Tomoe nodded to her orders; she gripped her weapon and charged into the group of Footmen advancing upon the king. She held the shielded weapon horizontally, like a plow, and bashed the soldiers to knock them to the ground, before swinging the blade around, hopping back, and dealing crippling slashes to the footmen who were trying to get up.
"I damn well could have guessed," Tomoe muttered. Why should she guess any different? But it was her orders to protect the royal families. And so, she said, "King Azure, please take the girl and get to safety. We'll handle these miscreants."
Juana thought for a moment, before snapping her fingers. “We could check all the electronics stores around here, starting with the one I caught Rotom in. If Porygon-Z travels through digital space, we’re bound to run into it if we browse the Internet for long enough.”
She tapped her foot. “Of course, there’s other places on this train that use computer networks… if the virtual Pokémon’s not in the electronics, then we’d have to check the train’s power grid.”
Juana looked at her newly-caught Rotom. “Maybe Rotom can help flush out this Porygon-Z… Rotom has a knack for possessing machines, after all. And I’m betting Rotom can get into a computer.”
She thought for another second. “…The employees might be pretty mad if I loose the Rotom that just wreaked havoc upon their store into one of their display laptops,” she said. “Maybe this train has wireless Internet connection… I don’t want to mess with that though. How long do you think it’ll take for Rotom to find Porygon-Z?
Rotom snickered.
“…If the fellow doesn’t get sidetracked first,” Juana muttered.
Rotom batted its eyelids and clasped its two plasmatic mittens together as a halo of sparks appeared over its head. CP: +1, Created Charlotte Carver -25, Created Aether Foundation organization -20, total: 7
The Aether Foundation building stood in stark contrast to the surrounding buildings of Central City. It boasted a sleek, white exterior with the Aether logo emblazoned on both sets of doors. The structure was a beveled prism, simple in style. Indoors felt particularly bright and sterile. This was the administration building; it did not house an Aether habitat. Rather, it was the place where Aether employees around Central City reported their findings or assignments.
One particular employee, a swarthy woman in a stark white trench coat and bowler hat in the standard Aether style, strode through those doors and immediately pulled out her cell phone. At her side was a green bug Pokémon, about the size and shape of a small microwave, with silver mandibles and yellow tusks, and blue lenses from which glowing yellow eyes dully peeked out. A Charjabug.
She keyed in a number, and put the phone to her ear.
”Hey, Charlotte,” came a voice on the other end. ”You back?”
“Yeah,” Charlotte replied, reaching under her bowler hat and running her hand through her curly hair. “The reports on the presence of the UB-03 at Zephyr were unconfirmed as of late. The ecosystem was stable, however; the Pokémon were quite well-adjusted to the commercialization of the location.” Charlotte paused. “There was actually an interesting phenomenon going on throughout my field study, actually; the Rotoms I observed were able to take on forms I haven’t previously seen due to the products in the stores. And it seems like the Ghost and Dark Pokémon were well-adjusted to staying in the eaves of the coaches… I think there was evidence of Rattata speciation, similar to that in the Alola region, but the presence of Fighting-type Pokémon in the wild make it dangerous for them to come out.”
There was one Pokémon in particular that seemed quite well-adjusted, actually. “It seems that Stufful, and its evolution Bewear, were higher on the hierarchy of wild species, especially due to the relative ease of their camouflage. Not only that, but because of the universality of electric lighting around the mall, the Gumshoos stakeouts tended to be more successful.”
Charlotte sighed. “It’s a lot of work having to clean up after what happened since that incident, and it’s no help that LIGHTING insists on being elusive. It was much easier to find the BLASTER given that it was a flying Pokémon the size of a small airplane with a long trail of fiery smoke.” She chuckled.
”Preserving the Ultra Beasts is a noble goal, of course, but nobody ever said it would be easy,” the voice on the other end replied.
“Wasn’t saying I wish it was,” Charlotte said, smirking slightly. “Anyways, what’s next on the agenda?”
“Actually, we’d like for you to study the ecosystem at Stillwater next. It’s an area that’s relatively untouched by urbanization, so it’ll be easier to study Pokémon in a more natural state.”
“Got it.”
”I’ve already sent you the tickets you’ll need to get there; you’ll find them on your Pokédex.”
“Okay, thanks. Anything else?”
”Charlotte, you’ve been doing great work since you came to Aether. As usual, on behalf of the Foundation, I would like to thank you for your dedication.”
“You’re makin’ me blush, Manager.”
”Haha. Well, good luck!”
“Luck is a colloquialization of the nature of numerical probability, and is not inherently good or bad,” Charlotte droned in an exaggeratedly flat tone.
There was a snort from the other side of the line.
“…That is, thank you.”
”You’re quite welcome, Charlotte.”
Charlotte shut off her phone, and checked her Pokédex for the tickets. Sure enough, they offered a train and a river ferry to Stillwater. “So tomorrow morning, I’ll be heading out,” she mumbled, shutting off her Dex and tossing it into her white briefcase. She pulled out a rag and knelt down to Charjabug, polishing the bus-shaped bug’s carapace. Charjabug gave out an accordion-like sound, and looked up at Charlotte.
“Alright, little buddy, I’ll get the bottom side too,” Charlotte said, rolling Charjabug over and polishing the bug’s underbelly as well. “Adventure’s a messy business. Or field study, depending on who you talk to.” Charlotte chuckled. “In my case, it’s the latter.”
Level: 1 Day/Time: Day One; Evening Location: Kingdom of Erion - Raganival, Forest Beyond Castle Grounds Tag: Luigi @Bright_Ops, Samus @Lmpkio, James @Zarkun Mention: General Brigan @Holy Soldier
WC: 362 Mudsdale let out a condescending snort at Brigan’s patronizing remarks but Hapu stroked its mane and quieted the horse down. "Easy, Mudsdale," she said. “You and I both know how hard you work. Easy.”
After the group (especially poor Luigi) was cruelly mocked by Brigan, he led the group to the side of the Abandoned Castle, using a finger (someone else’s, Hapu observed, someone who was perhaps not going to miss it on account of being, well, dead) to open up an entrance. So apparently they were bait for this Shadow Knight? Hmph. The cretin must have felt them disposable.
Hapu sighed, saying to Luigi, "That man's foolish bravado will be his end; I pray for the purpose of our mission that his end isn't today."
Literally ten seconds later the fellow bolted, sending huge tremors through the castle. He was chasing the little brown bunny servant, apparently known as a Pooka.
“Famous last words. Clearly this castle is not as abandoned as we presumed," Hapu remarked.
As Luigi gave the orders to give chase to the rampant general and the fleeing bunny, Hapu watched Samus and James fire their respective weapons in the path of the Pooka. If that rabbit warned… whoever was upstairs, Hapu figured that there would be a lot more to deal with than an empty chamber and a bunny servant.
“I presume all manner of stealth has been disregarded,” Hapu said calmly. She slid off Mudsdale, and pointed forward. “Mudsdale, find a path that would intercept this servant’s path on the second story. Use High Horsepower on the wall to shake the upper echelons of the castle,” Hapu ordered.
Mudsdale let out another huff. Finally, some horse-kicking action. The draft horse galloped after the rabbit, but instead of passing up the stairs, Mudsdale slid past the stairwell, turned its rear to the wall, and lifted its legs before delivering a swift kick to the structure.
Hapu watched as Mudsdale performed this action; the idea here was to cause the rabbit to stumble and slow down, giving the shots a couple extra seconds to reach their mark… or allow Brigan to get his meaty hands upon the Pooka.
Location: Central City Rank: Skilled Organization(s): Aether Foundation Occupation: Aether Foundation intern; she has interned every year at the local chapter of the Foundation since her admission into college.
Biography: The modest Carvers don't consider themselves particularly well-off, but if the family could name its proudest achievement, it's raising their girl Charlotte into a determined young woman. Raised on hard work and love for what she's passionate about, Charlotte spent most of her life around Pokémon, learning every aspect of the species around her. She always found fascinating the way that Pokémon ecosystems functioned, and decided that was what she wanted to study. Charlotte has a few friends she keeps up with on social media; they were close friends, important to her.
Charlotte was given a Pokédex and Poké Ball as a high school graduation gift; it was in this ball that she captured and befriended her first Pokémon, a Grubbin. Perhaps it was a bit rocky getting off with the electricity-eating insect, but eventually she and Grubbin grew close. While she was concentrating on her studies, she often would go out as part of research to observe other Pokémon, which is how she caught the other Pokémon in her party.
Eventually, her studies led to a promising internship at the Aether Foundation, where she began to extensively study, and help research, the habitats of Pokémon. It involved a lot of field work, of course, but Charlotte always enjoyed that. For some reason, people began to treat her with a little suspicion during her time at Aether, but she never let that deter her from her studies. She wants to find a way to help Pokémon restore habitats, and admires the way that most people respect Pokémon (after all, would you develop the land around a volcano if a pissed-off Turtonator were to come by and melt your bulldozers to slag?).
Personality: Charlotte is usually very focused. However, whenever she can, she likes to unironically crack terrible puns about Pokémon and Pokémon moves. She remains calm even in the harshest conditions, for her internship's field work had taken her from volcanoes to the middle of the ocean. She is well-traveled, but also a little fussy about her research, and does not like being interrupted. However, when she is finished with her task at hand, she is happy to chat. She does not get jittery around Pokémon, and handles the creepiest-crawliest Bug-types without batting an eyelid. However, some people might call her a little too focused on her work, perhaps to such an extent that she doesn't notice what's around her. She's also a little sensitive about what she does; she doesn't want her hard work shuffled under the rug and outright disregarded.
Mission Statement: "We work to protect the habitats of Pokémon, and nurse Pokémon harmed by illicit activity to health. We dedicate our studies to the topics of Pokémon ecosystems, as well as the creatures known as Ultra Beasts that a separate branch of the foundation has become entangled with in a previous incident, in order to better understand our ecological relationship with Pokémon and the world.”
Organization History: The Aether Foundation has multiple branches; the one in Alola was just one of many. This is yet another branch of the Foundation, one recently dispatched in the wake of the incident involving the President. Since the incident, the Aether Foundation has moved past those shady dealings and put more focus on their initial goal. They utilize tools such as very-large floating structures to construct suitable habitats for hurt Pokémon to recover, before releasing them back to their habitats.
Other than that, this chapter of the Foundation does a lot of field work, and dispatches Aether trailers out to different areas of the region to perform studies on the Pokémon and their natural habitats, and how human activity affects those habitats. As a result of the incident, subversive or criminal activity within the Foundation is absolutely not tolerated, and those who engage in criminal activities are reported on and then swiftly booted from the organization. They have seen what that sort of poison has done to the Foundation in the past, and they do not want that as part of their legacy.
The Foundation has since remained open to people willing to help Pokémon, and has encouraged young Trainers to learn as much about Pokémon and Pokémon ecology as possible so as to better understand the relationship between humans and Pokémon.
The branch manager of this sector is Theodosia Wong, a lean woman with jet black hair and frameless spectacles, with a kind disposition. Given the Foundation's history, Theodosia is very cautious about the behavior of the Foundation members.
Bonuses*: -1 TP for interacting with wild Pokémon in a post. -5 TP for capturing a Pokémon. (Does not stack with above bonus, unless a wild Pokémon or group of wild Pokémon separate from the Pokémon captured is interacted with. Bonus can be received twice a month, real-time) -10 TP for accepting a mission that involves helping a Pokémon, or a person with Pokémon. (Only once per month, real-time)
*The number of times a bonus has been received of its type per month should be kept track of, and noted in the post in which the bonus is received.
Membership Requirements: -None; the Foundation is open to all people who desire to help Pokémon.
