4.0 Dedicated to its Members and Fans of Pokemon A Pokemon Sandbox RP
Pokémon Dubstep (ft. Lindsey Stirling)
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elcome Adventurer to EPOCH! A Pokemon Sandbox Rp set in the original region of Nue. Everything you need to know will be in the Guidebook and PokeDex 101!
EPOCH uses the Manga and is built on the Original ideas suggested by our members.
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RULES
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EPOCH is PG-13. Proboards’ Terms of Service:
Sex; When you get under the clothes, fade to black.
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Post by Ricki Jace on Sept 8, 2013 16:28:09 GMT -5
I HAVE 1,395 WORDS FOR JASON THAM
JUST SO YOU KNOW - - -
Quite frankly, the idea of catching a runaway Abra was something easier said than done. Had the pay been just a few spare dots, Ricki wouldn’t have even considered the job, but this Abra was lucky enough to have a rather wealthy caretaker. A hefty price had been slapped onto the Pokémon’s head, big enough that Ricki had no qualms with splitting it with her current co-worker. While she had no idea what the mild-mannered Jason Tham could do to really help out with this task, it was nice to have a second set of eyes that could speak her language for once.
Even with a companion in tow, that wasn’t enough to get Ricki back in gear that morning. Their employer had decided to show them the way to the ruins and even promised to provide a map with the route she had been taking when her abra had vanished. Due to an injury earn in the Ruins, though, she wouldn’t be able to come with them pass the entrance to the ruins. What their employer also decided to do was pick the earliest ferry ride available so they could have plenty of sun light to help them with their search. Ricki was no morning person, and she was lucky that she even woke up on time.
A usually chatty and active young woman was slow and mostly silent for the whole course of the morning. Any chance she got to close her eyes and rest more, Ricki was out. Waiting for breakfast to make it to the table? Her head was down on the table, eyes shut, and snoozing away. Waiting for the ferry to be prepared for boarding? Fast asleep on the ground, and then a bench for a short period of time. The majority of the ride from Chrono Island to Fortune Island? Out cold.
Getting off the ferry and beginning the journey onto the island, the heat of the desert they had to cross was enough to wake her up. If there was one kind of weather Ricki hated it was hot and dry. Thankfully, these weren’t the ruins they were looking for. Their goal was much further ahead, through the thick brush of the tropical forest that bordered the desert and separated it from the chilling mountains. Halfway through the forests, Ricki was already putting her hair into a pony tail to stop it from sticking to the back of her neck. Light sprinkles of rain had fallen on them, but no heavy showers had started up as of yet.
Pushing aside the giant leaves, over ancient roots and around the bushes, their guide was finally slowing down to a stop in a massive clearing in front of what looked like a cave at first. While it appeared to be a cave, though, it became quickly apparent that the structure was man made. The rusted metallic surface was overrun by moss and mud, vines and roots that had grown over its walls. With an opening large enough to almost allow an airplane safely slide right on in, it was amazing no one had managed to find the ginormous entrance before, but considering how thick the forest was, it was understandable it would be hard to even get to this spot in the first place.
The young woman leading the group carefully pulled her backpack from her back and set it on the ground. “This is the entrance to the ruins. There are other ways to get in there, but this was the way I took” she explained as she opened the bag and dug around. As she got to work on pulling out the maps and images for Ricki and Jason, the green haired trainer turned slightly to look back and check on the final member of their little temporary trio. After her old days of doing this kind of work for her old gang, not at the gate to a dangerous place, she was starting to have second thoughts about dragging the other along. Jason didn’t even have Pokémon, and as far as she was aware, he was just some ordinary guy with no experience running for his life. It wouldn’t be the first time she dealt with incompetence, but it was still something to consider before they headed in.
“Ricki?” her employer chirped quizzically, making Richelle’s gaze immediately jerk down to her. The woman glanced towards Jason, before looking up at Ricki with her own concerned look. “Is… Something wrong?” she asked, slowly offering the various papers containing a couple of maps and an image of the Abra they were to be looking for. Not hesitating to take the offered information, Ricki quickly shook her head and looked down at the paper. After a moment, she turned a confident grin to the worried woman.
“Not a thing, don’t worry. We’ll be sure to find your Abra, Lucky, as soon as possible, ma’am” she informed. “Is there anything we should keep an eye out for in the ruins?” she asked, looking back at Jason to offer him the papers as well so he could see where they were going. One map contained a larger version of all the ruins, a neon yellow highlighter having been used to mark the path the original traveler had gone. The next map was a small version probably made by their employer that focused more so on the route she had taken. Little notes had been made along the sides of the paper, although most of them had been smeared presumably by the paper getting wet. The maps had been placed in plastic covers now to prevent them from being ruined further by rainfall at least. The same was also done to the image of the Abra they were looking for, who appeared to have a colorful collar made of yarn around his neck with a little yin-yang charm hanging from it.
“Nothing other than just being really careful. There’s a lot of wild Pokémon running around out here… And, the place is almost ready to fall apart at any given moment, so I wouldn’t advise stomping around on the paths or scaling the walls quickly” the other woman warned, zipping her backpack shut after pulling out a set of tiny folded down umbrellas. She smiled at Ricki and Jason as she offered them to the duo. “Thank you, really. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to come back for weeks to try and find him” she sighed, clearly very grateful for the two to dare to venture back in. Ricki smiled and took the offered umbrellas, tying them to her duffel bag for easy access. “Um… Is there anything else you need, or…?” the woman asked, turning a timid glance to the dark tunnel entrance, almost wishing she could head in herself.
“I don’t think so” Ricki answered, briefly looking to Jason to see if he was having second thoughts or if he had anything to say. Once she was sure he wasn’t going to chicken out, and his own questions were cleared up by the woman, Ricki unhooked her PokeGear from her belt and held it up to get the woman’s attention. “Once we find Lucky, I’ll be sure to call you so you can meet up with us at the docks” she informed, and grunted when she was suddenly hugged by the woman. Blinking a few times as the woman once more enthusiastically thanked her, Ricki just stood there awkwardly. Once the woman let go, she patted Ricki’s shoulders and flashed a smile to Jason and began to walk off to head back for Chrono Island so to continue resting to let the rest of her injuries heal.
Hooking the gear back to her belt, and dusting herself off, Ricki was already getting to the task of letting out Rep the Lucario. Stretching her arms out above her head with a sigh, the young trainer was ready to go. Before taking off though, she turned to Jason and set her hands on her hips. “Last chance to head back, you ready to head in or…?” she asked, quirking a brow. The older man pretty much towered over her, but the little trainer had no issue with the idea of forcing him to follow after the employer if she saw any sign he’d be more trouble than he was worth.
Post by Jason Tham on Sept 13, 2013 19:02:40 GMT -5
An obvious disinterest, a barely managed smile A deep nod in agreement, a status quo exile
If there was any one lesson that Jason had learned during his time on the planet so far, it was that life was a chaotic mess that few people could ever really anticipate or plan for, and it seemed that applied to even the most innocuous of encounters. Back when he had first met Richelle Jace on the Kanto mainland he had never really imagined the possibility that he would run into her again less than a month later - all things considered, the world was a very big place, and such chance meetings very slim, few and far between. Under normal circumstances he would probably think that most people would simply attribute it to chance or coincidence - a freak incident that flew in the face of probability, but that was entirely possible on its own. That being said, his circumstances were not what most would call normal, and he was not the kind of person to take chances with that sort of thing, not when it meant the difference between walking free and being forced to live a life he wanted no part of. Needless to say, when Richelle Jace had found him again for the third time, he'd been more than skeptical concerning her and whatever she wanted. Bluntly put, everything she'd started to say was exactly what he needed and wanted to hear, and that more than anything else had begun setting off alarms in Jason's head.
That being said, though, the words coming out of her mouth at the time had still been exactly what he needed, and even if he didn't exactly trust her that didn't mean that he could simply afford to ignore the opportunity she was presenting him with. He needed money, and he needed it badly - for almost the past year he'd gotten away with simply skimming from the accounts of his old employers, but they were bound to notice his antics sooner or later if they hadn't already. Every time he touched that money it increased the chances that they would find and catch up to him, and every time that happened the chances of him slipping away and back into the relative safety of the masses decreased significantly - acting in an unpredictable and cautious fashion only worked for so long before the odds caught up to you. While he had taken the precaution of checking up on everything relating to the job he had been offered a share in and it had all checked out and he had, in the end, agreed to help in exchange for a portion of the profits, that did not mean he was about to let his guard down.
Having met Ricki off of the ferry on Fortune Island, most of the morning that she was spending conked out and sleeping had been spent by him reviewing every bit of information she had provided related to the job - both in looking for any fallacies and potential holes in the story, and in familiarizing himself with the area and the job's details. Success was in the details, and it was a lesson that Jason had learned a long, long time ago - it didn't matter how good you were at what you did or how physically capable you might be, if a single uncontrolled variable became a problem it could easily ruin an entire job. One variable always affected others, and whatever you might have initially accounted for would amount to nothing if everything changed - it was something that even the most experienced operatives and trackers fell for, and the only reason Jason was anything near as good as he was basically amounted to him leaving nothing to chance when possible. You couldn't control the world, but you could predict how it would act, evolve and change, and it was identifying those critical points that Jason had excelled at.
In the time it took both of them to cross the island's desert and the dense vegetation surrounding their destination, though, Jason was fairly certain that he'd picked out the points of the job that had the potential to be the most troublesome. First and foremost, the species of Pokemon that they were chasing - while it wasn't as problematic as Natu or Xatu were as their precognition made sure that they would always see you coming, the Abra line was notorious for fleeing at the first sign of trouble. That, while normally irritating, would be further exacerbated by the ruins in question - Jason's first action on arriving had been to ask around about their destination, and the fact that the ruins were as unstable as the locals seemed to believe was not a good omen when one took into account that the woman who was hiring them had been injured in her visit to the place. While such a location would be a blessing for him under normal circumstances since it would likely allow him to stalk and approach his target unnoticed, attempting that here would not be the safe bet it usually was, and as Jason simply stood there and looked over the ruins while Ricki conversed with their "employer" he found himself already picking out potential problem spots in structural integrity even as he mentally began plotting out possible paths around, over or under obstacles both outside and through the ruins. A good thing that Ricki had her own Pokemon - the Lucario she had would be invaluable as a tracker in this place, and with any luck would be able to greatly reduce the probability of any injury.
"I'm fine. The sooner we finish the job done the sooner we can head back." Jason replied, briefly glancing to Ricki and away from the ruins as she asked him whether or not he wanted to head back. He might not have completely trusted her due to circumstance, but that did not mean he wanted to see her injured doing this - Pokemon helped people accomplish a lot that they normally couldn't but it also weakened them to an extent. They became sloppy, confident in their Pokemon's abilities and let their own skills degrade as they became overdependant - while he didn't know if that held true for Jace, he needed the money as well, and almost immediately after replying to her question Jason began walking towards the ruins' main entrance.
The idea of dragging Jason along on this quest had, at first, been a rather nice idea. The buddy system wasn’t really the reasoning behind her choice to invite him, but it was more so thinking these things were always more fun and easier when someone else was around. Upon actually seeing the ruins and what laid ahead, though… Quite frankly, Ricki was hesitant to let him go in there. She didn’t know what he was capable of, and so far, she hadn’t seen really anything that would tell her just what he could do. While she’d spent the morning in and out of sleep, she could remember clear as day the sight of Jason intensively going through all of the facts and information concerning this job. The ability to comb through all the details like that wouldn’t be much use here as far as she was aware.
After observing him taking in the sight of the ruins in the distance, and the dark entrance they would have to go into, she was a bit put off by the sight of his reaction. He was… Calm. There wasn’t the ever eager run-in-head-first type of attitude she was used to dealing with when working with the guys from Arcane. He wasn’t even pulling out the arrogant, I could do this myself, type of attitude she loathed. She was grateful that he wasn’t even having any sort of panic attacks, or nervous fits, but she was still not quite sure how to feel about his reaction to this whole setting. Reluctance to head in, but a willingness to do it anyways, he was prepared, almost like he’d done this before. Maybe he had? Maybe Jason Tham had an old history of doing this kind of stuff, but he hardly seemed like the type.
Giving him the final offer to let him off the hook, Jason assured her he was fine and ready to go without any sign of trouble on his part. With that, Ricki finally relented on her inner debate of letting him go or not. No warning signs or alerts had gone off, so she had no means to justify sending him off, anyways. Responding to his words with a curt nod, the green haired trainer waited for Jason to catch up to her before starting on inside. Rep took to the front of the trio as they began to venture into the ancient metal cave. The humidity outside of the tunnel was much more comfortable than what the group ended up walking into. It was almost as if they had been covered in a layer of sweat from a long day of working under the sun. Ricki had even removed her hoodie as they walked, tying it around her hips. Sporting a zipped up turtle neck tank top now, a set of scarred up arms from years and years of rough shenanigans made themselves apparent.
The further into the dark tunnel the two went, the harder it gradually became to see before Ricki finally let out a second Pokémon to act as their ‘flash light’ for now. A Cyndaquil lounged in her arms with a fire flickering on its back, careful to not burn Ricki like a Ponyta refused to allow their flames to burn a trainer they trusted. A few of the scars on Ricki’s arms came from trying to ride a wild Ponyta back in the hot fields of her home region, actually. With the gentle heat of Cinder’s flames, it became much easier to watch where they stepped in the orange glow. Ahead of them, the fire reflected off of various puddles and little ponds, revealing the soggy interior of the man-made cave had been collecting water throughout the centuries of heavy rain. The soft ground only seemed to get softer the further they went down, dirt turning into mud and muddy water when the path way was covered in, at most, two inches deep of water.
It was silent for the most part. Minus the sound of their footsteps, the gradually fading reverb of the jungle’s ambiance from behind, and water dripping or running throughout the large entrance. In some ways, it was almost calming, but there was also an eerie feeling to it. Ricki’s head slowly turned to peer over at her travel companion, before she looked back ahead, heaving a soft sigh. The sound of said sigh only seemed to be a bit louder than it usually would be given their location. When it registered to her ears, Ricki looked up at the ceiling curiously, and smiled as the temptation to shout and listen to her own echo hit her. “Rep, you locate the abra, yet?” Ricki asked, looking ahead at the Lucario who still had the lead. Even speaking had the slight echo effect, easily amusing the young trainer.
Giving a simple nod, the Lucario continued on along his path down the tunnel. No other words were spoken, minus a few soft mumbles from Ricki amusing herself with the simple echoes the tunnel gave in return. She hummed and debated a loud shout, but after another glance towards Jason, Ricki felt that might be a poor idea. The path was pretty straight forward up until a fork in the road presented itself. Rep didn’t hesitate to start heading off to the right. Without question, Ricki continued on after Rep’s lead, noting the flaps on the back of his head had risen to signal he was already in his aura sensing mode. The further they went, the more puddles and mud seemed to appear, and standing still was just asking to get your feet slowly. Continuing down the right tunnel, the sound of running water began to get gradually louder and louder, but there was clearly something blocking the sound.
As the group grew closer to the sound, Rep was the first to stop. Having taken the lead with not needing the Cyndaquil’s fire to navigate, he saw just what it was that had placed itself between them and the source of the sound of running water. Even without sensing, though, he could see the blockade due to light leaking in from a massive hole in the ceiling. With trees and the landscape above, the light had to fight to get through to the caverns below. Where it did manage to leak in, the light would illuminate a wall of fallen boulders and rocks that blocked the path ahead. Looking up at the ceiling, it almost looked as if something had broken through it, said something probably being the current obstacle in their path.
Slowing to a stop as she approached, Ricki frowned and looked over at Rep with a quirked brow. “See a way around it?” was her first question, before the Lucario simply shook his head. “Is the Abra in there?” she asked, nodding her head to the wall. The Lucario gave a nod, and Ricki sighed in irritation. At the base of the rocks, they seemed to have created a make shift dam as at least a foot of water had built up itself at the base. With the hole in the ceiling, it might be possible to climb over, but the soaked rocks provided a slick surface that would be hard to hold onto. Seeing the challenge, Ricki slowly bobbed her head back and forth in thought, before taking the moment to set Cinder on her head.
Reaching into her bag, she briefly pulled out a set of heavily padded gloves, word and torn from acting as protection for her hands when trying to control the wild turns she’d take on her board when Rep was towing her around. Dropping them back into the bag, though, she pulled out a set of slicker fingerless gloves to at least protect her palms. “You think it’s stable enough to climb?” she questioned, glancing over at Jason for a moment, before looking back up and eyeing the wall. She almost wanted to tell Rep to whack it to test it, or just blow it down. The only thing stopping her from giving the order was the thought that if that Abra got spooked by the sound of the crash, this would be a waste of time and effort, and there’d be no telling where it might vanish to next.
Post by Jason Tham on Sept 22, 2013 3:07:54 GMT -5
I DON'T WANNA BE BROKEN
I HAVE 000 WORDS FOR TAG
While it was becoming more and more difficult to see as they ventured deeper into the ruins, Jason almost immediately began to decide he wasn't liking what he was seeing. The person who had hired them for this job was right - this place wasn't safe, and even with the dim, filtered light from the outside world reflecting down the passage he could see that much. The jungle had long since moved in to reclaim this place, and there was plenty of vegetation growing over the walls - and ironically enough, said plant life was probably the most stable parts of it he was seeing, the influence of the natural world being both responsible for the decay of these ruins as well as probably being the only thing holding them up. Cracked walls, dislodged stones, roots growing straight into the corridor and vines crawling up the walls - plenty of hand holds, but only a few of them were stable if he was forced into a situation where the Abra was somewhere high, or if he needed a method of sneaking up on the thing. One single, careless misstep or incorrect handhold would possibly be enough to bring this entire place down on their heads, and that in and of itself made him.... weary... of using his more unique talents here. For the time being, at least, he wasn't going to be much different from your normal, everyday human, and it wasn't all that often he felt so vulnerable. It was not a feeling he liked, and the sooner this was done and over with, the better.
Simply blinking as Ricki pulled out one of her Pokemon, a smaller Fire type, Jason merely continued ahead in silence only to pause and stop at coming around a corner at the end of the hallway, following the woman's Lucario - turning right, the man simply found himself presented a dead end, the soft glow of daylight poking through the cracks of the collapsed tunnel ahead of them. Erosion, possibly? There was definite signs of water aside from the muffled sounds they were hearing, but it wasn't like it particularly mattered - according to the Lucario the Pokemon they'd gone there to find was through that passage. Not that the stone barrier would've provided much challenge - Abra were renowned for their teleportation ability, but he, Rep and Ricki were an entirely different story, and the signs of decay and instability he saw before once again came to mind. Going back and trying to find away around was certainly an option, but as Jason looked up towards the ceiling, that was probably an even worse idea. They only had that small map to go off of, and it didn't list any above ground landmarks - there was literally nothing to stop them from simply stepping on a weakened section of the ruins elsewhere and simply falling into the ground as it caved in, and with that thought in mind Jason simply stepped forward and began to climb his way up over the rocks and towards the surface.
Reaching the top of the pile of collapsed stone, Jason simply paused for a moment as he let his eyes adjust again to the sudden presence of sunlight before taking a look at his surroundings - and more notably, the path ahead. Having simply climbed up above ground, there wasn't much here that was different from where they had entered - trees, trees, and more trees, with vegetation as far as the eyes could see, although there was one exception to that rule - the faintest glimpse of a metallic glint over the tops of the trees ahead, something that should not have been there, but even as he attempted to take a second look at it the wind would blow, shifting the forest canopy and blocking the anomaly from his line of sight. Strange, but not like it particularly mattered - what he cared about concerned what was directly in front of him, namely another large, gaping hole in the forest floor, dropping back down into the same passage on the other side of the wall.
"It seems stable enough to climb, and the path drops back down into the tunnel again on the other side of the wall." Jason called back, moving ahead to start making his way down the other side of the pile of rocks, carefully lowering himself down until his feet once again met the ground before turning to face the way he came and waiting for Ricki and her Lucario to follow.
Ricki had anticipated a verbal response before the other just walked on ahead to climb up the wall. He was cautious and careful with where he grabbed, easily making his way up their roadblock without much trouble at all. Perhaps he was a rock climber at some point? Ricki wasn’t entirely sure, but she didn’t bother to really question the other’s ability to climb a pile of boulders. She was pretty sure Ronnie could do something like that if she had to… Maybe. Probably not, but the point was it wasn’t too difficult. Even if it was seemingly simple, a glance towards her lucario revealed Rep was keeping a very close watch on their current companion to prepared to run in and catch him should he slip.
Once Jason was to the top and out of view, Ricki was already beginning to make her way to the wall. Her eyes trailed up to try and spot him, briefly catching the sight of him scanning the area above ground. Slowly, her head tipped to the side, Cinder the Cyndaquil carefully tensed his legs to make sure he kept his place on the top of his trainer’s head. Despite the Cyndaquil’s weight, after having raised countless rough and tough Pokémon, and her own horse play, her Pokémon’s placement on her head didn’t bother her too much. She was pretty used to it, and her focus was elsewhere for the time being. Waiting for at least some sort of response, Ricki gave a small nod when Jason finally confirmed that the wall was safe to climb.
As Jason carried on to pop out of view once more, Ricki sighed softly and shook her head a little bit. He could at least say something before he just started off like that. He could be a bit more talkative, but at least he didn’t just completely blow her off. With that, she began her climb, Rep hanging back for a moment to make sure she didn’t slip. As she thought, it was pretty simple to climb up the wall, and once she reached the top, she stopped and scanned the area as well. She was curious to see what had made Jason stop and stare. Nothing seemed to really stick out to her, though.
In fact, as far as she was concerned, it was nothing but a beautiful forest as far as the eye could see… Except for the tips of the icy mountains in the distance. She wondered what poor moron decided they’d spend some of their precious summer travelling through an icy cavern like that, but that was some debate for another time. Her focus turned back to the current task at hand as Rep cleared the wall with ease and simply dropped down on the other side. Looking down, Ricki eyed the distance, before deciding it’d be better to climb as well. Making it most of the way down, it was few feet from the floor that she would hop off the wall and land beside her Lucario. Splashing down on a puddle, Ricki took to a crouch for a moment before raising back up to her full height. After getting her footing, Cinder the Cyndaquil immediately kicked his flames back on to illuminate the short tunnel the group had entered.
Rep was already taking the lead once more as he locked down on the location of the Abra they had been pursuing. Ricki was already following after him, taking a moment to glance over at Jason to make sure he was still alright. As usual, though, he just had that passive expression, as if he were practically numb or something. She almost wanted to spark up a discussion to try and get to know her mysterious friend, but where would she begin? Letting out a soft sigh, her eyes trailed upwards and settled on the room the tunnel had lead them into.
Immediately, the walls of the underground greatly expanded, the cavern growing to become large enough it may put a football stadium to shame. With the walls expansion, though, the floor had also dropped down a considerable amount, but a set of stairs at the end of the tunnel would allow them an easy venture down. It wasn’t until they stepped off the last groaning step that it clicked in Ricki’s mind just what the trio had ventured into it. It was like a giant metallic, underground, version of the old coliseums. They had found themselves making their way onto this coliseum’s stage, like gladiators walking right to their final showdown. The massive stage was surrounded by a towering wall to separate the stage from the bleachers. Rows and rows of benches and seats were still there for an audience that was no longer there and would never return. Many piles of boulders and rocks like the one they had climbed over sprinkled over the battlefield as well. Mini-mountains of stone and light leaking in over these mountains, Ricki almost considered returning Cinder at this point, since the area they had entered was decently illuminated at the least.
Leaving him in place for the time being, though, it wouldn’t be until the group passed one of the many towers of boulders that Rep would come to an abrupt stop. Without a noise, he simply gazed over at Ricki and pointed out at one of the piles of boulders. As Ricki slowed to a stop and slowly quirked a brow at Rep, her gaze followed the Lucario’s gesture and swiftly locked on the only dot of color in the dark and groggy underground. A golden Abra was fast asleep on the top of the rocks Rep had pointed out. Lucky appeared to be content with the spot as the sunlight from above ground broke through the hole above him to illuminate the Pokémon. Seeing the Abra, Ricki blinked a few times in surprise. Well, that was easy? Granted, with Rep in tow, this was probably the easier part. Next was the difficult part of catching it and convincing it to not take off before they could return him to his trainer.
Tapping Cinder’s side, the Cyndaquil’s warm glow immediately shut off. Without the glowing dot to make them easier to spot in the darkness, Ricki began her approach. She was relieved the Abra had decided to fall asleep with his back to the world at the least. Unfortunately, that also meant it wouldn’t expect them and might get spooked into teleporting. Ricki frowned slightly at the thought and turned her eyes to Rep. The Lucario simply moved to take his place beside Ricki as they approached the base of the Abra’s mini-mountain. With Lucky having been found so quickly, the Lucario didn’t bother to focus for the time being, relaxing his sensory, just for the moment. In honesty, with his speed, there was a chance he could grab the Abra before it teleported, but given the Abra’s location, he’d even take a bit to make his way up to the top of it without the Abra catching on to the incoming Pokémon. Ricki studied the stack for a moment, before moving to set her hand on one of the boulders at the base of the tower and start to push herself up onto it. Her movement wasn’t nearly as silent as she would have hoped, though, and it was just the sudden sound of her bag sliding to hang at a new angle that made the Abra teleport.
Thankfully, it only teleported to another nearby tower of rocks instead of a new room altogether. The momentary scare of potentially losing their target had made Ricki’s heart skip a beat. That would have been a massive pain in the ass to try and catch back up with the thing, again. When it clicked it was her movement that had caused the Abra to teleport, she turned her gaze to Jason. For a second, her mouth started to open, as if to ask if he wanted to try, but she shut it without a word as her eyes drifted to the nearby Abra. Once more looking at Jason, she nodded her head in the direction of the Abra as if to tell him to give catching the Pokémon a try. Ricki simply just got to the task of trying to slide off of the boulder she’d slid onto without making too much noise.
Post by Jason Tham on Sept 30, 2013 19:23:32 GMT -5
I DON'T WANNA BE BROKEN
I HAVE 1480 WORDS FOR Richelle Jace
Slowly eying the corridor ahead of him, Jason couldn't help but muse to himself a little bit as his partner began to climb her way up over the small hill of debris that he himself had scaled only moments before. While they knew the place they were in was unstable and dangerous, the map they'd been given had been.... vague, at best, and it was a habit of Jason's to always ask questions when there were answers to be had. Probably not the most healthy thing to do given his past, but even now he couldn't help but wonder - who had built this place? Why? How long ago had it been made, and what had happened to the people in question? In many ways the ruins themselves almost reminded him of the Ruins of Alph in Johto - the construction was similar enough, but unlike those places there were no Unown adorning the wall, or any writing of any kind, really. Whether that was a result of the place's age, any script that might have been present washed away by centuries or millennia of wear and erosion, or if there had simply been nothing there to begin with was anyone's guess. The ruins themselves certainly wouldn't be providing any answers at any rate - unlike the others on the island, it was a miracle that this one was still even standing, and Jason had little doubt that it very well might not be there in another century or so. At least any trace of it on the surface, but once that was gone it would only be a matter of time before the jungle buried any trace of the structures, as well as any means of accessing them.
As Ricki finally splashed down into a puddle a short distance behind him, though, Jason would turn to glance back and wait for the trainer to once again take the lead - she seemed to know what she was doing, and Jason didn't exactly fancy the idea of getting lost in these tunnels. Cyndaquil atop her head once again igniting its flames and illuminating the hallway, Jason moved to simply follow the trainer and her Lucario whilst he remained lost in thought - that was, at least, until the reached the next, massive room, a place that he was surprised to see still intact. Given that plenty of other smaller rooms and tunnels had completely collapsed under the weight of the trees and additional plant life he had not expected such a large cavern to have remained standing - it had to be at least dozens of meters high, and even wider across. Whatever the case, it had clearly been built to last, with the room being much sturdier than the rest of the ruins. The arena - as it clearly was one, there was no mistaking it - was in remarkably good shape, and had it not been for the piles and mounds of stones and boulders that had evidently fallen from the ceiling, traversing it to the other side would've been fairly easy. At least until they got to the bleachers, and the wall separating them from the ground floor of the colosseum - he had no idea how they were going to get past that particular part without the aid of a Flying type or another Psychic type, but with any luck they wouldn't have to.
While Jason was observing the architecture and simply continuing to follow Ricki and her Pokemon down the flight of stairs and onto the arena's ground floor, the woman's Pokemon seemed to know exactly where he was going, leading them across the floor only to stop directly in front of a large mound of mismatched boulders and stone - and atop it, a small, golden creature, and exactly what they had gone into the ruins to find in the first place. Back turned to them, seemingly completely unaware of their presence. Not exactly the place Jason would have thought to look for it - such locations tended to offer better vantage points, sure, but that was assuming the person or thing was using their eyes. Last Jason had checked, Abra spent most of their time asleep, sensing their surroundings though other methods - such a location would do the thing more harm than good, unless there was some other reason the Pokemon had decided to stay up there. The question, though, was what could've made it think it was safer up there than down on the ground, hidden among the rocks and out of sight rather than advertising its location like that?
As Ricki began to move forward to try and approach the Pokemon, though, her bag would suddenly slide, producing just enough noise for the Abra to apparently hear, and as expected, teleport - but rather than any other location, atop another set of boulders on the colosseum floor. Not up in the bleachers where they couldn't easily follow, not into another room, and not down onto the floor where it could perhaps remain hidden - and, as luck would have it, where he, Ricki and the Lucario were. Now, Jason wasn't a superstitious man, but he knew full well that if there was a reason that a Pokemon didn't want to go somewhere, chances were that he didn't want to be there, either. Absol in particular had long been sought after for their ability to avoid natural disasters, as had Natu and other Psychic types for their sensory and prophetic abilities. There was something Jason was missing here, and that more than anything unnerved him - they did not want to be where they were, and the fact that the Abra was going to great lengths to avoid doing just that was setting off nearly every alarm in the man's head. As Ricki simply turned to look over at him and motion towards the Abra as if telling him to give it a shot, though, the first thing he wanted to do was simply suggest calling the job off, or chancing her Lucario grabbing the Pokemon with Quick Attack or Extremespeed.
Given that she simply hadn't done that from the start, though, he had to assume that there was a reason for it - maybe her Pokemon didn't know the techniques, or maybe an old injury or quirk that would've made it dangerous or otherwise impractical to attempt. Whatever the reason, though, without seeing any other real alternative aside from simply calling the job off and thus abandoning the money he rather sorely needed, Jason simply took a deep breath in before looking over to the second pile of boulders that the Abra sat atop. Subtly flexing his hands and fingers, the man started to move over to the rocks, footsteps nearly silent as he took care not to step on any puddles or pebbles scattered across the metallic floor - and, reaching the base of the pile, he reached up and began to pull himself upwards, feet leaving the ground as he began slowly and deliberately scaling the pile of boulders, approaching the Abra's back. As he neared the top of the small hill, however, something made Jason pause - a red glint, off in the shadows, and as Jason clung to the side of the rock face, unmoving, it started to become abundantly clear as to why the little Psychic type had been avoiding the ground before as dozens of additional red, lens like eyes started to make themselves known in the darkness, all silently watching the people and Pokemon down on the floor and bathed in the light from above the stadium, impossible to miss.
As much as Jason wanted to simply say something and warn Ricki of the new development, chances were that opening his mouth would not end well - for one, the Abra would most certainly teleport, again and out of reach, and beyond that, he had no wish to provoke or otherwise irritate the dozens of Pokemon that were out there in the darkness. And so, with that in mind, Jason took the only other option that immediately came to mind, glancing back down towards Ricki and making a subtle hand gesture to try and get her attention before motioning over towards the darkness above the bleachers where their new friends were hidden. Done with that and wanting to be finished and out of there as soon as possible, Jason used his foothold to propel himself up the last three feet in an attempt to make a grab for the Abra - best case scenario, he caught the thing and even if it teleported, he'd be brought with it. Worst case, it got away and he pissed off whatever those things were with the sudden movement.
With the initial gesture for him to give grabbing the Abra a shot, Ricki had noticed that Jason seemed like he wanted to say something. Seeing the obvious pause and desire to speak, she had stopped as well to give him her full attention. Although, as they stared at each other for a brief moment, it had crossed her mind that even just uttering a single word might be a bad idea. The Abra seemed almost unreasonablely jumpy if he just teleported from the simple sound of her bag being moved. Either Jason thought the same thing, or decided he just didn’t want to speak. Without saying a word, he just went with what she had told him to do. Part of Ricki was curious about what he had wanted to say, but she wouldn’t push. Some might consider it a bad idea to let someone with no Pokémon just go and grab one like this, but given the Pokémon was just a rather basic Abra, Ricki didn’t see much of a threat. Given the fact it was only able to Teleport, even with Jason having no Pokémon of his own, she felt it was safe for him to try grabbing the thing.
As Jason stalked off to catch the thing, Ricki got back to the task of getting off her perch. Moving as quietly as she could, her focus simply remained on herself for the time being. After several seconds of careful maneuvering, her feet softly settled back down on the metallic floor. With her feet back on the ground, the young woman stopped and just simply listened to her surroundings. It was… Quiet. Not as quiet as she was expecting, honestly. It was almost like she was suddenly the only person there, other than Rep, who she spotted from the corner of her eye. Had it taken her longer than she thought to actually get down from her perch? Jason was still there, right? Perplexed by the lack of noise, Ricki’s head tilted back to look over her shoulder to see Jason had just begun to climb onto the other tower of boulders. She didn’t move as she simply watched him with a slightly quirked brow.
Spinning herself around as Jason began to make his way to the top; Ricki crossed her arms as she watched. While a silent approach would guarantee the Abra wouldn’t teleport away, again, there was another thing that briefly occurred to her as she noticed just how absolutely silent Jason could move about… With how discreetly he was moving, that Abra was bound to Teleport the moment he just touched it if anything because of shock alone. Would he get teleported with it? The idea suddenly struck her and she turned her gaze over to her Lucario, who was merely lost in his own little world. It took nothing more than just simply shooting the Lucario a look to get him back down to earth. Ears briefly folding back in an apology, he returned to his job of scanning the area for potential danger and the like. With Rep back on look out, Ricki’s eyes drifted back to Jason. What she turned back to see, quite frankly, wasn’t what she had anticipated in the slight, though. He was suddenly making these subtle gestures with his hands, an obvious warning of sorts, but a warning of what?
Her gaze shot to the Lucario who was already locking his gaze on the source f Jason’s panic, hidden up in the darkest rows of the coliseum’s bleachers. Following Rep’s stare, Ricki’s golden eyes focused carefully on the shadows to see just what it had been that her companions were warning her about. It took a few seconds before she could spot the various sets of red eyes hidden in the dark, but she couldn’t tell what exactly owned those eyes from her position. She didn’t want to hang around to find out, either. So, Ricki whipped back around to declare her ‘fuck it’ moment, knowing full well the words would make the Abra teleport, again. Hopefully it would teleport out of the room this time, if not, they could always come back. Before she could get the announcement out though, Jason was already jumping to snatch the Abra. The moment his hand touched the Pokémon Ricki’s previous fears were confirmed as Jason vanished with it. In the blink of an eye, she was left alone in the giant space, with no idea as to where her companion had vanished to. Well, correction, she wasn’t alone. No, Richelle Jace was far from alone at this very moment. She bit by bit turned her head to allow her to see up into the darkness of the bleachers once more. Her Cyndaquil even began to reignite his fire to help illuminate the hiding Pokémon.
Several of the red eyed Pokémon began to crawl into view and Ricki’s eyes slowly widened in horrifying realization of what dastardly buggers had been watching them from the shadows. She had run into one of them during a trip long ago to Unova with Ronnie, and it had been annoying just by itself. Now there she stood, the one woman against an army of Durants. Thankfully, they didn’t appear to be going into an attack as of yet, as the few Durants that crawled forth seemed more interested in looking the situation over. Ricki felt her whole body had gone stiff and motionless without her even having to let the thought cross her mind. She was still, almost statue like, as she simply watched. The Durants began to spread out amongst the bleachers, revealing an intimidating number of the metal ants had taken up residency inside the coliseum. Her eyes only briefly flicked from the Durants to Rep, before returning to the sight of her impending doom.
‘Don’t you fucking dare sound some sort of alarm’ she inwardly begged those few Durants crawling towards them. With them getting gradually closer and closer, Ricki knew she couldn’t stay there much longer. Gently she slid her foot back to prepare to bolt, but she had to figure out where to go first. It was then in that moment she recalled that Jason was also in potential danger due to the Abra’s teleportation. While she knew she was in trouble with these Durants, she knew her friend could be more screwed than herself at this moment. “Find Jason…” she quietly muttered to the Lucario. He was already on the task and easily located the currently missing young man. Jason Tham had appeared on the other side of the coliseum, just yards from the second entrance to the battle grounds. In yet another tunnel, he would be presented with only two directions to go, one leading deeper into the ruins on the other side of another barricade, and the other direction being the way back to the coliseum. Unlike the other entrance, the stairs down to the floor on that end appeared to have collapsed over time. If he wanted to get down, he would have to drop down a dangerous distance onto a pile of unstable metal. To add onto his current situation, the Abra that he had been assigned to capture would already be on the task of once more teleporting and disappearing from view, but this time without Jason in tow.
While Jason would be given a safer place to stand, Ricki still found herself looking at a potential shit storm. To make it even worst, it wouldn’t be until the Durants were getting closer would she remember just what it was that was helping to illuminate the hoard of Pokémon before her. The flames of her Cyndaquil that were now flickering cautiously on the little fire type’s back. It was going to set them off; it would only be a matter of seconds before the swarm began... Well, she lived a short and interesting life… Death by Durant? Okay, no. That sounded rather sad as in pathetic. She wasn’t going to go out with that as what she was remembered for. ‘That one girl who got killed by a bunch of ants’ didn’t really have a ring to it, but her concerns for a legendary death ceased when she found several pair of red eyes lock on her. Not a moment after being stared down, the stadium would suddenly be filled with the spine tingling screeches of metal scratching metal, a Metal Sound attack.
It was moments like these that Ricki was grateful she had started out with a Whismur of all things. Due to the deafening screams of an upset young Whismur, she had begun to build up her pain tolerance from an early age. Especially when it came to loud noises, she handled it much better than most. She was sure she’d have hearing issues later on, but for now this attack was her cue to bolt. Peddling back from the Durants in front of them, Ricki didn’t bother to shout at Rep as the Lucario was already turning to follow her motion. Not like he would have heard her anyways as the close Metal Sound had made her ears once more begin ringing thanks to the reverb within the coliseum just raising the volume of the move. She nearly tripped over herself as she turned around, but with a few swift stumbles, she got her balance back and started to follow after Rep. Rather than going towards the original entrance, the Lucario was rushing towards the area Jason had been teleported to. Without question, Ricki faithfully followed her Pokémon to get away from the incoming swarm.
As they ran, the Durants were already moving in to deal with the little green pest that had dared to enter their home. Even faster than Ricki had anticipated the ants swiftly moved to block off their path. Some came from underground, others just ran into the way and several were even crawling out of the stone piles. Rep and Ricki immediately slid to a stop at the sight of the sudden barricade. Before either of them moved to go another direction, the Cyndaquil perched on top of Ricki’s head hopped off of his perch. As he fell, rather than just letting Ricki catch him, or landing on the ground first, the fire mouse suddenly released a powerful Flamethrower at the wall of Durants. While it appeared effective to get the Durants to swiftly retreat a few yards, the force of the powerful attack caused him to fly back into Ricki’s chest with a harsh force she hadn’t anticipated. The sudden force slamming into her chest sent the green haired girl falling back with a harsh thunk on the metal floor.
The impact with the floor led to her completely blacking out for a moment as the wind was knocked out of her. What felt like just a few seconds must’ve been several minutes. When she came back to, Cinder was no longer in her arms; in fact the little Cyndaquil was no longer in sight. She was up on her feet, but Rep was supporting almost all of her weight as he practically dragged her along. Even though her head was still pounding from hitting the floor, Ricki was already moving to stand on her own and match her Lucario’s pace. It would be then that she noticed a flickering light dashing in and out of sight. Holding her head in response to the new found throbbing headache, her vision blurred, Ricki didn’t realize at first that the flickering light was her newly evolved Quilava running around struggling to keep down the incoming hordes of Durants on their tails. She would celebrate this later as her focus shifted to the hole in the wall up ahead.
She couldn’t see into the dark tunnel, probably due to her vision still being blurred, but with a lack of silver or red, Ricki wasn’t going to waste time being picky. He who hesitates… Yatta yatta yatta, she was going for it. Pulling her own weight and getting off of Rep, she nearly tripped over herself but managed to balance out before falling. Not a word was uttered between Pokémon and trainer, the message became clear as Ricki began her mad sprint across the coliseum. Behind her Rep and Cinder went about serving left and right, taking on the task of keeping the swarm of pissed off Durants at bay. It was too close for comfort as flames would sometimes lick at her heels from her Quilava, but it didn’t slow her down. If anything she ran faster towards the pile of shrapnel that was once a stair case. There was no hesitation as she quickly scrambled onto the rusty old fallen stairs. Pieces shifted under her weight and Ricki quickly slammed into the wall, before she pushed off of it and looked up at the ledge that was so close… And yet so far. She jumped once, unable to hear the sound of the metal under her feet violently shifting, threatening to provide more damage. She could feel the vibrations, though, and whirled around in time to see the hoard was growing closer and closer.
Heart pounding, head throbbing in sync, a built up amount of frustration came out in a louder than intended echoing “FUCK” in the coliseum as Ricki turned to make one more jump for the ledge.
From the very moment that his hands closed around the Psychic type, Jason immediately knew that the entire job - one that should have been a simple, in and out trek into the ruins - was more or less screwed up beyond all hope of easy recovery. While Teleport was a very fast technique, there was a slight "lag" to it, the very weakness that was what allowed Pokemon that knew Quick Attack or Pursuit an advantage, and it was during that split second that Jason would see that the creatures he'd spotted along the edge of the colosseum were not stationary as they had been before. Quite the opposite, in fact, and even as the light from the Abra's Teleport washed over his vision he knew Ricki was not in a place that she wanted to be.
He himself, though, would find that to no longer be an issue. While he hated the Teleport technique - he'd been subject to its use before, and he found nothing worse than that moment of horrible disorientation that came with the spatial bending and the sudden shift in his surroundings - he would freely admit that it was more than useful... especially when you needed to get out of a place, and fast. As his feet suddenly found themselves touching the ground, though, his positioning had not changed, and in stumbling forward the man found himself instinctively releasing the Psychic Pokemon from his grip as both hands came up to break his fall to the ground, only for the Pokemon to almost immediately disappear again from sight with yet another Teleport. Quickly pushing himself up and springing to his feet, Jason was at least relieved to see that his surroundings had not changed too much - the walls were the same material and coloration as the room he'd been in, and as he turned around to glance back down the hall he found himself looking into the colosseum again. Not, however, as he had left it.
Jason had no idea whether or not the Abra had spent more than a few seconds using the Teleport or if things had just suddenly changed that quickly, but the metallic insects that had been cautiously approaching him and Ricki before were now out in full force, racing down the walls and into the bottom pit where they had been and Ricki still apparently was - not quite where she had been before, now sprinting as fast as her legs could probably carry her, but not nearly fast enough as the Pokemon pursuing her were far faster than any human could hope to run. The question now, though, was what to do. He had no Pokemon of his own, and there wasn't much he could really do that her Lucario or- wait, had her Cyndaquil evolved during those few precious seconds? Not that it mattered - the point remained the same. He'd be worse than useless if he got involved in that mess, and it was probably why he had always worked alone before - he was faster and far more efficient like that, but it wasn't like he could just leave her there. At the very least avoiding separation was something to be avoided, even if it was only in the interests of self preservation - he had no doubt that he could traverse the surrounding environment rather easily alone, but Ricki had the map.
Keeping an eye on the trainer as she continued to make a beeline for his position, Lucario in the lead, Jason glanced down before immediately discounting the original path ahead that the hallway had followed as a viable course - possible risk of injury aside, it would take too long for him to physically lower himself to reach her, and going down was not something he wanted to do with those Pokemon so close behind her. As she began to close in on the gap, though, it started to become rather apparent that Ricki had no intention of slowing down - she probably meant to try and jump the gap, but even from where he was standing it was pretty clear that she wasn't going to be able to quite reach it. Moving towards the edge of the pathway he was on, Jason anchored himself in place with both legs and one or his hands as he leaned forward, over the edge and leaving one arm hanging for her to grab. This would have to be quick - he had no idea of the beasties following her would be able to scale the wall as easily as most Bug types probably could, but he wasn't willing to bank his health on it.
In all honesty, she didn’t expect her hand to grab anything. She expected to high five the wall for successfully screwing her over, and part of her anticipated some damage once she landed on the metal shards below. Ricki almost felt like she was done for and this was the end of the line. Still, she reached, stretching herself out in hopes that maybe, just maybe, she could reach that ledge. Reaching the top of her jump, about to descend, her hand hit something, but rather than the ledge, or the cold metal of the wall…
Was that cloth? Cloth and, as she started to fall, skin, but before it became nothing, her hand locked onto it. Immediately she felt a hand firmly grab her own arm and Ricki could feel herself being lifted up. Her heart had stopped, for once her luck being in her favor putting her in shock for a moment. Would it bite her in the ass, though? Ricki looked up to see who it was that had grabbed her hand and the sight of her companion. Her panic turned to a grateful look the moment he registered in her mind. Setting a foot against the metal wall, Ricki attempted to step up to help with lifting her weight, and immediately rocketed her other arm up to grab the ledge the moment it was in reach.
With a soft grunt, she collided with the wall before getting completely pulled up into the momentary safety of the southern hallway. Keeping a grip on Jason’s arm as she crawled over the edge, she didn’t bother to stand up for a few seconds. Staying down on her hands and knees, trying to catch her breath, Ricki kept a grip on Jason’s arm without really realizing it. Her ears were still ringing, the back of her head pounding with pain in sync with her heart, but she didn’t stay down long. Finally she released Jason’s arm and turned to look back at the make-shift battlefield. Rep and Cinder were keeping the Durants at bay, still, but they were only slowing down the approach. Watching the fight, it didn’t even occur to her that the Cyndaquil had evolved, her mind was too focused on other matters. They couldn’t go back the way they came and looking back ahead was another wall of rubble.
“Damn it” she muttered, starting to get up. Rolling her shoulders to shrug off her soreness, Ricki was up ready to go. Rubbing her ears in a frantic manner, trying to return her hearing, Ricki whipped back around to the battlefield. She was grumbling under her breath, thinking and thinking, before looking back at the rubble wall. Not saying a word, Ricki looked down and quickly pulled out three pokeballs. Moving towards the edge, Ricki called out “Cinder, back off and smoke screen!” The Quilava didn’t react at first, but with a prompt from the closer by Lucario, the Pokémon’s flames were suddenly accompanied by a burst of smoke. The Lucario and Quilava would be the first to break from the large cloud and immediately returned to their pokeballs.
Ricki pocketed Cinder’s ball, before turning to Jason and tossing him the Lucario’s pokeball. She pulled out the map to offer it to Jason as she moved her other hand to toss out the third pokeball. “Get a move on, I don’t care which way you go, just go. Rep’ll get you back on track and he’ll find me after I get out” she informed as a Bronzong would appear at the entrance of the hall. “Shield, slow ‘em down” she ordered, getting a simple gong of acknowledgment. The Pokémon would illuminate before releasing a powerful wave of his hypnotic rays over the Pokémon. While too wide spread to put all of them to sleep, Ricki hoped the soothing rays would act as a make-shift soothing agent to at least calm down the pissed off ants from Hell.
Post by Jason Tham on Nov 14, 2013 21:52:37 GMT -5
I DON'T WANNA BE BROKEN
I HAVE 776 WORDS FOR Richelle Jace
His other arm and both feet anchoring him in place even as he felt the young woman's hand clamp around his wrist and his around hers, Jason had just enough time as he began to pull her up towards the ledge to spare an upwards glance at the dozens of insectile Pokemon now crowding the bottom basin of the arena where they had once stood - while he would've taken some comfort in that his old instincts were still something he could apparently trust, there wasn't exactly much of a silver lining in this scenario. Bottom line, they'd gotten lucky - that Abra had teleported Jason right where he needed to go. If it had disappeared before he had managed to grab the thing both him and Ricki would've still been down there, and while he was fairly certain he probably could've found a way to scale the gap between there and where he now was, it would've been by the skin of his teeth. He was fast, but not that fast - there wouldn't have been enough time to pull Ricki up, plain and simple, and he knew that.
This complicated things, though. While finding the Abra in this maze would've been difficult enough on its own even without the environmental hazards to be concerned with, dealing with the local Pokemon population was not something they had expected to contend with - certainly not anything of this magnitude. Ricki was certainly a competent trainer from what he'd seen, especially considering the method through which Riolu evolved into Lucario, but there was a point where numerical odds simply outweighed any degree of skill or individual ability. Had he possessed a Pokemon of his own or had Ricki owned one capable of Teleport, that moment right there and then would've been when Jason had decided to cut their losses - retreat out of the Ruins, and come back with the proper Pokemon and skills for the job. Lucario was an excellent start thanks to its trademark sensory abilities, but they had no real way to prevent the Abra from fleeing, and without the creature's Pokeball they couldn't catch it due to the Psychic type being registered to a trainer already - the only real method left would be to engage it in combat and render it unconscious in a truer sense than it was now. That being said..... they lacked any real means to pull out thanks to the army of Bug Pokemon now blocking their original path into the ruins, and given their ability to climb he and Ricki had maybe one or two minutes before the writhing mass stopped milling about below and began making their way up the wall he just pulled Ricki up and past.
A sentiment, it seemed, that the trainer shared. As she finally managed to set her feet on the ground again and began doling out final orders to her Pokemon to delay the Durants' advance, the trainer simply recalled her Pokemon before turning to toss one of the Pokeballs towards Jason as he began to stand up himself, only catching the orb out of sheer reflex. He had to admit, he was actually starting to like working with her - only a few minutes in and she was already showing to have a bit more common sense than most people he'd encountered over the years, and was making the right calls at the right times without any input from him. Come the end of this, assuming they both made it out, Jason was actually beginning to consider the idea of helping out with future endeavors - assuming he played it safe, the possible profits would far outweigh the risks and might even allow him to disappear altogether.
Pausing for only a moment to glance at the Pokeball she had thrown to him to identify the creature inside - her Lucario, as it were - Jason simply nodded to Ricki as she paused to release yet another Pokemon, a Bronzong, before moving back to her delaying actions against the horde in the arena. Tapping the button on the ball to once again release the Fighting type within it, Jason simply turned before beginning to quickly move into and through the hallways, Rep glancing back at Ricki before following Jason's path. Getting out wasn't going to be easy, but given how the place was built... uphill would be their best bet, so it was uphill Jason went, Rep following just behind the human as he moved on.
Summary: Jason was loaned Rep - on releasing the Pokemon he continued down the hallway south of 4-2, making his way towards 4-10
When Jason had paused for a moment, Ricki nearly panicked he would disagree with her plans. She really didn’t want to drop the ‘I’m deaf’ bomb on him right now, given that she considered it a miracle he hadn’t lost his shit yet. There was really no need to add that thought onto the pile of problems they currently faced, so she was ready to force him to move if he tried to object. Luckily enough, he wouldn’t argue, though. Silent as could be, the young man just gave her a nod and simply took off with Rep right on his tail. When the Lucario would look back at her once more, Ricki was already moving back to handle the current problem. Using the Bronzong’s arm as a grip, she leaned out slightly to get a good look at the army below. Fortunately, the Bronzong’s hypnosis was doing its job and slowing the horde down. More so than she would’ve hoped for, but she wouldn’t question it or look a gift ponyta in the mouth.
Now that the hypnosis was definitely doing the trick, Ricki didn’t waste any time. Swinging back into the hall, she slid to slip another set of pokeballs from her belt. Two more Pokémon would once more appear beside her and the sight of one of them actually made her nearly trip over herself. Finally the revelation of her Cyndaquil evolved into a Quilava would dawn on her and she gave Cinder a brief grin. While she didn’t expect it so soon, she was pleased with the sight of her Pokémon having progressed in such a convenient time. Patting him affectionately on his head, her gaze turned down to her Bulbasaur as well. “Alright, Breezy” she began. “I need a pile of leaves around the entrance, okay? Big as you can make it. Shield, don’t stop the hypnosis. I just need you to hold it for a bit longer” she instructed, stepping back to give the Pokémon room to follow her orders.
Using Razor Leaf, a pile of leaves would begin to be made underneath Shield by Breezy the Bulbasaur. Leaves upon leaves stacked up as quickly as the small grass type could manage, before Ricki would demand a tack on of Leech Seeds to make sure the stacks would stay in place. When the piles were a significant size, the young trainer would turn her focus to her recently evolved Cinder and point to the pile of foliage her Bulbasaur had made. “When I return these two, you set that on fire, got it?” Ricki questioned, getting an ever eager nod from her Quilava. Grinning at his cooperation, she immediately brought Shield and Breezy back to their pokeballs. The heaps of leaves and roots would be sparked by a powerful blazing flame, almost immediately after the act, thus blocking the entrance with a small wall of fire. The drowsy Durants had nearly reached the entrance when the fire was ignited and the sight of the blaze was enough of a deterrent to make the tired Pokémon just back away. With the intruders clearly backing off, they had no more incentive to run into the painful flames, and the hypnosis had soothed their previous anger, as well.
Granted, Ricki didn’t really hang around to observe the results of her little plan. The moment the leaves were on fire, Cinder would find himself returned as well and Ricki was already taking off down the hall to follow after Jason and Rep’s earlier leave. Running down the hall, she rubbed anxiously at her ears to get her ability to hear back once more, before coming to a stop as the halls began to split.
Shit.
If she went the wrong way and went too far, she’d leave Rep’s area of sensory. If she stayed there, though, there was a chance a few pissed off Durants would venture after her as well. Looking down the various halls, she turned slowly to look back and was relieved to find no red eyes were illuminating the darkness. She could take a moment to stop and recover, which she really wanted to do. Her head was still pounding in sync with her heart and she was still pretty sure her hearing was out of sorts. In fact she clapped her hands in front of her and came to find that yes, her hearing was indeed still hindered, but not as much as it had been before. She sighed in relief and looked around for a moment, before beginning to walk off into a maze of halls and halls.
When Ricki took the different turn, Rep came to a stop at the entry to the room Jason made his way into. The room seemed lack a ceiling, almost like a courtyard with a dullness to it. Old statues were covered in moss and damaged from years and years of wear and tear. To the far right was a set of stairs up to a massive ancient city. It was both beautiful, but eerie at the same time, but nothing of interest for the Lucario. He was going to take off back down the hall to go and get his trainer, but his attention was immediately turning back to the courtyard when the ground began to rumble. While not to the point of an Earthquake attack, it was still a sign that something was coming. While he shot a brief look back to his trainer, he turned his attention back to the incoming source of power shaking the ground. He trotted up next to Jason’s side, eyes scanning the area before locking on the floor feet in front of them. Turning quickly, he grabbed Jason’s arm and would pull the human back towards the tunnel just as the floor would be ripped open by the digging Pokémon.
With a loud displeased roar, a Steelix would make its way out of the dirt and metal and into the center of the open courtyard. Rolling its individual parts like stretching its joints, the Pokémon’s eyes scanned the area with obvious irritation. Someone did something they were not supposed to do, apparently. His gaze shot around, before turning and finally resting on Jason and Rep. Rep had taken position in front of the human his trainer had given him to in order to protect him, but given just what the massive monster was before him, he knew this wouldn’t be an easy battle. This was something better suited for Pyro or Cinder, but neither of them were present. With a glance back at Jason, Rep’s focus turned back to the Steelix, who was already getting ready to attack.
I HAVE 1,111 WORDS FOR JASON THAM
Sorry the post is kind of crummy near the end, I couldn't decide how to get the Steelix to appear. Feel free to control Rep and the Steelix, Ricki's gone solo for a moment.
