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[OOC: Yay! We're alive~ <3]

         Xyrem breathed a sigh of relief. A new member on the journey- what a lark this would be. 'Vadumee seemed to relax a bit as well.

         “What’re we all waiting for? For a shiny Dragonite to come and escort us to Hearthome? Fat chance,” Dai said, after a minute of silence. “Speaking of which, how the hell are we getting there?” she turned to Xyrem with a shadow of sheepishness. “I… None of my Pokémon can fly,” Dai held her head up high, challenging any of them to tease her.

         Oh. Ooooh. Now it is -on-! Xyrem grinned, looking much like the perpetually sneaky Weavile that Dai always had by her side.

         "Not to worry, Dai. I have a Pokemon that can fly~," she started, her grin growing wider. She headed outside, hoping that the newly formed party would follow.

         As she cleared the doors of the Gym, she pulled out a Pokeball, a cunning grin still etched on her face.

         "You thought it was so hilarious to have me on the handles of a careening bike at speeds that I dramatically estimate were faster than the speed of sound..." Xyrem started, talking to no one in particular, "well feast your eyes on -this-! Arise, Prometheus!"

         On her command, a stream of energy shot out of the ball, quickly shaping into a large, flying dinosaur. Prometheus, who looked like he had been taking a nap in some form or another, did not seem all too happy to be brought out into the bright afternoon sun. Xyrem sauntered over to the Aerodactyl, 'Vadumee in tow, and softly rubbed his neck. Prometheus' teeth had been nicely filed, and it was obvious that the young girl took good care of him.

         With 'Vadumee's help, she hopped up onto the Aerodactyl, seconds later recalling the fire chicken into his ball for safety.

         "Well then. All aboard to Hearthome!~" Xyrem yelled cheerily, grinning like a maniac.

OOC:: Sorry Sorry Sorry for the inactivity on all fronts. I haven’t been able to get into chat so I kinda stopped visiting… I’ll fix that. /OOC

               "A valid point, miss. And, though it seems as though I wouldn't have had much say in the matter regardless, having company on the road would make a nice change of pace. I'd be glad to join you on your 'Big Sinnoh Journey,'” he sighed with relief and Dai’s grin broadened.
               She looked at her Weavile; he was examining Archer closely, walking around him so as to get a look at all of him. Sniper scratched his chin as if there was something incredibly fascinating on Archer’s person. Dai snapped her fingers and hissed at him. He looked up at her confused and a little annoyed. Archer was not a target any longer he was a companion like Xyrem now and Sniper was not going to ruin this journey with his sticky claws. Dai allowed her look to intensify and Sniper returned to her side grumbling. Grinning, she turned and faced Xyrem and Archer.
              “What’re we all waiting for? For a shiny Dragonite to come and escort us to Hearthrome? Fat chance,” she paused, “Speaking of which, how the hell are we getting there?” Dai turned to Xyrem with a shadow of sheepishness. “I… None of my Pokémon can fly,” Dai held her head up high, challenging any of them to tease her.

[Chadwyck:]

Chadwyck:

OoC: I'm terribly sorry that it's so terribly short. I'm still trying to get back into the mindset of this RP... I'll get better soon! (I hope)

BiC:

“Well, I guess that’s it, then.” The second in command stated simply, dusting himself off as though he had been fighting the trio, “You’re all to be congratulated, those men were no pushovers. But the games end now, you’re part of this crew, so now the work begins.” He began to walk away down the alley, followed closely by the rest of the crew who hadn’t been killed.

Torin stood momentarily before looking at his two companions, “Work? Where do you think we’re going?” He didn’t wait for a reply, as it would suspicious if they didn’t follow the crew closely, but he had no idea what they were getting themselves into.

“You three!” The man called to Torin and his companions, “Keep up, I’ll explain your official initiation on the way.” Torin ran his hand through his hair before quickening his pace to catch up with their new leader. “Our crew must show no fear, no matter what task you are given. That is why you three shall be given a task to complete on your own. If you survive and accomplish your mission, you will officially join our ranks.” He sounded as if it were the highest honor in the world, Torin made sure it looked like he thought so too.

They continued walking, slowly the destroyed buildings and cracked sidewalks gave way to taller, more modern buildings. The streets and sidewalks were all freshly paved, and looming before them was a tower with a single flag waving atop it. They came to a halt in one of the alleys.

“That, as you may recognize, is the Alliance headquarters for this whole planet, they have and do everything in that building, and it isn’t good for business if they keep on running smoothly.” He leaned nonchalantly against the wall directly behind him, dusting off his formal attire once again. “You three go in there, steal plans for a new Alliance weapon: The TE-473, otherwise known by its street name; the Deep-fryer. It uses thermal energy to roast one’s enemies alive, like a flamethrower that’s effective from long range, and much quicker.” He turned his back to the trio, and the rest of the crew did the same, “Very high tech, very secret, very heavily guarded. Once you steal the plans, cause a little malfunction with their computers and come to the ship out in the Flats. If you pull this off, you may even get praise from the captain. Just maybe.” He smirked as he walked down the alley in the direction that they had come, leaving Torin, Emerant, and Sorena alone.

“Seriously, their trusting three new recruits with something this big?” Torin asked rather suspiciously. In a way it made sense, new recruits meant that they’d have no way of affiliating them with that particular crew, and the Alliance wouldn’t take prisoners, so there was almost no chance of them being ratted out in exchange for their freedom. But still, it was odd, “Maybe they’re hoping that we get ourselves killed?” He pondered aloud, “But then they would be short on crew members, this whole thing just gives me a bad vibe.” He sighed as he looked at the tower before them.

The whole thing excited him in a strange way, on his most basic level of sheer exhilaration, all he wanted was the thrill of it all, the adrenaline pumping through his veins. He lived for it. Years of being cooped up on board a space station had a way of doing that to a man, and Torin was no exception. He wanted more, thrived for excitement, he couldn’t stand in one place for long, he had to constantly be moving. Not unlike the energy that he could control, the unpredictable path of a lightning bolt.

He looked at his two partners, then back at the tower, “I say that we try and get in through one of the side entrances, obviously we can’t just go straight in.” He said with a slight shrug, “So how do you suppose we go about this? We can’t just start killing Alliance soldiers… Well, we could, but that’s a lot of guys,” He said in a whisper as he indicated the tower.


Stel:

As Torin talked, Emerant edged slowly closer to him, the predatory Galatea-grin never leaving her lips, giving him the look of a hunter, perfectly still until something young and tender wobbled by.

And as he finished talking, she lightly poked his side.

"My, my. You definitely have much to learn, Mr. McGinnus." she said "You zeem to get a lot ov ideas about infiltration from action movies. Vhich could be qvite effective if zis vasn't, you know, real life."

She stretched lightly, moving away from the man who was more normally known as Torin "Ze first zing ve need to do is get some clue about ze infrastructure of ze tover. I don't think zat even ze Alliance are stupid enough to put signposts on zeir facility saying 'Top Secret Veapon Plan Storage Here. Please Go Elsevhere.' It's qvite likely zat an Alliance Stronghold like zat vould be a labyrinth of corridors... Even if ve did just valtz in through a less guarded zide entrance, ve'd be hopelessly lost before we find anything - or before anything finds us."

She paused, smirking.

"Luckily for you, you are dealing vis ze Goddess of ze Vired here." she giggled, almost manically, as data seemed to flow rapidly across the inner side of her goggles. "Ze schematics veren't even zat hard to pull out of ze systems... Just took some cross-referencing of ze parts available for public viewing, air conditioning zystems, electrical viring diagrams, you know, ze vorks. I have a pretty good idea vor how ze system looks like. Of course, ze schematics aren't going to be in any netvork zat has a link to the Vired...  But here's zomething..."

She almost seemed to moan for a second as a shudder went through her body.

"Now ZAT is some high-qvality information there. Ze Alliance here has purchased a great deal of eqvipment pretaining to a certain system zat I'm personally very fond of indeed. It's called ze Cryptograph-Lattice Assembly Viewer for Information Security - CLAVIS for short. Interesting little system, zat. Completely impossible to interface vis any computer system."

Turning to her companions, she explained. "A singular CLAVIS unit is composed of three parts. First, ze Lattice itself - very thin, very fragile, needs to be handled with extreme care. Second, ze decoder unit - ze data on CLAVIS lattices is extremely heavily encrypted - a blank reader vould only show meaningless gibberish - and ze wrong decoder may damage ze lattice. Lastly is ze Viewer - vhich ze lattice and ze decoder slot into, and can interface vith standard viewscreens. Knowing ze alliance, zey'll probably store all ze CLAVIS cards in an archive of some sort. Authorized personnel only, biometric scanners, all zat cal, with its own catalogue system independent from anything. I can vork on zat. Ze decoders vould probably be stored elsevhere, and zis is vhere I might need you two... I need a distraction for vone. And also, I can't be in two places at ze same time, no matter how good I am. Thoughts?"

[Chapter 1 – First Ignition]

Chapter 1 – First Ignition

Compared to the great Viridian forest - or even to the woods of Ilex and Petalburg in Johto and Hoenn – Agate Village's Relic Forest was not on the whole a very large forest. It was, however, ancient and teeming with life energy – its trees being some of the largest and thickest the trainer has ever seen, their roots running deep underground, dipping into the massive river that seemed to flow through Agate, at places even emerging into the village itself. It was clear that the people of Agate Village took great care of it, and it, in return, seemed to take care of them.

And within this forest – only accessible through a path that ran underground and through the roots of the trees - there was a clearing that had great significance to the people of Agate. The path that led into it was an elevated platform built from mossy, marble-like stones with a slight curve – stones that loosely interlocked, giving an almost gear-like appearance to the path they formed. Grass and other plants were growing out of the small gaps between them.  The path terminated in a roughly circular platform which seemed to share the gear-like looks that took up a large amount of the clearing… And in the center of the platform stood a pillar-like construct of greyish-blue marble - the sacred Relic Stone of Agate Village.

There were many tales about this monument. Tales that spoke of it having great powers of purification, tales that it was built on the site of a visitation by the guardian spirit of the forests - the faeborn timewalker, Celebi – and even tales that claimed that it was that particular visitation that was responsible to the birth of the forest itself, and protected it and its neighboring village to this very day.

Whether or not the myths were true, the stone's presence certainly seemed to have something special to it - there was an air of serenity in the glade which seemed to emanate from the marble monument in its center. The air was cool and crisp, and carried the scents of leaf and wood and flowing water – a quality that was rather rare in a region such as Orre.

It was a beautiful place, surrounded by nature. And that was the way the two of them loved to be, after all.

 All and all, a lovely place to be recovering in. Gad murmured softly, and Mari emitted a sound that could be classified as a "giggle-purr", snuggling close to him. The trainer and the Electabuzz – sitting in the shadow of the ancient monument, leaning against it and cuddling as they often did – shared a happy little gaze for a moment, before leaning their heads back and gazing up at the sky. It's been several days since the attack and Mari's recovery was going well - barring a few bouts of exhaustion that seemed to take her on occasion during the first few days, the Electric-type seemed to return to her normally energetic self. Even with that, the trainer preferred to give her a few more days to rest up completely before returning to her battle training. They spent much of their time in these last few days in the glade, basking in the feeling of peace – or just taking walks through the forest that surrounded it. It was like a little romantic getaway for the two of them – one that was, perhaps, long deserved.

Maybe some good came out of the attack at all.

"Ahem."

The sound snapped Gad and Mari back into reality from their little paradise of two. Turning his head rapidly, Gad's eyes locked on the origin of the sound. It was a man – a tall, elderly man clad in flowing purple and green robes, who was standing by the monument, lightly chuckling.

His hair was long and white, mingling with an equally long and white beard. He had an air of wisdom and experience to him – in a sense, he reminded the trainer of the kind of sagely wizard that would set the wheels on the adventure in motion and then fall to his seeming demise while fighting a rampaging legendary only to re-emerge later, quite alright, through some contrived plot device or another. How the man managed to sneak up behind him - and Mari, with her better-attuned senses - was a mystery to the trainer, but it was clear that there was more to the man that met the eye – he was certainly not your average, run-of-the-mill senior citizen.

"I thought I might find you two here, young Sylvanhart." The old man chuckled "My name is Eagun, and I believe that it is about time we've met."

"Greetings, Eagun." Gad nodded at the man who had just introduced himself, with a smile "I'd ask how you know my name, but I've heard people in the village talking about you. They say you know about everyone who visits the village – in particular, the Relic Stone. I gathered you don't allow just anyone to see it."

"That is true." The old man said "We protect the Relic Stone and it, in turn, protects us. The stone has great power… Have you heard the legends of Celebi?"

"I have, actually." The trainer smiled "My parents spent some time researching them, particularly in context of Celebi's link to the forests. The people who came to give me permission to visit the Relic Stone told me that it had a certain connection to it."

"Celebi has been here." Eagun said "Long ago, Celebi touched down upon this monument, and the essence of its power seeped into the stone. It is… easier to think of happy thoughts, remember good memories in its presence – and let their light purify the shadows clouding one's heart."

"Shadows…" the trainer said, as if the word brought up a memory.

"…What you feel right now is the power of Shadow Sky. Only our Shadow PokéMon can withstand its effect for long periods of time…"

"Shadows as in… Shadow PokéMon?" the trainer asked.

"Very observant, young man." Eagun said "You do not look like you are from Orre... How do you know of Shadow PokéMon?"

"I got to Agate village after being attacked." Gad said, closing his eyes "The man who attacked me talked about Shadow PokéMon... And there was certainly something unnatural about the PokéMon he had – it was almost like it was… dead inside. It was acting without any sign of emotion… Like it was a machine."

He shuddered slightly as the memories rushed in. He felt the Electabuzz tense up, emitting a slight hiss. He held her a little closer, brushing his fingers through her mane, as if to calm her down.

"The worse thing is that the trainer seemed to glorify whatever it was they did to it. He was very high on the idea of locking away all emotions…"

Eagun gasped – clearly, something Gad said was disturbingly familiar to the man.

"That certainly sounds like a Shadow PokéMon." he said "Did that man who attacked you say anything else? Perhaps something about an organization, or a group?"

"Who I am does not matter. Neither does my defeat right now... For soon, we shall arise again, and the world will once again fear the name of Cipher!"

"Yes." Gad said, morbidly. "He did. Does the word 'Cipher' ring any bells?"

"No… Not again…" the old man's eyes widened. Then, he regained his composure.

"We need to talk. If Cipher have indeed returned, I need to know everything you know about the matter. Meet me at my house – the one at the base of the old, white tree at the center of Agate – as soon as possible."

He turned and left hurriedly – moving very quickly for a man in his age. Gad wondered, briefly, what the rush was – but more importantly, what has he just gotten himself into.

~*~

Through some strange quirk of architecture, Eagun's house seemed larger from the inside than it was on the outside. The house was indeed situated at the base of the tree – quite literally. The door and some of the windows peeked out of an archway formed by the great roots of the tree – roots that dipped into the ground and emerged again in assorted areas of the village. It was a fitting place for the village's guardian to live.

The interior was warm and cozy, with cream-colored walls. Wood dominated the design – with the hardwood floor, the wooden paneling that ran along the base of the walls and the sturdy-looking wooden antique furniture. The living room floor was covered with a carpet that was a patchwork of red and pink, and a large potted plant stood in one of its corners.  Gad and Mari were, at that particular moment, seated at the living room table on chairs brought for them – also wooden and surprisingly comfortable.

Eagun's wife, Beluh, a little old lady that looked like the archetypal grandmother, walked into the living room from the kitchen with a tray filled with cookies and four cups of hot herbal tea, setting it on the table – she, too, seemed to have vigor unbefitting of her years. Gad was wondering if it was something in the Agate Village air.

"Here you go, dears." Beluh said as she took a seat on the sofa, by her husband's side – her voice was warm and motherly, weathered by age but not cracked. "It's not often that we get younger guests."

"Thank you, Ma'am." Gad nodded politely, and the Electabuzz nodded as well, emitting a little purr. The trainer picked a cup of tea from the tray and took a little sip from it – it was an invigorating blend that tasted vaguely of mint and licorice. He smiled brightly as the warmth seemed to flow through him. Mari – who has done the same – was positively glowing.

"Well, then, Gad Sylvanhart." Eagun started, taking a sip of his own cup of tea, nodding approvingly. "I'm sure you're interested to know why I called you here in such a rush."

"Other than the obvious fact that he's so terribly impatient, that is." Beluh chuckled, lightly elbowing her husband. The old man seemed to be flustered for a moment, turning his eyes to his wife with a look of mild frustration – but with it, the trainer could tell, much love. He knew she was only looking out for him.

"Indeed." He muttered, then chuckled softly "Other than that."

"Well, seeing as you jumped like a frenzied Seviper got you when I mentioned the guy who attacked me said something about 'Cipher', I'd assume it's about that?" Gad replied.

"Indeed. Cipher is not a new name to me." Eagun said. Then, he took a deep breath, and began.

"Cipher was – or is, it seems – an organization that wished to conquer the world using the power of shadow PokéMon. I am not certain, on the whole, about the process they use – but it involves sealing the memories and emotions of a PokéMon… 'Closing the door to their hearts', if you will, using artificial means. They feel little, if not nothing at all – pain does not disturb them. As you said, they become war machines and nothing more."

He took a deep breath.

"A few years ago, they collaborated with another group of ruffians in stealing the PokéMon of trainers and turning them into Shadow PokéMon."

"I remember that." Beluh nodded "They were even bold enough to attack Agate Village directly and attempt to destroy our sacred Relic Stone. If it wasn't for our granddaughter and that friend of hers with the Espeon and the Umbreon…"

"Aye." Eagun said, as if shaking away memories. The trainer and the Electabuzz shared a little glance – clearly, the man considered that moment a moment of personal failure. They decided not to ask.

"Five years after that crisis was resolved," Eagun continued "Cipher surfaced again, and again, they were vanquished - their plan to create the ultimate Shadow PokéMon failed and their leader was defeated in combat by a young trainer of some potential… Things have been relatively peaceful in Orre since – as peaceful as Orre gets, anyway - until now. It appears that true evil can never be destroyed…"

"It certainly sounds familiar," Gad replied, thinking back to the encounter "The man who attacked me did say something about them being 'pushed back but never truly defeated'… That 'some people are still loyal to the cause'. But their cause is something that gets me. The Cipher you describe sounds more like the typical criminal group pushing for world domination… A bit like the Rocket Syndicate in Kanto. This guy… the way he talked. He almost sounded like he worshipped his cause… Complete eradication of emotions. If this Cipher was reborn – it seems to be different from what you describe."

"That's quite a development." Eagun muttered, closing his eyes, seemingly lost in thought "Quite a development indeed…"

He stayed like this for a moment, then he opened his eyes, regarding the trainer and his Electabuzz with a significant look for a little while - as if he was sizing them up. Finally, he spoke again.

"They must be stopped." He said – softly, but firmly. There was a tone of finality in his voice and a certain spark in his eyes. Gad had the hunch that the old man was about to bolt again and take on the entire organization on his own. "PokéMon are not tools of war… They shouldn't be treated like this. May I ask a favor of you, young Sylvanhart?"

"By all means." Gad replied, and Mari nodded along with him, purring slightly "The people of your village have done so much for me and Mari, We'd be happy to do something in return."

"Good. I have an acquaintance named Krane, a PokéMon researcher. His lab is located up somewhere northwest of here, in the mountain area – not easy to miss, honestly.  It's vital that he learns of this situation as soon as possible – And I'd rather have someone deliver the message personally. You know how e-mails can get… Someone could track them…"

"He's deathly afraid of computers." Beluh smirked.

"I most certainly am not!" Eagun retorted, sounding more than a little flustered "I'm just… not very good with them. But either way, I have always believed that important news should be delivered personally. If experience is any guide, Cipher only show their faces when they are already well-rooted and have friends in high places. I remember last time…"

He was interrupted by the sound of a knock - It seemed hesitant, tentative – as if the person knocking was unsure if this was the right house. The abrupt noise made Eagun jump, breaking him out of the story that he was about to lapse into.

"Now, who on Earth could this be?" he murmured "I was not expecting more visitors today…"

"I'll get the door, dear." Beluh smiled her motherly smile, rising from the couch and making her way to the door in a leisurely way.  There was another knock – this one a bit more confident.

Beluh opened the door and surveyed the new arrivals – three young women – with a friendly smile.

"Yes, how may I help you?" she inquired sweetly.

"Um, is this the residence of the village guardian, Eagun?" one of the new arrivals asked – the youngest of the three, a girl of about sixteen who had an air of shyness to her. She had midnight-blue eyes and long medium-brown hair with a very light – nearly white – blond streak in it. Her hair was long and prominent bangs obscured her temples and ears completely. She was clad in brown trousers with a camouflage pattern, a gold T-shirt that seemed to have the outlines of a sand dune, a long-sleeved black jacket, adventure sandals and brown fingerless gloves. There was a fine, plain silver necklace on her neck, three PokéBalls on her belt, and a small bag slung over her back. Whoever the girl was, she clearly traveled light.

"It certainly is." Beluh replied with a smile "If I may inquire, what brings you here?"

"I've been told that he has a great knowledge of local folklore." The girl replied shyly "I read a story a while back – a story about inanimate Golems, brought to life by mankind. I was curious about any myths that may have inspired it."

"Oh, the legend of the kings!" Beluh grinned "Back in the day, when I was a little girl, that old story was one of my favorites. What is your name, young one?"

"Me? Um… I'm… Arella." The girl replied "Arella Stroj."

"A lovely name." the old woman said, turning her eyes to the girl's companions. One of them was a green-haired woman with a brown dress and a hat - who seemed a little nervous. The other was a reddish-blond-haired freckled woman with blue jeans, a jacket with matching patterns to her companion's and a scarf. Both seemed to be in their early twenties.

At the sound of the voice that replied to Beluh's question, Mari's antennae twitched – and she softly nudged Gad with a fingertip, giving him a look. It was a familiar voice – one that she has definitely heard before – and recently.

"We've actually come to see Eagun too, for the exact same reasons as Arella here. The legend of the kings – we're investigating the truth behind it. Sort of what we do." Said the one with the reddish-gold hair, grinning "We got here a short while ago and found Miss Stroj here wandering around like a confused puppy. It was adorable, really." Arella blushed in response, shooting the older girl a bit of an indignant look. The older girl smiled, giving her a friendly pat on the back, signifying that she meant no harm.

"Well, when three people come seeking the same lore, it is an omen." Beluh murmured softly "Eagun is currently occupied with a visitor, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I at least let you in and make you a cup of tea. The more, the merrier."

The three walked into the house, following Beluh's footsteps. Mari's antennae twitched again and she turned her eyes to face the newcomers… Then, recognition filled her eyes and she grinned brightly, abruptly emitting a happy chirp, launching a few sparks into the air. Her trainer turned to look at her in surprise, and then turned to see the newcomers.

"… Well, of all the places to see YOU again!" the reddish-blonde one exclaimed, grinning brightly when she noticed the Electabuzz and her trainer "Gad Sylvanhart! What the hell brings YOU to this sandpit?"

~*~

"And that's how it went." Christine Evans finished, taking a sip of her own tea with a grin "Cruising around the islands, solving ancient mysteries of the past, the whole shebang. Sounds like we should have stuck around with you, though. Really, now, inverted castles in the sky and kingdoms hidden in the desert mirages. Sounds like our kind of place."
"Trust me, it wouldn't be." Gad chuckled "On our first day there, we pissed the locals off something awful just by not being locals. I don't even want to know what they might have done if they saw Iriai. They'd probably pop a blood vessel or something."
"So, you've all been through long journeys." Eagun said with a chuckle – he's been listening to the three trainers catching up on each other's adventures, probably in an attempt to get to the bottom of his new visitors. "But you've been very quiet, young Miss Stroj. What may your story be?"
"I… don't have much of a story, to be honest. I am just a trainer." Arella seemed taken aback by the question "With an interest in history."
"I see." The old man said "Well, I'd best not keep you – as well as Miss Evans and Miss Rayner here – waiting. Young Sylvanhart, you are welcome to stay and listen as well, if you are interested in the tales of the past."
"Gladly." The male smiled, and the Electabuzz that sat beside him purred.

"Well." Said Eagun "Legends say that many, many years ago, amidst the chaos and the whirlwinds of the deep desert there existed a people whose name is now lost to us. The legend says that these people knew the secret of crafting life from the inanimate. They crafted great golems from the rocks of the desert to shape the land to their will, and great golems of ice from the water they gathered in moisture traps – to form free flowing water for their people and reduce the strain of heat. It was later that they have learned the craft of metalworking, and they have harnessed the power of metal to create yet another kind of great golems, one with dexterous hands and a mighty strength – crafted for delicate construction works – as well as for war and siege, should it come to that.

With these golems at their command, these people entered a golden age – building great cities amidst the desert sands, protecting them from wild creatures of the deep desert and from the harsh elements. Alas, as with all people who grow too secure in their feigned superiority over nature, they grew vain, turning their mind into thoughts of something greater. The following years saw many experiments with new materials and new concepts, as minor nobles attempted to consolidate influence and power by creating new, more daring constructs for purposes never thought of before – some less honorable than others. With struggles over power and prestige among the nobles, dissent rose, factions emerged, the delicate balance of power toppled – and the once-proud civilization scattered across the four winds, taking their secrets with them – leaving nothing but mysteries and old ruins, battered by the elements they once opposed and harnessed."

"Sounds like a cautionary tale, if I ever heard one." Maren said "The more you grasp for, the more likely you are to lose it all."

"Human nature." Eagun sighed "We never learn from the mistakes of our forefathers, each generation thinks that it is better than the last and that this time the errors of the past will not be repeated."

"And they always are." Arella murmured.

"Aye." Eagun nodded, taking a mournful sip of his tea.

There was a moment of silence.

"If I may be so bold to ask." Christine began "Our current client said something about some ruins in the general vicinity that may have some connection with the legend…"

"Yes, I know the ruins of which you speak." Eagun said "But they speak of nothing which I have not yet said – and even what I said they speak in a strange language."

"Maybe so," Christine continued "But I would still like to investigate. If anything, just to tell the client that we were there."

"Well, should you wish to inquire forth anyway," the old man nodded "The ruins are located to the Northeast of here, across the river, where the land rises to form the volcanic slopes of Mount Battle... I could mark it on a map, if you have one."

"Well, I have my navigation device…" the redhead began, reaching to her pocket to extract the complicated holographic map-tracking device when the old man raised a hand to stop her.

"I'll just give you one of mine." He said, with a tone of resignation "Honestly, kids these days, too much technology…"

~*~

"So that's how you got here?" Gad whistled, surveying the hoverbike with appreciation "Impressive. Where did you two dig this thing up?"

"Gateon Port, amazingly. Supposedly restored from a real hunk-of-junk found abandoned in the desert." Christine smirked. Arella tensed slightly.

"Um…" she begun, turning her eyes to the reddish-blond haired woman "Would you mind if I tagged along? I have interest in the legend too… I promise I won't hold you back."
"Sure thing, if you can keep up with my driving." Christine grinned, a little shudder running through her green-haired companion – Maren would normally trust Christine with her life, but that was as long as Christine was NOT behind the handlebars of THAT infernal hovering contraption.

"What about you, Gad? Care to join us?" Maren turned her eyes to the other trainer – who seemed slightly amused at the exchange between the two.

"I'd love to see what this is all about too, and considering it's only a slight detour from my next destination…" The brown-haired male grinned as the Electabuzz that stood by his side wrapped her arm around him, purring. "Count me in."

"It's settled, then." Christine grinned and then unfurled the map that Eagun gave her. "Alright. I'll just mark this baby on my navigation device…"

She pulled the aforementioned device from her pocket, activated it and tapped a few sequences of points on the device's holographic interface, a marker manifesting on the ruins' location. She nodded approvingly, clipping the device to the special slot on the bike yet again. She then rolled the map up and tossed it to Arella, who fumbled with it for a bit before catching it. She turned her eyes to the male trainer questioningly, but he smiled.

"I'll just follow those two loons on the bike." He chuckled.

"You say that like you could keep up with me." Christine grinned, hopping onto the bike and starting the engine, the ground-clamps releasing as the vehicle settled into a hover, her companion clambering atop the seat behind her – rolling her eyes with an exasperated 'here we go again' expression.

"You haven't seen Arafel in flight yet, have you, Christine?" Gad grinned in return, a PokéBall rolling into his hand. "You're in for a nice surprise."

He tossed the ball up.

"Arafel, Arise!"

The sphere burst into light in midair, coalescing into the form of a Flygon – a trail of dark green scutes running along its spine from the base of his antennae to the flagged tip of his tail. The dragon-type spread its semi-translucent wings while materializing, launching upwards with impressive speed, doing a figure-eight in the sky before descending dramatically to the ground, nodding in greeting to the humans, his eyes – halfway-obscured behind the translucent red lenses of their coverings - closing as he bowed his head.

Then there was another burst of light in the sky – a premonition to the manifestation of another creature formerly contained. It was a majestic, long-necked avian form covered in nearly iridescent azure feathers – their sheen suggesting the bird was well-groomed, but not subtracting form the threatening impression that its sharp claws and curved beak made. Crests of long feathers billowed from its head and its tail – but the most curious feature of the avian was that its lower side and its wings seemed to be cloaked by a thick veil of mist – or clouds. The Altaria – for that is what the creature was – emitted a melodic trill and settled down on the ground by its trainer's side. Arella Stroj smiled, shrinking the PokéBall she held in her hand and walked over to the large bird's side, petting its neck softly. The avian dragon cooed in response, gazing at the girl fondly.

"Aderyn, say hello to my new friends."Arella said softly, and the Humming PokéMon chirped merrily.

"Seems like you're not the only one with an impressive dragon-type after all, eh?" Christine smirked at Gad. "Alright, folks. Intro time is over. If we want to hit those ruins today, it's time to roll out."

"Or so it would if this thing had wheels." Gad counter-smirked, climbing atop the Flygon's back, with Mari following him soon after, wrapping her arms around his waist and snuggling into his back.

"Shut up. I like my version better." Christine glared at the trainer playfully, and the hoverbike launched off.

"I'll never get those two." The trainer mused, turning his eyes to Arella, who was already comfortably seated on the back of her Altaria, studying Eagun's map.

"We should get moving." He nodded, and the Flygon spread its wings and lifted off the ground effortlessly, following the hovercycle's wake.

Arella stayed there for a moment, seemingly very focused on something that only she could hear – then she nodded.

"You heard the man." She murmured at Aderyn "Take off, Dragon Dance, and let's fly."

The Altaria nodded, and then gazed on into the distance, its cloud-veiled wings spreading as it dashed forward, launching itself from the ground. The flying-type soared, flying into a spiraling flight pattern, its motions becoming faster and more precise. Energy seemed to swirl around it as it launched itself forward to follow the Flygon and the hoverbike. The ruins awaited.

[Stel:]

Stel:

"Well, no one coming in yet, my dear. I guess I'd better get moving. Sooner I leave, the sooner I may be back to you."
"Call me every once in a while, hmm?" A grin.
"Naturally, love…You think I could survive this journey without at least hearing your voice?"
"Oh, you could survive just fine." A giggle, and a little playful prod.
"But would I want to?" a smirk, and a counterprod. The gym leader almost squeaked, wrapping her arms around the trainer and kissing him deeply and passionately. It was their goodbye kiss for a while, and they wanted to savor it. Hopefully, the other trainers still in the gym were too wrapped up with each other to notice.
"Goodbye for now, lovely." He said, and, holding the grass-type trainer close for a little longer, the two finally parted ways, the trainer making his way to the door, vanishing past the curtain of vines. The trainer known as Gad was on his way.

~*~

Still savoring the taste of Gardenia's lips from their goodbye kiss, Gad made his way eastwards. Passing by the foot of the statue hill, he smiled at it one last time - It will probably be a while before he sees it again - as he made his way past it and onto Route 211.

Route 211 on the Eterna Side was perhaps one of the most impressive routes of Sinnoh – at least to him. The town maps only gave it a small footnote as 'A mountain path that tunnels through Mt. Coronet, one of the tallest mountains in Sinnoh' – but there was far more to it than that.

The route began as a short stretch of grassy land set between two small but crystal-clear lakes, their water reflecting the mountains around them and the light of the sun. As one walked past the lakes, the land seemed to start rising steadily and develop somewhat of a craggy edge as the path slowly made its way into the Coronet ridge.

And then, it abruptly ended, the ground suddenly giving way dramatically into an impressive canyon, carved over many years by the rapid currents of a river.  Moss and plant growth seemed to dominate the rocky ledges along the cliff faces, and even from rather high above – as one crossed the large, sturdy bridge that stretched across the gorge – one could hear the rush of the river below. Across the bridge, a smaller path snaked down to the canyon itself while the main route continued on for a while longer before terminating in a sheer wall of rock, a large cave opening up in the cliff face leading into the mountain itself.

It was the entrance to one of the many tunnels that crisscrossed the interior of the ridge – some part of the mountain's labyrinthine network of natural caves, others dug up and enhanced by humans to serve as crossways through the mountain. This cave entrance was one of the latter – dug up as part of Route 211 connecting Eterna City to the nearly obscure Celestic Town.

But Celestic Town wasn't the trainer's destination – and neither was the tunnel. Its location just happened to coincide with a really good point for what he intended to do.

He was going to take a shortcut across the mountain and into Hearthome.

He grinned, a PokéBall rolling into his hand – this one was halfway a dark shade of red and halfway lustrous black, with a reddish rim.

"Arano," he said, tossing the sphere up to the sky "Arise!"

The sphere burst open, the energy contained within coalescing into the form of an arthropod-like creature, loosely resembling a huge scorpion - though its long tail, terminating in what almost looked like a club tipped with multiple, wicked looking red spikes, trailed behind it rather than arching over it like a scorpion's tail would.

 Deep red plates of armor covered the top half of the creature's body, as well as its 'feet' and pincers - save for markings in a black upon them - matching the hue of the creature's underside and leg joints. Sharp claws in the same shade of venomous red as the creature's tail spikes adorned each of the creature's six legs - almost seeming to glisten unnaturally. The creature's eyes - which were quite large and developed - were the same shade of red - as were some markings on the pincers and the armored joints connecting the body to the legs.

The large creature - a human of Gad's general size could ride one comfortably and there would still be room for another rider if need be - seemed to almost stretch lazily, allowing the warm rays of sun to flood its body - the light and heat seeming to trigger a change in the creature's carapace. The deep, dark red faded into a light, sandy tan, the black changed into a reddish-brown while the vibrant red of the claws, spikes and eyes darkened gradually, eventually becoming a vaguely iridescent dark purplish-blue color. The transformation from the dark color scheme to the light color scheme was rather dramatic - but it was quite characteristic of the creature's species. Arano was a Scoruption, a Fire/Poison type PokeMon native to the great Jeweled Desert of Miato. By daytime, they adopted the light color scheme – and as sunset approached and night fell, their colors darkened. This served both the purpose of camouflaging the creature as well as regulating the absorption of heat. This allowed them to dominate both day and night in the harsh climate of the wastelands – a great benefit for the species.

The trainer smiled at the large arthropod, walking over to him and running a hand along the creature's headplate gently, the rough sensation of the Scoruption's chitinous carapace serving as a silent testimony for the many battles he has seen. Ever since he evolved from a skittish little Flarpion that Gad captured in the Jeweled Desert, Arano displayed a strange battle-lust – a desire to push its considerable defenses to the limits - he knew he wasn't invincible, but he'd be damned if he wouldn't try to be.

"Good morning, my friend." Gad smiled, and the Scoruption seemed to nod in greeting. "Today we conquer a mountain."

The creature turned to face the cliff face, clicking its pincers and flicking its tail upwards in a challenging stance. The trainer couldn't help but chuckle.

"We're headed to Hearthome, and we're going there over the ridge – and I couldn't think of any better climber for the purpose of crossing this mountain. So what say ye – think you can take on the tallest mountain ridge of Sinnoh?" He grinned, and the fire-type emitted a deep clicking noise, seeming to almost swell with determination for a few moments before settling down, lowering its body to the ground and its stinger to its more typical resting position, signifying to the trainer it was safe to climb onto its back.

"Thank you." Gad smiled, and climbed onto the fire-type's back, settling down between the second and third plate of the creature's body, right behind the pincer's connection to the body. The Scoruption stood up again, effortlessly, and began to move, its claws grasping for purchase against the cliff wall as it scaled it – relatively swiftly. Being a slow and armored creature, the Scoruption didn't have the grace and speed of a charging Rapidash – but it still moved fluidly up the mountain ridge, clinging to the rock face as it continued its ascent. Soon they would be crossing steep paths, ascending and descending passageways that were probably dangerous for anything other than the most skilled hikers – blazing (if you may pardon the pun) their own trail southeastwards, towards Hearthome City.

This journey has officially begun.


SCT:


   "How’s this, uh Archer was it? I’m gonna help you grow a spine.” It was less a suggestion than it was a command.
 
         “I’m gonna make you into a man your Pokémon can be proud of.” She punched him in the arm, playfully. Breifly, Xyrem began to wonder why Dai hadn't just been arrested for kidnapping, if this was the way she "made friends". Damage control time.

         "You don't have to come with us," Xyrem started, hoping she wouldn't anger Dai too much, "but hey, what's a journey if you're by yourself?" A short, thoughtful pause. "I mean, I was originally going to do the whole 'Big Sinnoh Journey' alone, but I guess you can say this one," she gestured to Dai, "robbed-slash-convinced me into letting her join in." 'Vadumee sighed lightly at the blonde's idea of human interaction, and, were there fewer humans in the vicinity, probably would have facepalmed.

         Xyrem looked to the young male for an answer. He seemed incredibly introverted, and so the idea of traveling with other humans, especially one who had been so pugnacious towards him prior to her invitation, might seem completely alien. Still, it would be nice to have another along on their insane journey.


Belle:

Perplexed by the blond's reaction, it took a minute for his expression to smooth over into one of cool patience. Reflexively tensing at her playful punch, he offered a small smile and a cocked eyebrow at her genial grinning and the weavile's toothy expression before looking back to Xyrem. At her he directed a polite smile that creased the beginnings of the dimples in his cheeks and stood up tall, burying his hands in his pockets before nodding graciously. Sparing only half a moment of hesitation to glance away at the togekiss that was hovering in circles around the trio, he chewed at his lip before mustering an answer for the girl.

"A valid point, miss. And, though it seems as though I wouldn't have had much say in the matter regardless," At this he spared a glance at the girl and weavile grinning mischievously at one another, "having company on the road would make a nice change of pace. I'd be glad to join you on your 'Big Sinnoh Journey'"
Inaudibly, he seemed to murmur something about a mild fear for what Dai might have had in mind along the way as he rubbed the back of his neck tentatively, though it was buried so far into what seemed like a sigh of relief that it hardly mattered.

[Sem:]

Sem:
"Aria?" Fida asked aloud in confusion.  The girl had run off suddenly, seeming distressed.  Fida felt a slight tingling in her head, which she recognized as telepathic communication.  Nothing got through, but that was all thanks to Elvia, her personal firewall.

With a quick glance at Glenn Fida followed after the redhead.  She didn't quite know where to go, but Elvia seemed to.  By the time Fida had found Aria she had chased away a group of pink Pokémon.  Taking a quick look around Fida saw that there was no danger and stayed back, watching as Aria communicated with another Pokémon.  In only moments the creature allowed itself to be captured, seeming glad that Aria had come.

"Is everything ok?" Fida asked, coming closer now.  Everything looked ok now, but no harm in asking to make sure.  Aria was smiling at her and Glenn, confirming Fida's thoughts.  In a moment's time they were back on their way, as if there had never been an interruption.


Stel:

OOC: Goddamnit, Bio. About time I replied to you somehow. Sorry for taking this long. Writer's block from hell. ^^;

Glenn smiled back at Aria - he recognize the creature she just bonded with and captured - a Ralts. That brought the total of her captures to five - and it's only been a few days since her journey's beginning. The girl seemed to be a natural when it came to bonding with PokeMon and catching them - he couldn't help but be impressed.

It was not long at all before the three trainers made their way to the edge of Eterna Forest, following the path leading into it - and as soon as they passed through the arch of intergrown trees that seemed to mark the entrance to the forest, they could feel the change in the atmosphere.

It was like stepping into a different world - a pristine world, nearly untouched by human hands, where nature reigned supreme. A world of fae where time stood still. At places the trees were dense enough to nearly blot out the sun - allowing just enough light to filter in through the leaves - and at places they were sparser, creating large clearings awash with sunlight. The air was rich with scents of earth and wood and moss - and with the sounds of wind rustling in the leaves and the cries and motions of assorted PokeMon going about their life cycles, as they have for centuries before - and will for centuries hence.

For indeed, the forest teemed with life, and even here at the outskirts of the forest that fact was very noticable - Birds were chirping, usually sticking to the high canopies though occasionally fluttering down to peck at the ground in search of food. Butterfly-like PokeMon - Beautifly and the occasional Butterfree - fluttered past in small groups around flowering trees and berry bushes in bloom as their larval forms - Wurmple and Caterpie - crawled about, feeding on leaves. Metapods, Silcoons and Cascoons swung gently in the wind like cradles suspended by trails of silk from branches - the creatures within engaging in quiet metamorphosis, awaiting their rebirth into the world.

Amidst fallen logs covered with moss, a sharp-eyed observer could spot a Nincada or two, draining nutrients from the rotting wood. Other PokeMon used the logs as burrows - A curious Buneary or two would occasionally emerge from holes in the sides of the logs, regard the newcomers to the woods with a gaze, then scurry back into their dens or hop off into the patches of grass to continue doing whatever it is Bunearies did. In hollows amidst some of the trees, one could occasionally notice the sinister gaze of a vigilant Murkrow - or the occasionally eerie red gaze of a Hoothoot - these would become more active as night fell - when the butterflies took to rest and the moths - Dustox and Mothim - emerged to take their place. Budews and the occasional Seedot sometimes emerged from the grass, merely to hop into another patch of grass - and every once in a while, one could pick up the sound of one of the more elusive denizens of the forest - the heavy hum of Heracross wings, as the large beetle-like creatures moved in search of Honey Trees.

This was but one face of the forest - for it had many. Ahead the roads winded and twisted, occasionally scaling up mountainous paths that projected above the canopies - as well as ponds and streams and mighty waterfalls. Many other species of PokeMon indubitably dwelled there - and there were probably other travellers along the many paths - but to Glenn, it seemed like he and his three companions were the only humans in the entire forest - and he was already immersed in the melody of life around him - his attention divided between listening and navigating. If all went properly, they would make it to the campsite Cheryl marked on his map by evening, marking the end of the first planned day of travel.

He would definitely need to spend a while with his guitar that evening. There were few things that inspired him as much as this forest did.


Sem:

Before Fida had even taken one step into the forest her breath was taken away by the sheer atmosphere of the place.  Trees that seemed as old as the earth itself numbered in the thousands.  She felt as if she were communing with nature by simply walking through the forest, as if it were allowing her to experience the pure essence of life that seemed to reside there.

Elvia felt it as well, to the point where the invisible shroud that was her started to bend and flicker back into the visible spectrum.  Despite the multitude of Pokémon that inhabited the forest, it seemed as if it were still the safest place in the world.  
Elvia decided to instead hover around Fida looking like a proper Mismagius, and studied everything around them.

Miraculously, they ran into no signs of other people as they walked further and further into the forest, though at times Fida thought she heard the sounds of a distant battle.  It got darker and darker as time passed, and in some of the already dark parts of the forest it was hard to see anything.  It was in one such area that a flash of color caught her eye.

Turning, she saw a large spot of blue against one of the ancient trees.  Squinting her eyes, she saw that it was one of the Bug-types that the forest seemed to have an abundance of.  It had six legs that had hairs that were purple with black stripes.  Red mandibles and a horn were also visible, but the most striking feature was the expressionless face that it had on top of its abdomen.  The face's empty eyes seemed to stare back at Fida as the Spinarak scurried down the trunk.

Fida had seen Spinarak before, though they were usually a shade of green.  One had been discovered in her house in Violet - her mother almost died of fright.  They were usually seen as pests, seeing as they liked to find the dark places of your home to live and build their webs.  They were typically only a problem for parents with small children, but it was a bit terrifying to suddenly discover one while cleaning or something.

Normally Fida wouldn't have given it a second thought, but the idea of training something that most people considered an annoying pest intrigued her.  Only the bug-catchers were proud when they called out a Spinarak into battle.  Perhaps it was because of Calhoun, but she decided that she would catch it.  Pulling out a Timer Ball, she pressed the button that caused it to expand and then threw it, releasing her Magnemite.

"Metal Sound!" Fida ordered, feeling somewhat bad for breaking the peace and serenity of the forest with her shout, though it was nothing compared to the sound that followed.

"Maaaaag," the Steel-type moaned as it began to rub its magnets against its spherical body, producing an awful sound that caused every goose-bump in Fida's body to raise.  The Spinarak seemed even more severely affected, as the vibrations traveled to the delicate hairs on its body.  It halted in its tracks and fell off of the tree, landing on its back, legs squirming.

"Thundershock!"

The horrible noise ceased and was replaced by the sound of electricity crackling.  The jolt of lightning hit the spider dead-on as it tried to flip itself over.  It reacted noiselessly to the pain, though it squirmed and flailed all the more in reaction to the electrocution.

Fida readied a Pokéball to catch the arachnid with, but stopped when it fired a Nightshade at her Magnemite.  She should've realized that it wouldn't be that easy.  Despite all appearances, it was life and death for the creatures in the forest, and so obviously they would be made of tougher stuff.

An all but invisible line of thread shot out of Spinarak's mouth and latched onto her Pokémon.  Then another and another, in quick succession.  "Zap it off!" she said, knowing that if it went on the String Shot would cripple Magnemite completely.

The web fell to the ground in pieces, allowing Magnemite to escape, but not before getting hit by another Nightshade.  The face on the Spinarak's back had turned to resemble that of an angry face.  Instead of fleeing it scurried straight towards Fida on her Electric-type.  Hairs flew off of the spider's body and flew at them both.

Elvia flew in front of Fida and instantly threw up a Protect, stopping the Poison Sting from hitting her.  Fida flinched and backed away, a bit intimidated by the Spinarak.

The Poison Sting bounced off of Magnemite's metal body harmlessly, and he retaliated with a burst of light, Flash, per Fida's command.  The light blinded the spider, which had probably not seen that much light in its entire life.  "Tackle it!" she yelled.  The Steel-type did as it was told, and hit the arachnid while it was still dazed.

"Now!" she thought to herself and threw the Net Ball that she had in hand.  The ball hit the Pokémon and split open, absorbing it in the form of red energy.  The ball shut closed, trapping the creature inside and jiggled as it hit the ground.  The center of the ball blinked red as the ball moved, as it struggled to contain the creature within.  After a few tense moments the jiggling stopped and the center of the ball stopped glowing.

"Yes!" Fida exclaimed in an excited whisper as she ran to pick up the sphere.  She held it in her hand and grinned.  This meant that she now had a complete team, complete after starting out nearly two years prior.  It was an important moment for her, and she thanked Magnemite graciously before returning it to its ball for a rest.

She scanned it quickly with the PokéDex, checking the special moves it knew along with simple things like gender.  It was female, which was an important detail if Fida was to give it a nickname.  She put the items away and returned to Glenn and Aria with a slight blush on her face.


Dwayna:

Aria had been taken to Sandgem by guide from Hearthome through the mountains, so it wasn't until now that she had the pleasure of experiencing Eterna Forest. Now that she was surrounded by wilderness and the thriving lives of PokeMon, she felt more at home than anywhere else she had ever been. Her chest swelled with emotion at the beauty of the place, her awe showing plainly and truthfully on her face as she looked about with anticipation and curiosity.

"Bug PokeMon are always abundant in forested areas," her father had said. "There can also be some birds hanging around, and if you're really lucky, there will be some ghosts lingering about." He had always understood her interest for PokeMon and encouraged her to try to learn more about Eterna Forest, for she was 'going to visit it one day'. Seems he had been usually right about anything PokeMon related, except for one time...

Flashback

"Reports say there has been a small landslide just off the side of Rote 207," said the male reporter before the camera flicked to the scene of destruction. "Witnesses claim that a rouge Aerodactyl had caused the landslide with a powerful Hyperbeam attack. Unfortunately, an adventurer from the Devon Corporation was caught in the landslide and fatally wounded."

The image on the screen flickered to a man on a stretcher, and at first her mind refused to accept what she was seeing. However, they flicked to a portrait of him and announced his name, but beyond that the sound faded from her mind as the voices began to take over. The evil and sinister plotting from her mother that the purple-haired woman was not aware her daughter knew. The affirmations of how she had married her father for his money and all the fake smiles her mother gave. The genuine smiles and love that her father had given her mother and herself.

She had been slowly cracking, knowing the truth behind her mother's trickery towards her father. She had begun to shy away from other humans, only trusting what her father told her and the PokeMon he brought with him. Now that a PokeMon had betrayed him, she finally lost the last piece of her sanity, masking it with a fake smile of her own as she finally broke.

End flashback

Aria couldn't hold back the tears as she finally felt liberated from her past in this place of PokeMon and wilderness. She choked them back a little bit and wiped them away just in time to watch Fida make her first capture in their presence. She showed a genuine smile then for the girl, proud of her for the gaining of a new companion.

She returned to focusing on Glenn and wherever he led them, but also looking around at the scenery as they walked together. The plan was to spend at least a couple of days in this place, and she was glad for the solace and sanctuary it would bring her while they were there. Tonight they would be camping underneath the stars, and then the true symphony of the forest would begin.

With that in mind, she made a mental note to join said symphony with her own voice, to show how she felt one with her surroundings and the creatures within.

[Name:]

Name: Darren Sinclair (Often goes by his last name)

Gender: Male

Hometown: Oreburgh City, Sinnoh

Age: 25

Height: 1.75m

Weight: Average for his height and age.

Hair: Dark brown, fading to white at the tips. Often tied back in a ponytail, but when let loose, reaches about the middle of his back. Prominent bangs.

Eyes: Moss green.

Clothing and Gear: Black T-shirt under a moss-green hoodie that is often zipped. Circuitry patterns in gold along the bottom of the hoodie and the edges of the sleeves. Faded, dark greyish-blue jeans, with circuitry pattern along the bottom of the left leg. Hiking boots (mostly green and brown in color). He wears a fingerless glove on his right hand and an arm-mounted device on his left that functions as a one-piece trainer tool.

The shouderpad of this unit contains the power source as well as assorted proessors and storage units. The bumps on the upper arm unit are PokeBall holders. Minimized-state PokeBalls fit into them. Once a PokeBall is slotted into the thing it's instantaneously synchronized with it. This has two functionalities. One - it can be used to heal them. It has a similar functionality to the regeneration machines in PokeMon centers but on a smaller scale, providing regeneration over time. It also allows him to get assorted readouts re: the pokemon inside the balls (their status, etc.)

If a PokeMon is to be used the data/energy form contained in the ball is transferred to the forearm module and then to the lens construct on the hand and released through it. This doesn't really provide any effect but it looks badass. XP

The forearm module itself has a hell of a lot of other uses other than team management - as you can see, it has a PokeDex mode. It can also function as a PokeGear-type thing. The display is a touch screen with some holographic capabilities.

All this is attached to him via a belt that has a few pockets for assorted items.

Identifying Marks: I'd say the thing on his arm is a mark enough. Also, he's left-handed.

Musculature: He travels around a lot. You do the math.

Personality: Generally speaking, he's a scientific, scholarly-type with a massive fascination with machinery and technology. He is quite sarcastic at times and isn't, on the whole, a big people person. He gets along well with like-minded individuals and with his PokeMon - and doesn't give much of a damn about anyone or anything else. He greatly enjoys traveling, mostly to acquire more knowledge, but also for the hell of it. He likes his freedom, what can I say?

Skills: Electronics and machinery are his forte. Given the right tools, he can fix pretty much everything. His arm-mounted multipurpose trainer tool was developed, designed and built by him - in pieces, over years, and with some help, of course. He still works on developing upgrades and improvements for it. Other than that, he's pretty good with computers (mostly on the hardware side, though he's good at finding information too) and has an array of survival skills (as getting around between cities sometimes requires much travelling in the wilds).

Past: Born and raised in Oreburgh, when Sinclair was a younger kid he was enamored with the idea of being a paleontologist when he grows up. He'd spend much time digging for and collecting stones with unusual patterns - some of which were geniune fossils or fossil fragments, others simply had interesting patterns. His odd hobby aside, he was a studious kid who did very well at school and generally kept to himself - making himself into a bit of a social outcast, though he didn't really care. He found almost no common language with the other kids, who were all obsessed with PokeMon and the concepts of a future journey. Sure, he liked PokeMon as much as the next kid but wasn't to keen on the idea of leaving home at the age of ten to do the cliche'd journey thing. It was what society wanted kids to do, and frankly, he was already beginning to develop his own ideas about where society can go stick it.

When his tenth birthday came up, though, he managed to dig up something he never found before - a complete Claw Fossil. A classic example of such - the sort of nearly textbook sample. He managed to extract it very carefully out of the ground. On that day his mother told him that there is a type of technology that allows restoring a PokeMon from a complete-enough fossil to life - and asked him if he wanted to do that to the claw fossil. Ecstatic about having the idea of a living relic of the past, Young Sinclair came to the museum with his mother and with the help of Dr. Kenzo, the researcher in charge of the fossil restoration technology, brought the Claw Fossil to life - into the form of an Anorith. Sinclair and the Anorith (whom Sinclair named Lazarus) bonded instantly. As an Anorith, Lazarus often spent much time out of his PokeBall, and it was rare that the two weren't seen walking together.

Having finished whatever elementary form of schooling that kids in the PokeMon World go through until the age of ten, Sinclair spent most of his newly acquired free time with Lazarus - exploring the immediate area - or in the Museum, studying ancient PokeMon under Dr. Kenzo, doing all sorts of odd errands for him. Half a year later, though, something happened that changed his life - when a set of circumstances, related to a joint project between the Devon Corporation and whatever company his father worked for - made the family move to Rustboro City for about half a year. It was in Rustboro - where he spent a nice amount of time around Devon Corporation's building - where he was generally welcomed. It was through his time spent hanging around Devon Corporation a lot that he discovered his natural affinity with machinery and electronics - and from then on his time division was largely split between his (at the time) two PokeMon, spending time at Devon HQ and reading professional books in his newfound fields of interest - and a LOT of those at that. When his family returned to Sinnoh, half a year later, he chose to dedicate himself to studying it.

Starting a shortish career as a trainer to make more money, Sinclair travelled around Sinnoh for a while (capturing some more PokeMon along the way and at the same time conducting his own studying of systems in places where he was allowed to), then enrolled in a school of engineering to have some official credentials. A few years later he graduated - it was around that time that he decided that he's going to continue travelling, learning about the great mechanical and electronic marvels of the Sinnoh Region (at first) and later the world.

Sometime around that period he began what became a bit of a lifelong project - his arm-mounted multipurpose trainer tool. Its prototype was his graduation work - and as he continued travelling, he worked on the design more, improving its software and its hardware - using some connections he made for assitance.

Years have passed - and Sinclair, now 25, is still travelling the world in search of interesting mechanical marvels - supporting his journeys through PokeMon training, the occasional contest and every once in a while doing repair work on assorted machines for a price - generally free of any obligations except ones he creates for himself, and that's just the way he likes it.

Family: His father works somewhere in the high-tech business. His mother works in the Oreburgh Mining Museum. He has no siblings.

Love Relationships?: Single, not looking. Again, He likes his freedom.

Pokemon:

Lazarus - Armaldo (Male)

Ability: Battle Armor

Nature: Adamant

Hidden Power: Unknown

Special Features: Minor plate module attached to his left claw, holding a Quick Claw.

History: Lazarus was Sinclair's first PokeMon, resurrected from a Claw Fossil that Sinclair dug up when he was ten years old. An Anorith may seem like an unusual choice for a starter, but Sinclair thought it was perfect for him - a product of futuristic technology bringing the past to life. The two developed a very close bond over their fifteen or so years together, rivalled only by the bonds between Sinclair and his other PokeMon.

Personality: In spite of his imposing presence, Lazarus is a gentle, peaceful giant and is very tolerant - much moreso than his trainer. It takes a lot to get under Lazarus' skin (or exoskeleton, rather), but angering him is an extremely unwise move - as in his rage, Lazarus can be quite a destructive force of nature, wielding an arsenal of moves including Rock Slide, Earthquake and X-Scissor to dispatch his opponents.

Seki - Breloom (Male)

Ability: Poison Heal

Nature: Jolly

Hidden Power: Unknown

Special Features: Shiny. Posesses a plate module on his chest with a Toxic Orb embedded in its center.

History: Seki was caught in Petalburg Forest as a Shroomish - seeing as it was a rather dull day, 10-and-a-half year-old Sinclair and Lazarus wandered into Petalburg Forest to train - and along the way encountered the feisty little Grass-type. It was a fairly evenly-matched fight, but in the end, the Shroomish was defeated and captured. Already prone to wild bursts of attacks as a Shroomish, as Seki evolved into a Breloom (this was after Sinclair's return to Sinnoh) these bursts became quite a handful to handle - and alas, lowered the Breloom's efficiency in battle a great deal. Eventually, the Breloom felt a desire to hone his skills, and made a departure from Sinclair's active party to train under a master of martial arts. A period of time later, Seki returned to Sinclair - a lot more focused, a better fighter, and capable of finding his inner peace even in battle, drawing strength from it.

Personality: Seki is a martial artist through and through - he sees fighting as a form of self-expression and communication. In sharp contrast to the cool, level-headed Lazarus, Seki is impulsive, rash and hot-blooded, and often lets his emotions get the best of him. He is however fiercely loyal to those he cares about, and at times has useful insights to share.

A speedy creature by nature, Seki's personal favorite attack is Force Palm, which he will often use in order to attempt to paralyze his foes.

Dysnomia - Gengar (Female)

Ability: Leviate

Nature: Modest

Hidden Power: Unknown

Special Features: She is the only member of Sinclair's team that does not have a mechanical module of some sort.

History: Dysnomia was one of many Gastly who dwelled in the Old Chateau on the outskirts of Eterna Forest. When Sinclair entered the Chateau, Dysnomia saw the potential for mischief. Already in posession of advanced powers of illusion, the Gastly sent Sinclair and his PokeMon into an illusionary dream-world within their own minds. Eventually making their way through the Gastly's twisted illusions, the Trainer battled the Gastly and defeated her, capturing her shortly after. Though at first suspicious of her, Sinclair and his team soon found that the recently-captured Gastly showed great loyalty - even with her mischievous side. Clearly, having worked through her maze of illusions, the trainer gained her respect. She evolved twice under Sinclair's care, her illusions becoming more cunning and crafty. Though Sinclair sometimes wonder if the now Gengar would ever feel like putting his and his team's wit to the test again, she has yet to do so so far - maybe because on some level she actually likes her companions - enough to screw with THEIR minds a little less, anyway.

Personality: Dysnomia is pretty much your typical Gengar. Mischievous, chaotic and quite the trickster, her opponents' minds are Dysnomia's playground. Favoring moves such as Confuse Ray and Psychic, to her there is nothing more satisfying than watching an opponent destroy themselves and spare her the actual work. Some would say that she's evil, but she prefers to think of herself as 'pleasantly malicious'.

Zephram - Manectric (Male)

Ability: Static

Nature: Modest

Hidden Power: Dragon

Special Features: Has a metallic circuitry-patterned collar with a Dragon Fang attached to it.

History: As an Electrike, Zephram was drawn to the power output of the Valley Windworks. Being somewhat overconfident and fond of flaunting its abilities, the little canine often got into territory squabbles with local PokeMon - and soon enough, it found itself picking a fight with the wrong creature - a female Buizel who took the whole battling thing very seriously and did not approve of show-offs.

The battle between those two stretched out due to elaborate evasions and attacks and actually carried itself INTO the Valley Windworks - something which was naturally disruptive to the power plant's operation. At the time, Sinclair was there (probably studying the mechanics behind the turbines) - and decided to attempt to break the battle up to stop any further damage from occurring. So he sent two of his PokeMon out - one to deal with each - a divide-and-conquer strategy of sorts. This, however, soon led to an impromptu double battle - as the two attempted to redirect their new opponents against each other. Eventually, Sinclair's PokeMon were victorious, and the two - both the Buizel and the Electrike - were captured and became a part of the team. The rivalry between them carries on to this very day, although through many years of working together, it became much friendlier.

Personality: Zephram is, quite frankly, a flashy bastard. He LOVES being in the spotlight, and has a mild obsession with making his attacks elaborate and graceful and pretty. While this does not detract from his effectivity in combat, it draws him to the flashier world of PokeMon Contests - which Sinclair sometimes enters with Zephram as his lead, just for the hell of it.

Zephram's personal favorite setup involves powering up his Hidden Power, encasing himself in an aura of Draconic Energy, and interlacing it with electricity to form the illusion of an electric dragon forming around him, taking off the ground using Magnet Rise and 'flying' around, expelling bursts of Fire using his Flamethrower attack.

Elodea - Floatzel (Female)

Ability: Swift Swim

Nature: Adamant

Hidden Power: Unknown

Special Features: Has a Wide Lens set into a special module that attaches to her right eye, looking vaguely like a Dragon Ball Z-style Scouter.

History: Elodea used to live her life in relative solitude near and in the river that runs by the Valley Windworks - Swimming, meditating, chewing on Wacan Berries and the occasional Magikarp, and generally minding her own business. All that changed one morning when a brash, over-confident green-and-yellow dog thing marched into her territory and started prancing about and showing off what it can do with electricity. Not impressed with the creature interrupting her siesta, the Buizel took the Electrike's  challenge seriously, resulting in a long, drawn-out battle between the two. Through a chain of events that I'm NOT going to copypaste from Zephram's History, Elodea ended up captured. She wasn't particularily happy about the whole thing - but has gotten used to it pretty quickly when she realized that her trainer was more than content to leave her alone unless he required her assistance. (And the fact he gave her a way to focus her favored attack better helped quite a bit.)

Personality: At first glance, Elodea seems aloof and rather frustrated by the attitudes of some creatures around her - but she can still work with them effectively as a team. The truth is, that Elodea is simply what you'd call a no-nonsense warrior, engaging in combat with cold, calculating efficiency and caring little for otherwise interacting with others. Being a water-type, she enjoys swimming a great deal, often immersing herself in water as her own way of detaching from the world. She does have a soft side somewhere, but she prefers to keep it to herself.

Elodea has a curious rivalry with Zephram - as the two were caught on the same day and at the same area. With her no-nonsense attitude, she finds Zephram's flashy, intricate attacks to be 'a waste of time showing off' and finds his attitude rather distasteful. He, on the other hand, finds her short-and-to-the-point attacks to be 'brutal' and often taunts her about where her 'sense of beauty' may have gone off to. Ironically, they work very effectively as a team - though this may have more to do with the fact that they are constantly in an internal competition, always trying to one-up each other. This rivalry has gone on for so long by now that it formed a very powerful bond between the two (though, of course, neither of them will admit it!)

Elodea's personal favorite move is Aqua Tail - she often locks on using her Wide Lens before launching the attack in order to minimize the chances of it missing.

Celeste - Togekiss (Female)

Ability: Serene Grace

Nature: Timid

Hidden Power: Unknown

Special Features: Being an Orre Togepi, she knows Tri-Attack. She has small metallic rings with similar circuitry patterns on them on her 'ankles'.

History: As a Togepi in Orre, she was captured and turnedinto a Shadow PokeMon at a young age and purified later. She was extremely shy and her original trainer, though successful in purifying her, couldn't manage to bring her 'out of her shell', so to speak - and in despair, or frustration, or both, gave her away to a trainer whom he assumed could have a better chance of getting along with her.

This new trainer was Sinclair, who took the young Togepi in and cared for her well, giving her all the time and space she needed. Celeste warmed up to him gradually, eventually evolving into Togetic.

As a Togepi, she didn't feel the urge to get into battle mode. She watched the rest of the team do their battle training, but thought of it as some form of play and did not feel particularily inclined to do any battling on her own. However, upon evolution she started feeling like she wanted to do something on the team as well - so she started joining the battle training, mostly just to feel like she fits in.

This was an awkward period for the young Togetic, as she found her skills to be rather ineffectual in comparison to her teammates. Sinclair was very patient with her, even taking more time to train with her individually - but even in spite of that, Celeste couldn't help but feel weak and useless.

(Yeah. Traumatic past induced teenage angst.)

It was actually Seki and Dysnomia that pulled her out of it. One evening, at the end of one training session, Seki and Dysnomia approached the small flying-type and discussed her issues with her - making her consider just what is she -really- fighting for anyway. She mulled it over during the night, and ultimately made her decision - she wanted to get stronger - but not for the sake of fitting in, but for her -own- sake.
     
She expressed this want to Sinclair, and he got her a Shiny Stone and evolved her.

Personality: Though her second evolution gave her a large boost in power and confidence, Celeste is still, for the most part, a shy creature who prefers to keep to herself and the company of her immediate teammates and trainer. In quite the contrasting manner, though, she has a thirst of sorts to prove herself - and those two sides of her tend to clash at times.

It wasn't long at all before Jubilife was little more than an unhappy memory to the redhead. Now she was trudging through Route 203, which was not quite as unhappy and not quite as memorable, either.

It was an early morning - early enough for the route to be largely devoid of human life. The wild PokeMon seemed to generally ignore her. Suited her just fine. The less random encounters she had to face, the more energy she and Ki would have to tackle - if her experience with caverns was any indication - the mass amounts of Floating Rocks and Bats that would dive down from the ceiling with a deafening SKREE that she would indubitably run into.

Her green, arm-bladed companion paced silently by her side, content with the morning breeze. Soon, the land began to rise as the route began its climb up the great slopes of the Coronet Ridge. The closer she moved to the ridge, the more rugged the terrain became - until at length, she found herself face to face with a tunnel, An old, weathered sign with the word "Oreburgh Gate, Through to Oreburgh City." posted over its entrance.

"Well, guess we might as well get a move on." Erin murmured "Before nature changes its mind about being nice to me."

“Look at it, Miles! Isn’t it shiny? I never expected to get a brand new Poketch for free!” Dizzy giggled excitedly as he held his wrist up to the sky, the morning’s light reflecting off the metallic blue Poketch. He lowered it to check the time, gazing up and down the waking streets with a frown.  “We never did run into Soren again. I guess he went on without us. It’s not like we’d planned to stick together, but it might’ve been fun traveling with another person for a bit…”

He felt a few gentle pats against his leg then and looked down to find Miles smiling reassuringly at him. “Yeah… You’re right. We’ve still got each other - Snapple too! And who knows? Maybe we’ll run into someone else, or better yet - find a new Pokemon to catch!” Dizzy clenched his fists excitedly and gazed up at the bright blue sky. Just as they said - whoever ‘they’ were - today was the first day of the rest of his life! All he had to do was stock up on supplies, then it was goodbye Jubilife City and hello open road!

***

To the seasoned traveler route 203 might not have been anything fancy, but to someone like Dizzy it was filled with wonder and excitement. Every patch of tall grass or clump of trees gave the possibility of wild Pokemon lurking nearby.

“This is great, Miles. The air is clean, the sun is shining bright, the gentle breeze… It’s the perfect first full day of our journey! Now, there’s only one thing left that could make it better…” He shielded his eyes from the sun and gazed around their surroundings, searching for that one special thing to make the day complete… A rustle in the bushes suddenly caught the corner of his eye and he spun around to point and yell, “There!”

A bewildered Bidoof froze mid-bite on a fallen log and met the boy‘s gaze. You could swear one of its beady eyes gave a nervous twitch.

Miles quickly took his battle stance, but Dizzy abruptly laughed, “Nah! Let’s explore some more first. C’mon, Miles! Bye, random Bidoof!”

Dizzy waved and took off running down the route, leaving the Bidoof and a quizzical Buizel staring after him. Miles eyed the Bidoof and shrugged with a bemused “Bui…” before giving a wave of his own and hurrying off after his trainer.  

The boy was having the time of his life as they continued down the route, gawking excitedly at the various Pokemon along the way. Shinx, Abra, Kricketot - it was great fun to see! Numerous times did he skid to a stop and call Miles to battle… only to change his mind at the last second and skip off again on his merry way. He was oblivious to the slowly cracking Buizel silently plotting his untimely demise. But alas - this was Dizzy, and Miles could only sigh and shake his head. A lot.

That was until a maddening noise filled the air. “What the heck…?” Dizzy paused to stare up to skies, but he couldn’t see anything yet. He could only hear the sound of countless wings and the screeching of birds; of Starly, if he recalled correctly. The amount of voices involved however… It had to be a mass of at least one hundred, possibly more, and they sounded crazed.

Even Miles seemed astonished by the noise, taking a few steps past Dizzy to gaze off into the distance. He suddenly pointed towards the north-east and hopped eagerly on the spot, “Bui! Bui-bui!”

“That’s where the sound is coming from?”

Miles turned and cried excitedly, “Bui!”

“Gotcha. Lead the way, Miles! I gotta see what’s going on.”

Miles nodded and took off running, with Dizzy following shortly behind. A sane person would approach a situation like this with caution, but all Dizzy could do was grin like the fool he was.

[Name:]

Xyrem

Name: Aruru Ray Kaminski (Goes by “Xyrem”)

Gender:  Female

Hometown: Oreburgh City

Age: 18

Height: 5’1’’

Weight: Around 105. 110 if she’s eaten recently.

Hair: Dyed dark red, with purple streaks. Usually, the streaks only really show themselves in the sunlight. Otherwise, they blend too well with the rest of her hair. Length? Just above shoulder length. It’s kind of in a razored cut, and because of that will not behave no matter how many times she chooses to brush it. So she just gave up.

Eyes: Brown. Also, they don’t work too well. She’s nearsighted. Normally sticks with glasses, as contacts sometimes split. She does not like weird split things in her eye.

Facial Features: Xyrem's cheekbones aren't sunken, but they're not pronounced either. Her nose has an odd bump, which many assume occurred from an injury, when in fact it's genetic. It actually opens up her nasal cavity and allows her voice to have more reverberation. She still doesn't like it much. Her eyes are of normal size, but her eyebrows often anger her. Her jaw is rounded, but still takes on a more squared shape, something she completely detests about herself.

Skin Tone: Xyrem spends most of her time inside. What little time she spends outside is usually in the Underground. Therefore, she is very pale. She burns easily, but most of her burns will eventually turn into tans. She hates the pain that burns bring.

Clothing: She often wears a black tank top, although not many will see that. Over it, she wears a black, four-buttoned coat that is always closed. When it’s too hot, she pulls the sleeves up to her forearms. The only time she chooses to take it off is when she’s in the Underground, as she doesn’t want it to get dirty. She also wears black jeans (not too tight fitting, more loose actually), which are tucked in to her black combat boots. She hates the Summer.

Identifying Marks: A small scar running up her forearm, mostly healed. It was from when she decided to try running on concrete, tripped on a pebble, and skidded. On her arm. Lucky for her, it really only scraped away a few layers of skin rather than doing any major damage. Other than that? Perhaps the purple streaks, or maybe the jacket she wears, even when it’s hot out.

Musculature: Her arms are pretty scrawny, even though she regularly will venture down to the Underground so that she can dig up things to sell. Her legs are a different story, as she tends to walk around a lot, as well as do kick-training with her Blaziken, ‘Vadumee. Her mid-section is not toned, and this often makes her upset. Xyrem has an odd feature in which whatever fat she has migrates to the center of her body- her hands and feet are almost skeletal. Because of the spread of her weight, she is not able to float in water- a condition called "negative buoyancy". 

Personality Type: A

Social Outlook: Introverted

Blood Type: B+

Personality Summary: Highly intelligent, but harbors a deep distrust of humanity in general. She has always had a high level of paranoia as well. When she finally gets to the point where she trusts someone, though, she becomes highly loyal and dependable. There are even some people that she will fight to the death for. Once she is betrayed, she will never forget it.
 Xyrem considers all of life to be a learning experience, though, and will try and suck knowledge from any possible source. It is her belief that everyone in the world can teach her at least one thing that she didn’t previously know. However, if she has spent years studying something, she can and will show that knowledge at any opportunity. Most take this to be some form of arrogance. In reality, she’s only trying to teach people what she has learned. However, if someone pulls up new data, she will ask for proof. If she is given proof, not only will she internalize it, she will also feel deep shame at not knowing it. Most of the time, she’s a relatively silent person, feeling that she should not speak unless absolutely necessary. However, in the right atmosphere, she’s a natural comedian and leader.  Her nickname is one of the odder things about her. When she explains it, it’s always “X-Y like the axes, REM like the sleep”. (Some may note what Xyrem actually is- a pharmaceutical version of GHB). She will never say her real name. It’s not out of shame, it’s more the fact that she does not want to trust people with her real handle. If she decides to trust someone with her name, they are only allowed to use it in private, so that nobody else may garner the information. 
Because she's spent her life as a genius, she has a relatively negative view on most of humanity. While yes, she just wants to learn, she has a counter process that calls everyone around her stupid, because of the actions they choose. While she tries to push that down to the bottom of her personality, it often surfaces in bits of sarcasm or in white hot explosions. While an explosion of anger is insanely rare, as she often holds back her emotions, people around her have learned to avoid them. After an explosion, she gets extremely vulnerable and emotionally fragile for a good week or so. After that, her emotional spectrum goes back to baseline. She will avoid an explosion of emotion at any cost. Happiness is her one exception. She generally likes to show approval.
And, of course, while she often hides her disdain for all of humanity, it still exists. But, because of the supportive way she was raised, and because of the many good friends she has had over her lifetime, she will never harm another human being on purpose. In fact, she's trained in basic first aid, and uses it whenever necessary. The one exception is when someone is physically attempting to attack her. She will then attack with any anger that had been recently pent up.

Battle Style: Xyrem is a highly offensive battler. She relies on the Speed and Attack of her Pokemon, and has relatively weak defenses. More than even speed, she loves attack. She considers defensive moves a waste of her time, and likes moves that hit hard. Her strategies all revolve around her more powerful attacks.

Skills: She’s pretty damn logical, and considers that a skill. She’s not too bad at battling, either. And, of course, basic first aid. She can also do a mean suture.

Past: Xyrem came from a loving and supporting family. Neither of her parents were especially good at battling- her mother chose to spend her time as a freelance writer, and her father ran a small technology company while studying theoretical physics in his free time. There are memories that exist of long, complicated conversations about the start of the universe in Xyrem's mind. However, those are the main long conversations she remembers- if it wasn't about something big, her and her father wouldn't really talk much. As he once stated, when notified by Xyrem's mother that the two of them sucked at talking about anything smaller than the universe, "We are not as good as navigating the waters of conversation". When it came to social issues, she could always turn to her mother, who was loving, kind, and witty. However, due to her relatively cold logical perspective, she ended up respecting her father's opinions more than her mother's. Many said that, when it came to personality, she was her father's clone. She was born in Oreburgh, and moved to Jubilife for a short time while her father worked on his company. He sold the company when Xyrem was 15, and the family moved back to Oreburgh. Her parents live in a small house on the edge of the city, while Xyrem, at the age of 18, moved to an apartment closer to the city center. She still shares a close relationship with her parents. 

Family: Mother (Jamie Kaminsky), Father (Michael Kaminsky)

Love Relationships?: She doesn’t like to trust people far enough to love them. She also hates feeling vulnerable in any way. However, she harbors a slight crush on Oreburgh Gym Leader Roark, although she refuses to admit it out loud.

Pokémon:

Blaziken (‘VADUMEE) –Male-

Ability: Blaze
Nature: Naughty
Hidden Power: Rock
Special Features<Physical>: Nothing out of the ordinary
Special Features <Other>: Likes to meditate. Hates to lose.
History: Xyrem has raised ‘Vadumee since he was a Torchic. Actually, back in those days, she used to hug him a lot, as he was glowing with warmth and fluffy. Because of her gentle care, they have a close relationship. When he evolved into a Combusken, she taught him how to meditate. It was her wish to have a Pokemon that could not only defend, but also be in tune with the world. After that, she began working on kicks with him. Today, they still train together.
Personality: Very calm in even the worst situations, as he meditates every morning. Every day, he will train with Xyrem in order to strengthen his fighting attacks. Of course, he can far outfight her, but often won’t choose to during normal training. He is insanely protective of Xyrem, and will fight anyone or anything that gets in her way. When Xyrem gets tired of walking, ‘Vadumee allows her to ride on his shoulders. 'Vadumee acts as an impromptu "leader" of Xyrem's team. Each of the Pokemon look up to him for advice in battle and in life. It's their general opinion that 'Vadumee is wise, from his many experiences.

Rampardos (ERIS) –Female-

Ability: Mold Breaker
Nature: Timid
Hidden Power: Flying
Special Features (Physical): Has a slightly higher vocal call due to her gender.
Special Features (Other): After a day of training, she likes to sleep. She curls into a ball when she does so. Often dozes off.
History: Eris was revived from a Skull Fossil that Xyrem had dug up Underground one day. As a Cranidos, Eris was often allowed out of her Pokeball to hang out with Descartes, who acts as her older brother. When she evolved, Xyrem bestowed her nickname upon her. Even when she surpassed Descartes in power, she still remained the baby of the team.
Personality: Ever since she was first brought into the world, she’s been protected by both Xyrem and Descartes. As a result, she’s childish. She also loves head butting fruit-bearing trees to get what is hanging upon their branches. She will share what she obtains with any nearby Pokemon. If she is angered, however, she will stop at nothing to make whatever upset her pay. Because of her childish nature, she is quite stubborn at times. She shows her affection- whether it be familial or otherwise- by head butting. Xyrem and her team learned this the hard way.

Rampardos (DESCARTES) –Male-

Ability: Mold Breaker
Nature: Mild
Hidden Power: Dark
Special Features (Physical): Xyrem randomly placed a collar around his neck. Attached to it is a small tag with "DESCARTES" engraved on it. No one knows why she chose to make or attach the collar. Hell, not even she knows.
Special Features (Other): Is insanely aggressive towards most. Likes to fight.
History: Descartes was the first fossil Pokemon that Xyrem got revived. He was always considered tough, so Xyrem raised him as such. However, she was careful never to be too cruel, and often fed him Poffins when a training day went well. She nicknamed him when he was still a young Cranidos, because she thought that having a Pokemon named after one of the great thinkers that did nothing more than bash its head into things was ironically hilarious.
Personality: Descartes is insanely protective over Eris, who he sees as a little sister. Anything that he sees as threatening to her will get one hell of a head butt. He will not, however, attack any of the other Pokemon on Xyrem’s team.

Rotom (RAMIEL)

Ability: Levitate
Nature: Lax
Hidden Power: Fire
Special Features (Physical): Almost always grinning. Widely.
Special Features (Other): Likes to joke around, enjoys scaring random passerby. Strong willed.
History: Xyrem has never been one to explore haunted houses. However, she decided to run on in to the Old Chateau one night, and found a TV that she wanted to watch. When she hit the “Channel Up” button, Rotom popped itself out of the TV, hoping to scare her. Well, for one, it worked. Not quite as the plasma Pokemon intended, though, as in her scared state, she pulled out something to throw at the source of her fear. By chance alone, she pulled out an Ultra Ball. After that, Rotom was hers.
Personality: Ramiel loves to play pranks on random people. It hides in any available appliances, its favorite being the fridge- it likes to pretend to nom on people’s food when they go to store something. It really only likes to look out for itself, but will rush to the aid of any of Xyrem’s team if needed. If it is defeated, it will work as hard as it possibly can to not only get stronger, but also find what it lost to and kick its arse. It does not back away from a challenge- whether it be winning a battle, or getting someone who's really down to smile.

Aerodactyl (PROMETHEUS) –Male-

Ability: Pressure
Nature: Timid
Hidden Power: Ground
Special Features (Physical): Xyrem sometimes files his large fangs into points. So, he looks slightly angrier and more malevolent than most Aerodactyl.
Special Features (Other): He secretly wants to be pretty. Often lost in thought.
History: After getting Prometheus restored, Xyrem taught him Fly. She enjoys the odd looks she gets when she lands in a city on her Aerodactyl. She doesn’t train him nearly as much as she does the Rampardos pair or her Blaziken, but they still share a close relationship nonetheless.
Personality: Most of the time, Prometheus is angry. Not at anyone or anything in particular, just in general. He doesn’t like to be bothered in most circumstances. The only thing he does gladly is fly- he likes to be free, even if it’s for long journeys across Sinnoh. When he is free, his mind will drift to the life he has lived ever since he was revived- the times he's shared with Xyrem, the battles he's participated in, the foes he's defeated. There have even been times when he almost ran into buildings, much to Xyrem's surprise.

Porygon-Z (ANONYMOUS)

Ability: Download
Nature: Lax
Hidden Power: Flying
Special Features (Physical): Most of the time, Xyrem attaches “Rave-Goggles” to the top of its head.
Special Features (Other): When it goes through one of its many “Spaz” phases, it will peck at random passerby and squee. Also is alert to sounds.
History: Xyrem received a Porygon as a present from a friend when she was only 14. From the second they met, their quirky personalities bonded. While Anonymous is nowhere near as powerful as the rest of the team, she’ll always keep it with her. As it evolved, she only loved it more.
Personality: Quirky. Insanely quirky. The latest upgrade really screwed up its neural processing area. Most of the time, it silently floats along by Xyrem’s head. However, there are times when it will completely spaz out and go crazy. Xyrem finds it hilarious, especially when it begins to squee at high volumes. The first time it happened, she was worried that it was hurt. However, after she brought the squee-ing Pokemon to the nearest center, she was told that it was just a normal spaz, and that it caused no physiological damage. Now she lets it out when it gets crazy, and laughs at the ensuing shenanigans.

This is for an RP that I will be starting with Katsuo soon :3

Dai


Name: Daiana; Goes by Dai

Gender: Female

Hometown: Snowpoint.

Age:  17

Height: 5’ 6”

Weight:  130lbs

Hair: Dirty blonde, short cut, sticks out in the back.

Eyes: Bluish Green.

Facials Features: Dai has full lips and slightly chubby cheeks which are permanently tinted pink from growing up in Snowpoint. Her eyes are large, but her eyelashes are not as long as she would like them to be. Her nose is slightly upturned and her skin tone varies, but is generally pale, with yellow undertones. When she tans, she burns first, then tans.

Clothing: A slate gray mini-shirt with dark red collar, cut bellow bust, with a lock with orange resinattached to the turtle neck collar. Under it a dark red tank top. Pants have red zippers at mid-thigh. Above the zipper the cloth is slate gray, and below the cloth is light gray. She wears gloves that come up to her elbows, and have slate-gray colored belts over the forearm. They’re cut off 6in above the sole of her boots. Her boots are a light-gray color with a dark gray sole. They are tied with 3 dark grey belts.

Identifying marks: She has a scar located on her right nostril, and a 3in vertical scar that goes from the base of her right knee, to the base of her knee cap. The knee scar is from an operation she underwent at age 13, and she still has a numb spot on the outside of the right knee.

Musculature: Athletic build, she has a lot of strength in her arms and thighs. Fat tends to build on thighs and breasts.

Personality: Dai is extroverted to the point that she’ll randomly engage people in conversation. However, when she does this, her Weavile, Sniper, is often stealing the unfortunate stranger’s money. She enjoys pulling pranks and causing mischief in general. Dai is shortsighted and flighty. She never focuses on anything for very long. Slightly self-centered, she rarely does anything for anyone other than herself or her Pokémon.  She speaks her mind, and is what she calls “painfully honest.” Others see this as just being mean. She rarely respects anyone, and rarely trusts anyone implicitly. Resourceful and witty, Dai can con even the savviest person out of their Pokés.

Skills: Pick-pocketing, scamming, thievery.

Trainer Type: Battle/Balanced

Past: She lived her youth in makeshift shelters in Snowpoint City, thieving, and pilfering anything she and her brother could find. Here she met Sniper the Sneasel. Because of their similar personalities and general disregard for others, the two hit it off.  She and Sneasel fought over their plunder, and during a particularly bad fight, Sneasel used a scratch attack and cut Dai’s face. This is where the scar on her nostril came from. Luckily most of the rest of the scar faded. Later she and her brother were put into a foster program. While trying to escape her foster home, Dai suffered a bad fall from the third floor room she lived in and badly damaged the growth plate in her right knee. This injury required surgery in order to remove a bone that stuck out. This forced her escape to be postponed for a year. By this point Dai’s Pokémon team consisted of her befriended Sneasel, and a Shinx nicknamed Raiu. After a full recovery, during which Sniper performed several clandestine errands steal objects to entertain a bed-ridden Dai as well as information on her brother who had been sent to a separate foster home, Dai managed to run away from her foster home, and reunited with her brother. Her brother had since become a Pokémon trainer, though he was two years younger, and this upset Dai who wanted to continue living as a street rat. However, Dai decided she would beat her brother at his own game and began training. After several years she accrued several strong Pokémon and spends her time cheating people out of their money and items. She has been pursued by Team recruiters but refused them mostly because she dislikes the dynamics of organized crime, but also because they never made sense to her.

Family: Father, Leon, is not aware of his children, Mother, Marie, is believed to be in a hospital. Younger Brother, Felix, is an accomplished trainer, and is much more mature for his age than his older sister. He is generally kind and believes in doing what’s right. Even though Dai finds her goody-two-shoes brother annoying, she loves him, and they get along well.

Love/Relationships: She’s never been in love, and has never had a real relationship. She doesn’t believe she’ll find love, but enjoys physical contact. She doesn’t like feeling vulnerable so she makes it a point not to get emotionally close with anyone but her Pokémon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Species: Weavile

Nickname: Sniper

Gender: Male

Ability: Pressure

Nature: Serious; Hates to lose

Hidden Power: Ground

Special Features:Wears the original copy of the key that unlocks the padlock of Dai’s shirt. The key is painted orange.

History: Grew up with Dai, he spent his life helping and thieving Dai, but will secretly forever regret and strive to atone for attacking Dai when they were children

Personality: He is strong and knows it. Sniper likes to flaunt his power and lords it over other Pokémon. He is incredibly intelligent, but his ego often prevents him from seeing the full picture. If anyone ever wants to get on his good side they have to earn his respect or stroke his ego. Injuring his ego results in a fight or being ignored until further notice.

 Species: Empoleon

Nickname: Bebe (Beh-beh)

Gender: Female

Ability: Torrent

Nature: Careful; impetuous and silly

Hidden Power: Psychic

Special Features: Wears a copy of the key to Dai’s padlock.

History: Befriended Dai out of curiosity as a Piplup. This Pokémon grew up doing its best to
protect Dai, and thus became Dai’s emotional pillow, so to speak. Bebe is one of the only creatures to see Dai’s tender side.

Personality: Bebe is firm and does her best to keep Sniper in check. Impassive, she rarely shows emotion; however, she is completely devoted to Dai. She loves Dai and protects her to the point of being annoying. She finds Sniper annoying and gets jealous of Sniper’s and Dai’s shared past, however she never shows it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Species: Lopunny

Nickname: Poni

Gender: Female

Ability: Run Away

Nature: Quirky; loves to eat.

Hidden Power: Ice

Special Features: Wears a copy of the key to Dai’s padlock.

History: Dai, despite being rough around the edges, adores cute things, so when she met Poni as a Buneary she had to catch it. Sniper was always cruel to Poni because of the attention Dai gave her. Poni befriended Bebe quickly as Bebe often had to protect Poni from Sniper.

Personality: Completely the opposite of Sniper, Poni is sweet and gentle. She loves taking care of small creatures and cuddling up with others. She is extraverted and beguiling. Dai often uses her as a distraction or to lure people into scams and traps. Poni fell in love with Raiu when she met him as a Shinx. She had to work hard to get past Raiu’s aloofness, and reach him. Poni devotes herself to pleasing Raiu, and is very loving.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Species: Luxray

Nickname: Raiu

Gender: Male

Ability: Rivalry

Nature: Naughty; Impetuous and Silly

Hidden Power: Water

Special Features: Wears a copy of the key to Dai’s padlock.

History: Raiu the second Pokémon Dai ever befriended. He spent most of his days as a Shinx cuddled up with Dai as she recovered from surgery. He typically ignored Sniper, mostly because he didn’t approve of Sniper’s thievery, but at the same time he accepted that it was a sort of necessity. Since he gets along with Sniper well enough that they don’t fight, however, when Sniper bothers Poni, Raiu has been known to take a couple swipes at him. Even though Poni had to work hard for Raiu’s affection, Raiu had had feelings for Poni for awhile. He only worked up the courage to court her when he evolved into a Luxio. After evolving he courted Poni, and they’ve been together ever since. He adores everything about her and treats her as gently as if she were a flower.

Personality: Aloof and distant, Raiu mostly spends his time thinking and enjoying Poni’s company. He has a tough outer shell that makes him seem cold; however he is tender and sweet on the inside. Raiu hides this fact and shows it only to Poni out of embarrassment, and to avoid Sniper’s cruelty.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Species: Ninetails

Nickname: Pixy

Gender: Female

Nature: Timid; loves to eat

Ability: Flash Fire

Hidden Power: Fighting

Special Features: Wears a copy of the key to Dai’s padlock.

History: Pixy originally belonged to another trainer before being traded for a Dai’s Yanma and Tangela. Dai originally wanted Pixy so as to try the Contest circuit. At first, Dai and Pixy did not get along in the slightest, but after several years of training they warmed up to each other. Pixy doesn’t get along with Bebe or Poni, for she finds them boring and childish. She enjoys watching Sniper’s antics and conversing with Raiu.

Personality: Pixy is arrogant, but powerful. She is shallow and dislikes anything remotely childish or deep.  Pixy prefers to keep things superficial, because after being traded she doesn’t want to develop bonds so it won’t hurt so much if she is traded away.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Species:   Sableye

Nickname: Sable

Gender: Female


Ability: Keen Eye

Nature: Hardy; Good Perseverance

Hidden Power: Grass

Special Features: Wears a copy of the key to Dai’s padlock.

History: Traded along with Pixy, Sable found the change in scenery as an opportunity to find more rare and precious jewels.  Sable loves to bother Pixy, whom she has been friends with for years, and met Sniper as a Weavile. She immediately saw him as an opponent and challenged him to a battle. She eventually lost to Sniper, and fell in love with his strength and lack of mercy. She courted Sniper in several less than conventional ways including thievery, scheming, and a general lack of respect for anyone. She and Sniper are now together, but their relationship is anything but happy and loving. They show affection for each other in their own ways but mostly insult each other.

Personality: Though she never participates in anything serious, Sable loves to pull pranks. All she does is pull pranks. She is silly and enjoys joking around. She is generally cheerful and has a dark sense of humor. She revels in other peoples misfortunes, which is one of Sniper’s favorite traits. Even though it often seems like she dislikes Sniper, she really does love him. Sable has a very difficult time with anything complex emotionally or intellectual. She doesn’t know much about true emotion.

Archer

Name: Archer Gray
Gender:  Male
Hometown: Resort Area, Battle Frontier, Sinnoh
Age: 18
Height: 6’1”
Hair: Very dark, exact color is yet to be determined because it changes with the lighting
Eyes:  Clear, watery grey that always look like someone liquefied them and dropped something in them to make them ripple in the light.
Clothing: Varies, usually a clean or embroidered white button-down shirt, sleeves rolled up and such and dark denim jeans. Always neat.
Musculature: Well-built, healthy musculature with good definition and excellent posture
Personality: Kind, Genuine, Honest, with a sharp underlying intelligence- however, he is shy and slightly introverted. Has a tendency to blush like a tomato, especially in the presence of the fairer sex.
Skills: Strategic genius of sorts, very quick to adapt with impeccable observational skills. During a battle, prefers to utilize sign language as a means of communication. A talented cook on the side, he has a weakness for most spicy foods despite his intense dislike of curry, as he finds coconut milk repulsive. Also has a hidden talent for dancing he would never reveal to anyone eveerrrrrrrrrr.
Past: Honestly, a less-than-fascinating past, more interesting ancestry. The past few generations of his family served as Battle Castle Valets to the previous head- Lady Caitlin’s predecessors. However, when it came to the next youth to take charge of the young Lady Caitlin, Archer’s older brother Russell was too young to accept the position, and his father too old according to the statutes set into place. As a result, the position was given to the second family in line, and is currently occupied by Darach. Archer’s personal history is limited to the grooming and education he received as a youth as he was shaped into the respectful young gentleman he is today. As a child, spent most of his time in the castle observing his father battling challengers. When he wasn’t in school or socializing with the other children his age, he and Russell would be attending specialized tutoring lessons given to them by his father. Russell soon discovered he was more adept at calculations and left the “business” to attend an engineering school, passing what was left of the legacy of sorts onto the second-born, young Archer. The younger boy didn’t seem to mind, as he showed a more natural talent and aptitude for the battling scene through his flexibility and room for growth. To expand upon this, he moved through the tiers of the Battle tower before taking to the mainland and beginning the process of badge-collection at seventeen years of age. As of now, he possesses six of the eight Sinnoh badges.
Family: Father, Mother, and older brother Russell.
Love Relationships?: Nooooope.

Pokémon:

Quey
Female Vaporeon
Calm Natured

Quey is quite the force to be reckoned with, and, though he’d never admit it out loud in front of the rest of his team, the pokemon closest to Archer. Always relaxed and level-headed, she’s very observant and supportive of her trainer and has been with him for several years. Evolved when Archer received a Water Stone as a birthday gift upon turning 13.

Bennett
Female Breloom
Brave Natured

Bennett is one of the younger members of Archer’s team, and lacks the level-headedness of most of her teammates. Brash and impulsive, it’s a surprise that she manages to coordinate herself so well in battle, acting with surprising response and alertness to Archer’s silent commands. Though strong-willed and independent (or so she’d like to think), she is very attached to her trainer and thinks the world of him, always making certain to braid a daisy-chain headdress for him before making one for herself.

Dallas
Male Electivire
Adamant Nature

Dallas is what we might picture to be a typical cowboy, only in pokemon form. Having been significantly more mild as an Electabuzz, the transformation from the thick-skinned second-stage evolution to the arrogant, rough and reckless seems to have piled more upon his trainer than poor Archer knows how to deal with. Though they butt heads on occasion, many of their conflicts are solved by recalling him into his pokeball so his trainer can get a moments peace.

Lucy
Female Togeplane
Calm Natured

Lucy is a surprisingly diverse battler, and one of the stronger members of the team. A real powerhouse, she is surprisingly laid-back outside of battles and is Archer’s primary means of transportation between cities. When not focused or alert, she has a very aloof personality and is very affectionate and child-like.

Tsume
Shiny Male Garchomp
Adamant Natured

Tsume is Archer’s starter pokemon, having been a birthday present to the youth when he turned eight. Though it was against regulations to let a child become a trainer before the age of ten, the tiny Gible was a priceless asset that Archer took a shine to. Literally. It didn’t become obvious that Tsume was a Shiny until his scales developed a more noticeable luster after he evolved the first time, and even then it was hard to tell until he stood beside a second Gabite. Shocked at either his luck or the generosity of his parents, Archer babied the laaaaandshark until he evolved a second time, where he then developed a thick skin and hard-headedness that would be expected of a stronger battler. Despite this, he will still curl up beside his trainer at night like he did when he was smaller and easier to cuddle.

Laur
Male Aggron
Adamant Natured

Laur and Archer are less the affectionate biffle-relationship type than they respect each other and cooperate. Laur has an underlying aggression he occasionally needs to let out, and Archer admires him in a weird sort of “Hey you’re a cool dude” kind of way. They get along pretty swell, so they work together well and all that.