand the man, and caught the pokéball when it was tossed. Moving with a sort of confusion, it took the metallic sphere in its hand, rolled it a little, and then, with infinite curiosity, slowly crushed it between its fingers. With a final look at the retreating duo and a wary nod at the actively digging arcanine, the hulking creature stood and began jogging away, to the east.

Over the rest of Woodmount, the sounds of combat had been extinguished completely. A few times in a row, the whimpers or shouts of the condemned, who apparently refused to share any useful information, were cut short by the bark of a bullet. It was Woodmount's way. It had kept them alive for six years. No one attacked Woodmount and survived. The city stood for no invasion; certainly none that killed any of its own.

---

In Cliffshire, a dark shape scattered with pale, ivory colors suddenly landed awkwardly on the head of Stetson's attacker. It was, in fact, a lucky shot; said attacker had been using the length of Stetson's speech to contemplate the cost/benefit ratio of firing at Ulysses, whom he believed would not take the chance of hitting Stetson with the shotgun blast, and then allowing his ekans to bind Stetson's arms until the gun could take care of the two pokémon. No, it was not a perfect gambit, but gambits rarely are.

But, as I said, he was saved from having to make such a decision. A bare foot belonging to a man falling out of the sky ran into his head, tripping its owner, who caught himself, spun with something narrowly approaching grace, and barely missed clipping the top of Stetson's head to slam its heel into the attacker's nose, breaking it and sending him rolling to the side. Dr. Terrian's eyes shot wide open. "Oh! That is definitely against the rules... I think. Hi! Sorry about WHOA!" He said, and strode forward to offer his hand to the man who was clutching his gushing nose and groaning, but then slipped on the dewy grass and faceplanted, his forehead bashing into the other man's temple and knocking him out completely. "OW! Wow. Sorry- oh." He scrambled to his feet and snatched an unforgettable, sable hat from the unconscious man's chest. The raticate snarled and leaped at his back, but at that moment, the newcomer tried to pirouette to face Ulysses and slipped yet again, driving the point of his elbow into the side of the raticate's head as he flailed and crashed into the ground with a hoot.

Once again claiming his hat and standing, somewhat unsteadily, the almost-middle-aged man sighed once or twice and surveyed the damage. "Oh, man... no, I mean, it doesn't really break the rules, but wow, is that close... Hi!" he chirped at Stetson with a broad grin, and offered an undeniably sturdy hand to help him stand. "Name of Dr. Alex Terrian and you can NOT trust me. Sorry I interrupted; I heard something was happening here, and I thought I'd check it out. You okay? Hi, Dr. Shonevsky!" he called up the hill. His eyes caught the moonlight briefly and showed a brightness completely out of place in his thin, ill-fed face.

Once Stetson was up, Terrian stood in a wide, proud stance with his arms akimbo and smiled broadly at both of them. "What is going on? Riverdale's under attack, too! And Woodmount! Woodmount killed the hell out of everything, though; they're fine, but damn! So much happening. Shonevsky, how's retirement? We'll need to catch up, soon. Listen, Bea - you know, Dr. Oak - mailed you a letter the other day, so keep your eye on your mailbox, 'kay? She said it was important. Alright, cool. Young man, watch out for this geezer." He winked and put a knowing finger on the tip of his own nose. "I mean, yeah. Watch out for him." He trailed off a little awkwardly, his chatter until then having been nonstop. "I'll, um..." He rubbed his nose again. "See ya later; I should bounce." He then hopped up, swan-dived, and vanished as he hit the ground.

---

The Cliffshire militants watched Jason with a strange curiosity, not really sure why it was he chose to sleep in the woods when there were plenty of beds. One or two called out to him with offers of a room, but he seemed comfortable with his pokémon.

Elsewhere, on the eastmost portion of the city, near the rail yards, a woman by the name of Madelyn Cache was interrupted from her work by a lone, slow, but regal figure. It was not the clothes which made it regal; no the clothes were no more than a single, unadorned, slightly ragged, black cloak. It was not the face, which was old, thin, gaunt, scarred, and sunken in. It was certainly not the hair, which was half a meter long and scattered like mist that would just as soon dissipate as gather. It was the bearing. This man walked with a deliberate step that did not ask for permission, but did not demand; it went where it was not allowed without intruding; it simply was, and there was no question to it.

A thin voice wavered out of his throat as he approached Madelyn in her warehouse-made-workshop. "You are the young lady who works on the trains? I would like to speak with you, if you have time." Both his glittering, brown eyes and his creased face smiled pleasantly.

---

Amaya smiled enigmatically as Ramsden grabbed her, and welcomed the ride back to the base. He had to go. He was too dangerous. She had been told to confirm what they all already knew, which was something she had wanted to do, so it all worked out.

When they reached base, she got down off his back and walked in the officers' quarters with him. They made their way to the Commander's main office and heard the tail end of Commander Brighton's conversation with Paul McCulloch. When the barrel-shaped man deigned to come out of his office to meet them, he casually saluted them both, looked at Amaya, looked at Ramsden, looked back at Amaya, and waited for her slow nod. He started immediately. "McCulloch needs another man with him. This thing has got everyone on edge, and you're honestly so god-damn crazy that you plus random jackasses popping out of the black to set our city on fire is gonna make people snap, so get over there and play bloodbath with him. We'll contact you as soon as we know what the hell this attack was and you can both go double-Rambo the sh*t out of f*ckhead city but I need you out of the Minutemen because you're scaring people away and I can't hold a city together with a skeleton crew. That's all. Get to bed. I'll see you at 0700 right here to load you up; McCulloch's out of Claymores. Jacobson, you get going, too. Thank you both." The dismissal was final, and left no room for argument. Brighton went back into his office and closed the door behind him. A few lesser members had walked up behind them as he spoke to give their reports. Amaya gave Ramsden a small, impish smile and disappeared behind them.

---

As Juno and Lacy got to know one another, Paul McCulloch was presented with the unpleasant task of once again listening to Riverdale complain of attackers. Why hadn't he warned them? Why hadn't he taken care of this threat? Why wouldn't he get the hell over here and tell Ryan to shut his goddamn piehole and stop creepily basking in every opportunity for a bloodbath? He listened to the voice on the other end of the phone.

"Six from the west, four from the east, so more than half of 'em came in on your side. Where did they come from? Did you see anything? They have to've been Woodmount, running in here at night! And they had a goddamn machine gun, McCulloch!" Commander Brighton wasn't really angry; angry had never done him much good. He was simply frustrated, and Paul was a good outlet, since Ramsden tended to suggest things involving the armored Jeeps that would make Woodmount salivate. That is, if it weren't all directed towards that particular town.

No, Paul hadn't seen anything. No, he hadn't gotten to stop anything tonight. No, he hadn't been passing out machine guns, even if he did have one or three to spare.

"Dammit. Ah, well. Thanks for doin' what you do, McCulloch; I know it works. 's why I'm so pissed these guys showed up out of f*ckin' nowhere. I swear. I'll call you 'gain in the mornin' if we know anythin' else. Out." The phone clicked and went dead. Paul sighed, then looked outside again at the creature carefully picking its way among his land mines. Paul had placed those expertly to foil anyone who thought they knew a single thing about land mines, and had spent more than one raid calmly watching them do all his work for him.

The creature outside was a human being who had lived through more because of the Cataclysm than most could say they had. Alyssa Dido was picking her way among them, using every ounce of training she had to crawl through without blowing up as she moved on all fours. It had been a long way to get here, and if she died now on her way to what she knew in her heart was a safe haven, she'd very calmly inform Death it wasn't her time, yet. She only had fifteen meters to go, and Paul still had not decided what to do with something that Zoidberg had assured him was only seeking food and shelter.

---

Olive Brown did not appreciate being woken up at this hour. She grimaced, she yawned, she stretched, she groaned, she whined, and yeah, she bitched, but she did wake up when Jacob finally made the threat to break down her door. With a loud, obnoxious yawn, she slowly stood up and shuffled over to her wardrobe for a lilac robe. At fifty-five years old, she was not ancient, but Olive had not aged well. Besides, she kind of enjoyed the distance her infirmity got her. No uppity youngsters except the cute ones, and she wasn't exactly repulsive - no, she just complained about her hip and her osteoporosis now and then, and could use nearly anything as an excuse to get away from a party.

In terms of governance, though, she was both an unstoppable force and an immovable object. Had it been the middle of the day, her dark, mocha skin would have been adorned with subtly intimidating make up so that her "I don't give a bag of rat sh!t, honey; I have been in politics longer than Noah" expression had just that extra little punch to it that would make whining, selfish petitioners realize exactly how puling they sounded. Her black, silver-streaked hair would have been swept back like a storm cloud over high-arched eyebrows that framed brown, deeply intelligent eyes. It had pained her to have her now-superfluous wedding ring set in black lacquer, but now she wore it with pride, and the heavy diamond was usually made more prominent when she needed to make it clear she was bored.

Finally, she answered the door to her small, solitary apartment, her wrinkled face in her favorite expression, little though she knew it would work on this particular visitor. "Hello, Jacob."

"Good evening, Mrs. Brown; may I come in?" he said without a hint of apology. "Sorry to wake you so late. Something happened."

"Remarkably illuminating," she snapped at him - it was quiet, the way a chestnut snaps at the fire for being too hot. "Come in."

"Actually," he reneged, succumbing to the same kind of embarrassment he had seen dozens feel much more thoroughly once they realized how foolish they sounded, "it will only take a second. Riverdale was attacked by a group of armed militants. I've alerted the Protectors and put out an extra watch tonight, so we'll be safe. I just thought you should know, in case some of their citizens contact some of ours, you know." His resolve to stand firm was wavering under the weight of her eyebrows.

"In the morning," she said slowly, as though talking to a child while she looked up through the ten inches worth of height difference between them, "I'll actually be able to do something about it. Thank you for telling me, Jacob. Have a lovely night." She closed the door quietly in his face, and returned to bed while he said the cheeriest farewell he could manage. With more yawning and groaning, she crawled under the covers, her judicial scowl melting into a wrinkled smile. Jacob fought, but he was still under her thumb. Good boy.

Jason waved away the offers of a room, preferring to sleep outdoors with his pokémon beside him, as he did while traveling. He settled back against the tree, closed his eyes and started humming quietly as he slipped into a dreamless sleep. Beside him Joy twitched as she slept, and in his arms Mist's necklace glowed softly, casting a red light over the three of them.

Ulysses had always been one with the extraordinary capability to cope with any and all sorts of strange turns of events. When Dr. Terrian apparated for lack of a better term, it was certainly surprising, but his first question was not, "How in the hell did you do that?" Instead it was, "Terrian, where are you--" and would have finished with, "going?" but he was gone as quickly as he'd come.

He sighed, irritated. His whole day had been upset in perhaps ten minutes by an intruder and that wild Terrian. At least he was willing to admit he was crazy. Still, the history between the young lab assistant and ether specialist led Dr. Shonevsky to believe Schraeder was an individual worth knowing.

First things first, however. "Get on! Go!" He shouted at the stranger's pokémon. Regardless of their responses, he strode to his visitor's side, planted a boot on his chest, and aimed the shotgun. Looking down, he realized that the man was unconscious. No questions were going to be answered. Then, there was some time.

"Stetson, right? Get your things and come up to my house. I'll be checking my mail." A strange thing to say for a man without a mailbox, although perhaps some form of longing for normalcy had led him to leave a letter slot in his door. How he might have missed it wouldn't have been any surprise either- Ulysses had been busy handling all these people coming and going. So he went to check his living room floor for some sign of a letter.

And in the background, fires still simmered in the town, and concern didn't once cross the old man's mind. A younger Ulysses might have cried to see what he'd become.

[[Augh...oops...sorry Siber/iD/Omega...I kinda took when Lexi's creep reached for a gun and then didn't have one as the bosses stepping in, then guessed they were busy having fun in Europe...Looks like I'm the retarded one...

And no worries Omega...actually Lexi didn't say or do anything she wouldn't have anyways, she hates guns...]]

When Mr. Tavish fell silent, Lexi made no attempt to restart conversation. There was enough going on to think about without more chit-chat, though the girl tried to get her mind far enough out of reality not to hear the noises echoing down the streets from the last of the attackers…there would be none left by morning, she knew. No, tomorrow was going to be a nightmare for whoever the groupthink lemmings decided was to blame for this. She didn’t think it was one of the local towns though…whatever it looked like, they would know better than to attack with such a small crew. It wasn’t like her mind held any other options though…She saw Dirk go pale out of the corner of her eye, but she didn’t bother asking, as there was plenty of nightmare fuel going around tonight and she didn’t need to make it worse.

Soon enough, they made it to Lexi’s home. At first, she thought she might be getting lucky, but then she saw a man sitting on the stairs. In better light it would have been more apparent that his skin was well-tanned from significant time spent outside, or that the eyes giving Lexi a stare that was at the crossroads of relief, frustration, amusement, and ‘I told you so’ were the same crystal blue color as the girl’s, but even under the dim gold glow from the porch light, Lexi could recognize then man. Long brown hair with sun-bleached streaks, pulled back into a ponytail, with many escaped strands and the prickly beginnings of a beard was a style that belonged more to the beaches of another coast than this military town. She looked at her feet and sighed. “Hey Dad…” The man didn’t move, just followed Lexi with his eyes as she walked up. “Find what you were looking for?...” The girl rolled her eyes with a grimace, and was about to answer with a slightly sarcastic ‘not in this town,’ but then she shut her mouth, realized that one good thing had come of this lousy night, and shrugged. “Well…I might have found a job, but other than that, no…definitely not…” Lexi’s father’s expression switched towards curious, before he glanced back and forth between his daughter and the man she had come home with…He stood up, towering over his kid (who didn’t inherit his, or anyone’s, height) by a foot and a half, grabbed Lexi by the back of her shirt before she could sneak inside, and walked over. “I assume you had something to do with that?” He then held his (not-busy) hand out to the newcomer. “Casey Hale. Hope Miss Lexi didn’t give you too much grief, though that may be asking too much of her… ” That’s what he said, but a lot of stress had dropped out of him when he saw that Lexi was in one piece and not in new trouble, and he was managing a smile, if not a broad one. To a degree, he understood her need to get out of the house at odd hours…he had been doing the same thing years earlier than when she started, but the world had been very different then…