Ultra Wormhole RP — Jake Aldenberg (CowboyJake)

Non-Battle Post #1

Tella Marr was unhappy with the present situation.

The demand for Rangers was at an all-time high, and all hands were needed on deck; but she wanted nothing more than to stay exactly where she was, lying hidden on the rooftop of one of the hastily-erected log cabins at the Ranger outpost outside the Enigma Ruins.

The odd, pulsating, not-quite-electronic hum from below and perhaps sixty metres to her right, though, served as a constant reminder that she wouldn't be able to escape into the wilds anytime soon. Beyond that sound, there was the noise of the hustle and bustle of people and Pokémon: Rangers and Trainers going to and fro between the cabins, tents, and the Ultra Wormhole.

The madness had started when a Ranger and Trainer headed for the Enigma Ruins went mysteriously missing, with not even a radio transmission from the disappeared Ranger to indicate anything was amiss. After three days, Tella had been sent in to join a group of three other Rangers to investigate the disappearance; they'd found the two stumbling, disoriented but unharmed, from a mysterious rent in the world, with rare Pokémon in their Park Balls. Since then, a full-scale investigation had occurred, and the Park authorities had declared the Ultra Wormhole— in Tella's opinion, far too prematurely— "Only Somewhat Dangerous."

Now, the stream of newcomers to the Park seeking mystery and rare Pokémon had become ceaseless, and an entire miniature village was springing up.

With a sigh, Tella levered herself into a standing position on the rooftop, and checked the waterproof digital watch on her wrist; it was almost time for her to meet the next Trainer who needed to be conducted through the Ultra Wormhole. The paperwork had given his name as Jake; and she'd been instructed to meet him...

...Right about here, right about now. With barely a thought for the drop, but careful to ensure there was no one already standing where she meant to come down, Tella hopped the four metres off of the cabin roof and landed in a crouch in front of the doorway where she was meant to wait for the Trainer. Her landing was surprisingly graceful given her military-style boots, the heavy black jacket she wore, and the bulletproof vest peeking out through the unzipped front. Her long sleeves and ski pants, even with the kevlar patches sewn onto them, barely rustled even as she straightened and took in her surroundings with the almond-shaped blue-grey eyes that, more than any other aspect of her appearance, declared her a native of Kanto.

"I'm looking for Jake Aldenberg," she said in a businesslike tone. "Please identify yourself, Mr. Aldenberg."

~~Wormhole Run Statistics~~

• Trainer Name: Jake Aldenberg
  
  
• Location: Ultra Wormhole
  
  
• Remaining Encounters: 5
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainer (since last encounter): 0
  
  
• Active Effects: none
  
  
• Pokémon Stats:

Mark the Politoed

HP: 100%
Gender: Male
Ability: Drizzle
Nature: Mild
Natural Moves: Amnesia, Belly Drum, Body Slam, Bounce, Bubble, Bubble Beam, Double Slap, Hydro Pump, Hyper Voice, Hypnosis, Mud Bomb, Mud Shot, Perish Song, Rain Dance, Swagger, Wake-Up Slap, Water Gun, Water Sport
Extra Moves:
TMs/HMs: Brick Break, Ice Beam, Rest, Mimic, Thief, Substitute, Surf, Waterfall

Sara the NUKEM Dusknoir

HP: 100%
Gender: Female
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Hardy
Natural Moves: Astonish, Bind, Confuse Ray, Curse, Disable, Fire Punch, Foresight, Future Sight, Gravity, Hex, Ice Punch, Leer, Mean Look, Night Shade, Payback, Pursuit, Shadow Ball, Shadow Punch, Shadow Sneak, Thunder Punch, Will-O-Wisp
Extra Moves:
TMs/HMs: Attract, Brick Break, Bulldoze, Captivate, Power-up Punch, Protect, Psych Up, Rest, Taunt, Trick Room, Skill Swap, Snatch, Substitute
BMs: Destiny Bond, Haze, Ominous Wind, Pain Split
MTs: Counter, Mimic, Sucker Punch

• Total Items:
  • 3 Hyper Balls
  • 5 Super Balls
  • 1 Calming Fragrance Plus
  • 1 Poké Doll
  • 1 Revival Herb
  • 2 Energy Powder
  • 1 Energy Powder Plus
  • 2 Lava Cookie
  
  
• Total Captured Pokemon:
  None yet!

 

Around a makeshift table inside the cabin, a couple of would-be explorers chatted excitedly over their plans for the Wormhole. One swore to have seen a similar wormhole before, but was shouted down quickly when his story stopped adding up. Another noted that her uncle's roommate's niece had already been in there, and nearly died. One remaining one sat relatively quietly, near-meditatively rolling his thumbs over the stickers on a pair of Poké Balls; one in the shape of a spiral surrounded by rain decals, the other a cartoon skull behind a smoky gray filter.

Hearing his name, the trainer reflexively flinched and shoved everything back into the fanny pack around his waist, turning quickly to the voice that called him. "Yes? Er, right. I'm Jake Aldenberg, over here," he called out, probably a good bit louder than he needed to. Walking briskly over to the Ranger with a raised hand, Jake did his best to nod politely, though her outfit drew his attention for a few seconds. "Sorry if I kept you waiting, I'm all packed and ready to go. But, um, if you don't mind me asking. I haven't had a chance to ask a ranger yet, but how bad is it in there? Do I need to be prepared for, oh, I don't know... death?"

 

Tella's dull grey eyes blinked exactly once, slowly, as she considered the Trainer who'd spoken. In the space of three or four seconds, she considered his travel boots; his solid-blue outfit; the simple black pack at his waist for his gear; and, looking up— way up, since Jake towered over her by almost a full foot— she briefly inspected his ordinary-looking brown eyes and hair before reaching out and briefly but firmly shaking his hand.

"I'm Tella," the young woman introduced herself, making eye contact and holding it with the fixed intensity of a predator watching for signs of weakness. "The Wormhole is Only Somewhat Dangerous. No one's died, and no one will, Mr. Aldenberg, as long as the Park Rangers' instructions are obeyed as per the waiver forms all visitors sign."

Tella's businesslike tone left no room for chit-chat, and that was exactly as the Ranger meant to have it. "Please follow me to the Wormhole." Turning and walking briskly away, apparently without caring whether Jake was keeping up or not, Tella made straight for the odd heat-haze-resembling warping in the air at the centre of the encampment. The closer she got, the less the Wormhole resembled heat haze and the more it resembled a funnel-shaped column of light, like a whirlpool turned upside down in midair; instead of whirling down from the sky, though, the light appeared to be spilling from an impossible direction that could not be expressed in terms of up, down, left, right.

Stopping to take a deep breath and then let it out in a very carefully controlled fashion, Tella stopped in the centre of the vortex, then began to walk portalward. To all outside eyes, she would seem to be walking in a direction that could not be defined except that it was not up into the sky, nor was it down into the ground, nor forward, nor backward, nor even sideways. It was none of these directions and no combination thereof... but it was a direction. To try to determine anything further bent the mind, and ultimately proved impossible to all onlookers— the portal was interdimensional in a very literal sense. After perhaps twenty seconds' portalward walking, she and anyone following her would be gone entirely from the ordinary world.

On the other side of the portal was a space that could only be described as infinite. The floor, an expanse of featureless white, was an endless slope in all directions; but the slope was both up and down simultaneously, like a staircase depicted in two dimensions with no context. Above and below this expanse, (again simultaneously,) a sky/bottomless pit of perfect pitch blackness stretched forever, with nothing to break the emptiness. Tella did well to suppress a shudder— completely suppress, for she had long since been forced to become a master of hiding her true reactions— and began to walk up/down one of the slopes toward a cluster of portals: the only things that broke the infinite monotony.

There were six portals, each one shining a different colour. In the centre of each: the distant suggestion of movement; the impression of images without any actual visible picture; of noise without any sound; of sensations without being touched.

A dark blue portal swirled with intimations of deep water and the sensation of crashing waves. A dark green one made not even a whisper of sound, but its light sighed with the breath of wind through tree branches.

A red portal blazed with heat that could be felt on the skin, but only when one looked directly at it. A white portal was there, too; when Tella glanced at it, she looked away quickly to escape the sensation of cold, and the unwelcome gut-clenching feeling of nearly falling from a great height.

A pink portal silently hummed with a much friendlier energy (to Tella, at least, though the power would feel otherworldly and alien to most human beings,) and a purple portal standing very close to the pink one emitted a scream of half-mad laughter that could be heard only with the eyes.

For the first time, now that she was standing near the portals, Tella glanced back down/up the infinite slope, as if to check whether Jake were even following. In reality, she knew he was— she could sense his presence— but he didn't need to know that.


~~Wormhole Run Statistics~~

• Trainer Name: Jake Aldenberg
  
  
• Location: Ultra Wormhole
  
  
• Remaining Encounters: 5
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainer (since last encounter): 1,212
  
  
• Active Effects: none
  
  
• Pokémon Stats:

Mark the Politoed

HP: 100%
Gender: Male
Ability: Drizzle
Nature: Mild
Natural Moves: Amnesia, Belly Drum, Body Slam, Bounce, Bubble, Bubble Beam, Double Slap, Hydro Pump, Hyper Voice, Hypnosis, Mud Bomb, Mud Shot, Perish Song, Rain Dance, Swagger, Wake-Up Slap, Water Gun, Water Sport
Extra Moves:
TMs/HMs: Brick Break, Ice Beam, Rest, Mimic, Thief, Substitute, Surf, Waterfall

Sara the NUKEM Dusknoir

HP: 100%
Gender: Female
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Hardy
Natural Moves: Astonish, Bind, Confuse Ray, Curse, Disable, Fire Punch, Foresight, Future Sight, Gravity, Hex, Ice Punch, Leer, Mean Look, Night Shade, Payback, Pursuit, Shadow Ball, Shadow Punch, Shadow Sneak, Thunder Punch, Will-O-Wisp
Extra Moves:
TMs/HMs: Attract, Brick Break, Bulldoze, Captivate, Power-up Punch, Protect, Psych Up, Rest, Taunt, Trick Room, Skill Swap, Snatch, Substitute
BMs: Destiny Bond, Haze, Ominous Wind, Pain Split
MTs: Counter, Mimic, Sucker Punch

• Total Items:
  • 3 Hyper Balls
  • 5 Super Balls
  • 1 Calming Fragrance Plus
  • 1 Poké Doll
  • 1 Revival Herb
  • 2 Energy Powder
  • 1 Energy Powder Plus
  • 2 Lava Cookie
  
  
• Total Captured Pokemon:
  None yet!

 

If nothing else, now Jake had a name (and authority behind it) to go off of; Tella seemed to know what she was doing, carefully enunciating the capital letters in the Only Somewhat Dangerous Wormhole. It looked as though the group would be getting immediately into the meat of the odyssey, the ranger already striding toward the glowing monstrosity in the center of the makeshift village. Despite his longer legs, Jake had to struggle a bit to keep up; he wondered if his guide already had similar journeys lined up for today with other trainers.

It was hard to say when they arrived at the wormhole, per se; the light it gave off and its omnipresent pulsing threw off his estimate of both how close and how large it was. Harder still to describe was the experience of using the portal, with Jake later unable to even really say what direction the pair were walking. He suspected that he wouldn't be able to understand anyways, and it was one of those things that, like Sara's eating habits, could only negatively affect his life to learn. In the meantime, the best option was simply to try and keep pace with the petite ranger leading the way, such as it was.

Unfortunately, things didn't get any more comprehensible once they arrived at their destination; a slanted sea of white and black, as though the architects of the universe were distracted by lunch break and promised to fill it in later. The altered world didn't seem immediately hostile to Jake's senses, but after a moment's consideration found the idea of being stuck here, amid endless blankness, far worse. At least danger can be evaded. What could you do in the face of sheer, unstoppable ennui?

The landscape, and his increasingly philosophical musings, were broken up by a handful of candy-colored portals, presumably the exit to the waypoint they found themselves at. Even just looking at them made Jake uncomfortable, giving him a pervasive feeling that his senses were in the wrong order-- hearing light dappled through treetops, the lingering taste of a fear of heights, and the laughter of the restless dead on his skin, all filtered through a sickeningly bright rainbow.

Red, green, blue, purple, pink, white. Although Tella still was looking away from him, Jake felt put on the spot. Letting out a breath he'd unconsciously been holding, he spoke up for the first time so far, cutting through the noiseless clamor of the portals and the roaring silence of the void beyond. "If-" He flinched, surprised to hear himself so loudly- "If I could make a request? I'd prefer the red one over there- I just feel more comfortable dealing with heat and fire," he hastily rationalized, already rubbing his fingers over the rain-patterned ball in his pocket.

 

"As you wish," Tella responded, her tone (or lack thereof) giving no indication of what she thought about Jake's decision. "Follow me after twenty seconds. If I haven't emerged to stop you by then, it's safe."

She turned and strode toward the red portal, shrugging her rucksack off her shoulders and shedding her heavy black jacket as she went. Underneath the thick coat, the lumpy shape of a bulletproof vest covered Tella's long-sleeved black v-neck shirt. Rolling up the overgarment and stuffing it into her bag, Tella pulled her pack back on and stepped through the red portal.

On the other side of the portal, Tella arrived on a stone expanse lit by a pervasive red glow. The air was filled with drifting ash and a choking haze of dense smoke; it assaulted Tella's nostrils with the smell of molten rock, and threatened to prevent the Ranger from breathing until she swiftly dug a thick black scarf from her bag and wrapped it tightly several times around her mouth and nose. Thus protected, Tella took in her surroundings with the practiced eye of one who's used to sizing up new situations.

Around the Ranger sprawled shattered formations of greyish-black igneous rock, arranged in what could only be described as a cross between a canyon and a landscape-sized crater. The red portal through which she'd arrived sat at the bottom of a gradually sloping depression whose lip wasn't even visible in the distance. The crater had to be tens of kilometres— perhaps even hundreds— across; the jagged stone looked freshly broken, as though some force had recently wrenched the missing mass free of this place. Nothing moved; there didn't seem to be living things here, not even plants or insects.

With her immediate surroundings scanned in the space of mere seconds, Tella now had the presence of mind to look up; and then immediately, instinctively dropped into a fighter's crouch, her hands clenching into fists for a brief moment at what she saw. Perhaps a kilometre above, an upside-down mountain range hung from the sky— complete with a lava-filled caldera glowing at its closest peak— and belched acrid volcanic smoke. It was as though some capricious god had torn a mountain range free from the ground by its roots and then turned it upside down, before losing interest and leaving it to hover impossibly above the resulting crater. In utter defiance of all logic, the lava flowing from the caldera ran up the inverted mountain's slopes; and the smoke from the volcano descended to form a cloud approximately five hundred metres above the portal, halfway between the ground and the mountaintop, where it seemed as though the inversion of gravity was centred. Ash drifted away in both directions— upwards and downwards— from that smoky cloud, filling the air on the mountain and in the crater with haze and covering everything with a thin layer of snow-like flakes until the hot winds carried the ashes away.

Tella relaxed bit by bit, straightening and adjusting the tension out of her shoulders until her fright no longer showed in her posture. Then, thankful that no one had been present to see her fearful reaction, she turned to face the portal she'd come through, fishing around in her rucksack once more. From a first-aid kit strapped to one of the inner pockets, she withdrew a disposable medical face-mask with elastic loops that her charge could wrap around his ears to keep it on. Wordlessly, she held the mask out towards the red rent in the air, waiting for Jake to arrive. There was no need to warn him not to follow her through the portal— luckily, it didn't seem like the impossible mountain above was in any danger of coming crashing down anytime soon— so he should be here in just a few more seconds...


~~Wormhole Run Statistics~~

• Trainer Name: Jake Aldenberg
  
  
• Location: Ultra Wormhole
  
  
• Remaining Encounters: 5
  
  
• Characters Written by Trainer (since last encounter): 3,937
  
  
• Active Effects: "Fog" (volcanic smoke chokes the air)
  
  
• Pokémon Stats:

Mark the Politoed

HP: 100%
Gender: Male
Ability: Drizzle
Nature: Mild
Natural Moves: Amnesia, Belly Drum, Body Slam, Bounce, Bubble, Bubble Beam, Double Slap, Hydro Pump, Hyper Voice, Hypnosis, Mud Bomb, Mud Shot, Perish Song, Rain Dance, Swagger, Wake-Up Slap, Water Gun, Water Sport
Extra Moves:
TMs/HMs: Brick Break, Ice Beam, Rest, Mimic, Thief, Substitute, Surf, Waterfall

Sara the NUKEM Dusknoir

HP: 100%
Gender: Female
Ability: Pressure
Nature: Hardy
Natural Moves: Astonish, Bind, Confuse Ray, Curse, Disable, Fire Punch, Foresight, Future Sight, Gravity, Hex, Ice Punch, Leer, Mean Look, Night Shade, Payback, Pursuit, Shadow Ball, Shadow Punch, Shadow Sneak, Thunder Punch, Will-O-Wisp
Extra Moves:
TMs/HMs: Attract, Brick Break, Bulldoze, Captivate, Power-up Punch, Protect, Psych Up, Rest, Taunt, Trick Room, Skill Swap, Snatch, Substitute
BMs: Destiny Bond, Haze, Ominous Wind, Pain Split
MTs: Counter, Mimic, Sucker Punch

• Total Items:
  • 3 Hyper Balls
  • 5 Super Balls
  • 1 Calming Fragrance Plus
  • 1 Poké Doll
  • 1 Revival Herb
  • 2 Energy Powder
  • 1 Energy Powder Plus
  • 2 Lava Cookie
  
  
• Total Captured Pokemon:
  None yet!