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(( OOC Note: This Raid is like any other and those participating had to have signed up before hand. ))

Sandalwood City, the largest city in all of Kodo, and home to some of the islands most important facilities such as Kodo's branch of PokeUniversity, and the largest stadium in the country. Without a current league though, stadiums and the like are hard to come by in this country to begin with, and thus many unofficial tournaments take place in this very city.

Truly a remarkable sight, the buildings seem built into the very old and dense Cypress Forest that the town is nestled within. One would hardly expect a bustling metropolis, even if a bit old fashion looking, to be located here. Houses and businesses alike are perched upon the boughs of the massive trees, bathed in the speckled swath of sunlight that manages to filter through the leaves. Rope bridges, and a few more sturdy wooden ones for heavier traffic, connect the various structures and trees into a complex network. Most of the transportation here is done by foot as automobiles are simply impractical except on the ground. Although its not uncommon to perhaps see a bicycle here and there.

The city is alive and abuzz with excitement and energy, as the long anticipated National Poke Contest is taking place today! Several businesses have closed for the event so that the masses can flock to the stadium in the center of town. The largest building in the city, which has been made inside the hollowed out hull of an enormous redwood that has long since died. Four bridges, from each direction, are packed with throngs of people streaming into the complex.

However, just outside the city, a caravan of camoflauged SUVs have been parked and hidden in the dense foliage of the forest.

Rosie was no stranger to Sandalwood City, having journeyed there several times in the past two years, but each time she would visit, the city would just take her breath away.
It wasn't as big as her home city, but it was so different from the tall glass buildings of Camphoreon.

She had never seen the city this busy before though, and that alone was exciting enough, and she was already excited about the event that the beautiful wooded city was holding.
Rosie had a weakness for contests, having used to do her training souly around coordinating before recent events shifted her focus to more battles with her pokemon.
But that wasn't going to stop her from signing up for a contest like this!

With a deep blue striped Vaporeon, specked in bio-luminescens and decorated with dangleing gold chains and feathers from her fins.
Golden eyes took in the signs around as her young trainer paused in front of the stadium.
The moment Rosie heard there was going to be a contest hosted within Kodo, She was quick to find out how to sign up.
Before Rosie was a serious trainer, the two pokemon she did have for the longest stretch of time, Vany'n and her Pikachu Kiss Kiss, were trained in coordination, and those were the two that Rosie had signed up with her.

Blue eyes widened slightly as a bright smile spread over her lips, and she looked down at the Vaporeon next to her.
"Lets go see where we need to go to get started." She told Vany'n, who met her young trainers gaze and replied with a soft "Vapooor"

Lennyka was much too preoccupied staring mystified at the ends of her braids, stroking the little troll-tail tufts with mild concern. The ends of her blanketed teal locks mimicked forks in confusing roads and a low hum explained her disdain. Man, she was getting a lot of split ends lately. Maybe she should consider a new conditioner . . .

"Oh."

She remembered that ivory fro. Nyx, was it? Ah, bad memories there . . . Her damned clumsiness nearly made the poor woman lose her life . . . She was an Elite? Congrats to her! Len sighed slightly and considered her own dedication for but a moment, considered the idea of questions, than why she ever chose to ride sidesaddle with all these cow guys and gals. Oh, that's right, to wrassle up some Pokeman, man . . .

They were going to a Pokemon contest, right?

Sandalwood!

The place had the atmosphere of a festival, which he supposed was what was going on really. The excitement in the air almost seemed like a living creature, bounding around and jumping up to lick people's faces. It was impossible to frown, or at least he thought it ought to be; who could possibly be miserable with such an atmosphere?

Thumbs tucked into the pockets of his jeans Dith moved towards the stadium unimpeded. Crowds were of course something he was distantly aware of in the same way that he was aware of pedicures: clearly they existed, but they were things that happened to other people. He never pushed anyone out of his way, he never needed to, the universe just seemed to arrange itself in such a way that when he wanted to go somewhere there was space to do so. This was probably because the average crowd member had no desire to get under the feet of what was clearly a terrible experiment in how far the use of growth hormones could take you.

A creature that was rather more aware of crowds perched on the massive man's shoulders; when he tried to move around in crowds like this his paws tended to get stepped on. Ears perked up the gold-furred Espeon peered around with interest, thoroughly enjoying the fantastic view that was the other advantage of riding on his trainer. As they passed through the gates of the stadium he spotted a deep blue Vaporeon and chirped a greeting.

At the sound from beside his ear, Dith grinned broadly and turned to look down at the Vaporeon's trainer. "A nice Vaporeon you have there," he said with a nod, "you are here to compete then?" He'd vaguely considered signing up himself, but had abruptly realised that he knew nothing at all about contests and thus would just make a total boob of himself and Viktor.

A young man with long red hair was sitting in the driver's seat of the van, keeping a neutral expression, although remaining quite aware of their surroundings as Nyx spoke. Asch's green gaze was mostly preoccupied in the direction of the city, making sure that nobody had spotted the vehicles. Still, he kept an open ear to everything their superior was saying.

However, a flash of annoyance shot across the agent's face as Izaya's obnoxious voice reached from the back of the van. Glaring green eyes now visible to those behind him in the reflection of the rear view mirror. He remained silent though, awaiting Nyx's responses to the many questions that the grunt had given.

---

Several lines started forming as one entered the massive stadium. Trainers, Coordinators, and spectators a like had their designated directions to go with the many helpful signs and stadium employees. For those that wanted to sign up for the contests, there was a clearly marked desk with a blonde receptionist wearing a broad, clearly faked smile as people started approaching to enter the contest. She wore a uniform that looked very much like a retro airline stewardess, complete with hat and hair held in a tight bun. Her hands folded in front of her as she waited to help someone.

[Dith]

Blue eyes scanned the crowd, carefully choosing the best way through it so they could get to where she needed to sign in, when a voice from next to her caught her attention, mentioning a beautiful Vaporeon.
This caused the younger girl to turn her head, catching sight of probably the largest man she's ever seen in her life, on his shoulder was a GORGEOUS Espeon.

Turning to face this man, folding her hands behind her back, pushing her back along with them as she smiled bright at him.
"Thank you very much sir, I've never seen such a beautiful Espeon before!"
She smiled at the pokemon on his shoulder, looking down at Vany'n as she bowed her head in greeting, mostly to the Espeon who greeted her.

At the mention of her entering the contest Rosie nodded "I am, I couldn't resist. Are you going to compete to? I think your Espeon would do great!"

[Rosie]

At the compliment to Viktor, Dith beamed broadly. "Thanks! You know I think he probably would but I am not quite so sure about me; we're here to watch, maybe see if we can pick up some battles after things are done here? We will be sure to looking out for you two though!" It would be nice to have somebody to cheer for... Oh! Well that was a good point. "What's your name then? I need to know what to cheer, da? My name is Dmitry but I generally get called Dith, and my pretty friend up there is Viktor."

An eyebrow sloped come the annoying tone of Mister Izaya. Oh, she's heard tales of the fellow after her -very- brief moment with him; especially his ever wonderful trip up with jolly good Seto involving a lovely BONK! on the head with an unfortunate Pokemon. Even though he raised in ranks, the story is still 'round. It is pretty much in good fashion never to anger that man, be him calm or otherwise. The rumors are still slippery with saliva, dripping off the tongues of the gossips; always to live stowed away on some buzzing database.

A hand extended to obtain one of the disfigured pieces of rubber candy and stuffed it into the socket of her ear. She had noted Nyx's explanation, cornered the words to some unknown part of her cerebellum, and jabbed the microphone end to random parts of the Pokedex trying to get it to fit. When it finally was shoved in an OK looking area, she sighed and mouthed a little, "Can we get this over with?" in abrupt silence. Contests were always a bore.