Main RP: Mount Deckbi

Team RP — K'sariya Yeboah & Antonio — Battle Post #2

The two Digletts, their indecision apparently resolved, turned back to face their opponents across the cracked ground of the Mt. Deckbi foothills. As one, the two mole Pokémon started to visibly shake with effort: in front of them, glowing golden cracks began to spiderweb through the parched earth, the miniature fissures racing swiftly toward Invictus and Valentine.

Despite their skill, the two seasoned fighters weren't quick enough to predict or evade the lightning-fast Earth Power attack. A flood of reddish-gold power, like a mixture of sunlight and flames, burst forth from a set of large and jagged cracks that appeared in the ground surrounding the Aggron and the Poliwrath!

Valentine seemed minimally bothered by the attack, his rubbery, water-covered skin mostly warding off the dry heat of the Ground-type move. Invictus, though, roared in pain as the Earth Power, its force moving almost like a living thing, dug at the chinks in her steel armour and opened a hundred tiny wounds in her stony skin.

The two Pokémon had their orders, though. Countering the blasting torrent of the Earth Power attack, Valentine poured forth a flood of water, a veritable Waterfall of it, that disappeared into the hole Diglett had left near him when it had tried to attack...

...but instead of filling the tiny hole up, the water simply disappeared underground. In disbelief that his Waterfall of water was somehow not enough, Valentine redoubled his efforts, pouring more and more water into the little hole in the ground, willing the stupid tunnel to flood already! It seemed, though, like the incredible volumes of water were having absolutely no effect.

Meanwhile, Invictus shook off her momentary disorientation from the Earth Power attack as its force petered out, and proceeded with her Autotomization. Stony skin flexed and limbered; steel dropped away, including a heavy ring of twisted armour that was the source of much of her leg's discomfort. She could move properly again: with a bit of pain, since her muscles were still sore from the twisted leg, but not more than she could manage.

The two Digletts had taken this opportunity to disappear down their holes; but now, seeing that the coast was clear— neither of their opponents had even attacked!— they popped up side by side in a new location and began preparing for another Earth Power attack: again with one aiming the move at Invictus, and the other aiming at Valentine. They both began to vibrate again...

...and then a burst of water flew out of the tunnels the bases of their bodies were hidden in, and one of the two lost consciousness as the unexpected torrent smacked them both hard in the face.

What had clearly happened, the Trainers and Pokémon present could now see, was that the Digletts weren't simply digging straight tunnels: the tunnels they'd been popping out of were part of an entire shallow underground network... and Valentine was completely flooding that network!

The disoriented, suddenly-alone second Diglett sputtered as water continued to fly out of its tunnel and into its face; but it couldn't abort its Earth Power attack now! Instead of sending a torrent of golden-red light through the earth, though, the move was altered by all the water filling the underground tunnels between Diglett and Valentine. There was a brief pause during which Diglett stopped vibrating and nothing appeared to happen; then a blast of mud flew straight up from the ground in front of Valentine and smacked him in the face. It smarted a little, and got in his eyes, but didn't stop him pouring even more water into the ground.

Amidst all of this chaos, the newly swift Invictus had already made her move. As K'sariya had told her, she slammed an ice-covered fist into the hole the now-unconscious diglett had left near her feet. In the exact moment she did so, though, water began to fountain out of the hole. It splashed her briefly in the face— painfully so given all the little cracks in her rocky skin from the Earth Power— before her blow landed and froze the entire fountain solid.

The fountain wasn't the only thing that froze. The odd, laws-of-physics-breaking power of the Ice Punch coursed through the underground tunnels— now underground waterways— and froze every last drop solid in seconds. The remaining conscious Diglett, and its insensate compatriot, were instantly encased in ice-crystal-covered, frozen mud right up to their big red noses.

The remaining Diglett started to shiver; sneezed once; and then blacked out.

Encounter Over!

Diglett 1: 0.00% [FNT] [FRZ] (Used Earth Power; fainted before another move could be used)
Diglett 2: 0.00% [FNT] [FRZ] (Used Earth Power; Mud Bomb)
Invictus: 19.47% [SPE+2] (used Autotomize which also cured the temporary Paralysis; then Ice Punch)
Valentine: 85.15% (used Waterfall, twice!)

~~~~

Tella picked her way across the soaked, icy ground— two adjectives she'd never had reason to apply to the normally parched, baked earth of Mt. Deckbi's environs— to check on the two little moles. After a moment of inspecting them, she determined that they would be all right and could be left to thaw at their own pace.

"We'll continue now," she said simply.

Not far ahead, the foothills began to grow steeper: the rolling landscape was turning quickly into a mess of steep rocky crags and cliffsides of loose earth.

The two Trainers would have to determine for themselves a safe way up the steep slopes: it wasn't quite like climbing a sheer cliff— switchbacks were scattered here and there that could take someone up the mountainside at a slow pace without having to do more than hike— but even in those, the footing was treacherous... and the drop-off, should one slip, would vary from a few metres to a few hundred.

How would these two go about keeping themselves safe, Tella wondered? She would let them take the lead from here, and would hang back below them to respond if need be; but the limits of her duty were clear. As a Park Ranger, she was only to keep them safe, not solve their problems for them or prevent them from taking risks.

~~Park Run Statistics~~

• Trainer Names:
  K'sariya Yeboah
  Antonio
  
  
• Location: Mt. Deckbi
  
  
• Remaining Encounters: 14
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainers (since last encounter):
  K'sariya: 0
  Antonio: 0
  
  
• Active Effects: Incoming Sandstorm
  
  
• K'sariya's Pokémon Stats:
  Invictus the Aggron
  HP: 19.47%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Rock Head
  Nature: Brave
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM26 Earthquake, BM Head Smash, TM Substitute, BM Magnet Rise, MT Ice Punch, TM Aerial Ace, TM Sandstorm, TM Shadow Claw
  
  Raigho the Hydreigon
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Levitate
  Nature: Hasty
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM100 Flamethrower, TM31 Dark Pulse
  
  Alixra the Venusaur
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Chlorophyll
  Nature: Calm
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Substitute, TM Sunny Day, SM Ancient Power, BM Ingrain, TM Hidden Power (Flying), TM Psych Up, TM Earthquake, TM Sludge Bomb
  
  Mimulnir the Noivern
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Infiltrator
  Nature: Jolly
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Shadow Ball, TM Flamethrower, TM Psychic, TM Substitute, BM Draco Meteor
  
  
• Antonio's Pokémon Stats:
  Kazoo the Electivire
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Motor Drive
  Nature: Calm
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM: Ice Punch, Flamethrower, Confide
  
  Nully the Silvally
  HP: 100%
  Gender: N/A
  Ability: RKS System
  Nature: Calm
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM: Flamethrower
  
  Valentine the Poliwrath
  HP: 85.15%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Damp
  Nature: Gentle
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM: Defense Curl, Ice Punch, Poison Jab; BM: Growth; HM: Surf, Whirlpool, Waterfall
  
  Conkeldurr
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Iron Fist
  Nature: Bold
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: BM: Mach Punch, Drain Punch; MT: Ice Punch, Knock Off, Thunder Punch
  
  
• Total Items:
  K'sariya:
  • Park Balls (x 7)
  • Super Balls (x 4)
  • Hyper Balls (x 2)
  • Energy Powder (x 2)
  • Energy Powder Plus (x 2)
  • Lava Cookie (x 2)
  • Poké Doll (x 2)
  • Honey (x 1)
  • Digital Camera
  • Apricorn Box
  Antonio:
  • Park Balls (x 2)
  • Super Balls (x 4)
  • Hyper Balls (x 2)
  • Energy Powder (x 1)
  • Lava Cookie (x 1)
  • Poké Doll (x 1)
  • Digital Camera
  
  
• Total Captured Pokémon:
  K'sariya:
  None yet!
  Antonio:
  None yet!

 

The massive blow to the Diglett's head didn't seem to have stunned it at all. K'sariya looks on with immense dismay as the Earth Power races toward her beloved companion, helpless to stop it. She stumbles back away from the violent explosion of earth and fights back the lead in her heart at Invictus' cry. The Steel titan carries through, however--her form lightens, though by then it is too late to matter too much.

Duo Digletts begin to pair up for another attack and K'sariya gives a shout of warning to her battling friend. The sound is lost, however, in the sudden rumbling of the earth. Head whips over to see the bulky Poliwhirl doing exactly as she had anticipated, pumping gallons upon gallons of water into the tunnels. Suddenly, it explodes, blasting their opponents and, unfortunately, Invictus.

Nails dig into her palms with frustration as she watches her girl freeze the spout before it can further damage her. The Aggron stumbles backward, rocky flesh scored too many places to even begin to count. The dark-skinned woman looks for their adversaries with heart beating rapidly. Relief flushes through her as she sees them frozen by their combined efforts. As soon as she sees that the moles have been defeated, she rushes forward.

Invictus gives a soft croon of reassurance as her frizzy-haired Trainer frets over her wounds. She manages to suppress the panic from showing too much on her features but the slight shake of her hand is still there as digits hover above the raw rock. Great skull leans metal horns against the side of her arm comfortingly. K'sariya sees the darkness of pain swirling in brilliant blue eyes and yet there is still something there that tells her things are alright, despite the signs that they aren't.

She reaches up and clasps her hand about Invictus' left horn, tugging the creature's armored head into a fierce hug before free hand reaches back for the ball. A flicker of red drags her girl back to safety, back to rest. K'sariya secures the orb back on her belt.

Tella calls out then, beckoning them to move forward. Gaze trawls slowly up the steep slope of the mountain with a strange mix of reverence--and respect. Her time on Oktori forced a great deal of caution into her when it came to towering peaks. She suppresses a shiver at the thought. Palm hovers indecisively over one ball, then another. Alixra would be too large to manage up the treacherous path, even with the help of vines. Fingers move to hover over the next. While she trusted Raigho, the hasty creature was easily-distracted.

Finally, she takes the container of her last companion into her grip. Finger quickly taps the rounded white button to release him from his resting place.

Crimson light flashes into a figure about a foot and a half shorter than Invictus had been, a massive creature for its species. Illumination fades to reveal a shadowed creature, a pitch dragon with membranes a brilliant, almost beautiful, shimmering teal. A deep violet edges the topside of dark wings, a color that matches his dusky underside. The vampire-fanged beast gives a massive yawn. Its red, pronged nose twitches as he instantly sucks in the scent of the mountain. Amber eyes flash open and he gives a chirrup of interest. Blood-hued wing claws scrabble on the ground as he looks from side to side. The intimidating bat's sonic ears give a quick flash as curiosity ripples through him.

He shakes pale mane. Yellow orbs finally fall upon K'sariya and it gives a happy, high-pitched squeal and bounds forward at her, tackling her to the ground. Unfortunately, the Trainer does not have the superhuman strength to resist him, unlike Tella. Salmon tongue rasps across her face repeatedly, textured surface like sandpaper on her skin.

"Hey, hey!" she scolds the Jolly creature harshly as she plants palms into his chest and forces him off of her. He scurries back and looks at her with cocked skull and a chirp, much like a dog that has been told to stay. K'sariya hauls herself back to her feet and brushes herself off.

"Okay, Mim," she says sternly, carefully, stepping forward to give the Noivern a scratch behind one of his massive ears. Her voice drops to a murmur to soothe him. "We're gonna climb. Watch us, make sure we don't fall. Focus." The creature gives a happy titter and a nod. She gives him a final pat on the cheek and then heads after Tella to follow.

Mimulnir would likely be just as easily-distracted as Raigho but at the very least, the bat had a ridiculous maternal instinct, more as a male of his species than K'sariya would probably ever have in her life. If there was one Pokemon other than Invictus who would think of her first before anything else, it was her nesting Noivern. She hadn't flown on Mimulnir before and wasn't going to risk it when there were deathly drops involved.

She pulls up her scarf more firmly and pulls up her windbreaker's hood. The woman can nearly taste the sand on the wind already. Gaze turns back to Antonio. She does not bother to offer an explanation to why she doesn't just board the dragon, merely queries: "Ready?"​

 

Antonio looked in awe at the Diglett, “frozen” in time. He high fives Valentine and was knocked back because of its sheer strength. As he looked back, K’sariya had already started climbing up the big mountain, and Tella was looking at Antonio waiting for him to start the climb.

Antonio returned all his Pokémon except Electivire back to his bag.


“Electivire,” Antonio ordered, “Take me away!”


Electivire snatched Antonio up with his tentacles, and fastened him onto his fluffy back. He then started climbing, creating finger holes in the small ledges. With each step the air got thinner and thinner. It started seeming like a good time for a nap, so that’s what Antonio did. He rolled around to find a good spot and fainted…

 

Team RP — K'sariya Yeboah & Antonio — Non-Battle Post #5

Tella watched the two Trainers begin to climb: one was climbing under her own power, with her Noivern watching carefully in case she should fall; the other promptly curled up on the back of his powerful Electivire and, to all appearances, went to sleep. Unbelievable...

After several minutes, once it became clear that the climbers were well taken care of— Mimulnir flapping restlessly every once in a while but keeping his eyes and oversized ears trained carefully on his beloved Trainer, and Kazoo huffing and puffing along as the effort of hauling his own not inconsiderable bulk plus an extra bit of weight began to take its toll— Tella started up the steep slope herself, her hands finding purchase on the rough face without much difficulty and her fingers digging into the solid rock wherever handholds were scarce.

The still-approaching sound of the storm far above was growing stronger as another five or six minutes of climbing passed, and every once in a while, heavier drifts of ash and sand fell across the climbers. The storm was not here yet, but it was coming. It was during one of these heavier drifts of ash, which cloaked everything and made the whole world indistinct, that K'sariya found herself reaching over the edge of a wide, flat ledge for a handhold and grasping a rock that didn't react the way a rock should (which is to say, it reacted in the first place.) In fact, as she grabbed it, the "rock" shook itself violently— nearly throwing her off the cliff— and its owner uncurled into a shape that couldn't be determined for sure in the terrible visibility.

"Dunnnnn-spa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-rce!" hissed the indistinct shape, identifying itself, by sound at least, as a Dunsparce. The large snake Pokémon, at least two metres long and almost a metre and a half tall even lying down, uncoiled in response to K'sariya's grabbing the drill-shaped rattle on its tail, filling almost the entire ledge with its bulk and leaving K'sariya stranded and clinging precariously to the rock face below the ledge.

Kazoo turned to look for the source of the odd sounds— when he'd last checked, K'sariya had been climbing along the rocks about six metres to his right, almost invisible to him amidst the ash— and stopped paying attention to where he was putting his hands. One of the Electivire's huge palms came to rest in a crevice where sat a bird's nest, and his middle finger knocked the nest over. Immediately, the nest's denizens took to the air in startled flight!

Of the three little birds Kazoo had disturbed, one took severe umbrage at the intrusion. This giant lout had ruined his family's home! With a twittering "Fletch fletch, fletch!!" the young Pokémon circled around to dive at Kazoo, spitting a stream of (mercifully incomprehensible) invective.

Current Encounter: Dunsparce and Fletchling

Dunsparce: 100%
Fletchling: 100%
__________________

Mimulnir: 100%
Kazoo: 100%

~~Park Run Statistics~~

• Trainer Names:
  K'sariya Yeboah
  Antonio
  
  
• Location: Mt. Deckbi
  
  
• Remaining Encounters: 14
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainers (since last encounter):
  K'sariya: 5,093
  Antonio: 730
  
  
• Active Effects: Drifting ash (essentially Fog as in DPPt); Incoming Sandstorm
  
  
• K'sariya's Pokémon Stats:
  Invictus the Aggron
  HP: 19.47%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Rock Head
  Nature: Brave
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM26 Earthquake, BM Head Smash, TM Substitute, BM Magnet Rise, MT Ice Punch, TM Aerial Ace, TM Sandstorm, TM Shadow Claw
  
  Raigho the Hydreigon
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Levitate
  Nature: Hasty
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM100 Flamethrower, TM31 Dark Pulse
  
  Alixra the Venusaur
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Chlorophyll
  Nature: Calm
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Substitute, TM Sunny Day, SM Ancient Power, BM Ingrain, TM Hidden Power (Flying), TM Psych Up, TM Earthquake, TM Sludge Bomb
  
  Mimulnir the Noivern
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Infiltrator
  Nature: Jolly
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Shadow Ball, TM Flamethrower, TM Psychic, TM Substitute, BM Draco Meteor
  
  
• Antonio's Pokémon Stats:
  Kazoo the Electivire
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Motor Drive
  Nature: Calm
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM: Ice Punch, Flamethrower, Confide
  
  Nully the Silvally
  HP: 100%
  Gender: N/A
  Ability: RKS System
  Nature: Calm
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM: Flamethrower
  
  Valentine the Poliwrath
  HP: 85.15%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Damp
  Nature: Gentle
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM: Defense Curl, Ice Punch, Poison Jab; BM: Growth; HM: Surf, Whirlpool, Waterfall
  
  Conkeldurr
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Iron Fist
  Nature: Bold
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: BM: Mach Punch, Drain Punch; MT: Ice Punch, Knock Off, Thunder Punch
  
  
• Total Items:
  K'sariya:
  • Park Balls (x 7)
  • Super Balls (x 4)
  • Hyper Balls (x 2)
  • Energy Powder (x 2)
  • Energy Powder Plus (x 2)
  • Lava Cookie (x 2)
  • Poké Doll (x 2)
  • Honey (x 1)
  • Digital Camera
  • Apricorn Box
  Antonio:
  • Park Balls (x 2)
  • Super Balls (x 4)
  • Hyper Balls (x 2)
  • Energy Powder (x 1)
  • Lava Cookie (x 1)
  • Poké Doll (x 1)
  • Digital Camera
  
  
• Total Captured Pokémon:
  K'sariya:
  None yet!
  Antonio:
  None yet!

 

Antonio seems to choose to respond with summoning a different creature. He returns the Poliwhirl to release an even bulkier Pokemon. K'sariya notes the trend. Were she a more humorous individual on humanity's side of things, maybe she would make the joke that he were overcompensating. Nonetheless, she regards the unfamiliar electric type with careful eyes. The woman's pupils follow the path of black bands that stripe huge form. She makes a note to avoid the long, dark antennae--they reminded her of live wire.

Dutifully, she begins her ascent. Mimulnir spreads leathery wings and takes flight after her.

The trek is risky but the dark-skinned femme finds comfort beneath the watchful yellow eyes of her companion. He does slow figure-eights in the empty air several yards out. Wind repeatedly snaps the membrane of his wings. It is this sound that soothes her, reassures her of his presence without her having to look.

And so they climb. Slowly, the dull smog begins to set in. Its gradual descent combined with her intense focus on putting her weight in the right places keeps her from noticing it until it's nearly too late. It crowds her vision. The woman coughs a bit behind her scarf and reaches for the next handhold.

Without warning, the rock shifts. A startled cry bursts from her lips and she loses her balance. Lanky form begins to teeter backwards. Gravity takes her greedily into its merciless grips and threatens to devour her. Fortunately, her guardian was not ill-chosen. The sonic dragon rushes in without hesitation. Pronged nose presses firmly between her shoulders and pushes her back up toward the rocks. The motion effectively saves her life.

Dark eyes sweep upward to see a large, pumice-hued serpent uncoil furiously from its crevice. K'sariya scuffles over to the right, trying to put some distance between herself and the sudden threat. The sound of feathers captures her attention. She looks over to see two faint, avian silhouettes scatter from the dim bulk of Antonio's Electivire.

A third flees--but not for long. She spots the dark figure one that begins to circle around. Even though she has no clue what it is, she knows that it will be a better target for her Noivern--it would likely be difficult for the Electric type to aim a Thunderbolt in the choking ash.

"Mim, protect him!" The dragon gives a battle chirrup in response, whirling in mid-air to rush toward the Fletchling. As he speeds at it, the inside of hollowed ears begin to glow, the inner ridges beginning to shift outward in hypnotic ripples. From these waves come rapidly-moving, yellow rings of light as the Supersonic aims for its feathered target.

The dragon parts his maw to blast a terrible, ear-ravaging sound in a concentrated boom at the Fletchling, trying to send both the Supersonic and Screech simultaneously to take the bird's attention away as soon as possible. He doesn't want to hurt the creature too badly but will not allow it to antagonize his Trainer or her friends.

"You take the Dunsparce!" K'sariya calls to Antonio. "I'll handle the bird!" Through the fog, she still hasn't managed to see exactly what it is--she hopes that Mimulnir will be able to handle this one mostly on his own.​

 

Antonio woke up to two distinct screams. One was high pitched, seemingly from a bird, and the other was more of a hiss. He was having a good nap, too! He grabbed onto Kazoo and pulled a Pokéball from his backpack.


“Conkeldurr, go!” he commanded.


Conkeldurr jumped out, ready to go. As soon as he noticed he was in the air, about to fall, he stuck his concrete rods into the mountainside. Antonio jumped from Kazoo’s back and onto the concrete beams. Antonio pulled out Kazoo’s Pokéball and brought him back.


Antonio was a fair distance from Dunsparce still, but could easily call out commands to Conkeldurr.


“Conkeldurr, get over there and use Mach Punch!”


Conkeldurr jumped towards Dunsparce at immense speed, this was a priority move after all. Conkeldurr became a blur as he rushed towards the Dunsparce…

 

Team RP — K'sariya Yeboah & Antonio — Battle Post #3

The stage was set for an intense battle: K'sariya was dangling from the ledge with Dunsparce blocking her from climbing any higher, Mimulnir hovering protectively behind her to ensure she couldn't fall. Antonio and Conkeldurr were both perched precariously on Conkeldurr's concrete weights which served as surprisingly steady temporary ledges. Around the heads of Antonio and Conkeldurr, Fetchling flapped and tiwttered its displeasure.

Of the four combatants, the first Pokémon to move was Mimulnir. Protective as ever, the Noivern seemed loath to leave K'sariya's side... but she trusted K'sariya to know what was best: flapping once, powerfully, she gained altitude and then swooped swiftly across the cliffside at Fletchling, arriving with an ear-shattering screech that outran the waves of yellow light from her speaker-like ears. Fletchling was struck by an almost tangible wall of sound that deafened it temporarily and scattered its senses; it flailed about, jabbing with its beak and wings at absolutely nothing. Then the Supersonic technique struck, fracturing Fletchling's already swimming vision and nearly sending the little bird tumbling out of the air. Indeed, Fletchling's flutters became erratic, and the little bird began losing altitude in its disorientation... and this was the only thing that got it out of the way when Mimulnir swooped through the space it had just occupied, moving at high speeds. Mimulnir continued to fly alongside the cliff for a second before turning away from it and circling around to watch carefully, making sure that Fletchling wasn't going to be a threat to Antonio and awaiting further instructions from K'sariya.

Meanwhile, Dunsparce balled up, still wondering what it was that had just rudely grabbed its tail! It cast about with bleary, sleep-filled eyes, and coiled its body tighter defensively, like a spring being compressed and preparing to strike at whatever—

Then BAM Conkeldurr was all up in its business, his leap covering the distance between Antonio's impromptu ledge and Dunsparce's more natural one even faster than Mimulnir had gone the other way! He landed fist-first, then bounced back onto the other end of the ledge, entirely ready for an intense and rousing battle...!

Instead of striking back, though, Dunsparce just blinked up at the five feet of muscled Pokémon that towered above him. The wild Pokémon swayed back and forth, as though considering retaliating... then it let out a long, slow yaaaaaaaaaawn, thinking wistfully of the nap it had been so enjoying...

Conkeldurr was taken aback. He hadn't encountered an opponent this lax and uninspired in... well... ever. Despite himself, he yawned in response, and his eyelids began to droop. Something about the utterly non-threatening, sleepy swaying of Dunsparce was making him drowsy... Kind of like a snake-charmer in reverse...

Current Encounter: Dunsparce and Fletchling

Dunsparce: 87.62% [ATK+1][DEF+1][ACC+1] (Used Coil, Yawn)
Fletchling: 76.87% [DEF-2] (Used Flail and missed; hurt itself in its confusion!)
__________________

Mimulnir: 100% (Used Supersonic, Screech)
Conkeldurr: 100% (Swapped in, used Mach Punch)

~~Park Run Statistics~~

• Trainer Names:
  K'sariya Yeboah
  Antonio
  
  
• Location: Mt. Deckbi
  
  
• Remaining Encounters: 13
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainers (since last encounter):
  K'sariya: 8,312
  Antonio: 1,547
  
  
• Active Effects: Drifting ash (essentially Fog as in DPPt); Incoming Sandstorm
  
  
• K'sariya's Pokémon Stats:
  Invictus the Aggron
  HP: 19.47%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Rock Head
  Nature: Brave
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM26 Earthquake, BM Head Smash, TM Substitute, BM Magnet Rise, MT Ice Punch, TM Aerial Ace, TM Sandstorm, TM Shadow Claw
  
  Raigho the Hydreigon
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Levitate
  Nature: Hasty
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM100 Flamethrower, TM31 Dark Pulse
  
  Alixra the Venusaur
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Chlorophyll
  Nature: Calm
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Substitute, TM Sunny Day, SM Ancient Power, BM Ingrain, TM Hidden Power (Flying), TM Psych Up, TM Earthquake, TM Sludge Bomb
  
  Mimulnir the Noivern
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Infiltrator
  Nature: Jolly
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Shadow Ball, TM Flamethrower, TM Psychic, TM Substitute, BM Draco Meteor
  
  
• Antonio's Pokémon Stats:
  Kazoo the Electivire
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Motor Drive
  Nature: Calm
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM: Ice Punch, Flamethrower, Confide
  
  Nully the Silvally
  HP: 100%
  Gender: N/A
  Ability: RKS System
  Nature: Calm
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM: Flamethrower
  
  Valentine the Poliwrath
  HP: 85.15%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Damp
  Nature: Gentle
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM: Defense Curl, Ice Punch, Poison Jab; BM: Growth; HM: Surf, Whirlpool, Waterfall
  
  Conkeldurr
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Iron Fist
  Nature: Bold
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: BM: Mach Punch, Drain Punch; MT: Ice Punch, Knock Off, Thunder Punch
  
  
• Total Items:
  K'sariya:
  • Park Balls (x 7)
  • Super Balls (x 4)
  • Hyper Balls (x 2)
  • Energy Powder (x 2)
  • Energy Powder Plus (x 2)
  • Lava Cookie (x 2)
  • Poké Doll (x 2)
  • Honey (x 1)
  • Digital Camera
  • Apricorn Box
  Antonio:
  • Park Balls (x 2)
  • Super Balls (x 4)
  • Hyper Balls (x 2)
  • Energy Powder (x 1)
  • Lava Cookie (x 1)
  • Poké Doll (x 1)
  • Digital Camera
  
  
• Total Captured Pokémon:
  K'sariya:
  None yet!
  Antonio:
  None yet!

 

Sonic blur streaks by the disoriented bird. Leathery wings snap rapidly as they catch the mountain's warm currents, as they ride on the air that blows in the impending sandstorm. He glides along the craggy face and feels the anxiety that he'd been given by carefully watching his risky Trainer climbing slowly melt away. Even as he banks, body tilting to guide him back toward the Fletchling, the Jolly Pokemon feels his usual mood return so much. The adrenaline from the urgency in which K'sariya had commanded him still pounds in large ears, but the wind that whips about him begins to drown it out.

As winged form turns, he spies the brightly-colored form that careens wildly through the air, getting lower and lower. He seeks to glide somewhat near, though he stops a bit away, flapping to keep his body in place. Mimulnir's brow furrows beneath red nostrils. Head tilts to the side. He gives a concerned chirrup at the way the Fletchling hurts itself in its confusion. Pity overtakes him and he feels the sudden and overwhelming need to make sure that the little bird is alright.

The Noivern makes an attempt to swoop in at the Fletchling and toward the cliff. Long feet raise and dual claws poise to try to grab the disoriented bird, wanting to hold it until it regained its senses. However, though the Noivern had good intentions, he was like a big dog that was raised around little ones, always underestimating his strength and his size. He did not notice how close the bird was to the cliff--if he managed to grab it, his momentum would cause his gripping claws to bash the creature harshly into the rock before he would be able to stop himself!

K'sariya trains a wary eye on her surroundings, forever aware of her precarious situation on the cliff. She can't see much in the ash and the dust but she hears the confused cries of the Fletchling and the whistling of wind around streaking wings and assumes that her Pokemon is alright. Fingers clutch fiercely into the rock, trying to stay low and stay hidden until the battles were over.​

 

Main RP — K'sariya Yeboah — Battle Post #1

Mimulnir's claws closed around Fletchling's small body, squeezing the air out of the little bird, crunching its wings against its body mid-flap and causing it to let out a strangled peep of pain; then, barely a second later as Fletchling pecked (mostly) ineffectually at his claws, the bat-dragon Pokémon realized his mistake: he was still headed for the cliff, and although he would be able to slow himself enough to avoid injury when he struck, that assumed he would be able to impact the rock face claws-first and break his impact; if he did that, Fletchling was going to get sandwiched between him and the cliffside!

Instead of allowing the little bird to strike the wall full-force— which would almost certainly have knocked it out and likely broken a few of its bones in the process— Mimulnir used the few flaps he could manage to whirl himself around in midair, rather than even trying to slow his forward momentum. He hit the wlal hard, back-first, almost (but not quite) dropping the injured and disoriented bird in his claws to its death on the rocks below. The maneuver didn't save Fletchling from the jarring force of the impact, but it ensured that the wild Pokémon only received the amount of the shock that transmitted through Mimulnir's own body, and the little bird remained conscious.

It was at that moment that the sandstorm, long heralded by the murky air and the distant scream of wind, arrived with a vengeance. As Mimulnir flapped to regain his balance, the gale struck. Coarse grains of sand whipped across his skin, beginning to rub it raw, and the fierce winds toppled him out of the air and sent him careening into a barely-controlled downward spiral that he would need to use all of his know-how to escape. The Fletchling, still clutched in his talons, ceased to struggle as it sensed that distracting the dragon right now would be a Very Bad Idea.

Unfortunately for K'sariya, the Sandstorm was not specific in whom it buffeted. With a rough yank, a rogue eddy of sand-filled wind pulled her from her precarious position underneath the ledge, where the Dunsparce had forced her to remain: she lost her grip on the handhold to which she had been clinging for dear life. A solid thirty metres from the ground, she began an almost-certainly-fatal fall.

Tella, about ten metres below her, stared up at the swiftly approaching silhouette of K'sariya plummeting through the sand-filled air. "Holy hell, this damn place, not agaaaaaaaain—" was all she had time to yell before K'sariya struck her full-force with a muffled thump that knocked the air out of both women. Then they were both flying free of the cliff and heading at an ever-increasing pace for the ground below.

Never one to panic, Tella reached out and grabbed K'sariya by one wrist; pulling herself over to the other woman in mid-skydive, she wrapped her arms around K'sariya and maneuvered the two in midair so that she would strike the ground first. Whatever happened next, K'sariya found herself being launched upward and away from Tella at the moment before impact— the counter-acceleration was swift, but just barely gradual enough not to cause her to black out— and tumbling unharmed to the rocky ground at the base of the cliff.

Behind her, Tella's impact had created a crater— instead of a mangled body, thanks to Tella's strange brand of supernatural powers— and the stone underneath K'sariya's feet had grown crumbly and spiderwebbed with cracks. The Ranger herself was nowhere to be seen. K'sariya wouldn't be able to focus on that, though, because a moment later, Mimulnir careened out of the sky and leveled off into a glide just above K'sariya's head, flapping madly to regain height and avoid ploughing right into a cluster of boulders. Clutched in his talons was the weakly struggling Fletchling.

Finally regaining control, Mimulnir took a wide banking turn out over the foothills and soared back toward K'sariya, screeching his concern for her well-being. As an afterthought, just before he reached K'sariya, he ejected the thoroughly ruffled Fletchling from his grip. Then he swooped in to thoroughly check his Trainer for injuries: the battle could wait until he was certain K'sariya was unharmed!

Current Encounter: Fletchling

Fletchling: 8.50% [DEF-2][CON2] (Used Peck, then hit the wall; was sheltered from the Sandstorm by Mimulnir)
__________________

Mimulnir: 75.40% (Accidentally used Dragon Claw, then hit the wall; was buffeted by the Sandstorm)

~~Park Run Statistics~~

• Trainer Name: K'sariya Yeboah
  
  
• Location: Mt. Deckbi
  
  
• Remaining Encounters: 13
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainer (total this run): 31,619
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainer (since last encounter): 10,360
  
  
• Active Effects: Sandstorm
  
  
• K'sariya's Pokémon Stats:
  Invictus the Aggron
  HP: 19.47%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Rock Head
  Nature: Brave
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM26 Earthquake, BM Head Smash, TM Substitute, BM Magnet Rise, MT Ice Punch, TM Aerial Ace, TM Sandstorm, TM Shadow Claw
  
  Raigho the Hydreigon
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Levitate
  Nature: Hasty
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM100 Flamethrower, TM31 Dark Pulse
  
  Alixra the Venusaur
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Chlorophyll
  Nature: Calm
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Substitute, TM Sunny Day, SM Ancient Power, BM Ingrain, TM Hidden Power (Flying), TM Psych Up, TM Earthquake, TM Sludge Bomb
  
  Mimulnir the Noivern — Currently out of Poké Ball
  HP: 75.40%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Infiltrator
  Nature: Jolly
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Shadow Ball, TM Flamethrower, TM Psychic, TM Substitute, BM Draco Meteor
  
  
• Total Items:
  • Park Balls (x 7)
  • Super Balls (x 4)
  • Hyper Balls (x 2)
  • Energy Powder (x 2)
  • Energy Powder Plus (x 2)
  • Lava Cookie (x 2)
  • Poké Doll (x 2)
  • Honey (x 1)
  • Digital Camera
  • Apricorn Box
  
  
• Total Captured Pokémon:
  None yet!

 

A feeling of crippling guilt and dread overwhelms the gentle Noivern as he hears the small, strangled cry of pain choke its way out of the Fletchling's beak. He also realizes that he's on a terrible crash course into the rocks that will mean the end for his new, tiny friend. He gives a chirrup of distress and shifts his wings, leather flapping on air as he whirls his back against the jagged face. Entire body slams into the unforgiving stone. It rips the breath from his lungs and he tries his best to right himself.

It's then, however, that the brewing sandstorm chooses to strike. His balance is torn brutally away from him and he is sent spinning, plummeting, toward the earth. The sand digs at his flesh and bites at his wings. Mimulnir focuses hard to regain his calm. Attention hones in on the wind and the way it shifts violently beneath his wings and begins to try to reclaim some control before it kills both him and his small companion, who he clutches (somewhat) safely in crimson talons. Blood-red eyes are overtaken by a sudden blue shine that quickly spreads, washing over his form to cast it in a cerulean outline. He begins to use the Psychic to help him right himself.

Wrapped up in his efforts, he does not notice the fate of his Trainer in time to even think about intervening.

She feels it the second it hits and digs her nails into the rock. Blood wells beneath the quick as the sandstorm rips her away regardless, tossing her like a ragdoll off the cliff. The roar of the gale tears away her shout from her lips and fills her lungs with burning sand. There's a moment where it feels like everything slows down, then, where she can see her hand being pulled away from the stone. She savors the fleeting feeling of her fingertips brushing on the solid surface, in that moment figuring that it will be her last. Dammit, comes the interruption in her serenity, shot straight from her thoughts, fuck the Park.

But just like that, the wind is screaming again and she's falling fast. Suddenly, she slams into something with back turned and she's not sure what until she's free-falling. Wide, stormy eyes land on Tella, abyssal pupils flicking to the Ranger's hand as it locks around her comparably small wrist with ease. Arms pull her close, wrap around her and lock her in a protective embrace. K'sariya doesn't realize what Tella is doing until it's almost too late. She clenches her eyes shut.

There's an odd feeling, then, where it feels like she's not falling as quickly, but she figures it's some sort of deranged illusion of her final thoughts. But then she's winded as she hits the ground in one piece on her stomach, her body and her equipment miraculously unscathed. She lays there for a second before she realizes she's not dead, and then she's gasping for breath and coughing up the sand that burns her throat as she tries to get up. Eyes squint through her goggles just in time to duck the careening, glowing figure of her Noivern as he whooshes past by her head.

Finally, as he banks back toward her, K'sariya manages to get her brain and her lungs and her eyes all on the same page again. Tella? her mind peals as she realizes what the hole she's in is, but doesn't have time to react to it too much. She sees Mimulnir rushing back to her with red eyes filled with obvious concern and her own gaze turns down to the sienna form in his claws. K'sariya watches the tiny body go flying into the papery ground of the crater as her Pokemon prioritizes her above everything else. Just as soon as she's made it up off the ground, she's back on it again as her Noivern tackles her to the ground and shields her with his wings.

Coherent enough to do so, she digs a Park Ball from her bag and struggles from his nurturing grasp long enough to find where the Fletchling has landed. She sees it a few feet away, temporarily stunned by the impact of the ground. She takes a moment to squint from behind her goggles and take in the way the wind will affect her throw. Then, she underhand tosses the ball.

However, she doesn't wait to see the result immediately. Mimulnir is withdrawn in a flash of red and replaced by another form--a familiar one. Invictus gives a cry of protest at being thrown out into the sand, where it digs into her wounds, but K'sariya drags the bulky creature tightly against the wall of the impact crater to try to shield them from the sand. Hands rummage until they feel the water bottle and the plastic package she's searching for. Rapidly, fingers untwist the cap and open the package, pouring the contents of the Energy Powder Plus into the water bottle. Lid goes back on and she gives it a good shake before opening it again. She feeds the bitter drink to the Aggron. The steel-clad creature is reluctant at first, but at least it's with water instead of just the powder. ​

 

Main RP — K'sariya Yeboah — Non-Battle Post #1

Shelter from the storm obtained, at the cost of pain. Then, strength floods through rock-skinned form as bitter liquid takes swift effect. Wounds seem suddenly less harsh; discomfort recedes, to be replaced by the glow of well-being. Such is the power of herbal remedies created with the best that Grass-type Pokémon and modern science, working in tandem, have to offer.

Then, terrifyingly, a shaking in the crumbled, unstable rock underfoot: weight of K'sariya alone was already too much, and now Invictus's mass deepens the cracks in the thin shell of stone that turns out to have been merely the roof of a hollow underground cavern... K'sariya is once again falling, once again enveloped in a protective embrace: but Invictus's is far more all-encompassing, far more sure. Metal-reinforced plates of rock slide smoothly against one another as powerful back arches into a protective ball, and barely a grunt of protest is released as Invictus bounces like a ball of unyielding stone down a steep incline into the depths of Mount Deckbi's underground caverns...

~~~~~~~~~~

Tella and her Poliwrath grunted with exertion as, together, they strained to lever a heavy block of stone off of the pile of boulders that had slid down to cover K'sariya and her Aggron. In response to the decrease in weight, the rest of the pile shuddered and then crumbled apart— nearly sending both would-be rescuers tumbling off— as Invictus straightened powerful shoulders to reveal an unharmed (but perhaps shaken) K'sariya... And a Park Ball resting at the young woman's feet, having slid down the incline to join the rest of the debris that had fallen into this deep, dark place.

Encounter Complete! Fletchling: Caught!


Far, far above, at the top of a steep rock wall nearly two hundred metres high— a wall down which Invictus had rolled and slid— a jagged but roughly circular hole let in the dimmest sliver of sand-choked sunlight; the rest of the light in this underground cavern flooded from a powerful but diffuse red LED mini-floodlight that Tella had withdrawn from somewhere and strapped to her own shoulder. The red colour prevented too much loss of dim-light vision in the humans and Invictus; in the sanguine glow, all that could be seen was a large, empty natural cavern like a bubble amidst the stone of Mt. Deckbi's innards; and a cylindrical, high-ceilinged rock tunnel six metres in diameter with a smooth concave floor, running deeper into the mountain.

"...I'm sorry," Tella said, standing atop the remnants of the ceiling's debris and hesitating to approach K'sariya. She remembered how angry the older woman had been last time she'd nearly died in the park; and for all Tella's hyper-competence, the young Ranger still didn't know how to deal with people. Was she going to get slapped again? She could take it, of course— pain was like an old friend at this point— but for some reason the prospect terrified her on some level she wasn't familiar with. It never even occurred to Tella that all of this was a symptom of how badly she wanted K'sariya to forgive her, to like her. "I shouldn't have let... I mean..."

To Tella's shame, tears welled up in her eyes. "Never mind," she finished in a dull, defeated tone, struggling to keep her voice from sounding choked. "Please direct any complaints to Park management. I... I have no excuse for... for letting this kind of thing happen twice."


~~Park Run Statistics~~

• Trainer Name: K'sariya Yeboah
  
  
• Location: Mt. Deckbi
  
  
• Remaining Encounters: 13
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainer (total this run): 36,447
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainer (since last encounter): 0
  
  
• Active Effects: Sandstorm
  
  
• K'sariya's Pokémon Stats:
  Invictus the Aggron — Currently out of Poké Ball
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Rock Head
  Nature: Brave
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM26 Earthquake, BM Head Smash, TM Substitute, BM Magnet Rise, MT Ice Punch, TM Aerial Ace, TM Sandstorm, TM Shadow Claw
  
  Raigho the Hydreigon
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Levitate
  Nature: Hasty
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM100 Flamethrower, TM31 Dark Pulse
  
  Alixra the Venusaur
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Chlorophyll
  Nature: Calm
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Substitute, TM Sunny Day, SM Ancient Power, BM Ingrain, TM Hidden Power (Flying), TM Psych Up, TM Earthquake, TM Sludge Bomb
  
  Mimulnir the Noivern
  HP: 75.40%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Infiltrator
  Nature: Jolly
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Shadow Ball, TM Flamethrower, TM Psychic, TM Substitute, BM Draco Meteor
  
  
• Total Items:
  • Park Balls (x 6)
  • Super Balls (x 4)
  • Hyper Balls (x 2)
  • Energy Powder (x 2)
  • Energy Powder Plus (x 1)
    
  • Lava Cookie (x 2)
  • Poké Doll (x 2)
  • Honey (x 1)
  • Digital Camera
  • Apricorn Box
  
  
• Total Captured Pokémon:
  Fletchling: Male, Hardy nature

 

Stony feet sense the tremors that course through the papery earth. A hum of alarm and dismay echoes through metal hide in time with the Iron Defense that surges through her very core. Plates shimmer even beneath the grime of the sand as they pull tight and grow more strong. Claws reach and clutch K'sariya close between banded legs. Startled but trusting, K'sariya condenses herself against her Pokemon's form as she realizes what is happening. Armored tail curls upwards and limbs lock about her companion in an impenetrable cage.

Then they are falling and K'sariya closes her eyes again. If it wasn't one thing, it was another, but at least this time, she knows that Invictus will let no harm befall her. Her trust in the Aggron soothes her. There is a certainty in steel that one cannot find in human flesh--even with Tella's odd powers, the extent of them had been unknown, and she could not trust what she didn't know. But she is in tune with Invictus' capabilities more than anything else in this world. Serenity graces her with the touch of weightlessness as she falls, sharp in contrast to the blinding panic of her last descent.

It's quiet, then.

The roar of collapse fades as the world settles in the darkness. They are both still for a few long moments, listening to the muted roar high above, drowned out by the distance. Steel titan takes inventory of herself and her Trainer in that brief time. Metallic claws flex as she tests her mobility. Rocks move outside and alarm jumps into her gut. Instantly, she reacts, surging upwards to free them of their prison and confront whatever potential foe might have come looking for an easy meal. But as rocks go flying in the wake of her destruction, she sees only a familiar set of individuals in the dim. Form stretches to free K'sariya of her protective bonds, releasing her out back to her human guardian.

Hands cover her face as she steps away from Invictus. Her scarf has fallen off in the chaos and goggles hang crookedly about her neck, bearing new scratches on plastic lens. When pupils finish their slow widen as they adjust to the dark, she takes in what is in front of her.

A bright red LED floods the wide, empty cavern with an ominous , crimson glow. It reminds her of the flash of a Pokeball, only drawn out into prolonged luminescence. A pinpoint hole lets in a single spear of light, one nearly suffocated by the sand and dust that drifts into it's path. That single shaft falls on Tella. The sight makes K'sariya go still, hold her breath, suddenly confronted with emotions that she'd never resolved. She'd looked past the elephant in the room the whole run, not willing to reveal any part of their history in the presence of Antonio, but now it was just them in the quiet of the room.

Foolishly, she almost wants to run. These are not things she has dealt with healthily. Repression never truly heals a wound. The words that begin to spill from her Ranger's lips tears open the year-old scar with agonizing brutality. That pain brings immediate aggression bubbling to the surface--as a feral creature will always react to pain with anger before anything else--and she balls her fists and sinks her teeth into her lower lip to bite back scathing words. Tella's apology did not make up for the fact that they'd almost died again, that they were at the bottom of a cavern in the middle of fucking nowhere, taking cover for a sandstorm just as brutal as the blizzard they'd braved a year ago.

But then, she feels a sharp pike rest on her shoulder. Invictus' discontented rumble vibrates powerfully through the empty space of the cavern as she rests a single horn on her Trainer, soothingly, but at the same time disapprovingly. Cold steel is like salve on the wounds she wears openly on her sleeve, the ones that her feelings for Tella wrought. Who knew that platonic emotions could be so stupidly complicated?

Teeth's grip on her lower lip loosens a bit. Fists unfurl. She finds her feet and her courage and steps forward until the bright LED washes over her features. Nothing hides them--ugly scars seem to glow almost fluorescently in the light, horrendously prominent as they rip down the entire right side of her face and streak down her left cheek. Dark, stormy eyes stare up at the slightly-elevated individual for a long, long moment. She sees the shame, the glimmer of tears, and it works to further soothe her temper.

"Hey," she says, voice perhaps the most gentle it's ever been heard, but also the most quiet, barely rising above the muted whirl of the wind and sand high up above. There's a vulnerability there that she axes quickly as she moves on, still trying to clutch to some semblance of pride or strength that she's not sure she has at the moment. "We're alive, yeah?" she manages, stronger this time, less tender. "In one piece." She casts a glance over her shoulder at Invictus, then looks back to her Ranger. "Nobody else could have done that but you. I would have died up there. But I didn't, and that's because of you." ​

 

Main RP — K'sariya Yeboah — Non-Battle Post #2

Tella stares into dark eyes and sees nothing but the reflection of red, it's not the right light to even see K'sariya's expression amidst the scars. The older woman's words of something suspiciously like gratitude strike Tella with a feeling like something inside her crumbling, threatening to make her break down entirely at a time when that is the farthest thing from all right.

"You shouldn't... You shouldn't be forgiving me," she protests, voice weak with exhaustion and a certain amount of what sounded like grief. "Haven't you suffered enough already...?" Tella knows better than most what it is like to suffer and suffer, then suffer some more, all through no fault of her own. Looking at K'sariya's ravaged face doesn't disgust Tella: no, she had ignored the disfiguring scars from the first moment she'd met the woman because, for Tella, they invoke something far more difficult than mere revulsion. They scream of pain in the other woman's past, pain that had made life hell and then stuck around, thathad left lasting marks; they reminded Tella that even with all she herself had been through— even with all the scars it had left inside where she could never let anyone else see— there was still so much permanent, irreparable harm in the world.

To expect anger and be met with forgiveness is not a familiar or even a pleasant experience for Tella... To have failed and then been met with harsh words or violence would almost have been easier: it would have come from a cruel world that made sense to the young woman, that she could respond to.

Tella's knees grind against the gravelly, shattered rock of the rubble pile— when had she last allowed her focus to lapse so much that she'd collapsed?— as silent sobs wrack her narrow shoulders. This, she thinks bitterly, is the kind of bullshit I tried to leave behind when I cut the entire world out of my life... And now she's slipped, she's let herself care, and the supposedly impregnable fortress she's built out of the ruins of her old self is tumbling down. And even worse: as that fortress crumbles, the wellspring of pain and compassion and anger, so much anger, that it once held down with its weight is bursting up from beneath it...

It's too much. Logic has flown; the cold concrete barrier of efficiency that Tella has shored up for so long, the dam which has for so long held back this flood: it's all been swept away like so much flotsam on an irresistible tide. She needs it to stop— now— but it's been suppressed for too many years, and now that it's been unleashed there's no stopping it. Tella is human again, and weak, and once again at the mercy of the emotions she shoved deep down years ago. She hates it. Rage-filled eyes, flaring with ice-blue light even in the red glow of the lantern, raise themselves to fix on K'sariya. "How could you do this to me?" Tella spits, voice hoarse with the need to cry. "Why couldn't you have just hated me like a normal person??"

Then Tella's tears burst forth in earnest, each sob making a horrible choking sound thanks to the last vestiges of the girl's attempts to keep her ugly, weak feelings from making their hateful noises. She throws herself to one side and cries into the rocky pile, too ashamed of her anger, her pain, her humanity to allow the world to see her finally breaking down; too angry to give reality the satisfaction of having won, but helpless to stop herself from proving its victory with her tortured, almost-but-not-quite-silent cries.

In a movie, or a story, everything would have stopped to witness Tella's collapse. Time would have stood still while her emotions took centre stage and spent themselves, allowing growth and something new to take their place. But this was reality, and the world was relentless.

From amidst the pile of rubble, one of that cluster of rocks (the ones that Mimulnir had earlier nearly crashed into) began to move, and uncurled itself from its defensive huddle.

"Graaaaaaaaaaveler!" the near-spherical rock Pokémon grunted, turning a baleful gaze on Invictus as if to blame the Aggron for collapsing the ground and interrupting its nap. Clearly, this intrusion wasn't going to go unchallenged.


Current Encounter: Graveler

Graveler: 100% [DEF+1] (Defense Curl active from the fall)
Invictus: 100% [DEF+2] (Iron Defense active from the fall)


~~Park Run Statistics~~

• Trainer Name: K'sariya Yeboah
  
  
• Location: Mt. Deckbi
  
  
• Remaining Encounters: 12
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainer (total this run): 41,471
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainer (since last encounter): 5,024
  
  
• Active Effects: None
  
  
• K'sariya's Pokémon Stats:
  Invictus the Aggron — Currently out of Poké Ball
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Rock Head
  Nature: Brave
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM26 Earthquake, BM Head Smash, TM Substitute, BM Magnet Rise, MT Ice Punch, TM Aerial Ace, TM Sandstorm, TM Shadow Claw
  
  Raigho the Hydreigon
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Levitate
  Nature: Hasty
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM100 Flamethrower, TM31 Dark Pulse
  
  Alixra the Venusaur
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Chlorophyll
  Nature: Calm
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Substitute, TM Sunny Day, SM Ancient Power, BM Ingrain, TM Hidden Power (Flying), TM Psych Up, TM Earthquake, TM Sludge Bomb
  
  Mimulnir the Noivern
  HP: 75.40%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Infiltrator
  Nature: Jolly
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Shadow Ball, TM Flamethrower, TM Psychic, TM Substitute, BM Draco Meteor
  
  
• Total Items:
  • Park Balls (x 6)
  • Super Balls (x 4)
  • Hyper Balls (x 2)
  • Energy Powder (x 2)
  • Energy Powder Plus (x 1)
    
  • Lava Cookie (x 2)
  • Poké Doll (x 2)
  • Honey (x 1)
  • Digital Camera
  • Apricorn Box
  
  
• Total Captured Pokémon:
  Fletchling: Male, Hardy nature

 

It's surreal.

A protesting voice rises in the cavern, but it is not the voice that she knows. It quivers with weakness, with exhaustion--two traits that she thought she'd never use to describe anything about Tella. K'sariya sees shaking knees fold and she lunges forward, but gravity is faster. Hand seeks to steady the younger woman, palm aiming to rest on a shoulder. However, she cannot bring herself to speak. She sees the cycle, the one that she's gone through so many times in the past year. Attentive eyes watch as the barriers break and crumble to the earth with an odd feeling of watching herself. It's as if she's stepped out of her body and is watching her own struggle all over again.

It doesn't help that all she can think of is the woman's strength. Every image that flickers across the forefront of her eyes is one of perseverance. Stripping away life-saving gear and forcing it on her when she needed it the most. Molding a shelter out of an unforgiving environment to save their lives. Trekking through merciless wind and driving snow, barely able to see their own feet. And she remembers Raigho's roar, remembers rocky spear driving through hardy clavicle, and remembers Tella still fighting through it all.

With eerily accurate hindsight, K'sariya knows what comes next.

She's ready for a slap. She's ready for a sharp, biting sting across her scars to add to the way they burn beneath the light, but it's the eyes that hurt more. No amount of preparation could have steeled her for the anger in that gaze, and yet once again, it's like a mirror into her soul. Tella does not slap her--no, she is better than K'sariya is. The truth bursts from Tella's lips and she knows that feeling all too well. When she'd struck her, she'd wanted nothing more than to receive that venom back. Hate was easy. Anger was easier. Forgiveness was hard. And it'd taken a year for her to forgive. And she'd have thrown it all away in an instant if it hadn't been for Invictus stopping her.

The Ranger crumples fully to the ground and her hand reaches out for a moment, and then fingers slowly fold and arm slowly lowers. She looks down with a mixture of guilt and shame. "I did," she murmurs, the sound barely rising above the grumbling of the mountain up above.

Invictus is the first to notice, to move into action. K'sariya jumps when she hears the Aggron charge past her, both sets of claws scraping against the ground as she charges on all fours in her haste. The steel titan stomps in front of K'sariya, placing herself between the human pair. The woman lunges quickly to action, also, scrabbling up on the pile of rubble to stand protectively in front of, almost over, Tella. Tension courses through her form and she's battle-ready, knees bent and fists balled. In reality, tools of the flesh are useless against the Graveler's kind but Tella's logic is not the only one that has faltered. K'sariya has only one drive, one purpose in that moment: protect.

Her scars sear at the familiarity of it all.

Metallic snarl echoes in the wake of the Graveler's cry, with the Aggron only pausing for a moment before rushing forward. Alabaster glow overtakes the solid steel plate upon her skull, sweeping over dual horns as body leans forward. The Iron Head seeks to smash into the Graveler's features, trying to drive the momentum of her charge behind her force. Simultaneously, leftward talons bear a similar glow--she swings her left arm forward, trying to drag the Metal Claw brutally down the Graveler's right side.

Her Trainer is vulnerable and her Ranger even moreso. There is no hesitation in her movements, and no pause in the force she puts behind them.​

 

Main RP — K'sariya Yeboah — Battle Post #2

The wild Graveler throws itself forward at the same time as Invictus does, leaping into the fray with a ponderous, powerful motion that sacrifices speed and grace for raw strength. The momentum of it isn't all forward, though: as it leaps, the Graveler twists mightily, setting itself spinning like a top in midair. Larger pair of outer limbs curl defensively around body, while smaller pair of arms jut out like stone blades to render the creature a whirling dervish of lacerating power.

But it will take more than sharp rocks to pierce iron guard of determined defender. Titans clash in midair, with glowing metal head and claw meeting slicing, spinning stone edges: and when the two bounce off of each other and land, it is the Graveler which has taken the worst of the mauling, heavy gashes in its rock hide bearing witness to the effectiveness of Invictus's steely resolve. Still spinning like a tumbling boulder, it rolls down the hill and makes a wide turn, its raw power and momentum causing it to pick up speed as it does (against all logic and in spite of gravity.)

With the Graveler coming toward her again, Invictus stands strong, having barely been forced back at all by the clash. Her claws and head still glow with remnants of their earlier light, for the steel's supernatural force is not yet fully spent: the confident Aggron knows that her attacks will be all the more effective for it. Nothing will be getting by her this day.

Current Encounter: Graveler

Graveler: 50.95% [DEF+1] (Used Stone Edge+Rollout at once)
Invictus: 93.02% [ATK+1][DEF+2] (Used Iron Head+Metal Claw at once)


~~Park Run Statistics~~

• Trainer Name: K'sariya Yeboah
  
  
• Location: Mt. Deckbi
  
  
• Remaining Encounters: 12
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainer (total this run): 45,140
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainer (since last encounter): 8,693
  
  
• Active Effects: None
  
  
• K'sariya's Pokémon Stats:
  Invictus the Aggron — Currently out of Poké Ball
  HP: 93.02%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Rock Head
  Nature: Brave
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM26 Earthquake, BM Head Smash, TM Substitute, BM Magnet Rise, MT Ice Punch, TM Aerial Ace, TM Sandstorm, TM Shadow Claw
  
  Raigho the Hydreigon
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Levitate
  Nature: Hasty
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM100 Flamethrower, TM31 Dark Pulse
  
  Alixra the Venusaur
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Chlorophyll
  Nature: Calm
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Substitute, TM Sunny Day, SM Ancient Power, BM Ingrain, TM Hidden Power (Flying), TM Psych Up, TM Earthquake, TM Sludge Bomb
  
  Mimulnir the Noivern
  HP: 75.40%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Infiltrator
  Nature: Jolly
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Shadow Ball, TM Flamethrower, TM Psychic, TM Substitute, BM Draco Meteor
  
  
• Total Items:
  • Park Balls (x 6)
  • Super Balls (x 4)
  • Hyper Balls (x 2)
  • Energy Powder (x 2)
  • Energy Powder Plus (x 1)
    
  • Lava Cookie (x 2)
  • Poké Doll (x 2)
  • Honey (x 1)
  • Digital Camera
  • Apricorn Box
  
  
• Total Captured Pokémon:
  Fletchling: Male, Hardy nature

 

Her opponent is comfortably in its element. With confidence, it spins forward through the air like a top. Their collision is mighty, filling the cavern with a grating cacophony of rock-on-rock thunder. Sparks fly as hardened steel shreds through rapidly-spinning, rocky body. Momentum causes them to bounce apart on contact. Heavy feet thud to the earth and her body slides back. Talons dig into the earth and upper body leans forward. She plunges her metal-coated claws into the ground to slow her skidding form to a stop.

Like an angered bull, she stops with horns lowered and pointed forward. Brilliant blue eyes glare furiously at her opponent from beneath protruding metal visor. Rocky jaws grind together as her metallic snarl continues to bounce off the walls.

Invictus sees the rocky ball roll upward, then back down the cluttered hill. A huff of contempt whooshes through deep nostrils, jaw unhinging in a way that almost seems like a smirk. Like a batter preparing a swing, stone-banded tail sways from side to side as it works up its own bright, shimmering glow, followed by another illumination of both sets of claws.

She sinks reinforced, upper Metal Claws into the ground, form hunched for balance as she roots herself. Lower limbs spread as she watches the Graveler accelerate towards her. The Rock-type focuses for a moment, feeling the vibrations of the earth flow through her. She channels her energy down and into the side of the hill. Stones quiver and then pull aside as she uses her affinity to create the Rock Tomb in her opponent's wake.

At the perfect moment, she aims to swing the Iron Tail full-force into the oncoming enemy, trying to bat it straight into the awaiting grave she's created for it--one where it hopefully will be loathe to bother them again. ​

 

Main RP — K'sariya Yeboah — Battle Post #3

WHAM!!

Tail banded with glowing steel crunches into onrushing boulder; mere jagged stone is no match for the bite of metal and the force of a stalwart defender. Outermost shell of rock crumbles altogether as attacker flies backward, already unconscious, to land snugly in tomb of rock which collapses over it; cacophony of echoes signal the wild Pokémon's decisive defeat.

The Graveler will need to consume a great deal of rock to recover the thoroughly shattered protective layer of stone on its exterior; fortunate, then, that when it awakens it will find itself buried in slate of the highest quality! Invictus is content: this foe will threaten her K'sariya no longer.

Encounter Over: Graveler fainted!

Graveler: 0.00% [FNT]
Invictus: 93.02% [ATK+1][DEF+2] (Used Iron Tail, then Rock Tomb to make sure Graveler won't bother anybody else for a while!)

With the disgruntled wild Pokémon taken care of, K'sariya and Invictus find that during the scuffle Tella has stood up, albeit only with the support of her beleaguered-looking Poliwrath. She perches unsteadily near the top of the pile of rubble that fell from the ceiling, the red LED light on her shoulder still casting a bright but diffuse glow. There is an emptiness and exhaustion in her eyes, which are now a blank grey colour that only half reflects the red light; dull orbs show no sign of the ice-blue with which they blazed so recently.

Rath the Poliwrath, overwhelmed and with no idea what to do, turns beseeching eyes on K'sariya, as though pleading with her to do something human-y! This whole situation is well beyond the concerned Pokémon's field of expertise— which normally consists of do whatever Tella says, and do it well— and he appears well and truly frozen with indecision as a result.

As if to forestall anything K'sariya could say, Tella holds up a hand in a somewhat robotic fashion that seems a far cry from her usual fluid way of moving. "It will do little good to speak to Tella as she is now," she says in a monotone voice, her lips barely moving. "Tella has disappeared within, unwilling to further burden you and risk repeating the events of last year. Tella is not fond of her weakness."

While the girl had been speaking, her Poliwrath had taken a step back, leaving her standing alone, and was now staring at her with his entire body tight with readiness for trouble; if a giant muscly tadpole could have raised hackles, this was what it looked like. Pokémon were beings of instinct, and despite Tella's apparently unchanged appearance, every instinct Rath possessed was telling him this was not his beloved Trainer!

Unaffected by 'her' Pokémon's obvious discomfort, the person who looked like Tella offhandedly adjusts the red LED on her shoulder as she resumes speaking. "I am best described as a construct of thought and force. Call me Substitute; it is what Tella names me, as if a Pokémon's move could sum up what I am to her. She believes that I am a sign of madness at worst, or at best an artifact of past traumas. Tella has these judgments about me; so of course I am privy to them. She may even be correct, though I doubt it. I suspect that I am born of the interaction of a human psyche with something entirely other. Perhaps you've wondered why it is that she wields such strong psychic powers?"

Substitute abruptly turns on Tella's heel and begins clambering down the pile of rubble. "In any case, Tella will return when she has finished hiding from the world," it says over one shoulder, with an edge of something that almost approximates disapproval in its monotone voice. "That may take some time, given her abject terror of connection. Perhaps you will be patient with her. Or not. It matters little to me."

Rath, Tella's Pokémon, stares after his Trainer's suddenly unfamiliar back as she leaps the rest of the way off of the rubble and begins to trek into the wide, tall tunnel that slants steadily downward, deeper into the mountain's dark underways. He turns to K'sariya, seeking guidance in a world that has turned upside down in a way the Water-type Pokémon can't even begin to articulate; and she can see that the Poliwrath's eyes are fully dilated in terror. She can also see that there are two objects enveloped in Rath's large white-skinned hands, forgotten in the Pokémon's all-consuming fear: one hand bears the Park Ball with Fletchling in it; the other tightly clutches the tough shell of a yellow Apricorn, picked up somewhere along the way. Should K'sariya try to take either item, they would simply slip from Rath's slack grip.


~~Park Run Statistics~~

• Trainer Name: K'sariya Yeboah
  
  
• Location: Mt. Deckbi
  
  
• Remaining Encounters: 12
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainer (total this run): 46,928
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainer (since last encounter): 0
  
  
• Active Effects: None
  
  
• K'sariya's Pokémon Stats:
  Invictus the Aggron — Currently out of Poké Ball
  HP: 93.02%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Rock Head
  Nature: Brave
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM26 Earthquake, BM Head Smash, TM Substitute, BM Magnet Rise, MT Ice Punch, TM Aerial Ace, TM Sandstorm, TM Shadow Claw
  
  Raigho the Hydreigon
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Levitate
  Nature: Hasty
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM100 Flamethrower, TM31 Dark Pulse
  
  Alixra the Venusaur
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Chlorophyll
  Nature: Calm
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Substitute, TM Sunny Day, SM Ancient Power, BM Ingrain, TM Hidden Power (Flying), TM Psych Up, TM Earthquake, TM Sludge Bomb
  
  Mimulnir the Noivern
  HP: 75.40%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Infiltrator
  Nature: Jolly
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Shadow Ball, TM Flamethrower, TM Psychic, TM Substitute, BM Draco Meteor
  
  
• Total Items:
  • Park Balls (x 6)
  • Super Balls (x 4)
  • Hyper Balls (x 2)
  • Energy Powder (x 2)
  • Energy Powder Plus (x 1)
    
  • Lava Cookie (x 2)
  • Poké Doll (x 2)
  • Honey (x 1)
  • Digital Camera
  • Apricorn Box:
    Yellow Apricorn (x 1)
  
  
• Total Captured Pokémon:
  Fletchling: Male, Hardy nature

 

Tremor rocks down the length of Invictus' form at the sheer force of the impact. Grounded claws and spread lower legs are the only things that keep her upright. Nothing can rival her satisfaction, however, as she sends the creature flying back into the Tomb she has created for it, thick slate locking back into place over it. She nearly would have pitied the creature--that is, if it hadn't endangered the safety of the two people she currently cared for the most.

Having spectated from her protective perch, the tension eases slowly out of K'sariya's form once the immediate danger has passed. Deep breath whisks from her lips. She turns and comes face-to-face with a phantom.

Startled, she lunges back, nearly stumbling on the uneven surface in her shock, but Invictus has stomped up behind her and supports her with a sturdy shoulder. Discontented, metallic rumble thrums from the steel titan, hard blue gaze glaring at the individual that was not the Ranger they knew, feeding off of Rath's communicated unease and also off of her instinctual own. The Trainer nearly moves to speak but cannot seem to force words out of her mouth. A mechanically-controlled hand raises to halt any attempted speech she might have otherwise attempted. Every hair along her neck and arms rise with discomfort.

If the... thing, this "Substitute," did not have such an acute awareness of its host's form and of itself, she perhaps would not have stood for it. Deckbi was not known for Ghost types but any less coherent of an individual would have been taken as a figure of possession. It also seems comfortable in her form--"Tella" whirls with relative stability and heads down the slope she had rested on. K'sariya is hesitant to follow. Gaze turns uncertainly to Rath and that's when she sees the two objects clutched in the Pokemon's hands.

Gingerly, she reaches to free them from his grasp, depositing them into her bag. Then, she places a gentle hand on the back of the water type's round body, and seeks to softly urge him onward. They would need to get through this one way or another and she'd prefer that they do it together. Invictus trundles carefully along behind her, low growl of wariness fading back into the constant hum of the sandstorm up above.

K'sariya steps carefully after this strange being, one she's never seen before. The wild whirlwind of emotions that have tossed them both about has left her numb and empty. She swallows, hard. Already she wishes for her Ranger back--not this impassive psyche with cold eyes and mechanical motions. Not this. Anything but this.

She only hopes that she hasn't lost her forever.​

 

Main RP — K'sariya Yeboah — Non-Battle Post #3

The tunnel slants ever downward, in a straight line that seems to be carrying the travelers deeper into the mountain. Every once in a while, tiny tunnels the size of K'sariya's fist, or larger ones the size of her head, appear to have been bored into the walls of this larger corridor: the chompings of smaller creatures than whatever titan or natural force bored out this main throughfare.

There are small scuttling noises from the edges of the red light that washes out from the LED on Substitute's shoulder, as small Pokémon flee the intrusion for the safety of the darkness. As time passes, the tunnels leading off of this one grow larger, some even large enough for Invictus to fit into, but this one remains the largest.

"Tell me, K'sariya. Have you ever wondered why Tella chose to work here in the Park, where Pokémon are plentiful, yet she never captures any. Or why she chooses to segregate herself from the other Rangers and live in the wild."

Substitute's voice is very quiet, so quiet that if not for the echo off of the cavern walls, K'sariya wouldn't have been able to make out the words.

"In Tella's experience, rock formations like the one we are in are caused by the flow of water over centuries boring out a smooth-walled hole." The quiet voice, almost a whisper, seems to have followed its earlier... had that even been a question...? with a non-sequitur. "The underground river that created this one is likely long extinct. These smaller tunnels to our left and right are excavated by geophagic Pokémon. They make opportunistic use of the existing tunnel. Taking nature's creations, they twist them to use for their own benefit. Much like another class of being which Tella likes less than she likes Pokémon. Humanity is not her favourite type of creature. Which makes her toleration of you curious to me."

So it had gotten to the point after all: for some reason, Substitute wanted K'sariya to think that Tella was a misanthrope, or something. One thing that's become clear so far is that Substitute is more talkative than Tella. The monotone voice in which the information is delivered, though, is anything but comforting. Abruptly, the... whatever it is... that is inhabiting the girl's form comes to a halt. "Tella's body now requires sustenance. It is likely that yours does also. We make camp here."

In a single efficient but utterly graceless movement, Substitute folds Tella's arms and legs, collapsing her with a jolt into a sitting position against the smooth wall of the tunnel. With her hands, it withdraws from her compact backpack what looks like a trail ration bar and a thermos full of some liquid. Mechanically, Tella begins to eat.

In immediate response, there comes an ear-thrumming buzz from somewhere deeper in the tunnel, outside of the pool of red light cast by the LED on Tella's shoulder. The pressure on K'sariya's eardrums quickly reaches uncomfortable, even slightly painful levels as the source of the buzzing zooms out of the darkness in a whirl of green and gold. It swoops down at Tella, clearly intent on taking the food for itself!

Substitute looks up from the food it is mechanically shoveling into Tella's mouth, and raises her right hand to make an effortless gesture. As it does, Tella's eyes flash with a swirl of silver and purple, very different from the usual shades of blue that her eyes turn when she uses her power. A large, heaving chunk of the world in front of the Ranger bends and swirls sickeningly for a moment; the Vibrava is nearly knocked out of the air as it enters the psychic vortex.

Then it's ejected violently from the queasy warp in the world's fabric, tumbling end over end and coming to rest clinging to the tunnel's wall in absolute confusion, unable to determine exactly what just happened, or which way is up and which way is down.

"This is for you to deal with." Substitute's voice is still monotone, still devoid of anything but efficiency. Had that one brief edge of emotion K'sariya thought she'd heard in its tone been just her imagination? "Good luck, Invictus. K'sariya."


Current Encounter: Vibrava

Vibrava: 100% [CON-0]
Invictus: 93.02%


~~Park Run Statistics~~

• Trainer Name: K'sariya Yeboah
  
  
• Location: Mt. Deckbi
  
  
• Remaining Encounters: 11
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainer (total this run): 49,557
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainer (since last encounter): 2,629
  
  
• Active Effects: None
  
  
• K'sariya's Pokémon Stats:
  Invictus the Aggron — Currently out of Poké Ball
  HP: 93.02%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Rock Head
  Nature: Brave
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM26 Earthquake, BM Head Smash, TM Substitute, BM Magnet Rise, MT Ice Punch, TM Aerial Ace, TM Sandstorm, TM Shadow Claw
  
  Raigho the Hydreigon
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Levitate
  Nature: Hasty
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM100 Flamethrower, TM31 Dark Pulse
  
  Alixra the Venusaur
  HP: 100%
  Gender: Female
  Ability: Chlorophyll
  Nature: Calm
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Substitute, TM Sunny Day, SM Ancient Power, BM Ingrain, TM Hidden Power (Flying), TM Psych Up, TM Earthquake, TM Sludge Bomb
  
  Mimulnir the Noivern
  HP: 75.40%
  Gender: Male
  Ability: Infiltrator
  Nature: Jolly
  TM/HM/BM/SM/MT: TM Shadow Ball, TM Flamethrower, TM Psychic, TM Substitute, BM Draco Meteor
  
  
• Total Items:
  • Park Balls (x 6)
  • Super Balls (x 4)
  • Hyper Balls (x 2)
  • Energy Powder (x 2)
  • Energy Powder Plus (x 1)
    
  • Lava Cookie (x 2)
  • Poké Doll (x 2)
  • Honey (x 1)
  • Digital Camera
  • Apricorn Box
  Yellow Apricorn (x 1)
  
  
• Total Captured Pokémon:
  Fletchling: Male, Hardy nature

 

It's ominous, the way they inch slowly down into the bowels of the mountain. She feels as if this "Substitute" is guiding them into the belly of the whale and she's not sure how many pieces they'll be spit back up in. The woman becomes suddenly very conscious of the hundreds of thousands of tons of rock that press in on all sides and the way that they can come down at any moment. As she walks, she steps a tiny bit closer to Invictus, who gladly takes up guard at her side, incredibly in tune with her anxieties and seeking to soothe them.

Numbly, she stares forward as a voice that is not Tella's emerges from the Ranger's body again. It is faint, heard only in the hollow echoes against the stone. It makes the mechanical, flat voice sound even more hollow, more empty. A question is posed but K'sariya only answers in her head.

Supposedly for the same reason that I do, the woman muses inwardly, somberly. It's lonely all of the sudden, with both humanoid and metallic footsteps the only sounds echoing in the halls. There are bodies here, but no souls, and it's an incredibly devoid feeling to be all alone down here. She remembers the way that Tella has saved her so many times--selflessly thrown herself into danger for her sake. Would this empty shell be inclined to do the same? Likely not. And as much as she absolutely despised their brushes with death with every fiber of her being, she always knew that Tella would get her out of them alive, and that was all that mattered in the end.

Would this... thing? She wasn't so sure.

It's flattery, in some regards, that she is the apparent chosen one of Tella's acquaintances. Tolerate is a bit of a harsh word for the way they'd struggled and fought tooth and nail through the forsaken mountains of the park but the monotone vocals of Tella's babysitting inhabitant suggest it's not inclined to euphemism. It's successful, though--the question invokes thought and K'sariya soon finds herself lost in it. So much, in fact, that when the mechanical being before her comes to a stop, she jumps when she halts behind... it.

The Trainer is not comfortable enough to sit, and certainly not to eat.

It turns out to benefit her. A buzzing noise emerges in the tunnel's distance, crescendoing with growing proximity. She recognizes it immediately through raising Jecht. "Vibrava," she warns Invictus even though the Aggron too well-remembers the sound. They'd come to associate that buzzing with trouble due to the prankster's nature. Fortunately, the steel titan had been a good peacemaker. The sound of crackling frost joins the buzzing to echo in the room. Invictus is aware that she's slower than the average Vibrava--she Autotomizes to prepare, iron links snapping familiarly away and falling with heavy thuds to the earth as she lightens her weight and enhances her speed. She also begins to attune herself with the magnetic affinities of the earth and the poles, prepared to save herself the pain of her last Ground-type experience with a Magnet Rise if need be. For now, however, she does not use the move, preferring to save the energy.

K'sariya's familiarity with Tella's psychic powers does not prepare her for what happens when the noisy bug swoops to try to steal the food. She can barely believe her eyes as she witnesses the first offensive use of her powers. One never expects to see the very fabric of existence twist and warp on a Park run. Disoriented, the creature stumbles against the wall, utterly disoriented. The impassive monolith of a Ranger surrogate passes responsibility to them and K'sariya looks over to her companion.

Abyssal pupils flick to the ice that slowly begins to envelope the Aggron's fist and the missing steel bands and gives an approving nod. "Rock Tomb it," she commands quietly, flatly. There's a numbness in her at the moment--it's easier than dealing with the emotions currently surging through her conscience. Invictus lunges forward.

The first step is a stomp, sending force rocketing down through the earth beneath them, racing to seek to thrust entrapping boulders up from the walls to try to lock the Vibrava in place. She charges with the Ice Punch, aiming to smash the frozen fist into the ground dragon's body and wings while it's still disoriented. The impassive chill of her Trainer wears off on the in-tune Pokemon. With their fates dangling so precariously beneath the volcano, she is merciless. ​