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Rojo and Azul resurfaced about half a minute later, the both of them gasping for breath even as they continued to grapple with each other in the water. The two suddenly stopped at Faran's voice and they turned in unison to see the Vulpix standing above the water.

"Cool!" Azul exclaimed a moment before Rojo pushed her under the water to propel himself towards the piece of wood. The Minun came back up to the surface a moment later, and soon both twins had swam to the piece of wood.

Neither pausing to check if there was room or if the wood would be able to support the additional weight, both of them tried to climb on, thrilled by the amazing discovery Faran had made.



Melissa stopped at the shoreline, where the waves regularly washed up and then receded. As the water came and lapped at her feet she flinched before taking a tentative step back. It was still pretty cold.

She looked up at Alice's question and turned to see who the ralts was indicating.

"Ah yeah, that should be him." She noted before her attention was suddenly caught by some commotion in the water. She watched as a large wave smashed down on the Ivysaur, and her face knotted in concern. Would he be alright? There was little she could do, but the Bulbasaur decided if she did not see the other grass type resurface within ten seconds she would call for help.

---

"That's an interesting name." If only he could remember what mythology it was from again...it was definitely from some old stories...Eh, it's been a while since he'd been schooled.

"Ice might be sturdier than you think" He commented with a slight grin, thinking about a certain Glaceon he knew. He wondered how many Pokemon made the mistake of thinking Zero was weak because of his species.

Atra reached up to the necklace and wedged his paw between his neck and the string. He pushed out gently and the crystal slid off the string smoothly, as if it were made of some form of goo, yet it stayed solid in his paw.

"This? This is the Icicle Plate of Arceus." He set it down between them and the small crystal began to expand and grow until it was finally the size and shape of the most recognizable form of the Plates; a thin large rectangle. Unknown runes were etched on its light blue surface. The Original One breathed alone before the universe came. "I can use the Original One's power through this."

The ability to use Judgement was what set the Eclipse family apart after all, and he had no inhibitions about bragging as much.



Morana shifted nervously as the Ninetales' posture seemed to change and she looked down at her feet, a tuft of her longer fur falling down to partially cover her eyes.

"Oh, um...thanks." She stuttered in response to the compliment. She knew she would probably say something in response, but she just couldn't think of anything. Behind them Veritas placed both paws on top of her maw to muffle the sounds of her giggling.

"Um...well...I'm Morana and..." Morana started an introduction nervously glancing back at her teammate. At this point Veritas decided to step in and save the poor girl. The Jolteon gave one last chuckle to get it out of her system before going up to the Houndoom and sitting at her side.

"And I'm Veritas. We're from Team Polaris and Anna here is our leader. Who might you be?" She might be spoiling things for the Ninetales, but Veritas could see that it wasn't going to take much to send Morana into a nervous breakdown. Well, she doubted it would go that far, but sometimes it almost seemed that way with the Houndoom. It always amazed Veritas -and the rest of the team- that their shy, incredibly nervous leader could be such a fierce fighter in battle.

Red yawned as Purple began to read another book to the egg, how boring! Going over to her towel, she curled up into a ball and looked around. This was quickly getting bor-ing. Hopefully the egg would be a girl, she couldn't possibly handle three guys. Too much testosterone. She took out her paw and began to scribble little lines in the sand, going in no particular order at all.

~Mikhail

Mikhail couldn't help but note how Eira kept throwing her eyes specifically in the direction of Solaris as she spoke; her proceeding words tying together her actions.
"Seriously..?"
He scoffed with chuckle.
"You can beat the s**t outa' that guy any day."
The Weavile spoke, sure as hell himself that she couldn't have been looking at the feline Pokemon endearingly so it must have been some sort of reverence. To him there wasn't really any sort of hierarchy of power that didn't involve violence.
Seeing no near future where there was a chance of him eliciting a positive response from her with this line of conversation he let out another sigh and spoke again with a more serious tone.
"We don't have to be here if you don't want to be, I'll do anything and go anywhere just to see you smile."
Despite all the excitement he had built up over this trip, in this moment he was willing to give it up for her sake.

When Melissa saw the red bulb bob up to the surface she followed its progress until it made it back safely to the beach. He seemed to be OK, and Melissa cast her glance down the shore in search of the missing surf board. She hadn't paid attention to it after the Ivysaur's fall.

"I haven't seen it, but it should wash up eventually."

---

Atra simply shrugged at the mention of his name, vaguely wondering when he had introduced himself but figured he was recognizable enough, disregarding the identical twin problem. He and his brother had matching names, rather simple ones at that. Atra and Albus translated to Black and White respectively, breaking from the family tradition of celestial names.

"I can control my temperature fine. It's just a pain to." He replied, a slight frown creasing his face. A year after his evolution and his team room still needed to be fireproofed regularly to avoid accidents. At least he's been forced to learn to consciously keep the heat down now that he lived with a Bulbasaur.

At the comment about Judgement he shrugged.

"Yeah, mortals really aren't meant to take that kind of power. It takes a while to recover. But sometimes you need it..." Atra can count the number of times he has had to use Judgement on the back of his paw, but all -except the first time- was because there was dire need of such power. He picked up the plate absently as it began to transform back into a small crystal. "It's how my father saved the Guild."

As he pulled the crystal back onto the string he wondered why he mentioned that. Maybe it was because he wanted her to know, wanted the world to know. Pluto died to protect these people, and they needed to know why, how, to fully appreciate his sacrifice.



"Sarge huh? Nice to meet you." There were always interesting names around this guild. Veritas remembered that for the longest time she had thought Chronicler was a nickname. Veritas had to prevent herself from rolling her eyes as Sarge flipped his hair in a rather exaggerated manner. Boys.

"So do you lead your own exploration team?" She asked, mostly as a follow-through to the Ninetale's introduction. Meanwhile Morana was relieved that Veritas had taken over the conversation, and was being very busy staring down at the tufts of fur that replaced the normal Houndoom bone rings on her front paws.



"Yes...we really should ask the guild about that..." Crescendo nodded, floating alongside the Dratini. "It's great to meet you too Claire."

He inclined his head slightly before continuing.

"I have been in the Ocean once...but it was during a mission. I was very young, so I don't remember much." Cress twirled in the water, closing his eyes as he felt the current rush past his skin. "Yes, I can see that now. It would be so nice to just...come live here after everything is over."

He opened his eyes again and righted himself beside Claire.

"All we have to do is to stop...everything that's going on right now. Once we fix everything, once it's all OK again, Pokemon won't get hurt and the hospital won't need me. Then I can come and live here." He declared to himself determinedly, making his decision on the spot.

Era nodded sympathetically to Ivy's plight, the Guilds were always busy with something or another so it was difficult to keep regular contact with...well anyone really aside from your Team. There was really no telling if you met someone whether you'd ever meet again, and there was even less of a chance that if you did meet you'd be the same as before. For someone like Ivy though it had to be worse. The Glaceon was a royal, she didn't have a Team, just her family, and naturally she would be protected to the point that it was almost oppressive. "People are busy a lot sometimes," she said in agreement, "But it's not always a bad thing to say hi anyway. I know that I at least appreciate it when I get greeted by someone, even when I'm working. It helps to cheer you up and makes the work seem easier." She smiled at Ivy's enthusiasm about the event, she really liked it a lot it seemed. "It is nice isn't it?" the Pikachu replied, a rather wistful look on her face, Being penned up in one place is never any fun." Ivy almost reminded her of herself when she was a small child; they seemed to share that same wanderlust.

Era blinked with surprise at Ivy's change of topic, glancing back at her wings. They tilted a bit to catch the rays of the sum and the glistened slightly, bringing another slight smile to her face. "Flying..." she said, her eyes closing as she imagined the sensation, "It's the most wonderful thing that there is. It's difficult to describe it, but I'll try. There's this feeling of freedom, as if nothing will ever be able to bring you down again, and the wind on your face makes you feel alert and refreshes you, it's a nice thing in the morning to help you wake up. Everything's different from way up there, you see things from an entirely different perspective. The world is laid out at your feet and you can see so much, everything is just there for your own enjoyment. It's...really amazing." At the conclusion of her speech she smiled apologetically, realizing that she'd just gone off on a tangent, "Sorry, I got a little carried away,"

Faran grinned from ear to ear, pleased that they were impressed with his stunt. He stood atop his mighty vessel with his chest puffed out in pride, as he watched the other two scramble over to him. When they grabbed onto the board, the Vulpix laughed light heartedly, not considering the possibilities either. There was something about being young that took away any and every rational fear one might have and replaced it with excitement, and that was what the young Fire Type was experiencing right now. When they simultaneously tried to climb onto the board through, common sense began to kick in. Three Pokemon on this small half of a surfboard was not going to work, was it? Even as they climbed on it began to wobble dangerously back and forth, "Umm guys...?" Faran began shuffling his paws to try and steady the makeshift raft, "Maybe we should take turns..." He was unable to get the point across fast enough and he dug his claws into the wood as it sunk down into the water, flipping upside down and throwing them all over into the water. Faran struggled, fur bristling as he tried to pull his claws out of the wood and swam up to the surface, gasping for air as he looked around to see how Rojo and Azul were fairing.

Erinn looked at Ren gratefully, "Would you?" he asked, sounding slightly relieved, "It would be a huge help." The Paras still scanned the area with a nervous expression, his eyes wide with nervousness. He spotted a hole in the ground and gestured for Ren to follow. Erinn stared down into it, calling, "Rivia! Are you in there?" It didn't occur to him to think that this hole was being dug down not up, nor that a tiny Sandshrew like Rivia couldn't dig such a big hole by herself in that amount of time. So he peered down into Ver's hole, looking for some sign, any sign of Rivia.