Welcome to Gaia! ::

Elian couldn't help but giggle once more as Charlesworth gave Sigmund a rather "friendly" reminder of his guest. By the time the boy was able to stop talking, Elian had already given up on trying to understand what he was talking about. At the mention of going to bed, Elian realized how tired she had become. Before being teleported to the lab, she was just about to settle down to sleep, which now meant that she felt even more tired than before.

Hearing a faint voice, Elian glanced around the room, confused, but Aislin had her eyes locked to Charlesworth, her tail swishing back and forth in amusement before Elian caught on to the hint. With a soft sigh, she smiled at Sigmund.

"Don't worry about it. It's all really neat stuff... I just wish I could understand half of it. I guess I'll just leave science to the better minds." She complimented. Hearing the Haunter approaching with Edward, Aislin and Elian turned to look as they entered. Grimstrip's laughter was almost infectious as Elian let out another giggle, finding the Haunter to be a rather silly Pokemon.

"And I thought ghosts were supposed to be scary." She said to the Pokemon, giving it a friendly smile. Once Sigmund started to speak, she turned her attention back to the Oak boy, only to jump at the sudden appearance of the suitcases. Dumbfounded, she opened her mouth to speak, but found no words. Thankfully, Sigmund continued to speak.

With another sigh, Elian's smile returned and nodded thankfully to the professors. "Thank you, I'm sorry to have intruded upon you like this. I owe both of you for your hospitality."

"Errow!" Aislin piped in, Elian smiling down at the Pokemon.

"We'll be off for the night then... If that man gets here, the one you called, please tell him thank you for me."

((Greetings and finally and such!))

Evening of the first day, near Woodmount...

Mr. Howard stood up as Lexi pulled out her laptop and moved around to her side of the table, complimenting her on getting the model she had. "May I?" he asked, one finger on the catch to open the device. At her nod, he released it and lifted up the top portion, turning on the computer. His fingers slowly but surely navigated their way to the coding terminal while his wife complacently finished her own dessert.

Once there, he retrieved a USB drive from his pocket and plugged it into the side of the computer. Almost immediately, subroutines on the console started failing and false trails began flooding the screen with windows and meaningless text. Error warnings flashed, random colors obscured parts of the screen, and even the internal speakers began wailing, but Mr. Howard stoically typed in commands, calmly shutting down the invading virus and restoring everything to its original function. Once the terminal was peaceful again, he smiled at Lexi. "I do apologize for that, Miss Alexis, but I had to make sure that no one got their hands on this who didn't need to. Don't worry; you won't have to solve that every time you run the application.

"Now, unfortunately, this little program takes up more than its fair share of RAM; I don't imagine you'll be able to have it running for more than half an hour at a time without running down your battery. But here it is." He moved the cursor to a blank section of the window displaying the flash drive's contents and dragged a hidden image onto Lexi's desktop. It resolved into a fluorescent depiction of a pokéball emitting the tell-tale double helix of DNA. Once Dr. Howard opened it, the hard drive spun for a few moments before an indecipherable image of bright colors, from dark red to yellow, popped up in a window. Amidst it was a compass rose, with the single arrow pointing out of the back of the computer; Dr. Howard grabbed that with the cursor and spun it. In response, the image revealed itself to be a three-dimensional ether-imager; the room was mostly dark red, with dim oranges heating up towards the outside of the house and in the three humans present. Dr. Howard also demonstrated that he could zoom in and out. Everything he did, he explained slowly to Lexi, the technology he was describing sounding distinctly out of place with his otherwise rural appearance.

"This uses your wireless capabilities to search for ether densities, Miss Alexis. As you know, ether and magnetism are similar; all I have done is installed... oh, we'll call it an 'ether magnet' on the hard drive, from this USB, here." He removed the drive and slipped it back in his pocket. "It's not perfect, so the signal gets weak about nine meters out, but it's still very handy when you're watching for things that don't want to be seen." He winked at her and closed out of the application, then closed the computer.

"And now, we've taken up too much of your time, I'm sure. You go on home, and whenever you can tomorrow morning, head out towards Glenville and meet that young man the Oaks are sending this way - he'll have something for us, and he'll be expecting you."

Mrs. Howard chuckled as she started picking up plates. "Here we are, sending young people out on their own, just like in the old days. My, my, what are we coming to? But you'll be just fine, Alexis." She set down the dishes she had and gave the girl a quick, grateful hug. "You mean a lot to this world now, young woman. Go on home, get some rest, and eat a good breakfast in the morning." They saw her and her spearow out the door, waving as she left.

---

Morning of the second day, between Woodmount and Riverdale...

At approximately ten-thirty in the morning, Paul McCulloch was interrupted from his daily routine when Zoidberg faithfully informed him that there had been a strange chuckle echoing around the house. The sniper snatched at the gun most important to him before feeling something dig into his consciousness to pry out a single point of information. The nature of this information was made clear to him a few moments later, when he found himself and his two pokémon surrounded by a cloud of dust in the midst of a motorcycle camp that appeared to be in the process of abandonment. He felt the weight of his favorite sidearm drop into his pocket a second later.

One cyclist had made her way far from the site, leaving her bewildered former compatriots to decide on their own what to do. It appeared the small group had formed three smaller groups - three or four were double-checking med packs, food supplies, and gauze and were on their way west towards Glenville; six were checking shotguns and seemed gearing up for a raid in the direction of Cliffshire, to the south; and the remainder were scrambling to catch up with the woman bolting to the east.

They didn't all see him at once. Movement slowly came to a halt as the pressure shift registered and the presence of one more person became unavoidably obvious. Those to the west held up their hands placatingly and started moving to their bikes; those to the east, as soon as Paul had heard his name whispered a few times, revved their motorcycles and fled on their way; only those headed south seemed eager to fight. One especially did not seem pleased with the situation.

"Paul McCulloch," he grated through teeth occupied with chewing a long, rusted screw. He hefted his shotgun, a heavy, durable thing, in Paul's direction. "How's it feel to be out of your house, you crazy-a** mother******?" The others who were staying swiftly overcame their original fear at this display either of stupidity or bravery, stopped mentioning which or how many digits and/or limbs they had lost during the raid on McCulloch's house a year ago, and began drawing pokéballs and revolvers. It wasn't long before Paul was the focus of a loose, angry arc of bikers toughened by half a decade spent living on dust and gasoline.

The new leader cocked his gun and screamed in the rising heat of the day, "ANSWER ME, S***HEAD!"

---

Back in Glenville...

Down in the rattata cages, the two girls and the boy who later joined them were bonding quickly with their new pokémon. An hour passed comfortably as they all got used to the concept of having pokémon and the pokémon got used to the concept of having masters. As predicted, the third-type abilities remained unseen as of yet, but they had been assured they would show up eventually.

The room they were in was bright enough to see by, but as is customary for experimental animal cages, still not tremendously well lit. Cages of the over-sized rodents lined the walls, and some larger ones were obscured by the more prominent and, presumably, more practical creatures. Each cage was locked by a simple electromagnet that failed at the touch of a button to open the door, so removing and replacing the creatures was not difficult by any means.

And then, the room went black and the heart-chilling sound of a mechanical door closing behind them and locking itself in place echoed through the bare chamber. One minute later, the light came back on. Over the next ten minutes, a change in the behavior of the rattata on the lowest level of cages - eight to a row - was apparent. They became nervous at first, progressed to terror, and then began lashing at their prisons threateningly, their gazes locked on the children and pokémon in the center of the room. Five minutes into the process, Sigmund's voice came on over an intercom.

"Kids! The rattata that have drunk any of the water are experiencing something known as septal rage - they are incredibly excitable and will attack anything that moves and most things that don't. We're working to override the encryption that's locking you in there; as soon as we do, we'll tell you, and you get out of there as fast as you can! Each individual rattata is very weak, but in large numbers, they can be deadly, and it looks like this program is set to release another row every ten minutes, so don't let your guards down! I have to get back to the terminal to fight the program - you can do this!" His voice cut off with a click.

And then, in eight distinct clinks of metal on metal, the cage doors opened. Half the freed rattata flew at their targets without any provocation; the rest sniffed curiously at the open doors, tested the ground, and shot out after them, screeching in rage.

It was time to fight.

---

"Elian! Elian Joss, we need you in the lab!" the intercom called into the room where Elian was sorting through the clothes Terrian had sent her. Not all of it matched; though it had all been folded, the doctor's eye for fashion appeared to be afflicted by something approaching blindness. At least he had also sent along the necessities for hygiene and cosmetics.

As soon as she and Aislin had made their way half way down the hall to the elevator, she saw Sigmund dash out of its opening doors and gesture urgently to hurry. "We need your help, Elian," he explained breathlessly. "One of Mom's programs locked the kids in the labs and put a drug in the rattatas' drinking water to induce septal ra- uninhibited violence, basically." They got to the elevator and the doors closed with Sigmund tapping his foot impatiently. "The stairs would have been faster," he muttered under his breath, his ears reddening at his mistake.

His voice picked up. "We think you can probably help them, even though the door's locked. I imagine Aislin can't teleport you, but she can certainly get herself in there. If you can use your unique link to help them in any way possible, we would be extremely grateful." As he rushed out of the elevator and started towards the door, still adorned innocently with the pair of roses and the plaque, he finished explaining with, "I'm warning you now that Mom may have induced an ether shield on the doorway, so Aislin may not be up to her full combat potential once she's across. She can trust her instinct - the door is two inches thick and there is nothing she could run into on the other side.

"I'm sorry we have to conscript you like this, but you're the closest veteran with a psychic, and I need Charlesworth to help me with the programming. I'm so sorry!" He looked her in the eyes apologetically before leaving her at the door and running back to his and his brother's personal office, unkempt lab coat flapping behind him.

---

Afternoon of the second day, near Cliffshire...

Cracks appeared in the rhyhorn's skull and blood began hemorrhaging from its eyes and ears while it let out an unearthly, shrieking moan of excruciating pain. The great beast collapsed, dead and still bleeding.

In the time it took Ulysses to grab his abra, Kent had thrown his third pokéball, releasing the octillery within. The red, eight-tentacled creature was covered in ugly growths and scaly portions of tough skin, but was nonetheless set to kill. It released a tremendous jet of water at Gloria's exposed back that threw her to the ground. Her jet of fire had scorched most of the beedrill's body, but as it tumbled to the ground, it fired a volley of needles at Ulysses and Junior.

"Shoot me, Ulysses!" Kent screamed with sadistic glee. "Shoot me now! This was long enough, old man! Ah-hah! AAAAAAAAAAAAA-" the howl of his laughter was cut off as a gunshot rang out through the air and a bullet broke the front of his face and left an ugly exit wound.

Sitting on Ulysses' roof, Dr. Terrian waved the hand not holding a smoking pistol cheerfully. "I'll just wait 'til you're done, then! That octopus is a b***h, ain't 'e?"

*Djinn is CURSED; 3 turns until knockout

((Well, I think I got everyone, but I've been wrong before. I will not be governing the newly-introduced action sequences very closely; enjoy yourselves!))

Evie started growling as the rattata started to attack. Juno backed up a bit, but Evie stepped in front of her friend. "Evie?" Evie ignored Juno to attack the closest rattata. Evie got scratched, but that only seemed to enrage her even more. "Evie, behind you!" Evie used her newly developed dodging to move through the different rattata.

Unfortunately, one of them decided to attack Juno. In retaliation, Juno kicked it away. "Stay away from us!" Another started to come after her, but Juno was prepared. She had her slingshot and struck the rattata's head. While it temporarily stopped the purple rat, it didn't deter it from it's attack on Juno.

Evie suddenly jumped after that particular rattata and bit its neck - she didn't stop at there though. She shook her head to make sure the neck was broken. After making sure the rodent was dead, she ran straight back to Juno and returned to her post. Evie had taken her job of protecting Juno seriously; the dead animal was proof of that.

Watching Mr. Howard work had Lexi sitting on the edge of her seat as she leaned over as far as she could without blocking the scientist’s view to see what he was doing. When the virus first showed up, Lexi couldn’t help giving the older man a panicked look, but when he didn’t seem surprised or worried, she tried to calm down and watch the master work, and he was obviously a master at this…maybe once she was done with what she was doing for the Oaks, she could get this guy to teach her a thing or two. Once everything was getting back to normal, she flopped back in her chair with a stunned smile. “Huh…Well that was interesting…” Her tone might have sounded bored if her excited attempts to figure out everything the scientist had done weren’t written so clearly on her face. As much as she could probably use the practice, she was glad to find out she wouldn’t have to argue with the virus every time she wanted to use this…whatever it was she was being given.

She watched closely as the scientist went through the setup, and even spearow had decided to stop pecking at the remaining crumbs and take a look from the girl’s shoulder. When he was done, the shifting colors took on the shape of three dim orange humans and one brighter orange bird pokemon. She only had to wonder for a second why the spearow was showing up brighter before Mr. Howard launched his explanation. An ether imager? Awsome!She waved her hand and her image mirrored the move with no noticeable delay. “Wow…I see why it’s a power hog.” She wasn’t happy about the program sucking that much power, but having almost no delay could be worth it in a pinch…

In between the older man’s demonstrations, Lexi reached over to mess with the controls herself as he explained more about how they worked. By the time he was done, she was reasonably sure she understood how to use the program, and she knew that if she did have questions, she would hopefully be seeing the couple again soon. Okay, she did already have questions, but they were more of the what-if variety, and would probably take a little more practice with the program to be able to ask them without sounding like an idiot. As he shut down her computer, she smiled broadly at him “That program’s really cool, thank you for giving it to me”

“I’ll do my best!” She added when Mr. Howard brought up her task again, realizing she had never actually said she would do it. Though, really, there hadn’t ever been much doubt. Though his mention of time made her notice how gold things were turning outside the window. “What time is it?” Lexi’s eyes darted to her watch before she began scrambling to pick up everything. “Ack!...Curfew!” The spearow jumped off her shoulder for a second, fluttering next to her as she lifted her bag’s strap over her head. When the pokemon landed again, her talons got a grip on the webbing of the strap rather than in Lexi’s shirt, which the girl appreciated. Lexi was still getting used to the tickle of the bird’s feathers on her ear and the shifting weight of something living sitting up there, but she liked it. Packed up, she turned to the Howards. “Thank you so much for everything: the food, the company,” she scratched the spearow’s head with a finger, “really everything. Whatever happens next, it would have to be pretty awful to make me think today wasn’t worth it.”

After getting a hug from Mrs. Howard and listening to the woman’s advice, Lexi nodded her agreement and everyone headed outside. Lexi said her goodbyes to everyone before swinging her leg over her bike and grabbing her helmet. Just before she put it on though, a thought made her freeze. If it wasn’t for the amazing day she had just had, she would have been surprised that she had missed it. “I just realized something…Do either of you know what this boy looks like? I mean, I can’t just walk up to every male I find that looks older than ten and ask if they're looking for me…half of them would just blow my head off.”

((Sorry, I know you want Lexi out of there so she can get to Glenville, but she doesn't even know his last name.))

Ulysses was pelted with a few needles, but a pair of upraised arms and a shotgun took most of the heat. The pricks in his arms were very discomforting, but they'd go away soon enough he figured. Rather than investigate his wounds, however, Ulysses watched with awe, amusement, and a deep-seated curiosity as Terrian approached him. He was as eccentric as ever, never mind that he'd achieved something nearing superhuman capabilities. Could it be that a human had finally learned how to tap into his own pool of ether? It was a very thrilling thought, but the conversation drew the ex-professor from his mental solitude.

"I remember you well, Dr. Terrian. I'm glad to see you're still well." There was a brief pause during which Shonevsky pumped the shotgun, spent casing sailing a short distance to Terrian's left, Ulysses's right. "Ah, blast. The boy." The aged trainer's brows furrowed then. "Before we proceed, Dr. Terrian, I must know how it is that you know of my business. If it wasn't enough that you're jumping around like a superhero, randomly apparating on my rooftop, and achieving quite skillful feats of marksmanship. So let's start with the simple stuff."

During this time, Djinn drifted down to the ground and slowly snuck behind Alex, that wicked grin plastered to his features. He was almost within arm's reach when the purple pokémon melded with Dr. Terrian's shadow and began contorting it into weird and amusing shapes, all the while cackling. First he imitated a girafarig, then a jynx, and lastly Ulysses himself, but with ridiculously long and pointy hair standing straight up that one would only find in anime or on the head of some overly rebellious punk.

Seeing the lack of manners, Dr. Shonevsky promptly criticized the prankster. "Djinn, cut it out. Dr. Terrian is a friend." With a sigh, the man knelt, listening to what it was Terrian had to say. In the meantime, he shouldered his own backpack and scooped up Junior who shifted only in the slightest. It was perhaps a strange sight, seeing a man of his age hefting a backpack, about to travel on foot, carrying a shotgun in one hand and cradling a sleeping abra in the other. Unusual indeed, but as the saying went: desperate times called for desperate measures, and from what Ulysses Shonevsky understood, times were indeed desperate.

He had taken most of his time this morning in the kitchen. He felt some strange satisfaction helping to cook the food...though all he really did was fetch ingredients. Washing the dishes wasn't quite as much fun, but necessary, so he helped. A few people tried to start conversations with him, but unless they had something for him to do his responses were too short and to the point for them to really get anywhere. He looked over at the clock to see that he had about a quarter of an hour before his appointment with the Doc. Adjusting his bandages a little bit so that they didn't squeeze his burns so much, he drank a little water from the tap before leaving the spotless kitchen to go to his meeting. He had to ask for directions a few times, but he got to the room only a few minutes late. This may have bothered some people, but he had learned that most people were late for their own meetings, and even when they weren't the extra few minutes let them prepare themselves a little better. Besides, who really expected a nineteen-year-old runaway to be on time anyways?

Nineteen and a runaway. "Doesn't really make much sense..." he thought to himself."But that's my life I suppose. Take it or leave it they say, and I'm not ready to die just yet." With a short quick sigh he knocked on the door and waited for the reply.

There were only two rattata left free to attack whomever they chose. Juno didn't have many rubber balls left, and she was sure that they weren't going to help against these animals.

One of the rattata went after Evie, knocking the fox-like creature to the ground. But once there, Evie still seemed to have the upper hand. Rather than push the rattata away, she clung to the torso of the rat and used her back paws to scratch wildly at the rattata's stomach. Evie had gotten a few scratches in the process from the rattata's claws on her back, but it was apparent who won the fight - when Evie had let go of the dangerous pokemon, the rattata's abdomen had huge gashes and was that its intestines coming out?!

The next batch of rattata were getting louder. It seemed they were eager to get out of their cages. Evie stood over the dead rattata and glared at her opponents. Her fur was bristling, but it did nothing to scare the oncoming rattata.

The last free rattata dodged Evie and went straight for Juno. Evie chased after the rattata but was only able to bite off a part of its tail during the run. While the rattata screeched at its lost tail, Juno kicked it away from the group. She knew that wouldn't stop the rattata from coming back, but at least it gave them some time before the next flight of attack.

In the split second that the pokemon and trainer met eyes, both felt the pride at having one another and being able to deal with this.

The tailless rattata gave a high pitched screech. "Let it come here, Evie. I've got an idea." Evie tensed, but didn't go rushing towards it; she wanted to see what Juno would do. "Make that rattata jump, and I'll kill it." Juno could have SWORN she saw Evie nod, but it wasn't the time to really wonder about it. Juno squatted and readied her slingshot. "I just need it to open its mouth and it's done for."

Evie crouched in front of Juno, awaiting for the rattata - it was unusual, seeing that Evie would have already started attacking. The rattata jumped, mouth open waiting to bite off Evie's neck. Evie stayed right where she was. All of a sudden, a rubber ball got caught in the rattata's open mouth; the pokemon was choking on the ball!

Now that the rattata was busy choking to death, Evie attacked. She kept her paw on the neck of the rattata to keep it still while Evie tore at the jugular. When Evie returned to Juno's side, she had something in her mouth - it was the rubber ball lodged in the rattata's throat.

"Heh, thanks." Juno picked it up, and readied herself for the next attack.

Then from out of nowhere, an espeon came. Don't tell me we have to battle it?! Thankfully, they didn't. The espeon went after the caged rattata. The second batch of rattata had yet to leave their prisons, but Juno imagined it wouldn't be long till they broke free from their cages.