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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!
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Post by Vincent Pendragon on Jun 12, 2015 23:54:10 GMT -5
-Flash City Outskirts "Skid Row", Derelict warehouse, 11pm, Dark clouds and heavy rain-
It had been easier than Viy had thought.
The job itself was one that someone of his particular skill shouldn't have considered: taking down a bunch of annoying hackers with far more skill at computer games than pokemon and combat. Normally, such an insultingly easy task was not something Viy would have partaken in, instead performing reconnaissance and passing off the necessary information to far more suited parties for dealing with petty information theft. Organizations such as Interpol. However this particular job had piqued the interest of the mysterious and shadowy vigilante for a single reason. A single very personal reason.
They were "digging" awfully close to some very dark and unfortunate secrets.
This wasn't abnormal for Hackers to do: dig around in the depths of the darknet and such for information worth selling. It was a common practice when hacker's were not targeting organizations and corporations to steal secrets from to sell to one another in the endless battle for profitable supremacy. Though this time they were looking for something specific. Someone was guiding their actions to a specific thing that Viy did not think anyone would find, let alone even know where to look for it. A secret that the enigmatic vigilante had thought to be destroyed and forgotten long ago. By luck, however, he had stumbled upon the rumors: the conspiracy theories being tossed around by various loonies across the world trying to find anything to satisfy their paranoia. Little did the men in tinfoil hats realize that they had stumbled upon something a little bigger than they might have intended. At least it would have been bigger, had no one addressed the issue after it had come up.
In this case Viy (or "V") had quite easily nipped this one in the bud before it had gotten out of hand. The target had been a supposedly abandoned warehouse out in some of the shadier parts of Flash City. A place the police usually didn't bother to patrol. If they did, the cops of this particular beat were easily bribed into not paying attention to the strange lights and goings on in the abandoned buildings around, which were ideal dwellings for those that did not wish to be found. After "speaking" with several of the officers about the peculiarities of the area, Viy had narrowed down the possible locations all the way back to the particular warehouse he now stood in. The infiltration itself was easy, as was subduing and detaining the individuals in question. In the end, no more than twenty minutes after beginning the infiltration, Viy stood in a large, empty and surprisingly clean server room with five hackers, unconcious and tied up, waiting to call the police after he was done searching the computers for the information he required. After he was done backing up all the information he required to a single solid state drive, He quietly turned and began to survey the large server towers in the room.
It was a bit of a pickle: on the one hand he could leave the server towers to Interpol and hoped they looked at the information they got from the towers instead of looking into what was missing. Perhaps it would act as enough of a distraction to prevent them from looking further into a matters that Viy certainly did not want to have looked into. On the other hand if they did become interested in that little "void" of information the Vigilante had took from it then there certainly would be problems.
No, the towers had to go.
Quietly tossing one of his pokeballs into the midst of the towers, a flash of light accentuated the appearance of Viy's "Pointmon": A jolteon. Electricity would be the way to go about this.
"Jol, if you would please? A "thunderbolt" shall suffice here." Viy stated, the voice of the man inside the suit distored into an calm and cool robotic tone, enough that it would be impossible to identify the man within the suit.
The Jolteon let loose a rather impressive blast of electricity to a nearby tower. In an instant, the supercharged bolt traveled from tower to tower. Each tower let out a shower of sparks and a sizzle as its internal circitry was completely fried. The magnetic force of the bolt would easily wipe any drives completely clean that were not immediately and irreversibly destroyed by the tremendous electrical force the small dog-like pokemon unleashed.
As the sparks settled, Viy nodded affirmingly as his Jolteon almost proudly strode back twoard him. Kneeling down, he quietly pet and rubbed the small, spiky-haired pokemon in the belly as a sign of affection and approval.
"Good Boy. You want in?" Viy inquired to the pokemon, signalling to the pokemon to indicate the intent. While Jolteon did not understand the words, the movement made by Viy's hand with the pokeball in itself was the question, much like how one would train a dog pokemon. The Jolteon let out a slight yawn with a whine.
"Hah, sorry I disturbed your nap, Prince." Viy responded, a sarcastic tone evident in his voice as he summoned the pokemon back into its pokeball. With the towers thoroughly fried, the Vigilante took one final tour of the room to ensure that the Jolteon's work was complete. When he was confident enough that the job was done, the man quietly exited the server room. Which led to the main warehouse area: a big, abandoned warehouse area with a few dusty wooden crates and a lot of emptiness. Viy stood on catawalks that led around the warehouse's second floor level, allowing anyone above to look down on the massive warehouse floor. A massive, empty and completely barren place sans the now destroyed server and work room on the second floor. Completely dead silent.
...At first.
Viy's extremely sensive hearing that his suit provided immediately picked up a sound: the sound of what was unmistakibly a door opening. His helmet helped pinpoint the general direction: A fire exit at the opposite end of the warehouse.
Almost immediately the vigilante considered his options: the warehouse was very well lit, making hiding in any of the shadows despite the natural camouflage of his black expansion suit being ideal for such a situation. He didn't have time to cut the power: the generator was likely on the first floor, and if he made a run for the room he would most certainly be seen. While he could fight, combat was a poor choice: even a small pokemon battle would likely attract the attention of the local authorities, especially if they heard loud enough noises. No, evasion was the best option here.
With a skillful movement, Viy flipped over the railing and landed on his feet, dropping to a crouch to minimize the sound of his landing. By luck, his landing had occured around the time whatever door that had been opened closed. Quietly, Viy began to peer just around the edge of the box. Viy wanted to know who was dropping in on him before he even left Interpol the tip about this particular band of hackers...
Post by Alex Tuomio on Jun 13, 2015 9:25:23 GMT -5
I BET MY LIFE
Why am I even doing this? Alex had to ask herself. It wasn’t an official call by any means, which means it would fall under her personal work as a private investigator. Even so, she didn’t have any cases currently, so her reasons for doing this could only be concluded as pure curiosity. What she was doing at this point that was causing all this mental track running was, for lack of a better phrase, breaking and entering.
The Kalos native had been minding her own business, meandering the back streets of Flash City with the multicolored lights from the main streets glinting off her white hair when the sound of large amounts of loose electricity caught her attention. She’d pinpointed the location of the disturbance to an abandoned warehouse. With a quick glance around for any onlookers, she employed a little talent she’d picked up after finishing her field agent training with Interpol. A few quick movements of wire, and she had a fire escape door to the large building unlocked without tripping any alarms.
Moving quietly inside, she could see there either had been people that left in a hurry, or were still people in the building. No one went off with all the lights still on if they didn’t need to. There weren’t any electric type Pokemon feeding off the still running lights, so it wasn’t likely that there were Pokemon being smuggled through this building. As she completely cleared the doorway, she cringed slightly. The door had swung shut freely, and had given a rather louder than ideal noise as it shut.
She hissed under her breath as she reached for her Pokeballs, scanning the area for anyone that may have been notified of her presence by the noise. Check catwalks? Done. She ran through a very quick mental list as her eyes swept over the area. Check main floor? Done. Crates? Unimportant. Aside from a shifting in the shadows she chocked up to a flickering light or wayward ghost there was no sign of anyone. Relaxing, she quietly exhaled, not realizing she’d been holding her breath for a moment. Letting her arm drop back to her side, she placed the opposite hand on her hip.
Keeping her footsteps light, she quietly strode farther into the warehouse, continuously scanning the area for any signs of movement. There was a door at the opposite side of the expansive room from where she’d entered. The Interpol agent thought she caught a whiff of fried circuitry from that direction, though that could easily have been from a nearby blown lightbulb. There were plenty of those every night in these less traversed areas, and she noted there being at least one window at the top of the walls that hung open. Even with a likely culprit for the imagined smell, she knew she needed to check the door and see where it lead.
As she moved across the floor of the warehouse, she felt a slight sense of uneasiness rising in the pit of her stomach. Typical. She starts to get close to possible answers to questions and her stomach starts acting like a circus acrobat. Pushing the feeling down, she pushed forward, finally sidling up to the closed door. Red eyes swept over the open area again as her hand found the knob and turned. The door was unlocked. She expected as much since she basically broke into the warehouse to begin with.
What she didn’t expect was for the door to open as easily and quietly as it did. As it opened, the smell of fried circuits greeted her nose fully. Guess I needn’t look for broken glass on my way home, the thought was full of self-chiding for making an assumption. She knew better than that.
Once inside what was obviously a computer server room by the towers and connections between them greeted her. It was immediately obvious someone had been here, recently at that. Multiple people were tied up and unconscious; likely hackers given the equipment here. They wouldn’t be using that equipment anymore though. First glance revealed all the towers had been fried with what was likely that massive electrical surge she heard in the first place. She walked up to one, not bothering with trying to be silent. “Who did this?” she mused out loud, her Kalos accent rather thick as she carefully ran her hand over the nearest computer tower.
Post by Vincent Pendragon on Jun 13, 2015 12:18:06 GMT -5
Well, this was not what Viy had expected.
As he attained visual contact on the interloper and "intruder" into his infiltration, he made a quick compilation of basic information about the indivudal: Female, likely mid twenties, unknown pokemon count, unknown armaments. Effectively, it was a lot of unknowns about the woman other than the fact that she was able to easily bypass the fire escape alarm and enter the building in such a way that caused Viy to only narrowly avoid detection. She was quite attractive though, with skin that seemed to be an almost silky smooth tanned color like that of a flawless cup of coffee. Viy chided himself for letting his thoughts get distracted, instead focusing on the task at hand. The woman's movements were precise and defensive. From the look of it, she was surveying the area for any immediate threats initially. When it seemed like her stance relaxed, Viy himself felt himself untense slightly. It seemed like she had not spotted his drop behind the boxes. Good. At least he could survey the situation without a possibility of escalation.
Viy quietly watched as the woman moved across the warehouse floor, noting the natural silence of her steps: the kind of silence that was not something given but taught. Whoever she was, Viy surmised that she had some kind of training. Police? Unlikely. There were no indications of any female members of the force when Viy had checked the local police database. That likely meant that she was some kind of civilian. There was siimply no way Interpol would have gotten involved so quickly considering the vigilante had not even contacted them yet. After tense moments of observation the woman made her way into the server room across the warehouse floor. with unnaturally graceful and completely silent steps, Viy made his way across the warehouse floor in a matter of seconds, quietly keeping an eye on the woman as she began to investigate the server room.
Eventually the woman spoke a question to herself, her voice was a thick and rich Kalos accent that did not suit someone of her militaristic demeanor. Her accent had a hint of sweetness to its unique tone, which one could almost compare to a physical object in the form of molten dark chocolate. Smooth, rich and deep with a hint of sweetness. for a mysterious interloper, this woman certainly seemed almost like a model who just happened to stumble upon this particular scene. Though she was a model who could also enter through a fire exit without tripping the alarm. That meant that she could not be underestimated in the slightest.
Quietly leaning against the doorframe as the woman took closer inspection of the destroyed server towers, Viy spoke, his tone not one of an interrogation, but of surprise and admiration with a slight hint of teasing.
"I suppose that is one question you could ask. Though hardly the most important. The more important question to ask is how did you so conveniently stumble upon this particular scene at this partcular time, my lady? It seems far too convenient that you just walked in here on your own, even managing to get through a fire exit in the process."
Post by Alex Tuomio on Jun 13, 2015 12:52:10 GMT -5
I BET MY LIFE
As Alex had not bothered with shutting the server room door behind her, she had no way of knowing if someone walked through it. That hadn’t seemed like a problem to her at the time, all the apparent occupants of the building had been restrained. What she’d failed to realize in her haste to inspect the computers was the fact that the person who had restrained the hackers could have still been around. This realization flashed through her mind in an instant as soon as she heard someone speaking from the doorway. There was an obvious distortion to the voice, as it sounded robotic and false when it hit her ears.
Before whoever had managed to sneak up on her finished speaking, she’d spun around quick enough to give someone of less physical endurance whiplash. As she spun her hand snapped into her jacket, snagging a Pokeball from her stash and letting the beast inside out before her feet were both planted again. A Furfrou was revealed as the glow from the energy died down, his fur untrimmed but neatly combed and his body condition showing obvious signs of extensive training. “Polizi, garde!” she snapped, using one of the few Interpol standard commands she could immediately recall. Alex would really need to focus some more time to learning those commands fully. The Furfrou growled in response, settling into an obvious defensive posture and glowering at the man speaking.
Finally giving her mind a moment to process what the stranger had said, she tensed slightly. Reaching into the opposite side of her jacket, she pulled what looked like a leather wallet from a hidden pocket. Flipping it open with a quick snap of her wrist revealed a badge and identification card. “I am Interpol Agent Alex Tuomio,” well there went any chance to work on my acting skills, “and I demand to know what transpired here,” negotiation skill improvements are not off to a great start either. Her voice was calm and collected as she spoke, her months of training for the field paying off in what was quickly becoming a rather serious situation. Her mental chiding of herself on the other hand, was anything but collected. Through her training she’d developed her own special way to deal with the adrenaline rush that came with these kinds of situations. She’d learned to focus that rush into her mental processes, making her thoughts rush through faster and allowing her to make better snap decisions. This could also have drawbacks at times, since she couldn’t just get herself to stop doing it, and often times she’d start to fumble over her own thoughts if there was too much information to process.
With the ‘introduction’ out of the way, the woman took a moment to examine the person confronting her. The amount of distortion on their voice made it impossible to tell gender or age from their words, but physical build highly suggested a male anywhere from mid-twenties to mid-thirties. Narrowing the age range was nigh impossible with the amount of features their strange suit covered. The mask of the suit made facial recognition at a later time useless, it didn’t even show his eyes through it. She figured the voice modulation was located within the mask, which also meant there could be more things implemented into the suit that she had no clue about. There was also no real way to know what kinds of Pokemon he may have on him. Alex needed to tread fairly carefully with this.
Post by Vincent Pendragon on Jun 13, 2015 13:40:09 GMT -5
The woman's response was far faster and more defensive than Viy would have initially anticipated, but it was nonetheless one that indicated he still had a firm grasp of control over the situation. Perhaps the first thing Viy noted was that the woman's Kalosian accent was not just for show: as indicated by both her exclaimation of her policing nature and the deployment of a very familiar Kalosian pokemon: specifically in this case a furfrou. Normal type, very loyal and unique pokemon, but ultimately not a gigantic threat even to the vigilante on his own. Still, he was not about to underestimate this trainer and her pokemon. Only a fool underestimated a pokemon's overall strength by appearance alone.
Viy knew from rumor and reputation alone how fierce furfrou could be even to an enemy that knew what they were up against.
In response, almost in unison to the deployment of the Furfrou, Viy deployed his own pokemon merely as a precautionary measure: Namely, A rather impressive looking Gallade. The Gallade did not immediately jump in front of Viy to defend him, instead keeping its position squarely where it was, arms raised like a trained warrior, as Viy spoke a single command calmly.
"Knight, Hold."
A tense moment ensued as Viy sized up the situation. He had a definitive advantage here: he had initiated the battle in a place that gave his opponent very poor mobility options if it came to a fight, but nonetheless a cornered opponent was sometimes the most dangerous. Fortunately there was no indication that the encounter would explode into something far more violent. Instead a tense standoff took place for a few moments. Eventually, the Kalosian woman spoke, introducing herself as Alexis Tuomio. An interpol agent with the badge to prove it. Viy stood still, looking over the badge for a few moments as he realized just what was going on. How the hell had an interpol agent gotten here so quickly? Viy had planned on contacting Interpol to clean this up once he knew the site was clean of any traces of his own interference, but this lone agent had gotten here even before he had a chance to finish checking to make sure there weren't any more important information this group was hiding that did not belong in the hands of Interpol. There was no way that this could have been mere chance, could it?
If it had been, then it must have been an awful stroke of luck for the black-clad vigilante. His ultimate goal was not to become a target for Interpol, and this situation could definitely have made him one. Viy chided himself at his willingness to confront the woman instead of maintaining stealth. Nothing could be done about it now, however. He would just have to make sure the situation did not ultimately come back to haunt him and distance himself as much as possible from the destruction of information.
"...Agent Tuomio. A pleasure to meet you. As to what happened here, this was a group of hackers commiting corporate and general information espionage and theft. Corruption and grand larceny would likely be what they were up to. Unfortunately, while I was in the process of subduing them they used one of their pokemon, an Electrode , to destroy their servers before I could secure them. Chances are your organization already has information on them. Because of this charging them and finding evidence of their activities will likely not be a problem. Unfortunately recovering any of the information they stole, copied or sold is likely impossible at this point. But they and their pokemon are subdued and you may detain them at your leisure." Viy explained.
It was a perfect explanation: several of the members of the group did indeed possess Electrodes of slight power. Enough that frying the servers would indeed be possible. It was also a common practice among hackers whom wanted to keep themselves safe if they were caught. Everything fit perfectly and it would likely be impossible to prove Viy's theory otherwise.
Still, he had to wait and see if this did indeed pan out.
Post by Alex Tuomio on Jun 13, 2015 14:51:03 GMT -5
I BET MY LIFE
With no change of expression, Alex listened to what the man responded with. It all seemed to make sense as she stashed her ID back in her pocket, but Alex knew better than to take the words of others at face value. Even orders from her superiors were laced with their own personal goals. Sure they wanted you to succeed, but the more success you had the better they looked. Yes, it was a rather cynical way to look at things, but it gave her a bit of an edge when dealing with people. It did tend to turn people off from liking her though.
The fact he had a Gallade did make this situation a bit more troublesome than it originally seemed. This fact proved even more poignant with what came out of her mouth next. “Well, on behalf of Interpol, I thank you, even if I don’t know your name.” What came next from her mouth would not help the situation any, “Aside from that, it doesn’t explain your reason for being here. You’ve not identified yourself as being in a police organization, so I can only assume you’re not part of one,” she gave a slight pause, her stance shifting slightly, “I’m afraid I have to take you into custody. Helpful or not, vigilantism is illegal.” Whoever ended up interrogating him could get his reasons for why he was here. For now she needed to focus on apprehending him.
Alex knew vigilantes rarely, if ever, came quietly when confronted with arrest. This particular one was likely going to be a very difficult arrest. Between the unknown functions of his suit and his clearly well trained Pokemon—not to mention the ones he could still have on him, any normal person would have backed down. Alex never claimed to be normal, and she wasn’t about to just let a criminal go free while she was able to fight.
“Tactiek één.” She shifted her stance as she spoke, Polizi responding to the command by giving a short hop forward. His coat seemed to get fluffier and softer as he did, and he stared at the man’s Gallade with big, glossy blue eyes. The combination of Cotton Guard and Baby-Doll Eyes as a starting tactic had been practiced quite often. While it wasn’t extremely offensive, Alex had found use for it many times. There was also the factor of Polizi knowing this combination better than any of the others they’d been developing since leaving training.
She was fairly sure the suspect would likely try to run, since he was closer to the door. With this knowledge, she kept her hand close to her Pokeballs, ready to pull out another Pokemon to go after him. The longer she was able to think about this, the more it seemed like a very bad idea. That being said, breaking and entering into a warehouse through a fire escape really wasn’t a very good idea either. So she’d have to say it was par for the course for today. Not like she could live with herself if she backed down now. She’d joined Interpol to bring criminals to justice, there was no way she was going to back down from the exact reason she left home.
Post by Vincent Pendragon on Jun 13, 2015 15:19:52 GMT -5
It was impressive how quickly the young woman was able to both laude Viy for his efforts in subduing the hacker group and inform him that he was to be detained in the same breath. Honestly, it was a little insulting considering the circumstances, but Viy did not take it personally. He did not wish to bring harm to the woman considering they were on the same side, but her ultimatum that she had presented him made a confrontation all but impossible. She had even taken the liberty to try and engage in a pokemon battle with him, which was all the more worrying. She was going to try to take him down by some kind of force, not even realizing that he himself could fight with formidable force if absolutely necessary.
"...I see. While I am displeased at your decision, I do not hold ill will toward you for your attempt: I admire such conviction in anyone in the pursuit of justice. That being said, I cannot submit to your attempt to detain me at this time. There is too much important work to be done. You who bring light to guard those who need it ultimately need the power us who dwell in shadow to help you, and vice versa. Show me your resolve, officer Tuomio." Viy responded, his voice not of disdain or rage, but of both admiration and disappointment.
But it would not be. Knight was more than capable of handling this situation on his own. The vigilante jumped back, keenly aware that he did not wish to be the target of any sort of attack that the furfrou could levy at the moment if he could avoid it. Instead, Knight moved forward, blocking the doorway and engaging the Furfrou at a standoff distance of about ten feet.
"Knight, Mindfully subdue."
It was one of Viy's combination orders, and a perfect one for the situation at that. Instead of attempting to circumvent the offense lowering and defense raising that the furfrou had, he would approach the target with some crowd control to bring the situation firmly under his control. The first skill was the "Mindfully", which let the Gallade focus and raise its special defense and offense (Calm Mind) to counteract the offense lowering nature of the Baby-doll eyes. The second command was the ever so powerful ability hypnosis: making contact with the furfrou as it looked into the Gallade's eyes innocently, Knight sent a powerful hypnotic wave (Hypnosis) toward the Furfrou, attempting to lull it to sleep. While the baby doll eyes was indeed fast, the hypnotic wave was both a sound and visual effect that would attempt to put the pokemon to sleep. The fact that its movements were still inhibited by the massive amounts of servers in the room would not help the situation any in avoiding such an attack.
It was unconventional, but it would hopefully catch his opponent off guard enough so that she would be forced to either change pokemon or re-evaluate her strategy in this case. All Viy had to do was keep her occupied enough so that he could escape. If the worst came to it, he would use Knight to subdue her via Hypnosis as well.
This, however, may have only been the beginning of the battle...
Post by Alex Tuomio on Jun 14, 2015 1:21:24 GMT -5
I BET MY LIFE
While the Gallade’s early counter to Alex’s initial plan didn’t very well surprise her—it’s not hard to tell there’d be a very apparent power gap between the two combating Pokemon—it was quite frustrating for her. It only proved how rash investigating the situation in the first place was, especially with no backup or partner. She wasn’t about to let her opponent know just how aggravated with herself she was, instead keeping her face in the same expression as before; red eyes glowering at roughly where she expected his eyes to be behind the helmet’s face plate. Who the hell is this guy? She thought, mind racing around the fact she had no clues to his identity aside from physical ability and one of his Pokemon. It didn’t seem like there were any immediate physical identifiers to make this one Gallade stand out from others. The nickname of Knight really couldn’t be that uncommon either, so there was another possible identifier practically out the window.
She hadn’t bothered responding to the man’s statement. It had been obvious to her there wouldn’t be an easy solution to this from the start. The white haired Interpol agent merely narrowed her eyes at him as the hypnosis fully took hold of her Furfrou. Tottering a bit, Polizi finally flopped over, a light snore coming from him as the attack sent him into a steady sleep. As a team, they still weren’t fast enough to avoid such things, so as a trainer she had to respond and adapt quickly to such things. This situation was proving to be one of those times when she wished she had backup to assist her. There wouldn’t be enough time for reinforcements to get here at this rate though. She had no idea how far out the closest ally was, and she wasn’t willing to risk hoping they’d be nearby.
In one fluid motion she’d recalled the sleeping canine and let loose another Pokemon to fight. Before the red energy had dissipated she barked out an order, “Wundern!” As the energy faded to reveal a Mawile in very similar physical condition to the Furfrou, the Pokemon was already launching herself at the Gallade. At this close distance there was no way the Mawile’s Sucker Punch could miss. Immediately following, Ty’s large head jaws would snap up and around, attempting to latch onto any part of the opponent in a hard Vice Grip.
One thing that had become very clear to Alex early on in her battle training was the importance of combinations and chains of attacks. The right pair of moves could swing the tide of battle in her favor. She was also painfully aware of the fact her Pokemon were lacking in variety of moves. That often led to their moves being more predictable over the course of a battle, but it also gave more emphasis to the importance of combining attacks. Focusing on training her Pokemon in these combos was likely the reason they were flagging when it came to learning new moves. Alex was beginning to regret that decision just a tiny bit.
Post by Vincent Pendragon on Jun 14, 2015 12:52:13 GMT -5
It worked.
As Viy watched the attack affect the fluffy dog pokemon, he watched as it was quickly lulled to sleep. Good: that had decisively swung the battle in his favor. For the moment it looked like Viy was about to wrap this up nice and cleanly: if he could put the young woman to sleep with the hypnosis from the Gallade, he could simply move her somewhere safe and clean up the scene. No one would ever be the wiser. Unfortunately in that moment of confidence the lady managed to do something rather unexpected.
She swapped out a pokemon, sending out a Mawile to replace the sleeping furfrou that had been her lead. The swap alone was one that normally would not have bothered Viy, as another usage of hypnosis would have likely been an optimal strategy against the normally slow pokemon. However, a single move that started the attack chain ruined this strategy:
Sucker Punch. An incredibly fast attack that was predicated on somewhat countering a move with a powerful, well, sucker punch to the opposing pokemon: A move fast enough that no matter how slow the pokemon that used it, it would always hit first unless an equally fast or faster move was utilized. The catch was that if the pokemon that it was targeting wasn't using a true "attack" of sorts, then it would likely not hit. That factor was unfortunately irrelevant in this case though: For as the Gallade attempted to release the hypnotic wave again, the Mawile was already on top of it. Fortunately the Gallade had enough time to move its arms up in defense, blocking the attack somewhat and greatly reducing its damage. Though the damage was not the true loss in this case.
The positioning was. The force of the hit had moved the Gallade back several feet, meaning that the once cornered opponent now had a way to escape the server room she was once trapped in. the ability to move was a key factor in victory, and in this case it was arguable to Viy that the interpol agent had snatched at least a possibility of victory from inevitable defeat. The assault for ground continued as the mawile attempted another attack, a powerful Vice grip with its massive maw and impressive strength. There was no escaping this particular attack unless Viy took matters into his own hands.
Which, being who he was, he did.
In what normally would have been a rather insane move for any rational trainer, Viy withdrew Gallade: in a conventional battle a trick like this would have been a forfeiture of the fight, but in a true battle it was, well, still insane but more legal. That meant now he had a Mawile charging him with a very angry open mouth and an attempted vice grip. Chances are the Mawile was trained enough that it would simply clamp down and attempt to restrain Viy if it caught him.
If.
Viy charged forward, not bothering to unsheathe his blade: Even with his strength the damage of the weapon at its current point in time would only be averagely effective and leave him vulnerable to followup attacks without a pokemon to assist him. closer and closer the two drew until Viy seemingly stopped only inches from the Mawile's angry maw...As the jaws snapped shut, however, they would clamp down on nothing. At inhuman speed, Viy had kicked off the ground and flew backward out of reach of the attack. In that smooth dodging motion he had also dropped a pokeball halfway through the jump, and as he landed a flash of light hid his figure as he released his next pokemon...
A massive metal figure filled the air as it held itself up with three large, wire-like legs. Coated with hundreds of small spikes, the pokemon did not look anything like one of its types: Grass, to be specific. Two yellow eyes glared down at the Mawile, whom although smaller then it shared the benefit of being a menacing steel type.
It was a Ferrothorn.
The mere presence of a Ferrothorn would hopefully drastically turn the tables on the Mawile, as it likely lacked any effective manuver to credibly damage it. Its mere presence would effectively become a wall that Viy's opponent would have extreme difficulty overcoming.
-----------------
Action summary:
1. Withdraw Gallade 2. Dodge (Viy) 3. Sent out Ferrothorn
Post by Alex Tuomio on Jun 14, 2015 15:01:11 GMT -5
I BET MY LIFE
SLP
The sudden onslaught of force from Ty worked as well as Alex had expected; though not as well as she’d fully hoped it would. Ty’s sudden lunge into a Sucker Punch had forced the Gallade on the defensive, which would have given the Mawile ample time to latch on with her jaws had it not been for a rather unforeseen action on the stranger’s part. He withdrew the Pokemon before the attack could land, which left him as the only target. All her Pokemon had been trained to pull their punches on stronger attacks when the opponent was human, a very important part of apprehending suspects with any attack.
In an utterly inhuman display of speed, the man somehow managed to avoid the Vice Grip aimed at him. A blink caused Alex to miss the maneuver itself. There was no way a person could naturally move that fast. Alex could only conclude it was due to the strange suit he wore. The obvious voice modulation was evidence enough that it was a very high tech piece of equipment. Unless someone proves me wrong, I’d bet my career that suit is the reason.
Before she could fully process the implications of attempting to apprehend someone with inhuman speed on their side, a very large and metallic figure was suddenly blocking the doorway again. The steel type Pokemon was a rather worrying sight, and caused Alex’s mind to begin racing through possible strategies to compensate. Having no fire type moves in her Pokemon’s abilities, there wasn’t much she could do about the massive blockade. There was one possible strategy that came to her mind, one that was just a little bit unorthodox. If it worked she’d deal with whatever repercussions came afterword when they happened.
It would employ a rarely used tactic she’d trained her Mawile for, one that Alex hoped the Pokemon could recall and execute under pressure of a real battle. “Ty, bait and switch.” She hadn’t figured out the equivalent ‘official’ order to attach to the tactic at this point.
Ty had to pause for a moment, glancing back at her trainer in that precious time before the order sank in fully. Wasting no more time, she let loose an almost sickeningly sweet aroma into the air. The Sweet Scent move would keep possibilities of a dodge by the opponent at a minimum when the real attack came. Darting forward, Ty rushed partway toward the Ferrothorn. It was merely a ruse however, because once she was a few steps toward it she suddenly stopped before vanishing into her ball.
As a result of the Baton Pass, a Skiddo was swapped out in place of the fairy. While there was still no type advantages between the two Pokemon, it would play very well into Alex’s strategy. “Marlow! Aim low with a Razor Leaf!” Her face still showed no real change of emotion, but her red eyes held a resolve and conviction that would make it obvious she wasn’t about to go down easily. She would fight tooth and nail until she either managed to detain the culprit, or was so thoroughly trounced she couldn’t continue fighting.
This part of her plan had never been trained for, so she had no clever commands for her Pokemon to follow. She had to rely on the rather large speed gap between the fighters for this to work; which wasn’t a poor tactic due to Ferrothorn’s utter lack of speed.
“Skii!” the leafy goat bleated as it’s mane of foliage rustled. Leaves with edges sharp as scalpels flew forward from the Skiddo, rushing at a low but slightly upward angle toward the Ferrothorn. A good number of leaves missed the opposing Pokemon, instead traveling under and past the large steel type. It was exactly what Alex intended to happen. The only effective target that could be hit behind the Pokemon was the man in the suit, and he was exactly what the leaves were now flying toward. He was proving difficult to apprehend, so it was time to up the ante with an increase of force.
Post by Vincent Pendragon on Jun 14, 2015 18:59:33 GMT -5
It seemed initially that he had stumped his opponent. By putting up a Pokemon designed to test possible answers or force a battle of attrition (or even a stalemate) It seemed like Viy had secured a victory. But from the gaps around his pokemon Viy saw that his opponent had no intention of either surrendering or declaring a stalemate of any kind. No, the look in her eyes told him that something dangerous was incoming: something the vigilante would not expect. When she called out a strange order to her pokemon, one that left the mawile slightly confused at first, Viy did not hesitate to declare his own order immediately that went in
"Ferrothorn: Deploy one." Viy commanded. Almost immediately, the Ferrothorn began to deploy Spikes, firing numerous ground-type spike like projectiles around its general area. Soon, the ground was littered with a number of them, making the floor rather unsafe around the ferrothorn, the now-deployed Skiddo and the area in front of the server room his opponent was still trapped in. The sweet scent, while not directly affecting Viy due to his suit, made the air around the back of him heavy and somewhat distorted: while Ferrothorn had little care of evading due to its incredible durability, something seemed terribly wrong. It was almost as if the sweet scent was not meant for the pokemon, but for him.
And then the attack came: when Viy heard the word "Razor Leaf" in a thick french accent, he knew what was coming: He saw through the distorted pink haze as the Skiddo launched a torrent of bladelike leaves, almost like a large, wall of razor-sharp leave projectiles. While they were angled upward slightly, that did not make them any less dangerous. Even as a number of them struck the Ferrothorn with little effect, a number of them still passed under the pokemon and headed straight for Viy. It was a clever trick: the lingering fog of the sweet scent made it difficult to discern the precise location and direction of the blade leaves. Dodging would be much more difficult, even for someone who was as fast as Viy. While he could likely endure the hit, it probably would not be optimal: any of the bladelike leaves jammed into the artificial muscle or components of the suit could likely be used against him later even if the damage was minimal.
No, he couldn't hold back: He would have to respond with equal measure. Quietly, his opponent could likely see Viy suddenly become still, a hand clutching the hilt of the blade on his back, index finger on the "trigger lock" that kept such a dangerous weapon contained. As the razor leaves drew closer through the pink mist, the vigilante was waiting for the precise moment where their location became absoultely clear. The moment in his target was absolutely clear. When the leaves finally came through the fading haze of the sweet scent they were no more than several feet away from Viy. Closer and closer they came. Four feet, three feet....
At two feet of distance was when he struck. In a single, smooth motion he pressed the release trigger on the hilt of his weapon and pulled it free from its sheath, an eerie red hue visible shining on the blade that, while only an unintended side effect, was still even odd to Viy when he witnessed it. In that same motion he swung, utilizing tremendous force into that strike. The sword swung down, a flash of red lighting the air for a moment. Several of the leaves were simply obliterated by the actual sword itself, but numerous more were still a problem.
Then came the turnaround. It was not the sword itself that would help, but the wake it left behind. The force of the swing was great enough that it left a powerful distortion of air in its wake, deflecting more of the razor leaves aimed at Viy. With a noise that sounded somewhat like a bang rather than the snap of a whip, the air returned where it had once been denied. many leaves harmlessly passed by their target, while others were simply embedded in the floor or simply gone from the force of the swing and its aftermath. Even Viy himself felt the tension in his actual muscles below the suit: such an action was one his body was still accommodating to. Almost immediately after the sound had died down, Viy gave another order to his Ferrothorn before he spoke.
"Ferrothorn, Repeat...Impressive tactic." Viy responded flatly as the Ferrothorn deployed another set of spikes on top of the first one, making the ground around the small battle area even more dangerous. "A sharp mind, but it will take more than leaves to make me bow to your will, lady Tuomio." He responded. In a slow and deliberate motion, Viy began to return the eerily-glowing blade to its sheathe, looking to make sure there was no second action that would require another swing of such magnitude.
Post by Alex Tuomio on Jun 15, 2015 0:11:40 GMT -5
I BET MY LIFE
SLP
Spikes. It always had to be spikes. Swapping back to Ty was out of the question, even if the steel type could handle a bit of pain. No, she wasn’t going to do that to the Mawile, she’d earned that much at least. Rather, she was going to make full use of the speed difference between her little goat and the steel monstrosity.
Before she could start giving more orders to immediately follow up the Razor Leaf, she caught glimpse of a red flash behind the Ferrothorn. It was hard to see past the beast, but it held the vague appearance of a sword being swung by the man commanding the large steel type. It was definitely a bit worrying; she had no way of knowing if he’d be willing to use it on a Pokemon. Alex hoped it had merely been used to defend against the razor edged attack.
Again with the spikes? she thought with annoyance as a second layering of the annoying things were spread out by the Ferrothorn. Silently she cursed any breeders that ever purposefully bred that move into any Ferroseed. Now she definitely was not going to switch back to her Mawile.
While his goading did indeed have an effect on her, she’d excelled at the emotional and mental endurance aspects of her Interpol training. Not a hint of annoyance crossed her face, despite the urge at the back of her mind to raise a rather rude gesture with her finger at him. She tended to have that urge a lot with people that annoyed her, though it was a very rare occurrence for her to actually flip them the proverbial bird. It wasn’t so much the goading itself that pricked at her nerves as it was the fact he’d called her ‘Lady’. That had always been a sore spot with her for no apparent reason.
“If you think that’s my only ace you’re sorely mistaken, mon cher,” her voice dripped with haughty sarcasm on the last word, slipping into her native Kalosian for extra effect. So she may have let his goading get to her just a wee bit. Her judgement for the battle was not affected by it, merely her annoyance with the man himself.
“Marlow, Horn Leech and apprehend.” She adjusted her stance, shifting a foot forward and aiming an accusing finger toward the vigilante as she spoke. Being faced away from her, Marlow couldn’t see where she pointed. He had however learned the word apprehend was never used when referring to a Pokemon target. Inversely, he’d never been told to use Horn Leech on a human. It took some thought on his part to pick targets for each attack.
Once again, the speed of the Skiddo would be the greatest asset of the attack. Darting forward, the goat came up under the Ferrothorn, striking it hard with his horns. It wouldn’t do much damage against the steel belly of the opponent, but it would do some damage, and give Marlow a small boost of energy at the same time. Said boost would counter the damage Marlow took from the opponent’s spines. With the Ferrothorn likely distracted by the annoyance more than anything, Marlow resumed his dash. He came out from under the larger Pokemon on the opposite side, lowering his head in the prepared Double-Edge and aiming straight for the vigilante.
Alex knew the attack would cause damage to her Skiddo if it hit, but the possibility of subduing the target was worth it in her eyes.
Post by Vincent Pendragon on Jun 15, 2015 15:11:56 GMT -5
The battle seemed to be almost won.
From the initial look of it, either his opponent had no real response to the physical wall that the ferrothorn had presented, or she was trying to figure out a way around the series of spikes that had been deployed to prevent safe switching or movement. That meant she was effectively stuck out with the Skiddo in a battle of attrition with the Ferrothorn. A battle that seemed to be heavily in Viy's favor. Over time the skiddo would simply not be able to withstand whatever assault the Ferrothorn had, and even if it Did Vincent could still safely switch out a pokemon and give up more ground: his opponent would have to venture through the spikes set up so far in order to get to him, forcing them to either proceed unsafely or take damage in the process.
The situation was looking up. Though the way the woman spoke by accentuating her Kalos accent as she mocked Viy's sincere formalities indicated she had something else in mind. It was at this point that She ordered her Skiddo to "Leech horn then apprehend", that Viy realized who her real target was with this little trick:
him.
With that in mind, he saw the attack begin, the skiddo carefully dashing below and striking the underside of the ferrothorn with Leech Horn. The vigilante knew the reason for this was twofold: to both prevent the Ferrothorn from responding with its prodigious weight as part of an attack, and also mitigate the damage from phyiscal contact with the steely plant's many sharp spikes. The Ferrothorn slow enough that it could not respond with a turn quick enough, Viy knew he would have to capitalize on this opportunity as much as possible: his opponent had made a critical error in assuming that he would be easy to defeat with a single attack. That meant that Viy could finish setting up his wall of hazards.
"Ferrothorn, Repeat and Deploy two."
The ferrothorn simply ignored attempting to turn and face the Skiddo at this point, instead shooting a third layer of spikes followed immediately by launching a number of floating stealth rocks. Any pokemon swap in would likely have been in for severe damage or simply not be able to safely approach with this completed wall of hazards up. Meanwhile the Ferrothorn could simply sit and launch attacks with impunity at any pokemon that tried to assault it. That still left Viy with a Skiddo charging full-speed at him, looking very ready to ram him with a set of small but dangerous horns. The vigilante, however, had a solution for this as well. Drawing his sword in a single swift motion, he held it at the ready in a somewhat neutral stance: ready to go into an attack but also ready to block if necessary as well. Quickly considering his options Viy knew he could respond with a counter and attempt to KO the Skiddo: A bold move, but he still did not wish to incur any more wrath of the woman than he already had. The less damage he inflicted to her pokemon, the less trouble he could have gotten into in the long term. Normally blocking the attack would leave him at a disadvantage: the Skiddo could try to break his guard, knock him over or simply push him into a wall if the vigilante could not anchor himself properly. Dodging, while effective, could be used against him if it was predicted: the Skiddo could simply stop short and do something else. That left a fourth option that was the most optimal:
A mock "Parry".
Holding his sword so a flat edge of the blade was facing forward, Viy gripped both the blade and the hilt by the flat end, holding the blade somewhat like a staff. As the Skiddo drew closer Viy thanked his lucky stars it was not evolved: otherwise this trick would work nowhere near as effectively. Tensing his legs, when the Skiddo reached the correct distance Viy launched himself forward with as much force as he could muster, holding the weapon horizontal so that the flat side of the blade collided with the skiddo's horns. The massive sound of a clash would fill the air as the two forces collided. The sound itself echoed throughout the warehouse and even shook the empty boxes around the warehouse the tinest bit.
The result was exactly what the vigilante had hoped for: a "Tie". The force of the impact caused Viy to slide back roughly five or so feet back before he ground to a halt, quickly re-sheathed the weapon as he stopped. He...definitely felt that. Even parrying the attack in the manner he had, it had likely put a lot of stress on his body through the suit: residual physical force that the suit currently was not designed to mitigate. As Viy quickly recovered, he looked to check if the Skiddo had been pushed back as much as he had: likely so he hoped. If he was lucky maybe he had even knocked it over. Now with everything set up, hopefully he could turn the tables on this fight before it got any more out of hand and his opponent got any more bright ideas.
Post by Alex Tuomio on Jun 16, 2015 9:04:18 GMT -5
I BET MY LIFE
SLP
It was still difficult to see past the Ferrothorn, and now the stealth rocks as well. Alex had a hard time seeing if her plan had any effect on her opponent. A flash of red she saw made her heart sink to the pit of her stomach. He intended to use that sword on Marlow. She’d sent her obedient and loving Pokemon after him. The serious injuries he could sustain from a sword would be her fault. “Mon dieu,” her breathless plea to no one came out in a hushed tone of shock, her body wanting to move but her mind keeping her from running into the spike covered area before her.
The Skiddo had not altered his course in the slightest, and mere seconds after Alex spoke there was the sound of metal upon horn as the collision between Pokemon and weapon happened. Being unable to see as she was, the sound sent a sick feeling down the woman’s throat. She had convinced herself when she finally saw the result of her plan there would be naught but a maimed Marlow to greet her; and it would be entirely her fault. Her knees felt weak as she continued to stare past the floating stones as best she could. There was no more glimpse of the glowing red blade, so it had at least been sheathed.
What Alex could not see, was the fact Marlow had only been struck by the flat of the blade. The force of it sent him sliding backward by a couple feet, his hooves being able to find more sure-footed purchase on the relatively smooth floor of the warehouse than the vigilante’s boots. He shook his head quickly, the blow to his horns having dazed him a decent amount, before looking around. Another command from his trainer was expected, but he couldn’t see her through the rocks. Distress flooded the Pokemon’s mind, and he gave out a baleful bleat to try and draw his trainer into view.
The sound of her Pokemon’s cry pulled Alex back to some rational thinking. There was no trace of pain to Marlow’s call, which meant the vigilante had either not been using a blade or only used the flat edge against the goat. If it really was the flat edge, that likely meant he had no intention of causing serious harm to her Pokemon. That could work in her favor, but so soon after being so sure of the worst, Alex was not willing to risk that just yet. With a waver still audible in her voice through her determination, she called out to the mostly out of sight Pokemon, “Marlow, keep your distance and don’t let up!”
There was only one logical meaning to her words. Marlow let out another more determined cry as he shook his leafy mane yet again. Another volley of Razor Leaf was sent out, this time the entirety of the attack was aimed at the culprit. He’d been able to take out or deflect the last attack of leaves, but he also wasn’t dealing with the full attack at that point. Alex just hoped this could be brought to an end quickly; she couldn’t handle another scare like that.
Post by Vincent Pendragon on Jun 16, 2015 14:08:48 GMT -5
Damn.
The parry hadn't bought him as much time as he needed. Viy realized should have gone for something more aggressive, but was well aware there was no point regretting his action. Still, the agent continued to push her skiddo to attack him, this time at a distance with the use of Razor Leaf once again. This was a bad situation: at this short range dodging was likely out of the question, even with his extreme speed. Any attempt at an interrupting attack would likely just trade as well. That meant there was only one last option left: a similar tactic to the one he had done earlier. That strategy, however, would not work as well as it did the first time. This time as the knife-like leaves cut through the air with deadly precision, they were not in a single lined up wall but more of a concentrated, beam-like mass. That meant his initial attack would only deal with part of the problem.
But at this point Viy saw it as his only choice.
The same devastating unseathing strike that he had used before once again was unleashed, the cut and loud snap of air cutting away a good chunk of the razor leaves as before. There were still far more, however, and that initial strike was not repeatable. Instead, lightning fast swing after lightning fast swing cut through the air in streaks of red as Viy cut away as fast as he could at the massive number of leaves sent his way with mild success, temporarily holding off a good number of razor sharp leaves. This was the first time such a situation had ever come into play, and thus he found himself at a disadvantage.
But Viy could not counter all the leaves. Eventually, one or two got through the slices he used as defense, and slammed into him like small knives shot out of cannons. once they hit, roughly eight more leaves slammed into various places on his form, cutting into the suit. Dense artificial muscle stiffened after the first impact, reducing the damage of the subsequent leaf blades greatly, but still each leaf sank in about 1/3rd of an inch. The combined impact of the razor leaves knocking Viy off his feat in a case where a normal person would have simply been tossed aside and shredded like paper. As Viy fell to the floor, however, it was clear he was not out of the game: alarms and indicators in his suit helmet went off indicating that while damaged, it was thankfully very superficial damage. No important parts of the suit or its occupant had been severely injured by the attack, but he had been knocked down. In a smooth motion Viy lept back to his feet, quickly issuing a command to the ferrothorn that was only feet away from the Skiddo.
"Ferrothorn, Pin Missle, Spread!" Viy commanded authoritatively. As the vigilante did, the Ferrothorn dropped its body to the ground with a loud thud and leveled out a single, large feeler and pointed it at the smaller Skiddo. Then from the feeler aimed downward it launched a barrage of pointed spikes at the small grass type (Pin Missile5 shots*). The attack, while often random in its number of shots, launched a huge wave of the bug-typed projectiles downward at the skiddo over a wide area. While not all the shots were concentrated they were spread over a large, circular area with the Skiddo in the middle of that area. The damage would be reduced slightly, but it would prevent an easy dodge as opposed to concentrating or staggering the spike shots.
Viy himself took the opportunity to make an exceptionally fast run to the right, moving closer to his ferrothorn while maintaining a safe distance from the skiddo. He also kept an eye on the rafters above, making sure he was in a specific position relative to them so he could attempt a more effective escape if another attack came along that he wasn't able to handle.