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 Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 2:34 pm
Here you may elaborate on the trials of teams and individual Pokemon who've ventured through the doors on their own. One post per group, please, and be sure to specify (A); who it is taking the trial, and (B); what team they are from, in order to make things more clear. This thread is made to encompass all non-roleplaying entries. If your character(s) aren't interacting with those of another player, your chapter-mission gets posted here.
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Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 5:47 pm
The Trials Of Gary The Slowpokeof Team Stormcloud  ->  GaryGary stepped through the portal, his chubby pink form seeming more than a little unsuited to the very rugged landscape around him. For one thing, this new world was very hot and dry; it made his skin feel tight and hot, and he didn't really like that. It just felt unnatural, to be there at all. The earth seemed like it was made of glass; very sharp and pointy. He didn't like walking on it, and it made his feet hurt.
He turned to toddle back out, but the door had vanished behind him, leaving him trapped in a world unsuited to his physique.
Slowly stepping in circles, he tried to figure out just where the door had gone. In a vast world of white, hot pointy things, he was quite unhappy. He did not even understand where the sky had gone, for it seemed just to fade into black, empty space, the further that it went. And the point at which the black shadow began seemed to change with where he stood. Walking forward, the massive circle of scalding white light would follow him. The shadows would close around behind, where the white light had left. It was most strange, in his opinion.
As he staggered forward, carefully placing his paws around the shards of broken glass, he realized that he could sense something ahead, and stopped dead with his tail curling nervously over his back. What was it? He wasn't sure.
Stepping once more, he found himself nose-first against a strange series of holes in the ground. They were very small, roughly the size of his feet, but they were quite curious in formation. Clean lines, in specific, simplistic shapes. The closer to him that they got, the more simple that they became, and then the pattern reversed again, becoming almost insanely complex as the end of the indents came to be.
Gary stared down at the one nearest to himself, contemplating what to do with the strange little holes. He prodded it with his foot, and a series of small, oddly-shaped objects appeared around him, each one shaped differently, but as cleanly-cut as the openings before him. It looked almost like a puzzle piece...
He nudged the nearest piece with his nose, and flinched back out of caution. It did nothing. Absolutely, flat out zero sort of nothing. He nosed it a few more times, and nothing continued to happen. The silence seemed almost unbearable, really. He was expecting some sort of explosive reaction that never came to be, and it made him nervous. What if the explosion was merely lying in wait? What if it was merely waiting for him to turn around, before it blasted him away?
The Slowpoke shivered, nudging it away with his paw, and it slipped over the indent in the ground.
Bang. The explosion finally occured, in a shower of multi-cooured dust that landed over his nose. His face, now covered in a rainbow of shimmering powder. After realizing that not only was he unharmed, but also that he was coated in a thick layer of shiny stuff, he began pushing more of the puzzle pieces over the indents. Explosions occured everywhere, some of the pieces, rather than exploding, merely send flying high in a puff of powder, and falling back to earth to be nudged again. Gary swept his tail, knocking more of the pieces around, and feeling bubbles of delight rising in his stomach as the explosions continued. It was very much fun, for him. Until, finally, one piece of the massive puzzle finally slid into place. It shone brightly, with the shimmering light of a summer rainbow.
Gary stopped dead, staring blankly at the new shiny object. He toddled over and promptly sat on the shining light, the rest of his body shimmering along with it, simply due to the insane amounts of rainbow powder already clinging to his skin. It wasn't even that the powder was rainbow; it was just highly reflective. He quite adored it, though, and wasn't sure how to make more of the shiny things appear.
He shifted off the filled indent, examining it. The puzzle piece had fit perfectly into the indent. The same shape, both pieces seemed to be; was that the key to this challenge before him? Fitting each piece into place? He wasn't sure, but it was worth a try. He waddled over, and grabbed the most complex piece of the puzzle, before dropping it into it's perfect match. The indent glowed brightly in rainbow colours, and he cheered inside his mind. This process was repeated again and again, all of the complex shapes and patterns being completed without a hitch. It was then that he realized the next ones were different. Shaped like numbers and letters, this would be far harder.
He picked up the letter "o" with his mouth, and looked around for the matching hole. He couldn't seem to comprehend which was which, for a while. He stumbled around, dropping the letter into each remaining indent that he could find. And each, in turn, would spit it back out, once or twice hitting him in the face as it did so. One the forty-fifth hindent, the o melted into the indent, with only a faint, glowing outline around the edges of the letter. It shimmered more brightly than the others, casting the rainbow glow across his world of shattered, white glass and sand. Everything was reflective, here, and anything near the closed indent seemed to glow with the same energy.
With this latest triumph, Gary had a new goal in mind. To brighten the rainbow lights would light up this entire world, and it would make everything more beautiful than anything he'd ever seen before. This task must be accomplished, if he was to enjoy the reward ahead.
Gary picked up another piece, without really bothering to study the shape of it. Again and again, he merely dropped it into the indents, until another found itself glowing as it slipped into place. This process was repetitive and dull, but the shining lights made it worth it, he supposed. He just wanted it to shine brighter, sooner. There had to be a way of doing this that didn't take forever. He only had so long with the shining lights and rainbows, he realized. He had to find a way of doing this properly. Maybe... if he looked at the pieces... and put them into the places in which they were meant to fit? Whatever puzzle piece and indent were matching. ...No, that couldn't be it. Who would create a puzzle like that, where all the pieces fit together? That was a dumb idea.
Promptly, Gary lifted them all up at once with a powerful Psychic, dropping the pieces repeatedly into various indents. Bursts of rainbow-hued powder and shining lights burst forth again and again, until he felt all but blinded by the scene. He ended up toddling off and away, unable to see through the lights. As he did, he tripped over a final piece. This one was different than the others. In fact, it seemed to spell a word, although he didn't really understand it well at all.
He prodded it with his foot, and looked around, searching through the lights for a darker gap where a puzzle piece had been missing. He couldn't see one from where he was, at all. He needed to get higher up. Grabbing the puzzle piece in his mouth, he slowly and clumsily mad his way to the top of a nearby ledge, gazing down at the sight below.
It was beautiful; had he the sense or ability to cry, he would have. Pride swelling within his chest, he realized that he'd accomplished something on his own, and he'd done it his own way. He was mute, and he wasn't very bright, sometimes, but he was just as capable as everyone else of doing things that brought beauty and joy. There was no true way to describe it.
From here, he could see the missing point of light, and the indent to which his puzzle piece belonged. With another Psychic, it was floated into place, and the message of the strangely-shaped puzzle piece shone brighter than all else.
It was his name, and finally he felt content with his abilities, and his way of life. Being alone was okay; it meant that he alone would remember the beauty that he had brought. His memories and his own love for all around him was what made him special. He didn't have to be smart to be happy.
From below, his name continued to shine, and the colourful lights formed a bridge at his feet. He felt odd, as if a bridge of rainbows and shimmering light had been done before, somewhere in another world. Perhaps off to an epic battle to save a princess, or something. It was an odd thing to feel, but it still felt incredible, to walk into that light. He was whisked away from the startling beauty in a burst of colorful sparkles.
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Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 8:09 am
  AkuxxxStormyof team Semper Fi
Stormy had gone through the door first, with Aku following behind quickly behind him. Jack had tried to catch up, but had ended up not getting through quick enough. Aku twirled and twisted, looking for Jack, but there was no sign of him, or the door. She turned to Stormy, ears drooping, tail dragging, and large watery puppy dog eyes.
”What are we going to do? Just leave him…?”
I do not sense his presence, mum. He is not with us, perhaps he did not go through the portal.
Aku wanted to complain a bit more, but just nodded and sucked it up. She knew he wouldn’t have let them go through the portal alone, maybe he got sent somewhere else. If Stormy couldn’t sense him, then he certainly wasn’t here…right? Was Stormy lying? She looked up and into his eyes. They looked the same as ever, tense and staring right into her mind.
You ready, mum? We should not stick around for too long…
Aku knew Stormy was right, and braced up. She’d find Jack if he was here. Where was here, anyhow? As the two began walking, she tried to take in all of her new surroundings. However, every time she triedto look around her, her eyes slowly gazed upwards instead. She noticed the sun was setting ever so slowly, leaving the sky looking like a terrible painting. Like someone had just smeared some pink over there, and some purple overlapping it, with a dash of blue farthest from the sun. Aku gave a yawn, had she been up all day? She wasn’t normally tired at night, this is usually when she woke up…Stormy looked over at her. She was walking slower, and staring upwards with mouth gawking. He presumed she’d start drooling any minute. She seemed kind of dizzy, like her eyes were just rolling freely in their sockets. Stormy walked over to her, put and arm behind her back, and then slowly laid her down on the ground. He sat next to her, unsure of what to do. He realized he hadn’t tried to look around, and thought this strange. It was like something in his head just propelled him forward…he tried to look around now, but the same thing that had happened to Aku, happened to Stormy. His eyes ended up being gently pushed by some strange force, upwards. He was top heavy, however, and ended up falling backwards and laying down perpendicular to Aku. A strange figure flowed through the garden and scooped them up quickly and effortlessly.
Aku sat up, grabbing her head and groaning. Where was she…? Underneath a blanket…Wait…who was she? Her eye sight was blurry for a bit, she had to blink quite a few times for things to come back into focus. Still holding her head, she looked around. She was on a couch in a lobby or something. She noted a desk with a bell on it, and a large cabinet looking thing with keys hanging off of most of the hooks. Some were missing, but what did she care? On a chair with high arms beside the couch, she saw a round pink figure making the blanket on top of him rise and fall consistently. Who was that? He rolled over and stirred a bit, before blinking a few times and shaking his head. He bolted himself into a sitting position, and looked around.
Aku, I have a terrible feeling about this place, we need to get out of here. There’s a very bad presence here.
Aku grabbed her head with both paws, freaked out by the voice that had spoken inside of it! Who had done that? She looked at the figure staring at her, a pink elekid, it seemed. Large. Quite large. She shivered and wanted to run, but found herself much too tired to move at all. One of Aku's worst fears, amnesia, had come true. Not that she remembered that at all. The pink elekid slumped off of his chair, and darted to where Aku was still mostly covered by blankets.
Mum? Are you ok?
Aku grabbed her head tighter and shut her eyes as tight as they would go. She bunched up her knees to her chin and began to rock slightly.
"I don't know who you are, pinky, but I don't like this, I don't like it at all. Is that your voice?"
Yes, yes! It is only me...Do you not recognize me...?
Although Stormy could not remember Aku hitting her head, he wasn't sure what had happened from the time he lightly laid her out on the ground to the time he and her just awoke. He looked around, but saw nothing. No signs of life anywhere, but the presence was strong.
"I do not recognize you, and therefore do not trust you. However, we should work together to find our way out. So long as you promise not to harm me."
I serve only to protect you.
Stormy helped Aku carefully climb off the couch. She was much smaller than he, and so the fall would have been a bit larger for her. Although normally he wouldn't have fussed over her so much, her amnesia could have been brought on by head trauma, which made her even more vulnerable to...well...more head trauma. He kept a close eye on her, and he was sure he'd make Jack proud. Not that he took as much of a shining to Jack as he did Aku. Aku was, afterall, his mum. The two began walking the halls together, following old dimmed out exit signs that had arrows on them.
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Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 8:04 pm
xxxxxxxxx s e a m u s xx&&xx w r e x xxxxx♣ OF TEAM PARADIGMxxxxxxxxx xxxxx xxxx ooc:// this is the right place to post, right? ;u;
Well, this was unpleasant. As soon as Seamus and Wrex entered the portal they were shot out on the other side into what seemed like a dark, dry cave. Dust went everywhere and both pokemon coughed, but still heard the loud squeaking sound that echoed through the cave. At that point, they realized they were standing on wooden floorboards. Two seconds later, a colossal shadow loomed over them.
"We've intruded into the home of an angry rattata." Seamus pointed out as he looked at the shadow. Why was it so big? It was probably from the same place as those wigglytuff earlier. The bulbasaur heard a yell from Wrex then footsteps running away. "Wha-" The next thing Seamus knew was that he was up in the air, in the mouth of a giant rattata. He wiggled, but the purple mouse had got him by the bulb. Wrex continued running towards what looked like an exit, if you could consider a bright light an exit in this case. The mouse ran after Wrex at a speed ten times faster than the small charmander could run, but Wrex had seen it coming and used ember, aiming to both the floor, which was made of dry wood, and also the mouse directly. The instantaneous burst of flames towards the rattata caused it to flinch back and in the process, drop Seamus, who landed on the side of the fire with Wrex. The charmander lit some more fires and started running towards the exit.
They made it out, about time too. The floorboards were starting to char, and smoke was coming out of the giant entrance. "I didn't mean to burn it all down..." Wrex tried to explain, facing the cave. Only a few seconds later did the rattata come running out, coughing and eyes watering. The teams' eyes followed the rat and they finally began to understand where they were. The mouse's home had entered out into a greenhouse. And, the rattata wasn't huge... "We're small."
The greenhouse was large ( not taking into account the size of the team members ) and made of glass. There did not seem to be a door or any way to escape. The clear walls let the sun in and turned the water into humidity. It sounded like they were being watered now. A hose was on, somewhere. Who was watering them? The two wandered around aimlessly, not sure what they were supposed to be doing and why, until they reached a spot where the tile flooring was wet. It was not thought much of until the water slowly got deeper and deeper. It was like the room was filling up with water. Soon, they were swimming. Keep in mind that this is about a few inches of water.
"It's probably coming from whatever is watering this place. Do you know where it is?" Seamus said, referring to the hose, or valve that turned the water on and off. No answer came from Wrex but he swam in a different direction, presumably to split up and look separately. Twice the amount of eyes was always better.
The water was up to about a foot when Wrex found the switch. "Get over here!" He called to Seamus, who was barely in earshot. The stout bulbsaur began swimming and Wrex started looking at the valve to see how they would turn the giant thing off. Maybe they could wait for the water to raise up to that height and turn it? No, they weren't strong enough. But then he began to see the number pad...
Wrex noticed Seamus was almost to him, and pointed to the red valve on the side of the greenhouse. The bulbasaur instantly began to figure out how to turn the thing and his head tilted in thought. "A password to turn off a water valve? What idiot thought of that?" After Wrex's confused look, Seamus nudged his head in the direction of the number pad. Oh, so that's what it was for. The charmander shrugged. "The code or whatever must be around here somewhere." The bulbasaur went swimming off, inspecting anything that might have numbers on it. Wrex stayed behind, and started climbing up the workbench next to the number pad so he could enter a number once it was found. If it was found.
Seamus hadn't come back for a while, so Wrex tried to figure it out by himself. After button mashing, he found the screen only went up to four digits. So obviously, as anyone would, he tried '1 2 3 4' as a combination. It beeped and the water instantly turned off. It wasn't drained though. "How did you do that?" He could hear Seamus's yell from across the room.
"It was 1 2 3 4."
"Are you kidding me? Okay, smart guy, find us a way out."
"Okay."
Seamus sighed, pretty fed up with how easily Wrex had figured out the code. Who in the right mind would make a code that simple? He met up with the charmander again after a short time. The water sure had been turned off, but it was not draining. Eventually they saw a squirtle wading through the water happily. How did they not see that before? It was a monster to the small pokemon. In it's hand was a rattata, bloodied and broken. The same rattata as before. "We can't let it see us." Seamus said, pulling Wrex as well as himself to a table as cover for when the squirtle walked by. The squirtle seemed to be looking for something and was checking under tables, in drawers, on plants. Team Paradigm was going to have a hard time finding a place to hide. They tried a few times to hide behind table legs and potted plants on the ground, before realizing it was useless.
"Maybe we should let it find us. I mean, we have nothing else to do." It was a horrible idea. But Wrex was right on the part that they really didn't know what else to do. This whole portal thing was weird and maybe, just maybe, the squirtle could help them. The dead rattata in it's hands seemed to dissuade them however.
It was kind of weird that as soon as they changed their plan, the squirtle stopped looking for stuff and just started walking around. The two small pokemon had tried their best to get close to the squirtle's legs but the water-type never looked down. It was time to climb. Seamus's legs and build were't exactly made for climbing, so he somehow tried to jump from leaf to leaf on one of those plants on the ground. The leaves were close together and held the bulbasaur's weight quite well. After they jumped up onto a table the squirtle finally noticed them.
"Do you know how to get out?" Wrex asked innocently. The squirtle seemed not to hear what he said, but dropped the rattata on the table and picked up Wrex. Seamus had a feeling he was about to be crushed when he was picked up as well.
"Yummy." The squirtle said, looking at the two pokemon in his hands. Well, they were pink. Neither Wrex nor Seamus could say anything as they were lifted high into the air and dropped into the squirtle's mouth. Seamus did not want to face his strange death and shut his eyes. He felt like he was falling... but for an insane amount of time. He opened his eyes to find he was falling down a long tunnel, another light at the end. But judging from the distance, he would be falling a long time... What was at the end?
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Posted: Sat Nov 12, 2011 8:17 pm
Team Forgotten Legends   Sirius & Damon
“What are these?” He wondered aloud as his co-captain padded over next to him. The cub peered curiously at the warped door, “I dunno, but it’s… drawing me in…” The tip of his muzzle touched the surface of the door and he disappeared in a flash of white light. Sirius was taken aback,
“Whoa! Damon, where’d you go?!” He stepped back, clearly alarmed. Shifting his weight uncomfortably from one foot to another, he sighed and reached out to the door, lightly brushing his fingertips against it before the rest took over; he disappeared in a similar show of light.
Door 1:
…Where am I? Sirius forced open bleary eyes, blinking rapidly in the bright light. Groaning, he shifted his weight until he was almost certain he was upright and tried to pick himself up. His vision returning to him, he saw that he was in the middle of an incredibly white beach. Waves pushed themselves ashore, almost sizzling as the water vaporized upon touching the seething hot sand. The sun was high in the sky, blaring beams of white down around. Incredibly green palm trees swayed strangely in the breeze, rustling slightly. Sirius shook his head and looked out again; something wasn’t quite right about this place. Taking a more careful look, he saw the palm tree was incredibly spiky and an unnatural shade of bright green; in fact, it looked as if some of the chlorophyll was oozing out of the large leaves themselves. The bark was smooth looking, jagged and ragged on the bottom like a normal trunk should, though the outline was only a darker brown. His eyes widened; no wonder it looked strange, there was not shadow. Taking a better look at the ocean, he saw that the fish were actually swimming on top of the water, and all of them were blobous shapes of orange color, eyeless and finless for all but their tail fins. Where was he? The ocean wasn’t even a proper ocean, it seemed like random scribbles of blue set on top of lighter shades of blue, shifting back and forth like a horrible animation. On the pale yellow sand, pink shells lay scattered. He picked one up and brushed the sand off of it, admiring its strange beauty. It was the classic ark shell, elongated clam-like with ridges running down its front. A moment later, his brow furrowed and he hastily snatched up another one. They were the exact same in coloring and shape. Dropping the pink shells hurriedly, he backed up to the shoreline and looked around some more. This was a bloody nightmare! And not the incredibly ‘man chasing after you with a knife,’ kind, but the ‘something is bloody wrong here and I can’t escape’ one. If he looked carefully, there were actually patches of white between objects; not the pure white, white, but a white with a sort of paper-y texture overlaid on it. His eyes were sore at looking at the sorry scene, the badly sharpened shells, strange trees, the whole lot and the bloody, bloody fish swimming atop a scribble of a tide. He looked upwards back at the sun, only it was all the more wrong. The entire orb along with its rays were that ghastly texture of watercolor paper and white, not even ever-changing colors like it should, and burning his eyes out. Sirius’s eyes widened as he realized in what bloody nightmare he was in,
“Ye gods, I’m in a bloody children’s painting!” he breathed. Just after the words escaped his mouth, the ground began to tremble and a miasma of purple and black swirled where the sun was, quickly spreading out. The hastily scribbled-blue sky with the black m shapes of birds were blotted out by the strange swirl of color. Sirius whirled around and started running away from the creeping purple-black paint, galloping down the wrong beach shoreline. The fish swimming atop the waters were calm as they were consumed by the strange gradient of nightmarish illusion web, along with the spiky trees, pink shells, and beach. Sirius had nowhere to run; he was trapped, the thing whatever it was chasing after him, and only as much room to run as where the picture ended. The earthquake had grown in magnitude and was almost tossing the equine about like a ragdoll.
“Let me out of here!” The equine screamed. This dream was driving him bonkers, not to mention almost at the verge of swallowing him whole. Flashes of red and other random color churned with the purple-black shadowy substance, creating an unpleasant sight that was straining to the eyes. It created a sort of whirlpool around Sirius and was beginning to close in, cloaking him in its strange substance.
Calm down.
He squeaked and struggled to get his arms free as it wrapped around his torso. O-o-oh godohgodohgodohgod getitioff!! He couldn’t scream if he wanted to. His mouth opened, but no sound came out. His legs wouldn’t move, and his arms were helpless. All he could do was stare, which was horrible.
This is just a dream.
He strained his neck, trying to get away or at least delay the inevitable as two strands of the purple substance branched off and began to creep up his neck. No. Nonononono! Not like this—Get OFF! His mind screamed. Its just a dream! He thought, squeezing his eyes shut.
And then silence. Wait, just a dream. No matter how horrid things were going on inside your head, everything was alright, because there was always the real world to go back to. Opening his eyes, Sirius saw that he was free from the strange bonds. Purple and black swirled about all around him. There was no horizon line, creepily enough, and no shadows. The thundering of the strange earthquake had toned down to a mere rumble, though it sounded muffled. A door not five yards in front of him opened to a swirling palette of delicate yet bright pastels. Sirius relaxed. The nightmare was over. Walking calmly over to the door, he reached out—and disappeared yet again.
Door 2:
It was dark. So very dark. Normally, Damon welcomed dark areas, as it was easier to see, but this dark was... darker than dark. Normally, dark was a sort of blend of green, red, and blue; he could kind of see the individual pixels, the dpi of his vision, you might say. This was cold, scary, pitch black. He was walking blindly forward, not knowing where he was, or where to go, not to mention which way was up. All around him, he was brushing up against some rich cloth of some sort; it had a velvety cotton-like feel, making a satisfying whof sound as he brushed though it. As he traveled further, he could hear something… like the faint roaring of a distant crowd. This was quite strange and confusing for the cub, and he was quite on the edge of freaking out. What happened next definitely qualified for that. He emerged into blinding light of white shining down upon him. In his blindness, he could only stumble around unsteadily, listening to the sound of a shouting assembly of people. As his eyes adjusted slowly, the general noise the crowd was making turned into shocked gasps followed by mockery and jeering. Damon glanced uncertainly behind him. A rich deep-red colored curtain flapped in the breeze made by a large white fan next to it. Underneath his feet was smooth, polished wood flooring, the light produced by the spotlight reflecting off it nicely.
“What…” He finally looked at the crowd gathered in front of the stage, mere blobs of faint color sitting in rich seats of cushioned velvet, sticking out rather plainly against the dark background. “..Is going on?” He finished slowly. Oh damn, he was on a bloody stage! In front of people, omigosh. Cringing, he folded his wings shut behind him and curled his tail closer, ears flattening against his skull.
“Oui, dance, freak, dance!” One Pokemon shouted from the tide of people. Damon stumbled backwards and turned around, rushing back to the curtain only to find that there was a horribly solid grey cement wall behind it.
“What, are you running away, coward?” Another chimed out. Popcorn kernels were briefly hurled onto the stage followed by a few more handfuls and eventually the entire carton. Damon hissed and jumped, backing away slowly from the popcorn as if it was about to explode.
“Come on, fraidy-cat, do something!” A female yelled out. Damon put his paws over his head and squeezed his eyes shut. Why was he here? What was the point in this? He only wanted out; far away. Get me away from here! --Came his silent and desperate plea. Opening his eyes, he found to his dismay that the crowd was still there, still yelling, and still throwing stinky fruit and vegetables at him. A rather rotten tomato splashed in a gross manner as it hit his cheek, quickly followed by laughter. At least it wasn’t a firm tomato; that would have hurt. Growling deeply, Damon brushed off the splatter of orange ooze and seed goop, flicking it to the side.
“Is this how you have your fun!?” He demanded, a slightly crazed look growing in his eye. The crowd merely continued to throw random food items at him, a few laughing at his rage. “Making fun of people who were born with defects? Well, I am done with it!” With that, he charged up an enormous Spark ball and hurled it at the crowd. The people quickly scattered and ran away, screaming. Smirking to himself, Damon chuckled as the assembled people ran off. The lights began to shut off, one at a time until but a small stream of spotlight remained, landing on Damon’s figure.
CHUNK. CHUNK. CHUNK.
A tremble rolled through the earth and cement broke away from the wall behind him, sending random chunks flying off. Turning around, Damon saw that the curtains were drawn away, revealing a door in the middle of the cement wall. It wasn’t so much of a door than a random spiral of tie-dye colors churning together. He glanced over his shoulder as a zing! Sounded and a white postcard sign popped up with a plain, black ‘5’ etched onto it. In smaller text, it said, nicely done, but there was an alternative way to face this. Try better next time. Geez, what was that supposed to mean? Shrugging, Damon headed toward the doorway.
Door 3:
Sirius looked about; where was he now? Turning back around to face the door, the door flashed a blinding white and then disappeared. Well there was no going back now; not that he wanted to go back anyways. He looked around; he appeared to be inside of a pale pink bubble made of glass. He gave it an experimental kick; very tough glass. There was an opening leading to a hallway heading out, but a dark blue sort of garage door styled thing was blocking the way. Through the glass, he saw a maze of the pink glass, in a simple boxy design. Well, he was stuck here until he could figure a way out.
At the far end of the maze, he saw another flash of light as Damon appeared from another doorway, the swirl of soft swirling colors disappearing behind him, trapping him as well.
Damon! He tried to shout, but only a computerized meep escaped his lips. What happened? There was something wrong with both him and Damon, they both seemed to have been made into robots of some sort.
That didn’t matter though, for it was only a matter of seconds before Damon spotted him and shouted out. He cringed at the sound of his abnormal voice and looked around wildly, equally confused.
“Welcome,” sounded a droll feminine voice. “To the enrichment center.”
The two looked about, scanning the roof. A single intercom sat at the ceiling, allowing the booming voice to carry about easily around the whole chamber.
“You have been placed in a simple puzzle. Please try to solve it.” She said simply before a beeping noise indicated the end of her speech.
Unable to do anything else, Sirius waved at Damon and pointed at the button next to the robotic lion. Looking to the side, Damon spotted the 3x3 cube in the floor and jumped onto it.
“Calibrating Blue’s weight…” The Voice sounded out as Sirius’s door opened out to the hallway. “No variances detected.” Sirius explored the new portion of the maze that was given to him. The small hallway branched out at a fork in the path spreading at a 180 degree angle to the left and right. Trotting awkwardly in his new body down the path. Another simple square button sat in the corner, Sirius cheerfully stepped on it.
“Calibrating Orange’s weight—my. Orange, you have been putting on some weight, haven’t you?” She said, quite bored sounding as usual. Damon’s door and another door nearby him opened and he trotted out. Sirius stepped off the button and went to explore the rest of his limited space. At the other end of his hallway was a chute coming down from the ceiling of some sort. He stood under it, peering up into the blackness in a curious fashion. There was a rumbling sound followed by his vision being filled briefly with grey and then blackness, followed by the sound of frizzing and spitting electricity. Sirius was reduced to a heap of scrap metal on the ground. Gasping, Damon hurriedly stepped off of the new button he had found, staring at what used to be his captain in a horrified fashion.
“Ah, could someone please reassemble Orange?” The Voice said; again, extremely bored. There was a rattling noise and a jet of steam blowing like noise. Sirius reassembled and brand new popped out of the chute at the beginning of his chamber. Staring accusingly at Damon, he trotted if front of the chute where the cube was dropped and picked up the grey cube. Damon stared sheepishly back, flattening his metallic ears. There was a simple opening in the wall opposite of the chute that connected Sirius’s chamber to Damon’s It wasn’t quite enough for either of them to fit through, but perhaps juuuust wide enough for the cube. Damon trotted down his equally small hallway over to Sirius, who stuck the cube through the hole, and received the cube with his tail claw. The cub said something similar to ‘thank you’, but it only came out as another computerized blurble. Shrugging, he trotted back down his hallway over to a closed door, waiting patiently. Sirius wandered back down his hallway and stepped back onto the button, the door on Damon’s side opening. The cub entered the next ‘bubble chamber’ and placed the grey cube into the square indented hole.
"Calibrating weighted safety cube's weight... no variances detected."
Two doors, one on either’s side, opened up into a sharing chamber that had a single rectangle of white wall in it. A swirl of color opened up on the wall; another one of those doorways, they both concluded.
“Brilliant,” the Voice congratulated as the two scrambled to the chamber, “congratulations on completing this test. Admittedly, my previous test group was a couple of 9th graders who finished this simple puzzle in half the time you took, but congratulations anyways” She said as the two joined together and went into the lighted doorway.
Door 4:
Damon gasped aloud, drawing in a grateful intake of breath.
“Geez, as robots we never needed to breathe. I almost forgot to do that, now that we’re here again.” Damon did a double take, “OHSNAP I can talk again! Ah, I forgot how nice that was.” He sighed happily. He looked at his captain, “Oh, and you’re here now. Well, that’s nice.” Sirius was quite silent.
“Damon, you should probably pay more attention; namely of the Pokemon in front of us.” He said rigidly.
“Huh?—Oh. Um. Hi.” The Three Electabuzz nodded, the one in the center brandishing his knife.
“Soo-o-o… I’m guessing we can’t settle this in a gentlemanly manner?” Damon said hopefully. The lead Electabuzz shook his head, his face still pinched and angry.
“Well. Then. Sorry about this—“ Damon chomped down on the flat of the Electabuzz’s blade and sent a jolt of electricity through. He never expected it to do much damage, as it didn’t anyways, but it at least made the Pokemon drop his knife and clutch his hand.
“Sirius, get ‘em!” Damon shouted, breaking away. The equine let loose a barrage of flame, thoroughly bathing the electric-types. The one on the far end backed away and slammed both fists into the ground, sending a pulsating Shock Wave of electricity from its body. Sirius cursed under his breath; electric attacks, really hurt, you know. More than any other type, usually; more than the unsettling dark type and the mind screwing psychic types, even. Damon whirled back around and launched himself toward one of the Electabuzz, closing his maw around its incredibly short neck. There wasn’t much neck to an Electabuzz; it was practically bulbous head, shoulders, arms, no neck in between though somehow he found some. Quickly releasing his grip, Damon bounded off the Pokemon’s chest. Growling, the Electabuzz charged after the retreating cub and gave him a nasty ThunderPunch, knocking him a good dozen yards away. Sirius lifted a soup-plate sized hoof and Stomped one of the Electabuzz’s already flat heads. It didn’t do much damage; in fact, based on the shape of their heads, they probably evolved in order to sort of absorb the shock of anything falling or slamming into their heads, hence the abnormal shape.
Well, this wasn’t really working in the long run. Sirius finally looked around them for anything that might help. There was a nice pool of water nearby, but that was about it. Sighing, Sirius galloped over to the water. What could he do here? The equine blew a jet of flame pointlessly at the surface—it gave off a nice mist as if evaporated, but nothing else other than that. Forming an idea, the equine continued with this until a nice mist had formed, somewhat making a thick cloak.
Brilliant… now what? He wondered. There was still a nice amount of water left in the pool, but what to do with it?
“Damon, get over here!” Sirius called.
“Where are you?” The cub called back. There was a crackle of electricity followed by a series of yelps and thuds.
“Just fly, will you?” Sirius yelled back, rolling his eyes.
“Oh, um, right!” Damon quickly flew into the air and found Sirius and his precious pool.
“Right. Now fly into the water.” The equine said.
“Whaa--?” Damon was taken aback. Do what now?
“Don’t question your captain. Hurry up.” He snapped impatiently.
“Fine, fine.” He sighed. Curling up into a ball, he somersaulted in the air before crashing down into the water, sending water splashing everywhere. He dragged himself out of the pool, shivering.
“Now wha--? Oh? Where’d you go…?” Damon looked up in time to catch a glimpse of his captain’s retreating black before the mist clouded over his figure. He wrinkled his brow and looked around, wondering what to do next.
“Oh I see, now, that’s clever.” Placing a firm paw in one of the pools, he channeled a few jolts of electricity through the water. Agonizing yells could be heard, followed by thuds and finally silence.
“Well… I think that took care of them… you alright, Sirius?” Damon called in the general ‘sort of in front of me’ direction.
“…Over here, and I’m fine. Another doors opened up. Hurry!” A slightly muffled shout came from his left.
“Coming!” Damon shouted before bolting in the direction where he hoped Sirius would be waiting. Out of the fog the equine was standing in front of another multicolored pastel swirl doorway, which really wasn’t much of a doorway than a rectangle of color. At a light touch, both were transported to somewhere else.
Door 5:
The two appeared side by side in front of the door in which they came. Damon deflated slightly, “Aww man, we’re still in this crazy mess? I wonder how long until we get out of here. For good.” He sighed. They were in a sort of dream state, though already being inside of a dream, so it was terribly wrong.
“Well, let’s see what this next test has got in store for us.” Sirius muttered.
They were standing on a fairly rocky terrain with plenty traction; walls on each side were straight, though craggy. There was perhaps a couple dozen feet of floor space from wall to wall, the path stretching away like a very long hallway; at which the end had another door, though deactivated and almost missable.
There’s our goal, but what… there has to be some sort of challenge here, Sirius thought, staring critically at the horribly innocent looking path. Down a ways, a few faces of statues were carved out of the wall, each face staring out with an O of shock shaping their mouths. Down further was a pit filled with something that should never be in the same sentence as ‘water’ unless if it was preceded by ‘is not in any ways like.’ It was a sort of brown wet goop with green and red mixed in, that bubbled and spat disgustingly. A couple of wooden posts stood firmly at each end of the ‘pond’ with stiff looking vines struggling to grow up the wall.
((More to come, of course))
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 7:55 am
 Jackof team Semper Fi
Jack walked through the door, and his eyes squinted from the sudden brightness. A hand raised and pressed against his brow as his eyes slowly began to adjust. He took a few steps forward, and then turned around to see if the door was still there. A double door that swung outward (towards him) was what he saw. All dark wood. He turned around again, and faced forward. It was all dark wood. It made a strange contrast with the blue cloudless sky, with the sun beaming straight down upon him. It took him a minute to realize there were three large poles in a row right in front of him, each with canvas pulled taut in front of them. The one in the middle was tallest, and it seemed to reach the sky. On top of it was a basket like thing, and he could just barely make out a small figure. His stomach gave a lurch as the vessel gave one as well. He scurried over to the railing on his port side, and looked through the bars, since he was too short to look over it. Nothing but water.
”Aku?”
His eyes scanned the seemingly empty deck. Was anyone even running this thing? Another lurch, another small groan from our hero. He remembered the figure at the top of the pole, and his eyes searched for it again, still squinting from the bright sun. He could see some black and some yellow…was that his Aku? He got on all fours and ran to the ratlines. He’d be able to get to her from these things, he was sure. He hesitated for a split second, afraid of the heights, and plummeting into the water if he were to mess up. No one seemed to be on this vessel besides possibly Aku, and if she didn’t see him fall, he’d eventually drown. He had never been fond of heights, and the sun was really beating down on him. It was not only extremely hot, but day time. He was so very tired…And the pink dust seemed to be caking onto his fur, making him feel stiff. He tried to shake it off, and climbed up and onto the rail, and began his trek up the ratlines.
They clearly weren’t meant for Pokemon his size, and he found himself constantly struggling. He had to stretch up for each new rope to get his paw around, and this was pretty difficult with his fur getting even more stiff. The mix of the heat and the salt water was doing something strange with the pink. Although he hoped maybe it would start to crack, and he’d be able to peel it off or something. Either way, he was starting to feel…a bit loopy…from the sun…
He was brought back to reality as he made a mistake in his climb. He was flipped upside down, and staring the deck of the ship. His tail was entwined around a piece of rope, and a toe was still holding on to something as well. All the blood rushed to his head, and he could feel his nose threatening to bleed. He tried to bend at his belly so his hands could grab a hold, but the pink dust was much too caked on him. The salt left his fur and dust damp, but the skin underneath all of that was dry and getting itchy. Poor Jack had no idea what to do now.
”Aku? Stormy? Either of you around…?”
He waited, but knew he could not wait long. He took to beginning to pick at his belly fur. If he could just get his belly free of this s**t, he could bend enough to grab a hold of some rope. He was a Minccino afterall, and hence good at grooming. If his mother saw him now, she’d be going out of her mind screaming at him. He felt the strange dry goop on his paws and nearly dry heaved a few times from the new salty smell, but was able to keep it all inside. He was able to claw and pick a good amount off, and his grey fur began to show once more. It had a lot of remnants, but he felt a lot better. He figured when he got to the top, he’d commence peeling off as much as he could manage. Either way, he bent himself upwards, lost the rope his toe was hanging on, but was able to thrash an arm around enough and find a rope with his hand. He heaved a huge sigh of relief. Even though he had been hanging on by the tail, he wouldn’t have been able to bend and grab onto anything. He was on the flipside of the ratlines for now, but he continued his venture up and towards the foretop.
”Aku?”
Jack slipped through the holes in between the ropes, and scurried up the rest of the ways. One of the other sails was providing a bit of shade for him now, and he was overjoyed at feeling some coolness in the air. He scurried up the next small set of rope, and reached the crow’s nest. However, he saw nothing now. The nest was empty, just as the deck had been. He sank to his knees. Had he lost Aku…? The only thing that mattered in his life…He hadn’t even gotten to tell her that…
”What d’yu tink yer doin’ up dere, huh?”
Jack’s eyes widened, and he looked over the edge of the nest. The deck was now full of dark and dull colored Pokemon, all surrounding a large black and red Zangoose who was looking up at Jack with the dirtiest look he had ever seen! Where had all of them come from…? He felt so ashamed to be so pink, and set to the task right away of cleaning himself of the filth. Of course he only had a few seconds before the Zangoose captain addressed him once more.
”Boyo? I tink it best if ye were tah come on down ‘ere, an tell us bit how ye came t’be on board my ‘ere vessel.”
Jack grimaced, knowing they would all make fun of him for being pink, but he looked over the edge again,
”I’ll come down all right, but you best let me know where Aku and Stormy are at!”
The Zangoose scoffed, but Jack couldn’t hear it or see it, because of how high up he was.
”Moah sto’ways…on me ship?! Best hope t’otherwise, else yu’ll be supper t’night!”
Jack gulped, and before he knew it a dark grey Swellow with an eye patch flew up and landed next to him.
”Mine.”
He began whipping his wings at Jack, and Jack got hit in the face a few times. Feathers wouldn’t normally hurt, but they were like razor blades! Jack jumped, and was about to land on deck when a dull blue Machamp kicked him overboard.
His short time on the ship was done, it seemed, as Jack landed in the water, belly first. A barrel was rolled overboard, and the Zangoose captain laughed hysterically at Jack and all of his misfortune,
”That barrel’ll keep you ‘live, least fer now. If’n I be findin’ that missy o’yers, I’ll be sure to welcome ‘er kindly.”
He laughed some more, but this struck a chord in Jack,
”You leave her be! You hear? Don’t you dare lay a finger on her!”
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 8:27 am
Soleil couldn’t have been any more angry that they had to go through such a simple and not reckless door! She was used to getting her way, and very upset at Shizou for not letting her have it! Why did they have to go through the least distorted door…? That was so lame!
”I can’t believe you, Shizou! I am captain of this team, and you will do as I say!”
She tried to jump off her partner’s back, but found she could not. They were somehow connected. Whether it be because of the door they passed through, the manner which they passed it through, or the stupid pink dust. Soleil huffed and struggled as Shizou slithered along, unsure of what exactly was happening.
”Don’t even try to say this is because we have to work as a team. I’m virtually useless up here.”
Soleil hated being useless, ignored, and having the spotlight stolen from her. Even though if the spotlight was to go to Shizou, she was literally on top of him and would still be in it, she guessed. She shook off the thoughts as she looked around. Shizou seemed to be doing the same, since he also came to a stop.
”Wow. This is quite the view, huh, Soleil?”
Soleil couldn’t see it, but Shizou was smiling. It was an ok view, she guessed. She gave a pout, however, upset that she couldn’t enjoy it or explore it on her own. She’d have to wait for Shizou to start up slithering around, or turn a certain way just so she could see! How ridiculous was this? With Soleil’s weight, he moved a bit slower. They looked like a strange and ugly pink monster.
It was a dense and damp forest, with trees so tall it hurt to look up. The canopy completely blocked out the sky, and it was quite dark where the team was. A small fairytale house lay not too far out in front of the team, and Shizou began to make his way over. It had a blue roof, and creamy white walls. It all looked very round, and right out from a picture book! It had two round windows on each side of the house, with a nice round blue door to match the roof. Each window had a four panes, so it looked kind of like a circle with a + in it. Soleil’s ears drooped as she looked at it. It looked too good to be true. What kind of Pokemon builds a home in this place…? No neighbors…where did they even get the material…? Shizou did not seem to be questioning this, but instead headed for it with no apparent hesitations. Had he forgotten he was a bit more limited with Soleil on his back…?
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