A pretty normal day was going on for this group of irregulars, with the exception of the fact that this group of irregulars consisted of both humans and Pokémon. Together they were journeying across countrysides meeting new people and Pokémon as well as gaining new experiences battling. A sort of reunion meeting was happening amongst the group, and that included ALL of this human's Pokémon. Amongst them was the Pokémon that was worshipped in some regions as a deity, and it had the ability to manipulate space according to its will. This of course, was initially thought to pose a problem, until it was discovered that space would still exist even without it. "It's been a while since I've seen YOU, Palkia. I've been meaning to ask you about a few things but of course you aren't bound by Poké Balls so you arrived at your own leisure partially. What exactly is the extent that you can truly distort space? That alternate space that I was sent to... it must have taken a lot to send me there. Have you tried to recreate that same type of thing with the enhancement of the Orb?" The Trainer said.
"I haven't used it since that one time, but it seems like you are inviting me to do so," it responded. "Well, yes. I'd like to see the extent of the enhancement of your powers." With that statement, Palkia floated down to the ground. It didn't speak but instead, opened up a slice of space in which it then entered. After it returned, the Lustrous Orb was in its claws. It then repeated the process again, and when it did it the second time, not only did the gems on is shoulders glow pink, but the orb itself now glew pink. Instead of a normal sized slice, a portal was visible, that showed what looked like another version of the same place, but slightly distorted, like ripples in a pond.
Serena, on the other hand, had been hunting when she saw the claws, and the portal open. She crouched behind a bush thinking to herself about how something like that could have happened. She of course, looked at her own claws and tried to mimic the motion, then upon finding that she couldn't do it, decided to walk to the side of the, unbeknownst to her, separate piece of space, just looking at it. /Huh, it's like...a reflection in the lake...but, it's in the air./ she didn't dare touch it, not yet anyway. Her eyes examined the edges warily, as if it would expand to swallow her up, but when it didn't, she got more brave, walking out in front of it and peering into it suspiciously. Nothing.
"That's rather odd... it's different than normal. I'm not certain I want to just go and stick my head in there..." He said. The next stage was to obviously find out what was on the other side of it, since it appear to simply be more than just a regular portal. He reached on the ground, after spotting a nearby large rock that he could roll, and then he stood near the edge, making extra careful not to directly be in front of the portal either, and then he rolled the rock inside. If there was something other side, then it probably would do several things. It could get curious, and roll the rock back, eat it, spit it out if it was large enough to eat it in the first place, or it could destroy the rock in which case he'd be able to probably see the results later.
She jumped back defensively as something came through the portal, what in the world? Her claws were at the ready in a defensive stance. When it didn't do anything after rolling in, she warily walked up to it and poked it with a claw. Nothing. Just a rock. She felt silly, but then, that meant that there was something on the other side. She bent and hefted up the rock, then pushed it back through, if a bit harder than intended to send it perhaps three feet into the air before it would land back on the other side. It didn't belong here, even if it was just a rock. Eventually though, curiosity more than anything got the better of her, and she testingly poked a claw through near the side, and wiggled it around before pulling it back and looking at it. /Well...it's staying open, whatever it is, so if i did go through, then I could get back...plus there'd probably be more food over on that side, doesn't seem to be damaged, plentiful hunting versus standing here and starving...no contest./
After seeing the rock forcibly pushed back through the portal, he knew that there definitely was something on the other side. Though he still had no indication of what it was just that it didn't eat or destroy the rock, and instead pushed it back. After a while of waiting to see if anything would come through, he noticed that what appeared to be a claw poking through the portal. "Well that's interesting..." he said quietly. He ventured closer to the portal and felt brave enough to stick his hand in, but as the mystery being did, he quickly withdrew it.
Hand, hand hand hand! She jumped back and scratched at it, but it had gone before her claws could even make contact. Something was over there, something was alive, as it could move...she hesitated, then decided to risk it. She ran at the portal full force, but at an opposite angle of where the hand had come out, hoping to avoid being caught as she passed through. The portal felt just like it looked, if a bit more elastic, but when the fabric of the portal tore, she found herself among quite a few Pokémon that were bigger than her, and immediately made for the bushes--or the closest source of cover. What had she gotten herself into?!
Did he just imagine that? For a second there it seemed like there was something out of the corner of his eye, and then it quickly moved out of focus. "Did you see that? I mean I really hope that I wasn't imagining that." He moved closer to the portal, and then tried to follow the line of sight in which he saw the foreign object move. "No, you definitely didn't imagine it... there was something that emerged from the portal, and if you look closely, you can still see the evidence of it being disturbed." Tensa said, pointing at it with a claw.
What WAS that thing? She knew what the Pokémon were, she would have been a fool not to, but the peach thing, that walked on two legs, had no tail or any sort of counter balance, and still it could move around just fine, it wasn't logical, not to her Pokémon mind. She crawled through the underbrush, thankfully she had enough of her hunter's instinct left to not make too many noises, but still she was forced to come to a complete stop when her scarf got caught amongst the branches. She pulled at it, her folly, as it caused the bush to rustle, but she wasn't leaving without her scarf.
"I do see the evidence..." As soon as he finished that sentence he heard a rustling in the bushes. He turned around to try and find the source of the rustling that he knew had to have been caused by whatever came through the portal. "Actually, I think there is an easier way to see if this happens to be a Pokémon or not." Kyn whipped out his Pokédex and scanned the area by moving it around near the bushes, until it found something. It recited out the entry for Bagon, and then he put it away. "A Bagon? A Bagon is what came from the other side? How... intriguing..." he said to no one in particular.
The rustling in the bushes came to a stop with the snap of a branch, and a growl. A hooked claw in her scarf loosened it back to comfortable standards, her eyes darting as her instinctual mind ordered her to hide, somewhere, anywhere...yet her eyes only fell upon the tree, and to do so would mean exposing herself, if only for a split second. She knelt there in battle with her hunter skills, and her civilized skills, curse Marlow for ever teaching her about them! They weren't going to save her now.
Kyn decided directly address the Bagon to see whether or not he would be able to even get a response. "Excuse me, but why don't you come out here? I can obviously tell that you've got SOME level of instinct, but you're still curious enough to have come here. Besides, there's really not point in trying to go back the way you came now anyway," he said, moving back near the way that led back to the portal. He didn't even knew if he would be understood, but it'd be worth a try anyway just to see.
Her eyes blinked, shocked, did the creature just speak her language? it hadn't been before, she was sure of that, still with so many Pokémon gathered around, outside of a town, how could it be safe? He didn't sound like he wanted to hurt her, but her instincts read it as a trap. Deep breath, they weren't chasing after her, she was safe...and soon her hunter instinct had died enough to where she could think rationally. Group of Pokémon, not fighting, strange creature that could speak her language, not being hurt by Pokémon, all were sentient...? Another deep breath, and she forced herself away from the tree, finding a break between the two bushes, still very defensive, not exactly sure if she was safe, but her blue muzzle peeked from the bushes, along with the start of her headplate, and her green eyes focused on the male who had spoken--his scent told her that much. Finally her brain ran over the last bit of information, and his movement, that was her way HOME! "Is that a threat?" She didn't sound scared, adrenaline had long been pumping, and while the voice was clearly female, it wasn't meek, nor shy.
As he saw the muzzle poke out he was at least glad to see that the Pokédex had at least identified it correctly, but then he saw something that didn't quite line up with what he saw. Was that... a GOLDEN headplate? That would be rather interesting to see. Then he heard a voice, a voice that he was at least glad responded to him, showing not only a sign of intelligence but a sign of understanding. It took a while before he realised the actual tone in which the sentence was said. "Oh. Wait... I'm not... what I mean to say is... No, it isn't..." He was tripping over his thoughts again.
"Not exactly the best first impression it seems," Tensa commented with a chuckle.
Her muzzle disappeared back into the brush. "If you intend to keep me from going home you're sadly mistaken." There was that Rogue resolve, to get it done in the least amount of trouble possible, but it was she who had gotten herself into this, and it made her hesitate, she didn't even know if her abilities would FUNCTION in this world, and this indecision made her resort to a bluff that may or may not even have been an actual bluff, she didn't know for sure. She was glad for the loam of the soil which muffled her claw clicking steps, but now she really wished that she knew how to fly, it would make escaping from this predicament a lot easier.
"Whoa, hold on! Why would I keep you from going back there? Although I walked in front of the portal, that doesn't mean that you couldn't just simply walk around me. I just wanted to see you. Besides, you're a Pokémon. You could just go right through me if you wanted to, probably." He said, stepping slightly to the side, but still partially in the path that would essentially force her to have to cross his line of sight.
"Lots of 'mon around, with a full grown Sceptile chummy with you, sure, i could have 'just gone around' " She snorted, much too much like a dragon for perhaps her own good. She didn't sound reassured, and she knew she was nothing in comparison to the Sceptile, or any of the other Pokémon that were there. But he said he just wanted to see her...had he been LOOKING into her world for a Bagon? Why her? there were several other Bagon in the rogues other than her, but they were all likely still helping out with the dump mission. She resigned to stepping out into the open, claws changing from the normal steps to clicking as she emerged properly from the bushes in what was clearly a defensive stance. She hated having to be on the defense, her body wasn't made for it, and still her mind screamed at her to either find a way to be on the offense, or to run away.
"What about Tensa? I suppose it would look rather counter-intuitive. Oh, and there's one more thing... the Bagon that I've seen... don't have headplates like you. That's something I noticed right away. I hope I don't sound rude though." His tone of voice was absolutely calm and curious, despite the current situation, and her understandable cautiousness. He failed to really notice that she actually emerged from the bushes has he was stroking his facial hair and practically staring off into space.
He wasn't paying attention to her now, she could have easily slipped by him, but with the Sceptile...Tensa was his name? Standing there, she didn't dare. "Idiot." she muttered, under her breath. "Pointing out the differences in how someone looks, it would be like me pointing out that you've been shaved." Of course, she wouldn't know that he hadn't really, but it was a good assumption since he had hair in some places, but not even short fur in others.
"That's an interesting way of looking at it actually. I suppose from your perspective it would look like that. You must not have very many humans in that world. But, I've got more questions for you, that is if you don't mind. Oh, that reminds me, interdimensional travel usually makes me hungry. Are YOU hungry?" He probably was beginning to ramble, but at least it was a simple one, and not one that would seem absolutely idiotic with no end in sight.
Her stomach rumbled in the way that showed that she was indeed hungry; but she wasn't weak enough to -not- hunt on her own, at least, she didn't think she was. "Are all Pokémon here sentient?" She asked, with a slight bit of contempt in her voice. It was the whole reason that she had ventured through the portal after all, to see if she could find prey, as is she looked at her claws to assure that she could charge them with the shadow energy, and once they showed the first signs, dropped it. So they DID work here.
"No, not all of them are. However, a good portion of them are. I'm certain that if you go to areas that aren't touched by humans you'll find more that aren't." There was no way he'd not heard her stomach. The possible reason that she'd ask this circled around in his head, and then after a while he though of something judging from her responses earlier. "Am I the first human you've ever seen?" For him, it was pretty odd question, but if it was true that he was the first human, than what could that world on the other side possibly have been like?
There was that word again, humans, and apparently they were the dominant species here, not Pokémon, if they'd been forced away from their 'natural, wild tendencies' in large areas. She scratched just beneath her headplate. "I don't even know what those are." She admitted. "We have no...hue mans where I come from. There are a few Pokémon who claim to have been taught by things called trainers, but they were released and ended up with us. They're among the crazy population, usually get turned into food because it's kinder to them than to let them keep being delusional."
"That's interesting... In that world, it means that there is the possibility that humans may have existed there but something happened to them. You mentioned the word trainer, that's what they call us... humans like me. Pokémon Trainers." He probably would be a complete oddity in that world, and so he rethought his decision to want to go there. If there was remnants of them, it would seem that they were practically fictitious.
"It's going to be a bit difficult to explain the concepts involved though," Tensa added.
/Then, they're not crazy..../ her nose twitched. "Well, it seems I can't hunt here in good conscience, not if they're sentient...pity, with the sudden weather shift most of the prey have moved on to healthier places than Tao..." It wasn't like he could ever visit, so naming places didn't have any consequences. "A lot of people have left since Sorbet went back into hibernation." this was a common practice to her, since she was a dragon.
"You could still hunt, but I suppose you won't. Heji stiill hunts for us and himself on occasion." "He's the Luxray," Kyn hurriedly said. Obviously these names and places had absolutely no meaning to him, but he figured that they must hold some significance, but he didn't know if now was the right time to ask about them. "Tensa... remind me to ask about those names... if you would. A little knowledge about that world wouldn't hurt, since I probably can't go there without being... oh, what's the word I heard someone use... the equivalent of gang banged, but with Pokémon." Tensa shook his head, not being able to remember either. Suddenly though, out of nowhere, Palkia addressed the group. "Everyone... this portal appears to be still open, and it has me a little concerned. I can open it again, but if it doesn't close soon that might cause a few problems."
Her green eyes shifted around the Pokémon, then back to the human male before her. "Gang...banged...no, you'd probably be killed, unless you were lucky enough to take refuge with the rescuers, who would only trust you 'cause you can talk like us--" but then her eyes drifted to the big one and her pupils contracted to look up so high, and into the light. "No one goes in the woods if they can help it, at least, unless they live there..." Almost as she spoke a Rattata crossed through the barrier, and she leapt after it, bringing it down within a few leaping steps, then went back to where she had been standing, the now corpse in her mouth. "There's only Rattata, Pidgey, Pidgeotto and Sandshrew around where it opened up anyway." she spoke, unconsciously ripping off one of the creature's legs and chewing on it. "Most of the Sneasel moved out of the creeping forest ages ago."
"Well... I don't go anywhere without Tensa, so he'd be with me, but what about the rest of my Pokémon? Obviously I know nothing about your world so, what are the Rescuers?" The idea of even a slight possibility of finding some form of refuge did appeal to him, though he was still hesitant about entering that world, though he wouldn't let her know that. "Oh, how rude of me. I forgot to introduce myself properly." He bowed. "My name is Kynexn."
"The rescuers are a bunch of goodie-two-shoes that think that everything has to be done one way and only one way." she licked her claws then went back to eating, at least until he spoke his name. "Serena...As for your other Pokémon..well, there are a lot of you, but i don't think that you'd be able to take on even the merchants and survive, even with your escort." She clammed up as her mind bade her to this time, knowing that she was getting dangerously close to giving him information that might allow him to take some of the Pokémon away.
"Now you're really giving me supporting evidence that going there wouldn't be the best decision for me. This might be one time where I will have to sate my curiosity sated by meeting a being from that world and keeping it at that. Though I just don't know." His voice trailed off at those last few words, but he didn't completely lose his thoughts and instead simply dropped the previous ones. "Hm, you called this group an escort. You're actually the second... well, being to do that."
"That's what it is...a protective group that surrounds you and ensures your safety, either by way of money, or trust." when she had finished with the Rattata there had been little left aside from bones, which she promptly began digging a hole for, and swept the bones inside before covering them up again, wiping her mouth with her arm, then licking the blood off of her arm. "if you want a look at my world you just need a rather brave Psychic type." She was now fiddling with the end of the scarf that had gotten caught in the bushes, and picked at a frayed string at the end.
"When you put it that way yes, but they're not always around me. As for the Psychic type... there is Medicham... but he's pretty much the only one NOT here right now. Also, I was going to ask you if you were a carnivore or an herbivore but.... that would be pointless now. But are you a pure carnivore?"
"Mostly. I eat some herbs and vegetables if my stomach gets upset, and minerals from the rocks from my cave if my body says i need them. Berries are common when i -have- to eat but can't find prey." she paused at the admission that some of them weren't here, raising her eyebrow ridge. "Well, apparently...I have time. Marlow might be expecting me back, but since i can't exactly encase souls in a jar to take back to him, I’m sure he'll be fine."
"Ah what the hell. I've done dangerous things before. I might just risk it. I'll just need to go get Medicham. So, how would Medicham er... enhance my chances of staying alive?" He had already thought of all the reason why what he was about to do would make people say, "What the hell were you thinking, sticking your hand into something like that?" but of course it didn't matter now. He was going to do it, since there was a pretty good chance that he'd be able to get back anyway via Palkia.
"Psychic Pokémon can disrupt the flow of energy to make people see what they want to see...In this case...well, depending on your psychic's ability actually...worst case scenario would be that he wouldn't be able to render a different version of yourself...probably would be best to go with a Sceptile appearance since you 'smell' like one...you'll have to leave pretty much everything behind though, if you're to pass for a newcomer." What was she doing?! she wasn't even sure.
"There are some things... that I absolutely need, though there are a lot that I don't. Though I'm not to confident in what might happen if the change isn't able to be maintained. I'm just hoping that these Rescuers will be lenient and such. Now... if I do go... do you have any idea what I would have to leave behind here?" He didn't exactly have very many things really, but there was pretty much the possibility of being able to return to his own world, if things got to rough to handle there.
"Well...on the premise that you're just going there to be shown how well things are being rebuilt, and not forming a team to go on missions, you wont be limited to one accessory, but you can only have four Pokémon in a group at most, including yourself, so with Tensa and Medicham that leaves you space for one more." She pointed at Palkia. "And you...probably shouldn't be seen...There's a Ho-oh and a Lugia around and while I’m sure they would love to meet you...it probably wouldn't be wise, as there's only one family of each where i come from."
"That probably means that there is another version of me there too," Reshiram finally said, after pretty much observing the whole situation in silence.
"Well... couldn't they just... come through later, and do the same thing that we might be doing? Splitting up into groups of four I mean. I really don't want to leave them behind... as for Palkia... well, the other one has probably noticed the severe distortion as well by now. I don't yet know if it'll be able to do the same thing though." Kyn said, walking closer to the portal.
"Sorbet said his other selves were still sleeping in their stones...in fact that's where he's sleeping now, apparently he was awoken too early." She shrugged a little. "And they COULD, i guess, but i wouldn't be available to guide them to the town since I’d be with you...I guess i could see if Marlow would be willing but..." now it was her turn to stop in mid sentence. Of course, Marlow! There was a psychic Pokémon that might be willing to assist him with his memories...which meant that he'd leave sooner; but she'd promised to help him, and so she would, regardless of the outcome.
"That might cause a problem if I do show up then. Oh well, I guess I'll just enjoy myself flying again. I do so love flying at high speeds. Especially at higher altitudes."
"Well, it was just a random chance that the portal managed to land near where you were. I'm pretty sure that with practice, it can be moved closer to the village, but not close enough to well, y'know arouse suspicion. Also... who is this Marlow that you speak of?" Kyn was close enough to the portal to actually clearly see through it, now that the distortions had settled. "So similar yet... apparently that side is pretty much completely different," he muttered.
At the mention of flying, she looked up at the Reshiram. "I wish I could...waiting is annoying." She paused. "Marlow...is my partner, he's a rather unusual Duskull." As she spoke, she moved towards the portal. "You can actually see my cave from here, or at least, the mountain that my cave is in." She pointed with her claw at the speck of brown between the trees, most of which were dying. "We just had a bad blizzard a little while ago, it's messed up a lot of things in the forest, but as i said, the town is being rebuilt...So who's to be your fourth?"
"Hm, I haven't seen very many Duskull. Now I do have another question. Is... is your cave able to fit Pokémon that are human sized? Actually, I should say Tensa sized since I'm actually taller than the average human." He'd unintentionally zoned out again, after the mention of her cave, and didn't hear the question.
"It's big enough to fit a fully grown Salamence comfortably." She tapped her foot as he seemed to have zoned out, and looked over at Tensa like 'how do you deal with this all the time?' finally shaking her head as if to drive it from her mind.
"Kyn... you've got to select a fourth Pokémon." Tensa said, noticing Serena's look, and grinning at her. Almost immediately, he answered.
"Oh, right... uh. Inferno." He said, indicating his Infernape for Serena. "As for the other groups, I definitely think that Striker would be team leader for one of them," he said, pointing to his Scyther.
"Then go get your Medicham and finish setting up who else is coming, and who, if any are staying behind." She was starting to get a bit annoyed. "Of course you COULD let them decide for themselves, they do have logic centers in their brains I’m sure." her tail flicked behind her, twitching with the emotion of impatience.
"I was simply stating a fact Serena, nothing more." Kyn said, before turning away from the portal and walking away. The rest of the Pokémon present moved closer to the portal, and then introduced themselves to Serena, some of them having picked up slightly human mannerisms, along with other who pretty much were almost humans with a Pokémon skin.
It wasn't long before amidst the sea of Pokémon her tongue got names mixed up, she wasn't really that good with names, sometimes referring to them with their Pokémon species name instead and apologizing. Once they were finally through the introductions, and small talk, she finally got MOST of them right, and had learned some of the terminology that they used. 'Party' now became common, although she still didn't know what a 'Poké Ball' was. She questioned that, if they could see outside from inside their Poké Ball, why they couldn't all have gone that way.
"As for the manner of traveling via Poké Balls... it mainly has to do with the fact that Kyn doesn't like keeping us in them. Besides the fresh air aspect, it also has to do with the way other Trainers use them. They basically objectify us sometimes, so that is one of the things that separates him from them. He really dislikes using them. That's why he let us out as much as possible, sometimes in full parties." Liru explained. After about half an hour, Kyn returned with Medicham.
Serena blinked at the Lucario, there were quite a few of them in the village for one reason or another. "Then why are they necessary at all, why even have them exist? Simply so that everyone can go out and force a 'mon to be theirs? It sounds like an arranged marriage..."
"I have a bit of difficult understand it myself, but perhaps Kyn might be able to explain it a bit better. Actually... I can feel him coming. He'll be here shortly." Liru then pointed to the West, indicating where he would be coming from.
"Serena... has everyone been introduced?" Kyn asked.
"They have...though I’m going to have to ask them occasionally to repeat them, I’m afraid I’m not too good with names..." She held her head for emphasis. "Did get into a bit of interesting discussion that crosses over to those...'crazy' Pokémon that I mentioned previously...they say they come from spherical objects which Liru calls Poké Balls." She looked to him to make sure she'd gotten his name right.
"Poké Balls? Well, I definitely know that you haven't seen before. If you want to know more about them I can show you." He took out Inferno's Poké Ball, and maximised it, showing how it went from the size of a Cheri Berry to something a bit bigger than an Aguav berry.
Serena almost jumped as it enlarged, her mind had formed something that was alive that captured Pokémon. "Huh, but that's certainly not big enough to hold a Pokémon, in fact I’m sure I wouldn't even be able to get my claws in there..." she tentatively poked it with the tip of her claw.
"You probably wouldn't. It's a bit more complicated than that. Inferno... if you wouldn't mind...?" Inferno understood, and walked over to Kyn. He took the Poké Ball from Kyn and then walked closer to him. He turned the ball around and then pushed the button on the front, then became engulfed in red light, that then went back inside the Poké Ball.
She shuddered visibly. "Why in the world would you humans USE something like that? It's like a torture device. Especially if they were unsuspecting that it was coming. Why is there a need for such...brutality? Even if the Pokémon might learn to like the trainer later, surely capturing them in such a...THING would hinder it."
"They way you view it makes it seem like Stockholm Syndrome. But you pretty much described most of the reasons why I don't like using them. With the exception of... the torture analogy. Anyway, as for the matter of capturing them in these... that's something that I don't do anymore. Obviously Pokémon are intelligent enough to decide for themselves, so I usually ask them if they would join me or not. Though unfortunately, that's not how it always was with me. It wasn't until I met Tensa that my views of Pokémon really changed." He quickly let Inferno back out and minimised the ball. "There are more than one type of these. Though, I think I'll my little speech sink in before speaking anymore."
Her claws, tail, and even mouth twitched as the monologue sunk in, she already knew that there would likely be repercussions should she attack him. "Why are they necessary?" It was a simple question, with a not so easy nature. "Why can't they just go out into the...wild and find Pokémon that are like them and will get along?" She shook her head, now more conscious of how exposed she was. "It's Mechanical...and people believe that Pokémon are HAPPY like this?"
"They aren't really necessary. For one thing, it's not easy to find Pokémon that are just willing to cooperate with humans. Plus... there's...also the small matter of... almost every human not being able to understand Pokémon, be it their speech or their body language."
Serena snorted. "So it would take them time, if they were smart it wouldn't endanger them, surely not." she put her claws to her head, a very human gesture as if she was getting a headache with all this information. "Are we ready to go? No, you're still looking human. You have your..." She said the next word carefully as if not to offend them. "Friend with you? As well, you should probably take the time for questions about my world, since it will look odd for me to be explaining basics when I’m supposed to be a child...well, not mentally, but physically I’m still a child."
"Serena... I've since that Pokémon aren't as judging as humans are in most cases, so I've got a few more important things to tell you before we go. I remember earlier you did say that I slightly smelled like a Sceptile. Well, that's because of Tensa. Now you said you live in a cave but... do the rest of the Pokémon have housing? It's also the matter of a size issue again."
"Yes, Most teams live in houses shaped like them, though PK, the leader of the Merchants, has provided lodging for villagers and teams that can't afford a home of their own." She didn't flinch at the words 'because of Tensa'. People kept telling her she smelled like death all the time, it was because she still hunted while most Pokémon buy their food. "The lodging is bought with Poke...but it doesn't exactly appeal to me, too many voices...the town's the same way."
"That's going to be rather interesting to see. Though if our houses were shaped like us that'd pose a bit of a problem, as you could probably imagine." He rolled his eyes. "Plus... as you mentioned, we're amongst the more dominant species, so our lifestyles are different. Oh... right! That's... another issue. I don't have any of their currency, obviously."
"So long as it's not too expensive...I should be able to afford most of anything that you could want...though i don't know why you'd want anything from my world...it couldn't be clothes or an evolution scroll--it seems like you don't need them here anyway--but i can buy food at the Spinda cafe...er, do you humans eat the same things we Pokémon do?" She looked a bit incredulous at it, but it was an honest question.
"Well... I do, but for the most part no. I eat most of my meals cooked most of the time, but there have been times where I've eaten berries, and things made from berries. Actually, that reminds me, I should probably stock up on PokéBlock just in case..." Kyn said, beginning to dig around in his backpack to find some of them.
"Everything at the Spinda Cafe is cooked, in fact, they don't serve anything that might offend other Pokémon, even though -I- limit myself to only eating non-sentient Pokémon doesn't mean that everyone does. More controversial dishes we'd have to go to the bay for, which is several hours away by foot. Oh, i never said what to leave behind, did I? Well anything in the pack should be okay, you may get questions as to where you got that style though, Leavanny and Gnasher don't make that style in the village." She raised an eyebrow at the word PokéBlock, tested it against her pointed tongue, but didn't ask, she had asked enough about a world she would never get to visit again, at least, that was her inclination.
"Aha, here's one." He was referring to a PokéBlock case, that had an array of colored blocks inside. There were in sequence, so he took out a yellow, green, pink, blue, red-orange PokéBlock. "Obviously you're a hunter but, since it probably won't matter much, would you do me the honor of trying these and telling me which one, if any you prefer?"
Serena looked at the blocks sceptically, she was supposed to eat these things? they looked like clay...but since he had said 'honor' and that was a word she knew very well, since Soba and Udon talked about the honor of dragons all the time, or at least she assumed so, since that was all she heard them talk about when she was around them. "I...guess?" she carefully, not sure how much it would take for her razor sharp claws to puncture his skin, she knew it didn't take much for them to cut any other Pokémon’s skin...after a few...humiliating times of trying to pick it up between two digits, she poked it with one claw and popped it in her mouth. This one had been the yellow. She chomped down on it and let it sit in her mouth for a while, then swallowed and cleared her palette of its flavor. "It's alright, sour doesn't really speak to me though." She chose a next one, this one had been the Red orange. "Mmm, like Cinnamon~ that's got a kick to it, like i can breath fire." Again, the next one was popped into her mouth, this one the green, and it immediately made her want to spit it out. "Eesh....Only after eating a Michel berry could i swallow that."
"Well, it seems you an I at least have similar taste regarding that particular aspect of PokéBlock. Spiciness. Tensa and I both love the red orange ones. Micle Berries are very rare though. At least here. Dunno about there. I usually offer the Pokémon I encounter PokéBlock after meeting them... to determine certain aspects. It's part of being a Pokémon Breeder. Though I'm not REALLY a Breeder."
She paused with the pink one near her lips, clearly about to ask what a breeder was, then decided that she didn't want to know. "Neck, that one's really, really sweet, a bit too much so actually..." the last one almost matched the same color as her scales, as such as she marveled at the closeness of hue before her eyes before popping it into her mouth as she had the others, and just like the others she took the time to savor the flavor and texture. "that one's really good, though it's a little bland...it's too bad that the Red and blue one weren't mixed together..."
"Heh. That's actually an issue that I've dealt with. I actually have one that combines both of those flavors. I've got to take into account a huge number of Pokémon preferences and variations. You'd be surprised with the numbers of combinations that I've had to come up with." He reached into his pack once more, and pulled out a PokéBlock case labeled Spicy-Dry, that had gold ones in it. "This is the last one, and then we'll head out after Medicham y'know does his thing." He opened it so that one would drop in his hand, and then he handed it to her.
Having things handed to her made it quite a bit easier on her, she found, and chuckled at the fact that THIS one, was the exact same as her headplates, it made her wonder if something in this block was what made her headplates the color they were. Instead of popping this one in her mouth, since it was in her palm rather than on her claw, she slurped it up with her tongue, and let it sit in her mouth for a while, her eyes closed in pleasure. "Ah, that was good~ but we don't have them where i come from."
"Well, then I guess I'll give you something to remember your first encounter with a human. I can always make more, provided that I come back here. Though of course... me simply disappearing for an extended period of time might cause a bit of a problem... But then again, I don't know how much time passes between this distortion. IT could be hours, it could be seconds, it could even be days. You and I will just have to see on the other side." He handed her the PokéBlock case and then turned to Medicham and nodded.
She didn't believe it, simply because it wasn't in her NATURE to believe it. PK had always said that nothing was for free, but he seemed to be defying those words. Serena had learned all too well that things were never free, even when stealing them. There were always repercussions, even if you successfully got away with something else. There was always any number of Pokémon coming or going in a shop, yet somehow they could always narrow it down to you...this was why Serena had had that other section of tunnel kept separate, even though it was in their possession. She waited, as there was not much else to do, until the four of them had finished getting ready for the trip. She still thought she was crazy, she still thought this would end badly...but the decision was already made and she couldn't go back on it now, and not with them already ready to go. She took a breath and pushed back through the barrier, stepping off to the side to wait for them to join her on this side.
"This is it... hopefully I'll see you all soon." He said, waving goodbye to the remain party. Before setting off through the portal. Medicham himself was currently floating in midair, meditating to cast the appearance onto Kyn. As they walked through the portal, Kyn of course, started to spend a whole bunch of time looking around and observing, but then remember that he was in a hurry to follow Serena and he didn't want to keep her waiting.
"You're going to have to remember to only use Pokémon speech here." She said almost absently from beside him, watching the other three appear. "They might just regard human speech as a totally different language, but someone traveling far just to see Tao being rebuilt will be spectacle enough." She swept through the bushes, resorting to walking plantigrade so that they could keep up, and so that she didn't lose her balance. "We'll make a stop by the cave first to arrange for Marlow to greet a second group." She tapped into the bond she had with him, it was still daytime so he'd likely need to feed off of her just a bit to maintain form. "Even if he'll just be a talking skull on the ground at that point." she added, mostly to her self.
Er... Serena... I don't know what you mean by Pokémon speech since I can't actually speak Pokémon completely. I mean I'm not speaking Pokémon right now, YOU are. Oh my goodness... how... oh my head hurts now..." Kyn rubbed his temples from the information overload that he'd just caused himself. If she'd told him what she meant by Pokémon speech, then it'd definitely clear up a few things.
"Huh, strange, perhaps humans and Pokémon aren't as different as they seem...I mean, it sounds like it's got a very difficult accent to understand, but i CAN understand it as long as i focus." What HAD made her focus this way anyway? She stopped as her eyes caught sight of a Pidgey hanging by it's ankles, cutting it down with one claw, and catching the rope before it hit the ground. "Lucky~ Now Marlow wont have to go hungry." The bird tried to peck at her, even flap it's wings to get away, she let it, holding onto the vine, then pulled it down to hold it under her arm, letting it peck at her scales, but it barely did anything at all to her dragon hide.
"So, you're the first I've met, I suppose Marlow will be the second. Hm, so... Marlow is a Duskull... but, do you think he'd mind if we showed him my true form? I mean if he's a Duskull, then I'm assuming that he wouldn't be able to smell me anyway. It's not like I plan on revealing myself to EVERYONE on purpose, just that I feel... as if I want to confide in more than just you."
"Marlow 'should' already know that we have visitors coming, at least, if he's awake. I don't think he'd mind, perhaps even be ecstatic if Medicham would do him a favor when he doesn't have to keep concentrating." She left out the word your for a reason, here they didn't have property lines like belongings, but soon they had come to the circular clearing that outlined the cave, which from where they stood now was dark and looked lifeless. "Ghost Pokémon here...well they're dead Pokémon...and...they have nightmares of their past life...he had friends before." She touched the rock of the cave entrance and went quiet.
Meanwhile... in Serena's Cave.....
Said Duskull was currently lounging on one of the tables in the cave, while wondering what had happened to Serena. She had been gone for almost half the day, which was not exactly something that happened a lot. He couldn't currently do anything because it was the middle of the day now, and she wasn't around to help him keep his form to look for her... a bit of a predicament. "I wonder what could have happened to her. Of course she can handle herself but, that still doesn't explain why such a routine trip would take so long." A few seconds after he'd had that thought, the indication of his answer had arrived.
"Humans don't really understand Ghost Pokémon much... but of course, it'd also help if they would have a way of communicating with them other than by voice alone. Certainly some would misinterpret let's say... an example of a playful Haunter, as an attempt to terrorize them, but really, if it's like you said, then it would take someone like me, to really I suppose to help with that, or the Pokémon researchers. Hm, this cave does seem pretty big..."
Serena's claws clicked against the stone, making it easy to follow her, more so as the ghost lights lit up as they passed them, turning on the torches to the usual orange color. She wasn't sure if this would impress or scare, but this was the way things were set up. "Marlow, I'm back." Her voice called through the tunnel, and she sidestepped the table and the pillows which served for chairs. The fire was still roaring in the back, lighting the room in a cozy glow. "Told you it was set up for my final evolutionary stage."
"That's pretty interesting... reminds me of certain things back home," he said, specifically talking to Serena. He ducked down and then stood back up inside the cave, just looking around. He casually looked around... looking for Marlow, he didn't want to be rude and ask where he was, considering that Serena seemed to see him perfectly, but what he was looking for, was the conventional Duskull.
"Serena, you've been gone for half a day... Anyway, what do you mean final evolutionary stage? That's not your final evolutionary stage. Who exactly have you brought here?" He was still waiting for Serena to provide him with the energy he needed to be able to maintain his form, and finally move around freely inside the cave.
"Half a day?!" her voice nearly shrieked. "But it was only maybe an hour..." She shook her head, following the sound of his voice to the skull she knew to be Marlow, where she set down the case and snapped the bird's neck, a quick death. It was dropped to the ground moments later. "Well...some acquaintances from a different world." She chose her words carefully, but opened up her mind so that he could browse the images that she had gone through for the time she had been in the other world.
"Ah, so there is a bit of a time distortion between us. We'll have to take that into account." Kyn said, sitting down. He sat down near the fire, and took off a good portion of his clothing, leaving the bare minimum; pants, shirt, cape thing, and boots.
Marlow quickly absorbed the fading life energy from the bird, though the process was invisible to most, and then the blood red energy cloak formed. He immediately hovered, then floated closer towards the newcomers. "Yes, very interesting..."
"Marlow, as much as I'm sure you'd like to look over our guests, we were...gifted something that should be put in the other room...would you mind too terribly?" She held up the PokéBlock case in both hands. "Sorry the meal is so small, there's not much prey out there, it's a good thing the Pidgeotto only eats grain." assuming that the case would have been taken by now, she ran her claws over her headplates as if it would provide her some solace, and really? The friction did help, but petting herself made her self conscious, and the claws dropped to their side.
"I'm assuming I can drop the form now," Medicham said, releasing his concentration, revealing Kyn's true form. He still floated in the air though, due to his preference of at least being eye level with Kyn.
"So, you're Marlow obviously. Well, my name is Kynexn. I pretty much wanna see a small bit of this world, since well, Pokémon are the dominant species here." He didn't make any comment about Marlow not only looking different than a normal Duskull by way of the Skull, but also the fact that the 'cloak' was blood red.
"You can consider us both new to this world... in different ways I suppose," Marlow said rather sadly, though it was barely detectable in his voice. He sighed, or what could be considered a sigh, considering that he didn't really have lungs. Marlow carried the object into the designate area and then returned.
Serena wanted to hug the skull, but figured it would embarrass him, instead she grabbed the scarf, coming up behind him and tying the knot around the front. It was a daily routine that she was used to. She was pleased that Kyn had taken what she said to heart, about not pointing out differences in appearances. "Oh, my apologies Medicham, i should have let you know sooner." She walked to her room where she had her straw bed, and dug in the corner for a portion of their Poke, which was kept in a small sack. "I'll probably be taking them into town, at least to the Spinda cafe--it's all rebuilt now, or at least, from what i could see from the top of the trees..." She didn't have to Elaborate on why she was up in the tree tops, Marlow should have known that she was trying to fly, but she didn't want to say that in front of anyone else.
"Oh Yay! Food. I was looking forward to this part. Anyway... someone should go check on the portal to see if it is still there. Someone will have to tell it to come over to THIS side, until the rest get here. Then we it can just open it to let the rest in later." Kyn said, now knowing that he could freely speak about his world, at least to these two.
"Such strange words. Without Serena, you'd have seemed absolutely crazy." Marlow stated, folding his arms together.
"That's what I said." Serena shook her head, but shot Marlow a look that clearly said 'ask him.' before shifting to the Medicham. "If it had been only an hour spent in your world and half a day here, then it's likely only been perhaps a few moments since we disappeared." She had divided the money into two, smaller sacks, and set them both on the table. "In fact, I'm sure without the memories you would have thought me a bit loopy too."
"More heh, strange words incoming. What we've experienced, scientists call time dilation. I'm certain that it can be fixed though. This was just an experiment, so to speak, and well, it lead to this. I've pretty much traveled most all the places that I can think of, that don't have humans, with the exception of that one time I visited a Pokémon Village. To find a world like this, where essentially ALL of it is consisting of Pokémon Villages is like a dream come true! I just love Pokémon!" He said, not bothering to contain his excitement.
Marlow slightly glazed over at this new information. "So, how many of them are still on the... other side?" he said at Serena, the phrase felt so foreign to him, yet there he was using it as if it was everyday. "If they're more like this group, then the village is gonna be swamped."
"A lot..." she said quietly. "However if we leave the time distortion the way it is, and have only a couple of them come through a day...well, day for us, more like hours for you guys apparently...we can ease the flow...but we'll run out of money if we take them all for a trip to the Spinda cafe. I'm not sure many people will notice since there's new teams joining all the time. They'll just think that they've been sent out on a mission, or out to help clean up or something..." she waved her claw at him dismissively. "I think he might enjoy the bay though, it's too bad that it's so far away...anyway i figure that if you take one group and I take another that we should be still within communication boundaries...you'd just have to be...carried."
"Serena, I just did a quick calculation in my head, based on the information Marlow gave me. If they wait for a least three to five hours there, a full day to a day and half would have passed here, give or take."
"Hmmm... well, I suppose I could... just this one time. If they've managed to convince you enough not to distrust them, then they're acceptable by me. I will guide them." He said neutrally.
Serena fixed an eye on Marlow with a 'don't give anything away.' look, before her nose wrinkled as if she was exasperated with him for not asking the Medicham for help. /Seriously Marlow, when are you going to get another chance? I can't exactly Stall much longer./ She pushed that thought through the link, tying the bag in a fashion that it could be used as a backpack.
Being a Psychic-type, he was used to occasionally hearing people's thoughts, but this was something different. I was as clear as they were talking just a minute ago. Of course, Kyn and the rest didn't seem to hear it so... he wasn't exactly quite sure if he was imagining it or not.
[Well, I just figured that it would be best to at least let them get slightly acquainted with this world. At least before my selfish goals are accomplished.] He thought, 'blinking' a few times.
"I probably would have liked to visit that... Bay area, you called it. But yeah, for now I'll just follow you to the Spinda Café. So I guess I'll just leave the other stuff from my world here in your cave, if that's alright with you." Kyn said, now leaving his bag in the cave.
"That's fine, and we'll make a stop by the portal so you can let them know of the time distortion." Serena suggested "That way they will have an approximate time to join us...hopefully I'll be able to get some sleep before the next group joins us." She rather quite blocked him from her torn ranting in her head, she didn't want him to go, and yet she had made a promise to assist him. She sighed inwardly, slipped on the backpack and started out the door again. "If you wish to come with us Marlow, it seems I'm going to be out anyway...don't want you turning back into just a skull." Of course, under the sun he might just turn back into a skull anyway, depending on how much energy she had to close off for her own movement.
"I'd definitely be a taller than average anything... with the exception of a Blaziken, and the monstrous 'mon that are over eight feet tall..." Kyn muttered quietly.
There it goes again... assist... but assist with what? The urge to say something was overwhelming, but it had to be controlled. Those were their thoughts, not his, something that shouldn't be meddled with, unless absolutely necessary, but oh the curiosity!
"Well, I haven't been outside in a while, but let's hurry up and see. The quicker they get here, the quicker things can return to relative... and I do mean relatively normal." He was of course referring to the mission that they had recently been on, of in which they had to clean up some of the remnants of Sorbet's rampage.
"They know about the storm, Marlow." She explained quickly, and hoped that the way she phrased it would give him an idea of just how limited the information had been. Back through the opening in the mountainside, back through the clearing, and back into the forest. "Actually Kyn, I've seen Sceptile taller than Tensa, and also shorter, why would you say that you're too tall to appear to be one?" occasionally she dropped to all fours to reset a trap, but didn't stop walking, it was just a show of how versatile her body was at moving in whatever way she needed it to, even if it wasn't the conventional way for a Bagon to walk.
"Ah, see, there, we've found another difference Serena. It appears... that there is a great degree of size variation here. Where I come from, there is only a few inches margin of difference. Speaking of... you're taller than the Bagon back home." Kyn said, rather matter-of-factly.
"That world seems a bit boring now. Having Pokémon being pretty uniform. I suppose that means that you haven't seen any Duskull that have my rather unique appearance, have you?" Marlow addressed the issue in a way that he understood a major difference, based on the way Kyn explained himself.
"Pokémon actually GROW here before they evolve, you had a thing earlier that called me 'pretty' when you pointed it at me...it probably has the median of what's found here, or at least the height at which we're no longer considered hatchlings." She paused at Marlow. "Marlow...You're the most unique Duskull in the village, though it makes me wonder where they got their skulls from." her claw tapped against her scales. "It'll probably be a good idea for you to pretend you're mute in the village Kyn, and let Tensa speak for you, since you don't speak our language."
"That's fascinating...! As for what you said Marlow... yes, there is absolutely no other Duskull like you. As for the matter of speaking your language... it's just the words that I would have trouble with. If I completely forgot everything I know about being human, it wouldn't be a problem, but of course, I can't exactly do that unless my memory is wiped, and I don't really want to have my memory wiped just to be able to fit in. I don't really think Tensa will be able to help much either. Basically, you can look at it from a sort of dire humorous situation. He's been 'contaminated' by humans too. So, he'll probably have forgotten most of it too, but I don't know. I think that perhaps Striker would actually be best here, since he is still in touch with his primal side, as well as having been a clan leader of a swarm."
"Memory..." Marlow finally said, letting it slip. [At least you do have memory... and your friends are still here...]
"Living with Trainers pretty much as he teasingly said, 'contaminates' Pokémon a bit. At least the ones that you can say are 'tamed'. There are some in which they are just too primal to be tamed and so they retain their qualities and only the toughest and most skilled Trainers can handle them." Inferno explained.
Serena twitched, she felt that slip, and her tail flicked, she tried to hide it, but it came out in her voice anyway. "There are some Pokémon here that have given up their primal urges, gone herbivore when they are so clearly carnivorous. I guess that you could say that they have become both the trainer and the Pokémon, letting one speak for them at a time, whichever they dub the proper time to let that one speak...Like a Charmander learning to control it's emotions." Her tail twitched again. "Marlow has done his best to make me...civilized...and Merlot has as well." /'I am not a servant.'/ The memory flooded back to her mind's eye, how she had gotten into a fight with the Lugia, verbally at least. /'You are a dragon, all dragons were meant to serve in Castle Draclugia!' 'I serve who and what i please, this artificial cave of yours makes me feel ill, and so as soon as possible me and my partner will be leaving.' 'Even if I could help you teach him?' 'What did you say?' 'Don't play dumb, I know you've been in the library every day, researching information, but you know better to steal from me, little rogue, very good.'/ she shook her head and was glad that they had arrived back at the portal.
"I was definitely resisting the urge to ask you if you had caught any other Pokémon like that Pidgey. I'm not exactly a natural hunter. As you can probably imagine I'd be using more... human techniques to hunt. Though Striker has given me some knowledge about various let's say... natural techniques. Though, my Pokémon have no problem with ME eating Pokémon due to the fact that they are all pretty much at the top of the food chain. Heji is a pack hunter, and he's actually brought food for us, as well as food for himself."
Marlow headed towards the entrance without saying anything else, and waited there, being in a slight hurry to get the rest of the Pokémon here. He still completely passed over any indication of asking the Medicham for help.
Serena shrugged a little. "Back when there was a lot of food here i used to capture dozens of the denizens of the forest at a time, we have cages built into the rockface back in the cave. A short bit ago I captured a Pidgeotto to assist Marlow with...well...passing through walls with another creature. A Pidgeotto is about my size, so when he could pass that through safely i knew it would be safe for me to travel with him." She paused, realizing she was partially off topic. "She now lays eggs for me to eat, unfortunately they're infertile eggs, so it doesn't grant Marlow any sustenance, but so long as I'm alive he can always feed off of my energy for that." She listened more, then held up a claw to stop him. "You wanted to inform the Pokémon on the other side of the time distortion over here." She pointed at the rift behind them. "But at the rate you're going we'll be waiting here until I’ve shed my Shelgon plates."
"Hey. We've got plenty of time. After all we did establish that it would only be a few minutes having passed there. But let's go on ahead anyway." Kyn then walked out to where Marlow was, having let sit most of his belongings behind in the cave. "I haven't work this cape in plain sight in at least three years." He said quietly.
"Where exactly do you get your sense of fashion? These accessories... don't usually appear amongst the Pokémon I've seen." Marlow said, in response to seeing this new outfit.
"It's a lot easier to maintain... if he doesn't have so much clothing on." Though the way that statement was phrased, caused Tensa to chuckle.
"Very well..." She ignored the comment about less clothes. She found her scales to be the most comfortable way to be, but the scarf had been necessary to mark her as a team, and she had grown used to it. She followed the claw marks that she had made on the trees months earlier, leading them to the village, or at least, to a raised overview where they could get more of a feel for the surroundings. "This." She said as she pulled back the bough of a bush, revealing the 'village' down below. "Is Tao. It's grown quite a bit recently." She said with a fair bit of pride; without the rogue's cleaning up the dirty work they would never have gotten this far.
"That... does remind me of the village in our world. Yes. So this is probably what I can expect to see, in more parts of this world. So, Serena, have Flying Pokémon been used to map this area, and maybe the Bay area?" Kyn asked, looking down with his not so eagle eyes.
"Yeah, but it took a lot to get it this way." [Of course it's grown. Rogue Teams get stuck doing the dirty work. And in this case, it was actually literal. Your nose did not like it.]
"Excuse me but... you never told us about the Rogues. What do they do? We've learned about the Merchants and the Rescuers but not about the Rogues." Medicham said, finally hinting at the possibility.
"It doesn't look that much different, just that, well, the buildings are shaped like Pokémon once again," Tensa said.
"They have, in fact I think a lot of the villagers are having to relearn their way around the town now that it's been...remodeled..." She looked at Marlow sharply. /Oh for god's sake Marlow, i was avoiding our affiliation on Purpose! There's a psychic in our midst./ Her temper had visibly risen, the points of her plates at her neck stood out, still she continued on as if nothing had happened, as if it had been a lapse in her memory for the way to phrase the next part. "There should be maps around to assist new teams as well." Then, of course, Medicham spoke, and her pupils slitted at the mention of the rogue teams. "It wasn't, and still isn't, important what the Rogues do." She said shortly. /Limit this speech Marlow, to absolute necessity./ She stepped off the hill and slid down to the next level with practiced ease.
[Serena you're such a square. Let a little chaos in your life.] "I'm not going to sugarcoat it. You should probably not ask about it again." He said flatly. Marlow then stretched his arms and then folded them together in front of him.
"I would have loved to have flown over this village on Reshiram, say maybe 10,000 to 20,000 feet or so, but there is the issue of stone... sleeping. I guess the maps will have to do for now. Serena you don't consider me a stray, do you?" Kyn asked.
"Is it one of those things where it's best not to meddle in the affairs of said group?" Tensa asked, with his arms to his sides. He pretty much had the same thoughts as the rest of them as to who and what the Rogues were. Though, if they were advised not to delve more into it, then he and Kyn, would not do so.
Had Serena been in better mind, she would have been able to smooth things over, tell them that the rogue's got things done by any means necessary, that when others didn't have the stomach they got the job done, and she didn't even want to have to resort to the 'You actually think any of the others would allow someone who is wild in a sophisticated guild like the Merchants or Rescuers' card. The time away from them, just that slight bit of time to breath, gave her back her composure, with less threatening posture. "If you're not having second thoughts, you can come down. A promise is a promise." /I have enough chaos in my life without you adding more to it Marlow./ She snorted, not that he would hear it from up on the hill.
"Oh right, we'll be down shortly." Kyn said quickly, slid down the mound, carefully following Serena. As he eased his way down the slope, he caught a glimpse of something in the distance, but he decided that it wasn't worth it to investigate right now.
Medicham of course floated down the slope as his usual method of movement. One of the advantages of being a Psychic type was definitely the ability to levitate over most surfaces.
Tensa took a different approach of getting down the slope, and jumped as if he were leaping from branch to branch, which looked sort of impressive to those that were still up on the first area of the hill.
Inferno took a similar path and leaped even further than Tensa had, during each step, demonstrating his athletic ability as well.
Marlow, after seeing everybody else down lower, finally took his time floating down to meet them, despite having the apparent sense of urgency earlier. Though in this case, it seemed like he was deliberately trying to agitate Serena into losing her temper.
Serena was no fool, she knew the Pokémon were showing their skills to try to intimidate her, as if she would do something wrong. She was however, close to snapping at Marlow. Her claws flexed, the slight sheen of purple against the blue scales--but she reigned it back in quickly enough as the rest of them joined her down on the lower portion, on even ground with the outskirts, though they still had to get over the moat that surrounded the inner city. "Forgive me, I shouldn't have snapped, perhaps the lack of rest is weighing on me heavier than I thought it was..." She paused, exhaled, then spoke again. "Yes, there are three divisions in this town. Rescuers who do everything by the book, to the letter, but they're mostly kids who want to be heroes. You have the Merchants who just want to make money, they don't care who they sell to, and treat the other two factions equally..." another pause as she gathered her words properly. "And lastly you have the Rogues...we're the ones who do the dirty work, have to really, to be able to get the job done at no matter the cost. A lot of the teams you see there are thugs, it's true, but that's because when other 'mon fail we're the ones who are put in...we're the last resort. No one wants to deal with us normally, because that would be admitting that things are as bad as they are...I have something to show you before we go to the Cafe...if you'll excuse the detour."
"These divisions sound rather interesting. Is there any way that I'd be able to learn more about them... without let's say... meeting anyone within them? Though if it's unavoidable I guess I could handle it..." Kyn said, looking around the area. "Detour? No, I don't mind a detour. By the way, do you have a sequential way of indicating how time passes?"
"Well... that's a bit interesting. Sometimes, I'd say that Kyn seems like he could be a mix of all three of those that you mentioned. That's not exactly the most clear way of saying it though." Medicham commented.
"Hm, seems like most 'mon don't really understand the Rogues." Tensa said, now thinking about what type of guild he would be in, if he were going to stay.
"I have yet to see an instance where two or more of the guild have been able to get along. At least in my..." he shifted around for words. Technically he was not alive, so he couldn't say lifetime. "time here."
"Well, I like helping people, so maybe I'd be good at being a rescuer. But, for now we're just getting a tour obviously, and are not here to form teams." Inferno said, looking around.
Serena stepped across the bridge that crossed the moat. "You've already met two from one of the guilds...Us. We are rogues...and you're very right, we're not understood; we're considered the bad guys because our methods are...questionable." There still weren't many Pokémon around, they were likely all in the Cafe, but she directed them towards the Snowflake Memorial; the air cooling, and she wrapped her arms around her middle. "That's not entirely true Marlow...but you haven't been in the town, haven't heard the stories..." Soon they were standing by the memorial. "This...is the snowflake memorial...formed from..." Her voice stuttered, "Nevermelt Ice...On the inside...are all the names of the Pokémon that were lost during the blizzard...during the time when Sorbet the Kyurem went on a disturbed rampage...when all the guilds worked together to save as much of the village as we could...this was before Marlow and I joined the rogues...but I listened." she paused. "Pokémon die in these fights...in this world." Her face was serious. "As well as I’m sure you'd defend Kyn in any setting, I would be accountable if any of you lost your lives here...If you became ghosts of your former selves and couldn't remember anything of your old life." The last words were directed at Marlow, as were her eyes locked on him. "Isn't that right, Marlow."
"A sudden influx of Ghosts to this village would be... interesting." Kyn said, thinking about what Serena said, and at the same time being careful about the way he phrased it and the tone in which he said it.
[So that's what they were thinking about... Marlow's memory.] It made sense now, those stray thoughts that he could hear as they traveled. "I don't think we're going to be here very long though. Maybe only a few days. Though, there is the possibility that we'd visit you again.
"Enough to get acquainted with some, and observe the various lifestyles, I suppose." Tensa added.
"A sudden influx of Ghosts to this village would be... interesting." Marlow said at the same time as Kyn. "Yes... I suppose there's no more avoiding it. I've only seen glimpses. Nightmares, the worst memory of some of my previous life."
"I don't think it will work like that. Even if we all... um... die together. I doubt we'd all end up here." Inferno said, not sure of whether or not what he was saying would come as across as rude or insensitive.
"Not all Pokémon do come back as ghosts, it's true...some will be gone forever." she looked up at the memorial names, then subconsciously moved towards Inferno, who was, as a fire Pokémon, warmer than the normal air otherwise. "As it is...this is why i will request, and hold you to a promise...If there is danger, you'll run away and leave me to face it...I'll risk my own life, but not yours." She didn't wait for the response, instead working her way towards the Cafe which was, of course; shaped like a Spinda head. "I think that with all this talk that we should make our way to the cafe now, shake off this...gloom."
"FEED ME SEYMOUR!" Kyn shouted with a chuckle. He was pretty sure that Serena wouldn't get the reference. He then walked with her to the Spinda Cafe.
"Definitely sure that as a chef himself, Kyn would definitely appreciate the artistic aspect of the food there, if there is any." Tensa said.
The rest of the group followed silently, keeping their thoughts in their heads, perhaps for a later date. They too were interested in the food that the Cafe had to offer. As it turned out, there were close to lunch themselves.
"Been a while since we've been to this place Serena. Maybe the menu has changed." Marlow said, looking around.
The Bagon lead the way, opening the door into the cafe and entered, her eyes scanning the the tables, and when she found one big enough she started walking in that direction, ignoring the look from the cashier Hops, who was a Shuckle. She slit into a booth with a sigh, shifting the bag from her back to beside her chair where she could keep an eye on it. "I doubt it, but perhaps..." She didn't, of course, get the reference. "Vertigo will be here soon, try...not to watch him walk." she advised.
relaxing. "Now of course, we're settled in."
Marlow simply floated nearby, at the opposite end one of the booths. If he were to "sit" down, it wouldn't really do much, as his skull would just look awkward sitting on a table or a seat.
"Eh?" Serena blinked at Kyn? "Oh, no no, in fact just looking at him can make people dizzy. He is a Spinda and has his own tempo." She paused, realizing she had just made a pun. "That brings up a question...have you all felt any different after coming here?" She shifted, looking away from the Spinda as he came around and handed out menus to the rest of them, all in footprint runes. "Hello, I'm Vertigo and I’ll be your waiter tonight." the Spinda said. "Can I get drinks for you today?" "Pecheri shake for me." Serena said to the Spinda, "The check will be mine when it comes as well, Vertigo."
Medicham acted quickly and due to his knowledge, was able to relay the information to Kyn to allow him to at least understand the menu. He'd had experience with it, but was sure that most of the others had not. "I think I'll just have a plain milkshake."
"I'll just have some simple Oran berry juice." Kyn whispered over to Serena.
"I'll have what she's having." Tensa said, to the Spinda.
"I'm pretty good, for now I think I'll just take water." Inferno said.
"Right, so then...two Pecheri shakes, a water, Oran berry juice and a milkshake." he teetered away, not bothering to wait for Marlow's order. "Sorry, i forgot to mention that you wouldn't be able to understand the menu...quick thinking." Her eyes looked at the Medicham suspiciously. "The question still stands."
"I've been been feeling fine." Was the answer pretty much mirrored by everyone, except Medicham. His voice came out out rather nervously as he tried to think of the best way to begin. "Well... I'm not sure if it's normal but... it seems as though I've been able to hear all your thoughts as clearly as if you were speaking them, ever since I came here."
Serena shifted a little, tilting her head. "Well...when i was on YOUR side, i felt like i was limited...like an ability was missing from my arsenal...there just wasn't a good force behind it when i tried to make sure i could still summon the dark energy to my claws." she looked at them for a moment. "I would think that that's because we're /unhindered/ here. I know most Treecko prefer to go without accessories because then they have stronger abilities when they're unburdened."
"Then I guess you'll just have to get used to it. I'm not even remotely Psychic but, I'm sure that when it comes to telepathy... they have to learn how to deal the the large amounts of thoughts ... let's say, floating in the air." Kyn said.
"You're right about some parts. It's never been this overwhelmingly strong before." Medicham replied.
"You were a Meditite once, put yourself into a partial trance and you can ignore them, you would, however, have to really focus in order to participate in the conversation." Soon their drinks had arrived, and Serena sipped on her shake, which was topped with a Cheri berry. "It will get worse as more 'mon come in." she shivered a little as the shake hit her stomach, it was cold, but not unbearably so.
"Oh dear. That makes me wonder what someone like ME," he stressed the word allow them to focus on it, "would be affected by this change."
"I suppose I could do that but, I think I'll just have to deal with it for now. Guess it'll just be the equivalent of a stadium filled with pe---Pokémon." Medicham said.
Marlow chuckled at Medicham's almost slip up, and then continued to observe the rest of the group.
"I.... couldn't read the menu either..." Inferno said with a slightly embarrassed tone.
Serena shot a glance at Marlow. "You're testing my patience today Marlow." her nose wrinkled. "Well Kyn, I'm sure that if you had any hidden abilities previously that they would show now." Her eyes flicked to Inferno, a little shocked. "Ah...hm..well then, your eating habits? Then perhaps we can assess what you would like to eat...that goes for anyone not -brave- enough to admit it previously." The word had been said as if it was a quality to be proud of, as if he had nothing to be ashamed of. /Honestly, what is with you?/
"I'm an omnivore, more on the carnivorous side. Though I'm a pretty good herbivore too, but," he then quieted his voice again, " it's just that once one tastes meat... it's hard to go back to being an herbivore all the time."
Have no idea what you're talking about Serena.] "That does make sense." Marlow then chuckled seemingly at nothing.
"I'm pretty much and omnivore too, more on the herbivorous side though. Though I won't refuse meat if it is offered to me." Inferno said.
"Well, you can say that I started out as a omnivore too, became carnivorous, then herbivorous. I'd pretty much eat anything." Tensa said.
Her mouth twitched at Tensa's comment, the only sign she had heard him, and took the phrasing funny. "Right then...so you'll have to trust me for your meals this lunch." Serena found herself in a position of selecting food for Pokémon when she wasn't really sure what any of it tasted like cooked, since she preferred hers raw. /You're being annoying today, stop it or I'll put some gashes in that cloak of yours./
"Here goes nothing...." Kyn said, waiting to see what types of things that would possibly suit his very open and willing taste.
[Sounds like a mother threatening to discipline her child.] "I wish I could taste stuff too." Marlow said, chuckling at Serena, fading under the table and disappearing.
"Serena, you and I should go hunting later." Tensa said under his breath. He also was waiting for his choices.
"Just remember they don't serve other Pokémon here." she said. "There's Tembrava, Roasted Combusken leg with chips, Takoyaki, Grilled Remoraid, Roasted Ducklett, Deep fried Stunfisk, Octillery Sashimi and Bulba buns." She hadn't given any offers that were too expensive, nor that were sweet desserts. She thought she would try the Tembrava, it sounded interesting.
Kyn looked slightly disappointed still when he was reminded that they didn't serve that particular form of meat there, something that he was sure of that back home would be highly controversial. "Takoyaki. Be interested in tasting what it is like without...." He didn't need to finish.
"I believe I will just have some of that er... Combusken leg with fries." Tensa said, also sharing some of Kyn's thoughts about the lack of certain ingredients.
"I think I shall pass on eating anything for now," Medicham stated.
"I'd hate to do this to them, but I think I'm going to take the Sashimi. I may just order it again later.... and cook it!" Inferno said.
Serena nodded and waved the Spinda over again. "Takoyaki, Roasted Combusken, Tembrava for me, and Sashimi." she said pointing to them one at a time in turn for who the orders were for. She flicked her tail and swallowed some more of her shake. "Yes Tensa, I think that we should, perhaps in Gambitville if we had the time to get there."
"Hey. Don't exclude me just because I'm.... ME," Kyn said. "I do know how to hunt too." His tone was that of slightly joking, slightly serious.
"Hmm, well, that's really up to Serena. I don't mind since I have seen you... own the prowl." Tensa added.
"It sounds like you all might be able to work together, to take down significantly larger prey that way then." Inferno commented, having a little bit of experience on the subject as well.
"I don't know if I'll be able to help you all the way though. Only when you get back, then." Medicham said, thinking about the process in which they would be acting by.
She flicked her tongue out, showing the tipped point. "Kyn...I don't think you know what you'd be up against here...and you don't have claws, nor sharp teeth, nor decently tough skin. You're not hunting; you'd be a liability, and a hindrance." she looked at Medicham meaningfully. It wasn't an insult, though it probably would have come across as such. "Marlow. You might just have a decent meal yet."
"I don't need claws or teeth, or a tough hide Serena. I have tools. As long as they don't use their elements against me, or are as fast as Scyther and Ninjask, I should be fine. Oh, and if they happen to be at least twice my size." Kyn tried. It should make sense. There were many more situations that he could think of, but right now he just wanted to see if those factors would convince Serena.
At this moment, Marlow chose to reappear, and made a comment. "You will too, won't you?" he asked, thinking about the size of prey that Tensa might have hunted, being human sized.
Marlow's popping up made Vertigo, who was walking around delivering the food to the table, hop back and almost lose the meals left on his arms, but he recovered and set down the rest of the food, as well as the check beside Serena, when he walked away she resumed speaking. "There is no honor in using more than what you have been given from birth...and Gambitville have 'mon like Tauros, which are dangerous for even skilled hunters that are working together." she had folded her arms so that her head rested on her wrists. She glanced down at Marlow, then back up at Kyn. "...Show me you can do that, because i doubt that your tools will even 'work' here, and then we'll see. For now, enjoy your lunch."
"We shall see." He didn't feel like now would be the best time to talk about that particular aspect of hunting back in his world. At the current moment he did just exactly as Serena said, and then he started to eat the Takoyaki. He picked up one in each hand, and then took a careful bite of one in the right hand.
Tensa, picked up the leg and then took a rather large bite, being surprised at the taste, but enjoying it, as shown on his face.
Inferno picked up a piece of the Sashimi, and felt it in his fingers for a bit, before simply popping it into his mouth and eating it, without saying anything.
"I suppose I should apologize to Vertigo for startling him like that." Marlow stated solemnly.
Medicham levitated his milkshake and then took a sip of it.
Serena picked up one of her Tembrava with her claws, and bit off everything but the decorative tails in one bite. She didn't have to chew it too much, but swallowed soon after. There were only two of them, and as it joined the other food in her stomach her body realized how hungry it really was. The other was gone in an instant, and she reigned in her hunger, playing with the garnish that she would never eat. "Why? He knew you were around, and he knows your personality well enough, he should have expected something like that...what were you doing under the table anyway?"
"I was just looking at things from a different perspective." Marlow said honestly. He then floated back up to eye level with the table.
4"Well, this Takoyaki IS different but... I still enjoy it." Kyn said, now fully digging into his meal. He still was very delicate with it. Even though it was differently made, it was still Takoyaki and he didn't want the steaming inside to leak onto his fingers. The others appeared to be enjoying their meals as well, and did not engage in conversation while doing so.
She waited for the others to finish their food, in the meantime reached out to poke the crack on Marlow's skull. "The crack is getting bigger." She muttered. "I do hope that the reward from our last mission is an Evo scroll..." She sighed a bit, whether or not the poke had connected. Then she brought her attention back to Kyn as he spoke. "Well, I've not had anything other than what might have been served here, so i wouldn't know, but I’m glad you are enjoying it."
"Alright, well, thank you for paying for us Serena." Kyn said, finishing the last of his Takoyaki balls. The rest of the gang were finished their meals too. Tensa finished after Kyn, followed by Inferno. Medicham was only about a quarter of the way through his milkshake.
The Spinda collected the empty plates, and Serena gave what would have been a very disturbing smile to anyone who might see it. "It's no problem, It was just going to sit around and be a hoard for a while anyway." She said as if it was nothing. She played with the shake that was about half way done.
"About how far is it to Gambitville anyway? Will it take us more than a few days to get there?" Kyn asked. He really wanted to go and see if he'd be able to find the larger Tauros type Pokémon.
"Now hold on Kyn, we've got to get the others here first before we do anything else." Tensa said, but still understood his eagerness.
"I've never ever been that far myself. the most I've gone is from the Creeping forest, to here." Marlow chimed in.
Serena took a moment to answer, thinking of the ONE time she had gone there before she answered. "Two days, roughly, without breaks or resting, two and a half if we're not pushing ourselves and taking a break occasionally." She drank down the rest of the drink in a gulp. "which, no doubt, will be ideal for you...I'd much prefer to travel at night, as that's my usual...awake time." She yawned, putting her claw in front of her mouth to make the appearance of her teeth lessened. "Oh? Right, you wanted to bring the others here,I suppose some of them will want to come hunting too...we will probably insult the Luxray if we went without him."
"Possibly. I still have more to tell you, though not at this current location. Shall we head back then?" Kyn stated.
"I want to visit them for a bit," Marlow stated, referring to the Pokémon on the other side. Inferno nodded in agreement with Marlow, and stood up. Medicham had finally finished his milkshake. They all stood up following Inferno's example, and waited for Serena.
"Mmm...I will not join you on the other side this time, I need sleep." She picked up the bill and the bag beside her, walking to Hops the Cashier and dealing out the money quietly, before walking with them out the door. Thankfully these guilds didn't take money from the teams as /others/ did; and slowly she found herself walking them back to the rift, where she laid herself in a plant. "I...shall wait here." The bag of poke which was a bit lighter now that she had paid the bill, clutched to her chest.
Well we'll be back in a matter of minutes, so... uh..." Kyn stammered. He simply stopped chatting after that and walked through the portal.
Marlow, allowing himself to be carried by Kyn, braced for an unknown effect as he traveled through the portal.
"I suppose we might as well do the same, closing our eyes and waiting for a few minutes." Inferno said. Medicham nodded in agreement with him, and he then he began to meditate.
"A few minutes there is still a few hours here..." it was the last bit that she said before her eyes closed and she was out like a light.
On the other side, Kyn and Marlow emerged from the portal, to meet the group who were waiting for new. "Guys, I've worked out the more specific aspects of the time dilation. We need to space our arrivals every four hours here. Three more of you should come with me. I'll explain everything on the other side." He quickly said. The three members that decided to go next were Striker, Heji, and Pendragon. Then he attempted to step back through the portal but was stopped by Marlow.
"Hold it... all of these Pokémon are... with you... fascinating. The four team member limit does sort of limit us slightly. It seems like such a feat to be able to have all of these Pokémon at your command." Marlow said quietly.
"Well, I wouldn't exactly put it like that... I'm not really commanding them in most cases. Just giving suggestions. Anyway, I really want to get back as soon as possible." Kyn said.
"Very well, Marlow said. "This world really isn't that much different than ours, with the exception of the excessive number of humans." Marlow then went quiet and Kyn took that as his cue to go forward, and walked through the portal. The rest of them slowly followed, simply walking through due to their trust in Kyn.
The hours passed and Serena slept, finally when she felt the portal ripple again, her eyes snapped open, and her pupils slitted automatically. Somewhere along the line, night had fallen. She shook off the sleep, and sat up. "Ugh." she stretched. "That's NOT my usual 5 hours." Her neck popped as she turned to face the human, her green eyes glowing as a cats' would in the dark. "welcome back to this world." She muttered, more to herself than the newcomers.
"This should be an interesting experience," Striker said.
"Hello again, Serena." Heji said, looking down at her. It hadn't been that long since he had seen her, but he said it anyway.
"So, where exactly are we going to be going then?" Pendragon asked with slight boredness in his voice.
"Actually... I forgot... Serena, what are we going to do with the groups again...?" Kyn asked.
"I was going to go back to Serena's cave, and I think you might have been headed there as well, even if you didn't say so." Tensa said.
"I think the answer he was looking for was this one, Tensa." She said as she stood. "Is this. Hunting. I do hope that your choices for the hunting party will prove not to be their folly." She directed the next question to Heji. "What do you think of Tauros, Heji..." she had remembered the name this time. "...And perhaps the idea of taking one down...Of course before that Kyn has something to prove to me, before I will allow him to come with us."
"I need to go back to your cave first." Kyn stated seriously. He had several items in his pack that he would need if he were going to be on equal footing with Pokémon again.
"Tauros... are something that I have not hunted in a long time. Mainly because I mostly go out on my own and it would take a lot longer for me to take down a Tauros than if I were to do it in a pride. Now everyone in the party is my pride, but they are not all pack hunters."
"Ah, that might explain why Kyn decided to bring me through then. If we are going hunting, then he brought the most ideal of us." Striker commented.
"So what does that make me then?" Pendragon said a bit incredulously.
"I don't know, have you ever hunted before?" Tensa asked.
Serena might have said, 'incredulous' but it was too big of a word for her. When Tensa insinuated that he had never hunted before, she snorted indignantly. She ignored it other than that, choosing to focus on Heji. "It was brought up at lunch, that we might go for a journey and hunt together. Tauros roam two days away from here in a place called Gambitville." after she said this, her eyes looked to Kyn questioningly, then began to lead the way back towards the cave, stopping after a few steps. "Actually...since prey is so few in these woods...I'll be your prey. If you can track me back to my cave before dawn, then we'll consider you hunters worthy to hunt a Tauros. Stay here and I'll be back with your pack Kyn, with whatever it is that you need from it." She didn't, however, wait for a response. Instead she took off, digging her claws into the soil as the blue green energy took over her body, allowing her to run with little to no wind resistance...then once more she returned; mere moments later, without the bag of coins, but with his pack in her claws. This is what she held up to him in one palm.
Kyn took his pack from Serena, and then said, "A human's sense of smell is far inferior to animals and Pokémon. I am not a hunter in the conventional sense."
Heji, was curious as to the way Kyn would go about this task. He had the ability to track by means other than regular vision alone.
"Let's see you put some of what I taught you to use then." Striker said with a grin.
Marlow, now able to maintain his energy cloak again, tagged alongside Serena.
Serena closed her eyes for a moment. "Hunters are not made by senses that you lack, but those that you have." her shoulders rolled. "You have my scent...I expect you before dawn...and if you can not make it back to me by that time, I will be going to look for you." Once she was sure that she had been heard, she climbed a nearest tree, leaving marks in the bark, and once she was out of sight to them, she jumped down, scraping the bark on her way down purposely, leaving tracks, breaking small limbs, the typical signs of a creature--but she didn't travel in a straight line at all; instead swerving like a normal animal would. These were her hunting grounds. Half way through, she stopped making purposeful tracking signs, instead going into hunter mode. No claws to dig into the soil, and soon she had easily made her way back to her cave. "This, i think, shall be interesting."
"I won't use it unless I absolutely have to. I doubt the point of this exercise is for that." Kyn said. He then headed in the direction of which Serena headed. The first thing he noticed, was a disturbance with one of the trees, as he was paying attention to a few of the typical signs that might be left by her. "No way. There's no way she'd make it that obvious. It must be that she's got something more difficult planned down the line." He moved closer to the affected tree. Upon closer examination, he was able to extrapolate that Serena had indeed caused it. His next move was to climb up the affected tree, and look from there. From this perspective, he saw even more signs of her having been here. He wasn't able to see any immediately obvious signs with his naked eye, so he went back down to his pack. "Well, she definitely started going this way. But, I need a bit more information." He said, to pretty much either one in the group excluding Tensa. From his pack he retrieved a pair of binoculars, and looked around at the trees for obvious signs of disturbance. After assessing similar markings on another nearby, tree, he traveled to that one and did the same. He managed to make his way deeper into the forest, following the obvious signs, and waiting for the point in which they would start to disappear. The signs did stop as he expected. She had stopped playing with him here, and it was now a completely new game. Kyn took out his hunting knife, and made markings of his own in the trees, leaving a pattern similar a three clawed animal. As he sat down in the tree, looking around, he decided that he had no choice but to use technology, a fact that disappointed him slightly. He took out his Pokédex, and switched to the newly integrated PokéRadar feature, after making a pass over the last visible tracking sign that Serena had made, he then started heading in another direction, that took him farther away from the previous track than he would have thought possible. "I really wish I didn't have to do this. I'm a modern human, not all of us are trained in hunting and tracking anymore. I'm going to get some advice from a Ranger when I get back home," He said, following the indications by the PokéRadar.
Serena stayed seated at the entrance of the cave, her eyes focused on shadows that her eyes could JUST make out, she knew the Pokémon of the group would be able to JUST make her out too. then she saw the illuminated screen, and frowned, more to herself than Marlow beside her. She sighed breathlessly, running hear claws over her headplates. Her eyes opened after a short blink, and she slowly waved her fingers towards his Pokémon, hinting at breaking off one by one covertly.
"This... isn't what I expected at all." Kyn sighed and continued progressing. He stopped, to once again climb up a tree and look around for anything that might give an indication as to where she had gone. When he couldn't find anything else, he just instead followed the general path that the radar had indicated, and eventually exited the forest.
Serena was waiting for him, as promised, her one arm had crossed across her body; the other had a Dragon pulse perched upon it, coating her and the surrounding area in an eerie blue green glow. She didn't look up at him this time, the frown creased her features. She wasn't going to confront him about it, instead, slowly her slitted pupils traveled up to meet his eyes; if he was going to lie, it would be to her face.
046 AM] : Kyn sat down near Serena, and sighed. "Well Serena. You certainly moved in an interesting way. I wasn't able to track you at all past a certain point. It appears as if I need to go back to the Rangers and learn a bit more again. I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I just didn't realise how out of touch I was. I do remember one important thing though. If I had more time to study you, I may have had a better chance. That's what I used to do."
"If you took time to study me you would have been more lost than you already were." She stood, and threw the dragon pulse up into the sky, not as effective as launching it up, but still. "The reason? It was a typical pattern left by a Pokémon who had narrowly escaped capture and was running for it's life."
"I suppose then, that that is why I wasn't able to recall. I haven't really encountered anything like that yet. It will definitely be another method to learn. Though, of course, most of what I've ever encountered... has never really gotten the chance to flee."
"If you were tracking something, and another creature came across it's path and startled it, you would lose the trail with that way of thinking....Did you even LOOK at the displacement of leaves, or assume that because i was no longer setting down my claws that i no longer was touching the ground or leaving footprints?" she chided. Did she dare leave him alone though? No, that was the problem, she didn't, not with Devonshire around, not with the scavengers at the bone yard. "You've failed." She finalized. "However, since you didn't try to hide it from me, since you had enough honor to do that..." she sighed, she was going to regret this, she knew. "...You can come and see if you can't assist in one way or another."
"I did seem to forget a lot of what I learned. Perhaps this place will be better to practice than back home and... I'm not sure what to say about you letting me come along other than a thank you."
She wrinkled her nose at his thank you, instead just waving it off. "I'll give you all one last chance then, to get some sleep--since you managed to get here before dawn, and to decide if you DON'T want to come, just because you were picked does not mean that you have to obey without question, not here at least." she still thought of Poké Balls as torture devices, no matter how many times she had try to convince herself otherwise. It was actually for a good reason that she was going to try to convince herself of this, but didn't let on just now. "After we start however, i won't deal with whining, and you'll, naturally, eat only what you can catch."
"It reminds me of one of those survival shows back home, the only whine you'll find is the kind that you drink." Kyn said with a chuckle, picturing all the non actual ways to survive.
"Kyn, you know you only watch those shows to get a chuckle out of what most people perceive surviving in the wild to be." Tensa said.
"I've already made my decision Serena. Though, it has been quite some time since I have actually done anything hunting related." Striker said, rubbing his blades together.
"You shall have my decision in the morning as well, Serena." Heji said, padding closer to her.
Marlow, to the best of his ability tried to show how happy he was on his face. "Depending on what size 'mon they bring down, they might not be able to eat them all at once..."
Serena nodded to Striker and had to resist the urge to swat at Heji's tail, it was a stupid impulse, but one that showed that she was still a kid. Her own tail flicked as she resisted what her body wanted to do. She was glad that Heji and she were on the same team, and that a direct force of his Intimidate wouldn't be used on her. "Ah, you've just reminded me, if not purposely Heji, to notify you that your Species limitations of only having one ability has been lifted." she thought about what she was saying. "Well, perhaps you can feel the difference as I could, being a hunter and more in tune with your body."
"This is not something I have noticed yet. I may need to battle before I can feel the difference. Either that or something needs to anger me." Heji stated.
"My abilities are unhindered here? Then that could be useful in some cases. Striker pondered.
"This is still something that I'm going to have to getting used to. They'll be able to use completely different strategies as well." Kyn said, thinking of all the new combinations that could be used. With Heji's Intimidate, combined with the other abilities, would make his moves much more powerful.
"I don't think I really would be much different even if I had an additional ability here." Tensa commented.
Marlow sighed again. "Though each of my forms only have a single ability, so the only difference that I noticed there was a slight decrease in intensity, or some similar word."
Serena looked at Marlow for a moment. "Don't get all mopey on me again." She said, taking off her scarf and folding it on the ground. "Heji...if you would like to battle, I would be more than willing to give up a few hours of sleep to let you experience the difference..." She trailed off at Kyn's words however. /He's doing it again.../ she thought to herself. "Doesn't that get annoying?" She asked Heji quietly, her voice little more than a whisper. Clearly she didn't like the idea of being told what to do. This was a wild world, and even if a bystander might see more than what she could, she wasn't exactly keen on letting people tell her what to do. This world was a place to get back to your roots, back in touch with the earth around them, at least, that was what she believed it would be for them.
Heji padded over to Serena even closer and then laid down closer so that he could whisper to her. "It's a lifestyle choice. I wanted to become stronger, and I knew that I couldn't do it simply by surviving off stolen food in a city. He doesn't really give us 'commands' like other Trainers do. There's also something that we all really love, that absolutely confuses his opponents to the highest degree. This sounds strange to them but it won't to you. He uses a method that puts us in direct control of the battle, allowing out instincts to take over, albeit limited. Where as the other Pokémon are reliant on Trainer commands, to the point where they're at a major disadvantage. I have achieved my goal. I am stronger than I was."
She frowned a little at the explanation, running over each sentence in her head. "Then why would he need to formulate strategies for you, if it's your instincts that drive you still?" It was a sign of how much she was forcing herself to trust to allow the Luxray this close to her, had he wished he could have easily gutted her from this position...well, at least if his claws were as sharp as she THOUGHT they were. In order to get her instincts to shut up, she walked to his side, about to his forepaw shoulder and sat beside him, not really putting her weight on him, but this way she was away from the claws, and would have enough reaction time in case he DID attack...and of course they could still talk, that was another point, though they were now almost completely blocking the entrance to the cave, and that notion reminded her of the others, the bugs in particular. "It's warmer in the cave for you insectoids, if you would like to go in...just don't eat my curtains or bedding." She looked up at Marlow suspiciously with a 'do you need to sleep too?' look.
"It's really more of a facade," Heji admitted, "Back home, battles are officially sanctioned by a League. It's really like you think there in that case. Technically Pokémon that are owned, and I say owned loosely, more like brainwashed, by Trainers, aren't supposed to make moves without their Trainer's orders. It would look strange, if we just started battling without being told to. It allows him to allow us to think for ourselves." Heji gave a yawn after he finished his story.
"Thank you for the offer Serena, I will humbly accept your invitation. Oh and, yes, lucky for you, I do not have a preference for inorganic material," Striker said with a smile.
[Well, you do have to consider that while you were gone, I was still in my base container, with no way to move. A bit lonely too.]
Striker's comment made her a little more uneasy, since her cotton curtains and straw bedding were VERY organic material, even if they didn't look it. Still she took Heji's answer at face value, rather than asking questions to a tired mind. She picked up her scarf from the ground after scratching her neck with her claws, then putting it back on. /In that case, see to it that our Pidgeotto gets fed for the next couple days, Won't you? Before we leave we're also going to have to move the big rock over the doorway so that no intruders would be able to get in./ This wasn't -totally- true, as there was another way for creatures to get in, but they wouldn't know about it, since it was over the berry garden and not connected to anything else.
[Oh, I suppose I will. It simply won't do if our bird weakens.] Marlow drifted back into the cave afterwards.
"Oh, Serena, this may seem like an odd question but... do you know how long ago you hatched?" Kyn asked, facing her.
"Don't you ever get tired of asking Pokémon that question?" Heji drawled.
Serena looked a little annoyed at the question, really, but since she was still young, and knew he hadn't had much experience with dragons (or she assumed he didn't) she didn't exactly mind answering. "Maybe 10 seasons ago? With all the snow from Sorbet it was hard to judge the change this past year, so it could have been as few as 7...I would advise you against asking anyone but child level dragon types that question, for the record...we can get to have survived a VERY long time and still be considered in our prime...If you'll excuse me, I have some things to take care of before I sleep, don't let me keep you awake." /Going to check on the covers of the berry patch./ she relayed, moving to the side of the wall as her claws coated themselves with the shadow energy she was so used to using, climbing up the face of the mountain to the ledge that, if she wasn't on, would have been invisible to the Pokémon from both above, and around it.
"I don't ask EVERY Pokémon that I meet that question. Also, I wasn't planning on asking anyone else that question. I can understand why she advised that. For one, it'd be like going up to someone back home and asking, 'Excuse me sir, you look pretty ancient. About how close are you to death?' in the worse case I'd assume. But it's just generally not something I plan on doing here. She just well... from what I've experienced in the Dragon Village as well with Lance and the Blackthorn City area, is very young. I didn't want to start with that question, so I figured I might try to ask it a bit more casually later. As it turns out, it seems that my initial suspicion was correct. Though of course, she definitely acts well beyond her age." Kyn said to Heji.
"Do you think, that your knowledge of Pokémon will come in handy here? We've already been shown that it is in some ways vastly different than our world. You're going to have more of their abilities to contend with." Heji retorted.
Marlow took what little time he had left, to prepare enough food for the Pidgeotto to have at least two days worth, since he wouldn't likely be able to move very much.
Serena looked over the grate of leaves and where there were some missing, she added them. The grid of wood down below the soil provided decent stability, and the thin layer of leaves still let enough light in to nourish the berries within the cave. Of course if someone did accidentally fall through, there was also a net hanging from one side of the wall to another to capture any unsuspecting Pokémon--it had been difficult to convince the Spinarak to give her their old webs, but well worth it. Soon, at least, soon enough, she was running off the top of the ledge and jumping down, the fall wasn't high enough that she NEEDED to use her head to cushion the fall, and so she didn't, choosing instead to hook her claws into the rock face and obliterate the marks she had used to get up there, this had the bonus of sharpening her claws to further points.
Kyn leaned against the wall near the cave entrance to wait for Serena. He wasn't tired himself, like some of his Pokémon were, so he felt ready to depart as soon as she was ready.
Heji passed the time by looking around himself with his X-ray vision, and after he'd pretty much seen all there was to see outside, he turn around and began looking inside. Having not really looked through thick rocks much, his first impression was that of a scientist examining an oddity. "Well, these rocks certainly look strange with their varying density in places. Oh, there's Striker." He said, narrating his experience.
Serena hadn't been too long upstairs, of course she wasn't sure what to think when she heard Heji talking about the density in the rocks, and her muscles tensed. "Just so long as what you see stays in your head and isn't broadcast." she muttered as she passed Heji. She sombred as she looked up at Kyn, it was an unfortunate difference in height. "I have something to discuss with you, however..." She tugged at the end of the scarf subconsciously.
"Er... is it something that is going to be discussed in the cave or... can it be discussed out here?" Kyn was used to bad news coming in the form of a sentence beginning 'I have something to discuss with you,' but he didn't want to jump to conclusions.
Heji nodded at Serena, and then his eyes went back to normal. "I'd like a tour of your cave before we leave though, if you don't mind."
"It'll...have to be discussed out here...Marlow's in there feeding the bird..." She had looked down. "Marlow...will be leaving, I don't know when, perhaps when he's evolved, or perhaps when...he's got his memories back." She blinked back tears that were threatening to fall. "When he's gone, I'll be all alone here again...I don't...want to be alone again. I can't go into the Dragon's forest with my own kin, and even there they...don't socialize with one another."
"I see... well, that does pose a bit of an issue... but, I think I have an idea, but I don't know if you'll like it. It involves being slightly deceptive..." Kyn said with concern. He'd been in a similar situation, but not quite exactly how this one was, but enough to understand her feelings.
Heji was able to see that this was a difficult topic for Serena to discuss so he decided to temporarily go deaf.
She didn't meet his eyes, she couldn't, her tail even had curled around her leg slightly, as if it could offer any more protection than she already could afford herself. "Rogues...aren't exactly known for being straight out honest, deception is part of the game." she said, a bit conscious of the fact that Heji was there. "If you have something in mind...I'll hear it out."
"It involves placing a desire in his subconscious to be near you. It doesn't have to be all the time, but he'd probably go on a quest to see if his friends were... given a second chance at existence, and if not, then he'd come back to you. It'd be so subtle that he wouldn't even notice it. Have you ever had a primal urge to just do something, then after you did it, didn't realise why you did it?"
Serena shook her head. "Making someone want to be around you isn't the same as a normal friendship, it would be the same as if a trainer was ordering him to go somewhere...and it would be as you dictated. 'Not knowing why he came back.'." she sighed, flicking her tail back out behind her. "No, I don't want to begrudge him a life with his friends, even if they are his old friends and not me...after all, what kind of friend would -I- be making him do that?"
"That is an excellent point. But, have you ever considered, that maybe the subconscious thing that I said... may already be there? That's another thing that you'd be able to find out, if you asked, I suppose, though you might consider that too personal of an intrusion. I don't know."
She went quiet, her mouth twitching. "The only reason he's staying with me now and not off looking is because I’m the one that he's tied to...the reason that i can talk to him mentally is because he leeches from my energy to be able to do anything during the time that Father is in the sky." She slipped, she didn't care. "Only when Mother watches over us, can he even form his cloak of his own accord, and if he hasn't eaten even that is difficult." she paused. "What I’m looking for..." she phrased it carefully. "Is a way out...if it's not there, if he never comes to see me when I'm considered an adult, and I’m left to my own devices. I will never take a mate here, not in this region, this i already know. I'm an anomaly, i have a tail, and while it's a good survival tool now, it marks me as...defected."
"This seems like a situation in which you feel as if once Marlow no longer depends on you that he'll leave you to look for his friends, and you're conflicted on that because, although you don't want him to leave, you also feel like he deserves to have the opportunity to look for his friends. This... actually reminds me of something I've encountered before. With the exception of the manner of you having a tail. That is a..." he phrased it carefully as not to cause offense, "situation in which it unfortunately comes down to nature's way of dictating survival. That I have no control over. As for Marlow, I think you SHOULD tell him how you feel."
Serena snorted. She had come to terms with the fact that she was a freak a LONG time ago, mentioning it now made no difference. "I have no right to disrupt what life he has a right to live...Gambitville is the place of which he thinks that his friends--and he--came from...in his past life. He'll have to open up and ask him himself...but if Medicham can help him regain his memories, then I'm sure he'll find him there while we're hunting." For the first time in a LONG time, she felt weak, as if she'd just crawled out of the egg after fighting so very long against her shell. "I should let you relax...I'll see you in a couple hours." She walked away, nudging Heji with the tip of her tail in a way that could have been a pat on the head from any human, and took survey of all those inside as her claws clicked against the stone towards her straw nest.
Kyn took the time to take in this response, before deciding to remain silent, and follow her inside. He pet Heji under the chin before walking inside the cave as well.
"I guess I'll just... stay out here and... I dunno, guard or something." Heji said, as Serena passed.
"You need not, if you don't want to." Her voice called back as she walked in, laying down in her nest before pulling the curtains across the chamber, sheltering her from the light of the torches and the fire. Once she was alone, she let the silent tears fall, and drifted back to sleep. It was the birds that woke her up at dawn, or at least, things that SOUNDED like birds. The air vent that lead over to the berry patch was relaying the sound to her, and immediately her eyes snapped open. The curtain she had drawn over was flung back. "Marlow, Birds in the berry patch!" She hissed, looking up to his usual sleeping place on the mantle."
"Serena, what can I do now? The only thing I might be able to do is have the possibility of scaring them away." He said, not on the mantle, but from a corner nearby.
"Useless." she hissed, running over the table and making it creak, she couldn't help but notice that the cave was practically empty. Without Marlow she couldn't go through the wall to get to the patch, she had no choice but to use the aerial entrance which might as well have gotten her trapped in the web already. She ran outside and to the left, likely kicking sand and soil into Heji's face if he wasn't already up and moving, and pushed herself via a mix of Dragon Rush and shadow claw, up the almost entirely vertical slope. "Oh damn me..." She muttered, the leaves had been blown away, the grid was in shambles, and of all things there were not only PIDGEOT in there, but Swellow as well. She twitched in rage, they were just birds...really, powerful birds that could drop her from a height even her headplates could save her from, but just birds none the less. Of course, this also meant that her Spinarak netting was covering one of them, making it harder for them to move. Still she stood frozen. /No chance.../ she realized.
Heji had since moved out the way of the entrance, consider a suggestion that Kyn had made about an hour into their time outside.
Marlow realised that Serena was in for a bit of a struggle, so he searched around for Striker. After finding him, he quickly said, "We're having a bit of a bird problem up above. Do you think you'd be able to carry Heji up to the top of the cliff face to assist Serena?"
Striker considered this for a moment, before saying, "I can try, but since he's about the same size as me, it will be difficult." He headed outside, to meet Heji and Kyn, and tell them about Serena's situation.
"I see... I think you can do it Striker, so go for it!" Kyn encouraged.
The fall wasn't long, not was it hard, but still it took a lot for Serena to even jump from where she had stood into the damp, gloomy cave. There were no torches in here, it gave her the upper hand since she was nocturnal, but still it startled the birds. There were four of them, two Pidgeot and two Swellow, and they were now all staring at her like she was a worm. "Those. Are. MINE." She roared as best as she could, being a Bagon it wasn't as impressive as it would have been had she been fully grown. It was no surprise when they came at her, she had expected it. Normally she would have been launching herself from a tree at them, but she had no trees here aside from the shabby berry trees that they had been eating from. Oran, Sitrus and even yes, Micle berries littered the floor, half eaten. She managed to Dodge one of the four birds--she wasn't sure how, which ran into the wall and--she didn't have time to look, but hoped that it had knocked itself out cold. The others pecked at her, and she let her instincts turn her back on them, the sharp tipped points of her headplates, and her headplates themselves, the most of what they could reach with their beaks and talons. Her instincts screamed for an opening, to turn this fight back around to the offensive, but with the relentless pecking she didn't see an opportunity. One slash made it down her back to her tail, and she winced as she felt the warm blood start to trickle down her back. Even a fully evolved bird could damage a child dragon, she knew all too well. Thankfully it was shallow, and wouldn't hinder her too much IF she was given the opportunity to attack back.
Striker explained to Heji that the most probably way for him to be carried would have to be by gripping him around the back, while they were face to face, since they were practically the same size. Striker wrapped his scythes backwards around Heji, gripping him tight.
Heji placed his paws around Striker's back as instructed, and then moved forward to land on his, or what would be the equivalent of his, lap. He then wrapped his hindpaws around Striker's legs.
"Um, not to rush you or anything but, I do believe that Serena wouldn't protest if you were to arrive right NOW."
"This would have been easier if we had Reshiram..." Kyn commented quietly.
Somewhere along the line one of the birds pecked another's head, and two of them started squabbling amongst themselves, this had been the opening, and her claws didn't disappoint her, she spun almost on point, and while the claws themselves were JUST out of reach of the birds body, the energy streaming off of them collided and knocked the one bird back, bloody gashes across it's chest, but it could still fly, could still fight. The opening gave her time to run away from the wall, the walls were both her friends and enemies here, and when the one had been blown back it attracted the attention of the others, who resumed chasing her. She wondered, idly, if she had enough room to make a Dragon Rush blast work, or if it would make the entire thing crumble around her--and decided not to risk it. Still as she ran she had enough focus to form a Dragon Pulse in her mouth and between her hands, trying to get it to a reasonable size, which was fairly difficult.
Striker and Heji made their way up the cliff face, and after they landed, Striker collapsed on his side, so that he wouldn't be on top of Heji. He was panting rapidly, and was visibly strained. Definitely not looking forward to having to bring Heji back down the cliff, and he thought about alternate ways to get back into the cave, and how he'd get there, after he'd recovered. "Heji... .... this.... really shows.... ... my age...." Striker said, the negativity in his voice showing. He was strong at his age, but he tired out much easier. Heji made his way over to where Serena was, by tracking her scent, and dropping down. The scent of blood was also recognizable.
The black shape caught her eye and she groaned, another one? No, it wasn't a bird, but a Lion, HEJI? How had he gotten even UP there to come down? She didn't have time to ponder it, instead turning in mid leap to fire off the green ball, landing on her back to which she gave a hiss of pain. She was vulnerable, and before she could turn over she saw a flash of red across her stomach, they were trying to GUT her now? Her instincts had had her turning in the direction the talons were coming though, and she found herself almost entirely unable to move. Dirt would help cinch the wound, but now she had another to worry about. She was starting to get angry at these birds, as if she wasn't before, and to make matters worse the one that had hit it's head was getting back up! Damn her luck. /Marlow?/ Her voice was feeble at best, but she'd made her way to the trunk of one of the trees, which offered her a little protection from the birds, though not much. /If i don't get the chance to say it later...you were a good partner./ She wasn't bluffing, she knew that these birds were really trying to kill her now, she'd never been so out matched, and where HAD this birds come from anyway? Yesterday there hadn't been so much as a Pidgey around the cavern.
Heji began to build electricity around himself, causing the surrounding area to glow. This allowed him to notice more of his surroundings without needing to use his X-ray eyes. He spotted Serena as well as the group of birds attacking her. His peripheral vision didn't catch the Pidgeot near him currently as he was too focused on Serena. "Serena! Dig your claws into the ground, and close your eyes!" Heji called out. He moved closer towards the birds, hoping to lure their attention away from her.
Serena, unlike Heji, did see the Pidgeot behind him, and since she trusted him, She dropped to all fours, pushing her hand and hind claws into the soil, her head turned and her mouth wide open, green sparking between her fangs and growing quickly. She didn't however close both eyes, ONE, but not both. She needed to be able to aim properly, or she would hit HIM instead of her mark. -Do it- she thought, she was waiting, just for the right moment. The other birds still were focusing on the dragon that wanted to take their food away, and as such wouldn't notice Heji until he was almost upon them. She imagined Several things would happen at once, Heji's blast to go off, and the Dragon pulse leaving her mouth as her mouth snapped shut in pain. Whether or not the Pulse ball would hit the Pidgeot or not would depend on the rear power of the Discharge, but either way that annoying bird--which was all that it was to her, was going to be knocked out, if not killed.
"You're a strong dragon, you can take it!" Heji's built up electricity made the glow even more intense, and after fifteen more seconds, he rushed towards the group, stopped, and then released it, causing the room to be filled with electric light, whose arcs were so many that some of the birds were hit more than once with the attack.
Her body tensed as the electricity passed through it, and as predicted the ball left her lips, passed through the wave of electricity--picking up that energy as well, then came into contact with the Pidgeot behind him. The combined energy impacted it with the effect of a sonic boom, harmless except to those who were flying, and to the Pokémon’s ears. For those who were flying, they would have been knocked back into the wall, away from the charge of energy but not before being thoroughly shocked. Serena panted, half in pain, half in exertion, as she fought and stood up on her hind legs, the shadow energy covering her claws, both on her hind feet and on her foreclaws. No, she would have never been able to do this alone, but now that the birds were fried, she had no remorse about taking advantage of it, using double-edge to get away from the forks of electricity, and slitting two of the three's throats. Three down...The last one was caught in the webbing, and Serena snorted. Rightfully, it was Heji's kill, but she still stood guard over it with bloodied claws, as if it might get up. "Bloody birds." She spat out, verifying that the cuts weren't too deep, though the electricity still made her twitch every once in a while.
"This situation could have ended up a lot worse. I realise that you can handle yourself sometimes but, I don't think you expected to be this many here," Heji said, understandingly, "and two Pidgeot, of all things. It was practically a swarm."
Serena took her eyes off the bird for a moment. "Save your blather for someone who needs to hear it." She snorted as he said 'swarm' "What was that? Oh sweet Dialga..." she muttered. "Hurry up and come take your kill, we need to get Striker out of the open." this was a snap, an order, and if he didn't move, she would have finished it off. It hurt to move--and was glad that they had Inferno, he could cauterize the wounds and while she would be in pain, at least they would have stopped bleeding.
"Oh, right. Yeah." Heji quickly and effortless snapped the bird's neck in his jaws, and then dragged it out of the way. "Well, Striker's kinda exhausted right now. Kyn's going to have to give him an item to recover." Heji guessed that Serena would be able to understand the concept of recovery items.
His guess would have been right, but she had this dangerous look in her eye that would have told him that it wasn't the time to answer unasked questions. She strode to the corner, ignoring the pain and the trickle of blood from her wounds, and launched herself back and forth until she could catch the rim of the upper level, where she found Striker of course. Her eyes narrowed at him as she walked. "Swarm ability. You never had it before, did you?" It was a demand, if he had done this to them on purpose there was going to be hell to pay.
"That might explain a few things." He was now sitting down, what little he could with his abdomen in the way, and bracing himself up with his scythes. Her tone to him implied that it was a was basically an interrogation. "No, I've never had it before. An effect of this place no doubt."
She nodded. "Unhindered...some blessings are more of a curse." she noted, holding her stomach closed with one hand as she closed her eyes and tried to ease the blood rage that came with her species. 'Salamence are known for rampaging' the book had said, and she would have stayed beside him, but the loss of blood was starting to make her dizzy, and she knew that most wouldn't be able to reach them there. "There's four dead birds down there, Two Pidgeot and two Swellow." she muttered before jumping down, but this time landing on one knee. It wasn't the fall that brought her down, but rather the loss she felt like she was suffering. /Dead./ She said. /They're dead...I don't know if you can eat them from there, but you might want to try, Marlow./
"Taking down two Pidgeot by herself seems like it would have been a nearly impossible feat. The Swellow might not be as difficult, but that's four birds that can attack from multiple angles." Striker said to Heji.
"She's not injured that badly, though they did manage to draw some of her blood, something that I'm sure annoyed her." Heji explained.
[I'll just get a little bit closer then. Serena, are you sure you're alright? If I take anymore energy from you, you might just collapse... Won't you just ask someone for help?] Marlow was concerned not only due to the bleeding, but due to the fact that she was still close enough to be connected to him.
/Just shut up and take it./ was the response he got, and stood up; walking towards the cavern entrance. She was tired of them telling her that what she did was reckless, she already -knew- that. Her eyes narrowed. 'get some help...' well, she planned on it, at least for the cut on her back, but she WANTED the scars to be there, they were a record of what you had made it through in that stage of your life--and the fact that they disappeared when they evolved was like wiping the slate clean. She walked passed Kyn, virtually ignoring him as she reached for the torch on the wall, and gritted her teeth, determined not to make a sound as she seared the wound on her stomach closed, but even so, it nearly made her pass out. Now she just had to deal with the other one, but it wasn't viable to do herself, nor to ask Kyn. Recovery items...she could guess that this was how they had lived to be fully grown Pokémon, but wanted nothing of it.
Kyn had noticed that Serena obviously had shown signs of battle on her hide, but his experience told him not to directly get involved unless she asked, and he didn't think that she'd ask him either.
[Alright alright.] He moved closer to the area where the wall that would separated the berries. The energy was still there, but just barely, and the closest one he was able to absorb was from the most recently deceased Pidgeot. He then decided to phase into the wall to get closer to the other sources.
Serena sighed, with that wound closed she walked deeper into the cave to get her salve, of course, she hoped that that was where Inferno was still resting as well. "Inferno." she spoke softly, the torch was still in her hand, and with Pendragon not accounted for either, she hoped that one was without the other. The salve was next to her nest, and it burned when she put it around the scorched cut, but it was that good type of burn that said things were working properly. She didn't want to make a big deal out of this, usually Marlow was the one to sear the wounds closed, but she kept distancing herself from him, a little at a time.
Being a light sleeper most of the time, Inferno was able to be disturbed by Serena calling him. "Asdaacm,faf" he mumbled instinctively, not really saying anything, but still beginning the process of waking.
/Once you've eaten, see if you can assist Kyn./ She wanted to keep him away from her as this was done, and promptly blocked the connection out afterwards. She was out of danger, he knew that already. "I need to borrow your fire." She spoke, tossing the torch into the fire, ignoring the pungent smell of the salve. How had he slept through all the racket she had made earlier, she wondered, if it was this easy to wake him.
"Serena...?" Inferno groggily muttered. He sat up, and then blinked his eyes a few times, before seeing the blurred shape of the Bagon in his line of sight.
Marlow finished what he was able to, and then went back outside to meet Kyn, not exactly sure what Serena meant by helping him.
"Marlow, Striker and Heji haven't come back down yet, can you go check on them to see what the situation is?"
Serena rolled her eyes, the blood loss was starting to make her snarky. "No, it's some other random female Bagon that you know lives in this bloody cave." she snorted. "I could use your help stopping the blood from oozing down my back, do you mind?"
"Well, depending on how fast you want it sealed, I need to examine the wound first of all." Inferno said, in a doctor like manner. He'd figured that Serena did want it closed right away, even though it would be painful.
"Well, they definitely didn't take as much damage as Serena did, and of course I worry about her, but she has her own way of going about things like that." Marlow said, before moving up the cliff to meet the two in question.
"Well, I suppose you're here to check up on us, aren't you?" Striker asked, testing his wings to see if they recovered from the fatigue yet. They barely made enough movement to create a sound.
"This cliff isn't really that high up but... I don't think I'll try jumping down it." Heji said, judging the drop off distance.
Serena snorted again, turning around and sitting down so that it would be easy enough for him to see and sear close. "Just sear it, yes, i know it's got dirt in it, don't really care, can't be any worse than me eating the siding from my own cave as i expand." She muttered to him. Marlow always insisted upon washing the wounds first, she hoped he wouldn't be like Marlow...when wounds were wet it always took more heat to sear them closed. "Since you were asleep,I suppose I should inform you...Two Pidgeot and two Swellow were found in my berry garden today, ate all of my crops...Thankfully it's the middle of summer and they can be persuaded into bearing another harvest before winter comes around." to be fair, even if Heji had done a lot of the work, it was still bragging rights, at least to her.
"Your entire crop was lost? How many were in there?" Inferno took one of his plates off, and then breathed a slow but intense flame onto it, to the point in which it looked like it would melt, and stopped there. He then applied it directly to the wound. Obviously she wouldn't be able to answer him now, so he waited. After about ten seconds, he removed it.
"So, do you want me to fetch something for you then?" Marlow suggested. If it was smaller than his arms then he'd easily be able to carry it back up to them.
"Well, tell Kyn that Striker could use a Full Restore, and then he'll give you the item to bring back up to us to use. He'll know what you mean." Heji said.
Her words were cut off by the searing pain, her body tensed and she was insanely glad that she hadn't needed to find a tree at that moment, as surely she would have lost control of her bladder. "Three Oran, two Sitrus, two Pecha, a Micle and a Rawst." She wrinkled her nose at the smell of the burnt scales, passing him back the salve which was OBVIOUSLY made from the last berry type she had just mentioned. "If you don't mind?" She muttered. "The trees themselves are fine, and on the bright side, we have enough breakfast for everyone."
"Serena, Kyn never told you why he so willingly gave you that PokéBlock case did he?" Inferno said, taking it and then quickly applying the salve to the visibly charred scales.
As Marlow drifted back down, he felt like he had become and errand-mon of sorts, but in this case he didn't mind since he was helping guests. "Heji says to ask you for a Full Restore."
"Oh, well then, take this, and if you would, give him only four drops. That should be enough." He said, taking out a small bottle filled with a golden clear liquid. It had at mechanism in which the liquid would be able to escape if turned a certain way, and it would either come out in drops, or in a stream.
"No, he didn't." She felt like a captive audience, and her scales shivered as the salve was applied. "I did find it rather odd to be -given- something...nothing around here is free." It didn't take a genius to guess that she was referring to the blood on her claws, and the birds that she had just killed.
"He'd probably never tell you this but I will. He doesn't really how lucky he is to be able to just... have almost every Berry he wants. Sure he has to pay for it but, it's like, that crop that you mentioned... he'd know people that have ten times that amount, and yet he doesn't see the value in that. He mostly uses them to make his PokéBlock, and something that you haven't tried yet, called a Poffin." Inferno said solemnly.
Marlow took the bottle in his 'hands' and then brought them back to Striker. After doing what Kyn showed him to, he brought it over to Striker's head.
"Ah, thank you Marlow. It's still a bit of a wonder for me, this stuff." He then held his mouth open, and waited.
Heji simply laid down after, waiting for Striker to recover.
Serena blinked at him, actually turning her head to look at him and accept the small jar of salve back from him. "So you're saying that he gave because...he has an excess and doesn't care about it?" She licked her claws clean and stood up. "I'll probably need some help Hoisting the corpses up out of the berry garden, and for that I'll need vines..." she rubbed her claws over her head as she thought. "it's a bit ironic that I used my last ones when we captured the Pidgeotto."
"No, well, it's not exactly like that. He gave them to you because he saw that you really enjoyed them. You could consider it a sign of friendship, in the sense that, he's willing to give up the hours of time it took to make those. He's probably already got plans to make more, now that he's met you. Oh, and there's one thing that I suppose we all inherited from Kyn, it's big speeches!" He chuckled and then finished addressing the rest of what she said. "You could also probably use rope. So... about those birds... who is getting what?"
Marlow tilted the bottle at an angle until a very large drop appeared out of the opening, and onto Striker's tongue. He repeated the process three more times, and then closed it. "Is this little amount really going to help you recover faster?" He asked, not really believe it that much.
"Yes, actually, you'll see in..." As soon he said that, Striker's wings began to flutter at full speed, to the point that they were a blur, and he was lifted up and hovering. "Three seconds. Let's go Heji. Going down is much easier than taking you up."
"Anyway, thank you for your assistance in this." Heji said, resuming the position again. He was certain that Striker would have been able to easily take him up the cliff without getting exhausted had he been a lot younger, but at least he was able to get him up there, and that was something.
Serena looked at Inferno again, setting the jar of salve on the table. "I've probably only got one, maybe two more Shadow claw left in me, so I'll probably do the tying of the vines/rope around the bodies...I'm putting this together as I go, but obviously i wont MAKE anyone help me with it...For you herbivores we have berries and wheat, or we should still have wheat, Marlow's been feeding the Pidgeotto lately..." she trailed off, absently starting to walk back out to the spot where Kyn and the others were likely beginning to gather, she opened up the link to Marlow again. /Been having fun?/ Sarcasm, even the thought was coated with it.
Marlow didn't answer her at first, and instead focused on Kyn. He brought the bottle back, and then went inside to talk to Inferno.
Striker brought Heji back down the cliff, as he said, not having to work as hard so he didn't get completely exhausted. "Seems like a pretty intense battle went on. There's apparently four dead birds that need to be dealt with." Striker said.
Heji didn't comment back, but instead went inside to see Serena.
"Getting up that cliff seems like it should be something I look into." Kyn commented. "I'll help with the birds then, since I can get up that cliff." Inferno said, walking with her to meet the rest of them.
Marlow was the first to reach them. "Did you eat?" She eyed him warily, she really didn't want to have to face ghost versions of those birds, of course the newly forming scars would be that which attracted the most attention later. For the second time of the day, Heji appeared in the corner of her eye, and she braced herself for another 'stern talking to', so to speak. It was likely unavoidable, but she nodded to Inferno. "Claw marks will let you know where to climb up." She was trying to think, and it wasn't working very well at the moment, probably the loss of blood, but it wasn't like it wasn't anything she hadn't dealt with before.
"There was not a chance to take care of all of them." Marlow said casually before looking at Inferno.
"Serena, I was wondering, have you taken down prey their size or bigger before?" Inferno asked, curious as to the scale of her hunting prowess.
About halfway through his trek Heji encountered Serena, and Inferno. "Serena... I have some questions for you." He said.
She flinched at the news. "Alone? The Swellow perhaps, but not the Pidgeot, however...as I've said I've managed to subdue a Pidgeotto; and those with only a couple scratches." She flicked her tail in annoyance, still at the news that Marlow had given. /It's too bad we didn't know the timeframe in which creatures can turn to ghosts.../ "By all means." she directed at Heji. "Ask away."
"First question, do you regret my assistance in the matter of dealing with the birds?" Heji asked in a firm but at the same time curious tone.
[Well, there's always the library again... or asking an ancient ghost.] "I'm a bit curious of that as well Serena. Together, you two managed to take out two Pidgeot, and two Swellow."
"It seems like this has turned into a bit of a questions and answer session slightly." Inferno commented.
/...I'd rather not visit the library again anytime soon...may i request that you return to your skull form? I know that you'll be stuck that way for most of the day considering recent events, but I'd rather not be separate from you at the moment./ "No." the reply was easy. "A hunter knows when they're outmatched, it would have been dumb luck had i killed them without damaging myself beyond any repair that the Doctors in town could have managed...but i had to...Didn't know WHY i had to try at the time...but I know now, they weren't attracted by the berries, but by Striker."
[I've already mentioned earlier Serena that if I took anymore energy from you, you'd probably collapse. I have no trouble returning to that form.]
"By Striker?" Inferno said. "Is there something about Striker that draws wild Pokémon to him? That's never happened before."
"Well, Serena and I have discovered that it is... one of his abilities." Heji said, saving Serena the trouble of having to say it again.
Serena held out her claws just under Marlow's skull jaw, and gripped it so that when the cloak dissipated she had a hold of him. It would have looked strange to anyone else, she was sure, but when the energy left, she transferred him to her arms. "Since he's stronger than the average Pokémon, he attracts stronger than average Pokémon as well...speaking of bugs, has anyone seen the Scolipede? I would hate for him to have swarm too and be out on his own." She didn't remember his name, she would have to amend that later, but right now her mind was elsewhere, and her mouth twitched. "They DO have it here."
"He's not as strong as Striker though, but I suppose Heji and I should go look for him, since we'll like be able to combat the type's he's weak against together." Inferno said.
"Pendragon can be a bit of a loner sometimes. We'll probably find him in the forest... messing around with the locals." Heji suggested. "If the same thing happens to him as to you, then it'll be best if we leave now. Wait, this could be a problem. If you combine Striker's Swarm with his.... then we might just have an even harder time, and require the rest to remedy the situation."
[I think I'll just take a nap then.] Marlow conveyed
Serena nodded to the both of them. "We'll work on getting the birds out of the berry patch while you're gone then...and discuss what will need to be adjusted a little later on. Right now if i don't get meat in me my body will shut down and our trip will be postponed another day...I'm not exactly the patient type." she muttered. /Alright./ She walked back towards the back where Marlow's bandana was and wrapped it around his eyes, then tucked him into the front of her scarf so that she could move around freely. "Don't worry, I'll see if i can't convince Tensa and Kyn to assist me while you're gone."
Heji and Inferno now exited the cave, forming a part of two. On their way out, Inferno asked Kyn for his red bandana with the Poké Ball design, and just for the heck of it, Heji's yellow one. After tying his around his neck, and then Heji's around his, they set off into the forest to find Pendragon!
Serena followed them out of the cave, standing in the shadows, she really didn't want to have to speak to Kyn again after last night, but there was no choice. Once the two were off, she stepped out of the shadows and approached him quietly. "Kynexn." she said business like. "We...have a situation on our hands."
"Does it involve the four currently extra crispy birds that I was informed of?" Kyn guessed. He noticed that she used his full name, and not his shorted nickname.
"Hm, Serena, it seems that our group is currently dwindling." Striker added, noting Heji and Inferno leaving for the forest.
"Yes...and yes...It is, for a good reason...Pendragon has the swarm ability as well...which is the same thing that lured the birds, except the time before it was Striker that attracted them...I don't think that I can take another four birds attacking me today, so they've gone out to find PD before he gets everyone into trouble...AS for the birds, we need to get them out of my berry garden if we're going to have breakfast. I was hoping that i could recruit both You two and Tensa in assisting me with that, and perhaps Medicham since he's not needed to work on the illusion at the moment, levitating things surely would be easier than trying to pull them out with Rope...I'd like to have this done by the time that the boys get back, I'm sure that they shall be hungry when they get back." she paused, licking her lips, and realized she hadn't had her morning water, poured herself a bowl of it and took a drink before saying. "Any questions?"
"I would be glad to help. A single Pidgeot would probably be able to feed at least three or four humans. ... that is, if they ate them. Anyway, I do have some questions. The first one, is probably just a repeat of an older question. Why do you seem so adverse to Poké Balls?" Kyn asked.
"If I can help, I will." Tensa said in response to Kyn's agreement.
"I'll be able to help you get up the cliff, I think. You're familiar with the technique I'm referring to, I'm sure." Striker added, pointing a blade at Kyn.
"..." Serena stared at Kyn as if the question had an obvious answer. "Look...all of the Poké Balls that i have seen here, are all smashed and broken from when the Pokémon were released here." She sighed. "They're just not natural, from being forced to be who ever uses them on you, to the fact that they can brain wash you into doing things you wouldn't normally do--no, it doesn't matter that you don't use them, but the very fact that they exist grates against my being. I would not be able to tolerate the use of one, even to a person i trusted." She addressed Tensa next. "There are vines out on the trees, I'm sure you saw them last night, I'm sure i can entrust it to you to find sturdy vines to use to pull the birds up...Unless you'd like to find Medicham."
"Hm... You're the first Pokémon to really bring up several of the reasons why I hate using them now. I've always wondered if Poké Balls do brainwash Pokémon, though as you know, they are my friends, and not tools. You remind me of... a special human that I once knew. Maybe someday I'll find him again. I think he'd really like this world, though there is that issue of him being a human, but other than that..."
"I believe I shall return with the vines. After all, the forest is my still MY element. There are two kings. The kings of the jungle and kings of the forest." Tensa said with a grin.
"Serena, I too have often wondered why humans use Poké Balls when if they were like Kyn they wouldn't need to. A few of my clanmates were ready to tear Kyn apart for being 'one of those humans that captures and enslaves us'. He does seem to have an interesting way of going about his interactions with Pokémon." Striker said reminiscing on the scene.
She crossed her arms over her chest, barely flinching, but it was still there, the pain from the wound. "I've said it once, I'll say it again. Humans that want to impress upon a Pokémon their desire to be friends, do not need technology to do so. It might take longer, sure, in fact, it might take intuition, and actual BRAINS, but the bonds forged in trust don't break." She touched the lump in her scarf. "I would know." Her tail flicked slightly, as if circling back to it agitated her, and instead began walking to where her claws had left indentations in the rock face. "Yes, he has an interesting way about going about it...like stepping in front of a portal that's the only source of getting back to your home, for instance, he's just lucky i didn't have any hatchlings or when he stuck his hand through he would have pulled back a nub."
"And I'm AGREEING with you. Also, I wouldn't have reached my hand in had you not pushed the rock back. Anyway, we'll need to have Palkia on this side of the portal eventually." Kyn reached into his pack, and pulled out a rope that was coiled up about twenty feet long, and handed it to Striker. "Fine, the next question I have for you is, are you still hesitant around me, or have you come to the point to where it's easier to accept me? Oh, and there's another thing. When next I speak to you, I'm going to sit down. I feel as if it's a little bit bothersome for you to have to look up at me all the time. I hope you don't mind that." Striker then, took the rope, an flew up the cliff with it. He then put his foot on the end and tossed it back down over the cliff.
Serena blinked at him. "I can't say that I trust you for being you." She had started climbing in the mean time, so that she didn't have to look at him. "However...with these Pokémon who trust you, through them you have gained some measure of trust from me. I can not say that I totally trust them either, however Heji has earned my respect." she reached the top and brushed her claws off. "As a hunter, perhaps he always had that advantage." Almost as soon as she was up on the top she had dropped down into the area with the birds, and her stomach growled accordingly.
"Then, let us deal with these birds, so that we may begin our trek to that place, Gambitville." Kyn called out to Serena, having reached the top now. He followed Serena over to where the entrance to the Berry Farm was, and dropped down into area the area with her. "Hm, it looks like they really did a number here. How long do you think it'll take you to replace these?" Kyn asked.
Tensa ventured back into the forest, gathering vines, also figuring that Inferno and Heji had probably found Pendragon by now.
"Using the bones and pelts of the birds that caused the damage and the fruit themselves as Fertilizer? Perhaps two weeks, not any less if we don't, however." She sighed. "Ironic, since we just transplanted some in here after the snow started melting off, but there's no use crying over lost berries, they'll grow back." She did take the time to examine the trees as she couldn't have before, but focused more intently on the birds. Those that she had slit's throat had bled out over the soil, and ignoring the pain from using the arm, she hefted the Pidgeot over her head, moving it towards the center and away from the wall. "Gambitville is a place of rolling plains and desert." She said, more to make conversation than anything else. "Striker, be on the lookout for any more uninvited guests, if you don't mind?"
"More questions. Er, about how much food do you consume on average?" Kyn wondered due the fact that even at his most hungry, he'd never be able to consume an entire Pidgeot in one sitting, or even half of one in one sitting.
"I do so apologize for that incident Serena. I have no idea how to control it though, so it may be a blessing or a hindrance when we get to Gambitville." Striker commented, also thinking about what they were going to do with the two very large birds that based on what Kyn told him would be able to feed at least a human family of three for a few days.
"I know, normally it would have been something you learned to control at a very young age...it might help if you're not thinking about hunting..." She paused at the question. "Over the course of my waking hours, depending on what I'm doing, about the amount of meat that a Pidgeotto has, half of it in one sitting. Of course those are rare, these even rarer...it will be a shame to have to either tote these out into the woods to let the scavengers have them, or bury them...Fowl doesn't exactly store well under ground, so i don't recommend the latter...but it is a very good thing that we have more than just me eating, and more than one bird, as I'm sure that IF Heji partakes in it raw, that he and I will be quarreling about the heart, at least, if not the liver." She walked over to the one that had been hit with the dragon discharge and shook her head. "Three birds, this one isn't fit for food, charred to the bone, would be like eating charcoal."
"Then I shall inform you... that Poké Balls, can also be used to store items, and well, as odd as it is for me to say this, it doesn't differentiate between a live 'mon and a dead 'mon, so you could store it that way." Kyn said with an awkward tone in his voice.
"Well, the insides will have a, what's that phrase... rare doneness, to them, I think. At least from what I can understand. I can't tell unless it is cut apart; from the outside." Striker commented.
"You sound as if you know this from experience." She said calmly. Death and life were a normal part of her day, and as if to prove her point to Striker, she gave a tug on the bird's wing joint at the base, and it just cracked exactly like charcoal. She tossed that up to him with her good arm, and could hear it crumble as it hit the earth. "-Still- think so? Make a note, Dragon Pulse + Discharge = Devastating." She made a point of crushing what was left of the bird's skull with her foot. "At least it'll be good mulch."
"...I do. It was only an experiment, and I wasn't the cause of it. As for the items thing, it's only logical if one understands that technology that it can be used to store items."
Striker made his way over to the drop, and glided his way down into the area, to meet the two of them.
Serena turned, again having to wipe off her claws, this time from charcoal instead of the rock as it had been. "You already know what my logic indicates. Couldn't this Pokémon League champion disallow the use of Poké Balls for capture, and let the Pokémon choose whether or not to stay with the trainers?" She nodded to Striker, starting to work on bringing the other birds into the center, the one that Heji had killed was the most obvious, as it didn't have the red slash across it's neck, but across it's chest instead. "Though I suppose the humans would find it cruel that someone would make them do that.
"Once again, I wish you could have met this person. He tried to do just that, only on a bit more extreme scale. He believed that humans and Pokémon should be separate no matter what. As for the matter of disallowing Poké Balls... if he had succeeded, he probably would have forced the League to disband, and thus that would partially become a truth." Kyn said.
Striker moved over to a Pidgeot that wasn't completely charred, and then quickly cut it in half with one of his scythes, revealing the meat inside. "This is what I was referring to."
"In that case, I'd call him a fool before I called him friend. Inhabitants of a world should be together in one way or another...and without the regulations set by this league of yours I'm sure his plan would have backfired badly, he would have been overthrown as a dictator." She looked at Striker skeptically. "You should have been specific, for one, and for another, you've just made our work a bit more messy. It'll be harder for us to find a grip on the wall with bodily fluids all over us as well...Hopefully Tensa will be back with the vines soon."
"I haven't seen him in a long time though... I wonder where he is. If I could find him again, I would have so much to ask him, and so much to tell him." Kyn said, not exactly dreamily, but with a strange fascination.
"I'd still say that I probably would have been able to identify how cooked the meat was." Striker said, partially ignoring Serena's comment about the fluids.
Serena merely rolled her eyes at Striker, walking over to the corner where the marks were still in the wall, making it so that she didn't need to use Shadow Claw again to climb, conserving her last two uses, when she was at the top she stood up and flexed her claws. "Life is a journey that takes you to many places Kyn, it's possible that you have been following just behind him...though i would think...that when the time is right you'll find him again." She turned around to look for Tensa, who should have been coming back soon...and she hoped that the other two would as well.
"Anyway, about Gambitville... hypothetically speaking, if I could take down a Tauros by myself, what would you say about that?" Kyn asked, not necessarily let on that there were people who regularly hunted Tauros singlehandedly, without much technological assistance back home.
"You really are interested in Gambitville it seems." Striker commented.
"I would say that any Tauros you've faced back home will likely be very different than the ones here, and that you shouldn't underestimate them like that...but SHOULD you be able to, I would allow myself to be...ugh, captured, as that's the only way that i would take back what i said about them being torture devices."
"I see, well, then I shall do my best. And, as for the last thing you said... What makes you think I'd even use one of those on you? Also, the word is 'caught'. Captured and caught have very different meanings there." Kyn was curious as to how she would respond at the idea of him NOT wanting to use a Poké Ball on her.
Striker chuckled at the way Kyn phrased his statement, and his response to Serena's last.
She didn't take the statement in any way he would have expected, nor did she say anything pertaining to it, instead her mouth turned into a frown. "We're not over there, but perhaps you should explain the difference, since I apparently don't have the distinction you would." She paused, then carefully phrased another sentence. "Going by your previous statements about Poké Balls, it seems as though you defend their use, at least in your own way. I thought that perhaps you would have sought to change my disposition towards them...if I was mistaken, I withdraw my statement."
"In order for a Pokémon to be caught, they have to be registered to a Poké Ball, which is why once a Pokémon has been caught in a Poké Ball another Trainer cannot re-catch that Pokémon in most cases. There have been... tampered with balls that do. The second word, captured refers to Pokémon Rangers that I actually have mentioned a bit earlier. The don't use Poké Balls at all. The sort of have a device that allows them to sync their hearts with Pokémon and their desire to be friends. That's pretty much all I know about that aspect. Now, as for the second part of what you said... It's actually a bit of a dilemma. I feel as if I have the need to defend my race's use of them, in legitimate ways, and yet, because we were under the understanding that I would never force you into one, there is no real need to change your opinion, and then it comes down to the matter of defending my race's use of them. And there is one other thing. I want to show you a special type of Poké Ball that I have. If I show you this, it's relevant."
Serena listened. "If I had offered it wouldn't be a case of forcing, now would it?" She shook her head, still not looking at him as she ran over what was said afterward. "I see....I think i prefer Rangers over trainers, no offense intended but...You should be able to see why." In her mind, the first part of it would have made sense, but then he told her about tampered balls, and it threw out that thought before it left her mouth. If there were balls that could cap-catch an already caught Pokémon then it wasn't for their own protection. She snorted at the mention of special Poké Balls, with the idea of tampered Poké Balls fresh in her mind, she thought that this was what he meant by special. "What!?" Her green eyes turned on him, almost as menacingly as they might have been when she was fully grown.
"Ah, hold on Serena. It seems that you are misunderstanding me about what I meant about my Poké Ball. It has nothing to do with those other types that I mentioned." He saw the look in her eyes and immediately tried to remedy the situation as fast as he could.
She snorted at them. "You've been around me for a day, you should have adapted by now, how many times must I say SPEC-IF-Y what you mean if you're switching from one thing to another. Ugh, you should be sooo glad that you're not going to the Prismatic Jungle. The dragon types there wouldn't even give you a moment to correct your statements, you upset them and you're toast."
"I see... well, here. Take a look at this, I'm going to throw it up to you," he said, giving her an indication, "it belongs to Heji." He maximized Heji's Luxury Ball and then tossed it up to Serena. "Because it belongs to Heji's there no risk of you getting accidentally caught by it."
Catching, one of the things her claws definitely were made for, of course with the action her claws scraped the metal(?) of the ball, and caused the slight screeching that usually came accompanied by it. It was too big for her to hold it only in one hand, and so to turn it and get a better look at it. It was certainly different than the one she had seen Inferno get pulled into...she snorted, and the front of the ball fogged before reflecting her eyes back at her in its surface. "What about it?"
Kyn jumped up the walls, and exited the drop before answering Serena, "Well, for some reason, people have said that Pokémon that ARE in that type of ball, which is called a Luxury Ball, are more comfortable. I've also confirmed this by asking Heji."
She blinked at it, then poked the button in the middle of the ball with a knuckle rather than a claw, expecting the light from before, but instead it of course popped open to expose its insides to her. After getting her fill of looking inside, her nose twitched and she closed it back, almost gingerly offering it back to him. It WAS shiny, after all.
Kyn grinned quickly, hoping that Serena wouldn't see, and then he took it back. Living up to her Dragon-type attributes and being attracted to the shinier than average ball. "I just happen to like the Luxury Ball because since I don't need to catch them in them, I might as well just give them something luxurious to call their own when it suits them. I don't give ALL my Pokémon Luxury Balls though. Oh, that's erm another thing. Adding to the fuel of what I dislike about Poké Ball is... well, they actually make ones that are STRONGER, and more difficult for the Pokémon to escape from, for those that are just going about the process in the manner of, viewing you all as objects."
Serena visibly twitched at the mention of stronger balls. "Well, the good thing seems to be that they seem to be easy enough to break...though I'm sure that the trainer would be even more furious if they did, and try harder." she flexed her claws as if to make a point, her eyes turned back to the forest in silence; it was a little while after that she broke it again. "Heji mentioned that he wanted to get stronger, and that's why he joined you...you have a way of measuring strength "I find it quite humorous when they do break yeah. If they paid a lot for them, serves them right. Though this Luxury Ball is damn expensive but is nothing more than a glorified Poké Ball. Measuring your strength can technically be done, yeah. But I've gotten pretty good at judging a Pokémon's strength without using technology. Plus, technology can't tell you if they have potential or not. Are you interested in a technological evaluation as well as my own?"
Her eyes closed as she thought, exhaling through her nose, finally she lived up to her trait and said. "May as well." she was confident that if the other Pokémon could go through it, it wouldn't be too unpleasant, at least, since she had only seen that thing that he had pointed at her other than the Poké Balls, and hadn't seen anything on the Poké Ball to measure strength.
"Though, I'll probably have to rely more on my own intuition, since After all this world has a different set of rules. Anyway, just a sec. This pack is organized in such a way that it's easy to find things... most of the time." He searched around for his Pokédex from Unova, and then brought it out. "You might remember this from when me met for the first time."
She opened her eyes when he spoke the second time, and made a grunt of confirmation that she did, her eyes focusing on the trees, what WAS taking them so long? Her eyes flicked to the horizon where 'father' was begining to peek, covering the sky in shades of soft yellows and oranges. "If Tensa and the others don't get back soon, I'm going looking for them."
"Alrighty then! Let's get started." He pointed the Pokédex level at her, and then it read out her moves. "Well now, that's interesting. Serena... how does evolution work in this world? The answer you give me, may greatly boost your opinion of yourself, as well as mine."
"I'm aware that I'm at a stage where I 'can' evolve to the next stage, I'm probably one of the few that are still in touch with their bodies to be able to do it naturally...but I'm not allowed to. Members of the guilds--all Pokémon here i guess--have to get a piece of paper from doing a mission called an evolution scroll, which allows you to get...erf, training sessions with Master Foo or Master Shao, and they're supposed to teach you how to 'tap into' that energy...and I've already decided that Marlow will get the first one we acquire."
"Well, I don't know if you realise how far along comparatively you are. Your abilities... are well into the Salamence stage back home. Though that thing about you being able to do it naturally, I also find that intersting. Now, what this Pokédex tells me is that, you'd catch a whole bunch of humans as well as other Pokémon off guard back home."
Inferno and Heji had found Pendragon in a tree, relaxing. How he'd managed to get up there was beyond their guess at the time but they didn't worry about and instead just explained to him the situation. "Your Swarm ability combined with Striker's could pose a problem." Pendragon hopped down, and then traveled back with them.
Tensa had gathered a significant amount of vines from the forest, enough to cover both arms. It looked like a a vest made of vines. He figured that if he headed back now the others would have returned with Pendragon as well.
"I think your tech's glitching on you." She said. "If what you said is true those birds wouldn't have been able to scratch my hide, let alone put gashes in it." She was, admittedly, advanced for her age, but she didn't think that she was -that- far along. "I'm guessing that you've at least met a couple people who tried taming dragons on the otherside?" She adjusted Marlow's skull beneath her scarf, even with the bandana against her scales, she could feel the crack in his skull, and it made her uneasy.
"Heh, tried. I got this cape from Claire's hometown. She's a Dragon Tamer. So, Serena, I can appreciate how you would think that, but... well, those bird weren't normal strength. Correct me if I'm wrong but, the Swarm ability here might attract Pokémon that are of a similar level, correct?"
Tensa arrived back at the cave, and set the vines in a pile. He saw the other three coming in the distance as well.
"Level? Um...you mean like of experience? Usually a bit above since they believe that it will be a swarm of the creature that they got the reading from and want to be able to overpower them easily." she shrugged as if this was not new news, but then, she supposed that it was to him. There was Tensa, now...ah, there were the others, good, her shoulders relaxed. "Claire..." she tested the word on her tongue. "Some of the Pokémon that i mentioned earlier mentioned her name...partially because after losing to her is -why- they were released."
"Then... that might explain why you had such a difficult time with them. Striker... he's exceptionally strong. In fact, he told me that he's stronger than he was when he was younger. I don't know if that's due to my training methods, or because of all the Pokémon battles he's been in. That League we mentioned... in order to qualify for it, we have to basically... battle a certain set of people. By the end of it all, a Pokémon in it's first stage, would be fully evolved essentially." He waited before continuing to see if Serena was interested in learning more, as well as wanting to judge her reaction.
"Hey guys, and... gal, I'm back! Got those vines we need! The rest will be arriving shortly too as well!" Tensa called out.
Serena snickered at the addition. "Don't let my gender make more work for you Tensa." She wrinkled her nose at Kyn's explanation. "Seems a bit biased if you ask me. There ARE those that refuse to evolve--like this team of a Chikorita and a Jigglypuff, they never want to evolve." She motioned for him to stay where he was as she slid down the slight incline. "Stay there, 'kay? we'll need someone to toss the vines up to, just need to braid them real quick, then we can continue talking if you wish." She walked over to Tensa and took some of the vines from him, knotting the tops together in sets of three before hooking them over a fork in a branch, and deftly braided them together to help make them stronger. All the while she thought of what he had said. If he was right, then she would only have to wait a day between evolutions...at least if they managed to get three evo scrolls within enough time.
Kyn waited for Serena to return, and was glad that she at least seemed to have an interest in what he had to say. "Right, of course."
Tensa greeted Serena as she descended. "Well Serena, I'm interested in where Pendragon was, and I'm sure that they'll be able to tell us when they get back. Oh, as for the matter of the Berry Garden... since Striker is coming with us, but Pendragon is staying, how would you normally deal with the issue of intruders?"
Inferno, Pendragon, and Heji made their way back to the group, and then Inferno spoke. "Of all places! Pendragon was in a tree, resting."
Pendragon cleared his throat. "This forest reminds me of my home back in Pinwheel Forest. I guess I felt so at home that I relaxed after reminiscing and fell asleep."
"The creeping forest reminds you of a pinwheel forest." the imagery in her head was hilarious, but she kept it to a slight smile. "So the Scolipede is staying here? Alright then...as for intruders...well since the berry garden is already destroyed they wouldn't go that way, there's no other area for them to get in aside from the main entrance, which means you'll either have them funneling towards you, or be backed into a corner...'mon don't exactly come out to visit, but...check to see if they're sentient...other wise either kill or subdue them. The latter would actually be better considering the amount of Pokémon that are left in the forest at the moment, it might be a good idea to breed them and set some of them out later on." she coiled the newly made braid as she knotted the other end, working to make the other two just as quick as the first.
Pendragon snorted. "Pinwheel Forest is the name the humans gave it. It has nothing to do with a pinwheel at all, really."
"I see. Well, I'll be heading back up then." Tensa said.
"Hm, this might turn into a decent exercise for me. Pendragon's ability that is." Inferno commented.
"I would never have considered the possibility that we'd encounter a place where there is the potential for such strong Pokémon. It's a bit exciting really, if you understand what we went through back home Serena, it's not often our combat abilities are tested." Heji said.
"Gotten a bit boring for you? Well if there's only two of you, i don't think that that classifies as a 'swarm' but all of us in the cave definitely did." she didn't share the sinaments of it being 'exciting'. When the other two were done she threw one of the coils up to Kyn. She was fine with Pokémon believing her to be weak, that was fine really, but she doubted that it would stay that way for long with the conversation that they were having previously. She handed one to Tensa as he passed on the way up, then clicked her tongue. " One more to toss up there, but we'll work on getting the other two back over to this side first." she commented to no one in particular. "Two 'mon to each vine, if you don't mind, and let us know when they're tied around a bird for us to pull." the former was directed at the Pokémon that were standing on the ground, and the latter at the two up on the top of the incline.
Inferno took hold of a vine, and had Heji as his partner.
"Alright, yeah, I've got some more to say after we're finished here." Kyn said, before bringing a vine down in the area and tying it to the Pidgeot. "Got the Pidgeot tied!" he called back up.
"Okay you two, Pull." She said as she started climbing up the incline, then hung off the edge just beside where the bird was going to come up. "Hold tight, gotta get it over the ledge." She had no doubt that they would be able to hold the combined weight of her and the pidgeot as she lept at it, making the vine swing backwards then up in the typical circle pattern, before jumping off as the bird would hit the top and begin to roll down hill. "Tensa, about ready with the second?" She left the first bird to the first two, surely they would be able to handle untying it and getting it ready to be cooked/eaten on their own.
Inferno was able to grip with both hands, but Heji had to use his powerful jaws to grip the vines, and at the same time, not put enough force into into it to weaken it, even though it was braided.
"Serena, I don't think you'll need vines to bring the rest of them up. Do you think you'd be able to support Tensa so that he can help me with this?" He did intend to throw them up, and it was actually quite a feat. It would also look quite humorous in some ways. The equivalent would be a human lobbing a twenty pound turkey into the air, but of course these birds were much heavier.
Inferno and the rest down below, wondered why nothing else was happening up top, and asked about it. "Hey, what's taking so long? It shouldn't be THAT difficult to simply tie a bird or two." Pendragon called out.
Serena looked a bit skeptical at the statement. Well, if he wanted to show her off, let him. "That..shouldn't be a problem." she slid back down the incline and joining the others on the ground at the base of the vine. She knew better than anyone her limits, but removed Marlow from her scarf, setting him down on the loamy soil before walking over to the boys. "They're going to try something different, you shall not be required to assist with this half...Perhaps you can busy yourselves with ensuring that the birds are ready to eat soon? I'd like to be off after breakfast, and before Father reaches his highest peak in the sky." Her voice was a little mechanical, perhaps because she knew the wound was going to complain at being stretched, not that it mattered to her really, she was used to pains, but still she forced all of the muscles in her shoulders and back to relax.
"Alright. Basically, what I plan on doing Serena, is tossing the birds up there, and having Tensa catch them before they fall back down."
"Yeah yeah, be there in a second." She looked at the others with a bit of impatience. "The Pidgeot was Heji's kill after all, it's his choice on how it's prepared, I do know that ONE of them will be left raw, regardless of which one, it doesn't matter to me." She climbed back up the slope and chose his tail, since it was a better counterbalance area, her claws digging into the surface of the tail as if they might draw blood if held any firmer. She listened to Kyn, catching herself wondering what the leaves on Tensa's tail would taste like; before nodding, only to realize that with her positioned partially behind Tensa that he wouldn't be able to see her. "Shouldn't be too hard."
"One... two... three!" Kyn put his hands underneath the thigh and breast of the Swellow, bent his knees, and then threw it up into the air, not knowing exactly how hard he had throw it, but even if he did throw it too far, Tensa would be able to probably catch it on the return trip.
Tensa saw Kyn getting ready, and then readied himself. He was now leaning completely over the drop at a one hundred eighty degree angle, with his arms outstretched. "Bloody good thing I have good hand-to-eye coordination or else this wouldn't work." Tensa mumbled to Serena. As the bird soared upwards he timed it just right so that it would land in a sort of cradle made from his arms.
Serena had been expecting less of an angle, but adjusted with little more than a hiss from her uncooperative arm. Her claws dug into the rock face, and pulled once the bird was in his arms. /Ah, damn it all to the distortion void, that hurt./ she rolled her shoulder as if to ease the burn in the muscle, but other than that didn't say anything, at least not until the bird was sent rolling down to join the other one. "Ready when you are." She said, ready to grab his tail again. "...also, a question for you, Tensa, since your nose is the one that matters...about how many days does the scent linger on Kyn after..." She didn't finish the sentence, she didn't think she needed to.
As the bird traveled upwards he saw that he had I need thrown it too hard and that it would pass by Tensa if it veered to another direction somehow. Tensa watched it carefully, not knowing how hard Kyn had thrown it either. When it appeared to be approaching him at a higher than expected rate of speed. He adjusted himself accordingly, and then answered Serena. "Depending on what we do, either hours, or days."
Serena did her job well enough, twitching as she noticed it was the one that had been cut open by Striker, and of course, the smell of blood whetting her appetite. She pulled him back up onto his feet with a shrug. "Days would be better for the trip." She muttered, half under her breath. "I'll...take that one down." she motioned to the Swellow. "It'll probably be the one we end up leaving raw...since it's been cut open, it'll dry out otherwise." she paused, how could she phrase this so that it wasn't disturbing, even in her own mind. "Don't let your scent fade from him." was the answer she came up with. It was an order, but it wasn't an order, and it gave them time to interpret as they saw fit. It wasn't exactly like she could say 'you two, have sex, now.' and maintain her way of thinking. She waited until the bird was put in her arms, a feat for sure, since she was only a little bit taller than it, then proceeded to slide down, not caring that the bird's blood was covering the front of her scales.
After catching the bird, he grinned at Serena, even though she couldn't see it. "Well now Serena... as you know, there are several ways for my scent to find itself upon him." He then let the bird drop into Serena's arms so that it would be able to be carried by her, if she felt like it. He wouldn't directly just ask her if he would be the one to carry it the rest of the way, and would let her tell him if she wanted him to just take it.
"Actually, i don't, and I'd like to keep it that way thanks." She was mature, but she didn't even want to think about two males getting it on, it was as bad as Malt claiming to be a boy when her scent read female. The whole thing made her head hurt, and she was glad to be away from the subject--it was necessary but one of the more uncomfortable things she had to deal with. Covered in blood she started to lick her arm as she went back over to the others, who were hopefully at least preparing the Pidgeot. "How's it coming guys?"
Tensa chuckled at Serena's reaction, getting in at least a few words before he figured she'd either tend to the birds. "Oh Serena..."
"Well, all we did was pluck it. The rest I figured we'd wait for further instruction." Inferno said, not sure if they were even supposed to do anything beyond plucking it.
"He didn't tell you if he wanted you to cook it?" She looked at Heji curiously. "Well, i guess they can cook it as they cut it, so long as you don't mind being used as a quick cooker Inferno." she paused, aware that she had just held up a fully grown Pokémon, and that they knew it. It made her uneasy, and yet it was her normal to be able to do things like that. "Tensa and Kyn should be down soon...unless they get sidetracked." There was that odd topic again, how did things keep circling back to it?!
"Serena... that Swellow..." Inferno wasn't sure how to respond, and realise that he had stopped mid sentence. "Well, who knows what'll happen up there, and no, I definitely don't mind. I often volunteered my flame to be of assistance to Kyn."
"Yes, i know, the Swellow was cut in half by Striker earlier today and apparently still had some blood to drain out onto my scales, I look like a Swellow myself now...well aside from the golden headplates and the beak." she cleaned the other arm of blood before touching her scarf and drawing back, surprise, more blood that had seeped into the fabric. "I'll worry about a bath after we finish eating, I'm going to need one afterwards anyway...and I really prefer not to think about it if you don't mind, I don't judge others for their choices but chosing a mate without th