@TheIrishJJ Nicely posted. Although, your dark-blue color is pretty hard for me to read on my screen, could you make it a bit brighter?
@Joshua Tamashii The same's actually true for your Pokémon, but it's more acceptable because I am pretty sure I know what they're saying. Anyways! Leaving to search again, eh? Good luck. Nicely posted!
So, the Pokédex stores where a Pokémon has been found. That's why I'm listing "known Pokémon" at the end of each area-thing that people come to. So, you could come to a route where someone else has encountered a Pokémon, go "THERE ARE THOSE HERE" and then go looking for them. BUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT... Rory didn't have a Pokédex when he met the Growlithe. So, nope, Erza has no idea. Sorry. Haha.
Other than that, nicely posted. Erza's joy was fun to read about. Now, then.
@Rune_Alchemist Is Erika still on the phone-dex? Since you tagged her, I kinda wondered. Oh, well! Alright, everything's going in a direction. Teh-heh, stealing the nugget had consequences. Anyways. Nicely posted.
And that's just a post for those in the scene where all have posted already. @Joshua Tamashii, your name has two i's, which is nice of me to remember so you can get a mention. Yupp.
@Valkan I HAD A REASONABLE REASON FOR HER TO KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT ONE. HAH!
@TheIrishJJ And, since you decided to stroke random Pokémon, you got visited by a relatively rarer Route 1 Pokémon. Congratz. Now off to the lab with you. And, um. You didn't confirm my thoughts about Kalmia potentially using your ranch, but I wrote Kalmia here like this isn't the first time you two see one another. Yeah.
Anyways. Once again, cut it the moment you guys saw one another. And copy-pasted some text there was no need to rewrite. Haha.
Kalmia would be off to answer the door, but Kalmia had considerable incentive to answer what Amelia just said.
‘Ah, no, that’s no problem! They’re just a few kids!’ Kalmia smiled at Amelia’s little thing about the children and waved it off. ‘You don’t have to hide her. That’s not what I wanted to say. Train her, make her strong, be proud of her. Just be aware of my warning. … And perhaps stay out of Bigfjord City until you’re strong enough, but that’s minor details.’ Kalmia waved her hand off a little, dismissing the most recent thing she said. Then, off to open the door.
Kalmia helped him inside and quite naturally got some cleaning supplies to help get the dust off the clothes and so. She’d smirk a little at his worries as she did, before he was scared by the Phantump.
‘Oh, my.’ She blinked a little as the Phantump scared Erza and then watched the scene between him and Amelia. She gained a little happy smile before Erza asked her if she knew what trainer he was talking about.
‘Ah.’ The gears in her head spun furiously for about three surprised seconds. ‘Oh, yes. Morty, Gym Leader of Ecruteak City, Ghost-type specialist? Yeah, I know of him.’ Kalmia smiled and nodded to him. … Having read up on the town because she knew she’d get an applicant from said town had paid off.
‘Of course you’re still getting your Pokémon. In fact, appearing like this proves you have the will to overcome adversities to get where you want, which I approve of. Teh-heh.’ Kalmia turned to walk somewhere into the building towards her computer, when the doorbell rang. Kalmia stopped in her tracks, before turning and walking to the door.
So, Rory embarked on his quest, starting by travelling via Route 1 to Pureplain City to be given his first Pokémon. As this was apparently the first time he travelled through the route by foot…
Route 1
Route 1 is a long, flat and grassy route where most trainers get their first taste of the world. From Pureplain you can see the hills of Highhill in the distance, from Highhill the scrapers of Pureplain looms in the distance, the start of the Silent Forest surrounding the Silent Shrine on the side. There is a larger road, a main road used for travelling in and out of Pureplain City, there are plenty of more mature travellers taking that road to get from point A to point B. But, young Pokémon Trainers usually much rather use the smaller path going out into the grassland. This is some remnants of the plain which Pureplain City was named after, although most of that plain is now swallowed up by buildings of people living around here. Small roads branch out, leading to different places where some individuals have made their houses.
There are many safe roads, yet take one step out of it and you’re immediately in tall grass, where you can already see many first-time Pokémon Trainers are challenging their first Pokémon. One could expect Pokémon Trainers to be searching for Pokémon either in the tall grass or the forest on the side, and also battling one another as they can. From the looks of it, there are plenty of young trainers sporting freshly caught Pidgeys and Rattatas. As one approaches Highhill Town, the forest becomes more plentiful, as beyond the town lies a forest.
Through the route also runs an indent, a drain surrounded by walls, seemingly made for the water to gather up inside it. It’s currently dry, whatever cause of that might be. Some trainers appear to be having fun battling inside it, and they’re running around challenging one another inside it. But, the drain also raised interesting questions about what kind of Pokémon or things one might find should one explore it further.
The Pokémon on the route are famously mostly Pidgeys and Rattata, but if Rory for some reason didn’t want to stroke a tiny bird or a rat then he might have had the odd luck in running into an uncommon wild Growlithe of the plains. Now, while wild Growlithes are less friendly than the tame ones that are everywhere in Pureplain City, it’s still reasonable that it’d be friendly enough to potentially stroke. It’s a nice friendly Pokémon, after all.
However, soon enough, Rory arrived in the suburbs of Pureplain City, and…
Pureplain City is placed on the south-west brink of Isson, with the town facing the water and spreading quite far. The further in-town you go, the higher the buildings become, but the suburbs spread quite far. In terms of sheer landmass, it might even compete with Worldedge City, although maybe not in height. Life passes normally within this city. Children grow up alongside their parents in houses in the long, friendly streets. Jobs come from the depths of the town in the taller buildings. Schools grow from the reasonably high amount of children in need of tuition. And of course, there are lots of Pokémon.
In Pureplain City, human and Pokémon work together. Be it for manual labour or just for company, Pureplain houses often contain at least one household Pokémon and there are many Trainer's Schools around the city have always been plentifully attended, not counting the recent drop of embarking trainers due to the Team Wars. In addition, Pureplain Harbor is known as the “Gateway of Isson”, as that’s where all the ferries from outside the region dock, giving life to quite the marketplace. A common attraction of the city is the Super Contest stage, but other than that, Pureplain remains what it has always been. Pure and plain.
… Except for all the views there was to see, Rory headed for Professor Kalmia’s lab. It was a single-floor building with a sign that said “Pokémon Lab” on it that didn’t really look like a lab, and then an off-shoot on the right side which looked like a regular home that somehow leaned into the lab. Knowing he had probably found the right place, he rang the bell. It took a number of seconds, but soon enough, the door (which wasn’t locked) opened.
+ lab-coat as described, because professor
‘And here’s another one. Hello, Rory!’ Kalmia smiled happily at him and invited him inside. ‘You’re not the only one here to get your Pokémon!’ She said as she walked inside, walking for her computer.
The rectangular room had book-shelves placed in a circle around an area in the middle, not properly taking advantage of the space in the corners. The shelves contained varying books and papers of research, as well as the occasional Pokéballs. In the back and right, a large amount of what appeared to be computer servers filled about 40% of the available space, and they were coupled to Kalmia’s laptop which stood on a desk to the left of it. Other than the laptop, there was also a large amount of papers and binders on it, making it impossible to place anything else on there.
To the left was another table on which a Slowpoke was standing. It was… slightly confused, turning its head and staring up at nothing.
To the right of the table was a healing station from a Pokémon Center, with places to place six Pokéballs, along with a large cylinder thing with a glass middle and a hatch that one likely were to place something moderately large within. There was nothing that said what it actually was. While it was tight in here, it was still decently maneuverable and Kalmia knew where everything she wanted was.
There was a side-door to the right, with all probability leading to the off-shoot house on the side of the lab.
And then there was Erza and Amelia. Erza looking somewhat like he’s been dragged through a disaster movie and young Amelia having her ghost-Pokémon around.
I posted. Because we're in a new thread, I felt like writing something a bit longer. Tell me if there's any problems. Just doing what Mariette's been doing due to earlier events. And, yeah, it takes place at an undefined time, really, so not right now. Maybe two days into the future, or the past, who knows. Since it was just Mariette in there that's a player character, I hit it in a hider to not force people to scroll over it. That's that.
Another strike happened in the dark. A girl’s eyes widened where she stood in the dark as a surge of black tendrils gripped her and pulled her harshly into a portal, vanishing and leaving no trace behind. This was in a small town on the east coast, the girl was a newly born Magical Girl with long hair who’d be minimally missed if she disappeared.
The same night, now on the west coast, another portal opened behind another untransformed long-haired Magical Girl who had just returned home tired from a monster-encounter. She could but glance back with a look of tired despair as the tentacles laid claim to her and pulled her into the void.
This had been happening across the nation. Only a few per night, but they were happening. Occurrences were widespread as to cause minimal attention to be drawn to it per area. Magical Girls disappeared occasionally in battle, this was a fact of life. There was no need to think that there could perhaps be something sinister that was currently… hunting them.
There was an alley in the night, where an untransformed Magical Girl strode forth with confidence, finished with tonight’s business. For the third time tonight, a portal opened, swinging wide behind a Magical Girl. For the third time tonight, a horrifying blur of dark tentacles surged at their victim, intending on engulfing her and bringing her back through the portal. For the first time tonight…
‘KRRRRRRRRRRRAH!’ A terrifying surge of fire blasted out with the Magical Girl as its origin, enveloping and eliminating the dark tentacles trying to overwhelm her and sent dark spatters of the unknown matter showering brick walls in the alley the event was taking place in, under the cover of the night-time stars. The Magical Girl swung around, lean and average in build with flowing robes, wielding a huge stick with giant spear-points in each end, her flowing extravagantly long red hair flying from the breeze her own fire had created. She grinned as the portal the tentacles had come from closed, her expression filled with blood-lust and excitement.
‘Ouch. Enhanced Transformation. I didn’t notice she had that.’ Deni smirked as their latest catch turned out to be a challenge. She had stalked her occasionally the last few days along with a multitude of other Magical Girls, to learn all she could before they struck. She hadn’t learned that.
‘Georgia Beltran… A Magical Girl who knows to save her aces. We have to respect that.’ Eli nodded with a thoughtful look on her face, considering the situation while staring at a notebook she held within her slimy wing. The two young twins looked like black harpies composed of some black fluid, and they were joined by a older girl in a long blue dress with long white hair clutching a stuffed bunny, staring forward expressionlessly with a single eye because the other was under an eyepatch. Under the eyepatch was several small portals through which Mariette had a view of the whole alley.
‘…’ Mariette stood, watching the fiery Magical Girl from above, herself standing with her two underlings in a fairly distant abandoned apartment, considering her next move. Their opponent this time had excellent strength, agility, vitality and magic, as well as years of fighting experience. While she was a complete solo fighter without backer that nobody would miss if she disappeared with long hair to boot, this was their toughest catch yet. Tough enough that Mariette likely would have skipped her if everything else didn’t so perfectly coincide. Their best bet had been to claim her while untransformed, but it turned out Georgia had a trick against that, too.
‘C’MON! Was that ALL you had for me!? YOU GOTTA HAVE MORE OF A FIGHT IN YOU THAN THAT!’ Georgia shouted out into the alley, taunting them and pointing her double-sided spear down the alley where the portal had been.
‘We’re not just going to pull away after THAT, right?’ Deni asked, visibly on edge and raring for a fight herself.
‘She knows of us now. We won’t be able to ambush her with sudden opening portals. She’s more physically able than any of us. It wouldn’t be an easy battle, it makes sense to pull back and wait for her drop her guard again, but…’ Eli muttered strategy, but then turned to look to Mariette with slightly unsure eyes.
Mariette considered, with Deni’s agitated look and Eli’s unsure one looking at her. Now, the enemy had turned out to be tougher than expected. It made sense to pull back. But…
‘Of course we’re not pulling back.’ Mariette said with a cold tone, gaining a little smile, looking to Deni and then to Eli. ‘She knows of us, now. If we let her go now, she can tell others what happened to her, which in turn means they could prepare for us. That would be unacceptable. We’re taking her.’ Mariette nodded as she said. Deni grinned excitedly while Eli put down her notebook and stretched some nonexistent muscles, and both harpies made ready for combat.
‘Deni. Eli.’ Mariette said to them, while raising a hand intent on opening portals while the other still clutched the stuffed bunny. They acknowledged with a grin and a nod, respectively. ‘You’re up.’
____
Georgia stood, smirking in the alley as the residential fire from her earlier burst settled around her. Seemed like whoever attacked her had pulled back, or were considering their next move. Whatever it was, she knew she could handle more tentacles, but it did seem like whoever this was had more capabilities than just that. But her blood had just taken fire, urging for more combat. They weren’t going to just get a girl all fired up and then leave her here all hot and bothered, were they?
The answer came as another portal opened behind her, soundlessly but what came out wasn’t quite as soundless. Georgia grabbed her staff with spear-ends in both directions and thrust backwards at the incoming form, hearing a satisfying clang of metal meeting metal. The fire Magical Girl looked back with a grin, and met another grin. A dark, underdeveloped little monster girl, body covered with feathers of… tar? Regardless, she was clutching a spear that had been thrust at Georgia’s back, and thrusting back had made the spears clash.
Georgia spun around, fiercely swinging the other end of her double-spear at her opponent from overhead. Deni’s own spear suddenly deformed, the material swinging around in a circle and made a shield that took the blow head-on. Georgia was both faster and stronger than Deni, but Deni had a solid edge in adaptability. As Georgia hit the shield, Deni deformed under it, using the force of the blow to make the shield tip behind her and used the force to launch herself at Georgia from underneath the shield while deforming a hand into a knife. As that happened, Georgia became aware of another presence jumping her from the other side, from the top of the building. They seemingly thought she was cornered. Georgia was going to have none of that.
Georgia blasted a jet of fire forth at Deni, launching herself back a few meters to avoid Eli’s attack from behind, who was dropping down with a sword held in both hands. Deni quickly formed a shield in front of her with her own liquid and shied back, while Eli formed wings and flapped, placing herself above on a wall in the alley looking down. Georgia stared at them. All she knew said that Deni should be fried stiff right about now. Unless… ah, Reinforcement magic. She grinned at Deni as she realized, and Deni grinned back, dissolving the shield back into her body. Then Georgia looked up at Eli, who had a much more serious expression, parched on the wall. Twinned Souls, eh? If it was just these two, Georgia would be fine. However…
A portal appeared right next to her and tentacles charged out. The speed which they opened startled Georgia, but she could react in time, blasting a surge of fire into them while jumping away. But, then she had to blink in surprise. Eli’s wings had deformed into a shotgun, directed at where Georgia was jumping. Surely, that couldn’t actually fire-
BANG-BASH. The sound of the shotgun firing from Eli’s grasp down at Georgia was quickly followed by a counter-blast of fire by Georgia, frowning in anger as this just turned a lot more complicated. The gun fired magic, not bullets, which were less lethal to a Magical Girl than bullets would be to a human, but that was still a bothersome attack. Wait, where did the other one go?
That thought was quickly followed by Georgia having to spin about and kick Deni’s double-sided battle-axe out of its lethal arc. Georgia countered by stabbing at Deni’s waist with her spear, a place she knew wouldn’t be able to dodge that fast, but Deni’s body deformed twisting her torso unnaturally out of the spears range. Then the swinging axe deformed, too, suddenly curving into a chain and spinning around Georgia’s spear, locking it in place. Deni grinned at her and Georgia was getting annoyed. Also, Eli was aiming the shotgun at her again, and she felt more tentacles approaching. Unacceptable.
Georgia blasted forward with full force of fire, sending herself backwards out of danger while Deni deformed aside to dodge the flames in a way impossible unless your body’s composed of liquid. The fire-girl had managed to free her spear, but it was evident that the spear wasn’t going to serve well against these fluid opponents. Deni was still grinning, Georgia was not anymore. This was some bloody mess of a battle. If she could at least take one of these out, it would be a lot easier. She directed a hand up at Eli, charging a powerful beam of fire. Eli blinked in realization, the shotgun deforming back into wings and she flapped to get away. While doing so her legs deformed into… machine guns, which opened fire blasting away at their target.
Too late, Georgia grinned, in the air Eli’s dodging was a lot slower. Also, those shots were both wildly inaccurate and she could just burn the shots that would hit. Too little magic was being expanded through those guns to actually harm her. So with that, Georgia blasted her flames, surging forth at the liquid harpy who wouldn’t be able to dodge, but she realized too late Eli was gliding into a portal. Bah, it was fine. Just get her out of the game for just one moment…
Then the portal which Eli flew through dropped, and Georgia could but blink in realization as she was looking at her beam flying at what appeared to be her own back. Also, wasn’t something really hot approaching from behi-
Georgia jumped out of the way at the last second, as her own beam had flown through a portal hidden behind another portal directly at her back. She managed to get away, barely, she wasn’t sure how. Yet, in the direction she jumped stood Deni, grinning. Georgia gave her a stunned look, that wasn’t where Deni had been standing last she looked? Wait-
BANG, Georgia was hit by a huge battle-hammer in the head that Deni had swung with perfect timing, making her drop her spear and stumble in another direction, trying to recover. But, she had somehow stumbled through a perfectly placed portal into an unfamiliar apartment. Ghr, she just needed to make another fiery explosion…!
Then her face was slammed by a powerful tentacle while other similar tentacles crashed into her back, and she cried out a scream of pain as the tentacles enveloped her and thrust her forcefully through another portal, and then everything went black.
____
‘W-woah. She was a fight.’ Deni breathed heavily in excitement as both she and Eli returned to Mariette’s interdimensional apartment, several parts of her accessories notably burned. Both her and Eli’s limbs were back to normal harpy-shape instead of being deformed into strange weaponry.
‘Georgia Beltran was perhaps a risk to take on, but we outnumbered her thoroughly and had the tactical advantage of being prepared.’ Eli noted, picking up her notebook and writing down the information about the successful capture.
‘…’ Of course, Mariette had merely sat in a neighboring building making portals were necessary during the battle. She had to be in the same world and reasonably close to the fight, her magic would have greatly weakened if she tried to fight from within her interdimensional home or from too far away, but now they had returned. Georgia had been snatched to their void of a storage for Magical Girls…
‘So, uh, think they have some means of dealing with her Enhanced Transformation?’ Deni grinned, referring to those they were capturing these girls for.
‘… Let’s assume they have something. We’re collecting all these Magical Girls for them and all.’ Eli replied, frowning into her notebook as she considered it.
Mariette inspected her two underlings after the battle. Deni was a bit burned, but her liquid body would handle it and she looked like she had her fun. Eli wasn’t injured at all, and had successfully played her role as bait for a powerful blast. Their opponent had been more powerful than either of them on their own, but all together they ever gave Georgia a chance to rest, which led to annoyance and eventually to bad or delayed decision making. It all worked out.
The two talked some more, while Mariette started closing the portals in the area… when a small cyan bit of color caught her eye. A Magical Girl jumped down from a distant building, creating a slide of ice which she then rode down to the alley where they had fought Georgia, all the walls marred with damage from the fire-girl’s blasts.
‘Georgia!’ The girl shouted out, walking carefully forward through the alley. She was wearing a blue uniform as her outfit, and had long cyan hair hanging behind her as she looked around with a frown. Mariette intentionally opened tiny portals closer to her to let them listen in to what she was saying, Deni and Eli quieting immediately. ‘Georgia! Come out, I know this is your handiwork. Who did you fry now?’
‘It seems at least one person knew Georgia.’ Eli commented silently, throwing a glance at Deni.
‘We’re doing multiple girls per day now. Sorry that I might miss some details when I only have hours to stalk each target.’ Deni shrugged, dismissing the fault in the data.
‘Lillian Reed, fairly famed local Ice-specialized Puchuu Magical Girl. Deemed too popular to lay claim to.’ Eli analyzed checking her notes on the person that had appeared.
‘She’s blessed with the Power of Friendship, and has tried making friends with everyone, including Georgia, apparently.’ Deni smirked, showing that her stalking had resulted in some information. Eli sighed.
‘It is unfortunate that someone like that will have found out about the disappearances, but it’s probably best to leave her be.’ Eli said, looking at Mariette.
‘…’ Mariette stood silently, watching the girl from above through tiny portals inside her eye-patch with her right eye, seeing how the girl’s expression went from frowning accusement to hesitant worry when it became clear that no fire-girl was appearing.
‘… Georgia?’ Lillian asked, her voice more worried and softer now, as the idea that Georgia might have lost might have just occurred to her. Mariette kept looking at her, specifically her eyes were drawn to her fairly long hair…
‘We’re taking her.’ Mariette suddenly declared. Both Deni and Eli flinched at this statement, turning to look at her with wide eyes and startled realization.
‘Eli… I think our mistress is becoming more bloodthirsty…’ Deni had been taken aback, but nonetheless grinned, ready for action.
‘… And here I was happy she was more alike calm me than wild you, Deni…’ Eli stated in reply, looking a little worried but ready nonetheless.
Mariette threw them a quick look with her one eye, confirming they were ready while watching their target with the other eye, before a portal opened and encompassed them, bringing them back into the abandoned apartment in the same world as Lillian. Then, the darkness surrounding Mariette stirred. Black tendrils emerged from the ground around her, moving sideways into a starting position that meant that even if counter-fired, the shots would hit the wall rather than her comparatively fragile body.
Then, she opened two portals to Lillian’s left and right side, through which Deni and Eli sprung out at her. Lillian was alarmed, and immediately summoned twin ice walls blocking off her attackers. That’s when her larger portal opened right behind Lillian’s surprised and panicked form, and Mariette’s tentacles surged forth.
‘… Plenty of long-haired new dolls are on the way…’ Mariette smirked, still clutching the stuffed bunny, as they started overwhelming another hapless victim.
@Pikmin Eye I'm slightly confused by the first sentence. Which lady did Martin get the impression that he was talking about, was it really Team Virtue he said she was part of and was it Karl's statement of "She's Team Amethyst" which he was thinking about? Now, Karl was referring to the original owner of the Ducklett, but I don't believe Martin has ever seen her. He would however know that Team Amethyst is the team that Virtue claims to fight. These two are fairly clearly Virtue based on their clothing. I'm not sure if you misread something somewhere or if I got confused assuming something wrong.
@Valkan Oh, geesh. You're TESTING Professor Kalmia? Now I gotta make a cross-reference for how much she'd know about other regions and figure out how famous Morty is. I mean, I know who he is, of course, but Kalmia's likely never seen him. Hah. Anyway, nicely posted, haha.
@Joshua Tamashii Short post is entirely acceptable. Nicely posted.
@Valkan Can reply to it with another short post if he feels like it. And so on until it's reasonable to stop. Kalmia's not necessarily going to interrupt, she'll react to the words she's been spoken to with when I post. Heh.
@Pirouette *snicker* Well, Joshua appears to be highly intending on getting himself lost, anyway. Haha.
@TheIrishJJ Alright. That gets it done. ... What kind of wild Pokémon did you encounter that'd let you touch them? Oh, well. Go for it. Heh. Nicely posted.
@Joshua Tamashii Heh. Nicely posted. Sure, yeah, you can post again.
@Valkan She kind of had a list of all trainers that would be coming, and most came yesterday, and she already knows how Rory looks like, soooooooo... XD
Savo
Xaltwind
Lunamaria Hawke
Kon Kon
Floofenstein
RPM
Renose
Rune_Alchemist
