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 Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2025 5:49 pm
How convenient, 2 ways, 4 people. This was too obvious to split the party. Deo was of course hesitant. He would look normally down each way. He would then look with his X-ray vision on the floor, down the halls, and the roof. He knew that he could be causing trouble down the path. He kept his ears alert and his senses on high alert. He was starting to get worried, his worries were up, thus he was super tense. Also, why would a champion act so strangely?
He knew Cynthia was a bold in the face person. What troubled him was why she was so stealthy. Also who did she mean by "him". All these things needed to be solved. The sooner the better.
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2025 8:20 pm
Atlantis_Darts There was a singular door awaiting the group, in the exact same fashion as each other quadrant. This room, unlike the rest of the tower so far, was brightly lit - almost blindingly so by comparison to the dimness of the emergency-lighting tinged rest of Realgam they had encountered. It was also massive, with an enormous vaulted ceiling and walls far apart from each other and incredibly empty. The bright white walls, floor, and ceiling were all subdivided in a grid of criss-crossing black lines that served to checkerboard each one of them into even grids of squares. There was one door all the way off at the far side of the room, on the opposite end from them, and there was also a door off to their right, nestled on that wall. Crystal would land rather ungracefully herself, barely catching herself on her hands and knees. She would cough as the woman pushed herself into a kneeling position, weakly bringing up her arm to cough into it, one nasty, hacking cough, like a lung was threatening to escape. She’d wait for a bit as she tried to regain some of her senses, finally attempting to stand as Darts did. That… felt much harder than it normally would, like her body had gotten a lot heavier. “I’ll survive,” the catwoman muttered when she finally stood, rubbing her upper face. “The fall, at least, we’ve taken much worse. I can’t aim where my wormholes open up when we enter a new reality, and I wasn’t always able to make my lightboards. So, long falls happened more often than we liked.” She would follow her group forward, blinking as the light was a sudden shift to get used to. The next room was not what she was expecting. It was sterile white, extremely well lit, large, and mostly empty. There were two doors to get out, giving them at least an illusion of choice, while the floor gave the only other thing to break up the white in the room- the black lines turning this into some sort of grid. It would initially remind her of a checker or chess board, but it was missing the alternating color to be one, in theory at least. “Huh… Wait.” Crystal’s head tilted as cogs attempted to start back up. There was a potential idea of what this could be, but there wasn’t a way to test it. And there seemed to be no other information to go on, currently. “I wonder how sturdy this floor is, in certain places?” Maybe this was some sort of falling floor trap, where they’d have to find the correct path forward? What was underneath this thing if that was the case, though? And what would make them have to play by the rules?
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Posted: Sun Aug 24, 2025 10:13 pm
Monique walked into the only room that had access from her portion of the floor chamber. Her allergy was serving to mask the craziness of what had just gone down. For b***h Deluxe, there was one end goal: crushing Cipher's schemes and that Cynthia woman who was out of her mind.
Even in her mentally altered state, the next room was so, so strangely different. It looked cozy, had a fire for reasons unknown, and was quite quaint. Perhaps a differently minded Monique would be scouring the bookshelves that lined the walls (with historic tomes like The Era of the Teams: Rocket, Aqua, Magma, and the Nationalization of Villainy, Theories on Expansion Franchises, Tales of the Stock Pot: Where the World Came to Chat, and Designing the New Orrean University, which seemed very unlikely to pique b***h Deluxe's mind) or studying the portraits of Orrean history or examining that all-too-curiously-ringing telephone. But all Monique could think about was the heat. After all, her mind wasn't exactly processing that she was warmer than she should have felt because she was a Zoroark hybrid with fur, not a human with skin.
"Dayum, it's hot in here. Who thought a fire was a good idea in a desert? Like, look at me, I'm wearin' nothin' and it's still hot. Y'all want me to bring out my Primarina?" She gestured at the fire, sitting down uncomfortably on the plush chairs.
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Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2025 8:52 pm
Blowing out a exhausted breath, Reno kept his eyes tracking the very...interesting persona that Monique had landed on this time. She at least seemed to be relatively on task and focused on what they needed to do, so he wasn't going to need to do any curative measures yet. Looking between his Metagross and the somewhat narrow study that laid before them, he would reluctantly pull the Pokeball out and return her to her storage. Turning back towards the other three compartments, he would shout a quick, "Good luck with whatever you all have ahead of you. Unfortunately, it appears I have a very important phone call to answer."
Slowly beginning his approach into the study, Reno would look over towards Sol as the search for the ringing phone began. "So, what's your guess for whose phoning us? My money is Ein is calling us from the Distortion World to criticize us getting mud on his carpets. That or Mister Mushroom is phoning for another order of stuff he had no idea how to use." Browsing along, he would begin to make note that all of the items seemed...very at odds with what Ein would have done. Way too much sentimentality, too much care for the history of this region. Ein had seen the place as a bundle of resources with ample space to build things on. Was this actually a space that Ein had made or was this someone else's? Continuing his hunt for this antique-sounding phone, the thought that he had attributed anger over mud on the carpet to the wrong person was slowly beginning to creep in.
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Leslie landed hammer-first into the floor, the weapon taking most of the impact before bucking up and sending Leslie flying at one of the transparent walls. Slamming flat against it, it would take a few seconds before she began to audibly slide down the wall until her feet finally touched the floor and she flopped off the wall onto the floor. While the gas hadn't been very effective against her, the impact managed to add to the effects enough to make her a little loopy. "I tawt I taw a torra cat...." She mumbled, stumbling around before tripping over the handle of her abandoned hammer. Shaking her head as she scrambled back to her feet, Leslie would give a better response. "Mostly okay here. Just need a minute for the world to stop being two-dimensional."
Blinking a few times as she slowly picked up her hammer, she would soon end up behind Crystal in staring down the bizzarely bright hallway of random tile patterns. Hearing the question on floor sturdiness, the Tinkaton hybrid would look over to her hammer and then back at the floor. While just randomly smacking the floor tiles wouldn't do much, she figured the hammer had to weigh more than most people so any pressure triggers for dropping out the floor or whatever would inevitably trigger if it was set down unless they were somehow graded to trigger from a tank driving across them. "I mean, we have a half-ton on a stick here. We could just do the old tap and advance." Leslie offered, slowly bringing her hammer to bear in front of her before giving a test tap on the closest tile that she would reach. She couldn't figure anything to it besides just potentially needing to follow a certain pattern across.
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Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2025 7:00 am
[Group One]
Though the Aura Spheres didn't bounce off anywhere, they did little towards breaking through. The gas being barely mitigated, Cera's rapid breathing slowed as lethargy overcame her and the Sharpedo with her, even faster with his exertion in trying to ram the wall.
"Not sure I have an option here..." Amaranth remarked, finding herself having to sit down as her vision and mind went hazy. There was nowhere to blow the gas away with wind, it'd just fill the room even faster and the ice was barely doing anything to really stop it now. They'd hear Sub's shout about the floor, but that didn't do much to stop the growing desire to just sleep and let whatever happens, happen. Blizzard seemed to have a better idea and fare a little better, his Obstagoon digging through the floor and making an opening to escape.
"R....right..." Amaranth remarked, forcing herself to her feet and knowing they'd at least be away from the gas. "Come on, Cera, we... need to get out..."
Her words didn't seem to reach the Mew, who was whimpering and trembling on the floor, struggling to stay awake. "Let me out..." The hole before her, a certified way to escape, might as well not exist to her in the moment.
"Cera?"
No response would come from her, as the Sharpedo would barely move himself to the hole and slip through. The Mew could sort herself out, he thought, he wanted away from the stuff making him feel sick and tired.
Knowing there wasn't time to deal with this right now, Amaranth would reach out and grab Cera, carrying her out through the hole herself and panting as she landed on the floor below. The fresher air would help in time, but for the moment, they were all still feeling the effects pretty profoundly. A moment followed before any bearings would come back to them, with Cera eventually realizing she wasn't around the gas anymore.
"I... I'm... okay...?" She'd finally look up to see where they were, then around as her breathing calmed down and she was able to start grounding herself again. "Where are we?"
"Below that cell and the gas. Only see a door leading out." She'd let Blizzard and Tristen lead the charge inside if only for a few more seconds to get over more of the gas, following them inside shortly after alongside Sharpedo.
What came next was both her and Cera staring at the tanks and vats, and the shrouded figures within. Nearly dropping the Mew in the process, Amaranth wanted to take a step back and run despite knowing there wasn't anywhere to run to.
"N-not these again..." She remarked, remembering the one she saw back in Citadark Isle. And the one she remembered as little more than pain, with an Elektross hybrid staring at her. Swallowing hard to try and keep herself on task, she'd resume following and tried not to look at the tanks too much. "We... we should keep going, yeah."
Cera didn't leave Amaranth's arms just yet, hoping it'd mutually help the two of them. "Never liked seeing these... 'least Ein never used them on me. Chum, you stick with us, okay?"
She'd look to see the Sharpedo stay at the doorway, his eyes looking from tank to vat to vat to tank. What kind of monster did this sort of thing!? Why were there so many!? What kind of hell did that blasted Mew deal with!? Did his trainer known about all this too? The thousand-yard stare that continued from him made the Mew force herself out of Amaranth's arms, a flash of pink as the abyss stared back.
"Look, we need to keep going. This... Ein's done a lot. I don't know what else we're going to see right now, and it's going to be a lot to take in. I don't know how much I'll get myself to explain, but we need to get out of here first." This time, she'd seat herself on the Sharpedo's back, nodding and pointing towards the others. She couldn't help looking at the tanks as the two eventually caught up with the others.
[Group Four]
Sol would see some of the wooziness fade as Ulla's swirl of Fairy energy kept the gas at bay, able to take a breath and get his bearings. He could tell it'd only be a stopgap, though. It couldn't last forever, especially as the hissing intensified to signify much more of it was coming through. "Good, you have my thanks. This should buy us enough time to figure something out."
He'd take that moment to try and observe, watching the attacks everyone was doing. The attacks from within this cell weren't doing anything of note, not enough that'd be meaningful in any real timeframe. The gas would sooner overwhelm Ulla's efforts at this rate. It wasn't like he couldn't see the others, either, and when even the physically strongest of the team wasn't even making a dent in the walls, going through them that way wasn't going to work. "Ngh, no way Buzzwole would be able to do any better," he remarked, just before hearing Sub's shout through the vents about the floor not sharing the same traits as the walls. He looked down right after, talons tapping down against it as he heard Monique's sudden bit thanks to her allergies flaring up.
"Uh... huh... right. If that means the floor's weaker, that'll be our way out. Break the floor, get out pretty easily. Let's focus our attacks there- Reno, what are you about to do?" He was fairly sure a teleport was about to happen. He doubted there wouldn't be more Ebonite below them, but he wouldn't have the time to warn Reno that he'd want to be careful with that before teleporting and reappearing to splat right into the barricade, giving a lovely image of him against it before bouncing off back where they started. Mostly. They were at least away from the gas entirely, allowing the rest of the wooziness to fade if that sudden impact hadn't woken him up already.
"If it works..." He muttered, groaning as he got to his feet. "You do know you're probably not getting a new one for a while." Before him wasn't much, save for a single doorway. From the looks of it, they'd still be split up, prompting him to look up.
"Not sure if we're gonna have the same doorway!" He yelled. "Keep yourselves safe! We'll rendezvous where we can!" With that, he'd follow the rest through the doorway and into the study. Immediately, it flew in the face of everything else the fortress known as Realgam Tower was known for. What Ein was known for, for that matter, the man never seemed like the sort that'd give any consideration to aesthetics or luxury. He'd take a cursory look around around, eyes settling on one of the bookshelves. Between them and the pictures, surely this study would be a treasure trove of information and one of the coziest to boot.
"Might be just you," Sol remarked to Monique after her comment, still looking at the books. "This room's pretty well insulated from the elements, especially with the sort of Ebonite being used. Though, can't say I took Ein as the sort that'd care about anything but efficiency." Then, he'd hear the phone ringing, jolting him in the moment and making him look for that instead as Reno spoke up.
"Doubt Ein's found some way of phoning out of there. If he even has much of a mind left to do so if he did. With what we were seeing from Cynthia and the remark of him, I'm more inclined to think the mycellium network has a landline. Either way, I've a feeling it's not stopping until we answer it." He'd continue deeper in the room as he searched for the telephone, letting its incessant ringing guide the way.
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Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2025 6:51 pm
[Group Three]
Watching as Amber emerged from the floor above with Sub in tow, Wren sent his cotton cloud up to assist the last of them down and watched for a moment or two after getting them both to the floor to see if those in the other chambers were able to follow them. It only took a moment to begin seeing the floor in the other chambers coming apart, the other groups tearing the floors apart in two of them, a sudden flash of movement catching his attention as Reno made the mad attempt to Teleport through all the Ebonite-infused material. Thankfully it didn’t look like anyone got seriously hurt but Reno was definitely a bit disarmed by the mishap.
Shaking his head at the sight of the others regrouping and beginning to disperse once more, he would follow along with his own group as they headed for the singular door connected to the chamber they were in, dispelling his cotton cloud as he did. Stepping through the door into the corridor beyond, he paused for a very brief moment, trying to recall what it was about this place that suddenly felt familiar. Had he ever been inside the Silver Labyrinth, deep beneath the team’s Mt. Silver base? Who knew, at the moment.
“This place is…not going to be easy to navigate, I assume.” He noted aloud, looking up to see if there was space above the walls or if this was just an average hallway built to be confusing. If there was any room, he figured they could test the possibility of peering over to find the way out but even before he looked, he expected to see a ceiling just above them to make this as hard as possible. Why would Ein do anything else? “Anyone have any ideas? I’m guessing we don’t split the party? It would take less time to find the exit but with the SNAG network still down at last check, how would we communicate where it is to the others?” He asked. He was mostly voicing already known information at this point but felt saying nothing was also pointless.
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Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2025 3:02 pm
Getting away from the noxious gas was a relief. Amber would never admit it, but she was more affected by that gas than she'd let on. Couple that with feeling her heart nearly stop when Wren lost his grip on her, as well as taking all three of her teammates and herself (three times for her) through the floor, and she wasn't doing too hot at the moment. Doing back-to-back intangibility passes like that left her quite winded, though if anyone asked, she would wave them off, saying she was fine, and that she just needed to catch her breath. In truth, she would be fine, but if she were going to have to keep doing things like this, then she really needed to practice more, especially with people who were willing to help out with the whole 'taking another person through walls' thing.
That being said, she was quite grateful for Wren's quick thinking using his artifact to make a cottony cushion to stop himself, as well as her and Sub's descent. When she was able to catch her breath, she looked at the doorway in their section of the room. It seemed ordinary enough, but if life with Snagem had taught her anything, it was always to expect the unexpected. "Did Reno seriously forget about the Ebontie wall separating us?" she asked, staring at the prosthetic arm stuck in said wall with a look of disbelief. "Ugh, never mind. What are we going to do here, Sub? I don't particularly like the idea of splitting the four of us up, just in case we run into something that isn't exactly friendly. And my Pokemon won't exactly be of help here, since the Ebonite would prevent my Ghost-types from phasing through the walls to find anyone."
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Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2025 3:23 pm
The way forward was fairly similar to everything else they've see in this place up until this point, ebonite goo on the walls included. It wasn't until they came up to a fork in the road, Sub looking from left to right before it clicked in his head what they were actually looking out. Closing his eyes the man just stood there and inhaled deep, holding that breath for awhile before releasing with a heavy sigh. Of course Ein would make something like this, it was his entire MO. He was thinking they didn't come across this the first time they were here but still, it didn't change how both unsurprised and rattled the man was to see this very familiar looking labyrinth spread out before them. "Yeah, sure...whatever." He said, throwing his hands into the air.
Looking to Wren he grumbled slightly as he turned his gaze back on the two paths before them. "No, no it will not be. Especially not if that psychopath designed this thing after the Silver Labyrinth underneath Mt. Silver, which I have a funny feeling he did just that because he's just that insane and petty." As he rubbed the bridge of his nose he called out to Deo. "Deo, do you see anything?" He inquired about what might be ahead.
"But no, we won't be splitting the party, that's exactly what someone like Ein would hope any group of invaders would do. We stick today if we are to have any hope of surviving this." With that said Sub would make a decision based on what Deo told him he saw or didn't see and picked the rightward path for them to advance into, together.
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Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2025 3:37 pm
Keiko coughed heavily as she made it to the lower level. The gas had put a serious strain on her stamina, but now that she was breathing relatively clean air, that strain was slowly receding. Standing up, Keiko looked around the room the Snagems found themselves in. Her fight with S-22 was years ago, and she was nowhere near as familiar with Ein's architectural style as certain other Snagems were. That said, she couldn't sense any of the stupid energy stones in the walls of this room, and that gave her some small comfort considering what she'd just been through. Her mindset hadn't changed, though. She wanted to be done with this place so she could get Yuna and Serena back and have something close to a normal life again.
Speaking of her children, Keiko noticed that Ulla wasn't around. They'd broken out of that room, but it seemed like the team was still split up. Ulla had a GREAT deal of emotional strength for someone her age, but Keiko couldn't help but worry about her.all the same. She could only hope that the team got back together at some point so she could check on her oldest daughter.
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Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2025 6:18 pm
Group One:Blizzard120 “It makes me wonder how many people Sub has actually upset before bringing the team together.” “Who the hell knows.” I told him. Darksol88 "N-not these again..." She remarked, remembering the one she saw back in Citadark Isle. And the one she remembered as little more than pain, with an Elektross hybrid staring at her. Swallowing hard to try and keep herself on task, she'd resume following and tried not to look at the tanks too much. "We... we should keep going, yeah." "Look, we need to keep going. This... Ein's done a lot. I don't know what else we're going to see right now, and it's going to be a lot to take in. I don't know how much I'll get myself to explain, but we need to get out of here first." This time, she'd seat herself on the Sharpedo's back, nodding and pointing towards the others. She couldn't help looking at the tanks as the two eventually caught up with the others. Unlike the rest of the group, Ogerpon had little idea what these tanks were for. This was her first time running into Ein or his madness, so she would peer into each tank curiously, stopping just short of rapping on the glass directly as she stares through the Teal Mask at each of them. "Pon...." I have an odd feeling... She would comment idly. More and more tanks made themselves known as they went further and further into the room. It was deathly silent, save for the bubbling and churning of the experiments in each of them. In the middle of the room halfway to the next door, they would come across crushed glass scattered all over the floor. There's a bank of ten or so tanks smashed into bits, the desiccated corpses of the experiments inside lying on the ground shriveled from exposure to air. Whenever this had happened it had been so long ago there wasn't enough to rot, no smell. The group would suddenly feel an odd prickling at the back of their neck, like something was watching them as a long appendage suddenly shoots down from the ceiling end encircles Tristen's neck, hauling the boy off his feet and up towards the top of the room without warning. Group Two:Espeon_Commander “I wonder how sturdy this floor is, in certain places?” Maybe this was some sort of falling floor trap, where they’d have to find the correct path forward? What was underneath this thing if that was the case, though? And what would make them have to play by the rules? Reno Vantas "I mean, we have a half-ton on a stick here. We could just do the old tap and advance." Leslie offered, slowly bringing her hammer to bear in front of her before giving a test tap on the closest tile that she would reach. She couldn't figure anything to it besides just potentially needing to follow a certain pattern across. TerashiLeonGoken Her fight with S-22 was years ago, and she was nowhere near as familiar with Ein's architectural style as certain other Snagems were. That said, she couldn't sense any of the stupid energy stones in the walls of this room, and that gave her some small comfort considering what she'd just been through. Her mindset hadn't changed, though. She wanted to be done with this place so she could get Yuna and Serena back and have something close to a normal life again. Darts has a similar line of thinking to Crystal as they come into the room, not exactly sure what sort of sick game they were going to play in here but not liking it all the same. He watches on with his glowing red eyes as Leslie bops the tile with her hammer. As if in response, it shoots upward into the air like a bamboo shoot, a pillar rising up into the sky forty, fifty feet. The pillar itself seemed to be made of many individual blocks of the same material, and after a few moments it stops, one singular tall effigy at the edge of the room. "That's not ominous at all..." The gambler voices, taking a tentative step onto the first tile next to the one Leslie hit. It didn't seem like it was having the same reaction, and as he walks a few more steps cautiously inside all of a sudden the grid shifts and warps as all of the tiles around the hybrid's path move and shift like a three-dimensional model, creating blank white cascading hills that rose up around him. In the middle of it was an unchanged set of squares, causing a path forwards towards the center of the room. Just by touching the grid and interacting with it was creating scenery around them designed by the grid, looking almost like an artificial mountain range hewn from rock in the style of old three-dimensional graphics with sharp edges and squared textures made of the many squares that rose out of the grid to varied elevations almost like a giant pinscreen manipulated from below the group. Group Three:DragonFang099 "Ugh, never mind. What are we going to do here, Sub? I don't particularly like the idea of splitting the four of us up, just in case we run into something that isn't exactly friendly. And my Pokemon won't exactly be of help here, since the Ebonite would prevent my Ghost-types from phasing through the walls to find anyone." DeoLux How convenient, 2 ways, 4 people. This was too obvious to split the party. Deo was of course hesitant. He would look normally down each way. He would then look with his X-ray vision on the floor, down the halls, and the roof. He knew that he could be causing trouble down the path. He kept his ears alert and his senses on high alert. He was starting to get worried, his worries were up, thus he was super tense. Also, why would a champion act so strangely? Requiem of Whyspers “This place is…not going to be easy to navigate, I assume.” He noted aloud, looking up to see if there was space above the walls or if this was just an average hallway built to be confusing. If there was any room, he figured they could test the possibility of peering over to find the way out but even before he looked, he expected to see a ceiling just above them to make this as hard as possible. Why would Ein do anything else? “Anyone have any ideas? I’m guessing we don’t split the party? It would take less time to find the exit but with the SNAG network still down at last check, how would we communicate where it is to the others?” He asked. He was mostly voicing already known information at this point but felt saying nothing was also pointless. SubonicXP Looking to Wren he grumbled slightly as he turned his gaze back on the two paths before them. "No, no it will not be. Especially not if that psychopath designed this thing after the Silver Labyrinth underneath Mt. Silver, which I have a funny feeling he did just that because he's just that insane and petty." As he rubbed the bridge of his nose he called out to Deo. "Deo, do you see anything?" He inquired about what might be ahead. "But no, we won't be splitting the party, that's exactly what someone like Ein would hope any group of invaders would do. We stick today if we are to have any hope of surviving this." With that said Sub would make a decision based on what Deo told him he saw or didn't see and picked the rightward path for them to advance into, together. Deo's x-ray vision would reveal that, as the members had originally suspected, these walls were made of Ebonite too. Solid end to end, as he swept them, he knew it to be true... except for one spot. As Sub led the group around the corner, there was all of a sudden ahead of them a spot in the wall Deo would find himself able to see through. Looking all the world to the naked eye like the rest of the maze, as the four approached it Deo would be the only one who could tell that the entire six feet or so of the wall was made of a different material. All he could see on the other side of it was, surprise, more maze, but without his skill they would keep walking down the corridor and onward. Wren's investigation of the area above their heads would not reveal the ceiling he was expecting, there was a clear gap between the top of the walls and the ceiling higher up above them. If one were so inclined, one could try and scale the surface or get a boost to try and peek over the top of the maze. Group Four:Reno Vantas Slowly beginning his approach into the study, Reno would look over towards Sol as the search for the ringing phone began. "So, what's your guess for whose phoning us? My money is Ein is calling us from the Distortion World to criticize us getting mud on his carpets. That or Mister Mushroom is phoning for another order of stuff he had no idea how to use." Browsing along, he would begin to make note that all of the items seemed...very at odds with what Ein would have done. Way too much sentimentality, too much care for the history of this region. Ein had seen the place as a bundle of resources with ample space to build things on. Was this actually a space that Ein had made or was this someone else's? Continuing his hunt for this antique-sounding phone, the thought that he had attributed anger over mud on the carpet to the wrong person was slowly beginning to creep in. Darksol88 "Might be just you," Sol remarked to Monique after her comment, still looking at the books. "This room's pretty well insulated from the elements, especially with the sort of Ebonite being used. Though, can't say I took Ein as the sort that'd care about anything but efficiency." Then, he'd hear the phone ringing, jolting him in the moment and making him look for that instead as Reno spoke up. "Doubt Ein's found some way of phoning out of there. If he even has much of a mind left to do so if he did. With what we were seeing from Cynthia and the remark of him, I'm more inclined to think the mycellium network has a landline. Either way, I've a feeling it's not stopping until we answer it." He'd continue deeper in the room as he searched for the telephone, letting its incessant ringing guide the way. MoniqueBrie "Dayum, it's hot in here. Who thought a fire was a good idea in a desert? Like, look at me, I'm wearin' nothin' and it's still hot. Y'all want me to bring out my Primarina?" She gestured at the fire, sitting down uncomfortably on the plush chairs. The longer Monique would linger by the fire, the hotter and hotter it would start to burn. Starting as sweat inducing, the sensation would quickly escalate to singing and then outright burning, starting to sear the edges of her fur as the intensity of that little fire in the grate got hotter and hotter and hotter as she sat nearby. Sol and Reno, for their part, would experience a similar sort of situation as they went into the study in pursuit of the ringing phone. The closer they got, and the longer that they had to be in proximity to the ringing the louder and louder it got in volume, starting off as merely annoying, but quickly starting to ramp up to ear splitting volume in a matter of minutes. Reno would be the first to catch a glimpse of the antique phone sitting atop a little end table down the way in the next room over, but by the time he sees it his ear drums would soon be in real danger of rupturing from the sheer force of the volume of the thing. RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING over and over again, each time increasing in volume. Muffling ears was going to have to be priority one, but the pitch was rising above rock concert levels and soon threatened to sonorously begin blasting the Snagems backwards away from itself through sheer force of amplitude.
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Posted: Wed Aug 27, 2025 6:58 pm
Ulla let out a sudden sneeze as she shivered because of it. Someone must be thinking or talking about me. Probably Mama...Don't worry. I'll be okay on my own. She thought as she advanced into the next room with her group. She looked around as this room, seem odd to be in so presentable after seeing so much chaos not too long ago. "Why is the fireplace lit anyways? Does that mean somebody was just here?" She asked the group. She watched Monique scan the books while Sol and Reno went to investigate where the ringing was. The Fairy Child's attention was also towards where the ringing was.
As she followed Sol and Reno, the ringing started to go higher in volume. She held her ears as she saw the phone sitting atop a small end table. The more it rang, the higher pitch it went. "If you guys don't mind. I've already lost sight in one eye. I don't want to loose my hearing." She yelled out as she made a bubble around her head. Sort of like a helmet to muffle out the noise. Ulla started running towards the phone as she noticed the bubble around her head started to vibrate. And soon, it started to 'crack'. Ulla quickly bubbled the phone to muffle the ringing. And made a second bubble on top of that in case that broke immediately. She sighed of relief as she now just started to walk towards the phone. She stuck her hand in the bubbled phone. But before she answered, she looked back at the group. "I'm not sure if someone would actually be on the other line. This probably is just another trap. So, prepare yourselves."
Ulla then picked up the phone as she popped the bubbles to let everyone else hear whoever was on the other line. She held the phone out away from her face. ".....Hello?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2025 3:32 pm
[Group Three]
Wren nodded to Sub’s response. “Silver Labyrinth? Is that what the place the Ultra Beast showed that up in the basement was?” He asked, deciding it looked like there might be a chance of cheating this maze if they were lucky. He wasn’t as intimately familiar with Ein as many of the other Snagems were, having gotten involved with the man in the final throes of his evil empire but he still recalled he was always prepared for practically any possibility. And so, as the other three began to walk to the right, he aimed his Artifact toward the top of the wall and fired a cloud of cotton toward it. If the others turned to see what was up in time, they’d see the flower on the end of the branch he carried producing a seemingly endless thread, green streams of energy from its three crown-shaped stamens meeting to form threads that “wove” themselves into shape.
Using his energy to guide it, Wren would test if the organic matter was enough to trigger any defenses and if not, he would bring the floating cotton back down so he could climb onto it. Deciding that might not be wise, he instead released Destro on top of it. The Shiinotic would immediately make himself comfortable as Wren chuckled. “See if you can spot us a path out of here, ok?” He instructed the Mushroom Pokemon, sending him back up at that point.
Turning back to Sub at that point, he spoke again. “This does remind me, though… When the SNAG network’s back up again, I should reach out to Arturo… Maybe Moro’s found something out about that mushroomancer that messed with the students back at the Academy.” He noted. “Cynthia’s rant back there’s got me wondering now. The townsfolk back in Lentimas were acting strange due to a fungal infection as well so I asked them to look into it after I found the source just to see if the two might be linked.” He explained. “I haven’t heard from them in a while, though…”
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Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2025 3:41 pm
In the labyrinth was he. Deo could not find an exit nor an entrance. Finding more and more mazes and using his X-ray vision, Deo still could not find anything. "I see more and more ebonite Sub. I will let people know if I can find anything else." Deo said, with a shiver down his spine of the cold and darkness. This area, felt odd to him. The same form of odd that a person would feel in the graveyards. The thought came across his mind though. Was this the place where he was hybridized? No, it could not be. This place is under heavy guard and he did not recognize anything yet. Despite this, his thoughts ran wild. He stayed quiet though, not to concentrate on his running thoughts, but to help find more weak links. He did mention to others "Apologies gang, I have been deep in thought. Hence why I have not answered your questions or remarks."
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Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2025 4:10 pm
Atlantis_Darts Group Two:Darts has a similar line of thinking to Crystal as they come into the room, not exactly sure what sort of sick game they were going to play in here but not liking it all the same. He watches on with his glowing red eyes as Leslie bops the tile with her hammer. As if in response, it shoots upward into the air like a bamboo shoot, a pillar rising up into the sky forty, fifty feet. The pillar itself seemed to be made of many individual blocks of the same material, and after a few moments it stops, one singular tall effigy at the edge of the room. "That's not ominous at all..." The gambler voices, taking a tentative step onto the first tile next to the one Leslie hit. It didn't seem like it was having the same reaction, and as he walks a few more steps cautiously inside all of a sudden the grid shifts and warps as all of the tiles around the hybrid's path move and shift like a three-dimensional model, creating blank white cascading hills that rose up around him. In the middle of it was an unchanged set of squares, causing a path forwards towards the center of the room. Just by touching the grid and interacting with it was creating scenery around them designed by the grid, looking almost like an artificial mountain range hewn from rock in the style of old three-dimensional graphics with sharp edges and squared textures made of the many squares that rose out of the grid to varied elevations almost like a giant pinscreen manipulated from below the group. Crystal took a reflexive step back when she saw the pillar of blocks shot up, only stopping when they hit the ceiling. Her attention would then shift to Darts as he stepped on a tile and… nothing. At least until a few more tiles in, where the landscape changed. This would get the woman thinking. And she would begin to ramble out loud. “Okay, so, the hammer caused that reaction, the pillar. So, it’s probably not going to like me then. Leslie, you should probably leave the hammer with me if you want to get through safely.” Crystal would take a breath, the cobwebs slowly clearing as she contemplated what to do. “If I could suggest, Leslie, Keiko, you two go on ahead with Darts, but keep a decent distance between yourselves. Don’t want to see anyone accidentally sending anyone else up to the ceiling. And unless there are any objections, I personally think we should take the right door if at all possible. Maybe see if we could link up with one of the groups sooner that way.” There was no guarantee of that, but it seemed semi-logical to her. “Once you all are over, we’ll run and try to catch up. If the other spaces react to heavy weight like this one, then I’d have to keep moving to keep from becoming a flattened metal pancake anyways. We’ll bring your hammer over, Leslie.”
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Posted: Thu Aug 28, 2025 6:39 pm
“Hey you two…” I spoke up to Amaranth and Cera. “Just keep it together. I’m not liking being here any more than you two are; we’re trying to find our way out of-“ I ended up stopping and cutting myself off, quickly throwing my arm back to stop the group. Tristen walked off to the side to get a better look of what I was looking at and couldn’t help but to stare once again mortified, but also in confusion. “The hell is…this…” I asked. Glass strewn about, shriveled bodies all about, no telling how long they’ve been out and about. At this point, I wasn’t sure if my senses was going crazy, or that feeling of foreboding from earlier was really starting to get the better of me because I never recalled to being this severely bothered, nerve-wrecked even, at what I was looking at. I wasn’t sure if this even was as a result of our battle a couple of years ago. Or if it was something else.
“Watch your step…” I said to the lot behind me.
I started to walk slowly about, trying to avoid the glass on the floor. Tristen looked back towards the others then started to move forward. He too started to feel unnerved, wondering what would compel someone to actually do all of this. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only thing that he should have been worried about. Tristen perked up and was quick to turn around, looking up, and quickly reached for a Pokeball but by the time he did all of this in one motion, the unknown appendage had already gotten its grasp and started to pull up the Manectric hybrid. “AAA!” Tristen yelped out as the long appendage started to pull the teen up.
I turned around, seeing Tristen flailing, trying to pull himself loose as he got pulled up. “TRISTEN!” I shouted. I quickly threw my hands up to ready an ice beam but I couldn’t get a clear shot to whatever it was that had him, never mind that I didn’t want to hit Tristen either. In the panic, one of the Pokeballs on Tristen ended up coming off and as it fell down, it popped open, and in a flash, it was perhaps the worst one in this situation.
The Pokemon would look around at its new found surroundings, seeing what originally was strangers, only to realize these were criminals. The eyes within the brown mask it wore narrowed and a infuriated growl came from the Pokémon, as it hunched up. “Blast it…why in the hell did Tristen bring THAT!?” I asked, seeing the very disgruntled Type: Null set to attack. Null and I then perked up when a massive amount of electricity started to be heard discharging. Tristen was trying to fight back, trying to electrocute whatever it was that was up there that had a hold on him. Various lights started to flicker, if not outright blow, to the sudden surge of panic electrical discharge that was unleashed. The Type: Null, if only briefly, stared in confusion indicated by a head tilt. Apparently wherever here is was not safe to anyone.
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