Welcome to Gaia! ::

no plazma? no joining sasha to dance? no fun D: i dont exactly wanna attack or argue with myself. shall they strike or shall i move on?)

ik but its something plazma would be against ^^" thought itd atleast give me purpose, i feel like after my talk with ghetsis ive just drifted to nimbasa pointlessly so im grasping at anything i can to make things for me somewhat interesting. its easyer for u, ur a better writer and clearly a main character, at best im shino or kiba here XD))

(arite then, i shall move on biggrin )
(elapsed time)
at the end of the musical, the croud applauds and sasha bows, then comes back to kenta chearfully.
"have fun?" kenta asks with a smile.
sasha nods and licks his cheek.
the director comes back stage and addresses the participants.
"you all did beautifully tonight! a magnificent job!"
after that, he speaks to each trainer and pokemon one set at a time. words like "wonderful" and "beautiful" were thrown around like nothing. when he reaches kenta and sasha however, his mood seems more genuine.
"the croud absolutely loved little sasha out there. she realy made the show! and to have a shiny zorua grace my stage! wow!" at this point, he goes into an odd fan girly moment, leaving kenta and sasha stairing blankly at the odd man. "whats a... shiny?"
soon enough, the director comes out of his trance and hands kenta a buisness card.
"i would love to see more of you two here. au rivoir"
and with a feminine wink, the man leaves.
kenta stands confused for a second, then looks at the card. its a tallent agency. kenta smiles and shows sasha. "apparently they realy liked it!"
sasha smiles as well.
kenta slips the card into his pocket and heads out of the theater, sasha sitting on his hat.

***

Darumi and Frate were moving upward now, flung by Socant's webs. They'd land upon one of the unoccupied platforms. All four were moving on unique tracks, never at the same angle, rarely at the same pace. They sped up and slowed down at random.

Chaos.

[Keep your eyes open,] Darumi said as the two moved back to back, preparing to battle. Two electric charges in the distance, targets moving toward them.

[Get ready!] Frate shouted.

Then combat began. The two began their movements, strike up and down at the respective Zebriska and Emolga. And then, an electric strike and...

Zebriska was over a strike too low and Emolga was under a strike too low. They'd switched places.

"Don't give up!" Darumi shouted as the two met backs, having stumbled. The battle began, the duo beginning to turn as the opponents began to strafe them, dodging, weaving, strafing and switching, each switch causing another glancing blow. Purposefully like this, to give them complete room to not only dual the move to hit both targets, but to make a clean switch.

[I can't hit him!] Frate shouted and Darumi grunted in response, he was in the same boat. [We change location!]

Darumi rose a flaming fist and slammed it downward, instantly destroying the platform they rode on, as well as torching a clean hole in the track and the two began to fall.

When Darumi caught Frate and part of the remaining track with one hand. Straining, he attempted to lift him up.

When two yellow glows shown in the corner of his eyes. "Hold on Frate!" Darumi shouted and, with the strain of effort, he swung Frate up, only to have the Zebriska kick off of him to shoot upward and Emolga crashed into his back, sending him flying toward the far wall of the arena.

Frate, meanwhile, was now under the assault of two of the targets. Utilizing Iron Defense immediately, he set forth to raise his defense to its maximum. Emolga and Zebriska assaulted from dual directions, and then a third strike came, all three opponents...

Darumi had been pinned to the wall, Socant and his webbing trapping them both there. If Darumi burned it? He'd burn Socant as well.

[Get it off, quick!] Darumi shouted.

[Trying!] was the response.

Frate, meanwhile, had no allies as he was assaulted all the way down, until he slammed into the powerful see through barrier that kept the audience from the battle. For force of the fall caused one layer to crack, but that was it, only obscuring the view from those that didn't want to watch from one of the many monitors - and only temporary as they changed their preference from broken glass to plasma television.

One leg attempted to prop him up, to lift him next, but it gave and Frate hit the barrier again. [Guys...] he weakly cried. [Dammit... What did we get into?]

***

Henrietta was getting the hang of keeping balanced through all the twists and turns and the speed of the platform. She wasn't much help to her Pokemon if she couldn't understand how things worked, and how to survive in this chaos.

Then she saw them, almost free of the wall. The enemy approaching.

"Darumi, hammer arm!" she called as her track shifted to try and keep her away from the battle. She twisted to see, but it wasn't going to work.

Darumi, however, received the order. [Henrietta!] he shouted. They needed someone that could keep track of the enemies. He twisted himself as he shouted this, his arm free, then his body, hammer arm coming to WHAM!

Slam into the approaching Emolga, and Darumi carried him to slam him into the wall, embedding him there.

"Get over to me!" Henrietta shouted, as the other two electric types attacked from the sides.

[Hang on!] Darumi shouted to Socant, who did as asked and Frate pushed off of the wall before twisting to face it with his mouth and releasing a powerful burst of flames that carried him closer to the tracks.

[Your turn!]

[Gotcha!] Socant, keeping hold of Darumi, utilized webs to get closer, they were then assaulted by the pursuing electric types.

[Hold on!] Darumi shouted and he caught a railing lower than the one they were nearing to web, pulling them under, swinging them around it and getting behind both electric types. At this same time, Socant released an electric net that caught the Emolga and, with Darumi's help, the duo swung Emolga away, sticking him to the railing in front of Elesa's oncoming platform.

[Two down,] Darumi grunted.

Zebriska had turned now, kicking off another track to release a point bank bolt of thunder - which Socant caught and deflected with another electric net. Twisting himself as he did this, he put Darumi within melee range.

And Zebriska landed on platform four, jerked away before Darumi could complete his swing.

"Guys!" Henrietta said, coming from the location that Zebriska had just went, and luckily heading in the opposite direction. The duo boarded the platform and Henrietta looked around.

"Where's Frate?"

Darumi pointed down below.

"Socant, can you get him?"

"Gra!" Socant dived off the edge.

Turning, Henrietta noted the three Pokemon heading toward him. Her eyes narrowed. "Get ready, Darumi."

"Dar!" He pounded his belly and then collapsed to one knee, blood trinkling down his jaw.

"Darumi!" Henrietta held a hand out, resting it on his shoulder, instantly withdrawing it as she winced at the heat of just the surface of his skin.

Darumi grunted and jumped to the side, catching the rail of the tracks to their right. Righting himself quickly, he stomped the bar before ducking and rolling under an attack and pulling and bending the piece of the railing at the other side. While not an entire section of the track, it made a neat metal pipe.

Which he turned, slamming into the large target of Zebriska, and smacking her away from the battle. Faced with two opponents Darumi roared. He'd make his last stand here.

***

Frate felt his worth drop like the fall he had suffered. All that distance down, and he could not even make the effort to get back up. All he could do was watch the flames and sparks of battle and know that he'd failed his allies.

Then came a familiar face. [Socant! What are you doing leaving Darumi up there by himself!?]

Socant landed next to him and looked back toward the battle. [Yeah, that's not going to end well. You can still fight, right?]

Frate nodded. [He needs us. Henrietta needs us to win.]

Socant smirked. [Let's go.]

Attaching a web to Frate as he climbed upon his back, he sent one to the tracks above, and with a running start, the two were off.

***

Three against one did not fair well for Darumi, who danced upon the tracks, creating streams of powerful fire to keep his foes at bay. It mitigated their efforts, but not by enough. Twisting to swing at Emolga, it dodged and the second came from behind-

-when a figure launched himself over Darumi's head, smashing down the Emolga. Zebriska jumped upon Frate's striking appendage, forcing it down as she leaped over him. Darumi twisting to strike but was caught by a Volt Switch from the second Emolga who replaced Zebriska, too high up and too small to be struck properly.

Zebriska, however, lost her chance to capitalize on this as she was caught in an electric web in midair and swung away as Socant made his way to the tracks.

Henrietta watched this as her platform moved along the track alongside it. Or so she thought until she looked ahead, to see the curve in the road.

Having been giving orders to Darumi, now she found herself stuck. Her and Elesa had entered a battle of wits, a speed battle of orders, commands given on the fly, and now it was coming to a close.

As her platform moved, she could feel the timer. Darumi had taken a piece of the track, which meant her platform might not make it passed that location. Stuck to it, she grit her teeth.

So we'll end this with the next one.

Emolga struck Frate with an Aerial Ace before finding he couldn't escape. Eyes wide, he noticed the webbing that had remained attached to the Boldore and it suddenly sparked to life with electricity. Crying out, he attempted to pull himself away when Darumi swung a hammer fist down, smashing him into the tracks.

Socant, mounted upon Frate, was firing Signal Beams at Zebriska who was trying to get close enough to the second Emolga to perform a double switch through their opponents.

Socant then created a field of netting from the tracks to another as Zebriska jumped toward it diagonally. The webbing in her path, she was caught and shocked. Flame Charge let her escape it and fall toward more tracks, but not before being hit by a signal beam.

Bounding powerfully across, she made her way toward the targets, landing on the track at the zero distance.

When she stumbled from confusion and met Darumi's powerful fist, smashing her away.

And that left the last Emolga speeding toward them. Socant caught sight of this and wrapped his allies in webbing, twisting himself and them away with a spin and a string of his own, avoiding the attack entirely.

And putting Emolga on a path toward Henrietta.

All three Pokemon saw this, realizing it at the same time. But none was close enough now to protect her.

"Don't worry!" Henrietta shouted and she focused. Emolga sped forward and she closed her eyes to concentrate.

And the crystals lined her dress, fortifying it, not to any real effect but it'd be enough, she thought, to survive the shot.

And then Emolga crashed into her, a ripple formed across her dress as the powerful blow launched her away from the track, taking her out of her heels and flying back toward the track when-

-Darumi caught her, having been swung around by Socant. Too late to save her from the blow, but just in time to save her from a horrible fate. Cradling her, he looked at Emolga who was smashed from above by Socant and Frate, the track cracking and shattering under the double force of the duo.

Standing upon the tracks, the four of them moved their eyes to Elesa, whose track came to a stop. She smiled as her eyes glanced to her wrist, the device their recording trainer data. On it were several statistics, however one very important change occurred among those.

Aura use: O.K.

"You win," she informed Henrietta as she looked at the girl, obscured by Darumi's arms.

"Good," Henrietta huffed.

"Now, let's get you dressed."

"Wh-what?" Henrietta looked down at herself. The pain in her chest from the blow had numbed her somewhat but she could see it now - the dress that she'd fortified with the crystals had shattered leaving her with simply her undergarments.

As she blushed and cried Elesa sighed. "Cut the cameras!"

***

Her face was still bright red when she left the Gym. Even as she put the badge away in her purse and took her Pokemon to the center. Winning a badge was great, getting funds are great, being so undressed in front of that many people? Horrible. Terrible. She'd returned to her previous outfit but she couldn't shake the feeling that she should wear a mask, and a large cloak. A large baggy bulky cloak.

Nobody said much of anything, not the people in the center or the nurse, as Henrietta handed over her Pokemon and when she left, the center was pretty much quiet. What Henrietta hadn't noticed in all of her embarrassment was that they were staring at her.

"Please Arceus," she mumbled to herself as she approached the electronic store, "let them edit that out."

A bell sounded as she entered and a man - probably only a year or two older than herself - turned to see her. "Oh, the nude girl from T.V!"

Henrietta covered her face which felt like it had just created it's own shade of red. "Th-that was live?!" Her voice, probably a big louder than she had intended for it to be, squeaked when she spoke.

"Yeah, it was a great battle. Rockin' bod, too."

"Please, Arceus, just kill me." She felt tears in her eyes as she stood near the counter - close enough to do the door that she was saved the trouble of moving much.

"Anyways, how can I help you."

"X-xtransceiver."

"Right. You gotta pay for it you know," he said when he saw no signs of removing her hands from her face.

"I-I know."

"Which means lowering your hands."

"I know!" her voice squeaked in its high pitch again.

"Look, if it's any consolation, you got a ni-

Henrietta slammed the money down so suddenly the man cut himself off mid-word. He looked at it before taking it and counting it. "You want any specific type?" Henrietta didn't answer so, with a shrug, he picked one that closely matched the price and handed it over along with her receipt.

"Th-thank you," Henrietta took it and ran out of the store and the man waited until she left to laugh.

((Okay, last post I promise.))

Out in Route 5, before the drawbridge, Henrietta had set about for training. Beating up Wild Pokemon, while some might call it training, Henrietta called it pointless.

Out in the field, she'd decided on a training agenda.

"There are several stats for Pokemon that are key for training. So, we'll be splitting our training into two halves from here on out. The first will be physical training. The second will be seeing what we can learn from previous mistakes."

After that, Henrietta went about explaining what they'd be doing. Specifically, ways to train each stat that we won't really get into because that'd be boring to read.

As her Pokemon stretched and set about this, Henrietta took a short breather to text her friends. Finding them was actually easy as heck. Except for Wayne - who had probably the most normal name of the bunch. Her alternative was including something in Salieri's message.

To Takamaru and Luka she wrote;
Hey, it's Henrietta! If it's possible, would you guys meet me at my house in Nimbasa today? Here's the address . I think around 7pm should be good.

And to Salieri she wrote;
Hey, it's Henrietta! If it's possible, would you guys meet me at my house in Nimbasa today? Here's the address . I think around 7pm should be good.

Oh, and I don't know Wayne's contact information. Could you please tell him the time and place?

------------

After she was done, Henrietta set about her own physical exercise. She lacked a shinai but that didn't matter. She could practice what Eunmi had taught her as well as what she already knew regarding physical work outs. She needed to be stronger, faster, all of that.

"Our match with be a routine 3 on 3 battle. first person to KO the other's, wins. any questions?" His question was met with silence. "and so, we begin." Burgh finished and the battle began.

Takamaru was wise as to how this whole Gym battle thing worked. So just when Burgh opened his mouth to call a Sand-attack, Tk was already ordering Iron Hide to launch a Water Pulse.

Iron Hide Launched several Rings of water from his Maw, rendering the Sand-attack useless, as well as smashing the Dwebble into one of the Randomly placed Logs on the battle Field.

"Oh-ho, it seems ive underestimated you young trainer" Burgh said.

"Close your distance" Takamaru ordered, not bothering to reply to Burgh. In His prior battle's hed lost a good amount of time replying to his opponent rather than ignoring them and focusing on knocking out there Pokemon. So in the time it took Burgh to talk, as well as the time it took Dwebble to recover, Iron Hide was already upon him.

"Heavy slam!" Tk called. Iron Hide launched himself at the Dwebble, crushing the log. Takamaru assuming the Dwebble had been taken down, took a breath.

"Rock blast!" Burgh called. Followed by the sound of Iron Hide crying out at being struck with a barrage of stone's. It didn't take Tk long to scan the field, locating the Bug and rock Pokemon. Looking closely, Tk noticed that its shell had a lustrous sheen to it that it didn't have before. Tk knew that Dwebble had used the move rock polish while hidden in the Log that he'd been sent flying into. effectively raising his speed.

"Water pulse!" just as Iron HJide opend his maw to fire his attack, he was stuck on the dome of his head by rock from another wave of Rock blast.

"Dig!" Tk called.

"Dig!" Burgh called as well. Both Pokemon burrowed under ground.

beneath the surface of the battle field, both Iron Hide and the Dwebble were locked in a fierce physical struggle. Iron Hide was finding it difficult to land direct hits on the small Bug Pokemon, Just as Dwebble was finding it difficult to do much damage to the Iron hided Pokemon. there under ground battle continued like so, until Dwebble slipped up, giving Iron Hide the opportunity to lock his jaws around the bugs shell, cruising it to pieces.

the Iron Pokemon resurfaced, tossing the unconscious Dwebble at his trainer feet. Securing Tk's first win. The twin Tk's touched knuckle's, cheering at Iron Hide's Triumph. Iron Hide Roared in victory, Excited to have pleased Tk.

((I wish I was with Kenta so I could tell him to nab the bike while he's at it))

N

The green haired trainer wore no protective goggles or gear in the desert. The constant sandstorm bothered him little. At this point in Zero's training, she was also indifferent to the constant whittling at her body.

N looked down the hill next to the side of the road, where Wayne trained his pokemon. It was a curious sight: his pokemon had improved their strength since he saw them last. Especially Hitmonlee. N almost felt like going down to talk to him, but remembered the last time he and Wayne talked. It wasn't pleasant.

If Wayne didn't know he was around, he could observe the trainer's methods of handling pokemon when he thought no one was watching. So N took a seat in the sand at the top of the hill, quietly watching Wayne train for a few minutes.

****

Salieri

Once they reached the western side of the desert, at the cliffs that met the ocean, the training had begun.

Salieri was fortunate enough to have found very deep sand, like what was commonplace in the Desert Resort. This is where she told him to train: running through deep, soft sand was perfect for increasing his speed. So he utilized Rock Polish and his Neuroshock technique to speed up. Running was rough, but after a while he built up a good pace. Of course, just running through sand wasn’t good enough for Sal: he had to carry the boulder they had ridden on atop his back.

Wukong’s training was simple in theory, but execution was difficult. He was training to raise the amount of heat he could exert, and the amount of time he could exert it for. Sal had directed him to a large sandbank that she wanted him to turn to glass. (“Do you know how hot sand has to be to turn to glass? Real hot! Get to work!”)

Chen Zhen was on the rocky beach below the cliffs. He was training to learn Double Team: by moving fast enough, he could in theory make illusionary clones. So he practiced, using Double Team to dodge rock slides from atop the canyon. While he start learning, his clones didn’t look much like him. Some were fat and short, some were lanky and tall, others were blue. But the short bursts of speed he got form creating an afterimage was great for dodging the heavy rain of boulders.

These rock slides were provided by Salem, who sat at the edge of the rocky beach. Salieri wanted her to utilize her telekinesis as a solid force for a Psychic attack. So she was throwing waves of blue psychic energy at the cliffside above them. They were solid, but inconsistent in their power levels and placement: aim and control were the two big points to work on. Everytime she blasted the rock wall, more boulders were dislodged for Chen Zhen to avoid.

The boulders that did not shatter on impact were not just left in the dirt. Haizhe’s training was to better control how he sprayed his water. Specifically, Salieri wanted him to be able to use Scald as a slicing attack. So he was training himself to compress the water he produced into blades when shot. Although he had managed to make cuts into several boulders, none had been cut through yet.

Aside from Liuye Dao, all of the pokemon had the sandstorm wearing them down. So in addition to their regular training, they were building up their stamina. Whenever they got too tired, Chen Zhen would give them Pansage leaves to reenergize them for longer training sessions. And Haizhe used Recover to knit up the minor wounds he received from getting pelted by sand, learning to use short bursts of Recover for quicker healing.

Salieri had left her team unsupervised. Salem had not sensed anyone around for half a mile: they were alone out here. While they trained, Salieri had found herself a boulder to sit on, way farther down the rocky beach than her pokemon. The waves crashed around her perch, but never got high enough to do more than splash weakly at her arms. It was loud, and peaceful.

Here, she would meditate. Here, her Aura training began.

((I wonder if Takamaru will get disqualified if he uses his doppleganger, considering it'll be pretty hard to prove it's still him.))

The World Government Headquarters. Kero arrived here earlier than one would've expected from a guy riding a turtle. This was because he flew the turtle into the cargo area of a jet to make it the rest of the way back.

While Blastoise rested, Kero was turning over Jean-Pierre, now removed from The Arsenal, into custody.

Jean-Pierre was a high class criminal, but The Arsenal brought him a natural weakness to Kero. Had anyone else gone, he had been told, they'd probably be dead. Save a few noteworthy people. It was praise Kero didn't like to stick around for, so he didn't.

The next course of action was delivering The Arsenal. A simple order, hand it over to The Scientist for mass production. He pushed open the door and looked into the lab of the madman.

Emily, who sat in a chair looking like she might fall asleep as The Scientist dissected a living Paras to see if it was possible for the Paras to evolve without the mind controlling fungus, perked up upon his entrance.

"Kero, sir!" She stood up and made her way over, making note of the self done stitches on his chest. Another scar to add to the list of them - like trophies for some people around here. "I heard about your house."

"Nobody died," Kero said and he stepped passed her to deliver the large case which contained the taken apart Arsenal. Setting it upon The Scientist's desk, he turned back to Emily as the gleeful laughter of a child who'd been handed a new toy filled the background.

"Do you know who did it?"

"Confidential information."

"Right." Emily sighed. It was two words you heard a lot when talking to someone with higher security clearance. It was also one of the biggest factors in keeping professional distance between oneself and their underling. For a man like Kero it meant you wouldn't get close personally, either.

"Listen, if there's anything you need."

"Get to work," Kero said, his eyes moving to The Scientist who had opened the case. He then left, leaving Emily without a foot in the door.

"Alright, so what are we doing?" she asked.

"They've taken apart the weapons, too," The Scientist said with a grin. There was a whole armory worth in terms of variety. All packed into a suit that could survive direct shots from even Pokemon. How many? No one could say - it wasn't a suit you wanted to test the boundaries of unless you'd broken it down.

It was a half hour after they'd started cataloging everything that the door opened again.

"Excuse me?" the man said. He tried not to look around the room, finding Emily and The Scientist and keeping his eyes on them. "Have you two seen General Redgrave?"

"He left a bit ago." Emily reached into her pocket and produced a phone. "But I can call him, deliver news a bit faster."

The man considered this. Likely considering whether or not it fell into a need to know basis. Finally, either because he decided it was safe or he was lazy, he said, "let him know we found his unit. They're all dead."

Emily stood there stunned for a moment. Nodding and muttering a thank you and the man left. She turned from the door, preparing to dial on her phone when she noted that The Scientist had moved closer.

"Wasn't that your unit?" he said and Emily took a step backward.

"Ex-unit."

"I can help you find the killer." It felt as if he was grinning wider than usual. "But on one condition."

Emily's eyes narrowed. "What?"

"I get the body."